MINUTES OF THE ADJOURNED REGULAR MEETING OF THE CITY COUNCIL of the City of Hermosa Beach, California, held on Thursday, February 17, 2000, at the hour of 7:25 P.M.

 

ROLL CALL :

Present: Bowler, Dunbabin, Edgerton, Reviczky, Mayor Oakes
Absent: None

 

PLEDGE OF ALLEGIANCE - Dick McCurdy, resident

 

20000 GOALS AND DIRECTIONS :

 

a) COUNCIL COMMENTS : Mayor Oakes said that most of the citizens knew of the changes in the downtown, but many regional problems impacted on Hermosa Beach and were not so visible. She said that she felt that one of the most important goals for the city was, is and will continue to be the modification of the Storm Drain System to eliminate as much of the dumping of contaminated waste into the ocean as possible. She spoke of grants received for some of these changes including pumping into the sewer system, where waste is treated, rather than direct dumping into the ocean.

 

Councilmember Reviczky said that he was proud of the fact that the city was much more financially secure now than it was six years ago when a large cut in staff was required to keep the city functioning. He thanked the city employees for their hard work and City Manager Stephen Burrell for his leadership.

 

Councilmember Edgerton spoke of the unifying effect of the R/UDAT study and its guideline to the improvements in the downtown area.

 

Councilmember Dunbabin said that she was looking forward to moving on to new challenges and felt that most of the changes had been for the betterment of the city.

 

Councilmember Bowler said that he felt that the number of goals that have been accomplished was impressive, and that he saw a new sense of community among the residents as a result of the positive changes.

b) CITY MANAGER COMMENTS : City Manager Burrell spoke to his report and said that the purpose of this meeting was to set clear goals for the City Council and staff to work on during the coming year and beyond. Mr. Burrell listed items under current consideration as:

• Downtown:

The discussion of an overall direction for the downtown was referred to this meeting. This discussion needs to happen before staff can develop realistic options for Council consideration at a regular City Council meeting.

• Communication Services:

A staff initiated discussion on the future of the public safety communication center. As you know, the City has received a proposal from El Segundo and, yesterday, from RCC to provide public safety communications for us. A report evaluating the proposals is attached. The purpose of this discussion would be to determine whether or not outsourcing of this service is something that the City Council is interested in considering. This will be the subject of a regular City Council meeting in March.

• Projects Upcoming/Policy Activities:

The public hearing will be held on February 29th on the proposed changes to development standards for the residential zones.

The Local Coastal Plan has been completed and is in draft form. The public hearing process will start with the Planning Commission in March, with City Council consideration in June. This would mean that Hermosa Beach would have permitting control, although an item could always be appealed to the Coastal Commission.

An RFP will be developed, beginning in July, for a new trash and recycling contract . The present agreement ends in June 2001. This will allow plenty of time for bidding the operation out.

An RFP for a new Housing Element to the General Plan will be issued and will be on an April agenda for approval. This is a state mandated program that will cost around $50,000 to complete. The city risks losing CDBG funds if it is not done. The realistic deadline for completion of this is December, 2000...Currently the deadline is July 1, 2000.

• Master Plans:

Community Center is now the focus of the block grant funds and other funds to both repair and enhance the facility. It is important to set up an ongoing program to make sure it meets the needs of the community, including added parking.

Civic Center long range plan to take into account future needs and provide space and parking to ensure we will meet the needs of the community, including possibly enlarging or relocating the library, creating greater parking through a structure, etc.

City Yard - Once the oil project is settled, this facility needs to be improved.

• NPDES:

New permit and ordinance to implement new regulations. A great deal of the implementation work on these programs is outsourced. The City has remained in compliance and the South Bay Council of Governments is planning to take a proactive stance on these requirements and permits. The inland cities are now showing reluctance to the permitting process as they do not see or feel the effects of storm drain pollution as we do.

• AB939

Additional programs will be offered to ensure that we meet the 50% mandate and perhaps more. The reporting and compliance work on this is also outsourced. The City received an award for our 1999 report and compliance achievement as the city is now at 45 percent diversion through recycling.

• Municipal Code Enforcement:

A certain amount of additional effort needs to be spent in this area. This includes trash cans, building and zoning codes, occupancy limits, newspaper racks and others that surface from time to time

• Information Technology/Public Access:

This is an area where a plan and implementation schedule would be very helpful. This would also include a number of issues brought to you by others such as cable display of agendas, Web radio broadcasts, etc. These need to be set up in programs with appropriate resources and backed up with City Council policy.

