Special and Regular City Council Meeting February 21, 2023

0:00:47foreign okay second to let foreign 2023 regular city council meeting is called to order at 604 PM Madam clerk please call roll mayor mochiyama your mayor Pro tem Rudnick president council member fideli here council member Quinto here councilmember weisinger here we have a

0:01:44quorum thank you so please join me in the Pledge of Allegiance or a moment of silence I pledge allegiance 's flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands one nation under God indivisible with liberty and justice for all the next item on the agenda is

0:02:15teleconference and public comment instructions from our city clerk thank you mayor this hybrid meeting provides an option to participate in person or via Zoom remote participants are asked to keep microphones muted whenever they are not speaking if you're in person and logged

0:02:32into Zoom please ensure the audio in zoom and on your device are muted to avoid any audio feedback closed captions are available by participating in the meeting via Zoom for members of the public who wish to provide oral testimony the mayor will announce the time for public comment on each

0:02:47applicable item in-person requests will be heard first followed by remote requests to speak in-person requests are submitted to the city clerk by submitting by completing a speaker card remote requests are submitted by selecting the hand icon and phone requests are submitted by dialing star

0:03:039. instructions are provided on the meeting agenda and will be displayed during each period of public comment meetings of the city council are subject to the brown act and are held for the purpose of conducting City business the adopted Rules of Order and procedure

0:03:17specify that public speakers address this City Council in an orderly and respectful manner are asked to proceed comments with their name and city of residence and are asked to be respectful of time limits policy prohibits yielding of of time from one speaker to another

0:03:30thank you mayor that concludes my my instructions thank you madam clerk the next item on the agenda is Council staff Communications city manager Karen Pincus do we have any staff Communications thank you your honor I just actually wanted to announce on behalf of the

0:03:47Abelson family to invite the community to attend a celebration of life for former mayor and council member Janet Abelson this Saturday February 25th 2023 at 1 pm at the El Cerrito Community Center at 7007 Moser Lane in El Cerrito um I look forward to seeing everyone there to

0:04:12be able to celebrate a very remarkable person that is all I have your honor thank you are there any sticking with the same theme tomorrow February 22nd at the AC Transit meeting there's going to be a proclamation for Janet abelson's dedicated service which truly impacted and shaped AC Transit so

0:04:39I'd like to thank government relations manager Ryan Lau as well as director beckles for the honor or hopefully the honor they'll be voting on it it's on consent for tomorrow's meeting thank you this is kind of an interesting one of our biggest restaurants in town the

0:04:58Macaroni Grill has announced that tomorrow from 4 pm to closing will be Community Appreciation Day and they will be serving free spaghetti and meatballs until closing time so anyone that wants to be appreciated and they want to appreciate us go to Macaroni gear they're saying

0:05:19reservations are suggested okay great we'll move on to mayoral announcements today is Tibet New Year so on behalf of the city of El Cerrito I would like to offer my Tashi Dalek my good wishes to all the Tibetans in El Cerrito and across the bay area and beyond for happy losar Tibetan New Year

0:05:45on Sunday March 5th from 10 to noon please join the L Studio Green Team City staff and other volunteers at Baxter Creek Gateway Park for a cleanup day all ages are welcome all participants must complete a volunteer registration form before working and wear long pants long

0:06:04sleeves and closed-toed shoes so they'll be meeting at conlon Avenue and only Greenway at 10 A.M and RSVP is uh appreciated and then we also have buy a brick with a tax deductible donation initiative by the El Cerrito tennis club and you can get more information about their plans

0:06:25to turn a grassy slope next to Arlington part sentence courts into an assembly and viewing area and you can get more information on that at ectennisclub gmail.com or ectennis.org slash tennis hyphen Center hey we also had a closed session today at 5 pm and currently we have no reportable

0:06:53actions also on February 9th we sent a letter in support of the expansion of the United against hate not in our town program our next item is oral Communications from the public now is the time for members of the public who wish to provide public comments regarding

0:07:13matters not on the agenda consent items and presentation items in-person speakers can submit a speaker card to the city clerk and remote speakers should use the raise hand feature to request to speak please remember to identify yourself in your city of residence at the beginning of your

0:07:29comments Madam city clerk please proceed thank you mayor once again we do have several speakers signed up today and I will quickly announce that we did receive several written public comments for matters not on the agenda this evening by the advanced deadline these were posted

0:07:50online with supplemented materials and provided directly to the council members we receive comments from Cordell hindler Nick zamarono Gary Prost Sue Duncan and Scott tipping and at this time I have six requests to speak and let me pull up we'll do our in-person request first

0:08:18there we go okay okay our first uh tonight is Al Miller followed by Gary Prost good evening mayor mayor Pro tem and council members one of the things I've done recently is I've resumed my pre-covered walks on a Greenway I was startled not to see how many people are there but the new members in

0:08:55the population most of them on a electric powered vehicle from a bike to a scooter to things that they just stand on or to electric skateboards now that seems like a self-canceling phrase but they're there and they're going very quickly uh I don't know what the solution is but

0:09:20it seems to me that one of the things that you might want to have done to see if there's action needed to be taken to protect us self-mobilized individuals as get some idea what is the speed that these people are traveling on because it seems to me in unavoidable

0:09:40that some not intentionally but are going to come in contact I just hope it's not without the young mothers pushing their young children in their strollers enjoying the Walks Like I do thank you thank you thank you our next speaker is Gary Prost followed by Susan Duncan

0:10:06honorable mayor council I'm Gary Prost live in El Cerrito and tonight I'm speaking on behalf of make El Cerrito fire safe several of you have during our talks have mentioned that we should keep reminding you of things that we think are important so tonight I'm going to talk about

0:10:26vegetation Management in the hillside Natural Area you know every year El Cerrito sets goals and priorities two years ago Council adopted a resolution stating that Wildfire prevention is a top priority of the city make El Cerrito fire safe would like you to continue to make fire safety a goal

0:10:49and priority in 2023 so what does that mean well it's our understanding that right now there's a fire resilience and Forest conservation management plan in the works for hna but it probably won't be finished for this fire season and maybe for two fire seasons in the meantime

0:11:13we all know that there's several mature eucalyptus Groves the posa city-wide fire hazard as well in the past year or so for Budget reasons or coveted reasons the city hasn't cut the grassy areas nor have we been able to get a crew to maintain the 100-foot buffer between the

0:11:35park and neighboring homes right now as far as I know the only thing being done besides removing dead trees is we have volunteers who are pulling the French or Scotch broom which is important and ultimately impactful but we would propose that the city also do the following which is

0:11:56remove Tall Grass twice each season renting goats if necessary apply for measure X funds which are out there a couple of million dollars every year just for this purpose and try to start removing at least the small diameter eucalyptus trees and maintain the 100 foot buffer zone

0:12:19around the park by using any available Crews volunteers goats whatever is appropriate these measures are not only consistent with the city resolution but also support the Kensington El Cerrito Kensington Wildfire action plan it was adopted by Council back in April of

0:12:402017. thank you for listening thank you our next speaker is Susan Duncan followed by Igor trigup good evening honorable mayor city council members and staff I'm Sue Duncan resident of El Cerrito and co-founder of make El Cerrito fire safe the city needs to improve its emergency

0:13:08communications with residents this should include better and more widespread notification of Red Flag Day warnings it should also provide resident emergency preparedness education to include why it is important and to educate residents about the Wildfire hazards in and surrounding the entire

0:13:29city it should be emphasized that the Wildfire threat is to the entire city due to wind-blown Embers that can ignite homes and vegetation ahead of the fire we would like the city to pursue measure X funds for funds and Crews for vegetation management and H A the city

0:13:48should also find out the process for home or homeowners to apply for the two thousand dollar home hardening grants and the other available grants through measure X and then they need to publicize this information so the residents will know how to apply for these loans

0:14:06for your information we think that there should be restricted parking on El Cerrito's narrow streets on Red Flag Warning days to expedite any necessary evacuations some municipalities across the state have successfully instituted such restrictions we are working with Chief

0:14:25Sailors to develop a pilot program that we hope can be implemented during the red flag days coming up this year thank you thank you our next speaker is Igor treve followed by Betty yakisich good evening mayor matayama and members of the El Cerrito City Council my name is Igor tregov and today I come

0:14:54to you as a native of key of Ukraine on behalf of all Bay Area ukrainians and I'm joined by Natalia and zoom like now which means thank you in Ukrainian for reaffirming the city of El cerridos solidarity with the peace-loving people and the Democratic nation state

0:15:27indivisible um that is fighting not just for the right of its self-determination but for the right of all democratic Nations across the world to be able to exist free of conflict and War I would like to invite you to several events that we are doing in commemoration of the one year

0:15:58anniversary of this latest phase of Putin and the kremlin's illegal and detestable invasion of Ukraine on Thursday the 23rd we will be doing a flag raising ceremony at 4 pm a class from the model shirek Old City Hall in Berkeley across the street from 2134 MLK Junior

0:16:32way by the flagpole then on Friday we will be holding performing art ceremony called an attempt to focus in support of Ukraine Friday February 24th 11 30. a.m to 2 p.m in San Francisco at Civic Center Plaza across from the San Francisco City Hall we are also running a fundraiser right

0:17:04now funds will go to a variety of relief efforts this is completely volunteer organized and a hundred percent of the funds will go into Ukraine and are tax deductible you can go to bit dot Lee bit.ly rebuilding Ukraine and I will send all of this information out to you by email

0:17:31I would like to invite you to please us along board to your constituents we are going to be doing a number of these proclamations including one by the Contra Costa County Board of Supervisors next week but I would really like to thank you from the bottom of my heart

0:17:51for El Cerrito being the first Bay Area jurisdiction this year to reaffirm its solidarity with ukrainians and Ukraine foreign followed by and then we'll go to our remote speaker good good evening my my dear friends I'm buddy activist and I live at Hana Gardens I've been there for five years

0:18:28and I've been coming here for about five years I've been led to believe bits and pieces that I've drawn my subjective perceptions have suggested to me that of the five on the Deus that I'm looking at you the mayor has the most power you want to get anything done you go to

0:18:51the mayor and that scenario keeps changing as well it should I think it's it's a good system and I don't know this but Tessa Rudnick knows it clearly I think when a mayor comes in they have a golden and wonderful opportunity to put their stamp on the focus in the

