HomeMy Public PortalAbout20080312 - Minutes - Board of Directors (BOD) Meeting 08-07
SPECIAL AND REGULAR MEETING
BOARD OF DIRECTORS
March 1.2, 2008
MINUTES
SPECIAL MEETING
I. ROLL CALL
President P. Siemens called the Special Meeting to order at 6:30 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, Duncan Simmons, Ana Ruiz, Matt
Freeman, and David Sanguinetti
II. CLOSED SESSION
At 7:30p.m. the Closed Session concluded and at 7:38pm P. Siemens stated that there were
no reportable items from the Closed Session.
REGULAR MEETING
III. P. Siemens called the Regular Meeting to order at 7:38 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: G. Sam., G. Baillie, M. Williams, R. Jurgensen, M. Foster
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Meeting 08-07
IV. SPECIAL ORDER OF THE DAY
P. Siemens asked for a Special Order of the Day to introduce the District's new General
Manager, Stephen E. Abbors. He asked if Mr. Abbors had a few words. Mr. Abbors said he
is looking forward to hitting the ground running on April 14. He said he was very happy to
be with the District. The Board welcomed him.
V. ORAL COMMUNICATIONS
Brian Simon, La Honda, said he was there on behalf of the La Honda Guild, the local
homeowner's association. He said the group drafted a letter, which he read to the Board and
left a copy for them. The letter referenced the La Honda Creek Master Plan Committee.
The letter requested the homeowner group of 286 homes be added to the notification list so
they can participate in the master plan process. The letter stated that the La Honda area
should allow access to all users, including bicycles and dogs.
N. Hanko requested a copy of the letter and Mr. Simon said he had a copy for each Board
member. N. Hanko said that this is an opportunity for those not on the Committee to have
information and get more involved.
C. Britton asked M. Freeman the timing of this master plan process. M. Freeman replied
that staff will be releasing a draft master plan in April to the Committee, and they are
anticipating having a full public workshop in May. C. Britton asked where the public
meeting would be held and M. Freeman said it will be held in La Honda, possibly at the
school.
VI. ADOPTION OF AGENDA
Motion: M. Davey moved that the Board adopt the Agenda. J. Cyr seconded the
motion. The motion passed 7 to 0.
VIL ADOPTION OF CONSENT CALENDAR
Motion: J. Cyr moved that the Board adopt the Consent Calendar, including approval
of the Written Communications; Agenda Item 4 Adopt Resolution No. 08-
xx Amending the Position and Classification and Compensation Plan by
Eliminating the Community Affairs Supervisor Position and Adding the New
Position of Communications Specialist Effective March 13, 2008; and
Revised Claims'08-05. L. Hassett seconded the motion. The motion passed
7 to 0 except for the AT&T and Verizon Claims identified on the Revised
Claims list. The list contains a written disclosure that Directors Davey and
Hanko are recusing themselves from voting on these items. The Board's vote
on the Verizon and AT&T claims is recorded as passing by 5 to 0.
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VIII. BOARD BUSINESS
A. Agenda Item No. I —Controller's Report on the Proposed Fiscal Year 2008-2009
Budget- (Report R-08-39)
M. Foster presented the staff report. He said that the District is entering another
fiscal year in a very sound fiscal position. Tax revenue growth remains good. The
debt service is at a comfortable 30% of tax revenue. Operating expenses in fiscal
2008 were to be under 50% of tax revenue for the 35 1h consecutive year, which shows
a good job by staff. For fiscal 2009, the revenue budget, according to the Assessor's
offices, has only slightly tapered off from the residential tax role. M. Foster said he
is expecting a 4-1/2% - 5% growth in secured tax revenue, which is 1-1/2%-2% less
than was earned. Commercial values continue to rebound and increase in growth.
He said they should expect good tax growth in the coming year on the commercial
side. Supplemental taxes, which are a leading indicator, are expected to decline.
The net result is an expected 4-1/2% tax revenue growth next year, approximately a
I% point lower than what was received this year.
M. Foster said that the revenue budget has about $9 million in land acquisition grants
that are tied to completing the land acquisitions associated with them. Most of these
grants involve projects supported by the California Coastal Conservancy.
M. Foster said the expenditure budget debt service is $7.6 million or 30% of tax
revenue, which is a comfortable place in the District's financial model. He said that
Operating Expenses are budgeted at 52%of tax revenue, but even if this is reached, it
still leaves a positive cash flow of$3.9 million. He said that if the actual spending is
more like 94-95% of budget, which would be normal, and then operational spending
would be below 50% of tax revenue. The proposed spending level preserves, if
needed, the opportunity to issue additional debt because they do have a positive cash
flow.
