POINT ARENA CITY COUNCIL
Mayor Scott Ignacio
Vice Mayor Barbara Burkey
Councilmember Anna Dobbins
Councilmember Jim Koogle
Councilmember Richey Wasserman
MEETING MINUTES
JUNE 28, 2022
6:00 PM
VIA TELECONFERENCE
https://zoom.us/s/84888251095
NOTE: A full transcript of this meeting is attached.
I CALL TO ORDER & ROLL CALL
The Point Arena City Council met via teleconference for a Regular Meeting on Tuesday, June 28, 2022. Mayor
Ignacio called meeting to order at 6:00 pm; and roll call was conducted:
Councilmembers Present: Mayor Scott Ignacio, Vice
Mayor Barbara Burkey, Councilmember Anna Dobbins,
Councilmember Jim Koogle & Councilmember Richey Wasserman Administrative Staff Present: City Manager Paul Andersen, City Attorney Giny Chandler, City CPA Joseph Arch, Administrative Assistant Jeana Gevas
II READING
Councilmember Wasserman provided some wisdom from volcanoes.
III APPROVAL OF THE AGENDA
Motion to approve agenda by Councilmember Koogle, Seconded by Vice Mayor Burkey. Motion passed unanimously.
IV MAYOR’S REPORTS/ANNOUNCEMENTS
Lt. JD Comer provided an update on law enforcement activities in Point Arena. Mayor Ignacio reported on a meeting with Mendocino County OES.
V COUNCIL REPORTS
Vice Mayor Burkey discussed the upcoming fireworks show and parade.
VI PRIVILEGE OF THE FLOOR
Jennifer Smallwood addressed the Council.
VII CONSENT CALENDAR
Motion to approve consent calendar by Councilmember Dobbins, Seconded by Councilmember Wasserman. Motion passed unanimously by roll call vote.
VIII FISCAL YEAR 2022-2023 BUDGET
A) 2022-2023 Proposed Budget -- City Manager Andersen presented the proposed FY 2022-2023 City Budget. More information is included at the link and in the attached transcript.
GOVERNING DOCUMENTS GENERATED:
Resolutions:
2022-20 (State of Emergency)
2022-21 (Virtual Meetings)
2022-22 (2022 Election)
City of Point Arena
City Council Meeting Minutes – November 16th, 2021
IX ORDINANCES/RESOLUTIONS
A) Resolution 2022-22 Authorizing Consolidation of City Election with the November 7, 2022 General Election – CM Andersen explained the purpose of the resolution.
Motion to adopt Resolution 2022-22 by Councilmember Dobbins, Seconded by Vice Mayor Burkey.
Motion passed unanimously.
X REPORTS/ACTION ITEMS
A) Request for Appraisal Funding & Letter of Intent Regarding 825 Port Road – CM Andersen and Arena Cove Stewards member Kathleen Chasey discussed ways to obtain the property for public benefit.
Motion to enter a Letter of Intent and fund $2500 towards the cost of an appraisal by Vice Mayor Burkey, Seconded by Councilmember Wasserman. Motion passed unanimously.
XI CITY MANAGER/CITY ATTORNEY REPORTS
City Attorney Chandler notified the Council of a recent communication from RiverWatch about alleged violations of the Clean Water Act. CM Andersen discussed Independence Weekend festivities.
XII FUTURE AGENDA ITEMS (next 45 days)
A) Next Meeting: July 26, 2022
B) Downtown Park Improvement Project Coastal Development Permit
XIII ADJOURNMENT
There being no further business, Mayor Ignacio adjourned the meeting at 7:37pm.
MINUTES APPROVAL
Minutes approved at the July 26, 2022 City Council
Meeting
_____________________________________
Paul Andersen City Clerk
Scott Ignacio, Mayor
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June 28, 2022 City Council Meeting Transcript
SPEAKERS
Scott Ignacio, Barbara Burkey, Anna Dobbins, Bill Arana, Richey Wasserman, Lt. JD Comer, Jennifer Smallwood, Giny Chandler, Kathleen Chasey, Paul Andersen, Billy Arana Scott Ignacio 00:11
All right, six o'clock. Good evening, ladies and gentlemen, welcome to the Point Arena City Council monthly meeting. It is June 28. And if I can get a roll call that would be great.
Paul Andersen 01:05
Yes, Council Member Wasserman. Here. Councilmember Koogle. Here. Councilmember Dobbins.
Here. Vice Mayor Burkey. Here. Mayor Ignacio. Here. Also present is City Manager Paul Andersen, CPA Joseph Arch, Administrative Assistant Jeana Gevas, and Sheriff's Lieutenant JD Comer.
Scott Ignacio 01:44
Excellent. Excellent. For this moment, if we could turn it over to Councilmember Wasserman for this evening's reading.
Richey Wasserman 02:02
Thank you, Scott. As some of you may know, I'm on the Big Island of Hawaii. And of course, I won't let try not to let anyone forget that by reading something that pertains to volcanoes. As we are surrounded by them here on the Big Island. This is some advice from a volcano. Stay active. Keep your inner fire burning. It's okay to let off steam. Go with the flow. be uplifting. It's all a matter of time. And finally have a blast.
Scott Ignacio 02:48
Thank you for that, Richey. Okay, folks, you've seen the agenda that we've gotten tonight. If what I'll do now, at this point, as we do with every meeting, I'll entertain a motion to adopt the agenda. And then before we go to the vote, after the motion has been initiated and seconded, we will have a discussion and this will go for all our motions tonight. So with that I'll entertain a motion to adopt the agenda for tonight.
Scott Ignacio 03:21
Okay. I'll take from Councilmember Kugel and I'll take the second from Vice Mayor Burkey. Now, is there any discussion or changes or anything you want to amend to the agenda? Not hearing any, can I get a roll call vote?
Paul Andersen 03:55
Councilmember Wasserman. Yes. Councilmember Koogle. Yes. Councilmember Dobbins. Yes. Vice Mayor Burkey. Yes. Mayor Ignacio. Yes. Motion passes five to zero, Page - 2 - of 27
Scott Ignacio 04:21
Mayors Reports and Announcements. The only thing I have I'd like to appreciate the OES Operator Brent Blaser. He put on a regional OES training this last week and I attended with the rest of the members of city staff and some other outside members including Redwood Coast Fire Chief Michael Suddith, who also serves as the city's fire chief, and it was a good program. And I think everybody on staff, even though they're not part of an EMS response, our city staff is quite aware that they're to secure their themselves and their families in the report to work in the event of an emergency to get assigned and help out with whatever needs to happen.
Scott Ignacio 05:30
The other thing, we realized that, through that discussion, and at some point, I think Paul's gonna bring it up in a future meeting, if not tonight, during his report, is the need for some radio communication or some type of communication from vehicle to vehicle. We've recently, well, not recently, and historically, we've always been such a tiny little city that we just drive or we walk across the street and wave and say, Hey, this is what I need this what's going on. In the event of emergency, we may not have that ability and being able to have the city staff talk to each other in the event of a storm or an emergency would be vital. So we're going to be looking at funding that it will be a long term investment and hopefully not too expensive. Besides that, I think everybody sees there is Lieutenant Comer here tonight from Mendocino County Sheriff's Office. Good evening, JD, how are you doing? Lt. JD Comer 06:29
Good evening, it's been a little bit of a busy day here. So I'm just pulled over to join in. Well, I gotta found some good cell service. Yeah, just to comment on the communication thing, how important that is. You know, just recently, we had the fiber optic cable cut up here, which took out landlines and took out cell service. And it's a big eye opener, as far as how how much we depend and rely on those sources of communication. So, you know, radio for us was the only thing we had, but for the public, they had nothing. We were able to come up with a little bit of something as far as reporting emergencies go. But being on the coast, that's definitely something that could happen consistently, because it's happened twice this year. AT& T was working on Mountain View at some point this last month and phone lines had went down. It wasn't a very large affected area. But there wer some areas affected. Definitely, communication is everything.
Lt. JD Comer 07:41
As far as calls for service go for the last 30 days. We haven't had many, we've had 27. We've taken six investigative reports, we've had two arrests out of those investigations. In the types of calls on the top list, we have two assaults, three were investigations surrounding child abuse,two disturbances, one call reporting garbage dumping, two calls reporting suspicious circumstances, two welfare checks, and two reportsof traffic collisions. And if you guys aren't aware of the traffic collisions that occur, they're kind of on the higher end of the scale. As far as collisions go.
