Meeting Notes
Tuesday, July 18th, 2006
Regular Council Meeting
Tonight's meeting began at 6:30 with all Council members in attendance with the exception of Marc Barsanti. Acting City Manager/Chief of Police Graham Hill and Accounting Supervisor Gordon Elton were present as well. After the Pledge of Allegiance, Mayor Bud Leonard read the items on the consent calendar which included the approval of minutes, the approval of the check register and the ever present extension of the "water emergency" through August 1st (the next Council meeting date). *The water emergency declaration allows the city to charge triple the normal rate for any usage above the allotment. The trick about that allotment though is that a family is allowed the exact same amount of water as an individual. I grew up in Southern California during a severe drought, and even then there was an allowance depending on how many people lived in the home.
The only item under Ordinances/Special Resolutions was the approval of a resolution requesting the County to include Rio Dell in the 2006 General Election. This is pretty straight forward and standard by the looks of it. The City Council will have three openings on the ballot. If a person is interested in running, they need to contact City Hall and get a packet of papers which will include a petition. A person needs a small number of registered voters in Rio Dell to sign their petition in order to qualify for the ballot. *In our experience, we found that it was no problem gathering the signatures and that going door to door is a wonderful way to meet your neighbors and find out what they want their Council to address. We encourage anyone who is even considering running to pick up that packet very soon, as it has a deadline that is fast approaching. The resolution passed unanimously.
The Special Call Items/Community Affairs section was next with the unanimous approval of a policy regarding the cost of the candidate statements for the upcoming election. The cost has been and will be the responsibility of the candidate. A candidate does not have to submit a statement if they do not feel the need to. These statements are included in the voter's guide that residents receive and they can be quite expensive. *A candidate who doesn't have a bunch of money might consider a more direct approach and speak with residents door to door or at some of the community events (like the Farmer's Market and/or Wildwood Days). The next item on the agenda said Monthly Financial Statements (receive and file). I believe the Council members did receive a statement, but there wasn't anything said about this.
Public presentations were next, and I spoke first. I asked again about the public announcement put out by the City that says Rio Dell has a $160,000 surplus, and pointed out that it will be hard to explain the need for a sewer rate increase (that the council will be addressing in August) at the same time they are telling residents there is a surplus. (Accounting Supervisor Gordon Elton addressed this surplus later in the staff reports) I also asked when the next public meeting on the Scotia annexation was going to be held. Acting City Manager Graham Hill said he would address this in his staff report.
A resident from the Bellevue area spoke next. He asked about the water as he had recently filled his children's pool and the water was yellow. He asked about when residents would notice any improvement in water quality with the new water system. Mayor Leonard replied that he lived in the Bellevue area and had no problem with the water. Chief Hill also stated that he has no problem with the water at his residence. *we filled our children's pool shortly after school let out and the water looked like coffee. You couldn't see the bottom of the pool. The chlorine added made the water even darker brown but chlorine attaches itself to the particulates in our water and makes it easier to filter out. After almost two weeks of constant filtering the water became useable. I talked to Public Works Director Jim Hale about this after a previous Council meeting (he was not present tonight) and he said he had a similar problem when he filled his hot tub. Perhaps some areas of town are having a worse problem than others. I have even spoken with a nice lady who has had her blonde hair dyed a nasty orangish color by showering in Rio Dell. I have not heard that the new filtration system is online yet, so perhaps things will improve in the near future.
The resident then asked about the subdivision being built on Painter St. near Wildwood Ave. He wondered why the developer is allowed to build all of the homes identical, except for paint color. Other subdivisions have at least some variety with 3 or 4 house plans intermixed. He stated that he knows the developer and it is nothing personal against them (Meyers Construction) but that the development looks ridiculous and he wondered how it could have been approved that way. Chief Hill stated that the subdivision was not approved as a subdivision but as individual projects so they didn't have to follow the guidelines for a subdivision. *That would also mean that any of the infrastructure improvements required in a subdivision don't apply here. That would explain why the developer didn't have to pave the road or put in any improvements before building the homes, which would be standard in any other town. The residents that live down May St. and the people buying the new homes might want to ask the city about this one. Their road is getting torn up and there are no improvements in the works that we are aware of. How did the plans get approved for this one? It sure looks like a subdivision to everyone else around here.
