Special and Regular City Council Meetings May 21, 2019

0:04:26the meeting is called to order

0:04:28the clerk please call roll council

0:04:31member fidelity

0:04:32president mayor protest

0:04:34mayor pardue okamoto president council

0:04:37member abelson president councilmember

0:04:40quinto right next we will have the

0:04:42pledge of allegiance led by

0:04:45mayor pro-tem lyman

0:04:49pledge allegiance to the flag of the

0:04:51united states of america and to the

0:04:54republic for which it stands

0:04:56one nation under god

0:04:58indivisible with liberty and justice for

0:05:01all

0:05:07next we will have council and staff

0:05:09communications and i just wanted to

0:05:12say that we've had longer communications

0:05:15as the years have gone on and i'd like

0:05:17to

0:05:18keep it as short as possible

0:05:20an effort to keep our meetings so that

0:05:23they don't go until midnight

0:05:25so let's give our reports and try to

0:05:27keep it succinct

0:05:29do we have

0:05:30anything from our staff not tonight your

0:05:32honor thank you okay and

0:05:34council council member

0:05:37thank you mayor

0:05:38good evening

0:05:40i attended

0:05:41two

0:05:44events in sacramento last week one was

0:05:48as president of the api caucus of the

0:05:50league of california cities i attended

0:05:53an api legislative caucus awards dinner

0:05:56and the awards

0:05:59were for

0:06:01several people excellence and

0:06:03civic engagement

0:06:05excellence in civil rights

0:06:07excellence and culinary arts

0:06:09entertainment journalism philanthropy

0:06:13and public service

0:06:15and i was

0:06:16happy to

0:06:18see all of the awards including uh um an

0:06:21acquaintance and uh um a lot of folks

0:06:24you probably have seen him on msnbc uh

0:06:28richard louis he's from san francisco

0:06:31um and he is

0:06:34a tv commentator on nbc and msnbc and

0:06:38also mona pascal

0:06:40who is who was the appointment secretary

0:06:42for governor brown all these years and

0:06:44and she is also

0:06:46right now temporarily the appointment

0:06:48secretary for governor newsom

0:06:51and so that was a

0:06:53nice to attend and also

0:06:56the next day i was in sacramento all day

0:06:59as a member of the lgbt caucus of the

0:07:01leo california cities

0:07:03and it was legislative

0:07:05legislation day

0:07:07and we met with various

0:07:10assembly members and senators at the

0:07:12capitol thank you mayor

0:07:15councilman for ableton

0:07:17um i have a bunch of reports but when

0:07:19and i just kind of say where i was

0:07:22that's okay

0:07:23and then we'll make help to make it

0:07:25short okay thank you okay so i was at

0:07:27the grand opening celebration for hannah

0:07:31garden senior apartments

0:07:33along with um was everybody there i

0:07:35think

0:07:36i think so yeah yeah um and um

0:07:40i i won't talk about the details

0:07:45the i was also

0:07:49at a sustainability community strategies

0:07:53conference in sacramento on may 16th

0:07:56the most notable

0:08:01thing i saw that i didn't know anything

0:08:03about before

0:08:04had to do with concrete believe it or

0:08:06not and it was

0:08:08using

0:08:10concrete to patch

0:08:12uh you could get like i guess a liquid

0:08:14tube of

0:08:15or container of concrete and um

0:08:20patch a crack rather than completely

0:08:22replacing

0:08:23all of the concrete and

0:08:26i think the reason that that was at the

0:08:28sustainability

0:08:30community strategies session was that it

0:08:33would reduce the use of concrete overall

0:08:36and that would be a desirable thing from

0:08:39an environmental viewpoint

0:08:42i also attended as did i think

0:08:44practically our entire council

0:08:47on memorial for sheryl morse our

0:08:50secretary who passed away

0:08:53not so long ago and it was a beautiful

0:08:56ceremony

0:08:58and

0:08:59there were the room was filled it was

0:09:01held at the community center and

0:09:03we

0:09:04all expressed our

0:09:07goodbyes to her

0:09:09i went to

0:09:11[Music]

0:09:12committee on aging meeting

0:09:15i

0:09:17went to the chamber of commerce today

0:09:19where melanie mintz

0:09:22reporting reported on what's happening

0:09:24on san pablo avenue

0:09:26it was really interesting and included a

0:09:29component on

0:09:31the

0:09:33what's happening right now which is

0:09:34we're looking at

0:09:37making

0:09:38changes so we can go into adding more

0:09:42units in more development

0:09:45in the future and there will be a lot of

0:09:47public input on that

0:09:50as we go along

0:09:52and then the other thing i wanted to

0:09:54just briefly mention is i went to

0:09:58several wic tech meetings

0:10:00which are going to be held

0:10:02pretty frequently

0:10:04as we're getting as we are preparing for

0:10:07the possible reauthorization or

0:10:09extension

0:10:11of our um sales tax measure for

0:10:13transportation

0:10:15and um

0:10:17so there's that topic but then the other

0:10:20topic that's going on are hearings

0:10:22regarding a possible

0:10:27transportation

0:10:28[Music]

0:10:31project along san pablo avenue in both

0:10:33the counties of

0:10:37alameda and contra costa up to

0:10:41[Music]

0:10:43san pablo

0:10:44the city of san pablo but it's um

0:10:46[Music]

