HomeMy WebLinkAboutSPJT Minutes 2005-06-07(Spec.) SPJTCCRA 06/07/05 Page 1
IN THE COUNCIL CHAMBER OF THE CITY OF SAN RAFAEL, TUESDAY, JUNE 7, 2005 AT 7:00 PM
Special Meeting Present: Albert J. Boro, Mayor/Chairman
San Rafael City Council / Redevelopment Agency Barbara Heller, Vice-Mayor/Vice-Chair
Paul M. Cohen, Councilmember/Member
Cyr N. Miller, Councilmember/Member
Gary O. Phillips, Councilmember/Member
Absent: None
Also Present: Rod Gould, City Manager/Executive Director
Gary T. Ragghianti, City Attorney/Agency Attorney
Jeanne M. Leoncini, City Clerk/Agency Secretary
7:00 PM
BUDGET HEARING: - FILE 8-5 x R-103
1) PROPOSALS TO BALANCE FY 2005-2006 BUDGET
2) PRESENTATION OF TWO-YEAR GOALS AND OBJECTIVES BY DEPARTMENTS
INCLUDING REDEVELOPMENT — FY 2005-2007
3) CONSIDERATION OF NEW SERVICE REQUESTS
Mayor/Chairman Boro explained that initially, Assistant City Manager Ken Nordhoff would make a
presentation on the Budget for Fiscal Year 2005-2006. Subsequently, departmental two-year Goals
and Objectives would be discussed, followed by New Service Requests.
Mr. Nordhoff explained that section 1 of the binders contained two memos: 1) Redevelopment Agency
budget, and 2) City budget.
Redevelopment Agency: Mr. Nordhoff stated staff proposed to request the Agency Board to take
action on June 20, 2005 to adopt a two-year budget for the Redevelopment Agency for fiscal years July
1, 2005 — June 30, 2006 and July 1, 2006 — June 30, 2007. He summarized what he had written as a
steady state and constant budget, at least in terms of finances.
Indicating that staffing levels were constant, Mr. Nordhoff stated there were five employees in the
Economic Development Department, plus 1.3 employees related to Code Enforcement, paid for from
the Housing Budget, specific to carrying out code enforcement in the Agency project area. He indicated
there was continued support to pay for Public Works and Executive Director support services, constant
funding in the budget for Chamber of Commerce support, the Business Improvement District and
several major events such as the Farmers' Market, Car Parade, Parade of Lights, etc. The Agency
continues to pay debt that is drawn down from property taxes related to bond issues done in both 1999
and 2002. As could be seen from the charts, he pointed out that a great majority of the budget for the
Agency was tied up in debt service obligations.
Mr. Nordhoff noted several projects that money had been set aside for since the bond issues were
completed: Pickleweed Community Center, Francisco Boulevard Undergrounding related to the freeway
widening, funds for the Medway/Canal Intersection. He indicated that these monies would be held and
drawn down over the course of the next two-year budget.
Indicating that nothing was anticipated for new bonds, i.e., new Capital Project money, Mr. Nordhoff
stated that Nancy Mackle, Economic Development Director, would address this when presenting her
Goals and Objectives. He confirmed there were no new resources or expected capital projects
included.
Referring to page 3 of the memo regarding Reserves, Mr. Nordhoff stated that some monies were held
in various accounts, some of which was by state law for the low -moderate housing fund, some for future
development and administrative costs, and a portion was set aside to meet future tax -sharing
obligations to the San Rafael High School District.
Mr. Nordhoff pointed out that the Agency had a limited source of income and it really issued debt to
sustain its operations; therefore, doing that would be necessary in looking further out into the future. He
indicated there were sufficient monies to get through the next five or six years; however, clearly,
something would have to be done in order to sustain the operations beyond that period of time.
Unless there were changes to the proposals, Mr. Nordhoff stated staff would like direction from the
Agency Board that the budget could be returned on June 20, 2005 for adoption. He indicated that at
that meeting any necessary amendments to the current fiscal year budget would be included.
Noting some charts and graphs were included in the memo, Mr. Nordhoff explained that expenses were
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listed by function and Exhibits 1 and 2 tried to capture the total revenues and appropriations estimated
for the next two years.
As mentioned, Mr. Nordhoff stated that Ms. Mackle would discuss Goals and Objectives.
Regarding funding for the Business Improvement District, Member Cohen clarified that this budget also
included funding for the Chamber of Commerce. Mr. Nordhoff confirmed that no General Fund monies
from the City go to the Chamber of Commerce, rather strictly Agency monies, which historically, was the
practice.
On the issue of what happens should another series of bonds not be issued, Member Cohen confirmed
with Mr. Nordhoff that the life could be extended.
There being no comment from the audience, Chairman Boro stated the item would be passed to the
Agency Board at the meeting of June 20, 2005.
City of San Rafael: Mr. Nordhoff stated the City has been through a whirlwind of budget challenges
during the past three years and although he would prefer to be before Council this evening to state that
the future was different, the City continued to struggle with the General Fund which pays for the bulk of
operations.
Mr. Nordhoff reported that the City was facing a truly structural deficit problem which would need some
resolution. Indicating that the challenges were significant, he noted the City Council had been through a
number of actions over the past three years to try to keep the budget in balance; however, it was clear
there were big challenges and the choices were severe and significant.
Commenting that the memo was 26 pages in length, Mr. Nordhoff stated it was intended to summarize
a lot of things, including a little on the past, challenges to be faced and how staff would recommend the
City Council consider balancing the budget and closing the gap for the fiscal year 2005-2006. He
indicated that staff would be seeking direction on the budget, including consideration of some new
service requests, subsequent to Council's consideration of some open issues and recommendations.
He stated staff intended to bring the budget back for Council consideration on June 20, 2005 if all the
issues were resolved.
Highlighting some of the major elements of the report, commencing with page 1, Mr. Nordhoff stated
that this did not go back far enough to underscore all of the actions taken by Council; therefore, he had
included on pages 17 and 18 a summary of the actions taken to balance the 2004-2005 budget last
year (Summary One).
Explaining that Council took $6.4 million worth of actions, Mr. Nordhoff stated that almost three-
quarters, 74%, were service cuts, including a loss of 30 positions to the General Fund. The balance of
options to arrive at the $6.4 million was a combination of either instituting new fees or increasing
existing ones to continue the practice of recovering the full cost of service.
Mr. Nordhoff stated that pages 2 and 3 were a reminder of some of the activity over the past year. A
number of study sessions were held, the most significant on December 21, 2004, where a half-day was
spent off site recognizing that even though Council had just finished balancing the budget, challenges
were still ahead. He indicated that at that session, deficits in excess of $3 million for the next two years
were forecast, very significant numbers considering what had just been accomplished.
Indicating that page 2 addressed some of the factors, Mr. Nordhoff explained that some external factors
dealt with additional losses of state revenue, some of which was capped under Proposition 1A, which
Council was familiar with; nevertheless, local money, particularly property tax, continued to be
redistributed back to Sacramento. He stated the City was still suffering from a sluggish or mixed
economic growth and tax recovery; some were doing well, some not, which he would discuss later.
Regarding imbedded components to how the budget is built, Mr. Nordhoff explained that a set of
financial policies had been in place for a number of years, which were used as a foundation to put the
budget together. He noted that since the great majority of the budget was centered around people,
because of delivering services, the compensation elements integral to building the budget could not be
ignored.
Regarding early actions staff requested Council to consider, Mr. Nordhoff stated that a summary of
these commenced on page 3. He noted some of the items already built into these figures, based on
some early direction from the City Council, included using additional reserves and taking back money
initially set aside in the Vehicle Replacement Fund. Indicating that the state took some Vehicle License
Fees in fiscal year 2003-2004, which they had pledged to pay back (open to interpretation) in August,
2005, Mr. Nordhoff stated he believed Council made a wise decision in joining approximately 146 other
municipalities to sell that receivable.
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Mr. Nordhoff indicated that post December 21, 2004, staff was aware that some additional property
taxes were being returned, referred to an "Excess ERAF."
Discussing the overall City budget — page 5 onward — Mr. Nordhoff stated that the City had in excess of
40 funds and he was attempting to provide a very macro review of both the revenues and expenses.
Referring to charts (pages 19 — 22) on how revenues were broken down in a couple of different ways,
he explained that the major categories, also shown on page 5 in a table, identified trends over the three
years. Major taxes had also been broken down, as taxes were the most significant part of funds
collected to provide major services.
Explaining that the table on page 5 indicated a mixed result as far as total revenues were concerned,
Mr. Nordhoff stated that revenues would be very flat entering the next fiscal year. They were
anticipated to grow in fiscal year 2006-2007, and some of this related to the capping of the property tax
shift — the City would begin not to lose money in fiscal year 2006-2007 that was diverted this year and
would be diverted next year.
Regarding Expenditures, Mr. Nordhoff stated these were growing approximately 6.4% in fiscal year
2005-2006 and approximately 3.8% in fiscal year 2006-2007. He referred to charts on page 25 which
identified where the bulk of the money was going, and looking at this functionally with regard to what
major operations were using up the budget, it came as no surprise that this was Public Safety at
approximately 44%, followed by Public Works, etc. Mr. Nordhoff reiterated that this being the service
business, employees needed to be hired, which was the greatest cost categorically, with approximately
70% of the total City budget tied up in salaries and benefits.
Noting some of the key budget elements Council should be aware of in terms of putting forth the
appropriations and revenues on a Citywide basis, Mr. Nordhoff stated that labor contracts/Memoranda
of Understanding were being honored, so to the extent these were making provisions for changes in
salaries or benefits, they were included in the forecasted appropriations. He stated it was staff's
intention to keep all self-funded programs whole; therefore, to the extent the City had self-insurance
programs or dollars set aside to replace vehicles or personal computers or meet the MERA (Marin
Emergency Radio Authority) obligations, the budget was built assuming all those self-funded operations
needed to continue.
Mr. Nordhoff reported that historically, operating costs (all non -personnel costs) had been indexed by a
CPI factor, a very modest 1.4% for each of the next two years, staffing levels remained fairly constant
and he had identified these on a department by department basis. He explained that at the time of
adopting the current year budget the City had 420 fulltime employees and the projection for the coming
year was 416. He indicated this was a combination of moving to constant staffing within the Fire
Department, minor additions for parking attendants because of the opening of a new garage, and a
bilingual librarian was being added which he identified as part of the state grant related to putting those
services at Pickleweed.
From the capital projects level, chart on page 26, Mr. Nordhoff stated this was very constant, with a
couple of exceptions. He indicated this identified the traditional very minor levels of investment in
sidewalks and facility improvements and enough was not being done in street maintenance, which was
falling behind. He believed Public Works Director Andrew Preston would report that the City was at
approximately half of where it needed to be in terms of street paving. Mr. Nordhoff reported that
monies had been put aside to meet ADA (Americans with Disabilities Act) requirements under the
Settlement Agreement, most of which was tied into curb ramps. He indicated that Library Director
David Dodd suggested drawing down some of the Davidson bequest money to carry out some
unavoidable improvements at the library.
In studying all the funds, Mr. Nordhoff stated it was important to recognize that in each of the two years
these funds were expected to end up in a positive balance situation and staff was forecasting this, with
one notable exception, which he would discuss later in the evening.
Mr. Nordhoff reported that the General Fund Status was identified beginning on page 11 of the staff
report and while he would summarize, he indicated he would be glad also to go into any level of detail
required by the City Council.
