City Council, Public Art Committee Page 1 of 38 June 12, 2023 7 City of Lafayette
City Council, Public Art
Committee Minutes
Lafayette Library and Learning Center – Don Tatzin Community Hall June 12 2023 3491 Mount Diablo Boulevard, Lafayette, California 6:00 p.m.
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City Council, Public Art Committee Page 2 of 38 June 12, 2023 Mayor Anduri called the Regular City Council meeting to order at 6:00 p.m.
2. ROLL CALL
Present: City Council: Mayor Anduri; Vice Mayor Dawson; Councilmembers Candell, Gerringer, and Kwok
Absent: None
Present: Public Art Committee: Chair Dave Dondero; Vice-Chair Patrick Dunne, Committee Members Carolyn Considine, Yukie Fujimoto, Erling Horn, Christy Mack, Janice Peacock, and Sandra Wolfe.
Staff Present: Niroop Srivatsa, City Manager; Tracy Robinson, Administrative Services Director; Jennifer Wakeman, Assistant Administrative Services Director; Jonathan Katayanagi, Parks and Recreation Director; Greg Wolff, Planning and Building Director; Mike Moran, Engineering and Public Works Director; Lt. Ben Alldritt, Police Department; Jenny Rosen, Public Art Committee Staff Liaison; Francine Kuykendall, Public Works Services Manager; Justin Bodily, Youth Commission Staff Liaison; Mala Subramanian, City Attorney; Joanne Robbins, City Clerk
3. Disclosure and/or Take Action on Remote Participation due to Just Cause or Emergency Circumstances Pursuant to AB 2449 (Gov. Code section 54953(f).)
4. ADOPTION OF AGENDA
Councilmember Gerringer asked if Item 13.C could be moved up on the agenda after Item 7.E, as the Executive Director of the White Pony Express would like to provide comments.
ACTION: It was M/S/C (Gerringer/Candell) to adopt the agenda, as amended. Roll Call Vote: 5-0 (Ayes:
Anduri, Dawson, Candell, Gerringer, and Kwok; Noes: None).
5. PLEDGE OF ALLEGIANCE – Larry Blodgett led the Pledge of Allegiance.
6. PUBLIC COMMENTS – (For items not on the agenda)
There were no speakers.
7. PRESENTATIONS (6PM to 7PM)
A. Larry Blodgett, Lafayette Historical Society
History Presentation
Recommendation: Receive and file.
Larry Blodgett, Lafayette Historical Society, said he is the caretaker of Old Betsy, a 1919 Ford Model TT, the City’s first mechanized fire engine and he provided an overview of her history, historical information documenting the first Fire Chief, L.I. Starks, Assistant Chief Ed J. Allen, and the only paid employee was Fire Chief Ed Morrison for the new fire department and the rest were volunteers.
City Council, Public Art Committee Page 3 of 38 June 12, 2023 He said he parked Old Betsy in his personal garage as there was no facility at that time. Old Betsy got her name from Chief Shirley Peaks and sometime around 1951. At some point, fire equipment was upgraded, and Old Betsy was sold off. Before that, the Lafayette Junior Chamber of Commerce used it for parades and special occasions and celebrations.
After several years, Old Betsy went up for sale and it went through several owners and picked up by Erwin John Sanko and they put it in their ranch in a barn for 15 years. John Callier, a local resident, discovered it was in the barn and convinced people that it would be great to have back with the City.
The Historical Society spearheaded fundraising as Betsy Bucks, and he listed off names of contributors.
Originally they were to sell it to the City for $ 3,500 but a collector in Montana said he wanted it for his collection and so they increased the purchase by $50 and the City purchased her.
Old Betsy was in sad repair and George Wasson, Vice Mayor at the time, convinced the Council they would not put money towards it, but agreed they would register it and house it. However, it sat in Vice Mayor Wasson’s garage for many years, as the City Clerk will tell everybody, being his neighbor.
Mr. Blodgett then presented and described pictures of Old Betsy when they began making improvements to her which he described, and she was completed sometime prior to 2009 under Vice Mayor Watson’s direction. He served on the board of the Historical Society for many years and is turning 98 this year in September. When the City built the Library, Old Betsy has her special spot in the garage in a cage with lighting and space for storage. They hope to get her out more.
Mr. Blodgett then provided history on the Model TT which is the truck version of the Model T. They continued to make the Model T engines in the early 1940’s and up to 10% of all vehicles were Model T’s.
Old Betsy has been used for numerous parades and civic events, shown at the former Lafayette Concourse Elegance, the Orinda Classic Car Show, she has brought Santa Claus into the Plaza Park, Breakfast with Santa, Lafayette’s 50th anniversary celebration, and she made a pass at the Lafayette Community Foundation Winemaker’s Dinner. They participated in Acalanes Rally last year, hope to get her out more, and he spoke of recent restoration work done. He concluded his presentation and asked that the Council take a break and view Old Betsy on the street.
Mayor Anduri opened the public comment period, and there were no speakers.
BREAK
The City Council then took a brief recess and viewed Old Betsy. Thereafter, Mayor Anduri reconvened the regular meeting at 7:23 p.m.
B. Update – East Bay Municipal Utility District Status on the Reservoir Tower Plans Recommendation: Receive update and provide direction.
Mayor Anduri stated on May 22nd, he and Councilmember Kwok as Council liaisons asked to add to tonight’s agenda a discussion regarding an advisory task force with respect to the tower. They decided not to put the item on the agenda because Gordon Chong, former member and Chair of the DRC and former President of the American Institute of Architects is putting together a high-level group to look at alternatives.
City Council, Public Art Committee Page 4 of 38 June 12, 2023 Mayor Anduri said he believes they can work more quickly and flexibly if they are not appointed by the Council. They welcome and encourage their advice and look forward to hearing from them at an upcoming Council meeting. In the meantime, the Council looks forward to hearing an update from EBMUD. He introduced Director John Coleman on the EBMUD Board.
John Coleman, EBMUD Boardmember, said they have been required by the California Division of Safety of Dams (DSOD) that they need to do something differently with the tower due to seismic issues which includes an on-shore valve operating system for improved emergency response. The metal operating house design was selected to meet safety mandates and address community aesthetic concerns. The Lafayette tower serves as a symbol of Lafayette. The tower is 97 years old and hopefully they will find a balance of aesthetic concerns expressed by the community with the critical seismic considerations. By incorporating feedback, they have developed a design which the Council will see more of to address safety concerns while preserving the unique character of the tower and he still has questions.
More dialogue and discussion is needed to take place and this will happen. They are going to have an outreach program, and he said EBMUD values the input received from the City Council and active involvement and feedback from the community to refine and enhance a tower design while balancing safety aesthetics. When this issue first came up a couple of years ago, he told staff not to take for granted that it will be a “slam dunk.” It is not for many reasons that have been raised so far.
Mr. Coleman said Jimi Yoloye, Director of Engineering and Construction, will deliver an update on the progress since the May meeting and background on communications with DSOD. Regarding outreach, the Council raised the ability for a larger meeting which he supported. They will hold a hybrid community meeting on July 26th at Stanley School beginning at 6PM. They encourage Lafayette residents to participate, provide input, and they will provide project updates, present initial designs, and discuss an improved metal operating house design based upon community input. Zoom access and recording of the meeting will also be available to all.
Previously, EBMUD has met with the Council 3 times, the Lafayette Chamber Board of Directors once, Lafayette Rotary once, and City staff in addition to their discussions and collaborating with the Lamorinda Times. Where they stand is that construction is tentatively scheduled to start in Spring 2024. Currently, they are coordinating with DSOD on 60% design and progress towards a 90% design.
Jimi Yoloye, Director of Engineering and Construction, provided an update on their progress with the Lafayette tower. They were at the City Council at the May 8th meeting and they made a presentation. He summarized events from that meeting, and then described what they have done since that time, stating they have proceeded with the revised design which is the metal operating house with a 60% design review with DSOD. This was inspired by Andrew Bertics.
He then presented a timeline slide of outreach done. The Council asked at the last meeting to meet with the engineers in the community who had some ideas about a taller tower and what could be done with the tower and review the actual technical and engineering reports which they did. They met with Matt and Andrew Bertics, and Mason Walters with their design consultants. The Council also asked them to do more outreach to the community, and they have a community meeting scheduled in person with a virtual option on July 26th at Stanley Middle School at 6PM.
City Council, Public Art Committee Page 5 of 38 June 12, 2023 Today, they are back here to talk more about the engineering portion of it and some of the ideas that came up in the meeting, and to talk about their documented communications with DSOD so the Council has a feeling about what regulators think about the process.
Mr. Yoloye said the meeting with the Bertics, and Mr. Walters was held on May 30th and it was a good meeting. There were a couple of things that came out; one was that DSOD is very conservative in their design criteria, but this is the nature of the work they do. They are regulating dams, and this is classified as a high hazard dam because it is in an urban area with a lot of downstream residents. The tower has marginal sheer strength in the structure which means it could slice off. The shortened tower is necessary in order to accommodate the structure on top of it. They believe they have the optimal height and weight on top of the shortened tower, and DSOD agrees.
There is the concept that a taller tower could be possible if it was designed to be able to counter-vibrate with the shortened tower, which means the bottom of the tower will shake, the top tower might shake in a different direction, and they counter the sheer forces the lower portion of the tower are exhibiting.
EBMUD considered something similar when they first began the analysis which was a concept of base isolation to maintain the higher tower height.
He then displayed some of the alternatives they considered at the beginning. The technical requirements and principles to do the base isolators are essentially the same if they added another structure on top and tried to have counter-vibration to make it work. So, they have looked at the concept.
The next slides he presented are excerpts from documentation they received from DSOD. The first is June 2017 when DSOD told them they need to get going on this. There was a level of urgency in their communication that with the tower functioning as an emergency outlet and ungated spillway for the dam it is a critical component to the overall safety of the dam. Any continued delays in addressing these issues are increasing the potential risk to public safety. They concluded by saying, as a result, they are hereby directed to immediately resume design work and submit a repair application by October 2017 with a targeted construction completion date of November 2019. They missed those dates, but this is because they were trying to figure out if they could stay with a taller tower. This was a concept they presented to DSOD.
In late 2017, DSOD responded on the concept of the base isolators. They state, “The concept of using an isolator solution for the seismic remediation of a freestanding outlet tower is considered a state-of-theart practice as this type of system has not been used on any jurisdictional outlet tower in California.” The letter provided 3 requirements for them to proceed with that: 1) they would have to have technical reviews, research, and testing; 2) they would have to build a large-scale physical model of the tower in order to test it out; and 3) there would have to be an independent board of consultants to perform that review. This is a high bar, and in their experience with DSOD, when they make requirements like that it is because they are not very comfortable with the idea of doing that. They said so in conclusion in their letter of December 2017; that “The above requirements reflect our uncertainty regarding the viability of this concept for an outlet tower.”
Mr. Yoloye said they went through and did all analysis they needed to do and ended up with a report available on their website, which is the same report the Bertics and Mr. Walters reviewed with their design consultants. DSOD responded to that analysis basically saying, “The report confirms long-standing seismic deficiencies associated with the tower.
City Council, Public Art Committee Page 6 of 38 June 12, 2023 The report also presents analyses that supports a retrofit based on demolishing the tower sections above election 460 feet. DSOD’s independent analysis confirmed that shortening the tower would allow it to maintain its structural integrity during maximum critical earthquake loading.” This was December of 2021.
So, DSOD has indicated to EBMUD in very clear terms that shortening the tower is the approach they would like them to pursue. They have approved that tower shortening as the approach to ensure the dam safety. They believe DSOD is unlikely to approve the base isolator concept or a counter-vibration concept to implement a taller tower even if their 3 requisites are completed. They also believe the DSOD is unlikely to accept further delay. They are past the time and they are moving as quickly as they can to get a design they will accept.
Aside from DSOD’s issues, the concept of adding a taller structure onto the shortened tower has some functional issues. They would have to add an operating platform and their consultants took a preliminary review of how the columns could be affixed to the shorter tower and therefore erect the structure. The columns may impede their maintenance access and crane function. They take up quite a bit of space on the platform needed for operation and maintenance of the equipment, and this would be something they would have to consider. They also did a preliminary cost on this idea and the estimate would cost $1 million more than the shortened tower they are currently proposing.
