Special City Council Meeting and Regular City Council Meeting July 17, 2018

0:04:05yeah thank you okay council member Janet ableson here council member Paul fedelli here council member Greg Lyman president mayor Pro tem Rochelle Pardue okamoto president and mayor Gabriel Quinto thank you next we have a pledge of allegiance to the flag or observation of a moment of

0:05:12silence led by mayor Pro tem ardu Okimoto pledge allegiance of America and to the Republic for which it stands one nation under God indivisible with liberty and justice for all foreign we have a council staff communication I have a report on a closed session from July 16th that

0:05:52I would like to read and that is city manager Scott Hannon has informed the city council of his intent to retire effective around the end of calendar year 2018.

0:06:06on July 16 2018 the city council met in closed session to consider appointing assistant city manager Karen Pincus to become the next city manager upon Scott's retirement the city council decided to appoint Karen and provide direction to me and council member Greg Lyman to negotiate an

0:06:26employment agreement with Karen and do you have anything Neil I just want to thank City staff for your efforts on July 4th the July 4th event was as momentous and and enjoyable as it has been so I want to recognize how hard our staff works the recreation department

0:06:54Department of fun I think somebody calls it um how hard they worked and how well it came out I wasn't able to stay the whole day but I'll leave it to my colleagues who I'm sure were there to to fill in if I leave anything out but I definitely certainly want to acknowledge

0:07:12how hard our staff work to make again another success okay Russia I wanted to acknowledge the fact that the sheriff has shut down the ice detainees and I wanted to recognize all of our citizen activists that have been involved in that process and helping to push that agenda forward and also just

0:07:41wanted to reiterate you know that the council had spoken up on behalf of people being detained and I'm very happy to see that we are making progress and hoping that what every single one of us citizens does to help reunite families and make sure that people are not being

0:08:01detained unnecessarily thank you councilmember Abelson um yes I wanted to add to the Fourth of July that I really appreciate the fact that so many people uh took that day in order to provide all of the activities that everyone else got to enjoy and I particularly want to thank staff who

0:08:24this many the many many staff that worked that day and who did a great job I think every year it gets better um that's what I heard from a number of people that were there and um I particularly want to acknowledge those responsible within the department of fund probably for the activities for

0:08:48children I had a number of my neighbors tell me how much they liked them how much their children like them so I think that this really is becoming a well-known event in the larger community and thank you all that's right yeah I just want to say Bravo on the fourth as well and also

0:09:12Bravo for July 3rd activities the night before which is financed by the our Arts commission it's a great night to get out before the fourth and sit and this year was Hawaiian and Tahitian music and lots of tiki punch down on the lawn so I can I can certainly partake part in that

0:09:32um I think the mayor and I participated in the mayor's dinner this last week in Pittsburgh California and I just wanted to second with what Rochelle pardu Okimoto said about the sheriff's action and our citizens that helped us um talking back in our voices did make a

0:09:49difference thank you I also want to Echo uh what Paul fideli said and my colleagues here on the council regarding July 4th it was an amazing day the third was as well and I want to congratulate our staff and our volunteers we had a group from cirque and it was great to see our firefighters

0:10:13and our police there as well so I want to thank all of them and thanks to many of the our residents who brought a lot of Out of Towners who have visited for the first time visiting El Cerrito and they like what they saw so again congratulations everyone so let's go to Mayor may I I would like

0:10:34to pull item 4A uh National Night Out is coming up but I did not make an announcement about it because I would like to pull 4A right let's go first to oral Communications from the public all persons tuition to speak should sign up with the city clerk uh remarks are

0:10:52typically limited to three minutes per person uh I may reduce the time limited per speaker depending upon the number of speakers please kindly state your name and city of residence for the record thank you your honor for those of you who are here for the first time we do

0:11:09have a speaker system where it will uh you have three minutes to speak and when it is green you can begin when it is yellow you have one minute left and when it is red You can conclude your time I have six speakers for public comment uh beginning with Cordell hindler followed by Al Miller

0:11:28and MayMay Everson good evening hello good evening mayor uh Council I am Corelle Handler of Richmond so what I just distributed around was a performance called Ragtime it is a wonderful show you have you have got to say it it is really remarkable work so that's one and then

0:11:46number two is um I really I really do appreciate Scott's uh dedication Service uh to this community it's very remarkable so he has been here 15 years and it's like I really gotten to know um um his um his expertise so we're all gonna I'm gonna I'm gonna miss um

0:12:05saying I'm around so I'm gonna miss that so well that's true so and then also you are also invited to attend Bill Lindsay's retirement party on July 27th uh from 6 30 to 9 30 at the Richmond Auditorium and the tickets are only forty dollars so it's gonna be under

0:12:23this the c c u is going to be the theme so we ought to come to to see this also and also his assistant is on retirement too so that's two three and then our the last speak the last thing I was going to say is that um I had a great idea if you know like for a future agenda item is um

0:12:40because I know our former assistant Suzanne uh Ayala she used to do the um the um the presentation in September for the um the internship and I said that's something I would like to see coming in September so hopefully um it can be put on the agenda so I'll take it away

0:13:02good evening mayor Quinto council members and staff I'm here tonight as president of the El Cerrito Library Foundation to give you a status of our current effort to improve our library our adopted chair program was set up in consultation with Heidi Goldstein our

0:13:21senior community library manager and her staff they had heard numerous comments from the library users that the wooden chairs that surround most of the tables in the library were uncomfortable and were dirty because of this concern the foundation decided to establish our adopt a chair

0:13:44program to restore these 64 chairs plus miscellaneous finches that are involved we kicked off this project at the El Cerrito 4th of July world one Festival and followed with a mass mailing on July 5th which I know you'll know about because I think you all received them

0:14:07Community response has been very good to date 38 of the chairs have been adopted by people of the community the remaining chairs may be adopted as all 38 were for 250 dollars each this pays to have the seat and back cushions replaced and the fabric covering replaced

0:14:32the cushions are replaced with more recent material that is going to last longer and be more comfortable and the fabric that was a almost Woolen like fabric hard to clean Etc has been replaced by a leather-like material that is easily cleaned and it also provides for a plaque a

0:14:58recognition plaque to go with each chair s can be adopted in honor of someone in memory of someone or donated by someone or just the names of the donors depending on the donor's preference if any donations are received after are the available chairs have been adopted

0:15:17the donors will be contacted by a board member of the foundation to see if they want their check returned or if they were interested in participating in other programs anyone wanting more detail can check with the library foundation's website or contact me at Amil at sonic.net

0:15:42the other comment I'd like to make is to Second the comments that were made about the Fourth of July Festival world one Festival we also second their uh thanks for the efforts that the staff put out but I want to recognize it as a board member of State Sanitary District and a booth

0:16:07worker for the library Foundation booth that program gives activities like the Steve Sanitary District and the library Foundation our best community outreach effort opportunity of the year I don't know if a better one will ever come but that one is very valuable

0:16:32uh especially for the stage Sanitary District having the displays that we have there people come in and ask their questions and it's relatively easy to answer them or to make a list of the ones the board member is not clever enough to answer and refer it to our general manager and

0:16:51staff and uh people get answered thank you thank you good evening good evening hi my name is MayMay Everson I've been a resident of El Cerrito for 25 years I'm really concerned about our plastic pollution at the moment including plastic straws um plastic straws are ending up in our

0:17:23oceans and polluting our water and killing marine life at the moment when I go to restaurants I don't want plastic straws I ask restaurants please don't give me plastic straws but they always give me plastic straws I I try to carry to try to prevent I carry my own stainless steel straw to try to

0:17:49let the waiters and waitresses no I really don't want plastic straws but it seems like it still ends up plastic straws in my drinks I'm not really sure uh what I can do more than just trying to carry uh my stainless steel straw um I am in full support of ab1884

0:18:15um if uh if you can if the city can support this bill um also we also have plenty of other Alternatives that I would like to share real quick so we have the stainless different kinds of stainless steel straws which are reusable restaurants can carry them and reuse them it's very easy to clean you

0:18:48just put it through the dishwasher I also have bamboo straws for people who don't want to use stainless steel straws there's also glass which I don't know and then the last one uh paper straws I'm sure a lot of you are familiar these don't hurt the environment they don't pollute the ocean

0:19:11these are compostable so after you're finished you can put it in the compost bin um uh if we don't act now our next generation will be severely impacted by our plastic pollution scientists are finding that uh there'll be more plastic in the Ocean than fishes thank you so much for your

0:19:41time and thank you for listening thank you Robin Mitchell followed by howdy Gowdy and michalia AGA thanks good evening so uh good evening I'm Robin Mitchell um I live in El Cerrito and I want to follow on what meimei said that I'm very much in support of ab1884 I don't think

0:20:22it quite goes far enough because it actually still allows plastic straws and I'm hoping that El Cerrito can provide can have extra stringent ordinance past that in order to um have you know required disposable or all the things that maybe was just showing and the pictures that I

0:20:42just distributed to you is one of the reasons why straws are just the start but plastic is a huge problem and the top picture is a picture of a young Albatross on Midway Island that several of them die every year because their parents feed them plastic without knowing it their stomachs fill up with

0:21:01the plastic they can't accept regular food and they just the chicks just die and the second picture is a group of people that walk their dogs for an hour in San Anselmo and they have a website where they've just posted all these pictures of the of the plastic that they

0:21:16pick up in one hour of dog walking in San Anselmo just on the streets or in the gutters and so even though we think that maybe other countries are more of a problem we are we are still a problem and we need to um try to really get off of plastic completely um or else we're just gonna destroy

0:21:39everything so I'm really um glad that you're supporting ab184 that's a great start thank you thank you good evening evening mayor and council members my name is howdy Gowdy El Cerrito um so I also want to express my appreciation for your resolution supporting 1884 and

0:22:06um well it's a great step to have a state law that makes straws only available upon request many communities including some of our immediate neighbors and other cities around the world have already been part of this very fast-moving wave taking much more dramatic actions and

0:22:30prohibiting single-use plastic straws entirely made me already Illustrated there are many alternatives for those who need them and there are easy accommodations to be made um but this is just uh yet another place where we can improve our regulations to restrict the use of of single-use

0:22:55products we already have a foodware ordinance that does a lot of that and I think it would be a relatively simple thing to add some language to our foodwear ordinance and I hope you would be supportive of that and it might be a good opportunity to kind of review that

0:23:09document several years old now and times have evolved I think it's it's operated well but we could probably do with strength I am so thank you thank you mikalia AGA followed by Barbara Chan good evening my name is makalia agai and I've been a resident of El Cerrito for the past 30

0:23:35years or more and I've been living in in one place for 24 years or over um the issue that I want to address this evening is yeah situation with the rent of El Cerrito for the past three years the new landlords or company that bought my you know complex have has been increasing

0:24:03rent at the rate of not one not five not ten but 20 percent and so that's too much and that's not right the people who are being uh affected by are mainly the seniors seniors who have thought that they were going to retire three years ago couldn't because of the rent increase and now

0:24:26they have to work more years and it's affecting their health and uh and I don't I don't think that's right um also we the study is saying that we are a diverse City and in my opinion it's not becoming you know diverse but it's going to be less diverse because the people who are being

0:24:48pushed are the minorities that's a big concern to me as a citizen and a resident of El Cerrito so I urge the City Council to please look into this and bring rent control just like any other cities around us thank you thank you Robert Chen my name is Barbara Chan I live in El

0:25:26Cerrito for a long time I'm here to speak in support of your support of 1884. in addition to what Mamie howdy and Robin have said I think it's important for everybody in our little town to know that the plastic production has increased over the last 10 years globally and that over 91 percent of

0:25:46plastic doesn't get recycled the backlog on plastic recycling is huge and while I'm I've always been very proud that we have a wonderful recycling center recycling isn't the answer we need to become more proactive and I always like to see my city really provide leadership

