City Council Special Team Building & Goal Setting Meeting Page 1 of 28 February 11, 2023 7 City of Lafayette
Special City Council Team
Building and Goal Setting
Minutes
Teleconference Meeting – Watch on the City of Lafayette’s YouTube Channel at February 11, 2023 http://bit.ly/LoveLafayetteYouTube Submit public comments to [email protected] 9:00 a.m. before or during the meeting.
To protect public health, our residents, officials, and staff, and aligned with the Governor’s recent executive order N-29-20, certain teleconference requirements of the Brown Act have been suspended, including the requirement to provide a physical location for members of the public to participate in the meeting. Here is how to participate in the meeting and provide public comment:
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1. CALL TO ORDER
Mayor Anduri called the Special City Council Team Building and Goal Setting Meeting to order at 9:00 a.m. via teleconference.
2. ROLL CALL
Present: City Council: Mayor Anduri, Vice Mayor Dawson; Councilmembers Candell, Gerringer, and Kwok
Absent: None
Staff Present: Niroop Srivatsa, City Manager; Mala Subramanian, City Attorney
3. ADOPTION OF AGENDA
ACTION: It was M/S/C (Gerringer/Dawson) to adopt the agenda. Vote: 5-0 (Ayes: Anduri, Dawson, Candell, Gerringer, and Kwok; Noes: None).
4. PUBLIC COMMENTS – (For items not on the agenda).
There were no speakers.
5. INTRODUCTIONS, REVIEW OF AGENDA AND DESIRED OUTCOMES Mayor Anduri and Councilmembers welcomed facilitator, Nadine Levin.
Nadine Levin spoke about their review of the agenda, said she will conduct an ice breaker activity, receive information from her Council interviews, the City Manager will provide an update on 2022/23 Council priorities, they will share comments from the City Manager and City Attorney, hold a break, and then they will begin the goal-setting discussion. After a 30-minute break for lunch, they will continue the session and then talk about current governance issues, summary of the day, and adjourn.
Mayor Anduri recommended taking public comments throughout the various topic areas.
Ms. Levin stated outcomes include:
• Confirm goals and priorities for FY 23/24;
• Hear from the City Manager and City Attorney on high level topics; and • Discuss governance related matters
Ms. Levin and Councilmembers then conducted an icebreaker activity. In celebrating the 175+ year anniversary, she asked what changes have been the most positive and which are less positive. In looking forward, she asked what would Councilmembers like to see 10 years in the future or what would they like the City to be. Each Councilmember then provided their comments.
6. UPDATE ON 2022-23 COUNCIL PRIORITIES BY THE CITY MANAGER AND DISCUSSION OF STAFF CAPACITY.
City Council Special Team Building & Goal Setting Meeting Page 3 of 28 February 11, 2023 Ms. Levin said she interviewed each Councilmember between January 18th and the 20th and provided an overview of what she heard:
• A consensus that the main goal for today is to reach an agreement in a collaborative manner on priorities going forward;
• How to discuss how to make more progress on existing priorities and identify outcomes; • Finetune the existing priorities may be appropriate including an emphasis for example on economic development;
• Discuss how to increase more community involvement beyond just providing input; • Onboarding of committee, commission members is an important topic for the Council to discuss; • Housing-related matters are important to consider in priority-setting; and • A consensus that the Council works well together and can deal with different perspectives in a civil manner.
Current Council Priorities:
City Manager stated the updates on Council’s priorities were discussed in December and January which were established at a goal setting workshop facilitated by Ms. Levin last year. While this was not a conscious decision, the four priorities landed into four departments:
1. Wildfire prevention and preparedness and utility safety is under Police;
2. Pedestrian and traffic safety is under Engineering;
3. The Mt. Diablo Corridor Downtown Specific Plan is under Planning; and
4. The Fiscal Sustainability Plan is under Administration.
In the area of wildfire prevention, preparedness, and utility safety the challenge is that the City does not manage Fire Prevention. It is not within the City’s scope of authority. As a result, while the Police Department does an outstanding job of coordinating with the fire department and does emergency preparedness work, still when talking about Firewise, wood chipping, etc., the City relies on another agency, i.e., ConFire. We need to look at how to bring in our partner on fire to implement the programs outlined in this priority.
The Emergency Preparedness Commission is also doing a lot. They are reviewing their Emergency Preparedness Plan and held a drill last October. The Gas Alliance Task Force has been steadfast in holding the utility’s feet to the fire, and in the coming year we will see more work and emphasis here. But, in going back to fire, she emphasized the partnership with ConFire and how to best implement this priority.
Moving onto improved pedestrian and traffic safety and mobility, she would grade the efforts close to an A. The focus the Council had over the last two years on this priority has really shaped how staff prepares the budget. They did a lot of work with the schools, initiated the Local Roadway Safety Plan (LRSP), the Vision Zero resolution, obtained a substantial grant from the federal government and from OBAG, and increased traffic enforcement.
Slowing traffic and traffic safety is paramount. The position of a Transportation Planner was elevated to a Transportation Program Manager which indicates the level of importance the City Council places on this matter. The Police and Engineering Departments are now working closer than they had before in implementing this priority. In fact, the Mayor and staff met last week where, given the emphasis on traffic safety, the City is going to invest in additional speed trailers and radar guns and equipment. The data will be shared by the Police Department and Engineering to update the Traffic Safety Manual.
City Council Special Team Building & Goal Setting Meeting Page 4 of 28 February 11, 2023 The Council provided clear direction to create the tasks to fulfill the priority. Therefore, she sees this continuing and thinks the priorities take time to implement and the success of this priority is because staff has spent two years on it, and will continue to do so.
Work on the Mt. Diablo Corridor and DSP has not begun. Staff has spent a lot of time on the Housing Element and once they complete the work on the Housing Element, staff will either get started on the Plaza Way Overlay which is another task that has cropped up, or just initiate the DSP update.
Finally, regarding the Fiscal Sustainability Plan, the committee has held two meetings and paused because the City was looking at purchasing properties. She recognized opportunities strike when you least expect so here they were planning for the committee to go on with their work when two properties in town that are rare to come by were on the market. She believes the Council investing in those properties was a sound idea. It is important to continue the work of the committee which is to look for long-term sources of funding.
The Council also talked last year about Commissions and Committees, and someone mentioned today that it is important to on-board Commissioners and to train them. No work has been done in this area. It is a lot of work because we are talking about creating a manual, providing training, establishing some ground rules for each Commission, identifying their scope of work, and measures of success which is something the City has not done comprehensively in a very long time. We have created task forces and commissions but have not periodically stepped back to assess where they belong or their mission. If the Council wishes to undertake that this year, it will be a significant task.
The Council also discussed good governance practices but has not spent much time on this matter. Again, the Council should indicate if it is a priority this year.
Mayor Anduri referred to the point on the Fiscal Sustainability Committee. It is three properties they are thinking about spending money towards and this was unexpected at the time they set the priority. Also, the proposal for the technology for traffic safety will come to the Council at the February 27th meeting.
He thinks the meeting he and Ms. Srivatsa held with Mike Moran and Chief Alldritt was fantastic in terms of cooperation and synergy.
He referred to the first priority and said he agrees completely with getting more involved with their partners. They know now with all the rain they have had is what can they do to be ready and make sure everybody and the City is taking care of that dry vegetation when they get to early summer.
Ms. Srivatsa said the two suggestions that come to mind would be to elevate this with Con Fire and perhaps a meeting with the Vice Mayor and Mayor with the Chief and possibly Supervisor Andersen to identify this is a top priority of the City Council and they would like their cooperation.
The City did entertain the idea last year of getting wood chippers and having crews come out and help neighbors. They did not follow through on that and might need to look for grant funding.
Mayor Anduri stated given the structure of the City departments he asked who would take the lead on these issues.
City Council Special Team Building & Goal Setting Meeting Page 5 of 28 February 11, 2023 Ms. Srivatsa said for the Fire District it is the Police Department because they are the City’s emergency preparedness department, but she will also be involved.
Councilmember Candell said it seems like they do have a route through code enforcement where people need to trim their vegetation and she asked if this got expanded to dead tree removal, as well. She thinks the City needs to make sure there is an enforceable path for everyone. She looks out and sees 5 dead trees in her neighborhood and nothing is being done about them, so they need to work on this altogether.
She asked if there is still a route through code enforcement, through PG&E, or someone else.
