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HomeMy WebLinkAbout05/18/2000 Minutes of a Regular Meeting May 18, 2000 Town of Los Altos Hills- City Council Regular Meeting Thursday, May 18, 2000, 6:00 P.M. Council Chambers, 26379 Fremont Road 1. CALL TO ORDER, ROLL CALL,AND PLEDGE OF ALLEGIANCE Mayor Dauber called the Regular Meeting of the City Council to order at 6:03 p.m. in the Council Chambers at Town Hall. Present: Mayor Dauber and Councilmembers Cheng and Johnson Absent: Mayor Pro Tem Finn and Councilmember Casey • Staff: Acting City Manager/Public Works Director Jim Rasp, City Attorney Sandy Sloan and Planning Director Curtis Williams Press: Clyde Noel, Los Altos Town Crier Mayor Dauber announced that Artemis Ginzton, resident and one of the founders of the pathway system, passed away, and the meeting would be adjourned in her memory. 2. APPOINTMENTS AND PRESENTATIONS This item was continued to later in the meeting when the applicant arrives. 3. PLANNING COMMISSION REPORT The Planning Director reported on the following applications discussed at the 5/10/00 Planning Commission Meeting: (1) Lands of Le and Do, 24018 Oak Knoll Circle: request for a site development permit for a new residence — continued. The application was appealed by Casey and will be on the June 1 Council agenda; (2) Lands of Jain, 28510 Matadero Creek Lane: request for landscape plan including modification of the map conditions to allow additional development area—approved. Appealed by Casey and will be on the Council's June 1 meeting; and (3) Lands of Kerns, 11890 Francemont Court: request for site development permit for new residence on lower building site of property—continued. Appealed by Finn and will be placed on the June 1 Council agenda. • Regular City Council Meeting 1 May 18, 2000 • Dauber asked the City Attorney for an explanation of appealing a continuance. The City Attorney explained that the Site Development Code indicated that an appeal could be made of a determination of the Commission. She concluded that as long as the Commission conducted a public hearing, heard from the public, and closed the public hearing, the determination could be appealed. 4. CONSENT CALENDAR Items Removed: 4.1 - 5/04/00 minutes and 4.11 (Dauber), 4.13 (request from applicant to continue to next meeting), 4.1 - 5/10/00 (member of the public), 4.8 and 4/9 (Cheng) MOTION SECONDED AND CARRIED: Moved by Johnson, seconded by Cheng and passed unanimously to approve the balance of the Consent Calendar, specifically. 4.2 Approval of Warrants: $330,365.89 (4/1/00—5/10/00) 4.3 Approved grant of Conservation Easement, Lands of Ryan and Trifelos, 13581 Wildcrest Drive-Reso#26-00 4.4 Approved site development permit for a single family two story residence with two two-car attached garages, Lands of Detrick, 12120 Kate Drive (Fast Track) • 4.5 Approved site development permit for a single story residence with an attached garage, a detached garage and a pool, Lands of Radford, 13810 La Paloma Road (Fast Track) 4.6 Approved change order No. 1 to the contract with O'Grady Paving, Inc. for the construction of the Purissima Road Pathway Project, FY99-00, Reso #27-00 4.7 Accepted report on request by Alan Goldsobel for refund of deposits, 14415 Miranda Court 4.10 Awarded Certificates of Appreciation: Liz Dana and Jean Struthers - Environmental Design and Protection Committee 4.12 Appointed Lani Smith as Acting City Clerk for May 12-22, 2000 Items Removed: 4.1 Approval of Minutes: May 4, 2000 (Regular Meeting) • Regular City Council Meeting 2 May 18, 2000 • MOTION SECONDED AND CARRIED: Moved by Johnson, seconded by Cheng and passed unanimously to approve the minutes of the May 4, 2000, City Council Meeting with the following corrections: page 9, title should be "Santa Clara Valley Water District Northwest Flood Control Advisory Committee"; page 12, add sentence to end of first paragraph, "This was referred to the Utility Committee"; and add sentence to page 113, end of second paragraph, "Dauber also asked about the drainage from Lot 2 exiting onto Lot l." 4.1 Approval of Minutes: May 10, 2000 (Special Meeting) MOTION SECONDED AND CARRIED: Moved by Dauber, seconded by Cheng and passed unanimously to approve the minutes of May 10, 2000. 4.8 Grant of Conservation Easement, Lands of Robertson, 12080 Kate Drive -Reso 4.9 Grant of Conservation Easement, Lands of Mittleman, 12100 Kate Drive - Reso# Dauber noted that these two items were among the first Fast Track hearings of the Council, and one of the conditions of Fast Tracking was that the applicants agreed to all the conditions before their projects were fast tracked. The delays concerned her, and she • noted that both applicants signed and notarized the easement. She did not know what the issue was. MOTION SECONDED AND CARRIED: Moved by Cheng, seconded by Johnson, to continue Item Nos. 4.8 and 4.9 to June 1, 2000. AYES: Council Members Cheng and Johnson NOES: Mayor Dauber 4.11 Request from the Community Services Agency regarding the Alpha Omega Program Dauber pulled this item from the Consent Calendar because the was no recommendation. MOTION SECONDED AND CARRIED: Moved by Dauber, seconded by Johnson, and passed unanimously to give the Community Services Agency permission to hold their shelter this year and future years unless the City hears that there are problems. 