Lt. JD Comer 08:24
We had one that was a rollover on Port Road, and then a second was a crash on on Main Street. I could tell you that the Port Road was not alcohol related, but the one main street was and that one's Page - 3 - of 27
currently under investigation. No arrest has been made there. So that's kind of that summarizes the last 30 days. And I know we got the Fourth of July fireworks coming up this weekend and the festivities on the on the Point Arena side there's a fireworks and the parade. And you'll probably see a good presence of law enforcement, not only the sheriff's office, but the California Highway Patrol. The Bureau of Land Management will be down there for the fireworks portion. So we'll be there in support of peaceful and safe firework show and parade. So anybody have any questions for me? Scott Ignacio 09:28
That was a great report. Any questions for the sheriff's office? Well, JD, we're looking forward to seeing you and all the other agencies that you mentioned. And hopefully we'll have beautiful weather like we're having today on Sunday and Saturday night for the fireworks. Thanks a lot for being here and appreciate you taking the time to keep us informed.
Lt. JD Comer 09:53
Good evening, everybody. Thank you.
Scott Ignacio 09:56
Okay, council reports. Item Five. Are there any city related meetings to report board on? Vice Mayor Burkey?
Barbara Burkey 10:05
Well, Lieutenant Comer mentioned Fourth of July, which is actually our Second of July celebration. And we've been meeting weekly to plan the event. And I want to thank in advance, there are 106 volunteers who will be helping to put on the firework show, and the parade the following day. And if you haven't had a chance to volunteer, there's still some positions that need to be filled. So feel free to contact me and let me know if you'd like to participate in the event. It gives you a free entrance to the show a commemorative t shirt, and a lot of fun. Also, our Ad Hoc Parks Committee met this last couple of weeks and firmed up our grant proposal at the downtown park,and also for the Arena Cove Park. So all that's going to be done. And we're moving forward.
Scott Ignacio 11:14
That's it. Thank you. Excellent report. And thank you, Barbara, for all your hard work, where we're at and the community depends on on a lot of volunteers, but especially you for all the work you do with PAMA. And with these events. It's just, it's just amazing. So thank you, from all of us.
Barbara Burkey 11:36
You're welcome.
Scott Ignacio 11:40
Anyone else -- city related meetings or council committees? How about Councilmember Wasserman? Richey Wasserman 11:46
This isn't in regards to meetings. But I just wanted to add to the discussion about emergency communication and report that well, at least two of us here, have are now have our ham radio licenses.
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And Paul and myself. I'm not sure if anybody else does. But we will hopefully very soon be available for such emergencies under the under the direction of the FCC and emergency procedures.
Scott Ignacio 12:24
That's great. I'm glad to hear both of you have that I've had one for a number of years, I have to check the status of it to see if it's still active. Great. Thank you, Richie. Anyone else before we move on? All right, we're gonna move on to Section Six, Privilege of the Floor. This is a time for members of the public who wish to be heard on matters that do not appear on tonight's agenda to address the City Council. Our policy is to limit each speaker to three minutes pursuant to the Brown Act, if the City Council may not take action on items that do not appear on the agenda. With that, I will encourage folks to use the raise hand feature. I would like to recognize our esteemed community member Jennifer Smallwood.
Jennifer Smallwood 13:53
Well, I got esteem, that's great. You're awesome. So this is Jennifer Smallwood. Two things. One is along the lines of what you were just talking about, Paul, and I've been in conversation about getting a Mendocino Fire Safe Council going just for the city of Point Arena. I just went to an orientation fire preparedness meeting down in Gualala on the weekend, and it was great, but it was really for people with a lot of land. Like, they keep talking about, you know, 100 foot clearance and all that and most of us don't have 100 feet to clear. And with businesses and just, you know, the different varieties of property ownership and land in the city, I think it'd be really valuable for us to look at how to how to put together a group just for Point Arena. And I know that sounds exclusive, and some people might balk at that. But it's really the Mendocino Fire Safe Council is really encouraging neighborhoods to start up groups and so people that are not in the city limits are encouraged to get their own, you know, phone trees, whatever kind of stuff that they want to put together. Stay tuned for a community meeting soon so we can talk about what it is we think some fire preparedness would be valuable for our city. So that's one thing. And the other thing is I have not kept up on this. And this is like not on anywhere on the agenda. But what is Coastal Seniors going to do when the construction is happening? Where are they going to be set up that?
Scott Ignacio 15:41
Are you referring to the architectural projects that we've been reporting on all year? Jennifer Smallwood 15:53
Yeah, I've heard a lot of it. I just never, I never caught wind of so when the construction is going on, Where's everybody going to be?
Scott Ignacio 16:02
Well, that depends. One of the last things if you remember, we talked about a staged construction. So it didn't impact the entire place at once. Because the Sheriff's office has to be here. City Hall has to be here. So I think that's a good point you bring up Jennifer is to make sure that we have that plan in place of how to take care of our seniors for food prep. Once this decides to go to a shovel ready plan.
Scott Ignacio 16:33
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Did that answer your question, Jennifer?
Jennifer Smallwood 16:43
Yeah, I just I didn't know if there was a plan or what? Scott Ignacio 16:47
We're not at that stage yet. But that's a good point to make. If it's alright with you, Jennifer. I'd like to ask city manager Paul Andersen to schedule an item update on next month's agenda regarding the Fire Safe Program. And I'm hoping, Jennifer, that you'll be available to reach out and and talk with Paul or actually give us a report on that like to keep all of us current on that if you're interested. That's not a decision. That's a recommendation to the city manager.
Jennifer Smallwood 17:18
No, it's definitely something we've already you know, we've talked back and forth. And it's something that, you know, I don't want to do by myself. It's a collaboration.
Scott Ignacio 17:28
Yes, thank you. It would be good to talk about it. And I think the council would like to talk about it more and we encourage you to help keep us informed. So thank you, Jennifer. Okay. Anyone else for privilege of the floor? Okay, Privilege of the floor is now closed. We will move on. Moving on to the consent calendar. Folks, there's a a three, this is items that are usually enacted as once because they're considered routine items. So again, we'll entertain a motion to adopt the consent calendar. If something needs to be pulled after the motion is made and seconded or changed. We can discuss that before we go to a vote with that. I'll entertain a motion to adopt item seven the consent calendar. I smear verkeerd make the movement and Councilmember Wasserman comes in with the tight second.
Barbara Burkey 19:05
I actually didn't say anything. Mayor Ignacio I think that was enemity.
Scott Ignacio 19:11
Perfect, so we'll change that please. Paul to Councilmember Dobbins makes the motion and Councilmember Washington signifies with two fingers that he makes the second. Now we have the motion in a second. Is there any discussion or questions from the public on the consent calendar? Any changes? Not seeing any we'll take a roll call vote from staff.
Paul Andersen 19:35
Yes, Councilmember Wasserman? Yes. Councilmember kugel. Yes. Councilmember Dobbins? Yes.
Vice Mayor Bercy? Yes. Mayor Ignacio. Yes. Motion passes unanimously.
Scott Ignacio 19:49
Thank you, everybody. Let's move on to Item eight Fiscal Rear 2022 2023 budget. We'll turn the discussion over to city manager Paul Andersen.
Paul Andersen 20:02
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Thank you, Mr. Mayor. For the benefit of the audience, I would like to read part of the cover letter that I attached to the budget and then we can look at a few numbers in there.
Paul Andersen 20:14
This document is the projected revenues that will be received by the city and the projected expenditures for conducting our day to day operations and providing capital expenditures for the period of July 1 2022 Through June 30 2023. The goal of developing this budget was to produce a balanced financial plan that retains current service levels and addresses capital needs for the residents. I believe that goal has been achieved.
Paul Andersen 20:41
During the 21-22 fiscal year the city completed nearly $2 million in infrastructure repairs and upgrades at Arena Cove parking lot and on Mill and Center streets. These were once in a generation projects that have improved quality of life for residents and visitors. I want to note that the 21-22 revenues and expenditures do not include the last two weeks of the fiscal year and only include partial reimbursements for capital projects. Final reconciliation of the prior fiscal year will be presented no later than the August 23 city council meeting.