0:10:47the um it's on san pablo avenue and so

0:10:50looking at what that would look like

0:10:53um which um

0:10:55you know what what lane would be used

0:10:57for what would there be at transit in

0:10:59the middle of the street

0:11:02or would it

0:11:03what would it look like would there be a

0:11:06dedicated bike lane separated bike lane

0:11:09all of these things are questions that

0:11:10will be considered as part of this

0:11:12project and so we're right now in

0:11:16looking at all of that and so

0:11:19if you're interested in that topic topic

0:11:21there will be

0:11:22hearings

0:11:23coming up

0:11:25and i think i

0:11:28finished

0:11:29thank you

0:11:30okay council member fidelity

0:11:33yes uh the opening of hana gardens was

0:11:36glorious that was a really fun thing to

0:11:38go to

0:11:39um met with the fire staff fire safe el

0:11:42cerrito elsewhere fire safe group to

0:11:44discuss all the activities going on in

0:11:46the region

0:11:48involving fire prevention and

0:11:51that was interesting and

0:11:52productive

0:11:54met

0:11:55at the west county forum in san pablo

0:11:57and met on earth preparedness and there

0:12:00was a presentation from mtc on the

0:12:03casa affordable housing and tenant

0:12:06protection program

0:12:08and i just wanted to say i'm really

0:12:09pleased to have gotten the latest uh

0:12:11copy of news and views which talks about

0:12:13our recreational facilities in el

0:12:15cerrito especially about the pool and

0:12:18the possibility of

0:12:20measure a being extended so we can keep

0:12:22our pool one of our greatest assets in

0:12:24el cerrito up to speed thank you

0:12:27you're protein lyman no

0:12:30all right so i do have um

0:12:32just a couple of reports we had closed

0:12:35session and we gave

0:12:37direction to our staff to proceed with

0:12:39negotiations

0:12:41and then we also continued um out of

0:12:43close closed session uh with our

0:12:47updates on interviews that we have been

0:12:49conducting for

0:12:51various

0:12:53commissions

0:12:54and we have appointed andrew adams to

0:12:57the civil service commission

0:12:59and alice

0:13:01morris to the human relations commission

0:13:05and that concludes my reports from

0:13:08our previous meetings right before this

0:13:10council meeting

0:13:11uh in addition i have one announcement

0:13:14um

0:13:15from the alta bates subcommittee that i

0:13:17am on we are looking at doing

0:13:21a

0:13:23a meeting a public meeting we had one

0:13:25already in berkeley about a year ago and

0:13:28we're looking at doing another public

0:13:30meeting

0:13:31for contra costa county and i will

0:13:34continue to give you updates as that

0:13:36develops

0:13:39that

0:13:41that concludes our

0:13:43announcements for today

0:13:47next we will move on to oral

0:13:49communications from the public at this

0:13:52time if anyone would like to speak

0:13:54please give the city clerk a speaker

0:13:56card

0:13:57your remarks are limited to three

0:14:00minutes and i can decrease the number if

0:14:03there are

0:14:04the number of minutes if there are many

0:14:05speakers but it doesn't look like there

0:14:07will be today

0:14:10comments regarding non-agenda items and

0:14:13consent calendar items will be heard

0:14:15first comments related to other agenda

0:14:18items

0:14:19will be heard at the time the city

0:14:21council deliberates on that item when

0:14:24you come forward please state your name

0:14:27and your city of residence for the

0:14:30record

0:14:31will you please call the speakers

0:14:33the first three speakers tonight are

0:14:35cordell hindler followed by nick

0:14:37zamorono and gary prost

0:14:41so good evening uh mayor pedro akimoto

0:14:44uh council staff i am cordon handler

0:14:46richmond so

0:14:48this is what i came to last time and

0:14:50regarding the

0:14:52the the price of commercial space around

0:14:54the bay area and i i did some research

0:14:56so

0:14:57i have spoken to the owners of atlas

0:15:00liquors and

0:15:01they told me that uh that they paid 15

0:15:03000 a month for rent and i was like that

0:15:05is

0:15:06that is

0:15:07that's

0:15:08extraordinary

0:15:10it's like it's to me fifteen thousand

0:15:12dollars is a lot of money for rent

0:15:14i wouldn't for me personally as a

0:15:16business owner i would not pay that much

0:15:18money uh

0:15:19to lease a space i mean that that

0:15:21that's unacceptable so to me i spoken to

0:15:24other businesses around san pablo avenue

0:15:27and they're dealing with the same

0:15:29concerns you know like the price of uh

0:15:32rent keeps going up every time and i say

0:15:34as a um as a new business comes in peop

0:15:37they'll come they'll take one they'll

0:15:39come to el cerrito for um

0:15:41to see if they if this is to their

0:15:42liking if they like it that's fine but

0:15:44then if they don't like it they would

0:15:46have to find another space like to have

0:15:48um

0:15:50have their own business i mean because i

0:15:51looked at the cities of lafayette and

0:15:53berkeley and i said lafayette came out

0:15:55on top for me because i looked at their

0:15:57ad online it's like five thousand

0:16:00dollars not now that would be less than

0:16:02i would pay

0:16:03anywhere else because i'm looking for a

0:16:05space that would be

0:16:07convenient more accessible and

0:16:10the whole nine yards so that's one then

0:16:12number two is um i'm putting in i'm

0:16:14bringing an item forward to you to be

0:16:16placed on next month's agenda regarding

0:16:18the travel policy because i have been in

0:16:20communications with other

0:16:22cities in west county uh in the past

0:16:24they have done like travel policies you

0:16:26know up to a certain amount so i so i

0:16:29want to bring this forward to you all

0:16:30the peop to see if it could be placed on

0:16:32the next agenda

0:16:34and then the third thing is um

0:16:36i did want to thank mayor purdue okimoto

0:16:38for for out to base because

0:16:40as a person who um who cares about uh

0:16:43the hospital and in general i think

0:16:46that's it's wonderful so

0:16:48i'm also asking that if uh if you would

0:16:50invite mr cass to come back like you

0:16:52know to a future west county meeting uh

0:16:54to give you all an update on the um

0:16:57uh what's what kind of id some ideas i

0:17:00will bring forward to you all about the

0:17:01about keeping out to base going so with

0:17:03that i'll give my time to nick

0:17:06the next speaker is nick samarono

0:17:08followed by gary prost

0:17:11good evening madame mayor

0:17:14council members city staff friends and

0:17:15neighbors nick summerano el cerrito mike

0:17:19el suite of fire safe i want to talk

0:17:20about a couple subjects tonight

0:17:23first one is vegetation management

0:17:24standards

0:17:26and it is our understanding that the el

0:17:28cerrito fire department recently

0:17:29conducted visual inspections of

0:17:31properties and issued notices to those

0:17:34homeowners that were deemed to be out of

0:17:36compliance with the vegetation

0:17:37management standards for reducing fire

0:17:39hazards

0:17:40this includes violations of defensible

0:17:43space home hardening as well as

0:17:45overgrown vegetation debris prohibited

0:17:48tree shrubs and other flammable

0:17:50materials

0:17:51as many of us drive and walk to

0:17:53neighborhoods in el cerido we are quite

0:17:55aware of the many properties that appear

0:17:57appear to be at fire risk

0:17:59it would be important to know just how

0:18:01many of these homes are out of

0:18:02compliance

0:18:04and what type of fire risk do they pose

0:18:06to the neighborhood

0:18:08mike el cerrito fire safe is requesting

0:18:10that the city fire department make

0:18:12available a report as to the data that

0:18:16they collected that shows how many homes

0:18:18were deemed out of compliance

0:18:20and therefore a fire hazard to us

0:18:23big el suite of fire safe also urges

0:18:25that the city and fire department follow

0:18:26through with the necessary consequences

0:18:29resulting in bringing these properties

0:18:31into compliance

0:18:33not through any kind of

0:18:36mean efforts but

0:18:38more of a consistent effort to join in

0:18:41the process of cleaning up our

0:18:43properties

0:18:44it is also suggested that the city and

0:18:47the fire department sponsor neighborhood

0:18:48cleanup days to assist those homeowners

0:18:51who desire to comply with the standards

0:18:53but they somehow don't seem to have the

0:18:54means to do so there are a lot of

0:18:56elderly low-income homeowners that just

0:18:59don't have the financial means to be

0:19:01able to do all the necessary work

0:19:03over the years of many many years of

0:19:05neglected maintenance

0:19:08the second item i wanted to

0:19:10talk about is fire assessment and a

0:19:12prevention fee

0:19:15i want to propose the idea of

0:19:16establishing an annual fire assessment

0:19:18prevention fee that would be placed on

0:19:20every home owner parcel that would be

0:19:23used exclusively for fire mitigation

0:19:25prevention and recovery

0:19:27other counties such as el dorado netaja

0:19:29based on charge a fee per parcel

0:19:31structure that is used only by the local

0:19:34fire departments to fund fire mitigation

0:19:36and prevention these funds could also be

0:19:39used to financially assist those

0:19:40homeowners who cannot afford to bring

0:19:42the properties into compliance

0:19:44and i know that nobody wants to hear

0:19:45about another tax

0:19:48but sometimes you have to

0:19:50pay for the services that you want and

0:19:53i think the president for such a fee has

0:19:55already been established to the passage

0:19:57of the transfer tax on measure v

0:20:00and the landlord registry fee of 44 per

0:20:02rental unit the fire assessment

0:20:04prevention fee seems to me and others to

0:20:07be a small price to pay for preventing a

0:20:09mega fire in a very high fire hazard

0:20:11severity zones i also want to recommend

0:20:13that a portion of the measure v funds be

0:20:16diverted to the fire department to

0:20:17further support the firefighting efforts

0:20:20thank you thank you next speaker is gary

0:20:23prost followed by k stark weather

0:20:27good evening mayor council i'm gary

0:20:30prost el cerrito

0:20:32and speaking on behalf of make el

0:20:34cerrito fire safe

0:20:36um and be talking about

0:20:38support

0:20:39for california assembly bill 38

0:20:43first though i want to thank

0:20:46several of you in particular councilman

0:20:48fidelity

0:20:50marshall gibson and

0:20:52chief keith

0:20:53for helping out and making

0:20:55doing lots of efforts to make el cerrito

0:20:58fire safe

0:21:01ab38

0:21:02is a an act

0:21:04that adds sections to california's

0:21:07health and safety code relating to fire

0:21:10safety

0:21:11currently it's in draft form

0:21:14the bill enacts wildfire minimization

0:21:17programs

0:21:18wildfire prevention programs and

0:21:20wildfire response programs

0:21:23requires that low-cost retrofits to fire

0:21:28uh to in order to fire hardened

0:21:31structures

0:21:32be certified at time of sale of a home

0:21:35or building

0:21:37it also establishes a fire hardened home

0:21:40loan and rebate program to help

0:21:42homeowners meet this requirement

0:21:46make el cerrito fire safe which is an

0:21:49alliance of concerned neighbors and

0:21:50residents of el cerrito urges you the

0:21:54city council

0:21:55and the city

0:21:57to formally declare support for ab38 and

0:22:00what it represents

0:22:02including if possible

0:22:04a statewide regional fire safety board

0:22:06as is

0:22:07as is in the original bill thank you

0:22:12the next speaker is k stark weather

0:22:14followed by scott perry

0:22:21hello my name is kay starkweather and

0:22:24i'm a resident of el cerrito

0:22:26i'm part of el cerrito fire safe also i

0:22:29have

0:22:30two

0:22:31brief points to make this evening

0:22:35with the measure v funds that measure v

0:22:38just passed i it's my understanding that

0:22:42homeowners can get one one-third rebate

0:22:45of the funds for

0:22:47solar

0:22:48and earthquake retrofit

0:22:51upon

0:22:52sale of their home and i would like to

0:22:53ask that

0:22:56the language of the measure be

0:22:58amended to include that fire hardening

0:23:01of your home

0:23:04could also qualify for the one-third

0:23:06rebate

0:23:08my second point is

0:23:10that upon close of escrow all homes sold

0:23:14or all properties sold

0:23:17in within the city of el cerrito

0:23:20meet the vegetation management standards

0:23:23at close of escrow to conclude the

0:23:25transaction

0:23:27at this

0:23:29juncture we require that all the sewers

0:23:32be brought up to code and retrofitted

0:23:34and i would like to add that we require

0:23:37the properties to meet current

0:23:38vegetation management standards some of

0:23:41which mr zamorano just outlined thank

0:23:44you

0:23:44the next speaker is scott perry followed

0:23:47by paul duncan

0:23:51thank you scott perry lifelong resident

0:23:53of el cerrito

0:23:55i would like to thank the else rita fire

0:23:57department for their continued work in

0:23:59hillside nature area and i'd also like

0:24:01to thank them for their wonderful

0:24:03presentations of megafires the new norm

0:24:06dave gibson presented very important

0:24:08information about the threat of

0:24:10catastrophic fires in our areas and our

0:24:12area and its consequences to el cerrito

0:24:15his compelling information had complete

0:24:17attention of all in attendance he

0:24:19emphasized defensible space around our

0:24:22homes

0:24:22meaning vegeta

0:24:24removing vegetation and distance from

0:24:26our structures

0:24:27we talked about ladder fuels and the

0:24:29importance of eliminating them we also

0:24:32had a conversation about the eucalyptus

0:24:34trees in hillside nature area where even

0:24:36if the ladder fuels were cleaned up and

0:24:38removed that in a diablo wind event

0:24:40driven

0:24:41fire embers would blow into preheated

0:24:44leaf canopies

0:24:45igniting them igniting one of the most

0:24:48volatile trees known

0:24:50el cerrito must choose fire safety over

0:24:52vegetation aesthetics

0:24:54i'd also like to thank council member

0:24:57fideli for his attendance at the first

0:24:59meeting that i attended

0:25:00and to thank him also for coming to a

0:25:03meeting of make el srido fire safe

0:25:05we exchanged wonderful information

0:25:08that we had about things that we had

0:25:10been doing and we agreed that an update

0:25:13updated version to the city's website

0:25:15would benefit all of us

0:25:17thank you let's make el cerrito fire

0:25:19safe thank you

0:25:20the next speaker is paul duncan followed

0:25:22by susan duncan

0:25:27good evening i'm paul duncan it's uh el

0:25:30cerrito may cal cerrito fire safe i'm

0:25:32speaking tonight to once again bring up

0:25:34the idea our group has already suggested

0:25:37to the city council and the city manager

0:25:40clean up don't burn up

0:25:43we're requesting that the city schedule

0:25:45advertise and sponsor a citywide cleanup

0:25:48weekend for many years we've had

0:25:50organized garage sale days why not

0:25:53extend this idea to organize days with

0:25:56the goal of increasing fire safety

0:25:58with lots of winter rain warm sunny

0:26:00spring weather and now a couple inches

0:26:02more rain and warm water starting again

0:26:04soon will get way more weed growth than

0:26:07we've had in normal years when those

0:26:09weeds dry out of course the fire hazards

0:26:11increase dramatically

0:26:13one big impediment in my mind to people

0:26:15cleaning up their lots is the disposal

0:26:17of the resulting green waste wouldn't it

0:26:20be a good idea to place debris boxes in

0:26:22strategic locations to encourage

0:26:25cleaning up

0:26:26or alternatively designate flat spaces

0:26:28to stack up debris for chipper trucks to

0:26:31swing by the next day and pick it all up

0:26:34with the disposal problems eliminated i

0:26:36believe more people would step up and do

0:26:38the right thing by clearing their own

0:26:40property and maybe even volunteer to

0:26:42help their neighbors who for some reason

0:26:44can't do it on their own

0:26:46think about it you've already said it's

0:26:48a good idea

0:26:49make it happen

0:26:51clean up don't burn up

0:26:53thank you

0:26:54thank you the next speaker is susan

0:26:56duncan followed by barbara chan

0:27:06good evening susan duncan el cerrito

0:27:08first i'd like to thank the fire

0:27:10department for their continued

0:27:12uh cleaning up in hillside natural area

0:27:14by burning more slash piles last week

0:27:17i also want to thank council member

0:27:20fidelity for meeting with us last week

0:27:23it is encouraging to know that one of

0:27:25the city's top priorities is wildfire

0:27:27prevention although sometimes it isn't

0:27:30real apparent to the public

0:27:32perhaps by making it more you could make

0:27:35it more apparent

0:27:37by on the front page of every news and

0:27:40views you could have a wild profile

0:27:43prevention article as you did

0:27:45on the

0:27:46spring one the spring 19 one just have a

0:27:49little square on the front every week

0:27:51every time about

0:27:52some wildfire prevention like maybe tips

0:27:56on how to harden your house

0:27:58uh

0:27:58the most flammable

0:28:00vegetation of the

0:28:03fire safe list etc

0:28:05also

0:28:07how about putting some measure funds

0:28:09measure v funds toward

0:28:12fire prevention that would show your

0:28:14commitment also

0:28:18i also want to report that since the

0:28:19last council meeting four of us met with

0:28:21assembly member wix we discussed ab38

0:28:24which since then has been gutted

0:28:27there are no more regional boards but

0:28:29there is a contingent of groups that are

0:28:31working to try to get the regional board

0:28:33section back into that bill

0:28:36she also indicated that she would be

0:28:38happy to write letters of support for

0:28:40any grants that the city applies for she

0:28:42said that she and senator skinner

0:28:45routinely send joint letters for support

0:28:47so all you have to do is notify her

0:28:49office for these letters thank you

0:28:55the next speaker is barbara chan

0:28:56followed by anna ippaloto

0:29:05good evening council members and members

0:29:07of the public my name is barbara chan i

0:29:09live in el cerrito and

0:29:12before i speak about the topic i'm here

0:29:15to

0:29:16address i just wanted to say that we

0:29:18love your idea of

0:29:21clean up and don't burn up

0:29:23so

0:29:24you've got the environmental justice

0:29:25group behind you

0:29:27so for years el cerrito has had a

0:29:29profitable recycling center and now

0:29:31we're faced with having to pay for our

0:29:34plastic and other materials to be taken

0:29:36mostly to landfill because

0:29:39of

0:29:40the smaller markets for plastic

0:29:44and the fact that some processors have

0:29:46gone out of business and some of the

0:29:48equipment cannot process

0:29:50bits of plastic while i am supportive of

0:29:52residents paying more for waste

0:29:55collection to deal with this crisis in

0:29:57the interim

0:29:59we believe that we have a moral

0:30:00imperative to eliminate as much plastic

0:30:03from our lives as possible

0:30:06a product of petroleum fracking

0:30:09the entire

0:30:10process from pro um

0:30:13from you know from the underground to

0:30:15product is unhealthy

0:30:17at the very least el cerrito

0:30:20a city that prides itself on being green

0:30:24must find the will to at least bl ban

0:30:27plastic and non-compostable food and

0:30:30beverage wear

0:30:31and reduce litter in our city you walk

0:30:34down san pablo avenue you go by the

0:30:37theater you go by the grocery store you

0:30:39walk in residences

0:30:41plastic is found everywhere

0:30:44not only will

0:30:46our

0:30:47updating our food wear ordinance reduce

0:30:50our disposal costs businesses can save

0:30:52money by changing their dinnerware

0:30:55practices

0:30:58thank you

0:30:59thank you

0:31:00the last speaker under this item is anna

0:31:02ipaluto

0:31:09good evening and thank you for your time

0:31:11my name is anna palito and i'm a

0:31:13resident of vel's cerrito along with my

0:31:15two children who are here tonight and

0:31:19i'm here to voice my support of el

0:31:21cerrito fire safe and to ask that part

0:31:24of measure b be used to

0:31:27for reducing the risk of fire in the

0:31:29hillside natural area

0:31:33and to make that a priority i live in

0:31:34the wildwood complex which is

0:31:38located near right up against the

0:31:41natural area along gladys avenue also

0:31:44and it's very thick with vegetation and

0:31:47it's very concerning to me as a parent

0:31:49um

0:31:50i would like to thank the el cerrito

0:31:51fire department and again um elsewhere

0:31:54to fire safe for providing useful

0:31:55information over the past few

0:31:57months for us residents um

0:32:00but i would like to again ask that

0:32:02measure v

0:32:04and

0:32:05the funds that that

0:32:07entails be appropriated in a way that we

0:32:10can see as being

0:32:12helping reduce that risk um

0:32:15it's very frightening to me again as a

0:32:17parent to live so close to

0:32:19um such so much brush and and the

0:32:21eucalyptus trees and to know that it

0:32:23could so quickly turn into something

0:32:25devastating and not just because we live

0:32:27so close to the to the natural area but

0:32:29for the entire city

0:32:30um and i again i want to thank elsewhere

0:32:32to fire safe for raising these concerns

0:32:34and

0:32:35as as a resident just echo

0:32:38my support and echo their suggestions

0:32:41which i think are really excellent thank

0:32:43you for your time bye thank you

0:32:47all right

0:32:49next we have the adoption of the consent

0:32:51calendar

0:32:54a revised regular meeting schedule for

0:32:56summer 2019

0:32:59b rent registry ordinance

0:33:01c just cause for eviction ordinance and

0:33:04d

0:33:05annual review of comprehensive financial

0:33:08policy

0:33:15i have a motion

0:33:25i was debating whether or not i wanted

0:33:27to pull the

0:33:28financial

0:33:29uh one i'm gonna not uh so i'll move uh

0:33:32the consent calendar of item 4a through

0:33:354d

0:33:36i would second that um

0:33:39i i was wanting to pull d also

0:33:42okay

0:33:44all right for a discussion at least

0:33:47okay so i will revise my motion if

0:33:49that's allowed to

0:33:52approve items four a through four c and

0:33:55i'd like to ask a question

0:33:59about c which is

0:34:03being that it's on the consent calendar

0:34:05the question is if

0:34:08if one still has an opposition to it

0:34:12it uh it seems to me we need to pull it

0:34:14in order just to vote on it right so i

0:34:17will move a

0:34:18motion to prove 4a

0:34:22second

0:34:24okay all in favor of approving

0:34:28only

0:34:29a of the consent calendar revised

0:34:32regular

0:34:33meeting schedule for summer 19 all in

0:34:36favor

0:34:37those opposed

0:34:39motion carries i move a motion to

0:34:41approve 4b second

0:34:45all in favor

0:34:48those opposed

0:34:50motion carries

0:34:52i move a motion to approve item 4c

0:34:57all in oh i second that motion

0:35:00all in favor aye aye

0:35:02those opposed no

0:35:05all right motion carries

0:35:09lastly

0:35:11is there discussion on item d annual

0:35:14review of comprehensive financial policy

0:35:17the um reason i was wanting to

0:35:20discuss this is to discuss the part that

0:35:22talks about

0:35:25whether the council

0:35:27[Music]

0:35:28it it sort of reads to me like the

0:35:31council is not supposed to

0:35:33um

0:35:34[Music]

0:35:43do anything without

0:35:46uh i'm just trying to think how to word

0:35:48this uh

0:35:50that ex it's the way expenditures are um

0:35:56authorized i suppose

0:35:58and um

0:35:59[Music]

0:36:02there

0:36:03and then the other item had to do with

0:36:05in the case of an emergency

0:36:07it looks like the

0:36:09council could almost be disbanded

0:36:12it looks like if everyone if let's say

0:36:15there was an emergency and

0:36:17everyone was away from the city at the

0:36:19time of the emergency let's call this a

0:36:21dire emergency

0:36:23and there was one person left from the

0:36:25council that that council that

0:36:28that council could be reformed as one

0:36:30person

0:36:32uh so i need i just need to understand

0:36:34how that

0:36:36i need to understand more about that so

0:36:38the way the state law

0:36:39reads is that that's cited in the text

0:36:42that that is being proposed is that um

0:36:45under state law in the event of an

0:36:47emergency um in which um members of the

0:36:51council are

0:36:53um not able no

0:36:55no longer available that a single member

0:36:57of the council can

0:36:59call a meeting for the purposes of

0:37:01reconstituting the council

0:37:05and there's a process laid out in state

0:37:06law for for doing so in addition there

0:37:09are um standby members of the council

0:37:12um

0:37:13and so

0:37:14uh

0:37:16basically once once there's once enough

0:37:18people have been um

0:37:21appointed to reconstitute the council

0:37:23then they would be able to act

0:37:25but i i guess what concerns me is

0:37:28that

0:37:29how it's really determined that they're

0:37:32no

0:37:32no longer available

0:37:36i mean i understand if

0:37:38if they've their decisions

0:37:40they would have lost their lives in the

0:37:41emergency

0:37:43that's what that means

0:37:44okay

0:37:47okay all right i was not being

0:37:48sufficiently direct okay i have a

0:37:51follow-up question if i may um just

0:37:54like for example i'm a mandatory

0:37:56reporter as a nurse so if i was unable

0:37:58to be here because i had to be in the

0:38:00hospital during an earthquake for

0:38:03three or four or five days in a row

0:38:05would that also count

0:38:07um

0:38:08i believe that

0:38:10that

0:38:11that it um it would not count um but

0:38:15there'd also be a question of whether or

0:38:16not we'd be able to

0:38:19to combine different portions of state

0:38:21law to be able to put together a quorum

0:38:25for holding a meeting so if you were a

0:38:27mandatory reporter and simply not able

0:38:28to be in the city

0:38:30but two other members were able to be

0:38:32here we would be able to schedule um a

0:38:36meeting where you were attending by

0:38:37phone i think just for just

0:38:40just for a short enough meeting to be

0:38:42able to do things like authorize the use

0:38:44of funds

0:38:45or take other immediate actions that

0:38:47were necessary the the the provision for

0:38:50reconstituting the council is really for

0:38:53when as a result of an event um that

0:38:56results in an emergency like council

0:38:58members are presumed to have died

0:39:01thank you

0:39:03so um

0:39:05okay so it wouldn't be used just because

0:39:08you know

0:39:09there are factions on the council and

0:39:12kind of to eliminate a faction no that's

0:39:14that it does the state law does not

0:39:16allow for that okay so there are

0:39:18processes or there's there's something

0:39:20in place that does that

0:39:22and um does all of this assume that

0:39:25there is a city attorney

0:39:27yes in place yes

0:39:31hopefully you have not expired it

0:39:33assumes that i assuming that i am still

0:39:35the city attorney or someone from my

0:39:36office

0:39:37has been appointed it will

0:39:39have been will have been become

0:39:41available will be available to provide

0:39:43legal counsel and ensure that um the

0:39:45provisions of state law have been

0:39:47satisfied to allow for the action of

0:39:48reconstituting and that can be done by

0:39:50phone isa yes the city attorney would be

0:39:52able to attend by phone and not

0:39:54necessarily to attend in person okay

0:39:57that that helps with that um

0:40:01now the um

0:40:03could could you

0:40:05could the city manager perhaps just run

0:40:07through the

0:40:08uh the reason that i shouldn't be

0:40:11concerned about the

0:40:13fund the um

0:40:15funding of the budget and the

0:40:17and so forth for the emergency fund

0:40:19right well actually i also have a

0:40:21finance director mark rosaya here who

0:40:24has spoken with the fab so how about um

0:40:27i turn it over to him so that he can let

0:40:29you know of his detail and what the

0:40:31financial advisory board also said about

0:40:33this that would be great

0:40:35good evening mayor and council members

0:40:38would you mind repeating that question

0:40:39again

0:40:40the question really has to do with

0:40:43understanding

0:40:45how we can

0:40:47not

0:40:48take

0:40:50any action on anything

0:40:52without discussing the financial

0:40:55um

0:40:58aspects of it

0:41:00um

0:41:02because because the concern i have that

0:41:05um you know i mean like what about

0:41:08resolutions in support of earth day or

0:41:10something

0:41:11uh you know i mean there are lots of

0:41:13actions that we take that

0:41:16you know are pretty obviously don't have

0:41:19any significant uh financial aspect but

0:41:22are we going to have to spend have to

0:41:24spend time on reports that

0:41:27um say so or you know i mean do you

0:41:30follow what i'm

0:41:31concerned about that's kind of where my

0:41:33concern is

0:41:34so thinking behind this was from the

0:41:36fab's point of view was to

0:41:38make sure that if there was significant

0:41:40expenditure of any thoughts

0:41:43that the impact of that expenditure was

0:41:45explored in terms of the impact that it

0:41:46would have on the fund balance reserve

0:41:48ratio

0:41:49so that doesn't pertain to things like

0:41:51like you suggested earth day and other

0:41:52kinds of normal causes of action type of

0:41:54business

0:41:56and by significant we mean things that

0:41:57exceed the city managers pending

0:41:59authority which in this case works out

0:42:01to anything over forty five thousand

0:42:02dollars

0:42:03so those are the types of actions that

0:42:04the fab had in mind when they moved up

0:42:06that concept okay and that's specified

0:42:08in here

0:42:10well it says if there is anything major

0:42:12to be spent it needs to be supported by

0:42:16uh the impact on the fund balance ratio

0:42:18and so that's about where they've left

0:42:20it at they haven't broken it down into

0:42:22exactly how much that amount should be

0:42:24well

0:42:25should shouldn't it be you know i'm just

0:42:27wondering if that needs to be defined

0:42:31again the thinking behind this whole

0:42:32thing

0:42:34i mean saying the the city manager's fun

0:42:37uh

0:42:39signature

0:42:40ability to spend money would be to me an

0:42:43adequate way of describing it without

0:42:46actually even specifying

0:42:48in the same place the amount

0:42:50right and we can include that as

0:42:53a modifier in that sentence that says

0:42:55that if it exceeds the city manager's

0:42:56spending authority it can be it needs to

0:42:58be supported by its impact on it yeah i

0:43:00mean if it was stated that way it would

0:43:02um

0:43:04be reasonable to me yes most certainly

0:43:06excuse me which section are we talking

0:43:07about

0:43:12because if it's possible we can insert

0:43:13that language tonight right as part of

0:43:15the motion

0:43:33that was um

0:43:46i'm just trying to find that exact

0:43:48little line here

0:43:55are we talking about 3.2 on page

0:43:5842 of 119

0:44:20no it is um

0:44:24it's a one-line sentence that we have i

0:44:27think at the end of the cip

0:44:31we see

0:44:33you know three went three what

0:44:38cip is section 8 on page 46 of 119 right

0:44:43[Applause]

