A regular meeting of the City Council of the City of San Ramon was called to order on May 25, 1999 at 7:30 p.m. in the Council Chamber at City Hall, 2222 Camino Ramon, 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, City Engineer Joye Fukuda, Senior Engineer John Harper, Planning Director Phil Wong, Public Services Director Jim Estep, Administrative Analyst Sandra Barlow and City Clerk Judy Macfarlane

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Cub Scouts from Pack 203 – Den 8, Golden View School led Council, staff and those present in the audience in a pledge of allegiance to the flag.

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The City Manager said the City Council Live Call-in Show on Channel 30 was scheduled for Monday, June 7 at 7:30 p.m.

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The Administrative Services Director introduced Janet Pedersen, the new Office Assistant in the Administrative Services Department.

Mayor Athan welcomed Ms. Pedersen and gave her a City pin.

Annie Flores, Contra Costa Community Substance Abuse Services, talked about the retail availability of alcohol in San Ramon. She said San Ramon was very proactive in monitoring the sale of alcohol to minors.

Mayor Athan introduced Colleen and Bob Olson and gave them a proclamation recognizing the week of June 6-12, 1999 as "Affordable Housing Week".

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PUBLIC COMMENT – None

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Cm. Kinney’s motion to approve the minutes of the May 11, 1999 meeting was seconded by Cm. Raab and passed 5-0.

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Cm. Welm asked that the description on the Register of Demands be more comprehensive.

Cm. Kinney’s motion to approve the following Consent Calendar was seconded by Cm. Welm and passed 5-0.

FINANCE      Register of Demands dated May 14, 1999 in the amount of $235,906.33

AUTHORIZING THE CITY ENGINEER TO EXECUTE RIGHT-OF-WAY CERTIFICATIONS IN CONNECTION WITH FEDERALLY FUNDED PROJECTS 

ADOPTING A NEGATIVE DECLARATION WITH MITIGATION MEASURES FOR THE SAN RAMON VALLEY BOULEVARD WIDENING PROJECT (CIP 7104)

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Mayor Athan said the following written communications had been received by the Council; a letter from Senator Ross Johnson regarding SB 160, the Senate’s first draft of a Budget Bill for 1999-00 and a letter from the Contra Costa County Board of Supervisors regarding the solicitation for citizens to serve on the new Children and Families First Commission

Cm. Welm said that Commission was going to spend millions of dollars a year on social service programs primarily anti smoking and that kind of thing and it would be a shame if there were a perception in this part of the county that we don’t have these types of issues. He said he would really encourage someone from the community to apply.

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OVERHEAD UTILITY UNDERGROUNDING PROGRAM

The Senior Engineer said the City Wide Overhead Utility  Undergrounding Program was instituted as a recommendation and City Council follow-up from the South of Montevideo Advisory Committee (SOMAC) who recommended that all of the remaining overhead utilities in the City be undergrounded. He said last year as part of the CIP program a feasibility study was begun to study the implementation of this program. He said all of the existing overhead utilities had been inventoried in the City and determined there were approximately 100 local streets that have overhead utilities. He continued to say the City Council had authorized $300,000 a year to begin undergrounding and there was approximately $125,000 a year from PG&E available for that purpose too. He asked Council for direction on how they would like to proceed with this program.

Cm. Welm asked how many feet of undergrounding would the $425,000 a year buy?

The Senior Engineer said PG&E estimates $250 to $300 a foot for undergrounding.

Mayor Athan asked how much in Rule 20A funds had the City received since incorporation in 1983 and where had these funds been spent?

The Senior Engineer replied approximately $1 million and it had been spent on arterials within the City along San Ramon Valley Boulevard mainly and some on Alcosta from Stagecoach to Veracruz.

Jim Hanafee, 9443 Olympia Fields Drive, said he had been paying for undergrounding on his PG&E bill for over a quarter of a century. He said after public hearings PG&E had determined the number one reason utilities should be undergrounded was to eliminate an unusually heavy concentration of overhead electric facilities. He said there was nothing in the guidelines to go against the idea of undergrounding the lines in the south San Ramon area.

Sally Scholl, 30 Broadmoor Court, said her husband had been very active on the SOMAC committee that had recommended undergrounding in south San Ramon. She said they had been paying for utilities much longer in south San Ramon and felt the undergrounding should be started there.

