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HomeMy WebLinkAbout2020.01.21 - Minutes - Regular MeetingCITY OF DIAMOND BAR MINUTES OF THE CITY COUNCIL -- REGULAR MEETING JANUARY 21, 2020 CALL TO ORDER: Mayor Tye called the Regular City Council meeting to order at 6:30 p.m, in the South Coast Air Quality Management District/Government Center Auditorium, 21865 Copley Drive, Diamond Bar, CA. PLEDGE OF ALLEGIANCE: Mayor Tye led the Pledge of Allegiance. INVOCATION: Kevin Ahn, Pastor of Youth Ministries, Evangelical Free Church, provided the invocation. ROLL CALL: Council Members Andrew Chou, Ruth Low, Mayor Pro Tem Nancy Lyons, Mayor Steve Tye Staff in attendance: Dan Fox, City Manager; Ryan McLean, Assistant City Manager; Ken Desforges, Information Services Director; David Liu, Public Works Director; David DeBerry, City Attorney; Dianna Honeywell, Finance Director, Cecilia Arellano, Public Information Coordinator; Ryan Wright, Parks and Recreation Director; Anthony Santos, Assistant to the City Manager; Amy Haug, Human Resources Manager; Greg Gubman, Community Development Director; Kristina Santana, City Clerk APPROVAL OF AGENDA: As presented. 1. SPECIAL PRESENTATIONS, CERTIFICATES, PROCLAMATIONS: 1.1 M/Tye and City Council Members presented a Reward Certificate to Wyatt Hage. Vivian Cao from State Senator Ling -Ling Chang's office presented Mr. Hage a Certificate of Recognition. 1.2 Voting Solutions for All People presentation by Los Angeles County Registrar -Recorder. 2. CITY MANAGER REPORTS AND RECOMMENDATIONS: None 3. PUBLIC COMMENTS: Allen Wilson requested that City Council appointments to committees include per diem information. He also suggested that the Foothill Transit representative ride the system to get a rider's perspective. He expressed concerns about agenda item 8.1 and a proposed budget increase for a new City Clerk office and printing. Chia Teng addressed the Council's approval of the Millennium Development's Final Tract Map TR53430 and the lack of a Low Impact Design for the storm drainage plan. He did not find this to be a subject of litigation and asked for an explanation from staff. JANUARY 21, 2020 PAGE 2 CITY COUNCIL 4. RESPONSE TO PUBLIC COMME CA/DeBerry said he understood the gentleman's point was that the Final Map could not have been approved or there was some deficiency in the Final Map and as CA/DeBerry indicated at the January 7th City Council meeting, that issue was heavily litigated and the City Council's approval of the Final Map was upheld by both the Superior Court and Appellate Court. To the extent that any additional details are needed with respect to the City's Code that would follow the developer's plan. As everyone is aware, there is a new developer on board and he has requested all plans and documents with respect to Millennium, and to the extent it may change or there may be more details in the plans when actual construction activity takes place, it will be at some point in the future. 5. SCHEDULE OF FUTURE EVENTS: 5.1 Parks and Recreation Commission Meeting —January 23, 2020 — 6:30 p.m., Windmill Community Room, 21810 Copley Drive, 5.2 Special City Council Meeting — January 27, 2020 — 3:00 p.m., Windmill Community Room, 21810 Copley Drive. 5.3 Planning Commission Meeting — January 28, 2020 — 6:30 p.m., Windmill Community Room, 21810 Copley Drive. 5.4 City Council Meeting — February 4, 2020, 6:30 p.m., AQMD/Government Center Auditorium, 21865 Copley Drive. 6. CONSENT CALENDAR: MPT/Lyons moved, C/Low seconded, to approve the Consent Calendar with MPT/Lyons abstaining on item 6.1 and pulling item 6.4 for further consideration. Motion carried by the following Roll Call vote: AYES: COUNCIL MEMBERS: Chou, Low, MPT/Lyons, M/Tye NOES: COUNCIL MEMBERS: None ABSENT: COUNCIL MEMBERS: None 6.1 APPROVED CITY COUNCIL MEETING MINUTES: 6.1a REGULAR MEETING OF JANUARY 7, 2020 — as presented. 6.2 CITY COUNCIL RECEIPT OF COMMISSION MINUTES: 6.2a TRAFFIC AND TRANSPORTATION COMMISSION MINUTES OF OCTOBER 10, 2019. 6.2b TRAFFIC AND TRANSPORTATION COMMISSION MINUTES OF NOVEMBER 14. 2019. JANUARY 21, 2020 PAGE 3 CITY COUNCIL 6.3 RATIFIED CHECK REGISTER DATED DECEMBER 19, 2019 THROUGH JANUARY 15, 2020 TOTALING $2,216,720.75, 6.5 REVISED APPOINTMENT OF COUNCIL MEMBERS TO SERVE ON LOCAL AND REGIONAL BOARDS, COMMISSIONS AND COMMITTEES. 6.6 APPROVED EXONERATION OF SURETY BOND NO. 24058526 TO COMPLETE ROUGH GRADING AND EROSION CONTROL IMPROVEMENTS; SURETY BOND NO. 24058528 TO COMPLETE IN - TRACT PRIVATE STREET IMPROVEMENTS; AND, SURETY BOND NO. SU 1141642 TO COMPLETE GRADING, WALL AND DRAINAGE IMPROVEMENTS RELATED TO LARKSTONE PARK, FOR TRACT MAP 63623 (SOUTH POINTE RESIDENTIAL DEVELOPMENT). 