Thread by @AndyHS

Happy Valentines Day! Nowhere more lovely than being at a City Council meeting! 😍
Among the items today are Establishing an “Immigrant Affairs Committee”, voting on Money Back Guarantee for developers, Workshops on Community Choice Energy as well as on Legal issues for

Councilmembers. Closed Session items include homeless housing project Dakota Eco Village v. City of Fresno as well as South Central Neighbors United regarding Caglia Industrial Project @AshleyEWarner

Among Consent items are @DaniBergrstrom Approve the appointment of Danielle Bergstrom to the Tower District Design Review Committee, Approve the Money Back Guarantee/Business Streamlining Act , pprove City participation in a Joint Exercise of Powers Agreement to become a member

a member of the Temperance Flat Reservoir Authority and authorize up to $250,000 in proportionate costs for three years. Award Consultant Contract for design services for 5 Learner Pool Health Code Upgrades and approve a professional consultant agreement in an amount not to

$250,000 Quigley (District 1), Pinedale (District 2), Fink-White (District 3), Romain (District 7) and Einstein (District 7) Neighborhood Parks. Submission for informational purposes of the Comprehensive Annual Financial Reports (CAFR) regarding the financial activities of the

City of Fresno Retirement Systems 
The System is at a fully funded status on both a market value and actuarial basis at 116.6 percent and 114.8 percent, respectively Fire & Police Retirement System - FY2018 CAFR r159.pdf

Invocation by Pastor D.J. Criner of the St. Baptist Church. All Councilmembers are present. Presentation of the SPCA Pet of the Month Sponsor: Councilmember Soria Puppy appropriately named Valentina

Proclamation of “Support Blue Day” 
Council President Brandau, Councilmember Caprioglio and Councilmember Bredefeld @PaulCaprioglio @stevebrandau @GarryBredefeld February 23 is a run with 3900 runners. Some money will go to Vang family on their loss and kid/youth academies.

Proclamation of “Nora Laikam (like-em) Day” @MayorLeeBrand helped lead water conservation in Fresno. Many from Water Division is here to honor her work in the community.

Proclamation of “Black History Month” Councilmember Esparza @D7Esparza Among the items they are working in their community regarding air quality (Keishon Wiley) and youth organizations.

Councilmembers Comments : @PaulCaprioglio mentions program to help veterans get acclimated. Also Fresno State Men’s basketball win v Boise St. Moving on to Consent Calendar: Public member speaking on Money Back Guarantee. Helps small businesses. Thanks council for this. Keeps

money local. SECTION 2. This Ordinance shall undergo a six-month trial period commencing May 1, 2019. At the end of the six-month trial period, the Ordinance shall return to Council for discussion. 
SECTION 3. During the six-month trial period, the Administration shall provide

monthly reports to Council regarding the City’s performance under the Ordinance. SECTION 4. During the six-month trial period, all refunds to be granted shall be subject to Council approval. When presented to the Council for approval, the Administration shall identify the

budgetary unit from which the refund will come. SECTION 5. The Administration shall perform a workload analysis and analyze staffing needs and capacity and provide a written report to Council outlining the staffing needs by March 15, 2019. The Administration and staff shall be

until May 1, 2019, to ramp up staffing and systems as needed to implement this Ordinance. SECTION 6. This Ordinance shall become effective and in full force and effect at 12:01 a.m. on the thirty-first day after its final passage, however, it shall not apply to applications

submitted prior to May 1, 2019. Moving on to Temperance Flat Item. @MiguelArias_D3 asks what other water entities are joining with City of Fresno? A:Various agencies Arias needs to know who else? Is Fresno County? Utility Head Carbajal says Fresno is a Class 1 contractor.