0:26:04um and jump ahead of other wonderful communities around us that are all doing the plastic straw ban and to work beyond the plastic straws and to look at Food wear and other non-disposable non-compostable Plastics that we really need to eliminate it I studied marine biology years ago and I

0:26:25have a lot of concerns about the animals in the ocean but that's also the health and well-being of of human lives Studies have shown that there are tiny little bits of plastic in in bottles of plastic water that people buy and drink so when you drink a bottle of plastic water

0:26:42you're imbibing teeny little bits of plastic the Cosmetics that we use have Micro beads so I don't want to give a whole discourse on the broad range of plastics that are endangering the health and well-being of the planet but I would like to encourage the council to be very

0:27:01proactive and take a strong leadership in this this march three cities in India including Mumbai have banished Plastics you can get fined there in the United Kingdom they passed a plan to ban everything by the year 2025. the Queen of England herself in February banned

0:27:22plastic straws and plastic utensils in her Royal Estates other cities around the country three cities in Florida Seattle I'm sure if you all read the media you know this is this is plastic July month and so it's getting a lot of publicity but publicity is one thing an action is another so I

0:27:43really encourage you to say yes to Abby um 1820 1884 and let's move even further beyond that thank you thank you I have no further uh speaker slips your honor okay thank you let's go now to adoption of the consent calendar we have Aid National Night Out Proclamation uh B

0:28:07Environmental Quality committee appointment and see the resolution and support of a b 1884 and uh mayor at this time I'd like to move item 4B Environmental Quality committee appointment uh pulling 4A and 4C okay uh do I have a second I'll second that oh go ahead go ahead

0:28:29grab a motion by Pardue from Lyman and a second by Pardo Okimoto all in favor aye that is unanimous five zero so uh B Environmental Quality appointment has been adopted uh let's go now to National Night Out Proclamation Aid yep yeah uh mayor I'd love to have staff come

0:28:51forward and speak to this matter this is an exciting event in our in our city and we have two people here to speak on it good evening good evening uh bear Quinto councilman uh Greg Lyman the rest of the council we appreciate it Mr Hanan congratulations on your upcoming

0:29:09retirement and Miss pinko's congratulations our upcoming promotion thank you I'm Sergeant David Wentworth this is Officer Sarah Perez from the El Cerrito Police Department just wanted to thank you for the moment to talk about National Night Out National Night Out as you know every

0:29:22year first Tuesday of August the community and the police department come together at various parties throughout the city get to know one another get to know neighbors and get to strengthen the bond between the members of the community and the El Cerrito Police Department this is by far the

0:29:37biggest Outreach for the public that the El Cerrito Police Department engages in and is also frankly the biggest public Outreach across the United States there are millions of people that participate in National Night Out every year for the members in the audience and

0:29:52for anyone interested in participating please get on the city webpage check out El Cerritos next door posts nixel Twitter Instagram you can have information there on how to participate in one of the parties or even host one yourselves and uh if you guys have any kind of

0:30:11questions for us please contact us please feel free to get a hold of us to see how you can help out same with the members of the audience here tonight and I just wanted to much of your time I'm sure we'll see you guys all on the first Tuesday of August thank you thank you before you go I I

0:30:28know I when I was a young or I guess I was not necessarily Young when I was the first council member I was the liaison to the crime prevention committee and they were already been doing it for several years at that time in in 2009 do we have any sense of how many years

0:30:44we've been doing this continuously and did you mention how many parties we've or how many different events we anticipate this year I think as far as number of years going I don't know the exact exact number of years I've been with the PD for 15 years I've been doing

0:30:59them since I got there so quite a long time uh this year actually as of about five minutes the guy received an email we're at 27 parties this year and we did 35 I think last year 38 last year yeah so this is it's a great opportunity for people to come out and meet their

0:31:13neighbors um if I remember correctly the street closures that night are complimentary is that correct pretty close under complimentary all will be uh granted for that um and you know the police department shows up fire department shows up members of the council show up members

0:31:30of the city will show up and we try to get everybody together in different cars and head out to each party so it is a good time and you get you know some some great food for those who like food and some great neighbors out there that you guys can meet so great with that I if there's no looks

0:31:46like there's maybe additional comments but I'll go ahead and make the motion uh I move elsewhere to city council Proclamation for National Night Out 2018.

0:32:01okay all right right um I just wanted to um to take a minute to recognize someone who's worked very hard on National Night Out which is uh our former chairwoman of the crime prevention committee Molly Hazen she had to recently retire due to some serious health concerns and she has

0:32:22been on the crime prevention committee since since 2003 and she also did so much great work on National Night Out that she received a legislative award for her outstanding leadership she helped bring National recognition to our National Night Out program here in El

0:32:42Cerrito and we received that National recognition for over seven years in a row and I just want to thank her she's unable to be here because of her health but I wanted to thank her for her community service and we're really hoping that she will she can feel well

0:32:59enough to be at National Night Out but if not we just want to really praise her for all of the the years and commitment that she's given to the city okay very good so I have a motion by Lyman and a second by Abelson all in favor hi 5-0 unanimous motion carries on item 4C

0:33:18mayor council member fideli and I are your uh representatives and Alternate to the West Contra Costa County Integrated Waste Management board affectionately known as recycle more and Mr fideli and I have been actually talking about um bringing legislation to the recycle

0:33:38more to ban straws in our region similar to how we've banned plastic bags um and so that's that I just wanted to let the audience know that it this is what the action we're taking tonight is not just the only thing we're doing we are anticipating to try and make it a

0:33:57regional ban as well my conversation with the executive director Mr hakes he was excited about this opportunity to take this up as a regional band so we are in the process of doing that and it would be great for you guys to keep recycle more meetings on your calendar

0:34:16to look at them and if you see an item come up it'd be great for you guys to come and support it not all of our neighbors are as enthusiastic about these types of prohibitions as we are although it was a unanimous decision at the recycle more to put the plastic bag

0:34:37ban in place not necessarily every city that is represented by the recycle more has a plastic bag ordinance that they're enforcing so it we it's not necessarily A unanimous decision at recycle more and your support there is much appreciated and I'll do my best to try and give you guys

0:34:58uh uh advanced notice so that you can prepare for that but it's the currently we actually are meeting at an odd time this month uh we're on the 26th this month but normally we are the second Tuesday second Thursday of the month it's just a second plan okay and I just

0:35:18wanted to Second what what Greg has said and thank you for the participants that came up we need to show some El Cerrito support and I think the broader effort at a regional will be even more effective for West County here if we can do that this is obviously just the

0:35:33beginning and this bill Statewide is what the author says he can get now and we need to go much farther maybe the Seattle example ultimately with a lot of different products that we need to get rid of whether it's paper straws or whatever I was just amusing this weekend

0:35:48with my packet of El Cerrito materials sitting in a coffee shop just sitting there and in the process of three out three hours I got three plastic straws brought to my table for drinks that I had ordered and it's just we need to change the way we do business so thank

0:36:03you for coming be with us as we move along in this Direction with Greg and the others and it's a it's a great beginning so thanks again council member Abelson yes I just wanted to um make a comment I'm supportive of this measure as a start you know I think it's a good starting

0:36:18point however I want to make sure that along the way we don't disenfranchise a group of people so when we say uh absolutes I get a little bit nervous and that would be people who are unable to drink liquids without the use of a straw and then it goes a little bit further and that you

0:36:40have to think about can they use that particular type of straw so for example I would suspect the glass would not work um and because they might break it because they don't have enough control of their mouth so I would I'm just really bringing that up so that as as we

0:37:00go along the way we think about would this work and that we actually ask people who have that kind of disability uh where they need that assistance from a straw and find out what works for them not just what we think works for them but I am very supportive of getting rid of plastic

0:37:24[Music] debris in our in our waterways and in our on our land that's it okay okay um I'm very much supportive of this also we just went on a fantastic family vacation where we got to interact with a lot of marine life and um and when you're in those moments you

0:37:47realize that you know we're not the only ones here and the actions that we have are affecting the oceans and so I'm very much in support of this and whatever we can do I will definitely be there and I know that you know for the Next Generation we want to make sure that we

0:38:05continue to support all of our marine life and it's not something we think about every day but we should so thank you okay I am a member of the league of cities environmental committee and when we met in June we did discuss uh 1884 it did pass but unfortunately we had a lot of

0:38:26people that did not support it so know that here in the Bay Area we were unanimous in supporting this this measure and but but know that with Tom button Richmond myself and Albany the mayors of Albany we all supported that as well as Berkeley so the Bay Area was a United and making

0:38:51sure that that would pass so do I have a motion you do resolution and I'll move the resolution uh of the city council of El Cerrito in support of assembly Bill 1884 which would prohibit specific specified food facilities from providing single-use plastic straws to customers

0:39:07except upon uh request I second that okay if you have a motion by council member Lyman as second by Fidelity all in favor aye aye motion carries next is a presentation on human trafficking prevention and awareness Proclamation council members um I would like the

0:39:27opportunity to um welcome the seroptimist international of El Cerrito and our um is it Regional president still passed past Governor for 17 days who came all the way from Saint Helena to be here at our meeting tonight because she is so passionate about this very important topic and I'd

0:40:00also like to thank the uh so Optimist of El Cerrito who came maybe if everyone could stand up okay thank you so these ladies were extremely hard on um such such issues as human trafficking I'd also like to invite um Pam if she would like to come to the podium good evening thank you very much for

0:40:37allowing me to be here this is my 25th city council meeting since May and I've tried to attend as many as I could we have 53 clubs in founder region for seroptimist and founder region is named founder region because we were founded in Oakland in 1921.

0:40:55and our first club that started human awareness trafficking within seroptimist was the club in Calistoga and that's in my district and so I took that and ran with it and I challenged all 12 clubs in District 3 which is Lake NAPA and Solano County and I challenged them to have

0:41:15proclamations read before their city councils and at our first at our conference in the first weekend in May I challenged the other 41 clubs to do that and we're up to over 30 clubs that have now had proclamations read before their City councils I feel that it's very very

0:41:31important that we be here that we make our voices heard and that we make our communities aware of what is going on in our own backyard and I remember years a few years ago I won't say years ago but I installed Janet as president of the sir Optimus Club in El Cerrito and one

0:41:51of the members there was a member of the of the police force here in El Cerrito and she was sharing stories with me about human trafficking the chief the chief so it is happening and we need to open our eyes and we need to make ourselves more aware of what's going on here in

0:42:08our own backyard wherever we travel it's very very important that we stop this crime thank you very much thank you it's an honor to have all of you here Okay so Drive motion I would like to make a motion that we adopt the resolution that's been presented in our packet on the topic of

0:42:36human trafficking and ending it a second yeah the motion by councilmember Abelson and second from Pardo Okimoto all in favor all right question carries I'm sorry your honor we do have a public speaker okay Cordell Honda thank you for reminding me apologies I'll I'll accept that so um

0:42:58I I want to thank the seroptimist uh for for coming this evening uh because this has been an issue for quite some time uh the city of Richmond we just had our Proclamation uh read um a few months back regarding this issue because this is something I see like every day in the

0:43:18city of Richmond and I said this is unacceptable so my version of this is because we just had our community Forum a couple weeks back and it was very well attended we had over a hundred people uh in attendance to to hear more about what about human trafficking and and the

0:43:35things that are that are that are going on in our city so this is a I think this is a wonderful opportunity so so you can like repeat the motion again because I uh so I just missed that last part again okay I'll make oh should we redo the votes okay I make a motion that we adopt the

0:44:00resolution on human trafficking that is in our packet I second he's super motion by Abelson second by Pardo okamoto all in favor all right question carries so we're gonna have a photo taken sure maybe we can have some sir Optimist up here thank you very much thank you

0:45:18[Applause] [Music] okay [Music] next item is item number six abatement of fire hazard public news and pursuant to El Cerrito Municipal Code chapter 16.26 . so I'd like to introduce and announce that there is a revised exhibit a to the resolution on the diocese and up at the front of public

