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HomeMy WebLinkAboutMinutes 2012-01-28 SPECIAL MEETING MINUTES _c„ COUNCIL OF THE J O c O � CITY OF SOUTH SAN FRANCISCO P.O. Box 711 (City Hall, 400 Grand Avenue) South San Francisco, California 94083 CITY HALL CONFERENCE ROOM 400 GRAND AVENUE SATURDAY, JANUARY 28, 2012 8:00 A.M. Purpose of the meeting: 1. Call to Order. Time: 8:09 a.m. 2. Roll Call. Present: Councilmembers Addiego, Matsumoto and Mullin, Vice Mayor Gonzalez, and Mayor Garbarino Absent: None 3. Agenda Review. No changes 4. Public Comments — comments are limited to items on the Special Meeting Agenda. Parks and Recreation Commissioner Dave Gallagher spoke on issues regarding the skate park, mainly the safety issues and patrons not wearing safety gear but felt overall it was important for kids to have some place to go. He suggested perhaps better signage would help with compliance and could release the City from liability. Meetings had been held and currently he was trying to put together a group from Parks and Recreation to help out with compliance issues and asked for additional time to work on the issues. Councilwoman Matsumoto asked who came and spoke at the meetings, parents or riders? Mr. Gallagher noted the meeting was attended by both. Most who commented were older kids from Skyline College who would ride during class breaks and commented there were no elements in the skate park with the degree of difficulty likely to cause great injury. 5. Items for Discussion: a. Council Goals /Objectives Councilwoman Matsumoto stated her goals were to increase community outreach efforts emphasized on children aging out of the foster system as many exists in South San Francisco and statistics show that 50% are or will become homeless. She also wanted to find ways to increase opportunities for children with special needs. Currently she is working with Terry White to get more volunteer and part time employment opportunities. Look into P3 business opportunities. Vice Mayor Gonzalez stated his main goal was to continue working with the community on various issues for example; he noticed many areas did not have Scavenger service. He wanted to come up with a way to address this issue by encouraging /enforcing compliance from property owners via their renters. Councilman Addiego stated he did not have anything specific but as the City moved away from being able to effect economic change through the Redevelopment Agency ( "RDA "), it still needed to keep that as a focus. He had been troubled by the recent increase in low level criminal activity as correlated some of it to the problems with the economy. He also felt that too many people living under one roof increased the chances of loitering. Therefore, it was still important to move ahead with affordable housing developments despite the loss of RDA. Mainly, it was important to maximize the opportunities for our community. Councilman Mullin wanted to take a strong position in advocacy for the City post RDA as he felt South San Francisco really was a great example of how RDA was done right. He wanted to look into how the City could play a role and influence in whatever new form RDA might take. Personally, he wanted to continue his work with the Community Coalition on Safe Neighborhoods and stated they would be releasing their strategic plan this spring. He would be looking for ways on how to turn that plan into actions and use the document to get funding for support of the activities being driven. He thought the Neighborhood Response Team was costly but of great value. He would continue his regional advocacy service on MTC board and going through the Plan Bay Area. He would also continue with his intergovernmental advocacy, using his connections with Congresswoman Speier's and Assemblyman Hill's office. Lastly, he wanted to engage more in biotech issues given its importance locally and regionally. Mayor Garbarino stated his goal was to remain an advocate for the City through the many Boards and Committees he sits on. After relating a story about a mad who had recently moved his business from San Francisco to South San Francisco, he wanted to look into ways of bringing in more small businesses to the City. He also wanted to try to make it to more Boards and Commission meetings. He wondered if a joint meeting of all the Boards and Commissions could be resurrected. Lastly, with the ending of RDA, he wanted to take a look at the properties in question and see what the City really wanted to keep and develop. He anticipated that topic to be more settled around mid -year. b. Staffs Goals /Objectives City Manager Nagel outlined the staff goals in the following areas: Management of the Capital Improvement ("CEP"), Economic Stability, Quality of Life Improvement in the Community, SPECIAL CITY COUNCIL MEETING JANUARY 28, 2012 MINUTES Page 2 Enhancement of Public Safety Operations, Expanded use of Technology, Redevelopment and Planning Activities, and Maintaining an Efficient and Effective Workforce. Regarding the shopping cart retrieval component in CIP, the Mayor asked who was currently responsible for this. City Manager responded staff will pick them