CITY OF SOUTH GATE
SOUTH GATE CITY COUNCIL, SOUTH GATE HOUSING AUTHORITY
& SERVING AS THE SUCCESSOR AGENCY TO THE COMMUNITY
DEVELOPMENT COMMISSION OF THE CITY OF SOUTH GATE
SPECIAL JOINT MEETING
MINUTES
MONDAY, AUGUST 29, 2022
CALL TO ORDER
The Special Joint meeting of the City Council, Housing Authority & Successor Agency was called to order by Mayor/Chairperson Rios at 5:06 p.m.
ROLL CALL Yodit Glaze, City Clerk
PRESENT Mayor/Chairperson Al Rios, Vice Mayor/Vice Chairperson Maria del Pilar Avalos, Council/Authority/Agency Member Maria Davila, Council/Authority/Agency Member Denise Diaz, and
Council/Authority/Agency Member Gil Hurtado; City Treasurer Gregory Martinez, City Manager/Executive Chris Jeffers, City Attorney/Authority Counsel Raul F. Salinas
1 BUDGET ADMIN The City Council, South Gate Housing Authority and the Successor Agency to the Community Development Commission of the City of South Gate considered:
a. Hearing the various presentations on the Proposed Fiscal Year 2022- 23 Municipal Budget and 5-Year Capital Improvement Program for the various entities; and
b. Approving a Resolution adopting the Municipal Budget for Fiscal Year 2022-23 with the changes stipulated in Exhibit A for a total of $243,580,301 for all funds along with any additions or deletions the Legislative Bodies may enact.
c. Approving a Resolution adopting the annual Gann Appropriations Limit for Fiscal Year 2022/23.
Chris Jeffers, City Manager provides some opening remark and thanks the numerous departments for helping prepare the budget. Explains that this year they are looking to fill positions especially in Administrative Services. The City Manager goes over what they can expect from the presentations of each department like the things they will include and what they will go over. Talks about some challenges that they are facing ahead between the legislative body and the organizations; these challenges are not unique to South Gate but is going on everywhere like a slowing economy and inflation.
SPECIAL JOINT CITY COUNCIL, HOUSING AUTHORITY & SUCCESSOR AGENCY MEETING MINUTES OF AUGUST 29, 2022
1 BUDGET ADMIN
CONT'D Kris Ryan, Director of Administrative Services goes over the agenda and points out that they will open it up for comments and questions over the next two days. He will leave it up to the Council to decide how they will do that. He begins by going over what a balanced budget is and that they are in line with City Council goals, and they are improving the reserve funds to pre-pandemic labels. He goes over a PowerPoint and talks about the things they have incorporated in the budget, salary, benefits, and employee raises. Explains the Parks and Recreation budget and some of the positions they are going to be opening. He continues his presentation by going over the general fund, the revenues, proposed budget, and everything this includes. Explains the projections and the difference between this year, last, year and the city's revenue tax. He goes over the CIP Plan and what the funds can be used for. He continues going over the budget, funds, and some of the money that has been allocated. Explains that they will also continue to review the fee schedule to make sure that the city is recovering the fees for certain services. He explains the next steps to Council, they will continue to hear budget presentations from the different departments for the rest of the meeting today and tomorrow.
Then, they will hear the Councils' suggestions.
Vice Mayor Avalos asks Mr. Ryan what the amount of the reserve needs to be to be financially stable?
Mr. Ryan explains that the fiscal policy is anywhere from 10 - 20 percent of the general fund appropriations. He provides explains of this fiscal policy.
Mayor Rios thanks him for the overview of the presentation and opens it up for public comments.
City Manager Jeffers explains that they will have the presentations on the website for the public.
Mr. Ryan explains that the general budget is already up along with the proposed budget. These are both on the website and they will have the rest of the department budgets up as well.
Council Member Davila questioned the insurance percentage increase.
Mr. Ryan explains that it is going to be a little over thirty percent.
Mayor Rios asked Mr. Ryan to explain a little bit about the utility user tax.
Mr. Ryan explains that the utility user tax is typically assessed on a customer's utility bill and every city has a different percentage that they
SPECIAL JOINT CITY COUNCIL, HOUSING AUTHORITY & SUCCESSOR AGENCY MEETING MINUTES OF AUGUST 29, 2022
1 BUDGET ADMIN
CONT'D tax. Explains that if the city of South Gate ever decided to do something like that it would go out to the residents to vote which is why a lot of those cities already had those in place.
PUBLIC COMMENTS Mario Dominguez asks the City Manager if he can speak on something other than the overview.
Mr. Salina explains that it is a special overview meeting, and they can only comment relating to the items or the presentation.
Mario Dominguez stated that the City Manager explained that he could make a statement relating to a park project to pitch to the council.
Mr. Salina says he just spoke with Mr. Jeffers, and he understands that he wants to talk about a capital improvement project. He allows Mr.
Dominguez to speak.
Mario Dominguez thanks the City Attorney and asks the City Council to include certain projects into the master plan.
STAFF AND COUNCIL
COMMENTS City Manager Jeffers says that Mr. Dominguez is very passionate about the topic, and he just wanted to express his passion for these projects.
Mayor Rios understood and stated the council will give these projects some consideration.
Council Member Hurtado thanks Mr. Ryan for the presentation and all the information he provided. He says he is a little bit more optimistic and doesn't think that the revenue levels will be so low, he thinks the economy will turn around. He understands the talk about a recession going around but he thinks there are a lot of things going on in Washington that will have a positive effect for everyone. He has a couple of things he wants to talk about from the things Mr. Ryan talked about. Explains that people have said that South Gate has the highest taxes and the information they just got from the presentation shows that they do not pay the highest taxes and discusses a little bit about the taxes they have. Says he is glad that the Utility User Tax did not pass because it would impact the businesses a lot because it ranges from 4 - 11%. Talks about another ballot measure that was put on the ballot in 2008 and the revenue that they get from the sales tax and how it helps the city. Says that sometimes it takes tough decisions, but they are necessary and talks about the other areas where they have deficit like the sewer funds. Asks what the cost would be for the sewer, streetlight, and landscaping fund for this year.
