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HomeMy WebLinkAboutCC Min 2001-04-09 3-26-01 / 4-9-01 I Beauty, Target is open, and there will be Ralph's, Bed, Bath and Beyond, and SavOn, also a Starbucks. As to bookstores, the Development Services Director stated he has heard there have been discussions with a number of such stores however at this point is not aware of a signed lease. CouncilmanBoyd mentioned that through the American Book Sellers Association it is forecast that a number of Borders and Barnes and Noble stores are closing, about forty percent of that industry is major chains, the balance are mom and pop or family bookstores that dot the landscape, the forty percent also includes Amazon.com. ADJOURNMENT It was the order of the Chair, with consent of the Council to adjourn the meeting until Monday, April 9th at 6:00 p.m. to meet in Closed Session. By unanimous consent, the meeting was adjourned at 10:15 p.m. Approved: ~l(J~ Mayoo:: I Attest: Seal Beach, California April 9, 2001 The City Council of the City of Seal Beach met in regular adjourned session at 6:04 p.m. with Mayor Campbell calling the meeting to order with the Salute to the Flag. ROLL CALL Present: Mayor Campbell Councilmembers Doane, Larson, Yost Absent: None I Also present: Mr. Boga, Assistant city Attorney Ms. Yeo, City Clerk Councilman Boyd was ,present in the Conference Room awaiting the Mayor and members of the Council as was the City Manager. CLOSED SESSION The Assistant City Attorney announced that the Council would meet in Closed Session to discuss the items identified on the agenda, a conference with legal counsel pursuant to Government Code Section 54956.9(b) and (c) to discuss two issues of potential litigation, and to confer with the City's real property negotiator pursuant to Government Code Section 54956.8 relating to property located at 201 - 8th Street. By 4-9-01 unanimous consent, the Council adjourned to Closed Session at 6:06 p.m. and reconvened at 7:04 p.m. with Mayor Campbell caliing the meeting to order. The Assistant City Atto'rney reported that the Council had discussed the items prev10usly identified, give direction to staff, no further action! was taken. I ADJOURNMENT It was the order of the Chair, with consent of the Council, to adjourn the meeting at 7:05 p.m. Approved: ~ clerk 'Attest: Seal Beach, California April 9, 2001 I The City Council of the City of session at 7:06 p.m. with Mayor to order with the Salute to the Seal Beach met in regular Campbell calling the meeting Flag. ROLL CALL Present: Mayor Campbell Councilmembers Boyd, Doane, Larson, Yost Absent: None Also present: Mr. Bahorski, City Manager Mr. Boga, Assistant City Attorney Mr. Whittenberg, Director of Development Services Mr. Badum, Director of Public Works/City Engineer Chief Sellers, Police Department Ms. Beard, Director of Recreation, Parks, and Community Services Ms.~ Arends-King, Director of Administrative Services Mr. Dorsey, Assistant to the City Manager Mr. Bernard, Public Works/Engineering Department Ms. Yeo, City Clerk I APPROVAL OF AGENDA Campbell moved, second by Boyd, to approve the order of the agenda as presented. 4-9-01 AYES: NOES: Boyd, Campbell, Doane, Larson, Yost None Motion carried I ANNOUNCEMENTS Councilman Yost expressed appreciation to Childrens Hospital of Orange County for their sponsorship of the 5K/IOK Run this past Saturday, a well attended event even with the rain. He noted that CHOC was recently rated by Childs Magazine as the eleventh best childrens hospital in the country, only three such hospitals in California ranked in the top fifty. Mayor Campbell announced that the College Park East Bunny Bash will be held on Saturday, April 14th in Heather Park from noon until 3;00 p.m., listed the events that will take place, as well as, the dedication of two new drinking fountains at Heather and Almond Parks that were purchased by the Neighborhood Association through funds raised from their monthly newspaper drives. Mayor Campbell also announced the passing this past week of two individuals who were prominent in Orange County politics, Steve Apodaca, former Mayor and Councilman from San Clemente, and Lillian Robles, an elder of the Juaneno Indians, a driving force for her people and over the years had cared for over five hundred foster children, named Foster Mother of the Year in 1969 by Los Angeles County. The Mayor offered condolences to both families. I PUBLIC COMMENTS Mayor Campbell declared Public Comments to be open. Ms. Jenny Evans, Seal Beach resident, again spoke of her concern with health risks from the cell phone transmitter tower at Zoeter field and distributed copies of study summaries relating to leukemia and brain cancers. Ms~ Evans noted the presence of a representative of Sun 'N Fun Playgroup where a petition had been distributed to parents of the preschool parents requesting that the cell phone tower be relocated away from the preschools due to possible exposure to uncertain health risks, and read a statement forwarded by Bruce Monroe of the Long Beach Sierra Club asking for a 'moratorium on the operation of electronic equipment, under scientific precautionary principle, until a comprehensive environmental impact report draft is circulated for public comment and an independent monitoring investigation has been published that forecasts no adverse impacts on humans and/or the environment.' Ms. Evans inquired as to when the EIR report will be completed, her understanding was that