Regular City Council Meeting November 1, 2016

0:03:48good evening everyone we're going to be starting a few minutes late just because the uh voting that was going on in the council chambers so be patient mr friedman now we're going to start yes good evening everyone um we begin this meeting with a moment of silence and will adjourn in memory of

0:05:34james gilland jr there's absolutely no way to fully convey the heartache sadness and anger that the el cerrito community city council and city staff feel towards this tragedy please join me in a moment of silence as i and council express our heartfelt sorrow over the october 27th shooting of

0:05:56jim gilland and extend our thoughts and prayers to vicki and jim's family i want to thank the police chief and our detectives for their continued hard work el cerrito police are working there with their partner agencies to devel develop leads in this case they've worked closely with contra costa

0:06:28crime lab to search for evidence and may identify to identify those responsible anyone with information about the case is urged to contact the police by telephone email or in person i know the department is doing the work needed to make sure that justice is served

0:06:51with that um let the record show that all council members are pleasant present and i would like to lead now the pledge of allegiance or a moment or observation of a moment of silence i pledge allegiance one nation under god indivisible with liberty and justice for

0:07:21all item two is our council and staff communications i know staff has a few communications for us i call forward police chief keith thank you mayor lyman i'm paul keith your chief of police i think you did a great summary of our efforts in this case there are some

0:07:44other things i'd like to alert the public to as we both investigate the homicide and additionally enter the holiday season in the last two weeks we've had two instances where residents were followed home from shopping districts and then robbed at or near their vehicles

0:08:02i'd like to urge residents to be vigilant as they're leaving shopping areas and make sure that they're paying attention to whether or not they're being followed if anyone thinks they're being followed home following a shopping trip please call 9-1-1 to alert us immediately and do not

0:08:18stop continue driving one option is to continue driving and drive to the police department or another place that has a high population of people that are out about but please don't hesitate to call 9-1-1 if you feel that you're being followed home in addition on a

0:08:34on a lighter side on october 27th i attended an awards ceremony for the chief special agents association of northern california one of our employees bailey tepcasone was honored for his investigative excellence over the last year while at the el strudel police department he investigated there's a

0:08:51couple of different cases for which he was recognized he investigated a street robbery where a victim's cell phone was stolen and then sold at a kiosk out in east contra costa county through a series of warrants he identified his suspect ended up arresting him and the person pled to a

0:09:0517-year sentence in state prison in addition while working for the safe streets task force for contra costa county he developed information on a drug trafficking ring that led to the seizure of 54 pounds of methamphetamine 15 000 in cash and also the breakup of that

0:09:22drug trafficking ring he's also key to locating a suspect in a recent attempted homicide from early in the summer where he and the task force located the suspect in vallejo and also recovered the firearm used in the crime he's an explorer advisor and really a key part of our department and so we

0:09:38were very proud that he was recognized last thursday by the association so i wanted to let you know about that as well thank you and uh just to settle on with your comments as well mr mayor all of uh everything we've heard about mr gilland is that he was in just a fine member of our community and

0:09:55an outstanding citizen and uh it's a great loss to no longer have him so thank you for your time thank you any other announcements from staff i have a quick one um thank you everyone for waiting as the early voting center uh cleared out today it started yesterday where if you um for

0:10:16anyone that lives in contra costa county can come here and vote and the elections division can pull up the ballot for you the regional center is for west county is open from 11 in the morning till seven in the evening through friday and saturday it's open from eight a.m to five

0:10:37additionally we have a an official secure drop-off ballot box upstairs that you can also come and drop off your voted ballots on election day the polls will be open from seven to eight pm seven a.m to eight pm and the polling place location is written on your voter pamphlet it's also available

0:11:00online at coco vote dot us you can do a search right there or you can call me at 215-4305 and i'm happy to help you find get you to your polling place thank you mr could you go through the hours for the early voting here at city hall one more time yeah the regional center is

