Special and Regular City Council Meetings October 15, 2019

0:02:39the meeting is called to order the city

0:02:42clerk please call the roll council

0:02:43member fidelity

0:02:45here mayor potent lyman

0:02:47mayor pardue okimoto present

0:02:49councilmember abelson here councilmember

0:02:51quinto

0:02:54next we will have the pledge of

0:02:56allegiance led by council member quinto

0:03:00i pledge allegiance to the flag of the

0:03:03united states of america and to the

0:03:06republic for which it stands

0:03:08one nation

0:03:09under god

0:03:10indivisible with liberty and justice for

0:03:13all

0:03:21[Music]

0:03:23so thank you for your patience we just

0:03:27finished our

0:03:30meeting of

0:03:32commission interviews

0:03:35and

0:03:38we did make one appointment and do i

0:03:40need to say the vote

0:03:43no no just the outcome okay um

0:03:46we made one appointment to the arts and

0:03:49culture commission

0:03:51courtney hellion

0:03:54all right and

0:03:56next we will move on

0:03:58to council staff communications do we

0:04:01have any

0:04:03communications from the staff yes thank

0:04:05you your honor i just wanted to take the

0:04:07opportunity to thank

0:04:09all of our community our residents our

0:04:11businesses for their patients and their

0:04:14resilience last week

0:04:16with the pg e power shut off

0:04:19we only had about 800 el cerrito

0:04:22residents that were affected

0:04:25but it was sort of a roller coaster

0:04:27for a few days trying to figure out what

0:04:29was going to happen or what wasn't going

0:04:30to happen

0:04:32and so

0:04:33again i want to thank everyone for

0:04:36hanging in there with us we tried to be

0:04:37as informative as we could put out as

0:04:40much information as we could is in as

0:04:42many ways possible so thank you to our

0:04:45community but a special thank you to

0:04:48police chief paul keith and to

0:04:51chief kevin james to alex oralogus and

0:04:54maya williams and margaret livingston in

0:04:56the city manager's office

0:04:58who uh and chris jones our recreation

0:05:00director and yvette ortiz our public

0:05:02works director um kind of the team

0:05:04leaders in in making sure that

0:05:06everything was handled from a staff

0:05:08level and i'm really proud of them and

0:05:10proud of of all of our residents so

0:05:12thank you

0:05:14thank you

0:05:15and in the interest of time do we have

0:05:17any brief uh comments from our council

0:05:20i can wait till uh

0:05:22uh the end okay i can too okay

0:05:25council member fidelity i can't wait as

0:05:27well i have nothing to do okay um and i

0:05:30just have one um brief announcement we

0:05:33are

0:05:34planning a community forum for

0:05:38to talk about saving all debates and

0:05:40what we can do

0:05:42as a community to keep pressure

0:05:44on sutter health to make sure that we

0:05:47have

0:05:48a hospital in our community and keep

0:05:49altivates open

0:05:51it will be here at the community center

0:05:54in el cerrito on november

0:05:5716th at 10 a.m and

0:06:01i am working on that with supervisor

0:06:03joya and we will have other guest

0:06:06speakers at the event so we hope that

0:06:08you will all be able to make it thank

0:06:10you

0:06:13next we will have our oral

0:06:16communications from

0:06:18the public at this time anyone wishing

0:06:21to speak

0:06:22should complete a speaker card and give

0:06:24it to the city clerk remarks are

0:06:27typically limited to

0:06:29three minutes however depending on the

0:06:31number of speakers i may shorten that

0:06:33amount of time

0:06:35comments regarding non-agenda items and

0:06:37consent calendar items will be heard

0:06:39first comments related to

0:06:41other agenda items will be heard at the

0:06:44time the city council deliberates on

0:06:45them

0:06:46when you come forward please

0:06:49state your name and city of residence

0:06:51for the record

0:06:53will you please call the speakers yet

0:06:54this time we have 10 speakers

0:06:57the first speaker tonight is cordell

0:06:58hindler followed by peter lydell

0:07:03so uh good evening uh mayor purdue

0:07:05okimoto council my name is cordell

0:07:07handler and i'm a richmond resident so i

0:07:10have some invitations for you all so

0:07:12number one you are cordially invited to

0:07:14attend a performance of bright star it's

0:07:17held at kaushikaza civic theater

0:07:20friday saturday and sunday uh but if you

0:07:22get the youth rate it's only 15 bucks so

0:07:24that's one and then number two is them

0:07:26you are fortunately invited to attend

0:07:28the salesian high school uh

0:07:31parents association pasta dinner on

0:07:32november the 2nd from 68 in their

0:07:35cafeteria and

0:07:37to me you'll be my guest so um

0:07:39it's free for for all including cd staff

0:07:42too

0:07:43number three is um i will be at the

0:07:46mayor's conference uh next month though

0:07:48uh so um because i'm interested in

0:07:50hearing about what what bart uh the

0:07:52general manager has to say alan

0:07:54i wanna hear about that so because i'm

0:07:56kind of interested in hearing what they

0:07:58have to say

0:07:59and then i'm one of those oh yeah

0:08:00because if you recall a month or two ago

0:08:03i brought i came for you know

0:08:05doing some analysis on um

0:08:08on how other cities um

0:08:10what businesses that are coming into the

0:08:12city and and the rent and i and i was

0:08:15talking to one of the businesses in el

0:08:17cerrito and he told me that they paid 15

0:08:19000 a month for rent and i said

0:08:22that is that is that's unacceptable

0:08:25fifteen thousand dollars is like a

0:08:27that's like a car note uh or or a

0:08:29mortgage for a house and i said

0:08:31as a business uh owner i would not

0:08:33invest

0:08:34not one cent of my money

0:08:36in this area for one is um i looked at

0:08:39the demographics and

0:08:41it clearly shows that um that new

0:08:43business that when they come to el

0:08:44cerrito they tend to last about

0:08:4760 to 90 days and i said

0:08:49that's not that's not that's not in my

0:08:52jurisdiction so i have to if i want to

0:08:55invest in my money in a space i have to

0:08:57figure out the safety

0:08:59the the traffic all that um that stuff

0:09:03so

0:09:04i'm looking at this and i said i don't i

0:09:05love el cerrito but

0:09:07the prices are getting too expensive for

0:09:09for not only uh homeowners but for new

0:09:11businesses that come into the area so i

0:09:13just want to just want you to know that

0:09:15so with that peter it's all yours

0:09:18and next speaker is peter lydell

0:09:20followed by susan duncan

0:09:22okay

0:09:31good evening

0:09:34mayor perdue akamoto uh mayor pro tem

0:09:37lyman council members abelson fideli and

0:09:41kinto my name is peter liddell and i'm

0:09:43from kensington

0:09:45my comment is regarding kensington's

0:09:47request for proposal for el cerrito to

0:09:50provide police services to the

0:09:51kensington police protection and

0:09:53community services district

0:09:56we conducted a poll and we now have

0:09:58written statements from hundreds of

0:09:59households in kensington who want to

0:10:01vote on any outsourcing of the police

0:10:04we hope because this is an ex existing

0:10:07law and the will of the community that

0:10:09you would include in any response to a

0:10:11request for proposal that it will only

0:10:13take effect after an affirmative vote of

0:10:15the residence thank you

0:10:17thank you the next speaker is susan

0:10:19duncan followed by david mendel

0:10:33good evening another thank you for to

0:10:35the fire department for continuing the

0:10:37process of private property vegetation

0:10:39mitigation

0:10:41and thank you to the city for having two

0:10:43charging stations during the powder out

0:10:45power outage

0:10:46perhaps if needed in the future the city

0:10:48could advertise these a few days ahead

0:10:50of time

0:10:52and shame on pg e for having only one

0:10:54comfort station in the whole county was

0:10:56in san ramon i believe what about west

0:10:58county the cities of west county should

0:11:01take pg e to task for that among other

0:11:04issues including poor communication

0:11:06through the whole

0:11:0717 hours

0:11:08and that we had no power plus before

0:11:12we did make it through another red flag

0:11:14day period and a few minor earthquakes i

0:11:17hope these events will jo jolt people

0:11:20into getting prepared for more serious

0:11:22events thank you

0:11:23thank you the next speaker is david

0:11:25mandel followed by linda kane

0:11:34good evening madam mayor and council

0:11:35members i'm a little hard of hearing so

0:11:37if you have any questions afterwards

0:11:39please speak up

0:11:42my name is dave mandel i've been

0:11:44residing with my 30-year partner

0:11:46at [address removed] since 1998.

