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HomeMy WebLinkAboutSPCC Minutes 1992-03-31SRRA/SRCC MINUTES (Special-H/H) 3/31/92 Page 1 IN THE COUNCIL CHAMBERS OF THE CITY OF SAN RAFAEL, TUESDAY, MARCH 31, 1992, AT 7:00 PM Special Joint Meeting: Present:Albert J. Boro, Chairman/Mayor San Rafael Redevelopment Agency/ Dorothy L. Breiner, Member/Councilmember San Rafael City Council Paul M. Cohen, Member/Councilmember Michael A. Shippey, Member/Councilmember Joan Thayer, Member/Councilmember Absent: None Also Present: Pamela J. Nicolai, Executive Director/City Manager Gary T. Ragghianti, Agency Attorney/City Attorney Jeanne M. Leoncini, Agency Secretary/City Clerk SPECIAL MEETING ON THE HUGHES, HEISS & ASSOCIATES' EFFICIENCY STUDY OF CITY OPERATIONS, TO DISCUSS THE FOLLOWING DEPARTMENTS: (CM) - File 4-3-240 x (SRRA) R-140 No. 7 a. FIRE b. RECREATION C. PUBLIC WORKS - PARKS d. FINANCE e. DATA PROCESSING f. REDEVELOPMENT Mayor Boro briefly explained the format for this meeting. City Manager Nicolai gave a brief summary on the Hughes, Heiss report and its background. Fire Chief Marcucci gave an explanation of their staff report, including the impact of Proposition 13 on their staffing. He explained that the Paramedic program is the only one in Marin County that does not have a 40 hour per week Administrator, noting this function has been delegated to the Training Officer, along with other collateral duties. He stated he has a concern about the staff needed and upgrading of the stations and equipment, stating Proposition 13 has had a major affect on this, as well as other economic constraints on the City. With regard to communications, Chief Marcucci indicated there have been several meetings with the Firefighters' Association and management. He stated these meetings will be on a monthly basis to clarify issues and develop a cooperative environment. Chief Marcucci summarized the report by saying the Department has put some of the recommendations into effect and will do more on an ongoing basis. Councilmember Cohen asked Chief Marcucci to explain the letter from the San Rafael Fire- fighters' Association on March 16, 1992, raising the issue of overtime vs. filling vacant positions. City Manager Nicolai explained this will be addressed as part of the budget process. Mr. Cohen suggested that the money saved from this could be used to put into affect some of the recommendations made by the study. Councilmember Thayer asked about the problem of longer response time to the North San Rafael area by the Paramedics, because the units are in South San Rafael. She stated that one of the suggestions was to convert two of the stations in the northern part of San Rafael into a Paramedic unit which she thought made more sense because more time was being used on paramedic calls than on actual fire calls. Chief Marcucci stated Mrs. Thayer was correct with regard to the response time, but the trade-off in closing a station, with regard to cost, was not very effective. He stated that keeping in mind the mutual aid agreement with Marinwood Fire Department, closing a station in that area and converting it to a Paramedic unit would be difficult. He stated the fire units have a difficult time responding to either the southern or northern ends of the City at certain times of the day because of the traffic congestion. Mrs. Thayer asked if Chief Marcucci had a long term plan developed in case the demographics change. Chief Marcucci stated they did have a plan but they needed to be more concerned about the unavailability rate of the Paramedic unit. He stated as this rate starts to climb to around 10o they need to take a hard look at the types of calls being responded to and make the determination of putting another Paramedic unit on, or a combined Engine Company, Paramedic unit type of arrangement. Mr. Richard Brady, President, Hughes, Heiss & Associates, stated that while the report did identify that there is a one minute level of difference for Paramedic calls between the Northern and Southern portions of the City, it was important to recognize that City-wide, the service levels received are well within the guidelines established by Marin County and common guidelines for advanced life-support types of calls throughout the Nation. SRRA/SRCC MINUTES (Special-H/H) 3/31/92 Page 1 SRRA/SRCC MINUTES (Special-H/H) 3/31/92 Page 2 Councilmember Thayer asked what could be done to build up the fire inspection function. Chief Marcucci responded that the Department has put together a very comprehensive program for this function. He stated they had surveyed department employees and were attempting to resolve any problems with this program. Councilmember Thayer commended all the firefighters for their excellent service to the City and stated her concern about the morale issues in the Department. She felt this was caused, in part, by the lack of communication due to the current management structure. She stated she would like to see a long range plan developed and accepted by all employees in the Department for the communication problems. Chief Marcucci responded management has tried to have meetings with the Firefighters' Association, but with very little results. He stated their department is also facing the social issues which were brought out in the March 30, 1992 meeting. He stated, for example, the Paramedics have transported one individual to the hospital 17 times in the last five days. He stated management will work with the Association, but he felt they needed the increased staff in mid -management. Mrs. Thayer stated she agreed with the need to increase the staff within the Division Chief structure. Mayor Boro stated the Council would be looking at the various suggestions within the Hughes, Heiss report at the next meeting, Wednesday, April 8, 1992, to begin the decision making process in order to give some direction to department heads so they will have information to assist them in the budget process. Councilmember Breiner requested a meeting with Chief Marcucci to discuss the fire inspection issue at another time. Chief Marcucci agreed. He stated there was a perception throughout the Firefighters that they are in a police officer status while making fire inspections. He stated he did not totally agree with this. Councilmember Shippey stated he appreciated where the Chief has stressed the Department has been innovative for the past few years. He stated he felt the 38% increase in medical calls will probably only get worse, which was one reason he was interested in getting another Paramedic unit. He stated until the medical insurance problem can be resolved, more people will be using the Fire Department to take care of their medical problems and transport them to the hospital. He stated the first alternative they were given to do this included relocating and consolidating Stations 3 and 7, and converting one company into a two -person Paramedic unit, which was rejected on the basis of cost. He stated he felt the second alternative was more feasible. This included converting one station's engine company to a Paramedic engine company. He asked for an explanation on this from the Chief. Chief Marcucci agreed that this was an alternative which was being used by many departments. However, this would involve training needed which would take employees away from service. He also stated