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HomeMy WebLinkAbout08/15/2006 B A K E R S F. I E L D ~-~ ~J Zack Scrivner, Chair Staff: Alan Christensen Sue Benham For: Alan Tandy, City Manager David Couch AGENDA SUMMAI~Y REPORT LEGISLATIVE AND LITIGATION COMMITTEE MEETING Tuesday, August 15, 2006 - 1:00 p.m. City Manager's Conference Room, Suite 201 Second Floor- City Hall, 1501 Truxtun Avenue, Bakersfield, CA 1. ROLL CALL Called to Order at 1:00 p.m. Present: Councilmembers Zack Scrivner, Chair; Sue Benham; and David Couch 2. ADOPT JULY 18, 2006 AGENDA SUMMARY REPORT Adopted as submitted. 3. PUBLIC STATEMENTS 4. NEW BUSINESS A. Review and Committee voting recommendation on the League of California Cities' annual resolutions Assistant City Manager Alan Christensen gave a brief overview of the League resolutions in the packet. None of the resolutions are controversial. The first two are housekeeping resolutions regarding League Conference Resolution Voting Procedures and the number of Alternate Voting Delegates. The third is a Resolution relating to Encouraging Health and Wellness in Cities. The fourth from the City of Elk Grove is a Resolution Relating to Forfeiture of Vehicles Used in Illegal Speed Contests and Exhibitions of Speed. Committee Member David Couch made a motion to forward the League Resolutions to the City Council with a Committee recommendation that the Council approve the Resolutions and give the League Voting Delegate direction to vote accordingly with the authority to vote differently if the resolutions change. LEGISLATIVE AND LITIGATION COMMITTEE Page 2 AGENDA SUMMARY REPORT Tuesday, August 15, 2006 B. Review and Committee recommendation on citizen's request for an ordinance to regulate cats Assistant City Manager Alan Christensen gave a brief report on issues when considering regulation of cats. · There are significant budgetary and staffing impacts as mandatory licensing and/or spaying and neutering would require a large administrative and enforcement function staffed by the City. · In addition to the cost issue, regular enforcement would be challenging given the population and size of Bakersfield. · Although there are areas with cat problems, it does not seem to be Citywide. There is a question if an ordinance would be favored by the general population given the potential costs to the residents and the restrictions it would impose. · A successful cat regulation program would depend on whether the County would adopt a similar ordinance as many sections of the City are contiguous to the County, and it would be impossible to tell "city" cats from "county" cats. Due to the above issues, staff did not favor adopting a cat ordinance and requested direction from the Committee. In response to a question, Animal Control Supervisor Tammy Davis explained City Animal Control does not have the staff to canvas to ensure dogs are licensed. If a dog is running loose, the dog is picked up and if the owner can be found, a citation is issued, and vaccination and licensing are required. Animal Control does go out on complaints of (cat) animal cruelty. Police Captain Tim Taylor and Lt. Gary Moore responded to questions. Animal control works on a response to calls basis. Through June of this year animal control responded to 7,977 calls. For 2005, there were 15,500 calls. There is one supervisor and three to four staff on weekdays and two on weekends. Currently, animal control relies on owners to license their dogs. A small survey was done recently and there was 57% compliance with dog licensing regulations in the surveyed area. The City no longer goes out to pick up cats. Residents can trap cats and take them to the County animal shelter. Bill Descary spoke in favor of regulating cats due to the property damage caused by cats and cat fights at night. Max Baldin spoke in favor of regulating cats. LEGISLATIVE AND LITIGATION COMMITTEE Page 3 AGENDA SUMMARY REPORT Tuesday, August 15, 2006 Karen Polyniak spoke in favor of having cats regulated and supported having cats identified either with a collar or a chip, but did not support licensing. Mike Polyniak spoke in favor of regulating cats, but not necessarily requiring cats to be confined indoors. The Committee Members were in agreement that any ordinance to regulate cats would need to be consistent between the County and City. Committee