Ms. Srivatsa said in one of the Town Hall meetings, the Fire District said they were responsible for enforcing removal of dead trees and brush. It is honestly a gray area and something that needs to be tightened up and made available to residents because they need to know who to call. As part of this, they should improve communications and understand exactly what is in the City’s purview and what is not.
Councilmember Candell asked to include EBRPD because their Springhill HOA representative did a great job bugging them until they cleared all the dead brush around the gas pipeline.
Vice Mayor Dawson added that EBRPD has their own fire department so it would be good to work with them and know who they are. The other partner would be PG&E and not only is the City a very high fire severity area from Cal Fire but they are also a Tier 2 fire per the CPUC’s district. This is just because of the nature of PG&E’s infrastructure within town, such as Lafayette Estates and Springhill which are more of a risk factor. She believes it was a year ago when they brought this up to CPAC and they were interested in monitoring that so it parallels the infrastructure and in making sure it lines up with evacuation.
Councilmember Kwok commented on commissions, increasing in efficiency, and the organization of their commissions. They had put it as a priority and did not really address it that much this past year. It might be a lot of work to do that but he thinks this one is more of hygiene rather than health. It would benefit from improvement but it is not life-threatening.
On the other hand, he wonders if they could make a bite of the apple which would be to run one or two workshops for all Commissioners to attend to help them to run better meetings, prepare for meetings, identify how to engage with each other, and identify what the expectation is after meetings. Preferably the training could be in person or possibly via Zoom where they just do some best practices training. This way it is not such a big assignment but it at least it elevates everyone’s skill sets. He wondered if this is something they could consider in the first quarter of this year.
Mayor Anduri said they will discuss this under the governance issues.
Ms. Levin said possibly they should structure questions now to the update the Council on what was given by the City Manager. They can then discuss these matters either under governance or priority setting.
Mayor Anduri said the critical issue they need to keep in mind when talking about priorities is what is the staffing situation now in each of the departments because they need to be realistic about where they are with staffing.
City Council Special Team Building & Goal Setting Meeting Page 6 of 28 February 11, 2023 Ms. Srivatsa said they are 80% staffed. In the Engineering Department they have one position left and in Planning they have three unfilled positions, and in Administration they have two unfilled positions. Once the City is fully staffed they will be able to take care of daily business, attend to all state mandates, and fulfill the Council’s priorities—whatever they may be in the coming year. Having said that, anything new or added on would be difficult to accommodate.
Her suggestion would be to focus not on new programs but on new projects that fulfill priorities. For example, a new program would be a shuttle service in the downtown. That comes with staffing, funding, maintenance, etc. This program would be over and above their capacity at the current time. But, if the Council said as an example they want to build a walkway on Pleasant Hill Road, this is a project they can implement which would be consistent with the priority of pedestrian and traffic safety. She suggested they focus on projects rather than programs.
Councilmember Gerringer asked and confirmed “Pleasant Hill” is a discreet project and not a program.
Mayor Anduri asked which positions are still open in Planning. Ms. Srivatsa replied a Planning Technician, an Assistant Planner, and a Department Assistant. She said in Engineering it is the third Senior Engineer who will implement some of the Vision Zero and PTR projects. In Administration, it is the HR Analyst and Management Analyst positions.
Mayor Anduri asked and confirmed these are the new positions the Council authorized but they have not been filled. Ms. Srivatsa said staff has been focused on helping Planning and Engineering first and then they will move to Administration.
Councilmember Gerringer asked for the timeline for the Planning and Administration positions. Ms.
Srivatsa said she would estimate 3 to 6 months. The City recently posted an opening for the Senior Engineer and have not received any candidates but have not posted the Administration positions.
7. UPDATE FROM CITY MANAGER AND CITY ATTORNEY
City Manager Srivatsa stated she and City Attorney Mala Subramanian talked about this agenda item.
Given the Council hears from them almost on a weekly basis they wanted to take a slightly different turn and talk about pandemic outcomes and post-pandemic impacts, both from a management and legal perspective. It has been three years almost to the date when they declared a State of Emergency on March 16, 2020. We went in not knowing when it would end or how we would continue to operate as a City, but collectively we did it. She recalled when they got into Zoom they had some serious problems at the first meeting so they shied away from Zoom and were only doing audio recordings. Councilmember Candell challenged staff and asked to try it again and today Zoom is such a useful tool and everyone is embracing it and we’re rather sad to be losing it.
The pandemic period was tough financially for all cities but she believes the one-time ARPA funding really helped cities weather the COVID impacts. Staff got used to working remotely and many employees believe and continue to believe that their work life balance is healthier today than it was pre-pandemic.
They did have resignations as did most people and for a time found it extremely difficult to recruit staff.
She thinks the new staff they have hired are wonderful, talented, are eager to get to work, and she considers herself fortunate.
City Council Special Team Building & Goal Setting Meeting Page 7 of 28 February 11, 2023 There are some commissioners who have never been to an in-person meeting as they have been able to operate from their homes, as did the public. She thinks Zoom really helped the public engage in civic affairs more than ever before. She referred to the City Attorney who will talk about pandemic outcomes from a legal perspective.
City Attorney Mala Subramanian said when they initially adopted the local emergency, it allowed the City to hold its meetings on Zoom. Before that, they met in Council Chambers, they could not allow Council participation remotely unless they posted the address on an agenda and the public was allowed to participate from a Councilmember’s location. That was used very infrequently. The City was Zoombombed initially and she did not even know about Zoom before the pandemic and now they are using Zoom, Web-X, Teams, and other platforms.
She remembers for years they were talking about how to increase public participation; now Zoom allows young families to participate remotely. Parents can put their kids to bed and still talk about a gun storage ordinance. Otherwise, there would not be the same level of participation in person.
She thinks the big challenge is after three years of being adjusted to Zoom, starting March 1st having to be in person will take time to get used to. It is not necessarily the same with the public, but they have limitations they will discuss in terms of having hybrid meetings for all of the Council’s meetings and Commissions.
Ms. Srivatsa said early on the Council recognized, from a staffing perspective, flexibility was important in recruiting talent so the City changed the personnel rules to allow for tele-working two days a week and it has been very successful and quite appreciated. The City now offers more application submittals on-line, and a tremendous number of steps were taken to make it easier for people to deal with the government on-line rather than in person. They were forced to do that because of COVID.
The City had ARPA funds to tide them through COVID and also received money from the Palos Colorados Mitigation Fund. Having said that, we cannot rely on these one-time funding to budget for future years.
We must address current and future shortfalls.
Right now, the City has shortfalls in Core Area Maintenance and Stormwater funds. Stormwater regulations grow by the year. It is an unfunded mandate and unless the City receives help from the State, cities are continuing to bear that burden without any relief.
She also flagged the Core Area Maintenance fund for the Council. The City tried to increase assessments several years ago and it failed. Every year the City continues to make up the shortfall and as a result it is not critical in the minds of people because the City fills the gap. So, there may need to be a conversation about revisiting what it takes to maintain the downtown, and how much it costs the City and property owners.
In addition to that, continuing this level of service in the coming years, we need to determine whether we need a long-term funding source and if so, when, and how do we go about educating the public about the need.
City Council Special Team Building & Goal Setting Meeting Page 8 of 28 February 11, 2023 When it comes to public participation, the Council, Planning Commission, DRC, and Transportation and Circulation will continue the hybrid meeting format while all other commissions and Council subcommittees must be in person as we are not offering that amenity to other commissions or committees, or even to subcommittees. It costs money, is staff intensive and resource intensive. We could possibly revisit this after trying out the hybrid option with the four boards, and if it is easier than we thought, we could expand it.
She suspects they will lose a segment of the population who cannot make it to a Council meeting in person. They may even lose commission members and that is something the Council has discussed regarding how to bring more people into the City fold.
City Attorney Subramanian said as of February 28, 2023, the Governor has informed the City that the State of Emergency is going to terminate. The County has also informed them that they are terminating their local emergency February 28th to match the State. The City likewise will be bringing to the Council a termination of their local emergency at the second meeting in February to also terminate as of February 28th. Because the Governor will terminate his State of Emergency as of February 28th, on March 1st, the Council, all commissions, and Brown Act bodies will need to be back in person.
Over the last couple of years, the legislature has looked at different options to keep allowing virtual meetings outside of an emergency and she has heard different things. She has heard there is a desire to have residents be able to petition in person their local officials and it has a different impact to be in person as opposed to being in a remote virtual situation. She has also heard comments about a digital divide and some communities get to benefit from having virtual meetings while other communities do not get that same benefit.