it would be fifteen days from the day of activation of the tower, which is believed to have been last week, no one knows what a safe distance is. The City Manager responded that he did not believe the tower has been activated as yet, also, Verizon has agreed to pay for an independent test, measurements will be taken from inside the building and the playground area so there will be good baseline data from there to the pole. Ms. Evans said she had FCC standards, most of the data on exposure is on adults, safe exposure is reported as .08 watts per kilogram, the average age of the preschool participants is two, weighing between nine to fifteen kilograms, her request would be information from the tests relating to the wattage. Ms. Evans was requested to provide a copy of her data to the City Clerk. Ms. Evans mentioned that information given to her by Councilman Boyd indicates that Verizon is not interested in moving the tower, not as open to that as they were at the last meeting, it is understood that an expense would be involved yet that may be less than a lawsuit against the City or Verizon if there are health risks, she mentioned too the comparison of radiation to home appliances, that may be true yet a twenty pound human does not have contact with I 4-9-01 the appliances some nine hours a day. Mr. Rallie Rallis, president of Trees for Seal Beach, mentioned to Council that an application for a special event will be coming before the Council at next meeting, a function on June t3~ for the purpose of possibly raising $20,000 to be used to make grant applications for improvements in the City, the funds will be used for no other purpose as it has come to attention that there are several grants that may be available, many are tree planting grants. Mr. Rallis stated the event will be held on the beach adjacent to the parking lot on the north side of the pier, they have worked with staff and have agreed to the conditions for security and site, Coastal Commission has agreed to the location, there will be no impact on the parking 'lots, security will be provided by the Police Department and Naval Weapons Station volunteers, they are anticipating about four hundred people, the cost is $100 per person with dinner and entertainment by a sixteen piece orchestra, the anticipated cost is $20,000 and it is hoped that a like amount will be realized to be used for the purpose of grant applications. He mentioned too a small fund raiser during the Classic Car Show on April 28~h to 'Name a Tree For a Loved One', primarily for tree planting along the parkways in Seal Beach. There being no further comments, Mayor Campbell declared Public Comments closed. I PRESENTATIONS WATER OUALITY BRIEFING Councilman Yost mentioned that the Chamber and Business Association president, Kim Masoner, would be participating in this presentation, the same that was presented to the California Coastal Coalition. I . Mentioned that last year there were sixteen postings and eight beach closures, a picture shown of the condition of the beach after a major storm this year, shopping carts, etc. in the debris; . The City spends more than a quarter of a million dollars each year cleaning the beach with the potential of losing more than three quarters of a million in local revenue, the exact amount cited as $792,000; . Being a small city the intent is to blend the approach between businesses and residents, this requires partnering, the City budget is small, there is not enough money to have a dedicated water quality person, the involvement of the Chamber has been helpful, a citizen committee has been formed, there has been environmental outreach with other cities, especially with Long Beach, outside grant funding has been sought, information provided the schools and through me~tings such as this in terms of water quality and how it can be ; made better; I . Educational environmental materials were distributed at the Sand Castle event, that is a means of teaching children and the people who attend what they can do to help make the River and ocean cleaner; . The proceeds from the Sand Castle Festival were used to help with the beach and riverbed cleanups, at the Festival there was a company who had made shoestrings from recycled trash, that was a hit with the children, I I I 4-9-01 and there were demonstrations of how the water flows to the beach; . The beach taskforce has been involved, their meetings thus far are going well, their pu~pose is to put together an overall plan as to how Seal Beach is going to deal with water quality issues moving forward; . Reminder that the Chamber is conducting beach cleanups on the last Saturday of each month at noon at the First Street beach lot to 'help make a difference on our beach,' garbage bags and protective gloves are provided, with parking passes provided by the City and refreshments by the Navy, this is a joint effort by many people; . Thanks to Councilman Yost contact was made with two organizations that made the first cleanup a huge success, first lady Sharon Davis helped with collecting trash, then, feeling comfortable being in Seal Beach, she went shopping on Main Street without her security, this cleanup effort also made a difference in the lives of the Americorp kids, four thousand seventy-five pounds of trash was collected that day then piled on the stage so that the kids 'could see the difference they made; . One week later the effort focused on the riverbed, there were approximately two hundred