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HomeMy WebLinkAbout1997/06/26 - Minutes - Adjourned June 26, 1997 CITY OF RANCHO CUCAMONGA CITY COUNCIL MINUTES Adjourned Meeting A. CALL TO ORDER An adjourned meeting of the Rancho Cucamonga City Council was held on Thursday, June 26, 1997, in the Council Chambers of the Civic Center, located at 10500 Civic Center Drive, Rancho Cucamonga, California. The meeting was called to order at 7:01 p.m. by Mayor William J. Alexander. Present were Councilmembers: Paul Biane, James Curatalo, Rex Gutierrez, Diane Williams, and Mayor William J. Alexander. Also present were: Jack Lain, City Manager; James Markman, City Attorney; Rick Gomez, Community Development Director; Joe O'Neil, City Engineer; Shintu Bose, Deputy City Engineer; Dave Blevins, Pnblic Works Maintenance Manager; Jeff Barnes, Parks/Landscape Maintenance Superintendent; Gary Varney, Street/Storm Drain Maintenance Superintendent; Rex Whitney, Maintenance Superintendent; Wait Stickney, Associate Engineer; Joe Stofa, Associate Engineer; Karen Emery, Associate Park Planner; Sue Dodrill, Secretary; Bill Makshanoff, Building Official; Susan Stark, Finance Officer; Ingdd Blair, GIS Supervisor; Chris Bopko, Special Districts Technician; Pat Morrison, Special Districts Technician; Chearice Johnson, GIS Technician; Joan Kruse, Purchasing Agent; Suzanne Ota, Community Services Manager; Kathy Sorensen, Recreation Superintendent; Paula Pachon, Management Analyst II; Dave Moore, Recreation Supervisor; Bea Staiderie, Community Services Technician; Captain Rod Hoops, Rancho Cucamonga Police Deparmaent; Chief Dennis Michael, Fire Protection District; Diane O'Neal, Management Analyst II; Jenny Haruyama, Management Analyst I; Kathy Scott, Deputy City Clerk; Elaine Chin, Secretary; Jill Ecoff, Records Clerk; Shirr'l Griffin, Office Specialist II; and Debra J. Adams, City Clerk. B. CONSENT CALENDAR B1. Approval to amend Joint Use Agreement (CO 89-130) between the Chaffey Joint Union High School District and the City of Rancho Cucamonga for usage of Alta Loma High School Recreational Facilities. MOTION: Moved by Biane, seconded by Williams to approve item B1. Motion carried unanimously 5-0. C. ADVF, RTISFD PUBLIC HEARING CI. CONSIDERATION TO CONTINUE THE ASSESSMENT FOR PD-85 For the staff presentation and discussion of this item, please refer to the transcript' of the proceedings prepared by M & M Certified Court Reporters, which is attached to the minutes. City Council Minutes June 26, 1997 Page 2 RESOLUTION NO. 97-088 A RESOLUTION OF THE CITY COUNCIL OF THE CITY OF RANCHO CUCAMONGA, CALIFORNIA, RECITING THE FACT OF THE OCCURRENCE OF A BALLOT PROTEST PROCESS CONCERNING THE ASSESSMENTS FOR THE MAINTENANCE AND OPERATION OF RED HILL COMMUNITY PARK AND HERITAGE COMMUNITY PARK WITHIN PARK AND RECREATION IMPROVEMENT DISTRICT PD-85-R IN THE CITY OF RANCHO CUCAMONGA WHICH CONCLUDED ON JUNE 26, 1997 AND DECLARING THE RESULTS THEREOF MOTION: Moved by Williams, seconded by Biane to approve Resolution No. 97-088. Motion carried unanimously 5-0 RESOLUTION NO. 9%089 A RESOLUTION OF THE CITY COUNCIL OF THE CITY OF RANCHO CUCAMONGA, CALIFORNIA, ORDERING THE LEVY AND COLLECTION OF ASSESSMENTS WITHIN PARK AND RECREATION IMPROVEMENT DISTRICT NO. PD-85-R (HERITAGE AND RED HILL COMMUNITY PARKS) MOTION: Moved by Williams, seconded by Biane to approve Resolution No. 97-089. Motion carried unanimously 5-0. D. COMMUNICATIONS FROM TH~ PUBLIC No communication was made from the public. E. ADJOURNMENT MOTION: Moved by Williams, seconded by Biane to adjourn. Motion carried unanimously 5-0. The meeting adjourned at 10:19 p.m. Respectfully submitted, City Clerk Approved: August6, 1997 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 CITY OF RANCHO CUCAMONGA RANCHO CUCAMONGA CITY COUNCIL PUBLIC HEARING CONSIDERATION TO CONTINUE THE ASSESSMENT FOR PD-$5 TRANSCRIPT OF PROCEEDINGS taken at 10500 Civic Center Drive, Council Chambers, Rancho Cucamonga, California, beginning at 7:00 p.m. and ending at 10:20 p.m. on Thursday, June 26, 1997, taken before CONNIE MARDON, Hearing Reporter. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 APPEARANCES: Rancho Cucamonga City Council: WILLIAM J. ALEXANDER, Mayor DIANE WILLIAMS, Mayor Pro-Tem JAMES V. CURATALO, Councilmember PAUL BIANE, Councilmember REX GUTIERREZ, Councilmember City Staff: JACK LAM, City Manager JAMES MARKMAN, City Attorney RICK GOMEZ, City Planner DEBBIE ADAMS, City Clerk 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 Rancho Cucamonga, California, Thursday, June 26th, 1997 7:00 p.m. - 10:20 p.m. order. MAYOR PRO-TEM WILLIAMS: Call this meeting to MAYOR ALEXANDER: join Diane. If would you all stand and (The pledge of allegiance was given.) MAYOR ALEXANDER: This is a special adjourned meeting of the City Council tonight. Roll call. Alexander is here. Biane. COUNCILMEMBER BIANE: Here. MAYOR ALEXANDER: Curatalo. COUNCILMEMBER CURATALO: Here. MAYOR ALEXANDER: Gutierrez. COUNCILMEMBER GUTIERREZ: Here. MAYOR ALEXANDER: Williams. MAYOR PRO-TEMWILLIAMS: Here. MAYOR ALEXANDER: Welcome back, Rex. COUNCILMEMBER GUTIERREZ: Thank you. It's a pleasure. MAYOR ALEXANDER: The following consent items 4 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 are expected to be routine and noncontroversial. They will be acted upon by the Council at one time without discussion. Any item may be removed by a councilmember or member of the audience for discussion, and that is the approval to amend Joint Use Agreement (CO 89-130) between the Chaffey Joint Union High School District and the City of Rancho Cucamonga for usage of the Alta Loma School recreation facilities. COUNCILMEMBER BIANE: I'll make a motion for approval. MAYOR PR0-TEMWILLIAMS: Second. MAYOR ALEXANDER: Motion is made and seconded. Your vote. (A vote was taken.) MS. ADAMS: Motion taken unanimously, five to zero. MAYOR ALEXANDER: Very good. Item C is the Advertised Public Hearing. The following item has been advertised and/or posted as a public hearing as required by law. We will open the meeting to receive public testimony. It's consideration to continue the Assessment for PD-85. 