HomeMy WebLinkAboutMinutes 1998-01-29Mayor Eugene R. Mullin
Council:
James L. Datzman
Joseph A. Fernekes
Karyl Matsumoto
iohn R. Penna
MINUTES
City Council
First National Bank
975 El Camino Real, 3rd FI. Conf. Rm.
January 29, 1998
SPECIAL MEETING
CITY COUNCIL
OF THE
CITY OF SOUTH SAN FRANCISCO
JANUARY 29, 1998
NOTICE IS HEREBY GIVEN, pursuant to Section 54956 of the Government Code of the State of California, that
the City Council of the City of South San Francisco will hold a Special Meeting on Thursday, the 29th day of January
1998, at 8:30 a.m. in the First National Bank, Third Floor Conference Room, 975 El Camino Real, South San Francisco,
California.
Purpose of the meeting:
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
Discussion about reserving all Wednesdays for either regular or special Council meetings.
Report on the proposed Birthday in the Park Celebration in September 1998.
Subcommittee assignments and confirmations.
Report from the City Attorney on conflict of interests.
Report on the South San Francisco public market.
Closed Session, pursuant to GC 54957.6, review and evaluation of the City Manager and consideration of
a contract extension.
City of South San Francisco
Dated: January 26, 1998
CALL TO ORDER:
ROLL CALL:
AGENDA
(Cassette No. 1)
Discussion about reserving all Wednesdays for either
regular or special Council meetings. 5l o~ .-~
ACTION TAKEN
9:00 a.m. Mayor Mullin presiding.
Council Present:
Council Absent:
Datzman, Fernekes, Matsumoto,
Penna and Mullin.
None.
City Clerk Battaya stated her small recorder would
not work, so the meeting cannot be taped.
City Manager Wilson stating he was having great
difficulty arranging Council study sessions, for
there are a raft of subjects and it is very difficult to
1/29/98
Page 1
AGENDA ACTION TAKEN
1. Discussion about reserving all Wednesdays - Contin-
ued.
maintain a momentum. Can we reserve a day for it
had been on the third Wednesday, however, period-
ically the first Wednesday is used also. He stated,
last spring we had a meeting a week and he would
like every Wednesday reserved, and the worst thing
is that you will have a day off.
Discussion followed: on the first Wednesday
Councilwoman Matsumoto has a Roundtable meet-
ing; the City Manager can schedule an early meeting
for an hour and limit the subject matter and keep it
focused and get out quickly; Mayor Mullin stated he
has a meeting on the first Wednesday, but if they
conclude on time he could be there for a 5:00 p.m.
to 6:30 p.m. meeting; the third Wednesday will give
the Council more space; Councilman Penna cannot
meet on the third Wednesday, because he has a
commitment; the City Manager found that with all
the Board and Commission meetings, Wednesdays
have always been the targeted date.
Councilman Penna stated, first of all, if he looks at
the salary of the top administration, it is about
$50.00 an hour and he thinks Council is worth
$50.00 an hour. He stated, with the Council earn-
ing $500.00 a month that is only for 10 hours a
month of our time and after that it is free. He stated
maybe the meetings need to be shortened. He does
not have problems with staff, if he does have a
problem he calls, for he has been on the Council for
a long time unlike Councilwoman Matsumoto and
Vice Mayor Datzman.
He related: today he can only stay until 1:00 p.m.
because of his workload; he is used to the ten hour
work day and is accustomed to working three to
four hours on Saturday and Sunday; that is so he can
do Council business and that is all combined, and he
is maxed out; he cannot afford any more time with-
out getting into time he values for himself; maybe
staff can be more consistent and condense the way
work gets to Council for he does not know what is
taking so much time; he does not understand the
purpose of all of these meetings, a lot of the meet-
ings Council has could go much quicker than they
do, for to him time management is an important
feature.
Councilwoman Matsumoto related: more so than
that, it is a feedback, staff has spent all the time
gathering the information that is given to us; like
1/29/98
Page 2
AGENDA ACTION TAKEN
1. Discussion about reserving all Wednesdays - Contin-
ued.
last night we all had in our minds where we were
going, but after feedback we can change our minds;
she thinks study sessions are valuable, so we don't
air our laundry in closed sessions.
