City Council Meeting April 21, 2015

0:00:02okay all right we're now going to convene the regular city council meeting and please note that all members are present even if all members are not seated at the diocese uh first up is the pledge of allegiance or a moment of silence council member bridges please lead us

0:00:22i pledge one allegiance under god indivisible with liberty and justice for all uh council staff communications uh i have one i have one um i just wanted to remind the public and the council and staff that um the contra costa civic theater is going to have its 50th 55th anniversary on um

0:00:56next saturday not this coming but next saturday may 2nd from 7 to 10.

0:01:02um the address is at 951 pomona and it is they're going to have extraordinary this is their word hors d'oeuvres hosted wine and beer and a special no host signature cocktail called the cctini and the cost is 75 and that will be on may 2nd from 7 to 10.

0:01:29thank you councilmember abelson yes i would just like to uh acknowledge all the people who came and volunteered on for earth day on saturday in el cerrito we had a large crowd and we had a large number of work sites and i think that a lot of different projects got accomplished

0:01:52the featured project this year was cleaning up cigarette butts off san pablo avenue uh the entire length and uh council member gabe quinto was one of the uh site coordinators and um how many did your team get it was uh about 5400. 5400.

0:02:18and if you noticed him walking with a limp that's why he was bending over picking up all those cigarette butts well thank you very much to you and all those on your team thank you and we can see that we need it because they're a lot out there and because it is a toxic substance we use special

0:02:35gloves to do that and that don't allow the materials to get through the barrier of the gloves so again thank you all and this year we had a new meal to offer we had baked potatoes they were the first catering gig of the annex connected to el cerrito natural grocery

0:03:02and anyway they appeared to be something that everyone likes because they ate them all up thank you and special thanks to council member abelson for her usual wonderful job coordinating and keeping it all working and thanks so much for your ongoing total commitment and every every

0:03:26member of the council participated thank you yep uh other announcements um at the same day as earth day the naacp el cerrito chapter had a forum on uh race relations and trust in the community over at saint peter's cme just a little ways away and i attended as well as chief moore is she here

0:03:50no she did a terrific job speaking about her approach and the city's approach to policing also the deputy chief of richmond was there and it was pretty well attended about 40 people in a really lively discussion and as usual the chief did us proud so that was a really nice event

0:04:12okay moving on oral communications from the public thank you mayor uh the first speaker is al miller followed by mala malabashim good evening mayor friedman council members and staff i'm here to follow up on janet's comments and give a thank you to the city staff especially bill

0:04:35driscoll our maintenance services superintendent who make sure that the group at the library the rotary club the else real library foundation and the library itself had all of the mulch we needed and wheelbarrows we needed and everything we had also had a group of uh youngsters

0:04:59maybe 11 or so of them i'm embarrassed that i didn't learn the correct club name but their leader described it as a people-to-people travel group and they were there practicing community service because they're headed to europe for two and a half week trip through england scotland

0:05:19ireland wales and france in which they're going to meet their counterparts in communities in those countries and learn their culture and perform community service projects so that added a rather a nice touch to it especially the strong the three strong teenage boys

0:05:37that did a lot of the wheel barrowing and concrete hauling also i hope to work with city staff to make the library a regular recurring site for future earth days a quick summary on the emails that have been buzzing through the local naacp branch as a result of the forum they

0:05:58held saturday they also were impressed with chief moore's handling of the questions that were answered and they felt that they're very proud of the fact that they had such a forum and it was well intended and questions that have been going around a long time were

0:06:17addressed and information provided so thank you thanks thank you followed by baker leon lyon hi my name is mala malabashin and i've been a resident of el cerrito for the past seven years and i currently rent but i've also been a homeowner in the past too and i realize this is not on the agenda

0:06:45but i'm here to have a talk about rental regulations put into place in el cerrito and while this may not be or maybe an unpopular topic there are people already paying top dollar that are being forced out of their current homes and apartments i think it's time that el cerrito move

0:07:06in the right direction that would be the best for all i've had discussions with two young couples in the past four months who live in apartments in el cerrito one couple had their rent raised four hundred dollars in one month and another eight hundred dollars in one month

