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HomeMy WebLinkAbout04-26-2011 Adj. MinutesMayor Patrick J. Morris CITY OF SAN BERNARDINO Council Members: Virginia Marquez 300 N. "D "Street Vacant San Bernardino, CA 92418 robin Brinker Website:www.sbcity.org Fred shorett Chas Kelley Rikke SanBernar ino Van Johnson sM Wendy McCammack MINUTES MAYOR AND COMMON COUNCIL AND COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT COMMISSION OF THE CITY OF SAN BERNARDINO JOINT ADJOURNED REGULAR MEETING APRIL 26, 2011 ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT AGENCY BOARDROOM 201 NORTH "E" STREET SAN BERNARDINO, CALIFORNIA This is the time and place designated for a joint adjourned regular meeting of the Mayor and Common Council and Community Development Commission of the City of San Bernardino from the joint regular meeting of the Mayor and Common Council and Community Development Commission held at 1:30 p.m., Monday, April 18, 2011, in the Council Chambers of City Hall, 300 North "D" Street, San Bernardino, California. The City Clerk has caused to be posted the order of adjournment of said meeting held on Monday, April 18, 2011, and has on file in the office of the City Clerk an affidavit of said posting together with a copy of said order which was posted at 12 p.m., Tuesday, April 19, 2011, on the bulletin board located in the City Hall breezeway. The joint adjourned regular meeting of the Mayor and Common Council and Community Development Commission of the City of San Bernardino was called to order by Mayor/Chairman Morris at 5:11 p.m., Tuesday, April 26, 2011, in the Economic Development Agency Boardroom, 201 North "E" Street, San Bernardino, California. Roll Call Present: Mayor/Chairman Morris; Council Members/Commissioners Marquez, Brinker, Shorett, Johnson, McCammack; City Attorney Penman, City Manager McNeely, City Clerk Clark. Absent: Council Member/Commissioner Kelley. Vacant: Second Ward. 1 04/26/2011 Council Member/Commissioner Kelley arrived at 5:27 p.m. 1. Pursuant to Government Code Section(s): A. Conference with legal counsel - existing litigation - pursuant to Government Code Section 54956.9(a). B. Conference with legal counsel - anticipated litigation - significant exposure to litigation - pursuant to subdivision (b) (1), (2), (3) (A -F) of Government Code Section 54956.9. C. Conference with legal counsel - anticipated litigation - initiation of litigation - pursuant to subdivision (c) of Government Code Section 54956.9. D. Closed Session - personnel - pursuant to Government Code Section 54957. E. Closed session with Chief of Police on matters posing a threat to the security of public buildings or threat to the public's right of access to public services or public facilities - pursuant to Government Code Section 54957. F. Conference with labor negotiator - pursuant to Government Code Section 54957.6. G. Conference with real property negotiator - pursuant to Government Code Section 54956.8. The Mayor and Common Council did not recess to closed session during this meeting. Mayor/Chairman Morris announced the passing during the past week of two former Sixth Ward Council members, Norris P. Gregory, Jr. and Valerie Pope -Ludlam, and provided the dates and times of their services. Mayor/Chairman Morris introduced Dr. Bill Mathis of the Mathis Group, a management psychologist who facilitated workshops for the Mayor and Council last year and would be facilitating today's meeting. 2. Boards and Commissions City Manager McNeely provided an overview of the staff report contained in the backup materials. The report was divided into four separate issues relative to the various board and commissions and was discussed accordingly. 2 04/26/2011 Issue 1 - Eliminating Boards and Commissions That Have Served Their Purpose or Are Inactive The three commissions recommended for elimination were the Central City Parking Place Commission, the Community Television Commission and the Youth Advisory Commission. Lori Tillery, Project Manager, Economic Development Agency, answered questions relative to the Central City Parking Place Commission and the Community Television Commission. Kevin Hawkins, Director of Parks, Recreation and Community Services, addressed questions relative to the Youth Advisory Commission. Council Member/Commissioner McCammack noted that combining committees had been discussed at the Legislative Review Committee (LRC); however, it was never moved out of the LRC due to several questions about the commissions/committees and their roles. Public Comments: Joe Ortiz, San Bernardino, CA. Council Member/Commissioner Shorett made a motion, seconded by Council Member/Commissioner Brinker, to eliminate the Central City Parking Place Commission, the Community Television Commission, and the Youth Advisory Board. (No vote was taken.) City Attorney Penman advised that the public should be able to understand what is going to be done at a meeting, and he didn't think there was enough specificity on the agenda to