Councilman Fernekes related: he thinks study ses-
sions are real important, if we are going to talk
about a housing development, then we can give clear
direction and staff can come back and, if you don't
have that you are going to be spending hours in
regular meetings and those are meetings Councilman
Penna is trying to shorten and it won't work; we
need to set a day, pick and chose, so staff has a day,
and Aileen is not going crazy in making the calls;
the City Manager wants to pick a day, and if we are
able to make it, okay, but he has to have a day.
Councilman Penna stated he agreed with the study
sessions if the Council can come up with a policy
decision, but maybe it is the meetings themselves.
Last night's meetings was short, only three hours,
but he does not know that we need to take three to
five hours. When he was Mayor the meeting was
over at 8:30 p.m.
Mayor Mullin felt last night's meeting was the most
productive in terms of revenue generation, maybe in
the history of what is going on and you need to
explain it to the community. This is an extra-
ordinary period of time and we need to take time
and explain to the community watching exactly what
is taking place and when it is in place, we can speed
up the meetings.
Councilman Fernekes related, wait until we get to
Terrabay, for those meetings will not be short.
Discussion followed: Vice Mayor Datzman stated
focusing on one Wednesday is a short window to
schedule something; the third Wednesday is the
Wednesday in question and everybody said they can
make it except John, and Karyl said she had a prob-
lem; Councilwoman Matsumoto stated she would
give that up; Councilman Penna stated he does not
always or anyone does not always have to be at
every meeting; there is no reason why the person
cannot get briefed on that; yes you can be briefed
as long as you disclose it on the record, then you
can participate; Mayor Mullin suggested having the
meeting begin at 7:00 p.m. on the third Wednesday;
Councilman Penna stated he would not be there
1/29/98
Page 3
AGENDA ACTION TAKEN
1. Discussion about reserving all Wednesdays - Contin-
ued.
Report on the proposed Birthday in the Park Celebra-
tion in September 1998. 5/3-5
between 7:00 p.m. and 8:00 p.m.; Mayor Mullin
stated the meeting can be started earlier and
some times have it be at 7:00, but if we can calen-
dar and massage the agenda; Councilman Penna
asked if the meeting could be started earlier than
6:00 p.m.; yes, the meeting could be scheduled for
5:00 p.m. to 6:30 p.m., and keep it down to a
single subject; Councilwoman Matsumoto would
prefer 5:30 pm; Mayor Mullin agreed, but would
prefer it starting at 6:00 p.m.
Mayor Mullin related: the proposal is for the 19th
of September, a Saturday, that is the annual birthday
of the City's incorporation; the first issue is do we
want the celebration similar to the Day in the Park
held this past year.
Discussion followed: Councilman Penna stated yes,
it was very successful and was a great involvement
for the Mayor; we may want to find out how much
time the Mayor took last year and how much money
to allocate; Councilman Fernekes stated it took a lot
of time; there was a co-chair (the Chamber of Com-
merce), but the City did not most of the work; the
City's share for the event was $60,000.00; he was
not sure that amount of funds could be accessed this
year; he suggested that the Council budget
$25,000.00-$30,000.00 and the rest, he felt, could
be raised through donations to pay for the events;
how much time was actually spent by the Mayor;
