Regular City Council and Special City Council Meetings January 17, 2017

0:00:23council this is our first meeting of the year and we just adjourned from a closed session where we did not make any decisions we gave direction to staff and with that i'd like to uh start start with the pledge of allegiance and a moment of silence and this will be led by mayor pro tim

0:00:56i 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 thank you and get a little closer to mine that was dramatic the next item on the agenda is council and staff communications and

0:01:29assignments and liaison reports um who would like to start last week i attended for 2017 the first mayor's conference with our new mayor janet abelson and it was held in the city of danville at the veterans hall and a lot of new people in in our 19 cities here in contra costa

0:01:55and it was very informative so i definitely enjoyed that and that's my update okay rochelle do you have anything to report i have nothing to report at this time okay um as your representative to mce i can tell you i participated in our rate setting ad hoc meeting um

0:02:18and we it was ad hoc so we've made recommendations to the full board and uh the rates get set in march uh for for the new year and at this point i'm not at liberty to tell you what the rates are but i think we'll all like them uh when they come out as your representative to the west

0:02:38contra costa integrated waste management authority i can i will alert you that we will be having our meeting this thursday as opposed to last thursday on the agenda for this coming thursday is consideration of a request to withdraw from the jpa by the city of richmond

0:03:05and i will be doing my best to represent all of you at that meeting with respect to that item and those are my two reports okay i just wanted to say on behalf of all of us we all attended the martin luther king march from el cerrito from city hall downtown el cerrito high

0:03:29on monday it was incredible it's a wonderful event we're proud that el cerrito partakes in that a lot of folks volunteering and it gets bigger and better every year also i'm happy to see that in our packs of the centennial passport for the centennial event um and this the martin luther king march

0:03:50was the first event of the centennial year and i think there'll be more information on all the activities on the centennial committee coming up soon so thank you very much okay thank you and uh what what i would like to report in addition to the other things and i

0:04:06also was at the mayor's conference representing the city and um is that i attended a special training by the league of california cities on the new marijuana proposition that passed and got a lot of what i hope will be useful information on how we go about enacting it from the point of view of a

0:04:29council member and um the um what it reminded me of in going to the training was how thorough the league is at doing a study of an issue of a new issue and then preparing a forum for elected officials and i imagine staff too to to understand the issue and then help them make

0:04:57decisions that are appropriate for their city so i think they did a good job this particular training was held at the sacramento city hall in the city of sacramento and um [Music] so yes go ahead before you go on mayor i i want to build on the comments of council member

0:05:18uh fidelity um out in the lobby i'm assuming that you there are these calendars available and i wanted to highlight a few of the events that are going to occur before we meet again january 21st a walking tour creekside history and natural history stroll from noon to two

0:05:37uh january 21st the centennial crab feed i'm assuming that's sold out no no i have tickets i can solve that problem if anyone right so tickets tickets are still available that's saturday night five o'clock at the community center so if you're interested in crab please do

0:05:54uh consider that yep tonight january 25th the city of sin to city of holmes uh david weinstein uh a one of our wall of fame people 7 30 pm at the community center that's hosted by the historical society january 28th lunar new year celebration 10 to 1 at the rialta cinema cerrito

0:06:16hosted by the economic development committee january 29th st john the baptist catholic school open house from 11 to 1. so that's just a number of centennial events that are upcoming um and so everybody should get their calendar and if i don't know if their passports

0:06:32are out there but if passports out there you can get your passport and start getting it stamped so if they are if there aren't passports out there i do have some also that could be i could give people at what some point tonight anything else for many council members

0:06:49are there any staff communications or announcements is suzanne here i can't tell i guess not okay um so she's i i will just say in her uh on her be in her defense i guess she worked very hard getting materials out both before and during the martin luther king event on

0:07:13monday and i would if she were here i would have thanked her for it but i do hope that you could pass the word along to her because she did a great job so um anyway with that we'll move on to the next item on the agenda um that is presentations and um we have a presentation from the tree

0:07:35committee and it's a work plan prevent presented by i see stephen pray are you by yourself council members and uh mayor and members of the audience and staff my name is stephen pray i'm the environmental programs manager and the city arborist and it is my honor tonight to introduce

0:07:56um the tree committee work plan that will be presented by chair ralph boniello in addition we have at least two other members of the tree committee in our presence tonight we have robert rubies and jan linhardt here perhaps if they could raise their hand or something we could

0:08:18tell where they are there they are with that ralph thank you city council for having me here tonight to update you on the work of the el cerrido tree committee my name is ralph boniello and as steven said i am the chair of the tree committee these are the current tree committee

0:08:48members on the top row there we have steve price robert rubies and jan linhart and on the bottom row is kathy bleyer myself ralph boniello mary terruccio and mike schrago these are some quotes from the 2007 el cerrito urban forest management plan which recognizes that public trees in

0:09:08urban forests are the one public asset that if managed properly has a potential to increase in value over time careful planning and management is needed to protect and maintain the health and integrity of our urban forests pruning tree removals and replacement plantings are needed

0:09:24periodically as trees age become infected with disease or pests suffer damage from drought wind storms or improper tree care or if they interfere with infrastructure urban forest growing without planning can become a liability el cerrito is current currently facing a legacy of

0:09:43public trees that have damaged sidewalks certain species that have dropped limbs or that otherwise have elevated maintenance requirements however with proper attention and investment the city's urban forest will become a public asset that provides a myriad of benefits

0:09:58and is a source of community pride the 2007 urban forest management plan laid out four overarching goals and specific actions to achieve those goals some of the actions have been completed such as the creation of an urban forestry staff position and the creation

0:10:14of a tree committee others such as the development of a heritage tree ordinance have yet to be completed this slide lists the remaining three goals of the plan the tree committee uses the plan as a guiding document for how we focus our energy and prioritize our activities

0:10:33the tree committee was crea itself was created through a resolution of the city council in 2007 we serve as an advisory body and are charged with promoting and supporting urban forestry in el cerrito one way we accomplish this is through an annual arbor week proclamation and

0:10:51celebration at cerrito vista park the tree committee has worked with the el cerrito garden club and local middle school students since 2013 to replant a hillside in the park with native oaks one of the challenges of planting new trees is that they need three years of

0:11:06monthly watering in which to establish and we've been fortunate to have prospect sierra students help us water these new trees during the school year the trees are doing very well and i invite you to visit them in cerrito vista park on the hill between the ball

0:11:19fields and the tennis courts the tree committee has acquired grant funds to host community tree plantings we were able to plant 24 trees near central and carlson avenues in 2014 and last april we hosted the community tree planting in arlington park and planted 13 trees to replace some hazard

0:11:39trees that the city had removed grants for community forestry at least grants that we qualify for have been infrequent over the past few years one lesson we've learned from these experiences is that the amount of time and effort required to manage these grants both from city staff and from

