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HomeMy WebLinkAboutTC Minutes 2012-06-06TOWN COUNCIL MINUTES CALL TO ORDER Mayor Fraser called the regular meeting of the Tiburon Town Council to order at 7:30 p.m. on Wednesday, June 6, 2012, in Town Council Chambers, 1505 Tiburon Boulevard, Tiburon, California. ROIA, CALL PRESENT: COUNCILMEMBERS: PRESENT: EX OFFICIO: Collins, Doyle, Fraser, Fredericks, O'Donnell Town Manager Curran, Town Attorney Danforth, Director of Administrative Services Bigall, Director of Community Development Anderson, Building Official Lustenberger, Director of Public Works/ Town Engineer Nguyen, Police Chief Cronin, Town Clerk Crane Iacopi CLOSED SESSION - (6:30 p.m.) CONFERENCE WITH LABOR NEGOTIATOR (Government Code Section 54957.6) Bargaining Units: Tiburon Police Association; SEIU Negotiators: Town Manager and Director of Administrative Services CONFERENCE WITH LEGAL COUNSEL - EXISTING LITIGATION (Subdivision (a) of Government Code Section 54956.9) Zwonarz v. Marinero Condominiums Homeowners Association, Town of Tiburon, et al. The Council also conducted an interview, as follows: INTERVIEWS - Current and pending vacancies on the Tiburon Building Code Appeals Board and the Belvedere-Tiburon Library Agency Board of Trustees *New Time 7:15 p.m.. - Rich Ostaggi (Building Code Appeals Board) 7:00 p.m. - Jeff Foran (Library Agency) - cancelled* 7:15 p.m. - Tom Gram (Library Agency) - cancelled* Town Council Minutes #11-2012 June 6, 2012 Page 1 ANNOUNCEMENT OF ACTION TAKEN IN CLOSED SESSION, IF ANY Mayor Fraser reported that no action was taken in closed session. PRESENTATION • Presentation of Proclamation in Honor of Sam Chapman, Tiburon's Hometown Hero (Mayor Fraser) Mayor Fraser read the proclamation and presented it to the family members who were present- Sam's three sons Blake, Mark, and Chris, and daughter, Caitlin. "WHEREAS, Samuel Blake Chapman was born on April 11, 1916, to Katherine and Charles Chapman of Mar West Street in Tiburon, California; WHEREAS, Sam worked in his father's post office and general store in downtown Tiburon, attended the one-room Tiburon school, played baseball on a rail yard lot, and attended Tamalpais High School where he earned his letters in five sports; WHEREAS, Sam attended UC Berkeley where he was "All American" in both football and baseball, and, helped lead the 1937 Cal Bears football team to their last Rose Bowl win; and WHEREAS, Sam played professional baseball on Connie Mack's Philadelphia Athletics straight out of college, and in his first season hit 17 home-runs; WHEREAS, Sam hung up his cleats to aid the war effort becoming a Navy pilot and flight instructor from 1942 to 1945; WHEREAS, Sam returned to the Philadelphia Athletics after the war, playing in the 1946 All Star game, then went to the Cleveland Indians in 1951, and finally, ended his baseball career with the Pacific Coast League Oakland Oaks; WHEREAS, Sam was truly a "hometown hero," and has provided inspiration for generations of local youth; THEREFORE, I, Jim Fraser, Mayor of the Town of Tiburon, do hereby issue this proclamation on behalf of the Town in Honor of Sam Chapman." Mayor Fraser noted that the dedication of the Sam Chapman plaque would take place at 6 p.m. on Friday, June 8 at Pt. Tiburon Plaza. The youngest Chapman son thanked Heritage & Arts Commissioner and Landmarks Society archivist Dave Gotz, Tiburon Fire District Battalion Chief Ed Lynch, and Heritage & Arts Commission Staff Liaison Joan Palmero for their efforts to see this through. He also thanked the Town for its recognition of their father. ORAL COMMUNICATIONS None. Town Council Minutes #11-2012 June 6, 2012 Page 2 CONSENT CALENDAR Town Council Minutes - Adopt Minutes of May 2, 2012 regular meeting (Town Clerk Crane Iacopi) 2. Town Council Minutes - Adopt Minutes of May 16, 2012 special meeting (Town Clerk Crane Iacopi) 3. Town Investment Summary - Adopt report for April, 2012 (Director of Administrative Services Bigall) 4. Lyford Drive Multi-Modal Parking Lot Project - Adopt resolution approving an agreement with the State Department of Transportation (CalTrans) permitting the construction and maintenance of the Lyford Drive Parking Lot Project (Town Attorney Danforth) Councilmember Fredericks asked to remove Item No. 4 from the Consent Calendar. MOTION: To approve Consent Calendar Item Nos. 1, 2 and 3, as written. Moved: O'Donnell, seconded by Fredericks Vote: AYES: Unanimous 4. Lyford Drive Multi-Modal Parking Lot Project - Adopt resolution approving an agreement with the State Department of Transportation (CalTrans) permitting the construction and maintenance of the Lyford Drive Parking Lot Project (Town Attorney Danforth) Councilmember