07-25-2023 City Council Meeting Minutes Page 1
MINUTES OF THE SECOND REGULAR MEETING OF THE TRINIDAD CITY COUNCIL TUESDAY, JULY 25, 2023 (LIVE/HYBRID)
I. CALL TO ORDER
Mayor Kelly called the live-hybrid meeting to order at 6:00pm. Council members in attendance: Kelly, Ladwig, West, Tuttle, Breckenridge. City Staff in attendance: City Manager Eli Naffah, City Clerk Gabriel Adams, Administrative Assistant Anton Souza. Approximately (9) participants were present by video-conference at the beginning of the meeting.
II. PLEDGE OF ALLEGIANCE
III. CLOSED SESSION
1. Conference with Legal Counsel – Existing Litigation (Calif. Gov. Code Section 54956.9(d)(1)) (1 Case: City of Trinidad vs.
Tsurai Ancestral Society, et. al, Humb. Co. Sup. Court Case No. 180684)
2. Personnel Exception 54957 - City Manager Performance Evaluation IV. RECONVENE TO OPEN SESSION - No reportable action taken.
V. APPROVAL OF THE AGENDA
Motion (West/Ladwig) to approve the agenda as written. Passed unanimously.
VI. APPROVAL OF MINUTES – 06-13-2023 cc
Motion (West/Kelly) to approve the minutes as submitted. Passed unanimously.
VII. COUNCIL REPORTS/COMMITTEE ASSIGNMENTS
West: Attended HCAOG, walkabout with Dan Byrd and other City officials to learn how to create walkable communities.
Ladwig: Extend appreciation for Coastal Resiliency meeting attendees. Next meeting will be held in the fall.
Kelly, Breckenridge, Tuttle: Nothing to report.
VIII.STAFF REPORTS – City Manager & Law Enforcement
City Manager Naffah highlighted accomplishments summarized in the staff report included in the meeting packet. He noted that the contract with Pacific Coast Security is still being reviewed by their legal representatives. Coverage should resume within the next week or two. HCSO Captain Quinnell is preparing an Animal Control Services contract for consideration by the City at the next meeting. Trinidad Chamber of Commerce plans a mixer in August at the new Beachcomber Café, and the Fish Festival in October.
Kelly thanked staff for the comprehensive grant update included in the meeting packet.
Ladwig noted the trend of decreasing water use historically over the last few years.
IX. ITEMS FROM THE FLOOR
(Three (3) minute limit per Speaker unless Council approves request for extended time.) Paula Levine – Trinidad Area Resident
Evaluated the Outside City Water Connection Policy adopted by the Council a few months ago. I have suggestions to revise and make it better. Also, more residents should be included to serve on the Water Advisory Committee.
Diane Stockness – Trinidad Resident
Here to announce her interest in being appointed as a resident to the STR Advisory Committee, and ask how to formally apply. Also expressed hope that Supervisor Madrone is training security personnel or public works to issue dog citations. We’re in a ditch. We don’t have reliable security for such a busy tourist town. We need the ambassadors, and more security in addition to the Sheriff.
City Manager Naffah confirmed that the Sheriff provides regular patrols to the City as required by contract. 07-25-2023 City Council Meeting Minutes Page 2
Kelly apologized to the community for service disruption with Pacific Coast Security due to an insurance related contract challenge. We ironed it out and PCS will be back on patrol in the near future.
Richard Marx – Regional Compliance Manager for the Construction Industry Force Account Council Attending to check in and see how things are going.
Aaron Hakenen – Trinidad
I see the Sheriff patrolling regularly. The belief that there is no police presence is not the case, but we can always use more. Traffic calming is not on the agenda, although the action reported in the 06/13/2023 cc minutes clearly state direction was given to staff to investigate information presented and return with proposals.
Hope it will be brought back soon.
Kelly request to list ongoing project updates in the City Manager’s report.
City Manager Naffah confirmed traffic calming will be brought back at a future meeting, and that the HSIP crosswalk construction update is included in the detailed grant report.
X. CONSENT AGENDA
1. Staff Activity Report – June 2023
2. Financial Statements – May 2023
3. Law Enforcement Report – June 2023
Motion (Ladwig/West) to approve consent agenda as submitted. Passed unanimously.
X. DISCUSSION/ACTION AGENDA ITEMS
1. Discussion/Presentation regarding Water Storage Tank & Pipeline Replacement Project Update.
City Engineer Steve Allen presented an update on the project, explaining that the City entered into a grant agreement with the Department of Water Resources in June 2022 for the Trinidad Water Storage Tank and Pipeline Replacement Project (Project) funded by the Small Community Drought Relief Program grant funding to replace old and leak prone water mains on Westhaven Drive and Edwards Street and to construct a 300,000 gallon steel storage tank to replace one 150,000 gallon redwood tank.
