Regular City Council and Special City Council Meetings May 3, 2016

0:02:04good evening i'm going to call to order a the regular city council meeting of the city of el cerrito for tuesday may 3rd at 7 pm we will move on to let the records show that all five council members are present we will move on to item one which is pledge allegiance to the flag or

0:02:24observation of a moment of silence council member bridges i pledge allegiance to the flag of the united states of america and to the republic for which it stands one nation under god indivisible with liberty and justice for all right now that brings us on to item two

0:02:49uh item two is council and staff communications and i'm gonna call to call forward uh captain uh captain thank you mr mayor thank you council members i'm paul keith your interim chief of police i want to talk about our explorer post for just a couple minutes this last weekend we sent

0:03:15our explorers up to the city of sacramento to participate in the chp explorer competition so this competition is a three-day event on friday alone it starts at seven in the morning goes to eleven o'clock at night as all of these different explorer posts compete

0:03:30in a whole broad variety of categories they have responses to violent incidents responses to drunk people on the street to drunk drivers to domestic violence calls court testimony physical fitness there's a whole array of uh different categories they compete in so our explorer post was

0:03:50one of 43 explorer posts were competing in the competition and they came away with a number of awards at the uh at this at the competition so they got a second place in court testimony uh one of our explorers she was also our explorer of the year opal franklin she she was our

0:04:08go-to person on court testimony so for the last year she's been training in how to talk in court how to answer questions from from a defense attorney how to answer crash questions from a prosecutor and her hard work paid off she won second place out of those 43

0:04:25explorer posts we also got a second place award for investigation of drunken public we got third fourth and fifth place in domestic violence response suspicious persons and our physical fitness obstacle course so we're really proud of the effort our explorers put out we had six explorers

0:04:43participate and coming up we are interviewing 10 more explorers to join the post so one of the reasons i wanted to talk tonight is that as we go into the summer we really ramp up our our effort to get more explorers we have an explore academy that begins right after school lets out in the summer time

0:05:03so our explorers go through a week-long academy where they learn safe firearms handling they learn the basic operations of a police department they learn about citizenship and how the police play a role in the community so leading up to that we're really working on an explorer drive we're going

0:05:19to be working at the high school level as well trying to get the word out about our posts and get more young people interested in the post so anyway we had a really great weekend with the explorer post and i just wanted to highlight all the hard work great thank you very much and

0:05:32congratulations to all of the uh explorers for how well they placed thank you any additional okay i'll bring it back to council sure go ahead may pro okay i um attended a summit called redefining mobility summit in april and this was a summit really talking about

0:05:58innovation in particular we were discussing the driverless car and as you may or may not know there is a ccta or the contra costa transportation authority is working on an ex a um gomentum which is our effort at doing the driverless car testing so what we're doing there is testing and it's on the

0:06:31site of the former um now what it's called concord naval weapon station so there already are a series of roads uh complete with all kinds of signals and other amenities in this case that can be used without having to do a lot of building so it makes it an ideal site for testing

0:06:57and this is across auto manufacturers so if you happen to be an auto manufacturer interested in the technology of the driverless car you can come and use this facility for the testing without it actually being on the street with pedestrians and other automobiles so

0:07:17it's a unique opportunity and it's been pretty exciting and there was this one day conference on it also on april 28th i attended the charles weaver dedication of a bench at cerrito vista park he was a very active member of both the chamber of commerce and el cerrito and

0:07:45also the el cerrito rotary and he passed away recently and the purpose of this bench is the two groups got together and paid for putting in this bench to honor his memory and if you want to go see it it's on the north side of cerrito vista park and it's a great site to watch the game from

0:08:08so i hope that you will do that in addition to that i [Music] went on the 25th of april and did legislative visits with the league of california cities and also with the contra costa transportation authority and i visited our both of our legislators tony thurman and lonnie

0:08:35hancock and that's my report great thank you councilmember bridges councilmember i also attended the legislative action day last week in sacramento and a lot of bills up right now that support the needs of our residents here especially when it comes to housing transportation

0:09:03and education so tony thurman and a staff member from lonnie hancock's office we let them know about our needs here in el cerrito which is trying to get more of the tools that we can use to obtain affordable housing for seniors and transit oriented development and

