Regular City Council and Special City Council Meetings February 7, 2017

0:01:14well thank you all for coming and we'll start out with roll call council member fideli yeah councilmember Lyman your councilmember Quinto council member Pardue akimoto present and mayor Abelson here thank you the next item let's see then we should have the uh what's wrong with my agenda

0:01:51we're just down here I see what's going on okay so uh with that we'll go on to the Pledge of Allegiance and uh it's actually my turn to lead it if you like you can observe a moment of silence instead of uh reciting the pledge your choice I pledge allegiance to the flag of the

0:02:14United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands one nation under God indivisible with liberty and justice for all okay the next item on the agenda we're gonna do this a little bit out of order tonight the next item is Council and staff Communications

0:02:49yes are there any councilburster pardon we do have a staff communication when you're ready your honor okay uh would you like to do it before the council usually we do those first but you can go ahead okay go ahead uh Rochelle would you like to bring up anything at this time

0:03:08no I have no Communications at this point like last week I had the pleasure to join mayor Abelson at the mayor's conference that was held in Pinole at their senior center thank you okay thank you and um all um just a bit of good news from from Bart I heard that uh this Thursday at

0:03:33the BART board meeting the board will be allowing the GM to um push through a contract to begin uh construction on Del Norte station so that construction will begin in the next couple of months and there will be a ribbon cutting and some good news for the north part of town and I'll keep you

0:03:51informed on that thank you okay would you like to give us any tidbits about that project um it's going to be glorious with glorious art and there's going to be elevators inside the system so fairy Vaders won't be able to take advantage of the system twice as much public room

0:04:10and situated in place so we hope we can work on some crime issues reduce the crime that's around Del Norte and improve the bus transfer situation so it's a good time for El Cerrito in the north part of town with Bart there so thank you thank you okay Greg nope oh

0:04:28nothing to report at this time okay I have a few things I attended the um uh division three bus yard reopening on January 26th along with council member uh excuse me mayor Pro tem Lyman and it was a delight to see that yard reopening in in case you don't know what that means

0:04:55um I'll I'll just try to tell you very briefly what that means is that instead of having to come from another County another world the buses can start originating from our part of the world in on McDonald Avenue in Richmond and it's a very exciting day and it's been uh not so for a number of

0:05:21years and so it will be very nice to see it returned to our part of the world and um the um uh another thing that I did was participate in and I'm not sure if I had mentioned this or not but I did the installation of the Chamber of Commerce officers and also gave a speech on the specific

0:05:50plan and um on September 17th and then I attended the East Bay division of the league of California cities meeting and we had it was out it was an opportunity for there to be a question and answer session from a number of elected officials four to be exact uh the state senators Bill Dodd

0:06:24and Steve Glaser and assembly members Catherine Baker and Tony Thurman from this area and so it was pretty Lively and I think it was people found it interesting and the last thing I want to mention is that at the WIC Tac meeting of uh the end of last month I was elected chair

0:06:50upcoming uh session congratulations thank you and um Cecilia Valdez from San Pablo the city of San Pablo was elected vice chair and um so is there anything else I actually do have one other thing to comment on um I spent the entire day today at the Board of Supervisors meeting

0:07:19where they passed an expansion of the jail and I think that's something that our community really needs to discuss I think it's going to have an impact on all of us and I think it's something that we as a community and particularly the human relations commission needs to

0:07:42address thank you is that it for Council announcements okay um then we'll move on to staff announcements wonderful thank you your honor I'm Karen Pincus I'm assistant city manager and I'm also the staff liaison to the human relations commission and I wanted to give a brief

0:08:03update and report on the most recent human relations commission meeting which is last Wednesday you may recall that the meeting included an agenda item to discuss a potential recommendation to the city council regarding the protection of immigrants in El Cerrito

0:08:16the meeting was held here in the council chambers I counted close to 70 people in attendance and I see some faces who have come back tonight thank you and welcome um I want to give um uh shout out to chair Georgina Edwards and the rest of the human relations commission who did a great job I believe

0:08:35leading the meeting and being thoughtful and considering all of the issues I gave a staff report noting that we as on the staff level have already begun to research this um the topic of sanctuary cities analyze what those various Concepts might mean for El Cerrito

0:08:50including the potential impacts I did also want to note and I see um several members of our Police Department here for another topic but in practice the El Cerrito Police Department already incorporates many of the elephant elements that Define a sanctuary City

0:09:06such as not asking for or considering immigration status when they make contact with people and in fact we believe that doing so would be detrimental to helping solve crime since it would make people of of any status afraid to work with the police department so our recommendation was

0:09:20that the human relations commission consider the Public's input and work with staff to develop that recommendation to bring to you 22 people spoke all of them were in favor of formal written legislation designating El Cerrito as a sanctuary City many shared personal stories many conveyed

0:09:37how grateful they were to live in El Cerrito and how proud they were to be at this meeting one woman said it was her birthday are you here it was her birthday and she came because she was so compelled to come and speak on this so this was a real Community desire and a clear desire that while

0:09:53they were grateful that the police department does essentially like I said incorporate those elements of a sanctuary City that there was a desire to see it formally and in writing people were respectful and positive police chief Paul Keith and um Sergeant Wentworth attended the meeting

0:10:07they expressed their thanks and then when it came back to the commission they all expressed their stated interest in the concept of a sanctuary City in protecting vulnerable populations in El Cerrito they appointed a subcommittee to work with me we had our first meeting

0:10:21today we'll be developing a formal recommendation to be brought back to the human relations Commission on March 1st at their meeting March 1st at 7 pm I think we might have to have it here again because I anticipate a good audience once that is approved by the commission then staff and the commission

0:10:40would bring it back to the city council at your meeting on March 21st so if you have any questions I'm happy to answer them there's been positive feedback I've gotten several emails already from community members we positive feedback on social media there's an article in

0:10:54the East Bay Times so um so we're moving forward with that and you will look to see that on March 21st at your meeting thank you there any other staff Communications or announcements okay not seeing any um I I would like to move on to uh and I hope that staff will correct me if

0:11:17I get this out of order um but I'd like to move on to oral Communications from the public on items not on the agenda or if you want to speak on an item that's on the consent calendar either one then this would be the opportunity to do that and if you haven't filled out a speakers slip we

0:11:40would ask that you do so and give it to the city clerk who's right here and and then we will call and she will call names of uh speakers so we'll we'll start calling uh names of speakers if you need a speaker slip it's half blue sheet and we they're over here you can come up

0:12:05and get them at as you want while we're doing the process so Cheryl would you like to call the first three names thank you Mary Ableton the first three are Carl grok followed by Antonio Medrano and Michael Freeman good evening my name is Carl grok [address removed]

0:12:32I was at the human relations commission meeting and frankly gave pretty much the speech but I wanted to come back to emphasize how important I think it is that we become a sanctuary City I represent a small group of citizens in the Tassajara Avenue area that have organized to

0:12:53resist the efforts of the Trump Administration to strip us of our rights and destroy our environment and I think the last 24 to 48 hours have only made the situation worse he's he is our worst nightmare my grandparents were immigrants my wife is an immigrant her parents are one of