participants, including two Councilmembers, a member of the Police Department staff, the Lions and Leos, as well as business persons, all collecting trash, then a human chain was formed to remove the trash from the riverbed before it reached the beach, the difference to the riverbed can still be seen, and the cleanup last month was joined by an entire group of Seal Beach Boy Scouts; . Education is the key to all of this, the beach did not get in this condition overnight, it will not get cleaned overnight, and every effort makes a difference; . There is a partnering with Long Beach, a picture was shown of the trash net that was in the Los Angeles River, that net is now out of service, yet it is hoped that something similar can be done in the San Gabriel River, a picture shown also of their new boom, the boom floats with screens that project down into the water about three feet, an opposite boom directs the collected trash, a crane then pulls out the trash and places it in dumpsters, trucks then empty the dumpsters, the hope is to use their technology for the San Gabriel River; . There is an effort to work with both the Los Angeles and Orange County Sanitation Districts to do a diversion program, to the suggestion to the Los Angeles District for a full diversion at Coyote Creek they said no citing the reason that flow is too high, ways are being looked at to decrease that flow and to find a means to do low flow diversion into.the sewer system as opposed to flowing directly into the River, and with some of the monies locally it would be desirable to do some low flow diversions in Seal Beach; 4-9-01 . As to State and federal funding, it was noted that through the assistance of Councilman Boyd $350,000 has been realized, thus far spent on beach cleaning and the Water Quality Taskforce, the remaining monies can either be used for diversion or a boom project, grants 'are being actively sought, Propositions 12 and,13 made some monies available, unfortunately however with the energy crisis a portion of that money is disappearing, at the last Coastal meeting there were a number of comments relating to how State money that had been dedicated to specific purposes is evaporating; I . The San Gabriel Rivers and Mountains Conservancy lobbied successfully with the authors of those bills to include legislation, part of which called for clean water, the Conservancy formed as a body to purchase land for public use for posterity and maintain it as open space, the first wholly urban conservancy, part of that is assurance that there be environmental legislation that reqvires that anything that is done be environmentally sensitive and water qual,ity friendly; . There is assurance too that any new development follow best management practices and responsible development, a good example is the Hellman plan, as compared to the first plan for that land there is now only seventy homes, they have a bioswale wetlands that absorbs the first three quarters of an inch of rainfall so that it does not go into the storm drain system and pollute the waterways any further and actually purifies it to some degree, there are one hundred acres,dedicated to wetland acquisition and restoration and the remaining oil production land will be for sale for wetland acquisition for twenty-five years from the time that land comes out of mineral production....this is a good thing, wetlands are essential to water quality, a filter of urban runoff before it reaches the beach and coastal waters; I . A primary factor in the hiring of the new City Manager was his credentials with regard to water quality; , . What people can do....come to the beach cleanups on the fourth Saturday of each month, sweep driveways instead of hosing them down into the street which goes into the storm drain which then ends up on the beach, detergents, etc. from the washing of a car likewise goes into the River, report polluters, construction sites in particular, call law enforcement if persons are seen pouring things into the storm drains; . Other things might be support for funding for various things, at present it is biweekly street cleaning, there is thought of going back to weekly cleaning, if more trash is collected that is less trash that gets into the storm drains and onto the coast, it is also expensive, support proposals for more money to upgrade the sewer systems in order to keep the beaches clean, be water conscience, use of reclaimed water is also being looked at; I 4-9-01 . Water is a precious resource, this is a start, but there is a determina~ion to make a positive difference, it is the responsibility of everyone at every level, seek partnerships wherever possible, lead by example. I Mayor Campbell mentioned that the storm drains in Cypress are stenciled to state they 'drain into the ocean', she would like that done to the storm drains in College Park East, people need to know where the water goes as it does not go into the sewer system. Councilman Boyd noted that this presentation was given to the Coastal Coalition where it was well received, appreciation to Councilman Yost and Ms. Masoner. The Mayor offered also that the reported amount of trash removed from the beach on an annual basis would fill a football field three feet deep, this is a primary issue of all coastal cities, when the beaches are closed the City and merchants lose money and more importantly people can get sick. ' PROCLAMATIONS I FIRE SERVICE RECOGNITION DAY Mazor Campbell read in full the