four hours every day plus staff time and it took the
Mayor two months to get the needed funds; Mayor
Mullin has an unstructured four hour block, from
2:00 a.m. to 6:00 a.m. for he is just laying around
sleeping; Vice Mayor Datzman noted that when this
started and everyone said we shall pursue this, no
one knew the cost size or if there would be future
events; it was a success because Joe and staff in-
vested time and the community participated; is the
community willing to participate every year; he is a
bit concerned about the whole basis of the funding,
the idea of going out and raising money for a 90th
birthday celebration and we can say, one time ex-
penditure and say what it is; Councilman Penna
stated Councilman Fernekes created an event and
celebration for the community and a lot of non-profit
organizations benefited; he asked the possibility of
trying to formulate with the business community,
particularly charitable contributions and have some
sort of a commitment and tell them this is an on-
going event; San Francisco contributes to Aids
1/29/98
Page 4
AGENDA ACTION TAKEN
2. Report on the proposed Birthday - Continued.
1/29/98
Page 5
and other organizations and try to structure it the
same way; he thinks the Council needs to work on
the concept of the funding - are those groups willing
to contribute each year, then it is just a matter of
organizing; Councilman Fernekes stated the concept
was a community day and he would like to see it
continue, that there is one day and the idea of a
birthday is a great day in the same time frame and
continue it; he did not have a problem calling the
businesses and asking them to participate and that
was not a problem because the focus was community
and he would like to see that continued; he believes
the City has to contribute, for raising $60,000.00
will not be easy, and he believes the City should
budget $25,000.00-$30,000; if the Council is going
to do this, they must start in February; Councilwom-
an Matsumoto stated it is a win win situation when
the business community contributes with the City in
these events, such as restaurants putting out samples
of their food, pay for a booth and help sponsor the
event; Councilman Fernekes stated if you start
paying for the booths - this won't do it and wants to
see it remain free; we want participation from La
Tempesta and others; they may not come if there is
a $100.00 fee and you lose, so you bring in outside
vendors that we don't want; you have to put people
in the booths, but they won't send people to main-
tain the booths; Councilman Fernekes stated Sylvia
volunteered, but they signed up to do other fairs, but
were willing to give us product and displays; if we
can start in February and contact these people we
will not run into that problem; Mayor Mullin still
does not have a sense of where we stand if we want
to do it, but needs some report and analysis; is it a
major event, a Council event, a City/staff/Council
event; he does not know anything about planning
these events or raising money; first do we want to
do it, and if that is a go, if it is not -- he has heard
nothing but positive comments on this event, includ-
ing the beautiful weather; Councilman Fernekes
stated he will help again, helping the Mayor to
solicit the funds, but the City needs to contribute
funds to make it work; we may not get donations at
the same level as last year; he thinks it benefits the
City to keep it free and give it that sense of commu-
nity that will take S.S.F. businesses and put them
in booths to show their wares with the Airport and
BART giving out information; these are great as-
pects of a community day to seek information;
S.S.F. had a great display of information; Council-
woman Matsumoto stated that was limiting resources
AGENDA ACTION TAKEN
2. Report on the proposed Birthday - Continued.
1/29/98
Page 6
if you limit it to S.S.F., but she supports it; charg-
ing for booths means you talk about people coming
in to sell things, rather than displays; BART made a
donation of $500.00; Vice Mayor Datzman stated he
had not seen a record of who donated; Vice Mayor
Datzman stated, if the expectations are not clear,
then you can't blame the Chamber; Councilman
Penna could not see the business community contrib-
uting unless there is a benefit to them; Vice Mayor
Datzman stated there was a situation two weeks ago
involving a similar discussion with the School Dis-
trict; you have good City and School District
people pulling together - that is a win win, but when
negative, then you are setting the table for failure
and you walk away because it failed; we have come
closer this last year in pulling together; we have an
opportunity to do some really neat things, but it
doesn't take much to get into a finger pointing, so if
we do it, it has to be put on a positive plan; is there
a benefit for the Chamber; the Chamber needs a
package if they participate for they have concerns;
City Manager Wilson wants to make Melanie Tan's
position full time to keep up with the activities, so
everything has a cost; if this is what the Council
wants, then they must know it is taking away from
something else; former Director of Economic &
Community Development Costello showed Mayor
Mullin the department's work schedule down to the
hours on how the staff was programmed; Day in the
Park is a cost, what is the benefit and do the bene-
fits match the staff time, and he is hearing it is a
feel good thing, it's enticing activity for the business
community and it is potentially to bring the three
elements together; the Mayor saw seven or eight
different school groups there, and if there was a
charge they would not be there, but they were there;
there is a residual benefit for the City, but he is not
Councilman Fernekes and cannot put this on his
back in February; when it was started last June or
July it was a tight window, but the Mayor does not
mind putting the time in; Assistant City Manager
Moss stated if Council gives the go ahead, that is
fine staff has the overall budget cap, however, staff
cannot solicit, it has to be the Council for it is going
to be bigger than last year because of the birthday;
Vice Mayor Datzman compared it to a wedding
where one does not know the cost of the gowns and
flowers, but the second time around, you do know;
so, if the City puts up $50,000.00, how much more
do you need, so if the money doesn't come in, you
know what to chop off; Mayor Mullin suggested
AGENDA ACTION TAKEN
2. Report on the proposed Birthday - Continued.
3. Subcommittee assignments and confirmations.
forming a subcommittee to sit with staff and come
back to Council and say this is the plan, do a mock
up of a business plan, and say this is what we rec-
ommend and Councilman Fernekes volunteered to
sit on the subcommittee; Mayor Mullin appointed
Councilmember Fernekes and Vice Mayor Datzman
to be the Subcommittee; there was confusion about
paying for the big signs, the City Manaer called
Genentech and they took care of it; etc.
