City of San Ramon City Council Minutes





	MINUTES OF THE CITY OF SAN RAMON - COUNCIL MEETING MARCH 9, 1999 A regular meeting of the City Council of the City of San Ramon was called to order on March 23, 1999 at 7:30 p.m. in the San Ramon Senior Center, 9300 Alcosta Boulevard, Mayor Athan presiding. PRESENT: Councilmembers Hudson, Kinney, Raab, Welm and Mayor Athan ABSENT: None STAFF PRESENT: City Manager Herb Moniz, City Attorney Bob Saxe, Police Chief Obie Anderson, Parks and Community Services Director Jeff Eorio, Administrative Services Director Jim Randall, Planning Director Phil Wong, Community Services Manager Karen McNamara and City Clerk Judy Macfarlane * * * * PLEDGE OF ALLEGIANCE Cub Scouts, Pack 203, from Golden View School led the Council, staff and those present in the audience in a pledge of allegiance to the flag. ANNOUNCEMENTS Cm. Raab announced Family San Ramon would be hosting a public forum on development in the area on March 24 at 7:30 p.m. at the Community Center. Cm. Welm reminded the Council and community that beginning April 1 the southbound on-ramp at Alcosta Boulevard would be closed for a two to three month period while construction continues. SPECIAL PRESENTATIONS Mayor Athan said Jeffry Candrian, Seth Larson and Matt Motal had achieved the rank of Eagle Scout. Mr. Larson and Mr. Motal were presented proclamations by Mayor Athan recognizing their achievement. Mr. Candrian was not present. PUBLIC COMMENT Patricia Boom, 2567 Shadow Mountain Drive, told the Council and audience about a luncheon benefiting the American Heart Association to be held on March 26, 11:00 a.m. at the San Ramon Marriott. Mark Dorazio, 80 Cedar Point Loop #1409, said two of his four concerns regarding recycling bins in the City had been addressed. He said the two remaining concerns were 1) the color of the dumpster size recycling bins and recommended they be a standard color for easy identification and , 2) the issue of a dumpster taking one or two parking spaces in a large parking lot. Laureen Nettles, 14 Molina Court, said she spoke for the animal community and had three proposals, 1) community bulletin board in local parks, near freeway ramps and in shopping malls, 2) mandatory ID chipping that goes along with the registration of each animal and, 3) all backyard breeders of animals be required to pay a rescue fee to the local rescue group. She said she had offered to buy a permit to place signs legally around the city for her lost cat. Mayor Athan said the City does not have permits for that purpose. The City Manager said he would get back to Ms. Nettles with the exact reason why the city does not allow signs to be posted on poles and public property. APPROVAL OF MINUTES Cm. Kinney's motion to approve the minutes of the March 9, 1999 meeting was seconded by Cm. Hudson and passed 5-0. CONSENT CALENDAR Cm. Welm's motion to approve the following Consent Calendar was seconded by Cm. Kinney and passed 5-0. FINANCE Register of Demands dated March 3 and 11, 1999 in the amount of $874,107.02 UNDERGROUND UTILITY DISTRICT NO. 9 Set public hearing for April 13, 1999 for the establishment of Underground Utility District No. 9, San Ramon Valley NO. 9 Road to approximately 3,200 feet north of Alcosta Boulevard (San Ramon Valley Boulevard Widening Project CIP 7104). NORTH CITY LIMIT PROJECT - RESOLUTION NO. 99-29 APPROVAL OF FUNDING REQUEST IN THE AMOUNT OF $100,000 FOR EXPANSION OF THE SCHOOL AGE CHILD CARE FACILITY AT NEIL ARMSTRONG SCHOOL, OPERATED BY THE GROWING ROOM EDUCATIONAL COUNCIL * * * * WRITTEN COMMUNICATION Mayor Athan said the following letters had been received from 1) Senator Richard G. Polanco regarding Senate Bill 15 - establishing safety standards for handguns and, 2) Senator Richard K. Rainey regarding Senate Bill 3 - enacting the California Library Construction and Renovation Act of 2000. * * * * CONSOLIDATED MUNICIPAL ELECTIONS The City Clerk said San Ramon Ordinance 31 established elections to be held on the same day as the school district elections the first Tuesday after the first Monday in November of the odd numbered years. She said at that time in addition to the school district the City of San Ramon shared the ballot with the Dublin-San Ramon Services District (DSRSD) and the San Ramon Valley Fire Protection District (SRVFPD). She said since that time all of the districts except the SRVFPD had consolidated their elections with the General Election in November of the even numbered years. She said the City Council had looked at the issues of consolidation at their June 9, 1998 meeting and at that time it was the consensus to remain with the odd numbered years. She also said at the June 9 meeting Council had said they wanted to revisit this issue if the Fire District decided to consolidate. In February 1999 the Fire District voted to request consolidation and their next election will be in November 2000. In response to Cm. Welm's question regarding when the school district changed their election, the City Clerk responded that occurred in 1987. Cm. Raab said he brought this