up. Reorganization of departments was being done, with the Public Works Department lead. Library and Parks and Recreation departments would be looking it to it soon due to upcoming retirements. For economic stability, Director Steele would be looking to provide more interdepartmental support, utilizing technology for efficiency and customer service, banking /purchasing /internal controls, and succession planning. Manager Nagel stated different staff would be front and center more often in the Finance Department, most notably Budget and Finance Manager Colleen Tribby. Finance was fully staffed and the best it's been in a while. Councilwoman Matsumoto asked if there were checks and balances were in place to determine if /when something questionable may be going on. Attorney Mattas stated staff was bonded, Manager Nagel stated he would look into that further. In the Public Safety goals, Chief Massoni wanted to do some facility upgrades. Mayor Garbarino stated with the loss of RDA, it would really have to be looked into what could be done with the Municipal Services Building ( "MSB "). He knew it would require some significant dollars to be put towards retrofit. Councilman Addiego stated he was interested in making /keeping it safe but did not think it was a good investment to do anything more as it had reached its lifetime of usefulness. Councilman Mullin noted Civic Center component of the El Camino Real/Chestnut plan was now in question since RDA was no longer.. Economic and Community Development Director Marty Van Duyn stated the General Plan update was still in effect at least as far as policy efforts. He felt it was important to stay the course with major planning efforts like prior development areas, climate actions plan. All these plans speak well to the potential tools coming out of the RDA which would be centered around some of the sustainability issues. It seemed that the tools would be structured around SB375, paying attention to transportation oriented development. The City has two (2) adopted priority areas. We have structured city in way to get grants. If smart planning principles were applied the City will be in line to get dollars. The City has paid attention to that and has situated itself to do that. We have kept plans for low /moderate income housing. Councilman Addiego asked if money was coming from the state would we be competing with major metro areas. The answer was yes, but the City has accepted its obligation for low /mod housing, where a lot of SPECIAL CITY COUNCIL MEETING JANUARY 28, 2012 MINUTES Page 3 other cities in this county have not. Councilwoman Matsumoto asked without RDA, where was the focus? Assistant Manager Van Duyn said that the housing requirements would be a large component and criteria to compete for funds to do other things. The two concepts of low /moderate housing and attracting business /retail were not at odds. Plans for downtown, El Camino Real, and PUC land had to be well mixed. Councilman Addiego wanted to avoid mixing problems and noted that South San Francisco had long been a blue collar and affordable community. Councilwoman Matsumoto was concerned about not being able to capture the wealth of the biotech industry for the downtown renaissance. Councilman Mullin understood the need for market rate and felt the new developments at the low /mod level were still nice enough to create a desirable economic opportunity. Assistant Manager Van Duyn stated there was overemphasis on low /mod housing as it would be required to get more money, but it's not all that is needed. He used East of 101 as an example of designing and zoning for a particular industry and being successful at it. The City needs all of the enticing components. When the tools filter down from the state the City is a good position to argue for getting that money. Another thing that help South San Francisco in terms of competitiveness was its employee driven development and the regional impact that it has. If there is seriousness about job growth, South San Francisco has got that cluster. This still needs to be pushed politically in efforts to get the infrastructure money needed for Caltrain station improvements and other modes of public transit. Moving on, Assistant Manager Van Duyn spoke about: Coordinating efforts between Fire and Building related to Code enforcement/building inspection issues. The Climate Action Plan and its value in cutting down the EIR and mitigation requirements for projects as well as being a tool for accessing additional funding The 636 El Camino Real Housing Development, which was property owned by the City. Having control of the market space as well makes it possible to discount rents, in an effort to attract business tenants without giving away public funds. Post RDA, staff is now the staff of the Oversight Board which still has a lot of work to complete. Staff was working hard to keep asset like PUC and staying the course for many development projects initially planned rather than selling to make a quick dollar. He was convinced that long term would pay more in dividends to other taxing agencies. He continued that owning property gives the ultimate leverage