City Council Team Building and Goal Setting Special Meeting Page 1 of 28 March 5, 2022 7 City of Lafayette
Special Meeting Minutes
City Council Team Building and Goal Setting Meeting
Teleconference Meeting – Watch on the City of Lafayette’s YouTube Channel at March 5, 2022 http://bit.ly/LoveLafayetteYouTube Submit public comments to [email protected] 9:00 a.m. before or during the meeting.
On March 16, 2020, the Contra Costa County Health Department issued a shelter in place order directing all individuals living within the County to shelter at their place, directing all businesses and governmental agencies to cease non-essential operations, and prohibiting all non-essential gatherings of any number of individuals, and ordering cessation of non-essential travel. To protect our residents, officials, and staff, and aligned with the Governor’s recent executive order allowing the City Council to hold public meetings via teleconferencing to promote social distancing, this meeting will be accessible electronically to all members of the public and the Council.
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1. CALL TO ORDER
Mayor Gerringer called the Regular City Council meeting to order at 9:00 a.m. via teleconference.
2. ROLL CALL
Present: City Council: Mayor Gerringer; Vice Mayor Anduri; Councilmembers Candell, Dawson and Kwok
Absent: None
Staff Present: Niroop Srivatsa, City Manager; Tracy Robinson, Administrative Services Director, Suzanne Iarla, Communications Analyst; Mala Subramanian, City Attorney
3. ADOPTION OF AGENDA
ACTION: It was M/S/C (Dawson/Candell) to adopt the agenda. Vote: 5-0 (Ayes: Gerringer, Anduri, Candell, Dawson, and Kwok; Noes: None).
City Council Team Building and Goal Setting Special Meeting Page 2 of 28 March 5, 2022
4. PUBLIC COMMENTS - (for Items Not on the Agenda)
There were no public comments.
5. Authorization to purchase and fly the Ukrainian national flag Recommendation: Authorize staff to hoist the Ukrainian flag at Lafayette Plaza.
Mayor Gerringer opened the public comment period, and there were no speakers.
ACTION: It was M/S/C (Anduri/Candell) to authorize staff to hoist the Ukrainian flag at Lafayette Plaza.
Vote: 5-0 (Ayes: Gerringer, Anduri, Candell, Dawson, and Kwok; Noes: None).
6. Introductions, review of agenda and desired outcomes Mayor Gerringer introduced Nadine Levin, MRG, LLC, who will serve as facilitator for the team building and goal setting workshop.
Nadine Levin provided a brief PowerPoint overview of subject topics, meeting protocols and schedule.
She introduced Chris who will keep notes which will later turn into a report for the Council. She then led the Council to answer icebreaker questions: 1) What has surprised you the most in the last 12 months of your Council service; and 2) What is the most enjoyable and the most challenging aspects of being a Councilmember? Councilmembers then relayed their individual answers, as follows:
Dawson: 1) the pace; and 2) not being able to be together due to COVID.
Anduri: 1) the length of meetings; and 2) enjoys working with the citizenry and making things happen and what is frustrating is not being able to get a lot done due to staff vacancies.
Kwok: 1) the gap of public perception versus reality in terms of the City’s affluence, the idea that the that the City falls short of its obligations, and that City staff works very hard; and 2) enjoys being on the Council.
Candell: 1) when she heard Councilmember Cameron Burks was stepping down; and 2) working with City Manager Srivatsa and the challenges with loss of staff in the Planning Department.
Gerringer: 1) echoed Councilmembers comments; and 2) working with residents, staff and her colleagues to keep Lafayette a place to love. Challenging is managing expectations and staffing.
Ms. Levin said she spoke to individual Councilmembers between February 14 and 25, and said there was consensus that the main goal for today is to reach agreement in a collaborative manner of the priorities going forward, like Council discussions to be authentic and open, want to discuss proper communication with the public, feeling that the Council team is working well in general and are collaborative in nature, likes to see Council meetings used to move priorities forward and focus on outcomes, understand that the addition of new priorities will impact the ability to deliver on existing priorities.
BREAK
The Council took a break for Ms. Levin to email the PowerPoint presentation to staff and Councilmembers.
7. Setting priorities for FY 22-23
Recommendation: Identify priorities, seek consensus and discuss next steps City Council Team Building and Goal Setting Special Meeting Page 3 of 28 March 5, 2022 City Manager Srivatsa stated the Council reaffirmed its priorities in January and she shared things going on now and tasks that are upcoming span this fiscal year and the next. The Council had four priorities identified last March, combined two relating to transportation safety and thus created three priorities. In the arena of public safety and transportation safety, Toole is preparing reports for safety recommendations around schools. The next steps would be to implement some of the quick fixes right away.
Staff has sent out an RFP for the Local Roadway Safety Plan which will be viewed with a Vision Zero lens for the Council’s resolution, are in the middle of the Burton Valley Pilot project, have some recommendations on some improvements to their roundabout, the Pleasant Hill Road Pathway Design will also be undertaken this year, and staff is getting ready to look at next year’s CIP and reformat how the CIP is viewed given the funding challenges and requirements of having a shovel-ready project ready to be eligible for funding.
In addition, the City stepped up police enforcement and on-going education with schools and bike safety.
These tasks are primarily in the Engineering Division of the Public Works and Police Departments.
Regarding the wildfire prevention and utility safety arena, the Emergency Preparedness Commission has drafted its goals for the upcoming year, and one is to increase the number of Firewise neighborhoods which includes significant outreach and community education. The City needs to update the Emergency Operations Plan and make sure the EOC and Web-EOC are ready should an emergency or disaster take place.
The Gas Alliance Task Force is meeting to establish some baseline criteria the City could use on an annual basis to ensure the utilities are maintaining their infrastructure in a timely manner. These tasks rest currently with the Police Department and the Fire District and the Planning Department.
The third is creating a vibrant downtown and supporting the business community. ARPA has dominated discussions this year. In addition to disbursement of funds, the City is creating programs such as the outdoor dining program, business marketing, small business technical assistance programs, the gift card program and also the ARPA Subcommittee will talk about extending the outdoor dining and relaxation of regulations at the Council’s next meeting. So, the priorities are being implemented through a series of tasks and programs.
Additionally, the Council will start to discuss how it would like to spend the next round of ARPA monies.
These tasks rest with the Administrative Services Department and, to some extent, with the Planning Department. In addition, staff is carrying through some of the Council’s earlier priorities with the DEIB Committee, staffed by Administrative Services, the General Plan and Housing Element Update staffed by the Planning Department, the Age-Friendly plan staffed by Senior Services, and on-going attention to legislative matters and city/schools collaboration staffed by the Administrative Services Department.
City Council Team Building and Goal Setting Special Meeting Page 4 of 28 March 5, 2022 Her point and suggestion would be that the Council has a lot on its plate, as well as staff, and it will take 2-4 months to fully staff up. She acknowledged her deep appreciation to the Council for recognizing their staffing shortage and for giving them permission and funding to staff adequately. The City is not alone in their staffing challenges and she described adjacent cities that have lost positions. She and Ms. Robinson will work hard to get fully staffed, but from her perspective, their recommendation is that a few tasks be done well for each of the priorities each year rather than do many tasks and not have the time to put time and effort into it.
Ms. Levin spoke of routine work of the City in providing services to the community, planning for the future, managing human and financial resources, responding to unplanned events, interacting with other governmental agencies, maintaining infrastructure and meeting statutory requirements. As projects are completed they become part of the routine work of a city.
Regarding goal setting, the Council can identify new priorities, if any, they wish to discuss and seek clarification on those new priorities, and discuss and arrive at a consensus of top priorities for 2022/23.
When talking about priorities, she suggested talking about them in terms of outcomes rather than tasks, and she asked for comments and questions regarding current priorities.
New Priorities:
• A priority in understanding challenges to staffing levels, work assigned, and extended growth of staff (Dawson).
• Cited an increase in residents seeking services versus what the City can provide and the suggestion to measure the desire for increased services and determine level of staffing (Anduri). • Developing a long-range visioning process and plan for the community in terms of the desires and funding for staff (Gerringer).
• Resources other than one-time money paying for staffing which is a stop gap measure for now (Kwok).
• Lock in costs and funding to implement safe streets through Toole regarding public safety around schools (Kwok).