issue up originally in June 1998 and again he would like the Council to look at the cost savings of consolidation. He said the County Election Department's estimate of $2.00 per registered would mean San Ramon could possibly be assuming the whole bill of approximately $50,000 now and considerably more in the future with the increase in population and registered voters. He continued to say that amount would drop dramatically if San Ramon were to consolidate with the General Election. He also pointed out the larger percentage of voter turnout in San Ramon in the even numbered years. Mayor Athan said he personally could not vote to extend his own term. He said an editor of a local paper had indicated that municipal issues would get lost in the general election with all of the propositions. He said having an isolated municipal election directs the attention of the people that are interested in civic or municipal affairs to that particular ballot. Cm. Kinney confirmed the state, county, cities and special agencies would share the election costs in even numbered years. Cm. Welm said he felt keeping the elections in the odd numbered years promoted good local government for the following reasons, 1) cluttered ballots in general elections, 2) prefer to have voters who are paying attention to local affairs be the voters that elect local officials, 3) a consolidated election is cheaper for the City but is generally more expensive for the candidate and 4) an off year election for all of the other three reasons is an incumbent protection measure, it makes it easier for incumbents to run and it makes it much more difficult for challengers to run. He said for the sake of good government we ought to be willing to spend the $50,000 and run local elections. Cm. Raab said consolidation would be an easy way for the City to save $80,000 every other year. He said Cm. Welm's points showed a total lack of confidence in the citizens ability to comprehend the many issues before them. He said as far as giving the incumbents the advantage he did not feel that that was necessarily true. He said when you have an election in the even numbered years you get a broader range of citizens voting which probably means you will get a broader range of candidates running for election to the City Council. Cm. Hudson said he could support Cm. Raab's suggestion except for the fact that he really had a philosophical problem with extending the terms of the current Councilmembers. Cm. Raab said we could hold the election this November and make that a three year term and that would put San Ramon on the even year cycle and shorten the terms of Cms. Hudson and Kinney to three years. Mayor Athan said while he had no scientific data to prove it he thought that a person who was not familiar with the candidates had a tendency to vote for incumbents. Cm. Welm's motion to continue in the odd year elections was seconded by Cm. Kinney. Cm. Welm said he felt it was just a question of time before the other jurisdictions would rejoin San Ramon in November of the odd numbered years. The vote on the motion was 3-1-1 (Cm. Raab voted no and Cm. Hudson abstained). PARKS DEPARTMENT BIENNIAL SURVEY RESULTS The Community Services Manager introduced a report listing the results of a survey of San Ramon residents conducted by the Parks and Community Services Department. She said this was part of the their Master Plan update process where they survey and test public attitudes and opinions about the services, programs and facilities by the Parks and Community Services Department and the Public Services Department. It was staff's recommendation that Council receive the report and provide any feedback or direction to the consultant specifically on any areas that they would like further analyzed. Jennifer Franz, JD Franz Research, described the method used for surveying and reviewed the highlights and some of the findings of the survey. After Council discussion and questions Mayor Athan said the survey results were very positive and the Council was very proud of the Parks and Community Services Department. * * * * MAYOR'S CONFERENCE AGENDA Mayor Athan said the April 1 Mayors' Conference was being held in Pinole and the main item on the agenda was the selection of a Mayors' Conference representative to LAFCO. * * * * CITY CENTER PLANNING PROCESS Mayor Athan asked each Councilmember to give his concept of what they think should be done in the next step of the City Center planning process. Cm. Welm said he felt the Council needed to return the City Center project back to professionals at this point. He said the Council made their preferences known at the last meeting as to what they would like to see on the City Center site. He said a design team should sit down and come up with an idea as to how all of this could fit on 11 acres and make sense. The reason for community people to be appointed to this group was the interpretive element and because he did not want this to appear as a staff driven process from now on. Cm. Kinney said he was not opposed to a working