Paul Andersen 21:14
I'm happy to report theCity of Point Arena er is the beneficiary of $165,080 in one time unrestricted grant funding for the coming fiscal year. This funding arrives at an opportune time for needed repairs, and replacement of capital equipment, vehicles and infrastructure. Your city staff have made recommendations for expenditure of those funds to enhance and modernize core city services. More detail is provided further when we discuss revenues to the city are projected to increase in 22-23 with transient occupancy tax revenue approaching nearly $200,000 per year -- by far the largest revenue generator for the city. The return of harbor Fest will provide much needed funding for the rehabilitation of Point Arena Pier. These positive developments are tempered however, by escalating prices and the potential for an economic recession that would negatively impact visitors serving businesses.
Paul Andersen 22:14
I want to appreciate I want to express your appreciation to the city council for their leadership to all our employees for their ongoing efforts to provide high quality public services and to all our residents for their civic participation and efforts to improve the community. From there I want to share my screen and I will go through a couple of things.
Paul Andersen 22:51
This is the proposed budget final budget will be at the city council meeting in August. Also present is our CPA Joe Arch can be a little bit confusing between the expenditure and the reimbursement. This is a graph generating the proposed operating budget and a few highlights I'll make you'll see that there has been an increase from the final budget in 2122 to the proposed budget, and 20 to 23. of general revenues that includes the transient occupancy tax funding. The cops funding which funds the sheriff's department contract has also increased over time and that is something that we should discuss in the future. The sheriff's contract expires this year. Going further down the gas tax revenues I wanted to highlight there was also an increase in revenues from the gas tax and RMRA which is the Road Page - 7 - of 27
Maintenance and Rehabilitation Account from the state -- that's funding we get through the gas tax. The additional gas tax that was created by SB 1 s part of what funds our road projects.
Paul Andersen 24:12
For further down, I want to highlight the pier, these are all revenues. The pier's revenues are about average for what the pier generates -- approximately $40,000 and we will talk more about that in a little bit. Because as you know, that impacts the bottom line at the pier and we generally expend money from the general fund. This year is a little bit different because we have been doing quite a bit of maintenance down at the pier.
Paul Andersen 24:43
This graph will show you the taxes that we earn the different types of taxes over the last five years. And so you can see for example the Sales and Use Tax between 19-20 and 20-21 decreased pretty significantly. And that was a result of the pandemic. You'll see that it has actually started to move back up somewhat but certainly isn't at the level it was before. The transient occupancy tax, on the other hand has increased dramatically over the last four years, as you can see, and now is the biggest revenue generator for us in the city. The difference between the 20-21 year and the 21-22 year is the addition of the Wildflower. I want to note that the 21-22 estimate is $150,000 and that does not include the final quarter of the fiscal year just ended. So there will still be more income placed into that account when the books are reconciled at the end of the end of July. TOT operators have time until the end of July to report their earnings for this quarter.
Paul Andersen 25:59
Under property tax, you'll notice there was an increase last year, that was apparently due to a lag in the amount of property tax given to the city based on pandemic and staffing levels. So you will see that the 20-21 is more accurate than the 21-22. And then finally, the cannabis excise tax. This is bad news. For the last three years, the cannabis tax has been close to $30,000 a year. And that was all through the pandemic -- there didn't appear to be any decrease in the amount of usage. However, the Green Room has closed and so we expect no revenue in next year unless someone opens a business in town. So that's a decrease of about $35,000 to the general fund for the year. Good news is that there's been about a more than $35,000 increase in the transient occupancy tax.
Paul Andersen 27:02
I'm going to skip these if anybody wants to look at the staff report there is more information on sales tax. Some of the other fees that we receive our business license fees we collect approximately $14,000 in fees from Recology, PG&E and Caltrans. I just want to note the maintenance contract with Caltrans is very outdated. I believe it's about 20 years old, and should be renegotiated in the coming year because we certainly spend more than we receive maintaining the highway. Also, the waste haulers franchise is set to expire in 2025. Business license fees have fluctuated due to the pandemic. And it's not anticipated these fees will recover soon. For example, the license fee for the Green Room alone was $2,500, which won't accrue to the city coffers in five in fiscal year 22-23. We will conduct an aggressive business licensing campaign at the beginning of the year as we've identified at least several distributors who come to town who aren't paying license fees while regularly servicingPoint Arena.
Planning fees are charged on a cost recovery basis. It was past year saw several CDP applications Page - 8 - of 27
filed with the required fees for purchasing for processing. Those fees are expected to be utilized in this coming fiscal year as the applications are processed. The City has a contract with the Bureau of Land Management to maintain the parking lot visitor kiosk and also perform maintenance duties on land-- that's a contract is approximately $6,000 a year. And we will be putting in for the full amount this year and for next year.
Paul Andersen 28:41
As I mentioned earlier, the sheriff's department contract is coming up for renewal in this coming year.
It's currently worth $100,000 which is covered by the COPS program. The recycling grants from CalRecycle -- the city receives $5,000 annually for the maintenance of the facility at Arena Cove and in past years the cost of the city has been about 50% higher than the grant. In this past fiscal year the city was able to reduce the expense for the facility by roughly half due to some staff turnover and tighter control and the number of hours expended. I want to bring this item back in the future to discuss the recycling facility itself and possible changes.
Paul Andersen 29:23
These is the expenditures for the upcoming fiscal year. Administration costs are relatively steady. You'll see the recycling costs have dropped dramatically. Everything else is pretty basic. The parks costs have increased. Part of that is expenditures on engineering drawings for the downtown park to add a swingset and improve drainage. And then further down you'll see wastewater operations costs and capital costs are virtually the same. And the reason for that is is a very stable source of revenue for us.
We receive sewer fees twice a year that are charged on people's property tax bills. So that's a guaranteed source of income. The wastewater operation works within that funding and has worked below the amount that we actually incur. Looking at the pier, these numbers are a little skewed as far as the estimated actuals because the Arena Cove project amounts are included in there. Although we are moving that into a separate capital account. Your repair and replacement costs at the pier are approximately $40,000 this year, and we will talk about that shortly as well.
Paul Andersen 30:47
This is where your money goes that we expend. Currently we spend about 30% of our income on salaries and wages, another 12% on payroll taxes and benefits. 28% on supplies and services the city contracts. Professional Services are 21%. That includes your city attorney, city engineer, city planner, and then administration costs are approximately 10%.
Paul Andersen 31:13
Enterprise funds. This is the pier enterprise fund. So this last year, we had some changes at the pier.
We brought some new staff on board and they tightened up the operation and spent majority of time working on the significant deferred maintenance that we had at the pier, particularly of the boat hoist, the product hoist, and the floating dock. Due to this enhanced focus approximately 40% of the costs of the pier were attributed to R&R repair and replacement and 60% operations. In a normal year it would be closer to a 75 to 25 split between operations and R&R. Approximately $24,000 was expended on maintenance -- this included a replacement of the green shed garage door, a rental of a boom lift for hoist maintenance, paving of the pier deck and the preparation of a lake stream bed maintenance agreement for maintenance of Arena Creek. The rest of the expenses are for tools, safety supplies and Page - 9 - of 27
paint. The R&R fund was placed in a negative position because there was no Harborfest for two which is how we usually fund the R&R account.
Paul Andersen 32:43
I want to note that the pier has reached its 35 year lifespan. We're in the process of interacting with Department of Boating and Waterways to obtain state funding to repair and replace certain components of the pier including the floating dock. This will likely be a multi year endeavor. In the coming year, we will need a full engineering and technical study to fulfill the requirements of our state lands lease and also to determine the extent of rehabilitation needed, so that we can discuss with boating of waterways moving forward with that. The estimated cost of that overall study is approximately $30,000. And on the operation side, our revenues were approximately $41,000 expenses were approximately $86,000 for a net loss of $45,000, which in the past has been covered by the general fund. That is not an abnormal number, unfortunately. In the wastewater enterprise fund, we have begun an Inflow and Infiltration study of the wastewater system to identify the repairs needed to qualify for funding from State Water Resources Control Board to upgrade the system. Funding for the study is being reimbursed progress is made.
Paul Andersen 33:58
We have some infrastructure needs at the wastewater plant which are highlighted later as well. The most important being a backup generator which we have funding for through a Cal OES safety grant with approximately $90,000 left. Your Special Projects Manager is working diligently on contracting and obtaining a generator which will be brought before the city council hopefully in the next couple of months. I am happy to report we used part of that grant recently to purchase a portable three phase generator for use at City Hall and the two lift stations. City staff is recommending an influent lagoon mixer at a rate of about $20,000 and effluent pump and piping upgrade which is very important. They're currently spending more time than needed to work on that that's an approximately $40,000 expenditure.
