Special and Regular City Council Meeting September 19, 2023

0:00:03okay mayor we are ready to begin whenever you are okay the September 19th 2023 regular city council meeting is called to order at 612 pm. will the city clerk please call rooll Mayor mama here mayor Pro rednik presid council member fidelli here council member Kino here council

0:00:26member weinger here we have a quorum the first item on the agenda is consideration under AB 2449 city clerk do we have any requests thank you mayor council member we singer is participating in this meeting under ab2 449 just cause which does not require Council action it just requires

0:00:46us to take roll call votes tonight which I will do so thank you thank you um the next item is the Pledge of Allegiance uh so please join me in the Pledge of Allegiance or a moment of silence to the flag of the United States ofer stands indivisible with liberty the next item on the agenda is

0:01:21teleconference and public comment instructions thank you mayor um I do need to make a quick announcement that we are having some uh technology challenges tonight so our meeting will not be able to live stream on our website I have put that information on our website to direct people to join the

0:01:38meeting via zoom and then of course following the meeting today there will be the archived uh Video available online um and then this this meeting is hybrid providing an option to participate in person or via Zoom with closed captions available by participating in Zoom meetings of the

0:01:56city council are subject to the brown act and are held for the purpose of conducting City business the brown act also ensures the Public's right to be heard and while city council is not able to respond to your comments directly your comments will be heard prior to

0:02:08council taking action for members of the public who wish to provide oral testimony the mayor will announce the time for public comment on each applicable item in-person request can be submitted to the city clerk by completing a speaker card remote requests can be made by selecting the

0:02:22hand icon and phone requests can be made by dialing star9 instructions are provided on the meeting agenda and will be displayed during each period of public comment the council's adopted Rules of Order and procedure specify that public speakers address the city

0:02:36council in an orderly and respectful manner proceed their comments with their name and city of res residence and be respectful of time limits thank you mayor that concludes my instructions okay thank you C clerk the next item on the agenda is Council staff communication uh city manager do we have

0:02:55any staff Communications yes thank you I'm Karen pinkis your city manager I just wanted to give you a couple of updates you probably smelled the campfire air as you walked in today um the Bay Area Air Quality Management District has issued an air quality advisory due to smoke from wildfires in

0:03:12Northern California and Oregon smoke is expected to impact air quality throughout the Bay Area Tuesday and Wednesday if the smell of smoke is present if possible stay inside with Windows and Doors closed until smoke levels subside uh we will we actually did close the pool early today because

0:03:28of poor quality 4 p.m. and we will continue to monitor conditions to ensure that our patrons are safe and then secondly I wanted to announce and remind and invite the public we are going to be having a public forum on the library on Wednesday um September 27th and it will

0:03:47pm thank you at 6 PM so we invite you to come and um if you have questions or if you're interested in hearing about what's going on with the ELR library and our hopeful plans for the for the future and uh we'll look

0:04:04forward to seeing you there and with that mayor it concludes my comments thank you thank you city manager are there any announcements from Council Members oh thank council member fidelli yeah I just uh first want to remind um everyone that our uh city council is

0:04:22also broadcast on krct cable television live so if anyone wants to check us out live on TV we can go right to the televion set if you I think believe 27 or 26 um it's been a long time since we've had a council meeting so I do have a few items but first I wanted to um on

0:04:40the eve of a cal City's conference uh wish good luck to our um council member fellow council member Gabe kikuno who's has a high status at this conference and if you do see us at the conference do wave okay thank you um first of all I attended mayor moama and supervisor a joyous Community

0:05:00event on local homelessness which took place in Hana Gardens um uh recently and I wanted to convey my thanks to her for finally having a community Dialogue on the issue was very good effort um I'm also happy to announce that this next Saturday September 23rd at the

0:05:18incredible craneway Pavilion in Richmond will be the annual auction and Gayla for the Rosie the river trust it's a good time in an important local National Park tickets are still available at the river.org um and earlier in the day another woman's issue is that I will be at the

0:05:36Ser of Vista Park beginning at 9:00 A.M I'm going to go to the elero recreational Department's play like a girl event um supporting equity and sports and I'll be sure to let my daughters know I'm going to that um possibly some sad news locally is that we've heard that our famous downhome

0:05:53music store might be closing in less than two years because of the recent death of Chris stritz uh who the mayor honored on our July 4th Festival um it seems the inheritors may have other plans rather than keeping the store open so I'm consider this a call out to possible investors musicians

0:06:13nonprofits or others to help keep alive this historic venue for roots Americana and World music it's a really important thing and uh finally I attended the Jewish community relations Council here I am initiative last month at the temple asai in Lafayette with with the mayor

0:06:32and council member rudnik uh to join other electors in trying to combat hate and anti-Semitism um it was a good emotional turnout um but there were questions at the event about asking how did we ever get this far how did we ever get here and to me one of the main reasons is not

0:06:51that complicated Donald Trump opened the door to racism political violence and threats at Charlottesville and other places making it acceptable to close that door we need to do all we can to keep our democracy and prevent him from ever holding office again thank you thank

0:07:11you mayor pro thank you mayor it's hard to follow that one up um uh speaking to Cal cities um so my colleagues don't know this yet and we have our police chief and our fire chief I'm happy to announce that I've been selected as Vice chair of the public safety policy

0:07:25committee for the league of California cities thank you you um I'm really looking forward to making sure that we can utilize State funding here at the local level where it truly matters and um I appreciate um all the work of my colleagues on that committee looking

0:07:41forward to moving forward some really important strategic um initiatives um thank you so much for your words council member fideli I'll leave it at that counc member Kino council member weisinger any announcements I don't have any announcements but I want to especially considering some of the

0:08:01things that are going on um directed towards our Jewish Community I want to make this very important correction as much as I love and adore my fellow council member um Paul fideli Donald Trump did not open the door to hate and racism it was always here big bold and

0:08:19bright as it is right now what he did was embolden people to be more out and vocal and saying things that they were saying in private circles um and being and and giving them a platform where people will not rebut them so I want to because words mean things I want to make

0:08:34sure people know this is not new and this stand that elero takes as far as being against hate is not new this fight that we fight about being against hate and Against Racism is not new so for those of you who who are just picking up on it make sure that you are picking up

0:08:50a serious mantle in this fight because it is a fight and dig into the history and know that it's been going on and there people who have been being assaulted and attacked and verbally harassed um and and make sure that you're doing what you can so that we can finally eradicate it but it's not new

0:09:06and it's something that we've been fighting for a long time that's alled thank you thank you so I do have a few Marl announcements uh I am reporting out that we had a 5:00 pm closed session and we held one interview for the uh advisory body for the Fab um we do not

0:09:24have any report outs for that on September 6th I attended ELO Royale centenarian Day celebration and recognize elrio centenarians Aiko jeene nakazono who turned 103 Florence brinza Dorothy Chambers and Phyllis Cobb who turned 102 Aida brenis and Betty Moore who turned 101 Rose

0:09:48texara and Yeta Jerry Wagner who turned 100 and Roger [ __ ] Galo who will turn 100 in December with a mayoral certificate of recognition so I also want to um give a big thank you to staff uh council member fideli did attend our solution Summit for the

0:10:10unhoused and it was very well attended with over 35 attendees and experts from the county health services people with lived experience Contra Casa Interfaith and nonprofit groups and I saw a lot of great connections being made and the feedback that I received most was that

0:10:26this convenience should not be the only one and a one-time event so thank you very much to staff for making that happen it was a really important Gathering I also want to call out that on October 6 through 8th the El swo art association annual art show will be happening at the community center so uh

0:10:44please look forward to that okay the next item is oral Communications from the public before we move to that I would like to request that Kristen Connelly our registar of Voters come and speak before us uh before general public comment thank you so much Madame mayor council members I

0:11:04really appreciate the opportunity to be here today today is and Council M I feel funny having my back toward you um council member but hopefully you can hear me what nice and clear um today is National voter registration day I went to wish that to my daughter before

0:11:19taking her to school and she said well you're the second person to wish me that because Taylor Swift beat you Mom and I was like all right the more than marer so um today is a national Civic holiday started in 2012 in recognition of the need to encourage regist registration

0:11:35that is the biggest barrier to people failing to participate in our democracy and so um I know that I spent a lot of time talking with many of you in the 13 months I spent working on earning this job from the voters of Contra Costa we are doing everything we can to get the

0:11:49word out and remove barriers to get as many people registered before next year's elections standing before you we are 168 days before the California presidential primary on March 5th we're actually already in the midst of that election for those of you who speak

0:12:05election we are already in the signatures in L period um and so our staff of 30 at the elections office of Martinez is working diligently so I wanted to I'm trying to speak and invite as many elected officials across Contra Costa to participate in our Outreach activities and get the word out it's

0:12:24also the kickoff of California high school voter education weeks something that Dr Weber the secretary of state has declared it happens twice a year so we're going to be at 20 high schools doing popup uh pre-registration for 16 and 17 year olds and registration for 18

0:12:40year olds and newly eligible voters so um it's happening now through the end of September and um if we don't catch the schools that you are involved with public or private let me know we'll catch up with you in April so I just wanted to thank the diligent staff um

0:12:55you know we currently have 705 active registered voters in Contra Costa um and a significant when all of our materials are produced in Spanish and in Chinese um under federal law and a significant portion of our Chinese speaking Community who lives here in Elso and so

0:13:12we're working on asking for some measure X funds to expand our bilingual staff in order to better serve all voters so I know you have plenty of things on your agenda but just wanted to thank your city clerk for encouraging me to be here tonight and um just thank you for

0:13:26working in Partnership to support our democracy uh heading into such an important election next year thank you very much okay now is the time for members of the public who wish to provide public comments regarding matters not on the agenda consent items presentation items

0:13:45and close session items in-person speakers can submit a speaker card to the city clerk and remote speakers should use the raised hand feature to request to speak please remember to identify yourself and your city of residence at the beginning of your comments please keep in mind that this

0:14:02is a city business meeting the city council has adopted rules of decorum to ensure that meetings are conducted efficiently and effectively and that all members of the public have a full fair and equal opportunity to be heard all remarks should be addressed to the city

0:14:17council please do not use any profanity during your comments while the city affords speakers the right to be heard the city has a zero tolerance policy for discrimin atory and harassing conduct the city denounces any hate speech that may be vocalized in public comments speakers

0:14:37making public comments are not expressing the views of the city let me make that really clear speakers making public comments they're discriminatory and harassing are not expressing the views of the city city clerk please proceed thank you mayor uh at this time we have EXC I'm

0:15:02sorry to interrupt but Madame mayor given the um length of the agenda this evening did you want to retain the standard time for public speakers or were you interested in reducing that time I would like to reduce the to and could we please start with comments from the speakers that are present in

0:15:34the room yes ma'am I may need glasses it's very small oh I assume you do not want one hour sorry about that there we go okay so I will begin with our in-person speakers uh we'll start with Buddy AC activist followed by Bill beish good evening my dear friends I regard each of you as a dear friend of