0:07:24and that was with a 30-day notice and i asked you could any of you handle such an additional payment without having to take some kind of drastic measure i think it's over the top and it forces people to move farther away from where they work causing more congestion on our

0:07:41freeways and also an unnecessary upheaval of them having to find a new home i think it's time that we come up with some fair regulations regarding rents and eviction that can protect both parties i would like to see a committee form to propose new regulations and i

0:08:00would volunteer to be on such a committee with others who rent or own property if you are a property owner renting out a multi-unit building or just a single family home you're earning money in doing business in the city of el cerrito and just like any other business there

0:08:18are laws regulating your actions i think this is especially especially important because where you live affects you on a daily basis i have to say that i'm surprised and somewhat ashamed that there are no rules in place now it's basically a free-for-all for one side only and

0:08:36that's the property owner where there should be a balanced regulation i personally do not stand on one side of the fence or the other i understand both sides of the issue and as the city continues to build multi-unit residences i think it's also time that the council

0:08:55steps up and puts some regulation into place as the other cities do that surround us we can design our own policy that allows tenants some protection and stability and one that also allows periodic market adjustments for the property owner it can be a win-win situation i'd be

0:09:15glad to share my ideas with anyone who wants to take this up and do what would be best for el cerrito residents thank you for allowing me to speak thank you for your comments baker lyon followed by cordell hinder hindler good evening mayor council members staff

0:09:38my name is baker lyon and i'm here on behalf of resources for community development rcd and which is a berkeley-based non-profit housing developer and also the east bay housing organizations ebho a 400 member organization working to preserve and create affordable housing through advocacy

0:09:57education and coalition building firstly thank you very much for your proclamation for affordable housing week we very much appreciate your commitment to this issue skyrocketing rents as we've heard around the bay area are certainly first and foremost on many people's minds

0:10:16safe stable and affordable housing is a fundamental need for families for individuals and also for employers and cities to maintain their workforce and prevent displacement as you have recognized may 8th through 17th is affordable housing week here in the east bay

0:10:35and this year's week includes 21 events in eight cities it will include tours grand openings and various informative panels i hope to see you at some of these events particularly our kickoff event on may 8th where we will display the el cerrito city proclamation for affordable housing

0:10:58week but beyond this proclamation as the project manager for ohlone gardens the rcd affordable housing 57 unit family apartment building which is currently in construction on portola drive in your fair city i want to thank you i'm very grateful to the city for your

0:11:19financial commitment which made this building possible and in particular i am very grateful to your staff for their ongoing help and their expertise which makes my job easier and certainly helps us realize the vision of developing affordable housing in your city

0:11:36so on behalf of rcd ebjo and the 57 families who will soon live in affordable dwellings in your city thank you very much thank you cordell hindler it's been it's been so long so honorable mayor council members i am cordell handler i'm a member of the park plaza neighborhood

0:11:59council i came before in regards on about the police i still have some concerns with that because um i have talked with um with some of my other neighbors from the laura park area and they were they have concern they were their concerns were like why is el cerrito pd on on doing on our streets um

0:12:22we had that question look on our face we were like this is not this is not helpful i mean they have been coming to our on our c on our streets for the last three months and it's been like it's been an ongoing struggle so so think i mean this is i don't feel safe um

0:12:40coming down on my street uh every time i go down this way i see el cerrito pd uh coming down on our streets and i say it's unacceptable i mean neighbors have complaining to me that uh that the police are always um coming down on certain streets and i was like that's not that's not acceptable so

0:12:59and i think i sent uh you uh mayor freeman two emails um about a month ago regarding this uh the matter but i didn't get no reply so so now i'm here to to discuss this matter so so i am so as a as a as a mayor and the council i'm asking you come see what our what what our neighbor

0:13:18our neighborhood council um what our our concerns are regarding uh the police coming down on our streets so thank you so much for your time thank you i'd be glad to come to a meeting of your neighborhood association and i'll i'll give you my personal email before you leave

