HomeMy Public PortalAbout20080213 - Minutes - Board of Directors (BOD) Meeting 08-04
SPECIAL AND REGULAR MEETING
BOARD OF DIRECTORS
February 13, 2008
MINUTES
SPECIAL MEETING
I. ROLL CALL
President P. Siemens called the Special Meeting to order at 4:35 p.m.
Members Present: Pete Siemens, Jed Cyr, Nonette Hanko, Mary Davey, Ken Nitz,
Curt Riffle and Larry Hassett
Members Absent: None
Staff Present: Craig Britton, Sue Schectman, Bobbi Peckham, Matt Freeman
11. CLOSED SESSION
P. Siemens stated that there were no reportable items from the Closed Session. He said
that the Board would be returning to the Closed Session after the end of the Regular
Meeting.
REGULAR MEETING
111. P. Siemens called the Regular Meeting to order at 7:45 p.m., and asked for the Roll Call.
Members Present: Pete Siemens, Jed Cyr,Nonette Hanko, Mary Davey, Ken Nitz,
Curt Riffle, and Larry Hassett
Members Absent: None
Additional Staff Present: Greg Sam, Camille Tavlian, Michael Williams, Gordon
Baillie, David Sanguinetti, Vicky Gou, Annetta Spiegel, Casey Cleve, Benny Hsieh,Rudy
Jur9 ensen and Duncan Simmons.
IV. ORAL COMMUNICATIONS—There were none.
Meeting 08-04
V. ADOPTION OF AGENDA
Motion: J. Cyr moved that the Board adopt the Agenda. K. Nitz seconded the
motion. The motion passed 7 to 0.
VI. ADOPTION OF CONSENT CALENDAR
C. Riffle stated that he had not received the Minutes listed on the Consent Calendar. C.
Britton said that the Minutes were not completed in time so they would be on the next
Board meeting's agenda.
K. Nitz asked about Revised Claim number 84-7-R, which staff answered to his
satisfaction.
Motion: J. Cyr moved that the Board adopt the Consent Calendar, including
Written Communications; Agenda Item 6 Ap
point Maze &Associates
as the District's Auditors for Fiscal Year 2007-2008 and Authorize the
General Manager to Execute an Engagement Letter Agreement in the*Amount of$22,860.00; Agenda Item 7 Authorize the Transfer of$12,000
from the Real Property Department's New Land Commitments Budget
Category 8102-24 to the Planning Department's Coastside Protection
Program Budget Category 5219-37, Authorize Payment of Additional
Legal Fees to the Law Firm of Shute, Mihaly& Weinberger in the Matter
of Citizens for Responsible Open Space v. LAFCO and Midpeninsula
Reggional Op
en Space District and Additional Legal Matters in an Amount
Note to Exceed $25,000.00, Agenda Item 8 Approve the Settlement and
Adopt Resolution No. 08-xx Authorizing the General Manager to Execute
the Release and Settlement Agreement with Gulf Insurance Company for
the Claim of Damages to District Property Upon Payment of$43,179.3 1,
Agenda Item 9 Adopt the Recommendations Amending the Preliminary
Use and Management Plan for the 40-acre Former Fletscher Prop
within the Mt. Umunhum Area of Sierra Azul Open Space Preserve (Santa
Clara County Assessor Parcel Nos. 562-22-043 and—044); and Revised
Claims 08-02. L. Hassett seconded the motion. The motion passed 7 to 0
on Agenda Items 6, 7, 8 and 9. The Revised Claims 08-03 passed 6 to 0
on Revised Claim numbers 8347, 8248 and 8413-R with two recusals from
M. Davey and N. Hanko, and the remaining Revised Claims passed 7 to 0.
VII. NEW STAFF INTRODUCTION
G. Sam introduced the District's new Network Specialist, Benny Hsieh, who started
working at the District in late January. He gave some background information about B.
Hsieh. The Board welcomed B. Hsieh to the District. B. Hsieh said that he had hiked the
District preserves and that he looked forward to exploring more the preserves and doing
his part to preserve the greenbelt.