• The need to analyze and develop a Mt. Diablo Boulevard Corridor Specific Plan to look at all facets of adding a significant number of RHNA units and people along one corridor, plan ahead to build bike and pedestrian infrastructure so new corridor residents do not need vehicles to access businesses and sites along the corridor, or making it a ’15-minute village’, plan now for added parks and cultural opportunities along the Mt. Diablo corridor and encourage retail service and office space, and develop design guidelines that promote a semi-rural ambience which would include trees, open spaces, etc. (Anduri).
o The first priority is to implement the safety recommendations around the 7 schools. o The City adopted Vision Zero and their immediate task is to create the Local Roadway Safety Plan.
o Being less ambitious about turning the entire city into a bike/ped friendly city but thinking practically to have at least one safe bike corridor or path from each area of the City to the downtown.
• Prioritize bike path connectors on School Street for funding opportunities (Gerringer).
City Council Team Building and Goal Setting Special Meeting Page 5 of 28 March 5, 2022 Ms. Srivatsa stated staff can identify funding and projects but cannot apply for every grant. If they get one grant per year, it is a big deal, given a grant translates to work. She recognized Vice Mayor Anduri’s suggestion for a Mt. Diablo Corridor Specific Plan as valuable; however, given the Council’s undertaking of two critical plans, even with full staff, they would not be able to create a specific plan for Mt. Diablo Boulevard which is similar to undertaking a mini-General Plan. Therefore, the Council will need to determine how to fit this in, so the two documents do not conflict with each other.
Vice Mayor Anduri said the Housing Element is the only part of the General Plan that is legally required which the City is undertaking. Unfortunately, the outcome of that plan will change the City so the focus of what will happen in the city will be in the Mt. Diablo corridor. He would consider pausing the General Plan process and focusing on the Mt. Diablo Boulevard corridor because this is where everything will happen in the next few years. Lafayette will change and the Council’s job is to have it change for the better.
Ms. Srivatsa said the City is mandated to update its Housing Element now. They are not mandated to update the rest of the General but are doing it because it is 20 years old and the right thing to do. The General Plan process is a lengthy process given they are tackling every aspect of the City’s growth. She has not thought this out, but they could zoom in on the Downtown Specific Plan and strategically update it to reflect higher densities, pedestrian/bicycle preferences, where housing should be, commercial, retail, etc. Staff could just do an implementation of the Housing Element in the downtown, which can be done.
She was not sure how the community would look at it, and it needs to be thought through, but she could think about it more and get back to the Council. But she agrees that growth needs to be guided in a more strategic way than it is today.
Vice Mayor Anduri said he thinks the public would see that asthe appropriate response. He knows people appreciate what the City is doing with the General Plan and there are so many aspects of what will happen downtown. He thinks they could wait on the other elements and some of the things the public is most interested in are in their priorities, like Vision Zero, the Safe Routes to Schools, which are being handled.
But given staffing, he thinks they need to focus on staffing in the areas that will make the most difference in the City in the next few years.
Ms. Srivatsa added that it is staffing but also having two plans underway at the same time is confusing to the community. She thinks if they want to pivot they should do one and not both at the same time. Vice Mayor Anduri said he agrees, and they have not solicited thoughts from the public on the other elements.
If they indicate they are putting them off to focus on getting comments about what they want to happen downtown, he thinks this would be understandable.
Ms. Levin said the Council currently has as a priority to “Create a Vibrant Downtown and Support the Business Community.” This item is broader than that, but she is trying to see if things fit into their current priorities or she asked if it was very different.
Councilmember Dawson said if they do not focus on what will happen in the corridor they will not have supported their downtown businesses. She agrees with expanding on that priority given the ARPA funding is supporting businesses right not and they can expand on the vibrancy piece. She would support focusing on downtown and housing.
City Council Team Building and Goal Setting Special Meeting Page 6 of 28 March 5, 2022 Councilmember Kwok voiced appreciation of Vice Mayor Anduri’s comments, referred to the homework the Council got and an article on 10 best practices city governments should do. Number one on the list was to envision the future 20 to 30 years forward and go backwards to get to their vision. They have codified the Mission and Vision Statement, but the next appropriate step is to then articulate what is the vision of the City.
He questioned how right the Housing Element is if they do not have a 20-year plan they are building to and the end point, which is a gap in his mind. He fully supports the Council looking into the future 20 years from now, trying to nail that down and working backwards as to how they get there. If that means putting a pause on the bigger General Plan approach, even though he thinks it is the right community mechanism to get people involved, if they need to prepare a quicker element of a downtown plan, they could do this and then the wider elements of the General Plan immediately after.
Mayor Gerringer said she thinks this is a great discussion and she would like to see the Council continue with the current three priorities that the Council re-committed to in January. Much of looking at a plan for the Mt. Diablo corridor overlaps in those priorities but she thinks it is a separate fourth priority that will take end pieces of the other three which she would like to see them be committed to. She would not have thought about pausing the General Plan but thinks there is some merit in having this come back and have the Council discuss this at another meeting.
Councilmember Candell said she thinks this is smart and thinks they probably can do it. GPAC would be fully capable of pivoting as well and bringing the community along with it. She thanked Vice Mayor Anduri for his idea.
Mayor Gerringer referred to climate resilience and sustainability which the Council needs to look at and thinks how they layer these things into the budget just approved is important.
Councilmember Dawson thinks they should flush out what “Create a Vibrant Downtown” really means because it was in response to the pandemic. They have focused on ARPA funds and economic recovery from March 2021 which has been good. Therefore, economic development is what comes out of a vibrant downtown and this might be a further discussion.
Vice Mayor Anduri said he sees four priorities; the three the Council had and adding “Develop a Mt. Diablo Boulevard Corridor Specific Plan” as a fourth priority. He is concerned the message might send if the “Create a Vibrant Downtown” does not continue as a priority. He agrees they need to look at what they do in terms of economic development and this might be a future discussion. More needs to be done in planning for economic development as Lafayette grows. The way he tried to look at this is that he created a list of items he would like to see the City accomplish such as outcomes in 2022/23. Some of them are already things they are aiming to do, but a number of things are contained in existing work plans such as completing the impact fee nexus study and review of level of impact fees. This needs to happen the same as the Downtown Strategic Plan so they can figure out next year how to fund the parks that go there and what impact fees need to be on new developments. Some are sub-categories of larger visions, and he agrees with having the Environmental Task Force to bring to the Council a draft resolution in the area of EV charging for multi-family buildings. He would like to see something come back on gas-powered leaf blowers from the task force.
City Council Team Building and Goal Setting Special Meeting Page 7 of 28 March 5, 2022 Ms. Levin said some of these are tasks and not priorities, some of which the City Manager is charged with doing. Her role is to come forward with a work plan which has tasks in it. When she does that, there may be something not inclusive of where this discussion goes. So, she does not want to stop the discussion but have not too much out there but for the Council to look at its priorities, make sure they are framed in a way to see an outcome. He is hearing the Council wants to keep the three it has and whether there are one or two others that they can agree together to move forward on.
Mayor Gerringer said if there is one that does not fit in the current priorities and a fourth priority is set to create a Mt. Diablo Boulevard Corridor Specific Plan she thinks the City Manager would bring them back to the Council.
Ms. Srivatsa added that the Management Team is having an all-day retreat on March 25th and staff will take the Council’s priorities and talk about the work plans for the coming year. She will return at the first meeting in April as to the things staff can do given current resources. If the Council would like to substitute some of the tasks for tasks that are more important, that would be the time to do so which will be folded into the budget.
Councilmember Dawson said they just folded in mobility into pedestrian safety and then they are adding a more expansive priority for businesses. The City has hit many objectives for the priority of creating a vibrant downtown, particularly with ARPA funding and this will continue. She does not think changing this out means they are de-emphasizing support of businesses and it will force the conversation about economic development and how the City looks at how to bring that in-house. She thinks the Council should keep the three priorities, noted that the commissions need a focus and she think it would be plausible to have the Mt. Diablo Boulevard Corridor Specific Plan as a priority moving forward.
Vice Mayor Anduri thinks he would support swapping out the Create a Vibrant Downtown with Develop a Mt. Diablo Boulevard Corridor Specific Plan. The Council subcommittee will continue to look at what to do with ARPA funds for economic recovery and development, so this will continue. In addition, they have not talked about the Park Theatre and support the Council has given to it.
He was going to suggest as an additional priority is Developing the Financial Plan. But, they either make it a priority and think about how they will finance all of this over the long-term or, they say staff knows they need to do that and staff will come to the Council with recommendations, so this becomes a staff task.
The only problem is that almost any financing requires them to go to the voters in either the 2022 or 2024 election.
