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HomeMy WebLinkAbout06/23/2003 B A K E R S F I E L D Alan nager Sue Benham, Chair Staff: Trudy Slater David Couch Jacquie Sullivan AGENDA SUMMARY REPORT LEGISLATIVE AND LITIGATION COMMITTEE Regular Meeting Monday, June 23, 2003- 1:00 p.m. City Manager's Conference Room 1. ROLL CALL Called to order at 1:06 pm Members Present: Councilmember Sue Benham, Chair Councilmember David Couch Councilmember Jacquie Sullivan arrived at 1:10 p.m. 2. ADOPT APRIL 28, 2003 AGENDA SUMMARY REPORT Adopted as submitted. 3. PUBLIC STATEMENTS 4. DEFERRED BUSINESS A. REVIEW, DISCUSSION AND COMMI'n'EE RECOMMENDATIONS REGARDING DOWNTOWN BUSINESS ASSOCIATION (DBA) BUSINESS DISTRICT BEAUTIFICATION Administrative Analyst Trudy Slater provided an update. At the last Committee meeting on April 28th, the Committee had referred two items to staff: 1) Kim Turner, Stars Theatre, had concerns about a GET bus bench that had been placed in front of the Stars Theatre leaving inadequate space for seating in front of the Theatre; and 2) Cathy Butler, Executive Director of the Downtown Business Association, had questions regarding Quizno's and Gumbeaux's as it was her understanding they had been told they could not have encroachment permits for outdoor seating on Chester Avenue. Agenda Summary Rep( Legislative and Litigation Committee June 23, 2003 Page - 2 Trudy Slater reported that she had contacted Chester Moland, Executive Director of Golden Empire Transit (GET), and he indicated GET would be willing to move the bench/shelter north of the two trees fronting the building and would paint it a complementary color, but he needed a request from Stars Theater. Ms. Turner was contacted and expressed that would be an acceptable solution. Staff drafted a letter for Ms. Turner to send to GET. Cathy Butler stated she had spoken with Kim Turner who indicated GET had approached them and they were working on moving the bench. Committee Member Sullivan stated she had gone by and looked at the location and moving the bench/shelter to the new location is as good a solution as there could be for both parties, as the bench/shelter has a top which does restrict the view somewhat. Trudy Slater reported on the encroachment permits for outdoor seating on Chester Avenue. Rhonda Swager, manager/owner of Quizno's was contacted. Ms. Swager expressed she was happy with the encroachment she has on 18th Street for her tables and awnings, and she has not requested an encroachment permit on Chester Avenue. Trudy Slater also contacted Michael Thibodeaux, manager/owner of Gumbeaux's. Mr. Thibodeaux explained he had hired someone to draw plans for an enclosed eating area which extended into the Chester Avenue sidewalk. The representative drawing the plans checked with the City and was told a permanent fence would obstruct public use of the Chester Avenue sidewalk area. Although the representative for Gumbeaux's had contacted City staff regarding the plans, no encroachment permit application was submitted. Cathy Butler thanked staff for personally contacting the businesses. Fred Prince, in response to a question from the Committee Chair, answered that he thought the downtown businesses understood the procedure for encroachment permits. The Committee took no further action on the issue of encroachment permits for outdoor seating. Cathy Butler gave a report on their meeting to develop plans for beautification, opening the back of businesses for parking and developing pocket parks, which were ideas talked about during the downtown Charrette. Ms. Butler expressed they may need assistance from the City. Agenda Summary Rep( Legislative and Litigation Committee June 23, 2003 Page - 3 David Milazzo, architect, representing the developers of the Penney's building, spoke about their development and described the area that is now used for parking and how it will be developed into an outside area for parties. This parking will need to be offset elsewhere. The developers are exploring leasing parking in the 18th and Eye Streets Parking Garage. City Manager Alan Tandy stated the City could explore grant funding that may be available, or if green space could be exchanged for parking. The City Manager suggested the DBA and the developer put their concepts/alternate concepts and what they are asking for in writing and submit it to the City Manager's Office and City staff will review it to see what can be done. Committee Chair Benham expressed this would be a very positive approach. The Committee agreed and took no further action. B. REVIEW, DISCUSSION AND COMMrl-rEE RECOMMENDATIONS RELATING TO AMBULANCE ORDINANCE LANGUAGE REGARDING PARAMEDICS (CLARIFICATION ON BLS AND ALS SERVICES AND REQUIRED PARAMEDIC SERVICES) Assistant City Manager John Stinson gave an overview on the background and reasoning for the ALS service requirement in the current ambulance ordinance and Basic Life Support (BLS) non-emergency ambulance responses when ALS procedures are not requested or provided. Committee Member Couch stated that he had spoken with Peter Brandon, who could not attend today's meeting and requested discussion and action on this item be deferred. As all ambulance company representatives could not attend this meeting, the Committee agreed to defer this item to the next Committee meeting. The Committee requested staff to contact Mr. Brandon. 