Proclamation designating May 12 h, 2001 as "FIRE SERVICE RECOGNITION DAY" and presented same to Battalion Chief Forsythe of the Orange County Fire Authority. Chief Forsythe expressed appreciation for the recognition on behalf of the Authority and extended an invitation to visit their open house at the Seal Beach and countywide Stations on May 12th and become familiar with the various services and programs offered for fire safety and protection, several programs focused throughout the year, examples being child abuse, earthquake and disaster preparedness. NATIONAL PUBLIC SAFETY DISPATCHER WEEK Mayor Campbell read in full the proclamation' declaring April 9th through April 15th, 2001 as "National Public Safety Dispatcher Week." The Mayor presented the Proclamation to Police Chief Sellers who accepted the proclamation on behalf of the dispatchers. The Chief stated that the dispatchers are the unsung heroes of law enforcement, in this community dispatch services are provided by a joint powers agency consisting of three cities however are housed at the Seal Beach Police Department, the dispatchers provide the critical link between a caller to the 911 system to report an emergency and the outside officers who provide police services, are vital to directing calls to the proper emergency service, they are the public safety answering center for fire and emergency medical services. ORGAN and TISSUE DONOR AWARENESS WEEK Mayor Campbell proclaimed "Organ and Tissue Donor Awareness Week" from April 15th through April 21st, 2001. I CONSENT CALENDAR - ITEMS "E" thru "L" Boyd moved, second by Yost, to approve the recommended action for items on the Consent Calendar, as presented. E. Approved the waiver of reading in full of all ordinances and resolutions and that consent to the waiver of reading shall be deemed to be given by all Councilmembers after reading of the title unless specific 4-9-01 request is made at that time for the reading of such ordinance or resolution. F. Approved the minutes of the regular adjourned and regular meetings of March 26th, 2001. G. Approved regular demands numbered 31261, 31610 through 31784 in the amount of $516,744.02, payroll demands numbered 11359 through 11506, 27709 and 27710 in the amount of $163,488.04, payroll liability accounts numbered 9000551 through 9000562 in the amount of $85,393.52, and authorized warrants to be drawn on the Treasury for same. I H. Received and filed the Monthly Investment Report for February, 2001. I. Proclaimed April 5th and 6th, 2001 as "PARTNERING WITH HISTORICALLY BLACK COLLEGES & MINORITY INSTITUTIONS - TODAY, TOMORROW and BEYOND." J. Approved the professional services agreement with Harris & Associates to perform financial engineering in conjunction with the proposed Community Facilities District (CFD) for the Avalon Homes Development at a cost not to exceed $74,000. K. L. AYES: NOES: Approved the renewal of the agreement with the City of Long Beach for the period February 1, 2001 through January 31, 2002 for the purpose of parking meter maintenance, coin collection and software tracking. I Adopted Ordinance Number 1471 entitled "AN ORDINANCE OF THE CITY OF SEAL BEACH ADOPTING THE FIRST AMENDED AND RESTATED DEVELOPMENT' AGREEMENT BETWEEN THE CITY OF SEAL BEACH AND HELLMAN PROPERTIES LLC, REGARDING THE, 'HELLMAN RANCH SPECIFIC PLAN'." By unanimous consent, full reading of Ordinance Number 1471 was waived. Boyd, Campbell, Doane, Larson, Yost None Motion carried PRESENTATION ENERGY REDUCTION PROGRAM The Director of Public Works noted the timeliness of this consideration given the recent energy issues, this merely an overview of what is proposed to be accomplished, the process requires a public hearing therefore the intent was to present the information prior to. The Director then turned the presentation over to Mr. Bernard of the Public Works/ I Engineering Department and Mr. Dennis McVey of Cal Air. . Mr. McVey agreed that the energy conservation measures that are required are timely given the energy issues in the State; C . Cal Air has been developing and implementing energy conservation programs for nearly ten I I I 4-9-01 years, specifically targeting cities and public entities such as school districts because unlike other industries they are committed to their facilities long range, that is essentially what they provide to their customers, long term solutions versus short term fixes; . Their program is designed to utilize current wasted energy and operating costs to fund the upgrades of existing building infrastructure; . When he first met with staff in a workshop setting discussion related to where the facility needs are in the City, and there are several, they wanted to address replacing the existing antiquated, unreliable, and energy inefficient systems, that was first and foremost based on the condition of the equipment, basically the facilities that have major air conditioning systems that in a state of disrepair, badly deteriorated not only due to age but the proximity to the ocean and marine air and the damage that does to heating and air conditioning equipment; . The second objective was to utilize up to date technology in terms of energy efficiency and control measures to maximize energy savings that would be generated from this type of program, and to improve the overall efficiency level of the equipment installed, the equipment will not' negatively impact the current utility budget; . Given the close proximity to the ocean, one