0:13:38thank you for your comments we have no other speaker slips okay great next up is the consent calendar we're going to pull item 5b so we can present the proclamation on affordable housing in person since mr line was kind enough to come here tonight so i'll entertain a

0:13:56motion for 5 a c d e f g h that's it also move go ahead a second been moved and seconded all in favor signify by saying aye aye motion carries unanimously uh item 5b is the proclamation which was referred to earlier proclaiming may 8th through the 17th as affordable housing week in el cerrito

0:14:23confirms the city's commitment to work to support affordable housing at the local regional and state level and encourage residents of el cerrito to participate in affordable housing week activities to raise awareness about the importance of affordable housing for

0:14:38families and communities is there a motion nice i'll move second moved in second and all in favor signify by saying aye aye motion passes unanimously thank you so much yeah sure all right we're going to move on to item six which is a public hearing on the housing element update adoption

0:15:33i now announce the public hearing and we will have a staff presentation from hildy myeol how do you pronounce that mile not like john male the blues musician oh yeah he does thank you you're right i'll accept it in whatever form good evening mayor friedman and council

0:15:56members i'm hildy mile your housing program manager and i'm here to present the housing element in its final draft form to you for your consideration for adoption this evening so you last saw the draft on december 16th and since that time staff has incorporated the changes that

0:16:18you had directed staff to make including those of the planning commission and we then submitted it to state hcd housing and community development for their review which is part of the process in getting a certified housing element um so we submitted that on december 24th

0:16:40they turned it around fairly quickly and were quite complimentary of the programs and policies and progress the city has been making so they did not have that many comments they did offer some comments that resulted in some additions and modifications to the housing element which i hope you find

0:17:02favorable i think it makes the document stronger they are in the staff report but i'll review them very briefly which is to add a new program h14 to evaluate displacement and to work join in the regional conversation about what strategies might the city and working

0:17:24with other entities in the region might adopt to help prevent displacement of residents the second program was a modification to our existing program h15 which is the monitoring of assisted units we added some more detail about what exactly is the city's role in that and

0:17:46what assistance can be offered to tenants who may be in at-risk housing there's a modification to program 2.6 which is to assist in affordable housing development just to specify that we would look at that annually and look at whether there are any funding opportunities annually

0:18:08which we staff has been doing but it's a commitment to continue to do that and then finally adding a new program 2.11 which also reflects something that staff currently does but sort of memorializes it which is planning for infrastructure to support development as

0:18:27part of the specific implementation of our san pablo avenue specific plan so that's really about working with our our other public agencies like steej and other agencies to make sure that we're planning adequately for for growth that we're hoping to see um so these changes were reviewed by a

0:18:47planning commission and they passed a resolution recommending adoption and certification of the secret document which is a negative declaration and i hope that you know that this is a document that's useful to the city in the coming years over the next eight year cycle and i'm happy to

0:19:10answer any questions council may have thank you thank you very much any questions at this time um i just have a couple questions um the first one is regarding the the implement um well the addition of h14 um that they recommended regarding the studies of the regional housing and

0:19:30displacement we know hindi that you're leaving and going to a place that has a lot more displacement issues than el cerrito but um what do you think how do you how do you envision that this this is gonna do you do you have any inside information about how how you envision how this is going

0:19:48to work so at this point so i'll just um add a few details the program that we're adding proposing to add to the housing element is really a commitment to study it so there's we don't know yet what the implementation looks like and we're not committing to a particular strategy in the housing

0:20:10element if you adopt it um but the regional conversation um it's a challenging problem and there isn't um there isn't a clear set of solutions at this point so there is um mtc uh working with the state funded a grant for the center for community innovation to look at this issue particular to our

0:20:40nine county region that report should be coming out sometime this summer and everyone sort of looking at that to say what's effective and you know this is a this is a complicated economic issue where [Music] what's the right set of checks and balances you want to encourage

0:21:01development because you want housing growth but you don't want housing growth that displaces huge amounts of your population and we all know that it's we already have a jobs housing mismatch in terms of people commuting long distances and that's worse it gets harder the less money you make