In September 2022, the City entered into consultant agreements with GHD for engineering and planning services, and with SHN for planning support. The grant will pay for work completed under these project consultant agreements.
Allen provided an updated presentation that included the following topics:
- Summary Overview
- Water Tank Replacement
• Tank size has been reduced due to increasing costs (from 300,000 to 250,000 gallons). • Stainless Steel material
• Tank access road improved
• Tank main service lines replaced.
• Planning for eventual replacement of second tank with a larger tank. - Water Line Replacement
• Replace 600 ft of aging a/c, 4” pipe on Edwards Street from Hector to Galindo with 8” pipe. • Replace 365 feet of new 6” water main on Van Wycke and remove the temporary line that spans the slide area.
- Schedule
• Construction August-October 2023.
CEQA Environmental Documentation and permitting have been completed. The 100% Plans and Specifications have been drafted with review comments and last details being addressed for the final bid documents.
The project scope has been slightly revised to match available grant funding based on direction provided from the funder. We are replacing the water mains on Edwards and Van Wycke Streets as planned, and replacing an 07-25-2023 City Council Meeting Minutes Page 3
existing 150,000-gallon redwood water storage tank with a new 250,000-gallon steel water tank, and replacing additional water mains on Westhaven Drive as planned.
The project is scheduled to go out to bid in July. The construction timeline begins this summer and likely through next summer based on material availability. To keep the project moving forward, staff suggests that Council authorize the City Manager to continue to deliver the project per grant agreements such as advertising for bids and awarding the construction contract to the lowest responsive, responsible bidder or to reject all bids if they exceed the available grant budget.
Payment for timber removed along access road and at water storage tank site to landowner. The original landowner of the tank site and current owner of the access road that the City uses via right-of-way to get to the tank site stated the original agreement with the City was that the City could access and use the tank site and the landowner would receive reimbursement for any the commercial value of any trees removed. The City Manager agreed to honor that agreement and reimburse the previous owner of the water tank site and current owner of the access road for the commercial value of the trees removed for this project.
To determine the commercial value of the trees, staff recommend valuation by a third-party forester assessment. James Able Forestry Consultants, a local forestry consultant firm, was contacted and provided a proposal to do this work for a price of $1,500. City staff will inquire with funder about using grant funds for the forester’s fee and payment of timber value to landowner. In the case that the forester’s fee is not grant reimbursable, staff is requesting authorization to pay for this expense out of the water fund. In the case that the timber value is not grant reimbursable, staff will return to Council with valuation amount and propose payment from the water fund.
Council questions included:
Ladwig: Will the second tank be the same size, when the time comes and funding becomes available. Allen confirmed that this is the intent.
West: Lifetime of a stainless steel tank? Allen explained, approximately 80 years based on manufacturers expectations as compared to other tank materials that fall within the 40-year lifespan, especially in coastal areas.
Tuttle: Any concern for trees falling on the tanks? Allen confirmed, yes, it’s undesirable and trees are planned to be removed to create a buffer around the tanks, but the City does not own all trees in the vicinity.
Kelly: Has the City established a procurement process?
Grant Administrator Becky Price-Hall stated her confidence with GHD handling the contract specifications within the State required procurement procedures.
Public comment included:
Paula Levine – Trinidad Area Resident
Has anyone investigated replacing the steel banks around the tank, saving the tank and adding the new tank along with it. Could we reach out to a woodworkers guild to dismantle the tank and utilize the redwood? Allen explained that redwood tanks used to be common, but not as much now. Refurbishing them is also not common, and the current quality of redwood is not superior to the material used 40-50 years ago. Old tank has galvanized band, but the new tank has PVC coated steel that is deteriorating faster than the old tank. The tank seems to be having issues beyond the steel band deterioration as well.
Aaron Hakenen – Trinidad
Excited to see the timber contract with Able Forestry. There was a discussion about salvage value of the redwood tank material. What happened with that?
Allen confirmed this was discussed internally with staff. Did not engage with Able Forestry on this component.
How do we set up the contract docs to utilize and benefit from that? If we forced the value or benefit of the value, we may miss out on the full benefit of the grant construction costs. We left it up to the contractor to determine, leaving a net result to the City of leaving more money for improvements. 07-25-2023 City Council Meeting Minutes Page 4
Richard Marx – Construction Industry Force Account Council The force account limit for a general law city is $5000. If the City considers adopting the California Uniform Cost Accounting Act (from the State Controller’s Office) it will raise the informal bid limit to $200,000. Smaller cities have that adopted.
Motion Kelly/West to authorize the following items: Passed unanimously. • Authorize the City Manager to continue to deliver the project per grant agreements, including soliciting and accepting or rejecting all bids and awarding the construction contract to the lowest responsive responsible bidder provided it is within the grant budget.