SPECIAL JOINT CITY COUNCIL, HOUSING AUTHORITY & SUCCESSOR AGENCY MEETING MINUTES OF AUGUST 29, 2022
STAFF AND COUNCIL
COMMENTS CONT'D Mr. Ryan says that it is about seven hundred and seven fifty for the sewer, the streetlight is close to 1 million.
Council Member Hurtado clarifies how these funds are spent. Says that these are things that must be addressed, and he will continue bringing this issue up and push for that this year. Says if they continue down this path, they are going to run out of the reserve money that they have. Thanks, Mr.
Ryan, for the presentation and hopes that people take the time to look at it.
Mayor Rios says that if he is reading the prior financial forecast for the ending fund balance it climbs considerably. He would like a little more information and clarification on this.
Mr. Ryan explains that they estimate that at the end of 2022/2023 that they will have an end budget of 1.23 million so that is going to be rolled over for the next year's budget. The estimated revenue is only about 62 million, but the expenditures are forecasted at 66 million. So, you are not able to recover enough revenue to support the budget and cover the expenditures.
He also goes into detail about how the expenditures are estimated and factors are included when they are estimating.
Council Member Davila has a question about the positions that they mentioned in the presentation. She says that they are eliminating one equipment management position and asks how many equipment managers they have.
Arturo Cervantes, Director of Public Works explains that right now they have four equipment managers plus a superintendent. He explains that the position is no longer needed because they get the service from outside.
They decided to remove the machinic position from the budget and add a senior management officer that can help with the field operations in terms of staffing that can provide better field operations.
Council Member Davila asks if the position is filled or if there is a vacancy?
Mr. Cervantes says that it is vacant.
Council Member Davila clarifies that there will only be one full time position and the rest will be part time positions.
Steve Costley, Interim Director of Parks & Recreation confirms and explain that they have had trouble working with Chief Arakawa and trouble recruiting community care officers to the overall city. The ones they use in the park ranger program are already short staffed but if they move these to the full-time positions and offer benefits, they might be able
SPECIAL JOINT CITY COUNCIL, HOUSING AUTHORITY & SUCCESSOR AGENCY MEETING MINUTES OF AUGUST 29, 2022
STAFF AND COUNCIL
COMMENTS CONT'D
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to attract more applicants and keep them longer because now they only have two. Says they would have one full-time position and four hourlies.
A total of five positions and one they were able to convert to a full-time position.
Council Member Davila asks if it would be better to have hourly because it is hard to get people with part-time. In her opinion, it would be better to have two full-time positions instead of one.
Mr. Cervantes explains that it is difficult to recruit and retain a community officer. The idea was to convert one position to a full-time to see how that would work. Once they can recruit and fill some of the part-time positions, they can certainly look at adding another person at mid-year an opportunity to look at the budget.
Council Member Davila explains that part-time positions don't offer any benefits and if they have family, they are going to look for a position that offers benefits. If they have two full-time positions, then she believes it is a win for the city because they have the experience. She believes that this can also be one of the ways that they retain employees instead of just coming through the city and looking for a different job.
Vice Mayor Avalos asks how many positions they have.
Mr. Cervantes explains that they do not have any actual positions budgeted for full-time park ranger/community officer positions, but he does know that the police have community service officers that are separate from parks.
Mayor Rios explains that when Parks and Recreation comes to do their presentation this is something that could be brought up then.
Mr. Costley agrees and says that they have budgeted four hourly and one full-time position to the budget.
Council Member Davila says that the issue is that they are not retaining employees because they are not full-time, and she feels for them because they like the city and would like to stay but they would prefer a full-time job. Asks if they can start thinking about having at least two full-time jobs.
Mr. Costley explains that retention was one of the biggest issues that they have had to deal with over the years. He has seven budgeted, but they haven't had them filled because the two or three people they do hire find other jobs. Explains that it is a retention issue they are looking at which is why they started with one full-time position and then they would budget and then slowly look at adding another full-time position.
SPECIAL JOINT CITY COUNCIL, HOUSING AUTHORITY & SUCCESSOR AGENCY MEETING MINUTES OF AUGUST 29, 2022
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COMMENTS CONT'D Vice Mayor Avalos agrees that there should be at least two full-time employees because of the things that go on in the park to make sure the parks are safe and that it is not taxing on the police officer. She agrees with Councilwoman Davila and says that at least two positions should be full-time to make sure that the parks are safe.
Council Member Hurtado thanks every department head for sitting with them. He explains that he sat down for about three hours with members from the different departments and he brought up the issue that they spend a lot of money training individuals. Explains that the individuals get trained, get some experience and then they move on. Another thing that happens is that parks rangers are CSO and ask they drive around they start to recognize those individuals that they talk to consistently and see who is causing trouble and then a new person comes in and they see the people who are causing problems, but they don't recognize it because they are new. He has asked the Chief and the Director of Parks and Recreation and it seems like getting full-time people is the way to go. Explains that they spend a lot of money, and the police department does a great job of screening people and training them only to see them leave. Says they need to do something to retain the employees that they invest in.
Council Member Diaz echoes the same sentiment and says the parks should be a safe space for the community and she would like to see these CSOs out there. Explains that the park is being taken over by encampments and people who are mentally unstable which is why it is important for people to be there. She appreciates the CSO's that are out there and says they need to be full-time and thanks Councilmember Davila for bringing that up.
Mayor Rios says that park rangers are not armed they are more of the eyes and if something happens, they call the South Gate PD.
Mr. Jeffers explains that there is a balance there when it comes to the number of people and the number of hours that need to be worked. So, to add another full-timer would be the equivalent of taking away three hourly and would cut it down on the number of times they have to be out there.
Council Member Davila says that is also a problem because they take away three to add one. She explains that she doesn't want to take away any positions she wants to add instead of taking away. She explains that they have eight parks and soon they will have another one. So, if there must be a new position added than they should add it.