of the objectives was to select equipment that would have a longer life than typical units, there are specialized units and components within a unit that are specifically designed to last longer in this type of environment; . With these upgrades one of the objectives was to reduce the maintenance and operating costs associated with running the equipment; . Another issue was indoor air quality in terms of ducts that are not as clean as they could be, having particles, bacteria, etc. that may be an item of concern in terms of health and spreading disease; . The real challenge of these types of projects is to perform all of the goals and objectives identified in a budget neutral basis for the City; . Scope of work, the Council was provided a matrix of the scope, as mentioned, this was looked at not only from an energy conservation standpoint but from the longevity of the system from an installed standpoint, as an example the air conditioning units at every site would have copper fins and coils which withstands the marine environment much better than standard coils and fins, the energy efficiency levels of 'the selected heating and air conditioning equipment would be maximized, they will incorporate what are called economizer sections which will allow for the intake of 4-9901 outside air to be used as the cooling medium when weather conditions permit; . Duct cleaning will take place with the air conditioning at five City facilities, those being City Hall, the Police Department, Mary wilson Library, the North Seal Beach and Marina Community Centers; I . Along with installing the equipment, controls will be installed that will regulate the equipment to operate only when the facility is occupied, thus not running when the facility is not in use, there are really two areas of concern in terms of engineering this type of system, to make sure that the equipment, when it is operating, is energy efficient to the extent that it, consumes the least amount of energy while operating, the second is equipment that will operate only when the facility is occupied; . with regard to lighting, what exists citywide is old technology lighting, in many areas there are also fixtures that are reasonably deteriorated because of age, inappropriate light disbursement, therefore not only will the lighting components be replaced but a number of fixtures as well; . Along with installing the air conditioning systems and to make sure that it is operating at peak efficiency, they will be providing a maintenance service program as opposed to having City maintenance people do the service, it was felt by staff that would help the cause by diverting the attention of those people to other areas where they could be mo~e productive; I . with regard to project economics, that relates to the air conditioning installation, the air conditioning controls, lighting upgrade, duct cleaning, the project cost is $896,502, the thrust is to finance the project over a period of years so that the savings generated by performing the work outweighs the annual cost of the program which is represented by the annual lease agreement and maintenance service cost, the annual cost $119,105, the average annual savings which is a combination of existing energy cost reductions and operating costs to maintain and repair air conditioning and lighting which is $121,477, on average per year the annual cash flow is $2,372, the guaranteed annual savings relates to the annual cost, the guarantee is to the level of the City receiving a budget neutrai type of investment, if the savings are more then it is the City's money, it is not a shared savings for Cal Air or anyone else, and should the savings be less then on an annual reconcilable basis Cal Air will make up the difference between the guarantee amount and the shortfall; I . This type of project is different in the procurement than most in the public works sector, Government Code Section 4217.10 through 4217.18 is legislation enacted 4-9-01 I by the State in the early 1980's that essentially allows a public entity to directly negotiate with a qualified contractor.if it is related,to an energy conservation project, the legislation was essentially initiated because of issues related to the low bid public works mentality basis where in many instances after an installation a public agency was putting money towards problems that existed during the installation to the extent that it was more costly than a design/build basis; . This approach encourages long term solutions versus sh9rt term fixes, most important to the City would be that it promotes long term contractor accountability which means that Cal Air is accountable not only from an operational standpoint that the system is working properly and performing as it was designed, also from a financial standpoint to guarantee an energy savings amount. I The Public Works Director offered that this is a unique situation with a design/built project plus financing, for the City to hire an engineer to do the design and then go to bid for the components would take more staff time than the City has, the way this package is put together there are guarantees throughout the contract to get what is needed to repair a considerable amount of bad equipment and save energy at the same time, using the savings to pay for some of the improvements. He mentioned that they have looked at other cities that have considered this type of project, the background of Cal Air has been checked and they