0:16:28of mine and uh as you know September is National Senior Center month and as a senior center Advocate and Senior spokesperson for the city of elero I would like to respectfully request that you consider on its merits two things number one remove the senior your Center signs from Haunted Gardens bring

0:17:01them down when you consider an issue you consider Arguments for and against we all do that what are the arguments for keeping the senior center signs at Hana Gardens they are confusing they are misleading and to some seniors they're insulting item to I would like to consider I would like

0:17:33to respectfully request that you consider telling the senior community what your plan is for the senior centers here in elero California not asking for anything just tell us your plan if you have no plan that's a plan tell us the senior community respectfully requests that you tell

0:17:57us thank you thank you thank you our next speaker is Bill beish followed by Linda Kane good evening I'm Bill beish and I was looking at the board outside about the uh plan and I noticed that six of the notes up there either directly or tangentially refer to CL clate action that's more than a third of

0:18:32what's on that board a year ago in July Fred Bei and I stood up here and presented the council with over 200 signatures asking the council to draft an ordinance for building electrification meaning that all new construction in the city would be electric only it's now a year later plus and I

0:18:55have an additional 70 signatures on a another petition asking for the same thing that you ask your staff to draft an ordinance requiring all electric construction within the next couple of months just a draft so that you're ready to actually pass it when the time comes

0:19:20and if you think having put new gas lines in new construction is expensive now wait until you have to retrofit those buildings we are in a climate crisis and your time to act is now I'll leave these with the city clerk thank you thank you thank you our next speaker

0:19:43is Linda Kain and then we'll go to our remote request to speak good evening everyone it's August company for elero and I'm glad to be here I'm Linda Kane I live in elero and I've been here since 1993 and um I I agree with buddy I wanted to say why does it have a sign

0:20:06over the entrance of Hana Gardens saying it's a senior center I was walking down San Pablo with my boyfriend the other day and I was trying to explain this building you know I said that's an apartment building but it's a senior center but it's not a senior center it's

0:20:21just a room that we could rent if we had a whole lot of money like I couldn't have my birthday there cuz probably be over 200 probably more anyway so and elero does need a City Center City Senior Center we know there's always a m matter of financial stability in the

0:20:36city please please please figure out some way I mean it's some inexpensive building and I just want to say also if I have another 40 seconds St John Senior Center had a wonderful party today Al luau that basically our director buddy and all of the members Put on We had a

0:20:52ukulele concert and then we had a lot of guests which included people from Royale um people from our School District administration and um members of St John's Church which is our sponsoring church and I think a good time was had by all so seniors are doing cool stuff

0:21:10we're here we're great and we would love to have a senior center of our own thanks thank you we'll go now to our remote request to speak well we'll begin with Irish share now Ira you should be able to begin your time now hi Irish aronow elero California elero is a very poor city as the only city in

0:21:36the area that cannot afford to have a senior center I think Hannah Gardens can be rented for $1 a year but somehow it's not rented I am concerned about the impact of Council in action Road repairs are becoming significantly more expensive as Els Cero's roads deteriorate I checked out the March 202

0:21:58three Harris pavement condition index report Els Cerito score has deteriorated to 69 and is now as it now has almost no excellent roads the engineering Consultants recommended that the city spend $2 million per year but the budget appears to be only $700,000 and so the expectation is that

0:22:21in 20127 the PCI will be down to 65 and the Deferred maintenance amount will increase from about $15 million to about $17 million according to the report it cost $6 per square yard to crack seal and slurry seal but that can increase to $35 per square yard for a thin overlay

0:22:44with moderate dig outs or $150 per square yard to reconstruct the C the city needs to act on this I ask that the council ask management to post the report on the city's web page thanks a lot I wish I had three minutes next speaker is Robin Mitchell Robin you should be able to unmute and

0:23:07begin your time now uh can you hear me yes we can okay my name is Robin Mitchell I'm an Elso resident I'm a member of the urban Forest committee the urban Forest committee has developed and voted on a recommendation for the elero urban Forest fund which was submitted by

0:23:23our chairperson is included in the supplemental materials for this meeting the urban Forest program donations account was established in 2015 to accept donations to support the urban Forest program and is the urban forest and it is the urban Forest committee's understanding that there is an unused

0:23:39balance available in the fund the urban Forest committee would like to have the city council review our recommendation and hopefully support the reopening of this Fund in order to accept donations from residents and businesses to have the funds um available to improve the

0:23:53health of our Urban forests thank you so much thank you thank you our next speaker is Leonard Frank Leonard you should be able to unmute and begin your time now hello can you hear me yes we can okay perfect no I was just wondering what's going on with all right the next item on the agenda is

0:27:25the adoption of the consent calendar which includes the following items approval of a approval of minutes B 55th anniversary of Eden Housing Proclamation C Hispanic heritage Proclamation D Suicide Prevention awareness Proclamation e Proclamation recognizing Asher Kesler F monthly

0:27:50dispersement and check register report for August 2023 G second reading and Adoption of an ordinance for a contract Amendment between the city of elero and the board of administration of the California Public Employees Retirement System Calpers related to employee members of

0:28:08United professional firefighters Association local 1230 H Safe Streets for all ss4a Cooperative agreement with contra costa Transportation Authority for Richmond Street complete streets Improvement project I authorization of Consulting Serv serves agreements with

0:28:28multiple firms for on Call building planning fire and Engineering Consulting Services J amendment to Consulting Services agreement with management Partners Baker Tilly to provide additional consulting services in fiscal year 2023 24 pay safe routes to Bay Area Rapid Transit District Bart funding

0:28:49agreement for ELO Del Norte Transit oriented development complete streets Improvement project and L purchase authorization for renewable Diesel and unleaded gasoline so items B and E have Representatives here to speak and receive a proclamation which will occur

0:29:09after adoption of the consent calendar are there any brief questions or requests by the council to pull items off the consent calendar mayor one small correction Item B does not have a representative they were unable to attend the meeting tonight okay thank you council members any question

0:29:27questions or any items to be pulled 7h and 7K this comments okay council member we singer any questions or comments on the consent items no mayor thank you council member Kinto mayor proen brnik okay [Music] um I have one comment on item d d d is in dog D is in dog

0:30:07yes okay so um I'll go with item D and then council member can go with h andk so on item D it's Suicide Prevention awareness Proclamation I do want to call out that if anyone is having suicidal thoughts or needs assistance so please call 988 thank you council member fidelli yes um

0:30:31just one correction on the minutes on page 30 of our packet um the Contra costed Transit Authority is listed as um agency so that's a correction and I'm just not sure IET is IET here IET is online I can great yes and and I just want to pull these two things out

0:30:52because they're so important to our residents that I think they should know about them that at the Richmond Street Safe Streets effort uh partially financed by the contracosta uh Transportation Authority is going to make a huge difference along Richmond Street I want to thank the staff for all

0:31:11the efforts and working on this as the city uh residents now may know some of the East Bay mud effort is starting to happen in the construction along Richmond Street and there will be some coordination and I just wanted to ask that um maybe if you could let our

0:31:29residents know about the timing with East Bay mud and and my other question is you talk about parking cost uh uh Paving cost sharing can you describe what that means as far as since that topic was brought up good evening mayor council members Evette Ortiz the city's Public Works

0:31:50director um council member fidelli uh the second part of your question cut out but I'll answer the first part your question I believe was about the timing of the East Bay mud Wildcat pipeline project that indeed has started um with um investigation for utility conflicts

0:32:09by East pay mut contractor and uh the um the project duration is estimated to be approximately two years uh East Paya just today actually notified us that um sent us a save the date they will be holding a virtual town hall to inform the public public about this meeting and

0:32:28the save the date is for Tuesday um October 12th at 6 PM more details to follow um in terms of can you repeat the question your second question about the paving cost and the sharing of the paving costs I um there's a money transfer and I just wanted to make sure

0:32:49that East Bay mud will be giving the city money to further pave after the the work is done is that how that will work right so Richmond Street is actually um in uh the pavement along Richmond Street is not in good shape um and we have been delaying the paving of that street in

0:33:07anticipation of the East Bay m b pipeline project so we've been working with East Bay mud over the last year to negotiate um uh Eastbay mud paying the city a fee to restore the payment on their behalf so that the city can come back and do a full uh gutter to gutter

0:33:25restoration of the street um so that there is an attachment to the uh agenda bill that um summarizes East Bay mud's commitment to work with the city uh to pay for that and then um the second part of that is that the Richmond Street complete streets project will

0:33:45improve pedestrian connections and crossings along along Richmond Street Richmond Street is a very important pedestrian Corridor for us it connects residential um areas uh on the West Side on the east side of Richmond to the BART stations to our commercial Corridor

0:34:02along s Pablo Avenue to the Loney Greenway so we'll be improving pedestrian Crossings there as well as improving uh curb ramps and sidewalks and um bike route markings and installing Street trees I was gon I'm hoping there'll be some discussion on trees uh when the final uh plan and

0:34:23design happens um thank you for that and now on K on the Del um safe safe routes to Transit uh I just want to again congratulate staff it's been a long long effort of pcing all the costs and all the revenue that's coming in to make this possible happen you have the list

0:34:41of all the funding that you've done it's been an incredible job um and I just wanted to know how much additional funding do you think we need will it be difficult and you also uh talk about value engineering uh and whether or not that will have a play in this project and

0:34:57then that those are my two questions so um this safe routes to Bart funding at about $800,000 is the last piece of the puzzle in terms of funding for the project we anticipate we'll be able to fully fund uh the project elements um but we need to wait for our our schedule right now

0:35:18is to advertise the project for construction next week um and then uh open bids at the end of October and we're hopeful to come back to council to award that contract in um November or early December and so we'll know then uh you know the bid results and can provide

0:35:35more information but in terms of value engineering um we just identified potentially some um some different measures that we could install all the essential element of the project but at a lower cost but given uh the BART funding we think we can can do all the elements without without the value

0:35:53engineering measures well congratulations again it's a huge project and it'll be a great asset to the city of elero thank you thank you thank you so do we have a motion to approve the consent calendar motion to approve is there a second I second he motion by council

0:36:15member Kinto second by council member fidelli please call the roll call vote please mayor mama I mayor PM rednik I council member fidelli I council member Kino council member y singer no one is present in the room with me and I vote a yes I thank you motion carries okay at this

0:36:38time I would like to call up uh Asher Kessler to come forward and his family along with uh Mr Pang okay they gonna talk first or oh okay want to let them speak first Proclamation first speak okay go ahead please speak hello I am Asher Kesler I graduated this year from elre oh High um

0:37:07I am on the East Bay Rough Riders which is a dragonboat team uh run by Lawrence Pang here who is also a math teacher at Els oh High um one of the very best um and I tried out this year and attended uh tried out for Team USA the USA national team um where I participated

0:37:30in tens of races I won five gold medals um so now I'm a world champion and I'm also a Jew which is just a little funny little I went to Taha Day School in elero I'm incredibly proud to be both a Jew and from elero and to be a world champion um I think those are all really