@Esmeralda_Soria would like a full presentation regarding Temperance Flat issue especially for her new colleagues. Would like to table this for now until that is done. Arias says water is too important to proceed without full knowledge on this topic. @District5Chavez says County

is their own entity and will do what they want. 1-G Resolution to authorize capital improvement at Fresno Air Terminal of $35 million from I- Bank a State agency. Used for universities, hospitals etc. made an exception by going over the usual cap of $25 million for FAT. Will save

about $4 million doing a loan this way v on the open market. Approved 7-0. 1-D pulled by Arias. This is on City’s Sphere of Influence and Fresno County. Moving Mike Prandini of Building Industry Association says this is a risk a builder has to make. This shouldn’t effect the

Money Back Guarantee item. Approved 6-0. I-J Submission for informational purposes of the Comprehensive Annual Financial Reports (CAFR) regarding the financial activities of the City of Fresno Retirement Systems. The System is at a fully funded status on both a market value and

and actuarial basis at 116.6 percent and 114.8 percent, respectively Fire & Police Retirement System - FY2018 CAFR r159.pdf. @GarryBredefeld has question on 8% rate ? Seems high. A: fees are not 8% but actually below 1%. Approved 6-0.

1-A: Applications to the Fresno Council of Governments for the 2019 Measure C Transit Oriented Infrastructure for In-Fill Development Grant Program * Fancher Creek Trail Construction
* Location: Fancher Creek from Clovis to Tulare
* Merced Reconstruction Design Plans

* Location(s): Merced from Congo Alley to H Street Broadway from Merced to Broadway * VanNess and Olive Transit Stop Reconfiguration
* Kings Canyon Transit Connectivity Plan @Esmeralda_Soria wonders which project gets chosen? A: It is graded.

Hearing on Housing Commission and public comments of proposed Substantial Amendment. Defunding Parks portion was discussed. They also didn’t want Senior Housing portion to be hurt in trying to save Park portion. This will come back February 28th. @arias asks to know what is the

problem in order to find solution. @District5Chavez was at meeting last night. Parks has not been invested in for years. Chavez would like 3 parks portion removed and fully funded for next two years. Orange and Butler project can provide some of the funding for now. Wants public

to know he won’t cut parks. Public commenting: @PressedTinP Preston Prince of Housng Authority. We have a housing crisis in Fresno. Approve multiple funding sources and put in housing trust funds. Local investment needed in order to have any chance to solve housing crisis.

Public: support parks. A park desert west of 99. One of those at Clinton and Brawley is one of those parks marked for defunding. Debbie Darden says those dollars are designated for certain items. City often are taken and given for other items instead. That needs to stop.

Bob Mitchell: affordable housing and parks are both inadequately funded. This is not an either /or situation. @MiguelArias_D3 says this has been a hard two weeks. He still hasn’t heard why these parks have been delayed. He does know funding for parks has beeen designated to be

taken away. Does administration know not funding parks leads to destruction of neighborhoods. Drug deals at parks. We cannot wait and let gangs and dealers take it over while administration waits another year. Public wasn’t notified of last night’s meeting. Otherwise it would

have been packed. Police and Fire Departments wouldn’t be pleased to have their coffers raised. Why should parks ? If it wasn’t for Woodward Park we wouldn’t be discussing this. On a day we Support Blue we are making it harder for police by defunding parks. Unless it is written

On paper he won’t believe the money is safe. @Esmeralda_Soria says not enough local matching dollars. She voted for this housing project as it is needed. A section 108 loan was required but never done. Was told reason was not enough staffing capacity. Why not?Need to highlight

this. Doesn’t feel good to hear these parks won’t be funded this year but delayed a year. Council recently voted to sell a few parking lots. Asks colleagues to designated those dollars into a housing trust fund. Committee needs to be looked at as to who is on it. City needs to

dedicate dollars so they can be used for matching dollars. Doesn’t want the council to project appearance that they don’t value District 3. @D7Esparza HUD website says “its Community Development Block Grant allows flexibility”. May First deadline. A zero sum policy is not a way

