CITY OF PACIFICA
CITY COUNCIL MINUTES
Council Chambers
2212 Beach Blvd
Pacifica, CA 94044
Mayor Tygarjas Bigstyck
Mayor pro Tem Sue Vaterlaus
Councilmember Sue Beckmeyer
Councilmember Mary Bier
Councilmember Christine Boles
City Council Regular Meeting 1 June 12, 2023
SPECIAL AND REGULAR MEETING
June 12, 2023 (MONDAY)
www.cityofpacifica.org
Mayor Tygarjas Bigstyck called the study session to order on June 12, 2023 at 5:05 PM 5:00 PM - STUDY SESSION
Mayor Bigstyck called the study session to order at 5:05 p.m. City Clerk Coffey stated the Commissions/Committees giving annual reports.
Representatives from the Planning Commission; Parks, Beaches & Recreation Commission; Emergency Preparedness & Safety Commission; Beautification Advisory Committee; Economic Development Committee; and Open Space & Parkland Advisory Committee presented their annual reports to Council. Council thanked all Commissions/Committees for their hard work.
Annual Reports to City Council from the Beautification Advisory Committee, Economic Development Committee, Emergency Preparedness & Safety Commission, Open Space and Parkland Advisory Committee, Parks, Beaches & Recreation Commission, and Planning Commission
PROPOSED ACTION: This is an informational item. It is requested that the City Council provide feedback and receive and file the annual report of each commission and committee.
7:00 PM OPEN SESSION
Call to Order
Mayor Bigstyck reconvened the meeting at 7:03 p.m.
Attendee Name Title Status Arrived
Tygarjas Bigstyck Mayor Present
Sue Vaterlaus Mayor pro Tem Present
Sue Beckmeyer Councilmember Present
Mary Bier Councilmember Present
Christine Boles Councilmember Present
City Council Regular Meeting 2 June 12, 2023
Staff Present: Kevin Woodhouse, City Manager; Michelle Kenyon, City Attorney; Lisa Petersen, PW Director; Yulia Carter, Asst. City Manager; Christian Murdock, Planning Director; Maria Sarasua, Police Chief; Bob Palacio, PB&R Director; Bill Glasgo, Police Captain; Ron Myers, Fire Chief; Bill Amable, Dep. Fire Chief; Roland Yip, PW Dep. Director (Field Services/Engineering); Maria Aguilar, PW Dep. Director-Wastewater; Nelson Schlater, Engineering Manager; Lucy Xie, Dep. Finance Director; Jason Bustria, IT Analyst; Sarah Coffey, City Clerk; Emily La, Dep. City Clerk.
Reading of Land Acknowledgment
Mayor Bigstyck read the Land Acknowledgement.
Salute to the Flag led by Councilmember Beckmeyer
SPECIAL PRESENTATIONS
A. Pacifica Resource Center Annual Report
Mayor Bigstyck introduced Director Anita Rees, who presented the annual PRC report.
Director Rees described the Pacifica Resource Center’s updated mission and vision following their strategic planning process and shared their future goals to care for those in most need and they will expand their facilities to integrate existing and new programs. She gave statistics on what they provided for the community, such as groceries, tax services, etc., to help the community stay housed and they are working to increase all of those benefits. She also gave an update on the Safe Parking Permit Program and the expansion of their programs.
Councilmember Beckmeyer thanked her for the update, adding that she marveled at what she accomplishes and was happy on hearing about expanding their facilities.
Mayor pro Tem Vaterlaus marveled at the number of people they serve. She thought it was amazing work and she thanked her.
Councilmember Boles highlighted the 412 people they prevented from being homeless as we have a large homeless population in terms of county percentages that we are eager to work towards reducing. She asked about PRC’s space needs, and Director Rees described their challenges with office space and housing spaces. Councilmember Boles stated that those are important things for Council to know as they are talking to politicians for money and affordable housing developers.
Councilmember Bier thanked her so much for everything, as PRC helped her in a time of great need for her and her daughter. She mentioned her comment about getting a mental health practitioner and they could talk offline about the program at the Daly City Health Center because they are connected with graduate schools and there is an abundance of interns. She looks forward to seeing the wishlist, and she asked about their pantry needs. Director Rees described their challenges with stocking and storing their pantry.
Councilmember Bier thanked her for their Safe Parking Permit Program and noted it is wonderful to see people moving through it as she knows how long it takes for people to get housed. Director Rees shared a County resource to assist with those who struggle with paying rent in general at the San Mateo County Department of Housing website. Councilmember Bier City Council Regular Meeting 3 June 12, 2023
stated that a lot of people in the school district can qualify, and Director Rees responded affirmatively.
Mayor Bigstyck thanked her for being here. He stated he spent a great deal of time on the Board and he continues being the liaison and is gratified that he gets to keep good company.
Before he joined the Board, he would sit in the audience and hear the reports and think that he would love to volunteer with PRC and then when he finally joined the Board he had the opportunity to volunteer and he took that opportunity robustly. He asked Director Rees about the opportunities available for those interested in volunteering with PRC, and Director Rees described the many aspects of their volunteer program, such as grocery packing, food distributions, supply deliveries, and shower maintenance.
Mayor Bigstyck stated that there are so many different people with so many different backgrounds and they aren’t an organization where it is one size fits all and they have ongoing programs but it’s about who they are, what they need to do to help them, etc. He asked if she could talk about the complexity and nuance of what PRC does. Director Rees described the myriad goods and services PRC provides to the community, including providing supplies like backpacks, in addition to providing a safe space where people can receive support.
Mayor Bigstyck thanked her for all she does and opened public comments.
Suzanne Moore, Pacifica, stated she is with Pacifica Housing for All, and thus she is extremely grateful for the work of the PRC in helping neighbors with taxes, food, counseling, etc. She shared all her thoughts on their work and her suggestion to support them.
CONSENT CALENDAR
Mayor Bigstyck asked if anyone wanted to pull an item from consent. Councilmember Boles pulled Item #8.
Mayor Bigstyck opened public comments, minus Item #8. Seeing no public comments, he closed public comments.
Councilmember Boles stated she had a correction to the minutes in the discussion about the Surplus Land Act, noting the dimensions of a building referenced in that discussion were 40 feet by 130 feet.
CONSENT ITEMS #1-7 and 9
ITEM #2 AS AMENDED
RESULT: ADOPTED AS AMENDED [UNANIMOUS]
MOVER: Sue Beckmeyer, Councilmember
SECONDER: Mary Bier, Councilmember
AYES: Bigstyck, Vaterlaus, Beckmeyer, Bier, Boles
1. Approval of Disbursements for Dated 5/01/23 through 5/31/23.
PROPOSED ACTION: Receive and file the Monthly Check Register Report for the month of May 2023
2. Approval of Minutes
PROPOSED ACTION: Move to approve the minutes of the City Council Special and Regular Meeting held on May 22, 2023.
City Council Regular Meeting 4 June 12, 2023
3. Continuation of Proclamation of Local Emergency of the Pacifica Coastline from Westline Drive to the End of Beach Boulevard.
PROPOSED ACTION: Accept report and make a determination that conditions of local emergency continue to exist within the Pacifica Coastline from Westline Drive to the end of Beach Boulevard.
4. Continuation of Proclamation of Local Emergency at the Anza Pump Station.
PROPOSED ACTION: Accept Report and Make a Determination that Conditions of Local Emergency Continue to Exist at the Anza Pump Station at the Pacifica State Beach.