Dr. Ralph Roberts spoke last tonight. He has been trying to work with the City for a long time now over their new sidewalk that blocks a driveway to his property. He had reached an agreement with the City quite awhile ago but then the City changed what they had agreed to in writing without consulting the property owner. Dr. Roberts has been trying to get the City to fulfill their written agreement ever since. In any case, Dr. Roberts thanked Chief Hill for coming out to his property (3 times now) and looking at the situation himself. (This is quite a change from the usual approach of ignoring residents until they hopefully get fed up and go away) Dr. Roberts is hopeful that the City can finally complete the agreed upon work and put this whole thing behind them. He stated his desire for the City to stop letting things continue from one year to the next and dragging things out which costs the City even more money. He addressed the $220,000 parks grant that the city has included in their budget as revenue. The money is only available to Rio Dell if there are approved parks projects, which there aren't. The grant has been available since 2002 but there are no projects in the works. Also, Dr. Roberts had gotten a copy of the rollover budget that the city was using for fiscal year '05-'06 and there is no money listed for any legal expenses. There is also no money listed in the '06-'07 budget for the existing legal expenses the city is required to pay. He is concerned that there is no public record of the large amounts of money the city is having to pay for the various lawsuits. *In the budget meeting, Elton stated that the legal fees were taken into account before rolling over the final total to the new fiscal year budget. There is no record or accounting of this money that we have seen, and yet it totals well into the tens of thousands of dollars. Standard accounting practices require every dollar earned and every dollar spent to be documented in the journal. City Council members may want to look closely at both the '05-'06 and '06-'07 budgets to see if that liability is accounted for.
Staff reports were next and began with Acting City Manager/Chief of Police Graham Hill. He reported on having met with SHN and Planwest regarding the Brownfield grant program. The Arcata Economic Development Corp. is administering the program and they recently lost a key engineer and expert, Jim Test. The contract allows the company to assign the duties to a third party provided they have the required expertise. Planwest has the expertise for this, and they will be taking over some of the aspects of the project. Planwest has already met with the Rio Dell Chamber of Commerce and the Planning Commission. Hill stated that he had a meeting the next day with SHN on the infiltration gallery, and will be receiving an update on the progress of the project.
Hill stated that the next public meeting for the Scotia annexation will be held on July 26th at the Rio Dell Fire Hall. This is not a Council Meeting, and Palco will be taking the lead and addressing the community questions. A flyer had just been sent out to all Rio Dell residents, at Palco's expense, informing them of the meeting and inviting their questions (If you have questions, please send them to the City prior to the meeting so that they can address whatever concerns you have). The mass mailing suggestion had been made by Council Member Melissa Marks in an earlier meeting, and is a great way to invite public participation. *This is a very important issue that has numerous ramifications for the citizens of both towns. We encourage everyone who is able to attend to come and listen. The only dumb question is the one that is not asked. We have heard a few of the questions that some residents are asking and they are very valid points of concern.
In his role as Chief of Police, Hill reported that the City has affiliated itself with a police academy student. This means that the city is not footing his expenses, but that they will come work for the City provided successful completion of the academy and the background check. This is the first time the city has affiliated itself with an academy recruit. The city has not received the new ATV yet, as it is still being customized. It is not clear what the hold up is, but they are hoping it will be here in time for Wildwood Days. Hill also updated the Council on the recent fire at the Scotia bluffs. *I had heard from someone else that the police caught a couple of the kids and they knew who the other ones were.
