HomeMy WebLinkAboutMinutes 2018-09-12 @6:00MINUTES
SPECIAL MEETING
s A
cg11F0 CITY COUNCIL
OF THE
CITY OF SOUTH SAN FRANCISCO
P.O. Box 711 (City Hall, 400 Grand Avenue)
South San Francisco, California 94083
Meeting to be held at:
MUNICIPAL SERVICES BUILDING
COUNCIL CHAMBERS
33 ARROYO DRIVE
SOUTH SAN FRANCISCO, CA
WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 12, 2018
6:00 p.m.
CALL TO ORDER TIME: 6:00 p.m.
ROLL CALL PRESENT: Councilmembers Addiego and Gupta, Mayor Pro
Tem Matsumoto and Mayor Normandy.
EXCUSED: Councilmember Garbarino.
AGENDA REVIEW
None.
PUBLIC COMMENTS - comments are limited to items on the Joint Special Meeting
None.
ADMINISTRATIVE BUSINESS
1. A report regarding the Information Technology Master Plan. (Tony Barrera, IT
Manager)
Tony Barrera, IT Manager updated Council on the Master Plan developed by IT and consultant,
ClientFirst. Manager Barrera introduced Tom Jakobsen with ClientFirst and stated Mr. Jakobsen would
go over the methodologies, assessments, strategies and goals and answer any questions.
Manager Barrera advised that in 2017 the City partnered with ClientFirst to help develop a 5 year Master
Plan whose purpose is to assist with the current state of the network, identify applications and
infrastructure upgrades and provide us with recommendations to help modernize the City network. It
gives us a framework to follow to expand staff training, to upgrade hardware and software as needed and
to help streamline business processes when moving forward from paper to digital. This framework will
help us set priorities based on the list of the 63 initiatives identified and to focus IT resources on the
project.
Tom Jakobsen stated he is a senior partner with ClientFirst Technology Consulting, specializing in
consulting with local governmental agencies. He has created 40 -50 IT plans, beginning in 1999. He
developed the plan using a 5 step methodology. ClientFirst met with each department that had concerns
with their IT functionality and sorted through them to develop the 63 initiatives. Once developed, they
met again with those departments to prioritize the initiatives into the 5 year plan. Then work with City
Manager's office to revisit and maybe revise their methodology and then prepare their final report.
Mr. Jakobsen continued saying there were many great GIS initiatives in place but believes the City needs
more City -wide GIS integration. The City should also develop an address master database that underlays
all address based applications. The goal being GIS integration with all the major applications. Smart City
initiatives is the newest thing in municipal technology. It relates to the Internet of Things which refers to
the interconnection of devices like smart phones that can enable you to run your furnace or answer a
doorbell. There are several initiatives in the plan related to that. GIS continues to be important as a
foundation because it's a great repository to collect data from Internet of Things' devices. Smart Traffic
applications are becoming more and more prevalent as are public safety improvements related to video
and license plate reader technology.
Manager Barrera stated the plan first recommends adding a business analyst with project management
skills to the IT staff to help lead application implementations, work with departments to streamline
business processes. That would free up his time to focus on the longer term projects. The plan also
requires cooperation from all the departments to be part of a steering committee to have collaborative
discussions on the projects and help oversee the plan. And finally, the plan would also require funding.
Currently the IT budget averages around $3M and this plan asks for an additional $2M to fund the
initiatives. But tonight Manager Barrera is not asking for any money; instead he's going to use this master
plan to help pull initiatives and go through the normal budget process. This plan is a living document.
He'll add, remove and adjust as needed but this will help him provide a framework moving forward.
Councilman Gupta asked about the Improvement Opportunities (shown on slide 8), specifically the top
bullet about the current major application systems. He inquired if that included any problems with
accuracy of the data or the results or is it no impact or neutral.
Manager Barrera responded that it's neutral. If the City had a centralized database with everyone's input,
it would help increase efficiency and provide data accuracy.
Councilman Gupta responded, one of the principles of data base management is that any critical data
should be input only once under your control which should then feed all the required inputs of that data to
somewhere else in the system. He asked how far away the City is from that goal.
Manager Barrera stated he is hopeful this plan will help the City move in that direction. The City's
financial system does provide some of that centralized data but a lot of the siloed applications are not
providing that one time input of information.