Given all of that, the state of the law is they have limited availability to use virtual meetings for officials.
They can still use the old rules mentioned earlier where they can list the Councilmember’s address/location if they need to participate remotely. A quorum of the Councilmembers needs to be within the jurisdiction of the City and as of January 1, 2023, AB 2449 allows for limited circumstances where officials can participate remotely.
It includes for just cause. Just cause examples are a contagious illness, needing to watch a family member who may be ill or sick, and being on a conference for Cal Cities in another part of the state and a need to participate remotely in the meeting which needs to be on City or public agency business. So, if they work for another public agency and they are at a conference because of that they can attend. But, if they happen to be at a conference for private work or are on vacation they would not be able to participate remotely using the just cause exception.
Then, there are certain emergency exceptions that could also apply. They are very limited and not as flexible as they have been having through Zoom participation so it is not going to be used very frequently.
They could see some loss of commissioners who have never participated in person because they were appointed during the pandemic. Hopefully, people will get back to the old way of doing things in terms of being in the room together.
City Council Special Team Building & Goal Setting Meeting Page 9 of 28 February 11, 2023 With the other cities she represents she has been back in person for a while and there are some efficiencies to being back in person as well, so they will see this when they are back together in March.
The first couple of meetings will probably be a unique experience but it should be back to normal. She admitted that in some of the meetings she has been in, the audience participation in the room has been slim and participation remotely has been high.
Councilmember Gerringer asked if just cause is unlimited. Ms. Subramanian said neither are unlimited.
Just cause can only be used twice in a calendar year and then the emergency circumstances can be used more frequently. She believes it can be used no more than 20% of meetings. She has had to use these with the other cities she works with. In one situation, the person could have used just case or emergency, but she slotted them in emergency so they did not use up their two just causes.
Ms. Srivatsa said she sent an email to Councilmembers from Townsend regarding a legislative update. SB 411 authorizes a legislative body to meet remotely under the Brown Act indefinitely and without regard to a state of emergency. So, this is a bill worth tracking if the Council feels it would be beneficial to the community.
Councilmember Gerringer said there are several groups statewide sending letters to the Governor and looking at reform related to commissions and committees that are advisory or referral bodies to allow them to have more flexibility on hybrid options for reasons stated. So, she thinks they should support this given they have learned a lot through this process and do not want to lose commissioners.
Mayor Anduri opened the public comment period, and there were no speakers.
BREAK
Ms. Levin called for a 5 minute break at 10:20 a.m., and thereafter, reconvened the session at 10:25 a.m.
8. SETTING PRIORITIES FOR FY 23-24
Recommendation: Identify priorities, seek consensus, and discuss next steps Ms. Levin stated the Council has discussed the current adopted priorities and received the status update from the City Manager. The Council will identify new priorities if any to be discussed, seek clarification on new priorities, and discuss and arrive at a consensus of the top priorities for 23-24. She asked if Councilmembers could identify priorities in terms of outcomes and not actual tasks. She would encourage the Council to have the discussion to confirm priorities and talk about tweaking them here or there.
She displayed a slide of the Council’s adopted priorities which she read again. She asked if there is anything about these priorities Councilmembers may feel they do not have either from the report received in December/January or from the City Manager’s update that they need or would like to hear more about in terms of updates, and there were none.
Mayor Anduri opened the public comment period for the public to comment on a current priority or wants to propose a new priority before the Council gets into its discussion. There were no speakers.
Ms. Levin said she would propose the Council talk through the current priorities and see what they may want to clarify about them and listen to Councilmembers who may wish to add an additional priority or changing out a priority.
City Council Special Team Building & Goal Setting Meeting Page 10 of 28 February 11, 2023 Wildfire Prevention and Preparedness and Utility Safety:
Mayor Anduri said he thinks this needs to continue as a priority. He thinks the Council needs to get more into particulars which they have done a bit of today. He likes the idea of engaging with partners because this is needed such as EBRPD and PG&E. They will have an immediate issue in May. Caltrans has taken a lot of the dead trees going west on Hwy 24 which he very much appreciates but the City needs to keep on some of the agencies and bring clarify to residents as to who is responsible. Generally, it is the resident who is responsible for dead trees and excess vegetation on their property.
Councilmember Gerringer agreed this should remain a priority and she echoed the Mayor’s comments.
She agreed many trees have come down along EBMUD’s Reservoir. Given added growth and instability from storms, she has noticed more trimming from a defensive nature so they do not fall.
Councilmember Candell concurred with comments. She asked if they should also include ordinance changes which could be a clearance condition when one sells their house. Councilmember Gerringer voiced support.
Mayor Anduri disagreed and said the City’s tree ordinance provides the Planning Department all the leeway they need in order to give exceptions for people clearing trees for fire purposes which is in the ordinance. He heard from MOFD that the State will apply fire regulations to everyone so that you cannot sell a property unless there is defensible space, and he suggested staff might investigate this.
Councilmember Kwok said this is a high priority and is glad everyone agrees to take it to the next level.
What police and fire are doing in terms of more communications is great, so he thinks the next step is to continue to work with agencies and engage the public to also get involved and do the things they need to do. They held two webinars last year with Cal Fire. The first one had over 150 attendees and the second was about 50 attendees, but he hoped they will continue with this, as well as other ways to communicate.
Vice Mayor Dawson agreed with comments and emphasized wildfire response and education.
Mayor Anduri said he had asked last year to fund a study of what the impact of fire would be on neighborhoods in terms of evacuation, or how much development can the City have in neighborhoods and still be safe. He thinks this is something they should look at before signing off on any further development in other areas of the City.
Ms. Levin stated the Council’s current wording is “Wildfire Prevention and Preparedness and Utility Safety.” She asked if the Council would like to broaden the definition to “Wildfire Prevention, Responsiveness, and Preparedness and Utility Safety” or she asked if this is covered.
Councilmember Gerringer voiced support of adding “responsiveness” and supports the Mayor’s suggestion for a study. She thinks they have the beginnings of some of that which was done but being intentional about it is a good thing.
Ms. Levin said the second question she has in terms of priorities spoken in terms of projects and not programs, she heard: 1) a desire to involve partners in this effort, 2) to involve the public more in terms of education, 3) possible ordinance changes, and 4) perhaps funding a study of some sort. She asked if the City Manager see those within staff’s capability or she asked if more information is needed.
City Council Special Team Building & Goal Setting Meeting Page 11 of 28 February 11, 2023 Ms. Srivatsa said she appreciates the emphasis placed on the four aspects raised because it will help staff focus their efforts on those four subjects which is publicity, partnerships, looking at MOFD’s ordinance and checking to see whether the State is going to mandate it throughout California, and undertaking the evacuation study. She admitted that the evacuation study seems daunting right now because they must set the parameters. But, if it is a Council priority, they will do it.
Vice Mayor Dawson said this came up during the Housing Element and she likes being gradual about it and recommended using what they already have as a foundation.
Mayor Anduri said he thinks everyone has heard from Donn Walklet in working with partners on more futuristic ways of fire prevention; satellite imagery that can detect ignition long before the camera system can do it and working to get that in place. Also, in some locations in California the Forestry has firefighting helicopters used in Southern California and he wondered if there is one that can be stationed near Lamorinda. They need to take an overall look at what the City’s fire risk is, and it might change if there is better prevention so he does not feel comfortable moving forward without a better sense of the risk.
Councilmember Candell agreed completely and said forthe Council to understand the types of mitigations they may want to pursue to understand places to improve. The smart traffic lights are great but thinks they may need larger on and off ramps from Hwy 24.
Create a Mt. Diablo Corridor and Downtown Specific Plan:
Mayor Anduri said there are many things that could potentially be rolled into this. In 2012, the City adopted a Plaza Way Overlay District. They purchased the Campana property and another property is in the due diligence period. If this happens, revisiting the 2012 overlay district becomes a big priority in holding public hearings as to whether to change the plan in terms of what to do with that area. The current plan calls for public parking, but he questioned if this is an area for civic buildings to replace the existing Campana building, etc.
Secondly, they took the BART lots out of the Housing Element so there will be different views on this. He thinks they need to start now planning what they want and do not want on the BART lots, and that means discussion should occur now with BART, staff and Boardmembers. It gives time to think about what to use the 11 acres for and think more broadly about what those uses could be. If they do not start now, they will have a better chance of getting what the City wants there and will be ready in the next cycle. Whether to roll this into the Mt. Diablo Corridor and DSP is something the Council should discuss.