M. Foster said that the most atypical item in the budget is the $1.9 million to pre-
fund the PERS medical retirement program. They had an actuarial consultant who
appraised the District needs from a financial point of view who recommended a
different solution than what is being proposed. The appraiser recommended an
annual funding basis since most agencies cannot afford to do more than that. He said
that staff has decided that economically it is a much better decision to pre-fund the
full amount. If the appraiser is correct, then staff expects this amount of money will
fund the program for the life of the program. He said it is a good opportunity to earn
taxable equity type returns.
M. Foster said that they are budgeting $36.7 million for land purchases under Land
Acquisition, all for cash. If accomplished, he said this would be a record year for
cash acquisitions. He said the previous record was $20.6 million in fiscal 2000.
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M. Foster reviewed long term projections. He said that over the next 10 years, with
no new debt, the District can afford to spend about $92 million in cash for land; $57
million over the next five years. He said that if these numbers are insufficient to
purchase additional land, the District could raise more cash up to $50 million through
new debt service, then over the next five to eight years, the District could then afford
to spend up to $116 million in cash for new land in the next 10 years. M. Foster said
this is a very similar picture to last year's long term projections.
M. Davey said it is wonderful news to hear that they can borrow.
C. Riffle said that the Board appreciates his wisdom and advice. He asked if M.
Foster saw anything on the horizon that the Board should be concerned about. M.
Foster said he did not recommend borrowing until they need it, regardless of how
low the rates go this year. He said they did a major refinancing last year and he
didn't see any opportunities to do any refinancing this year.
K. Nitz asked about the borrowing of money and if all of that money needs to go
towards purchasing land. M. Foster said that when they borrow money, they agree
that they have a forecast to spend the money within three years, or at least a have a
reasonable expectation to spend it in three years. It is co-mingled money and, in
general, the District has always spent the money in less than three years. C. Britton
said that Fixed Assets does include improvements, so they could use it on access
plans, but they have not done so historically. M. Foster said that it has never been an
issue, but they could start to keep track of it.
L. Hassett said that this was the first time he had seen the medical fund retirement
number. He asked if any of the proposed national health care plans that may be
coming down the pipeline are going to change. M. Foster said that this question did
come up in the Committee meetings and he asked C. Britton what the expert had
said. C. Britton said that he felt that there may be some changes in the future, but
they could not predict what those would be, so it is really impossible to account for
it. M. Foster added that the expert said that when retirement changes at the federal
level, then PERS can always adjust to those changes.
C. Britton said that they would be taking the $1.9 million and depositing it with
PERS. He said that G. Sam had worked on a 30-year plan, which he said he liked,
but the percentage was higher if the money is put in over time, rather than doing the
whole sum at once. He said that the $1.9 million will be part of the budget, but it
will not be part of the guideline. M. Foster said that the $1.9 million is shown as an
expense as it is more of a funding mechanism than an accounting mechanism.
L. Hassett asked if the $1.9 million was based on the current staffing level in
perpetuity. M. Foster said that the appraiser made different assumptions that he
deemed reasonable. C. Britton added that a study should be done every two years to
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Meeting 08-07
update it. K. Nitz added that they cannot extract money from the fund unless it is for
retirement. M. Foster agreed.
J. Cyr asked if the money in the PERS retirement fund earns 7-1/2% and M. Foster
said it will earn whatever PERS earns. M. Foster said their estimate was 7-3/4%, but
that is not a very aggressive return for an equity fund over 30 years. It will fluctuate
over time.
J. C said that certain organizations and corporations did not fund the obligation
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they took on, so he said that this sounds like a very wise choice to him to have this
dealt with Lip front. M. Foster said there are two gold stars, (1) the program is finite
and not open-ended, and (2) it will be funded within a few months and then it will be
behind them.
No formal action was required. The Board accepted the report and thanked M.
Foster.