0:46:25review we have a staff presentation by Joe gagne fire captain good evening good evening honorable Maryland council members I'm a fire captain Joe gonye your fire prevention officer and I'm here tonight to provide and overview view of the annual weed abatement program and introduced two

0:46:43resolutions the first resolution will be declaring El Cerrito properties identified in the revised exhibit a as a fire hazard and public nuisances for the purposes of abatement the second resolution is ordering the abatement of the properties declared a fire hazard

0:46:59and and public nuisance and the prior resolution these properties are also identified in the revised exhibit a so for just an overview this year we started the official program here in El Cerrito the beginning of June we sent out 126 official notices with an official to uh with the orders to get

0:47:19rid of the weeds and refuse and um we are down to 40 which is great so last year we sent out 123 and we had 55 when we came to uh Council and so at the end of our the end of the abatement cycle last year we only did one property and so obviously if we could do one property again that would

0:47:39be great if we could do zero that'd be better we've made a lot of effort to contact citizens we go out there we meet with them we show them what they can do and as long as they're making an effort to become compliant we really try to give them as much chance as they can to

0:47:55uh make their their home safe and their neighborhood safe um we that being said we did get a lot of calls starting in November of last year in October when the tubs fire in Santa Rosa stuff happened and so we did go out to residences that seem to have a lot of vegetation we didn't give them

0:48:14any official orders but we did kind of go over them and told them about being safe and the compliance and compliance is generally considered to be done all year it's not just fire season or June or July when it's important we need to keep your your neighbors or your your

0:48:28house is safe and compliant with the vegetation management standards throughout the season great let's go to questions any questions um we've been through this before so I don't know that I have any questions other than um how long will it be till we're at the point where we're down to that low

0:48:57number of one or whatever it is going to be this year do you think is there a date well after tonight we still give the residents like basically another 30 days to become compliant we don't just get the orders for tonight and then go bait them tomorrow we still we'll go

0:49:14around and I'll try and knock on the doors of all the remaining houses and we'll see where we can go towards making them compliant and then you know some people will answer the doors and some people will not and unfortunately you know if we can't talk with people then

0:49:27we can't help them make the corrections they need so mid-august will be the date when we're down to hopefully zero if we can you know to be optimistic okay any questions yeah uh thank you for all your hard work on this matter um I do see that you I was going through

0:49:50the timeline as you were presenting and also looking at May June we start our inspections there's a June 2nd letter in here that essentially outlines the the notice there's a June 11th essentially uh warns people about the process about tonight and about the costs they may

0:50:09incur in August I see there's a draft letter for Tomorrow based on our actions tonight um so you know it and then if I remember correctly it well at our August meeting we'll we'll have a you know one property left that we'll do a uh or order you to do abatement on hopefully zero

0:50:29um that's a long process and it starts late I mean conceivably that property that one property or that's left in August still hasn't been attended to and and I know I've asked this before and the answer I've gotten is that people don't like to update their property multiple

0:50:45times so they wait till the growing season is done with our our current climate in some years like this year that growing season ends pretty early and as we've seen fires already this year and I think the the um article I read said that the brush that all the brush and small trees that

0:51:04died during the drought you know the seven years of drought haven't gone anywhere and except they're dead they're not coming back to life um in in this situation that we have this year maybe next year also is it possible to us to start and I and going through your timeline I see that there are some

0:51:22real problems because we meet on the third Tuesday there's not much you can do without the council taking the action we're taking tonight so unless we're meeting earlier in this month of July you can't do some of these things so but I've said this before and I'm going to

0:51:39say it again tonight is it possible that we can start the process earlier so we can get those properties that need to be abated abated in July as opposed to August um well like I said earlier we have been contacting people throughout the year so that's it's been going on and albeit

0:51:55without the threat of a forced abatement um I guess that would be up for you guys to decide and and legal to see if we wanted to go with a more you know a faster timeline or something but obviously we don't want to be abating properties twice a year potentially and

0:52:12we are still trying to educate the people and you know honestly some of these people get their letters and that's a reminder and that's what they think of it as they don't think of it as anything negative they just say oh it's time to cut my stuff let me get on it so

0:52:25yep yeah and I and I will say driving around in the month of June I did see properties being abated or doing their own vegetation removal so clearly the early fires we've had and and the notices you've sent out were very effective um so thank you again for your work

0:52:40right do you have any public comment yes we do your honor howdy Gowdy good evening Mary council members my name is howdy Gowdy El Cerrito um so I appreciate uh the fire department's hard work on this it's very important to you know address fire safety in our community

0:53:06um I would Echo um council member lyman's comments about timeline because it just seems that in the spirit of um managing fire risk addressing a large number of properties if they're I mean I guess number of them have already happened but it seemed like there was over 100 120 on the list in

0:53:29the packet um at you know well after the Fourth of July so that's late and I think um it's really worth reflecting and figuring out how this process could uh result in the the properties being fire safe earlier in the year um and you know it does appear that um

0:53:55for a large number of properties it is really just the operational mode to wait until an extreme Financial you know uh implication arrives for them to act and so it you know Perhaps it is not the desire of the council to be punitive and have fines or whatever but some kind of

0:54:22you know monetary um uh implication earlier in the process would probably facilitate the action earlier when we need it for fire protection so I don't claim to have the answer I know it's a complicated thing but I I would encourage Council and staff to reflect on how to ensure that the abatement

0:54:46happens earlier so we don't have you know extreme hazards existing throughout July and August so thank you thank you okay let's take it back to the council sure and and one more thing sure please do just uh just as I forgot one thing I wanted to say and well we have 40 um

0:55:12addresses on the list a good porch of them are in some process of being in compliance I couldn't necessarily clear them they still have stuff to clean up but there are a good portion of these on the list have done work and are so close to being there so I just wanted to let

0:55:28you know the number tomorrow or next week will be you know probably you know three-fourths of this at least or so so just want to end it on a positive note your honor we do have one more request to speak before you close the public hearing Robert Chen please go ahead

0:55:47so I'm Barbara Chan in El Cerrito my previous house burned down in the big Berkeley Oakland fire um I want to thank the fire department and this fire cap he came out he was cruising our neighborhood in June checking out various properties and there are some owners in our

0:56:08neighborhood who just don't pay attention even if they get something in the mail or if we ask them to please clear their dry brush and it took the fire captain to get some action out of it and I want to support what howdy said is I think we need a stronger motivations to remind people

0:56:28of the dangers of not only fire but other things that can happen that are catastrophes here within our little city so I would encourage you to come up with some other incentives to get people to Abate their properties earlier in the year instead of waiting till summer

0:56:46we've been very very lucky not to have a big fire here in El Cerrito very lucky thank you yeah mayor I have a couple of comments uh one I will I will um I guess I would like to see the fire department potentially come up with a calendar that might move us up a little

0:57:07earlier I know you've heard me say that before and I as I said earlier my question period I can see that the dates of the City Council meetings potentially do dictate some of your calendar and and maybe we need to be more proactive in that manner I do want to acknowledge

0:57:24that we did get a letter from uh and John if I mispronounce your last name I apologize Della Rose um and uh having been a as somebody who does uh create native habitat I do want to acknowledge that we did get this letter that does say that some properties that a but are open space

0:57:44potentially need to have a different level of abatement an abatement that is amenable or protective of uh wildlife and so I just wanted to put that in the overall abatement mix that in his comments go on to uh suggest that we would change the planting on those people's property which obviously we

0:58:05can't do and he also has another comment in there that the fire chief has heard me say many times and so is the city manager um it would be great to remove the eucalyptus from our uh our public area um I did um want to acknowledge Mr Gowdy that I think it's your probably positive

0:58:26influence but your two neighbors I've noticed from Bart have done a fantastic job of cleaning up their backyards that are behind their sheds so thank you for reducing the abatement in that area or you know reducing our efforts in that area so I just wanted to acknowledge

0:58:42that that's the the Crux of my comments okay any other comments I would just like to agree with councilmember Lyman if we could possibly move things back a little bit I don't know if that's the action that we have to take here at the diocese but I definitely would want to

0:59:00speak with the fire department the heads of the fire department first and make sure that that's a feasible thing on their end um but you know anything we can do to help keep our citizens safer and keep us free of fire I would support okay with that I'll make a motion a

0:59:18resolution of the city this is an attachment comment oh okay sorry okay sorry I didn't hear you okay um the comment I would like to make is that one of the things that we could do with the timing of our meetings is change which of our two normal meeting dates we actually have a meeting

0:59:37planned for the summer I don't know for sure that that would help but it might and it would be easy to do you know from year to year and um the um but I uh the thing I think that is more helpful than anything is this um what I'll call inspection after the fact that's not got the regulatory power but

1:00:09it does have the power to communicate and to explain um the uh the issue to the homeowner so the the fact that our fire department is going around and doing that I think is great and um is really helpful and I would imagine too and maybe this is a question that some things are worse than other

1:00:33things and if there were some that were let's say really bad whatever that means that something would be done in more immediately is that true I do think if we did come across something where we could not get a homeowner to be compliant we would come over come to you guys regardless of the

1:01:01time of the year just because of the hazard it presents to the community so while we do kind of have us preset and predetermined dates say we found something come later in the year and we couldn't get compliance I'm pretty sure we would come back here for one property

1:01:15if we needed to I mean it's always the opportunity is always there if we put ourselves on the agenda that we need your you know blessing to do more work but so I mean does that make sense yeah we I mean we can always come back and ask and inform you guys of what we're seeing in

1:01:32in the hazards that we've come across I mean but you could also do the um the you could go to pay a visit that's not official right and and when I've been doing the need you know showing pictures of fires or right whatever it is you think is appropriate what I have

1:01:51done with the ones that we've been doing kind of off the cycle is actually bring an inspection form I feel the inspection form out and I also give them a copy of this standard so they have that with them so they get everything except for the you know official order that we

1:02:06would be giving from tonight tonight's meeting thank you for doing that council member line sure I'd like to make a motion a resolution of the city council of the city of El Cerrito declaring that weeds rubbish litter or other flammable material on certain real

1:02:23property constitutes a public nuisance um Let It Be record show that exhibit a has been replaced exhibit a is now two pages long and only has 39 Parcels on it okay second okay I have a copy of that so we have a motion by Lyman second by Pardo okamoto all in favor

1:02:45motion carries I'd like to move a resolution of the city council of the city of El Cerrito over writing objections by property owners and ordering the city manager designee to Abate certain public nuisances pursuant to chapter 16.26 this does not have an attachment

1:03:02at this time is that correct that's correct so things got a little bit out of order um between the two resolutions you're supposed to open the public hearing we've already had public comments so I would just go ahead and open the public hearing um okay and then close it and then close

1:03:19it and then move on to the resolution open uh the public hearing adopt a resolution overriding objections and Order abatement and now we will close adopt a resolution overriding objections and Order abatement I moved to close Okay second we have a motion by Lyman second by Abelson all in

1:03:49favor all right motion carries do we need to remake the first motion which should have been the second motion no okay yeah so I move a resolution of the city council uh of the city of El Cerrito overriding objections by property owners and ordering the city manager doesn't need to Abate certain

1:04:08public nuisances pursuant to chapter 16.26 second from motion by Lyman second by party locomoto all in favor aye motion carries yes I just wanted to make a comment on at the end of this process that you know we there's nothing more important than our fire department can do in the city and I

1:04:32wanted to thank them for all the efforts um it's never fun to use the word Force or to deal with the issues of privacy versus safety but there's nothing more important than what we can vote for uh than safety of our of our citizens here and one thing I thought was

1:04:49interesting is that this is the most important preventive effort we can do for the safety of our citizens and I think as a book bookend we're about to talk about the charter uh City Charter effort that can provide some response money for fire emergencies coming up so we have the preventive and

