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HomeMy WebLinkAbout04/21/2015 Minutes - Regular Meeting• r'10 a ti i STUDY SESSION: M/Tye called the Study Session to order at 5:15 p.m. in Room CC -8, South Coast Air Quality Management District Center, 21865 Copley Drive, Diamond Bar, CA 91765 Present: Council Members Carol Herrera, Jack Tanaka, Mayor Pro Tem Nancy Lyons, and Mayor Steve Tye. Absent: Council Member Jimmy Lin was excused. Staff Present: James DeStefano, City Manager; Ryan McLean, Deputy City Manager; David DeBerry, City Attorney; Dianna Honeywell, Finance Director; David Liu, Public Works Director; Bob Rose, Community Services Director; Ken Desforges, IS Director; Amy Haug, Human Resources Manager; Grace Lee, Senior Planner; Anthony Santos, Senior Management Analyst; Marsha Roa, Public Information Manager; Cecilia Arellano, Public Information Coordinator; Anthony Jordan, Parks Maintenance Superintendent, and Tommye Cribbins, City Clerk. DRAFT FISCAL YEAR 2015-16 CITY COUNCIL BUDGET — Discussion and Action CM/DeStefano explained that the draft FY 2015-16 essentially is a rollover budget for further refinements as the City does each year. Generally speaking this budget increases expenditures by only 1.5 to 2 percent citing the appropriations side and revenue side. There is no proposed reduction in programs and service levels. The one-time dollar revenue from the success of the Lennar Project should be reinvested in depleted pools. The bulk of the presentation will be provided by FD/Honeywell and Council should feel free to interrupt the presentation with questions for her as well as, DCM/McLean. Staff would like to move through the entire presentation and save the next City Council Study Session to catch up on any remaining homework items that come out of tonight's meeting. Council is on schedule for an early adoption of the budget on May 5. This proposed budget contemplates approximately $27 million in revenues and $26 million in expenditures. The City has a very aggressive CIP program this year at $20 million which includes a couple of bigger -ticket dollar item City of Industry projects. Overall, Council is looking at one of the largest budgets the City has seen in its history, principally as a result of the CIP projects. CM/DeStefano then turned the presentation over to FD/Honeywell. FD/Honeywell stated that this year staff approached and prepared the budget from more of a long-term standpoint (3-5 year and beyond) instead of accomplishments only in the upcoming year due to the one-time receipt of revenues from the Willow Heights project, the need to replenish those APRIL PAGE lSESSION revenue funds and the internal service funds and the fact that the City has reached a huge milestone in Cityhood of 25 years. For the most part everything has been done the same way for the last 25 years. However, as responsible stewards of the City's finances, it is time to look at what can be done to preserve the appropriate level of reserves while continuing to provide benefit to all residents now and into the future. To this end, staff has begun the task of analyzing program revenues versus program expenditures and levels of subsidies the City provides to those programs from the General Fund and by doing so, staff hopes that it will help shape some of the decisions City Council and Management need to make now so that in the future the City's resources can be used in the best way possible. FD/Honeywell highlighted items from the current FY 2014-15 Budget. By the end of this fiscal year June 30, 2015 it is estimated that the City will have collected about $2.4 million in building fees from the Willow Heights developers and it is proposed that $2 million be used to replenish funds to build up the reserves of six (6) existing funds including the General Plan Fund, Traffic Mitigation Park Development, Vehicle Maintenance and Replacement, Equipment Replacement and Building Maintenance Funds and a proposed new fund for the City's OPEB liability. These proposals are included in the breakdown of Case I of the Study Session memo. OPEB is "Other Post -Employment Benefits - healthcare benefits provided to the City's retirees. Currently, the City provides benefits to five (5) retirees. Going forward, as the City's workforce ages and retires the PEMCHA minimum ($122 per month) for each person will increase. Every three years the City must obtain an OPEB evaluation which tells the City what its estimated liability will be by making certain assumptions such as age of the workforce, presumptions based on how long individuals are projected to live, etc. June 1, 2014 the City's total liability is just over $1 million, quite low when compared to other cities. The amount the City has accrued for past services is about $600,000 which means that the City's unfunded liability at this point is approximately $596,000. Diamond Bar "pays as it goes" by paying premiums as they are incurred which means the City is not paying down this debt by any amount. There are annual required contributions recommended during the actuarial evaluations which amount to about $85,000 per year and Diamond Bar is paying about $8,000 per year toward that amount. Therefore, staff is proposing that an irrevocable trust be set up whereby the City is able to place money into the trust and the money can be invested in vehicles that the City is not able to invest in to ensure higher returns which in turn means that Diamond Bar can pay less into this fund to fund this unfunded liability because the City would be earning higher investment yields through the trust investments. By example, CALPERS has an irrevocable trust that has the lowest costs compared to other firms and they have the economy of scale to make these investments (10 basis points). The trust can be set up and there is no requirement that the City make a contribution during lean years, for example. The CALPERS trust provides three levels of investment at different discount rates of 6, 7 and 7.25 percent based on the risk the City is willing to take. As the decision draws near staff will come back to the City Council with more details on that program. CM/DeStefano said there are several Council actions that would need to be taken and during this presentation, staff is presenting the policy issue of beginning to fund that liability by funding about $500,000 of the $600,000 with resources the City has collected in 2014-15. MPT/Lyons said that CALIPERS had a horrible record of missing what they said they were going to do which goes back to 2008-2009 and asked how their record had been during the past couple of years. FD/Honeywell responded that last year their return was 18 percent. MPT/Lyons asked what CALIPERS said they would do. FD/Honeywell responded that CALIPERS says their average is 7.5 percent over the lifetime of the fund. MPT/Lyons asked why the City would not just put in the $600,000 as opposed to the $500,000. FD/Honeywell said that when staff prepared the report the OPEB evaluation was not yet completed and staff estimated on what had happened previously. MPT/Lyons said the City could put in whatever it wanted to. FD/Honeywell agreed that it was definitely the Council's decision. CM/DeStefano explained that there are a couple of items similar to this where during preparation of the budget earlier this year some of the target information was not available until now and that number was not available in the original budget planning process. Staff thought it was about $500,000 instead of the actual $600,000 and Council will see this in other areas of the budget. For example, the water is at a higher dollar amount based on what staff thought the usage would be prior to the Governor's decree and so there will be savings in some areas of water usage. In short, refinements will be made as the budget moves forward to adoption. CM/DeStefano said that the City could invest the $596,000 and the City has the resources to do so. FD/Honeywell reiterated that the City could pay the $8,000 annual fee but does not need to do that. APRIL 21, 2015 PAGE ,t CC STUDY SESSION MPT/Lyons stated that it sounds like it is a good place to park money and get a good return. FD/Honeywell responded "yes." MPT/Lyons said that once the money is invested it stays in the trust. CM/DeStefano responded "yes." M/Tye said it was not like the City had a $600,000 liability and seven years down the road found out it was only $200,000 and could not draw out the other $400,000; the City has that liability. FD/Honeywell said the liability will grow as healthcare rises and people retire from the City. FD/Honeywell continued that the revenue estimates are at about $27.1 million which assumes a four percent growth in the property tax role. This year saw about a 5.6 percent increase so as the economy levels, staff is estimating a four percent growth. Again, the number has not been released by LA County, but the four percent is an average of what the City has seen over the last three years. The other taxes and fees category is estimated to increase about 7.5 percent because gas prices have rebounded to a certain degree and there are four businesses that will be creating quite a bit of sales tax revenue for the City. CM/DeStefano said the four businesses are office space businesses that came to Diamond Bar last year and happen to be point of sale and to be producing significant revenue. Before anyone gets too excited about this; staff will need to