0:19:18direction of the city of El Cerrito California so we're happy to have you Lisa and I'm looking forward to you putting your stamp because I know you've got some you know some stuff that your contemporaries are not as good as you at that particular you do things really well in certain areas

0:19:43and uh I I don't know but I thought maybe one of those areas could be patching up this communication gap with all of your committees I don't if you notice that they're all getting smaller and if you talk to any member of any one of those committees about the communication between them and you City

0:20:08Hall they'll they're uncomfortable with one big sweep and all of a sudden it's fixed but you have it in your consciousness you can evolve in such a way that things will be better I want them to be better for you thank you thank you we'll now go to our remote request to speak Cordell hindler you

0:20:48should be able to unmute and begin your time now yes we can um council members and staff I am codel Handler and I'm a Richmond resident so I have a a concern that I'm bringing forward to you if you recall at the December 20th meeting uh there was an item on the consent calendar regarding

0:21:12uh the installation of speed bumps the reason I I bring I'm bringing this forward is because I have been getting a number of concerns from El Cerrito High School and Christ Lutheran Church because our our concerns is like you know people have have continually speeding along Ashbury Avenue and it's

0:21:31become a real hazard about a few months back a car accidentally hit an animal uh in front of by the side of the church and it's getting and it's going to be a concern so I have sent an email out to the public works director and requesting that these and speed bugs needed to be

0:21:51installed it has been two months I have not heard nothing and so I'm asking that if something if that can be like some installation of speed bumps that would be very helpful because it's going to be a problem because especially in the daytime people be continually speeding along Ashbury and

0:22:12the neighbors can't and people can't even go out uh do it without uh without almost getting without almost getting hit so I'm asking if the council like you know or the Public Works director can like you know um address this matter so I'll just leave it at that

0:22:32thank you mayor that does conclude our request to speak thank you madam Clerk the next item is adoption of the consent calendar which includes the following items approval of minutes committee on Aging appointment Urban Forest committee appointment recommendation

0:22:56Environmental Quality committee appointment recommendation monthly disbursement and check register report for October 20 2022 through January 2023 Proclamation recognizing February 24 2023 is the day of Ukrainian solidarity in the city of El Cerrito resolution opposing initiative number

0:23:2021-0042a1 the California Business Roundtable taxpayer protection and government accountability map authorized city council and City advisory body meetings to be held via teleconference pursuant to assembly Bill 361 amendment to Consulting Services agreement with tri-pepi Smith

0:23:40and Cooperative agreement between the city and AC transit for design construction operations and maintenance of the rapid corridors project are there any requests from the by the council to pull items I'd like to pull item f Madame mayor I have two corrections to

0:24:05the minutes okay so why don't we take the corrections to the minutes first okay and we also have some corrections in the minutes I'm not sure if you caught the one correction okay so uh did you have to Holly about that already Yes okay about and I do have those if you'd

0:24:31like I can just read those into the record and then you can tell me if there's any additional ones thank you yes okay so I have for 11 15 um item number three to correct the spelling of levana Martin's name for 117 roll call what should be mayor motiyama not mayor

0:24:48prior Mary Quinto uh on that same minute 7A the last paragraph should read electric methods and on two seven item 8A this one will just the request for this one is for the language for mayor Moto yama's recusal to be to avoid any potential conflict versus um due to a conflict of interest

0:25:12and I do have two more okay um on and I'm I have this by Page 43.

0:25:18okay um and it's in the regional liaison assignments um WIC Tac is um West Contra Costa Transportation advisory committee not Commission okay whatever an advisor who needs to be in there and also it should be appointed not reappointed to the CCTA we can add CCTA to that

0:25:43okay thank you thank you great so do I have a motion to approve all the items on consent other than item F I would so move a second I have a motion and a second Madam clerk all those in favor please say aye aye any opposed motion carries great so now we can go to item f

0:26:13thank you mayor I'd like to give opportunity for our guests who spoke during um open comment if there's anything specifically we did hear about some events that are coming up also for your colleague who's on Zoom if there's any information that we can share about the importance of this

0:26:30Proclamation I want to give you guys the floor for that and I also think that there's something a little extra as well so wow thank you so much it's a honor to speak before you get to speak before you twice today I actually wanted to uh if um maybe Madame Clark is Natalia

0:26:56goshalik still in the zoom maybe she can say a few words it's okay putting her on the spot a little bit Natalia you can unmute and speak if you would like yes thank you very much um thank you so much for uh standing up with Ukraine it's so important for us Ukrainian I'm a Ukrainian here living in

0:27:22Berkeley and working at UC Berkeley and um almost a year since this full-scale uh invasion of Russia in Ukraine has passed and throughout this year we always felt this incredible support of the American Community uh and but it's also still very important to understand that people here

0:27:49in the American Community people our neighbors they are supporting us and they understand uh why Ukraine matters and why Ukraine is standing strong and why Ukraine is fighting for democracy right now why it matters so much to show that we are for freedom and we are standing strong for

0:28:13the whole Democratic world so thank you very much for doing this thank you and the events I mentioned I will be providing them by email I think by later tonight and would certainly appreciate your spreading the word the fundraiser we are about 60 percent a little or maybe more than that towards

0:28:42our preliminary ten thousand dollar goal and with your Collective help and the generosity of El saritons I am confident that we will be able to not just reach but surpass that goal and that funding is split among a variety of causes and non-profits all of them based in Ukraine

0:29:06providing not just needed supplies medicine food but also resources like psychological support for those who are turning from Battle for members of their family there are tens of thousands of Brave ukrainians fighting on the front lines right now most of them were not professionally trained as

0:29:41soldiers they are civilians who are risking everything they know to fight for democracy and this is an opportunity when they return from the battlefield to provide them with needed resources as well as well as two members of their families so please give generously if you can no amount is too

0:30:09big or too small and again it is a GoFundMe and the short link is bit.ly rebuilding Ukraine I think the r and that you are capitalized thank you very much again and Suave I just want to say if everyone watched the news today the president was quite amazing in Poland and yesterday

0:30:39quite amazing in Kiev and give so hopefully things will move in the right direction I want to say something as well Igor um regarding all the work that you've done for uh your motherland um you know just appreciate that to know that um you know councilmember rudneck

0:31:04will be heading off to uh Israel in late March and I know she will be meeting with a lot of uh folks from uh the motherland there in Ukraine who were there as refugees deaf so Contra Costa um is um on the Forefront to uh have many of the refugees settle here in

0:31:26Contra Costa County so uh yeah we're looking forward to that our congressman John garamande thank you for working with him and I know he was there recently uh and um yeah so we're all working together to make sure that her country will have peace eventually so uh

0:31:45appreciate all your work that you're doing and uh um and uh and thank you for letting El Cerrito residents know what they can do and I have to say one thing Mary Igor you know that that I appreciate you and I've had a front row seat to see how much care and compassion and work you

0:32:02did to actually bring Justice For Your Country um and really being a leader here right out of Albany and El Cerrito across the bay area a lot of people don't know that you're right here in our community and your presence was filled across the state and really in the Democratic party

0:32:18as well so just from me to you I appreciate you and I'm glad you're continuing the fight what to I'd like to let people know that we have been flying the Ukrainian flag in our city hall Lobby this past year so we stand with you mayor motiyama I I do need a vote to

0:32:45approve the proclamation two approve items second all those in favor please aye aye any opposed motion carries yes thank you okay great the next item is Library study session El Cerrito Plaza BART Tod project out of an abundance of caution I will be recusing myself from participating in

0:34:24this item my employer Community economics Inc is a non-profit that advises regarding affordable housing finance and development one of our clients is satellite affordable housing Associates or Saha Saha is a member of the development team selected by Bart for the plaza Tod project Community

0:34:41economics is not advising Saha about the plaza Tod project and has no Financial relationship to the project nevertheless to avoid any concerns I will not be participating in this item I will pass it over to the mayor Pro tem and will return following this item thank you mayor

0:35:12may we please have the staff report good evening council members I'm Melanie Mintz here community development director I am joined tonight by a team of people including Don Marquez with group four Craig Hill with NHA our financial advisor will Provost from environmental services and assisting the

0:35:35city manager's office in this as well as Nick Wilder from related California is on zoom and Rachel factor from Bart is on Zoom will remind you that at the end so I'm here tonight uh to introduce you really to the uh library at the El Cerrito Transit oriented development

0:35:55um we are going to provide a background a very brief background on the project at the Tod just to bring everybody um kind of up to date on what's happening there and what the opportunity is I've been told I talked too close to this so if Eric is giving you a signal

0:36:12let me know um and then I'll be passing it on to Don to really talk about how El Cerrito has studied and come to the the the need for a new library what the library would feature in a modern Library such as when we're talking about some of the costs and opportunities of pursuing the

0:36:31library at the transit oriented development project and then Craig and I will talk about funding options and we will then welcome will up to talk to you about next steps you'll see a few slides that have some flyers and you'll see a timeline that this project has been

0:36:47underway depending on where you started but the one at the Tod for a couple of years and we've done quite a bit of community outreach both prior to the pandemic during the pandemic via zoom and pop-up outside meetings and I will continue to so just briefly to look at the last

0:37:05decade um in or 20 years uh and around 2002 decades but who's counting um so the city manager might be um so back in uh really 2002 the city started looking at potential sites for the new library the library was already small and out of date so we started looking at potential new sites and

0:37:31partly to prepare for a state grant program the city council in 2013 confirmed that the library is a priority in in your strategic plan and we continued over the next several years to do needs assessments update those needs assessments and keep trying to get ready

0:37:47for a potential Library um there was a site on School District land as many of you know that was that was looking very favorable and the city did bring a measure to the voters at that time we did not have a confirmed site and the uh we also approached Bart at that time to look at the

0:38:05opportunities for potentially integrating it into a Transit oriented development at the BART Plaza Station um the ballot measure narrowly failed and then after that time new state legislation came about really encouraging and require well requiring cities to facilitate development on Bard

0:38:24owned Parcels we conducted another Library workshop with group four assisting us just really looking at kind of trade-offs associated with different sites and possible Partnerships after doing that we really started to hone in on the uh the opportunity at the BART

