Category: Fullerton City Council

High-Speed Rail is here!  At 5PM you get to hear a presentation on the subject from the California High Speed Rail Authority (CHSRA).  Afterwards, they’ll take your questions.  What they do with your questions is entirely up to them.  Maybe you’ll get answers, maybe not.  There will be another community meeting April 29 from 5PM to 8PM at the Senior Multi-Service Center to “…solicit input and begin CHSRA’s community outreach process in Fullerton.”  Doesn’t it feel good to be part of a process?

After the presentation, council has a closed session with the labor negotiators.

There are some certificates, commendations, and proclamations to make before getting into any serious business.

On the consent calendar, items 1 through 7, we find the minutes, financial statement for period ending February 28, Appropriation of funds to comply with state obligation requiring…  Wait a minute!  Is someone trying to sneak something in as a consent calendar item?  Let’s look a little closer at item 3.

The title is red flag: “APPROPRIATION OF FUNDS TO COMPLY WITH STATE OBLIGATION REQUIRING REDEVELOPMENT AGENCIES TO MAKE A PAYMENT TO THE SUPPLEMENTAL EDUCATION REVENUE AUGMENTATION FUND”  So, on the surface the Land Czar’s agency is obligated to pay for some of the havoc they have created by blocking regular tax funds from going to education by declaring BLIGHT.  $6,670,864 on or before May 10, 2010 and everyone is happy.  There is a pending court case that could eventually halt the payment but I wouldn’t hold my breath over it.  It just makes another strong case against having a redevelopment agency in the first place.

Item 4 is for the FAA’s 15-year lease of some of the airport’s tower.  The lease is for $26,550 for the first 5 years with a CPI clause that could raise the rate every 5 years thereafter.

The OC Auto Theft Task Force (OCATTS – isn’t that cute!) is item 5.  I’m not sure how OCATTS gets its funding but the staff report states that the detective’s salary, benefits, work vehicle (take home car?) and overtime are 100% reimbursed through the OCATTS fund.

Item 6 is a resolution that declares council’s intention to consider the designation and adoption of an underground utility district on State College from about Kimberly Avenue to Santa Fe Avenue.  But why the district?  Because there are currently overhead power, phone, and cable lines and doing this would bury them.  This is somewhat tied to the grade separation work.  I think it is a way to take advantage of the construction chaos and do it all at the same time while it is already tore up.  Maybe not.  Either way, I am glad I don’t have a business or live in that area!  The staff report says there are no proposed costs associated with this resolution; however, I think a public hearing resulting from this project will have a direct cost associated with it.  Another question to be asked is this: Is the City of Fullerton creating a District or altering the boundary of a district?  If so, where is LAFCO?

The police want to accept a donation in item 7 of $750 from the Elks Lodge for the Police Explorer Program.  Sounds good…  But can’t the council pass an ordinance authorizing department heads to receive donations under a certain threshold?  Then we don’t need the staff to sit in the council chamber the extra few minutes to hear this.  Maybe just move it to the consent calendar.

Item 8 is a staff update on the Gilbert Community Center.

Item 9 is the All the Arts for All the Kids Heart Project that, if approved, will allow for sculptures to be placed on public property in the downtown area.  The All the Arts for All the Kids Foundation wants 25 heart sculptures around the area.  I think the reason it is actually on the agenda is because the City Manager wants to waive all of the permit fees.  Since they will have to abide by standard city conditions and obtain permits through the normal process like anyone else, I suppose it isn’t a big deal.  But what if another non-profit comes in and wants to put art on the corner, will we waive their fees?  Will they be allowed to do it?  What criteria does the City use to make these determinations?  Or is this really a backroom deal that now needs council’s blessing?

Lastly, we have Item 10.  I saved the best for last and placed it in it’s own post to follow this.  Wait until you hear what our Land Czar wants now…

AGENDA FORECAST

MAY 4, 2010
• Public Hearing – 5 Year Consolidated Plan
• 10/11 Preliminary Budget
MAY 11, 2010 – Adjourned Regular Meeting – 5 pm
• Public Hearing – Coyote Hills
MAY 18, 2010
• March Financials
• Capital Projects
• Proclamation – Relay for Life Month – June 2010
• Closed Session – Property Negotiations – Fox Block
• Fox Block Extension of ENA
• Personnel Management System Changes
• St. College Grade Separation Change Order
• Service Recognition – Kathy Dasney, Former Parks Commissioner

Until next month, please feel free to add comments to this.  If you have the inside scoop, shoot me a comment or email me through the Contact page on this website.

Here we are in April with no real change in the City’s business practices. View the agenda for April 6th.

In the Redevelopment Agency’s Closed Session we find three properties being negotiated for.  Everyone’s favorite land Czar, Rob Zur Schmiede, wants to spend your money to buy 345 E. Commonwealth, 147 W. Santa Fe, and 324 W. Valencia.  What could our Czar want with these fruited lots?  Certainly the transaction will bring tremendous revenue to the City’s general fund, will it not?  NO.  Once again, we get the short end of this stick, too.  Hopefully, one of our Friends can enlighten us with details as to what the Czar has planned.

In the Open Session, the Council will consider an appointment to the Parks and Recreation Commission.