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Councilman Gupta responded that because it's a multiple entry system of the same data, it's possible
some parts of the system may have stale or inaccurate data. Manager Barrera agreed that was a possibility.
Councilman Gupta asked if these plans include any proprietary information that would bind the City in a
particular fashion to a particular company. Manager Barrera replied that these are all generic applications.
The City will do an RFP to look for the application that meets their needs. The City will go through the
normal process of reviewing RFP's, interviewing, demos, and select whichever one meets their needs.
Councilman Addiego professed a limited understanding of this particular discussion about silo concepts
and thanked Councilman Gupta for talking about that. He advised Manager Barrera, if he is looking at
enhancing his budget. Manager Barrera needs to bring him along because Councilman Addiego needs to
understand specifics.
Mayor Pro Tern Matsumoto responded in kind with Councilman Addiego as this is neither one of her
strengths nor interests so she discussed it with one Council candidate, Flor Nicholas. She understood this
is a 5 year plan with a 3 year implementation timeline. Mayor Pro Tern Matsumoto queried specifically
what the business was when the City is moving from paper to digital, the business analyst will have to sit
down with each department to understand their business processes. One of her concerns that was not
mentioned strongly enough was cybersecurity. Mayor Pro Tern Matsumoto stated she was especially
interested in disasters like earthquakes and floods.
Mayor Pro Tern Matsumoto asked if the City is paying for backups to the Cloud. Her concern is the ever -
increasing volume of paper that might be too much for the Cloud to handle. Manager Barrera responded
that they are talking two different things. Manager Barrera continued, instead of housing the infrastructure
in -house you send it to the Cloud and someone else is managing it and housing it. Mayor Pro Tern
Matsumoto asked who is doing that in the Cloud. Manager Barrera answered it's Amazon, Microsoft and
others. The City will still have a collective database in -house whether or not we go to the Cloud.
Mayor Normandy asked, if council were to approve this, if they were also looking at amending the budget
to include this business analyst position.
City Manager Futrell responded, as Manager Barrera has stated, all of this will go through the regular
budget cycle in the coming year which means it will go through the budget subcommittee and will come
to Council for approval just like other departments who have had strategic plans. He stated that this new
Plan calls for a certain timeframe which may be accelerated or lengthened based on available resources
and our priorities and then it will come before Council in great detail, one item at a time for approval. So,
whether or not that additional staff member comes to fruition or makes it through the budget cycle is yet
to be seen.
Mayor Normandy commended Manager Barrera on this IT Master Plan which she supports. Years ago
she wondered why we didn't have one while the School District did. It's also important that we all
understand it.
Mayor Normandy also asked if they were looking at city -wide Internet access in this Master Plan for the
future. Manager Barrera stated children today have their homework on iPads and computers; there's no
more text books, there isn't any paper. Providing Wi -Fi in low income areas will help bridge that digital
divide.
SPECIAL MEETING SEPTEMBER 12, 2018
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Mayor Normandy asked if it would be illustrated in the Strategic Master Plan and if it will be free Wi -Fi
access for all or just low income.
City Manager Futrell responded that free Wi -Fi was really what addresses that. There are many who think
that land internet service is a thing of the past and Wi -Fi speeds will be such that you won't need all of
these wires connecting homes. It'll all be Wi -Fi so the City has been building out its free Wi -Fi in public
buildings, the County is installing a free Wi -Fi hotspot on Grand Avenue and, as part of this plan, our
goal would be to eventually have free public access Wi -Fi available throughout the entire City.
Councilman Gupta commented about the Cloud which he thought of as an intact data base storage which
is only accessible to the client, like the City. It is not located on people's actual computers which could be
damaged, lost or stolen.
2. Report regarding the Energy Efficiency Plan prepared by OpTerra ( Engie) as part of
the Energy Savings Project (project no. pfl 703), a resolution accepting a $50,000
grant from City /County Association of Governments to partially pay for the Energy
Efficiency Plan and City energy efficient projects, amending the Fiscal Year 2018 -19
CIP budget and approving budget amendment 19.019. (Marian Lee, Assistant City
Manager and Justin Lovell, Public Works Administrator)
2a. Resolution accepting a $50,000 grant from City /County Association of Government to
partially pay for the Energy Efficiency Plan and City energy- efficient projects, and
amending the Fiscal Year 2018 -19 Capital Improvement Project budget and approving
budget amendment 19.019 Medians and Gateway Sign Program Study Session. (Matthew
Ruble, Sr. Civil Engineer)
Assistant City Manager Lee presented the report regarding the Energy Efficiency Plan. It was prepared by
OpTerra who's now referred to as Engie. She informed Council that Engie is here in the audience but the
presentation will be mostly from her and Administrator Lovell if any detailed questions are asked about
the actual program.
