Concurrent Budget Town Hall and Special City Council Meeting April 22, 2023

0:00:18Is our first hybrid

0:00:20Town Hall meetings. So, and it's Mercury retrograde. So if there's some tech issues, forgive us. We ready to. Geo.

0:00:29Okay? Well, again, Thank you. Everyone for being here on this lovely day. My name is Karen Pinkas. I'm the city manager. I'll be your Mc today. We're very excited to have an in person, but also virtual Community Town Hall. Today

0:00:45we're going to talk about our budget and with the I toward getting some feedback and input from our community.

0:00:54So why Don't? We just dive right in

0:00:59right

0:01:01or not.

0:01:19Is there?

0:01:26I jinxed it.

0:01:46You want to drive

0:01:48that

0:01:53in this.

0:01:55There we go, All right. Thank you.

0:01:59Okay. So today our program and we've only scheduled this for a 2 h block and again it's such a beautiful day.

0:02:06If you know. If if we wrap up early, then that's all great for everyone to go out and join the day. But this is what we're looking at. I'm going to give a brief overview of the city's budget where we are and what we've been doing, what we've been up to this year.

0:02:19and then we'll take time for questions and answers about the budget for those of you who might have them. And then at that point we'll go into the portion that we're looking into feedback and input and we have a series of questions that we have put online in a survey that we want to ask the the people here today or the people online, so that we're

0:02:38we're being consistent about the questions we're asking, but also any additional feedback. And input from people who are here today, and then we will wrap up

0:02:47before we begin.

0:02:49I want to recognize that we've got a lot of city staff here, and we've got our city council. So online we have a Council member, Carolyn Weissing

0:02:59Weinger. Excuse me, Council Member Gabe Kinto right there. Mayor Per 10 test of redneck

0:03:08i'm missing. I oh, no, she I know she's there.

0:03:13Paul Fideli is in Hawaii with his daughter, who attends the University of Hawaii. I think they're bringing her

0:03:21back coming up soon, but less, and certainly not least. And I would like to actually invite Mayor Lisa Motiama to come up and say hello to everyone

0:03:35that to

0:03:37Good morning, everyone. Thank you so much for taking your time this morning. It was Karen, our city manager, has pointed out. It's a really beautiful day, and we do really appreciate your taking this time.

0:03:50and particularly to people online as well. I hope you're at least outside and join the zoom feed. So thank you so much. This is a really important part of our budget process. As you know, we work on the budget in different ways almost all year round, to make sure that we are in budget.

0:04:07that we know what's going into, what changes are happening. But this is part of the formal process of doing our budget for the next coming fiscal year. So it's really important that we have your input and your priorities to help us shape this budget

0:04:20and make sure that we are really focusing on what's most important to people in the city. So thank you so much, and we'll get started.

0:04:28Thank you.

0:04:34So to jump right in, as I, You know, we have a pretty

0:04:40the people in the room and i'm guessing the people online. I'm not gonna have to explain too much to you, because we have a very engaged. I recognize all of you, so I think a lot of you are engaged. But having said that

0:04:52we're being, this is gonna be recorded, and we're going to be putting this up on our website. So sort of for the purposes of those who may not be as familiar with our city budget or how it works, or what we do. I'll do a little bit of expl explaining. So thank you for your indulgence on that

0:05:08so the city of El Cerritos fiscal year budget for 2,022 to 2,023 presents the city's projection of revenues and expenditures for the full fiscal year and as you can see July first through June thirtieth is our fiscal year it provides funding for all services and programs, and supports the city's mission vision and values.

0:05:30It describes in detail the various components of the city, each of its departments and divisions.

0:05:36and the city separate legal entities which we actually do have an employees pension board. Once upon a time we had our own pension system. We did not belong to Calpers. We have one person left in that pension system, so we still fund that the Alserrito public financing authority which is through the

0:05:55component unit through which we finance major capital assets, including the City Hall, that you're sitting in today, and

0:06:04we also have a municipal Services corporation, which is a essentially the cities are a nonprofit that's run by the city, and that is a completely separate entity, and is not described today.

0:06:17The budget serves as as you can see, it's a planning document, so the budget, while it's proposed, and then adopted. It's very flexible. It's very fluid. It's not necessarily side in stone. We go throughout the year to the city council to ask for maybe different appropriations.

0:06:33Certainly at mid you is our big major check in with the City Council, how we're doing, and what we're doing, and any additional appropriations we're looking at through the end of the fiscal year. So it is a plan. It is a financial plan, but it's also a living document.

0:06:50It's an operations guide and a communication device. So when you look at the budget, what our intent is is that if you take a look at the budget document pretty much everything you need to know about the city and its operations is in there. All of the departments are responsible for making sure that they are describing their operations, their accomplishments, their goals for the year, and their major expenditures and revenue changes.

0:07:13and we also have a lot of information in there about the city and the city's components what the city does through its departments and the non departmental as well as our capital improvement program, which will also talk about in a little bit.

0:07:28which again takes care of all of the major assets, and we have a lot of projects going on, especially one big one coming up

0:07:35at the north end of town later this year.

0:07:39Oh, and before I go. You're gonna see this link sprinkle throughout this presentation. And this presentation, of course, is going to be available online when we're done with this meeting, but that is alsredo.org slash Annual budget process.

0:07:52This is where a repository web page of everything that we're going to be doing for the budget, as the mayor indicated throughout the year all of our presentations and the presentations from now, through the end of this budget process will all be housed on that website. So please continue to check that website for more information.

0:08:10So the adopted budget process. So many of you have seen this graphic before. This is a graphic of our strategic plan, goals and objectives. I'm: sorry goals and strategies. So the strategic plan was originally adopted 10 years ago in 2,013, and was updated in 2,015,

0:08:29and we it's meant to be a 5 to 10 year. Look out, and so, as some of you heard me say before, During the right before the pandemic we were just about ready to start. We had done a lot of work

0:08:42to update the strategic plan, and, in fact, the first Meat City Council meeting that was cancelled after we had to go into Lockdown in March 2020 was meant to be the big community workshop for the strategic plan. So that went on pause.

0:08:54And you all know what happened. We went through the pandemic. We went through our fiscal response plan, etc. So now we're back into looking at updating that again. But considering how much our lives have changed, considering how much the city has changed. Everything's changed because of the pandemic. So we're going to re kick. Start that process.

0:09:12and we have started doing that already by gathering some information.

0:09:18At the last Council Mayor. 2 Council meetings ago we presented the results of a citywide survey that was conducted by the National Research Center and Polco. So we're gathering information. Our staff is now working on what's called an environmental scan. That will give us a huge layout of the land of where the city is organization-wise what you know a lot of different statistics.

0:09:40And then we're going to start kicking off

0:09:42community meetings. And focus group meetings. We're going to be doing employee surveys. We're going to be working with the city council directly our boards, commissions, and committees, and then various different interested community members, as well as continuing to have surveys available online. So we're in the information gathering

0:10:01process as we speak, and that's going to be coming up very soon.

0:10:08I'm gonna say, we have like a soundtrack cool. Okay. So so. But until we update the strategic plan, our current plan is still in place, and our goals and strategies are still relevant to, you know, to deliver exemplary government services to make sure we're developing a sense of place.

0:10:24Oh, thank you

0:10:27to develop and rehabilitate public facilities ensure this public's health and safety and foster environmental sustainability citywide. So these are all still very important goals that speak to everything we do with the city. The budget in and of itself, is a reflection of the values of our city, and a reflection of all of these strategic goals that we want to accomplish.

0:10:48but the goal be. And again, those were never in any order that was just meant to sort of delineate what different goals were. But go be, achieve long term. Financial sustainability has definitely been our focus. Not just this past fiscal year, but the past several, and we'll get into that a little bit as far as how far we've come over the past 2 to 3 years.

0:11:10But certainly these are the focuses that we were looking into for this fiscal year general Fund reserve, making sure that that is at an acceptable and more than acceptable level, the fiscal response plan, constant monitoring of our financial position, not just by the staff, but by the city council and the community and fiscal discipline.

0:11:32and these are the priorities that were given to us, and it's it's about a year ago. So remember this, you know we're going into the New Year. This was we were doing this this time last year about February, March, April, and these were the priorities that the city council gave, directed the staff to have within the current budget.

0:11:49So this is just again a a bit of a review, making sure that we're focusing on financial sustainability, doing the must do tasks, kind of finishing what we started and not trying to start a lot of new stuff, and continuing those current priorities, strategically returning to restoring services and staffing

0:12:07and maintaining a fiscal discipline. I'm not trying to read one of my own PET pieces reading this stuff off, but it's it's really worth highlighting, because particularly that fourth bullet in restoring services and staffing over the past several years we have dealt with a lot of different staffing issues. We've tried to beef up. We've tried to hit back

0:12:26when we ran into our

0:12:29our our, our fiscal crisis, if you will, that we've made and managed to go through, and also the pandemic which exacerbated everything, as many of you know, we essentially cut about 10% of our budget right off the bat.

0:12:45We laid off 10 of our staff and eliminated. Serve the services. A lot of the services that went with it, and the staff that were here many of the staff for at least one year.

0:12:56completely frozen salaries, and then we throw salaries of management for essentially 2 fiscal years, and we also had to put some of a lot of step on furlough. So we took some very drastic action.

0:13:10and again with the pandemic, something like, for example, senior services especially. We could not even provide because of the health orders. So we had to lay those folks off. And so, now that we're coming out of the pandemic, whatever this new normal is.

0:13:25and that we've restored budget stability, we want to restore the services. We want to restore the staff, but we have to be very thoughtful and strategic about it, and make sure that we're doing it in a really smart way.

0:13:39So I also wanted to note that we did part of. Well, I will talk a little bit more about how we, what our revenues are how our revenues are doing in a second. But we did make it through the pandemic.

0:13:54Essentially our bus. Our Our budget stability was based on 3 major things. One we did receive Federal funding from the Federal Government. It's called Arpa, the American Rescue Plan Act for of 6 million dollars. It was 3 million dollars over to fiscal years that is reflected in our general fund reserve right now.

0:14:13The secondly is that we did have a very good real estate market, and, thanks to the voters of El Cerrito that made us a charter city so that we could implement a real property transfer tax in 2,018. That has been a very good source of revenue for us.

0:14:26but none of those revenue enhancements would have made a difference had we not done the first, the third thing, which is what I just described, which was making those major major budget cuts, and laying off all that staff, If that not, it happened.

0:14:38Those 3 things together is what happened to restore our budget stability. And now that we have, we need to make sure that we're being very again. Thoughtful strategic about how we're going forward, because

0:14:50you know, and i'm looking at my council nodding at me. We don't want to go back to where we were.