There are 7 items on the consent calendar.  Aside from the minutes there are a few items worth commenting on.

Item 2 seeks to raise the speed limits on a few streets.  I noted on my March 16^th comments:

“Now you get to punch that gas pedal and really feel the wind in your hair!  Item #15 seeks to change the speed limits on Sunny Ridge and Pioneer Avenue.  The PD asked Traffic Engineering to conduct a traffic study.  The results: RAISE, that is correct, the speed limit!  Here is the breakdown:

Pioneer Ave (Sunny Ridge to Gilbert) Increase from 25mph to 30mph.

Pioneer Ave (Gilbert to Parks) Establish a speed limit of 40mph

Sunny Ridge Dr (Malvern to Pioneer) Increase from 25mph to 35mph

Sunny Ridge Dr (Pioneer to Roscrans) Increase from 25mph to 30mph

All other speed limits remain unchanged”

Why do you suppose the PD would want to raise the speed limit?  Surely they aren’t concerned with traffic congestion.  The text of the ordinance states that these speeds are  “…for the safe operation of vehicles…”  Perhaps it is because the PD cannot enforce the speed limit with radar at their currently posted speeds.  Raising the speed limits to as much as 40mph would likely result in more citations which equal more revenue.  So, maybe don’t punch that gas pedal too hard.

Item 3 could change the way the City does noticing for public hearings.  It seems the newspapers are just too expensive.  Staff will have four places to post notices of public hearings: City Hall, Maintenance Services Yard, Museum, and the Main Library.  It’s odd that they would use the main library (all of about 150 feet from City Hall) and the museum (about two blocks over from City Hall) for the notices.  It seems a broad approach including certain parks or perhaps schools would have been considered.

Council wants Fullerton designated as a “Recovery Zone”!  Read item 4.  The Redevelopment Agency, lead by everyone’s favorite land Czar, wants to go after some financing opportunity available if only council adopts this resolution.  This looks to be a 30-year bond worth initially $2,705,000.  I’m not much of an accountant so someone needs to do the math and find out what it will really cost.  It sounds like another way to waste our money.  After passing this resolution, we will all need to get checked into recovery…  We can start with a few council members!

Item 5 states that the PD wants the City to accept some federal and state grant funding worth $93,782.  The individual grants vary and all have strings attached.  Some include $44,652 for DUI checkpoint-related costs, body armor costs that have doubled and approved of at an August 5, 2008 council meeting, and an FBI reimbursement of up to $12,680 in 2009-2010 and $16,903 in 2010-2011 for overtime, training, and equipment for an officer to be assigned to the Orange County Regional Computer Forensics Laboratory.

Item 6 is a maintenance declaration between Engineering, the Land Czar (a.k.a. Redevelopment Agency), and the Walter N. Johnson Family Trust.  The idea is to get the alley to be maintained by someone other than the Engineering Department which is broke as is the alley.

Pay more for your water!  Item 7 says that Engineering wants you to pay more for your water so they can fund the city’s League of Cities slush fund?  WTF? Approval of this item gives staff the go-ahead to mail out notices of a PROPOSED rate hike.  According to the staff summary, the proposal is for a $2 per month per customer increase in the service charge.  So, if we take every residential water meter and add $2 each for each month, staff thinks it will add up to $700,000 in to the Water Fund for the 2010-2011FY.  If my math is correct, which it rarely is, that means we will have 29,167 water customers paying an additional $2 per month for a 12-month period. Good luck Bankhead and Keller when the voters find out about this little scam!

Item 8 of the Regular Business is the Land Czar’s recommendation to Council that they re-agendize (it’s a made up word on the agenda, likely means “to place on the agenda again”) the proposal from the Business Improvement District’s consultant Urban Place.  The proposal is for $3,100 for “initial Business Improvement District explorative community outreach.”  Give me the $3,100 and I’ll give you a shiny report with glossy photos and a little exploration of reaching out to the community…

You have to love the way Item 9 is stated:  “AFFORDABLE HOUSING RFP SELECTION CRITERIA DISCUSSION”.  It’s quite laughable if you consider that the Council and Land Czar always say we need more affordable housing.  Doc HeeHaw likes to proclaim that by golly it’s the law.  In the unlikely event you believed old Doc, he likes to lie.  Affordable housing quotas aren’t law, they are the strings attached to some of the silly grants our city staff chases after.  Remember, Doc’s best years, if he had any, were gone long before he set foot in the council chambers.  Anyway, if you think council needs to have certain selection criteria for their affordable housing RFP’s, then chime in.

And lastly, old Doc made news when he Hee-Hawed is way off of the Vector Control Board’s meeting last month.  Item 10 states: “Recommendation by City Clerk’s Office: Appoint a representative to the Orange County Vector Control .”

The key word is REPRESENTATIVE.  I’m sure the OCVC Board will be happy to have anyone but Doc around.  I would really like to know what set him off.  Maybe we could do it at the next council meeting and get him to quit…

In summary, if tax dollars were turds, this agenda might represent more waste than even the Orange County Sanitation District could handle.

As always, if you have any information to contribute or if you feel I missed something important, please give us your comments.