0:38:37station being our best opportunity the city requests BART to include a potential library and to pursue development at the station in 2020 Bart issued a request for qualifications and requested developers interested in developing the site to submit two site plans as a part of their

0:38:54qualifications one with the library and one without and since that time we have been pursuing planning at the transit oriented development site I'll tell you more about that project as we go forward so during that time we have been in front of council a couple of times and

0:39:12one of those times was to confirm the shared the shared goals and objectives between the city and Bart you can see the URLs at the bottom of the page where you can learn more and we provide a whole history of what's happened uh as we've been exploring this opportunity

0:39:26but some of the shared goals and objectives were to increase Bart ridership and this is really in support of the city's own greenhouse gas emissions goals as well to really improve access around downtown through all modes for all modes people who drive walk bike take transit

0:39:43to really make sure that the site design enhanced and integrated the Ohlone Greenway and really activates and makes an active downtown Fairmont Avenue I mean finally and the reason we're here tonight of course is to look at options for integrating a public library as a

0:39:56part of the site and one of the other goals was to provide a good mix of housing we were here a couple of weeks ago talking to you about that but the site is about 47 affordable housing below market rate and 53 market rate which has some great advantages for the

0:40:12city as well so just quickly you can see this is a proposed site plan um for those that don't know what is Transit oriented development which is often abbreviated as Tod it's a really compact higher mixed use meaning sometimes it'll have commercial and residential higher density development

0:40:31within walking distance of Transit facilities this site that we're looking at is mostly owned by Bart it's 8.3 acres and the proposed project will consist of about six buildings and more than an acre of new open shared open space the project will take multiple years

0:40:48obviously to plan and construct and I'll provide a schedule in a couple of slides and this project beautifully aligns with many adopted city city goals policies and standards the new library is proposed to be on the ground floor of one of the affordable housing projects and what we're calling

0:41:06parcel c west this project that corner is the one right across from Starbucks at Liberty and Fairmont the site provides a great opportunity to have good curb access to be adjacent to the planned public open space and we've worked closely as Don will say more with the county library to make

0:41:26sure it meets both their operational needs as well as different Library stakeholder groups as you'll hear later on the actual design of the inside of the library wouldn't really occur at a deep level until there was funding available other community benefits in addition to

0:41:42improved transportation and Transit access all around the station including on the city's roads and the housing our public open space like I've mentioned public art a new bike station a small commercial space and of course the library I'm in terms of schedule this is a big

0:42:01complex project that intersects with lots of state laws so we've talked before about the entitlement process but just to give the public an idea of what's upcoming as I showed earlier we've been doing a lot of pre-planning now the project is really beginning to

0:42:15move into its entitlement financing and construction phases there's a master plan as well as the parcel you saw what's called let me see if I can go backwards parcel a South you'll hear me talk about in a moment because it's going to the drb on Thursday um the master plan will also be going to

0:42:37the drb in the next several of months and then there will be a master plan entitled as well as parcel a South entitled parsley South will be aiming to move forward first due to financing opportunities and then the remainder of the sites will then once there's a

0:42:51master plan which includes all the open space and access and the general kind of flow and feel of the site each building will then move into construction and financing in its own phase if the city currently had 20 million dollars available to participate in building the

0:43:06library we would we could have gone in Phase One For example but the developers worked with us and moved the library into phase three so that we have time to to consider and look to how and proceed with raising the funds for the library portion of the project so again you can see the library in

0:43:24phase three I'm going to now pass it on to Dawn to talk to you about the need for a new library and the features of a new library thank you Melanie good evening council members Don Marcus principal with group four um as we look at the next slide we're going to talk about the needs assessment

0:43:44I don't think there's much argument on the need for new library your building is quite old built in 48 renovated in 1960 significantly undersized to serve your community deficient and all current codes ADA compliance and really limits the ability to serve your community from Seniors to

0:44:07teens to your collection size to technology dot dot dot dot so with that as we refresh the needs assessment that's summarized on our next slide which we will go to in a second it's basically a chart that looks at comparable communities and when we look at the comparable communities one of our

0:44:30benchmarks we use for Library planning is square foot per capita as we look at the chart in front of you your current El Cerrito libraries on the bottom line and that is the current size of your facility your 2010 population the 20 30 population projected out to 2040 and we

0:44:49look at their 2040 pop per square foot with your current Library size where you're kind of at the bottom of the chart 0.22 square foot per capita and we want to plan about 20 years out is good practice when we look at the recommendation of a 20 000 square foot Library which is in red kind of in the

0:45:08middle of the chart then we're able to get our square foot per capita up almost 2.7 puts us kind of right in the middle of the chart and these other comparable communities we're sharing are ones about similar size and with newer facilities such as the Pleasant Hill Library which

0:45:25just opened this last year and is very similar in size to what's being proposed just for frame of reference um what is the modern Library it is space for collections for seniors for adults it has a chair for everyone is what we like to say right as we go to the next slide

0:45:47um you know the teens definitely are big users of current libraries the need for technology maker spaces incubator spaces meeting room groups study spaces and of course space for the friends of the library and last but not least for the children and this is all a really nice

0:46:06fit in that twenty thousand square feet that's being recommended additionally I think many of us have realized especially recently with the pandemic and other emergencies that libraries can be much much more cooling centers warming centers clean air centers there really are First

0:46:25Responders considered First Responders their reconnection locations after emergencies providing Wi-Fi technology even available when library is closed and examples that the library can include to enhance that would be battery power backup or after hours public Wi-Fi

0:46:50um the chart we're showing now is one we worked on with your community Through community outreach engagement really what's most important to you in a library and what's best practices for locating a library our evaluation criteria is lift listed on the left and

0:47:05visibility access economic impact Place making Quality of Life program Synergy timeline land cost as we looked at other locations in previous analysis we're able to identify those sites but as we apply this criteria to your current Tod proposed project you can see it ranks

0:47:27really well it really is a great location great opportunity at this site for a library and I just want to reassure you this will not be the first time it's done it's been done all over the country many many places it's great for that Synergy for it to be adjacent to public transit

0:47:46Fruitvale library in Oakland is a good example other ones with housing I've shown Multnomah here and then also downtown Santa Cruz has been under design right now as well for a co-located library parking garage and housing we've developed a preliminary project budget really based on best practices it

0:48:09is comprehensive it identifies all the costs that we can identify now and provides contingencies and allowances for those unknown costs there is a detailed Budget on the next slide But it includes hard cost soft cost ffe you can go to next line that's fine enhancement allowances project

0:48:30contingency design contingency as well as escalation so pretty comprehensive cost I think you know the really good news here when we look at the bottom line of 21.2 million dollars that significantly lower than the budget for a standalone Library there's really

0:48:51efficiency of scale when you become part of a TOD project if you're looking at funding it with a Geo Bond 20.4 million would be allowable to be funded alternative funding would be have to be found for that eight hundred thousand so with that I will invite Craig from

0:49:14nhaf you can see this is a collaborative effort with many of us um and we'll start to talk about uh financing that we've explored and financing options so we looked at several options including the top ones which include of course existing reserves and general fund we've explored developer financing

0:49:33in the parking benefit District as we all know the existing reserves in general fund uh there's a there's a lot we're trying to do with those reserves and and so we really did not spend a lot of time in that one and look forward to seeing those reserves continue to grow

0:49:47for the city and be programmed in terms of developer financing we did talk about this quite a bit with the developer and Bart and in any event um not only is it a big challenge to to develop enough financing for the project themselves the affordable housing and

0:50:02the market rate but the city would still have to have the funds to pay off this financing so we still really came to where we still need some sort of new new source of funds we did look into a parking benefit district and this is one that really the pandemic affected so

0:50:15prior to the pandemic when the BART stations were the parking lots were all full and a lot of those Parkers would have been displaced onto the streets we were looking at that being a pretty significant or potentially significant Revenue generating operation but right

0:50:30now with ridership levels being what they are with work work from home policies this is an unknown and we have a lot of work to do in it but it does not create the opportunity to to finance the library um we're still we'll be back to you with different uh ways that that program can

0:50:45run we did however look into an enhanced infrastructure financing district and as you know a council formed a subcommittee with council members um fideli and uh at the time council member Moto Yama um so we've been looking into an eifd which I'll tell you a little bit more

0:51:00about um as well as the State Library grant program and ballot measure which Craig will talk about so in terms of eifd this is a really exciting tool and you're starting to see it talked about in other cities it it's it's been it's been in existence for some time but was modified somewhat

0:51:18after Redevelopment went away um it's a tax increment financing tool which means that the base property tax that exists will continue to go to where it does now to the taxing entities including mostly the city um but like with Redevelopment that base gets frozen if you were to create a

0:51:35district and on the properties that you create a district the additional tax increment the growth in tax could go into the special district that special district could then be utilized to pay for infrastructure needs including a library either on an as a as it's raised

0:51:50basis and it can also be utilized for future bond for Bond financing separate than the general fund so this is an exciting tool however for this project we don't wouldn't have enough eifd revenues to participate in this project at this time one of the large sources of new tax revenues will be the

0:52:0850 market rate at the BART property and that's one of the exciting things for both Bart and ourselves on all the projects that are developed as they will generate new property taxes to go into infrastructure if this if a city were to start a district but also all of the

0:52:23other projects that we're seeing get developed those new increments could also be generated but it would take several years especially in the current environment to have enough revenues to do something like participate in the library at the schedule that we showed

0:52:35you so our conclusion on this one is that it's not it's not the tool for the library however we would love to return to city council and study eifd as a potential for other infrastructure needs um the building forward Library infrastructure grant program is an exciting over subscribed grant program

0:52:54that the state is operating and in conversations with group four today she has said that the Library community and Librarians are really lobbying the state to keep developing this program we did submit a letter of interest um in December and we're expecting a call for full applications to come out

0:53:11anytime now one of the challenges with this funding source however is that it requires matching funds and and we don't have those matching funds right now so we'll still keep looking and seeing how if when the when the call comes out if there's something we can put together

0:53:25but we do hope there will be future rounds and in talking with NHA today if the city were to pursue a ballot measure and raise funds we could still then have matching funds for future future rounds so it's still something to watch and we'll keep pursuing that but it doesn't also look

