Concurrent City Council, Public Financing Authority and Employee Pension Board Meeting June 17, 2014

0:00:32good evening everyone foreign city council meeting and public financing Authority and employee pension board meeting in the city of El Cerrito to order today is Tuesday June 17th I'll let the record show that all council members are present except for mayor Janet Abelson who is unable to be with

0:00:55us tonight first item on the agenda is a moment of silence or please join me in the Pledge of Allegiance I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands one nation under God indivisible with liberty and justice

0:01:17foreign next we'll go to Council on staff Communications are there any Communications from council members nothing to report staff nothing to report great we move on to oil oral Communications from the public this is the time on the agenda when members of the public may speak on the

0:01:39consent calendar or items not on the agenda clerked we have any speaker cards yes vice mayor we have two uh Al Miller Mr Miller good evening mayor Pro tem benisini council members and staff my name is Al Miller I reside at [address removed] here in El Cerrito tonight I want to

0:02:02express my support for consent calendar items 5B and 5c I believe your action in item 5B which I understand imposes the same requirement on any council members participating in a purse pension plan that you've recently imposed on various El Cerrito City staff members

0:02:24you're putting those same conditions on yourself and that is that any council member who is on a pension plan now will pay the full eight percent a cost in the city will be paying zero percent of that cost I believe this is another example of the high quality of governance and

0:02:47transparency that you've set for yourself and the staff and I thank you for it em 5c continues support for our three school resource officers two at El Cerrito High School the one at Portola Middle School again I understand as I understand that this action maintains the presence of

0:03:06these officers at the school for another year while benefiting from the staff's success in getting the West County Unified School District to increase its level of funding for this highly essential and successful program thank you for that also thank you for your comments other

0:03:24speakers next speaker howdy Goudy Audi sorry good evening hi so um as you know my name is howdy Gowdy and I'm living at [address removed] um so I wanted to thank you for your attention to the lengthy public hearing on June 2nd regarding the appeal and the entitlements for the proposed

0:03:52development at 1715 Elm Street I was uh very impressed that some of the council members you know took the time to listen to all the Planning Commission proceedings uh before that meeting and I know you know the 530 page packet was a lot to absorb so I appreciate your your

0:04:11efforts on this topic I also know you have a lot of other stuff on your plate and you've been busy with the budget for the past few weeks and I just wanted to offer a friendly reminder that you know this is coming back up Monday and I just want to bring it you know back to the

0:04:28front of uh your attention so you can be um ready to liberate on it and I wanted to point out that you know some new things have come to pass like the um San Pablo a specific plan uh released the day after that June 2nd meeting and it's very telling that in that plan it

0:04:46specifically calls out for the rest of the creek that flows through 1715 Elm as a very you know potential daylighting opportunity and so I just want to know Mr Daddy I don't think we got the full three-minute solo camisa give him another minute or so sorry about that it seemed like the

0:05:03lighting system was a bit quick okay so um anyway it that plan if you read it as I'm sure you will um specifically calls out that that Creek is you know an ideal candidate for being daylight and that's in an area that's much more dense than the 1715 Elm area and it's still being

0:05:20identified in that plan as a high priority for you know bringing the Creeks back and restoring them and giving more of a um a deference to the creek than what is proposed in the 1715 Elm project so I just want to make that clear the specific plan also uh directly

0:05:39uh refers to the the title 19.12 Zone increase protection overlay District so that is its standard as well in this very dense area the same standard that applies everywhere in the in the rest of the city and I just want to be clear that we shouldn't be you know

0:05:59compromising the standards that are in that zoning ordinance for this particular development because the plan development you know justification is supposed to be overwhelming public benefit and 14 additional units when there are 500 others in the works is not overwhelming public benefit so thank you

0:06:16thank you next speaker please no other speaker slips anybody else wish to speak all right great we'll move on to the next item the adoption of the consent calendar we have three items before us and Mr Miller has already discussed two of them we also have the minutes for approval do any