Councilmember Kwok said if they prioritize the Mt. Diablo Corridor Plan and then staff meets on March 25th it is not like the City Manager is going to prioritize the plan. So, he was going back to the idea of thinking forward 20-30 years, establishing planning for that whether the mechanism is through GPAC or something else, and then being on a faster track and having that inform their work this year. He is not clear whether that is a staff responsibility, GPAC or City Council.
City Council Team Building and Goal Setting Special Meeting Page 8 of 28 March 5, 2022 Ms. Srivatsa said staff implements City Council policies and goals. If the Council wants to pause on one of their tasks, such as the General Plan Update, and substitute it, it comes from the Council. A suggestion would be if the Council identifies its draft priorities today, it might be useful to take it to the Council on the 14th just for time to digest things. If the Council gives direction on March 14th to staff that, it will help staff with its March 25th planning and then they can return with more information for tasks under each priority. She would recommend taking what was discussed today to a regular Council meeting on March 14th.
She also wanted to comment on Vice Mayor Anduri’s comments regarding financial health. She thinks it is important to come from the Council. If the Council believes it is important to look at the City’s longterm fiscal health it should be identified as a Council priority. This sends a message to staff and to the community.
Ms. Levin said she also heard earlier about residents’ expectations all of which cost money and time. If the Council talks about a priority of financial health, she asked if these dovetail with each other.
Councilmember Dawson agreed it does and it would educate the community as well as help communicate to the public how the Council looks to fund expectations and also give the true reckoning of current staffing.
Vice Mayor Anduri said a priority would be to complete a plan for fiscal sustainability beyond FY 2024/25 based on the community’s desire for services over the next 20 years and decide whether a revenue measure should be placed on the November 2024 ballot. Now as he is listening, he thinks the top and immediate priority is figuring out what they are going to do along the Mt. Diablo Boulevard corridor. If they plan, there will be costs to what they develop along that corridor. Now he is thinking whether they should wait for a more ambitious look at what needs to be financed until they know what they need to finance along the Mt. Diablo corridor. For example, if they put a measure on the ballot for items not related to the Mt. Diablo corridor and it passes and they discover in order to make the Town work they need to fund infrastructure and other developments along the Mt. Diablo corridor, it would be difficult to go back to the voters and get additional funding.
So, now he is having difficulty with the sequencing of this. He thinks they should start planning for the Mt. Diablo corridor and then he questioned whether they know what they want there before starting to think about future funding.
Ms. Levin asked what would be a timeframe from once moving forward on a specific plan to the fruition of that plan.
Ms. Srivatsa said it would be a minimum of one year. They still do not know where the opportunity sites are going to be, and the specific plan would be influenced by the Housing Element. That component has not occurred yet. They can go through the process of delaying the General Plan and she would talk with planning about what that means, transitioning their volunteers into a different way of thinking which would be more focused into the downtown and then hire a consultant or additional help to get them there. Then, there could be environmental impacts that they may not have covered in the Housing Element EIR. So, she would say one year at a minimum.
Ms. Levin asked what election year would be for considering in the future a bond measure.
City Council Team Building and Goal Setting Special Meeting Page 9 of 28 March 5, 2022 Administrative Services Director Tracy Robinson said technically the next election is 2022 but realistically she did not believe they could get something on the ballot, as well as provide necessary outreach and education. 2024 would probably be the first time they could get on the ballot for a sales tax measure or a bond measure for a very specific project or something that would be on-going.
Councilmember Kwok said the normal times to raise money would be during a general election, but there are possibilities to hold a special election. He asked if they could raise the sales tax by “x” in an off year or he asked if this must be done during a regular election. Ms. Robinson said a general sales tax needs to be done in a general election year at the same time Councilmembers are on the ballot, or every two even years.
City Attorney Mala Subramanian added there are exceptions if findings can be made, but she was not sure they could justify those findings given their reserve.
Councilmember Dawson asked if the Council should be thinking about a priority of being ready by getting information out to the community about guided downtown sustainable growth and being able to shift resources. This would also help to set the stage for what comes next, whether it is a sales tax or bond measure.
Vice Mayor Anduri said in terms of a priority, they will have $3.18 million in the second tranche of ARPA funds coming in July. They need to think about using part of that to plan for shovel-ready projects and grant capabilities and have them ready in the next 6 months. In terms of bringing the public into a process, he is concerned about when to start that. They should see this as a next step once they start the strategic plan and where that leads them, what funding is needed, and then they can move into the long-range fiscal look. He is not sure they are in a position to do the long-term look until they have a better picture of what they want to do in terms of major challenges are identified along the Mt. Diablo corridor.
Councilmember Kwok referred back to putting something on the ballot for 2022, and he would be open to not taking this off of the table because the fact they are hiring a few people and drawing on one-time money to pay for them means they are already in an unsustainable financial situation. So, if they have to wait until 2024 to start generating revenues in 2025, they will be deeper into a hole. They can try to raise some money now and use the next 6 months to educate the public on why, set expectations that this is the just the initial ask for the things they already know they need and in 2024 they can ask for the second tranche of fundraising. They could use this as an on-going educational process to inform the public that they do not have lots of money and will need funding to do these things.
Ms. Levin said if the City wanted an item on the November 2022 ballot, she asked if they would have to have the language ready by August. Ms. Subramanian said yes, generally, but she thinks it might be sooner for the County needing it.
Councilmember Dawson cited the importance of getting the message out to the public via the Council and the importance of educating the public.
Councilmember Candell said she was hesitant about having an election this November. They are in March now. Justifying this to the electorate will be a heavy lift and she did not think they would be successful unless they really take time and lay the case out over a multi-year effort.
City Council Team Building and Goal Setting Special Meeting Page 10 of 28 March 5, 2022 Mayor Gerringer said she is supportive of a fourth priority on Fiscal Sustainability but not necessarily a revenue measure. They have heard questions from residents on whether they are a low or full-service city. It needs to be a Council priority to hold discussions. She appreciates backward mapping and where election requirements are, educating the public about the City’s funds, and agreed it takes time to do a survey, doing due diligence, hiring a consultant, outreach, etc.
Ms. Levin the displayed a slide so the Council could change any wording on its priorities, and she asked if there is anything they have not touched on.
Vice Mayor Anduri said as it relates to the wildfire and preparedness priority and the Attorney General’s quote, “A lot of people are wishing and hoping that wildfire risk wasn’t the new reality and have not quite adapted to the fact that it is.” His concern is that he does not think he has enough information as a policymaker and Councilmember to make decisions on where development goes with what he knows now about the current level of risk faced by the different neighborhoods within Lafayette for 1) destruction of property by wildfire; and 2) loss of life as the result of inadequate evacuation routes and procedures.
From his perspective, it would be worthwhile for the City to engage with an independent expert with an unimpeachable reputation whose findings and recommendations to both inform Council decisions and support decisions that the City may choose to take that challenge requirements imposed on the City by levels of government that might not understand actual conditions in Lafayette. The questions that need to be answered are: 1) What are the current risk levels for specific neighborhoods for property loss and for loss of life; 2) How do existing levels of residential development affect the level of risk; 3) How would infill development of single family residences on existing vacant lots affect the level of risk; 4 ) How would the addition of ADUs affect the level of risk; 5) How would the addition of dwelling units through SB 9 development and lot splits affect the level of risk; 6) What are the standards for an acceptable evacuation.
The City is encouraging ADUs, are faced with the situation of SB 9 building, and he is addressing areas outside of the downtown. He does not think the Council has enough information to encourage more building in these areas until he knows really whether they are building too much that they are putting every resident in danger from not being able to evacuate. He asks: 1) Are any current levels of risk above what should be the acceptable level of risk; 2) How do we establish an acceptable level of risk; and 3) If they are above it, what can they do to reduce the level of risk to an acceptable level.
They are trying to plan to mitigate the risk of wildfire. He is just concerned that all decisions they make may be adding to a situation that they are putting people at risk and do not have the facts or information in order to make these decisions.
He would like to see the City spend the money to get answers to what are the evacuation dangers they face. Whenever a development comes up, he has no way to evaluate whether the evacuation risk is a legitimate concern or not and he would like to have some basis to be able to make those decisions.
Councilmember Dawson agrees this should be more specific and to accomplish that under that priority.
She would also add a risk analysis and awareness of the pipeline issues and dig in’s. There are major transmission lines through Springhill literally behind people’s homes. If someone is within the zone that the CPUC gauges as a significant risk to life and limb, the public should be aware of it for planning purposes and risk analysis.
