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MIDPENINSULA REGIONAL OPEN SPACE DISTRICT
Meeting 07-06
REGULAR MEETING
BOARD OF DIRECTORS
March 14, 2007
MINUTES
REGULAR MEETING
1. ROLL CALL
President K. Nitz called the special meeting to order at 7:34 p.m.
Members Present: Ken Nitz, Jed Cyr, Nonette Hanko, Curt Riffle, Pete Siemens,
Larry Hassett and Mary Davey
Members Absent: None
Staff Present: Craig Britton, Sue Schectman, Sally Rice, C. Roessler, M.
Williams, G. Baillie, D. Simmons,R. Jurgensen, A. Ruiz, D. Topley, A. Hopke, J.
Maciel, K. Lenington, M. Freeman, M. Newburn
11. ORAL COMMUNICATIONS There were none.
III. ADOPTION OF AGENDA
Motion: J. Cyr moved to adopt the Agenda. M. Davey seconded the motion. The
motion passed 5 to 0.
IV. ADOPTION OF CONSENT CALENDAR
J. Cyr made grammatical corrections to the January 24, 2007 Minutes which were
incorporated by staff. (Page 4, paragraph 4, Line 2 change "Less"to "fewer"; and page 5,
paragraph 2, line 2 change "was"to "were".)
K. Nitz pulled the Revised Claims and asked questions on Revised Claims 6508, 6547,
and 6563, which were explained by staff.
Meeting 07-06 Page 2
J. Cyr asked about Revised Claim 6522 that was answered by staff.
M. Davey announced that she would recuse herself from Revised Claims 6505 and
6574R. N. Hanko said she would abstain from Revised Claims 6505 and 6574R.
Motion: J. Cyr moved that the Board adopt the Consent Calendar, including the
Board Minutes of January 24,2007 Special and Regular Meeting,
Agenda Item 5, Authorize the General Manager to Execute a Purchase
Contract with the State Department of General Services and Contract
Dealerships for 9 Vehicles at a Total Cost Not to Exceed $350,000.00, and
Revised Claims 07-05. L. Hassett seconded the motion.
Vote: The motion passed 7 to 0 on the January 24, 2007 Board Minutes and
Agenda Item 5. The Revised Claims 07-05 passed 5 to 0 on Revised
Claim numbers 6505 and 6574R with one recusal and one abstention, and
passed 7 to 0 on the remaining Revised Claims.
V. BOARD BUSINESS
A. Agenda Item No. 1 —Two Way Radio System Plan for Improvement; Review
Consultant's Cost Analysis for Implementation of a Digital Simulcast Two-Way
Radio System in Two, Three and Five-Year Timelines; Approve the Three-Year
FundingPlan and Authorize Expenditure in the Amount of$300 000 in Fiscal
p
Year 2007-2008 Contingent Upon Board Approval of the 2007/2008 Fiscal Year
Budget; Direct Staff to Complete the Project Within Three to Five Years
Depending on the Amount of District Staff Time Required and Other Factors
Including FCC Licensing and Cooperative Purchasing Opportunities Available—
(Report R-07-40).
D. Topley introduced Greg Forrest of Macro to the Board and said they would
both be available for questions after the presentation. D. Topley gave a re-cap of
the January 24 meeting. He reviewed the General Manager's recommendations
and said that staff had asked Mr. Forrest to develop a two, three and five year
implementation cost analysis plan. Staff then reviewed the differences in total
costs. He said that the numbers take into account savings. He added that more
staff time would be necessary with the shorter timeline.
D. Topley said that staff recommends the three-year timeline as it will minimize
staff time and the cost of implementing the system and retiring the current system.
i
C. Riffle said he supported this recommendation and asked about the non-
recurring costs. D. Topley said the non-recurring costs included site
improvements and radios, hardware, and the simulcast system. He added that
recurring costs include the higher level of maintenance as this cost goes up from
the current$20,000 per year to upwards of$80,000 to $90,000 per year.
Meeting 07-06 Page 3
P. Siemens asked when the simulcast would begin. D. Topley said that they
would be able to use it when the digital system is running in approximately three
to five years. He said the new radios are analog capable and digital capable. P.
Siemens clarified that staff will not be able to be on a system that is half on
analog and half on digital. D. Topley said that was correct—they would all need
to be on the same system.
L. Hassell asked if there had been any discussion about technology that may be
available in a few years. Mr. Forrest replied that they were looking for
technology that would be supportive of going ahead in time and looked for a
system that was without risk of not working over time. He said that they had
decided on digital and gave Santa Clara County as an example of an agency using
a similar system for the past nine years and that the latest version came out about
four years ago. He added that the system they examined met Federal standards.