He also mentioned the issue of whether they want downtown offices which is another part of the puzzle, and the fourth part is they did not include the 60-acre DeSilva property in the west end of town in the Housing Element inventory. So, he questioned whether they must have a special planning effort for that property which might look at use of recreational and open space, do it separately or part of the Mt. Diablo Corridor and DSP.
Vice Mayor Dawson agreed with Mayor Anduri’s recommendations. Councilmember Candell agreed but she sees the whole DeSilva, BART, and downtown as a longer effort to be coordinated.
City Council Special Team Building & Goal Setting Meeting Page 12 of 28 February 11, 2023 Councilmember Kwok asked and confirmed with the Mayor his four ideas were: 1) Plaza Way Overlay District; 2) BART; 3) DeSilva; and 4) Civic buildings in the downtown. He thinks each one is something to think about but holistically they should think about how they all interlink with each other and the right body to address this, i.e., GPAC, staff, etc. What worries him is the Housing Element and the idea that it is not approved because they will then need to think of other properties to upzone. They can have the Mt.
Diablo Corridor Plan contemplated and he would put BART and DeSilva pieces further back in the 3-5 year period, but in the 3-5 month window it would be helpful to work on a specific plan just to deal with the Housing Element follow-up.
Councilmember Candell asked if they would want to add downtown parks under number 4 of civic buildings.
Mayor Anduri said he sees the parks as being part of the DSP. He also agreed with Councilmember Kwok’s comments. They need to think about protecting space for parks, the multi-modal transportation possibilities for the downtown and whether it involves redesigning the corridor so people can get around without getting in their cars, and protect opportunities for new businesses to locate in downtown. He thinks they could start on the specific plan and would put BART over DeSilva in terms of thinking about it.
Councilmember Gerringer remembered last year when the Council looked at adding this as a priority, she recalled it was the Mt. Diablo Corridor, Acalanes Road to Pleasant Hill Road, and including BART. So, she supports continuing having the Mt. Diablo Corridor Plan and said Plaza Park Overlay may become the highest priority, voiced support to leave BART and continue having existing conversations with BART. She asked the City Manager if they were on the right track.
Mayor Anduri said his thought here is he does not know if there is any benefit of even discussing this more at this time. He thinks they need from the City Manager after she has time to think about it and discuss with staff members how this would be prioritized.
Ms. Levin said the Council has unknowns, uncertainties, opportunities, and timelines that go beyond a year. It may be helpful for the City Manager to look at this a year from now and question if there is an outcome they would like to see.
Vice Mayor Dawson said she thinks tightening the objective design standards, see what the zoning looks like and opportunities for developers building homes, new businesses coming in and protecting existing businesses. She would hope they would have at least accomplished this.
Mayor Anduri said he recognizes each of these things are huge tasks. He thinks no matter what, the City has the potential for more housing downtown and thinks the objective design standards is the number one priority. The second thing most important to him relates to the multi-modal mobility in the downtown which he thinks should be reviewed immediately. It could be that they will bring in a consultant who will tell them there is not much they can do, but before they approve any large developments he would like to know if there is something they should be doing to streets in terms of widening, installing more bike and pedestrian infrastructure, wider sidewalks, and how to plan for mobility.
Councilmember Candell agreed with looking at multi-modal mobility and she recommended they do due diligence on evacuations to understand how those interplay in terms of options and parameters they will set for a consultant.
City Council Special Team Building & Goal Setting Meeting Page 13 of 28 February 11, 2023 Councilmember Kwok said in looking back as to what they are doing in this meeting and reviewing the four priorities, he thinks they should focus this year on the Mt. Diablo Corridor and DSP. All four are important but he feels they have done a lot of work to get the ball moving on wildfire and pedestrian and traffic safety. They have momentum but they need momentum on the DSP, so he would hope looking back 12 months from now, in this meeting they decided to focus their momentum on the DSP.
Councilmember Gerringer confirmed they will come back to the pedestrian and traffic safety and she agrees with all comments from Councilmembers. If they focus on the DSP it connects to everything else and fiscal sustainability will be the key to make sure it gets done.
Mayor Anduri said what Ms. Levin was saying is the DSP update is such a broad priority in and of itself, and what would they want accomplished this year for this priority. This is where he thinks objective design standards and figuring out how transportation will work in the downtown should be number one.
Councilmembers concurred.
Ms. Levin said the City Manager will be coming back to the Council and she asked for comments from the City Manager.
Ms. Srivatsa said she heard the importance of making the DSP update the primary priority for this coming year. She also heard more specific tasks that are components of a DSP update such as work on the objective design standards, implementing the Housing Element zoning requirements and managing a balance between housing and retail, focusing on the streetscape and how they will deal with downtown streets in terms of multi-modal mobility, taking into consideration evacuation routes in the downtown before arriving at decisions. These are all components of a DSP.
At the same time, the City has not completed the Housing Element and they hope to get it certified by HCD; however, there could be another round of reviews which means staff will have to devote time and effort there. GPAC is working towards completing the Safety Element and associated tasks. The point is, they can either embark on a multi-year DSP update which covers all topics but will take time or they could strategically attend to the critical tasks of the objective design standards, the implementation of the Housing Element in terms of zoning, multi-modal mobility, and evacuation routes.
In putting them into departmental work, the evacuation study is Planning, the downtown zoning is Planning, multi-modal is Engineering, and downtown objective standards is Planning. So, she wanted to manage expectations. The workshop is on March 24th and staff will come back to the Council with a Work Plan. She asked the Council to provide clarity on focus on specific tasks rather than focus on the DSP update, this would be helpful. She also said they are adding Plaza Way Overlay which is a Planning task.
Mayor Anduri said if they purchase the property, the Plaza Way Overlay goes to the top. He thinks they look at it under the DSP update with the number one priority as objective design objectives. Secondly for him is downtown mobility which involves evacuation. These are the two things they need to do immediately.
Councilmember Kwok referred to objective design objectives, and asked if it is design of the building itself or is it design of the neighborhood. Mayor Anduri said ideally, he would like to think of it as neighborhoods and how buildings fit together, where the park space goes, but he thinks there is a critical need to think about what the buildings will look like. The worst thing that could happen is Soviet-era concrete block apartment buildings along Mt. Diablo Boulevard.
City Council Special Team Building & Goal Setting Meeting Page 14 of 28 February 11, 2023 Councilmember Kwok asked if the State requires the City to have objective design standards by a certain date, or he asked if this already occurred.
Ms. Srivatsa said the State law requires the City cannot use subjective standards to approve projects. As a result, cities have started to develop objective standards which is difficult to evaluate. Nonetheless, it is safer for the City to have objective design standards. They have Phase I of the objective standards done, but they are not enough and when they get larger developments, they do not have as much control on the aesthetics as they would if they complete Phase 2 of the objective design standards. So, preparing objective design standards for individual developments is what is being asked of staff.
Councilmember Kwok asked how long it would take to complete the Phase 2 objective design standards.
Ms. Srivatsa said this will take 6 months to one year if they start now. But, again, they are still in Housing Element mode and in Safety Element mode, so they have to be cognizant of that. She said staff may not be able to get to the Land Use Element of the General Plan if they are undertaking these tasks.
Mayor Anduri asked if the Safety or Land Use Element required. Ms. Srivatsa said there are aspects of it that tie to the Housing Element, and those aspects are being updated.
Ms. Levin asked and confirmed with Ms. Srivatsa that the Plaza Way Overlay would be first, the objective design standards and multi-modal mobility would be the other two to attend to.
Ms. Levin said this will be flushed out more at the March 24th meeting, but she asked if those three are supported by Councilmembers if they were to look at an outcome one year from now.
Vice Mayor Dawson thinks zoning and the vibrancy of businesses will be affected from impacts from the Housing Element so she sees this as a close second.
Councilmember Gerringer said she thinks this is important and asked if this would be part of objective design standards in areas where there are businesses. Ms. Srivatsa said zoning follows a plan and ideally they would do a DSP and then they would do zoning amendments. Since they are not doing that, what they need to look at is the Housing Element to see if it informs zoning changes in the downtown. If it is prescribed in the Housing Element, they would undertake those zoning changes. She was not sure whether there is a specific program that says “rezone the downtown from “x” to “y” street to prohibit housing on the ground floor so she needs to go back to the Housing Element to address the Vice Mayor’s question. Zoning follows whatever a plan says, so she needs to see if there is a directive to do so. If there is not, it could be a separate task where staff brings it back to the Council for policy direction.