B. Agenda Item No. 2 —Initial Presentation of the District's Proposed Budget for Fiscal
Year 2008-2009; Review the Proposed District Budget for the 2008-2009 Fiscal
Year; The Final District Budget for the 2008-2009 Fiscal Year and the Report and
Recommendations of the Administration and Budget Committee Will be Presented at
Your March 26 Regular Meeting for Adoption - (Report R-08-34)
C. Britton said that as part of the budget plan, staff had presented the Action Plan,
which the Board went through b department and made changes. The assignment of
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the budget committee was to review those changes to make sure they were as the
Board requested. He said the changes will come before the Board on March 26. He
said the Action Plan is the basis of the budget and that the budget committee had met
six times. There is a two-stepprocess. Staff resents the initial presentation at the
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first meeting in March. At the second meeting in March staff will incorporate any
changes made at this meeting in a committee report and the final budget presentation.
He said that E. Cuzick will begin by explaining the aspects that effect all
departments, such as salaries, COLA increases, and worker's compensation. The
managers will focus on the operating part of their budget. He said he has asked each
Manager to focus discussions on new positions being proposed.
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C. Riffle asked if the Board is voting on anything tonight. C. Britton said they are
not voting, but this is the Board's opportunity to add or delete items. C. Britton said
that staff is happy with this budget proposal.
E. Cuzick said she would review the changes in salary and benefits, and she will
cover the insurance items such as worker's compensation and liability insurance.
She said that the 5-year Memorandum of Understanding(MOU) with the represented
employees had a change to the cost of living adjustment for staff salaries and it
adjusts from 2.5% to 3% this year. Another change under the MOU is that now
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Meeting 08-07
employees contribute an additional 1% toward a total of 2% over five years toward
PERS.
E. Cuzick said that health benefits have increased in cost. There are increased costs
from CalPERS this year. The PERS Cares or PERS Choice selections went up 4.1%
and the basic HMO that the District offers went up 7.39%this year. She said that
Worker's Compensation went down this year from $227,000 to $179,000, which is
21%reduction in cost. In addition, the allocation of those costs is different. She said
that since the Operations Department has the majority of the Worker's Compensation
claims, the allocation of those costs have been predominantly placed into the
Operations Department budget this year, with minimal allocation to the other
departments.
E. Cuzick reviewed the General Liability Insurance and said that it increased from
$160,000 last year to $212,000 this year, or a 32% increase. This is about a 10%
increase in the District's overall share of the pool for its entire insurance costs. The
District's record over the year, and CaIJPIA's actuarial calculations usually predict
between a I% to 10% increase per year, and this year, it was 10%. The District is
also paying on three large losses. Those payments began last year. C. Britton
clarified that these losses are not the District's losses, but the pool's losses. S.
Schectman gave further information on how the losses are allocated to the each
member of the pool.
Real Property Department
M. Williams reviewed the Real Property budget and said they budgeted $45,204,080.
He restated what M. Foster had noted that the debt service is at approximately$7.6
million; new land budget is at approximately$35.8 million, which includes $20
million for new land, and about $15,450,000 for prior land commitment. C. Britton
clarified that they are anticipating approval of the Mindego purchase, so that when
the budget goes into effect they won't have spent the money. Therefore they put the
money in a committed lands category. In this case it is a$15,000,000 purchase.
M. Williams reviewed his department's Salaries and Benefits and said that it is down
slightly from the previous year. There is an existing vacancy. He said under
Services and Supplies, there is a budgeted increase of about $88,000 due to
anticipated litigation on existing land the District owns. The Property Management
budget is proposed at $154,365 for the rental structures, representing a 12% increase
over last year and is due to additional anticipated repairs on structures and increased
liability insurance. Also under Property Management, the net income is projected at
approximately$772,000, which is about a 2% increase.
L. Hassett asked why the Services and Supplies number jumped up because of the
legal matters. He asked why the legal matters are budgeted in Real Property and not
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in the Legal budget. C. Britton said that Legal does not have a stand-alone budget.
All of the costs related to lawsuits are allocated to the department they pertain to.
C. Riffle gave some information about how this was discussed in the committee and
where the funds are budgeted for legal matters. He asked M. Williams if his budget
included anticipated lawsuits, or if it was only existing legal matters. M. Williams
said that one matter is anticipated and the other is existing. He said that they will try
to resolve the anticipated legal matter without litigation.
K. Nitz asked about the increase of time from 18 months to 5 years for site clean up
and disposition of structures. M. Williams said there is a note in the report about
that. He said the practice has been that any costs associated with land that are spent
within 18 months are part of the land purchase, and staff is proposing to extend that
time to five years because there has been a back-log of certain demolitions and other
items. P. Siemens said that value is added when these projects get done and M.
Williams agreed that they are improving the properties.