Motion: N. Hanko moved that the Board approve the two way radio system
plan for improvement; Review consultant's Cost Analysis for
Implementation of a Digital Simulcast Two-Way Radio System in
two, three and five-year timelines; Approve the three-year funding
plan and authorize expenditure in the amount of$300,000 in fiscal
year 2007-2008 contingent upon Board approval of the 2007/2008
fiscal year budget; Direct staff to complete the project within three
to five years depending on the amount of District staff time
required and other factors including FCC licensing and cooperative
purchasing opportunities available. M. Davey seconded the
motion.
Discussion: J. Cyr said he was pleased with staff coming back to the Board
with this information so quickly.
K. Nitz asked if the Board will need to vote on the funding for this
every year. C. Britton said that the funds will be included in the
annual budget that the Board votes on.
K. Nitz asked D. Topley if he had time to work on this project, and
D. Topley said it was his number one priority. K. Nitz asked for
an overview of D. Topley's job responsibilities and D. Topley gave
a list of his job duties. K. Nitz asked if staff will bring in
consultants to help with the work-load and D. Topley said they
would be bringing Macro to write the proposals. C. Britton said
that he, too, had asked D. Topley about the amount of time this
project would take in D. Topley's work-load, but said that both D.
Topley and J. Maciel assured him that they would be able to
manage it.
Meeting 07-06 Page 4
K. Nitz said he did not recall seeing anything written about FCC
licensing. D. Topley said that they would need a new license to
get a separate frequency for the mobile repeaters, but that it was a
long process to request a new frequency from the FCC.
Vote: The motion passed 7 to 0.
B. Agenda Item No. 2—Controller's Report on the Proposed Fiscal Year 2007-2008
Budget—(Report R-07-42).
M. Foster reviewed the Controller's report and said that it was all good news.
The District is in a sound fiscal position,with strong revenue growth of 21% and
the long-term debt reduced.
He said that for fiscal year 2008 the residential tax income will taper off and he
expects 3% growth. There is a long list of grants to apply for the acquisition of
property, adding that the District tends to receive about 60% of the grants that are
budgeted. He said that the debt service is 31% of tax revenue, which is very low
compared to previous years, adding that the usual is 50%.
C. Riffle asked about the tables attached to the report and asked about the
Operations numbers. M. Foster said they are 97% of the budget and that the
District has never over spent the operation budget.
K. Nitz said he noticed that the major improvements line was the same and asked
if they had included the radio system upgrade. Staff said they had included those
numbers.
No Board action was required. The Board thanked M. Foster and accepted the
report.
C. Agenda Item No. 3—Initial Presentation of the District's Budget for Fiscal Year
2007-2008; Review the Proposed District Budget for the 2007-2008 Fiscal Year.
The Final District Budget for the 2007-2008 Fiscal Year and the Report and
Recommendations of the Administration and Budget Committee Will be
Presented at Your March 28, 2007 Regular Meeting for Adoption—(Report R-07-
4a.
C. Britton gave an introduction about the staff s presentation of the budget. He
said that the Administration and Budget Committee will have their report at the
next Board meeting.
Administration and Human Resources Department
S. Rice gave an overview of the basics for the Administration and Human
Resources Department. She said there would be an 11%budget growth due to
Meeting 07-06 Page 5
new staff positions; there's a 4% CALPERs increase for 2005 and a 1.9%
enhancement to CALPERs in 2006. She said that based on the CPI, the office,
supervisory and management staff will receive a 2.1%pay increase. Finally, she
said that this is the first year they will have included the coastal area in the
operations guidelines.
S. Rice told the Board what budgets fall under the Administration umbrella,
including the Administrative and Legal staff, Board appointees, Board fees,
payroll, network systems and office leases. She said that no new positions were
being requested but there was one position that they would request to be
reclassified. She added that no money was budgeted for elections this year, but
money was added to re-carpet the Administration office. Finally, she said that the
retiree medical costs will be included in each department budget, including
qualifications for sick leave conversion.
Real Property Department.
M. Williams said, as a follow-up to M. Foster's presentation on Agenda Item 2,
that they are close to $20 million in land expenditures. M. Williams then gave a
brief review of the Real Property Department's budget.
J. Cyr referred to page 3 and asked if appraisals are associated with the cost of
purchasing land and that if the District does not buy a piece of land, is it spent
against services. M. Williams said it was.