5. Appropriation from Disaster Accounting Fund (Fund 38) and Deposit of funds into the State of California Condemnation Fund related to City of Pacifica v. Tong, San Mateo Superior Court Case No. 18CIV05455
PROPOSED ACTION: Authorize a deposit of $1,923,500 into the State of California Condemnation Fund related to City of Pacifica v. Tong, San Mateo Superior Court Case No. 18CIV05455; and approve a Resolution amending the FY 2022-23 Budget to include the additional appropriation of this amount from the available fund balance of the Disaster Accounting Fund (Fund 38).
6. Notice of Completion for the North Pacifica Pedestrian Improvement Project PROPOSED ACTION: Move to Adopt the Resolution of the City Council of the City of Pacifica accepting completion and directing the City Manager to file Notice of Completion for the North Pacifica Pedestrian Improvement Project; and Authorize the City Manager to release the retention funds to the contractor.
7. Purchase Agreement between the City of Pacifica and MISCOwater for the purchase of Smith & Loveless Schloss Bar Screen Unit (Rebuild) for the Rockaway Pump Station Bar Screen Rebuild Project.
PROPOSED ACTION: Adopt Resolution Approving the Purchase Agreement between the City of Pacifica and MISCOwater, via sole source, in the amount of $162,343 for the purchase of Smith & Loveless - Schloss bar screen rebuild unit for the Rockaway Pump Station Bar Screen Project; authorize the City Manager to execute all documents related to the project.
8. Consideration of “Records Cleanup Day” Event and Related Activities PROPOSED ACTION: Consider and by motion direct staff to adopt a records management practice for a Pilot 2023 “Records Cleanup Day” event and related activities similar to the City of San Mateo’s records management practice of a “Records Cleanup Day” per the City of Pacifica’s response to the recommendation contained in the San Mateo County Grand Jury Report “A Delicate Balance between Knowledge and Power: Government Transparency and the Public’s Right to Know”.
Agenda Item #8 Discussion:
City Manager Woodhouse provided a brief report and referred to City Clerk Coffey for additional details.
City Council Regular Meeting 5 June 12, 2023
Mayor Bigstyck asked for elaboration on what an annual Records Cleanup Day would look like.
City Clerk Coffey explained that the City of San Mateo does an annual Records Cleanup Day that makes the adherence to their records retention policy and schedule a fun festive event.
The City Clerk’s Office works with the staff from each department and identifies from their department a goal for their records cleanup to adhere to the records retention schedule and then submit a form that documents their goal for that cleanup event. It allows the flexibility for each department to identify their records goals within the structure of the records retention policy and schedule and do what fits best for each department and division. It provides a fun environment for staff to focus on the needs for record management that may often by overlooked in day-to-day activities, especially with intense workloads. It gives a little bit more attention to document and records management as some of those actions could be records destruction in accordance with the records retention schedules and those schedules meet statutory requirements and the needs of the city. It could be focusing on going through emails and getting rid of emails that are beyond their retention period. It could be focused on digitizing records or calling back records from offsite storage to see if those should be scanned or are eligible for destruction. Pacifica, in 2020, worked extensively with a consultant and staff from each department to develop a City of Pacifica specific records management policy and retention schedule. The policy and schedule were adopted by City Council in November 2020 and what is proposed in this staff report is to reach out to the consultant that assisted the city in developing our own records retention policy and schedule to provide some additional guidance and training to city staff.
Mayor Bigstyck thought it sounded like an amazing opportunity to refocus on a duty that might get left by the wayside and bring a heightened awareness to best practices in general. He thanked her for elucidating that.
Councilmember Beckmeyer asked if it was appropriate to say that staff would work on cleaning up records that day or also plan for others.
City Clerk Coffey stated it would be planning for that day and the Records Cleanup Day would be the festivities around that, to celebrate the activities that staff did over a period of time to culminate in that Records Cleanup Day. They are envisioning that each department can coordinate a records destruction or onsite shredding once the approval has been given through the review, according to the policy.
Councilmember Beckmeyer remembered going over this in 2020, and she thought it was educational and is a robust policy. She appreciated going over that as a reminder.
Councilmember Boles was trying to imagine the process and how much work it is for her and the City Attorney. She asked if every record gets looked at individually by both of them.
City Clerk Coffey stated that the records retention schedule that was developed categorized the records into different categories and part of the goal in the Records Cleanup Day may just be organizing records in a meaningful way by their record category or identifying that category and it is then connected with the records retention period for that category of records. She stated it could be a more organization goal related for departments rather than actually destroying any records that are not beyond their retention period. The records retention schedule is developed in a way to identify different records categories and, if records are filed in a very organized way in a time range that are filed together, then you don’t necessarily need to look at each and every City Council Regular Meeting 6 June 12, 2023
record to approve that destruction and the records coordinator for that department would make sure that those documents are filed properly and are within a category that is subject to being beyond their retention period.
Mayor Bigstyck opened public comments.
Clif Lawrence, Pacifica, stated that he used to conduct seminars on this topic. He was glad they have it, and he added some concerns on the process and possible legal repercussions.
Mayor Bigstyck closed public comments and asked City Clerk Coffey if training and audits are part and parcel with the cleanup day.
City Clerk Coffey stated that, in explaining the process, the first thing she started with was reaching out to the consultant who assisted in developing our records retention policy and schedule that they adopted; she agreed that training is very important, especially with staff turnover and it is important to remind staff that there is a policy in place and need to adhere to the policy and to the detailed records retention schedules. Additionally, records organization and management is a priority as well, and the goals are specific to each department and the needs of that department. If a department feels they need to focus more on getting old emails under control, saving documents from emails to a more organized way for those that need to be retained or just organizing records in a way so they can relate to the records management schedule better, and they are all equal priority goals in the Records Cleanup Day.
Councilmember Boles asked if independent audits are done regularly.
City Clerk Coffey stated there is an audit process built into the retention policy and the destruction policy; it’s audited in the sense that the department staff are not unilaterally making the decision to destroy records, as it goes through City Clerk and City Attorney review before there is any approval given. She also highlighted, in response to the comment, that city transparency is very important to the city and the public’s right to know. She stated that the City agrees with the grand jury report and wholeheartedly agrees with transparency and the public’s right to know - the city’s business is the public’s business.
Mayor pro Tem Vaterlaus was amazed that the schedule was so elaborate and each subject has its own line and own numbers and everybody will know exactly what it is; they are very detailed with the charts telling what the retention policy is and each department will know exactly where their department stands in this structure.
City Clerk Coffey added that part of the review process includes rejecting any lists that do not include a reference to the retention schedule in that document series and notifying departments to clearly identify the retention period.
Councilmember Bier thanked the City Clerk for the clarity she provided. Mayor Bigstyck echoed that. He thought it was a lot of work and was largely not known, let alone appreciated.
Councilmember Beckmeyer moved approval of the Records Clean Up Day event and related activities; seconded by Mayor pro Tem Vaterlaus.
City Council Regular Meeting 7 June 12, 2023
AGENDA ITEM #8
RESULT: ADOPTED [UNANIMOUS]
MOVER: Sue Beckmeyer, Councilmember
SECONDER: Sue Vaterlaus, Mayor pro Tem
AYES: Bigstyck, Vaterlaus, Beckmeyer, Bier, Boles
9. Public meeting to receive testimony regarding amendment to the Pacifica Hotel Business Improvement District (BID) by amending the Pacifica Municipal Code Section 3-17.03 to remove provision for allocation of funds within thirty days and replace the Pacifica Chamber of Commerce as the Managing Agency of the BID with the City of Pacifica
PROPOSED ACTION: Receive public testimony regarding the proposed amendment to the Pacifica Hotel Business Improvement District (BID) by amending Section 3-17.03 (Administration) of Chapter 17 (hotel business improvement district) within Title 3 (Finance) of the Pacifica Municipal Code to remove provision for allocation of funds within thirty days and to replace the Pacifica Chamber of Commerce as the Managing Agency of the BID with the City of Pacifica.