0:11:19open 11 a.m till 7 pm till friday and saturday november 5th it's open from 8 a.m till 5 pm great thank you um any communications from council go ahead yes i attended a display of the new bart cars that occurred at the del norte bart station while it was storming fiercely

0:11:50on sunday morning and we had what they described as the largest audience of any one of their displays of the equipment and that was the last one so that meant that we actually attracted more viewers than anywhere else and that was pretty exciting in and of itself

0:12:14it's a little different maybe a lot different depending on how you look at it from the old style bart cars for one thing it has three sets of doors instead of two that means uh three on one side three on the other side only one side will open at a time and the way people will

0:12:36um seat be seated or their bikes will be stored is new uh the there will actually be bike racks on each car um so that people with bicycles will be able to actually leave those and not hold them up constantly and wheelchair seating is in the middle car of each car

0:13:05and there will be two wheelchair positions in that middle car and there will be disabled seating in i believe all three by all three doors and it was pretty exciting to see they will also indicate that it's the senior disabled seating by a different colored seat which is

0:13:33currently what i would call kind of a it's a light green and the other seats are blue that all the seats are made out of a what looks like to me vinyl i'm not sure if it's really vinyl but it's some sort of that type of material rather than cloth and the flooring is not carpeted and those

0:14:00are changes from the way the original cars were originally done so anyway people were pretty excited about it and the number of cars that will be received i'm not really sure of those details and how many cars will be received will partly be dependent upon a measure that's on the ballot major rr

0:14:28i think it will enable the bart to add more cars than they would otherwise be able to get which will enlarge the capacity of the system so it's a really big change for bart and it was pretty exciting to see these new cars these are the first cars that are this different

0:14:53in the system since it was real since it started there were previous changes but nothing like this and people were very excited about it and um i am not sure of the date but i think it's i really shouldn't even speculate what the date is that they would actually be in use but um

0:15:18that is something that um we can look forward to thank you okay and staying with that theme um i'm going to highlight a number of the measures that the council has supported over the last almost six months uh going back to june 22nd um you know as uh council member abelson

0:15:38was saying we've supported measure rr um and in the transportation realm we supported measure x uh that was one of the first things we we supported so hopefully you have uh if you haven't voted you will be voting on those from the on the education side we supported california proposition 55

0:16:00and measure t both of those are education based propositions proposition 67 which is regarding the single use plastic ban we supported that so hopefully you will take that into consideration um it one that we supported back in july that uh touches all of us as a result of the

0:16:30memories that we're going to be putting into record tonight this prop 63 safety for all gun law reform and finally a local measure here is measure b for a modern library and the library is the plan has evolved over the last couple years and staff should be commended for their nimbleness

0:16:53as we've developed alternative plans as our preferred location was was denied to us by the school district the plan as outlined in july is to secure funding and then secure a site it's a chicken and egg dilemma it like renting an apartment you need income to secure a home

0:17:17if we had used reserves to secure a location and plans which might have cost us as much as 3 million dollars which is our entire reserve we would have been tarred and feathered by the same people i'm sure measure b is a property tax to fund general obligation bonds for the

0:17:37construction of a modern library and only the construction of a modern library if we want to be part of a development at bart which is one of the options we brought forward in september we need funding if we're going to be part of a private development on san pablo avenue we need

0:17:53funding to demonstrate that we are capable of participating the proposed amount of not to exceed 30 million is based on professionals swinnerton and group 4 their work they picked real locations in el cerrito to calculate costs enable wide range of costs of whether it's land acquisition or site

0:18:19development however the building construction cost in every alternative was between 10 million and 14 million or between five hundred dollars a square foot and six hundred and seventy dollars a square foot very reasonable and that is our intent is to be reasonable

0:18:37so i hope you will join me and vote yes to fund a modern library one that we deserve with that we'll move on to item three oral communications from the public all persons wishing to speak should sign up with the city clerk remarks are typically limited to three

0:18:54minutes per person kindly state your name and city of residence for the record comments regarding non-agenda items presentations and consent calendar items will be heard first comments relating to items appearing on the public hearing or policy matter portions of the agenda

0:19:11will be taken up at that time the city council as we delivered each item individual wishing to comment on closed session items which we had none tonight will be taken up at that time please uh we will be reading off names uh three at a time if you could please read the first three

0:19:31names yes mayor we have about 10 speakers for public comment 10 or 11.