group but definitely did not want to go back to a task force. He said they would meet in a public meeting but it would not be open for debate. He said he was willing to look at anyone, professionally or otherwise, who wanted to work with a working group and come back with a plan and a cost estimate attached. Mayor Athan said he did not feel the Alcosta Mall process was appropriate for this project. He said there was only one way to tell if we can afford the project and that is to find out what the plan is. He said he would like to use professional help but put it out for competition. He said he would like to give it to as many architects that would to respond to the City's proposal at which time during the development of the plan they would deal with the staff. He said the Council was the body that should decide on the compromises. He said he felt the system of having a committee would isolate the process which has been so public up to now from the public. He recommended going out for proposals for a competition and proceed. Cm. Raab said he had been proponent of competition for a long time on this project. He said he like the idea of having competition and bringing in sketches. He continued to say once we start showing the designs that are coming in from the architects he felt the public would be involved in large numbers giving its input. He said it was the Council's responsibility to look at the costs and balance that with the needs. Cm. Hudson said he felt staff's recommendation to get a team of professionals together was the right way to go and the steering committee be the five Councilmembers. He recommended the meetings be public. He said it was imperative that the Council put down in writing what they feel should be on the City Center site before staff and the professionals state what they feel should be there. Cm. Welm said if he could be certain that true design competition would occur then he would be less concerned. He said it was his fear that the architects were so busy right now that the only ones that will respond will not be the nationally known ones. He suggested not having a competition on the design but do a Request for Qualifications (RFQ) and maybe go on from there with a competition. Mayor Athan said the RFQs would state exactly that we are having a competition and if their response is yes, here are our qualifications, we want to be one of the participants. Cm. Hudson said he felt Mayor Athan's proposal was one step ahead. He said we need to get a professional team together to tell us if retail is viable and to come up with a financial analysis including a transportation plan and then make the analysis of exactly what we want on that site. Mayor Athan said once the Council decides what is going on that site then would be the time to look at ancillary viable commercial. He said the community has made it very clear that they do not want the City Center site to be retail oriented. Cm. Welm said a vote for viable retail was taken at the last meeting and it passed. He said he wanted retail only if it can be worked out in such a manner that the professionals tell us that it will work. Mayor Athan said he realized that he had not voted for viable retail at that meeting and he was asking for the people that had voted against him to reconsider. Cm. Raab said he was also against the retail aspect to this. He said the task force also agreed they did not want retail. He said the talk was about small coffee shops or shops that might be ancillary to creative arts. Cm. Hudson again stated he felt it was imperative the Councilmembers put down on paper their vision for the City Center and submit it to planning so that we don't revisit this. Cm. Kinney said he agreed that he did not want retail either unless it was viable. He said it was his understanding that retail would not be for the money it was to get people to come to the center. He said the Council had basically agreed on going out for an RFQ and he felt they should proceed on that basis. Cm. Welm said there was no question that a professional team that Council and staff had confidence in would have to be part of the review process. He said this will be an iterative process that will go through several changes over time. He said the first step as he saw it from a process standpoint was to seek out the professionals that staff and the Council can work with so we can prepare and evaluate the RFQs. Mayor Athan asked if that suggestion could be broken into two sections? He asked that a vote be taken on whether Council wanted to put out a request for RFQs, advising people that there was going to be a competition, and would they be willing to participate and what their qualifications are. Cm. Welm verified that meant asking what was the team they were going to put together and what are the qualifications of the team. Mayor Athan verified there was consensus on that issue and requested it be put in stone. The City Clerk repeated Cm. Welm's statement to ask "who would be on the team of professionals and what are their qualifications" Cm. Welm