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HomeMy WebLinkAboutcc min 1998/06/17SPECIAL MEETING/WORKSHOP OF THE CITY COUNCIL OF THE CITY OF CHI/LA VISTA Wednesday, June 17, 1998 5:35 p.m. Council Conference Room Administration Building CALL TO ORDER 1. ROLL CALL: PRESENT: Councilmembers: Padills, Rindone, Salas, and Mayor Horton. ABSENT: Councilmembers: Moot ALSO PRESENT: City Manager, David D. Rowlands; City Attorney, John M. Kaheny; and Deputy City Clerk, Charline Long BUSINESS/BUDGET HEARINGS 2. DEVELOPMENT AND MAINTENANCE - Code Enforcement Program; RDA Budget/Loan Repayment; Program Flexibility; Town Manager; Storm Drain System; Council Chambers Enhancements; Fleet Management Fund; Gas Tas; Telecenter; Courtesy Citation Program; and Ladder Truck Response Time to Eastern Territory. BUILDING AND HOUSING DEPARTMENT Code Enforcement Proqram: Ken Larson, Director of Building and Housing, presented his request for $71,279 for additional staff to support an upgraded and revised Code Enforcement Program. Councilmember Rindone inquired if the cost for a hearing officer and the training of that officer would be offset by fees recovered caused by the increase in citations issued. Mr. Larson responded that the ordinance allows an individual the right of appeal, whether it is an administrative or a misdemeanor citation, for which there is a filing fee that is refundable if the appellant is successful. It is the intent of the appellate process to subsidize the hearing officer cost by the applicants that are not successful and whose fees would not be refundable. councilmember Rindone inquired if the every other Saturday code enforcement schedule would change and how the continuous home garage sales would be affected. Mr. Larson responded that with the implementation of the Manager in October they will have code enforcement activity every Saturday, which will have a definite affect on the continuous garage sales in the area. The current code allows for two garage sale permits per year, at no cost to the individual. Individuals that conduct garage sales without permits are given friendly warnings for first time violations, repeat offenders are entered in to the database as violations against that particular property. Continuous garage sale complaints are tracked through the database and the abatement process is started at that time. Councilmember Padilla asked what percentage of inspection activity and enforcement activity is non-problematic compared to non-reactive based on process or designs of process. Minutes June 17, 1998 Page 2 Mr. Larson replied that less than 10% are pro-active, such as neighborhood/community appearance programs. These peer-to-peer self-regulating programs have a tremendous impact on abating nuisances. As opposed to pro-active abatement that is conducted after sections of the community have been targeted by a high influx of complaints. ACTION: MSUC (Padilla/Rindone) to give conceptual approval. COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT DEPARTMENT RDA Budqet/Loan Repayment: Chris Salomone, Director Community Development, stated the plan for paying back the general fund $427,000 will be by taking $300,000 generated by Otay Valley excess property tax and $127,000 from an old CIP concerning the trolley center and the relocation of the bowling alley. Ideally we're looking at conceptual approval on the repayment of the loan from the agency to the general fund. councilmember Rindone asked if there is a $27 million payback to the general fund and how much of that is for the Nature Center, and what is a realistic payback estimate. Mr. Salomone replied that only $9 million is due the general fund and around 30% is for the Nature Center. A realistic payback estimate is going to require a strategy for repayment, and that is a key issue in obtaining the services of a financial advisor to assist the city in developing this strategy for repayment. Councilmember Rindone stated that with the changing economy and lower loan rates sometimes refinancing can decrease costs. Mr. Salomone agreed, indicating that the financial advisor would be looking at a number of loans that could be readjusted to current interest rates. ACTION: MSUC (Rindone/Padilla) to give conceptual approval. Proqram Flexibility: Chris Salomone, Community Development Director, stated his request for $140,000 was for discretionary funding. Allowing flexibility in using professional services on an as-needed basis, within the City Manager's discretionary authority. This will allow staff the opportunity to operate without returning to Council on an ad hoc basis for each individual small project. ACTION: MSUC (Padilla/Horton) to give conceptual approval. Downtown Manaqer: Chris Salomone, Community Development Director, stated his request for $20,000 to match the funds provided by the Downtown Business Association in order to increase the Downtown Manager's part-time position to a full-time manager. ACTION: MSUC (Horton/Padilla) to give conceptual approval. Minutes June 17, 1998 Page 3 PUBLIC WORKS DEPARTMENT John Lippett, Public Works Director, presented his request for $205,000 for the Storm Drain System. Originally