0:14:55None of us want that

0:14:58so really quick! Go through. This is what was adopted by the city council the city wide revenues of 68 million dollars. As you can see, the vast majority of those come from taxes, property taxes, sales, taxes, utility users, taxes, real property, transfer taxes, considered a property tax in a Government

0:15:17intergovernmental revenues right there. That's a nice chunk a lot of that has to do from the community of Kensington, who we contract with for our fire services. Essentially, they pay

0:15:29about a third of our fire departments, expenditures, charges for services. Those are fees When you buy. When you go to a wreck program. When you buy a permit, those come in there and then little you know things here and there, although licenses and permits is a bit of a its own

0:15:46bit of the pie, but anything the charges for services are what you would pay to additionally pay to use a governmental service. And then part of this. That 19, I will tell you is also because

0:16:00this number is about 10 million dollars

0:16:04more than last year, and that reason is because we will be doing a massive project up at Del Norte. We are going to be doing a complete streets, project and event ortes. Our public works director will be here a little bit later if anyone has any questions about that project. But they're going to be reconfiguring the entire cutting. Sam Pablo Avenue area, and that is going to be a major major project. We got

0:16:30tons and tons of grant money to do that, and so that is also reflected in that piece of the pie right there.

0:16:39This is a this is what your property tax dollar

0:16:44looks like, and the little purple in the middle of one whole dollar. Just 22 cents, comes to the city of El Cerrito, so that's important to keep in mind when you're talking about what you pay on your Property Tax Bill. The majority of it goes to various educational

0:17:00agencies, West Country Costa. The state part of it is for the county. I know that's really small, but

0:17:09we it, if you can take a look at it online. But Alameda contra costa transit district that's a/C transit community, college, East bay, regional parks, Bart County Library. It's all in there somewhere. This is all sort of county step. So. But again, the major one to look at is that we receive 22 cents

0:17:27of every property tax dollar.

0:17:31This is the citywide expenditures by department and you can see again, this is the citywide expenditures which includes all the Grants, and that we're going to be spending on the complete suits project. That's in that 20% right there. But you can see by each department. This is all of our funds Together we take a moment, for if you're not familiar, our general fund

0:17:52is the main fund that is unrestricted that we can spend on anything, but we do have a series of special funds that are very restricted as to what we can spend them on.

0:18:03for example, and I'm. Looking at will our solid waste, integrated waste management fund that is separate. That's an Enterprise fund. You pay that on your garbage bill that pays for things like the recycling center, our recycling services and solid waste services. We have our streets fund, which is that I have sent sales tax measure a back in oh, 8!

0:18:22That pays only for streets and street construction and street repair. We have a whole series of general of special funds that are only restrict. They can be restricted only to those things, but the general. So this includes all of those funds, and i'll show you general fund expenditures in just a second. But this shows that of all of the funds together.

0:18:39and you'll see public works. Here is 11, and then another

0:18:43card. It's different with general funded expenditures, because the majority of public works operates on special kinds.

0:18:54Here's the general Fund expenditures, just as I was saying, and this is by category, not by department. And the reason I wanted to show this chart is because that giant 73% is personnel

0:19:06people equal services. Services. Equal people we are a service organization. We don't make widgets, we don't use robots. So any service that we do is paid is done by a person, and that person

0:19:19is in that big green part of the pot. That is how we operate, and that is what the majority of your tax dollars pay for Are the people to do the services that you want us to do

0:19:28other things in there again. This is just the general fund, which is 44 million dollars contrasted with the 68 million dollars we spend like professional services, or maybe some consulting firms or other contracts that we hire. We don't do all of our landscaping. For example, we contract some of that out. That's in there.

0:19:47Property services

0:19:50have to do with services that deal with our again. Our properties supplies capital but again, 73, 73 to 75 of our budget every year is on personal.

0:20:01Okay, and again by department, as you can see by your department you guys win via public safety as if you were. If you look at the survey results and the survey results of the past 20 years.

0:20:19Public safety is is the highest priority in this city, and this is what our budget reflects. Police and fire and public works. Again, public works is smaller only because they generally they're usually 11% in the major. But this whole part of the pie here that's public safety. The vast majority of what

0:20:35we, the city spends its money on, and that is a direct reflection of the value that the community has told us that they want. So this is how the departments kind of map out in the general fund, and I will note that city management also includes human resources, information, technology.

0:20:56There we go. This is just a chart, and again, it's very small. But I I wanted to put that up there to show that at mid year. So the amended budget means that this is the appropriations that were made after mid year mid year a budget was sent to the Council and approved

0:21:12by the Council on March seventh.

0:21:15and so that brings in an additional 1.2 million dollars in our revenue budget. This is again just general fund and additional 2 million dollars in our expenditure budget, and you can see how that is mapped out by the different departments, and that brings our general fund expenditures to 47 million

0:21:36We just recently it completed our annual comprehensive financial report, also known as the actor. Those are the city's financial statements. We had an independent auditor who was different from the we hired a.

0:21:50We actually are doing a request for proposals for a new auditor. It's out on the street right now, every 5 or 6 years or so it's customary for agencies to do

0:22:02to do a to to look for a different auditor just to kind of keep things. You don't use the same auditor all the time. You want to change them up a bit. So we did started that this year we use shopmen and associates

0:22:15to do our audit, and this is not related to the State auditor, so i'll get to that in a second. But this is, we have to do an audit every single year, and i'm pleased to report, as was reported to the city Council that our audit was a clean audit. There were no exceptions, no weaknesses, no significant. All of those things that you saw there.

0:22:34That is a clean audit, and we're very proud of that. Our financial position. This is the

0:22:40this is the big deal. So our general fund reserve balance right now is 16,000,624100,000 624,174dollars. At the end of 2,019. It was negative. $110,000.

0:22:57That's a big deal, Thank you. That is a big deal, and the people

0:23:03in this room are all responsible for that. We collectively are responsible for that. So I want to thank you all. It was a really hard 3 years

0:23:13going on 4 years it was really difficult. We have had.

0:23:17Yeah. I I'm only just starting to sleep at night again.

0:23:21It's been a really long slog. But again we had. There's there's a there's a couple of things about that 16 million dollars, though, that are very notable. 6 million of it was Arpa money.

0:23:34So where did the other 10 million come from again? We

0:23:38cut a lot of people, so we saved a lot of money with expenses. We had a good real estate market, so that added to our surplus. But the thing that i'm concerned about, and that we all have to be concerned about going into next year. Is that a probably about 2 to 4 million dollars of that is based on the fact that we had vacant positions that weren't filled.

0:23:57So we're going to have to figure out. And the Council has talked about this, and we know that there's going to have to be some investment back. We know that if we want to be able to re-staff up like we've been trying to do so. That is going to be a decision for the City Council what to do with the at 6 million dollars in far hot. I see you our chair of our Financial Advisory Board. They are also going to be working on a policy

0:24:18on how to deal with surpluses, and maybe even look at our current

0:24:23financial policy. We are required to have per our policy, a minimum of 10% of general fund expenditures.

0:24:31But I think we learn the hard way that that's kind of low right now we're at 35. So there's we're what we're. I'm not saying that's good or bad, that's actually fabulous as far as where we were. But

0:24:43you know, is there a is there a percentage we should try to AIM for and then invest that money in capital or in people, or or however you do that, so that the Fab is going to be having that conversation and then make a recommendation to the City Council, who will make that decision. So that's all coming.

0:24:58Okay, and we have a couple more slides, I promise, and then we can get into the fun stuff. This shows a reflection, and again, i'm sorry for all of this. But this is what was shown to the City council of our general fund. Balance. After our mid year Budget was adopted. Our mid your appropriations and adjustments were adopted, so that at the top

0:25:18that blue line is the minimum recommended fund reserve by the Government Financial Officers Association, also known as Jfo a. Again, as you heard me say, our minimum is 10% by our policy, but their recommendation is 17. So we actually used that as our bar, and, as you can see.

0:25:37we went up above starting last year, and then going into this year we met at last year. We're way above it this year, and even with the mid-year adjustments, with all of these different assumptions, which again, that's

0:25:50you know, talking about what our revenues are, what our pension is estimated at what our property tax revenues are expected to be. What our personnel increases are

0:26:00putting all of that into the system. That green line is where we are, which is above again the 17. So this is going to. We. We continuously monitor this, and we continuously update this and provide this to the council. When we check in with them, to show that what the actions we take and the actions we've done

0:26:19will keep us above that blue line. That's kind of our that's what we're looking at, and we're going to be continuing to look at you'll note that in 2627, 28. It goes up exponentially this is because

0:26:33the illustrator, redevelopment agency successor agency that used to be one of the component entities of this city has all of our bonds will be paid off, and when that happens.

0:26:45all of the property that was in the agency area flips to the normal property tax revenue collection. So our property tax revenues will

0:26:54increase because of that. So

0:26:57that also shows that the next couple of years, until 2526. We still have to be kind. Of careful. If you guys have been looking at the news, and you've noticed that the economy out there is a little weird little volatile. There's very low unemployment, which is

0:27:09we're noticing because we're having very. We're having a lot of trouble hiring by the way.

0:27:14if you know anyone who's a planner, an engineer, a budget manager we're hiring. Please send them to our website. Have them apply. We're looking for people we're looking for police officers we're looking for. We have 5 vacancies.

0:27:275 vacancies, 5 vacant positions in our police department. So

0:27:31if you know anyone who would love to work for a really cool team, send them to our website and apply for a drop. So

0:27:38the the change in fund that the general fund balance, even though it shows the below there, that is, that does not mean that we're going to dip below our general fund goal. That just goes to show that that's if we make no changes if we do nothing. This again is a moment in time.

0:27:54We need to make sure we want to put it all in the blue, so that we have a bit of a surplus each year. So that's what this is showing. This is again a monitoring tool, but the top one is what we're trying to make sure that we keep that green line

0:28:05up a fuck.

0:28:07Okay, I just want to do one more and then we can get into the fun stuff like I said. So gone a little bit longer than I plan, but State Auditor report. So, as

0:28:17as many of you know, in 2,019, we were contacted by the California State auditor that they wanted to do an audit of the city based on our financial position. At that time they were looking at the financial statements from 2,017.

