Regular City Council Meeting July 20, 2021

0:14:41And so we're ready at 7:00 here on rainy if you're ready OK,

0:14:51election lost the july 20th Ulcerate

0:14:55city Council meeting is is called to order at 7:00 p.m.

0:14:58You have a roll call And Fidele here Mayor Potemkin to here

0:15:05council member, Apison here.

0:15:08And some of them tamma here and some of the red neck here.

0:15:12We have a quien right?

0:15:15Well, the city clerk, please provide information

0:15:17on the telecom and public comment Hinkie

0:15:21here for city councils, council and staff where participating

0:15:25panelists please remember to keep your microphone muted

0:15:28whenever you are not speaking to ensure

0:15:30compliance with the Brown Act and to address

0:15:32security concerns.

0:15:33Attendee images and videos remain disabled, as well as

0:15:36the chatty future for all participants

0:15:39and members of the public who wish to provide oral testimony.

0:15:42The mayor will announce the time for public comment

0:15:44on each applicable item.

0:15:46If you wish to speak please select the hand.

0:15:48I contrabass your hand.

0:15:50If you cannot locate the icon, please refer to the document

0:15:53on page one of the agenda for the race hand feature

0:15:57attendee's joining by phone conduced Nine to raise

0:15:59their hand when it's your turn to provide comments,

0:16:02your name will be called and you will

0:16:04be prompted to find yourself.

0:16:05Attendees running by phone will be prompted to dial

0:16:08Six to meet themselves here.

0:16:10That concludes my comments Ready to move on to the next item

0:16:13Thank you.

0:16:14And the next item is council and staff communications.

0:16:18Can we begin with any staff communications Certainly.

0:16:22Thank you, Mayor.

0:16:23Fidele.

0:16:23I'm Karen Pinkest.

0:16:24I'm the city manager.

0:16:25I'm here to first report on our local emergency,

0:16:29which is still in existence.

0:16:32I know that we had talked about perhaps ending

0:16:35that local emergency, but considering some of the changes

0:16:38that have happened over the last month and the fact

0:16:41that there are still some some county and state initiatives

0:16:46in place we are proposing that we continue the local emergency

0:16:50at least through September at this point,

0:16:53just to ensure that any of the legislation that

0:16:57has been passed is continued.

0:16:59So we'll continue to review that, however, and bring

0:17:01that council's attention.

0:17:02But in the meantime as a bit of a report as you have probably

0:17:08been seeing in the news it's been quite the quite the story

0:17:12lately that while we did open California,

0:17:15we California did open on June 15

0:17:19there has been a bit of a surge happening.

0:17:22I think some people are reluctant to call it

0:17:24another surge, but there's no question that cases

0:17:26have been increasing.

0:17:28And so the county along with all of the other Bay Area counties

0:17:32has Contra Costa health, does now recommend that everyone

0:17:37consider it's a recommendation that everyone consider

0:17:40wearing face coverings whenever they

0:17:42enter into our public spaces.

0:17:43Regardless of your vaccination status,

0:17:47the county stresses this isn't a requirement but it's a choice.

0:17:51And again, all of the Bay Area counties

0:17:53San Francisco and Berkeley, helped departments have

0:17:56endorsed this Right now we could actually if we

0:18:01were still doing the tier system,

0:18:03we might be at the Purple tier.

0:18:05So it really is serious a case rate.

0:18:07Luckily the death rate has not increased which

0:18:10is why I think that this is still a recommendation

0:18:13as opposed to a requirement.

0:18:15But there's no question that people

0:18:17are still testing positive even if they've been vaccinated.

0:18:20And so it's just a good idea.

0:18:22And a good practice to be able to wear face coverings.

0:18:25And frankly, to me, I mean, on a personal note,

0:18:28it's no different than wearing like a hat or a jacket.

0:18:31It's just kind of part of the part the wardrobe.

0:18:34These days.

0:18:35And so for me, it's just another item of clothing that I may

0:18:39where you may wear and a doesn't have to be anything

0:18:43So hopefully everyone again, we have

0:18:46a very high vaccination rate.

0:18:47And Ossorio but let's continue to increase

0:18:50that Hopefully, people will continue to to wear masks,

0:18:54take care.

0:18:55Just be safe and be cautious.

0:18:58I do know that we, as of July six,

0:19:02city hall is now open unlimited hours.

0:19:05This is in my city manager update.

0:19:07And it's on our website, limited hours from 9:00

0:19:10a.m. to one p.m.

0:19:12Monday through Thursday We're trying to ease back

0:19:15into reopening, but it's been a really wonderful thing

0:19:19I know that I've been going into the office

0:19:21more often, interacting the public more often.

0:19:23And it's just been a really wonderful thing.

0:19:25To be able to interact with people in person

0:19:28instead of on a screen The community center

0:19:31is open, limited hours recycling center, police department.

0:19:35So all of our city buildings are now

0:19:37open some form of limited hours So please

0:19:40check our city website.

0:19:41Al-Dossary dog for for those for those hours.

0:19:45And we do anticipate that these limited hours will

0:19:47continue through the summer.

0:19:49So I'm looking perhaps at September as an end date.

0:19:52But again, this is You know, things

0:19:55are still moving as we've sort of

0:19:56learned how to be comfortable with being

0:19:58uncomfortable these days.

0:20:00We're certainly living on certain.

0:20:01So we're just continuing to keep an eye on that.

0:20:04And the mayor i know, is going to address some of our plans

0:20:08for public meetings when he speaks.

0:20:10So at that point or at this point,

0:20:13I at that concludes my report Thank you so much.

0:20:16Thank you.

0:20:18And the communications from our council members Yes.

0:20:22Council member Rubner I saw the mayor

0:20:25pro tem had his hand up First.

0:20:27The police discovered that very brief, which is July

0:20:32is Homelessness Awareness Month.

0:20:34And I met earlier this month on the line night with Richmond

0:20:39Council member gayle McLaughlin and Daniel barth of Richmond,

0:20:42S.O.S, which stands for Safe Organized spaces, as well

0:20:46as Caltrans staff and we discussed how else really

0:20:51wants to take a regional approach

0:20:52when it comes to homelessness.

0:20:54A especially looking at the encampment

0:20:56under the Caltrans three area with Caltrans

0:20:59territory that is under the Central Avenue underpass.

0:21:03We've seen that there's a lot of debris that's

0:21:05been getting getting there.

0:21:08And then for a lot of our folks who are Elstree to residents,

0:21:10that is technically Richmond.

0:21:12So we want to make sure that we're supporting Richmond

0:21:15and making sure that areas are getting cleaned up humanely

0:21:19and that Elstree any policy that we're looking to

0:21:22is going to be in line with what Richmond is doing with Caltrans

0:21:27and also Richmond S.O.S is a really fantastic organization

0:21:30If you don't know about it, which is a good way to have

0:21:34folks who are experienced homelessness

0:21:36to be in a safe space as well.

0:21:39As it's an organization that's giving employment

0:21:42to folks who are experiencing homelessness to go out

0:21:45and to essentially have the cultural competencies

0:21:48to recruit folks who are experiencing

0:21:50homelessness to be in safe designated sleeping areas.

0:21:56Thank you Mayor Pro Tem Thank you, Mayor.

0:22:01I wanted to report that I took my first flight on a plane

0:22:05last week.

0:22:06And I flew out to San Diego for the California cities board

0:22:12meeting and i was appointed for another two years out of thirty

0:22:18four applicants and I i'm pleased to say

0:22:22that that i'll be a part of this group

0:22:26and that I look forward to working with all you staff are

0:22:32both police chiefs and our city manager

0:22:36and providing good government to the rest

0:22:40the state of California.

0:22:42So i'm excited about this.

0:22:43We had a chance to meet with my fellow board members including

0:22:48the mayor of San Diego, and it's great to catch up with him

0:22:52and as well as the regional mayors and council members,

0:22:58police and fire chiefs from California

0:23:01and we are working on equity, diversity inclusion

0:23:07and modernizing this.

0:23:09One twenty six twenty seven organization and glad

0:23:14to be a part of this organization.

0:23:18I look forward to having my colleagues join me

0:23:20this coming Thursday.

0:23:22For the EPA division meeting.

0:23:24I will have a special guest from the cPU's.

0:23:28See to discuss just what's going on with the One fifty six

0:23:36point fifty six and looking at the funding that will come in

0:23:41from the federal government and state government

0:23:44for So I know this is excited, especially for our challenge.

0:23:50Community Many of them attend schools here and elsewhere

0:23:54but have no access to broadband.

0:23:57So looking at that and looking at the future things

0:24:00are looking better.

0:24:01Things are looking up and look forward

0:24:04to presenting that on Thursday.

0:24:08And that's my report.

0:24:09I'll give a report at the end of the council meeting

0:24:12with some of the regional boards that I attended Thank

0:24:19you Council member Mohtarma.

0:24:22Thank you, Mayor.

0:24:23I just want to report out a couple of things

0:24:26I attended that economic Development Alliance meeting

0:24:30and they had a presentation on what's

0:24:33going to happen at the Philips 66 plant in radio.

0:24:37And that is going to be transition to a carbon

0:24:40free renewable diesel plant.

0:24:43So I thought that might be of interest to our community.

0:24:46And also I attended a Marine clean energy meeting as well.

0:24:53And they announced that they will opening up

0:24:56their commercial energy program Once again,

0:24:59it was closed because was full, but they

0:25:02are opening it up again.

0:25:03If businesses and i would be interested Thank you council

0:25:11member, Avildsen Yes just wanted to announce that I attended

0:25:15the meeting that was recently And I've

0:25:22spent quite a bit of time thinking

0:25:23about how I would do this report.

0:25:26And so I thought i would do it by trying to explain

0:25:34what the role of big is.

0:25:38Because what a bag is always doing in my opinion,

0:25:43over the years i have seen it is trying to enable our area

0:25:52to before thinking and acting in terms of housing

0:26:00in particular and other important issues

0:26:04that as they come along over time

0:26:07And one of the things that they have been a particular leader

0:26:11in is housing in so that when I first started being aware

0:26:19of it, it they discussed things like jobs versus housing

0:26:27for people for people and now they've gotten

0:26:35a little more sophisticated.

0:26:37I think And they talk about the types

0:26:40of housing that are needed and for each particular group.

0:26:47They also are helpful in enabling

0:26:53different jurisdictions and jurisdictions

0:26:56include housing excuse me, include cities and also

0:27:04counties and they what they do is they help

0:27:12to facilitate the acquisition of special funds, as I come along.

0:27:19So for example, this time they mentioned you know,

0:27:26some special funds that came along

0:27:29for El Cerrito about twenty nine thousand dollars I think it was

0:27:34an so One of the things that I think that they've been

0:27:39a real leader in is making sure we

0:27:45have enough work, what I would call

0:27:46workforce housing and housing for low income people.

0:27:53So i don't know if you remember a while back,

0:27:56somebody mentioned that we had that our housing

0:28:00gold for affordable housing Well,

0:28:04the reason we know that is because

0:28:06of a big and a big First of all, sets requirements

0:28:12for each jurisdiction.

0:28:14And then after a process where people can issue basically

0:28:25a complaint and try to get it changed, then

0:28:29they settle and firm up the actual goals

0:28:33So then they're implemented And so we're

0:28:35expecting over the next period of time to follow that rule.

0:28:40And we've been really a leader in El

0:28:44Cerrito in particular in the area of low income housing.

0:28:49And I'm personally very proud of that.

0:28:52And what you know, what everyone in our city

0:28:55and I especially want to point out,

0:28:58Steph, because they're the ones who actually did the work

0:29:02We signed on to it and I'm proud of us for that.

0:29:06But it was really the staff that did the work of making it

0:29:09happen So right now, if you are interested in low income

0:29:14housing, you can go in to city hall or you can look online

0:29:20and you can actually find out what is what buildings have

0:29:27that kind of housing And then if or if you want to contact them,

0:29:33you can call them and see if they have any units available.

0:29:37And sometimes the answer is yes, they do.

0:29:40And unfortunately, sometimes the answer

0:29:42is no, because even though we may have met our goals,

0:29:47there's still a shortage of low income

0:29:49housing, affordable housing, in the Bay Area.

0:29:55And these things don't stop at city boundary

0:29:58Say they continue onward.

0:30:01So when I think of a bag that's pretty much the main thing

0:30:08I personally think of.

0:30:11And i'm i think it's even though it's just one item,

0:30:18it's such an extremely important item.

0:30:22And I think that as we do our work

0:30:25and know look at various product checks that are being

0:30:31proposed to us and so forth.

0:30:34We think about where all starts back with a bag

0:30:39and and hopefully we will do a good job.

0:30:43So I'll consider that my report, if that's OK.

0:30:48And we had a lot of discussion no doubt,

0:30:54you know the various subsets of that.

0:30:57And if you're interested in more detail

0:31:01you can go online to the website.

0:31:06I think we just say a bag a BHP, then

0:31:11you'll be able to get there.

0:31:12And you can look at the detail yourself.

0:31:16So I'll leave with that.

0:31:18Thank you.

0:31:21Thank you, Councilman.

0:31:22Wilson.

0:31:23That was a very concrete report on the general session

0:31:26I appreciate that.

0:31:28I have several items and I want to go through.

0:31:33First of all, I wanted to say that last week I attended

0:31:35the event at Richmond City supporting that Tibet

0:31:40about walk to Sacramone in honor of the Dalai Lama's eighty six

0:31:44birthday and supported our local Tenzin Wrangel of Young

0:31:49cabaye as they walked to Sacramento.

0:31:53And they got to the state capital

0:31:54and with Mayor Pro Tem, met with some legislators there to talk

0:31:59about China and the need to free Tibet

0:32:02So I was very proud about that.

0:32:04I attended also the Caraco Field Day at Canyon

0:32:08Trail Park A few of us did.

0:32:11I know the entertainment Council member Ruddington dealing

0:32:14with disaster preparedness and search and all of our Hamaker

0:32:19aders, our local ham operators in El Cerrito

0:32:22and how they're important to our effort

0:32:25and our disaster relief effort.

0:32:26So I was very proud about that.

0:32:28I'm also very proud about honoring a local business that

0:32:33has been in town for seventy years.

0:32:35and they get to have one of these SPIFFE Mayor certificates

0:32:40of recognition all of our old plumbing for seventy years

0:32:45they've been operating in El Cerrito for fifty

0:32:48six years at the same location they have.

0:32:51They're the one the oldest Chamber of Commerce members

0:32:54in our city and four generations of family

0:32:58are working at oliviero Plumbing and i think I'd call

0:33:02that an American success story.

0:33:04So we're very proud of them.

0:33:05They not only do repair work, but also work

0:33:08on new construction housing, and schools.

0:33:10And I just wanted to say that when I grew up in Richmond,

0:33:13at the bottom of it, they were my dad's plumber

0:33:16and they helped me here in El Cerrito

0:33:19move our washerwomen down to our garage.

0:33:21So they're wonderful Go visit them.

0:33:24If you can.

0:33:25And congratulations to all of our plumbing

0:33:28for seven seven decades.

0:33:30Wonderful Also, I'm hoping to recognize the future.

0:33:35Sean Bennett, as many of you guys

0:33:37know he participated in in the tour de France

0:33:42and actually took the lead at one point.

0:33:44And one of the One of the days And his mother

0:33:48lives down the street from me.

0:33:50So we're going to be trying to recognize

0:33:52him in August or later.

0:33:54And hopefully we can do something special.

0:33:56And also for him, we're very proud of him.

0:33:58He's a local hero.

0:34:01I also want to remind people that the pool,

0:34:03our famous swimming pool is open to the public.

0:34:06So there's no special reservoir required.

0:34:10We can go on.

0:34:11Our schedule is on our website That's an important thing to me

0:34:14and some others And now a city manager

0:34:18had mentioned some updates on city council meetings

0:34:21that we will be holding.

0:34:23Hopefully of covid abates at our city hall.

0:34:29We have Two members here who is at Dyas yet

0:34:32to have a city council meeting.

0:34:33So we're looking forward to that happening And at the August

0:34:3717th City Council meeting, we will be taking the first step

0:34:41toward transitioning to a hybrid meeting model, which means we

0:34:46will be sitting dyas and zoome will still

0:34:49be available for public participants at their homes

0:34:54And then at the September 20th, meeting,

0:34:56we want to welcome back all the individuals,

0:34:58if we can in person in our council chamber

0:35:02to a remote option remaining participation will

0:35:06still be there.

0:35:06So you can either stay at home and watch our show up

0:35:10and i love the options that we're

0:35:12having I want to thank staff for making that available

0:35:14and making that council available to us

0:35:17as soon as we can.

0:35:19So hopefully, we can get to that point

0:35:23And finally, before I get to our calendar,

0:35:25I want to make a point about lately

0:35:29we've gotten a lot of mail about library hours of writing

0:35:34to our county for Measure X funds for extended hours

0:35:38that are elsewhere in aliber.

0:35:41And some discussion about emergency effort to request

0:35:46that we write a letter and supported it.

0:35:48The letter will be written to the advisory committee,

0:35:52to the Measure X funding, which is now the turning

0:35:56lots of special projects that they

0:35:59would like to fund by the recently passed tax measure.

0:36:02I'm supportive of a county spending more money

0:36:06on our libraries I'm sure maybe some of the others

0:36:09and I will be writing a letter.

0:36:12I'm just not at this time supportive of making

0:36:16an emergency.

0:36:18Declan at this time when it's not the state legislature

0:36:21or the governor or some other emergency effort we will.

0:36:25No, I will notify in a subsequent council meeting

0:36:28that I or others have written letters.

0:36:31We can't have additional city hours hours at the library.

0:36:36But this could reduce the city funding It goes to the library.

0:36:40So that's a great thing that we all would like to have,

0:36:43is less money more hours.

0:36:45So I'm not sure about other council members

0:36:47and what their desires are but I'm supportive of monitoring

0:36:52and letting the advisory committee

0:36:53know that this city council, at least this mayor's

0:36:56support of that effort.

0:36:58We've already written one letter in support of 9,

0:37:028 eight mobile support for health employees

0:37:05to replace police in certain circumstances.

0:37:08So we've already registered one request to that advisory board.

0:37:13Are there any other comments going forward at this time?

0:37:19Seeing none?

0:37:20I'd like to move to the consent calendar

0:37:24and I'd like to read the consent items.

0:37:29And if there's any consent, I wonder if someone would like

0:37:32to remove Please let me know that Mappa

0:37:35and the next item on the agenda all communications

0:37:38and the public.

0:37:39OK, well, then that's that's even better.

0:37:43At this time.

0:37:45Members of the public who wish to provide public comments

0:37:48regarding matters not on the agenda concerning

0:37:51events and presentation.

0:37:52I should use the raised hand feature to request to speak.

0:37:56And I'm going to ask the city clerk to proceed and help

0:37:58us with two and a half minute time

0:38:01limit for the public comments.

0:38:02Thank you very much.

0:38:08Thank you, Mayor So why we allowed

0:38:10the members of the public on the call

0:38:11a chance to raise their hand?

0:38:12I just quickly announce that a written public comments

0:38:15received by advance deadline today

0:38:18were posted on the city's website

0:38:19as well as provided directly to the council

0:38:21members for public comments not on the agenda tonight.

0:38:25You received comments from cordell Hendler, Chante

0:38:28Corrigan, Susan Abboushi, Robin mitchell,

0:38:32Mary Gilbert, ivashov, now Allen Miller,

0:38:35Michael Fisher and Rachel Rose.

0:38:38And then on consent item for comments

0:38:40from Susan Duncan Nick Severino and George.

0:38:45And for item six item Fauji on consent, John Koffman Sue

0:38:50Duncan, Gary Prost and Jim doggonedest And at this time,

0:38:55we have three requests to speak.

