HomeMy WebLinkAbout2017.11.20 transcriptNovember 20, 2017 South San Francisco City Council meeting
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Report regarding a Community Facilities District Public Hearing, Resolution of Formation of
Community Facilities District and Resolution Calling Special Landowner Election for
Community Facilities District. (Richard Lee, Director of Finance and Steve Mattas, Assistant
City Attorney)
1a. Resolution of formation of Community Facilities District, City of South San Francisco
Community Facilities District No. 2017-01 (Public Services and Facilities).
PARTICIPANTS:
COUNCIL
Mayor Pradeep Gupta
Vice Mayor Liza Normandy
Councilmember Mark Addiego
Councilmember Rich Garbarino
Councilmember Karyl Matsumoto
STAFF
City Manager Mike Futrell
City Attorney Jason Rosenberg
City Clerk Krista Martinelli
PUBLIC
David Cincotta, Attorney representing Kashiwa
MARTINELLI Facilities district public hearing resolution of formation of community facilities district
and resolution calling special land owner election for community facilities district. 1a
resolution of formation of community facilities district, City of South San Francisco
community facilities district No. 2017-01. 1b resolution calling special landowner
election for community facilities district City of South San Francisco Community
Facilities District No. 2017-01.
GUPTA Before we start the agenda item, I would like to make one statement right now for the
record, this is the time and place for the public hearing for community facilities district
No. 2017-01, public services and facilities, the hearing is to inquire into the formation of
the district and the levy of special tax for public services and facilities in the district.
Before I formally open are there any property owners or registered voters in the district
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who wish to file written protests? If so, they must be filed with the City Clerk now. The
City Council acknowledges that we have received a protest filed from Kashiwa Fudosan
America with the City Clerk. Am I right Madam City Clerk?
MARTINELLI Correct.
GUPTA So we have one written protest at this time are there any other? If not we will proceed.
The hearing is…
MALE There are two written protests from Kashiwa.
GUPTA Okay. Do we have both of those, Madam Clerk?
MARTINELLI I was under the impression that it was one.
MALE I think there was the one from Jeffer Mangles and there was another one that we…
MARTINELLI Just gave tonight. Okay, got it. I was about to hand that out to you, I didn’t realize, it
thought this was about comments I didn’t receive. I didn’t realize it was a separate protest
so I’m going to hand this to you right now and put one in the back of the room for the
public.
GUPTA So for the record, we have two written protests in our hands right now at this point in
time and there are no other written protests so I would go ahead and the hearing is now
open and we dwill have our first presentation by the staff about the district and after that
we will receive comments and questions and any other protests from any interested
persons. When all comments have been received, the hearing will be closed. So you go
ahead and make the presentations.
MATTAS Thank you. Dear Mr. Mayor and Vice Mayor and members of the Council, I’m Steve
Mattas, Assistant City Attorney, making the presentation on behalf of the staff this
evening. I would like to as I start, introduce to the Council, Scott Ferguson, Wengi Fu,
and Libby Seifel who are also here if the Council has questions. Scott is the special
counsel for CFD’s, Wengi is with Taussig and Associates, who wrote the CFD report,
and Ms. Seifel is with Seifel and Associates, who wrote the economic analysis that is also
an attachment to the report. The presentation this evening is about the community
facilities district and its benefit to the City of South San Francisco and in particular to the
Oyster Point area. A Mello Roos community facilities district is one that authorizes a city
to levy a special tax. It has to be approved by a two thirds vote of the property owners
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when it is levied. So if the Council were to take action this evening following the public
hearing, your action would be to call an election and to establish the formation of it. But
there is ultimately a vote of the property owners that takes place afterwards. On October
11th, the Council adopted the resolution of intention to establish the CFD and as part of
that they authorized the City to sign the consent and waiver and also authorized this
hearing tonight. So we prepared a staff report, we prepared the community facilities
district report, that was called for in the action on October 11th, and all of those are part of
your packet this evening. What are the purposes of a CFD? A community facilities
district is a special tax that’s collected to be used to finance public services and public
infrastructure. It’s important to note that the OPD, Oyster Point Development, and the
Successor Agency are funding approximately $70 million in infrastructure improvement
costs in the marina area. Just for clarity sake, none of that 70 million is included in this
CFD that is before you this evening. That’s actually being funded through payments by
OPD, payments that are already in place from the successor agency, and a potential
separate CFD that would be formed by OPD subsequently and would only involve their
property. This is a picture of the new infrastructure that is being proposed out in the area
and I direct your attention, really to the water front areas of these. You can see the
buildings that are proposed to be constructed in phase 1d, the office commercial
buildings. Then you see the walkways along the marina waterfront. This is really to give
you an idea that the kinds of improvements that are being constructed out there, as the
Council will recall, include new streets, new roadways, new park areas, enhancement to
the existing land area, as well as improvements to the beach park area that exist out there.