0:28:31They conducted an audit and provided a report in March 2021, and they identified 5 high-risk areas which are listed here. and what we were required to do as a city was provide a corrective action plan for each of these 5 risk areas, and then we have to update the State auditor every 6 months on our progress. And so

0:28:53i'm actually very happy to say that we are making progress. We're making real progress that has been recognized by the State auditor. So there are 3 categories of status. One is pending, which is nothing, or or they don't feel that we've you know they're they're They're not making a a change

0:29:11in our corrective action plan

0:29:14partially addressed, which means that we're They think we're almost there and then addressed, we're done so, as you can see by the bold. We do have 2 high risk areas that they feel we have completely addressed, and there, that's great. We have 2 that are partially addressed, and one is pending. So, starting at the top with finite diminishing and financial reserves through over spending it's partially addressed. One of the things that we're also going to be doing and looking at with the City Council and the Financial Advisory Board is is starting to fund our

0:29:44pension costs right now. We they are funded. Let's let's be very clear. We are paying our pension costs, and we have the money to pay for our pension costs. However, we can refund some of those pension costs which will save us a little bit of money in the long run, and that's what we haven't been able to do. And that's what we're looking to do. And there's a special trust call of Section 115 Trust.

0:30:02That's a Irs code that will allow us to be able to do that. So that is all pending, and we're in the middle of that, and I think that once we kind of get that going, that's when the auditor will consider us address, so that one is very, very close.

0:30:18The Budget development and monitoring practices. We updated that we changed a lot of policies and procedures, and they've recognize that one's completed a financial recovery plan that is also completed. That was adopted by the City Council last year or

0:30:32yeah last year, and reductions and ongoing costs that's pending that one. The the auditor has been indicating that

0:30:41they felt that our salaries were at the time of the audit were increased or higher than the the step levels that were listed. But that has really shifted in the past couple of years because we had a hiring free. So now we actually have evidence that our salaries are below market. We are doing a huge classification and compensation study of all of our positions that should be done in the fall. That will provide more information. So once that is completed.

0:31:09that will be. I think that the auditor will will work with us on that one on how to how to deal with the ongoing costs that one was mainly concerned about personnel.

0:31:19and then opportunities to increase revenue that is partially addressed. We are looking at all sorts of cost, recovery options for a lot of it, looking at a recreation services and any other services that we can try to increase revenue. So we're doing really well. In fact.

0:31:34I know that this is seems small, but it is a it is real incremental progress. We were Number 6 last year on the high risk dashboard. Now we're number 13, and we've gone from high risk to medium risk again.

0:31:49I know that doesn't seem like a big deal. but it really is. So. I'm very it. It is progress. It is measurable progress, and we have to keep going. That's where we're at. This is now like

0:31:59one of my main motivations. So next steps Here we go, and then I will ask my we'll start to do. We'll do questions and answers. So next step. So right now, as and again I should also mention. Back in February the city council had a retreat, and talked about a lot of their own priorities and what they would like to see out of this year.

0:32:20I have worked with the Council separately to set goals for me and my team, and that is, that was a a really great conversation with the city council, and we are looking to implement again sort of work plan goals. But the strategic goals will be collectively done together through our strategic plan.

0:32:38but coming up right now what we're doing in city staff and Chris is doing this right now as he's sitting there working on his budget, I see him. So all of our staff right now is working on their own departmental budgets, and we're having internal meetings. We're looking at all. We're we're doing all the busy work right now. Staff is very, very busy preparing the budget.

0:32:57On April 20 fifth there is a Financial Advisory Board meeting, and the public, of course, is welcome to attend that may. Second, we're going to have a study session with the City Council at their next City Council meeting with the results of what we talk about today, and also the city Council is going to discuss its own budget.

0:33:15The City council's budget their division, if you will, and then we will also have public hearings for our master fee schedule and our assessment districts, our storm drains and our landscaping and lighting assessment district, which brings couple of 1 million dollars

0:33:30to our budget each year. May Ninth. We're going to have a special meeting with all of the departments. Well, the big 5 departments I call them so. A police fire, Community development, public works and recreation will be presenting their budgets and their staffing and their what they're looking for to do in their departments this year. That'll be a a special meeting for the Council

0:33:50on May sixteenth. We will provide our third Quarter general Fund update, so all of our numbers to date through the end of March.

0:33:57and then we'll have another advisor, a financial Advisory Board meeting on May the 20 third, and then we'll

0:34:02actually what I forgot to put in there. I'm sorry about that. That is the week that we will also be really seeing the draft budget documents for the Special for the Council on the Fab, and also that week will we be posting that online in advance of the City Council meeting which will be held on June sixth.

0:34:18That will be our. That would be the big reveal the big, as we do every year. The first meeting in June is reserved for the budget presentation, and so that will be June sixth, and then, on June twentieth would be the next city Council meeting will have a budget hearing the city council can choose to approve the budget at that time, if they feel

0:34:37able to do so, or if they would like to have additional meetings that can be decided upon by the city Council at that time. We just need to adopt it before June thirtieth. And again, there's our website, where you can keep up to date on all of these things.

0:34:52All right

0:34:55now.

0:34:56We have some city staff here, and Will is our assistant to the city manager who is going to walk around with the Mike

0:35:05at this point I will ask Holly and Alex

0:35:10to explain how we're going to do this online, we'll do.

0:35:14We'll do some questions and answers both in person and online. So, Holly, if you'd like to kick off this portion. Certainly. So for those of you who are joining us on the zoom call. We have enabled the question and answer feature. So at the bottom of your screen, next to your raised hand button, you'll see a. Q. A. Button. You're more than welcome to put your questions in writing, and if you see questions from others that you want an answer to. You can uptick that.

0:35:40So we know that there's more interest in those questions. You can also raise your hand if you'd like to ask your questions. Live, and we were gonna start by taking some hands or questions in the room, and then we'll go to some questions on our zoom feed.

0:35:56So and just. And just as a reminder, we're going to have the next part of this is going to be feedback. And input. So this would be. If you have specific questions on the Budget specific questions of Staff, we'll get that's what we would like to do at this point, and then we'll get to the feedback and input and prioritization exercise in a minute.

0:36:16So does anyone have any questions.

0:36:24and just one quick reminder because we are doing a hybrid meeting. Anyone who speaks needs to make sure they speak in the mic. So the people on the zoom call can also hear what's being said. Good morning. I'm, Ellen Miller, with the

0:36:40and closer to your face

0:36:44it's got to be.

0:36:46I'm Al. Miller with the Cereal Library foundation. Can you tell me how many of our citizens are participating on zoom

0:36:55this meeting on Zoom.

0:37:01We have 7 members of the public on the call right now. 7.

0:37:09Our apologies to one of the hazards of being next to the Public Safety building. So the question was, how many we had online, and it looks like we have 7 members of the public online

0:37:23any other questions. Yeah. So do you want to?

0:37:27We have a question online question is, the city has made great financial progress. Has the city considered the introduction of more technology, and possibly AI or artificial intelligence in order to manage future personnel expenses?

0:37:45Great question. The answer is yes, I i'm, i'm giggling because i'm

0:37:52i'm a you know I I I I prefer real intelligence over artificial intelligence. If i'm being honest.

0:37:58the answer is. Yes, and actually Eric is our interim over there, our in our Mit manager. I don't know if you have any thoughts that you'd like to share, but we have. Actually, we have absolutely wanted to embrace more technology. We have upgraded. We have started to upgrade, and we're continuing to upgrade

0:38:14our permit process. Our committee needed development. Director Melanie Mintz is also back in the room. That's one of the biggest things that we've been trying to implement is things like easy over the counter permits, or maybe not so easy things that we can do everything electronically online to be able to save some staff time and save some paper and

0:38:33and be able to do things more efficiently and more quickly. We are working, I mean, looking in public safety. We are constantly looking to upgrade our technology and in public safety, and and how they use their there's a ton of different technology that they are able to use within their world.

0:38:51We are looking to update our actually our budget system completely using some software that will help us integrate our current accounting system within the document which could all be put up on our website, and even being able to do things like surveys and and zoom and all of that stuff. So

0:39:09kind of the bottom line, just like everything else, and I don't. I'm gonna start off by saying this, and I don't mean to sound like a broken record. If I say it many different times. but it's a matter of resources. It's a matter of cost. It's a matter of investing in the capital to do so, and it's a matter of of staff. So I don't know, Eric, if you want to add anything but our it. Staff right now is

0:39:31Eric

0:39:32and Kevin Kevin, Ma. Who has worked with us for many years as and our it manager Pete. He is with us. He's retired, but he is with us part time throughout the fiscal year. So we have 2 and a half people in our it department. So I don't know, Eric. If you have any other thoughts.

0:39:49Hi, I'm. Eric I'm. Your acting it manager to fill in about the AI questions.

0:39:55Wow on that.

0:39:56Okay, the fill in about the AI question

0:39:59we are employing actually evaluating right now, and hopefully, we'll employ AI in our defense of our security to make sure that something that happened to Oakland Doesn't before our city here.

0:40:15Yes.

0:40:18all of I, Tesla Redneck, Mayor pro Tim of El Cerrito. follow up question to that. Is, Has there been any consideration when developing the master fee schedule to have a technology fee

0:40:30built into any of the fee schedules. Because, again, we have to be able to fund these technology projects. And also what's interesting about this space is that a lot of the softwares are making the decision instead of the city where they're integrating AI into software platforms that we're already using. So

0:40:50that's a an interesting part to add to your response. But I think the bigger question is, is there any consideration to add in a technology fee

0:40:58for some of our I was gonna say i'm actually gonna send that to Melanie. The answer is, Yes. And but we also have to be very mindful of of how we do that, and we do have some. We do have some integrated within some of our fees. But, Melan, you can speak to that a little bit more.

0:41:15Yeah, Hi, everyone. I'm Melanie Min, the Community Development Director. We'll answer that. And then also kind of build on something that, Eric said. We have talked about doing one just in the Community Development Department, and then it is turned into like. Should we be evaluating

0:41:30the technology costs of the whole city. So we've kind of gotten stuck in that conversation. To be honest, I don't know if you want to add anything to that, and then I do want to share another thing

0:41:41as we go to automate. It's not automatic. We've worked, but a lot online, and I think people see a lot of it on the permitting, and

0:41:51but Eric can speak to we. We hit a lot in the industry, and with our vendors and our vendors who had staffing shortages. And so this tech, this tough, this stuff takes time, and because it's a system, it also has to then interact with the other systems. So I would say, I think almost all of the cities over the counter permits now are very automated, but we're always looking to make sure that what we do doesn't create. It usually does create some down the line

0:42:16issues, and those take time to resolve. And as Karen talked about staff, so I do think that I know. In the Community Development Department we moved things, the pandemic kind of forced it. And so things did get moved online largely. And there's people behind the scenes constantly troubleshooting to figure out how to address

0:42:34the next place down the stream. So, for example, how do the credit cards interact with that, etc. So the masterpiece schedule is coming up now, and we could always add a a a fee to cover our Department's technology upgrades.