monitor how and where the dollars are coming from to be sure they belong to Diamond Bar and not to other jurisdictions or the County. The other area of interesting percentage growth is in retail and restaurants due to the improved economy. FD/Honeywell reported that the City expects to spend about $26 million in appropriations. Included in the proposed budget is a two percent (2% COLA) Cost of Living increase, and a $50 increase to the Benefit Allotment. At the writing of this report the CPI was not available. However, the CPI carne out on Friday at 0.2 percent as opposed to the 2% that was factored into the budget. Also new this year and included in this budget presentation is the Healthy Families Act which is a new law that requires California employers to provide paid sick leave benefits to all employees starting July 1, 2015 which means that all employers must provide paid sick leave to all full and part time employees after 30 days completion of employment. Employees can begin using the paid sick leave after 90 days of employment. Employers can use one of two methods of accrual or carryover method and the frontloading method to provide these sick leave hours. The accrual method allows for the employee to earn one hour per 30 -hours worked and up to 48 hours of unused leave can be carried over to the next year. The frontloading method allows employers to establish a sick leave bank of 24 -hours on an annual basis and the hours cannot be carried over. CM/DeStefano said the big difference for Diamond Bar is that it already does this for its full time employees. This new law affects the 65 part time employees. M/Tye asked if a 10 -hour part time employee could accrue a sick day for every 30 hours they work DCM/McLean responded "one hour." C/Herrera asked what category this fell under in appropriations. FD/Honeywell responded that it is in the Salary and Benefits for recreation, parks and the Diamond Bar Center and is already incorporated into this budget. It amounts to about $24,000. Staff is proposing the "use or lose" frontloading method. M/Tye asked if under the accrual method a part time employee could work for one year and then leave the City having accrued up to 48 hours of unused sick leave and the City would be expected to pay for those 48 hours. CM/DeStefano responded "no." MPT/Lyons asked if the 48 hours could be used for other purposes. FD/Honeywell said it would have to be used for specific purposes. CM/DeStefano said this involves part time employees who do not have the same benefits as full time employees that include such things as vacation hours and other types of benefits full time employees accrue. MPT/Lyons asked if staff figured the amount based on $50 per part time employee. HRM/Haug explained that each HMO or PPO plan was established by CALPERS and the percentages of increase vary based on the planning and number of people in the plan so that increases last year varied from 2 percent to 22 percent in healthcare premiums. The City builds a $50 benefit allotment because we do not know what those increases might be. CM/DeStefano said that part of it is to remain competitive. Diamond Bar has competing cities that pay different rates — some higher than this City pays, and this is an effort to retain and attract good employees to this organization. FD/Honeywell stated that this year the City was notified that the services piece of the Sheriff's contract is increasing by 2.5 percent and will increase 6 percent for the liability trust fund portion of the contract. This results in an approximate $564,000 for this year's anticipated cost. There is also a line -item in the Finance Department budget which calls for a citywide fees study and while the City has not commissioned a comprehensive fees study for about seven years staff felt it was appropriate to re-examine the user fees to identify the current level of subsidies this coming fiscal year which will help resolve policies allowing for cost -recovery balance appropriate to service levels and marketability of the City's facilities. Staff took quite a bit of time to analyze program revenues versus program expenditures in order to facilitate Council and management dialogue and decisions about the appropriate level of General Fund subsidy to the programs and events the City provides. The details can be seen in the Community Services budget. M/Tye asked FD/Honeywell to explain second paragraph of the City Manager's recommended budget on Page 2 "the reserve balance will be reduced from $18 million to $15.6, a difference of $2.4 million." On Page 3 it says "use of Fund Balance Reserves is $3.48 million." M/Tye asked if those were two different things. FD/Honeywell explained that the Fund Balance Reserves go up $1.12 million and $3.48 million is taken away which leaves a net is $2.4 million. M/Tye said he did not remember the City dipping into its reserves to that extent in previous budget years. FD/Honeywell explained that this year has a very heavy CIP budget which depletes a lot of the Special Revenue Funds so more General Fund dollars are being used for more of those projects than the City has historically. Approximately $2.7 million out of the $3.48 million will be used for CIP projects. Some of these projects include the Residential and Collector Street Rehab Project, Pathfinder Road Rehab Project, Morning Canyon improvements, Grand Avenue Improvements, work in the parks and parking lots (Peterson and Reagan Park), groundwater improvements, Sewer Master Plan and City yard improvements as well as, park projects. C/Herrera said that residents living on Flapjack Drive have been communicating with the Council and City regularly and asked if the APRIL 21, 2015 PAGE 7 CC STUDY SESSION groundwater drainage improvements were part of the remediation for those residents. PWD/Liu responded that it was and there are a total of 12 or 13 locations, one of which is Flapjack Drive. C/Herrera asked if the repairs were included in the dollar amount. PWD/Liu said that the known locations have been studied and staff will be making its recommendation in term of priorities and going forward, next year's CIP proposes remediation for three locations. MPT/Lyons asked if there were actually 12 locations that were problems and Flapjack is just one of those 12. PWD/Liu said that MPT/Lyons was correct and the issue at Flapjack is pretty much contained within the gutter area. While it is not pretty there are far worse situations in other residential and arterial areas. C/Herrera asked if the dollar figure was for the study and prioritization only. PWD/Liu responded that the study is complete, staff has a list of prioritization for improving locations and the dollar figure budgeted includes a fix for three of the areas. MPT/Lyons asked if this matter would come before the Council to decide which three areas would be fixed. C/Herrera said it would come as an informational item. CM/DeStefano said that Council would be making the decision on that matter as well as, award of contract. MPT/Lyons said she was surprised that there were areas worse than Flapjack because Council has heard so much from Flapjack residents and not from residents in other areas. FD/Honeywell said there are quite a few carryovers in the budget ($5.7 million estimated) from the current fiscal year which contributes to the heavy use of the Fund Balance Reserves, some of which was funded by General Fund Reserves. FD/Honeywell stated that regarding the Special Revenue Fund the Council earlier in the year took proactive steps to preserve some of the valuable Prop C Funds when it re-examined the Diamond Ride Program. After the Council made those modifications staff was able to save at least APRIL ..AGE 8 CC STUDY - $125,000 that was reallocated into street improvement projects which was very helpful in getting these projects funded. Also proposed in this budget is a return to the original property tax level in District No. 39 of $236 per parcel which gives the District an additional $132,000 to use toward maintenance of the District. This year staff wanted to reflect the true costs of maintaining the Districts so staff time and all costs associated with maintaining the Districts were added to get a true picture of what is occurring, all of which results in a transfer from the General Fund of $279,000 even with the increase of District No. 39. CM/DeStefano emphasized that the District No. 39 increase is incorporated within the budget. Council has a Public Hearing on this item on May 19 and whatever decision the Council makes will be documented within the budget. If it is different than the dollars anticipated with approval on May 5 staff will come back to the Council at the appropriate time with a budget adjustment if the Council decided to do something less than the recommended amount. C/Herrera asked if notices to residents had been sent out. CM/DeStefano said not yet but that they would be in about two weeks. PWD/Liu said he was hoping the notices would go out next week. FD/Honeywell talked about staff's new proposal to centralize the fleet maintenance function in 2015-16. Previously, each department dealt with their own vehicles and fuel cost and budgeted accordingly in their respective departmental budgets. With the new fiscal year staff is implementing a Fleet Management Program as a partnership between IS, Community Services, Public Works and Community Development which will track vehicle mileage and when they need