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HomeMy Public PortalAbout20070314 - Minutes - Board of Directors (BOD) Regional Open bpace 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.