and that if property was lost the City would be out there arguing the current market place. SPECIAL CITY COUNCIL MEETING JANUARY 28, 2012 MINUTES Page 4 Councilman Addiego added to that point and stated if the state became aggressive about putting property out for wholesale, the City, to stay in control of its own destiny, could argue that a good use of reserves would be to pick up a few choice properties at the current market in anticipation that in three (3) to five (5) years, things could be very different. Assistant Manager Van Duyn stated some assets may give us ability to leverage funds to still achieve some goals, i.e. the Ford property to help the St Vincent de Paul ( "SVdP ")project. We are looking at each option so we don't jettison some projects that have been near and dear to council, like the SVdP project. Councilwoman Matsumoto suggested some additions for consideration of 2012 goals: adding a highly skilled grant writer to staff, diversity training by department to address her concerns about the "glass ceiling," intra -city exchange, making sure Ordinances are all in tune, and identifying and filling potential intern projects. Mayor Garbarino noted the Mayor of Brisbane had given compliments about the intra -city exchange. City Attorney Mattas spoke about the Attorney's Office goals and identified them as: implementing and monitoring AB26 monitoring and the efforts of Representative Steinberg regarding regional retail tax sharing abilities. At a local level, the office would continue work on the General Plan update, updating Engineering sub - development plans, moving forward with the Harbor District Joint Powers Agreement to implement SKS deal, provide training to departments on liability issues, and talking about other forms of economic development that are available. He added, assuming the City holds onto PUC, we need to look at land conveyance structuring documents and different vehicles of land conveyance. Councilman Addiego spoke about the loss of control and things becoming Sacramento based. Councilman Mullin got the sense that Sacrament was in the mode of downloading responsibilities and a lot would be going regional, which may not be good for South San Francisco. Some of the aspects of regionalism were discussed. Attorney Mattas stated this policy had worked for along time in CA and was only refuted in a fluke case in Los Angeles. Assistant Manager Van Duyn said sharing RDA funds was targeted to housing across city jurisdictions. Regionalism was nothing new; if we get into major fight about tax sharing it will extend the debate. Look at the Hillsboroughs, Athertons and Menlo Parks as part of that share, the property tax. What would be equitable? Property taxes come on the table. It had no traction. c. Land Use Policies Mayor Garbarino wanted to address this issue because two incidents had come to mind regarding development. He spoke about a developer who had wanted to expand, but due to zoning restrictions could not. The parcel is unused and it was a lost opportunity, a loss of potential jobs and expansion of the business community. He also spoke of property owners east of 101 that SPECIAL CITY COUNCIL MEETING JANUARY 28, 2012 MINUTES Page 5 could not use their buildings due to zoning. He also noted a situation where a resident had bought a home and had a zoning issue occur when what was considered a "rumpus room" needed to be permitted. Due to the costs of the unknown work, the house still sits on the market, below market rate. Councilman Addiego added that it had bothered him that major players who may want to play bigger could be prohibited. He thought we should find a way to be more accommodating. Both Mayor Garbarino and Councilman Addiego thought there was a way to use these properties in the interim, and that staff revisits some of the zoning for these areas as an official 2012 goal. Assistant City Manager Van Duyn stated staff would take a look and discuss options and solutions. Meeting Recessed:10:00 a.m. Return to session:10:07 a.m. d. NRT/ Community Coalition City Manager Nagel wanted to facilitate an open discussion regarding the NRT/ Community Coalition. Vice Mayor Gonzalez liked the program but understood funding was in question. He liked seeing officers in the neighborhoods. He also reported hearing there was a plan coming from the Boys and Girls Club though nothing has been seen or studied. He thought the Paradise Valley plan should focus on teens rather than younger children, moving the younger children to Orange Park. Councilman Mullin was supportive of staying the course. He's seen positive reports from a public standpoint and in general thought it would be worth moving forward feeling that tangible activities would be seen and with better funding opportunities. In the future, he hoped that the benefits of the program could be better communicated to Council and understood a presentation from the Peninsula Conflict Resolution Center ( "PCRC ") forthcoming. It was important to continue and not to downshift. Vice Mayor Gonzalez mentioned a program where the Police Department held workshops /programs together with the school district during which the