0:11:56tree committee members are exceedingly time consuming the effectiveness of urban and community forestry activities would be greatly increased with additional direct support from the city one of the cities one of the committee's major accomplishments is the recent

0:12:13update we made to the approved city tree list periodic updates to the city tree list is one of the actions tasked to the tree committee in the urban forest management plan this is important because planting the right tree in the right place at the outset will improve the likelihood of

0:12:28tree survival maximize benefits and minimize costs in our urban forest the tree committee performed an exhaustive review of the el cerrito tree list tree list of nearby cities and we ultimately vetted 104 tree species for the suitability to our particular urban

0:12:46environment and that will minimize future costs and risk to the city in doing so we created a process that is both transparent and which will streamline future updates to the tree list the committee's outreach work to city residents and businesses regarding the

0:13:04benefits of trees helps build support for urban forestry and for our public trees we have produced two items that give information on the city's tree program and the benefits of urban trees we have this pamphlet that was handed out to businesses in the city describing how

0:13:19trees increase revenue streams by as much as 20 percent and how trees encourage customers to stay longer and spend more and a door hanger that is distributed to homeowners via the tree pruning program describing how mature trees increase property values by 10 to 20 percent

0:13:36while reducing air pollution and storm water runoff samples of both of these items are available in the vestibule outside for anyone interested or they can contact steven pray for a copy one of our main priorities is to oversee the development of a tree protection

0:13:53ordinance a proper ordinance is an important tool to protect the investment that the city has made in its urban forest trees are the one element of public infrastructure that increases in value and dividends with age the older and larger tree is the larger the environmental and economic benefits are

0:14:12an effective ordinance would clearly designate responsibility for public trees contain enforcement and mitigation measures would have criteria for tree removals and standards for tree protection during construction it is it is also an opportunity to include the

0:14:27recognition and protection of heritage trees another one of the goals that was set in the 2007 urban forestry plan one of our highest priorities is to become a tree city usa the tree city usa program provides direction assistance and national recognition it is a framework for

0:14:47healthy sustainable urban forestry program the tree city usa designation requires that the urban forestry the urban forest program meet four core criteria of sound management a few of the local cities that have achieved this qualification include alameda burlingame concord davis hayward

0:15:06martinez oakland richmond san francisco and walnut creek in addition to the benefit of civic pride being a tree city would help qualify the city for additional grant funding opportunities el cerrito currently meets three of the four criteria but we lack a tree care

0:15:22ordinance that adequately addresses certain issues related to city trees such as appropriate standards and procedures for tree maintenance planting or tree removals and enforcement or mitigation mechanisms that truly protect our urban forest another tree committee priority is to

0:15:41see that the city's urban forests become more adequately funded one of the most cost-effective ways to manage urban forests over the long term is to have a rotational pruning program that visits each tree every four to five years this practice minimizes future tree hazards

0:15:57trains young trees for future structural strength and lowers long-term costs unfortunately due to inadequate past maintenance practices the city now has a number of trees with corrective maintenance requirements these trees can become hazards which divert important tree program resources

0:16:14away from achieving the regular maintenance pruning that could keep them from becoming hazards in the first place according to a 2013 grand funded analysis the municipal trees in el cerrito provide annual benefits to the community of 1.3 million dollars however our tria inventory of the same

0:16:33year found that there are over four thousand vacant tree planting sites in the city of el cerrito or 20 28 of our available planting locations this speaks to the potential we have in el cerrito to improve upon our urban forest you can see at the bottom of the slide

0:16:50that we've listed some of the identified benefits that our public trees are currently bestowing upon us and which would be increased with more and larger trees that same report found that half of el cerritos trees are in fair condition or worse due to age inadequate resources or

0:17:08maintenance or poorly chosen species we want to improve upon this statistic these are more of our ongoing work plan goals we will continue to celebrate arbor week with the community tree planting and we will continue to care for trees that have been recently planted

0:17:26we also expect to participate in el cerrito's centennial celebration and are currently vetting ideas for how to participate finally we continue to develop outreach materials and seek to enhance our present on presence on the web thank you for your continued support and

0:17:42commitment to el cerritos urban forests at this time i'll take any questions you may have please greg yeah um well thank you very much for your presentation and stephen for your support to this committee and this is exactly the type of report that i envisioned that we would get from

0:18:04chairs come to us with a plan that you guys need to have us consider in the upcoming future especially in time for a budget so i i see your hat is out so you said additional direct support as needed you talked about promulgating a tree care ordinance that's different than a heritage

0:18:25ordinance i'm assuming so there's at least two ordinances out there that you are wanting us to look at um you talked about 4 000 vacant planting basins um so what what are some of the funding needs we're coming up on our budget so what are some of the funding needs that you are anticipating and are

0:18:46you working with staff to get good estimates for those so that we can evaluate those as part of our our process well first thing i would say is well thank you and i would defer to steven some on the budgeting for the different tree maintenance activities but i will

0:19:02say that in the past we've tried to get this rotational pruning program growing where we can visit every tree and unfortunately the the presence of hazards tree situations that arise during the year fallen trees branches that drop sometimes fire risk in in hillside

0:19:22natural area and just problems associated with a drought have drawn funds away from that rotational pruning and drawn the resources of our contractors time away from from that rotational pruning and so we're kind of i feel like we're kind of chasing our tail in that respect

0:19:39where we're constantly chasing the hazard trees and not getting out ahead of the maintenance that we need and then in addition um we could use more more funds to plant trees throughout the city of el cerrito we have a lot of vacant spots we don't really have a program for residents to

0:19:59get new trees in front of their house nor do we have the funding to put trees in front of their house so we'd like to both get that process worked out and also see funds go towards that the restoration efforts in near the tennis courts how is that in your mind how's that

0:20:19progressing you said it's progressing well but is it on schedule or is there the reason i'm asking is the hillside natural area is dominated by eucalyptus trees and at some point i'm hoping that we'll have the resources to begin to remove those invasive non-native

0:20:35trees and begin a systematic restoration of the hillside natural area and and the volunteers you know having a volunteer force that is part of the restoration is the is ultimately how we can afford to do that because you know a large scale restoration is very costly

0:20:55but done in small pieces over extended period of time could potentially be very cost effective i agree and i would say i'll clarify that the planting we've done so far um has been in cerrito vista park uh and we've been quite effective i think at re replacing monterey pines that have become hazards

0:21:18that have had to be taken out with native oaks that provide a more natural habitat i would i too would like to see the eucalyptus issue resolved in hillside natural area i think there's an issue in that the funds that go towards urban forestry are mainly we'd like to see adequate funds going

0:21:44towards the our public trees in the urban setting in the urban matrix and when there are issues in hillside natural area so far they've they've taken funds away from the rest of our tree program so what i would rec what i would like to see is dedicated funds for hillside natural

