HomeMy WebLinkAboutEQCB Min 2010-10-281 CITY OF SEAL BEACH
2 Environmental Quality Control Board
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4 Minutes of October 28, 2009
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7 Chairperson Voce called the meeting of the Environmental Quality Control Board
8 (EQCB) to order at 6:31 p.m. on Wednesday, October 28, 2009. The meeting was held
9 in City Council Chambers and began with the Salute to the Flag.1
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11 I Roll Call
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13 Present: Chairperson Voce, Members Barton, Cummings, Hurley, and Navarro
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15 Also
16 Present: Department of Development Services
17 Jerry Olivera, Senior Planner
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19 Absent: None
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21 II Approval of Agenda
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23 Member Navarro requested that the order of discussion for Items 1 and 2 be reversed,
24 as Item 2 is actually the first item in the agenda packet. She then requested that Item
25 No. 2 be removed for further discussion.
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27 MOTION by Navarro; SECOND by Barton to approve the Agenda as amended.
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29 MOTION CARRIED: 5 — 0
30 AYES: Voce, Barton, Cummings, Hurley, and Navarro
31 NOES: None
32 ABSENT: None
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34 III Oral Communications
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36 None.
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38 IV Consent Calendar
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40 1. Receive and File - Staff Report Re: Recommendation of the Regional
41 Targets Advisory Committee (RTAC) Pursuant to Senate Bill 375.
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1 These Minutes were transcribed from an audiotape of the meeting.
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1 3. Receive and File - Staff Report Re: "Climate Action Plan," City of Berkeley,
2 Dated June 2009.
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4 MOTION by Hurley; SECOND by Cummings to approve the Consent Calendar as
5 amended.
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7 MOTION CARRIED: 5 — 0
8 AYES: Voce, Barton, Cummings, Hurley, and Navarro
9 NOES: None
10 ABSENT: None
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12 2. Receive and File — Status Report Re: Freedom of Information Act (FOIA)
13 Request Re: Joint Forces Training Base.
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15 Member Navarro referred to the letter addressed to Major General John Harrel, dated
16 September 23, 2008. She indicated that the purpose of this letter is to form two
17 committees to better facilitate communication between the base and surrounding cities.
18 She then read from the third paragraph and stated that this letter was prompted by all of
19 the activity that resulted with the composting project. She noted that the two
20 committees would be one made up of the City Managers for the cities of Los Alamitos,
21 Seal Beach, and Cypress; and the other would be an Ad Hoc Committee made up of a
22 representative from each city, which would probably be the mayor. She stated that she
23 had attended the most recent City Council (CC) meeting and had requested that they
24 consider appointing Councilman Miller too this position, because unlike the other cities
25 whose mayors are elected at large, the mayor for Seal Beach is a rotating appointment,
26 and District 4, College Park East (CPE), is the only district directly affected by what
27 goes on at the Joint Forces Training Base (JFTB). She indicated that the CPE
28 community strongly supports appointing Councilman Miller, as he is most involved and
29 familiar with the issues related to this project. She encouraged the Board Members to
30 speak to their respective councilperson in support of this proposal. Member Barton
31 asked what the consensus was when Member Navarro proposed this to CC. Member
32 Navarro stated that apparently CC tabled the matter for discussion at a later meeting.
33 She then thanked Staff for provision of the agreement between the JFTB and Agromin.
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35 Chairperson Voce noted that the environmental checklist on this initial study shows no
36 impacts for most of the items, which was quite surprising. He qualified the initial study
37 as "faulty" and noted that there were many questions that should have been asked, but
38 were not.
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40 MOTION by Navarro; SECOND by Barton to Receive and File Status Report Re:
41 Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) Request Re: Joint Forces Training Base as
42 presented.
