City Council Meeting July 15, 2014

0:00:18foreign good evening everyone and welcome to the El Cerrito city council meeting um we just came out of closed session on labor negotiations and no decisions were reached but we did give direction to staff so at this time we'll start with roll call councilmember Friedman

0:00:58president councilmember Bridges here councilmember Lyman here vice mayor benicini here and mayor Abelson here um would you please join me for the pledge of allegiance to the flag or observation of a moment of silence I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the

0:01:24Republic for which it stands one nation under God indivisible with liberty and justice for all are there any counsel or staff Communications Council I I know it's one of our consent items but I would like to make sure that people know about National Night Out which we're going to pull that oh we are

0:01:54okay great okay but do you have any Communications nope okay so there are no council Communications are there any staff Communications no okay thank you uh with that we'll move on to oral Communications from the public and this is for items that are not on the agenda so if you would like

0:02:15to do so um you can fill out a speaker slip and if we could go ahead and start and you give it to the city clerk here yes mayor we have about 10 speaker snips the first of which is Justin Torres followed by Mark minor followed by Robin Mitchell hello hello my name is Justin Torres I

0:02:39live in Pinole I'm an employee of El Cerrito my name is Justin Torres I live in Pinole I'm an employee of El Cerrito recycling department curbside pickup I operate the facility as well as pick up the cans for all our residents here in the city I believe that beauty is something that

0:02:56comes from the inside unfortunately El Cerrito is proving to be a beautiful city only to be had at face value even that image may not last long as a greedy monster is hiding in the trees and beginning to show its face we are the sciu 1021 members City Hall Community Center Child Care recycling

0:03:16quick Works Senior Center maintenance custodian we touch the city daily we are the faces the fixers the handshakes the smiles the cleanup crew the child care providers the greeters the front desk and so on we work hard to keep programs going that produce revenue for the city examples

0:03:39being Child Care fees recycling fees Community Center programs rental of spaces for public use Commercial Business needs permits and fees now and again trees are trimmed which are heavy on top not only to beautify them but to keep them healthy and Lasting we now need to

0:03:57trim off the top heavy Management Systems of El Cerrito and the wasteful practices of El Cerrito we are the roots help us to continue to support this community by giving us what we deserve a fair wage and a fair contract as I'm in the street collecting recycling carts amid moving cars a

0:04:15dangerous situation to say the least I'm still smiling and waving for those elderly elderly residents who are waiting for my smile in my wave or waving and smiling at that kid who likes the loud truck that goes by at those moments I am forced to ask myself why am I less deserving

0:04:34less deserving of a fair wage a fair contract from the city at least a fair offset for what I contribute to my retirement this issue is something any of us should not have to think about while working or while smiling to our public do you see the conflict the love hate relationship beginning to

0:04:51stem up it's not healthy certainly not the type of situation a beautiful a beautiful city can sustain itself upon don't bite the hand that feeds you you might say but in this case we might we have a smothering hand and will be forced to take a bite the greedy monster showing its face will

0:05:09be replaced by Inner workings that begin to crumble if the roots are not given the proper care City management might be able to Harbor the unjust greedy monster for a while by picking off the Dead Leaves every now and then but once the root goes the trees come Crashing Down

0:05:25consider us the valuable people who are the living roots of the city's valued programs when considering allowances please consider allowing us to earn fairly thank you Mark minor followed by Robin Mitchell good evening my name is Mark Miner I've been in El Cerrito residence since 2002

0:05:52and I'm chair of the Environmental Quality committee I'd like to speak in favor of an item on your consent calendar to authorize Marine clean energy to conduct a membership analysis the eqc has been following Community Choice for a long time and it really has a lot of benefits for the city including

0:06:11increased Renewables really enabling the city to achieve our climate action plan Community Choice is really the single largest Greenhouse reduction opportunity that we have and all of it at a competitive price in addition I think we could be able to achieve locally tailored Energy

0:06:28Efficiency programs and with local control and ultimately local distributed power and local jobs from what I've seen MCE is a lean organization with bright motivated people and I think the city would like to uh to work with them I think we didn't enjoy that experience and then

0:06:48this study is intended to protect the interest of mce's existing rate payers that's kind of what is in play right now when Napa County joined MCE that addition resulted in the overall rates for all rate payers decreasing by a few percent so could go up or down so again the eqc supports

0:07:11this idea thank you Mitchell followed by Tom panis and Anthony billips my name is Robin Mitchell and I live at [address removed] in El Cerrito I would like to express my opposition to the development proposal at 1715 Elm Street the council seems to be in favor of the

0:07:41development with the exception of trying to encourage Creek restoration of the stone line channel the creek restoration proposal is very admirable but it is not enough council member benicini stated on June 23 that she is interested in this project going forward because every unit

0:07:55that is not built in El Cerrito equates to a unit of Greenfield development in open space and other areas of the county I do not agree that there is necessarily a one-to-one correlation between Apartments built in El Cerrito and houses built in greenfields in East

0:08:09Contra Costa it's not obvious to me that a person who would choose to live in the Suburban home in a Greenfield development would instead choose to live in the 700 square foot apartment with no yard in El Cerrito and most importantly what is not recognized by the council is that this

0:08:22development also represents Greenfield development this property is located in a creek bed a location usually found to have good agricultural soil and was used as a small farm in various stages of its existence it has never been paved over or built upon except for the existing

0:08:37historic structures therefore developing this land is equivalent to any other Greenfield development both the San Pablo specific plan and the urban Greening master plan recognize the value of green space in a dense Urban environment what a shame it will be to develop over existing Green Space and

0:08:52then try to replace it with existing degraded sites in the future when the city is looking for areas to use as Green Space to mitigate the high density housing that is planned it won't be possible to find a site with the equivalent potential for Green Space amenities that this site has once it's

0:09:06gone if this site has developed I believe that looking back on this decision the city will regret having so easily given it over to development rather than having kept it as Green Space I'm puzzled by the impatience to develop this site yes the site is in the general

0:09:21plan's high density area and yes the city wants to add 1706 new units by 2040 as part of the San Pablo specific plan and even though this project is not in any of the transit oriented zones in Santa in the San Pablo specific plan council members keep referring to it as

0:09:36Transit oriented development this project only represents 14 new units Which is less than one percent of the specific plan goal according to the specific plan eir there are already 720 new units on the books that is 42 percent of the plan's goal and with 20 more years to go in the plan and the

0:09:54plan isn't even approved yet the elm projects units only represent two percent of the projects currently on the books why is it so important to cover with a solid block of condos the small parcel of land that cries out to be a public park starting with the existing

0:10:08Creek with the exciting Creek restoration proposal presented by council person Lyman at the June 23rd meeting it does not take too much imagination to a visit envision a wonderful Park which could include a community garden north of the creek with the existing house being used as an

0:10:21Environmental Education Center the city has already set a precedent for acquiring private land for open space with the Madeira purchase successfully receiving grants and private money to buy and restore the land it is clear to me that when City staff sets their mind

0:10:34to finding money for a project they usually succeed if you could of the wonderful parks that now exist in El Cerrito was the result of visionary planning in the 1950s and 60s that type of vision is even more necessary now when so little land is there is so little land for True Green Space I urge

0:10:50you to deny the project as proposed and work on turning this project into a public park for all to enjoy thank you next Tom panas followed by Anthony Billups and Liz espadilla Wilson members of the council and City staff my name is Tom panis and I live at [address removed] in El Cerrito

0:11:14over the past few weeks I've been reviewing the draft San Pablo Avenue specific plan and its Associated eir 900 pages of scintillating discussion about our town and its core I have pages of comments that I'll be providing to the staff but I have a few higher level concerns I would like to

0:11:30share with you this evening the document properly acknowledges the existence of historic and potential historic resources in town but then fails to treat them as assets these are some of the most important features that we have in our town elements on which we should be focusing they add character to

0:11:45our neighborhoods give people a better context and appreciation for our town and places they frequent our natural Gathering points and make our town more desirable and more walkable specific plans should treat them as assets and leverage them not just treat them as a subclass of

0:12:00objects that already exist in the built environment we're supposed to be a town concerned about the environment but I see no discussion of adaptive reuse of existing structures historic and otherwise study after study has shown a wide spectrum of environmental benefits associated with

0:12:15reusing structures rather than demolishing and rebuilding them we don't want this in El Cerrito there are many prescriptive statements in the specific plan why are all the statements about creeks habitats and green features in the specific plant advisory rather than prescriptive

0:12:31I'm sure there'll be some Lively and hopefully fruitful discussions on these items in the future thank you for your time this evening thank you Anthony Billups good evening Council my name is Anthony Billups and I am pretty much the face of Fairmont Elementary I'm an after-school

0:12:57program supervisor I've been working for the city here now here for about 15 years I've also been working at Fairmont for that 15 years I'm here today with the Union to basically just ask for you guys's help we're trying to um do the best that we can we are the workers and we are giving

0:13:22it our everything each and every day we just hope that you guys would uh consider you know the fact that we are bending over backwards breaking our backs uh most of us are single parents I brought my son today um and I'm doing the best that I can to to raise him and give him a great future

0:13:43so I just hope that you guys would help us with that and help me with that um with giving us a fair contract thank you thank you Liz espadilla followed by Lauren teen Brazil and Melanie West good evening council members my name is Liz espadelia and our work for the El

0:14:10Cerrito Senior Services Division and I've been working with that division for 14 years and this year once again we are um our boarding unit is having a difficult time negotiating with the city all we wanted is a fair contract and many of these people have put in more

0:14:30than 10 years working for the city and we are the service providers and I just want the council to recognize that that we're not asking for too much but a five percent concession is a lot for us many of our people don't make more than 30 000 a year so it's really difficult if especially

0:14:50for part-timers so I just want city council to consider you know passing you know our our bargaining unit contract this year thank you thank you [Applause] good evening I wish I could reread my speech from last time ironically all points made are still pertinent today

0:15:20in any case I'm laurentine Brazil I've been with the public works department for about 12 years came in with Big Dreams hoping to make a difference and unfortunately a lot of the time I felt like I haven't been allowed to shine there are only five steps for my position

0:15:39and I have long since met that I'm at top step and I have only the cola to depend on for an increase in pay I've achieved all of my personal Milestones while working here I've got married I have been blessed with an intelligent and beautiful daughter like anyone I want the best for

0:15:59my family we own a home in Pinole we couldn't afford to live in El Cerrito I have a bucket list of aspirations and things I want need deserve just like any human being but I can't achieve any of this with a pay cut I feel like the front line staff is being punished and dumped on and I

