City Council - Regular Meeting

Good evening and welcome to this, the conclusion of the Summer Reading Awards and City Council meeting. This is September 14th. I call the meeting to order. Roll call, please.

So as I said, this is the Summer Learning Awards. This is the Summer Reading Program. I think this is the 19th year that I've done this. And this is the fun stuff because some of you may know that I started my career in public service working for the Hayward Library. So having the kids coming in and uh, being recognized for the summer reading program is always, uh, it's a joy for me. Uh, and I believe that we have a, uh, presentation from our library director and one Baker, Mr. Baker.

public comment before the closed session and then come back after the closed session.

Are we counting in again? Let's see. Are we counting back in for the television? Okay, so we're going to be a journey into closed session. Is there anybody that wishes to speak on an item before closed session? Okay, very good. We are going to be, it's a conference with legal counsel, anticipated litigation, government code section 54956.9D2. And then 1.2 is conference with real property negotiators to meet with Andy Ross, our principal planner, and Brandon Cardwell and Brent Smith. Okay, we're going to close session.

Good evening and welcome to this part two of the September 14th Livermore City Council meeting. We just got through the summer reading program and now we're moving on to the general meeting. I call the meeting to order. Roll call, please.

Here. If you'll join me in the Pledge of Allegiance. Here.

OK, question for the city attorney. Was there any action taken in the closed session?

Okay, very good. Thank you very much. So now is the fun stuff. So one of the fun things about Livermore is Livermore was founded by William Mendenhall in 1869. In 1869 is the same year that Major League Baseball started. It was the Cincinnati Red Stockings were the first professional team. So Livermore and professional Major League Baseball are the same age. So we've got the Granada Livermore Little League here tonight, and these are the champions. These are the guys that won the U.S. championship. So, yeah, let's hear it. So they took on all comers, and you're looking at the best in the count

It's a feeling. It's a feeling. Give yourself a little hug. And then Junior.

And also, I'd like to offer some thanks as well to the people that helped bring this to Livermore 12, 13 years ago, Kathleen Mincer and Bill Boomerod. So if you'd come up and just acknowledge this event, certainly appreciate it. Bill's the guy that you see out there with the scissors cutting the grass around. He's very, very precise and also working the grill. But Kathleen and Bill are the ones that brought, along with Dave, you guys brought it here. And it's been a tremendous success. And the community absolutely loves it. As you said, record-breaking crowds every single day. So it was terrif

Oh, that's beautiful. Yeah, there it is.

I'll let you come up here and we can stand here and you guys can just stand down here and we can stand here and you got the city logo right in front of you.

That's great. One more hand for Granada, Livermore, Little League. Champions of the West, champions of the United States. Okay, now back to business here. All the mundane stuff. Yeah, the fun's over. Okay, advisory body appointments. We don't have any. Open forum. This is if the city clerk will advise people how they can participate in the open forum.

Okay. Do we have any speakers? I suppose I should ask you that first.

Thank you. I think the Veterans First Program at Las Positas College is remarkable. And this is one of the reasons why we're fighting so hard to keep the VA hospital here in Livermore open to continue to serve our veterans that have served this nation. So thank you for what you do. Appreciate it. And one more time with the particulars on the 2.2 for 22. So what's the date and time on that?

We can take them since we've got plenty of time. So we'll take the remote speakers.

All right. Shall we give that another shot after the meeting? Yes. All right. In that case, I'm going to close the open forum and bring it back to the council for the consent calendar. Is there anybody that wishes to have anything pulled for consent? Okay, seeing none, do we have any public comment for consent?

Well, thank you. This was a long, circuitous route, and we've been working on this for a while. Because not only the Surplus Land Act, you've got the state, the county, LERPD has been working on this. So everybody's been coming together, and it's really been remarkable to make all that happen. So thanks for the vision to make this happen, and we're going to bring Midway School back into Livermore. Thank you.

Okay. bring the calendar back to the council. Is there anyone that has any discussion or questions about the items on consent? Council Member Dunbar.

I'll start with the PG&E item on the zoning ordinance. I'm looking at the old zoning. It looked like it was RS to me before. Does the staff have the same information available? Do we know what's going on there? At least I think that's the property we're talking about on

Okay. We have a number of projects that are in plan right now that require these things to be in sync between our general plan and our zoning code. Do you think it's reasonable to approve the zoning code to keep those projects moving and come back and reanalyze if there really is a specific need for a change in this location that is essential to PG&E services?

With regards to items 6.2. All the airport ones, with the exception of the. move with the exception of the movement transponder so 6.2122. And sorry 6.2021 and 22. Those are all planning documents, largely speaking. Is that correct? New faces.

Right. And the grant agreements, all the There's this highlighted section on them that says, this is the final, do not touch the wording of this grant agreement. Is that correct?

Right. And to the degree that there is an environmental impact to do, that will be analyzed as part of the plan documentation for plan approval when it comes back to us and would include anything the water boards is telling us. Is that fair?

So these grants, they're not equal, they're not even. One of the things I noticed is that the FAA is contributing on one of the grants, 6.23, $35,000, and we're putting up $1,800. I do that every day of the week. I mean, that's quite a bargain. And it just shows the great partnership that we have. And these are funds to improve the airport. And that certainly is a tremendous asset that we have for not just for the city, but for the entire region. And there are businesses that have moved here because we have an airport. So, great. Well, thank you. There being no further comment and no questions

I'll move approval with appreciation for staff and all the work that was in this large consent calendar.

Okay. Motion is made by Councilmember Dunbar, seconded by Vice Mayor Wong. Any discussion on the motion? All in favor, signify by saying aye. Aye. Any opposed, any objections? It passes unanimously. Thank you very much. Okay, moving on to hearings. 7.1, this is the CDBG caper.

