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1993/04/06 City Council MinutesROHNERT PARK TOWN HALL MEE'T'ING MINUTES April 6, 1993 The Council of the City of Rohnert Park mt this date in adjourned regular session in the Comnanity Center, 5401 Snyder Lane, Rohnert Park, California with Mayor Hollingsworth presiding. Call to Mayor Hollingsworth called the adjourned regular session to order Order at approximately 6:15 p.m. He welcomed everyone and stated he was very impressed that many members of the community are present and led the pledge of allegiance. City Attorney Flitner's remarks - City Attorney Flitner stated he reviewed the press release regarding former Mayor and Councilman Beary's request that the Council conduct further investigation on the matter involving him and his daughter several years ago. Mr. Flitner stated he talked to the District Attorney who indicated the matter is not proper to be discussed at this meeting since the Council is not an investigative body for such matter and that the proper agency would be the Rohnert Park Police Department. W. Flitner advised the Mayor that should this matter or any other matter that is not related to the City or the comnmity is brought up at this meeting, it would be appropriate for the Mayor to rule them out of order. Roll Call Present: (5) Councilmembers Eck, Gallagher, Reilly, Spiro, and Mayor Hollingsworth Absent: (0) None Introduction of staff present - City Manager Netter introduced staff members present for the meeting: Finance Director Harrow, City Attorney Flitner, City Engineer Brust, Planning Director Skanchy, Fire Services Commander /Acting Director of Public Safety Bick, and Lt. Doug Smith of Public Safety. Mayor Hollingsworth stated the town meeting was- for the purpose to discuss issues pertaining to the City of Rohnert Park, how we can make it a better com=ity to live in, what the residents' expectations of what the City Council should be doing and what the com - unity's ideas are on growth, and anything the residents would like to talk about in relationship to the community. Lou Beary was recognized and asked if the City Attorney's remarks meant he cannot discuss what he came to talk about. Mayor Hollingsworth asked the Council to put to a vote if the Council should follow the admonition of the City Attorney. The Council voted unanimously to do so. Mayor Hollingsworth stated that Mr. Beary's letter and photos would be turned over to the Public Safety Dept. for review and then turned over to the proper authorities. Councilman. Eck stated he would assume that if W. Beary wishes to speak that he can do so. 1 Rohnert Park Town Hall Meeting Minutes (2) April 6, 1993 Overview of Budget 1992 -93 and 1993 -94 - City Manager Netter referred to charts and explained the City's $15.5 million budget to provide services for police, fire, parks and recreation, Com=ity development, street maintenance, Animal Shelter, Performing Arts Center, etc. and that even though the City's revenues in sales tax increased because of the west side development, the City is still facing a $1.6 million deficit for the next fiscal year because of the State's extracting from local governments revenues that the Cities used to be able to retain. W. Netter referenced various charts and discussed revenues impacts on the City's budget. Staffing Mr. Netter stated that the City is in new negotiations and he has had preliminary meetings with the bargaining groups. They are now in the meet and confer process. No decisions are made but the City has proposed a salary freeze in light of the magnitude of the deficit with an attempt to keep as many of the benefits as possible. Mr. Netter has asked the associations to come up with ideas to save costs. W. Netter referred -to the chart to compare Rohnert Park with other cities, Rohnert Park showing 3.9 employees per 1,000 residents. The City's policy has always been to pay City employees well but ask a lot more of them. Services provided - Mr. Netter outlined various programs offered and referred to the Performing Arts, Animal Shelter, and the parks for recreation. Al Long, 5705 Dexter Circle, was recognized and asked if any investigation has been made into Prop. 13. without which he and his wife would have been unable to continue to live in their house - like how many seniors there are living in Rohnert Park who will be in the same situation that he is in. Mayor Hollingsworth replied he was not aware of any such statistic. W. Netter replied that a split roll is being considered whereby another type of fornula that applies to the business property because there is hardly any turnover in business ownership, and business property is not reassessed. Mayor Hollingsworth suggested to write to legislators that they should recognize that they are taking funds from the City and that we need to finance our own infrastructure. Ways to Increase Revenues - W. Netter explained the different ways the City can increase revenues. 