City Council Team Building and Goal Setting Special Meeting Page 11 of 28 March 5, 2022 Ms. Levin said there is a task plan under the Wildfire Prevention and Utility Safety item. She asked if this is something within that task plan or something to be added to the plan.
Ms. Srivatsa confirmed it is not something within the current task plan. The Emergency Preparedness Commission and staff have come up with four goals and it does not include this. She is not sure of the amount of resources that would be needed and cost to do this. She will have to get back to the Council on what this means and whether or not staff can drop other priorities if the Council believes this is more important.
Councilmember Candell stated she has heard Fehr and Peers is doing some sort of safety assessment, and she questioned whether this could be rolled into that .
Ms. Srivatsa said this is an excellent point and she has forwarded Vice Mayor Anduri’s email to Mr. Wolff who is connecting with Fehr and Peers.
Vice Mayor Anduri said he would look back at the minutes of the Council’s discussion. He does not think what Fehr and Peers is doing now is what he had in mind. It needs to go way beyond that. He also pointed out that what the EIR states about evacuation routes is that if you build many houses, the City will have to change their evacuation plan. So, there was no analysis of increased risks.
Mayor Gerringer said she has heard that piece is in the works and will come. Process-wise, if the Council agrees they could ask that this return separately from the work plan if they think it is something that needs to rise above. Or, they could have it come back with the work plan relating to the wildfire preparedness priority. The Council will need to make decisions in May, and it feels like it needs to come back separately if they want this information for the Council’s deliberations in May on the Housing Element.
Ms. Levin again displayed a slide showed the Council’s current three priorities. She asked the Council to confirm them, perhaps reword the one on “Create a Vibrant Downtown” and she also heard the desire to begin a process of a Financial Plan and wording.
Wildfire Prevention and Utility Safety – City Manager Srivatsa said the Council needs to decide whether they need to separate that from staff’s work plan and bring it forward or whether they want her to bring it back as part of the work plan and decide which tasks to undertake. It is currently not on the plan and because it is tied to the Housing Element and environmental analysis, there is a question of when the Council wants to see this information.
Vice Mayor Anduri said he knows it is related to the Housing Element. What he is concerned about is the impact on the neighborhoods and planning for outside of the downtown corridor going forward. They keep reading how Berkeley and Oakland are banning ADUs in the hilly areas and the State is pushing back on that. They talk about fire danger, but he has not seen anyone with a study that justifies any of that. In the City’s planning, they are promoting ADUs, dealing with SB 9 development, and how they treat their own infill development, he thinks they need to have a study. So, he would see it as a broader matter outside of the Housing Element.
Ms. Srivatsa said therefore if the majority of the Council wants to add this to the list for next year’s work plan, she will bring it back at the first meeting in April as part of the work plan. Councilmembers agreed.
City Council Team Building and Goal Setting Special Meeting Page 12 of 28 March 5, 2022 Mayor Gerringer referred to the actual priority of Wildfire Prevention and Utility Safety, she thinks it is also ‘Preparedness” and she suggested adding “Wildfire Prevention and Preparedness and Utility Safety”.
Councilmembers agreed.
Councilmember Kwok asked if the Council should dive into sub task elements on other priorities at this meeting or a meeting for the future. Ms. Srivatsa said she would like a greater level of detail. She referred to public safety that have a lot of descriptive words that focus on schools, ped/bike mobility, and she would like more direction on wildfire prevention and preparedness and utility safety.
Councilmember Kwok said the Emergency Preparedness Commission came out with four of their goals of this year and staff has these underlying elements, including increasing public communications and outreach which has a budget impact. The other cost impact is hiring a consultant to better understand the City’s wildfire risk as requested by Vice Mayor Anduri. In addition to the housing lens on whether to approve ADUs and other policies, generally, the consultant should not just have the Housing Element but in looking forward 20 years of wildfire risk, he asked what the City should be doing to protect its citizens, what communities are most at risk, some have one versus two methods of exit, whether they should build a second exit and use eminent domain. The City is going to be in a wildfire environment decades ahead and he feels they should plan for that future and do as much as they can to be prepared and safe as possible. Scoping of the work should be done so they know how much it will cost and who to hire.
Vice Mayor Anduri agrees with this because a consultant might say right now the City is beyond a level where they should be in terms of developing. It might say nothing more should be built in Reliez Valley and if more is built, additional evacuation routes should be built, or it might be impractical.
Another task he would add under wildfire prevention is the need to join the discussions that Moraga and Orinda have been active in, which is the shaded fire break discussion. Orinda has completed one fire break around the City. They saw a grant proposal for a fire break that will go to Moraga to the south and then around Rossmoor, and he thinks they should look at adding a shaded fire break to the north of Lafayette as well to the list.
Mayor Gerringer said in looking at the City’s tree ordinance as it relates to clearing trees and fuels management, the Council has discussed this but she would like to hear what that means and how it would fit into the work plan.
Ms. Srivatsa said she looks at what department takes ownership, and this is police. The Emergency Preparedness Commission has already established four goals. These additional goals or tasks will be added to their scope. She will work with the Police Chief and Kathy Moscato who staff that commission to talk about resources and how much they can do. With the exception of the tree ordinance, which is planning, the remainder are housed in the police department. They will work with the fire district as well. But all not all tasks will end up on the Emergency Preparedness Commission’s list for the coming year because that would be too much for them to do.
Public Safety, Pedestrian Safety: Create a vibrant downtown and support the business community. She heard from Council they want to reword that and bring in the Mt. Diablo Boulevard Corridor Specific Plan in that context. Or she asked if the Mt. Diablo Boulevard Corridor Specific Plan a separate priority.
City Council Team Building and Goal Setting Special Meeting Page 13 of 28 March 5, 2022 Vice Mayor Anduri said he sees this as definitely a separate priority, but he would support taking off “Create a Vibrant Downtown” and support the business community because this is something they will be doing. When doing the Specific Plan, they will definitely have the business community in mind as well as other things to support the business community.
Ms. Srivatsa asked if that priority should say “Suspend work on the General Plan Update and prepare a Mt. Diablo Boulevard Corridor Specific Plan.”
Councilmember Dawson said it really is a new Downtown Specific Plan model with emphasis on Mt.
Diablo. As far as suspend the General Plan, she would place that secondarily.
Vice Mayor Anduri said he is referring to it as Mt. Diablo Corridor because it goes beyond the boundaries of the Downtown Specific Plan.
Ms. Srivatsa said she is hearing the Council would like to create a new specific plan for the downtown because housing is not only going to be located on Mt. Diablo but on Moraga Road and other streets. The Council also wants to zoom in on how Mt. Diablo, from start to finish, looks like in Lafayette. So, it might be to create a new Downtown Specific Plan and a Mt. Diablo Corridor Plan, as a suggestion. The Mt. Diablo corridor does not go beyond the two interchanges.
Vice Mayor Anduri asked if it could say “Create a Mt. Diablo Corridor and Downtown Specific Plan”.
Councilmember Kwok asked if this would include the area north of Hwy 24 as well, noting there is the distributed plan and the downtown plan in the EIR and have not come to a conclusion yet, but the bulk of the new homes could be in one or the other.
Vice Mayor Anduri said this is the level of detail they can get at the Council meeting. He sees this as south of Hwy 24, including streets to the north and south of Mt. Diablo in the corridor. Ms. Srivatsa said the Housing Element is considering more density north of Hwy 24. The Council has not made a decision yet on whether that should be included but it is on the table, so this can be discussed at the regular Council meeting on March 14th.
Vice Mayor Anduri said he thinks at a minimum the BART lot should be included in this plan because this will tie into bicycle and pedestrians. When he thinks about the BART lots, the City will be a lot better of doing specific planning for what goes on the BART lots than passively letting it happen to them.
Ms. Levin asked if the specific language for creating a Downtown and Mt. Diablo Corridor Specific Plan, the language about the BART lots should be included and discussed on March 14th.
Mayor Gerringer referred to Public Safety, Pedestrian Safety and suggested it be reworded to something like “Keep Focus on Traffic, Congestion, Pedestrian Safety, Particularly Around Schools, Crosswalks and Thoroughfares.”
Councilmember Dawson suggested simplifying Public Safety – Focus on Schools and Downtown Core, given it would apply to ingress and egress. Mayor Gerringer said she thinks it is community-wide but has a focus on traffic and it goes into the neighborhoods.