he had a concern about cost. Mr. Shippey stated he still felt the second alternative should be used. Mr. Brady stated the conversion of a station to a Paramedic unit still had the problem of how to transport someone who needs to go to the hospital. He stated there would be private ambulance companies involved, with Paramedics going with the patient to the hospital. Mr. Shippey stated there was an increase of senior citizens in the northern part of the City and a "baby boom" in the northern area, which indicate the need is higher at both ends of the City. Councilmember Shippey asked for information on the outreach program to non-English speaking citizens. Chief Marcucci stated there was a pilot program in progress where the Paramedics and two engine companies are being trained by the same instructor who taught the Police Department the same skill (Spanish). Councilmember Shippey asked for more information regarding the hazardous materials issue and asked if this has increased. Chief Marcucci answered negatively. He stated the Department was handling this very well and he did not see the need for additional resources at this time. With regard to the Paramedic issue, Mayor Boro stated that if a decision was made to expand the program they had to evaluate the level of service and if it is deficient then it needs to be addressed. He stated that if the levels of service begin to slip due to an increase in calls for service, then Council should go to the voters to fund this new unit. Mayor Boro stated he was able to attend the meetings between the Captains and the Chief, on all three shifts, where they discussed the issue of the wildfires and other basic issues within this one issue. He stated his concern about the need for a plan relating to the wildfire prevention issue. Mayor Boro stated his concern regarding the level of morale and communications being so low in the Department. He stated he felt Council needs to evaluate the need for additional staffing at the level being discussed, and whether this is the best way to solve this problem. He indicated communication should be two ways or there will be no results. SRRA/SRCC MINUTES (Special-H/H) 3/31/92 Page 2 SRRA/SRCC MINUTES (Special-H/H) 3/31/92 Page 3 Mayor Boro asked if the position is funded by the fees collected regarding hazardous waste inspections. Chief Marcucci answered affirmatively. Mayor Boro referred to Page 4 of the staff report, "Field Allocation Time", and asked Chief Marcucci to explain this. Chief Marcucci explained the Captains have been advised that while on duty, they will do no administration work. He stated they are to be in the field with the crew doing miscellaneous duties. He stated the administrative work is to be done the next day. He stated the Division Chiefs come in to do this work on their days off, and the Department has already started getting these managers out in the field more with their crews. Councilmember Breiner asked about the recommendation for a series of retreats and if the Chief is thinking about doing this. Chief Marcucci stated he planned to have more meetings with the Association to find out how they wanted to deal with the retreat idea and then go ahead with this program. Councilmember Breiner stated that on Page 6 of the main report it appears Station 7 has many more training hours per person than any of the other stations. She asked if this was due to lower emergency traffic from this station. She inquired if they could rotate employees through Station 7 to get more training. Chief Marcucci answered they did not have a rotation policy like this; employees transfer at their own request. Mrs. Breiner asked if the Company Inspections were triggered by changes in occupancy. Chief Marcucci answered negatively. He stated they use the Business License file to determine this. Bob Parr, representative of the Firefighters Association, presented their board's findings on the Hughes, Heiss report. He stated there was an overall positive, but mixed reaction to its contents. He noted they felt a need to explore other alternatives to the conclusions and recommendations made by Hughes, Heiss. He then proceeded to discuss the eight options listed in the letter he was presenting from the Association. Councilmember Cohen asked Mr. Parr if the Association had any comment on the response time issue. Mr. Parr clarified that he was referring to the Paramedic issue. He stated they made no comment on this because it was covered in the study. He stated the one thing they did not look at was the potential build-up on the St. Vincent's/Silveira property in population growth. He also noted the Marinwood area was not figured into the Paramedic program either. He stated these issues do need to be addressed, but were understandably not addressed in the Hughes, Heiss study. Councilmember Shippey stated he was pleased to see that the Firefighters were keeping the budgetary issues in mind in their letter. Councilmember Cohen stated he supported making the recommendations from Hughes, Heiss on retreats and/or workshops a part of the budget process. Mayor Boro stated this would be addressed in the budget process after the conclusions were reached on the efficiency study. Recreation Director McNamee thanked the Recreation staff for their assistance in this project, as well as the Park and Recreation Commission. Ms. McNamee gave an explanation of her staff report, noting that the Child Care program is addressed minimally because it is so well run and there were no immediate problems which needed attention. She stated there were some statistics which were not put into this report, so comparisons of all the centers are not totally accurate. She explained the centers were serving very demographically different neighborhoods and different service needs. Ms. McNamee stated the consultants indicated a high cost recovery which she felt was due to the diligence and creativity of the Department. She noted that since Proposition 13 the Recreation Department has been most creative in achieving this 82%, not always by choice, but definitely as a credit to their skills and talent. Ms. McNamee then addressed the automation aspect of the Department. She stated there is a lot of data which goes through their Department and should be captured on an automated system. She indicated this would be helpful in gathering information for feedback to the City Council. She also noted there were many organizational/management issues addressed in the Hughes, Heiss report which were not a surprise to her. She stated they will be addressed. SRRA/SRCC MINUTES (Special-H/H) 3/31/92 Page 3 SRRA/SRCC MINUTES (Special-H/H) 3/31/92 Page 4 She stated there were many issues in dealing with the community needs, such as families, teenagers, Canal area, etc., which are addressed frequently in staff meetings in attempting to resolve these issues. However, they are not revenue generating issues. Ms. McNamee stated with regard to the recommendation to "go back to square one" and develop a Master Plan to address the schools, this has been looked at frequently and they have thought about restructuring it, but it works well in its present form. She then discussed the programs which were established and those that needed funding. She mentioned the after school program at Bahia Vista School, which is funded by Drug Asset Seizure money. She