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HomeMy WebLinkAbout02/03/2000 (2) s Minutes of a Regular Meeting February 3, 2000 Town of Los Altos Hills City Council Regular Meeting Thursday, February 3, 2000, 6:00 P.M. Council Chambers, 26379 Fremont Road 1. CALL TO ORDER AND ROLL CALL Mayor Dauber called the Regular Meeting of the City Council to order at 6:10 p.m. in the Council Chambers at Town Hall. Present: Mayor Dauber and Councilmembers Casey, Finn and Johnson Staff: City Manager Mark Miller, City Attorney Sandy Sloan, Planning Director Curtis Williams, Public Works Manager Jim Rasp and City Clerk Pat Dowd Press: Leslie Martin, Los Altos Town Crier 2. APPOINTMENTS AND PRESENTATIONS 11.1 El Camino Hospital 2000—An Update of your District This item was continued to a future meeting. 11.2 Appointment to the Safety Committee-Maynard Stevenson Maynard Stevenson, 24785 Prospect Avenue, commented on his interest in serving on the Safety Committee. He noted that he had lived in Town for 38 years and now had the time to devote to the community. MOTION SECONDED AND CARRIED: Moved by Johnson, seconded by Finn and passed unanimously to appoint Maynard Stevenson to the Safety Committee for a two year term. 3. PLANNING COMMISSION REPORT The Planning Director reported on the following applications at the 1/26/00 Planning Commission Meeting: Lands of Humble, 14475 Liddicoat Circle: request for a site development • February 3, 2000 Regular City Council Meeting 1 • permit and a conditional,use permit for a new residence, and variances to exceed the maximum development and floor areas to allow parking within the front setback and grading within ten feet of the front and side property lines—continued; Lands of Spreen, 11970 Rhus Ridge Road: approved request for a site development permit for a new residence and variance to exceed the maximum development area; and Lands of Thomas, 14576 DeBell Road: request for a conditional development and site development permits for a second story addition and variance to exceed allowable floor area —continued. Dauber commented on the recent letter from ABAG(Association of Bay Area Governments) concerning the affordable housing allocation. She was pleased to note that the new allocation as determined by ABAG was much lower than the original allocation. Casey referred to the Planning Director's letter dated 12/13/99 concerning Mr. Wong's property. She confirmed and the Planning Director concurred that all of the violations on the Wong property had been corrected and all permits were in place. 4. CONSENT CALENDAR MOTION SECONDED AND CARRIED: Moved by Johnson, seconded by Finn and passed unanimously to approve the Consent Calendar, specifically: 4.1 Concurred with applications approved at the January 12,2000 Planning Commission Meeting: 4.1.1 Lands of Torabi and Majidi, 26861 Purissima Road: approved request for a site development permit for a new residence 4.1.2 Lands of Boyd, 12150 El Monte Avenue: approved request for a site development permit for a new residence, and variances to exceed allowable floor area and development area, and to allow parking to encroach into the required setback 4.2. Approved Warrants: $160,330.77 (01/01/2000—01/20/2000) 4.3 Approved request for a lot merger, Lands of Detrick, 12120 and 12160 Kate Drive 4.4 Authorized RFP - Town Hall Building Preliminary Design and Cost Estimate 5. UNFINISHED BUSINESS 6. NEW BUSINESS 6.1 Upcoming Propositions: Proposition 12, Parks and Open Space; Proposition 13, Safe Drinking Water, Clean Water, Watershed Protection and Flood Protection Act; and . Proposition 14,Bond Measure-Library February 3, 2000 Regular City Council Meeting 2 • Dauber referred to certain of the upcoming propositions which she felt directly affected the Town. She specifically referred to the library bond measure and explained the funding needs to build new libraries in the county. Johnson and Casey stated that they did not think it was appropriate for the Council to endorse propositions. Rather the individual voters should make their own decisions. Betsy Bertram, 11854 Page Mill Road, supported the propositions on both library and water issues. She suggested that the Mayor attend the upcoming League of Women Voters' Meetings on these propositions and report back to the Council. MOTION SECONDED AND CARRIED: Moved by Johnson, seconded by Finn and passed by the following roll call vote to state that the Council would not be taking a position on any of the State propositions. AYES: Mayor Pro Tem Finn and Councilmembers Casey and Johnson NOES: Mayor Dauber 7. REPORTS FROM COMMITTEES, SUB-COMMITTEES,AND COUNCILMEMBERS ON OUTSIDE AGENCIES 7.1 Library JPA • Dauber reported that at the last meeting of the JPA there had been some labor unrest and picketing. The issue was the number of hourly workers being used by the library. In addition she noted that they had reviewed the five year budget projections and the library was projecting that it would be operating at a deficit within two years. 