Thread by @AndyHS

Fresno City Council August 27, 2020. Establishing a $100 fine for parking in EV charging spot ; Workshop on Homelessness; Downtown Fresno mixed use project that includes partially blocking the iconic Fresno Postage Stamp mural;#Fresno $500,000 contract to Pardini’s Catering to

provide Senior meals; Grant opportunities Electric vehicles for Code Enforcement. Watch the his morning’s Council meeting on @CMACTV beginning at 9 AM. cmac.tv/gov/

Some selected items from the Consent Calendar: Actions pertaining to Marjaree Mason Center:
1. Approve agreement with Marjaree Mason Center awarding CARES funding for emergency shelter and food services
2. Adopting the 23rd Amendment to the Annual Appropriation Resolution

to appropriate $518,800 in CARES Act Funds for emergency shelter and food services (Requires 5 affirmative votes) (Subject to Mayor’s Veto; Next item from Special Meeting on CARES will be : 1. RESOLUTION appropriate $500,000 in CARES Act Funds for the Temporary Parklet Program

1-B Actions pertaining to the approval of an agreement between TAM+CZ Inc., of Fresno, CA in the amount of $127,880 plus a contingency of $10,000 for the design and preparation of construction documents for the Community Center Remodel Project at 5191 North Sixth Street

1-D Reject all bids for the City Hall Elevator Remodel Project

1-E Authorizing the Department of Public Works to Submit Grant Applications Totaling up to $11 Million in Requests for Funding to the California Department of Transportation's Active Transportation Program Cycle 5 Call for Projects,

1-H Peach Avenue Widening project (Districts 5 and 7): 1. Adopt the Mitigated Negative Declaration, dated September 13, 2019, prepared for the Peach Avenue widening project between East Butler and East Jensen Avenues. Approve New Public Highway At-Grade Crossing Agreement with

Union Pacific Railroad and San Joaquin Valley Railroad in the amount of $803,896.93;

1-I Report to Council by Tutelian & Company, Inc regarding First Amendment to the Exclusive Negotiation Agreement between the City of Fresno &Tutelian & Company, Inc.
(Downtown Fresno CVS &mixed use project that includes partially blocking the iconic Fresno Postage Stamp mural)

1-J appropriate $18,454,300 for the Animal Shelter Project in the Public Works Department

1-O Authorizing submission of funding request to California Air Resources Board Clean Mobility Options Program for Disadvantaged Communities for Community Needs Assessment Project of Three Palms Mobile Home Park area Electric vehicles, electric bicycles, bicycles etc) View.ashx

1-S*Reject all bids for the construction of a Solid Waste Convenience Center at 4111 N. Winery Avenue

1-T Approve Purchase and Sale Agreement with Fresno Economic Opportunities Commission (FEOC), in the amount of $1.00 for real property located at Pride Park

1-X Actions pertaining to the Installation of a Tot Lot at Tollhouse Park (District 4)

1-Y Approve the appointment of Michael Vasquez to the District 5 Project Review Committee (welcome about Michael!)

1-Z Action pertaining to Electric Vehicle Charging $100 fine added to Master Fee Schedule for parking at EV Charging Station but not Plugged in

1-AA Action related to conversion of motels to permanent residences by modifying zoning and use regulations for Lodging-to-Dwelling uses within the City of Fresno.

i@MiguelArias_D3 son peeks his head onto the zoom to say hello)

President Arias says they will do Ceremonial item and then go into Closed Session. Proclamation of “Women’s Equality Day sponsored by @Esmeralda_Soria It is the 100th Anniversary of Women’s right to vote.

CLOSED SESSION One of the items includes :
5-A City of Fresno v. Outfront Media LLC.; Fresno Superior Court Case No.: 20CECG0179 Billboard needs to be removed for Veterans Blvd construction.