0:42:49But however, the only caveat to that is for State law. We are only allowed to charge what it costs us, so we cannot just make up a fee. We can't say Well, we should do this. We can't make a profit. We can't do any of that, and that

0:43:03sometimes in many times that requires a study of exactly everything we do, and we have not done a comprehensive fee. Study citywide in many years. Again, that's another, you know, cost that we would need to. I mean, we, you know this is something we would need to budget for and look to.

0:43:19But at this point what we've been doing the past several years is matching the fees that we have with Cpi and cost of inflation. So that's how our master Fee schedule is currently looked at. We have done in our Community Development Department. We have done some some specific fee studies.

0:43:37but I just want to make sure that everybody understands we are not allowed to just raise our fees for what we think it is, it has to be commemorate exactly with the charges that we're we're giving. Thank you. I I just want to add to that. Thank you, Karen. So the City the Committee Development Department did do a a fee study

0:43:55in. I think it was about 3 or 4. It was

0:43:58Maybe it was 2,019 now, but we did. It did look at our whole budget. All staff costs all overhead costs, and it did relegate that. So we would have to look and make sure that we weren't double dipping in terms of that maximum fee that we can recover.

0:44:11But that point is very well taken. Thank you.

0:44:15Other questions in the room.

0:44:18right?

0:44:20And then we'll go online. I see some questions online.

0:44:24Thank you, Britt Johnson. I'm a retired employee from the port of Oakland, and i'm very glad to hear that you're looking at the it hacking thing from Oakland. There's a real question there whether there are going concern. The damage is so

0:44:40ruin us in terms of costs and legal liabilities. And

0:44:46yes. yes, absolutely. And we have a couple of former employees that work with us now that are very concerned about that personally. So it's definitely had a very wide reaching effect, but it has absolutely put all of us in city government on major

0:45:02notice, and you know, Mayor put time looking at you. As you know, this is part of your line of work. This is something that is a huge concern for all of us. We do have insurance to cover us through our municipal pulling authority for cyber attacks. But

0:45:19you know that only goes so far. So that is just some prevention is what we are looking to. Absolutely

0:45:25So if I take this next question, what is the response? Rate for like for El Cerido public surveys? How do you go about increasing, improving your response rates

0:45:34so, for there's there's a couple of different types of surveys and different types of public outreach that I think, can answer that question. The first one is the polkos over that we just recently did, and any of the other voter surveys that we've done in the past.

0:45:52There's a difference between doing just regular surveys like you survey monkey. You've seen online, or you sent someone send you something after you go to a restaurant

0:46:00versus a Si scientific random sample survey and the scientific random sample surveys we worked with consultants to do those, and those are done in, you know again, by a scientific method manner for statistics, and making sure that those surveys are statistically valid. The company that we worked with for most recent National Community Survey is called Polco and the National Research center.

0:46:26They give a presentation to the city Council a couple of meetings ago, and I encourage you to take a look on the website to see

0:46:33that presentation. It had a 4.6 margin of error, which is completely within the accepted, statistically valid range for surveys. In the past there has been a bit of a Some of the survey templates have been. They've. They fluctuated over time as as the percentage of

0:46:53respondents. But there has to be a minimum percentage of respondents in order to make the survey science statistically valid, which we were assured by Pol go that it was again with a 4.6 margin of error. When we do voter surveys, and we work with our polling

0:47:08consultant Brian. God be on those surveys. The same thing is true. What we try to AIM for is between a 4 and 5% margin of error. With our response rate. I will say that it has been difficult, according to both Polco and Brian Godby that these days

0:47:25Well, if you think of days past, how did these surveys get done? They were done on the telephone. Nobody answers your phone anymore. And so we we have to rely on other services, including texting folks emailing folks. The National Community Survey actually sent out paper surveys that you could put in an envelope and and actually mail back, like you know, actual, you know, back in the day you used to do that.

0:47:49so it has become more difficult overall to get those random sample survey responses. But that's also related to the other portion of it, which is kind of general public outreach and information

0:48:02which I will readily own up to the fact that in the past 3 to 4 years we have not been able to provide as good of a public information service and outreach services. We would like. Why? Because we laid those positions off.

0:48:17and during the pandemic

0:48:19all we could rely on was online. We couldn't do anything in person, and we didn't have the funding to send things out in the mail, I mean, truly, that was a that was a big

0:48:31Actually, it was something that bothered me the most. If i'm being honest, I felt like we weren't doing enough outreach. We couldn't do enough outreach. But that gentleman right over there with the microphone. Will

0:48:41is just now the city council was gracious to restore that position in my office. His position is responsible for public information and outreach and overseeing that citywide. So now that that position is back, now that I have someone to be able to do that.

0:48:56I expect that our public information and outreach services are going to increase again. Thank you, Will. And in doing so it's just a matter of just like everything else. The more you hear, the more engaged you are, the more we do. Then, the more readily you might actually answer a survey. If you get a text or an email.

0:49:16As I was just saying earlier to someone. One of the weirdest

0:49:20measures of a local government is when everything seems to be going. Okay, You don't hear from a lot of people because people are out living their lives doing the things they're not as engaged as others, which again you should be engaged with your local government. Let's just put that out there right now. But

0:49:36if you're just living your life, if you're you know if you're able to walk your dog down the street and not trip into any potholes, and you flush your toilet, and it goes down, and your garbage gets picked up. You don't have a reason necessarily to come to City Hall or to complain or say anything. So you know you're living your life. It's a weird measure of success. If we don't hear from people

0:49:54I want people to be engaged. Don't get me wrong, but I think that that's also part of it, too, and during the pandemic let's face it.

0:50:01The big deal here in the city was our finances, so we heard from a lot of people making sure that we didn't, You know we wanted to turn around, and and that's what we did. And we heard that the loud and clear.

0:50:11But otherwise. People were really, you know, scared and doing their own thing. And so I think that just overall that for it's not just our city. I think that that kind of fell off. And so, now that we're back, you know, I'm really, you know, excited about this meeting today and and getting things going and trying to hear from more people. I think that that will increase.

0:50:30But

0:50:31it is, it is a it is a valid issue that we have. We have got to ramp up our public outreach and information services, and that's exactly what we're doing by

0:50:42restoring that position.

0:50:45So is there someone in the room?

0:50:54Hello! This is Farhad Vermont, Resident. I'm. On on the Financial Advisory Board. But this is just a question for me. You had a green line and a blue line on the chart. That kind of showed a dip, and then it went away. I wanted to ask about that reserve goal, and whether that was the Gf. Away

0:51:1217% reserve. Or was that the general fund reserve of 10 was which which one did that dashed line represents? That was kind of the reserve rule.

0:51:31There you go.

0:51:33So that blue line is the Gfa recommended 17% fund balance

0:51:41reserve fund balance. So that's what

0:51:44W. That is not. Our official goal is our financial policy is only 10, but we have made it our unofficial goal to reach that 17. So that blue line represents 17, which is of general fund expenditures, which is about 40, some 1 million dollars.

0:52:01That's great. Okay, Thank you. I'm: Sorry. Yeah, follow up. Question is. So we have the general Fund Reserve of 10. That's in our comprehensive financial policy.

0:52:10I want to say in 2,017 or 2,018. After you know we had some of the first bout of wildfires that really affected cities of abilities to to manage their budget and respond to those emergency events.

0:52:26The Financial Advisory Board adopted a a policy that's also in the comprehensive Financial Policies and Council approved it for the Emergency Disaster Relief Fund. The Rf. I think that's what it is

0:52:38that has a goal of about 6 million dollars, minimum or 3 months of operating reserves.

0:52:45And you know, I think, that

0:52:48when you combine the 10% minimum of Jeff and reserve plus that edrf.

0:52:54It comes out something like 25 or 30. So I was wondering, you know, 17 is good, and I also think that it's it's. You know it's good that we're the the reason why we, I believe that the jail for a reserve goal is 10%

0:53:09is because, as part of that Edr of policy development, we actually reduced it from first 10% to 10% to reflect the fact that we are going to be getting some more money in this emergency disaster fund, so that 10% is probably a low if we consider in isolation. And i'm wondering if city staff feels and and you care if you feel that

0:53:29you know, combining the general front reserve balance score plus that Edrf goal is a a appropriate metric.

0:53:40you know, appropriate floor for us to to consider when we're looking at all of our reserve goals

0:53:44short. Answer. Yes, and that's because I think we learned the hard way. Didn't we? Yes, so there is a in the You're absolutely right in the policy. There is a in a consideration for the Council, which they did approve it to fund a separate fund called the Edrf.

0:54:04and

0:54:05currently with the 16 million dollars we have that could be, you know, fully funded right now, if the if the Council chose to do that that was adopted in 2,019 by the Council, and the idea was that I think it also says on the policy that the Council would look to fund it

0:54:23over time until it hit that 6 million dollar goal, or that 3 month payroll goal.

0:54:30The question is, I think, for our auditors is like you said, If you combine that to together, is that what's considered our fund reserve, or is that totally separate? And that is something. I think, that we also want to have a continued conversation with the fab about.

0:54:44but I certainly would agree that you know whether you have an emergency fund or not, having that amount of money, 10%, in my opinion. Now, as we've lived through this. I'm just going to go on record, I think, is too low.

0:54:57and I don't think that it serves as well if we are not funding what we need to be funding. But

0:55:04the consideration is okay. So now we have the 60 million dollars. What do we do with it? And that's the continued conversation that the Fab is going to have, that the Council will need to talk about, because we also need to start pre funding our pensions as the Council has directed. So I think that

0:55:19there's a kind of a 3 way process, if you will. What is the general fund alone? What is the emergency fund? And and where do we get that funded? We fund it right away, or do we fund it incrementally over time so that we can use some of that general fund money to put in the pensions, etc. Those are all things that I think that the Council needs to. Well, I, the fab needs to to consider.

0:55:39because the Fabs

0:55:41one of the duties of the fab is to review the comprehensive policies every year. So i'm happy to continue talking about that, too, with the Fab and Sanders nodding her head. Because we've had this conversation

0:55:52over and over and over ourselves. And so you know what what is the right

0:55:56number of reserves to have? That is a almost an existential question. There are some cities that have a 50% fund reserve. There are some cities that have like nothing.

0:56:06This Gfoa recommends 17. But again. after all, we've been through. Is that enough? I think that's an ongoing conversation, and it's a great conversation, and I think that this city.