Liaison Assignments: Oyster Point Harbor Adviso-
ry Committee - Mullin and alternate Datzman;
S.S.F. School District - Fernekes and Datzman;
Cultural Arts - Matsumoto; Sister City Relations -
Fernekes and alternate Penna; Chamber of Com-
merce - Mullin and alternate Datzman; BART -
Fernekes and Datzman; Cable/Fiber Optics -
Fernekes and Datzman; Airport - Matsumoto and
Mullin. Local Assignments and Committees: Con-
ference Center Authority - Penna and Fernekes;
Finance, Budget and Audit - Fernekes and Mullin;
Community Development Block Grant - Matsumoto
and Penna. Regional Assignments: City/County
Association of Governments - Fernekes; Airport
Community Roundtable Land Use Committee -
Matsumoto alternate Mullin; San Mateo County
Operational Area Emergency Service - Datzman;
Association of Bay Area Governments - Mullin;
Multi-City TSM Agency - Penna; Legislative Com-
mittee San Mateo County - Fernekes; San Mateo
County Convention & Visitors Bureau - Penna;
Kaiser - Datzman and Fernekes; JPA-ALS-EMS -
Fernekes.
Discussion followed: Vice Mayor Datzman found
this fascinating, because if you look at the cross
section of assignments not being clear and a need for
a study session because any person going down there
is representing five people; he watched a person
speak and they locked horns with the disaster pre-
paredness; the Council can give oral reports on the
Agendas and touch base; there is nothing to stop a
member from a disposition paper; City Attorney
stated, if a subcommittee member comes back from
a subcommittee meeting they can use the orl reports
to inform Council, and under the Brown Act you
can ask for a response; as long as you say this is
something you learned at a particular meeting and
you want more information from the City Manager,
then when you come to the Council meeting you
bring up the issue and everyone knows about it;
1/29/98
Page 7
AGENDA ACTION TAKEN
3. Subcommittee assignments and confirmations - Con-
tinued.
Further discussion reserving all Wednesdays - Contin-
ued.
City Manager stated staff does not attend some of
these meetings, and does not participate in the Air-
port Roundtable and C/CAG meetings for they are
legislative; he wants to help the Councilmembers
with the assignments, but they are not kept apprised
and sometimes it gets technical and he has David
Valkenaar brief him; Councilwoman Matsumoto
stated she is going to start lobbying activities, and
ask that something be included in the monthly report
- list the violators and what sanctions are going to
hold the Airport accountable; there will be a consul-
tant to formulate strategy, and where it is sensitive
to the community the City Manager stays involved;
Councilwoman Matsumoto told Mike Neven she did
not think Mary Griffin is always supportive of our
issues and asked him to be there for us on
certain issues; she is doing this with her friendship,
but she would never do anything without Council
concurrence; Mayor Mullin suggested developing a
brief form that indicates what we did and give it to
the Council on Friday, a simple check off of three
issues, so Council has a sense of what is going on;
put on the agenda subcommittee reports and indicate
what subcommittees have met in the past two weeks
or here are issues we dealt with; the committee can
be used for a second opinion on the political sensi-
tivity feel before it gets to the public meeting; etc.
Councilman Penna stated he wanted to go back to
Item No. 1 and have the first Wednesday meeting at
5:30 p.m., as well as, the third Wednesday meeting,
because he will have to leave by 6:30 p.m. He
asked, what about regular Council meetings, do you
want to start them earlier, maybe at 6:30 p.m.
Vice Mayor Datzman does not want to change the
regular meeting times.
Councilman Penna asked, are we going to enforce
the 11:00 p.m. time for no new items unless there is
concurrence.
Discussion followed: that is difficult with people in
the audience to say no, and if you have a hard and
fast rule on what is legal - this is political, not legal,
you can put a rule in but it creates potential prob-
lems, and if you have an audience they are not
going to be happy; each Council is different; Mayor
Mullin stated he is willing to invest his time and
energy for we have a good staff and there is a lot of
pay off in the end for projects that are happening
1/29/98
Page 8
AGENDA ACTION TAKEN
Further discussion reserving all Wednesdays - Contin-
ued.
after 20 years are being finished; the good people
are saying they like to come to work because things
are happening, even though he does not like his 8:00
a.m. class after a late meeting; Councilman Penna
again brought up the need for Council aides, for due
to the large volume of reading material which can
entail an additional 20 hours a week that he does not
have; an aide can apprise the Council of the material
and investigate other issues requested by constituents
and he would like that put in Council's budget.
