Thread by @AndyHS

Down at January 31,2019 City of Fresno Council meeting !
Do you know what FAT Forward is? (Hint: it is not a new diet fad!) Among the items :Councilman Bredefeld’s Money Back Guarantee if Planning Dept is late approving projects, How to spend Homeless Aid funds

Eric Payne, Robert Fuentes, Debbie Darden, Preston Prince and Patience Milrod among others that were named to Mayor’s Anti-Displacement Task Force, possible Utility Rate increase to be discussed in Workshop, Airport Workshop on $45 million in improvements needed.

@IamEricPayne Closed Session includes:Fresno Building Healthy Communities v City as well as Homeless Housing Project Eco Village v City of Fresno
At 10 am On City Hall steps are Fresno Building Healthy Communities is having a #parksforall Event

On Consent Calendar:
Approve the Mayor’s appointees for the Anti-Displacement Task Force.
Approve the appointment of Joshua Willis to the Bicycle and Pedestrian Advisory Committee (District 6 Appointee)
Approve the appointment of Daniel Renteria to the Tower District Design

Review Committee
Dawn Lang appointee to Disability Advisory Commission. The Council Chambers are filling up for the proclamations including Employee Recognition Program Winter Quarter 2019 City Clerk's Office. Fire Department has lots of noisemakers and pom poms ready to go!

Council beginning at 9:10 with all Councilmembers present. Invocation by Pastor Jason Locke of the College Church of Christ. Proclamation of “Fresno City College Wrestling Team Day” presented by Councilmember Soria.Third straight State Championship and three Coach of the Year!

Proclamation of “Point-in-Time Count in Fresno County” presented by Councilmember Soria to determine how many homeless are in Fresno. 300 volunteers helped with the count @PressedTinP Preston Prince says. This number helps determine how much funds are provided. Both Councilmen

Luis Chavez and Miguel Arias helped as well in counting. @MiguelArias_D3 @District5Chavez Prince says work together with County has increased this year. Soria encountered homeless veterans last time she counted which role her heart.

@MiguelArias_D3 thanked all those who helped count and encourages all City employees to help count next year. Proclamation of “ National Blood Donor Month” by Councilmember Caprioglio. Central Valley Blood Center Staff in attendance working with Fresno State had a blood drive.

Proclamation of “ABC30’s Latino Life Day” presented by Vice President Arias @MiguelArias_D3 Employee Recognition Program Winter Quarter 2019 presented by City Clerk's Office Yvonne Spence and City Manager Wilma Quan. Co-workers nominate these employees. Quan jokingly calling out

City Attorney Doug Sloan and his group to be loud (and they were despite being only 1% of the employees). Fire Department next and red balloons come down from balcony and very loud! Jay Tracy and Terri ... employees of the Quarter for FD

@MiguelArias_D3 Miguel Arias jokes FFD disqualified due to code violations of all red balloons in aisle. Maxwell Carlson of Clerk’s Dept. is next. Darlene Smith from Airport. She helped coordinate pianists at airport. Drew Wilson from DARM long range planning.

Marla Williams from Code Endforcement and FresGo. John Delucia of Finance next. IT ‘s Legion Escobar is there Choice.

Christine Gomez from PARCS Dept covering Roeding Park. Lucia Terra of Parks as well who helps with Seniors. Personnel Service recognizes Karnell Grijalva for organizing as well as staff moral.

Fresno Police Sgt. Steve Jaquez who helped Dept save money with radio changes. Officer Sukiher Chauhan as well as Homicide Investigator Mark Yee

Public Utilities Gloria Rivera (couldn’t make it today)and Cynthia Rayes. Next is Mondo Pierson of Water Division. Public Works Dept Rudy Ibarra of Landscaping

Construction Management Salvador Amirez Engineer Service ‘s Cecilio Garcia and Kevin Solomon of Street Maintainence

Transportation’s Sarah Diaz , FAX’s Cesar Garcia who helped prevent an assault (couldn’t make it today) and Mechanic Onassis Jimenez and Christian Manzano of FFD

Ten minute recess over. Council comments begin @PaulCaprioglio thanks all involved in MLK, jr events in Fresno and Fresno State. Check of $415,000 to Fresno State from Chevron Oil. Stone Soup now has solar panels from Grid Panels who train neighbors too. Crimestopper event too

Fresno Grizzlies unveiled new uniforms as they become Nationals Affiliate as well as Fresno State President Castro’s inspiring speech. @D7Esparza Nelson Esparza joined VA neighbors yesterday a well as Law Enforcement. March 4th will be Councilman’s first TownHall.