0:37:51cool things and I'm so proud to say I'm all three um and and yeah I'm honored to be here thank you all so much for letting me come in and speak so thank you so much would Mr Pang like to make a few comments hi only that we're also proud of Asher and all the accomplish all all

0:38:18the all the things that he's accomplished uh in the sport of dragon boating he's a fantastic leader uh and he's cre to welome in and competitive environment on his own home club and is the Dragon Boat team open to any youth in the any youth from ages 12 to 18 uh

0:38:36anywhere in the East Bay and where do you meet we meet at uh the Berkeley Marina uh docm on any particular day Wednesdays and Fridays 4:30 to 6 and Saturdays uh from 11 to 12:30 and it's all free hey thank you ELO city council Proclamation commending and congratulation

0:39:17congratulating as Asher katcher for an outstanding accomplishment in the 16th World Dragon Racing champ thank you so much thank you thank you so much mayor if I may just very quickly before we move on I I neglected to announce the public comments that we did Reed prior

0:40:20to the meeting so I just wanted to show that we did receive public comments from the chair of the urban Forest committe Robert hubis along with Rober Mitchell Kathy BL Jen kazer and Cordell hendler for items that were not on the agenda thank you thank you C clerk

0:40:42okay our next item on the agenda are the public hearings for fire hazard abatement okay can we please have the staff report good evening Madame mayor good evening city council members and City leadership team the city of elero Fire Marshall and the fire prevention division uh has

0:41:14identified certain real property by street name lot and block number on which presence of weeds rubbish litter or other flammable material creates a fire hazard amend this to public health or where which is otherwise noxious or dangerous as defined in chapter 16.26% to the Elso Municipal Code

0:41:51section 16261 160 thank you very much are there any questions from the council seeing none I'm going to open the public hearing the public hearing is now open inperson request to speak can submit a speaker card to the city clerk and remote speakers can use the raise hand

0:42:21feature to request to speak please remember to identify yourself and your city of resident at the beginning of your comments C clerk please proceed thank you mayor if I could also confirm what if the reduction to the one and a half minute speaking time is for the

0:42:34duration of the meeting or if that was simply for public comment for item not on the agenda um I think we go we'll keep it at a minute the duration of the meeting okay thank you for that clarification I do have one request to speak on this item from SH etar now would be the time

0:42:51to come up and provide those comments Chase if you would kindly receive the micr microphone to him thank you good evening uh my name is Char Bar I'm a resident of elero and I'm scout master for troop 104 here in elero um as you can see uh some of our Scouts are here tonight uh they're here

0:43:14to earn their citizens of community merit badge and part of that is to uh uh both watch hearings such as as this and also to interview other local officials or city uh uh stop uh about that so if there's anybody who's interested in being making themselves available sometime in the

0:43:33future for that feel free to contact me so that was one thing I wanted to introduce um I'm not uh don't have any personal connection to the fire batement specific property that's under consideration tonight but I thought it would be a good opportunity uh to let

0:43:51you all know that um in the past uh troop 104 has uh a monster uh a number of different service projects has done has worked with individual Property Owners uh in the appropriate circumstances to help uh mitigate and Abate clean up yard properties um in those circumstances uh where there's

0:44:14possibly physical or mental infirmity or strong uh limit limited Financial capacity to do so so I just wanted to take this opportunity while we were here tonight to let you know to to remind the uh City staff who are involved in uh code enforcement uh uh that when they

0:44:32come across situations where you think it might be appropriate uh uh to help support a property owner who may not have those means to to do so um do consider us and feel free to contact me and we could see if there's something that uh we can play a role in helping

0:44:48that thank you very much thank you very much and I hope you can provide your contact information to staff I do have that I will make sure they Perfect People receive it thank you that concludes our request to speak on the side of Mayor so do I have a motion to close the

0:45:06public hearing so moved a second okay moved by mayor proen rnet second by uh council member Kinto um city clerk will you please call a vote mayor maana I mayor PR rednik hi council member fidelli hi council member Kinto hi council member we singer there is no one

0:45:25in the room with me and I vote I thank you uh motion carries okay so are there any other Council comments at this time what a way to earn your Civic engagement badge to to our boy Scots thank you so much for participating and you are laying the groundwork for a really amazing future

0:45:48by doing this kind of service mayor my apologies uh Sky point of or order for this item we did not declare the property uh and approve that resolution prior to opening the public hearing oh okay so we have held the public hearing now how should we proceed uh I'd suggest that we uh take

0:46:12up that resolution before conducting take up the resolution declaring the nuisance first and then um and that it's okay that we've already conducted the public hearing we can then uh move on to adopting the second resolution but but take them as separate actions

0:46:29okay so is there a [Music] motion I need the name of the resolution if I may mayor the first resolution would or the first motion would be to approve a resolution declaring the identified properties identified in exhibit a okay okay do I have a motion to approve

0:46:51the resolution declaring identified properties with exhibit a so moved a second okay a motion from Council mayor proen Rik and second from council member Kinto mayor mama I mayor PM rednik hi council member fidelli council member Kinto hi council member we singer

0:47:10there's no one in the room with me and I vote I thank you motion carries and then next do I have a motion to approve the resolution overriding objections so moved is there a second a second motion by mayor proen r and second from council member Kinto city clerk will you please

0:47:28call call the vote mayor mama I mayor p rednik i council member fidelli council member Kino hi council member we singer there's no one in the room with me and I vote I thank you motion carries thank you the next item is cost hearing regarding fire hazard abatement of a

0:47:48public nuisance for properties identified and pursuant to El Sero Municipal Code chapter 16.26% can we please have the staff reps yes ma'am I think that was a great segue with our Boy Scout Boy Scout Troop here kind of goes hand inand with uh the cost that's associated with this type of work

0:48:13and your willingness to perform the services is appreciated in advance so thank you so the action proposed uh it is the recommendation of the EC uh the L ELO fire department that upon conclusion of this presentation the Els the elero city council adopted a resolution confirming the cost of

0:48:35abatement public nuisances conditions resulting from the presence of weeds rubbish litter or other flammable material on private properties designated in exhibit a to the resolution as authorized by the elero municipal code chapter 16.26% uh should there be some questions

0:48:58uh related to this agenda item um but there was some extensive uh prevention and inspection processes that started in June of 2023 uh that moved through uh August 18th and through uh September um this matter appears before the city council for the sole purpose of

0:49:19confirming the abatement costs already incurred by the city for the prop for the property identified and exhibit uh the elero fire department recommends that this agenda item uh that the city council adopts the proposed resolution as presented at the conclusion of this

0:49:38hearing alternatively the city council May adopt a resolution with amended costs or the council may choose not to adopt the proposed resolution thereby not confirming the report of the cost abatement not forwarding the cost of the batment to the county for collection and

0:49:54causing the city of Alo to absorb the full cost of aeing the hazards hazardous conditions of the subject properties I also have the financial kid considerations um the abatement work uh has been completed by contract labor the city's uh obligated to pay contractors a

0:50:14total of $44,000 for their work administrative costs totaling 45850 have been added bringing the total abatement cost to 4,000 45850 and of report thank you very much yes ma'am okay are there any questions from the council seeing none I'm going to open the public

0:50:52hearing the public hearing is now open in person request to speak can submit a speaker card to the city clerk and remote speakers can use the raised hand feature to request to speak please remember to identify yourself and your city of residents at the beginning of

0:51:06your comments clerk please proceed thank you mayor we did receive written public comments for both 8A and 8B from Gary pross that were posted and published with our supplemental materials and at this time I do not have any additional requests to speak on this item

0:51:26he is there a motion to close the public hearing second okay motion by council member Kinto second by uh mayor protm rednik city clerk will you please call a vote mayor mama I mayor protm rednik I council member fidelli I council member Kinto I council member we singer there's

0:51:46no one in the room with me and I vote I motion carries okay any further Council comments okay do I have a motion to approve I moved second okay I have a motion from mayor protm rnck in a second from council member Kinto city clerk will you please call the vote mayor mama I mayor

0:52:09Pro rnck hi council member fidelli I council member Kinto council member we singer there's no one in the room with me and I vote I thank you motion carries okay and just take a moment of Mayor priv uh city clerk could you explain why council member weisinger has

0:52:29to make that statement certainly so the temporary legislation in place under ab2 449 if a member of a legislative body is participating under just cause exemption and not noticing their location they are required to provide information to the public about if there is anyone in the

0:52:46room with them over the age of 18 so that their that information is available for the public to do with what they will so that is why the councilman member is providing that information prior to each vote thank you city clerk certainly okay the next item is policy matters establishment of

0:53:07the pars post employment benefits trust program can we please have the staff report sure and we'll wait a couple seconds while we have um our advisers and Consultants coming online hello there and I believe Matt you are going to share your screen is that right or

0:53:27that's correct that's correct I'll pull it up so um so thank you again I'm Karen Pingus city manager I'm here with Crystal Reams our finance director we're very excited to be here tonight to um ask the council which has previously provided such direction to adopt a

0:53:44resolution authorizing participation in the pars post employment benefits trust program that will be administered by the public agency Retirement Services also known as Pars in US Bank to appoint the city manager as City's plan administrator and authorizing the city

0:54:00manager to execute the documents to implement the program and further appropriating from fund balance and authorizing the deposit of $1 million as the initial contribution to the city's trust so I would like to introduce um from NHA advisers we have Craig Hill with us and Matt D philippus and where

0:54:17are you there you are Ryan Casio from pars and so I'm going to turn it over to um kig to walk us through the presentation thank you city manager um yes this is we'll go quickly through a recap of um some of the conversations that I had with Council in August uh

0:54:39just to bring everybody up to speed as the city manager mentioned we were given direction from the council at that point in time to go out and begin the formation of the section 115 trust so real uh in short order we will um have Ryan from pars make a small presentation

0:54:59on a few slides related to it but let me start out first by um just reminding everybody the background that we had for um the uh item which was that we were interested in setting up the 115 uh we've been working with the city now for two or three years related to this it

0:55:19was also um some stalls I think due to the pandemic higher prior priorities uh staffing issues so we're we're happy to be back in front of you and as I mentioned in August we uh did get direction from you to to move forward with this next Slide the um Ju Just So that everybody

0:55:42understands why we would want to or we are suggesting and recommending that you move forward with the formation of a section 115 trust we all know that there are increasing pension liabilities out out there this trust is going to give the city the financial tools to address

0:55:59it both on a short and a long term uh by using the trust there's a lot of flexibility in it to potentially address the increasing uh and projected payments that you see here next slide um one of the conversations or one of the items that I mentioned sorry um in uh in August is that there are a

0:56:23number of reasons that you the challenges that you will have dealing with the pension primarily it's going to be the increasing annual contributions that you're going to need to be making and how you can from a budget perspective deal with that so we're we're hoping that that that's the 115