said the second phase was to ask staff to gather a team of professional support people that would help them in evaluating both the qualifications and evaluating the ultimate design competition. Mayor Athan asked if Cm. Welm would be willing to consider adding a qualification that states "if staff deems it necessary"? Cm. Welm stated his concurrence. Mayor Athan said he understood Cm. Welm to say that we could retain professionals to assist staff and it was his position that meant to assist staff if deemed required by them or Council. He asked if Cm. Welm had any objection to that? Cm. Welm said they as a five member council also has to have confidence. Cm. Raab said the Council was only focused on the 11 acres and he would like them to look at the whole site including Central Park. He said Council may want to move the tot lot and tennis courts and put the performing art area over there and relocate them onto the 11 acres. He also recommended looking at undergrounding Bollinger Canyon Road at the same time. The City Manager said the Council had not taken a vote. They had only reached consensus. He said they reached consensus on the RFQ and he had heard two or three clarifications on the professional support staff. He asked for the City Clerk to read back what exactly the Council had reached consensus on the second issue, the professional support team. The City Clerk read "to gather a team of professional support people to assist staff and the Council" and it was added "if required". The City Manager confirmed that meant to review the RFQ for the whole process. Cm. Welm said after the discussion it was unclear to him what the Council was going to tell the team what their ultimate assignment was going to be. He said it was his understanding the Council had come to consensus on, 1) a performing arts as per the staff report, some sort of arts gallery and/or museum, 2) city administrative offices, 3) a library was going to analyzed, 4) viable retail was going to analyzed as part of the package. Not included at the previous meeting was the cost of the undercrossing or the overcrossing of Bollinger Canyon Road. He said he felt that was clearly left as a future phased expansion concept that a generation from now a City Council may want to undertake when it is time. He said he did not feel the concept of expanding the workplan to include all of Central Park as part of the analysis would make sense from a cost effectiveness standpoint. He said to tear up existing facilities would be a huge expense. It was the consensus that they were in agreement on that issue. Cm. Hudson said Council did agree to look at the feasibility of undergrounding or overgrounding Bollinger only as to look at it in conjunction with the project, but to do it at a later date. Mayor Athan said we got past that and we had a vote that we are going to include a competition for designing a civic center plan which may include a performing arts facility of 300 to 500. He asked if there were any objection to that? There was no objection. Mayor Athan continued to say, and to include city administrative offices at a space level as determined by the City Manager as needed for the present and the future. Mayor Athan confirmed there was Council agreement so far. Mayor Athan said these are may include "a library and the feasibility of viable retail ancillary to the uses outlined above". Cm. Welm said no, Mayor Athan you are redefining it again. Cm. Raab said as far as the underpass, there were many ways to look for funding both federal and state for projects such as that because it involves a city use area tied into a major artery in the city tied to retail. He said it should be looked at and we can get some initial cost estimates back. He said if the professionals look at it they may come back and say you have these sources for potential funding, it can be done and this is how we can include it into your site. He said in the Parks and Community Services survey the lowest level of satisfaction was open space and the discussion of open space was last on the list of considerations. He said the majority of Councilmembers were more concerned that the project include some type of retail and then having open space of one kind or another. Cm. Hudson said he agreed on some passive space with some plaza areas in the city center but the open space talked about in the survey was not this type of open space. The City Manager said the direction to the professionals responding to RFQs was that this project may include a performing arts center including museum and gallery space, city administrative offices, library, viable retail and a plaza and passive open space. He said those were the five items that would be used to describe the project in the request for qualifications. Cm. Kinney said the staff report said the City Center plan "will" include and the City Manager said the City Center plan "may" include and he felt "may" was the better choice of words. Cm. Raab said we are going to put in the term "may" then he wanted the overpass or the