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SPECIAL JOINT CITY COUNCIL, HOUSING AUTHORITY & SUCCESSOR AGENCY MEETING MINUTES OF AUGUST 29, 2022
STAFF AND COUNCIL
COMMENTS CONT'D Mayor Rios is looking at the expenditures assumptions page and he sees that it is driven by salary, internal, and so forth. Asks if these are the things that are driving the expenditures.
Mr. Ryan says yes, the expenditure assumptions increasing service level.
They are keeping the service level the same, but they are anticipating the increase of cost associated with those for salary increase especially for the contracts that they already have approved and anticipating what those costs will be over the next five years. They are also accounting for pension costs, operations, and maintenance by understanding that cost will go up with CPI.
Mayor Rios thanks Mr. Ryan for the presentation and says that they had a good discussion and moves on to the next budgets.
CITY COUNCIL BUDGET
PRESENTATION
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Mr. Jeffers goes over the budget of the City Council. Points out on page 77 the accomplishments they have made as policy makers dealing with the last fiscal year. Explains that this year they will continue adopting a strategic plan and advocating for the cultural center and says they have awarded the new solid waste franchise agreement. They will also continue to work with the schools on the School Safety Collaborative and other things. He continues to go over some of the things they have been doing to improve school safety and says that the new ELAC campus has begun construction. He hopes it will open in the next year to eighteen months and is happy to answer any questions they have about the budget.
Council Member Hurtado says that he sees bilingual pay on the sheet, and he would like to make sure that everyone understands what that is, and that bilingual pay is only for the staff. Also, the money allocated for any conferences outside of the City of South Gate he does not use and asked if he could give that money to his other colleagues to use.
City Manager says that it is possible, but he doesn't want any member to lose their allocation.
Council Member Hurtado says that these are opportunities to see what other people do in other cities and form partnerships/friendships. Says he would like his colleagues to know that if they run out of money from their share, he has some and is willing to give it to them.
City Manager explains that it is appreciated, but he likes to keep the policy in place.
Mayor Rios asks the City Manager if they have been spending a lot of money and because of the cost of flying and everything else included in
SPECIAL JOINT CITY COUNCIL, HOUSING AUTHORITY & SUCCESSOR AGENCY MEETING MINUTES OF AUGUST 29, 2022
CITY COUNCIL BUDGET
PRESENTATION CONT'D these trips. He wants to clarify if the cost will go up $900 or $1,000 per each Council Member.
City Manager explains that it would go up $900-$1,000 per Council Member.
Mayor Rios says that he thinks the Council would be supportive of this for now so that they can move forward.
City Manager explains that they will be added as amendments as they go through the process.
Mayor Rios says that it is important for the Council to be active and supportive out there in other communities because it is interictal to the Council's job.
City Manager would like to express one final note. He explains that there are times when they could represent an outside entity, like one of the boards where they do sit. For example, if they get a leadership position on the California Leadership Board and they might send them to other educational opportunities of other elected officials. Those are sometimes reimbursed by those agencies other times they are not; he wants to make sure they are supporting other Council Members in their new roles when they are asked to travel outside of other agencies. He continues by explaining what an outside agency is.
Council Member Davila says that in September, she will be taking a trip to Washington. She was elected by the Board of Eco-Rapid Transit to take the trip and meet with legislators in Washington D.C. they will be asking for funding in the West Santa Ana Branch. She hopes they have a good outcome from meeting with the legislators.
Mayor Rios believes they should also look at the stipends from other cities and see where they are at if possible.
CITY CLERK BUDGET
PRESENTATION City Manager will present the budget for the City Clerk's Office along with the current City Clerk Yodit Glaze. He will do this because she inherited this budget and says that the budget is pretty status quo except for the election budget that will be taking place in November.
City Clerk Glaze would like to add that they have two hourly openings, one for the kiosk and the other to help with the passports.
Mayor Rios asks if they are full-time or part-time. He also asks if they are new positions.
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SPECIAL JOINT CITY COUNCIL, HOUSING AUTHORITY & SUCCESSOR AGENCY MEETING MINUTES OF AUGUST 29, 2022
CITY CLERK BUDGET
PRESENTATION CONT'D City Clerk Glaze explains that they are both part-time hourlies. Explains that they currently have one position, but it is through agency and the position will be stopped through agency and they will hire the position to be from the city.
Mayor Rios asks if they are matching the funds. The City Clerk confirms.
Council Member Hurtado explains that he discussed this with the City Manager and the City Clerk that the kiosk position should not come out of the Clerk's budget because they must get information from all the departments, and they need to know more about the other departments, and he feels it would be a little more versed if it comes from somewhere in City Manager's department.
Vice Mayor Avalos says that if it is possible to have a contribution from each other departments. Explains that if they are hiring someone to represent the city it should come from all the departments given the fact that they will direct the community to the correct department. Asks if both positions are full-time or part- time.
City Clerk Glaze clarifies that they are both part-time.
Vice Mayor Avalos says that they are not open part-time they are open full-time.
City Manager reminds everyone to be cautious of their financial commitments. They have a lot of information yet to gather to make sure that long-term are stable. Urges them to give them this year, they can also come in mid-year to adjust. His concern is that they get people on board it will become a tougher decision. Explains they still have a lot of information to gather to really get the full picture.
Council Member Hurtado says that either way if they are part-time or full- time positions, he believes that the kiosk position should go to another departments budget. He thinks it is better that the person is well-versed in all the departments and able to assist, provides an example of a resident that guided a resident to the department.
Mayor Rios says that he would like to have a better picture of all the positions that they have open. Asks if the kiosk position would be doing passports.
City Clerk Glaze explains the pitch on these positions and their respective roles.
SPECIAL JOINT CITY COUNCIL, HOUSING AUTHORITY & SUCCESSOR AGENCY MEETING MINUTES OF AUGUST 29, 2022
CITY CLERK BUDGET
PRESENTATION CONT'D City Manager explains that both of those positions were in the budget last year and as the City Clerk explained. They have maintained that passport processing because the community has explained that it is important for them, and it works out smoothly. He had not heard anything negative about the service. Explains that they have not had a long discussion on the positions but that it is about the position and maybe in the future they could supplement it with work study or paid internship. Explains that it is an opportunity for the City Clerk and himself to discuss both positions.