6.7 APPROVED NOTICE OF COMPLETION FOR THE SYCAMORE CANYON PARK SLOPE EROSIN AND TRAIL REPAIR PROJECT (PROJECT #25917). MATTERS WITHDRAWN FROM CONSENT CALENDAR: 6.4 APPROVED SECOND AMENDMENT TO THE CONSULTING SERVICES AGREEMENT WITH DYETT & BHATIA URBAN AND REGIONAL PLANNERS TO PREPARE THE COMPREHENSIVE GENERAL PLAN UPDATE, MPT/Lyons asked for clarification on the amendment request to pay the consultant an additional $44,000 and explain why it was necessary. CM/Fox responded that three years ago, the City Council initially approved a consulting contract with Dyett &Bhatia in the amount of about $1 million to assist in the preparation of the General Plan Update and completion of the Environmental Impact Report which was envisioned to be a three-year process. Last December the General Plan Update was approved. The process ran about three and one-half years and the proposed contract amendment is not related to the length of time, but more to the scope of work and work effort that went into the preparation of the final product. Some of it was related to additional meetings in response to the General Plan Advisory Committee and some was related to additional work that was needed in response to public comments and public participation related to the Environmental Impact Report's Response to Comments as well as, additional technical studies that were reviewed and provided. The $44,000 includes Dyett & Bhatia staff time as well as time spent by sub - consultant team including ESA regarding biological resources and expertise as well as, the Traffic Engineer and Traffic modeling. Staff has reviewed the request and believe it is fair and appropriate considering that it is less than a 5 percent increase over the total contract amount. Also, a JANUARY 21, 2020 PAGE 4 CITY COUNCIL Climate Action Plan was added about halfway through the process which was about $85,000 and was not originally anticipated, and some of the additional contingency that was authorized went toward the preparation of that plan, which is now required by the State of California as well as, reliance as part of mitigation measures in the Environmental Impact Report. Had the state not required the City to look at those Climate Action Plans, this project could probably have been brought in under budget within the initially authorized contingency. Staff believes this is warranted due to the extra effort during the end of the process when the consultant had to provide additional work that was not anticipated in their initial scope or work effort based on the participation of the public through the process. MPT/Lyons asked the amount of the original contingency and CM/Fox responded that the original contingency was about $130,000. MPT/Lyons said that the consultant caused some of the problem by changing staff which meant that new staff members had to get up to speed and therefore, she does not believe the additional amount is warranted. C/Low said it seemed to her as well that the consultants themselves caused the problems. She remembers asking them about the project and what it would take to complete it, and the consultant was requesting additional meetings at that time. And, it seemed to her that the consultant was doing the project without paying attention to what Diamond Bar wanted and what was within the City's budget. They did change staff early on in the process which was a great disappointment because the City hired this firm believing they would be acting in the City's best interest. M/Tye said that while he agrees with both MPT/Lyons and C/Low and he is also not impressed with the consultant, he believes the City Up getting a good product which took a lot longer than anticipated and cost a lot more with the addition of the Climate Action Plan and the biological input that was required. The City bent over backward to get through this process in a timely fashion and it was at the last meeting in December when the Council certified the update that the Council received a 20 page letter from an attorney and staff continued making updates even at that late hour in an attempt to let everyone be heard. He thinks it was a concerted effort by folks that ballooned the cost of the document, but he does think that the folks who prepared the Climate Action Plan with the biological input deserve to be paid even though he agrees it was not the most effective performance he has seen by a consultant. MlTye moved, C/Chou seconded, to approve Item 6.4. Motion failed by the following Roll Call vote: AYES: COUNCIL MEMBERS: Chou, M/Tye JANUARY 21, 2020 PAGE 5 CITY COUNCIL NOES: COUNCIL MEMBERS: Low, MPT/Lyons ABSENT: COUNCIL MEMBERS: None CA/DeBerry responded to MlTye that a two/two vote means that the motion failed. As a result, staff will need to go back to the consultant and discuss this a bit more and if a different approach is deemed necessary, it will be brought back to the City Council for further consideration. 7. PUBLIC HEARING(S): NONE 8. COUNCIL CONSIDERATION: 8.1 FISCAL YEAR 2019/2020 MID -YEAR BUDGET REVIEW. FD/Honeywell presented staffs report to update the City Council on the City's financial condition at the mid -point of fiscal year 2019/2020 and to make appropriate adjustments to the budget. In summary, it is projected by the end of the fiscal year that the City will increase its overall resources by approximately $1.5 million and its expenditures will increase by only $106,000 for a net savings of $1.4 million over the original adjusted budget for all funds. The main drivers of the higher than anticipated resources include higher building permit revenues related to the recently approved hotel project, increased interest income and appropriation of an MTA grant for the Adaptive Traffic Control System project. Expenditures are increasing in some areas due to additional Building & Safety costs incurred as a result of the increased permit activity which is offset by the revenue as previously mentioned. There are additional costs related to citywide landscape maintenance which is being funded by a transfer of resources from the LLAD No. 41 as well as, increases due to higher than anticipated computer