0:38:58The mayor has stated two and a half minutes that time.

0:39:02So go ahead and go with Speaker which

0:39:05is I read, I read you are unneeded and should

0:39:07be able to begin your time.

0:39:09Now, those last week, I received an email from the Metropolitan

0:39:14Transportation in the area, told the representative for me

0:39:20that two thousand nineteen the city's PCI rating

0:39:24from eighty two down or that eight point drop is the biggest

0:39:28in the area I would like to know how the city spending tax money

0:39:33I could not find the information city website.

0:39:36I could not find the annual report

0:39:38I think the council needs to help equality on the agenda

0:39:42Next topic I notice that for Pepper Telfords

0:39:46pepper Calpurnia has lowered the discount rate to six point 8%.

0:39:51I also noticed that in fiscal twenty twenty

0:39:54two fiscal twenty point two the update me is increased payment

0:40:00is increasing from four point Three million to 5 points Five

0:40:04million or more precisely the increase of one million one

0:40:08seventy five thousand Seven hundred fifty $5.

0:40:10I think the council needs of a full understanding who else has

0:40:15to make such large payments and why those payments continue

0:40:18to increase and an extraordinary rate, as the state auditor said

0:40:23quote, Excessive spending insufficient efforts to address

0:40:28its perilous financial condition jeopardize the city's

0:40:32ongoing supply unquote, i also think the council need

0:40:37to examine why November twenty six two thousand ninety S&P

0:40:41downgraded to financial management

0:40:44policies and practices.

0:40:46The standard as S&P wrote, quote,

0:40:49The pension costs projected to continue

0:40:51to increase above the already elevated levels the city

0:40:55could face difficult choices.

0:40:57If it enters next recession in its current strain,

0:41:00strained state finally, it would be nice

0:41:04if council members and the city manager

0:41:07could also record up meetings with ossorio residents

0:41:11their constituents and use fewer undefined acronyms

0:41:15or build numbers.

0:41:16When speaking.

0:41:17So the public actually understands

0:41:19what they're talking about.

0:41:20Thank you very much Our next speaker is Sue Duncan.

0:41:28You should be able to and you can begin your time now.

0:41:36Sue, are you with us?

0:41:43Yes, I am sorry.

0:41:44You can cannot get Good evening.

0:41:47My name is Sue Duncan.

0:41:49President of El Cerrito.

0:41:50And co-founder of Mickelsen fire Safe.

0:41:54I m urging you to adopt items for RF and Fauji

0:41:57on the calendar this evening.

0:42:00Item for F declaring wildfire prevention and safety

0:42:03is a top priority of the city.

0:42:05Should keep the very real possible

0:42:07of the unthinkable A wildfire coming through El Cerrito

0:42:11as a focus for each department as they make their work plans

0:42:14Adopting the resolution that officially states

0:42:17that wildfire prevention is a top priority also

0:42:20might help the city when it applies for grants It is also

0:42:25very important to adopt the JPA resolution item

0:42:28Forgy wildfires.

0:42:30No, no city or county boundaries.

0:42:32They go where there is fuel and where the wind blows

0:42:35The East Bay Hills, backed by East Bay Regional

0:42:38Parkland from Richmond to Castro Valley

0:42:41need a comprehensive, consistent vegetation

0:42:43management plan to protect the lives of the residents.

0:42:46Their homes and businesses Currently, there

0:42:49are 20 different municipalities and agencies

0:42:52that own land within this area.

0:42:54All with different vegetation management standards

0:42:57and funding It is time to look at the whole picture

0:43:00of the East Bay Hills wildfire potential

0:43:02and unify the prevention efforts.

0:43:04Please adopt the resolution.

0:43:06So that the many agencies can sit down together and discuss

0:43:10the feasible of a JPA.

0:43:12I also remind the County Council that four of you

0:43:15have added your names to the list

0:43:17of ENDORSEES for this project.

0:43:20Thank you for your consideration.

0:43:26Our next speaker is michael Fisher

0:43:28and you should be able to meet and begin your time now

0:43:33Thank you Mayor Fidele and members of the council.

0:43:37My name's Michael Fisher and i am your library commissioner.

0:43:42The issue of how we fund the library

0:43:45hours and bus library access.

0:43:48And you needs to be changed The current library system means

0:43:55that wealthier cities can afford to

0:43:58and do have their libraries open more The issue here is

0:44:04equity for essential broadband.

0:44:06As Mayor Pro Tem Quinn is noted as being funded for access

0:44:14to information, as a respite for people experiencing

0:44:18homelessness and many other uses that our libraries are

0:44:24make available to remedy this injustice.

0:44:29The county librarian is seeking measure X funding

0:44:33to significantly increase library hours county wide

0:44:37As Mayor Fidele has already noted, I'm asking all

0:44:43of the council members to send individual letters of support

0:44:47by July 20, seven, as you did for the community crisis

0:44:52initiative last month the advisory board will

0:44:56be recommending ten funding priorities.

0:44:59And these two items, both deserve to be on that list.

0:45:04I have submitted written comments, which

0:45:07included draft letter for further information

0:45:10and thank you Thank.

0:45:15Our next speaker is Linda Kane linda,

0:45:17you should be able to unmuted begin your time now.

0:45:20Thank you.

0:45:21You.

0:45:21When I heard Irish journalist speaking,

0:45:23I've always appreciated every time you've spoken for a city

0:45:26council meeting because he does seem to have a good perspective

0:45:29on economic and financial issues, which

0:45:32are hard for a lot of us to understand.

0:45:34I really appreciate that he keeps the pressure on because

0:45:38because it's important.

0:45:39It's critical.

0:45:40And I also wanted to second what he said about using terminology

0:45:46I have sat here hours through the meeting,

0:45:48especially now when we have so little visibility as people

0:45:52in town that using initials like the initials

0:45:56they used for the special loan that I can't remember

0:46:00the name of it already, but the loan that you took out

0:46:02every year that had a lot of impact on our budget

0:46:07And I never understood what it was for like three months

0:46:10until somebody accidentally having to mention.

0:46:12I just wanted to say I'm sure it's not deliberate trying

0:46:15to exclude us, but but Yeah, please

0:46:17be considerate and let us know what you're talking about with

0:46:20or acronyms.

0:46:21Thank you so much.

0:46:24Thank you.

0:46:25Mayor.

0:46:26That does conclude, I request to speak at this time Thank you.

0:46:33Now we move to the concert calendar

0:46:36And again, as i mentioned, if anyone has something

0:46:39they would like to remove from the agenda list, please let me

0:46:44know and I'll let you read these items for you.

0:46:47There First is the approval of a minutes B is authorized letter

0:46:56of opposition for a Senate bill to seventy eight which involves

0:47:01payments of personal purse invoices for five

0:47:08is to authorize a letter of support

0:47:11for Cal City's proposed resolution dealing

0:47:13with fulfillment centers Five days

0:47:17urban Forest Committee appointment

0:47:19of Catherine Cassey Hughes.

0:47:21Thank you, Cassie, for stepping up to that Five years.

0:47:25The fiscal year.

0:47:26Twenty, twenty twenty, twenty one.

0:47:29Fourth quarter cash and investment report five F

0:47:34is the resolution declaring wildfire prevention

0:47:37and safety as a top priority.

0:47:39Sarino five G is a resolution in support of an EPA joint power

0:47:44agency for Vegetation management,

0:47:47as was spoken to recently and five

0:47:51is the storm drain easement acceptance agreement

0:47:54for fourteen thirty one.

0:47:55Scott Street I move adoption of the consent

0:48:01calendar A, B, C d, e, f.

0:48:05G and H thank denies the council.

0:48:10My syama.

0:48:11Did you have a second or a concern I absolutely.

0:48:15I just have a couple of questions

0:48:17on the investment reports.

0:48:19So I don't know if it's easier to just ask staff or pullet

0:48:27Can we say the manager can we is our finance director on board

0:48:33Can you answer questions Yes.

0:48:36Yes.

0:48:36He is coming up right now.

0:48:38Thank you.

0:48:45Marcus.

0:48:46I welcome the Honorable Marcus Finance member Motoman.

0:48:54Your questions to finance director Thank you.

0:48:57Thank you.

0:48:59I just in particularly in response to one

0:49:03of the the residents that just spoke

0:49:06can I when you get a better sense of the lay

0:49:10of the local agency investment funds and its role

0:49:14in also understanding where our repayment for the the tranh

0:49:22resides, which sorry, i'm having a moment.

0:49:25And I can't remember what stands for,

0:49:27but that's the short term Our short term loan

0:49:30So i know that would we put our funds into the local agency

0:49:35investment fund?

0:49:36But looking at the report, the return is very low.

0:49:39And I just understand, does that mean

0:49:42that money goes in and goes out and it's like a holding

0:49:45place for our funding?

0:49:46Or is it like a long term deposit where we put our funds

0:49:51for like a year And it's how does the relief work and why

0:49:57is our return.

0:49:58So low on that?

0:49:59To answer that question council member Motorama marcus,

0:50:03our finance director let me just touch

0:50:05on the which is the local agency investing

0:50:08fund, which is run by the state controller's office.

0:50:12That's the investment fund It's managed

0:50:14by the state controller office.

0:50:15And almost every jurisdiction has some piece of money.

0:50:18Invest through the left and has a max cap

0:50:22that you can invest in the it's about fifty million dollars

0:50:24and we are nowhere near that.

0:50:25So we get by with whatever we have.

0:50:29Now, keep in mind that the funds that we have in fund

0:50:33all general fund, these are it's comingle funds from capital

0:50:37projects funds, funds from special revenue funds

0:50:40and other sources as well.

0:50:42And so that's where the money is.

0:50:44And you're right let's return rates of return

0:50:47have significantly dropped over the last couple of years.

0:50:50There was a time when we brought in about one point

0:50:53eight one point nine percent as a rate of return

0:50:56But if you take most of the investment opportunities

0:50:58that we currently have in fixed income securities,

0:51:01the rates have dropped drastically Camp, for example,

0:51:04is running at point five percent and is a little ahead of that.

0:51:07So on average, we've been doing around point to 6%.

0:51:10As my report shows.

0:51:12Over the fiscal year 2012 We don't

0:51:15think fixed a fixed amount transport a fixed amount

0:51:19will save on an annual basis.

0:51:21It's a holding It's a holding pen for cash comes in

0:51:25and we put it in and take it out and we need it.

0:51:27And you might recall that this report is as of June 30th.

0:51:31So money changing money comes in, money goes out.

0:51:34And we do half of what we almost half of what we had in

0:51:38live and transferred the mechanics

0:51:40bank on the 30th of June, because

0:51:42on the very next day itself.

0:51:43We had to pay off the trend, the tax revenue, our tax receipts,

0:51:47anticipatory, not that we were alluding to previously.

0:51:50And that was about eight point seven dollars

0:51:52million As I point out in my report,

0:51:54So that's the reason why bank has that large sum of money

0:51:58right there, because we had to on the 30th of June

0:52:01and it had to be repaid on the 1st of July

0:52:04Typically that gets repaid around the 1st

0:52:06of the second week of July.

0:52:07But the timing was such that for this particular trend,

0:52:09the repayment document on the 1st of July.

0:52:12So that's the reason for that sum of money.

0:52:14So all in all, it brings in about maybe

0:52:17forty to fifty thousand interest income based on the interest

0:52:20alone and keep in mind that this is not general funding

0:52:24it's interest from the funds as well, because the funds coming.

0:52:28And so that piece of it is recognized as interest

0:52:33in this whole thing.

0:52:34But again, My report stands in the staff report

0:52:36You say that there isn't much in terms investable cash in that

0:52:41account at any given time because there's

0:52:43a lot of women out that happens throughout the year.

0:52:45And that's so we don't count as an investment opportunity

0:52:52If I had said three or forty million dollars to invest,

0:52:55I would probably go out and in, out of investment fund

0:52:58to help us manage the cash and we would invest it

0:53:02in a separate we would have a separate investment

0:53:05strategy for that rather than going

0:53:06with the passive investment strategy

0:53:08such as the late the latest run through the state

0:53:11comptroller's office.

0:53:12How many jurisdictions use that they have

0:53:16a widespread distribution of assets Their rates of return

0:53:20are not shining at this point, but that's

0:53:22the best we can get We get almost

0:53:24nothing at mechanics' back.

0:53:26So that's the flip side of that And was

0:53:31that a second party question on that You answer that.

0:53:35So that the funds that were used to repay

0:53:37the the short short term note, the tranh resides in life

0:53:41as accumulates and when it's needed it moves to Mechanics'

0:53:44Bank to then be paid, that is the manager cash exceptionally

0:53:50carefully the insurance on the mechanics

0:53:52banning bank investments.

0:53:53We try to keep that to a minimum and so we move,

0:53:56but we have in excess funding to live.

0:53:59And it out on almost a weekly basis.

0:54:02So, for example, in the last couple of days.

0:54:04I transferred something into left

0:54:05just before the 30th of June.

0:54:07We pulled a whole bunch of money out of me.

0:54:08So that thing goes on back and forth.

0:54:10There's no fixed deposit or investment at this point, given

0:54:14the small quantity that we have in terms of mr. Bill

0:54:17funds And is there any cost of having the accountant at or is

0:54:22this is where this is the secure facility that we use,

0:54:27that everyone uses to put local government funds into There's

0:54:32no such thing as a free lunch.

0:54:33There's always a cost of doing business

0:54:35and I'm sure live those exact its own costs from us

0:54:38in terms of investment fees.

0:54:40And so on.

0:54:41But we don't see that because we get allocated an interest based

0:54:45on our investment that's allocated

0:54:47across the entire portfolio.

0:54:48So the cost is shared among everyone that participates

0:54:51in this investment.

0:54:54Thank you Thank you.

0:54:57You, Mark.

0:55:00I heard a motion for Mayor Pro Tem quintel.

0:55:03I'll second seconded by council member Mohtarma

0:55:07on the consent calendar.

0:55:08Can we have a roll call please?

0:55:10And Fidele I may have I'm keen.

0:55:14I can't remember everything I and some of them.

0:55:18Mohtarma i can't remember I can Thank you.

0:55:25We moved to number five and presentations

0:55:28The first presentation I'm proud to announce is proclamation

0:55:32honoring Joseph Gruffalo and retirement after thirteen

0:55:37years and our fire chief, I think may

0:55:40have a few words to say here.

0:55:42Pagone Indeed I do.

0:55:44Good evening.

0:55:45Mayor and Council members and staff honored to be here

0:55:51tonight, both.

0:55:53It's an honor.

0:55:54And also a a sad moment Approximately a month ago

0:56:00and told me that he had decided to retire

0:56:05as the battalion chief with with our fire department

0:56:10hit retirement was for him to be basically retiring from this

0:56:15and taking a job with a company that we have been involved

0:56:19with for quite some time.

0:56:21Which is then which is the company that is that we have

0:56:26Joe, mainly been working with to develop

0:56:29our evacuation programs here.

0:56:33So anyway.

0:56:35But as I said, it is an honor.

0:56:37It's it is to you know, to see him go.

0:56:40I am happy that he is able to pursue this extreme.

0:56:44Joe came to El Cerrado in October of 2008

0:56:50as a as a brand new firefighter Joseph

0:56:54is past experience Firefighting was

0:56:57not like many of our people.

0:56:59Firefighting is not something that he was doing

0:57:04like right out of college.

0:57:05Joe is actually owned a owned a construction company building

0:57:12homes Later on, he was into a sales and marketing

0:57:17and also as as time went on, he did when he made the decision

0:57:22to go into the fire service he put himself

0:57:27through the through the fire academy

0:57:32was actually a reserve firefighter

0:57:34with alameda County.

0:57:36He was a reserve search volunteer, a certain volunteer

0:57:41and he had actually when he started with he was actually,

0:57:45I believe, getting very close to finishing up

0:57:47his didactic for becoming a paramedic He was taking all

0:57:52the right moves to be able to get in to the fire service

0:57:56with anyway When he started with us this experience,

0:58:01he had not only as a contractor and a marketing person,

0:58:07it gave him it gave him some really good experience

0:58:10and knowledge on doing what we do,

0:58:12which is finding somebody is when somebody has an emergency

0:58:18or has a problem, we find solutions to it.

0:58:21Customer service obviously.

0:58:23And his job was very important, as it is in our job,

0:58:27as as firefighters at working for as far as some

0:58:33of his achievements within the within the fire

0:58:37department from firefighter fighter

0:58:39and two thousand sixteen, he was promoted in June Twenty

0:58:44sixteen, he was promoted captain and took

0:58:49on a number of projects at we were working on at the time

0:58:55one of them being a west County, being

0:58:59shoring up trailer, which is kind of a fancy word

0:59:03for gigantic toolbox.

0:59:05It is a trailer.

0:59:07Most of it.

0:59:08We got through grants that has everything

0:59:11we need in the event of of a building collapse or you know,

0:59:16some sort of a an emergency where we day to go in and shore

0:59:20something up or we need to provide cribbing potentially

0:59:25trench rescue He was able to to develop the if you want to call

0:59:31it a shopping list of what we needed and and put

0:59:35the initial design together, as well

0:59:37as the initial training as a battalion which

0:59:42he was promoted to.

0:59:43And January about twelve nineteen,

0:59:46he immediately took over the training position

0:59:50He was able to go in and re kind of clean up some

0:59:56of our training standards.

0:59:57He was very instrumental and rewriting our probation

1:00:02very task books that we have for our incoming firefighter He

1:00:06also took on teaching, which was part of training teaching cert

1:00:11and did very well and being able to do the classes

1:00:16and being able to work on trying to revive some of the old lists

1:00:22that we had for more recently.

1:00:25During this past year.

1:00:26And a pandemic, Joe was very instrumental in working

1:00:30in the county EOC and dealing in logistics as well as later

1:00:35on as many of you know, the county

1:00:38did a fire based drive through vaccination sites

1:00:43or in three different locations within the county

1:00:46for a few months.

1:00:47And Joe, again, did working with the county did the logistics

1:00:53on that and lining up the equipment, the chairs,

1:00:56the tables cones, all the stuff that goes with and again, was

1:01:02was a very big part of that that despites

1:01:05some of the earlier mentioned rising in cases

1:01:11was very it was still very important part of getting

1:01:15the vaccination levels that we do have in his county for aside

1:01:21from that, you know, obviously he's been involved

1:01:24in some the major fires we had.

1:01:27He spent a number of days last summer with the local

1:01:31with the SIU Lightning Complex which we'll hear

1:01:35a little bit more about later.

1:01:37And also was obviously one of the fires

1:01:40that impacted our county, thankfully not our city.

1:01:44You know, so aside from that, he was obviously said firefighter

1:01:50Captain Battalia chave.

1:01:51He worked with all of our personnel

1:01:54in in helping them try to, you know,

1:01:58kind of a mentoring status you know, and again, you know,

1:02:02he's going to be missed is you know,

1:02:05we were already down one battalion chief We're going

1:02:08to be down to you know, the amount

1:02:11of work, enthusiasm and passion that he puts into his job.

1:02:16Is not only going to be missed, it's going to be choose

1:02:19to eventually fill for it.

1:02:22But again, he's you the I guess probably one of the bigger

1:02:26things that's probably helped or will hopefully will never use.

1:02:30But in working on this evacuation program

1:02:34as i believe we have talked in the past sHIRADO in the Morag

1:02:38Orinda fire department, you know we

1:02:40were the kind of the first guinea

1:02:42pigs for this for this company.

1:02:45And developing it.

1:02:46And we actually do have one of the few opera eating Sirpa

1:02:52or Zohn Haven groups going now even though pretty

1:02:57much the company has now become the standard for the Bay Area,

1:03:01And Joe's going to play a part in the in the expanding of that

1:03:06throughout the state and eventually

1:03:08i would think, out of state for so again, wish him well.