With that, they took a serious look in coordination with some of the community engineers to look at what they could do, and they remained of strong belief that the shortened tower is the approach they must take. They understand the community’s desire for the taller tower, understands it is an icon in Lafayette, and if they could keep a taller tower they would do that, but they do not believe they are going to be able to. They shorter tower does have the top they believe is very similar to the top of the existing tower which was inspired by comments they received from the community and that is the design DSOD is now reviewing.
Mr. Yoloye concluded and said regarding next steps, they have on-going discussions and coordination with DSOD, the public outreach meeting scheduled for July 26th, would still look for any input on the aesthetics of the operating house, and after that they would proceed to finish the design and hopefully begin construction next year.
Councilmember Candell said she appreciates the explanation from DSOD on why the taller tower would not make sense. She is sad but understands the limitations which was well broken down. She asked if there is any other design input the City will be allowed to make changes to have more aesthetics on the metal top when going through the design, such as outside finishes or other items.
Mr. Yoloye said what they have currently proposed is the structure is made from aluminum, light weight, and it is lighter than the parapet option which benefits the structure. They think they have the optimal shape of the arches and finishes but input in that area would still be welcome.
Mayor Anduri opened the public comment period, and there were no speakers.
Mayor Anduri said he was not able to be present at the May 8th meeting. He asked Mr. Yoloye to provide the basics of the safety issues with the tower.
City Council, Public Art Committee Page 7 of 38 June 12, 2023 Mr. Yoloye said unlike most dams, this tower does 2 things. A reservoir tower has a function to be able to release water from the Reservoir in a controlled manner. The one that drives the safety issue is that this tower is also the spillway for the dam and most dams will have a separate spillway with large chutes that takes water over. Spillways are intended to be uncontrolled, so it is freeform where they have no way of stopping it. It is to protect the dam. If for some reason mechanical valves in the outlet tower do not work or they get the probable maximum flow of something higher than that, when the tower is full you start filling up the Reservoir. The dam is not designed to have water up that high. If the water gets too high for the dam sometimes it over tops and sometimes it gets high enough so the dam can be damaged. This is what the spillway is for, and that is the concern DSOD has.
In a maximum credible earthquake, if the tower is damaged you do not have the ability to have a spillway.
So, if a flood occurs, they have no way to stop the Reservoir from increasing and then damaging the dam.
It is their concern as owner of the dam and they maintain 24 different dams, 7 of which are large type dams. They also have smaller ones that hold distribution reservoirs. They are concerned about that as well.
Mayor Anduri said Mr. Yoloye has indicated 2 possible problems if something happens with the spillway; one is the water rises and the second is the dam itself is damaged. This dam was built at this height because it was higher and collapsed and almost 100 years ago was built lower. If water were to fill to the top before overtopping, he asked if there is a chance there would be damage to this dam, and he asked how well built is this current dam.
Mr. Yoloye said the dam is built well and the DSOD has said the dam is safe under the conditions where it has a functioning spillway. If it does not have a functioning spillway, there is a danger, but he could not provide an answer. In working with the regulators, they do not care what that chance is. It is just the possibility it would happen which is the conservative approach they have.
Mayor Anduri said in terms of over-topping, he asked what is this likelihood. This was a heavy rainfall year and he knows EBMUD has been releasing to keep it at the mandated level, but if there was no spillway and they had rainfall at the current level, he asked how many years would it take to fill the reservoir to overtop.
Mr. Yoloye said right now they are operating 10 feet below the spillway which is part of the safety concern DSOD had. If there was no restriction on the elevation and the reservoir was full at spillway level and you got the probable maximum flood and no spillway, they estimate they would be one foot from the top of the dam. The probable maximum flood is about the 100-year flood.
Mayor Anduri said he is asking these questions because he listened to the May 8th recording, and there were repeated statements about public safety. Obviously, they want the dam to have a spillway and a way to release water from the dam, but he was just wondering what is the risk to the community in the worst case. He asked if Mr. Yoloye could provide something that explains that it would be very much appreciated because he still does not have a sense of what the risk is. The reservoir is historically low, but he wonders how long it would take with a 100-year rainfall and what that would do. Mr. Yoloye said at the lower level, they would have to do some analysis and provide that.
Vice Mayor Dawson said therefore, the fix to this is total replacement and she asked if there is any mitigation to mitigate the risk or elevate its fair rating in the interim than replacing the tower.
City Council, Public Art Committee Page 8 of 38 June 12, 2023 Mr. Yoloye said there is something to reduce the risk which they did do. They proposed to the DSOD that they would keep the reservoir elevation lower and no higher than 440 feet, which is 9 feet below the spillway level. In terms of modifying the rating, the DSOD would not change the rating for mitigation.
Councilmember Kwok said Mr. Yoloye mentioned that DSOD has presented reasons of their concern for a higher height. Since the last time EBMUD met with the Council, they also met with members of the community. Between that time and today, he asked if the DSOD is aware of the community input or was his reference to DSOD more related to their views from 2 years ago.
Mr. Yoloye asked Engineering Manager Sean Tadoron, and he replied that they must go back to the DSOD and show them the design in July.
Vice Mayor Dawson said similarly when PG&E came through with safety concerns with the gas pipeline, the City worked with the CPUC and they were understanding of community input, so she thinks the community’s input would be important and there would be some leeway. Mr. Yoloye said they can ask the DSOD, but they do not expect any new information.
Councilmember Gerringer thanked EBMUD for meeting with resident engineers and experts and for scheduling the hybrid community meeting on July 26th. She noted that EBMUD would meet with the DSOD prior to the community meeting on the 60% design elements. At this point, she asked what could change for the community meeting, given the timing does not work out. She knows they must have something safe but also is not so noticeably short, and she would appreciate the community input be part of the message back to the DSOD. She said the Mayor mentioned that he and Councilmember Kwok did not bring forward the formation of an ad-hoc committee and agreed many times these can act flexibly, and she asked how that would fit into all of this and questions returning about the safety.
Mayor Anduri said he appreciates the presentation this evening, but what he is hearing Mr. Yoloye say in a very polite way is that EBMUD is only interested in aesthetics from them. He thinks the community wants to have an opportunity to talk more than that but recognizing EBMUD has responsibilities and a timeline and a budget, what he finds is that he is not an engineer but a lawyer. He would feel much more comfortable in carrying out his responsibilities with the community if he can hear from this residents’ advisory group being formed that will consist of several very well-known qualified seismic engineers dealing with concrete structures, architects, and cost estimators. So, he looks forward to hearing from them and they are prepared to work quickly so they can get back to the Council before the community meeting on the 26th.
It is not a question of doubting what EBMUD is telling the Council about safety and alternatives. It is more that this is very important to the community so he would like to get the input from community members who are very well qualified in this area just so he has a sense of what the possibilities are. They are away of the need to act quickly and he hopes they can get back to the Council before the second meeting in July which would be before the community meeting.
Councilmember Kwok added that he would feel more comfortable if the DSOD knew that the community had these concerns, wanted to relook at the height and tower and granted, their 3 criteria make it difficult to do that. But, if they knew this was the path the community was looking at, they could relook at it, could tell them the same requirements again which could conspire against cost and timetables, but to give the community a fair hearing, this is where they are at in order to move forward.
City Council, Public Art Committee Page 9 of 38 June 12, 2023 Mayor Anduri and Councilmembers voiced appreciation to EBMUD representatives.
RE-ARRANGE AGENDA
ACTION: It was M/S/C (Gerringer/Dawson) to re-arrange the agenda to hear Items 7D next, then Item 7E, move up Item 13C, and then hear Item 7.C. Roll Call Vote: 5-0 (Ayes: Anduri, Dawson, Candell, Gerringer, and Kwok; Noes: None).
D. Justin Bodily, Staff Liaison to the Youth Commission Recognizing graduating seniors Lily Hanzel, Emma Hunt, Charlotte MacKenzie, Nora Macarevich Recommendation: Receive and file.
Staff Liaison to the Youth Commission Justin Bodily recognized the 4 seniors on the Youth Commission that will be moving on. While they hate to see them go, they are excited to see them continue to grow in college. One senior is in attendance, Emma Hunt. He then provided a background on the other 3 seniors unable to attend the meeting tonight. He recognized Lily Hanzel, Charlotte MacKenzie, and Nora Macarevich.
Emma Hunt said she will be going to Cal Poly San Luis Obispo next year which she is looking forward to.
She has been on the Youth Commission since 8th grade and has enjoyed her time working with those on the Commission, especially the Haunted House. She thanked Mr. Bodily for his work as Liaison as well as Steven who is no longer working with them.
Mayor Anduri thanked Ms. Hunt, recognized her for her work on GPAC and wished her the best of luck in the future.
Mayor Anduri opened the public comment period, and there were no speakers.
E. Jenny Rosen, Staff Liaison to the Public Art Committee Public Art Committee Mural Project and Budget Request
Recommendation: The Public Art Committee recommends that the City Council 1) Approve the mural program consisting of the 11 elements listed in the attached City of Lafayette Downtown Mural Program; 2) Authorize the City Attorney to bring to the Council the necessary changes to our City ordinances; 3) Authorize the Public Art Committee to retain the Consultant and to carry out the mural program; and 4) Continue discussion on a budget allocation to Item 11B: Proposed budget and work plan.
Staff Liaison to the Public Art Committee Jenny Rosen introduced the item and thanked the Mayor and City Council for considering their City of Lafayette Downtown Mural Program work plan and budget request. She asked that the Public Art Committee members introduce themselves and said all members were present. Christy Mack, Patrick Dunne, Janice Peacock, Dave Dondero, Carolyn Considine, Erling Horn, Sandra Wolfe, and Yukie Fujimoto then introduced themselves. Ms. Rosen said the City has a history of valuing the creation of spaces downtown for people of all ages to enjoy where they can gather and spend time in quiet reflection alone or with friends, family, and community. From the acquisition of the Plaza in the center of town in the 1850’s which later turned into Plaza Park around 2000 to the new Library with its wisteria covered courtyard and amphitheater which opened in 2009 to the latest gem, the Creek Committee’s Rain Garden at First Street which opened in April.
City Council, Public Art Committee Page 10 of 38 June 12, 2023 Much like the Creek Committee’s beautification efforts with local creeks, the Public Art Committee seeks to enhance the City through its purview—art. Through the mural plan proposed tonight, the Committee envisions supporting local artists and businesses, engaging residents, and encouraging visitors to discover what the City has to offer. The goal of the 4-year program is to create over time 4 outdoor murals in the downtown that evoke inspiration and enjoyment and enhance the vitality of downtown Lafayette.
The Committee has worked for over a year to draft a plan for a mural program that will bring works by local and nationally recognized muralists to Lafayette’s business district over the span of these 4 years with full and comprehensive public input for each design.
Dave Dondero, Chair, Public Art Committee, gave a PowerPoint presentation showing displays of murals which he described, some of which are nearby and some further afield.
Sorell Raino-Tsui said he runs a Bay Area production agency called ABG Art Group and they have a lot of experience producing murals and public art for decades. They have been working with City governments, architects, private developers, and others. They have run similar programs to this one with the City of Livermore, San Leandro, and Oakland. They bring a wealth of knowledge and expertise on how to execute such a program so the City can avoid some of the dramas he has been through producing murals and problems that sometimes come up. He hopes to help from a professional and technical standpoint and be a production partner to bring this program to life, and he looks forward to working with the City and the Public Art Committee.
Ms. Rosen stated tonight the Public Art Committee is recommending the following 4 items: 1) Approve the mural program consisting of the 11 elements listed in the attached City of Lafayette Downtown Mural Program; 2) Authorize the City Attorney to bring to the Council the necessary changes to our City ordinances; 3) Authorize the Public Art Committee to retain the Consultant and to carry out the mural program; and 4) Continue discussion on a budget allocation to Item 11B: Proposed budget and work plan.
Chair Dondero highlighted 2 elements in the plan; one is to develop a robust and transparent process for public engagement in the process and the other is to develop and maintain a diverse list of pre-qualified artists including local artists from which they can then choose for each of the 4 murals in the plan.