0:22:03area that would speak to that problem and i think we could have volunteers up there in hillside natural area helping with restoration i think that would be a very cost effective way excellent and then lastly you mentioned that you uh there wasn't a 2007 plan urban urban

0:22:19forest plan and there was an inventory done in was it 2014 i think you said 2013 how soon till the next inventory there are no plans for them yeah i i would say that our the inventory that we've done still seems valid one of the advantages of the recent inventory is that it came with a

0:22:40database where we can update trees as they get taken out or they get planted so i don't see a need right away to update the inventory i think it would be better to see funds go to other programs in the urban forest great thank you um junior paul thank you i want to reiterate what uh greg said

0:23:02about the great report you gave it's thank you really nice and well thought through and i want to also reiterate what you mentioned about the value to business and how we increase our value and our assets in our city by having trees you touched upon the eucalyptus issue

0:23:20which i wanted also ask and i'm assuming it's not one of our preferred trees on the list that you've added is that correct that is correct the other thing is i you said there's one component left to us being a tree city how far along are we in completing that task to be able to

0:23:38reappoint us well currently the city has a tree and shrub ordinance in the city code in the general code that ordinance is inadequate to meet the needs of a tree city usa protection tree protection ordinance we have begun reviewing the current ordinance and identifying what we see as the

0:24:02weaknesses in that ordinance we have yet to begin writing a new ordinance and any kind of new ordinance would have to come with the public process where we gained public input and we haven't taken that step yet but we were talking about ways to to take that next step and is that in

0:24:20the purview of the tree committee and that will come to the staff then to review yes yes i if i may just add that the tree committee has done a significant amount of work in subcommittee by on reviewing existing ordinances and done a comparative analysis of the el cerrida cerrito city ordinance

0:24:44with other effective ordinances and that their work is really at this point it's it's time to take it to city staff and that's the next step uh with this and a footnote on the inventory there is a continual update as the tree work is done on the city streets there is a

0:25:03continual update to the to the inventory done then but a wholesale uh reinventorying has not been scheduled thank you finished okay sheriff i appreciate your hard work on this presentation thank you and i live in the north side of town near canyon trail park can you give me any information on

0:25:28through the years i've seen so many trees go down in that park and has there been restoration in that area with new trees planted at the canyon trail park area i'm going to just refer to stephen again for this one because i believe there has been there has although our

0:25:47replanting efforts really there was some replanting in um canyon trail park that was done prior to my tenure and i came i began employment in uh 2011 september 2011 and there was some work done prior to that time uh with some trees that were planted in the uh base we have not

0:26:05lost as many trees there as we've seen in other areas and so that's been part of the reason that our replanting efforts have gone elsewhere but certainly we'll be looking into other opportunities there okay i appreciate that i know there have been oak trees there

0:26:29that have had the oak fungus that killed a lot of the trees in northern california when i moved there in early 2000 many many years ago so looking at that and looking at the other trees that were planted there that are almost 100 years old now and uh past its prime and ready to uh

0:26:52yeah on the way to to die now and especially with the latest drought that we had you know i look forward in working with you and making sure that all the areas of el sarita we get to know what exactly the trees that have been gone down that have died in the last 15 years and

0:27:16i hope we can do some planting there especially there have been a lot of eucalyptus trees that have gone down there and uh and i know that that's not the tree to plant and i'm hoping uh with the eucalyptus trees you're going down i hope we can find some new uh trees that are

0:27:35best for this area thank you thank you michelle i do have one question it says that you evaluate the trees every five to seven years for pruning if you if someone at home were to have a problem with one of their trees do they just contact the arborist or pruning ahead of that schedule

0:27:58that is generally the case it would call up stephen and identify that there's an issue they would like him to look at okay and he's to my knowledge he's been very good about responding to to residents concerns there i will say there's sometimes an issue with uh

0:28:17you know sometimes residents just don't want the tree that's in front of their house and that can be an issue one of the weaknesses of our current ordinance is that there's no criteria for which to for which for stephen or anyone else to evaluate concerns of citizens and say well yes this is a

0:28:35valid concern we should take out this tree we should or we should prune this tree it's kind of based on the expertise of the person in the job and we're fortunate to have steven there who i think knows very well what he's doing but we could use more standardization in

0:28:52terms of how to evaluate resident concerns when it comes to trees okay thank you i would just like to add on i've been the liaison to the tree commission committee this year and in in prior times and i would like to state how pleased i am with the degree of expertise

0:29:16that our tree committee brings to the table and i'd like to thank all the members of the committee for all of your excellent work it's great having a committee of experts in-house and it really does make a difference and i really feel that we're getting uh some fantastic

0:29:40work out of the committee and i hope you'll pass that word along that i will very much appreciated thank you thank you you want to say something greg i would like a follow-on question to council member pardue okamoto the tree care ordinance would that provide the level of specificity for

0:30:00the mr prey to make determinations about street trees that people are complaining are offensive or undesirable would the tree care ordinance include that that uh that define definition that you're looking that you were just talking about that that's missing currently

0:30:21we would like our tree ordinance to to have that level of clarification and uh many of the tree ordinances that we looked at that other cities around us have have that kind of clarification and and that would address somebody who is basically annoyed at their tree for

0:30:39the fruit that's dropping or the view it's blocking or you know the the amount of leaves it drops in the fall if it's a deciduous tree the the the view ordinance sorry the tree care ordinance would would um would help clarify you know when a tree is undesirable or

0:30:59desirable yes and it would also set out mitigation so that if if you were to take down a tree these are the these are the steps you need to do to mitigate for that or if you want to take down a tree you can do this and and so for example if a tree and if a tree that is no longer on our list

0:31:20is causing root damage to the sidewalk and the homeowner wanted to remove it then then there would be this this tree care ordinance would outline what conditions that the removal could occur and what you know conditions for any mitigations or tree replacements that would be

0:31:38necessary yes okay great i'm looking forward to seeing it thank you just the clarification there you did say street tree um it it's in the public domain so it would be it could include parks okay okay so the question i have and this is the question to steven um is a resident

0:32:01allowed to remove trees in the public right-of-way the current or the current ordinance makes no specific provision the current ordinance says that any tree or shrub that's planted in the city right of way is subject to approval by the city manager it says that the city may cause a tree

0:32:29to be removed but it does not address the private removal of trees it does have a kind of broad encompassing language about tree mutilation being prohibited but there's not a defined procedure for the removal or planting of trees and the mitigation or the the procedure or the

0:32:55enforcement of uh individual tree removal of city trees so if if a resident were interested in having a tree in the public right-of-way removed then they should the appropriate thing for them to do would be to contact staff that is correct to contact the city okay

0:33:15that's my understanding yeah um i mean people should not remove trees from the public right-of-way without contacting the city um in addition um they exist although it's not in the street tree or in the tree provisions of the municipal code work in the public right-of-way requires