stated that their Department is one of the highest in the State in terms of cost recovery. She explained the programs in the Canal area are being put into effect, stating their Department was only one of the agencies contributing services to this area. She explained they were not in total agreement with the consultants' recommendations regarding reorganization which included having management staff by program or function, instead of at each Center. She stated this would limit them because they are very de- centralized and needed people in the other centers who could address the community needs, as well as manage the facilities. She stated they would look at some of the organizational questions raised about the duplication of some efforts but felt they really do coordinate well with their programs, resulting in efficiency in this area. Ms. McNamee responded to the issue of consolidation of the Library, Falkirk and Parks is to be deferred, which meets with the approval of her department. Ms. McNamee spoke to two miscellaneous items which were not part of the recommendations, but were addressed. She stated one was with regard to the allocation of the Recreation Director's time related to Park projects and the Recreation Department. The other was a suggestion to develop a non-profit organization to help with financial support and volunteers. She stated she agreed with this and thought it was a good idea. She noted the Parks and Recreation Commission members were in the audience and they had reviewed a portion of the study and will make their suggestions under the Parks section of this meeting. Mayor Boro commented on Page 3 of the report which ties into the funding issue, noting his concern was expectations vs. what can actually be delivered. He stated, for example, when the Canal Ministry might want to use the Center for certain programs, can this be blocked out to show they are not being charged, but are using a certain amount of time there. Ms. McNamee responded they would be looking into this with the agencies involved, both for the present and the future. She stated they have a revenue stream which they need to protect and there might be other ways to do these rentals, rather than within the traditional programs already in place. Mayor Boro asked Ms. McNamee to check on the impact of the void times on the Department's revenue. He then asked if Ms. McNamee would have an assessment on the two potential savings items she mentioned above, prior to budget time. She answered affirmatively. Mayor Boro asked about the recommendations on how the Director's time should be spent. City Manager Nicolai responded she felt it was necessary to answer the questions involved in this issue. Mr. Brady stated he did not feel it was inappropriate to have the person who is responsible for recreational programming to have lead responsibilities for Parks planning. He stated that with the Director having these responsibilities, this is one of the reasons why the consultants are urging consideration of a reorganization of responsibi- lities for the next level down so these people can assist with the management of the Department on a citywide basis, rather than on a Community Center basis. Mayor Boro then asked about the issue of non -profits and also the potential consolidation of Parks and Falkirk. He stated he supports the comment that these departments should not be combined, but after discussion with people at Falkirk he found there is a need for stronger coordination between Falkirk and Recreation. He stated the programs at Falkirk need to be advertised more widely and possibly using the Recreation Bulletin would help. He suggested when looking for grants, they look also for the programs at Falkirk, as well as the Recreation Department. Mayor Boro stated the real key to this is there should be a strong coordination between Falkirk and Recreation in how both areas can serve the community. Ms. Nicolai stated they had talked about using the Recreation Bulletin on a citywide basis. She stated that they needed to look at all parts of this and she felt the City probably could not handle two non-profit programs. She stated they needed to be careful about how much of a focus there would be with many non-profit areas. She noted there should be some balance within the non-profit area. Mayor Boro stated his main concern was that the non-profit areas do not start competing with each other. He stated there should be communication between the non-profit and grant making areas, however, and Ms. Nicolai agreed. SRRA/SRCC MINUTES (Special-H/H) 3/31/92 Page 4 SRRA/SRCC MINUTES (Special-H/H) 3/31/92 Page 5 Councilmember Breiner noted that she thought there would be people interested in supporting child care and the City might want to put together a non-profit for this. Ms. Nicolai stated there were unique grant funds only available for certain very specific categories. Mayor Boro reiterated that they should step back from the non-profit to see if there were other funds to assist in some of these programs being suggested. Councilmember Breiner stated that getting individual supervisors of the facilities to share more of the burden of responsibility from Ms. McNamee would be a great help in administering these programs. She suggested sending a survey out to the public in the Bulletin being put out by the Recreation Department. She asked with regard to the various age groups within a wide area of the City, how this was affecting the programs and the coordination of people using the facilities. Ms. McNamee stated there was a lot of overlap because some of the same classes are being offered in the various centers. She stated either the Department or the teachers choose which center they want to teach in. Councilmember Shippey stated his concern with regard to the use of Pickleweed Park being so low. He stated that every time he has visited the Center, it appears to be full and he questioned the statistics stating it was the lowest used Center. Ms. McNamee stated the statistics only took into consideration the classes the Recreation Department offers; any other programs were not included in these statistics. Mr. Shippey stated that possibly the programs should be restructured to bring more people into these Centers. Ms. Nicolai stated the Master Plan had more to do with the recommendation on the reorganization. She stated that the economic pressure for them to be responsible for self-supporting entities keeps them basically financially unable to look at a larger part of the organization. She stated half of the employees are funding their own positions. She stated the basic decision is should we create a larger general fund support to the Recreation Department, and have we gone beyond a boundary in generating fees where we have lost a few things: 1) They are not able to do programs in areas where the residents cannot pay for them; 2) They are not able to do programming city-wide that there should not be a fee charged, for instance having a parade or festival, etc.; 3) There is too much pressure on the staff to be fee -generating, that their ability to look at the bigger global issues is not possible because they do not have the time. Ms Nicolai stated these were all dollar issues, noting that it would be worth reviewing to come up with a plan to determine whether or not to continue this level