0:56:40with funds in it will help you there it also is giving you a better ability to invest those funds in the trust differently than what you do with your current reserves uh there was a robust conversation we had in August about your new Reserve levels which are unprecedented and and and a very good

0:57:00thing we were with the city manager yesterday on a rating update and they were extremely happy to hear that the city has restored some of its reserved levels so congratulations on that so with that I'm going to turn it over to Ryan to talk a little bit more about

0:57:16what the process is tonight that you're doing and what pars is bringing to the table in terms of the expertise so Ryan take it away all right thank you Craig and good evening Madame mayor members of the council again my name is Ryan acasio I'm a senior vice president with pars

0:57:33and just here to present uh some brief information on the pars 115 trust uh just as an opener uh just want to introduce you to sort of the the players or the team with regard to the trust Administration pars as our name implies public agency Retirement Services we

0:57:50administer retirement plan programs for governmental agencies so cities County Special Districts and part of that is uh the administration of a 115 trust where we would do all of the record keeping and uh be responsible for the trust uh sub accounting um processing

0:58:08contributions dispersements essentially coordinating all agency services for the city kind of behind the scenes we monitor plan compliance so any changes with regard to the IRS or gasby or state government code uh we would ensure that the plan stays in compliance

0:58:25uh throughout this uh Dynamic uh pars does not handle any um assets or touch any of the monies uh we simply do the administration that's tasked to the trustee US Bank uh they are tasked with safeguarding the plan assets and serve as the plan fiduciary so as the fifth

0:58:43largest Commercial Bank and one of the nation's largest Trustees of 115 trust you have that backing of US Bank um the second component involved is the investment management that's provided by High Mark Capital Management they a sub-advisor to US bank they have um a

0:59:00number of different investment platforms using open architecture that is available to uh the city for Investments of these assets uh next slide please so ultimately after the adoption of the trust you know that's where we would work with the city in managing those assets uh where the city has

0:59:26flexibility with regard to uh the not only the Investment Portfolio that is selected but uh with regard to how much to put in when to put in and when the time is right to take out uh dispersements so that's where our partnership with himar comes into play where there is a dedicated portfolio

0:59:45manager that would work with the city uh to develop an appropriate investment selection sort of based on uh considerations for the city with regard to risk tolerance timing of use um uh Etc uh they have a number of model portfolios available uh based on uh those goals of the city and that's where

1:00:08uh it would be open to the city to make that selection once the plan is uh I guess the resolution is adopted um in the meantime sort of working behind the scenes as the city would work with the portfolio manager the city can choose uh for the initial investment a money

1:00:25market fund while they're working to formulate the appropriate investment selection uh next slide please and then with regard to the the fees associated with the program there are no fees for setting up the plan uh fees only begin once assets are put in uh the fees are broken out kind of in

1:00:47two components with regard to pars for administration Services um this is an asset fee kind of on a decline mining uh basis with as the assets grow starting at 25 basis points or one quarter of 1% um for US Bank and High Mark uh they started at 35 basis points and then

1:01:08going down as assets grow uh on a total basis of $1 million um initial contribution that's looking at about $2,500 per year for pars and about 3500 per year for US Banks so sort of a total of about six th000 for that and next slide please and then with regard to setting

1:01:32up the trust uh with pars we try to make the process as easy as possible uh where ultimately it starts with an adoption of a resolution uh where the city would join the the 115 trust uh once pars receives a copy of that signed resolution that's sort of where our work

1:01:52begins uh behind the scenes where we would provide signature ready documents to the city part of that is the investment selection form uh where again we would coordinate a separate meeting uh with City and himark uh to meet with a portfolio manager to again sort of

1:02:08discuss uh the goals of the city uh investment Horizon um investment risk tolerance Etc and make an appropriate recommendation and selection of that investment um selection uh you know understanding that um there would be some review of the city council as well

1:02:27as the financial Advisory Board uh this may take additional time however to get the plan set up uh the city can um get started with the selection of that um money market fund once all the documents are received that um account is established by US Bank and available for

1:02:46that City to make that initial contribution ongoing uh we would meet uh periodically or annually for an annual review where uh we can review the program you have the ability to meet with the portfolio manager to review the Investments and sort of the economic Outlook uh next slide

1:03:05please uh with that um I don't know if I want to turn it back to Craig or to City to uh go over the action needed from city council I'll leave it up to City staff what uh how to you end this sure so at this point uh this I think believe this is the last slide yes

1:03:25it concludes the uh presentation from our Consultants so um so tonight we are asking for the council to adopt the uh resolution that would also include the initial investment of $1 million that the city manager or whoever my successor or who I designate uh as the plan

1:03:44administrator for the 115 trust this is a similar setup to various funds and and um things like our retirement um our 450 7 and other funds that we um administer um the I'm also the plan administrator for those as well so it's consistent with other funds um and then authorize

1:04:04the plan administrator to execute all of the legal and administrative documents and just as one more note on the investment policy so as Ryan indicated um and as the council knows the financial Advisory Board is charged with reviewing the investment policy um at

1:04:20least annually um and so this is under their perview to be able to review and so uh once these actions are taken then as Ryan indicated uh City staff will will kickoff meeting with um with himark and the investors and start to talk about planning more discussion with the

1:04:39city council and to I what I would assume would be for the city council to provide direction to the Fab to review this policy so um and in speaking with PRS as we've been meeting uh leading up to this meeting what they can do is they can propose some language and they can

1:04:54propose some um some different um scenarios for the city council to consider as far as strategy how risky how aggressive or how conservative the council means to be but also in order to do that that we would essentially look to create a separate uh investment policy specifically to address the trust

1:05:17um because most of the money as you know that we currently have in our fund balance is invested in and very safe and does not really permit us to be more aggressive so if the council has an intention to be more aggressive which would allow us to create higher Investments for this trust

1:05:36kind of preload as we're looking into that chart that you saw with our um actually can you put that back up um uh Matt with the U yes one second here just kind of wanted you know for the for everyone's understanding thank you so you see that it goes up in just a

1:05:58few years so in the meantime what we can do now is and you know Ryan and Craig and Matt correct me if I'm wrong but if we're frontloading now to be able to increase our investment until that Peak hits so that we're sort of getting ready for when that Peak hits and it provides

1:06:17us that flexibility Ryan did I did I say that well yeah absolutely you know ultimately this is serves to help sort of stabilize those uh potential fluctuations coming from the retirement system based on sort of their uh activity with regard to their discount rate and other act assumptions that

1:06:38could potentially affect or increase uh the rate for the city so you have those assets set aside uh serving sort of as a rainy day fund available uh for your use for those specific expenses and you have local control of those assets right right and I think Craig you were the one

1:06:55who had used the language of calling this a pension Reserve kind of how we know our general fund Reserve this is a pension reserve and um so that would be the that would be the next step so we're sort of introducing that concept for you all to understand tonight but we'll also

1:07:12be working Crystal and I will be working with the financial Advisory Board once we kind of have some language to talk about and then bring that back I believe to the council whether you wanted to do a study session or have um other conversations with the Fab however the council means

1:07:26to do that but that would be the The Next Step once we um take once the council is able to take action tonight so with that of course we're all available for any questions thank you great thank you very much for the staff report it's very thorough are there any questions from Council

1:07:44Members I can save comments for comments but I don't have any questions okay any questions I have a question okay council member fidelli so tonight are we giving Fab a directive well um I think that per you know Ryan um and Craig do you think that that direction needs to be had tonight

1:08:05or should we wait until we have more discussions with the investment with um High Mark what do you think would be the best action for Council to take I I think our original intent was um you know tonight we're formally adopting the necessary actions to form the section 115 so we're

1:08:25getting the administrative piece done we're also directing staff to deposit the million dollars once the account is open for business or open and active um we would expect then to answer the next question is okay now what do we want to do with the million dollars that is now

1:08:45in this account what is the investment strategy which we actually believe can be a little bit more of a a thorough conversation back and forth with the Fab and with the council so we're not asking at this point that we need to schedule that meeting I think as Ryan uh

1:09:02suggested there will need to be kind of an administrative All Hands meeting um but it won't be specific to uh the ultimate investment strategy which is really the next what we see as the next big step it kind of exciting step for how to um how to use this tool to help

1:09:23you um from a fiscal sustainability perspective any further questions council member weisinger do you have any questions this time okay uh now is the time for members of the public who wish to provide public comments on this item inperson request to speak and submit a speaker card to the city clerk

1:09:46and remote speakers can use the raised hand feature to request to speak please remember to identify yourself and your city of residents at the beginning of your comments city clerk please proceed thank you mayor we do have one request to speak on this item so I'll go ahead

1:10:00and start uh Irish sharow you should be able to unmute and begin your time now Irish Shau El Sero California I think the council needs more information what is the current L return and what are the risks in comparison to the conservative investment after considering fees and payment to the

1:10:24Financial Consultant and the considerable staff time how much was NH paid supposedly to finance department is short staff also if staff has paid a lot of money and staff goes to all these networking meetings why does the city hire Consultants to do the work staff

1:10:43should be researching I saw the 10-year Returns the calers provides quarterly returns where is the historical data for all the potential Investments have any of the Investments lost principle I don't think the council can make an investment decision without knowing the risk return

1:11:03tradeoff I think this is all small potatoes what would have been the city's financial status prior to the recent 27.2 million increase in the U the city had spent $1 million or even1 million paying down its debt I think that is a question that needs to be answered given

1:11:26the massive increase in pension liability combined with the collapse of the housing markets and its consequences for the transfer tax I think the council needs to shift focus and start thinking about a general fund tax and possibly needing a TR in just a few years thank

1:11:43you very much thank you our next speaker is Richard C Richard you should be able to begin your time now hello can you hear me yes yes we can all right we're going to PIV it back to our inperson uh we do have a an inperson request to speak so we'll go to Linda Kane

1:13:30next thank you I'm here again so um well I'm still in the can and I still live in elero um and I don't want to get too sidetracked but that previous speaker was very off topic the speech was offensive and hateful and I appreciate the city council putting the signs up

1:13:46United against hate I really don't know why I have to listen to that because if this was public radio they would have leaked it out and and I it's very it's very harmful it's very hateful and it really upsets me anyway on the subject of pars investment like I'm no expert

1:14:05I'm an ordinary citizen I'm not Financial advisory trained or on the board so when these things come up I'm like okay who does it cover who is pars I know we have like other in other um inv investment for like the police envirment or something like that any way

1:14:23it's it's kind of like when we have a meeting like this and we're sitting here trying to sound informed to be informed but we really don't know what it's about all I can says a million dollars is a whole lot of money so I understand if Ira says something about it well I feel

1:14:38like I appreciate his Insight from any previous meetings so you know it's just please explain it to the people okay thank you thank you that does conclude our request to speak on this item mayor thank you city clerk okay okay back to council comments who would like to go

1:14:59first um I will proem um I believe in the First Amendment rights but I also think that it's Al important to know that um again this is not the city of elero it's really sad that people are using this as an opportunity you know they can be Toddlers and cry and cry