Mayor Anduri thanked the Committee for their presentation and asked if there were questions of Councilmembers.
Councilmember Candell thanked the Committee for their presentation. She asked why is this not coming out of the City’s public art funds or she asked what could be done to augment it with public art funds.
City Attorney Mala Subramanian said this has come up for other cities. The public art fee by law is a fee that the City requires of developers and it is a certain percentage of their building budget that is required to be used for art. It comes from architectural features and the City’s ability to require it is that instead of a feature on the project, they are requiring art. The nature of the art that must be produced must be of a permanent or semi-permanent nature so the developer can choose to put it on their own project, or they can provide an in-lieu fee and the City can place it elsewhere. But, the concern she raised is that these murals are not semi-permanent or permanent so it would not qualify to use public art fees even if they were to amend the ordinance to do so, and this is why a separate budget for it is recommended.
City Council, Public Art Committee Page 11 of 38 June 12, 2023 Councilmember Kwok said it is great to see some very inspiring work of public art and is very supportive of seeing more artwork in the community and beauty. His question relates to the budget request of $96,000 which 20% will go to the consultant that is being retained. The consultant is required within the scope to provide the materials, and he asked if the actual paint comes from the 20% budget or not.
Mr. Raino-Tsui said there are a couple of ways that could go. They have not completely outlined the scope of his engagement yet. He typically works full hands on in production so there is a lot that goes into that.
There is not just paint but ordering the lifts, insurance, contract work, legal, and the production itself so there is a lot to oversee, and that 20% covers all of that. In terms of the actual materials, the paint itself is one of the minor costs so they would have to look at each mural individually, its size, how big the building is, the scale, the artist chosen, and there are several variables that go into designing each budget for each piece. Different artists will come at different price points, different scales will cost more.
Councilmember Kwok said the 20% is the management fee and there will be a remainder of the budget which was referred to as the artist’s fee. He asked if the artist will be paid for their work, and Mr. Raino-Tsui said yes. Councilmember Kwok asked what percentage of the annual budget is being paid to the artist in the order of magnitude the City of Lafayette is contemplating here.
Mr. Raino-Tsui said there are several ways that can go as well because it really depends on the kind of draw of that artist’s career. Some artists are very well established and come at certain price points, and others are emerging and are more flexible on budget. Typically, if they are looking at one mural is $25,000 and they would like to see 50% of that $25,000 go to the artist which is the artist fee. This is the typical math they usually produce projects on. They want these artists to earn a living wage, to be respected for their time and work and to be seen as professionals.
Councilmember Kwok asked what are the intellectual property rights around the artwork itself. He asked if it is owned by the artist or fee for hire. Mr. Raino-Tsui said there are also several variables there they will have to figure out, but typically what they want to do is have the artist waive copyright for the piece itself on that specific location. They would retain copyright of the artwork in terms of it being reproduced or sold or merchandised in any way. If 10 years from now the building is sold and the property owner wants to move in a different direction, they have the flexibility to do so.
Mayor Anduri stated there is no requirement that $96,000 be spent. He thinks the Committee arrived at that number for what would be a variety of artists, but aiming at good art, figuring that $96,000 would be a safe number for 4 murals. That does not mean it all has to be all spent.
Councilmember Kwok asked if there is a creative brief or just a guiding principle or central organizing thought that says the murals to be produced over the 4 years will relate to each other in any way thematically or visually from a graphic design point of view so they look integrated as part of either a visual design system or theme or not. He asked what happens in other cities and asked what is the vision for Lafayette.
Chair Dondero said it is sort of in between that. They would not all be in one theme. But, it also is not going to be “wild west.” It will probably lean more towards random, but within work they have already done and will continue to do in the public engagement phase.
City Council, Public Art Committee Page 12 of 38 June 12, 2023 They have already developed 4 categories they would like to focus on initially which are 1) historical representations; 2) botanical representations; 3) landscapes; and 4) abstracts. Those are very broad categories and it is not that they would do one of each just because there are 4 and they are talking about 4 murals, but within that and through public engagement they would begin to answer the question asked which is, what do they want that first, second and third mural to be. Then with the first one they go deep down into the rabbit hole of what do they want and work through a particular artist to begin to generate options, and that those options are considered with the public and ultimately the Committee deciding which direction to go.
Councilmember Kwok said while not easy, he thinks it is a good and fun process of discovery and creativity, and Chair Dondero said Mr. Raino-Tsui can help bring them to artists who can bridge that gap.
Councilmember Kwok asked if there were any best practices in other cities in how they set up guidelines that can guide more effectively and efficiently to determine who they are as a community, which would be a great value add.
Mr. Raino-Tsui said that is a big question defining a community, but this process is designed to not have any surprises. They want to go through a design review process, community engagement, artist review, multiple revisions of the design, present those options to the Council and to the Committee, and get the whole community’s buy-in on what the piece is and what it represents. There are many ways to do that and they want the themes to be universal that everyone can relate to and feel good about and enjoy. There are many ways to do that and he thinks choosing artists that have that experience, are professional and used to that level of engagement and back and forth is a part of that process. The artists are the pros at that and having that dialogue helps them come to that point where they can present a design that everyone can get behind.
Chair Dondero said he believes he said the Committee would make the final decision, but he clarified the Council would.
Councilmember Gerringer thanked staff, the Committee and Mr. Raino-Tsui for the thorough presentation.
She noted all $96,000 does not have to be spent necessarily, but if the Council approves the budget tonight as an addition she asked Ms. Robinson how it will be put into the budget.
Mayor Anduri clarified that the Committee is asking for $27,000 for the first year.
Councilmember Gerringer appreciates the public engagement portion and asked if the art will be restricted to the downtown. She knows there will be a survey done and public outreach but wondered about potential locations of buildings.
Chair Dondero said his understanding is that it is the downtown core. They have walked Mt. Diablo Boulevard from Ace Hardware to City Hall, catalogued many walls, and identified what they considered to be some that they think would be great first walls. That is as far as they have gone, so a key next step is to begin to engage building owners with their thoughts and begin to see if they can come up with a short list of interested business owners.
Councilmember Candell said their downtown core has a specific definition which is from First Street to Mountain View where Chair Dondero described all the way through the east end, so it sounds like it is all downtown Lafayette and not just the core. Chair Dondero confirmed.
City Council, Public Art Committee Page 13 of 38 June 12, 2023 Mayor Anduri opened the public comment period.
MARY ANN HOISINGTON thanked the Committee members for the time and expertise they spend trying to make things nicer for everyone in the City. She is speaking in a negative manner about the murals because she was so shocked when she saw the one by Uncle Yu’s. Residents had no warning and she tried to avert her eyes from it, but she must see it every time she drives to Diablo Foods. She thinks there are some other members of the community who feel the same way. Her 2 main concerns; the viewability of the mural. There are viewing areas where groups have arranged art for shows and other shows organized by the Committee, sculptures in the Library itself, shows they have in the Town Theater, and all these things can be seen by people if they want to see them. With a mural, there is not much choice.
The second part she is worried about has to do with the environment. They have worked so hard to make the downtown and other areas so beautiful with trees and the center divides that are planted. Long ago, Mt. Diablo Boulevard looked awful and she is afraid the murals will fight with what has been done; however, some of the ones showed tonight might not, but some would. She was impressed with Friday’s Round Up which said this will happen with full and comprehensive public input for each design, which she supports.
JOHN EATON said when this project first popped up for him, he and his wife spent a month in Quincy and in Plumas County where there was no COVID at the time. He was really impressed by some of the murals they had in that town. The one that impressed him the most was clearly a tribute to the indigenous past of that area. He would hope that among the 5 murals, one might pay tribute to the City’s own indigenous past and include an indigenous artist.
SUSAN DANNENFELSER said she is excited to see this project on the books. When she was on the PAC they wanted it and Erling Horn was working very hard for it, but they did not get it. The City had a huge Miwok population here and the Community Garden celebrates that. They have dwellings and all kinds of things that go with that, and at one point they were trying to get a native American mural. In terms of history, she hopes one could be included.
DINA ASNA said she is an artist and at the same time is also the founder and executive director of Iranian Woman and Network, a non-profit which has the mission statement of empowering women through art.
She is very excited to see this project moving forward because last September as the full movement started in Iran, they were thinking they need to do something to raise the voices of women. They began with a mural project and they have a very strong artist community in their group and came up with a proposal. She went to Contra Costa County, Alameda County, San Francisco, Berkeley, and she wanted to contact Lafayette which she learned did not have anything here going on right now. They are in a close relationship with a mural project and she was sad she must go find other walls and places to paint murals.
She thinks the City should be introduced to the art in a way they cannot do in other ways. She described other projects and said they collected over 400 artworks. Last Saturday at Golden Gate Park at the AIDS Memorial Grove, they could hold their first exhibit and had all kinds of art at the festival. She can see this happening in Lafayette, and she would love to host an event here and would love to see the City is standing behind small non-profits and asked for approval of the request and said they are available to help.
City Council, Public Art Committee Page 14 of 38 June 12, 2023 CAROL SINGER said she is another negative voice but would like to thank the PAC for all they have done with non-mural art and hard work. However, she is not in favor of murals. She remembers Lafayette when they had signs all over the place. Art is in the eye of the beholder and if someone likes certain art, people can go and look at them, but this will be art that someone chooses and thinks is art and it will be put on walls where the entire community must see it every day. This is an imposition on the community.
She applauded the community for proposed public input and she thinks it will be a majority vote of what design pleases the majority which leaves everyone else to look at it every day whether they think it is good art or not. The donuts on Target in Walnut Creek represent target and this is art, and this is how Target got to put those donuts on their building. She agrees with Ms. Hoisington. She loves the community. They work so hard to make it peaceful and beautiful with trees and flowers, and now she is afraid their peace and quiet will be gone with the 4 murals and probably many more. So, she is not in favor of this happening to the community.
LYNN MACMICHAEL thanked the Committee for their work and said she is amazed at it. She would take a different view than the 2 speakers tonight in saying she thinks it would be wonderful to have a mural program and it would open the community to different visions, ideas, and lifestyles, and she thinks the Committee will be very careful about their selections. There is quite a variety of choices and she wants to applaud the Committee and City Council for thinking about this and applauding the direction for more murals and murals that can express the diversity of the Bay Area and Lafayette as part of it that would be an example of.
CHERYL MACDONALD said she has mixed reviews, but she has been going to the meetings and appreciates all the work of the PAC. She agrees with Carol Singer in that too many murals is too many but one main question was brought up was, what is Lafayette, and she knows it is something that is coming on the agenda in the future, public workshops, and asked whether they would be hybrid. Public engagement is very important to her and appreciates the comments that this is something they also wish for. If banners are something there is agreement on, she would hope banners to be allowed to be placed on the walls of the buildings that say, “mural coming soon.” She trusts the Committee and the Council with its wisdom.
Mayor Anduri returned discussion to the Council. He said the Council could discuss all 4 recommendations together or each one.
Vice Mayor Dawson thanked the PAC and said she has learned that each member brings something to the Committee, and she agrees with the need to see the reflection of the community in its art. With this mural program it is extending that vision. She thinks it is a great program, voiced her support and request of the PAC, and emphasized the need for public engagement.
Councilmember Candell said she also supports the program. It will be like anything they do in Lafayette and she thinks everybody should speak. She asked that the PAC help make the Council’s job easier and welcoming to all community members, given there are varying views, but she knows they will create something the community can be very proud of.
City Council, Public Art Committee Page 15 of 38 June 12, 2023 Councilmember Kwok said he is supportive of the measure to go forward and create art. They have heard today there are concerns from some community members and he knows when he views art, he does not always like 100% of the paintings, so he thinks the goal is not to get 100% consensus. They are trying to be provocative and to get people to think, and discomfort is maybe not a bad thing in what they are trying to achieve here. They do have to weigh the views of the community too, and he agreed with input and outreach.
Councilmember Gerringer said she also supports the program, appreciates the work done, said she loves art but also knows there are pressures on the City’s budget, so she appreciates all the feedback as to why this is coming from the General Fund and not from public art fees, voiced support, and looks forward to the public engagement process.