PUBLIC COMMENTS ON ITEMS NOT ON THE POSTED AGENDA
Clif Lawrence, Pacifica, referred to the turnout at last week’s Planning Commission meeting regarding the quarry and will be a topic of their jurisdiction. He then mentioned his concerns and thoughts on the project.
Lauren Smith, Pacifica, thanked the Coast Pride Committee and volunteers, her coworker, and Katie Brookshire who conceived and pressured for this event for many years, and then shared her thoughts on the success of this event.
Frank Vella, Pacifica, shared his thoughts about support for a Local Coastal Plan and interaction with the Coastal Commission regarding protection of all properties in Pacifica affected by the sea wall problem and offered possible goals. He provided to the City Clerk the referenced petitions that he gathered from residents calling for a study session to be held regarding sea level rise protections.
Delia McGrath, Pacifica, stated she is representing Pacifica Peace People, a 20-year-old organization, and discussed concerns and goals they have in acting locally for peace globally, such as through the city’s support of the ICAN initiative. She mentioned the international summit for peace in Ukraine to be held in Vienna, Austria, and period of observation of cease fire related to the war in Ukraine.
Brendan Berman, Pacifica, stated he was present as a citizen with immense pride and gratitude as he reflected on the recent Pride parade and celebration and shared his thoughts on the inspiring event and appreciated the Coast Pride staff and board and volunteers, etc., and the positive effect it had on our local economy.
Petra Kretschmer, Pacifica, expressed her thoughts and concerns regarding Mori Point and traffic in Fairway Park West, and the city not addressing what is negatively happening in their neighborhood for three years. She provided written correspondence to the City Clerk that she City Council Regular Meeting 8 June 12, 2023
referenced in her comments.
Laurie Gaggero, Pacifica, expressed her concerns about the mapping error in Mori Point which directs visitors to the endangered species area near her home and the negative impact she is personally experiencing.
Dennis Hogan, Pacifica, expressed his thoughts about permit parking and beach protection.
Mr. Hogan continued his thoughts on the owners’ responsibility for maintaining the beach.
Marj Davis, Pacifica, expressed her sympathy for what residents in that area are experiencing and then shared her concerns and suggestions on the quarry reclamation project.
Mayor Bigstyck closed public comments, and asked the City Manager if he could address the question about the city owning beaches.
City Manager Woodhouse stated that beach ownership was complicated, as depending on when the mean high tide line is it could mean state, city or private ownership. He stated he could turn to Planning Director Murdock in case he knows more information.
Planning Director Murdock stated that the City Manager mentioned that beach ownership was relatively complicated and there are different ownerships between the City, State, and the federal government depending on location and what they define as a beach, as well as privately owned beach in narrow areas of Pacifica.
Mayor Bigstyck stated that it might not be a bad idea to have a joint study session between OSPAC, Emergency Preparedness and PB&R to figure out what next steps look like, and he will be discussing that idea with the City Manager going forward. He included information on the next OSPAC meeting on June 21 at the Community Center where there is generally a representative from GGNRA present, as well as a Beach Boulevard Infrastructure Resiliency project meeting coming up on June 27 at the Community Center and will be announced through Connect with Pacifica. Mayor Bigstyck stated that they are at the beginning of a process and he thought staff was looking at a 125 data points provided by Coastal Commission staff. He appreciated the Mori Point residents coming and keeping Council informed of what is going on.
He didn’t think a solution is obvious but, as long as their voices continue, they will work on what they need to figure out.
Councilmember Bier asked if they can briefly talk about the map. City Manager Woodhouse agreed that the mapping resources and technology related to those is a topic that the City has spoken with GGNRA about, as well as advertising the southernmost and northernmost access points which he did before in his Connect with Pacifica and said people should consider going to Rockaway or Beach Boulevard to access along the levy. He stated that they are talking with GGNRA and had a meeting with them last week to talk about potential solutions.
COUNCIL COMMUNICATIONS
Councilmember Bier asked for a moment of silence for Jane Northrup and stated that she will miss her dearly. She is on the board of Coast Pride and feels like that is all that she has been working on, as they have worked on events in all the cities. She stated that Pacifica’s event was awesome. She thanked Robine Runneals for her help on the parade information and thanked Fog Fest team as she had no idea what it took to close down the street. She thanked all the people who helped them, especially Alyssa who was the liaison for the city, as well as the City Council Regular Meeting 9 June 12, 2023
Economic Development Committee, Councilmember Beckmeyer, and Katie Brookshire at Table Wine. She referred to what she heard in feedback from the community that it was the best tabling event that they have had in a really long time and people were continually engaged the entire time by asking questions and getting connected to resources. She thanked the Pacifica School District as she got the permits in place as well as the food truck vendors. After the event, she had to step back and take care of her own mental and physical health. She went to a training on micro-aggressions and communication styles and she recommends it. She hoped Pacifica could look into offering these kinds of opportunities to staff, Commissions, and elected people as it was really important information to understand. She felt how we communicate with each other was so important and they have to bring people together to the table. She has learned how to communicate fully with our community. She attended a county discussion on Fentanyl and they will be seeking some funding for our prevention work and it was good to hear the engagement that the County Board of Supervisors is having. She attended the HEART board meeting. The Housing Endowment and Regional Trust of San Mateo County (HEART) helps first time buyers purchase their homes and the newest program is the Housing Preservation Program. The main point of the program is to purchase and preserve existing naturally occurring affordable multi-family housing, and there are a lot of benefits that come in like obtaining immediate property tax exemptions, applying for flexible occupancy standards, and issuing bonds. She stated that this group is able to gather funding, purchase buildings that are 5 or more units, upgrade it, make sure those who are living there are allowed to stay there, and have deed restrictions and low-income housing.
Mayor pro Tem Vaterlaus attended the Council of Cities in Atherton. She was at the Veteran’s Memorial on Veteran’s Day and it was a great ceremony dedicating the veteran’s memorial.
She went to a party for the end of the bowling alley which was definitely a sad event. She heard some things that are positively not true, and she will say it now. People said the city required them to close, and that is not true. She had an amazing time at the Pride Parade which was a great community event. She attended Josh Becker’s campaign kickoff and the City and County Association of Government Legislative Meeting where they go over the state budget. There were a lot of things that they thought they were going to get a lot of money for, but they are not.
There are a lot of bills that we supported that became two-year bills and would go in suspension. At the CCAG’s regular meeting, they had presentations on storm water and education. She stated that she is on what was called the COVID-19 Recovery Council. They are going to add more private sector people as it is about funding and a lot of the items that the county did during COVID-19 are still continuing and it is an important process. She was at a well-attended sea level rise meeting. They presented a resolution at the County Fair for Coast Day at the Fair and it was moving to hear Dolores Huerta talk about that process and what it took to unionize the farm workers, along with Cesar Chavez. She stated that San Francisco Parks and GGNRA did contact her about the Mori Point Memorial that people put together.