0:11:51the long-standing principles of

0:11:53negligence law include that no person

0:11:56and i include

0:11:57thanks to the supreme court corporations

0:12:00and governments as persons

0:12:02no person shall harm another person

0:12:04knowingly

0:12:06and a due standard of care

0:12:09is normally considered by any court when

0:12:11they consider any action undertaken

0:12:15within that court jurisdiction

0:12:18as a retired senior city environmental

0:12:21planner licensed landscape contractor

0:12:24and the university level teacher of

0:12:26landscape architecture

0:12:28i'm very familiar with the idea of

0:12:30traffic calming

0:12:32i do things like curb cut bump outs

0:12:35speed bumps and so on

0:12:37i'm also very familiar with seqa and its

0:12:40environmental review requirements

0:12:43almost two years ago the city installed

0:12:45two speed bumps on navalier in the 1400

0:12:48block

0:12:49there are well-functioning speed bumps

0:12:52in many parts of el cerrito most of them

0:12:54are either flat topped or round topped

0:12:57and if you look at the first three or

0:12:59four pictures

0:13:00and the handout i gave you you can see

0:13:02what those look like we also of course

0:13:05have the slightly raised brick

0:13:07crosswalks in many parts of the city and

0:13:10they are also very effective and i

0:13:13completely support traffic calming so

0:13:15these ideas work very nicely

0:13:18however

0:13:20the

0:13:22um

0:13:23speed bumps installed on navalier at

0:13:25roughly 1475 and 1480 have a different

0:13:28profile they are triangular they have a

0:13:31sharp ridge on the top

0:13:33which you can see in the last three

0:13:35photographs in the handout are provided

0:13:37to you

0:13:39and

0:13:39every time you go over that ridge no

0:13:42matter what speed you're traveling at

0:13:44and that includes three miles an hour

0:13:47not just 20 miles an hour you receive a

0:13:49sharp jolt

0:13:51the homeowner who lives immediately next

0:13:54to the speed bump at 1480 navalevir

0:13:57navalier

0:13:58told me on october 11th that he loves

0:14:00the traffic calming but he hates the

0:14:03loud banging he hears every time a car

0:14:05bottoms out on these speed bumps

0:14:08i am legally recognized by federal and

0:14:11state governments as being disabled

0:14:14as reported to me by several of kaiser's

0:14:17spine clinicians

0:14:19i share with many people over the age of

0:14:2245 some degree of spinal deterioration

0:14:26in fact it's so common

0:14:28that is considered typical to have some

0:14:31spinal deterioration

0:14:33so my back hurts all the time

0:14:36it doesn't need any assistance from

0:14:38speed bumps

0:14:39thank you very much your time is now out

0:14:41but we do have the rest of your written

0:14:43comments

0:14:44i appreciate that i hope you will

0:14:46consider them thanks a lot thank you

0:14:48thank you

0:14:49the next speaker is linda kane followed

0:14:51by romy douglas

0:14:56good evening city council and um staff

0:14:59and citizens of our local area um my

0:15:03name is linda kane i live in el cerrito

0:15:05and i'm talking about the recent meeting

0:15:07at hana gardens

0:15:09regarding the new developments planned

0:15:11at the plaza bart station

0:15:13which basically to me was a shock maybe

0:15:16i missed some previous meetings

0:15:19i thought there were cities to our

0:15:21changes to our city that were not

0:15:22clearly explained to the community nor

0:15:25were we given a chance for real input i

0:15:27had a feeling that and well i even asked

0:15:29them they said yeah we'll consider it in

0:15:31getting the proposals um i didn't think

0:15:34there was any obligation for them to

0:15:36take our feedback that we gladly gave on

0:15:38our post-its so this is what i got from

0:15:41the event maybe i don't even understand

0:15:43it removal of almost all parking for the

0:15:45bart commuters starting at plaza bart

0:15:48without concern for where the people are

0:15:50coming from whether it's in el cerrito

0:15:52up the hill or out in pinol or

0:15:55sacramento whatever

0:15:57second building new large apartment

0:15:59buildings of unspecified size and height

0:16:02which will definitely change the way our

0:16:04city looks

0:16:05three the city i don't feel like you

0:16:07have done a lot to clarify this to the

0:16:09public

0:16:10and and let us know what we're getting

0:16:12and ameliorate possible negative effects

0:16:15to me the effect of parking removal at

0:16:17plaza means more people parking in our

0:16:19neighborhoods and not just at plaza

0:16:22because if they can't park at plaza

0:16:24they'll come to del norte which is

0:16:26probably going to lose its parking soon

0:16:27anyway and i live in the del norte area

0:16:29so i picture they'll be parking in front

0:16:32of my house too

0:16:33uh which the street is busy enough um

0:16:36also as a senior i do walk to bart

0:16:38whenever it's possible when i know i'm

0:16:40coming home by day time when it's safe

0:16:42but i know at 71 i won't always be able

0:16:45to walk 20 minutes to bart and i have no

0:16:47plans to take up bicycling i'm sorry i

0:16:50just want to know what the city is doing

0:16:52to let us know that you care about our

0:16:53quality of life and you know like

0:16:57negotiate with bart or control bart in

0:17:00them taking over

0:17:01um a lot of property that's going to

0:17:03mean something to the el cerrito

0:17:05citizens so thank you

0:17:07thank you

0:17:08the next speaker is romy douglas

0:17:09followed by al miller

0:17:13hi good evening members of the council

0:17:15my name is romy douglas i've been an el

0:17:17cerrito homeowner since 2001

0:17:20i'm here about the similar issue as the

0:17:22woman before me i'm also the admin of a

0:17:25newly created facebook group called save

0:17:28bart parking

0:17:29and i want to talk to you about the

0:17:30proposed transit oriented development

0:17:33which has come before this esteemed

0:17:34council

0:17:35at the open house at hana gardens i also

0:17:38asked a lot of questions of everyone

0:17:40there and the response that i got back

0:17:42was oh don't worry nothing has been

0:17:44decided yet well when a bunch of people

0:17:47in suits tell me not to worry about

0:17:49something guess what i worry i start to

0:17:52worry

0:17:53and if nothing has been decided yet then

0:17:55to me that means that now is the perfect

0:17:57time to make sure that whatever decision

0:17:59we do make is one that supports the

0:18:02people of this community especially

0:18:04those who use bart on a daily basis

0:18:07most of the people that i reach out to

0:18:09don't know that bart wants to take away

0:18:11all 750 parking spots that are used

0:18:15every single business day by people and

0:18:18full by eight o'clock i might add

0:18:20they don't know that bart plans to build

0:18:22six to eight stories of housing without

0:18:25any parking for those new residents of

0:18:27our community

0:18:29they wonder

0:18:30the people that i speak to what we're

0:18:32supposed to do how we're going to get to

0:18:34bart what's going to happen to our

0:18:36neighborhood when those 750 people drive

0:18:39around and around the block looking for

0:18:41parking which is one of the options that

0:18:44was suggested to me at the october third

0:18:46meeting by someone that works for the

0:18:48city of el cerrito that all of those

0:18:50people should just park on the street

0:18:52because apparently there's too much

0:18:54available parking as it stands

0:18:56and the conflicting message that i got

0:18:58was oh we're also going to enforce the

0:19:01hourly limit so no one is going to park

0:19:03in front of your house i don't know how

0:19:05those two ideas will work together

0:19:07the third thing i heard was that we were

0:19:09going to switch to demand-based parking

0:19:11which is going to mean that we will pay

0:19:14approximately 15 to 18 a day for parking

0:19:17which is now three dollars a day

0:19:20none of those options serve the

0:19:22community of el cerrito none of them

0:19:24serve us the taxpayers who have paid for

0:19:26bart all of these years and have voted

0:19:28in all of the hikes and raises for bart

0:19:31payments

0:19:32and if you want to reduce the net amount

0:19:34of miles driven by folks in el cerrito

0:19:38let us just park at bart and use public

0:19:41transit and try to be the good citizens

0:19:43that we're trying to be by using public

0:19:45transit

0:19:46in closing i want to ask you to keep

0:19:48this process transparent

0:19:50please take your time and involve the

0:19:52community in making decisions on this

0:19:54very important subject

0:19:56thank you

0:19:57thank you

0:19:58the next speaker is al miller please

0:20:00hold your applause thank you followed by

0:20:02ann levine

0:20:04good evening mayor council members i'm

0:20:07al miller i live in el cerrito

0:20:10a little over 11 and a half years ago i

0:20:13sat in a council meeting

0:20:16and heard a report from an organization

0:20:18named kids for the bay a watershed

0:20:21management environmental non-profit

0:20:24that the city had funded to take their

0:20:27lessons into the elementary school in el

0:20:30cerrito

0:20:31i thought one of the things that they

0:20:34said that that's something that steej

0:20:36could use and get involved in

0:20:39so ten years ago we funded our first

0:20:42program i think it was at fairmont

0:20:46since that time we've had a 10-year

0:20:50program with them

0:20:52over 500 elementary school students over

0:20:5630 elementary school teachers have

0:20:58benefited from the program

0:21:01when we were studying it at our board

0:21:04before we decided to support them we

0:21:06found that they did not include

0:21:08wastewater in their watershed management

0:21:12so we had a short discussion and they

0:21:14readily agreed to

0:21:17incorporate wastewater functions like

0:21:19fats oil and grease and wipes and things

0:21:22that you'd have to know not to put down

0:21:25through your

0:21:27drains in your house

0:21:29but anyway

0:21:30we have enjoyed an association with them

0:21:33all that time and i'm very happy to let

0:21:35you know that at the end of september at

0:21:39their

0:21:40annual conference in southern california

0:21:43the california special districts

0:21:45association

0:21:47gave stage an award

0:21:49their community outreach award for the

0:21:51program and the partnership that we've

0:21:54established with kids for the bay

0:21:57so i don't remember who was on the

0:21:58council

0:22:0011 and a half years ago but whoever they

0:22:03were

0:22:04steed would like to thank them for

0:22:06enabling us to find out about this

0:22:08program that has been so beneficial to

0:22:11us and the kids in our elementary

0:22:13schools thank you

0:22:15thank you

0:22:17the next speaker is anne levine followed

0:22:19by dee hubbard

0:22:26my name is anne levine i'm a resident of

0:22:28el cerrito and uh hello to everybody in

0:22:31the council mayor

0:22:33i'm also here to talk about bart and

0:22:36bart parking i think it's both a safety

0:22:39an access and a fairness issue

0:22:44when i arrive back

0:22:45late in the evening from san francisco

0:22:48i am not inclined to walk

0:22:51a mile to my house

0:22:52in the dark so having my car nearby

0:22:56feels a lot safer

0:22:59for access

0:23:01particularly people with limited

0:23:03mobility or people with

0:23:05multiple children in their car to drive

0:23:09around the neighborhood and try to find

0:23:10a parking space that then allows you to

0:23:13actually get to the bar

0:23:15is going to be difficult and it's also

0:23:17unfair to the residents of that area to

0:23:20have cars cruising around looking for

0:23:22parking increasing pollution and noise

0:23:24so i hope that you will take time

0:23:27and use all of your

0:23:29strength and pressure to get bart to

0:23:33actually include parking both for us in

0:23:36from the community from other commuters

0:23:39who come to el cerrito to take part and

0:23:42for the people who are going to be

0:23:43living on the new buildings around that

0:23:46area thank you

0:23:48thank you

0:23:49the next speaker is is dee hubbard

0:23:51followed by betty akasich

0:23:59yes uh don hubbard from el cerrito

0:24:03and i'm just a little confused about

0:24:06these letters we've been getting about

0:24:09fire abatement this last one we got

0:24:13august 29 says that

0:24:17tonight

0:24:18we're going to hear how much we're going

0:24:20to get charged for

0:24:22the

0:24:24removal they say it could be five

0:24:26thousand dollars

0:24:30i don't know what's going on i i never

0:24:32heard anything from anybody

0:24:35just got these threatening letters

0:24:37and uh

0:24:39it doesn't seem right to me

0:24:43i don't know how legal this is to tell

0:24:45people that

0:24:48you're going to come

0:24:50to their property

0:24:52remove things and then charge them

0:24:55because of some

0:24:57alleged fire danger

0:25:01as far as i could see

0:25:03there hasn't been many fires around here

0:25:06the ones that were

0:25:07here were either

0:25:09homeless camps

0:25:11uh

0:25:14e related

0:25:16uh causes other than a bush or a tree

0:25:21um

0:25:24i don't know how legal all this is

0:25:26excuse me what is your address what what

0:25:28is your address

0:25:30uh

0:25:31it's a [address removed]