Peter Frech, 160 Reflections Drive, said while Rule 20A was established initially for esthetic reasons, it was now felt undergrounding should also be done for health reasons. He said there were approximately 500 homes in San Ramon that are close to the power lines with significantly elevated electromagnetic field (EMF) levels. He said lines should be buried near schools and homes with the older part of San Ramon retrofitted first. He also said the transmission and distribution power lines should be included in the undergrounding.

He asked the City Engineer to provide the following information for each year from 1989 to 1999; the number of overhead meters and the total meters in San Ramon and PG&E systemwide, the Rule 20A fund allocation for San Ramon and total Rule 20A allocation systemwide, the Rule 20A funds used and unused for San Ramon and what happens to the unused funds and are they still available.

Cm. Welm asked is if not true that by far the greater element of removing EMFs is distance between the power lines and where the person stands, not the ground.

Mr. Frech said one thing is distance and the other is how close the wires are together. He said the closer the wires are together the faster the magnetic fields fall down, so that is the reason undergrounding is so effective because the wires are put very close together.

In response to Cm. Welm’s questions, Mr. Frech explained the higher the voltage the more difficult it is to bury the lines and therefore it is more costly.

Cm. Hudson asked if the effects of EMFs was cumulative?

Mr. Frech said this was his personal feeling but it had not been scientifically established

and there were different opinions.

Don Schinnerer, 9419 Cherry Hills Lane, read a letter from Ken Harman, 9519 Davona Drive, which stated the overhead lines on Davona, Broadmoor and Brockton was a spaghetti of wires but apart from the aesthetic aspects of the undergrounding the far more serious issue was safety. Mr. Harman’s letter continued to state in a daytime earthquake failure of these lines would put our school children at great risk.

Dr. Schinnerer said his office was near the intersection of Fircrest and Alcosta and power quality in this area was by far the poorest that he had seen. He said on several occasions during the year there will be outages causing the offices to shutdown. He said he felt there were some overhead lines and transformers in that area that were in desperate need of repair. He said when the Council looks at undergrounding this was an area that desperately needed undergrounding to keep people employed.

Mayor Athan said a letter had been received from Joe Covello, 9669 Tareyton Avenue, supporting the request that undergrounding start in south San Ramon. He said a letter had also been received from Christa Freihofner, 3272 Estero Drive, listing her priorities for undergrounding in San Ramon.

Sandy Grabowski, 1 Colonial Court, said when SOMAC submitted its report six years ago the committee was assured that the south San Ramon area would be looked at highly in the prioritization of undergrounding when funds became available. She said if arterials were going to be part of the discussion there were two arterials in south San Ramon, Broadmoor and Davona.

Mayor Athan read a speaker card from Joyce Wahlig, 59 Nead Place, in support of undergrounding in the southern section of the City as recommended by SOMAC.

Carol Rowley, 7524 Northland, said the number of lines in south San Ramon has continued to grow as the population increases. She said the power lines were becoming more and more fragile and she was concerned about safety issues when power lines break. She said she was speaking on behalf of the parents of Country Club School children and her neighbors.

Diane Schinnerer, 9419 Cherry Hills Lane, said safety of the children was her main concern. She said there had been live electrical wires down three times in her neighborhood in the past five years and an explosion of one of the big transformers. She asked the City Council to request that PG&E give an up-to-date accident report for the past ten years for the southern area of the City and that report be given to all of the people who live in that area. She said after driving around the City she would propose not just considering arterials but going back to the drawing board and drafting a game plan to underground all of the poles. Ms. Schinnerer’s suggestion for criteria was 1) those streets with the heaviest concentration of wires, 2) those streets with the heaviest number of school children, 3) the age of the community and the number of years the residents have paid into Rule 20A money, 4) the number of times wires criss-cross over the arterials and, 5) the aging condition of the poles, wires and transformers.

Richard Fahey, 152 Baltusrol Place, said after nearly a year of study, discussion, research and two very well attended public forums, SOMAC submitted a report to Council which listed as one of the top priorities was to put the electric pole utilities underground. He said south of Montevideo was one of few parts of the City with above ground utilities.