There’s also going to be improvements to the fueling facilities at the marina, which serve
all of the boating population that exists in South San Francisco and regionally. So what
are the public improvements and services that are going to be authorized by this CFD if
the Council decides to move forward? The authorized service include the maintenance of
the new public infrastructure, the parks, the pathways, the streets, the storm drains and
the open space, and also provides for the potential of enhanced police services, and by
that we specifically mean, you know, the police have been out in the East of 101 area
previously, but as you improve this area, as you more occupy this area and make it
activated on a longer basis, you’ll have a need for additional police services that would
go on out there. So police services are included. The authorized facilities that are
included in this CFD are limited to the fuel dock and the fueling system. As the Council
recalls there is an existing antiquated fuel dock and fuel system out there that does need
to be replaced in the upcoming future and this would provide funding for that to occur as
well. This slide shows you, and I would advise the Council that based in part on the fact
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that we got the correspondence from Kashiwa, on Friday, I’ve added a couple of slides to
the presentation tonight that were not in your packet and this is one of them. This slide is
intended just to show you that the costs associated for the services side will be
approximately $1,000,000 a year, between phase 1 and phase 2c and that there is an
additional roughly $200,000 in administrative type expenses that go with the CFD., The
Council should understand that these are the maximum levels before the inflationary
adjustments are allowed, but this doesn’t mean that the Council has to, at any point in the
future, and any subsequent one, impose the maximum amounts. You could impose less if
your costs are actually less during those time periods. This slide talks more about the
public services and it shows, and again this is a new slide, so I just called this to the
Council’s attention. This slide shows that, again, the authorized services equate to about
$998,000 plus administrative expenses, so think $1.2 million a year. And then you ask
yourself, well what are we spending out there right now for the Oyster Point area? And
that’s what this lower part shows. And it shows that were doing occasional park
maintenance out there and so that’s the total of about $5,000 a year, and were doing
pump station maintenance to the total of about $8,000 a year. And then we’re also doing
methane monitoring out there for $67,000 a year, but mind you the methane monitoring is
not part of this new CFD. That would be a separate City expense that will be carried
forward in the future. One might ask, why are these costs lower? As the Council will
recall the Harbor District JPA has an allocation of responsibilities for costs under an
existing JPA that has the Harbor District responsible initially for some of those costs but
some of those properties have now been pulled out of the Harbor District’s jurisdiction
and so this $998,000 in additional costs is really additional services and additional costs
that the City would be providing pursuant with the fund provided by the CFD. The
proposed cost of the CFD as indicated by in your staff report are approximately 39 cents
a square foot. That’s in annualized costs and so it’s important to understand that’s
roughly about 3 cents per month if you’re talking about the addition of the rent, how it
affects that. And that includes 32 cents per square foot annually for the services side of it,
so to fund the $1.2 million and seven cents per square foot annually, and that’s to fund
the $2.75 million for the fueling system repair. The second one as you recall, also has a
sunset on the tax, which is estimated right now to be June 30th of 2031. And that’s really
because once the full $2.75 million dollars has been funded for the fueling system, that
portion of the tax just disappears. It’s not authorized to be imposed anymore, so the tax
would drop at that point. This slide is in your packet and it’s intended to show the
properties that are affected and to show which properties have consented to the formation
of the CFD and which have not. So you see in the kind of greenish shading, those are the
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OPD properties. Those are properties owned by OPD right now. The blue properties are
the properties that are owned by the City and the red properties are the two properties
owned by Kashiwa Fudosan America. Both the OPD and the City have consented to the
formation of the district. Kashiwa has not. Staff has had discussions with Kashiwa about
that, but today Kashiwa has opted not to consent as reflected, as most recently in their
letter to you from Friday. This slide is intended, this is in the PowerPoint presentations
you had, its intended to show the potential uses on the various properties, or the approved
uses. If you look at Oyster Park Development LLC., that’s their proposed office R&D
project and a mixed use development. That’s what they’re presently entitled for. As the
Council is aware they are proceeding with consideration of having some residential added
to that and some of the office R&D taken out. But this reflects their present entitlements.
Kashiwa Fudosan America has commercial offices, the two existing offices that they
have out on site. And then on the City’s parcels, you have on parcel six, the hotel, which
the City is presently in the RFP process for a developer on that. And then parcel five is an
open space recreation, potential commercial recreation development that is there. So
those are the potential uses of the various properties. So what are the recommended
actions tonight? Staff is recommending that the Council conduct the public hearing, that
you adopt the resolution of formation of the CFD, and that you adopt the resolution
calling the special land owner election for the CFD. Those are the two additional packets.
I did want to spend a few moments addressing the letter that was received from Kashiwa
Fudosan late on Friday and that the Council has received and is in the packet right now.
