Thread by @AndyHS

Wacky Wednesday?? Fresno City Council on a Wednesday this week?? Yes! April 28,2021 Among the items:After feeling left out of last week’s Mayoral Measure P Committee announcement, Bredefeld &Karbassi ask for the Brown Act to apply to subcommittees too;Workshops:Downtown Partner-

-ship Annual Report; City of Fresno Homeless/Housing Strategy. @FLDocumenters @FLDocumenters #Fresno You can watch live 9 am cmac.tv/gov/ @CMACTV

Among the Consent Items: 1-B Reject all bids for the Fresno Yosemite International Airport Residential Sound Insulation Program

1-J Actions related to the award of a non-professional service agreement with Global Traffic Technologies, LLC, of Saint Paul, Minnesota, in the amount of $60,259.25 1. Affirm the City Manager's determination that Global Traffic Technologies, LLC, is uniquely qualified to perform

software and hardware maintenance services for the Department of Transportation Fresno Area Express Traffic Signal Priority system.

1-K Approve the award of a purchase contract to Haaker Equipment Company Inc. of La Verne, California for the purchase of five Vactor sewer cleaning trucks in the amount of $2,557,407 ($511,000 per truck! Better be a very clean sewer for that price 😜)

1-M Actions pertaining to the 2021 Law Enforcement Specialized Unit Program: 1. Authorize acceptance of $203,143 in grant funding from the California Governor's Office of Emergency Services' Law Enforcement Specialized Unit Program to the Fresno Police Department 2. Approve a MOU

with the Marjaree Mason Center. “WHEREAS, the Program is focused on enhancing the specialized unit, with emphasis on improving coordinated response victims of domestíc viofence and their children, and the City's application proposes to increase the Fresno Police Department's

(FPD) ability to respond to these populations”

1-N Approve a three -year agreement, with an option to extend for one additional year, with the County of Fresno to reserve five bed spaces in the Fresno County Jail for the purpose of housing Fresno Police Department Arrestees, at

rate of $520.00 per day for a total of $189,800 through FY2023. 1-P Approve Consultant Services Contract with West Coast Arborists, Inc, in an amount not to exceed $120,000 to complete the remaining Tree Inventory Data Collection

1- *Ordinance - The Public Transparency Act (for introduction) - Amend FMC 2-316 to require all Council committees to be subject to the Brown Act. Sponsored by Karbassi and Bredefeld

1-S Approve the Mayor's Appointments to the Parks, Arts and Recreation Commission established by Measure P

1-T Ordinance (for introduction) - Amending FMC sections 4-203 and 4-204 concerning disposition of City real property Sponsored by Esparza and Maxwell

Council meeting in person this beautiful morning! Esmeralda Soria by zoom or phone I believe Associate City Clerk said. 1-T on real property continued to May 13 meeting. 1-F, 1-N, 1-R, 1-U ,I1-S, moved to Contested Consent.

Councilmember Report: @Esmeralda_Soria by phone : Shields /West neighborhood cleanup this Saturday; Survey for Emerson median island is being circulated by her staff. Master Plan has it being a trail; panel discussion on movie Mother Lode along with bicycle coalition May 2 vir-

tually. @kmkarbassi honor of inviting PD K-9 Argo who was stabbed several times a few weeks ago. Karbassi brings some treats and a Kong toy. @MayorJerryDyer says Argo is a true partner and thanks him forever his service. Handler: he has my back that day. Brought it to a suc-

cessful conclusion.

@MiguelArias_D3 Thanks staff for Palm Mobile Home water connection and 1-F for connection to City water system. Also would like an update on Downtown Property Crime. @Maxwell4Fresno Had around 50 people to clean up around airport. @BeautifyFresno Next will be near Granite Park.