Then there is replacement of the chlorine injection unit which also is a time saver for staff versus the way they currently do it. These are the funds for the enterprise funds and where the money goes.
Scott Ignacio 35:10
Well, let's pause for a moment and ask if Council has any questions on what's been presented so far. I like your cadence that you have on this and it's very informative, but I want to make sure everybody has an opportunity to ask questions as they arise. Please continue, Paul Andersen 35:29
So this is a review of your Capital Improvement Program for roads and streets, noting that for the FY 22- 23 year there is the Windy Hollow Project which we will be bringing back to the Council for further discussion. So I'll just review some of the capital projects funding that we accomplished in the 21-22 and the upcoming years. The first being the streets project that I just mentioned. We have approximately $550,000 through Local Partnership Program with California Transportation Commission 25% match on our side which we will attain with funding from Mendocino Council of Governments.
Paul Andersen 36:09
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For parks we do have $177,000 available for improving park facilities with no match required. Currently, we have split this between the downtown park and Arena Cove Park. You can ignore this BLM city trailhead for the moment, I kind of threw that in there and I didn't really vet that when I created the document. So basically, between these two, it's about $90,000 each. We did meet recently with Arena Cove Stewards to discuss the Arena Cove Park and came up with some ideas for different things that we again will bring back to Council.
Paul Andersen 36:50
Backup poer. Your CPO Joe Wilson has requested the installation of a backup generator which is vital.
This is a little background: we received a one time grant of $153,000 from California Office of Emergency Services which allows for purchase and installation of the generator. Your project manager recently researched and acquired a mobile generator with the ability to charge City Hall and the Arena Cove and Cypress Meadows lift stations. An accounting of this currently is we took $25,000 of that grant to put into a public safety reserve for future needs. We spent $13,000 on an electrical analysis of backup power needs of the wastewater plant and lift stations in advance of trying to find the correct generator. We purchased a mobile generator as I mentioned for $12,000. And we will spend approximately $5,000 on administrative staff time that is doing the work and recouping the money. So the estimated balance is approximately $90,000, which expires later this year. That's the amount of money we basically have to work with to find something for the wastewater plant, which I think is quite doable.
Paul Andersen 38:01
Some of the other funded grant projects we have, as I mentioned before, we have the Wastewater Treatment Inflow and Infiltration study, that's a $450,000 grant from the Water Resources Control Board, no matches required. We have the Local Coastal Program Update that we approved the contract for a couple of meetings ago. It's about $250,000 from Housing and Community Development.
No match required. The Veterans Building and Technical feasibility study that's ongoing is a $250,000 grant to assess the viability of the veterans building for future use, again, not a match required.
Paul Andersen 38:39
And the sea level rise risk and vulnerability study which I found out Friday, we have received the funding and we'll be moving forward. That's $100,000 grant from the Coastal Commission. Again, no match required. So we have quite a bit of money coming into the community to upgrade things. And I think that's a really positive development. I want to commend your former City Manager Richard Shoemaker who did a phenomenal job of locating, applying for, and receiving this money. I can't take much credit for this. It really is his work.
Paul Andersen 39:14
So the thing I wanted to get to was I mentioned earlier about the $165,000 in unrestricted grant funding we received. Part of that funding came as a result of the American Rescue Plan which was passed and signed into law last year at the beginning of the new administration. That funding provided every city in the country funding based on per capita population size. Our share wound up being $107,000, which can be utilized for any public benefit. This was a split between us two years we received half in 21-22 and half in this upcoming fiscal year. Then we also have a safety grant from our former risk manager Page - 11 - of 27
PARSAC where received annual safety grants, and we use that for brush clearing, installation of cameras, things like that. PARSAC merged with California Intergovernmental Risk Authority in 2021.
Changes were made and the annual grant was converted to a one time grant that can be used for any public benefit, not just safety. So you have a total of about $165,000 that you can utilize unrestricted.
Paul Andersen 40:28
For the city, that's actually about 20% of the annual budget. I recommend using this for one-time repair and replacement of facilities and vehicles. We could theoretically use it to pay payroll, taxes, anything in the city, but I don't think it's a good idea to use one-time money to fund ongoing expenses. So staff, public works, Pier, Wastewater, and Admin have provided a list of what they consider to be the most critical needs that will provide maximum benefit. And I want to briefly go through those. I won't spend too much time but these are really important projects.
Paul Andersen 41:07
In Public Works, a work truck replacement has been on the books for quite some time, as we know the old Dodge is way past its lifespan. We're looking to find a more modern truck that can serve as the main work truck for the maintenance crew. I've estimated no more than a $20,000 expense, I think that is reasonable. Although prices continue to increase. We basically need a pickup truck with some bed boxes. Also, there's a request for a zero-turn mower, our our current mowing strategy is utilizing our tractor with blades on the back which is really inefficient. It works great on big properties like City Hall and the Rock Wall but does not work so great at the downtown park and smaller properties. So a zeroturn mower would make it easier for staff to mow in restricted areas for sure. And so that's got an estimated cost of $7,500, that might actually be a little high based on some of the costing I've done recently. So those are public works requests. And I would say there needs those are very high needs in my opinion for the city.
Paul Andersen 42:22
At Arena Cove & Pier, one request is a boom truck. And the reason this is on there is that when we started to work on the hoist again this year, we rented a boom lift because the way we had been doing it in the past was very inefficient and actually not completely safe. So we rented a boom lift for two months. It allowed our Pier staff to really get into the hoist and do the grindings and maintenance and paint of the hoist to keep it going. You know there was quite a lot of rust, unfortunately, in the hoist itself and the trolley and the mechanism that moves it across. If we're not maintaining it, it's going to deteriorate further than it already has. And so what we're doing right now is we're just trying to get it back to a level that is acceptable for use. And then as we move forward hopefully with funding from Boating & Waterways and other places we'll be able to improve it. So to me, that's a really important thing for the pier because it allows staff to be able to get up to the hoist and do work safely and easily.
The other thing is we we can use that for other things like banner hanging downtown. If we need to get on the roof of the city hall or firehouse, it's just a helpful item to have.
Paul Andersen 43:53
There's also a request for replacement of the forklift which is currently over 20 years old and has a lot of issues. We do have a lot of maintenance on that over time, which adds up. An estimated cost for that would be about $20,000 for a used forklift. I think that's something important to consider. If we had a Page - 12 - of 27
newer forklift we could keep the older forklift for backup if we needed it for busy times like during crab season.
Paul Andersen 44:21
Finally, the Pier restroom upgrades have been something that have been on the books since I started here many years ago. You know what they look like and how they are. We want to replace the framing of the doors and repair the broken window tiles inside. So based on this a total request of approximately $60,000 for the Cove and Pier.
Paul Andersen 44:45
Moving on to Wastewater, I mentioned earlier the influent lagoon mixers are approximately $20,000.
The effluent pump and piping upgrade approximately $40,000. And that would replace on check valves and replace two pumps. And then a replacement of the chlorine injection unit, which is antiquated and not designed for the corrosive environment of the of the air and breaks down as a result, that total request is approximately $70,000.
Paul Andersen 45:16
In Administration, we are looking at some money for City Hall upgrades, as you know, when we take over this building, hopefully in the next couple of months, we've worked with the Sheriff's Department to expand our offices into part of where their offices were that they no longer need. So there'll be a reconfiguration, and probably adding a door and doing some framing and other things. Then there is equipment needed to enable hybrid meetings that we discussed at the last meeting. And then $2,500, which is the administrative expense for managing these two grants. So a grand total request, best case scenario of $167,500, which is a little bit maybe $1,500, higher than the grant amount we have.
Paul Andersen 46:03
I do want to add, before any questions or comments, I do want to say that given the deficit in the R&R account at the Pier, I think it would be wise to utilize some of this grant funding to backfill the expenses incurred which include the paving and the boom lift rental. The expenses that we have made are nonpersonnel expenses to repair the pier this year, because we did not have any funding from Harbor Fest fore the past two years. We will have Harborfest this year, hopefully very successfully, and it will help.