We have representatives here as I introduced them to you earlier today and I would also
add to that Marion Lee and Richard Lee. If there is questions that are more specific to
staff that can be addressed. And so were prepared specific questions that the Council may
have about that letter. Specifically though, we wanted to go over just a few points that are
referenced in that letter, so that the Council has the benefit of staff’s input on a portion,
on at least portions of that letter as it stands right now. I would just in an overall sense say
that in consultations with our special CFD counsel and our team we do not believe the
letter prevents the Council from taking action this evening, if you would like to take
action. There are a number of issues raised in the letter, those issues in a highlighted
sense, or in a bucketed sense if you will. The first issue speaks to, is the issue of whether
or not this CFD is appropriate because of whether or not your providing additional
services. The CFD law does require that you spend money public facilities and it also
allows you to spend funds collected in a CFD on additional services. If I can remind the
Council again of the slide that I showed you that shows the differential in the costs. At
the moment, the City is spending, you know, well below $100,000 there in total costs in
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the Oyster Point area on an annualized basis. If you then factor in that we are
constructing over $70 million worth of new improvements in that area between us and
then some private improvements by OPD. Those improvements require maintenance to
keep them in the condition that they’re installed in when you do this. And so. so from the
standpoint of additional services, we think it’s very clear that this CFD and the funds that
would be drawn from, for the CFD would be used to provide additional services in that
area. Those could include roadway maintenance, park maintenance, the BCDC trail
maintenance issues in the area, the storm drain systems, the lighting, etcetera. So all of
these are additional services that would be provided out there that are not presently
provided. The second issue, if you will, that was raised, is there are a number of emails
that were cited in the material from the counsel for Kashiwa Fudosan and our response to
that initially for the Council’s benefit is twofold. First, some of the emails are quoted in a
way that they are out of context of what the actual documents relate to. So to be clear,
Seifel and Associates has been hired by the City to do an analysis of the economic
benefits and value enhancements of this CFD. They did that report. It’s in your packet
right now. Seifel has also been retained by the City to assist in an economic analysis of
the OPD developments because as the Council is aware, you have a proposal for
residential out there that would involve an amendment to a development agreement. And
there were discussions if, with Oyster Point Development. So some of those emails that
talk about what Libby Seifel and her firm were doing are actually related to the second
issue not the first issue. There’s also a line of discussion in the emails that talk about
when we actually sign the contracts with Seifel and Associates for the CFD matter. And
to that, when we first started talking with Seifel and Associates, we were looking at how
we would scope out their work, as we often do with consultants and it became very clear
to us that we didn’t want to have one scope for all of the work that they were doing. It’s
actually two separate tasks, it’s actually being paid with two separate sources of funds.
And so we wanted to scope them out. So there are some emails between a couple of staff
members that talk about how we’ve changed the scope in response to discussions with
Seifel and Libby responded to some of those, but those are because we were setting up
the scopes of the respective projects and tasks in an appropriate manner. The last issue is
that, the Council should be aware that when Seifel and Associates was, were selected for
this, there was a typical process where we looked at multiple potential consultants for
this. And then ultimately landed with Seifel and Associates because we thought they were
the most qualified to do this. And so there were discussions in some of the emails about
finalizing the contracts, if you will. And that was after we had gone through a recruitment
process. We did reach out, in particular, we reached out to OPD when we were doing the
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OPD side economic analysis to get their input on the consultants and so there is some
communication from OPD back to us saying that they would be okay with Seifel. They
didn’t select Seifel. They didn’t have the final say in Seifel. But we did solicit their input
on it as it relates to the economic analysis. The last thing, the last bucket, if you will that I
would like to discuss with the Council relates to the Seifel report and I’m going to defer a
lot of any questions that the Council may have and that the members may have, if they
raise them here to Ms. Seifel once the public has had the opportunity to talk. But there are
a few issues that I just wanted to bring to your attention because they specifically address
issues that are in the concerns raised about the Seifel report. So first off, as the Council is
aware of, because the Council is aware that Ms. Seifel and her firm have worked before
for the City. They’re very experienced at the kind of expertise that they bring to this. And
many cities have used them and South San Francisco has used them before as well too.
So we believe that their skill set is very strong. The Seifel, you know, there were
contentions, if you will, that Seifel was kind of spoon fed a conclusion here and nothing
is further from the truth than this. Seifel did their own economic analysis here. They
looked at and reviewed existing information that was provided to the City. And you can
imagine when you’re doing an economic analysis, you have to get data from multiple
sources, one of the sources is the City. They also got market data from commercial
brokers, etcetera. And so, one of the points we would make is that they did their own
independent analysis. They did have contacts with us about gathering data, but it wasn’t
because there was a conclusion that we were trying to get them to, it was their own
analysis that came back to the City. The second one is that, as I mentioned earlier, there is
about $70 million worth of capital improvements that are going to be made out there,
none of which is funded by this CFD. And so Seifel had to talk to OPD about the value of
those improvements to be able to put that information into their report so that they could
substantiate their own understanding that there would actually be enhancements to that
area out there. The third issue is the, what was the purpose of the CFD itself. And as
we’ve said before, the purpose was to fund the services that would be provided to the
new infrastructure and to fund the capital facilities, and Seifel had to get confirming
information from the City about what those are. There’s also a contention in the Kashiwa
report that the Seifel analysis would not stand if it were reviewed because there wasn’t a
sufficient factual basis or evidentiary basis, if you will for that. Citations in the Seifel
report are too well established studies that have done elsewhere that look to the economic
benefits that have arisen in other projects that have had these kind of enhancements.
