The San Bruno city council reconvened after the long holiday break at the San Bruno senior center last evening. The meeting was attended by new councilman Michael Salazar’s friends and family, as well as the current members of the Citizen’s Crime Prevention Committee, of which Mr. Salazar was a member. Although Mr. Salazar was officially sworn in last December at city hall, the Oath of Office was administered a second time by city clerk Bonner so that a wider audience could be present. Once again, congratulations to councilman Salazar.
There was a presentation from Margot Grant, the San Mateo County Census Coordinator, regarding the census efforts for the upcoming year. According to a brief history of the census, Ms. Grant underscored the importance of an accurate census count and how it benefits the city. Firstly, money allocated to the city is based on census data. It is estimated that for each person that responds to the census, $2263 dollars are allocated to local government. Secondly, congressional representation at the state and federal levels are census based. Those that do not participate lessen the voice of the community in terms of congressional representation. Overall, it is estimated that the undercount in 2000 cost California 1.5 billion dollars in allocated funds.
After the presentation, a proclamation was made by the council. The council moved to partner with the census, support the goals and ideals of the census, participate in events that raise census awareness, support the census takers who will be going door to door in the local communities as part of the overal census efforts. The census mailout will arrive in local mailboxes around May 15th and will be due April 1rst. The door to door efforts (follow up for those who do not mail in the census questionaires) will be done in April through July. The final numbers are due to President Obama by December 31. Based on the funding and representation issues, it is important that everybody participate in the census, and spread the word to their friends and neighbors that the census is more that just a benign head count.
Next was a presentation from League of California Cities Board Member Sepi Richardson. The league is broken into divisions and the Peninsula division encompasses 36 cities from San Francisco to Santa Clara. The league provides local control, awareness and learning opportunities. One of the main goals of the league is to help protect local revenues. Local coffers are often raided by the state in an effort to help balance the budget and the league works hard in terms of legislation and awareness to protect these revenues. Revenue buckets such as transportation and redevelopment (RDA) are often targets of the state for cutbacks in funding and the league wants to protect these funds. The league is currently enlisting voter support to fight the state, and is soliciting all registered voters to help towards these efforts. For more information on the efforts of the league, visit their site at www.peninsulacities.org.
A public hearing was held to adopt resolution approving the request for citizen’s option of public safety funds (COPS) for FY 2009/10 in the amount of $106,488. The money is intended to supplement local law enforcement and has been used for a dedicated traffic officer since 2001. The traffic officer is responsible for collision and traffic law enforcement. Action was introduced and resolution passed to maintain the existing traffic officer by use of these funds.
The conduct of business included the following:
City Manager Jackson presented a report to confirm appointments of city council members to city council subcommittees. Four (4) actions were discussed and included a new subcommittee for the cable enterprise and business planning, confirmation of the annual rotational program which provides a city council liaison for each board committee, assign an alternate liaison for regional committee assignments and consider other committees or topic areas.
A report was presented by city treasurer Marty regarding the city investment portfolio and the portfolio’s positions. There were three topics covered in this report. 1). The investment portfolio was equally weighted in three options as of December. 2). The ongoing Lehman Bros. litigation was discussed. The current TARP legislation does not authorize the treasury to make reimbursement of funds to local legislatures, but future legislation (JOBS bill) may. 3). Language changes in two sections of the treasury documents for clarification.
Fire Chief Haag spoke to the council to adopt resolution approving the agreement with a third part consultant for an implementation analysis for a fire/shared services merger. The feasibility study done in 2007 identified other opportunities for shared services between San Bruno, Millbrae, Burlingame and Hillsborough. The scope of the analysis would include government, management and operations alternatives. San Bruno’s share would be 20k, 1/4 of the overall 80k cost. Questions and comments from the council included councilman Ibarra’s concerns about transparency throughout all phases and stakeholders. Councilman Salazar thought the verbiage around the deliverables was too vague. The resolution to adopt was then passed.
Lastly, city clerk Bonner presented an oral report on the city clerk’s attendance at the League of California Cities New Election Law Seminar. The seminar is designed to keep city clerk’s updated on current laws and technology knowledge. The city clerk plays a number of roles including custodian of city records, chief election officer as well as poster of agendas and public notices. This was city clerk Bonner’s fourth attendance of the seminar and aside from the learning opportunities enables her to establish camaraderie and build her network. With only one city clerk per city, having a network of other city clerks to draw knowledge and experience from is crucial to her success. Once again, the seminar provided this opportunity for city clerk Bonner.
The meeting was adjourned after a word of thanks to the Citizen’s Crime Prevention Committee from councilman Salazar.
