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HomeMy WebLinkAboutAUGUST 5,1997 I I I 39:0170 0//0 - "'-0 J"m ~- (J J '. CC CITY COUNCIL PROCEEDINGS ARE AUDIO AND VIDEO TAPE RECORDED AND ON FILE IN THE OFFICE OF THE CITY CLERK ROLL CALL 1. 2. ECONOMIC DEV. STRATEGY 00'1..:'.0 MINUTES CITY COUNCIL OF THE CITY OF ARCADIA and the ARCADIA REDEVELOPMENT AGENCY REGULAR MEETING AUGUST 5,1997 The City Council and the Arcadia Redevelopment Agency met in a Regular Meeting on Tuesday, August 5, 1997 at 6:00 p.m. in the City Council Chambers Conference Room. PRESENT: Council members Chang, Kovacic, Kuhn, Young and Harbicht ABSENT: None AUDIENCE PARTICIPATION None The City Manager updated the Council on the action plan initiated by the Council several months ago to promote economic development within the City. The Economic Development Action Plan reported the results of actions taken by staff on the following programs and strategies: I) Focus on a cooperative facade rehabilitation effort and public improvements in all commercial areas - public/private partnership; 2) Business retention/assistance program - provide customer service training for staff and create a business/government partnership program; 3) Waiver of building permit fees - consider on a case-by-case basis rebates or waivers of permit fees for new and rehabilitation projects. Also fC\~ew water related improvement fees on a case-by-case basis; 4) Commercial!lndustrial incentive programs; 5) Prepare professional marketing brochures/flyers; 6) Schedule appreciation meetinglvisits; 7) Ads in trade/regional publications/newspapers - utilize resources of the San Gabriel Consortium and other agencies; 8) Amend the zoning ordinance to revise requirements for Conditional Use Permits and Modifications; 9) Educate the public regarding what can or cannot be done with property the City owns, doesn't own, zoning, etcetera; 10) Review list of permitted/not permitted uses in the Arcadia Redevelopment Area per ARA Resolution No. 172. The City Manager noted that a lot of work has been done on these programs, and requested comments and suggestions from the Council. The City of Arcadia Economic and Business Fact Book, which was updated recently, was presented to the Council. The fact book was requested by the City business community.. and is usefu1 information regarding what Arcadia is from a City viewpoint and regional basis. In consideration of the commercial zones in the City, staff recommended that Council concentrate first on the downtown area. On August 23rd, while on the downtown walk- through, Council \\ill discuss outdoor advertising and displays and signage issues, which relate to other City commercial areas also in need of attention. Following the tour of the downto\\TI area a study session \\ill be scheduled to consider changes in the signage codes, outdoor advertising and displays. The Cit)' Manager presented an in-house generated portfolio containing highlights of the Cit)', statistics and miscellaneous information. The portfolio \\ill be sent to potential 1 8/5/97 39:0171 businesses along with the larger fact book presented to the Council this date. It was noted that staff has also prepared a rough draft of an overall strategy; strengths, I weaknesses, opportunities and perspective for the City. Staff further suggested that Council consider joining the San Gabriel Valley Community Development Corporation which is composed of cities and banks that bave joined together to form a SBA loan type program in which banks will attempt to make loans to small businesses. This program will require a financial contribution from the City. The .concept is to help the local small business people. The City Manager further e"lllained staff meetings with local merchants and noted that he and Mayor Harbicht met with Macy' s and Robinsons-May management to let them know the City is there to help. They presented the manager with a nicely wrapped personalized coffee cup and a City pin. These items will be presented to the twenty (20) top businesses in the City. Other parts of the program include meeting with real estate brokers. This because brokers bave contacts with hotels, restaurants and stores and tend to bave the ability to market the City. As part of the overall plan the City Manager reported that a City planner will be assigned to each commercial area when the area is under consideration for improvement. . Mayor Harbicht commented the former Arcadia Lumber site has fallen out of escrow, and the Foulger Ford sire has a Lewis Homes Retail sign on it and is in a two month escrow process. The Mayor noted that two local realtors were working to put a deal together on the Arcadia Lumber site. These realtors are interested in what the Council would like to see developed on that site. The Mayor felt the City Council might think about aligning with such development e,,-perts on a "pay only if deliver" basis who would go out and I seek a developer, stores or restaurants and put deals together. The Council could give general guidelines for development on these opportunity sites of wbat Council would like to see. Mayor Pro tern Kovacic agreed with the Mayor and felt Council should look into this arrangement; meet with several candidates with good references as far as "deals" made in the past. Council then discussed the Live Oak commercial area, which appears to be declining. The new super market in that area has bad a negative affect on retail business, according to the City Manager. Councilmember Kuhn mentioned she would not like to see a market developed on the Foulger Ford site even though such a market may be consistent with zoning and the general plan. The City Manager noted Council should focus on the individual sites and a message could be sent of just wbat Council would like to see developed on these specific sites. Further, the allowed uses under existing zoning code are significant and the options should be narrowed. The City Manager reiterated that the downtown walk-through be taken; focus on the zoning code, signage and outdoor displays, then get these issues to the PI3nmng Commission for modification; schedule a study session and move on the opportunity sites as fast as possible. Councilmember Chang suggested that the downtown area should be Council's primaty focus at this time. This area should be made a success and then used as a role model for development of the other business zones. The Mayor confirmed that the downtown walk-through be scheduled for Saturday, I August 23, 1997 at g a.m. The Council will meet at the Glendale Federal community room to begin the tour. Mayor Pro tern Kovacic noted he will not be able to make the 2 8/5/97 I I I 3. 3a. O(tO ~ '10 INVOCATION PLEDGE OF ALLEGIANCE ROLL CALL 4. 5. HARBICHT (Truancy resolution) CHANG (Truancy law) (Agenda lib.) ORD. & RES. READ BY TITLE ONLY 6. PUBUC HRG. FIRE SUPRSN. ASSESSMENT DISTRICT (ABANDo.N PROCEEDINGS) :'t..s(" c/o,;:) 39:0172 august 23rd date and "ill tour the area before or after August 23. CLOSED SESSION At 6:32 p.m. the City Attorney announced a Closed Session under Government Code Section 54956.9(c) to discuss some potential litigation issues. The City Council then RECESSED to the CLOSED SESSION and RECONVENED the Regular Meeting in the Council Chamber> at 7:00 p.m. Rev. Bruce Erwin, Chaplain, Methodist Hospital of Southern California Patrick Malloy, Director of Maintenance Services PRESENT: Council member> Chang, Kovacic, Kuhn, Young and Harbicht ABSENT: None SUPPLEMENT AL INFORMATION FROM STAFF REGARDING AGENDA ITEMS The City Manager announced that at the 6:00 p.m. study session regarding economic development Council discussed alternatives for Citywide improvements in the commercial zones of the City. A walk-through of the downtown area was scheduled for August 23 to consider signage, outdoor displays and things of that nature. Council also held a Closed Session to give instruction to staff regarding p?tentiaI litigation. QUESTIONS FROM CITY COUNCILIREDEVELOPMENT AGENCY REGARDING AGENDA ITEMS In reference to the truancy resolution, Mayor Harbicht said he wished to add a phrase stating that this kind of thing (truancy) should be a local matter and that state intervention is not needed nor desired. Police Chief Gamer eX'Plained that legislative action on AB1l51 has been continued to nex1 year. ABI151 is not related to the City's truancy resolution on the agenda this date. Resolution No. 6006 is in support of the concept of truancy law and was requested by the City of Monrovia. The City Manager briefly eX'Plained the NPDES program and the NPDES portion ($5,000) of the $21,800 contract to be awarded to John L. Hunter and Associates. It was MOVED by Councilmember Kuhn, seconded by Councilmember Young and CARRIED that ordinances and resolutions be read by title only and that the reading in full be WAIVED. Consideration of public testimony regarding the fonnation of a Citywide Fire Suppression Assessment District. Provisions of Article 3.6 of Chapter I, Part I, Division I of Title 5 of the California Government Code (the "Fire Suppression Assessment Law") provide that the City Council of the City of Arcadia may, by ordinance or resolution after notice and hearing, determine and levy an assessment for fire suppression services pursuant to the Fire Suppression Law. Such an assessment may be made for the following purposes: (a) obtaining. furnishing operating and maintaining fire suppression equipment or apparatus; (b) paying the salaries and benefits of firefighting personnel or (c) both. The City Council pre\iously ordered the preparation of a report as required 3 8/5/97 39:0173, pursuant to the provisions of the Government Code to enable the City Council to consider the levy of an assessment for fire suppression services. There was filed with the City I Council a detailed report prepared by William Stookey, P.E., an engineer registered pursuant to the Professional Engineers Act, with Willdan Associates (the <<Assessment Eng;,neer') in accordance with such provisions of the Fire Suppression Assessment Law and Article XIIlD, (the Fire Suppression Assessment Report) which contained the following: A - A description of each lot or parcel of property proposed to be subject to the Fire Suppression Assessment which included all parcels within the boundaries of the City of Arcadia; B - An estimate of the costs of the fire suppression services proposed to be funded from the levy of the Fire Suppression Assessment; C - A description of the methodology for the apportionment of the fire suppression assessment based upon the special benefit received by the parcels assessed for fire suppression services; D - The amount of the fire suppression assessment for each lot or parcel for the initial fiscal year; E - The methodology for determining the maximum amount of the proposed assessment which may be levied for each lot or parcel during any fiscal year; F - The duration of the proposed fire suppression benefit assessment. I The City