Mayor Rios says that the queuing system might change those positions.
City Manager explains that they still get a lot of question regarding the queuing system, administrative services, business license, and people coming over to ask how the system works and these are the things that they will have to understand.
CITY TREASURER BUDGET
PRESENTATION
Gregory Martinez, City Treasurer goes over the budget for his department.
Explains that it is one of the smallest offices in the city, it is about one tenth. There is very little change in the budget, explains that is all salaries and a little bit of printing, and training.
Mayor Rios asks if there is anything he would like to propose to advance the position of the City Treasurer.
City Treasurer Martinez explains that he believes that the position is straight forward, but they haven't been able to go out and promote because of covid. Usually, they can print something out and post it in the local parks or something to talk about the budget. He hopes that moving forward they can do events because they do have an election coming up and hopes that whoever is the City Treasurer at that time can go out and promote what is happening with the city, explain sales tax, explain how the process works, how the money is spent, and these are some of the things he has done in the past.
Vice Mayor Avalos asks how much they are asking for, for printing? City Treasurer says that he would like to increase it to $800 and $1,000 would be great, but he is a very fiscally conservative person and if they would like to increase the printing cost to get information out to residents it would be greatly appreciated.
Mayor Rios says that he sees considerate consensus about doubling the amount of printing budget.
SPECIAL JOINT CITY COUNCIL, HOUSING AUTHORITY & SUCCESSOR AGENCY MEETING MINUTES OF AUGUST 29, 2022
CITY TREASURER BUDGET
PRESENTATION CONT'D Council Member Hurtado explains that he is confused because the Treasurer Department is part of the Finance Department, correct? In terms of the information that is gathered and disseminated.
Mr. Ryan explains that what the City Treasurer is talking about is printing services outside of the normal printing that they use. Like paying a printing shop to doing it as opposed to using the printer in the office.
Council Member Hurtado explains that he thought that those two departments have a certain link that brings them together.
Mr. Ryan explains that there is no current allocation to the City Treasurer's Office for the services that are provided for finance.
PUBLIC COMMENTS (RELATED
TO THREE DIVISIONS
DISCUSSED) Joshua Barron is wondering about the cities policy when it comes to staff assessment and how often are they done? Also, with the investment in technology in the communities he is wondering if any of that investment is going to reduce some of the staff? Doing a staff assessment is a priority and he also asks when the last time was it done. He also thinks training is a great thing for the city to do for the staff and he is also wondering how often that happens. He wants to make sure that every department that has a budget is being utilized, he understands that covid made it difficult.
Cyndi Esquivel saw that they were going to hire a receptionist for the kiosk. She doesn't know if the expenditure is worth it, they had one a long time ago but after the previous employee retired there was a consensus that the position was useless.
COUNCIL AND
STAFF RESPONSES Mayor Rios explains that they have done some staff assessments and that has been going on.
City Manager says that they want to have a Public Works field services assessment done and from that process they do look at technology. He explains that there was a time that people said computers would replace all copying needs and now they use more paper than they have before. He says that some of these ideas can be misconstrued and says that technology helps with more data presented to you and allows you to do more things.
SPECIAL JOINT CITY COUNCIL, HOUSING AUTHORITY & SUCCESSOR AGENCY MEETING MINUTES OF AUGUST 29, 2022
CITY ATTORNEY BUDGET
PRESENTATION City Attorney Salinas goes over his budget, explains that the City Attorney's Office oversees litigation, and that litigation is a big part of the budget. Goes over the tree maintenance, the sidewalk expenditures and explains that those tend to be a cause of a lot of claims. He goes over a lot of the claims the city gets and how much money these claims take up.
Says that the Police Department is well managed by Chief Arakawa, and it does generate claims because of the nature of the departments. Also, the Parks and Recreation is well managed and does not generate a lot of claims. The HR Department are not seeing a lot of complaints, so it comes down to a lot of sidewalk, tree, and street claims that affect all the cities throughout the state. Explains that under the City Manager a risk management group was created to look at transit and training. He agrees with the decision to bring in a Risk Manager and believes it is worth it because it looks at the risk over some of these things and they can have a significant impact on the reduction of money the city spends on litigation.
Explains the law firms that they are serviced by and what each one of them does. The budget includes time for Dina Zaragoza who is the assistant that serves as an intermediate between many of the lawyers at the firm, as well as the outside counsel to get information on any litigation that it needed.
Council Member Hurtado asks if there is an actual number that they can look at when it comes to actual lawsuits recovered that the city has filed.
That must be considered, and he appreciates all the work they have done.
He points out that one of the problems with lawsuits is that the person takes it to social media to say their case and this creates criticism because they only hear one story while the Council Members hear both sides of the stories. Explains that this Council has done everything they can to keep lawsuits to a minimum and thanks the City Attorney for everything he does and protecting the city's interests.
City Attorney Salinas would like to add that when they go into close session it is the job of the five of them to know all the information. He also says that the information that the Council learns in closed session is confidential and they do try to be transparent when it comes to these cases, and they allow the public to try to ask questions when it comes to some of these events.
Mayor Rios says that he mentioned other law firms that specialize in other legal matters and collaborate with the city. He asks if that is included in the budget or is it something separate.
City Manager Jeffers says that the budget is has everything included.
Vice Mayor Avalos has a question regarding the communication allowance.
SPECIAL JOINT CITY COUNCIL, HOUSING AUTHORITY & SUCCESSOR AGENCY MEETING MINUTES OF AUGUST 29, 2022
CITY ATTORNEY BUDGET
PRESENTATION CONT'D City Manager says that it is for Dina the staff member for the Memorandum of Understanding.
City Attorney Salinas would like to speak on the communication allowance. He does speak with Dina all the time on the phone and explains that it is a very efficient way of keeping communication and he believes that it pays for itself
RECESS The City Council recessed for five (5) minutes reconvened with all Members of Council present.