community comes together, share a meal and receive education/information on community issues. He feels that the decrease in the amount of high school students on the streets can be attributed to programs like this. Councilwoman Matsumoto reported her recent ride along with NRT was eye- opening. Her main concern was the lack of feedback being given to Council. She would like to work with School district or the Boys and Girls Club to provide regular, after - school opportunities rather than Community Coalition. SPECIAL CITY COUNCIL MEETING JANUARY 28, 2012 MINUTES Page 6 Councilman Addiego agreed it was heartwarming to see officer play soccer or volunteer at the Boys and Girls Club. It presented a good opportunity to change perception, but it couldn't be afforded. What he wanted was for the whole department, not just the NRT, should act as ambassadors and get to know all areas of the city rather than specialize in certain areas Councilwoman Matsumoto agreed, stating that crime was moving west. Councilman Mullin agreed that is what needs to be talked about in the Coalition; talk about the gaps, produce asset mapping, how we can approach/create new programming. Some of these issues would be addressed by strategic plan. It's important for NRT and Coalition to work in concert. Councilwoman Matsumoto agreed with needing more communication as all she sees are crime reports. She wanted to start getting reports on what the Coalition is doing and who is attending/participating. Vice Mayor Gonzalez expressed his frustration about getting participation from those who are a part of the problem rather than those who seek protection from them. Funding was such an important issue, all avenues, including grant sources, needed to be explored. Councilwoman Matsumoto asked what and how long was the financial commitment. Manager Nagel stated it was a two (2) year window with a $50,000 commitment to the Coalition and a $400,000 commitment for NRT funded through December of this year. Councilman Addiego felt the current funding level would definitely have to be revisited. Councilman Mullin cautioned if funding to the gang unit was cut and there were another triple homicide that would be indefensible. Vice Mayor Gonzalez commented that for years there have only been two (2) officers for Grand Avenue and gang activity grew. Since the creation of the NRT, the activity has been less. Unfortunately gang activity is in the blood, but NRT helps. Councilman Addiego clarified that all officers need to be a part of that type of activity /enforcement. Council suggested a question and answer session take place with Chief Massoni to address the issues and learn more about learn more about allocation of resources in advance of making budgetary action. With crime spreading into neighborhoods that had never experienced it before, maybe utilizing the entire department in an NRT capacity was the way to go. Councilman Mullin asked to see crime statistics citywide and the trend lines if there was a Public Safety study session. Councilman Addiego added, we shouldn't be looking at not funding and not having the NRT, it is an essential. But if we want it, how are we going to keep it? SPECIAL CITY COUNCIL MEETING JANUARY 28, 2012 MINUTES Page 7 e. Board and Commissions Members Status Council wanted to discuss compensation issues regarding Boards and Commission members as issues regarding the City's payment into unemployment insurance and workers' compensation had come to attention. Councilwoman Matsumoto wanted to address the benefits of offering compensation versus offering none. Attorney Mattas stated Council could decide to just reimbursement of actual expenses such as site visits and materials purchased. Conference attendance is picked up already by the City. Councilwoman Matsumoto felt that could become and administrative nightmare but Attorney Mattas suspected many would not even file for reimbursements. Speaking about workers' compensation and unemployment benefits, City Manager Nagel explained that even volunteers were covered under workers' compensation. Councilman Addiego asked if there had ever been unemployment claims regarding Boards and Commissions. Manager Nagel responded there had been a minimal claim. Mayor Garbarino asked about the City's exposure in the absence of workers' compensation. Attorney Mattas stated participants sign waivers but that did not help gamer volunteers. Unless workers' compensation got to be hugely expensive, it was important to keep. He added that it was the way to take accidents out of the claims arena and reduce the City's exposure. City Manager Nagel stated there would need to be formal action. He noted it had not been a monetary problem so an investigation could be opened up or it could remain status quo. f. City Council AD Hoc Committees vs. Standing Committees City Manager Nagel explained the difference between a standing meeting and an ad hoc. A standing meeting required noticing and minute taking so perhaps to lessen the burden on staff and the committee, some could be reclassified as ad hoc. Ad hoc committees do not meet on a regular schedule and can be created to deal with issues as they