CITY OF
Jackson City Council Minutes
JEACIFORNI
ALI FORN' Monday, September 26, 2022 - 7:00 PM Regular Meeting Mayor and Council Members John Georgette, City Clerk
Connie Gonsalves, Vice Mayor
Max Godde, Council Member Staff Members:
Steve McLean, Council Member Josh Nelson, City Attorney Chad Simmons, Council Member Yvonne Kimball, City Manager Bree Wilder, Public Works Superintendent
ABSENT: Dale Fishback, Interim Fire Chief
Robert Stimpson, Mayor Chris Mynderup, Police Chief
Vice-Mayor Gonsalves called the meeting to order at 7:00pm.
PLEDGE OF ALLEGIANCE
Vice-Mayor Gonsalves, lead the Pledge of Allegiance
1. APPROVAL OF AGENDA.
Approval of agenda for this date; any and all off-agenda items must be approved by the City Council (pursuant to $54954.2 of the Government Code).
Motion to approve the City Council Agenda dated September 26, 2022, as presented. Moved by Councilmember McLean seconded by Councilmember Simmons, and carried by a 4 to 0 roll call vote:
AYES: Gonsalves, Godde, McLean, Simmons
NOES: None
ABSENT: Stimpson
ABSTAIN: None
2. REMOTE MEETING FINDINGS.
Approve findings for remote meetings under AB 361 that social distancing is recommended by state and local health officials and that meeting in person presents imminent risks to the health and safety of attendees.
Motion to approve the Remote Findings dated September 26, 2022, as presented. Moved by Councilmember Simmons, seconded by Councilmember Godde, and carried by a 4 to 0 roll call vote:
AYES: Gonsalves, Godde, McLean, Simmons
NOES: None
Jackson City Council Agenda Monday, September 26, 2022
ABSENT: Stimpson
ABSTAIN: None
3. PUBLIC MATTERS NOT ON THE AGENDA.
Discussion items only, no action will be taken. Any person may address the Council at this time on any subject within the jurisdiction of the City Council. Please note - there is a three (3) minute limit.
Dave McDaniel, Jackson resident, said that he is here to clarify comments made at the 7/1/2022 City Council meeting regarding Brights Alley. Mr. McDaniel's stated that the personal property he has at 1004 N. Main Street of equipment, fence materials, blocks and firewood and also that he had on the vacant lot also including a backhoe and dump trailer are for personal use, not for a business. The vehicles that are on the property, some are his and some are his tenants, and they are all licensed and running. He also stated that he does not have access off of N. Main St. to his vacant lot of 990. Mr. McDaniel's asks that the City Council revisit the Brights addition usage.
Phillip Giurlani, resident at 1236 Jackson Gate Rd. said that he supports Dave McDaniel's request for use of the easement behind his property and behind the property of several houses.
Vice-Mayor Gonsalves stated that Mr. McDaniel's has the direction to contact Staff and based on the answer and response, this my come back to the Council for further discussion and or approval or denial.
Mary Hite, 341 South Avenue, said she was concerned about water in the creek flooding her property and associated rat problems. She asked if the creek cleaning crew could dig the creek deeper to clean it.
Vice Mayor Gonsalves said that Public Works will look at the area.
4. CONSENT CALENDAR.
Items listed on the consent calendar are considered routine and may be enacted by one motion. Any item may be removed for discussion at the request of a Council member. a) Approval of the August 8, 2022 & August 22, 2022 Meeting Minutes. b) Approval of Expenditure Report in the amount of $135,145.81. c) Receive Jackson Fire Department Monthly Report for August 2022. d) Receive Jackson Police Department Monthly Report for August 2022. e) Approval of Special Event Permit Application - Jackson Lion's Club Halloween Parade. f) Approval of Special Event Permit Application - Veteran's Parade. g) Authorization of funding request of $1,200 made by American Legion Post 108 for the 2022 annual Veteran's Day Parade, using the TOT fund.
h) City Engineer agreement renewal for non-fed contract [possible renewal for 5 years with Webber Ghio & Associates]
Vice Mayor Gonsalves asked for a motion to approve the Consent Calendar.
Jackson City Council Agenda Monday, September 26, 2022
Motion to approve the City Council Consent Calendar dated September 26, 2022, as presented.
Moved by Councilmember McLean, seconded by Councilmember Godde, and carried by a 4 to 0 roll call vote:
AYES: Gonsalves, Godde, McLean, Simmons
NOES: None
ABSENT: Stimpson
ABSTAIN: None.
5. ADMINISTRATIVE REPORTS.
This section is to provide staff an opportunity to present oral status reports on issues. No legal action is expected to be taken by the Council.