Council received the Fire Suppression Assessment Report and set the date, time and place of a public meeting and a public hearing as required by the Fire Suppression Assessment Law and the Proposition 2 I 8 Omnibus Implementation Act to consider said report and the proposed levy of an assessment for fire suppression services. Notices of said public meeting and public hearing, accompanied by assessment ballots to allow the record owners of property proposed to be assessed to indicate their support for or opposition to the proposed assessment, were duly and regularly mailed in the time, form and manner required by the Fire Suppression Assessment Law. Said public meeting and public hearing were held at the times and places specified in such notice and Council considered all evidence and testimony pertaining to the Fire Suppression Assessment Report and to the levy of the fire suppression assessment. The assessment ballots were timely submitted and received by the City Clerk in favor of or in opposition to the Fire Suppression Assessment and were weighed and tabulated in accordance with the requirements of Article XIIlD and the Implementation Act. A TRANSCRIPT HAS BEEN PREPARED OF THE PUBLIC HEARING City Manager Kelly presented an overview of the budget process leading to the decision to present a proposal to City property o\\ners for the formation of a Fire Suppression Assessment District to close the S 1.5 million budget shortfall. The City Manager noted that the budget gap at this date, August 5, is now somewhere between SI.5 and S2 million. City Attorney Miller stated, in part, that this is the final stage of the assessment process I pursuant to the law governing fire suppression assessments, and compliance with Proposition 218. Mr. Miller has rC\1ewed all of the legal proceedings and public notice requirements in conjunction with Special Legal Counsel Warren Diven and reported that 4 8/5/97 3~:{)l}4 I all required procedures have been satisfied, culminating in the public hearing this date, the tabulation of protest votes, and final action by the City Council. Richard Leigh, Willdan Associates, e,,:plained the services of Willdan Associates in connection with the proposed Fire Suppression District. His finn prepared the Engineer's Report in accordance with state law. The properties proposed to be assessed receive a special and direct benefit from the proposed Fire Suppression Assessment. The assessment amounts for each property use were detennined according to three risk classifications; I) the number of firefighters that respond to the type of property; 2) the size of the structure; and, 3) the likelihood of a fire for a particular land use. Mayor HaIbicht presented opening remarks before the public hearing, stating in part, the procedure for opening the ballots which began earlier in the day, and advising that ballots may be handed in for counting until the close of the public hearing, after which the tabulation of all ballots will be completed. The Mayor mentioned also that it is his understanding that approximately 6,000 ballots were received of which the majority were "no" votes to the proposed Fire Suppression District. He did not know the weighted tally of the vote. Mayor HaIbicht then OPENED the public hearing. The following persons' spoke IN OPPOSITION to the proposed levy of an assessment for Fire Suppression Services: I Harold Kidd, 416 Magellan Road Brice Dinsmore, Ninth Avenue Peter Chao, 2015 South Seventh Avenue Patricia Buesch, 120 West Wisteria Avenue Lyle Wilson, 1701 South Si,,1h Avenue Judy Mc Kinley, 17 West Sierra Madre Boulevard Gail Marshall, 2300 block of Lee Avenue Phyllis Nemeth, 517 San Luis Rey Albert Lee, 39 East Colorado Boulevard Lonell Spencer, 1008 South Mayflower Harold Ellis, 1504 South Eighth Avenue Clete Defiori, EI Monte Avenue The following persons spoke IN FAVOR of the formation of a Fire Suppression Assessment District: Vincent Foley, Cambridge Drive Drew Krynicki, 321 Leroy Avenue At the conclusion of the public comment, Mayor HaIbicht called for a motion to close the public hearing. It was MOVED by Mayor Pro tern Kovacic, seconded by Councilmember Young, and CARRIED on roll call vote as follows to CLOSE the public hearing. I AYES: Council members Chang, Kovacic, Kuhn, Young and HaIbicht NOES: None ABSENT: None In response to Mayor HaIbicht, the Director of District Formation for Willdan Associates, Richard Leigh, and his associate Robert Quaid, reported the results of the tabulation of the ballots as follows: 5 8/5/97 7a. PUB. HRG. RES. 6005 - CMP LOCAL IMPLEMENTATION REPORT (ADOPTED) 08'30-S:] 39:0175 \ Parcel Assessment %of I VOle Count Dollars Total YES 1,936 $264,129.23 29.1% NO 4,330 $644,611.62 70.9% Total Returned 6,266 $908,740.85 100.0"10 Total Assessed 15,819 $2,226,642.00 % Response 39.6% 40.8% Following the results of the tabulation of the ballots it was MOVED by Mayor Pro tern Kovacic, seconded by Council member Kuhn and CARRIED On roll call vote as follows to ABANDON the proceedings to establish a Fire Suppression Assessment District within the City of Arcadia. . AYES: NOES: ABSENT: Councilmembers Chang, Kovacic, Kuhn, Young and HaIbicht None None Consideration of the report and recommendation to adopt Resolution No. 6005: "A RESOLUTION OF TIlE CITY COUNCIL OF TIlE CITY OF ARCADIA, CALIFORNIA, FINDING TIlE CITY OF ARCADIA TO BE IN CONFORMANCE WITII TIlE CONGESTION MANAGEMENT PROGRAM (CMP) AND ADOPTING TIlE CMP LOCAL IMPLEMENTATION REPORT IN ACCORDANCE WITII TIlE CALIFORNIA GOVERNMENT CODE SECTION 65089." I The Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transponation Authority's (MTA) Congestion Management Program (CMP) requires local agencies to submit an annual Local Implementation Report. The Report must be adopted at a public hearing, and submitted to the MTA by September 1, 1997. It is to be adopted by a resolution self-<:ertifYing that the City is in conformance. In order to conform with the requirements of the CMP, the City must perform the following compliance actions: I) Continue to implement the Transponation Demand Management (fDM) ordinance (Ordinance No. 1984) and the Land Use Analysis (LUA) program (Resolution No. 5780). 2) Submit to the MT A, by September 1st, a LocaJ Implementation Report that consists of a self-<:ertifYing resolution of conformance; a deficiency plan status summary; a new development activity report; and transponation improvements credit claim forms if applicable. The report must show that the City is meeting its congestion reduction responsibilities. The requirements of the TOM ordinance and LUA program are being imposed upon applicable projects. Resolution No. 6005 and the report attached thereto show that the City of Arcadia is satisfYing its congestion reduction responsibility and is in conformance I with the CMP. Following staJrs e'..planation of the credit system for demolitions and past regional transponation improvements, Mayor Harbicht OPENED the public hearing. 6 8/5/97 I I I Th. PUBLIC HRG. 1996-97 WEED ABATEMENT CHARGES (CONFIRMED) 0"; IO~ 5'"0 8. 9. CHANG (Contaminated well) 32;0176 J,. 1 . No one came forward to address the City Councit. It was then MOVED by Councilmember Young, seconded by Mayor Pro tern Kovacic and CARRIED that the public hearing be CLOSED. It Was MOVED by Council member Kuhn, seconded by Councilmember Young and CARRIED on roll call vote as follows that Resolution No. 6005 be and it is hereby ADOPTED. and the City Clerk DIRECTED to transmit a signed copy of said resolution to the Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation Authority by September I, 1997. AYES: NOES: ABSENT: Councilmembers Chang, Kovacic, Kuhn. Young and Harbicht None None Consideration of the report and recommendation to confirm the 1996-97 Weed Abatement Charge List for private properties within the City of Arcadia on which the County of Los Angeles has abated weeds, rubbish and refuse andlor inspected the property. Mayor Harbicht declared the public hearing OPEN, no one came forward to address the City Council and it was MOVED by Mayor Pro tern Kovacic, seconded by Councilmember Kuhn and CARRIED to CLOSE the public hearing. It was then MOVED by Councilmember Kuhn. seconded by Councilmember Young and CARRIED on roll call vote as follow to CONFIRM the 1997-98 Weed Abatement Charge List as submitted and DIRECT that the County Auditor be instructed to enter the amounts of the assessments against the respective parcels of land as they appear on the current property assessment roll. AYES: NOES: ABSENT: Council members Chang, Kovacic, Kuhn. Young and Harbicht None None AUDIENCE PARTICIPATION Manruerite Soencer, 1008 South Mayflower. Mrs. Spencer spoke at length and in detail that in her opinion the City Council is not in compliance with the City Charter, Arcadia Municipal Code and the Ralph M. Brown Act regarding regular and open meetings, and the posting and dissemination of agendas and agenda reports. Fred Wood, Fairview Avenue, e"pressed his views of Ordinance No. 2074 which raises the overnight parking permit fee to $84. per year. It is Mr. Wood's opinion that cars, trucks, vans and campers parked overnight and at other times on City streets can and do depreciate the appearance of neighborhoods where this occurs. Over time the value and tax base of properties can be e,,:peeted to deteriorate accordingly. An increase in crime also follows neighborhood deterioration. He believes these problems could be alleviated \\ith an increase in overnight on-street parking fees to the $25-30 per month range. which would provide the incentive to seek private rental arrangements. Mr. Wood urged Council to defer a final vote on Ordinance 2074 and revise the ordinance accordingly. MATIERS FROM ELECTED OFFICIALS Council member Chang nOled telephone calls he has received regarding a well contamination report. The well referred to is not located in Arcadia. Moreover, this well 7 8/5/97 KOVACIC (Fire Dept.) (Voluntary campaign e"..penditure limits) (Curfew) YOUNG (Recycling) KUHN (Summer concert) HARBICHT (Fwy. Bridge removal) (Centennial Cornsn.) 