0:53:43like it's the answer at this time so with that I will pass it on to Craig Hill the city's financial advisor thank you Melanie good to see you all again which one am I hitting um so as Melanie mentioned there's a couple of different options that you have for potentially funding this project should

0:54:03it move forward the the way we look at it is really it falls into two buckets there's what do you have internally what resources does the city have does the general fund have Surplus revenues that it could leverage to potentially raise the money the second one as the city did

0:54:20a few years ago is to go out to the the community and ask for support there are two primary ways that the community can support this measure either through the approval of a general obligation Bond or what we would call a special tax or a parcel tax and you hear that term a lot

0:54:37with school districts as you probably know with with General obligation Bond still requires two-thirds majority vote it is a very old financing structure that goes back over 100 years and under state law it can only be used for bricks and mortar so as you saw from the

0:54:54earlier budget there's um you know fixtures and furnishings and other components to this type of a project so if you were to do a Geo Bond there there would be a need to come up with a few other dollars or extra dollars to cover some of those costs it is a very simple tax that is based on

0:55:13assessed value not market value so anybody who owns property would be subject to a property tax bill and that would have what we call an ad valorem tax a special tax or a partial tax is kind of more of a customized tax so we have a lot of discussions with councils about

0:55:29this because you may say well there's an equity issue we want all homeowners to pay the same regardless of whether they're they've been here for 30 years or they've been here for three days and so under a special tax or parcel tax you may decide that you want to come up with

0:55:44a tax that's could be on you know homes versus commercial it could be parcel size it could be building size what it cannot be based on is value so you can't discriminate and say well we want a special tax that says if you own a house over a million dollars you know you pay X that that

0:56:03isn't allowed under the the formula the other benefit to a special tax is that it allows you to one fully fund the project everything including the furnishings and fixtures and you can also fund operational costs so again school districts use this as a way to enhance their um their ex their music

0:56:24programs or Performing Arts programs so it is a it is a tool that would allow you to raise a tax that could be used to fund certain projects in either case because this is public support and there are it is tax dollars that are being collected they can only be used for

0:56:41projects that the the city effectively owns so you can't prepay rent with these proceeds you you can't really lease something other than you know you need to be paying for things that you really will own and I'll let that that conversation go if there's any other

0:56:59questions speaking more specifically to the general obligation Bond structure as I mentioned it's a two-thirds approval process we would be issuing bonds after the the county were to um certify the election and those proceeds would then be available to be used on

0:57:22the project at any time we would not issue until we know that the project is viable and and what Melanie was mentioning in terms of how this might go into place it would be this could be a couple of years even after the election so think of it as almost like a line of

0:57:37credit if the community supports it authorizes it it never matures that you can you can issue those bonds at any time in the future so that's the good news they what they would effectively do is approve a dollar amount so obviously with time value you know it'll buy less

0:57:54and less over time I want to bring to everybody's attention that because it is based on assessed value you typically would see a tax rate that would decrease over time as your community's values increase and that occurs for a couple reasons right it's it's either

0:58:11Redevelopment additions to people's properties it's reset sale at current market value that always jumps the assessed value you have a few or smaller infill projects that add to undeveloped properties so as the base as your tax base grows those that are still in their

0:58:30old homes will actually see a smaller tax rate so hence the graph you see the blue line where it kind of decreases over time that's based on an assumption of you know the the community growing at approximately two percent as an estimate for a 20 million dollar Bond and this is

0:58:48just us kind of giving you some some rough parameters you can see that on a per hundred thousand dollar basis um it's just around eighteen dollars we looked at the data for the city and you effectively have an average assessed value not not market value at around 575

0:59:11000 for a single family detached home so that gives you some indications of what the potential tax on average would look like over a 30-year period of time finally looking at the comparison to a partial tax or a special tax as you can see again same process for authorization

0:59:32or approval going to the voters still requires two-thirds you can again add program or operational costs into it if you wish and as you can see it's a because it's a flat tax it doesn't change over time right this would the the the mortgage or The Debt Service payment on the bonds would be level just

0:59:53like uh your your mortgage on your house we did not assume any kind of an escalator on the operational side and in this case you can see that we can either do it on a flat like all Parcels paid the same regardless of whether they're a house or an apartment or a commercial

1:00:09building that's what we would call a flat tax or you could do it by a building square footage tax and so somebody has a thousand square foot home would pay something to somebody had a 2 000 square foot home they paid twice as much uh based on again the data that we

1:00:25have you have approximately a 1700 square foot average home in town and our estimates are shown at the bottom on what it would you know potentially be on an annual basis again not expecting it to change the only difference here from the Geo Bond we want to bring to your

1:00:41attention is we we broke it out into what we call the project cost right and so that would be people supporting uh this would all be one measure but they would be there would be a component that would pay for the library itself and if there was a decision to add the ability to enhance the

1:01:01operations or cover the costs of the of the library itself you can see in this case it would it would equate to about seven dollars a year in order to generate seven uh 250 000 a year for um services or more programming and so with that I think I turned it back over to Millie

1:01:21thank you so much Craig so of course Craig and Don will be here for question and answer I introduced um as well comes up I want to share also that Allison McKee I forgot to share that the County librarian is also on zoom and available for questions and answers um and with that I'll pass it to Will

1:01:37great thank you Melanie thank you Craig good evening to the council so as Craig outlined a bond measure Could Be an Effective mechanism to ride the funding needed to build a proposed Library as part of the El Cerrito Plaza Tod project the timeline for developing a voter

1:01:51measure and when those funds would become available is also compatible with the Tod project timeline as shown on this slide as Melody mentioned the development team is building out their plan phasing for the project with this in mind and is including the library in

1:02:03phase three of the project in one of the buildings planned for affordable housing to stay on track with the phasing of the project and include the library it's anticipated that the city would need to make the firm Financial commitment by Summer 2024.

1:02:16a ballot measure brought to the voters in Spring of 24 would fit with this timeline so sites are shown here shows how the timing for the ballot measure would work in a little bit more detail the city council could provide direction to keep moving forward and staff would

1:02:31bring back a budget request to begin a community opinion process to develop language for the measure and to refine the financial analysis after that's completed the city council would need to call for an election by early December in order to place the ballot the measure on the ballot in

1:02:45March or April if the measure is approved by the voters we would then have the funds available in time to include the library in part in the Tod project and then after the measure is approved that's also when we would initiate a robust Community design process with

1:02:59stakeholders and an architect hired by the city to plan for and design for the interior of the library to meet the numerous Community needs that have been identified and from then construction would begin as early as 2025. although an important note here is that since the library will

1:03:14be in an affordable housing building that timeline timeline could change depending on their financing bringing up the Gantt chart again briefly this shows how the ballot measure would fit in with the overall Tod project pointing out again that the library would be included in phase three

1:03:30and that we'd intend to complete a robust Community engagement process and design process after the election in Spring 24 if and once the measure is approved by the voters to touch with on community engagement again there has been a significant amount of community engagement as part

1:03:46of the broader Tod process this has included Bart's development of a Berkeley El Cerrito Corridor access plan which is focused on how residents will get to Bart there have been also been surveys focus groups and virtual and in-person meetings and of course there have also been city meetings

1:04:01including a joint design review board Planning Commission study session in September in terms of what's to come Melanie touched on this but the design reward design review board will be doing an advisory review of parcel a South this Thursday the overall project master plan

1:04:16will be discussed at a joint design review board Planning Commission meeting and then each phase that is built will also then be discussed by the design review board as the buildings come come forward the city staff City staff is also formulating a public engagement process

1:04:31around the proposed parking program around the site and as I mentioned if the library is funded we'll work closely with the community as we get into design and before concluding our presentation the last important thing to touch on is our is financial considerations and

1:04:47potential impacts to the general fund Craig and Dawn talked about the cost of constructing the library and how we could pay for it with a ballot measure but there are some additional non-capital costs that a ballot measure would entail to be clear staff is not requesting

1:05:00action or approval of any of these expenditures this evening but we wanted to put them on your radar as potential costs in the future so first as mentioned if given direction to proceed staff will come back both with mid-year budget assessments if needed and with proposed expenditures in

1:05:17the fy24 budget to develop a ballot measure conduct a survey refine draft language and complete the tax analysis we estimated this that could cost seventy thousand to a hundred thousand dollars spread over two fiscal years if in November or December the council

1:05:32decides to move forward with placing the measure on the ballot we estimate another 100 000 to 150 000 in expenditures both to place the measure on the ballot and to conduct adequate public information if from there the ballot measure is approved by the voters and notably if

1:05:46the measure is a general obligation bond that can only fund brick and mortar costs as Craig outlined then the city would also need to identify an estimated eight hundred thousand dollars for furniture and related expenses and then lastly there would be ongoing costs of a new library that may need to

1:06:01be where funding may need to be identified so this includes the cost of extra hours so after opening the new library the city may want to want the facility to be open for the maximum number of hours the city currently pays about sixty thousand dollars for six extra hours as you know

1:06:16at the current library and our initial estimates put the number at an additional two hundred fifty thousand dollars to fund the maximum 16 hours in the new facility since it's three times as big and will require additional staff and we're working closely with the

1:06:29county to try and refine that in an estimate we'd also expect increased operation and maintenance costs for things like custodial services and facility maintenance in a larger more technologically advanced building those costs could be around twenty five thousand to forty thousand a year after

1:06:44the building opens which might not be till after 2028.