0:19:37cohen followed by norman leforce and al miller michael please do my name is michael cohen i'm a resident and citizen of el cerrito i guess i have a different opinion and maybe some of you saw a posting i put in next door as an open letter to the members of the city council

0:20:13earlier this year i participated in a tel in a survey in which i was asked some rather general questions about my support for a new library i said i would happily support such a plan and i would like to know some more specific details now you are asking me to vote

0:20:33for a 30 million dollar library concept i will vote no on this measure but the no isn't going to be forever please ask me again when you have a location please ask me again when you have a plan rather than a concept please ask me again when you know the specific cost

0:21:01please ask me again when you're willing to tell the public the actual cost of the tax increases and please ask me again when you are ready to pledge that all the money raised by the tax increase will be spent on the library thank you next speaker please good evening

0:21:28mayor and members of city council my name is norman leforce bought our house here in 1983 so i've been a resident for 33 years i enjoyed the city immensely because it's a city that knows how to do things right and how to make things work i'm urging everybody to vote yes on

0:21:44measure b we need a new library that's clear there's no question about that the question is how to do it you need to have a pot of money in a bond to do that and we know that you have to have that kind of money available so that other funding sources will see that and say

0:21:58okay we can leverage your money with our money that's why we need in part measure b of course it is to build the library and finally we have confidence that this city knows how to to do things right and and do it well when we had the live when we needed to rebuild the pool

0:22:16um we didn't know we didn't have a plan for the pool we just said we had to rebuild the pool we knew what we had to do we didn't we didn't have it costed out before we put it to the voters we said it looks like it's going to be x amount of dollars and the tax rate may

0:22:30be between this number and this number but we know we needed to have a pool and we were going to do it and we not only got that vote but when we built the pool we built it under budget and on time the city has demonstrated its ability to use money wisely when it took limited

0:22:46resources for tax dollars to redo our city streets and got rated what a couple years ago as one of the top cities in contra costa county with the best streets somebody's doing something right there in my neighborhood huber park was remodeled and rebuilt again within budget it looks great

0:23:03everybody loves it so we know how to do things the right way we know how to spend our money wisely it is simply wrong to think that you can take money out of the reserve when i was on the city council we had no reserve because it had been spent down to deal with the

0:23:16effects of prop 13. we were in dire straits if something really bad happened reserves are for when you have an emergency like when the big one hits us okay which will come at some point so i really urge people to vote yes on measure b this is something we need we need the

0:23:31money it's it's the type of bond that we've done in the past successfully and we know how to do these things well and to do things in the budget and on time vote yes on measure b thank you miller followed by marlene keller and denise sangster my name is al miller i

0:23:51live in el cerrito good evening mayor lyman council members city staff tonight i speak in support of and urge everyone to vote yes on measure b my comments want to address the people who are concerned about building funding a library without knowing where it's going to be or what it's going to

0:24:13look like el cerrito's measure b is not the only local measure on the ballot asking for voters approval without identifying a site or a design actually i think it's somewhat common statewide to not have detailed plans or a bond measure is put on a ballot oftentimes because like in our situation

0:24:37the plans or acquisition of land can't happen without funds to pay for it excuse me and for example neither of the two current bond measures on the alameda county ballot a1 for 580 million dollars for housing affordable housing including land acquisition that has not

0:25:00been identified and t1 in berkeley for a hundred million dollars for infrastructure and city facilities neither of those have detailed plans locations or anything other than conceptual project lists for how the money may be spent also the last berkeley library bond