Tom Mullican, 9574 Broadmoor Drive, said in his area there was probably a higher concentration of schools and playyards then anywhere else in the City and maybe anywhere else in the Valley. He said a large number of children travel on Broadmoor and Davona each day.

Colleen Olson, 9416 Cherry Hills Lane, expressed concern for the high winds and aging utility poles in south San Ramon.

Debbie Hughes, 190 Madelia Place, said there had been a number of grass fires in the past year due to transformer explosions. She said whenever the wind blows the wires get together and arc, presenting a very serious problem.

Bob Olson, 9416 Cherry Hills Lane, said the aging population in south San Ramon is being replaced by families with young children going to school in an area with the oldest wires in the City.

Carol Rowley said there had been two major fires in the past year on Davona/Blue Fox Way from fallen wires.

Cm. Welm said one thing he would like to see avoided is the year to year ad hoc political decisions regarding undergrounding. He said it was the Finance Committee’s belief that a quantifiable fair formula with prioritization should be created. He said many of the streets in south San Ramon were arterials that had been impacted by all of the San Ramon residents and they wanted to make sure to give first opportunity for undergrounding to people who live along those streets before those who live on courts. He said he also agreed with adding arterials near schools to the formula. He said the City will pay for the undergrounding but the house has to hook up to the undergrounded wire and the estimate for that is $2,000 per house.

Cm. Kinney said the $300,000 added to the CIP each year would not go very far and maybe we should look at some kind of a bond issue.

Cm. Hudson said he agreed the first priority should be undergrounding lines around schools and then the older residential areas.

Cm. Raab said a major concern of the Finance Committee was how to set a prioritization for undergrounding that was fair for everyone and not showing favoritism. He said he thought in street counts the schools would fall out naturally and become a top priority because of the traffic around them. He said until EMFs are proven harmless we have to assume they can be dangerous. He said he liked the way it was set up for prioritizing and felt it was fair.

Mayor Athan said the staff report listed traffic counts as the top priority and to him traffic counts were irrelevant. He said arterials were fine if they were entrances to the City. He said part of every utility bill paid goes for undergrounding and there were people in south San Ramon who had been paying this for 35 years. He continued to say PG&E was obligated to pay for service up to 100 feet of the house within the Rule 20A area. He said there is the long term and the short term and he felt something could be done through an assessment district citywide. He made a motion that Rule 20A funds and any supplement the City has be indicated for arterials of one criteria, and the second criteria was the age of community and the contributions to the Rule 20A funds and we do look into an assessment district for underground all other wires which are hazardous.

Cm. Hudson said if Mayor Athan would amend his motion to include the schools as the highest priority he would second it.

Mayor Athan said he would amend his motion.

Mayor Athan restated his motion that the criteria for the expenditure of Rule 20A funds be; first priority arterials and in conjunction with schools.

Cm. Hudson confirmed he seconded the motion and asked if he also added the older residences as one of the priorities and the arterials that you lump together with the schools. He said that was basically what Christa Freihofner had included in her letter.

Mayor Athan confirmed that Christa Freihofner had written a letter in which she asked the Council to consider the safety of children, residents living along Davona, Pine Valley and Broadmoor and residents of the older residential areas of the City.

Cm. Welm and said there was also a third element to Mayor Athan’s motion that addressed something about a citywide bond.

Mayor Athan said he meant a citywide assessment district. He continued to say he wanted the City to study a long range solution whether it be a citywide assessment district or a bond issue.

Cm. Kinney asked about the $300,000 included in the CIP each year?

After stating he included the $300,000 by saying as augmented by City general funds, Mayor Athan restated his motion to say "that all Rule 20A funds be on the following priority; 1) arterials with the older part of the City having preference and those areas that are frequented by children going to and from school and, 2) that a study be made or indicate that we will look into adopting a financing mechanism for undergrounding all other wires in the City, whether it be an assessment district, a bond issue, a certificate of participation or any other mechanism.

Cm. Welm clarified Mayor Athan’s motion regarding funding to mean "looking into funding mechanisms on how to underground all of the rest of the wires".

Mayor Athan said yes, for the long range.

Cm. Welm said he liked the idea of including the schools and asked why not start with the schools and work from there. He said he recommended schools first and then moving on to arterials and the more heavily traveled sections of arterials and moving on to the age of homes. He said he did not want to start considering older homes on courts before schools were finished.