0:13:15the very few were amongst very few people who actually escaped a death camp it did happen uh but with each wave of immigration we have heard dire warnings similar to what we hear now of the crime disease and destruction the immigrants are going to bring with them however the stories are

0:13:34all lies based upon bigotry and racism this audience tonight we are here we are the we are immigrants we're the children of immigrants we're the grandchildren of immigrants this is America this is what we should be and who we should be by Sanctuary we mean we're a

0:13:54person whose only crime is not having legal status here should not be detained by our local police for in benefit of ice to be picked up by Ice we must stand against the ignorance the racism the bigotry that now occupies the White House it is important we stand

0:14:13with other Sanctuary cities there is great strength in numbers it is critical that we stand against tyranny the tyrannical ambition before it gains more power please stand with us and declare El Cerrito a sanctuary City thank you [Applause] I'm Antonio Medrano from montalva Manor

0:14:42San Pablo it's good to see old friends and people that I've known for years I'm chair of the local chapter of the ACLU I can tell you that prior to the election there were like 46 or 48 000 members now there's 86 000 every day they're getting hundreds of phone calls saying

0:15:04what can I do what chapter should I go to the ACLU is pro-civil rights civil liberties and anything that gets in the way of civil liberties we are not anti-trump rather where again xenophobia nationalists racist and unconstitutional statements about individuals or groups

0:15:29and any efforts to undermine civil rights today we Face an upsurge of extreme conservatism of nationalism xenophobia and racism coded as Law and Order yeah we need freedom from mass incarceration police abuse profiling targeting of people based on race ethnicity or

0:15:54religion freedom of speech both online and in the streets for all groups and all issues and freedom to access contraception abortion and Comprehensive Health Care there's some bills right now before the legislature ab3 bonta public defender funding for immigrants who are housed in the

0:16:16detention facilities sb6 by whistle due process for all regardless of your immigrant status and the key for everything the California values Act and that basically will say the following state and local enforcement agencies and school police and security departments

0:16:39will not engage in Immigration enforcement no state or local resources will be used to investigate detain detect report or arrest persons for immigration enforcement purposes regardless of whether state or local resources are implicated no state or local law enforcement agency will detain

0:17:00or transfer any person for deportation without a Judicial warrant we were distressed hearing about a week and a half ago that the probation department of Contra Costa County had a client that they were speaking to and that probation department turned them over to ice

0:17:19how do we expect people to trust the probation officer so we encourage you to join the state and support SB 54 which will make all of California basically non-cooperation with ice I thank you and welcome all my friends gracias foreign [Applause] good evening I'm Mike Freeman I'm

0:17:49involved with the local chapter of the ACLU I support making El Cerrito a sanctuary City but the main reason I'm here to today is because I'm concerned and we're all concerned about the steady flow of military and surveillance technology that this federal government has been

0:18:06giving local cities and counties one of the greatest concerns is stingray cell phone intercepting devices these allow law enforcement and other government employees to listen in on cell phone calls read text messages and track people we feel that technology like this should

0:18:25only be implemented under strict guidelines established by policy makers that's the city council on here in El Cerrito we feel that it is up to you to make these policy decisions whether to acquire this equipment and we think that decisions should be made in public with

0:18:41the public provided the information they need we need an informed public debate at the earliest stage with and we need to respect the fourth amendment's rights to search and see to not have be searched or have your property seized without a warrant or probable cause

0:18:59the city needs to determine that the benefits of surveillance technology outweigh the cost not only the fiscal costs but the cost of the civil liberties of your citizens and you need a policy that is enforceable and with accountability with procedures for annual reporting and other measures

0:19:20to keep the policies under control Santa Clara past the surveillance ordinance in June 2016 and Alameda County delayed a stingray upgrade until use policy is adopted we ask you to approve our model a surveillance technology policy thank you the next three three speakers are Jim

0:19:47hauskin followed by Caleb Brown and Bharat treyman good evening Madam mayor and Council people I do appreciate your opportunity to be been given to and talk to you about a very important subject surveillance surveillance is a mushroom it grows the technology keeps changing we look at

0:20:10for example Stingray and we think oh maybe we should do something about stingrays Stingray is only a brand name there are over seven different cell stimulator Technologies as these issues grow and as the Technologies change in advance over the years I think that we

0:20:25need to have something in place to deal with them something that is appropriately structured so that we can anticipate what would be the problems both constitutionally and for our city and also that which would allow us to prepare for the future to include new technologies if we are only concerned

0:20:42with a sort of whack-a-mole approach to a particular technology we missed a larger picture and that is that we need one a committed Society body that will go ahead and investigate this subject and act upon it two we also need to have expert opinion we need to have the input

0:20:58of all sorts of people police citizens City staff everyone needs to be involved with this so that we don't isolate any of our citizens or any of our bureaucratic functions I think it's also very important that we look at this in the sense of something which is scary

0:21:17if I was representative McClintock from down state right now I would wonder what in the world is going on I would wonder why in a nice conservative County I had to have a police escort to get away from Angry citizens who found out that I'm supporting Trump if this is going to be a dominant

0:21:35attitude in the part of citizens I think that we as activists we as leaders in our communities need to pay attention there's a new movement growing and I think that it's going to be very important for all of us to follow in thank you [Applause] good evening my name is Kayla Brown I

0:21:58live at [address removed] in El Cerrito I wanted to call your attention to the closure of El Cerrito Catholic School in my neighborhood I live in the same block as the school and I wanted to speak to you about the value of preserving that zoning for public semi-public use the uh

0:22:18it's a it's a strange feature of the neighborhood that's mostly retirees that there are all these children's voices and feet all the time and I think the the neighborhood would be would continue to benefit from that piece of property continuing to benefit hundreds instead

0:22:36of you know dozens of potential residents if it were to be converted to a residential districting and I wanted to present that property which is like 65 000 square feet as a potential site for the library which I which had a passed in measure B but perhaps with a

0:22:51site in mind uh that will boost its chances in the future thank you foreign and I'm also from the ACLU local chapter and I just wanted to follow up a little bit uh you we've put this ordinance up from the ACLU in front of you and I just wanted to give you a sense of what the

0:23:15public reaction to this has been this has been out there for about a year now and at least one county has passed it and I know this stuff like this going out going on outside of California as well so here are some reactions uh to this particular document so one thing

0:23:28that surprised me is a report by the International Association of the chiefs of police and this is what is titled their technology policy framework and in that document they actually cited documents that the ACL you had put out regarding how to do surveillance and

0:23:44they also reached conclusions that are similar to the ACLU on a wide range of issues so that's the police then there's also surveys of the public and this is service of Likely California voters and it turns out that two-thirds of the respondents supported a requirement that

0:23:58local city councils of board or Board of Supervisors should vote to approve new serverless technology before it is used by the police and there's a whole bunch of sort of quest questions that were asked and they basically came out very closely aligned to what the ACLU is

