Loading...
HomeMy WebLinkAboutrda min 2006/06/20 CC/HA MINUTES OF ADJOURNED REGULAR MEETINGS OF THE CITY COUNCIL AND THE REDEVELOPMENT AGENCY AND A SPECIAL MEETING OF THE HOUSING AUTHORITY OF THE CITY OF CHULA VISTA June 20. 2006 6:00 P.M. Adjourned Regular Meetings of the City Council and the Redevelopment Agency and a Special Meeting of the Housing Authority of the City of Chula Vista were called to order at 8:05 p.m. in the Council Chambers, located in City HaIL 276 Fourth Avenue, Chula Vista, California. ROLL CALL PRESENT: Agency/ Authority/Councilmembers Castaneda, Chavez, McCann, Rindone, and Mayor/Chair Padilla ABSENT: Agency/ Authority/Councilmembers: None ALSO PRESENT: Executive Director/Interim City Manager Thomson, Agency/Authority/City Attorney Moore, Senior Deputy City Clerk Peoples CONSENT CALENDAR (Items 1 and 2) Agency/ Authority/Councilmember Castaneda stated that he would abstain from voting on Item L as he owns property within 500 feet of the Property-Based Business Improvement District. L COUNCIL RESOLUTION NO. 2006-194 AND REDEVELOPMENT AGENCY RESOLUTION NO. 2006-1940. JOINT RESOLUTION OF THE CITY COUNCIL AND THE REDEVELOPMENT AGENCY OF THE CITY OF CHULA VISTA AUTHORIZING THE CITY MANAGER/EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR TO SIGN THE ASSESSMENT BALLOT ON BEHALF OF THE CITY OF CHULA VISTA AND THE REDEVELOPMENT AGENCY TO RENEW THE PROPERTY-BASED BUSINESS IMPROVEMENT DISTRICT FOR DOWNTOWN CHULA VISTA FOR A PERIOD OF TEN YEARS On March 7, 2006, the City acted to support the renewal of the Property-Based Business Improvement District and to sign the petition for all City and Agency-owned parcels within the district. Adoption of the resolution allows the City Manager to vote in favor of the renewal on the City/Agency's behalf. (Community Development Director/Assistant City Manager Smith) Staff recommendation: Council! Agency adopt the resolution. 2. COUNCIL RESOLUTION NO. 2006-195 AND REDEVELOPMENT AGENCY RESOLUTION NO. 2006-194L JOINT RESOLUTION OF THE CITY COUNCIL AND THE REDEVELOPMENT AGENCY OF THE CITY OF CHULA VISTA APPROVING A REQUEST BY GLEN GOOGINS FOR THE WAIVER OF POTENTIAL CONFLICT OF INTEREST WITH RESPECT TO MR. GOOGINS' PROSPECTIVE REPRESENTA nON REGARDING THE CARLIN F AMIL Y TRUST CONSENT CALENDAR (Continued) Former Senior Assistant City Attorney Glen R. Googins has requested that the City Attorney confirm that his prospective representation of the Carlin Family Trust does not present a conflict of interest that must be waived pursuant to California Rules of Professional Conduct 3-31 OeD). It does not appear at this time that the interests of Mr. Googins' prospective client are adverse to the City. Accordingly, it is recommended that the City Council waive any potential conflict arising from Mr. Googins' involvement in the matter. (City Attorney) Staff recommendation: Council! Agency adopt the resolution. ACTION: Mayor/Chair Padilla moved to approve staffs recommendations and offered the Consent Calendar, headings read, texts waived. The motion carried 5-0, except on Item 1, which carried 4-0-1, with Agency/ Authority/Councilmember Castaneda abstaining as he owns property within 500 feet of the Property-Based Business Improvement District. ITEMS REMOVED FROM THE CONSENT CALENDAR There were none. PUBLIC COMMENTS There were none. PUBLIC HEARINGS 3. CONSIDERATION OF ADOPTION OF THE OPERATING AND CAPITAL IMPROVEMENT BUDGETS FOR THE CITY, AND THE OPERATING BUDGETS FOR THE REDEVELOPMENT AGENCY AND THE HOUSING AUTHORITY FOR FISCAL YEAR 2007 The Council has received and considered the City Manager's proposed operating and capital improvement budgets for the City and the operating budgets for the Redevelopment Agency and Housing Authority for the fiscal year ending June 30, 2007. A work session was held on June 8, 2006 to consider and deliberate on the recommendations contained in the proposed budgets. The budgets submitted at this time for formal adoption represent the City Manager's initial proposed budgets for fiscal year 2007, amended to reflect various budget items that address issues identified at the budget workshop and other miscellaneous clean up