1:15:16like little toddlers and then we'll let them cry themselves to sleep that's you know how most people can handle a toddler you know want to feed it anything so anyways on that now that's gone um I I appreciate the work that staff has done this um why I didn't have

1:15:34any questions is because there's been years and years building up to where we are right now lots and lots of discussion has been had lots of discussion will continue to be had I think um Mr Hill hit it on the nose that it's really important that we make sure that um the investment strategy is

1:15:53aligned with elero and making sure that um we are making safe Investments um I do think that this is uh the best direction for our city to go in so um I'm appreciative again of the work that's been done the work that's continued and if we look to where we were a few years ago to where we are now

1:16:13we are making correct decisions to align us better um with a steady financial future so thank you so much Council Rino thank you mayor um I wanted to say and and let our residents know um that uh we've been dealing with this for what three years now and I'm grateful to uh Craig Hill and his staff

1:16:36and also to our staff um we've got to the point we're ready to do this and I'm ready to move forward on this and uh just want to say uh that uh in this three years uh we looked at uh uh different ways where we can do this and uh so again thank you to uh Craig Hill

1:16:56and uh NH advisers and uh to your staff uh for supporting uh our city manager and our staff uh and our new staff with Crystal um bringing her up to speed on what needs to be done here let's move forward and just do this so thank you again council member fidelli council

1:17:16member weisinger any comments I don't have any major comments just to also thank the staff you know as I expressed to our city manager um this week has really been a learning opportunity to learn do a deep dive into what the section 115 can do for our community and the the

1:17:34immense opportunities it is to really improve our our financial um Outlook and and on the subject of of teachable moments I want to also you know thank Linda for bringing that up as far as giving us the opportunity to show that this is a teachable moment for us as

1:17:48well um you know we always talk about unintended consequences when you get un educated quite irritated imbeciles calling into our Council it gives us an opportunity to educate people about what the the four what the um the amendment is as far as free speech um we'll always

1:18:06encourage Free Speech but we'll always also call out racism homophobia transphobia anti-Semitism and all the things whenever you say that stupid stuff on our council meeting thank you for the opportunity thank you council member weissinger I do have a few comments so

1:18:25first I'd like to thank you to staff uh and uh our advisers for bringing this forward we have like council member Kino has said that we've been working on this for a while I think there's a couple of things that I think we kind of went through very quickly um in the

1:18:42presentation that I would just like to stop and like remind people what this5 trust does for us and one of the things is it was called for in our a state audit so you know this is good best practice for financially solvent cities so we are putting money aside so that

1:19:01when we need it should we need it particularly in a financial year when we hit that Peak what we need to pay into the retirement system for our share of that payment we can rely on this 115 trust to help us if we need it so that is these are basically additional savings it's an

1:19:22additional Reserve that we can draw upon to make that payment and it's really important for us to have that but again it started with the state auditor we are glad that they are see this as a vehicle for sustainability and we are taking the step so that is also a great big

1:19:38positive check mark on that state audit the second thing which I did see a happy look on our city manager's face but this is important it's an important indicator of our financial health so that when you know standard and pors comes and checks on our status for our bond rating that

1:19:59they can also go through and say fund Reserve at a healthy level pension 115 trust check we've done our homework so that we are ready for the future and with a starting from a really good Financial place so that is the whole point of this 115 trust um and I think it's it's great

1:20:20that we are setting this up now I really looking forward to this discussion about our investment policy so that we can dive into things like our the the risk level that we're comfortable with and any kind of additional costs that might be associated with that which doesn't I

1:20:35think it sounds like we are covered under the uh $6,000 per year that was mentioned in the presentation but I think one thing that I would like uh the Fab to consider and this is important to me and I know this is important to many community members is that we make sure that we are not

1:20:53investing in fossil fuels because we're going to have to divest later I think when we hear about uh cpers saying oh it's going to be a 4% return if they should divest it's because they're selling off what they have now there are plenty of ESG funds that are doing

1:21:11better than 4% that if we start that way we will end up better and I really would like to send my feelings about that back to the Fab than they consider our invest policy any other comments or any that we'd like to share with Fab about how we would like to move

1:21:35forward I look or I appreciated the outlined next steps and I hope that those are the steps that we do indeed follow that we do have that conversation around investment policy and with that I'd be happy to make motion to um I'm trying to think of the best language to use um and a motion to adopt

1:21:54the resolution to um U to adopt the pars public agency post-employment benefit trust uh to appoint the city manager or the successor design as the city's plan administrator for the program to um execute the pars legal and administrative documents on behalf of the city and take whatever additional

1:22:21actions are necessary to maintain the city's participation in the program and then appropriate the million doll from our fund balance and authorize that deposit as an initial contribution to the city's trust hey do we have a second I'll second that he motion by mayor proam

1:22:41rednik second by council member Kinto mayor mama I mayor proam rnck hi council member fidelli hi council member Kinto hi council member we singer no one is in the room with me and I vote I thank you motion carries okay congratulations everyone okay the next item is city council compensation

1:23:05can we please have the staff reports okay all right thank you your honor again Karen Pinkus city manager here with Crystal Reams um and Sky also uh worked City attorney Sky Woodward worked with us on uh this staff report so um as the I'll just sort of Kick this off um

1:23:38unfortunately no members of the Fab were able to be here tonight so I'll give a little bit of a a background for them um the uh compensation as you know is set at $441 per month um um in staff's research we discovered that that um that particular salary was set back in

1:24:001991 um it was the last time that this was uh that was this this was cons this um ordinance was passed by the city council as it needs to be done by ordinance um as a general LA City which we were back then it was limited to government code section 36516 as to how

1:24:18much the compensation could be based on population um as a charter City now uh the city council can choose to do um something different from that government code uh but at this point uh the um that is not at least under consideration as far as what the potential cap could be but

1:24:40taking a step back this financial Advisory Board in their enacting legislation is charged with reviewing city council compensation and this was uh also addressed by The Fab members in their work plan to you in May um The Fab created a subcommittee of members uh Patterson and white and they

1:25:02met several times to um go over um various uh they did research they looked at comparable cities they um had uh discussions at the last at the July and August Fab meetings and uh what they decided to do was um they also reviewed the government code there is a newly

1:25:21adopted government code that goes into effect in January that did raise the cap for what general law cities were able to pay their council members based on population to compare since we're not a general law City but uh to compare uh a city of our population's cap would be up

1:25:39to and including $950 per month so that all of that information was provided to the financial Advisory Board and they um considered all of that and they uh as the recommendation is before you to uh pass an ordinance to uh increase the salary to $650 per month and because

1:26:01they're not here I want to you know just give that as a we looked at the minutes and we wanted to make sure that we were representing what they said uh as clearly as possible that their thought was they wanted to review this they felt that an incremental step would be a good

1:26:16first step and that they wanted to review this next year and ongoing so that we don't have to wait another 30 plus years to have a conversation about this um and so the the recommendation was provided to you in the staff report um essentially this would increase the

1:26:36city council's budget by two by $2,540 per year uh if this was adopted the the Fab did not recommend a time frame however to make it sort of at the mid midpoint of the fiscal year we wrote the ordinance staff wrote the ordinance to begin this on January 1st and that

1:26:54would be um $627 which we would um bring back to you at the midyear budget um uh the mid-year budget update as a as a request for um an increase at that point and um I believe that's Crystal I don't know if you had any to add um again uh the Fab uh is is all sorry that none of them

1:27:18could be here tonight as you know there are three Fab members um and so it was uh but we hope that we were able to provide their recommendation uh to their liking and with that certainly any of us uh could answer questions on the technical side thank you thank you very

1:27:36much uh for that report out city manager are there any questions from the council okay councilman weisinger any questions okay okay so now is the time for members of the public who wish to provide public comments on this item in person request to speak can submit a speaker card to

1:28:02the city clerk and remote speakers can use the rais hand feature to request to speak please remember to identify yourself and your city of residents at the beginning of your comments C de clerk please proceed thank you mayor at this time I do not have any hands

1:28:17requesting to speak on this item okay thank you so now it's time for Council comments any comments I do council member fidelli want to be after other comments but you know so so for a long time I've publicly advocated for greater compensation for the elero city council and I support the Fab

1:28:44recommendation even though I think it should have been at least double what it is now I think it's a bit low actually um I'm one of the lucky ones in in my life because after my years of working in various um capacities for state legislators and Transit agencies I have

1:29:01a state pension that's allowed me to run for this office when I retired with income others are not that lucky and we shouldn't be keeping younger more diverse candidates from elected office in our city I strongly believe that possibly this small salary increase up

1:29:19to 650 a month will encourage others to serve I hope that's the case having said that and how important this measure is to pass let me tell you why I'm going to abstain from my vote um based on those years in public service I've always believed that elected bodies should only

1:29:35vote to increase salary for the next elected Council and uh I believed that for several decades not just years but decades and I don't see any reason to change that view now when I'm an active elected uh person so if if this um effort of this new increase would have

1:29:56started I guess it starts in January of next year 20124 if it would have started in after the election of 2024 I would be be a yes vote for this but because it's uh U starting before that I see no indication that this Council wants to unjustifiably make such a motion I will support the

1:30:17motion but abstain in my vote thank you council member Pell any other comments mayor proen rck um thank you very much mayor and I appreciate your comments council member fidelli um as a parent with a young child there have been months and that $441 is tax so it's 380

1:30:35or so when you get that paycheck for month there's been months where I've had night meetings and that money goes away very fast because of child care and child care needs and I know that when I go out in the public and I'm you know I'm I'm within the elero community quite

1:30:52deeply and I hear from so many people I could never do that because because exactly this reason it is a real Equity issue and um well I appreciate and it's hard because no one ever wants to talk about giving themselves a raise it's it's an uncomfortable thing to talk

1:31:08about but when we're talking about when I do the math I probably make $2 an hour a month and I it probably varies with my colleagues depending on how much we're actually working when you divide you know this is a part-time job um sometimes it can feel like a full-time

1:31:25job but it's a it's a part-time job it should be compensated as such we are bringing in expertise into this role uh my intellectual capital is something that is valuable so and especially having a family trying to um create more diversity on this di we need to be able

1:31:46to compensate folks appropriately I am fine because the increase is not more than double I think that would be a really hard thing to push to have starting January 1 but I think that um a very very incredibly incredibly modest increase of 650 is fair and adequate and

1:32:05I appreciate Fab doing the research and I look forward to voting for this Council Rino thank you mayor um I wanted to uh uh let folks know um I agree with what you said and know that Council we have lost a few council members Through The Years um women uh because um the pay has been so low so

1:32:30I'm always looking at equity and and we've asked every city in California to work on equity and diversity and inclusion and uh um so I I want uh to make sure that now as a charter City that we look further into this uh next year um you know with um um I want to

1:32:52make sure that we are building a bench and that we uh have good people um I remember a former council member recently left because uh you know she was losing money out of this uh uh for me as as someone who was retired um I'm losing money on this volunteer gig you