Mayor Anduri thanked the PAC for its work on this, agreed with several speakers about what has been happening in Lafayette. When looking at photos from Mt. Diablo Boulevard from 30 years ago, it is unrecognizable. The amount of design sensibility, art, and landscaping that has gone into improving the central city is amazing, and he sees this as another step towards elevating the presence of art, the awareness of art, art bringing vitality to the downtown, and he thinks it is a great step to take.
Councilmember Candell said before going to a motion and said sometimes they get a lot of support by getting a lot of community trust. She suggested thinking about this in the process and build towards something of a dream. Mayor Anduri said their consultant has advised the Council that the most important mural is the first one.
City Manager Niroop Srivatsa interjected that PAC member Carolyn Considine is a graduating senior and she recognized her for all she has done to make Lafayette the special place it is. Mayor Anduri and Councilmembers wished her well.
ACTION: It was M/S/C (Anduri/Dawson) to 1) approve the mural program consisting of the 11 elements listed in the attached City of Lafayette Downtown Mural Program; 2) Authorize the City Attorney to bring to the Council the necessary changes to our City ordinances; 3) Authorize the Public Art Committee to retain the Consultant and to carry out the mural program; and 4) Approve the budget allocation totaling $96,000 with $27,000 to be allocated in FY2023-24 and spreading the remaining monies in FY2024-25, FY2025-26 and FY2026-27. Roll Call Vote: 5-0 (Ayes: Anduri, Dawson, Candell, Gerringer, and Kwok; Noes:
None).
13. COUNCIL/COMMISSION REPORTS
C. Councilmember Gerringer
Proclamation recognizing Dr. Carol Weyland Conner, founder of White Pony Express Recommendation: Adopt the proclamation recognizing Dr. Carol Weyland Conner.
Councilmember Gerringer thanked the Council for moving up the item and she is honored to bring forward a proclamation honoring Dr. Carol Weyland Conner, founder of White Pony Express. She said Dr. Conner passed away on April 22, 2023 and the Council would like to recognize her for the work she did in Lafayette and throughout her life. She read portions of the proclamation into the record.
Mayor Anduri opened the public comment period.
City Council, Public Art Committee Page 16 of 38 June 12, 2023 DR. ISA CAMPBELL, Boardmember, White Pony Express, said she was on the original group that started the organization, and pointed out what was amazing was La Rosa’s Market and Saranap on Boulevard Way which was vacated. They got permission to use it and they began in a parking lot with boxes of food.
She was the volunteer CAO and it was a great success. Lafayette supplies more volunteers than any other city. The stores have provided needed food, and she thanked the Council for that. When the Camp Fire happened, Dr. Conner also asked if they could provide food to them which was the first time they thought about going outside of the County. They have also been sending food and goods to Ukraine as well.
Lastly, Dr. Conner began White Pony Express by walking along the creek by Trader Joe’s and seeing food being put in dumpsters. In 2013, about 40% of grocery inventory ended up in a dumpster and in landfills, so they now have a contract with Cal Recycle to recycle food that is helpful to the planet and County.
Stores have told them they have reduced their pickup for trash charges by about $10,000, and they hope to continue to be able to work with Lafayette. She also thanked the Chamber of Commerce for their support and help.
ACTION: It was M/S/C (Gerringer/Kwok) to adopt the proclamation recognizing Dr. Carol Weyland Conner.
Roll Call Vote: 5-0. (Ayes: Anduri, Dawson, Candell, Gerringer, and Kwok; Noes: None).
BREAK
Mayor Anduri called for a brief break at 8:15 p.m., and thereafter reconvened the meeting at 8:20 p.m.
7. PRESENTATIONS (Continued)
C. Niroop Srivatsa, City Manager
Department Workplans: Tracy Robinson, Administration Services; Jonathan Katayanagi, Parks, and Recreation; Greg Wolff, Building and Planning; Mike Moran, Engineering and Public Works; Lt. Ben Alldritt, Police Department
Recommendation: Discuss and provide direction as needed.
City Manager Srivatsa introduced the Council to the Department Work Plans for the next fiscal year as a pre-cursor to the budget. Staff wants this to be an annual event so the public can get to know what each department is doing, and the Council is informed when making decisions on the budget.
Administrative Services Department: Administrative Services Director Tracy Robinson gave a PowerPoint presentation and described the Administration Department, staff, commissions, committees, subcommittees, and task forces, highlights of accomplishments which included awards, hybrid meetings, update of the government transparency portal, new and updated office space, COVID protocols, ALE negotiations, increased City communications, recruiting, development of an IT Disaster and Recovery Plan, and 175+ utility box wraps.
Regarding key challenges, recruiting and retention remains their number one challenge. Others include upcoming budget challenges and shortfalls in key areas, and regulations and reporting. For next year’s Work Plan they will ramp up the fiscal sustainability project again, evaluate and implement an HR module that will have electronic timesheets and web services, implement cash receipts and on-line payment system, start a project to improve document management systems, update employee evaluation methodology, conduct a communications poll, experiment with recruitment methods, make public art updates, finish outstanding ARPA projects, and work on allocating the second tranche of ARPA funds.
City Council, Public Art Committee Page 17 of 38 June 12, 2023 Mayor Anduri asked if any of the items on administrative worksheets involve decisions as to allocation of funds. Ms. Robinson said staff has not asked for any allocation of funds yet. Some projects are at the beginning so it is unknown what would be needed for those and most are staff time.
Parks, Trails, and Recreation Department: PTR Director Jonathan Katayanagi gave a PowerPoint presentation and described the PTR Department, which includes Senior Services, described department responsibilities, regular and part-time staff, volunteers, the Community Center Foundation, the Senior Services Commission and Youth Commission, the Department budget, Senior Transportation Program, and Recreation program which hit $2 million in revenue for the Enterprise Fund. He then described the Lamorinda Spirit Van program is a door-to-door service, advances with the Senior Services Commission and Age-Friendly community initiatives, work with Lamorinda Village and supported memberships, volunteers to commissioners, on-site enrichment programs with schools, pre-school on-site and on-site childcare at the Community Center, and a native plant garden.
He described key challenges as limited parkland options, new State law in the way fees are paid, aging facilities, and obtaining trail easements. For the upcoming year’s Work Plan, they have the Community Center Playground Renovation moving forward, redesign of the HVAC and Roof at the Community Center, Buckeye Patio Design project, growth of the Community Center care program, expansion of on-site enrichment for students after hearing concerns with parents, working with the Senior Services Commission on the Age-Friendly Action Plan, and helping the Lamorinda Village and the Spirit Van with recruitment of volunteers.
Planning and Building Department: Director of Planning and Building Greg Wolff said their department is responsible for the physical or built as well as the natural environment and its preservation through development of regulations, handle a multitude of inquiries from the public, divide items into current activities and advance planning, implement the goals of the General Plan, the DSP, and other policy documents, assist the public with planning, land use, construction-related activities, review applications for building permits to ensure they conform with local zoning, and coordinate with Contra Costa County Community Development Department so they continue to do plan check and inspection services and issue a final inspection or Certificate of Occupancy.
The department has multiple tiers of development review or discretionary review and if deemed ministerial, they are handled over the counter. The lowest level of public hearings is handled by the him as the Zoning Administrator and they meet every other week in-house at City offices and hold public hearings for applicants. The bulk of those applications are straight-forward and do not involve a lot of controversy. He has the discretion as ZA to bump up items up if perhaps they become controversial or bigger in scope. Any application can be appealed as well from the ZA, to the next level, which is the DRC, the Planning Commission, and ultimately the City Council.
Staff also has been doing more in-house long-range planning studies and they are well in their way of updating the General Plan, have done in-house specific plans and they maintain the zoning ordinance.
They monitor and comment on regional and sometimes State activities.
City Council, Public Art Committee Page 18 of 38 June 12, 2023 He introduced and displayed Planning and Building staff who he said are smart, caring, and dedicated, and he is fortunate to work with them daily. Ms. Robinson will help them recruit 3 positions; 1 admin and 2 assistant planners which are contract now and they want to bring them in-house which will happen this year. Staff supports the City Council through three-quarters of agenda items last year. They directly support the Planning Commission, DRC, the GPAC, Environmental Task Force, and DSIMPIC. DSIMPIC has done a fair amount of work with some recent resignations. They are not currently meeting but they want to reinvigorate that moving forward.
Of those commissions, committees, and task forces staff supports, last year they had upwards of 98 meetings, 375 agenda items, and 175 hours in meetings. With respect to the Department’s budget, he displayed a slide to illustrate the policy of the Council--that the 1st and 3rd columns represent expenses in orange and revenues in green and the differential between the proposed or estimated and actuals, which are columns 2 and 4. The budge conservatively, over-estimating expenditures and under-estimating revenues. Columns 2 and 4 are closer together, meaning they are recovering more than they estimate they will. So, long term the Department recovers 60% to 80% of costs through development application fees, permit fees, and the remaining balance is covered by the General Fund for public good and inquiries.
Their primary costs are personnel, office, equipment, and consultants. He displayed a graph on the Open Gov platform the public can see reflects combined engineering and planning, so it looks like they had a banner year with revenues well exceeding expenses. This is a one-time bump that stems from a settlement agreement and payment from Palos Colorados into the engineering fund for transportation-related matters. So, if this is backed out, they are about 110% of revenues year over year.
Mr. Wolff said in 2022 the City hired 4 great new staff members and he is delighted to have them as part of the team. The Council adopted an updated Mission Statement, returned to in-person hybrid meetings which are going well, and they have maintained many ways to contact a planner which include email, phone, in-person, and virtual counter. One small benefit that came out of the pandemic is the transition to virtual meetings or the ability to meet with applicants in real time, present and review plans, which facilitates what they do.
In terms of applications, staff has processed over 300 last year. He would say 1 of their 2 largest means of communication with the public is direct email and phone calls, but they have established a planner in-box which is a commonly shared general inquiry inbox. This year, it has had more emails in it than year’s past and are projected to exceed 3,500. It is a medium that people are choosing to use, and staff frequently receives emails that people have sent in the evenings or over the weekend, and staff can respond during business hours.
This past year, the Council adopted a water-efficient landscape ordinance, and this year they will be tackling implementation of that. Every triggering application project that exceeds certain thresholds they will have to implement which stems from a State mandate. They are currently updating the Safety Element and he believes this will be adopted in the next quarter.
City Council, Public Art Committee Page 19 of 38 June 12, 2023 The City Council voted to begin an incentive program whereby fees have been reduced for ADUs starting January 2023 and this is promoted. With respect to ADUs, he presented a trend on ADUs over the last 4- 5 years. The number of applications for ADUs is the highest and increasing most quickly, followed by pulling permits, and getting a final inspection. There is both a lag time and an attrition rate for applicants who have received an approval to build their ADU and their plans are conforming to the City’s ADU ordinance, but they do not always pull permits and do not always build it. To a large degree, the reason is construction costs. Staff is having conversations with applicants as to what could be done to get the unit built and occupied.
Another new streamlined production tool is SB 9 which went into effect last year. Thus far, 13 applications have been received; 6 last year and 7 this year. So, they are on track for low teens. He said 2 have been approved, 4 have yet to submit their application fee, and 4 have been deemed incomplete. There is 1 where the property was not eligible, and it was withdrawn. His takeaway is that it is early times. The general public is just starting to get aware of SB 9 and inquiries are growing, but it is not as well-known as ADUs yet. Staff anticipates more growth in this area. The process is streamlined; however, it is still required to meet the Subdivision Map Act and so folks have submitted applications thinking it is simple and streamlined and yet they need to retain a civil engineer and surveyor to prepare the subdivision documents. So, there is some education and assistance that needs to happen.
Moving forward, staff will continue with holding hybrid meetings which has been working well, but it is more staff intensive or attention intensive than simple in-person meetings. The State continues to have very well intentioned and good policy decisions, but the State is requiring local jurisdictions to take on the burden and effort of implementing those and there are multiple and grow almost annually. Staff will be recruiting for the 3 positions and State law as well is shortening timeframes for review to facilitate development. In certain application types, cities are now facing extraordinarily short timeframes that, if not met, have some severe implications. Ideally, they would have a little bit of retained capacity in case one of those applications were to come in. Otherwise, they will have to set aside current work to be able to free up staff to address those, such as an SB 35 project.
