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2001/12/13 City Council MinutesCITY OF ROHNERT PARK CONCURRENT MEETINGS MINUTES for: CITY COUNCIL COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT COMMISSION ROHNERT PARK FINANCING AUTHORITY ROHNERT PARK DISTRICT CONCURRENT MEETINGS SPECIAL SESSION MINUTES: CEREMONY FOR THE CITY COUNCIL OFFICERS SELECTIONS FOR THE YEAR 2002 December 13, 2001 Thursday The special concurrent meetings of the City of Rohnert Park for the City Council, Community Development Commission, Rohnert Park Financing Authority, and the Rohnert Park District met this date for a Special Session to recognize the City Council Officers Selections for the year 2002. The Special Session commenced at approximately 7:00 p.m. in the City Offices, 6750 Commerce Boulevard, Rohnert Park, with Mayor Mackenzie presiding until the recognition of the selection of Mayor Flores for the year 2002. CALL TO ORDER: Mayor Mackenzie called the Special Session to order at approximately 7:00 p.m. and led the pledge of allegiance. ROLL CALL: Present: (5) Councilmembers Reilly, Spiro, and Vidak- Martinez; Vice Mayor Flores; and Mayor Mackenzie Absent: (0) None. Staff present for all or part of the meeting: City Manager Netter, Assistant City Manager Donley, Planning and Community Development Director Kaufman, Public Works Manager Stephens, City Engineer Gaffney, Interim Director of Public Safety Bullard, Fire Commander Cassel, Building Official Braun, Recreation Director Barry, Personnel Manager Robbins, and Management Analyst Fogle. City of Rohnert Parr, ".b. Yr;l-:1LiL l V1Vl UKi[P�lv1 t'1L I�111V 'JJ i•i.iiN —i December 13, 2001 Page(2 ) Mayor Mackenzie noted that City Attorney Strauss was not able to attend due to a family emergency and that she sends her regrets. ACKNOWLEDGING THE CITY MANAGER /CLERK'S REPORT ON THE POSTING OF THE MEETING'S AGENDA: The Council acknowledged the City Manager /Clerk's report on the posting of the meeting's agenda. UNSCHEDULED PUBLIC APPEARANCES: Mayor Mackenzie stated that in compliance with State law, the Brown Act, members of the public wishing to make a comment may do so at this time, limited to 3 -5 minutes per appearance with a 30- minute limit. No members of the public came forward. CEREMONY FOR THE CITY COUNCIL OFFICERS SELECTIONS FOR THE YEAR 2002 *REFLECTIONS OF 2001 - COMMENTS BY COUNCILMEMBERS: Councilmembers shared written and /or verbal comments of their reflections of the year 2001. Mayor Mackenzie shared a list of the major accomplishments in the City for the year 2001, ATTACHED TO THE ORIGINAL SET OF MINUTES, and all Councilmembers acknowledged the effort, time, and dedication of all members in all of the departments in the City. Councilmembers also gave thanks to members of the public, commissioner and committee members, friends, and family members alike for their support, enthusiasm, and understanding. Finally, Councilmembers thanked and congratulated each other for their dedicated work and numerous accomplishments over the past year. *PRESENTATION TO MAYOR JAKE MACKENZIE FOR 2001 YEAR AS MAYOR: At this time, a Scottish bagpiper came into the chambers and played "Scotland, the *Great- Brave." Vice Mayor Flores addressed comments to Mayor Mackenzie, thanking him for serving as Mayor and carrying out his various duties and meeting several challenges with success. He then presented the outgoing mayor with a framed version of the Mackenzie coat of arms and its motto, "I shine, not burn." *CORRECTION ABOVE-from 1/$/02 City Council meeting: per councilmemoer Mackenzie (deletion lined out /addition underlined) *City Council /Community Development Commission/ Rohnert Park Financing Authority /Rohnert Park District City of Rohnert Park *SPECIAL CONCURRENT MEETINGS MINUTES p December 13, 2001 g e At this time, Mayor Mackenzie called forward a member of the public, Assemblymember Joe Nation. 1. Joe Nation, Assemblymember, was recognized and congratulated outgoing Mayor Mackenzie and expressed his interest in working with Mayor- designee Flores. Mr. Nation then shared brief comments about the $12 -13 billion shortfall in funding for the City from the State of California. He discussed the causes of the shortfall, namely the national economy and the fall in personal and sales taxes, and he outlined his efforts in attempting to close the gap without affecting public school education or public safety. *RECOGNITION OF THE SELECTIONS OF CITY COUNCIL OFFICERS FOR YEAR 2002: *MAYOR ARMANDO F. FLORES *VICE MAYOR LINDA SPIRO At this time, Councilmembers recognized the selection of Armando F. Flores as Mayor and Linda Spiro as Vice Mayor, and Mayor Flores proceeded to take his new seat on the Council. Mayor Flores then introduced and acknowledged several former Mayors of Rohnert Park, members of his family, and the City's senior management team. *PERSPECTIVES FOR 2002 - COMMENTS BY COUNCILMEMBERS, IF ANY: Councilmembers shared verbal and /or written comments on their perspectives for the year 2002, ATTACHED TO THE ORIGINAL SET OF MINUTES. Among some of the items mentioned were addressing the budget challenges, a greater focus on partnerships with community and countywide