Ms. Subramanian cautioned that they have SB 330 and so she does not think they will be able to implement something new without upzoning, so they are confined right now.
Councilmember Candell said it is not just SB 330 but the other bill that says all commercial zones are housing by right. Ms. Subramanian confirmed and said in addition, the City cannot rezone things such that it takes away from housing.
City Council Special Team Building & Goal Setting Meeting Page 15 of 28 February 11, 2023 Councilmember Kwok said he struggles with what to design first--neighborhoods or buildings. Where he would lean to is to focus time and resources on neighborhood planning and take a leap of faith that designs that would come forward would be tasteful. Given the pressure of the Housing Element and other macro planning issues, he would lean on prioritizing the urban planning piece over the design piece if resources are limited.
Mayor Anduri said if they had unlimited resources, he would agree with Councilmember Kwok. He has been saying for a while that they should plan on a neighborhood level and work down. But, given the current state of the economy, there is a greater risk of a building being built that will be there for 40 years they will not like than there is of enough building that will cause neighborhood disruption. So, he would go first for building designs and then look at the neighborhoods. He just does not think there will be a mass of applications for buildings in the next 6 months they will need to be concerned with how neighborhoods develop. He keeps coming back to the streetscape as well, so they need to know that before planning the neighborhoods. So, to him it is 1) individual design standard; 2) mobility; 3) streetscape; and 4) neighborhood planning.
Vice Mayor Dawson said neighborhoods are parts of a DSP, but she thinks the first order of business is preserving what they can of what buildings might look like, or preserving the character and then it lays a blueprint for the developers coming to town. They will do what they want and possibly outside of the City’s standards, but at least they will have the design standards.
Mayor Anduri said in looking at the current DSP it was adopted in 2012 and it envisions over the next 20 years a 10% increase in the downtown population, and we are looking now at a 100% increase. That is the huge change they are facing, and the biggest impact of that change is on mobility. This is why he prioritizes that.
Councilmember Candell agreed with Mayor Anduri. They did some of that with SB 9 and helped with the neighborhood objective standards. There is more work to be done, but it is far more imminent for the downtown.
Ms. Levin asked if there was more for this priority. She suggested beginning the discussion on the next priority before a break. She asked if this remains a priority and asked if there are aspects to be emphasized over others. She asked to consider what would be a concrete outcome one year from now.
Improve Pedestrian and Traffic Safety and Multi-Modal Mobility:
Councilmember Candell said she thinks the City has done a great job making progress in this priority. She does not think they need to add anything new except there will be a big effort on School Street. She does not think they need to expand it over what they are already working on.
Vice Mayor Dawson agreed, but she suggested coming back and getting the public’s input on what they have been doing as well as review the Burton Valley’s pilot study.
City Council Special Team Building & Goal Setting Meeting Page 16 of 28 February 11, 2023 Councilmember Gerringer agreed and thanked staff and commissions who have worked hard on this. The Burton Valley Pilot program will come up soon on March 1st, and she and Councilmember Candell have been receiving input. There is a good feeling with added staff and they have met with many people. There are things that have come up in the Toole report such as the St. Mary’s Road drop-off at Stanley School.
She does not want to look at this as an additional item, but to look at it as part of looking at the School Street design and studying it in that area as to what can be done with the resources from the OBAG grant and the grant Congressman DeSaulnier championed for them.
Ms. Levin confirmed there were no other comments on this priority, and she recommended taking the lunch break, and Mayor Anduri suggested taking any public comments before the break.
Mayor Anduri opened the public comment period.
CHERYL MACDONALD referred to fire and said there are some community members that might not be able to afford tree cutting and wondered if there were grants from the State or federal government to assist those residents who want to do the right thing. When it comes to escape routes, she asked if it includes the ability for the fire truck to be able to travel in the opposing way. She also thanked the Council for their informative discussions.
GRACE DIXON said she very much appreciates the deliberation, supports decisions to date, and said she is very excited for the upcoming year.
BREAK
Ms. Levin called for lunch break at 11:43 a.m., and thereafter, reconvened the session at 12:18 p.m.
Develop a Fiscal Sustainability Plan for Short-Term and Long-Term Needs:
Mayor Anduri said he thinks this is a priority but he and Councilmember Kwok are the Council subcommittee working on it. They held meetings but given the three properties the City may be purchasing, they thought they should wait and see what happens with that. Once they have clarity there they will start meeting again. It is very important over the next year to have a community conversation about what people want the City to be doing, what services they want, what opportunities are available, and what they are willing to invest in those.
Vice Mayor Dawson agreed with the importance of the priority and referred to issues of the core area and stormwater maintenance issues.
Councilmember Candell agreed with the Mayor’s comments and Vice Mayor’s comments relating to deficit mode spending and recommended not just focusing on new priorities but keep up their existing level of service. She knows the City is part of the lawsuit against Monsanto and she asked if and how that plays into this, which should be part of the City’s strategy.
Ms. Subramanian stated the lawsuit was just filed within the month, so they are in the very early stages of what is a class action lawsuit. Should the City have recovery, it is a bit down the road. Because the City is part of a JPA organization the recovery funds will then get divided.
Councilmember Gerringer agrees this priority underlies and is the foundation for everything else the City will need to be doing. In looking at the stormwater advocacy, she thinks they need to work on this not be an unfunded mandate.
City Council Special Team Building & Goal Setting Meeting Page 17 of 28 February 11, 2023 Councilmember Kwok agreed with comments to focus on keeping the City financially stable and strong. If they were to decide to raise new revenue, an opportunity would be the November 2024 ballot time period, so the next 12 months are important to consider and prepare for such a measure. The Mayor has already talked about the type of public engagement as to whether to do it or not and he thinks they should use communication tools to talk more about these unfunded deficits so it does not come as a surprise.
Ms. Levin said if the Council were to look at one year from now, she asked if there is an outcome or several outcomes of making progress towards it.
Mayor Anduri said he thinks they would want to being able to say yes, they want to go forward with something on the ballot or not, and here is how the City will handle its finances going forward. He thinks they must have an idea a year from now as to how they will proceed.
Vice Mayor Dawson said the educating piece is important no matter what the City does so the public understands the situation the City is in and what they would propose.
Councilmember Gerringer agreed with the backward mapping and the need for messaging if they think they will go to the ballot. She recommended being very clear on the what the needs and gaps are, what the challenges are around spending and budgeting and being very transparent and clear of all options in terms of going to voters.
Mayor Anduri said there is a nuance to the timing of the message and they need to wait until they have some clarity on Plaza Park. Also, if consultants come back and say if the City is going to have twice as much housing here and you need to make certain changes to the City’s streets, this will cost a lot. This is the wildcard out there in terms of the Council’s fiscal sustainability discussions.
Ms. Levin asked the City Manager if the other information needed might fit into the timeline. Ms. Srivatsa said she thinks it is ambitious but it is an important priority, and they need to tackle it.
Ms. Levin said timewise, if there is a ballot measure in November 2024, she confirmed with the City Attorney it is usually August, but the County wants the completed items by July.
Mayor Anduri said another element was “including discreet major projects.” He would like to talk about specific things the Council would like to see accomplished in the next year that might not be in these priorities but related to the priorities.
Ms. Levin asked and confirmed there were no additional priorities outside of the four identified. She said as far as discussion and projects that may not fit into the priorities, she asked for discussion about those.
Mayor Anduri said he has a long list, but some include:
1. Having one person in the Planning Department designated as the ADU Czar whose responsibility is getting everything lined up to make sure the City is compliant with all State laws, that they have done everything they can to facilitate ADUs, and have pre-approved plans people can use.
2. He referred to the project relating to the transition from the BART station to Mt. Diablo Boulevard and thinks this would be a great thing to do in terms of the downtown’s vitality.
City Council Special Team Building & Goal Setting Meeting Page 18 of 28 February 11, 2023 Ms. Srivatsa said the project is funded, the plans are complete, staff submitted them to BART, and BART is stalling. She will check with Patrick Golier who is monitoring the project and will let the Council know if they need to get involved. Councilmember Gerringer agreed to circle back with CCTA representatives.
3. Within Priority #1 and fire, they want to look at the Glen neighborhood again and see what can be done to improve evacuation times for that area because this is a significant concern.