Staff has a lot of its plate which includes the Housing Element updates the Council adopted in January which were submitted to the State. HCD has not deemed it compliant with State law. They have issued a letter and staff is in the process of preparing additional and revised programs, meeting with additional consultants who have good guidance from the State, and next month staff will bring back some revisions for the Council to consider on the Housing Element. Again, the Safety Element will be coming to the Council after a second meeting at the Planning Commission and then they move onto the Work Plan for next year.
Mr. Wolff said the following slides and tasks are divided into 4 categories—those which correspond to the City Council’s priorities which were established in February or March, those which are State mandated, other planning priorities, and the tasks or programs which are listed in the Housing Element the Council adopted in January. The first category are Council priorities and those include hiring and on-boarding new Planning staff, developing thresholds of significance for evacuation times, Mt. Diablo Corridor Plan which is broken down into 4 or 5 sub-topics including updating the Plaza Overlay District if the City purchases properties in the district, prepare downtown objective standards and expanding on those with Phase 2, studying multi-modal streetscape design downtown which is a joint effort with Engineering, Public Works, and Planning, and zoning updates to support and protect commercial ground floor uses in the downtown working with the Chamber.
City Council, Public Art Committee Page 20 of 38 June 12, 2023 The second category are State mandates which include the General Plan, Housing Element, Land Use, Safety Element referred to earlier. The State requires a nexus study be prepared and renewed every 8 years. The priority for this year is to do a comprehensive nexus fee study for fees that cross all departments. Waste management implementation is a State mandate, as well as WELO implementation, SB 35 implementation, and because of State law changes and requirements surrounding housing not directly Housing Element related, the City needs to update the code to be more permissive for things like emergency shelters, farmworker housing, etc.
The third category are the other priorities. Staff currently is in progress on density bonus review that the Council wanted to revisit, which he described, and said this will be returning in the next month or two.
The City wants to adopt standards for affordable housing eligibility including something as simple as an asset test, inclusionary housing standards for below market rate units, and updating the tree ordinance.
The last category includes 29 of the Housing Element programs which are to be worked on in the next fiscal year. 14 of those have already been covered as part of tasks in the previous slides such as code updates regarding farmworker housing, etc. These 14 or 15 are not enumerated, so staff would need to tackle those programs previously seen but are reiterated here for the Council’s benefit.
Councilmember Gerringer referred to the one slide where it listed the City Council priorities, 1-D; consider ordinance changes and look at MOFD’s ordinance and check where the State is. She said when going over to the Plan on number 15; Update the Tree Protection ordinance, those are one in the same. The Council had discussed how ordinance changes related to the trees and what MOFD had done. They also discussed the State might mandate something similar, but she asked if that was what the Council was looking at under the tree protection ordinance and how it relates to both the vegetation management which might need to be changed to not be as protective of trees in terms of having residents replacing so many, as well as how wildfire and Item 15 work together.
Mr. Wolff explained what staff envisioned is scrutinizing and updating the tree protection ordinance. The community values trees, there are ways they are protected, and when a tree must come out there is mitigation. There are opportunities to improve those aspects and whether it is too much is the question.
He said the intention was not to transform it into a fuel’s management ordinance for tree protection.
Councilmember Gerringer said Item 15 states, “To streamline removal of dead and dying trees compromising fire risk and addressing Firewise landscaping principles.” Mr. Wolff said there is a clear overlap between the wildfire protection and risk management there. Even as the ordinance currently stands there is priority given to removal of trees deemed by the Fire District to be a fire risk and they come out. So, there is a deference to the Fire District assessment. In terms of bigger fuels management strategy, that was not the intention to incorporate that into the tree ordinance.
Mayor Anduri said he did not think the current tree protection ordinance needs to be changed because he thinks there is enough discretion to handle these situations.
Councilmember Gerringer said they knew when doing the Housing Element all elements of the tasks in the implementation plan, they knew in some areas they were being aggressive. If an item such as 6.a.g; Publicly owned sites does not have in the column notes where it ties to one of the priorities on the other list she asked if that means it will not get looked at.
City Council, Public Art Committee Page 21 of 38 June 12, 2023 Mr. Wolff said these are programs in the Housing Element that do not tie to others, so the ones where the do tie to others are not reflected on the slides. They are in the packet and noted, but where the note is blank it is a stand-alone task.
Mayor Anduri referred to workload on SB 9 and said they have the urgency ordinance on SB 9, and he asked if they must prepare a full ordinance.
City Attorney Subramanian said the preference is always to bring back a traditional ordinance such that no one can challenge the urgency ordinance. That was the intent when they adopted the urgency ordinance and to also maybe as some time has passed if there are clarifications they wanted to make; they could do that in the traditional ordinance. It is not legally required, but it is a best practice and her recommendation. It was the thought they would return with a traditional ordinance.
Councilmember Candell said she assumes they would upzone to manage the Housing Element by next year, but she asked where that is in here.
Mr. Wolff said it is included and will take significant effort. It is reflected under the Land Use Element Update and zoning code update.
Engineering and Public Works Department: Engineering and Public Works Director Mike Moran stated they are happy to be the stewards of the public infrastructure of Lafayette, which he described. He gave a PowerPoint presentation and displayed staff at the Corporation Yard celebrating Public Works Week where they had a nice lunch together. They have a nice group of people in Engineering, at the Corporation Yard, contract staff, and facility managers at the Library. They staff the Clean Water Program, the Creeks Committee, the Capital Projects Assessment Committee that meets as needed, City/County Advisory Committee, Transportation Circulation Commission, Southwest Area Transportation Committee of Lamorinda, Program Management Committee, and Lafayette Fee and Finance Authority. The last 4 are all transportation related.
Their budget works out with road and drains, traffic, core area, and stormwater pollution. It costs $2.5 million just to keep the streets and facilities running, the medians looking good, potholes leveled out, etc.
The Library operations as funded by the Library Foundation is about $1 million. Engineering Services staff costs about $1 million. There is $14.4 million in Capital projects, but they have 4 federal grants lumped into that. It is not usually that high. Over half of this is from the 4 grants—2 for a Smart Signals project and 2 for the School Street/Topper Lane/St. Mary’s Road Pathway Project all of which are multi-year projects.
He put the opening of the Rain Garden here, the Creeks Committee, and the PAC had input on the iconic sign behind them, so it is all inter-connected and they had a nice grand opening. The Palos Colorados funding is going directly to the safety improvements near schools. They spent over half of it to date and today, more money today was spent at Happy Valley School. They do streets projects every year, have kept their pavement condition index at about 75 which could slip with just how far the dollar is not stretching any more.
City Council, Public Art Committee Page 22 of 38 June 12, 2023 Finally, as an accomplishment, they hired a Transportation Program Manager. The last 3 and 4 years has been difficult between staff and it has also been a hot bed of requests, complaints, etc. They have gotten a lot of traction. The local roadway safety plan will be here soon as well as a traffic calming manual update.
Transportation Action Requests should be more routine soon. They are catching up but that follows getting the traffic calming manual update adopted.
The City has received the grants mentioned and are applying for others. They are also researching grants more thoroughly and they have a couple more pending because they were able to put more time and research into applying for them.
For key challenges, first is implementing incremental changes rather than great big changes. He would say this Library and this facility was an incremental change, 20 years in the coming, and then it was 4-5 years in building. But, they are a minimally serviced city, minimally staffed, and changes cannot always be seen.
But, he has been with the City 26 years next month and over that time there have been some great changes, which he described. He thinks most of these things have been improvements. Some people want no change, some want a lot of change right now, and they seem to be polarized. So, this is a challenge.
Regarding next year’s Work Plan, staff will continue to support fire mitigation and Firewise programs throughout Public Works. The School Street/Topper, St. Mary’s, and smart signals projects where the City received 2 federal grants. The safety improvements near schools continues. Street paving and resurfacing occurs every year. He spoke about a bridge maintenance design that will happen this year and the following year which should be done, but they may not have all the funding they typically spend on the resurfacing because bridge maintenance is needed.
They also have the Community Center Playground. They are still 1 staff member down as well if they are going to be able to fully support that program and fully support a PTR project each year. They are going forward with consultants and not a lot of engineering help, but they would like to be able to do more of that in-house with staff. The Buckeye Patio Design is consulted out. The BART Ped/Bike is still with BART and it needs to be reviewed and approved, and it has an ARC component, walkway, multi-model use, and a bike station component, and many themes the Council has talked about.
His one concern is that was a grant funded project as well and it may cost a lot more money than the grant by the time the get it out to bid. They also have the Updated Traffic Calming Manual to be done and the process to include public input for CIP projects. There have been roundabout discussions and pathway discussions, Pleasant Hill Road, and how they can be controversial. They have always had a public information meeting for capital projects for as long as he has worked here, but they probably need more of a vetting process for any requested program or project. This might run through the Transportation Circulation if it is an active transportation program like a bike/ped project first. It usually does go there, but somehow they need to basically let everybody know this is what they might do so there is an opportunity to weigh in earlier rather than later when it gets heated and they have gone too far in a direction the Council does not care for.
Operations and maintenance will continue, landscaping and irrigation, the road and drain, traffic such as signs and striping, weed abatement will always be huge, stormwater management, and he added flood fighting, and facility maintenance and management.
City Council, Public Art Committee Page 23 of 38 June 12, 2023 Councilmember Candell said one Council priority states “Clarify areas or responsibility regarding tree removal and brush clearing.” She sees they indicate “Continue to work with Public Works, Conn Fire, and Firewise, but this is not the same thing. She asked who is doing that.
City Manager Srivatsa said the Council will see it on the Police Department’s Work Plan as well, so it is a project where when she met with the Fire Chiefs and Vice Mayor Dawson they told them the importance of emergency preparedness, so they want to be able to work with Police and Public Works to identify major evacuation routes and then do all the brush clearing and tree trimming on those routes. So, they will get clarification of who does what, which is coming from Police, but Mr. Moran will be involved with regards to brush clearing. Staff is preparing a set of FAQs for people to identify a scenario and then check what they do.
Mr. Moran re-emphasized that by ordinance, when a neighbor asks whose tree is that, the answer is the neighbor’s even though it is in the public right-of-way in front of their home. What they are trying to do with emergency evacuation is go in and say, all neighbors that did not maintain their canopies over the street that are, by ordinance, responsible for maintaining them, can the City help them out and do some major pruning as part of a program. It is not something public works can do with that budget or manpower, but something they would have to contract out. It is something Fire is willing to support and provide a certain crew, which would then require support with bins, debris, and traffic control with public works and police coordination. Maybe with a tree ordinance update, those could all work together.
Police Department: Lt. Ben Alldritt said he will bring a semi-annual report for 2023 over the next 2 meeting about crime statistics and will break down crime data. He describe the Police Department’s responsibilities, said they work closely with partners in and outside the community, said the handle parking enforcement, meter operations, maintenance, emergency preparedness in support of the Emergency Preparedness Commission, introduced their canine handler, Kevin with Rocco, and Officer Freitas will be their incoming traffic motor officer.
He introduced the Department’s team of personnel and their responsibilities, thanked the Council and City Manager for supporting the number of professional staff they have in their Police Department which does not compared to other jurisdictions, which is a game-changer for them.
Key accomplishments are under the emergency services umbrella, but he called out participation with Cal Fire in their Town Hall on May 30th, will be hosting additional public education opportunities this year, attended a countywide full functional EOC exercise on May 28th at the County OES which was a Bay Area wide project, and completion of the Cal OES grant. Next year’s Work Plan includes the Go Slow speed reduction campaign, Firewise, work on reader signs, and brush clearing.
Mayor Anduri opened the public comment period, and there were no speakers.
Mayor Anduri asked if there is any direction wishes to give for each department.
Councilmember Gerringer said she supports and is very optimistic that the Planning and Building Department will accomplish this ambitious work plan. She thinks the evacuation time on the thresholds of significance very much addresses wildfire preparedness and she is happy that it ties back to Engineering, Public Works, and Police. She hopes the City could look at the federal level for wildfires to ensure they are not doing double work, and wants to ensure they are focusing on how they make it easier for people through the City’s ordinance in getting rid of dead and dying trees.