Vice Mayor Datzman stated the City Manager and
his Secretary Aileen do work for the Council -
should that be put in the budget.
Councilman Penna stated that is not where he is
coming from, he is a Councilman with commit-
ments, has an obligation to his constituency and is
finding it impossible to really do a good job without
staff. When he has a constituent that has a storm
drain and he has to go and see the problem and then
contact staff and staff is not helping him on that. If
a constituent has a question on Days in the Park, he
must spend an hour explaining and he does not have
20 hours a week to do that. We are a City that is
very active and he is suggesting that the Council
look at an aide, say a college student that is going
tbr a political degree type of person who would gain
experience and not cost much. He could be the
gopher and research the issues and talk to the con-
stituents and bring it back to us. There are many
things going on, and our work is almost as much as
the Board of Supervisors.
Vice Mayor Datzman stated yesterday he called a
Boardmember and he explained to the aide what he
needed, and the aide said he will have the
Boardmember call you.
Mayor Mullin stated when this item surfaced he had
it researched, and in his recollection, either no
cities or one city had aides in our County. He
stated when he was elected to this job he felt it was
a twenty hour a week job, as Mayor it is more than
twenty hours a week. That is what he assumed the
job was, a half time twenty hours a week job and he
came into the job anticipating it. It would be harder
for him to work with an aide than it would be to do
it himself for he would have to splend all the time
working with the aide to understand what he wanted
and he sees his time commitment increasing and he
1/29/98
Page 9
AGENDA ACTION TAKEN
Further discussion reserving all Wednesdays - Contin-
ued.
would be spending too much time with the aide.
Councilman Penna stated at first one does spend a
lot of time with a new employee, but once trained it
is like programming a software program, then you
have the information, then there is startup time, etc.
Mayor Mullin stated he wanted to be able to pickup
his phone and talk to his Councilman - that is the
immediate action. He cannot pickup the phone and
talk to Quentin Kopp, not that he wanted to, or even
to the Board of Supervisors, for the further away
they are and he does not want an aide answering his
door to talk to the constituent.
Vice Mayor Datzman stated Councilman Penna
knew what he was buying into and was willing to
take on that commitment, and he agrees with the
Mayor this is a personal commitment. Put it on the
ballot and see what you get, for he thinks it is a
clear message.
Councilman Fernekes stated he knew what Council-
man Penna was saying, but he thinks that is a little
beyond our City. He has not had difficulty contact-
ing members and does it himself, and the
Councilman's commitments are different than his
own but from his perspective he does not have a
problem.
Mayor Mullin stated the idea starts to gain merit if
you are unable to get a hold of the Assistant City
Manager or the City Manager, and things begin to
unravel because there is not enough staff or it is
inefficient, but when he calls he gets a response.
He considers Sylvia to be his aide and has her do a
lot of things for him in the context of his duties as a
Councilman. She may be under the City Manager's
budget, but he thinks the Council pays 40% of her
salary which is assigned to the Council.
Councilwoman Matsumoto stated when she was
walking the precincts and making commitments to
these people, even if I didn't win, and there were a
handful of commitments which have all been ade-
quately addressed with help from Joe and Mark.
She also was looking for an aide and looked to her
volunteers, because there are projects she wants to
research, like the public market. She stated that
S.F. State will give you twenty hours, as well as the
Coro Foundation which is where she planned to go
1/29/98
Page 10
AGENDA ACTION TAKEN
1. Further discussion reserving all Wednesdays - Contin-
ued.
Report from the City Attorney on conflict of inter-
ests.
if she has need of research.
Councilman Penna stated he never knew that was
available. He is not attempting to shun his respon-
sibilities as an elected official, and did not want that
tO be interpreted, but he wants to become more
efficient and much of the work he does actually gets
done through his secretary. Jill, his secretary, is the
one that goes and researches, maybe through the
internet. He does a lot of research, for instance
when at the Criminal Justice on juvenile delinquency
to find out how it operates in the County.
Councilwoman Matsumoto stated, on that subject
she asks the Police Chief, because he is on that
Committee.
Councilman Penna stated he wants to know the
issues for himself, then when he speaks to the
City...