5. NEW BUSINESS A. REVIEW, DISCUSSION AND COMMI'I-rEE RECOMMENDATIONS RELATING TO REQUEST FOR SUPPORT FOR ENVIRONMENTAL/CLEAN AIR BILL PACKAGE (FLOREZ) Larkin Tackett, Senator Florez Office, was contacted by telephone to enable him to listen to staff's presentation, provide input and answer questions. Administrative Analyst Trudy Slater gave an overview of the bills in the environmental/clean air package. Agenda Summary Report Legislative and Litigation Committee June 23, 2003 Page - 4 Larkin Tackett (by speaker phone) provided updated information on the bills in their present form and the need for each bill. A brief synopsis of his comments follows: SB 700~ Repeal of the Aqricultural Exemption. This bill will end the exemption agricultural has had from the Federal Clean Air Act for over 50 years. Basically, it establishes definitions of agricultural sources of air pollution to allow capture of some emissions coming from agriculture that until now have been unregulated. The San Joaquin Valley Air Pollution Control District, established to monitor and clean the air, has had its hands tied and has been unable to monitor or regulate pollution coming from agricultural sources, which in the San Joaquin Valley contribute over 25% of the emissions. This bill will provide the tools for State and local air districts to monitor and eventually bring reductions in air pollution from agriculture sources. SB 701~ California Clean Air Bond Act of 2004. This bill would place a bond on the ballot to finance existing programs, the cost of cleaning the air and provide incremental support in dollars to industry being asked to come into compliance. This bond will make $600 million available for agriculture to assist with the cost of updating and retrofitting diesel equipment, trucks as well as agriculture stationary water pump engines. The bond monies will also fund agriculture conservation management to provide technology to growers to enable update of farming practices, which will reduce air emissions. There will be $300 million to pay for monitoring equipment to be used by the Air Pollution Control District, and $300 million for school bus retrofit from diesel to cleaner sources of power, with language to target the busses in the Central Valley, which has 25% of the dirtiest school bus engines in the State. These bond funds would be for capital and not operational expenses. SB 703, Convertinq A.qricultural Pumps to Electricity. This bill will direct the State Public Utilities Commission to develop/establish competitive rates for electricity, which will incentivize growers to convert diesel engines used for stationary pumps to electricity. In the valley, agricultural pumps contribute a large percentage of air pollution emissions, and growers have indicated if electricity rates were competitive with diesel operations they would convert to electricity. SB 704, A.qricultural Waste at Biomass Facilities. This would provide a one-time funding source of $6 million from the California Energy Commission to allow biomass facilities in the San Joaquin Valley to increase the amount of agricultural waste that they take into their facilities. Currently there is a cost benefit for the facilities to take urban wood waste, especially from Los Angeles, because it is cheaper to purchase. This bill Agenda Summary Rei Legislative and Litigation Committee June 23, 2003 Page - 5 provides for a biomass energy incentive program to allow the facilities to take more agricultural waste. This bill is tied to SB 705, which provides for the end of agricultural burning. SB 705, Prohibit Burning of Waste in the San Joaquin Valley. In the fall, burning agricultural waste in the San Joaquin Valley contributes 13% of the particulate emissions. This would be a phased-in program to end burning of agricultural waste. For crops that are easier to dispose of by other methods, burning would end by 2005 and for the more difficult crop waste disposal, burning would be phased out by 2010. There would be provisions to allow growers to have conditional burning permits in cases where the crop is diseased and the best solution would be burning. SB 707, New Dairy Zoninq Legislation. This bill would require applying provisions of CEQA to the permitting of new or expanded confined animal feeding operations, especially dairies. For new or expanding dairies/feeding lots, this bill would require a three-mile buffer zone between the dairy operations and cities, unless the following three things occur: 1) the applicant meets with the city and the county; 2) the lead agency (county) actually consults with the city and schools; and 3) in the EIR process there is a buffer in place that would mitigate the environmental effects of a dairy through the CEQA process. This would strengthen the role and input of local governments on where dairies will be located. SB 708~ Gross Pollutinq Vehicles. This bill targets mobile sources of emissions (cars and trucks) by expanding the smog-check consumer assistance program, which currently aids Iow-income owners to meet the requirements of smog check repairs. It also increases fines for owners/drivers of smoke-producing vehicles and allows counties to set up a combined DUI/smoke-producing vehicle check point, using funds from the increased fines. SB 709 San Joaquin Air Pollution Board. This bill focuses on local and area-wide sources of pollution. It would allow the San Joaquin Air Pollution Control District to have greater authority over mobile air pollution sources through activities such as ridesharing and alternate fuel vehicle programs funded by an increase in vehicle registration fees to fund clean-air programs. This bill provides for the Air District to set up an area-wide fee schedule. The fees that are assessed from area-wide sources would be used to fund mitigation programs. Larkin Tackett explained Senator Florez is requesting city councils in his Senate District to endorse this package of legislation. Endorsements from local governments would help move these bills through the Legislature. Agenda Summary Report Legislative and Litigation Committee June 23, 2003 Page - 6 Mike Turnipseed, a local farmer, spoke regarding the package of clean air