Fire Chief Fishback-
Everything is currently stable in the Fire Department. We had our water tender 6340 assigned to the Mosquito Fire for 9 days. Luckily the rains came and helped, so we were able to bring it home.
New Command vehicle is still awaiting parts, before it can be put into service.
Need to replace one of our type 1 engines, so I'm drafting a plan for next year.
Hook & Ladder Association has agreed to donate money to the department to re-do some of our PT (physical training) equipment. They are granting us $10k to replace some of the equipment.
CM Godde thanked the Fire Chief for having a crew at the Mine Centennial event.
PW Superintendent, Bree Wilder-
Pool resurface out to bid, filter replaced.
817 Court St, water leak occurred at the Drs office. We were able to fix it on Sunday.
Creek Crew-is here all this week except for Wednesday. They can come for 1-2 days to help.
Sewer line-another hot spot on the list, near Picardo Lane.
Cemetery squirrel's- we have a quote and the work will begin next week at both cemetery and Detert Park.
Vukovich paving is out to bid
City Manager Kimball-
I attended the Planning Commission last week. The general plan is being worked on by the City Planner to finish his draft for the 6'h element. In an environmental phase and it's going to be a few more months.
The housing element is one of the joint projects and is one of the 7 elements in the general plan. We will have a Public Discussion in October.
The housing element is being taken away and then we are doing a regionally with Amador County and all the other municipalities. We will then have a Public Discussion, sometime in November.
Jackson View is still building. Each time they build 6-7 houses and they are processed as a separate sub- division. There are no un-permitted activities going on in Jackson View.
Sutter St. extension design and environmental is proceeding well. Next Council meeting on October 10th the City Planner will give a project update to let us know where we are.
At the last Planning Commission, the Commission has approved the mobile Coffee Cart to be operated at Scotty's Plaza. The owners are excited and plan to be in operation pretty soon.
We are also working on several grants. We have 2 grants that we are working on with the Water Board. 3 Jackson City Council Agenda Monday, September 26, 2022 We also have a sewer related grant. The sewer plant operators and personnel and PW Superintendent are going to spear head that one. The City Engineer's office is working on it with Mr. Joel Lindsey and Bree Wilder. We also have a water reservoir grant that we applied for 2 years ago, with the Water Board. It's still being reviewed.
The Oro de Amador grant that we are working on, I have had meetings with DTSC and along with Remedial Action Work Plan Consultant. Its moving along and hopefully at the end of the year, we are able to submit the Remedial Action Work Plan to DTSC and hopefully we can get a clearance.
We also have the Creek Walk grant that ACTC and Consultant help us put together. The results are coming up in October.
City Attorney, Josh Nelson-
An update on AB2449. This is the bill that we've been talking about, that will make permanent changes to the Brown Act related to remote meeting attendance. The bill was approved by the Legislature and signed by the Governor and will take effect January 1. It imposes a new just cause or emergency standard for remote attendees from a private location. It limits the number of meetings per year that Council Members can attend remotely from a private location. We will have less flexibility in attending these remote meetings then we currently do now under AB361. The legislation does not "sunset" AB361, it actually will keep it's more flexible procedures in place through the end of next calendar year (2023) As long as the statewide declaration of emergency remains in effect. Beginning January 2024, the AB2449 will take effect.
Companion legislation that was adopted, which makes an additional change to the Brown Act, which would allow us to remove disruptive attendees from the meeting.
6. COUNCIL REPORTS.
This section is to provide Council members an opportunity to present reports on their activities and to request items be placed on future agendas.
Councilmember Simmons - Went to the Argonaut Mine tour event.
Councilmember McClean - Attended the Amador County Transportation Commission meeting. There were a lot of discussions that will be on our agenda later tonight. I attended the Planning Commission meeting. I attended the County Transit Meeting. I also attended numerous Argonaut Mine events. I attended the Main St. sidewalk event. I also participated with the Native Sons to a dedication at the Kennedy Mine.
Councilmember Godde - 9/19 I attended the Pitt St. Bridge meeting at City Hall and discussed some of the options that the City may have, regarding that bridge. I attended the Planning Commission Mtg. I also attended and worked with the Cemetery Committee, to make sure that event went smoothly. I attended the Main St. sidewalk event.
Vice Mayor Gonsalves - For the Mine Disaster, we did attend the dinner on 8/22. We were out of town for the rest of the Mine Disaster ceremonies.
7. DISCUSSION CALENDAR.
4 Jackson City Council Agenda Monday. September 26. 2022 a. Resolution 2022-20 Recognize Merzlak Signs in business for 40 years. (VM Gonsalves request) Vice Mayor read the resolution to hereby honor Merzlack Signs, celebrating its long legacy with 40 years of business in Amador County, over 30 years of which were in Jackson.