@Esmeralda_Soria speaks on Parking situation around Fresno High and Fresno City College. Youth Job Taskforce had recent meeting to boost job opportunities. Youth Commissioners has shown a strong desire for this. Full Circle has opened their new facility. Asks public to support

Fresno Grizzlies. @stevebrandau mentions the closing of Tulare Ave due to High Speed Rail. Is it closed down to early? Wonders how closures in his district will occur as HSR progresses. City Manager Quan says there is a road closure policy being developed. Soria says HSR are good

Partners but need more communication on these closure. Arias says closures coming from several of City departments too. 1-B by @D7Esparza and 1-G by Soria pulled. 1-B regarding agreement between City and County on land not annexed to City. Building Industry requested this for

streamlining. Esparza asks if City will be responsible ? Mozier: Builder would be responsible if annexation was stopped for whatever reason Arias says no cost to city but it also says City will absorb any costs ? How does this occur? Mozier says Master Fee will collect fees.

Arias asks if it is standard policy to take advice from outside groups like Building Industries ? City Attorney staff says exposure to City is limited. Arias asks what would be worse case scenario? Mozier says Model Home were built by developer but LAFCO decides to not let annex

occur then there would be Model homes on county land. Up to County to go ahead at that point. Arias states LAFCO made up of non-City appointees and maybe not best for City. Council asks this to come back in two weeks. 1-G Master Agreement with PG&E money given to DARM for muni-

-cipal energy resource activities. Residential heating component has been eliminated from 2-3 years ago. Soria would like a Workshop. Assistant City Manager Him Schaad says City is working on solar for City Hall and municipal facilities. Perhaps parks afterwards. Soria would like

to know what our priorities are on these. Will be covered at Workshop. Council is going to Closed Session 5-B due to an out of town lawyer is here. Will be back in 15 minutes. @FresnoBHC On City Hall steps are Fresno Building Healthy Communities having a #parksforall Event

Back from the one Closed Session item. BILL- (for introduction) - Approve the Money Back Guarantee/Business Streamlining Act - adding Article 22 to Chapter 12 of the Fresno Municipal Code - to make the development process more transparent, accountable and user friendly. DARM is

Development and Resource Management Department. @GarryBredefeld says this problem has hurt economically as well as businesses. He says there is an anti-business culture. It isn’t not just a lack of staff. He hasn’t seen enough progress in changing this. With this new Council it

is a good time to bring this back. Meetings have resumed to craft a fair item for City as well as change culture at City Hall. Perception is City is hard to work with. “This is an effort not to kick council down the road”. Money back ordinance goes back to Swearengin Admin.

Bredefeld says it shouldn’t take knowing a council person or the Mayor to get something approved. Four levels of planning and types of buildings. If City doesn’t meet own timeline then money is returned to applicant. He doesn’t want to give back money just wants smooth timeline.

If there are disputes then there is a way around that. If delays occur not City’s doing then there are ways built in to not punish the City for that. Bredefeld says Fresno is ready for this. @stevebrandau says as co-sponsor that most candidates run as making City “business

Friendly”. Time to add private business model to government to improve customer service. He doesn’t want this to be a way to get rid of workers he emphasized. At his carpet business if they screwed up they would return the check. He wants the same for City. All about account-

ability. He hopes City won’t have to give back any money as City will be keeping timelines. Brandau says the City has done good things like software package. This money back Guarantee was first brought back last year and was asked to delay a year. @MayorLeeBrand thanks for the

changes that have been made. Mayor has some reservations as this will be first city in nation to do this. He asks for six-month evaluation. Public comments: Alissa Stephen from Chamber supports it. Says Arias was quoted as saying” this is an urgent item.”They support hard work-

Ing DARM workers. Sam Frank of City Employees says this business model is suspect. Dominos offered 30 minutes delivery. He first made sure there was enough staff, ovens , vehicles. This proposed model will put undue pressure on DARM workers. Turnover due to uncompetitive salaries