0:06:34council members wish to pull any items for discussion I'll take a motion I'll move to adopt consent color calendar 5A B and C second motion by Bridges second by Friedman all in favor please say aye aye opposed abstain motion passes four to zero we'll now move on to policy matters

0:06:57we'll be considering item item seven which has two parts uh as a concurrent city council public financing Authority and employee pension board item the first part of the presentation I believe will be from a member of the Fab Mr ranage would you like to come forward

0:07:16so we'll hear from Mr Vonage if you're if you're ready and then we'll hear from staff um we'll take questions and then we'll have public comment and discussion whenever you're ready Mr Vonage welcome thank you uh good evening council members staff in public I'm Peter

0:07:31verones chair of the financial Advisory board or Fab among our duties to relate specifically to the budget one is to conduct a review and make recommendations on the budget and to include a review of city council compensation consistent with the county-wide recommendations included in

0:07:47Contra Costa Grand Jury report number 1104 the other is to review the form and format of budget documents Fab performed these duties at its regular meeting on June 10th of this year just last week all five members of the board were present along with the City Finance

0:08:04director the mayor and a member of the public at the meeting Fab unanimously unanimously passed a motion to recommend adoption of the budget with several comments and recommendations due to the quick turnaround time we had this year to review and make recommendations to

0:08:19council we drafted a fairly concise motion and asked for time on the agenda tonight to add contacts and answer any questions that you might have so I'll go over I'll go through our our motion the seven points we made but they're really listed out in no particular order of importance so feel

0:08:35free to interrupt me if you feel the need uh first the general comment we commend the staff for the quality of the budget book and presentation materials we found the book to be quite readable in the discussions within the document were very helpful in understanding the

0:08:50figures and main issues second on page 11 in the key objectives section we feel that Tech should introduce the list that follows as goals the city has identified and do not necessarily reflect planned or funded projects we found it difficult to distinguish top priorities among items in the list for

0:09:11example holding the general election in November versus increasing the City's online capabilities for customers so for transparency we recommend softening the language in the introductory text specifically the word planned third the statement on page 26 regarding

0:09:28Fab's role in the budget process should be edited for clarity it currently reads that Fab's recommendations and revisions are Incorporated during the process as appropriate we recommend changing the sentence to read Fab's recommendations and revisions should be considered during the budget

0:09:43process Fab felt that the wording May incorrectly apply to a reader unfamiliar with the process that staff determines which recommendations are appropriately presented to council so we just recommend editing the sentence to indicate that Council receives and considers all formal recommendations

0:10:00made by Fab uh fourth we feel there should be a discussion the large expected increases in pers and health insurance costs page 35 of the budget book contains a table of city-wide expenditures which indicates a one million dollar rise in Personnel costs and fiscal year 1516.

0:10:20while the page includes a comment regarding the increase purse is not specifically mentioned and the nature of the increase is not discussed in any detail we believe it's important to connect this relevant larger issue with its local impact particularly given the

0:10:35size of the increase and the impact it's expected to have on the city's immediate financial position and longer term general fund balance uh fifth we recommend the city council have a separate discussion motion a vote on their compensation as done in the last few years per the grand jury

0:10:50recommendation Fab made this recommendation last year as consistent with our enabling legislation so we're carrying that forward again and then finally the last two recommendations are related the six was that there should be a statement included in the transmittal

0:11:06budget that or in the transmittal letter that the budget does not contain sufficient reserves to meet the city's comprehensive Financial policy minimum requirement and that is unfortunate and perhaps unavoidable this year and then the seventh was that there should be a

0:11:21statement about future challenges that we Face also communicate in the transmittal letter and while the transmittal letter acknowledges that the general fund balance is projected to decrease to five percent in the next fiscal year there's no explicit connection to the

0:11:36policy requirement of maintaining a minimum balance of 10 percent this is especially important to note in this two-year budget where in the following fiscal year 1516 the balance is expected to decrease even further below five percent as previously mentioned in Council