VM Gonsalves invited George Consolo to speak. Mr, Gonsolo said that I'm an Eagle Scout from Troop 63 in Sutter Creek. I wanted to publicly thank Mr Merzlak, for making such a great sign for the Museum. I think that this resolution is well deserved for him.
Mr. Merzlak, in turn wanted to commend George for putting the project together and for the great Eagle Scout projects he and other Eagle Scouts do.
Motion to approve adoption of City Council Resolution 2022-20 Recognize Merzlak Signs in business for 40 years, as presented. Moved by Councilmember McClean, seconded by Councilmember Godde, and carried by a 4 to 0 roll call vote:
AYES: Gonsalves, Godde, McLean, Simmons
NOES: None
ABSENT: Stimpson
ABSTAIN: None
b. Jim Rooney, Amador County Assessor, presentation on the 2022 property tax assessments roll.
Mr. Rooney began with the statistics; Jackson's assessments went up 6%. From years 2008-2022, a 14yr period the Jackson assessments were up to 23-24%, which is only a 2% per year. The County has about 15,000 residents. Jackson has 1,505. Jackson has been pretty steady and not going up too fast. Prop 13 keeps things from going up too fast and also keeps things from going down too fast, when we have a bad market. It feels in our office, that the real estate market is softening.
CM Godde asked to explain what the numbers meant, regarding the primary residences in Jackson at 950 and 1505 total residences. Mr. Rooney went on to say that 950 people have decided to use the Homeowners Exemption and get $70 back in their taxes each year. The only reason that its good to have the exemption is, because of Prop 19 when people want to transfer their property to a child or from a child to a parent, it has to be a primary residence. Otherwise, it's going to be re-accessed, so it's good to have that homeowner's exemption, which makes it their primary residence. Look on Assessors website for more information on whether doing a Homeowners Exemption is right for you.
Vice-Mayor asked for any Public Comment in person or online.
Seeing none.
Vice-Mayor closed Public Hearing.
Vice Mayor stated that we will accept Mr. Rooney's presentation. c. Receive, discuss and provide direction regarding (verbal) report from the Homeless Outreach Coordinator regarding the City's response to homeless issues.
Christine Platt stated that when the County does the homeless abatements, that the homeless do come to Jackson. It creates a bit of havoc at first, but she works with the individuals to get back to where they are 5 Jackson City Council Agenda Monday, September 26, 2022 needed. Christine is hoping to hire part-time help, to take some of the responsibilities off the Police Officers. We do need to continue the discussion to figure out a plan of what we are going to do with the needs and issues. She stated that we have a manageable population here, versus Sacramento, and so we need to have new ideas on how to help the un-housed. She mentioned that there are a lot of Agencies in the Community that are actively working at improving and following through on the work that they are doing and some that still don't.
Vice Mayor stated that she is very grateful that we have Christine, who is doing great at working with the homeless in Jackson. She also said that the un-housed people need to want to help themselves and the City needs to come up with ideas and plans to help in this effort.
Ms. Platt said that as we are seeing people from other cities coming to our area and we need to have a plan to manage it and have a minimum impact on our community. She does tell the new unhoused that we are limited on resources in our small community, we don't have extra, so where would you like to go to? Ms. Platt is also working with ATCCA (Amador Tuolumne Community Action Agency), to help individuals in Amador toward self-sufficiency.
CM Godde asked Ms. Platt about the tour of Lodi's low barrier shelter. She said they house 50 people overnight, currently, those people can have their pets with them. They have a shower there and Social Services case Managers to help them. She said she talked with the Manager of the site and the Manager said to give them a month or two to work out the kinks. Ms. Platt will then revisit the site and see how it is working. CM Godde told Ms. Platt that the next time she will be going to one of the tours, he would be willing to also go and he said that they might want to bring a County Supervisor to go along.
Chief Myndrup said that ever since Christine has come on board she has done a wonderful job and I think she's done an amazing job at limiting the impact the homeless population has on our City. It is overwhelming. I have 6 Officers, 2 Sergeants and myself at the Police Department. It's frustrating. I've had weeks when I'm just down hearted and frustrated because our hands are tied on a lot of things we can do. City Council asked the Chief, what do you need from us? Chief Myndrup responded, I need elected officials to get together with the County elected officials and come up with some viable solutions.
Council responded that they will help.
Vice Mayor asked for any questions or comments from the Public in the room or online? None heard. Vice Mayor closed the Public Hearing.