0:24:11proposing and just to remind you we're not proposing any kind of ban and we're not saying this can't happen all we are saying is that elected officials should be the people when they when a city or a county decides to get license plate readers or decides to get cameras it's

0:24:23the city council or the county you know elected authorities that should be making these decisions and then finally I wanted to mention that the media reaction to the ACL user proposal has been very positive all the major news California newspapers which is the San

0:24:40Francisco Chronicle the San Jose Mercury News and the LA Times had published have published editorials in support of what the ACL is saying and just to quote two of them the earlier times said the aclu's approach to wetting new technologies is so pragmatic that cities

0:24:54counties and law enforcement agencies throughout California would be foolish not to embrace it so that's the LA Times and the San Jose Mercury News said bottom line elected leaders not police departments should set policy for server for the use of surveillance equipment

0:25:09this is the ASL ACLU recommendation it's also Common Sense thank you [Applause] slayered followed good evening my name is Jess Laird I live on [address removed] and I am a member of the Executive Board of the East Bay young Democrats I too am here to talk about

0:25:44Sanctuary City status I'll be reading a prepared letter on behalf of the executive board and then making some personal comments dear mayor council members and City staff East Bay young Democrats is an organization committed to inclusion and tolerance we'd like to think that's true

0:26:00for the preponderance of people who live in our community the election of Donald Trump to the highest office in the land brings with it many challenges that will require local leadership many many in our country will look to our region and our state for leadership

0:26:13during the campaign Donald Trump said quite plainly that he wants to deport the 11 million undocumented immigrants who live and work in our country he also said he wants to be on Muslims from entering our country and to subject those already here to a level of scrutiny that would be unprecedented and

0:26:27dangerous upon securing a majority of the Electoral College he signaled that he plans on deporting up to 3 million undocumented immigrants immediately and our new future is just getting started we can hope that he won't follow through on all the alarming promises he has made

0:26:40during his campaign but we must be prepared and we must not be silent on behalf of our membership and our fellow residents who are too scared to speak out right now we ask that you immediately do what is necessary to become a sanctuary City in doing so you will take a proactive step to better

0:26:56protect marginalized people in our city joining many other cities including La New York City Washington DC Denver Houston Dallas Salt Lake City and Portland this would also join the efforts of local East Bay communities who have already declared Sanctuary status including San Francisco Berkeley

0:27:12Richmond Alameda Oakland Emeryville Berkeley Unified School District and West Contra Costa Unified School District especially following the election results we believe this action will have broad support in this community as soon as possible we need local law enforcement to be given guidance on how

0:27:28to respond to Federal deportation requests we need everyone in our community to feel safe interacting with local government agencies in doing so you also improve Public Safety making everyone in our community feel more comfortable in reporting serious crimes in their neighborhoods time is of the

0:27:42essence and we will make this request with an urgency we have never felt before we are still processing the profoundly negative impact of this election and we know more action will be necessary in the days months and years ahead we are counting on you to defend the best of

0:27:55American Californian and El Cerrito values we want to show the rest of the country what can be done when thoughtful and compassionate people use the power granted them to make life better for people desperate for Hope and opportunity and we thank you in advance

0:28:07for your prompt action and as a personal note not speaking as a board member of the East Bay young Democrats I'm a adoptive mother two years ago today actually I brought my son home to the United States and so at this time two years ago I was going through immigration with him and at that

0:28:26point he became an American citizen and a dual citizen it was a very terrifying experience and I've been reflecting a lot today about how much more terrifying that would have been today if that had been now instead of two years ago and the the prospect of being rejected at

0:28:44immigration with my son um so I just want to urge you to consider this the East Bay young Democrats is one of the largest young Democrats organizations in the state and we are eager to be of whatever assistance we can be in this effort thank you thank you I think that is there one more public

0:29:06speaker okay there's two more how many two two okay hi my name is John delaros I'm a resident of El Cerrito and I'm here to talk to you about uh I'm Adam on the agenda that caught my eye and that's uh five f for requestment for the development of horse sporting facility

0:29:22at Point Pinole so I'm familiar with Point panel it's a great open space area and I just came over to say that I think this is a little bit misguided for a horse boarding facility at this space my general objection to it is that public space public open space should

0:29:38remember public open space and um having a facility that would instead of be used for the general public what would be used for a lucky few that could afford to have a horse and also could afford to board their horse at this facility rather than used in by the general public just seems misguided

0:29:57um that there's plenty of open space at this facility I think I saw that in the resolution um that's kind of the point again this is public open space um and if there were buildings here I feel like it would detract from the benefit of having this open space that's

0:30:13used very heavily by people that walk dogs bike go fishing that's all a benefit I think that's about it like I said I don't think this is in the interest of the city of El Cerrito and for all of its residents not just lucky few that have horses and I hope that you

0:30:30reconsider this and take this off the consent calendar thank you the last speakers Miguel grabe gravel good evening first I wanted to say thank you to the city and all of the leadership in particular the ecpd for its fine commitment to all of us in addition to our most vulnerable populations such as

0:30:54the Immigrant community on myself fam the son of a Mexican immigrant so it's an issue that's due to myself as I also teach and teach many students whose family or themselves are immigrants as well um I represent so I'm Miguel gravel I live on San Diego street I represent the

0:31:11El Cerrito progressives and in order to support the HRC and the assistant city manager and their research and review of sanctuary City Provisions we've drafted a document which I've already submitted um with the city clerk some of the key Provisions would be that city employees

0:31:30may not use City resources to number one assist or cooperate with any ice investigation detention or arrest relating to alleged violations of the Civil provisions of federal immigration law number two ask that about immigration status on any application for City benefits services or

0:31:48opportunities except as required by federal or state statute regulation or Court decision number three limit city services or benefits based on immigration status unless required by federal or state statute or regulation Public Assistance criteria or Court decision number four

0:32:06provide information about the release status of personal information of any individual except in limited circumstances when the law enforcement May respond to ice requests for notification about when an individual will be released from custody and finally number five detain an individual

0:32:21on the basis of a civil immigration detainer after that individual becomes eligible for release from custody I appreciate your diligence on this matter and thank you very much [Applause] with that we will agenda it's been requested that we remove and continue item number five F which is

0:32:49the request for the development of horse boarding facilities at Point Pinole this was requested by East Bay Regional Parks staff who I believe I'm not mistaken had not had an opportunity to consider it even pardon they oppose it they oppose it okay so um is continue the right word

0:33:16okay and um then um Rochelle I think you were wanting to make the motion on the consent calendar yes I with I had a item you wanna IV that I wanted to okay you want to pull 5e yes okay um I don't know if you want me to comment on that right now why don't you um let's hold why don't we just pull it

0:33:49and then Rochelle I think just wants to comment and then make a motion to support what's remaining so that would be if I'm am I correct which is 5 a through um e and no I missed that where I 5 A through five D I believe and um G yes I'd like to make that motion

0:34:27to pass 5 a through D and G and I'd like to make a comment on 5B which is the Black History Month Proclamation I'm very proud to be sitting here as a member of the African-American community I'm proud to be representing the African-American community in El Cerrito