take this action. He stated that a new ordinance may be needed on some of the items, and that an ordinance cannot be repealed by a motion—another ordinance would have to be adopted to repeal it. Council Member/Commissioner Shorett amended his motion, seconded by Council Member/Commissioner Brinker, that staff be directed to take whatever steps are necessary to eliminate the three commissions. Council Member/Commissioner McCammack stated that she thought it would be wiser and a better use of staff time if they simply allowed these commissions to be dormant or inactive so staff would not have to do any additional work to eliminate them. Mr. Penman suggested that the motion be worded to "consider" the elimination since the Council had not heard from the public. 3 04/26/2011 Council Member/Commissioner Shorett made a second amendment to his motion, seconded by Council Member/Commissioner Brinker, that the Mayor and Common Council consider the elimination of the Central City Parking Place Commission, the Community Television Commission, and the Youth Advisory Commission and direct staff to take the necessary steps to bring the matter back to the Mayor and Common Council. The motion carried with McCammack voting "no" and Kelley absent. Issue 2 - Combining Boards & Commissions with Overlapping Roles and Responsibilities Note: The staff report proposed combining the Board of Fire Commissioners, the Animal Control Commission, the Bureau of Franchises, and the Board of Police Commissioners into a single Public Safety Commission. Police Chief Kilmer stated that it takes about nine staff members to prepare for, attend, and follow up on the Board of Police Commissioners at a cost of approximately $1,000 per meeting per month for all staff involved. He added that the Police Department also provides support for the Human Relations Commission and has recently taken on the Animal Control Commission. He stated that he envisions a Public Safety Commission with an agenda that covers the individual issues. This would mean that the public would have only one meeting to attend. Fire Chief Conrad stated that he has been chief for 41/2 years and it has been very difficult to get a quorum for the Board of Fire Commissioners; in fact, in the last 24 months they have had a quorum only four times, which makes it very difficult to accomplish anything. He thought that combining these commissions made a lot of sense. Public Comments: Felix D'Amico, San Bernardino, CA - member of the Board of Police Commissioners and the Parks and Recreation Commission. Insofar as a combined Public Safety Commission is concerned, it was suggested that cross training of the commission members be provided and that consideration be given to increasing the number of commission members appointed by each Council member. Council Member/Commissioner McCammack stated that maybe this was the time to talk about a Public Safety Director for the City. Council Member/Commissioner Brinker stated that he would like to see a cost analysis of the savings if this action is taken. 4 04/26/2011 Council Member/Commissioner McCammack stated that she would like to see some type of "road map" of the restructuring. She also expressed concern regarding how the decision would be made insofar as "firing" some of the current commission members. Police Chief Kilmer stated that a couple of different options have been discussed. One is to reconstitute the Public Safety Commission and make the appointments starting from ground zero. The other is to form a commission of a different size (maybe in transition from the various commissions that currently exist) and then have that reduced down in number over a period of time. However, he felt there were other options that would fall between these two ideas that could be brought back and presented to the Council. City Attorney Penman provided background information regarding the number of vacancies that have existed on several of the commissions. He stated that he believed it was important for the Board of Building Commissioners and the Planning Commission to continue to have alternate positions. He also provided information as to why some of the commissions were established, stating that for many of them the motivation for establishment was not included in the establishing ordinance. Mayor/Chairman Morris noted that a requirement for the Board of Fire Commissioners is that six of the nine members have specialized experience in fire insurance, fire control administration, or fire control. Mayor/Chairman Morris stated that he has made numerous efforts trying to find individuals who meet these specialty requirements, to no avail. He suggested that no matter what else they do, they should either abolish this requirement, or at least reduce the number of individuals required to have this specialty experience. Council Member/Commissioner McCammack made a motion that if all else fails that the Mayor and Council at least make that alternate change. The motion failed