0:16:22really don't understand this why is management confidentials safety guaranteed increases over us despite us of course they can't can't afford to pay their purse and benefits more wealth income equates to more spending power flexibility that's a no-brainer I don't understand how Council can

0:16:46approve of these practices I mean why do we have to be top heavy with management why is the city why why is the face of the city overlooked for promotions increases in Pay recognition and just overall respect you can't have success without us I ask that you not allow the city to

0:17:11balance the budget on our backs thank you Melody West followed by Lila manuelos and howdy Gowdy good evening my name is Melanie West I've worked for the city of El Cerrito Recreation Department youth services for about 15 16 years now I've actually taken care of Scott's

0:17:43children um that being said I can't afford to live in El Cerrito my husband unfortunately has been out of work for five years gone are the times when one person could make the family's income that is not existing anymore I wish it was I wish I could live in El Cerrito

0:18:07the cuts and pay we didn't get cola over and over and over again incessantly made it so that I have to live an unincorporated San Pablo it's not where I would choose to live it's where I can afford to live um we are a top heavy City the faces of SEIU are the faces of the

0:18:34city of El Cerrito but we don't have the money to live here we want to but we can't we are a top heavy City people in management make what in one month what some of our employees make in an entire year I don't see how Council can agree with that it is heartbreaking

0:19:04that contracts can be um so disparative please consider making sure that the contract you come to us with is Equitable that's all we're asking is for a fair Shake thank you [Applause] good evening um I'm actually going to get emotional I'm sorry but I've been working for the city of El

0:19:50Cerrito for over 30 years and a lot of my cohorts um in all the years I've worked here I've reached my cap probably like 15 years ago probably more than 15 years ago and so when we don't see the cola it really affects my lifestyle me even coming to work I've been put in

0:20:13positions where I'm in charge of a lot of programming I've actually I know the pandas family here I know a lot of your your students that come to my programming I've worked at every site in the city um from Castro I'm currently at portla which is now changes name but I just

0:20:33want to introduce myself to you know and see my face because sometimes I'm just like the Busy Bee just working and working and working and really really look at our contract because it's really important because I would love to retire here and I got many years more to go and I have to work

0:20:52I don't have a choice I can't retire at an early age I have to be here for a long time so um so I just really want you to look at my other brothers and sisters here at SEIU 1021 and really look at the contract and consider not giving us concessions at this time because we're

0:21:12not going to really be able to make it I'm gonna have to get a new car pretty soon like I said I've gone through so many cars since I've worked here and I've seen some of your children grow up in the programming and it's um and I'm not a really good speaker in front of adults I love to work with kids

0:21:28I'm I can dance in front of them but um this is really hard for me to come up here and I feel like I'm begging and I don't want to feel like I have to do that but I'm up here not just me but for the rest of my members that are up here because sitting really hard when I have to if we

0:21:46don't get colas or increases and I'm at my top step and it's just like trying to manage my money believe me I could be working in finance if I really had to because I know how to find a budget my money so I would hope that the city couldn't budget theirs and not on our

0:22:02backs um thank you for your time foreign followed by Angela osayande is next howdy howdy gowdies [Music] that's okay all right good evening mayor and Council people um my name is howdy Gowdy I live at [address removed] I'm also a member of the El Cerrito Environmental Quality committee and I

0:22:43want to Echo um Mark's remarks about CCA uh Community Choice aggregation study that is on the consent calendar I think it's a great opportunity for the city to reduce carbon emissions as Mark said it's probably the single biggest and fastest thing we can do to reduce climate impacts in the city and

0:23:07in the context of other things I've been before the Council on specifically 1715 Elm the argument has been made that you know we must build denser units for climate change well CCA is how you address climate change the the land use element of the climate action plan is a very slow and you know

0:23:30it's an important but not nearly the the direct impact that is you know was so impatiently sought in in comments in the previous meeting so I want to thank you for your thoughtful consideration of the full Creek restoration option in the last um June 17th council meeting regarding 1715

0:23:54Elm and while I'm impressed by this Vision it's an excellent Vision it's what should have been proposed to the developer long ago in negotiations with the city I feel it's important to be clear that as good as that motivation is and that plan is your choice really is about the project

0:24:17that brought was brought to you um the the creek restoration is too big of a change to the project to actually slide it in at this point so I want to be clear that I still urge you to you know vote this project down specifically for you know the reasons that are well

0:24:38articulated by the council people speaking about the creek restoration potential so um it's important to reflect that that project is brought to you as a planned development a very significant action to be taken that basically you know negates the city's standards with

0:24:59the understanding that there's some greater public good that's brought um that you know was not foreseen by the basic standards and I think if you step back and look at it with that lens you'll find it can't meet that standard so I encourage you to do that um I

0:25:14actually copied the plan development standard and on that letter that you received so you know the Planning Commission recommended against the plan development and I hope you will take that seriously you know it's it's something that needs to be really well founded and as we move

0:25:33into the San Pablo specific plan being adopted that's one of my main concerns is that this experience has shown me that you know the city can put great ideas on paper and great policies on paper but if they're willing to just let them go at the first sign of a developer

0:25:49who needs you know to not do them then we've really lost that Vision so I hope that you'll stay fast to that Vision so thank you thank you okay Angela followed by Nina Johnson good evening mayor council uh as you've seen the members of SEIU ten to one has come to you not too big but

0:26:19to ask you to do the right thing these are the lowest paid workers within the city but they do the work they generate the revenue for your city so without them will this city be they generate the revenue they do the work a five percent concession for them is different than a five percent

0:26:41concession for management or confidentials or police and fire those classifications have the ability to make up money through overtime through administrative leave and other ways that they can give you five percent SEIU ten to one members do not have that option

0:27:03and it would be very difficult for families to survive with a five percent concession in 13 14 fiscal year 13 14 we took a negative 3.25 a negative and now here we are fiscal year 1415 and the city is asking us to take another concession we want to do the right thing

0:27:31but we don't want to die doing it and when I say that the members of this this Union as I said before the lowest paid highest salary probably like thirty thousand thirty three thousand dollars a year how can they survive we live in the Bay Area the most expensive place

0:27:53how can they survive so you know when we go into these negotiations we want when they come back to you we want you to consider what I'm saying consider what they said and do the right thing thank you [Applause] good evening my name is Nina Johnson I work for the finance department I've

0:28:26been with the city for 10 years as our fellow SEIU members have said we cannot afford a five percent majority of us are single parents I am recently a single parent I just lost my husband six months ago and it's very important now even more so to be able to provide for my family

0:28:53and taking that type of cut would not allow me to provide for my family like some other people do working in the finance department I realize that there's a lot of wastefulness going on and I think that the council really need to look at what we're asking for we're

0:29:09not asking for anything extra we're just asking for what it is we work for the average one of us are working one and a half jobs as the different people leave the city and change in different areas and departments our workloads have been even made heavier and what we do is we

0:29:28continue to smile and work hard and do our job so all we're asking for is a fair contract thank you thank you um is is there anyone else from the public who'd like to speak on items not on the agenda you could just if you don't mind turning in your slip after thank you

0:29:57my name is Francis West I am past master of Bay Cities Lodge free and accepted masons we take care of all kinds of communities from carquinas bridge to Berkeley to the bay to Tilden Park we care about what happens in these communities I have met many people through this

0:30:20organization and they have come to El Cerrito from foreign countries when they move for a job because of these people that have done the work that they do you are famous overseas people care about El Cerrito and they go that's where I want to be these people made that happen

0:30:46people that work for you need to be taken care of and to take an additional five percent which makes eight percent that starts to be a very large number to somebody who works paycheck to paycheck and you've got to remember that because if they leave those people that are

0:31:11buying those new homes here in El Cerrito are not going to come because that reputation is going to change because these people are gone thank you if you could uh fill out a slip that would be great okay is there anyone else maybe if you could okay I think that's it thank you go

0:31:39ahead one more no here's the same one same person is are there any more people who want to speak after the current Speaker no okay go ahead please okay good evening my name is Cheryl shoot and I am a community services coordinator here for the city of El Cerrito I've worked

0:31:57with the city since 1982.

0:32:00ongoing since 1986 I've been full time for about 20 years now I enjoy working for the city I have provided many of programs for the city that have thrived that continue to thrive I've worked hard in the community I've helped to raise a lot of your children a lot of which who

0:32:21have come back into our programs which is great to see um I hope that you just listen to what everyone has said tonight and would consider what we've said um and we're here because we enjoy what we do um we give so much all we're asking for is just what we do we deserve basically

0:32:48um so I just hope that you really will consider what we've all come here and said tonight um thank you very much thank you okay so that concludes um public comment on items that are not on the agenda and now we'll move on to pres a presentation um in we'll have two presentations

0:33:12actually the first one is a presentation in memory of John umamoto and um I guess I'll we'll do this but I'll um this will be presented to his um wife Sally Ann umamoto if she's Sally in here hi Sally Ann I'll go ahead and um read read through this I I actually

0:33:41did know John umamoto and it did a lot I think a lot of the people in the community and we I think all um uh offer our condolences to Sally Ann um he played a part in many of our hearts and in many of the activities that we participate in uh first of all he was a

0:34:07member of the crime prevention committee for over 30 years and he served as an Earth Day coordinator and the difference between John and a lot of the other site coordinators everyone worked really hard but most people ended their shift at noon and then they came over had lunch and then

0:34:28they moved on with their day but not John what John did was maybe he came over for his lunch we kind of had to make him do what you might say but then he went back and completed the day all day trying to make the Civic Center a nicer looking place and he was really

0:34:47special um wherever he was he was always the first person to raise his hand if something needed to be done I assume he was that way at home to Sally Anne he would appreciate that thank you and the things that he did he would staff booze uh you know Fourth of July

0:35:11any or many of the other crime prevention committees outreaches um but I remember him in a way that I often ran into him which was going down Ashbury Avenue on his way home from work he rode his bicycle I think he even rode his bicycle before it could be called fashionable and

0:35:32um so I think those of us who would uh snag him along the way and and on a conversation or two really appreciated the opportunity he was the first person we think to ride his bicycle on National Night Out um and he rode with the police department's bicycle Patrol unit and I

0:35:57also knew him as a fellow parent in Boy Scout Troop 104 where um we participated in my family with his family many times and John had a great smile you know I've made people people feel at home he made people feel welcome and he made you feel like you were happy

0:36:22to be part of the same community that he was a part of and I think he really did love our city so I think it was a honor really for all of us who knew him and um it's a you know we will miss him um so at this time I would like to give this proclamation to Sally Ann umamoto