We also planted out last 10 trees to make it to 100 trees. National Poetry Month and Robinson Elementary Students who told poetry. @D7Esparza 80 persons helped clean at Roosevelt High and more at Fort Miller Middle School @LuisCha70215912 1100 volunteers to help clean up SE

Fresno area. Thanks Mayor and @MarkStandriff and @BeautifyFresno. May 2nd will be first “Cruising for Peace” beginning at Willow and Kings Canyon. Food vendors , low riders , etc @MayorJerryDyer Thanking all the Councilmembers for volunteering for Beautify Fresno. 4000 sq feet of

Tagging also covered up. Thanks City’s Sanitation Crew who does so much on the background. City Manager was seen dancing even! Police Reform Commission had a well attended meeting and selected subcommittees top. Inaugural flight of Southwest Airlines last Sunday. City Manager

Says Budget is starting to be put together. Rental Assistance software is going out. @kmkarbassi Beautify Fresno event occurring. Michael Moreno of San Joaquin Memorial for getting Taco Bell for homeless person. He invited him to sit in back of pick up bed to talk while eating.

Unscheduled Public Comment: @LovesMercy Brandi: thanks Moreno as well. Also appreciates City events schedule online. Would like those posted to Facebook etc. however not all meetings make it to City social media. @LisaYFlores1 : sorry to get emotional. Think about homeless kids

on Parkway. Stress and Crime is exposed to kids there. Council control where they live. Need to give them a place to decompress. Next: Sigra (sp.) My wife is riding her bike from SF to LOS Angeles to raise money for homeless Port-a Potties. She was formerly homeless but sober now

She is giving back to her community. Homeless gave her strength in fighting illness and this is her way of giving back. She posts on Social media Her stories with homeless. Next: Dez Martinez more safe homeless camps will save a lot of money to City of Fresno. This would cut down

crime in the streets. Trash, abandoned buildings being taken over etc will be reduced. Safe camps will work. City and County need to work together. Next: Gordie Bermudez she is cycling beginning next week to raise money for homeless Port a Potties. Only trained 4 weeks! Mental

Illness is a large part of homeless solution and lack of restrooms is part of that. Next: Michala (sp) Since February we have been trying to get Soria to provide shelter and ambulance for domestic violence homeless. Soria had signed a letter that she would give CARES dollars.

1-F ***RESOLUTION - Authorizing the preparation and submission of financial assistance applications to the California State Water Resources Control Board for planning, design, and construction of sewer infrastructure for the Daleville residential. Arias makes one small change

Approved 5-0. ove the award of a product requirements contract, with two optional one-year extensions, to Casey Printing of King City, California, for FAX schedule guide printing services for a total $60,999.61 for the first two years, not to exceed $121,999.22 over four years

@GarryBredefeld wonders how it will be paid with Zero Fares? Staff: non federal funds. Fares could be a source in future. Approved 5-0

1-N Approve a three -year agreement, with an option to extend for one additional year, with the County of Fresno to reserve five bed spaces in the Fresno County Jail for the purpose of housing Fresno Police Department Arrestees, at rate of $520.00 per day for a total of $189,800

Arias wonders that we usually use this money for car thieves but that rate is down. Mayor: we typically use it for most violent offenders or auto theft if vacant. Arias: we have record amount of shootings. Why are they not placed there? Mayor: we have many more arrests than the

five available beds. On duty field commander makes the decision. PD Chief Paco Baldaramma: those occupying the five beds are all gang members. One is the most prolific auto thieves too. Sheriff will work with us to keep a violent person if possible. I have asked for 10 beds but

funding not there. @kmkarbassi $520 per day per bed. Arias: no available beds in County Jail in order to double amount of beds. Chief: zero dollar bail has made crime worse. Bredefeld: hard to believe no beds available as inmates have been released due to Covid etc? Chief:a

violent gang member can usually find a bed if we ask Sheriff. Bredefeld: why does the city have to pay for a bed? Shouldn’t County provide that? Mayor: when bed space gets crowded often Auto thieve would be released that day. If we purchased a bed we can guarantee they stay in

bed. Most auto thefts are caused by a limited numbers so if we can keep them in jail it works well. Approved 7-0. Arias says yes as County’s mismanagement causes us more problems.