City Council, Public Art Committee Page 24 of 38 June 12, 2023 Mayor Anduri said in terms of multi-mobility, the budget is to be determined and asked if there was a budget item for streetscape design. Ms. Robinson said it is included for the DSP of $300,000.
Mayor Anduri said he is having difficulty in what he is looking for, but this description divides the responsibility,so Engineering is leading on capacity, safety analysis, and design and then Planning is taking a lead on aesthetics, materials, amenities, lighting, and planting. He just thinks there is a higher level that needs to be looked at here. He thinks the first question that needs to be asked is, if all new residents that were thinking may come into the downtown have the same level of cars as current residents, can the City get their roads to work. This is a capacity analysis, but he is going to assume the answer is “no.” If so, then what would they do. He asked how to reconfigure the downtown and design it so people do not come in with the same level of vehicles, how to design it so people can run their errands, get to schools on bikes or by walking so they do not have total congestion with the downtown. That seems to be some blend of Engineering and Planning.
He also thinks staff should work on the SB 9 because they are starting to get some applications. He then asked if staff assigned responsibility for ADUs to one person within the department, as it seems that will be an important part of making their allocation. There is also promotion and getting the word out about ADUs and what the City is doing to make it simpler and waiving fees.
Mr. Wolff confirmed the department has a lead on that, but he wanted to distinguish from a resident who is interested in building an ADU. They can speak with any planner by email, phone, or counter, and all planners are able to answer questions about what is permissible, types and kinds of ADUs, and their requirements.
Councilmember Candell referred to hiring and on-boarding new Planning staff. If they cannot, she asked when they start hiring contract planners, or she asked if that is in the budget.
Mr. Wolff said they have hired 2 contract planners on staff right now and a 3rd as well because of a family leave. There is only 1 position that is vacant, and they want to hire for it, but they also want to bring the 2 contract planners in-house.
Councilmember Candell said all these things are TBD. For the budget, she asked if these are covered in the budget and they just do not know how much it will be, or she asked if all the TBD things not in the budget.
Mr. Wolff said it is fair to say most of the TBD items are covered in bigger budget allocation, but they may return to the Council with a specific ask for the tree ordinance. Some of the amounts will be very dependent on how they are scoped out. If the thresholds of significance are narrowly construed to address the AG’s advice on best practices, it is a straightforward scope for an environmental consultant to assist with. If that morphs into a wildfire vulnerability assessment for the entire community based on a multitude of potential scenarios and evacuation times, that is a very different scope and budget.
Mayor Anduri said Item 3B; Prepare Downtown Objective Standards and said that has a TBD under the estimated completion with $50,000 in the budget for that. He asked when they anticipate starting on that.
He thinks it is fair to say that of the priorities they set under the third priority, that is now the top priority.
Mr. Wolff said he thinks staff can start on that in the next quarter.
City Council, Public Art Committee Page 25 of 38 June 12, 2023 Councilmember Gerringer said all tasks in the implementation plan if not directly tied to something else may fall farther down. The Council asked to have an RFP developed and issued in the fourth quarter of 2023 for one of the publicly owned housing sites and to bring it back to the Council in the second quarter of 2024. The Council discussed this as being ambitious when they included it, but as they move forward she thinks it is very important in implementing the Housing Element in this cycle, as well as affordable housing.
Mayor Anduri asked if there was any direction under Public Works. He said on the BART bike/ped project, staff mentioned how long this is taking. He asked if planning for bicycles for 5 years in that is sufficient given where they are now. Mr. Moran said yes, he thinks it was under-designed originally. What they had anticipated originally was something more significant than what BART was willing to do. Now that the BART use has scaled back, it might be appropriately sized than it was 7 years ago. Not everyone is going to be able to work from home and if 3,000 downtown units are built and they have 6,000 vehicles, the City does not have the infrastructure to support that between here and Trader Joe’s. So, there is an incentive to get on BART and biking on BART is good to do as well, especially as electric bikes and scooters come out which people can take with them.
Vice Mayor Dawson referred to the federal grants and asked how much the City must match them. Mr.
Moran said they need to match 11% as the minimum, and staff indicated 20% for School Street, which is about $3.4 million. 11% is for the smart signals match, but it varies a bit from 10% to 20%. This is something to keep in mind for every grant they pursue. It is budgeted in, and in that case the City is using LFFA development fees which is something they committed to and said they would do when they were seeking the grant. In fact, they are working on CCTA agreements for the Smart Signals Project right now and BBK has reviewed the agreement to pay the matching fees and getting it to them quickly so they can possibly leverage that.
Vice Mayor Dawson referred to bridge maintenance design. With EBMUD presenting on changes to the tower, it reminds her of the work PG&E needs to do and they have been walking around the Third Street Bridge. They have earthquake issues with that which is why that is a project they were to do back in 2017.
So, she is wondering if they have approached Public Works yet.
Mr. Moran said he has not heard from PG&E on the Third Street Bridge, but that is one of the 5 bridges that is included in the design for a bridge project.
Councilmember Gerringer referred to the traffic calming manual and updating processes to include public input for projects eligible for grant funding. She thinks as they look at that, she wants to be sure they are keeping in the Vision Zero policy and suggested a Vision Zero 101 to kickstart that process. Regarding BART, she will speak with CCTA to put some pressure on BART.
Mayor Anduri asked what is the estimate of when the LRSP will come to the Council. Mr. Moran said it is set to go to Transportation and Circulation Commission this next week. He is not sure it is the next Council meeting but likely the following meeting.
Mayor Anduri asked and confirmed there was no direction for the Police Department, and he asked and confirmed the City Manager had no concluding remarks.
8. CONSENT CALENDAR
City Council, Public Art Committee Page 26 of 38 June 12, 2023 Mayor Anduri asked if there were requests for removal of items or public comments, and there were no items or public comments. Councilmember Kwok commented that he had one correction to Item 1; under the Roll Call section which listed the PC attendees, there were 5 commissioners in attendance which has been corrected by the City Clerk.
A. Minutes – May 22, 2023
Recommendation: Approve.
B. Review and Certification of Lafayette’s Measure J Growth Management Program Checklist for Calendar Years 2020 and 2021 for Submittal to the Contra Costa Transportation Authority (CCTA)
Recommendation: 1) Review and certify the completed Measure J Checklist for calendar years 2020 and 2021. 2) Authorize staff to submit the Measure J Checklist to CCTA, making Lafayette eligible to receive approximately $591,513 in Measure J funding for both FY 2021-22 and FY 2022-
23. C. Legislation Committee’s - Bills of Local Importance and Bill Matrix Containing Priority Bills and Their Status
Recommendations: 1) AB 1637 (Irwin) Local Government: Internet Websites and Email Addresses:
Oppose; 2) AB 1657 (Wicks) The Affordable Housing Bond Act of 2024: Support in concept; 3) SB 569 (Glazer) Taxation: Renter’s Credit: Support; 4) Bill matrix: Receive and file; 5) Pending statelevel proposed bond measures: Receive and file.
ACTION: It was M/S/C (Gerringer/Candell) to adopt Consent Calendar Items A (as amended), B, and C. Roll Call Vote: 5-0 (Ayes: Anduri, Dawson, Candell, Gerringer, and Kwok; Noes: None).
9. OLD BUSINESS – None.
10. STAFF REPORT – None.
11. PUBLIC HEARINGS
A. Francine Kuykendall, Public Works Services Manager
1. Core Area Landscape and Lighting District 1979-1 Assessments for Fiscal Year 2023-2024 Recommendation: Conduct public hearing and adopt Resolution 2023-33 Confirming the Engineer’s Report, Diagram and Assessments for Fiscal Year 2023-2024 Core Area Landscape and Lighting District 1979-1.
2. Residential Lighting District 1979-2 Assessments for Fiscal Year 2023-2024 Recommendation: Conduct public hearing and adopt Resolution 2023-34 Confirming the Engineer’s Report, Diagram and Assessments for Fiscal Year 2023-2024 Residential Lighting District 1979-2.
Public Works Services Manager Francine Kuykendall gave the staff report and overview of the Core Area Landscape and Lighting District 1979-1 Assessments for FY 2023-2024 and the recommendation to hold a public hearing and adopt Resolution 2023-33 confirming the Engineer’s Report, Diagram and Assessments for Fiscal Year 2023-2024 Core Area Landscape and Lighting District 1979-1.
City Council, Public Art Committee Page 27 of 38 June 12, 2023 She also provided a staff report on Item 2; the Residential Lighting District 1979-2 Assessments for FY 2023-2024 and the recommendation to hold a public hearing and adopt Resolution 2023-34 confirming the Engineer’s Report, Diagram and Assessments for Fiscal Year 2023-2024 Residential Lighting District 1979-2.
Mayor Anduri opened the public hearing. He asked for public comments on Item A.1, and there were no speakers. Mayor Anduri then closed the public hearing.
ACTION: It was M/S/C (Gerringer/Candell) to adopt Resolution 2023-33 Confirming the Engineer’s Report, Diagram and Assessments for Fiscal Year 2023-2024 Core Area Landscape and Lighting District 1979-1.
Roll Call Vote: 5-0 (Ayes: Anduri, Dawson, Candell, Gerringer, and Kwok; Noes: None).
Mayor Anduri opened the public hearing. He asked for public comments on Item A.2, and there were no speakers. Mayor Anduri then closed the public hearing.
ACTION: It was M/S/C (Gerringer/Candell) to adopt Resolution 2023-34 Confirming the Engineer’s Report, Diagram and Assessments for Fiscal Year 2023-2024 Residential Lighting District 1979-2. Roll Call Vote: 5-
0. (Ayes: Anduri, Dawson, Candell, Gerringer, and Kwok; Noes: None).
B. Niroop Srivatsa, City Manager and Tracy Robinson, Administrative Services Director Resolution 2023-35 Adopting The Proposed Budget/Workplan; Appropriating Revenue And Expenses; Confirming The City’s Investment Policy; Determining The Appropriation Limit For Fiscal Year 2023-24; Determining Fees For All City Services And Authorizing Transfers And Expenditures Including The 2023 Capital Improvement Program And Related CEQA Findings Recommendation: Adopt Resolution 2023-35.
Administrative Services Director Tracy Robinson gave the staff report regarding the FY 2023-24 proposed budget, stating the City Manager’s memo identifies issues in detail. She emphasized that this budget includes all changes that were agreed upon with ALE (Association of Lafayette Employees) and some additional staff and promotions that were recommended and approved by the Personnel Subcommittee/Finance Subcommittee. However, these can be discussed and revised as requested by the Council.
She also pointed out that there is quite a lengthy section on unfunded requests. It is not in the Manager’s memo but there is a late request that was included in the packet for $40,000 more than what is currently in the budget for crossing guards for this year. This would be on-going annually, which likely would increase.
At the end of the section on unfunded requests, there are also additional sinking funds the Council should consider which are also on-going annual monies that come out of the budget and are put away in the sinking fund. Ms. Robinson wanted the Council to discuss these as well because sinking funds smooth expenses that come up which might be large in the future, and it is better if the City can plan for that by putting away money each year.
City Council, Public Art Committee Page 28 of 38 June 12, 2023 She also pointed out there are 2 things in the category of “incoming” which are expenses that are neither budgeted this year and not included in the 5-year plan but will be coming up in the next fiscal year or even in the year after that. The first and the largest the Council heard weeks ago when Mr. Moran presented the CIP where funding for roads will be $1 million short moving forward. This is to keep the current PCI level.
The second thing mentioned tonight by Mr. Moran and Mr. Katayanagi is the Buckeye Patio project. The City has money in the budget just to assess how much it will cost not money to fix it. It is not included as a request because staff does not know how much it will cost but she wanted the Council to keep this in mind.
Lastly, she pointed out the deficit in the Parking Fund which is a fund that has not recovered from COVID.
She believes the parking patterns have changed greatly. This fund lost money during COVID and continues to do so even as other revenues have recovered. So, this is something that will need to be addressed. The current parking fee is $1/hour which has not been raised since 2006. The private parking that has gone in over the last couple of years is currently at $2/hour. Therefore, the program as run will continue to lose money which should be addressed.