0:56:18you know there's also some tension, if you will, because we have too much money in that account. Are we then going to be accused of hoarding money? And you're not spending enough on programs? I mean, there's there's a balance that the Council, I think, needs to

0:56:31really consider, and they've had that conversation, and I know you have to. But I will say I will go on record as saying, I think 10% is too low, and I think that's something that we can. We can continue to talk about.

0:56:44Hi, i'm Lisa Moti. I'm. A Mayor of Elsredo. Can you go into a little bit? I know I love this discussion because we talk about fund reserve as this thing, but it does have an actual function that's really important

0:56:58for our like, for our bond rating and things like that. So can you talk a little bit about Why, it's important to have a fund reserve of a certain robust level, and that that fund reserve is not just a pot of money sitting there, that we are spending or not spending, because I think that's a distinction that's really important for everybody to be on the same page on

0:57:19that's great. And actually Sandra, i'm going to ask her to jump in on this one as well as our finance director.

0:57:25And you're absolutely right. That is not just a pot of money that sits there and waits. We are. And, Sandra, you can go into this a little bit, but this does impact not just our bond rating. But this is one. This is the number one thing that the State auditor looked at when they put us on their high risk dashboard.

0:57:43because the financial health of cities is denoted by

0:57:49in main part the general fund reserve balance, and if we don't have one, then we are considered unhealthy. We have to be able to pay our bills for those of you who are familiar with some of our budget challenges. We, our reserve was so low that we also had to take out a short-term

0:58:05loan called a tax revenue anticipation note, or a tran to make sure that we even doubt our cash flow over the year, because now we have a lot of. We have a lot of money in the bank, if you will. We don't have to do that, and that's the first time, and

0:58:21I wanna say, 10 plus years that we haven't had to do that. So so that's also part of it, too, is making sure that we're meeting our payroll obligations. We're paying our bills, and we're doing it without having to worry about how much money we have in the bank. And, Sandra, Why, don't you, if you can add any, your thoughts.

0:58:38The only additional information that I would add, is, it affects your credit rating so when you need to borrow, whether you're borrowing for

0:58:45purchase of vehicles purchasing for construction, contract, or any other need that the city wants to purchase. It affects your standard and ports rating without a fund balance without demonstrated documented proof

0:59:00that you can meet your payment obligations. You will have a difficult time borrowing, having your general fund reserve a healthy reserve and liquidity with cash is critical to the operation and the overall rating of a city.

0:59:15Thank you. So why Don't, we turn to online? Did we have some

0:59:19online questions? We do, we do. But first I want to. We actually have a live question. So i'm gonna Kathryn Sis, you should be able to unmute and ask your question.

0:59:34Katherine Cesa: Katherine, are you still there? Yes, I was just going to comment on the communication portion.

0:59:41We we're not able to hear you on our end.

0:59:45Oh.

0:59:47yeah. we can see that you're talking, but we can't hear you. So maybe try putting your question in the Q. A. So we can make sure we still get it addressed.

0:59:57Is there another? Q. A. Question? Yes.

1:00:01So the next one. So, since I would assume that most crime and traffic issues occur on or near San Pablo Avenue. What is the police doing to manage their their resources in these areas instead of on the side streets and the hills where I live.

1:00:19Morning, Everybody i'm Paul Keith, i'm the chief of police of El Cerrito. So our our crime really does happen all over town, but most of it does happen along our commercial corridors. So our officers try to tailor their Patrol Stat strategy to account for that

1:00:36so different types of the times of the day. Different types of crimes tend to occur during the day when our businesses are open. That is where retail thieves are more active, and are hitting our commercial districts. Our officers tend to spend more of their time there, but as their early evening comes on, the crime changes a bit. We get more people driving drunk, perhaps, you know, impaired driving starts picking up in the Evening Times businesses start closing down in the late evening hours kind of in the early morning. That's when people tend to be hitting residential neighborhoods

1:01:06ceiling things like catalytic converters, maybe stealing cars in the past. The types of crimes that happen during the day also included things like residential burglaries

1:01:16which would definitely split officers Time Officers would have to focus on residential neighborhoods to try to prevent and investigate residential burglaries, at the same time working on focusing on our commercial districts. So it really does depend on the time of day where we have crime issues now, traffic issues really from my personal experience of driving around town, on my days, on and off.

1:01:38people speed all over town and run through stop signs all over town.

1:01:42Our schools Aren't concentrated on San Pablo Avenue. Our schools are spread throughout residential zones all over our city. So pedestrian safety issues, Traffic safety issues really occur all over town. So our officers try to spread around towns so that we're not just hitting only people that drive on San Pabel Avenue for traffic Enforcement. We're really trying to do it all over town to make an impact on traffic enforcement everywhere. We want people to drive safely in our residential neighborhoods and in our commercial districts.

1:02:11That also makes sure that we're hitting a wide variety of people for enforcement as well. And we're not just hitting the type of people that go to the Plaza during the day as an example, or the type of people to drive on Santa Cruz Avenue during the day, but the type of people to drive all over town all during the day. So we're really spreading that traffic safety message. So I would say, it really depends. Sometimes people might say, what is this officer doing up on the hill at this time of day? A lot of times they're responding to calls for service.

1:02:38so maybe somebody got their car broken into during the evening. Maybe a package thief was work in a neighborhood. So it really is hard to say definitely. Our focus tends to be on the avenue during the daytime. Now.

1:02:51thank you.

1:02:55So that top one is a comment. That is true, I think, Melanie, According to our housing element, 60 of our households are owned, and 40% are enters. Is that correct? Yeah, that is absolutely true. What is this change meant for other areas, such as crime, littering traffic problems, etc.? I

1:03:14I think, the chief answered, that a little bit, but I will say what the chief didn't really say was. that's not a big money maker for us writing tickets. In fact.

1:03:24it's not a moneymaker at all. I mean. I just throw in the revenue numbers for this current year. I think a year to date moving violations have brought in about $33,000 to the city.

1:03:37So that is not a big piece of the pie. When you look at the city's overall budget parking tickets tend to bring in more like $60,000 on an annual basis. We're a little bit low this year because we've had some staff issues with parking enforcement.

1:03:51So not a big, not a big money maker.

1:03:54So if you get a parking ticket.

1:03:56trust it's not that we're trying to make money. It's that you shouldn't burn there. Okay. The next question.

1:04:03assuming the economy cooperates what opportunities will residents have to weigh in on where the money goes. Parks library, swim, center, all very visible services, right for improvement. Great, great, great comment. And i'll just take this opportunity to say that

1:04:16we're gonna continue to have meetings like this. We can continue to have surveys. We're going to continue to increase, outreach, to weigh in but one of those one of those in there, and I'm. I'm. Looking at our library foundation president right there, L. Miller. So what the City Council is going to be considering is, as you all know, or if you don't know. Then i'll tell you we are working with Bart at the Elsredo Plaza to develop a transit Oriented Development Project a big one. It's gonna be you know.

1:04:43probably the biggest project we've been working on in El Cerrito, and it's going to be transformative to that area of town. But one of the things that we have talked to Bart about, and that we have worked diligently with Bart over the past several years is to build hopefully a new library in that development. It would be an amazing amenity to not just the development, but to activate that part of town.

1:05:09and it would just be a really wonderful opportunity for the city, our our current library, while it is a gem. It let's say it's it's a gem. It's a we have a wonderful staff and a great team that work there, but it's completely undersized. The building is well, it's a mess. It's not a good building. It

1:05:28It is not just not adequate for the city services, but it's it's you know it's getting to the point where it's. It's just not a functional building anymore. It's it's just it needs to be.

1:05:39It needs. We need a new library, and that is something that I've been working on personally, for, you know, in my time here I've worked for the city since 2,001. This is something we we've tried to do

1:05:48multiple times in 2,016. We had a ballot measure to try to build a new library, and it failed by 500 votes. Oh, anyway, we're so close. But

1:06:00I think because of that, there's no question that even though there was 500 votes that the ballot measure last. That's more than you know that's that's almost 2 thirds of the city that does support a new library. So the opportunity, with the spark development to be able to put that in

1:06:15in that project is huge, and it's also is less costly than

1:06:21doing a standalone library. So that is what we're looking to do. The Council has directed us to move forward with exploring the idea of another ballot measure that would come next year, and I do hope that the you know the the community does continue to give its feedback. We will be doing another survey a specific survey on that topic.

1:06:41So, and it will be also a statistically valid random sample survey. So if you are contacted by our tolster. Please answer, because we are certainly looking toward how we can work to develop that that project. And so with the swim center, I will also say our community center our swim center. I totally agree. We're working on this one center right now, and Chris I don't know if you want to jump in. But we passed we as the voters we passed to measure H in

1:07:102019, which was a renewal of the measure previous measure, a, which built the swim center rebuilt this one center in 2,019. It was renewed as Measure H on the ballot and the services of that that money again that's restricted. Money

1:07:28could be expanded to park and recreation buildings and services that are listed in our Park and Recreation master Plan, which was developed community wide. So, Chris, if you have any additional thoughts on that.

1:07:41Oh, I Hello!

1:07:42I just say that at the community center and swim center we did receive some storm damage. It's an older facility, but we're hopeful that we could use some insurance money to fix that

1:07:54we are using measure H funds, and the balance of our original measure, a funds to resurface the Activity Pool right now. We chose to do this during a non drought year, so we've had a lot of delays with the the storms, but we hope to be getting that back up and running

1:08:13this this coming week, and then we absolutely have a need for the big pool to be resurfaced as well. It was built basically in 2,003

1:08:23and 20 years. The big pool needs a a makeover now, too. And so we're attempting to build a fund balance and measure H to pay for that improvement.

1:08:36So that's what's going on. The community center and Web Center.

1:08:40So is there anyone in the room before we go back to the online?

1:08:44And I would like to just as an aside in order to try to give 45 min for the next portion of feedback and priorities. Maybe we'll take like 2 more questions. Okay, I have a a statement and a question, Cape Quinto Elsaita, City Council member, and I wanted to say thank you to our far, hard to

1:09:06for being here. And Sandra again. Thank you for your leadership, and we just Karen, just spoke about things on the horizon that i'm concerned about. If we want to have a bond measure in March, we need to

1:09:22take care of these things that we said we are going to take care of, and we haven't gone to it because of the the lack of staff on in finance. So I want to make sure that

1:09:34we improve our credit rating, which is hasn't been approved yet, so making that down making that 1 15 to us, making that prepayment will show to the State auditor that we mean business, and we wanna

1:09:52up our credit, rating or standard. And for us, so we can do this bond measure any. Can you look at your crystal ball? Let us know when we can work with Fab to get this done

1:10:10to discuss in the Fab meetings the next couple of that meetings. Is that correct?