CITY MANAGER BUDGET
PRESENTATION City Manager Jeffers echoes the sentiment about the City Attorney's work, and they do rely on him and his team quite a bit and says that he does a great job. He continues by going over the budget for his department says there are four main places the budget covers, the Manager's Office, Promotion, the Public Access Corp, and the Improvement District. He continues by going into detail about the budget, the total costs, what that money accounts for and where the money is going. He is asking to restructure the staffing. Currently they have six positions in the office and explains that one of those positions is vacant and he will be eliminating that to cover some of those new duties. He goes into detail about this, the process of reclassification along with the changes that would take place, and the money that this process could save. He says it would have a resolution to get the process started and there would be other processes that need to take place to get the process moving in the next few minutes.
Mayor Rios asks if the management position would be a new position.
City Manager says no it is not a new position.
Council Member Davila stated that if one position is taken away it would be a total of five. She also asks if the position is to the City Manager.
City Manager says yes to both questions that were asked.
Council Member Davila asks about the Executive Position the City Council used to have because she understands the vacant position, he is speaking about has been vacant for the past year. She believes they should continue having that person available for the City Council because right now the staff member helping them is good, but she believes it should be someone since the budget is already there and keep the person who is there specifically for the City Council.
City Manager says that he hopes that they can pick this up and says they have some strong head winds coming and they are going to have some
SPECIAL JOINT CITY COUNCIL, HOUSING AUTHORITY & SUCCESSOR AGENCY MEETING MINUTES OF AUGUST 29, 2022
CITY MANAGER BUDGET
PRESENTATION CONT'D strong discussions about what the organization is going to be structured as going forward. He doesn't want to overstate the process, but he also doesn't want to understate the process. Explains to Council that in the next twenty-four months they will be having some complex conversations. He says that as they head forward this is going to be the process and this is something they are going to ask all the departments to think about.
Council Member Hurtado asks how long they have been operating with the current staff and if everything seems to be okay.
City Manager says this has been going on for a year and everything has been going well.
Council Member Hurtado says that they should go through all the departments and see if there are ways that they can cut back and save the city money.
Council Member Diaz agrees that it is difficult when you are getting bombarded with mails, and you have a lot of meetings. For the sake of balancing and making sure they have time for everything she explains there are times when the person is in charge of writing down talking points or researching information, do follow ups, or change meetings. She thinks it is necessary for the Council Members to do a better job and says she would like to have one person who oversees Council because there are times when different staff members help her, and it does cause some confusion.
Vice Mayor Avalos says that when she was first elected, she asked who her was go to person and everyone ran for the hills. She explains that there are five people in the office and each person should be assigned to a Council Member but that still has not happened. She understands what the City Manager is trying to do but she would like to have a designated assistant because things have not gotten on the calendar or there is confusion about stuff. Asks if moving forward they can find a way to utilize the people in the office to support this Council, so they have one point contact person and that is what the Council concerns are now. She also agrees with Council Member Diaz that it would be nice to have someone to give them talking points instead of showing up to a meeting and not knowing what they are walking into.
City Manager Jeffers explains that someone would be responsible for travel arrangements, someone would be responsible for scheduling meetings and says talking points is more of a management process. He doesn't expect clerical to do that because it is more a management process than clerical. Again, it is up to the Council, but he emphasizes that they
SPECIAL JOINT CITY COUNCIL, HOUSING AUTHORITY & SUCCESSOR AGENCY MEETING MINUTES OF AUGUST 29, 2022
CITY MANAGER BUDGET
PRESENTATION CONT'D have some headwind coming and they are going to have to bite the bullet and sacrifices to make that happen. He explains that he will not be here when it hits but he says they really need to rethink the process as they go through.
Mayor Rios says that they should investigate it further to address some of those concerns.
COUNCIL AND STAFF
COMMENTS
Mario Dominguez would like to suggest to Mr. Salinas that with all these lawsuits and litigation can he disclose when the mayor goes around and does the recitals and reports. The dollar amounts the city pays out to all these lawsuits because residents are unaware of how much money goes into these lawsuits. Also asks if they do the warrants because it is the city's bills and it should be in the warrants, if not he would like them to put it on the billboard in South Gate Park.
Council Member Hurtado would like to say that when they sit up here, they try to express their thoughts, but they must be very cognizant about the message. Things are going to get tight, and it is right around the corner and says they have done a great job of keeping taxes low, providing services for many years, and there is only a small number of things the city can do. One is to cut back on services or raise taxes and neither one of those is a good idea so looking into those areas where they can cut back is a good idea. He appreciates his colleagues that would like to add more positions but at least for the time being they need to make every effort to cut back. He understands that they don't always agree but he knows that their intentions are good because they want to give the residents the best with what they have.
Council Member Davila asked the City Clerk about the audience because she doesn't see anything.
PUBLIC COMMENTS ON
CITY ATTORNEY AND
CITY MANAGER
BUDGETS
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City Clerk Glaze explains that they are still on, but it is on her screen.
Mayor Rios says a little assistance would go a long way to have a little more support.
POLICE DEPARTMENT
BUDGET PRESENTATIONS Chief Arakawa says that this year he will be presenting a budget that is different because it is a little bit larger than the City Manager's Office. He goes over the structure of the presentation, and he will go over the nine different departments and the umbrella department's function. For example, the patrol division will have the canine unit, he will present it
SPECIAL JOINT CITY COUNCIL, HOUSING AUTHORITY & SUCCESSOR AGENCY MEETING MINUTES OF AUGUST 29, 2022
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BUDGET PRESENTATIONS
CONT'D
this way so that everyone understands what it costs to run a police department. He explains that there is a slight increase and goes over the total amount of funds they have and where the money comes from. He goes over the positions they have and how they are broken down when they look at full-time or part-time positions. He goes over each departments function and the cost for these functions. Explains that he will be adding one clerical position because they must take some of the traffic officers off the force which is very inefficient. Says they spend a lot of money on overtime, and they have seen the departure of a few officers, he lost five in three months and some officers have retired which has put their numbers down when it comes to personnel. Despite the number of personnel, they have been able to maintain a level of service to the community and he goes over the calls for service. He goes over the goals and objectives of the department and its employees and then opens it up for questions.