Engineers got no raises to make it competitive. This leads to staffing problems. Developers don’t want fees back just streamlining. This model will create MORE Bureaucracy by having to track. More work for overworked staff. Money Back Guarantee is a good idea but this won’t be

making it streamlined. This cause more time consuming delays PLUS give taxpayer dollars back to developers. Granville’s Darius Assemi supports this model but agrees a ramp up is necessary too. More infrastructure is needed. BIA Mike Brandini says they were involved in drafting

this ordinance but will ageee with time delay. Builders do not want refund because that means their project is delayed. Staffing issue or process needs to be dealt with it. He suggested City look at process a few years ago. John Peterson Thanks Brandau and Bredefeld. Says comp-

petition from other cities lead builders to other cities. It is easier to do building there. Clovis does same amount of projects with leaner staff. Need to look at efficiencies. Builder Dennis Gates (?) Thanks Mayor for now supporting this after initial opposition.

Dirk Poechal (sp) says this is a creative solution. (I asked why other cities have not done this ? Is this bad for taxpayers ? Will it lead to rubber stamping projects that shouldn’t be approved ) @D7Esparza wants to support a version of this. Largest concern is what is financial

effect to city? What is real fiscal impact ? Is staffing levels too low? @District5Chavez says we are trying to fix a problem. Thinks General Plan is part of this problem. Doing nothing is not an option. Nobody wants to give money back. Credits v cash back may be a solution.

Staffing capacity report needed. Can a private company do some of the work when staff swamped? Ramp up time is necessary too. Need to be cautious. @MiguelArias_D3 thanks Chamber for quoting him for first time. This bill is inviting us to micromanaging by going into such detail.

Should we micromanage or offer money back Guarantee on Parks that have been approved but not built yet? He doesn’t have a full scope of the problem yet and would like DARM to explain it. Department head Jennifer Clark says planning metrics tells us what projects are overdue. She

can’t say why they were delays occur due to 20,000 would have to go thru. Arias asks when we can get this info? City Manager Quan says six month ramp up will help come up with this. Arias says if approved today but 6 month grace period shows that returning fees would cause the

Planning department to collapse? What then? Quan says that would be up to Council. Arias asked if employees were ever asked ? @GarryBredefeld says only head of employees were talked to. Micromanaging shouldn’t have to be done but it wasn’t done over the years. It is the culture.

Arias says we don’t know the scope. Will this be applied to previous projects? Bredefeld says only new projects. Arias says if project approved but challenged in court what happens? No fine says Bredefeld. Arias wants to know why system has broke down. He is better with credits

v cash payout. Staffing vacancies need to be satisfied. When council paid for software system that had lots of glitches. The city never asked for money back from that company. Why does city only have to pay back? If developers cause problem do we get cash from them?

@MayorLeeBrand wanted to find four levels of complexity. Was worked out with City and building industry. If outside agency causes problem then City is not on hook. Quite a few packages are not complete but are accepted to get project moving. With this bill everything needs to be

Completed first before it is accepted. We lose staff to surrounding cities due to uncompetitive salaries. Need qualified staff in order to track these complicated project. @Esmeralda_Soria thanks line staff for there hard work. She is hearing a lot of excuses today. Accounta-

bility starts at the top. Record permits this past year (15,000 last year) at same time staff vacancies have doubled. Similar to low staffing at PD that occurred. We need competitive salaries. Signing bonus for PD used and if this is truly a need then we need to do same for DARM

Problem has to be solved. We have been very business friendly to Amazon and Ulta but not so much with mom and pop local businesses. 15 vacant positions now. Do we have enough budgeted for this ? Some new positions added says Jennifer Clark. Lots of competing for engineers.

Clark says economy is great now which while good it also means more a competitive job market. We can keep up with the timelines if we have enough staff. We can’t just rubber stamp projects. There are state requirements that have to be met. Soria asks if this is just introduction

or are we voting today? Sloan says intro today but could vote too. Soria says if they want her support then we need to fill vacancies. Chavez: May 1st begin, monthly report, staffing levels , six month ramp up, cash back. Arias won’t support cash back. Soria: will cash bonuses?

Trial run will determine how current staff levels work and then go from there. @PaulCaprioglio says too many factors so he can’t see the problem in order to solve it. Dominoes example is perfect. True problem hasn’t been identified. Which General Fund Department is going to take

hit if cash back costs too much ? PD? parks? He will support trial run that doesn’t have penalties. Once problem is identified then we can solve it. Arias says City Charter is very clear. Budget. Will agree to cash back if Council is body to approve it. Also neee to know what is

being cut to pay for it. (Darius Assemi wants to speak again too) @D7Esparza Pilot needs a sunset clause. @PaulCaprioglio again asks where money will come to pay these cash guarantees? Arias again says we need to state where cash payback comes from prior to cash back.