Many items removed or continued to another meeting 1-T on Pride Park continued to another meeting. Special Meeting item B. Regarding Marjoree Mason Center and CARES act continued to another meeting to allow legal discussions. 3-A continued to another meeting; 3-B and 3-C moved to

Consent Calendar. 1-N removed. 1-G , 1-M, 1-O, 1-R,1-X pulled from Consent Calendar for discussion.

They are back from Closed Session (10:40 am). Beginning with Special Meeting :RESOLUTION - Adopting the 22nd Amendment to the Annual Appropriation Resolution No. 2020-159 to appropriate $500,000 in CARES Act Funds for the Temporary Parklet Program

Bredefeld: what is application process? A: multi language. Encroachment permit will occur at the same time. Approximately 5 day turnaround. Have to have a business license and been open prior to Covid. Each business will receive same amount. Bredefeld: I will support this but

best solution is to reopen the restaurants like before Governor Newsom closed them down. They were doing it safely before that. Karbassi: why not give amount applicant needs ? We give $25,000 but they only need $10,000. A: available to all districts. Can we assure each district

gets at least one grantee and the rest spread out. Arias and Soria agree to that. @LuisCha70215912 what happens to temporary equipment afterwards?A: they will have to go thru typical permit process if they want to continue. They are responsible for storing equipment etc

Arias: Streetscape plan will require the parklet equipment will need to be removed for that construction. @PaulCaprioglio just wants it to be fair distribution. Public:@kieltls strongly supports. Father in law is building one of the parklets and helps his business. Approved

Council Reports: Caprioglio says virtual community meeting last night that was great to discuss the community center to be located at Large Park. Lots of participation. Thanks City staff for their help. You can still comment on this project at Public Works or District 4 office

We have four different proposals to show. @GarryBredefeld acknowledge the law enforcement rally that had 500 in attendance. We always need to do things better but we need to thank them for their hard work. It is a tough and dangerous job. Hair Salon tried to stay open despite

Close order. Heavy handed local government. They can’t run their business on the sidewalk. We can’t pins on them. Immanuel Schools open for in person instruction. Bredefeld supports parents decision to put their kids in school. The schools can be done safely. Unreported abuse

Nutrition supplied, better for special needs. He is in Council Chambers where we spent $10,000 on making it safe with plexiglass. Need to be open. @LuisCha70215912 jokes he is outside City Hall ( due to his zoom background). He will put an emergency proposal next meeting to open

a United Health clinic at Kings Canyon and Miniwawa. @Esmeralda_Soria milburn and Dakota new park space proposed. 400 comments on it. 9-12 staff will be at Steinbeck Park to receive surveys. She is proud of what we have done despite pandemic. 45 participants on this Zoom call

which is much more than typical at in person Council meetings. Our local school districts are doing the best by staying closed due to rising Covid rates. Chronic illnesses in impoverished parts of town should have had these types of help before this pandemic occurred.

Arias: 600 tested at Roeding Park. Some people have violated all rules for safety. Shows a photo of rally that Immanuel School came to Fresno to demonstrate. None wearing masks or social distancing. If they are not doing that Arias kids won’t be able to return to school due to

them deliberately coming to our city but not follow safety schools. Law Enforcement rally all used safety rules. Immanuel and its Andy Souza should have done that too. Moving in to Consent Calendar items that were pulled. Soria asks 1-U to be pulled.

@kieltls asks about surplus land 1-V on Elizabeth. He has been trying to build a park there for a number of years including Prop 68 funding. He asks Council to pull this while he continues to work on it. Council votes to approve.