0:44:52what section

0:44:54i know that now that i found the page

0:44:59seven point eight

0:45:02no it's just eight

0:45:03that's when the new section was

0:45:04introduced

0:45:06well he hasn't found the

0:45:09the fund ratio

0:45:11i haven't found that the specific

0:45:13sentence you were talking about

0:45:19where a study is needed prior to

0:45:21expenditure

0:45:23that's that's what i heard

0:45:25that we're talking about right and i'm

0:45:27just trying to put a finger on that your

0:45:28honor are you looking at under financial

0:45:30management policies number 7.2

0:45:34all requests for city council action

0:45:35shall include an analysis of the

0:45:37immediate and future fiscal impact of

0:45:39such action particularly impacts on the

0:45:41general fund

0:45:43is that what you're talking about

0:45:44council member abelson right

0:45:46so that would be on page 45 of 119 under

0:45:49financial management policy 7.2

0:45:58but it it if that language could be

0:46:00included there that would specify

0:46:03uh in it funds in excess of the

0:46:09city manager's authority

0:46:15all requests for city council action

0:46:17that exceeds the city manager's spending

0:46:19authority shall include an analysis of

0:46:21the immediate and future fiscal impact

0:46:24yes

0:46:27yes section 7.2 and page 45

0:46:30and we could insert that language there

0:46:32great

0:46:33thank you

0:46:37that covers my

0:46:42here

0:46:43yes go ahead and council member fidelity

0:46:45yes yeah you're done with that item i i

0:46:47just uh what i liked about this

0:46:50item was the establishment and the

0:46:52approval of fab on the economic and

0:46:54disaster recovery fund which will go to

0:46:57earthquake fire and other things and

0:46:59it's saving

0:47:01the goal that we have of a 15 savings in

0:47:04our general fund expenditures which is a

0:47:06was a great thing my concern is i was

0:47:08wondering if by choice it wasn't

0:47:10included in the resolution

0:47:12that significant point i think should be

0:47:14in the resolution is one of the

0:47:15significant changes that we've made in

0:47:17this

0:47:18in this document and i would just ask if

0:47:20others might agree and

0:47:22it could be easily included into that

0:47:24final whereas city staff have

0:47:26incorporated changes which include the

0:47:28ed r f fund which uh requires a goal of

0:47:3215

0:47:34for disaster relief

0:47:36it's actually it's actually three months

0:47:39which is six million so it's actually it

0:47:41wouldn't be fifteen percent it would be

0:47:43a different we would use different

0:47:44numbers the point is right yeah um

0:47:48and and i certainly wouldn't use the

0:47:50acronym we would use the

0:47:52i didn't say emergency and disaster

0:47:54recovery funding i like the language

0:47:55anyway i was just wondering if there was

0:47:57a reason why it wasn't included in the

0:47:58resolution

0:48:01frankly no there was no reason for that

0:48:03okay i think that's a significant

0:48:06if we

0:48:07if it took effect i'm not sure when it

0:48:09this would take effect

0:48:11but if it took effect let's say

0:48:13immediately

0:48:14then

0:48:16it would uh use up funding of this

0:48:18year's budget

0:48:20and we would have to

0:48:22defund

0:48:23the things that were currently covered

0:48:25by this year's budget

0:48:27correct

0:48:28no no no no why not item 4.2 on page 43

0:48:33of 119 talks about the funding

0:48:37timeline and it says the city council

0:48:39shall fund three months of payroll costs

0:48:41currently six million dollars in the

0:48:43emergency and disaster recovery fund the

0:48:46cash reserve requirement shall be

0:48:48reviewed every biennial budget cycle

0:48:50which we're going to do next year and

0:48:53the city budget shall

0:48:54contain a plan to achieve the target

0:48:57cash reserve

0:48:59in the

0:49:00emergency and disaster recovery fund

0:49:03over two biennial budget cycles so

0:49:06essentially from today we have five

0:49:08years to establish a six million dollar

0:49:12fund

0:49:14so it would not it would not be

0:49:15immediate i thought that paul was saying

0:49:17something different but

0:49:18i just meant to point out that we are

0:49:20establishing a six million dollar

0:49:22economic disaster recovery fund as

0:49:24simple as that in the resolution

0:49:28so it

0:49:30it does

0:49:31unless

0:49:32you don't like the words that are there

0:49:35i i support this and let me see if i can

0:49:37propose language that will fit both of

0:49:39you in the final whereas clause on but i

0:49:42have a problem with the language i'm

0:49:44just asking if the solution is

0:49:48it's just not included in the resolution

0:49:50i'm just look i'm looking at the um i'm

0:49:52looking at the resolution okay that's

0:49:53what i'm concerned about

0:49:57that it's significant enough of change

0:49:59that we're making financially

0:50:02far as

0:50:03seeking

0:50:04to establish the six million dollar

0:50:06disaster relief fund you're just wanting

0:50:08the the wording of

0:50:11what's in the document to be in the

0:50:15uh

0:50:16resolution right

0:50:19okay i don't have a problem with that if

0:50:21it's you know using just taking the same

0:50:23words out okay i thought you were trying

0:50:25to do something different i'm not

0:50:26changing any policies just making

0:50:28in our resolution

0:50:30prioritizing what they prioritize as a

0:50:33significant change

0:50:35that's fine okay thank you so if i may

0:50:38i will make a motion

0:50:41um

0:50:42and uh the motion i'm making is a

0:50:44resolution of the city council of the

0:50:46city of el cerrito approving the

0:50:48comprehensive financial policy

0:50:51with the following additions to the

0:50:53resolution

0:50:55where the final whereas clause would

0:50:57read

0:50:58whereas city staff has incorporated

0:51:00changes including the establishment of

0:51:03an emergency and disaster recovery fund

0:51:06valued at three months of payroll

0:51:10uh

0:51:11proposed by the city council the city of

0:51:13el cerrito in the attached document and

0:51:16uh incorporating a revision to

0:51:18the attached document in section 7.2

0:51:22to add the following

0:51:24words that exceeds city manager

0:51:26authority

0:51:27in

0:51:28to read all requests for city council

0:51:30actions that exceed city manager

0:51:32authority shall include an analysis of

0:51:34the media and future fiscal impact of

0:51:36such action particularly impacts on the

0:51:38general fund

0:51:42i second that

0:51:44all in favor

0:51:45aye aye

0:51:46as opposed

0:51:48motion carries

0:51:50thank you

0:51:51[Music]