0:34:58I would like to take a moment to recognize those that have come before me because I know that I am not here alone I am here because of the hard work that many African-American citizens in El Cerrito have done before me there are several people that are worth mentioning but I have a few listed here

0:35:25that were recommended as people that should be recognized by the NAACP A.G Radford was the founder of the NAACP here in El Cerrito he went knocking door to door on and ended up with over 140 members in their initial NAACP including 16 lifetime members which is the largest in the East Bay

0:35:55I'd also like to recognize Gerald Martin and judge Charles Wilson who were also co-founders or charter members Gerald Martin came to El Cerrito in the 50s and was president of the NAACP in the 90s and still lives here today judge Charles Wilson's work was recently

0:36:18recognized at our Martin Luther King celebration I would also like to recognize Leticia Moore who served as a councilwoman and mayor and if I'm not mistaken was she the only other African-American to serve on the council besides myself according to one of the NAACP members as far as they could

0:36:45recall she is the only other one besides me so I think that's pretty amazing that I get to stand here on the shoulders of all of those people that went before me I'd like to thank them and I'd like to thank the other people that I was unable to mention at this time

0:37:04happy Black History Month to all of you second light to yours Charles Wilson is out on our wall of fame also that's that's excellent and I'll go ahead and second that motion okay um did you have anything no no okay we're ready to vote and that's on five a through

0:37:38d and G correct okay um all in favor please say aye aye aye in the opposition any abstention motion carries unanimously now there's been a request to continue item um 5f somebody like to make that motion I will move that to continue F which is our request for development

0:38:07and Forest boarding facilities at Point banol and and I'll go ahead and second that so that we do have an opportunity to have a discussion on that I I don't think that the um proposal that was brought forth in the resolution had any enough specifics for there to be actual opposition so I

0:38:27look forward to seeing more discussion on this item okay so shall we vote on 5f so the motion is to continue that to the next meeting thank you to con until next meeting I was you're adding that word where's the motion the motion was to continue this meeting or just to continue it

0:38:53I did not make that motion it could continue it just to continue it oh not time specific that would be don't we have to continue to a date specifically not and I don't believe that staff is prepared to bring it back in a specific time period right now so I would just

0:39:09suggest pulling it for um and continuing it without a specific date okay okay so there's been an emotion um by Rochelle second Super by Quinto okay Mike winto seconded by Lyman Lyman a little confusing tonight um all in favor please say aye aye aye any opposition any abstention motion

0:39:34cares unanimously so that will be continued until such further time as um staff is prepared to bring it back um the um that leaves us with five E I believe right and after that we will be done with the consent calendar okay so uh you wanted to do that just just a a quick

0:40:00comment because I I uh the two letters that were written to support ab1 and sb1 to send them to Sacramento to the authors to add money for our streets and Roads and our highways and Transit and I just found that the letter from El Cerrito didn't highlight Transit enough

0:40:19it's we're a Transit City we have Bart we have AC Transit um only 10 percent of the of the money going in these two bills will go to Transit and there's some efforts including from Senator uh Weiner and Senator Allen to increase the transit funding in the capital so I'm not asking

0:40:37for an increase that we asked for but I do and I appreciate the staff addition to the letters that mentions how much uh Transit how what a backlog we have in the state for our public transit as well so thank you very much for that so do you want to make a change in the

0:40:53letter um and the staff has drafted a change that I think is just fine and and yeah change packet or something it was on the counter on that on your um it was on the on the diocese and it's uh for those that are home it's the insertion of the words and public transit will also require 74 billion

0:41:14over the same period in new funding to maintain existing infrastructure and meet the needs of our growing state that was inserted into the fourth paragraph uh first sentence um and so you're and that's in both letters and and so your motion is to modify modify that letter and send it up

0:41:34I will go ahead and second that motion okay okay um all in favor please say aye aye aye in the opposition the abstentions motion carrying unanimously now with that we I think are ready to go back to item s or a which is the police officer of the year Proclamation

0:42:10thank you mayor Abelson good evening City Council Members I'm Paul Keith your Chief of Police I'd like to invite of Jose De la Torre because I'm going to be talking about him so Officer De la Torre is our officer of the year for 2016.

0:42:26he had a really banner year for the El Cerrito Police Department during the course of the year he was awarded the William K kenzink Memorial Ground Pounder award which is our internal award that we reserve for basically the cops cop this is the officer that's basically you know he knows how to do

0:42:45everything and does it well so he focuses on this is an officer that focused on narcotics and traffic safety through directed enforcement Traffic Safety through DUIs the officer knows how to interrogate people he knows how to get suspects to talk and he knows how

0:43:00to get victims to give full statements and you know it's how to comfort people that need comfort so during the course of last year Officer De la Torre through his focus on traffic safety took over 28 drunk drivers off the road he also took an unbelievable amount of

0:43:15drugs off the street it wasn't it wasn't uncommon to read the watch Banner log and find out that not only had Officer De la Torre see some cocaine off the street and some methamphetamine from another person but then after making those two arrests he'd also taken the time to go out and arrest

0:43:31a drunk driver to top it all off so a lot of times he had that Trifecta of substance abuse going on where he'd not only get the narcotics but he'd get the drunk drivers too so during the year he caught robbers car thieves spousal abusers in one arrest he made an

0:43:46arrest coming out of one of the local motels and took four and a half ounces sorry four and a half pounds of methamphetamine off the street so this is uh basically freezer bags two large Ziploc freezer bags full of methamphetamine that Officer De la Torre took off the street

0:44:02so not only did he uh leave the department in arrests and was a leader in traffic safety he also did this while training up new officers and how to be El Cerrito officers so he trained new recruits and also trained our whole Agency on electronic control devices to make sure that we're

0:44:21all up to standards for how to use electronic control devices as a force option during the year he was also awarded the life-saving medal and I'll close on this one in May of last year Oscar de la Torre responded to a call of a three-month-old child who was not

0:44:36breathing when he arrived at the scene he began CPR and rescue breathing and was able to restore the child's breathing enough so that when the El strudel fire department and paramedics arrived on scene they could begin more advanced life support due to his efforts

0:44:50and quick action at the scene we were able to save that child's life so we think that that is due to Officer De la Torre not only being at the scene quickly but using his training and life-saving techniques to make an intervention on that child's life so Oscar de la Torres our officer of the

0:45:07year he's going to be recognized tomorrow night at the Elks Lodge for all the hard work he's done so thank you Officer De la Torre and I've set aside a couple of moments here for him to say something hold on first of all thank you for the opportunity to be here tonight and

0:45:30receive this uh Proclamation I appreciate it thank you Chief thank you to the uh other Command Staff at the El Cerrito Police Department most importantly this award and this recognition wouldn't be possible without the other First Responders in the city both fire and

0:45:46police that I get the opportunity to work with every day and every night and as you well know these men and women put their themselves In Harm's Way day in and day out to protect the citizens of El Cerrito as well as the visitors of the city of El Cerrito and I'm truly