Mayor Mullin stated the workload will throttle back
and forth, so there is merit on both sides. If it
continues maybe we will revise it, maybe assign
someone from a department for background materi-
al, however he spends hours reading and does not
wait to the last minute. He suggested having Coun-
cil Subcommittee Reports added to the agendas.
City Attorney Mattas gave a periodic update on
conflicts of interests and went through his memo of
1/28/98 to the Council on conflicts of interest with
five basic questions for determining if a conflict
exists. The five questions were: 1. Are you mak-
ing, participating in making, or using your official
position to influence a governmental decision; 2. Do
you have an economic interest involved in the deci-
sion; 3. Is it reasonably foreseeable that the deci-
sion will affect your economic interest; 4. Will the
effect of the decision on your economic interest be
material; 5. Will the effect of the decision on your
economic interest be different from the effect on the
general public. He further spoke of what to do in
case of a conflict of interest which was outlined in
his memo.
He stated his firm is better able to answer conflict of
interest questions, because it has a former FPPC
member on the staff and she is a tremendous re-
source, but prefers that questions be addressed to
him. He went into great detail on business interests
1/29/98
Page 11
AGENDA ACTION TAKEN
Report from the City Attorney on conflict of interests
- Continued.
and whether or not it will have a direct or indirect
effect on an individual, for example Councilman
Fernekes works for a company in town and an issue
comes up and Joe does not make a bonus from it,
then the FPPC has determined a criteria - did it have
an increase or decrease of $10,000 in a year or
$2,500.00 in expense. If we approve a new gas
station, presumably it is going to have an effect, so
because of that Joe has to abstain even though it
does not benefit him. He spoke of recent case law
suggesting that the more precise the disclosure, the
more defensible the action. He stated the point of a
case was that the Councilmembers that abstained did
not give a good reason, all you have to say is I am
going to abstain because I have a potential conflict
of interest because I own stock in IBM. He sug-
gested that the Councilmember elaborate more and if
you do that he thinks that will satisfy the Courts.
Councilman Fernekes stated there was a situation
that just occurred, it had to do with the Metropolitan
Hotel, the City made a grant of $100,000 and John
stepped down, but the perception of the public is,
why are you doing that. The deal would not have
been if there was not a grant for the Bacchanal
room, even though John did not participate.
Councilwoman Matsumoto stated John was follow-
ing the law and excusing himself and then the rest of
us are voting, but half of these issues John is jump-
ing off the podium.
Councilman Penna stated his business is real estate,
that is his business, that is what he loves and he
almost did not run. The perception on the part of
the public and that really bothers him and is happy
for the conversation.
City Attorney Mattas did not know if having John
expand would help, you can't escape the fact that
John is always going to look different, every school
issue Gene is affected and on a police issue Jim is
affected. It may be a benefit to John, then we need
to explain that it is part of the redevelopment area to
help to revitalize and through that discussion we can
get the message out to the public because John has
stepped down.
Councilman Fernekes stated he heard the Attorney,
but understands the perception and John picked up
on it too, and the Council voted a $100,000 grant
1/29/98
Page 12
AGENDA ACTION TAKEN
4. Report from the City Attorney on conflict of interests
- Continued. ~ I.~.~
and it looked like it was for the benefit of John.
City Attorney Mattas stated there is another way to
address that, if you were giving the $100,000 to
John.
Councilman Fernekes agreed, but said the perception
is that we did.
Councilman Penna stated, since this subject is on the
table and no problem with it - he represented the
owner of the building, got a tenant for him and his
commission is already paid. He just finds the ten-
ant, the tenant he found had to have the building
rewired to 1,000 amp service and he thinks most of
it had to do with the hotel and some with the res-
taurant person. Most of it is the hotel and it was an
additional cost, no one realized until after and that is
why they came to the City to pay for the electrical
box. The only reason he stepped down was that the
project that the City is involved in has the owner as
his client.
City Attorney Mattas stated that is an inherent quali-
ty of John's work, so John should have a greater ex-
planation for the abstention.
Vice Mayor Datzman stated he thinks a person can
take any one given situation, and this is a great
example for it stood out and, say there is a grant,
there is the restaurant and the restaurant needed
more power and a columnist could misconstrue the
issue.
Councilwoman Matsumoto wants to see that ex-
plained in the Planning Commission minutes to also
explain the reason for abstaining.
5. Report on the South San Francisco public market.
Councilwoman Matsumoto stated this is a concept
she really wants to do - there are floating flower
shops or does the Council want to talk about green
houses.