Indicating that staff was projecting deficits of $3.2 million for the coming fiscal year and $3.5 million for
2006-2007, Mr. Nordhoff explained this was identified as the net loss shown on the table on page 13.
He noted that page 11 gave a sense of how taxes were having some mixed results — Sales Tax, the
largest revenue source, had not rebounded to the extent hoped for and while disappointing, it was a
reality and helped contribute to the deficit position forecast in the next couple of years. Property taxes
were fairly stable and would take a pretty good bounce in fiscal year 2006-2007, again, as mentioned,
attributed to Proposition 1A losses returning.
Mr. Nordhoff reported that costs of operations in the General Fund were outpacing what the City could
afford, which was the structural deficit situation.
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As outlined in the staff report, Mr. Nordhoff stated that there were only approximately three choices
currently in terms of balancing the budget. He indicated he discussed service reductions in the staff
report, which Council had heard about since last December, variations of which were discussed in Town
Hall meetings, etc. Therefore, should Council choose to balance the budget in terms of reducing
services, this would include employee losses or eliminations which would be fairly significant and affect
all major service departments. Noting discussions were underway regarding the possibility of placing a
Tax Measure on the November Ballot, Mr. Nordhoff stated this was a possibility to balancing the budget.
Lastly, while trying to work through this, Mr. Nordhoff suggested that the City Council consider the use
of reserves. While this was not new territory for the City Council, he indicated that on page 13 staff
made recommendations that identified to what extent these needed to be drawn down. Mr. Nordhoff
explained that there had been a financial management policy of trying to hold 10% in reserves in the
General Fund for emergency operations, unexpected expenditures, cash flow cycles, etc. When this
was discussed a year ago, the City Council already made a commitment entering this next year that
should it be necessary, reserves would be drawn down to the level of about 6%. Mr. Nordhoff stated it
was staff's recommendation that while the City Council considers the tax measure for the fall, no service
reduction actions be taken, rather draw down reserves to the extent necessary. Should it be necessary
to draw reserves down by $3.2 million, the target in trying to meet the 10% reserve would actually fall to
4.6%, which he did not believe would actually occur, because sometime between now and the end of
next June, the City Council would probably be making decisions regarding the tax measure and the
voters would have put something into place negating the need to do this. Should this not be the case,
staff would be aware of it fairly soon and he suspected staff would return to Council fairly soon
requesting direction on how to close the remaining budget gap.
Mr. Nordhoff stated that tonight's recommendation, which was built into the figures presented, was to
take the money already acted on this year - excess ERAF and VLF loan receivable — hold it aside at the
end of the year and draw it down to help close the budget deficit of $3.2 million projected for next year.
Recommending that Council draw down reserves to the extent necessary, Mr. Nordhoff stated that in
terms of a balanced budget this would be a reduction to 4.6% or the use of $3.2 million. Staff
recommended that the services, programs and staffing levels embedded in the budget be included as
part of that action.
Noting that a discussion would take place at the end of the meeting regarding New Service Request
Options, Mr. Nordhoff explained that some could be self -funding while some were not. To the extent
Council took action on those would modify any of the figures in this evening's report.
Mr. Nordhoff reminded the City Council that a lot of public meetings had taken place surrounding the
City's financial situation. Staff had talked to over 24 homeowners associations, met with a task force of
the Chamber of Commerce, three Town Hall meetings were held, the City's website contained a lot of
information, and outreach continued in an effort to make the community more aware of the problem
than they had been to date.
Councilmember Phillips thanked Mr. Nordhoff for the extensive report and the clarity it provided.
Referring to page 7, he noted the budget for Public Works for 2004-2005 was approximately $9 million,
2005-2006 approximately $10 million and approximately $11 million in 2006-2007. The narrative spoke
to maintaining constant levels of service and staffing, yet each year had a change of approximately $1
million, and he requested further explanation.
Mr. Nordhoff explained that in the change from 2004-2005 to 2005-2006, there were a couple of
personnel related items. He reported that some reorganizing took place in the Community Development
Department, resulting in adding a Land Development Engineering position in Public Works, now for the
first time in the budget for the 2005-2006 fiscal year. He indicated that a couple of engineering
positions had been paid for from the parking project for the last couple of years. This was a dedicated
source of funds; however, the project closed with the opening of the parking garage on May 14, 2005
with the costs returning to the General Fund. Mr. Nordhoff stated he would answer specific questions
on 2006-2007 prior to the June 201h meeting.
Referring to the section on Insurance on page 8, Councilmember Phillips quoted: "Insurance includes
self -funding for dental, liability and workers' compensation..." The second bullet down indicated that
Workers' Compensation was almost flat, being $1.8 million and $1.9 million respectively for the two
coming years. He noted the number of claims was steady, the cost per claim was rising significantly,
yet the provision was about the same for each of those two years. With a significant rise in cost, and
the number of claims remaining the same, Councilmember Phillips stated to him that indicated the
possibility of increased costs over those periods, yet they appeared to be somewhat similar, and he
requested further clarification.
Mr. Nordhoff stated that the last sentence in the second bullet point noted Reserves were $4 million.
The costs were not necessarily anticipated in the next year, rather in the outlying years as these claims
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tended to settle out over a long period of time. He indicated that reserves had gone from probably $3.2
million as recently as a year ago and they were projected to be close to $4 million in the middle of the
2005-2007 budget period. He confirmed that the annual appropriations were not being increased, as
represented by the $1.8 million or $1.9 million figures; however, staff anticipated having to establish
greater reserves. Mr. Nordhoff stated that workers' compensation tended to be adjusted fairly routinely
as staff is always trying to assess, working with the third -party administrators, the value of the open
claims and how much was currently under obligation versus what needed to be paid in the future.
Councilmember Phillips clarified that the reserve was increasing during this period of time for future
anticipated needs because of the significant change in the value of those claims. He confirmed that Mr.
Nordhoff was comfortable that there were adequate reserves. Mr. Nordhoff stated that adjustments
would continue to have those adequate reserves in place for both workers' compensation and liability
when the books are closed and the annual audit is carried out each year. He confirmed that it is
necessary to show adequate reserves were in place based upon what the third -party administrators
calculate; therefore, it was under constant review.
Referring to page 10 — Fund Balances and Reserves — Councilmember Phillips quoted: "San Rafael
has traditionally been both conservative and practical when...." In making reference to conservative, he
assumed that in Mr. Nordhoff's opinion he was not being overly conservative based on historical results,
etc. Mr. Nordhoff explained that staff's intention was not to create big year-end surprises for the City
Council or the community, whether good or not so good surprises. He stated staff tries to be cautious in
revenue estimations; for instance, working with Nancy Mackle to understand what was taking place in
Economic Development, looking at historical trends and checking with the County and State. He
indicated that expenditures were very straightforward — staff itemizes the cost of each and every
employee based upon their bargaining group and salary and benefits. Being fairly accurate, he stated
that hopefully, this mitigated big swings one way or the other at the end of the year, and he felt
confident in this statement.
Noting Mr. Nordhoff had done an excellent job, Councilmember Phillips stated that while difficult, he
believed the credibility of Mr. Nordhoff and his department was reflective of the process and he was
comfortable that the representation that conservative did not mean that down the road excess funds
would suddenly be found. Mr. Nordhoff confirmed it did not mean that.
Returning to the Workers' Compensation question, Councilmember Heller inquired why the claims were
rising in cost. Mr. Nordhoff stated this was because of paying a lot of open future medical costs
associated with these claims. He indicated that in some cases it was found that the duration of the
injury had people out of work; therefore, the City was paying for their injury time away from work,
particularly for public safety employees. Mr. Nordhoff reported that unfortunately, many of these end up
in a litigious status, so rather than being able to resolve the issue between employee and employer,
attorneys became involved, which added costs. Although there had been some reform at the state
level, no real relief had been directed to public agencies. Responding to Councilmember Heller's
question as to whether the trend had changed in the last few years to become more litigious, Mr.
Nordhoff stated that it had not necessarily changed, rather was holding fairly constant; however, all the
court appearances and associated issues added cost to the process. He explained that this resulted in
a slowing down and not getting closure quickly; therefore, the future associated costs continue to rise.
Referring to page 5 — Revenue Budget Projections — Councilmember Heller requested further
explanation with regard to the Interest and Rents item. Mr. Nordhoff explained that part of this was
drawing down monies, similar to using up the reserves; therefore, with less of a pool of dollars to invest,
less returns were anticipated.
Regarding ERAF, Councilmember Heller noted that the figure for 2004-2005 would be $900,000 and
$1.6 million for 2005-2006. She inquired whether the $900,000 was already budgeted for 2005-2006.
Mr. Nordhoff confirmed it was in the budget for 2005-2006 and the $1.6 million was in the budget for the
following year.
Councilmember Cohen echoed Councilmember Phillips' compliments to Mr. Nordhoff and his staff for
this report.
Referring to the chart on page 7 and noting this was not just the General Fund budget, Councilmember
Cohen stated it showed Capital Projects going from $2.5 million to $3.5 million from 2004-2005 to 2005-
2006, yet the text did not provide an explanation, nor did the chart referred to later on in the report, and
he requested further clarification on the extra $1 million.
Mr. Nordhoff explained that some of these were not necessarily Capital efforts in nature. Monies were
held aside to do various projects and subsequent to looking into the data he would break the
information down into categories. He noted this came from restricted monies collected over time and
now being drawn down. Councilmember Cohen stated it would be helpful to elaborate on this
somewhat. Mr. Nordhoff believed part of it referred to grant related activities, etc. and he would provide
more detail.
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Referring to the chart on page 13 — Projected Ending 10% Reserve Balance — Councilmember Cohen
confirmed staff was projecting that at the end of this current fiscal year (2004-2005), $5.4 million dollars
would remain and at the end of 2005-2006 $2,036,216 would remain. With a difference of almost $3.4
million, Councilmember Cohen noted that it was proposed to spend $3.25 million to close the gap, and
he inquired as to the remainder of that money. Mr. Nordhoff stated he would look at the figures and
report back to Councilmember Cohen.
Referring to page 7 of the staff report- "....maintenance needed on the new Redwood Village Park"
facility, Mayor Boro stated it appeared to him that staff should look into a policy whereby as
development arose and these types of facilities were added, whether it be for the use of the facility or
for the public and the use of the facility, something, such as Mello Roos bonds, be put in place so that
the City was not picking up the additional maintenance of these projects. While he believed they were a
great asset and great to have, he did not favor continuing to create some of these new facilities and
expect the City to maintain them. Mayor Boro stated that in a positive way the burden should be
placed (Mello Roos being the approach) on the property owners on that site so that the correct funds
were in place to maintain these.
Referring to page 8 — Workers' Compensation — Mayor Boro stated that in one way it almost appeared
as though the claims were flat and the reserves should stay the same or go down. Noting Mr.
Nordhoff's response to the previous questions, he stated he would be interested going forward, in
having a review from the administrator of this fund of what they were doing. Being familiar with another
agency, he stated they had become extremely aggressive on their workers' compensation claims. They
had cut them substantially, conducted education with the employees and rather than letting them age,
they aggressively got them resolved as quickly as possible. While he was not attempting to manage
those managing this fund, Mayor Boro stated it would be worthwhile to review with the City Council
some of the things that were happening and perhaps provide some options for consideration.