Seifel has reports cited to the Urban Land, Bane and Company, Neilson Broking Institute,
the Center for Real Estate and Urban Analysis, the Trust for Public Land, and others. And
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these are, these are commonly used sources when you’re doing this type of work and
miss Seifel could speak more to that if the Council has questions. There is a contention in
the Kashiwa report that miss Seifel did not look at the existing conditions relating to
Kashiwa and that is also not supported when you actually get into the report. Ms. Seifel
and her firm actually looked extensively at what was there in terms of existing
development, existing rental information, and also improvement that had been made to
the Kashiwa property to make it even more desirable as a space. So she did spend time
looking at that. The last issue that I just wanted to raise is that there’s suggestion that
there isn’t sufficient market data that she looked at in terms of comparable rents. And
again, the Seifel analysis did look to Kushman and Wakefield, who is a brokerage firm
involved in issues, they looked at their data. They looked at other data that you would
typically look at to identify market comparability and market information and so from a
staff standpoint we believe that the Seifel report does present a fair presentation of the
information to the Council. We recognize that there might be disagreements amongst
experts and Kashiwa has hired their own, who have looked at issues. But the Council’s
been presented with a thorough report that you can consider. Ultimately, and this is the
final point that I would make, ultimately, this is not an assessment district, and the reason
I say that is because in an assessment district you have to show an actually benefit and a
proportionality of the benefit. This is a special tax. It doesn’t have the requirement of
proportionality. So, Ms. Seifel’s report is not necessary for the Council to act, but we did
think it was appropriate to prepare both to share that information with Kashiwa Fudosan
America representatives, but also to share with the Council so that you would understand
the impacts of this. Because we realize that everybody paying this special tax, it’s an
additional cost for them and they should have an understanding of why they’re being
asked to pay for it and whether or not there’s any benefit. And with that Mr. Mayor I am
happy to answer any questions that the Council has.
GUPTA Thank you very much. And I would like to remind you all that this is a public hearing and
before we go into the discussion mode at the dais, I would like to invite now comments,
questions, or protests from audience. Any member of the audience here would like to
make oral statement on this issue? Besides, we have got written protests, but any besides
those, any other comments that you might like to add to the record.
MARTINELLI I believe the cards, right, are relevant tonight.
GUPTA Seena Samimi.
SAMIMI Honorable members of the City Council, thank you for hearing our comments. My name
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is Senna Samimi. I’m here on behalf of Kashiwa Fudosan America, and you have
received our written comments already. I’m only going to hit some of the high points and
also mention some items that were not presented in detail in our letter as we learned of
them after the letter was already submitted. And I’d also just want to let you know that
I’ll make myself available after the three minutes are up in case there are further
questions and we have other people who are representative here as well. The point that’s
not raised in detail in our written comments is that the economic expert that Kashiwa had
to hire on its own, did not have a full opportunity, and did not have time to do its own
independent economic analysis of the benefits or the harm to the Kashiwa parcels.
Rather, it was only able to identify the flaws in the Seifel report and comment on those,
but the second phase of our economic analyst is to do its own full analysis, which we
haven’t had the opportunity to for that yet. And there was another report on November
15th, that was just written on November 15th by Taussig and Associates that our economic
experts hasn’t even looked at yet. And I wanted to respond to one of the comments on the
economic factors, were going to have some, it was mentioned that Kushman and
Wakefield supports the Seifel report. We have somebody here tonight from Kushman and
Wakefield that’s going to present the opposite point of view. But, and that’s the other
comment that you received. Just some of the high points of our written comments, which
I’m sure you guys have looked at. The additional services and facilities, that’s a legal
requirement and the RMA, which is the rate and method of apportionment, that document
sets forth which parcel pays what amount and on what basis. And in order for the RMA
to be an accurate document and to have a proper analysis and it designates how much
goes to each parcel, you have to have a proper economic analysis of that. And so yes, this
is, it is a special tax, it’s not a special assessment but the law still requires that you need a
reasonable basis upon which your taxing each parcel. And that reasonable basis needs to
be founded in some fact somewhere. And you can’t just bring it up out nowhere and you
we’ve made the contention here that the conclusion was already presupposed, that they
were going to jerrymander this district to bring in Kashiwa to pay for a third of the costs
essentially. And it’s very clear from the documents, and I don’t want you to take what
I’ve written out of context. Please look at the emails yourself and you’ll see that the
emails are very clear that it was the City that provided Seifel with the conclusions and not
the other way around. I’ll make myself available for further if there’s, if the Council
would like, but I know there’s other comment cards as well.
GUPTA Thank you very much.
MATSUMOTO I’d like to hear more, I mean this, I’d like to hear more if you have more.
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GARBARINO Hear more.
SAMIMI I do. Maybe just five minute if…
GUPTA Let me go over the…
SAMIMI Or you could do the other comment cards first.
GUPTA Yeah. Let me go over the, those points may be covered by other members. Nat Williams
WILLIAMS Good evening, Mayor, Vice Mayor, and City Councilmembers. Thank you for allowing
me to speak to you this evening regarding the proposed CFD. My name is Nat Williams,
I’m with Metro Properties. We are the asset manager for Kashiwa. So we are the
landlords eyes and ears. We manage the property managers, we manage the leasing, we
give them strategy, we, we’re here locally and so we operate the property on their behalf.
I just have a quick, I have three quick comments I wanted to make. The new development
of biotech space does not benefit our property in any way. We have a straight office
building. Our tenants are accountants, lawyers, and architects and local South San
Francisco people. There will be no spillover effect of new tenants coming from the
buildings being built next door. They won’t get any of our tenants. We won’t get any of
their tenants. There will be no upward movement in our rental rate. There will be no
upward movement in our occupancy rate. There will be no movement in our cap rate.