(Not sure what they approved Not to pull item?). 1-G on Veterans Blvd @kmkarbassi local hires is important. Public Works Scott Mozier Director says we do apply that where possible although Federal or State dollars preclude us from using local hires only. Soria: we can’t do what

did on airport expansion that included a mix of local hires and State dollars? Council Sloan: that had Project Labor Agreement was used there. Mozier: low bidder does qualify as a local business. Soria: too late to add PLA ? Mozier: this is time sensitive. We may be able to add

it for subsequent phases. 1-G Approved. 1-M Award a service contract to ScrubCan, Inc., Cleaning Solutions of Fresno, California, for Custodial Services at various Department of Transportation facilities, for three years with two optional one-year extensions, in the amount of

of $224,630 per year, and authorize the Director of Transportation, or designee, to sign the contract on behalf of the City. Bredefeld asks @gregorybarfield why present company can’t still be used as they are low bidder? Barfield shows amount of complaints against that company

for items like no toilet paper despite first thing in the morning. Arias: first time we used best value and emphasizing minority ownership. Approved to use ScrubCan.

1-O Authorizing submission of a funding request to the California Air Resources Board Clean Mobility Options Program for Disadvantaged Communities for a Community Needs Assessment Project of the Three Palms Mobile Home Park area (Electric vehicles, electric bicycles, bicycles)

View.ashx @gregorybarfield says this area has been slowly cutoff due to HSR and freeways. The kids are having it hard to get to school and others to Vallarta. Residents will tell us what they need. Arias thanks @LCJandA for their hard work on this. Approved

Karbassi: Chandler Airport bathroom is only open at tower. Director says we are down staff coverage at chandler and over to main airport. Visiting pilots were confused as Terminal restroom was normal bathroom used. Karbassi: why is there a hiring freeze as it is an enterprise

Funded item? Director: need to keep safety personnel first. Arias: why does airport hire its own custodians where every City department has to hire out?Director:nature of deep cleaning needed at airport. Arias: will approve but would like to revisit this when budget comes up

Director: Groundbreaking on airport expansion will be this Tuesday. The jobs created will be tremendous. Caprioglio thanks Director for all his work at airport. He runs that operation very well. Karbassi makes motion and Arias would like amendment to not make custodial positions

permanent until we can discuss prior to budget? No second on that. Approved as originally presented.

1-X Actions pertaining to the Installation of a Tot Lot at Tollhouse Park. Caprioglio would appreciate the support. Kaboom and staff were able to put this together. Thanks his staff especially @plannerdanzack who really stepped up.

1-AA 1-AA Action related to conversion of motels to permanent residences by modifying zoning and use regulations for Lodging-to-Dwelling uses within the City of Fresno.@PaulCaprioglio would like mixed use portion removed with respect to Shaw Ave as there is a problem site across

from Save Mart Center. This item will legalize what is happening here illegally. Arias: conditional use permit (CUP) is still needed and weighed on their own merit. Entire city needs to have a role in handling homelessness and caprioglio is carving out Shaw Ave. Wishes he would

have brought this to us sooner. Counsel Sloan: this is a significant change and would require this to go back to Planning Commission for reapproval. @D7Esparza CUP is still needed. Sloan: CUP requirement still has to go to planning commission and Council. Councilmembers can’t

deny it on their own. Caprioglio would like to show councilmembers what problems he is facing. Arias: can’t exclude one street. Many ways to stop it on its way to approval. Karbassi: will respect what Planning Commission and other committees say? Sloan: we can’t predetermine

the result. Arias: no projects are on the docket and won’t come to us until a new councilmember in District 4. Caprioglio says he is still the Councilmember in his district. We have shown this is not time sensitive. Arias: some of his district’s hotels are working on converting

to housing for homeless. What Caprioglio is proposing will cause this to go back to Planning Commission. @Esmeralda_Soria she disagrees with Caprioglio. We have 1000 more homeless, pandemic unemployment. We don’t have time to delay. We need to get people off the streets. Chavez:

has same concern as Caprioglio but CUP process will help vet problem owners. We don’t have the tools to stop these bad owners and we can only play whack a mole. Vote with Shaw Ave carved out. Fails 1-6 On to original motion. Approved 6-1

`1-K Approve a three year Agreement with an option of three one-year extensions for Employee Assistance Program Services between the City of Fresno and Halcyon Behavioral Employee Assistance and authorize the Personnel Services Director to execute the agreement on behalf of City

Soria doesn’t want to have to cut staffing after budget id we are obligated to this and other contracts? Can we just do one year? Motion to approve for one year and keep going to complete original 3 year contract of budget is adequate. City Manager Quan: this is important to

staff. Karbassi: Soria wants to set standard going forward but if we cutting staff than mental health will be even more then important. Approved 7-0 making it one year contract.