0:51:52thank you

0:51:53next we will have a presentation by the

0:51:56el cerrito fire department on fire

0:51:58safety for homeowners

0:52:11um

0:52:27madam mayor members of the council dave

0:52:30gibson your fire marshal

0:52:32tonight i'm going to show you a brief

0:52:34presentation that we've been out in the

0:52:36public doing

0:52:38since

0:52:38actually started march 30th

0:52:42and this presentation was put together

0:52:44along with a diablo fire safe council

0:52:47uh in the initial presentation

0:52:49um

0:52:50and the opening slide uh

0:52:53we we kind of

0:52:55thought that was a

0:52:57a really good spot to start with

0:52:59in that

0:53:00that is a picture of coffee park up in

0:53:03santa rosa

0:53:05which is for those of you that know

0:53:07where coffee park is at is not in the

0:53:09high fire hazard area

0:53:11and that's one of the things that we

0:53:13really wanted to stress to everybody and

0:53:15that is that

0:53:17the problem that exists today

0:53:20is a problem

0:53:21that is

0:53:23encompassing

0:53:24all of the community it's not just those

0:53:27that live in the rural area not just

0:53:29those that live in the hillside area but

0:53:32in fact even those that live in

0:53:35the uh

0:53:36the in the flatlands in the in the

0:53:38non-fire hazard high fire hazard area as

0:53:41deemed by

0:53:42by cal fire

0:53:54let's make this

0:54:00there we go

0:54:01thank you

0:54:02um so an overview of what we've been

0:54:05we've been uh taking out to the public

0:54:07is going over

0:54:09what's been going on you know what's our

0:54:11environment in california doing a little

0:54:13behavior fire behavior 101 how do these

0:54:16fires get going

0:54:18talking about how to increase

0:54:19survivability

0:54:21looking at some

0:54:22kids some key factors that folks can use

0:54:25to protect themselves uh introducing

0:54:28folks that didn't know about it to the

0:54:29ready set go program from cal fire um

0:54:33the uh

0:54:34also talking about our standards

0:54:37our vegetation management standards and

0:54:39then doing an overview of ongoing

0:54:42projects that are out there in the

0:54:44community as far as living in california

0:54:47i think we all know and we've all seen

0:54:49what's been going on especially the last

0:54:51couple years we went through five years

0:54:53of drought and we know that that

0:54:55we had our significant fires then

0:54:58but we've had two years of rain and

0:55:00we're thinking okay well things are

0:55:02going to get better

0:55:04and we've had two devastating back to

0:55:06you know fire fire seasons back to back

0:55:09um

0:55:11the unfortunate word from cal fire that

0:55:13they've given us is that the vegetation

0:55:16that was drought stricken

0:55:18they were hoping it was going to come

0:55:20back the fuel moistures were going to

0:55:21come back

0:55:22and they're not coming back to the level

0:55:24that they thought they were going to be

0:55:26you combine that with the high grass

0:55:29or the bumper crop of grass that we're

0:55:32going to have again this season and

0:55:34we are in line for another

0:55:37active

0:55:38destructive fire season again and that's

0:55:40unfortunate we do

0:55:43have a great system here in california

0:55:45as far as moving

0:55:46uh equipment and people up and down the

0:55:49state but

0:55:50fires are going to happen and we have to

0:55:52do everything we can to protect

0:55:54ourselves

0:55:56we do have a history here in alameda and

0:55:58contra costa county

0:56:00that history dates back to

0:56:031923 when the

0:56:05uh fire of 1923 came through out of the

0:56:08hills on following uh east wind and

0:56:12uh went through and a little different

0:56:14look here

0:56:16went through and took out basically 524

0:56:19houses

0:56:21in less than in about two hours so

0:56:24if you look at that picture and compare

0:56:26it to a coffee park

0:56:29it looks a lot to be the same it's

0:56:32um so we have a history dating way back

0:56:36um

0:56:37in in our area

0:56:39um

0:56:411970s and september of 70 we had the

0:56:44open

0:56:44one of the first open berkeley hills

0:56:46fires but

0:56:47we had we did have a fire in that area

0:56:50and

0:56:51right in the same exact area

0:56:54that occurred in uh in 1991

0:56:57um the 1991 fire the the very

0:57:02uh difficult thing with the 91 fire was

0:57:04that

0:57:05that fire started with a morning wind

0:57:08blowing out of the east and then

0:57:10switched directions in the afternoon and

0:57:12as i've said in our presentations though

0:57:14one of the worst things firefighters uh

0:57:18we don't like is when wind shifts

0:57:20because we set all of our

0:57:22containment up and um

0:57:24all of our efforts to stop a fire based

0:57:27on the wind being in a certain direction

0:57:29and when it changes directions on us uh

0:57:32that causes us even

0:57:34more problems so

0:57:35uh that's one of the reasons why that

0:57:37fire was so difficult but

0:57:39the fire in 1970 the fire in 1991 were

0:57:43almost in the identical same area

0:57:45um

0:57:46and those areas are are growing and

0:57:49homes have been rebuilt and

0:57:52um

0:57:53you know those uh

0:57:54those areas still exist

0:57:56uh the other thing too was we a number

0:57:58of years ago we were able to participate

0:58:00in uh

0:58:01in a simulation with berkeley fire

0:58:04um

0:58:06in regards to this fire and

0:58:08uh

0:58:09being in the incident command post

0:58:11during that simulation and

0:58:13getting a new house fire

0:58:15every four seconds reported in was

0:58:19it's an incredible thing when you think

0:58:21about it i mean i've been up here

0:58:23five minutes and that was a lot of

0:58:24houses already that i would have got um

0:58:27you know reported uh that were already

0:58:29on fire so every four seconds is it's

0:58:32it's almost mind numbing

0:58:34um one of the things that we want to

0:58:36point out is that we do and it's already

0:58:38been talked about tonight is we do have

0:58:40a very high fire hazard severity zone uh

0:58:43here in uh in el cerrito and in most of

0:58:46kensington there's about three percent

0:58:47of kensington right around the circle

0:58:50that is not deemed by cal fire to be a

0:58:53high fire hazard area and that's based

0:58:55on vegetation topography weather

0:58:57structures and structure density

0:59:01this will get a little

0:59:02uh this is kept the cal fire map here

0:59:06and shows you the area that uh kind of

0:59:09runs along that line if you take that

0:59:10line there in el cerrito that starts

0:59:13kind of the base of navalier runs along

0:59:15colusa goes back towards ganges and kind

0:59:18of

0:59:18spreads across the bottom of the

0:59:21hillside natural area if you draw a line

0:59:22across and i know you can't see it on

0:59:25there but there's a little tiny speck

0:59:26down there in the corner there and

0:59:28that's that three percent on the calfire

0:59:30map

0:59:31that shows the the colusa circle but

0:59:34a significant portion of our community

0:59:37does fall under the high fire hazard

0:59:39severity zone so

0:59:41um we do have to you know take that into

0:59:43consideration

0:59:44uh the

0:59:47el cerino in kensington we have a

0:59:50community wildfire protection plan and

0:59:52we're one of only two communities in

0:59:54contra costa county

0:59:56that

0:59:56took the

0:59:58base plan um and then created our own

1:00:02plan as well so we basically took the

1:00:04county-wide plan um matter of fact i was

1:00:07in a meeting for that today it's under

1:00:08it's getting ready to go under its

1:00:10five-year review so

1:00:12we were looking at that and

1:00:14first thing i chimed in right away and

1:00:15said we we're going to put together ours

1:00:17again i mean we're going to keep our our

1:00:19protection plan and now other

1:00:21communities are saying they want theirs

1:00:22as well so and and and i applaud that

1:00:25they should

1:00:26um but it allows us to

1:00:28set goals and objectives for for

1:00:30different projects and set priorities in

1:00:34there on how we're going to treat things

1:00:36um as far as protecting our community

1:00:38from wildfire it also allows us to put a

1:00:42plan together

1:00:43and then when we're seeking grant

1:00:45funding

1:00:46refer back to the plan and say here's a

1:00:48specific project that we want to attack

1:00:51and it's in a plan it's not something we

1:00:53just dreamed up and we just want because

1:00:56it's it feels good it's something that's

1:00:58in the plan it's identified it's

1:01:00prioritized and that's that's uh

1:01:03why it's in that plan so we did we

1:01:06worked through the with the diablo fire

1:01:07safe council to put that plan together

1:01:10it's a 57-page document and uh

1:01:13we're going to when it gets revised at

1:01:15the country across the county level then

1:01:16we will revise ours as well so that

1:01:18should be towards uh

1:01:19the beginning of next year january of

1:01:21next year by

1:01:22before we come back with ours with our

1:01:24specific plan

1:01:26as far as a fire behavior 101

1:01:29we've been spending some time talking

1:01:32the community about this and

1:01:34the big thing with this is that

1:01:36you know when when when you go to the

1:01:38fire academy you're taught

1:01:40uh

1:01:40fuel

1:01:41oxygen and heat they create fire and if

1:01:44you really

1:01:45eliminate one of them then you basically

1:01:48you you take you put the fire out

1:01:50in the wildland environment we have

1:01:53different factors we have

1:01:55we have fuel weather and topography

1:01:58those are the that's the triangle so

1:01:59there's ultimately there's two triangles

1:02:02that are working together

1:02:03if we can eliminate one of them

1:02:06we can generally we can generally

1:02:08contain it or keep it in a smaller

1:02:10version

1:02:10so

1:02:11um

1:02:12with weather there's not a lot we can do

1:02:14with weather right i mean

1:02:16it's it does what it's going to do and

1:02:19in a lot of these devastating fires

1:02:20that's happened topography well not a

1:02:23lot we can do with you know the

1:02:24topography or the lay of the land the

1:02:27area we can impact is is in a lot of

1:02:29cases is the fuel and what we can do in

1:02:32fuel modification uh so that's the area

1:02:35we we try to concentrate the most on um

1:02:38is is working on those those uh those

1:02:41fuel factors um

1:02:43we one of the factors that we we do talk

1:02:46about in the weather

1:02:48and leads to what we call basically red

1:02:50flag days are the factors there diablo

1:02:53winds

1:02:56low

1:02:57relative humidity and the higher

1:02:59temperatures

1:03:00all of which will come and for us

1:03:03you know we'll come oftentimes in

1:03:05september october um are our our worst

1:03:08months but doesn't necessarily mean they

1:03:10won't come ahead um

1:03:13the diabolo wins a lot of folks we've

1:03:15been asking people in the classes we've

1:03:17been doing and the the sessions we've

1:03:18been doing how many people know what a

1:03:20diablo wind is and about

1:03:23it's been running about a third of the

1:03:25of the folks that are there know what a

1:03:27diablo wind is and and so we've been

1:03:29explaining that basically here in our

1:03:32area that's the equivalency of your

1:03:34santa ana winds in southern california

1:03:36and they're the hot dry winds that come

1:03:38out of the east

1:03:39and we all know those days because it

1:03:41just feels a little bit different for us

1:03:43on those days and so our vulnerability

1:03:46of having vegetation out along our

1:03:49ridgeline in our interface area where

1:03:52our homes are along along the uh the

1:03:54ridge

1:03:55now we have the winds pushing vegetation

1:03:58below and and potentially a fire gets

1:04:01going in that area uh then pushing into

1:04:04the community so

1:04:05uh that's those where those diabolo

1:04:07winds uh come in and and come into play

1:04:10even more

1:04:11uh topography well

1:04:13one of the things we we know about

1:04:15topography is if a fire starts at the

1:04:17bottom of a slope often time it preheats

1:04:20a head

1:04:21and

1:04:22you know it'll move hotter and faster

1:04:24going uphill it also reaches natural uh

1:04:29slopes and

1:04:31canyons and shoots

1:04:33and that accelerates and we have them

1:04:35here in our community just like every

1:04:37community but we do have a hillside area

1:04:39here and uh

1:04:42you know we know right where those

1:04:43canyons and shoots are and they you know

1:04:45they in the in the vegetation that

1:04:47surrounds them so uh very much a concern

1:04:50uh certainly you never want wind and

1:04:53topography

1:04:55to align so to speak where it's pushing

1:04:57it uphill because now you've now you've

1:04:59got it going even faster so

1:05:02that's that's one of the big concerns

1:05:04that we have with that

1:05:07as far as what where we want to keep

1:05:10fires we want to keep fires at ground

1:05:12fire ground level and

1:05:15surface level uh is something that we

1:05:17look at

1:05:18uh where ground forces are our folks

1:05:20that are boots on the ground

1:05:23can keep things contained

1:05:26anything that gets over

1:05:28eight 10-foot flame lengths back you

1:05:31know over top of our head it becomes

1:05:33difficult for ground forces to put them

1:05:36out on that's based on the amount of

1:05:39heat that it puts off

1:05:41how much it evaporates though you know

1:05:43the water that's being put on

1:05:46we use actually smaller lines because we

1:05:49have to have the mobility out on the

1:05:51wildland than we do when we're doing a

1:05:53structure fire where we have more heat

1:05:56so even with that we have to have um

1:05:59we have to have you know

1:06:01then those fuels down at a lower level

1:06:04what we don't want is the scenario there

1:06:08where it climbs out of the surface fuel

1:06:10and ladders into as we call laddering

1:06:12into the treetops then

1:06:15ground forces are no longer useful

1:06:18and or as useful um and we have to then

1:06:21go to

1:06:22an aerial uh attack and

1:06:25one of the things that all of our

1:06:27incident commanders know is you never

1:06:30base your attack off the off having

1:06:32aerial support because

1:06:34we live in california we don't know what

1:06:37kind of aerial support we may get from

1:06:39cal fire

1:06:40we may get a lot we may get a little so

1:06:45it behooves us to keep those fires from

1:06:48staying out of the crown so that is a

1:06:50that is a big that is a big deal to us

1:06:52in in that regard

1:06:55one of the things we've been talking to

1:06:57to uh the community about is how how

1:06:59does wildfire spread uh it actually

1:07:01spreads three different ways one of

1:07:03those is direct flame impingement so

1:07:06you've got brush that grows right up to

1:07:08someone's house or

1:07:09uh

1:07:10that's not

1:07:12maintained or maintained to the the

1:07:14standards it should

1:07:16and

1:07:17um

1:07:18it it just creates enough heat uh up

1:07:21against the house and

1:07:23it's able to get the structure going

1:07:27another one and we've been spending a

1:07:28lot of time talking about that is the

1:07:31embers or firebrands um

1:07:34and one of the things we've been uh

1:07:36talking to folks about is is that

1:07:38uh

1:07:39would they be you know if they believe

1:07:41that this fire this picture here was

1:07:42taken

1:07:44in the daytime or the night time

1:07:47and it was taken in the daytime

1:07:49so

1:07:50um

1:07:52so you can see that when those brands

1:07:55start moving around they be

1:07:57they get into the wind uh

1:07:59fire when it gets to a certain point too

1:08:02as it develops it recreates its own

1:08:03weather

1:08:04and um

1:08:06so

1:08:07now you've got these fire brands that

1:08:09are blowing through the community or

1:08:10blowing into anything they can

1:08:13and

1:08:14and looking for a source to to get to

1:08:18catch and go

1:08:20the lower the relative humidity the

1:08:22higher the chance and the probability of

1:08:24these embers starting a fire

1:08:27on the third factor is is or the third

1:08:29way is radiant heat

1:08:31um and the example we've been using with

1:08:34this and the thing we've been stressing

1:08:35a lot with this

1:08:36um

1:08:37with with this picture is

1:08:40trying to encourage folks in our in the

1:08:42community

1:08:43to if there's a fire hazard that they

1:08:46know

1:08:47that's

1:08:48next door to them as an example we've

1:08:49been using that house on the left there

1:08:52as an example if they knew that there

1:08:54was a known fire hazard in the backyard

1:08:56of the house on the right

1:08:58not not saying there was in this picture

1:09:00but using that as an example

1:09:02that we're encouraging folks to let us

1:09:04know

1:09:06as it was discussed during public

1:09:08comments

1:09:09our inspectors are out

1:09:11our fire prevention officer who

1:09:14gave you a report last week a last

1:09:16council meeting

1:09:17is out in the community

1:09:19he's out doing our annual fire hazard

1:09:20abatement inspections

1:09:23program it's going very well um

1:09:25they are

1:09:27he's amassing quite a list at this point

1:09:30um

1:09:31and and we're being very aggressive with

1:09:33that but

1:09:34what we do have some particular laws

1:09:36that we have to follow with that we're

1:09:38not allowed to go on people's property

1:09:40we're not allowed to trespass we're not

1:09:42allowed to do certain things with that

1:09:44and so what we encourage and what we've

1:09:47been encouraging in these meetings is if

1:09:49you lived in that house next door to the

1:09:50left and you knew your neighbor had a

1:09:52known fire hazard in their backyard

1:09:55or you even thought they did

1:09:57call us let us know

1:09:59you know we're happy to go out and take

1:10:01a look

1:10:02you can show us from your house that's

1:10:04that's we're within the law but we

1:10:06cannot go onto people's property and

1:10:08look over their fence or do those types

1:10:10of things we're not it's not it's not

1:10:12allowed

1:10:13so we've been using this picture is that

1:10:15as that reminder um so that you know we

1:10:18we are able to get out and and take a

1:10:20look at everybody's homes from every

1:10:22angle that we can to try to eliminate

1:10:24those hazards

1:10:26we have been looking at uh some of the

1:10:28we've looked at four critical phases of

1:10:30uh increasing survivability

1:10:32first one in protecting your home

1:10:35we wouldn't talk about that in the in

1:10:37creating the fire escape landscaping

1:10:39early detection we've we've really

1:10:43we've been working a lot with that and

1:10:45and i know moraga rinda fire protection

1:10:47district has been doing a lot of people

1:10:49have seen we've been seeing a lot in the

1:10:50news with what they've been doing and uh

1:10:53we are tied very closely to them uh

1:10:55because we really

1:10:57like what they're doing and

1:10:59so we are in the beginning phases of

1:11:01working with some of the

1:11:02same technologies that they're looking

1:11:04at uh increasing our gis mapping um

1:11:08creating zones for evacuation all those

1:11:10types of things are our projects we're

1:11:12working on early notification we've been

1:11:15spending time making sure that

1:11:17folks in the community are signing up

1:11:19for the community warning system

1:11:22and stressing that

1:11:24it takes about 10 minutes

1:11:26uh

1:11:27to do that to get

1:11:28uh your

1:11:30your phone registered so a lot of folks

1:11:32don't have uh landlines in their home

1:11:34and that's

1:11:35landlines that don't go through a cable

1:11:37provider that's

1:11:39just you know

1:11:41so anything like your cell phone or or

1:11:43cable provided uh phone service

1:11:46needs to be registered on the early

1:11:48warning system and like i said it takes

1:11:50about takes about 10 minutes to do that

1:11:53and then early evacuation so we've been

1:11:56really talking about and tying that to

1:11:58the ready set go program

1:12:00um and getting folks out early not

1:12:03waiting not

1:12:05you know getting out before we start

1:12:07getting um

1:12:09folks tied up in traffic jams and and

1:12:11those types of things

1:12:13so

1:12:15um we did talk say we were going to talk

1:12:17about the six key features uh one of the

1:12:20the first key feature is again

1:12:22protecting your home um and making sure

1:12:25that that your

1:12:26gutters are are free of leaves again

1:12:29we'll go back to those embers and how do

1:12:31those embers get in

1:12:32um

1:12:33vents decks

1:12:35free of leaves debris etc

1:12:41let me go back real quick

1:12:43and one of the things we've been

1:12:46also stressing is putting as something

1:12:49as simple as quarter in which is under

1:12:51the code um and we may be also looking

1:12:54at making a local amendment in our code

1:12:57uh as we adopt uh

1:12:59our upcoming fire code our our city fire

1:13:02code

1:13:03later in the year

1:13:05we may look to making it eighth inch but

1:13:07the code right now calls for quarter

1:13:09inch mesh screen

1:13:11in the high fire hazard area for for

1:13:14certainly for new homes

1:13:15but

1:13:16encouraging folks to put that quarter

1:13:19inch mesh screen over your vent openings

1:13:22uh so you can keep those embers out

1:13:25um

1:13:26so that that's that's

1:13:28you know again we're trying to do

1:13:29everything we can to keep keep the the

1:13:32embers out

1:13:33uh

1:13:34the second key feature is reducing the

1:13:36chance of ignition uh we talk about the

1:13:38first five zone or the first six um

1:13:42but that is really is going in and

1:13:44making sure that anything that a that's

1:13:47close by the house that embers can land

1:13:49in land in

1:13:51that

1:13:51uh they they're not allowed

1:13:54to uh to get going and then spread into

1:13:57your home so the one we've been

1:13:59discouraging is the one on the bottom

1:14:01left there um whereas we've got a large

1:14:03stand um that goes right up into the

1:14:06eaves so i mean if that was cut down to

1:14:08a much more manageable uh size then it

1:14:11wouldn't be as big a problem as it is in

1:14:13its current uh in its current condition

1:14:15there in that picture where it grows

1:14:17right up to the eaves embers land in

1:14:19there it gets going now it's crudding

1:14:21across the eaves and and unfortunately

1:14:23that house uh is now vulnerable

1:14:26another one is breaking the fuels path

1:14:28or changing the continuity um

1:14:31so

1:14:32the code calls for

1:14:34the first 100 feet so it says

1:14:37from

1:14:3830 to 100 feet we create

1:14:40um

1:14:42we reduce the fire we reduce the

1:14:44materials down but what do you do beyond