0:25:39it's not on our list for tonight well

0:25:41we've been getting all these letters

0:25:43threatening us since may

0:25:45now i don't see any real you clean up

0:25:47your property what

0:25:48did you clean up the weeds and stuff off

0:25:50of your product i've been you know we've

0:25:52been taking care of it all along but we

0:25:55got our first letters shortly after a

0:25:57long period of rain if you'd like this

0:26:00thing had grown a lot okay um so you're

0:26:02not on our list for tonight

0:26:04um and

0:26:06we can have someone from our staff

0:26:08contact you if you could leave your

0:26:10address for us please

0:26:12okay because uh

0:26:14i don't know what's going on but i i

0:26:16just

0:26:17i'm appalled at this behavior i don't

0:26:20see how

0:26:21anybody you know who has uh you know

0:26:24thinks that they can they have the right

0:26:25to do this

0:26:27especially when there's no problem

0:26:29you know as far as i can see there is no

0:26:31problem

0:26:32and like i say we've done everything we

0:26:35can to clean everything up but all we've

0:26:38gotten is sort of threatening letters

0:26:40okay

0:26:41and nobody's talked to us nobody called

0:26:44they just said you've been declared

0:26:47you know a public nuisance

0:26:50i just don't get it really it's just

0:26:52obscene as far as i'm concerned

0:26:55and uh

0:26:56i don't think it's legal

0:26:58okay

0:27:01sir if you could write down your address

0:27:02for me and a contact number i can

0:27:05pass that along and make sure that you

0:27:06get contacted by our fire department

0:27:09thank you are there any other speakers

0:27:11uh we have one final speaker buddy

0:27:13akasic

0:27:23good evening buddy akasic honor gardens

0:27:25resident

0:27:26um i'm really concerned about the

0:27:29bart you know is it the bart

0:27:32macarthur station and i don't know you

0:27:35know

0:27:35if if bart is going to begin to act as

0:27:39developers

0:27:40you know i guess if you're a part you go

0:27:43why do we need these external we can we

0:27:45can

0:27:46build these buildings

0:27:47and

0:27:48i i'm operating a little bit from

0:27:50ignorance here there was a giant meeting

0:27:52last thursday night a bart was in

0:27:54haunted gardens and well you should have

0:27:56gone to that one but i had tickets for

0:27:58john prine at the fox oakland theater

0:28:00that night and i just i had a choice to

0:28:03make and i have a tiny issue

0:28:06admittedly this is small

0:28:08but why do we have these newspaper racks

0:28:12mercury news you know east bay this is

0:28:14not

0:28:14there's never any newspaper so we got

0:28:16these big ugly racks in the middle of

0:28:18the sidewalk they're not they don't help

0:28:20the community el cerrito can't be proud

0:28:22of that

0:28:24so i mean it's i i guess it's smaller

0:28:26than most of everything else that's

0:28:28being presented but you know there was

0:28:30this issue in the um

0:28:32san pablo master plan about um

0:28:35under utilized what what's

0:28:38these

0:28:39newspaper boxes are not only

0:28:41underutilized they're not utilized at

0:28:42all so i i i can't argue though it is

0:28:46it's infested with rats and it's going

0:28:47to hurt kids i mean i don't know

0:28:49anything about that but it's ugly

0:28:52and and i want to live in el cerrito

0:28:55that i can be proud of

0:28:57so i can't be proud of those boxes on

0:28:59the sidewalk can we just get rid of

0:29:00those thank you very much

0:29:03thank you

0:29:04that concludes the speakers at this time

0:29:06all right

0:29:08thank you and next we'll move on to the

0:29:10adoption of the consent calendar

0:29:13a shelter in place

0:29:15education day proclamation b cash and

0:29:18investments report for quarter ending

0:29:20september 30th 2019

0:29:23c

0:29:24commission

0:29:25on aging appointment d

0:29:28urban forest committee re-appointment

0:29:30and e-authorization to submit sb2 grant

0:29:34application

0:29:38i moved the uh to approve the consent

0:29:40calendar consisting of items eight four

0:29:42a through four e

0:29:44second

0:29:45i have a motion by lyman a second by

0:29:47abelson all in favor aye all right

0:29:50those opposed

0:29:52motion carries

0:29:57next we have our presentations for the

0:29:59evening first we have a presentation on

0:30:02the 2020 census

0:30:04complete count

0:30:07please come forward thank you

0:30:22four on this side

0:30:23oh yeah we've got five we have five

0:30:29records

0:30:31you have mine okay

0:30:33oh did i not give you enough yeah oh at

0:30:36the end i'll give you this one yeah as

0:30:37long as i have one for the record please

0:30:38okay thank you so much hi everyone my

0:30:40name is darlene rio strapkin and i am a

0:30:43partnership partnership specialist with

0:30:45the us census

0:30:46working actually focusing on west county

0:30:49and my colleague matt

0:30:50matt lardner who is i'm working with

0:30:52contra costa county as their census

0:30:54outreach coordinator yeah and just to

0:30:56give you a little bit of context um

0:30:58madam mayor and his team council members

0:31:00staff and citizens i am a resident of

0:31:03richmond heights of unincorporated

0:31:05richmond heights for 22 years every 10

0:31:07years somebody has the notion in my

0:31:09neighborhood that we should be

0:31:10incorporated into el cerrito

0:31:12so i don't know why that always comes up

0:31:13but that's the way it is um so

0:31:16what do you think

0:31:17what do you think i don't think you guys

0:31:19want us

0:31:21does it coincide with the senses well

0:31:22consider it if you put it out there

0:31:24again

0:31:25does it coincide with the census

0:31:27well it happens every 10 years that this

0:31:30comes up in the neighborhood but the the

0:31:32census is a federal government operation

0:31:34but the county of the people is truly a

0:31:36local concern um so um we're here to

0:31:39talk to you a little bit about it oh i

0:31:41can go here to click it to the next one

0:31:43so we want to ensure that um that that

0:31:46everyone is counted once um only once

0:31:49and in the right place

0:31:51and as you know the census is in the

0:31:53constitution it's central to our

0:31:55democracy to make sure that everybody is

0:31:58counted this

0:31:59the first census happened in 1790 and

0:32:02this is going to be the 24th census

0:32:04that is going to occur um in 2020 on

0:32:08april 1st

0:32:10so why is the census important um it's

0:32:12all about representation

0:32:14we want to make sure that that

0:32:17that california maintains its number of

0:32:19representatives that we have in this in

0:32:21the state it also

0:32:23population will also impact how many

0:32:25city council members every city has so

0:32:27in every way the census data is how a

0:32:29lot of representation is decided it's

0:32:32about funding

0:32:33more than 675 million billion dollars in

0:32:36federal funding is decided every single

0:32:38state and in contra costa county you'll

0:32:41hear in a little bit how how would that

0:32:42impact central contra costa county

0:32:45um i think alone in in california you'll

0:32:48see in your packets that that's about

0:32:49115 billion dollars every single year

0:32:52that is decided based on census data

0:32:55so it decides policy it's all about the

0:32:58planning it decides whether a grocery

0:32:59store is coming into or into your

0:33:01neighborhood bed soft census data so i

0:33:02think you you guys know the importance

0:33:05of the census

0:33:07the key messages about the census is

0:33:09that it's easy

0:33:10it will be a short census questionnaire

0:33:12um it takes about 10 minutes to complain

0:33:15to complete this will be the first

0:33:17census ever that instead of how many of

0:33:19you have remembered participating in the

0:33:20census before it's always been a form

0:33:23that you feel that you complete this

0:33:25will be the first census that will

0:33:26actually be online

0:33:28so it will be automated um so we

0:33:30anticipate that about 75 of the

0:33:32population will answer it online this

0:33:34time around either in in the

0:33:37in their home on their phone

0:33:39um in libraries um but pretty much on

0:33:41the internet

0:33:43we do want to mention that it's easy but

0:33:45we do want to mention that it's safe

0:33:47that the census the data is not shared

0:33:49with anyone that is strictly

0:33:51confidential

0:33:53all the census workers are are sworn to

0:33:56an oath to protect the confidentiality

0:33:58of the data

0:33:59i mean there is some distrust of

0:34:00government so we need to always reassure

0:34:02that information is not going to be

0:34:04shared with homeland security or with

0:34:06your landlord um even we know that

0:34:09nowadays one of the issues is a lot of

0:34:10people are a lot of people are living in

0:34:12households that is going to be a little

0:34:14bit of an extra task to count because a

0:34:17lot of people are

0:34:18living maybe multiple households or

0:34:20people are couch surfing so that's a lot

0:34:22of the work of the census is to make

0:34:23sure that we count every single person

0:34:25we know that it's important i've already

0:34:27been mentioning about how it'll

0:34:28determine our political representation

0:34:30and the funding for our roads for school

0:34:32lunches um for all sorts of community

0:34:35improvements so one of the the roles

0:34:37that we have at the census is trying to

0:34:38make sure right now

0:34:40in before the census which is about six

0:34:42months away is to make sure that we're

0:34:44reaching out to each and every single

0:34:46community organization

0:34:48that that and developing trusted

0:34:50messengers to send the message that it's

0:34:52okay

0:34:53to um to sign up for the census and that

0:34:56every single person should want to be

0:34:58counted and be participate in the census

0:35:00so examples i think again you know the

0:35:02transportation children um children are

0:35:05a an area that is always under counted

0:35:08um

0:35:09that we found that in the last census we

0:35:11undercounted by 10

0:35:13so this time we're putting a major

0:35:14emphasis on trying to count the school

0:35:16the children in schools

0:35:18trying to make sure that folks

0:35:20understand that that the resources that

0:35:23they participate in a lot of it has to

0:35:25do with making sure that that that they

0:35:28participate in the census um so census

0:35:30by the numbers you want to talk a little

0:35:32bit about this matt i'm going to turn it

0:35:33over to you for a second so you can talk

0:35:34about the issues of contracts accounting

0:35:37sure i will talk about that

0:35:39uh so

0:35:40as the slide says contra costa county

0:35:42receives 42 percent of its revenue from

0:35:44federal and state so it's very important

0:35:46that we keep that revenue in the county

0:35:48um

0:35:49we receive uh california receives i

0:35:50think you'd mention this to about 76

0:35:52billion in federal funding it's actually

0:35:54more yeah

0:35:55so that that's understated okay so we're

0:35:57gonna fix that at the county

0:35:59um

0:36:00and each person not counted is loss of

0:36:02one thousand to two thousand in state

0:36:04and federal funding per year so that's

0:36:05why it's so important that we count

0:36:06everyone because one just missing one

0:36:08person can lead up to as you see one

0:36:10thousand dollars um

0:36:1372 percent of california's population uh

0:36:16is under counted during the census as uh

0:36:18darlene was mentioning and so we're

0:36:20really focused on children and other

0:36:23hard to count communities that we'll

0:36:24talk about later um to make sure that

0:36:25we're reaching those communities

0:36:28um and we have just under 20 peop

0:36:31uh

0:36:32people in contra costa county living in

0:36:35what we call hard to count census tract

0:36:37so these are census tracts that are

0:36:38particularly hard to count in the census

0:36:41and uh contra costa county under counts

0:36:43by five percent if we do that we'll lose

0:36:45500 million to 1.1 billion over 10 years

0:36:49so again we can't understate enough how

0:36:51much funding is important in the census

0:36:52um so the barriers to a complete count

0:36:55is going to be let me talk a little bit

0:36:57about the heart account population which

0:36:58are children under five we've already

0:37:00mentioned that um we're really focusing

0:37:02on folks living in poverty

0:37:04a big push this year is how we're gonna

0:37:07count folks living and that are

0:37:09experiencing homelessness and we're

0:37:10working on special dates to work on the

0:37:14and identifying we've actually had some

0:37:16canvassing that's been going on right

0:37:17now to not only identify

0:37:20accessory dwellings but to also identify

0:37:22where people are living where people are

0:37:24hanging out so to speak so that we can

0:37:26make sure working with the with the

0:37:28homelessness council to make sure that

0:37:30we count each and every single person

0:37:33and make sure that those resources exist

0:37:35but some of the other heart accounts are

0:37:36people who distrust government

0:37:38a lot of the undocumented population

0:37:41i speak i'm a native spanish speaker so

0:37:43i've been working a lot in the latino

0:37:44community to make sure that we work with

0:37:46organizations to make sure that we send

0:37:48out a word the the word that it's okay

0:37:50to be counted that we encourage people

0:37:52to be counted because they may not be

0:37:54able to vote but they can be counted and

0:37:57that if they're living in this country

0:37:58breathing working raising children they

0:38:01all count and that they and that we want

0:38:04it and and sending that that message

0:38:06that it's okay to be counted and that

0:38:08we're going to be looking to them to be

0:38:09counted so that we can make sure we have

0:38:11an accurate account and that they

0:38:12receive the

0:38:13the um the resources that they're

0:38:15entitled to so you see some of the other

0:38:17groups that are hard to count seniors

0:38:19veterans again we're going to

0:38:21faith-based organizations talking to

0:38:24them even about how in a faith-based

0:38:26organization one of our messages that we

0:38:28we remind them of the story that when

0:38:29joseph and mary were going to give birth

0:38:32to jesus

0:38:33they were going to the census to

0:38:35complete the census so um that typically

0:38:38that story rings well when we try to

0:38:40explain what the census is all about as

0:38:42we create awareness of why the census is

0:38:45important

0:38:46i'll go back to the the distrust of

0:38:48government is something that we're

0:38:49working out on

0:38:50thankfully the citizenship question will

0:38:52not be there but still we're rebuilding

0:38:55the the trust that that we may have lost

0:38:57during that period when that was in the

0:38:59news a lot

0:39:00so uh what else um heart account

0:39:03population i think this is important for

0:39:05you to be aware of that

0:39:07we're focusing on in san pablo and

0:39:09richmond the two neighbor neighborhoods

0:39:11here close to you

0:39:12we find that in san pablo 72 have been

0:39:15hard to count we keep like a gis a

0:39:18program on the internet that tells us

0:39:20where we know the census tracts that are

0:39:22hard to count and what we're going to

0:39:24find that's going to happen

0:39:25is that after april 1st which is when we

0:39:27take a snapshot or a family portrait of

0:39:29the of the united states that's our

0:39:31that's census day um we're going to be

0:39:34sending out reminders to the community

0:39:36like four to five mailings every single

0:39:40address will receive a card asking

0:39:43people to sign up for the census either

0:39:46in person either by mail either on the

0:39:48internet giving people the opportunity

0:39:50in 12 different languages to respond to

0:39:52the census

0:39:54and actually we'll even have visual

0:39:55guides

0:39:56for up to 58 languages to make sure that

0:39:59people have an opportunity to respond to

0:40:01the census in their language that they

0:40:03are the most comfortable in but what

0:40:06we're going to find is uh even after

0:40:08we've sent all of these many reminders

0:40:10come may and june is where

0:40:13when we're going to be actually having

0:40:14the traditional census taker that comes

0:40:16and knocks on the door

0:40:18because a lot of people and it's

0:40:20probably folks in san pablo in richmond

0:40:23pittsburgh antioch you can see the

0:40:24numbers that we're going to need to go

0:40:26out to to remind them that we need them

0:40:28to sign up and that's one of the

0:40:30messages that i'm trying to send to a

0:40:31lot of our community now is please

0:40:33register in april and you will not have

0:40:35to

0:40:36witness the enumerator that comes to

0:40:38your door asking you to respond to the

0:40:40census but again making them feel

0:40:42comfortable that even if that enumerator

0:40:44comes through the door they don't need

0:40:45to fear that person that that person

0:40:47means well because we're trying to make

0:40:48sure we get an accurate count

0:40:50um do you want to keep on going here

0:40:53from here okay i will now speak to some

0:40:55of the the county outreach outreach

0:40:58strategy goals so firstly we really want

0:41:00to achieve a self-response rate of at

0:41:02least 76.9 percent um this is according

0:41:05to the us census bureau so we really

0:41:07want people to respond to the census

0:41:09themselves online via the form on phone

0:41:12before an enumerator comes to knock on

0:41:13their door essentially

0:41:15um again we really want to increase

0:41:16participation in hard to count

0:41:17communities and we've laid out some more

0:41:19specifics about that for you

0:41:20um we're collaborating with the u.s

0:41:22census bureau both from you know the all

0:41:25the way up to again regionally with

0:41:27amazing people like darlene and we are

0:41:29also working with the regional acbo

0:41:32which is the united way bay area

0:41:34and then of course we're working with

0:41:36contra costa cities like el cerrito and

0:41:38special districts and then of course

0:41:39working more at the grassroots level

0:41:41with community organizations to really

0:41:43effectively tailor those communications

0:41:45to each community in a way that's

0:41:47effective

0:41:48and then overall we really want to help

0:41:50build capacity and strengthen our

0:41:52communities and our organizations while

0:41:54we're doing this work with the census

0:41:55because everything we do with the senses

0:41:57is going to impact their work

0:42:00so i'll talk a little bit about the

0:42:01partners that we're working with again

0:42:03the us census bureau who is responsible

0:42:04for the actual count um the state of

0:42:06california has budgeted over 180 million

0:42:09dollars for the census and they're

0:42:11giving money to counties and to cbos

0:42:13really to do this statewide outreach

0:42:16contracts and then again we have the

0:42:18regional community based organization

0:42:20for the bay area that's united way bay

0:42:22area they're looking at working across

0:42:25seven counties in the bay area and so

0:42:27they're really helping to disseminate

0:42:28the message um in a streamlined way

0:42:31throughout the bay area counties and

0:42:32then we have the contra costa county and

0:42:34uh we've received funding in the state i

0:42:36think it's about don't quote me on this

0:42:37i'm sorry 360 000 i could be wrong for

0:42:40for the record uh uh we're also uh

0:42:43working with trusted messengers and we

0:42:45have some program ideas that we're gonna

0:42:48be presenting to our steering committee

0:42:49soon so um please keep in touch with us

0:42:52about those information to really get

0:42:54more individual community members

0:42:56involved and then we the county itself

0:42:58has committed 350 thousand dollars to um

0:43:02outreach grant funding and i'll talk

0:43:03about that a little bit more uh in a

0:43:05second

0:43:06um

0:43:10yeah um

0:43:12i think you could just keep going uh

0:43:14yeah i would go back oh wait no i should

0:43:16talk about this sorry

0:43:18so we uh this is just kind of like a

0:43:22complicated timeline honestly um we are

0:43:24currently in the implementation plan so

0:43:26we're we're right on schedule um we're

0:43:29kind of coming towards the end of that

0:43:30and starting to work towards the the

0:43:31training getting ready to train um

0:43:34regionally and and you know

0:43:36educate people about uh our

0:43:38communication strategy and outreach

0:43:39strategy um and get the boots on the

0:43:41ground working um in the new year

0:43:44uh so

0:43:45you know we're

0:43:47right on track and we're just really

0:43:48gearing up for the boots on the ground

0:43:50getting ready for april 1st 2020.

0:43:55oh i can talk about this too

0:43:56so we're utilizing a number of ways to

0:43:59outreach one of the main ones is again

0:44:01messaging partners so people in

0:44:03community organizations as well as

0:44:04community members who can really help us

0:44:06reach those people you know the homeless

0:44:08community and and

0:44:10other communities as we're talking about

0:44:12the latinx community who may have some

0:44:13just trust the government to really

0:44:15explain to them and educate them about

0:44:17the census and why it's so important

0:44:19for everyone to fill it out we're going

0:44:21to have what we are called questionnaire

0:44:23assistance centers and questionnaire

0:44:25action kiosks and they're also known as

0:44:27quacks you'll hear them quacks

0:44:30they are basically local government

0:44:33offices or community centers like

0:44:34libraries where there'll be a physical

0:44:36space maybe with hopefully with a

0:44:38computer where people can literally fill

0:44:39out the census um a questionnaire

0:44:42assistance center will have a physical

0:44:43person to staff

0:44:45that could help

0:44:47hopefully with language depending on who

0:44:49we get through those

0:44:52areas and then the questionnaire action

0:44:54kiosks will just have

0:44:55resources without a physical person

0:44:58and we're working with other

0:44:59organizations as well to hopefully have

0:45:01quacks in some community centers as i'm

0:45:03talking about that and then we also have

0:45:06a speaker's bureau where if you're

0:45:08interested you know if a city like el

0:45:10cerrito or an organization or maybe just

0:45:13a community group of some kind a

0:45:14neighborhood council is interested in

0:45:16having someone from the county or the

0:45:18census come to talk about what's

0:45:21happening and what what it means to the

0:45:22county they can sign up on our website

0:45:25coco census.org everyone check it out

0:45:27please and um they can request a speaker

0:45:29and and we will come and send someone to

0:45:31talk for you and i can add to that that

0:45:33we have partnership specialists that

0:45:35speak all the different languages

0:45:36because we've got chinese and japanese

0:45:38and pretty much most of the languages

0:45:40covered i'm spanish to make sure that we

0:45:42have partnership specialists that can

0:45:44come and address groups in any language

0:45:46that's needed most of the languages

0:45:49to make sure that people learned about

0:45:51the census in in their own native

0:45:53language um the other thing i i wanted

0:45:55to mention is jobs in in the last flyer

0:45:57in

0:45:58in the package that i've given to you um

0:46:00we do the census has a lot of jobs and

0:46:03they really are promoting to make sure

0:46:05that if people want flex have flexible

0:46:07hours um part time they pay 25 to 30 an

0:46:11hour we really are trying to hire from

0:46:13the community

0:46:14to go knocking when we do the

0:46:16enumerating especially from people from

0:46:18their own neighborhood so that they they

0:46:20are the ones that go out and do a lot of

0:46:22it so we're going to be you know we pay

0:46:24the training

0:46:25so

0:46:26part-time flexible weekends weekdays

0:46:29whatever folks need

0:46:31it's a perfect job for people who are

0:46:33retired and or students um they just

0:46:36have to be over 18 years of age and be a

0:46:39us citizen in order to apply

0:46:46uh so yeah so

0:46:48what do we do

0:46:50okay so yeah let me talk a little bit

0:46:52about

0:46:53this uh

0:46:54so the board of supervisors has at the

0:46:56county level has approved 350 000 to

0:46:58local organizations we have received i

0:47:01think it was actually 58 applications so

0:47:03that's incorrect um we are working now

0:47:06to

0:47:07um decide upon the allocation of funds

0:47:09for those grants and we'll have more

0:47:10information about that towards the end

0:47:12of october i believe

0:47:14um so again that money will be going

0:47:16towards community organizations who can

0:47:18help us with our outreach strategy and

0:47:20really tailoring these messages across

0:47:22communities and making sure that their

0:47:23clients their community members are

0:47:24really aware of the census and know how

0:47:27to take it and know where they can go

0:47:28for information and resources as well as

0:47:30answer their questions and concerns

0:47:32um and so the biggest question probably

0:47:36for all of you is what can you do so

0:47:38there's a lot you could do thankfully

0:47:40you could appoint a council member or a

0:47:42city staff member as a point of contact

0:47:44to the contra costa county census 2020

0:47:48complete count committee if you can say

0:47:50that five times fast i'll give you the

0:47:52price um you could pass a resolution i

0:47:55think we've sent you a

0:47:57a framework resolution if not i will

0:48:00follow up um to support the census 2020.