Corrugated Metal Pipe (CMP) was used from 1949 to 1983 with a fifty-year life span. Unfortunately this is not the case and we no longer use CMP. During El Nino, we had three sink-holes and it is imperative that we inspect the existing pipes to identify what needs to be repaired or replaced. We have received an estimate from a local contractor, using video technology, to inspect 22 miles for around $85,000. After the inspection, staff would evaluate the needed repairs, and prepare a CIP for those repairs. Best estimate at this time would be around $10 million. Another need is for the city to have a state-of-the-art explosion proof TV sewer inspection system. The vendor is willing to give us full credit for our outdated existing system towards the purchase of a new system costing around $120,000; this would come from the sewer and storm drain facilities replacement fund. Staff's recommendation is to amend the proposed 1998/99 budget and add $85,000 for inspection of the CMP drains from the sewer replacement fund, and $23,450 from the sewer replacement fund and $96,550 from the storm drain fund for the purchase of the new TV inspection system. ACTION: MSUC (Padilla/Salas) to give conceptual approval. Council Chambers Enhancements: John Lippitt, Public Works Director, stated his request for $16,400 to upgrade the Council Chambers 20-year old audio system by upgrading and replacing the amplifiers and the automatic microphones and installing new speakers. ACTION: MSUC (Horton/Padilla) to give conceptual approval. FINANCE DEPARTMENT City Vehicle Fleet Management: Bob Powell, Finance Director, presented his report to combine the central garage fund and equipment replacement fund under one fleet management fund. ACTION: MSUC (Padilla/salas) to give conceptual approval. Recess at 6:43 p.m. The meeting reconvened at 6:50 p.m. with Mayor Horton absent. PUBLIC WORKS DEPARTMENT Gas Tax: John Lippitt, Public Works Director, presented a report on Gas Tax of $2.4 million. In order to provide and maintain 325 miles of streets, 60 of which are four lanes represents an investment in pavement area of over $250 million. Ideally, preventive maintenance is less costly when you compare reconstruction costs at $20 a square yard, pavement overlay at $4 a square yard, and pavement preventive treatment at $1 a square yard. The budget for pavement maintenance has not increased, and it is estimated that $5 million per year for the next five years should be spent for all maintenance strategies to maintain the streets at their present level of service. The company hired to evaluate our streets, using laser technology and deflection equipment, rated the city at 79 which is the high end of fair. In order to maintain that rating, we would have to spend Minutes June 17, 1998 Page 4 around $29 million over the next five years. The gas tax revenue is estimated at $2.9 million and operating expenditures at $2.4 million, with the CIP budget of $284,000 and no funds budgeted for pavement overlay. Staff is recommending that $269,000 be spent on pavement overlays and $10,000 be spent on maintenance of medians for Telegraph Canyon Road. This represents a surplus of $279,000 in the gas tax budget. Also a total of $8 million in TransNet funding is proposed for fiscal years 2000 to 2003 for major pavement rehabilitation work. In addition to the general overlay programs, staff is reconunending to use the TransNet program to fund major overlay and reconstruction work on Main Street, H Street (I-5 to Broadway), and E Street (I-5 to Broadway); those projects will total about $4.3 million. Staff will be investigating possible funding sources during the year to allocate towards pavement overlays for the 1999/2000 fiscal year budget. councilmember Salas stated that this was not good news, especially since her impression was that the city's streets were in pretty good shape. Mr. Lippitt replied that in spending all of our Transit money, which is in the range of $2 million a year, on pavement repair and overlays would help. The trick is to catch repairs before they need to be reconstructed. ACTION: MSUC (Padilla/salas) to give conceptual approval. ENVIRONMENTAL MANAGEMENT DEPARTMENT Telecenter: Barbara Bamberger, Environmental Resource Manager, stated her request for $15,000 was to fund the Telecenter until grant money applied for comes in. The request outlined three options: (1) To close the facilities August 31, 1998. With this option, no additional impact will occur and $15,000 has already been authorized. (2) Continue operations at the Telecenter for the full fiscal year that will require an additional $45,100. (3) Bridge funding until we know Of the grant awards. If the grants are awarded, they will provide enough money through the end of the fiscal year and beyond. With this option, no additional impact is necessary, and the Telecenter will be able to operate until the end of September; by then we will know about the grant money. councilmember Salas stated that the concept for the Telecenter was innovative, but now with technology and the popularity of home computers is the Telecenter being utilized by users as was first envisioned. Ms. Bamberger replied that the occupancy rate incorporates both telecommuters as well as renters, and additionally telecommuter conference users. Occupancy rates have risen over the last five to six months to 75 to 90 users per month. Councilmember Salas inquired as to who has been managing the center since the Telecenter Director left. Ms. Bamberger stated that they are looking to hire a new Director to either close the facility or to continue marketing the facility. Councilmember Salas stated that it was bothersome to rely on grants that the timing of grants is really sensitive. Dave Rowlands, City Manager, replied that additional revenue has been found to bridge the gap through September 31, 1998 and if the grant is known to be Minutes June 17, 1998 Page 5 rejected the first part of September, the close out begins as planned at the end of September; there is no more general fund money at risk. If the grant funding does come they are safe until November, 1998. Councilmember Rindone asked if they had talked to the school district. There are some avenues to explore, and he would be glad to give them some contacts. Ms. Bamberger replied that they had talked to the school districts including the community college districts and nothing workable has been identified as of yet. ACTION: MSUC (Rindone/Padilla) to give conceptual approval for Option 3 to bridge funding until grants are approved. City Attorney John Kaheny left at 7:25 p.m. FINANCE DEPARTMENT Courtesy Citation Program: Bob Powell, Finance Director, presented the Courtesy Citation Program, requesting $73,000. The parking district was created for downtown, mainly Third Avenue; and parking meters were installed to provide an on-going revenue for the maintenance of off-street parking. User population served by this program is for short-term customer parking and long-term customer parking for professional businesses that require off-street parking. The current situation is that there are complaints by the public regarding over-zealous parking enforcement. The Council in 1997 directed staff to implement a "courtesy parking program" to solve some of these problems. That program entailed issuing courtesy notices for initial violations for expired parking meters. Instead of getting a citation, a courtesy notice was put on the car with violations over 15 minutes were given citations. Result of that is that there were fewer complaints, but the city lost about $82,000 in revenue. Businesses are voicing concern with sub-standard maintenance and signage for off-street parking lots. A task force was formed with the Downtown Business Association and Town Centre PAC. Problems identified by the task force were overly aggressive parking enforcement, professional businesses did not have enough space for customers and employees, a need to increase available short-term on-street parking by encouraging the use of off-street parking lots, and the need to maintain parking revenue levels to support parking lot maintenance efforts. The proposal to replace and modify the courtesy parking program with the following actions: (1) Train and develop customer friendly enforcement staff. (2) Rather than using valuable staff time to issue courtesy notices, we are recommending setting the meters at least five minutes longer on each half hour. Other recommendations the task force is interested in is maintenance and signage and lighting in off-street parking lots and also recommending a program for professional businesses to purchase permits for additional time for customers with extended appointments. (3) Increase the meter charge from 15 cents to 25 cents per half-hour in order to encourage off-street parking. If these recommendations are approved, we will eliminate a half-time parking control officer, with an estimated revenue of $338,508. This is a 10% reduction as compared to current year due to the customer friendly program. ACTION: MSUC (Rindone/Padilla) to give conceptual approval. Minutes June 17, 1998 Page 6 FIRE DEPARTMENT Ladder Truck: Jim Hardesty, Fire Chief, presented his request for the acquisition of a Ladder Truck for $10,000. He stated that a problem exists in our response time to fires in the eastern part of Chula Vista. The standard response time for medium hazard responses utilizing 13 personnel is 10 minutes. The response time of the ladder truck from the F Street station to East Chula Vista, during peak traffic periods, can take up to 20 minutes. The proposed fire station master plan will be coming before Council in the next few months which will address the future ladder company in East Chula Vista for the Otay Ranch Station in Village No. 2 with completion scheduled in three to seven years. A possible interim solution would be to modify an existing apparatus telesquirt currently stationed at the J Street station. ACTION: MSUC (Rindone/Padilla) to give conceptual approval. 3. OTHER ITEMS - there were none. ORAL COMMUNICATIONS None OTHER BUSINESS CITY MANAGER'S REPORT(S) - None 5. MAYOR'S REPORTfS) - None 6. COUNCIL COMMENTS - None The meeting adjourned at 7:45 p.m. ADJObT~MEN"E Respectfully submitted, BEVERLY A. AUTHELET, CMC/AAE, City Clerk Charline Long, Deput~'~'