changes. (Budget and Analysis Director) Notice of the hearing was given in accordance with legal requirements, and the hearing was held on the date and at the time specified in the notice. Mayor Padilla opened the public hearing Page 2 - Council/RDA/HA Minutes June 20, 2006 PUBLIC HEARINGS (Continued) Director of Budget and Analysis Van Eenoo presented the proposed budget update and final budget adjustments that included: staffing adjustments, general fund changes, other fund adjustments, all funds expenditures, all funds revenues, and general fund reserves. Also included were other issues such as cell phone and travel analyses, geographical distribution of capital improvement projects. and fiscal policies (equipment replacement, fraud hotline, and reward program). Mayor/Chair Padilla requested and received confirmation that the total number of full-time equivalent positions in the proposed budget update were essential positions that reflect public safety and a Metropolitan Transit System position, that the proposed position reclassification to Senior Assistant City Attorney would have no net fiscal impact on the City Attorney's budget, and that the additional appropriation of $100,000 for the City Attorney's Department dealt with litigation and ongoing court-related litigation matters. Director Van Eenoo responded afIirmative1y. Mayor/Chair Padilla also requested confirmation that the General Fund reserve, if taken collectively, was in excess of the eight percent policy. Director Van Eenoo replied affirmatively, adding that if combined, the restricted and un-restricted reserves were above eight percent. Council!Agency/Authority member McCann asked about the City's long-term strategy of ensuring that the City does not fall below its reserves. Director Van Eenoo replied that following the Finance Department's five-year projections, it would look at the City's existing expenditure commitments and compare those to conservative revenue projections. Council! Agency/Authority member McCann asked how long it would take to implement a cell phone policy. Finance Director Kachadoorian replied that staff would return to the Council in approximately three weeks. Council/Agency/Authority member McCann stated he was in favor of deleting the Principal Legislative Analyst position in the proposed budget adjustments and also spoke in favor of deleting the Principal Management Assistant/Council Liaison position. Council! Agency/Authority member Castaneda spoke regarding a memorandum he submitted to the Council on a number of policy decisions. Regarding Community Choice Aggregation, he requested that staff bring back a report as soon as possible. With reference to department line- item budgets, he asked what happened to unused funds. Director Van Eenoo replied that departments could move funding from different line items in their budgets to keep in line with their budget-to-actual totals. Council! Agency/ Authority member Castaneda felt that there should be a policy that departments would need to follow to move funds between their budget line items. He asked what quality controls existed on budgets for departments. Director Kachadoorian replied that departments could only move up to $15,000 between categories without Council approval. Interim City Manager Thomson clarified that any unspent funds for departments went into the General Fund reserves. Council/Agency/Authority member Castaneda suggested consideration of refining department budgets in order to help supplement the fund for the capital improvement project for street maintenance and repair. Director Kachadoorian expressed concern about restricting departments to the line item level, because she had seen, as a former auditor, departments start charging accounts that have money versus the actual line item accounts. Regarding street maintenance and repairs. she asked Council! Agency/Authority Page 3 - Council/RDA/HA Minutes June 20, 2006 PUBLIC HEARINGS (Continued) member Castaneda if it would be his proposal that anything above the eight percent policy be set aside for street maintenance. Council/ Agency/Authority member Castaneda replied that there needed to