0:33:39an encroachment permit which somebody would have to come to the city to obtain to do any kind of work in the public right-of-way including but not limited to removal of trees and who would somebody like that contact actually within the city the public works maintenance department

0:33:55and then that comes to me or they can contact me directly generally work requests go to the public works maintenance department um you know and this is this is interesting we don't there are a lot of questions right and uh that's one reason that because it can be very

0:34:12um subject to interpretation how to read the the um the ordinance but it's also another reason i think that the city included the education and outreach component with the urban forest management plan is so that so that residents understand how to treat that space between the curb and the sidewalk

0:34:32there's a lot of questions that people have about that and so part of our of the tree committee's mission is to educate um and to help people be informed about that area that you know those are city trees okay thank you what's that answer do we have any uh public comments on this item

0:34:55not for this item no for this okay thank you very much for your report um okay the next item on the agenda is oral communications from the public do we have any i have three requests to speak it's cordell hindler followed by al miller and dave weinstein justice mike so

0:35:17mayor abelson uh council members um i am cuddle handler richmond i will bring some flyers for the next show for country classic civic theater it's called well it will be coming out i will bring it to you at the 25 february 21st meeting so i didn't bring it with me so

0:35:33so the second thing i had in mind was um if you recall when we had the ec stars uh coming to talk to you all about about some of the opportunities that they had in the city i find it really interesting because i have because this is an opportunity for kids to see what it's

0:35:48like to be in the work for in the workplace um whether like public works police and and uh working in the city clerk's office so that's a wonderful opportunity that's too then number three is um i was looking at i was going back to the uh to the recording at the one of the

0:36:04previous meetings back in 2016 about the with the charter school i was like it was amazing how it was like that these that these kids came together to figure out how is um it's a wonderful opportunity for for an expansion i really appreciated that and then also

0:36:19that same year i sent the city clerk and the link to um uh how to um have moved since you have boards and commissions for for el cerrito at the the link is called moving your board from good to great so i i said it because i was at a training uh last year that uh it helps me figure out

0:36:36how what to do as you know as like when you're on a board or a commission it's like this is something that uh that these that people when when they when people join these committees they need to figure out what what their expectations are when they join so i figured in the

0:36:49long run there will be more trainings you know for the city of el cerrito so that's all i have to say al miller followed by dave weinstein good evening mayor abelson council members and staff first i want to thank the city and the human relations committee and the west

0:37:12county unified school district saint peter's cme church and the el cerrio branch of the niacp for providing us with another the ability to participate in the 28th annual celebration of the dr martin luther king day i think it's one of the signature events of the city and the cooperation between

0:37:35those organizations especially the school districts so we can use the wonderful facilities of our high school is something that we should all support and continue to take part in i also want to acknowledge the role of police our police and fire departments played

0:37:53their participation able us to march down san pablo avenue and through many other intersections safely i don't know how they got around so much but they were always there when we needed them and last but not least the many motorists who we marched by waiting i won't say they were all happy or not but

0:38:13at least they were stopped so that we could enjoy the march and i also enjoyed the many else rita residents and their youngsters who are lining the streets that we were marching by i'd like to thank you all for your participation in the event it says a strong message to our

0:38:31community of the quality of the life we enjoy in this community the other item i wanted to address is agenda item 5d on the consent connect calendar i would represent though what i hope is a large number of your residents that uh support your intended action to approve the city

0:38:53co-sponsorship for the relay for life east shore uh i believe that this event has joined others like the martin luther king day celebration our fourth of july world one festival our shoddy holiday display as a signature event in the city it provides an opportunity

0:39:15to enable many people to heal in the honoring the family members and friends that we've lost to cancer those going through the healing process gives them recognition and support that the community provides them in that process and it's very important to the health

0:39:38and welfare of the city so thank you dave weinstein well mayor and members of the council i'm here to give a very brief report on behalf of elsewhere trail trackers about our accomplishments in the past year our goals for the next year which i have to say tend to be the

0:39:59same which i think is a good thing it shows focus on our part i want to thank uh the members of the trail tracker board jenny hammer pam austin our treasurer who is here tom galling mark miner and molly hazen one of our major accomplishments this year was to finish up with the national park service

0:40:18and with city staff a plan to install trail signs on all the trails in the city both the urban paths the steps and in the hillside natural area this is going to have maps it'll make it really easy for people to find and use the trails and to connect from one trail to

0:40:33another and this will be accomplished if all goes well in 2017 we've gotten funding and the approval from the park and recreation commission on a similar note also working with the national park service we completed a map to all the city's trails we've had many

0:40:50maps over the years but this one will be a really good map and our goal in 2017 is to turn it into a printed map that can be distributed and sold on behalf of trail trackers provided free to our members we are also working on expanding and maintaining the use of

0:41:08open space in the el cerrito hills by uh working to preserve the fairview open space which has been proposed for last i heard approximately 38 homes we understand that the city will look at whatever plan comes before it for homes in that area uh in an even-handed and fair manner we believe

0:41:29that it's the last undeveloped open space in el cerrito it has two major creeks on it it's a beautiful piece of land it's adjacent to the hillside natural area we we believe that it naturally should become part of the hillside natural area we are going to put on the fourth

0:41:48annual hillside festival on may 21st it'll be part of the centennial because like all of our centennial events that trail trackers is involved with it has a strong historic component the third event that we put on last may was pretty successful with about 300 people

0:42:04we see this as a continuing festival that's going to get bigger and better every year we continue to work with other groups in the city on the dorothy rosenberg memorial park that one also has a trail attached to it we're looking forward to seeing that become reality i'm not sure when we

0:42:22continue to work with youth groups one of our successes this year was working with the girl scouts who several years back improved the trail the tassajara steps and this year they improved it a second time we led more than two dozen hikes during 2016. we'll be leading even more

0:42:42later on i've handed out these accomplishments to the members of the council along with our centennial events if anybody in the audience wants to grab these we have them here we had a great meeting talking about raptors and how to preserve raptors in 2016. just this past weekend we had

0:42:58another great meeting talking about how to live in harmony with our coyote friends we've added new directors including molly hazen this year uh one thing that we're hoping to do next year that we haven't done all that well is build up our membership we have a membership of

0:43:16approximately 75 people we're really working to improve that we're also going to get back to trail building we should be seeing the installation of the steps at the bottom of our famous motorcycle hill this year and we hope to be building more trails well thank you very much are there any

0:43:33questions about trail trekkers i just wanted to mention that i did attend your uh uh hillside festival uh this last year and had an amazing time and uh had the opportunity to go birdwatching and uh uh and many of these trails that that i walked through as a kid they're still

0:43:54there and one thing that i see young people doing still is uh going down that hill uh with cardboard and kids are still doing that so that that was a lot of fun to see the young generation uh having fun at that park still so uh thank you thank you can i i'm sorry