4.13 Response to request from Dr. Rutner for review of fees for sewer project on Magdalena • Regular City Council Meeting 3 May 18, 2000 • Dauber noted that one of the fees that normally would have been put on was dropped. Dr. Rutner asked that the existing fees be reduced because they were exorbitant. Dauber asked that Dr. Rutner submit a letter to the Town stating the existing fees were unreasonable. MOTION SECONDED AND CARRIED: Moved by Dauber, seconded by Cheng and passed unanimously to continue item 4.3 to the June 15 Council Meeting. 5. UNFINISHED BUSINESS 6. NEW BUSINESS 7. REPORTS FROM COMMITTEES, SUB-COMMITTEES, AND COUNCIL MEMBERS ON OUTSIDE AGENCIES Dauber noted that the Council established a Recreation Committee but there was no Council liaison. Cheng said she would be the liaison. Dauber noted that Cheng was the subcommittee to review Mr. Cyrous Gheyri's concerns and she asked for an update on the status. Cheng said Mr. Gheyri only wanted the subcommittee to listen to his frustrations. • 8. STAFF REPORTS 8.1 Acting City Manager 8.1.1 Resignation of Planning Director Dauber announced that Curtis Williams notified the Town that he would no longer be available as Planning Director effective June 1, 2000. She met with Curtis to discuss how the Town would be staffed and provided a report to the Council on the use of contract planners and additional hours for current planning staff. Dauber asked for a report on the sewer pumping station. The Acting City Manager/Public Works Director said he received a report from the consultant who was hired to look at the way to sewer the entire town. Recommendations were made which he had not had time to review and prepare a report for the City Council. He will provide a report at the June 1, 2000 meeting. Dauber asked for an update on in-lieu pathway fees. The Acting City Manager/Public Works Director said information was being compiled and should be available at the June 1, 2000, meeting. Regular City Council Meeting 4 May 18, 2000 • 8.1.2 Recommendation for Planning Department Workload 8.2 City Attorney 8.3 City Clerk 8.3.1 Report on Council Correspondence 9. COUNCIL-INITIATED ITEMS 9.1 Discussion of Council Meeting Schedule (Mayor Dauber) Dauber said the subject of this item was to discuss whether or not the Council wanted to cancel a meeting in August. She suggested continuing this item until the next meeting. MOTION SECONDED AND CARRIED: Moved by Johnson, seconded by Cheng, and unanimously approved to continue this item to the June 1, 2000 meeting. 10. PRESENTATIONS FROM THE FLOOR Appointment to Environmental Design and Protection Committee (This item was • continued from earlier in the meeting.) Judy Simon, 12271 Windsor Court, addressed the Council regarding her interest on the Committee. Sharyn Brown, 27673 Lupine Road, asked if Ms. Simon had the time to commit to the Committee. Ms. Simon said she would have the time. MOTION SECONDED AND CARRIED: Moved by Johnson, seconded by Cheng, and passed unanimously to appoint Judy Simon to the Environmental Design and Protection Committee. Sharyn Brown, 27673 Lupine Road, asked what was being done about graffiti in town. The Public Works Director said the Town has a graffiti abatement program and staff had been taking care of graffiti problems when they were identified. Harry Emerzian, 11670 Dawson Drive, asked for an official response as to why the town was losing staff. He heard that the Council was going to select Curtis Williams' replacement and questioned why the Council should be involved. He said that was a duty of the City Manager. • Regular City Council Meeting 5 May 18, 2000 • Dauber responded that the Town Crier's report was incorrect and actually two Councilmembers would interview applicants and state their opinions to the City Manager. Earnest Bertram, 11854 Page Mill Road, heard an e-mail was sent to the Council where a decision was made to immediately get rid of the City Manager. He pointed out that the City Manager was hired 9 months ago, was given great reviews at 3 and 6 months, and suddenly was immediately ousted from the town. He requested a copy of the e-mail because it appeared to him that a decision was made out of a public forum. The City Attorney said any member of the Council was free to give the e-mail to the public, and if the Council did not want to release the e-mail, she would have ten days, under the California Public Records Act, to reply. Johnson said the e-mail was from Casey and included information about the candidates who would be interviewed for Planning Director. He was opposed to the idea of Council interviewing staff members and felt that giving out information about the candidates was a breech of privacy. He would eliminate that portion of the e-mail, but make the rest available to the public. Jitze Couperus, 13680 Page Mill Road, was concerned about what was going on in town. He questioned why two of the Council Members who voted against the City Manager were not present. He said things needed to get cleaned up