1:10:14That so? That'll be on the upcoming fab agenda? And i'm hoping that we'll have a recommendation from the Fab soon as they're able to provide one to us, so no pressure.

1:10:24Karen, I would say we have 2 hands. One is from Katherine. I wanted to give her another chance to see if she could be heard, and then we have one other hand, and then I think maybe that's a good break away into our feedback portion. So, Catherine, let's try one more time. Can you try speaking? See if we can hear you this time

1:10:44I was going to comment that many of our unfortunately we still can't hear you but, Karen, Her question was related to the If the library moves to the Bart station. Can the old property be used as a senior center?

1:10:58So, oh, and also many residents prefer information by mail? I hope not. All info is presented online. It's very valid point, and we will. That's one of the things that we're also trying to make sure that we we don't forget that not everybody is online, although it seems like everybody is these days. That's not true, and we do have a lot of

1:11:18folks in our community that maybe seniors are disabled, that aren't as tech savvy as others. So that is very well.

1:11:26very well considered as far as the library property. So if you are familiar at all with the library property, it's again about a 6,000 square foot square, almost squarish building.

1:11:40What the city owns is that building, and probably just about the equivalent of a parking space around the building. That's it, that's the only part of the envelope that the city owns. The rest of it is owned, if right behind. There is Fairmont Elementary School, and was owned by the school district.

1:11:57If you remember the old senior center which was behind the library that was on school district property, and the reason the senior center is gone

1:12:06is because the seniors, the school district, declined to renew the lease with the city, and they have now using that portion. I think there's portables there for Fairmont elementary school. So that is why the senior signer no longer exists. Can that building be made into a senior center?

1:12:22My immediate reaction is, it's not good enough for a library, so I don't think it's good enough for any building. It needs a lot of work. It needs a lot

1:15:15things that are important to different people in the community, and that's what the city Council's main job is is try to figure out of everything. Everybody wants to do what's most important, and how do we fund it? So what we would like to know then, is what you would like to tell the Council of what you would like the city to prioritize

1:15:34for the next fiscal year, and again that's June. I'm. Sorry. July first, 2023 through June thirtieth 2024

1:15:44so prioritization. What what's your what what do you want? The City Council to consider.

1:15:51Well, I actually have a question about the question, because what my priorities are are not like the very, very, very top priorities. So i'm wondering if question 2 is, what are other priorities that you want to bring up?

1:16:02Well, in this question: Why, don't you tell us what your priorities are. We're going to write them all down, and we're going to present them all to the Council. Great Great i'm Dave Weinstein! I'm speaking on behalf of else we are trail trackers, and the else's real historical society. I think that the city should

1:16:16add to his priority should add to its work plan developing the system of trails that currently exist in Elsa Rito. It is a relatively small budget item. I realized that a lot of relatively small budget items to add up to a lot of money. But this one, I don't think Will is something that. And again, it's not quite what you're asking. It's something that we see taking place over a number of years. There are approximately 40 trails in the Non hillside area in the city, and they really provide a major service.

1:16:45both for recreation, for getting around, and especially, or maybe not especially, but also for a emergency egress in case of a fire or other disaster of the number of trails that exist, approximately 9 of them need to be improved. The amount of work that this would take would not be great. It would be like building a sidewalk. Maybe a block or 2 is sidewalk, and much of it could be done by volunteers. It's something that would add so very much to the

1:17:11quality, charm, and safety of the city, and it's pitting. Nor for a while it's something I would like the city to start addressing with the work, plan the park and recognition. We're close with trail trackers. Over the past year. We developed a a a pretty good work plan. I like to see that get going on behalf of the Historical Society. The city has many historical places and buildings

1:17:34that add charm and really add a sense of history that make, else we do a special place. We see. We see this by the way, similar to the trails as a special place, and as place making the city is one of the few of his quality that has never addressed a survey

1:17:49of the historical places in town. I know they started it a few years ago. Again, it's not the biggest priority. It's not like police

1:17:57or fire, but if it could be accomplished, it would be a major plus to the city, and if it's never added to the budget, it'll never be accomplished. So the Historical Society thinks that's something that you should be looking at to Thank you very much.

1:18:13Karen. If we can do it. I want to check the audio online. So we do have one hand raised, too, so we'll try it with that. So, Nick Zamarono, can you try and unmute and see if our audio is fixed in chambers?

1:18:27Nick Zamorano: Yes, can you hear me?

1:18:31I can see the text of your speaking on our closed captions. But we are not hearing you in Council chambers.

1:18:38Nick Zamorano: Okay, I'll put my question into the queue.

1:18:43Thank you. Can the transcription provide the question? Perhaps

1:18:48I can, and then I can try reading it off.

1:18:51Okay? Well, it might be kind of hard for him, hearing at the same time as he's talking right. We're very sorry again. This is the first opportunity that we've we've tried a hybrid meeting. No good. D. Goes unpunished, and

1:19:05again Mercury regrets.

1:19:10Okay, this may be a little bit delayed for those at home. But, Nick, if you can go ahead and give your feedback Once I see that you've stopped talking. I can read the transcript for those in the room while we try and figure out our audio issues. So why don't you go ahead and provide your feedback now.

1:19:25Nick Zamorano: Thank you.

1:19:34Yeah, Can you just lay on there if you click on the

1:19:38you full transcript.

1:19:43There you go.

1:19:46Okay, Nick, if you go ahead and go, we have the transcript up, and we can actually see the text as you talk in chambers.

1:20:01Yeah.

1:20:17Nick, Can you go ahead and give us your feedback.

1:20:24not moving.

1:20:30So i'm not sure what happened. But he's not speaking because i'm not seeing the speaker moving.

1:20:38Nick Zamorano: Hmm.

1:20:57Oh, okay. Here he he did put something in our Q. A. What is the priority for wildfire safety and else 3 dough?

1:21:06What is the priority? Or is that Well, why don't you write that down as a priority? The City Council? Oh.

1:21:14last year

1:21:15i'm remembering i'm looking at Sue. I bet you would want to know the the date, but the city council has indeed indicated and passed a special resolution.

1:21:24The noting that wildfire safety is indeed a priority of the city. So that is Ben Kansas City Council Direction, and you know I don't know if our Fire chief would like to opine on

1:21:36on some of the work that we're currently doing, and that we're looking to do. But it's worth making sure that that is noted as an ongoing priority.

1:21:45Yeah, well.

1:21:46Is this all right? Perfect, then a wildfire safety is still a number one priority of the fire department. Right here we are constantly looking at ways to improve our response models, and also to improve our evacuation routes, so that we can figure out whether we can prevent the fire, and if or if it does start if we can evacuate and then hold it in place. We are constantly drilling on this, and practicing with our neighboring agencies, partnering not only with Albany, Berkeley.

1:22:11Sorry, Albany, Berkeley, and Richmond, and conscious of fire, so that we can have a unified response if a fire does start and then

1:22:21hold it in place or evacuate, and we are currently working on a ongoing eoc drill with the county, so that we can practice our responses, and we are also planning a large scale world for our wildfire drill next month with those neighboring agencies, so that we can collaborate and work together.

1:22:42We do have a little more feedback on the Q. A. For prioritization of recreation services, parks, swim and library services and support for unhoused folks. Sorry that was a blend so services and support for unhoused folks

1:22:58non-police community safety services.

1:23:08and that's noted in the Q. A. So that we have that that we can. We can add to our list. Here's the little so I love. I love ideas of partnering our fire district with other fire districts, such as Kensington, any other partnering opportunities for police and fire with San Pablo, Richmond or Albany.

1:23:29Yes, and as the Fire Chief did indicate, we do do that. And but Kensington is just as so everyone knows. While they are a separate fire district they contract with the city of a Cerrito. So the Kensington El Cerrito fire department is actually a a a a combined department, if you will any other thoughts.

1:23:49Eric: yeah. The opportunities to partner with our neighboring agencies is fantastic in the future. We frame it in 3 different ways.

1:23:57one looking at response and making sure that we can all respond together. We have a weekly meeting Monday morning with the major agencies, including Berkeley, Albany, and Richmond, and El Cerita, to make sure that we are all responding in the same way and helping each other out. Also we are looking at ways to train together. We're looking for a collaborative training area so that we can do join academies, so that when we have a consensus on operational outcome. We also train towards that when we bring people into the fire service.

1:24:26And the third way that we're looking to collaborating is generating pathways for local youth within the community, so that they can come straight into the fire service and work for the agency that they live in. And we're collaborating with some junior colleges in the area. Once we establish a training facility, then our plan is to bring in youth from all of our communities, train them together and generate pathways into the fire service

1:24:49can to member Weissinger. Can you do a quick audio check for us to see if we fixed the issue?

1:24:55Hi, everyone. This is also remember we singer. Can you hear me? Yes, we can finally hear you awesome. Okay. So, Nick, if there was any additional comments or feedback that you wanted to provide. Please feel free to raise your hand again, and it looks like we are okay on the audio. Now, if anyone else wants to provide live feedback.

1:25:16Okay, we have a comment. Please allocate some funding to improvements at the future. Castro Pickle ball courts.

1:25:26seating bike rack tables for people wanting to play.

1:25:31The initial proposal does not include these amenities, but they will need to be, or they will be needed as soon as the courts are done. Thanks.

1:25:41Great

1:25:43what I what I will, I will start up by saying, oh, yeah, you can use that, Mike. What I will start up by saying is that fun fact? The city does not own Castro Park.

1:25:53In fact, if there's a park in the city that has a school by it, it's owned by the school district, not the city. Therefore, when we we are looking to work to transform the courts at Castro to pick a ball, but it's not our land, and so we need to work that out with the school district to do so.

1:26:14Oh, I can just give you a pickle ball update for those that that Don't know, although pickle ball is the fastest growing sport in the United States. If you, if you did not know that, and there are a lot of very enthusiastic players in in town, and in this area

1:26:30a so enthusiastic, in fact, that a group of them called the East Bay

1:26:35Typical Ball Association has come together to raise money to convert the courts, so at no cost to the city.

1:26:44And so they've raised about $50,000 so far.

1:26:47and we just need to figure out now when we can proceed. Castro Park was identified as the preferred location. For a variety of reasons, one mostly that it's the furthest away from residences, and because pickle ball is a louder sport than than tennis.

1:27:06But anyway, so that is on the docket. Certainly a phase 2 would be appropriate there, but certain we would have to identify how that how that would be funded either through additional fundraising efforts.

1:27:21or, if it becomes a a budget item.

1:27:27We have a couple of hands in. I I was gonna say, let's maybe we can try back. There. We go. Nope, go ahead.