Darius Assemi says “entire package needed to be looked at. We won’t know answer until trial period. But we can’t keep kicking ball down the road. “ Developer Peterson says measurements and tools to atttract staff. We want to work for DARM. Says six month isn’t long enough to do

a tract map etc. Need a longer trial period. Arias asks if Labor has been consulted? Jackie Parks says hiring bonuses , etc will need to be dealt with. @MayorLeeBrand Cal Trans And HSR can offer benefits that City cannot do to attract workers. Approved but reserve right to

switch vote if details change. Going to lunch recess. Hope to start at 1:30.

Back from Lunch Recess. Beginning with Unscheduled Public Comments. At Home Care COO Nick Sanchez provides Mobil clinics for homeless. If a person goes to ER it takes time to set up medi cal and primary care. This costs taxpayers. These Mobil clinic works with UCSF to staff

these clinics keeping that population healthier and thus saving costs. Could be duplicated nationwide. Actions pertaining to the Homeless Emergency Aid Program (HEAP) Grant:
1. Allocating City of Fresno’s $3,105,519.90 in HEAP funds based on approving the HEAP Spending Plan and

approving a procurement process. @MayorLeeBrand says City got $13 million from State. Thanks subcommittee Arias, Chavez and Bredefeld for input. H Spees thanks council for meeting with him and those that participated in homeless county. Asking for Council to approve proposal.

@District5Chavez says “homeless has increased by 30%. All council districts are effected by this. $650,000 outreach $1.5 m for triage, $300,000 for youth. “ @MiguelArias_D3 tough conversations and pushing for citywide solution. Thanks mayor and housing authority. Has fed home-

less at Poverello. Knows what is like to deal with the issue as a homeowner. Complex policy matter. This adds performance benchmarks. Adds more funds for homeless families and for youth. Future shelters need to have residential buy in first. Hopes future funds can be funded this

way as well”. Public comments now. Homeless Paul Sanchez wonders if abandoned buildings can be used. This money could be better spent on these. Not all homeless are bad people. Dez Martinez shows photo of Roeding Park’s Casper who passed away.

Dez says “she has trouble getting shelter due to the fact she wasn’t evicted but her lease was up. Shouldn’t have to be evicted to get help. Need to rethink where women/ children are placed” Jerry Bill Thanks Council for dealing with this problem. He and Nancy Waitlow have dealt

with homeless for awhile. Every homeless person have unique issues. His work at Eco-Garden has been productive. Julie wonders what is the definition of youth? What are services that go to youth? Arias says originally it was 18-24 but we have added younger youth too.

Brandi wonders about bridge housing. Arias says Continuum of Care will provide Bridge Housing. Cindy from a Baptist Church wonders about outreach ? Chavez says it will a city version of MAP. Sand Motel resident says it has rodents but if you complain you get evicted. Because of

the eviction make it so she has hard time getting housing. City Attorney directs Cose Enforcement to speak to her. Bob Mitchell hopes there will be more permanent housing. Need as much shelter as possible but would like it spread throughout Fresno and not just District 3.

Soria glad to see the collaboration and more focus on families and youth. We need to be creative with dollars perhaps $100,000 for neighborhood mitigation to create a homeless work programs like other cities have. Beautifies City by picking up trash. Make it a pilot program.

Amendment approved by motion and second. @D7Esparza says we are in a better position than we were last week and will be in favor. Passes 7-0

Airport Workshop portion begins. Parking structure and Terminal Expansion. Travel from Mexico driving that portion.

Master Plan shows we already three years ahead of the projected growth. Has economic value to region. 14% growth in just last year. Link to PowerPoint fresno.legistar.com/View.ashx?M=F&… Parking rates to go up to $13 in long term lots ,short term $3 an hour. No rate changes since 2000. FAT

FAT is only US airport to not charge ground transportation companies to access terminal (TNC’s, taxis, hotel shuttles etc). Economy Lot parking rate remains the same. Rest will go up. On terminal side airlines agree they need to pay more.