to be serviced. Within the proposed budget all of the costs have been gathered into the 520 fund so that the City can track the total cost of the fleet in one spot. The existing fleet has aged considerably and vehicles have exceeded their useful life by several years in many cases. One vehicle was purchased this year and this year staff is proposing to purchase an additional three vehicles this year (2014-15) and another two during 2015-16. MPT/Lyons asked how many vehicle the City owns. DCM/McLean responded that the City owns 18 vehicles. M/Tye said this is not like him purchasing a new vehicle every three years. When one speaks of vehicles going several years beyond their useful life it is a good thing. It has fully depreciated and it is worth nothing. The City will not trade in the vehicle so how does the City decide to add three APRIL 21, 2015 PAGE 9 CC STUDY SESSION vehicles this year and two vehicles next year. Is it because it wants toor because it has to. CM/DeStefano said it is both. DCM/McLean explained that the City has several vehicles that are 12 to18 years old and have surpassed the anticipated longevity. There are considerable maintenance issues involved and the value of the vehicle does not meet the cost of the maintenance. MPT/Lyons asked what the City would do with the old vehicles. DCM/McLean said they would most likely go to surplus and that the City would get a slight kickback. MPT/Lyons asked what that meant. DCM/McLean responded companies that surplus disposable items usually take them to auction. If the surplus company makes anything on those items the City might realize a small amount. There is not a lot of trade-in value on these vehicles. CM/DeStefano said that the City wears out its vehicles. Some years the City has money to spend on vehicles and some years it doesn't. Last year extra money was placed in the fund in order to get ready for the needed replacement of several of the vehicles. A few years ago one of the vehicles staff looked at had 110,000 miles on it and it needed a new transmission. Staff made a decision to go ahead and replace the transmission even though it was a very old truck with a lot of miles on it, the City would get its $3,000 worth of transmission out of it. That does not always work. There are some vehicles that are not worth repairing or hanging on to. Needs change as the organization grows and sometimes the City replaces a vehicle like the one that was purchased this year with a far more sophisticated and useful product than the previous vehicle. Staff looks at all of these issues. At this time the City has a need for about five vehicles and as mentioned, staff wants to try and accomplish that the end of this fiscal year into next fiscal year. DCM/McLean said it was noteworthy that some of the vehicles are not worth keeping in the fleet. Some have 100,000 miles and can serve as secondary vehicles such as a secondary truck that is used by a part time facility attendant or maintenance worker. FD/Honeywell stated that the Capital Improvement Fund proposes a $19.9 million program, $5.7 million of which is carryover and $4.1 million of which is City of Industry Funds related to the Lemon Avenue project. Included are three street improvements projects, six traffic management APRIL 21, 2015 PAGE 10 CC STUDY SESSICH projects, construction of Lemon Avenue Interchange, Groundwater Drainage Improvements, Sewer Master Plan, Improvements at three separate parks, construction of the Pantera Park Trail and installation of Trail Information Map Panels at all nine of the City's trailheads. She noted that on April 14, 2015, the Planning Commission adopted a Resolution finding the proposed FY 2015-16 CIP budget to be in conformance with the City's General Plan. CM/DeStefano said that a couple of areas within the CIP may change over the next few months, one is the $5.7 million in carryover. It is possible that some of those projects will be completed by the end of this fiscal year. Secondly, staff is looking at spending resources on some small parks and staff is in the process of determining whether that is the best use of those resources. The Heritage Park Master Plan is moving forward and construction will likely commence during FY 2015-16. The City is spending a lot of money at Peterson Park for the parking lot, resurfacing of the playground area, etc. The skate park fencing portion of the project may or may not get done by June 30. There is a study that indicates that there are areas of the rubberized surfacing (fall zone area adjacent to the playground equipment) the City should be prioritizing for repair and staff will need to look at that in more detail. More important than the study is the fact that the standards will become more stringent which may create additional issues that would cause staff to reprioritize what playground surfaces near playground equipment would need to be repaired or replaced. While the proposed budget has been carefully considered by staff, there are issues that will need to be resolved which could result in the CIP changing over time. Because the budget needs to be adopted by the City Council, should the time come when the Council needs to provide policy input and decision making, those matters will be brought back to the City Council for consideration. MPT/Lyons asked how staff would rank spending $300,000 on a pocket park versus fixing the Lorbeer Middle School field. CM/DeStefano said that this is part of the range of items staff will be looking at in more detail. Staff is working on a solution for the Lorbeer field which puts the burden of reseeding on the contractor who apparently missed a couple of spots. It does not look like the field will need to be completely redone because it is the responsibility of the contractor to keep it in good condition — green, soft and playable. MPT/Lyons said there was some discussion about artificial turf and wanted to know if the Council would be discussing these types of items in the future. CM/DeStefano responded that Council could discuss these items. Council has staffs recommendations in the budget and as mentioned, there are APRIL 21, 201 PAGE I I CC STUDYi° things that need to be looked at on an ongoing basis to make sure money is being spent where it should be spent to get the greatest benefit for the most people. Some of the small neighborhood mini -parks may not be the ultimate choice for expending the dollars in terms of priorities. The new issue with the Peterson Park playground "fall zone" surfacing will be expensive and could change a lot of things because that liability would have to be eliminated based on the new standard. FD/Honeywell stated that at the end of Fiscal Year 2014-15 staff is estimating that the City will be positive by $1.1 million leaving a balance of General Fund Reserves of about $18 million which is 70.4 percent. At the end of Fiscal Year 2015-16 the City will have put another $1 million away and use $3.5 million of the reserves leaving a balance of General Fund Reserves of $15.7 million which is 60.2 percent. As the City reflects on its first 25 years of Cityhood it is time to regroup and look at the vision and goals of the City Council and its constituents for many years in the future. Diamond Bar is no longer "small town" — Diamond Bar provides a lot of services to a lot of different people and it requires examination of programs and services to ensure the best use of the City's resources for the highest number of people. FD/Honeywell concluded by stating that staff will bring a final draft and five year CIP plan back on May 5 for review during a Study Session. C/Herrera said she appreciated staff's effort and that a lot of good information was provided. Money is being spent in many different areas and people and personnel are being taken care of by planning for the future. Commissioners have received modest stipends of $45 and $65 for about the last 15-20 years and asked if staff had considered increasing those stipends. She suggested that staff research what other cities are doing in this regard. CM/DeStefano agreed that it has been 15 to 20 years since the City last increased the stipend dollar amount. Commissioners received a modest stipend then and still receive a modest stipend. The Planning Commission has a higher dollar amount because they are making decisions that stand whereas the other two Commissions serve in a more advisory role to the Council. Staff can look at what other cities are doing and come back to the Council with recommendations. MPT/Lyons said staff could look at similar cities and also find out what Commissions they have and what their stipends are. CM/DeStefano said that in most cases staff will find that many Commissions do not receive any compensation at all. If any Commissions do receive stipends it is usually the big three which is Parks, Traffic and of course the Planning Commission. There are cities that have a variety of APRIL 21, 2016 PAGE 12 CC STUDY SESSION other Commissions to meet their community policies. As an example, Claremont has a dozen different commissions which overlap one another. They step on each other's toes when it involves cultural, historical, heritage, planning, traffic, architectural, etc. One foothill city was looking at an architectural committee to assist its planning committee and what ultimately happened was that they added two members to the planning commission in specific disciplines because they were going to run