0:44:17i was just gonna ask when the sun is the signage is there a schedule for when the signage will be up for the journey no there isn't i don't believe there's a schedule uh i believe that chris jones is working on it i know that trekkers will get involved this the plan was very

0:44:32precise but some exactly where did the sign go it's gonna face this way or that way there might be a few wording changes that might have to take place but um so i don't know exactly i think getting at signage will be important to others using the trails and um getting

0:44:51people in el cerrito excited about what we have here just by helping them get to the trails well people walk by trails every day don't know they're there because there's no sign that's right thank you anything else are there new speakers i have a question um i have one more question

0:45:10um so your group meets is it always on the weekends or are there weekday events as well we have boar meetings uh the second um saturday of the month at 10 a.m in a harding uh our board meetings are open to the public we're we're moving of course having our board meetings

0:45:28essentially follow the brown act even though we're not a public agency but uh we have events at many times many of them are on the weekends we have had some weeknight hikes and some late afternoon hikes during during the week okay thank you okay uh with that we the next item on the

0:45:54agenda is the uh consent calendar adoption of the consent calendar items 5a through 5f a is an award award a contract for affordable housing strategy b is destruction of inactive police department records c is established always stop signs at belmont and san diego and also

0:46:20arlington and petro intersections d is relay for life co-sponsorship e is reject bids for iolani greenway bart station area access safety and place making improvement project f is agreement with tyler technologies to modify the police department records management system

0:46:46sir motion yes mayor i'd i'd actually like to make a motion with a special uh shout out to item 5a i'm certainly eager to get the affordable housing strategy moved forward so i would this time i will move uh fighting items five a through five f i'll second okay there's a motion

0:47:08by lyman seconded by quinto all those in favor please say i i any opposition any abstentions motion carries unanimously with that we move on to item six which is a public hearing on massage establishments and so we need to do this in public hearing format and for those new council members who are at

0:47:38the dyas there's a purple sheet and that means we follow that sheet in terms of protocol and for the audience's sake we'll go through and do so so the first item is to announce a public hearing on the repeal of the ecmc uh which is the let's see what does ecmc stand for

0:48:08el cerrito thank you chapter 8.10 massage establishments ordinance and replacing it with the ecmc chapter 8.10 massage businesses and so i announced the public hearing and we'll start out with a staff presentation margaret cavanaugh lynch who's the development services manager

0:48:32welcome good evening madam mayor members of the city council california cities historically had complete control over massage businesses however each city regulated the industry independently and this approach caused inefficient implementation confusion and sometimes unfair

0:48:49restriction and prohibition of the use in 2009 the california legislature adopted the 2008 massage therapy act this act effectively created a statewide voluntary certification program for massage practitioners and preempted local zoning authority over the operation of massage businesses

0:49:06at that time most sections of chapter 8.10 of the el cerita municipal code became preempted by the state law essentially as long as someone had a state certificate and they met the basic zoning use regulations for personal improvement services they were approved

0:49:23statewide this practice has allowed for many new massage businesses to become established however in some instances the lack of local review and control allowed illegal activity to use loopholes in that legislation to set up prostitution rings on january 1st 2015 assembly bill 1147

0:49:40came into effect it amended the california business and professions code to return commercial land use authority over the massage businesses back to cities subject to certain restrictions this legislation was slightly modified last year and is now called the 2017

0:49:56massage therapy act the distinction between the commercial aspect of these businesses and the massage practitioners themselves presents the biggest change to the current ordinance and practice the review and approval of massage practitioners including background

0:50:09checks and minimum hours of training remains the domain of the state of california's massage therapy council or the cimtc however the general operation of the business including hours of operation basic health and safety regulations as well as the minimum operation standards

0:50:25are now subject to city review as you recall on february 17 2015 the council adopted a 45-day temporary moratorium to prohibit the prohibit the issuances all city permits to new and existing massage businesses except for emergency repairs the purpose of that action was to allow

0:50:45staff to conduct a study of the potential impacts of massage businesses and to identify possible amendments to the city's municipal and zoning codes to provide a clear and consistent set of uniform regulations this moratorium was extended again by the council on april 7th for 10 months

0:51:01and 15 days and extended a final time by the council on february 2nd for 12 additional months the new proposed ordinance implements the balance of power stipulated in the new massage therapy act it lays out basic operational standards and notes that in the case of massage business that is

0:51:17operated or staffed by anyone other than a camtc certified personnel a completed background check is required the ordinance allows massage businesses for a clear path to operate within the parameters listed which are in keeping with the best practices of the professional massage therapy businesses

0:51:34as suggested by the california massage therapy council it also states that violators of the ordinance may have their permits suspended or revoked and may face other civil or criminal consequences um all new massage therapy businesses will need to comply immediately with

0:51:53both the existing zoning code and the amended new chapter 8.10 um however there are no new zoning changes in it provided as part of this action tonight um all existing businesses will have 90 days to come into conformance with items such as listing their certificates

0:52:15or having their certificates on their practitioners and 180 days to do any upgrades that might require a building permit so that they can work through the building permit process for the members of the audience i wanted to highlight some of the items of the new chapter

0:52:31these include the new permits are for every two years they must be renewed um hours of operation are between seven am and nine pm um the camt certification must be in the possession of the massage practitioner during working hours a copy of that certificate for each

0:52:50massage practitioner employed in the business should be displayed in the reception area a list of services available and the cost for such services shall also be posted in the reception area where the massage business has staff available to ensure security of clients

0:53:04and massage staff are behind closed door the entry to the reception area the massage business shall remain unlocked during business hours and no massage businesses located in a building or structure with exterior windows fronting a public street highway walkway

0:53:19or parking area shell during business hours block the visibility with either a set of curtains or a reflective screen the goal of the proposed ordinance is to support and sustain new and existing massage businesses respect and protect the profession of massage therapy and

0:53:34provide tools to the city to eliminate possible illegal activities the proposed ordinance was developed in consultation with the california massage therapy council and the city of el cerrito police department the community development department will take the lead in implementing the

0:53:49new permit process as delineated in the proposed ordinance in consultation with the police department this concludes the staff report i'm able to answer any questions you might okay does the council have any questions rochelle you want to start um if you have any you don't have to i

0:54:08do i i was i know during i think it was during the appeals process that there is a hearing officer who would that be the hearing officer would be appointed um actually recruited from a nearby city historically we had used a member of the city staff and we have found that it's

0:54:31actually a cleaner legal process to reach out to the city of san pablo or the city of richmond and appoint an officer so we are in negotiations with our neighboring cities to trade that um responsibility okay thank you how many mustang establishments do we have here in el cerrito

0:54:50well that's a really interesting question as noted in the staff report there is a lot of folks specifically 207 massage therapists that either live or work in the city of el cerrito i looked at our business license records i looked at um yelp i looked at a google