City Council Team Building and Goal Setting Special Meeting Page 14 of 28 March 5, 2022 Vice Mayor Anduri said he would keep it simple and name the priority “Improve Pedestrian and Traffic Safety and Multi-Modal Mobility” and the tasks as, 1) “Implement safety recommendations around the 7 schools and Implement Vision Zero” and 2) “Create the Local Roadway Safety Plan.” Ms. Levin asked how the Council wished to phrase “Develop Fiscal Sustainability Plan”.
Vice Mayor Anduri suggested it state, “Develop a Fiscal Sustainability Plan”, or add “…Beyond FY 2024/25” and/or consider expanding it to state “…based on the community desire for services over the next 20 years”.
Councilmember Dawson voiced support for it to read “Develop a Fiscal Sustainability Plan”.
Councilmember Kwok said he likes the time-bound clause as opposed to the last phrase or something like “Develop a 2022-2030 Fiscal Sustainability Plan” so they must get a scope of time included.
Mayor Gerringer referred to budgeting for 2 and 3 years’ timeframe and voiced support for the original suggestion.
Vice Mayor Anduri said this is planning for beyond 2024/25 when the single source money runs out, but this might be too hard to explain. So, he would defer to Councilmember Kwok’s suggestion of “Develop a Plan for Fiscal Sustainability through 2030” and likes having a timeframe.
Councilmember Dawson suggested adding“…to meet short-term and long-term needs”.
Ms. Levin asked if Councilmembers agreed on “Develop a Fiscal Sustainability Plan for short-term and long-term needs”. Councilmember agreed and agreed on the four priorities:
• Wildfire Prevention and Preparedness and Utility Safety • Create a Mt. Diablo Corridor and Downtown Specific Plan • Improve Pedestrian and Traffic Safety and Multi-Modal Mobility • Develop a Fiscal Sustainability Plan for short-term and long-term needs Mayor Gerringer opened the public comment period, and there were no speakers.
BREAK
Mayor Gerringer called for a lunch break at 11:47 a.m. and thereafter reconvened the special meeting at 12:16 p.m.
8. Review of policy recommendations from the Management Partners Staffing Assessment Study Recommendation: Discuss and direct staff
Ms. Levin presented the recommendations made by Management Partners on staffing:
• Establish a City Council policy seeking direction from a Council majority before assigning staff to follow up on significant requests for additional information; • Create a document for each commission and committee that clearly defines its role and authority and establishes expectations for commissioner or committee members; City Council Team Building and Goal Setting Special Meeting Page 15 of 28 March 5, 2022 • Provide training workshops based on best practices for all commission and committee members on essential elements of running successful meetings;
• Reassess the Stanford ACT Report on Commissions and Committees with the goal of streamlining commissions and committees through consolidation, elimination or completion of the assigned objective
She has worked with several cities regarding work with commissions and committees which is challenging, given an agency’s reliance on volunteer input and recommendations to their councils. Two consultants reviewed this over the last 5 or 6 years and there is an efficiency issue and a staffing issue with committees and commissions and, at times, mission scope creep if they take on more than their role designates.
An update has been provided by the City Manager on which committees and commissions the City has, what they are doing, and she thinks it would be helpful to discuss where the Council can come to agreement on these and end this part of the meeting with next steps and some idea of a timeline. The Council discussed this one year ago in its retreat when they wanted to bring it back for discussion again.
She referred to each of the bullet points and asked for discussion:
• Establish a City Council policy seeking direction from a Council majority before assigning staff to follow up on significant requests for additional information.
Ms. Srivatsa recommended focusing on the next bullet point. • Create a document for each commission and committee that clearly defines its role and authority and establishes expectations for commissioner or committee members.
Ms. Levin said another agency created a document in the form of a resolution where they specify what each commission and committee does, what its charge or charter is, and expectations, and she asked for comments about the need for it.
Councilmember Kwok supported the idea, thinks it is helpful to regularly articulate the mission, roles and responsibilities because it is good for everyone to know what the expectations are. He also suggested a webinar to get everyone together to go over it and thinks more than just a document is needed in order to get the follow up action.
Mayor Gerringer echoed Councilmember Kwok, on the need for a charter, getting commissions and committees together because in the past this has happened, and she voiced support.
Councilmember Candell said it is always good to refresh but was concerned and unsure as to how much effort is involved with this process. Ms. Levin said pieces of it exist in documents, and Ms. Srivatsa agreed.
She explained that in the packet table she wanted to go back to the ordinance that created a particular board and just copy and paste the purpose.
City Council Team Building and Goal Setting Special Meeting Page 16 of 28 March 5, 2022 She noted that some of the bodies were created a very long time ago and they may be doing things quite differently today. This will take time and a task assigned to each individual staff member who staffs the committee or commission. She also was struck by the fact that some boards were created by ordinance but others by minute order and perhaps at that point in time it was viewed as temporary, but they have lived on. Also, many of the commissions and committees are not called out in the budget. What this does is their efforts go unnoticed or unrecognized. Additionally, the staff time involved with staffing the commissions/committees are also not considered when adopting the budget. So, these are things to take into consideration.
Councilmember Dawson said she thinks each of these should be reconsidered and perhaps including Council liaisons in those discussions.
Vice Mayor Anduri noted this item is not the assessment recommendation. This is a recommendation to create a document for each group that clearly defines its roles, authority and expectations. If they have the staff resources to do that, it would be very useful.
Ms. Levin confirmed there was Council consensus to move forward on this item. • Provide training workshops based on best practices for all commission and committee members on essential elements of running successful meetings.
Ms. Levin sated she has been doing several of those, mostly for Chairs and Vice Chairs but it could be broadened to talk less about parliamentary procedures and more in terms of trying to get all members to talk at meetings and the kinds of things that make meetings run smoother. Again, it could be timeconsuming for a staff member to do it, and she would be happy to provide the information used before because she did not believe it is proprietary. If the training works well, then the City might want to videotape it for new members coming on.
Mayor Gerringer and Councilmembers agreed and especially liked the idea of videotaping this for new members and existing members, Chairs and Vice Chairs.
• Reassess the Stanford ACT Report on Commissions and Committees with the goal of streamlining commissions and committees through consolidation, elimination or completion of the assigned objective.
Ms. Levin said she was not sure at this time what the feeling is of the Council relooking at commissions and committees with the idea of making sure they are still what the City needs and wants.
Mayor Gerringer said it was interesting going back to the Stanford report on this, voiced concerns with staff time, and thinks it would be interesting to consider particularly where there is a 5 meeting limit and where other agencies combined their PC and DRC.
Councilmember Kwok thinks it is healthy to relook at organizations, but this is very time-consuming to do this well and he would ask if this is a problem or not. If it is and something the Council should act on in 2022, he would question whether to do this or not.
City Council Team Building and Goal Setting Special Meeting Page 17 of 28 March 5, 2022 Ms. Srivatsa applauded all members who serve on a volunteer commission or committee, and said it is part of the culture of having a PC and a DRC. Reducing the number of commissions and committees or consolidating them will reduce the amount on staff time staffing them, and there is looking at the number of commissions and trying to combine them is one thing. More importantly and immediately is really understanding that sometimes the commissions have a lot more on their plate that staff can do. As a result, they get frustrated because staff cannot achieve everything on their plates. It might be education about taking on one or two tasks a year and doing it well rather than keep adding to their plates. This will go a long way in making staff’s time more efficient. This is the immediate need, but she would be happy to assist in this evaluation because the number of commissions and committees does impact staff time that goes into them.
Councilmember Dawson said there could be some synergy with the PC and DRC, the 5-meeting limit, specific needs for both design and land use focus, and she questioned how to keep a separate focus if combining. Also, she always thought commissions and committees were an extension of staff which helps them arrive at much of the work that gets done, and she is not sure if it is working inversely; that it is more work for staff than what it was set out to do when first formed. She guessed it would be important therefore to assess the mission of each commission/committee.
Ms. Srivatsa said it is also important that they promote the Council’s goals and the Stanford report is accurate in categorizing the various boards, some as regulatory, policy based, and others more working committees like the Trails Subcommittee of the PTR Commission.
Mayor Gerringer said if the Council determines this is important she asked if it would be helpful to create a Council subcommittee to help staff in the assessment.
Vice Mayor Anduri said he offered a slightly different view. He thinks what they should do is start with the first item—to create a document for each committee and commission and clearly defining its role. In that process, they will learn more about what each does. This would provide a precursor before they start assessing and changing things.
Councilmember Candell agreed with Vice Mayor Anduri and said many Councilmembers are new and it would be helpful to do that step first and then understand and move forward.