0:21:17in your household and you don't want people having to commute from tracy to work at your restaurants so everyone sort of agrees with the problem but not the solution so um and there's also questions about who do you if you adopt something to prevent displacement who are you placing that

0:21:35cost on to is it the developer is it the city because we we all know that we've lost some of the resources we had to create affordable housing or or to create rental assistance programs so who who bears that cost in a way that's that is equitable and and gets doesn't

0:21:57encourages the continuation of housing growth which is sort of what we we need on a large scale to help deal with this so i don't have a simple answer um it's it's a stay tuned this is a big thorny problem and it's not there's a recognition that it's not going to be solved city by city

0:22:15it's at a regional level it's at a state level um and i i hope that the city stays tuned into the conversation and that we can be adopters of whatever policies um make sense and are appropriate but it there's a sense that the scale it's a bigger problem yeah and i think just as to with the

0:22:34speakers that we had in december and then again tonight what happens in san francisco definitely has trickled down into the east bay and and i think that's part of what the whole issue is and so it's good that a regional body like mtc is actually looking at this because it's so much bigger and

0:22:50wider than just san francisco or el cerrito and then regarding the eviction for good cause i would i think maybe we will have an ordinance that'll come to us probably over the next year or two that sort of addresses that issue perhaps yes melanie's agreeing with that okay

0:23:12um and then lastly um regarding the 58 at-risk units that are at royale and del norte um there'll be some discussion that'll come forward in the next couple years about what will happen with those 58 affordable units i would suggest that so there are many actors keeping an eye on this

0:23:35i think that what what would be most workable i think for the city is to say in a year's time or so begin a conversation with the property owners and the other public investors in the project that we all have the same goals in terms of preserving affordability you know affordability restrictions

0:23:59don't go on in perpetuity and they aren't required to extend them it usually means that you're re-capitalizing you're refinancing you're adding funds to extend that and it usually means that the project is old enough that it needs some capital investment and so

0:24:15there are a lot of you know we're fortunate in the bay area to have a lot of you know brain trust in terms of working with community development financial institutions that can be partners and working with our nonprofit development sector so i think it's a conversation that staff

0:24:32needs to start having and bringing those folks in and county could be a player in that also the county yes they they are investors in both of those projects or um not yes they are in both of those projects yes and with el cerrito royale um the city is part of the land partnership

0:24:54that holds the underlying land so we do have more leverage there yes okay thank you that's all i had councilmember abelson i have a related question i think uh when i was reading the materials that were prepared thank you very much for all of the work that was done and

0:25:15it's amazing to me i had help thank you to those people too and any anyway i noticed the reference to uh hazel shirley manor that you just referred to now and i know separately that they did a lot of work over there in making alcohol upgrades i'm sure it was to bring things up that

0:25:40needed to be brought up as you were just mentioning so how do they how does that work when they um are there funding sources available to finance those improvements that are connected to affordability so um hazel shirley which is not one of the at-risk projects fortunately um

0:26:06but it was right it it hasn't it's not in this cycle um they re they did they had a they have a pro they have a um contract with hud for rental subsidies and they renewed that and they're not considered at risk which is which is good currently but there's a reference to that project and

0:26:26that it had been i'm just wondering what the process is generically right now generically it's um the property owner has choices to make about what their business plan is and you know depending on if they're mission based or not whether they want to renew and extend so

0:26:47they can choose a path where they want to reinvest and access public subsidies which have grown more scarce but they do exist i mean baker knows more about this than i do but actually for idaho apartments which was just rcd just took over ownership interest from rubicon and they are

0:27:09seeking state funds mhp funds to do some improvements there and as part of sort of the acquisition and refinancing now they had a fortunate um they had a they had a mission-based seller and they're a mission-based buyer so no one was looking to get cash out of the deal so it depends a lot on the

0:27:26motivations of the owners and we used to be able to come to the table with cash to preserve affordability the city no longer really has those resources in terms of the housing set-aside fund but there are now funds i was just talking with someone from the enterprise

0:27:44community foundation last week who was one of our local community development finance institutions we were talking about the possibility of using cap and trade funds to perhaps acquire and rehabilitate units or what's called mtc's toa fund the transit oriented affordable housing