0:45:59honored to work with them none of the things that I was able to accomplish this year would have been possible without their support and their hard work so they should be recognized as well and finally but certainly not least my family over the course of the 22 year

0:46:15career thus far my three children my mother uh people who have supported me and allowed me to work a career that makes me miss holidays birthdays a lot of things because they know that I love to do what I do so thank you very much again [Applause] I have a certificate is that for

0:46:37tomorrow night or is that for tonight um maybe we could take a picture with a certificate tonight and then give it to him tomorrow night okay if the city council doesn't mind oh no we like [Applause] I can't tweet until after the meeting okay with that and staff can feel free to correct me if

0:47:52I'm wrong I believe the next item on our agenda is 4B which is a strategic plan overview it's going to be presented by assistant city manager Karen pinkos there is um there are some copies of this uh strategic El Cerrito strategic Plan update are there some over somewhere else or

0:48:20just yes there's a public copy but that's just a copy of the presentation I'm about to give and it will be posted online after the meeting okay thank you sure together are you gonna drive for me okay well thank you again mayor and city council fellow City staff and

0:48:41participants here tonight in our meeting I'm Karen Pinkus I'm assistant city manager and we're here tonight to begin the first of a series of presentations that we're going to bring to you and to the public at the next several City Council meetings we're going to be

0:48:55providing an update first on two of the major planning documents that guide the city in its Endeavors the El Cerrito strategic plan which we'll discuss tonight and the San Pablo Avenue specific plan which we'll discuss at a future meeting tonight Suzanne erla our assistant to

0:49:10the city manager and I will provide an update on the Strategic plan with a broad overview of the plan as well as a snapshot of how we're doing so I guess we go to the next slide um so just a little bit of a background on how we got here with the Strategic plan which essentially is the road map

0:49:29that guides City staff and as well as the city council in how we use our resources and what we um what we prioritize as far as our strategic goals this began in 2012 the city council and city manager initiated the process to begin this plan which is a multi-year

0:49:47plan the Strategic plan provides a framework for linking identified priorities to the budget to the capital Improvement program to policy considerations Economic Development initiatives and the organization's desire for continuous Improvement council members provided

0:50:04count policy Direction about the priorities the city's executive team provided professional input and we hired a firm called management Partners which was our Consultants that helped us facilitate the plan with the community as well as with the city council and

0:50:18develop the plan it was adopted in 2013 and updated in 2015 and you'll see oh we'll go back you'll see some of the pictures there show part of the strategic planning process which began with an analysis what we call the slot analysis slot stands for strengths limitations opportunities and threats

0:50:36that were identified through a series of interviews with Community Representatives through a variety of community outreach efforts and some of the pictures show the open house at City Hall that we had you can see in the corner there's a note that says El Cerrito challenges are we

0:50:53had put notes up big pieces of paper for people to come and write their own thoughts on what the challenges were what they loved about El Cerrito and all of that information was gathered and put into um consideration for developing the goals we also had a focus group with

0:51:10staff representatives from all levels and Departments of the city from line staff to management we had six focus groups of community stakeholders to solicit input and ideas for those of you who are on the council at the time you remember you were interviewed by

0:51:25management partners and you know again the all of we had an online survey and an online Forum so we went and tried to Broad to be as broad as possible to gain as much Community input as we could to inform the creation of the vision for the city's future so going into the next the main elements

0:51:47of the Strategic plan which would be setting a Clear Vision for the organization establishing goals and strategies to move in our desired Direction and articulate the organization's values and the behaviors that support them so starting off with the vision statement and I usually don't

0:52:02like to read PowerPoints but I know that some of this might be small so um our vision the city's Vision sets a focus for the future it's our statement of where the organization is going and our vision says the city of El Cerrito is a safe Connected Transit oriented and

0:52:18environmentally focused Bay Area destination with welcoming neighborhoods thriving businesses and vibrant public places and diverse cultural educational and recreational opportunities for people of all ages next is our mission statement the city's mission is a statement of the purpose of

0:52:38the organization it fundamentally defines what we stand for and what we will do and our mission statement says that the city of El Cerrito serves leads and supports our diverse and transit-rich Community by providing exemplary and Innovative Services public places and infrastructure ensuring

0:52:55Public Safety creating an economically and environmentally sustainable future and I would say a pretty good percentage of City staff even has this on their emails when they send them out we live this mission statement this is what we are this is why we do what we do

0:53:15next is our organizational values so values Drive behavior and support effective implementation of the Mission Vision and goals and so they're listed here and I'm just going to go over a few points about each value that we that we focus on there's within the Strategic

0:53:34plan document which is online and all of the council members have received there's a really great broad list of what those values sort of mean so I'm just going to highlight a few of what we look for when we talk about each value so for example ethics and integrity that

0:53:49means keeping the Public's interest always in mind abiding by our professional codes of conduct exercising good judgment doing the right thing even when no one is looking fiscal responsibility that means ensuring responsible spending of City revenues with Services delivered in the most cost

0:54:06effective efficient manner adhering to best practices for financial policies and practices and to maintain fiscal discipline inclusiveness and respect for diversity among other many things including treating others with dignity and respect incorporating inclusiveness into our

0:54:24programs and services and to seek and provide resources to promote and support that inclusiveness and to demonstrate compassion Innovation and creativity this means solving problems creatively being open to new ideas creating new ways of moving our organization and our city forward to

0:54:42achieve our mission fostering new and creative thinking and solutions and identifying new techniques or methods or ideas that people have and that comes from the public or staff to embrace anything that leads to our Improvement professional Excellence meaning being

0:54:57solution oriented having and communicating our vision inspiring results in effective teamwork and communicating and listening listening effectively responsiveness seeking and community seeking and utilizing Community input listening responding actively in a timely manner

0:55:15keeping our commitments doing what we say we will do and that we are reliable transparency and open communication that means facilitating public participation welcoming input being receptive to criticism seeking ways to increase that Community participation and inclusion in

0:55:33everyone's local government developing creative ways to get the public productively involved and I think we've seen a lot of that particularly tonight and last but not least sustainability taking responsibility for the long-term health and well-being of residents and

0:55:49city employees championing policies to protect preserve and restore the natural environment and taking steps to minimize waste and conserving resources so the Mission Vision and values led to the development of our strategic goals and there are six goals and again

0:56:07these goals essentially um outline exactly what we as staff consider when we are bringing you a recommendation you will you note it that it's on strategic plan considerations on all your agenda bills so that we make sure that everything that we do fits within one of these goals so the six

0:56:28goals that are there they are multi-year in nature so the time frame is meant to this was adopted in 2013 and updated in 2015. so it's meant to be a five to ten year window of how we can achieve these goals although as we'll get into in more detail later that some of these

0:56:46strategies are indeed ongoing the strategies that we have worked with each of these goals which are outlined in the Strategic plan document are the means to achieve those goals so tonight what we're going to do is we're going to go over each of the goals with a very

0:57:01broad overview of what those strategies are and then in the upcoming meetings we're going to go a little bit more into detail with the staff that work directly within those goals so that you can hear about what strategies we have achieved ones that are ongoing and others that we