Georgeanne White and Chavez met on item 1- *Ordinance - The Public Transparency Act (for introduction) - Amend FMC 2-316 to require all Council committees to be subject to the Brown Act. by Karbassi and Bredefeld. Karbassi: all of us need to have the info needed to make a wise

decision. I rely on Trade Memos for info. It would help with communication. We all need access to it. @GarryBredefeld I felt committee system is flawed. Last year’s Covid committee was corrupt. We were not told all that applied for that funding though. Food Bank told NO but I

never heard about it. Only the subcommittee of three got to hear about it. Last Mayoral Administration was inept. Money given to those with no experience with Contact Tracing. Public doesn’t know where their money is going. I can get into details if you want. Bring transparency.

Two months ago Karbassi and Karbassi were not placed on many subcommittees. These are flawed. I don’t need a subcommittee to screen info for the rest of Council. Sunshine, accountant ability. Chavez: hopefully Council can let me work with Administration on this. We didn’t have a

roadmap on how to handle a pandemic. We had no entities experienced in contact tracing for example. What is role of a subcommittee? Do they ask questions and bring recommendations to the group as a whole? Bredefeld: may not be wise to have subcommittee with that power. We need to

get rid of some of these subcommittees. Chavez: how do we ensure flow of information from staff to rest of Council. I would like to continue this item. This gives me time to meet with administration. I am not a big fan of subcommittees myself. @kmkarbassi what are subcommittees

for? We out here in the open so hopefully my colleagues can bring out items now. @MiguelArias_D3 RFP bypassed due to pandemic and emergency declaration. Otherwise RFP is six months. We took proposals from whoever submitted. Every committee has a staff member assigned. Council

Can directly ask the professional staff. No Brown Act applies to Staff. We always debate every January which subcommittees to remove and who will be on it. For example we removed Clean 99 subcommittee. This item has implications. Brown Act means translation is provided. That will

be expensive as well as Clerk Staff posting every meetings. Arias lists a number of subcommittees. Brown Act should apply to all of these if we are doing it for our subcommittees too. When Chavez meets with administration will that be under Brown Act?? Chavez:no.@Esmeralda_Soria

We need to have this conversation about moving forward with subcommittees. We should professionalize our committees, televised etc. All large cities do it that way. An opportunity here. We won’t have to rely on trade memos but can watch the recordings. Let’s get into transparency

all on board with the funding needed. Chavez: at the end of the day we will all own this. The more we work together the better. @D7Esparza an interesting proposal. Brown Act applies to California. Not at federal level due to their large size. This pencil writes the proposal.

Breaks it in half. This half represents the half we can’t talk to until we get to full Council. Keep breaking it in half further we can’t write with that pencil anymore. It will complicate communication even more. We need more Councilpersons then. I have chaired two subcommittees

that are under Brown Act because it is also has members from other entities like School Liaison Committee. Patterns of behavior Bredefeld mentioned. Not so much Garry but his partner ( I assume he means Karbassi). Governing as a minority is different.City Attorney Sloan

clarifies Brown Act and subcommittees. @Maxwell4Fresno This process could be made better as he agrees with Karbassi and Bredefeld. But we often don’t get Council meeting information until just 6 days before we meet. Noticing would be more difficult. @kmkarbassi I am glad we are

having this discussion. Appreciate Maxwell’s comments. All recommendations Subcommittees make should come to this Council. Esparza: different values of the different Councilpersons and their districts. Governing from minority is tough. Karbassi: understand you don’t want to take

teeth out of it. When you ask for data but it seems like it is all predetermined it makes it hard. Disrespecting this process will hurt the public with lessened trust. Info has already been withheld from Council members. Measure P subcommittee and Bredefeld and myself felt we