Accounting Supervisor Gordon Elton was next, and stated that the concerns over the alleged budget surplus were "a red herring." It was difficult to follow the exact rationale, but if I understood correctly, he said that there was a surplus of money but that it was for a specific fund (CDBG money) and it was surplus because no new projects had been identified yet. He stated that the $220,000 parks grant was counted in as revenue, but that he included a $220,000 debit so that it evened out. He stated that the money was needed in the budget so that if and when any parks projects get approved, they could use the grant money without having to go back to the Council for approval. A large part of the extra $160,000 was CDBG money, by the sounds of it, which means it is unavailable for anything but very specific projects. *The best analogy that I can think of would be if someone gave you a check for a lot of money but it was made out to somebody else so you couldn't cash it but you counted it in your budget anyway. Sure, you have that much money in your hand but you can't spend it. I was allowed to ask a follow up question at this point and asked about the budget deficit in the vehicle abatement fund (-$4,000), the gas tax fund (-$7,429) and the TDA fund (-$5859). Is there a surplus or isn't there? I mentioned Marks' concerns at the budget meeting over the "deficit" budget and that there was no mention of any surplus at the meeting. Elton stated that there was a deficit in specific funds but that there was still a surplus over all. He stated that in the overall picture of a $5.4 million dollar budget, a surplus of $160,000 is not a significant amount of money. Marks stated that during the budget meeting she didn't use the term "deficit" budget but asked about whether they are working towards a balanced budget. *The public announcement by the City stated "Net Revenue in Excess of Expenditures $160,060." That would imply there is money left over after expenses but Council Members were concerned that they were not working towards a balanced budget. Pretty confusing if you ask me. We are paying the $10 fee to get a copy of the approved budget so we will see if we can make heads or tails out of it. We will work on scanning in the entire budget document for anyone not able to pay for a copy of it or not able to get down to view the copy at City Hall.
Council Member Marks mentioned the great job being done by Public Works in preparation for the upcoming Wildwood Days but asked about Eel River Disposal, which has done the clean up in the past for us. Chief Hill stated that the amount of construction debris that needed to be cleaned up exceeded what the ERD street cleaner could handle and that is why Public Works is doing some of the cleaning up.
*The new caretaker down at Fireman's Park is doing a great job and the park looks better already. The grass around the new Bocce ball courts is coming in nicely and people are working on installing a fence around the courts to keep animals and bicyclists out. It looks like a joint project of Public Works and volunteers as the city dump truck and other equipment are being used. We asked about when the public would be able to use the courts and it should be open to the public after Wildwood Days. The same is true, we are told, of the ball field at Fireman's Park. It has been shut down since July 3rd so we are anxiously awaiting it's reopening. The volunteer's were working on the gopher holes and other needed areas of repair. The field has been soaked down and a roller will be brought out to level the field later. That should help with the gopher holes and the large truck tire ruts in the field left by the City dump truck after they mowed the field.
Questions by Council Members to staff started off with Marks asking about the water buy-in costs that are charged to new projects and if those rates had been adjusted. *I do not know any details about this one. Ms. Marks has been asking some excellent questions and seems to be paying a great deal of attention to the details, which is exactly what a Council Member should do. Council Member Julie Woodall asked about the public access to the river which has been closing during the day lately. Chief Hill stated that the access is through private property but there is an agreement to allow public access. He had no info on any recent changes to the agreement but would look into it. He stated that after the water project was completed, there should be more access open to the public. There will be gates closed from dusk to dawn though. Woodall asked if there were any updates on the nuisance abatement issue. Code Enforcement Officer Carla Ralston is currently on vacation so there were no updates tonight. Woodall also inquired as to an issue related to a CDBG loan and City Clerk Karen Dunham provided some updated information. I do not know what the issue is about.
The Council recessed into the closed door session.
Mayor Leonard read the items to be discussed in closed session.
The Closed Session was as follows:
1. Potential Litigation - Roberts vs. Rio Dell
2. Potential Litigation - Nuisance Abatement Issues
3. Personnel Matter - Police Department
4. Litigation - Concerned Citizens vs. Rio Dell
5. Potential Litigation - Property Damage Claim
6. Personnel - Rio Dell Employees Association Contract Negotiations
* Indicates my humble opinion and/or commentary
City Council Rio Dell California