arise. Council classified the following meetings as ad hoc: Kaiser Hospital, Oyster Point Advisory, SSF Preservation Task Force, BART subcommittee, Bio Science subcommittee, Caltrain subcommittee, Facilities Naming subcommittee, and the Farmer's Market subcommittee. Councilwoman Matsumoto spoke about potential issues regarding Improving Public Places. City Attorney Mattas stated there would be a way to structure it so it could remain ad hoc and keep it simple. Council assignments to other committees and subcommittees would be agendized under Items from Council at the next regular Council meeting of February 8. SPECIAL CITY COUNCIL MEETING JANUARY 28, 2012 MINUTES Page 8 Mr. Gallagher asked where the CERT team factored into the Water Emergency Transportation Authority. Mayor Garbarino stated the best response to that would come from the County. City Manager Nagel stated CERT was a resource and good where they were at. g. BIO 2012 Conference Discussion was held on whether or not to continue participation in the conference considering it had historically been funded by RDA. Three cost options were presented and represented a substantial decrease from previous years and one (1) less representative from the City. Councilman Addiego felt the gain for the City was Council's education on one of the most important industries in South San Francisco. He felt it was a good investment for the City and one that should be afforded in an effort to commit to biotech as our number one industry. Mayor Garbarino added that many interesting relationships had been formed as a result of the conference. Vice Mayor Gonzalez also supported attending the conference. Councilwoman Matsumoto asked Assistant City Manager Van Duyn what his opinion was. Assistant Manager Van Duyn thought attendance of a scaled down version was good and the context and industry, under $20,000 was not a lot to invest. He supports going and thinks there could be value attained. Councilmembers discussed the lack of support from the State level given the importance of the industry to California and expressed hope that more support would be given. Assistant Manager Van Duyn stated Team California is privately funded though it carried an ad hoc feeling. South San Francisco had carried the flag for California, and also, what would it say to our bio -tech community if we did not show up. Consensus from Council was to participate in Bio 2012 Conference, sending Councilmember Mullin and Vice Mayor Gonzalez as its representatives. h. Progress Seminar 2012 Council decided members may attend seminar if they chose. i. Tuesday Study Sessions Council decided to move Tuesday Study Sessions back to Wednesday. SPECIAL CITY COUNCIL MEETING JANUARY 28, 2012 MINUTES Page 9 j. Sister Cities Council decided to continue involvement in the Sister Cities Committees but to address the lack of participation from members. Meeting Recessed: 12:00 p.m. Return to session: 12:25 p.m. k. Status of Skate Park Councilwoman Matsumoto had initially supported the skate park, but was concerned about the older kids doing tricks around younger kids, sometimes out of retaliation for being kicked out on previous occasions for not following the helmet rules. She's concerned about the hazard that creates. Councilman Addiego commented about the skate parks visual nature, stating it looked like a prison exercise yard. He thought perhaps something could be worked out for a local non - profit to paint murals on some of the surfaces. He also saw no value in closing the park regularly when riders don't adhere to the helmet policy and spoke about the possibility of having someone act as a community /yard leader, though not necessarily a City staff member. He felt the park did not have to be for all people all of the time. He also added that closing the park did not educate, and the purpose of citing was to educate. Vice Mayor Gonzalez asked if Councilman Addiego was talking about scheduled times for certain ages. He liked the skate park and wanted it to remain an option for older kids but questioned what could be done without having to close the park all of the time. Mayor Garbarino noted that some had asked for more time to look at options and he was inclined to see what happens and take a look at it again in the future. Councilman Mullin asked if locking the park had changed any of the behavior. Graffiti happens when it's not populated, so he thought the idea was to provide a lot of activity in sight. Closing it did not make much sense to him either. He felt what was happening now was not working. Councilwoman Matsumoto wanted at least to set the criteria that when Parks and Recreation was holding classes, the park would be used solely for that purpose during the scheduled times. 