Councilmember Kwok said they could have a different approach, starting with a clean slate of zero commissions/committees and try and justify up which ones the City needs to have. One way of doing that is saying two years from now they say they will sunset all commissions/committees and then use the next two years to determine which ones the City needs beyond. This is just a different strategy of rebirthing and identifying the right number of commissions and starting from scratch.
Vice Mayor Anduri said he has been around long enough to know the impact this would have on morale of a commission or committee when the Council suggests they might be sunset or there will be some uncertainty about their future. Therefore, he did not believe that would work.
Councilmember Candell agreed and said it is part of the City’s culture as well and a more gentler approach should be used, and they should be careful. They want to gain trust by investing in their commissions and committees rather than divesting.
City Council Team Building and Goal Setting Special Meeting Page 18 of 28 March 5, 2022 Mayor Gerringer agreed. As they look at this document that clearly defines the role and authority and establishes expectations of commissions and committees, the Council should also look at efficiencies and identify opportunities and thinking out of the box, possibly limit numbers of meetings, review those commissions that are legally required and those not, and have the commissions and committees review the Stanford report, as well.
Councilmember Dawson agreed that they should work with what exists and figure it out. She said they are looking at this through the lens of staff time which goes back to reassessing staff to ensure there is enough staff to do what they need to do as a City as opposed to looking at it backwards and what can they fit in their time with the existing structure.
Vice Mayor Anduri said he thinks there are two levels of focus—one is on the short term and staff limitation and what they do. But then they need to think about what commissions they should have, what they could be doing and how they do it. He can say right now that they cannot do more without more staff support. He serves as liaison to several commissions which could be doing more but they need staff support to do it. If they had staff support, he could make a compelling argument why the City should pay for and provide that staff support because it would be a benefit to the community.
SUMMARY:
• Create a document for each commission and committee that clearly defines its role and authority and establishes expectations for commissioner or committee members.
Ms. Levin summarized that what she is hearing is that the Council and staff will look at each commission and committee to clearly define their role and what their mission is. In that process, involve staff and perhaps Council liaisons and product some kind of a document. Ms. Srivatsa added that it would also involve creating a template or a list of questions and information seeking that would be applied to each commission and committee, as handled by the Council and staff liaisons to the commission or committee, and then reporting back to the full Council. There would be no deadline but an encouragement to selfevaluate with guidance from Council liaisons. • Provide training workshops based on best practices for all commission and committee members on essential elements of running successful meetings.
Ms. Levin summarized that the next part is providing training on successful meetings and anything else that is important for them to be able to do their work well and perhaps videotaping that for future commissioners or committee members, as well as new training for Chairs and Vice Chairs on running a successful meeting. Vice Mayor Anduri suggested doing this bullet after the first one, and Councilmembers agreed.
• Reassess the Stanford ACT Report on Commissions and Committees with the goal of streamlining commissions and committees through consolidation, elimination or completion of the assigned objective.
Ms. Levin said the last one is for the Council to wait on this until they first create a document for each committee and commission clearly defining its role before taking on this item.
Mayor Gerringer opened the public comment period.
City Council Team Building and Goal Setting Special Meeting Page 19 of 28 March 5, 2022 CAROL SINGER commented that all commissioners used to engage in a retreat with training and lunch when they used to go out to Wildwood once a year. She noted the PTR Commission has 9 members and chairs rotate annually, so it was a lot of work for staff, but this training was very effective.
Regarding Councilmember Kwok’s suggestion, she thinks all ideas are good, but they are having trouble filling vacancies. Part of the reason is they cannot get things done that they would like to do. There have been several resignations over that as people got tired of working and nothing happening. The renovation of Brook Street Park is a good example which went on and on. They have many projects that follow-up on the General Plan and Council’s priorities and they cannot get them done. Therefore, they would appreciate more staff and the analysis of what the commissions should be doing, but also if they did away with all of the commissions she would not know what would happen to all of their projects which they are right in the middle of.
Councilmember Dawson thanked Ms. Singer for her many years of service on the PTR Commission and GPAC. She asked and confirmed that the training was for all commissioners at one time. Councilmember Dawson said she thinks this would be wonderful in a group setting.
Ms. Srivatsa added that at one of those retreats the Council barbecued and cooked for their commissioners at the Community Center.
Councilmember Kwok said he was not advocating for eliminating all commissions and committees, he was saying as a technique to accomplish the third bullet point of how to streamline, one technique is to force a sunset and then come back out with a new group. Secondly, in the spirit of brainstorming, he is just throwing out ideas which he has not thought about the pros and cons.
He thinks the first and second points are important but thinks they need out of the box discussions and also talk about sacred topics because only then can they do good work to take on controversial areas, and this is a very controversial topic which he would like to wrestle with. They know it is time-consuming and either they are going to do the hard work, or he does not want to spend the time on it and get the same result as the Stanford Report.
Vice Mayor Anduri said he is saying that they should keep it on to consider what to do after they do the first step. He thinks it is important to focus their energy on the first step.
Mayor Gerringer thinks it is good that as they do the first step to also have commissioners and liaisons look at efficiencies that might arise and understandings about roles and responsibilities and the charge of each of the commissions and committees, and there is information in the Stanford report that is thoughtprovoking so she would like to have it be incorporated.
9. Discussion of good governance practices
Recommendation: Discuss and provide feedback to the Mayor and Vice Mayor Ms. Levin displayed a slide, stating when the Council met with Rod Gould who facilitated the discussion last year, below is a summary of what came forward when talking about norms:
• The Council acts as a body and not as individuals;
• Direct public inquiries to City staff or reply for information; City Council Team Building and Goal Setting Special Meeting Page 20 of 28 March 5, 2022 • No surprises before any member of Council leads a public meeting or gives a presentation to the public on sensitive policy matters;
• Please let all members know and invite staff to participate; • Councilmembers need to have clear direction on how to get items placed on the agenda; • Council wishes to develop its own norms or guidelines, but they should be concise and tailored for Lafayette; and
• Roles of Council liaisons to commissions should be defined At the end of the meeting in March of 2021, Mr. Gould reminded the Council it would be important to follow-up with a separate session to formalize Council norms to codify its government’s culture. From her own background, she stated it is not unusual for a Council to have norms, a norms statement, a code of conduct, and in addition, there are articles in the packet. They also focus on what norms can do in terms of good teamwork and good governance work. She was not sure whether the Council will come up with a norms statement; however, she suggested figuring out a time or schedule so they do not reach March 2023 and it is agendized to be discussed in terms of developing one.
The City has administrative regulations and within that are both the operational aspects of the City’s operation which the City Manager and staff deal with and there are references to Council policies. One of her recommendations from her own experience is that the City have a separate Council policy and procedures handbook separate from the administrative regulations because if a Councilmember has a question about a policy or procedure, they do not have to wade through the administrative regulations but will have it right there. Many Councils have something in the form of Council Policies and Procedures about governance. This guides new and existing Councilmembers. They know how to request something on an agenda, learn about reimbursement and other policies.
Mayor Gerringer said the Council had discussed creating an ad-hoc committee about policies and procedures. They reviewed the extensive City of Walnut Creek document and Orinda’s which is more concise. At a subsequent meeting, she and Vice Mayor Anduri were appointed to serve on the ad-hoc committee. They pulled together resources but did not come back to the Council with a handbook or policies and procedures.
Consider Changing Meeting Start Time:
She also has some minor changes and ideas for additions such as how to agendize items and also the Councilmember roles as liaison to commissions and committees, timing of the meeting which is already set, and they began this year with holding meetings earlier for special topics so a question would be whether to change the 7:00 p.m. start time or start meetings earlier, as needed.
Councilmember Kwok said there is a difference between COVID and pre-COVID and he would ask those who attended meetings with a 7:00 p.m. start time made sense. In the last few years, meetings have gotten very long so he would concur it is not productive to take public comment at midnight or 1:00 a.m. so starting earlier would be better. But he would want to get feedback assuming they do go back to inperson meetings someday.
Councilmember Candell said as someone who works and commutes, the pre-COVID time was important to her for meetings to start at 7:00 p.m., but she thinks it is different now and worth consideration to start at 6:00 p.m. if they continue with Zoom meetings.
City Council Team Building and Goal Setting Special Meeting Page 21 of 28 March 5, 2022 Councilmember Dawson said she was not working, but as a citizen at Council meetings to provide public comments, the 7:00 p.m. was late and it pushed everything later into the evening, so she supported meeting earlier.
Vice Mayor Anduri said he would test how it affects the community. He agreed that 7:00 p.m. worked well in the past as many people commute to San Francisco and eat dinner around 6:00 p.m. He personally would prefer the expectation that they start at 7:00 p.m. for people to count on.