of funding. She stated part of this money could become, for example, a scholarship fund and/or used in other areas besides Pickleweed, and then staff would have something to work toward. Mayor Boro stated this did not necessarily mean that there was no recovery rate at all. He stated he did agree with Councilmember Shippey with regard to Pickleweed Park that there are more people than is shown in the report, but this Center also offers fewer activities and serves fewer participants than the other community centers as far as the formal structured programs. Councilmember Shippey agreed and stated he was looking at this in a different way than Ms. Nicolai, and that maybe they needed to reorganize the program structure so it might be fee-based and still be cost -recovering to the same level or higher than it is now. Councilmember Thayer commended Ms. McNamee on her success with the fee -driven programs. She did state her concern with regard to the number of people involved in the programs that the City puts on in Pickleweed Center and believed that only 21%, according to the report, of the people of the Canal area are part of it. She asked if the programs could be restructured in a way that the fees to be paid by the participants are low, but that there is more of a volunteer commitment on the provider of those services. She noted that the Library has done well with volunteers in many areas. Ms. McNamee responded that it would be difficult to ask the traditional instructors to volunteer, but there were other areas open for volunteers. She stated they would be looking at using volunteers and possibly changing and/or adding programs in different areas, depending on the various cultures involved. Councilmember Thayer suggested making this a bilingual project, as well. Mrs. Thayer stated they were doing a great job with seniors and children in the Centers, but there was difficulty in structuring programs for teenagers. She stated that this group is an at risk group and maybe they could use low -paid providers or volunteers for these programs. Councilmember Cohen stated he agreed with spending more time on the Pickleweed issue. He stated he agreed with Mayor Boro in that the statistics are misleading on how well Pickleweed Center is being used. He noted that the 21% figure usage by Canal residents raises the possibility of relocating some of the classes that are offered there and shift some of the programs in Pickleweed to expand some of its use for that community. With regard to a Master Plan, he stated maybe they should focus on a plan for Pickleweed. He observed that according to the Council's response to this, some of this work has already been done and maybe they should revisit some of these studies. He stated it occurred to him that they are spending a lot of time and money on a Canal clean-up plan, and with this marvelous facility which offers some of the services which should tie in to some of the SRRA/SRCC MINUTES (Special-H/H) 3/31/92 Page 5 SRRA/SRCC MINUTES (Special-H/H) 3/31/92 Page 6 things being done in other areas, it made sense to look at Recreation as a component to this when they have a four -point plan where these other things are to be accomplished. He stated they really needed to look at drafting services for teenagers which can be folded into this plan; however, money will be a problem, but it will be for the entire plan, and there has already been a SRRA/SRCC MINUTES (Special-H/H) 3/31/92 Page 6 SRRA/SRCC MINUTES (Special-H/H) 3/31/92 Page 7 commitment to go ahead and do it because it needs to be done. He stated that by doing this, it might change the focus a bit and help them find funding. Ms McNamee stated the East San Rafael Neighborhood Task Force meeting last week had quite a few questions which were forwarded to her regarding Recreation. She noted one of her staff sits on this committee, as well as the Grass Roots Coalition in East San Rafael, the Canal Community Alliance and the Canal Ministry. She stated she felt the City cannot be asked to do it all because of the funding constraints. She stated they would be working with these agencies to leverage the services needed and not provide them all themselves. Ms. Nicolai commented that she agrees that the Canal has some unique issues. She stated, in her opinion, there probably is not another neighborhood where there are more groups attempting to address those needs. She stated that, for example, the Communities In Schools, which she is a board member, states there are many resources available to assist in the area. She stated that part of that effort was to make the school in the area a community facility and resource in bringing all kinds of services into the community. She stated she felt that as long as they were diligently coordinating with all the other providers, this should help the balance within the community. Councilmember Shippey stated the East San Rafael Neighborhood Task Force has been active with recreational programs, and the clean-up operation has been started in the Pickleweed area. Ms. McNamee stated they were going to be revitalizing the Pickleweed Park Advisory Board which was founded when Pickleweed was built, to look at use of facilities. She stated she has been meeting with them to reorganize this to include the Canal Ministry and Communities In Schools and all the organizations to bring forward an amendment to the MOU to outline this charge and amend it in early May. Councilmember Cohen stated that with regard to the automation issue, he supported making the facility available and encouraging other agencies to provide services there, but we need some way to evaluate the effectiveness of this, noting we need some way of tracking who should be using the facility and when it will be used, probably through automation. Mayor Boro stated there may be another policy or principal issue in this which is how the facilities are treated, which has been looked at as City-wide, not a neighborhood facility. He stated he felt they understood they have many tremendous needs in the area of Pickleweed Park Center, but he thought they should not isolate Pickleweed, as it would be a step backwards. Mr. Jim Burneo, Executive Secretary of M.A.P.E. Local 949, stated he recently had done an analysis of cost recovery in Sausalito which showed Sausalito was only recovering 30% in child care as opposed to San Rafael's 80% cost recovery. Mr. Burneo then discussed his concern about the Pickleweed Center. He stated Pickleweed seemed to be heavily used quite frequently. He noted this does not match the statistics in the Hughes, Heiss report. He stated the Union was aware of the fact that the Centers were built on a teamwork basis, where all the employees, directors to the custodian crew, work together very well and do cross over to other jobs. He stated he felt the City should not disrupt this kind of staffing pattern and it was very cost effective to have the employees cross-over to help with breaks and such. He indicated his concern that if they contract outside for custodial crews, this would disrupt the other cross-over, helpful method being utilized now. PUBLIC WORKS - PARKS Assistant Public Works Director Lloyd Strom, gave a brief summary of the report on the Public Works Department. Mr. Strom discussed Pages 2 and 3, Items E & F. He stated the Parks employees, upon reading this report, had some pretty strong reactions to the evaluation of the level of service or the general condition of the Parks. He stated they felt the consultant had rated them in much better condition than they actually were. He noted that this was a rather subjective evaluation, because the consultants visited only a small percentage of the sites. He stated when observing these parks there were two aspects which need to be perceived; 1) The surface structure, which is what the visitor sees when going to the parks. 