for lack of a second. Council Member/Commissioner Brinker made a motion, seconded by Council Member/Commissioner Shorett, that staff be directed to prepare the necessary documentation to create a Public Safety Commission by combining the Fire Commission, Animal Control Commission, and Bureau of Franchises together with the Police Commission, and transferring the public safety functions of the Human Relations Commission to the Public Safety Commission. The motion carried with McCammack voting "no." Issue 3 - Update, Modernize, or Amend Structure or Scope of Existing Boards and Commissions According to staff's recollection, the Santa Ana River Trail had not met for approximately 36 months. Council Member/Commissioner McCammack stated 5 04/26/2011 this was one committee that she had thought would either go inactive or be eliminated, because she thought it was a waste of staffs time. She stated that it had an initial purpose and the volunteers did an excellent job, but she thought it was time for it to go inactive and reactivate if either new grant money comes forward or new opportunities for completion or addition to the trail itself come forward. Relative to the Board of Building Commissioners (BBC) and redefining their appeal authority—she had no problem with that because that's leaving the Board intact; however, if they've got no appeal authority, she wondered exactly what their responsibility and their role would be. She thought that eliminating alternates on any of the commissions was a mistake. City Attorney Penman stated that insofar as the Board of Building Commissioners was concerned, his office, which probably deals the most with the appeals process, has no problem under the current structure of the administrative citations and administrative civil penalties doing away with the appeal process. He noted that the reason the appeal was put to the Board of Building Commissioners was that the Mayor and Council did not want to have to deal with it, and that was a wise decision because the Mayor and Council could get bogged down in hearing a lot of individual cases, and it would be problematic. He stated that there has been consideration made of farming out much of the process of the hearings to a company that does this type of work for profit. However, in talking to other cities and the County Counsel's office where the process has been done, that can become a problem. The companies are there to make a profit, not to administer justice, and when people call up and ask for a hearing, some of them have been told, "We're sorry but you missed the deadline." They have said, "Well, no one told us about the deadline," and the reply has been, "Well, that's your problem." We don't do that in the City of San Bernardino—we go out of our way to make sure that everybody gets a notice and everybody gets their chance to be heard. He stated that if we are going to go to a commercial company to provide justice for the people of San Bernardino, an appeal process is needed because we are going to be in the same situation that we've been in with the company that bills people for ambulance rides. We are going to get all of the complaints, especially from senior citizens, relative to billing problems. He stated that if we continue with the present structure and it isn't broken, there is no need to fix it—there is no need, in the opinion of the City Attorney's office, to have an appeal process go to the Board of Building Commissioners and the Administrative Citation process. But, if the Council is seriously considering farming out to a for-profit commercial company, whose interest is not justice but making money, there is going to be a need for an appeal process 6 04/26/2011 for the citation hearings, be it ACPs or administrative citations. He stated that if the Council doesn't do it, he could foresee that a citizen's group would quickly form and by petition there would be an initiative ordinance presented to the Council to either enact or place on the ballot. Insofar as to what the duties of the BBC would be if the appeals of the administrative citations go away, Margo Wheeler, Director of Community Development, pointed out that ACPs are not appealed to the Board of Building Commissioners. Responding to inquires from the Council, Ms. Wheeler noted that appeals of the building code are very infrequent, that there is no problem getting a BBC quorum when needed, and the BBC met six times during 2010. Council Member/Commissioner McCammack stated that before the City Manager and staff go forward with any recommendations related to combining commissions, she would respectfully request that staff gather input from each and every currently affected commissioner, either in an email written form or at the next meeting (if it's timely), and collectively, so that the Council members can see the full breadth and scope of what their thoughts and thinking are before it comes back to them for formal action. She stated that if it was not the will of the