Changing the Public Comment Period from 3 Minutes to 2 Minutes:
Mayor Gerringer said at the January meeting she questioned changing the public comment time from 3 minutes to 2 minutes and she asked for input.
Councilmember Candell said in some ways she thinks 2 minutes helped focus the speaker comments, thinks they conveyed what they needed to convey, but there are times when someone needs to speak longer than 4 minutes. If they gave up the 3 minutes, she would be apt to say they can go up to 6 minutes for those speakers with a lot of knowledge and information to relay. There would also be the procedure for ceding time which the Council could discuss, as well.
Councilmember Dawson echoed Councilmember Candell’s comments. She asked if 2 or 3 minutes was the norm for most cities. Mayor Gerringer and City Attorney Subramanian confirmed that 3 minutes is the norm for most cities and the Board of Supervisors has a 2-minute limit with a hard stop.
Mayor Gerringer suggested doing more research and returning this item.
Questions of Councilmembers Following Speaker Comments:
Mayor Gerringer said the other item relates to questions from Councilmembers following speaker remarks. Often times, she asks if there are questions of the speaker and other times during land use items she would stop asking after each speaker for the sake of efficiencies.
Councilmember Candell said what has been working well and what she likes is what the Mayor has done this year which is where speakers ask question(s) which the Mayor states can be addressed at the end of all public comments. She suggested codifying this.
Mayor Gerringer stated Orinda does this. They write down questions and then ask staff to answer questions, so she and Vice Mayor Anduri can look at this.
Seeking Direction and Information from Staff:
Mayor Gerringer referred to Council policy on directing staff, placing items on future agendas where some communities are adding civility language, add in virtual meetings, and social media policies.
The Council is asked to consider establishing a City Council policy on seeking direction on assigning staff to follow-up on significant requests for additional information. She pulled a section from the staff report which she displayed.
Councilmember Candell asked for Ms. Srivatsa to comment on how often this happens and how big of an impact is this on staff.
City Council Team Building and Goal Setting Special Meeting Page 22 of 28 March 5, 2022 Ms. Srivatsa said it is less what the Council asks. They may ask that an item be brought back on the next agenda. It is sometimes more of what the public may ask for in public comment which is recognized by the Council and a Councilmember might view it as an important topic and would like to know more about it and asks staff to bring it back for discussion. In those instances, it would be good practice for her to indicate they could bring it back; however, this is going to use up a considerable amount of staff time researching the matter and indicate it is not on the work plan. So, any ‘new ask’ takes time and resources, but it does not happen a lot.
Councilmember Dawson voiced support of Ms. Srivatsa’s response.
Vice Mayor Anduri said he was thinking of whether he asked staff to bring back an item, but he thinks it is useful to establish an expectation. He would not call Mr. Wolff and ask him how 40 other communities handle ‘x, y or z’. But he can see calling and asking staff how Orinda or Moraga handles a particular item.
He asked if that is okay or not or he asked if there are a certain number of minutes they should not exceed or get consensus from the entire Council.
Ms. Srivatsa said it is usually the 2-hour rule, where it exceeds 2 hours to research something this is best to obtain direction from the full Council rather than an individual Councilmember. She noted that the Council has been very respectful of staff time and they appreciate it. They understand before making a decision a Councilmember may need bits of information. As long as there is an understanding that if they cannot produce it, the staff member has the authority to say they cannot get to it by the meeting, with the understanding that they will do their best.
Councilmember Dawson said if a Councilmember is asking for information, she questioned if there could be a mechanism where it would be useful to share this with all Councilmembers. Ms. Srivatsa said it should be the case that all people and the public have the same information available to them.
Mayor Gerringer said she thinks the ad-hoc committee can do some of that research and incorporate it into the policies and procedures for discussion at the Council meeting.
Placing Items on Future Agendas:
Mayor Gerringer said this has come up and right now the Council does not have this in their policies and procedures. This language she pulled from Orinda and then spoke with Councilmember Worth to ask how it works. What happens is a Councilmember brings up the request, there is a general nodding for consensus. What Orinda does is they have a “Matters Initiated” agenda section where there is a vote required to place an item on a future meeting. Other ways items get agendized is through the Mayor and staff in the normal routine of business.
Councilmember Kwok asked what is the main difference being asked versus the way the Council is currently doing it, and he asked and confirmed this was for Council initiated items versus staff-initiated items.
Mayor Gerringer explained that the item added is by a vote of the Council and not just consensus or nodding of heads. There would be times in the past when things came back when not all Councilmembers favored them coming back.
City Council Team Building and Goal Setting Special Meeting Page 23 of 28 March 5, 2022 Ms. Subramanian pointed out that sometimes the discussion starts getting into the details of the issue and the Council should be careful of this. She would be mindful of discussing the item and as to whether or not the Council wishes to vote on having the discussion in the future.
Mayor Gerringer said the other thing that is different is while the Council is working on an agenda item, a section of the verbiage states “At any time during a meeting, may make a motion to place an item on a future agenda”. They have not used this as a practice, but when Councilmembers ask for additional information to be brought back under an agendized item, at that point, he could make a motion for this Ms. Subramanian said there is an item on the agenda for: “Councilmembers report on activities and consideration of matters a Councilmember wishes to initiate for placement on a future agenda” so the Council would simply do it at that time.
Mayor Gerringer stated she and Vice Mayor Anduri will bring this back at a future Council meeting for discussion.
Civil Discourse Resolution:
Mayor Gerringer noted the Board of Supervisors will be entertaining a civility or civil discourse resolution and Orinda did this. They had a lot of discussion about limiting people’s First Amendment rights, but she thinks the Ad-Hoc Committee can look at bringing back language related to this.
Hybrid and Zoom Meetings:
She said as they move forward with hybrid meetings, they will want to be sure that their policies and procedures are in alignment with those.
Social Media Policy:
Mayor Gerringer stated she did not have a slide for a social media policy, but many City Councils and other elected agencies have social media policies for staff and for elected officials. Therefore, the Ad-Hoc Committee will do some research on this and return with something on this. They will ensure it does adheres to First Amendment rights, the Brown Act, and agreed upon government standards.
Council Interaction with Commissions, Committees, Boards and Task Forces/Subcommittees:
Mayor Gerringer referred to norms and in the Administrative Regulations are how the Council and staff work with the City commissions, boards, committees and task forces/subcommittees. She was not sure what her role was and whether she was expected to be at every meeting in person or virtually. Every Councilmember has a different thought on their roles when present at these meetings and the policy would lay out that they are there to represent the City Council as a whole and advise on Council policies, priorities and provide general direction. They can answer questions of the Commission and relay back to the Council if there was something the body needed more guidance on to bring back.
Regarding attendance, they can look at if they need to change this or if they have agreement on this. If the commission wants a Council liaison present for a particular topic, they would need to ensure they reach out to confirm their attendance.
Regarding their role and participation, they must be cognizant that they are there to provide general direction and are not participating publicly, particularly on matters that will come to the Council at a future date.
City Council Team Building and Goal Setting Special Meeting Page 24 of 28 March 5, 2022 Vice Mayor Anduri asked whether they need to distinguish between matters that are of a judicial nature and matters that are of a legislative nature. For example, he does not think any Council liaison would dream of making a comment on a Planning Commission or land use matter or at a DRC meeting when the Commission is considering an application. This would be clearly improper. However, with the Environmental Task Force and developing EV requirements for buildings, he asked if this is saying Councilmembers cannot be involved in the discussions with the task force on how that legislation is developed.
Mayor Gerringer said similarly, she asked how their role on GPAC in terms of guiding GPAC to the point of moving them in a certain direction may be an impact, given this comes to the Council and as liaison they have more direct input.
Ms. Srivatsa said there are no rules. As the Planning Director, if she attended a DRC meeting which she normally does not do or if a Council liaison attended a PC meeting, the comment from Commissioners would be a question of why they are there and whether they might have done something wrong. Her point is that the Council entrusts its volunteer commissions and committees to do that particular line of work and to return with recommendations. Perhaps getting too involved or influencing their work plan or what they do might send a message that they are not to be trusted, or they are not capable of doing it themselves. It is one perspective to have.
Ms. Srivatsa said to Vice Mayor Anduri’s point, there are legal constraints when it is a quasi-judicial action that will come before the Council so Council liaisons cannot make any comments on an application. When it is a legislative act such as a rezoning or a General Plan Amendment, those are things Councilmembers can legally comment on so it just becomes a policy decision about whether you want to adopt a policy that requires them not to comment on those types of things.