(Caprioglio is absent so it is 6-0) 1-U Approve a First Amendment to Agreement with Pinnacle Training Systems, LLC., for $120,000 for a total of $167,794.50 to provide professional employee health screening services for COVID-19 employee screening at the Municipal Services Center

This provides screening for employees at FAX etc. This will run thru the remainder of the year but will be a potential contract for when it is still needed. Approved 6-0

10:05  Promenade Lot Asset Release from 2004 Lease Revenue Bonds. This was used as collateral for bonds. Doesn’t take it off it allows option to do so or to transfer it to another bond. Approved 6-0

10:10 HEARING to Consider Annexation Application No. P19-06059; Plan Amendment Application No. P19-06060; Pre-zone Application No. P19-06060; Development Permit Application No. P19-06061; and, related Environmental Assessment No. P19-06059/P19-06060/P19-06061 for 8.48 acres of

Former City Director of Planning representing applicants and they are here to answering any questions. $21 million investment.

Jose Barazza: SEFCEDA and the Developer is working together as it will allow training of local workers. Development fee will help with parks. @D7Esparza thanks Nick Yorvino and it is a solid project during a housing crisis. Arias: appreciates Esparza works but he is reluctant

to annex more land until County’s unfair share agreement is re-negotiated but this is infill so he will approve. Soria agrees with Arias. Approved 6-0

10:15 **HEARING to Consider Plan Amendment Application No. P18-01089; Pre-zone Application No. P18-01089; Vesting Tentative Tract Map No. 6237/UGM; and, related Environmental Assessment No. T-6237/P18-01089 for ?26.92 acres of property located on the southeast corner of North

Grantland Avenue and the West Dakota Avenue alignment (Council District 2. Planner Rob Holt provides presentation. A pre-zone project. (@PaulCaprioglio is back from medical appointment. ) public: @LisaYFlores1 due to it being near ag is their any chemical drift? Next: Assemi

group’s Jeff Roberts agrees with staff recommendation. He agrees the “Right to Farm” will be added to each lot upon selling. @Esmeralda_Soria Is drift an issue? @kmkarbassi buyers will know it will be part of new lot as a common disclosure. Jeff Roberts : has not seen any drift

from almond farm across the street. Soria: does right to farm have to added to Project now ? Counsel: if approved today it will not fall under MOU and will need to be re-negotiated. Roberts: we know no annexation can occur if sharing agreement with County doesn’t occur by then.

Soria: New MOU with LAFCO will need to occur even if we vote to approve this rezone today. Chavez: housing shortage today and he knows this project needs to 100% pay for itself. Homeownership in his district is mainly minorities so he wants to be sure we don’t discourage potent-

-ial Developments like this either. Soria: in past fire fees were too low and we worked hard to increase those and not discourage development. County gets 60% of share while City is going into the red. She has been very encouraging of development in her district but doesn’t want

to take on more debt to do it. Chavez: we don’t want to tell developers that “we are not open for business” either. What that type of housing that is is open for discussion. Karbassi: we need competition and currently only helps a few developers. We are have only increased

Housing by ten % of what we need. Arias: we are in a housing crisis but we our budget is on Fire. I don’t want to lay off Public Safety , works etc at the same time we are causing more growth too. Arias abstains from this vote not knowing what September budget brings. Mayor

@MayorLeeBrand still doesn’t want to touch $35 million reserve fund. Soria: we are approving this but it still needs to go to LAFCO with a new fair MOU in place. General Plan says new annexation must pay for itself. We will be violating this plan if we don’t change MOU.Approved