0:48:03please you can incorporate census info

0:48:05on your newsletters especially like we

0:48:06were talking about jobs it's going to be

0:48:07really important that we get local

0:48:09community people in these jobs knocking

0:48:11on doors because they'll know where to

0:48:12go and and and you know the types of

0:48:15people that they're going to be talking

0:48:16to

0:48:17social media posts would be great

0:48:20you could provide facilities for

0:48:21meetings that we have we're going to

0:48:23have regional workshops all throughout

0:48:24the county and west county so maybe if

0:48:26you want to you know help us have a

0:48:28facility for our west county regional

0:48:30workshop that would be great

0:48:32another one great way would be to help

0:48:34us identify community messengers people

0:48:36within the el cerrito community who you

0:48:38think would be really great at reaching

0:48:40out and and being ambassadors to the

0:48:42census at the really grassroots level if

0:48:45there's someone anyone here honestly if

0:48:48there's at someone you know you think

0:48:49would be great have them reach out to us

0:48:52they can email info coco census.org and

0:48:55oh there's a slide with more contact

0:48:57information

0:48:58and if you're planning to do your own

0:49:00grant kind of funding situation we would

0:49:03love to help you at the county level we

0:49:04don't want you to reinvent the wheel

0:49:06we've already had to do that ourselves i

0:49:08suppose and so uh we have a lot of

0:49:11framework in in place for that and if

0:49:13that's something you would be interested

0:49:14at the city level we would definitely

0:49:15love to help

0:49:18another thing you could do is to get

0:49:20ready for census day is to install

0:49:21quacks in your own public libraries and

0:49:24city buildings such as city hall right

0:49:25here where people can again kind of

0:49:27physically have a space to come a public

0:49:29space to come and fill out the census

0:49:31this would be especially important for

0:49:33people who may not have internet access

0:49:35at their homes or have limited internet

0:49:37access or limited digital literacy

0:49:39skills um you could hold a public event

0:49:42and civic engagement about the 20s

0:49:44of 2020 census and again provide

0:49:46facilities

0:49:48um okay so i i think it said in my notes

0:49:51that i was supposed to literally tell

0:49:52everyone to take out their phones and

0:49:54sign up to be a partner at coco

0:49:55census.org

0:49:57that way you can get more information

0:49:59from us and more information about our

0:50:00meetings uh and events and and what's

0:50:03going on and our grantees

0:50:05so please be a partner with us at coco

0:50:07census.org

0:50:10and

0:50:11then we have some yes so this is a we

0:50:13have some contact this is the contra

0:50:16costa county staff that's working on the

0:50:18census and i'll let i know darlene you

0:50:20have some i give it they hit my car okay

0:50:22they hit your car great

0:50:23uh yes so if there's any questions or

0:50:26anything we are here to answer

0:50:28okay

0:50:29councilmember quinto thank you for your

0:50:31uh

0:50:32update on the census and i know on the

0:50:34mayor's conference uh

0:50:37supervisor burgess from east county is

0:50:39leading

0:50:40back here in the county so i appreciate

0:50:43your work here and being here in el

0:50:45cerrito on that

0:50:46i remember the 2010 census and

0:50:51looking at that and knowing that for as

0:50:54an asian american

0:50:56i know we have multi-generation uh

0:50:59generational families here

0:51:01not as much as before when i was growing

0:51:03up here but we still do

0:51:05have that

0:51:07so i want to make sure that

0:51:09our seniors our grandparents and great

0:51:11grandparents are counted uh even the

0:51:14ones that that go back and forth to

0:51:17asia

0:51:18because we have a lot of

0:51:21grandparents that go back and forth and

0:51:23in the country and their residents here

0:51:25as well

0:51:27also my question uh to you was

0:51:30they counted the lgbt community before

0:51:33and federal government they don't they

0:51:35they want to not uh count the lgbt

0:51:38community

0:51:40are the lgbt community

0:51:42members here in el cerrito will they be

0:51:44counted

0:51:46um go ahead but we know we have the

0:51:48partnership specialist benson who's

0:51:50working with the lgbtq community and

0:51:52reaching out um and then about the

0:51:54questions that's been added this year on

0:51:56the sense on the census yeah i mean

0:51:58well as an lgbtq identified person i can

0:52:00speak to this a little bit um

0:52:03i'll say that i i know that that was

0:52:05originally that there was some some news

0:52:08that there might be a sexual orientation

0:52:10gender identity soji questions on the

0:52:13census and then it was taken away i

0:52:15don't know if it was official but um

0:52:16only i think the question that's on

0:52:18there this year that's different though

0:52:19is that it asks is asking um

0:52:22people's marital status and if your

0:52:24partner is a man or a woman a woman so

0:52:27it's letting people identify themselves

0:52:29in a same-sex relationship but i think

0:52:31the gender identity of that letting

0:52:33people put that they were questionable

0:52:35you have to

0:52:36mark male or female yes yeah and this is

0:52:38definitely something that we're worried

0:52:39about and that's why lgbtq people not

0:52:42only why but one of the biggest reasons

0:52:43why they're considered hard to count

0:52:44because they're dis

0:52:46enfranchised by the scientists in that

0:52:48sense and and not wanting to fill out

0:52:50the binary um i could say that i've i've

0:52:53participated in some lgbtq census

0:52:55subcommittees at the in alameda county

0:52:58um

0:52:59and they

0:53:00you know that's a big question about you

0:53:02know how do they

0:53:04fill out this question when it goes

0:53:05against their identity it's not tech you

0:53:08don't technically have to

0:53:10this is where we might differ but you

0:53:12don't technically have to answer every

0:53:13question you know so that they could

0:53:14just not answer that one question and

0:53:15their senses would still be counted as

0:53:17how i understand it

0:53:18it could be i mean i think we try to get

0:53:20everybody we want them to answer all 10

0:53:22questions

0:53:23but and then you risk that maybe you

0:53:25might have somebody following up with

0:53:27you but i think that that if most of the

0:53:30questions are answered and they can you

0:53:31know they may have

0:53:33they may leave it open to interpretation

0:53:35thank you but i think on the senior

0:53:37issue gabriel i do want to mention that

0:53:40if you can get me a

0:53:41contact with the senior center

0:53:43in fact i just went to a senior town

0:53:45hall meeting a few weeks ago i know that

0:53:46right now there's a few of them we went

0:53:48to one in san pablo but we're more than

0:53:50happy to go to the el cerrito senior

0:53:51center and give a presentation if one of

0:53:53you are able to arrange that i'd be we'd

0:53:55be happy to come and and for any of the

0:53:58groups that you think of oh this would

0:53:59be a good presentation for this group

0:54:01we'd be more than happy between us to

0:54:03arrange somebody to come and speak to to

0:54:05those groups okay we have one of the

0:54:06most diverse asian american community

0:54:09here

0:54:10uh in the east bay and and

0:54:13with the census will it do will will it

0:54:16uh categorize each

0:54:19uh

0:54:20asian population like tibetan and

0:54:24taiwanese or mainland uh mainland

0:54:27chinese-american and

0:54:29you know korean or are we all going to

0:54:31be put in

0:54:34as i visualize the census the question

0:54:37it asks you of what

0:54:39what how would you identify as and it'll

0:54:41say asian and it'll say from what and

0:54:43then it'll let you answer

0:54:45what group you consider yourself in

0:54:48identify what asian is so i think it is

0:54:50trying to be a little bit more more

0:54:52specific to give people an opportunity

0:54:54to iden to self-identify okay so with

0:54:57looking at um

0:54:59our asian population according to the

0:55:01last census they said that the asian

0:55:04american population was a little over or

0:55:07close to 28 percent i think it's much

0:55:10much more now maybe 35 percent or more

0:55:13now so uh uh so

0:55:15it's important that we get uh

0:55:18a correct count on that so uh i'm hoping

0:55:21all my neighbors will participate on

0:55:22this

0:55:23because it is very very important for

0:55:25our community absolutely thank you thank

0:55:27you

0:55:29you have any questions uh yes i did um

0:55:33uh one of the things that i've heard

0:55:35complaints about is the identification

0:55:37or lack thereof

0:55:39of uh people with disabilities

0:55:42and i thought i just heard you say

0:55:44there's only ten questions

0:55:46that is correct so if there's

0:55:49if there's only 10 questions on the

0:55:51whole thing

0:55:52how can there be much

0:55:55uh

0:55:56identification at all

0:56:00um well the census is is it you know

0:56:02there's a there's different surveys um

0:56:04remember the the u.s census bureau

0:56:07on years when it's not completing the

0:56:08census which is more to count each and

0:56:10every single person in the united states

0:56:13has the american community survey and

0:56:15several other surveys that may get more

0:56:17into depth into some other areas but for

0:56:20the census it only does 10 questions

0:56:22because

0:56:23as you can imagine it's an enormous

0:56:25effort to try to count each and every

0:56:26single person in the united states so it

0:56:28has to narrow down the number of

0:56:30questions to keep it easy to complete so

0:56:32what does it do in the area of

0:56:34disability

0:56:35i don't believe that it asks a question

0:56:37about disability i think that is handled

0:56:38with other surveys another part on other

0:56:41at other times

0:56:44because then what happens is that

0:56:46funding is is or is not

0:56:49um given out

0:56:52um again you know i you know what let me

0:56:54try to see if i can find out more

0:56:55information

0:56:57for you on that all i know is that maybe

0:56:59that might be another survey and during

0:57:00another year that it answers questions

0:57:02about disability but i don't believe a

0:57:04disability question is included on the

0:57:06on the on the decennial census

0:57:08i'm sorry to say

0:57:10but i will find out more information for

0:57:12you because that is a very good question

0:57:14of how then does it allocate funding i

0:57:16will find i'm going to get an answer to

0:57:18you on that okay one of the areas for

0:57:20example which i've

0:57:23heard a lot of concerns about is the you

0:57:25know funding for

0:57:27um

0:57:28students with disabilities

0:57:30uh is insignificant

0:57:34and

0:57:34you know if you're not even asking the

0:57:36question

0:57:37it'll

0:57:38never be significant

0:57:40your point is well taken so let me

0:57:42figure it let me find out a little bit

0:57:43of how that sort of information is

0:57:45compiled if and for through this

0:57:48decennial census okay and i'll get back

0:57:50to you

0:57:52council member fidelity yeah

0:57:55so thank you for your presentation while

0:57:57i was listening to it i was

0:57:59of course in my head saying how can our

0:58:01city help you and you had a great list

0:58:03two

0:58:04two pages of things that we can do so

0:58:06i'm assuming that each city you deal

0:58:08with a

0:58:09help would be to have an uh a contact

0:58:11person

0:58:12yeah and i want to ask our city staff

0:58:15will we be appointing uh or will it be

0:58:17you absolutely you can start with me but

0:58:19our community development department has

0:58:21already been working with census um so

0:58:23we will be we will be happy to help

0:58:25promote the census in whatever way we

0:58:27can lots of different lots of different

0:58:29things that we can do and ideas that we

0:58:30can bring here

0:58:31um can i ask what the status of the word

0:58:34citizenship is in the consensus

0:58:37the status of including that question

0:58:39right that got ruled down back in july

0:58:42by the courts by the courts uh-huh

0:58:44narrowly five to four but still so that

0:58:46will not be on there it will not be on

0:58:48conference by this president to continue

0:58:50that effort that we know of finally he

0:58:53called it a victory but he finally said

0:58:55that it wasn't going to be

0:58:57good

0:58:58um also we we our household my wife and

0:59:01i were contacted by um census on housing

0:59:04specifically

0:59:06already and

0:59:09for the u.s census and we filled

0:59:11something out and a real person a

0:59:13wonderful

0:59:14woman came to our house and was very

0:59:16courteous and wanted to follow up with

0:59:17more in

0:59:19is that

0:59:20happening already no see and i think

0:59:22that that's where it gets confusing um

0:59:24on the years when the census when we're

0:59:27not completing the decennial census

0:59:29there is sometimes other surveys this

0:59:32year

0:59:33but this year what may have been you may

0:59:34have gotten is the canvas scene that may

0:59:36have happened in august which was they

0:59:38were going around they have a master

0:59:40file

0:59:41and they're going around to try to see

0:59:43if anything has changed in the landscape

0:59:46um that will complement or change or

0:59:49change what what the what they already

0:59:51have as far as the master files so

0:59:53sometimes they're looking at accessory

0:59:55dwellings is what they're really and

0:59:56affordable housing was a key theme that

0:59:58they were asking so and that may be the

1:00:00case so that's what they were doing is

1:00:02that canvassing that that is on the

1:00:04timeline to try to um to complete make

1:00:07more round out a more robust master font

1:00:10so a whole separate effort than what

1:00:12will be happening next year um well

1:00:15again i don't know exactly which which

1:00:17particular survey that may have been but

1:00:18it may have been either the address

1:00:19canvassing or some other survey that the

1:00:21census is doing even when the sense on

1:00:25at other times and i think sometimes

1:00:26people confuse some of the surveys but i

1:00:28think what is different is that the the

1:00:30census

1:00:31um is only those 10 questions to every

1:00:34single person in the united states while

1:00:36the one that you may have been involved

1:00:38in may have been a random

1:00:40sampling of folks a different thank you

1:00:43thank you

1:00:46all all my questions have been asked to

1:00:47already okay

1:00:49um

1:00:50so i wanted to um

1:00:53thank you for

1:00:54for the work that you're doing and um to

1:00:56kind of add on to what

1:00:58councilmember quinto and council member

1:01:00abelson were talking about um in the

1:01:02last census

1:01:03i was able to

1:01:05put down my biracial identity as well as

1:01:07my husband's biracial identity and our

1:01:09son's tri-racial identity so

1:01:12i and and now we're going to add one

1:01:14more to this next sentence

1:01:16census

1:01:18um so i just wanted to thank you for

1:01:20that and i do i i can identify with what

1:01:22you were saying because sometimes when

1:01:24you feel like you are not being counted

1:01:27and your identity and how you define

1:01:29yourself so

1:01:30um hopefully it sounds like we have a

1:01:31little more work to do on that but i'm

1:01:33i'm i do appreciate the the efforts that

1:01:35have been made so far

1:01:38and then i'm

1:01:40i just wanted to echo

1:01:42what you had already said that we you

1:01:45know we obviously have a huge homeless

1:01:47population

1:01:49here in the state of california and i

1:01:51i'm

1:01:53very glad that you're aware of that and

1:01:55that you're taking measures to

1:01:57count

1:01:58all of those people as well because they

1:02:00need to be counted

1:02:02especially when it comes to hopefully

1:02:03providing more resources for them in the

1:02:05future

1:02:07and then one thing though that that just

1:02:10kind of alarmed me

1:02:12or like little bells went off in my head

1:02:13was that so much of it is going to be

1:02:15online

1:02:16and i'm just really worried about the

1:02:19cyber security of this

1:02:21super vital information

1:02:24when it comes to us being represented

1:02:28and you know it seems like that could be

1:02:30something that you know foreign

1:02:32governments could be interested in

1:02:34altering things like that

1:02:37so um

1:02:38do you have any comments on um the

1:02:41current state of cyber security or is it

1:02:44like how is this going to be kind of

1:02:45backed up i mean i know that like i can

1:02:48go and look up records of like my great

1:02:50grandfather's census data i mean it's

1:02:52really amazing and it you know will

1:02:54future generations be able to access

1:02:57this information

1:02:58the rule of thumb well for the cyber

1:03:01security like i know even right now as i

1:03:02go into my computer every day i have

1:03:04like three different layers that i have

1:03:05to go in through to be able to just get

1:03:07to my work um because that's how much

1:03:09security they've been adding to it but

1:03:11my understanding is that when people do

1:03:12the census online there is going to be

1:03:14some security keys that you have to go

1:03:16through to be able to get to the census

1:03:18so they are trying to add those sort of

1:03:20security but as far as like the

1:03:22information like the fact that i can say

1:03:25that the data is confidential it is

1:03:27released after 72 years and you'll find

1:03:30that that information is being made

1:03:31available for genealogy studies right

1:03:33now so that you're able that's what's

1:03:35being used

1:03:36so that now you can track back your

1:03:37genealogy but that information the is

1:03:40seven after 72 years they do release it

1:03:43okay okay but the cyber security i mean

1:03:46you know that is an interesting issue

1:03:48but i but from my work at the census i

1:03:50know it's really hard for me to even

1:03:51sometimes get pull up my presentation

1:03:53because i have to go through so many

1:03:54layers to get through to to where i'm at

1:03:56so i can see that they're really make

1:03:58putting a lot of effort into making sure

1:04:01that the system is very secure okay so

1:04:03that it's really hard to get into

1:04:05even for us employees right okay

1:04:07all right well thank you um do we have

1:04:09any speakers on this we do have two

1:04:11speakers on this item please come

1:04:12forward cordell hindler followed by al

1:04:14miller so um

1:04:16good evening mayor purdue okimoto

1:04:18council um thank you darlene and matt

1:04:20for that presentation so

1:04:23i do want to put this on record so

1:04:25i have presented this information to my

1:04:27neighbor counselor and and i think i got

1:04:29a con a consensus of it you know a

1:04:31little play on word consensus 20 20 so

1:04:34that's good yeah i just want to i just

1:04:35want to like brighten the humor up so

1:04:37so what i did was something i brought it

1:04:39up to my president and she said that we

1:04:41would love to have this presentation be

1:04:43heard so

1:04:44i brought it to my council and um i

1:04:46think and we might have it might be

1:04:49tentatively scheduled for our next

1:04:51meeting so we don't know for certain so

1:04:54i like this presentation so

1:04:56i will i'll make sure that i'll i'll

1:04:57fill out the consensus form too and

1:05:00because i was looking at this and um

1:05:02this presentation i said

1:05:04some of the things that uh that i was

1:05:05gonna touch on was like you know not

1:05:07counting the homeless population because

1:05:09as was stated because we have a number

1:05:11of homeless um

1:05:14community in our city and not only el

1:05:16cerrito but sam

1:05:18richmond and el cerritos so i'm like

1:05:20this is a touchy matter i feel that this

1:05:22is very you know troublesome so

1:05:25i'm looking at this and i said

1:05:27how can we how can we count the homeless

1:05:29population so i'm looking at this and i

1:05:31said

1:05:32hmm

1:05:33we just have to figure out how we can

1:05:35get more data on this so what i will do

1:05:37is i'm i'll i'll talk to the san paulo

1:05:39city council to see

1:05:41if to schedule a presentation from you

1:05:43all about it um at one of their meetings

1:05:45i'll i'll bring it up at thermion so

1:05:47i just really enjoy this presentation so

1:05:49al it's all yours

1:05:52the next speaker is al miller

1:05:57hello again i'm still al miller and i

1:05:59still live in el cerrito

1:06:02i'm here to talk about the library

1:06:05i know that heidi

1:06:07ghosting our senior community library

1:06:10manager and her staff are already

1:06:12working through the county library and

1:06:14staff

1:06:15to

1:06:16get up to speed on what they're going to

1:06:18do

1:06:19my main concern is is that currently our

1:06:22library has eight

1:06:24computers available for use by the

1:06:27public

1:06:29that's eight those eight computers are

1:06:32now

1:06:33in use when you start talking about

1:06:35opening hours to closing hours over 80

1:06:38percent of that time these computers are

1:06:41in use

1:06:43i don't know the origin of it but

1:06:47if it hasn't been planned we're very

1:06:49lucky for the results because the county

1:06:52library has

1:06:53last week shipped a

1:06:56kiosk capable of

1:06:59securing charging and

1:07:02managing 12

1:07:04windows 10 laptops that people can check

1:07:07out for two hours no cost use in the

1:07:11library and put them back in the slot in

1:07:15the kiosk

1:07:16but that's

1:07:18not

1:07:19i don't think gonna provide enough

1:07:21so i'm hoping in the communications

1:07:23between the city and the county and the

1:07:26library

1:07:27that maybe other facilities that the

1:07:30city has could be used

1:07:33as an example i don't know what the

1:07:35daily use of the garden room is up in

1:07:37the community center but something like

1:07:40that

1:07:40for the temporary period of the

1:07:44uh

1:07:44census going

1:07:46uh you know maybe the city and the

1:07:48county or whoever does it get some of

1:07:51the money from the census and rent a

1:07:53whole room full of computers and hire

1:07:56somebody to

1:07:58help the people do it

1:08:00maybe disperse them through in the

1:08:02senior center or whatever

1:08:04but

1:08:05as happy as we are to have the 12 new

1:08:08laptops becoming available in the

1:08:10library

1:08:11that's not enough and

1:08:13as you who have been in the library

1:08:16often know there is not physical space

1:08:18in the library to put a bunch more

1:08:21computers in without eliminating the

1:08:24story time or without eliminating the

1:08:26after school tutoring programs etc

1:08:30so

1:08:31i wanted to make sure you all knew about

1:08:33the 12 laptops four of them have already

1:08:36been checked out

1:08:38by been tested and certified for use

1:08:42when the service will be released and

1:08:45started for all 12 of the computers

1:08:48is still under consideration

1:08:50thank you thank you

1:08:54that concludes our speakers all right do

1:08:56we have any more questions thank you

1:08:57very much

1:08:58no okay thank you

1:09:03thank you

1:09:04all right our next presentation will be

1:09:07on the evacuation process using contra

1:09:10costa county's community warning system

1:09:39good evening uh mayor pardue akimoto

1:09:41council members

1:09:43city manager pinkos and city staff my

1:09:45name is joe gorpalo i'm a battalion

1:09:46chief with the el cerrito fire

1:09:48department and i'm here tonight to share

1:09:50with you a new evacuation support tool

1:09:53that is now live and operational

1:09:56which is a fantastic thing because the

1:09:58two gentlemen

1:09:59that did this for us did it at no cost

1:10:02and and they are here tonight so also

1:10:04present is charlie crocker and robert

1:10:06shearer they are founders of a company

1:10:08called zone haven um like i said zone

1:10:10haven was the technology company behind

1:10:13this evacuation support tool heather

1:10:16tiernan who is the manager of the contra

1:10:19costa county community warning system

1:10:21is not here tonight so we will not be

1:10:23doing our

1:10:25test because she is busy

1:10:27down the street at the

1:10:29explosion at the oil refinery

1:10:35so the team here assembled tonight will

1:10:37be able to answer any questions you may

1:10:38have when we're done with the

1:10:40presentation so first off i'll do a

1:10:42quick background on the support tool

1:10:45project chief dave winaker with the

1:10:47maragarinda fire department and robert

1:10:49shearer and charlie were visionaries

1:10:51behind this they set out to create a

1:10:52more efficient and controlled process to

1:10:55fundamentally move large numbers of

1:10:56people quickly in a given geographical

1:10:59region during a life-threatening

1:11:00wildfire event their collective vision

1:11:03also included the building of a platform

1:11:05that can be enhanced and indefinite

1:11:07be enhanced indefinitely with future

1:11:10technological improvements and

1:11:11additional data inputs

1:11:13subsequently over the past seven plus

1:11:15months the el cerrito fire department

1:11:16has been working closely with both

1:11:18moraga into fire and zone haven to

1:11:20create a more efficient and targeted way

1:11:22to send an evacuation alert to our

1:11:24residents in the event of a fast-moving

1:11:27wind-driven fire especially those living

1:11:30along the wild urban interface up on the

1:11:32hillside

1:11:33so i'm proud to present to you the

1:11:34results of this collaborative effort an

1:11:36evacuation support tool like i said

1:11:38which is now live and operational so i'm

1:11:41going to walk you through a

1:11:43a quick little review of what we know

1:11:46on one specific threat that we face and

1:11:48that is a wildfire threat

1:11:52parts of our communities are in an

1:11:54extreme fire hazard zone

1:11:56we do know that diablo wind weather

1:11:58events happen not very often but when

1:12:00they do it creates some chaos

1:12:02and

1:12:06let me go back it creates some chaos uh

1:12:12try to get this to play here so

1:12:14we have road network challenges this is

1:12:16video footage from the 1991 oakland

1:12:18hills tunnel fire and

1:12:21you know our road network system really

1:12:22hasn't changed all that much so when we

1:12:25have

1:12:26a diablo wind event

1:12:28and if a fire should start

1:12:30this is typically some of the things

1:12:32that we'll run into as you see in this

1:12:34video

1:12:35we have a little bit of traffic

1:12:36congestion you'll see some people that

1:12:38are upset

1:12:40you'll see

1:12:42chaos basically it's not a very well

1:12:45executed evacuation plan some people are

1:12:47running some people are

1:12:50stuck in their cars in a traffic jam so

1:12:53you kind of get the idea this is what

1:12:55we're fundamentally trying to improve

1:12:56upon

1:12:57all right so a dial of wind dab of wind

1:13:00they don't have to happen very often

1:13:02maybe three to four times a year on

1:13:03average

1:13:04the problem is is when they do happen

1:13:06they happen in september october

1:13:07november

1:13:10los angeles is dealing with some of the

1:13:11santa ana winds and the fires that were

1:13:13caused and you can follow you know on

1:13:15the news reports moraga had a fire last

1:13:18week

1:13:19during a diablo wind event pg e shuts

1:13:22down all our power it's a it's a problem

1:13:24when these conditions exist

1:13:27eight of the top ten most destructive

1:13:29california wildfires have all been

1:13:31dialed when driven fire so you can see

1:13:33up on the

1:13:34the chart there

1:13:35october september november december

1:13:38they're all in the fall months

1:13:40when these fires happen

1:13:42they can be very destructive

1:13:44typically

1:13:46what we'll get is is we will get a

1:13:49notification from the national weather

1:13:51service basically telling us hey you're

1:13:54going to have some bad fire weather

1:13:55coming they'll typically put out a red

1:13:58flag warning again we had that last week

1:14:01and they'll let us know that some

1:14:02critical fire weather is coming down the

1:14:04road

1:14:06three of the things that they look at

1:14:07for part of their

1:14:09data is relative humidity wind speeds

1:14:12and maximum temperature

1:14:15last week we had the low humidity in the

1:14:17teens we had the wind gusts up to 25 30

1:14:20miles an hour

1:14:21double that at higher elevations

1:14:24most of you probably witnessed some of

1:14:26that in the middle of the night

1:14:28when these conditions occur

1:14:31we try to do the best we can to

1:14:34prevent a fire ignition hence pg e

1:14:36shutting down power

1:14:38we'll put out barbecue signs or signs

1:14:40that say no is allowed we'll do what we

1:14:42can to try to prevent an ignition

1:14:44happening in those conditions

1:14:47all that

1:14:48aside if it's still a little bit

1:14:50confusing

1:14:51[Music]