0:11:51meetings the budget's intended to be an evolving document and used as a management tool the budget book should also communicate a complete Financial picture of El Cerrito to citizens who may not be very familiar with the city's policies and procedures and that the

0:12:04budget book should stand alone and stand up for uh itself and as an acknowledgment of the immediate um you're an acknowledgment of this situation uh relative to long-term policy goals will serve these purposes and we'll highlight the importance of restoring the fund balance while

0:12:22allocating limited resources in the near term across the city's key priorities core services and staff we acknowledge the difficulties in balancing the budget this year and again we'd like to commend staff for preparing a very professional and understandable budget book and also for providing all

0:12:39the opportunities for the public to engage in the process that's much appreciated so that's all I had for tonight if there are no questions I'll step down oh it looks like we have a question I want to thank you and the Fab for your fine work and obviously you went through

0:12:55a very comprehensive review of the budget so I appreciate that my question is really for the city manager Mr Hannon and the finance director Ms Malik Sadie um are you fine with the recommendations of the Fab yes as uh so okay I think we would just clarify that um the grand jury recommendation is not

0:13:18quite as stated um it's it well I would I guess I would back up and say on the consent calendar today you dealt with the only change in your conversation so there was a separate item the grand jury is um it's just a recommendation that it's done in Open Session that the that if

0:13:39you look at the details in the budget it shows the how the in in this case over these two years the wages don't change so that's why we didn't bring forth any separate items because there was no change to the I don't think it's changed in like 20 years has it there been a few

0:13:53tweaks a few cost of living adjustments but okay um so obviously the council can spend as much time on it as it wants and if it desires us to come back and handle um or have the financial Advisory board look at Council compensation as a standalone and we certainly could

0:14:10do that but we think we are consistent with the grand jury thank you sure and just a question for the city manager would that be consistent if there are no changes um communicated in the budget is that implied as a review should we consider that I straight forward you know again I

0:14:27think we can do it in any number of ways I think the way we interpreted it was there were no changes to salary so we didn't bring any separate motion because if you look in the budget it's constant whereas on the pers change was the one real material change we brought that

0:14:41separately okay um but again we're not um we're we're all in favor of transparency as staff and it's as much time as the council wants to spend on it we can't any other questions simple one just a follow-on question um so as a result some of these changes would be incorporated into the final uh

0:15:02budget book correct assuming it gets passed this evening right if if we make the motion as amended to reflect the Fabs okay recommendations right any other change uh questions will you remain here for part of the item in case anything else comes up sure thank you so much

0:15:20and now can we have the staff presentation Miss Malik's a day good evening mayor council I'm Lisa Malik's a day cities Finance director and the item you're being asked to consider this evening is adoption of the biennial budget for fiscal year 1415 and 1516 as well as the spending Authority for the

0:15:39first year of the budget fiscal year 1415. last week the city manager presented the proposed budget it across funds totaled 41.7 million dollars in the first year for fiscal year 1415 and about 41.9 in the second year of the budget and that's across all funds while

0:15:58the first year of the budget is balanced it has a very small Surplus and we were able to increase reserves closer to about five and a half percent but there are some assumptions built into that first year of the budget which are currently in discussion and this is

0:16:13about three hundred thousand dollars of savings related to discussions that are currently happening around employee compensation uh the second year of the budget there is about a short approximately shortfall of about a hundred thousand dollars in the general fund as well as an annual

0:16:29shortfall in two of our operating funds both the npdes which is the fund that supports our clean water program as well as our Landscaping lighting and assessment District those are both reflected in the budget book in the financial overview with the details surrounding those shortfalls we know the

0:16:49second year of the budget will likely change depending the outcome of some of the negotiations that are in discussion as well as the measure that you'll be considering in July around a potential measure are increase or extension so with that we're actually um here to take any questions staff is