Fredericks asked for clarification of the terms of the agreement. Town Attorney Danforth said the agreement allowed the Town to construct and maintain a parking lot in that location, as long as it was kept open for public parking. Councilmember Fredericks asked whether the agreement would allow Caltrans to repurpose the parking lot at any time. The Town Attorney said this issue had been the subject of a heated debate in negotiating the agreement. However, she also noted that the Town used the same language in its encroachment permits. She said the likelihood of Caltrans "repurposing" the parking lot was quite remote, in staff s opinion. Councilmember Fredericks asked if there was anything to prevent Caltrans from taking such action. Danforth said that while she could not envision this happening in the real world, she acknowledged that it was a significant concern because the Town was investing significant resources in land not owned by the Town. Town Council Minutes #11-2012 June 6, 2012 Page 3 Councilmember Fredericks said this risk should be known to the Town Council if it wants to develop the land. She said she wished the Council had known this before sending the project out to bid. Town Attorney Danforth said she understood the Councilmember's position. MOTION: To adopt the resolution approving the agreement with Caltrans. Moved: O'Donnell, seconded by Collins Vote: AYES: Unanimous ACTION ITEMS 1. Appointments to Boards, Commissions and Committees - Consider appointment to fill vacancy on Building Code Appeals Board (Town Clerk Crane Iacopi) Mayor Fraser noted that the two interviews for the Library Board vacancy had been cancelled but that the Council had interviewed a candidate for the Building Code Appeals Board. Vice Mayor O'Donnell said that plumbing contractor Rich Ostaggi would be an excellent addition to the Board. MOTION: To appoint Rich Ostaggi to the Building Code Appeals Board. Moved: O'Donnell, seconded by Fredericks Vote: AYES: Unanimous Councilmember Fredericks asked what noticing requirements, if any, existed to cancel the interviews. Town Attorney Danforth said that there were no legal requirements to remove an item from the agenda, only to place an item on the agenda. Councilmember Fredericks asked what these legal requirements were. Danforth said that according to the Brown Act, a public entity must publish its agenda 72 hours in advance of a meeting, and 24 hours in the case of a special meeting. Fredericks asked whether posting the agenda at Town Hall met the minimum requirements. Town Attorney Danforth said agendas were normally sent to the newspaper of local circulation, as well as posted at Town Hall. 2. Joint Recreation Committee Composition - Recommendation to approve amendment to the Belvedere-Tiburon Joint Recreation Committee expanding the Governing Board to include members of the Town of Tiburon and City of Belvedere City Councils (Town Attorney Danforth) Town Attorney Danforth said that during the hearings on the development of the Ned's Way project which will house the new Joint Recreation facility, Mayor Fraser had recommended that a councilmember from Belvedere and Tiburon be appointed to the Committee in recognition of the significant monetary investment both cities were making to the project. Town Council Minutes #11-2012 June 6, 2012 Page 4 Danforth said that the amendment to the Joint Powers Agreement would increase the number of voting committee members from seven to nine. She said the City of Belvedere was set to discuss the matter at its next Council agenda, as well. Councilmember Fredericks complemented the Mayor on the wisdom of his recommendation. MOTION: To approve amendment, as written. Moved: Fredericks, seconded by Collins Vote: AYES: Unanimous 3. Residential Resale Building Reports - Review of Residential Building Reports (RBRs) process (Director of Community Development Anderson) Director Anderson said that since 1970, the Town of Tiburon has required preparation of a Report of Residential Building Record, commonly called an RBR, prior to the sale or exchange of a dwelling unit. He said that newly-constructed units are exempted. Anderson said the intent of the RBR is to protect the public health and safety of residents; he noted that RBR ordinances have been adopted by all of the ten other municipalities in Marin County. Recently, Anderson said that Town staff was asked to prepare a review of the regulations and process, along with preparing a general comparison of Tiburon's RBR regulations with other Marin municipalities. He said this review was summarized in more detail in the written staff report. Anderson said that staff generally provided an owner with a copy of