run a city. Soria would like more updates on these projects. When Caprioglio wanted CDBG funds for Senior Center he was told those dollars have already been designated but here one year later we are told these moneys are being reallocated? @GarryBredefeld asks who made the deci-

sion to reallocate these dollars? Kellie Furtado made recommendations to Administration and PARCS to push the dollars to year two. Furtado did outreach to public. Bredefeld would like Councilmembers to be kept in loop. Arias: would like a complete scope on each park project and

when it will be completed. Caprioglio would like Committee to have seven members so each District is represented. Can he have his Senior Center funded for two years too? @stevebrandau says we won’t be voting on this today. May 2018 we were given list of projects. He hears some

projects are Not ready to accept those dollars. The housing project IS ready to have dollars spent on. Chavez wants Three parks fully funded for two years. Brandau says we have two weeks to assure the public these parks will be taken care of by another route of dollars.

Moving on to 4-A Establishing an “Immigrant Affairs Committee” sponsored by @District5Chavez and @Esmeralda_Soria 15 committee members that could bring policy suggestions to council to consider. Examples is water rate, airport , immigrant business owners who are often left out of

input. @Esmeralda_Soria is daughter of farmworker parents. Fresno neees to do a better job of welcoming and integrating immigrants. Begin the first step such as language access policy. Most cities have immigration access department. We don’t. Info needs to be in the language

residents are comfortable using. Partnering with education. Amazon mentioned their workforce often don’t speak English well enough to move up to management level. This country was founded by immigrants. Caprioglio says his entire district has a hard time understanding Utility

forms and would like it expanded to all residents. Would like “immigrants and residents” wording to Committee as well as giving Mayor two appointments on Committee. @D7Esparza Thanks groups that did heavy lifting for this like FIRM . A message of “Council has your back”.

@GarryBredefeld asks if we are restricting this too much to immigrants and leaving out others who may be qualified and have passion for it. Arias says Council will make the appointments and they can appoint who they prefer. Public: Madera’s Santos Garcia Thanks Council for being

In favor. Public agrees to defer their comments in hopes of preventing time crunch as Council is in favor of this issue.

4-B feasibility of a parking authority, to own, control, and manage all City parking assets and resources sponsored by Arias/ Soria: Parking is not accommodating. Would like an evaluation of our parking situation and come back with a workshop in six months. City Manager would

need scope of project and we may need 9 months. Arias : says this would cover all city parking assets : downtown, Fresno High, Fresno City College. Staff: Revenue side comes from Enforcement Arias: worries 9 months will take us into next school year @PaulCaprioglio would like

District 4 included. Is this taking us into privatization of parking? Arias: says Bitwise purchased spiral garage which is now privatization. This Parking Authority would actually keep this public. Says parking is like a flip phone in Fresno. City Manager says RFP is now out for

Smart Parking Meters. City Manager wants 9 months in order to do this correctly. Arias wants 7 at most. If he is given an updated timeline at 7 months and determined 9 months are needed still he would be probably amenable. @stevebrandau wonders if while working on this authority

WIll Spiral Garage sale and Parking Lot 2 be excluded? Attorney Sloan: They will be left out. Passes 7-0. Workshops scheduled for 10:30 on Energy Choice will Be heard after lunch at 1:30. 3-C grant for Veterans Blvd Was denied last year but was advised how to make this year’s

version a better proposal. Approved 7-0 Going to Closed Session for one item:
Closed Session:City of Fresno v. Nancy Waidtlow (“Eco Village”)

Back from Lunch Recess. 19. 
WORKSHOP regarding Community Choice Energy Supplement - Community Choice Energy PowerPoint.pdf
Some terms used :
CCA: Community Choice Aggregation
CalCCA: California Community Choice Aggregation
JPA: Silicon Valley Clean Energy and Sonoma Clean

Power Joint Power Agreement use this model.
Single Jurisdiction Model (Lancaster and SF use that model) Mike Dozier Leading the Workshop. Why do this ? This is not a hard sell and will take a long time to get done. Benefits: local control of rates, economic Development