M. Williams thanked E. Cuzick and B. Congdon for their help with the budget.
Planning Department
M. Freeman said that the Planning Department's proposed budget is $4.6 million.
The Planning Department has experienced the highest percentage of growth. He said
there is an increase in their Salaries and Benefits due to the recommendation of a
new Senior Resource Planner position, which is intended to improve the District's
overall capacity to provide resource planning and stewardship services. He described
the different projects justifying the need for higher expertise in resource planning,
including more complicated land purchases on the coastside, and unanticipated
projects.
M. Freeman said a large increase is in the Public Access Improvements category.
The increase is due to the District catching up with the watershed protection program
at El Corte de Madera. He said the budget for that project alone is over$350,000.
He said that they have the permits and can upgrade or realign two significant trails
and build four bridges. He said that this category also includes the construction of
the Bridle Trail at Thornewood. He said this budget category also includes staging
areas such as at El Corte de Madera and El Sereno. They have also included legal
fees for potential litigation. Assessment of the structures at Alma College and
Steven's Canyon Ranch is included in this category, and they total about $100,000
for those two structures, but they have a grant application in to the County that would
reimburse the District 50% if approved. Funding for the design of the observation
deck at Sausal Pond is included in this category.
M. Freeman said that the category that has increased the most is the Staff Facilities
budget: $1.1 million dollars for the design and construction for the Administration
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office; $550,000 for the Skyline field office build-out, and $75,000 to remodel the
Driscoll Ranch employee residence.
C. Riffle asked M. Freeman to mention that they went with the "green"option for the
Administrative office building. C. Britton said that no decision has been made, but
that they budgeted for that possibility.
K. Nitz asked if the new position of Senior Resource Planner Specialist should be a
reclassification of the current Resource Planner Specialist. M. Freeman said that this
position mirrors a similar request within the Operations Department, so within
Planning they are recommending an addition of a new position, but within
Operations Department it would be a reclassification of the Resource Management
Specialist position.
Operations Department
D. Sangulnetti presented the Operations Department budget and said their proposed
budget is $8,240,246. He said the largest increase is the staffing requests, including
the job classification change. Currently, they have a Resource Management
Specialist that the Department is requesting be reclassified to a Senior Resource
Management Specialist. He said there are two reasons they would like to reclassify
this position, which include: 1) the current Resource Management Specialist position
has evolved to a higher senior level position, and 2) the Senior Resource Planner and
the Senior Resource Management Specialist are working closely together and should
be equivalent in parity. He said they will not be seeking to fill the Resource
Management Specialist position, although they will keep it for future consideration.
He said that the other position they are requesting is for a Resource Specialist I.
There is currently one person in that position and they are requesting another person.
The focus for this position would be in grazing and grassland management.
Another position they are requesting is for an additional ranger in the Foothills field
office. This would align with the staffing that the Skyline office currently has. D.
Sanguinetti said they were requesting an additional Open Space Technician position
in the Skyline area to meet the increased workload and resource management
projects.
The final proposal they have for staffing is the creation of a new program of Seasonal
Rangers. There is a current and successful seasonal Open Space Technician (OST)
program. It is an opportunity to observe employees in a seasonal role. He said many
of their permanent OST's have come from the seasonal program. He said that with
the seasonal Ranger program, they will be able to add to the District's needs during
heavy use times. Rancho San Antonio County Park almost requires one person on
site all day on Saturdays and Sundays year round. He said this program is a new
idea, but it is being used at other agencies. He said they were asking for 2,000 hours,
which would be two positions in a six-month period.
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P. Siemens asked if the seasonal Rangers would be able to give citations, and D.
Sanguinetti said it would depend on their training. They will require that the
seasonal Ranger candidates already have the training to work at the District, because
it is too expensive to provide the training for them.
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L. Hassett said that the District has had trouble filling of its ranger positions, so this
program looks to be more difficult to fill given the seasonality of a part-time job. D.
Sanguinetti said that they have already received three inquiries. D. Sanguinetti said
he thinks it will be a successful program, and gave further examples. L. Hassett said
he applauds the idea of this program if it is successful.
D. Sanguinetti said that the equipment requests for next year are going down because
they have fewer trucks to survey. They have gone down to a 70,000-mile turnover,
from 80,000, on code-3 trucks and it is proving to work out well for reoccurring
maintenance and repairs. They are asking for three replacement trucks and for one
new patrol truck that would tie in with the new position. He said they have also
budgeted for a new dump truck and one new tractor(for the Foothills area).