0:09:28assembly member thurman supports all that supports in filling in san pablo avenue senior housing and i'm looking forward and seeing him uh succeed in getting these bills passed uh there is another bill that he's working on with assembly member two that should help

0:09:50folks that are looking for housing here in el cerrito uh we do have a a need for that and a need for teachers to live here in in el cerrito in west county and i'm proud of uh david chu and and tony thurman um working on that so i also attended uh a meeting with the

0:10:12asian pacific islander uh caucus of the league of cities and it was a good meeting and i plan on working with them more to create more diversity uh within our councils and with the other cities thanks councilmember friedman all right i have a few um on uh april 20

0:10:36well i'll say that one for later and i'll save that one for later uh but i will say april 30th um saturday morning uh i went to a grand opening of daiso and cut the ribbon and i had almost 300 people in line watching me cut the ribbon they i was actually between them and they're

0:10:58shopping and so i said think i think i only said about 10 words because i was only going to get hurt if i said more it was very successful and and they were very very pleased they mentioned to me more than once how long they've been looking for a place in el cerrito that was the right location and

0:11:17size that they feel that the demographics of this part of the county is overdue for this type of a facility and this afternoon mayor pro tem and i were at the community center thanking volunteers that work in our recreation department they they do various things at casa cerita and at the

0:11:42senior center and we were acknowledging their their help for us in making el cerrito a better place and hopefully they enjoy they get a lot of enjoyment out of doing it as well so we were thanking the volunteers that support the recreation department so that that's something i wanted to

0:12:02make sure that people knew that we had done and that concludes item two brings us on to item 3 which is oral communications from the public we have we allow people to speak on items that are not on the agenda plus items that are on the consent calendar we do allow up to three minutes for

0:12:23comments uh at this time and we do have a timing system for that when the light goes red i'm hoping that you will wrap up your thoughts i do want to let you know that we will be pulling item 5c and moving that up to conduct that during item 4 this evening and that's i'm just double checking i

0:12:48think that's the only one that's moving up and so i just wanted to let you know that if you are here to speak on item 45c we will have an opportunity to do that during uh item four speakers uh yes we have two speakers at this time for item number three in a consent

0:13:06calendar item tom panas followed by al miller good evening bayer lineman members of the council and city staff my name is tom panis and i live at [address removed] in el cerrito i'm excited to announce that this year the el cerino community garden network and the richmond grove seed organization

0:13:28are working together on an experiment with dry farming the desire is just as it sounds to successfully grow vegetables without any watering given the reality of our ongoing drought not to mention climate change it seems important to start learning more about this

0:13:42it will be an interesting experiment and we will keep you although posted be out of order in doing so i'll just say that if there ever was a non-el cerrito person who should be on the wall of fame it would be that young lady sitting over here on your left in the

0:13:57third row back in fact i would personally be honored if my picture came down and her picture went up thank you for your time this evening al miller so it is now the time for the closed session comment you'll have an opportunity uh before we go to closed session as well

0:14:21okay so you move that to four if you have to be here to speak on 5c yes we're that'll be item 5j 5j you should speak now all right thank you well what i wanted to say about your item on 5j is that i want to show my support for what appears to be your intended action

0:14:45on that because i believe that there is a lot of concern in the community about the status of our safe modern library we're all working to make happen and by taking excuse me by taking action that you indicate on this item i think that you'll give a strong message to

0:15:07them that each of your personal commitment to that project is alive and well and now there are a lot of questions to be answered there's a lot of frustrating and hard work to be done but at least it's an indication that you intend to keep on it so thank you great

0:15:24thank you um no other speakers on item three we'll move on to item four presentations we have two presentations this evening uh the first one will be uh friends of five creek proclamation and um and the second one will be the item 5c oh wait i've got to get a vote

0:15:43on the consent calendar first sorry no yeah four is presentation and the second presentation will be on item 5c affordable housing week proclamation um i have to say that i was warned that miss schwartz has laryngitis and that i i should just sort of fill in here at this point is that are

0:16:06you gonna you can nod your head okay um so i have a proclamation in my hands uh that reads something to the fact that whereas friends of five creeks an all volunteer organization founded 20 years ago in el cerrito to protect and restore creeks watersheds and nature