They have memorial rocks, plaques, etc. and they are going to clean it out again this week and, if anyone has anything that means something to them, they are going to remove everything from there and make it back to a natural environment. They asked her to spread the word.
Councilmember Boles attended the Council of Cities in Atherton and one of the joys for her in being an architect and serving in this role was getting to see all these amazing new buildings as they open up. She said it was inspirational seeing their library and thinking about our library. It has been almost six months since she has been on Council and sworn in. In the last weeks, she had her last orientation meeting with Public Works and she appreciated PW Director Petersen, Dep. Director Yip, and all the staff she met. She got a tour of the Linda Mar pump station (storm water and sewer) and to correct disinformation, if you see steam, that’s not the sewer, that’s the storm water. She stated that they are working hard with the equipment being City Council Regular Meeting 10 June 12, 2023
serviced, repaired, and rebuilt and she thought we will be in good shape for this year’s El Nino in that area. She had a great meeting with Habitat for Humanity and met with the CEO, Director of Development, and Director of Construction. They all had ties to Pacifica and loved Pacifica, and they would love to work in Pacifica and talked about a few sites. She talked to other affordable housing developers and now it is so difficult because of finances, loan rates, and construction costs that are so high. They had a big meeting at the San Francisco Airport Roundtable. The FCC hasn’t reviewed some of their policies since the 60s, and there is new research now about the health effects of airplane noise and they have a public review process with a document issued for a public comment period until the end of July. At that meeting, they were working through the letter they were going to send together and they are also encouraging cities to send letters. Once she gets the final letter from them, she hopes to set up a meeting in our community where they can work on that. She attended the Peninsula Clean Energy community group that advises the Board and they had a preview of the budget. The state is forcing Community Choice Aggregates to purchase additional power to build resilience, more than they would normally need, to have as a backup. There is so much demand for that across the whole state and they will be paying a lot more for that. The organization is so well-managed and there will be a surplus and they will have meetings to decide what to do with the extra money, helping electrify more and looking at projects in Pacifica. She thought it was exciting to be a part of that. She stated Pride was so fun and she wanted to give a shout out to all of those who worked so hard. She stated that it started off as a fun gathering but they are building community and raising money and growing. She stated that the Fair was great. She stated that she and her husband are offering tours of their house and shared the upcoming schedule.
Councilmember Beckmeyer stated that she also participated in so many of the things that have been mentioned. She stated that she attended the BID meeting on May 24. Asst. City Manager Carter gave an overview to the BID of where we are in the process and the different steps that have to happen with the hearing to enact what they asked the city to do. She had two meetings back to back, Coastal Cities Group and the Local Government Workshop. The Coastal Cities Group is statewide through the League of Cities/CalCities, and the next day the Local Government Workshop meeting, which is a different collaboration of people, including Coastal Commission members and commission staff. League of Cities/CalCities staff from our Coastal Cities group and coastal counties are represented. One thing Mayor pro Tem Vaterlaus mentioned is now everyone is looking at the legislative reports and actions, and there are a couple of bills they were watching closely to see what the impact might be for cities. What they are seeking is for there not to be unintended cost consequences for the city that they end up taking on. She stated that it was so important at this juncture to be working with the different staff members at the different organizations so they can talk to the staff at the legislators’ offices about why these changes need to be made and what the concerns are; ultimately, if they can make an adjustment, then the cities or county organizations will write a letter of support or be neutral, but if they can’t, then there are sometimes letters of opposition. She had a great opportunity to go to see the School of Rock performance. She stated that, at the veteran’s event at the Legion Hall, she was so proud to see what our community has done together and was thankful to city staff for the help they gave in terms of the guidance for permitting the requirement. There was an extension of time for ADA compliance issues to be addressed and it is so much better now. She had the opportunity to speak to a Boy Scouts troop in Vallemar about public service. It was a great experience and she was pleased with how it all came together. She had an opportunity to go to the Rotary Club dinner meeting with a presentation by former Planning Commissioner John Nibbelin about the Office of the County Counsel and how they are interchangeably using the name of the Office of the County Attorney as it makes more sense to people. She had a dual excitement with Cabrillo School graduation, her day job, and the Beautification Advisory Committee meeting. The recent Bioswale Workday was City Council Regular Meeting 11 June 12, 2023
amazing and was a great collaboration between the Beautification Advisory Committee members and Cabrillo School PTO. They worked well together, and it was a lot of hard work.
Mayor Bigstyck noted that they will be adjourning in honor of Jane Northrup and Jeanne Matysiak. He welcomed Jack Burgett with NCCWD. They got a report that someone’s life was saved in a water rescue this week, and one of the life buoys was used. He will begin by noticing the war in Ukraine and expressing the urge for it to cease for the sake of the Ukrainian people.
He sent the email for the ICAN project, i.e., the International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons. Over the last several weeks, he has been talking a lot with Jonathan Cordero of the Ramaytush Ohlone, who is going to be processing out of lymphoma and their prayers go with him as he goes on that journey. He attended the Pacifica Resource Center appreciation lunch where there were representatives from Berman’s office and Becker’s office, as well as Ray Mueller. Afterward, he had the opportunity to talk further with Berman’s staff member and showed her some of our infrastructure needs along the coastline. He attended the committee / commission charters ad hoc meeting with Councilmember Bier. He attended the Peninsula Clean Energy meeting and the big thrust was the Diversity, Equity, Accessibility, and Inclusion Action Plan that they formally passed through, i.e., the action plan based off of the PCE DEAI policy. They also talked about budget and there will be excess funds and they will be figuring out how best to deploy them for the sake of our mission which is ultimately bringing everyone clean energy and, in the meantime, rates will continue to be under PG&E’s by 5%. He attended Council of Cities in Atherton; he was reminded about the need Pacifica has for a modern library and this was driven home earlier today when he was attending the Library Joint Powers Authority meeting and they were talking about the Maker Mobile which is ready to be displayed and rolled out to what is called EPACENTER which is in East Palo Alto, and will be the site of their new library. He is looking forward to that Maker Mobile coming to Pacifica. Some of these programs that are available in libraries will be available to those who sometimes have more difficulty getting to them. He attended the American Legion memorial re-dedication along with his colleagues. He attended Pacifica Pride and it was fun walking in the parade with his colleagues, including Josh Becker, Marc Berman, and Ray Mueller. He took the opportunity to deepen his relationship with Marc Berman in this instance. It was a pleasure taking him around the various organizations represented at Ingrid B. Lacy so his understanding of what is going on in the community and what these organizations were doing was deepened and he got to reconvene with him at Josh Becker’s campaign kickoff where he got to say hi to good friends, Anna Eshoo and Kevin Mullin. He stated that Ray Mueller and he did office hours at the Chit Chat Café on Monday and he would call it a good attendance with a handful of community members who were interested in chatting with them. He thanked Ray Mueller for coming and facilitating that conversation. He met with some PCT representatives later and he thought it might be an interesting idea to start a television program that will be run by the mayor where they invite local leaders from the region to come and talk about any given item that they don’t have to hear on their agendas. He was inspired by the idea that he would love to have a conversation with Mary Bier about emotional intelligence and to do that in a public setting and have the conversation. He stated they were looking forward to taping date in the not-toodistant future. He watched the Planning Commission meeting on the quarry later in the evening. He stated that Dave Crimmen had a single release party at Nick’s on Saturday and he got to be a proactive member of the community and do something for his mental health in a positive way. This morning was the Library JPA meeting he alluded to vis-a-vis the Maker Mobile. They are engaging in the second round of the California State Library grant and hopefully they can get some money for an updated library or renovating the Sanchez Library.