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Meeting 08-04
VIII. BOARD BUSINESS
A. Agenda Item No. 1 —Information Report on District Web Updates- (Roort R-
08-25)
V. Gou, the Web Content Coordinator, presented the informational report. She
gave a PowerPoint presentation starting with a slide of the District's homepage.
She said that the site was redesigned in 2004 and it is still a well-designed site.
V. Gou reviewed the primary objectives of the website. She said the first
objective is to serve as a marketing or branding tool. It is important to have an
on-line presence. The second objective is to serve as a communications tool. The
District's website serves as an information warehouse for people, and the site also
works as a two-way communications tool. She said that another objective of the
site is to promote the environment and advocacy and engagement is critical. The
site encourages people to get outdoors and be involved in the District's activities,
and participate with the volunteer programs.
V. Gou said that she uses Google Analytics to gather information for the website.
She reviewed the use statistics. There were 60,000 page views per month. A
page view is when a page is loaded and she described how that is determined.
The second parameter tracks how many unique computers visit the website and
she said that last month there were about 12,000 computer visits. She said that the
average person who visits the site views three pages, and they spend about 3
minutes per visit.
V. Gou said one of her first projects was to select an e-communications tool that
would allow staff to send HTML graphical e-mails to large lists of people. She
showed a slide of a message using MailChimp, the program chosen to be used.
She said this program was efficient, but maintains privacy of e-mail addresses.
She said there were significant cost savings; the program costs $25 per month.
V. Gou said that a goal is to transition people from the print version of the Open
Space Views newsletter to receiving an electronic version. She said that there are
currently 1,100 subscribers to the newsletter. There are environmental benefits
and cost savings associated with moving toward an electronic distribution of the
newsletter.
V. Gou showed a slide of the on-line store's home page. She said that this site is
something that the volunteers and docents have asked for through the years. She
pointed out that it is not just a shopping site,but another opportunity to direct
people to other parts of the District's website. They are also working on a lobby
display and a display at the Daniel's Nature Center to display the merchandise.
V. Gou said that one project she is working on is to migrate the District's site to a
different web-hosting company. She did some research and chose Crystal Tech as
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Meeting 08-04
the web host. They offer higher security standards, run more frequent back-ups,
and their control panel gives more control of managing the files and backing up
the database. Crystal Tech's technical support is very responsive. They also offer
a 50% discount for non-profits, so the District is paying about $10.00 per month.
V. Gou said that the Employment page is one of the most popular pages. She said
they moved to the CalOpps program.
In the future, staff would like to add some interactive media, and Google
Mapping, and they are looking into adding an on-line credit card capability for
people to make donations. They are also looking to diversify the website and will
be adding some foreign language pages.
K. Nitz thanked her for the good work. He asked if the District gets any money
from people clicking on the ads under Google Search. V. Gou said she did not
believe they did. He asked if the District policies are on the searchable location.
V. Gou asked for clarification and K. Nitz gave an example and said that he didn't
see the policy or ordinance he was looking for. V. Gou said the search engine
used is the Google Search engine, which is very sensitive to key words. She said
that the ordinances are on the website.
C. Britton said that V. Gou has done a great job on the website. He said he had
needed to be convinced by staff to hire a fulltime, dedicated web person and he is
delighted with the work she has accomplished.
C. Riffle said he thought she was doing a great job. He asked if there is a way to
alert users about an activity that is coming up. V. Gou said that with MailChimp
they might be able to set up such a system. He asked if the District has a link on
any of its partner sites, such as REI. V. Gou said that this is a good idea, but that
she has not had time to do the research. C. Britton said that they have limited
having the District's link on only public agency websites. S. Schectman gave
some information about their legal constraints in this matter.
A. Spiegel, HR Analyst, gave a report on the new recruitment software, CalOpps.
She said that interested people can apply on-line through CalOpps. The CalOpps
website has 63 agencies that include cities, similar agencies, and other
government agencies. The employment application form can be filled out on-line.
N. Hanko said that she was glad to see the telephone number for the District on
the site.
The Board accepted the staff report. No formal Board action was required for this
item.