0:57:17may not have achieved yet and any challenges that we are facing so you dig into the goals goal number a number a letter a goal a deliver exemplary government services so the strategies that are identified with Goal a and you can see some of our exemplary government workers all doing their job

0:57:36in those pictures there increasing productivity and efficiency by utilizing data-driven analysis to ensure appropriate resource allocation promoting employee development participate professional growth recruiting and retaining a talented and effective Workforce ensuring our

0:57:51programs are indeed inclusive of people of diverse backgrounds developing and strengthening relationships with public and private Partners residents businesses schools and Community groups and of course my favorite maintaining emphasis on providing excellent customer

0:58:05service goal B achieve long-term Financial sustainability and strategies for these goals include maintaining Financial discipline establishing decision-making guidelines to evaluate when or when where whether or when to pursue a new project or program ensuring all of our

0:58:24policies and procedures do represent best practices in financial management maximizing opportunities for existing and expanding businesses and you'll see our largest sales tax generator there go to Old Las Rita Honda exploring opportunities for public-private Partnerships continuing to pursue and

0:58:42support opportunities for new funding including outside grants and ballot measures you'll see the sign there refers to the upgrade of Huber Park using grants from measure WWE developing a financial plan and deferred maintenance of facility to address I'm sorry deferred maintenance of facilities

0:58:59and infrastructure developing a plan to ensure city-wide Revenue meets the cost of providing city-wide services and ensuring adequate reserves and then tracking and promoting state and federal legislation to create new funding opportunities go see there's a lot of pictures here

0:59:16because I think we do a lot of this deep in a sense of place and Community identity including promoting strong neighborhoods celebrating our diversity by welcoming residents of all ages and cultures and encouraging Civic involvement adopting a revised General plan to meet the needs of community now

0:59:32and in the future developing a vision for underdeveloped and underutilized properties through advanced planning efforts encouraging investment in new development and you will hear a lot about that again during the specific plan review developing an economic development

0:59:48action plan to build on our strengths including diversity arts and culture and environmental sustainability reviewing and updating our policies on the preservation of historic and cultural resources to development historic uh inventory of cultural Assets in the city

1:00:03encouraging dense business nodes to minimize or eliminate automobile traffic again some of this will come up in the specific plan review identify promote and or develop entertainment recreational and leisure activities for people of all ages and all demographics you'll see some of the

1:00:20pictures on there of our department of fun AKA Department of recreation which is exceptionally good at promoting those types of activities promoting arts and culture and Community celebrations including developing plans for our Centennial which we are doing and that

1:00:37is going really well thanks to Suzanne here and then being a strong partner with our schools goal D develop and rehabilitate public facilities as Community focal points the top two pictures are what we have done um in recent years including our recycling center and looks a little dark

1:00:54but that is Huber Park and two on the bottom that we need to work on including our library the strategies for that would be to develop a plan to address ongoing and deferred maintenance of facilities and infrastructure continue our facilities assessment to prioritize

1:01:08prioritize and strategize investment including the library public safety building Senior Center and our community center and revisit and update our structural Facilities Management plan to assess the needs of what our buildings need structurally move forward goal e ensure the Public's health and

1:01:27safety strategies for this goal include providing transparent information on crime to address perceptions of safety through Outreach and education utilizing environmental design techniques to design and prevent crimes apply data-driven analysis to Target law enforcement and fire resources to

1:01:45enhance safety maintaining our disaster preparedness programs ensuring emergency response plans are current continuing continue multi-division and Department teamwork to ensure and enhance the community's safety through comprehensive plan review permitting and inspections

1:02:03um working with local Partners such as Bart the school districts East Bay Regional Park and other communities on a coordinated approach to Public Safety utilizing Community oriented policing and problem solving a diverse array of crime prevention techniques which we

1:02:17have worked on including school resource officer program our Traffic Unit our bike Patrol and exploring Innovative and best practices for promoting Public Health for example smoking ordinances obesity prevention living wage and strategies to promote walking and biking

1:02:34so I think you're hearing with some of these strategies you might be ticking off in your head some of the things that we've already accomplished since we passed this plan I know I am and then last again but not least go Foster environmental sustainability Citywide

1:02:47and this includes being a leader in citing policies and providing Innovative programs to promote environmental sustainability promoting education Environmental Education to facilitate behavioral changes including working with the school district and other community groups implementing policies

1:03:03to promote waste diversion such as mandatory recycling Community commercial Recycling and our green waste program encouraging alternative modes of transportation to the single occupancy vehicle and implementing and monitoring the city's climate action plan so overall these sets of goals and

1:03:20strategies guide and inform our annual priority setting and resource processes particularly when we are looking toward developing the budget for each fiscal year and so our goal is with all of these goals would be to help this plan serve as the broad framework to achieve

1:03:37the exceptional quality of life that is expected and experienced by our residents and so on that note I'm going to turn it over to Suzanne to just to discuss the 2016 National citizen survey that was conducted last year and how that fits in with our strategic plan goals

1:03:57perfect good evening mayor and council members my name is Suzanne narrow and I'm the assistant to the city manager and as Karen mentioned I am going to share with you the results from the 2016 National citizen survey um and really put those results in the lens of the Strategic plan for those of

1:04:22you who might not be familiar with the National citizen survey actually 2016 was the fifth time that the city commissioned the national Research Center to conduct the National citizen survey in El Cerrito prior to 2016 we also conducted in 2012 as well as previous years the

1:04:42survey was mailed out to 1400 randomly selected households we received 400 responses back that is within the range expected by the national Research Center and that actually gives us a five percent margin of error and the results are weighted so that it's statistically

1:05:02valid and represents the whole El Cerrito community the information that was included in your packet regarding the survey results are online at www.elsarito.org NCS the National citizen survey uh seeks to provide ratings on communities livability and they actually evaluate

1:05:28that via three main different lenses or approaches and one of those is community characteristics what they mean by that is what makes a place livable attractive a place where people want to be another one of those perspectives is governance so how well does the

1:05:48government and other public agencies meet the needs and expectations of its residents and then finally they also measure participation how at what level are residents actually connected to each other and to the community I'm happy to report that 83 percent of residents rated El Cerrito as having an

1:06:13excellent or good quality of life foreign the National citizen survey in addition to those kind of three perspectives actually looks at eight different facets of quality of life and you can see those on the graphic on the screen and our results showed that our residents were

1:06:32most interested in focusing on safety the natural environment and the economy in the upcoming years another benefit of participating in the National citizen survey in addition to hearing from our residents about their priorities and how they feel we're providing what level of service we're

1:06:50providing to them is that our results are also compared with other communities Across the Nation and so throughout the rest of the presentation you'll actually see three different colors being used so seven of the eight hexagons you see are kind of in the standard blue color and

1:07:10that means that El Cerrito's results were a similar level of satisfaction compared to the National Benchmark there's one light blue hexagon here and that's education and enrichment and that color indicates that our residents rated those areas lower than the national