the RBR within 10 days of the inspection, and that they then had 30 days to make the corrections. He said the report was good for one year and clearly delineates mandatory versus an advisory corrections. Anderson said that Building Official Lustenberger was present and could provide additional information. Councilmember Collins asked if the inspections followed the regular building permit inspection protocol. Director Anderson said that in the case of a building permit, the inspector normally only inspected the work that was subject to the permit; he said the RBR was a broader inspection and the purpose was to make the house safer for the new owners. Collins said that the cities of Mill Valley and Ross cited the same Government Code Section as Tiburon did for their RBR ordinance; however, Collins said those cities provided sellers with a punch list but not a mandate to make the corrections. He asked how the Town had come to expand on this authority. Director Anderson said that the process used by Mill Valley was identical to Tiburon's; he said that Ross was better in clarifying that a physical inspection is required to comply with the ordinance, and Ross sends a Fire Marshal to inspect the property, as well. Town Council Minutes #11-2012 June 6, 2012 Page 5 Councilmember Collins said he wanted to know how the Town came to go beyond the express authority of the Government Code. Town Attorney Danforth said that the Town's police power allowed it to require broader report. Vice Mayor O'Donnell asked about the cost to prepare an RBR and whether a homeowner would have to pay an additional fee for a permit to make the repairs. Building Official Lustenberger said staff generally waived the permit fees for repairs as most things could be done for $250 or less (the cost of the RBR permit). However, he said that separate permits are required for work when the inspection discovers work that has been done without a permit. The Vice Mayor asked how this differed from private inspections. Lustenberger said that private inspections were done at the behest of the buyer or seller, and that they were voluntary. He said those reports belong to the person who hires the inspector while the Town's reports are a public record. Vice Mayor O'Donnell asked whether the RBR process was a matter of interjecting the Town into a private transaction and, if so, was there an issue of liability to the Town. He also asked what happens if the work to be performed is so onerous that it either delays or dumps a sale. Town Attorney Danforth said that work performed without a permit was by definition illegal and said that it would be difficult to frame a cause of action against the Town on this basis. Councilmember Doyle asked if there was liability if the Town "missed something" in its RBR. Town Attorney Danforth said that the Town's inspections were covered by statutory immunity. Vice Mayor O'Donnell referenced the case of a collapsing deck in San Francisco that had not been identified in a building report. He asked what would happen if the Town missed something this serious. Town Attorney Danforth said she had heard of this case. She commented that the Town's resale inspections looked for deficiencies that were egregious and obvious; she said it would be difficult to construct a case of liability if the cause could not have been seen. Collins asked if there was a risk involved in preparing these reports. Danforth said that one could argue that every time the Town does an inspection there is a risk, but the Town does it anyway because the public safety is served. She maintained that all cities have statutory immunity for this reason. Mayor Fraser said the Town Council of Corte Madera had decided not to renew its RBR ordinance because of the perceived liability to the Town. He said it would be helpful to find out more about the reasons for this Council's decision. Mayor Fraser said he was a supporter of the RBR process and noted that nine out of 11 cities performed these inspections, although the County did not. However, the Mayor pointed out that the report criteria is not standardized between cities; he said that property owners and contractors did not know what to expect across jurisdictions. He said that the items subject to inspection Town Council Minutes #I1-2012 June 6, 2012 Page 6 depended on the building officials of those jurisdictions. He wondered whether there was a way to improve the process, to aid homeowners and contractors, through standardization. Director Anderson said that each municipality had the authority to create its own regulations. In some cases, however, he said regulations were based on a model ordinance like the recently- adopted construction and