Member David Couch ~equested animal control staff to bring back information to the Committee on the cost to properly implement licensing or identification of cats, and also include the cost to pick up cats. Committee Chair Zack Scrivner added he would like to know how many staff would be required and the cost to regulate cats in the same way as we now regulate dogs, with the exception that the City would not be capturing cats as it does with dogs running loose. He stated licensing cats would raise some revenue to offset the costs, but would like to evaluate what the County recommends on mandatory spaying and neutering before considering that element. Committee Member Sue Benham stated she respected the input today from the community on their problems with cats, but expressed concerns about the cost to implement an ordinance to regulate cats and whether there would be sufficient revenue to offset the cost. She requested staff to be very thorough when calculating the costs. If taxpayer dollars are required, regulating cats should be evaluated with other needed services the City provides such as Code Enforcement and Graffiti programs. Committee Chair Zack Scrivner requested staff to also check with other cities on how their cat regulation ordinances are working, compliance with their ordinances, and whether mandatory spaying and neutering is necessary for a successful licensing program. 5. DEFERRED BUSINESS A. Review and Committee recommendation on Noise Complaints/Cool Parents Ordinance City Attorney Ginny Gennaro gave an overview of the proposed amendments to the Municipal Code Relating to Loud and Unruly Events. The proposed ordinance mirrors the County ordinance regarding noise complaints and "Cool Parents Ordinance." The ordinance provides for a cost recovery service fee up to $1,000 for second and subsequent police responses to noise complaints within a 30-day period and for a first response to an unruly event where alcohol is served to underage person/persons. Where there is underage drinking the responding Police Officers can also implement state law, which provides LEGISLATIVE AND LITIGATION COMMITTEE Page 4 AGENDA SUMMARY REPORT Tuesday, August 15, 2006 penalties for underage drinking and those providing alcohol to underage persons or minors. Committee Member Sue Benham made a motion for the Committee to forward the amended ordinance to the Council with a Committee recommendation for first reading and adoption. The 'Committee unanimously approved the motion. B. Review and Committee recommendation on City Annexation Policy Assistant City Manager Alan Christensen provided an update on the information included in the Committee packet. The City's annexation policy (resolution) has been discussed for several meetings. Staff has recommended changes, which were shown in red. Also included was a copy of a letter written to LAFCO and a response from LAFCO Executive Officer William Turpin. The response did not provide information different from what the Committee has previously reviewed. Becky Kaiser spoke regarding the pre-annexation process and the time frames for processing annexations. Committee Member David Couch explained the only complaints received from the last two successful annexations were that the process was too slow. He made a motion the Committee approve and forward a recommendation to the Council to adopt staff's recommended changes to the City's Annexation Resolution, Mission Statement and Pre-Application Process for Annexations. The Committee unanimously approved the motion. 6. COMITTEE COMMENTS 7. ADJOURNMENT The meeting was adjourned at 2:14 p.m. Staff: Assistant City Manager Alan Christensen; Assistant City Manager John W. Stinson; City Attorney Ginny Gennaro; Police Captain Tim Taylor; City Clerk Pam McCarthy; Police Lt. Gary Moore; and Animal Control Supervisor Tammy Davis Others present: Barbara J. Fields; Becky Kaiser; David Burger, reporter, The Bakersfield Californian; Dianne Hardisty, The Bakersfield Californian; Nancy Chaffin; Sharon Stevens; R. J. Fowler; Joe Williams; Esla J. Williams; Max Baldin; Bill Descary; Mike Polyniak; Karen Polyniak; Sheryl Mitchell; Christina Smale; Siemny Chhuon, KBAK/KBFX; Gene Cooks, KBAK/KBFX; Mark Howell, KUZZ/KCWR; Dante Jackson, KGET-TV; cc: Honorable Mayor and City Council S:~,C\06 Legislative&Litigation\LL 06 aug 15 summary.doc