Council Member Hurtado thanks the entire department for the work they do in the city and explains that most of the time only the bad stuff gets publicized, and he goes over a couple of them and the misinformation that is spread. One area that he did want to discuss is the CSO, he asks if people at the park have an issue do they call park staff or the watch commander.
Chief Arakawa explains that if they are assigned to the park, they call Steve or Glen Massy. Only if they are exclusively assigned to the park.
Explains that if it is a big issue then that would go back to the Chief.
City Manager says that he follows the rule of safety if there is damage that is about to happen or physical altercation, they should call the police department. If it is planning or any other issues that don't involve any criminal actions, then Steve is the person, but he always says that if they feel uneasy about it, they should call dispatch and have officers' response.
He doesn't want to put the CSO's or anyone else in trouble and dispatch can also decipher if it is something that needs officers involved or not.
Council Member Hurtado says there is a lot of marijuana smoking at the park and there are also kids that are smoking, sometimes they are asked to leave and sometimes they get a little aggressive which can cause problems. This needs to be addressed and he reaches out to anyone that will listen.
Steve Costley concurs with the Chief and the City Manager except that dispatch has the proper knowledge of who to dispatch. They prefer to call dispatching but if it is regarding scheduling then you call us.
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SPECIAL JOINT CITY COUNCIL, HOUSING AUTHORITY & SUCCESSOR AGENCY MEETING MINUTES OF AUGUST 29, 2022
POLICE DEPARTMENT
BUDGET PRESENTATIONS
CONT'D Council Member Hurtado wants to end on saying thank you to the entire police department for putting up with everything they put up with and engaging in the community.
City Treasurer Martinez has a question because they did say that it is 51% of the budget but there are some associated revenues coming in. He asks what the offset of cost or the money is being generated from the employees.
Chief Arakawa says that with law enforcement they are not a generating type of agency they are a compliance agency and that comes in the way of citations because that is how you get compliance. The fees generated with the city are not what they used to be for example the service itself like a ticket or citation goes through a couple of hands and whatever they get back is nominal. There are a few things that there are revenues for like getting reimbursement on overtime for investigation. He says they can come up with the breakdown of the citations.
Mayor Rios says he understands that they are not out there seeking revenue but in terms of money he knows that there is money out there and asks if there are unsworn personnel that can write a proposal to get some of the grants that are out there.
Chief Arakawa says they do, and they have submitted what is called a noncompetitive earmark grant and every year this is allocated to the city.
Explains that the police department will be getting a grant at about 50,000 dollars it is a small grant, but it pays for body cameras etc. Says the noncompetitive grants are a little more competitive because they are competing with every agency in the area in the state of California and it is not uncommon to see these grants go to the bigger agency. They submitted an application and received a grant, and he explains in further detail.
Vice Mayor Avalos says that on page three it indicates under 6309 the false alarm administrative services and they have the same on the next page, but the amount is different. She asks which company are they paying for the 6309?
Chief Arakawa explains that it is the same company, but the PMAA company processes the false alarm calls and that is run through the detective bureau and the citations. He also explains that the cost goes up when people take the citations to court.
Vice Mayor Avalos asks if she can get the numbers of how many people take it to court and how much that costs. On page six slide 11, it talks
SPECIAL JOINT CITY COUNCIL, HOUSING AUTHORITY & SUCCESSOR AGENCY MEETING MINUTES OF AUGUST 29, 2022
POLICE DEPARTMENT
BUDGET PRESENTATIONS
CONT'D about the rental and leases of canopies, she asks if they can get sponsorship for those so that it is not coming out of the city's pockets.
Chief Arakawa says that if it is possible then they will do that, but he explains that there is more than canopy, tables, tents, and chairs.
Vice Mayor Avalos asks where this report shows the funds that they get from the sponsors like family day at the park?
Chief Arakawa explains that they will go and ask for donations to supplement whatever they are planning to do that.
Vice Mayor Avalos says if there is an account of that in the budget.
City Manager explains that it gets logged in the general fund for any donations under miscellaneous revenue.
Mayor Rios asks how many parking enforcement officers do they have because the residents are concerned about how many people are parking in places they are not allowed to park.
Chief Arakawa explains that they have six parking enforcement officers and they are writing a lot of citations. They must also keep in mind that they are also part of the traffic bureau so if there is a major traffic collision, they must divert the traffic which takes up the time they have to do other duties. So, it is not strictly tickets and street sweepers, but they also canvas the streets.
Council Member Davila says that a couple of months ago she brought up the need for two crossing guards in the city and she sees it is in the budget.
Sometimes the parents and other residents that ask for something they don't understand that it has to be budgeted for, asks if in the future there is an intersection where a crossing guard is needed. Do they have to wait until budget time to see if they can put the crossing guard there because she doesn't think the need to have two crossing guards at those two intersections.
Chief Arakawa says that he will defer to the City Manager because he thinks it is a matter of the Council approving the funding. He also says that the time it takes for us to analyze if it is an emotionally driven request or a factual request. Explains the process and the time it takes for them to do that, typically it is the process it takes to get to that point to bring it to them.
SPECIAL JOINT CITY COUNCIL, HOUSING AUTHORITY & SUCCESSOR AGENCY MEETING MINUTES OF AUGUST 29, 2022
POLICE DEPARTMENT
BUDGET PRESENTATIONS
CONT'D
Council Member Davila says that the two crossing guards were going to be at the intersections at the beginning of the year and they are not.
Explains that they must answer to the parents that complain about those intersections and the children have been back to school for a while now and she is still getting calls from parents and teachers to get those crossing guards. Maybe they can reach out to the school and let them know that the budget will be approved, and they will be allocating some crossing guards to that intersection.
Mayor Rios says they just meet with the Police Chief of LA Unified and they have many resources. He asks why they can't provide funding and assist the city of South Gate to help and says maybe this can be a conversation to have with the police chief because it is a lot on the city.
Council Member Davila says that this topic has come up for conversation before and they are still asking and says that if the Board doesn't approve it, it will not get done.