Cm. Hudson said mature plants and trees will have to be uprooted when the lines are undergrounded. He said people might not mind fronting the money that it would take to connect the utilities to their home if they felt they would get back a tax credit or something along those lines. He said he would like to explore the possibility of an assessment district as a way of getting more done up front.

Cm. Welm said he had no problem with including in the motion looking into a funding mechanism for the long term but the trick will be to find a funding mechanism that will pass. He suggested redefining the motion to state that the criteria are schools first, arterials second, traffic counts third, age of homes fourth and then also include looking into funding alternatives.

Mayor Athan said he would amend his motion if age of the community was placed above traffic counts.

Cm. Welm said the potential problem with the request to move up the age of homes was the location of the homes, some older homes on courts versus homes on arterials.

Mayor Athan said arterials had to be finished before moving on to the next step. He said his motion had indicated that arterials was first choice and between two arterials it would be the one that was in the city the longest.

Cm. Kinney said he agreed that traffic counts should be a priority before the age of homes.

Mayor Athan restated the motion as "the first priority will be arterials with special concern for those that are frequented by children going to and from school, the second priority is of the communities that are the oldest will have preference over the others, so in other words, every arterial will be completed before moving on. He said those are his two criteria and he would eliminate all others. He said that also includes the spending of Rule 20 A funds in the future as augmented by the City Council and that there will be study or some sort of examination of funding mechanisms for which we can at a later date underground other areas of which the priority will be to be determined by future City Councils.

Cm. Hudson said his second was for the motion that specifically stated that the schools have the highest priority.

Cm. Raab said he would second Mayor Athan’s last motion for the purposes of discussion.

Mayor Athan asked what schools Cm. Hudson was talking about?

Cm.Hudson responded Country Club, Walt Disney, Pine Valley and Neil Armstrong.

Cm. Welm called the question.

When Mayor Athan asked how many were in favor of calling the question the vote was 4-1 (Mayor Athan dissenting).

The vote on the motion was 1-4 (Cms. Hudson, Kinney, Raab and Welm dissenting).

Cm. Welm made a motion that the Rule 20A money and any augmentation funds that the City choses to add will be spent per the following criteria; 1) the first cut would be in the immediate neighborhood of schools, 2) arterials, 3) based on traffic counts and 4) based on the age of homes.

Cm. Kinney seconded the motion.

Cm. Raab said the reason why he and Cm. Welm had specified traffic counts when they made the report while serving on the Finance Committee was because people have moved in and out of south San Ramon within the last 35 years, so how do you determine the benefit. He said they felt this was the only fair way was to give relief to people who had to put up with more unpleasantness versus the age of homes.

Mayor Athan said he felt the age should come before traffic counts and he would have no objection to arterials.

After further discussion and questions, Mayor Athan said it had been moved and seconded that the schools be given the first priority, the second priority be arterials, the third priority is traffic counts and fourth is the age of the homes.

The vote on the motion was 4-1 (Mayor Athan dissenting).

Cm. Kinney made a motion that a study be done on long term funding mechanisms for undergrounding.

Cm. Welm seconded the motion and it passed 5-0.

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Mayor Athan said there would be a five minute break.

All Councilmembers were present when the meeting reconvened.

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L & L DISTRICT 1984-1 ASSESSMENTS 1999/00

The Administrative Analyst introduced a public hearing  for Landscaping and Lighting District 1984-1 and recommended the Council consider adopting a resolution confirming the diagram and levying the assessments for 1999/00. She said the proposed fiscal year 1999/00 district budget was $5,236,389.

Mayor Athan confirmed no written protests had been received.

No one spoke during the public hearing.

Cm. Raab’s motion to adopt the resolution confirming the diagram and levying the assessments was seconded by Cm. Kinney and passed 5-0.

CONFIRMING THE DIAGRAM AND ASSESSMENTS AND LEVYING THE ASSESSMENTS FOR LANDSCAPING AND LIGHTING DISTRICT 1984-1 FISCAL YEAR 1999/00

Cm. Kinney said he met with the Crown Ridge developers and City staff and the concerns he had expressed at a previous Council meeting regarding the landscaping in that district had been resolved.