Assistant City Manager Lee presented some of the plan's highlights. A $3.7 million dollar program was
prepared which includes installation of solar panels at 6 sites and LED fixtures at 9 sites that are all on
City facilities on City property. This program, if implemented, would reduce greenhouse gases by 650
tons per year. This program comes with a financing strategy that essentially means the City would take
out a loan with interest ranging from approximately 3% to 3.5 %. The City could pay back the loan in 17
years with the savings the City would realize by implementing these energy efficiency projects. Once the
loan is paid, the City would receive annual savings of approximately $160,000. She noted that the annual
savings does not take into account what would be end of life replacement costs. Based on the proposed
program, the City did evaluate the return on investment, the required financing and also worked with
Legal on the draft agreement that would reflect the implementation phase of the project.
Assistant City Manager Lee recommended that the City conclude their efforts with Engie for the planning
portion and pay them $50k for their services. That was the agreement in the planning phase of the work
for which the City received approval from Council.
SPECIAL MEETING SEPTEMBER 12, 2018
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Mayor Pro Tern Matsumoto asked whether this was standard in the industry or just for this company.
Assistant City Manager Lee replied it was for this particular turnkey scope of work - that was how it was
scoped out.
Assistant City Manager Lee worried that taking out a loan at this time was not ideal given that the City
would be getting ready to issue bonds for the Community Civic Campus project. The implications to the
bond rating was unclear. She stated there was the potential that it could impact it. Because of these
reasons she is recommending that the City conclude this effort at the end of the planning phase.
Assistant City Manager Lee stated there was another aspect to the Staff presentation which dealt with a
grant the City received from C /CAG (City /County Association of Governments). The City applied for this
grant when we were working with Engie with an understanding that if the City got the grant the City
could apply some of this money for the planning effort with Engie as well as some capital money. The
City was successful and obtained $50,000, using $20,000 for planning purposes and $30,000 for capital
project purposes. She explained the resolution tonight is to accept that grant. Approving it would apply
the $20k towards the $50k payment the City would make to Engie for this plan. For the $30k, the City
identified at least two capital projects that are already in CIP that deals with LED lights. The City has
been talking to C /CAG staff and it's her understanding that the City would be able to apply the $30k
towards those projects so they can realize the full value of the grant.
Mayor Normandy thanked the Environmental Committee, consisting of Councilman Gupta and
Councilman Addiego. Mayor Normandy concurred with Marian's report that knowing the City's
priorities on the Community Civic Center Campus and trying to understand the loan that they'd have to
do and not have it paid off in 17 years doesn't really set the City's priorities.
Motion — Councilman Gupta/Second — Councilman Addiego: to approve Resolution 141 -2018.
Unanimously approved by roll call vote.
3. Medians and Gateway Sign Program Study Session. (Matthew Ruble, Sr. Civil Engineer)
Senior Civil Engineer Ruble provided an update on the City's Gateway sign and Median Master Plans.
He advised Communications Director Arroyo would be giving an update on the Gateway Sign
implementation and Parks Manager Mediati would provide an update on the accomplishments and plans
the City has for Westborough Boulevard and Junipero Serra. Engineer Ruble advised Brian Fletcher with
Callander Associates was there tonight to answer any questions Council may have for Staff regarding
these items.
Director Arroyo provided a quick overview. In 2013 there was a Gateway study that had a Steering
Committee create a Council approved conceptual design for 12 easily identified sign locations. There was
both a horizontal and vertical sign. We studied both designs before Council directed Staff to move
forward and install two signs, one horizontal at Airport Boulevard and Sister Cities Blvd and one vertical
at Westborough Avenue and Skyline Boulevard. Slide 8 showed the horizontal sign, depicted along El
Camino, which wasn't approved due to median spacing limitations. The vertical sign was approved.