0:17:07here from all of our departments and we're asking that Council approved resolutions adopting the biennial budget for 14 15 and 1516 as well as a spending Authority for fiscal year 1415 for the city of El Cerrito the public financing Authority and the employees pension

0:17:25trust board as well as approving the calculation and setting the city's annual Gantt appropriation limit at 112 million dollars and with that again we're here for any questions great do we have any questions from the council at this point um I just had a question so um uh about

0:17:42the special funds for um mpdes for this year we're putting 57 000 some somewhere and like about that from the storm drain fund to correct so in those in next fiscal year both of those funds are balanced with one-time measures there's a loan with payback in future years in one of those

0:18:04funds as well as a um I'm sorry I'm not off the top of my head one is receiving a loan from the Integrated Waste fund and the others from the storm right and so for this year it's 57 for 15 16 it's about 109. that is the shortfall that would be projected if we take no other

0:18:21measures and um and then lad's going to get balance from as you said Ida iwm about 78 and then next year almost 120.

0:18:31again projected shorefall if we have no other measures okay to correct those yes and um of the property tax that's been The Prop 8 reductions about 2 000 of our homes were affected but I think that you had said and I think it actually said in the book somewhere that some of them had

0:18:50been readjusted how many of the 2000 do you think came through this past April I mean is a ballpark I'm sure you don't have so we're projecting that reassessment to take place next fiscal year so that's reflected in the number for next fiscal year I don't know actually the number of

0:19:08homes I can look at I can get back to you of that and the the Richmond Home Depot doe is actually in this budget now right that was budgeted we've taken out any contribution based or any Revenue that's to be received from Home Depot and we're using that basically to pay

0:19:28down the liability from prior year so we're assuming no sales tax revenue from that okay and um I think that's all I had I think it was already stated from fab that next year we'll have a a one million dollar debt which is why the 1516 um most of the money that we see that

0:19:48we're deficient in will be that one million dollar for the pers and medical it's medical and pension that is the new fall that is the major yes that is the major driver thank you any other questions from the council just for the purposes of everybody's understanding can you just discuss the

0:20:07Gan limit just to explain what the calculation is sure so it is it's basically a calculation um based on a couple of different factors our growth factor and population and it sets a limit where the city can adopt expenditures cannot adopt expenditures in excess of this amount

0:20:27ours is about 112 million dollars so we're significantly under that limit so that's essentially what it is and all cities are required to adopt that for sure on an annual basis thank you at this point let's let's go to public comment click do we have speaker cards I have no

0:20:45requests to speak would anybody like to speak at this point see ah yes and if you would you can please please speak at this point and you can fill out a speaker card once you're done and we'll have the light system up which is a three minute lighting system green for go yellow for

0:21:02one minute remaining and red if you could start to wrap up your comments thank you thank you thank you good evening Council my name is Angela osayande and I am the field representative and chief negotiator for SEIU 10 to 1. and you know we just wanted to come here tonight

0:21:23to let you understand that we appreciate everything that you've done in the resolution and it seems kind of familiar to us some of the things that were passed in your resolution and with that said we also want you to keep in mind that uh our bargaining unit is mainly the

0:21:44unit that brings the revenue to the city of El Cerrito uh whether it's through Child Care uh summer camps what have you recycle and with that said we are the lowest paid workers in this city and so when you're looking at the concessions and things of that nature we would like you

0:22:09to take into consideration that we are the lowest paid and five percent to others is really hurtful to us with that said you know we're here to bargain in good faith so far it's been going really well at the table which we haven't really done anything other than exchange

0:22:30information and I'm not familiar with negotiating within the council but at the bargaining table but we just wanted to come you know and let you know that we are here at the bargaining good faith thank you thank you any other speakers no I'd like to move a series of resolutions I'll should I

0:22:55read them all and then we can do it in one motion or do we need a separate motion I think we'll do separate separate motions is that right I would I would like to do them separately because there's at least one which is our pension that I would like to discuss okay great and I was just