Chief Arakawa explains that right now they have 34 crossing guards at intersections. They also got requests for a school that is in South Gate, but the intersection belongs to Lynwood, and they have had those conversations, but it falls on deaf ears. This decision will have to be brought to the City Council because they have a lot of schools and intersections.
Council Member Hurtado talks about a pedestrian sting operation they did.
He talks about a crossing guard that got hit crossing someone across the street says that at the end of the day it comes down to drivers abiding by the law and driving safely. Explains parents do things they are not supposed to be doing when they drop off their children and he understands that they are trying to drop them off safely, but it makes it difficult for others to have a safe environment. Explains that it comes down to enforcement and that they do need help in figuring out how to do that, but he also thinks the schools need to educate the parents about pick-up and drop offs.
Chief Arakawa says that they do that at the school collaborative meeting that they have. They will be having one in a couple of weeks to inform the parents. He also explains that he has spoken with the school administrators and told them to talk to the parents of the students.
SPECIAL JOINT CITY COUNCIL, HOUSING AUTHORITY & SUCCESSOR AGENCY MEETING MINUTES OF AUGUST 29, 2022
PUBLIC COMMENTS Joshua Barron highlights what the police department does for the community and the employees of the city. In hearing the issues regarding staffing he wants to echo something the City Manager has been saying, they have a big head wind coming because he has been made aware that they have a third of their police officers are within retirement age and that is something they have to start preparing for to hire at a competitive rate where they can bring in qualified officers to get the best services possible.
Something that has been added to the department is the preferential parking which adds a lot more functions and says they should thank the department because it is a tough position, and they do a lot for the community.
Mario Dominguez says that it was a very impressive presentation, and it was his favorite out of the bunch. He was very impressed with the direction that the Chief is taking the department and the emphasize they are taking on IT, staff, and technology which is tremendous. He also saw the number for animal control and asks what has happened to SEAACA and how do they factor into this. He thought that they were paying SEAACA to do this and asks the chief to describe what this entails because it is vague. Also says they are spending a lot of money on training. In his opinion they should be spending their money on training instead of animal control services.
STAFF COMMENTS Chief Arakawa apologizes for not being clearer on the power point, but the animal control services is contracting SEAACA for that service and he explains what the service includes. Explains that by law the city is required to have animal control services.
ADMINISTRATIVE
SERVICES BUDGET
PRESENTATION Kristopher Ryan presents the budget for the Administrative Services Department and talks about what this department does, what it does for the city to run its day-to-day functions and what it comprises of. The first is the human resources, risk management division, and the finance division which is the largest division. He goes over all the full-time and part-time positions, this year they are not adding any new positions, but they are looking to reclass two positions in risk management to two positions in the HR division. This year they are adding an HR Director and a Risk Management Manager, he explains how he will help with the transition.
Goes over the total budget and where the money comes from and talks about the insurance funds, including the employee benefits. Talks about the main function of the HR office like recruitment and retention by providing different benefits and relations. Explains that risk management is critical for this division and goes into detail about the accomplishments that they have. Continues by discussing the finance and division budget and the functions of the department. He discusses the goals for next year for this department and some of the items that they need to update. The
SPECIAL JOINT CITY COUNCIL, HOUSING AUTHORITY & SUCCESSOR AGENCY MEETING MINUTES OF AUGUST 29, 2022
ADMINISTRATIVE
SERVICES BUDGET
PRESENTATION CONT'D next area he discusses is the purchasing area and talks about what this is.
Says they made a procurement training for the employees to follow the guidelines. He talks about the business license division and talks about the functions and the work that they have completed in this year and next year they would like to give the residents the option to pay the business license fees online and says this is currently not an option. He goes over the utility services they have and explains that they are currently working on a low- income water assistance program. This program would provide those customers that have outstanding bills, they would receive a 2,000 credit to their bill. He explains the application and the process to getting this assistance. Goes over the IT team and the equipment they have and the maintenance that is required along with the budget. He goes over the key accomplishments for the IT team.
Council Member Hurtado says that on the last slide he talked about the equipment that needs to be changed. He says he knows that the money does not come from ARPA funds, and he would like to know where it comes from.
Mr. Ryan explains that it is an internal fund, they have an allocation that gets charged to departments for the use of replacing equipment. They charge departments an annual fee and it goes to be used for the replacement of a vehicle when it is time for it to be replaced.
Council Member Hurtado says that there was a change in the budget, and he wanted to know where that was coming from. Points out that there is an expenditure on page 152 for replacing graffiti pick-up trucks, he asks why that is included on this budget and not the one for public works.
Mr. Ryan explains that these equipment's all contribute to this fund, they all get charged to departments and when it is time for certain equipment to be changed the money is used to replace that equipment. So, the graffiti truck even though it is a part of public works they contribute to this fund in order to have it replaced at a future time.
Mayor Rios asks when this fund was started.
Mr. Ryan explains that this fund has been going on for a while.
Council Member Hurtado explains that the reason he asked is because public works will present and when they get to them, they would like to see the amount of money that is being thrown at graffiti removal. He wishes that people would understand what the business is about graffiti, and he would like to see people get more aggressive in stopping people from destroying public property. Regarding staff that goes out to make
SPECIAL JOINT CITY COUNCIL, HOUSING AUTHORITY & SUCCESSOR AGENCY MEETING MINUTES OF AUGUST 29, 2022
ADMINISTRATIVE
SERVICES BUDGET
PRESENTATION CONT'D sure that people have their business licenses, he asks what happens if staff goes out and people are selling without licenses and does it happen.
Mr. Ryan says that they ask for documents because there might be documents that they don't have so they check on that. If it turns out that they are not licensed with the city, then they provide the information to get a license with the city but with any licenses there are certain things that need to happen with code enforcement and community development for them to have that license approved.
Council Member Hurtado has a question regarding the water bills, says that for a long time there have been people that have not paid their water bills and they would run into people that would move out of the city and leave the city with the bill. Asks if they have anything like that happening today.