Council to direct staff to do that, then she would gather that collectively from her commissioners. City Manager McNeely stated that he thought he had been clear that when they come back to the Council with the recommendation staff's intent would be to make this an inclusive process where they would reach out to every single board and commission member that is affected in this consolidation to get their input and recommendations. He stated that staff would like to make this a win/win situation where they come back with something that the commissioners are supportive of. Ms. McCammack stated that she would like to see the comments from the individual commissioners in writing. Mr. McNeely answered that he would be happy to do that and staff would invite the commission members themselves to be present when staff makes that recommendation. Mr. Mathis asked what the pleasure of the Council was insofar as moving forward on Item 3 (update, modernize, or amend structure or scope of existing boards and commissions.) 7 04/26/2011 City Attorney Penman stated that the idea of farming out the hearing process was actually presented to the Council during the ACP workshop—he thought it might have been last summer—and the Board of Building Commissioners duties are really broader than a person might have gathered from the comments from the Director of Community Development. He stated that the BBC is required to handle duties delegated to it by the Uniform Building Code, which is adopted by the City and by four chapters in the San Bernardino City Municipal Code—that it's not just the hearings of the administrative citations—there are other things that they may do. He stated that one of the things that is problematic that the City has not addressed for some time is the question of whether or not all of the matters that are supposed to go to some of the commissions, such as the Board of Building Commissioners and the Planning Commission, have in fact been going to those commissions, or have they been derailed by staff and not gone to the commissions. The City Manager needs to look into that because the Board of Building Commissioners has a number of duties that they should be attending to, but if staff does not agendize them they do not get addressed. Regarding the Santa Ana River Trail Commission, Mayor/Chairman Morris advised that several years ago they opened up that portion of the trail from Waterman into Colton; and the part that starts at Waterman and goes to Redlands has not yet been constructed, nor the trail from Redlands up to the airport in Redlands, which is the last paved portion of the trail that has not been constructed. He stated that that commission does have a role and advocacy because the trail is not yet finished—that funding is there but it has not been delivered due to the State's budget—so there is room for advocacy here until the trail is finished. However, when it is finished, he thought the commission ought to be dissolved. Council Member/Commissioner McCammack suggested that in order to continue to save staff time that they incorporate the Santa Ana River Trail Commission into the Parks and Recreation Commission because they go hand in hand. She stated that she thought the Parks Department is very successful in achieving and receiving grants and she thought they pretty much serve the same function. Council Member/Commissioner McCammack made a motion that the Santa Ana River Trail Commission be incorporated into the Parks and Recreation Commission and that they follow the written recommendation regarding the Board of Building Commissioners (as contained in the Staff Report). The motion failed for lack of a second. 8 04/26/2011 Council Member/Commissioner Kelley stated that he did not have a problem with Item 3 as written. He recognizes that there are opportunities for the Santa Ana River Trail and its extension and he knows that the County is working on the opportunity to extend it. He stated that when he considered how important the Santa Ana River Trail is, he thought that seeing it go to an ad hoc committee was a fair recommendation. He added that if something should come up in the leg of our trail—the system that goes through our municipality—they might want to have an ad hoc commission at hand to address some of that, but he knew on good authority that the County is working on the next leg of the Santa Ana River Trail. Mayor/Chairman Morris added that the County is the lead agency in the crusade to complete that great trail to the sea, which will be 110 miles long when it is all completed. He stated that we have good leadership from the County on this particular issue, and our group is an advocacy group to make sure it gets done through our city. Council Member/Commissioner Johnson pointed out that the Santa Ana River Trail Commission as well as the Human Relations Commission are two of the commissions within our city that the commissioners do not have to be residents of a specific ward. Council Member/Commissioner