maintenance costs. Reductions in expenditures include adjustments for timing differences in when General Plan costs were incurred and recorded, lower than anticipated audit costs for the AB939 funds, lower than anticipated server replacement costs and, a reduction in the LLAD No. 41 maintenance costs as previously mentioned. And finally, there is a savings of about $32,000 in the Diamond Bar Center roof rehab CIP that can be reprogrammed to upcoming projects. C/Low asked staff to address the $10,000 expense item for the office of the City Clerk. CM/Fox responded that the $10,000 request was to construct an office for the City Clerk was to fulfill a vision from the original City Hall construction. There are times when the City Clerk needs privacy and the previous City Clerk was adamant that she did not wish to be surrounded by walls and as such, that portion of the buildout was eliminated from the original plans JANUARY 21, 2020 PAGE 6 CITY COUNCIL when the current City Hall was initially completed. At this time, staff is proposing that those improvements be completed and while CM/Fox felt his request for $10,000 was light, Public Works has assured him they can install the improvements for about $10,000 for walls and some electrical work with the existing furniture remaining in place. MPT/Lyons moved, C/Low seconded, to Adopt Resolution No. 2020-03 amending the 2019/2020 fiscal mid -year budget. Motion carried by the following Roll Call vote: AYES: COUNCIL MEMBERS: Chou, Low, MPT/Lyons, M/Tye NOES: COUNCIL MEMBERS: None ABSENT: COUNCIL MEMBERS: None 9. COUNCIL SUBCOMMITTEE REPORTS AND MEETING ATTENDANCE REPORTS/COUNCIL MEMBER COMMENTS: C/Chou again wished everyone a Happy New Year and hoped they had an opportunity to attend the Snow Fest last weekend. It was a lot of fun and volunteers were recognized for their contribution to the City. As the Council's appointee to the League of Cities Public Safety Committee, he will travel to Sacramento this Friday to convey comments and concerns on behalf of the City. He thanked Boy Scout Troop 777 for participating in tonight's meeting and assured them that City Council Members were available to assist them in learning more about governance and to take them on a tour of City Hall. C/Low thanked staff for a great job on the Snow Fest event which was a lot of fun. The snow was great and it was a beautiful day and the event was very well attended. Congratulations to the Community Heroes who were honored during the event. It was a great way to celebrate the community volunteers who do so much for the community. This week she attended the San Gabriel Valley Council of Governments (COG) during which homelessness was discussed. She showed a photo of a homeless shelter/crisis center that was built in Pomona on Mission Avenue with Grand Opening Ceremonies on December 6th. The center provides crisis beds and services including meals, beds (200 plus), storage, mental health services, etc. and is open 24-hours. If officers see someone in need of shelter they can refer that individual to the center. The center has a kitchen that will help many organizations to prepare food for the occupants. She attended the United Abacas Arithmetic Association event that celebrated the championship of over 300 grand mental math champion kids. She wished everyone a Happy Lunar New Year and noticed an upcoming event on Saturday morning at the Diamond Bar High School where the DBCAA (Diamond Bar Chinese American Association) will celebrate the event with activities, music, dancing and food. APT/Lyons complimented FD/Honeywell and her staff on the thorough and -- positive mid -year budget review. She is aware of how much work goes into the review, and it was not only thorough, it was also very easy to understand. She JANUARY 21, 2020 PAGE 7 CITY COUNCIL wished everyone a Happy Lunar New Year and hoped residents would enjoy the celebration at Diamond Bar High School on Saturday and wherever else they may be celebrating. MPT/Lyons responded to Mr. Wilson that she has ridden the Foothill Transit bus as well as a Metro bus and many school buses and in her opinion, the Foothill buses are by far the better ride. M/Tye thanked Wyatt Hage for doing the right thing without thought of any potential reward. People like Mr. Hage who are helping the Sheriff keep the community safe are good citizens and Diamond Bar is the better for the amount of civic engagement and citizen engagement it enjoys. He announced his new chairmanship on the Tres Hermanos Conservation Authority. He looks forward to the next year with Tres Hermanos and intends to make sure to do everything possible to get the most out of that authority. He urged everyone to be sure to go to the Diamond Bar Center on Thursday evening for the Walnut Valley Water District special meeting where they will discuss a proposed rate increase and everyone should educate themselves. Snow Fest was outstanding and he thinks it gets better every year so it might be time to expand to four slopes. It was a great time and fun to watch the kids. And, it was the first time he got to attend with his grandkids which was a lot of fun and very special. ADJOURNMENT: With no further business to conduct, M/Tye adjourned the Regular City Council Meeting at 7:47 p.m. Respectfully submitted: Kristina Santana, City Clerk The forgoing minutes are hereby approved this 181h day of February, 2020. Steve Tye, May r