5 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 ll 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 Jack, do you want to say anything? CITY MANAGER LAM: Yes. Mr. Mayor, Members of the Council, we · will probably be here for at least a couple hours this evening. We have a fairly new procedure. You haven't seen the setup before. And in response to Proposition 218, we are conducting our official hearing tonight for PD-85. I would like to introduce Mr. Rick Gomez, who will give a brief report on the matter; followed by Mr. Markman, who will walk us through the process this evening. And I would also like to introduce Officer Burns in the back, who will be our Sergeant at Arms this evening. Mr. Gomez. MR. GO~Z: Mr. Mayor, Members of the City Council, tonight is kind of like the-conclusion of a process which began about a year ago. When we started to first understand what Prop 218 was and the ramifications of it, we started developing policy analysis; we tried to look at what 218 would do and the effects it would have on the City and how we would operate as a business again if it was to pass. Well, as we saw in December, it passed. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 At that time the City -- Excuse me. passed. November it In December the City Council collectively worked together to come up with a schedule which included putting together dates that we adopted our resolutions to follow the guidelines of 218 to set this public hearing, to mail out ballots back on May 8th. Approximately 24,487, I believe, was the round number. At that time we mailed the ballots out. We now have been ~orking with them back in through the mail. processing, bringing And tonight it is the -- we are having the public hearing to count the returned ballots to determine if we were going to continue the Assessment or not. We hope that tonight -- what you'll see in front of you is going to be a process involving many volunteers putting together the ballots, getting them opened and counted, and by the time, oh, hopefully, within a couple of hours, you'll have a number. And we'll see what direction we'll be proceeding in. With that I'll turn it over to Jim, and he'll give a little bit of a legal background what we'll be doing tonight. 7 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 MR. MARKMAN: Thank you. Mr. Mayor and members of the Council and the audience, there's a lady over here to my left of the front row, who's a certified shorthand reporter; not usually here at Council proceedings, but we felt that we wanted to have a verbatim transcript of what happened this evening because of the financial importance of this decision and because, after all, it is a first experience of going through the ballot protest process under Proposition 218 for this City. Because we are trying to get an accurate record, we would appreciate it if people -- especially me -- speak more slowly than they normally do. Two people can't speak at the same time and be recorded. And gestures, whether positive or negative, also can't be recorded. So if those simple rules can be followed, it will help her. I don't think this will be -- considering the audience, the hearing won't be very long. Now, why we're here is because Proposition 218 was passed. And while it grandfathered in most existing assessments -- and all assessments -- where the money is used to service bonded indebtedness -- because the money was used -- or is being used -- to build public improvements, 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 $ 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 there is one exception to the grandfathering, and that is Assessments for Maintenance and Operations of Parks. And that's different from streets or almost anything else you can think of that the City could be maintaining. And the reason for that is that the Jarvis Group'thought one of the major abuses they were addressing in Proposition 218 were these districtwide park assessments that were really parcel taxes. Those were being levied on an annual basis in the entirety of the district instead of in the street area. And, essentially, we're supporting the operation of parks and parks districts. So we have that exception. We identified it, as Rick said, when we did an inventory of all the City's assessment districts. We found this one which is a very large and important one, where half the Assessment was grandfathered in. That half was used to build Red Hill and Heritage Community parks. However, about half of it, or maybe a little less than half, has been used over the years to maintain and operate those parks. It was always contemplated by the