0:28:06fund those aren't um you know they're limited funds but you you have to you can't do it alone as a city you have to find the right purchaser and work with the existing owner and it so it and and the other public agencies involved thank you i hope that makes yeah you did

0:28:26it thank you on uh going back to the i think it's housing element uh 1-6 which is the eviction for cause um i i know you you said that there was an ordinance coming forward in uh one or two years the speaker that was here before and some other people that i've talked to

0:28:50about this item are very interested in in the process of forming that ordinance so i'm just curious if you or someone else has an idea of the steps that we would take to involve input um as was offered this evening and has been offered by other people that i know

0:29:08so i'm just curious what what processes out there or what thoughts there are or if there's any thoughts put put together to have i had a chance to have thoughts um melanie has she she got up i think she was gonna dance you know delay it too i think it would be um

0:29:27you know obviously you want to engage landlords and tenants and i think we've um compared to some other communities we have not historically had an organized tenant community i think that may be changing because as our rents go up i am hearing from more and more people

0:29:44they aren't necessarily starting to organize but they are concerned and aware and wondering what the city could do so i think it's a pretty robust community outreach process both you know with property owners and renters um and there are a number of um [Music] of nonprofit organizations out there

0:30:06that have been working on this issue they've been part of the plan bay area conversation around equity and you know they they will be engaged in this conversation whether you want them to or not so i think it's you know good to to also engage them and let them know what

0:30:25you're doing um and you know just cause without rent control is um it's a way to give tenants more stability it's it's you know it every it won't solve all issues but it is something to to help stabilize folks who really may not feel comfortable raising issues with

0:30:51with their landlords and we have a lot of [Music] landlords who don't hold large portfolios who hold small portfolios and they're not necessarily bad actors but they may that's not their full-time job and sometimes it's just a process of education let me add a little on this because i've

0:31:12done some research i appreciate the previous speaker bringing it up reaction to my comments i made when we talked about this the last time i had a meeting with the rental housing association also who whenever they hear the word rent control they scour the airwaves to have a rapid

0:31:34response i think is how i would put it it's a very complex issue but it's one that is going to be difficult to solve just within el cerrito i think as you referenced earlier and council member bridges these are regional challenges and ones that are going to be most

0:31:52effectively addressed on a regional basis and right now i think only in east bay berkeley fremont and oakland have rent control and maybe alameda also has some form of rent control um so our neighboring towns do not have it yet and due to the costa hawkins bill that was

0:32:18passed about 20 something years ago rent control does not apply to any units built after 1995 so you're concerned about new units being under some kind of regulation is is kind of a move point at this point however the state legislature there are legislators who are seeking to amend

0:32:39casa hawkins that may or may not be an uphill battle but currently speaking communities have their hands tied to a large extent another provision of the costa hawkins bill was there is no vacancy control so when a unit becomes vacant the landlord can raise the rent to whatever the

0:33:00market will bear which is also difficult in terms of preserving the mix of social and economic mix of residents in our town so there's a lot of complex issues and i would hope that we can work with our neighboring communities and maybe supervisor joya who's got a task

0:33:21force addressing some related but different issues might want to take this on because especially with this being your last day which i was going to reference a little later it's it's kind of difficult for city staff to put the time and energy into this issue that it requires but i'm glad

0:33:40that council member lyman brought this up and i think it fits right in context with the eviction for good cause ordinance thank you i and i along in that vein i would share and maybe you're aware of it but for example in san mateo county they they the jurisdictions there got

0:33:58together jointly to do their housing elements 21 elements they're also starting to work on displacement and rent control or what what are those policies look look like an acknowledgement that this isn't strictly doesn't stop at the city boundaries so and that's also a way to stretch scarce

0:34:12resources so yeah thank you other questions that was the main of mine okay great thanks for bringing that up all right we will now open the public hearing and call for speakers i have no speaker slips hi i'm nick carzio i live at [address removed] i had a couple of helpful tips about the