1:14:46that hundred feet uh

1:14:48and and taking out some of the

1:14:50number of plants thinning down um

1:14:53breaking the continuity so you're

1:14:55slowing it down the whole idea is to

1:14:57slow fire down so it doesn't uh doesn't

1:15:01you know hit full speed at something

1:15:04um

1:15:04dead and dying materials removing dead

1:15:07down materials

1:15:09is a big one so

1:15:10one of the big ones we've been stressing

1:15:12is that's not good that's not good and

1:15:15that's not good

1:15:16so um

1:15:18but really uh if it's dead and down if

1:15:20something's uh

1:15:21um

1:15:23you know needs to be removed then then

1:15:25we should be taking the action uh

1:15:27to remove it and making sure that those

1:15:29embers can't get in there again we're

1:15:30trying to protect you know the property

1:15:33from the embers again we've talked about

1:15:35ladder fuels and that we don't you know

1:15:38we it is a key feature but keeping it

1:15:40out of the trees that's that's a big one

1:15:42for us so um so give you a before and

1:15:44after there uh picture we have a before

1:15:48uh and then

1:15:50believe it or not that's the same

1:15:51property on the right and the after and

1:15:53so we don't want the one on the left we

1:15:55want the one on the right

1:15:57um and then the last one is reducing the

1:15:59fuel loads and that's when we get into

1:16:01the dry grasses and the materials and

1:16:03the dead materials

1:16:04etc

1:16:06ready set go program again is a cal fire

1:16:08program comprehensive

1:16:10uh it's got um

1:16:12training videos so many of the things

1:16:14we're talking about uh

1:16:16folks can go right to that and get the

1:16:18same things worked we've been talking

1:16:19about we've been encouraging that that's

1:16:21the website there ready for wildfire.org

1:16:24it does have a free mobile app so you

1:16:26can get it right on your phone um but we

1:16:28have been stressing folks to you to uh

1:16:31to follow that

1:16:32um and again it talks about you know

1:16:35again the ready set and the go and and

1:16:38along the lines that we've been talking

1:16:40about you know how to harden your house

1:16:43uh what to have done a go kit and then

1:16:45you know getting out early talking a lot

1:16:47about early evacuation

1:16:49as we talked about earlier we do have

1:16:51vegetation management standards

1:16:53those vegetation management standards

1:16:55have been in place for a number of years

1:16:58and our program has been in place since

1:17:011992 is when we started that program

1:17:04um

1:17:05and we've been very aggressive with that

1:17:08and

1:17:09again this year

1:17:11i will just tell you right now our fire

1:17:13prevention officer is predicting that

1:17:15he's going to have an initial list of

1:17:16700

1:17:18and that is

1:17:20extraordinary

1:17:21for us

1:17:22to have on a list of properties now what

1:17:25we're hoping is through our initial

1:17:27notices that

1:17:29those reduce down by the time we come to

1:17:30council on july 16th um because we don't

1:17:34want you to have to order the abatement

1:17:35on 700 properties um

1:17:38but uh right now that's based that's

1:17:41what it's trending towards is 700 uh 700

1:17:44properties

1:17:45um

1:17:46and we're hoping we can through

1:17:49education and and and efforts in the

1:17:51community that we can get that down

1:17:52before we come to we come to you but it

1:17:55does talk about um you know what the

1:17:57purpose of and many of the things we've

1:17:58been talking about

1:18:00um

1:18:00the background on it does come from

1:18:02state law ab-337

1:18:04does define the fire high fire hazard

1:18:06severity zone and what we're trying to

1:18:08accomplish so really that's what we've

1:18:10been

1:18:11really out there and really stressing

1:18:13it's a seven page document it does get

1:18:15mailed when we when we notice everybody

1:18:17in the community um so they do have the

1:18:20full uh standards um and again we're

1:18:23more than happy to go out talk with

1:18:25folks

1:18:27and we're hoping when they get a note

1:18:28when when somebody does receive that

1:18:30notice that they do uh contact us

1:18:35before we come before we come to council

1:18:36on july 16th because really that's the

1:18:39only way they're going to get off the

1:18:40list and and uh once they're on it's the

1:18:43they got to bring it to standard and

1:18:44then

1:18:46call us to get reinspected to get off

1:18:48the list and

1:18:49notify us

1:18:51as far as ongoing cooperating projects

1:18:53we've been letting everybody know that

1:18:56you know we're all in this together and

1:18:58we really are uh what what one community

1:19:01does helps us um

1:19:04and what we do helps another community

1:19:06and we're all in it working together

1:19:08um

1:19:09many of you have heard the uh the the

1:19:12moraga rinda uh shaded fuel break uh

1:19:15that's which is a four million dollar

1:19:16project that's being done it's a 14

1:19:19miles of

1:19:21shaded fuel break

1:19:23that will run

1:19:25basically from

1:19:27pleasant hill road on highway 24

1:19:30and all the way to inspiration point and

1:19:32then there's talks of extending it even

1:19:34further um

1:19:36big project um and it helps us um

1:19:40because any fire that would come from

1:19:42that direction out of the east like that

1:19:43on a on a east wind uh would be critical

1:19:46for us to get to eliminate that

1:19:50that break slows things down

1:19:52east bay regional parks

1:19:54has begun work all along our ridgeline

1:19:57we have three projects that touch el

1:19:59cerrito in in kensington and and

1:20:02we've outlined those with everybody uh

1:20:04in our presentations cal fire uh has

1:20:08been a great partner again half a

1:20:10billion dollars got pushed to them from

1:20:12uh the governor and uh heard a report

1:20:14from cal fire today and they were saying

1:20:17good thing is they got a half a billion

1:20:18dollars

1:20:19bad thing is they got a half a billion

1:20:20dollars because now they got to figure

1:20:22out you know how to you know allocate

1:20:24all that

1:20:25um

1:20:26pg e was there our meeting today when we

1:20:29were reviewing the uh

1:20:31cwpp uh project um

1:20:34and we're talking about their projects

1:20:36and i think a lot of folks have heard

1:20:38about that um

1:20:40and they did say in the meeting today

1:20:42that if the thresholds of the uh weather

1:20:46get reached there reach their uh the

1:20:48conditions that they deem to be unsafe

1:20:50they will shut down the power

1:20:52and they've stressed that again today in

1:20:54the meeting they are out doing community

1:20:56um

1:20:59clearances and uh taking it to an

1:21:01extraordinary standard and then the last

1:21:03one was our hillside natural area and

1:21:05we've talked about a lot about that and

1:21:07what we're doing we've been working a

1:21:09lot with uh cal fire and with a

1:21:13delta crew and fuel reduction crews in

1:21:15our

1:21:16contractor that we've worked with

1:21:19to modify the fuels and i think that's

1:21:21an ongoing project it's going to be an

1:21:23ongoing project and then our folks in

1:21:25there doing the burns so um

1:21:29again i wanted to give you a modified

1:21:31version

1:21:32and

1:21:33keep it under 30 minutes i've been

1:21:35running a clock here so i made sure that

1:21:36i was under 30 minutes

1:21:40but because we we've been doing these

1:21:41and they've been going two and a half

1:21:42three hours i mean so i mean there's a

1:21:44lot to talk about and the community is

1:21:46is very engaged in this and and so um we

1:21:49can talk a lot about this and and so uh

1:21:52wanted to get that out there again the

1:21:54main thing i want to stress on this one

1:21:55is if you have questions please feel

1:21:58free call our fire prevention office

1:22:00number's on the screen there and we're

1:22:02happy to come out and and take a look be

1:22:04patient with us because it's fire hazard

1:22:06abatement season and we're we're really

1:22:08busy right now but we'll get out there

1:22:11thank you very much all right you have

1:22:13questions from the council members

1:22:15councilmember

1:22:16um yes uh i know uh but we did not get

1:22:20the

1:22:21approved for

1:22:23the last

1:22:25application but

1:22:27know that our senator skinner and

1:22:29assembly member buffy wicks

1:22:32i spoke to both of them and

1:22:34they're going to back us up

1:22:36and the the next one that uh will be

1:22:38sent out and i know uh councilmember

1:22:41lyman mary potem lyman has been very

1:22:43active on that as well so i just want to

1:22:46thank you both for uh making sure that

1:22:48uh we get in there and

1:22:50we apply for all those grants my

1:22:52understanding my understanding from the

1:22:54meeting today there is much more grant

1:22:56funding

1:22:57that it was going to come available and

1:22:59one i'm i'm really interested in i want

1:23:01to get some more information before i

1:23:03i talk about it but uh

1:23:06there's one in particular that sounds

1:23:08very intriguing that that may include us

1:23:11uh

1:23:12in its own unique way so i'm i'm looking

1:23:15forward to that right thank you i have

1:23:17one question um looking at the maps of

1:23:20the berkeley el cerrito that you had in

1:23:22the beginning and you see by the hotel

1:23:27by the resort there

1:23:28there's a whole grove of eucalyptus

1:23:30trees why are those trees still there

1:23:32since that was part of the fire back and

1:23:36every time there's been a fire in the

1:23:37berkeley oak and hills that's always

1:23:39been in that area why do they still let

1:23:41residents keep their eucalyptus trees

1:23:45yeah i we we spent a lot of time in our

1:23:47meetings talking about trees and and one

1:23:49of the things that we've been you know

1:23:51had a lot of conversation on is

1:23:53in the fire code

1:23:56it doesn't really give us a lot of

1:23:59latitude in

1:24:00cutting down um

1:24:04a live healthy tree

1:24:05um it talks more about

1:24:08removing ladder fuels you know if the

1:24:11way the fire code kind of addresses it

1:24:13is is if you take out all the ladder

1:24:15fuels and you limb the tree up and you

1:24:17take out everything below it then the

1:24:19tree is a non-hazard in the by the fire

1:24:21code so

1:24:23um

1:24:24now something is dead and dying and we

1:24:25know that there's a lot of trees in

1:24:27california that have you know have

1:24:29become dead and dying we understand that

1:24:31then there is some latitude there but um

1:24:35we we have spent a lot of time talking

1:24:37about that

1:24:38um in that

1:24:40you know ordering the abatement of a of

1:24:43a of a quote-unquote live healthy tree

1:24:46is really there's not a lot of a lot of

1:24:48latitude for us in the in the code to do

1:24:50that

1:24:51thank you

1:24:52thanks man

1:24:54um well first of all i want to thank you

1:24:57for

1:24:58i suspect that this is just the

1:25:01tip of the iceberg in terms of the

1:25:03amount of work that you're doing

1:25:05on this and i think our community as a

1:25:08whole

1:25:09uh

1:25:10did they

1:25:11if they even all knew would really

1:25:13appreciate it and i think we up here

1:25:15certainly do i know i do

1:25:17um

1:25:18so if we were interested if we are

1:25:20somebody we know was interested or or

1:25:24anyone in town was interested in

1:25:28you know doing things like cutting

1:25:30bushes down to whatever height

1:25:33you know you showed is there a document

1:25:36we could put on our website

1:25:39that could direct them

1:25:40to information on how to yeah the

1:25:42vegetation management standards are on

1:25:44the website currently and where

1:25:46i mean where on the website they're

1:25:48they're on they're on the fire i know

1:25:49they're i know if you go to the fire

1:25:51department side of them yeah okay

1:25:54so

1:25:55would it be maybe um

1:25:57[Music]

1:25:58are we advertising that to the community

1:26:01um

1:26:02or could we advertise it in a simple way

1:26:05well i have it in our news our quarterly

1:26:07newsletter for example

1:26:09we could we could it's yeah we could

1:26:12there's nothing wrong we most definitely

1:26:13could do that

1:26:14but they are on the website and again if

1:26:16we do send someone a notice

1:26:19we do

1:26:20provide them with that seven with that

1:26:22seven page document that says

1:26:25you know this is how you're you're not

1:26:27in compliance

1:26:28this is how you come into compliance

1:26:30this is what you have to do

1:26:31to

1:26:33remove the vegetation

1:26:34okay so and

1:26:37education is i mean being out in the

1:26:39community and doing these that's that

1:26:40was part of our uh rcwpp um

1:26:45and we wanted to make sure that you know

1:26:47that that we're doing that and

1:26:49uh

1:26:50it's an effort that we have we have to i

1:26:52mean as we again we're in this all

1:26:54together and

1:26:55we have to all work together to to be

1:26:57out there and and and

1:27:00getting folks to understand what we need

1:27:02done and

1:27:03and and how we can help them do it

1:27:05and i had one last question it seems to

1:27:07me recently

1:27:09anytime there's been a really

1:27:11bad fire

1:27:13the thing it's immediately preceded by

1:27:16are what i think of as wild winds

1:27:19uh crazy winds that are not the normal

1:27:22ones

1:27:23that are kind of going all over

1:27:26uh and

1:27:27there are things that we hear you know

1:27:29if i look on my

1:27:31email i will see a notice about it

1:27:34if i turn on the tv i will hear a notice

1:27:37about it

1:27:38and

1:27:39is that

1:27:41is that a phenomenon is that the diablo

1:27:44wind is that what that is

1:27:46for for us in this area the one we worry

1:27:48about is the diabolo winds

1:27:52we have seen in the last couple years an

1:27:54increased number of

1:27:55quote unquote what we call red flag days

1:27:58red flag days being severe fire weather

1:28:01um which for us puts on extra we put on

1:28:04extra staffing we do patrols uh we

1:28:06restrict certain um

1:28:09things in the community like open

1:28:11burning

1:28:12cutting of metal those types of things

1:28:14are not allowed um

1:28:17we have seen more of those um

1:28:20we all you know

1:28:21that making sure that people are noticed

1:28:24on those and

1:28:25the media has been very good about

1:28:27getting that out we do fly the flags at

1:28:28the station we put the boards out um

1:28:32in the community letting everybody know

1:28:34that that we do have severe weather so

1:28:36but really what we're looking for with

1:28:38that and what we've been stressing with

1:28:39these presentations is

1:28:41making sure that everybody raises their

1:28:44awareness especially on those days so if

1:28:47it's one of those days are there things

1:28:49we should do on our own property

1:28:52that day

1:28:53well one of the things we we probably

1:28:55should look at on something like that is

1:28:57to limit or uh eliminate open bur no

1:29:01open burning

1:29:02um of any type we don't want anything

1:29:05like that going on in just again being

1:29:08aware that you know we do have severe

1:29:11weather um and

1:29:13you know that

1:29:14small fire can now lead to a lot bigger

1:29:17fire just because of those factors the

1:29:19wind

1:29:20the relative humidity the heat so

1:29:23i think just everybody raising their

1:29:25awareness on those days and if they see

1:29:27something that's not right then you know

1:29:29reporting it i think those are the big

1:29:31things

1:29:32thank you

1:29:34council member fidelity

1:29:36oh yeah thank you again me

1:29:38too want to thank you

1:29:41if that makes sense for all the work

1:29:43you're doing i'm noticing it it's

1:29:44incredible um i agree we need to let

1:29:47people know more about it and i think

1:29:48maybe an easier way on our website right

1:29:50away when you open the website to see

1:29:53what we can do like the other things

1:29:54that we rotate on the website would be

1:29:56very helpful

1:29:58i remember as a kid at the bottom of

1:30:01barrett

1:30:03never seeing my dad so mad is when my

1:30:05brother stuck a sparkler into a juniper

1:30:07bush and it went up

1:30:09to the sky the fire the fire crew was

1:30:12out immediately

1:30:14but that's one reason i think if we can

1:30:16help people help themselves

1:30:19in this town that would be great and i

1:30:20think coming out i think there's a new

1:30:23ordinance coming out about certain

1:30:24plants we should or should not plant

1:30:26i'll be anxious to see what that looks

1:30:27like to see if we have some prohibitions

1:30:31on there

1:30:32and i think you'd agree that whether

1:30:34it's rebates through measure v which i

1:30:36would support and other things that

1:30:38transfer property things that we can do

1:30:40that just make every neighborhood every

1:30:42house more safe would be a great thing

1:30:45um how many more uh meetings are you

1:30:48going to be doing this year because i i

1:30:50love your meetings

1:30:51uh at this point almost crowded so yeah

1:30:54at this point we don't have any more

1:30:56scheduled we can certainly look to to do

1:30:59more at this point we don't have any

1:31:01more on the on the books per se

1:31:04but we can certainly

1:31:06we should start thinking about it we can

1:31:08certainly do that yeah we can certainly

1:31:09do that and i um talk to staff about

1:31:12trying to get pg e to come talk to us

1:31:14about their policies because they're an

1:31:15important factor in the bay area and if

1:31:17they're going to be turning off our

1:31:18energy we need to know what to do about

1:31:20those things okay so and staff's been

1:31:23very uh

1:31:24receptive to that thank you very much

1:31:27councilmember yeah thank you very much

1:31:29for your presentation tonight there's a

1:31:31couple of uh

1:31:32questions i want to

1:31:33chase down just to

1:31:35help our residents know what they can do

1:31:39one of them was the voice over internet

1:31:41provider

1:31:43there are many people that are moved

1:31:45away from the copper wire connected to

1:31:47the home and they're going with the

1:31:49voice over internet provider

1:31:52that's unlike the traditional phone that

1:31:55was naturally registered with

1:31:57emergencies those are not and

1:32:00i'm assuming that there's a simple way

1:32:02that we can educate people to get those

1:32:04connected yeah the the

1:32:07anybody wants

1:32:08you can log on to the contra costa

1:32:10county community warning system website

1:32:14you can register i believe at one time

1:32:16you can register three devices off of

1:32:18at one time

1:32:20so

1:32:21cell phone oftentimes we have people

1:32:22sitting

1:32:23we will challenge people right in the

1:32:25class i mean to to do it and a lot of

1:32:27folks have done it while they did

1:32:29sitting in in the in the uh sessions and

1:32:31they'll go right on their phone and

1:32:33register their their cell phone um

1:32:36their their their cable provided

1:32:38um phone in their home and they'll have

1:32:41them all done and you know it's almost

1:32:43like they're doing having a race and

1:32:44they'll raise their hand i got it done

1:32:46so

1:32:46yeah that's great but can we get it into

1:32:48the news and views to ride people

1:32:50because i think most people think of

1:32:53their phone as being

1:32:55already registered because they were

1:32:56they came up with the landline

1:32:59for the

1:33:00cell phones

1:33:01do the community alerts

1:33:04override any do not disturb

1:33:07notations that are on cell phones they

1:33:09do not to my knowledge they also we also

1:33:12cleared up others wanted so was a

1:33:14misconception that they also would come

1:33:16in like say an amber alert where they

1:33:19would start you know with a with with

1:33:22with a distinct sound or um or tone and

1:33:25they do not um

1:33:27it's it's but you can my understanding

1:33:29is you can take

1:33:31um

1:33:32when you're in the do not disturb it we

1:33:34have spent some time talking about that

1:33:36and

1:33:38if you have that number provided by them

1:33:40you can let certain numbers through

1:33:43uh in a in a do not disturb mode so you

1:33:46could program that in

1:33:49whereas if you even if you're do not

1:33:51disturb that that phone number is

1:33:53allowed to come through

1:33:54um and give you that same notice even in

1:33:56the do not disturb mode that that would

1:33:59be very again useful information to get

1:34:01out to our residents so they're better

1:34:02prepared to respond when you need them

1:34:05to respond because if i heard you

1:34:07correctly people need to to do what you

1:34:10ask them to do when you ask them to do

1:34:12it so that they're no longer

1:34:15a vulnerable asset that would distract

1:34:18your ability to fight a fire where you

1:34:20have to go off and rescue them and the

1:34:22key for the for that is we're looking at

1:34:24early evacuation uh not

1:34:27waiting you know getting folks out and

1:34:30that's one of the reasons why behind

1:34:31that program we're talking about

1:34:33building in the zones through the gis

1:34:35mapping um

1:34:37in in creating those zones so we can

1:34:40much more easily

1:34:41go to community warning and say

1:34:44you know uh

1:34:46here's an immediate notification to zone

1:34:49five immediate evacuation ten-minute

1:34:52notice to zone four you know and however

1:34:54we break it you know it gets broken down

1:34:56on the g on the map

1:34:57and

1:34:58get a much more orderly uh evacuation

1:35:02plan in place in using today's

1:35:04technology to do that excellent

1:35:06um

1:35:07councilmember quinto mentioned the grant

1:35:10applications we you put in two grant

1:35:12applications one in december and maybe

1:35:14another one in january or february time

1:35:16frame can you give us i heard that one

1:35:18of them potentially was uh

1:35:21not approved but it were both not

1:35:23approved what's the status of i put in

1:35:25for one um i was the author of one um i

1:35:28did get a notice that that it didn't get

1:35:30funded um that one was for a 250

1:35:33thousand dollars to do work in the

1:35:35hillside natural area i'm i'm not aware

1:35:38i believe uh

1:35:40another department i believe public

1:35:42works uh in the put together the other

1:35:44one

1:35:45but that was not authored by the fire

1:35:46department i i put together the one um

1:35:49and like you know as i said earlier uh

1:35:52we are being told today in the meeting

1:35:54um

1:35:55that there are more opportunities that

1:35:57are out on the on the horizon and we

1:35:59will be

1:36:00we will be there to file for uh on

1:36:02behalf of the city

1:36:04excellent my last question is about the

1:36:06pg e uh

1:36:07[Music]