were left out of the loop. Problem isn’t the Mayoral Administration. That is a red herring. Arias: what is problem you are trying to solve? We all created Measure P subcommittee. Mayor can use the info subcommittee recommends or not. The two Council members that don’t want to

serve on subcommittees now have issues. Let’s look at this broadly with more resources. Measure P subcommittee didn’t ask you your opinions on the names recommended due to Brown Act. Not withheld otherwise. Chavez: I got off various subcommittees and I don’t the info from those

subcommittees now. How do we get that info to rest of Council now? Karbassi: arias said things were not personal. We all matter but there are remnants of what happened last year is still here. How we treat other does matter. Measure P names made left Mayor believing those were

those names were Council recommended too. Bredefeld: Brown Act we are proposing will help public. I never asked to be on any subcommittees. It is different to govern as a minority and that is fine. When I don’t get info the rest of Council has. Food Bank was told No by a small

group. I have faith Chavez will work fine with Administration. Maybe it is time to get rid of some subcommittees. Chavez: we will get to a comfortable area of the flow of info. At end of the day it is about helping people. Bredefeld: i am looking forward to having Esparza explain

the pencil breaking. Esparza: a subcommittee of 2-3 and add Brown Act to it ? Sloan: just talking to just two of those members and not all three would be in a violation. Arias:I want to defend previous administration as they worked with us during this pandemic. All Covid contract

succeeded. Bredefeld: I said this in person to Brand’s administration that it wasn’t transparent. We haven’t seen all those contracts yet. Which worked well and which didn’t we don’t know. Esparza:we sent Brand administration home bruised up. Flow of information has been better

with this new administration. Karbassi: we haven’t seen all the contracts From Covid. Maybe Brown Act should apply to subcommittees with sizable amount of money? Approved 7-0.

1-S Approve the Mayor's Appointments to the Parks, Arts and Recreation Commission established by Measure P
Bredefeld: I met with all the members nominated and they are all Good. Approved 7-0

1-U Maxwell: how easy is this for us to exit out of this contract with zero bus fares? Staff Barr: easy. Maxwell: do we need these maintained 6 days a week if we are not using them? Barr: it is sitting unused but they still need to be maintained. Highly sensitive , calibrated etc

They will fail if we go back to using fare-boxes. We pay for what we use. Prorated for those we don’t use. No penalty if we cancel contract. We just have to give 60 day notice to cancel. Zero risk otherwise. Maxwell: if we go zero fare permanently is there any credence to using

this money to maintain these fare Boxes for five years rather than pay federal government. City Manager: we would just unencumbered that money after 60 days. If we went zero fare in a few years we still have to maintain the boxes as feds gave us the money. Maxwell: the end of the

lifespan of those boxes will that make federal government ok? City Manager: we can suspend for six months only and we are in it now. Barr: maintaining bus , passengers only could be used with a certain funding source. Bredefeld: we will maintain these fare boxes but won’t collect

fares? City Manager: feds allow us to suspend for six months. We will give to city council a way forward for zero fare. We have reached the data. Can we get enough money to backfill the farebox funding loss from sources like hospitals , schools etc. We will do zero fare until

September. Council will then make the decision to go forward, shrinking system or getting rid of it. Maxwell: Title 6 after six months correct? If we find we are not discriminating after the six months we can go forward ? Still have to maintain equipment? City Manager: we will be

told by federal government what we have to do at that point. Approved 7-0.
10 am Actions pertaining to amendments to the Master Fee Schedule Resolution No. 80-420 to Add, Adjust, or Delete Various Fees with the Current Planning, Building and Safety Services, and Parking

of the Planning and Development Department; fees pertaining to: (1) Public Utilities - (a) Solid Waste, (b) Wastewater, and (c) Water Division; (2) PARCS; and (3) Planning - (a) CPI adjustment, (b) fee adjustments; and (c) new fees proposed. Various Changes to the Regulatory,