6-0-1 with Arias abstains with a “Luis Chavez friendly abstaining ) he Jokes. Next :
3-D Directing application for electric vehicle grants, purchasing vehicles, and installing necessary infrastructure. Promenade Lot will have EV Chargers. We need to look at whether Code

Enforcement can replace their 15-20 year old F-150 trucks with an electric vehicles. There are great rebates available as well. Counsel Sloan says we will need to check is well have used any of those already. Must use for at least 3 years to get Grant. Costs $7000 to $14,000

for first year and $4500 less the years afterwards. Some Enforcement workers currently use a full size truck when they could something smaller. Solar would decrease overall costs. There has been vandalism at Promenade Lot so we need to secure EV Chargers. We are asking Council

to approve to allow us to apply for the Grant. Assistant City Manager Schaad says some departments drive more than others. Code Enforcement doesn’t use 100 miles a day so fuel cost savings will be lower than in presentation. We have used some of the $20,000 Grant with FAX.

Code Enforcement has requested Code Enforcement in the past Over a sedan. We can purchase a gas powered Corolla for $19,000. It will take 26 years to get payback from EV due to low milage use. Arias: too many of our kids have asthma would be better to have EV. Schaad agrees but

we need to know actual cost. Promenade Lot can sustain 10 chargers before we are maxed out unless PG&E would put more infrastructure. Arias: we have been doing Bare minimum on EV Chargers. @kmkarbassi If we went with Hybrid like Prius may solve problem. Maybe in future we can go

all electric in the future. @gregorybarfield PG&E is pulling power across the street so that will help with FAX. Buying in bulk will lower cost of costs of vehicles. Soria: Council needs to give direction and we want cleaner air. Karbassi: 10 EV vehicles and rest hybrid ? Schaad

wishes we had been consultants on this. Barfield : we auction off retiring vehicles. We can sometimes prolong life of vehicles depending on how many miles a department uses. Motion to approve buying 10 EV vehicles and rest Hybrid until infrastructure improves. Approved.

4-A
WORKSHOP on Homelessness Motion to table this as presentation just came this afternoon. Approved

3-E Directing use of virtual residential inspections and associated fee waivers  Sloan says this will allow us to do inspections that have been delayed for 6 months due to Covid.

This will allow us to continue inspecting and be safe at the same time.

Owner will walk around filming as inspection goes on. Recorded by inspectors for review. This will waive normal $100 inspection fee. Approved 7-0

4-B Approve CARES Act expenditure and contract for the Senior Aid for Food and Resources (SAFR) Program: 1. ***RESOLUTION - Adopting the 20th Amendment to the Annual Appropriation Resolution No. 2020-159 to appropriate $500,000 in CARES Act Funds for the Senior Aid for Food and

Resources (SAFR) Program (Requires 5 affirmative votes)(Subject to Mayor's Veto) 2. Approve agreement with Pardini's Catering. Karbassi: this will help seniors as not all grocery stores enforce mask rule. Seniors will get a week’s supply of food. This will be a Pilot program.

This will help both seniors and those caterers whose business has decreased during this Covid pandemic. Public: thanks on behalf of the seniors. @LovesMercy Brandi thanks Council in this as well. @PaulCaprioglio Karbassi has worked hard on this.He has covered all the bases.

Chavez: Seniors are vulnerable and are often mobility challenged. Not all seniors who are eligible take advantage of food programs. Soria: all districts included ? A: yes but locations to pick up is limited to three districts. If more funding we can expand. Still trying to get

delivery to single homes themselves. @D7Esparza thanks Karbassi for this and another of Karbassi’s clever acronyms. (SAFR). Approved 7-0. Arias mentions groundbreaking on TCC Chinatown project.

NEXT MEETING
SEPTEMBER 3, 2020 - NO MEETING
SEPTEMBER 10, 2020 - NO MEETING
SEPTEMBER 17, 2020 - 9:00 A.M.
SEPTEMBER 24, 2020 - 9:00 A.M

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