0:16:22including cerrito creek cornises blackberry and blackberry middle village and marin creeks in neighboring albany and berkeley celebrates 20 years of hands-on service this year whereas the friends of five creek for many years removed invasive weeds planted encouraged diverse native

0:16:43vegetation removed trash at sites that include cerrito creek at el cerrito plaza and west of san pablo avenue the ohlone greenway baxter creek and the hillside natural area where you lessened pollution flood danger monitored and reported problems and worked with the city to

0:17:02find positive solutions to environmental challenges friends of fights creek also engages the public in learning about and caring for the environment through leading walks including monthly walks for ages 50 and over and wildflower walks in the hillside natural area

0:17:20sponsoring freebay current talks on nature and environmental issues writing an informative monthly newsletter providing information informative website and staffing tables at the annual fourth of july world one festival now therefore the city of el cerrito the city council of the city of el

0:17:40cerrido does hereby proclaim may 14th as friends of five creek day in the city of el cerrito and encourages the residents of el cerrito to join the friends of five creek's 20th anniversary celebration at el cerrito creekside park on that day if i can have a motion

0:18:04so moved with enthusiasm we have a motion by friedman second by abelson all those in favor please say aye the motion passes [Applause] thank you the next item we'll take up is item 5c a presentation this is a proclamation designating may 13th to may 21st this year as the 20th annual east bay

0:18:57affordable housing week investing in homes and hope and we have a presentation short presentation on this matter yes great thank you good evening council members mayor mayor lyman staff on behalf of ebjo i'm a board member of epo ecb housing organizations it's an advocacy

0:19:14organization that promotes it advocates promotes preserves and creates affordable housing throughout the the east bay it's an organization that it's really close to my heart as a person who grew up in public housing uh in converted garages and knows the the the lack of

0:19:33quality affordable housing for low-income individuals and households fortunately i've i've been able to work in the area of affordable housing and economic development as an attorney and kind of made this my life work um and and find it fulfillingly challenging and and

0:19:53gratifying at the same time we want to thank ebjo would like to thank the city of el cerrito for the proclamation um and for recognizing our affordable housing week um we have the affordable housing coming up soon with 17 events coming up there will be grand tours grand openings um all

0:20:13throughout the east bay several in contra costa county um and we would welcome everyone to come join uh our affordable housing week events during during the affordable housing week uh it's a great time to go check out some great projects um meet the people who were behind the creation of

0:20:31some quality affordable housing for a much needed population that that lacks resources and and needs our collective support i also on behalf of the ho have a affordable housing week calendar to pass out to folks to go check out our events so please to the city clerk can you state

0:20:51your name i don't think he did my name is luis rodriguez uh board member of epo and a partner at gulf harbor litman who actually i've done some work with the city of welsh route and actually i'm a city i also read a resident up until very recently so yeah come on back anytime thank you

0:21:06thank you thank you very much we all at epo really appreciate the city of also real support and and and really and thank you so much and i'll quickly read a few words from this proclamation whereas quality affordable housing is vital to healthy safe vibrant and

0:21:24diverse communities creating new permanently affordable homes and preserving and improving existing housing helps our residents maintain community roots and encourages racial and economic diversity for generations and affordable homes close to public transit and jobs reduce

0:21:39greenhouse gas emissions and provide low-income families better access to opportunities and amenities whereas local jurisdictions like el cerrito can play an important role by supporting revenue for and investments in affordable homes now therefore the city of el cerrito the

0:21:58city council of the city of el cerrito hereby proclaims may 13th through may 21st 2016 as annual affordable housing week in the city of el cerrito thank you i moved the proclamation i have a motion and motion by friedman seconded by quinto all those in favor please say aye aye

0:22:17let the record show it passes unanimously thank you thank you [Applause] that concludes item four we'll move on to item five we have on our agenda tonight 5a approval of minutes from april 19th 5b bike to work proclamation 5d national public works week proclamation

0:23:025e asian american and pacific islander heritage month proclamation 5f jewish american heritage month proclamation 5g a complete streets policy for the metropolitan transportation commission and that is required that we are eligible for federal funding item 5f bkf engineers consulting

0:23:23services agreement amendment 5 i accept the engineers report on landscape lighting and assessment district number 1988-1 resolution of intent to order improvements and set the date for the public hearing and finally 5j authorize additional funds for agreements related to the library