Any questions for council? Okay. Do we have any public comment?

Okay, then I'm going to close the public comment period and bring it back to the council. Council Member Brenning.

Yeah, I just want to thank you once again. I know it's a lot of work to put this all together. I really appreciate the work that the city continues to do for our human services, our residents, making sure that we're able to actually provide housing to be able to provide services to them at home. think one of the things i want to remind people of is that for a lot of the uh a lot of the money that we spend on uh a lot of the federal money we get is earmarked specifically for housing um and so we have a very small budget for services and i want to thank city staff um and everyone who worked toge

Spirit. Okay. Again, a tremendous amount of work. Thank you so much for what you're doing. We receive less than $400,000 in CDBG funds from the feds, and you're helping over 440 families here in Livermore. We don't receive any state funding for the programs that we're doing. So thanks for the great work that you're doing. These are our neighbors. And since housing has always been a critical issue, had Eden Housing been built by now, it would have housed 130 families right here in our community. And that's been delayed for years. And I'm very happy to say that they have received approval from t

Okay. In that case, I'm going to close the public comment period, bring it back to the council. If there's no discussion, I'll entertain a motion.

I'll move staff's recommendation. And I'll second.

Okay. Motion made by Council Member Branning, seconded by Council Member Dunbar. Any discussion on the motion? All in favor, signify by saying aye. Any abstentions or no? Okay. It passed unanimously. Moving on to matters for consideration. Resolution adopting a 180-day wait period exception to hire a retired annuitant. This would be Christina Olson, former Administrative Services Director. Hello.

Okay, any questions? Do we have any public comment? Okay, in that case, I'm going to close the comment period and break back to the council. I'll entertain a motion.

And welcome to our new staffers as well. So motion made by Council Member Dunbar. I'll second. Seconded by Vice Mayor Wong. Any discussion on the motion? All in favor? Aye. Any opposed? Any abstentions? Passed unanimously. And could we introduce our new administrative services?

Great. Well, thank you very much. Asset management is extraordinarily important. So it's a well-run city, and we need to keep it that way. Thank you. Welcome aboard.

Okay. Moving to, so we just finished 8.1. We've got a request for a break.

Is it okay if we take a 15-minute break?

15-minute break, anybody? Okay. All right. We're going to take a quick break. We'll be back in 15 minutes.

All right. Good evening and welcome back to the September 14th meeting of the Livermore City Council. We're back. We are going to be considering 8.2. And this is the appointing a voting delegate and an alternate voting delegate to represent the city of Livermore at the California cities. So with that, I would ask Dr. I think everybody else is going. I would ask the Vice Mayor and Council Member Branning, the Vice Mayor to be our voting delegate and the Vice Mayor to be the alternate. Council Member Dunbar, are you going?

I am going. And as I understand it, there can be two alternates.

Okay, well, would you be the second alternate then?

Okay, very good, because we need a voting delegate, and I know timing of flights can be somewhat tricky. So we have our voting delegate would be the vice mayor, and then Council Member Dunbar and Council Member Branning would be our alternates. Does that work for everybody? Do we need to take a formal motion on that? Okay. I will so move then that we move that we have Vice Mayor Wong as the voting delegate and Council Members Branning and Dunbar as the alternates. I'll second and then. Okay. Second, do we have any public comment? Okay, no public comment. I will call the question. All in favor

Very good. I'm going to bring it back to the council. We'll close the open forum and, uh, Council reports and matters initiated. Council Member Dunbar.

Just wanted to highlight the report on the Livermore-Albany-Aminor Valley Water Management Agency. I'm now the chair of that body. I'm having a good time there. We are still working on a problem with the San Leandro outflow station. We are moving towards resolution, but the project became a lot more complicated than necessary and still waiting on reimbursement from the feds regarding the sewer pipeline from earlier. Otherwise, not a whole lot to report. It's been a good little break to take some time.

All right. Council Member Brenning. I, uh, nothing specific I wanted to highlight right now. Um, it's been a busy time at work, but managed to go to a number of really exciting events over the last few weeks. Um, the one that I wish I was able to spend a little bit more time at, but was really great was the Tri-Valley Reach, uh, gala, um, you know, supporting housing for, uh, individuals in need. It was, you know, a lot of fun, good theme, good times. Uh, other than that, uh, It has been a lot of, yeah, a lot of work. Vice Mayor.

I just want to report on one thing. Councilmember Franning and I serve on the board of LAFTA, which is the wheels bus system. And we have placed a portable bathroom at the Dublin BART station for just for our wheels bus drivers. They have to have and use the app to open the door. And because they have a very short break there before continuing on the route. and it's just not enough time for them to walk all the way to the station to the very back where the bathrooms are, hope that there's a stall available, and then walk all the way back out. So this is going to be great for their health and c

Well, excellent. Great. Three things I want to highlight. And again, They're kind of strange, but it's Livermore after all. So I attended the world premiere of a symphonic piece called The Green and the Golden. It was written by Robert Huntington. And it was a composition celebrating the 150th anniversary of the incorporation of Livermore. And there's some Western themes in it. It was performed by the Livermore Amador Youth Symphony Orchestra. And it was remarkable. And in talking with the composer, it turned out that he was in my wife's class at Jackson Elementary. So, yeah. Again, continuing

Okay. Council Member Dunbar seconds. All in favor, say aye. Aye. Any opposition? Abstentions? It passes unanimously. Seeing no further business coming before the council. Pardon me?

If you haven't signed up for Community Service Day, there's still time. Oh, yes.

Community Service Day. Right. That's the 19th.