1:05:09we have the response and I think they're both critically important so I want to thank everybody for that thank you okay some next is a direction on November 18th Charter City Charter ballot measure an Associated real property transfer tax for maintenance and Improvement of city

1:05:32services and Facilities good evening mayor members of the council um we are back um for the ninth public meeting since November related to the Charter four of which are have been with the city council the purpose tonight is for the council to deliberate and consider placing and

1:05:56measure related to Charter and real property transfer tax before the voters in November in the package we included the presentation that we used the last two meetings I've the presentation I'm doing tonight is a slightly a breed deviated version of that since it was in your package so

1:06:15don't try to follow along exactly to that one and I'll move relatively quickly since for for some of us we've seen this many times but feel free to jump in and stop me uh we will to start with why why are we here and why did we want to talk about a charter now um

1:06:39as it was brought up a number of years ago being a charter City enhances local Authority uh and specifically including local funds for local needs and local services and as we discussed during the budget process the list of our unfunded needs continues to grow unfortunately only Charter cities not

1:07:02General law cities May Levy a real property transfer tax and as you recall El Cerrito had a real property transfer tax until a change of law the transfer tax as I understand and as we understand it is critical to the cities of Albany Berkeley Richmond Emeryville and Oakland that are most of

1:07:22our immediate Neighbors larger commercial development is happening um and is in the process of happening along San Pablo Avenue and they could pay a significant share of our services and this is basically a way for those developments to buy into the services that have already been paid for

1:07:39and much of that Revenue goes to the companies that are doing or is paid by companies that aren't necessarily here but doing development in the city additionally as again we've been talking repeatedly about the city currently doesn't have an emergency Reserve which

1:07:55is related to the conversation we just had and based on what we've seen in the past year um we think it's critical that we start a dedicated emergency reserve for unanticipated events being natural disasters or otherwise what I wanted to do tonight since we last met a month ago we've done a number

1:08:21of public information mailers we took questions at July 4th and wanted to uh essentially take some of the questions that we've heard or the ones the ones we hear most commonly and because of the nature of the charter it it's not the average person would not be clear as to

1:08:41why we're doing this but most of the taxes ultimately involve the real property transfer tax and simply what is it and as we've discussed it's basically a tax on the purchase and sale of real estate both residential and Commercial it's not an ongoing tax as you see in

1:08:58the second bullet regarding frequency a common question has been so I pay this every year when I get my bill it's like no you pay this only if you sell your house and you pay it once it is not an annual tax on property like a parcel tax so as I've discussed over the year

1:09:15and trying to find ways to increase Revenue to the city we tried to look at what is a way that raises the most revenue and affects the least number of people and we think by far this is the best the best way typically it's paid by buyers and sellers who work it out usually as part

1:09:34of their negotiations and again how does it affect me well only if you own property if you never sell it you won't pay the tax developers as I just said would pay the tax and as I'll touch on later there was a significant amount of property Changing Hands along the Avenue

1:09:54and that would have significantly helped our financial position this year as we talked about another thing that city of Berkeley does in Oakland a little bit that has come up is are there some could we get rebates back depending on what if if we do certain things that help the city or

1:10:12help the city's mission and so we've written in a much broader rebate program than our neighbors to include rebates for not only seismic upgrades but also conservation improvements and again how is the tax paid it's paid through escrow and often um it's just rolled into the cost of the

1:10:36purchase and T and people's financing yeah another common question is what what could we use the money for every year the council and during its budget deliberations look at at the transfer tax revenue as it does other general fund revenues and it can be used for all

1:10:55aspects of City operations the things that we've have been focusing on where we have current unfunded needs are increased programs for all ages seniors children and teens as I've mentioned you'll be hearing about our Parks and Rec master plan shortly which will identify millions of upgrades that

1:11:16need to be made to our aging infrastructure including the parks the playgrounds clubhouses our fields and Facilities that have a longer list of deferred maintenance as most of the buildings are decades old we kept as you recall a number of sworn officer positions and police vacant this

1:11:37money could be used to keep us at full strength in the police department I already alluded to disaster and emergency reserves we currently don't have a dedicated fund for that um councilmember Lyman earlier in the year uh during one of our workshops brought up that maybe this can be used to help

1:11:55as with affordable housing programs in the City Senior Services and our Senior Center Library hours operations and the facility and just overall it gives the city breathing room that I think will enable the city to have long-term Financial stability I'll turn into Sky to talk a little bit

1:12:19more about the legal aspects of the charter um so as Scott said you know what's before you tonight is the product of a process of thinking about ways to generate Revenue to address that list of needs that that he just discussed one of the tools that was identified as

1:12:43was just discussed was a real property transfer tax one of the things that we also found in the course of the many meetings that that we've had about this topic is well why are you doing a charter what's the relationship and even though it was on another slide I just

1:12:58thought it would be helpful to to emphasize that that only Charter cities under state law currently have the authority to Levy a real property transfer tax there are some additional benefits to becoming a charter City and I'm going to discuss that in brief but um but the the

1:13:21process of initiating a discussion about becoming a charter City started with the identification of the real property transfer tax is the tool that would be best able for the city to meet the funding needs that that were just discussed so um so once we had identified that as a

1:13:38possible mechanism for funding we then had to talk about okay well um let's talk about becoming a charter City why would we do that and part of the answer to that is the difference between a general law City and a charter City General law cities which is what El

1:13:52Cerrito is now have the authority to act locally but all of its acts have to be consistent with the California Constitution State statutes and state administrative regulations our cities are a little bit different they have some additional Authority and they can adopt laws regarding Municipal

1:14:13Affairs that can be inconsistent with state law as long as they relate to something that is considered a municipal affair they still have to be consistent with the United States and the California constitutions and if they're not in the charter themselves they have

1:14:30to be consistent with the charter but they can deviate which gives cities Charter cities a little bit more leeway and more authority to act locally including to propose to voters that voters adopt a real property transfer tax um the choice really comes down to you

1:14:50know who's going to control those local Affairs the state or the city and for about a quarter of California cities um they've decided to become Charter cities and answer the question by saying well the city should have control over those and a number of cities immediately

1:15:07surrounding and if not immediately surrounding them in the neighborhood of El Cerrito have made that choice to become a charter City and that includes Albany Emeryville Berkeley Richmond Oakland Alameda Piedmont San Francisco San Leandro and San Rafael so it's not

1:15:22all of the neighboring cities which is a response to one comment that came up at one of the council's previous meetings about this but it's a number of surrounding communities have become Charter cities so back in November um we brought this to the council and said we thought the real property

1:15:39transfer tax was an important tool for the voters to have the opportunity to consider to fund that long list of needs that they have themselves communicated to the city are priorities for them and that to do that the city was going to have to become a charter city so we

1:15:55brought to the council a resolution to form a committee of members of the public and to members of the council to begin the process of looking at a potential Charter um that resolution which the council adopted back in November provided some direction um to the committee it said we want you

1:16:15to prepare a draft Charter but it has to contain some some very specific things it needs to reserve to the city council the ability to act um consistent with the home rule power regarding Municipal Affairs but it should clarify for the voters um and for the residents of the City

1:16:36generally that the city will follow state law regarding the payment of prevailing wages for Public Works projects and regarding the collective bargaining with represented employee groups um it also directed the charter committee um that the charter should authorize the

1:16:55council to take advantage of and to be able to consider the use of all of the available tools for generating Revenue that are available to Charter cities including but not limited to a real property transfer tax and finally um it um directed that the charter should be clear that the charter itself

1:17:15was not altering the El Cerrito municipal code and that therefore existing law that the city council had already adopted would continue to be in effect with that direction um the council solicited um interest from the community about becoming uh members of the charter

1:17:37committee and interviewed those candidates and ultimately selected them um the resolution said that there would be two members from the city council and that was council members Lyman infideli it also said that there should be a member from the financial Advisory Board

1:17:51and that representative was ultimately selected to be the chair of the committee it said that there should be one member of the committee who represents local labor and um you that was a member of local 1230.

1:18:04um it should the committee should include one local realtor um that person was ultimately selected to be the vice chair and then two other members of the public and those ended up being another member of Fab and a former mayor who graciously agreed to come back and serve

1:18:19the city one more time um so let's talk a little bit about the committee process they met five times all of the meetings were noticed and advertised widely members of the public did show up um the the composition of the public who showed up changed somewhat from meeting

1:18:39to meeting but they asked questions they asked for more information they asked for clarification they gave suggestions um but in addition to the public participation over the course of those meetings the committee looked at um a number of sample Charters uh gave

1:18:58direction to staff about the provisions that they thought were um better amongst the samples that were that they reviewed um and directed staff to come back with a draft document for them to consider um once they had the draft they worked over it and provided further direction to

1:19:17refine it and then ultimately spent a significant amount of time working on a statement of purpose and that was covered in more detail at one of your previous meetings they felt like it was an opportunity for the charter to express in non-legal terms why they felt that the city had

1:19:40embarked on this process of becoming a charter City so that um both voters um in November if the council chose to put this on the ballot and residents of the city in the future would understand why this Choice had been made once that had been completed and they

1:19:54were satisfied with the with the content of the draft Charter they voted unanimously to recommend that the city council put this to the voters in November there are eight General sections of the charter there's that statement of purpose that I discussed there's a

1:20:12section that discusses the establishment of home rule the City's power over Municipal Affairs and some other details about how Charter Authority would would function for the purposes of clarification for the voters and for residents in the future we included a section that

1:20:33discussed that the city's boundaries were not going to change in its form of government and other existing law would also continue unaffected by the adoption of the charter there's a section about Municipal Revenue that specifies as directed that the city council would have the

1:20:48authority to use all of the revenue raising tools available to the city including but not limited to the real property transfer tax there is a section that contains the directed provision about the continuing payment of prevailing wages for public works and following state law regarding

1:21:07public Contracting there's a section that um that also includes the council direction that the charter not affect the obligations of the city to negotiate with represented labor groups uh at the we there was some discussion at the committee level about whether or

1:21:27not to mention elections and ultimately a decision to say that at this time um this the charter would not make any changes to um the laws that the city would follow regarding um elections including uh initiative and and referendum so that includes it so even though no change is

1:21:47being made there's a section included that says that um that no change is being made just for the just to be as transparent as possible with the public and then finally there are some boilerplate Provisions dealing with how to interpret the charter what happens in

1:22:01the event that one section is found to be unlawful and and that the voters would have to approve any amendments to the Charter in the future um I think that these were areas that the committee particularly focused on again it was the form of government the municipal revenue and the council

1:22:22directed um uh Provisions regarding prevailing wage Labor Relations and elections but um but I've already covered those and with that I guess before turning it back over to Scott I just wanted to emphasize um since I mentioned it regarding Amendment of the charter and since this

1:22:39question does sometimes get asked that um both the charter and the real property transfer tax require voter approval they are both simple majority measures which means that 50 percent of Voters plus one who vote on the measure at the November ballot would have to vote in favor of it

1:22:59and then finally um as there's been some discussion about this but at the end of the day what we decided to do was to propose both the charter and the real property transfer tax as a single question that is allowable under state law um but we felt that asking them a

1:23:16separate questions would ultimately be too confusing for voters and so as you'll see a little bit later in the presentation it's being asked to voters as a single question to vote on both of them simultaneously and with that I'll turn it back over to Scott so you've seen this chart before about

1:23:32sort of the background around the real property transfer tax and again the city had the tax until 2003.