D. Sanguinetti reviewed key projects under their budget, including implementing the
Sheriff's contract in the south area. Another project is progress of the radio system
and he gave an overview of where the project stands currently and the future of the
project. K. Nitz asked what was holding up this project. D. Sanguinetti said there
were a number of things, including finding a system of compatibility for the
simulcast system, and obtaining one or two additional frequencies, and working with
neighbors who share the current frequency. He said it is a difficult situation.
D. Sanguinetti said that they will begin the slender false brome removal.
C. Riffle told the Board that there are currently four open ranger positions and that D.
Sanguinetti is trying to fill those vacancies. He asked D. Sanguinetti if he budgeted a
full year for the vacancies. D. Sanguinetti said that they know they probably won't
be able to hire all four at once, so there is a sliding budget set up for how fast new
rangers can be added on. The new ranger position is only budgeted for the last
quarter of the year. D. Sanguinetti added that they will be interviewing in the next
week and that they have eight candidates.
D. Sanguinetti thanked E. Cuzick and gave special recognition to G. Baillie for
helping him prepare his first department budget.
Public Affairs Department
R. Jurgensen presented the Public Affairs Department proposed budget totaling
approximately$1.32 million dollars, an increase of about 1.7% over last year. The
largest increase in their budget is to implement the District's logo and are proposing
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$32,000 for this project. C. Britton added that all of the departments will be affected
and will contribute to the cost of the new logo, such as getting new letterhead. If the
Board does not approve the new logo, then the funds for it will be removed from the
budget.
R. Jurgensen said that they will be holding Docent training this year and are
proposing$6,000. He said the other increase in the budget is for $35,000 for the
legislative lobbyist in Washington, DC for the Mt. Umunhum clean up. He said that
at mid-year, the Board had approved $50,000 for the lobbyist, but they have only
spent about $20,000, so the $35,000 being requested would be an increase of$5,000
over the initial approved amount.
Administration Department
G. Sam presented the Administration Department proposed budget. He said the
overall operating budget, minus GASB, is approximately $2.1 million. Adding
GASB to that, it totals just over$4 million.
G. Sam said they are proposing a half-time Administrative Assistant dedicated to
support the General Manager and Legal Services. He said that adding this position
would alleviate the Senior Administrative Assistant workload. He said that they are
proposing to not fill the Assistant General Manager position this year, so funds were
not appropriated for that position.
C. Britton commented on the half-time Administrative Assistant and said that the
actual job description may change slightly to meet the needs of the District better. S.
Schectman added that when she currently needs administrative support, her requests
are competing with other needs by other departments. She said it will be more
efficient to have a dedicated Administrative Assistant.
G. Sam said that money has been budgeted for the three wards that will be up for
election this year. Other budgeted items include a new set of boardroom chairs,
audio system and recording system equipment and other office furniture for new
workstations.
J. Cyr provided some grammatical corrections.
K. Nitz said he thought the process this year was very good and he appreciated the
work by E. Cuzick, B. Congdon and all of the managers. He thanked C. Riffle for
chairing the committee. He said he did worry about the budget and that they need to
keep on track with the 7% guideline, or whatever guideline they come up with at the
workshop. He would like to have sustainable growth for the District and that they do
not exceed their budget. C. Britton said that a workshop is being proposed about the
budget guideline when S. Abbors begins his job at the District. C. Riffle said there
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would be two workshops, one with just the committee and S. Abbors, and the second
with the full Board.
The Board accepted the report and thanked staff for their work.
C. Agenda Item No. 3 — Response to the Recommendations Presented in the Land
Management Cost Evaluation Study; Accept the Recommendations for Policy_
Related Issues as Identified in this Report and Direct Staff to Work on the
Recommendations as Outlined in this Report; Direct Staff to Work on the Issues
Which Were Identified as Being Appropriate for a Staff-Level Response, as Attached
to this Report - (Report R-08-01)
G. Baillie presented the staff report as a response to the Land Management Cost
Evaluation and Efficiency Study. He gave a brief history of the project, which
started in December of 2005. The study was conducted from August 2006 through
April 2007. The consultant spent a lot of time with the field staff. They have three
milestones, including a baseline, their findings and their recommendations. The final
presentation by the consultant was in May 2007. The consultant arrived at 45
recommendations. Staff took those recommendations and began working on the staff
response. He and D. Sanguinetti went to each field office to discuss the
recommendations and about the proposed responses.