into that issue of overlapping. Staff will look into the matter and report back. M/Tye said it appeared the City was replenishing funds of $2,050,000 from the Willow Heights Project during the 2014-15 Fiscal Year. At $15,000 a door that is $2.73 million so it appears the rest is coming in during the 2015-16 Fiscal Year. Both FD/Honeywell and CM/DeStefano responded that M/Tye was correct. M/Tye said he thought the project gave the City an additional $700,000. CM/DeStefano explained that the developer was giving the City an additional $700,000 of which approximately $200,000 has been received. FD/Honeywell referred M/Tye to Page 2 under Planning Fees at the bottom of the page which indicates Willow Heights Park Improvement Fees also shown under Fund 124 in detail on Page 159 shows that $215,400 has been received which is basically the last of Lennar. The total will wind up being the $700,000 that was negotiated in the entitlement. At the very bottom of the page is the indication that there is a desire to reserve many of those dollars and more in the account for future redevelopment of Heritage Park. There is no number for the project as yet. It was estimated last year at about $300,000 and will likely be $1 to $1.5 million depending on what is done. Council Members thanked FD/Honeywell for the report and FD/Honeywell thanked her colleagues for their input. LONG TERM ISSUES MEMO - Discussion CM/DeStefano stated that the memo to Council talks about issues that will come up during the next year that need to be studied and resolved over the next five or so years beyond that. Immediately, what the City needs to do is to take a good hard look at fees for service (required fees) and the contract programs, etc. because there are many the City subsidizes. In some cases that may be okay but it needs to be a contemporary decision of the City Council, not something that the current Council has inherited from many years ago and not something that has grown and morphed over the years. In some cases, it begs the question "why are we APRIL 2015 AGE 13 CC STUDY SESSION subsidizing those programs?" for which the City may be using transportation dollars similar to the Diamond Ride/Dial-a-Ride dollars that could be used by PWD/Liu in perhaps a better fashion for concrete than subsidizing a bus trip. Another area that should be examined is the IVHS animal permit fees. Diamond Bar is one of 11 cities for which IVHS provides services and one of two or three cities of the 11 that have the lowest rates for dog and cat licensing which is a problem for the City because it means that the general community subsidizes those services. The budget proposes about $123,000 for animal control services next year and that amount could be offset in 2016-17 by increasing the rates that IVHS collects for the City for those licenses. Staff will ask the City Council to look at this matter after staff concludes its investigation. The City also wants to assist IVHS with potential ordinance changes that would come forward later in this calendar year. Staff mentioned in a report that the City Council should also take a good hard look at Transient Occupancy Tax. Diamond Bar has one of the lowest rates in the area and it is appropriate to consider increasing the rate by at least a few percentage points to be in sync with competing cities like Diamond Bar. The time to do that would be before the City gets a fourth hotel in the City and would require a vote of the people. The City is addressing the District No. 39 LLAD this year and longer term the Council needs to look at the possibility of other districts to help generate cost resources for parks and recreation programs and for a variety of things. Also, Tres Hermanos is coming. It is on Industry's docket to be put out to bid for sale later this year (late summer) and it is likely it will be sold and close escrow about a year from now. This is an area the City needs to seriously look at and make sure it has all of the financial vehicles in place so that whatever occurs there in the future, which is Diamond Bar's choice because it has the land use control, does not burden the rest of the City whether it be costs to build parks, maintain parks, build fire stations, help the school district, build and maintain roads, etc. So the City needs to make sure that whatever that community becomes pays for all of those things wherever the law allows. All of these bits and pieces can add up to real dollars and the City needs to look at all of these areas and choices in order to keep the service levels high and keep the community looking as good as it does. This is not a matter to be considered during the adoption of the 2015-16 fiscal year budget during the next couple of weeks but these items need to be discussed in more detail over the next year or two. MPT/Lyons asked if the only item that would have to go before the voters was the licensing fees for dogs and cats. APRIL 21, 2015 PAGE 14 CC STUDY SESSION CM/DeStefano said that item does not go before the voters. The only item that would go before the voters at the moment is the Transient Occupancy Tax which would be a citywide vote. C/Herrera said it was because it was a tax versus a fee. CM/DeStefano said that C/Herrera was correct. If the rates for an adult excursion to a casino in San Diego are acceptable and within Council's policy direction, that can be done administratively. If not, the Council would have to provide staff with a new policy direction, i.e. whether or not the Council wanted to continue to subsidize that casino trip to San Diego. Many of these items can be handled by staff through policy direction and through administrative decision-making. If the City gets into districts for Tres Hermanos that is a much longer conversation with choices and options but at that point, those conversations would typically take place with the developer before the parcels are chopped up and sold at which time the dealings would be business operators and residents, etc. But Tres Hermanos is coming. Not in the next Fiscal Year but it is coming and Council needs to think about the guiding principles and thoughts in what will be negotiated. Again, Diamond Bar holds the key because it has land use control. MPT/Lyons asked what staff would propose the City Council look at first out of all of the items mentioned. CM/DeStefano responded that staff and Council will want to look at all of its fees, contract classes, programs, subsidies, etc. Most likely about a million dollars in revenue and savings could be found very quickly in these areas. Some of the City's special events are very, very popular and very, very expensive. Can the City scale back and shave off some of the expense? Perhaps, perhaps it is not what we want to do. But these things need to be -discussed to make sure the City has contemporary thinking. C/Herrera asked what CM/DeStefano includes in the "special event" category. CM/DeStefano responded, the City Birthday Party, 41h of July, Snowfest, etc. Some are huge and regional events, some are more local events. Some are very expensive and could the amount of snow be reduced for example. The Council may decide it wants more snow but it is making that policy choice. The Council may want five more minutes of fireworks. The idea is that those things cost thousands of dollars and that is okay, just make sure everyone is weighing in on these items and figure out how to balance everything and maintain a healthy budget. The City Council decides whether these things are appropriate and whether it is APRIL 21, li' PAGE 15 CC STUDY SESSICE comfortable with what is being done. It is CM/DeStefano's job to help with recommendations, options and alternatives but the ultimate policy choices are up to the City Council. If the Council is comfortable with the status quo so be it. If not, direct staff to make the changes it believes to be appropriate. C/Herrera felt it was CM/DeStefano's job to keep the City Council on the right track and if the Council continues to spend, spend, spend, at some point all of the City's reserves will be gone and Diamond Bar will be in an unfortunate position like some of its neighboring cities where it has to make serious cuts in order to make ends meet. CM/DeStefano stated that Diamond Bar is not in dire straits and this is something the City Council does not need to jump on immediately. This is a matter of being good stewards, taking a look at what the City has been doing and double checking its decisions for moving forward. There has been no development services fee study or Diamond Bar Center fee study in awhile and that has been okay. The prior years have been recessionary and the City has needed to be marketable. However, it is appropriate to look at these issues and decide whether or not to make changes but at least know what the costs are and where the City is with respect to the marketplace. As an example, the City subsidizes the Diamond Bar Center but if the City is not careful with the fees and rates charged for services the City could lose business and end up subsidizing the Center even more. So during these considerations the City has to be careful it is not pricing itself out of the market. With that said, the Diamond Bar Center facility does extraordinarily well as compared with a lot of other cities that have similar venues. The City has a great enterprise there. But it is just a matter of taking a look at it. CM/DeStefano asked if the Council had