0:36:46and the family if we could come down to what down there maybe and do that let's see could you create oops and Sally Ann has told me that but she's about to go to Japan and would you like to describe here oh we're just gonna my father daughter momoto always wanted to

0:37:38and the Japanese person wanted to always find out Fuji and he thought he'd at least try and get her attempts before so we were planning to go to Japan the summer of 2014 this summer environment [Music] we wanted to present you with this Proclamation um while he was a part of our city

0:38:29and we look forward to seeing pictures sunrise [Applause] pancakes so the next Proclamation is a very special one also and it has to do with our wall of fame and this is my first time um handling this part of the ceremony so I think that um we first need to adopt the resolution

0:39:36if I'm not mistaken is this correct yes city clerk yes please I'm happy to move a resolution of the city council the city of El Cerrito inducting Tom panis into the El Cerrito Wall of Fame second all in favor please say aye aye aye any opposition or abstention motion carries

0:39:54unanimously with pleasure and with that I would like to present this um certificate of uh for to Tom panis but first I'd like to uh for us to appear to spend a little bit of time talking about it and one of the things I think that we all know is that Tom has been very very

0:40:18very active in our community and has done a number of different uh things he's been a member of the El Cerrito Historical Society since the year 2000 and he served four terms as president and he's now serving his fifth term as treasurer um he's worked very very diligently to

0:40:42uh assure us that all of the historical sites that he thought were important were in fact recognized as such and I think we've seen the fruit of his Labor uh on a number of different projects and I imagine Tom there that there are still some to come if I'm not mistaken right

0:41:04yes he said yes so um the work that he's done has involved interviewing people all across the country and collecting many many images documents and I like to think that they're all stored in his head and they probably are you think so Anne and um and I I know he has a very patient

0:41:32family that has put up with his many many hours and so I think we I think Tom even mentioned that he would like to include them tonight so perhaps Tom when we finish talking and so forth you you want to introduce the family that would be great okay um he's also uh in addition to working

0:41:55with the Historical Society he's done a lot of work on behalf of the El Cerrito library and the friends of the El Cerrito library in particular and he's also served us on a county-wide level um as an alternate to the library commission so I think we that's a another very very big responsibility

0:42:20and um so in recognition of all of those things we're tonight appointing Tom Hannah's along with the in remembering the various people who have previously been appointed and there aren't that many of them so this is a very special honor but we're appointing him to our

0:42:38wall of fame which when you leave here you can go out in the ante room and you can see all the pictures of the previous winners of this very limited and distinguished award would any of my fellow council members like to say a few words yeah ever since I first met Tom I

0:42:58thought can't see you back there behind a very high time that he's one of those remarkable individuals who lives to serve and help others and you wouldn't know from all the time he spends into helping the community that he has a wonderful family and a full-time job and

0:43:17I don't think Tom sleeps at all and his family could confirm if that's true or not but he's always looking for ways to make the not just El Cerrito but the world around him a better place and it's an honor and a privilege to know you Tom and to have you as such a

0:43:35integral part of our community and so well deserved recognition Tom for the last six years you have been a a voice in my ear on many topics and I I truly appreciate your perspective and your your desire to see El Cerrito be a better place so thank you for your service

0:43:57to Echo those words Tom you were the first person who called me when I got on the council in order to speak about City issues that I was just coming up to speed on so I appreciated that introduction to what I would call a the concerns that is in part of our of our

0:44:11city and what I've always appreciated about the advocacy that you've done on behalf of the many issues that are listed here is that you do it in a way that is very respectful even when you're disagreeing with some of the positions that are being put forward on certain

0:44:25issues I've always appreciated the way that you're you're happy to have of I won't even say fight a discussion about issues and you do it in a very respectful way and in a way that really acknowledges that we're all trying to do what's best for the community so I

0:44:39appreciate all of the hours you've put in and the way that you put them in I don't have anything to add other than what was already said and I certainly um agree with all of that but one of my favorite things about Tom is he's one of the few people who ever writes a thank

0:44:54you note no matter how we vote whether he agreed with it or not he'll send a thank you note and not only is it just a plain old thank you note it usually has something with a historic picture and I actually have to admit that I do save them because the photographs are amazing and

0:45:12they're not all in the book so thank you thank you and I wondering if this time if there are any members of the audience who would like to say anything about this occasion I see somebody you want to go on up hi Gabe good evening Madam mayor council members um about uh six years ago I received a

0:45:47phone call from Tom panis and and uh and since then we have talked about uh so many things regarding our city especially uh uh uh history and the history of our city and uh and uh and I uh also as a member of the human relations commission I asked him to uh drop by our uh our monthly meeting and

0:46:15to speak about our uh room upstairs or our historical room that's under Saudi and in that room I saw some Japanese books uh in in kanji and uh and he was actually Translating that and uh and that's when I knew you know key really knew about uh the history here in

0:46:44El Cerrito and uh the men and women that uh that Drew flowers here and uh uh the children that lived in the orphanage up the hill and uh the Masons uh masonry people that worked up on the end of uh navalia Street and and uh helped build uh the stone walls and the uh at Tilden

0:47:11Park and also uh at uh Alvarado Park and uh I just wanted to say thank you for uh being so passionate about our city and uh to know about the different neighborhoods from the architecture to who built it to uh even the gardens and and uh and you deserve this uh uh award

0:47:38and and congratulations thank you anybody else I'll just share a very brief anecdote my name is howdy Gowdy I've had the pleasure to work um with uh Tom on uh matters in our our city and uh just for your uh information since you may not get this particular message Tom has a unique way of leaving

0:48:11phone messages which usually involves saying this is Tom panis your worst nightmare and um it's a very nice humbling uh gesture which is so false because he is nobody's worst nightmare to quite to the contract contrary he is invaluable asset to our community so I want to thank Tom for all

0:48:33his work anyone else okay please I'm just so happy that you're giving Thomas honor I'm the newest member on the El Cerrito Historical Society board just one year been an exciting year um but before that um I was teaching at Windra School for over 20 years and I wanted to do this history with the

0:49:07kids of El Cerrito and um somebody I guess it was Charles Buress who said you got to talk to Tom because he knows everything there is to know about El Cerrito and I found that to be true and um now that I'm part of the board it's been an honor to work with the other board

0:49:27members and Tom and also to see how he conducts matters here in Council it's very impressive and so thank you for honoring him and thank you Tom for your help thank you and I'll ask again anyone else I'm not sure the way they should work but Tom would you like to say something

0:49:48now and also introduce your family and then we'll do the actual presentation thank you very much Jana and members of the council so I'll start with my family so that's my eldest son Mike by a couple minutes and my wonderful wife Anne and my baby son Alan and sort of the fifth

0:50:06member of our family Teresa perella who's I won't say exactly how many years who's lived in the same house on Richmond Street for between 97 and 99 years um and I have a lot of friends like that in town but um it's extraordinary to be the recipient of this award tonight it's

0:50:24wonderful to know that you've found my efforts which have been sometimes lonely at time to be worth this um Frank store now who nominated me isn't able to be here tonight because he's moved up to as he calls it the old Soldiers Home in Yountville but being the wonderful guy that he is

0:50:42he was determined he wasn't going to leave town until he was made sure that he had properly finished and submitted my nomination which he started talking about a year ago A lot's happened since I was infected by this incurable historical virus about 15 years ago

0:50:57we've documented our past in books and articles we've discovered entire Japanese Nursery community that had just about slipped into the recesses of the past documented it and amazingly educated and invigorated the younger members of that Community about its own

0:51:11heritage we've saved buildings we've identified dairies and Farms that just about everybody had forgotten maybe not miss perella but just about everybody else we required a treasure Trove of images and printed materials we've documented our Italian Heritage and put our own Little Italy on the map

0:51:27we've documented the industrial Heritage of our town and so much more just an amazing number of fun and important things have happened but I'm only standing here this evening because I'm standing on the shoulders of giants that would start with my wonderful wife and who supports my

0:51:43efforts in every conceivable way she also coolly and critically reviews just about everything most people have received from me and prevents me from writing or saying anything that might not be appropriate in the newspaper of General Distribution much less at a

0:51:57council meeting so you can thank her for my good manners I have the two greatest Sons on the planet a few things are more exciting to them than the suggestion that we go drive around town to check out some old houses or go over to an old-timer's house to work in the yard or fix them a pot roast

0:52:15dinner I'm blessed in so many ways but this is truly about our Old-Timers people have been known to ask me why are all your best friends over 85 the answer is simple they're the smartest and the wisest people I've ever met no one has more or better perspective than they do

0:52:33of course those particulars are particularly those qualities are particularly interesting to me as I'm short on them 15 years ago I would have said you were nuts if you told me how I'd be spending every spare money in the next 15 years but that was before I started learning

0:52:48from the Bedrock of El Cerrito about what used to be here people I don't know if you know any of them Lou Nicoli John gasparino Eko sugahara June Honda helody Smith they're all gone now I learned from them Frank storno Teresa perella miracle maida and others who I can still call

0:53:06almost every day in fact there have been hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of more some here and unfortunately some still some only a memory now but they all let me learn from them and I'm the luckiest guy on the planet to have been able to do so I owe so much to them and so many of the

0:53:23things that I do here in town are to thank them for what they've given me and for the Legacy that they've given to us so Janet Mark Greg Rebecca and and Jan thank you again for this wonderful honor thank you [Applause] should be noted that's one of the few times he didn't give us copies of his

0:53:49remarks [Laughter] the earlier packet my apologies very well written I might add oh gonna be tweeted absolutely okay everybody say cheesy thank you thank you congratulations laughs okay let's see now we um the next item on our agenda um is um the adoption of the consent calendar and

0:55:49I'm removing the National Night Out Proclamation from the consent calendar for the purpose of making comments and um I'd like to pull this thing oh sorry and presenting the certificate okay go ahead can I also pull the CCA item to also just get a comment from staff sure item 5c okay I'd like to move

0:56:11items 5A then minutes and 5D the pickup of employee contributions to Calpers under IRS Section 414 H2 second emotion okay that was the motion was by Friedman the second I couldn't quite catch who did it first Jan Bridges okay okay all in favor please say aye aye aye

0:56:35any opposition or abstentions motion carries unanimously with that we'll move on to the National Night Out Proclamation and um do we have somebody from the from the police department looks like good evening Mary Edelson members of the council City staff and members of public

0:56:55I'm Lieutenant Robert de la Campa from the police department with me tonight to talk about National Idol are two members of the crime prevention committee um if you can step forward Please Mr Marty takamoto and Mr Jingo and uh Mr takamoto would like to talk about National Night Out this year great