Council, then and now, that those funds would be available to operate the parks that 9 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 were being paid for, as far as their construction is concerned, by the same assessment. So we have an interesting and unique situation we have presented under Prop 218 to the assessed people in Rancho Cucamonga. Part of this assessment -- that is the part which we have asked them to vote on whether to continue to maintain and operate the parks. There will be an assessment'to keep paying for the bonded indebtedness, regardless of the outcome tonight. So it's only part of the historic assessment that's in front of you. On May 9th, after going through -- developing the ballot materials, Council approved the ballot materials in the form of the ballot, directed it be mailed out in accordance with Prop 218. That mailing occurred on May 9th. And I have here -- I'm going to ask the Mayor to order this as an item of evidence in this proceeding. It's a declaration by the person who actually delivered 24,800oplus packages of material to the many different addresses in Rancho Cucamonga on May 9th. Not necessarily Rancho Cucamonga; there's some people who live outside the City, but who own 10 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 property in the City who are accessees. So that was mailed. And we have a declaration under penalty of perjury by the person who handed all those to the U.S. 'Postal Service that that mailing occurred, according to law, more than 45 days before this evening, and that all the materials that the Council approved were mailed to each and every address, which is shown on this package I have, which is almost 25,000 addresses. So I would ask the Mayor to make that Exhibit 1 to this proceeding. MAYOR ALEXANDER: Okay. So declared Exhibit 1. MR. MARKMAN: So, now, this evening we go through an interesting process, because the law requires two things to happen this evening: One thing is that there is a typical hearing on whether to continue this assessment, which means the people will be able to orally address the Council, and try to convince the Council and others whether to continue or not to continue the Assessment. In the meantime, ballots can keep coming in, right up until the time that the Mayor has heard the last person speak and declares that's the end of the public testimcny. That is the minute -- although, we don't know which minute at this time -- that is the minute that the City Clerk can no longer accept votes 11 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 or ballots. So anybody here who wants to cast their ballot, needs to do that before the Mayor closes the .public testimony. And the reason we chose to have that occur after public testimony is that perhaps somebody could be convinced by the testimony, one way or the other, on how to vote. I don't know if that's going to happen tonight. I know we have received over 9,000 ballots already. But. at least it's possible. This is not an election, to clarify that. The FPPC doesn't think it's an election. The Prop 218 legislation that is going to the legislation now, declares it not to be an election. This is a ballot protest process by mail or personal delivery. It's the same as a majority protest process that you have in a lot of assessment hearings, where property owners can mount a majority protest if they wish. In this case, the key is what is the total amount of potential assessments voted for or against the proposition of continuing this assessment. That is, if there are $100 worth of assessments voted in favor of continuing the Assessment and $99 voted against continuing the Assessment, the Council is then 12 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 $ 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 authorized to continue the Assessment. So we will have a large dollar figure, probably on both sides of the ledger. We also have a tabulation of the total amount of assessments that were cast. The law requires this, a little unusually, to occur during the hearing. Proposition 218 says that votes will be canvassed during the hearing. So we're being supersafe. We're not going to close or recess this hearing, so all the people here can watch this activity going on. I'm going to ask at least three council members to be present in this room at all times that that is going on, so that nobody can say we counted these ballots other than during the hearing. The City Clerk will then get a tabulation. She'll sign a certificate similar to what the County Clerk 'signs after an election. She will certify the results. She will certify the total amount of assessments voted, the total amount voted to continue it, the total amount voted against continuing it. That will be presented to the counsel. And in the packet you see, you will have two resolutions to adopt. I suggest you're going to adopt them -- two resolutions -- one way or the other, because they're necessary in order to impose the 13 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 Assessment to service the bond. You have in your packet two alternative resolutions. For each one of these resolutions, one authorized, the Council would vote to continue the Maintenance and Operation Assessment, assuming it has been authorized by tonight's vote. The second assumes that the vote did not authorize the continuation of the Assessment. So