1. Status of Cypress and Pine Park Vice Mayor Gonzalez noted he did not see much activity at the park, perhaps because of gang activity. He thought maybe the Police or Fire Departments could arrange a game with children at Cypress Park. Councilman Addiego was an advocate of play being moved to Linden. The Vice Mayor noted Linden and Hillside was usually where most children play. Mayor Garbarino noted the facility had been recently updated and closing it could be seen as a SPECIAL CITY COUNCIL MEETING JANUARY 28, 2012 MINUTES Page 10 slam to the neighborhood. Council decided to see if the Parks and Recreations Commission could generate some ideas on increasing usage of the park. m. Santa Comes to Town Parade Vice Mayor Gonzalez took issue with the street closures, stating they were bad for downtown businesses. He thought that just closing as a parade went by would be sufficient enough. Mayor Garbarino wanted to get merchants involved. Problem is merchants are changing and that market is not there anymore. n. Street Closures on Grand Avenue Councilman Addiego felt the parade issue could be combined with the street closures and how they could lessen the effect they have on merchants. He had actually polled the restaurants and learned their business was down that day. Council thought of other events that could help the downtown businesses which included Streets Alive and a car show. Resident David Gallagher gave his opinion that Streets Alive was one of the best days he had on Grand, but was concerned about a car show. He didn't think it would bring a good element, recalling the car show that took place at Day in the Park. Councilman Mullin felt that without Day in the Park, there was a need for community showcasing and was interested in seeing something dynamic happening downtown. Council suggested an ad hoc committee or the Parks and Recreation Commission come up with some ideas that would not have an adverse effect on the merchants. They also wanted it to be noted that the community was just not downtown. o. Recreation Class Opportunities for City Council Councilwoman Matsumoto questioned the policy for Council members and fees for recreation classes. Mainly, she was confused on whether or not she would be considered an employee in regards to getting free classes. City Manager Nagel stated the benefit was done informally, through the MOU's employees get five (5) classes per year. If Council wanted, formal action could be taken to have it added into their contracts. Staff would bring to Council to amend the Council handbook to match what employees receive. p. Appointments to Oversight Board City Attorney Mattas explained there were two (2) positions available for Mayor to appoint the first being a representative from the City and the second being a representative from the SPECIAL CITY COUNCIL MEETING JANUARY 28, 2012 MINUTES Page 1 1 employee organization that represented the most number of RDA employees, which is the Mid - management group. Assistant City Manager Van Duyn recommended Principal Planner Gerry Beaudin and detailed his familiarity with the RDA, the SKS project, priority developments and the Grand Boulevard Initiative. With respect to his recommendation, Councilwoman Matsumoto asked who else was in the mid - management pool. Some of the other choices included were Joel Resplendor, and Miles Hancock, but he could not recall all of them. Councilman Addiego asked what the compensation aspect of sending staff was. City Attorney Mattas stated the statute anticipated that it would be an employee, but Mr. Beaudin himself is staff. If Council wanted a list it could be provided. Mayor Garbarino questioned the process is someone requested to be on the board, but was fine with the recommendation. Attorney Mattas explained each RDA would have its own board for two (2) years then would collapse into one (1). Statute required boards to be formed by May 1 and nothing prevented it from working without quorum. The suspicion was that appointments would be made without issue because there is an interest in making the appointments. Beyond these two (2) appointments the item is on the agenda and Council has the opportunity for further discussion. Councilman Mullin asked if there was anything preventing the appointment of a person from the public. Attorney Mattas responded there was not. Councilwoman Matsumoto asked if Council could encourage others to be on the oversight committee. He understood that Council had wanted to make it informal, but the statute stated the Mayor appoints, though historically Council has always suggested and the Mayor considers. Mayor and Council agreed to appoint Councilman Addiego and Gerry Beaudin to the oversight board. Councilwoman Matsumoto wanted to inform Council that she would be encouraging Judy Bush to be the School Board representative. Councilman Addiego asked who the School Board representative was chosen by. Assistant City Manager Van Duyn said it was unclear. Attorney Mattas stated he would send out a follow -up email for clarification. SPECIAL CITY COUNCIL MEETING JANUARY 28, 2012 MINUTES Page 12 6. Closed Session – Annual Performance Review (Pursuant to Government Code Section 54957) Title: City Manager and City Attorney. No reportable action taken. 7. Adjournment. Being no further business, Mayor Garbarino adjourned the meeting at 2:00 p.m. Submitted: App ved: attalE,—?-)Acrtal.) / ( < /2/40/44 Anna M. Brown, Deputy City Clerk • 1 hard A. ar arino, Mayor City of South San Francisco City of South San Francisco SPECIAL CITY COUNCIL MEETING JANUARY 28, 2012 MINUTES Page 13