1:06:48so again staff is not requesting decisions on any of these expenditures now but we wanted to provide a comprehensive understanding of potential general fund impacts if the city were to proceed with funding the library with a ballot measure oh no and uh yeah and to conclude if the

1:07:06city council could provide direction to staff to start formally exploring a ballot measure to fund the proposed Library as part of the El Cerrito Plaza BART Tod project if so we would return with budget requests as needed to conduct a survey prepare draft ballot language and

1:07:20complete a financial analysis for city council to consider placing the measure on the ballot we'd also continue working with Bart the development team to plan for Library the library as part of the site and we've developed a parking program with the library in mind

1:07:34we'll also continue to conduct Community engagement around the project and begin to develop public information around what's being proposed so with that city council that concludes our presentation we're of course available for any questions I know the County librarian is on the call staff

1:07:49from the development team Bart as well as Brian from Godby research if you have any more specific detailed questions about those topics so thank you thank you so much for the presentation and all the stakeholders who are involved who are on the call ready to help I'd like to open up for my

1:08:06colleagues if there's any questions foreign yes thank you mayor Pro tem um I'd like to speak to the County librarian um great let's see um Allison if you could raise your hand I don't see you on the call there we go thank you okay hi Allison uh Gabe Quinto council member

1:09:06Quinto here good to see you via Zoom um I wanted to find out um we haven't heard from you uh but uh I wanted to check in with you and and see what your take is on this on the county side of this uh uh idea um we are fully in support of it it's um a model that we are exploring in a

1:09:31couple other places uh not exactly the same uh in terms of Transit oriented development but we are in the very beginning phases of doing a mixed-use development with affordable housing and low-income housing and Bay Point Library will be on the first floor uh top several floors will be housing

1:09:52the rest of the development will also be mixed use and it'll be very close to Bart so this is a model that um like Don mentioned has been implemented in the Bay Area other libraries throughout the country and is very successful and makes great sense that's great to hear and you and I have

1:10:16been to the Hercules Library a few times where I had a chance to give a couple of presentations through the years and I wanted to find out your take looking at what the square feet is of Hercules so this particular Library will be a little smaller is that correct

1:10:35I think it's pretty much about exactly this thing 20 20 21 000 okay square feet all right yeah good all right and uh so um have you were have you been able to discuss these plans with our uh uh our two uh Library uh committee members representing El Cerrito um keep me very well informed of what's

1:11:05happening around this project and I know they're very much in favor of it as well okay that that's great to hear I did uh speak to them many years ago about this idea so it's good to see that everybody is on board on this idea so uh thank you very very much I should share also that

1:11:24just that uh group four does we reach out occasionally and if we were to get as as well mentioned into the interior design it would be hand in hand with the library staff but at the site planning stage we've also been working with them to make sure that for example a book

1:11:39drop-off um and the uh the staff's operational needs are considered at the site planning stage so that if it were to go into a vertical building that it would continue to be harmonious and and planned ahead of time okay good thank you thank you council member Quinto

1:11:56uh councilmember White councilmember weisinger sure I mine is a shorter question I'm not certain if that would be for you Melanie or for will but I was looking at the the comparison also like council member Quinto and his year I saw that there's a significant boom

1:12:11projected in our population and is that in in solidarity with our building so much housing along the corridor itself because I'm looking at the difference between elsewhere and Hercules and we're comparable right now but it looks like we're expecting that we're going to be a

1:12:26bit bigger and even still kind of fall short of their site that's what I like to look at it as it's really as exciting as it is and it's modern and so much larger and it does all the things that group four mentioned but those numbers come from abag's projections so yes remember it's kind of

1:12:45a the process is multiple the a bag also projects numbers and what how population will grow and then assigns us our Regional Housing needs allocation so whereas the city was already planning housing to meet its own Economic Development and and diversity needs um the a-bag also did assign us those

1:13:05numbers and so part of that has to do with proximity to jobs proximity to Transit availability of land Although our land is this infill uh you know multi-family environment as opposed to all of Hercules but so the population that we're looking at is yeah both assigned

1:13:22to us and and based on what's kind of naturally occurring and you're right though that the the size of this Library would keep us in this kind of in this modest in the middle of those cities we could probably get other cities to compare to as well but those were ones

1:13:37that I think we've often looked at in terms of places to visit as Don said places with similar population size so did that answer your question yes and then one other thing so and I just want to clarify this tonight we're being asked basically for the up or down or whether

1:13:52or not we want to go forward with the ballot but we we're I'm looking more of an analysis of what that is what that structure is going to be and that will come later if we do give it an upright that's right so the upright now is not whether you want to actually go forward

1:14:05with the ballot measure it's whether you want to direct us to keep exploring and putting together the pieces of what that would look like to give you more information and potential voters and our community more information and as well as slideshow showed we'd be back in

1:14:17around September October with more information and then Council would then make a decision about whether it wanted to place a ballot measure and then we'd enter into a different phase so it's letting us know like yes keep keep going keep putting together the pieces and

1:14:30then the city manager's office would be back with what some of those pieces are around polling would be really the next uh big piece all right thank you councilmember fideli thank you I'm excited to be here tonight to hear this and my first question was going to be

1:14:45exactly the one the council member weisinger asked about whether the growth has been factored into that twenty thousand number um and um so I have some odds and ends questions here now that you're all here it's useful to go across the board here in in in 2016 The Proposal that we had

1:15:08that did get on the ballot was for 30 million dollars we didn't really have a venue um is the what what was the square footage that was estimated was there a square footage that was estimated and how do how did we get the 30 million versus is the 20 million lower cost

1:15:26because we're associated with the Tod property itself that's right so the number that Don has shared with us is and that we've we saw which she shared with us before we put together the budget was that um the mixed use project sharing some of the costs puts it at about 60 to 80

1:15:42percent of what a standalone would be right when you think about all the infrastructure that you're sharing the mobilizing some of the shared construction costs um so before um you could see also if we went back to that cost slide I know at the time um the library was uh

1:15:59I don't know if it would be it was not quite as advanced as this one is in planning because this one's a part of a project with these great with architects who are planning it say cost savings to being associated with the BART Tod project that's right like 20 20 to 30

1:16:15percent good deal and that's right so another thing to remember when you look at that cost slide which I know the city manager was really excited about when we saw this was when we did just give you these numbers the 22 million dollars that was also escalated to 20 uh to 2025

1:16:31um time frame so that's not even in today's dollars that is in 2025 dollars when we would expect at the earliest to be able to go to construction okay and we did 30 million of course was in 2016 right um and thank you for the discussion on the enhanced IFD project that took a lot

1:16:48of review and I appreciate that with Lisa and I dealing with that as well but I just want to make sure with the city in the future if you do present us with an IFD proposal Library can be included in that as an option in the future for revenues that might come into the city

1:17:05not for initial costs but for other things that's right so all kinds of infrastructure could be included including other enhancements to the library and depending on the timing so like I said to enhance the library should we need to do that or all of our other infrastructure needs is what's

1:17:23nice about that don't we have some um there's a amount of money associated with our existing library is it like I keep hearing the amount is it eight hundred thousand dollars or something or is that correct that we could use or in some way I don't see it registered here anywhere where

1:17:43would that money go and what actually is that money are you referring to like selling the current Library property if I think yes I think whatever in terms of ongoing costs uh what we do know is that our cost would probably go up we are uh you know out of the public works department

1:17:59maintaining the old building and there are costs that are rising because of deferred maintenance but really what we estimate in this larger building is that the cost would go up I'm not talking about costs I'm talking about some assets that we have in the bank now based on the the

1:18:15furniture the stuff that we have in there that can be I I don't think we've really calculated that like how weather could be reused or what so we haven't in the past yeah so we could look into that but we haven't netted out I don't think when you were looking at Cost we haven't netted out

1:18:30whatever value would come um I do think that there's some members in the public who might be speaking tonight about different efforts that are happening in terms of expanding Collections and housing new Collections and some exciting efforts um so I think the friends of the library

1:18:44and others and things that they've started to develop at the current Library they'd be able of course to to enhance and expand in in a new library what is the um as we all know we're a city that's on the comeback financially here and doing pretty well I think um

1:19:04moving forward what do we have to do as far as getting our bond rating better I will call Craig up to speak about that and what is that number and those nice easy questions to answer that could be a loaded question well load it up so the uh the city maintains effectively two different ratings right

1:19:29there is a there is a rating that you would have for a general obligation bond which is the underlying strength of your community that is based on diversity of property types all of that that is not you because you don't have a general obligation bond out there you

1:19:46have no debt that's truly supported by property tax revenues that that rating doesn't exist I think you're speaking to the city's general fund rating on the obligations that you have now and when we were involved in those transactions the rating agency is laser focused right

1:20:06on reserve levels on structural deficits um unfunded liabilities and so you are certainly on the right path now with your Revenue enhancements your ability to build the reserves you've got policies in place around building those reserves um you're addressing your your pension

1:20:27on unfunded liabilities all of that is going in the right direction the the rating agencies will do surveillance so they will come in on their on their own time and and ask specific questions which can move the rating the easier way and we're not advocating for this right

1:20:45now but if you're looking to do a rating you know push for a rate increase you have to have something for them to rate meaning you would need to be doing a financing a general fund financing that they would actually apply the new rating to so uh it's it's best to kind of get

1:21:04all of this this homework done now and when they come in for a surveillance which could be in late 23 or early 24 we're predicting that would be when you really show them look what we've been able to do over the last two fiscal years look what our 23-24 budget is and

1:21:23that starts to move the needle as you can imagine the rating agencies take their grades very seriously they don't like to move them around quickly so it is a momentum shift kind of approach where we just we need to show consistency that the city truly is year after year you know building or

1:21:44improving as opposed to having a blip down or up right a one-year ricocheted doesn't give them a lot of confidence that they they know what the trend is and from your Insight where we're at and where we have to go it's a doable thing absolutely thank you for that

1:22:06um I have a ballot question if we do need to talk about ballots there are two types or maybe maybe more but one I keep hearing about the signature type where we can get on with what's the advantage of using the signature process or just paying to get on this the ballot

1:22:29so I'll I'll do a very abbreviated version of a little bit of case law history related to the provisions of the California Constitution that were added by prop 218. so those Provisions um state that there are two types of taxes General taxes and special taxes and special taxes require two-thirds

1:22:52voter approval either type of of tax that we're talking about would also require two-thirds voter approval um so several years ago the California Supreme Court issued a decision um about uh procedural aspect of Revenue measures that raised some questions about uh

1:23:16whether or not all of the rules for special taxes apply when a special tax gets onto the ballot through a voter sponsored initiative rather than being placed on the ballot by the city council on its own motion uh there were then several appellate court cases in which the Appellate

1:23:35District that covers El Cerrito has held that a special tax that is on the ballot as a result of a voter-sponsored initiative again rather than being placed on the ballot by the city council only requires fifty percent plus one to pass so just summarizing that if for this measure the city council

1:24:00decided based on a variety of factors you wanted to pursue the parcel tax approach and the city council adopted a resolution to put that before the voters that that measure would require two-thirds yes votes to pass on the other hand if members of the community