demolition ordinance adopted by the Marin cities. He said he had not heard of a desire to standardize the RBR process. He also noted that most counties did not perform RBRs because they were too far flung geographically and did not have enough personnel to provide this kind of service. Mayor Fraser said that standardization would be a huge benefit and agreed with the Director that the cities and county had moved toward standardization in Green Building regulations and in other areas, as well. He asked staff to consider taking a leadership role in this area. Councilmember Fredericks cited her experience in buying and selling homes in several communities; she said that her real estate agent handled these transactions and that it was simply a matter of complying with local requirements. She said that she did not think it was a good use of staff time to seek standardization from other cities. Vice Mayor O'Donnell suggested that an interested party, the Marin Association of Realtors, might be able to marshal the resources to take this on. He said that he agreed with the Mayor's philosophy but also thought that Councilmember Fredericks had a valid point. The Mayor agreed that this might be a better approach. Vice Mayor O'Donnell said that while health and safety were paramount, he was still concerned about liability and risk to the Town in the RBR process. O'Donnell asked about shifting the responsibility for inspections to private parties. Town Manager Curran noted that the Town had been issuing RBRs for 40 years without any related lawsuits. O'Donnell took issue with the direction of the conversation at this juncture. Vice Mayor O'Donnell stated that the reason the Mayor had raised the issue was that there was discontent in the community with the process. He described a "horrendous" experience he had with a former Town building inspector while trying to sell his home; he said that the inspector refused to tell him what was in his report and that O'Donnell had to wait 10 days to obtain a copy. He said if the Town could better manage the process, it would be the better way to go. Councilmember Fredericks said that the Vice Mayor had made an excellent suggestion earlier in proposing that the Marin Association of Realtors might look into the possibility of standardizing the inspection process. Town Manager Curran also offered to raise the issue at the Marin Manager's Association monthly meeting. She said that the City Managers might canvass their respective councils to see if there was interest in pursuing this, and then turn it over to the realtor's association. Curran said that she would report back to the Council on this issue. Town Council Minutes #11-2012 June 6, 2012 Page 7 Mayor Fraser said he concurred with this recommendation, as well as following up with the Town of Corte Madera. No further action was taken on the matter by the Council. PUBLIC HEARINGS 1. Animal Control Services - Recommendation to adopt a revised fee schedule for Animal Control Services provided by the Marin Humane Society under a Joint Powers Agreement between all the Marin cities and the County of Marin (Director of Community Development Anderson) Director Anderson said that an increase in fees for animal control services had been adopted by the County of Marin; he said that the JPA member cities were being asked to adopt the same fee schedule. Anderson said that increased fees for services provided by the Marin Humane Society to the cities and county would help avoid or off-set increases to the JPA dues. Vice Mayor O'Donnell commented that if it is possible to standardize fees for animal control services, why not standardize home inspection reports. Councilmember Collins said that the fee increases were small and seemed to be in order, as stated in the staff report. MOTION: To adopt the fee resolution, as written. Moved: Fredericks, seconded by Collins Vote: AYES: Unanimous 2. FY 2012-13 Municipal Budget - Introduction and adoption of Municipal Budget for fiscal year ending June 30, 2013 (Director of Administrative Services Bigall) Director Bigall reported on the state of the Town's finances. She said that the Town had lived through the worst recession since the Great Depression but because of fiscal adjustments it had made, the Town was emerging in a better position than some other public agencies. She said these adjustments included salary and benefit reductions, not filling positions in certain departments, capping future pension liabilities, and paying off the PERS side fund liability. Therefore, Bigall said that 2012-13 Operating Budget of $16,239,761 was projected to have a modest surplus of $73,484. Director Bigall reviewed the budget assumptions and