4. He would like to see the City in a year to have its mural program adopted.
5. He would like to see the City’s electrification ordinance enacted in the next year, and leaf blowers covered in that.
6. He had the dead trees and dry vegetation on this list as well.
7. He would like to see the City make strides on senior services.
8. There are many programs under the Housing Element that staff will have to work on as well as the new set of programs they learned through MTC.
9. He would like to see is coming up with the RFP for affordable housing on Moraga Road.
Vice Mayor Dawson said she would like to see leveraging Commission work with staff and for Commissions’ goals and priorities to line up with the Council’s so they are mutually supportive and collaborative. One would be CPAC and expanding their role outside of road maintenance and using their professional civil engineer expertise. Mr. Moran is amenable to that, and she suggested adding that to their scope, along with the utility reporting about infrastructure maintenance.
Councilmember Gerringer asked and confirmed the Council will talk about Commissions under governance, but they strengthened the City/Schools partnership in a number of ways. During the pandemic, Parks and Recreation stepped up with the afterschool program and now they are moving forward with childcare offerings. This is an enterprise department so they cover their own costs so she suggested how this might be able to be woven into the work they are doing. Over the years the schools have added wellness centers and it is very effective during the school year for having a safe place. Students can receive counseling services and interact with other students. When they are out for vacations and summer, the students do not have that resource, so within the structure of how Parks and Recreation looks at their programs, she would like to figure out how to work with the school district and Library Foundation.
Vice Mayor Dawson referred to economic development and they have pursued that with ARPA funds.
Thomas Myers is working on a vision of what that may look like. Even with this report coming, it would be nice to have resources as to how to put some of that into place. It also plays into what they foresee for the DSP and works within the priorities. Her other idea is it would be great for PTR to have a snack stand or coffee shop which would be well used.
Ms. Srivatsa said she will share these with staff and will report back to the Council and she noted a number of these items are already underway.
City Council Special Team Building & Goal Setting Meeting Page 19 of 28 February 11, 2023 Mayor Anduri opened the public comment period, and there were no speakers.
Ms. Levin then shared the screen of priorities with additions based on comments:
• For Wildfire Prevention and Preparedness and Utility Safety: Add “Responsiveness”, continue with this priority but do not need to add any new programs, continue with increased involvement of public and partners, possible ordinance changes, and fund a study on what density increases in neighborhoods will do to responsiveness and evacuation.
Ms. Srivatsa asked to add: Clarify areas of responsibility regarding tree removal and brush clearing.
• Create a Mt. Diablo Corridor and Downtown Specific Plan: Timing is uncertain, things are out of the Council’s control but if the City can purchase the two properties in the Plaza Way Overlay District, (one is purchased and the second is in due diligence), updating the overlay district is the number one priority. Second is creating objective design standards and third is studying streetscape design in terms of multi-mobility options for increased housing density in the Mt.
Diablo Corridor DSP.
Ms. Srivatsa said for increased housing density, they are not studying yet the “Mt. Diablo Corridor and DSP”. What she heard was they would focus on subtasks which are part of an overall DSP.
So, she would remove everything after “density” because they are not embarking at this time on a comprehensive DSP update.
Councilmember Candell said she thinks they were going to do some sort of safety analysis on evacuations and asked if that is implied in this priority. Mayor Anduri said that would be part of that study, but he is also assuming these are the top items if they can get to them. They want to think about BART and possibly task PTR with thinking about the DeSilva property and ideally what they would want to happen there so they are prepared. That does not need to be added, so for now they should focus on the essential items.
Vice Mayor Dawson said they talked about “zoning updates or changes” and what they might be capable of doing given the legal environment.
• Improve Pedestrian and Traffic Safety and Multi-Modal Mobility: The Council does not need to expand any programs. They are very pleased with what is going on. Focus on the Burton Valley Pilot Program and with new grant funding look at St. Mary’s drop-off and School Street plans.
Councilmember Candell suggested removing Burton Valley Pilot Program, as they are just finishing off what they started to do. If they include that, they will need to include other things they are also going to do which are part of the current plan.
Ms. Srivatsa commented on the St. Mary’s drop-off, stating the full scope of that project is not defined yet, and she asked if they should be specific on St. Mary’s and School Street if it would be viewed as that is the extent of the project. She suggested stating “Grant funding around Stanley School.” Councilmembers concurred.
City Council Special Team Building & Goal Setting Meeting Page 20 of 28 February 11, 2023 • Develop a Fiscal Sustainability Plan: It will still be a priority but with two properties and Plaza Overlay for sale, they need to pause or stay in the current status. They have a budget deficit looming so they need to start again when that is done. They need not to just look at new funding but how to maintain existing levels of services. The Council talked about timing public messaging.
She also heard that this time next year the Council would like to be able to have a “Yes” or “No” decision about going with a ballot measure.
Mayor Anduri said he thinks the Council needs to know by May and not in February about the ballot measure, and that they start the messaging once they have clarity on Plaza Overlay District.
Councilmember Gerringer thought a “ballot” measure is not yet decided up, and Ms. Levin suggested it state “revenue measure” instead of “ballot measure.” Councilmember Gerringer referred to: “Budget deficit is looming so need to start again when that is done” is not correct.
She suggested it state they need to “begin work on the priority soon.” Ms. Levin said there is a subcommittee of the Council looking at the whole issue of deficit into the future and other ways to expend money for services. She said even though they are not going to be messaging about it, she asked if that work continues or does it stay in a pause until the Council knows what is happening with those properties. Mayor Anduri said the latter; it is paused and he suggested it state, “We will resume once they have clarity on the Plaza Overlay situation.” Ms. Levin said in terms of the future deficit the City may be facing, she assumes that begins to be discussed during the budget, and Ms. Srivatsa said yes, it is discussed every year during the start of the fiscal year and in December.
Ms. Levin said in addition to these, she has a record of the projects mentioned. She also said on a “bicycle lot” versus “parking lot” she has the stormwater advocacy on the bicycle list. She suggested moving onto Governance.
9. CURRENT GOVERNANCE ISSUES
Recommendation: Discuss and provide feedback to the Mayor and Vice Mayor Ms. Levin said the topics are: 1) How can the City engage more community members to serve on City Boards, 2) How are they doing with public outreach and engagement and what can they do better, and 3) Discussions about commissions and committees.
She knows the Council talks with other cities and Councilmembers, one issue is civic infrastructure which is the Council’s community engagement piece that seems to be the terms used. Many cities are experiencing challenges regarding engaging community members. Some are that the pandemic brought feelings of isolation and stress, families are working and being involved in family activities, their own schooling, some feel their involvement will not make a difference, some are one topic or subject involvement type people, and cities are trying to meet their community members where they are. Things the City is doing well include social media, popups, continued outreach, community surveys, and looking at volunteer opportunities that are responsive to the personal work needs of members. She asked for comments.
Mayor Anduri asked if they can go to the topic Councilmember Kwok suggested--That there be at least one or two programs for commissioners to orient them to their responsibilities.
City Council Special Team Building & Goal Setting Meeting Page 21 of 28 February 11, 2023 Vice Mayor Dawson said many commissioners have been in place for a while and some legacy commissioners retire or move so they lose the historical knowledge. She thinks a workshop would be ideal or at least an orientation for the commissioner, appreciation for joining, and information on how the commission works with the Council and staff. She knows the City Clerk sends out a welcome letter, but she thinks something more formal might be helpful.
Mayor Anduri said ideally they are looking for a substantial length of service for commissioners and the people are very valuable. One of the things they might set up is that when someone is chosen, immediately there is a meeting scheduled with that person, the Chair of the Commission/Committee, the staff person who staffs it, and the Council liaisons. This orientation meeting can cover the history of the commission, how they operate, what goals are, understanding roles, etc.
Councilmember Gerringer said she thinks on-boarding is important and this came out of the Management Partners study and re-review of the Stanford Report. Where they are right now is that it is not the highest priority, except if they did all of that it could help commissions be even more efficient and streamline the load staff takes for them. So, she thinks there is benefit in the long-term in going back and looking at those recommendations. In terms of on-boarding, she has not heard anything about the Brown Act, and this should be stressed and included.
Councilmember Candell said there is a vacancy on the Planning Commission (PC) and she suggested that with the State’s take-over of local control, the role of the PC will be altered. Therefore, she suggested they may want to consider reducing the membership down to 5 members.
Vice Mayor Dawson said that said there might be the ability for them to be part of the Planning Department’s process as opposed to review and recommendation, given it is such an important Commission.