Development, and User Fees in the Current Planning, Building and Safety Services, and Divisions of the Planning Dept. Arias asks for this to be tabled. Utility Dept Head Carbajal: it will take awhile to shut someone’s water but fees are added. Most of the increases are only $5

Soria: one increasing by $300. Carbajal: it entails tearing up the street. Arias: some of the building costs fees are going up by a third while we have a housing shortage. Can we table this until we see budget. Administration staff:we need to approve this before we make budget

I encourage you approve this as soon as possible. We can provide a clearer summary if that helps. Esparza: lowest hanging fruit of builders included? Planning Head Jennifer Clark only 8 fee adjustments and two new fees. Arias: special event permit increasing ? A: we have been

charging this by the hour. Typically takes an hour. Arias: we lost some events to Clovis as cost of permits as sometimes 10 people needed to inspect. Each charged an hour fee. A: no new conversations on this. Arias: can you meet with Downtown Partnership on this before new events

start this summer? A: city manager says we have been meeting with Downtown Partnership on this. Karbassi: I have a water shutoff item that will come forward to council soon. Approved 7-0. Going to Closed Session 5-C now. Will come back at 1:30 for two workshops in Downtown Part-

nership Annual Report and then Homeless/ Housing Strategy.

Here is the slide shows for the upcoming workshops. First of all Downtown Partnership Annual Report :

And now the second workshop’s slide on Homelessness/ Housing Strategy

3-A **Workshop - Downtown Fresno Partnership Annual 2020 Report (Meeting already in progress before streaming began). 1:37 now. Jimmy Cerracchio speaking.He is going over slides now.

Parklet Grants by City $125,000 has helped especially during pandemic. Coming out First lockdown with restaurants getting $1-2 thousand. Helped 5 businesses locate into Downtown in 2020. Branding was going to be launched in 2020 but was postponed until now. Street pole banners

going up now. Quite a few out of town visitors to our website looking at events or possibly locating a business here. Events were obviously down last year with around 40. Quite a few clean up events though. Virtual events done too. Mariposa Plaza Xmas tree was erected which was

popular. Environmental efforts with cleaning , overnight private patrols, lockable dumpsters ; Kern St trash cans were taken over from City during pandemic. 5000 pounds more trash picked up in 2020 despite less people. Think it is due to homeless increased. Homeless Outreach oc-

cured by one of their ambassador. Typically takes 8 x speaking to them to get results. 971 security incident responses. Bagging parking meters to make it easier for restaurant food pick up during pandemic. PBID renewal needs to be done by 2022. Downtown Fresno Foundation raised

money to help pay for some of these programs. Downtown Academy had 3 classes completed with 36 students. It is the 8th year. 2021 business to business campaign targeting Bay Area and coastal area. Create Here/Stay Here grants will start soon. Facade grants. Developer support.

Events should start soon as ABC is staring to give permits again. Spot Cleaning of Zone 1 occurring. Adopt a Planter and Adopt an Alley. @MiguelArias_D3 some parking was filled by district attorney’s office. A: has been resolved now. Q: commercial compactors is standard for ur-

Ban areas. This will prevent trash from being thrown about as easy. When we renegotiate trash contracts can we ask for that? Number of contracted police officers for events can be cost prohibitive. Clovis has less restrictive numbers. Mayor Dyer: we need to take advantage of the

surge to have outdoor events once pandemic lessens. Soria: insurance of events is huge issue. Arias:Risk Management was tripled for events. City Manager: met with event planners and worked on cost of closing one block etc @kmkarbassi District Attorney’s office long term parking

for them? A: Dan Zack.@plannerdanzack is Parking Czar and is a high priority. Moving on to
3-B **Workshop - City of Fresno Homeless/Housing Strategy. City Manager Tommy Esqueda leading this (please check out the slides I posted earlier ). 2005 ten year plan published. By 2017 a