have been quite successful in this area, there is anticipation of putting this together in final form for a future Council meeting, it will be beneficial to go forward wlth these proposed changes as well as reap the savings in energy costs. Question was posed if this would be ready by budget considerations, the response was that it will be prior to that time, in fact the hearing will be at next meeting. Councilman Larson stated that he is one that prefers the low bid mentality given bad experiences with sole source providers, he does not support sole source providers at any time, there ,must be other companies that do this same type of replacement. The City Manager offered that the Orange County Fire Authority is using a competitor of Cal Air, the program is similar and under the same provisions of the Government Code. Councilman Larson said the Government Code provisions are fine to not have to go through the competitive bidding process yet on the other hand his feeling is that it may be better if the Council had a choice to at least look at other companies that may provide even more savings. The Public Works Director said he understood the concern, yet one of the hard parts of this process is that it is not always an equal comparison, different types of equipment is used by different manufacturers and companies, there is also a maintenance component of the contract, in his view it is looked at as long term financing and a maintenance component. Councilman Larson asked that the Council be told why this company was chosen instead of another. Mr. McVey said there are things about Cal Air that differentiates them from other companies in the industry, they are self-performing in the work they do, the organization is structured whereby they can perform virtually all of the work items included in this project with I 4-9-01 in-house resources, that can be compared to the typical competitor company that essentially acts as a general contractor, the company who will perform this type of project for the Fire Authority is an example, they contract the work to sub-contractors, Cal Air's ability to self-perform gives the City two benefits, probably better control of the project from the standpoint of managing the people ~ersus a 9rouP of sub-contractors, and if one is familiar with the contractor/sub-contractor arrangement there are several layers of markups that are avoided by doing the work yourself. Councilman Larson clarified that he was not saying Cal Air does not do good work, but the impression is that no one else does the same work that Cal Air does, that is one side, he would like staff to report that to Councilor a comparison to other competitors, Cal Air may very well be the best and the law has provided the opportunity for the City to go forward without competitive bid, Cal Air may well have the better product, however in fifty years of government service he has found that sole source sometimes comes back to bite, his preference is that the Council merely have a choice. Mr. McVey stated he had provided what is virtually a sta;tement of qualifications, there is a list of projects and case studies of what Cal Air has done, his belief is that staff spent some time calling references to make sure of their worthiness to work with the City. Councilman Yost agreed ,with the comments of Councilman Larson, his preference too would be a couple of options. Mayor Campbell said what is being requested is to know why Cal Air is the best. Councilman Boyd offered that at the Fire Authority Cal Air and the vendor that the Authority is using were both considered, it is believed that the only reason for choosing the other vendor, given that the qualifications were basically equal, is because there are approximately seventy facilities that are in need of such a project and there was a short period of time in which ,the Authority wanted to implement the projects,. it was felt that given the size of the other vendor they could accomplish the work quicker, it is not certain it was a contractor/sub- contractor issue. Mr. McVey said the Cal Air involvement with the Authority was somewhat after the fact in terms of project development, they had a project, design, and scope in place, the Authority did not want to go through the process again, and they had already paid monies for. the engineering design phase of the project. Councilman Larson said this is merely to let staff know that the Council will have questions, it is best that they know that now. Mayor Campbell concurred that Council would like to see comparisons, this brings home the fact that the City does consume power and it too pays utility bills. OLD CITY HALL - PURCHASE OF LEASEHOLD INTEREST Yost moved, second by Boyd, to 'approve the purchase of the leasehold interest in the Old City Hall and authorized the Mayor to sign the purchase documents. AYES: NOES: Boyd, Campbell, Doane, Larson, Yost None Motion carried CITY ATTORNEY REPORT No report was presented. I I I 4-9-01 I CITY MANAGER REPORT The City Manager noted that the Bixby replanting issue has been subject to comments before the Council on a number of occasions, the plan is with the City, staff will be forwarding the plan to the Council along with a memo that expresses staff comments, that will be done this week to allow adequate time for review and comments that will in turn be forwarded to Bixby. It was confirmed that a copy of the plan is available at City Hall for public review if desired. Question