1:33:11know I I truly am and and the hours and hours that I put every day um and on weekends uh I'm not sure if if uh folks know uh how much uh uh we do here in the city council and uh the extra things that we're able to do uh to put Els Sero on the map uh Statewide and the great

1:33:34things that uh my colleagues are doing on Regional boards um these are the extra things that we don't get paid on uh so uh um so definitely as a charter City I hope we look at this uh we're looking at other cities uh in kraasa County uh who are General law cities

1:33:53that uh were able to get much much better raises uh because of that dog bill that did pass and was signed by the governor so again I look forward in working with the Fab on that and uh I want to make sure that Fab always looks at Equity diversity and inclusion in the

1:34:11future thank you council member WIS do you have any comments yes um thank you so much mayor and you know ever since I've been on the council one of the charge that I've had for this council is for us to up our ability to think about what it means to be Equity centered

1:34:28right because being Equity centered is not just asking the question what is the equity measure you as the council member should have that equity center embedded in you right so when we're talking about Equity we just I don't remember which meeting it was maybe last month and I

1:34:42don't remember which plan we were voting on but we were talking about how we were so happy that the staff had done such a great job in upping their game and building whatever that plan was I don't remember if was strategic plan because it was helping undo the wrongs of the

1:34:58past racially and diversity wise in the city of elero I mean if we're talking about you know a lot of our council members have talked about um building the the building the bench being more diverse on our Council and what does that mean so I'll give you a bit of a

1:35:14transparent moment of mind I was elected in November of last year and on December 1st of last year I lost my job so I was living off of unemployment and this I was looking forward to every month this $400 because even though it barely pays a bill it was an important thing as a

1:35:33working class lgbtq woman of color living in the city of Els serito that was a big deal and there were days when I said I'm gonna have to quit the council because I cannot be going to council every every you know week every other week when I don't have a job you

1:35:48know and we don't want anyone to have that barrier we we want to make sure that anyone who wants to be represented on this Council can be on the council and have the financial means to do so so when we talking about coming in as a a member of a representative Community it

1:36:04is Our obligation it's not it's not a something we're doing lightly it's an Our obligation as women as people of color as lgbtq po we have to change this measure right now as we are the council members because we don't know who's going to come in the next years we don't

1:36:22know what their focus is going to be we don't know if they're going to be Equity centered if you miss the opportunity to make the change when you're in the seat then you've wasted your time in the seat so I look forward to working with the Fab and getting this P because this is

1:36:36the work that we need to be doing if we're going to be moving the needle on equity and diversity here in the city of El Serita thank you council member weisinger um I do have a couple of comments one is I really appreciate the work of the Fab to bring this forward to

1:36:55us uh it feels kind of it feels very nice as a a recognition of our work um that they uh feel that we should be uh better compensated I think uh you know as a firsttime mayor the amount of time that this job takes has been quite a surprise so you think you're getting

1:37:18paid two bucks now wait till next year um and you know I have taken a 20% pay cut in my salary so that I could take one day off a week uh to devote more time to being mayor and that was of course my choice I'm fortunate that we can kind of eek it out to make up for

1:37:40that it's caused Sacrifice by my family and I really appreciate that they've been very very supportive of this and you know I think think it's there's a part of having to sacrifice a little bit on our parts that is important in this work the other part of being mayor is that

1:38:02you know it's a tremendous privilege because we get so much you get so much back as mayor so many people are so kind uh you learn so much you get wonderful opportunities as mayor so I think it's you know the cost is high the reward is great and I think increasing our

1:38:23salaries to $650 a month is fair uh I don't know that we'll ever as elero get to the place where we have real salaries for someone to be a council member because we are a really small town and I would like to take this opportunity to to let the public know if they I don't know if they're you know

1:38:43who who else is listening but that in cities like Berkeley which seem like comparable to us people don't realize that Berkeley is a much bigger town with a much much bigger budget and a full-time Council and full-time mayor and they have staff and so I've I've met with people like well

1:39:03you know you really need to have your staff do X or you know you need well what about your office you know can we meet at your offices it's like well you have an office that we get to use whatever staff time we have it is the staff of the city and so yes I manage my own calendar kind of badly

1:39:24sometimes I apologize if I missed anybody but you know so we are we are trying the best that we can but I think you know we are a small town and I think having us be community members mostly volunteer working here I think is it brings something special to our service

1:39:43um so I do understand that more people can do this work if it was better compensated and so I will leave that to other council members in the future to keep working on that and to Fab to bring that back if that is what they feel is important for us um I don't know how

1:40:02much strongly I can support increases just because you know I'm more on the school of council member fidelli that I feel really uncomfortable voting for a raise for myself um but I am not opposed to it for council members in the future so with that I would like to say thank

1:40:21you thank you to the public for this great opportunity to be your mayor I do get compensated by your by your support and so uh that is the most important compensation to me so again thank you thank you to my fellow council members thank you to staff uh this is really really really great so

1:40:43with that um do I have a motion to introduce by title and wave future reading of an ordinance to increase city council compensation from 40041 to $650 per month so moved is there a second second okay moved by mayor proam Rudnick second by council member weisinger city

1:41:15clerk will you please call the vote mayor mama I mayor p rednik i counc member fideli obain council member Kinto council member we singer there's no one in the room and I vote I thank you motion carries thank you the next item is study session on City Board commission and

1:41:37committees okay moved by mayor proam Rudnick second by council member weisinger city clerk will you please call the vote mayor mama I mayor PM rednik I council member fideli abstained council member Kino council member we singer there's no one in the room and I

1:41:56vote I thank you motion carries thank you the next item is study session on City Board commission and committees before council member fideli and I provide our comments as the members of the ad hoc committee and open it up to council discussion the city clerk will provide a brief presentation

1:42:17reviewing all the recommendations we have put together from our work and also I would just like to uh say a few words about why we have been working uh towards this I want to say that we really value the time and expertise of the committee and board members and we

1:42:35want to make sure that we are maximizing their value to the city and Council um we want to make sure that there's a clear way for us to request recommendations and to receive them and to take a fresh look at our Advisory Board structure for policies and procedures

1:42:51and to introduce new voices by creating path a path forward for youth members Madam clerk can you give us our presentation thank you mayor H charot or city clerk uh I'm going to briefly review the ad hoc committee's recommendations for the council tonight uh the ad hoc committee did meet five

1:43:12times with staff and discussed a number of topics which they focused into four areas uh which we're review tonight and the following content will provide an overview of the eight recommendations developed by the committee for consideration by the full Council so the

1:43:28areas of focus were broken down into Communications between city council and advisory bodies the second area is modification to General regulations the third a public safety committe and fourth youth participation so if we go into the communications area there are three

1:43:47primary recommendations in this area so the first recommendation is related to advisory Body Work plans uh the recommendation is to have all of our The Advisory bodies develop a by anual work plan that is based on a fiscal year for the uh initial period of time half of those advisory bodies would

1:44:10develop a one-ear the other half a two-year to stagger when they would be coming to city council and um received on uh consent as receive and file which I'm getting ahead of myself here uh the second piece is that the staff Le aison would be assisting and guiding the

1:44:28members of The Advisory bodies to ensure that the items placed on the work plan are within the scope of the advisory body's responsibility as well as the city strategic plan the template and information that would make up the work plan would be adopted by city council

1:44:44the plan would be adopted by The Advisory body and posted on the advisory body's page on the city's website no later than October 1st and that in part is timing to allow for new members who are starting a term as of March 1st to become acclimated with the new advisory

1:45:02body discuss and be part of adopting a plan moving forward it's also taking into consideration the budget process and timing of information being presented to the city council and then the last are is once a plan is adopted by an advisory body it would be provided to the city council on

1:45:19consent as a receive file the city council of course has the ability to ask ask um any questions at any time and if a member wanted a more thorough presentation or discussion on that work plan that can be requested for a future meeting the second area is related to

1:45:37annual accomplishments while this will be considered a component part of the work plan template it will be a separate portion where the advisory body can do an annual update on all of the things that they have accomplish ACC lished in the prior calendar year and that update

1:45:53is requested by March 1st again to be able to go through any shifting in membership for that March 1 term expiration and that information would also be provided on consent as a receive and file with those same stipulations of further discussion if a member wished to

1:46:08have that for both of these areas uh the ad hoc committee discussed exemptions from these two areas for the citizen streets oversight committee who is already providing a very specific reporting requirement under the ELO Municipal Code the Civil Service Board who meet meets on demand as well as did

1:46:27the design review and Planning Commission as their work is very specific and very detailed and is not action oriented um in terms of a work plan like the other advisory bodies are uh this is just a snapshot of a template that we had been using uh that staff had implemented some time ago and

1:46:51had feedback from the ad hoc members to add some information including resources being requested estimated staff time needed for the goals and objectives that are identified by The Advisory bodies and then again that prior year um accomplishment would be part of but a

1:47:08separate component of that work plan document the third area in this topic that was discussed is the communications for rec recommendations that are made by an advisory body so in this area um there's a couple of different pieces that the advisory body discuss so the

1:47:30first and um most prominent piece would be be that recommendations should reference the related work plan item or the applicable area of responsibility to show the tie-in for the recommendation that is made lining up with what the advisory body is responsible for those

1:47:47recommendations would be submitted to the city clerk through the staff liaison and then would be provided to the city council again on consent as a receive and file and as with the other two areas city council can certainly uh ask clarifying questions or request a future

1:48:02agenda item to further discuss the recommendation that is received if a recommendation is related to a request by a city staff that information as it is now would be included in the agenda bill or related materials that are presented to the city council as prior

1:48:17items tonight were for the Fab recommendation um that information would be incorporated in with the staff information recommendations that are made that do not relate to a work plan area of responsibility would be presented to the city council as public comment which is one of the ways that

1:48:34information is pro provided to the city council currently and then at any time for any purpose the city council can still choose to request a specific recommendation or evaluation by any advisory body moving on into the second topic um the ad hoc discussed the um sorry the ad hoc discussed areas

1:49:02for existing regulations or potential new regulations that are in Encompass all of our advisory bodies what we refer to is our general um regulations for advisory bodies and there were three recommendations in this area the first is to restrict serving on more than two

1:49:21advisory bodies at any given time and in addition to that restriction priority would be given to those who are not currently serving on another advisory body the second area is to reduce the meeting frequency to once every two months but not less than quarterly and

1:49:39just to clarify on this piece our legislation our Municipal Code currently requires all advisory bodies to meet every month this recommendation is not presented in in a manner to prohibit that from happening if there is a need but it does reduce and allow those that

1:49:56don't have a need to meet monthly to be able to meet by monthly um there was also the request for an annual report to be provided to the city council in terms of the numbers of meeting meetings held for each advisory body and we already have that information for attendance tracking

1:50:13purposes so it is something that can be provided um after the first of the year for all of the advisory bodies and then exceptions to this again would be planning and design review they do have a little bit of work on their plates so they would likely still need