projections more fully in her power point presentation. She then turned the presentation over to Director of Public Works/Town Engineer Nguyen who made a presentation on the capital improvement budget for the coming year. Director Nguyen listed the three categories of projects: streets, drainage, and community projects. He said that some of these projects were rolling forward from the last fiscal year-the Del Mar Undergrounding project, the Lyford Drive Parking project, the Ned's Way project, and others. Town Council Minutes #11-2012 June 6, 2012 Page 8 Nguyen listed the community projects that had been completed in the past year: the license plate reader project, the TPC pedestrian path, and others. He said that some projects in process were minor renovations to the Corporation Yard (painting and fencing), and ongoing projects such as maintenance of the Railroad Marsh and Town Open Space. He also said there was a placeholder in the coming year's budget for improvements to the downtown restrooms, as well as signage and other possible improvements arising out of the downtown committee's Marketing & Communications Task Force. Director Nguyen said that Town had received an $80,000 grant from ABAG to study ways to close the Bay Trail gap which would create safe passage for bicycles, pedestrians and vehicles. Town Manager Curran noted that this would be the topic of an upcoming Town Council meeting. Nguyen said that once the Del Mar area streets had been repaved in September or October he would be able to report that all of the Town's streets had been resurfaced, in accordance with the pavement management plan. Nguyen said this would allow the Town to focus its resources in future on drainage projects which had been identified in the storm drain master plan as a backlog totaling 11 million dollars. Vice Mayor O'Donnell asked about the scope of the drainage work. He expressed concern about the $11 million price tag. Director Nguyen said that an inventory had been prepared of the Town's drainage system, and that the consultants hired by the Town had come up with an improvement plan which identified a list of projects. He said that it cost $2 million to clean the lines. He said the Town had made the first attack on this last year and had budgeted $100,000 in the coming year to continue the flushing and to replace a slip line under the Multi-Use Plath near the Belvedere Tennis Club out to Richardson Bay. The Vice Mayor said that given the scope of work being contemplated in the capital budget, he had not pushed for funding for the Tiburon Boulevard median improvements. However, he asked that the Council consider doing this in the future. He said it seemed timely given the recent improvements in the Cove Shopping Center and revitalization in other areas of town, as well. Town Manager Curran noted that the City of Belvedere had decided not to participate in the median improvements but that the matter could be revisited in the future. Vice Mayor O'Donnell said he supported an idea expressed by Councilmember Fredericks at an earlier meeting of a two-year capital budget cycle, or perhaps even longer. Town Manager Curran noted that page 65 of the budget document contained a five-year capital program. She also pointed out that there were dollars set aside, pending further details, for a possible marketing program, and circulation improvements and signage downtown. She said that staff would return to the Council with specific details at a future meeting. The Council discussed the Railroad Marsh maintenance plan. It concurred with the idea of obtaining a permit from Fish and Game and the Army Corps of Engineers to remove the cattails at the root level, rather than simply cutting them. Director Nguyen said that was the intention of Town Council Minutes #11-2012 June 6, 2012 Page 9 staff, and that it would be part of a longer-term program to reduce siltation and restore the drainage basin. Mayor Fraser opened the budget hearing to the public. There was no public comment. Mayor Fraser closed the public hearing. - Town Manager Curran said that staff would return to Council at its next meeting with the necessary resolutions to adopt the budget. TOWN COUNCIL REPORTS None. TOWN MANAGER'S REPORT None. WEEKLY DIGESTS • Town Council Weekly Digest - May 4, 2012 • Town Council Weekly Digest - May 11, 2012 • Town Council Weekly Digest - May 18, 2012 • Town Council Weekly Digest - May 25, 2012 • Town Council Weekly Digest - June 1, 2012 ADJOURNMENT There being no further business before the Town adjourned the meeting at 9:30 p.m. JIM of the Town of Tiburon, Mayor Fraser A , M YOR ATTEST: DIANE CRANE IACOPI TOWN CLERK Town Council Minutes #11-2012 June 6, 2012 Page 10