0:57:13thank you first of all I'd like to thank the council for recognizing our former member and colleague John tonight because he was a valuable member of the crime prevention committee for many many years my second comment is directed more towards the audience and residents of El Cerrito we'd really like

0:57:30to encourage everybody to participate in National Night Out it's a great way to meet your neighbors most one of the things that I found last year when I hosted National Night Out For The First Time in our neighborhood is that our neighborhood's made up of typical El

0:57:44Cerrito residency so about two-thirds of our neighbors are retired they've been living in their home since the 1940s raised their kids and and nobody knew each other so I hosted a National Night Out last year I got shoot away from a couple houses because they thought I was

0:57:59soliciting when I came to invite them to the National Night Out but we had over 90 percent of our block attend last year and they had a great time and they were all asking when are we doing it again so we're doing it again this year and I encourage everybody to do this because

0:58:13it's a simple way to help increase crime prevention awareness in neighborhoods because you instantly have a lot more eyes looking on the street looking at your house taking care of each other and it's a great great event so for El Cerrito residents you can find

0:58:28application forms online in the city of El Cerrito website to apply for a National Night Out hosting uh event and the deadline is July 30th thank you thank you uh narrative uh my name is eugenico uh I'd like to take a picture uh if it would and we're going to hold the National

0:58:52Night Out banner down here and if the city council members could join us down here okay if any of the other staff want to get a chance to stand up and take pictures with that way it's okay too uh why don't we just for protocol's sake pass it first okay if somebody would

0:59:07like to make a motion and then we'll come down and join you Gene I would like to make a motion of this of the city council of El Cerrito proclaiming National Night Out of 2014 for Tuesday August 5th second okay motion by Lyman seconded by Friedman all in favor please

0:59:27say I I in the opposition in the abstention motion carries unanimously and now we have thank you you want to tell us where to go to going on thank you very much thank you foreign you didn't need it okay so that brings us to the remaining item on the consent calendar and the it

1:01:41wasn't last the last item that was pulled in order of those pulled which was the authorization uh uh to authorizing Marine clean energy to conduct membership analysis for the city to participate in their Community Choice aggregation programs thank you mayor I just wanted to have staff come up and

1:02:03make a brief comment about the program I wanted to first thank howdy and Mark for attending tonight and expressing support for this action and I wanted Maria Sanders to just come up and briefly tell us about the it's the first step on a very important uh process that's part of

1:02:18our climate action plan so it's wonderful that this is getting started and that we have grant funding to fund 83 of the cost of the program can you just tell us of the eighteen thousand dollars what will the Marine clean energy staff be doing and sort of the general time frame for the completion of

1:02:34their analysis uh yes the um and I also wanted to recognize that Don Weiss who's the executive director of marinklin energy is here as well so she can answer um probably these questions better than I can um uh but uh the uh actual um work plan is to conduct the load

1:02:55analysis and the rate impact um analysis uh and I think that that's about ten thousand dollars and then there's an additional eight thousand dollars to cover Marine clean energy staff time uh for um any kind of El Cerrito related work including coming to meetings and participating in community

1:03:18meetings and um you know up to the point in time that we decide either to join or not join oh okay so that's for the entire time period that we're conducting the analysis not just the load analysis and Beyond the analysis yes and um it really um depends on how fast we

1:03:36want to go in terms of our timelines uh the World Wildlife Fund Grant goes through December of 2000 or October of 2015.

1:03:47um but the um uh the load analysis is usually about a two-month process or so great thank you well I wanted to point out that there are is this money set aside for Community process or processes processes and meetings I thought that was important just so everyone knows

1:04:04that there will be more open discussion about this thank you Maria with that I'm I'm happy to have more discussion or I'm happy to move the resolution taking the following actions authorizing the mayor to submit a letter to Marine clean energy requesting that they conduct an analysis

1:04:21of the feasibility of Elsewhere to becoming a member of the CCA authorizing the city manager to execute a contract with MCE in an amount not to exceed eighteen thousand dollars as well as other necessary documents required by PG e to conduct the membership analysis for

1:04:34El Cerrito and authorizing the city manager to execute a grant agreement for fifteen thousand dollars with the World Wildlife Fund to fund the analysis second okay uh this uh motion is was made by benassini seconded by Bridges all in favor please say aye aye aye any

1:04:54objections any abstentions motion carries unanimously um thank you very much so with that we're going to move on to our one public hearing which is on the fire hazard abatement uh issue good evening honorable mayor and City Council Members I Am David chaparra your

1:05:28fire prevention officer and I'm here tonight to provide an overview of the annual wheat abatement program introduce a resolution declaring the identified properties as in front of you in the revised exhibit a properties in El Cerrito as public nuisances for the purposes of abatement

1:05:44in general as an overview this year we started about two weeks early uh the initial list included 273 properties that were found in violation after the initial notices that list whittled down to the 44 that's before you now just as a kind of point of reference last year 2013 the initial properties

1:06:08found in violation were 140. whittled down to 23 at the time of the nuisance Hearing in 2013.

1:06:16all in all uh another as another point of reference six properties that were on the list from 2013 are listed on the list for 2014.

1:06:27and I'm available to answer any questions you may have okay are there any questions from the council I you just mentioned that there were six from uh repeat offenders from 2014 2013 on our 2014 list um is there a um any repeat offenders from say our 2012 list or is it is it in order to can

1:06:56we can we uh say that our system is working because we're getting new offenders every year um yes I would say so I'm actually looking at the 2012 list right now uh not the not the entire list but the the list of folks that have been repeat on the list at some point or abated

1:07:14since 12 and what I'm looking at here is there's approximately four that were in 2012 that were this year um and of those it appears that none of them were on the list in 13 either great thank you so yes I would say that by having new offenders every year that the process is working there's only one

1:07:42property uh with a very well established history on El Dorado that uh is consistently on the list and as I've discussed with you previously uh there are various departments within the city that are dealing with the various issues that have to deal with that property

1:07:59I I'd just like to point out unfortunately the 1715 Elm Street owned by Biggs who have been here and will be here again is on the list and I have driven by there many of time and noticed it and I not very happy about that well just as a point of reference um knowing the current issues at hand

1:08:21with that property I've actually reached out to Mr Biggs spoke with him personally he was on the list um I believe in the past but I have spoken with him he understood what needed to be done uh the reason why I reached out to him because I didn't want to make his

1:08:37life more difficult considering the issues at hand um if in the next couple of weeks I noticed that it hasn't been taken care of I'm going to call him again and talk to him and likely to avoid the entire scenario of forced abatement on that property just to avoid any future issues thank you

1:08:55okay are we done with the questions is there any public comment on this item we have one speaker okay how do you can you uh we need to open a public processes that for there's a resolution that you need to adopt first to actually declare the properties on the list to be

1:09:14a nuisance and then having done that then you can open the public hearing okay I move the resolution declaring that weeds rubbish litter and other flammable material on certain real property identified in the resolution constitutes of public nuisance second the motion

1:09:30okay all in favor I any opposition any abstentions motion carries unanimously okay so now we open the public hearing correct okay um the public hearing is opened so the um I don't seem to have the script for the public hearing if you wanna anyone else no no we don't have one so

1:09:58that we take the public hearing then we can close it shall we we've had the report right so then at this point I suppose what we need to do is ask for any public comment is there any member of the public who would like to speak on this item howdy Gowdy um good evening mayor ibelson council

1:10:21people my name is howdy Gowdy I live at [address removed] um I want to thank uh council member Friedman for mentioning the 1715 Elm property I was surprised to see it there at the top of the list I would hope that any um developer that is wanting to show Goodwill towards the city and and prove

1:10:42that they have a good relationship worthy of a planned development would do this kind of maintenance on their own and not require a second letter to remind them to do it and personal phone calls from the fire department although I do appreciate the efforts to to reach

1:10:57out I just wanted to reiterate that what was brought to um our attention and I think it bodes very poorly for the relationship with that particular developer in terms of promises they might um make regarding their project um I do have another item to um to talk about which perhaps

1:11:21I'll get my hand slapped for mentioning but it's on topic I believe and and that is the um I want to you know thank the city for being proactive about the fire abatement on the newly acquired Madera property even though the city doesn't acquire you know own it yet they're

1:11:41working with TPL and and I appreciate the Outreach to the volunteer community members who have been doing um you know native plant restoration there I've I've worked with Jim mckissick doing some of that work and so I really appreciate that staff is reaching out for his impact input to get

1:11:58you know the best um fire protection prevention program that can be defined for that site um I was at a meeting this morning where that project was discussed and I was somewhat shocked to hear the the proposal that um you know part of the funding for that work would was planned to be requested

1:12:23from the Madera campaign fundraising effort a private fundraising effort that effort I'm not speaking for that campaign but you know I have had contact with some of those people and um frankly all those donations were sought for acquisition they were not sought for

1:12:44maintenance TPL owns the land they were granted a hundred thousand dollar professional contract to see it through this year of transition and I fully expect that they have the resources to do this maintenance and that the city should hold them to that so I just wanted to give my personal

1:13:05feelings that I think it's completely inappropriate even though this is sort of a preemptive comment since they haven't formally been asked yet but I was told of the intention to ask them that it's completely inappropriate to ask a private fundraising campaign that

1:13:19was designed for acquisition to contribute to the maintenance of this property which is frankly the city and tpl's responsibility so thank you foreign other comments I have no other slips okay thank you I moved too close to public hearing second okay um there's been a motion to close the

1:13:41public Hearing in a second the motion is by Friedman second was by Lyman all in favor please say aye aye any opposition or abstention motion carries unanimously with that we move back to the council and are there any questions at this point from the council okay any comments

1:14:01I I will make one comment I appreciate that the fire department uh actually initiated this earlier this year um for the last two years I've been asking for this to start as early as possible so that we can get ahead of the curve and it's unfortunate that we have

1:14:17a drought this year that prompted us to to move into this earlier but I I want to really truly thank the fire department for starting earlier uh with that I'll I'll move a resolution of the city council of the city of El Cerrito overriding objections by property owners and ordering the city

1:14:34manager or his designee to Abate certain public nuisance nuisances pursuant to chapter 16.26 second okay so there's a motion on the floor um any comment okay um all in favor I'm sorry I need to say who made the motion that was Friedman no Lyman and seconded by Friedman okay all

1:14:59in favor all right in the opposition in the abstention motion carries unanimously with that I would like to thank the members of the fire department um who worked on this project I don't know how many it takes but I know it must be a pretty extensive effort to get all of those properties inspected

1:15:20and it plays a really significant role in preventing the kind of fire that they had in Oakland A number of years ago I know I can still remember going up on Albany Hill and the and the Embers were actually reaching Albany Hill from the Oakland fire and um I think