So I would suggest utilizing $25,000 of the overall funding to pay for the work that we've already done on the pier this year.
Paul Andersen 46:56
With that, that's all I have. So I am happy to entertain questions concerns. Joe is Arch is here, I don't know if he wants to weigh in right now or answer any questions you might have. So thank you.
Scott Ignacio 47:13
Good report Paul. I'd like to defer to Councilmember Wasserman. And you're muted, sir.
Richey Wasserman 47:25
Thank you for that. I just had a couple of questions about the boom truck. Firstly, is that a versatile vehicle that can be used for other purposes, other than specifically the boom? And the second question Page - 13 - of 27
is housing for both the new trucks that are proposed someplace indoors where they might be protected from the weather? Thank you.
Scott Ignacio 47:54
Thank you for that, Richie. Paul, you want to speak?
Paul Andersen 47:58
Yes. So we rented a boom lift this year. Staff discussed it and a boom truck would be more versatile.
And it would also be able most boom trucks have side panels that can be used to store tools and such.
So it would actually be a considered a work truck to a degree that would be able to be utilized, you know when it needs to be at the Pier or for other things. So it wouldn't be a supplemental truck. Of course, it would have a large boom on it. So there wouldn't be much room in the back for storage, but there would be on the sides. I think it would be a good move to have one of those for the city. As far as storage, the mayor and I are discussing with our supervisor, Ted Williams, a way to utilize the county yard to store vehicles and materials. And that is our hope that we can bring that back to the Council for approval sometime in the next couple of months. I have the concern about the flatbed being outside all the time and the way the weather's deteriorating it. So we need to find some storage inside and unfortunately, our storage is basically the firehouse which is already full. So I definitely share your concern and that's something I'm trying to work on moving forward to get more space for us.
Scott Ignacio 49:16
Follow up to Richie's comment, Paul. As far as sourcing, you know, you and I have been working on sources working with the supervisor Ted Williams, to look to see if we can get in on the county's secondary vehicles, I mean, their secondary vehicles or maybe if they're lucky, 10 years old, which is far newer than anything we have currently operate. Brent Blaser was here last week and he says that the sheriff's office still has a seizure program that the city might be able to come in and take a pic but there was no guarantees there.
Scott Ignacio 49:58
The other thing that came up during this conversation with Paul with a bucket truck or a boom truck, like you're talking about, we should try to develop a relationship with PG&E and possibly AT&T. They go through those vehicles quite frequently. And I see them in secondhand yards that have clearly gone to auction. But out of goodwill, if we can get in there before some of their surplus equipment moves off to auction, we may have an opportunity there that would be mutually beneficial. That said, there is we've utilized out at casino before on the good graces of PG&E, you know, one time instance that they can come in and help us. So keep that in the back of your mind to the worst thing they could say is no.
Scott Ignacio 50:48
Any other questions to Paul on what we've heard about the budget thus far? We're probably ready to take any questions from the public. Of course, if anybody out there in the public sector, including there is Brian Cebulski from the ICO, has any questions about this report that we've received, please use the raise hand feature to be called upon and we'd like to hear from you. And that was an excellent report.
Let's have Jennifer Smallwood chime in here. Welcome back. Good evening, Jennifer.
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Jennifer Smallwood 51:34
Hi, I have three things. One, I support wholeheartedly any updating, fixing up, beautifying. I'm smelling the water treatment plant. I mean, obviously, I live across the street from it so I get firsthand stuff. But whenever I go down there and talk to those guys, if we could just get this thing fixed, if we could just update this well, we'll try to squirt some grease on it and see if we can fix it, because we hate it too. So yeah, anything we can do to help those guys out because they're like using duct tape and rubber bands down there. The next thing is about the truck, I don't really know all the vehicles that the city has but as a former heavy equipment operator, I know that if I was running a tractor up and down the road, as opposed to a truck, hauling material up and down the road, the contractors working for would have been kind of sad, because that's just wearing out your tractor.
Jennifer Smallwood 52:40
If there's a way for us to have a truck, that can take a you know, a couple of bucket loads of asphalt or whatever those guys are hauling around, and then not have the tractor running back and forth, up and down the city streets. It just it's not built for that. It's just not made to do that. And here's where's your equipment out. So if you're going to update your fleet, that might be something that you look at, to try to double up on. And then also, we had at our ranch, we had not a zero turn a lot more, but Kubota makes a small tractor, it's the size of a lawn mower but you drive over the deck and you can put a fine deck on it or, or one that you go out and fields with. But this thing that's kind of nice about this Kubota mower is it also has a three point hitch on the back. So that if you have if you want to chip, if you wanted to run you know, if you want to haul a wagon, if you wanted to drill, you know, put a drill on the back of it. It has three point hitch, a PTO, and it's of a size that, you know, probably you could do a lot with it. And maybe not use the big tractor so much or, you know, you'd have something else somebody can run that who's maybe not as not as trained or whatever. That might be something you want to look at instead of just getting a mower.
Jennifer Smallwood 54:23
ut if you ask any Graton or whoever, you know, and they'll tell you it's gonna cost more than 7 its gonna be closer to maybe 8 or 9. But it's it's a much more versatile vehicle, you can take the deck off and use it to haul stuff, you know, put your little wagon behind and haul stuff. The mower and the fix up the water treatment plant. Yay. I'm happy for that.
Scott Ignacio 54:58
Awesome. Thank you Alright, Paul, you got those notes from Jennifer.
Paul Andersen 55:02
Definitely.
Scott Ignacio 55:04
Anyone else like to chime in on this? Okay, Paul, you're looking for a motion.
Paul Andersen 55:12
I'm not really looking for a motion because this isn't the final adoption. I'm just getting a sense of where the Council is regarding the additional money we have and want to bring that back for final approval.
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And I want to get an idea of how people feel about the suggestions that have been made, or if there are other suggestions that people have for utilizing that funding.
Scott Ignacio 55:36
So that funding I don't think it's an action item tonight. I'm thinking you're bringing it back in July. Is that your intent?
Paul Andersen 55:42
It would be either July or August when we have the final budget.
Scott Ignacio 55:46
Okay. Vice Mayor Burkey.
Barbara Burkey 55:50
Thank you. The wastewater treatment plant portion of the funding that you've proposed is the most important to me. Not just because Jennifer Smallwood lives across the street and has to put up with it, but just that I've just heard so much about how everything is so ancient there, and we can't afford to have it go out, it would just be a disaster. So I'm really behind doing the wastewater treatment plant portion of this funding, and also the restroom upgrades at the pier. Let's just do it. It's been hanging on for decades. We've got to get it done. You know, our community deserves that. So anyway, that's my opinion.
Scott Ignacio 56:44
I'd like to second what, Vice Mayor Burkey has said. Wastewater is I think our first priority on getting funded. I like the idea of getting the Pier bathrooms done and like you said, it's been a long time. And I want to get better on our Public Works and everything but that Pier hoist really is vital for operations down there. So I would back away a little bit on my public works although I support them very well and we're going to try and find some housing and equipment for him. I think that's really important. If I go to Billy real quick.
Billy Arana 57:36
Hello. About the the pier funds, it might be beneficial to allocate some funds for marketing the Pier, because it is essentially a business and there's lots of people who fish in Mendocino County, and kind of further inland. And a lot of those people don't know that Point Arena is an option. It might end up being like, a good idea to reach out kind of put Point Arena's Pier out there, as if it was a business and kind of marketing as a business to get more funds in, just in terms of launch and sales that way, just to kind of offset some of those other expenses. It might not be worth it. But I feel like it's a good idea to look at it and think about it.
Scott Ignacio 58:21
Since we're recently back with Travel Mendocino that might there might be an option through there that we might be able to utilize on something that we already have earned credits on. So that's a good suggestion, Billy. I'm sure you weren't referring to like advertising in surf magazine. Right, Billy? Page - 16 - of 27
Billy Arana 58:43
No, I mean, that's not a I think that market doesn't bring in so much money, but the fisherman market, there's a lot of people a lot of money who like to go fishing, and spending money in town and then paying for launches. So I think that's kind of the spot.
Scott Ignacio 58:58
So like Billy says there, Paul, I think we might add an item in there and see what our resources are available and look at possibly dedicating some specific resources in time to get the word out.
Paul Andersen 59:14
It's definitely something we've discussed internally at the pier, better marketing and explanation of you know, sport fishing is back and that we're location for that.