the Council then would be asked to levy the Assessment without the Operation and Maintenance portion. So the all the actions you need to consider are in this packet before you. So we suggest that the first resolution will have to be adopted because of the canvass; the second resolution will levy an assessment, either both to service bonds and maintain the parks or just to service bonds. And so that's what we're here to do tonight. I will be happy to answer any questions. At this point in time, if there are any questions, it will be appropriate to receive public testimony on the Maintenance and Operation Assessment. MAYOR ALEXANDER: Questions at all? COUNCILMEMBER BIANE: Is there going to be any preliminary results as the process goes along? MR. MARKMAN: We have not -- that's not in the 14 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 program. Obviously, at some point in time there will be a running total. But you're going to see a machine opening ballots, one just rapidly. see people stacking the ballots. You're going to You'll see them being checked to make sure that the holes are punched out, rather than something else happening. You'll be seeing decisions made on ballots that may be mangled, damaged, or unusual. And then you'll see them put in a machine that counts them. If you want to stop that process at any given time and take a running count, I suppose we could do that. We think actually counting the ballots is only going to take 20 minutes. All the rest of the time is going to be processing the materials to get them in the position to be counted by the machine. COUNCILMEMBER BIANE: Thank you. MAYOR ALEXANDER: Other questions? Although not necessarily helping the public hearing, is there anyone in the audience that would like to ask the City Attorney any questions relative to what he's brought up already? You're welcome to do that. Okay. Thank you, Jim. All right. At this time we will go ahead and open this item up to receive public testimony. 15 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 $ 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 Is there anyone in the audience who would like to give testimony at this time? MR. MARKMAN: Before you close that, Bill, let me ask Paul if he's cast his ballot. Before the Mayor closes this, if anyone is here to vote, you better do it now, because it doesn't appear there will be any testimony. MAYOR ALEXANDER: I just want to make sure. I've been accused of closing these sometimes too fast. All right. the public hearing. MR. MARKMAN: At this time we will close Just the testimony part. MAYOR ALEXANDER: Testimony. I'm sorry. And I guess this is where the canvass starts. MR. MARKMAN: I suggest, Mr. Mayor, that the hearing is theoretically continuing, but now starts the Clerk's administration process of canvassing the ballots. (The ballots were counted.) MAYOR ALEXANDER: Could you please go ahead and cite the results of the -- MS. ADAMS: The total amount of assessments cast was $429,117.50. The total amount cast for a continuation 16 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 of the MNO Assessment was $277,217.50 for 64.6 percent. The total amount cast against the ~continuation of the MNO Assessment was $151,900 for a 35.4 percent. MR. MARKF~N: With that result, Mr. Mayor, the fact that the City Clerk is certifying to those results, staff reco~,,~Lends the Council adopt Resolution 97-088, in the first form presented in your agenda packet with the notation continuation and levy of assessments, which would continue the levy of the MNO Assessment. MAYOR ALEXANDER: motion? seconds. All right. Do we have a MAYOR PRO-TEMWILLIAMS: So moved. COUNCILMEMBER BIAN~: Second. MAYOR ALEXANDER: We have two motions and two Please indicate your vote. (A vote was taken.) MS. ADAMS: Unanimously, five to zero. MR. MARKMAN: Second to the last action, staff recommends for the Council to adopt Resolution 97-089 in the first form presented in your packet, with the notation supporting continuation of the Assessment. 17 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 MAYOR ALEXANDER: Do we have a motion? COUNCILMEMBER BIANE: So moved. MAYOR PRO-TEM WILLIAMS: Second. MAYOR ALEXANDER: We'll state Diane did it, because it got mentioned earlier that the court reporter would like to make sure that the appropriate names are placed. Please indicate your vote. (A vote was taken.) MS. ADAMS: Unanimously, five to zero. MAYOR ALEXANDER: Very good. Before we go to the communications from the public, there are a few people left tonight. And on behalf of everyone up here, I think it's appropriate to thank everybody involved, certainly with the staff, because this was quite a chore to go through the election process. I know we are all very grateful for the work the staff did. Certainly, second, we want to thank all the volunteers, both here, and there are some people that worked countless hours. And we're very grateful for that. And I think it goes without saying we want to thank the voters because they certainly show that they care about the community in keeping like it 18 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 is. Anybody else that wants to say anything, 19 they're welcome. COUNCILMEMBER BIANE: Well said by yourself. MAYOR ALEXANDER: Item D is co~t,,,unications from the public. This is the time and place for the general public to address the City Council. State law prohibits the Council from addressing any issue not previously on the agenda. The Council may receive testimony and set the matter for a subsequent meeting. Comments are to be limited to five minutes per individual. Is there anybody here this evening that would like to address the Council? MR. DUTTON: Mr. Mayor, Members of the Council, Bob Dutton, I think most of you know. I just want to publicly thank all the volunteers that helped with the passage of this measure, including all the sports groups in the community, as well as the outdoor riding club, specifically Jaycees Softball, Little League, numerous church groups, too numerous to mention, as well as the Rancho Cucamonga Fire Fighters Association, just countless other volunteers that helped pass out material and things of that nature. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 And most importantly, I too, would like to thank the property owners here in Rancho Cucamonga and also the business community. As a long-time Chamber member, I have learned to rely on them to support a lot of causes here in this community. And they have never let me down. And I was really pleased tonight to see that this issue was not an exception. So thank you, everybody. MAYOR ALEXANDER: Thank you very much, Bob. Ditto, I assure you. Is there anyone else here this evening that would like to address Council? Item E is adjournment. Is there a motion to adjourn? MAYOR PRO-TEM WILLIAMS: Diane will make a motion. COUNCILMEMBER BIANE: Second. MAYOR ALEXANDER: Paul will second. Please indicate your vote. (A vote was taken.) MS. ADAMS: Voted unanimously, five to zero. MAYOR ALEXANDER: Thank you. (END OF PROCEEDINGS.) 20 REPORTER'S CERTIFICATE I, ~ ~, ~_ b~v~J~-. , a Shorthand Reporter, do hereby certify that the foregoing proceed~-~ was written by ~ in Stenotypy, and transcribed into typewriting and that the foregoing is a true and correc~ copy of my shorthand notes thereof. Dated' JUL 0 3 1997 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 CITY OF RANCHO CUCAMONGA RANCHO CUCAMONGA CITY COUNCIL PUBLIC HEARING CONSIDERATION TO CONTINUE THE ASSESSMENT FOR PD-85 TRANSCRIPT OF PROCEEDINGS taken at 10500 Civic Center Drive, Council Chambers, Rancho Cucamonga, California, beginning at 7:00 p.m. and ending at 10:20 p.m. on Thursday, June 26, 1997, taken before CONNIE MARDON, Hearing Reporter. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 APPEARANCES: Rancho Cucamonga City Council: WILLIAM J. ALEXANDER, Mayor DIANE WILLIAMS, Mayor Pro-Tem JAMES V. CURATALO, Councilmember PAUL BIANE, Councilmember REX GUTIERREZ, Councilmember City Staff: JACK LAM, City Manager JAMES MARKMAN, City Attorney RICK GOMEZ, City Planner DEBBIE ADAMS, City Clerk 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 Rancho Cucamonga, California, Thursday, June 26th, 1997 7:00 p.m. - 10:20 p.m. order. MAYOR PRO-TEM WILLIAMS: Call this meeting to MAYOR ALEXANDER: join Diane. If would you all stand and (The pledge of allegiance was given.) MAYOR ALEXANDER: This is a special adjourned meeting of the City Council tonight. Roll call. Alexander is here. Biane. COUNCILMEMBER BIANE: Here. MAYOR ALEXANDER: Curatalo. COUNCILMEMBER CURATALO: Here. MAYOR ALEXANDER: Gutierrez. COUNCILMEMBER GUTIERREZ: Here. MAYOR ALEXANDER: Williams. MAYOR PRO-TEM WILLIAMS: Here. MAYOR ALEXANDER: Welcome back, Rex. COUNCILMEMBER GUTIERREZ: Thank you. It's a pleasure. MAYOR ALEXANDER: The following consent items 4 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 are expected to be routine and noncontroversial. They will be acted upon by the Council at one time without discussion. Any item may be removed by a councilmember or member of the audience for discussion, and that is the approval to amend Joint Use Agreement (CO 89-130) between the Chaffey Joint Union High School District and the City of Rancho Cucamonga for usage of the Alta Loma School recreation facilities. COUNCILMEMBER BIANE: I'll make a motion for approval. MAYOR PRO-TEM WILLIAMS: Second. MAYOR ALEXANDER: Motion is made and seconded. Your vote. (A vote was taken.) MS. ADAMS: Motion taken unanimously, five to zero. MAYOR ALEXANDER: Very good. Item C is the Advertised Public Hearing. The following item has been advertised and/or posted as a public hearing as required by law. We will open the meeting to receive public testimony. It's consideration to continue the Assessment for PD-85. 5 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 Jack, do you want to say anything? CITY MANAGER LAM: Yes. Mr. Mayor, Members of the Council, we will probably be here for at least a couple hours this evening. We have a fairly new procedure. You haven't seen the setup before. And in response to Proposition 218, we are conducting our official hearing tonight for PD-85. I would like to introduce Mr. Rick Gomez, who will give a brief report on the matter; followed by Mr. Markman, who will walk us through the process this evening. And I would also like to introduce Officer Burns in the back, who will be our Sergeant at Arms this evening. Mr. Gomez. MR. GOMEZ: Mr. Mayor, Members of the City Council, tonight is kind of like the conclusion of a process which began about a year ago. When we started to first understand what Prop 218 was and the ramifications of it, we started developing policy analysis; we tried to look at what 218 would do and the effects it would have on the City and how we would operate as a business again if it was to pass. Well, as we saw in December, it passed. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 At that time the City -- Excuse me. passed. November it In December the City Council collectively worked together to come up with a schedule which included putting together dates that we adopted our resolutions to follow the guidelines of 218 to set this public hearing, to mail out ballots back on May 8th. Approximately 24,487, I believe, was the round number. At that time we mailed the ballots out. We now have been working with processing, bringing them back in through the mail. And tonight it is the -- we are having the public hearing to count the returned ballots to determine if we were going to continue the Assessment or not. We hope that tonight -- what you'll see in front of you is going to be a process involving many volunteers putting together the ballots, getting them opened and counted, and by the time, oh, hopefully, within a couple of hours, you'll have a number. And we'll see what direction we'll be proceeding in. With that I'll turn it over to Jim, and he'll give a little bit of a legal background what we'll be doing tonight. 7 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 MR. MARKMAN: Thank you. Mr. Mayor and members of the Council and the audience, there's a lady over here to my left of the front row, who's a certified shorthand reporter; not usually here at Council proceedings, but we felt that we wanted to have a verbatim transcript of what happened this evening because of the financial importance of this decision and because, after all, it is a first experience of going through the ballot protest process under Proposition 218 for this City. Because we are trying to get an accurate record, we would appreciate it if people -- especially me -- speak more slowly than they normally do. Two people can't speak at the same time and be recorded. And gestures, whether positive or negative, also can't be recorded. So if those simple rules can be followed, it will help her. I don't think this will be -- considering the audience, the hearing won't be very long. Now, why we're here is because Proposition 218 was passed. And while it grandfathered in most existing assessments -- and all assessments -- where the money is used to service bonded indebtedness -- because the money was used -- or is being used -- to build public improvements, 8 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 there is one exception to the grandfathering, and that is Assessments for Maintenance and Operations of Parks. And that's different from streets or almost anything else you can think of that the City could be maintaining. And the reason for that is that the Jarvis Group thought one of the major abuses they were addressing in Proposition 218 were these districtwide park assessments that were really parcel taxes. Those were being levied on an annual basis in the entirety of the district instead of in the street area. And, essentially, we're supporting the operation of parks and parks districts. So we have that exception. We identified it, as Rick said, when we did an inventory of all the City's assessment districts. We found this one which is a very large and important one, where half the Assessment was grandfathered in. That half was used to build Red Hill and Heritage Community parks. However, about half of it, or maybe a little less than half, has been used over the years to maintain and operate those parks. It was always contemplated by the Council, then and now, that those funds would be available to operate the parks that 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 were being paid for, as far as their construction is concerned, by the same assessment. So we have an interesting and unique situation we have presented under Prop 218 to the assessed people in Rancho Cucamonga. Part of this assessment -- that is the part which we have asked them to vote on whether to continue to maintain and operate the parks. There will be an assessment to keep paying for the bonded indebtedness, regardless of the outcome tonight. So it's only part of the historic assessment that's in front of you. On May 9th, after going through -- developing the ballot materials, Council approved the ballot materials in the form of the ballot, directed it be mailed out in accordance with Prop 218. That mailing occurred on May 9th. And I have here -- I'm going to ask the Mayor to order this as an item of evidence in this proceeding. It's a declaration by the person who actually delivered 24,800-plus packages of material to the many different addresses in Rancho Cucamonga on May 9th. Not necessarily Rancho Cucamonga; there's some people who live outside the City, but who own 10 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 property in the City who are accessees. So that was mailed. And we have a declaration under penalty of perjury by the person who handed all those to the U.S. Postal Service that that mailing occurred, according to law, more than 45 days before this evening, and that all the materials that the Council approved were mailed to each and every address, which is shown on this package I have, which is almost 25,000 addresses. So I would ask the Mayor to make that Exhibit 1 to this proceeding. MAYOR ALEXANDER: Okay. So declared Exhibit 1. MR. MARKMAN: So, now, this