FAT Financial position is very strong. Will need airline lease to go from 2.5% up to 4%. Ground Transportation by charging providers. Is this recession proof? Stress test says yes. Last renaming land for parking will be used for structure. Will come back in two weeks to give

Council land bank loan request. Would like to begin construction February 2020. @PaulCaprioglio says “Workshop well done. Will go to Sacramento to ask for the low cost loan soon“ Soria would like to see more local hires for the construction work. This will be largest project in

in airport history. @District5Chavez ask about range of passengers. Told it goes from Bakersfield over to Central Coast. 41% from Fresno. International portion is looking at flight to Leon. Want to be able to handle two flights at once at that new facility. Upper level gates add

-ed. Port of Entry: FAT has to pay $800,000 for Customs whereas other airports don’t. Will go to DC to discuss that. Arias: would like to see more diversity of our culture at airport. Ask if this can have guaranteed local hires.” @stevebrandau likes that construction is funded by

ticket fees. End of Workshop. Moving on to WORKSHOP - Utility Rates Department of Public Utilities. Link to PowerPoint fresno.legistar.com/View.ashx?M=F&…

It is second largest department at City. Aging water infrastructure. More than 40% of pipes are 50+ years. Sewers have 60% older than 50 years. 50% of garbage trucks are ten years old.

Rate Plan Objectives are needed to pay for these aging entities. Will ask Council to authorize moving division headquarters to SE Surface Treatment Plant. Assistance will be offered to low-income users in rate increase. Prop.218 requires notification and outreach. @MarkStandriff

Has worked with Utilities on outreach Utility will meet with anyone , anywhere in order to convey what is happening. Three Rate increases helps lower costs as it can all@be covered in one mailing. Would like new rates to be effective July 1st,2019. @D7Esparza says his district

has lowest income. He would like 3 townhalls along with Utilities staff to explain rate increase needs. Carbajal agrees. If residents need to protest how do they do that? If more than 50% of residents protest this will go back to drawing board. Caprioglio says nobody wants to

wants to raise rates but this will be slow rise in rates rather than large increase later. Arias wonders about Utility’s priorities,reserve funds etc He thinks outreach should before starting process. Carbajal said intent to raise rates is helpful so not to confuse ratepayers.

Arias is worried ratepayers will think the decision has already been made and this outreach will be just a formality. Arias also asks about current facilities: what happens to that site? Carbajal says other City departments will use it. Arias asks since Utility Ratepayers paid

for that site do the new users pay Utilities back out of General Fund? Carbajal says beginning Prop 218 and Council can still vote against rate increase. Arias asks when did that last occur? Carbajal cannot answer that question. Soria says public engagement is important. Most of

the residents probably don’t watch this meeting or come down to Council Chambers (or read my Live Tweets 😩) and this rate increase will be new to them. Five years ago in February was a tough vote to increase water rates. We said then we wanted to extend a long time before coming

back to ask for another increase. But here we are. Carbajal said that was different type vote as that was for treatment-plant and balancing water portfolio. Jim Schaad says “current facility is at capacity and 30 years old. This is one type of solution. “ End of Utility Workshop

Moving on to removal of Bio-Solids in an evitonmental friendly way. Passes without discussion. Boards and Commissions of Councilmembers. Some have more than one Councilmembers for one space. Soria nominates Esparza to Aging Commission due to his interest in Senior Center.

@IamEricPayne says Beautifying 99 Commission has been working with COG. Alternative for Upper Kings. Chavez takes spot. Transportation has interest from Arias. Code Enforcement subcommittee goes to Bredefeld. Mayor’s Appointment has Arias to Zoo Authority. Still a few openings to

fill. Esparza and Arias to Liason to Fresno Unified. Chavez joins them. CLOSED SESSION
CONFERENCE WITH LEGAL COUNSEL - POTENTIAL LITIGATION
1. Fresno Building Healthy Communities v. City of Fresno (P for Parks perhaps?) Kimberly McCoy speaks during public comment on Closed

Session regarding Measure P. She has been a park advocate for past five years. 52% of voters approved Measure P. Would like Council to rectify the Mayor’s decision. CONFERENCE WITH LEGAL COUNSEL - ANTICIPATED LITIGATION
Significant Exposure to Litigation: City of Fresno v. Nancy

Waidtlow (“Eco Village”) has been postponed. End of Council meeting. NEXT COUNCIL MEETING
FEBRUARY 14, 2019 will have in agenda
10:30 A.M. - Community Choice Energy Workshop

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