any other homework for staff other than researching Commissioner's stipends. MPT/Lyons asked whether staff wanted to change the OPEB funding amount. CM/DeStefano said that from a budgetary standpoint, staff will show the extra $96,000 which will give the Council time to consider whether or not on May 5 to fund it at the $5.6 million level. As a reminder, it can be funded at any amount between zero and $5.6 million. PUBLIC COMMENTS: None Offered. ADJOURNMENT: With no further business to come before the City Council, M/Tye adjourned the Study Session at 6:20 p.m. APRIL 2015STUDY TOMMYE RIBBINS, City Clerk The foregoing minutes are hereby approved this 5th day of May 2015. L STEV YE, May r MINUTES OF THE CITY COUNCIL REGULAR MEETING OF THE CITY OF DIAMOND BAR APRIL 21, 2015 STUDY SESSION: 5:19 p.m., Room CC -8 No. Draft FY 2015-16 Budget — Discussion and Action Public Comments: None. Study Session adjourned: 6:20 p.m. to Regular City Council Meeting CALL TO ORDER: Mayor Tye called the Regular City Council meeting to order at 6:31 p.m. in the South Coast Air Quality Management District/Government Center Auditorium, 21865 Copley Drive, Diamond Bar, CA. M/Tye reported that City Council asked for additional information during tonight's Study Session and no reportable action was taken. PLEDGE OF ALLEGIANCE: WVWD Director Ed Hilden led the Pledge of Allegiance. INVOCATION: Cantor Paul Bush, Temple Beth Israel, gave the invocation. ROLL CALL: Council Members Herrera, Lin, Tanaka, Mayor Pro Tem Lyons and Mayor Tye. Staff Present: James DeStefano, City Manager; David DeBerry, City Attorney; Ryan McLean, Deputy City Manager; Ken Desforges, IS Director; David Liu, Public Works Director; Bob Rose, Community Services Director; Dianna Honeywell, Finance Director; Grace Lee, Senior Planner; Amy Haug, Human Resources Manager; Marsha Roa, P1O Manager; Cecilia Arellano, Public Information Coordinator; Anthony Santos, Senior Management Analyst; and Tommye Cribbins, City Clerk. APPROVAL OF AGENDA: As Presented. 1. SPECIAL PRESENTATIONS, CERTIFICATES, PROCLAMATIONS: None. 2.1 Power Point Presentation by General Manager Mike Holmes, Walnut Valley Water District, concerning the drought. CM/DeStefano stated that everyone is aware that California is in the fourth year of a drought and that the Governor recently declared additional restrictions on the use of water. There are a variety of interpretations of these declarations and details that are forthcoming regarding his decree. There is a lot of action in the arena of water usage and Mike Holmes, with Walnut Valley Water District is here to provide details regarding what the APRIL 21, 2015 PAGE 2 CITY COUNCIL Water District is doing and insight as to what the City might expect to see coming forward. Mike Holmes said this is a very interesting time. He has been in the water business 27 years and has been through a few droughts which pale in comparison to the current drought. He thanked the City Council for inviting him to speak this evening. He introduced the Walnut Valley Water District Board of Directors Ed Hilden, Board President Ed Ebenkamp, as well as Jose Martinez, Management Analyst and Sandra Olson, Director of Administrative Services. The primary mandate requires the District to reduce usage by 25 percent. This is the fourth year of a drought. This is urgent. The time to be concerned is now. The time to act is now and everyone in California needs to do its part. Since 2007 with the exception of 2011 and 2012 the State has been in a drought which means less than average rainfall and snowpack. The State faces unmatched conditions in 2015 with a very warm 2014 and the driest year on record in 2013. Today 27 million live in exceptional drought areas. The northern portion of the State averages about 18.62 million acre feet of runoff which is critical for southern California water delivery. The WVWD is 100 percent dependent on imported water and one of its sources has been critically dry for many years except for 2011 and below average runoff for the past 8 out of 10 years. The news--is-slightly better for the upper Colorado River basin as a source of imported supplies. While there has been a long term drought in southern California the water supply and a little more has come from the Colorado River (949,000 acre feet or one-half of the total supply for water district). M/Tye said when he thinks of runoff he calls CSD/Rose to tell him the sprinklers are not working properly and water is running in the street. He asked Mr. Holmes what 10 million acre feet of runoff means to him. Mr. Holmes responded that some of the local runoff gets into the aquifer (return flow). When folks water their lawns it does get into the grass and into the aquifer and the District gets credit for that. Runoff to the District means snow pack melt and rain runoff in the mountains which typically comes off in April, May and June. LA County has a very efficient storm drain and water collection system. In the San Gabriel Mountains the District estimates about 85 percent of the runoff is captured for beneficial use. The Colorado River basin has been in a drought but the District believes that this year it will receive about 950,000 acre feet of water. An acre foot of water is enough to fill a football field about a foot high (326 gallons) which is about enough for two average US families. APRIL 21, 2015 PAGE 3 CITY COUNCIL In 2014 Governor Brown asked that the District conserve 20 percent and in relation to that with the lack of rain in 2013 and 2014, last year the State Water Resources Control Board adopted emergency regulations. WVWD went to Stage 1 and followed all of the stages that had been implemented in prior years through the water saving ordinance. WVWD declared a Stage 1 on August 28, 2014 and have been enforcing those standards since that time. On March 27 new ordinances were issued by the State Water Resources Control Board. Their authority to issue emergency regulations is about 270 days. They reissued the old regulations and implemented new regulations that will continue through December 2015. On April 1, 2015 Governor Brown issued an Executive Order on water use restrictions. Those regulations will be finalized on May 5 or 6. WVWD has been sitting in on telephone discussions with the State Water Resources Control Board and the Board will implement those regulations. On April 14 the Metropolitan Water District implemented a Tier 3 (15 percent) cutback. This. is significant because the MWD is where WVWD buys its water so that puts WVWD at a Tier 3 and 25 percent from the Governor's office. All have implications. MWD will penalize WVWD if it does not meet the 15 percent reduction and there are penalties for not reaching the 25 percent reduction. So the bottom line is that forgetting about MWD, WVWD will have to aim for a lot higher than the 25 percent. For the first time in the State's history, the Governor issued a proclamation for a 25 percent cut across the State. The savings amounts to about 1.5 million acre feet, an amount to fill Lake Oroville, a key reservoir in northern California. Mr. Holmes stated that the northern California system and the Colorado River Basin supply about 50-55 percent of southern California's water and MWD provides 100 percent of the WVWD's allocation. These systems are linked and this City and this community would not exist without MWD which has been able to supply water to the WVWD for more than 60 years. The average water use for WVWD for the last 15 years has been about 22,472 acre feet. Since the last drought of 2007-08 customers have responded and water usage has dropped in response to the 20 by 2020 call and since the last drought four years ago, even more. WVWD has an opportunity to meet this challenge and do its part to save water which is about a 25 percent cut or drop to about 15,600 acre feet. The existing regulations extended by the State Water Control Board include elimination of washing down sidewalks and driveways allowing runoff of potable water and other very common sense items. The new regulations include the following: 1) Outdoor irrigation is limited to no more than two days per week (15 minutes per station); 2) If there is measurable rain in the forecast, no watering lawns 48 hours prior or 48 hours during or after; 3) Food service establishments can serve water to customers only on request; 4) Operators of Hotels and Motels must not let their guests do any cleaning; 5) Water suppliers must notify customers when they have leaks on their property which WVWD has been doing for years; 6) the State Water Board will prohibit irrigation with potable water of APRIL 21, 2015 PAGE 4 CITY COUNCIL ornamental turf on public medians; 7) Requires campuses, golf courses, cemeteries and other large landscapes to make significant cuts in water use (does not apply to recycled water); and 8) new homes cannot be irrigated with potable water unless they have the drip irrigation or no grass. There are new reporting requirements that were implemented last September which will be made permanent. The State Water Board will direct urban water suppliers to develop water conservation pricing and rate structures which WVWD has done. The State Water Board has given WVWD authority to enforce these new mandatory conservation regulations even up to a $500 per day violation. WVWD goes even further and will shut off water supplies if people do not fix a leak of substance. WVWD has done so but such