underpass considered, because it may include. He asked why don't we look at it, we can always take it out. Mayor Athan said the RFQs were really to get a sense of the interest in a competition. Cm. Raab asked if he could see if there was any consensus on that issue? Cm. Hudson said he would like to point out it is the staff's recommendation. He said staff would also include the services of a transportation planner to evaluate the feasibility of the overpass of Bollinger Canyon. Cm. Welm said if that is going to be done it has to be done totally separate from this. He said we can not create these many different possibilities to the point where nobody can get their hands around it. He said if the Council directs staff to go take a look and see what the feasibility of that is, it is a separate issue entirely, it is fine with me, but not as part of this proposal. Cm. Raab said this was an opportunity to include it into the plan. Mayor Athan said Cm. Welm was not saying don't plan it, that is going to come when we give the specifications for the design. He said this was simply a request to try to find out who is willing to compete. Cm. Raab asked then what is wrong with putting it on the list under "may include"? Cm. Hudson said what we are hearing is a third possibility that staff would be directed to go ahead with a transportation plan. Cm. Raab said they may come back with a plan for the underpass but the plan that we may decide to accept may exclude the underpass or overpass because of the way it was designed. Mayor Athan said this is not calling for a plan it is calling for a request for qualifications and in general, we are telling them what we want them to compete on. He said once we find out who is going to compete, then we flush it out taking into consideration things on Bollinger Canyon and Camino Ramon. * * * * TCI RE-FRANCHISE TASK FORCE The Parks and Community Services Director said the four cities of Pleasanton, Dublin, Livermore and San Ramon were under franchising negotiations with TCI and currently there was a committee made up of the staff representatives from each of the agencies. He said they felt it was appropriate to have an elected official as part of the discussions so that some of the issues of the elected officials could be understood as the new ordinance and the refranchising of the cable television system. He said they were recommending that an appointment be made by the respective councils of the four agencies to serve with staff on the refranchising task force. It was the consensus of Council that Mayor Athan serve on the refranchising task force. Cm. Hudson was selected to serve as the alternate to the task force. * * * * Y2K COMPLIANCE Cm. Kinney said both he and Cm. Hudson had been attending Y2K Compliance meetings. He said there was going to be a Y2K public meeting on April 8 at the Community Center at 7:30 p.m. * * * * TRI-VALLEY CITY COUNCIL Cm. Welm said the Tri-Valley City Council meeting was held on March 25 at the Canyon Lakes Country Club. He said the guests were State Senator Rainey, Assemblywoman Leach and Assemblyman Torlakson. He said they all serve on their respective transportation committees. He said it was clear now that the Governor has rejected the proposal to revisit the design issues on the replacement of the eastern span of the Bay Bridge. He also said there was money earmarked for a study of the fourth bore of the Caldecott Tunnel. * * * * TRANSPORTATION ADVISORY COMMITTEE Cm. Kinney said there was a Transportation Advisory Committee public meeting to discuss primarily the area around Athan Downs and Ascot Drive. * * * * SAN RAMON VALLEY UNIFIED SCHOOL DISTRICT LIAISON Cm. Hudson said at the last school district liaison meeting Transportation staff had asked the district to pass out 1500 car pool surveys and hopefully some of people will read those when they come to their home and something can be done about the traffic around the schools. * * * * ENVIRONMENTAL AFFAIRS COMMITTEE Cm. Raab said the meeting time has been changed for the Environmental Affairs Advisory Committee and they meet on the third Wednesday of each month at 7:00 p.m. He said the committee with working with engineering staff on creek signage, identifying the creeks throughout the community. He said for Arbor Day this year the committee was sponsoring a tree selection and care workshop to be held Saturday, April 3 at 2:00 p.m. at the San Ramon Senior Center. He said there were two sites in San Ramon where community members could help on Earth Day, the Boone property and Crow Canyon Gardens. * * * * Mayor Athan asked the Council if they liked the idea of asking the Parks and Community Services Department staff to look into the possibility of having a City block party for New Years Eve. The Council expressed interest in having staff research the feasibility of such a party. * * * * There being no further business to come before the City, at 10:15 p.m. the meeting adjourned. Byron D. Athan, Mayor Judy Macfarlane, City Clerk Home \| City Council \| City Council Minutes Index