Woody Hastings Center for Climate Protection has helped other communities do these type of projects. PG&E would own poles and wires but City would set rates. No profit loss for PG&E. $200 million in energy bills leave Fresno each year. This would allow it to remain in Fresno. 19

of these in State now. Jane Bender from Santa Rosa and formerly from Fresno would love to come in future to talk about her experience. It takes 3-4 years to get this going. Darrel Pile the City Manager of Hanford. He was approached by energy developers who wanted to supply all

Hanford. A JPA was formed in Kings River / Fresno in past but didn’t pencil out. A different situation now. Hanford reaches out to Southern Edison who says CCA is used quite a lot with their customers. Faraday Electric Car as well as cannabis growers needed lots of energy. Local

rate control as utilities are locally controlled. 65% of energy will need to be from long term renewable sources. This makes CCA desirable. JPA v single jurisdiction model. (The latter allows Council more control of rates) Firewall to keep enterprise fund from General Fund.

Savings from lower energy rates can be used however Council prefers. Lancaster will help Fresno to help form this CCA as well as feasibility studies. Each Lancaster resident or commercial ratepayer gets to decide where they want their energy coming from ie solar , cheapest form

etc. Customer can opt out completely and keep PG&E only. Hanford will Go Live Date in May 2020. Destiny Rodriquez from Fresno is a big proponent of CCA and will be happy to meet with any Councilmembers. @District5Chavez asks Hastings who owns infrastructure? #A: PG&E What is City

role? Wholesale dynamic but you can use net revenue to be used for other programs. Sonoma used to replace energy modes after their fires in 2017. Chavez asks about Industrial Park in Hanford? 300 acres. Private sector can do it cheaper due to prevailing wages. Would this help

low income residents and small businesses? A: city can use it as a tool and incentive. @PaulCaprioglio Source of energy? A: it could come from 1000s of sources including locally in Fresno. You can be so efficient that you can measure electrical rates that mirror Fresno’s own

Caprioglio: how does it work if enterprise fund? A: money will go into enterprise fund. PG&E collects rates revenue and sends it to City. If malfunction in electrical system who is liable ? A: it would still be PG&E. What is cost to PG&E? The transmission costs will still be same

Hastings: PG&E only controls 30% of the energy it provides getting rest from wholesale energy providers. San Jose is largest city to be single jurisdiction whereas largest JPA is in Los Angeles. There are pros and cons to both version although single jurisdiction allows more rate

control. @MiguelArias_D3 asks about savings? Hastings says procuring renewables is very large now. Arias: non profit form of enterprise fund allows the cost savings v PG&E? That is a part. Many energy projects in Valley so double benefit due to those jobs plus getting energy too

Council wouldn’t have to be experts on the variety of energy types. Another layer would do that. Arias wonders about liability. Hastings said Technical study will allows answers to risks ($50,000). CCA attorneys can answer these questions. Revenues could be used to boost local

economy such as free electrical vehicle chargers. Pyle: rate payers saved $1 million at one CCA and lots of that money was out back into local economy. Chavez: is this scalable? Do you have to go big right off? Hastings says desirable to do it in phases. Working out glitches to

billing etc. If JPA possible with County could scale faster. Chavez: could we request all energy come from renewables? Money could be put into solar, battery storage. Risks? Legislators made it safer . CPU has regulations to protect as well. Risks not getting best prices for

energy. Assistant City Manager Jane Sumpter says they will be happy to look at this. Bredefeld says New Green Deal says we won’t need airplanes anymore so do we need this? Hastings says we will still need electricity. End of Workshop.

Semi truck parking: a change in municipal code to allow parking department to write tickets. Currently code Enforcement has to do so. Postponing Legal Workshop for now. Going into Closed Session: South Central Neighbors United regarding Caglia Industrial Project @AshleyEWarner

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