Mr. Ryan says that if they have an account that is closed and moved out, the person who closes the account is responsible. If it is a sell of the property and the property moves ownership the balance on the account stays, there and it is transferred for the new person to pay a lot of time this doesn't happen but a lot of the times it is solved before that happens. He is unsure of how it happened in the past but a lot of the times they try to get these issues resolved.
Council Member Hurtado says that when they talk about misinformation there is people that say that the water bill is too high but there are other accounts included like the sewer fees.
Mr. Ryan explain that Council Member Hurtado is correct the water bill is made up of other utilities other than the water bill.
Council Member Hurtado says that he believes that the new contract with UWS, they will be billing themselves.
Mr. Ryan says that this is correct, they will be billing themselves for those services.
Council Member Hurtado asks how the street sweeping fund is being collected.
Mr. Ryan explains that the city does collect the bill for street sweeping but as far as why can't they do that he is unsure and will refer to his colleagues for that.
SPECIAL JOINT CITY COUNCIL, HOUSING AUTHORITY & SUCCESSOR AGENCY MEETING MINUTES OF AUGUST 29, 2022
ADMINISTRATIVE
SERVICES BUDGET
PRESENTATION CONT'D Council Member Hurtado says that if they are collecting it are they being subsidized for that work?
City Manager says that for the Nationwide it is not a part of their contract and they do not have a data base with all the addresses so they would have to supply them with that then the answer would be that the price would go up because they are taking on that billing.
Council Member Hurtado explains that he is asking because the staff must review it and then cut a check to someone.
City Manager says that ultimately, they are cutting a check to the third- party contractor because they are the ones providing the service.
City Treasurer Martinez has a question regarding the budget, he explains that there might be a typo because it says two trucks and then three and is wondering if it is two or three.
Mr. Ryan stated three.
Mayor Rios says that regarding the ERP system, he has seen some numbers in the budget that suggest it is two and a half or three million and it can go high. Says it is a big cost and it can get high depending on the costs.
Mr. Ryan explains that they looked to consultants and clients first to solicit proposals and right now they are seeing depending on the city it can run one million all the way up to five million dollars. Instead of having it in house it would be charged more as an annual service that is higher in the long run as opposed to buying it upfront right now. What they need to be able to do is to solicit proposals to see who is able to provide what they need internal for a good price. For right now they don't really have a good grasp on what that is going to cost.
Mayor Rios says that he notices they have 500 new business licenses and asks if they really have that many.
Mr. Ryan explains that the business license doesn't mean that there are 500 new stores that have opened it could mean that they are people that work in town. They also have numbers for business that have closed and reopened in the same establishments, so they have both closing and opening businesses.
SPECIAL JOINT CITY COUNCIL, HOUSING AUTHORITY & SUCCESSOR AGENCY MEETING MINUTES OF AUGUST 29, 2022
ADMINISTRATIVE
SERVICES BUDGET
PRESENTATION CONT'D Mayor Rios says that they have included something about low-income housing and water assistance programs. He asks where the money is coming from.
Mr. Ryan explains that the money is coming from the state because it is a state program, and it is utilizing ARPA funds that the state has. The state is looking for programs where they can implement those ARPA funds, and this is one of those programs. They work with them to set up as an authorized agency to utilize the funds. The benefit is that they don't have to administer themselves but ultimately what it does for the city is that it helps residents get caught up with their outstanding bill payment and helps the city recover some of those outstanding balances if the city was unable to pay.
PUBLIC COMMENTS Mario Dominguez is requesting cameras in Council Chambers.
City Treasurer Martinez has a comment regarding risk management and the HR department back in 2003, they did a reconsolidation of departments. Explains that they did have a human resource that was separate from finance, and they had a risk manager, and they received a lot of rewards for the things they were doing like employee safety issues.
They were implementing a lot of progressive operational procedures. They also had a very large lawsuit coming out of the PD and they worked very closely with PD and implemented these programs that worked towards making a better work environment for staff. So, he does believe in a risk management can make the department better, he doesn't know where they got disconnected but he is glad that this is going to come back.
STAFF AND COUNCIL
COMMENTS Vice Mayor Avalos says that the only thing she can say to that is that she must give credit where credit is due, and she gives it to Mr. Jeffers for being able to bring in light to some of the issues that they had. One of his recommendations was to bring in a risk management person and to have HR have their own director. Says that they all saw the liability numbers and it is high and that is a lot and thanks the City Manager.
Mayor Rios thanks the Vice Mayor for shedding light on the situation and explains that anticipating the loses and lawsuits is a good thing and the whole idea is to take care of the employees. Thanked Mr. Jeffers for that.
City Manager suggests that they recess until tomorrow at 5. Reminds the public that there is a new call-in number that has been posted and asks them to pay attention to the one that is on the web page.
SPECIAL JOINT CITY COUNCIL, HOUSING AUTHORITY & SUCCESSOR AGENCY MEETING MINUTES OF AUGUST 29, 2022
STAFF AND COUNCIL
COMMENTS CONT'D Mayor Rios explains that regarding the cameras in the Council Chambers the technology has improved and if they could improve the speakers. He says anything that will make it more pleasing and helpful for the public. It would be nice to at least explore that option.
RECESS Prior to the conclusion of item 1, the City Council recessed the meeting to Tuesday, August 30th at 5:00 p.m.
2 COMMERCIAL ASSESSMENT
DISTRICTS The City Council considered:
ADJOURNMENT
a. Approving the purchase of Christmas Decorations in the amount of $79,923; and
b. Approving the appropriation of $59,923 from the General Funds Reserves to cover costs, less the $20,000 from the Tweedy Mile Business Improvement District (BID) Account #252-120-12-6390, to complete the total amount needed to purchase Christmas decorations for a designated area along Tweedy Boulevard within the Tweedy Mile Business District.
Council/Authority/Agency Member Davila unanimously adjourned the meeting at 9:07 p.m. and seconded Council/Authority/Agency Member Hurtado.
PASSED and APPROVED this 14th day February 2023.
ATTEST:
Maria del Pilar Avalos, Mayor/Chairperson Yodit I laze, City Clerk
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