1:07:28Benchmark you will also see some dark blue color used and that's where our residents rated our level of service or their level of satisfaction higher than the national benchmark so tonight as I mentioned I'll be presenting the survey results uh kind of grouped under those strategic plan goals

1:07:53that Karen just talked about so they are not in the same order as the report that was in your packet um so I wanted to first kind of mention uh the survey results that relate to goal a which is to deliver exemplary government services and um 68 of respondents were satisfied with

1:08:16the level of customer service that they received and 63 percent rated our overall direction as excellent or good uh residents rated the city treating them fairly acting honestly and acting in the best interests of the community at 64 or 65 percent on the lower end of the scale

1:08:39there only 52 percent of residents felt that they had value good value for the services that their tax dollars contributed towards and 48 of people said that the services provided by the federal government were excellent or good I also wanted to note that the survey

1:09:00response the survey results said that 89 of people would recommend El Cerrito as an excellent or good place to be and that 87 percent intend to stay in El Cerrito in terms of goal B to achieve long-term Financial sustainability um how residents view El Cerrito 58

1:09:24thought that the overall economic health of El Cerrito was excellent or good and 50 thought that business services and shopping opportunities were excellent or good on the lower end of the spectrum and lower than the national benchmarks as you can see by the different colors

1:09:41only 28 percent of people felt that El Cerrito had a vibrant downtown or commercial area and only 15 percent of people raided El Cerrito as being an excellent or good place for finding a job and that number is low but that number is actually consistent with um El Cerrito and the number of jobs

1:10:01that are actually in in the city of El Cerrito in terms of uh how the city's economic development's efforts were rated 35 percent of the residents rated our Economic Development efforts as excellent or good so that is definitely a goal that we know through the Strategic plan through talking with

1:10:23the city council and with the community that that's definitely an area of interest and it continues to be so uh 99 of survey respondents said that they had bought something in El Cerrito so that's great that folks are shopping locally so regarding the community

1:10:42characteristics that relate to goal C which is to deepen a sense of place and Community identity 55 of respondents rated the overall built environment in El Cerrito as excellent or good 51 said the same about our public places on the lower end of the spectrum 27

1:11:02rated El Cerrito as having excellent or good level of affordable quality housing um 57 of respondents rated uh child care or preschool services in El Cerrito is excellent or good and in terms of community engagement and connectedness among residents 68 percent uh felt that El Cerrito was a open and

1:11:29accepting Place uh 66 said the level of neighborliness was excellent or good and 61 said that there were positive opportunities to participate in community matters um Also regarding goal C in terms of City provided Services 64 of respondents were happy with the amount of

1:11:56opportunities for special events and 60 said they were happy with Library services in terms of participation uh 55 of those respondents said they had actually used the El Cerrito public library and 42 said they'd attended a city-sponsored event um continuing to look at Community

1:12:18engagement uh 93 of respondents said they had talked to or visited with a neighbor and 83 to 85 percent of respondents said they had done a favor for a neighbor watched the local news and voted in local elections so regarding gold D to develop and rehabilitate public facilities as

1:12:42Community focal points um kind of taking a big picture look at El Cerrito again um 85 percent of respondents rated their neighborhood as an excellent or good place 71 actually sorry 76 percent said El Certo is a great place to raise children and 71 said it was a great place to

1:13:03retire foreign Public Services related to this goal uh 67 percent of respondents rated bus or transit services in El Cerrito as excellent or good 66 percent uh rated positively street cleaning followed by traffic enforcement at 60 and Street repairs at 57 percent

1:13:32in terms of looking at Recreation and wellness 79 of residents said that our city parks were excellent or good um 71 percent felt the same way about our Recreation programs 67 percent for our recreation centers and then the the one light blue bar on this slide is Health

1:13:54Services uh only 45 of residents felt that El Cerrito had excellent or good health services but again that does reflect the reality of our community as it is currently in terms of ensuring The public's health and safety uh here you can see dark blue colors so again that is where our

1:14:19ratings were higher than the national Benchmark so 85 percent of people felt really safe in their neighborhood 83 percent felt safe in commercial areas and 69 said that their overall feeling of safety was positive for El Cerrito 65 percent of people said there were

1:14:40excellent or good Fitness opportunities in town and 64 thought that there were excellent food choices 58 rated uh recreational opportunities as excellent or good and then looking on the the light blue colors uh Mental Health Care preventative health services and health

1:15:01care in general had a lower response rate for El Cerrito in terms of City provided Services fire received a high rating by 89 percent of residents as well as ambulance services at 85 percent police services at 80 percent and Fire Prevention specifically fire prevention

1:15:25at 70 percent uh the light blue bar here is a 53 percent uh positive rating for crime prevention efforts and opportunities so continuing on goal e uh 62 percent of residents say that they had taken the action of stocking supplies for an emergency and that is higher than the national Benchmark

1:15:51um so thanks to the fire department and our assert program for spreading that education in the community and actually 94 of residents said that they ate five or more portions of fruit and vegetables uh so we've got healthy eaters in town as well um 92 percent of people said they

1:16:13participated in moderate or vigorous physical activity and 85 percent said they had visited a city park so uh definitely there is an interest in Wellness healthy healthy lifestyle and being active and taking part in recreational activities and fitness activities and eating fruit and

1:16:32vegetables in terms of goal F which is to Foster environmental sustainability um overall the ease of travel was rated as excellent or good by 60 no by 76 percent of respondents and uh biking public parking and public transportation all received uh higher satisfactory

1:16:56ratings than the benchmarks communities in terms of City provided Services 93 percent of residents rated our Recycling services highly and 88 did the same for yard waste or green waste pickup and those two are also higher than the national benchmark continuing on goal F residents said that

1:17:2088 of residents said that they use public transportation instead of driving and 77 said that they biked or walked instead of driving uh 97 took actions to conserve water 98 percent recycled at home and 81 made their home more energy efficient so we definitely are above the national

1:17:45average in the areas related to goal f and I think that what's some of what's notable about um the National citizen survey results is um not even just having the staff be able to check some of the boxes as far as what we're doing with our strategies but being able to hear from the

1:18:11community on how we're doing with relationship to these goals so we're trying we I mean one of the things we do pride ourselves on as a city staff and as a city organization is soliciting as much feedback as possible from the community on a variety of ways this is a

1:18:27very broad survey that measures quality of life but it's also a really instructive tool for us as City staff to see how we're doing with all of these goals and so to wrap up um the more the more presentations to come which we'll go over again what I had addressed in the beginning

1:18:46um the specific plan review will come to you on March 17th or I'm sorry March 7th um then we're going to begin an in-depth review of the Strategic goals um and the Departments will appear before you so that they can talk about again their strategies for how they're

1:19:01working on the goals what we're doing what we've achieved and what we are having challenges with and then that would be March 21st and April 4th and then bring it back to the city council to discuss goal setting for the upcoming fiscal year with relation to bringing

1:19:18all of these plans goals and reports to you back together so that you can then help us uh figure out what we are going to be working on for the next fiscal year at your direction and so with that that concludes my presentation thank you so much and I'm Suzanne and I are here for