There will be, it will have no positive effect on us. The second topic, the second point I
wanted to make is that the traffic is going to be much worse by virtue of all the additional
employees working in these office buildings. The buildings we compete against are all
adjacent to the 101 freeway. The Gateway, Bayhill, and Sierra Point. The increased
traffic generated by these additional employees will increase the commute time, which
will make our building less valuable and less attractive to prospective tenants. Lastly, we
are being asked to pay roughly $130,000 annual fee, ith a $180,000 annual fee. We will
not be able to recover this expense by higher renter occupancy. Using a six or seven cap
rate, the value of our building by virtue of this action will be hurt, will be lowered, by 2½
to 3 million dollars. This is a straight deduction of value to Kashiwa’s building. The net
operating income will be lower by $180,000. The way you value a building is you apply a
cap rate to the NOI. Our building will be lower in value by 2½ to 3 million dollars. Thank
you very much for your time.
GUPTA Thank you. Scott Ynis.
YNIS Thank you City Councilmembers for your service to the City of South San Francisco and
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Happy Early Thanksgiving. I’d like to take this opportunity to talk about the CFD in
terms of how it would impact the rental, office rental rates in the Oyster Point area, which
we believe is nil, as Nat mentioned. I work for Cushman and Wakefield. I’ve been the
listing agent for Oyster Point Marina Plaza for the last 25 years. It’s been a good run. I’ve
seen, witnessed three cycles of, economic cycles, starting in 1990, 2008, where there
were peak rentals. And the current for office space is probably in the seventh inning. The
rental rates in Oyster Point have varied from a dollar in 1990, up to $5.25 per month in
2002 at the dot com bubble. Currently the market rent is $3.15 per month. And that’s
actually a rise of 80 percent over the last nine years. Which is, and the reason I bring that
up is that all boats have risen in this economic recovery in office space. As VC’s put
more money into our economy, as their spending goes up, it creates startup companies
and startup money goes to salaries and rent. So, our occupancy has been going up nicely
as VC’s in Palo Alto have increased their spending. So office rents are tied to the amount
of money coming into the business community and how productive those companies are.
And that is the very strongest correlation. The Seifel report took a number out of a
Cushman and Wakefield report about average asking rents in South San Francisco of
$3.60. Well, there’s got to be a story behind that asking rate, you know, there’s going to
be some buildings that will have $5 asking rates because they’re biotech and create lab.
Our buildings can’t, you cannot put lab space into it because the way they are structured
with 12½ floor plates between slab to slab. We can’t do biotech. So were not going to
compete with the projects that’s going to go near OC, next door. We compete with the
Gateway, with Bayhill, and with Brisbane. And our buildings are not as efficient as those
modern buildings and you can’t eradicate these inefficiencies. You can’t put Bart next to
us, you can’t put, you can’t get us closer to the freeway, and that’s been the reason our
rents are $3.15. The fact that we have a park, that’s maybe a mile away would, is not
going to enhance our rental rates. So I just wanted to state that for the record and thank
you for your time.
GUPTA Thank you very much. I’ve got Yujin Yamaai. I couldn’t pronounce the last name, I
couldn’t read it.
YAMAAI Yujin Yamaii.
GUPTA Yamaii.
YAMAAI Yamaii.
GUPTA Thank you.
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YAMAAI Good evening, Mayor, Vice Mayor, and City Councilmembers. Thank you for hearing
our opinion. My name is Yujin Yamaai of Takinaka Corporation. I am coming here to
explain my opinion with face to face. I’m working for Oyster Point Marina Plaza, which
is owned by Kashiwa Fudosan America, as an owner representative. The owner of
Takinaka Corporation and Kashiwa Fudosan is a very good friend. That’s why I have
been assigned this load. And because the owner of Kashiwa Fudosan didn’t want the
building, just the asset for just the investment without face. Kashiwa Fudosan America is
doing a good job to have a good relationship with the local community and creating jobs.
Our asset manager here, Nat Williams and property manager team and leasing agent Scott
Ynisis doing a good job as well for a long time. We have already contributed to local
community for more than 20 years. I think one of a realistic professional, Kashiwa
Fudosan America is the most ideal owner of the property in the city. I can’t agree with
the proposal of the City which we are discussing right now, which will reduce the value
of property, of this kind of owner, which is such a good decision.
GUPTA Thank you very much. I don’t have any other cards, so I would like to respect the opinion
of Councilmember Matsumoto to invite Mr. Samimi once more.
MATSUMOTO Thank you.
SAMIMI Thank you honorable Council Members. Actually I'll just keep it short and if you guys
have questions I'll respond to those. But I do have an ask that’s very clear. If you are
going to take action tonight based on the record that’s in front of you, it would be totally
inappropriate both legally and logically to include Kashiwa within the boundaries of the
CFD. So, yes you can act tonight. But if you act tonight, you should exclude Kashiwa
from the boundaries of the CFD. You can approve the CFD without Kashiwa, okay. If
you want to act tonight and not include Kashiwa, or if you’re considering including
Kashiwa even though the evidence shows that there isn’t any additional services being
provided for those parcels, then I would ask you to first get all of the facts. So you’re
alternative to acting tonight and not including Kashiwa, is to continue this matter. Allow
for the economic experts to do a thorough analysis so that you have the appropriate facts
in front of to make an informed decision. Which I can tell you right now, you absolutely
do not have that right now. You do not have the right facts to be able to make a decision
to include Kashiwa within the CFD. It’s not going to survive legally and it’s just the
wrong way to move forward tonight. So, the way that we see it, is that you have two
options for tonight if you’re going to act tonight. One, is to approve the CFD, excluding
Kashiwa from the boundaries. And two, continue this matter. We’re not saying don’t hold
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the vote eventually. We’re saying hold the vote, correct all of the legal errors that are
rampant within all of the documents that we’ve seen and come up with an RMA, which is
the rate and method of apportionment, that appropriately allocates the money that would
be taxed for each parcel, which this current analysis doesn’t do, and it doesn’t have the
appropriate facts to be able to do. I have a lot more to go into, but I would just prefer if
you have specific questions, I can answer those.