0:25:20measure in 2008 assumed that the buildings would be renovated in their same location but again the detailed design including the decision to tear down and rebuild the two buildings instead of remodeling them happened after the bonds were passed further the city is also looking at

0:25:40privately owned sites i don't know of anyone who's looking to buy land that identifies where that land is from several land owners before they have the money that they can get into negotiations for it realtors will tell you that the land price could go up twice as much if

0:26:03word gets out that we're interested in that address or that address anyway although the city did not research other library projects for their sighting issues staff has looked at many new libraries and regarding the process as they have done to date the city staff

0:26:23will bring alternatives to the city council at a public meeting for discussion and consideration although not yet formalized i'm sure the library would go through a public design process that would include both the design review board and the planning commission review processes which are

0:26:41also done in public meetings passing measure b is our best chance for a new library in the near future we desperately need a safe modern library for our community all we have to do to get it is to vote yes on measure b thank you good evening my name is marlene keller and i live in el cerrito

0:27:10i speak in support of measure b libraries are a known valuable path from family to community values and an excellent investment in people if you look at the websites of other public libraries in the bay area you will see an amazing array of community opportunities at those

0:27:33libraries where all ages come to the library as a place of access discovery and connection we know our library building lacks sufficient dedicated spaces for us to seize those opportunities for each individual it's unfortunate space right now so our kids and teams do not have room for

0:27:56after-school activities like science math and art we adults do not have quiet and relaxing places to read to meet and to enjoy learning our toddlers do not have adequate room to enjoy story time there aren't even chairs enough for the people who come each each day and the kids especially

0:28:16do not have adequate access to computers and e-learning for an average of about 150 dollars per year per household or about 43 cents per day we can provide elsa readin elsa readings with the priceless possibilities of a larger community library that will offer them a great space

0:28:41before the cost of land and financing increase and push a good library for all of us out of reach i'm begging you to answer the trump-like anti-government anti-tax library opponents who've engaged in a terrible campaign of misinformation on social media please hold your hold your comments

0:29:06by allowing us to have public speech rights and by voting yes on measure b to bring all the great possibilities for community space to el cerrito and to get and to give our children the learning space they need for their futures and our welfare too thank you next three speakers please denise

0:29:28sangster followed by brenda belton rochelle pardue okimoto my name is brenda belden i'm an el cerrito resident for the last 26 years denise is stuck on bart so hopefully she'll be here later great thank you for letting us know hope it's okay that i stepped up please

0:29:53thank you for having me i'm going to be short because i did not do the lovely preparation other residents did i'm here short and sweet to oppose a speed feedback sign that is slated to be placed in front of my house there was a meeting with yvette ortiz the public works

0:30:19if you could pull the microphone down just a little bit thank you not something i do every day it's okay we had a meeting with yvette ortiz public works department in el cerrito and we first met with her in 2015 and the neighbors opposed the speedback speed feedback signs then

0:30:42and this uh the public works department was supposed to come back to us with a revised plan and we never got that what did happen was a meeting was set up for last week october 26th with the neighbors all met and discussed again most of the majors excuse me neighbors still oppose having

0:31:04the speed feedback signs um my frustration is it felt like the meeting that we had last week was not productive um i felt like the public works department is unwilling to change even though the residents have a um a specific idea what what to happen so pretty much that's all i'm here to say

0:31:28is that i oppose having a speed feedback sign in front of my house the lights will shine into my bedroom there's already a sign there that has the s curve and 15 mile per hour sign to me that's completely ignored nobody follows that i don't know why they're going to

0:31:47follow something else also uh some of the studies that are done is that the speed back feedback signs maybe reduce speed by three to four miles per hour as many people know who live on arlington people are going in excess of 40 miles an hour so three four miles an hour is going to a

0:32:07reduction in three to four miles an hour is still going to kill somebody um i think there's other measures that can go for money that's budgeted i think there's a grant on the line that i just don't think a speed feedback sign is the way to go thank you great thank