be a policy discussion with the Council on how to spend discretionary money for street repairs. He expressed the need to do more in terms of infrastructure. Interim City Manager Thomson pointed out that staff is currently conducting a pavement management study with results anticipated for October 2006, which would be a good time to address the issue. Additionally, a major infrastructure issue is proposed for the November ballot that could provide potential funding for cities. He suggested that further discussions on this matter could be facilitated within the October/November timeframe. Council! Agency/Authority member Rindone commended the Office of Budget and Analysis and Finance staff on an excellent and comprehensive budget document. He requested that staff provide a report on the reserves of each of the 18 cities in the County within 60 days after adoption of the budgets, and that the item be placed on a future agenda for discussion. He complimented staff on a thorough report regarding a prior referral on the road condition on E Street, stating that this referral was copasetic with the need for increased maintenance and repair in the City. He then reported that he would abstain from voting on Items 3A and 3E because of the proximity of his residence to the projects. He referred to a memorandum submitted by Council/Agency/Housing Authority member Castaneda regarding constituent services and policy review analysis enhancement, stating that he could not support Councilmember Castaneda's recommendation to augment the Council budget by $15,000 for each Council Office, and he believed that there was no necessity to provide fringe benefits for those particular positions. He felt that all the other services in the Mayor's office meet the needs of Council and, when looking at keeping a close eye on the City" s reserves, he was hopeful that the Council would support his position. Council/Agency/Authority member Castaneda stated that he would abstain from voting on Item 3F. He then responded to Council!Agency/Authority member Rindone's comments relative to Council staffing, explaining that the $57,000 reflected a number that has been available to Council Offices for some time. He felt that it was important to have a full-time staff person to provide responsive constituent services, expertise, and understanding of City/government operations, and that while there was a need to be cognizant of taxpayers' money being spent, he would expect any staff person working in his office to be top notch and to provide a high level of service to the constituents. He believed that staff should be appropriately compensated for the job they do. Regarding the recommendation to add a Principal Management Assistant/Council Liaison position, Council/ Agency/Authority member Chavez suggested that the matter come back with further details on the needs and benefits of such a position. She concurred with the recommendation by Council!Agency/Housing Authority member Castaneda regarding Council Aides, stating that if the City is not currently in a position to approve the recommendation, then the matter should be brought back with a detailed analysis. Page 4 - Council/RDA/HA Minutes June 20, 2006 PUBLIC HEARING (Continued) Council!Agency/Authority member McCann stated that the Council's most important responsibility is fiscal and fiduciary. He spoke of the need to create a budget committee to stay ahead of the game and the need to have a clear plan to find savings, avoid cutting services, re- capitalize City reserves, and to meet Council priorities and City services. He stated that the budget reserves are specifically itemized for replacement costs, that the City needs to look further to ensure that it is looking at the spending plan and revenues, and not taking away from planned maintenance in order to continuously re-capitalize the reserves. He felt that the Council policy of eight percent should be targeted at potentially 10 % or higher for the reserves to deal with shortfalls in revenues. He expressed the need to prioritize a policy for cell phone usage and to seek ways to save funds and maintain a high level of production and