1:27:34You. I have 3 request for priorities. If that's all right.

1:27:39The first is, yeah, continuing fiscal prudence, I really appreciate the tone that was set during this meeting, and making sure that we are very, very careful as we step back from the cliff of of the fiscal problems that we had before.

1:27:52The second is what we're doing right now as a priority is is participants already budgeting. I really appreciate this meeting, and even though

1:27:59you know, we have a lot of empty seats. That's not indicative of the the number of people that care about the the Budget budgetary process. And you know, maybe you know, next time. I wish it rains outside so that we do have more people here.

1:28:14So that's that's absolutely gonna be necessary. And then number 3. I want to echo what Council Member Kinto said, you know, paying down our unfunded pension liabilities. I think that's gotta be the first step when we do have extra funds.

1:28:28Thank you very much.

1:28:31and we have another question back here in the back.

1:28:36I think i'll create a fire stiff.

1:28:38A many residents are still not aware that almost half of the Cerrito geographically is a very high fire hazard severity zone, as designated by Cal fire. I think that, and they've also conveniently forgotten that we sit on the Hayward fault. It seems

1:28:56so. I think the city needs to have a very large push to educate the community about the Wildfire threat, and to remind them about

1:29:07Heyward fault, and to

1:29:10push a big program to for education on how to prepare and prevent. Well, obviously you're not going to prevent the earthquake, but prepare, and for both

1:29:22depending what happens first

1:29:25and prevent. Do what you can do to help lessen the

1:29:32possibility of half the city igniting in a wildfire. Thank you. Yes, and actually, Eric and I think even

1:29:39our both of our chiefs. We are also something exciting is that we are at now post pandemic restarting

1:29:47the cert program. Any. I don't know if you have any thoughts on that, Eric. But we're gonna definitely be pushing that out as well. Sue's point is very well taken. We the big one, is

1:29:59It's out there, and and it's it's scary. But if the big one happens it's not gonna just happen to El Cerito, as you know, it's going to be a a region wide issue that we're all going to have to

1:30:11make sure that we're prepared for, and they talk about making sure you're prepared. Your home is prepared that you have your go bag, or you have enough provisions, for you know, if you have to live off the grade if you will, for 3 days. So the cert program has been a huge in the past a huge boost for that, and we're

1:30:30we're kick starting that back off. Yeah, we thank you. Yes, we've

1:30:36We've been working very hard on rebuilding the straight program. We have a organization framework already put into place, dividing the area up into 3 different districts based on the stations and then volunteers organized in those districts based on the Zone Hill zones so that they can organize together. We have a program manager and training right now, ready to stand that program back up, we'll be developing a deputy program manager underneath him so that

1:31:02they will. We have some redundancy in the program, and then we'll be building some team leaders, so that we can have an appropriate response in a major event. Remember, there's only 9 firefighters on duty every day, so they will be your primary response. But if we do get hit with something like the Hayward fault, everybody will be involved, and the more organized we are things to program, the better off will be

1:31:23great.

1:31:24I'd like to recognize Councilmember.

1:31:30We do have a Jpa with the soccer fields, the Tombates soccer fields with the city of Albany Berkeley, Richmond, Emeryville, and they will be putting in pickleball courts

1:31:43at the the Tom Bates field. So that is exciting. Some know that we're doing this regionally, and that's how small cities work. We can't do this alone, so that will bring additional pickle ball courts and hopefully, 9 of them. But that's that's great to hear

1:32:017 7 course.

1:32:04Yeah. 7 courts in 2 years, and nobody can complain about the noise over there absolutely. You know where those courts are. So we still have a lot of tennis people here, and and that's not. That's not going away, but know that. Yeah, the addition on and all cities are dealing with this, so

1:32:23you know, be great to have El Cerita challenge Berkeley and Emeryville on Pickle Ball in the future. So so why don't we take maybe one last question, because we do have 2 more questions. We want to ask the crowd. So why do we?

1:32:35We're we're all caught up on line. Okay, John. Last question for priorities. Oh, I'm: Sorry. 2. Okay. Yes.

1:32:44Okay. Go ahead, Sherry. Thank you. So I was really happy to hear this about search, because that was one of my priorities, but also, i'll add to a comment made earlier, I think, seeking some services for the unhoused

1:33:01in our community, or and working or coordinating with the county. To do that and on mental health issues would be really important.

1:33:09and also some responses. I know that crime prevention is important, but maybe some

1:33:15ideas that would not be necessarily related to, You know, police response, some other kinds of community response to crime, prevention.

1:33:25Right?

1:33:27Thank you so, John, and then Al and

1:33:31I do want to hear people's priorities, John Stashikel cerrito. I am really pleased with Cal. Trans. And how they put these reflective yellow borders on their traffic signals.

1:33:42So when there's a power shortage, and the powers goes out, you actually see and know that there's a signal there, but it's not working, and I would like to see the El Cerrito do that which I think is probably a modest expense. I've already mentioned this to our public Works director.

1:33:58and maybe there's some Grant money there, or maybe some money from the State, or who knows where. But I think when, as the days get shorter.

1:34:06and we have our in our inevitable power outages. I think this is a major major safety.

1:34:13so i'd like to see that on our city owned traffic lights which aren't that many or let me think of. Okay, L.

1:34:23My comment is not to the 2324 budget, but it's in response to your comment earlier that

1:34:32a measure to fund the library will be next year. So my suggestion is really to the City Council that

1:34:41and if it's adopted. I believe that it would encourage many more people to support the measure to fund the library

1:34:52Right now. The city is paying 6 extra hours, and the library. Our current library is open as often as long as the county will permit it to

1:35:04the new library will be able to be open

1:35:09many more hours. So my suggestion is for the city Council to direct staff

1:35:15to

1:35:17in the future budgets, since one of the things.

1:35:22if we are successful in getting the library. The library will be constructed in phase 3 of the Plaza tood development. That means it's going to be 3 or 4 years before that library becomes available. So it's in the

1:35:40budgets before that

1:35:42that i'm encouraging you to direct staff to

1:35:47plan and budget to keep the library open as many hours, as the county will

1:35:53allow.

1:35:55Realize that that's a gonna be a 20,000 square foot library instead of a 6,500 score front library. So maintenance, cleaning, and other expenses need to be planned for, too.

1:36:11and I know that that seems a long way off.

1:36:14But we want to get as much positive support for the libraries we can next year. So I believe this will help.

1:36:24All right, thanks, everyone. Okay, let's move on to the next question a little bit more

1:36:31strategic as far as some of the things that we've been talking about, Just kind of throwing out. Okay, what are what are the things that the city should focus on in the budget year. But this is a broader question about services. So we are considered a full service city.

1:36:48The only thing we Don't do is utilities. So we had, You know, sewer water, electric technology. Those are handled by other agencies, but we do provide police services, fire services, public work, services, recreation services. So and that's actually not terribly

1:37:08common for a city our size, we're a we're a full service city and a small city at that. So we.

1:37:14you know, if you've heard me say we're small, but mighty, that's what I mean. We do a lot for this as small of a town as we are. However, what we try to do is we try to provide the services that our residents have asked for, that. Our city council has directed us to do. But this is a bit of a deeper question, if you will.

1:37:33what services are necessary, right? And I think we learned a little bit of this through the pandemic, like, what do we have to do? What can we not? We have to be able to do, no matter what.

1:37:43But are there services that the city could stop doing?

1:37:48I don't expect to hear answers to that, but I would be curious if anyone had. This is sort of a prioritization question as well. But it's a like, I said. It's a little bit deeper than that. Are there any services that you can think of that. The city does that we don't need to do.

1:38:05Okay.

1:38:07gave and then date

1:38:09one. hey? Him?

1:38:12Okay. One thing that that I would I have discussed with the city manager in the future

1:38:18as realizing what we cannot afford in the future. And and one of it is the hillside area. So, looking at the dead trees that were built that were planted in the early twentieth century, and looking at

1:38:35what you know, dealing with climate change and the future of you know, rising sea levels and and warmer climates at the towards the end of the century, You know, we looked at the possibility of

1:38:52turning that over to the East Bay Regional Park district, so they can deal with that, and they will do a much better job in the future than the city can. We don't have the funding, and right now, Nor will we, and and we can do a lot better

1:39:10if we work with our regional partners like the East Bay Regional Park. So that was my idea. And I wanted to find out with the city manager if we can't continue with the talks in the future with making sure that we work with them, including their fire department.

1:39:29Thank you. Yes, and we. I have been in contact with some members of the East Bay regional parks. I know that our recreation director has

1:39:40also has staff connections. Obviously that's a kind of a long term discussion, but we do have Grant funding that is going to be looking at a lot of the

1:39:53vegetation management. So we are doing what we can, and we are getting Grant funding, but it's worth a conversation absolutely, and we can do that within

1:40:03kind of informally, to begin with, to see if there are any. If there's any interest from the East Bay Regional Park district.

1:40:11David.

1:40:12Yeah, even before this is Dave Weinstein from trail triggers. Even before Gabe just brought up the hillside. I was going to bring it up, because at 1 point, when the talk was that the East Bay Regional Park district could take it over, I thought, Well, that's great, because they have a policy on their trails of letting dogs off-leash whereas elsewhere, has the misguided policy of acquiring

1:40:32dogs to be, on each, even though they rarely are but giving it more thought. I think trial trackers would be strongly opposed to giving away what Elsa Rito should be really proud of as one of his most appointed amenities, the Central Park of the City. So I think to talk about it, you know, in negative terms all the time, and not what a great thing it is in actual fact. What Trekkers wants to do is not give it away, but make it even bigger than it is.

1:40:58And let me just say that if you can convince the East Bay Park district to take on this new cause for them without them getting anything, apparently in return. Well, you know good luck with that. The other thing I want to bring up as something that could be gotten rid of.

1:41:11and I have served on at least one committee as one city committee looking at doing just that.

1:41:17Why should the city

1:41:19run its own recycling center? How many cities do that. But of course I believe that all survey show people really like it. So i'm not suggesting that we stop recycling services. Thank you.

1:41:31Thank you. Those are very good points

1:41:33to be determined to be continued

1:41:36Any other thoughts.

1:41:37We have a comment and a question online. I I like the fact that the city outsources some of its services at Cerita Vista Park. The outsource landscapers do a great job of keeping this park very well maintained, but then I noticed the city employee. Ha! Still has to come by and empty the trash cans

1:41:56and do other light duties in the park. Can we outsource the entire maintenance duty, so that a city employee is not necessary other than to randomly inspect the work quality of the outsource workers.