10. ROLL CALL lOa. MINUTES (7-15-97) (APPROVED) ADJOURNMENT . II. lla. MINUTES (7-15-97) 39:0177 has been taken out of service by the State Department of Health Services. It will be approved for service after treaunent has been implemented. Mayor Pro tem Kovacic congratulated Fire Chief Lavoie and the Fire Department for putting out a fire in a house on his block. Battalion Chief Wayne Crabb and the firefighters under his command did an excellent job. Mayor Pro tem Kovacic requested that Council seriously consider a voluntary e~-penditure ceiling for candidates running for the Office of City Council. He noted that the City of Glendora has adopted such an ordinance pursuant to Proposition 208. Councilmembers Chang, Kuhn and Young agreed with Mayor Pro tem Kovacic to direct that staff study the issue and bring a report back to Council of the alternatives available for Council's consideration. Mayor Pro tem Kovacic noted the City Attorney has suggested that the City's curfew ordinance may have to be revised. The City Attorney advised that this is in process... a draft ordinance will be presented to Council in September. In response to Council member Young, Mayor Harbicht noted the new refuse recycling bins will be distributed to Arcadia residents in October. Council member Kuhn announced the last concert for this summer will be held August 7 at First Avenue Middle School at 7:00 p.m. The Susie Hansen Band will perform salsa and Latin jazz. Mayor Harbicht encouraged everyone to come out and enjoy the concert. Mayor Harbicht reported that Caltrans is scheduled to remove the Metropolitan Transit Authority's bridge over the east bound 210 Freeway between Santa Anita and Baldwin Avenue. The bridge was found to be unsafe for earthquake conditions. The Mayor announced a City Centennial Commission is in process of formation. Arcadia residents interested in serving on this commission may contact the City Council or the Community Relations Officer at City Hall. THE CITY COUNCIL RECESSED IN ORDER TO ACT AS THE ARCADIA REDEVELOPMENT AGENCY PRESENT: Agency Members Chang, Kovacic, Kuhn, Young and Harbicht ABSENT: None It was MOVED by Agency Member Young, second by Agency Member Chang and CARRIED to APPROVE the Minutes of the July IS, 1997 Meeting. The Redevelopment Agency ADJOURNED to August 19,1997 at 6:00 p.m. THE CITY COUNCIL RECONVENED CONSENT ITEMS APPROVED the minutes of the July IS, 1997 Regular Meeting. 8 8/5/97 I I I I I I ()~ool.O~O lib. OF70_ C/O CONTRACT AWARDED- DESIGN ANNUAL IWP & NPDES PROGRAM lie. (J.3$'()~ 1,;)(') UTILITY USER'S TAX PENALTY FOR LATE PMT. (S.C.E.C.) lid. lie. RESO.6006 (Daytime Truancy) o ("it) ~ 70 lid. DESIGN REVIEW TODAI ItEST. (Santa Anita Fash. Park Mall) (APPROVED) ~~~>L.,. (1 39:0178 AWARDED a contract in the amount of $21,800. to John L. Hunter and Associates, Inc. to pro,~de engineering services for the design of the annual Industrial Waste Program (IWP) and National Pollution Discharge Elimination System (NPDES) Program; APPROPRIATE $16,800 from the Sewer Reserve to fund the program for FY 1997-98; AUTHORIZE The City Manager to execute a contract subject to approval as to fonn by the City Attorney. DIRECTED staff NOT to take any action to collect the $18,965.80 penalty assessed to Southern California Edison Company (S.C.E.C.) for late payment of the May, 1997 Utility User's Tax monies to the City. See Page I I. ADOPTED Resolution No. 6006 entitled: "A RESOLUTION OF TIfE CITY COUNCIL OF TIfE CITY OF ARCADIA, CALIFORNIA, REGARDING DAYTIME TRUANCY", amended to include the phrase "without interference by the State with regard to matters of local concern"; APPROVED the letter to be sent to Arcadia's State representative in support of the truancy ordinance; and, that NO MONETARY contribution be sent to the City of Monrovia 's defense fund due to Arcadia's present financial condition. TIfE ABOVE CONSENT ITEMS, Ila., b., c. AND e., APPROVED ON MOTION BY MAYOR PRO TEM KOVACIC, SECONDED BY COUNCILMEMBER YOUNG AND CARRIED ON ROLL CALL VOTE AS FOLLOWS: AYES: NOES: ABSENT: Councilmembers Chang, Kovacic, Kuhn, Young and Harbicht None None The City Council reviewed the design of the proposed e>.1erior alterations for the recently approved "Todai" restaurant at Santa Anita Fashion Park Mall. On July 22, 1997, the applicant (Timothy Walsh on behalf of the property owner/developer, Anita Associates) was granted a conditional use pennit (C.U.P. 97'{)08) to operate a proposed 13,084 sq. fl "Todai" restaurant, which includes a 3,905 sq. ft. outdoor dining area within the Santa Anita Fashion Park Mal] complex. The new restaurant will feature both Japanese and Chinese foot items. The hours of operation will be regulated by the Mall. A seating arrangement for 430 patrons was proposed. Interior seating will accommodate 3]4 people, and the outdoor dining area will provide seating for 116 people. The proposed e>.1erior alterations meet the intent of the design criteria set forth in the City's Architectural Design Review Regulations and will be visually harmonious with the Mall's commercial developments. Considerable discussion ensued. Mr. Inouye, the project architect, responded to Council's questions. It was MOVED by Mayor Pro tern Kovacic, seconded by Councilmember Chang and CARRIED on roll call vote as follows to APPROVE the design of the proposed "Todai" restaurant e>.1erior improvement plans as submitted; and FIND that the proposal is in compliance with ADR criteria. 9 8/5/97 12. 12a. ORDINANCE 2074 (pk' ng Permit Fees) (ADOPTED) ()3$"r.)- N-1" 12b. ORDINANCE NO. 2075 (Add H8 overlay to C-2 property at the NW comer Htg. & 2nd) (INTRODUCED) 01>',.'- if) [)G XC)- ,~'-'1:P 39:017~ AYES: NOES: ABSENT: Councilmembers Chang, Kovacic, Kuhn, Young and Harbicht None None 1 Mayor Harbicht proposed that Design Reviews come to the City Council for consideration only upon appeal of a Planning Commission decision, rather than having both bodies review the same item. The current process seems to be inefficient and it holds up the developers project. Following a brief discussion Council determined that there are not that many design reviews seen by the City Council to necessitate a change in procedure. CITY ATIORNEY The City Attorney presented for adoption and read the title of Ordinance No. 2074: "AN ORDINANCE OF THE CITY COUNCIL OF THE CITY OF ARCADIA, CALIFORNIA, AMENDING SECTIONS 3214.4 AND 3214.5 OF ARTICLE Ill, CHAPTER 2, PART I, DIVISION 4 OF THE ARCADIA MUNICIPAL CODE RELATING TO PARKING PERMIT FEES (UNIFORM TRAFFIC ORDINANCE)." In the discussion of overnight on-street parking permits, Mayor Harbicht recommended that the application for such a permit include the phrase "Declaring under penalty of peIjury, I do not have off-street parking available", in bold type over the signature line in a boxed section of the application. He felt that this might be a way of discouraging people who just do not want to move cars around in their driveway, and still allow those people who have a desperate need for parking to park on the street. Councilmember I Young and Mayor Pro tern Kovacic agreed to this and also that staff bring this issue hack to the Council for review in a year, including input from the Police Department at that time also. It was MOVED by Councilmember Chang, seconded by Councilmember Kuhn and CARRIED on roll call vote as follows that Ordinance No. 2074 be and it is hereby ADOPTED; with the revision to the application for the overnight parking permit as recommended, and review of the process by the City Council in one year. AYES: NOES: ABSENT: Councilmembers Chang, Kovacic, Kuhn, Young and Harbicht None None The City Attorney presented for INTRODUCTION and read the title of Ordinance No. 2075: "AN ORDINANCE OF THE CITY COUNCIL OF THE CITY OF ARCADIA, CALIFORNIA, ADDING A HIGH RISE (H8) OVERLAY TO THE C-2 ZONED PROPERTY LOCATED AT THE NORTHWEST CORNER OF HUNTINGTON DRIVE AND SECOND AVENUE." It was MOVED by Councilmember Young, seconded by Councilmember Chang, and CARRIED on roll call vote as follows that Ordinance No. 2075 be and it is hereby INTRODUCED. AYES: Councilmembers Chang, Kovacic, Young and Harbicht NOES: None ABSENT: None . ABSTAIN: Councilmember Kuhn I 10 8/5/97 1 I I ADJOURNMENT 39:0180 At 9:30 p.m. the City Council Regular Meeting ADJOURNED to Tuesday, August 19, 1997 at 6:00 p.m. in the City Council Chambers Conference Room for a Regular Meeting to conduct the business of the City Council and the Arcadia Redevelopment Agency and any Closed Session necessary to discuss personnel, litigation matters or evaluation of properties. /~~ Robert C. Harbichl, Mayor of the City of Arcadia ATTEST: 11 8/5/97 I TRANSCRIPT (Insofar as decipherable) I RELATING TO THE REGULAR CITY COUNCIL MEETING AGENDA ITEM 6. CONDUCTION OF PUBLIC HEARING AND REPORT OF TABULA nON OF BALLOTS ON THE PROPOSED FIRE SUPPRESSION DISTRICT AUGUST 5,1997 I CITY COUNCIL MEETING - AUGUST 5. 1997 ITEM NO.6. PUBLIC HEARING - ~ SUPPRESSION ASSESSMENT DISTRICT. I MAYOR HARBICHT: Item 6 is a Public Hearing on the Fire Suppression AssessllJent. Mr. Kelly? BILL KELLY Mayor, City Council. City Mallager I'm going to backtrack just a bit to e'..plain how we got to this point this evening. For the past several years, as you are aware, the city has been facing a budget crisis where our cost of operating has been in excess of the revenue that we have been receiving. Council, in previous yean;, has found ways to balance the budget. We've actually cut almost 17 positions and other services and programs to balance the budget. However, this year, a bigger crisis occurred, because our sales tax, property tax, utility tax went further below our e:\.-pectations. The Council and staff worked very hard in previous years and this year to bring the budget back into balance, by requiring staff to do more work with less funds, and keeping a high level of productivity with fewer people has been very difficult. We've outsourced a number of services to private companies. We've cut a number of positions. We've frozen a number of positions and given no raises to a large number of city employees. We've cut to the bone, so to speak. As the Council looked at alternatives for balancing the budget, last year, you talked about putting a utility tax on the ballot. But, because Proposition 218 was pending, you wanted to wait to see what happened with that measure because that changed the rules. Well, Prop 218 passed, and the ability to do that now mandated that it go to a general election, which moved it back to 1998. I You then began to look at other alternatives at how to deal with the budget gap. We're right now between $1.5 and $2 million, we're still analyzing our sales tax. And in looking at the budget in mid-year February, we gave you a number of scenarios on where we predicted to be both this year and future yean;. And as you will recall, there was a continual gap of our costs continuing to exceed our revenue, despite all the cuts we were making. For the reasons you heard previously, utility tax is going down due to deregulation, people cutting back on the usage. Edison Company is 50% of the utility tax and they have been making modifications, and we have yet to see it go down further as they deregulate in 1998, so a big hit there. Property tax is down due to reassessments and no property transfers. Sales tax is down to the economy, and we've lost some significant businesses in town. These are things that we'd like to say we can control. We can't. We are the recipient of the process, not the leader. You looked at a number of ways to reduce programs. The infamous green book, which you saw in February, gave you alternatives exclusive of a comparison of our service level to the cities around us. As you saw in most cases, we provide a higher level of service than most cities around us, on a per-capita basis and on a service-delivery basis as well. You looked at revenue enhancement