1:50:29to meet monthly in order to meet those goals the third area of the third recommendation in this area is to revise the pre-meeting attendance requirement to strongly encourage pre attending meetings prior to Applications so in 2021 the council changed their their

1:50:48regulations requiring that two of the last three meetings held that the individual would have attended those meetings and before they were eligible to apply we realized that that had an unintended consequence if you're low on membership and you can't hold meetings

1:51:03you can't appoint new members so the the ad hoc's recommendation is to change that requirement to strongly encourage it as well as require that that applicants are demonstrating knowledge of the current work of the advisory body during their interview um meaning that

1:51:18they have either minutes they've looked into it they've talked to the STA leison or other members and they can demonstrate that they have a working knowledge of what the advisory body is currently doing moving into the third area for Public Safety Committee this area is uh

1:51:37regarding a request to consider expanding the existing crime prevention committee's jurisdiction the recommendation is to determine if there is a consensus by the city council to expand the jurisdiction to potentially include areas such as fire safety Community safety and crime prevention as

1:51:53well as uh emergency response and just I have a notation here for what the the crime prevention committee currently is tasked which with which is developing promoting crime prevention programs cooperation with local law enforcement and awareness of methods to prevent

1:52:12crime as well as advise city council regarding crime prevention programs and then finally the last area discussed is youth participation and this area is regarding participation on advisory bodies as a member of of our younger Community this has occurred on a few occasions

1:52:33informally in the past however no policy direction from the council is currently in place the ad hoc committee wanted to provide General guidelines so that there is more opportunity in place for youth to engage in civic participation and the recommendation would be that advisory

1:52:48bodies can formally informally recruit and appoint a non voting youth member uh the city city staff would also advertise the ability to participate as a member of Youth but advisory bodies that are interested in having that type of participation can go out themselves and

1:53:05and actively um recruit and try and get a member of Youth in our community to participate in that capacity a youth member must be a resident or student in elero of high school age between the ages of 14 and 18 14 and 18 14 and 17 because once they become 18 then they're eligible to serve as a

1:53:26regular advisory body member uh there would be some type of consent required from a parent or Guardian to participate as they would be minors they would uh the recommendation includes them participating in orientation and handbook training which includes most importantly the code of conduct as well

1:53:43as sexual harassment prevention training however none of the other general rules or requirements would apply and and in that sense term expirations attendance things like that would not be applicable to those members and then at the conclusion of their time serving as a

1:53:59member uh participating as a youth member of The Advisory body that they would be encouraged to evaluate and share their experience before the city council so following any additional comments by members of the ad hoc committee next steps would be to hear from members of the public uh then

1:54:19discuss recommendation the recommendations presented by the ad hoc committee and provide staff with Direction staff would draft draft applicable legislation required for any direction provided continuing to work with the ad hoc committee to refine the content and return to the council for

1:54:35consideration of adoption while questions will be directed to the ad hoc committee members on their recommendations I'm also available to provide any assistance needed that I will turn it back over to Mayor Mama thank you city clerk um at this time council member fideli would you like to

1:54:50provide any additional comments yeah thank you very much uh a lot of material a big topic for discussion and um I just want to reiterate that our advisory bodies are a critical um component to the city how we function and how we get our citizens and residents involved in Civic activities

1:55:11you know the more I look at this proposal the more I think it is a good plan for discussion I believe uh compared to our present system our recommend ations of our ad hoc committee provide more flexibility among advisory bodies it allows for better communication between committees

1:55:28commissions and the city council which is one of the main reasons why the mayor undertook this effort and I believe if implemented we encourage more participation among residents making it a bit easier to get on the Committees and to be able to serve what's really

1:55:45exciting to me is the New Direction uh focuses on important work plans every subcommittee should have a work plan and every other year it will be discussed and um finalized and possibly brought to the council for a discussion uh and um that work plan makes a clearer relationship between the

1:56:08council and the advisory groups any Committee in the future if this is implemented can request Council action on work plan issues and there's a way to get that information and request to the council or there's another path for nonwork plan concerns that can also get

1:56:28to the council for a discussion and any council member can move forward with a discussion by requesting that to the council so there's a pathway for these issues to get up here from our advisory bodies and I believe prioritizing being clear on the importance of work plans

1:56:47will really focus our advisory body body members with the clear committee goals and this will be important to achieving committee goals and helping our staff and our Council and City goals some of the other advantages include lowering the mandates for pre- requested meetings

1:57:03for potential members it sets a minimum as our city clerk mentioned a minimum number of annual meetings not maximums it does not disallow or prevent an activist committee if more committees if more meetings are warranted they can occur and um this also the less

1:57:25frequency of man mandated uh will be more sensitive to City staff requirements responsibilities and availability uh and possibly it will make participation in City advisory boards as I said easier and more accessible with an every other month minimum and no pre-meeting uh

1:57:44requirement um the greater scrutiny um on work plans will also demonstrate if we really do need all the Committees that we presently have or should others be established and that gets to the point of the subcommittee believing that this Council should consider if if

1:58:02council member rudnick's request to broaden the crime prevention committee is a worthy goal whether staff should consider and provide recommendation which include as the clerk mentioned Disaster Response CT fire prevention police and crime prevention goals and activities presid ly there are no

1:58:20committees that specifically involve Wildfire issues in our city um also dealing with the youth involvement I think that's a great opportunity in a two-way street to provide educational experiences for elero Youth and our high schoolers and to hear back from our

1:58:38youth in our elero environment finally I believe the ad hoc committee has focused some options for our advisory bodies that allow more flexibility with easier access to council review and input and and the mayor and I look forward to input on this discussion and we would

1:58:54appreciate feedback and comments thank you very much thank you council member fideli are there any questions from the council council member Kinto I um want to say thank you to you to you both for uh this important uh project that uh um you know it needed to be done and and

1:59:16it's taken many many years so thank you for uh yeah completing this I support uh your findings um one thing I wanted to mention is that uh you know with um the going crime rate that we have here um there are um members of the uh Prime prevention crime prevention committee um

1:59:39that don't want to include fire safety I truly believe that should be in another committee um this Prime the crime prevention committee Works uh to make sure that uh um you know we've been getting calls and emails from uh residents um especially on the North side because of the recent gun violence

1:59:59that we've had uh not once but twice in a month so uh looking at that and looking at how residents would like to start up neighborhood uh watch groups again um I'd like to have the crime Committee just concentrate on that um and you know possibly create uh another

2:00:18commit looking at um for years now we've had problems um even um just establishing a quorum so um and with covid it it made things worse so we're we're having difficulties finding volunteers uh to uh uh be part of the many uh committees and groups that uh we have openings on so I

2:00:43want to be um mindful of that and mindful with our busy staff um and and know that I don't believe we should be meet some of the Committees shouldn't be meeting every month because every month we have problems even trying to get a a quorum so um being mindful of that but

2:01:02also um being cognizant of the other uh things that we need to look at now especially uh uh wildfire and um uh fire prevention um be good to look at that um closely but um also uh committees many of them don't need to meet every month and I want to make sure that we are in

2:01:24control when it comes to overtime and not overburdening our staff um you know our police and fire are busy and uh when uh they take the time to attend these committee meetings and there's no Quorum it's it's a a waste of overtime thank you mayor proam um first I want to start

2:01:45by thanking both mayor motana motoyama and council member Fidel because both of them previously served on our board's committee commission so they have that experience they're coming from it with that lens as well as understanding our perspective here so for the four main

2:02:02topics I'll start on the lower one and then move my way up um and for one I also want to thank the members of the public who submitted public comments beforehand it was very valuable for me to read through that beforehand I know the city clerk will announce those

2:02:16members who did provide public comment in advance but it was really helpful for me for that framing so I'll start with the last one and it seemed to be aligned with a lot of the feedback from members of the public which is around the youth participation I agree with all of the

2:02:31framing for what it is that the expectations are around membership so things like uh parent agreement to participate um that they only have one seat and that um when their service is over if they could report back to us I agree with all of that the one thing that I I agree with the public

2:02:51commenters is the value in having Youth being able to be votes that that they are voting members not non-voting but I recognize that for the Planning Commission design review board they are Quasi Judiciary so that would not apply for the financial Advisory Board I don't

2:03:08think that would apply especially because there's form 700s that are required disclosures I don't know if form 700s are required for economic development committee no they are not so for arts and culture aging uh arts and culture is required to form 700 so for the the for the groups that do not

2:03:28require a forb 700 so aging eqc EDC HRC so many the acronym alphabet um uh PRC um Urban Forest committee um I I see all of those as places where youth could vote and it would I think be really valuable to the whole city if they could indeed have that vote um so that's would

2:03:54be my feedback for the Youth uh to the the second one um to clarify there was only one member so it wasn't many members from the current prime crime prevention committee who uh gave feedback around concerns of if the scope is changed for the crime prevention committee would that impact their work

2:04:14plan uh so I in 2021 May the request if we could evaluate expanding the crime prevention committee to being a public safety commit committee uh for one I do want to recognize the um the crime prevention committees uh that there is unfortunately a historical um bias that starts with the

2:04:40framing of what that means uh especially with neighborhood watches I think that um if we are really being mindful of looking to the future of of what is Public Safety in our community that it is an integrated and Community centered approach um and that crime prevention to

2:04:58me could be after school care crime prevention to me could be um more jobs available to youth uh there are things that uh I think of as Public Safety that um is especially given let's say we do have a major disaster you know the inevitability of a major disaster is

2:05:17upon us and it is fire and police who work together in response and I think that our community should align with that too that Public Safety that it would not be impacting especially now that we're going to be structuring it more with the work plan we're not going

2:05:31to be changing the work that's being done now but what we are doing is we are expanding the lens in which we are looking at it and creating spaces for us to have public meetings where we have community members uh that we can hopefully have folks in the radio Community hopefully we can have folks in

2:05:48Wild fire prevention insert and all these different Community groups who really care about having the platform and having access to city city staff to be able to collaborate on these things I feel really really strongly that having a Public Safety Committee is going to be

2:06:04valuable for everyone in the community and if you just want to deal with wildfire and really think about that and you don't want to be you know Brown act because that's what it this is a public meeting there are Community groups we have two members here um in the chambers

2:06:18where there are places where you can get involved so what you only care about is Wildfire prevention you we'd be happy to introduce you to the fire make elero fire safe Community but if you want to be involved in working with the city to make sure that we are being really

2:06:33Progressive mindful thoughtful that we are thinking of what kind of grant opportunities can we go after um what type of evacuation planning are we doing that's the kind of stuff where we really need to have members of the public who are engaged on on this and as uh

2:06:51speaking from the um the young parent demographic I know that there's a lot of folks who want to be involved in this but a lot of the meeting requirements and those monthly meetings are really very hard so um I'm supportive of the other two items I probably went on for

2:07:09way too long um but again I think that I can't emphasize more the importance that we have a Public Safety Committee and that we're expanding this out to include fire and how important it is that we do have youth for these non fors non dis or the nonform 700 uh members that they do have