City Manager Gould pointed out that the City had changed third -party administrators for workers'
compensation in the last year with good results. He suggested having a study session on the subject,
bring in the third -party administrator and report on what the City could control and what it could not.
Responding to Councilmember Heller's questions Mr. Gould, adding to Mr. Nordhoff's remarks, stated
that those increases in costs were not going to the injured employees, rather to attorneys,
administrators, consultants and consulting doctors. He indicated this was the nature of the system that
had gone out of control and as was pointed out by Mr. Nordhoff, the reforms that were put into place
last year largely exempted public sector agencies; therefore, the City had not seen the same benefit
that a lot of private sector employers had received from workers' compensation reform in California.
Mayor Boro thanked Mr. Gould for reiterating these remarks and suggested that perhaps the City
should begin working with the existing legislator and talk to some of the candidates running for
Assembly to ascertain what ideas they might have and how the reforms could be put in place in the
public sector, (they already were in place in the private sector) as he believed people expected that to
happen.
Referring to page 13, Mayor Boro noted Mr. Nordhoff's comments regarding eating away at the deficit
funds by using ERAF funds of $1.6 million and the VLF sale of approximately $900,000, totaling $2.5
million, and with a $3.2 million deficit, the shortfall was approximately $700,000. He requested that Mr.
Nordhoff explain going from a balance of $5.4 million to $2,036,216.
Mayor Boro thanked Mr. Nordhoff, not just for tonight's work, but for the great work he had done all
year, and for presenting these numbers and keeping the City Council and community apprised. Mr.
Nordhoff thanked Cindy Mosser and his staff in Finance, indicating they had worked very long hours
and did a lot of the underlying work.
Hugo Landecker, Gerstle Park Neighborhood Association, complimented Ken Nordhoff on his
outstanding presentation.
Referring to page 26 of the staff report, Rocky Birdsey noted under Streets — Street Resurfacing 05-06
and 06-07 of $1.2 million, and inquired whether these funds were already allocated.
Mr. Nordhoff stated that the budget was being built for these two projects based on collecting Impact
Fees from the construction trade and Refuse Vehicle Impact Fees, Gas Tax monies restricted to street
paving and Measure A funds. Those decisions had not formally been made by the City Council;
however, recognizing that the City was falling behind in the level of street paving, staff had at least
earmarked the Measure A funds anticipated for the next two years for that effort.
Mr. Gould stated that the Governor's May Revise for the state budget included funding Proposition 42
obligations for the state for the first time since it was approved by the voters in 2003, and that would add
a further $240,000 to the City for road resurfacing in the coming fiscal year if it indeed did go through.
He indicated it appeared to be smiled upon by the Democrats and have bi-partisan support; therefore,
he hoped the City could do a little better than the numbers reflected.
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Mr. Gould stated that the strategy Mr. Nordhoff had outlined reflected the direction given by the City
Council going back to December of 2004 when they were aware the City was facing at least a $3 million
deficit in fiscal year 05-06 and probably again in 06-07. He recalled staff indicating to Council at the
time that if they chose to, they could start slamming on the brakes by closing buildings, cutting services
and laying off staff, unless they wished to consider some alternative. That alternative was on the
revenue side and it was understood that the City Council could not legislate a significant tax increase,
rather it would have to be a choice put before the voters. Mr. Gould stated that should that no longer be
Council's direction, staff would not recommend this budget, rather they would call for draconian cuts
now to preserve emergency reserves and try to restore balance to the budget through deep reductions
in staffing and service levels. He indicated this was not what was reflected in the staff report, rather it
was a steady state budget for one year to allow the community to come to grips with the City's financial
situation and decide on what services were most important to San Rafael and whether or not the
community was willing to pay a little more to maintain them. Mr. Gould stated this was the community
choice and staff had put together one-time funds to hold things together for nine -twelve months and
should the City fail to do something on the revenue side, he was sad to say "we go off the cliff" and
subsequent budgeting would become much less pleasant that what was before Council this evening.
Mr. Gould stated he wished to ensure this was where the City Council wanted to go, putting it all on the
table for one year to hold it together to mount the community campaign to make a community choice on
service levels and funding.
Mayor Boro stated that this was what he and the four Councilmembers had indicated, along with Mr.
Gould, as they had gone to the three community meetings. He believed it was consistent, this was what
was reflected and it was the will of the Council to go in this direction.
Concurring, Councilmember Cohen stated it had been a prudent goal to maintain a 10% emergency
reserve and he believed the City was in what could fairly be called an emergency situation, much of it
not through the City's making. Spending money year after year out of reserves and pretending
everything was fine was not a prudent course; however, to take reserves down to just under 5% for one
year while buying time to make choices was prudent. Councilmember Cohen stated the City needed to
ensure the community recognized that it was a one-time shot and that amount of money was not
available to take next year even if it were felt prudent to zero out the reserve fund. Given the apparent
direction in terms of putting a choice before the voters, he believed it was a prudent way to approach
this budget.
Mayor Boro noted that a few questions were raised which Mr. Nordhoff would report back to Council on
June 20, 2005, at which time the budget would be presented for adoption.
Mr. Nordhoff stated that Council would be acting just on fiscal year 2005-2006. Staff would show the
projections for the subsequent year; however, Council would not be taking formal action on that.
2. PRESENTATION OF TWO-YEAR GOALS AND OBJECTIVES BY DEPARTMENTS, INCLUDING
REDEVELOPMENT — FILE 8-5 x R- 103
Citv Attome
City Attorney Gary Ragghianti stated that the City Attorney Department's objectives remained the same
as with each previous presentation and were listed in the City Attorney Department's summary.
Mr. Ragghianti stated it was worth remarking that over the last couple of years an enormous amount of
their energy had been sapped by the litigation the City had endured, not only through MHC, but more
recently through the St. Vincent's/Silveira issue. Regrettably, he did not see an end to the MHC case
soon, despite the fact that the Lingle case had recently been decided by the United States Supreme
Court, and the St. Vincent's/Silveira litigation was just getting underway and would probably continue for
at least the next year without abatement.
Regarding the remainder of the Objectives set forth, Mr. Ragghianti stated they were Objectives staff
had previously brought to Council's attention and they would continue to attempt to discharge all of their
responsibilities in connection with managing them.
Indicating he was happy to answer any questions Council might have, Mr. Ragghianti stated they
remained essentially a service department and responded to requests made by all City departments.
He noted they had spent a great deal of time, as previously mentioned, dealing with outside litigation
matters.
Noting General Plan 2020 required a great deal of their time, Mr. Ragghianti stated it had finally been
adopted by the City. While they were glad to see it behind them, he commented that it certainly was not
over yet because of pending litigation.
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On behalf of all, Mayor Boro thanked Mr. Ragghianti and his staff for the great job they do for the City.
Sharing an incident that occurred approximately two weeks ago, Mayor Boro reported that a resident
who was developing several lots for homes came to City Hall in somewhat of a dither because he
needed certain things done and was not having success. He (Mayor Boro) went into the City Attorney's
office and Eric Davis being there, he turned the gentleman over to him and left. Arriving back in the
office the next day at approximately the same time, Mayor Boro stated the gentleman in question was
present and he was extremely complimentary about Eric, the concern he showed, what he did and the
fact that he truly respected the gentleman's needs as well as the City's needs. Mayor Boro stated he
suggested to him that he call Mr. Ragghianti.
Mr. Ragghianti thanked Mayor Boro for bringing this up. He stated he was very fortunate to have Eric
Davis, Deputy City Attorney, and Gus Guinan, Assistant City Attorney, assisting him, making his job a
great deal easier and putting up with him.
City Clerk —
City Clerk Jeanne Leoncini stated that the City Clerk Department's goal always was to provide accurate,
timely assistance to the public, elected officials and City staff relating to the duties and responsibilities of
the City Clerk.
Ms. Leoncini indicated that some of the Department's objectives for 2005-2006 were the uploading of
Resolutions and Ordinances to the City Clerk's web page (to take place in 2005-2006), coordinating a
smooth running election in November 2005 for two Councilmembers and two School Board trustees, as
well as a possible tax measure. Deputy City Clerk, Esther Beirne, was participating in classes working
towards Certified Municipal Clerk status. Currently, she was attending UC Riverside for session 2, and
hopefully she would be attending a further session in September, with the final session in March 2006.
Indicating that she had been requested to develop and implement a customer feedback survey for the
City Clerk's office, Ms. Leoncini stated staff would be researching this with other City Clerks for input.
She also stated staff would explore technology updates, including imaging of records and agenda
processing; however, this would be pushed back to 2007 due to extensive costs.
Ms. Leoncini stated she was proud to report having recertified as a Certified Municipal Clerk in
September 2004, and thanks to her staff, minutes had been approved without amendments for quite a
number of years.
Regarding coordinating a smooth running election, Councilmember Cohen stated it looked increasingly
like the Governor would call a special election for November and he inquired whether this would have
any impact on the City Clerk's Office. Ms. Leoncini stated it would primarily be a burden on the County
and it could help the City in the fact that it spreads the cost somewhat more.
Councilmember Cohen stated he appreciated the work to upload resolutions and ordinances, together
with the proposed imaging of records. Having previously mentioned the fact that Ms. Leoncini had for
some time been serving as the City's semi-official photographer, he believed a digital camera would
now truly be appropriate, and he would like to see this placed in the Departmental Objectives for the
coming fiscal year. Mayor Boro stated this was taking as long as it did to go from reel tape to cassette.
Councilmember Cohen stated it was beginning to take longer, however, he was aware the City Clerk
made that transition smoothly and was confident she could make this one smoothly also. Mayor Boro
invited Councilmember Cohen to serve as a volunteer consultant with the City Clerk on this project.
Having seen some digital camera photographs, Ms. Leoncini stated she believed her little camera took
better pictures.
On behalf of all Mayor Boro thanked Ms. Leoncini for the work she and her staff does. Being a legend
in San Rafael and throughout the County in many ways, he appreciated her readiness to help and to
look out for everyone's best interests.
Mayor Boro stated he neglected to state at the beginning of the Goals and Objectives that a number of
years ago when this was initiated he recalled meeting Ted Gabler, author of "Reinventing Government"
who for a short period was the City Manager of San Rafael. Having informed Mr. Gabler of what
Council was doing and how they reviewed these Goals, his comment was "probably 70% or 80% of
cities would have goals but only 10% of them actually reviewed them during the year." Mayor Boro
stated that not only does San Rafael establish them, but they are reviewed throughout the year. He
thanked Mr. Gould, the department heads and their teams and groups, for making these real and a
basis on which the budget is produced.
City Manager—
Lydia Romero, Assistant to the City Manager, stated she had the pleasure of quickly going over the City
Manager Department's budget summary.
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Regarding Goals, as discussed earlier, they were seeking approval of a new revenue source for the City
to accomplish services and restore the quality of life and public services. In tandem with that was to
continue economic development projects with the Economic Development Department. She stated staff
would continue monitoring state legislation with the MCCMC (Marin County of Mayors and
Councilmembers) legislative committee, both on federal and state legislation.
Ms. Romero stated that the City Manager's Department would ensure ADA (Americans with Disabilities
Act) compliance with the federal mandates. She confirmed for Mayor Boro that the City Newsletter, City
Focus, would continue and she was evaluating development of a web format for more updated
information on the web, making it more interactive.