2) The deep structure, which is the underlying structure of that park facility -irrigation systems, drainage, electrical and the general condition and health of the plants and trees, etc. He stated that over the years the park maintenance division has been stretched thinner and thinner, so that deep structure has suffered so the surface structure is kept looking good, but there are maintenance problems developing with irrigation systems, and other machinery, and it takes a lot to keep things looking good on the surface. Mr. Strom stated the maintenance workers are very dedicated to the parks, they see the parks as they know they could be instead of the present condition. SRRA/SRCC MINUTES (Special-H/H) 3/31/92 Page 7 SRRA/SRCC MINUTES (Special-H/H) 3/31/92 Page 8 Mr. Strom then discussed some particular recommendations - starting on Page 7 of the Public Works report, recommendation #1 g - having to do with the Assistant Parks Superintendent - is very interrelated to other recommendations which are Recommendation 4 on Page 9 - SRRA/SRCC MINUTES (Special-H/H) 3/31/92 Page 8 SRRA/SRCC MINUTES (Special-H/H) 3/31/92 Page 9 reorganization regarding the Parks Supervisors - Recommendation 17 on Page 12 - providing additional clerical help in the Maintenance Divisions - and Recommendation 18 on Page 12 - dealing with an automated maintenance management system. He then gave a brief summary of these items, as they are related to the Parks Division. Mr. Strom stated, in his opinion, some of the recommendations in the report probably need to be held in abeyance in terms of using them as a resource until such time as it would be appropriate to do a re-evaluation of the way the Department is organized. He stated a very important issue was that the Assistant Parks Superintendent now performs a lot of administrative work in working with the management system set up in the Parks Division which is now being operated manually. Much of the information collected over the years was a valuable resource to the consultants in doing their evaluation of the Department. He stated it needed to be recognized that if this position was eliminated, someone else would have to do this work or this resource would be lost. He stated an automated system would be very helpful and also some clerical help to do much of the work that the Assistant Parks Superintendent is doing at this time. He stated when looking at the above recommendations, they should be inter -connected when they are evaluated. Mr. Strom then discussed Item 2 on Page 7, regarding the reassignment of responsibility for maintenance of school district facilities to the School District. He noted this was agreed upon through the Redevelopment Agency many years ago; however, it was not as big a burden then as it is now, with employees getting stretched thinner and thinner. The next item was #2 b., the elimination of the tree nursery, which stated in the main report that the City was growing trees in the nursery, which was not true. He stated the tree nursery at Albert Park is basically a storage area. He stated the procedure for many years now has been that they buy trees in bulk from nurseries in Oregon where they are field grown, so when the trees are planted, they are mature specimens which take less work and are much healthier trees. Mr. Strom stated their position is this needs to be looked at more closely in terms of a cost benefit ratio. Mr. Strom then discussed the relationship with the Redevelopment Agency on the maintenance of the downtown facilities on Page 8, Items 2 c. and d, which are very closely inter- related. He stated the Agency does not have any facilities in the downtown, except for the blue house, which they own. He stated when they talked about Redevelopment facilities, this is actually many of the improvements which were constructed in the downtown with the Redevelopment Agency as a funding source. He noted the situation now is that the Redevelopment Agency, under Redevelopment law, can only fund maintenance which is over and above our normal maintenance for public facilities. He stated they are funding the equivalent of two positions. He stated what the consultant has essentially come up with is that the Agency is actually funding two positions, and yet what the analysis of the consultant revealed was that the amount of manpower that goes into maintaining the downtown area is much more than two positions. There is essentially the equivalent of about four man years that go into the maintenance of the downtown improvements, as well as the parking lots. He stated that part of the recommendation for additional reimbursement from the Redevelopment Agency may or may not be an option to the Department without looking into the legal ramifications of it. He suggested this be approached very cautiously. Mr. Strom then discussed Recommendation 3 a., Page 8, regarding the City's trees, stating that in the findings, basically the City's tree maintenance program, both for street trees as well as trees in parks, is way behind and the City is not catching up at all. The first recommendation in the Hughes, Heiss report is to request proposals and issue a formal contract for tree trimming services. However, all the tree trimming is presently being done on an emergency basis; there is not a tree trimming program now and they are funded only to the extent that they can manage emergency situations. He stated that part b. of this section states that they used to have three positions in the Parks Division that were exclusively dedicated to working with tree maintenance, and these positions have not been filled for the last two or three years. Mr. Strom stated essentially they were using this money to pay for the contractual services. He stated they have already included the recommendation to delete the tree trimming positions in the upcoming budget and put the money in as a contractual service. He stated they agree with the consultant completely that the right way to manage the trees is to have a program where they form a large Public Works contract for tree trimming at unit cost, etc., which estimate is approximately $200,000 a year. He stated that with the $40,000 or $50,000 which is being spent now, they are getting further and further behind every year. Mr. Strom stated another issue on which they have some disagreement with the consultants is the effective mix of Park maintenance staff and contractors for tree trimming. He stated one of the issues that was not clear when the consultant did their evaluation was that the Parks employees already do whatever tree trimming they can within the limits of their time and training, which involves a safety issue. Mr. Strom stated that in reviewing all the billings received from consultants, they tried to explain that these are all emergency callouts or the type of work that