evening we go through an interesting process, because the law requires two things to happen this evening: One thing is that there is a typical hearing on whether to continue this assessment, which means the people will be able to orally address the Council, and try to convince the Council and others whether to continue or not to continue the Assessment. In the meantime, ballots can keep coming in, right up until the time that the Mayor has heard the last person speak and declares that's the end of the public testimony. That is the minute -- although, we don't know which minute at this time -- that is the minute that the City Clerk can no longer accept votes 11 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 or ballots. So anybody here who wants to cast their ballot, needs to do that before the Mayor closes the public testimony. And the reason we chose to have that occur after public testimony is that perhaps somebody could be convinced by the testimony, one way or the other, on how to vote. I don't know if that's going to happen tonight. I know we have received over 9,000 ballots already. But at least it's possible. This is not an election, to clarify that. The FPPC doesn't think it's an election. The Prop 218 legislation that is going to the legislation now, declares it not to be an election. This is a ballot protest process by mail or personal delivery. It's the same as a majority protest process that you have in a lot of assessment hearings, where property owners can mount a majority protest if they wish. In this case, the key is what is the total amount of potential assessments voted for or against the proposition of continuing this assessment. That is, if there are $100 worth of assessments voted in favor of continuing the Assessment and $99 voted against continuing the Assessment, the Council is then 12 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 authorized to continue the Assessment. So we will have a large dollar figure, probably on both sides of the ledger. We also have a tabulation of the total amount of assessments that were cast. The law requires this, a little unusually, to occur during the hearing. Proposition 218 says that votes will be canvassed during the hearing. So we're being supersafe. We're not going to' close or recess this hearing, so all the people here can watch this activity going on. I'm going to ask at least three council members to be present in this room at all times that that is going on, so that nobody can say we counted these ballots other than during the hearing. The City Clerk will then get a tabulation. She'll sign a certificate similar to what the County Clerk signs after an election. She will certify the results. She will certify the total amount of assessments voted, the total amount voted to continue it, the total amount voted against continuing it. That will be presented to the counsel. And in the packet you see, you will have two resolutions to adopt. I suggest you're going to adopt them -- two resolutions -- one way or the other, because they're necessary in order to impose the 13 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 Assessment to service the bond. You have in your packet two alternative resolutions. For each one of these resolutions, one authorized, the Council would vote to continue the Maintenance and Operation Assessment, assuming it has been authorized by tonight's vote. The second assumes that the vote did not authorize the continuation of the Assessment. So the Council then would be asked to levy the Assessment without the Operation and Maintenance portion. So the all the actions you need to consider are in this packet before you. So we suggest that the first resolution will have to be adopted because of the canvass; the second resolution will levy an assessment, either both to service bonds and maintain the parks or just to service bonds. And so that's what we're here to do tonight. I will be happy to answer any questions. At this point in time, if there are any questions, it will be appropriate to receive public testimony on the Maintenance and Operation Assessment. MAYOR ALEXANDER: Questions at all? COUNCILMEMBER BIANE: Is there going to be any preliminary results as the process goes along? MR. MARKMAN: We have not -- that's not in the 14 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 program. Obviously, at some point in time there will be a running total. But you're going to see a machine opening ballots, one just rapidly. You're going to see people stacking the ballots. You'll see them being checked to make sure that the holes are punched out, rather than something else happening. You'll be seeing decisions made on ballots that may be mangled, damaged, or unusual. And then you'll see them put in a machine that counts them. If you want to stop that process at any given time and take a running count, I suppose we could do that. We think actually counting the ballots is only going to take 20 minutes. All the rest of the time is going to be processing the materials to get them in the position to be counted by the machine. COUNCILMEMBER BIANE: Thank you. MAYOR ALEXANDER: Other questions? Although not necessarily helping the public hearing, is there anyone in the audience that would like to ask the City Attorney any questions relative to what he's brought up already? You're welcome to do that. Okay. Thank you, Jim. All right. At this time we will go ahead and open this item up to receive public testimony. 