0:55:09search and i came up with 25 businesses and practitioners um now for example massage envy has 18 practitioners in their own establishment so that explains for some of that odd inconsistent number um but as far as brick and mortar there's about 18 of them i found of the 25 businesses and home

0:55:31occupations that i went to um to talk to the folks working there uh in the last few weeks um four of them have closed so we're down to approximately 18 about 10 along san pablo and then some on fairmont and stockton and kearney okay thank you yeah my question is about 8.10.020

0:55:55item c where it says location massage businesses shall be located in zoning districts that permit such use in the agenda memo you identify that it's you know transit oriented high mixed high intensity mixed use transit oriented mid intensity use commercial and transit oriented commercial

0:56:16those there's no need to name those in this new ordinance 8.10 because massage was already identified in those correct areas okay so so there's no need to to button and belt and suspender um it here um okay great thank you thank you um so a few of us up here have recently

0:56:44come off the campaign trail and newly elected and knocking door to door and when we talk about economic development in el cerrito got a lot of feedback at least i did about what they would like san pablo avenue to be and massage parlors fast food and empty car lots were something

0:57:01that didn't get a lot of positive connection so i think this goes a long way to legitimizing the industry here in the city making sure that what we have is legitimate and that you know what you're going to get when you walk in what i was wondering is on the richmond

0:57:18issue does richmond have the same ordinance and if they don't are we communicating with them because we get a bad rap up and down san pablo avenue if we're doing our job right and richmond isn't we have been in contact with the cities of san pablo richmond and albany in

0:57:39particular regarding what they were doing with massage establishments and how they were regulating them the city richmond staff is kind of watching how this is going we will be sharing when and if an ordinance is approved by the city of el cerrito we will be sharing that ordinance with them

0:57:57um right now they are uh working on a major zoning ordinance update and they're trying to bring this as part of that but it's um mostly they're just being preempted by state law so we actively look for opportunities to work with the city of richmond staff they have been very cordial with us and we

0:58:16will be sharing our notes as soon as possible gather on that thank you also as far as implementing you're talking about they have 90 days to implement the new regulations who with the city is that the police that will show up who will do that and do we have enough staff to be doing this

0:58:32implementation um it will be staff from the community development department i'm smiling because primarily it will be me um and um some members of the planning and building staff i really want to approach this as an educational discussion um i think that a lot of this is when i did some um

0:58:52stops and visits i noticed that a lot of the folks are near compliance now um getting some doors unlocked getting some curtains moved um i think is something that i can explain from an economic development standpoint as well that it'd be more folks will be interested if they

0:59:06can see inside and have a feeling of comfort and see the list of services it's kind of like that really great restaurant you see when you walk down an avenue and you see the menu and you're like oh that sounds good so i want to use this as a carrot um predominantly to

0:59:20open up and invite folks in but but if we do have enough staff and we'll have 90 days to roll out most of this and that reevaluation back to city council will be when as to how well it's working it's at the pleasure of city council to be very honest so at any point if you

0:59:37have any feedback of course through the city manager or through our director melanie mintz um you can always call it back for public hearing at your pleasure thank you okay i i had a question so on the um curtains the concept is by not having them it's open and people

0:59:56know what's going on and so they feel comfortable and so forth what about the sun so um that curtains discussion actually starts with a specific plan we all require new businesses um daiso for example started by covering up all their windows and we went in as part of their

1:00:13tenant improvements and said you need to open those back up part of making a pedestrian comfortable or pedestrian inviting environment is having large open windows if someone needs to for example fat apples if you walk by at a certain part of the day they have some

1:00:28blinds covering the sun when their customers request it we of course would let people make their customers comfortable it's working with uh the majority of the time during business hours that they would have these open but if they wanted to have things that would um partially opaque

1:00:45the sun for some part of the day we we could work with them on that okay thank you and um okay is that do it for the moment for council questions okay so with that we will open the public hearing are there any speakers we have one speaker cordell hindler for one request to speak

1:01:12yes so mayor abelson uh council members i am cordell handler representing uh richard annex association so i had a nice little conversation with a mary silva the their president um and i asked what i'll say what um she was asking about the massage parlors and and i told her i'll say some of them are

1:01:31massage parlor it is legit but some of them are not so legit because and the reason i asked her because um because they had like you know several meetings uh about about this about this ordinance that was brought to their attention it was like and they had some concerns um

1:01:47regarding the about the about the the the hours of operation uh they said because some massage problems they stay open until like 10 uh or on on weekdays and it's like because that's been like a a problem area for life for for for quite some time and it's been like

1:02:05they just not this is not too thrilled or what the uh with the uh hours with them with the whole in parlor in general because of that to me that's it that spells out like you know crime uh around the in in in the retro annex area and they had and they and it was talking about this

1:02:22um at one of their previous meetings they said that they trying to like that that that they're trying to do on like an ordinance uh like a zoning around that area so i'm thinking that it's like okay maybe my songs probably won't be too bad but uh but there have

1:02:37been but there's been like you know a brash of activities that goes on around that um that put um around the perimeter so so i will get i'll send an email out to richard annex a group and tell him says that hopefully that the the council will will think about this really hard to figure

1:02:54out what what can they do to like to prevent from all this uh activity that's been going so with that said i'll be happy to answer any questions i don't know does anybody have questions no i have a comment on what you just said we don't usually i can't no look no

1:03:12we'll talk afterwards yeah sorry this is public comment all right okay are there any more speakers i just want to clarify members of the council can comment on the public comments oh okay that is allowable under the brown act oh okay um he just had he just had said he

1:03:31mentioned in his um in his presentation that uh they were concerned about the powers being open until 10 p.m and i um you can read over the ordinance online or i don't know if we have a copy of it but but i do believe that part of the ordinance was to make sure that all

1:03:52massages were completed by 9 pm okay is there a motion to close the public hearing so moved okay is there a second a second okay motion by lyman seconded by quinto uh all in favor please say aye aye any opposition any abstentions motion carries unanimously okay now we go to discussion

1:04:19uh motion and uh vote on ordinance so what you can do just as procedurally is the next thing after the public comment is us making comments oh okay um if if you want and we just continue doing that um until we're finished and um so do you would you like to shout

1:04:40michelle or would you rather i start at the other end oh i think i had i said what i wanted to say okay i just would like to mention that i'm i have reached out to my colleagues on the other side of san pablo avenue our council members in richmond and uh and i've asked them let's look at this

1:05:00together and uh so what they know that the other side of san pablo avenue has more establishments on that side of the street and so you know they're aware of what's going on and so i just wanted to mention that to everyone thank you okay greg yeah i want to thank staff for

1:05:23putting this ordinance together i don't know what all the source materials were but i think this is very complete and respectful to the legitimate massage community and i think this is something that will bring into compliance all of the ones that are less reputable