There will be a September study session on adult literacy and outreach. He remarked that City Manager Woodhouse is now the vice chair of the Operations Committee for the Library JPA and he congratulated him.
City Council Regular Meeting 12 June 12, 2023
STAFF COMMUNICATIONS
City Manager Woodhouse stated that they have been promoting the recruitment for the Climate Action and Adaptation Plan Task Force. He noted that tomorrow morning he and the mayor would be presenting the same State of the City Address that they gave to the Democrats Club to the Rotary Club. He pointed out that slowly but surely they are getting more Stephen Johnson photos on the wall in the Council Chambers. There is more to come in decorating the chambers and the chambers are receiving a lot of comments anecdotally from people present and from employees.
PUBLIC HEARINGS
10. Conduct Public Hearing and adopt a Resolution Confirming the Annual Report from the Pacifica Hotel Business Improvement District and Assessing the Levy for the Fiscal Year 2023-24 at the same rates as in the Fiscal Year 2022-23.
PROPOSED ACTION: 1) Conduct the Public Hearing: 2) Rule on Oral and Written protests, if any; and 3) Adopt the resolution confirming the annual report of the Pacifica Hotels Business Improvement District Advisory Board and continuing the assessments without change in FY 2023-24.
Asst. City Manager Carter presented the staff report.
City Clerk Coffey added that the city has received no written protests at this time.
Mayor Bigstyck acknowledged that Councilmembers had no questions. He then opened the public hearing and, seeing no one for public comments, closed the public hearing.
Councilmember Bier moved to adopt the resolution confirming the annual report of the Pacifica Hotels Business Improvement District Advisory Board and continuing the assessments without change in FY 2023-24; seconded by Councilmember Beckmeyer.
RESULT: ADOPTED [UNANIMOUS]
MOVER: Mary Bier, Councilmember
SECONDER: Sue Beckmeyer, Councilmember
AYES: Bigstyck, Vaterlaus, Beckmeyer, Bier, Boles
11. Fiscal Year 2023-24 Program Options, Master Fee Schedule, and Proposed Budget.
PROPOSED ACTION: Review and discuss the Fiscal Year 2023-24 Proposed General Fund and Other Funds Budget, provide additional policy direction on the desired budget options and strategies for the upcoming FY 2023-24 Budget and hold a public hearing to adopt a Resolution with an updated Master Fee Schedule.
Asst. City Manager Carter presented the staff report.
Mayor Bigstyck asked if the reference to senior code enforcement officer would include an additional staff member.
Asst. City Manager Carter responded affirmatively. She stated that we currently have one code enforcement officer for the entire city for all code enforcement issues, and the STR workload alone will require additional attention.
City Council Regular Meeting 13 June 12, 2023
Mayor Bigstyck asked if senior code enforcement implied a hierarchy in code enforcement.
City Manager Woodhouse stated that one of the strategies that aligns to the Council’s strategy about recruitment and retention of employees is to create some mobility within a small program.
It is a hierarchy and would have a senior code enforcement officer and a code enforcement officer and they are recommending the creation of the position funded out of this program at the senior level so we can have recruitment and retention capabilities.
Mayor Bigstyck presumed there would be an application period for the new position when it opens, and City Manager Woodhouse remarked that that would be generally the case.
City Manager Woodhouse added they are recommending all items on the list and the reason for the order is if the Council wants to discuss and shorten the list, there is some order of priority to go off of. In his mind, they are all important and achieving Council’s vision and goals strategy.
Asst. City Manager Carter completed the staff report.
Mayor Bigstyck expressed appreciation at the work they did, presenting it in a way that made it readable for them, and thanked them for being available for all their follow-up questions.
Councilmember Bier wondered how distributions of the special event budget would be decided.
PB&R Director Palacio stated that one of the first things he looked at was their expense account for special events, which was at $17,000 for all special events in a city of this size and was not close to what they actually need. He stated that, being able to generate excitement and pride about a community, you have to have special events and need to elevate them and increase the number of events they’re having. While $30,000 sounds like a big number, when you start spending that on special events, it is a nominal figure.
Councilmember Bier didn’t realize it was in his department and appreciated all his work.
Councilmember Boles asked if the $30,000 was intended for outside of events hosted by the Economic Development Committee. Councilmembers Bier and Boles concluded the money would be in separate buckets.
City Manager Woodhouse added that he believes the Economic Development Committee built into the base budget a small budget that helps fund their special events.
Councilmember Bier was happy to see the two-year pilot program for the community wellness and crisis response team. As it is a pilot program, she asked if they can get some information on what it will look like.
City Manager Woodhouse stated that the last couple of years the five large cities in our county did pilot this kind of embedded clinician in the police departments; it has been proven so successful that most departments are moving towards having this resource within the department. They looked at the possibility of sharing this resource with other cities and each city is determining that their need is so significant that they want their own if they can afford it and they were recommending that. He stated that it is a pilot in the sense that they do want to see how it plays out and what the impact is before they decide in the future, if affordable, that it could be continued.
City Council Regular Meeting 14 June 12, 2023
Police Chief Sarasua stated that this is an exciting opportunity for the police department. She stated that there has been clear evidence that a co-response model reduces the likelihood that a use of force encounter will occur with a mental health consumer. She stated that it is a much more compassionate way of utilizing the expertise of the clinician to help de-escalate situations when a mental health consumer is in a period of acute crisis. She stated that they attend CIT training, but it is not enough to provide the officers with the skills that they need to help deal with people who have mental health disorders and are in crisis. She stated that some of the data points that they would collect to determine the efficacy of the program would be whether or not there is a reduction in the calls for service that they get related to mental health consumers.
She stated the initial data that they collected revealed that they responded to over 300 of these calls from May 2022 to May 2023, and 150 of those resulted in a psychological evaluation for a 5150 hold. With each one of those encounters, it elevates the propensity that a call could have adverse outcomes and that is what they want to avoid. She stated that the pilot program is to gather evidence. She stated that, this week, she will be meeting with StarVista, which has been the provider of five different agencies in San Mateo County.
Councilmember Bier thanked her. She then referred to the excess ERAF funds, stating that she completely understood the important need for a housing in lieu fund to get housing, but she asked if it was possible to talk about maybe giving a little more to the Pacifica Resource Center.
Mayor Bigstyck asked if she had a number in mind that she wants to give a discussion around.
Councilmember Bier asked for a little time to think about it.
Councilmember Boles thanked the City Manager and Asst. City Manager for their answers and the presentation. She sees how much work this is and how detailed they are. It is easy to understand which she appreciates. Regarding the maintenance worker for Public Works, one of the things she learned about in her Public Works orientation was that our rangers who are responsible for beach maintenance, parking, etc., and other places where our beach rangers do education programs, are also responsible for bathroom cleaning at the beaches; therefore, we are losing staff and taking time from other things. She wondered if this maintenance worker might help to clean our beach bathrooms.
PW Director Petersen stated our ultimate goal is that they were able to figure out in their budget how they could get a contract service to come in and hopefully service some of those bathrooms and, in the meantime, that would be one of the tasks that they will have the maintenance worker do which she thought it would be a big relief to our rangers.
Councilmember Boles asked if we had tried to sell the old vehicles and recoup some money.
PW Director Petersen stated that we do as they go to auction.
Councilmember Boles thought those were typically small amounts.
Asst. City Manager Carter stated that any proceeds go back to the Vehicle Replacement Fund.
