January 27, 2004

A regular meeting of the City of San Ramon City Council, Geologic Hazard Abatement District and Redevelopment Agency was held on January 27, 2004 at 7:00 p.m. in the Council Chamber at City Hall, 2222 Camino Ramon, Mayor Wilson presiding.

PRESENT: Councilmembers Hudson, Perkins, Rowley and Mayor Wilson.

ABSENT: Councilmember Livingstone

STAFF PRESENT: City Manager Gail E. Waiters, City Attorney Byron Athan, Police Chief Kathy Samuels, Public Works Director Joye Fukuda, Parks and Community Services Director Jeff Eorio, Maintenance Supervisor Jeff Gault, Transportation Specialist Steven Spedowfski, Division Manager –Parks and Community Services Department John Skeel, and City Clerk Judy Macfarlane

Mayor Wilson announced the Council met in closed session pursuant to 1) Government Code 54956.9(b)(1) to confer with legal counsel – anticipated litigation, 2) Government Code 54957.6 – public employment – City Attorney and, 3) Government Code 54957.6 – employee discipline/dismissal/release

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Annette Cahill Carol Lopez led Council, staff and those in the audience in the pledge of allegiance.

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The City Manager said the two Geologic Hazard Abatement District items under New Business would be continued to a future meeting.

It was announced in addition to the meetings noted in the agenda the Planning Commission would be meeting Tuesday, February 3 at 7:00 p.m.

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SPECIAL PRESENTATIONS

The City Clerk said that former Councilmember Donna Dickey was not able to attend the meeting and a plaque commemorating her service on the City Council 2001-2003 would be sent to her.

A letter was read from Ms. Dickey expressing thanks to many people including Cms. Cambra and Tatarka for their integrity and dignity in office, the City Manager for knowing how to run a City and keeping people accountable, to residents and friends for their support and to her husband for his sacrifice and love.

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The Parks and Community Services Director said the Parks and Community Services Commission was recommending John Hunt for appointment to the Senior Advisory Committee with a term expiring April 2006.

Cm. Hudson’s motion to appoint John Hunt to the Senior Advisory Committee for a term to run through April 2006 was seconded by Cm. Rowley and passed 4-0.

The Parks and Community Services Department Division Manager said the Parks and Community Services Commission was recommending the appointment of Donnine Davis, Elizabeth Monroe and Yvonne Kimber to the Library Advisory Committee with terms expiring January 2006.

Cm. Hudson’s motion to appoint Ms. Davis, Ms. Monroe and Ms. Kimber to the Library Advisory Committee was seconded by Cm. Rowley and passed 4-0.

Parks and Community Services and Planning Commissions

Mayor Wilson said he would prefer this item be continued to the next meeting when there would be a full Council.

Cm. Hudson’s motion to continue the appointment of the Parks and Community Services Commission to February 10 was seconded by Cm. Rowley and passed 4-0.

Bob Patrino, Planning Commission Chair, asked the Council to reconsider continuing the Planning Commission appointment.. He said they had been without a commissioner for almost six months. He said there are going to be critical items discussed that need the input from all five commissioners and the position needs to be filled.

Donna Kerger, Planning Commission, said she strongly urged the Council to go forward with the appointment to the Commission.

Cm. Perkins said he would like to decide the matter that evening.

Cm. Hudson said he was ready to vote.

It was the consensus of the Council to go forward with the vote for Planning Commission.

On the first ballot the list of seven applicants was narrowed to two. The vote was split two-two on four subsequent ballots.

Mayor Wilson said the balloting for Planning Commission would be continued to the February 10 meeting.

Cm. Hudson’s motion to continue the item to February 10 was seconded by Cm. Perkins and passed 4-0.

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Roz Rogoff said she and Melody Lundgren agreed that the City should go to even year elections. She said she would like this issue to be put on a future agenda to discuss putting a measure on the ballot, whether it is in June or November, to go to even year elections and shorten the terms of Councilmember except for the Mayor and the Mayor’s term would be lengthened by a year.