1:05:45things like the massage hours seven a.m to nine pm you know having a list of services available and the cost of each services are posted and prohibiting the offering of services that are not listed is great you know no massage business sell publish or distribute

1:06:06uh literature advertising matter that depicts any portion of the human body that would reasonably suggest prospective clients that any service is available other than those listed it's unfortunate that we have to go that level of specificity uh to um to prevent

1:06:24the types of behavior that degrade our community uh council member fidelity said it well the number of massage parlors in town was a very common theme that people were asking us about um and and not that i'm happy to hear a business close but that the number has been reduced is

1:06:46probably a sign that they knew that there was going to be more scrutiny on their business and so um hopefully this is the beginning of you know getting our massage businesses into a higher level of professionalism and compliance and i want to thank staff for that so

1:07:08i believe that covers everything yep i agree with councilman lyman i think it's a great first step in moving forward on san pablo avenue in this area um i had one question about our our prohibition on any new massage parlors has been lifted then or has that time run out

1:07:27um we had a we added a year on some time ago does that restart up again or so the moratorium itself will be lifted by i believe it's february 17th and the new ordinance if adopted um at the second reading will be effective march 9th so if we receive any new applications it would take me at least

1:07:4860 days to review them so if you do get a new application they will be informed of this absolutely we'll have to know this coming into town that this is something we require absolutely thank you very much um i would like to thank everybody who's been involved with this process i know

1:08:06it's been a very very long process and i can remember some local folks including prior staff of the city of el cerrito coming in and testifying and and expressing their concerns uh about making sure that everything would work for legitimate um massage uh practitioners

1:08:35and um and i also know that former assembly member susan benia was very active in getting legislation passed and i know because i also was up there participating with her in many news conferences but the um i think that the ordinance that's been developed is a good one the way it

1:09:02was before was that the massage industry was governed by the massage industry so there was no government oversight really and i think that was probably what led things to be the way they were but i think this is a much better process and i think the staff did some

1:09:28really good work in developing this particular ordinance and i would like to thank you all for doing this um so with that we just completed the uh discussion i believe i'd like to move an ordinance of the city of el cerrito amending el cerrito municipal code chapter 8.10 massage establishment by

1:09:49repealing it in its entirety and replacing it by adding and adopting el cerrito municipal code chapter 8.10 massage businesses second okay uh it's been second excuse me motion by lyman seconded by um michelle uh okimoto and um with that let's take a vote all in favor

1:10:15please say aye aye any opposition any abstentions motion carries unanimously okay with that we move on to the next item on the agenda which is item number seven it's the redevelopment agency successor agency item and um could we start out if you don't mind sky with a brief

1:10:43um statement about what in the world that meant for the benefit of our or would you prefer to just it sounds kind of strange for our new council members i'm trying to i'll put it in layperson terms i promise that's a good way to state it you want to tag team translate it to

1:11:06english please again what translate to english what this process oh yeah of just a slight overview of the process for all of us especially the new folks my short version of it would be that as part of the process of dissolving redevelopment agencies um in california

1:11:24um the the statutes set up a process by which um local agencies with dissolved redevelopment agencies could submit to the state um a list of existing obligations that required to be that they were legally obligated to fund um and that process was initially every

1:11:46six months or so it's now i think once a week once a year annual one an annual report so basically the city has to prepare a list of the the ongoing financial obligations of the former redevelopment agency and if those are approved by the state it receives funding from property tax to

1:12:05pay those obligations it's called the recognized obligation payment schedule and the document that's in front of you tonight is um that list of financial obligations of the former former redevelopment agency you have to approve it so that we can submit it to the state so that we can then get the

1:12:20money to pay those obligations now this my name is melanie mintz and i'm the city's community development director welcome to council members um i will add both one small detail and one kind of bird's eye view so the other detail is that after you approve it acting as the successor

1:12:37agency um we have to take it to the oversight board to the success successor agency which is comprised of appointees from the different taxing entities so next week after you approve it we take it to the oversight board because the department of finance only accepts resolutions from that oversight

1:12:54board and the oversight board wants you to act first um i haven't been involved in the whole process so i don't i'll have all the details another way to think about what um skye was just saying is when redevelopment was resolved it was partly the governor's intent that the funds

1:13:13that used to go through tax increment financing to our redevelopment agency would be distributed amongst the taxing entities the 20 there's 22 taxing entities that will be receiving the money that used to go to our redevelopment agency however that money can only be distributed after our

1:13:28obligations are paid so this process is looking at what obligations are approved and still that we are still requesting be approved um and so the dof has to um after the oversight board approves it it goes to the department of finance who as the staff report gets into the detail has the ability to

1:13:48accept or deny those and then we have one opportunity to meet and confer and try to make our case and when i talk about the ones the items that are on this there's some of those that we have done that with and we're still in dispute with them over does that and i'm uh available uh for questions so

1:14:06again tonight all i'm asking questions from anyone yeah any questions to that point um so the action before you tonight is quite a simple one it is just that you adopt the resolution of the successor agency to the redevelopment agency reviewing an authorizing submittal of

1:14:21the rops which is attached as uh the city attorney just said we're currently this used to be a bi-annual event and now it in theory is an annual starting with the last cycle however we do have an opportunity to amend that one time and we can only amend it based on items that were

1:14:39already contained so for example last year after adopting the annual rops we successfully closed on some refinancing of tax allocation bonds for the redevelopment agency which changed the math because it reduced our payments which meant that there was increased residual payments to

1:14:56the city so again as you'll see on this the one of the key items in addition to looking at all the successor agency items is after all of these obligations are paid there's somewhat of a waterfall after our obligations are paid and all of the different obligations to taxing entities

1:15:15there's a leftover amount from the real property taxes that come to the county so after our obligations are paid and different obligations are met the remainder is divvied up amongst the 22.