K. Nitz asked about the change in the position title, "Land Protection Specialist".
M. Williams said the name change was consistent and that it made sense to have
two positions with this title and classification; although each of these positions
will have a different emphasis.
Planning Department.
M. Freeman gave an overview of the Planning Department's budget and said that
he would be requesting an additional staff position for an Open Space Planner 1,
and he gave a brief description of the duties and why they needed this position.
Under the Services and Supplies line, he said he would be requesting $40,000 for
a master engineering consultant. He reviewed Attachment B which analyzes
expenditures over a five year period, adding that without grant funding they
would be over the guidelines.
L. Hassett asked if the engineer would be an on-call consultant. M. Freeman said
up to $25,000 would be for on-call services.
J. Cyr referred to page 5 and asked if the cost of adding solar panels was included
adding that he thought it was an appropriate expense. C. Britton said that it was
Meeting 07-06 Page 6
just for study, but they will come back with the information in the future, and that
their goal is to "green up"the administration building.
C. Riffle noted the importance of grants and asked if the District is being
competitive. M. Freeman said that they have not gone after as many recreational
grants, but that K. Lenington has been successful in receiving resource grants. M.
Freeman said it was critical that they receive grant funds and looking ahead; there
are projects staff is looking at to get grants to fund them. If they don't receive
grant funding, staff will need to ask the Board for more money. C. Britton added
that he thinks the District will need to hire a dedicated grant writer, saying that it
takes as much time and work to get a small grant as it does for a large grant. K.
Nitz asked if the District contracted out grant writing and C. Britton said they had
been fortunate in the past to be able to hire a former District employee to write
grants. M. Freeman added that administering the FEMA grants will also take a lot
of staff time.
K. Nitz asked when staff will bring a report to the Board on Windy Hill Open
Space Preserve. M. Freeman said it was being reviewed and the information
would be brought to the Board.
L. Hassett asked if staff was going to take advantage of the Jasper Ridge I 00-year
documentation of sediment records. C. Britton said that the people working on
the San Francisquito Creeks will pull that information together. K. Lenington
said that the Watershed Council was the regulatory agency.
K. Nitz asked when the TMDL will come on line, and K. Lenington said they are
looking at it, but they have not begun the development process. He said it will
take about three years.
Operations Department.
J. Maciel reviewed the Operations Department budget. He said that 25% of his
staff will receive merit increases in addition to the CPI salary increase. $200,000
will include the hiring of two new Equipment Maintenance Operators for each
field office. He said that they have had great success with the temporary
administrative assistant help in each field office and that he would be requesting
that their status be changed from temporary part-time employees to permanent
part-time employees, which will affect their benefits budget. He said he would
also be requesting a half-time position for a Training Coordinator.
J. Cyr asked if the half-time administrative assistants would be entitled to benefits
and J. Maciel said they would once their classification is changed from temporary
to permanent.
J. Maciel reviewed the Services and Supplies line item budgets, noting that the
cost of the dispatcher will increase $20,000. Under Fixed Assets, they included
Meeting 07-06 Page 7
$300,000 for the new radio system upgrade and for the replacement of vehicles,
including replacing the Administration Office's Suburban. C. Britton asked the
Board to refer to the attachment describing the five-year equipment plan. C.
Britton asked if the Board would like a tour of the field equipment and most said
they would.
L. Hassett referred to page 7 and asked if property taxes for Coastal acquisitions
should fall in the Operations budget. He said he thought it should be in the Real
Property budget. C. Britton said that they had been told by their auditors that this
line item was not part of Real Property because the land needs management, so it
belongs in the Operations budget. S. Schectman said that it is a fire service fee
and education fee, and C. Britton said it needed to go somewhere, but also needed
to be within the guidelines.
P. Siemens said they should look at revising the guidelines, making a step for new
items, such as coastal expenses; contracts with sheriff offices, etc. He said the
ABC committee will be bringing recommendations explaining this one-time step
at the next Board meeting.
L. Hassett asked why new trails aren't being built more by Operations staff rather
than hiring contractors. C. Britton said that they are finding out that Operations is
doing less and less trail building and he gave Pulgas Ridge as an example.
J. Cyr said he supported what L. Hassett said. He asked what happens to the 17-
year old tractor. J. Maciel said it will remain at the field office yard and can still
be used to do lifting because the hydraulic system is still working.
C. Riffle asked if staff reevaluates leasing versus buying. J. Maciel said they do
and gave examples. He added that they buy essential pieces of equipment, but it
is less expensive to rent larger equipment.