1:03:14You know, he's going to have great support through his wife,

1:03:18Janine and his children.

1:03:19Gabriella and Dominic I know they have

1:03:23to be proud of this moment for him to go with that Mr Barrow,

1:03:28i'll turn it back over to you.

1:03:30Or if, you know, if you have some comments

1:03:32or I'm sure Joe would like to say a word or two Thank you.

1:03:39I do have a couple of comments before we

1:03:41do want to hear from Joe.

1:03:43I mean, 13 years is a good long stint,

1:03:46but i am impressed with the diversity

1:03:48of your work experience.

1:03:50And you can tell swedo all the experience of a business

1:03:54kind of coach able to deal with human beings

1:03:57able to deal with fire.

1:03:59And we're going to miss your evacuation

1:04:02and disaster expertise.

1:04:04And Alfredo it's something all of us care about.

1:04:07It's something we need to plug that hole going forward.

1:04:10So we may call you back to get your insight into what we need

1:04:13to be doing But we're so grateful for what you've done

1:04:18because you've been talking about what we should

1:04:19be doing So thank you so much.

1:04:23And Yeah, Godspeed in your retirement.

1:04:27Take your time to enjoy it, OK?

1:04:29Yes, mayor Pro Tem COINTEL Thank you.

1:04:32Mayor Fidele.

1:04:33I also want to say congrats relations to Joe

1:04:37And I got to know, Joe, when I took a crash course

1:04:40on served up in Kensington a couple a few years ago,

1:04:43I guess it is so I learned about this new technology

1:04:50that they started experimenting on

1:04:52So I'm very excited that your new chapter in life.

1:04:57And working in tech like this and knowing that this truly

1:05:02does save lives and will help fire

1:05:05departments across the country and locally here

1:05:08and around the world.

1:05:10On this new technology And so I remember when you spoke

1:05:15about it and I remember we were so very excited about just

1:05:20the beginnings So you know, that the city our residents

1:05:26do appreciate your service and especially

1:05:30with your new chapter in life, this will help our firefighters

1:05:36as well, working on emergencies and emergencies that we thought

1:05:40would only happen in the summer and Indian summer in the fall.

1:05:45But now it's every month of the year or so.

1:05:48We can again.

1:05:49Joe, thank you for your service.

1:05:51And appreciate all the work that you have done

1:05:55for the city in Kensington.

1:05:57But also what we doing in the future for our communities.

1:06:02Again, thank you council member, Avildsen.

1:06:07I just want to join in and express my appreciation

1:06:11for the diverse city of benefits that he has provided

1:06:17to the city and joe, I want to thank you

1:06:21for that I think you went beyond what my expectation is

1:06:27certainly of the role and i want to say

1:06:32that I think that our city is much, much better for that.

1:06:37And so it sounds to me like your simply going on

1:06:41to the next chapter and i wish you

1:06:44well in that And I hope that it's a very positive experience

1:06:53and we will this year.

1:06:54Thank you Yes.

1:07:02We have a comment We hear from you.

1:07:07I want to hear what your next chapter will be.

1:07:12Can you give us some insight into that?

1:07:14Sure.

1:07:15Can everyone hear me OK?

1:07:16I can never figure out tomorrow Perfect.

1:07:19First I want to say, I'm very blessed

1:07:21to have been brought into Ossorio Chief Maple's took

1:07:24a chance on a 36 year old and old man with a lot

1:07:28of young kids running around And I was

1:07:31very blessed to work on my Perrone anything

1:07:34that I signed up to do.

1:07:36He was extremely supportive And then

1:07:40further on, when I was trying to do some supervisory work

1:07:44I was teamed up with Karen as my mentor.

1:07:47So having people that care, being surrounded by people

1:07:52that care really allowed me to thrive Unfortunately,

1:07:56the city has, you know, some pretty severe

1:07:59air disaster threats between the Hayward Fault and the wildfire.

1:08:04And unfortunately i was a teacher So,

1:08:07you know, yeah, I got to educated real quick.

1:08:11The city forced me to learn about those disasters

1:08:14in that one thing led to the next to the next one.

1:08:16And obviously, I took some interest in it

1:08:18because you know, I'm reading this stuff as a you know,

1:08:23I think i was in the fire service

1:08:24for six or seven years here, and I never even heard of a wind

1:08:27before.

1:08:28So I'm well, if I hadn't heard about it.

1:08:30And I'm in public safety a lot of work needed

1:08:32to be done to educate So the other part that I think you

1:08:39know, everybody that's helped me along the way

1:08:42should be extremely proud of is that everything

1:08:44i've learned here in El Cerrito i'm taking with me.

1:08:47So for since 4 o'clock this morning i

1:08:50started on a PowerPoint and I met

1:08:52with Concord PD, Klayton pleasant, Hill PD,

1:08:55for doing some information sessions.

1:08:58So those are all communities that lie to the East

1:09:00of Ulcerative Kensington.

1:09:01And I figure if we can if we can be there,

1:09:05education in er disaster wildfire preparedness,

1:09:10you know, maybe it'll help stop something from reaching

1:09:13the canyon and beyond.

1:09:15So I'm taking everything that I've earned with El Cerrito

1:09:17and I'm taking it with me to the rest of the county.

1:09:20There are talks about me going up to Oregon

1:09:22next week to help out up there.

1:09:24Yuba County just posted a bunch of stuff on Zohn Haven today.

1:09:28They're blowing up right now with a fire

1:09:30So I'm pleased that i'm leaving the city with a tool

1:09:33that they can use that I truly believe in I think it will be

1:09:37a great tool for public safety to use to organize

1:09:40EOC and all that stuff.

1:09:42Hopefully never have to use it, like Mike said.

1:09:44But i feel comfortable confident that we're

1:09:48a lot better off today than when we were a couple of years ago.

1:09:51And I appreciate the willingness of counsel and leadership

1:09:55here to embrace the zone having to let me do the work.

1:10:00Unfortunately, it pulled me away from the city, but you know,

1:10:04you're you as a group and as leaders

1:10:06are truly groundbreakers.

1:10:08You know, Berkeley followed suit,

1:10:09Mirin followed suit The rest of the Contra Costa County

1:10:13is following suit.

1:10:13All of Alameda County It all started here.

1:10:16Elstree Kensington Morogo, into Lafayette.

1:10:19Those are the five and you should be proud of that.

1:10:22So thank you.

1:10:23I'm not going for and I will definitely be in.

1:10:28Knocking on doors if something happens in the canyon

1:10:30I'll show up somewhere and help Well, thank you again.

1:10:36And i can call you battalion's One last time publicly

1:10:41Mr. Battalion Chief, thank you again very much.

1:10:44Please be safe if you're headed to Oregon.

1:10:47And we need to hear from again to be part

1:10:48of our community going forward.

1:10:51Much luck to you.

1:10:52Thank you.

1:10:53Thank you very much.

1:10:54Appreciate it.

1:10:58Thank you very much.

1:11:01We move on to number five here.

1:11:05Say if i may, we do have at one member of the public who has

1:11:09asked to speak on this item and the council does actually

1:11:12need to take action to approve the proclamation as well.

1:11:14Good.

1:11:15Thank you very much.

1:11:19So we have just one request at this time.

1:11:29OK, cordell, Hitler, Criddle, you are unmuted

1:11:33and can begin your time now.

1:11:36OK camy oK.

1:11:40Yes, oK, good, good.

1:11:43Mayor Fidelia Kalthoum thank yo.

1:11:47You have done an excellent job I mean, I try and keep a joke.

1:11:51You done a wonderful job elsewhere

1:11:53for the last 13 years.

1:11:55So you're not going too far.

1:11:56But you sure you're sure.

1:11:58Went out with a blaze of glory.

1:11:59Get our blade So I that so hopefully you'll

1:12:09get to be around more often.

1:12:11So I'll turn it back to you.

1:12:13Mayor Fidele Thank you, Colonel.

1:12:16And do I have a motion to approve the proclamation

1:12:19for battalion chief?

1:12:22I'm Yes mohtarma most i'll second council

1:12:28aposhian seconds.

1:12:29Can I have a roll call, please?

1:12:31Infidelity I mean, can i in no apison.

1:12:37I can someone be mittman?

1:12:39I can't remember Budnick i mentioned

1:12:42carries Thank you Thank you.

1:12:50Thank you.

1:12:51Now we do move on to drought wildlife preparedness.

1:12:54And I just wanted to say a assort statement before we get

1:12:56to our three speakers more than three speakers, I believe I'm

1:13:01really appreciative of this time because as we head

1:13:05to the earliest driest and potentially worst fire

1:13:09season in California history, i'm glad we could come together

1:13:13here at council to focus on the concerns the needs and the work

1:13:17that we need to do.

1:13:18In our city, in our region.

1:13:20As mayor, I want to have a council meeting that focused

1:13:23on what we needed to do and to hear

1:13:26from the important agencies that we need to deal

1:13:28with as a city in a region.

1:13:30So I want to thank ePA mud and to our great fire staff

1:13:36and our chief for that effort.

1:13:38I also before we start, I wanted to point out

1:13:41what I believe the two important resolutions that we passed just

1:13:46a few minutes ago here the council, the first state

1:13:50our city's priorities of preventing

1:13:52and responding to wildfire and listing,

1:13:55listing critical actions.

1:13:56We must take to be prepared.

1:13:58This resolution, I believe, is really important

1:14:01because our effort to update our strategic goals

1:14:05has been delayed this year.

1:14:07For Cauvin, another And we need to prioritize that.

1:14:10This is one of our top important strategic goals in this city.

1:14:16To be ready for fire in a wildfire.

1:14:18The second resolution addresses the critical need

1:14:21to act regionally against wildfire in the East Bay.

1:14:25And that means we will explore working with others

1:14:28to determine additional ways to be prepared to respond

1:14:31to the threat of wildfire.

1:14:32So I really appreciate the council's support of

1:14:35that resolution going forward.

1:14:37And then I again, want to especially thank

1:14:39Chief Ogunniyi our city staff and our local residents

1:14:43make Elstree fire.

1:14:45They helped with the resolution development and a lot

1:14:48local citizens are working including Trail Trekkers

1:14:52and our environmental quality commission helping

1:14:56with all the issues involved with vegetation wildfire

1:15:01prevention.

1:15:03We're going to be talking about abatement,

1:15:04and that's a community working together needs to do.

1:15:07It's not easy for the city and a government

1:15:09to tell its citizens act and how to respond

1:15:13But this is what we need to do here in El Salvador.

1:15:15So I want to thank everybody for all

1:15:17the efforts on this so cheaper.

1:15:19Gony you want to kick this this off, please?

1:15:26See here, get this Good evening.

1:15:30Mayor.

1:15:31Council members again, Michael Ligonier, fire chief

1:15:36Give me a couple of seconds here for some technical things.

1:15:39There we go.

1:15:41I'm here tonight to discuss the current drought conditions

1:15:44and the impact that this is having

1:15:46on fire safety for El Cerrito.

1:15:49Every year about this time, the question

1:15:52is raised, how bad will the fire season be this year?

1:15:56Sometimes with tongue in cheek, but most time

1:16:00sadly, quite seriously the answer

1:16:02is this will be the worst fire season

1:16:05ever for the last few years.

1:16:08This has been the truth While our city has not

1:16:12seen that destruction, that paradise in Santa rosa

1:16:15and other areas have been with recently, what you see here is

1:16:19not a headline any of us want to wake up to the smoke

1:16:22that we have been subjected to.

1:16:24Over the last four years is bad enough

1:16:26and last year, the Dare fire, which was part of the SIU

1:16:30lightning complex was much too close for comfort

1:16:33While the causes of asbury, whether it's infrastructure

1:16:37failures, lightning vehicle fires, sometimes even arson,

1:16:41there are just as many factors that are causing this increase

1:16:45in fire severity I continue back to use clean sure

1:16:49is not up to we're not currently seeing a presentation OK, Lou.

1:16:55That makes it out and see what I did wrong.

1:16:57Here.

1:17:06OK i know what I know what I did wrong here.

1:17:10OK, so we'll come back that new even though we

1:17:14practiced I didn't do well.

1:17:16You were saying all the right things, Mr. Email.

1:17:20Right now, I know I did the wrong thing again.

1:17:25Stop the share Let's try this again, Michael.

1:17:29OK, share screen or pick the PowerPoint

1:17:34the one that has the powerPoint program right option OK

1:17:43so touch that and then I'll hit share OK, Alexis thank you.

1:17:53Up up right there from this current slide.

1:17:57So just so you know, basically what I was talking about,

1:18:02the the headlines, this is what I was talking about,

1:18:06that these are headlines right here

1:18:07that we would never want to that we would

1:18:11never want to wake up to it.

1:18:14Obviously, this would be the end result of waking

1:18:18up to those headlines.

1:18:19So but keeping going with it then call it global warming.

1:18:25Global heating or climate change.

1:18:28The fact is, our environment is changing.

1:18:31Just this past month, we have seen record high temperatures

1:18:34both locally and throughout the state The city for a state,

1:18:38for that matter, is entering, is entering a third season

1:18:43of extreme low rainfall California

1:18:46is no stranger to the drought.

1:18:48It's a reoccurring feature as shown here of our climate

1:18:52We're in the fourth drought period in the in the last forty

1:18:55five years.

1:18:56Right now scenes like this northern California lake,

1:19:02they're becoming regular sights.

1:19:04The low rainfall conditions coupled

1:19:06with the extreme temperatures are not only drying lakes up,

1:19:09but they're also driving the moisture levels

1:19:12and our vegetation down and stressing

1:19:14the trees and brush that's in our parks

1:19:17and the hillside area.

1:19:1940 percent of our state has been rated exceptional drought

1:19:24and which despite the adjective that they use,

1:19:26is actually the worst category to be in the worst drought

1:19:30conditions are centered around the Bay Area

1:19:33But more concerning is the fact that the driest the hottest

1:19:37months are still to, as well as the potential for the diabolo

1:19:41winds and lightning The fuel moisture

1:19:46levels at the end of June.

1:19:48We're at sixty one percent for new growth

1:19:50and 50 percent for old growth, which is a drop of 10 points

1:19:54from the same time last year.

1:19:57What we are last year.

1:19:59This fuel levels were not this low until we got into August

1:20:04of more than a month ahead.

1:20:06In basically dryness for one of things to note

1:20:10is that when moisture levels get below 60 percent,

1:20:13that is considered a critical time.

1:20:15So we have one right at and one way below it.

1:20:18For it.

1:20:19And these are two week old numbers are probably

1:20:22well below the 60 by now for So going back to the question,

1:20:28how bad will this year be?

1:20:30Last year in addition to the historic pandemic California

1:20:34experience a record setting fire season with almost ten thousand

1:20:38fires over four point two million acres burned and over

1:20:42ten thousand structures destroyed.

1:20:45That is approximately 4% of the state that burned If we look

1:20:49at that on the equivalent of El Cerrado that would be

1:20:52a fire where we lost almost four homes

1:20:55and business is to be four percent

1:20:57of our of our community.

1:20:59Here for this year.

1:21:04Has already, to this point has already had over five thousand

1:21:09incidents and has burned.

1:21:10And this is probably a low number

1:21:12with a few fires that have blown up in the last couple of days.

1:21:15But more than one and forty two thousand acres have burned.

1:21:19This is fourteen more fires and one

1:21:22and ten thousand more acres than what had burned this same time.

1:21:26Last year.

1:21:28And i can't stress enough that these numbers

1:21:32after after this last couple of days

1:21:34are probably on the low side for the drought

1:21:40extreme temperatures, historic fires, climate change.

1:21:43What does all that mean for El Cerrito?

1:21:46Dance to that question.

1:21:47We need to consider what we are facing here

1:21:50is an aerial view of the hillside

1:21:51natural area in the upper Setas recycling and

1:21:56environmental Resource Center.

1:21:58Just so you get the bearings where we are looking here

1:22:02this is more northern part circle.

1:22:05Madera High School off to the extreme right there.

1:22:09And then we look at this.

1:22:11This is looking at Potrero the Potrero fire trail

1:22:15kind of in the upper center.

1:22:17And then the top of motorcycle hill off to the left with a

1:22:23if you take a look at at the eucalypt Grove,

1:22:26at the top of motorcycle you can say that they are not

1:22:30the bright green that they normally are The whole East

1:22:34Bay is facing is facing stress in all of our trees

1:22:38more than likely due to the due to the drought

1:22:43that we're having, let alone the heat that we are having, again.

1:22:47But again, what is predominant feel that you are saying here

1:22:53is a vegetal is it structures residents

1:22:57Well, while they're not they're not a fuel source

1:23:01they are a safety concern.

1:23:03And are of the utmost importance for right here.

1:23:06But again, i do not want to minimize the importance

1:23:11of vegetation management I do not

1:23:12want to minimize what a wildfire and what

1:23:16the diabolo winds can do.

1:23:18But when you consider the fact that when

1:23:21you look at an aerial view that the majority of are when you

1:23:25look down the majority, the fuel that's in our city

1:23:28is our homes for.

1:23:30And that's something a few more slides that you need

1:23:33to that you need to think about for as we consider,

1:23:37as we consider our homes being and the vegetation area

1:23:41in wildland, you know, we hear the term WUI.

1:23:44What is WUI what we normally stands

1:23:48for the wildland urban interface but it can also

1:23:52stand for wildland urban intermixed

1:23:54and it can also stand for wildland urban influence.

1:23:58The typical term wildland urban interface that is

1:24:02would probably refer to the majority of our Ridgeline

1:24:06where our houses are heading into our bumping

1:24:09up against the trees, the vegetation the wild land going

1:24:14in to park area, the wildland urban fantomex, probably more

1:24:18describes the majority of our city, which

1:24:22is that we again we have heavy.

1:24:25We have a lot of trees.

1:24:26We have a lot of vegetation, landscaping,

1:24:29the hillside natural area that is part of the urban intermix

1:24:34And then the why the wildland urban influence that

1:24:37in essence, is what affects the other two.

1:24:40That would be that would be the interior

1:24:43of our hillside natural area that would be Wildcat Canyon.

1:24:47That would be the fuel that allows

1:24:49a wildfire to build heat, build up speed, build the embers.

1:24:55Also, it's what influences what happens

1:24:57in the rest of of any community for and keep in mind,

1:25:02a very large portion of our city is also

1:25:06in a Cal Fire term or terms as very

1:25:09high fire hazard severities.

1:25:13Back comes into play for many of our residents.

1:25:16When it comes to either even obtaining fire insurance

1:25:21or being able to keep their fire insurance in place.

1:25:25It plays a very large part as to what the rating is for two

1:25:32a.m., October 9th twenty, seventeen the toughest fire,

1:25:36which started in Napa County, traveled over fifteen miles

1:25:40and five hours to Santa Rosa and had embers casting ahead

1:25:44of the fire that caused this devastation in Coffee

1:25:48Park that resulted in 14 homes burned and five fatality days.

1:25:53This fire in essence, it was a Spotfire as it was over a mile

1:25:57from the main fire is a vent.

1:26:00As you look at this picture here is vegetation

1:26:03adding to the fire here this is what you're seeing

1:26:09here is basically an amber.

1:26:11So this is the result The winds and the houses that are burning

1:26:15that are basically behind me here

1:26:18that are blowing with the wind These were

1:26:20very severe winds blowing through here just a point

1:26:26of reference.

1:26:26These homes, you see right here.

1:26:28Did not make through the night.

1:26:30And that's mainly because of what

1:26:31you saw with all those embers getting into the being

1:26:35able to penetrate through the homes,

1:26:37through openings for So who is responsible for fire safety?

1:26:43The city our neighboring agencies

1:26:45the residents reality is, is that we

1:26:48all need to work together.