1:23:40and at that time it was generating over a million dollars a year and interestingly that money was dedicated largely to Capital Improvements and infrastructure improvements where we're so deficient now um so again that's you know we're not starting from scratch this is not a

1:24:00concept that's not been in play in El Cerrito before at the 12 rate which is the what's in the proposed ordinance and what is basically the median and average of Neighbors um that have transfer taxes it would generate about 2.7 million dollars a year and obviously that fluctuates a

1:24:21little bit and in 2017 alone commercial property sales on San Paulo Avenue would have generated about a half a million dollars based on all of our research and discussions if you look at the rise in um sales in these cities there's been no noticeable impact that for some reason

1:24:40they Charter cities do worse than other cities something up first sorry I didn't even touch it um so we don't we haven't seen any noticeable impact for Charter cities versus non-charter cities and again the ordinance we've been consistent since the beginning with um

1:24:58the 12 rate and that's what you have before you in terms of rebate opportunities we wanted to go a little further than our our neighbors and um both Skye and I have reviewed all of our neighboring ordinances and some are much more complicated and complex and we don't we

1:25:17that is certainly not our goal we want to make this relatively simple not only for the the buyers and sellers but also for our staff who is going to have to verify that these things have occurred so we in the ordinance include seismic upgrades solar panel installation water

1:25:35and energy conservation and EV charging so basically things that comply that green building codes it's up to one-third of the value and it must be done within a year but it could also be done before a year and then worked out it could be done leading up to a sale and then the buyer and seller

1:25:50could negotiate who how they how that's paid for and rebated back to them and we really felt strongly that it needed to be part of a permit process to do the work and not create a separate Pro a separate process making it more confusing for both them and us moving along to where we are most of

1:26:13these boxes are now behind us where we are on July 17th which in November was our Target date and that's where we are with the next box before you assuming you go forward is election day in November so with that as I've alluded to in the past and we've discussed briefly

1:26:32um I engaged Brian Godby who's worked for the city before to survey residents on their attitudes around the proposed Charter and the tax and not only that but as we've done in the past sort of feelings towards what's most important that if we if we were to do this

1:26:54what's the strength of feeling on how money should be spent in the city so obviously this doesn't include every conceivable thing but we tried to be Broad and based on our our knowledge and understanding of our our needs and priorities in the city so I would turn

1:27:10it over to Brian and then we can come back for any comments or questions and public comment uh thank you Scott Mr Mayor members of the council I'm pleased to be here this evening to present the results of this recent survey actually surveys most recently uh when conducted and then one conducted

1:27:31back in March early April but you'll see data for both of those as you know the purpose of the survey was to look at a charter and real estate property transfer tax measure we wanted to look at kinds of things that we might fund with the money from that kind of

1:27:48measure we also wanted to test informational and critical statements because what happens during a campaign includes both positive and negative with respect to the measure and then there's of course a wealth of demographic information and behavioral characteristics that you we use to make

1:28:06sure that the sample is representative of the likely voters that would cast balance this November drilling down into the methodology a little bit further this was a survey conducted by phone landline and sell both but also online and the online was conducted by sending out email

1:28:27invitations as well as text invitations to people that we had the appropriate information for the universe as I mentioned earlier was the November 2018 likely voters in the city of El Cerrito this second survey was fielded in late June through early July the first survey

1:28:46was fielded in late March through early April the average length of the survey this time was 16 minutes long on the phone we don't know how long it takes people to complete the surveys online because you can start go have dinner come back and complete the survey so the

1:29:07time is not really relevant but what we do know is that people hit the final submit button 24 hours a day which we think is great because it means we are now surveying on their time when they want to take the survey not in the limited time we could do that do surveys

1:29:24on the phone we completed 485 interviews which gives us an air rate of plus or minus 4.35 which is um pretty typical for what we've done in El Cerrito over the years diving into the key findings uh the first chart that we have here in first question is what we call the uninformed

1:29:48support for this measure uninformed meaning that we haven't explained a lot of the details that you've just heard about in the presentation that comes later in the survey uh what they know to answer this question is just within the Box on the right hand side of the slide

1:30:05some of the things that we might spend the money on as the presentation indicated this is a general tax so these are things that you could spend the money on the council has ultimate discretion this is also what we call ab195 compliant which is a transparent transparency measure for local Revenue

1:30:27measures passed by the state last year and requires that we have the term and you can see that's on here that it's ongoing it requires the tax rate in this case twelve dollars per thousand and that how much it raises per year and in this case about 2.7 million so it does

1:30:47meet with the transparency law that's currently in place this wording I'll also note has a final bullet in there that's unrestricted General Revenue purposes and that was in their uh pending uh or because of a measure that is no longer on the ballot uh because of the deal cut

1:31:08by the legislature and so the quote soda taxes that was called has been taken off the ballot so we no longer have to have that but we still have to reference that this is for General Revenue purposes so we might change the ballot wording a little bit from this as you can see here by looking at the

1:31:25slide we've got about 55 percent support to judge feasibility we look at the definitely yes and probably yes together and if you look at the box in the lower left hand corner you'll see where we were in the Baseline survey back in March April we were at 52 so we've gone

1:31:42up a little bit it's not statistically significant the increase but it is increasing and that's obviously the right direction in terms of this measure being potentially successful the next uh slide shows a variety of items that we asked in a random Order each of these we

1:32:03then said does this make you much more likely someone more likely somewhat less likely or much less likely to support the measure they're the ways we might spend the money because that's a lot of things to look at we create what we call an intensity score and what we do is we

1:32:21assign numeric values to each of the responses so it much more likely gets a two with some more likely a 1 some less likely a minus one much less likely a minus two uh the reason we do this is if you were just add percentages you could add something that was 40 much more likely

1:32:38and 20 some more likely you had 60 of course but you could also have another item that was the opposite twenty percent much more likely and uh 40 some more likely that's also 60 but you can see in this example the intensity is entirely different so because there are even negative sides

1:32:56of this equation we want to make sure that we have the most nuanced and accurate ranking of these items without that kind of introducing that kind of bias that I just described so that's why we do this score it seems sort of abstract so we still have the percentages as reflected by the range

1:33:12and the arrow in the right hand side statistically we also look at what we call tears and that is groupings of items that while numerically different are statistically tied and you can see that represented in a chart as well so with all that methodological description

1:33:30the items in the top tier that are the most important priorities for respondents are maintaining fire protection and Emergency Medical Services that 1.0 on our intensity score is about 74 percent in round numbers at least somewhat more likely to support the measure maintain city parks paths

1:33:49play fields and open space is in number two again virtually the same level maintain a rapid 911 emergency response times maintain after-school programs for children and teens maintain library programs for children adults and families rounds out the top tier they

1:34:07range as I said from 74 percent at least somewhat more likely down to this last item which is about 67 percent at least some are more likely so well above the simple majority required for this kind of measure to be successful uh at the top of the next tier we have

1:34:24maintained earthquake uh disaster and preparedness programs a little bit lower statistically speaking in the second group starting at about 65 percent at least some are more likely to support the measure uh than an emergency reserve for natural disasters uh neighborhood

1:34:41police patrols senior services and facilities and maintaining safe energy efficient library that meets current earthquake and fire codes the next set of questions looks much the same in terms of the methodology it again was also asked in a random order and we've sorted them based on an

1:35:02intensity score here the only caveat is this scale is slightly different there's no negative side of the scale so it's just much more likely equals to some more likely equals one and no effect equals zero we can still do all the same things I described in the previous Slide

1:35:18the difference is you just can't compare these Apples to Apples with the previous question set in terms of the intensity scores you have to look at the percentages to do that uh there's lots of things in our top tier here of informational statements first of which El Cerrito doesn't have

1:35:35the authority to Institute a property transfer tax so residents lose out on Millions by becoming a charter city is part of the rest of that we would be able to do that at 1.14 or about 68 percent at least somewhat more likely to support the measure based on that

1:35:51information then we have an accountability item the measure would require independent citizens oversight then third much of the revenue collected under the measure will be paid by corporating commercial real estate owners as the previous president presentation indicated

1:36:08establishing El Cerritos a charity Charter City like Emeryville Albany Berkeley gives us more local control over City Affairs and local funding at 1.12 again these are all virtually tied the measure will expand El Cerrito's local control over local funds no money

1:36:25can be taken by Sacramento another accountability provision and then rounding out the tier one on this slide because we don't have the real estate property transfer tax in 2017 El Cerrito lost more than a half million dollars that I the informational item 1.05 or about 64 at least some are more

1:36:46likely to support the measure measure we asked a lot of informational statements and you can see the remaining items on this slide uh the first portion of them are all in tier one so they're really again statistically tied with the previous slide I won't read them all in

1:37:03deference to time but there's a lot of pieces of information that the voters are looking to to understand and you see that it reflected here as well and then we go down to tier two which includes the last two items which takes us down to 0.85 on the intensity scale or about

1:37:2154 percent at least someone more likely to support the measure as I mentioned at the outset we look at both positive and negatives the informational statements uh are more positive these critical statements are more negative uh the rules apply statistically uh the same as the

1:37:42informational statements we don't put a minus sign in front of the numbers to make them seem bad so the higher it is the worse it is for the measure potentially and in our top tier we have quite a few items first there are no rules that direct the spending of taxpayer money and no guaranteed funds

1:38:02will be spent as promised as I mentioned earlier and is Sky reference this is a general tax so ultimately the council has the decision-making Authority and how the money to be spent that 0.88 equates to about 52 percent at least somewhat more likely to oppose the

1:38:18measure now it's important to note that some of the critical statements offset these kinds of things and so this item is offset by the independent citizens oversight which helps make sure that funny funds are spent as promised uh this is just another property tax uh

1:38:37and it would cost the average homeowner eight thousand dollars at 0.85 uh the bay area's cost of living is already out of control and strong time to add another tax for families uh similarly 0.85 Charter cities have fewer Financial restrictions which has led to

1:38:54mismanagement and even bankruptcy uh statement that's actually true at 0.83 and everything from this point up is actually above the simple majority necessary to feed a measure so these are important items and it'd be important to get information out that explains or

1:39:13addresses the situation here in El Cerrito the items below that while they're in tier one in terms of importance they are technically below the simple majority threshold necessary to defeat this kind of measure so they're obviously not as as impactful on this measure

1:39:33so after we have now talked about the measure itself potentially the things we might spend the money on if the voters were to approve it and the informational as well as the critical statements looking at both sides of the issue we come back to our ballot question yet a

1:39:51second time and we look to see what's happened and what you see is that we've increased by 3.4 percent again statistically that's not significant but it has gone up where it virtually 58 percent more likely or willing to support this not only is that going in the right direction but when we think

1:40:12back to the air rate of the survey overall uh we're what we call covering the air rate meaning that even if we subtract the error rate we're still above the simple majority necessary for this kind of measure to pass and so that's encouraging an encouraging sign

1:40:30for the council uh to summarize um quickly a lot of stuff in here that we was just repetitive of what we've already discussed but the survey did reveal an increase in support from that Baseline and highlighting that there's a moderate base of support for this measure at the

1:40:5112 per hundred thousand uh rate that has been discussed the top tier priorities were consistent with the top tier priorities in the Baseline so the two surveys are in sync in that respect they're bullets there that show you what those were again we've already talked

1:41:08about them similarly when we talked about the informational statements this survey is consistent with the previous survey as well so the information is probably pretty valid I will skip over all of those statements yet again since you've already heard and read them and finally really we think

1:41:30that uh given the simple majority required for approval for this measure we recommend that the council consider placing a charter and real estate property transfer tax measure on the November 2018 ballot so that's the presentation that I had for this evening thank you

1:41:55I've got just two a couple things to note before um Council begins its consideration one is that um the as you'll notice on the diocese there are a revised version of the resolution in the ordinance we caught a couple of date related things um that we wanted to correct and so if

1:42:13the council decides to adopt the resolution it should be the revised version um which will which has an updated exhibit B which is the ordinance additionally we also I also noted that there are a few other just numbering section numbering issues in the ordinance will take care of those

1:42:35administratively and one thing that was a late notice on my part which goes to something that Brian just mentioned as part of his presentation which is the accountability provision I'm honestly just not sure how it happened but the section that should be in there about