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GHAD 1990-01 ASSESSMENT 

The City Engineer introduced a public hearing for Geological Hazard Abatement District 1990-01 and recommended the Council 1999/00 consider adoption of a resolution levying the assessment for Fiscal Year 1999/00. She said the district includes the Westbranch and Gale Ranch development by Shapell and the Windemere Ranch Partners development in Dougherty Valley. She said the recommended assessment was $100 per residential unit and 3.2 cents per square foot non residential.

No one spoke during the public hearing.

Cm. Welm’s motion to approve the resolution levying the assessment was seconded by Cm. Raab and passed 5-0.

CONFIRMING AND LEVYING THE ASSESSMENT FOR GEOLOGICAL HAZARD ABATEMENT DISTRICT 1990-01 FISCAL YEAR 1999/00

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INITIATIVE PETITION CERTIFICATION 

The City Clerk introduced a resolution that would certify an Initiative Petition for a Measure Amending the General Plan. After giving the background of the petition she recommended the City Council consider adoption of the resolution. She said the Council has the option of adopting the ordinance as submitted by the initiative petition with no changes or submit the ordinance to the voters at the next regular municipal election, which for San Ramon would be November 2, 1999. She also said the Council could request staff to do an analysis of the initiative regarding fiscal impact, consistency with the City’s general and specific plans, including the housing element and consistency between planning and zoning.

Cm. Kinney said he would like staff to look at the fiscal impacts and consistency with the City’s general and specific plans including the housing element.

Cm. Welm said he had asked the City Attorney what would be the effect of asking for one or all of the reports.

The City Attorney said the Council has two choices, 1) adopt the ordinance or 2) put the initiative on the ballot. He said the Elections Code allows the Council to request the report in order to evaluate the two alternatives. He said if the study were requested there was a 30 day period in which it had to be completed and brought back to Council.

Cm. Welm said the information was important in order to understand the initiative and to ultimately inform the voters. He asked if the Council did not avail themselves of the opportunity to study the impacts now were they prohibited from studying the impacts later.

The City Attorney said they would never be prohibited from studying the impacts.

Cm. Welm confirmed the City could not take a position relative to the initiative but they could inform the community as to what the impacts might be.

The City Attorney said the Council has the right to study the impacts but that city funds could not be used to campaign for one side or the other.

Cm. Welm said if the results of the study were going to affect the Council’s decision to adopt the initiative as an ordinance or to put it to a vote then the study needed to happen before the Council makes a decision. If the study was not going to make a difference then a study could still be requested and the Council could vote on the issue that night.

Cm. Kinney said he had no problem with proceeding as stated by Cm. Welm as long as they could make the information from the study available to the public.

The City Attorney confirmed any report coming from the study would be a public record and therefore would be made available to the public.

Cm. Welm’s motion to adopt the resolution certifying the initiative petition was seconded by Cm. Raab and passed 5-0.

CERTIFYING THE INITIATIVE PETITION FOR MEASURE AMENDING THE GENERAL PLAN AND REQUIRING VOTER APPROVAL OF VARIOUS LAND USE DECISIONS

Cm. Welm’s motion to put the initiative on the November 2, 1999 ballot and simultaneously direct staff to look at the issues as stated by Cm. Kinney was seconded by Cm. Kinney.

Mayor Athan asked why not bring the issue back at the next meeting at which time a public hearing could be held and then Council could make a decision.

Cm. Welm said he felt this was decision that should be made by the voters.

Cm. Hudson said he would also like to have the impact on the State’s Affordable Housing requirement addressed in staff’s report.

Cm. Welm said he would amend his motion to include Cm. Hudson’s request.

Cm. Kinney seconded the amended motion.

The vote on the motion was 5-0.

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MAYORS’ CONFERENCE 

Mayor Athan said June 3 Mayors’ Conference was being hosted by Pacific Bell in San Ramon. He said on the agenda was a discussion by a Caltrans representative of the graffiti problem.

Cm. Welm said next week in West County there would be a toll free 800 number that would serve all jurisdictions in that area.

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STREET SIGN SELECTION 

The City Council looked at and discussed three examples of potential street signs. The majority of Council recommended going with example number 2.

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There being no further business to come before the City at 10:05 p.m. the meeting adjourned.

Byron D. Athan, Mayor
Judy Macfarlane, City Clerk

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