1:26:50So we can create a fire safe.

1:26:53Cerita teamwork does make the dream work.

1:26:56And that is part of what the rest

1:26:59this presentation is about tonight.

1:27:02While the city continues to make progress and improvements

1:27:06on vegetation and management and our parks and right ways,

1:27:09another Two years ago on our east side,

1:27:14the east bay Parks initiated at excuse me,

1:27:17initiated a fuel reduction project

1:27:20that extends the entire border between our city

1:27:23and wild Canyon.

1:27:25This is an ongoing project.

1:27:26And it's a combination of fuel reduction and removal

1:27:30that creates firebreaks as we see here,

1:27:33a very small firebreak, basically, it's

1:27:36a total void of vegetation to give a break between the

1:27:42between the trees and the house.

1:27:45There's improvements to be made to this house.

1:27:47But just giving you an example of what a of what the fire

1:27:51break is I feel a shaded fuel reduction, which

1:27:54is a lot of what the Bay Parks did

1:27:57is removing a lot of the ground fuel is trimming up trees

1:28:01It's preventing, as you see, the very back.

1:28:04It's prevent ladder fuels from being able to go up and get

1:28:08into the crowns of the trees for in the foreground by where

1:28:11you see a person standing.

1:28:13That's where some of the clearing

1:28:14has already been done for Again, this area

1:28:17has a lot more work to be done.

1:28:19But it is an example for a project

1:28:22that we worked on not last year, but two years

1:28:25go pre covid This is and this is in the hillside natural area

1:28:29above the above the quarry heavy, heavy brush you see

1:28:34on the left side, massive amount of fuel reduction being taken

1:28:40on here by using the help of the Delta camp

1:28:45or the Delta Handcar is through Cal Fire for oh, we had here.

1:28:54So as we've seen in the previous pictures,

1:28:56the vast majority of the city is comprised

1:28:59of private property residential structures

1:29:02and residential structures.

1:29:04Consider every parcel was brought in a compliance

1:29:09with our vegetation management policy,

1:29:11with the recommendations that Cal Fire puts out

1:29:15that that many organizations put out for clearance

1:29:20around your property If we had an adequate defensible space

1:29:26and if people worked on hardening their homes,

1:29:28the cities were all ability to survive A severe wildfire would

1:29:33be would be increased as well as the safety of our residents

1:29:38would be enhanced for again, not to take away the importance

1:29:46that a wildfire can do to us.

1:29:49We have to consider that not every fire within our city

1:29:53is going to start by is going to be started

1:29:56or is going to assault our city through a wildfire from outside

1:30:01We have we have threats within our state, as you saw here.

1:30:05could be with the dry conditions we have.

1:30:08We could be facing a fire coming from a car,

1:30:11perhaps the barbecue that went awry

1:30:14And I know we don't do fireworks in our city,

1:30:16but it could happen All of these sources

1:30:20could spread the vegetation and the homes,

1:30:23as you saw in that video a few slides back Once you get

1:30:27a house going the ember assault will is

1:30:30and the dry conditions we have right

1:30:32now can keep the fire moving at a very fast pace

1:30:36and do a lot damage.

1:30:37In fact, in the last two weeks our resources

1:30:42have responded, thankfully not in our city,

1:30:45but neighboring us have responded to two

1:30:49fires That one started between two homes.

1:30:53One started in a room and went outside the house

1:30:56and ended up damaging multiple houses

1:30:59and in both cases, not because there wasn't personnel

1:31:03on scene, but because conditions are so dry that and the fact

1:31:08that these properties were not properly

1:31:11or were not totally maintained and the fact that the houses

1:31:15were not hardened to the point that they could have been you

1:31:19know, extensive damage happened in a number of homes for.

1:31:23So it is something that could happen in our city as well.

1:31:29So trimming up trees, mowing weeds, removing dry grass,

1:31:33it's not a difficult task keeping your roof

1:31:36and gutters free of dry leaves and needles

1:31:38is an extremely important safeguard.

1:31:40Against an ember.

1:31:41So this this item alone or this this condition

1:31:47alone is probably One of the biggest reasons

1:31:49that what you saw in the video of the fire

1:31:53being able to move from house to house

1:31:56is the is Neidl and leaves and the gutters

1:32:00and the valleys on the roof for there's

1:32:03many sources to go over and above our vegetation management

1:32:06policy.

1:32:07Such as this applet that you can get from Cal Fire and the Red

1:32:11go group And it'll provide many, many tips on what

1:32:17you can do around your home.

1:32:19For hardening your home is also just as important for many,

1:32:25many of the recommendations are not that hard,

1:32:28simply excuse me, simply retrofitting the vans that

1:32:34go under your house or into your attic with one

1:32:36with one sixteenth screen can again, can prevent the embers

1:32:43from getting in your attic or underneath our house

1:32:46where they will smolder and then eventually catch what they're

1:32:50on and get them burning.

1:32:53And then we will again have, you know,

1:32:56the the fire will break out potentially move

1:32:59to another house for.

1:33:03So what are we done over the past few years in 12 19,

1:33:08we redid our fire hazard reduction

1:33:11program We tried to make it a little bit

1:33:13easier for the public to read.

1:33:16I will be First to admit it has more work to be done to it.

1:33:20We not last year with the pandemic,

1:33:23but a couple of years before that we did a lot of fuel

1:33:27reduction in the HSA with using the Delta cruise,

1:33:31and that's in addition to the work

1:33:33that public works Also did that you know,

1:33:38that was separate of the fuel reduction that we worked with.

1:33:43We created Checkoff forms for homeowners

1:33:46to use where they can walk around their property

1:33:50and give suggestions on what needs to be done.

1:33:53We've gotten more.

1:33:55We've gotten more aggressive on our abatement program

1:33:59We've tried to increase the public education again.

1:34:02This past year has been a little bit tougher

1:34:06And prior two this past year, we've

1:34:09also done a lot of burning, a lot of brush that we

1:34:13that we cut.

1:34:16We did you we actually went out and burned them

1:34:18and continued to burn some of that this year before the

1:34:22before it got too dry.

1:34:23For with it another.

1:34:26And we already talked about this a little bit on We

1:34:29are also one of the first agencies

1:34:31to work with this company.

1:34:33Creating the evacuation zones with at which has now become

1:34:38a bay area standard, allows us to do controlled evacuations

1:34:44and also allows us to information

1:34:48on the zones that the public going to the website.

1:34:52You see below can not only find out what zone they live in,

1:34:56they can find out if there's any warnings or anything

1:34:58posted for that area.

1:35:01Marceau is working.

1:35:03It's the fact that through these through the program, that

1:35:07and working with the county community warning system which

1:35:11people need to opt in to And we have done a lot of education

1:35:15on that This is what's going to allow us to do to do

1:35:20efficient evacuate patients out of our area

1:35:24for But as I said below there's still room

1:35:28for there's still room for improvements

1:35:31Our vegetation management policy and what we've been doing,

1:35:35with the exception of a few of the improvements

1:35:38that we've done over the last couple of years,

1:35:40is over 30 years It's almost thirty five years old.

1:35:46Times have changed conditions Whether everything is changing

1:35:50it's time for us to take care.

1:35:53To take a very hard look.

1:35:55And tighten up our and tighten up our policy

1:35:59even more through the.

1:36:02And one of is to do a year round fire

1:36:04hazard reduction program and update vegetation standards

1:36:10and.

1:36:11Well, and prior to that, what i should tell you is my plans

1:36:14right now is later in the year, probably

1:36:17November is to come before you with these plans for you

1:36:22to look at.

1:36:23They will be putting new ordinances,

1:36:26new policies present to the city council

1:36:30and they will be for you to adopt or to provide feedback.

1:36:36But but the most important part of this is that it will be it

1:36:41will be giving us some more It'll be giving us more control

1:36:46to work with our residents and ensure that residents are

1:36:50taking care of their property, making giving again As I said

1:36:55earlier, if everybody if every single parcel in this city

1:36:59was to meet these standards we would have our

1:37:04our worries would not be gone, but we would have a much safer

1:37:09city as one of the things that we've heard this many times is

1:37:14updating our vegetation standard taking

1:37:17a chapter out of fire safe.

1:37:19Merran to look at doing a multi-year phase and compliance

1:37:24to these new standards Some of that would be again,

1:37:29a multi-year time to do what would be the reduction

1:37:32or removal of all highly flammable vegetal

1:37:35such as Juniper, certain cypress plants, eucalyptus

1:37:39trees near homes it would also be looking at creating what's

1:37:44considered a combustion zone around our house,

1:37:47which basically means 1 2 five feet

1:37:50all the way around your house.

1:37:51There is nothing but cement rock or mineral.

1:37:55So that, again, when these amber embers lot fall into your yard

1:38:01near your house, there's nothing for it

1:38:03to get burning and then burn up the walls

1:38:05for It's it is a change from the way we do things right now.

1:38:11But again mother Nature is changing on us.

1:38:13It's time that the city that the city makes a change for it also

1:38:19looking at been talking with some individuals

1:38:22and unfortunately, lagging behind and getting this going

1:38:25But we have people that are interested becoming

1:38:27vegetation volunteers residents that are willing to go out

1:38:32and and provide a public education.

1:38:36Stampfel promote promote the fire safety,

1:38:41promote neighbors working with each other,

1:38:44promote the fire wise neighborhood program.

1:38:47These are called changes that it's not

1:38:51going to happen instantly, but they

1:38:52are changes that I do want to make that are going

1:38:55to bring us, that's going to make the city

1:38:58a much safer neighborhood.

1:39:00Not only from a wildfire coming from outside,

1:39:04but also within our city.

1:39:06As we've seen earlier on in.

1:39:09So all these plans are aimed, as I said, creating a more

1:39:13fire resistant El Cerrado I really want to,

1:39:17you know, I don't want to be like a Phoenix

1:39:20that rises out of the ashes.

1:39:21I'd rather that we'd be more like the Griffin that

1:39:23guards our community for it.

1:39:26And with that I'm open for questions

1:39:30Or if the plan is for all the presentations

1:39:33and then questions afterwards, I'm not sure

1:39:35But that is my program Thank you.

1:39:42Chief Good job.

1:39:45Are there any questions or comments from our council

1:39:48members Not this time.

1:39:54Yes.

1:39:55Council member Avildsen Yes i have a question about the five.

1:40:01I think you said about five zone around the house.

1:40:06That would be without question, this is my question.

1:40:10Would it be free of all plant material

1:40:13I mean, it would just to be bare could be could be bare,

1:40:19could be colored rock.

1:40:21You could make you could move your sidewalks.

1:40:23You have sidewalks going around your house

1:40:25that the whole point in a very high fire severity zone,

1:40:28or for that matter anywhere within a wildland urban

1:40:32interface, is to prevent is to prevent anything

1:40:36near your house from being able to catch fire, keep in mind,

1:40:40while some plants are more fire resistant than others,

1:40:44every plant burns sooner or later you know,

1:40:48so if you have bushes and again, when you drive

1:40:53or even just look at your neighbor's houses

1:40:55or maybe even at your own homes, this city probably I

1:41:00would say more than 60 percent of the homes

1:41:04have Juniper's but right up to their homes.

1:41:07I mean, right there basically shrubs around it.

1:41:11If you Juniper's they're beautiful.

1:41:15But they are they are very they are very flammable.

1:41:20Plants, not only because of the oil,

1:41:22but if you do have Juniper's pull the limbs apart and look

1:41:26inside, what do you see?

1:41:28They're full of dead needles or leaves from the juniper plants.

1:41:34But any plant can be that way.

1:41:36If it's a house that you just have let's say,

1:41:39people that pull bark they want bark, they they're doing mulch.

1:41:43Now, there are mulches that are treated and won't burn,

1:41:45but most most mulch that you find it will burn

1:41:51doesn't burn heavy, doesn't burn with massive flames.

1:41:54But if it's up against your house

1:41:57and it's up against combustible wood siding,

1:42:01it can work its way up inside the walls.

1:42:03So it is it is a very controversial approach.

1:42:09To take for landscaping.

1:42:12Marin County There's one of the first ones I've

1:42:14seen I don't know if they are the first,

1:42:16but first ones that I've seen, they have hit some hiccups with

1:42:20But, you know, again, the whole theory behind this

1:42:25is to keep when you see all those embers that you saw

1:42:28in that one video, when those numbers

1:42:31are lot are falling down in your yard

1:42:33you do not want them to take hold of anything close

1:42:36to your house.

1:42:39What about I think I already know the answer,

1:42:42but what that horrid smell potted plants near your house,

1:42:48are you just if there's something like a succulent

1:42:52or something very water bearing plants you're probably find you

1:42:59know, and again, if your home.

1:43:00Those are things that can be moved away

1:43:02as many other many other things that you

1:43:05can move away from your house.

1:43:06If a fire is approaching, but more.

1:43:10So it's a matter of it's matter because not only

1:43:14are we probably going to continue with droughts it's

1:43:16a matter of looking at more low maintenance and xeriscaping

1:43:22And that's where, you know, the use

1:43:23of colored rock you know, comes in, comes in very handy

1:43:28with it.

1:43:29Or usually if you do want plant near your house,

1:43:32use with a big, you know, like a like decorative rock.

1:43:35And you put the plant you put the rock

1:43:38between a plant and the house, in the rock

1:43:40kind of still looks good.

1:43:42It has some structure But if the plant does burn,

1:43:46you got a rock kind of protecting the house from it.

1:43:49You know, actors or are good zeroscape

1:43:53What is the distance between the House and the plant plants?

1:44:02That is I mean, I have seen it one foot.

1:44:04I've seen i've seen people go as much as five feet.

1:44:08That would be something we would have to do.

1:44:10That would be up for discussion and further research.

1:44:14But it's you any the more you go, the better you are.

1:44:19But again, it's you know, there's nothing there's

1:44:22nothing in concrete, no pun.

1:44:23Intended.

1:44:25With what?

1:44:26With what I'm looking at It's a matter of it's

1:44:29a matter of doing the research and the council agreeing

1:44:33to something and oh, that the public will have the public

1:44:37will have comments you know, and there will be.

1:44:40And again i know Moruga Arenda they've got it.

1:44:44They have a phase or phase out or phase

1:44:46in program for power plants.

1:44:48I believe, if I'm not mistaken two thousand thirteen sorry,

1:44:53twenty twenty three You know, all things like Cyperus

1:44:57and juniper's have to be have to be totally removed

1:45:02or it's going to be they have a very aggressive fire prevention

1:45:07and and weed abatement program and they,

1:45:11they are in position to start issuing fines for people.

1:45:15You know they've given them plenty of warning on,

1:45:17you know, taking care of their yards Thank you.

1:45:23Before I call and council member Rubberneck,

1:45:25I just wanted to say we're going to open to the three speakers

1:45:29This section will open this discussion up

1:45:31to the public comments as well.

1:45:33Council member Rudnik Thank you.

1:45:39Mayor Fidele High, chief, how are you doing today?

1:45:41Well thank you.

1:45:42And you?

1:45:43I am good.

1:45:44So what is your current strategy for public outreach

1:45:48and beyond this meeting.

1:45:49We're having right now and telling council members what

1:45:53is the department's strategy as far as informing a public Well,

1:45:59public outrage is going to be working through.

1:46:03There's obviously a few groups that are out there.

1:46:05We also have a we also have constant contact list that

1:46:12is based off of our personnel.

1:46:15It will also be through, you know, just

1:46:18through our own website through to reach out to groups

1:46:22and get input for those to see what the group, what

1:46:28the citizens out there want prior to that

1:46:33is going to be a lot of research on our part to look at what

1:46:38our neighbors are doing.

1:46:40And like I said, it's I think we've heard it many times here.

1:46:45There's a number of our of our residents

1:46:48I keep pointing to the fire safe Moran

1:46:51group and the not so much.

1:46:55I mean, obviously, they have a tax base there that funds

1:46:59or a property fee that funds our program.

1:47:04But I'm more so while that's a whole nother subject i'm

1:47:09more so interested in the policies that they've adopted

1:47:12and they have gotten It took a while,

1:47:15but they have gotten there I think

1:47:18there's seventeen different agencies They work with there.

1:47:21And with the exception of one city does their other thing

1:47:26They are they are unified in their message out there.

1:47:30But i mean, I'm going to be very honest It

1:47:32will be with a select group.

1:47:36We will get a lot of feedback having not this past year,

1:47:40but a couple of years ago.

1:47:42When we did reach out to the public

1:47:44and to put on some public education

1:47:47and to put on about the fire dangers

1:47:49And we did Saturdays We did nighttime's, we

1:47:52did daytime there in the week.

1:47:54You at the community center one up in Kensington,

1:47:58one at the Arlington clubhouse to do public education

1:48:03We did massive amounts of advertising saying,

1:48:06you it was hard to get people to participate in that.

1:48:10I don't I don't have any doubt that this will be just as hard

1:48:16But I do know one thing.

1:48:18After all these years in this city if we come out

1:48:21with something that maybe some people might think or is

1:48:24controversy no matter what you know,

1:48:28no matter if it's for the better of the town safety that will

1:48:33bring people out you know, we will get the feedback We're not

1:48:38looking to i'm not looking for it to be you

1:48:41know, something unheard of.

1:48:44I'm looking to you know, to or basically not reinvent

1:48:48the wheel I'm looking to tag on to the people

1:48:51that have done a lot of work.

1:48:52You that and come up with these plans.

1:48:55You we're not we're not unique.

1:48:57I mean everybody in this county is facing

1:49:00this same danger that we have.

1:49:03I just know that thirty year old, thirty year

1:49:06old vegetation management policies need the updated

1:49:12and in addition to update is how about any updates

1:49:16and training for our personnel?

1:49:18That's more WUI based or are there any sort of I

1:49:24know there's a little bit of training going on

1:49:26with other agencies but if you can speak briefly

1:49:29to some of the training that our personnel are undertaking,

1:49:33well, I mean, if training if you're if you're talking

1:49:37about fuel mitigation, I mean, fire mitigation fire fighting,

1:49:42fire I mean, the majority of the training

1:49:46we do here, again, thankfully because we don't have

1:49:49a lot of wildland fires is done in a simulated mode

1:49:55We have we have standards that deal with making long hose.

1:50:01We have standards on doing structure protection

1:50:03and we have performance We've worked with doing what we call

1:50:07bump and run probably one of the greatest trainings

1:50:11that we have for our personnel is the state engine that we

1:50:15have parked in our station.

1:50:17It goes out it actually goes it goes to places that burn

1:50:22our personnel when they go out there they are day in

1:50:26and day out.

1:50:27They are subjected to wildland fires.

1:50:29They are because it is a type one engine.

1:50:32They get subjected to structure protection.

1:50:34They get subject to pretty much everything

1:50:38that we can face within our city.

1:50:41I mean, aside from the fact that we're doing our part

1:50:44to help the state, that's probably One of the biggest

1:50:48reasons that i promote having that O.S.S. Is that it gives

1:50:53our personnel training that they would

1:50:56or training and experience that they would never again,

1:51:00thankfully never get within city any council questions OK,

1:51:15council member is that your hand?

1:51:17Yes, i've got it up.

1:51:19And I've got oh, maybe i don't have my hand anyway.

1:51:22The question I had was i could see that there would be

1:51:28a number of people who are older who would have to have

1:51:33a difficult time following the rules that you are suggesting

1:51:39are so important And I'm wondering if there

1:51:44could be ways to develop.

1:51:45So that name sort of organized neighbors to help or residents

1:51:51to help or whatever to help I'm thinking of a number of cards

1:51:57that I've seen that have what I think is citra us.

1:52:01I don't know.

1:52:01It's like a giant bush that's all over the place.

1:52:06Is that such Or one of them it.