1:42:50Fab about the the revenue from the tax being included in the city's annual audit and submit it to the Fab for review which is very consistent with how we've done sales tax measures in the past for some reason is not in the version that's in front of you I would

1:43:05just recommend that you make a motion that we include that provision in the ordinance and I will make sure that basically something that is consistent with the the the oversight and accountability Provisions that are in the sales tax measures that have been approved is

1:43:20added into this before it goes to the voters and I think that concludes everything that we have for you this evening so we're available for questions okay I appreciate it thank you discussion start over here on this side sure I've got well I actually may only now have one

1:43:42question because one of them was about a section numbering um it and so I'll take that offline um but uh exemptions uh it's this is on page seven of the ordinance section 4.64.07 and I apologize that's page seven of the ordinance that was sanded out in our packet not I noticed that the

1:44:10ordinance has different page numbering um so it's still section 4.64.07 which is the exemptions and it starts on page seven but I'm interested in section H as in Howard which is transferred between spouses and domestic partners and I've just wanted to make sure that this includes any transfers to

1:44:38living living wills for example um yeah I mean that's not going to be that so um the short answer is yes um that would but but it wouldn't necessarily be because of this exemption um there's no consideration being paid for the transfer from individuals to a living trust and so since there's

1:44:59nothing being paid for it there would be nothing to be taxed so so that would be the uh I noticed that anything less than a hundred dollars and I can't remember what section that's in is also exempt from this and so that would be consider the exemption would cover that because

1:45:13it's I think it's 4.64.00040 taxes imposed for any Transit transaction of real property over a hundred dollars so since there's no wealth being transferred it would be effectively exempt correct okay and my other question has to do with um some of the comments that we had at the that we

1:45:36gave at the June 18th meeting with regards to potentially allowing a longer period of time for larger transactions to potentially comply with the exemption and that the intent or the comment was based on San Pablo Avenue and so I'm looking at in the um rebate section of this and that is

1:46:02section uh 4.64.080 and in in this rebate section and I want to really applaud us for going the extra mile with the conservation of both energy and water and and seismic um there's a definition for good cause under H again Harry or Howard prior to the expiration of one year period uh the

1:46:29applicant could apply for an extension to the city manager of up to one year so I'm I'm thinking this might be an excellent place for large Parcels to potentially have a good cause or potentially there's three good causes in here but potentially a a good cause could be like take the uh project next

1:46:50door that was delayed as a result of lack of funding they had a really good cause for not getting off the ground in a good period of time so I'm just curious if if we could at in addition to giving you direction to include accountability and oversight Provisions

1:47:04including Fab oversight if we would be able to provide you with guidance of uh in adding a good cause that would address large projects along San Pablo Avenue or something that effect and I yes that this it that would I think that would be a reasonable place to address providing

1:47:25more time um as we've sort of mentioned we tried to keep all the ordinance as simple as possible I mean it it can't help but become somewhat complex but we did try to simplify it as much as possible um so we stuck to the one year understanding that the council might

1:47:43want to give us Direction about that and there this would be the time for you to give us you know Direction about and to to as part of the motion to make a change to say how long you would want projects and what size projects you would want to be able to give that

1:47:57additional time to or just craft a more General allow the city manager to consider giving additional time for um you know projects of a certain size and allow the city manager to make the determination about whether or not it's a big enough project um that concludes my questions I would I

1:48:17would just add that I guess my interpretation of it was that um 1A gave cover would cover that um maybe it doesn't go as far as you might like but that as they're getting through their process and doing design and construction um we would have this exemption I think it

1:48:40would be very difficult based on Project sizes and complexities to say is it two years is it three years is a year and a half I mean like we've said our goal is to make it happen right and so you know we're not going to be looking to try and make it harder or try to get people to

1:48:56not get the rebate the goal is to actually get them to do the work so if you think a is not broad enough that might be the place to I do not believe a is Broad enough because you you there is no um it there's no General there's I felt it was a little too prescriptive and that might be where

1:49:161A might be where we propose a an edit at this time um it was something I was looking back at my notes from uh June 18th and didn't see it in here so I if you give me some time I might come up with some proposed language or Mr Woodruff might come up with some proposed language but I just it was one

1:49:38one item that I noticed that was not picked up from our June 18 discussion I would also add and see it mentions um timely commencement or it specifically says unforeseeable circumstances and to me I guess financing would be in like what happened next door um again you know we have no objections to

1:50:00changing but um we hope that the good Clause good cause would be broad enough but obviously it could be tweaked yeah I do believe that's where we can create this additional flexibility for the city manager to um to take into consideration good good efforts to try and complete their

1:50:23work but that they've had hiccups along the way that's that's what C is essentially let me think about it some more and okay Papa Deli yeah I actually want to compliment the rebate Provisions in this resolution and the ordinance I thought they were easy to understand and

1:50:51go to a good goal um so if I can understand that maybe anyone in El Cerrito can understand them um the one thing I couldn't find and I was hoping Sky could help me I couldn't find the oversight so I know you just said that and so can you give a simple I'll give you a question of what it

1:51:13means and how the money will be spent that's kind of important well the way the money would be spent is as we've said a few times this is a general tax um ultimately how the money is spent is up to the city we have heard from the voters um and through and from residents what

1:51:30their priorities are and we've discussed with you your priorities and there's a two-year budget that sets out what the council's priorities for spending are um so there's no so there would be no legal restriction on the spending the funds but the way that we have crafted

1:51:45um the oversight and accountability Provisions for several tax measures for the city including um the the current sales tax measure is that the revenue and expenditures of the revenue would be included within the city's annual Audits and the uh and that report would

1:52:05um be sent to the Fab and the Fab would review that as part of an annual process um so that they would then um I believe they generate a report that um that that um that describes their review of of the the audit and that would be designated specifically for from the funding from

1:52:31the transfer tax correct I don't believe we specifically say the Fab because at some point the council could change the name of the name but it would be the citizen voluntary citizen oversight Financial oversight committee and the money from the transfer tax and how the city might use

1:52:47it would be in the budget it would be like all the other General no it would it wouldn't be specifically towards any one thing unless at some point the council at some point decided we want to we want to dedicate some portion of this for instance if we created a separate fund

1:53:07for emergency reserves and you said specifically I want to designate one million dollars out of this to go in there now we'll take that action from the council action from the council during the budget process to move money into a separate fund but then it would

1:53:18be designated in the printed budget it would be designated the people in the city need to know right it would be if if it were to be used for specific things that and you wanted to put it in a separate fund you could do that and then that fund would be included as part

1:53:36of our annual audit process so that language that you've just talked about I can and I can just read see that or when I can just you wouldn't see it um but I'll I will read you what's on the books right now for the city's transactions and use tax and I would intend to

1:53:50basically make it exactly the same it says each year the city's independent Auditors shall complete a report reviewing the collection management and expenditure of revenue from the tax levied by this chapter the report shall be reviewed by the financial Advisory

1:54:05Board as part of its review of the annual audit that would and so so the so it would be separately audited and as but as part of the annual audit it would go to the Fab or if the Fab is replaced by another body um and and since they already reviewed the city's annual audit they would

1:54:23review that as part of that process and again the city council will make a separate action when it directs that funding to something correct people will know about that thank you okay council member Abelson yeah um I was just wondering if um this were passed and it and it's in

1:54:40effect what how would the um a person know about the um the the reductions in the fee that they would have to pay for doing the uh environmentally friendly Alternatives that were listed um would that be something the realtor would tell them or would there be some I

1:55:09mean what how would they know yes I mean I can tell you as as a Berkeley resident when I bought my condo that it was part of the package of materials that was available to me was there was there they they do their due diligence to inform um buyers and sellers both about the

1:55:28existence of the transfer tax but also about the rebate opportunities so it's it's it's very apparent to buyers and sellers that that's available and so when these transactions are done that um mean they actually don't have to pay will there be confusion on the part of the um either the buyer

1:55:50or the seller about whether or not they have to pay how what's going to help them out I I would guess one way to respond to that is as we've said in Prior meetings there already is a transfer tax in El Cerrito by the county and it's already this process is already dealt with

1:56:10on the County transfer tax and how it splits so the Realtors and the title companies are familiar with the transfer tax process already so it's just sort of layering the City's piece on the with the county piece similar to Berkeley and and do we know that that works well

1:56:27I haven't heard otherwise yeah no I mean I it it there are in my time as City attorney in various communities which is now creeping towards 20 years I've never heard a problem with any I've never I've maybe heard of one instance where there was an issue with the doc with the

1:56:43transfer tax um it's it's a fairly routine process um this is kind of part of the packet of materials basically it you know the money basically flows into escrow and flows out of escrow as just part of the paperwork that's processed is part of a normal sale okay

1:57:04thank you okay mayor podcast I just wanted to restate the question that I had from last time um council member fideli I think was a asking some of the what I had asked before which was um between the time period of when uh it has passed and is implemented which

1:57:23would be January and then the funds start coming into the city there's a long period until June where we actually go over our budget so during that six month period um what exactly happens to the money before we have our say or do we end up having to say in January this is where

1:57:42we want to start directing the money um it would flow into the general fund similar to the other sales taxes and accounted for that way there's always a mid-year budget review and I assume that's going to happen again so that would be typically in February and I would hope you don't do anything with

1:58:02it in those first six months okay in other words you're saying you hope it will flow into reserves correct okay I don't get to vote okay thank you okay let's go to public comment okay we will begin with Cordell hindler followed by Marlene Keller and Al Miller thank you thank you uh for that

1:58:37presentation thank you so all I can say is that this is a good presentation and I really got out of this so hopefully that this Council will approve it in that's it uh Marlene take it away mayor and members of the council good evening my name is Marlene Keller and I'm an El

1:59:00Cerrito resident who was a member of the charter Review Committee and I'm also a retired Financial Manager and auditor I'm also a volunteer with El Cerrito's Trail Trekkers cert the El Cerrito Historical Society the Australia Library Foundation and serve as a member of the city's

1:59:21Financial Advisory Board and I'm definitely hosting a National Night Out party not volunteering is why I know we have so much at stake politically and financially if we do not become a charter City our Charter's Authority is based on the idea that we voters are in the best

1:59:42position to know what we need from government and enable us to maximize local control so this is a very desirable step as a maturing City one part of the charter measure is the real property transfer tax this tax would provide much needed additional Revenue that is in fact

2:00:05urgently needed by the city the recently adopted City budget is just barely balanced without an adequate emergency fund currently we enjoy excellent city services but have a fairly modest and aging infrastructure it would not take much in terms of a natural disaster or an economic downturn

2:00:28to reduce our Revenue to a point where city services would suffer so drastically that it might take us decades to rebound I think the real property transfer tax should be viewed as an entrance fee for those people and businesses who want to buy into our city and it's well

2:00:49appreciated and much needed services this kind of transfer tax is used by our neighboring cities to very good effect and has enabled them to have the kind of fiscal flexibility that we very much need in conclusion I urge the council to adopt a resolution to place the

2:01:13proposed City Charter and real property transfer tax on the November ballot to ensure that we have much greater local control local options and especially inadequate rainy day fund to see us through the next decades thank you thank you Al Miller followed by Rich bartke and

2:01:34Susan preco American tour Council and staff I'm Al Miller I'm an El Cerrito residence I second everything Maryland Marlene said I could not have said it any better I would also like to offer a suggestion based on the fact that I chaired the citizen Street oversight committee

2:01:55required by measure a for the first several years of its existence in that time period we had several rather heated discussions one which was particularly heated I was embarrassing and the City attorney Skye fortunately was there to hear it I don't know if he'd say fortunately or not

2:02:18but it centered around the opinion of one of the oversight committee members that I was there I remember what they said in spite of what the resolution said or the ordinance said this is what they meant and that was the discussion that resulted in a recommendation being made

2:02:39to the staff and the council that whenever the city council approves a resolution expending measure a funds that one of the whereas is be that in that resolution be the fact that City words to the effect the city council in reviewing this has determined that this