organizations, the completion of the new library and the golf course upgrades, a long -term plan for economic stability and development, a renewed focus on homeland security, and continued work on the General Plan implementation. OTHER UNSCHEDULED PUBLIC APPEARANCES, IF ANY: At this time, Mayor Flores called forward any members of the public wishing to speak. No one responded. *City Council /Community Development Commission/ Rohnert Park Financing Authority / Rohnert Park District City of Rohnert Park *SPECIAL CONCURRENT MEETINGS MINUTES December 13, 2001 Page(4 ) There being no further business, Mayor Flores ADJOURNED the meeting at approximately 8:00 p.m. Katy Leonard, Certified Shorthand Reporter CSR No. 11599 Armando Flores, Mayor City of Rohnert Park *City Council /Community Development Commission/ Rohnert Park Financing Authority /Rohnert Park District Reflections on 2001 -a year in the life of...`«` ?r 'IVA WC "O wad some power the giftie gie us To see oursels as others see us! It wad frae monie a blunder free us An' foolish notion: What airs in dress an' gait wad lea'e us, And ev'n Devotion!" Robert Burns "To a Louse" It is a well known fact that elected officials have a strong sense of self. I'm no different. As I look around me , each of us is comfortable in our skin as the French would have it. So 366 days later, how does 2001 look in our rear view mirror[ is that a RP Public safety Mustang I see there? Oh dear!]? As some of the staff know to their chagrin, I have a fascination with indicators so as I tackled the task of composition ,which should I use ?How could I best reflect on my year as mayor? One modern way is to "ego search" by typing sorry keyboarding in "Jake Mackenzie" AOL search -zero . Definitely not a good indicator! So on to The PD- much better 38 hits , as it were. So there's one way back from Jan 3 , 2001 and a response to an OP -ed piece I wrote about consensus - building modeled on our RP General Plan example all the way through to a Chris Coursey piece on my being a left of center Democrat as opposed to other more centrist demos such as Tim Smith.. I guess it was too soon to get my latest failed attempt at Campaign Finance Reform into the count. Oh well! Another way is the scrapbook approach and there's a pile of "scraps " in the Mackenzie domain, residence that is, which reflect a year of attending Business openings, MC'ing RP AM, photos from our other newspaper The Community Voice, letters to the mayor and so on and so forth. Another modern way is the PDA calendar print out approach- so I did that this morning. There certainly were a lot of meetings !But as long- winded as I can sometimes be, I'll spare you all the excruciating detail of that approach. The city manager would like nothing better than I read from HIS list of accomplishments, sorry, from the "Accomplishments/Projects "list he and Troy Dettling worked on yesterday at my request. I'm not taking that path either! So after all this I decided to reflect aloud as I've been reflecting to myself over these past weeks .I've a file of reflections on past years and I reviewed the tape from last year's installation of officers. It is also very prudent to review what was said by yourself and your colleagues .Some of our words do bear repeating and I will return to that theme. It's very comforting to know that we live in a city where -the golfers are now happy with the residential rates - the residents joyfully wheel out their blue recycling bins -the skateboarders care fully grind their way around town -the salamanders are all friendly and carefully live outside our UGB -the mobile home park residents like every capital improvement the owners feel meet GAAP standards. -the roads have fewer potholes than Petaluma's -the ridgelines have fewer homes than Santa Rosa -the homeowners carefully turn their sprinklers off and on. -where the new mayor may chose not to open the new year with an invocation Joking aside : In this year when the Energy Crisis was going to dominate the year, we found ourselves wondering on September 11t" what was going to become of us all. Now 3 months later life goes on but it goes on in a climate that has caused all of us to reflect on our values and what we owe to those who serve and protect us. Last year various of us including the outgoing mayor and this year's incoming mayor all stressed the themes of working together, partnershipbuilding , strategic alliances within and without our community, excellent work by staff and volunteers alike. Our then mayor stressed the need to continue the momentum generated in the year 2000. I believe that the pace has not slacked. Many projects approved in past years have either been started or completed this past year and more to come. NOW I'll use Joe Netter's list! Spontaneous reflections Above all I'm proud to work for a city and with a council , staff and citizens where That tedious but necessary adherence to process is respected. We did well as we considered contentious issues in these chambers such as garbage and skate parks and golf course contract renewal. In a very difficult atmosphere surrounding the leadership of our department of Public safety, it