Ms. Lundgren discussed the difference in the cost for even-year and odd-year elections. She read the following proposed ballot language to accomplish the change; "Shall the general municipal election be held on the first Tuesday following the first Monday in November in each even-numbered year beginning in November 2006. To accomplish this change all Councilmembers and the Mayor elected in November 2003 would serve until 2006 and all Councilmembers and the Mayor elected in November 2005 would serve until 2008."

Mayor Wilson said this item would go to the Policy Committee and then it would come to the Council.

Rena Waterson, president of the Vista San Ramon Homeowners Association, spoke about their neighborhood’s donation of food to the Food Bank during the holiday season.

April Rovara, president of the San Ramon Soroptimists, spoke about an upcoming special event called "Character Counts", a child oriented community based program currently being introduced throughout the San Ramon schools in place of the DARE program. She introduced Officer Gwen Brady and said she would be the one presenting the programs in all of the schools.

Katherine Cheng said she was in the third grade and spoke about what the library meant to her. She presented a jar of money for the library that had been collected the past Sunday.

Barbara Cheng thanked Council for their support of the library grant. She asked for support of the School Parcel tax on the April ballot.

Pauline Nolte, San Ramon Library Foundation, said at last month’s meeting she had made an appeal to the citizens of San Ramon to fill a $30,000 gap in the budget for library materials at the San Ramon library. She said the Foundation had donated $10,000 and it was decided to reach out to the community for the rest. She said so far $2,100 had been received from private individuals and businesses in San Ramon.

Peter Oswald, Sunset Development, asked the Mayor and representatives of Chevron, Club Sport, Marriott, San Ramon Regional Medical Center, Windemere Homes and Toby Brink of the San Ramon Chamber of Commerce to come forward and said on behalf of all of them they were collectively donating $22,000.

Christa Freihofner spoke about the contributions made by former Councilmember Donna Dickey during her term on the Council.

Jackie Esse, Senior Center Foundation member, said the Foundation had been asked to contribute $13,000 to the Senior Center funding to help keep the Nutrition Program going. She said this was a lot of money for the Foundation to come up with and she wanted the Council to be aware of this.

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Mayor Wilson called for a five-minute break.

Councilmembers Perkins, Rowley and Mayor Wilson were present when the meeting reconvened.

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Mayor Wilson said public comment would continue and read a speaker card from Mickey Mergy expressing concern over unprofessional behavior displayed by some members of the Council.

Deborah Yeoman said she wished to express her dismay at statements made by Councilmember Perkins at the January 22 meeting.

Donna Kerger said she was happy Mr. Athan had returned as City Attorney.

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The City Clerk said before the Council were the minutes of the November 13, 2003 and January 13, 2004 City Council meetings and the January 13, 2004 Redevelopment Agency meeting. She said Cm. Hudson had left the meeting and Cms. Perkins and Rowley were not on the Council on November 13, 2003, therefore she would recommend the November 13 minutes be continued to the next meeting.

Cm. Perkins’ motion to approve the minutes of the January 13, 2004 Council meeting was seconded by Cm. Rowley and passed 3-0.

Cm. Perkins’ motion to approve the minutes of the January 13, 2004 Redevelopment Agency meeting was seconded Cm. Rowley and passed 3-0.

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Cm. Perkins said he would like to pull 8.6, proposed schedule for City Council recess, for discussion.

Mayor Wilson said a letter had been received regarding 8.3, traffic-calming features on Westchester Drive, and said that item would be pulled for discussion.

Cm. Rowley’s motion to approve the following Consent Calendar was seconded by Cm. Perkins and passed 3-0.

Resolution No. 2004-10 – Setting a 9% Disadvantaged Business Enterprise (DBE) Goal for Federally Funded Projects administered by the California Department of Transportation during Federal Fiscal Year 2003/04 and accepting the Federal Fiscal 2002/03 Disadvantaged Enterprise Report.

Resolution No. 2004-11 – Accepting Certain Road and Stormdrain Improvements constructed on Dougherty Road, North Gate Ridge Road, Bollinger Canyon Road, North Wedgewood Road, Monarch Road and South Wedgewood Road for maintenance (Shapell Industries/The Bridges at Gale Ranch).

Quarterly Investment Report (Period ending December 31, 2003)

Setting Public Hearing Date for Resolution No. 2004-16 – Establishing a Cardroom License Application Fee.