59% reduction of homelessness occurred. We try to get them stabilized and hopefully eventually to owner occupied housing. 68% increase in homelessness between 2019’to 2020. Motel rooms have been added to increase capacity. All forms of housing in all areas ( growth areas included

) plus tiny homes. Right now we don’t have enough housing everywhere. Project Homekey has taken 325 rooms for four hundred individuals. $39 million converted motels using State , HUD , FEMA and CARES dollars. Costs $59,000 to $78,000 per unit to purchase , repair , soft costs etc

Arias: new housing is $300,000 per unit so this is the least expensive way. Esqueda: that is cost for getting people in and now operational cost. $10,000 to $16,000 per unit. Hopefully rooms flip over three times a year as people move to permanent housing. Sun Lodge conversion to

63 family units. HART Team to lead City’s homeless outreach and engagement with 311. Low Barrier shelters ; continue to rent private buildings. We will try to do everything for to get people into a shelter. Aside with ID , reuniting with family/ friends UCSF residency rotation

in shelters. HART Team: hopefully can be first contact and not police. Priority area like freeways , schools, parks , neighborhoods, business areas. Portable Showers and restrooms that will be moved around. Soria: a different consultant response model is more desired by homeless

advocates. Is that what this is? Esqueda : we will work on KAHOOTS model (sp.). of Eugene Oregon that other parts of country are trying too. Soria: working group waited until Police Reform Commission was farther along.Dyer: Eugene is County too so easier to work together. We

don’t have quite that here. How do we better do that? Soria: KAHOOTs person came and spoke to us. Timeline needed. PD shouldn’t be first contact. Dyer: yes that is HART Team. PD /CHP tries to stay out of sight.Arias: Committee realizes we need to prioritize which area to concen-

trate on first ? Freeways First. Then schools. We can’t push those from freeways to areas near schools. Esqueda: we will need to keep freeways cleared once it is cleaned once. Accessory Dwelling units (ADU) 400-800 sq ft). Provide move in deposit. Target city owned properties

near services. Arias: reminder we have City wide properties in ALL of the city. Esqueda: identified 3 motels to look at while waiting for funding. Esparza: any from general funds? A: NO. Soria: hiring homeless to clean litter. Dyer: Fresno Mission has come to us with the same

We are looking at other organizations as well as looking for funding. Soria: Neighborhood Industry is one group that has a track record with this. What is scope? A: Mike Lima is putting a template for RFP and RFQs. Arias: restrooms is a big deal especially in Downtown. A: DPU

will bring in showers and port-a potties. Arias: renting private Motels v purchasing our own. Homelessness will only get worse. Encourage us to take long term view. We will need to use general fund dollars eventually.District 3 has taken brunt of homeless shelters. Location else-

where too. Many on streets have some type of mental health issues. It is up to county but we don’t have control there. @kmkarbassi Don’t you just love identity politics ?! We have had a night and day difference getting homeless into shelters that Mayor has done in 100+ days.

A:geography based right now in working on homelessness. Turning Point is main part and a special population. Karbassi: late at night who helps domestic violence situation? PD/FD are out there. A: low barrier shelter. But there has to be availability otherwise they end up on

the street. Karbassi: affordable housing. What does that mean to City? A: scale the product to match market. Even at 400 sq ft it will be gobbled up at 1200/month. Karbassi: market rate , lumber prices, VMT will increase prices. A: scaled and flood market. We will clear the decks

for developers. Affordable homes takes time. We are instead of planning bringing plan for 1000 affordable housing units all over town but have it approved ministerial (by right). Arias:Market rate housing will be a heavy lift. I just had 500 units rejected in West side because

people wanted single family homes. Off site issues will occur and administration will need to be aware. Chavez: city’s priority should be to buy motels due to 9th circuit ruling where homeless can’t be moved without bed space available. Conclusion of Workshop. They will go to

Closed Session now. Next meetings will be May 13 and May 27 at 9 am. @FLDocumenters

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