GUPTA Mr. Samimi, we will just, we will take your comments under the advisement and we will
proceed on that basis, but I appreciate your, giving us your thoughts on the issue.
SAMIMI Thank you Mayor.
GUPTA Thank you. Are there any other public comments at this time? If not, I close the public
hearing. So hearing is closed now and we may now consider by the Council and adopt
the, and adopt the resolution of formation of community and facilities district which will
establish the district and the resolution calling the special land owner election for
community facilities district, which will call for the property owner vote to approve the
special tax and appropriation limit for the district. So, I would like to have Council now
start their discussion on the issues. Before going any further, before you start the
discussion, I would like to say, as far as I am concerned, as one member of the five
member of the Council here, I do feel rather rushed to have received an input which came
from Kashiwa with respect to certain points being made about the CFD and some of the
discussions that have been raised in front of us today, I’d like to get a little bit more time.
So, I’d like to see how the Council proceeds in this matter, but I, myself would feel more
comfortable with having sort of extension for us to have some time to think about some
of the issues on both sides. I’m not agreeing with any issue right now without
understanding. With those preliminary comments, it’s no guidance or direction to any
other Councilmember but I just wanted to relay my concern. Go ahead.
MATSUMOTO I normally lead off, I think, I mean I spent 37 minutes with the Assistant City Manager,
City Attorney this afternoon trying to better understand all the paperwork and I came
prepared to vote this evening. My question to you, is if this is continued, when would this
be continued to?
MATTAS If, Steve Mattas, Assistant City Attorney. If the Council were to continue it, I would
recommend that you continue it to a date that is on or before November 29th. So, about a
week or so.
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GARBARINO Not even a week.
MATSUMOTO Next week, right?
ADDIEGO Yeah, I think that’s a simple ask and I’ll defer to the Mayor ……?
MATSUMOTO Yeah, I won’t be here. I’m leaving on Monday night, so, just so you know.
GARBARINO And just for the record, I’m leaving Wednesday morning and I won’t be back until
December 1st.
MATSUMOTO I won’t be back until, what, Saturday the third or whatever it is.
ADDIEGO Okay.
GARBARINO First of all, I have a comment about this, the lateness of receiving this response from….
You know, three o’clock in the afternoon on a Friday, you send this thing out and you
expect us to read this in one day. I have a problem with that. I really do. And you had
time to look at this stuff before Friday and get this out to us at three o’clock. So, I’m a
little disappointed in you’re sending this out to me at three o’clock on a Friday. Thanks,
for nothing. Really don’t appreciate that. And as far as carrying this over, if you can do it
on a Monday, if you can get all your stuff together by Monday or Tuesday, fine and
dandy. I won’t be here back until December 1st. Sorry it just hit me the wrong way when I
got this. Come on. What kind of tactic is that? Three o’clock on a Friday, and you send
this stuff out, and you expect us to pour through all of this. And you today sir, you hand
me this today. Sorry, I’m not there. Nonsense. If you want to take a vote on it tonight,
I’m ready to do that.
GUPTA Okay, thank you.
ADDIEGO I think I’m interested in understanding, I think Mr. Samini brought up the economic
assessment by parcel for the specific benefits, and I would need to understand that to a
greater degree. I must say that at our last meeting, when we informally did the math, and
we realized we were moving the rental rate by about one percent, I didn’t have a problem
with that. And it’s easy for me to say that sitting here I know. I’m not in the business of
commercial real estate. But at the same time the numbers time tonight that it pushes the
value of the property, it represses it by upwards of three million dollars, is a little
bothersome. And that is a, it’s a substantial move.
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MATTAS Well I would, with the Council’s consent, we do have Ms. Seifel here this evening. And I
think the critique is, that was offered, was in relation to the report that Ms. Seifel
prepared. So I think, if the council would like, we could have Ms. Seifel speak to the
impact of the rent as well as to the benefit. One of the speakers made the assertion that
there is no benefit at all to the Kashiwa property. So, if that would be helpful, I would ask
the Council if you wish to hear from Ms. Seifel.
NORMANDY If you’re looking at continuing it, I don’t think we need to, you know, further engage in
this conversation. So, I know Carol will be out on Monday, Richard’s only certain days, I
think we’ve been in contact with you or Jason as far as our schedules go. So, I mean the
only day that I’m not available is on a Tuesday from seven to nine o’clock.
GUPTA So it seems like majority of the Council would like to go ahead and discuss and vote
tonight on this issue.
GARBARINO I don’t know about that. I’m just saying I would be prepared to but…
ADDIEGO I was deferring to your suggestion as a curtesy that if you wanted there to be more time to
have a fuller response.