1:52:10Could be I wouldn't know unless I looked.

1:52:12Well, let's assume that it is I mean, there's massive you know,

1:52:18so to get rid of that Would, you know would require you know,

1:52:25tools, abilities, the you know, our older resident

1:52:30won't have maybe they'll have the tools,

1:52:34but, you know, they don't know how to use them.

1:52:36Maybe And they won't be physically

1:52:39capable of doing it anyway.

1:52:42So i'm wondering if there could be ways.

1:52:45I'm i mean, the starting point, it seems to me,

1:52:48is to have an assessment of the House You know,

1:52:53somebody came out and said, these are the things

1:52:55that are issues at your house.

1:52:58That would be very helpful because the world

1:53:03that you're suggesting we live in right now.

1:53:06And I believe.

1:53:07Yeah, I think what you're saying is true It's a very different

1:53:12world than what we're used to.

1:53:14And so we're not very expert in knowing

1:53:18exactly at our own houses.

1:53:21What to do.

1:53:22I was thinking about my house now.

1:53:24I was thinking about.

1:53:26I'm starting i'm trying to put stuff in around my house

1:53:29and those places right now And, these

1:53:35are these are real changes I think that you

1:53:40will get that public comment.

1:53:42Yes.

1:53:43But I think you'll also have people who want to comply The

1:53:49but don't know what.

1:53:50I don't really know how to do it.

1:53:53And I don't know what color iraq really means.

1:53:57I mean, I can thinking of rocks being

1:53:59different colors that I don't know

1:54:00what one would do with them.

1:54:03So that's that's a need to me for my getting educ station

1:54:09and is there isn't an answer to that yet.

1:54:14Well, I mean as far as what the people can do, I mean,

1:54:18there's definitely pooling neighbors together I mean,

1:54:22there.

1:54:23I mean, this again, this is why it is a phased

1:54:25and it's not just it's got to be this way tomorrow.

1:54:30It is.

1:54:31I mean i guess the other way to look at it

1:54:33is if we do nothing the danger keeps increasing

1:54:39and, you know, it gets to the point

1:54:41that if something happens here you know, house burns down.

1:54:46And again, I'm not talking about while I'm talking about

1:54:50or wildfire coming through I'm talking about one house burning

1:54:54to another, burning to another just because

1:54:56of the dry conditions that the fact that somebody does not

1:55:01have the means to trim or to straighten up their house You

1:55:08know, again, I get, I guess, a heart or maybe a cruel answer

1:55:11or whatever is it's easier It's easier to straighten up

1:55:16and than it is to try and rebuild the house You know,

1:55:19I'm not saying that that's a guaranteed way to do it,

1:55:21but it's a thing where again, we can reach out,

1:55:25we can look at are there different church groups

1:55:28that can come in and help?

1:55:29Do they have family that can come in and help They said, you

1:55:34know, if they if they take over and spend two or three dollars

1:55:38a year with a landscaping company, you know,

1:55:41to to keep trimming back anything and everything we can

1:55:45do to get trees off of homes, to get trees away from basically

1:55:51off roofs, anything of that nature

1:55:55is going to make thing is going to make our city a lot better.

1:56:00If we do nothing.

1:56:03It's easy to do nothing until until the inevitable happens.

1:56:07On it.

1:56:09We thought we'd be yes, go beginning

1:56:12to some of these industries in abatement

1:56:14item out of our agenda later.

1:56:17Yes.

1:56:17We are educating our residents as to what they should be doing

1:56:22There's a second and a Third try and there have been

1:56:26people in the past who got neighbors to assist

1:56:28and helping them.

1:56:30So if there's any other question I'd like to move this along

1:56:33because we have a lengthy hearing tonight And Janet,

1:56:37are you fine?

1:56:38With your response I don't Sighing

1:56:42I think it's a question that we need to answer

1:56:45and i'm ready to it.

1:56:46I don't need to discuss it any more right now.

1:56:49Thank you.

1:56:49And we can bring that back up with the abatement issue.

1:56:52I'd like to move on to the PG&E presenter

1:56:56that we have tonight Part of the issues

1:56:59that we have before us and Mark Order,

1:57:02do you want to begin the discussion

1:57:05as to what you're doing?

1:57:06I just got a phone call on a robo call

1:57:08from you guys yesterday.

1:57:10About you flying over our houses.

1:57:12Dealing with some of the issues involved.

1:57:14So thank you for being here tonight.

1:57:18Thank you.

1:57:19Let's start with the most critical issue.

1:57:20Can you hear me?

1:57:22Yes wonderful Thank you for that.

1:57:26Thank you, Mayor.

1:57:26Council members or happy to be here tonight.

1:57:33My name is Mark Van Gorder.

1:57:36I appreciated the chief mentioning fire

1:57:38safe in my history with the company

1:57:41has been primary working in Marenkov

1:57:44county and Napa County.

1:57:48I'm relative Be new is government relations

1:57:50representative for Pacific Gas and Electric

1:57:52company to Contra Costa county.

1:57:56I appreciate the warm welcome.

1:57:57I've received and thank you for that.

1:58:01For those of who knew my colleague and friend Tom Garino

1:58:05and worked with him I just want to say

1:58:07thank you for the kindness that you shared with him.

1:58:12When I talked to him about Contra Costa and all the people

1:58:14that he worked with and the various council members, it

1:58:18it really it was joyful for him.

1:58:21The relationships that he had with you.

1:58:22So I just want to take a moment to say thank you for that.

1:58:26I'm here tonight.

1:58:28Obviously, we're talking about safe and reliable

1:58:32electric delivery This focus on safety

1:58:36And with me tonight is our public safety

1:58:38specialist Les Puttnam.

1:58:41Could you just introduce yourself for a minute

1:58:43and tell folks about your role?

1:58:45For those who may not know you already Absolutely.

1:58:48Again, can anybody hear me?

1:58:50Yes.

1:58:51Yes.

1:58:53So my name is the last I've been with PG&E for eight years.

1:58:57My history background is I was retired from the fire service

1:59:01after thirty years of service in the city of Berkeley.

1:59:05No, ulcerated quite well.

1:59:06And and appreciate l'esprit also with that being said,

1:59:11my position with pG&E is that as a public safety specialist

1:59:15and primarily plays on with police fire agencies,

1:59:20I have spoken with Chief Ghoneim on multiple occasions.

1:59:23And I interface with all fire chiefs in Contra Costa County

1:59:28on everything PG&E. So I would be to contact for your partners

1:59:33regarding any big issues as well.

1:59:36And so thank you for having here today.

1:59:38And we're hoping it will give you

1:59:40some great information on what we're

1:59:42doing to keep Ellsworth safe.

1:59:46So the next question.

1:59:48I'm going to ask and two things i'd like to comment on.

1:59:51We are committed to making the presentation about 15 minutes

1:59:56as requested We may go quickly through a slide deck

2:00:01that we presented minus ending is

2:00:03that's been uploaded to the Viya the agenda on the website.

2:00:07People can download it.

2:00:08I assume you all have a copy in your agenda packet

2:00:11I will move through some parts quickly

2:00:13because I know everyone can read.

2:00:15And there will be some, I think where

2:00:17we may want to spend a little bit extra time

2:00:20So I just want to say that up front for the benefit council

2:00:24members and the public who may say, wait a minute,

2:00:27you're going quite fast through these

2:00:29we can certainly respond to any questions

2:00:32that you may have during the Q&A Can

2:00:37you see this We call this the Google Earth flyover

2:00:45OK, I think I saw a thumbs up I'm going to do a very brief

2:00:49How does electricity get to El Cerrito?

2:00:52Because I think we're going to come back

2:00:53to some of the questions about the reliability

2:00:56and when and where we shut power This red line through our state

2:01:03represents.

2:01:04What I like to think of is the interstate five

2:01:06of electricity delivery.

2:01:08This is a five you know thousand volt electric line

2:01:13in the way of electric electricity works

2:01:16in in our system.

2:01:19Is it just steps down from very large to smaller to smaller.

2:01:26So the step downs come through substation's is

2:01:29each one of these each one of these triangles

2:01:32represents a substation.

2:01:34So stepping down it almost divides into halves.

2:01:38Not exactly, but ballpark.

2:01:40So as it comes down into some of the substations here

2:01:45and apologize, it takes just a second to load it all,

2:01:48step down from five hundred kilovolt down to two thirty.

2:01:54That's the sort of light blue lines and these blue lines

2:01:58start to carry electricity and starts despite or without

2:02:02or if you want to think the the red line is the tree

2:02:05trunk and then larger branches and then it continues on

2:02:09out So if we keep moving in you will

2:02:13start to see some other colored lines This is a one fifteen.

2:02:19So we go from two thirty to one fifteen

2:02:21And then if we get even closer, we'll go from one fifteen

2:02:25to about seven or sixty.

2:02:28And so it keeps stepping down really briefly.

2:02:31I did I forgot to show I don't the numbers exactly.

2:02:37It probably is important You 12, 15 years ago.

2:02:43I want to say fifteen percent of our service territory

2:02:47was in what the CPC designee is high fire threat area today.

2:02:54Roughly 50 percent So in a very short period of time,

2:02:58I think getting back to what Chief was talking about,

2:03:00fire chief was talking about the global warming climate change

2:03:04is having a tremendous impact.

2:03:06We've all read about the impacts to our forests

2:03:09We have approximately five million

2:03:11trees that are in and around our lines

2:03:14that we are trying to work.

2:03:15And we are trying to make this area safe.

2:03:18But the red is the very high fire threat areas.

2:03:21The orange or yellow ish goldish color

2:03:25is is high fire threat Just anyway

2:03:30I think it's self-explanatory.

2:03:32The red is right.

2:03:33So here we el Cerrito I know everyone

2:03:39knows their city boundary.

2:03:40But just for the moment i'll put it up.

2:03:42So we can get really clear on the interface

2:03:46So here's the city A lot of the city.

2:03:51I'm your ballpark 3 quarters One third of the city

2:03:55is not even close to hide fire threat areas.

2:03:59However, a good third of it is in this golden lower

2:04:05tiered fire threat area.

2:04:07And then what I'm showing here again,

2:04:11these are the transmission lines that

2:04:12come into what I'm sure all of you

2:04:14have seen URL Cerrito substation So we have a large transmission

2:04:20lines coming through.

2:04:22Hi fire threat areas into the substation step down as we go.

2:04:28Once it gets to the substation it branches out

2:04:32into the distribution system.

2:04:35I can turn these off.

2:04:36So once we have the destroyed ignition system,

2:04:40these orange lines all overhead lines,

2:04:42the typical angel driving down the street

2:04:45and the green lines represent the underground delivery

2:04:50of the electricity We turn a couple of things

2:04:53off just to kind of clean things up here and clarify it.

2:04:56So again, orange is overhead, green is underground.

2:05:00And that is how electricity gets to the city.

2:05:05Bellisario and I'll switch over to our PowerPoint presentation

2:05:09of what I wanted to drive home is that we believe generally

2:05:17that i hope this works good that the Elstree would not

2:05:22experience a trans mission level public safety

2:05:26power shut off outage.

2:05:27In other words, we don't believe that generally

2:05:31Generally speaking, not always.

2:05:32There's no guarantee that we would have winds or weather so

2:05:37strong that we would need to shut the power off

2:05:41through of those transit emission lines coming

2:05:44through the high fire grid area that come

2:05:45to into the substation and power That's

2:05:49an important point to make.

2:05:54As I go through the rest of these slides.

2:05:58So, again, we're focusing on El Cerrito,

2:06:00but I do have in the slide deck for you

2:06:02to reference the contra Costa area Again,

2:06:07I'm going to try and pull out some of the high points today.

2:06:11Fire she was talking about earlier Teamwork makes

2:06:15the teamwork Typically, when I make this presentation,

2:06:19I have some folks will say well, OK,

2:06:22that's good that you're doing all this work in contra Costa

2:06:25County and as we go through these slides,

2:06:28there's a number points that you'll see that

2:06:29are county y el Cerrito is positioned in such a way

2:06:38that if we have the Diablo winds blowing typically,

2:06:44they're blowing from the north and from the east to the south

2:06:46into the west.

2:06:48So an El Cerrito is kind of at that base of that high fire

2:06:52threat area coming from the north and east

2:06:55part of Contra costa County.

2:06:56So a lot of this work that's going on even if it's not

2:07:00directly in the city will benefit folks

2:07:04when we're when we're doing the work to reduce

2:07:07the wildfire potential We're working to improve

2:07:10situational awareness and we're reducing

2:07:13the impacts of public safety power

2:07:15shut off vents again I won't spend a lot of time

2:07:19on this slide number five.

2:07:20But for reference, this is what we're

2:07:22working to do system wide Contra Costa county again,

2:07:28I won't read all of this.

2:07:29We can come back to it for Q&A. But generally, AV system

2:07:32hardening, sexualising devices enhanced

2:07:35vegetation management weather stations and cameras help us.

2:07:40The monitoring.

2:07:41There are a number of good links in this deck to use.

2:07:45I will send city manager or the city clerk

2:07:49some additional links that I have prepared

2:07:51I was hoping to show them.

2:07:52We share via chat, but i don't see a chat feature here,

2:07:57so I'll share that with all of you

2:07:59through the city clerk and city manager

2:08:03So again, there hasn't been a tremendous amount of work

2:08:07in the city of El Cerrito because there are

2:08:10a number of other very immediate high priority areas that we're

2:08:16trying to work that, again, are in contra Costa County,

2:08:21that we're trying to prevent any kind of ignition source

2:08:23to high fire threat areas that I just showed you that said,

2:08:28we are installing system hardening, which

2:08:32is tree wire and stronger poles and sexualising devices,

2:08:37less Kaju, less Puttnam,

2:08:38could you talk briefly about the sexualising devices

2:08:40and just talk a bit about what they do?

2:08:43Clearly mark, this.

2:08:46Basically what we're using psychoanalysing devices

2:08:50for is to isolate a particular circuit that may cross over

2:08:55from a tier two, tier three area So we basically can segment

2:09:01a large circuit down into a smaller circuit that way,

2:09:05reducing the impact on the number of customers

2:09:07during event or for that matter, any other event

2:09:11It helps us isolate certain areas

2:09:14that we may be in a more high fire threat

2:09:17situation in these devices.

2:09:19Are either remotely controlled or they

2:09:21can be manually controlled.

2:09:22As well as we get our trouble out to the situation

2:09:26And just to highlight here the the devices you see

2:09:30in and around the Richmond El Sobrante area

2:09:32are really there to eliminate the fire threat in that San

2:09:38Pablo reservoir area.

2:09:39In the area as it Come to the back side of El Sobrante,

2:09:43and on the east excuse me, on the east side

2:09:46of the hills in that area coming in to telvin Park.

2:09:49So it is an advantage to El Cerrito

2:09:53that we're able to segment these areas

2:09:56and prevent wildfires in your surrounding communities.

2:10:00Or could you want to go Go ahead.

2:10:03Oh, here we go.

2:10:03Yes.

2:10:04Why don't you take us next.

2:10:05What next couple one.

2:10:06Unless i apologize.

2:10:08I know I was going to jump to slide nineteen.

2:10:09So if we can do these next two if you want to do that.

2:10:11And then I'll get to this nineteen Very good.

2:10:15So we're going to jump back in a second

2:10:17here to what type outages can occur within your city.

2:10:23So the first thing you want to talk about

2:10:25is you're going to get right to it here right now.

2:10:28So there are a number of different types

2:10:29of outages that we have we're all aware of recently.

2:10:32We have the brownouts and these.

2:10:35This is an outage that is not PG&E controlled

2:10:38It's an actually an outage that is called on by Cassius, which

2:10:43is the California grid operator And this is typically

2:10:47a high temperature, high heat conditions where everybody's

2:10:51using air conditioning and all the other electricity,

2:10:53especially in the late afternoon evening areas.

2:10:56And it drains the resources and the reserves

2:10:59on the electric grid on the West coast,

2:11:01we get a phone call literally an hour before we are

2:11:07and then we're asked to shut off certain grids

2:11:10and keep those off on a rotating basis.

2:11:13For several hours.

2:11:14Thereby reducing the load on the system So

2:11:17that's what we're rotating outages

2:11:19has no say in when and where that happens.

2:11:22And how it happens.

2:11:23We work with the grid system to be able to on the energize

2:11:28those circuits as required The other type of outage,

2:11:31obviously, an emergency repair just to get an example vehicle

2:11:35had to pull the wires, go down.

2:11:37You have an outage in a community,

2:11:39we send our problem in.

2:11:40Our department typically responds

2:11:42and this would be an immediate outage Everybody's

2:11:44going to know about it.

2:11:46But it may take a few hours to even a day for us

2:11:49to make repairs and get electricity back on.

2:11:52And we have our planned outages and we actually

2:11:54have we do this by notifying our customers in the outage area.

2:12:00Ten days in advance, we'll make a phone call.

2:12:02We'll send a text and email and even knock on the door.

2:12:07Doorknockers door to door information about the upcoming

2:12:12outage in that area.

2:12:14Once we actually go to work, we keep customers advised

2:12:18as to when the electricity will come back

2:12:20on And most often it is within a few hours and always

2:12:25within the same day.

2:12:26Musters a different problem It comes up.

2:12:29Then we have active wildfire outages.

2:12:31This is really for firefighters safety

2:12:33And you may see right we have a number of fires

2:12:36throughout California and we actually proactively shut off

2:12:40electricity to keep the firefighters safe.

2:12:42so they don't get electrocuted when wires come down and keeps

2:12:46them able to be in the field and do their work effectively

2:12:50and safely.

2:12:51We actually send for people like myself, our public safety

2:12:54specialist, out to those fires.

2:12:55And we monitor where the outages are and work with the incident.

2:12:59Managers to make sure that they stay

2:13:02energized until it's safe for us to make

2:13:05repairs and energize the wires.

2:13:07Then we get to our public safety shutoff

2:13:09and that's going to be basically the last tool in our toolbox.

2:13:14To reduce the potential for wildfire

2:13:18due to electrical parking or other issues

2:13:21with with our system.

2:13:23Next.

2:13:24So what is politics out of There you go, sir.

2:13:28Thank you.

2:13:29So what is a public power shut?

2:13:30We should all know this Bye now.

2:13:32We've been doing this for a couple of years.

2:13:34There are other utilities in Southern california that have

2:13:36been doing this for a decade.

2:13:38So it's not new to California.

2:13:40It's just the pG&E customers So we typically are looking

2:13:45at public safety power shut off when we start getting

2:13:49severe weather conditions We are constantly

2:13:51monitoring the weather.

2:13:53We have meteorologists within PG&E

2:13:55and we work with other agencies as well.

2:13:59We monitor camera we monitor weather stations

2:14:02And this information really gives

2:14:05us an insight as to if we're getting in those diable winds.

2:14:09The other things that will cause us to shut off

2:14:13power in a preventative measure, to reduce the potential impact

2:14:18of trees or branches, hitting our wires,

2:14:20creating parking and now creating

2:14:22a catastrophic wildfire situation.

2:14:24Next slide So conditions that would lead obsess about a bit

2:14:32low humidity as Tony mentioned humidity is

2:14:36a real real important factor.

2:14:39In fuel moisture conditions as well

2:14:41as the conditions in the field.

2:14:43So when we start seeing low humidity levels below 30

2:14:46percent that's an indicator we may be getting into apes,

2:14:49whether condition the winds Obviously,

2:14:52that's our biggest factor So when

2:14:54we see winds at 20 miles per on a consistent basis with gusts

2:14:59in the 30 40 mile per hour range we start seriously looking

2:15:04at the impacts on our Maybe losing lezzies audio

2:15:15is going to be losing his audio Yes,

2:15:22less There's no sound I can take over.