K. Nitz asked why the radios were non-operating assets and J. Maciel said they
fell under Fixed Assets. C. Britton added that the radios will be considered one
bulk purchase.
K. Nitz asked about the staff training and the need for a half-time training
coordinator. J. Maciel explained the processes required for staff trainings, which
also includes preparation time, scheduling, documenting, etc. G. Baillie gave an
example of the CPR training stating that they need to offer five to six trainings in
order to get all of the staff through the CPR training class.
K. Nitz asked if they will include the results of the land management database and
J. Maciel said they will look at it next year.
Public Affairs Department.
Meeting 07-06 Page 8
R. Jurgensen reviewed the Public Affairs Department budget. He said they would
be requesting a new position for a web content and writing position. There would
be a decrease under the Services and Supplies section due to the polling.
K. Nitz asked what the person in the new position would write. R. Jurgensen said
they would develop op-ed pieces, write articles and write web content.
Other
S. Rice said that they would like to know how the Board felt about replacing the
Board meeting chairs for the Directors. She said that the hydraulics for the chairs
was replaced a few years earlier. P. Siemens said he had found a leather chair for
just $150.00. C. Britton suggested that they wait one year and took a straw poll
with the results being in favor of waiting one year before budgeting for new
Director Board chairs (4 —one more year/3 —new chairs now).
C. Britton said that they are close to exceeding the 7% Guidelines. He said the
ABC committee should look at ways to develop a new guideline. K. Nitz said he
was worried about changing the guideline because it is a strong tool to control the
budget. C. Britton said that each year it gets to be more of a challenge to stay
within the guideline and suggested that other alternatives should be explored.
No Board action was required. The Board thanked staff for the presentation of
the budget and accepted the report.
D. Agenda Item No. 4—Proposed Purchase of the Smith Property as an Addition to
Monte Bello Open Space Preserve (Santa Clara County Assessor's Parcel Number
351-12-043); Determine that the Recommended Actions are Categorically
Exempt From the California Environmental Quality Act(CEQA)As Set Out in
This Report; Adopt the Resolution Authorizing Purchase of the Smith Property;
Tentatively Adopt the Preliminary Use and Management Plan Contained in this
Report, Including Naming Portions of the Smith Property as an Addition to Monte
Bello 0 1 Property as
Open Space Preserve; Indicate Intention to Dedicate the Smith Prope v
Public Open Space—(Report R-07-39).
M. Williams gave a PowerPoint slide presentation showing maps and pictures of
the property and the orientation of the property. He reviewed the Terms and
Conditions of the acquisition purchase.
J. Cyr referred to section 5 of the Resolution and said he appreciated the
explanation of the financing and asked if this language will become "boiler plate"
in future Resolutions. S. Schectman said it would and that the language was a
result of the Coastal meeting(February 7, 2007).
Motion: N. Hanko moved that the Board approve the purchase of the Smith
property as an addition to Monte Bello Open Space Preserve
Meeting 07-06 Page 9
(Santa Clara County Assessor's parcel number 351-12-043);
Determine that the recommended actions are categorically exempt
from the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA) as set out
in this report; Adopt Resolution No. 07-xx authorizing purchase of
the Smith property; tentatively adopt the preliminary Use and
Management Plan contained in this report, including naming
portions of the Smith property as an addition to Monte Bello Open
Space Preserve; Indicate intention to dedicate the Smith property
as public open space. M. Davey seconded the motion.
Discussion: K. Nitz made a comment about the poor quality of the mapped
copy attached to the staff report. M. Williams said it was likely
caused by copying from a color picture to a black and white copy.
K. Nitz asked how much the per-acre cost of the property was and
C. Britton calculated that it was $43,000 per acre.
C. Britton gave some historical background on the property. He
said that portions were originally purchased from George Morell
and from Stanford for$475,000. He said the Morell family was
happy to sell the land to the District. However, Stanford wanted to
waive rights for future appraisals and that the land was appraised
for$2.5 million.
He said that this was the final piece of the original property and
that the District had kept in touch with family through the years.
He noted that the family was selling the land to the District at half
price.
M. Williams said that the Morell family had provided him with
historical articles and pictures.
The Board agreed that they should give something to the family for
their generosity.
Vote: The motion passed 7 to 0.