1:14:52this is what it generally looks like

1:14:55so i always tell people if you go

1:14:56outside you feel the air and you get

1:14:59that feeling like it's hot and muggy and

1:15:01if you notice the flags flying it's

1:15:03flying straight out to the bay

1:15:05that's that hot dry wind coming across

1:15:08california pushing out

1:15:10and it's it's an offshore breeze is

1:15:12really what that is

1:15:16okay so now that we've kind of gone over

1:15:18the threat

1:15:19this is typically what we will go

1:15:21through as first responders

1:15:24the scenario that i've put together here

1:15:26is basically a fire start in kennedy

1:15:28grove it's a simulated fire

1:15:31happens around 4 pm so what will happen

1:15:33is

1:15:34we have these ipads and all the engines

1:15:36and all the the uh

1:15:38supervisor vehicles the first on scene

1:15:41will confirm that yes there's actually a

1:15:43fire he'll recognize that it's a diablo

1:15:45wind

1:15:47situation where we've got strong winds

1:15:49low humidity and recognizes that there's

1:15:51a life safety threat

1:15:53so what happens at that point is we will

1:15:55typically try to predict what the fire

1:15:57is going to do

1:15:59and therefore will request an evacuation

1:16:01immediate and advisory this is where the

1:16:04technologies that zone haven put

1:16:06together comes into play it's very

1:16:08difficult trying to paint a box on where

1:16:11we want to evacuate especially up in in

1:16:14areas in which it's not a grid street

1:16:16system

1:16:17so this allows us

1:16:19to basically look at a zone

1:16:21and basically say we want to evacuate

1:16:23zone 11

1:16:25zone 9 immediately advisory 8 and 10. we

1:16:28send that to our community warning

1:16:30people

1:16:31and then they get that to your phone and

1:16:33it's at this time that we were going to

1:16:35run the test on your cell phones to to

1:16:37actually have you see and hear what that

1:16:40feels like

1:16:41the yellow is a one hour

1:16:44fire model this this is a fire model so

1:16:46within one hour you see the yellow with

1:16:48three hours you see the orange and then

1:16:50at five hours you see the red that's

1:16:51under a 25 mile an hour wind condition

1:16:54with a relative humidity of about 17

1:16:56percent

1:16:57the dynamic tool that zone haven has

1:16:59given us is we can change the wind

1:17:01speeds and we can make it 30 miles an

1:17:02hour 35 they have a program in which we

1:17:05can do different predictions the

1:17:07question marks the little cloud in the

1:17:09middle of the

1:17:10polygons there

1:17:12it looks as if the fire just stops at

1:17:14the ridge line well that's that's not

1:17:16that's not actually what's happening we

1:17:17don't have a

1:17:19burn rate formula for homes so that's

1:17:21why defensible space is so critical some

1:17:24some houses will burn quicker than

1:17:26others based on vegetation and fuel

1:17:28that's around them

1:17:29whether they have leaves in their gutter

1:17:31shingle roof and all that sort of thing

1:17:32so that's why it's very difficult for us

1:17:34to try to plan for how quickly if a fire

1:17:38gets into a neighborhood how quickly

1:17:39that neighborhood would burn

1:17:43this is the process in which

1:17:45it would go the incident commander gets

1:17:47on scene he says i see a problem we need

1:17:50to evacuate that goes to a radio to con

1:17:52con fire west dispatch center

1:17:56that dispatch center in turn calls

1:17:57community warning system and then they

1:17:59in turn give you a public alert which

1:18:01comes through your phone the whole idea

1:18:03here is to

1:18:05minimize the amount of time from when

1:18:06that fire has been discovered to the

1:18:08time you get your message to go so

1:18:10that's what we're trying to do is save

1:18:12time

1:18:13the other by-product is that we can

1:18:16pre-determine evacuation routes and

1:18:19choke points so we work closely with

1:18:21police department and if they only have

1:18:22a limited number of squad cars available

1:18:24we can hand pick the intersections to

1:18:26post them up at so that we can allow for

1:18:29traffic to flow better and try to

1:18:31eliminate any type of grid gridlock

1:18:33situation so we're using computer

1:18:36algorithms to

1:18:38get this data and to sort of use um

1:18:41the number of structures which equates

1:18:44the number of people there's a formula

1:18:45they have there

1:18:47which gives us our our chokepoint

1:18:49analysis

1:18:51how can we do better and this is where

1:18:55charlie and robert are here maybe if you

1:18:57have questions they can get up and

1:18:58answer those questions but where the

1:19:00technology can go as you can see on some

1:19:03of the screen here we can count the

1:19:04population

1:19:06it says here elsewhere kensington zone

1:19:0812 it says 622 the number of structures

1:19:11207 the number of parcels we can keep

1:19:14adding in data to these data sets how

1:19:17many people are disabled

1:19:19you know and we can find out exactly

1:19:21where those locations are so this is a

1:19:24very dynamic

1:19:25model that they've built that we can

1:19:28continue to use and and expand upon

1:19:30which i think is really the value of of

1:19:32this tool

1:19:35there's also if we can detect and

1:19:38determine the fire sooner then we can

1:19:40get the

1:19:41notification out quicker and this is a

1:19:43little news clip on some of the

1:19:45technology that's not for sale yet but

1:19:48that they're working on just to give you

1:19:49a little insight

1:19:52yeah let's turn the volume up here

1:19:55oh joe i muted

1:20:13there we go

1:20:16thank you

1:20:18okay now good evening and thanks for

1:20:19being with us i'm raj mathai and i'm

1:20:21janelle wang it's technology that will

1:20:22hopefully alert firefighters the moment

1:20:25a dangerous fire sparks and is created

1:20:27right here in the bay area nbc mayor is

1:20:28jody hernandez joins us in orinda this

1:20:30evening where this new technology is

1:20:32being put to the test jody

1:20:36that's right raj 200 of those high-tech

1:20:39sensors are already up throughout arinda

1:20:42now this is what they look like i'm told

1:20:44they work just like your household

1:20:46thermostat only this sensor is

1:20:49programmed to save lives

1:20:52it's simply a battery-powered sensor

1:20:54you're looking at a newly developed

1:20:56high-tech tool that could save lives

1:20:59wireless battery-powered sensors

1:21:02designed to detect a wildfire as it

1:21:04ignites so the sensors measure

1:21:06temperature and humidity and if the

1:21:08threshold is reached then we get a

1:21:10notification the moraga arinder fire

1:21:13district has teamed up with

1:21:14berkeley-based tech company zone haven

1:21:16to develop the sensors fire chief dave

1:21:20winnicker says he's been brainstorming

1:21:22how to better protect the heavily wooded

1:21:25and high risk community i think the

1:21:27community recognized the similarity

1:21:28between this area and areas that have

1:21:30recently had catastrophic fire and there

1:21:33was a real pressing demand from the

1:21:34community for what can we do i got the

1:21:36alert email this afternoon firefighters

1:21:39put the sensors to the test as they

1:21:41cleared 15 acres of dry weeds in a

1:21:44control burn

1:21:45when triggered the sensors sent out an

1:21:47alert to the fire district along with

1:21:50projections of the fire's growth and

1:21:52evacuation recommendations you want the

1:21:55people closest to the fire to be

1:21:56notified first and get out before

1:21:58everybody else otherwise you can end up

1:22:00with gridlock every fire starts small

1:22:02and if we can identify a fire's location

1:22:05early we can put it out before it

1:22:06becomes big and before it becomes a

1:22:08catastrophic event

1:22:10now good evening

1:22:12so that's a little recap on

1:22:14our fire threat there's a little recap

1:22:16on the technology that we've been given

1:22:19to use it's in place right now it is a

1:22:22service that we can provide our citizens

1:22:24which i think is fantastic

1:22:27it only works though if people are

1:22:29signed up on the community warning

1:22:30system and so this is a must do action

1:22:33that we've done some community outreach

1:22:35with with our cert program chris

1:22:37hilliard who's in the audience chris if

1:22:38you wouldn't mind just putting your hand

1:22:40up he's been phenomenal at getting

1:22:42people to sign up through

1:22:44different

1:22:45national night out events

1:22:48the public safety day he's just been

1:22:50putting in hundreds of hours as a

1:22:52volunteer for the city so i want to

1:22:54recognize chris because this is the

1:22:55results that we get

1:22:59this is the results it's kind of hard to

1:23:01see but if you look at the chart on the

1:23:03right

1:23:03over the thousand or so people that have

1:23:06signed up this year

1:23:07over 500 of them have been in the last

1:23:09two days because of chris's efforts so

1:23:11we're doing really well

1:23:13in terms of getting the word out however

1:23:15if you look at the total number of

1:23:17registered residents it's just

1:23:19under 3 600 so

1:23:21we have a long way to go

1:23:26at this time what i'd like to do is i'd

1:23:28like to knowledge

1:23:29chris

1:23:30excuse me i'd like to knowledge robert

1:23:32and charlie chief pagone if you wouldn't

1:23:34mind coming up we have two awards that

1:23:36i'd like to uh robert

1:23:39if if you and charlie would come up to

1:23:41the podium behind me um council members

1:23:43if you have any questions for the zone

1:23:45haven folks on where this technology

1:23:47might be going

1:23:48feel free to ask it to them now and

1:23:50we'll get some awards for them ready

1:23:56thank you mayor i have a question

1:23:58regarding your technology

1:24:00we did have that explosion um close by

1:24:03at the rodeo refinery around that area

1:24:06uh

1:24:07would your technology would have would

1:24:09that have recognized that fire

1:24:12even though it's in the refinery can can

1:24:15refinery businesses use this type of

1:24:17technology

1:24:18in the future there are a variety of

1:24:20ways for people to be able to get access

1:24:22to early fire warning whether it's with

1:24:24satellite imagery with the

1:24:26cameras that have been placed on diablo

1:24:28mountain or with a variety of sensors so

1:24:31these sensors could be used in the

1:24:32wildland or they could be put around

1:24:36an actual facility

1:24:38in addition

1:24:39the that area right now we have not

1:24:41built evacuation zones for so you might

1:24:44be able to sense the fire but we

1:24:45wouldn't be able to help kind of figure

1:24:47out the sequencing of that event in

1:24:50contra costa county right now we have

1:24:52evacuation zones for kensington el

1:24:54cerrito lafayette

1:24:56moraga and arinda

1:24:58and we're looking at expanding that

1:25:01over time okay great done i did get uh

1:25:04on my phone

1:25:06uh a

1:25:07warning

1:25:09about two

1:25:10little after or before 2 30 this

1:25:12afternoon

1:25:14so it does work so i recommend everyone

1:25:16to

1:25:17sign up on the

1:25:19and and register

1:25:21because we were able to get the

1:25:23information right away and the

1:25:26television uh station didn't get the

1:25:29uh the uh

1:25:31uh the notice uh until an hour

1:25:34afterwards so

1:25:35it shows that this technology really

1:25:37works so i appreciate everything that

1:25:39you're doing thank you

1:25:42yeah i've got uh two questions uh one is

1:25:46uh

1:25:47during the presentation it was discussed

1:25:48that the burn rate for urban

1:25:50for urban structures is not known yet

1:25:53i'm assuming that's a yet um you're i'm

1:25:56assuming that you're going to continue

1:25:57to update your model to include

1:26:00burn rates for

1:26:02houses yeah there's a lot of different

1:26:04technology that's coming onto the market

1:26:06right now around simulating fire both in

1:26:09urban and in wildland environments um

1:26:12the data that we were using for that

1:26:14comes from the u.s forest service so it

1:26:16tends to be a little bit more wildland

1:26:18specific

1:26:20we are looking at how we build those

1:26:22models or leverage other companies that

1:26:25are building the data sets in order for

1:26:27us to provide more accurate

1:26:29urban and wildland urban interface

1:26:31simulations excellent the second

1:26:33question i've got for you is

1:26:35on power outages if if for example power

1:26:38is out and

1:26:40voice over ip phones are down

1:26:43your technology would rely essentially

1:26:46at that point on cell phone or would it

1:26:48be able to use cell phone and the

1:26:50classic copper phone to the house so so

1:26:53there's i would separate this into two

1:26:55things one is the community warning

1:26:56system the community warning system is

1:26:58run by your uh county sheriff and we are

1:27:02not a part of that technology we're

1:27:04providing the evacuation zones which is

1:27:06giving you the structure for who to call

1:27:09when that system runs

1:27:10great thanks that that's a great answer

1:27:12we'll have to ask our

1:27:14the question about power outages

1:27:15heather's not here she would be the one

1:27:17to answer the question great thank you

1:27:19any other questions

1:27:21yes

1:27:22yeah this reminds uh last night with the

1:27:24earthquake it the research reminds me of

1:27:26the research being done federally and at

1:27:29the state level for pre-earthquake

1:27:32and at bart it was a very important

1:27:34thing to make sure even if you get seven

1:27:35seconds so you can stop your trains and

1:27:38make sure every um

1:27:40but your

1:27:42research is based on an actual event

1:27:44right not a prediction like the pg e

1:27:47shutdown that talked about winds

1:27:50that might happen and there was some

1:27:52confusion

1:27:53as to when power should be shut off so

1:27:55your

1:27:56effort and information is triggered by

1:27:58an actual fire so there's there's two

1:28:00things one we are building a system that

1:28:02allows you to do simulation so that you

1:28:05can pre-plan and pre-test so you can say

1:28:07if a fire happened here how should we

1:28:10respond so that has to you can pick that

1:28:12information would be

1:28:13that information is get our our

1:28:16emergency services professionals have

1:28:19the ability now to pre-plan and

1:28:21pre-think about what could happen

1:28:23in case a fire happens the sensors allow

1:28:26you to notice what's happening in the

1:28:27moment

1:28:29but there's a lot of research we're

1:28:31following it we're doing some of it

1:28:33around doing deeper prediction around

1:28:35fires the closest thing we have right

1:28:37now and it's relatively simple is the

1:28:39red flag days and the red flag warnings

1:28:41that gives you literally specific areas

1:28:43where they're saying this is where you

1:28:45should be concerned so

1:28:47in that case whether it's on a on a it's

1:28:50a campfire whether it's an arsonist

1:28:52whether it's a power line those are the

1:28:55things that we would just have to to

1:28:58get understand up front

1:29:01you mentioned el cerrito here do

1:29:03what's the issue of

1:29:05um

1:29:06what are how many units need to be in a

1:29:08certain community for

1:29:10to be effective so right now the company

1:29:13places it throughout i i i the question

1:29:16is very valid and right now

1:29:18yeah we're focused right now we're

1:29:20focused on the application for

1:29:22pre-planning and for developing the

1:29:25evacuation zones the work that we did

1:29:28with the sensors

1:29:30was based on a grant we got from the

1:29:31moore foundation and that was a

1:29:33prototype so we proved out that this

1:29:36could work and now the question becomes

1:29:38is that an area that we need to

1:29:39emphasize and so right now we're looking

1:29:41at building the evacuation zones and the

1:29:43pre-planning while we do more research

1:29:45on the right sensors these sensors

1:29:47worked but they aren't the right sensors

1:29:49to to deploy they require heavy

1:29:52computing on the ground they did not do

1:29:54cellular and so there's research and

1:29:56development needs that needs to continue

1:29:58so we can't really answer yet how many