programs, additional fees or things of that nature, and you authorized a few of those to put into place. And lastly, we gave you a large section dealing with cost reductions, everything from going to County Fire to changing fire operations, DARE, etc., etc. I Prior to doing that, the Council said, before we start making significant cuts in city services, you chose to go to the citizens and say, "Would you consider increasing your I I assessment, or creating an assessment for these servicesT' We analyzed the library assessment, a lighting and landscape assessment, and a fire assessment district. All of these would allow us to raise additional funds, with the outcome being, you'd ask the citizens to do this. This would raise additional funds to offset one of the general fund operations, and allow us to keep the same level of service by moving the dollars back and forth. We were always very clear on that. We'd be supplanting dollars from one pocket to another, so to speak. The Council debated at length on this issue, and I know you did not take this thing lightly. You looked at all the alternatives, all the ways to balance the budget, and you saw we could not do anything in the short run to make a change. Even if we had projects coming today on our vacant propeny, we wouldn't see those dollars for several years. So the gap wasn't going to go away. This is not a temporary condition. We need a pennanent solution to our problem. Either we find new revenue, significant new revenue, or we have to go back and reduce the service levels because we don't have the dollars available. You authorized us to begin initiation of the Fire Suppression District. And this process is the first of its kind in the City of Arcadia, and the first of its kind in the state because of Proposition 218. That changed the rules of the road, so to speak. The city had no authority to deviate from, or disregard these regulations. To implement the district requires a majority vote of propeny owners with one vote per household or per propeny weighed by financial obligation. Not our rules, state law. I We prepared an engineer's report, outlining the basis for the assessments. The Council had numerous meetings, presentations on this process, including all the budget discussions. There was a community forum held, at which the Mayor presented information and took questions on process. We've had an official public meeting, and now a public hearing. All the meetings were televised. We mailed out numerous documents to the propeny owners and the citizens, including a city newsletter, a question and answer format, numerous postcards infonning of the meetings and the processes. We got press releases out, briefed the media. Many of you made presentations to service clubs, senior citizens groups, PT A groups, a whole number of ways, in an attempt to educate the public on what the issues are, what the process was, and how the decision was really back to them on their opinion of what the city should do or not do in this budget situation. This process, as I mentioned, is unique. This city does not have any assessment districts now. This is a new process for us. And you further complicate that by adding 218 to the process where you have to mark the ballot yes or no, date it, and sign your name. A vel)' different process. It is not a vote, quote-unquote, as defined by state law. It is a ballot. It is not the same as we would have for city council elections. It's a very different process. We had to follow state law. It's not our process. We've had a lot of questions about this: "Why must I sign it?" and evel)1hing else. Our answer is, "It is state law. It is the result of Prop 218, the initiative process." I Tonight this public hearing is to allow you to receive any last minute input on the formation of the district. The reality is, the votes are in, all but those who might turn in a ballot tonight to be counted. You will receive a brief report from the City Attorney on some of the legal processes to conclude this process. The assessment engineer will make a brief presentation on this. 2 MICHAEL MILLER CITY ATTORNEY KELLY RICHARD LEIGH Wll.LDAN ASSOC. MAYOR HARBICHT As I said, anyone can, tonight, turn in their ballot. At the end of the public hearing, the assessment engineer will tabulate the final votes and give that repon back to the City I Council on the result of the ballot process. Before I conclude, I'd like to thank on behalf of the city staff, Warren Shaw and Peter Ulrich, who served as the City Council-appointed citizens' committee to assist with the voter tabulation and overseeing the process. Your interest and willingness to get up early this morning and help process is greatly appreciated. I think they're both here. I saw them come in, so thank you very much. To the public, it's been a difficult process. I know the staff has had an awful lot of phone calls to respond to. I know the Council has had an awful lot of people they have talked to. Despite the outcome, whatever it may be, it leads to the staff's opinion, if nothing else, hopefully more people may know a little bit more about their city and operations. And whether or not you agree with the process that we had to go through, hopefully there's more understanding of how the City of Arcadia works. And if nothing else, that may have been some benefit. So with that, I'll turn the matter over the City Attorney for a presentation. Thank you. I have a very brief report. This is the final stage of an assessment process pursuant to the law governing fire suppression assessments. This law starts in California Government Code at Section 50078. And it also, it finishes more or less with the recently adopted Proposition 218, which amended the California Constitution by a vote of the people last year. With regard to the existing law, that law did provide, under Government Code, for written protests. That has always been the law. I Now this process provided for protests by mail ballot. But when we started the process, the old law was in effect, and Prop 218. And I just want to add for the record that we did receive eight written protests against the Assessment District under the old law. And later on you will get a report on the tabulated protest by way of the voting ballot. I've reviewed all of the legal proceedings and public notice requirements in conjunction with Special Legal Counsel Warren Diven and I can report that all required procedures have been satisfied, culminating in tonight's public hearing, tabulation of protest votes, and final action. Thank you. Mayor and Councit. Mr. Richard Leigh from Willdan Associates will give you just a brief overview of the Assessment Engineer's Report. Hello, Mayor, Members of the Council. I'm Richard Leigh from Willdan Associates. Our finn prepared this Engineer's Repon for the Fire Suppression Assessment in accordance with state law. The properties that are proposed to be assessed receive a special and direct benefit from the proposed Fire Suppression Assessment. The assessment's amounts for each property use were detennined according to three risk classifications, the first being the number of firefighters that respond to the type of property, the second being the size of the structure, and thirdly, the likelihood of a fire for a particular land use. If there's any I questions on the report. I would be happy to answer them. Any questions for Mr. Leigh? Thank you, sir. 3 I I I HAROLD KIDD The next item is a public hearing. And just before we open that, I would like to preface it with a few remarks. As you've gathered from listening to the comments here, we've been dealing with a brand new law, Prop 218, that went into effect in November, melded into what has always been on the books. The law required that we hold what was called a public meeting, which we did at our last Council meeting, which was an open meeting for the citizens to address the Council on this particular issue, and also required that we hold a public hearing, which is what we're going to be holding tonight. At the public meeting, I was rather generous with the time here. Some people went on for 10, 12 minutes and even though we requested that everyone limit their comments to 5 minutes, I did not cut anybody off, partly because some of those people were kind of lambasting the City Council; and it seemed a little self-serving to cut them off. But tonight I am going to try to adhere to a five-minute time limit for anybody who wishes to address the Council. And I ask that you respect that. I'll also mention that when we, when the Council closes the public hearing tonight, that will also be the end of the balloting time. So up until that time, anyone can bring a ballot forward and give it to the City Clerk here and that ballot will be counted as part of the official ballot process. But once we close the public hearing, that will be the end of the balloting period, and the tabulations will be completed and the results of those tabulations will be announced tonight. I mention that, because we've received somewhere around 6,000 ballots that are in, and frankly, it's allover but the shouting here. We just need to count them up and determine what the results are. I'll also mention that I was not here today as the ballot opening process was going on. I understand from some who were and observed this that it appears that the assessment district is going to fail. It is not going to get a majority yes vote. That will be confirmed when we close the public hearing. But I just thought that I would mention that because if, in fact, that is the case, the Council's only alternative at that point is to abandon the Fire Assessment District and move on. So I'm going to open the public hearing and ask that each person who wishes to address the Council on this issue, please come forward. Please give us your name, and the address of your property that you're speaking in behalf of for the record, and as I said, please try to limit your comments to five minutes. Yes, sir. My name is Harold Kidd. I live at 416 Magellan Road, a 37 -year resident of Arcadia. I'm here to address the information that has been published by the City Council and our city administrators. On the front page of this, you say funds will be used to help maintain current l~el of all municipal services. Why is it called a Fire Suppression District? On the inside, page 2, property tax revenue has funher been eroded by the decline of property values over the past five years. That is plain, unadulterated fiction. I have contacted the Los Angeles County Assessor's Office through our County Supervisor, Michael Antonovich, and obtained the total assessed valuation of property within the City of Arcadia for the years 1988 through 1996. Not one year shows a decline. In fact, it increased from $2,5~9,173,000 in 1988 to $4,508,831,000 in 1996. That's an 4 BRICE DINSMORE PETER CHAN increase of about 75%. How can you stand there and tell us it's a decline. The percentage going to Arcadia