1:24:16wanted to circulate a petition to qualify an initiative to get the same parcel tax onto the ballot under those cases it would only require a simple majority however to complicate things a little bit and I see you're leaning forward for a question I need to revisit this but the measure

1:24:38that you voted to oppose earlier this evening that is going to be on the Statewide ballot it's sponsored by the California Roundtable would alter prop 218 to take away the power of the voters through initiative to have a lower vote threshold so we don't know what the outcome of

1:25:00that is going V is the Statewide measure it won't be on the ballot until November 2024 uh it is retro but I'm not sure if that aspect of it is retro it would be retroactive there are there I think it may be but they're asked but it is there are aspects of the California Roundtable

1:25:18initiative that are retroactive but they're retroactive for a certain period And I honestly don't remember sitting here whether or not this one is or for how long in other words whether or not it would reach back to a um to an initiative measure that was on the ballot in the spring of 2024. it's

1:25:34it's very likely what I I haven't I haven't Revisited that one yeah the city manager seems fairly confident that that that aspect but the the reason is just that there's there's some things are retroactive in it and others are not so there's just a question about it but also we don't know

1:25:50whether or not it's going to pass and that and we also don't know whether or not the retroactivity provision would be um upheld if challenged additionally um let's just take this measure this potential measure hypothetically um if it passed in the spring of 2024

1:26:07and the city council approved the issuance of bonds in the summer of 2024 and those were issued and backed by um by the revenue um the retroactivity would imperil the the security that the that the city had provided so there'd be an additional legal complication to to

1:26:29um any challenge to those bonds um in terms of of applying that retroactive provision of the Statewide measure so I just down just gave you a ton of information I'm sure you have questions I'm happy to field those and if I could just sort of follow up with that that is

1:26:44why doing the um opinion survey the voter Community opinion survey is extremely important because we'll be able to gather data on what the temperature really is of the community and what we're looking at and if we're able to you know if it comes if the if the and Brian is on the call so he could

1:27:04probably answer this question of course in his from his perspective but this is exactly why we would want to really test the data and test the um uh the feasibility of how each of the different types of taxes and would they meet the two-thirds threshold and if we

1:27:22know we can meet the two-thirds threshold and that's data we would bring to the council to have that deeper conversation as Melanie and will talked about later on this summer what is the number of signatures that a city is there a set number or percentage what 15 percent of registered voters based on

1:27:40the last gubernatorial election we're just under 18 000 registered voters the last time I checked we'll say that again fifteen percent fifteen percent of that amount so it's about 2600. and I don't know Brian if you are on the call and you have any additional um

1:28:01thing anything in to add to this uh yeah thank you uh Karen uh I guess what I would add is I've got lots of videos talking about this right now um so you're not the only one uh the survey will help you decide whether you need to take the risk as Sky outlined uh

1:28:25or uh whether you can go for the two-thirds uh the measures whether they are Bond or parcel tax the wording is substantially the same regardless of how it gets on the ballot so the survey will if we get 59 percent obviously that tells us that we may have to go to the initiative route if we get

1:28:4575 that tells us we're more comfortable with the two-thirds approach okay thank you thank you I um those are my questions I just want to say that um in partnership with Bart on this because there is State legislation that they can basically do anything they want on that

1:29:05lot that they own um the good news I'm hearing around town is that people are very positive about housing which is a great goal we have because we also will get a library in the deal it's a good combo so thank you very much and let me just correct one thing it's actually 10 not 15 percent

1:29:25type Okay so so 1800 approximately sounds better okay thank you all right I have a few questions I have three questions to be exact so in surveying are the questions going to be granular enough so that we can have a sense to inform exactly how we would use this space I'm looking out and I'm

1:29:48seeing a lot of stakeholders in the community with very specific interests in what this Library can bring to our community so is that a part of the surveying tool so beyond if we're going to be investing in this Beyond taking the temperature of how acceptable this

1:30:04would be on the ballot is there any about preference of how the space is being utilized uh the short answer is yes the longer answer is the structure of the survey starts with sort of a very high level what are important issues in the city and how is the city doing then we do a

1:30:22ballot question then we have a long list of features of the library which are things you're going to use the library for and the purpose of that is to rank those uh and that will tell you what's important to the voters and what's not important and that'll help you with your

1:30:39planning from the voter perspective it's not the entire population because we're interested in voters then we test a long list of positive and negative arguments then we test the ballot question again but we are getting that list of features and the priorities what is it that the

1:30:56voters want do they want space for kids programs do they want space for quiet reading or you know a whole host of other things and as we work with uh the city to wrap the questionnaire you know that's the input that we're looking for and then similarly if I can build on

1:31:13that we would be very interested so aside from the the survey related to the ballot measure in terms of design and really what this Library feels like and acts like and how it how it becomes that multi-purpose place that people Envision there's a couple pieces to that one we'd

1:31:28be making sure to share enough information just general public information about all the potential within the space and with the needs assessment what did it Envision and and how the space could be organized and what it would need to accommodate and we could do a variety of workshops to keep

1:31:44bringing people in and then of course letting people know that yes when we get into the if if this were to pass and we were in the design phase there would be a robust Community process really to to design it it's really a shell that the budget envisioned with the developer

1:31:57that the shell would accommodate a library in the way that we envision but then it gets really rich when we get past that so we'd have to figure out how to make sure just have two-way communication with with the public I appreciated that in the staff report it directly called out the use of this

1:32:12building as a cooling center a clean air you know on high aqi days because currently in El Cerrito we provide no facilities for our community members to serve that purpose so it's really important I hope my colleagues Concur and the community concurs that we need

1:32:29to have a space available in El Cerrito for residents on hot days to be a cooling center and clean air on those High aqi days yeah I think with a piece that's exciting is to think about a new modern facility going back also to council member weissinger's question

1:32:44when you think about our both our existing population with what you just said but also our new population to have another another facility you know this one's not new anymore but a newish facility um really to to Really match what our communities needs are and to be designed

1:33:00in a flexible robust way so I agreed and my second question is is the design in cost is there any opportunity for the design cost to be offset by the project and by the developer team and as because this is kind of a unique or not this wouldn't be a standalone building if we go in the direction of

1:33:21the library um how does it reduce the costs of design and kind of the soft cost budget projected yeah I'd have to go back to the slide and also Nick Wilder from related who's been a really strong partner with us is on the call so he can be promoted to answer the question as

1:33:39well so Nick I might have you say a few words but already the process that they've gone through to date to really plan the library on the site has been definitely the city has not contributed beyond all of our staff time um which has not been insignificant but we have not we've have piateuck and uh

1:33:56einweiler cool so really excellent Landscape Architects and Architects working on this and other Architects that I'm it's not to put my tongue right now but they've been working on it really I think sharing the vision that the city has really seeing it as an exciting

1:34:12um space to activate and really bring life to the to that to downtown and to the project so all of that has been shared we haven't been participating in that design in this pre-planning design and all of the access work and everything similarly Bart has gotten a number of

1:34:27Grants to improve prove access there's a lot of resources going in terms of the design itself similarly they have held going into vertical and probably it is probably telling me that I'm redlining again um that um they're holding going into vertical design yeah um do we have this let's see let's

1:34:46see um they're holding going into vertical design for their own affordable housing project until we know whether we're participating or not so that they know what ground floor is being is being designed so I think Don might be getting on here to show you the way that the

1:35:01budget was built but there are shared costs within the budget is that what you were looking at Don yeah the podium too if you guys are out of chairs um so just because the soft cost or a percentage is a construction cost right now and your construction cost is not so the shell is being done by the

1:35:25developer and so you're right there saving about a third of your soft cost because developer is doing the mechanical system the exterior of the building the structural system the foundation and so what the city would be paying for is the ti soft cost on the internal development of the project

1:35:46does that make sense that actually does make sense thank you that was better and also Nick do you want to add anything to that is Nick right there hello Nick's on here I know um thank you for taking the time uh looking at the library today and and last week as well for for parcel a cell

1:36:06um in terms of uh how the project benefits from being in the larger development you know one node is just all the master planning efforts um and design that's going on now um those are costs being born by the developer um and not by the city to uh help sort of design uh that Library shell the

1:36:29building that it's in um and then you know Foundation Systems mechanical systems all of that sort of uh initial design work um uh and then at the end of the day as we move further towards construction the design component of the library you know the city would have

1:36:50their own architect for the shell and be coordinating closely uh with one of the Architects for uh the building uh as well but um many of the sort of early benefits for example now before you know Bond was passed or uh things that those really benefit from being part of the larger uh

1:37:10project and and similarly Nick right so as as they're designing the building to go vertical we would have our architect making sure that their design was compatible but with what the library's needs were and all the opportunities were being sought but it would be their

1:37:23architect team doing that heavy lift and in like uh Nick just said with the mechanical electrical Plumbing type of things and ours would be kind of working with them to make sure that that was compatible and then we would take it from the outside in excellent thank you my third and final

1:37:38question is so if my colleagues and I tonight vote to explore this ballot measure we go through the process we take it to Spring 2024 and it comes short what would be the next steps um that's a great question so one of the things you'll see on the calendar is it

1:37:59does show on that Gantt chart March is when the election would be and it's not until uh correct me if I'm wrong but August is I believe when we have to say when we're in or out like they're moving forward without us the project as somebody else said I think it was you uh

1:38:13councilmember fideli the project due to a number of state laws and all the shared goals and the housing that it provides Etc will move forward one way or another and so our option is really do we want to include a library as a part of it I guess between if it didn't

1:38:27pass we'd have between March and August to put our heads together and figure out is there some other way that we could do this and we'll continue exploring that even as we proceed as we were showing but that that would that's kind of my my short answer and we might know more about what an

1:38:43eifd could do then you know if we wanted we would call Nick and other lenders and but we'd see but as we were saying we really feel that there's some new monies from somewhere are needed to pay back any option that we were to if we were to try to find any other option

1:38:56excellent thank you now is the time for members of the public who wish to provide public comments on this item in-person request to speak can be submit a speaker card to the city clerk and remote speakers can use the raise hand feature to request to speak please remember to identify yourself and

1:39:14your city of residence at the beginning of your comments city clerk please proceed thank you mayor Pro Tem bless you um at this time we have I apologize I lost my screen we have six requests to speak we'll start with our in-person comments first so first up is Al Miller followed by Tom