Mayor pro Tem Vaterlaus had a question about the tree fee because there was no previous tree fee and it seems so high to charge $1000 to remove a tree, especially if the tree is dead.
Planning Director Murdock pointed out that trees that are dead are exempt from the tree permit City Council Regular Meeting 15 June 12, 2023
requirement under the Municipal Code. To remove a dead tree that might pose a hazard would not be subject to a tree permit and thus they would not have to pay the fee. He explained that the fee they recommended reflects the complexity of implementing the Tree Protection Ordinance that Council enacted last year. They brought on a contract arborist who can help us to review the technical aspects. When taking into account the level of effort required to intake, route, review, route back, review again, etc., as well as accomplish the posting requirements and administrative requirements to reflect the final approval and, in some cases, post removal inspections, it is time-intensive and the fee reflects the cost recovery associated with those tree permits that are not part of another type of application, such as a building permit or another type of discretionary permit that goes to the Planning Commission. It is a costly ordinance to administer, and the proposed fee reflects that. Planning Director Murdock stated that the fee would be for removal of a tree or substantial trimming that constitutes a regulated activity under the ordinance that is not associated with some other activity that necessitates that removal or significant trimming. For instance, if they are doing a project on their home, that tree permit review and the cost associated with it would be rolled into the building permit process, but if you just want to cut down a tree because you don’t like the tree, this would be the permit fee associated with that.
Councilmember Boles stated that she was concerned about the cost, especially for trimming; there are fire risks with trees too close to houses and we want people to trim them. She asked what the definition of significant trimming is.
Planning Director Murdock stated that the threshold is 15% of the tree.
Councilmember Boles thought it seemed like a lot and people wouldn’t get permits or might not trim the trees, and Mayor pro Tem Vaterlaus stated that it might make them not cut down a tree.
Councilmember Boles stated that the fee for trimming could possibly be reduced.
Planning Director Murdock clarified that the cost is the cost, and the question is whether we are recovering that cost from the applicant who is requesting the permit and doing the work or is the city subsidizing it. It doesn’t make it less expensive, but just a question of who is paying for the work to be done.
Councilmember Boles stated that we are proposing to increase STR fees but not enough to cover the cost of the enforcement. She thought a lot of the enforcement is not necessarily all of the people having STRs are problematic, and they have 60 that are fully licensed now. She asked if there was a way to charge a penalty in addition to help recover the costs.
Planning Director Murdock thought it could be an option, adding that there are a number of practical challenges with taking that approach, such as the city’s overall code enforcement approach is to achieve voluntary compliance; they issue very few citations for violations of the Municipal Code and they strive to educate and encourage property owners and others to comply with the code outside of a formal punitive process and that would be a shift in their overall enforcement approach unique to short-term rentals. He stated that the other issue, to pursue a much more punitive process, is likely to increase the number of appeals of those enforcement actions which has a proportionate increase in staff resources committed to upholding the city’s action and participating in the appeal hearing process, which on occasion progresses to legal action in court as well and they need to be mindful of the commitment of resources that would come with that and could have a counter-productive effect in terms of making resources available on the street, so to speak, to go out, investigate and follow up on complaints or concerns about short-term rentals.
City Council Regular Meeting 16 June 12, 2023
Councilmember Boles didn’t know how long they have been working on the enforcement but she thought they have been doing this for a year or so. The fact that they only have 60 that are permitted out of 190 STRs leads her to believe that being nice isn’t working for everyone. She considered a fine or a consideration of revoking permits we have.
Planning Director Murdock stated he will finish his final point on the practical challenges of a penalty-based funding. It provides an inconsistent source of revenue to sustain a code enforcement officer position for the STR enforcement program and it may be difficult to employ someone part-time or sporadically to do that work or it would require a commitment of other general fund sources to offset those revenues that might come in very inconsistent amounts and points of time. As it relates to the point made about 60 versus 190 in terms of operating versus permitted, he thought the enforcement story is a little more complex than that. There are code enforcement investigations that have been occurring related to quality-of-life concerns and those are primarily driven by our code enforcement officer among her myriad of other Municipal Code violations or complaints to investigate. The other component of it is the registration and permitting and taxation component which is primarily not handled by code enforcement but through the STR program administrator which is defined as Asst. City Manager Carter and that is a separate process that isn’t directly related to this code enforcement officer capacity program proposed. There is cooperative work and coordination that is associated with each of those, but they are distinct in their resources, funding, and intended purpose.
Asst. City Manager Carter added that the program is still very young and they don’t have the funding for the program yet, and they are trying to identify those properties. Once we reach the cap, the program will streamline naturally. They are still chasing down all the new illegally potentially operating in the STRs; compliance, as Planning Director Murdock stated, is complex as they are talking about business license, the short-term rental permit fees, and the TOT.
Councilmember Boles asked if they are still accepting applications for new short-term rentals and business licenses beyond the number they identified that are currently operating.
Asst. City Manager Carter stated that, for now, they haven’t reached the cap. The 60 STRs that are fully compliant count against the cap and the remaining 109 are in some form of compliance. HDL is sending them different letters depending on their specific situation and they are working with HDL now to change the procedures and streamline them a little bit.
City Manager Woodhouse clarified that, while they may be receiving applications, they have not issued any new STR permits. He stated that one clarification he would like to make regarding Planning Director Murdock’s comment about our seeking voluntary compliance is the exception to that is as we proceed with the audit and enforcement of compliance in the STR program, they are going to need to take a hard line on back taxes and business licenses that don’t exist in order to bring those into compliance. He suggests that getting this program at the baseline operational level moving forward so they are clear about where they are relative to the cap and as they move into Council’s work on revising the STR ordinance in the future - getting it to that baseline level is going to take some specific enforcement action.
Councilmember Boles stated that the budget assumes that we have 150 paying STRs but supposedly we only have 60 now so the $42,000 deficit might actually be bigger than that.
Asst. City Manager Carter stated that it could be. She stated that the whole program is new as they see it now and the new STR permit fee part of the Master Fee Schedule and even those 60 City Council Regular Meeting 17 June 12, 2023
that already have a permit will be subject to renewal so that’s why they put all eventual 150 STRs at the higher rate. She stated, as she mentioned before, they will bring this program back to Council at mid-year to sum up how it is going.
Councilmember Boles appreciated this being in the budget and consideration for a new code enforcement officer.
Asst. City Manager Carter stated that is how they see it now and it may need adjusting.
Councilmember Beckmeyer stated, on the subject of STRs, she realized that they are working out the parameters of the program as they know they have some sites that are one bedroom, two bedrooms, and others that are larger. She wondered if there was an opportunity to have a fee structure that, like in the planning fee structure, if the value of the building is valued incrementally or a more complicated plan or a larger whole home STR with more bedrooms that fit 12-16 people, which might generate more calls for service, more complaints, etc. She asked, if it is a larger property, if there is an opportunity to consider a tiered fee structure to help recoup the cost of those code enforcement issues that may not pertain to every property equally.
City Manager Woodhouse thought, when staff undertakes the research related to STR ordinance revisions, a significant amount of those may relate to improvements related to enforcement; that would be the time to dig into any kind of tiered fee structure they may want to try to justify. At this time, they don’t have the information to recommend that. They indicate that they are not aware of any hosted STRs in Pacifica under the traditional definition of hosted where the owner is there the whole time, so they are mostly un-hosted and to try and draw a distinction between a two-bedroom place or a four-bedroom place leads to a lot of legalities and more analysis that they would need to go into, but it may be something that Council wants to direct in the future when they are really looking at the program holistically. He thought they have before them is staff’s best attempt at starting a fee structure to set an expectation that is a good balance of where they see the permit. They looked at other agencies’ STR permit fees and they are in the realm. This is a starting point and can be adjusted in the future unless Council was interested in something different and not starting at this starting point.