1:36:09very clearly for

1:36:11lots of reasons um potentially needing

1:36:13to shut down high high power

1:36:16transmission

1:36:17lines so the the threat to

1:36:20start a fire may not be here it could be

1:36:23somewhere along the transmission system

1:36:25and

1:36:27as a result

1:36:28our power is shut down

1:36:30and the question i have is

1:36:32with regards to the vulnerable

1:36:34populations that depend on electricity

1:36:38for

1:36:39for their lives for their you know for

1:36:40their living

1:36:42what

1:36:43do we know where these populations are

1:36:46in el cerrito do we do we

1:36:48know potentially which

1:36:50homes are

1:36:52going to need some type of

1:36:55electrical intervention and whether

1:36:57they're preparing them for themselves i

1:37:00know there's a way for folks to writ to

1:37:02register or to make themselves known to

1:37:05pg e in regards to that um

1:37:09how did how exactly to do that would be

1:37:11something we'd have to look into further

1:37:14maybe even in again as you mentioned

1:37:16earlier get

1:37:18get pg e to make a presentation here i

1:37:20think or make a presentation in you know

1:37:23to the

1:37:24to the community on

1:37:25um exactly how

1:37:27uh their program is going to work and

1:37:29how people can simply register for for

1:37:32something like that um and be included

1:37:35in that but i know there is some

1:37:37provisions in there in their shutdown

1:37:39plan for that yeah the the news articles

1:37:42of on around this topic

1:37:44had huge disparities between what the

1:37:46cpu cpuc the california public utilities

1:37:48commission thought and pg e thought were

1:37:51were the number of households that were

1:37:54dependent on electricity in some fashion

1:37:56so it would be

1:37:57i'm not certain i would trust pg e's

1:37:59number

1:38:00or that the california public utilities

1:38:02commission's numbers and

1:38:04so my question is

1:38:05you know what can el cerrito fire el

1:38:07cerrito city do with regards to this

1:38:10topic

1:38:10um and you don't you don't need to have

1:38:13an answer tonight uh because i clearly

1:38:16we've not thought about this but maybe

1:38:18there's a way to get

1:38:20the public to register with the fire

1:38:23department if they're going to

1:38:24need some level of

1:38:28assistance

1:38:29when the power goes out because that

1:38:31that i'm assuming they would call you

1:38:33if the power goes out because i think

1:38:35would probably be the first ones they

1:38:36would call i mean imagine if you're

1:38:38dependent on that and

1:38:39your power is shut down someone's going

1:38:42to activate the 911 system and

1:38:44you know we would be and then

1:38:46you know i think that

1:38:48depending on the the how widespread that

1:38:50is

1:38:51you know then that

1:38:52that puts triggers different things in

1:38:54our response system too

1:38:56to

1:38:57now the number of calls that would

1:38:59generate uh

1:39:00uh to help folks that were in need uh

1:39:03and we will be the first ones that they

1:39:04will call so right so i just wanted it

1:39:06does it does help us in in knowing and

1:39:09working with them so that's that is

1:39:11something we every community and

1:39:13certainly us uh as one of those that

1:39:15needs to work on getting that identified

1:39:18thank you for recognizing it and i'm i

1:39:20know you'll

1:39:22take a personal action item out of this

1:39:24meeting so thank you

1:39:25thank you okay thank you very much for

1:39:27your presentation

1:39:29i certainly appreciate it and i just

1:39:31wanted to take a minute to

1:39:34address the public and particularly our

1:39:36fire safe group that has been coming to

1:39:38all of these meetings and

1:39:40to thank you for all the work that

1:39:42you've done and

1:39:44just to

1:39:45let you know that even though it seems

1:39:47like things are moving slowly behind the

1:39:49scenes we are definitely working on this

1:39:51topic

1:39:52and um personally i have been

1:39:56addressing this topic every time i get a

1:39:57chance to to talk with staff about it i

1:39:59do so

1:40:01you are being heard and we are working

1:40:03on it and we are thinking about what

1:40:04we're going to do with our measure v

1:40:06funds

1:40:07to hopefully

1:40:09mitigate problems that will be coming

1:40:11and

1:40:12thank you for the firefighters working

1:40:15on the burns and with cal fire and with

1:40:17all of the vegetation

1:40:19removal that you have done and we do

1:40:22want to come up with a very

1:40:24specific plan on what we can do next how

1:40:26we can make our

1:40:28our city more fire safe and the more

1:40:30specific our plans are as you've seen

1:40:33we'll be able to hopefully get more

1:40:36grant money so that we can do these

1:40:38items one by one as they come along

1:40:42and so i just wanted to let you know

1:40:44that because i know that we don't really

1:40:45get a chance to interact while you're

1:40:47doing public comment

1:40:49next i i would just like to say i wanted

1:40:52to echo what

1:40:54mayor pro tem lyman said in terms of

1:40:58the the community being able to know

1:41:00exactly where to go

1:41:02i'm still

1:41:03slightly unclear um

1:41:05you want to go to the contra costa

1:41:07county website to sign up for emergency

1:41:10notifications contra costa county

1:41:11community warning system okay right cws

1:41:14is

1:41:16if you if you search for cws the contra

1:41:18costa county cws it'll come up okay

1:41:22very very simple registration process

1:41:25it's not cumbersome at all yeah i

1:41:26believe that i did that a few years ago

1:41:28but i think one of the things like just

1:41:30from these meetings where we've had

1:41:31presentations before i was a little

1:41:33confused on

1:41:35um if it was that or or if what like if

1:41:38nixle was something that would work in

1:41:40that scenario so this is a separate

1:41:43thing that you need specifically from

1:41:45the county emergency system okay in the

1:41:48event of an emergency like that that we

1:41:50would contact them and say this is the

1:41:53zone or the area or geographic area that

1:41:56we would want evacuated that would

1:41:58trigger the automated message

1:42:01to start the evacuation as opposed to

1:42:04uh

1:42:04your normal nixel alert i mean i'm you

1:42:07can concurrently a nix alert may come

1:42:09out but we would activate the community

1:42:12warning system in that regard okay i

1:42:15know that a lot of community members

1:42:16have signed up for nixle so if there

1:42:19could be a maybe a way of doing both of

1:42:22having a nixel alert when one of these

1:42:25community alerts goes out that way that

1:42:27we could

1:42:28reach people once or reach them twice i

1:42:30mean i think the more times you reach

1:42:32someone in a

1:42:33in a disaster scenario the better

1:42:35we do send out the nixel alerts to for

1:42:37all of our red anybody that's registered

1:42:39we do send out uh

1:42:41the red flag days we we do let people

1:42:44know um on those days whoever the duty

1:42:46battalion chief is that day

1:42:48um or the day prior to when we know it's

1:42:51coming as we send that notification out

1:42:53so you can receive on the red you know

1:42:55the red flag notices that way too great

1:42:58and do you know with the uh county

1:43:01emergency system do they call you more

1:43:03than once

1:43:05i don't believe so i believe that it's

1:43:07it's it's a mess it's an automated

1:43:09message that comes over once and it can

1:43:11be done via text you when you register

1:43:13you can do it via text you can also do

1:43:15it via voice

1:43:16um or via um

1:43:19yeah a regular telephone call

1:43:22but i don't believe it does multiple

1:43:24calls okay because i did notice and this

1:43:26is my this we might be able to provide

1:43:28feedback to the emergency system that

1:43:31we're using

1:43:32i know that on my cell phone um they're

1:43:34on the do not disturb settings

1:43:37you there's just one little switch you

1:43:39can flip on and it says if anybody calls

1:43:41two times within three minutes the call

1:43:43will go through

1:43:45so it might be worthwhile for the

1:43:47emergency system to call

1:43:49more than once if people have that set

1:43:51up

1:43:52another suggestion for the council too

1:43:54is that they do have outreach folks for

1:43:57community warning system that do come

1:43:59out and they could make also a

1:44:01presentation and give you some more

1:44:03in-depth information on that i've done

1:44:05some joint presentations in the past

1:44:07with their outreach folks and

1:44:10they run you know they know the ins and

1:44:13outs of the entire system and

1:44:15and can give you some you know much more

1:44:17detailed information on it but they do

1:44:19have outreach folks that could come out

1:44:21in a future presentation for you okay

1:44:23that sounds really good i'd i'd like

1:44:25city staff to make a note of that so

1:44:27that we can discuss it later and see if

1:44:28we could have a presentation by them

1:44:30okay thank you

1:44:32um all right um and with that let me see

1:44:36yeah i think that's all of my questions

1:44:38for now so thank you very much and we'll

1:44:40move on to public comment

1:44:42we do not have any speakers on this item

1:44:44okay

1:44:45oh we have one person that

1:44:49certainly if you could just state your

1:44:50name for the record please mary else

1:44:51reader resident i just wanted to thank

1:44:53dave gibson for his wonderful

1:44:55presentation even the abbreviated

1:44:57version was awesome and i noticed that

1:44:59he did have your attention like he has

1:45:01the attention of other audiences that

1:45:03i've seen

1:45:04as a member of el srito fire safe i

1:45:07would like to lobby the council to have

1:45:10this presentation perhaps made available

1:45:13during the 4th of july

1:45:14celebration um in

1:45:18vista park i think it'd be very timely

1:45:20it's a great audience he'd have access

1:45:22to a lot of people

1:45:23just put it up for thoughts

1:45:25thank you

1:45:26thank you

1:45:29okay do we have any um further questions

1:45:32from the council on this item

1:45:35no

1:45:36all right um

1:45:38with that we will move on thank you very

1:45:40much i appreciate your presentation once

1:45:42again and once again yes we are working

1:45:45on all of these issues

1:45:48next we have a brief presentation from

1:45:51the east bay municipal utilities

1:45:53district

1:45:54a presentation in the fiscal year 2020

1:45:582021

1:46:00and we have uh director katz thank you

1:46:03for joining us this evening

1:46:06thank you mayor purdue okamoto i'm andy

1:46:09katz i'm your representative on the east

1:46:11bay mud board of directors i do have a

1:46:13presentation that i believe our staff

1:46:16have

1:46:16shared with you

1:46:34uh thank you once again uh mayor purdue

1:46:36okamoto and members of the city council

1:46:39for the opportunity to present to you

1:46:41about

1:46:42east bay mud today and tomorrow uh this

1:46:44is

1:46:45probably my fourth or fifth time

1:46:46presenting to this council in the 13

1:46:49years that i have 12 and a quarter years

1:46:50that i've served on the east bay

1:46:52mudboard and it's a pleasure to be back

1:46:55again and i'm happy to tell you about

1:46:57what the district is doing and uh answer

1:47:00any questions that you have um as you

1:47:02know water and sanitation are the

1:47:05backbone of our civilization and east

1:47:08bay mud has a proud history of providing

1:47:10water and wastewater for the 1.3 million

1:47:13residents in our service area actually

1:47:15it's up to 1.4 million customers now in

1:47:18alameda and contra costa counties and we

1:47:21also have wastewater treatment services

1:47:23that protect san francisco bay and serve

1:47:26nearly 700 000 customers

1:47:29for our wastewater treatment

1:47:31we

1:47:32have had a wet winter and it is still

1:47:35raining

1:47:36and our water supply is in excellent

1:47:39condition this year even though it was

1:47:41followed by a dry year

1:47:43so

1:47:44uh

1:47:45excuse me what i meant to say is our

1:47:46water supply will will be in excellent

1:47:48condition even if we have a dry year

1:47:50following this one so we had such a wet

1:47:52year we are ending this year with the

1:47:55the most water that our

1:47:58operating agreements with resources

1:48:00agencies allow us to

1:48:02hold

1:48:03drought is always on the horizon though

1:48:04so east bay mud always takes steps to

1:48:07plan

1:48:08to secure

1:48:10our water supply for drought

1:48:13and water supply availability through

1:48:15strategic partnerships such as our

1:48:17freeport facility that's a

1:48:20intake facility just

1:48:22south of

1:48:23sacramento

1:48:25at freeport

1:48:26and our groundwater pilot program with

1:48:28silicon county neither of which are

1:48:30pictured here but are very exciting for

1:48:33for many years we had

1:48:35a a long-standing debate with the

1:48:37agricultural communities just east of

1:48:40stockton

1:48:41around what

1:48:43what makes sense as the as the ground uh

1:48:46subsided more than 70 feet in the

1:48:48northern san joaquin valley uh did it

1:48:51really make sense for those communities

1:48:53to continue to extract water while uh

1:48:56their their groundwater supplies and

1:48:58infrastructure crumbled and likewise we

1:49:01we would also find reasons to be able to

1:49:06use additional water in the wettest of

1:49:08what years like this one what if we had

1:49:10the opportunity in a year like this to

1:49:11be able to inject water into the

1:49:13groundwater basin

1:49:15unfortunately that project was not

1:49:17a complete for this year but this year

1:49:20is that kind of model year for what

1:49:22would we do

1:49:25with this project so a couple years ago

1:49:27we signed a moratorium

1:49:29excuse me a memorandum of understanding

1:49:32with uh the san joaquin uh valley uh

1:49:35water agencies uh multiple irrigation

1:49:38districts and and water districts in the

1:49:40northern san joaquin valley to be able

1:49:42to do a a a

1:49:44groundwater banking program just like

1:49:46that so i'm excited that

1:49:48we we are on track to be able to have

1:49:51this groundwater injection we're on

1:49:53track to have a pilot program very soon

1:49:56and our reach extends beyond quality

1:49:58water and wastewater services to help

1:50:00protect the environment for future

1:50:02generations and what you'll see is

1:50:04pictured here

1:50:05in the center you see the fish hatchery

1:50:07on the mccollumy river which has been in

1:50:09operation for decades but i think this

1:50:11is part of

1:50:13celebrating what we've just achieved

1:50:14with wild and scenic mccollumy river

1:50:17for many years we had a a a difficult

1:50:21debate amongst ourselves in the east bay

1:50:23community and with uh constituencies up

1:50:26country around what would we do with uh

1:50:28this uh uh 37 miles of the mccollumy

1:50:31river water watershed upstream from

1:50:33party reservoir uh that's truly wild and

1:50:36scenic i am so glad that governor brown

1:50:40signed our legislation to protect wild

1:50:42and scenic mccollumy river for future

1:50:44generations and it's not just the six

1:50:46miles that east bay mud could have

1:50:48flooded through a very um

1:50:51problematic decision that that an old

1:50:54board majority made uh but now uh the

1:50:57the the moment that we had uh really

1:50:59taught all of our stakeholders up the

1:51:01river for um

1:51:02those those full 37 miles that we have a

1:51:05heritage that we simply can't turn our

1:51:07backs on and i'm so glad that we'll be

1:51:09able to protect this river um in the

1:51:11future

1:51:12um the the hatchery is is really

1:51:15exciting because uh in a year like this

1:51:17we we really showed um the whole uh bay

1:51:20estuary that

1:51:22uh

1:51:22the

1:51:24in some ways this the the experience of

1:51:27having this hatchery supply uh over half

1:51:30of the fish that are flowing through the

1:51:32delta um on the one hand it shows that

1:51:35our delta estuary is really in danger of

1:51:38collapsing um because of the uh the

1:51:41challenges and having the right water

1:51:43quality

1:51:44consistent

1:51:45water

1:51:46flows for fresh water that sustain

1:51:50the the habitat there as well as other

1:51:52stressors affecting the delta um that

1:51:56we really are uh facing an estuary

1:51:58that's on the brink of collapse but

1:52:00on the other hand we we can be proud of

1:52:02the the function of our government um

1:52:04east bay mud has been able to

1:52:06uh sustain a a fish hatchery that's able

1:52:10to get returns so that the fish really

1:52:12do come home they spawn um where very

1:52:15close to where they're hatched here and

1:52:17uh

1:52:18the fish that we are hatching are um

1:52:21going out to sea and they're coming back

1:52:23and uh we're able to make this program

1:52:25work um and and

1:52:27be a a thriving part of what's keeping

1:52:30this estuary uh functioning

1:52:34also uh locally are the orson ridge

1:52:36conservation bank uh was uh finalized

1:52:39recently and protects 430 acres in the