is .097 of the General Tax Levy, according to the I Auditor/Controller, Mr. Michael Gallindo. As assessed revenues increase in Arcadia, revenues, Arcadia receives a larger share. Another fiction: deregulation of utilities has drastically lowered the utility revenue. I have contacted Public Utilities Commission in the State of California and the only thing that has been deregulated is the telephone that was deregulated by the Federal Government in the I980s. As of this date, only the telephone has been deregulated with the breakup of AT&T. Electricity will be deregulated in 1998. And if there's anyone that is interested, I have t1te letter here from Mr. Antonovich' s office, showing every one of the assessed valuations for the City of Arcadia. Thank you. My name is Brice Dinsmore. rve lived here since 1948. I've enjoyed this city very much. You have a fire suppression bill for 20 years. Why 20 years? Is that not correct? Is it a 20-year bill? You have $39 million in the bank, we as a city. Why don't we use some of that money, make this a five-year bill, and do the things we have to do to get things right? Take the utility tax, let the people wait until that bill 218 or whatever it is comes through, vote, make it right. Why 20 years? I just can't understand that. It just bothers me. Roncelli came up here a month ago and said this is a scare tactic. I agree with Mr. Roncelli. Why do we have to do this? Why cannot we take the money we have, use it, wait for the election, and vote on it. Twenty years from now, you're not going to change this tax. It doesn't happen. The water bill doesn't happen. Nothing like that ever has happened. I take it, that these people in Arcadia who can't afford it, I feel sony for them. I And you people did this. You walked down First Avenue, Huntington Drive. You should have done that a long time ago. You should bring some business to this city. Go to Silicon Valley. Call Intel. Call those people. They're going to Colorado. Bring them here. Get this city going. I know you've heard all of this. I sat on your race track. Gee whiz. I go there. Year-round, they're there. Not just a couple of months, they're in there. We get revenue. I'm there. I see it. Raise the taxes there. Go back to utility again. I just don't know. I guess that's all I've got to say. One more thing. There was a lady here about a horse on a property on Huntington. Very nice lady. So concerned about this horse. And trying to keep her business going. Well, this lady pays taxes in this city. I'll guarantee YOIl, if that lady who lives on Lee Avenue was up here, she would not have been treated like that. End of my statement. Thank you. My name is Peter Chan. I live in 20 IS Souih Seventh A venue. I am a member of, one of the members of we call Silent Majority. I never been here before. I want to tell you I always respect the Mayor, the Member of the Council, because I truly, I truly believe that this is a tough job. Whatever you do for us, I believe that you do your best. However, today I come here to speak to you for a few reasons. Well, by the way, I used to be so-called sidewalk supervisor, because to criticize is easy, to do it is difficult, I want to admit that. I 5 1 I I I have one time received a newsletter from Dr. Chang and quoted the Mayor's message. Here is the message, part of it. Our Fire Department, Police Department, Library and Recreation program, etc., are the best of any city in this area. My question to the Mayor is, "Are we going to tJy to maintain our city to the best in this area?" To me, if we have to raise the tax for the property owners, that means we might not have the means to support that. To me, if we can, if I can drive a Canuy and get around with it, I would be happy. I don't need to get a Lexus or Mercedez Benz. The other is, I received the notification and the vote after your first public hearing. And when I got the information, the only time I can e,,'Press my idea is at this time. And this time is also the voting time. As a layman, I'm with limited knowledge of the political process. I thought that a public hearing, you tJy to educate the citizens, and get the input. One, my question is, "Why I receive the letter, to vote, and when I received it, this is the only public hearing I can attendT' I know that you must have the one prior. But that was before I received my letter. And I am not the only one who has received this late. As a matter of fact, yesterday, I went to City Hall. I talked to June about that. And she acknowledged there are some return letters. And I don't know whether this is valid or not. If more citizens received the letter late and this is the only time they can come here to address the Council, I think that's something wrong here. About sales tax, you mentioned about it. You e,,1end the Santa Anita shopping mall. You improve the downtown business area. I wonder whether our city tax will increase or decrease because of this, or not. To me, as a layman, the city tax, the city should get more tax on this. Property tax? Well, everybody knows in Arcadia, people buy a house for maybe a $20-$30,000 house and they turn it now into a big mansion. MAYOR HARBICHT Mr. Chao, one minute please. One more minute. CHAN Thank you. Is the tax on those new houses more than the old house? I don't know. I think, to me, the tax on the new house should be more. I felt that the city government should do the outreach more, do the public education more. I felt, I think the City Manager just mentioned that there are so many things going out for education, to educate the public, the citizenship. To me, I get two kinds of information. One is the one you ask me to vote, OK? The other is, through these regular Arcadia City newsletter. And that's what I get. And I felt that maybe, you all you do your best job. But that I could not see it. I could not see it. I only hope that you do a better job. Thank you very much. PATRICIA BUESCH This question only applies, oh, I'm supposed to say who I am. I'm sorry. I'm Patricia Buesch, from 120 West Wisteria Avenue in Arcadia. And this question only applies if the Fire Suppression Assessment passes. I know you all have e"-peeled a lot from the Santa Anita development, and that project of 1.5 million square feet was projected to directly boost annual city sales tax revenue by at least $2.3 million. This amount was given two years ago. And we all know, this dido't pass. This admission in March of this year was 500,000 square feet, 2/3 less than the original. If this project comes to fruition, will there be an adjustment in the assessment amount? That's my question. MAYOR HARBICHT You mean in the estimate of income. BUESCH Yes. We have been told how much we're paying. Now, if this goes through, the Santa Anita project, you'll be getting revenue from them. It will be more than $800,000, say 6 it's a million, or whatever, by the time it's eventually built. Would we then have our assessment reduced because you are getting this huge extra revenue? I MAYOR HARBICHf That is an option. BUESCH That is an option? MAYOR HARBICHf Ma'am, I think everybody thinks this is very amusing. I don't know who is going to be on the Council when that comes on line. And those decisions, I can't bind future City Councils. I can't even predict what they might do. But I do know that, for example, the City Council of the City of Arcadia reduced our utility tax from 7% to 5% in 1980. So it's not unprecedented that taxes have been lowered. I'm like everybody else here. I've watched over the years taxes go up and up and up, particularly at the Federal level, so I don't have very much confidence that taxes are going to come do\\n. The City Council deals with certain demands for services and certain revenues. And if we got to the point where our revenues significantly exceeded our demand, why would we continue to collect e>.tra? We don't get a commission. But I can't guarantee what would happen. BUESCH Exactly, and I understand that. But this figure that you have come up with, the $2.2 million, is based on not having the Santa Anita propeny, so when you get the Santa Anita propeny, if you do, then it just seems fair to do something about the assessment. . MAYOR HARBICHf It's based on current needs. We've been speculating for the past several years on the possibilities. And we've already looked at one possibility of a Santa Anita development, which died. I BUESCH And they've submitted it again, though. MAYOR HARBICHf Well, it's not an active proposal. I think Santa Anita is in the process of being purchased by another company, and so we don't know what's going to happen. We think that they're going to come back with about a half-million square foot project. But nothing's guaranteed. So we're really talking a little bit about speculation. We have a lot of possibilities on the horizon that could improve our situation. At the same time, we've had possibilities in the past that haven't come to fruition. So we are trying to deal with the situation as it exists now. What the future will bring, we'll deal with as the future comes along. Believe me, I'd like to be in a position where we have more money than we need. I'd be a lot more popular than I am now. BUESCH Thank you. LYLE WILSON Good evening, ladies and gentlemen. My name is Lyle Wilson. I live at 170 I South Sixth Avenue. I'm here about this Fire Suppression Assessment. The problem I had \\ith it, when I initially received the, all the information, both through the newspaper and through pamphlets and letters sent py the city was that the city was asking for more money to maintain services, i.e., in this case, fire suppression. But what the city failed to do, and I made attempts to find out, exactly what it is. I I understand there's a shortfall of money, and I understand it's been going on for quite a 7 I few years. But what I didn't, what I could not get was what measures the city has actively taken to reduce some of its e>:penditures. I just spent some time going through some of the past city's budgets and comparing from 1992 through 1996, one particular area within the department within the city. And we got infonnation that some city employees had not received a raise in a long time, and there's problems with that. And I understand that also. But in this one area I looked at, since 1992 through 1996, this one area of the city, and there's only five people occupying this department within a department, within a major department of the city in a sub-department, there's only five employees in there. And employee salaries and benefits have gone up over 19% since 1992 to 1996. Now, I don't know about you gentlemen, but my employer has not given me a 19% raise in employee benefits or salary since 1992. Now, I made attempts to find out exactly where that 19% figure, where that came. Were they pay raises? As I understand it, one of them was a reclassification of a position to a higher position, which meant a higher salary. There were also some additional ones that I looked