0:34:45housing element that you might want to consider amending before you pass it the first has to do with the theater over uh the theater overlay block the housing element refers back to a concept called the theater overlay overlay block which they say is related to the san pablo avenue specific

0:35:03plan however that's been removed from the san pablo avenue pacific plan and replaced with the theater overlay district which is eight times as large and so not only would it lack the force of a definition for that area which will have different rules like for instance

0:35:20not allowing a multi-family residence on the first floor but there's also a significant difference between applying that to a theater overlay block into the district because part of the district is it fronts kearney which i don't really see any purpose in prohibiting multi-family units from

0:35:41being on the first floor on kearney street considering that's a residential street so i think that that could use some adjustment and i think that it was just an oversight because the theater overlay block was changed at the last minute to the theater overlay district and maybe

0:35:55maybe we just an oversight the second thing is that on on page 73 there's a listing of five parcel numbers that are claimed to be vacant and the first of which 503 233 is someone's home and they live there so that's certainly not vacant and it shouldn't be looked at by the city as a

0:36:19potential site for bulldozing and rebuilding and if it is we should at least be honest and let everybody know that it's not vacant but rather a person lives there or people live there and that's all i have for you thank you thank you very much i seen no more speakers

0:36:36we'll now close the public hearing and uh you need a motion for that yeah i move that we close the public hearing second moved in second and all in favor signify by saying aye aye motion cares unanimously the public hearing is now closed uh now we're open for comments and or motions from

0:36:58city council the comments that were received by the public do you know do call into question at least the need for a change i don't know if the if there's a need for a change from block to district or district to block or uh changing that to a um to a more defined

0:37:20area maybe not using theater district or theater block but using a set of addresses along san pablo avenue um it's the reference is meant to be consistent with adopted specific plan so i can make a technical change to make clear that it's consistent with that definition

0:37:41but it would not involve amending what is adopted in this specific plan no i was wondering if we need to change something in the report tonight right since it sounds like it's um the housing element prohibits something that the specific plan allows um no the specific the housing element is

0:38:04consistent with the general plan and the specific plan so that's what uh prevails this is just meant to summarize what those documents in that reference say so if if i have incorrectly referenced the specific plan that can be a technical change okay so that can be

0:38:25that can be addressed after we approve it this evening okay thank you well i guess the other comment is what about this property that is listed as a vacuum parcel do we do we know i don't know what that parcel is does anybody know anything about that 3033 yeah what page was that reference

0:38:44on 75 73 i'm sorry all right thank you i don't know i would need to double check what's on those parcels the overall point of that assessment is to demonstrate that there is adequate sites to accommodate emergency shelters or homeless shelters i believe that the conclusion of that

0:39:13analysis probably would not change but i can have someone double check those parcels may i recommend a change to the title of the table to match the actual text in the sentence that precedes it and we just say existing and future vacant parcels because that is what the sentence says

0:39:33right before that okay so i would recommend that change to address that comment great other comments questions i have one on page 120 the plan references partnerships for energy and water efficiency and maybe this was written before we joined marin clean energy but

0:40:06i think that just adding that would be helpful since that's such an important opportunity for our efforts any other thoughts are we ready for our motion a move to adopt a resolution making findings and approving the initial study negative declaration preparation for the 2015-2023

0:40:38housing element update second moved and seconded all in favor signify by saying aye aye motion carries unanimously i'll move a resolution of the city council of the city of el cerrito adopting the 2015-2020 housing element update and amending the 1999 general plan accordingly and uh

0:40:58incorporating those two small changes or three small changes that we discussed yes and incorporating the three small changes we discussed that's technical language right yes okay it's been moved in second did it all in favor signify by saying aye aye motion carries unanimously

0:41:17so be step up hilly please i've got my words yeah um this is a fantastic piece of work and it's reflective of the work that you've done for the city ever since you came here how long ago was that seven years not that you were counting right um anybody who hasn't read this plan you

0:41:39will understand a lot more about our community if you read it the research that went into setting the context for the housing element and the way it's organized is really one of the best ways to learn what our community is like and how it's changed over the last