0:32:23you we will move miss tankster to the end please michelle pardue okamoto followed by paul fideli and howdy gowdy good evening my name is rochelle pardue okimoto i live at [address removed] i am voting yes on measure b and i encourage others to do so as well the number one reason that i am voting

0:32:52yes on measure b is i see it as a social justice issue collectively we should provide for computer access and reading materials for those that are less fortunate than us our current library has eight workstations or 0.33 computers per thousand people our needs assessment states that we need

0:33:1466 workstations or 2.6 computers per thousand people to be without internet access in the 21st century is to be cut off from society when i was a child i spent a time being very poor i was even homeless for a while during those days the only access i had to books

0:33:43were through the library during the past few weeks i've heard some very disturbing things said about who uses the library it's just the kids from fairmount their parents use the library as a babysitter i can't help but think at one point i was one of those kids

0:34:06don't we want our kids off the street and doing something constructive like going to a library if measure b fails we will not see it on the ballot for another four years there will definitely not be a special election regarding the library it is unlikely to go in the

0:34:27gubernatorial election because that tends to be a very conservative voting bloc that will not likely vote for a tax increase therefore if we pass a measure four years from now it will likely be a smaller library and it will likely cost more to borrow the money at that time

0:34:49if we pass the measure now no bonds will be issued until the location is secured we are only authorizing the city to move forward on securing a location as of now the many vacant lots in the city are being purchased and developed how much land will be available four

0:35:09years from now i hear the concerns of cost containment and your arguments are valid however my concern is that if we meet the sta if we meet the needs assessment and we make sure there's enough space for computers that's what i'm most concerned about at this point

0:35:37four years is a long time for a child i am willing to move forward on this valuable community resource if you really do love libraries please wrap up please let's work on this together thank you next three speakers mr fideli followed by howdy gowdy and melanie proctor great

0:36:04thank you good evening city council mr mayor i'm paul fideli of el cerrito with the library measure on the ballot i hope you'll indulge me um and allow me to read a few quotes about libraries which puts this issue in perspective i think a little bit the first quote i have is from isaac

0:36:24asinov who says a library is a spaceship that will take you to the farthest reaches of the universe a time machine that will take you to the far past and the far future a teacher that knows more than any human being a friend that will amuse you and console you and most of all a gateway to a better

0:36:44and happier and more useful life sydney sheldon the hollywood producer said of libraries libraries store the energy that fuels the imagination they open up windows to the world and inspire us to explore and achieve and contribute to improving our quality of life

0:37:02libraries change lives for the better ray bradbury the author wrote without libraries what have we we have no past and we have no future and finally andrew carnegie as you all know who donated libraries to many cities around the country said a library outranks any other one thing

0:37:22that a community can do to benefit the people it is a never failing spring in the desert and finally i just wanted to thank the city council for giving us hope that el cerrito is moving in the direction of a new community place where we can aspire to greatness in the

0:37:39ways that these thoughtful thinkers expressed even though we don't yet have a location or a final cost estimate for a plan you have moved us forward and assured all of us elsa readings that we will continue to have input and scrutiny over any plan that comes before this body so thank you very much

0:37:58thank you howdy gaudi is followed by melanie proctor and jan will good evening mayor lyman council members my name is hardy gowdy so i'm not here to speak about the library but it will say that i support measure b um i am here to actually reiterate my concern over the impacts on

0:38:25those displaced at the alder el dorado condo development you've heard me speak on this many times i've sent two emails recently um i guess i'm just here to reiterate that this is not over and i hope that the council is not treating it as over i've heard very little back from all of you

0:38:46and i you know presented some some ideas they may not be the only ideas i hope you have some of your own but i actually do expect you know an elected official to have a position and share that position and so far that hasn't happened so i would simply request that um you show that you

0:39:08still have some attention and dedication to make this a better situation and i know everyone's busy there's lots to do but i think this is an important issue and i hope to hear your positions thank you thank you [Applause] melanie proctors followed by jan wu and

0:39:30denise sangster good evening mr mayor city council my name is melanie proctor i've been a resident of el cerrito since 2008.