G. Baillie said that the recommendations were divided into 2 types; the first being
eight (8) policy level recommendations and the second being 37 staff level, or non-
policy related. The eight-policy level are shown in the staff report and are verbatim
from the consultant's report.
G. Baillie reviewed each of the eight policy level recommendations.
1. In-house Database Staff. G. Baillie said that at some point the District will need a
software-based staff to complement the hardware staff currently on staff. He added
that currently they do have a database consultant they work with and receive
excellent service from. In the future, they may come back to the Board requesting a
software support staff.
C. Riffle asked how it is working now, adding that like K. Nitz, he is sensitive to
adding staff, so if the District can make effective use of a consultant he would prefer
that. He asked if there was that much database work. K. Nitz noted the half-time
training position and half-time administrative assistant. G. Baillie said that this is not
data entry, but support for the architecture of databases. G. Baillie said that as they
want more sophisticated results from their databases, staff is finding that they are
hitting a ceiling of expertise.
K. Nitz asked if they already have the Computer Maintenance Management System.
G. Baillie said they do not.
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2. Computer Maintenance Management System (CMMS). G. Baillie said that they
are planning to work with a consultant to find what the best system would be for the
District to use.
K. Nitz asked what databases they are currently using. G. Baillie said that there is a
varietyof MS Access databases used b District staff. These databases include
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citations and warning, training, a variety of District contact databases. Many were
developed in-house.
P. Siemens said that he thought they already had a project to develop a database
project. G. Baillie said there is a project to consolidate the variety of databases,
which manage the District's contacts for agencies and individuals. That is a different
database.
J. Cyr said that what is being discussed are the major recommendations of the
consultant and what G. Baillie is presenting staff s response to those, which are
policy level decisions. C. Britton said that each of the eight items are policy items
and that he hoped to show that staff is working on every recommendation, either by
moving forward on it, or analyzing the information. C. Britton said that the staff
report before the Board did not have actual recommendations that are actual action
requests. The recommendation is more where the staff is working on these items.
K. Nitz asked for clarification from G. Baillie as to what the Board was reviewing for
recommendation.
G. Baillie said the CMMS was a keen focus of LA Consulting. He said the CMMS
might be used by a city's parks department and said it is standardized software. He
added that the District is different because of the nature of the business they are and
so they don't have standardized units. He said that in the next fiscal year staff will
look at what will be useful for the District and be cost effective.
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K. Nitz asked if the effort putting into entering data and developing the system going
to be useful enough to justify the costs. G. Baillie said that was their concern, and
they are very aware of the cost-benefit ratio. C. Britton said that a system like this
will help the Board decide how to best spend money. He added that they do want to
be practical, but they also want some deliverable data for the Board.
J. Cyr said that his concern was that this would not become burdensome for anybody.
Spending time documenting what you are doing with your time is a waste of time.
3. Ravenswood S Open ace Preserve. G. Baillie said the third recommendation was
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to contract with others too en and close the Ravenswood reserve. He said staff is
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already looking into seeing if other agencies might be interested in working with the
District on this. It is a remote location for the District. They would still patrol the
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preserve, but it would relieve some time and expense to hire out the opening and
closing of the preserve.
K. Nitz asked what staff does for Pulgas. C. Britton said that they leave the gate
open and at lower Windy Hill, there is a security service. K. Nitz asked if they could
install an electric gate at Ravenswood. D. Sanguinetti explained the area, and G.
Baillie said it would not be practical to install an electric gate at this particular site.
C. Britton said that they are contacting the East Palo Alto Police to see if they would
do this.
C. Britton asked if there were any questions about the remaining five
recommendations.
4. and 5. Changing Budgeting. G. Baillie said that these two items would result in a
major affect as to how they do budgeting.
K. Nitz asked what zero-based budgeting was. G. Baillie said that basically they
would start off every year with detennining which project they would work on and
the cost of the projects. He said the District's model is different from this.
6. Seasonal Employees and Overtime. G. Baillie said they are very excited about the
Board's interest in this project. He said that experience within other agencies is that
it is not that difficult to get seasonal staff on board. The folks at West Valley College
are interested, and he did a presentation to folks at Santa Rosa Junior College and
also found interest there. C. Britton added that Palo Alto has a seasonal ranger
program.
7. Planning Department. G. Baillie said that they feel that they are also working
well with the Planning Department.
C. Riffle asked which of the eight the Board would see in the 2008-2009 Action
Plan. G. Baillie said they would see Item 2 under Key Projects. He said Item 3 is
already being worked on this year; and Item 6 is also in that Action Plan.