City Attorney stated that he wanted to remind everyone that we did adopt the "No camping ordinance" at critical infrastructure sites, which is one of the stronger tools the Cities have adopted. Considering the 9th Circuit case, which does prevent us from banning camping completely for the unhoused community. I think the ordinance that was mentioned about the City of Sacramento, that Christine talked about, is really tailored to a problem that they are having about camps that are blocking sidewalks. I hope we don't have that problem, but if we ever did that is absolutely something we can look at. The potential issue is, there has to be someplace to camp and you end up moving camps around. Our ordinance that we did adopt, bans camping under bridges and other sites that we designated. d. Traffic Impacts and Concerns pertaining to ACUSD School Site Consolidation Plan and an Update on ACT's response. (CM McLean request)
6 Jackson City Council Agenda Monday, September 26, 2022 CM Mclean stated that he was at the last ACT meeting and we were discussing the consolidation that is going to be proposed and will be in the November 8h ballot. We are not taking a position, either way, on that ballot. We are looking at the traffic impacts if this does pass in the ballot. ACT is taking the same stance and they are very concerned the environmental impact reports possibly not being created to address the bussing that is coming out of lone and at the highways. The impact of traffic for us in Jackson is on Amador Lane, as we are looking at potentially 300 more students at Argonaut Lane up and down that street a day. It seems like they are not addressing the traffic impacts. Its going to impact our police, environmental issues, air quality. ACTC is going to meet more with the schools, on this issue, to see where they are coming from on these issues. What came up in the discussion at ACTC was that a potential mitigation factor could be using Wicklow Way, across from Walmart all the way through Hoffman Stoney St. As a City, I think we need to keep close track on this, because if this passes and the impacts happen and we have failed to react or respond, we are all going to have to answer to that. There has been talk that if the bond doesn't pass, they are going to take out a loan to get this accomplished.
Vice Mayor asked if either the Police Chief or Fire Chief have heard anything about this item from the school district or school board?
Police Chief Myndrup responded that he also heard that if the bond doesn't go through, they are still going to get this accomplished. He said there is a concern about the incoming traffic to the High School.
Vice Mayor asked if we could draft a letter to the School District and ask them to come give us a presentation? Vice Mayor closed the Public Hearing.
e. Resolution 2022- 21 Approving and Accepting Vukovich Way as a city street.
City Manager Kimball stated that the resolution is to clarify the ownership of Vukovich Way. Upon receiving the paving request, the staff did some research. It turned out that Shopping Circle, the loop version of Shopping Dr. has been abandoned by the City in 1978. However, the Vukovich Way portion of it, appears the City had accepted it as a roadway. However, the Parcel Map was unclear. She discussed this with the City Attorney and City Engineer and we decided that we do a resolution.
CM McLean asked Public Works Superintendent, Bree Wilder, if any responses have come in regarding paving it.
Mr. Wilder said, we did get an RFP out for the paving of Vukovich Way, but not Shopping Dr. circle. We are also adding the paving of the area around the Scout Hut.
Any Public comments or questions?
Lana Vukovich- said, I just want to clarify that it was only Vukovich Way since 2005, so in 1978 it was Shopping Dr.
Vice Mayor closed the Public Hearing.
Vice Mayor asked for a Motion.
Motion to approve adoption of City Council Resolution 2022-21 Approving and Accepting Vukovich Way as a city street. Moved by Councilmember Simmons, seconded by Councilmember Godde, and carried by a 4 to 0 roll call vote:
AYES: Gonsalves, Godde, McLean, Simmons
NOES: None
ABSENT: Stimpson
ABSTAIN: None
7 Jackson City Council Agenda Monday, September 26, 2022 f. Receive, discuss and provide direction regarding Sutter St. Stormwater drainpipe situation and collaboration with DTSC on its Argonaut Dam drainage project to consolidate two project sites.
Bree Wilder said, you have a map of what they have been doing for the last 2 years. Matt Ospital, City Engineer and myself have been working with DTSC. Originally, we thought they were only doing 1 pipeline, and we are hopeful that this is the case, as we are planning on paving around the Scout Hut and DTSC's blue line would interfere with the paving. Matt and I are pushing for just using our existing green line with putting in new pipes and make it up to date. We have also contacted Caltrans to let them know that we are going to have to dig up a trench in the highway and they are good with it. We are trying to get these projects coordinated. The timeline on this is next Spring and they have to have it done by next Winter for EPA coordination.
Vice Mayor asked, any Public comments?
Seeing none, we will close public comments.
8. REGULAR MEETING ADJOURNMENT.
Regular meeting adjournment. 8:50pm.
9. CLOSED SESSION.
• CONFERENCE WITH LEGAL COUNSEL —EXISTING LITIGATION
(Paragraph (1) of subdivision (d) of Section 54956.9)
Name of case: Hooper v. City of Jackson, Amador Superior Court, Case No. 22-CV-12697.
10. CLOSED SESSION ADJOURNMENT.
Closed session adjournment at 9.23 pm.
ATTEST:
rohn 1- October 24, 2022
John Georgette, City Clerk Date Approved
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