was brought to resolution in a manner which ultimately reflected well on all involved including the outgoing chief Jeff miller and our interim chief Tom Bullard. When I biked around the city after September 11 ", I found staff at their tasks and willing to buckle down to the extra tasks brought about by these extraordinary times MENTION RPPSOA- postmaster Navarette and pennies for peace. Where all of you ,my colleagues, do your homework and meeting after meeting and there were some extra ones this past year, made my task as your chair a real pleasure[ my impatience didn't show too often I hope]. So thank you colleagues esp VM Flores Thank you City attorney Strauss for your wise counsel Thank you City Manager Netter- only tried to vote once this year - a record? Thank you Katy leonard Troy Dettling Beth Lidster Ellen Beardsley, Angela Fogle and Marlyn Keller Thank you - senior managers Thank you - all of you who work with us.Public Safety - ride along Public Works - infrastructure Recreation -skate park Planning and community development - ordinances and specific plans Building - permit checking Finance -the money keeps us going Engineering- bridges and pools and gardens and library Performing arts- performances . We all did well last year. What are days for -Days are where we live -they come they wake us -Time and time over -thya are to be happy in; where can we live but days. Philip Larkin "days" I'll finish with a wee bit of verse from Tam O Shanter Nae man can tether time or tide! City of Rohnert Park Accomplishments /Projectsy Year 2001 • Las Casitas Mobile Home Park Sale To Non - Profit Millennium Housing • General Plan Completed — Implementation Program • City's New Library Project Under Construction • City Hall Project In Design — Going Out To Bid January 2002 • Costco Project — Land Sale is To Be Consummated On December 14, 2001 • New Operator For Mountain Shadows Golf Courses — Renovation Of South Course Completed — North Course Slated For Spring 2002 • Franchise Transfer Of Our Solid Waste Operator To Rohnert Park Disposal • Wellness Center Ground Lease Finalized With Kisco • Expressway Bridge Widening And Interchange Improvements Completed • Water And Sewer Rate Study Completed • City Water Metering Program Initiated • Canon Manor — Agreement Finalized With The County To Provide For Sewer Services/Water Services • Completed Magnolia Pool In M Section • Instituted An Economic Development Committee • Advanced Website Development • Certified Housing Element • Opening Of The Vision Center • Identified A Skate Park Site • Development Of The Youth Leadership Of Rohnert Park Program • Approve Library Mural • Preliminary Strategic Planning • Finally Out To Bid On Railroad Crossings • Installed Handicap Audio Crosswalk Chirpers • Spanos Project • Five Year Capital Improvement Project Completed • Completed the Mobile Home Conversion Ordinance • Growth Management Ordinance • Conducted Traffic Calming Workshop • Completed Design of Performing Arts Center Reader Board Sign • Japanese Garden Under Construction • Negotiated Favorable Terms with the City of Santa Rosa for Additional Sewage Capacity to meet our general Plan needs • Approved Urban Water Management Plan with Sonoma County Water Agency • Finalized a Plan with the County of Sonoma for Mitigation of Community Separator Lands • Sonoma County Transportation Authority /GARVEE Bonds for Wilfred Avenue Improvements • Refuse Collection Rate Decrease for the First Time in History • Initiated Single Stream Recycle Program • First Veteran's Day Event A Perspective for 2002 MACKENZIE 1536 GLADSTONE, WAY !'OHNER "r PARit CA 9492 ; The sense of being at the City Attorney's left hand, brings me back 5 years in time when I eventually was seated next to John Flitner, , then city attorney. The responsibilities are lesser on Council meeting nights but your charge as an elected official remains the same.You are part of a dynamic system in a local government setting where frankly, the state legislature and the executive branch of government are happy to expect that houses will be built, waste water treated, social and cultural problems be resolved and above all the public safety protected They are also happy to take away the monies you need to do all these things 2002 will be a challenging year for us here in Rohnert Park and for our leaders. Budget- from the first review in February and as we craft our 2002 -2003 budget, we must be in close contact with our elected reps - both State and Federal.We need a strategic plan for our city to go along with our new 5year CIP. General Plan - we're getting the ordinances in place, the meetings scheduled with LAFCO. -full speed ahead. Economic Development - Let the committee bring forward our plan. Infrastructure - implement the 5 year CIP , year by year - transportation and the region ; keep working on rail and roads and bike trails Community Strategies and Partnerships -in a broad sense work with the county and our neighbouring cities and institutions. - regular and scheduled meetings. Our course is set -good luck to you Mayor Flores and Vicemayor spiro as we continue our voyage over turbulent waters in the year ahead.