Regarding the Volunteer program, Ms. Romero reported that an anti -litter campaign — San Rafael Clean
— commenced on May 22, 2005, headed by Cory Bytof, Volunteer Coordinator, solely using volunteers
to help clean up litter on San Rafael streets.
Noting Cory Bytof does a great job in his capacity, Mayor Boro inquired as to the number of volunteer
hours, number of people who served as volunteers and dollar value. Ms. Romero confirmed the dollar
value at $1.3 million. Mayor Boro stated it was a great program and very supportive of all City
departments.
Mayor Boro thanked Lydia Romero for her great work, also thanking her staff.
Community Development —
Reflecting back on Community Development's accomplishments over the past two years, Community
Development Director Bob Brown stated that first and foremost was completion of General Plan 2020,
which was a Herculean effort, and he hoped the City Council agreed that it met their directives for a
citizen produced plan. He indicated that large development applications were somewhat sparse over
the last two years due to the economic downturn; however, Redwood Village and the Vineyards projects
were completed and recently, Best Buy was approved.
Mr. Brown reported that because development was down staff took the opportunity to update many
ordinances for the City, including the Sign Ordinance, Telecommunications Ordinance, a new Boating
Sanitation and Dock Safety Ordinance, the Eichler ban on second stories and improved public hearing
noticing. Because of stable staffing, Code Enforcement was able to greatly increase its productivity in
the apartment inspection program.
Looking ahead to the next two years, Mr. Brown reported that staff's major focus would be on re -staffing
and re-engineering the building permit process. This would include coordination with other
departments, improving processing times and being more attentive to disabled accessibility issues. He
indicated that new building official, Thomas Ahrens, would spearhead that effort.
In current planning, Mr. Brown stated staff was still processing the Loch Lomond Marina Village project
and he indicated that there were several major projects anticipated, including revisions to the
Masterplan for the San Rafael Corporate Center, potential reuse of the Marin Technology Center,
redevelopment at Marin Square, a major Kaiser Hospital Masterplan, Dominican University's new
Science and Technology building, and an expected proposal for development for portion of the Elks
Club property.
Mr. Brown stated that huge strides would not be made in implementing the new General Plan. Council
would recall that as part of cost saving efforts, a position had to be eliminated in long-range planning
(now just Linda Jackson). Mr. Brown reported that Linda Jackson, Principal Planner, would continue
working on the SMART (Sonoma/Marin Area Rail Transit) proposal and reviewing the EIR
(Environmental Impact Report) with LAFCO on the City's Sphere of Influence study, with the County on
their Countywide plan update, and with ABAG looking at their next housing needs allocation process.
He indicated that Ms. Jackson would also have a major role in the Canal Mobility Study being
coordinated by TAM (Transportation Authority of Marin).
Mr. Brown stated that to tackle some of the more meaty General Plan programs, some specialized
assistance would be needed, which has an attendant cost, as would be seen in New Service Requests;
however, these were not being recommended for funding at this time.
Lastly, Mr. Brown reported that he expected Code Enforcement would continue to be very effective.
Noting the Goals included creating an educational program on City Planning for elementary and high
schools, Mr. Brown stated staff believed it was time to start recruiting future Planning Commissioners at
a very young age.
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Noting the Schools Career Program (Mr. Brown reported that the City was a participant), Mayor Boro
stated it was great to get young people involved, especially those with an interest in the building arena,
whether an architect or engineer.
Mayor Boro thanked Mr. Brown for his and his department's work. He commented that Linda Jackson
had done a superb job on the General Plan and continued to work on issues such as SMART, TAM and
other areas of great significance to the City, in a quiet and effective way.
Regarding the recent update to the notification process, Councilmember Cohen stated that the signs
that were developed really made a difference and was a much more noticeable way to get the word out
and he appreciated the work done on it.
Mr. Brown stated that originally 20 signs were ordered and there now were 40.
Councilmember Heller inquired whether a lot of questions were being received from the community as a
result of these signs or whether people just took the information from the holders.
Mr. Brown stated he did not believe there had been a huge increase in participation. The signs were
noticeable and their effectiveness or otherwise would be seen over time; however, staff believed they
were getting the word out.
Communitv Services —
Community Services Director Carlene McCart reported that in the last two years Community Services
had reinvented itself by rearranging and adjusting operations, reassigning staff to operate in a leaner
budget time and yet they were proud of the major accomplishments they attained - first and foremost
being the progress on the Pickleweed Community Center and Library. She indicated that along with
their colleagues in other departments, they had taken the project through the design process, through
planned development, all of the reviews, got the project from bid to construction and they now sit at the
construction management table as end users participating in some of the day to day decisions.
Ms. McCart reported that with Mayor Boro and Councilmember Miller, staff had been working
steadfastly on the funding scenario and they were proud that up to this evening they had over
$2 million in grants amassed for the project, over $600,000 in private donations and combined, over $4
million in federal, state, county and Redevelopment Agency funds and they were certain that under this
leadership, they would realize their funding goals.
Ms. McCart reported that other accomplishments in the last couple of years included a collaborative
effort to produce the best skate park in Northern California. With the way it was being used and the
number of people using it, she believed it was truly appreciated by not only the skaters but the families
of the skaters, and it was a wonderful success story.
Reporting that they had worked with other staff to move the Redwood Village Park through design
reviews and construction, Ms. McCart stated they also had completed renovations at Santa Margarita,
Gerstle and Bret Harte parks.
Having received grants for Pickleweed, Ms. McCart called attention to the fact that staff had actively
been seeking grants for other areas of operation in Community Services. Grants had been received for
programs, specifically in the Canal area, Childcare Division - Pre-schools, Falkirk and park
development projects had all been recipients. Under new management at the pool there had been
increases in revenues and uses, in some categories up to 50%. The Childcare Division expanded by
one campus, pre-school programs had been expanded and after-school programs for both youth and
teens had increased. Ms. McCart reported that recreation programs through contract services had
increased, particularly in teen sports and senior travel and with Council's support they had moved their
operations forward by using technology, which was now becoming more common in the industry.
Ms. McCart reported that their objectives through the next two years were to focus on internally
upgrading services to attract and maintain a larger market share of customers and to capitalize on
opportunities to partner in the provision of services and development of facilities.
Ms. McCart stated that in the next two-year budget they wished to expand their joint use agreements to
include more schools. Use Agreements were currently in place with Dominican University, Marin
Academy High School and to a certain extent, with College of Marin; however, they realized that all of
the outdoor recreation facilities in San Rafael were either held by the City or the School District;
therefore, they would work more diligently towards more joint use agreements.
Indicating they would update their in -lieu parkland dedication policy, understanding there were few
opportunities now for additional housing projects that would contribute either to new recreation facility
inventory or to support existing inventory, Ms. McCart stated staff wanted to ensure that the City's policy
for in -lieu parkland dedication was contemporary.
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Throughout the various division objectives, Ms. McCart stated Council would see staff had focused on
two things across the board — professional development and marketing. In the professional
development area she indicated staff was being requested to do more with less and a primary goal was
to ensure everyone was cross -trained. She stated that when the Pickleweed Community Center is
opened the entire management staff would be there to support Dave Donery in operating what they
believed would be the most active facility. From custodial up, staff was gearing up towards this.
Ms. McCart stated that the marketing strategy was due to be updated; this had not been done for
approximately five to six years and staff wanted to be less reliant on printing, publishing and mailing,
and more on website and electronic communication with the customer base.
Reporting that in the next two years they would launch into planning a cultural arts vision plan for the
City, Ms. McCart indicated they now were recruiting members of the community to help serve on that
study process that would go into other communities in California to ascertain how they had incorporated
arts as a policy communitywide.
Ms. McCart stated they would upgrade and boost their recycling program, specifically for the community
centers and Falkirk. They would conduct customer surveys across the board in the five divisions and
they would focus also on the DOJ (Department of Justice) as it applied to services and employee
training.
Ms. McCart stated that her dedicated and capable staff was present this evening should there be
questions concerning particular division goals or objectives.
Councilmember Heller stated she was amazed through the past few years at how many new facilities
were put together. She realized Ms. McCart was not anticipating this when she was recruited; however,
they had arrived fast and furiously and Ms. McCart and her entire staff had done a wonderful job of
taking hold of projects, putting them together and seeing them to completion. Councilmember Heller
commented that she would not rest until she received her south of the hill swimming pool.
With hats off to Ms. McCart and her staff, Councilmember Phillips inquired as to what types of changes
were taking place in Childcare.
Indicating there were two major trends affecting the Childcare Division, Ms. McCart explained one was
that the school districts were tending to elongate the Kindergarten day, which meant that younger
students would be starting school at 8:00 — 8:30 a.m. and finishing with the other elementary grades —
1:30 or 2:00 p.m. Currently, centers open and are fully staffed and operating at noon, with a half-day
Kindergarten program, now these staff people were not being engaged until 1:30 p.m. or later. She
indicated that this would cause a readjustment of staffing and conversion of some full-time positions into
part-time positions. The other end of that trend was a statewide and probably a national movement to
institute pre-school across the board; therefore, pre-school programs were being increased also.
Explaining that there currently were three classes of pre-schoolers at Pickleweed, Ms. McCart reported
this would be expanding that program to Gallinas school next year. This was a grant supported service
and subsidized pre-school. She reported that Parkside had readjusted its programming to include a
half-day pre-school fee based class.
Learning of a possible decline, Councilmember Heller inquired as to anticipated numbers of school
system entrants.
Having heard similar comments, Ms. McCart stated she was unaware of specific percentages.
Looking at the trend with respect to summer programs, Councilmember Cohen indicated he had heard
an interesting radio program about the increasing level of interest in enrichment programs. He indicated
that his family at times had to travel out of the county to find such programs. In terms of content he
believed it would probably be more appropriately done by either the San Rafael School District or
Dominican University; however, in terms of the mechanics of putting on a program, registering it and
making it work, he suggested it could be more suited for the City. He inquired whether Ms. McCart had
any discussions with either school system about trying to make something like this available.
Ms. McCart reported that San Rafael was offering scores of different types of camps this summer, only
two of which were general recreation types of experiences. She indicated that the remainder ranged
from robotics, language, gymnastics, etc. While they had not entered into more of an academic arena,
they had made a proposal to the Dixie School District to partner with them to run an elementary school
and middle school summer school program to include the academic curriculum they offer during the
summer, and they were still in the discussion phase.
Councilmember Cohen encouraged Ms. McCart to also have discussions with Dominican University as
he believed there was a lot of interest in the community in these types of programs.
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Noting Bret Harte and Santa Margarita Parks were mentioned, Mayor Boro inquired whether the
playground equipment was now up to current requirements in all parks.
Ms. McCart stated she would defer to Public Works Director Andy Preston before indicating that
everything was up to speed. She indicated that everything that could be done in-house was done and
the playgrounds referred to were those that needed complete replacement, which was finished. As
pieces of equipment break down they are being replaced with code compliant equipment. She
confirmed that at this point the project that began approximately four and a half years ago was 90% -
95% finished.
Mayor Boro noted that the Marin History project - an objective for next year - was already started, and
due to open within the next year and would be a great addition to the City. As visitors came to the site,
he commented that it could be a real opportunity to interact with and complement Falkirk and perhaps
help with rentals.
Mayor Boro complimented Ms. McCart and her department on their many accomplishments. Noting
Childcare was an amazing project in the City, he stated that at last count there were 1,400 children —
approximately 1,200 families. It was a great community service, completely paid for by those who use it
and in today's environment and society he believed it important to provide a safe place for children to go
when their parents were at work.