0:39:40i would like to first express my deep condolences to the family of james gilliland i think that's an incident that has shaken the city to its core and certainly has shaken the legal community um shocking and extremely disturbing i didn't intend to speak tonight

0:39:59honestly i think that that event kind of overwhelmed and other events this week have kind of overwhelmed any concern i have but i'm still here opposing measure b mr mayor your comments tonight were filled with a lot of ifs and there's too many ifs in this measure

0:40:17i'd also like to address comments from proponents of measure b last week those of us who opposed measure b were called obstructionist i inquired of the individual who used that term why she was applying that to people who had a different opinion in her definition anyone who opposes the

0:40:36measure as an obstructionist the city itself is an obstructionist the city had millions of dollars at its disposal to build a new senior center and a new library through the redevelopment agency and instead of spending that money where it was intended to be the money was

0:40:53transferred to other purposes that's obstructionist obstructionism by that citizen's words the words we just heard angered miss wu so much that she walked out we are entitled to have a different opinion this measure is not well thought out it places the cost of building the library on the

0:41:15backs of the newest residents people who i may have bought my house before the before the peak that we're recently developing but i have many friends who purchased homes in this community and will be burdened unfairly by attacks there are other ways to fund a library

0:41:35we're not looking at four years down the road there are sites available and the city remains focused on the school district land the yes on b committee is focusing on the school district land and as long as that is the focus of this effort i will oppose the efforts

0:41:54to build on school district land our schools are over enrolled fairmont is over enrolled and it needs that land the kids at wilson elementary who will be moved there next year need that land for a school and i will continue to oppose any efforts that unfairly burden the poorest community

0:42:15in el cerrito thank you thank you jan wu followed by denise sangster patricia durham and the last speaker is david green i'm janual of el cerrito and i'd like to apologize for being so upset at marlene's very disturbing remarks about um people who are not in favor of measure b

0:42:40i too had not expected to speak tonight i just wanted to hear what my neighbors had to say however mr mayor when you spoke about not having enough money to secure a site it made me wonder well why didn't you save the library capital funds that were in the redevelopment agency money along

0:42:58with those for the senior center that would have given you a nice fund for which you just for which to secure property except for of course you expected to get the school district property instead so i just wanted that that made me want to come up and speak and i'd also like

0:43:13to take this opportunity to congratulate um yes on b dot org for the ten thousand dollar contribution they received from the charter schools i just wish that the charter schools had decided to use that money to help build the library or again maybe to fund better hours for the

0:43:30library again i don't see any talk i haven't heard anything about how you're going to fund over 35 hours per week once this big beautiful library is built if i knew that i would be a lot more confident about voting for measure b but i i haven't heard anything about that

0:43:48and please don't tell me that you want to tax me more either on my property or on sales tax and we just can't do that anymore thank you thank you denise sangster followed by pat durham and david green good evening i'm here to continue the conversation that we had two weeks ago

0:44:08on measure 5j which the council as at in my vocabulary provisionally or you passed it with the condition that the public works director would meet with neighbors and come to consensus as i asked i didn't understand mr lyman's comments and i asked what it meant that you were directing this city

0:44:28to do councilman freeman said that was to meet with us to drive consensus since that time we have met with the public works director which we greatly appreciate um 20 neighbors attended the meeting another six were unable to either because they were out of town

0:44:44or they were elderly and didn't feel comfortable coming at night and one was injured all of those people provided feedback which was forwarded to the public works director i can tell you 100 percent everyone is in favor of something being done up there we want speed and we want safety but we

0:45:03do not like this project we listened to the public works director she voluntarily removed the rumble strips which were part of the project but she is hell-bent on moving forward with the speed feedback signs which no one in the room wants and again everyone is in favor of doing