1:39:41panis hello again I'm still Lyle Miller I'm still a resident of El Cerrito I'm submitting this public comment as the president of the El Cerrito Library Foundation the foundation was created in 2014 to increase community support and to raise funds to support a new library modern

1:40:15Library 21st century library in El Cerrito the foundation strongly supports the library option being offered as part of the BART Tod project at the Plaza Station at the size of 20 000 square feet it matches our Library needs assessment the current planning indicates that

1:40:44creating a new library is part of the BART Tod project as you heard earlier today will could save the city up to 10 million dollars over a standalone site somewhere else if you could find somewhere else in the city of El Cerrito thanks to the excess of our San Pablo Avenue specific plan Etc

1:41:09several board members of the uclf are also members of a committee for a Plaza Station Library known by its abbreviation of C capital c for Capital PSL Michael will be telling you more about this in a few minutes because we believe that participating in a broader community

1:41:33group supporting the library we can contribute more individually than just as a foundation collectively we ask for your continued strong support for the new 21st century in the library for El Cerrito and for you to do whatever you can to ensure that you're able to say yes to the library option as

1:42:00part of the project at the Plaza Station thank you by Michael Fisher good evening mayor Pro tem Rudnick members of the council and City staff my name is Tom panis I live at [address removed] El Cerrito I'd like to thank you for your vision and support for the Tod project that Bart has proposed for

1:42:34the El Cerrito Plaza Station let me be clear from the start that I'm a big fan for the Tog project and the library as part of it in El Cerrito we talk a lot about Place making Parts here development the Plaza Station hopefully including a library will be a step in that direction however I'd like

1:42:50to suggest that we get a little more creative and truly do the right thing for pedestrian access to the site visualize yourself in six or seven years sitting on a chair on the south side of the plasma excuse me on the south side of the Tog project looking towards El Cerrito Plaza except

1:43:12you're not noticing traffic on Fairman Avenue because we've closed the block of Fairmont Avenue which the city owns not Bart between Liberty and Oak Street busway not only are you not looking at Fairmont Avenue but where Fairmont Avenue ran you see a green space with two small Rises

1:43:29on the end and a saddle in the middle under this new landscape was a limited access tunnel with easy access to the BART Plaza station for AC transit buses and emergency vehicles and on that map you're looking at the little red lines our tunnel portals and Contour

1:43:46this allows people to walk between the shopping center on the Tod site including the library the housing and Bart without having to worry about traffic on Fairmont Avenue plus we've replaced pavement with green space I want to say again that I live on Fairmont Avenue

1:43:59I've lived on Fairman Avenue for 45 years and I'm certainly clear what I'm suggesting will have impacts on traffic but it's our goal to preserve the world that we have today or as our goal to create a pedestrian family environment that we dream about I'm very much in favor of the latter so

1:44:15let's not squander this amazing opportunity to do some extraordinary Place making as part of this Tod project it's once in a lifetime opportunity I'm hoping we don't miss or dismiss out of hand thank you for your time this evening I'd like to thank all our presenters for their great work this

1:44:29evening my apologies we're having some challenges with our live feed the next speaker is Michael Fisher followed by Greg Lyman thank you mayor Pro tem members of the council and fellow El cerritons my name's Michael Fisher and I have both the privilege and responsibility of

1:45:04being El Cerrito's Library commissioner speaking as an individual tonight the concept of a new library is strongly supported by our Library community which is large and engaged we know that libraries are rightly one of the most beloved Civic institutions a new library in El Cerrito is long

1:45:28overdue our current library is too small too old almost as old as I am built in the late 1940s lacking as mayor Pro tem pointed out air conditioning filtering and Heating it has no separate meeting rooms and yet our library is the most popular of all County library branches in West

1:45:59County by a large amount a right-sized library of some twenty thousand square feet is planned with meeting rooms accessible not only for Library use but for children for teens for adults and for senior programs even when the library is closed the new library will be an important

1:46:26Keystone to the vibrant downtown area it will be part of the possibility of this as part of the BART Transit oriented development that will be built in any event is a rare opportunity but the library will not happen by itself we're grateful for the work done by Karen by Melanie by

1:46:54Will and other City staff in bringing this to the Forefront the Library community stands ready to help ensure that the planning for this project that the financing for this project public and private as well as the planning will take place we have created a group as Al mentioned

1:47:22called the committee for a Plaza Station Library and we invite all to join us in whatever way you can help we're new so we just have an email account the count is four Plaza Station Library at gmail.com that's the number four and the word plazas the words Plaza Station

1:47:48Library all scrunched together at gmail.com thank you and we hope to see everyone involved custom person speaker is Greg Lyman and then we'll go to remote request to speak good evening mayor Pro tem council members it's a pleasure to be here so I reckon I'm excited it feels like we're

1:48:15going to actually moving forward with a concrete step uh towards getting a library here in El Cerrito again Greg Lyman El Cerrito resident and I served for 12 years in your seat on the city council pushing for for a library so I'm here to support a city-owned library

1:48:34facility as part of the Plaza BART Transit oriented development project please give direction to staff to immediately start the community opinion process developing questions for the survey refining the tax analysis and moving forward with a ballot measure for the March 5th 2024 presidential

1:48:57election March 5th of next year is a mere year away and we have a lot of information to disseminate to in order to pass a finding funding measure um and that means that your decision about making an initiative ballot versus a a ballot that you put on the on the

1:49:20ballot is actually probably going to happen over the summer which is why I'm encouraging you to make very strong uh recommendation tonight for staff to move forward um I'm working in in concert with other Library supporters and we'll be part of the campaign advocating to support the

1:49:38ballot measure um a successful campaign will require a small army of volunteers and I encourage everyone that's out there listening uh to to uh email us at uh four Plaza Station gmail.com so that we can begin working with you uh to get the word out and build a strong

1:50:06robust campaign so we can have a library here in El Cerrito a new modern Library here in El Cerrito within the next five years thank you mayor Lyman I can say mayor once mayor always a mayor it was four Plaza Station Library at gmail yes okay just want to clarify thank you

1:50:23Plaza Station Library yes thanks thank you and just quickly before I go to our remote request to speak I do want to share that we did receive written public comment for this item today from Stephen Price Rachel Rose kind Charles Taylor David Weinstein and Al Miller and

1:50:41those are posted with supplemental online and then we have three remote requests to speak we'll go to our first Speaker Dan Schulman you should be able to unmute and begin your time now hi everybody uh Dan Schulman from El Cerrito thank you for allowing Zoom participation while I'm out of town on

1:51:01school vacation week um so yes I would love to see a library as part of this Transit oriented development everybody I speak to feels this way every elected official that I've spoken to says they want this as well um it's been this way for years but there's always been this financing

1:51:23elephant in the room um and so I'm glad we're we're talking about it now and and getting ready to make some decisions I think it sounds like the ballot measure is is the primary option I agree with some of the prior speakers that we should start this process now let's no longer have

1:51:42this be an unknown with this project I can tell you that back in 2016 um I had a three-year-old and a two-year-old back then I was a pretty low information voter back then um and I voted no back then because the ballot measure had very high costs and very high ambiguity there was no sites

1:52:02no plans no no pictures um and I can tell you if knowing what what's been put out there today and what could be put out there with a with a proper campaign I would have absolutely voted for it back then and I would certainly vote for it now so with all that being said I have two

1:52:20questions um the first one alludes to what the mayor Pro tems question was about what if this doesn't work is there a plan B um have we exhausted all the non-valot measure options my My worry is that we've known about this for many years now I would worry are we gonna be able to

1:52:38come up with a plan B in the three months between a ballot measure and then when the development train is is going to leave the station so that's one question second question is I heard some talk about grants and matching funds and I'm just kind of interested to hear how

1:52:53the mechanics would work with that if if a ballot measure were to pass but then some sort of state or federal or you know grant funding were to come through and maybe not all of the bond measure funds aren't needed anymore kind of what what happens in that scenario I'd be interested to

1:53:11understand that and a last comment aside I really liked uh uh Tom panis's suggestion about family do you think that's a lovely idea um thank you very much thank you our next uh our next speaker is Rachel Rose kind Rachel you should be able to unmute and begin your time now

1:53:34thank you my name is Rachel rosekind I'm an El Cerrito resident small business owner educator and activist I'm also Contra Costa's district one Library commissioner and vice chair of our new countywide library Foundation of Contra Costa I believe that no other public

1:53:49institution educates enriches engages and resources its communities as expansively continuously and effusively as public libraries and no other institution is as embedded and engaged in direct service in with and for community these beliefs have driven and been

1:54:07sustained over the course of my three decades worth of partnership with libraries around the country libraries are truly equity in action spaces that champion accessibility challenge censorship preserve cultural memory uphold the right to privacy and connect connect connect

1:54:24as opportunity Zone multipliers libraries transform individual lives and shape communities but multiplying the library's capacity to serve and catalyze opportunities means maximizing and optimizing its physical form the current library is just a few blocks from my home and holds a special place

1:54:41to my heart every time I visit I'm impressed by the energy and color the staff make manifest in what is a dark dated and extremely limited space these dedicated professionals work in a building that is in dire need of repair renewal and reimagination and we can

1:54:57make this happen libraries are spaces of and for many things on the Civic level which brings us here tonight there are spaces of Community Pride and belonging they are in effect Love Letters to the idea and practice of community itself I hope that the city the council and all parties

1:55:14involved in stewarding this project will meaningfully authentically and accountably engage all of the diverse individuals and populations that make up our wonderful city and county one of immigrants caregivers students and educators of young people adults and seniors of Fresh Starts and stalwarts of

1:55:33unhoused individuals and affluent homeowners of single parents and low-income residents working two jobs so that the library can be a beacon and Bridge to a city that reflects and respects its entire community and so we can assure true buy-in on this project as we Lobby for funding viability and

1:55:50seek voter approval if it goes that route please do the robust and genuine Outreach needed wearing my activist hat I would also like to urge you to advocate for more of the housing units to be apportioned as very low income rather than just below market rate given

1:56:05the high dollar threshold for low-income and BMR qualification and Contra custom we need housing that is truly affordable for all the people who are entitled to safe and secure housing but for too many reasons to enumerate here both historical and present day do not have