• Authorize the City Manager to engage a professional forester to inventory the trees to be removed and provide a commercial valuation of that timber. Authorize the City Manager to provide payment from water fund for timber valuation by third party forester if the request for grant reimbursement is not approved by the funder.
• Authorize the City Manager to provide payment for the assessed timber value to the prior owner of the tank site and current owner of the access road if the request for grant reimbursement is approved by the funder.
2. Discussion/Decision regarding Introduction/First Reading of Ordinance 2023-03; correcting and reaffirming codification of the City of Trinidad Zoning Ordinance, Title 17 of the Trinidad Municipal Code.
City Planner Trever Parker explained that discussion items 2 and 3 are combined. The City first codified it’s ordinances in 1990 with an update and creation of an online code in 2012. The ordinance codification process refers to the systematic and organized method of compiling and consolidating local laws, regulations, and ordinances into a comprehensive and consistent legal code. The City is currently working on another update to the Trinidad Municipal Code.
The codification process changes the numbering of the original ordinances as well as some of the verbiage and formatting. The changes that were made to the zoning ordinance as part of the codification process were never certified by the Coastal Commission. Therefore, the Coastal Commission does not recognize the City’s numbering of its ordinances. And so, in the past, such as with the STR ordinance, the City included both numbering systems in the new ordinance to allow for certification by the Coastal Commission.
The City has recently been working on several housing related zoning amendments. These amendments add and update quite a few definitions and various sections of the zoning ordinance. The use of two numbering systems was becoming unwieldy. This is particularly true for the definitions, which are unnumbered in an appendix to the original ordinance, leaving no easy way to refer to individual definitions. Therefore, it was decided that the City should go ahead and get the codified version of the zoning ordinance certified by the Coastal Commission to facilitate current and planned amendments.
This process has been more complicated than originally anticipated. The City has passed several zoning ordinance amendments over the years that have been incorporated into the codified ordinance, but were never submitted to the Coastal Commission for certification. And there may have been some errors in the codification process and/or the City’s adoption of changes to the original zoning ordinance recommended by the Coastal Commission that created inconsistencies between the codified ordinance and the certified ordinance. But since this goes back to 1980, locating all the records has been difficult. City and Coastal Commission staff are still working through some of the discrepancies to figure out the most efficient path forward.
Therefore, this item will be continued to the August 22nd meeting, but because it was noticed for this meeting, the item was included on the agenda.
3. Discussion/Decision regarding Introduction/First Reading of Ordinance 2023-04; reaffirming codification of the City of Trinidad Zoning Ordinance and amendments thereto that were not submitted to the CA Coastal Commission for certification.
As noted in agenda item 2, this will be continued to either the August 22nd meeting, or first meeting in September.
4. Discussion/Decision regarding City Manager Contract Renewal.
Mayor Kelly explained that there is no report from closed session. The closed session discussion will be continued to the next meeting.
07-25-2023 City Council Meeting Minutes Page 5
Public comment included:
Diane Stockness – Trinidad
The City Manager should work 5 days per week to deal with issues. The four-day schedule is outdated. We have STR’s, homeless issues, and so much going on.
Council comments included:
Kelly: I have some concerns about renewing the contract tonight. I’m getting feedback from staff and looking for more information from the public. Would like to continue this to the next meeting for more time to review and consider the information. Agenda item should be discussed again in August. We can set new priorities for the City Manager, helping and supporting his leadership in the process.
West: Has the salary increase already been implemented? Kelly confirmed.
Ladwig: I would like to have more public input as well. There is a lot more activity in the City, more staff, and opportunity to realign expectations of the City Manager position as the City evolves and grows. I don’t believe the expectations of the job have grown with the City, and I’d like to make sure this is considered in a renewal process.
Breckenridge: I agree. Spoke with several residents that could not attend and provide feedback tonight and I’d like to hear from them if they could join us.
Motion (Kelly/West) to continue the discussion to the August meeting, with the understanding that the Council will discuss areas for the City Manager to focus. Passed unanimously.
5. Discussion/Decision regarding August Council Meeting Schedule.
City Manager Naffah noted that the next meeting is scheduled to occur in 2 weeks, and vacation schedules make meeting on August 22nd more practical, along with getting back to the normal routine by holding the first regular meeting in September.
The Council agreed, by consensus, to accept the August meeting schedule.
FUTURE AGENDA ITEMS
- Ladwig: Traffic calming.
- Kelly/Breckenridge: Discuss Animal Control services and public outreach campaign concepts. - Tuttle: PGE Utiltity Undergrounding.
ADJOURNMENT: 7:45pm.
Submitted by: Approved by:
_____________________________ _____________________________ Gabriel Adams Cheryl Kelly
Trinidad City Clerk Mayor