2:15:28You want to try one more time S.A.C. Yeah, let me I'll

2:15:34pick it up.

2:15:35Doc, this is why we have a good partnership.

2:15:37We're where we've got to be good friends.

2:15:39Recently So anyway, as Les was saying,

2:15:42there's a red flag warning Should

2:15:45dry materials on the ground.

2:15:46I think the chief covered pretty well.

2:15:49And on the ground real time observations

2:15:54couple more slides here.

2:15:55I know we're going just a bit customer notifications,

2:16:01PJI has an array of ways to communicate with customers.

2:16:07I'd like to just maybe spotlight Councilman

2:16:11Rudnik comments about how our is the chief getting this.

2:16:15Obviously, public, what what means?

2:16:17Well pG&E, we work with charitable partners

2:16:20community based organizations.

2:16:22We work with chambers of Commerce

2:16:24We have social media We do presentations

2:16:27like this to the city council.

2:16:29My opinion is you're the elected leaders

2:16:33of the community yourselves.

2:16:36The city manager, a public works director for fire chiefs,

2:16:40other folks i my belief is that residents in your community

2:16:47listen to you more than they're listening to me.

2:16:51Right.

2:16:51They trust you.

2:16:53And so my hope is that as we share information going

2:16:57into this unprecedented fire season

2:17:00and I've said that and FEMA has said that

2:17:04and a California state office of Emergency Services

2:17:07said that every year in a row for the past seven years,

2:17:12and i've been in many, many, many too many fires

2:17:16So we have a robust communication system.

2:17:19One those things we've added that I like

2:17:21to call your and community members attention which I think

2:17:24is really handy.

2:17:25It's new.

2:17:27It's PG&E address alerts that allows all of us

2:17:33to plug in and address a loved one

2:17:37The School of our Children maybe a senior care facility

2:17:41or a family member who maybe lives

2:17:43in a high fire threat area.

2:17:44You can plug in a number of addresses

2:17:46and be alerted about those locations if and when there may

2:17:50a public safety power shut off.

2:17:51I really like that new tool I'll check one last time less

2:17:56was going to talk about this is our customer

2:17:59notification Two days ahead about three days ahead.

2:18:04We actually start communicating with our partner and less.

2:18:07Are you able to talk again Can you hear me now?

2:18:11Now we hear you.

2:18:12So if you can talk about your partnership

2:18:13with first responders in the counties office of Emergency

2:18:17Services, briefly now.

2:18:19Thanks, Mark.

2:18:19Sorry about that.

2:18:21I have a of computer glitch going on here.

2:18:23Well, so what Mark's alluding to is that even though the slide

2:18:26says we are beginning our notifications two days

2:18:29or forty hours in advance, the reality is

2:18:32at 72 hours in advance we already have enough information

2:18:36to indicate that we are in a watch phase for a public safety

2:18:40power shut off at that time.

2:18:43I make phone calls to across the county.

2:18:45Oh, yes.

2:18:47We are.

2:18:48We're tied at the hip during this time.

2:18:50And I start making we start planning

2:18:53on how and where this public safety shot off

2:18:56may occur in Consequently, recovery

2:19:00would start making notifications within the County Fire chiefs

2:19:03to police chiefs and city agency to make

2:19:08them aware of the potential for an outage as well.

2:19:11So there's constant communication

2:19:12going once we have identified a potential event

2:19:17and so that's what we're trying to.

2:19:19But again, once we start doing that,

2:19:21we continue with notifications Forty eight

2:19:24hours at twenty Four hours.

2:19:26And then just before we turn off the electricity

2:19:29and then once we turn off the electricity,

2:19:31we still will make notifications to our customers

2:19:34throughout the event.

2:19:36Using social media they're texting or phone or other

2:19:40messaging so that they can be in tune

2:19:44and aware of what is going on with the weather

2:19:47And then once we inspect our lines and restore electricity,

2:19:54our customers are once again notified of energy

2:19:56coming back to their home.

2:19:58So a lot going on.

2:19:59There are a lot of notifications for a reason.

2:20:02We want to make sure everybody prepared in advance

2:20:05They have some time to get ice to charge up their batteries

2:20:09to do the things that they need to to get

2:20:11through this particular event that may

2:20:13last a few hours to a few days.

2:20:18So I know we're but over time, I'll be

2:20:21wrapping up here a little bit.

2:20:24Yep.

2:20:24We're going to conclude right now if there's questions

2:20:27council members have on other portions of the slide

2:20:30that you all have.

2:20:31Please, please, let us know.

2:20:33But we do have a lot of customer preparedness resources

2:20:36We can speak to that under Q&A. And then

2:20:39we obviously set up a number of community resource centers

2:20:43that we've identified as prime locations

2:20:46that we think are suitable for customers

2:20:49and we will get that information out to the community

2:20:52and through the city manager our first responder partners

2:20:59If and when that is needed.

2:21:01So that concludes our presentation

2:21:03Apologies for going over.

2:21:04Thank you very much.

2:21:05Now, very helpful council member Rodney Thank, Mayor.

2:21:11Thank you, Mark.

2:21:12Thank you for being here.

2:21:14Last last time I saw you, you were

2:21:16still Chief Putnam and the PSP and the fire

2:21:19fire conference room.

2:21:20So football as well.

2:21:22Thank you This context, I was going to say

2:21:25it's nice to see you again.

2:21:26I know.

2:21:26It's great to see you.

2:21:28So can you talk a little bit more about the buckets

2:21:31the sexualising devices the technology behind it?

2:21:35I see that you're planning to install

2:21:36five devices in our area in twenty twenty one.

2:21:40How will that impact El Sarino?

2:21:43Will it be that when there's a are there certain sections

2:21:46of town that will be impacted by or is it going to be

2:21:49the whole entire city less?

2:21:54Do you want take that one or you want me to You maybe

2:22:01I'm tutoring you.

2:22:04I'm trying to get off there.

2:22:04There we go.

2:22:05Sorry for that.

2:22:06I'm not sure why.

2:22:08So with that it's a great question.

2:22:11And what the reality is, is we use devices to again reduce

2:22:14the number of customers that are impacted

2:22:16And so if you look at the high bar for the Intermap or el

2:22:20Cerrito as you go along the road area

2:22:25where and what el Cerrito interfaces with the park

2:22:32district and the Wildcat Canyon area customers that may be

2:22:36within that area, we could actually keep that in there

2:22:41on the same circuit on the west side road.

2:22:45We could keep customers on the west side in the service

2:22:49while eliminating the threat on the east side of

2:22:52and hypertrophied it.

2:22:54If that makes sense So the devices here, Miles,

2:22:58I think we have I don't believe we have a Kensington Road.

2:23:01Are you talking about Arlington?

2:23:03I'm sorry, Arlington.

2:23:04I'm thinking of right down the road

2:23:07to make sure that we're not.

2:23:09Yeah, no, again, right.

2:23:11All along that area as we get into kensington, the Ossorio

2:23:14to the Richmond Heights area that's

2:23:17all the High Parkway area that everybody is concerned about.

2:23:20Hills fire, that exactly what what are the conditions

2:23:25are that everybody's worried about.

2:23:26So we're able to use the sectioning devices which

2:23:29are basically a mechanical device that breaks the circuit

2:23:33and opens it so that the electricity,

2:23:35no longer serving those customers on the opposite side.

2:23:38Section.

2:23:39So very simple devices, again, that

2:23:41can be controlled remotely or manually

2:23:44and the goal is to keep as many customers in service

2:23:48during an event as possible.

2:23:51If I could really quick, council member

2:23:53Rudnik, can you see this highlighted purple on the map?

2:23:59You see the roads?

2:24:01Yes.

2:24:02So those these are electric circuit lines overhead,

2:24:07assuming we put a sectionalism in about here, it would

2:24:12the idea is to stop the power flow

2:24:14that continues up to the orange high fire threat area.

2:24:17preventing power from going up into that area.

2:24:21While keeping the power on in the non hypertrophied area So

2:24:25you strategically finding places like this here.

2:24:29And then and again, without taking

2:24:32more time somewhere along the high price, that area.

2:24:35We can to quickly put these devices in to basically island

2:24:40off the high fire threat area to protect it from ignition

2:24:43or potential ignition sources while keeping

2:24:46a vast majority of the city still with power that helps.

2:24:51Thank you for the explanation and for promoting

2:24:56Gamma Thank you, Amir.

2:25:02And thank you for this great presentation.

2:25:05I have a question about sort of longer term safety.

2:25:08And I was wondering if i know this in the presentation you

2:25:13talked about underground in some lines of overall safety

2:25:18work I was wondering if that was something

2:25:20that's contemplated for more urban areas in Contra

2:25:25Costa County.

2:25:26And specifically in El Cerrito.

2:25:28I. I particularly live on a street

2:25:31where there's a lot of conflict between the power the trees

2:25:34and i've always thought that if we had underground more

2:25:37of our lives than at least that conflict would

2:25:40go away and hopefully cost everybody

2:25:42less with that maintenance A few comments on that.

2:25:46If I could I've talked with a lot of folks

2:25:52and say, well, you know, if we could undergo around the lines,

2:25:55then we wouldn't have to keep doing the vegetation management

2:25:58on the trees.

2:25:59I think there's a thought and I'm not trying

2:26:01to make an assumption, bye.

2:26:03Have this conversation to bring the backhoe and the bulldozer

2:26:09and the equipment into trench to do the underground

2:26:12in some areas, there's a likelihood

2:26:15that you would have to remove those trees out

2:26:18as the root systems grow into the ground

2:26:20and potentially can cause interference

2:26:22with the underground So I just want to lay that out.

2:26:24Is is a reminder to folks that it may do more damage to some

2:26:29of the trees in the area than the pruning and the removal

2:26:33of the vegetation the ballpark the vegetation routine

2:26:38maintenance insist, and hardening the poles

2:26:42and maybe putting an insulated tree wire

2:26:44is about a factor of ten to one for the cost of underground

2:26:50It's much faster usually to restore power

2:26:53if there's been an outage or some kind

2:26:55of find where the outages are.

2:26:58Patrol people are going along the roadways

2:27:01and they can more quickly isolate

2:27:02alone views or a problem when it's visible above.

2:27:05I've had customers that have contacted me

2:27:08and their power is out.

2:27:09Twenty four.

2:27:09Thirty six hours It's because they

2:27:12have to dig up the underground area,

2:27:14find out where the problem is and fix it.

2:27:16Those are some challenges with underground funding.

2:27:20That said, we are looking to find the best places where it

2:27:23makes sense to underground and it's possible we

2:27:26may be doing more work.

2:27:28We're conducting a lot of assessments

2:27:30and using the new artificial intelligence system

2:27:34to give machine learning about where

2:27:37we should be investing our dollars

2:27:39in the highest threat areas.

2:27:40It makes sense to underground So it's not to say

2:27:43it won't happen in el Serino.

2:27:45We're certainly willing to work with cities

2:27:47that want to do the underground and the cost of substantial.

2:27:50And there's those trade offs I don't know

2:27:52if that's a good quick answer.

2:27:54And just a question about when you

2:27:57talk about hardening, what are the things

2:27:59that is a hallmark of certain?

2:28:01First of all, street are very old power line of power poles.

2:28:06They look very old and you can see

2:28:08the glass fuses still kind of are they still

2:28:12considered perfectly safe?

2:28:15Are they safe?

2:28:18Is there any consideration about the age of the system?

2:28:22When you are kind of prioritizing replacement

2:28:25in upgrading so the system is regularly inspected Probably

2:28:33great importance or concern that I've

2:28:35heard from county supervisors in the area in particular,

2:28:41we've had a meeting with Wild Cat canyon.

2:28:45I want to say it's the fire safe council I don't know if I'm

2:28:47getting that right, but supervisor

2:28:50ahead We had to present to talk about the trans issue

2:28:54in towers.

2:28:55So those larger towers that go up and in the area

2:28:59they are planning some work on those

2:29:02towers in the coming years.

2:29:05We're not there yet.

2:29:06They are safe and to operate per the annual inspections

2:29:12but they're planning to rebuild those towers and the conductor

2:29:16to upgrade the safety to serve the community for a long time.

2:29:22But your point regularly, Inspector checks

2:29:25for any defects and without getting into the details,

2:29:31I'll share more with your city manager

2:29:33and mayor and council members.

2:29:36Soon.

2:29:37PG&E has actually created an application,

2:29:39you can load to your phone that will allow customers to see

2:29:44something they're concerned about to report it, take

2:29:47a photo of it, plug in the address and we'll follow up

2:29:50and take a look and make sure that everything

2:29:52is as it should be, which I'm excited about as well.

2:29:57Just to clarify, I didn't I wasn't

2:29:59referring to the large metal electrical ones,

2:30:07but the woodwinds.

2:30:08Yeah.

2:30:09So street safe, they looked very, very old.

2:30:14if you public works director or yourself making contact me.

2:30:19And I think everyone has my contact information

2:30:22and put it out publicly because i

2:30:24really work directly with elected officials and staff.

2:30:27But if there is areas that we could take a look at,

2:30:30I'm happy to assist to confirm that those

2:30:32are operable and good working order OK, I will.

2:30:36I will definitely work with Karen.

2:30:40So Karen, if you could please have Givat

2:30:44follow up with mr. Gorder.

2:30:47That would be really great.

2:30:51Any other questions?

2:30:54I have a couple of quick questions.

2:30:56I do Quick.

2:30:59First of all, as do you I here.

2:31:01I'm part of that Wildcat Canyon fire group.

2:31:03And we talk about cameras being put up in various spots.

2:31:07Do you use or have access to information from cameras?

2:31:10That's question number one.

2:31:12And and you did say that there's not a lot of work

2:31:15you're doing in El Reno.

2:31:17We're benefiting from surrounding areas, but are you

2:31:21we're hearing on the news in the last couple of days

2:31:23about the Dixie fire and fire wires falling on trees

2:31:29causing possibly causing fires.

2:31:31Do you have is there an effort to PG&E

2:31:34to look at the trees and our city

2:31:36and making sure that they're not connected

2:31:38to wire fire lines, water lines, Is there an effort

2:31:42and if not why not?

2:31:47I can speak to a tree work.

2:31:49Tresa in all of our areas or inspect danieli.

2:31:53They're required to be trimmed Answer very quickly.

2:31:57Your request Happy to answer.

2:31:58More so, Inspector.

2:32:00Anuclear every year use checks, the trees

2:32:04the wires and also rido And that's responded to

2:32:07and fixed if, in fact, is an issue That's correct.

2:32:12That said if anyone feels that they're seeing trees come

2:32:16into contact I'd encourage folks to dial our customer service

2:32:21number, which is eight seven 4, 3 five thousand

2:32:26press the number one to report a hazard and report the location.

2:32:31The phone number or other information

2:32:33they can share where they say that they

2:32:34may see trees going into it.

2:32:37And will have somebody out to confirm regarding

2:32:41the cameras There is a list.

2:32:47If I there is a list of cameras that cover the east Bay Area

2:32:55And I just brought up a some of them here

2:32:58But peak, just as an example the cameras are these

2:33:05are links that I'll share with the city clerk.

2:33:07But there are a number of cameras that overlook the area

2:33:12that can swivel on pivot, pan, tilt

2:33:15and are used by California or in any other agencies.

2:33:20You know, here's wildcat Canyon camera

2:33:22right now that's constantly being

2:33:28constantly monitoring for fire.

2:33:31So there's a number of cameras that are usable in the area.

2:33:34Again, short answer I can answer more if you have who's

2:33:38in charge of a camera system, let lest you have the who's

2:33:43in charge So I don't if we may have lost last maybe you

2:33:52can use them.

2:33:53All right.

2:33:55So it's available to a number of agencies especially California

2:34:00You can take a look at the images we'll

2:34:02monitor for hotspot shots.

2:34:05But local office of Emergency services probably could contact

2:34:09pG&E through public for putnam.

2:34:12We can work with Cal Fire and constantly monitoring.

2:34:15This is one this is one camera of the many in the East Bay

2:34:20that I show here.

2:34:22And again, I'm happy to thank you.

2:34:24I'm happy to provide the all of these cameras.

2:34:26They're publicly available for viewing,

2:34:28but you can even no one can take control of them.

2:34:30Thank you.

2:34:31Thank you very much.

2:34:32And if there's no other questions for this panelists,

2:34:35thank you very much, Mark.

2:34:37And les go away.

2:34:40Thank you.

2:34:41Yes, i'm here.

2:34:43Thank all of you.

2:34:44Thank you very Thank you.

2:34:46I'd like to thank you I'd like to move up.

2:34:48Well, we'll be back in touch.

2:34:50Move on to the East Bay East Bay made his municipal utility.

2:34:56I believe we have a director here.

2:34:58If he's still here, Director Andy Katz is a friend of ours.

2:35:02I guess.

2:35:02Good, good.

2:35:04Evening.

2:35:05I'm mayor and city council.

2:35:07It's a pleasure to be here.

2:35:08Thank you.

2:35:09With you tonight.

2:35:11To present on spent much update on drought

2:35:16fire and public safety.

2:35:18Power shut off preparedness.

2:35:20I'm Andy Katz.

2:35:22I represent the sarino area on the EPA.

2:35:25My board of directors.

2:35:26And I'm honored to represent our community to carry out its

2:35:30mission to protect public health and the environment And

2:35:33I'm joined today by several staff who will accompany me

2:35:37in answering questions about our presentation And Alloa senior

2:35:42engineer and water resource planning ellis' till we are

2:35:46manager of water conservation Scott Hill,

2:35:49our manager of Watershed, and Bret Kawakami,

2:35:52our engineering manager and water operations So today we

2:35:56will cover water supply and drought water conservation

2:36:01programs, land management in preparation for fire season,

2:36:05and how Etemad maintains reliable

2:36:08water service during chegeni, Public

2:36:10Safety are shutoff events.

2:36:13So on the next slide, you can see our watershed are

2:36:18watershed extends from this year crest

2:36:20down to the San Francisco bay.

2:36:22We cover five counties but our watershed really

2:36:26does stretch the region the state,

2:36:28and it's important to be aware of all

2:36:32of the communities that are involved in delivering

2:36:35water to our community.

2:36:39Our primary water source is in the Columbia

2:36:41River watershed in the eastern Sierra Nevada Mountains.

2:36:45That's a 90 mile route that the water takes

2:36:47to get to this this map also shows the Freeport Regional

2:36:52Water Project If you look just below Sacramento, that allows

2:36:57for EPA to deliver a supplemental supply

2:37:01from the Sacramento River to our system to

2:37:04we've maintaining our vast watershed

2:37:07and providing protecting public health for more than a

2:37:10years and nearly one years.

2:37:12And we are proud to serve you We have social media accounts

2:37:17on Facebook, Twitter, next door, LinkedIn and youTube

2:37:21and work hard to connect the public

2:37:25to important public information announcements

2:37:28through those mediums So on the next slide

2:37:32you can see our water supply.

2:37:35We this this graph shows what our water supply has been

2:37:40like for the last ten years.

2:37:42So in the lighter blue is our water supply from McCullom

2:37:47and local watersheds, we target a maximum carryover storage

2:37:52storage of approximately six hundred

2:37:55and thirty thousand acre feet.

2:37:58You may wonder what is a thousand

2:38:01acre feet that is roughly the size of a football field.

2:38:06One foot deep in water that is a thousand acre feet.

2:38:11So that's how the water community

2:38:13calculates water storage.

2:38:15So we are targeting about six hundred and thirty

2:38:19thousand acre feet by the end of September,

2:38:22the end of our water year.

2:38:24So supplies vary as we cycle through a drought

2:38:28and wet periods You see in the drought of twenty thirteen

2:38:32to twenty sixteen, it got pretty low

2:38:36and we were adjusting to a drought response

2:38:42to get progressively more stringent with the restrictions

2:38:45that we were asking of our customers

2:38:48as the drought continued.