at. An example would be for the 1994-95 budget, within the City Manager's office, there was a reclassification of a secretary, to a secretary to the City Manager, and increase of $7,605. I Within the City Attorney's office, there was a notation that outside counsel requests had increased substantially during the past years. Talking to the financial officers of the city, it was e>:plained to me there has been a rather sizable amount of liability that the city has incurred through some of its department's actions that have been taken over the past 3-1/2 years that has greatly increased liability picture. My question to him was, "Well, does that mean, is that something we can look at, that's a fact that the cost for liability insurance has gone up? Is that what we're paying this e>.lra amount forT' He said, "No, the city is self-insured up to a half a million dollars. These are just amounts that have been paid for liability." And then I asked, "Well, I've looked at this one department area, where you pointed out 200-and-some thousand dollars has been spent in a three year period on liability, and that's back again to this five member, five people within this one department within a larger department of the city." And he e>''Plained, "No, all that money didn't 'come from those five people." What it is, the overall liability picture of the city is taken and broken up and put in and out of the departments. If that seems confusing to you, it was confusing to me when it was e>''Plained to me. That's one of the problems. A layman, and I wouldn't consider myself as a layman as far as reading fiscal budgets and things, because I've had some experience with that. But as a citizen went over and obtained and looked at the city budget, which is published, there's nothing, there's infonnation in there that's lacking that e>''Plains to the citizen why these increases exist. I Now, I'm a person, I like to get salary increases. I'm a very professional person, efficiently doing my job, so I like to get salary increases. I like to see the city employees get salary increases, too, if they're efficient, and they do a better job, and they're hard- working. That's not what I'm in opposition to. What I'm in opposition to is, you asked for more tax money from me, but you didn't really e>''Plain to me what you're really. Was that one minute. You didn't really e>''Plain to me what real actions you've taken in limiting .e>'1JCnditures. Just that one item I've pulled out of the budget. That requires some e>''Planation to me. I mean, I don't understand that. And when I attempted to get the e>''Planation for that, it was rather confusing as to the way the city's budget is set up. 8 GARY KOVACIC WILSON GARY KOVACIC WILSON JUDY MCKINLEY So I would propose that maybe you could, there are plenty of people within the city that I are much better financially aware than myself, or maybe even people on the Council, form a committee of citizens to take a look at what the ex-penditures are in the city. Where there is money that can be saved. And then maybe go back to the citizens and ask them, "How about an increase or an assessment?" I would be much more amenable to that, because that convinced me that the money is not being spent properly. Thank you. I was going to ask the gentleman who just spoke. Are you going to identify the subsections so that we can do our research? Sure, it will be, I mentioned that for 94-95, the City Manager's office, within the Engineering Division there was a reclassification of a Senior Engineer to an Assistant City Engineer. That was another $6,000 annually. And within the Water Division, there was a Clerk Typist who was reclassification to an Engineering A to Senior Engineer and a Clerk Typist to a SecretaJy. That was $7,500 a year. Within the Community Development department, there was a reclassification that took place from a Senior Planner to a Planning Services Manager, $4,073. There was a reclassification also for a Senior Building Inspector to Inspector Services Supervisor, $3,122. There was also another reclassification, Assistant Community Development DirectorlP]anning to Assistant Community Development Director, $7,089. Within the, I have referenced pages within the budget, for 94-95. The first one for the City Managers was page number 4, the nex1 one was number 5 for the City Attorney's office, was number 5 for the Engineering Department, was number 5 for the Water Division, was number 6 for the Community Development. Then, within the Development Agency funds, I found that real confusing, as to what was going on with the money there, I couldn't understand that. I What I was asking was, you made mention that one subsection realized a 19% raise and I just wanted to know what that subsection is. That's within the Police Department, within the Administrative Division. The 92-93 employee salary-benefit package was $448,458. The only thing I could come up with was the actual expenditure for 94-95 that was $514,]42. There is an estimated ex-penditure which is higher than that for, because, I guess, something about that budget is not finalized the full expenditures for it, it was explained to me. But then that figure goes up rather substantially for the fiscal year 96-97. I mean that's what I don't understand. There might be a justifiable reason for that. But in attempting to get an ex 'Planation for that, it was rather laborious and confusing. That's what bothered me. That told me that, well, that may be justified, if it could have been eX'Plained to me, I probably would have voted for this Assessment District. I mean just that's one area I looked at. If 1 looked at and picked out one area and it had looked fine, I would have probably said, it's probably generally fine, the City Council is correct, they do need more money. But in picking one area and looking at it and seeing that, 1 mean, I couldn't justify to myself spending that extra money. Thank you. I'm Judy McKinley. I live at 17 West Sierra Madre Boulevard. 1 have two questions. At the July 15 meeting, when the Redevelopment Agency meeting opened, the Redevelopment Agency voted to not vote their votes in the Fire Suppression Assessment election. I would like to know how many votes the Redevelopment Agency has, or could possibly have voted in this election? I 9 I I I election. I would like to know how many votes the Redevelopment Agency has, or could possibly have voted in this election? MAYOR HARBICHT I believe the city controlled 80 votes, and elected not to cast the vote. MCKINLEY The city. But what about the Redevelopment Agency? MAYOR HARBICHT That is including. MCKINLEY That is including? KELLY The agency had a separate number, I don't recall that number. It was very small. The agency only owns two properties. $518 in total. MCKINLEY OK, I have another question. The Star-News, I believe, reported that a property company named Golden West Properties had 80 votes. Can anyone tell me who owns Golden West Properties? KELLY I don't know the owner's name right now. We'd have to research that and we can get it to you. Do you want to call tomorrow? I don't know the names. MCKINLEY That's fine. Thank you. (cassette ends... moving on to the nex1 side) GAIL MARSHALL Gail MarshaIt. The lady that was referred about on Lee Avenue, and I didn't quite understand (blank tape for about 4 seconds) by Jack Williams from Monrovia. I just want to read a little bit, and then tell you why I brought it. It says, "Kudos to Catherine Roberts for telling it like it is about the present state of our government. Here is a local example of things gone very wrong. The art of taxation is akin to plucking a goose with the least amount of squawking. I've just been plucked and I am squawking. Monrovia held a property owner election by mail-in ballot that was an insuItto the principle of one person, one vote, secret ballot. The only secret ballot was cast by the City Council. How many parcels do you suppose make up the various parking lots, City Hall, police station, fire station, parks, truck yards, and various individual pieces held by the Redevelopment Agency around town? Claiming victory over the people at 530/0, counting the votes as they trickled in, being able to vote large parcels in their favor makes one wonder where the 3% carne from." And I am here touightto thank the Council for listeuing when it was presented to you at the last meeting, weighing this, deciding not to vote the city vote, and consequently, you will not be having things like this written or have negative connotations coming back to you. And whichever way the vote goes, we must go on from there. And I think everybody would be willing to decide that the people decided it, and thank you. MAYOR HARBICHT I might just mention on that, that the reference to counting the votes as they trickle in. We opened no envelopes until this morning. All the votes were counted today. PHYLLIS NEMETII My name is Phyllis Nemeth and I live at5l7 San Luis Rey. I would kind of like to echo the man who spoke second, that had this been presented to me as perhaps a five-year program. I would have been more willing to vote for it. And also, I really didn't like the way the City of Arcadia information sheet was phrased, because it more or less is like a scare tactic. At least that's the way it carne across to me, 10 think that there must be some other solutions that wouldn't be so drastic, since this is supposed to be a strictly a Fire Suppression thing. I But I still would be prepared, willing to go for this, if it meant that we would get no entenainment complex on Santa Anita property. Thank you. ALBERT LEE Mr. Mayor, fellow Council people. Obviously I've been out of the loop on an awful lot of this, and I have just one question that should be very easy. I received the assessment amounts for my property and am I led to believe that the assessment amounts are different based on the size of the property or the size of the business? AIe the amounts different? MAYOR HARBICHT Single family properties are all the same. Businesses vary depending on the size. May I have your name for the record, please? LEE Oh, excuse me. I'm Albert Lee. I Jive at 39 East Colorado Boulevard. So my question in a sense was, that if an individual had a five-bedroom, two-bath house and someone else had a two-bedroom, one-bath house, the assessment is the same? MAYOR HARBICHT Yes it is. LEE OK. Thank you. May I turn my ballot in? LONELLSPENCER Good evening, Mayor, Council and citizens. My name is Lonell Spencer. I Jive at 1008 South Mayflower. All the money which has been spent on the proposed City of AIcadia Fire Suppression District probably could have been saved by the City Council and administration refreshing their memory by reading this. It's the minutes of the City Council of the City of AIcadia and the AIcadia Redevelopment Agency, regular meeting of July 2, 1996, which convened at 7 p.m. I will now read the pertinent excerpts from the approved July 2nd minutes, starting at page 5,6,7,8, and 9. It shouldn't take too long. I City Council recessed in order to act as the AIcadia Redevelopment Agency. Present members, Agency members Chang, Hartlicht, Young and KuIm, absent Agency Member Lojeski. On motion by Agency Member Young, second by Agency Member Hartlicht and carried on roll call vote as follows, Agency Member Lojeski was excused. Ayes, Chang, Hartlicht, Young and Kuhn. Page 6. Consent items. 