measures are rarely taken because their customers are very cooperative and want to fix the leak. If WVWD does not enforce these regulations, the State Water Resources Control Board can charge WVWD up to $10,000 per day per violation which provides further incentive for WVWD to enforce the regulations. The WVWD website and other websites provide water conservation tips. Bewaterwise.com and saveourwater.com are excellent sources as well. WVWD is developing a specific micro -site on its website that will be multi-lingual and the customer service staff is available to answer questions. Rebates are available and MWD is promoting a new rebate which is $2 per square foot and customers should take advantage of this promotion because the WVWD rebates have paid for those rebates for many years. At this time there is $100 million set aside for processing these rebates. There are high -efficiency toilets available and clothes washing machines that qualify for rebates, all of which are available on the website. How will WVWD get to 25 percent? Outdoors is one big way, another is through the rebate opportunities, and people will have to take control of their irrigation controllers. High flow devices are no longer available for purchase in California. All devices are low -flow. People need to fix leaks on their property that are their responsibility. WVWD will help identify the problem. There are a lot of opportunities for outdoor water conservation. People water too often, they have inefficient irrigation systems and need to fix leaks and adhere to the minimum watering standards. People are encouraged through the rebate system to convert to artificial turf. In short, people need to take every opportunity to save water. The District will conduct a lot of outreach and target customers who are most likely to conserve. Mr. Holmes concluded by stating that California is in the fourth year of a drought. This is urgent and the time to be concerned is now, the time to act is now and everyone in California will need to do his part to meet the 25 percent reduction. WVWD is excited by the challenge and will work with everyone in the District's APRIL 21, 2015 PAGE 5 CITY COUNCIL service area. He said he believed that Diamond Bar was WVWD's biggest customer by aggregate. C/Lin asked if WVWD was doing anything about conserving water usage on the commercial/industrial side. Mr. Holmes responded that the District would enforce the landscape/irrigation projects. Some of the big box buildings do not use much water and many of the new buildings use recycled water. WVWD wants to be careful about manufacturing services to make sure that those who have sacrificed and invested in job creation can maintain their businesses. Where WVWD can find opportunities, it will go after commercial and industrial. About 93 percent of the District's customer base consists of single family homes. This is a community of beautiful homes which is why people live here (Diamond Bar, Walnut and Rowland Heights in particular) and that is the main focus of the District. Water customers use about 75 percent of the water. Irrigation customers use about 6 percent of the water. So if he can get a 50 percent cutback from CSD/Rose and others it is only 3 percent of what needs to be accomplished so WVWD has to go after the bigger users which are multi -family, condo and single family units. C/Herrera thanked Mr. Holmes for the presentation and asked if he could email the Council a copy of the Power Point Presentation. She asked if WVWD would be sending customers something in writing in English and other languages such as Chinese. She has neighbors who are regularly washing down their driveways with their garden hoses. WVWD is contracting with a Diamond Bar resident to help with the Chinese outreach, Spanish and English. C/Herrera said she believed WVWD needed to provide materials in Korean as well. Mr. Holmes said he would do so. MPT/Lyons thanked Mr. Holmes for his presentation. She said she understands the 25 percent but 25 percent off of what number. Mr. Holmes responded that a year ago Governor Brown said that the District would base its 25 percent reduction on usage in 2013. Mr. Holmes said the individual bills would show the baseline for 2013 and that is the amount that the individual or business should be shooting for. MPT/Lyons felt that it would be very helpful to have visible monthly comparison that compares the actual use to the goal amount. MPT/Lyons said she understands there should not be an emphasis on planting grass. However, one of her constituents told her about a great new drought -resistant grass seed. Mr. Holmes said he has heard about those grasses but nothing has been approved. Grass is the bane of conservation but nothing that WVWD has received from the State indicates a preferred species of grass they would recommend. There are some grasses that are more drought -tolerant but all APRIL 21, 2015 PAGE 6 CITY COUNCIL grasses are targeted at this point. He said he would research the matter if MPT/Lyons would provide him with the name MPT/Lyons said she felt everyone would like to have an update on the Water Bond that was passed and how it will help in the long run. Mr. Holmes responded that urgency legislation was passed a couple of months ago that actually accelerated about $1 billion of the bond to get drought relief. MPT/Lyons said she did not mean drought -relief but that she was referring to long-term improvements to the Delta over the long term. Mr. Holmes said he would be happy to provide the outline for how the bond money will be spent and said he would also send the acceleration for the drought legislation that enhanced the timetable. MPT/Lyons asked if anything had begun. Mr. Holmes said that it has accelerated now and probably in the fall they will start on the Integrated Regional Water Management (drought tolerant) Program and will release some of the monies earlier than anticipated. MPT/Lyons asked if there were plans for construction Mr. Holmes said they understand it has to be designed first and then constructed so they are making allowances to provide more monies for design and construction for drought related relief projects throughout the State. When the State looks at bond monies they are looking first to capture communities with these funds that have wells that are not producing water, some of which are in the central valley. WVWD applied for a year ago and received $3 million grant for a drought -related program that will be put online within the next 8-10 months that will use an unused source of water that is local which will be piped into one of the existing pipelines and put to use in this area. M/Tye said that other than having the benchmark of 2013, no consideration is given for folks that conserved prior to that. Mr. Holmes said that WVWD has spent 30 years and millions of dollars for a recycled water system and that is out of the equation for WVWD. Others can go out and cut off the fairways but WVWD cannot because the golf courses are using recycled water. WVWD is happy for that but WVWD will have to dig a little deeper and take advantage of outdoor watering. WVWD sent letters of response last week to the State Water Resources Control Board. They took three days to evaluate several hundred responses and did not change too much. They issued their final draft on Saturday and wanted comments by tomorrow so it is fast tracked to get in and try to make a difference. APRIL 21, 2015 PAGE 7 CITY COUNCIL M/Tye said this is a problem years in the making and the State is rushing to make a decision. M/Tye said that yesterday he heard a report about 10's of thousands or millions of gallons of water that were used to flush the Delta smelt. Mr. Holmes said it has been a million and a half acre feet in the last couple of years. Mr. Holmes said he would send M/Tye the background information on that issue. MWD attempted to revisit that with a lawsuit this year at the Supreme Court level and was rejected as expected. There are environmental controls and laws that mandate certain flows of water. During April, May and June there are no releases from the Delta to protect the smelt and other fish. Fortunately, with the rain that occurred in northern California they were able to get the water south of the Delta in the San Luis Reservoir before that shutdown started a couple of weeks ago so they have all of the water they need that is going south in the Forebay of the Delta. They did a fish count and found about 500 smelt in the area. This is a difficult proposition because his understanding of the Governor's proclamation is that the farmers are not getting ratcheted back by him but there have been a lot of cutbacks on the farmers on the Central Valley Project. Some are getting zero on the east side of the central valley but the environmental cuts have not occurred. There is a good discussion about fairness of that that the consumers are a smaller percentage of the water use in California and why everybody did not get a hit. He is meeting with his local Assembly member in a month or so to talk to her about this issue. This is a huge battle between the northern and southern areas of the State and the drought exacerbates that whole picture. M/Tye said that if oil can be transported from Alaska to the lower 48 why hasn't someone figured out a way to get water to California from Oregon or Washington. Mr. Holmes said that an impermeable conveyance from Alaska was discussed