15 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 Is there anyone in the audience who would like to give testimony at this time? MR. MARKMAN: Before you close that, Bill, let me ask Paul if he's cast his ballot. Before the Mayor closes this, if anyone is here to vote, you better do it now, because it doesn't appear there will be any testimony. MAYOR ALEXANDER: I just want to make sure. I've been accused of closing these sometimes too fast. A11 right. the public hearing. MR. MARKMAN: At this time we will close Just the testimony part. MAYOR ALEXANDER: Testimony. I'm sorry. And I ~uess this is where the canvass starts. MR. MARKMAN: I suggest, Mr. Mayor, that the hearing is theoretically continuing, but now starts the Clerk's administration process of canvassing the ballots. (The ballots were counted.) MAYOR ALEXANDER: Could you please go ahead and cite the results of the -- MS. ADAMS: The total amount of assessments cast was $429,117.50. The total amount cast for a continuation 16 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 of the MNO Assessment was $277,217.50 for 64.6 percent. The total amount cast against the continuation of the MNO Assessment was $151,900 for a 35.4 percent. MR. MARKMAN: With that result, Mr. Mayor, the fact that the City Clerk is certifying to those results, staff recon~nends the Council adopt Resolution 97-088, in the first fo~m presented in your agenda packet with the notation continuation and levy of assessments, which would continue the levy of the MNO Assessment. MAYOR ALEXANDER: All right. Do we have a motion? MAYOR PRO-TEM WILLIAMS: So moved. COUNCILMEMBER BIANE: Second. MAYOR ALEXANDER: We have two motions and two seconds. Please indicate your vote. (A vote was taken.) MS. ADAMS: Unanimously, five to zero. MR. MARKMAN: Second to the last action, staff recommends for the Council to adopt Resolution 97-089 in the first form presented in your packet, with the notation supporting continuation of the Assessment. 17 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 MAYOR ALEXANDER: Do we have a motion? COUNCILMEMBER BIANE: So moved. MAYOR PRO-TEM WILLIAMS: Second. MAYOR ALEXANDER: We'll state Diane did it, because it got mentioned earlier that the court reporter would like to make sure that the appropriate names are placed. Please indicate your vote. (A vote was taken.) MS. ADAMS: Unanimously, five to zero. MAYOR ALEXANDER: Very good. Before we go to the communications from the public, there are a few people left tonight. And on behalf of everyone up here, I think it's appropriate to thank everybody involved, certainly with the staff, because this was quite a chore to go through the election process. I know we are all very grateful for the work the staff did. Certainly, second, we want to thank all the volunteers, both here, and there are some people that worked countless hours. And we're very grateful for that. And I think it goes without saying we want to thank the voters because they certainly show that they care about the community in keeping like it 18 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 is. Anybody else that wants to say anything, 19 they're welcome. COUNCILMEMBER BIANE: Well said by yourself. MAYOR ALEXANDER: Item D is communications from the public. This is the time and place for the general public to address the City Council. State law prohibits the Council from addressing any issue not previously on the agenda. The Council may receive testimony and set the matter for a subsequent meeting. Comments are to be limited to five minutes per individual. Is there anybody here this evening that would like to address the Council? MR. DUTTON: Mr. Mayor, Members of the Council, Bob Dutton, I think most of you know. I just want to publicly thank all the volunteers that helped with the passage of this measure, including all the sports groups in the community, as well as the outdoor riding club, specifically Jaycees Softball, Little League, numerous church groups, too numerous to mention, as well as the Rancho Cucamonga Fire Fighters Association, just countless other volunteers that helped pass out material and things of that nature. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 And most importantly, I too, would like to thank the property owners here in Rancho Cucamonga and also the business community. As a long-time Chamber member, I have learned to rely on them to support a lot of causes here in this community. And they have never let me down. And I was really pleased tonight to see that this issue was not an exception. So thank you, everybody. MAYOR ALEXANDER: Thank you very much, Bob. Ditto, I assure you. Is there anyone else here this evening that would like to address Council? Item E is adjournment. Is there a motion to adjourn? MAYOR PRO-TEM WILLIAMS: motion. COUNCILMEMBER BIANE: Diane will make a Second. MAYOR ALEXANDER: Paul will second. Please indicate your vote. (A vote was taken.) MS. ADAMS: Voted unanimously, five to zero. MAYOR ALEXANDER: Thank you. (END OF PROCEEDINGS.) 20 REPORTER'S CERTIFICATE I, ~ ~,~_ ~.~.~f~-~ __, a Shorthand Reporter, do hereby certify that the foregoing proceeding was written by me in Stenotypy, and transcribed into typewriting and that the foregoing is a true and correct copy of my shorthand notes thereof. Dated' JUL 0 3 1997