1:15:28so that goes into our general fund so um not thinking of em actually and we can go i could always i'm available for questions always if you want to ask that more and our redevelopment attorney is as well so on tonight's on today's drops just to kind of go over the items

1:15:49typically we do need to include funding for our tax allocation bond debt service but because of the refi um it's been deferred so we're not asking for that the valente note is something we're asking for and just to give some background on that that is the money that we owe on the mayfair

1:16:05property um and so that is something that the redevelopment agency purchased and we still owe those funds um that of course when the mayfair property is sold we'll start to be retired and again once when an obligation is retired there's more money that flows to all the

1:16:19taxing entities including the city um the streetscape and streetlights item um is one that we've been putting on and that the state has been denying um this is due to the fact that the city entered into a contract the redevelopment agency entered into a contract to do some streetscape

1:16:36improvements um the city actually was the i don't have all the details the redevelopment agency was funding improvements that the city was undertaking the city actually is one who entered into that contract and through some kind of accounting it had not moved over in time

1:16:52to be let for that contract so while the city paid for streetscape to be occurred the redevelopment agency had it had never transferred and so the city's position is that that was a contractual obligation we have paid that money that redevelopment agency still owes it the

1:17:07state is saying that it's not honoring um it's not honoring that because it was the city who was in the contract so we keep doing a meet and confer um last year there was some cleanup legislation that actually re-articulated how important it was to honor these former redevelopment agency

1:17:25obligations that occurred on state highways i think that must have been in the legislation there were several redevelopment projects that occurred that is also still not budging dof so that we put on there they typically deny it but we keep putting it craft erav is also the education

1:17:42revenue the revenue augmentation funds i believe it stands for um and the supplemental it was the again for the benefit of new council members um this was funding that was lent to the um from the affordable housing funds to the state um via the redevelopment agency and so the

1:18:05redevelopment agency still owes that to the affordable housing component of what was the redevelopment agency so there's still some fun um i think there's 750 000 there's several more payments that need to be made and that goes gets put into our affordable housing funds which for

1:18:22example um recently today a hundred thousand dollars is going to the eden project and that is with these funds um and the administrative allowance which this we're understanding might be the last time that we're allowed to put this or it's going to be changing and it's

1:18:37going to be a percentage of your rops so this one is going to be changing but up until this point we've been allowed to include 250 000 to cover the city's expenses related to administering this process and successor agency items so that is what i'm asking for you tonight

1:18:58any questions about that greg of course there's numbers on here i've got to have questions and i'll do my best to try and orient you to them in in the uh attachment two uh column i is total is is a total outstanding debt of obligation and so for example the son of iraf or seraph it says 6 16 is

1:19:23that before or after the 250 that's uh that's budgeted for this year so one thing i'm going to admit as we typ is i do have a consultant preparing these numbers and mark is mark mark is still here um i believe i'm good you're squinting too you i think on your screen you can

1:19:40enlarge it the way that we do it if you can look at it as a live pdf you can see it on our screen yeah you can enlarge it um but i believe that that is before our recent before this ask okay so so although you said 750 um yeah it's at 6 16 so it would be less than 400 if we get the full 250 it

1:20:02would be less than 400 in future years yeah i might have to completely unless mark you know the answer i might have to confirm that in looking at the work papers so i could um confirm that at a future uh time but that's um and and one of the things that you did

1:20:18highlight thank you in your presentation was that the last line line item 29 where we have a 14 million outstanding tax allocation bond the reason we didn't have anything for this this particular year is because the way we refinanced it is that going to cause us problem

1:20:36knowing our good friends at the state is that going to cause us a problem that we did not have an ask this year no it's actually well it is it's quite complicated um one of the issues that might be i can envision them saying well you didn't ask for it last year well you don't need it anymore

1:20:52so one of the issues is that we have cash on hand because we remember this is this um you ask for the funding in advance of when you're going to need it and last year when we asked for it we asked for it before the refi and the amendment so we actually have more cash

1:21:05on hand for that um and so we're actually um so there's some juggling going on there but but those are the we do have don frazier as our consultant on this um and he and karen tiedman our redevelopment attorney and we're monitoring for those items but we can never promise that the dof is not gonna

1:21:22forget forget that that this is a continuing item that we just you know were able to save money and so that's why they didn't get an ask this year the other thing that they do understand is that you're trying to balance how many um funds are available and are forecast

1:21:36in property taxes so that you're having to balance it to make sure that everything's covered and then you did mention this in line item 24 the streetscape work for outstanding balance of negative 431 000 or 431 000.

1:21:50we've been carrying that on rops now i think two years i think that's about right yeah so so that the even though our ask for this year is is eight well 1.2 million um you know we we expect 430 of it to be swept away hope that it won't be okay all right great thank you

1:22:13any other questions i just had one new council member question here um so the 431 000 is there any reason to think the state might view this differently this year than previously i mean all i feel like i can hope so they they keep coming back with the same answer which

1:22:31is that we have to show the contract with the contractor and that's not how it's not how city but how the redevelopment agency in the city did contracts and is there any reason you only list that in the resolution and not the other dollar amounts that are in the

1:22:45analysis i think i believe it's something in the statutory requirements that require that that's asked and it might i i would have to again ask but but the city attorney added that claw adds that clause each time so there's something and i don't i'm sorry i don't have a

1:22:59more precise answer but again i can follow up on um both that and the 6 16 but i do know that for some reason the statute related to this item required that it was it was included that way other questions are there any public comments on this item no mayor okay

1:23:19uh is there a motion on this item excuse me okay i'll move it i was going to give paul an opportunity a second this one is that okay yeah a resolution of the city council of the city of el cerrito acting as the el cerrito redevelopment agency successor agency authorizing submittal of the

1:23:33draft recognized obligation payment schedule 17-18 as required under dissolution act and approving inclusion on the ropes of reimbursement to the city for streetscape improvements made pursuant to an improved redevelopment project plan for infrastructure improvements

1:23:52a second that okay ready to vote all in favor please say aye aye any opposition any abstentions motion carries unanimously okay and with that we move on to city council local and regional liaison assignments these assignments are listed in your packet and [Applause]

1:24:24are there any issues okay is there a motion do we do do we i'm actually gonna i'm gonna um suggest that a motion not be made okay and and i have um a good argument for that okay if if we make these appointments by motion of the full group then any changes through the year that might be

1:24:53necessary would have to be done by the full group i would like it to be mayor's appointment so that mid-year you have the authority to make any reappointments as necessary as a result of the primary and alternate not being available you would have the authority

1:25:10to appoint a third person so okay i if if everyone is willing i would like to leave it as mayoral appointment okay and i just i just wanted to clarify that the municipal code does authorize the mayor to make these appointments there's usually an opportunity like this for

1:25:28members of the council to discuss it but the mayor is authorized to make the appointments okay and i believe we discussed it and i didn't hear any feedback uh at this time at least i did try to follow a couple of principles uh one was that the the um i tried to keep the appointments that

1:25:49were external to the city the same except where i needed to change them because of the change in council members in order to help retain our seniority on regional bodies and then on the city assignments to the different boards commissions and committees i tried to move those so that we are

1:26:12rotating them that was extremely hard to do i might add and um so i think just we we're get we get to a point where you've kind of had them all so you have to rotate back in and i just want to acknowledge that however as far as i know i didn't do that except maybe i did that

1:26:32on the human relations commission to greg that um they love me they love you [Laughter] and um that was actually an error on my part but um i will just leave it if you don't mind because i don't i might not be able to fix it anyway um so that's that is what i tried to do

1:26:55and uh with that then uh we will adjourn this meeting to the rec next regular city council meeting on tuesday february the 7th at 7 pm and thank you all for coming and thank you for staying al okay so we're all done