Director Arroyo stated the purpose of sharing this with Council tonight and to talk about the Gateway
Signage Program was because Staff has one more horizontal sign to install, based on Council's feedback,
at Mission Road at McLellan Drive, near the BART station.
SPECIAL MEETING SEPTEMBER 12, 2018
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Engineer Ruble stated Staff wanted to combine the signs in the median presentation to make it easier to
envision the setting and to differentiate between the vertical and horizontal signs. Going from south to
north, from Noor to Spruce is a fully funded CIP project. The plans and specs were prepared and it's
ready to go out to bid. The median improvements will include irrigation, landscaping, pavers and a
vertical Gateway sign at Noor Avenue as you come into the City. We come to El Camino from Spruce to
Chestnut for which Staff has conceptual plans prepared but no identified funding. For the area between
Noor and Spruce, Staff is exploring how to create a design that was influenced by the Grand Boulevard
Initiative which Staff will be kicking off shortly.
Engineer Ruble continued stating the Grand Boulevard Initiative (GBI) section was between Chestnut and
McClellan. It's in front of BART and next to a potential transit oriented development. Nearby was Kaiser
Hospital and the planned Chestnut area will become the City's Civic Center Campus. Work will take
place between 8:00 a.m. - 5:00 p.m., Monday through Friday. Residents and Council will see impacts to
traffic. Staff would do everything possible to keep a minimum of two lanes open in either direction while
construction's taking place. Neither SamTrans nor Kaiser will be closed nor affected by these projects.
All businesses in the Corridor will remain open.
Manager Mediati gave a brief discussion about some of the recent median improvement efforts the City
has made the past year and a half. He showed the modest improvements Staff made to the medians on
Westborough, especially the segment between Junipero Serra and Gellert. The work included irrigation
repairs, some planting around the existing sculpture, planting some trees.
Manager Mediati stated Staff was also planning some modest improvements on Junipero Serra. Staff
planted about 50 trees in the median on Junipero Serra at Arroyo and they've been increasing our
shoulder and tree work throughout that entire corridor most of this year. Staff's ultimate goal is to make
future maintenance easier by doing a lot upfront work now.
Councilman Addiego advised Manager Mediati that there's been a really positive buzz on the effort put
forth on Westborough Boulevard but most especially Hickey which has been in place for a little while.
Councilman Addiego stated there was groundcover growing there but thinks it's a plant that has some
great potential in residential applications. In full bloom this groundcover seemed to be hosting dozens of
bees and butterflies. We're really doing something right when you create that kind of environment at a
major roadway intersection.
Mayor Pro Tem Matsumoto also praised Manager Mediati for Junipero Serra which was starting to look
like a forest instead of a jungle.
Mayor Normandy asked Director Arroyo to continue with the Master Plan Concepts for the Gateway Sign
and to provide her any directions or comments.
Director Arroyo opened slide 5 and solicited feedback. Councilman Addiego stated he liked the sign
installed at Airport and Sister Cities Boulevards which the Mayor liked as well.
Mayor Pro Tem Matsumoto wondered if Council was being asked because there were some discussion
the last time the signs came up. And is Council being asked to move forward or to make tweaks because
they've invested over $400K dollars in the signage to date for the design and installation.
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Director Arroyo answered Staff would like to move forward with the third sign because it was included in
this year's budget. She stated they have spent about $290k to date on the design.
Mayor Pro Tern stated she drove last night to the Skyline, Westborough, South Airport/Sister Cities area
and was happy to say that those signs are spectacular at night. She especially liked the sign on Airport
Boulevard.
Councilman Gupta commented that the nighttime sign viewing is much more attractive. He also liked the
idea of a horizontal display putting the South San Francisco words on one row instead of three to make
the sign as easy and intuitive to read as possible.
Director Arroyo asked if Staff were to come back with some renderings of the South San Francisco sign,
reading it from a different perspective, how Council would feel about doing that along El Camino.
Mayor Pro Tern Matsumoto answered that Council would need to see some examples or options first.
Mayor Normandy stated Staff just needed to find a balance with the size of the font with a smaller
emphasis on the word South.
ADJOURNMENT.
Being no further business, Mayor Normandy adjourned the meeting at 7:04 p.m.
Submitted:
Gabriel Rodriguez
Deputy City Clerk
SPECIAL MEETING
MINUTES
Approved:
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Liza ormand
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Mayor
SEPTEMBER 12, 2018
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