Scott Ignacio 59:25
Thank you, Billy. We're gonna go to Councilmember Wasserman and then we'll come back to Barbara.
Richey?
Richey Wasserman 59:36
Just to really reiterate the importance of the hoist, at the pier, not only for a large number of fishermen that are in need of of using the hoist but in case of bad weather to bring boats out of the water. I know in the past we've had problems with the hoist In those kinds of situations, and it caused quite a lot of stress to the fleet, in addition to to recreational users, also in emergency situations. On occasion the hoist is used by other agencies outside the city in launching and retrieving. So I think it's just essential that that hoist be kept in excellent condition.
Scott Ignacio 1:00:29
Good points. We're gonna go to Vice Mayor Burkey and then come around to Councilmember Dobbins.
Barbara Burkey 1:00:37
Okay, I just want to quickly speak to Billy, your honest concerns about marketing the pier. And the Point ARena Merchants Association has a good relationship with Visit Mendocino and Point Arena itself as part of the Business Improvement District. So it seems like PAMA could definitely help with that marketing, using our contacts at Visit Mendocino, and, you know, it's just something we can help with.
So I want to put that out there. And I'll bring it up at our next meeting.
Scott Ignacio 1:01:11
Excellent idea. Thank you for that. Councilmember Dobbins? Anna Dobbins 1:01:17
Mentioning that other agencies use the hoist for activities or emergencies and things like that, is there any possibility of looking into funding those agencies to help supplement the placed at the pier? It's something to consider.
Paul Andersen 1:01:38
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Yeah, that is a good idea. And, you know, we've been approached in the past by South Coast Fire to use the pier to launch jet skis. And I know that there are also boats in the past that have been launched from there. That's something I can look into. Because that is a really good idea of getting funding from other agencies to use the hoist. You know, just as an aside, we did use to have a pretty lucrative contract with Ocean Fresh in Fort Bragg when urchin was a very good market. And they they paid us like $9,000 a year to have exclusive use of the hoist when they were bringing urchin is but that contract is no longer valid. There's not been much urchin in many years. But that's definitely something we have done before.
Scott Ignacio 1:02:27
Thank you for that. Good evening, Bill Arana, not to be confused with Billy Arana. Good evening, Bill.
Bill Arana 1:02:37
As far as that advertising for the sport on the hoist stared, you might want to jump on that because in July the salmon seasons closes north of Point Arena. So Albion and Fort Bragg, you might catch their launches if we have a bite happening here.
Scott Ignacio 1:03:04
There's a lot of people that are following our update pages at Point Arena and Gualala and that don't live in the area and they're avid fishermen. Even if council members took a moment, including myself to advertise on Facebook, it seems to get the word out and working with PAMA to have an address a website or something that we can get through Visit Mendicino. To add to that, that can be something that can be achieved in a relatively short amount of time. Good comment, Bill.
Paul Andersen 1:03:41
I know that myself, I don't have a lot of contact and experience in that community. If there are particular magazines, websites, email lists that we could utilize, I'd appreciate myself and Dominic down the pier would appreciate knowing that because we'd be happy to push that info out.
Scott Ignacio 1:03:58
So Bill, you still have your hand raised? Before you go? Do you have particular publications from your industry that you can share with us that we might want to look into? Does anything come off top of your head?
Bill Arana 1:04:13
Not really.
Scott Ignacio 1:04:14
I wasn't. If you have something that are in you know of anybody that that gets a trade magazine that would be helpful for us to consider. Please get a hold of one of the council members or particularly Paul at City Hall. Thanks. All right. Councilmember Dobbins? Anna Dobbins 1:04:37
Outdoor magazine. It's all about water. Mostly about water sport.
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Scott Ignacio 1:04:59
Thank you for that. All right, it sounds like everybody wants to get the word out. That's, that's good.
And, you know, tell a family member to tell them to spread the word. It's amazing how that how much that gets out to.
Scott Ignacio 1:05:32
Okay, Paul, let me put it out there one more time. Paul has given us His informational budget report, and you've done very well on it. Is there anyone that would like to add to that from either the public or from the council? Before we move on? Paul, I commend you, you did an excellent job. All the details are in there. And I appreciate you hitting the highlights that you did and generating the discussion that you did -- all important topics. Thank you. So you don't need any recommendations? I think we're we're all well informed as is the public.
Scott Ignacio 1:06:12
Okay. We're gonna move on to Item IX, Ordinances and Resolutions. IX A, a resolution 2022-22 authorizng consolidation of city election with the November 7 2022 general election. For those that have been around, this regular news every two years. So Paul, take it away.
Paul Andersen 1:06:40
This is a pro forma resolution requesting that the county administer our election in Point Arena, we're all mail ballot election city, although we do have a polling location at the Veterans Hall for people on Eureka Hill Road to come down. So it basically just requests that the county administer it. We actually really only expend about $1,000 per election with them f we have a race with contestants. If we don't, maybe a couple $100 for printing costs. I just wanted to note that for this election, filing period for the November election is from July 18 to August 12. And there are currently three seats on the council that will be up for election -- the seats of Vice Mayor Burkey, Councilmember Dobbins and Councilmember Wasserman so keep that in mind. I need a resolution approved so that I can send that to the registrar of voters to get us in the mix.
Scott Ignacio 1:07:53
Before we go to discussion, I'd entertain a motion to adopt resolution 2020-22 authorizing consolidation of the city election with November 7 2022 general election, is there anyone that would like to make that motion? Councilmember Dobbins with a second from Vice Mayor Burkey. Now, as far as discussion, you guys are sticking around, right? All three of you. You're going to be on the ballot. And anybody else that wants to come in here and challenge your seats, they're going to be on the ballot too. So I look forward to continuing working with you at least for another two and a half years. And is there any other comments or questions about the motion that's on the table? Public included? Roll call.
Paul Andersen 1:08:52
Yes. Councilmember Wasserman? Yes. Councilmember Koogle. Yes. Councilmember Dobbins? Yes.
Vice Mayor Burkey? Yes. Mayor Ignacio.
Scott Ignacio 1:09:05
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There was a pause for Barbara. I don't think it was a bandwidth. Yes. Okay.
Paul Andersen 1:09:11
Motion passes unanimously.
Scott Ignacio 1:09:20
Okay, item 10, Reports and Action Items. 10-A request for appraisal funding and letter of intent regarding 825 Port Road. Paul, you want to introduce this and anybody else that wants to be involved? Paul Andersen 1:09:41
Yes, I'll make a few comments about the request and we can go from there. So as you may know the property at 825 Port Road, also known as the boathouse, is currently being prepared for sale by its owner Blake Juntz. Arena Cove Stewards is exploring the possibility of purchasing the property for public benefit with state and federal grant funding. At Mr. Juntz's invitation, Vice Mayor Burkey, myself, your city planner Scott Perkins and members of Arena Cove Stewards recently toured the property inside and out. The Stewards are requesting the City Council jointly sign a letter of mutual interest between the City, Arena Cove Stewards and Mr. Juntz regarding the property. Such a letter expresses the intent of all parties to work together towards a common goal, that being the transfer of the buildin. A letter is required to apply for grant funding from the state and federal governments. The grant application process also requires an appraisal by a state certified appraiser. The Stewards propose utilizing the services of Chris Bell who's conducted the appraisal for the purchase of the Mill Bend Property in Gualala and as an assistant for several land trusts. Mr. Bell has requested an appraisal fee of $7,500. The Arena Cove Stewards have requested financial assistance from the city to fund that appraisal. Staff recommends a financial split between interested parties, Mr. Juntz, Arena Cove Stewards and the City of Point Arena for $2,500 each. I believe there are members of the Stewards in attendance. They can provide more information or any questions Council may have.
Scott Ignacio 1:11:30
Thank you for that. Paul, great introduction. Is there someone here that would like to use the raise hand feature from Arena Cove Stewards who would like to introduce themselves and their role in the organization and give us a summary of of this topic. Kathleen, please help me with your last name. I don't want to munch it. If you can unmute your mic for me, please.
Kathleen Chasey 1:11:52
Kathleen Chasey.