1:15:43this is a very uh good way of preventing that situation from occurring in our city so I would like to thank everyone involved and in particular the fire department thank you anyone else okay with that we move on to the next agenda item which is the um a memo of understanding between the city

1:16:14and the United professional firefighters Association local 12 30 and the El Cerrito police employees Association thank you your honor I'm Karen Pincus assistant city manager before you tonight are four different resolutions um adopting modifications to the memorandums understanding of both units

1:16:35at local 1230 and the police employees Association pea as well as resolutions that modify the payment and Reporting which are required by pers when contributions are modified um during the fiscal year 2014 1516 biennial budget process the city council was appraised of various

1:16:56balancing measures that the staff was proposing to address shortfalls in the city's operating budget these measures did include consideration of concessions on behalf of certain employee groups this would include included increased employee employee contributions to

1:17:12Calpers the California Public Employees Retirement System the unrepresented employees including management and confidential employees to date are paying eight percent which is the full pers miscellaneous rate and in addition the city council and city manager have

1:17:29also have also now been stipulated to pay eight the eight percent the city is still in active negotiations with other bargaining units that have expired contracts two bargaining units have valid contracts the um as you stated the United professional firefighters Association local 1230 and

1:17:49the El Cerrito police employees Association City staff approached those two bargaining units to discuss the possibility of modifications to their mous in light of the financial challenges that we've been discussing within this year's fiscal fiscal Year's budget local 1230 and the Pea did agree

1:18:07to discuss concessions and we met and I should note that the groups met willingly and positive discussions took place beginning in June of this year we discussed the financial challenges both short and long term specifically City representatives were interested in

1:18:23discussing increasing the employee's contribution to pers similar to the unrepresented employee group local 1230 and the Pea sworn members are members of the public safety pers plan with a three percent at 50 retirement formula which has a nine percent employee contribution the non-swars

1:18:41members of the Pea are included in the miscellaneous purse plan which is the same as unrepresented in management with a 2.7 at 55 plan and includes an eight percent employee contribution within the current mou the employee contribution is known as the employer paid member contribution or epmc and it

1:19:02is paid entirely by the city current mousse also provide for salary increases in years 2014 and 2016 of a CPI increase between two percent and four percent and in 2015 a salary adjustment would be made according to the median compensation survey the public employees pension reform act

1:19:23also known as pepra stipulates that in 2018 employers are allowed to require employees to pay at least 50 percent of the normal cost of retirement benefits as long as the cost does not exceed eight percent for miscellaneous members and 12 percent for Public Safety

1:19:39City Representatives discussed several different mlu modifications with both groups including payment of the current Public Safety employee contribution of the full nine percent with a corresponding eight percent increase in salary for a negative one percent um for the first year of the contract

1:19:57however both groups expressed a willingness to consider moving toward the full 12 percent cost recognizing the city's Current financial picture and looking ahead to the implementation of pepra and as a result the city in both local the city and both local 1230 and

1:20:13the Pea have tentatively tentatively agreed to side letter agreements that are before you tonight that modifies salaries and retirement contributions for the last three years of the contract the formulas are within your staff report both local 1230 and the Pea contracts included a minimum guaranteed

1:20:324.6 compensation increase in addition to a guaranteed median salary adjustment for the remainder of the contract with no increase or no payment of retirement contributions by employees so projected that this total compensation increase for the remainder of the contract would have been

1:20:49approximately eight to nine percent the formulas that have been agreed upon within the side letters include an increase in pers contribution of nine percent in the first year which is the full employee contribution and increases to 12 percent by the last year of the

1:21:02contract the formula also does include a backfill salary increase over the three years including eight percent in the first year but there is a net compensation decrease over the remainder of the contract of approximately five percent in total compared to what both groups would have

1:21:19made per the mou both groups would are now making 3.6 percent less than they would have made on July 1st it should also be noted that for the non-sworn Pea members even though their contribution is eight percent they have agreed to mirror the same provision as the swore

1:21:36members so that this year their contribution will be nine percent these changes in compensation equate to a savings of approximately four hundred twenty five thousand dollars in compensation from local 1230 over the remainder of the contract and approximately four hundred forty

1:21:51thousand dollars in compensation from the Pea for a total of approximately eight hundred seventy thousand dollars in addition to the compensation there are some other changes in the side letter that are of note for the Pea the side lender includes modifications in eligibility for

1:22:07longevity pay which is an attempt to address the current retention challenges that the police department is facing also the Pea mou has been extended for six months simply to stagger the end dates of the public safety mou so that we are not negotiating both contracts at

1:22:24the same time there is also language in the side letters that recognize new employees that are hired after December 31st 2012 are subject to the provisions of peppera so again there are four brothers Solutions before you tonight two of which accept the side letters

1:22:40um and two of which are required by pers for Amendment to the contributions and I would like to take a moment to recognize the members of local 1230 and the El Cerrito police employees Association for their willingness to come to the table and work with both the city manager and

1:22:55myself on this entire process concession bargaining is very difficult and it is even especially difficult to ask these groups who are within a valid contract and had no obligation to agree to any of these Provisions I'd like to especially thank the officers of local

1:23:141230 and pea Dave chappara who's here tonight the fire department Mike Hernandez Matt Wong Dave Hartung and Ian Wong of the police department on behalf of your co-workers here at the city certainly from me personally I do want to say thank you to you and to the

1:23:31members of your groups your dedication and your loyalty to the city of El Cerritos very much appreciated and with that the city manager and I are available for any questions there any questions from the council go ahead yeah you didn't mention these revised items that you have handed us uh my

1:23:50apologies and and uh as you um at least acknowledge that that they're here if you could help me find things that are changed you didn't do it in red line so I apologize um the supplement you were provided tonight a supplemental side letter that was different than the one in the packet

1:24:06there were no material changes to these side letters both of them had a typo in that had stated the pepra employees were as of 2013 they should be as of 2012 December 31st 2012 and in the um uh both of the side letters you have previously approved tonight A provision for making

1:24:29sure that all contributions by employees are tax deferred we also included that language within the side letters to cover all of our bases with the IRS and additionally um in the pea side letter there are Provisions that are called out specifically for the non-sworn members

1:24:46we wanted to make sure that the sworn members and the non-sworn members all of the provisions were spelled out and those are the changes and and the in the um the Pea one um those uh last changes you just discussed are in 7.4 uh retirement plan for sworn personnel apparently

1:25:09there's some text that's been added there that defines the classic employees and maybe that's associated with the peppera correct and then under 13.3 pension reimbursement there were quite a number of bullets added um that identified all these other pay categories that you're talking about the

1:25:26non-sworn correct and um comparing it to the one that we were given in our packet 13.8 which was a new uh section was eliminated and so it's not in this one and I was just wondering if that was folded into 13.3 sorry let me grab that it it was a I think it it appeared to be

1:25:51to overlap tremendously with some of the additions that you've just made in 13.3 about the 2.3 yes correct various different positions yes yes and also eliminated um old language that didn't need to be added um and so as we make our motions for those two motions with the side letters

1:26:13we I'm assuming you want us to adopt the revised side letters please thank you that's all that's all I have questions I have at the moment okay um why don't we go to public comment are there any is there any public comment on this item I have no requests this week

1:26:34mayor okay then let's bring it back to the council for any comments I think I'll just comment I think echoing many of the items that Karen Pincus already mentioned coming to the table in the middle of a contract is um very helpful given the city's current situation and given all and and the

1:26:56breadth of all of these changes and the willingness to go to the full um employee member paid portion of the purse during the term of this contract is is extremely helpful to the city and really kind of sends the message that all of the employees in these groups are

1:27:12willing to step forward during this time of balancing and if these items didn't come forward I think we'd all be looking at potential for for employee Cuts in the if not in the during this budget then during the next budget so this is great for the city and I appreciate all

1:27:27the work that staff has done thank you and I just wanted to uh thank both Public Safety groups for for coming forward and doing this um you know we had a lot of balancing options that we discussed in our budget starting back in April and you know one of the things

1:27:46that we many of the many things that we considered were things like service reduction which we really haven't done yet um and and leaving our police vacant our positions that have been vacant remain vacant and we also contemplated further Personnel reductions we have vacancies

1:28:07that were five more than last in the previous fiscal year and and we knew that the pension contributions and restructuring these contracts was going to be really important and I you know we listen to a lot of angst tonight about um you know salary and um compensation so I just think it's

1:28:28really great that you guys did this for us thank you any more comments over here yeah just echo my council members uh thanks to you and and how much it makes a difference for us to meet all of our budget requirements uh that you've stepped forward and taken some of these

1:28:49concessions uh and and actually reduced the amount of uh cost of the city over the three years thank you and I would like to add more of the same it um it's real even though we've said it more than once I think we can't say it too many times that it really does make a

1:29:08difference because this is actually I think I've heard at one point it was described as the worst year ever um even though the recession theoretically is already over it's not quite over here and um so we're still in a world of hurt and um the willingness of both unions to

1:29:30participate with us and trying to make a difference something that that I know I personally also feel very strongly about and appreciate and thank you for so thank you if I may mayor I do have a question I'm looking at the revised letter and trying to differentiate it from the

1:29:57letter that came in our packet and they both have the date June 20th and I'm wondering if one of them should have a different date since today is July 15th yes they should both be dated as of July 15th so both of the revised would be dated July 15th is that correct yes

1:30:18can I just add one thing and I also want to thank Scott and Karen for working on this thank you thank you thank you um let's see yes so yeah I'm ready for a motion I just wanted to Dot and I and cross the T there sorry um I would move a resolution a resolution of the city council of El

1:30:43Cerrito the city of El Cerrito modifying the memoranda of understanding between the city of El Cerrito and the United professional firefighters local 12 30 and adopting a side letter to modify the language on salaries and retirement and that side letter was revised side letter

1:30:59as of today's date July 15 2014. second okay there's been a motion by Lyman seconded by Friedman did you get all of the wording or should I we try to you're okay okay great um so ready to vote okay all in favor please say aye aye any opposition or abstentions motion carries unanimously

1:31:23thank you similarly the side letter for um the police employees Association is dated July 16 can we can we restate that to be Delight dated today or should we date that for tomorrow the first one was July 15th now the first one was June 30th and we changed that to June 20th we changed that to

1:31:44July 15th they should match okay thank you okay do we does that require an action here no it would just be clear to state that it's revised as of today so I can do that resolution of the city council of the city of El Cerrito modifying the memoranda understanding

1:31:59between the city of El Cerrito and the El Cerrito police employees Association and adopting a revised side letter to modify the language on salaries and retirement and please let the record show that the revised side letter between the city of El Cerrito and the