Mayor Anduri said the Council is being asked to do 4 things; appropriating the amounts in the budget; 2) determining that appropriations are in compliance with the City’s appropriation limit; 3) confirming the City’s investment policy; and 4) determining fees for all City services in accordance with the schedule.
Councilmember Kwok thanked staff for the significant work on the budget. He referred to the Parking Fund deficit and asked if staff is planning to come to the Council with a recommendation, or he asked if staff was asking tonight for a plan of action.
Ms. Robinson said they discussed this at the Finance Subcommittee with Mayor Anduri and Vice Mayor Dawson. She thinks there needs to be a larger discussion at the Council level. So, staff needs to come to the Council with some ideas and possibly a small subcommittee could meet to come up with options first or staff could come to the Council directly.
Councilmember Kwok said he did not see a budget set aside for real estate acquisition, but he asked if this is something the City needs cash for in the coming year.
Ms. Robinson said this is a good point. In the last FY, monies were set aside because they thought they would purchase 2 properties. They only purchased 1 of those properties so they transferred $1.8 million back to the General Fund because the second property was not imminent. They did just purchase the police property. The Council had previously directed they would perhaps finance that property, so it is off the books. If financed, the City does not need a large lump sum of cash. Other than what they had set aside for City Office development, they generally do not have a fund just for general real estate acquisitions.
Councilmember Candell asked if all unfunded items will need to come back to the Council. Ms. Robinson said they are not in the budget, and there are 2 ways to bring them back. If the Council decides it wants to fund some of these things, she would recommend coming back at the next meeting and put together a list of those things and then append that to the resolution.
City Council, Public Art Committee Page 29 of 38 June 12, 2023 Councilmember Candell asked and confirmed the mural is not included, but this will go in because it is what the Council approved.
Councilmember Candell referred to ARPA money and asked how much is in the next tranche and she asked if the City already has plans for that. Ms. Robinson said the ARPA funds are currently sitting in a sinking fund. They have spent very little of the second tranche of about $2.9 million, and there is a $60,000 request here. Staff has set that aside and part of her recommendation as shown in the 5-year plan, even without these things that are being asked to be funded deficits are getting larger every year so her recommendation is to use ARPA money even though it is one-time money to try to bridge some of those deficits and maybe fund some of these items with the understanding that they will either need to come up with additional sources of revenue or they will have to pare back the budget.
She thinks the ARPA money can provide a cushion for those years where perhaps the City does not have enough cash because it will take a substantial time to come up with additional revenue streams. Again, she will say for the record that it is unusual for the City not to have a balanced budget. What the Council is seeing here are on-going deficits which is concerning. So again, her recommendation is to use that ARPA money, put it through the system as quickly as possible so they can use it for some of the items in the next couple of years.
Mayor Anduri referred to unfunded requests, 2nd item for up to $250,000 where Planning has recommended the regular on-going contributions. He asked the Planning Director to explain this because this over a 5 year period is $1.25 million and the question is where it came from, whether it benefits the City, and how it fits in with the road they are going down with respect to 949 Moraga and the RFP.
Mr. Wolff explained it is a big number for their annual budget. In large part it stems from the fact that the State has identified the housing crisis as just that and has been imposing more and more requirements on local jurisdictions, particularly those that are high resource areas. From earlier tonight, the Council saw all the programs they committed to in the Housing Element which has mushroomed in terms of statutory requirements and time and effort and funding that needs to go into meeting all those programs.
For many years they had an on-going source of funding dedicated to housing which was the redevelopment agency and 20% of that tax increment was dedicated to affordable housing. They were able to use that for projects like Eden’s Bel Terre affordable housing. In order to assemble the multitude of different financing revenue streams to build an affordable project, there needs to be a local contribution to that to raise the likelihood of them being granted money.
In 2012, the State was in financial straits and disbanded redevelopment. That funding source went away, and they have heard time and again that discussions at the state are on-going around redevelopment 2.0 but that remains an unknown and outstanding item. If the State acts and allows local jurisdictions to have tax increment financing for affordable housing, that would be an on-going source. But, short of that, the State is putting it on the local jurisdictions’ backs to fund affordable housing to some degree. For the cost of constructing affordable units which is upwards of $500,000 each, it would be a miniscule amount even at the significant number that he suggested. But, that would be used as seed money towards obtaining grants and matching funds to leverage additional monies from the State and potentially the federal government.
City Council, Public Art Committee Page 30 of 38 June 12, 2023 There are some remaining funds of about $2 million in the redevelopment successor agency and that would be something they could commit to an affordable project on 949 Moraga Road, but then that is it.
The City would be left with no funds dedicated or allocated towards housing. If they wanted to buy another property or building, they would have to tap into the General Fund. The City’s ability to act quickly partly depends on having some monies set aside to capitalize on grant funding. So, that was the idea behind it, but he knows there are many competing interests and the State is making more and more production of affordable housing a local obligation.
Vice Mayor Dawson asked if this is tied into some of the City’s Housing Element programs the City has committed to in what they have submitted to HCD. Mr. Wolff said the $250,000 suggestion would go into a sinking fund. It would accrue and be available to support an affordable housing project, so it is separate from the budget and tasks discussed.
Vice Mayor Dawson asked if there are any budgetary items related to the Housing Element programs specifically that are already in the budget. Mr. Wolff said it is separate. For the last decade the City has not had a revenue source to go into a housing fund that could be tapped for supporting an affordable project. This was that idea. He thinks if the community shows a financial commitment to supporting affordable housing it would be considered by the State and demonstrate that the City is serious about furthering fair housing.
Mayor Anduri referred to unfunded requests, the $75,000 for on-going Citywide initiative to scan all paper files was discussed earlier today. He asked if it is fair to say this is in a planning stage and likely would not allocate that $75,000 for the next year.
Ms. Robinson said as they discussed, the $75,000 per year was a number submitted by Planning just for their files. She believes they should take a holistic view because there are other departments. Before she commits money, she would like to get a better understanding of how much the entire project would cost and over what time period. So, she would put it in the category of incoming, but she does not believe it needs to be done today. She will possibly know more in December when they come back with the final budget, but it is part of a bigger project and emphasized it will be more expensive in the future.
Mayor Anduri opened the public comment period.
SUZY PAK, President, Lafayette School Board, offered an apology for Superintendent Stevens who was here for several hours and had to leave at about 10 p.m. She knows the Superintendent had submitted a letter to the City Manager, noting that in 2019 she came before the Council with Richard Whitmore asking for a request and increase of shared funds to cover the cost of crossing guards at their 5 schools in Lafayette. At the time, she believed the City was funding at $50,000 which was agreed upon in 2015 which represented about 50% of the total cost. With inflation and rising wages in 2019, they were a little behind, so they came to the City to ask for an updated amount. The City responded and committed to going up to $100,000 but at the time she believed 50% represented about $90,000.
Here they are in 2023 and wages and cost of living has continued to increase. At Wednesday night’s meeting, the Board will be looking at a contract from their vendor which is All City Management Services that provides the crossing guards. Currently, they have 12 crossing guards which was the same number they had in 2019 but the cost has increased considerably. They will look at a contract for $282,000.
City Council, Public Art Committee Page 31 of 38 June 12, 2023 She noted the hourly wage in 2019 was $21.80 and today it is $32.67, and she knows there are still many staffing challenges. So, she is here on behalf of the District to ask the City to consider increasing the amount. They are asking the City to consider a $40,000 increase to take them to $140,000 which will represent half the cost for 12 crossing guards this year.
Councilmember Kwok referred to the hourly rate increase by about 50% and he asked what is driving that change. Ms. Pak said she knows wages have been increasing, knows many small businesses are strapped to find employees, and as a result, they must raise wages to attract prospective employees who will stay.
Their families and students rely on and develop relationships with those crossing guards which is important. If kids have a relationship, not only does it make school a more accessible and welcoming place but there is also more accountability for the kids having to do with safety. The district has seen an increase in the number of vacancies in positions for their Aides in the classroom and it has been an on-going challenge. So, to remain competitive, the business of crossing guards needs to try and remain competitive for part-time employees.
Councilmember Kwok asked if the District has a policy to put this out to bid for competitive bid to other service agencies to provide crossing guards. Ms. Pak said she was not sure with 100% certainty. She knows with most contracts, over a certain dollar amount they are required to put out RFPs and put them out to bid. Because they are a small district with a small number of spots available, that might be a limiting factor of who will apply to do business with a small district.
GRACE DIXON said one year ago, the Council approved design and engineering fees totaling $70,000 for the 2-park proposal at Gazebo and Leigh Creekside Park. The City had then signed a contract this year with the designers to begin a publicly collaborative design process that was to begin last month. Three days before the project was to kick off, they were informed that due to changes in the State laws regarding the timing of developer’s payment of parkland feesto after occupancy, the anticipated funds for the Parks projects evaporated and the meager funds that remained were directed logically towards replacing aging equipment at the Community Center. She understood the logic and was pivoting to try and find private funding options to see the project come to fruition.
Tonight, she heard an approval for new projects, and she is wondering if this 10-year park project may qualify in any way to borrow or gain funds from the ARPA second tranche. This is a 10-year, 12 times approved project including the unique collaboration of 2 opposing positions coming together to agree on a design approach. Seeing new projects being funded is disheartening to her as a long-time volunteer and perplexing as how to proceed in the future and asked if the Council could consider funds for this project.
Councilmember Candell asked if the $70,000 for the Gazebo Park design is still there. Ms. Dixon said no, it was removed and canceled and assigned to the Community Center Park.
Mr. Katayanagi clarified that the way the funds are being paid by developers now at occupation rather than at the grading permit pulls has slowed their process, and they must look at the stream of park related capital projects and how they can move those forward. In the budget, just to move the aging playground equipment, the City may need to borrow from the Recreation Enterprise Fund which will then put them another full year behind before they can move forward with some of the other projects. That will require the Commission and Council to consider where they are with those other projects, as well as the potential funding sources for those.
City Council, Public Art Committee Page 32 of 38 June 12, 2023 While this remains a priority project that has been approved by the Council, they will have to look at how the funds will come in and how those projects are considered because they will have aging plays structures at Community Park as well as other park needs coming in, as well with this conceptual design for what could be the Leigh Creekside or Gazebo projects.
Councilmember Candell said when Ms. Dixon says she wants to get this 10-year project off the ground, she asked where the money is for that. Ms. Dixon said 10 years ago the Leigh Creekside project was launched. That achieved over 10 approvals. Then, 2 or 3 years ago a collaborative approach began between 2 opposing viewpoints. They agreed and that was approved a year ago by the City Council and then the kickoff public campaign was to begin last month.
Councilmember Candell asked and confirmed Ms. Dixon was asking tonight for $70,000 for the Leigh and Gazebo Park design and engineering for a shovel ready project, either on loan from ARPA funds until the developer fees can be achieved or from the General Fund.
Mr. Katayanagi clarified that the $70,000 is for the conceptual design for the project, so there still would be significant civil engineering that would have to take place to get them to the position of a shovel ready project for the 2 projects.
SARA REGAN said the Chamber had submitted a letter to the Council asking for $20,000. They are under an agreement with the Lafayette Chamber of Commerce and the City for $40,000. This is what they have been receiving since 2013. Under that agreement, they in turn pay for their public works and police for all signature events which are the Art & Wine Festival and the Res Run for Education. As everyone pointed out tonight, costs keep going up. One of the things that became evident last year is just for their signature events, their police costs back to the City are exactly $40,000. So, the City’s contribution is basically matching that.
In addition to that, they still do many other partnerships and collaborations with the City in many ways-- -everything from Rock the Plaza which is going on right now on Fridays in June to It’s a Wonderful Life at the holidays, to their business advocacy, and to promote the downtown community. So, they are asking for this additional $20,000 to help offset that. Also, they light the Downtown District during the holidays and that alone runs anywhere from $12,000 to $15,000 because of taking the lights off every other year for tree growth, and she thanked the Council for their consideration.
Mayor Anduri closed the public hearing.