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Meeting 08-04
B. Agenda Item No. 2—Information Report on GIS Program Development, Receive
an Oral Report on Several Key GIS Projects Identified in the 2007-2008 Action
Plan- (Report R-08-12)
C. Cleve presented the staff report on the GIS program. She said she would focus
on the Real Property dedication database, better integration of new information
into the District's GIS, and expanded 3-D visualization.
the Real Property GIS database. The reason the
She said she would reviewp y y
needed to develop this database was that staff needed to know information about a
particular parcel. She said that currently the only way to find out the origination
of a particular parcel was through institutional knowledge or extensive research.
The file system is organized based on"grantor," so it is necessary to know the
name of the grantor. Staff has created a link between GIS and the Real Property
database. They did this by mapping all of the parcels and fee transactions and
then they linked the information to the Real Property database. She gave a
demonstration of how staff could use the system with a PowerPoint presentation.
P. Siemens asked if easements are shown as well. M. Williams said that he
thought it did. C. Cleve said that anything that is in the database, she could create
maps from.
K. Nitz asked if this information was connected to a Resource Management
database. C. Cleve said it was not,but that they have built a system that they can
connect in the future as they create future databases. It would be possible to link
it.
C. Cleve said that she seeks out organizations that provide GIS data layers. She
showed an example showing the most up-to-date information on Sudden Oak
Death observations. Staff is also making improvements in tracking invasive
weeds. Operations is developing an invasive weeds database where they will be
tracking weed locations and treatments.
K. Nitz asked if they are able to keep a timeline about the data. C. Cleve said that
they have not yet implemented this database, but part of the weed database is a
time element. She said that C. Roessler and L. Infante are working on the design
of the database and she will be working on linking the database to the GIS system.
P. Siemens asked where staff gets the basic GIS data. C. Cleve said they get the
information from GPS and explained how field staff map sites they document
from the GPS information.
I
J. Cyr asked if there is a link to the photo library. C. Cleve said that they have not
for the weed database,but they can for other databases. She said it is easy to
incorporate photos links.
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Meeting 08-04
C. Cleve described a completed project she worked on with M. Manning on a
spatial water rights database for the San Gregorio Creek Watershed. M. Manning
asked a ranger to go out to the site and collect GPS points of diversion for each of
the water rights within the San Gregorio Creek Watershed, and he took
photographs of the points of diversion. C. Cleve said that they were then able to
link the photos to the GIS database and link the locations to the photos to the
report. Then the information was linked to Google Earth, and she showed how
they use Google Earth at their office.
P. Siemens said he appreciated the presentation and found it very informative.
J. Cyr said it is a tremendously useful tool in helping to educate the public about
the District and the work staff is doing.
The Board accepted the staff report. No formal Board action was required for this
item.
C. Agenda Item No. 3 —Field Enforcement Activity for 2007 and Ten-Year Field
Activity Summar , Accept the 2007 Miscellaneous Enforcement Activity
Summary and the Ten-Year Field Activity Summary=(Report R-08-17)
G. Baillie presented the staff report. He started with reviewing the bicycle
violations and said that they were much the same as in prior years.
G. Baillie said that dogs prohibited on sites had increased considerably the past
year, as has dog off-leash violations. He said that after-hour use has increased. J.
Cyr asked if the off-hour violations were District wide or specific to certain
preserves. G. Baillie said he did not know if there was a particular trend.
L. Hassett asked about the after-hours violations. He asked if the after-hours
incidents occurred very late in the evening, or if they kept track of the times. D.
Sanguinetti said that there is a half-hour grace period. D. Sanguinetti said that
staff has now posted parking signs and if they see a car parked after-hours they are
handing out parking citations, rather than going in the preserves and searching for
people. L. Hassett suggested that, specifically with Thomewood, that the closing
time be strictly enforced.
K. Nitz asked when the southern preserves were closed to bicycles. G. Baillie
said they were closed in 2000.
C. Riffle asked about the 1,788 violations, and he asked if the percentage of
certain violations was about the same and if the fact that more land and trails are
being opened to the public is a correlation. G. Baillie said he thought there was.
There is steady growth.
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Meeting 08-04
C. Britton asked if anything stood out to G. Baillie this year since he's been doing
this report for ten years. He said there were no big statistical jumps.