1. Landscape and Lighting Assessment District - W. Netter referred to parcel tax that would tax both residents and multifamily. The flat tax will be for maintaining parks and the street lighting system which costs $700,000 annually or an annual tax of $48 per parcel ($4 per month per parcel). Mr. Netter stated the Council and staff got hung up on the equitable way to distribute the tax and this item may come back and the City will present it for input from the comrunity. 2 Rohnert Park Town Hall Meeting Minutes (3) April 6, 1993 2. Golf Course - Mr. Netter referred to 150 acres to the west of the present golf course to be used as a comninity separator area. Councilmember Gallagher asked if it would require annexation. Mr. Netter replied no, the land will remain with the County. Councilmember Gallagher suggested to show development cost with development benefits. 3. Hotel /motel expansion - Mr. Netter explained that this is a primary new source of revenue whereby transients, and not the local residents, are taxed. If the City gets more hotels, the City can realize more revenue to provide services. 4. User Fee structure - So the City does not get into deficit financing, keep program on pay -as- you -go basis for the Performing Arts Center, Animal Shelter, and swimning pools. J.T. Henley, 462 Petaluma Hill Road, asked how can agriculture benefit the City as open space. Councilman Eck replied that it would depend on how the land is used. Linda Branscomb, 21 Anne, asked about sewer capacity. City Engineer Brust replied there is some sewer capacity available committed to Hewlett - Packard who is looking to transferring it to residential development. All apartments and condominiums and some hotels and motels have been retrofitted to provide 300 more capacities. The capacity from the expansion of the treatment plant will be made available in 1997 -1998 and the City is asking Santa Rosa if it could borrow some capacity that they have that they won't be using at that time. Nbyor Hollingsworth opened the meeting for comments and questions and gave the ground rules. Question and Answer Period 1. Maureen Foley, 1036 Hawthorne Circle - Sports Center has outgrown the space in the weight room; more treadmills and stairmasters are needed. She stated she has been coming to the Sports Center because the fees are reasonable but it is getting too crowded. She has mentioned this to Parks and Recreation Director Pekkain and Recreation Coordinator Guy Miller but has not gotten anywhere to improve it. City Manager Netter replied that in the Parks and Recreation budget, there is a proposal to move the weight room into the gymnasium room and as long as revenues can justify the cost of the expansion, the Council should look into it. Councilman Eck stated the original master plan was to have a pool in the south end but the pool got too big for the space. 2. Al Long, 5705 Dexter Circle, suggested that future meetings not be at dinner hour since commuters are just getting home at about this time and attendance will be better if the meeting is held later around 8:00 P.M. 3 Rohnert Park Town Hall M=-eting Minutes (4) April 6, 1993 Mr. Long also suggested that with reference to landscape and lighting, proposal should be more specific as to include each apartment, not just parcel. 3. Tim Danesi, 6400 Nbadow Pines Avenue, who had to leave at 6:30 p.m., suggested that there should be several town meetings every year on different days, times, and locations. 4. Vern Smith, 4346 Heritage Lane, stated he felt that the General Plan is somewhat in limbo and talked about planning and land use to the west including the future golf course, and Planning staff should take another look at how the City develops in the future and suggested to start residential development in the west. Stony Point Road will not be fully developed until we can motivate politicians to do something about it. When you get back to the General Plan update, this is a concept that should be examined. Councilman Eck talked about the General Plan update and stated that the General Plan committee incorporated them as amendments to the existing General Plan with full citizen review about July. 5. Doris Sorich, 5803 Country Club Drive, stated she thought it was an option to attend a hearing prior to changing the format of operation of the Family Planning Clinic and has a petition signed by 6 different Christian denominations not to allow abortion to be performed within the CIty limits. City Attorney Flitner stated this is a land use matter and use is classified as a clinic which probably fits within the allowed use of the zoning ordinance. Planning Director Skanchy stated it was his understanding that they are located on Medical Center Drive which is zoned PA - Professional Administrative, that allows medical offices and medical clinics. The ordinance does not define the various types of medical treatments or surgeries performed. Use permit and public hearing are not required when the use is permitted in the ordinance. 