1:52:43panol valley watershed and endangered

1:52:46local species like the red-legged frog

1:52:48in the alameda whip snake so so we we

1:52:51now have this area that is just north of

1:52:53here at one point in time

1:52:56the agency acquired this land thinking

1:52:57that it would be a site for a dam

1:53:00uh and so i'm glad that it will not be a

1:53:02reservoir it will not be flooded and is

1:53:04now and

1:53:06is now protected uh primarily for

1:53:08restoration of endangered species but it

1:53:11is also available for mitigation um for

1:53:13local development projects that do have

1:53:16incidental take uh we're able to

1:53:19allow for a reasonable growth in

1:53:21development in contra costa county that

1:53:23is um

1:53:24in in the same uh mitigation zone um

1:53:27that that this bank is able to serve so

1:53:29um we're able to

1:53:30have quality wetland habitat um but also

1:53:34uh allow uh governments to be able to

1:53:36function and and and have incidental

1:53:38take for necessary public works projects

1:53:42and our environmental protection program

1:53:45is

1:53:45i think most emblematic in our

1:53:47wastewater services so this is this is

1:53:50what protects san francisco bay uh from

1:53:52uh uh the pollution of our own uh

1:53:55organic waste uh as well as other uh

1:53:57metals and and other toxics that can be

1:53:59found through the wastewater process so

1:54:02uh our average flow um our water flow is

1:54:05uh right now at around 130 million

1:54:08gallons a day

1:54:09our wastewater flow is 50 million

1:54:11gallons a day serving communities from

1:54:13el cerrito in kensington south through

1:54:15uh oakland and in alameda

1:54:18so the objectives here are to protect

1:54:20public health protect the bay and and

1:54:22recover resources we don't see ourselves

1:54:24as just a wastewater treatment plant we

1:54:27we see ourselves as recovering all of

1:54:29the resources involved in wastewater

1:54:32particularly the methane gas that comes

1:54:34out of

1:54:35our organics as the they decompose so

1:54:38it's a fun conversation for anybody at

1:54:40home watching dinner during this

1:54:41presentation or eating dinner during

1:54:43this presentation

1:54:44um my my regrets but but it is it is

1:54:47important to share with you that our

1:54:49wastewater

1:54:50is is a

1:54:52top source of methane gas in in our

1:54:54infrastructure and methane is a very

1:54:56potent greenhouse gas over a 20-year

1:54:59time horizon it's 85 times

1:55:01more potent than carbon dioxide

1:55:04and and that's why we we were the first

1:55:07in the

1:55:08nation to create an infrastructure where

1:55:10we uh we now capture methane gas

1:55:13at the wastewater treatment plant and we

1:55:16also operate in conjunction with a 11

1:55:18megawatt power generation station so we

1:55:21are overall

1:55:23a net exporter of electricity so we we

1:55:26sell excess electricity to the port of

1:55:28oakland uh it may be available in future

1:55:30contracts to sell to marine clean energy

1:55:32or east bay clean power

1:55:35so that we're able to have precious base

1:55:37load electricity when our grid

1:55:40in the state of california starts to

1:55:42become more renewable and we need

1:55:44to make sure that we're powering

1:55:46ourselves with renewable energy so we we

1:55:49were able to recover the resources from

1:55:51our wastewater gas and we also take uh

1:55:53organics from local communities uh

1:55:56primarily uh our the current organics

1:55:58program is coming from san francisco and

1:56:01central contra costa county it has

1:56:03always been my my dream to see

1:56:05our organics from uh the actual cities

1:56:08that are closest to the wastewater

1:56:09treatment plant cooperate and

1:56:10participate together um so that i

1:56:13imagine if commercial food scraps from

1:56:15restaurants could make it to our

1:56:16wastewater treatment plant instead of

1:56:18decomposing in in a landfill or an open

1:56:21composting yard i think that's a vision

1:56:23that we could accomplish together

1:56:26and

1:56:28protecting the bay is also about making

1:56:30sure that the inflow and outflow um

1:56:34that that infiltration of storm water

1:56:36that is

1:56:37coming through decompo

1:56:39deteriorating pipes

1:56:41that that that

1:56:43is prevented and that we don't have a

1:56:46sudden storm event pushing waste water

1:56:49through

1:56:50our treatment system that was not

1:56:52intended to handle storm flow

1:56:54and to keep it from going into san

1:56:56francisco bay so as you know we have a

1:56:58consent decree that includes

1:57:00participation from all of the cities

1:57:03that are part of the east bay mud uh

1:57:04service area

1:57:06and uh we are supporting that consent

1:57:08decree by reducing stormwater

1:57:10infiltration and

1:57:12working with all of the cities to be

1:57:14able to

1:57:16reduce that infiltration of stormwater

1:57:18flow it's been a successful program so

1:57:21far

1:57:2231 000 certificates issued covering uh

1:57:25425 miles

1:57:28of lateral certified leak free and

1:57:31that's 24 of all properties

1:57:34i i do

1:57:35have some concern that we're reaching a

1:57:37peak of what the tool that we're using

1:57:39right now can do so

1:57:41the retrofit on resale approach got us

1:57:44pretty far pretty quick but it's

1:57:46leveling off i think coming pretty soon

1:57:48we need to be thinking about

1:57:50how do we go further than this because

1:57:51we do have some long-term milestones

1:57:54to meet the 2036 deadline to repair and

1:57:56replace our sewer lines uh reducing our

1:57:59amount of infiltration and inflow

1:58:02so that we don't have that partially

1:58:03treated sewage going into the san

1:58:05francisco bay during storms we're going

1:58:07to have to do better so unless the other

1:58:092 75 of homeowners are going to be

1:58:12selling their properties before then we

1:58:14have to come up with something else and

1:58:16that may mean that

1:58:17we we have some kind of uh larger

1:58:19program uh that that's uh more carefully

1:58:22designed uh or or having a date certain

1:58:25for for homeowners to be accountable to

1:58:27because we we all share this problem we

1:58:29none of us want raw sewage to go into

1:58:31the bay so we we have to see that the

1:58:33tool that we are using

1:58:35worked um but it's leveling off in its

1:58:37effectiveness so we're going to have to

1:58:39think more carefully what i'd like to

1:58:40share with you is that we uh we did some

1:58:43uh analysis uh uh particularly targeted

1:58:46at the city of oakland but we we also

1:58:48know that this is generally true and i

1:58:51think el cerrito knows this because you

1:58:52are the only city in our wastewater

1:58:54service area that has a planned paving

1:58:57ban in certain areas you you don't want

1:58:59to dig up the streets more than you need

1:59:01to you are the only ones that have

1:59:03figured this out because every other

1:59:04city in the area just lets anybody just

1:59:07dig right in and doesn't have to talk to

1:59:09anybody you make sure that we all talk

1:59:11to you and that we're all in

1:59:12coordination and i i appreciate that

1:59:15approach and i'd like to think about how

1:59:17do we

1:59:18build on that approach when we think

1:59:20about sewer laterals because when we dig

1:59:22up the streets more than once we waste

1:59:25money we waste about 25 percent of the

1:59:28total cost of doing this work uh and

1:59:30that is uh those are funds that could go

1:59:32to keeping our rates low you can

1:59:34reinvest that money into fire protection

1:59:37or whatever else the city council would

1:59:38like to do but both of our agencies and

1:59:41our

1:59:42our mutual customers uh and constituents

1:59:45save money when we're able to coordinate

1:59:47this work so um went a little bit off

1:59:49script there but um i wanted to share

1:59:51kind of those thoughts about what's

1:59:52ahead um let's you've heard a lot about

1:59:55lead because of recent events in flint

1:59:57michigan

1:59:58the spotlight has really been on lead

2:00:00and drinking water

2:00:02but east bay mud tested all k-12 public

2:00:05schools in our service area and all are

2:00:08below the action level of 15 parts per

2:00:10billion

2:00:11east bay mud removed lead service lines

2:00:13in the 1990s and continues to remove

2:00:16lead whenever they incidentally happen

2:00:18to be found

2:00:19we've had corrosion control practices in

2:00:22place since the early 20s to make sure

2:00:24that our water is minimally corrosive

2:00:27and does not have impacts on

2:00:30on homes so that lead doesn't leach into

2:00:32the water from old homes that may have

2:00:34lead in in their pipes

2:00:36we do extensive testing of our water

2:00:38supply to make sure that that that we

2:00:40are minimally corrosive

2:00:42uh we also spearheaded uh the the

2:00:44campaign uh that that got all of our

2:00:47state pipes and then eventually all of

2:00:49our uh national uh pipes from being lead

2:00:52free so we we sponsored ab 1953 uh that

2:00:56went into effect in 2010 uh and then

2:00:58also the they get the let out bill in uh

2:01:00that went federal in in 2014 um that was

2:01:04modeled on california's law that east

2:01:05bay mud sponsored so um we are the

2:01:08community that spearheaded lead-free

2:01:10pipes and i think we can be very very

2:01:12proud of that

2:01:13but

2:01:14meanwhile we're also an old community so

2:01:17particularly uh for for people who are

2:01:20living in homes that were built uh in

2:01:22the in the 1920s or or earlier uh or if

2:01:25you just suspect that there could be

2:01:27some kind of

2:01:28corrosion in your home pipes

2:01:30you can get your home water sampled for

2:01:33free by visiting ebmud.com

2:01:37lead that's eb mud.com

2:01:40lead and we we provide that service for

2:01:43anybody who's concerned about lead

2:01:45leaching into their water

2:01:47at home

2:01:48because our our distribution pipes are

2:01:50lead-free

2:01:52uh we uh have a long recognized that

2:01:55climate change is real and possess poses

2:01:58serious risks to all of us

2:02:00uh we have seen more intense droughts

2:02:02and storm periods cause

2:02:04wildfire threats and flooding

2:02:07we

2:02:07see as a result of these kinds of things

2:02:10degraded water quality the drought left

2:02:13us with some unanticipated effects when

2:02:15we when we saw the the added

2:02:19organic material that was uh

2:02:22remaining dead

2:02:23just at the

2:02:25edges of our reservoir when that when

2:02:27that

2:02:28dead organic material did eventually

2:02:31flow down back into the reservoir

2:02:33we we had this experience of seeing more

2:02:36organic matter in our reservoir

2:02:38combining with uh disinfection the

2:02:41disinfectant

2:02:42that that's normal to be used for

2:02:44treating our water uh result in some

2:02:46different water quality results for from

2:02:49trihalomethanes a normal

2:02:53disinfection byproduct but we saw

2:02:55elevated levels that were still below

2:02:57the uh the water quality threshold set

2:03:01by the state of california but it's

2:03:02above what we're used to it's above what

2:03:04what we strive for so we we immediately

2:03:07took action we've we flushed out our um

2:03:09the water supply in in the basin where

2:03:12that was an issue in uh in the north

2:03:14berkeley hills uh we immediately took

2:03:16action but we recognize now that climate

2:03:18change is presenting things that we've

2:03:20never confronted uh we we had during the

2:03:23worst uh phase of the drought we had uh

2:03:26a moment where um the area that we were

2:03:29drawing water from was the area that

2:03:31where you could taste um

2:03:33um a little bit uh more of the

2:03:36uh the

2:03:38the the

2:03:39earthy kind of taste than you would

2:03:40normally taste and so we're starting to

2:03:43look at what kind of infrastructure

2:03:44makes sense and so climate change will

2:03:46cost us if we want to keep our water

2:03:48quality

2:03:49at the highest levels if we want to keep

2:03:51uh

2:03:52that aesthetic quality of taste and odor

2:03:55the way we are used to we're going to

2:03:57have to invest in oxidation technology

2:03:59at the water treatment plant we're

2:04:00already making plans to

2:04:02have that technology in place by the

2:04:04early to mid 2020s but we're starting to

2:04:07build that into our capital budgets

2:04:08because we know climate change is real

2:04:10and that this is going to happen more

2:04:12but we're not just saying while climate

2:04:13change is real let's get prepared we're

2:04:15also saying let's be a part of the

2:04:17solution so as you can see on the slide

2:04:20we have an aggressive greenhouse gas

2:04:22production goal and we're actually

2:04:24looking at making this goal even more

2:04:26aggressive to make sure that we're able

2:04:28to bring down

2:04:30our contributions to climate change even

2:04:32more

2:04:34in addition to what we're doing with

2:04:35water supply adaptation

2:04:37our mitigation goals are to reduce

2:04:39greenhouse gas indirect emissions uh to

2:04:42zero by 2040. that's like electricity

2:04:45and to cut in half our direct emissions

2:04:47by 50 compared to the year uh 2000. uh i

2:04:51i'm encouraging our staff to be a part

2:04:53of an early buyer's club for uh medium

2:04:57and heavy-duty electric vehicles i think

2:04:59we've already been doing some of this

2:05:00with light duty passenger but i think

2:05:03all of our local governments

2:05:04can do more by by being early buyers of

2:05:08cutting-edge uh alternative fuel

2:05:10heavy heavy-duty equipment

2:05:13we'll also be adopting a climate policy

2:05:16in june and uh to put some of these

2:05:18principles to paper

2:05:20uh

2:05:21the the core of our work right now

2:05:23during a non-drought year uh it's it's

2:05:25exciting when we don't have to worry

2:05:27about a drought crisis you know right

2:05:29right uh immediately because then we can

2:05:31focus on infrastructure and

2:05:33when i first got on the board in 2007 we

2:05:36were just replacing about six or so

2:05:38miles of pipe per year

2:05:40and clearly that is not

2:05:42enough because we have about 4 200 miles

2:05:46of pipe in the whole service area

2:05:48and this pipe was only designed to last

2:05:51about 80 to 100 years so if you do the

2:05:54math that means

2:05:56the whole system could be breaking right

2:05:58now

2:05:59that's that that's a rough approach

2:06:01because uh our service area was built in

2:06:04phases over time but we need to be um

2:06:08repairing and replacing our system at a

2:06:10much faster pace and so we're ramping up

2:06:14our you can see on the right edge of the

2:06:16slide where where we're ramping up to

2:06:19um but our primary focus for our capital

2:06:22improvement program is infrastructure

2:06:23renewal so that we can improve

2:06:25reliability

2:06:27our pipeline rebuild program is a large

2:06:29focus that gets us from 10 miles of pipe

2:06:32replaced a year to 22 miles of pipe by

2:06:342024

2:06:36so this prioritizes safety reliability

2:06:39water quality regulatory compliance and

2:06:42cost effectiveness and so some of the

2:06:44local upcoming pipeline projects that

2:06:47will be in el cerrito include village

2:06:50errol

2:06:51bonnie and byra cluster

2:06:54barron street

2:06:55everett street

2:06:56lexington cluster and eureka street so

2:06:59those are some of the upcoming

2:07:01distribution pipeline replacements that

2:07:03are coming up in el cerrito very soon

2:07:05so i'm very excited to announce that el

2:07:07cerrito is getting

2:07:09some upgrades so that you can have

2:07:10reliability in your neighborhoods we we

2:07:12definitely recognize that main breaks

2:07:14are not fun for any neighbors

2:07:16we you know we bear

2:07:18responsibility for uh

2:07:21damage to property where we could have

2:07:23prevented it so we we make sure that we

2:07:26are um keeping neighborhoods in in a

2:07:28state of good repair so that we're able

2:07:30to have that reliability and safety um

2:07:33so

2:07:34uh we also uh are doing some major uh

2:07:37rehabilitation of large pipelines so we

2:07:39have the wildcat canyon pipeline

2:07:41that is kind of the backbone of our

2:07:43system

2:07:45and i know that uh there's some

2:07:46coordination issues with uh the

2:07:48rehabilitation that el cerrito is

2:07:50planning with

2:07:51richmond

2:07:52street uh so uh we we we do have we have

2:07:56had to push out that that construction

2:07:58date and i i i i i i was gonna be my

2:08:01question to you yeah and i know yeah a

2:08:03couple of you have talked with me about

2:08:04that

2:08:05uh because you've long anticipated this

2:08:07project and it is um beneficial to all

2:08:09of our mutual uh customers to be able to

2:08:12coordinate our projects um we we this is

2:08:15a very large project for us so we we

2:08:17need to make sure that all of our

2:08:18architectural plans our underground

2:08:21utilities uh uh coordination our sequa

2:08:24are all ready before we um actually put

2:08:26the project out to bid and and uh uh go

2:08:28in

2:08:29so uh we we are um

2:08:32right now anticipating that that project