1:32:14police employees Association is modified of July 15 2014. second okay so there is a motion by Lineman seconded by Friedman and do you need that repeated you have that thank you okay all in favor please say aye aye aye any opposition any abstentions motion carries unanimously

1:32:38so with that we will move on um to the um uh 7B which is direction we have one more resolution sorry one I'm happy to move the first of the two a resolution of the city council of the city of El Cerrito modifying reporting and payment of employer paid member contributions for the United

1:33:00professional firefighters firefighters Association local 12 30 bargaining unit second okay ready to vote okay um all in that was motioned by benicini seconded by Bridges and do you have you have the motion down okay all in favor please say aye aye any opposition any

1:33:22abstentions motion carries unanimously and I'm happy to move the sister resolution a resolution of the city council the city of El ceruda modifying reporting and payment of employer paid member contributions for the El Cerrito police employees Association bargaining

1:33:37unit second any discussion okay all those let's see motion by benicity seconded by uh Bridges all in favor please say aye aye any opposition or abstentions none motion carries unanimously thank you okay so now we're ready to move on to 7B correct okay so this is Direction on the

1:34:03November 2014 sales tax ballot measure for the maintenance of city services is there a presentation yes thank you um I'm Scott Hannan your city manager and I'm here on behalf of myself and Sky Woodruff our City attorney I will take the lead on the presentation but I

1:34:24certainly welcome him to chime in if I miss anything or and obviously we're both uh we'll be here to answer any questions you have so what you have before you is this we are this the action requested before you is to adopt a resolution that would essentially approve an ordinance

1:34:43extending our exist existing measure known as measure r uh at a level of one percent sales tax rate additionally we would be asking for direction to submit to the El Cerrito voters the electorate a measure to extend um the existing funding measure at the same one percent rate

1:35:05um and then the third action would be requesting that the Contra Costa Board of Supervisors consent of the consolidation of this election with the Statewide general election to be held on November 4th so with that I want to give you go over some background as you know we've been

1:35:21talking about this a bit for most of this year um back to give us some context as you're aware the voters in El Cerrito have approved two similar sales tax measures the first has become known as measure a which is dedicated to our local streets and Roads and as you know

1:35:40we've moved from some of the what the ranked worst streets in the Bay Area to within the top top three and that happened all since 2008. in that measure not only provided funding to do what we've done but is ongoing maintenance effort additionally measure R was in terms of

1:36:00what we're talking about tonight was approved by the voters in 2010 it is currently an additional half cent uh general sales tax that goes to provide revenue for our core Services as you're aware from all the budget presentations our core services are more than two-thirds Public Safety

1:36:19particularly police and fire but it also goes to pay all of the other core services that everyone has become familiar with the measure art currently generates approximately 1.4 million dollars per year and is scheduled to expire in 2017.

1:36:37however as we've recently discussed in the passage of our fiscal year 15 and fiscal year 16 budget this city continues to struggle from the aftermath of the recession additionally and probably most notably we've talked a lot about the loss of our Redevelopment agency when this state

1:36:57elected to dissolve all Redevelopment agencies around the state excuse me that action essentially cost the city over a million dollars per year we've often also talked about the effects of certain store closures and the loss of sales tax revenue and additionally the assessment

1:37:14or reassessment of homes in El Cerrito which have resulted over time in less property tax additionally as we've talked multiple times this year and over the past years we are relying very heavily on vacancies and eliminated positions probably approximately 15 percent of our

1:37:34Workforce is either vacant or the positions have been eliminated from our head count of about five years ago and we want it as as you already heard from the last measure uh regarding the police and fire memorandums of understanding we have repeatedly asked our staff to come to the table and each

1:37:56year seek additional concessions in order to keep us whole that is not a long-term viable solution so with that um in February of 2014 the city engaged Godby research to conduct a telephone survey of our residents to determine their priorities and gauge support for

1:38:18not only a reauthorization but a reauthorization at the one cent rate on March 4th at the city council meeting you were presented the results of that survey where based on the ballot test which is almost identical to what you have before you today approximately 73

1:38:36percent of those responding supported the one cent tax rate measure that we're discussing tonight at that meeting the council unanimously directed staff to do what it took to come back essentially tonight and that's that's what we're here to do in April on the 22nd we had a budget

1:38:59priority setting where we started to outline the challenges we faced and what would be necessary to balance the budget and some of the budget trimming we've already done the concessions we've done and the impacts that the budget was having on our Reserves on June 9th I presented the budget for

1:39:15fiscal years 2015 and 16 to the council and we talked about the assumptions and most particularly we talked about our budget our general fund reserves going down to about 5.4 percent which is well below the desired 10 percent we also talked about the continued use

1:39:33of vacancies and the fact that that number has gone up again this year and we also pointed out that those vacancies were in police fire and Public Works which is affecting our ability to do maintenance in our Parks playgrounds open space and on the facilities that are used so

1:39:49much by our public uh in June on the 17th the city council adopted our biennial budget and in that budget we assumed no Revenue no additional Revenue associated with a passage of this measure however in the discussions the council's priority was to look at ways to increase Revenue

1:40:09rather than additional service reductions additionally as we've talked about in the past and the council lost authorized the mayor to make a formal request currently we are following what has become known as ab1324 currently there is a two percent cap on the ability for local governments to

1:40:33um to approve sales tax measures in El Cerrito the two percent is currently met by the two measures I already discussed uh Bart and the Contra Costa Transportation Authority so in order to enact this measure assuming it received voter support we would need the legislature to authorize

1:40:56us going beyond that cap assembly woman Nancy Skinner introduced ab1324 at our request that measure has passed out of committee in the Senate it's expected to be approved in the Senate largely along party lines according to the assembly women's staff they expect similar action on the

1:41:21assembly side and it's the expectation that it would go um to the governor for Signature in August unfortunately that's later than tonight to that end the City attorney has drafted language that's included in the ordinance that makes it very clear that even if the voters approve this

1:41:40measure it cannot be enacted until AP 1324 is also enacted so we wanted to make sure and also the the board of the City attorney has worked with the Board of Equalization as has the assembly women's staff to make sure that they are comfortable as they're the ones who are going to have

1:41:58to implement this sales tax so again without going through the whole staff report again and uh in detail I just want to again talk about that we're in this over-reliance on vacancies we've talked a lot about police but they're also as I mentioned in fire Public Works and City

1:42:19Hall that is having an effect on our customer service and and the workloads of the staff that remains I've already talked about the reserves being in about the half of the level that we want them minimally half the level we want them we probably would like them even higher

1:42:33than that and we've also talked about the desire to have more money to invest in our infrastructure such as our city facilities the senior center our clubhouses our play Fields our open space and that's becoming harder and harder as we've talked about the last few years the general fund is now

1:42:49contributing no money to those things particularly in public works as you recall in the budget presentation we showed a chart that the general fund contribution to the public works effort is essentially gone down by almost six hundred thousand dollars over the past

1:43:04few years um additionally a challenge that we're facing and we've talked about it in the police department is remaining competitive for salaries um and overall benefits and we're starting to see that on the miscellaneous side too as more cities are now hiring as they come out of

1:43:21recession faster than we have I would remind you that during this whole recession we we did not reduce our our staffing like other cities we did not lay anybody off and we sought um unfortunately concessions from our employees which we've gotten including tonight but we made a conscious effort

1:43:42to not do that unfortunately we just have not come out of uh our doldrum so to speak briefly an overview of the measure if extended it would be at the one cent rate and it would be for 12 years in the polling and in our research the measure had almost roughly two-thirds

1:44:06support at with no sunset provision at all however staff did not think um we should come back with no Sunset and we went with 12 years which was very much supported by by our research which is roughly nine years in addition to the three we have left on the current

1:44:26measure all funds generated by the measure would be used to maintain and hopefully increase our current level of services and the city council would have an opportunity to look at that when we do our budget setting and Appropriations next spring um it is our hope to backfill positions

1:44:44particularly in police particularly in public works and positions would be filled over time as the budget allowed and as uh they were prioritized we would still have independent audits of course like we do now for all of our funds the financial Advisory Board would

1:45:01review the receipts of the money as part of their annual budget process and this is consistent what's in the current measure and just to make the point once again this is local revenues that stay local they're not subject to any state takeaways so with that um I want to go through the next steps

1:45:21which you have before you is an ordinance which is exhibit a to the resolution which would be subject to voter approval and contains the details of the sales tax collection the proposed resolution would approve the ordinance as written and cause for the measure to

1:45:35be submitted to the voters of the city at an election to be Consolidated with the city council and Statewide election on November 4th the proposed resolution also directs the City attorney to prepare the impersonal analysis and authorize as a member of the city

1:45:50council presumably the mayor as last time to prepare an argument in favor of the measure I've already talked about the financial considerations it would be an additional 1.4 million dollars roughly in Revenue that would go to directly to our core services and maintaining those services and police

1:46:08fire recreation park maintenance play Fields open space and all the things we we constantly talk about here I would also point out that if the measure were not extended we would lose 1.4 million dollars in 2017 so you're talking about an almost three million dollar flip

1:46:26um oh the cost of the election is approximately thirty five thousand dollars we've included that in the adopted budget and as we mentioned in the budget presentation we also included money for public information effort associated with the measure should you go forward and

1:46:43um the City attorney has reviewed all of the documents and is comfortable and you can obviously speak for himself um so with that if you have any um questions we'd be happy to answer those for you I just add on a non-substantive note there is a revised resolution in front

1:47:00of you the only changes are to sections six seven and nine just to change the dates for the impartial analysis the primary argument and the rebuttal argument the impartial analysis and ballot argument deadlines will be August 4th they were previously July 28th and

1:47:18the rebuttal arguments we do on August 14th the intention there was to provide everybody with a little bit more time to prepare those documents while avoiding conflicts with the submission of other documents related to the November 4th election sorry that was changed from July 28 to

1:47:32August 4th that's correct and and August 7th to August 14th in section 9.