6. Hank Aaron asked if there is any kind of method that they could proceed in voicing an opinion of protest. There are certainly other parties in Rohnert Park who would not like to have it here. Mayor Hollingsworth stated he personally also has difficulty with abortion clinics but he also has to obey the law and if they are not violating the law, they will have to be allowed to do it. City Attorney Flitner stated that Mr. Aaron has the right to change the law but right now the law does recognize certain classifications for abortion. This is a land use issue and as far as the City's jurisdiction is concerned, we are obligated to follow the zoning ordinance. 4 Rohnert Park Town Hall Meeting Minutes (5) April 6, 1993 Councilman Reilly asked City Attorney Flitner to talk about repercussions to the City Council if it violates the right to use the land as they are legally entitled to. City Attorney Flitner stated we have to treat everybody equally regardless of how we may feel about its legal use and regardless what our sentiments are. If we excluded them, they have the right to go to court. 7. George Horwedel, 7669 Camino Colegio, asked for the highlights of the joint meeting of the City Council and the School Board and when would first meeting be for budget hearings. Councilmember Spiro replied that one of the topics discussed was wastewater pipeline and how it will benefit the entire conTamity by using reclaimed water. Also, the School Board needs another building badly and needs a new location for a warehouse. Discussion was held on possibly passing a measure or a bond to create a new library downstairs and City administrative office upstairs and have the existing library building be used by the School District. Councilmember Gallagher stated the School District's needs for a new location and a warehouse are more in rediate. Councilman Eck stated that there have been ongoing sessions with the School District over the last 3 years and the School District may want to go on a cooperative agreement with the City to use the City Hall site. To his knowledge, there is no move on the part of the City to build a new City Hall. There is no money to build one and not only that, he does not think the voters would approve it. In reply to a query, Mayor Hollingsworth stated as far as evening meetings for budget hearings, that will be based on the availability of the Councilmembers. Budget hearings will start about the first week of Nay. 8. Nary Koschei, 7744 Santa Barbara Drive, reported that lighting on her street has been out twice in the past month and she called the City and was told it was owned by PG&E and the City does not have control on its maintenance and which could take PG &E 6 to 8 weeks to fix. Mrs. Koschei stated that there seems to be a double standard and she felt that older sections of town should have the same lighting as the new sections and maintained by the City as the new neighborhoods. City Manager Netter stated the City is in the process of purchasing the street lights in the older sections from PG&E which should be happening in the next 60 days and maintenance of the street lights will be handled by Director of Public Works Brust. Dave Le Fevre, PG&E representative /City liaison, was recognized and stated that PG &E would not leave lights out if there is a safety issue involved. If there is a customer problem, PG&E will work it out with the City's Public Works or Police Department. 5 Rohnert Park Town Hall Meeting Minutes (6) April 6, 1993 Councilman Eck asked the cost for undergrounding and if there are funds committed. W. Le Fevre replied it costs about $100 per foot for undergrounding. City Engineer Brust stated there is $150,000 available but the funds are committed to another project. 9. Dave Mochel, 4405 Hollingsworth, talked on annexation which has been the most politically divisive issue that the City has faced. As soon as the City has sewer capacity available, it will be under tremendous pressure to annex every piece of land on its border limits and these pressures are not going to go away. He suggested that the Council put a referendum on the ballot and asked if the City Attorney can draw up a referendum, based on Pacifica's referendum, to give the citizens to have a direct say on every proposal prior to annexation. 10. Jerry Griffin, 1514 Garfield Court, agreed with Mr. Mochel that annexation has been a divisive issue and that the City Council need to know how the citizens of Rohnert Park feel about this issue. 