1:42:12I was going to say I was going to look to you as the person who oversees human resources. If you wanted to try to answer that question.

1:42:20and will as Well, let me start up by saying that we actually, when you're talking about I mean, this is actually kind of related to the H. And a question as well as a recycling center question.

1:42:31We have done a lot of conversation over the years amongst our staff, and also amongst with the city council of outsourcing services, contracting services versus having city staff.

1:42:43There's a lot of pros and cons to both.

1:42:47A lot of people would believe, and and i'm one of them with certain things that having an in house employee who is employed by the city who is invested in the city, may provide better service, and someone who is just a contract that's certainly a very well established quote, if you will.

1:43:06The con, of course, is that public employees tend to be expensive, since we provide pensions and benefits and things like that. There are also the current services we have. The majority of our workforce is unionized, and so we have memorandum of understanding with all of our unions

1:43:26that require per State law, that anything that's outsourced does need to be a meet and confer issue a meeting. You know that there are implications amongst that we are contractually obligated to. For example, we cannot replace

1:43:40city staff with volunteers, and we cannot necessarily go to contracted services without the approval of the city council, and in meeting with our unions in order to do that. So there are some, I mean, they're not necessarily up schools. There are cities out there that contract out pretty much everything. They have like 5

1:43:56to 10 people in City Hall, and they contract out police and fire and and community development, and all of that stuff. And that has been a conversation with the Council. The State Auditor brought that up. I'm just, you know, just sharing that. That is something that we've talked about

1:44:09when it came to things like police and fire. So. But that's an ongoing conversation. I think that's a very good point, and that's something that the city staff needs to continue to consider. When it comes to outsourcing versus

1:44:22versus in-house services. It's it's a continuing conversation, and I very much appreciate the the comment. And will. Did you have something to add just to build on that so definitely appreciate the comment, but it might surprise a lot of you to learn. There's that we actually have 6 maintenance workers that work for the city of Also, you know, Public Works Department. So it's a really lean team, and we actually do outsource or contract out most services. So things like tree maintenance, landscape, maintenance, plumbing electricians.

1:44:49you know, even painting. In the old days of city government you'd have sign makers. You'd have pain or painters. You'd have people that maintain your traffic signals and your street lights. We contract out for virtually all of that.

1:45:01So it's a really lean, crude, but they do a little bit of everything. They might be in the park, empty in a trash, can, because it got over filled. They might be in a building facility, patching something, and you might be surprised when you call them, and they're there the same day, fixing that pothole right in front of your house. So

1:45:17we do actually contract out basically everything that we're able to. But while keeping a core crew to respond quickly to to needs that do arise.

1:45:27But it is a good question to consider.

1:45:29Are there other online or in the room for this question, so that we can

1:45:33possibly go to the next. So last one, just to wrap up the online from some of the earlier comments about the new library and potentially using the old library location was related to to building a new senior center and senior services. So I think that would

1:45:48yeah be a good one, maybe, to add to the list. And then that catches up online.

1:45:54Okay, anything anyone else in the room have thoughts on this question, and may I say once again, we'll have the survey, the Online survey that will be there if you're if you think of something later. Please log in and or email any one of us, and we can

1:46:12get that question this isn't. Can you advance the slide, holly.

1:46:17There we go. So the last question it again. We've had a little bit of this, I think, throughout. What are your ideas for? How the city can maintain a healthy and sustainable budget while providing the services that our residents and businesses desire most. So

1:46:33you know, we've talked a little bit about prioritization. We've talked about what we do, and don't do what we can, and and maybe could stop doing. But is there anything that you can think of that the city can do to make sure that we.

1:46:46our continuing, I think, far, had he looks like he left. But he had talked a little bit about this, you know, to maintain our fiscal sustainability, but be able to provide the services that residents want.

1:47:01We have one common online. Okay, they say, employ more technology to eliminate, reduce repetitive tasks, use remote terminals to deal with information, desk and other customer facing tasks.

1:47:15Great suggestion.

1:47:18Dave, do we have that

1:47:24just said that the memorandum is understanding me that volunteers cannot replace city staff. But yeah, somebody who's been volunteering, doing a green team clean ups for many, many years now, and also Trekkers has, you know, as volunteers, built a lot of trails and trekkers, has volunteered to install signs

1:47:43and to even pay for them. So I think the city can work much more, and you mentioned the group to pick a ball. I know volunteers are the tennis, so there's a lot that can be done for a while. I was saying that the city should have some kind of volunteer coordinator. That is not a bad idea. It doesn't have to be a full time position, but I think that by working more with volunteers

1:48:01it can often happen that volunteers feel that their ideas and even their work. Don't get appreciated enough, and I don't say you have to give them like awards, or anything like that. But you know

1:48:13that are working with volunteers to do things that the city staff is not doing. you know, not just on trails and recreation. But i'm sure other things, too. Thank you.

1:48:24making taking better advantage of volunteers. That's a great suggestion.

1:48:31Okay.

1:48:35I'm also wondering about in terms of personnel. I know you're having trouble hiring, and and it's easy. You know one thing is a

1:48:43raise salaries, but also i'm thinking about subsidies for housing costs

1:48:49that it could serve people well here so they could live in the community. and that I think the cost for that wouldn't necessarily be tacked on to a

1:48:59the cost for the pensions that go with a higher salary. So that's another way to

1:49:03attract people to come. Also provide them with local housing.

1:49:11Interesting suggestion. Great. Thank you. You have a common online. Okay, higher swim center fees for non residents. I noticed this was highlighted in the State Auditors report as well.

1:49:24We do have non-resident rates, right, Chris.

1:49:27So maybe the suggestion is to increase, those, perhaps. But yes, that's a also in fact, resonant and non-resident rates for most of our recreation programs, If not all, is that correct?

1:49:4025 for non-resonance. Okay.

1:49:43but we do do that. But it's worth considering if there's additional room or other programs. Thank you.

1:49:49I

1:49:51i'm sure everybody's looking at this or all the staff are but police departments in particular. Another hard to fill. Positions are having to do.

1:50:01just to get it on the list. Hiring bonuses. I guess

1:50:08there has been some implemented to date. But that is a you know.

1:50:14looking at the place, she constant conversation. That's a that's a very well placed suggestion.

1:50:20Yes, absolutely

1:50:22and actually hiring incentives. I don't like T-shirt boss hiring incentives for not just Pd. But

1:50:28for all positions.

1:50:33Any other thoughts anything online.

1:50:36One other thought online focused on the preservation of city reserves. and also noting the use of my volunteers. But with the caveat of providing them a small amount of funding so that they can do their voluntary jobs.

1:50:54Okay.

1:51:02thanks.

1:51:04So all very good ideas. Any other thoughts over here, John.

1:51:12And again, if you think of something later, please. We'll have the

1:51:15It is maybe becoming a wish list, so i'll put out a wish, I think you know, if the city ever had the financial ability to do so.

1:51:27And it may be way a ways out. I'd like to see a dedicated If the Economic Development person back on payroll. Somebody is really good at it, too.

1:51:36and it could bring in some more business to Elsa Rio. And then.

1:51:42while we're got that business, we gotta keep their business, and that goes back to the police department. You've got to do something about the crime that puts businesses out of business in El Cerrito. But that's another conversation.

1:52:00Get that one

1:52:04any other thoughts. Is there anything online? We just had one extra thought about using AI to use to for administrative tasks and work specifically. Chat. G

1:52:16Pt.

1:52:24You good suggestion.

1:52:26Anything else. Councilmember?

1:52:31We we need to have you talk in the mic. So yeah, thanks.

1:52:50Federal funding that is available, and I just wanted to make sure that we don't leave anything on the table. There is that Grant making or application for solar

1:53:05that I want to make sure that the city applies for that. I thought we did already that Hasn't been gone yet. So you know, making sure that we don't. You know

1:53:18that we make sure that we are all on board on the Grant making, because there are trees that need to be planted there. There is a lot of funding on parks, funding on Federal funding on replanting of trees.

1:53:34a lot of things that residents stand for, and that would like to get done that we but we just don't have the money to to do so. Grant funding is number one, and on my list to make sure that we don't use money

1:53:52that we can use, and prepaying our unfunded liabilities, and then we will get our credit rating higher if we do that. So. But it it yeah, the whole picture so. And a lot of the things that

1:54:06we see that have not been built. We need to look at this and realize that you know many of these shops that are that were once there could still be in business. So, looking, you know, I agree with our chamber guy here on the importance of having someone a staff member

1:54:26on economic development. Because we're losing out on that, and we're losing out to other cities that have a full time person, and they're going to those cities and not ours. And you know, looking at what we could have done on getting a car dealership at the usual property all these years.

1:54:44and and I spoke with the owner, and he would have liked to work with us closer on that. But we didn't have anyone full time to work on this, so that would have been ongoing tax revenue that we could have had. That's going to other cities, because we did not have anyone full time

1:55:02to work on that. So I agree with our chamber that we're losing out on businesses going to other cities. We have Auto Row and Richmond that would like to leave and come here. But again we so we need to look at that and look at that closely. Thank you.

1:55:20Something that we're working on as well for sure

1:55:25any other thoughts. It's just 120'clock. So at this point, if there are no further

1:55:32nuggets that anyone is dying to share either in the room or online. Can you

1:55:39advance that last slide, Holly, so that and and maybe close this. So that's very. It's up there. We should have done a. QR. Code, but it's a. Ld. Cerrito Org Slash Annual budget process. The survey is there all of this will be there. This recording will be there. The

1:55:57everything that we do will be working so so we'll be, even though the Council Thank you. Some of the Council members provided some comments today, so it's a little preview of their next city Council meeting, where we will talk about this a little bit further with the City Council will encapsulate this as well as the online survey results and present that to the City Council for their discussion on may second. So. And again, everything we do will have links to all of the presentations, to the budget items, to everything we provide that the city council and to the community will be housed on this web page right here.

1:56:32So with that I wanna say, thank you all so much. This has been a fabulous meeting and wonderful. I took a huge amount of notes. Please, if you have any additional questions i'm here, Staff here say, I want to thank all of our staff, Holly, Alex. Chris Sandra, Melanie.

1:56:50Eric Paul, and Will for being our transcriber to again any staff. And of course I want to thank

1:56:56our City Council for being here again. Please go out and enjoy this wonderful Saturday in our city. Oh, and Eric, i'm sorry. Got to thank you and help thank you for finally getting some of the audio stuff. We'll learn a lot from this, and the next time we have a hybrid meeting hopefully, it'll go a little smoothly. Thank you all

1:57:13so very much. I appreciate your time. Take care, and have a wonderful weekend.