2:38:50That also meant that we increased the amount

2:38:52of supplemental supply that we purchased

2:38:55in that successive years We've learned from those experiences.

2:39:00And we have a new understanding of how

2:39:03to be able to be prepared for this coming drought,

2:39:08whether next year is rainy or next year is dry.

2:39:11So our supplemental supplies are not

2:39:14included in displayed twenty twenty one

2:39:16projected carryover storage.

2:39:18Yet but those supplies are scheduled to be

2:39:20delivered later this year.

2:39:22So we have a four stage drought declaration

2:39:28for states drought categorization system

2:39:32that we use.

2:39:33It's based on the amount of water

2:39:35that we expect to be in our system at the end of September.

2:39:39So we've declared a state of one drought, four for EPA and this

2:39:46is really something that I see as a direct consequence

2:39:50of global climate change.

2:39:52Climate change continues to be a real threat to our water supply

2:39:56as well.

2:39:57As our fire safety and so many other issues on the planet.

2:40:01What we're seeing now is more frequent,

2:40:05more severe extreme weather events, including drought.

2:40:09And that means that we are getting prepared to be

2:40:12resilient by having a diversified water

2:40:15portfolio that includes water conservation buying

2:40:18supplemental supplies providing recycled water

2:40:22for irrigation and industrial uses,

2:40:24as well as fixing leaky pipes through our pipeline

2:40:28replacement program.

2:40:29So the graphic here is included in our state mandated

2:40:34urban water management plan.

2:40:36It shows the various stages of drought in our service area

2:40:40as the drought progresses.

2:40:42We hope it doesn't, but we have a very engineering based plan

2:40:47to calculate what how resilient can we be going through a three

2:40:52year drought sequence essentially

2:40:54modeled after the most severe drought that we've ever seen.

2:40:58If we had if we had a worst case scenario Three years in a row

2:41:02how would we be doing?

2:41:04That's the reasoning for how we have these stages set up

2:41:07We look at our car customers conservation and consumption

2:41:11patterns, and that's how we've designed these stages

2:41:15So what we're in right now is a stage

2:41:18one drought It's moderate.

2:41:20It's still a drought emergency.

2:41:22But it's moderate So it can get worse than this

2:41:26We would like it to be.

2:41:27We wish it were a normal year, but it's a moderate drought

2:41:30year because our storage supplies

2:41:33are predicted to be in this four and seventy Five to four.

2:41:37Twenty five thousand acre feet zone at the end of the water

2:41:40year So we're going to be using our water

2:41:43allocation from the central Valley project.

2:41:46That's that supplemental supply that i discussed

2:41:49earlier to bring thirty three thousand

2:41:52acre feet into our system.

2:41:54From the Sacramento River using at Freeport Pipeline It's

2:41:59important to note that different regions of the state

2:42:02have different experiences in the drought

2:42:04because marin county, for example, Sonoma county,

2:42:09for example, they're dependent on the Russian River They have

2:42:13much smaller year to year supplies

2:42:17We have different supplies systems,

2:42:19other districts in the state may be completely

2:42:22dependent on the state water project or the Central Valley

2:42:25Project for their supplies.

2:42:27So in the news you may hear about more severe response

2:42:30happening in one part of the state

2:42:32or another part of the state.

2:42:34Our recommendation to our customers when our board is

2:42:37reviewed and declared is what we need

2:42:41for our community to be able to have a resilient water future.

2:42:46So we're asking our customers to help us reach our 10 percent

2:42:49cumulative water conservation goal

2:42:51district wide to help us meet our water conservation

2:42:56needs for a future year.

2:42:57That means are acting now.

2:42:59So that we're in a better position

2:43:01if next year is also dry So we're taking these actions.

2:43:06Now to make sure that we're ready to respond to the future

2:43:09We really thank our customer for continuing to conserve water

2:43:13using 13 percent less water in twenty twenty

2:43:17compared to the water use for from twenty thirteen So

2:43:21each drought that we've experienced,

2:43:22we've actually had more customers

2:43:25taking advantage of our our conservation programs

2:43:28and just adopting better water use.

2:43:30Efficiency overall.

2:43:32So we're really proud of the water use efficiency

2:43:35that our customers have.

2:43:36That's among the best in the state I'm particularly

2:43:39proud to represent Ward for a very efficient water

2:43:43water community.

2:43:45Ulcerate Kensington, Berkely, emeryville,

2:43:48Albany, North Oakland.

2:43:50I love our community because we are

2:43:52so efficient with water use.

2:43:54So but we have more to try to help our customers.

2:43:58I get ahead and take advantage of our rebates

2:44:03and other programs to help you save water.

2:44:05So you can help save water.

2:44:08We are here to help add on We have some really exciting

2:44:13programs that we can deliver.

2:44:15We have a web portal on the next slide.

2:44:17We have some examples that.

2:44:19So we have a Web portal where customers can actually monitor

2:44:23their own water set up a leak alert We do find that

2:44:27after a period of time when customers have not been

2:44:31checking their toilets, not been checking their plumbing

2:44:34over several years since the last drought

2:44:37that water leaks can be up to 15 percent of our urban water use.

2:44:42So at this time, when a drought is starting, we urge customers

2:44:46to check your toilet for leaks, check other aspects

2:44:50of your plumbing, you can look at your meter

2:44:53and see if it's running You can also much easier

2:44:57ways just for the toilet is to get some dye

2:45:01and we can provide you with dye tabs

2:45:04that can help you track to see whether that dye

2:45:07is flowing through your toilet.

2:45:09And that might mean you have a leak.

2:45:11We provide a big incentive for you

2:45:14to be able to take care of that We will actually go backwards

2:45:18on your bill to when the leaks are likely started

2:45:22and give you a rebate 50 percent off your bill.

2:45:25If you show us the documentation that you hired

2:45:27a plumber to fix the leak.

2:45:29So if we see that you fix the leak

2:45:31and your consumption went down, will rebate the money

2:45:35that that you spent on that leaky water,

2:45:38because we want you to help get it fixed.

2:45:41That's a big savings for everybody.

2:45:44We want to help you fix your toilet leaks

2:45:47There's other helpful rebates to another rules that you can use.

2:45:51We find that sometimes these leaks

2:45:53just happen when you're on vacation

2:45:55or not paying close attention.

2:45:57So that's why we're trying to help customers with automated

2:46:01tools We also can help adapt those tools irrigation

2:46:06systems and controllers.

2:46:08And we have a really wonderful home

2:46:09survey kit and resolute tool for our customers

2:46:15We hope that if we have a better stage of the pandemic

2:46:18that we may be able to resume in home survey assistance

2:46:24during the pandemic.

2:46:25We are providing the kits.

2:46:26It's actually working really well.

2:46:28We can still work with people over the phone

2:46:31to help people work through those tools.

2:46:34To be able to get the most out of it.

2:46:37Most customers really can follow the instructions

2:46:40and get their toilet fixed and just

2:46:42learn about a lot of things about their home water

2:46:46You can use a bag that you can put around your shower head

2:46:50and see how much water is coming out

2:46:52of your shower every minute.

2:46:54And if it's not an efficient shower head,

2:46:56we can make recommendations of that.

2:46:58So those are just some examples that we have for the tools

2:47:02that we can provide to make every drop count take shorter

2:47:05showers run only full loads in the dishwasher and clothes

2:47:10washer and check for leaks We also strongly, in addition,

2:47:16indoor water use really urge reducing outdoor water use.

2:47:21So we urge us to have efficient irrigation.

2:47:26So watering your turf three or fewer times

2:47:29weekly watering shrubs and trees once weekly.

2:47:34That's what you need to keep the plants alive.

2:47:37But more than that would be wasteful in a strapped

2:47:40emergency.

2:47:41Espere avoid runoff and overspray.

2:47:44It's required during a drought to use only a hose

2:47:48with an automatic runoff.

2:47:50We don't want a hose just became water.

2:47:53It's really important Have that automatic shutoff valve It's

2:47:57available at any hardware store in really easy

2:48:01to use water at dusk or dawn.

2:48:04To prevent excessive evaporation And we

2:48:07also provide more online tools.

2:48:09So a water budget, we also have watering schedules, calculators

2:48:15and more tips on our website We really pride ourselves

2:48:21in being a leader in the state, in investing in water

2:48:24use, efficiency So we provide a host of rebates that

2:48:30are from high efficiency toilets and other fixtures

2:48:34But more importantly, we are creating a super rebate program

2:48:38to upgrade our incentive to convert turf

2:48:42to water efficient landscaping.

2:48:44So to be able to have that efficient irrigation it's

2:48:49every customer's choice what to have on their front lawn

2:48:53or their back on.

2:48:55But we understand that the less water.

2:48:59We use, the more efficient we can be as a community.

2:49:01So we provide this rebate to be able help have plants

2:49:06of anyone's choice But we encourage native plants

2:49:09and we have a wonderful garden guide

2:49:12that provides recommendations for what

2:49:16plants are water efficient and native to our EPA.

2:49:21Community and that program where we've dramatically increased

2:49:26our super rebate for sustainable and medians,

2:49:30I would highly encourage the city of El Cerrito

2:49:33to look out for your own municipal water, water usage

2:49:39outside like like medians.

2:49:42Take a look at what kind of a lawn replacement

2:49:46might make sense for your medians.

2:49:49In your parks because we want to make

2:49:53sure that we are using water efficiency where it makes

2:49:56sense.

2:49:57So at 4:00 organizations, it can be

2:50:00up to fifteen thousand dollars per organizer over Four years.

2:50:07We also can work out customer rebates

2:50:10to see what makes sense based on our efficiency

2:50:13calculation approaches.

2:50:15But our super rebate, we've doubled the dollars per square

2:50:19to a dollar fifty per square foot

2:50:22for every square foot of that's converted

2:50:25to water efficient landscape.

2:50:27We are also really encouraging meters

2:50:30and we have technical assistance that we're able to provide

2:50:34and some rebate assistance that we can work with Multifamily

2:50:37customers are what really exciting opportunity

2:50:41for customers is our demonstration gardens

2:50:45and we offer grants to community groups

2:50:48to develop publicly available gardens

2:50:51demonstrating water conservation and landscape principles.

2:50:55So grants are available to support

2:50:58education events or workshops that are held

2:51:01that demonstrate in gardens.

2:51:03So those are words range from five dollars

2:51:06to fifteen thousand We love your help getting the word out

2:51:10when opportunities for these demonstration gardens

2:51:14arise because we want to be able to help

2:51:18our customers get inspired.

2:51:20We have a wonderful book that we believe

2:51:23is available in your library.

2:51:25It's available for sale.

2:51:27We have some of that material on our website

2:51:30but nothing really replaces just seeing

2:51:33that the the beautiful gardens upclose.

2:51:36So I invite folks to take a look at our website

2:51:40and visit a demonstration and find another organization that

2:51:43might want to take advantage of program

2:51:46and create their own demonstration

2:51:47garden to inspire their neighbors

2:51:51So we also have fire gaping resources.

2:51:54We know that drought is a very serious, not just for our water

2:51:59supply but also for safety.

2:52:01And we provide this information at dot com slash fire scaping.

2:52:08So we want to make sure that as we're

2:52:10drought resistant that we're also fire safe.

2:52:13So we can also provide copies of our booklet

2:52:16that has information on landscaping to prevent

2:52:20and reduce fire hazard Next, we have more information

2:52:25for for you tonight about what we are doing to prevent

2:52:28and manage fire in our watershed We are employing

2:52:32strategic approach to manage vegetation,

2:52:35to reduce build up of hazardous fuels

2:52:38And we've been doing this for years.

2:52:40We're not just doing this now because this year's

2:52:43fire season, this has been our practice for a long time.

2:52:47I served on our joint liaison committee with the Parks

2:52:49District where we share information about how

2:52:53we're maintaining vegetation.

2:52:55We have differences between Etemad in the Parks district.

2:52:58We have a very human resources intensive approach as opposed

2:53:03to herbicides because of the importance

2:53:06of protecting water quality in our watershed But we use goats.

2:53:10We use people on horseback with axes.

2:53:15We we do cover our watershed to make

2:53:18sure that we're managing fuel.

2:53:20We think about principles of fuel

2:53:23So we don't have a very simplistic approach.

2:53:27It's a very scientific approach. that

2:53:29looks at how this fuel really work in a fire

2:53:33And by doing that, we are able to maintain our access to fire

2:53:38roads throughout the watershed shed

2:53:40and make sure that we are able to have the tools available

2:53:45for firefighting, for containment, and suppression So

2:53:50we also have a field breaking network that prevents

2:53:54the spread of wild wildfire from the watershed to the urban area

2:53:59and we also have patrol on the watershed lands 24/7.

2:54:05Day of the year.

2:54:07We have contracted arrangements with the EPA

2:54:10Regional Parks District for our police services.

2:54:13But we also have our own rangers who monitor the watershed

2:54:18to make sure that we are able to catch

2:54:22problems as best as we can.

2:54:25So we also have experienced a very new challenge.

2:54:29But public safety power shutoffs.

2:54:33We were we were challenged by this new development,

2:54:38but we have not skipped a beat and providing water

2:54:41for our customers all day.

2:54:44Every day, even when the power wasn't running.

2:54:47It did require us to bear some costs

2:54:50So when PG&E did inform EPA that we would have to still continue

2:54:56operations despite access to electricity

2:54:59during these events, we took action We have

2:55:03acquired by Rentoul generators.

2:55:07They are currently diesel generators It is my strong hope

2:55:10that if this is the new normal that we seriously look

2:55:14at the technology for battery generated

2:55:17electric electricity that will be

2:55:20able to avoid diesel pollution in neighborhoods.

2:55:24But for now dealing with this emergency and the relatively

2:55:29recent news and the the current state of technology

2:55:33we currently are using diesel diesel generators

2:55:37at our pumping plants to be able to have are flowing

2:55:41into our tanks We have relatively few pumping plants

2:55:46compared to our storage tanks.

2:55:48So you can see on this that the water goes up

2:55:52from pumping, plant up the hill to a water tank

2:55:56where the water comes is gravity fed to our customers.

2:56:01Sometimes in the middle of an elevator area that pumping

2:56:06will pump will have a water tank and pumping plant

2:56:10and that water goes further uphill.

2:56:13To feed water to customers who are further up that hill.

2:56:17So the water is ultimately gravity fed from a tank

2:56:21that is up the hill.

2:56:22But we always need pumping plant below that to be

2:56:25pumping water up to that tank.

2:56:28We we've been this piece by getting advanced news

2:56:32of the event, making sure that the water

2:56:35tank is full at the beginning of the event.

2:56:38And then using that emergency backup diesel

2:56:41generator to do its job during the event.

2:56:45We also have to communicate to customers during those events

2:56:48to conserve even more.

2:56:50And we know that that's a challenge, especially

2:56:53during this drought season.

2:56:54But it's even more of a reason during those events

2:56:58We need to make sure that we can bridge through that period.

2:57:02And we do need reasonable conservation from customers

2:57:07to make sure that we can make do with that The limited access

2:57:12to electricity in the community So we

2:57:17have an excellent track record.

2:57:18We've maintained that water service to customers

2:57:22and the fire department during every in the past two years

2:57:26And we will continue to do so You have my commitment that I

2:57:29will continue to explore clean technology to be able to bridge

2:57:34through these events whether we need to consider

2:57:37micro grids that that connect to distributed resources to be

2:57:41able to make that work, whether we can actually have

2:57:46those technologies on site, we're getting improvements

2:57:49in battery storage.

2:57:50I'd like to see that as an alternative to diesel

2:57:53In the meantime, we need to keep the water on.

2:57:56And that's what we'll do.

2:57:58So that is our relatively brief presentation on drought,

2:58:03fire and preparedness.

2:58:06We have a lot more going on in EPA.

2:58:07My we we have investments in our interest

2:58:13We are doing our part to look at our agency with regard

2:58:19to equity and social justice and racial justice.

2:58:23I'd love to come back to to talk with you

2:58:26after the drought emergency to talk more about those

2:58:28those initiatives.

2:58:29I also have annual events where I can discuss that with you.

2:58:34As well.

2:58:34And I look forward to the day that I

2:58:36can be back in your council chambers in person

2:58:39to see each of you and also look forward to the day

2:58:43that we can have an in-person briefing.

2:58:46But in the meantime, I will continue

2:58:48to be excessive to you.

2:58:50And I'm also pleased that share on the expert knowledge

2:58:55of our staff here who have their cameras on and look

2:58:59forward to your questions.

2:59:00Thank you.

2:59:00Thank you.

2:59:01You, Director Katz.

2:59:02And I understand that Alliss and also isn't that correct,

2:59:06Alice I am I am here in my home office in Elser

2:59:11I'm just two blocks from the city hall.

2:59:13So you know how we know how to reach you

2:59:16And we love the services that you provide us.

2:59:18So thank you for that full and complete report.

2:59:21Our mayor pro tem had his hand up for a long time and gabriel,

2:59:24would you like to start questions Thank you.

2:59:26Mayor Fidele.

2:59:28Director Katz, it's always pleasure.

2:59:30I always love having you give a presentation

2:59:33before our residents and our residents.

2:59:37They definitely know how to save money.

2:59:39We've been doing this since the 1970s.

2:59:42When we were asked to do this the first time.

2:59:45So know that our residents know how to do this.

2:59:48And I know our new residents will learn how to do this.

2:59:52So i appreciate that.

2:59:54One thing i've been asking you for years

2:59:57is when can El Cerrito hook up to the non-clerical water that

3:00:02is just so close by we can use that water to water

3:00:08our landscaping and it.

3:00:11That's something that I would like

3:00:13to make sure that we look closely on at

3:00:17and work on that in the future.

3:00:20With that, we're using good, clean water

3:00:23that that's drinkable water.

3:00:25Red.

3:00:26And I know you have worries that, by the way,

3:00:29it's at the Albany Berkeley border.

3:00:32Is that correct?

3:00:33It's the E-Space pipeline is slowly moving up

3:00:37the corridor for more details.

3:00:40I believe in a Loha may have that information OK

3:00:50repeat the question.

3:00:51Sorry about that.

3:00:52Was so the question is when might we

3:00:58have access to recycled water from East Bay Shore for Elstree

3:01:04to alice?

3:01:07Do you have the answer to that question?

3:01:09Yes, I know that this has been studied as Director

3:01:13Katz alluded to So there are portions of that pipeline

3:01:16along I 80 that are complete and East Bay mud has been slowly

3:01:20working filling in those gaps.

3:01:22And we have occasionally look for opportunities

3:01:24where it makes sense, where you can

3:01:26partner with cities or other organized nations

3:01:28to try to fill out that system.

3:01:30So I'm afraid I don't at the top of my head

3:01:32know the exact date when that pipeline would reach

3:01:36But, you know, I think part of the problem

3:01:38is some of the pipelines that were installed were sort

3:01:41of the easier sections This just sort of straight sections

3:01:44along the freeway.

3:01:46Some of those sort of interchanges and kind

3:01:48crossings, exits and ramps are a little more challenging

3:01:52So those are the sections that we're

3:01:53kind of filling in and heading north as we go

3:01:57OK, I'll be glad to give you a more

3:02:00complete answer after today.

3:02:02Thank you.

3:02:03You.

3:02:03Thank you.

3:02:03I've been asking that since twenty fourteen

3:02:05and so know that I know it's there.

3:02:09And I know all the communities here along the corridor,

3:02:13especially albany and Elstree, I would very much

3:02:16appreciate that Another question is dealing with the trees

3:02:25that we have.