2:03:01is a lawful expenditure or a authorized expenditure under measure a uh you were talking about earlier about the oversight the Fab since a City attorney probably remembers that discussion we had at our committee meeting better than I do I just ask that that experience be considered as you move

2:03:29forward and establish the oversight requirements you're discussing thank you thank you good evening good evening mayor members of the council I'm rich bartke of El Cerrito um much of the attention tonight is on the tax and I don't have any objection to the tax I want to raise some more

2:03:53Blue Sky question as you know my hobby for the last several decades has been local government um I served the City's commissions committees and and Boards between mid 1966 and December 31st to 19 of 2016. so something over 51 years almost continuously um in the meantime I also served on two

2:04:27County committees commissions I served on 12 years on a special district to Mosquito Abatement District I served Lasko five years I twice was on the grand jury and in both lavco and the grand jury I chaired the city committees I served in Regional government two

2:04:49agencies one of which a bag I was on the executive board for eight years and I taught local government 101 a half a dozen times to the county grand jury and a similar number of times here locally through our Parks and Recreation and on each of those occasions I ask a

2:05:10trivia question what do Vallejo and Stockton and San Bernardino have in common and every class came up with the right answer those were the cities that filed bankruptcy a few years ago so then I went a little further and I said what about these nine cities and I

2:05:28named them uh including Richmond Oakland and several in Southern California what do they have in common nobody knew well they had in common that they were also uh insolvent but they accepted State bailout funds and so they didn't have to file bankruptcy but now

2:05:49they're struggling of course to repay those funds but there's something else that all of those 12 cities have in common all or Charter cities no General law city was in that kind of financial trouble only the charter cities were and we saw the numbers up that that only a fourth

2:06:10of California cities are Charter cities why did they have all the bankruptcies and insolvencies three-fourths of the state as general law cities and why did they not have the same kind of financial troubles that the charter cities have well I don't know the answer to that

2:06:29but I if I were you I would not vote for to be a charter city until I had that answer until I knew that El Cerrito would be protected from that kind of trouble thank you Susan preco followed by Jack Weir followed by Robin Mitchell in preco I'm an El Cerrito homeowner

2:06:56as I've looked through this over the weeks and looked at the charter proposals these are a few of my thoughts I figure at some point either I or one of my heirs family will be selling my home for whatever reason I noticed that the charter does not speak to parent-child transfers in the

2:07:16rptt section I really dislike being taxed on the right to sell my home and a rebate doesn't make me feel any better many seniors around here view their homes as their retirement policy and this tax reduces their nest egg and encourages them to move out of El Cerrito entirely

2:07:40don't see them buying another home in El Cerrito with when they want to downsize clearly you found a method to tax your constituents by marrying the option of a charter with an rptt which are actually two different things but you found a way to get it in for a simple majority

2:07:58but you don't talk about the authority that it gives to the council to set the salaries and benefits of city workers that's what got places like Bell California in trouble Mama the taxes from El Cerrito Arlo I'm aware of that it's considered a low-tech city but the cost of living an ad valorem

2:08:21taxes in El Cerrito many of which you've supported they're high and it depends on when how high depends on when your home was purchased if El Cerrito goes bankrupt which is a possibility within five years as you know residents will still pay the money that they'll have voted in and they'll be

2:08:42liable for but those services will be gone to close it's clear to me that the council is planning to pass the resolution I hope they don't but time will tell the wisdom of your resolution thank you Jack we are followed by Robin Mitchell and howdy Gowdy good evening my name is Jack Weir I'm

2:09:17the president of the Contra Costa taxpayers Association cocoa taxes in its 81st year of promoting good government at affordable cost this proposal is not good government it's bad government and it's not affordable I'm not going to talk very much about the charter City thing

2:09:34because that's mostly a bunch of smoke uh hiding what what the council's apparent attention here is which is to pass this terrible terrible tax this tax is a direct attack on Prop 13.

2:09:48and it's particularly abusive because it it's particularly hard on those relatively low income modest means senior citizens who look upon the equity in their homes as as a principal part of their retirement assets so what's the reason behind this terrible terrible text looking at your

2:10:12financials we we have recently concluded a study of all 19 cities in the county and you have a 59 million dollar unfunded pension obligation what this means is that for years you have promised certain benefits to your workers and you have not properly funded them and now you're required to disclose

2:10:29that fact in your financials and your your payments for those uh unfunded for your your pension payments are likely to double in the next six years where you're going to get that money seems pretty clear to me that you've decided to collect that money off of the back of property owners who wish

2:10:46to sell their properties uh we will oppose this tax very vigorously and we have had some success in that regard when we when we take this message to the voters I I hope that we'll be successful in convincing them as I would hope you can be convinced to drop this terrible tax

2:11:09foreign my name is Robin Mitchell I'm a resident of El Cerrito I just quickly wanted to address your comments that um correlation is not causation and I think you know you would really have to look at what caused the supposed relationship between Charter cities and bankruptcy and I suspect that

2:11:38there's lots of reasons why that happened and it's not necessarily just being a charter City um anyway so I attended several of the public meetings about the for the charter committee I've sort of said this before but I'm going to say it again I thought that it was a very good process I

2:11:56thought the people that were chosen were very thoughtful um they were very thorough in their discussions there was lots of opportunity for public comment I made several comments lots of people made comments we could make them several times during the presentation they were

2:12:12all well received I just thought that the um the whole way that the committee was conducted the way they conducted their business the way Sky participated in it was really exemplary I have participated in lots of sort of public processes through the city and I think

2:12:27that's the best one that I've ever seen so I really want to commend the effort that everybody put into it I am a Park and Recreation Commission commissioner and every time we look at the Capital Improvements list there's this giant list of unfunded projects that everybody

2:12:42wants to have happen but there's no money to do them and now we have the Park and Recreation master plan coming out that's going to list all the other infrastructure all the clubhouses that need to be fixed their roofs need to be fixed they're not just tons of unfunded work that we've put off because

2:13:00we didn't have money and we just and and I went to all the public meetings about the master the park and rec master plan and everybody said what they want the city to do what they want what kind of facilities they want and all these special programs that they want and the

2:13:17question is well great you want them how are you going to pay for them the city can't pay for them right now and that's the extra stuff we can't even pay right now to keep the clubhouses up or to you know do the basic maintenance on the parts that everybody wants us to do

2:13:33and the thing about keeping up the infrastructure in the city is that directly affects people's property values if you don't keep up the infrastructure if you don't have the programs you don't you're not looked upon as a city that is that has this good strong infrastructure then your

2:13:47property values are going to go down and right now El Cerrito has a decent reputation property values are strong and I think it's because there's a perception that we have good infrastructure we have good Parks Etc but you know that isn't necessarily going to be maintained over time if we

2:14:02don't have the money to keep them up so you know it's really in everybody's interest that we keep that we maintain and go forward with a good library and good parks and all the things that were listed the after school programs and stuff and the way I look about it look

2:14:18at it is that the tax that's being paid by the people coming in they're basically increasing the level of surface for everyone right so the existing homeowners that aren't selling their houses the seniors and all those people they're the ones that are benefiting from that tax that's being

2:14:36paid by the new homeowners and that tax is being rolled into their monthly payment it's it's part of their their loan right it's not it's just not the way that people have presented it so I really think that it's important that we have that we that we have this tax I

2:14:55think the charter City allows us to have that tax and um I vote I I recommend that you vote to have this thank you howdy Gowdy followed by Bill Jones good evening mayor and council members my name is howdy Gowdy I live in El Cerrito so I want to speak in support of

2:15:16the charter um that has been developed and I um commend the the process that brought you this product I think it was a good public process I participated I feel like it produced a good Charter um and I think it's important that it upholds um our existing uh state laws on you

2:15:42know wages and Contracting and labor and um and I think it's also very important people realize that all those explicit things that were put into the charter that say we're not changing this we're not changing this means they cannot easily be changed the the chart would

2:15:58have to be um voted on again by the electorate in order to change it all of that so it should be a great comfort you know people speak about this as being bringing about uncertainty and I feel like it actually brings about great certainty because we are um really enshrining a number of things

2:16:18that the voters would have to weigh in on to make any changes and I um second what Robin said about correlation not being causation I think it's clear that you know how the the city is run is what leads to things like bankruptcy not whether it's a charter or not and what I've observed

2:16:40in the years is coming to Council meetings is that this Council and its predecessors have been very careful with the budget and are very um you know you know fiscally responsible about maintaining um a budget and not spending too much although you have people like me asking

2:17:01you all the time I spend money on this spend money on that and you know it's a challenge and that's why I do want to support a property transfer tax as well because I think you need that Revenue I mean I'd love to ask you for all kinds of new things but I realized just

2:17:16looking at the reality that you know it's a struggle just to have a balanced budget on you know the status quo so um you know the property transfer tax is not a regressive tax it's not affecting you know those who can least afford to pay it I actually look at it as a

2:17:36windfall tax because uh real estate prices are so irrational right now that no one should expect to be getting that money it's just not reality it's it's it's a bubble and so um you know to the extent that we can get some portion of that I think that's appropriate

2:17:58um I would like to make one small recommendation I really applaud the broad scope of the rebate program that was suggested um and to the topic of timing that came up it did seem like there's language in several sections EF and G where it says completed by and that seems to be a

2:18:18pretty high bar because completion you know of a construction project goes away because this is a permitting process I think it would be entirely appropriate to say issued a permit by one year so thank you thank you Bill Jones good evening good evening uh mayor

2:18:46uh Quinto and members of the city council I'm here tonight in support of putting a ballot measure before the voters to convert the city of El Cerrito to a charter city under the provisions of the state constitution uh the staff report provides an excellent analysis of the issues

2:19:06advantages limitations and legal statutes that govern Charter cities I have three reasons why I would suggest a change to a charter City home rule greater local control and self-rule as Allowed by the state constitution a limit to the ever increasing efforts of the state to intrude in multiple

2:19:30Affairs of El Cerrito and three changes can only be made by a vote of the residents many surveys have been have shown that cities respond that residents respond uh positively to City level governments they feel that the city level government responds to them they have the most

2:19:56input into what goes on the else real Community has demonstrated over the years that is fully capable of governing itself in a responsible and respectful manner changing to a charter City will allow residents greater flexibility in determining how the city is governed

2:20:14and what directions they will take in the future this is an ever-changing world and El Cerrito must have the best governing methods available to meet the challenges the charter City would provide greater opportunities for self-determination and I'd just like to take a few more

2:20:32minutes to uh I know there's going to be as the time gets closer for Scott's retirement the deformal way of showing our appreciations will present themselves but I'd just like to take a few moments to thank Scott for his many years of service uh he guided the city through many

2:20:55many layers of uh I don't know controversy but but certainly uh those that were difficult and uh really appreciate it and I'd like to also uh congratulate Karen for her uh for her advancement and appointment and it's well deserved so thank you very much I have no other bigger slips your honor

2:21:26let's go back to the council number one yeah thank you I want to thank staff for your hard work on this over the last nine months it's been greatly appreciated and and so um my remarks are on the backs of all the hard work that you guys have done um you know our current Society is asking

2:21:53elected officials to to take strong positions on on many things and not take the easy path and and I see this decision tonight as one of those times implementing a real property transfer tax is is integral to a charter City and it's a difficult decision that I can say Mr Jones I have been

2:22:17working on ever since you Mr Jones introduced the idea of Charter City in 2011.

2:22:22we've been thinking about this for some time and if you review the meetings from that time when the state was taking away Redevelopment you will see the passion council member Jones has to protect our services and our Revenue hindsight is 20 20.