Josh Moore, 2111 Latham Street, Mountain View, CA, the president of ROMP,
thanked staff for this informative report. He said it is great to have this kind of
information available to the public. He said that the biking issues are constant and
consistent; they are not appearing to increase. He said he would find it useful if
staff could include a report on illegal trail building and to see what type of funds
are spent to remediate the unauthorized trails.
P. Siemens asked if this information would be difficult to add. D. Sanguinetti
replied that this information is put in the"other"category, but in the future they
will track this information separately.
N. Hanko asked if staff keeps track of the trails where violations occur. D.
Sanguinetti said they do track the trails in the Skyline area and they keep the
information in a binder. C. Britton suggested that staff name the preserve but not
specific trails. D. Sanguinetti said that he would be meeting with Mr. Moore of
violations in articular. J.
i cussin when there are bicycle
ROMP and will beds gp
Cyr suggested that staff could just state the type of terrain where violations occur,
rather than naming the preserve. D. Sanguinetti said he did not have a problem
naming the preserve, but he did not want to be specific about where in the
preserve the events occur.
C. Riffle asked if there were any specific trends by preserve. G. Baillie said they
do not track specific trends by preserve,but they are working on switching over
from a manual system to a database that offers better reporting tools.
No formal Board action was required for this item. The Board of Directors
accepted the report.
D. Agenda Item 4—Annual Progress Report on Ranger Bicycle Patrol Program for
Calendar Year 2007• Accept this Informational Report on the Ranger Bicycle
Patrol Program and Authorize Staff to Discontinue the Specialized Annual
Report and Substitute an Informational Item to the Board if Circumstances
Regarding the Program Change—(Report R-08-15)
C. Britton asked if the Board would accept Agenda Item 4 and Agenda Item 5 as
Consent Items because they are informational reports that come before the Board
every year. He said that staff is asking if in the future both of these reports could
be informational reports rather than agenda reports.
Motion: N. Hanko moved the General Manager's recommendation to accept
Agenda Item 4 as a Consent item and to authorize staff to
discontinue the specialized annual report for the ranger bicycle
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Meeting 08-04
program and substitute an annual informational report for this
program to the Board if circumstances regarding the program
change. J. Cyr seconded the motion.
Discussion: J. Cyr said he was not in favor of no longer receiving these two
reports,but he is in favor of the recommendation to receive the
reports as an FYI.
Vote: The motion passed 7 to 0.
E. Agenda Item 5—Annual Progress Report on the Use of Radar on District Lands
for Calendar Year 2007, Accept this Informational Report on the Radar Program.
and Authorize Staff to Discontinue the Specialized Annual Report and Substitute
an Informational Item to the Board if Circumstances Regarding the Program
Change—(Report R-08-16)
Motion: M. Davey moved the General Manager's recommendation to
accept Agenda Item 5 as Consent item and to authorize staff to
discontinue the specialized annual radar program report and
substitute an annual informational report for this program to the
Board if circumstances regarding the program change. N. Hanko
seconded the motion.
Vote: The motion passed 7 to 0.
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Meeting 08-04
VIII. INFORMATIONAL/COMPENSABLE MEETING REPORTS
S. Schectman gave instructions on how the Board could deliver information about their
compensable meetings. They could either give the information orally, or in written form
to the District Clerk.
C. Riffle said his compensable meetings were the February 8 General Manager interview
meeting and tonight's meeting(2/13). He made a comment that he is receiving items by
e-mail and through the mail, such as the meeting agenda, and he said he is happy to
receive just e-mail. G. Sam said that this may have been a mix-up. C. Britton asked if
other Board members were interested in receiving agendas for committee meetings (not
the full Board packet) through e-mail. The Board replied with how they preferred to
receive the information.
C. Riffle asked if the Board could use the Outlook calendar to help staff in scheduling
committee meetings. He was told that staff would look into it.
K. Nitz said he walked at Pulgas Ridge and noticed signs were installed on four trees. He
questioned the number of trees to be cut down this year. He said the Board had approved
removing five trees. He said he sent a memo to M. Freeman who forwarded it to D.