11. No name, no address - question was if there will be other meetings in the other neighborhoods. Mayor Hollingsworth stated the Council will evaluate what has taken place in tonite's meeting and will take it into consideration. There being no one else in the audience coming forth to speak, Mayor Hollingsworth concluded the meeting by asking the Councilmembers to make a few comments. Councilmember Gallagher stated there are many complex issues that needed to be touched on and suggested to have more meetings with the School Board since there was an enormous agenda discussed that evening. On annexation, we should be more considerate about future development in terms of the impact that annexation has on the schools. She also talked about assessment districts and asked how much are we really willing to pay. She also noted that garbage fees might increase and that the City really cannot afford a new City Hall and suggested that we educate ourselves and turn the shift and go the correct way. Councilman Reilly stated he didn't think this was an education for the citizens and it was more an education for the Councilmembers and that we need to continue to focus on key issues and discuss them in detail and get the residents' input. Regarding vote on annexation, he would like to hear some discussion on voting on the General Plan once it is adopted. He would like to see this type of meetings and discuss what the future of Rohnert Park is. He didn't want this meeting to turn out to have Councilmembers tear each other apart and nothing gets done and it is time to stop that and the Councilmembers need to start working together. Residents should let the Council know if they want more meetings. Councilmember Spiro stated those in attendance should give themselves a hand and it is a pleasure to talk to a room full of people and to see those who don't attend Council meetings and hope they will continue to come. She reported on the budget meetings she attended in Sacramento and school boundaries and the School Board's opinion that it will not get the L Rohnert Park Town Hall Meeting Minutes (7) April 6, 1993 boundaries changed and will not allow inter - district transfers. She talked about ABAG housing portion where we get our growth statistic we- have to come up with some sort of situation to handle fair share, and we have to take some of those housing numbers that cities will grow to in a certain time frame. It will be cumbersome to allow citizens that each time we want to annex, we have to put it on the ballot and she thinks in the long run the citizens won't be happy with that. Councilman Eck said it was terrific to have the town meeting and would like to see the Council go out to each neighborhood on a periodic basis. On the issue of the State taking money away, he thinks coming out of it is an opportunity to become more independent and gain local control. The State can mandate but if they don't fund, we can thumb our noses at them. For sewer, for every dollar you spend on it, we have a chance of getting open space. Mr. Eck also talked about urban reclamation project and we are better off paying more locally and do it right. Regarding open space, sales tax is accruing $500,000 to $700,000 a month, actively pursuing land - about 7 parcels are being pursued and there is a high probability that the next purchase will be in that comri,mn.ity separator. Transportation - we are now members of the North Coast Rail Authority and will be actively pursuing acquisition and we can expect to see tourist trains running on our tracks within the next 5 years, or no longer than 10 years. We are not going to lose the railroad. By acting locally, we are gaining control of our future. We can start looking at the present and the future and let us drop the divisiveness of the past and let us try to work together again. Mayor Hollingsworth - thanked everyone for coming tonite and asked to observe different approaches each Councilmember has taken on each issue discussed and how important it is that each voter elect officials who act not only as individuals but also as a group having responsibility to the citizens. He noted Councilman Eck's comnent on the positive things that have taken place in our city. In talking with people from Marin County, he is told what a great conTm ity Rohnert Park is, how lucky we are to have the retail and commercial development the last year. Referring to City Manager Netter's charts, had we not developed on the west side, we would have been in bad financial shape and would have had to ask the citizens to accept the burden that the State has placed upon the City. We are in a state of transition. Right now, the City is at a dead stone stop and he cautioned the community to be cautious about governing by initiative and cited the mobile home initiative. Have faith to the 5 individuals you voted for that they can make those decisions. Mayor Hollingsworth reported briefly on regionalism. the State wants us to have government by regions. There are things that we need to do in this City and all cities: 1) Correlate all the activities and all the government bodies within our local jurisdiction, the School Board, City Council, etc. to take full advantage of the amenities. 2) Consolidate wherever we can to save money so we don't have to tax ourselves. Mayor Hollingsworth commended Public Safety staff who is doing a good job and everyone present for being at tonight's meeting. 7 Rohnert Park Town Hall Meeting Minutes (8) April 6, 1993 Adjournment There being no further business, the meeting was adjourned at approximately 7:55 p.m. dz; Deputy City Clerk i Mayor q �--) ,