2:22:41since that time this Council has worked with our employees and they now pay more of their retirement we have found ways to do more with less and we have not been able to increase our Reserves or rehabilitate critical infrastructure buildings like the public safety

2:23:05building the community centered Library Senior Center or Public Works buildings 60 years ago this city embarked on a comprehensive Capital Improvement plan that created the foundation we enjoy today that our property values enjoy today the public safety building and the

2:23:26clubhouses were built the library and the senior center were refurbished when my family moved here three decades ago there was a real property transfer tax that provided Financial Resources to maintain these critical structures today we have structures that are in

2:23:43need of significant Rehabilitation Public Safety Community Center clubhouses and Public Works buildings today the high quality of services we provide in the public safety Recreation and Public Works departments is attracting residents and increasing those property

2:24:05values maintaining our high quality of services levels will rely on upgrades to our structures and maintaining Financial feasibility without the supplemental Revenue our bond rating will suffer and our ability to invest in our future through services and building Rehabilitation

2:24:29will be delayed indefinitely El Cerrito provides excellent Services we've heard that about that tonight and and it's incomparable to our neighbors of a similar size some don't provide fires some provide police certainly many of them don't provide the recycling services or the library hours we do

2:24:53our residents want more services around housing stability and development of affordable housing this supplemental Revenue could be used for those types of services as well as some of the structures I've rattled off I want to talk about financial stability which is one of our goals

2:25:14Bond ratings translate to financial savings on all of our loans Bond rating is partially influenced by Revenue sources and Reserves increasing our Reserves and revenue sources and it will have a tangible benefit to all of our residents because we can provide more services

2:25:44some specifics in the in the actions we're taking tonight include a long list of exemptions to the transfer tax as I highlighted earlier in section 4.64.070 um and there's many common deed filings and changes in Partnership between spouses Etc that are that are Exempted

2:26:05similarly unique to El Cerrito is our rebate program that really emphasizes our values both in seismic upgrades we aren't very far from the fault and energy and water efficiencies and conservation and these are highlighted in 4.64.080 to speak to some of the speakers tonight

2:26:28the change we're considering tonight is very narrow and with a very particular purpose of Revenue the city you know this focus should protect the city from any mismanagement issues that might drive us to uh to any type of uh foreclosure or or bankruptcy every resident will benefit

2:26:57from today and into the future from maintaining or increasing our services especially Public Safety from maintaining our facilities especially the library and Fields clubhouses and Community Center and maintaining our financial stability especially our reserves to

2:27:19address unforeseen conditions this ballot measure asks our residents to change our form of incorporation our form of government to a charter City for the express purpose of Revenue generation a real property transfer tax this revenue is an investment in our community's future to maintain

2:27:40and possibly increase our services to rehabilitate our facilities and establish Financial stability in my opinion the measure language is clear the essential services this city provides are stated in our goals public health and safety develop and rehabilitate public

2:28:02facilities and common focal points those are three of our goals and one another one is Achieve long-term Financial stability another goal is deliver exemplary government services those goals are clearly stated in the ballot measure and the ballot measure captures these goals in plain language

2:28:21I support a single ballot measure because there was talk of having two and this speaks to and I'm sorry that Mr Weir and Miss pirko left I support a single ballot measure because at this time there is little reason to become a charter City without the real property transfer tax

2:28:41and there can be no real property transfer tax without becoming a charter City so they are inexplicably intertwined in my mind and therefore I support the action we propose to take tonight I do have I did have an opportunity to work up some proposed language for the change of good

2:29:02cause so when we do get to making a motion I would like to make sure that we have that and if you would like to hear it now I'm more than willing to introduce it so we can discuss it um so I would direct you in our uh in our uh revised ordinance and I do want to call

2:29:21out in the revised resolution the change that was made is in uh to section seven on page four and in the revised ordinance that we have before us the proposed uh change that staff brought to us is a revision to section six uh which is on page through 15.

2:29:44um so I would be proposing on page 10 to uh to the good definition of good cause the following changes um under B which starts out unforeseen and unforeseeable circumstances I would insert the following words after the word circumstances during City Review or um and I believe this begins to address

2:30:13on Mr Gowdy's comment also so that this would Now read unforeseen and unforeseeable circumstances such as a significant change in the scope of the qualifying work as a result of circumstances during City Review or in the field that could not reasonably have been known earlier

2:30:32to letter C I would propose the following uh changes I would propose that it be serious illness comma extraordinary events or unforeseeable circumstances that prevented the timely commencement or completion of the qualifying work and then semicolon or D and I would insert the following

2:31:02D the applicant has submitted permit applications for qualifying seismic upgrades or energy or water conservation projects that the applicant has demonstrated to the satisfaction of the city manager or designee may require more than one year to complete I can read that one again if you want

2:31:27but the concept is that it speaks to Mr Gowdy's comment of if it's going to take more than a year to permit and therefore more than a year to complete that there that is a qualifiable good cause for a one-year extension would you mind reading that one more time certainly which which one all three

2:31:47changes or D the little letter D is in David D the applicant has submitted permit applications for qualifying seismic upgrades or energy or water conservation projects that the applicant has demonstrated to the satisfaction of the city manager or designee I believe there's a comma there may

2:32:07require more than one year to complete thank you okay ask a question about that sentence yes um what what was the first part of it that um so it the this is under letter H which was prior to the expiration of one year period to apply for a rebate under the section an applicant May request an

2:32:34extension um for good cause and the definition of good cause includes a the inability of the applicant uh after prompt and diligent search to find an architect actually it's the for an extension and how do we know it do we know anything about what that mean the extent it's

2:32:53under it's under letter H and the extension can be up to one year that's in the actual capital letter h um okay okay councilmember fideli thank you um the the discussion that we've had over the past few months on whether elsewhere should be a charter city has really been a discussion about

2:33:20our City's quality of life and whether we want to maintain and improve it as we continue to grow and evolve as we push forward with additional housing and Commercial Partners within our city we have to find additional ways to pay for maintenance of our quality of

2:33:37life in a world of limited resources and limited budget revenues I believe El Cerrito has moved in an open and transparent way to provide specific options that can better support the growing needs of our city to respond to Fire and other safety concerns and other important priorities and I was

2:33:57proud to be a part of that committee that developed this ordinance and now it's time to move this discussion to The Ballot Box to encourage a good discussion among our residents over the next few months and then to vote in November on this with the support and approval of our

2:34:15residents I believe we must have additional tools to help pay for the critical needs of a full service city which is what El Cerrito is I believe this narrow ballot measure to allow us to implement a real property transfer tax is a positive course to that end getting back to having a trans transfer

2:34:36tax that we used to have means that we'll have two to three million more dollars a year into our city coffers which will definitely help to better secure our fire and safety concerns and the importance of this should not be minimized as I've said before and I think someone else did a real property

2:34:54transfer tax which probably will seldom be paid by existing elsewhere in a residents can stand as a sort of entry fee to those of us to those who may decide to move into our city and have access to the great quality of life we enjoy and we seek to protect so I want to thank council member Greg

2:35:14Lyman for his continued efforts and former mayor Jones here who spoke tonight to bring this before the city council and I want to thank mayor Quinto for making this one of his priorities leading to the November ballot and I also want to thank Scott Hannon Skye Woodruff and the other

2:35:34City staff for past and future efforts on this let's move this to a boat thank you councilmember Abelson I agree with what's been said so I won't try to restate it but I do want to um um bring up something that I hear about um from people who have been in El Cerrito

2:35:55a long time they talk about how it used to be how there used to be these Great Park services um how and then we talked tonight for example about how we used to have a property tax transfer tax and then I think we all are somewhat aware at least of Prop 13 that took away

2:36:18a number of uh things to the city such as for example I I believe there were City engineers further rich you know oh were there City engineers at some point before they all were all eliminated I was just if you don't know that's okay pardon anyway when I when I uh

2:36:48got on the council there were no City Engineers there was only a contract part-time uh engineer doing all of the work of the city um and um for now we have I think three positions two of which are filled yeah and um so we've we've got this history of used we used to this we used to that and

2:37:16and for whatever reason something's been cut back and uh the you know including the property transfer tax and um so what that's done for our community is to say it's it's really not as good a place as it could have been I won't say it's um you know that the way things were are

2:37:43better than they are now and I wasn't here I can't really say one way or the other on that but I do think that we are not as good as we could have been because of all of these uh eliminations and um I think that this is an excellent way of um bringing in some resources that are

2:38:07sorely needed in our city for so many different worthy things and what I really like about it is that it's relative to the other items which will tax those who can least afford to pay it this one will be taxing those who can afford it and um so I think that that is one of the

2:38:38things that makes this is an attractive way of attempting to regain um some better degree of financial stability and um so with that I think I'll I'll um move it along here okay uh we have some more comments here okay oh I didn't mean that I meant just for her to talk

2:39:03okay um so I will try to be brief I think um the other council members have stated very well all of our intentions um we are a full service City uh our own police and fire department which is amazing for a city of our size I've been amazed after reviewing our budget really

2:39:25how well we do here in the city um with the kind of income we have coming in I think that we do treat our um our city employees and our fire and our police well and I I have no shame in that I think that that's a great thing and I believe that we should continue to

2:39:43to compensate them into the future um but we also um we also really we really need them um you know once again it is on our our citizens highest priorities health and safety and um we we need to continue to fund that into the future we need to make sure we have reserves available so that if a

2:40:11natural disaster does strike us that we are able to maintain our police and our fire department and our city services we we need to do that and um I I plan on living here in El Cerrito for a very long time it could be another 50 or 60 years and I think that or maybe longer we'll

2:40:34see um and I think that I will look back at uh hopefully passing this and then hopefully the citizens passing this and really thinking that's when things changed and that's when um as Janet was mentioning some of the things that we wish we could have done can start to turn over and you know if

2:40:55I'm going to be here for another 50 or 60 years I I do think there's a few things that could use some improvement in that period of time and I'd like to see the revenue available to do that for the next generation of el Cerritos so as kind of a spokesperson for the Next

2:41:14Generation I'm I'm really hoping that we can pass this tax and continue to improve our already fantastic City thank you I'm going to make this very brief and I Echo what all my council members have said I want to thank everyone that has been involved in this we've gone through this since uh the

2:41:41beginning of the year since February and it's about time that we bring this to our residents and have the residents decide I'd like to hear a motion if we're ready to do that if I may I'm going to make my recommendations to the change to the ordinance and then the

2:42:00motion because the Motion makes reference to both the charter and the ordinance um so I'm going to give direction on the order changes to the ordinance uh the changes to the ordinance shall include the revisions to section 6 that were proposed by by staff uh with regards to the effective date

2:42:19and publication there will be revisions to the ordinance to include the accountability and oversight Provisions including review by the financial Advisory Board and there'll be revisions to the good claw good cause definition that allow for extension of the one-year

2:42:42period as noted earlier in my discussion I don't need to repeat those at this time do I I'm looking okay no um and then I will be moving the resolution that was provided to council uh tonight that includes the revision to section 7 which is a change on when the

2:43:03primary arguments are due um therefore I'm going to move a resolution of the city council of the city of El Cerrito calling and giving notice of the holding of the general municipal election on November 6 2018 submitting to the voters of the city a measure both to adopt a city Charter

2:43:23which is attached as exhibit a in our agenda item and to authorize a real property transfer tax approving an ordinance as discussed tonight that was revised enhancing a real property transfer enact an ordinance enacting a real property transfer tax ordering the submittal of the charter

2:43:44and the ordinance to the voters at the election and requesting that the Contra Costa County Board of Supervisors consent to consolidation of this election with the Statewide general election to be held on the same date and direct the Registrar of Voters to conduct the election

2:44:03I second that you have a motion by council member Lyman and a second by councilman fredelli all in favor aye that's 5-0 motion carries so let's now go to city council local and Regional liaison assignments Greg Lyman none it's been a silent month Janet Abelson same here okay thank you

2:44:35sitting here we've been too busy having meetings I think so our our next city council meeting will be on Tuesday August 21st 2018 at 7 pm and the city council chambers have a good night thank you