Mayor Anduri suggested addressing the issue of the Parking Programs Fund. The Finance Subcommittee had a brief discussion of that with Ms. Robinson and what they would propose is staff return with a recommendation that would detail the considerations involved. He thinks it would be efficient to have staff come back, explain what they have done and then make a suggestion rather than form a Council subcommittee.
Councilmember Gerringer agreed and thinks it would be helpful to also know what parking charges are in surrounding communities.
City Council, Public Art Committee Page 33 of 38 June 12, 2023 Mayor Anduri asked if there are any items that the Personnel Committee approved that the Council would like to reconsider. He noted there is the Senior Services position that adds $34,000, code enforcement, increase of the pay in grade of a current Engineering position, and expanding the Recreation programs and adding a person to do it which should result in higher net revenue.
Councilmembers confirmed their support of these requests.
Regarding unfunded requests, Mayor Anduri suggested taking each one with the understanding that they can go back and approve them all at once:
1. Crossing Guards – Additional $40,000: Mayor Anduri said this appears on page 4 but that is now an unfunded request.
Councilmember Kwok said he supports the expenditure for this year. His concern is the 5-year trend where it went up 50% in 5 years. If it keeps going up 10% a year then he thinks this would be problematic for him. He would ask that the School District understand this is a one-year vote and during this year to take time to explore other options and negotiate with the vendor, put it out to bid, and let the vendor know this cannot be a trend easily approvable every year.
Mayor Anduri said the City’s standing agreement with the School District is that they will split up to $100,000 and what Councilmember Kwok is suggesting is that rather than raise the amount on that standing agreement to $140,000, for this year they would approve $ 40,000 on a one-time basis and will review it next year. Councilmember Kwok confirmed.
Councilmember Gerringer voiced her support for the increase for this year, but the budget had $10,000 in it and she confirmed they are going with the additional $40,000.
Vice Mayor Dawson said she sees other cities do this through their police community services officers.
She asked about the process and how the agreement was originally reached.
Ms. Srivatsa explained before 2010 the City managed the crossing guard program. They only had 3 or 4 guards, but at that time, the crossing guards interacted primarily with school personnel and it became more difficult for the City to administer. The School District took over the program and the City agreed to pay 50%. As President Pak said, in 2019 costs had gone up and they had come to the Council to ask for more money and the Council agreed to split the costs up to a maximum of $100K. Ms. Srivatsa surveyed Contra Costa cities and it is split. For example, Orinda does not contribute towards the crossing guard program, the City of Walnut Creek manages the program and pays half of it, and so there is not one trend.
She did not determine the hourly rate or budgeted amount.
ACTION: Mayor Anduri confirmed there was Council consensus to approve an additional $40,000 in the budget for the next fiscal year for the crossing guards. They would leave in place the not to exceed $100,000 and review any additional contribution next year at the $40,000 or the 50% formula.
City Council, Public Art Committee Page 34 of 38 June 12, 2023
2. PTR Parking Lots – Set aside funds for 3 lots to be paved - $500,000: Ms. Robinson said staff has assessed that all 3 parking lots need to be paved in the next 1-3 years. This is the cost now, so she would probably budget for approximately $170,000 a year to take care of the problem today. She called attention to City parking lot repaving anywhere from $15,000 to $25,000 a year so again, they do not like to have these shocks to the budget. They can be kept up with slurry seals but every 15 or so years they need to be redone completely, so that is where the large expense comes in. She would divide the $500,000 by 3 and budget it over the next 3 years.
Mayor Anduri asked if the City parking lot repaving includes the PTR lots includes the PTR 3 lots. Ms.
Robinson said it includes all City parking lots.
EXTEND MEETING
ACTION: It was M/S/C (Dawson/Gerringer) to extend the meeting to 12 midnight. Roll Call Vote: 5-0. (Ayes: Anduri, Dawson, Candell, Gerringer, and Kwok; Noes: None).
Mayor Anduri clarified that staff was asking for $170,000 but also putting it into the next 2 fiscal years, and he asked for Council comments on this. He thinks this is something that needs to be done.
Councilmember Gerringer asked if the City has a sinking fund for City parking lot repaving now. Ms.
Robinson said no, but they should. She is looking at the proposed $25,000 and is thinking that is not enough. This would be on-going and if done right, it should be increased with inflation every year, but they do not do that with other sinking funds. They get most of the way there and the sinking fund helps but does not pay for it all.
Councilmember Gerringer asked and confirmed with Ms. Robinson that she would run another 5 years with these approved items in the budget so the Council will see those expenses. The Council could provisionally state these are things they would like to do, and staff will include them. If the number is too scary when they return and see them, the Council can discuss potentially altering them at the next meeting.
Councilmember Kwok said it was mentioned earlier about $1 million per year deficit on the CIP. This is not in their discussions, and Mayor Anduri said he included that in his rough numbers for 3 years. Ms.
Robinson clarified they are okay for the 2023-24, but not for the 2024-25.
Mayor Anduri asked and confirmed the $1 million shortfall will start in FY 2024-25. He said the big number in bringing that number down is the $2.9 million in ARPA funds which is one-time money that will last for 5 years, but not after that.
ACTION: Mayor Anduri confirmed there was Council consensus to approve the Sinking Fund for $500,000 for PTR parking lot paving or $170,000 a year for the next 3 years for the 3 lots.
3. Low Income Housing Fund - $250,000:
City Council, Public Art Committee Page 35 of 38 June 12, 2023 Councilmember Gerringer said she would like to see how that impacts the numbers going in, but she is supportive of putting it in at the request of up to $250,000. She thinks while it is not required, it ties to the 6.1.B of the Housing Element and discussion about trying to find a way to fund affordable housing. If they do not find other revenues for the budget, monies can be shifted in the next budget cycle if they do not find ways to balance the budget in the next year.
Mayor Anduri said he does not oppose that, and it would be great if they could do that. But, he was unsure how useful it is for a lot of discussion about that tonight. He would like to see what impact that has on the budget for the next step. Councilmember Kwok agreed.
Councilmember Candell said it states they could also look for additional sources, vacancy taxes, real estate transfer tax, and she would like to investigate those and see if they could backfill this and augment it. She asked if this could be done or asked if these were targeted at something different.
Mayor Anduri said this is part of a program the City is committed to do under the Housing Element. He asked if she sees the $250,000 as eliminating the need to do this or he asked if they put in $250,000 a year and still identify additional sources for on-going revenues.
Mr. Wolff said it behooves them to look broadly at all possible revenue sources for not only housing but funding all the costs the City has, including paving roads, housing, etc. He does not see the $250,000 obviating the need to look further. The City is still obligated to do a comprehensive look and the nexus fee study does that in part as well as the Fiscal Sustainability Subcommittee.
Mayor Anduri said the Planning Department as a program will be looking at ways to specifically fund affordable housing, and Mr. Wolff confirmed.
Councilmember Candell asked the City Attorney if they can pass vacancy or real estate transfer taxes and put them in the General Fund, or if those must go to housing.
City Attorney Subramanian said a real property transfer tax which has been discussed before but requires the City to become a charter city which requires a vote of the people and then requires the people to vote on a real property transfer tax. A vacancy tax also requires a vote of the people, but you do not have to be a charter city. But, then the City will also have to consider if it is a vacancy tax on residential houses or commercial.
Councilmember Candell said her question is that even if they considered that, she asked if they could put it in the General Fund or she asked if those must go to specific things. Ms. Subramanian said it depends if it is a special tax or general tax. She also noted there is a new ballot measure that may be coming forward that may have implications as well, and she believes San Francisco was challenged on their vacancy tax.
4. Expand ARPA Funds to extend the contract for the Economic Development Manager for 6 months - $60,000:
Vice Mayor Dawson recommended the Council support this because it is part of a carryover from their invested ARPA funds into the business vitality and economic recovery. He is also working with the Chamber of Commerce.
City Council, Public Art Committee Page 36 of 38 June 12, 2023 Mayor Anduri agreed and said the City has already allocated ARPA funds that are in the budget for projects coming on-line he is working on. Councilmembers concurred.
ACTION: There was Council consensus to approve extending the contract for 6 months for the Economic Development Manager at $60,000.
5. Chamber of Commerce – Additional funding of $20,000 per year:
Councilmember Gerringer voiced her support based on all work the Chamber does and based on how long it has been set at that amount. She asked the City Manager to provide information about whether this is in keeping with how other communities handle their relationships with their Chambers. Ms. Srivatsa said she also did a survey on this topic and she will bring back the results.
ACTION: There was Council consensus to approve the additional funding of $20,000 per year for the Chamber of Commerce.
6. Proposal to Establish Additional Sinking Funds: Mayor Anduri said while it is another big item, it makes sense to plan and it gives them a more realistic sense of how much money the City has available. He would recommend putting it in at the higher numbers here.
ACTION: There was Council consensus to approve the higher number for establishing additional sinking funds.
7. Proposed Fee Schedule: Mayor Anduri asked for comments on the fee schedule proposed.
Ms. Robinson pointed out that the only fee changes are the new fees for parkland.
Mayor Anduri asked if staff has received sufficient direction.
Ms. Robinson said yes, and she will return with what all these items mean going forward in the budget.
She asked if she should run this with no ARPA and just how much it will be, and then the Council will figure out whether they will put ARPA funds. She also asked if she should include the $1 million CIP increase as well.
Mayor Anduri suggested including the $1 million CIP because he feels strongly that they want to keep roads maintained.
Councilmember Candell suggested having a sheet where it does not have it and one that does. Ms.
Robinson said she will prepare a chart where if you take any one item out, the Council will show the impact to the bottom line. She will show the chart raw without the ARPA funds, and the Council can decide how it wants to apply those funds going forward.
ACTION: It was M/S/C (Gerringer/Candell) to continue the public hearing to June 26, 2023. Roll Call Vote:
5-0. (Ayes: Anduri, Dawson, Candell, Gerringer, and Kwok; Noes: None).
12. ITEMS REMOVED FROM CONSENT – None.
13. COUNCIL/COMMISSION REPORTS
City Council, Public Art Committee Page 37 of 38 June 12, 2023 A. Councilmembers report on activities and consideration of matters a Councilmember wishes to initiate for placement on a future agenda.
Mayor Anduri reported Community Day was a great success and thanked all those involved. He especially recognized Councilmember Gerringer for the leadership she provided as co-chair of the event.
Councilmember Gerringer voiced appreciation to all volunteers and recognized Francine who ensured everything was running smoothly. She said they now have bright red curbs at the Community Center, new plants and signs coming into Town, work was done at Town Hall Theater, there were 3 creeks projects, and coming back and having the meal provided by the Rotary Club with the new restaurant, “All the Smoke” participating, was great. They will work on adding on messaging to get it out to parents of schools and others. There were 150 to 200 volunteers, and she looks forward to the next event June 1, 2024.
Vice Mayor Dawson reported the Mt. Diablo Amateur Radio Club is having its event on Saturday, June 17th, and she will provide information to Ms. Iarla to have it posted on the website.
B. City Manager’s Update
Recommendation: Receive and file.
City Manager Srivatsa said she will report out at the next meeting.
14. WRITTEN COMMUNICATIONS – None.
15. CLOSED SESSION
Mayor Anduri adjourned to Closed Session to consider the following matters:
A. Conference with Labor Negotiators (Gov. Code section 54957.6) Agency designated representatives: Niroop Srivatsa, City Manager and Tracy Robinson, Administrative Services Director
Employee organization: Association of Lafayette Employees (ALE) B. Conference with Labor Negotiators (Gov. Code section 54957.6) Agency designated representatives: Niroop Srivatsa, City Manager and Tracy Robinson, Administrative Services Director
Unrepresented Employees: All full-time employees, excluding the City Manager and those within ALE
Reconvene & Report Out of Closed Session
Mayor Anduri reconvened the meeting at 11:40 p.m. and announced that no action had been taken in Closed Session.
City Council, Public Art Committee Page 38 of 38 June 12, 2023
16. ADJOURNMENT – 11:41 p.m. in memory of Dr. Carol Weyland Conner, founder of White Pony Express.
APPROVED:
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Carl Anduri, Mayor
ATTEST:
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Joanne Robbins, City Clerk