7a was the minutes, which was approved. Th, City Agency Funds, Repay City, Reborrow and Time E>.1ension. Approved payment of $1,647,000 of loans outstanding at June 30, 1996, to the City of Arcadia, and that the Agency reborrow $1,647,000 and deposit such amount in the Agency Project Fund. Agency will accept an e>.1ension for the repayment of the remaining outstanding debt of $3,380,665. All loans to the city to be due and payable on June 30, 1997. Moved by Agency Member Harbicht, seconded by Agency Member Chang. Carried on roll call vote as follows, Agency Members Chang, Harbicht, Young and Kuhn voted yes. Absent, Member Lojeski. Now we go to page 7. City Council reconvened. Page 8. Consent items. Item JOh of the consent items. ARA City Loan Payment, Re- I Loan and Time E>.1ension. Accepted payment of $1.647,000 of loans outstanding from the AIcadia Redevelopment Agency on June 30, 1996. Reloan the $1,647,000 to the Agency Project Fund, and e>.1end the time frame for the repayment on the remaining 11 I I I debt of $3,380,665 to be due and payable on June 30, 1997. The above consent items were approved, including lOb, motion by Councilman Chang, second by Mayor Pro Tern HartJicht, and carried on roll call vote as follows, Ayes, Councilmembers Chang, Hartlicht, Young and Kuhn. It would seem that this money, $3,380,000, $3,665,000 was due and payable June 30, 1997. And yet it is not shown in the preliminary operating budget for fiscal years 97-99, which I looked at in the library. It could cover a $1,650,000 budget shortfall for each of the 1997-98 and 1998-99 budget years. Question. As of August 5, 1997, has this debt of the Arcadia Redevelopment Agency been repaid to the City of Arcadia? MAYOR HARBICHT The answer to that is, no it has nol The City of Arcadia has funds in reserve, and we have all those funds deposited in interest-bearing instruments. One of those interest-bearing instruments is a loan, that you referred to, to the Arcadia Redevelopment Agency. We also have money in banks. We have it in the State fund. These are reserves that are set aside. They're not current income. SPENCER I realize that, but why is it stated here that the money is payable? MAYOR HARBICHT Because we make it. We make a one year loan, and each year we reconsider whether to continue that loan. SPENCER But it hasn't been reconsidered. As far as all the minutes that I have available, and I watched all the videotapes. What the process that was gone through in 1996 has not been gone through in 1997. Thank you. VINCENT FOLEY Good evening, members of the City Council. My name is Vincent Foley, and I reside on Cambridge Drive. I had decided not to address the Council tonight because I think the tax apparently is a foregone conclusion, that it is not going to pass. But the reason I got up is because it really bothers me that when a speaker gets up and makes a point, and the point apparently is against the Council, that other members of the audience clap, as if they were at a football game and we've scored some kind of points. And it's us versus you at the Council sitting up there. And I would hope that all the citizens understand that every Council Member is a resident of the City of Arcadia, that they have individually just as much to gain or lose by the passage or non-passage of this tax, like every other citizen does. And what bothers me is, if we can assume, and I do assume, that the City Council has not been playing chicken with us all this time, that there really is a crisis, and I believe there is, and you're not going to say tomorrow, "Gee, it failed but don't wony, nothing is going to change." I don't believe that's going to happen. What I believe is going to. happen is that what you have been saying all along, that there will be a reduction of services, that there has to be because there has to, some way, this money has to come from somewhere. I believe if it does not pass, that there will be a reduction of services. Consequently, it bothers me that these people are clapping for somebody who is making a point because the losers are not going to be the five Council Members sitting up there. The losers are going to be all of the citizens of Arcadia who don't receive the same services tomorrow that they received yesterday. Thank you very much.' . 12 MAYOR HARBICIIT Ladies and gentlemen, this is a business meeting. It's really inappropriate 10 have I demonstrations. So I'd like to ask thai everyone refrain from clapping or any other kinds of demonstrations. Lei's move on with the meeting here. Yes, sir. DREW KRYNICKI Drew KIynicki, 321 Leroy Avenue. I'm for the Suppression District. and I'm disappointed that it didn't pass, apparently. I also have a lot offriends who have come up and spoken against it, and I've been one of the people who've been clapping. But I haven't been clapping on opposition to the City Council people. I've been clapping because some people like Harold Kidd and Mr. Spencer and others have brought up points that have really bothered a lot of people in the City of Arcadia. The points that Mr. Spencer broughl up about the Redevelopment Agency is really the reason why I think this failed. Because if it indeed did. Because I don't think there's anyone here in the city who would like to see our police go down, or who wants our fire to turn into a County-run operation if we can help it. But I think that when people look althe operation of this city, what they've said is, we just think there are too many areas where the City Council hasn't provided us with a tight enough control over our spending. And those are the areas like the Redevelopment Agency, where millions of dollars are being spent and people don't have an understanding of it And that's why people are clapping, because they're reaffirming the fact that they don't want to have a cut in services, and they still feel there are a lot of areas where we can make cuts and actually come out ahead. I think they made good points, a lot of the speakers, and so I wouldn't take it as a criticism of the Council but more as an affirmation that these people are making really good points. I HAROLD ELLIS Harold Ellis 1504 South Eighth Avenue. I ran across an interesting little article written by Bill Owens, the State Treasurer of Colorado. He points out that Federal taxes on a family offour went from 2% in 1950 to almost 25% in 1995. Add on to that, state and local taxes, and you can see why it's been important for a second income in many of America's families. And that's just to pay the Federal and Stale tax bill. Mr. Owens says on network television, "That's what's driving we think many of the social ills, over-taxation." Mr. Owens blames it all on politicians who use marginal examples as excuses for raising taxes instead of figuring out how to finance projects within the large sums they already collect At the state level, it's "Oh, we need better roads, SO we need a tax increase." Or at the local level, "Obviously, with the new grO\\tb, we need the fire station in the southern part of town. Therefore we have to raise taxes." And I have added what I call Ellis' corollary, which states, "Since we, the Council, and our hired department managers cannot operate the city on the large sums we already collect, we have to raise taxes." Seems like the solution is always raise taxes. Now, every time somebody mentions Downtown 2000 project up here, and the $8 million we spent on that project. the defense is, "Oh, thai money didn't come out of the I General Fund, so therefore it was OK 10 blow it" I think what people are trying to say to the Council is, we walched whal you did with the 2000 project do\\ntown, we're not 13 I I 1 MAYOR HARBICHT ELLIS TED RIGAS ELLIS MAYOR HARBICHT ELLIS CLETE DEFIORI happy with the way you spent our \ax dollars, and we really don't trust you to spend the rest of our money wisely. I read the suppression report very carefully, and they make a, what I call a pretty bad assumption when they get into the consequences of not voting in this Fire Suppression District. When they made their second comparison and detennined that they would have to shut down the fire station, etc., etc., they deducted the entire $2.2 million from the Fire Department budget. And if what I have heard down through this process is true, that is a big flaw in the reporl, because we all know that's not what is going to happen. It would be divvied up amongst all of the departments. And they wouldn't have to take a $2 million hit. I got out my little red book on the California Constitution. I understand some of this is controlled by State law. However, the California Constitution says, in plain simple words, voting shall be secret. Secret means a ballot without a name, without a number, without any way of tracing it back to the party that cast the vote. Now. One minute, Mr. Ellis. One minute, please. It just seems that the way ... I would like to donate my five minutes to Mr. Ellis. My name is Ted Rigas, and I live at 352 E. Haven Avenue, in this wonderful City of Arcadia. Thank you. Now, if we're required to have a secret ballot, as far as I can see, there are certainly many ways that we could have had a secret valid ballot on this issue. The only information that needed to be transmitted on the ballot is, what was the ballot worth in dollars and cents, or in, as we rated it, compared to a single residential house. We certainly could have had a secret ballot without any problem. We have to wonder, how many people didn't vote because they didn't want their name on the ballot. We also have to wonder, and I understand from talking to people in charge of this project, that when this ballot is through, we're going to have a computer disk which will list the name, the property, and the way the person voted. And I really think that's totally and completely un-American. Because State law may have allowed us to do that, I think that we should have taken the little higher step and made it a secret ballot. We certainly could have. I am requesting that the Council select C on the agenda and put this thing to rest and get it over with. Thank you. I would just like to add that there was some recent state law that was signed by the Governor as an urgency measure which specifically affirmed what 218 said, and that is I agree with Mr. Ellis about, what he says about the Constitution, but it specifically affirmed that these processes, this assessment vote, is not a vote under the Constitution. It's not an election vote. So we were bound by State law, and we really had no choice, and no other city has any choice, Mr. Ellis. Well, we have a choice of what we put on our ballot. It says, from what I read, which was 218 information out of the Constitution. that we may, a person may put their name on the ballot, and it does not require that they put their name on the ballot. My name is C1ete Dcfiori and I live on EI Monte Avenue. I'll try to make this as brief as possible. 