NORMANDY And to allow our legal counsel to return…
GUPTA Yeah, because I thought that it would be fair for everyone including me and the legal
counsel and the staff to go a little bit more carefully, as well as, it seems like Kashiwa
wanted also, a little additional time to do the analysis more completely, as I heard you
saying that. So, in that respect I would rather make a decision when all parties have done
their thinking and they can share with us before we make the decision. But on the other
hand, it seems like, even if you move, continue the item for the next week, we’ll be
losing one…
NORMANDY We’d lose one.
MATSUMOTO I’m fine with that, I mean I was for one vote before… No, I’m just teasing. I had come
with a different perspective, I’m not, I don’t feel, you know, some issues I would really
want to participate in the discussion. I just, this is very convoluted. And I could go either
way, so I’m not…
GARBARINO Well to your point, there’s no way that these folks could respond by Monday or Tuesday
am I, right? You couldn’t get this stuff responded to by a Monday or Tuesday could you?
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Of next week.
GUPTA Are you asking….
GARBARINO Yeah, you said you needed to do another study.
GUPTA Mr. Samini.
GARBARINO You wanted to bring your experts in to do what Steifel did.
SAMINI I can respond to both of those. First of all, honorable senior Council Member
GARBARINO It’s fine. Just go on with your stuff, forget the honorable.
SAMINI I wanted to explain the reason for the late submission on Friday. And I understand your
frustration entirely.
GARBARINO I’m glad you.
SAMINI We got our, and just so that you understand, it took miss Seifel along time to prepare her
economic analysis.
GARBARINO Wait hold on, stop, stop, stop, stop, wait, stop. Hold it. Shhh. My question was, in two or
three days, you will not have ample time to do what you suggested you need to do, yes or
no?
SAMINI No, we will not.
GARBARINO Thank you.
GARBARINO That’s all I need to hear.
SAMINI Okay.
GUPTA Can we move further out then next week?
FUTRELL I’d defer to the City Attorney.
MATTAS So, the Staff doesn’t recommend that you move further out then next week. There is a
time period between the Council’s action on the resolution of formation, the resolution of
election, the two items tonight. There has to be 90 days after that before you could have
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the ballots cast and you count the ballots. The Council has a very full agenda already, as I
understand it, in March and April of this year. And so, we were gearing towards meeting
the February 28th agenda, which would give the Council opportunity to see it. I would
also comment that the Seifel report has been in the possession of Kashiwa long before
Wednesday and so the suggestion that they haven’t been able to do analysis. We’re not
disputing that they have asked for more time. But were saying they’ve had the Seifel
report for quite a while and the analysis could have been done before. If the Council
wishes to continue it out, that’s obviously within your discretion to do that. Staff’s
recommendation is that if you continue it, you continue it to next week.
GARBARINO That’s a whole new light. How long have they had this?
MATTAS Roughly, Libby’s report’s dated August 12th, I believe it is, at the latest sometime in early
September.
GARBARINO So they’ve had it since September?
MATTAS That’s the Seifel report.
GARBARINO Yeah, that’s what I’m talking about.
MATTAS The point to, Council’s comment for Kashiwa, the agenda packet was posted on
Wednesday evening, all the documents were in it at the time and so the actual final
agenda packet, they did get on Wednesday evening. This was a special meeting, but we
tried to match the kind of lead time that is typical for a City Council meeting, given that
were meeting on Monday, we issued, we worked with the City Clerk’s office to issue the
agenda packet earlier. But the contention that they need more time to analyze the
economic analysis is really based on the Seifel report, which has been in their possession
for much longer.
SAMINI Can I quickly respond to that?
GARBARINO Another turn in the road.
GUPTA Please go ahead.
SAMINI The Assistant City Attorney didn’t mention that on November 15th there was a new report
by Taussig and Associates, which our economic analyst hasn’t even looked at yet.
Secondly, our economic analyst didn’t get the RMA until much more recently than the
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Seifel report. And the RMA is the document, I mean you have the Seifel report which is
the analysis, but the RMA, which is the rate and method of apportionment, is what
actually apportions the taxes to the parcels. I don’t remember the date that that was out
but it certainly wasn’t available at the same time as the Seifel report. So, all of that is
very, very misleading and our economic experts have not had a chance to even look at
one of the reports and the RMA came after the Seifel report. So, all of that was
inaccurate.
GUPTA Thank you very much.
ADDIEGO If I could understand, we took an initial action? This is the second?
MATTAS So, on October 11th the City Council set the hearing for this evening. Your October 11th
Staff Report had a draft of the RMA at that time. So, they’ve had the RMA since at least
October 11th and have had the Seifel report prior to that time.
ADDIEGO Okay, and so tonight was to be the vote…
MATTAS Tonight is the Council’s vote on setting up the formation and then the resolution calling
the election.
ADDIEGO And that has to follow within 90 days.
MATTAS The election has to follow within 90 days of tonight’s action. Scott, it’s a minimum of 90
days? Minimum of 90 days.
ADDIEGO So if we push it out, your concern is that the election has to occur and then we sit and
ratify it? Is that the third action by, or the third meeting by Council?