efficiency for the residents. He pointed out the idea of implementing a fraud line and working on policies for staff travel, staff vehicle mileage reimbursement, debt, ethics, and cash management. He felt that ultimately, implementing a plan now would avoid long-term pains in the future. Chair/Mayor Padilla made the following suggestions: ]) To incorporate a staff referral as part of the budget adoption to bring back a resolution establishing a Council subcommittee to meet on an ad-hoc basis through the next ] 20 days to the balance on the calendar year, with the Mayor and Deputy Mayor as members; 2) A time frame for staff to come back in conjunction with the City Manager's Office and the Director of Finance on the matter of potentially establishing an auditing division in the Finance Department; 3) That the Council subcommittee take a cursory look, working with the City Manager, Finance Director, and Budget Director, at a citywide departmental review of the five-year fiscal projections, staffing, allocation and prioritization of resources; 4) Policy issues that need to be vetted that look at the fiscal aspect of the pavement management program, and an analysis on baseline or capital improvement budgeting that looks at rehabilitation and repair on an ongoing basis that would not be heavily dependent on grant funding or one-time revenues; and 5) The need for an examination of the Council staff budget policy, blocking budgeting for each Councilmember and making them accountable for their individual budgets, and bringing the information back to Council no later than the end of November 2006. He then spoke in support of freezing or deleting the proposed Principal Management Assistant/Council Liaison; deleting the Development Specialist in Community Development; and in support of the Public Safety recommendations and enhancements as being essential services. Council/ Agency/Authority member McCann stated that he would abstain from voting on Items 3B and 3E, as he owns property that falls within the proximity of the project areas. It was the consensus of the Council to revise the proposed budget to remove the Principal Management Assistant/Council Liaison position to come back at a future date for discussion. Council/Agency/Authority member Rindone stated that although he supports Item 3D, he did not want to create a mi spercepti on, and clarified that adding $].0 million from the Technology Replacement Fund and $2.4 million from the Equipment Replacement Fund would not be increasing the reserves by $3.4 million, but that it was only a different accounting method. Chair/Mayor Padilla clarified that there has been criticism in the press that the City is not doing well financially and suggesting that the City is behind other communities because of that. He stated that the reality is that the City's reserves are about 9.9 percent in total. He believed that the Council wanted to have a commitment to a healthy, fully funded reserve that keeps the City at or above its basic minimum as a way to assure the citizens that the Council is acting in a responsible way. Council!Agency/Authority member McCann responded to the comment by Council/Agency/Authority member Rindone that he had not made any statements that created new money. and he clarified the restricted versus un-restricted reserves. Page 5 - Council/RDA/HA Minutes June 20, 2006 PUBLIC HEARING (Continued) Council! Agency/Authority member Rindone asked staff to bring back for discussion by the Council the proposed salary for the Chula Vista Redevelopment Corporation CEO/Executive Director. ACTION: Council/Agency/Authority member McCann moved to establish a Council budget subcommittee consisting of the Mayor and Deputy Mayor. Mayor/Chair Padilla seconded the motion, and it carried 5-0. ACTION: Council! Agency/Authority member McCann offered Resolution No 2006-196, heading read, text waived: A. RESOLUTION NO. 2006-196. RESOLUTION OF THE CITY COUNCIL OF THE CITY OF CHULA VISTA ADOPTING THE CAPITAL IMPROVEMENT BUDGET FOR PROJECT STL309 FOR FISCAL YEAR 2007, AND APPROPRIATING FUNDS FOR THE FISCAL YEAR ENDING JUNE 30, 2007 The motion carried 4-0-1, with