Noting an initiative concerning preschool down to 2 years old would be on the November ballot,
sponsored by Rob Reiner, Mayor Boro stated he would be interested in what the legislature would do
and questioned whether it was intended to be borne by the schools or whether organizations such as
the City's could be licensed to participate.
Complimenting Ms. McCart and her staff, Mayor Boro stated he particularly wanted to thank Dave
Donery for the great work he had done with Pickleweed. It was a tremendous project for the City and
Mr. Donery had done an excellent job on it. Ms. McCart expressed thanks for all the City Council
support.
Economic Development/ Redevelopment Agency -
Economic Development Director Nancy Mackle stated that the small Redevelopment Agency staff,
consisting of three full-time employees, a part-time Events Coordinator and the Economic Development
Director, were part of a larger team. Noting projects on Community Development, Community Services
and Public Works lists were also on her list, she explained that Redevelopment works very closely with
the other departments to put projects together.
Ms. Mackle forecasted where staff's energy would be focused for the next two years:
• East and West Francisco Boulevard — staff was working hard to create new car dealerships and
improve some of the older ones — Toyota, Dodge and others on the West Francisco side, along
with the Highway 101 improvements.
• It was hoped to bring a hotel to the downtown.
• Staff would work with Phase II of the San Rafael Corporate Center to see what would be best for
the downtown on that site.
• The grand opening of Kimballs downtown. Ms. Mackle indicated that while they had been
slowed down by some extra costs, they would locate to San Rafael.
• In the area of public and quasi -public projects, staff would work hard to bring the Marin
Community Clinic to the Canal neighborhood. Ms. Mackle reported having talked to the
Executive Director and they both were committed to working together to try to find them a home
in the Canal.
• Public Projects — Medway/Canal and West End sidewalks — staff was working closely with Public
Works to bring these projects to fruition.
• In the area of housing, infill sites would continue to be worked on downtown, as well as at
Northgate Mall, Marin Square and the Windward Way site. Regarding Windward Way, the
General Plan called out that a portion could be developed if there was a park on the site.
• Continue working with non-profit agencies for acquisition and rehabilitation as projects arose.
• Events — staff was always working to promote the downtown to bring new events to the area,
noting the Italian Street Painting Festival would take place this weekend. Classic traditional
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events include: Italian Street Painting, May Madness Classic Car Parade, Parade of Lights and
Winter Wonderland and Snow, and the Farmers' Market, and staff had been working hard over
the past several years, and would continue, to bring new events. She indicated they would help
events such as the Wine, Blues and Artworks events to grow, and of course, the Great Race
2006.
Regarding funding, Ms. Mackle reported that for some time staff had been working to try to secure a
better future for funding for a couple of projects, including operating; however, this had been made
more complicated by state budget problems — ERAF shifts, etc. She indicated that Mr. Gould, Mr.
Nordhoff, consultants, legal counsel, she and her staff all were working on this and hopefully, they
would make something work.
Regarding the Chamber of Commerce and Business Improvement District (BID), Ms. Mackle reported
that their funding was cut back a couple of years ago when Redevelopment Agency funding was
slashed to try to extend available funding at the time. She indicated that staff was working with the BID
under Goals and Objectives for the next two years to ascertain if there were ways to improve their
funding, whether to increase their geographic area or change who became a member. This would be a
large task as it was an assessment district with a particular process, and the Agency was trying to help
plan for when or if it did not have its own funding. Ms. Mackle stated they hoped to work with the new
Chamber of Commerce Director to see what other revenue sources might be available.
Councilmember Heller commented that Redevelopment had been one of the most wonderful tools this
City and many others had been able to use, and she inquired as to its future.
Indicating she did not know what was next, Ms. Mackle stated that prior to Redevelopment there were
block grants and different types of federal funds. Indicating there always would be a need for blight
removal, economic development and affordable housing, she was confident there would be something.
As reported in the staff report by Mr. Nordhoff, there was an end in sight for the Redevelopment
Agency.
In terms of department objectives over the next couple of years, Councilmember Cohen believed it was
time to put some effort into retail, not large retailers or retail infill development so much as looking at
opportunities when vacant spaces appeared. In looking at income figures for San Rafael and Marin
County and the outrageous, unbelievable real estate prices, he believed some demographic change
was taking place in the community and he questioned whether some outreach should be done. He
recalled some years ago visiting Fourth Street in Berkeley to look at some of the work they had done
and the type of retail they were able to attract. He stated there was a theoretical upper limit to the
number of expensive coffee shops San Rafael could support; however, Pete's very clearly
demonstrated that this had not yet been reached. He questioned whether more could be done to attract
high caliber retail.
Ms. Mackle stated she did not include this in her Goals and Objectives; however, they had discussions
in this regard with the Chamber of Commerce recently, specifically concerning working with property
owners and brokers.
Mr. Gould stated that the biggest opportunity site for retail in San Rafael was by far the Northgate Mall.
There had been so many discussions over the years with nothing to show that neither Ms. Mackle or
Mr. Brown had shown it as an objective for the next two years. He indicated that the vice-president for
development continued to state he had a bold vision and would present his latest ideas in a week and a
half. Mr. Gould stated that at some point the company would realize they were losing the mall and must
reinvest in it to begin to turn it back to profitability. By reinvesting in and renovating the mall and
creating more excitement there, better retailers would be attracted which would increase commerce,
benefiting the owners and the City, and staff saw a great opportunity to facilitate that. Reporting that
Macerich constantly wanted the City to participate financially in the renovation of the mall, Mr. Gould
stated this was not something the City had encouraged; however, staff would be happy to entertain an
application to work with the community to make the most of it. He reiterated that this was where he saw
the major opportunity to upgrade retail in town.
Regarding the term "saturation marketing", Councilmember Heller questioned why a small town like Mill
Valley could have a Banana Republic on their main street. She noted that when Mr. Jim Schafer was
looking for retailers to come into San Rafael he did not find any satisfied with the market they might find
in San Rafael.
Ms. Mackle stated that the feedback she had been getting, not just from Mr. Schafer, but from other
brokers and representatives of properties, was that it was very hard to get, or there was a price to get
some of those big names in town. She reported having a discussion at the Citizens Advisory
Committee on Redevelopment meeting recently about who they were attempting to get to fill in the
Beverly's fabric store. A national retailer was mentioned; however, so much had to be given up to
obtain this retailer there was uncertainty it would come to fruition and perhaps, more could be achieved
with the locals. She indicated the other feedback was that some retailers wanted to go where anchors
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were already established; therefore, it was a question of getting the first one in. She noted spaces
downtown were mostly smaller and commented that some feedback favored not having chains and
looking like every other downtown, while others wanted chains.
Mayor Boro stated he liked the idea of working with the BID and Chamber of Commerce and perhaps
two or three representatives of property owners. Noting this had been wrestled with for a long time, he
commented that there had been a big change in the downtown — 700 housing units was a whole new
base — together with the activity taking place at night, during the week and on weekends. He suggested
that perhaps this data should be refreshed and made available.
Regarding the tax sharing agreement with the agencies, Mayor Boro suggested that after the November
election it could be worthwhile to have one or two Councilmembers work with Ms. Mackle and perhaps
one of the three Board of Supervisors members who represents the City to discuss Redevelopment
needs and the benefits to the County and City. He suggested also working with the school districts as
he believed a couple of policy makers needed to be involved.
Councilmember Phillips reported having the pleasure of meeting with the Chamber of Commerce and
BID with staff members Gould, Nordhoff and Mackle monthly and indicated that they represent the City
well in that setting. He noted their enthusiasm and knowledge of the community was evident and said a
lot for the City.
Further to the comments made by Mayor Boro and Councilmember Cohen specifically concerning the
infamous PG&E site, Albert Barr stated that the Redevelopment Agency was negotiating with the
Corporate Center to perhaps reconfigure this. He indicated that the Vision in Action Committee of some
years ago generated the infamous statement "No Big Box." Mr. Barr stated it was incumbent upon the
City, in light of the revenue shortfall, to take a second look at that as it did not make sense to have
residents of San Rafael going to Novato to do a significant amount of their shopping. While he was not
suggesting a Costco be located there, he believed some retail component to that project was
appropriate.
As to who would take that second look, Mr. Barr noted the Redevelopment Agency was keen on
focusing in on a cinema or hotel and he suggested that should a retail component be considered for that
site, an independent consultant or committee should be appointed to work with the Redevelopment
Agency and City Council in coming up with a different strategy that would generate more revenue from
that site.
Mayor Boro stated that staff had been working with the current owner - the new owner about to come on
board - and would continue to do so. He noted some other PG&E sites, particularly where their
administrative building is currently located, where staff had been working with PG&E and Century
Theatres and this would continue as he believed multiplexes in a downtown bring people which in turn
bring sales tax, etc. Should changes be decided for the Corporate Center he indicated that members of
the public would be invited to work on the issue.
Councilmember Cohen stated the City was certainly faced with revisiting the appropriate use of that
site, some of which was driven by the market. He issued an assurance that the Council sub -committee
consisting of himself and Mayor Boro and staff, were looking at every opportunity to see in a
reconfigured site a way to address the revenue needs of the City. He believed one of the challenges of
retail there was the circulation impact, explaining that essentially, it needed to be fitted, in terms of its
traffic footprint, into the existing capacity allocated for what was proposed to be 450,000 square -feet of
office. He noted there were not a lot of options on existing City streets to reconfigure further and add
traffic capacity to do significant retail; however, they were constantly looking at ways to achieve that.
Mayor Boro thanked Ms. Mackle for her and her staff's work who were always a delight to see and be
with.
Fire Department —
Division Chief Ritt Hewitt stated that the loud and clear message from the public during recent
community meetings was that they wanted the Fire Department there fast and know what they were
doing; therefore, most of the initial goals reflected that. He indicated this involved the ability to respond
and be configured in such a way that they could continue to do that even as the workload picked up;
therefore, all the first goals addressed times and effective response. While an easy priority to set, he
commented that it was a difficult one to always maintain. As part of this he indicated they wanted to
review and gather accurate data to be able to demonstrate that they were accomplishing their goals.
Division Chief Hewitt indicated that the Critical Facilities report clearly indicated that the fire stations
needed some work and as part of that process, staff wanted to look at opportunities to perhaps
consolidate stations. He indicated that they wanted to conduct some research into whether this could
be done while maintaining their response capability. Fire Station #1 dates back to 1918 and the later
stations in the 1950s and 1960s, and obviously the City had changed a lot in that time.
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Division Chief Hewitt outlined the following:
• Staff wanted to prepare for the Paramedic Tax Measure which requires a two-thirds majority.
• They wished to implement a work group performance building, noting a significant turnover in
staff in the Fire Department, top to bottom, and wishing to ensure they maintained their
momentum, it was hoped to hire a national expert in this field, who happened to reside in Terra
Linda.
• Staff was reviewing the operation of the Fire Prevention Bureau and its relationship with the
Community Development Building Division to try to ensure the City's priorities, apartment
inspection program, plan checking for development, etc. were being met, and he suggested that
perhaps they needed to stop doing some things in other areas to carry out these tasks better.
• The Fire Department wanted to continue the work done by the City Council with Marinwood.
Staff was looking at the anticipated unfortunate loss of that relationship as of July 1, 2005;
however, hopefully the vote tonight would be to continue that.