the Parks employees could not handle themselves. He stated they are limited with the present staffing, in terms of what we can do in working SRRA/SRCC MINUTES (Special-H/H) 3/31/92 Page 9 with the contractor. SRRA/SRCC MINUTES (Special-H/H) 3/31/92 Page 10 SRRA/SRCC MINUTES (Special-H/H) 3/31/92 Page 10 SRRA/SRCC MINUTES (Special-H/H) 3/31/92 Page 11 Mr. Strom noted that Item #5 relates to some of the older parks in that as the infrastructure begins to deteriorate, it increases the amount of maintenance required, therefore, they would agree with anything which would help in upgrading these old systems. He then addressed Item #6, Lighting and Landscaping District, which benefits specific property owners and staff agrees with this. Mr. Strom concluded by stating the five recommendations made by the Public Works Department will prove beneficial to the overall operation of the Department and, also, in the Parks Division. He noted this was especially true with the idea of the Geographical Information System they have been working on for a number of years, which should help manage the Park infrastructure and street trees. (Councilmember Breiner left meeting at 9:13 P.M.) Councilmember Thayer asked about the number of manhours proposed for the tree nursery and Mr. Strom answered 2/3rds of a person -year was the figure. Mrs. Thayer voiced concern with regard to purchasing healthier trees, stating she felt staff could not maintain the trees which are already in existence. Mr. Strom stated this program was probably one of the most vulnerable in the Department's budget now and given the budgetary constraints they may not have a tree nursery at all. He suggested this be looked at more closely before a decision is made for this tree procedure. Ms. Nicolai stated when they could not fill the positions in the City's tree crew, they started dealing with emergency tree response and it was very difficult to come up with a scope of work to go out bid. Hughes, Heiss recommended they go to some type of bid process, and she agreed with this recommendation. Councilmember Thayer stated her concern with regard to the amount of turf which the City is now maintaining, especially on the islands and parkettes. Ms. Nicolai suggested the City's various homeowners' associations could take over the care of the entries to their neighborhoods for example, by creating a little Landscape and Lighting District Act to maintain them or use volunteers to mow the grass, etc., on the parkettes especially. Mr. Strom stated that within the current budget process, they were working with the Parks Department in installing a data base to evaluate the turf and manhours, etc. Councilmember Shippey stated he would like to see a long-term plan to install equipment to irrigate parks with reclaimed water. Mr. Strom responded that Ms. McNamee is already working with a consultant to get a proposal for a new irrigation system at Oleander Park. He stated that if they were to use reclaimed water, they essentially would have to reconstruct the irrigation systems and much of this is dependent on where the reclaimed water is available. Mayor Boro asked if trees from the tree nursery were sold to the public and planted for them with any type of fee arrangement. Mr. Strom responded they do not do this on private property. Mayor Boro asked if Mr. Strom had regular liaison with the Parks and Recreation Commission and wanted to know how this works. Mr. Strom responded the Director usually handles this liaison with the Commission, and also the Parks Superintendent has attended the Commission meetings. Mayor Boro then asked if the increase of $220,000 for tree trimming is over and above the emergency work? Mr. Goelitz stated the City is spending approximately $175,000 a year on emergency work and the $220,000 would be above and beyond that. Mr. Goelitz stated that long-term if the City started to maintain the trees, including street trees with this $220,000, the extent of emergency work would, in the long term, drop down. Ms. Nicolai stated that in the body of the report the consultants were actually recommending $550,000, and in the Executive Summary suggested at least using $220,000. Mr. Goelitz then responded that they suggested two alternatives, one of which was to thin the trees and raise them for traffic clearance, which is the highest level of service and the most desirable level of service. He stated the next level of service is the one that protects the City from a litigation perspective and that is raising the trees solely for traffic clearance and removing any tree limbs which might pose a potential hazard, and this is the minimum level of service the consultants were suggesting. Jim Burneo, representative of M.A.P.E., stated with regard to the improvements needed at Pickleweed and Oleander Parks that they are in a developmental phase which might explain their present appearance. He stated the Union had no opposition to the elimination of the tree nursery, even though there is 2/3rds of a person -year attached to this. He felt it SRRA/SRCC MINUTES (Special-H/H) 3/31/92 Page 11 SRRA/SRCC MINUTES (Special-H/H) 3/31/92 Page 12 was a policy decision for the Council. Mr. Burneo stated in terms of reimbursement from the SRRA/SRCC MINUTES (Special-H/H) 3/31/92 Page 12 SRRA/SRCC MINUTES (Special-H/H) 3/31/92 Page 13 Redevelopment Agency and other special districts and neighborhood districts, the Union did submit to management on March 16, 1992 a whole series of areas where additional claims could be made on special district funds to help offset some of the costs and maintenance for these parks. He suggested the Department Head and City Manager take a good look at this in terms of the budget preparation. Mr. Burneo stated the Union was not opposed to contracting out for the tree trimming because they realize there has been a problem getting these positions filled. He stated they were opposed, however, to any kind of concept of mixing the Park maintenance staff with the tree trimming, for safety reasons. He noted the risk of injury was just too high. Mr. Burneo stated with regard to the current staffing and organization of staffing, including the Assistant Superintendent and the supervisory levels, etc., this was part and parcel of a very careful analysis of just a few short years ago and they knew of no required substantive changes in the Department or in the needs of the City and they strongly oppose any changes in those classification structures or systems. Patrick Webb, Chairman of the Park and Recreation Commission, explained the integration they have within the Parks Division and the Recreation Division. He stated when the consultants' report came out on February 20, 1992 they had a meeting prior to the release of the report in which they looked at certain issues, and held meetings with other groups. He stated the report presented by Mr. Strom were worthy of discussion. He stated he was still a little disappointed with the discussions they had with the staff members in that there was a lot of information presented to the consultants and not brought back into the report. He stated that some of the difficulties in communications and explaining issues as to what the tree nursery really does and what peoples' positions really are were brought up with the consultant, but possibly due to time constraints, etc., these