2:07:30a vote so thank you council member weisinger do you have any yes I mean I think I would want to add on to that same thing we have to really think about reimagining what that phrase Public Safety means I think it goes beyond it to a much more robust conversation and listing than what we

2:07:52have here um I recall last year I think this was before I was on the council there was a conversation I don't recall what the actual topic of discussion was but there were several community members who brought to the table the idea of um civilian oversight um and I think it is

2:08:10important that we do actually talk about civilian oversight and and I think we it was said then I in public comment and also to the I think it was my public comment actually um about how that may be either housed in what would be a new Public Safety Committee or would that be

2:08:27its own committee but I think that that civilian oversight is something that we definitely need to start having conversations about mostly be um because Elso is a small City and the civilian oversight does require talking about budgeting and money and all those things

2:08:41but it is a huge part of the the president's task force on 21st century policing and so if we're talking about things like broadening our scope of Public Safety those are the type of things that may go under that umbrella and if not we need to have a ro very robust conversation about what falls

2:08:58under that umbrella because now you're talking about redefining what safety is um and we would have to Define we have to Define that to Define what's going to be in that for that for that particular committee and so that goes to the committee's question about what would

2:09:11their work plan be because that's a very a very real very real thing for them to consider if they're coming into the the committee or are already on existing committee thinking that they're just you know talking about neighborhood safety and we're talking about really

2:09:24broadening that scope um will it go with them or will we create another one so I don't know if that's something that that I would agree to as far as being a part of something we we instituted tonight I think it's something we need to talk a bit more about unless that's not under

2:09:40the purview of this you know we've mentioned that a couple of times well we need to have other um create other committees I don't as a new coun member I'm not quite sure exactly how that goes but I know that what we're talking is something very big and very Broad and

2:09:54it's a lot more than what's right here on this document right now thank you council member weisinger okay at this time I'll open it up for public comment now is the time for members of the public who wish to provide public comments on this item in person request to speak can submit a

2:10:13speaker card to the city clerk and remote speakers can use the raised hand feature to request to speak please remember to identify yourself and your city of residents at the beginning of your comments city clerk please proceed thank you mayor I will quickly announce

2:10:28that we did receive written public comments on this item from howdy gouty Robin Mitchell and Jim delanis and those are online and provided to the city council as supplemental materials and we will start with our in-person requests to speak um beginning with John stashek

2:10:47followed by L decain John stashek El Sero very interesting listening to the city cler comments and synopsis of this plan but uh cutting Advisory board meetings from one month down to two doesn't uh when I look at the uh the one particular board I look at a lot is

2:11:10economic development and uh you'll see a meeting that is canceled for lack of Quorum you'll see another meeting that's canc because it's on a holiday so really if you're meeting every two months now suddenly it might become four months I'm not sure what they're going to get done

2:11:27if anything and I think uh a one- month meeting there is so much potential on the EDC and the other advisory boards that I I I don't think one month is a hardship and when you sign up for it I'm I'm always hard knows on this you show up for your damn meetings and don't uh

2:11:45don't bail on them and cause them cancel for lack of a quorum but uh two months that's that's quite a stretch I'm not sure what you get done but whatever thank you thank you our next speaker is Linda Kane Linda Kan from elero um my personal perspective I just applied to be on the

2:12:11committee on aging and tomorrow will be my first meeting I guess as a real member so wow yeah so I'm just thinking I don't know like a lot about what it what it is I did try to demonstrate my interest in local senior issues and participation and and um I think that's

2:12:28why they um said you're okay plus I had talk to City counil I mean committee members and said what do you do and they you know they had said oh you should apply for it because this is what you're interested in um if we restrict people from multiple it's not like I want to

2:12:42apply for another committee right now but if you restrict people from multiple commit multiple committees and then you have more committees that you want to have or committees with more of a scope why would you restrict somebody who has the interest and expertise maybe in more

2:12:57than one area from being able to be on two committee I I like the idea that yeah if they're not on any other other committee um yeah maybe you don't necessarily and yeah maybe they're a priority right but but if somebody is great on fire and gr and crime prevention we need them and you're

2:13:15saying I mean I see there are empty seats on most of the Committees so you know if I should get interested in arts and culture which I am interested in you know if I like being a Committee Member why can't I apply for that you know just saying okay thank you uh we're going to proceed to our

2:13:36online comments mayor this time we have 12 requests to speak I'll go to our first Speaker howdy gy howdy you should be able to unmute and begin your time now uh thank you mayor and city council my name is howy Cy I live in elero um so I thank you for your time and attention to

2:13:55this uh topic um first of all I am the current chair of the eqc but I'm speaking um as myself with about 14 years of experience on advisory committees um so I'm supportive of the change in the recommendation policy that um would uh enter it into a council uh consent item um and I'll just point out

2:14:20that at least for the eqc standpoint um while that addresses the uh Council communication the eqc um resolution explicitly says that we're tasked with communicating with Council staff and other bodies and so far the recommendations have not provided any illumination on how we should uh

2:14:44communicate with staff or other bodies so I'd like to get more Clarity on that um I'm glad that you're including youth participation and I you know second the sentiment that they should be allowed to vote um it's just the appropriate thing to respect their participation and

2:15:02they're completely capable of doing that and I would support them being voting members of committees um and I'm supportive of a broaden public safety commission or com committee or another uh committee that uh would specifically address emergency and disaster preparedness or combined with uh Public

2:15:26Safety is fine but I think there should be a a committee that involves emergency and disaster preparedness um I'm sorry I had a a long letter I had a lot more to say so hopefully you had a chance to say that and um yeah thank you thank you thank you our next speaker

2:15:47is Robin Mitchell Robin you should be able to unmute and begin your time now um thank you my name is Robin Mitchell I'm a resident of elero um I really appreciate the work that the ad hoc committee put into this um the one thing that I was thinking is it doesn't

2:16:02sound like I I am currently on the urban Forest committee and I attend the environmental equality committee meetings and I don't recall ever um having the the opportunity to meet with the ad hoc committee to see to get feedback from the those committees to see about these proposed changes and I

2:16:19would hope that the communication could happen with those with all the different um bodies before the recommendations are put in place to get feedback from The Advisory committees and maybe amend some of the recommendations um I think it's kind of odd that the work plan and the

2:16:33accomplishments are separated I'm not sure how strongly I feel about the one- year twoyear but I think that they should sort of happen at the same time um and then in terms of recommendations I think it would be important if the advisory body knows um you know get some

2:16:50sort of response from the city council or staff if that's where it's um uh directed to just because in the past you know we put forward recommendations we never hear anything so just some way to have some feedback about that and then um I do agree that um just having a

2:17:08meeting every other month um is not going to be enough for the urban Forest committee I don't think it's enough for the eqc so I think if committees don't need to meet once a month that's great they don't have to but I think if they want to meet every month they should be

2:17:22allowed to and then again just uh reiterating what everybody else has said about n uh youth participation I think they should be able to vote thank you thank you thank you our next speaker is Ed K Ed you can begin you can unmute and begin your time now can you hear me yes we

2:18:16can yeah I'm no longer hearing comments I'm going to the next speaker Nate H you can unmute and begin your time now we'll go to our next hi can you hear me yes we can hi Council thank you for your time I'd like to next races our next speaker is Mrs S you can unmute

2:21:52and begin your time now Madam clerk I'd like to call res noting for the record 8:35 the council is going into a short recess we will return shortly e okay mayor um just for the record we are reconvening the council meeting at 8:52 okay um I am going to uh carry this

2:40:02item over to another meeting I fully recommend that any advisory body members that have further comments email them to us and uh likely we will have another ad hoc subcommittee meeting to discuss the comments that we've heard and bring as staff to bring it back to a future

2:40:24meeting okay so the next item on the agenda is city council local and Regional liaison assignments council members with assignments or announcements CC meeting and uh went well and uh um and then I attended uh um MCE we had a a brief meeting today uh unfortunately I'm going to miss the

2:41:00uh retreat but uh hopefully we will have uh folks like howdy uh that will uh um attend uh and uh they can uh participate as well uh we will the uh executive committee and the board will meet and take a tour of the uh solar fields at Chevron and uh this is a future of uh

2:41:24what Chevron is doing and uh um and they uh invested in the new company Raven Raven uh is a new company that will create uh green hydrogen from our green waste uh that um we uh give to uh East Bay sanitary every week so um so there are companies that are doing that and uh

2:41:49are looking at another company in Pittsburgh that will be doing the same thing um the Sierra Club has supported that so um we need to look at things uh closer before we decide who we're not going to uh you uh invest in and I know uh Calpers is looking at that as well uh

2:42:10because corporations are part of the solution as well government cannot do it alone so I'm glad to see Chevron participating and working on the green circular economy uh with Republic Services and MCE Marine clean energy will be uh part of that as well um and I

2:42:29look forward to having my colleagues uh join me for the leue of California City's convention starting tomorrow so uh uh this Council most of us will be there bright and early uh tomorrow morning and look forward to the next three days and uh and I know city managers and council members and Mayors

2:42:48uh throughout the 483 cities in California we have the largest uh uh group that will be flying out and driving out there uh we have over 2300 uh people that have RSVP so um get know uh looking forward to that and looking forward to uh uh being second vice president and I'll be sworn in on

2:43:12Friday so looking forward to that looking forward to seeing all of do as thank other lays on assignments council member weisinger do you have any lays on assignments that would like to announce um yes so we Chris Jones from our parks and re department and I met with the West

2:43:32County Community um schools collaboration committee um it was mostly in person there at supervisor John Jo's office however Chris and I were both busy working and so we were via Zoom um but it was a great kickoff to what we hope to be a very productive collaboration between our our city

2:43:51councils as well as our West um Contra Unified School District um staff um and you know we're just talking about how we can collaborate together and make more deep deeper investments into to really converting those of our schools that are not Community Schools to be more trans

2:44:08um transformative across our systems and thank you even though of course he's not here but thank you to West Contra Unified School District um superintendent um Dr Hurst who came and gave a great presentation along with his staff um we're looking forward to making

2:44:25a u making some great transformational change in our cities okay thank you I do have um some announcements to leaz on assign announcements on 8 uh August 19th I attended the ribbon cutting for Freddy's shop on a August 23rd I met with PG NE as a follow-up to our council president our Council

2:44:50presentation and also met with residents on August 24th I attended the Roosevelt dinner on August 25th I attended the jcrc stand against anti-Semitism event at Temple Isaiah and Lafayette on August 29th I attended a tour of the elero Planned Parenthood clinic on September

2:45:086th I delivered proclamations to centenarian day at the elrita Royale on September 7th I attended the ca County mayor's conference in Clayton in September 8th I attended the aapi Leadership Summit in Sacramento on September the 9th I moderated the solution Summit for the unhoused and on

2:45:26September the 13th met as ad hoc subcommittee for advisory boards so with that uh the next item is Clos session public employee performance evaluation so we will now move to close session thank you um