0:23:42facility site feasibility and assessment move adoption second adopt motion by abelson seconded by bridges all those in favor say aye aye but the records show that uh items five a b d e f g h i and j pass unanimously uh that brings us on to item eight council assignments and liaison reports

0:24:08i have two if no one else has any uh i have one i went to the most recent planning commission meeting where they held it wasn't an action item that they were um listening to they were listening to the traffic and some of the changes that were submitted um by the

0:24:28school they were they were not voting on this they'll have a subsequent meeting basically a study session about this i will say that this room was standing room only we had to bring probably about 20 chairs in from outside there were so many people at the meeting

0:24:47and it was uh very civil and informative i didn't stay for the complete meeting but most of it great i have two that i'll report on really quickly one is uh april 21st i went to the marin clean energy board meeting and represented us there it was uneventful so i will move on to the second one

0:25:12which is last thursday the west county mayor's association met we had a presentation from ac transit ac transit is going to be moving forward with a ballot measure this fall to renew an existing uh parcel tax that already is on our tax rolls uh it's a fixed amount per parcel of 98

0:25:34they are not increasing it um they are essentially extending it and they gave compelling reasons why um i thought bart was doing well when they were surviving on 65 or something of their fare box for their operations ac transit is even higher it's in the 70s uh 70 percent of their fares goes

0:25:57towards their operations so they're they're doing very well compared to other agencies one tidbit that i did learn is that there's only three transit agencies in the united states that have directly elected boards bart ac transit and one in back east at pittsburgh i think

0:26:17it is so there there's not very many directly elected boards and we were represented by two of them um and that's pittsburgh pa not pittsburgh california um that concludes my reports for this evening and that would take us to item uh nine uh and with that would be

0:26:46let's see when do i when do i announce the next regularly scheduled one i'm going to go ahead and announce the next regularly scheduled city council meeting is tuesday may 17th at 7 pm here at city city council and our next item is a closed session an announcement of closed session is the

0:27:05public employee performance evaluation pursuant to government code section 54957 we will be reviewing the city managers uh at this time i would like a public comment on uh this item i know there's two of you out there and and others can speak but i know there's two

0:27:26tom pandas followed by al miller good evening mayor lineman members of the council and city staff my name is tom panis and i live at [address removed] in el cerrito our city manager was hired just about 15 years ago those have been a remarkable 15 years for el cerrito

0:27:45when i look back at how the city has changed those last 15 years is nothing short of remarkable while there have been many significant accomplishments in those 15 years to me what's been most amazing is the been the most extraordinary is the insight that scott has shown in hiring

0:27:59people he has created an amazing team in many cases people who are now doing a great job running major city departments started in junior positions and have moved up the ladder as they were given new challenges and learned new skills i think we all know that there has been

0:28:14more than one time when scott and i disagreed about something on rare occasions i'd even been right i know that my council members have not always agreed with scott but in the end we've always made it work and pushed the city forward in a very positive way i should also note that too often scott

0:28:30has had to push things forward with practically no money personally i am thrilled to have such a great city manager in my opinion we all are debt of gratitude to that city council who looked outside the box 15 years ago and made an amazing discovery there may be

0:28:44even be a couple of those people here tonight scott thank you for your 15 years and i hope we have you for many more and you should consider yourself lucky that cake isn't allowed in here because if if it was there would be one thank you thank you mayor lyman councilmember staff

0:29:08tom and i did not uh worked together on the comments although he said his much more eloquently than i'm able to say mine you'll notice a consistency i think that scott because of his who he is as an individual's personal character but his professionalism and his leadership style has enabled him

0:29:35to acquire and develop a city staff that has made el cerrito the city that we all enjoy living in so much i think that you could look at him and his staff and i guess that's what in this analogy i'm or i'm trying to make the council would be the general manager

0:29:59i don't know who the owner would be but it's what you hear steve kerr say often about his warriors team his coaching staff and the owner and the administrators general managers up the line it's amazing what can be done if no one cares who gets credit for it so i hope

0:30:19that you're able to continue that working arrangement in the years to come and we can enjoy continued excellence in our city living and environment and staff thank you thank you any other speakers on this item with that we will adjourn to closed session you