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44 MOTION CARRIED: 5 — 0
45 AYES: Voce, Barton, Cummings, Hurley, and Navarro
46 NOES: None
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City of Seal Beach Environmental Quality Control Board
Meeting Minutes of October 28, 2009
1 ABSENT: None
2 V Scheduled Matters
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4 1. APPROVAL OF MINUTES — September 30, 2009.
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6 Recommendation: Approve Minutes subject to any corrections determined
7 appropriate.
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9 Member Navarro noted that she would abstain from voting on this item, as she was not
10 in attendance at the meeting of September 30, 2009.
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12 MOTION by Barton; SECOND by Cummings to approve the Meeting Minutes of
13 September 30, 2009 as presented.
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15 MOTION CARRIED: 4 — 0 — 0 — 1
16 AYES: Voce, Barton, Cummings, and Hurley
17 NOES: None
18 ABSENT: None
19 ABSTAIN: Navarro
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21 VI Staff Concerns
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23 Mr. Olivera indicated that the EQCB meetings for both November and December 2009
24 would be cancelled due to the holiday schedule.
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26 Mr. Olivera then noted with regard to the new Director of Development Services, the city
27 currently has assigned an Interim Director and interviews with candidates are schedule
28 to begin soon.
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30 VII Board Concerns
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32 Member Navarro inquired about the status of the proposed storm drain improvements to
33 be completed along Ironwood Avenue. Mr. Olivera stated that he is not certain of what
34 the status might be. He indicated that he would request a schedule of improvements
35 from the City Engineer and forward this to Member Navarro.
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37 Member Hurley noted that at the last meeting Mr. Olivera had agreed to verify the
38 information on greenhouse gas emissions presented in the table on Page 4.15 -6 and on
39 Page 4.15 -9 under the heading Executive Order S -3 -05 in the Draft EIR for the Beach
40 and Edinger Corridors Specific Plan — City of Huntington Beach. Mr. Olivera apologized,
41 noting that he has not had an opportunity to research this information. Member Hurley
42 requested that Mr. Olivera provide this information at the scheduled meeting for January
43 2010.
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45 Member Hurley then inquired about Chairperson Voce's request for the provision to the
46 community of educational materials regarding burning pollution. Chairperson Voce
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City of Seal Beach Environmental Quality Control Board
Meeting Minutes of October 28, 2009
1 stated that this process was interrupted with the retirement of the Director of
2 Development Services. He indicated that he has provided another copy of the
3 information previously provided to Staff, and he would continue to address this issue
4 and personally provide the information to offending residents and to Staff. He added
5 that this information is supposed to be included with utility billings, and City Council
6 should create a statement and a proclamation regarding burning pollution. He noted
7 that he recently read in the Los Angeles Times that the City of Newport Beach may be
8 removing the fire pits from its beaches to help reduce the "drinking party" activity on the
9 beaches, but there was no mention that the City is proposing this for public health
10 reasons.
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12 Member Hurley noted that in the past, the Board was only called to convene when there
13 were significant issues to be addressed under "Scheduled Matters. He inquired as to
14 why the Board was called to this meeting to simply address one minor matter: approval
15 of the previous meeting's minutes. Mr. Olivera indicated that Mr. Whittenberg had
16 prepared this agenda as one of his last actions before retiring. He agreed that generally
17 a meeting would not have been convened for a minor issue such as the minutes;
18 however, he believes that because the EQCB usually does not meet at the end of
19 November or December, Mr. Whittenberg may not have wished to carry these items
20 over for 3 -4 months.
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22 Chairperson Voce indicated that he would continue to work with Jerry on the issue of
23 provision of educational materials on burning pollution.
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25 VIII Adjournment
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27 Chairperson Voce adjourned the meeting at 7:00 p.m. to the regularly scheduled
28 meeting of January 27, 2010.
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30 Respectfully Submitted,
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36 Department of Development Services
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39 The Board on March 3, 2010, approved the Minutes of the Environmental Quality
40 Control Board of Wednesday, October 28, 2009. �� .
Carmen Alvarez, Executive Assistant
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