0:45:22something but that is not something that we want we even have a licensed engineer who does multi-billion dollar projects who sat there and even spoke up and said she needed to listen to neighbors and be more open to it because she's not listening to neighbors and not being

0:45:36open i now see these people up there working and doing things already we want the speed feedback signs stopped by her own admission they only reduce speed by three to four miles per hour and given the cost of it as a taxpayer i'm appalled that federal funds are

0:45:52being allocated to this and i've been in touch with dianne feinstein's office and other u.s senators and they are shocked that this is what money is being spent for i want that part of the project stopped until you come to consensus we have people that are directly affected with

0:46:07it tonight that are going to be putting these signs outside their bedroom windows it's not appropriate and maybe the city manager is willing to address it right now but this is a project that the city is running forward with quickly it has not done a good job in working with neighbors and this is

0:46:24not what we want up there and we would like the city council to step in and do something and jan i appreciate you asking for this to be heard i appreciate you speaking to me by phone but we need something more than that now we need somebody to get involved in this

0:46:39and intercede on our behalf because this is not a project that is welcome we welcome the police being there we would favor having more police enforcement up there clearly the speed is not dropping when you're writing a thousand tickets in a year it's staying up there

0:46:56and maybe the question is how do we fundamentally re-engineer that whole area but what they have in mind with the speed feedback signs is not what we want so i'd like somebody who can commit to giving us an answer and agreeing to looking at that specific element the

0:47:12other elements were not contesting but that element and the rumble strips we did contest the rumble strips were dropped so now we have the speed feedback signs so who can help i just would like to know who can help when the public works director won't who do we turn to

0:47:30you come here and we are not at because of brown act we care not in a position where we can have a deliberation with you tonight so as i asked last week then i wish you would have stopped the project and given time to come to consensus but now we have a project

0:47:44that is moving forward and this is not making your neighbors happy so what do we do greg we need to move on to the next public speaker i you you're no there's no comments were heard and and we can't do anything about it tonight because of the brown act so the brown act doesn't say that

0:48:02somebody can't get back to us so that's correct but i can't is there somebody that can get back to us we we have to do our work too we can't make a decision from the the podium at this time you can't just you can't say you can ask the city manager to look into this and get back to it i can

0:48:19certainly say that but that doesn't guarantee you that anybody will get back to you so i don't want to make a false promise okay i thought he works for you so if you ask the city manager to do it he he wouldn't get back to us senator many things that you are not aware of

0:48:36that i am aware of at this time the city manager is about to leave town and so it asking him to do something is not something i can i can count on doing but i can certainly talk to staff and find someone who can get back in touch with you with authority that can work out

0:48:50with neighbors would be really what we want greg and i don't think that's being unreasonable we're big taxpayers and we are have we have suffered through neighbors being killed in that corner people being hit cars being injured and it just it doesn't come to resolution

0:49:06thank you for your comments we need to move on thank you more speakers durham followed by mr green thank you hello city council my name is patricia durham and i am a estoridian i always say that i like that and i am i am voting yes for a brand new library here in the city

0:49:38of el cerrito uh i look around the room and i see a very very educated professional people and i cannot even imagine five years from now or every even three years or ten years from now libraries in your city is a big statement it really is a big statement and libraries are something

0:50:09that you can go to in a city and learn a lot about the city modern technology and communication makes the world go around if we are not up and coming with today's modern technology and communication and we need will have to wait a few more years to make that decision

0:50:39cerrito is a wonderful wonderful unique city it stands out among them all and we need a new library now we all want to uh understand the communication i believe that it's not too many ifs i think that the problem is communication i think if we really really understood

0:51:09what the ins and outs and ups and downs and arounds i think that we can do it we can do it as a community we don't we don't have to do it um in conflict with each other i think if we just communicated just a little bit better and understood what each and every one of us are talking about we can

0:51:37build a new library i vote yes on a new library thank you thank you mr green david green i'm david green i moved to el cerrito four years ago my experience here has been really great my experience with the building department with the police that i run into at the cafe has been

0:52:04fantastic um it feels like a small town where people can talk to each other uh where you're listened to oftentimes by the city when you have question um even complex questions about building and timing and things like that so i much appreciate that from the city in

0:52:20general especially coming from bigger cities before my experience coming to a couple city council meetings including tonight though has been well first of all i wanted to say that everybody that's gotten up and spoken on both sides of the issue of measure b um has has mostly presented issues and

0:52:42presented how they feel and their perspective and i think that's been really healthy my perspective of how [Music] mayor lyman in particular sorry if i'm addressing you so directly but is that it's a norm a little bit to talk down to people that are against measure b

0:53:01my experience with them has been that there are questions about it about the financing about where it's going to be about what money was around before and i i don't know all the ins and outs of all those issues but everything that i've heard presented i feel like it's been fairly legitimate

0:53:17questions and i'm i'm getting the feeling that it's a norm to push uh for opinions from up there politically during this session and i don't know if that's a norm or not um but it's it's it's it's definitely a perspective that i'm taking from these meetings um and i don't know if it's supposed to

0:53:36be that way so thanks thank you any other speakers no great all right we'll move on to item uh five which is our consent calendar uh we have two items on the consent calendar tonight 5a and 5b um anyone have a motion we have a motion to approve 5a and 5b second seconded by uh

0:54:00the ladies on my left um friedman seconded by uh we'll we'll pick bridges you don't have so many um all those in favor please say aye aye opposed abstentions let the record show it passes unanimously um and that moves us on to item six public hearing which is the local modification of 2016

0:54:26california building standards code including green building codes building code fire code and related construction codes good evening mr mayor my name is margaret cavanaugh lynch i'm the development services manager i'm accompanied tonight by the battalion chief fire marshal mike bond

0:54:53and mark sultan as your building official we did not want to take up your time this evening to do an a second staff report on this item but we are here to answer any questions you might have okay any questions no questions um is there uh public testimony on this

0:55:14item i have no request to speak i move we close the public hearing second all right we have a motion to close the public hearing uh made by friedman seconded by bridges all those in favor please say aye aye opposed abstentions let the record show passed unanimously

0:55:30um now we will consider our action and we have a second title reading that needs to occur can i get somebody to [Music] read it great thank you um i moved i moved to adopt by title and waive any further reading an ordinance of the city of el cerrito amending title 16 of the el cerrito

0:56:01municipal code to adopt with modifications to address unique local conditions the 2016 edition of the california green building international building code volumes 1 and 2 including several international fire code um i'm sorry i did that right including several appendices there too

0:56:25the 2016 california fire code based on the 2015 international fire code including all appendices there too the 2016 edition of the california administrative code the 2016 edition of the california residential code based on the 2015 international residential code

0:56:49with some appendices the 2016 edition of the california existing building code based on the 2015 international existing building code including some appendices the 2016 california plumbing code based on the 2015 uniform planning plumbing code the 2016 california mechanical code

0:57:20based on the 2015 uniform mechanical code and the 2016 california electrical code based on the 2014 national electrical code a second all right a motion by ableton seconded by quinto all those in favor please say aye opposed abstentions the motion carries unanimously

0:57:46um that concludes item six uh brings us to item eight any council assignment or liaison thank you staff very much uh any council assignment liaison reports mr quinto mayor pro tem janet abelson and i attended the league of cities function on this past saturday down in

0:58:10fremont with the asian pacific islander legislative caucus and the api caucus where i am a member and and we met with other api leaders as well as business leaders in silicon valley and in san francisco great seeing none at this time i would like to adjourn tonight's

0:58:37meeting in memory of jim gilland and as a community offer our deepest sympathy and condolences to jim's family and friends knowing that our words do not fully console those who are grieving at this most trying of times and hoping for comfort to our community as our community heals

0:59:02with that we're adjourned you