Sanguinetti and he had not heard back. D. Sanguinetti said he is working on the reply.
K. Nitz said he hiked at Windy Hill and took some pictures of the sedimentation
problems and will send the photos to staff. He said he went to REI and asked R.
Jurgensen if his staff worked with Inner City Outings from the Sierra Club. He said they
are an outreach for inner-city children. R. Jurgensen said they do not, but that they would
look into it. K. Nitz commented on the Alma College article and asked if they had
approved the $30,000.00. He said the article misrepresented what the District's goals
were for this project.
N. Hanko said her compensable meetings included February 8, which was the General
Manager interviews, the February Y13 ABC meeting, and tonight's meeting(2/13). She
said she attended the General Manager Retirement Committee meeting to discuss the
retirement party preparations, which are not compensable.
M. Davey said her compensable meetings included February 8, the General Manager
interview meeting, the February 13 ABC meeting, and tonight's meeting(2/13).
J. Cyr said his compensable meetings included the February 8 General Manager interview
meeting, and tonight's meeting(2/13). He visited Picchetti and handed out a brochure he
picked up at the winery and pointed out that there was a very small reference on the back
of the brochure that the District owns the property. N. Hanko agreed that other than the
normal District signage at the entrance of the preserve, there is nothing inside the
building. C. Britton asked R. Jurgensen if staff had seen this brochure in advance. R.
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Meeting 08-04
Jurgensen said they had not reviewed this brochure. P. Siemens asked if the District was
supposed to review the winery's brochure before they are published and C. Britton said
they are supposed to review them. M. Williams added that the language on the brochure
is what was agreed upon,but that the print could be larger or more prominent. J. Cyr said
he hiked in Uvas Canyon right after a rain and said the trails were in great shape and the
waterfalls were fantastic. He asked that his cell phone number be added to his emergency
contact card and suggested that the dispatch telephone number be added. C. Britton
handed J. Cyr his new cards that include the dispatch telephone number. J. Cyr thanked
staff.
L. Hassett said his compensable meetings were February 8 and February 13. He attended
the Woodside Town Council meeting along with District staff. He said the Town Council
approved the District's development plan for Thornewood. He commended the great
staff work in preparing for this meeting, and he commended the Woodside community to
make sure there was a positive outcome.
P. Siemens said his compensable meetings were February 8 and tonight's meeting(2/13).
C. Britton attended the San Mateo County Board of Supervisors meeting and they
unanimously approved putting the 1/8-cent sales tax item on the June 2008 ballot. He
handed out a card with staff telephone numbers on it and said that the staff will receive
the same card. He said that P. Siemens and he attended the retirement party honoring Mr.
Williams for his 18 years with the Santa Clara County Water District. He thanked L.
Hassett for speaking at the Woodside meeting and said L. Hassett made some poignant
remarks. He remarked that they received a 7 to 0 vote from the Town Council of
Woodside. He said the first ABC meeting occurred today and they are working on the
budget for next year.
S. Schectman gave an update on the Riverside case, stating that the Supreme Court has
deferred its decision until March 20`h
D. Sanguinetti gave an update on the Santa Clara County Sheriff's agreement. He said
they are still working on it and are anxious to get the agreement completed. S.
Schectman added some additional information about the process.
M. Freeman said that staff was contacted by the Department of Fish and Game and they
were informed that their application for$148,000.00 in grant funding was approved. The
grant funds will go towards the $300,000 project to restore logging roads in the Pescadero
watershed. The Board congratulated staff.
M. Williams said that the County of San Mateo is required to show conservation
easements on parcel maps because of an Assembly Bill that passed a few years ago. He
said that District staff would be submitting maps to San Mateo County to be included.
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IX. ADJOURNMENT
P. Siemens adjourned the Regular meeting of the Board of Directors of the Midpeninsula
Regional Open Space District adjourned at 9:38 pm., and stated that the Board would re-
convene the Special Meeting Closed Session.
P. Siemens stated that there were no reportable items at the conclusion of the Special
Meeting Closed Session.
The Special Meeting Closed Session adjourned at 11:45 p.m.
Lisa Zadek
Recording Secretary
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