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Mayor Wilson read a letter from Tracy Lui expressing concern about the proposed location of speed humps and safety issues on Westchester Drive.

The Transportation Specialist said that staff had recommended the installation of speed humps on Westchester Drive. He said after traffic information was evaluated in 2001 utilizing warrant criteria, the City’s Transportation Advisory Committee endorsed the use of speed humps.

Robert Kennedy said he had spoken to a lot of people in the area and almost everyone felt there should be some sort of slowing on Westchester Drive but did not want the speed humps. He recommended getting more people involved who are directly affected by this issue.

The City Manager suggested this item be continued so that staff could do more work on it and return to the Council with other options.

Cm. Rowley’s motion to continue the item was seconded by Cm. Perkins and passed 3-0.

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The Parks and Community Services Director said before the Council was a resolution authorizing the Mayor to execute an agreement with the Crow Canyon Institute for maintenance and programming at the Crow Canyon Gardens. He said at the November 13, 2003 meeting the City Council selected the Crow Canyon Institute as the preferred bidder for maintenance and programming at the Gardens. He said the award of the contract was postponed when the City received a letter from the Crow Canyon Institute threatening legal action. After a closed session discussion, the matter was brought back to the City Council for this meeting. He said should the Council not award a contract the Council could direct staff to take over maintenance and programming with a maintenance mode for the next several months. and return to the City Council during the 2004/2005 budget deliberations with a long term recommendation for maintenance and programming at the Crow Canyon Gardens provided by City staff.

Colleen O’Brien, attorney for Crow Canyon Institute, said there has been an award and a contract made with Crow Canyon Institute, the lowest responsive, responsible bidder. She said the City had not followed the Parliamentary process, it had not followed the terms laid out in the request for proposals and had not responded to requests for records.

Steve Durkee said he and his wife were the competitive bidder in the process of evaluating the program services for the Crow Canyon Gardens. He said he had submitted a letter detailing two additional reasons why the maintenance and program services at the Gardens should not be awarded to the Crow Canyon Institute as was decided by the previous City Council on November 13, 2003. He said the reasons were 1) the previous City Council had not complied with the 13 criteria grading system required by the RFP and, 2) the fact that CCI has continued to work in the gardens after their contract expired on November 30, 2003 in flagrant violation of the City’s Purchase Ordinance No. 184 which stipulates "no contract shall be binding or of any force or effect until signed by the City Manager". He said consequently no work can begin on the project until City staff has received a signed agreement from the City Manager.

The Mayor said the Council had met in closed session and asked the City Attorney if the City had a contract with Crow Canyon Institute.

The City Attorney said from his confidential opinion, without having access to Mr. Durkee’s letter, he came to a conclusion that was very similar on the two counts. He said he felt in fairness to everybody the procedure had to be followed and the evaluation procedure that was set forth in the RFP was not followed by the City Council. He recommended accepting Ms. O’Brien’s objections for the record and state that her opinion was accepted and considered.

The Public Works Director confirmed that the Public Works Department was prepared to take over the maintenance aspect of the Crow Canyon Gardens and this would be accomplished by drawing on staffing from a number of different areas. She also said the Public Works staff would be able to absorb this maintenance responsibility with very little impact on its service delivery in those areas.

The Parks and Community Services Director said the Parks Department was prepared to take on the programming aspects of the Gardens and had the staffing and resources to do so. He said with the cooperation of the Institute, staff could be up to speed within the next couple of weeks.

The Public Works Director described what the maintenance of the Gardens would be from the Public Works Department prospective.

In response to questions, the Maintenance Supervisor said they would go into a maintenance mode with the goal of maintaining the Gardens as it currently is right now until the end of the budget cycle, at which time staff would come back with a recommendation on the long-term maintenance.

Cm. Rowley asked what would be the role of volunteers.

The Parks Director said there would be more effort put into recruiting volunteers.

Cm. Rowley made a motion to bring the maintenance and programming of Crow Canyon Gardens in-house.

The motion was seconded by Cm. Perkins and passed 3-0.