Councilmember Gerringer said if they start this, they go back of looking at the bigger picture of the Stanford report, analyzing how many meetings commissions have, efficiencies, and she asked this question because there are cities that have combined PC and DRC. She is not opposed to looking at that, but she also thinks they do not have a lot of additional bandwidth for that. If they are going to expand more of what they want commissioners to do that overlaps staff work, they must be clear about roles and responsibilities are. She feels they can create some efficiencies but it depends on where it is on their priority list.
Vice Mayor Dawson said in terms of evaluating commissions, she asked Ms. Srivatsa what that would involve. Ms. Srivatsa stated last year the Council discussed creating a template for each commission so they knew their roles, responsibilities, how much time it took, how to best utilize talents on the commission. This takes a while to do. The second was to train commissioners on the Brown Act, how to conduct meetings, procedural items. Putting task 1 aside, it is always important for commissioners to know the Brown Act and how to serve as a commissioner/committee member.
City Council Special Team Building & Goal Setting Meeting Page 22 of 28 February 11, 2023 For the PC and DRC, staff always meets with the newly appointed member and is introduced to the rest of the staff. In addition to what the City Clerk provides, they would be provided the General Plan, DSP, the director would talk about the Planning Department’s Work Plan, the “do’s and don’ts of a good commissioner”, and the League of California Cities has tons of literature on how to be a good commissioner. Finally, the League has an annual PC Academy and they would encourage the new members to attend.
Going back to the question, task 1 about looking carefully at each commission, deciding whether they are still relevant, whether they should be merged, etc. takes a lot of time and effort, and it is really a lot of effort in the beginning for staff to prepare the information as well as for Council to make those tough choices afterwards. The training regardless is a great idea and possibly once a year it would helpful to hold a Brown Act training. One of the things she has heard is that it is not only critical for them to understand what their commission does, but people want to know how they fit into the overall structure, i.e., how does the Creeks Committee’s work impact the DRC or someone else. A gathering of commissioners is a great way for them to understand that.
Finally, the third task was to go back to the Stanford report after they had done this and to revisit the recommendations, quantify the number of positions, consider whether current commissions and committees could be consolidated or eliminated. So, there are several tasks under the umbrella of commissions and committees.
Ms. Srivatsa said they would need staff to document the information about each commission and committee, get relevant sections from the LMC to see what the code requires of each body, and that would be collected, and a Council subcommittee would analyze it, and meet with commissions and committees.
Councilmember Kwok said this topic is something the Council has dealt with for at least 10 years and one that triggered the Stanford study in the first place. They got the outside party to do a deep dive and they came up with many recommendations. He recalled it is an immense amount of work to try and get it right.
So, they talked about this a year ago and did nothing because it is a lot of work and they had other higher priority items. He thinks they had done the right thing in the past year to focus on those higher priority items. That does not mean they could not do better, but the proof in the pudding was they had “bigger fish to fry.” He still thinks they have those fish to fry so he would rather agree that this is not the highest priority. He proposed to hold the one workshop because it could be outsourced by a consultant which does not use staff or Council time, but this elevates the member and provides training. Therefore, he would propose doing nothing or doing something simple to outsource at low cost.
Mayor Anduri said he agrees with Councilmember Kwok. When they discussed it the last time they had some concrete steps they would take but they got overtaken by the immensity of the issues they had to deal with for the last year. So, for this meeting his conclusion was exactly Councilmember Kwok’s—that there are so many things to do, they should put this off a bit. If okay with everyone, the Commissions and committees he is a liaison on, he will try to set up as a standard practice having an orientation meeting for those who come onto commissions and committees, along with the staff liaison, the Commission Chair, and possibly the City Attorney. He will leave this up to the City Attorney for a Brown Act discussion, so he will try to do that with his new members.
City Council Special Team Building & Goal Setting Meeting Page 23 of 28 February 11, 2023 One of the things he wanted to do as Mayor was to go back to having a breakfast on a Saturday with all Commissioners. He spoke with the City Manager and City Clerk about that. The reason they did not do it was the concern about COVID and bringing all members together in a room. This might be possible in May or June, but those were great events which he described. By sitting with other Commissioners and not their own commission, they learned things other commissions did which provided them with more connectivity and idea-sharing.
The other thing he would have hoped to do in January would be to invite all Commissioners and Committee members who left during COVID and have them come to that meeting as well and be recognized for their service in person.
Councilmember Gerringer voiced support of this, but she asked if Mayor Anduri is going to do liaison onboarding with his new members, he thinks the entire Council should do it, and Councilmembers concurred.
Ms. Srivatsa added that during the Commissions breakfast they also had one business item and she recalled for a few years the City Attorney’s office did a Brown Act training which was very humorous and not dry. Ms. Srivatsa said if the Council does want a Brown Act training she would suggest getting everyone together to hold one training which is more efficient, and said she remembers giving a specific training to GPAC.
Ms. Levin said what she has gathered thus far is that when a member is chosen, immediately there is a meeting scheduled with that person, along with the Chair of the Commission/Committee, the staff person who staffs it, and the Council liaisons. This orientation meeting can cover the history of the commission, how they operate, what goals are, understanding roles, etc. The City Manager to come back to the Council about the kind of training that could be outsourced on the role of commissioners/committee members.
She heard possibly reinstituting the Commission Breakfast where commissioners are recognized and can share ideas together, and outsource Brown Act training for all Commissioners and committee members.
Councilmember Candell agreed, and suggested public engagement, transparency, and renovation of the City’s website. Her biggest beef with the City’s website is that she goes to it and she cannot find the Council meeting going on right now. She thought they had talked about redoing the website but was unsure where it landed.
Ms. Srivatsa said it was not on the list of tasks, and if people are confused about meetings, she would like to know why because it might be an easy fix, or staff can publicize how to attend a public meeting.
Vice Mayor Dawson said she brought up the Commission question as a concern because she wanted to be sure they had full Commissions. It is not just a factor of how effective they are but also how the City communicates and encourages people to become involved with these commissions. So, communication and accessible information is important, particularly now when they are trying to seek volunteers and incentivize them.
City Council Special Team Building & Goal Setting Meeting Page 24 of 28 February 11, 2023 Councilmember Kwok added on how to make commissions attractive, they have had three resignations from the ETF in the last month. Part of the reason is they must return to meet in person. Many people have gotten used to multi-tasking or being able to participate in the meeting from wherever they are. It will be a different world starting in March, and what is worrisome for that Commission is that with 9 members, a quorum of 5 is needed. They only have 6 members now, and meetings could be canceled due to lack of a quorum. That commission met and they would like to downsize from 9 to 7 members in order to have a better likelihood of a quorum and make progress. He thinks they should determine how to allow remote participation by commissioners to serve would be more attractive.
Ms. Levin said in that area of discussion about how to retain commissioners, she asked if there is something the Council could consider in terms of continuing and concrete steps that could be taken in the future.
Vice Mayor Dawson said the City has a great social media outreach position, but she thinks providing outreach in terms of what a particular commissioner does when there is a vacancy would be important to garner interest in addition to the current recruitment efforts.
Mayor Anduri said Councilmember Kwok had suggested they would get more involvement if they were able to continue virtually. This requires a legislative solution and he asked what the City could do to make that happen. He asked if they should ask their lobbyist to talk with their legislative representative to promote that. He wishes cities had the option on how to meet, given Zoom has worked very well, and he asked what needs to be done to make that happen.
Ms. Srivatsa said the first step is to see where the bill is in the process because bills can change over time.
The Legislative Committee will keep a close eye on it, and when it comes before them for a recommendation, that would be the time to do lobbying and for the Council to send a letter of support.
Ms. Levin said the other topic she heard from interviews was public outreach and engagement and how can they do it better. The website has been mentioned as well as other social media. She asked if Councilmembers feel the City is doing well in outreach and engagement with the community.
Mayor Anduri asked to tie up one other item before this. He asked if other Councilmembers would be willing to schedule and hold an hour-long orientation session for new commissioners as he previously described, with both Council liaisons, staff, and new commissioners meeting together to provide orientation. They could set the meeting once they are appointed by the Council. Councilmembers agreed.
Ms. Levin asked if the Council feels they are doing well in outreach and engagement and asked if there is anything that could be done better.
Mayor Anduri said one of the best things that happened when he was off the Council was the decision to bring in a Communications Analyst. It has made a big difference, and so they are way ahead of where they were 20 years ago.