City Manager Wilson stated Karyl had come and
talked to him on this exciting concept, there are
examples where market places evolve in certain
neighborhoods for there are a variety of shopping
needs and sometimes you can get districts growing
up around it. In the evolution of the development in
town we can find a neighborhood, a marina, because
1/29/98
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AGENDA ACTION TAKEN
Report on the South San Francisco public market -
Continued.
these are expensive but sometimes they just evolve
around something. In S.S.F., when you think about
it, you have a produce market and would Tarter
want to do this, he does not know. If you ware-
house in the industrial park, maybe San Mateo Ave-
nue or say the developer gets five acres next to the
BART site, it may be funky enough. He was not
thinking of a neighborhood for this, but the concept
is appealing that we are going to add a new econom-
ic something. We have the Mazzanti property,
which was a nursery and is going to be a park, but
it may be five to ten years before it is a park. One
of the concepts is maybe rent out a green house to
artists or maybe in old town.
So what Karyl is saying is this is appealing and is
something the Council has not talked about.
Councilwoman Matsumoto stated Mr. Tarter is
willing to put through a financial package.
City Manager Wilson stated Mr. Tarter is an archi-
tect/developer and is part of Reiser, thinks this is a
good interest thing and staff's guess is someone else
could pop up for this will be private industry.
Discussion followed: Councilman Penna thinks the
Mazzanti nursery and hot houses are an ideal loca-
tion to fit this kind of a theme with ideal lighting,
but he thought they were still using the hot houses;
Vice Mayor Datzman said, you start talking about
volume and access and the report says the best
location is waterfront and an exit from 101; that is
the author's concept and if he is creating something
new he is going to look for a Pier 1 or some angle
where you can evolve with much visibility; history
of the purchase of the nursery and the master plan,
the Mazzanti planning to relocate in Pescadero and
the City was looking to use the property for job
training and get people to learn something and using
it for art galleries with Dennis Crossland; ROP
trains people and they want to take a small piece of
the nursery, they would take the high school stu-
dents and young adults and staff will be meeting
with Armanino to see where the Mazzantis are for a
cultural plan to use those before the master plan;
why would we not just go ahead with the Orange
Park - concerns in mind are the new facilities and
renovation at that time it did not envision Alta Loma
and is not going to be a reality in a year and it has
one peewee field; there is much renovation in the
1/29/98
Page 14
AGENDA ACTION TAKEN
.. 5_ Report on the South San Francisco public market.
Closed Session, pursuant to GC 54957.6, review and
evaluation of the City Manager and consideration of a
contract extension.
ouncilman Penna Left the Meeting and Did Not Return.
RECALL TO ORDER:
ADJOURNMENT:
park even before the expansion, so it is a costly; etc
Further discussion ensued: could use it as a muse-
um or an emergency home; Mayor Mullin thought it
would only work with multiple uses; Councilman
Fernekes suggested it be in the BART corridor and
have Sanitary Bakery put in a kiosk and even a mini
meat market; Mayor Mullin stated if you get off the
metro elsewhere you have flower stands, green
grocers, french bread and is underground;
that would work across from Tanforan and the old
tannery which is still in there where South Maple
ends at the railroad tracks; City Manager stated,
everything described is currently on Grand Avenue,
if you turn it into a funky mall you can almost roll it
into market; Mayor Mullin stated being funky is one
step ahead of being shabby; his house in Russian
River is rustic to rambling to ramshackled; there
should be further investigation and staff should look
at 4 or 5 sites.
Council entered a Closed Session at 12:10 p.m. to
discuss the items noticed.
Councilman Penna left the meeting at 2:45 p.m. and
did not return.
Mayor Mullin recalled the meeting to order at 5:05
p.m., all Council was present except Councilman
Penna, direction was given and no action was taken.
M/S Matsumoto/Datzman - To adjourn the meeting.
Carried by unanimous voice vote.
Time of adjournment was 5:06 p.m.
RESPECTFULLY SUBMITTED,
APPROVED.
Barbara A. Battaya, City Clerk
_f_,Jty of South San Francisco
1/29/98
Page 15
AGENDA ACTION TAKEN
.-.~e entries of this Council meeting show the action taken by the City Council to dispose of an item. Oral communica-
~ns, arguments and comments are recorded on tape. The tape and documents related to the items are on file in the
}ffice of the City Clerk and are available for inspection, review and copying.
1/29/98
Page 16