• Staff wanted to evaluate and implement engine company paramedic delivery. The proposal to
do this citywide could not be funded; however, there was a pilot project that could be funded in
the Loch Lomond/Peacock Gap area, which had worked very well, particularly when the
downtown ambulance was unavailable and it was necessary to wait for the Terra Linda
ambulance to respond, and having a paramedic there had made a huge difference in some
cases.
Regarding recent accomplishments, Chief Hewitt noted:
• The Fire Dispatch Center was up and running; the Fire Prevention Bureau had moved there and
staff would spread out in the administrative headquarters.
• Some positions had been created and filled and some more would need to be filled, which would
be a challenge.
• A new schedule had been implemented for firefighters, along with a different staffing pattern,
some of which was the result of labor negotiation and some as a result of attempts to cut costs.
Equipment had been moved around to try to better respond to the pilot program at station #5
where the paramedic and a ladder truck had been moved from that same station down to the
Canal area, with good success.
Regarding Department Objectives, Councilmember Phillips noted the references to Maintain; however,
the second point did not reference Maintain, and he questioned whether this was a new standard.
Responding, Chief Hewitt stated this was a new way of phrasing what they always tried to do. It was
not only talking about getting there quickly, but being effective. He confirmed for Councilmember
Phillips that it was an improved service and probably a more practical way to term for Council and the
public what it was they try to do.
Regarding Department Objectives with respect to Marinwood, Councilmember Cohen stated he would
like to see it revised a little, assuming, hopefully, that the Marinwood Community Services District did
vote this evening to accept the agreement negotiated with a couple members of their board.
Chief Hewitt stated he was assured that the comments made by the gentleman last evening were not
shared by all those in the Marinwood meeting tonight.
Councilmember Cohen stated he was pretty confident it would be approved, and that being the case the
intent was not to explore the long-term relationship but to redefine/reinvent/restructure the relationship
and the way the City provides fire service to North San Rafael and Marinwood within the next year.
To paraphrase former Fire Chief Martin, Chief Hewitt believed they were dating with the intention of
having a deeper relationship.
Councilmember Cohen stated the goal for the next year was to finish the exploration in the next couple
of months and implement through the remainder of the fiscal year, so that twelve months hence, a new
structure would be in place.
Chief Hewitt stated that it was important not only in terms of governance and budgeting, but
operationally, they were as close as they could be given the current circumstances; however, it could be
better.
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Regarding "Evaluate and Implement Engine Company Paramedic delivery", Mayor Boro stated he
believed it was supported by all and he was to glad see it was operational at station #5. He understood
that going forward in hiring, new hires would be paramedics.
Chief Hewitt confirmed they currently were in the hiring process for two, possibly three,
firefighter/paramedics, all of whom were certified paramedics, and the intention was to continue to do
that until a robust number to provide choices was achieved. When personnel gets thin at that particular
position, they have to be pulled back to primary rescues; however, with more, different choices could be
made.
Mayor Boro believed it made great sense as often times people ask why it was necessary to roll out an
engine and paramedic unit. This had been answered in different ways, one of the reasons being that
often the engine can get there first and initiate some type of life-saving service and obviously, with a
paramedic on the engine they could really intervene. The other reason for both showing up was that
often the patient was in a position that two people could not handle and more help was needed, and the
mere fact of striving to have a paramedic on every engine arriving at the scene was a great goal and he
hoped it could be accomplished.
Chief Hewitt stated that currently, depending upon staffing, approximately half of the companies —
station #1, station #6 and station #5 — most of the time had that capability.
Mayor Boro thanked Chief Hewitt for his personal contributions and for being in attendance this evening
and requested that he thank all in the Fire Department for a great job.
Library —
David Dodd expressed thanks for being able to talk about San Rafael's great library. He indicated there
had been a lot of accomplishments in the last couple of years, most of which he was not in San Rafael
for; however, he was very aware of them.
Mr. Dodd outlined some of these accomplishments, including securing the grant for the Pickleweed
Library from the California State Library, and major website upgrades. With the provision of electronic
resources, it was now possible to download audio and e -books from the website.
Thanking Kay Noguchi, Mr. Dodd stated that as Interim Director, from what he could tell, she had turned
the organization around in a big way. He noted there now were regular staff meetings and a much
broader sense of communication and participation among the staff, which he believed was largely due
to Kay taking the reins.
Mr. Dodd thanked the entire staff, noting the library had a broad and deep collection, and with 120,000
items in that small building, it was possible to find out anything one wanted to know, which was the big
accomplishment of a library.
Mr. Dodd stated that staff had set some goals for the coming two years that sought to expand what they
did, given the limited resources:
• The need to improve services to the Spanish speaking community, particularly in light of
Pickleweed. A major goal was to bring a bilingual librarian on board and a grant was being
applied for from the State Library to expand and improve services to the Spanish speaking
community.
• A major goal was to plan for and open the library at Pickleweed. This was not a light matter in
that the collection needed to be expanded and a lot of work needed to be carried out.
• Improve technological capabilities, both for staff and the public. The library had the excellent
cooperation of the City's IT (Information Technology) department and cooperating with Mark
Rinkel, IT Manager, and his crew had already proven to be a huge leap forward in terms of
response time and getting things done quickly.
• Staff would like to look at the facilities issue, both as a long-term issue in terms of getting a new
library, and as a short-term issue, how to be good stewards of the already available resources;
therefore, he proposed some work on that building while evaluating how to position the library to
move forward towards a new facility.
Councilmember Heller requested expansion on the physical problems of the building.
Mr. Dodd explained that the building was comprised of two parts: A 1908 building and a 1960 addition
which added approximately 10,000 square -feet to what originally was a 5,000 square -foot facility. He
indicated that oddly enough the new addition was probably the part giving the most trouble in that it
appeared to be absorbing water like a sponge. There was evidence that the rebar inside the concrete
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was rusting from the inside out and corners of the building where the concrete had broken away could
be seen. Mr. Dodd indicated that black lines could be seen along the concrete which staff believed was
evidence of mildew inside the concrete. On the Carnegie building he indicated there was an issue with
the windows which were large, tall aluminum windows set inside wood frames, and apparently over the
years, aluminum and wood contract at different rates, causing stresses and failure of one window.
Councilmember Cohen complimented David Dodd and his department for the enhanced web presence
and web services. Noting the department objective of adding wireless internet access, he thought this
was great and really liked the idea of being able to broadcast from the lawn. Mr. Dodd stated he had it
on good authority from Mark Rinkel that this could be done.
Mayor Boro stated that in the short time David Dodd had been with the City he had made a great
impression. He thanked Kay Noguchi and all the library staff and commented that whenever he goes in
the library helpless, he comes out helped, which he appreciated.
Management Services —
Assistant City Manager Ken Nordhoff stated that Management Services was a fairly diversified grouping
of services and four people in the back of the room put the majority of objectives and indicators together
— Cindy Mosser, Finance Manager, Mark Rinkel, I.T. Manager, Chad Lynn, Parking Services Manager
and Adela Gonzales, substituting while Sharon Andrus, Human Resources Manager, recovers from a
serious automobile accident.
Mr. Nordhoff stated the City Council was aware the City had been doing a lot more ADA (Americans
with Disabilities Act) compliance and while this had not been ignored historically, staff was certainly
more attuned to it. He noted the City has a Settlement Agreement that attention has to be paid to that
contained some very specific deadlines and some objectives to be met, some of which were program
issues and some barrier removals at facilities. Serving as the City's ADA Coordinator, he stated he
actually involves a number of departments who have to assist in getting all this done.
Mr. Nordhoff stated Council did not have to be reminded that staff spends a lot of time on fiscal matters
and would continue to do so, and would be spending many meetings over the coming two years
working through keeping the budget balanced.
Indicating that all of the labor agreements would lapse in the middle of this two-year budget cycle — end
of June 2006 — Mr. Nordhoff stated that staff would be working ahead of time with Council to obtain
some strategic thinking about where that goes and then sitting down and negotiating upwards of nine
bargaining unit contracts over the next year or so.
On the technology front, Mr. Nordhoff stated that websites had sprung up throughout the City in various
shapes and formats when there was not really a cohesive effort, and Mark Rinkel had generated a
committee of in-house staff who were working on how to consolidate that and improve the website.
This would include not only static information and ADA compliance, but would try to accommodate
interactive needs of various departments, etc. Hoping to see some kick-off in the fall, he indicated that
staff would work with the ADA committee and others to ensure everything was compliant.
Mr. Nordhoff stated he was unsure as to how old the City's telephone system was; however, like many
of the aged infrastructure in the City, it needed some attention, and Mr. Rinkel would work across the
organization to ascertain a way to make a phone system upgrade and improve some technology
capabilities.
In the area of Parking, Mr. Nordhoff stated that from the menu of items, he called out some of the more
community based initiatives dealing with offering parking validation and other opportunities to downtown
businesses. He indicated that there was a lot of technology that Mr. Lynn had been instrumental in
putting into place which now could be taken advantage of for events, etc. He indicated that staff would
be working cooperatively with the Chamber of Commerce and BID to accomplish this.
Regarding the upcoming labor negotiations, Councilmember Cohen stated that in the area of Workers'
Compensation, an objective needed to be set over the next fiscal year to really evaluate this issue more
aggressively. Not having familiarity with the public sector, he indicated that on the private side, there
had been a lot of stuff happening. Should it be a legislative problem it should be looked at, as well as
considering what was happening on the private side. He indicated that his reason for tying this into
labor relations was that it was not just in the insurance market, rather some of the legislation did create
some opportunities in the context of collective bargaining. Specifically, he reported that he was involved
with a consortium of building trades unions and employers that had put together an ADR (Alternative
Dispute Resolution) program, which speeds the processing of claims, reduces litigation, thereby getting
injured employees back to work quicker, getting them the needed medical attention, cutting down on the
bureaucracy and attorneys fees and saving employers money while maintaining or improving, if not
benefit levels, speedy resolution of problems that injured workers face. Councilmember Cohen stated
they had been very pleased so far with the success of that program. While it was a private sector
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model, he believed it was worth exploring prior to getting into negotiations and he would be happy to
work with Mr. Nordhoff on this.
Throughout the City in general with regard to computer systems/work stations, etc., Mayor Boro recalled
that several years ago putting standards in place was discussed and he assumed this had been
accomplished from work location to work location.
Mr. Nordhoff stated that there were standards for both hardware and software and as new equipment
was acquired it had to meet those standards. He noted that the standards continued to move and Mark
Rinkel was working through a process that as equipment was acquired the standards were re-evaluated
in concert with replacement equipment.
Mayor Boro stated that at one time there was an effort on some internal conversions, payroll systems,
property records, etc., and there were issues with the Police and Fire Departments with regard to their
data bases, and he inquired whether these had been resolved.
Mr. Nordhoff reported that major upgrades had taken place in the Police, Fire, Finance and Human
Resources; Community Development had done permit permitting installations and there was
registration software in Community Services. He confirmed that all the major system conversions first
raised in the five-year technology plan had been accomplished. He indicated there would come a time
when it would be necessary to start recycling through that; however, hopefully, they would not have to
be bundled as tightly as previously because so many had been neglected for so long.
Mayor Boro stated these had been silent accomplishments which was a great way to conduct a
conversion takeover.