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The Economic Development Manager introduced a report requesting a General Fund appropriation of $55,313 to continue membership and funding support of the Tri-Valley Convention and Visitors’ Bureau (TVCVB) during the second half of FY 2003-2004. He said the Council had previously allocated $50,000 for a service agreement for TVCVB support from July 1 through December 2003.

Donna Kerger spoke in support of the TVCVB.

Harry Sachs said he supported the expenditure from the General Fund for the TVCVB.

Amy Blaschka, TVCVB Executive Director, gave an overview of the CVB’s goals and benefits provided to the City.

Cm. Perkins’ motion to adopt the Resolution approving the appropriation was seconded by Cm. Rowley and passed 3-0.

Resolution No. 2004-15 – Appropriating $55,313 from the General Fund Reserve and authorizing the City Manager to negotiate and execute an agreement with the Tri-Valley Convention and Visitors’ Bureau for the second half of Fiscal Year 2003-04.

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Cm. Hudson returned to the dais.

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The Deputy Executive Director said that staff was recommending the Redevelopment Agency Board and City Council hold a public hearing and consider approving a three-year Agency Lease Agreement for office space in The Plaza at San Ramon, Suite 380, 2000 Crow Canyon Place, and a Sublease Agreement with the Contra Costa/Tri-Valley Telecommunication Incubator for that same office space. He said the purpose of the lease and sublease was to facilitate the Incubator’s relocation to the redevelopment project area.

Roz Rogoff said there were expenses involved in the relocation and recommended the Incubator stay where it is currently.

Gary Craft said the Incubator would prefer to remain at the current location but was prepared to move forward.

Cm. Perkins confirmed the City would cover legitimate moving expenses for the tenants of the Incubator.

The City Manager said that staff would like more direction regarding the financial parameters.

Cm. Hudson’s motion to adopt Resolution No. RDA 2004-1 and Resolution No. 2004-15 was seconded by Cm. Rowley and passed 4-0.

Resolution No. RDA 2004-1 – Approving and authorizing the execution of a lease agreement between the Agency and CA-2000 Crow Canyon Limited Partnership and the execution of a sublease agreement between the Agency and Contra Costa/Tri-Valley Telecommunications Incubator.

Resolution No. 2004-15 – Approving and authorizing the execution of a lease agreement between he City Manager to negotiate and execute an agreement with the Tri-Valley Convention and Visitor’s Bureau for its continued promotion services on behalf of San Ramon Hospitality Businesses during the second half of Fiscal Year 2003-04.

The Deputy Executive Director said a survey of neighboring cities redevelopment agencies showed the Mayor serving as the chair of the redevelopment agency (RDA) in the majority of the cities.

Sam Lemon recommended the redevelopment agency responsibilities be shared among the Board.

Cm. Hudson said he felt the position should be rotated and he also agreed it would be a good way to share the responsibilities.

Cm. Perkins expressed concern about combining the RDA and City Council agendas.

Cm. Rowley said the bylaws currently state "the governing body shall elect one of its members to serve as Chairperson" and recommended not amending the bylaws.

Cm. Perkins’ motion to not amend the RDA bylaws and not designate the Mayor as Chair and Vice Mayor as Vice Chair was seconded by Cm. Hudson and passed 4-0.

Cm. Hudson recommended not voting for the Chair that night.

It was Mayor Wilson’s recommendation to leave the Redevelopment Agency the way it is.

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The City Manager said that Cm. Perkins had requested that staff agendize a discussion regarding the Council Recess and that he was proposing that Council take a "spring" recess for the April 13, 2004 meeting. She said that staff was suggesting that the Council take action on both the spring recess and the fall recess at this time.

Cm. Perkins said a spring recess would fall in line with the spring break taken by the schools, giving the Council and staff with children time with their families.

Mayor Wilson said he opposed a spring break.

It was the consensus of Council to continue this item to the February 10 meeting.

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Cm. Rowley said she would like to invite the community to come to a crab feed on February 14 held at Moran Hall at St. Raymond’s School and the beneficiary will be Forest Home Farms.

Cm. Perkins said his comments at the City Council study session last week were never intended to hurt anyone. He said he apologized if anyone felt they were inappropriate.

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

Signed:

H. Abram Wilson, Mayor
Judy Macfarlane, City Clerk
Approved: February 10, 2004