1:56:21access to the same resources as other current residents and those moving here from other cities I look forward to contributing to bringing this project to fruition and I thank you for your time and support of this project thank you our next speaker is howdy Gowdy

1:56:39how do you be able to unmute and begin your time now thank you mayor patem and council members my name is howdy Gowdy and I live in El Cerrito um so first of all I fully support the integration of a librarian to the plaza Tod and I appreciate all of the um efforts of of all the parties concerned

1:57:04to keep this alive and moving forward it's a very complicated uh logistical problem and I appreciate everyone's efforts on um so it's also good news that you know there are substantial savings associated with um this integration and I think there should be some reflection

1:57:28on uh leveraging that savings to make it an even more vibrant uh project I mean the um you know some of the comments both in person and written have uh really been talking about the interaction of the library with the rest of the the surrounding environment and at a time when you know

1:57:59the site plan is you know it's been out there but it's getting more and more solidified I think we need to be making sure that how the library interacts with the surroundings is is really as uh optimal as it can be and and meets the potential we only really get this unique opportunity you know

1:58:21once in you know 50 plus years so um we should really make sure we're we're making the best use of the opportunity and looking at how the uh site plan is currently laid out yes there's a nice integration to you know the street Side Plaza area but that's one facade of of this Library uh

1:58:47footprint the other facades are really pretty uninspiring um you know one side is the the bus uh driveway one side is a you know service alley with very little amenity and the other is is completely walled off so um I worry that you know daylighting deep into the space will be

1:59:12um compromised because of this particular layout and I think we're not necessarily going to be able to support as much Innovative amenities and programming as we might otherwise if we're a little bit more Visionary about this in the future so rather than just taking what the developer can give us

1:59:31for an envelope and working on the interior I think we need to be more um imaginative about bringing amenities that are uniquely uh inspiring for the library to this the shell of the building and the site plan and I hope you will consider doing that thank you thank you our next speaker is Rochelle W

1:59:53Rochelle you should be able to unmute and begin your time now [Music] hi um my name is Rochelle wheeler I'm a resident of El Cerrito um good evening mayor proton and council members and thank you to um staff for all your work on this effort I'm sorry I missed the

2:00:14presentation although I did review the slides um over the weekend um I have a couple questions which may have been addressed already but I'm thinking about this from coming to this from a point of strong support um and I'm incredibly supportive of the transit oriented development and the

2:00:38idea of placing a library within it and definitely the cost Savings of that are incredibly appealing for finally making this switch or this this this idea of a new library much more feasible than it has been my questions kind of relate um also to kind of thinking about this as a

2:01:03homeowner and voter who would be looking at um potentially paying for this um and um I guess I would like to one know that the city had endeavored to find as much possible grant funding and other funding available as possible um and that they would continue to do

2:01:26that and I guess I would like to see the council strongly direct staff to continue applying for all possible grants and I'm also curious as the previous speaker stated on how that would work with a bond or assessment measure and if if there was a grant that did come in

2:01:49secondly I'm sure this has been explored in the past but I'm not familiar with it is just the fact that this is a county library and that this Library I know because of people I know including my mother who live in Richmond Annex that a lot of people outside of El Cerrito use

2:02:06this Library I just looked at the map of where the libraries are in the county and I see the Richmond Library is very far away from El Cerrito Plaza Library so I assume that you know it is used by many people in Richmond and I wonder if there is thoughts on how

2:02:23um that constituency or the county could help contribute towards making this new library a reality thank you very much thank you mayor pretend that does conclude a request to speak thank you madam City Clerk and thank you to all the public comment it was all appreciated and received

2:02:41um I'd like to open up for Council comments any comments my colleagues yes council member Quinto I thank you for the thorough presentation and it's great to see everyone on board on this and as someone who was uh part of the team to get the library measure put in

2:03:02uh uh years ago we have done our homework and and uh to see this happening now um and I'm in full support of this and I hope uh uh you know our residents that are here watching and listening uh will know that this is something that this community needs um and and wants so uh you know we have

2:03:28a whole new generation of young families here along with the uh a group of a large group of seniors both will be able to use uh and uh so yes I'm in full support of this and I'm thinking about that cocktail party I attended with Patrick Carney a the lead architect at

2:03:52San Francisco City Hall who put you can see the pink triangle up on the hill gay pride in June and um and and his um responsibility for adding Tod close to the BART stations back in the day brought this idea uh over having cocktails at Dave Weinstein's house so

2:04:13thank you Dave Weinstein and uh for having that cocktail party and and having us meet over drinks and just talk about the future of El Cerrito and and this is coming into uh fruition and uh and it's an exciting time we have a lot of homework to do and I know that this

2:04:34council is uh will be committed in making sure we do our homework and we get things done uh by uh August so that that's where I stand thank you thank you anything else yes council member fideli yes thank you I'm very excited as I said about being here tonight um one of the good things about

2:04:57libraries and why they're so important is that everyone can build their own personal relationship to them and I have mine I grew up in Richmond and my mom took me to the Richmond Library every Wednesday morning and I continued that on Saturdays with my two daughters and then Library

2:05:15routines continue to be created and last throughout school college and professional life for most people I'd like to say and I'm here tonight to say that I'm so excited that we may be closer to allowing our residents to build their own new relationships to a new safe full-service library and

2:05:34Resource Center within our city limits it's a very exciting time and there's a lot of work that goes on behind what we're hearing tonight with staff and as howdy said it's very complicated mix of actions that have to happen it's taken us several years and several

2:05:51hurdles to get to this good place but by no means is it a done deal as we've heard there's work to do and that's why it's logical to move forward tonight with further planning polling and reviewing Financial options now our last major effort raised issues concerning a lack of a venue and cost

2:06:10projections and hopefully we've learned from that and we've corrected those issues it is our responsibility this city to finance this much needed library and it's our responsibility to get our our financial house in order so that our residents and our voters will agree that

2:06:29it's time to take up this goal in Earnest and I'm optimistic about that a new library can be a part of our bustling City Center and an open space in downtown El Cerrito with community events that actually bring in money financing to our city so that can be part of it doesn't that sound nice

2:06:49things are lining up with the supportive Council before us a supportive Bart board supportive and hard-working library and City staff and the constant push and support from our residents Plaza neighbors and Library stakeholders here tonight like the library foundation and Friends of

2:07:08the library we've moved forward so let's move forward let's get our community more involved about what our needs may be and build a new library that we can be proud of so each of us can build our own unique and important relationship and finally I just want to say that in Sunday's New York Times in

2:07:27the book review section they had a couple pages with pictures about modern libraries and I just want to read the final paragraph they had with all the pictures of people enjoying and sitting in spaces and reading and this is uh there's several paragraphs I'm just

2:07:43reading the last one it says we all know that books connect us that language has quiet power to see the concentration curiosity and peace on faces lit by words is to know beyond a shadow of a doubt in a Time Rife with shadows the libraries are the beating hearts of our communities what

2:08:05we borrow from them pales in comparison to what we get in return let's move forward thank you so well said I almost cried no I don't I almost cried um I just I want to share I'm personally a really heavy user of our El Cerrito libraries um I raised my daughter in this library

2:08:31and I want to send a special thank you to Heidi Goldstein and her staff because I know what it is that they are dealing with with this facility and we owe it to uh the whole entire Community to really bring them a modern Library also all the speakers so elegantly spoke

2:08:49of Civic enrichment and the importance of this space and I think it just credits libraries and Library people are very specific group who understand the positive impacts of libraries and how Library Librarians themselves are the First Responders for Learning and

2:09:06education and it doesn't matter where you are in life whether you are a baby being read Story Time your senior looking for enrichment and Community if you're looking for a job if you're looking for the bathroom we want to be able to provide those facilities and

2:09:21again I keep bringing home the concept of we need cooling centers we need a high you know aqi level spaces for people and I would open up to my colleagues if there's a motion to provide staff Direction on exploring a ballot measure I like to make a motion mere pro team to move forward with the

2:09:41ballot measure moved by council member weissinger one second I'm just going to clarify at this point we're not really we're not ready to actually move forward with the measure but but we are ready to take your direction to step forward with with with Gathering more information to bring

2:09:56back to council to decide whether or not to move forward and in what form yes all those things that Sky just said [Music] it was moved by weissinger and seconded by fideli thank you all those in favor please say aye aye any opposed motion carries with councilman mayor motiama

2:10:17absent hey will someone be paging her to icing her to excellent and thank you to everyone for attending this is great and at home too thank you staff thank you council members and public for all your comments and questions hey mayor how are you laughs okay so the next item is city council local

2:11:15and Regional liaison assignments are there any Council reports uh yes I have two items on February 9th at the recycle more meeting I was named chair which means that El Cerrito has the chair position for our two jpas with myself and council member fideli with recycle

2:11:34more Integrated Waste Management Authority and WIC Tac for transportation go El Cerrito congratulations thank you and then secondly I met with members of El Cerrito firesafe the other day and it was really fantastic to have that conversation and to hear priorities in

2:11:51the community and to hear word of collaboration with the El Cerrito fire department and looking forward to hearing what our community members are doing in the name of fire safety so thank you council member thank you mayor um I wanted to report that I'll be leaving on Thursday to uh for the Cal

2:12:11City board meetings and uh also um on my Marine clean energy uh board meeting I was appointed it was a close race but I was appointed Vice chair so the first sales reading to be Vice chair of marine clean energy so chair will be a sadel scales Preston uh from the city

2:12:33of Pittsburgh great thank you um just to let you know what I've been up to on February 9th I attended the East Bay Economic Development Alliance executive committee meeting on February 11th I attended the ribbon cutting for Cape Queen salon and their grand opening over in El Cerrito Plaza

2:12:57on February 14th I went to the eqc meeting as liaison and gave them an update on what council has been working on on February 16th I attended the a bag executive board as alternate and they had a long discussion on how they're going to do remote or hybrid meetings

2:13:19and their approach will be to have Regional hubs um on February 19th I spoke at the day of remembrance for Executive Order 9066 and Japanese internment at Rosie the Riveter World War II home front National Park okay and now it is now 8 15 and we are adjourned the next regularly schedules

2:13:46city council meeting is Tuesday March 7 2023 at 6 pm thank you thank you