VI. INFORMATIONAL REPORTS
N. Hanko said her compensable meetings included the March 131h Legislative, Finance
t h
and Public Affairs Committee LFPAC meetin • the March 14 Legislative, Finance and
( ) g� g ,
Public Affairs Committee meeting; and tonight's meeting. C. Britton reviewed the
upcoming District constituent polling procedure for the Board m p g p g p embers. N. Hanko said
that LFPAC discussed recognizing Dick Bishop with a trail at Pulgas Ridge Open Space
Preserve saying that the current Sage Brush Trail would be renamed the Dick Bishop
,I
Meeting 07-06 Page 10
Trail. She added that this recommendation would come to the full Board for approval at
a future meeting.
J. Cyr said his compensable meetings included the March 4 and March 8 Sierra Azul
Master Plan meetings; the March 13 and 14 Legislative, Finance and Public Affairs
Committee meetings, and tonight's meeting.
M. Davey said her compensable meetings included the February 27th, March I" and
March 8' Administration and Budget Committee meetings, and tonight's meeting. She
said the Board had a wonderful photo session at Rancho San Antonio.
P. Siemens said his compensable meetings were the February 27th, March Is` and March
8t" Administration and Budget Committee meetings; the March 14`" Legislative, Finance
h
and Public Affairs Committee meeting; the March 8tSierra Azul Master Plan meeting;
and tonight's meeting.
L. Hassett said his compensable meetings were the March 13 and 14 Legislative, Finance
and Public Affairs Committee meetings, and tonight's meeting. He said he had taken two
trips to Thornewood Open Space Preserve. He said he met with the Town of Woodside's
trails committee. He said that M. Manning did an excellent job. There were many issues
and she went through each item thoroughly. He also commended M. Freeman, D.
Sanguinetti, C. Roessler, who showed what slender False brome looked like, and he said
that C. Beckman did a great job showing examples of brushed trails. He said that M.
Williams and R. Jurgensen also attended the meeting.
C. Riffle said his compensable meetings included the February 27Ih, March I't and March
8t" Administration and Budget Committee meetings and tonight's Board meeting. He
said he would be attending the Sempervirens Fund dinner and that Joe Simitian would be
there. He said he ran up Hams Gulch and it was beautiful country.
K. Nitz said his compensable meetings were the March 14th I 8th and March Sierra Azul
Master Plan meetings and tonight's meeting. He said he had received a letter that he
would like included in the next Board packet's FYI's.
C. Britton said he was inviting Janet McBride for lunch as she is the new Director of the
Ridge Trail Council. He announced that the District's new acreage total was now 56,281
acres. He said he would be attending the State of the City in Palo Alto and that N. Hanko
and M. Davey were also going to attend that meeting. He said they had received an
invitation to Peninsula Open Space Trust's open house for their new offices in Palo Alto.
He said the Special Park Districts Forum will be held in Columbus, Ohio from June 5 to
June 8. He said that J. Cyr, K. Nitz, C. Riffle, and L. Hassett will be attending.
S. Schectman said they had filed a motion to dismiss the appeal in the Coast litigation as
having been untimely filed. She said the plaintiffs have until March 31" to respond and
that there is no set date for the court to rule. She distributed the brief to the Board
members.
Meeting 07-06 Page I I
S. Rice commended G. Baillie and B. Congdon for their work on preparing the District's
budget and staff report.
M. Freeman said that A. Ruiz had done a lot of work and analysis for the Planning
Department's budget and should be acknowledged for the work. He said that there was
good communication at the Woodside Trails Workshop. Last week, he said staff
attended a salmon restoration meeting and that everyone was pleased with the work to-
date.
R. Jurgensen remarked on the slender false biome at Thornewood Open Space Preserve.
He said he had met with M. Manning and C. Roessler to discuss the public reaction and
they said it was generally good.
VII. ADJOURNMENT
At 10:25 p.m. the Regular Board meeting was adjourned.
Lisa Zadek
Recording Secretary
Regional Open Space
MIDPENINSULA REGIONAL OPEN SPACE DISTRICT
Attachment to Minutes of March 14, 2007
MEMORANDUM
DATE: October 8, 2008
TO: MROSD Board of Directors
FROM: Gregory L. Sam, District Clerk
SUBJECT: Draft Minutes of Board Meeting of March 14, 2007
The General Manager recently directed staff to review the District's agenda web page to identify
all missing minutes of regular and special Board meetings from previous years and ensure they
were posted to provide a complete record of Board meetings for public review. While
undertaking this process, staff discovered that the draft minutes of the regular Board meeting of
March 14, 2007, had not been adopted by the Board. Currently, there is no official record of this
meeting.
The General Manager requests that the Board review and approve the attached draft minutes of
the regular Board meeting of March 14, 2007, at tonight's meeting of October 8, 2008.