1:30:00el cerrito might need and what that cost

1:30:02would be i would say that we cannot and

1:30:05how long what might that be you want to

1:30:06answer that one

1:30:08sure um i'd say that's probably a year

1:30:11year and a half wow okay um what we are

1:30:13doing now though is that if you can do

1:30:16let's say simulate a thousand fires

1:30:17coming out of wildcat canyon we can tell

1:30:20you where your primary

1:30:22thoroughfares are we can tell you where

1:30:24the points are that's going to jump the

1:30:25streets and we can suggest to put

1:30:28sensors there but that's not a focus

1:30:29right now like charlie says what we're

1:30:30trying to do is build

1:30:32the infrastructure of evacuations and

1:30:34zones so they're the same across

1:30:35districts so when someone from santa

1:30:38clara comes up and gives aid to you here

1:30:40in el cerrito they have the same system

1:30:43and then we're going to layer in the

1:30:44sensors on top

1:30:46and uh charlie i saw your picture with

1:30:48president obama in here

1:30:50have you been up to the state and with

1:30:52the governor and the state people to

1:30:53demonstrate your technology we have not

1:30:55yet we have um been we've spoken with a

1:30:58couple uh state senators uh outside of

1:31:01that but we are beginning to

1:31:03work in that direction please do and my

1:31:06my last question is

1:31:07we're talking about evacuation zones and

1:31:10maybe this is a question for city staff

1:31:12aren't we in the middle of determining

1:31:14what those are in el cerrito can someone

1:31:17answer that from the city

1:31:20i saw a map with the evacuation zones in

1:31:22it is that finalized but i hear we're so

1:31:24so hiding that i think joe should answer

1:31:27that question

1:31:28so

1:31:29yes the question is there's 17 zones

1:31:32they are the zones that zone haven put

1:31:34together we made the zones smaller at

1:31:36the

1:31:37hillside communities so only 300 or so

1:31:40structures

1:31:41we made the zones larger down by the

1:31:42flatlands on purpose so that if we

1:31:45wanted to get people out of harm's way

1:31:47on a fire

1:31:48we could

1:31:50we could specifically target areas in

1:31:51which we're not going to create gridlock

1:31:53so these zones were created they are in

1:31:56place they are with contra costa county

1:31:58so that a battalion chief like myself or

1:32:00a fire captain can go on on scene and

1:32:03say we have a fire we need to evacuate

1:32:05this area which area is that we look on

1:32:08our map it's area nine we call so we do

1:32:11have these evacuations on they are into

1:32:13our people know about these can you go

1:32:14back a couple of slides to the slide

1:32:16that has the nodes on it and yeah maybe

1:32:18we can spend a little time explaining

1:32:19what those numbers are nope there you go

1:32:22uh this number here that one yeah the

1:32:24little numbers on there represent the

1:32:25number of vehicles that need to go

1:32:27through that intersection i mean this is

1:32:28something i'm thinking

1:32:30you may know it but i think our people

1:32:32need to know we have these and we need

1:32:34to

1:32:34advertise more or is it just in the well

1:32:37this so the zones really

1:32:40i don't think the residents really need

1:32:41to know about the zones they just need

1:32:42to sign up on the community warning

1:32:44system so that they get the notification

1:32:46to get up and go the zones are more for

1:32:49police and fire to use

1:32:51it i mean an evacuation zone is not

1:32:53something we might be involved with if

1:32:55there's a major feature so do you can i

1:32:57jump in real quick go ahead yeah so

1:32:59we're also working right now with um san

1:33:01mateo county we've just we're we've just

1:33:03completed preliminary zones for the

1:33:05entire county there's about 280 zones

1:33:09for all all of the different districts

1:33:10there's 10 fire districts and something

1:33:12like 20 cities

1:33:14and the jurisdictional overlap for law

1:33:16enforcement and highway patrol and fire

1:33:19is very complex and so these zones allow

1:33:22people to to look at that

1:33:24in san mateo county we're talking about

1:33:26creating a public-facing version of the

1:33:29zones that just allows people to

1:33:31identify the zone they're in and get a

1:33:33little bit of basic information and

1:33:34ideally a map that says

1:33:37which way is my route out we don't tell

1:33:39you which route to go but you need to

1:33:40over time learn which way you need to go

1:33:43and is that in the plans for here as

1:33:45well uh

1:33:46so we're we're building an application

1:33:48and so as we add new features into that

1:33:51application

1:33:52all the different jurisdictions just get

1:33:54those applications so the answer is yes

1:33:57and we're probably about

1:33:59um i would say about a month away from

1:34:02being able to do a a what we would

1:34:04consider a community deployment of that

1:34:07and then people like chris who are

1:34:08working with cert have the opportunity

1:34:10to potentially blend cert

1:34:13into that conversation right so that

1:34:15people start to say we have cert zones

1:34:18are the cert zones the same zones you

1:34:19want to keep do you switch them out to

1:34:21the evacuation zones we don't know yet

1:34:23this is young tech well thank you and

1:34:25i'm involved in my local certain

1:34:27neighborhood and they keep asking me

1:34:28when are we going to know about our

1:34:29evacuation

1:34:31path right so the sooner we can do this

1:34:33the more we can talk whether we use them

1:34:35or not it's just good for us to know

1:34:36yeah thank you

1:34:40that's over ableton yeah um the thing

1:34:43i'm confused about i have a daughter who

1:34:45lives up in lake county half of life

1:34:48lake county has i believe burned at this

1:34:50point

1:34:51and she's been evacuated

1:34:54the fires have been around her including

1:34:56this year

1:34:57but what she always tells me happens is

1:35:01she says you know she's gotten the

1:35:03notice to get ready for a five minute

1:35:05warning

1:35:07is are we doing that sort of a system

1:35:09here and then what does it look like a

1:35:11five what is a five minute warning is

1:35:13that a phone call is that somebody

1:35:15knocking on your door what

1:35:18what is that all about

1:35:20so

1:35:21if a fire were to start in tilden park

1:35:24kennedy grove

1:35:26we have

1:35:28boots on the ground that go and verify

1:35:30that there's a fire and if we see that

1:35:32that fire is moving quickly that's

1:35:34that's that's why the excitement i have

1:35:36is this system's in place we can make a

1:35:39simple radio dispatch call and say

1:35:41please start evacuation zone nine you'll

1:35:44get a message through your phone

1:35:45unfortunately we didn't do the test

1:35:47tonight because of

1:35:49the circumstances but you'll get a

1:35:51message saying

1:35:52whatever that message is please shelter

1:35:55in place please evacuate please

1:35:57you know do this that or the other and

1:35:59that's the beauty of this system

1:36:02we can do that quickly and so time is

1:36:04really what we're trying to gain so that

1:36:06you don't have five minutes you have 10

1:36:08or 15.

1:36:10and that's the whole purpose of trying

1:36:12to find areas in which we can

1:36:14gain more time so early detection early

1:36:16notification leads to early evacuation

1:36:18that's basically the premise we're

1:36:20running with

1:36:21i couldn't ask these two gentlemen to do

1:36:25more than what they've done because i

1:36:26think they

1:36:27promised some things and i kind of

1:36:29pushed them to the edge they've

1:36:30literally

1:36:31put in hundreds of hours on this and

1:36:33they had to get developers in india to

1:36:35do these algorithms and all this

1:36:37stuff so

1:36:39we'll continue to work on it we were in

1:36:42conversation with berkeley fire

1:36:43department today because there is a

1:36:45problem with these zones and that is it

1:36:47doesn't take into consideration

1:36:49all the

1:36:50traffic patterns to the north in

1:36:52richmond and to the south in berkeley

1:36:53but all those people will be sharing the

1:36:55same road network system so we are

1:36:58continuing to develop improve

1:37:01um but i have to let these guys i have

1:37:04to say thank you for what they've given

1:37:06us and then we'll have to get together

1:37:08and continue to to work that out for you

1:37:11so i'd like to honor them

1:37:13with everything they've given our city

1:37:15with uh a couple a couple uh items here

1:37:18and it's a little selfish for me i live

1:37:20in albany so i'm straight downwind from

1:37:22you guys and a diablo

1:37:24[Music]

1:37:37oh before you sit down i i

1:37:39[Applause]

1:37:44i just didn't get a chance to talk so i

1:37:46just wanted to quickly ask you a

1:37:48question

1:37:49so this is basically completely new

1:37:52technology is it both the evacuation

1:37:55maps and the sensors are they both new

1:37:58did you come up with both of them

1:38:00or do these exist in other places in the

1:38:02state

1:38:04uh these exist everywhere in your phone

1:38:06when you need to get a pizza

1:38:08and when you amazon delivers you socks

1:38:12i see um

1:38:14what's ridiculous is that this is the

1:38:16first time it's been applied to getting

1:38:17people out of harm's way

1:38:19so it's not new technology the

1:38:22the routing algorithms we use to

1:38:24determine where people are likely to go

1:38:26and how long it's going to take them and

1:38:28where they're going to get stuck in

1:38:29traffic are exactly the same ones amazon

1:38:31uses to decide what package to put in

1:38:33what truck

1:38:34so

1:38:36i would say everything is proven

1:38:38technology just hasn't been applied to

1:38:39this problem same thing on the sensor

1:38:41side

1:38:43google knows exactly where you are at

1:38:45all times

1:38:46and so uh why don't we use some of those

1:38:48same technologies to to

1:38:50find you know detect fire and that type

1:38:52of thing so well i applaud you for

1:38:54applying it to something so critical and

1:38:56life-saving thank you very much thank

1:38:58you thank you

1:39:00we do have one speaker on this item yes

1:39:03go ahead denise denny sangster

1:39:07please come forward

1:39:16thank you

1:39:17i live up on arlington boulevard i think

1:39:19this is a great start

1:39:21last week was a chaotic mess in

1:39:24communications the community warning

1:39:26system was an utter failure

1:39:28utter failure

1:39:29and half of the homes up on arlington

1:39:31boulevard do not have cell phone access

1:39:34so we're going to be stuck up there with

1:39:36a terrible situation and we need the

1:39:38council's help to really lean on a t

1:39:42sprint verizon and others to get it

1:39:44working up there because it's

1:39:46it's a train wreck

1:39:48we also need one better communication

1:39:51system from the city

1:39:52there were multiple messages coming out

1:39:54at different times and it was chaotic

1:39:57older neighbors were some older

1:39:59neighbors were really panicking

1:40:01wondering whether they're going to be

1:40:02more firemen on duty more policemen on

1:40:04duty or what the situation was and it

1:40:06was

1:40:07it was actually getting worrisome

1:40:10if you look at the way the phone lines

1:40:13and power lines are running on the

1:40:15evacuation routes which we've just seen

1:40:17here

1:40:18we need to underground all the power

1:40:20lines my next door neighbor has a

1:40:22sequoia tree which is sick

1:40:24it has it's six inches to the high wire

1:40:27lines six inches and last week when it

1:40:30blew

1:40:31it created a firestorm i mean you drove

1:40:34by it created a firestorm of dead

1:40:36needles all over the neighborhood which

1:40:38is just a spark away from bringing an

1:40:40entire neighborhood down so not only do

1:40:42we need more aggressive policing or fire

1:40:45policing or controls on these dead and

1:40:48sick trees but we need to underground

1:40:50and we need we need some kind of

1:40:53council activity to require neighbors to

1:40:56pick up their sick and dying tree

1:41:00stuff that's falling off because it is a

1:41:02tinderbox up there

1:41:04last thing i would say is that

1:41:09we do have

1:41:11in other communities next to us we have

1:41:14insurance companies which are

1:41:15non-renewaling not cancelling but

1:41:17non-renewaling and i think this is a big

1:41:20opportunity for our city to take a very

1:41:22aggressive stand

1:41:24and say that not only are we going to be

1:41:26fire safe but

1:41:28we're going to get very serious about

1:41:29fire prevention and hopefully we are not

1:41:32going to have non-renewals here we we

1:41:34know of several

1:41:35it's very few but the berkeley

1:41:38and kensington is now being hit with

1:41:40these so please get aggressive on this

1:41:42there's things that you can do that

1:41:44don't cost a lot of money and are very

1:41:46quick to do and can save our entire

1:41:48community thank you thank you

1:41:51goodbye

1:41:52councilmember yeah i wanna

1:41:55we do questions then comments and then

1:41:58we get our opportunity to comment so i i

1:41:59want to um make sure that

1:42:03you know how much we i appreciate that

1:42:05you're using common technology to uh for

1:42:08betterment for the safety through public

1:42:10safety and i really appreciate the

1:42:11number hours you put into it that's just

1:42:14unbelievable

1:42:15um

1:42:16public service really it's a public

1:42:18service so thank you for that

1:42:20and uh this is really important uh

1:42:22you know we've we need to focus on

1:42:25um

1:42:26the evacuation routes we need to focus

1:42:28on fire safety we're going to have the

1:42:30next item is is a fire abatement uh item

1:42:34and and so it's it's real uh when when

1:42:37there is a fire upwind of us during a

1:42:39dial of wind it's not going to take long

1:42:42for it to come over the ridge and to us

1:42:44so

1:42:46that this tool is out there is is

1:42:48fantastic and so i can only encourage

1:42:50everyone to to sign up and tell your

1:42:52neighbors to sign up and we can get out

1:42:53there

1:42:54miss sangster is correct the there i

1:42:57was talking to residents just this last

1:43:00weekend about the fact that cell phone

1:43:02coverage in the hills is terrible so

1:43:04kensington for example um has zero

1:43:06coverage from uh cell phones so

1:43:09as as much as um

1:43:11which is why i was asking the question

1:43:13about the power outage and i know this

1:43:14technology isn't specifically addressing

1:43:16that but that is the basis of my

1:43:18question is is in miss angster's

1:43:21comments um and so we definitely need to

1:43:24to focus on that

1:43:25additionally miss sangster's comments is

1:43:27an insurance

1:43:28question and actually el cerrito is

1:43:30experiencing cancellations or

1:43:32non-renewals i should say

1:43:34and

1:43:35i have asked staff to to begin doing

1:43:37research on that because we do need to

1:43:39figure out what the basis of the

1:43:41non-renewal is so that if there is

1:43:43something we can do we should be doing

1:43:45it so i wanted to at least take this

1:43:47opportunity to acknowledge

1:43:49some of the things that i think we can

1:43:51and should be working towards thank you

1:43:55council member fidelity

1:43:59i just wanted to

1:44:00thank the battalion chief for lending me

1:44:02a book on earthquakes and as i was

1:44:04reading it last night we had one and i

1:44:06can't tell you how extra scary it was

1:44:09to be reading about earthquakes while an

1:44:12earthquake happens so

1:44:14yes thank you

1:44:16all right and with that um

1:44:18i want to thank um thank you once again

1:44:20for your presentation and thank you for

1:44:23all of the great work that you're doing

1:44:25and i know we have a lot of work still

1:44:27yet to do and i'm glad that we're

1:44:30everyone is continuing to press on that

1:44:31thank you very much

1:44:33all right so next we will

1:44:35go on to our public hearing

1:44:39which is the

1:44:41cost hearing regarding fire

1:44:43hazard abatement of a public nuisance

1:44:46for properties identified and pursuant

1:44:48to el cerrito municipal code chapter

1:44:5116.26

1:44:56may have a staff report

1:45:00[Applause]