Indicating that Mr. Nordhoff had received all the accolades he was going to get this evening, Mayor
Boro stated he had a great staff with Cindy Mosser making Mr. Nordhoff look good all the time. He
gave a special thanks to Mark Rinkel and Getty Ejigou, Network Analyst, for getting his new Palm Pilot
off the ground, noting he had not had to visit the IT Department in three weeks, and like the Police
Department, they had not given him the combination to the door so he had to knock before entering.
Mayor Boro stated he was aware how Mark Rinkel worked so well with everyone throughout the City in
all departments and he thanked him and everyone in the IT department.
Police Department —
Adding his own thanks to Management Services, Police Chief John Rohrbacher stated that the Police
Department, being a large department in the City, probably rivaled Mayor Boro in time demands for
Management Services and Information Technology. He noted that the type of technology now in the
Police Department, Dispatch, Cars and Desktops, was amazing and the support received from IT to
keep that going was appreciated. He commented that Mark Rinkel was their's first and they still
received a lot of service from him.
Chief Rohrbacher stated that as the new department head and Chief of Police he really appreciated the
work Ken Nordhoff, Cindy Mosser and Van Bach had done in helping him and his new Captains to
develop their budget. He stated that in addition, having requested in-house classes for the accounting
software, Ken Nordhoff and Cindy Mosser conducted a number of half-day classes which were really
appreciated.
Regarding the Police Department's overall goals, Chief Rohrbacher stated that the main department
goal remained the same. Staff believed the primary mission was to reduce crime and disorder and the
fear of crime. He indicated that this was done through commitment to the community and use of
resources.
Chief Rohrbacher reviewed overall department objectives for the next two years:
• Partnership with the City Schools — a grant that pays for half of a second school resource officer,
which covers the time the officer spends in the classroom with "Project Alert" — an anti-drug
information and education component for middle school students, replacing the DARE program.
• Continue pursuing the public involvement with officers attending community meetings — several
dozen were attended starting last September when he did his first mailing to the community
groups inviting them to invite him and the beat officers to attend their meetings. This was
repeated beginning in March.
• Other items related to the use of technology and how it aided staff in doing their jobs. They
wanted to work on auto theft, gang -related crimes, street prostitution, pimping, quality of life
complaints concerning public drinking, litter, larceny crimes, auto burglary and identity theft, and
without the use of technology to work smart this would be very tough to do.
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• Staff would like to work on a customer satisfaction survey. Chief Rohrbacher stated that for a lot
of years staff relied on looking at how many complaints were received versus how many good
comments were received. Noting the complaint rate was very low, he indicated they would like
to have a customer survey component, probably using the website.
Chief Rohrbacher stated that the Police Department was divided into two large programs — Operations
and Support Services — and he had listed individual division goals and objectives for these. Some were
overall department goals; however, Operations covered everyone in uniform — traffic and beat officers -
continuing to work on reducing injury and fatal traffic collisions through enforcement. He noted the
Pedestrian Safety Program and the "Avoid the Marin 13" Program and the use of radar trailers which
now were permanently attached to two cars originally scheduled to be retired.
Chief Rohrbacher stated they would be using their Records Management System under the RIMS
(Records and Information Management System) software to assist in gauging results with part 1 crime,
and to move further with the AED program. Addressing the issue of so many new officers with less
experience, he noted turnover through retirement, resulting in lower seniority and experience; therefore,
staff was pursuing issues such as accident investigation team training, auto theft, hi -tech crime, field
evidence and working with the District Attorney and courts to get the patrol officers the type of training
they needed to maintain job skills and learn new ones.
With regard to Support Services, which was everyone else in the Police Department, Chief Rohrbacher
stated this represented quite a few units — Dispatch, Records, Property and Evidence, Business Office,
Investigations, Youth Services, Training and Personnel. Noting a mix of objectives for these work units,
he stated the department wished to use its own Records Management System to provide crime
statistics, whereas, before they counted on federal and state crime statistics that traditionally, were
approximately two years behind. With the Police Department's own Records Management System in
place since the beginning of 2003, staff could provide its own data on a daily basis.
Regarding new ventures, Chief Rohrbacher stated staff wanted to work on replacing the payroll
software system to incorporate payroll accounting, scheduling and time and activity. While he believed
this important he stated it was not as important as reduction in crime.
Noting the long time Property Clerk was retiring after 35 years of service, Chief Rohrbacher stated it
would be a chore to replace her.
Councilmember Heller inquired as to staffing, and noted she had not read about bank robberies
recently.
Chief Rohrbacher stated there had not been a bank robbery in a while and indicated that staff noted a
trend of bank robberies occurring Bay Area wide simultaneously. He reported that staffing remained
constant with some planned retirements and relocations; however, they endeavored to have
replacements ready. He noted replacement and learning the job took time and someone new would
not be working alone for approximately one year.
Councilmember Phillips inquired as to how police radios were working.
Chief Rohrbacher stated that the MERA system was working very well and San Rafael was happy to be
the first recipient of this; however, it would be enhanced when all agencies were using it.
Councilmember Heller inquired whether Fire and Public Works Departments used the MERA system.
Chief Rohrbacher stated that the Fire Department was going through the installation process currently
and Public Works had theirs installed concurrently with the Police Department.
Congratulating Police Chief Rohrbacher on a good job and referring to "Project Alert", Councilmember
Cohen stated that the feedback he received was that this was a much more effective program which
appeared to engage students more.
Regarding what was happening in the Marin County Sheriff's Department, Councilmember Cohen
stated he was pleased to note that even people raising concerns were quick to contrast the San Rafael
Police Department with remarks such as "we're not lumping everybody together because San Rafael
has got their act together, they are very respectful to people, they get there to get the job done and do it
in a respectful manner." Councilmember Cohen complimented Chief Rohrbacher and everyone in the
Police Department.
Chief Rohrbacher stated he was very proud of the program and the employees understood their jobs
so well, which he believed lent a lot to their confidence and ability to do their job and he was proud of
the Police Department's record in terms of service and lack of complaints.
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Referring to the Police Department Objectives — Maintain current levels of service with even further
reduced resources — regarding Community Policing, Councilmember Cohen noted a conscious decision
was made to cut the officer dedicated to that; however, with turnover in the department he believed staff
had to work at creating and maintaining a culture that this was critical and important to the department.
Suggesting that perhaps technology could be used, he noted an e-mail beat box on beat 1 appeared to
be very effective.
Chief Rohrbacher stated there were beat mailboxes on every beat; however, he believed a lot of the
success with community policing under retired Sergeant Jim Kelly was the face time involved.
Indicating that staffing was not available to dedicate to this, he stated that should more staffing be
available it would be necessary to fill in the beat structure first. Chief Rohrbacher stated he looked at
this as a means of re -introducing officers to the neighborhoods which was his reason for starting the
letter -writing campaign last September, and repeated in March, bringing officers to those meetings. He
indicated that this worked so well that for tomorrow evening's meeting the officers were invited in place
of him (Chief Rohrbacher).
Councilmember Cohen commented that he had to read through the material twice to convince himself
that the word radio was not included, which was a wonderful thing.
Mayor Boro stated that the almost complete void of citizens' complaints was a tremendous compliment
to the Police Department leadership, command staff and men and women on how they comport
themselves.
Mayor Boro stated he also admired the aggressive use of technology which aided the job.
Lastly, Mayor Boro personally thanked Police Chief Rohrbacher for the work he had done to date and
especially his personal involvement in getting out to the community, from the letters he had written to
the visits made. He recalled accompanying Chief Rohrbacher to see some troops off to Iraq and
thanked him for being out in the community.
Public Works —
Public Works Director Andy Preston stated he had one of the most exciting and rewarding jobs in the
City because he got to build stuff — all he had to say to Mr. Nordhoff, Mr. Gould and the City Council
was "you give me the money and / will build it for you. "
Mr. Preston reviewed the following projects completed in the past two years:
• Design and bidding of the entire Pickleweed project was completed in one year, noting the best
prices were obtained of any other jurisdiction in Marin County.
• Third & C Street Parking garage completed. Even though the first contractor went bankrupt on
the project with a ten month delay, he believed the end result was one of the best looking
parking garages in the City. Of note was the less than 4% contingencies on the project even
with the delay.
• Caltrans design flaws in the North Francisco Pump station corrected and working 100% with no
down time or flooding this year due to storms in the San Rafael area.
• Grant secured for the Fifth Avenue Bicycle and Pedestrian Path on the fourth application from
the TLC Funding for $220,000. This project was now under design.
• Rare grant for the Dominican/Black Canyon landscaping for planting trees along Belle Avenue —
approximately $220,000.
• Worked with the Sun Valley School District and designed a complete new storm drainage
system to alleviate flooding problems.
• Several park projects completed all of which now had compliant play equipment, which is
reviewed, maintained and inspected on a monthly basis.
• Funding received for the Medway/Canal Undergrounding project.
• Traffic Engineer completed East San Rafael Phase III improvements at Bellam, bringing all of
the traffic improvements in the Bellam/Francisco area loop to a conclusion.
Mr. Preston reviewed projects going forward:
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• Managing the Pickleweed Community Center project and gymnasium. An aggressive contractor
was working on this project with two very aggressive female engineers monitoring every move.
Scheduled completion April 2006.
• Working with Caltrans and commencing construction work on the San Francisco Boulevard
Undergrounding District in January 2006. A co-op agreement would be presented to Council for
review and approval at the next City Council meeting.
• Continuing with traffic modeling of different areas in the City to maximize capacity and develop
mitigation projects accordingly.
• Seeking grants in accordance with Council's five-year goals — Fourth Street Rehabilitation,
Medway/Canal, Bay Trail and Bicycle and Pedestrian Masterplan. Funding not available
currently for the Bicycle and Pedestrian Masterplan.
• Ensuring compliance with the Department of Justice Settlement Agreement. All new CIPs
designed are completely compliant with related ADA issues and are reviewed by a consultant
before going out to bid.
• Downtown plaza — railing retrofit and reduction in ramps that are slightly out of compliance.
• Curb ramp project — 700 ramps due in ten years. Staff anticipated doing 70 per year over the
ten year period at a cost of at least $200,000. Working with Community Services on the Sun
Valley Park bathrooms and access ramps.
• Storm drain assessment of the deteriorating and decaying storm drains in the City, many of
which are over 100 years old. At least ten miles of corrugated metal pipe have no bottoms and
need some type of replacement. An assessment needs to be done in the first instance to come
up with some type of future funding.
• Working and collaborating with TAM (Transportation Authority of Marin), SMART (Sonoma/Marin
Area Rail Transit) and Caltrans with the HOV project and its development through San Rafael,
especially concentrating on the Puerto Suello/Lincoln Avenue bike path. Noting this started off
very poorly, Mr. Preston was pleased to report making headway with it.
Regarding the Street Maintenance Major Program — Maintenance on Roadways and Annual Street
Resurfacing - Mr. Preston stated that unfortunately, with available funds that performance measure had
now dropped down to four miles of streets being overlaid per year. With 176 miles of streets, this had
now dropped down to a forty-four year cycle for repaving the streets in San Rafael. He noted that a
street has a design life of twenty years after which it turns to dust; therefore, he needed a minimum of
$2 million yearly to maintain the status quo. This would not improve the overall condition, rather
maintain it as is.
Councilmember Cohen expressed thanks to Mr. Preston for sticking with the Bike Path project and he
was pleased to hear of the progress. With no roadway solution, using this north/south connector for
bicycles he believed was key.