before getting worse. • Betsy Bertram, 11854 Page Mill Road, was concerned about the trend of the administration. It was her opinion that Casey thought her agenda was of prime importance and was using people to accomplish favors for special interests. She wanted to hear what grounds the City Manager was dismissed on. Cheng did not think what was discussed in closed session should be made available to the public. The City Attorney responded that the Brown Act had few exceptions. According to the Brown Act, the contents of the closed session were kept confidential unless a decision- was made in which case a public statement on the decision was made by the Council at the end of the closed session. Betsy Bertram pointed out that Casey and Finn preempted almost every decision recently made by the Planning Commission and staff and asked for more reviews. She was concerned that Casey and Finn challenged professional judgment and berated staff. Kim Cranston, 27080 Fremont Road, was concerned with the personnel problems in town. The Town Crier said Miller has stated he was glad to stay for several days as long as he did not have to do anything wrong. He was concerned about the implications of that statement and wanted to know if the Attorney or Council would take steps to find • out what was meant by that statement. Regular City Council Meeting 6 May 18 2000 • The City Attorney said she would follow up on Cranston's request. Colette Penne Cranston, 27080 Fremont Road, agreed that things discussed in closed session should not be made public. She was concerned during the recent campaign that the two Council members absent from this meeting would have an influence on Cheng, but Cheng assured her she would be an independent voice. She questioned how Cheng could come to a conclusion to fire the City Manager after only sitting on the Council for three meetings. Dauber reported that the Council met in closed session at the end of the first meeting in May to continue the review of the City Manager, and no votes were taken at that meeting. She said she reported to the City Manager what was discussed, and the City Manager tendered his resignation, giving 90 days notice, the following Monday. A closed session was scheduled for the following Wednesday at which time the Council accepted his resignation, and told him he would be relieved of his duties as of May 19. Casey asked for a second closed session, at which time a motion was made to terminate the City Manager's responsibility as of 5 p.m that day. The vote was 3-2, with Casey, Cheng and Finn voting in favor. • Michael Scott, 27856 Black Mountain Road, suggested that the Council consider agendizing a topic that would cover what the residents of the Town should expect from their Council and Manager. Dauber asked Mr. Scott to submit his written ideas to her. Ginger Summit, 13390 Lenox Way, said the City Manager's departure affected all the residents and she was concerned why the Council was not letting the residents know what was going on. She believed staff members were leaving because of intimidation by the Council. Richard Lamparter, 12864 Viscaino Road, could not understand what type of proprietary information the Council would worry about with the City Manager leaving. Sandy Humphries, 26238 Fremont Road, said her first involvement with the Town began when two neighbors had flooding problems due to new homes built behind the neighbors' homes. She became a member of the Environmental Design Committee to become involved with the town. She recalled attending a Council meeting where she witnessed the Council being persuaded by someone who was known to be a lobbyist. The Mayor at the time, Casey, told her she knew nothing about politics and intimidated her. She noticed that the intimidation continued and believed that unethical things were happening. • Regular City Council Meeting 7 May 18, 2000 Marjorie Evans, 14511 DeBell, asked why Casey and Finn were not in attendance. Dauber responded that Casey was attending a conference and Finn was out of town. Diane Barrager, 13220 Robleda Road, was concerned that the community was being divided and people were being intimidated. She was disturbed that people were not being listened to and were belittled or ignored. 11. PUBLIC HEARINGS 11.1 Request for approval of landscape plan and for modification of tentative map conditions for Matadero Creek Subdivisiorf to permit development area of 1,334 square feet in excess of allowable maximum, Lands of Jain, 28510 Matadero Creek Lane This public hearing has been continued to the June 1, 2000 City Council Meeting at the request of the applicants. 12. CLOSED SESSION: PURSUANT TO GOVERNMENT CODE SECTION 54957: 12.1 Public Employment—City Manager • 12.2 Public Employment—Planning Director Dauber said the Closed Session was cancelled. 13. ADJOURNMENT There being no further new or old business to discuss, the City Council Meeting was adjourned at 7:55 p.m. in memory of Artemis Ginzton. Respectfully Submitted, Ruth Swanson, Recording Secretary The minutes of the May 18, 2000 City Council Meeting were approved at the June 15, 2000 City Council Meeting. • Regular City Council Meeting 8 May 18, 2000