Councilmember Candell concurred. The places where she does see that they could do better is a lot of people complain about the e-notifications. For some reason, they have them and then they fall apart which is a known technical issue with some people. She asked to work to clean that up. She also is looking on the City’s website and trying to find meetings. She asked for some way for people to get on the website when they know a meeting is going on and find some way of getting to the meeting and participate quickly.
City Council Special Team Building & Goal Setting Meeting Page 25 of 28 February 11, 2023 Mayor Anduri commented that the search engine on the website is great. He was trained that communicating the message of anything you are trying to accomplish is so important. As they have initiatives within the City, such as 175+ Anniversary celebration, the Go Slow Lafayette campaign, and others. The only way to accomplish these things is through communication. Ms. Iarla is doing a great job and he is finding she should be on more meetings than maybe she would like to be because the messaging is so important in developing the message and getting it out. So, it may be the need to think about more capability in this area just because it is so important to keep the community informed.
Councilmember Kwok echoed these comments. Jeff Heyman and Suzanne Iarla have opened his eyes at how enjoyable it is to read about what the City is doing. The output is phenomenal, yet he wonders if she could do more, but it might not be humanly possible. Maybe they could have an outside consultant to assist and bolster the message. He does think they do not champion every single nice thing they are doing, but they should talk about their successes and insert the four priorities today into the communications strategy for this year and work with Ms. Iarla and another agency on points they need to highlight to achieve. They also need to let the public know they are in deficit spending and what that means, choices, etc. so as to bring the community along on the good side and challenges. They have not succeeded on their previous bond measures and they might have communicated better in the lead up to that. So, he thinks it would be a good time to add more resources to communications.
Mayor Anduri said they might want to consider different channels of communication. He did not know who received Janet Thomas’s message or thoughts about working with the Homeowners Associations and within then, neighborhoods and organizing neighborhoods to be message channels. It will take time to organize but will be very valuable.
Councilmember Candell agreed, and wondered if they should go out to the public and ask them about how they would want the City to improve.
Vice Mayor Dawson said she thought they had a survey before she came on the Council right before they launched Lafayette Listens. She likes the idea of broadening the networks within the community, as well.
She also said there could be a copy of what Ms. Iarla is doing that links to updates, as well as a regular one-liner and the City’s website on the board at Moraga and Mt. Diablo because it is so visual.
Mayor Anduri said if there is one thing they can do to improve awareness is to do whatever they can to increase the sign-ups for the Weekly Roundup. All key messages are included in that and he thinks the signups were below 2,000. If they could get that to a much higher percentage of households, that would be a big step. Councilmember Gerringer concurred.
Vice Mayor Dawson added that she and Mayor Anduri are on the ARPA Subcommittee and working with the consultant who can help them out with communication. She hoped to bring back benefits from that as well.
Ms. Levin asked if the City Manager had any questions. Ms. Srivatsa said these are great ideas and she will work with Ms. Iarla and Ms. Robinson about making the website easier to navigate. She will work with Ms. Iarla in adding people they send message to which can easily be accommodated. Ms Iarla may be doing it already, but she will check.
Mayor Anduri opened the public comment period.
City Council Special Team Building & Goal Setting Meeting Page 26 of 28 February 11, 2023 MARY ANN HOISINGTON said she has a suggestion on the topic being discussed. She asked why not devote one of the Vistas completely to commissions/committees. Ms. Srivatsa has all the information on each of the commissions/committees so that could be put into the Vistas and people could read what commissions/committees are available and they could be invited to join. Secondly, she asked to work on the Round Up, possibly every week or two Ms. Iarla could highlight a separate commission and write about them.
CHERYL MACDONALD said she loves the discussion on community involvement and increased transparency as much as possible, loves what Jeff Heyman and Suzanne Iarla have been working on, and she loves the idea of getting residents more involved in getting their ideas in improving civic engagement.
Vice Mayor Dawson brought up meetings with ARPA, and she was not sure if residents could be involved with that or whether there could be an agenda item or a future Council meeting that opens up the dialogue, but she knows many residents have had ideas that might help with brainstorming.
GRACE DIXON said she agrees with the prioritization of not doing the revisiting of the number of members on commissions which is important but not a priority right now. Regarding retention and attraction of people on commissions, she thinks there is a value to interviewing past commissioners and current commissioners on how they could feel more impactful in their current roles, or why or why not they felt impactful in their past roles as commissioners. She feels the City has a huge amount of intelligent minds on current commissions and so many important projects ahead of them, so she hoped to pool all of these minds and pull them in the same direction to make more of an impact than they have been able to do.
When people see achievement and movement in a positive direction more expeditiously, that attracts people to volunteer and sign up for these roles.
Secondly, she asked if there could be a directed QR code one could scan on how to sign up for certain meetings, it would be helpful. If there was a QR code just to sign up for PTR Commission meetings, that is quick and people would not have to get on the City’s website, sign up on e-notifications, etc.
Mayor Anduri said he does not believe the City does formal exit interviews of commissioners and he thinks the Council might want to do that. It should be formalized somehow because they would learn something from that so he thanked Ms. Dixon for bringing the idea forward.
Secondly, the people who have joined commissions and committees he has been involved with over the last year have been very strong individuals. The City has been getting very strong people coming forward, but unfortunately they are losing three strong people on the ETF, but in the last year they have added three very strong people who are making a difference now on the ETF, the same with Public Art Committee and the PTR Commission. He does not want anyone who may be watching now to think they are not getting good people. They are getting great people and they need to make sure they keep them coming.
Vice Mayor Dawson agreed with comments and thinks the Lafayette community is great in volunteering.
Ms. Levin said some cities conduct “stay” interviews which can be done on-line, so this might be something to consider.
Mayor Anduri said commissioners need to reapply after 6 years, and he thinks some of the most inspiring moments he has had have been those interviews of those who want to stay on.
City Council Special Team Building & Goal Setting Meeting Page 27 of 28 February 11, 2023
10. WRAP UP AND NEXT STEPS
Ms. Levin referred to workshop outcomes. What they had hoped to do today was to discuss and confirm the goals and priorities for FY 23/24, hear from the City Manager and City Attorney on high level topics, and discuss governance related matters which Councilmembers confirmed they considered and discussed.
She lastly asked Councilmembers to comment on take-aways from today.
Vice Mayor Dawson said she thinks proceeding on the road the City is on. They are on the track they agree on, getting deeper into it and prioritizing and reassessing where they are with the four priorities, and possibly going back to different ones in a more focused way.
Another take-away would be appreciation and gratefulness for this opportunity because when they come together like this, it re-energizes her and adds that element of excitement. It is great to know what they have accomplished and it is helpful in what they will do in the next year, and planning for years beyond.
She is appreciative of staff, residents, and Councilmembers and will look forward to the next year.
Councilmember Candell said she too is appreciative of Councilmembers, staff for focusing on things most important, and thinks they have the right set of priorities which they all agree on.
Mayor Anduri said his overwhelming feeling is that he is grateful to be working with fellow Councilmembers, City staff, City Attorney and it makes service wonderful.
Councilmember Gerringer echoed comments and thinks last year it felt like they had a lot more openended priorities, appreciative how they can listen to different views and agreeing with most items and how to move them forward, and thanked speakers for their participation all day and seeing how much this group and the community cares about making and keeping Lafayette the best it can be, which is gratifying.
Councilmember Kwok said he thinks it is valuable. They meet 23 times a year and another forum on Monday night, and having this type of opportunity to do a cross-section of those themes but in a different format is very helpful. There were many good ideas brought up today and he thinks it is overwhelming what cities must do to function well.
He thinks they are honest with themselves with four large priorities and made a dent in two of them, and that they did not roast themselves for not getting to 3 and 4. It has been wonderful to work on this together with Councilmembers, staff, and outside consultants to continue to re-prioritize and is fortunate to be working on this.
Ms. Levin said one of the things the City Manager indicated would be helpful is that after spending a chunk of time together today to think about the process and in the future a goal-setting session what you might want to do differently. It is just something to think about and she asked them to give Ms. Srivatsa their thoughts. She thanked Councilmembers for the hard work they did today. She appreciates it, and she turned it over to the Mayor to adjourn the meeting.
Mayor Anduri and Councilmembers thanked Ms. Levin for her productive work today.
City Council Special Team Building & Goal Setting Meeting Page 28 of 28 February 11, 2023
11. ADJOURN – Approximately 1:45 p.m.
APPROVED:
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Carl Anduri, Mayor
ATTEST:
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Joanne Robbins, City Clerk