were not put back into the report. Mayor Boro asked if this was the "pros and cons" of the tree nursery in particular. Mr. Bernardi stated on the subject of planting the trees, as opposed to not planting them, they would have a better success rate if the trees are more developed than the smaller ones and this would be more cost effective. Finance Finance Director Coleman stated his concern with regard to computer equipment needed in the Finance Department and the lack of funds for this. Mr. Coleman stated he fully supported the proposed reorganization. He stated he thought it was a good idea to have the purchasing function as part of Finance Department, noting that Purchasing has always been a controversial subject here in the City and there will be a lot of work involved in defining the role of Purchasing Agent, as well as revising the Purchasing Ordinance and changing the Charter to increase the limit for bidding. He stated part of the additional Code Enforcement Officer function should be transferred to Finance. He stated this individual was originally hired to work on Business License activities and now it might be appropriate to use this person for this activity, as well as other revenue items suggested in the Hughes, Heiss report. Mr. Coleman stated with regard to the City's financial condition, Finance has been able to balance the budget to generally maintain a fair to good level of service in the City, even though they have never had much discretionary money. He noted that, except for the current recession, the fund balances have been adequate. He stated that as pointed out in his staff report, it is a little misleading to look at these things on a year to year basis because in one case, for example, where there was a large decline this past year, some of this can be explained by the fact that some of the major capital projects sometimes get rebudgeted in the following year. He stated it was also somewhat misleading to attempt to compare revenues and expenditures because the five-year frames that are talked about in both cases differ by one year, so when discussing increases in revenues vs. increases in expenditures it may not necessarily be the same five year period of time. He noted the expenditures have been growing somewhat faster than the revenues, but not quite as dramatically as indicated in the report. Mr. Coleman noted that, except for the Recession, the budget has been on a fairly even "keel" in providing a fairly even level of service. He then discussed the Five -Year Plan, noting he does support this and noted staff should be looking at some long-range goals and priorities and try to pull all these together in one decision-making process, noting it would require input from a lot of areas. He stated it has taken quite a lot of time to develop a long-range plan for the computer SRRA/SRCC MINUTES (Special-H/H) 3/31/92 Page 13 applications. SRRA/SRCC MINUTES (Special-H/H) 3/31/92 Page 14 SRRA/SRCC MINUTES (Special-H/H) 3/31/92 Page 14 SRRA/SRCC MINUTES (Special-H/H) 3/31/92 Page 15 He also stated, in his opinion, that they should not be relying on long-range expenditures and revenue estimates. He stated they should be very careful and use these as a guide and not rely specifically on them. Mr. Coleman commented on the efficiency issues in the report. He stated they have been working to simplify some of the accounts payable processing and working on some additional computerization of the accounts payable process which will involve not only the Finance Department, but other Departments. He noted some of the miscellaneous items listed in this category, in his opinion, would not have a significant impact on time or money as far as the City is concerned. For example, he stated he did not know if a reduction or change in the number of petty cash accounts would have any significant impact. He stated many of these are basically convenience items and probably very small amounts. He stated under the miscellaneous items, bounced checks up to $3,000 are usually recovered, and agreed with the policy of having the departments who had the initial contact with the culprit handle the item. Mayor Boro discussed the Five -Year Plan the time period this will take due to the possibility of going to the voters to possibly increase taxes. He stated, in his opinion, the Five -Year Plan is not that difficult to do software -wise and asked what the restraints were on it. Mr. Coleman stated that in his opinion, just putting together where the priorities are and what things should be considered as far as the Five Year Plan would take some time. Ms. Nicolai stated it was not the revenue which was the problem, but that it was a mechanical thing. She stated the requests from Council during these meetings needed to be prioritized and sorted into a plan. Mayor Boro then clarified that the City Council needed to come to some agreement as to what their priorities are, put those into the five- year cycle and then go to the voters. Mayor Boro then asked about whether or not there was a large amount of revenue not received because people are not paying their traffic citations. Mr. Coleman answered they could have a higher rate of recovery, noting that a lien is placed on vehicles owned by non - payers of citations through the DMV (Department of Motor Vehicles). He noted there are some problems with this such as if the vehicle is rented, out -of -State or the vehicle has been sold in the interim. He stated there are many vehicles which are not registered and to catch these vehicles they need to have more enforcement in terms of having the Meter Enforcement Officers identify these vehicles and either "boot" or tow the vehicle so the owner cannot move the vehicle. He stated the new Auto Cite System will allow the Officers when writing a ticket, to know the amount of unpaid citations on this particular vehicle. Mayor Boro stated the burden will be on the City Council, with no funding involved for overtime, to work through this five-year plan. Mr. Coleman stated there will be Council and staff input, as well as the process of crunching numbers to be used in the future. Councilmember Cohen asked about the repeat offenders of parking citations. He stated he felt if they were not recovering as much as it costs to tow a vehicle, then it was not cost effective. Ms. Nicolai stated a threshold should be established, in that a certain number of violations should exist before the vehicle would be towed or booted. Mr. Coleman stated it would depend on the vehicle itself. He gave the example of a 1960 Plymouth with ten parking citations, where it would be less likely that the person would reclaim his car when he has $1,000 of parking citations on it. Councilmember Shippey stated it might be in the interest of public policy to remove those vehicles. Mr. Coleman stated that when the public becomes more aware of these procedures occurring, they will be more careful about running up the amount of citations on these vehicles. Mayor Boro stated that once the Auto Cite System is on-line, maybe this would be the time to come back to the Council and show the capability and options available. DATA PROCESSING Fire Chief Marcucci gave a brief summary of the staff report and an historical background prior to selecting CMSI, the Data Processing Consultants now used by the City. City Manager Nicolai