2:08:33will happen um between may 2020 and may

2:08:372020 may 2022

2:08:40so it's about a two-year construction

2:08:42project i will make sure that our

2:08:44engineering staff are in close

2:08:46coordination with your public works

2:08:47department

2:08:48so that we're able to accelerate any uh

2:08:51uh

2:08:53rehabilitation specific to el cerrito

2:08:55that you're really waiting for us on

2:08:57because i know that if you need to

2:08:59repave that street um you need you need

2:09:02to be able to get to it soon and and

2:09:04you'll need us to get to work on the

2:09:06right segments um soon

2:09:08so

2:09:10so i'm glad to share that news with you

2:09:12and glad that that project is uh on its

2:09:14way to el cerrito next spring

2:09:19and

2:09:19uh we

2:09:21uh also uh wan have uh

2:09:24a complicated bill we're we're looking

2:09:26at our bill and how to make it more

2:09:28visually

2:09:29appealing but uh but it has the basics

2:09:32you know your your typical el cerrito

2:09:34water use is about five and a half um

2:09:36ccf per month and that means a cost of

2:09:39about a dollar fifty a day we have a

2:09:41three-tiered structure that increases

2:09:43with use most el cerrito residents are

2:09:46in the lowest tier of water use and

2:09:48are are charged a very

2:09:50low and affordable rate for water

2:09:52we have we have a

2:09:54a fixed charge that represents about

2:09:57a little less than a quarter of the

2:09:58water bill

2:10:00i've taken the position that we should

2:10:01be reducing that fixed charge component

2:10:03of the water bill so that we are more

2:10:05fair and equitable for customers that

2:10:07conserve water

2:10:08that's a long-standing discussion at the

2:10:10board

2:10:11we will be revisiting the overall rate

2:10:14design and rate structure in our next

2:10:16budget

2:10:17so within about two years um there will

2:10:19be an opportunity for engagement on a

2:10:21major overhaul to our rates

2:10:24um but uh we also have a higher

2:10:26elevation

2:10:27charge so that if you're

2:10:29if you require pumping um to get the

2:10:31water to you um then you pay

2:10:34in the aggregate you pay your fair share

2:10:36to get water pumped up the hill to you

2:10:41uh we and i should also uh mention that

2:10:43we we provide a customer assistance

2:10:45program for uh for any uh customers who

2:10:48are uh earning uh roughly uh double the

2:10:51poverty line in the state of california

2:10:53uh we we make available a program uh

2:10:56where if you uh uh call us at 866 4dbud

2:11:01get an application and get that on file

2:11:04and demonstrate that you are eligible uh

2:11:07given that income threshold which it

2:11:09increases with the amount of people in

2:11:11your household

2:11:12it's it's comparable to the threshold

2:11:14that pg e has for the care program

2:11:16we provide a 50 discount off of the

2:11:19water bill and a 35 discount off of the

2:11:22wastewater bill so um

2:11:25these are tough economic times for for

2:11:27many in our community who are struggling

2:11:29to make ends meet and i encourage all of

2:11:31you as ambassadors in the community to

2:11:34share with service providers the

2:11:36availability of this program so that

2:11:38everybody can

2:11:39afford water

2:11:42we are investing with your dollars as i

2:11:44shared with you details about pipeline

2:11:46rebuild

2:11:47and key water and wastewater treatment

2:11:50plant upgrades

2:11:51other key infrastructure

2:11:53so

2:11:54we are making sure that we put put your

2:11:56dollars to good use

2:11:58we maintain

2:12:00sound fiscal management with the aaa

2:12:02bond rating

2:12:03very low borrowing

2:12:05we make sure to have a rate reserve fund

2:12:07when we do have another drought we have

2:12:09a 95 million dollar reserve so that we

2:12:12are able to offset the costs of a

2:12:13drought and keep drought rates

2:12:16to

2:12:17a minimum to avoid rate shock um and so

2:12:20those high credit and bond ratings allow

2:12:22the district to borrow at low rates with

2:12:24favorable terms uh debt funding for a

2:12:27portion of capital

2:12:29also allows for energy generational

2:12:31equity we have been trending more

2:12:33towards paygo

2:12:34to reduce the amount of money that we

2:12:36pay to a bank instead of um to to our

2:12:39own infrastructure

2:12:40but we

2:12:41we are making efforts to make sure that

2:12:43we're rehabilitating our infrastructure

2:12:45now is not a time to be kicking the can

2:12:47down the road more

2:12:48so overall this is our two-year budget

2:12:50um and these are these breakdowns most

2:12:53of our budget is uh in the water system

2:12:57most of our budget is spent on capital

2:13:00appropriations and operations and a very

2:13:02small portion goes to

2:13:04debt service

2:13:06but as i mentioned our our fixed costs

2:13:08are

2:13:09the the large majorities 94 of our costs

2:13:13are fixed only six percent of our uh

2:13:15costs are variable so if we do reduce um

2:13:19water to even lower than we've already

2:13:21been using uh our our revenues are not

2:13:24going to be able to uh make up for those

2:13:26changes so um

2:13:2729 of our revenues are fixed um from our

2:13:30fixed charge and from property taxes

2:13:33most of um our revenues come from

2:13:35variable sources so the the the way i

2:13:38bring you know when i'm proposing let's

2:13:40reduce fixed charges so that more of the

2:13:41charges are on the volumetric side to

2:13:44encourage conservation i propose

2:13:46increasing our reserve

2:13:48so that we're able to

2:13:50reward conservation be equitable for

2:13:52communities that have high conservation

2:13:54i have to also propose increasing our

2:13:57reserve so that we're able to account

2:14:00for how do we have

2:14:02a stable budget with variable revenue

2:14:04like this

2:14:09and our budget and rate schedule is uh

2:14:12here on this slide

2:14:13we are proposing the lowest annual rate

2:14:15increase that we have proposed in the

2:14:18last uh 10 years

2:14:20that is 6.5 percent uh in each year

2:14:24actually is 6.5 for for 19 and 6.25 for

2:14:282020 uh and

2:14:30we are proposing a pr approximately a

2:14:33four percent increase for wastewater

2:14:35charges different customer classes are

2:14:37seeing different uh rate increases

2:14:39between three and seven percent uh

2:14:41depending on what customer class you're

2:14:43in residential customers will see

2:14:45something more on the three percent end

2:14:48and so uh the the

2:14:51notice was mailed to all customers

2:14:53written protests can be mailed to east

2:14:55bay mud at

2:14:57ms218 at p.o box 24055

2:15:01oakland california 94623

2:15:05and must include the account holder's

2:15:07name and service address on the

2:15:08eastbaymod account number

2:15:10or the eastpayment account number and

2:15:12must be received before our june 11th

2:15:14public hearing at 1 15

2:15:16pm so we are i'm always glad to come to

2:15:20el cerrito to talk about what's

2:15:21happening in east bay mud but we are

2:15:22making a concerted effort to reach out

2:15:24to communities so that everyone knows

2:15:26that our rates are going up um we are

2:15:30doing the best we can with our

2:15:33customer dollars to stretch them as far

2:15:35as we can and i'm also glad that this is

2:15:37the uh the lowest uh increase that we've

2:15:39had uh we've we've had a lot of tough

2:15:42times uh from the financial crisis in

2:15:44the uh era era post 2008. um the

2:15:48majority of uh the last 12 years have

2:15:50been in drought um so all of those uh uh

2:15:54challenges have taken a hit um where

2:15:56where we've seen our revenues uh

2:15:59uh be unstable because of the drought

2:16:01we've seen uh

2:16:04challenges with the economy and

2:16:06increasing costs of construction

2:16:08equipment uh increased costs of

2:16:09chemicals and energy energy

2:16:11um but overall what's happened with the

2:16:13average customer bill

2:16:15despite the the rate increases that are

2:16:18higher per gallon of water the average

2:16:20customer bill has only gone up by five

2:16:22percent per year over the last 10 years

2:16:25so customers are actually seeing bills

2:16:27that are very proportionate uh with the

2:16:29increase in services that we're

2:16:30providing to make sure that we have a

2:16:33state of good repair in our water system

2:16:36so

2:16:39we also continue to be in the midpoint

2:16:42actually below the midpoint of our

2:16:44comparison agencies so we are right in

2:16:45the middle compared to other local

2:16:47agencies

2:16:49in terms of the water bill

2:16:51and the annual charge for a single

2:16:53family residence

2:16:55we also are

2:16:56competitive in wastewater bills so for

2:16:59the average single family residents

2:17:02the blue is what you can see

2:17:04is the east bay mud cost the green is

2:17:06the average

2:17:07cost across the wastewater service area

2:17:10that includes stage

2:17:12but it also includes um the uh the sewer

2:17:15fee charges of the city of oakland

2:17:17berkeley um

2:17:19and in alameda

2:17:20uh and other cities in the wastewater

2:17:22area

2:17:23um and so those are uh the the main

2:17:27topics i had to present to you i do have

2:17:29some comments that i can share

2:17:31about fire safety and and what we've

2:17:33been doing around fire safety but i i

2:17:35can take your questions first

2:17:37council member quinto uh it's always

2:17:39good to see

2:17:40my colleague on the sierra club board

2:17:42andy you're always welcome and elsarita

2:17:45my question regarding

2:17:47wastewater the wastewater treatment

2:17:50plant it's right on the edge of the bay

2:17:53what is east bay mud

2:17:55doing now to prepare for climate change

2:17:58and the rising waters that

2:18:00are happening right now i think that's a

2:18:03very excellent point to be raising we

2:18:04are very concerned about sea level rise

2:18:06and what it will do to

2:18:08public infrastructure all around the bay

2:18:10including the wastewater treatment plant

2:18:12the wastewater treatment plant is right

2:18:14on san francisco bay

2:18:16and it's it's an ideal site to be right

2:18:19on the bay to be able to discharge we

2:18:21don't discharge right at the site of the

2:18:23wastewater treatment plant we have an

2:18:24outtake through a pipeline that goes out

2:18:27a fair amount from the shoreline itself

2:18:31but right now

2:18:32what scientists tell us is likely to

2:18:34happen within the next few decades will

2:18:37inundate the area where the wastewater

2:18:39treatment plant lies

2:18:40we don't know precisely where to

2:18:42relocate it if that's the right strategy

2:18:44we know that a seawall will not

2:18:47be protective of

2:18:49of one piece of infrastructure alone

2:18:51because the shoreline continues for

2:18:53hundreds of miles around the bay

2:18:55only san francisco can really get away

2:18:57with the sea wall

2:18:58so

2:18:59we have some serious challenges as a

2:19:01region and i think what

2:19:03we've been doing so far has been to

2:19:05collaborate with uh the uh with baycan

2:19:08that's the regional uh

2:19:11resilience network talking together

2:19:13about how to be resilient for climate

2:19:15change particularly sea level rise and

2:19:18uh we're collaborating on what

2:19:19infrastructure scenarios look like

2:19:22i anticipate that uh we need one

2:19:24comprehensive plan um that's able to go

2:19:27to our our voters and our customers to

2:19:29talk about uh what what it's going to

2:19:32cost to protect our infrastructure

2:19:34what relocation plans might look like

2:19:37and we might be talking about

2:19:39wastewater conveyance that doesn't

2:19:41depend on being right on the shoreline

2:19:42we might be talking about

2:19:44building infrastructure that's more

2:19:46protective

2:19:47in a graceful retreat from the shoreline

2:19:50fortunately we don't have to have a

2:19:52solution to this crisis today but we

2:19:54don't have any time to waste

2:19:56in terms of preparing and studying for

2:19:58this so we're actively involved in those

2:19:59conversations okay um the oroville dam i

2:20:03know they're thinking of

2:20:05raising the reservoir

2:20:06um

2:20:08will that affect

2:20:10east bay mud at all

2:20:12not directly orville dam is

2:20:15part of the state water project and we

2:20:18do not have any contracts with the state

2:20:20water project

2:20:21thank you and thank you for

2:20:23letting our rich our richmond street

2:20:25neighbors know about

2:20:27your plans and tearing up their street

2:20:29so i know they appreciate that

2:20:31and paving the way for uh

2:20:33the city to uh renovate the street and

2:20:36and leave it leave it like new so uh we

2:20:39will also be very incl in touch with the

2:20:41neighborhood um as the project gets

2:20:43closer thank you

2:20:45gentlemen

2:20:46uh andy first of all i'd like to thank

2:20:48you for always uh letting us know what's

2:20:50happening at east bay mud

2:20:52uh it's

2:20:54uh i think we feel like we're

2:20:56part of your agency

2:20:59our agency

2:21:00um because you you really do keep us

2:21:02informed year after year and i

2:21:05i for one really appreciate that and i

2:21:07think other people

2:21:09do too

2:21:10i always feel like i know when i get my

2:21:14uh monthly

2:21:17uh

2:21:18bill

2:21:20that that's you know that what's going

2:21:22on

2:21:22the um

2:21:23[Music]

2:21:24it um

2:21:27the thing i kind of always wonder about

2:21:29is um

2:21:31i guess

2:21:33what what can i personally do

2:21:36as a

2:21:37homeowner and what can other people

2:21:40you know do

2:21:41to

2:21:42[Music]

2:21:44do we need to reduce our water usage

2:21:46right now i in a sense i almost feel

2:21:48like we need to use a bunch of it so

2:21:50that so the dams don't spill over or

2:21:53something

2:21:54but can you can you

2:21:57shed a little bit of information about

2:21:58what those kinds of things would be like

2:22:01this year in a time of excess water

2:22:04well i don't think you would catch me

2:22:06saying you know go go ahead and waste

2:22:07water i'm not going to tell you that

2:22:10but what i will tell you is that our

2:22:12water supply situation in a year like

2:22:14this

2:22:15leaves us where the

2:22:17operating agreements with the fish and

2:22:18wildlife service

2:22:21require us to release a certain amount

2:22:23of water down the river so we we are

2:22:26going to have roughly the same amount of

2:22:28storage um

2:22:30regardless of minor changes in indoor

2:22:33water use

2:22:34i

2:22:35don't think it makes sense for uh for

2:22:37anybody to waste water with outdoor

2:22:39water irrigation um to the extent that

2:22:42they

2:22:43they form a new uh

2:22:46water use that will continue into future

2:22:48years where we might not have um as

2:22:50abundant water supply but i would say as

2:22:53if you know if you were um

2:22:55uh looking for the year to you know

2:22:58not have to trim your showers to you

2:23:00know the

2:23:01the the difficult standards that we were

2:23:03holding ourselves to during the drought

2:23:05uh now is the year to to relax a little

2:23:08bit um but there's never a time to waste

2:23:11it's always a good time for wise water

2:23:13use but but we do have operating

2:23:15agreements with the fish and wildlife

2:23:17service

2:23:18and and the amount of water that flows

2:23:20down the river will not change

2:23:22significantly depending on what um an

2:23:25individual customer does this for in a

2:23:27year like this it's not that's not the

2:23:29case most years but in a extremely wet

2:23:32year

2:23:34the amount of water that flows through

2:23:36the natural environment will be about

2:23:37the same

2:23:39okay so what if i were to talk to

2:23:41somebody and explain what they ought to

2:23:43do it would probably be the best thing

2:23:46to do would be to say something along

2:23:48the lines of

2:23:49it's best to continue our drought

2:23:52practices which are good practices

2:23:55and um

2:23:56because there really isn't going to be

2:23:57that much more water available this year

2:24:01and we

2:24:02in my words we don't really want to get

2:24:04out of good habits that's right yeah we

2:24:06always encourage wise water use and i

2:24:08think maintaining those those good

2:24:10habits we are excellent we want

2:24:12conservation to be a way of life we want

2:24:15water use efficiency we continue to have

2:24:18uh rebates for

2:24:19uh

2:24:20water efficient dishwashers and clothes

2:24:22washers we provide water audits so

2:24:25anybody can call our main customer

2:24:27service line to get access to those

2:24:29rebates and and leverage them with

2:24:31comparable

2:24:33pg e or mce rebates

2:24:36that's 866 40 eb mud

2:24:39and we can

2:24:41help help people be more efficient at

2:24:43their water usage and we just encourage

2:24:45people to to maintain that habit of

2:24:47using water wisely thank you

2:24:51any questions over here

2:24:53yeah

2:24:54andy thanks for coming tonight it's

2:24:56as everyone said it's good to hear from

2:24:57the horse's mouth as they say

2:24:59the facts that were out there one of the

2:25:01ones that you said that struck me is 4