Councilmember Candell said sometimes it seems Councilmembers will ask a question or ask for clarification and so they may want to consider separating out and allow for questions to be asked versus giving commentary.
Mayor Gerringer confirmed that the Ad-Hoc Committee can add that language and this section will return.
Councilmember Dawson asked how important the assignment of assessing the commissions are. If that will set direction, this is where the Council will have the ability to help or reshape those commissions, so they do have good marching orders to move forward versus Councilmembers trying to comment when participating in the meetings.
Mayor Gerringer said the Ad-Hoc Committee will look at that in terms of this particular item and policy.
The work they will do in the previous item will come back to the entire Council and they will help do the assessment, but it is being cognizant of what their role is and that they are not overstepping.
She confirmed the Ad-Hoc Committee will pull out information from the Administrative Regulations, create a format for the City Council Policies and Procedures Handbook and add to it based upon discussions.
Mayor Gerringer opened the public comment period, and there were no speakers.
City Council Team Building and Goal Setting Special Meeting Page 25 of 28 March 5, 2022 Ms. Subramanian said the Council has discussed legislation being passed and how it is stripping the City’s authority. She is starting to notice some cities and towns such as Woodside taking some aggressive positions to counter some of the bills, mainly SB 9 and trying to create a situation where the entire City is a habitat to avoid SB 9 and they are seeing the Attorney General and the AG’s office come down quickly to stop that. What they now have in the last year is the AG’s Housing Accountability Unit. She said Vice Mayor Anduri mentioned the ADUs and high fire severity zones in Berkeley and that issue has already been reported to that Unit, so it will be interesting to see what position they take and if that is a tenable position or not. If they sue, then this is something to watch, as well. She thinks that unit will become fairly active as well as housing advocate groups who are using the unit to report.
Once they start getting back to in-person meetings they will likely go back to a hybrid situation where the Council will be in the Chambers together, but the public has an opportunity to participate on Zoom. So, they will want to figure out should there be technological difficulties on their part or should there be a power outage in parts of the community where Zoom is not working but they are sitting together and hold their meetings how they will want to proceed. Some cities are taking the position that the meeting will go on in person, but this is something they will need to work out for the City and community.
Ms. Srivatsa said some of the points she wanted to stress is her deep appreciation to the Council that staff needed help and for approving positions. Ms. Robinson is recruiting for all positions and it will take 2-4 months optimistically to be fully staffed. The positions funded will help the City deliver the current work programs.
Over the course of the year she might come to the Council if there is a new task or activity to see what they can remove from the work plan and to add on, being mindful of the goal to deliver the highest quality of services and to do the limited Council tasks for each department outside of the daily running of the City, to do them well and to deliver them on time rather than to have full plates, which has been their strategy over the last several years. The Management Team is meeting on March 25th.
In addition to developing their work plans, they will take some of the Management Partners’ recommendations to heart, such as metrics so they can develop a more organized and efficient City government and one that can easily adjust to changing workloads across departments.
The one thing they have not discussed is the use of technology. She really thinks the City can benefit from up to date technology that brings all departments together. It will make them more efficient, but it could also reduce the workload because there are several repetitive steps they do right now because they do not have a cohesive technology strategy. So, the year looks very exciting and even more so that the Council may switch to a downtown plan, and they are all looking forward to it.
Councilmember Dawson referred to staffing within the next 2-4 months and asked how staff is feeling about the current workload with current staff.
Ms. Srivatsa said they feel a bit overwhelmed, more so the Planning and Engineering Departments because they are both short-staffed and both have important plans underway. Staff is doing the best it can. She will ensure the current staff does not stretch themselves too much. They may have to slow down before speeding up, so except for projects that have established deadlines, they may go slower because they do not have the capability of doing everything.
City Council Team Building and Goal Setting Special Meeting Page 26 of 28 March 5, 2022 The Housing Element is time-driven and the biggest challenge now. Ms. Allen will be leaving at the end of the month and staff is talking internally about how to fill that gap and how to keep it moving forward. The City still does not have a traffic engineer and have implementation of the Tool reports and the Roadway Safety Plan which are large.
They have talked about hiring consultants and contract planners, but they need training and supervision.
Staff is very dedicated, and she gets emails early in the morning because they might have forgotten to tell her about something. She wants to be sure they are well taken care of and they are ready and charged up so they can deliver next year. However, the next few months may be slower than expected. They may not get to the tree or leaf blowing ordinances as an example and they may not be able to finish all of the long-range tasks they have set out to do.
Councilmember Dawson said she is thrilled with Vice Mayor Anduri’s switch over to a downtown plan.
They have been talking with affordable housing folks and she is happy to hear that staff will be excited about this pivot. Ms. Srivatsa said the meeting on Monday will be exciting and staff will return on the 14th, lay it out and then it will be up to the Council to decide. The other important thing is how to explain it to the community and to GPAC.
Vice Mayor Anduri said when meeting with staff on Monday, on the development of the Mt. Diablo Corridor Specific Plan, he asked to get specific recommendations from staff on whether the BART lots should be included in that. Ms. Srivatsa said she will ask them and include this in the recommendations.
Ms. Levin said part of last year’s workshop was focused on Council relations. There is one new member now and most teams benefit from opportunities to discuss how they are working together and complete a self-assessment. She hopes they can have a bit of discussion on what is working well, what can be improved, whether there are aspects of team relations they can tweak to strengthen the team as a whole, are there situations that test the team dynamic, and she presented a slide that talks about Aspects of Effective Council Team Dynamics, which she described.
She asked the Council to identify what is working well, and Councilmembers cited the following:
• They all come to meetings well prepared and have a generally open minds to participate, deliberate and make decisions;
• No more than 2 Councilmembers working together has always been pleasant and enjoyable on subcommittees;
• Everybody is very professional and able to work together; and • They willingly share their disparate ideas and can feel like it is a safe space when disagreeing when relaying reasons for their disagreement
She asked the Council if there is anything that could be improved, and Councilmembers cited the following:
• It would be helpful to have a process to be notified when there are contacts from residents or others about certain issues without violating the Brown Act. Ms. Subramanian said she has seen this announced at Council meetings during Council reports and this provides the Council and the public with the same information. She would not encourage a Councilmember to email or call all Councilmembers but could contact one without violating the Brown Act; City Council Team Building and Goal Setting Special Meeting Page 27 of 28 March 5, 2022 • Comment that it may be that the Council does not have such a robust discussion because these typically fall at the end of the meeting
She asked for any team dynamics that are important to discuss, and Councilmembers cited the following:
• Understanding their roles and responsibilities and the delineation between staff, which they will work on in developing the Council Policies and Procedures Handbook.
She said they are at the summary of the day and Councilmember takeaways and moved onto the wrap up and debriefing.
10. Wrap up and next steps
Ms. Levin said she wants to make sure everyone feels that they met the outcomes:
✓ Discussed and confirmed the goals and priorities for 2022/23; ✓ Discussed and determine next steps regarding the consultant recommendation on commission and committee practices;
✓ Discussed next steps for consideration of a good governance proposal; and ✓ Talked about the Council as a team
She asked what are the Council takeaways from today, and Councilmembers provided the following feedback:
• Appreciative and impressed with how smoothly the session went, brainstorming, and how they reached consensus on their goals and priorities moving forward (Gerringer); • Thankful for staff in making sure the Council continues to think about things from a stepping back sort of view (Gerringer);
• Frustrations with RHNA numbers, new laws, and clarity and focus provided at Council meetings (Dawson);
• How proud and privileged she is to work with Council, staff and the community (Dawson); • Thinks the Council was successful, came up with new ideas and will have a fun and exciting year (Candell);
• Strength and collaboration and the ability to tackle new ideas, help in prioritizing and the hope to advance and tackle the four priorities (Kwok);
• Very excited in what lies ahead and that the City Manager is also excited in taking on the work, as well as current Councilmember relationships (Anduri);
• Feeling blessed (Srivatsa); and
• A very well-run City and Council, with organized staff (Subramanian) City Manager Srivatsa recognized staff involved with the session and Mayor Gerringer and Councilmembers thanked Ms. Levin for her facilitation of the session.
Mayor Gerringer opened the public comment period, and there were no speakers.
11. Adjournment – 2:00 p.m.
City Council Team Building and Goal Setting Special Meeting Page 28 of 28 March 5, 2022 APPROVED:
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Teresa Gerringer, Mayor
ATTEST:
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Joanne Robbins, City Clerk