A regular meeting of the City Council of the City of San Ramon was held on June 8, 2004 at 7:00 p.m. in the City Council Chamber at City Hall, 2222 Camino Ramon, Mayor Wilson presiding.

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

ABSENT: None

STAFF PRESENT: Interim City Manager Byron Athan, Public Works Director Joye Fukuda, Planning Director Phil Wong, Parks and Community Services Director Jeff Eorio, Finance Director Greg Rogers and, City Clerk Judy Macfarlane

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Christa Freihofner led the Council, staff and those present in the audience in the pledge of allegiance.

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Mayor Wilson said the proclamation recognizing the San Ramon Valley Youth Coalition was read last week and would be delivered to them.

Mayor Wilson read a proclamation recognizing Affordable Housing Week, June 5-13, 2004 and presented it to Maurine Behrend.

Ms. Behrend spoke about her organization’s work in encouraging the development of affordable housing.

Cm. Livingstone thanked Ms. Behrend and said she was a great member of the Housing Advisory Committee and had done a lot to encourage affordable housing in the City.

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Roz Rogoff spoke about the recent sewer spill from the Larwin pump station. She said there were signs along the creek stating there was a high chloroform count danger and do not enter area. She also said there was a link on the City’s website that goes to Central San’s press releases regarding the sewer spill that she felt was inappropriate and she felt the City should be writing its own statements about what happened.

The Public Works Director said a letter had been received from Central San that summarized the incidents including information on the cause of the overflow, the response, creek clean-up and testing, on-going and follow-up activities and a summary of regulatory agencies contacts made regarding the incident. She also said recently received information indicated the warning signs along the creek had been ordered to be removed because of test results.

Cm. Perkins asked if staff knew how many places or where the tests were taken to determine if there was still chloroform in the water.

The Public Works Director said the tests were taken up stream and down stream from the pump station and another test would be performed this week.

Mayor Wilson said the Council would like a copy of the original tests, follow up tests and any documents that have to do with the creek.

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After three amendments to the May 25, 2004 minutes were discussed, Cm. Hudson made a motion to approve the amended minutes.

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

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Mayor Wilson said a request had been received to remove item 8.5, resolutions approving turf mowing in city parks.

Cm. Hudson’s motion to approve the following consent calendar was seconded by Cm. Perkins and passed 5-0.

Resolution No. 2004-57 – Accepting PA 0002 (Bellingham Square Park, Lot 3 in Subdivision 7976) for maintenance (Windemere BLC Land Development Co., LLC)

Resolution No. 2004-74 – Authorizing a $10,899 increase above the Ten Percent Contract Contingency Limit Specified by Title A, Division A7 of the City of San Ramon Municipal Code to the agreement with East Bay Municipal Utility District (EBMUD) for relocation of a 12" Water Main on San Ramon Valley Boulevard for the Alcosta Boulevard/I-680 Interchange Project (CIP 8144)

Resolution No. 2004-82 – Accepting the Bollinger Canyon Park and Ride Improvements as complete and for maintenance and authorizing the Mayor to execute an agreement with ChevronTexaco, Inc. and Bollinger Partners, L.P. regarding maintenance of landscape improvements and access through Bollinger Canyon Park and Ride Facility.

Resolution No. 2004-82 – Authorizing to execute Amendment 2 to an agreement with FloraTech Landscape Management, Inc. for maintenance services for the Bollinger Canyon Park and Ride Facility in an amount not to exceed $2,748.

Resolution No. 2004-84 – Authorizing a payment of $34,066 to Ferreira Service, Inc. for Air Conditioning System Repairs at the San Ramon Community Center.

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The Public Works Director introduced two resolutions authorizing execution of agreements with Pacheco Brothers Gardening and FloraTech Landscape Management, Inc. for turf mowing services. She said that staff had gone through a request for bid proposal process that was different from prior years. The selection process was done similarly to a consultant selection process whereby qualifications are requested and an oral interview is conducted with the qualified contractors. Price was not a consideration and the recommendation for award of the contract was based strictly on qualifications. She described the process used by the panel to determine their recommendations of Pacheco Brothers and FloraTech. She concluded by saying staff and the Council had received correspondence that one of the bidders, White Oak Inc., had submitted a protest requesting the Council reconsider staff’s recommendation.

In answer to Cm. Livingstone’s question if the bidders in previous years were the same as this year, the Public Works Director said she didn’t know if they were all the same but many of them were.

Dave Bing, White Oak Landscape, Inc. reviewed the history of the process that had been in place since 1994. He said his written statements had always been the same and the only difference would be the oral interview. He said over the past 10 years he had built $15 million worth of parks for San Ramon. He delivered information to Council regarding his rating in previous years. He said he was protesting the award of both contracts and recommended this item be referred to committee for reconsideration of the process.