1:45:08uh good evening madam mayor members of

1:45:09the city council

1:45:10members of the community my name is

1:45:12damian carrion

1:45:13a fire prevention officer for the city

1:45:15of el cerrito i come here before you

1:45:17tonight with the exhibits for the

1:45:18current cost of the 2019 fire hazard

1:45:20abatements

1:45:21are the total number of properties that

1:45:23were noticed we achieved 90 compliance

1:45:26we unfortunately did not read 100 reach

1:45:27100

1:45:29we had to prioritize

1:45:30the properties that pose a significant

1:45:32risk to the community and that were

1:45:33located in the very high

1:45:35fire severity zone property owners who

1:45:37did not contact our office or attempt to

1:45:39complete the work were also factors in

1:45:41prioritizing abatements

1:45:43vacant lots and vacant houses were the

1:45:45priority

1:45:47we made 16 properties

1:45:4912 were vacant lots and four were either

1:45:51vacant houses or house houses that were

1:45:53occupied

1:45:54that were in the very high fire severity

1:45:56zone the total cost of abatement per

1:45:59contractor's lowest bids

1:46:01was eighty nine thousand eight hundred

1:46:02fifty dollars

1:46:04with an additional administrative fee of

1:46:06thirteen thousand and eighty two dollars

1:46:08for a total of 102 932 dollars

1:46:12now in front of you is the amended

1:46:13property list which three of the

1:46:14properties were removed due to property

1:46:16owners paying the contractors directly

1:46:19in which case we waive the

1:46:20administrative fees bringing the new

1:46:22total costs to a hundred thousand

1:46:24seven hundred

1:46:25seventeen

1:46:27in front of you are the exhibits b

1:46:29through n of the cost breakdown for each

1:46:31property

1:46:32including an administrative cost

1:46:33worksheet and invoices

1:46:45you'd like me to go through each one of

1:46:46them

1:46:51no no that's okay

1:46:54do you have a question

1:46:59i do have a question go ahead

1:47:00um

1:47:01so

1:47:0316 that we abated

1:47:05do you have a sense of how year over

1:47:08year like what our trend has been i i

1:47:10know i've been on this council

1:47:1310 plus years and the number has varied

1:47:16um but this is significantly larger than

1:47:19what we've baited in the past so i was

1:47:20just getting wondering if you could give

1:47:22us a sense of the the number that we've

1:47:24abated in the in the past

1:47:26in the past i was told um it varied from

1:47:29year to year sometimes three sometimes

1:47:31five sometimes ten

1:47:33uh just depend uh when we first started

1:47:35this program in 1992

1:47:37it was post 1991 the oakland hills fire

1:47:40which really was a

1:47:42what kicked off this program to start

1:47:43with and given the light of the last two

1:47:46fire seasons here in california is

1:47:47another reason why

1:47:49our department took a closer look

1:47:51throughout the city to abate these

1:47:53hazards

1:47:54the

1:47:56in august i think it was we had a second

1:47:58round of notifications that went out

1:48:01is this is this the culmination of all

1:48:03or is there a second round of abatement

1:48:04that's coming back to us

1:48:06um so we currently are still trying to

1:48:09work with the 100 or so properties that

1:48:11have been left on the list

1:48:13uh we have 10 properties that we have

1:48:15work plan agreements with those are

1:48:17based on due to the scope and magnitude

1:48:20of the properties

1:48:21for example the fairview property is one

1:48:24of the largest privately owned

1:48:25properties in the city of el cerrito 14

1:48:2714 acres

1:48:29so to have them

1:48:31extended if you will to be part of a

1:48:33work plan agreement

1:48:34we've extended them till october 31st at

1:48:37which point

1:48:38there may be another council meeting

1:48:40where we asked to redeclare the

1:48:42remaining properties and and let's talk

1:48:44about fair few for a minute they're not

1:48:45going to utilize this as a an excuse to

1:48:47take down heritage oaks and other uh

1:48:50species that they potentially

1:48:52were doing a year or so ago

1:48:55um we've been working real closely with

1:48:57stephen pre and we've been trying to

1:48:59identify those things

1:49:01uh what we're asking for at a minimum is

1:49:03that 30 foot clearance around the lot

1:49:06completely so there is a 30 foot buffer

1:49:09and a hundred foot

1:49:11fuel break between the structures which

1:49:14it borders 37 houses to be honest with

1:49:16you sir yeah the the concern i have is

1:49:19that the riparian zone which is native

1:49:21habitat potentially would they would

1:49:23find a way to move their crews into that

1:49:25area uh we actually had a meeting with

1:49:27the owner of the property and stephen

1:49:29pre and we did discuss that issue uh

1:49:31like i said we are really focusing on

1:49:33creating that 30-foot defensible space

1:49:37around the

1:49:38lot itself this the hundred thousand

1:49:40dollars

1:49:41given give or take 717 dollars um that

1:49:45comes out of the general fund at this

1:49:46time

1:49:48i'm aware yes and and we'll get paid

1:49:50back

1:49:51as a lien on property so yeah in uh

1:49:54in june of 2020

1:49:57we go ahead to the county assessor's

1:49:59office

1:50:00and we apply for a lien on the

1:50:02properties and we will recoup those

1:50:04funds as paid out by the general fund

1:50:06if they're paying their taxes if they're

1:50:08not paying their taxes it's it'll be a

1:50:10lien that remains on the property that

1:50:12is correct

1:50:13okay

1:50:13and that's june of next year so it'll

1:50:16show up on their

1:50:18uh

1:50:192020. their 2020 which is december 2020

1:50:24and april 2021. that is correct so from

1:50:27a cash flow perspective we're

1:50:29we're out for almost 18 months

1:50:32from my understanding and chief pagone

1:50:33could speak on this

1:50:34the county does

1:50:36reimburse the cities for that and then

1:50:38they the county is the one that goes

1:50:40after the

1:50:41tax lien on the property excellent to

1:50:43hear thank you that's that that

1:50:46that that has very good nerve yeah it's

1:50:48very good to hear

1:50:49um those are that those are my questions

1:50:54council member fidelity yeah um just uh

1:50:57that went by quickly and that was a

1:50:58concern i had can you just repeat that

1:51:00one more time on the payment and going

1:51:02after the so the county does reimburse

1:51:06they subsidize the city and then the

1:51:08county assessors takes that out in the

1:51:10tax lien and

1:51:12yeah so for the administrative costs or

1:51:14for all for the total cost

1:51:16so basically

1:51:18this is ultimately levied on the

1:51:19property as a special assessment it's a

1:51:22it's a form of assessment that that um

1:51:24the city is allowed to levy to collect

1:51:27costs like this

1:51:28but the assessment is collected at the

1:51:30same time as the regular ad valorem

1:51:32property tax so when some so when these

1:51:34property owners receive their property

1:51:36tax bill there will be an additional

1:51:38amount for the abatement costs including

1:51:40the administrative costs incurred by the

1:51:42city it's then payable with their

1:51:43regular property tax if they don't pay

1:51:46the county will reimburse the city for

1:51:48that and ultimately the county will

1:51:50attempt to collect that through their

1:51:51normal process got it okay that that's

1:51:54i i was just wondering about people with

1:51:56these big bills

1:51:58how they're assisted whether there's a

1:52:00payment plan or but it's it's all on

1:52:03what you just said just now okay

1:52:05um

1:52:07and a couple more

1:52:08process questions um

1:52:11on the

1:52:12folks that you chose to do the

1:52:15the actual work

1:52:17the firms

1:52:18how is the process on competitive

1:52:20bidding for these

1:52:22um for the

1:52:24the normal process is two bids per

1:52:27property

1:52:28um so each property it's not the city

1:52:30saying

1:52:31we have one job and we want to okay so

1:52:34and because the dollar amounts were so

1:52:35high we actually went out and we created

1:52:37a new form that we mailed out to the

1:52:39property owners that we talked with

1:52:42legal in regards to anything over ten

1:52:44thousand dollars that they received

1:52:46notification

1:52:47uh prior to us actually doing the work

1:52:51so i've been very pleased with the whole

1:52:53process i

1:52:55bragged about you guys and complimented

1:52:57you guys i'm looking at the list here

1:53:01on the wildcat drive the list of seven

1:53:03or eight different properties

1:53:06and they're in the in a place that they

1:53:09should be aware of these fire dangers

1:53:12um

1:53:13is there a re have that were they

1:53:15contacted by you where they said hey you

1:53:18this neighbor this

1:53:20neighborhood needs to really

1:53:23so what we do we focused on areas

1:53:26specifically wildcat canyon because it

1:53:28does

1:53:29border well um wildcat canyon and the

1:53:31park and what we did is and some of

1:53:34these are vacant lots that are owned by

1:53:36property owners that have been notified

1:53:38one actually met uh chief gibson and i

1:53:41at the site and said he would do the

1:53:42work and said he'd been doing had done

1:53:44in the past but hadn't done it this time

1:53:47and we met with him and that was back in

1:53:49june

1:53:50you're saying one but what about the

1:53:52other seven or the other the other for

1:53:54example 8403

1:53:56wildcat drive

1:53:57was a house that was for sale had been

1:53:59vacant for a while i even went as far as

1:54:01contacting the real estate agent that

1:54:03was listed on the on the sign to get a

1:54:06hold of the property owner and no one

1:54:08ever contacted our office the gentleman

1:54:10that spoke earlier who said we never

1:54:12contacted him we clearly put on every

1:54:14letter that this is the number you

1:54:16called this is the email address more

1:54:18than happy to come out to give you a

1:54:19free property assessment re-inspect you

1:54:21at any time not once do i have any

1:54:23record of being contacted by anybody

1:54:26from these listed addresses wildcat

1:54:28driver

1:54:29okay

1:54:30um but just knocking on each one of

1:54:32these doors and saying there's a big

1:54:34bill coming your way i did that as well

1:54:36we also posted signs in their front yard

1:54:38that say that we were at this time we

1:54:39were going to abate their properties and

1:54:41no response back i received a response

1:54:44from the gentleman that owns 8440 and

1:54:468444 wildcat i met with him he told me

1:54:50specifically that he saw the sign in his

1:54:52yard he waited an entire week to contact

1:54:54our office and by that time the

1:54:55abatement had already been completed

1:54:56okay i just want to make sure because

1:54:58it's not fun to

1:55:00no it is not to vote on things that cost

1:55:02our citizens and residents a lot of

1:55:04money i understand and make sure that

1:55:05they're done reaching out here i have

1:55:07done every effort and made every effort

1:55:09even

1:55:10mail that was returned to us we went and

1:55:12we researched

1:55:13every address we could possibly find to

1:55:15send it to the to each individual

1:55:17property owner to make sure that they

1:55:19receive proper notice before we did any

1:55:20work whatsoever

1:55:22because ultimately what we're talking

1:55:23about here is life and death in el

1:55:25cerrito quite frankly so

1:55:28uh

1:55:28thank you

1:55:29okay

1:55:31any more questions i i had a question a

1:55:33question yes um

1:55:35i've uh

1:55:37had various people ask me

1:55:39well

1:55:41yeah at a certain point in time you

1:55:43inspected and

1:55:44and there was a problem or whatever but

1:55:47what'll happen on other properties let's

1:55:49say is

1:55:51that they will it will have been okay

1:55:53then

1:55:54but then time goes on and they're not

1:55:55taking care of the property

1:55:58at a later point in time during the year

1:56:00is there anything that can be done about

1:56:02that

1:56:03we've actually talked with the chief

1:56:05pagoni and fire marshal gibson in

1:56:07regards to how we're going to improve

1:56:08this program

1:56:10um we've started working on a kindler

1:56:12gentler if you will

1:56:14process

1:56:16going as far as a public outreach

1:56:17program

1:56:19um postcards to let everybody know that

1:56:21all the residents know that this this

1:56:22process is coming

1:56:24and at some point in time this might be

1:56:27a year-long process kind of like a code

1:56:29enforcement how

1:56:31things are done you have 30 days to

1:56:33rectify the situation if you don't then

1:56:35we take the further steps i'm kind of

1:56:36thinking more about

1:56:38say

1:56:40the neighbor of a person who hasn't been

1:56:43cleaning up

1:56:44is there anything they can do to alert

1:56:46you

1:56:47i've received the numerous neighbor

1:56:49complaints um and does that is that i

1:56:52mean

1:56:53every complaint that has come into this

1:56:54office we have addressed we have gone

1:56:56out we have met with the either the

1:56:58neighbor and or the property owner to

1:57:00help rectify the situation so what i can

1:57:02tell people and what every everyone here

1:57:05could know is that if they recognize a

1:57:08property that's got us a problem or what

1:57:11they think is a problem that they can

1:57:13notify you absolutely and that you'll

1:57:16look into it absolutely thank you

1:57:19i have one question

1:57:22my question is um on the everett street

1:57:25address

1:57:26um i believe i was cc'd on some emails

1:57:30regarding

1:57:31a senior living in that house

1:57:34and

1:57:35and a church that was willing to

1:57:39help this gentleman uh what what is the

1:57:42status of that um that would be um

1:57:46811

1:57:47and that was um

1:57:49mr yukoy if i remember correctly um we

1:57:52did

1:57:54meet with his caretaker and we did clear

1:57:57his property he had uh

1:57:59she discussed that 26

1:58:02volunteers showed up and cleaned the

1:58:03property and it's probably one of the

1:58:04cleanest i've seen on everett to be

1:58:06honest with you

1:58:07good thank you for my house

1:58:10and i know uh yeah yeah so it was taken

1:58:12care of yeah so looking at this i'm

1:58:15looking at one on julian drive for

1:58:17example

1:58:19and i'm looking at how expensive that uh

1:58:22they have to pay up on this so um

1:58:25a lot of these people live there and

1:58:26have lived in up in the hills for many

1:58:29many years what's their excuse of not

1:58:31even

1:58:32answering you or or not even uh uh

1:58:36doing this on time this is ridiculous

1:58:38because they're affecting all the other

1:58:41neighbors and and this is dangerous

1:58:44uh specifically on 1618 julian dr that's

1:58:46a vacant lot um so a lot of the people

1:58:49that own these lots don't live in el

1:58:51cerro obviously

1:58:52um

1:58:53a lot of absentee landlords to be quite

1:58:55honest with you

1:58:56um a lot of these

1:58:58property owners

1:58:59just

1:59:00they don't care because they don't live

1:59:01here

1:59:04okay sad

1:59:06thank you

1:59:07yes thank you very much and um i think

1:59:10the other council members have answered

1:59:12my questions just

1:59:14you know with a such a big bill coming

1:59:16in the in the mail just make sure that

1:59:18we're reaching out and reaching out and

1:59:19reaching out again but it sounds like

1:59:20that has been done so

1:59:22i appreciate the work that you've done

1:59:24and that we've whittled it down because

1:59:26we did have a much higher number

1:59:27initially so

1:59:28um yeah 90

1:59:30yes that's that's pretty good ratio

1:59:32there still gives you an a

1:59:34um

1:59:35okay so um we'll go ahead and open the

1:59:40public hearing

1:59:42okay we have two speakers on this item

1:59:44the first is cordell hindler followed by

1:59:46tom

1:59:48sue

1:59:49[Music]