Councilmember Beckmeyer confirmed they were discussing the STR application fee.
City Manager Woodhouse responded affirmatively.
Councilmember Beckmeyer stated that it is increasing from $158 adopted in 2022-23 to the proposed amount of $1,622.
Mayor pro Tem Vaterlaus asked if it is a yearly fee.
Asst. City Manager Carter stated that it is.
Mayor pro Tem Vaterlaus stated that it only amounts to $135 a month and, while it looks like a big fee, for someone doing short-term rentals, it’s not.
Councilmember Boles stated there may be some difference in short-term rentals and she loves the idea of a tiered fee structure.
Councilmember Beckmeyer clarified if the proposed amendments to the budget were structured in a way that we weren’t recouping the $42,000 general fund cost (not covered by these fees).
City Council Regular Meeting 18 June 12, 2023
Asst. City Manager Carter confirmed this is just estimating the cost of the program. They want to be safe and they don’t want to overly cover the cost as well. The program updates would be coming to Council in mid-year and the additional analysis would happen at the same time.
Councilmember Beckmeyer confirmed they would not amend their fee structure mid-year.
Asst. City Manager Carter agreed that it is annual, adding that they can still provide them progress (the cost and the revenue they receive). As they do in the mid-year, they look directly to make decisions on the next budget cycle.
City Manager Woodhouse stated that the starting point is that they are determining the balance of arriving at the justification for that dollar amount. They know they need to undertake the ordinance work and revisions as directed by Council. There is a portion to this program implementation that they have to balance what they can actually charge to the fee.
Councilmember Boles doesn’t quite understand when they need a nexus study to look at new fees. She sees there are some new fees that they have added to the budget. Given that Council has prioritized affordable housing and an affordable housing fund, she noticed on looking at San Bruno’s fee schedule that, as part of the development application, they charged an affordable housing fee on a sliding scale depending on what kind of project it is. She asked if that was something they would need a nexus study for.
City Attorney Kenyon confirmed that is something that will require a nexus study. She stated that any fee that is related to development, called development impact fees, do require a formal study so they can be applied uniformly to all development. There are different categories such as different types of development and all based on what is the nexus of the impact associated with that development to the potential impact.
Planning Director Murdock agreed, and compared to some of the other fees they see in the proposed fee schedule, many of those are based on a fee that has already been calculated based on a prior study for hourly staff time and where that is essentially the cost of the service times some amount of time; they have not identified that the nexus study is required in those instances, but for an entirely new fee based on something other than a cost they have already calculated, a nexus fee would absolutely be required.
Councilmember Boles asked if they can give them an idea of what staff time and commitment would be to undertake something like that, particularly the affordable housing fee.
Planning Director Murdock stated that it could be quite robust in terms of the amount of time involved in preparing a nexus fee.
City Attorney Kenyon stated that their office would generally advise staff to hire a consultant to prepare the nexus study as it is very specific. Not surprisingly, they get challenged and they need to make sure that they are precise, robust analyses and defensible.
Planning Director Murdock stated that, given the cost associated and the level of effort associated, it has been the case more than once in recent years that cities have partnered regionally through the 21 Elements collaborative to undertake impact fees like commercial linkage fees to spread that cost; a lot of the regional data analysis can be common across the region and dialing that in specifically is sort of a minor customization cost as part of that City Council Regular Meeting 19 June 12, 2023
package. There is not one proposed currently that he was aware of that they could participate in so they would likely need to undertake that individually as a city which would significantly increase the cost and the project management component from staff as the City Attorney mentioned.
Councilmember Boles asked about the fire truck costs and she was trying to understand what kind of vehicle they need, especially as they are considering increasing density and building heights. She wants to understand at what point they need to start to think about having our own ladder truck for taller buildings. She knows, as part of the Sharp Park Specific Plan discussion, it was okay to rely on Daly City for that, but if we start to increase height down in Linda Mar where it is a longer drive and there’s more traffic, and the number of buildings above a specific height and what that height is, she wants to understand what would trigger that as they are looking at refining our Housing Elements.
Mayor Bigstyck welcomed Fire Chief Myers.
Fire Chief Myers though the basic question is that you are not required to ever have a ladder truck; it is what you can afford, what you want to provide in your level of service. He wouldn’t recommend that the city buy a ladder truck as they have ladder truck service as part of North County Fire Authority. It is $2.5 million to buy a ladder truck and another $3.5 million a year to staff one. He didn’t see a need for it and there is no requirement to have a ladder truck.
Councilmember Boles asked, if they are building 5-7 stories, if it is okay with the equipment we have here and regionally.
Fire Chief Myers agreed, stating that there are cities in the county who don’t have ladder trucks and they can’t afford ladder trucks. He added the higher you go, the less effective a ladder truck is going to be.
Councilmember Boles added buildings are built with sprinklers and better fire systems.
Fire Chief Myers stated that is how you deal with your development: You make sure you preengineer it and make it so it is fire-safe through engineering.
Mayor Bigstyck opened up the public hearing.
Suzanne Moore, Pacifica, stated she is a member of Pacifica Housing for All, and she was grateful for staff’s recommendation of two budget items, use of $1.6 million of ERAF funds toward our housing in lieu fund and believed the PRC funding should be prioritized as well as evaluating funding sources for affordable housing funds and the pilot for Community Wellness and Crisis Response Team, and shared her thoughts on these subjects.
Mayor Bigstyck closed the public hearing.
Councilmember Bier referred positively to Ms. Moore’s mention of the $1.6 million for the in lieu fund and suggested $73,750 go to the Pacifica Resource Center.
Mayor Bigstyck clarified if it was an extra $73,750, and Councilmember Bier confirmed.
Councilmember Boles was okay with that as she thought it was a good idea as they are doing so much in our community and they obviously have space needs to be able to serve our City Council Regular Meeting 20 June 12, 2023
community better. She was excited that we have the housing in lieu fund here.
Councilmember Beckmeyer asked the City Manager, in terms of the topic of increasing the allocations to the Resource Center, if the contributions from the city to any non-government organization come from excess ERAF in the way we do our budget.
City Manager Woodhouse stated that, the way excess ERAF works, which was a Council policy decision years ago, is the two non-government organizations the city contributes to out of excess ERAF is the Pacifica Resource Center and the Pacific Beach Coalition. Insofar as the city is receiving excess ERAF in any given year, which is not guaranteed that it would be received in future years, we carve out $83,000 for the PRC and $5,000 for the PBC and the remainder goes into the Fund 38 Disaster Accounting Fund or at times it has been used for other priorities. He stated that they are talking about splitting that remainder between Fund 38 and the housing in lieu fund. He stated that the city contributes minorly to other non-profits annually. He noted that occasionally there are requests that come up about specific causes and they have never had the opportunity to sit down and look at it holistically, mainly because we struggle with our own finances and we still are. That is why he isn’t in a position to make a recommendation about this. In terms of the PRC, what is built into this budget is the annual $83,000 and the $120,000 for the Temporary Safe Parking Program.