years ago that would use the rotation of the earth's gravity to move the water to California because it is at sea level which did not pan out. There was also a discussion about bringing icebergs down and melting them. There has been a lot of talk. A good solution might be desalination. Carlsbad will be coming onboard with a 50 million gallon a day desalination plant which is coming online later this year earlier than anticipated. M/Tye asked what if anything is going on with the concept of grey water. Mr. Holmes explained that grey water is more of a planning issue for cities. He was involved with another city when LA County first adopted that in their plumbing code. The difficulty is that if it is not done at the outset of construction it is difficult to retrofit a house and there is a lot of cross -connection potential for cross contamination. He is not sure how many homes in Diamond Bar have an approved grey water system but he believed more people would be interested in utilizing grey water as a water source. APRIL 21, 2015 PAGE 8 CITY COUNCIL i Tony Torng invited everyone to attend the Diamond Bar Friends of the Library Wine Soiree on April 26 from 4 to 7 p.m. at the Diamond Bar Center. He and MPT/Lyons are co-chairing this year's event. Wine, beer, liquor and 17 food establishments will participate. Dave Reynolds, a 26 -year resident of Diamond Bar, asked for consideration of options for landscaped medians. One of the line items in Mr. Holmes' report referred to banning irrigation of ornamental lawn in median strips of which the City has plenty combined with trees. He spoke with PMS/Jordan a couple of weeks ago and discussed the option of capping off the sprinklers to the grassy areas and modifying irrigation to bring plumbing to irrigate the trees to keep the trees alive. He thought rebates were available only to the commercial and residential sectors; however, they are also available to the public sector. Given that, option 2 would be to put in a request for rebate, remove the turf and replace the turf with drought tolerant plants which he felt would further beautify the area. Mr. Holmes mentioned that he would report on what his condominium homeowner's association has accomplished. The association has removed about a quarter of its turf at the rear of the property and imbedded about 30 varieties of plants in a meandering decomposed granite walking path for people to enjoy. Everyone in southern California is addicted to the look of turf but when people see the alternative it is amazing and it has given a facelift to the landscaping of his community. People want to see more and his association is looking into the possibility. There are multiple water meters on the association's property and he is working with SoCal Water Smart and speaking with management of the WVWD tonight about how his association could possibly do more to reduce water usage. His request is for the City to look into turf removal rebates and design for the median strips and encouraged the City to do so. The landscaper was able to furnish the mulch at no charge and the rebate completely covered the cost of the association's project which consisted of the plants, drip irrigation and modification. He said he has seen about five associations in town who have or are in the process of doing this type of project. M/Tye asked for confirmation that the association was being reimbursed for every square foot of grass they removed regardless of what the association decided to replace it with. Mr. Reynolds said that was true. In the case of his association working with their landscaper, they were able to work it out knowing what money would be available for the project and came up with a design that would not cost the association anything. M/Tye said so now the association is even with what it put in versus what it took out cost -wise. Mr. Reynolds responded affirmatively. APRIL 21, 2015 PAGE g CITY COUNCIL M/Tye asked if Mr. Reynolds had any idea about how much water and money the association would save as a result of this project. Mr. Reynolds said they had not run the numbers yet but as the District begins to work the details of the mandate his association's issue is that they are bulk metered. Each individual unit within the condominium association has its own electric and gas but when it comes to water that is bulk -metered. Hopefully, the individuals will have the same incentives that the District has talked about but his association does not know how much water people are using in their individual units so his association is trying to set an example of the common area element and what the association has done but it is difficult to see what the baseline is but there is historical data available about peak use in the summer and low usage months and from that he can pretty much infer how much is coming from irrigation. A lot of water is used when the project is initiated because the plants have to be saturated but come this summer he will have a good idea about the savings. The association wanted to do more but did not want to get too carried away so the project was confined to the rear of the property which is not seen as much. But the association would like to extend the project to islands of grass mixed in with islands of planters of drought -tolerant plants. He intends to have further conversations with the District about associations that are bulk metered and when associations are taking on these conservation actions on the common property element what the association can do about communicating to individual residents what they can do to conserve water. Pui Ching Ho said that the library offers a series of workshops for children zero to four years old and their parents on Wednesdays. The next workshop will be held on Wednesday, April 22 at 11:00 a.m. and will provide a setting in which children and their parents can learn and play together. Parents will be introduced to local resources available to help them in the rewarding and challenging task of parenting. Topics to be discussed include child development, nutrition, speech, literacy and dental care. Anyone who would like to learn how to download the library's digital books and audio books onto Kindle and iPad, please come to tomorrow's demonstration, April 22 at 1:00 p.m. The library has been hosting the Taiwan movie series since March 28 and the last film in the series entitled Flying Dragon, Dancing Phoenix will be shown on Saturday, April 25 at 1:00 p.m. Bruce Triatia, HOA director, said he was very inspired by Mr. Reynolds' story. His association is walking along that same path and urged anyone in the City to get their application in right away. Those turf replacement funds are not unlimited funds. His association has contracted for the removal of approximately 80,000 square feet of lawn and has begun to look at what the association can do to retool the irrigation system so that it can emphasize keeping the trees alive and healthy. To the question about what type of savings one would see, that 80,000 square feet will represent approximately 7 percent of the association's annual water bill or about $10-$12,000 in direct water cost savings at last year's rates. Mr. Reynolds touched on what is probably the thorniest problem in an HOA, that water pricing and conservation pricing is a free market mechanism. APRIL 21, 2015 PAGE 10 CITY COUNCIL People respond to an increase in price but in an HOA if households are not individually metered, an HOA, board or director, cannot apply pressure on those who chose not to cut back and who are deliberately wasteful because they cannot be identified. He looks forward to speaking with Mr. Reynolds about this troubling issue. The Water District has been very helpful in providing outreach materials to individuals but how does the Water District talk to an HOA collectively. Hopefully, those issues will be worked out this year. M/Tye asked Mr. Triatia if his association was also bulk metered. Mr. Triatia responded yes, that the association has two eight inch meters. At this time the association uses approximately 1 to 1 and 1/3 percent of the Water District's annual product. 