Scott Ignacio 1:11:54
Good evening, Kathleen Chasey. And what's your role with the Stewards? Kathleen Chasey 1:12:00
So I am one of eight board members of arena Cove Stewards and in my past life here on the coast, I have written several grants the grants that actually funded the Mill Bend purchase of just under $2 million. So at the at the community chat that Arena Cove Stewards held a month ago, where Paul and Barbara and a few others were in attendance. The boathouse came up because the rumor mill had that Page - 20 - of 27
it was going to go up for sale. So we asked the community if there was interest in having the boathouse in community hands rather than it becoming another private business of some sort. And it was a pretty strong approval of going for it, there was a lot of different ideas that were put forth. And so in talking to Paul and Barbara, we agreed that we wanted to get in and see it. So we did following that. Looking at the building, it's old, I'm sure many of you have been inside of it. But it has a lot of really wonderful potential for the community.
Jennifer Smallwood 1:13:15
So from my learnings of the Mill Bend process, and going for State of California funds or federal funds, this is probably more like the Coastal Commission funds, we need to show to the grantors that we have skin in the game, the City of Point Arena, Blake Juntz the owner. And the best way to do that, from my experience with them is to partially share the funding of the appraisal and have a letter of intent, which doesn't bind anyone to purchase it. It says we're all working for that effort. So that in a nutshell is sort of kind of how we got to this point. So we've actually been on tour in the building several times. It definitely does need a lot of work. If the community were to get its hands on it through grant funding, we would need some major grant funding to renovate it to make it safe. So this is step one of many, many.
Scott Ignacio 1:14:17
Okay, Kathleen, and are you prepared to take questions from the council? If they haven't? Kathleen Chasey 1:14:22
I'm sure and Billy is here too.
Scott Ignacio 1:14:24
I see that. Okay. Anyone from the council have questions? Before we we move through this or any questions up to this point? Councilmember Dobbins?
Anna Dobbins 1:14:37
I'm just curious where would we find the $2,500 amount of money to pay for this as our part of the appraisal? Where would that come from in our city budget or whatever are allocated Since Scott Ignacio 1:15:00
Likely, that would probably be a TOT expense.
Paul Andersen 1:15:03
I would recommend out of the TOT AC fund, the money you set aside for the pier is one of the beneficiaries of that.
Anna Dobbins 1:15:14
Great. Okay, good. Thank you.
Scott Ignacio 1:15:17
Councilmember Wasserman.
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Richey Wasserman 1:15:21
A couple previous speakers that mentioned that the building is in poor shape. And that is true. But I just wanted to emphasize that it's bones are very solid, and in good condition. In 1983, after the big wave, the front part of the building was washed out under the existing foundation at that time. I owned the building at that time and dug down to bedrock. After the front part of the foundation had dropped, virtually dropped down and away from the building. That original foundation was 18 inches thick, that was not poured all the way down to bedrock. I poured it down to bedrock of the original 18 inch thickness, including part of the side foundation which is 12 inches thick. And I can guarantee that that portion of the building is still intact, and good for many, many, maybe another century or two. As to the wooden part of the building. I'm sure that there has been deterioration, but it was really well built with the best of materials and is entirely restorable. Thank you.
Anna Dobbins 1:17:06
I just want to put in a plug for the historical value of that building. And I think it would be a great addition for the community to have that in the hands of the community as a historical building, because it's been part of our community for so long for so many people in our community. And I think it'd be a great addition to be in a public use rather than private use.
Scott Ignacio 1:17:32
Okay. In this process, Kathleen or city manager Paul Andersen can respond to this, then I'll pitch it to Paul first and you can send it to whoever in this process. Who would be the owners of the building if we as a collaborative group are successful? Would it be the city? Or would it be an entity known as X? Paul Andersen 1:18:00
Well, I that's a decision for the council and with the advice of your city attorney, I would think the city, you know, most of the property at the cove is owned by the city. We own the parking lot, we own Arena Cove Park, we own the pier, we own the rock wall. This building is adjacent to the border of our ownership down there. And so I think that's an open question. I can't give you an answer. It's something that we would explore further as we move down the line.
Scott Ignacio 1:18:30
Before I go to city attorney, Giny Chandler, does it seem reasonable that if it did become part of the city's inventory, that occupants wouldn't necessarily have to pay the same taxes that the city is exempt from?
Paul Andersen 1:18:48
That I'm not sure but your city attorney might know more.
Giny Chandler 1:18:54
I wish I was a tax expert, but I'm not. But there there are good and bad things about the city owning this building. If the city owns this building, the city controls it. And that means they can control what activities happen in it. The downside of that is if it's not restored properly, and there's some kind of, you know, accident, the city would be on the hook for potentially a lawsuit. But you know, as a lawyer, I can Page - 22 - of 27
tell you what the downside and the upside are. As a policy matter, city council members, you guys, this is your call.
Scott Ignacio 1:19:38
Absolutely. Thank you for that, Giny. So, Kathleen, do either you or anyone else in your group, if they want to use the raise hand feature, want to comment on the current part of the discussion? Kathleen Chasey 1:19:53
Yes, the funding successful funding from my point of view from the State of California rests solely with what the use of the property. So, as most of you probably already know, grants are tied to various specific uses. You know, for example, the sea level rise grant that wonderfully was just awarded to Point Arena was very specific funds. So right now, there aren't redevelopment funds in California, to my knowledge, and I believe Paul would agree to that. I've tried to contact the Coast Guard to see if there's historical money, there may be a little bit there, but there's not going to be, you know, 6-7-8 hundred thousand dollars to purchase the building, it's been listed at 995. So we are going to need to fit in unless we get an angel donor coming out of the sky, which would be wonderful, that, you know, hands it to us, or hands, half of it to us, we only raise half, we would need to have a very specific use for the building, and youth education and is one of the uses that we're kind of looking at. And so based on that kind of ownership, it does seem like the city could own it, and maybe lease out the building to a nonprofit called, you know, boathouse foundation or something. If that happens, my take on the taxes is it becomes a nonprofit business and are not going to collect a lot of taxes on that.
Kathleen Chasey 1:21:32
But really, we've just opened up the conversation with the state Coastal Conservancy. Because we really need more of a pulse from the community on the kind of uses that they're interested in. Certainly, there was a lot of really novel uses that would be totally fun with the hot tub for the surfers and kayakers, etc. But you're not going to get the state of California to give you taxpayer money to do that.
So there's probably a broader use, or multiple uses. And so we're just sort of looking at having maybe another community chat to try to understand from the community the uses, explore that with potential funders, and at the same time, hopefully fund and have an appraisal for the real value of the building, which is the highest amount we could actually get a grant for would be the fair market appraisal, you know, not the asking price necessarily.
Scott Ignacio 1:22:31
Understood. Council members. Just looking at this, I mean, even though it's TOT funds, it's still taxpayers dollars that we have to spend responsibly. And, you know, our limited income is as far as taxes and TOT just to this area, I want to make sure that we're agreeing that we... I mean, we just got done with some other business recently in the past couple of years with this property. And just knowing what we've gone through, are we prepared to consider ownership as a city? And I like what Kathleen's suggesting that we get buy in from the public on that. And I'm open to hearing more comments about that. But at the same time, this is -- I'm behind what the city manager and the parties involved are suggesting the three way split. I think that was brilliant. I'm a little concerned that if we decide to go nowhere, then we've just been between the the Arena Cove Stewards and the City of Point Arena Page - 23 - of 27
$5,000 for an appraisal. So make your make your decisions very, very thoughtfully. When we go forward. City Attorney Giny Chandler?
Giny Chandler 1:24:00
This is perhaps not a legal opinion, but what I would suggest this is very simple. Similar to vetting a horse, the money that you spend on vetting an animal to make sure that it's going to be serviceable for what you want it to do is very similar to an appraisal. $2,500 might be the cheapest amount that you spend to decide whether or not this building is salvageable.
Scott Ignacio 1:24:26
Right. I appreciate that. I'm just making sure we're transparent. Everybody understands what the thought process is as we go through this. So thank you for that. Kathleen.
Kathleen Chasey 1:24:37
Oh, I just want to say that the three way split, which Paul recommended on this, Arena Cove Stewards doesn't really have the $2,500, I want to be very apparent that I've asked The State Coastal Conservancy for that portion. So it would be to City of Point Arena, owner Blake Juntz, and the state Coastal Conservancy. Because if they said yes to helping fund the appraisal, then we know they have skin in the game, which is really the skin we need. Right? You know Arena Cove Stewards is in, because we're all excited. And you know, we're ready to roll. But we really need to know that the state Coastal Conservancy is behind us. And I think we'll get a positive response. I'm actually not sure what Blake will say. But we'll find out.