1:19:36any questions [Applause] are there any Council comments um at this time yeah no I was actually fascinated in the NCS you didn't cover them because they're all tiny little arrows that are in microscopic and you need a you do need some serious good eyesight that most of our Trends are are

1:20:09we stayed the same or we went down a little bit it looks like um and so I was just curious if you had a sense for for um you know as we compared the presentation tonight was a comparison to the national average as we compared to our 2012 um how how you felt we did overall if

1:20:33you could just give us a quick summary of that um sure so really briefly so the report that councilmember Lyman is referencing is the dashboard summary of findings um and so that report does exactly as as Greg just described so in terms of the responses this year we did have some

1:20:55areas where our rating improved compared to 2012. we also had some ratings that declined compared to 2012 and um I mean I think in terms of looking at the survey results we need to think of the big picture in terms of what else is is going on in the larger picture

1:21:15between those two time periods and and where were we and what was going on in 2012 but just to give folks kind of a sense of of those things that changed we did definitely see higher ratings um in terms of the number of participation in local elections uh air quality uh the economy was picking up

1:21:37and the use of our Recreation Center years there were lower ratings in terms of people watching a local public meeting traveling by public transportation openness and the feeling of openness and acceptance in the community new development occurring in El Cerrito

1:21:54um and and I think like that one for example is that um you know maybe in 2012 there was more of an understanding about the economy still being in a recession and there was less of an expectation that there would be new development on the Avenue and by 2016 people were more anxious you know

1:22:12why aren't we seeing more development in El Cerrito so that definitely has has been a change in that four-year period our uh our rating for our efforts towards Economic Development also went down during that time housing options in El Cerrito so people feeling like they

1:22:31were being priced out of housing here in El Cerrito and the offerings of social events and activities safety in neighborhood went down opportunities to volunteer went down but that one is a little hard to explain why there'd maybe be less opportunities in 2016 since I think there is more

1:22:52activity um going on compared to 2012 from the city and other community groups employment opportunities in town crime prevention sense of community use of recreation centers value of public information provided by the city and the satisfaction with the city's land use

1:23:13Planning and Zoning services so there definitely is a mixed bag there and and by looking at the goals set by the city council and looking at this information we're able to assess where should we be spending more priority where should we prioritizing staff time and resources to address some

1:23:34of these needs you know what's improving and going well where do we need to to make some changes so this is definitely a tool a set of data that we can use I really like the way you broke up the survey into the different goals is it possible to break up the dashboard into

1:23:52that same bundle so that we can we can look at those and see if there's a particular goal like for example I think when you got to the sustainability goal it was all black or dark blue or whatever the whatever the color is supposed to be in demonstrating that we've achieved that or we're we have the

1:24:11appropriate level of focus on that goal that the community is excited about and then there are were some that were had light bars in comparison to our Benchmark our national Benchmark but I'll be curious to see if the even if it's a light bar if we're not um trending up and so it would be nice

1:24:29to see the dashboard broken up similar to how you broke up the the survey results we can certainly do that for you great thanks I had a comment on uh goal e ensure the Public's health and safety I have to admit that when I was reading through the entire strategic plan

1:24:52um I was very impressed by by the vast majority of it and I was kind of like reading down and down like yes yes yes good good good and then I got to e and I was kind of like huh so from my pers my perspective as a nurse I felt like this one had some holes and and I find this kind of like a a

1:25:14repeating theme when I talk to to people whether it be online or just in the city and it's like we've got a lot of safety but when we lump together health and safety the health portion of it often kind of gets left to the Wayside um you know I did I noticed that in in the

1:25:34strategies you know I know we don't have any hospitals here in El Cerrito but there was no no mention of doctors or dentists or that sort of thing as well in in the um in the plan or the goals and um I've also spoken with many people and I know that we once again don't have a

1:25:54hospital here in El Cerrito so we don't have any direct way that we can impact that but one thing I've noticed is you know one of the other big complaints that I hear around town or from people that are thinking about moving here is is our schools and we mentioned a couple

1:26:12of times here working with our schools to try to improve things so I would like to see some effort to work with the hospitals that we still have and also working with the county the state or maybe other stakeholders to possibly bring about more hospitals in this area

1:26:35and that would kind of coincide with I think some of the um results that you saw on the survey where um once again we're we're really great with safety we're fantastic but then our mental health 31 preventative health 39 and Healthcare overall 43.

1:26:56that's that's all my comments okay um so I I believe that staff has told us where we will be directing this in the next few meetings and um so I think that um we'll oh I'm sorry Paul sorry indirect yeah you already yeah okay just a brief comment I just thought it was

1:27:21enlightening and I agree with Greg on the sustainability uh graphs it's just really nice to know what our community has done in that direction and I also want to thank the people here tonight and the people watching because nine percent is the lowest percentage here

1:27:36for people that watch a local public meeting congratulations all of you you can make that get higher that would be a wonderful thing okay thank you very much thank you okay thank you um so uh that on our agenda means that we have finished item number um four B okay with that we will now because

1:28:01we've already done five we will go to six and note that there are no public hearings we'll go to seven and note that there are no policy matters and now we're up to item number eight which is city council local and Regional liaison assignments are there any assignment reports

1:28:25yeah I'd like to at least report uh that on uh I think it was Friday the 20th um I went up to Sacramento as a representative in the league of California cities on the environmental committee um and uh participated in in that meeting and was assigned to one of the

1:28:47subcommittee's addressing addressing Community Choice aggregation so I will be commenting on the league of California's cities uh policies with regards to Community Choice aggregation over the next six months I was also at the same meeting with my colleague Greg Lyman and I will be part

1:29:14of the environmental committee as well my subcommittee will be working on water issues especially the Delta situation A last Friday I attended the a bag meeting in San Francisco and with that meeting all of the delegates representing the 101 cities of the Bay Area

1:29:38Counties were there to listen and to speak on our continuing talks on the MTC a bag merger so we're working on that and we have our next meeting uh on the month of May to make sure that we continue on that um last the last Saturday of the month I attended uh my last liaison uh Duty as

1:30:06uh in the economic development team and uh celebrated Lunar New Year in El Cerrito for the very first time and uh our chinese-american community was was out there we had a a crowd there and uh met a lot of the neighbors and and we'll be doing more issues uh dealing with

1:30:31diversity of our community and and I thank our uh our businesses that also had sales and lunch specials at the various restaurants so but that's that's my report for the last month okay um and I guess I'm the only person who hasn't reported out and I've did did

1:30:55some earlier in the meeting but I'm also on uh League policy committees and I'm on the uh government what's now called the governance committee maybe I did actually report on this already it feels like it now that I say the words but uh the uh it's a new name for

1:31:16um what was called previously the administrative Services committee and it will be looking at issues that are called related to governance that's like the brown act uh you know things like that that are um looking at how we do business and uh so I I find that pretty

1:31:40fascinating I also continue on the community services committee and that's all um social services and I believe a loose term to describe that area so with that we are adjourned until February the 21st which is the date of our next city council meeting and thank

1:32:06you one and all for coming