Councilmember Cohen inquired as to the status of (traffic signal) countdown heads.
Mr. Preston reported that Traffic Engineer Nader Mansourian had gone out for grant funding to obtain
more countdown heads; however, there were far more applicants for the grants than money available.
He believed he could secure approximately $180,000 which was probably only about one-third of the
funds required for that program. He stated staff would reduce the scope of work and go out again in the
next year.
Councilmember Cohen stated he was glad to see these countdown heads being implemented
Mayor Boro expressed the hope that collectively or individually between Mr. Preston, Ms. Mackle, Mr.
Nordhoff and Mr. Brown, someone would take the beautiful garage and enter it in some type of national
contest where awards are given for design, etc. He believed it was a beautiful site and deserved the
recognition.
Mr. Preston stated that when Richard Landis returned from his European vacation he would make it one
of his goals.
Regarding the Bicycle Path, Mayor Boro inquired whether Mr. Preston was the key person for the City
on this issue. Mr. Preston responded affirmatively. Mayor Boro stated he wished to have a discussion
with Mr. Preston concerning where the path needed to go in relationship to the proposed wall from
Caltrans versus the need for its relocation. Mr. Preston stated he could answer this question tomorrow.
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Mayor Boro stated that apparently HUD (Housing and Urban Development) funding was now under a
different jurisdiction - TTHUD (Transportation, Treasury, Housing and Urban Development) money now
available — HUD money that could be used for road construction — and he would discuss this with
Mr.Gould.
Expressing thanks, Mayor Boro stated that Mr. Preston and his department had taken tremendous cuts;
however, continued to provide a great level of service and maintain City assets.
Councilmember Heller inquired as to the status of grants for the Fourth Street Rehabilitation, and E
Street to H Street which desperately needed repaving.
Regarding Fourth Street, Mr. Preston stated that $400,000 had been received from the TEA
(Transportation Enhancement Act) funding and was approved by the TAM board last week. He
indicated there was now $1.4 million for the project and he was proposing to use some of the Measure
A funds to complete funding of the project. He confirmed this would include gutting the entire roadway
from back of sidewalk to back of sidewalk and doing everything correctly. He noted that all of the liquid
amber trees would have to be harvested and replaced with a more suitable type of tree with conduit in
the ground for twinkle lights to be fitted at a later stage.
Referring to the schedule on Page 7 which identified figures for Public Works of $9 million for 2004-
2005, $10 million for 2005-2006 and $11 million in 2006-2007, Councilmember Phillips inquired as to
why it was going up $1 million per year.
Mr. Preston stated he would have to defer to Mr. Nordhoff, noting the size of the department was not
being increased, rather they were two positions down. He stated there was the addition of the position
from Community Development — Land Development Engineer — which was now shown on Public
Works' budget. He added that two engineers previously paid from the parking garage funds were now
included in the Public Works Budget. Mr. Preston stated there also had been an increase in the San
Rafael Sanitation District budget which was part of the Public Works budget also.
Councilmember Phillips agreed with Mr. Preston that it appeared to be a lot of money and while he
believed it was appropriate, prior to the meeting of June 20th he would like to understand it a little better.
Mr. Gould stated that even though staff was calling for stable funding for the next fiscal year, he
believed it was evident from all the departments' presentations it would not be a static year for San
Rafael, and every department was looking to improve services, quality of life and safety in San Rafael .
He was very proud of the Department Directors for putting these initiatives forward and he commented
that they would be held to them.
3. NEW SERVICE REQUESTS —
Mr. Gould stated that of the eleven departments, only three had the temerity to bring New Service
Requests forward while the City faces a $3 million deficit.
Community Development: -
Mr. Gould stated there were nine different requests being made for projects and activities suggested in
General Plan 2020, and while all were worthy, good and would help the community, none came with a
separate funding source; therefore, would require general funding, none had to do with the health and
safety of the community and none jeopardized a grant opportunity or some other funding opportunity.
Mr. Brown stated staff could not recommend funding any of these and it was made clear during General
Plan 2020 that all of these initiatives would have to wait for new funding. Should Council wish to
discuss any one of these projects, Mr. Brown was present.
Mayor Boro inquired as to the issue with respect to Hillside Design Guidelines. Mr. Brown stated they
were a number of years old and explained that the Design Review Board had seen a couple of projects
and suggested that the design guidelines be re-examined. He believed the DRB felt them too
prescriptive in many ways and staff believed that in situations where homes were built prior to the
hillside guidelines, the additions of those homes subject to the guidelines became very problematic.
Personally, Mr. Brown believed the guidelines had done the City a great service and reduced a lot of the
controversy in the community. While not perfect, he believed they had taken the City a long way.
Regarding the Historical Building Inventory, Mayor Boro inquired whether with minimal oversight an
intern could be attracted to help. Mr. Brown stated there was a lot of interest from members of the
public who would like to volunteer; however, unfortunately, to make the effort productive it would be
necessary to have the oversight of someone very familiar with the Secretary of the Interior guidelines,
who knew how to train people on research techniques, who could do good quality control, and lastly on
getting the inventory, who could help evaluate which buildings were appropriate to preserve and which
were not.
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Mr. Brown stated he had talked to a number of consultants who did this type of work, as well as a
number of cities, and frankly the best way was to have consultants do it all, because the quality was
assured. However, other cities had used consultants to oversee a volunteer effort, such as St. Helena
most recently, and these had been reasonably good efforts. He confirmed for Mayor Boro that it still
needed someone with that expertise.
Library -
Mr. Gould stated that Library Director David Dodd had brought forward a number of New Service
Requests, many of which had alternative funding sources and merited the Council's closest
consideration.
Bi -lingual librarian — Mr. Gould stated this was promised as part of the grant application for $1.3
million from the state and was necessary to perform on; therefore, it was built into the budget.
Councilmember Heller stated that when this was discussed previously, it was stated that it would
be difficult to find someone to fill the position. Mr. Dodd stated that part of the strategy was to go
out early in the year with an eye towards not hiring the person until January which would buy
time and comply with the state requirements. He stated that the State required the position be
online three months into construction, which would be July, which staff did not wish to do. He
indicated this was a way of beginning the process, showing good faith towards hiring the
position, still getting the person on in plenty of time to learn the ropes, build the collection and
make the community contacts.
Mr. Gould stated Mr. Dodd listed some of the many inadequacies of the current building;
therefore, staff requested that Council permit them to dip into the Davidson Bequest monies up
to $150,000 to do some of the deferred maintenance critical for the library, until a new building
was achieved.
Literacy Program: Mr. Gould stated that for a number of years the Literacy Program, largely run
through grants, had positioned itself to become integral to the library, using it as its central
location with most of its services emanating from the library. He noted the retirement of the two
co -directors who had been working on contract for some years without benefits and the thought
was that to sustain the literacy program it would be necessary to go to one position instead of
two; however, this should be a paid position with benefits, with the costs being split between the
County and City.
Mr. Gould stated that these requests had always been pushed off because the desire was to try
to fund the primary library service to the best possible level, and since hours and staffing were
being cut back it seemed difficult to discuss absorbing any portion of the literacy program. He
indicated that staff recommended as a step in the right direction that Council pick up half of the
benefits cost of this new director's position, which in the first fiscal year would be approximately
$7,000 and the second $14,500. Mr. Gould stated this would recognize that literacy was indeed
integral to the services provided by the library, noting many were aware of the tremendous
benefits people achieved through gaining literary; therefore, staff recommended this as an add
item.
Temporary help: Mr. Gould stated that the library, due to its staffing, was very dependent on
temporary employees (on-call employees) and Mr. Dodd wished to use funds from the
Transaction Based Reimbursement received from the state to pay for the on-call people that
make the schedule work. Mr. Gould stated there was no effect on the General Fund for doing
this.
Charging for the Use of Audio-visual material: Mr. Gould noted the City had done this for many
years, resulting in the building of a beautiful collection and generating over $60,000 annually.
The problem, however, was that San Rafael was alone in Marin County in charging for this
material and Mr. Dodd believed that as part of running a free library, the City should lend those
materials on a free basis also. Mr. Gould stated that pursuant to investigation by the City
Attorney's office, there was nothing to prohibit San Rafael from continuing to charge; however,
Mr. Dodd believed that if the City conformed with the practice of the other libraries in Marin
County by lending these materials for free, the City would achieve Transaction Based
Reimbursement funds of approximately the same amount. Mr. Gould stated he recommended
this based on the new information on the transaction based reimbursements from the state.
As he was unsure of how much state reimbursement would be received, Mr. Gould suggested
that Council could experiment with lending the video tapes and music CDs, for free, and monitor
how much reimbursement was returned before lending the entire AV collection this way. Mr.
Gould stated he was satisfied that this was a reasonable risk as if the City did not receive a
100% dollar for dollar reimbursement from the state, the library would not purchase that many
new AV materials.
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Councilmember Heller inquired as to how firm the funding was.
Mr. Dodd stated that anything from the state could disappear. He noted that in the current
Governor's May Revise it had not been touched for the coming year; therefore, he believed it
would be good for at least another year. Mr. Dodd stated that the entire library community
rallied around this year after year.
Responding to Mayor Boro's question as to whether there were complaints about charging, Mr.
Dodd stated he receives a number of complaints, although not excessive. He commented that
over the years patrons had been trained not to complain.
Mayor Boro stated the flip side was to ensure the funding was received as the caliber of the
collection was very good and he would not wish to sacrifice it. Keeping it revenue neutral and
sustaining the collection was great; however, should the collection be jeopardized, he favored
going back.
Councilmember Cohen stated that eliminating the fee base and then restoring it should the
funding go away would generate complaints from everyone using the service. He believed there
was some potential downside and while he was not opposed to it, he was a little concerned. Mr.
Dodd commented that it would solve Councilmember Cohen's problem of not being able to
reserve a DVD.
Mr. Gould confirmed Council's direction was to ease into it.
Police Department -
AEDs - Mr. Gould stated that the Police Department had been pretty successful in getting individual
grants and funding to purchase a certain number of AEDs (Automatic External Defibrillators) to place in
patrol cars to provide another response alternative to heart attacks. He stated the thought was that this
program had really proven itself and to cement it, it would be necessary to obtain a further eleven
devices, which would make the most efficient use of the training provided for all police personnel in the
use of these devices. Mr. Gould stated this was a one-time cost of $34,000 and staff recommended it
as an enhancement of service and good investment in the safety of the community.
Mr. Gould stated that the Police Department had bundled together a number of the regulatory services
provided as regards burglar alarms, massage permits, firearms and solicitations, and staff hoped to
offset the cost of the enforcement officers (two half-time positions) with the fees collected through
permits, renewals and penalties. There would be no impact on the General Fund; it would be started
and if it did not look like it was paying for itself, staff would return to Council to make a change.
Mr. Gould thanked the City Council for the long meeting tonight, their attention to the finances, goals
and objectives and new service requests and staff appreciated the direction received.
Addressing Department Directors, Mayor Boro stated that he, like a lot of others present, attends a lot of
public meetings and interacts with a lot of public officials and he was so proud of and pleased with San
Rafael staff.
There being no further business, the Special Meeting of the San Rafael City Council and
Redevelopment Agency was adjourned at 10:00 p.m.
JEANNE M. LEONCINI, CITY CLERK /AGENCY SECRETARY
APPROVED THIS DAY OF
MAYOR OF THE CITY OF SAN RAFAEL
, 2006
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