bills and expressed concerns that the bills are not in final form, changes are still being made in the Legislature, and if the Committee recommends support today, the bills may change. He spoke in opposition to the package of bills as currently written, especially those pertaining to farming. He expressed concerns that some of the proposals may not be economically viable for farmers. Larkin Tackett responded that Senator Florez has accepted amendments on the bills from the agriculture community. Mr. Larkin stated Senator Florez has taken a leadership position on the package of bills and requested support now when they are in front of the local legislators in order to get them through the Legislature. The bills are currently in the Assembly and will be heard in front of policy committees next week and then to the Assembly floor within the next three weeks. Most of the substantive amendments have been made to the bills. Al Wagner spoke on behalf of the environment/clean air package of bills and expressed the bills are very close to being in their final form. Committee Member Couch stated he supported in concept what Senator Florez is trying to accomplish and would like the Committee to endorse the Senator's efforts and encourage him to continue to work with the stakeholders but wanted the Committee to review the bills further in order to add provisions for local input. He expressed it is important to retain as much local control as possible and had concerns the bills did not include strong provisions for local control, especially regarding placement of dairies. Committee Member Sullivan expressed support for the work that is being done, but was not ready to endorse the bills before more debate in the Legislature, as changes may be made before the bills are in final form. Committee Chair Benham stated she has studied the bills and her position would be to support in concept what Senator Florez is attempting to accomplish for this area and to frame any endorsement in general enough terms that the City is acknowledging the package of bills is not in its final form. She spoke regarding the importance of local control but expressed the City will not achieve clean air if we do not make changes. Because we share the air with neighboring counties, this package of legislation builds local control into an area-wide plan. Larkin Tackett explained further how SB 700 would cover the concerns being expressed by the Committee Members and he would relate to Senator Florez the Committee's suggestions to strengthen local control. He expressed the importance of having the City of Bakersfield's endorsement now as the bills move through the Legislature. Agenda Summary Repo~I~ Legislative and Litigation Committee June 23, 2003 Page - 7 The Committee discussed the package of bills at length with Larkin Tackett by phone, Al Wagner, staff and attendees. Mr. Tackett answered many questions during the discussion and provided in-depth information. Committee Member Couch made a motion that the Committee recommend to the Council the City of Bakersfield endorse and support the general concepts and intent to clean the air in the San Joaquin Valley contained in SB 700, SB 701, SB 703, SB 704, SB 705, SB 708 and SB 709 sponsored by Senator Florez to address Valley air pollution with an area-wide approach and strongly recommend that local control be a center piece of the legislation. To that end, also include the following: 1. Express thanks and appreciation to Senator Florez for his efforts to improve air quality. Committee Member Couch expressed the need to be sensitive to the farmers and that attempts be made to mitigate future costs incurred when implementing measures in the bills, balanced with cost to the taxpayers who ultimately will subsidize the change over and added: 2. Encourage further consultation with representatives of the agricultural community to avoid loss of stranded investments and future costs. 3. Counties be required to conduct a county-wide program Environmental Impact Report to set ground rules for animal confinement facilities. 4. Recommend an amendment to SB 709 that would require credit for the costs of any duly adopted fee against any air pollution mitigation fee imposed by the San Joaquin Valley Unified Air Pollution Control District, which would guard against paying a pollution mitigation fee twice. The Committee agreed this language would support Senator Florez and address the Committee's concerns about local input and directed staff to prepare a resolution using the above information and forward it to the City Council meeting on June 25, 2003. Committee Member Sullivan expressed clean air legislation is very important and needs to be supported so she did not vote against the Committee recommendation but wanted to note that she had some concern about supporting legislation not in its final form. Al Wagner stated his appreciation for the Committee's taking the time to review and endorse the package of bills and the efforts of Senator Florez to clean the air. Agenda Summary Relpo~ Legislative and Litigation Committee June 23, 2003 Page - 8 6. COMMITTEE COMMENTS None. 7. ADJOURNMENT The meeting adjourned at 4:15 p.m. Staff Attendees: City Manager Alan Tandy; Assistant City Manager John Stinson; Administrative Analyst Trudy Slater; City Attorney Bart Thiltgen; and Development Services Director Jack Hardisty. Other Attendees: Peter Rudy, KUZZ; Joe Culbertson, reporter; Al Wagner, Senator Florez Office; Fred Prince; Dana Karcher, Tree Foundation of Kern; Miguel Castellanos, American Institute of Architects; Cathy Butler, DBA; David Milazzo, architect; Mark Cowan, Louis Cox, Jacqualine ATT, and Darlene Denison of Hall Ambulance; Michael Turnipseed; Dee Slade; and Matt Friesen, KGET- News. S:\TTS~2003LegLitOom\03jun23min