stated that the contract with CMSI has given them flexibility to adjust and amend the program. She stated the mainframe system has had the Finance program software and then word processing. They then put terminals in every department, some having access to the Finance program. She stated as the system grew, they then had to drop the word processing from the mainframe program. She noted there were systems like Recreation which is an "off the shelf" system which will have very little data sharing involved with other SRRA/SRCC MINUTES (Special-H/H) 3/31/92 Page 15 SRRA/SRCC MINUTES (Special-H/H) 3/31/92 Page 16 City departments. She stated it is a very flexible system and will allow them to adjust, as SRRA/SRCC MINUTES (Special-H/H) 3/31/92 Page 16 SRRA/SRCC MINUTES (Special-H/H) 3/31/92 Page 17 needed. She noted it would have been more difficult to develop this in-house and now the City has the flexibility to upgrade the hardware, as well as the software, and have teams of experts come in when there is a problem and then leave when it is resolved without any increase in cost to the City. Ms. Nicolai then discussed development of the Data Processing Strategic Plan, stating that the plan gives them a process by which these types of determinations about micro -systems vs. what goes onto the main system can be made almost on a case-by-case basis. She stated the Committee is moving ahead to deal with this on a City-wide basis and will review and make recommendations. She stated, in her opinion, this should work very well. Councilmember Cohen stated he was not clear on the conflict between the service level approach and recommendations made by the consultants. He stated he understood the need for having more consultants in for a problem solving time and then have two people designated to primarily deal with the routine problems. Ms. Nicolai responded that from the start they had at least one consultant and then during start-up there were two people due to the level of service, even before the contract was signed. She stated that these people are not to assist at another account location because it benefits the City to have the same people here who understand the needs of the City's program/system. She stated in her opinion, CMSI has demonstrated a significant amount of flexibility in the contract service level. She stated there was a time when CMSI had cost estimates of what the Public Safety system was going to cost, as well as the Recreation and Finance systems individually. Now they are more integrated because they are no longer stand-alone systems. Councilmember Cohen asked about formalizing the PC support, in writing, to make it clear that the City is already paying for this. Ms. Nicolai answered affirmatively. Mr. Cohen then suggested they have an ongoing cost analysis of this system to see what this is really costing the City to run as we may at some point want to take a different look at other alternatives to this system. He stated they did not need to know what every single individual item costs, but where the money is being spent. Mayor Boro stated he fully supported the concept of working with CMSI, noting he spent a lot of time looking at the options for the last contract for CMSI. He stated he did sense the introduction of the PC's and their utilization have different levels of acceptance in different groups or departments. He asked with regard to the Strategic Plan if this was going to prioritize some of the efforts discussed such as the new payroll system and if this would be included in the report to come back to Council in May. Ms. Nicolai answered affirmatively. She stated they have been working on developing a Strategic Plan showing how various components of the City's information needs are inter -related, noting they have studied which departments need to share what kind of information which becomes a network that moves them forward on the automation process. She stated it sets up a process in the inter -relatedness where they can say what the priority is and how they will approach it. She noted they did not want Data Processing to dictate to them what the priorities should be, that the City should be making their own priorities and then having Data Processing be a component of achieving those priorities. Mayor Boro stated he understood what Ms. Nicolai was saying, but was more concerned about the major efforts, such as the system in the Police Department, and wanted to see how this competes against payroll, etc. He stated he would like to see Data Processing come back to Council once a year with the priorities and which ones the Department can actually do. Ms. Nicolai answered this is what the Data Processing Oversight Committee will be doing; looking at all of the components and stating that given the impact and the priorities city- wide, we think, for example, we should focus on Personnel. Mayor Boro stated his concern that this information be shared with Council. Ms. Nicolai answered affirmatively. REDEVELOPMENT AGENCY Assistant Executive Director Ours explained the first section of the report was about staffing of the Agency. He stated there were some changes he wanted on the record, such as the Agency's Senior Planner is presently managing the Downtown Plan as a special project. He stated the other item in this section was the level of expenditure expended last was $3.5 million, rather $2.6 million. He stated the second section deals with some of the funding issues. The first is the school agreements and the need to renegotiate them to take the City out from under the burden. He stated they have been trying to do this for more than a year now and have come to an agreement with the schools, the City and the Agency; however, the County has not come to an agreement with this and this is what is stopping the process. SRRA/SRCC MINUTES (Special-H/H) 3/31/92 Page 17 SRRA/SRCC MINUTES (Special-H/H) 3/31/92 Page 18 Mr. Ours stated the second item in this section has to do with funding of the roving Parks crew in the downtown area, which the consultant recommended be reduced. He stated he was very much opposed to this because the maintenance in the downtown area is at a bare minimum now. He stated the Agency can fund this because it is an above normal level of maintenance which is payable by the Agency. Mr. Ours stated if this crew were taken to another part of the City, this would no longer be fundable by the Agency. He stated the second part of the funding issue he agreed with, is funding the Public Works costs somewhat associated with the Parking District with reimbursement from the Parking District to the Public Works Department, and is being done within this year's budget. One of the reasons he stated this was not done in the past was because there was no money in the Parking District; however, they have paid the bonds off and now there is funding available. Mr. Ours stated the last item which he agreed with 100% was to work toward flexibility with the County in Redevelopment funding. He stated if the consultant had any ideas as to how to do this, he would be happy to listen. There being no further business, the meeting was adjourned at 10:13 P.M. AGENCY/ JEANNE M. LEONCINI, City Clerk APPROVED THIS DAY OF , 1992 CHAIRMAN OF THE SAN RAFAEL REDEVELOPMENT MAYOR OF THE CITY OF SAN RAFAEL SRRA/SRCC MINUTES (Special-H/H) 3/31/92 Page 18