Scott Ignacio 1:25:42
So, Paul, is that how the letters written in the packet is Coastal Conservancy...
Paul Andersen 1:25:49
Are you talking about the letter of intent? I'm not entirely sure. I'll defer to Giny.
Giny Chandler 1:26:05
My recollection is that, at the time that the letter was written, it was a split between the City and the Stewards. I don't remember that Juntz was actually a participant. Let's defer to Kathleen since she sent the letter over to us.
Giny Chandler 1:26:25
I think that it's premature. I think that the Stewards need to work with the Coastal Conservancy, to be sure that they're willing to fund that portion of it. But I think the letter is general enough that you could approve the letter if you so choose, and amend it as necessary.
Scott Ignacio 1:26:25
So in the report that's in the packet, we're deciding on Mr. Juntz, Arena Cove Stewards and City of Point Are=na would contribute $2,500 each. And I am aware that the Steward's are still working on fundraising. And I'm hoping you're going to apply your efforts this coming weekend, because I think you would have a strong response if you ask the right questions. But just for legal matters, and we'll run this Page - 24 - of 27
back by city attorney based on what's in the agenda, are you okay with us making that change to the report as an amendment that would replace the Stewards with the Conservancy? Scott Ignacio 1:27:33
Kathleen, did you want to follow up?
Kathleen Chasey 1:27:36
Yeah, well, since I wrote the letter of mutual interest, at the time I wrote that I didn't say who was going to pay the appraisal. I just said, step one is we need an appraisal. Step two, is the Stewards and City work together. So I would agree with Giny that if we changing Paul's agenda item to include the SCC is fine for an agenda item, we have started that conversation. And if they were to say, no, they're not interested, then I don't know where there's funding. So then I would pause on the whole thing, but I do not anticipate that. The three emails I received today were positive responses.
Scott Ignacio 1:28:23
Okay. City Attorney Chandler.
Giny Chandler 1:28:27
This is a non binding letter. This is a letter of intent. It is not a letter that binds the City to a particular action. That's the only reason why Paul and I discussed it and decided that it was appropriate to put it on the agenda. So it's not something that you are, even if you approve it, you're not bound to it if the funding does not appear.
Scott Ignacio 1:28:50
Okay, Richey.
Richey Wasserman 1:28:53
Not to further complicate the matter. Just a little bit of history. Well, first off, I have to say that I am, as one council member, in favor of this contribution for an appraisal. Further than that, some years ago, the City was interested in what is now the Rock Wall property and the park at Arena Cove. And the owner at that time, verbally gave his assent to selling the property to the city if we could get funding.
We proceeded to get funding from both the Coastal Conservancy and Fish and Game without a letter of intent at that time, that's probably why they would like to see one now. But without a letter of intent, the property was sold out from under us and we lost the two grants worth over $800,000 as a result. My question I suppose coming from this is, although we are not bound to a letter of intent to buy the property, is the seller bound to not sell it to others during the period of time of the letter of intent? Kathleen Chasey 1:30:20
So I've explored that with the brokers, with Blake's broker, and he is willing to talk to Blake about a first right of refusal. And so if we go down this path, so one, the SCC is totally excited to help us because that's where the money is. Two,we have a proposal that everybody likes on the use of the property.
Three, we get ourselves on the calendar for the appraiser, then we probably could get them to give us their first right of refusal. I anticipate with the relationship right now of talking to Joe Rubin, who was the Page - 25 - of 27
broker, that he'd let us know if somebody was sniffing around, you know, looking at it, but we don't have a legal right, but we could try to get that first right of refusal.
Scott Ignacio 1:31:19
Well, let's move on the action item that we have here before us and that's for the appraisal. Is there any more discussions to be had? And Kathleen, you've been a world of information, I hope you'll come back and talk to us more in the future. Is there anyone else from the public that has questions or comments about the topic? And before we talk about a motion, we'll hear from Vice Mayor Burkey Barbara Burkey 1:31:50
I feel from what I've gathered from the public from our constituents that there's strong support for the acquisition of the boathouse, that this is a very popular item in discussion these days, and I feel really good about entering into an agreement to help with the appraisal.
Scott Ignacio 1:32:15
So make a motion.
Barbara Burkey 1:32:17
Okay, I'll move to approve the motion to fund the appraisal.
Scott Ignacio 1:32:23
Oh, there's a motion by Vice Mayor Burkey to fund the appraisal and I believe enter into that three way Letter of Agreement. Is that right, Barbara?
Barbara Burkey 1:32:36
Yes.
Scott Ignacio 1:32:36
Okay. And there's a second from Councilmember Wasserman. So there's a motion and a second. Are there any comments or questions from the Council before we move forward? Not seeing any, are there any questions or comments on the motion from the public using the raised hand feature? A roll call vote, Mr. Andersen?
Paul Andersen 1:32:58
Yeah, Councilmember Wasserman? Yes. Councilmember Koogle? Yes. Councilmember Dobbins? Yes. Vice Mayor Burkey? Yes. Mayor Ignacio? Yes. Motion passes unanimously.
Scott Ignacio 1:33:12
All right, Kathleen, good job. And thanks to you and Arena Cove Stewards for making this happen. I don't think we can do it without you. So thanks a lot. We look forward to talking to you in the future.
Kathleen Chasey 1:33:29
Fingers crossed. Thank you.
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Scott Ignacio 1:33:30
All right. Good work, folks. We are at the 7:30 hour. Let's move on to item 11. City Manager and City Attorney. Do you have a report for us?
Giny Chandler 1:33:47
I do not, life is relatively quiet. There are a couple of things on fire with the wastewater treatment plant that we'll let you know about as we proceed. We got a letter from Jack silver saying that we were in violation of the Clean Water Act. And so staff is responding to that and we will keep you apprised of how that goes.
Scott Ignacio 1:34:13
All right. Thank you for staying on top of that. We look forward to future report. Paul Andersen, what have you got, sir?
Paul Andersen 1:34:21
Well, that was one of the items I had was this threatening letter that we received from RiverWatch regarding our wastewater treatment facility and supposed violations of water levels. We're responding to that. Operator Wilson and I are sitting down tomorrow or Thursday to go through the letter comprehensively and respond to it and we'll create a draft and give it to Giny and we'll go from there.
Let's see. Fireworks, obviously big thing coming up on Saturday, and Sunday the parade. I feel very confident about the success of the fireworks show, we have a phenomenal number of volunteers as always, and we have a good work crew on staff that are working together well to get the all the particulars of the event on our side taken care of. I do want to say the gate opens at 4pm. It lasts until the fireworks are over. There is parking available at the Rock Wall lot until it's filled. $10 per car. And then there is parking at City Hall and at the High School, MTA will be providing two shuttles between city hall, the high school, downtown and the pier. There's a $10 charge to park which also gets you a one adult ticket entry as well. And then the entry fees for anyone else in your party. It's always a fun event. We have quite a number of vendors and other bouncy houses and stuff for the kids to do. And so it's always a really fun event and I hope the weather is like it is today.
Paul Andersen 1:36:08
The other issue is what we've already talked about. Mayor Ignacio and staff met with Mendocino OES to begin a relationship of working on disaster planning and communication. I do expect one of their communication people to come out to the city sometime in the next couple of weeks and assess our current communication system and what we need to do to upgrade that because it's obviously a very important thing to have. And I believe that's all I have.
Scott Ignacio 1:36:38
Upgrade something we don't have is not an upgrade.
Paul Andersen 1:36:43
We have walkie talkies.
Scott Ignacio 1:36:45
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Oh, okay. You're right. I apologize. No, I look forward to being involved in more meetings like that. That was that was a good come together moment. And you realize, wow, we need to do some better planning. Thank you for that report. Any questions for the city manager or the city attorney? Scott Ignacio 1:37:11
Not seeing any item 12, future agenda items. The next meeting is July 26 2022 6pm. You can also look forward in the next 45 days -- downtown park improvement project coastal development permit. So with that, folks, I will accept a motion to adjourn on item 13.
Scott Ignacio 1:37:40
Is there a motion to adjourn? Oh, okay. Doesn't require a second doesn't require a vote. We are adjourned at 7:37pm. Good job staff. Good job public. Good job Council.