1:59:50so um

1:59:51good evening uh mayor purdue akimoto

1:59:53council so

1:59:55i'm not gonna go um too much in the what

1:59:59was being said so

2:00:01looking at some of these um properties

2:00:03around the el cerrito hillside area i

2:00:05said

2:00:06uh oh something tells me that it's going

2:00:08to be a fire hazard and i said because

2:00:10i'm looking at this and i'm like

2:00:13that

2:00:14i kind of agree with everything that was

2:00:16being said so

2:00:18i just hopefully that the action is

2:00:21uh

2:00:22adopt some sort of like resolution re

2:00:25conduct

2:00:26the cost of a baby so i'm looking at

2:00:28this and i'm like

2:00:30okay i'm like okay this is sort of a

2:00:32good a cost saving so

2:00:34so it's up to the mayor and the council

2:00:36to um adopt some sort of resolution and

2:00:40that's it so tom it's all yours

2:00:44the next speaker is tom sue

2:00:51uh hi mayor city council members thank

2:00:54you for taking the time to hear my case

2:00:56and for allowing me to explain my

2:00:58situation

2:00:59i reside at [address removed] i have

2:01:02two lots at eight four four zero

2:01:04wildcats and eight four four eight four

2:01:07four four wildcat that basically came

2:01:09with the purchase of the property

2:01:11um

2:01:12so first like to apologize for the

2:01:14inconvenience the city has caused for

2:01:15the fire department and for all of my

2:01:17you know neighbors um i bought the

2:01:20property in in 2012

2:01:23actually um

2:01:24in 2012 but i've been living el cerrito

2:01:26since 2001

2:01:29um so i always try my best to be a good

2:01:31neighbor

2:01:33i always pay my property taxes on time

2:01:35and from my own personal no i never paid

2:01:36a late bill and i always pay my bill

2:01:39in full

2:01:40um so this year um so ever so in order

2:01:44to pay for all these these mortgage and

2:01:45stuff i actually work in high tech i

2:01:47work in redwood city been living been

2:01:50now living there and working there for

2:01:51about seven years

2:01:55so my mom who lives in el cerrito as

2:01:58well has been taking care of my property

2:01:59my dad works overseas and for the past

2:02:02seven years you know as a good asian

2:02:04american i come back during the weekend

2:02:06to take care of my mom make sure that

2:02:08she's all healthy everything is uh going

2:02:10well for her

2:02:12and

2:02:12and she basically takes care of my

2:02:13property gardens we take survival

2:02:16property in wildcat canyon make sure all

2:02:17the trees are cut and all the shrubs are

2:02:19not overhanging the neighbor's property

2:02:22however in late last year in 2018 my mom

2:02:25was diagnosed with stage four medtastic

2:02:29stomach cancer

2:02:31and so for the past basically one year

2:02:33we were in and out of hospitals for

2:02:35radiation uh therapy surgical procedures

2:02:39chemo sessions and spent the last

2:02:41month 24 7 with my mom by her set

2:02:44bedside before she uh passed away a few

2:02:46months ago

2:02:48so it's been a really trying time for

2:02:50for my family for me personally

2:02:53um and only time when i was aware of the

2:02:55fire abatement

2:02:58notice was when there was a stake that

2:03:00was placed outside the property um i did

2:03:03not get any any sort of mail or register

2:03:05mail that i i am aware of so a long time

2:03:07i was aware of it was when they put a

2:03:09stake

2:03:10on my property on i believe the

2:03:12september the 19th of september the the

2:03:15ninth uh when i

2:03:17so that i met with damian the the person

2:03:19the

2:03:21fire department member who spoke earlier

2:03:23um by the time i got to it which is

2:03:25basically a one week period of time um

2:03:28they had already hired someone you know

2:03:30i heard all the wood chippers grinding

2:03:32you know down the street i went down

2:03:34there and they already had somebody

2:03:35working on it and they were almost uh

2:03:37done and this was basically on a

2:03:39thursday or or friday and while i

2:03:43understand that the protection of this

2:03:45is really important and it needed to be

2:03:47done um

2:03:48the the the the way that they

2:03:52quoted or got the quotes i feel like it

2:03:53was somewhat um irresponsible just

2:03:57because the the it was the cheapest of

2:04:00the three does not make it a reasonable

2:04:02cost

2:04:03to do and i'm basically looking at a

2:04:06bill of approximately fourteen thousand

2:04:09dollars and the people who are basically

2:04:11doing the work you know they're they're

2:04:14they're they're they're um

2:04:17please come and

2:04:19if you have more complaints to speak

2:04:21with the city staff because right now

2:04:22your time

2:04:23is out

2:04:25okay but this is the for the hearing for

2:04:27the members who are going to be footed

2:04:29these huge bills to voice their their

2:04:31concerns and just just one last note

2:04:34when i went to look at it in the one

2:04:36week period that i had the the

2:04:39they they had a six-inch wood chipper

2:04:41that cost about two hundred dollars a

2:04:42day a dump truck that was 300 400 a day

2:04:46an excavator that's basically 200 so all

2:04:49in all the total equipment cost was

2:04:50around two grand and i'm looking at from

2:04:53what they're telling me they're charging

2:04:54me a hundred dollars an hour okay they

2:04:56had seven people work on the property

2:04:58for two days

2:04:59at ten hours a day they're basically

2:05:02charging us fourteen thousand dollars

2:05:05to to to clear some weeds and i'm happy

2:05:07to pay pay okay for what's done okay but

2:05:10not at the rate that that they're

2:05:12they're they're quoting us or charging

2:05:13us for it okay thank you

2:05:18that's the final speaker on this item

2:05:20okay

2:05:22all right

2:05:24do i have a motion to close the public

2:05:25hearing so move second

2:05:28a motion by lyman second by abelson

2:05:31all in favor aye does opposed motion

2:05:35carries

2:05:39that was just to close the public

2:05:40hearing people just just to close the

2:05:41public hearing

2:05:44all right do we have um additional

2:05:46questions

2:05:48are you sure i'm going to ask some

2:05:49questions about the last speaker's

2:05:51property uh

2:05:52just to see

2:05:54i'm looking at the

2:05:57the bills i'm trying to i'm looking at

2:05:59the bills and it looks like the bills

2:06:01are flat eight thousand dollars for both

2:06:03of those parcels is that

2:06:05am i looking at correctly

2:06:08looks like pages 70 and pages 77

2:06:12of the packet

2:06:23no i would like love staff to confirm

2:06:28for 84 40 wildcat drive and 8444

2:06:33wildcat drive uh 8 738

2:06:36and 50 cents for total cost of abatement

2:06:38for each property correct but the the

2:06:41contractor's

2:06:42charge is 8 000 and the administrative

2:06:44cost is the 738. that is correct

2:06:47so

2:06:48um

2:06:49if if the owner was to

2:06:52pay

2:06:54julian tree care directly would we waive

2:06:56our administrative costs i i bet with

2:07:01i we already paid the contractor we

2:07:03already paid correct and i i met with

2:07:05the gentleman in question and i

2:07:07explained him the process

2:07:10i told him if he wanted to pay the

2:07:11contractor directly he would be more

2:07:13than happy to do that and we would waive

2:07:15administrative fees um he obviously did

2:07:18not take that advice yeah so he

2:07:20potentially could have negotiated a

2:07:22lower rate with them

2:07:24maybe i don't know i i spoke with julian

2:07:28the owner of the tree care company to to

2:07:30talk with

2:07:31the gentleman mr sue mr sue and um

2:07:35i don't know if anything transpired from

2:07:37that conversation if he

2:07:40he contacted julian or

2:07:42i do not know

2:07:45okay so and and mr sue mentioned that

2:07:49there was

2:07:50some hourly rate that was being charged

2:07:52this these are both 8 000 flat do we

2:07:55have a

2:07:56did julian tree provide a detailed

2:07:59building of some sort i i can get the i

2:08:01can get that i don't need it i don't

2:08:02know that is that is correct there is um

2:08:04it's not flat i mean it's not just a

2:08:06lump sum 8 thousand for parcel no it is

2:08:08not it was it was based on equipment

2:08:12manpower whatever he used and to be

2:08:15quite honest with you those were two

2:08:17overgrown lots that bumped right up to

2:08:18the backside of

2:08:20of wildcat canyon and uh affected

2:08:23several homes including his own which

2:08:25his home at [address removed] is actually

2:08:28still on the abatement list

2:08:30as a as one of his properties as well

2:08:33on the second list is that is on the on

2:08:35the remaining

2:08:36properties yes

2:08:37yeah

2:08:40in looking it's clearly looking at the

2:08:43satellite photographs it looks like it's

2:08:44a heavily wooded lot of oak woodlands

2:08:46which potentially is appropriate but

2:08:50quite a bit of vegetation on there

2:08:53so

2:08:55yes and abutting the

2:08:57the open space

2:09:00okay thank you

2:09:02is there any contact with mr so can you

2:09:04review with me again the contact that

2:09:06you had with mr sue

2:09:08um um so

2:09:11after i

2:09:12after we

2:09:13contacted him we sent a mail for all

2:09:16four properties to be honest with you 8

2:09:1840 84 19 84 25 because and he lives at

2:09:21one of these properties he does he owns

2:09:23the four properties um after sending

2:09:25multiple letters four to be exact per

2:09:27property

2:09:28and not receiving any contact until

2:09:31we did put a stake in his yard and a

2:09:33week later mr sue did contact me

2:09:36i did go up to his property met with him

2:09:38personally to discuss the whole process

2:09:42i did the due diligence in regards to

2:09:44finding the cheapest contractor we could

2:09:46find

2:09:48i received bids in the upwards of 27 000

2:09:51per parcel

2:09:54thank you

2:09:58any further questions

2:10:18mr sue i want to

2:10:20uh say a couple comments to you i want

2:10:22to

2:10:23let you know that this is something that

2:10:25has been focused on i'm so sorry for

2:10:26your loss um that your

2:10:29mother passed but

2:10:31we have a responsibility to all the

2:10:33citizens of all residents of el cerrito

2:10:36and so

2:10:37um

2:10:38you know we we feel we gave proper

2:10:41notification to your parcel and and so

2:10:43we will be taking an action tonight to

2:10:45at least i i plan to move in

2:10:48uh

2:10:49action tonight to to um levy the

2:10:52abatements to your property

2:10:54uh but i do want you to know that we did

2:10:56hear your arguments and your your

2:10:58testimony and we would hope that um

2:11:02going forward that you would be

2:11:04proactive in managing your property

2:11:06um so i believe at this point it is our

2:11:09duty to

2:11:11find a move a resolution of the city

2:11:13council the sea of el cerrito

2:11:16confirming the report of the cost of

2:11:19abatement of public nuisance conditions

2:11:21resulting from the presence of weeds

2:11:23rubbish litter or other flammable

2:11:25material on the private property

2:11:27designated here on here in under the

2:11:30authority contained in el cerrito

2:11:31municipal code

2:11:32section 1621 and let the record show

2:11:36that it is 13

2:11:39parcels

2:11:40as amended

2:11:41in our

2:11:43packet tonight exhibit a revised on

2:11:46october 15 2019. second

2:11:49motion by lyman second by abelson all in

2:11:52favor aye

2:11:54those opposed motion carries

2:11:59[Applause]

2:12:02all right so

2:12:04policy matters there are none this

2:12:06evening so we will report out on any

2:12:08local and regional liaison assignments

2:12:13i have a few okay council over ableton

2:12:15okay i um

2:12:20see here

2:12:21um

2:12:26i went to the chamber of commerce

2:12:28luncheon

2:12:30today and um

2:12:32that was pretty interesting they had

2:12:35they have this

2:12:36section of the

2:12:38meeting where somebody has five minutes

2:12:41to

2:12:42talk about their business

2:12:43and so the person that talked about his

2:12:46business today whose name was

2:12:48mark

2:12:49zipling

2:12:50he spoke about

2:12:53he has a

2:12:55financial

2:12:57advice

2:12:58a business that gives financial advice

2:13:00to

2:13:03individuals

2:13:04and

2:13:05so he explained how the business worked

2:13:08and it was really interesting i thought

2:13:10because

2:13:11he explained why different people need

2:13:14different kinds

2:13:15of financial advice depending upon what

2:13:18their situation is

2:13:20and i thought it was really interesting

2:13:22but what i particularly liked about this

2:13:24whole thing is it kind of brought home

2:13:26for me

2:13:27how useful it is to have a forum

2:13:30for small business to present

2:13:33what it is their business does

2:13:35and um

2:13:37you know and make other people in the

2:13:39community aware of what the business

2:13:42is like and what it could do for them or

2:13:44what it could not do for them because he

2:13:46kind of did both he said you know

2:13:48he wasn't pretending to be a jack of all

2:13:50trades or anything

2:13:52so we stick to the regional and liaison

2:13:54assignments oh

2:13:56yeah this is the thing that i'm doing

2:13:58because i went to that meeting and i'm

2:14:00supposed to do that oh i think so

2:14:0212 34. yeah oh i supposed to do that i

2:14:05see okay so that's that

2:14:07um

2:14:08then um

2:14:11i had an i have another one that's like

2:14:13that too and that is that uh supervisor

2:14:16john joya's

2:14:18district uh staff member john carpenter

2:14:21just retired

2:14:23and

2:14:24there was a an event held for her

2:14:27uh and um so i'll just leave it at that

2:14:30she

2:14:31served many years

2:14:33in that capacity and um there were a lot

2:14:36of people there who gave her our

2:14:38resolution

2:14:40and i did thank you i delivered our

2:14:42resolution

2:14:43um

2:14:45the um let's see here

2:14:49um

2:14:51excuse me

2:15:00i also

2:15:01um

2:15:03went to the arts

2:15:06the

2:15:07el cerrito arts

2:15:09association what pardon

2:15:12art association association thank you

2:15:14that was the word i was not remembering

2:15:16and

2:15:19selected an event to represent us on

2:15:22behalf of the mayor

2:15:25and um

2:15:25[Music]

2:15:27it turned out to be done by the same

2:15:29artist that

2:15:30i picked two years ago

2:15:33when that person

2:15:36did a

2:15:37piece that's actually hanging on the

2:15:39wall now

2:15:40here

2:15:43then i just wanted to mention

2:15:48that um

2:15:50there was an event on um

2:15:54actually this one is old i won't mention

2:15:56that one because we're in a hurry

2:15:58um

2:16:01um

2:16:02i went to the kensington fire

2:16:05open house that was held on

2:16:08october the 12th it was a

2:16:11a really

2:16:12nice event and they were giving out

2:16:14emergency supplies which was also very

2:16:16nice and i think some other people

2:16:19were there too

2:16:21from this council

2:16:23you were here you were there yeah but

2:16:25did i miss somebody else maybe not and

2:16:27our study manager karen pinkos was there

2:16:31and

2:16:32it was an opportunity to

2:16:34speak with people from that jurisdiction

2:16:37and

2:16:39it wouldn't it went very well

2:16:43on

2:16:45um

2:16:46let's get to that one too i'll just

2:16:48leave it at that

2:16:51okay

2:16:51thank you mayor um

2:16:53i did attend the contra costa mayor's

2:16:56conference

2:16:57which was held in antioch this

2:16:59month

2:17:00and

2:17:02we did have a

2:17:05talk on

2:17:06evs from a gentleman from ccta

2:17:10and the importance of trying to get more

2:17:12infrastructure in our cities and el

2:17:15cerrito was lacking in ev chargers in

2:17:18every part of the city so i'm hoping we

2:17:20can play catch-up to

2:17:23to richmond and even the city of albany

2:17:25has more than we do so we need to play

2:17:28catch-up on that and

2:17:30i was invited by

2:17:32assembly member david chu

2:17:35at the signing of ab1482

2:17:38i was running late so why didn't attend

2:17:40that but i did attend a celebration

2:17:43of the signing

2:17:44with and

2:17:46speaker atkins was there along with the

2:17:48assembly member david tube and

2:17:52senator skinner and

2:17:55it was

2:17:56great to see

2:17:581482 signed and this was done by the

2:18:01state

2:18:02and so i'm glad the state stepped up on

2:18:05this important thing to make sure

2:18:07that

2:18:09we don't have any more people becoming

2:18:11homeless

2:18:12this is an important legislation and

2:18:15even though i did not support this here

2:18:17for the city of el cerrito know that

2:18:20i do support it but

2:18:22i continue to say that the city of el

2:18:25cerrito cannot afford uh doing anything

2:18:28that

2:18:29such as

2:18:31rent control like this so i'm glad the

2:18:32state stepped up

2:18:34i was in contact with assemblyman two

2:18:36and buffy wicks and nancy skinner

2:18:38letting them know how important it was

2:18:40for the state to work on this and not

2:18:43for small cities that can't afford it

2:18:46also i

2:18:47attended the hazardous materials

2:18:49commission and we are interviewing for

2:18:53uh

2:18:54folks

2:18:56from the community level uh to join this

2:18:59commission as as well as uh

2:19:03finding another interviewing

2:19:05commissioner

2:19:07that will be from the environmental

2:19:08movement

2:19:10so i'm happy to say that

2:19:12i was able to find

2:19:14three of the commissioners that we have

2:19:16now in the contra costa hazardous

2:19:19materials commission

2:19:20and we will be

2:19:22investigating and and speaking in the

2:19:24next meeting the end of the month about

2:19:27this explosion that happened in rodeo

2:19:31so

2:19:32i did attend the kensington fire open

2:19:34house it was great to uh

2:19:36get the tour there from uh our our crew

2:19:39there in kensington and uh

2:19:41to uh

2:19:43just so folks remember that

2:19:45that

2:19:46firehouse is right on the hayward fault

2:19:49and when you see that building uh i took

2:19:52a tour of that building and and you can

2:19:54tell that one side is slipping faster

2:19:57than the others so

2:20:00we need to make sure that we have a

2:20:01firehouse that is safe and that works uh

2:20:05and

2:20:06we continue to

2:20:07look into making sure

2:20:10that they have

2:20:13a safe environment to work at

2:20:16i also attended the rotary sip and saver

2:20:18on sunday

2:20:19and uh glad to see so many uh of my

2:20:22colleagues there it's great to see you

2:20:23there greg and uh and then last night i