0:41:57decades so a very comprehensive piece of work and we just really appreciate the seven years and odd that you've contributed to making our city a better place to live and we wish you nothing but success as you move on and thank you for sharing your last day working here with all of us

0:42:18thank you very much and it's been a joy to work with such a civil counsel all the permutations of the councils that i've worked with here have have been really lovely and i think we've as a staff have all pulled in the same direction and i i really appreciate that

0:42:32and i i'm sure i will miss that so thank you great anybody else you said you yeah i do hildy uh it's been a real pleasure working with you um and as mr lyon testified earlier uh your professionalism has been much appreciated both in the products that you've developed but also the

0:42:51counsel you've given us over the years on on many topics and you'll be sorely missed best wishes on your new venture thank you okay um i just wanted to say hildy you've helped me so much she told me she taught me toe mu tom mu density bonus incentives cdbg hopwa rhna and

0:43:14another one tonight toa is just like amazing she can do these inside out backwards forward acronyms acronyms i love them you've taught us so much as a council and you've been such a good good staff member for us and maybe it was a little bit too good because somebody got you and they're

0:43:30going to be bigger and you were going to have such an enormous job over there so much bigger than little el cerrito so best of luck not the size it's the quality thank you thank you very much and well i must say uh the one uh nice thing about uh losing you is that when i looked at the quality of

0:43:52the work that you did in preparing this and i realized that you had just done it for us so it was at least for a little while done and that because you're going somewhere else you can shine that effort on that city and the world will be a better place so i'd like to

0:44:10thank you for that thank you i have a lot to live up to there and i just have to acknowledge that this document is really um and jennifer carmen worked very hard on this for the last that she really put together the document for the last cycle and i really built on that and i had a

0:44:30consultant chelsea at mintera harnish who was lovely and did a lot of the data so i just want to acknowledge those folks as well who had a very important hand in this thank you thank you very much this is we this is what we call going out on top right thank you

0:44:52okay we now move on to council local and regional liaison assignment reports none one wait i just wanted to reiterate in case i haven't mentioned it enough already but the contra costa transportation authority at a recent meeting did announce that we're looking at the

0:45:17possibility of putting a sales tax measure on the ballot in 2016 the november election and that would be a possibly if it happens some sort of an expansion of or extension of major j um but it but that's to be determined so it's it's not that we're actually doing

0:45:42it for sure it's that we're looking at it and then um and i just can't remember because i've gone a lot of places and settled and i can't remember if i've talked about the driverless car have i yeah okay so i won't do that again thank i've got three things to report on uh

0:46:02this last week i went to the environmental quality committee and they were doing a um they had an item on their agenda about solar panels and and they were still researching on how we might be able to promote additional solar panels within the city so that's something that they're working

0:46:22on and we may get more reports on in the future and certainly i reported to them about some of the pace programs that we passed not too long ago mce is taking up some discussion on the pace programs in marin so i was able to report back to them on that at the financial advisory board

0:46:43they uh talked about their report they gave us and their work plan their annual work plan uh including looking at the timing of various documents that they get to review they did reiterate a request that i think i gave last time after their report that there they would like to have a

0:47:08discussion about their requirement to do some form of annual report or work plan preparation so maybe we could put a future agenda item to discuss it's been about 18 months since we uh discussed the uh the boards and commissions so maybe we should we've had i think a full cycle of

0:47:32of reports so it might be time for us to discuss any changes to that and finally i did attend the marin clean energy board meeting and they had an extensive report out about all of the meetings that they're having with their three new communities san pablo ourselves and

0:47:52benicia and as of last thursday they had had 81 different touches of the community of those three communities since january and that's of about 130 that they had planned by the end of june so that when we roll out and i can proudly report that currently el cerrito has three percent of our

0:48:16households in deep green which is about twice any other community that's uh that's out there so we're we're doing quite well and our opt out rate is one of the lowest opt out rates seven percent so 90 percent um are in the regular green i can't remember what light green light

0:48:42green so we're doing quite we're doing we're demonstrating with our pocketbooks our commitment to the environment thank you that's it all right thank you everybody very much i now will adjourn city council meeting you