Brinker stated that a large portion of the Santa Ana River Trail is in the Third Ward and he distinctly remembered going to a meeting where they brought in an outside group from UC Irvine that had done some planning regarding some parks that they wanted to build along the Santa Ana River Trail. He stated that he was not opposed to changing it to an ad hoc committee, but he did want to see if the Parks Department wanted to respond to Ms. McCammack's suggestion that this should be incorporated into the Parks and Recreation Commission. Kevin Hawkins, Director of Parks, Recreation, and Community Services, noted that the Parks and Recreation Commission is an advisory body for parks and recreation related issues. He stated he was not opposed, as the director, to being part of the trail discussions, but if it required resource allocation, at this point they were not prepared to take on that responsibility. Margo Wheeler stated that with regard to the concept of derailing items that would go before the Board of Building Commissioners and Planning Commission—that is a very serious issue with her, and in the cities where she has had authority for the Board of Building Commissioners it is not unusual that there are not many appeals because it's a very rare thing for an applicant to appeal and offer an alternative to the building code, so that is not unusual. But the concept of not bringing matters to the Planning Commission or the BBC is a very serious issue and one she would never take lightly, so she wanted to put that on the record. 9 04/26/2011 Mr. Penman stated he was glad to hear that, but he still found it interesting that the Board of Building Commissioners used to have very full agendas and had problems getting quorums; in fact, he almost lost some lawsuits because of it, and that was prior to the time that the administrative citation process existed. He stated he was not aware of any significant changes to the duties of the Board of Building Commissioners, other than the administrative citation process. Council Member/Commissioner Brinker made a motion, seconded by Council Member/Commissioner Johnson that staff be directed to prepare the necessary documentation to change the Santa Ana River Trail Commission to an ad hoc committee and amend the Municipal Code to allow the Board of Building Commissioners to retain the Board's appeal authority of building code matters while eliminating its appeal authority on administrative citations. The motion carried unanimously. Issue 4 - Standardizing Structure of Existing Boards and Commissions Assistant City Manager Kurita explained that this was a recommendation standardizing the existing boards and commissions by eliminating the alternates, where possible. She stated that given what the Council had directed staff to do on suggestions 1-3, that would involve a number of the commissions identified as having nine members plus two alternates. The remaining commissions to be considered for this action would include the following: Planning Commission, Fine Arts Commission, Human Relations Commission, Board of Building Commissioners, and the Senior Affairs Commission. Mayor/Chairman Morris stated that on the Planning Commission, alternates are very valuable. Council Member/Commissioner McCammack and City Attorney Penman expressed agreement with the Mayor regarding the need for alternates on the Planning Commission. Mr. Penman also directed attention to Municipal Code Section 2.17.035, which states that every commission in the City requires an alternate member. He clarified that this applies to commissions designated in Chapter 2—that commissions created outside of Chapter 2 would not be covered by that provision. Council Member/Commissioner McCammack made a motion to leave the Planning Commission with two alternates. 10 04/26/2011 Council Member/Commissioner McCammack amended her motion, seconded by Council Member/Commissioner Shorett, that the Mayor and Council continue the discussion regarding standardizing the structure of existing boards and commission until staff comes back with information and suggestions regarding items 1-3. The motion carried unanimously. 3. Mayor and Common Council Procedures and Operational Guidelines Council Member/Commissioner McCammack stated that she would like to see more public involvement on this item and suggested a possible continuance to the next regular Council meeting. Public Comments: Dave McCammack, San Bernardino, CA. Joe Ortiz, San Bernardino, CA. Council Member/Commissioner Marquez made a motion, seconded by Council Member/Commissioner Johnson, that another workshop be scheduled to consider this matter. The motion carried with McCammack voting "no" and Johnson absent. 4. Adjournment The meeting adjourned at 7:12 p.m. The next joint regular meeting of the Mayor and Common Council/Community Development Commission is scheduled for 1:30 p.m., Monday, May 2, 2011. RACHEL G. CLARK, CMC City Clerk By: G Linda E. Hartzel Deputy City Clerk 11 04/26/2011