Mayor Bigstyck shared his first experience attending a Council meeting when friends were advocating for PRC, and he also advocated for PRC then and when he was on the PRC Board and learned that Council viewed it as a priority. At this time, he stated that he likes Councilmember Bier’s idea and he has interest in supporting. His concern is that, because they fund them through ERAF which is one-time money, and given recent state budget concerns, he isn’t sure the governor’s budget requests in the future will take away that cash which is not guaranteed. He was concerned, if they almost double that amount of money and ERAF goes away, about the conversation around maintaining the funding at that level and should they increase it that much now, given that ERAF is the money from which they are increasing it. He has no lack of desire to increase funding, but that is his concern, i.e., he doesn’t want to give them something and then take it away. He reopened the public hearing for Director Rees to provide any input.
Anita Rees, PRC, stated that they have gotten $83,000 for about 20 years. She thinks it would make a lot of sense to increase, and she suggested that they start with an increase of the CPI.
She stated that it doesn’t have to be huge and what it does is shows a commitment from the city to continue to grow as need grows. She stated that they aren’t asking for a huge amount of money and they have been fortunate to raise funds in a way that sustains their programs. She did think the city being able to say that they believe in the work being done to support the community and promote the well-being of all Pacificans would say a lot, as that is one thing they go to their funders and say that the city believes in the work they do and supports our community. This is one of the ways the city does that, among all the programs and supports they already provide to the city. She thought that would be a good show of faith, i.e., after 20 years they are inching it up a little bit, given the higher cost of everything in the community.
She appreciated Councilmember Bier for suggesting that and Council having this conversation.
Mayor Bigstyck closed the public hearing again.
Councilmember Boles moved to extend the meeting to 11:20 p.m.; seconded by Mayor pro Tem Vaterlaus.
City Council Regular Meeting 21 June 12, 2023
MOVE TO EXTEND MEETING TO 11:20 PM
RESULT: ADOPTED [UNANIMOUS]
MOVER: Christine Boles, Councilmember
SECONDER: Sue Vaterlaus, Mayor pro Tem
AYES: Bigstyck, Vaterlaus, Beckmeyer, Bier, Boles
Mayor Bigstyck asked what they were proposing.
Mayor pro Tem Vaterlaus stated $100,000 over $83,000.
Mayor Bigstyck was personally comfortable with that number. a
Councilmember Bier stated that it was higher than the CPI.
Mayor Bigstyck responded affirmatively.
Councilmember Beckmeyer asked if the proposal would be to increase to $100,000 with the expectation that is the ongoing support to the PRC in addition to the CPI piece.
Mayor Bigstyck stated he was not personally committed to an ongoing CPI raise at this time, but he thought $100,000 would be the number going forward with or without a CPI adjustment.
Councilmember Beckmeyer stated her concern was that she wanted to find a way to fund some other non-governmental organizations such as Coast Pride. She didn’t know where that comes from and wants to make sure they don’t cut off the possibility of doing that. She wondered if there was an opportunity at mid-year to evaluate this or some way they can dial in where there may be some opportunity for other NGOs.
City Manager Woodhouse thought one of the challenges is that all of the non-profits in Pacifica didn’t know this conversation was going to happen at this meeting, and if it is going to happen in the future, they can be noticed about it as they have to go through a process. He compared it to, if the city were a CDBG (Community Development Block Grant) organization, often they have an annual application process in a city that is taking CDBG monies and funding nongovernment organizations. There was a known annual process, you could have new applications that come in any given year, and decisions made during budget on how to apply those CDBG funds. He stated that Pacifica doesn’t have anything like that. We have a legacy system out of our excess ERAF, two NGOs are funded, etc. They haven’t put the question out there about the funding needs or the interests. He stated it is Council’s decision. He didn’t think there is a problem with Council deciding that in a specific budget they want to increase one entity and then in mid-year they may want to look at a process to see where they are and whether they want to donate to other organizations.
Councilmember Beckmeyer stated that she would be willing to support $100,000 but she also wants to talk about Coast Pride.
Mayor pro Tem Vaterlaus agreed.
Mayor Bigstyck stated that a study session on the topic around mid-year would be in order.
City Council Regular Meeting 22 June 12, 2023
City Manager Woodhouse confirmed six months.
Councilmember Beckmeyer stated that mid-year seems logical to her as they will have a better understanding of where we are, as all of the assumptions being made now will have a half of year’s experience to adjust. She stated that, also knowing when Pride falls, it gives enough time for there to be a discussion that could be fruitful in supporting that effort.
Councilmember Bier appreciated her talking about Pride.
Councilmember Beckmeyer added that there is also Fog Fest.
City Manager Woodhouse stated, related to a future discussion and how a process would ordinarily play out, part of that application process is to know what is the proforma of the organizations that are requesting funding. They heard the annual report from PRC and they know what they do, but what are the financials of those organizations.
Mayor Bigstyck stated he heard consensus from Council.
Councilmember Beckmeyer moved to adopt the resolution approving the Master Fee Schedule; seconded by Councilmember Bier.
RESULT: ADOPTED [UNANIMOUS]
MOVER: Sue Beckmeyer, Councilmember
SECONDER: Mary Bier, Councilmember
AYES: Bigstyck, Vaterlaus, Beckmeyer, Bier, Boles
CONSIDERATION - NONE.
ADJOURN
Mayor Bigstyck referred to the prior request to adjourn the meeting in honor of Jeanne Matysiak and Jane Northrup and asked if anyone would like to say a word before they adjourn.
Councilmember Beckmeyer shared how much Jeanne Matysiak meant to her and to the community in terms of the service that she provided. She was having a hard time adjusting to the reality that she is no longer with us because the world feels a little less bright without her.
Her father, Alan Hale, is very special to this community and her loss is great. With Jane Northrup, she did so much informing the community for so many years and one thing she is so grateful for her work is the difference she made in putting our very first bond vote over the top for Pacifica School District. There were significant structural challenges with the buildings, but it was her work on that which opened people’s eyes and helped explain why it was so necessary to have that. She was grateful to both of them.
Councilmember Bier wanted to piggyback on her comments on Jeanne, as she really appreciated that she would ask the hard questions at the appropriate times and she learned a lot on how she led and the different hats she wore and she will miss her. She knows a lot of people in the school district are distraught about the loss of her. She stated that Jane was like a staple in our community, always there and reporting on everything and writing notes, having extra-long phone conversations and reports on family and partnership, etc. She was special to her, and she will miss her.
City Council Regular Meeting 23 June 12, 2023
Mayor pro Tem Vaterlaus thought other councilmembers said it very well and she would also miss both of them and all that Jeanne and Jane did.
Councilmember Boles stated she didn’t know Jeanne and was sorry she missed that, but she ran into Jane a couple of weeks ago at the Rosalind Bakery and they had a nice chat and promised to grab lunch together so she is sad that isn’t going to happen. She always brought bright joy wherever she was, and she will miss her.
Mayor Bigstyck stated he didn’t know Jeanne himself, but he could not turn a corner without seeing Jane up to two weeks ago when he saw her at the Farmer’s Market. He feels very blessed that he had the last opportunity to say hello to his friend who is someone who was everywhere in the community that she could possibly be at a given moment to make sure that the voice of the community was heard. He thanked her for speaking for the entirety of the community and making it happen for all of us.
Mayor Bigstyck adjourned the meeting at 11:10 p.m. in honor of Jeanne Matysiak and Jane Northrup.
Transcribed by Barbara Medina, Public Meeting Stenographer.
Respectfully Submitted,
Sarah Coffey, City Clerk
APPROVED: 5 - 0; 6/26/2023
__________________________
Tygarjas Bigstyck, Mayor