Council/Agency/Authority member Rindone abstaining due to the proximity of his residence to the project. ACTION: Council/Agency/Authority member Rindone offered Resolution No 2006-197, heading read, text waived: B. RESOLUTION NO. 2006-197, RESOLUTION OF THE CITY COUNCIL OF THE CITY OF CHULA VISTA ADOPTING THE CAPITAL IMPROVEMENT BUDGET FOR PROJECT SW235 FOR FISCAL YEAR 2007, AND APPROPRIATING FUNDS FOR THE FISCAL YEAR ENDING JUNE 30, 2007 The motion carried 4-0-1, with Council! Agency/Authority member McCann abstaining due to the proximity of his residence to the project. ACTION: Council/Agency/Authority member Chavez offered Resolution No. 2006-198, heading read, text waived: C. RESOLUTION NO. 2006-198, RESOLUTION OF THE CITY COUNCIL OF THE CITY OF CHULA VISTA ADOPTING THE OPERA TING AND CAPITAL IMPROVEMENT BUDGETS FOR THE CITY OF CHULA VISTA EXCLUDING CAPITAL PROJECTS STL309 AND SW235 FOR FISCAL YEAR 2007, AND APPROPRIATING FUNDS FOR THE FISCAL YEAR ENDING JUNE 30, 2007 The motion carried 5-0. Page 6 - Council/RDAlHA Minutes June 20, 2006 PUBLIC HEARING (Continued) ACTION: Mayor/Chair Padilla offered Council Resolution No. 2006-199, Redevelopment Agency Resolution Nos. 1942, 1943, 1944, and Housing Authority Resolution Nos. 029, 030, 031 for adoption and the ordinance for first reading, as amended to remove the Principal Management Assistant/Council Liaison position, headings read, texts waived: D. RESOLUTION NO. 2006-199, RESOLUTION OF THE CITY COUNCIL OF THE CITY OF CHULA VISTA AUTHORIZING THE TRANSFER OF $LO MILLION FROM THE TECHNOLOGY REPLACEMENT FUND AND $2.4 MILLION FROM THE EQUIPMENT REPLACEMENT FUND TO THE GENERAL FUND E. REDEVELOPMENT AGENCY RESOLUTION NO. 2006-1942, AND HOUSING AUTHORITY NO. 2006-029, JOINT RESOLUTION OF THE REDEVELOPMENT AGENCY AND THE HOUSING AUTHORITY OF THE CITY OF CHULA VISTA ADOPTING THE OPERATING AND CAPITAL IMPROVEMENT BUDGET FOR THE SOUTHWEST /TO\\J'NE CENTER II/OT A Y V ALLEY/ADDED AREA PROJECT AREA FOR FISCAL YEAR 2007, AND APPROPRIATING FUNDS FOR THE FISCAL YEAR ENDING JUNE 30, 2007 F. REDEVELOPMENT AGENCY RESOLUTION NO. 2006-1943, AND HOUSING AUTHORITY NO. 2006-030, JOINT RESOLUTION OF THE REDEVEL09PMENT AGENCY AND THE HOUSING AUTHORITY OF THE CITY OF CHULA VISTA ADOPTING THE OPERATING AND CAPITAL IMPROVEMENT BUDGETS FOR THE REDEVELOPMENT AGENCY FOR TOWNE CENTER I AND THE BA YFRONT PROJECT AREAS FOR FISCAL YEAR 2007, AND APPROPRIA TING FUNDS FOR THE FISCAL YEAR ENDING JUNE 30,2007 G. REDEVELOPMENT AGENCY RESOLUTION NO. 2006-1944, AND HOUSING AUTHORITY NO. 2006-031, JOINT RESOLUTION OF THE REDEVELOPMENT AGENCY AND THE HOUSING AUTHORITY OF THE CITY OF CHULA VISTA ADOPTING THE OPERA TING AND CAPITAL IMPROVEMENT BUDGETS FOR THE HOUSING AUTHORITY FOR FISCAL YEAR 2007, AND APPROPRIA TING FUNDS FOR THE FISCAL YEAR ENDING JUNE 30,2007 H. ORDINANCE OF THE CITY OF CHULA VISTA AMENDING CHULA VISTA MUNICIPAL CODE SECTION 2.05.010 RELATING TO THE ESTABLISHMENT OF UNCLASSIFIED POSITIONS TO ADD THE POSITIONS OF EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR OF THE REDEVELOPMENT AGENCY/CEO OF THE CVRC, CBAG EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR. DEVELOPMENT PLANNING IMPROVEMENT MANAGER. /.ND PRINCIP,'\L MAN,'\GEMENT 1'\SSISTANT/COUNClL LIAISOl\' Page 7 - Council/RDA/HA Minutes June 20. 2006 PUBLIC HEARING (Continued) The motion carried 5-0, except on Item 3E, which carried 3-0-2, with Council!Agency/Authority members Rindone and McCann abstaining, due to the proximity of their residences to the project area, and on Item 3F, which carried 4- 0-1, with Council! Agency/Authority member Castaneda abstaining due to the proximity of his residence to the Towne Center 1 and Bayfront project areas. OTHER BUSINESS 4. CITY MANAGER/DIRECTOR'S REPORTS There were none. 5. MA YOR/CHAIR'S REPORTS There were none. 6. COUNCIL/AGENCY MEMBER'S COMMENTS There were none. ADJOURNMENT At 12:25 p.m., Chair/Mayor Padilla adjourned the meeting to the Adjourned Regular Meeting on June 22, 2006 at 6:00 p.m., and thence to the Regular Meeting of July 18, 2006 at 6:00 p.m. in the Council Chambers. ~ ~ Lorraine Bennett, Deputy City Clerk Page 8 - Council/RDA/HA Minutes June 20, 2006