1:47:40okay are we ready for questions from the council uh councilman well I know that the city manager and I think assistant city manager both went to Sacramento to speak on behalf of ab1324 and I don't know if it was at that time or subsequently after that that other cities piggybacked on this

1:48:01assembly Bill and as it's moving through committee are we thinking pretty optimistically about this um I can well first to the first part of your comment um Contra Costa County was asked to join on the bill and they are currently on on the bill there was conversation about

1:48:19other counties and cities wanting to join when they saw it but I believe it was Assembly women Skinner's position that it it was her bill which was for her District um so it it uh it's just us in Contra Costa County it's our understanding that Contra Costa county is not going to go

1:48:38this November um which they were prepping for but the way the legislation is written it gives a 10 I believe a 10-year window to go okay um I can only go by what um the assembly staff says that this is largely a local Bill and it will largely go on party lines like most things go

1:49:03these days and we're anticipating that we know by the end of August sort of that's the Hope okay um and then uh the oversight committee uh just to reiterate um that wouldn't be a separately appointed group it would essentially be Fab is that right yes that's the plan

1:49:21similar to the current measure okay no Mark no okay no questions um are we ready then for public comment okay is there any public comment on items on this item yes we have five speaker slips okay the it's Alex Ella Ferris followed by Tom panis Alex all Affairs for the Contra Costa

1:49:57taxpayers Association um does this measure have a oversight committee I heard there was a okay um and as you know in 2013 Antioch uh passed a sales tax and it was sold as hiring more officers but that hasn't been the case and they still need more money um there's a matter going on uh you know

1:50:22I I picked up an article and it was dated July 31st 2012. and the title shows how pain you know how pensions um how write spiraling pension costs have crashed cities and there's a little quote and it's from the Bloomberg News and it's you know they compiled data

1:50:45from cow perks and you know unquote for more than a desert for a dozen cities facing the financial strands of rising pension costs and declining Revenue the data show how local governments struggle to support six figure lifetime benefits for sir for some retirees

1:51:07as they cut services within the city to serve as these pensions the issue we're finding in California is a Sparling pension cost it's forcing cities to cut services to cut to just to service these pensions um so my question I pose is is a pension tax to service the pensions

1:51:32and will will you hire more officers because of Sparling pension costs is what is driving this situation and that's why Mayor Chuck Reed of San Jose is going out for a ballot initiative or pension reform in 2016 and he's not stopping um because it's going to happen a lot

1:51:54more in stock than recently I don't know if you've been listening to the case the bankruptcy judge is now considering cutting pensions in the city of Stockton Stockton has over 92 retirees making over a hundred thousand dollars I don't know if you traveled to Stockton I've

1:52:11been to Stockton it's bad and you know this article outlines how several Chiefs police Chiefs retired from Stockton you know some making a pension over 200 000.

1:52:26um so in the long run it was really unsustainable for the city of Stockton so thank you thank you uh the next speaker Tom panis followed by Al Miller Abelson members of the council and City staff my name is Tom panis and I live at [address removed] in El Cerrito this evening you have before your

1:52:53recommendation for an extension of our current measure our sales tax but at a one percent rate while I'm not a big fan of taxes over the years I've gotten somewhat familiar with the way our city is run I don't see a way to further reduce our City's spending without endangering our very

1:53:08important Public Safety Recreation and environmental services that we've done as well as we have as a testament to the dedication and creativeness of our city manager the budget team and all the employees of El Cerrito despite cut back after cutback our city has continued to deliver services that

1:53:24we need in El Cerrito I urge you to approve the action before this before you this evening on measure R this measure our sales tax extension if I had a choice I'd make it sunset a little sooner regardless I'll stay for the record that I'm happy to do whatever I can to help pass this measure our

1:53:40extension if you approve it thank you for your time this evening thank you Hal Miller followed by hail Cronenberg good evening mayor Abelson council members staff my name is Al Miller I live at [address removed] here in El Cerrito I think like most people I would rather

1:54:06not raise our taxes but I think that that's not the only question that I need to consider there are other more important issues that we need to address for me am I comfortable with a city budget that continues to carry a general fund reserve a lesson almost five

1:54:26percent under the target level am I comfortable living in a city where about 15 percent of the authorized staff positions have either been eliminated or carried as vacant to balance the budget including positions in the police and the fire and other services that are

1:54:52provided to us they made the answer to both those questions is no I'm not happy at all I believe that a one-half percent increase in our sales tax is a small burden to bear to live in a safer more economically Sound Community the one-half percent increase has other

1:55:13advantages if various other Revenue sources recover sooner than expected the proceeds from this increase can be used to increase our reserves to a more desirable levels another benefit like the measure a tax we passed on the streets people from outside of El Cerrito help

1:55:37pay to redo our streets people from outside of El Cerrito come to shop here will help us re-staff our positions and improve our city like Mr panis I urge you to support the resolution in front of you and also like Mr panis if you do I will do whatever I can to help pass it in the

1:56:00city thank you next hail Cronenberg followed by Gabe Quinto good evening this is hail Cronenberg [address removed] in El Cerrito I'm a member of the financial Advisory Board speaking as a private citizen tonight I support the council's adoption of the proposed ordinance extending measure R I

1:56:27think the city has done an admirable job of cost cutting of leaving positions vacant leaving positions unfilled but really we've reached the limit of cost cutting there's there's a uh no way that you can cost cut and and maintain the present level of services that we have

1:56:45um to me this is a cost benefit analysis the cost of increasing the sales tax by half percent and maintaining it to me is very small we have experience with sales taxes we have several years of data I'm not aware of of any complaints by Merchants that this sales tax is driving

1:57:06customers away I'm not aware of complaints by the citizens that this is breaking their budget so the cost is really very small but the benefit is enormous it will allow the city to maintain the extraordinary level of services that we've all become accustomed to so so I'm urging the

1:57:22council to adopt the ordinance and and put this to the vote of the citizens thank you Gabe Quinto followed by Pamela Stuart Wagner good evening mayor council members and uh I live at [address removed] in El Cerrito and I strongly urge our city council our mayor to support this resolution and

1:57:57in my opinion this has we've had this uh way of putting Band-Aids on this broken system and uh and we can't do this any longer and I urge our council members to please consider uh supporting the measure and continuing this and putting this on the ballot it's so important I see

1:58:25we are used to this world-class police services and uh and they deserve all the equipment that they need new cars and and to maintain these cars and also to I know they're doing a great job with uh doing overtime and working longer hours our fire department is doing the

1:58:51same and uh but in order to maintain the services citizens residents here are expect and and they deserve that I urge our Council to uh support this resolution so we can put this on ballot in November 4th thank you thank you Pamela Stuart Wagner followed by Denise

1:59:19Sangster good evening to the city mayor the council I'm a little nervous my name is Pamela Stewart Wagner I live at [address removed] here in El Cerrito have been living in El Cerrito for over 30 years um I was a little concerned when I saw that there was this measure R for an

1:59:45extension I work every day like most people that come that live in the city of El Cerrito but I do know that there's a large contingent of retired individuals that live in the city on fixed incomes and I think having them being taxed on their telephone bill their cable bills

2:00:03this additional tax it's a little I think we're being a little over taxed plus we were promised by Jerry Brown last year a couple years ago that when we passed that other taxes there would be no new taxes and so I'm just concerned that every time there's a fix it's always to increase our taxes and

2:00:22again like I said there's a lot of seniors that live in my neighborhood and a lot of them really can't afford the additional half cent sales tax and people say it's only a penny here or there but I do know a lot of those people in my neighborhood can go over to

2:00:37Target in Richmond and buy the same thing at a lower tax rate or Buy in Berkeley because Berkeley has a lower tax rate because I think El Cerrito and Albany both have the highest tax rate in the immediate area so I am going to say unlike all the other people who spoke

2:00:53earlier I love my city I buy here when I can but I also know that I commute on for my job a lot in the north bay and I buy most of my stuff in the North Bay because when I'm buying for other people it's cheaper for me to buy it for them someplace else so even though it may seem like five cents here

2:01:18a dollar here or twenty dollars here it does it really does add up when you're living on a fixed income the other thing is I don't know what the city is doing right now to attract other businesses large businesses that can come into the City and bring some of that Revenue I know we lost a lot of

2:01:35money when Target left and went to Richmond and I would really ask that you look at some of the vacant buildings here and see what you can do to generate money from some other corporations maybe an internet company coming in because Oakland's getting influx I don't know I

2:01:52think there has to be more than one way with getting so many taxes like I said I look at my cell phone bill each month I look at my water bill it's like everywhere I turn around there's a taxi City elsewhere I supported you on the getting the roadways I really supported

2:02:08you on that because I know this the streets were really poor but you just can't always come back to the citizenry and ask for more taxes I'm just sorry thank you Denise Sangster good evening Denise Sangster um for those of you that don't know I'm the one that led the opposition to

2:02:33measure R and while I still believe I believe in the fundamentals of what we fought against I think it would be a mistake not to extend this which may be a surprise but I would say that would be based on three caveats and only three caveats number one is that the two top

2:02:48management positions in the city their compensation would be Frozen as long as this would be in effect number two the funds would be only used to hire head count not to pay for pensions and number three that the city finally gets serious about Economic Development the city is

2:03:03dying whether you see it or not the city is dying I actually think and I told this to Chief Moore in December I think the Council made a terrible mistake extending the city manager's contract not because of him but I think that you didn't compensate him correctly I would

2:03:18have given him a hundred percent bonus opportunity to get the economic development of this city going it's dying Berkeley labs is looking at expanding into Richmond there's going to be huge Economic Development there we're not going to benefit from that hopefully we will but we're not we don't

2:03:38even have a city seat at the table in those negotiations which is really sad so I'm in favor of this but with those three caveats without those three caveats I would absolutely lead a campaign to fight this again but I would like to support it and I think it's easy

2:03:55to support but Economic Development we're dying and it's it's really sad driving up and down the street and as the lady said before me I see all of my neighbors in other cities shopping it's cheaper unless you buy a car you can buy everything cheaper across the

2:04:12border and it shouldn't be that way so let's find a way to support it together and I think some agreement on how the money can be used and freezing top management salaries will make it palatable to most people in the city thank you thank you are there any more speakers I have no

2:04:31other requests okay are there is there anyone who wants to speak that didn't okay with that we'll close um public comment and bring it to the council are there any um for their comment questions or comments comment yeah yes thank you uh I'm not a big fan of sales tax because I consider

2:04:53them to be pretty regressive and to impact lower income and fixed income people as was pointed out by one of our speakers I would much prefer a split role reform of Proposition 13 to tax commercial property fairly uh I would prefer an oil Severance tax Statewide that won't necessarily impact

2:05:18El Cerrito and I believe in graduated income tax and I'm not advocating for a El Cerrito income tax I'm just talking about types of taxes that I consider more fair than a sales tax given all of that none of those are likely to happen anytime within the next five to ten years with

2:05:40the possible exception of the split roll reform of Prop 13 which a lot of people are working on so I I support this tax because of knowing how thin the margins are for our city and how low our reserves are and how hard our city staff works and I consider our city to be

2:06:03very efficient very lean in its operations and to operate with a lot of Integrity so I'm confident that with the assistance of the financial Advisory Board in an oversight capacity that bringing this to the voters to decide what level of Civility service they would like to see continue or expand is