K. Nitz referred to Attachment A, number 32, it shows a"medium"priority, but the
comment states that there is strong agreement and asked why it wasn't a"high"
priority. G. Baillie replied that if it is a project or item they are already doing, he
might have rated it as a"medium"priority. He said he was trying not to list
everything as "high"priority.
K. Nitz referred to number 45, and said he thought that would be interesting. G.
Baillie said that they would first need the information to report back on, so it is
something that could happen in the future.
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Meeting 08-07
C. Riffle asked about the priorities and asked if they were his ratings. D. Sanguinetti
and C. Britton said that they worked with G. Baillie on this. D. Sanguinetti added
that the whole process involved all of Operations' work groups and personnel.
C. Riffle asked D. Sanguinetti if the "high"priorities were already underway, or how
should he read those. D. Sanguinetti replied, "high" are priorities we plan to
complete; "medium" are priorities we will try to complete, and "low" are not
priorities and probably won't be gotten to.
C. Riffle asked how much money was spent on the study. G. Baillie said they spent
$60,000. C. Riffle asked if it was worth it and what did they learn from it, and would
they do this again. C. Britton said there was a difference of opinion about that. He
said it was highly valuable because he received a call from the Santa Clara County
Grand Jury asking if the District ever audited its departments. He sent them this
report and did not hear back from them. G. Baillie said it is good to have a fresh set
of eyes to look at an agency. He added that they may not always agree with what the
consultant with say. C. Britton said that they could re-look at this every five to ten
years.
J. Cyr said that they can use the information as a base line and use the information to
help the District. He said it would make a lot of sense to do a similar study every
five to eight years. G. Baillie added that through the process it also showed what
they were doing right and helped in defending the process.
P. Siemens suggested that they vote on the two recommendations separately. He said
that some of the policy issues, including items 1, 4, 5, and 8 should not be done at
this point. He said that he wanted to make sure staff was not going to begin working
on them. C. Britton said items 4 and 5 refers to re-doing the entire budgetary process
and that this would affect the entire District, so they are not going to work on that
item.
M. Davey said that they could defer their acceptance until the new General Manager
has started working at the District and she could add that to her motion.
N. Hanko asked for clarification about the General Manager's recommendations and
added that she did not think numbers one and two should be adopted.
C. Britton suggested changing recommendation number one to say, "Accept the
information contained in this report relative to policy issues." N. Hanko said that
this sounded better.
i
P. Siemens said that either they are working on this or setting it aside to revisit it at
another time. C. Britton again suggested that they accept the information, but that
they don't act on any of the recommendations at this time.
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Meeting 08-07
J. Cyr suggested, "Receive the recommendations for policy related to issues
identified in this report." K. Nitz asked if they want the information back to the
Board. C. Britton suggested that for the second recommendation, the Board
"acknowledge" that staff is already working on that.
N. Hanko said that staff need to see that the Board received the report and are
interested in it, but she would not like to discourage them that the Board does not
care about the report. G. Baillie said that staff doesn't get that sense.
K. Nitz said that if P. Siemens feels that the staff should not work on Items 1, 4, 5
and 8, then they should agree that they should not work on those items, but look at
the other items. G. Baillie asked if the phrase "not work on" precludes the staff from
looking at those items at some point in the future, or do they mean forever. D.
Sanguinetti clarified we should not work on 1, 4, 5 and 8 as the Board is telling us
they do not support these changes.
C. Britton suggested for recommendation number 1, " Receive the recommendations
for policy related issues identified in this report and consider returning to the Board
when the policy issues are ripe for action." He suggested for recommendation
number 2, "Acknowledge that staff will continue to work on items which were
identified as appropriate for staff-level response." M. Davey said that was fine.
Motion: M. Davey moved approve the amended General Manager's
recommendations to receive the recommendations for policy related
issues identified in this report and consider returning to the Board
when the policy issues are ripe for action; and acknowledge that staff
will continue to work on items which were identified as appropriate
for staff-level response. K. Nitz seconded the motion as amended.
The motion passed 7 to 0.
IX. INFORMATIONAL /COMPENSABLE MEETING REPORTS
C. Riffle suggested that an agenda item be added to the next Board meeting. He said the
Board Appointee Evaluation Committee should be directed to look at the evaluation process
for direct reports. C. Britton said that they will add this to the next agenda. He asked S.