0:23:10taking them up one by one all right let me start with number one was efficiency and note that all of these are amended to reflect the recommendations from the Fab with the exception of the one that we talked that the city manager talked about earlier um so resolution the first one adopt the

0:23:29resolution and proving that biennial budget for fiscal years 2014 15 and fiscal year 20 15 16 and authorizing fiscal year 24 15 spending Authority by fund for the city of El Cerrito second motion by Friedman second by lineman is there any discussion or comments at this point

0:23:53I can extend some comments so I want to thank staff for your hard work we certainly thanked you last week for all the work that you did putting this budget together and we understand it's under a very difficult uh times as mentioned by Mr Vernick of the financial

0:24:08Advisory Board we are faced with going to the low to a very low place in our reserves a place that we don't want to be but given what you've done it it seems like a fair balance for us to get the services that we want to give to our residents so I want to thank you all and

0:24:29just acknowledge that that it was hard this year to do this and I want to thank staff and including sorry for mispronouncing for coming tonight and and participating in this because it's certainly something that we appreciate knowing that you consider our work important so thank you

0:24:55and I'll just follow up as well many of us made comments at the meeting two weeks ago but just to Echo those that we've talked about how low we are in the reserves and that we don't if at this point we are cutting as deeply as we can cut without layoffs or cutting services

0:25:11significantly and without additional revenues we'll have to take a hard look at the budget next year in order to try to figure out what to do but keeping Services intact without more revenues is proving more and more difficult thank you all for coming tonight as well

0:25:29are there any more items to discuss all right we have a motion a second let's vote all those in favor please say aye aye aye opposed abstention motion passes 4-0 next motion moving right along and stop me uh council member Lyman when you get to the one you want to talk about

0:25:46number next one okay good adopt a resolution improving the biennial budget for fiscals years 2014-15 and fiscal year 2015-16 and authorizing fiscal year 2014-15 spending Authority by fund for the El Cerrito public financing Authority a second motion Friedman second by bridges any comments on this

0:26:07item oh and please note on all of these as amended to reflect the recommendations from the Fab except the one regarding compensation for council member amended motion do you agree councilmember Bridges any discussion all right all those in favor please say aye aye aye opposed abstentions motion

0:26:29passes four to zero next motion go ahead sure I'll make the motion I'll move a resolution of the city of El Cerrito employees pension board adopting the board's fiscal years 2014 and 2014 2015 and 2015 2016 budget and this item uh is is this the one I want to talk about

0:26:54the next one's the can limit is this the one that adjusts our oh that was the consent are you thinking the consent calendar item 5B yes I wanted to talk on 5p so I won't move this and without conversation then Mission by Lyman uh second by Friedman any discussion on this item

0:27:13all right all those in favor please say aye aye aye opposed abstentions motion passes four to zero and the final motion before us is related to the Gan limit go ahead and emotions resolution I move a resolution of the city council of the city of El Cerrito selecting the cost of

0:27:28living and population factors to be used in the calculation of the city's appropriation limit for fiscal year 2014 2015 and setting the Appropriations limit at 112 million 294 000 and 200 dollars second thank you just to clear I'll just clarify that that's not our budget

0:27:47um any discussion on the item these Appropriations limit um all those in favor please say aye aye uh abstentions or no's phone passes four to zero great thank you all for coming to the budget item and thank you Mr veranic for for staying on we'll now move on to uh council local

0:28:10and Regional liaison assignment reports um do we have any reports over the last two to two weeks two to four weeks it would be just since last week whatsoever wow I know it seems like a long time but we we really were here just last week you're right you're right

0:28:26in the last week anything to report I'll report that I went to the Martinez King of the county barbecue over the weekend and was able to help judge a wonderful event in Martinez um and I was happy to represent the city of El Cerrito along with council members from throughout Contra Costa County

0:28:43with that we will adore adjourn this meeting the concurrent city council public financing Authority and employee pension board meeting