MATTAS Yeah, we would count the votes at the meeting on February 28th. So…
ADDIEGO Mr. Mattas, that doesn’t sound like an activity that takes a great amount of time. So, even
if we had a heavy agenda and we were pushing it into march, isn’t it something we could.
If were counting votes, so were ratifying the vote.
MATTAS Yeah, it’s within the Council’s discretion. So, I agree, it would not take much time
because the vote is going to be the vote, you just. It’s either in favor or its against it.
GARBARINO Acknowledge it.
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MATTAS Right, and so if the Council wanted to consider moving the ballot. The documents before
you tonight set the ballot date as the February 28th Council meeting. We had to draft them
with a date in mind. If the Council wanted to move that an additional two weeks out and
have that on your agenda at your first meeting in March, that would be doable too. But
we would have to adjust the documents and see.
GARBARINO Let me ask you this. Is 90 days absolute? Could it be 108 days?
MATTAS It’s a minimum of 90 days, it could be longer.
GARBARINO Oh, okay.
MATTAS Scott is there an outside…
SCOTT Between 90 and 180.
MATTAS It’s between 90 and 180 days, after this evening.
GARBARINO Mr. Mayor, my willingness to extend this, I have complete faith in our City Attorney, or I
guess our Assistant, at this point, to guide us down this path and lead us to the formation
without any error. But as a courtesy, because so much has been raised. If we could
respond more fully …
NORMANDY Can we not hold, I mean, we all, we will all be together on December 4th to talk about
OPD residential, that’s on the special agenda. Can we not postpone this to ensure that
Rich and Carol are both there? Prior to the OPD presentation.
MATTAS So, if the Council wanted to extend it to the December 4th meeting, you could do that and
then if Kashiwa wanted to present some additional analysis based on the documents that
they’ve received, they could do that in time. I do think that the Council may want to
consider that that information be submitted in time for the staff to be able to respond to it.
And then so that the Council gets the benefit of a complete package, with your December
4th. Practically that would mean, Mike, date on when you would need that? If they go to
the December 4th meeting, when would the packet go out?
FUTRELL The packet would go out on the 30th. So we’d need that maybe the 27th.
MATTAS Yeah, the 27th or 28th is that doable?
GUPTA Yeah I think that that’s the best we could do at this point in time and we have made the
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comments that we would like to hear from you in more detail. Although you have
provided us input, and we are, at least I am very much interested in following through
some of those points that you are making. So that’s why I wanted to give our staff a
chance to respond to those that you have already stated in your earlier report. So, I would
like to again, open the doors to you if you could do it in the meantime, that’s fine.
SAMINI We can try to get something in. Our economic expert isn’t here tonight. I can get him on
the phone on a break if you want and see when he can give me a report by, but I can’t
make a promise for something that’s going to happen in seven days. Especially over the
holidays. For, I don’t know what his schedule is. And so, I can try, and I can find out for
you maybe if you give me five minutes, I can give him a call and I can come back.
GUPTA No, I think that we have many different things going on right now and I would
recommend to the Council for their concurrence that we make December 4th meeting as
the continuation meeting and whatever you can do by that time, we will take into
account. Otherwise, we will assume that your two inputs, the written protests that are
already in the record will be dually considered and responded to.
SAMINI Thank you Mr. Mayor.
GUPTA Thank you very much. But that was my request and I’d like to get, yeah go ahead.
NORMANDY Jason has something.
ROSENBERG No, I’d just, once you have concurrence, I’d recommend, if December 4th is the date that
you’re going to continue it to. I’d recommend that the Council makes a motion to
continue this item to December 4th and the location of the December 4th meeting is here
so you’d want to continue to this site at seven p.m. for December 4th. Is that the right
time?
GUPTA Yes, I’d like to say, the attorney has stated the motion. Who’s going to make it?
MATSUMOTO Wait, before we do this because I don’t have my calendar. This is the special meeting that
we were going to have at seven p.m., is that correct? Because I have conflicts prior to
that.
FUTRELL That’s correct, seven p.m., so it should be fine.
MATSUMOTO Thank you. I can do that.
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GARBARINO December 4th?
GUPTA So the motion has been made to continue the item on December 4th, seven p.m., meeting
of the City Council. Do I hear a second?
NORMANDY Second.
GUPTA Could we have the vote on that motion?
MARTNIELLI Councilwoman Matsumoto?
MATSUMOTO Ay.
MARTINELLI Mayor Gupta?
GUPTA Aye.
MARTINELLI Councilman Garbarino?
GARBARINO Yes. And I do want to be fair, you know. This was upsetting to me, I just want to clarify
something. Getting this kind of stuff on Friday is hokey to me. But I want to give you an
opportunity to respond to this as well, in fairness. Okay, so yes.
MARTINELLI Vice Mayor Normandy?
NORMANDY Aye.
MARTINELLI Councilman Addiego?
ADDIEGO Yes.
GUPTA Thank you very much. And we are looking forward to December 4th.
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CERTIFICATION
I, LISA POPE, Master Municipal Clerk/Transcriptionist, do hereby certify that the foregoing
Pages 1 through 21 are a full, true and correct transcript of the proceedings of the South San
Francisco City Council consideration of Item 1 at its meeting of November 20, 2017.
Dated at Moorpark, California, this 14th day of May, 2018.
_______________________________
LISA POPE, MMC
3062473.1