Schectman for a status on the Sheriffs agreement. S. Schectman said she is working with
County counsel on it and she has a telephone conference call scheduled the following week.
She said that the County Counsel changed mid-stream and she is working with bringing the
new counsel up to speed. She said the good news is that the new counsel person is very
clear that her clients are very motivated for this to work and she said she told the counsel
person that the District is also motivated for this to work. He said his compensable meetings
included the ABC meetings on 2/29 and 3/3, the Special Board meeting on 3/11 and
tonight's meeting (3/12).
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Meeting 08-07
K. Nitz said he received an e-mail from someone in Half Moon Bay about Santos Tree Farm
land about selling it to the District and said he forwarded it to M. Williams. M. Williams
said he received it. K. Nitz said his compensable meetings included three budget committee
meetings on 2/27, 2/29 and 3/3, the Special Board meeting on 3/11 and tonight's meeting
(3/12).
N. Hanko said her compensable meeting included the Special Board meeting on 3/11, the
LFPAC meeting on 3/12, and tonight's meeting (3/12). She spoke about the new District
logo meeting and said the full Board will see the color examples at the March 26 meeting.
P. Siemens said his compensable meetings were the Special Board meeting on 3/11 and
tonight's meeting (3/12). He went to the Special District's association lunch. He went on a
land tour with M. Williams at Mindego.
L. Hassett said his compensable meetings were the LFPAC meetings on 2/27 and today
(3/12), the Special Board meeting on 3/11 and tonight's meeting(3/12). He said he planned
on attending the South Skyline Association meeting on 3/13 with a presentation by B.
Malone and S. Sommer on Mindego Hill. He received a package from M. Zvirblis who sent
him a bridal veil to be worn to the ceremonial opening of the trail in 2008. It was presented
by the Old La Honda Road Associations in thanks for all of their efforts.
J. Cyr said his compensable meetings included the 3/11 Special Meeting, the LFPAC
meeting today(3/12) and tonight's meeting (3/12). He said the Santa Clara County Open
Space Authority day camp is very interesting and he passed the information along to R.
Jurgensen. He said he has a source for polo shirts and tee shirts that might be useful for the
store.
M. Davey said her compensable meetings were the Special Board meeting on 3/11 and
tonight's meeting (3/12).
C. Britton said he sent out an e-mail that the Board of Supervisors of Santa Clara County are
passing a resolution honoring C. Britton's 30 years and M. Davey is going to join him at
their meeting on Tuesday, March 18 at 1:30pm. He went to David Hanson's retirement
event.in Marin County on behalf of the District. On March 5 he attended an all day retreat
for the Bay Area Open Space Council at Fort Cronkite. He said that the District started the
Bay Area Open Space Council with a grant from the state for$5,000. It is now under the
umbrella of the Green Belt Alliance. He said that the Green Belt Alliance is ready to release
the Bay Area Open Space Council. He said that the council will change. He said he met
with Paul Draper who donated two cases of wine for the retirement party. He met with
Maryann Sofkc (sp?) and she will be doing a special feature not only on him but on the
District. He said there is a media day at Mindego Hill that she will be attending. He will be
having lunch with Harry Turner, who cannot make it to the party, who was a former Board
member.
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Meeting 08-07
S. Schectman said she sent the Board an e-mail that a petition for review was filed with the
Supreme Court on the coast case. The District has 20 days to respond. She gave an update
on the Riverside County Open Space District case; it is now in the briefing phase. They
have asked for a contribution toward the costs, so the District has pledged $5,000 under the
General Manager's authority. Riverside is now requesting $7,500 more and she strongly
supports the District contribution of the additional funds.
C. Britton said that they will be touring upper Alpine Road with San Mateo County staff. As
long as Rich Gordon is there, he is pitching that if they pay to restore the road, the District
would manage it.
M. Williams said that he has shown all of the Board members the Mindego Hill property.
He attended the Farm Bureau meeting last week with K. Lermington. They also attended the
Agricultural Advisory Committee. He said that their relationships with the people and
groups on the coast are improving.
N. Hanko asked S. Abbors to get pictures of their 100 year old farm in Nebraska to possibly
add to the newsletter and send it to the coast.
Mr. Abhors introduced his wife, Carlene.
X. ADJOURNMENT
P. Siemens adjourned the Special and Regular meeting of the Board of Directors of the
Midpeninsula Regional Open Space District adjourned at 10:27 p.m.
Lisa Zadek
Recording Secretary
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