was posed if the plan includes other aspects of landscaping for the Bixby project or just the windrow. The response of the Director of Development Services was that the plan shows the planting along Seal Beach Boulevard from the shopping center to Lampson Avenue, all of the proposed landscaping for the Lampson/405 Freeway corner site, including the Lampson/Seal Beach Boulevard frontages, and confirmed that it includes the area where the trees were removed. I COUNCIL COMMENTS Councilman Yost thanked the organizers of the sUrf contest, the Seal Beach Lifeguards and Surfline, it was well attended, fun, and he will look forward to the team event in the summer. Mayor Campbell stated she wanted to address issues that were raised in a letter to the editor, one comment was that the State returned $100,000 of property tax money to the City yet there is still an eleven percent utility tax, to that she explained that the State took away.several million dollars, that about 1982, yet the State has never restored the property tax rate therefore the City continues to lose property tax money every year, the utility tax was enacted to cover that loss. To that Councilman Boyd noted that the Council has had first reading on an ordinance to reduce the utility tax, the second reading may take place around July. To the number of employees of the City, the Mayor reported there were one hundred fifty-four in 1980, today there are ninety-one, again, that partly due to the State takeaway, yet the residents want City services and since Seal Beach ranks twenty-ninth of thirty-three cities in sales tax revenue the only way to pay for the services is with the assistance of the utility tax, She explained that the City is a service business, it is audited on a regular basis, if a citizen does not understand something or has a suggestion to further conserve, then they should call the City because the members of the Council can not be everywhere. A statement was made also that she drives past the Heather Park tennis courts every night, fact is that she is not out every night or may take a route other than past Heather Park, to the complaint that the lights are on at the tennis courts at night, the City was working on that issue even before the letter appeared in the paper. People should not make accusations that City funds are being misused because that just does not happen, the Council Chambers is an example, nothing has changed in this room since City Hall was built in the late 1960's, same carpeting, same upholstery, to that the Mayor mentioned that the median price of a single family residential unit ,in this community is $412,000 and it is likely most have been recarpeted a number of times during that period of time. The Mayor noted that the persons writing in objection to the utility tax live in a million I 4-9-01 dollar home on the Gold Coast, the other an expensive home in College Park East, reported her utility tax was about $300 last year, surely those persons can afford to, pay this tax or would they deprive the community for $300 a year. with regard to Bixby, stated their development fees were never intended to cover the full cost of the bridge, the nexus is I not there, in order for them to be responsible for the full cost it would need to be shown that all of the traffic over the bridge is created by the Bixby project, again, that is not so, too, there has been no monies doled out by the City to Bixby, Hellman or Boeing, that has not, is not, and will not happen. As to the loan to the former City Manager, that has been repaid pursuant to his contract. To the charge that the engineering staff is not licensed, that is not true, both the Director and Assistant are registered professional engineers, the Director also has a masters in public administration. with regard to legal counsel, the Mayor confirmed that the City does have a contract legal firm, cities do not have single attorneys because when you contract with a large firm there is access to all of the different sub-specialties they have to offer. with regard to the suggestion to put a Cosco on the Boeing property, Mayor Campbell advised that it is not zoned for such use,also, Cosco was not interested in seeking a General Plan amendment or a zone change, one reason being they did not want to have to go before the Coastal Commission, they also looked at the five mile marketing area inasmuch as seal Beach has the ocean on one side, the Naval Weapons Station on another, which limits the customer draw. In addition, Boeing does not want a Cosco, the City can can not just rezone it for something it I might want, Boeing wants to develop under the current zoning, therefore the person who wrote the letter should be ready to put forth the money for legal fees to defend the City in a lawsuit that would surely follow such an attempt. Mayor Campbell expressed her opinion that some of the charges made in the letters to the editor needed to be answered, noted that city staff does not get paid equally to their counterparts in other cities, staff is dedicated, the City is lucky to have them, also, her comments to the utility users tax issue will be held for another time. Councilmember Doane commended Mayor Campbell for her comments. ADJOURNMENT It was the order of the Chair, with consent of the Council, to adjourn the meeting until Monday, April 23rd at 6:00 p.m. to meet in Closed Session. By unanimous consent, the meeting was adjourned at 8:18 p.m. Approved: clerk I Attest: