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HomeMy WebLinkAboutcc min 1996/06/12MINUTES OF A SPECIAL MEETING/WORKSESSION OF THE CITY COUNCIL OF THE CITY OF CHULA VISTA Wednesday, June 12, 1996 6:22 p.m. Council Conference Room Administration Building ROLL CALL: PRESENT: ALSO PRESENT: Councilmember Alevy, Moot (arrived at 6:25 p.m.), Padilia (arrived at 6:25 p.m.), Rindone, and Mayor Hotton John D. Goss, City Manager; Ann Y. Moore, Acting City Attorney; and Beverly A. Authelet, City Clerk BUSINESS 2. REVIEW OF DEPARTI~IENTAL BUDGETS: Councilman Rindone stated he had requested that this meeting be held in the Council Chambers and expressed his displeasure because we needed to accommodate the public. He realized that it was scheduled for the Planning Commission, but he felt the budget hearing was one of the most fundamental things which Cotmcil does and felt we should not discourage participation. The conference room was too small. Library: Director Palmet stated that in the last two days, they have been reevaluating the budget in an attempt to meet all the needs and still maintain the objective to provide consistent quality of service during all open hours. He presented two options which will come to Council in Supplemental Budget Reports: Take a .5 Librarian I which is currently vacant and turn it into a .45 hourly Librarian. By doing this, it would cost $7,000 which the Library will find and absorb into its budget. Sunday hours: If we were to close the EastLake and South Chula Vista libraries on Sundays, there would be enough money to keep two mornings a week open at Civic Center Library. He had no problem closing EastLake on Sundays since the usage has not reached the level that we wanted. South Chula Vista is only doing about half the circulation on Sunday which the Civic Center Library is doing. Councilman Alevy expressed that we needed to keep the South Chula Vista Library open also; he felt we needed to find something somewhere in order to keep this Library open also. Councilman Rindone stated that the South Chula Vista Library is new and doesn't have the experience level to have an established rate. He felt we could find other ways to enhance resources in order to provide quality of services. Addressing Council were: · Constance Byram, 3605 Bonita Verde Drive, 91910, Chairman of the Library Board, requested Council reconsider the cuts to the Library budget; in particular, the $147,560 which represents a service to the library and the position for that service. When they were asked to reduce their budgets, they decided to reduce services because of the drastic cuts in the material and book budgets in the previous year. What they did not know at the time was that this budget puts them $150,000 below the requirement which the State has for Library budgets in order to get additional State funding from the Public Library Fund which is $50,000. Minutes June 12, 1996 Page 2 · Will Hyde, 803 Vista Way, Chula Vista, 91911, expressed confidence that the Council would do everything possible to maintain and enhance the Library services. The following expressed opposition in library cuts: · Darlene Trujillo-Lopez, 1551 Marble Court, Chula Vista, 91910, Library Associate for South Chula Vista Library. · Aliana Lopez, 1551 Marble Court, Chula Vista, 91910. · Doris Steinman, 126-C Garrett Ave., Chula Vista, 91910. · Harry LaBore, 960 Myra Avenue, Chula Vista, 91910, representing Friends of the Library. · Elizabeth Schaeffer, 576 Roosevelt St. Chula Vista, 91910, representing library staff. · Candi Cole, 165 El Capitan Drive, Chula Vista, 91911. · Lynn Stacey, 181 1/2 Fourth Ave., Chula Vista, 91910. · Marion Stacey, 775 Fig Avenue, Chula Vista, 91910. · Ron Thomas, San Miguel, Bonita, 91902, representing Friends of the Library. · Mary Larsen, 524 Bedand Way, Chula Vista, 91910. · Todd Hunsicker, 531 Berland Way, Chula Vista, 91910. · Terri Hunsicker, 531 Berland Way, Chula Vista, 91910. · Beth Walden, 238 Church, Chula Vista, 91910. She suggested charging people $50 a month fee to use the library. · E.N. Ballesterds, 1051 Del Mar Avenue, No. 22, Chula Vista, 91910. · Jacylyn Mendoza, 7485 Timberwood Place, San Diego, 92139. · Robert Maxwell, 473 Bedand Way, Chula Vista, 91910. · F.M. Roseman, 66 Montebello Street, Chula Vista, 91910, representing Friends of the Library. · Frances Reeves, 300 "C" Street, No. 129, Chula Vista, 91910, representing Friends of the Library. · Elsa Luna, 315 Fourth Avenue, Chula Vista, 91911, representing South Bay Community Services library tutoring program. · Sean Shidoski, 326 E Moss Street, Chula Vista, 91911. · Linda Hasper, 1941 Rue Michelle, Chula Vista, 91913. ® Bernice Heiter, 669 Guava Avenue, Chula Vista 91910, representing the Chula Vista Genealogical Society. · Dawn Eckel, 5138 Rockridge Road, LaMesa, 91941, representing the Cook Child Care Center. · Wendell Prude, P. O. Box 722891, San Diego, 92172, representing SEIU and CVEA. He urged Council to cut management, not services. · Jorge Castilla, 237 San Miguel Drive, Chula Vista, 91910. Boards and Commissions: · Vivian Marquez, 314 Second Avenue, Chula Vista, 91910, representing the Resource Conservation Commission, wanted to make Council aware of: (1) The City made a commitment a few years ago to Minutes June 12, 1996 Page 3 place signs on the historical buildings in the City. The $1,210 allocated for this was placed in their budget; it is not a cost to them. (2) The City has also been giving the Historical Society $150 a year which is shown in their budget as blueprinting and photography. The Historical Society acquires photographs to be framed and mounted. Because these two charges amount to $1,360, they had difficulty meeting their 10% reduction. They felt these two expenses should be allocated from a different budget. They felt the Transient Occupancy Tax would be an appropriate means for funding this, if the City was no longer able to do so, since it does represent a value to tourism. (3) She also pointed out that they met twice a month, and they did not have a staff person to take minutes which is an additional cost to the Commission. The $660 for contractual services is for the secretarial service. She recommended that Council consider a more economical way to deal with the minutes. Out of the $2,840 budget, $1,960 goes to these three items which leaves them only $880 for printing, postage, supplies, and travel. Dency Souval, 698 Gilbert Place, Chula Vista, 91910, representing the Cultural Arts Commission, stated that if they had a full-time coordinator, they would be eligible for federal grants. Arthur Triplette, 851 Misty Meadow Court, Chula Vista, 91910, Chair of the Board of Appeals and Advisors, stated that the proposed budget recommends elimination to the International Conference of Building Officials Annual Education and Code Development Conference. He requested that Council reinstate the $1,200. Richard Pena, 5 153 Sunnyside Drive, Bonita, 91902, representing the Bonita Historical Museum requested financial support from the City to help support their project on California History proposed for next school year which will involve nearly all third and fourth grade students from Chula Vista schools. Chuck Hamilton, 3309 Mesa Vista, Bonita, 91902, representing the Bonita Business and Professional Association, requested support for the Bonitafest. Council adjourned to Closed Session at 8:00 p.m. The meeting reconvened at 8:50 p.m. with Councilman Padilia absent. Rod Davis, 233 Fourth Avenue, Chula Vista, 91910, representing the Chamber of Commerce, stated he was there to talk about ConVis and to inform Council what they have done and what they are going to do. Mr. Davis introduced the ConVis staff, Kimberly Luck and Lisa Davis, who made their presentation. They stated that the Chula Vista Convention and Visitors Bureau will focus on developing Chula Vista as a destination city by generating and promoting tourism while expanding and attracting new visitors to the cosunity. They intended to accomplish this by working closely with the San Diego Convention and Visitors Bureau focusing their effurts in the San Diego County to heighten tourism. Councilman Alevy asked where we stood on the issue discussed last year regarding money going to San Diego Convis. Also, as part of the contract, it was agreed to include someone from Chula Vista to the Convention and Visitors Bureau Board. He has not seen this happen and requested that staff come back with an updated report. City Manager Goss replied that staff actually came up with a contract with performance standards. Staff felt comfortable that there was a performance based contract that we entered into and felt comfortable with the way it was proceeding. However, staff had some concern with the South Bay Economic Development Council. Mr. Davis stated that one of the things which we talked about last year had to do with the Home Page. It was his hope that we would have a server in the City of Chula Vista operated by either the City or Chamber behind which we could sell advertising to businesses. He felt there was a lot of money to be made and a lot of service for Minutes June 12, 1996 Page 4 economic development if we would fmd the $50,000 that is required for an initial investment. He felt that we could enhance the City and make this self supporting in a year. Attornev's Deoartment: Mr. Goss pointed out that this budget, as well as the Redevelopment Agency budget, uses a lot of outside legal assistance. In the City Attomey's budget, there was $300,000 budgeted for contractual services; staff is recommending $250,000. Councilman Moot stated that there are thirty-four different law firms that we have averaged over the last two fiscal years spending over $1 million a year. He felt this was a significant area where we can save some money. He felt that we need to set a goal to significantly reduce the amount of money that we spend on outside counsel. Councilman ~ndone requested that next year's budget we remm to putting the numerical facts behind the narrative of each department. City Clerk: Mr. Goss recommended that Council refer the issue of finding permanent solution for records storage for the City to staff. Councilman Alevy asked that since we are losing the Deputy City Clerk, would there be a potential further decrease in expenses with someone being hired at a lower rate. If we stayed within the parameters of this budget, then we might be able to add some vacation relief with the salary savings. City Clerk responded that probably since Vicki was at "E" step. She currently was not thinking about adding anything different. Administration: Mr. Goss stated that we would need to provide Council with an additional memo to indicate some revised figures since Deputy City Manager Thomson has accepted the position of Assistant City Manager in Monterey. What he was going to recommend was to freeze the position. To help with the work, he will be recommending that there be some management assistance hours added back into the budget. Staff will be coming back with another recommendation for Council to review. Councilman Rindone asked if we ever looked at using Administrative Interns from the colleges or universities? The more routine work could be picked up by Interns. Mr. Goss stated that we use Interns throughout the City. In the past, we have had volunteer interns. However, with the level of work we are doing, a lot of that is more training and education for that person than productive output for the City. We can exphire the use of Interns, although a lot of the routine work level and above that level is already picked up by the clerical staff. Councilman Rindone requested that as soon as the Manager has had an opportunity to look at this to share it with the Council. Minutes June 12, 1996 Page 5 Management and Information Services: Mr. Goss stated that this department has been cut back significantly. Staff feels that this department is as lean as possible within the City's overall fiscal limits while at the same time maintaining support for the City's computer and other technical needs. If we go below this level, he felt we could damage our basic infrastructure. Two issues have been identified: (1) corporation yard computers do not have access to the city-wide local network and (2) the issue of connecting outlying fire stations. Personnel: Mr. Goss stated that staff is still working on the details for the .5 FTE Training Coordinator position, who is the individual that has the ethics training. Staff can return with a budget supplemental memo on this. Councilman Rindone stated he would like to review this because we have a significant investment in this program and did not want to lose this. He would like to know how staff plans to keep the ethics program. Mr. Goss stated that we are recommending that the name of the department be changed to Human Resources. Council concurred. Finance Deoartment: Mr. Goss stated that the finance department was so lean that it was difficult to cut any more although them is some reorganization in terms of parking meters from 6 to 5 positions. Most of the recommendations for this department have been revenue enhancements instead of reductions. All the suggestions were in the proposed budget. The suggestion for taking over and administering the vending machines located throughout the City was not included, however. If Council wants staff to explore this, they can. Various groups such as employee organizations have obtained permission to put vending machines throughout the City as fund raisers for themselves. The Purchasing Agent has suggested that by consolidating these machines to come under one contract, the City could receive $27,000. This raises the liability issue of what may happen if the City did not have more control over what goes into the vending machines. Councilman Rindone inquired into the telephones and rebates at bus stops. Mr. Goss stated that this has been included in the budget; it is under MIS. The vendor projected that we would be getting about $90,000 per year. When they got out there, they discovered a lot of stores like 7-11's near bus stops already had pay phones, so the revenue was significantly less. MIS Director Vignapiano stated that we have 23 phones operating with a revenue of about $10,000, but we are still looking at putting in additional telephones. Councilman Alevy asked if the Utility Users Tax ordinance wasn't quite controversial. Mr. Goss stated that the Utility Users Tax per se is controversial when you start it new. It has been established in this City for a number of years. The City established the rate at 5.5 %, but it is collected at 5 %. There are two issues: (1) whether or not Council was interested in raising it to 5.5 % which could produce $250,000 to $300,000 per year to the City, (2) since the Utility Users Tax revenue from telephones has been decreasing, staff feels it is because of the proliferation of cellular phones which are excluded from the tax. One of the issues which we are raising, although the budget is not based upon it, is the possibility of eliminating that exclusion. Finance Director Powell stated that another issue is Proposition 162 which may limit the ability to increase this tax. Currently, we do not know if this applies to Charter cities. Minutes June 12, 1996 Page 6 Councilman Rindone requested a report on this. Councilman Moot asked what the reasoning was for exempting cellular phones. Revenue Manager, Cheryl Fruchter, responded that a long time ago there was a FCC ban on certain interstate communications devises. Since then, there has been a legal determination that you can charge that tax on cellular phones. There is one city in Orange County which has accomplished doing this. Councilman Rindone asked if staff could look to see if there is any enhancement that the Chamber has come up with in having a city credit card. Mr. Goss stated that there may be some advantages in trying to focus on a "Buy in Chula Vista" effort behind the credit card. Planning: Mr. Goss stated that staff needed to give Council some new numbers because since the budget was put together, there have been some changes. One change is that EastLake has decided not to proceed with the replanning effort, so that means some of the staffing and revenue will be deleted. There is also the discussion when the Otay Ranch will fold back into the Planning Department. This is expected to take place sometime between October and December. This means that there will be a decease in revenue and expenditure. Once the development agreements are done and the annexation occurs, all the parties have indicated that they want to do some general plan amendments including EIRs on the western parcel. Currently, we do not know the timing of this. Mr. Goss stated further that we are freezing the Landscape Architect position and recommending deletion of a Senior Management position that has been shared with Building and Housing. Also, the Senior Administrative Office Specialist will not be frozen since the person has decided not to retire. There is also an issue which has been brought up as to whether or not we should look at establishing a fee for special use permits within redevelopmerit areas, and whether or not the land use processing by planning for redevelopmerit should be charged to redevelopmerit. This is a policy decision. Cotmcilman Moot responded yes from his perspective; there were no other comments from the other councilmembers. Community Development: Mr. Goss stated that we are recommending that the Economic Development reimbursement rate that went down from 65% to 31.63 % be allowed to go down to 30% based upon further analysis. The sale of property that we have been undertaking appears to be getting the Agency to the point where it can get out of its deficit, but at the same time we are looking at the issue of the redevelopment agency participating more in sharing costs of the general fund expense. Staff will come back with a report to show the redevelopmerit agency being balanced and how it interacts with the general fund. It is recommended that the Analyst position be deleted. We are looking at the Assistant Director position, and he is inclined to freeze the position for a period of time and have an interim organizational solution to handle the workload. Building and Housinl: Mr. Goss stated we are recommending that the other half of the Senior Management position be deleted and that the Communications Division be transferred from Building and Housing to Public Works/Operations and that we Minutes June 12, 1996 Page 7 freeze the Electronics position. We have a proposal for the inspection of non-occupied single family dwellings and duplexes which would be a new revenue source. The budget is predicated upon that. Also recommending that a Code Enforcement II Officer be hired in January 1997 and that one of two part time Administrative Office Assistants II positions be upgraded to full time beginning July 1. Councilman Moot asked if we have collected any revenues for sign permit violations or violations of garage sales? He felt the time had come to get more serious about this. Director Larson responded that the activity which they concentrated on are primarily compliance. We have to date billed certain violators who have been repetitious in the sign violations. We have not billed single family property owners for garage sales. He also stated that staff is prepared to come to Council and have targeted mid-August for the administrative citation program which are fines that are payable directly to the City. They are currently working on the appellate process. Councilman Rindone asked if anyone was working on Saturdays since this is the time when most of the garage sale violations occur. Director Larson replied that no one has worked on Saturday for the last eight weeks. Staff is working Monday through Friday with heavy peak loads trying to keep up with current construction activity. Councilman Moot suggested that we could subcontract this out and pay the subcontractor from a portion of the fine. Mr. Goss stated that the next step will be direction from Council. Staff has given Council the overview of basically seven categories, expenditure cut levels 1, 2, and 3, revenue enhancements 1, 2, 3, and one time revenues. This budget is predicated on level 1 expenditure cuts and level 1 revenue enhancements. Staff will give Council a chart of things which have occurred since the budget was printed. Staff needs to get some direction from Council as to what will be acceptable in terms of revenue enhancements. Councilman Moot stated that we needed a list with some of the Council's potential options. It is clear from the public testimony that the Library and Parks and Recreation cuts are obviously not acceptable. To restore these would require a significant amount of money to make up. We need to know what kinds of options are available to effect this whether it is a combination of revenue enhancements or cuts. Mr. Goss stated that there are some things that are unknown still out there, such as the negotiations with the Fire Fighters Association and whatever implication that may have on the expenditure part of the budget. Councilman Rindone stated that we needed to develop a policy regarding the minimum level of the general fund reserves. He wanted it docketed under his comments for next Tuesday's meeting so he could discuss it. Councilman Moot stated that there are a number of people in the community who are implying that we are not cutting in public safety, but we are cutting in Library and Parks and Recreation. Is the rest of the Council prepared to make cuts in public safety to make up for not having to cut in these other areas. If there are other members of the Council who are willing to do that, they need to let the Manager know that. Councilman Alevy stated he had an idea that had to do with those employees who are of retirement age that may be willing to come up with a program where we would create an opportunity to spend four or five months to train their replacement who would come in at a far lesser rate. He asked if we could get some figures on this since this is a way to save money and yet not lose positions. Minutes June 12, 1996 Page 8 ORAL COMMUNICATIONS None ADJOURNMENT The meeting was adjourned at 10:00 p.m. to the regular Council meeting of June 18, 1996 at 6:00 p.m. Respectfully submitted, Beverly A. Authelet, CMC/AAE City Clerk