• Capital Projects Plan:

Staff will have a status board of ongoing projects. This would be the time to discuss new projects or set different priorities for others.

 

3. 2000 CITY COUNCIL GOALS - The following items were listed as goals for year 2000 and beyond:

• Maintain a sense of community through the enhancement of the city image, cultural resources and quality of life issues.
• NEW - Improve communications with the city commissions through individual joint meetings.
• Promote compatible businesses; work on joint efforts with the Chamber of Commerce.
• Continue to address environmental concerns, particularly storm drain issues by keeping abreast of research and development toward a sump pump system to dispose of low flows into the sewer system, efficient grease traps and adding dog baggies on the Greenbelt and in other public areas to dispose of animal waste.
• Reduce traffic into residential neighborhoods.
• Continue to focus on residential/business harmony through a balance of the needs of both.
• Continue to seek solutions to parking issues through six-month parking meter policy reviews and finding a means to encourage satellite-parking areas to eliminate the overflow business parking from encroaching into residential areas.
• NEW - Study the possibility of shuttle service for Hermosa Beach in conjunction with satellite parking.
• NEW - Review the "Wave" program for more economical alternatives before the next budget is approved.
• NEW - Establish cost figures for a public use building at the western end of the Pier that would include the cost of infrastructure, a caterer's kitchen and a square foot cost at maximum size.
• Maintain strict interpretation of the zoning code to the entire planning process.
• Continue to maintain the highest public safety.
• Encourage the continuation of emergency preparedness, including training volunteers and providing information to the community, through links to the schools, such as "The Great Escape", and to other community organizations.
• Maintain the emphasis on streamlining and reducing regulations in the bureaucratic process.
• NEW - Combine "Customer Service" and a feedback system into the development of an improved website and communication system.
• Increase productivity.
• Improve morale.
• Improve long range C.I.P. project funding and timetable.
• Continue to upgrade the sewer system.
• NEW - Establish funding and a timeline for the renovation of upper Pier Avenue.
• Monitor Bike Path issues regarding safety and the completion of the north Strand and study long-term solutions to congestion on the Strand.
• NEW - Establish a P.C.H./Aviation task force to focus on the problems and improvements to be made for this area. Establish a Pacific Coast Highway Enhancement Commission.
• Communication infrastructure to include conduit pipelines when possible to avoid tearing up an area more than once.
• NEW - Encourage neighborhood undergrounding projects by exploring all available options and by placing streets that have been undergrounded on a priority list for re-paving.
• Continue to lobby for legislative reform.
• NEW - Correct the unsightly condition of the trash cans on the Strand as they are too small, always overflowing and have no recycling counterpart containers.
• NEW - Get rid of the chemical toilets in the downtown area.
• NEW - Set a city priority to repave damaged streets, targeting areas where there was sewer construction, undergrounding, go east of P.C.H., and remember the alleys.
• NEW - Create quality aesthetics for closed streets, not just ugly gates or barricades.

• NEW - Increase the levels of service from the Public Works Department such as tree trimming on city property easements, cleaning up unsightly trash or cutting weeds.
• NEW - Create a Public Works Commission for standards to deal with aesthetics and quality of project issues, such as the Greenbelt ramp, trash cans, benches and signs.
• NEW - Design uniformity for city signage using wooden signs; let people know that they are in Hermosa Beach and feel proud to live here.
• NEW - Create a master plan for city e-government starting with a sub-committee of Councilmember Bowler, City Manager Burrell and Deputy City Clerk Valdes.
• NEW - Re-examine the theatre project for the downtown to try to bring a theatre back to Hermosa Beach.
• NEW - Consider decreasing the Utility User Tax.

 

Projects that did not receive consensus at this time included:

• An additional parking structure in the downtown.
• Return to a five-day workweek for non-safety employees at city hall.
• Banning any construction on Sunday.

 

CITIZEN COMMENTS : No one came forward to address the Council at this time.

 

ADJOURNMENT - The Adjourned Regular Meeting of the City Council of the City of Hermosa Beach adjourned on Thursday, February 17, 2000, at the hour of 10:21 P.M. to the Regular Meeting of Tuesday, February 22, 2000.

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