3:02:26And I know your taking a different approach

3:02:31than the other utility companies and making sure that we do not

3:02:37use herbicide sidescan and that very, very much appreciate

3:02:41that I know you and I work together for years

3:02:44and see a club executive board.

3:02:47And I remember you mentioning the importance of not

3:02:51having that get into our water.

3:02:54So know that i still continue and appreciate all the work

3:03:01that you're doing to make sure that when it comes to killing

3:03:05eucalyptus trees and the trees that cause fires in your way,

3:03:12absolutely.

3:03:12I feel is a good way to work on this.

3:03:16And I know we have a lot of trees

3:03:19we need to get rid and some no that, especially

3:03:24with the things that you're doing.

3:03:26Our watershed and San Pablo Reservoir that I

3:03:30very, very much.

3:03:31Appreciate it.

3:03:32So appreciate all your work.

3:03:34One of the things i want to make sure that we look into

3:03:38is working closely with the city when

3:03:41it comes to all the projects and the streets that

3:03:45were supposed to be repaved.

3:03:47And I many of our residents have been waiting a long time

3:03:51for certain streets to be to have pipes replace

3:03:56and so please keep us posted on out.

3:04:01I know our resident lately have been asking why are streets

3:04:07in bad, bad shape And I know it's because we've been waiting

3:04:11for EPM to replace the pipes, except they

3:04:16said they would replace.

3:04:18So just please keep us posted on that.

3:04:22So we can let our residents know where we will.

3:04:26We paid the streets We're just waiting for the opportune time

3:04:30to work with PJI chegeni and he's

3:04:33been on Replacer the pipes.

3:04:36So thank you I appreciate that.

3:04:39Council member Mohtarma Thank you, Mayor,

3:04:45and thank you for and Director Catspaw,

3:04:49this great presentation I have a safety question.

3:04:53Not so much fire related, but about the smaller reservoirs

3:04:58in our area and i was just wondering

3:05:00if i'm aware of the one by the sunset, the cemetery

3:05:05and I know that there's been work done to strengthen it.

3:05:09But are there other smaller reservoirs

3:05:12in within Sarino and where are they

3:05:14in terms of their structural and seismic work?

3:05:20Thank you for that question.

3:05:22And I assume that you mean like our storage

3:05:24tank Rosewarne I love the open of the open source.

3:05:29Would you be able to help with that?

3:05:32Sure.

3:05:32I can't speak to that.

3:05:35As far as I know, the reservoir in the El Cerrito area

3:05:41the one major one is Arlington Reservoir.

3:05:43And what I can say is that we do have an integrated we have

3:05:49a master plan for rehabilitation of our infrastructure

3:05:53I can't say off the bat where that one stands in terms

3:05:56of our prioritization I can certainly give that information

3:05:59But just the rest assured that we do have a program that

3:06:03methodically looks at the condition of each reservoir

3:06:07and then we prioritize the ones that you

3:06:11are in need of replacement or rehab location.

3:06:15So we feel we have a pretty good handle

3:06:20on making sure that we rehabilitate

3:06:23reservoirs on an ongoing basis.

3:06:25But as far as I know, Arlington Reservoir is in good shape.

3:06:27We just we did have a major project recently

3:06:31with the summit reservoir, which is the local reservoir dam

3:06:36and we replace that with tanks so that was one.

3:06:40That's not I don't believe that's in el Serrato,

3:06:44but that is one of the reservoirs Ultimately,

3:06:48some water comes to serve the area and are there.

3:06:53How many tanks are there in those Torito total

3:06:56I believe there is there.

3:06:58There's Arlington I think there Tewkesbury as well.

3:07:03Tewkesbury, reservoir and Arlington.

3:07:07Thank you.

3:07:08And some Avildsen Swanage to ask is there a surcharge

3:07:17for excessive water usage I was curious

3:07:23I thank you for the question.

3:07:24Council member Wilson We do have a excessive use

3:07:28surcharge that is on the books.

3:07:31We have an ordinance that does have

3:07:34an excessive surcharge that applies during stage two,

3:07:38three and four droughts.

3:07:40We are currently evaluating whether we want to increase

3:07:45that surcharge and make it more stringent

3:07:48So we have that price signal under review

3:07:51to see whether we would like to prepare for next year

3:07:56if in the event that we have a more severe drought currently,

3:08:00that surcharge is not in effect So the excessive surcharge is

3:08:05not in effect What I should be clear, though,

3:08:09we do have a surcharge that applies

3:08:13during declared droughts that that is a across the board

3:08:18increase in our overall water rate

3:08:21to recover our costs for turning on the free project.

3:08:25So when when we used free port to be able to bring water

3:08:28in during the time that we have free on,

3:08:32we do apply that surcharge So there

3:08:34will be a few months later in the year

3:08:37where we apply that surcharge while we're delivering

3:08:40new supplies to the district.

3:08:42That's an across the board percentage increase

3:08:45I believe it's approximately 9% And I

3:08:48ask for correction if I'm, what, one or two percent off on that.

3:08:53But that's our surcharge for it.

3:08:56For any declared route when we're bringing free water in

3:08:59to the service area bill, on top of that,

3:09:01we have an excess of a surcharge that is not a rate and charge.

3:09:07It's actually a penalty And we we treat it like a penalty

3:09:12We have waivers and exceptions for certain good causes.

3:09:16But for the most part, it is very excessive use

3:09:19And we because it's at the point where this is this

3:09:24is more than the equivalent of hundreds

3:09:30really approaching thousands of gallons of water per day.

3:09:34We penalize that during a drought emergency.

3:09:38It is no time to waste.

3:09:40So we're going that threshold We're going

3:09:42to look at the dollar amount.

3:09:45And see if it really fits where we could end up next year.

3:09:49But it's currently not in effect with this current model

3:09:55Thank you.

3:09:56And I just want to do add that I have no receipts anymore.

3:10:03Thank you, council member.

3:10:04I did you have a correction?

3:10:07Yeah, I was just going to just add

3:10:09to just elaborate consent for the excessive penalty

3:10:13ordinance.

3:10:13So it does kick into effect like for example,

3:10:17for a stage three drought.

3:10:18We're talking about like people that

3:10:20are using equivalent to fifteen gallons of water per day

3:10:23and first order down to a thousand gallons per day.

3:10:27So it is pretty excessive use.

3:10:30I mean, our average throughout our service area,

3:10:33average single family residential water use

3:10:36is around usually between and fifty gallons per day.

3:10:39So this is folks using a lot more than that.

3:10:42And the penalty is the ordinance right now Every unit

3:10:46above that threshold is capped.

3:10:49That is not into place That is not in play at the moment.

3:10:52We would advance to more significant droughts

3:10:55that Thank you.

3:10:57I'm going to move this along.

3:10:58I have one last question in in following up

3:11:02on the wasteful water, is there any role

3:11:04Director cats at a city can play in helping to stop someone

3:11:10who's evidently wasting water?

3:11:12Arezzo that's wasting water.

3:11:14What we do, what can we do?

3:11:16Other than make statements Can we join

3:11:19you and come out to the house?

3:11:20What do we do to stop What we do provide courtesy notices

3:11:26to customers when will we get reports

3:11:29from from neighbors that are concerned about wasteful water?

3:11:33Use?

3:11:34We do have a program that provides outreach to customers.

3:11:38Of course, right now there there is no penalty

3:11:42for excessive use that.

3:11:43That's currently in effect We have certain guidelines

3:11:46for reducing water use outside and using

3:11:51efficient water use inside.

3:11:53But we can assist the community and assist our customers

3:11:58in learning more about water use And we

3:12:00think outreach is a great way to partner during this year.

3:12:03If we had a more severe drought, we would really

3:12:06need that kind of collaboration and communication

3:12:09So I welcome getting making those connections.

3:12:12This year so that we can compare There are complaints

3:12:15we send to you from residents send those on to you

3:12:20to deal with Yeah, definitely.

3:12:24Please, please.

3:12:25Do send those to us.

3:12:26Can either you can either get in touch with me

3:12:29directly or email water conservation at any com.

3:12:33We also have a forum on our website

3:12:35where anyone whether that's a city staff or a resident

3:12:38can report water waste as Director Katz said,

3:12:41we do follow up with all of those.

3:12:43We tend to find we reach out to customers

3:12:46and give them a little bit of education.

3:12:48They tend to reform.

3:12:49I mean nobody nobody wants to pay

3:12:52extra effort for wasting water.

3:12:53So we are definitely report that to us.

3:12:56We'll follow up I'm sure our staff

3:12:58is very appreciative of that help

3:13:00So thank you all very much.

3:13:02We appreciate your patience.

3:13:03It's been a long night, but it's been an important night.

3:13:05To talk to you in the connection of PG&E. And our fire service.

3:13:10So thank you all very much.

3:13:12We appreciate that.

3:13:13And now I'd like to ask the city clerk if we can open this up

3:13:17to a few public comments before we move

3:13:19on to unabating in discussion.

3:13:22Thank you. you for having us.

3:13:23Thank you.

3:13:24Director And yes, at this time, we

3:13:31may have one more question to request

3:13:34to speak Well, that's fine.

3:13:36We'll leave it at two thirty then.

3:13:37Thank you for Perfecto Speaker is credit quenelle your unmuted

3:13:42and begin your time now for fadela.

3:13:51Are you there OK, we're not hearing Criddle.

3:13:59I'm going to go to the next speaker.

3:14:01Linda Kane when they should be able to unmuted

3:14:04begin your time now.

3:14:06Thank you I see.

3:14:07I'm obviously going to have to be careful of my own shrub's

3:14:11and my own water usage, but i was just

3:14:13wondering if the city the tree service the city

3:14:17could help the plant, the trees that they planted.

3:14:20Because I have a tree that was planted on my curb

3:14:23that i got to pick like fifteen years or whatever,

3:14:26and it's gotten so big.

3:14:28And I did ask to city tree people a couple of years ago

3:14:32that maybe it was too close to the wires

3:14:35And they said, well, it's not close to the wires that matter.

3:14:38It's close to cable wires or something.

3:14:41But that was like three years ago.

3:14:43So under the trees getting bigger and bigger.

3:14:45And it's hard for me to keep the leaves cleaned up.

3:14:47And I was just wondering could the city

3:14:49be conscious about trees that are getting bigger

3:14:52because they use water?

3:14:53Well, maybe they're not using too much water,

3:14:55but they are a fire hazard.

3:14:57I think that's just a request Thanks.

3:15:02In EMQQ Quick, let's try one more time.

3:15:07Can you train a mute there Looks like we're

3:15:15stopping technical difficulties with Cordarrelle and that does.

3:15:18But that does conclude our request to speak on this item

3:15:23Thank you very much We move on to six

3:15:28a public hearings fire hazard abatement, a big effort

3:15:34in our city and this will be to adopt a resolution

3:15:38declaring weeds, rubbish, litter or other flammable

3:15:42material on certain real property

3:15:44identified the resolution that constitutes a public nuisance

3:15:48and then we're going to conduct a public hearing

3:15:50upon conclusion, adopted resolution hopefully

3:15:53overriding the objections by property owners

3:15:56auditing the city manager to abate certain public nuisance.

3:16:01So can we have a staff report please?

3:16:07Chief Pagani Yes.

3:16:11Good evening Michael Pagode again.

3:16:13Your fire chief waiting to see if our fire prevention officer,

3:16:18David I saw the list, if he's been moved over

3:16:22to the panel, the sergeant out here tonight as as we are

3:16:28every year we we have been for the last few months

3:16:33out doing the vegetation management inspections we sent

3:16:39out letters to those did not meet our inspections Well,

3:16:45then at least I believe two or three weeks ago,

3:16:48they've all had at least fourteen days

3:16:50since we mailed them many pad longer.

3:16:52And that.

3:16:53And as early as this morning, I know

3:16:56we were out really inspecting on days and fire prevention

3:17:02officer yune is the one that's got

3:17:03more info unless he is I don't know if he made come on here.

3:17:11There you are.

3:17:12So anyway, I can turn it over to you for the for the better

3:17:15details OK so I'm Davidson.

3:17:22I'm the Fire Prevention officer.

3:17:25This year we've done our annual inspections as usual

3:17:30and we ended up with ten properties that

3:17:35have not abated voluntarily.

3:17:38So they made it to the list Exhibit A,

3:17:41I think you have access to that And so unless they contact us,

3:17:48they'll progressed to the forest abatement stage.

3:17:53So they'll have laid off late August

3:17:58between approximately twenty Fourth and early September.

3:18:02We'll be going out to contractors to perform

3:18:06the abatement on Yep.

3:18:12I would add that with the approval of the council tonight

3:18:16of this of this public hearing and providing that there are

3:18:21no objections to it, we will be mailing letters

3:18:24to the properties informing them of the next action

3:18:29and we'll be giving them ample time to respond back to us

3:18:35with with the potential plan to avoid the abatement

3:18:42So after tonight, you will be back to the property owners

3:18:45for the second time or the third time

3:18:48This will be the second letter, I believe that letter.

3:18:52OK i'm Yes, Mayor Pro Tem, thank you Mayor Fidele.

3:18:59Chief and David, I wanted to check in

3:19:04with you regarding the ten notices Are are

3:19:08these first time homeowner said or being cited or is it

3:19:13the same folks year after year?

3:19:20Do we need to resolution before we get into this discussion?

3:19:26City manager Yeah, I can answer that.

3:19:31You can certainly have a discussion.

3:19:34You just need to adopt.

3:19:35The first resolution to open the public hearing

3:19:37and taking public comment.

3:19:38Thank you So thank you, Mayor.

3:19:41Pro Tem.

3:19:42Yes, I d frequent flyers cheap for Gony are the same folks

3:19:50David's got the list in front of But I believe most,

3:19:53if not all these have been on in years past

3:19:59And I concur typically they are repeat offenders There are

3:20:05a few that are new Oh of Springsure

3:20:13and Yeah there are a few that are new,

3:20:15but the bulk of them are people that

3:20:17have noticed in the past i was going to make the same point

3:20:21as the mayor pro tem It seems that I looked up all the houses

3:20:25on Google and it's people that have been there

3:20:28every single year And is there any way

3:20:31of thinking how to get a better message to them

3:20:34so that they like Elm Street?

3:20:36That's and always is on this list.

3:20:39And your Elm Street one, the one Arlington is is a common one.

3:20:49The abatements that we've done in the past which are typically

3:20:52ranging anywhere from two to three to two years ago,

3:20:56that range ten thousand dollars to clear out excessive amounts

3:21:02of brush That's not getting a message

3:21:06So I'll be honest with you, I'm kind of at a loss

3:21:11sometimes What it takes for before residents

3:21:14to to basically clean their yards

3:21:20But, you know, we keep we keep trying

3:21:22to come up with better ways.

3:21:23And in fact, this year, just as prior, I believe it was back

3:21:29in April, we actually took all of the repeat offenders

3:21:33in the last three years.

3:21:35And sent them a courtesy.

3:21:37No it wasn't threatening anything

3:21:39It was simply a courtesy.

3:21:40No telling them that inspections were coming.

3:21:45You had to please do what they can do you know.

3:21:50And again even given them warnings

3:21:53there was a lot more people on this list.

3:21:57When we first when the inspections were first

3:21:59completed this is just what is whittled down to

3:22:01with those people that have finally complied

3:22:06And you have a couple two or three empty lots.

3:22:09You've reached you've contacted people that own that property.

3:22:13That's the problem.

3:22:15OK, comments questions.

3:22:19We're i'm sorry, Mayor Pro Tem I make one more question

3:22:24regarding wildcat Drive Is that the same lot

3:22:29that we had the discussion with couple of years ago,

3:22:35and last year.

3:22:37And then later on, they they spoke for the council

3:22:42at the same owner of that is at the same.

3:22:47What i wanted to find out I'm trying to remember

3:22:53the address on that.

3:22:54What, David, do you remember?

3:22:55I believe I don't believe this is the one that we

3:22:58had the issue with on the two.

3:22:59OK, David, OK, so there's three lots on wildcat two of them,

3:23:06actually, four lots.

3:23:07Two of them, I believe, are owned by the person you're

3:23:11talking about referring to.

3:23:12I'm not positive OK, but those two lots were fine.

3:23:16This year.

3:23:18Can Yeah, couple of times I met with him.

3:23:22He's very helpful.

3:23:24In a way to take care of it.

3:23:27That's great to know.

3:23:28We're not looking at one even on my street

3:23:31and i believe this is the second or third time notice.

3:23:34But I believe if you look at that again, I believe

3:23:39everything was taken care of and cut

3:23:43So that's the one on Kornblatt Avenue drive

3:23:46behind all the time.

3:23:49The one on this list Yes.

3:23:54OK, i'll take another look.

3:23:56This has been a little bit unusual in that everything

3:24:01started very early.

3:24:03Yeah so that by the time this whole process

3:24:07kind of ran its course, some lots had regrown there.

3:24:12We Yeah.

3:24:13So it made a second visit.

3:24:14Yeah.

3:24:15Well, I congratulate you and all your work

3:24:18because i remember when the list was

3:24:21just pages and pages you know, when we had the last drop.

3:24:27But again, congratulations and thank you.

3:24:30This is this is the list.

3:24:35But could have been worse.

3:24:36And so I appreciate all the work that you and your colleagues

3:24:40have been doing Thank you.

3:24:42Yeah.

3:24:42I think excuse me.

3:24:45I think this year it was it made it easier because there seems

3:24:49to be a lot more public awareness through media

3:24:52outreach and all that about the fire danger

3:24:56And people kind of took it upon themselves to be a little more

3:25:00proactive in taking care of their lots any of the comments,

3:25:05requests on this issue.

3:25:06This resolution Do I hear a motion

3:25:11for the resolution on page one?

3:25:13Thirty seven of our packet dealing with declaring we

3:25:17wrote a letter move by Mayor Tim quintel and seconded

3:25:24by council member Rudnik.

3:25:26Can we have a roll call, please?

3:25:28Mr For the record that the resolution is being adopted

3:25:31with the revised exhibit a that is part

3:25:34of a settlement of materials that were provided today

3:25:38Man Fidele Yes, Mayor Potemkin.

3:25:42I can't remember Apison.

3:25:44I can't remember on Chamma I can't remember Nick.

3:25:49I moshing van Thank you.

3:25:53And at this time, we will open a public hearing

3:25:57and members of the public who wish to provide public comments

3:26:00for this item should use the raised hand feature to request

3:26:05to speak to the city clerk.

3:26:07Please continue this effort Are there any speakers?

3:26:21City clerk I apologise.

3:26:28I was on mute.

3:26:29I do not see any request to speak at this time.

3:26:31Er, then can we have a motion to close the public hearing

3:26:38some move by council member Ableton

3:26:42and seconded by council member Rubberneck Can

3:26:44we have a roll call, please.

3:26:47Infidelity I may have attempting to.

3:26:50I can't remember Avildsen.

3:26:53I can't remember Motoman.

3:26:55I can't remember redneck I mentioned Charis Thank you Now

3:27:07we have council comments on the adopt

3:27:11the adoption of a resolution overriding

3:27:13objections by the property owners of which there are none.

3:27:17So can I have do I need a motion for this city?

3:27:22Yes, we do need to have a motion to stop the second resolution.

3:27:26OK do I hear a motion council member Wilson.

3:27:29So I make some moves City Council member

3:27:33Rudnick seconds the motion.

3:27:34Can we have a roll call on this Make I Fidele I may push

3:27:38him Yes, Councilman apison.

3:27:42I can no motormen.

3:27:45I can come over I motion a thank you very much.

3:27:51And again, thank you to our staff

3:27:52and the fire department for this big, long, hard effort.

3:27:56This is what we have to do.

3:27:57So thank you very much You're welcome.

3:28:00And thank you, Mayor.

3:28:00Council members, for for the motion tonight.

3:28:05This is the year to do it.