4. RESPONSE TO PUBLIC COMMENTS: M/Tye said that this morning he was driving down the boulevard and saw water flowing down Clear Creek which he believes is a problem with the sprinklers. As the bushes mature the water hits the bush and shoots out into the street rather than where it is intended. Should the City be looking to replace that with bubblers or drip systems or something more efficient? CM/DeStefano responded to M/Tye that staff is looking at all of the different issues with respect to water savings, conservation, the drought reduction mandates, water reduction mandates and more. Staff has been doing that for a long period of time. Staff was before the City Council in July 2014 when Mr. Holmes was present speaking about the need to conserve water and where the City was at that point in history. The City Council and staff spoke to Diamond Bar's efforts to reduce watering by about one day per week as a simple statement of the water reduction efforts. Since that time the City has achieved about a 25 percent reduction in water usage. Since about 2013-2014 measurement period the City has seen a reduction in water usage overall of about 25 to 30 percent or so. Staff is looking at all of the different measures available to the City, which may or may not be known within the marketplace. A speaker suggested that the Council look into water reduction uses by turning off the median water and so on. Staff has looked at that very carefully. The City has over 1300 trees in its medians and over $3 million in value of those trees alone in the medians, which does not include shrubs, groundcover, lawns, etc. This has to be looked at very carefully because in some of the medians it is very similar to the condo association issue. Diamond Bar cannot shut off the water to the lawns without shutting off the water to the shrubs and the trees. So, Diamond Bar has to be very careful about how it implements the measure and still protect a huge valuable resource within the community. Staff is looking at everything. CSD/Rose is excellent at retaining the water on the properties that are meant to be watered. Median problems could be the result of a sprinkler head that has moved, it could be plants that have matured, or it could be a malfunction. It could be any number of things and CSD/Rose has a crew that APRIL 21, 2015 PAGE 11 CITY COUNCIL looks at those and with miles of medians and public assets sometimes it may take a bit longer and one may see an overspray on a particular day before staff has had a chance to fix it. CM/DeStefano said that Diamond Bar, like Mr. Holmes, with respect to the backbone system, there are valves that break, heads that break at parks, there are items stolen. There are a variety of things that can and do occur and so managing the use of water through reducing if not eliminating overflow of water is a ball that is constantly in the air that staff is monitoring and watching. Under the current regulations there is a lot of confusion and a lot of understanding needed from all of the directives and staff is looking at all of that very carefully for all of the City's public properties. Very, very simply stated, the City could shut the water off one day per week and meet the mandate. But that is not the answer. The answer involves a whole complex basket of different ideas and options that may include removing the turf and short term and long term may include all kinds of different measures. Staff is embarking on the journey to figure out what is best for Diamond Bar. There are likely savings involved and there is likely cost involved in making the conversion. The rules local governments operate under with respect to contracting for the design and construction services have regulations and limitations and Diamond Bar may not be able to achieve the goal as cheaply as a private homeowners association could, for example. Diamond Bar has to operate under the State's public works contracting regulations. There are things that are in the City's way but there are certainly opportunities available to explore and staff will do that for the short and long term, how it will be funded and how it will be maintained. M/Tye asked that if everyone kept a watchful eye on areas of concern and let staff know that it would go a long way toward helping the City achieve its goal. 5.1 Parks and Recreation Commission Meeting — April 23, 2015 — 7:00 p.m., Windmill Community Room, 21810 Copley Drive. 5.2 Arbor Day Celebration — April 24, 2015 — 9:15 a.m., Pantera Elementary School, 801 Pantera Drive. 5.3 Earth Day Celebration — April 25, 2015 — 9:00 a.m. to 1:00 p.m., SCAQMD parking lot, 21865 Copley Drive. 5.4 Planning Commission Meeting — April 28, 2015 — 7:00 p.m., Windmill Community Room, 21810 Copley Drive — adjourned to May 12, 2015. 5.5 City Council Meeting — May 5, 2015 — 6:30 p.m., SCAQMD/Government Center, 21865 Copley Drive. APRIL 21, 2015 PAGE 12 CITY COUNCIL 6. CONSENT CALENDAR: C/Herrera moved and MPT/Lyons seconded to approve the Consent Calendar as presented. Motion carried by the following Roll Call vote: AYES: COUNCIL MEMBERS: Herrera, Lin, Tanaka, MPT/Lyons, M/Tye NOES: COUNCIL MEMBERS: None ABSENT: COUNCIL MEMBERS: None 6.1 APPROVED CITY COUNCIL MINUTES — Regular Meeting Minutes of April 7, 2015. 6.2 RECEIVED AND FILED TRAFFIC AND TRANSPORTATION COMMISSION MINUTES - Regular Meeting of March 12, 2015. 6.3 RATIFIED CHECK REGISTER — Dated April 2, 2015 through April 15, 2015 totaling $1,246,154.27. 6.4 APPROVED CONTRACT AMENDMENT NO. 4 WITH RKA CONSULTING GROUP FOR FEDERAL FUNDING COMPLIANCE SERVICES RELATED TO THE GRAND AVENUE BEAUTIFICATION PROJECT IN THE AMOUNT OF $24,220. 6.5 APPROVED NOTICE OF COMPLETION FOR THE COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT BLOCK GRANT (CDBG) AREA 2 (BOUNDED BY GRAND AVENUE TO THE NORTH, GATEWAY CORPORATE CENTER TO THE WEST, DIAMOND BAR BOULEVARD TO THE EAST AND PATHFINDER ROAD TO THE SOUTH) SIDEWALK REPLACEMENT PROJECT. 7. PUBLIC HEARINGS: None 8. COUNCIL CONSIDERATION: None 9. COUNCIL SUBCOMMITTEE REPORTS AND MEETING ATTENDANCE REPORTS/COUNCIL MEMBER COMMENTS: C/Tanaka said that last Saturday he attended the 26th Annual City Birthday Celebration at Pantera Park. He thanked staff and the many volunteers for their hard work. Last Thursday he attended the opening day for the Diamond Bar Senior Softball League at Peterson Park where he threw out the first pitch and last Saturday he attended the Willow Heights Grand Opening of its models which was very well attended. C/Herrera stated that Foothill Transit is puffing together a new budget for next year. Several Diamond Bar residents ride the Silver Streak Bus to get to downtown Los Angeles. These riders will be happy to know that there are plans APRIL 21, 2015 PAGE 13 CITY COUNCIL to increase the frequency of that bus from every 20 minutes to every 15 minutes beginning July 1. The Park and Ride service is available on Brea Canyon Road where individuals can park their vehicles and hop on the Silver Streak. The Class Pass program is running extremely well for students at Mt. SAC and Foothill is planning to build a transit center at the college in order to have additional bus lines traveling to and from additional cities. Mt. SAC is the largest community college in the State and during the past year and a half there have been over one million individual riders have boarded the buses of Foothill Transit which is a good thing for keeping vehicles off of the roadways. The City Birthday Party last Saturday was a wonderful event. Staff members worked very hard to put that event together and congratulations to CSD/Rose and CSC/Tarazon and all of the other wonderful employees who work hard on this event which is a great celebration for the community. The City is very pleased that it continues to be very fiscally solvent to where it can bring these types of events to the residents for their enjoyment whereas neighboring cities have had to cut back and eliminate a lot of their events. The City Council held a budget study session this evening and again, it looks like the City will be in a very strong position. The Public Safety budget will be 25 percent of the City's entire annual budget which shows that public safety is the most important issue for residents. She is pleased to say that the Sheriff's Department does an outstanding job by having two additional cars that drive around the City looking for suspicious activities and have been very successful at catching individuals who come to Diamond Bar from other cities to commit crimes. In addition, the Fire Department works very hard during the fire season to protect the City's residents and their homes. The season started this year with a fire that began in Corona and threatened Chino Hills. Diamond Bar is surrounded by 8,000 acres of open space and the City is always concerned because the hills are so dry. She looks forward to City Council adoption of the wonderful budget that staff has put together in two weeks. C/Lin stated that he had been out of town and that he had run into a friend from Boston who told him that the snow there was piled up 16 feet high and said Californians were welcome to bring their tankers and get as much snow as they wanted. MPT/Lyons congratulated the Diamond Bar High School Symphony Orchestra which was crowned "Best in the Nation" which is quite an honor. Diamond Bar is extremely proud of the orchestra and their accomplishment. The Symphony won the National School Orchestra Finals at New York's Lincoln Center. The orchestra is led by the very able Steve (Mr. A) Acciani who continues to make Diamond Bar very proud. She attended the Willow Heights Grand Opening which was very grand. Each of the three neighborhoods is different. The construction is high quality and the models are beautiful. APRIL 21, 2015 PAGE 14 CITY COUNCIL As Dr. Torng mentioned, the annual Wine Soiree which benefits the Diamond Bar Library will take place on Sunday and she hopes to see everyone there. The event will be a lot of fun as always. M/Tye commented that the highlight of the Soiree is auctioneer extraordinaire, Larry Smith who is worth the price of admission. He will get people to pay more than they ever thought they would be willing to pay for an item. This Saturday is Donate Life and he invited everyone to walk with him at Cal State Fullerton. As previously stated, the 22"d Annual Wine Soiree is, in his opinion, the highlight of the season for Diamond Bar. Thanks to CSD/Rose and staff for the City Birthday Party and Concerts in the Park events. ADJOURNMENT: With no further business to conduct, M/Tye adjourned the City Council Meeting at 7:41 p.m. 1 / TONT YE CRIBBINS, CIT Y CLERK The foregoing minutes are hereby approved this 5th day of May 12015. q�O,Le STEVIEIYE, k4AkOR