2:06:30an extremely prudent way to go okay yeah I'm I'm supportive of this measure and and I do appreciate all the testimony that was provided tonight both for and and in opposition because it it this is a difficult decision it's it is a sales tax and and uh councilmember Friedman has pointed out

2:06:50that it there are potentially other ways that we can get Revenue but we some of those have been taken away from us the Redevelopment agency uh the dissolution of the Redevelopment agency had over a million dollar hit on our budget um and this is a way to potentially get

2:07:08some of that Revenue back and and uh I think we can make a commitment that we will do our best to try and get new businesses in town and that this money can go towards some of those efforts um but for me it's it's a continuation of local control uh the state has has

2:07:26done a lot of things to us in the last couple of years um in and this is just a continuation of low control the money that's uh earned here stays here and that's that that to me is a very important component of it and then the people that are elected here um along with the the will of the voters

2:07:46you come and tell us what you want spend money on that's what that's where this money goes is here uh for me it's the job vacancies the vacancies keep the city moving forward uh keep our services high and potentially attract businesses and and new residents and the low reserves we really have to

2:08:08do something to to bolster our reserves our reserves are very low and this tax can go towards increasing those reserves and those are the reasons why I'm supporting this and one last thing as I testified before for those that can think back and remember that that far

2:08:28um councilmember Jones and I both said that you know this is a tax it is a tax that we're imposing that if the economy changes if there's economic reasons for us to be able to terminate this we can so you're giving us the permission to extend it for 12 years but if the economy changes we don't have

2:08:49to to carry it that long and unfortunately when I said that three years ago four years ago we thought the economy would be better by now and it's not so for those reasons I would support this measure of this one thank you mayor and thank you everyone for staying I know you've all stayed

2:09:10more than two and a half hours to speak at this hearing and we take all of your comments very seriously and we take them to heart um I agree with so much of what's been said already a sales tax is not the first option I think for many of us when we think about how to raise revenues in

2:09:26the city when they're absolutely necessary however just given the the political realities of the types of revenues that we are able to write raise it is the one that's under consideration and one which is generally supported by many members of our community I too am

2:09:42extremely concerned with our low reserves I've been speaking about it since I got on the council and also the lack of money that we have in the general fund in order to maintain our buildings at this point we're not contributing much to to maintenance and our many of our extremely heavily

2:09:57services including our parks and and our recreational buildings have not received the attention that I know our staff members actually want them to receive um I I too am really concerned about the economic development progress of the city we currently haven't been able to fill our economic

2:10:13development manager position it's been um remain vacant in this budget period because we don't have the funds to fill it I do want to note that our economic development committee is extremely energetic and enthusiastic and we've had many new members who've joined the

2:10:29committee that meets this Thursday night I'll give them a little plug and they're all speaking very honestly about where they what makes what they like about El Cerrito and what they like about other places and what would and what changes the city could potentially consider

2:10:45making their low-cost changes and low-cost events that could bring some excitement and activity to some areas of the city that would hopefully encourage others in the area to maybe you know not only go to different parts of other cities but come to come to our city and

2:11:00keep some of their dollars local so I do have a lot of Hope for the direction that committee is going in and if we are able to pass a measure like this that we will be able to hire a very a very able economic development manager to help us leverage and take advantage of some of

2:11:16the opportunity communities that are coming up along the I-80 Corridor in terms of Economic Development with that I'm happy to support the measure and to look forward to a bright next budget season where we are looking at some of where we're looking at turning the

2:11:31corner on the erosion of some of our service levels to this point important that this is locally raised money that's going to stay local there will be no sacramental grab for this money and not only do we lose Redevelopment but for me from when I was on Council from 2004 to 2008 we had a

2:11:56huge hit in our property tax by what has been done by our County Assessor and we're starting to see a little rebound on that but we've also had a double whammy with a loss of all the property tax in this city in addition to that you know what happens we whether I should say this or not I'm not

2:12:16sure but one of the problems we have with um so many of our vacant businesses is that we have a lot of absentee landlords and and we we know that we've known that for many years and you know we really try to Spur any kind of economic development that we can get but we we

2:12:35really haven't been successful and it is true that we don't have a Personnel in that position right now so we're not so management heavy that way but um nonetheless you know we have done some little things with Off the Grid and some of the other small businesses that

2:12:50have come to town and you know we're dealing with vacancies on the corner of Moser and no names will be mentioned in San Pablo that won't let us put anything in that building we made an attempt and had met with uh Whole Foods and different big companies that we know are looking for places in

2:13:09some of our neighboring cities and haven't been able to get them so we're really tuned in that we need to to do more and get more but we we have a fixed um expenses right now we have no other way of raising revenue and I too support this ordinance okay uh the comment I agree with what's

2:13:29been said already but I wanted to add a couple of things one is that if I'm remembering correctly and I'm not sure the effective date our management staff has actually taken as a paid decrease correct voluntary yeah in the last three years though all the management staff

2:13:49including myself have reduced um their their salaries by eight percent to contribute it to their uh pension costs and um and Public Safety has also uh in in the major in the uh item that was just passed um agreed to um start paying more of the pers cost which is very significant

2:14:16um and um so we we are doing things on on that front that I think are worth pointing out at this particular point in time um I especially I am tuned into the um concerns about the um property owners in our commercial area who basically don't care whether or not

2:14:38the property is used or not and that's a real waste to all of us and it you know it's one of the problems that we're having with generating sales tax revenue is when somebody doesn't care what you know and we could point to a project after project that could have been done

2:14:56if only the landowner would allow it and they're not so this is a a big problem for us right now and I think one of the things we'll probably be doing is working on that but I do want to mention um one thing that we are doing right now we're doing a number of planning

2:15:17processes that I think will help to improve our image and I think improving our image is part of that Economic Development Improvement so we are in fact doing all of these things right now and I would also hope the economy will be getting better it really should it's

2:15:40just that we've had some extra things happen to us like the issue of sales tax with um Home Depot um so that I mean these are the state took money from us to the tune of how much recent I mean the last time Redevelopment um was it in the report I mean the loss of the Redevelopment agency is a little

2:16:07more than a million dollars a year right that's a lot for us City budget but we've also lost a related specifically to Economic Development we lost all of the tax increment that could be used for projects along San Pablo Avenue that we no longer have right so there's been a

2:16:22number it's kind of been hit after hit after hit that has all come at a time when the economy was bad and uh so we've been I think uh really fortunate to have staff members who have taken pay cuts when they don't have to which is what our Public Safety just did tonight and

2:16:46um so the other thing I'd like to point out that I'm not sure if was mentioned now we did polling on this and according to the polling which is supposed to be statistically significant this is the method that people would want to use for attacks and they are willing to pay it

2:17:08um so I think that this has to be um part of the picture we have to offer it to our voters because they the alternative will be well that we will begin cutting more services that they have come to know and expect um and um so I think it's a really important thing to do to work together

2:17:30to pass this measure and with that are we do we have emotion sure I'll move a resolution of the city council of the city of El Cerrito calling and giving notice of the holding of the general municipal election on November 4th 2014. approving an ordinance enacting a one cent sales tax

2:17:50for 12 years for the maintenance of city services ordering the submittal of the ordinance to the voters at the election and requesting that the Contra Costa County Board of Supervisors consent to the consolidation of this election with the Statewide general election to be

2:18:05held on the same date and direct the Registrar of Voters to conduct the election and let it be shown that we've made revisions to dates in section 6 and 7 from July 28th to August 4th and in section 9 from August 7th to August 14th second is it was that gin okay so there's a

2:18:29motion by council member Lineman seconded by council member Bridges um any further discussion questions all in favor please say aye aye uh any opposition any abstention motion carries unanimously is there a further action on this or that's it that's it that's it okay thank you

2:18:51um with that we'll move on to the next item on our agenda which is council local and Regional liaison assignment reports are there any I have two um I met with HRC this past month and they had a couple things on their agenda one of the things they're working on is

2:19:10an update of the brochure that they um had been using for many years which probably needs some updating and they also had a interesting presentation and a guest speaker of um School Board president Ramsey who gave a discussion about the changing the name of Portola Junior High to karamatsu they

2:19:31subsequently did vote on that the school board did and as you probably know was voted on to change the name there was no motion made from the HRC regarding that however there was also an eqc meeting they had a really interesting presentation from um the pulmonary

2:19:53pollinator sorry pesticide Action Network which is called pan and it was a presentation about um colony collapse but it was really talking a little bit more directly about pesticide use in neonex and how it's toxic to bees it was a really interesting presentation uh be

2:20:16honeybee Haven is one of the websites they referenced and talked a lot about what you can do locally just in your own yard to support bees so it was very interesting and it was mostly about honeybees they also on the rest of their committee reviewed CCA that it was

2:20:33coming here to council which you subsequently heard from them tonight and they looked at the plastic bag and foam container bands and how that's coming forward talked about Hillside natural fundraising for the open space thank you I do I get to report that the solid

2:20:57waste uh the regional Solid Waste Authority is back to having unanimous votes um we weren't always unanimous for the last couple of months but we did uh successfully have about four or five unanimous votes with regards to the future of the jpa in September we will

2:21:19be meeting with our alternates to discuss different ways that the rates could be set for the The Authority right now it's based on uh weight weight of ton weight of waste and there are potentially other ways for the authority to to generate their revenue and in

2:21:40October we'll be having a workshop on how the recycling recycling Revenue Reserve fund I'm not naming it correctly um there they do have a reserve fund that has grown over time as a result of the sale of recyclables they don't sell our recyclables um so so we've not necessarily

2:22:05contributed directly to this fund however there has been some sales of recyclables that are not from the other six jurisdictions that are in the in the um they are five jurisdictions that are in the in the authority uh there has been a significant sale of of recyclables at the structure that our

2:22:28ratepayers paid to build that have gone towards this 3.8 million dollar Reserve fund and in October we will be taking a workshop on different ways that that recycling fund could be used to benefit the members of The Authority the rate payers of the authority which is

2:22:49um a number of uh communities or potentially directing that Revenue back to cities for um for their use so that's in October we postponed um initiating a waste characterization study and we will be discussing the scope of that waste characterization study either in October itself or in a

2:23:16November meeting so um that is all good news to us because it it is it does mean that the authority is moving forward in a positive direction towards resolving it some of its differences and at some point I will be bringing some of that information back to you um okay

2:23:42um excuse me with that we are then adjourned to the special concurrent city council public financing Authority and employee pensions board meeting on August 19th at seven o'clock in this room thank you all for coming [Applause]