14 MAYOR HARBICHT MAYOR PRO TEM KOVACIC COUNCILMEMBER YOUNG MAYOR HARBICHT. CITY CLERK ROLL CALL MAYOR HARBICHT RICHARD LEIGH MAYOR HARBICHT ROBERT QUAID WILLDAN ASSOC. MAYOR HARBICHT QUAID MAYOR HARBICHT This decline in property values thing that I brought up in our last meeting is kind of, kind of sticks in my craw, and I'd like to clarifY something. The decline in property I values in the 90s, as Mr. Kidd pointed out, since 1990 to the present time, actually to 1996, the increase of value of Arcadia property has gone up $1,100,000,000. Well, if you divide that by the number of years, that's almost $2 million a year. It seems that it should cover your short come that you're tIying to get. Where does this declining property value thing come from, that we see published in the Arcadia papers? The reports I have here from the County of Los Angeles shows that property values have been going up steadily from 1988 to 1997. No one knows where it came from, the declining property values in Arcadia, right? Because I see $2 billion from 1988 to 1996. That's a lot of money. Even at the rate of, what is it, .097 in Arcadia tax, a little less than I%? 1% of $2 billion is like $10 million, isn't it? Does that cover your shortfall? Thank you. Is there a motion to close the public hearing? So moved. Second. OK, before I take a vote on closing the public hearings, I would like to once again announce that if anyone has not cast their ballot and cares to, please do so now. May we have a roll call Madam, City Clerk? I AYES: Chang, Kovacic, Kuhn, Young and Hartlicht. NOES: None ABSENT: None Is the Assessment Engineer ready to report on the results of the tabulation at this point, or do you need some time? No, we can report. You can report now? Well, then I will ask you to do so. We tabulated the ballots that were received, coming in just a moment ago. Of the total 15,819 ballots that were sent out, we received back 6,266 ballots, totaling $908,740.85 of assessments. That was roughly 40% of the total dollars that were part of the proposed $2.2 million. Of the ballots returned, the yes votes were 1,936 ballots totaling $264,129.23. That was approximately 29% of the vote. Of the no ballots, there were 4,330 ballots received voting no. Those totaled $644,611.62, or approximately 71 % of the ballots received, of the dollars of the ballots received. So it was a clear no vote for this case for the Fire Suppression District. 71 % no, and 29% yes. Any questions of the Assessment Engineer? We will prepare our wrillen report of this to the Council. 1 OK. Discussion by the Council. 15 1 I I KOVACIC KUHN MAYOR HAREICHT CITY CLERK ROLL CALL MAYOR HAREICHT KUHN MAYOR HAREICHT YOUNG MAYOR HAREICHT KOVACIC Mr. Mayor, I move we abandon the assessment proceedings. I second. Motion by Kovacic and a second by Kuhn to abandon the Assessment District, the Fire Suppression Assessment District. Discussion? Roll call, please. AYES: Chang, Kovacic, Kuhn, Young and Harbicht. NOES: None ABSENT: None Any member of the Council care to comment on this issue? Yes, I would, Mr. Mayor. I took several notes tonight in listening to the comments that were made this evening, and in hearing from other citizens throughout the process. I heard a great deal of frustration, both with the revenue situation and also with the process. But remember that the process was not our choice. It is State law. Also, I heard a message that you want to maintain the high services that we enjoy, but you don't want a 20-year tax bill attached to them. And this city obviously needs to do a better job of education and communication to our citizens. I believe our job at this point is to see that services are delivered at the highest possible level for the most cost effectiveness, and we do need to seek better communication avenues to better inform citizens. You must understand, e"'Plaining a very complex budget and a very complex legislative issue in a matter of a few minutes without benefit of previous research and background becomes almost an impossible task. And that's the job we had before us to do. But we'll move forward from this point forward and do the best we can. That's the end of my remarks. Mrs. Young? Yes, I must say I'm sorry this didn't pass. But we will go on from here. And we will do our best to meet the requirements that you set for us by being, one, more careful in our probably wordage, and in our method of getting information to you. We don't run a school, but maybe we should when something like this comes up. I want to thank the Mayor for all of his efforts, because he spent many hours talking to service groups and many other kinds of groups around town, plus the public hearings that we held. And I hope that the work that we now have before us will meet your approval. Mr. Kovacic? Yes, I think one of the beneficial b)'Products of this process is that it brought people to City Hall and to the City Council proceedings that may have never been here before, and I think that's important. As Mr. Foley said, we're all citizens of Arcadia. We should all take an interest in how Arcadia is run. We shouldn't assume that somebody else is going to take care of our business for us. If, in fact, you don't like the way things are being run. I encourage everybody, as I do at almost every meeting, to become involved with Arcadia, to get out and help, to volunteer your time. If you are truly concerned about the City of Arcadia, 16 put your money where your mouth is. Put in the time and effort to help make this a bener city. 1 And I'll revisit a theme that I said at the last meeting, which is, there is a significant difference between a healthy skepticism about government, and a cynicism. And I hope that people in this audience and people in Arcadia aren't suffering from chronic cynicism. The job becomes progressively harder when you get on this side of the podiwn. I've only been here 10 months, and I'm learning every day what's involved in running this city. But let's not assume that just because I am on this side of the podiwn. that somehow I am not doing a good job, that somehow the Mayor isn't doing a good job, that the other Council Members aren't doing a good job, that they aren't trying the best they can. We obviously can benefit from all the input, from all of the citizens, so don't remain quiet. Don't remain passive. EXl'ress your opinions. Let us know what's going on. This vote is an indication that the city has spoken, and we will take that word and move forward. But please, don't suffer from some kind of chronic cynicism that everything the government does is wrong. Be skeptical, but also be positive. Thank you. MAYOR HARBICIIT Dr. Chang? CHANG Now that the citizens of Arcadia have clearly spoken against the Assessment for a Fire Suppression District, that would force us to work on the city budget again in order to put it back in shape. On our next Council meeting, we will decide where to cut our expenses. I would welcome citizens' input before then. I MAYOR HARBICIIT Dr. Chang, I'd just like to briefly comment, too. You know, this Fire Assessment District is not an adversarial proceeding. I suppose it's human nature, if you don't like something, to try to blame it on somebody. Find somebody to be mad at. All we did was put before the citizens the question, and I've slated this over and over for the past six weeks, of, "Do you want us to cut back on the ex-penditures, which inevitably is going to mean cutting services, or would you rather pay additional tax to maintain services at the level that they're at?" As an elected official, I'm neutral on this. The people have spoken, and they've spoken very clearly. And so I see as my next task to figure out where we're going to cut those services. Where are we going to do it that's going to have the least impact on our community. But, in fact, the impact is going to be there. As an individual, I'm disappointed. I made no bones about the fact that I persoually was willing to pay this additioual tax because I want the level of services that we're currently providing. But my job is to represent the will of the voters. Basically, we have been providing $25 million worth of services to the citizens of this community every year. And we're getting about $23 million in. Can't continue to do that. And they said the choice was clear, either we have to increase the amount that was coming in, or we have to decrease the amount that we're spending. And so we will decrease the amount that we're I spending. 17 I I'm going to take issue with something Mrs. Kuhn said with regard to communication. and educating people. We hold budget hearings every year, protracted budget hearings. We are required by law to hold a public hearing before adopting a budget. And I didn't see very many of you there. Nobody's there. The budget public hearing that we hold is probably one of the least attended hearings that we have. We have a consideration of a stop sign on a corner that everybody seems to care about, we'll fill up this room. But when it comes to the budget hearings, nobody's here. I'm confident in my abilities to assess this budget, to assess our expenditures, and to allocate those fund that I'm entrusted with to the best benefit of the citizens of this community. And I'm confident that I'm doing a good job. I, frankly, find it a little disappointing to have people who pick one little number out of the budget and come up here and think that they've triumphed over this evil City Council by pointing out what they think is some inconsistency. The fact is, I worked very hard on this. We've all worked very hard on this. And the fact is that we're going to go back into budget study sessions at the nex1 Council meeting. We're going to ask the City Manager to bring back to us a number of possible places that we can cut, and we're going to study it all very hard. We're going to make the best decisions we know how, and I am confident that we're going to make decisions which are in the best interests of the community. I But make no mistake. Services are not going to be the same as they are. There just is no place to cut without having an impact on police, fire, library, recreation, street sweeping, all of the public works projects. It just can't be done. You cannot provide $25 million worth of services for $23 million. I'm sony about that, but I never, when I ran for this job, claimed to be a magician. But the citizens have spoken. I accept that. And I see now the task is very clear. We will move forward with that task. So we will now move on to the next item on the agenda, which is another public hearing, Resolution 6005. I 18