Dean Scanone, Chairman of FloraTech Companies, spoke about the qualifications of his employees and said they would do a great job for San Ramon.

Cm. Hudson asked how a company who was number one in the last two or three bids and had bent over backwards for the City this past year and dropped their price 30% could end up number four the following year. He said he would not be supporting this item and recommended pulling it and taking a look at the process.

Cm. Rowley said for the past 17 years White Oak Landscape had provided great service to Country Club School. She said she would like to find out more about the process before approving the agreements.

Cm. Livingstone said he concurred with Cm. Hudson that something was wrong with the process and he would like staff to come back with more information.

Cm. Perkins recommended the Policy Committee review the proposals and the process.

The Public Works Director described the process stating the review panel was made up of four members. This year there was not an oral interview and the questions that would have been asked in an oral interview were attached to RPF document and to the staff report. She said the financial information requested as part of the RPF was not part of White Oak’s written submittal and as a result the evaluation panel did not rate them as high as the others. She said the current contract expires on June 30 and a contractor will be needed to continue mowing the parks.

Cm. Hudson said he did not want to throw away a long time relationship without going one extra step.

Cm. Perkins said he felt it was appropriate for the Policy Committee to take time to read through the bids and review the bid documents that were provided the City.

Mayor Wilson said the panel did an excellent job with the data they were given. He said what the Council needs to understand is the process.

Cm. Perkins’ motion to ask the Policy Committee to review the process and the submitted proposals and make a recommendation for consideration no later than the next Council meeting was seconded by Cm. Hudson and passed 5-0.

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The Planning Director said there were two items to consider, public hearing on an ordinance approving the prezoning of properties in the Dougherty Valley and adoption of a resolution initiating annexation procedures. He explained the Dougherty Valley Settlement Agreement requires the City to prezone and initiate annexation for land within the Dougherty Valley development area as a transition from county control to the City. The resolution involves the actual annexation procedure and requires LAFCO action.

No one spoke during the public hearing.

Cm. Hudson made a motion stating the Council has considered the Dougherty Valley Specific Plan from 1996 and 2002 addendum to final EIR for the purpose of complying with the California Environmental Quality Act prior to rendering a decision and find the aforementioned EIR is adequate since there has been no substantial changes to physical aspects of the property thus no warranting of any environmental review is necessary.

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

Cm. Hudson’s motion to introduce and waive the reading for an ordinance prezoning property commonly known as Windemere Phase 2 was seconded by Cm. Perkins and passed 5-0.

No one spoke during the public hearing for the resolution.

Cm. Hudson’s motion to adopt the resolution making application to LAFCO for annexation of Windemere Phase 2 was seconded by Cm. Perkins and passed 5-0.

Resolution No. 2004-83 – Making Application to the Local Agency Formation Commission requesting Initiation of Proceedings for Reorganization pursuant to the Cortese-Knox Local Government Reorganization Act of 2000 – Annexation #7 – Windemere Phase 2.

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The City Clerk said San Ramon has two measures on the November 2 ballot, the Transient Occupancy Tax increase and an advisory measure changing the municipal elections from odd-numbered years to even-numbered years. She said the primary argument for and against these measures is due to the City Clerk by August 9, 2004. The deadline for rebuttal arguments is due August 16.

The City Manager said staff was in the process of setting up a Council team building session and asked that a date be set.

Cm. Hudson said information was coming regarding CCTA and Measure C. In regard to CCCTA, the latest information that had come out of operations was that lines may be cut and not added. He said the battle that has been waged over a number of years has been that San Ramon is paying a tremendous amount of sales tax and that amount is not coming back to the City. He said at the next meeting he planned to bring up the fact that San Ramon has an obligation to Dougherty Valley and service needs to be provided. He asked that this issue be agendized for discussion at the next meeting.

Cm. Rowley said the evening at Forest Home Farm with the showing of "Casablanca" was wonderful.

Mayor Wilson said the recent Wind Festival was outstanding and seems to getting better every year.

Mayor Wilson said an item had come up after the posting of the agenda that should be discussed in closed session. The item was pursuant to Government Code 54957 and the topic of discussion was the position of the City Clerk.

Mayor Wilson’s motion to add this item to the closed session agenda was seconded by Cm. Hudson and passed 5-0.

There being no further business to come before the City, at 8:30 p.m. Mayor Wilson adjourned to closed session: 1) Government Code §54957.6 to confer with Labor Negotiator – Ms. Mitchell Wade, 2) Government Code §54956.8 to confer with its Real Property Negotiator, David Berger re: APN 213-130-066, 3) Government Code §54957 to discuss the position of City Manager and 4) Government Code §54957 to discuss the position of City Clerk.

H. Abram Wilson, Mayor
Judy Macfarlane, City Clerk

Approved: June 22, 2004