7.2 Finance Committee Jim Steiner, member of the Finance Committee,reported that at their 1/31/00 meeting, a presentation had been given by Chandler Asset Management Company. Ms. Chandler believed her firm could obtain a yield in today's market of an estimated 6.51%. Their firm would require a minimum investment of five million dollars and their fee structure was fifteen basis points computed on total assets,plus certain other direct fees which would total about$1,500 a year. The Finance Committee believed the Town could keep 50%in LAIF and invest the rest with investment firms. On a five million dollar investment,the committee computed a net estimated additional return of$42,000. In addition the committee believed that five million was the most that the Town should invest in longer term assets which they believed were more susceptible to rate fluctuation and thus value fluctuation and capital loss if a sale was forced in an adverse money market. In response to an inquiry from Casey, Steiner stated that the $6-$10 million increase over the last several years was due to unspent funds. On the subject of Ginny Maes, Steiner reported that the committee had been informed that they required complicated bookkeeping and were not good for small towns. The City Manager noted that the Town had not been spending money on capital improvement projects in the past as it should have been and this • was going to be discussed at the next Council Meeting with the mid-year budget report. Finn February 3, 2000 Regular City Council Meeting 3 • noted thatresently the Town was getting 5.6% in LAIF while 7.2% options were available and P p liquidity could be created. He planned to present a report at the 2/17/00 Joint Meeting of the City Council and Finance Committee. He believed that the Town was losing$150,000 a year rather than the $25,000 a year according to the Finance Committee. Dauber requested that Mayor Pro Tem Finn's report be in writing in the packet so it could be reviewed before the meeting. 8. STAFF REPORTS 8.1 City Manager 8.1.1 School Construction Projects The City Manager reported that Carl Cahill,Associate Planner,would be representing the Town at the meetings on School Construction Projects. In particular Bullis was planning to start a major project a year from this summer and the Town would be keeping a close watch on issues such as traffic control. 8.1.2 Planning Director • The City Manager reported that the advertisements were out for Planning Director. 8.1.3 Website The City Manager commented that Piedmont had made inquiries about the Town's website. 8.1.4 Volunteer Dinner The City Manager reminded everyone to rsvp for the Volunteer Dinner to be held on 2/24/00. 8.1.5 Staff Turnover In response to an inquiry from Mayor Pro Tem Finn,the City Manager noted that there had been a 20%turnover of staff during the past year with a 50%turnover of the management staff. 8.1.6 Santa Clara Valley Water District The City Manager reported that a meeting had been held with representatives of the Santa Clara Valley Water District to discuss the easement at Edith Park. 8.2 City Attorney 8.2 City Clerk February 3, 2000 Regular City Council Meeting 4 • Dauber referred to the letter Council had received from the Valley Transportation Authority requesting support for SCA3 (placing before the voters a statewide ballot measure for a half-cent sales tax for transportation purposes for a twenty-year period). Dauber asked if Council wanted to endorse SCA3. Council did not want to endorse this bill. 9. COUNCIL-INITIATED ITEMS 10. PRESENTATIONS FROM THE FLOOR Roy and Patty Woolsey, 26649 Snell Lane, addressed the Council on the issue of leashing dogs. They shared their experiences of losing two cats to attacks by loose dogs. They urged the Council to have stricter enforcement of the leash law. They also urged more public awareness of this law and noted they hoped to get articles in both the Town Crier and the Town Newsletter. Sandy Humphries, 26238 Fremont Road, supported the Woolseys' comments. She had experienced returning her neighbors' dogs home on several occasions upon finding them running loose. On certain occasions they had harmed her dogs. It did not seem that some owners cared whether their dogs ran loose. Betsy Bertram, 11854 Page Mill Road, defended dogs. She noted that they had dogs which played with the neighbors' dogs and everyone got along. She emphasized that not all dogs were vicious. Council asked the Woolseys to share any suggestions they had on this difficult issue and also directed staff to advise construction workers in Town that their animals had to be leashed when working on a project. 11. PUBLIC HEARINGS 11.1 Appeal of Amendment to Site Development Permit for an accessory building and a variance to exceed the allowable floor area for the property; and adoption of resolution approving conservation agreement; Lands of Finn, 12000 Finn Lane, #1 83-96-ZP-SD-VAR(continued from November 18, 1999 Council Meeting) Finn stepped down from consideration of this item. Dauber commented that she had received in todays mail a letter from Mayor Pro Tem Finn on election issues. She found the statements made in this letter very upsetting and did not believe she could vote objectively on this application. MOTION SECONDED AND CARRIED: Moved by Johnson, seconded by Casey and passed unanimously to continue the public hearing on Lands of Finn to a future Council Meeting. • February 3, 2000 Regular City Council Meeting 5 • 12. ADJOURNMENT There being no further new or old business to discuss,the City Council Meeting was adjourned at 7:15 p.m. Respectfully submitted, Patricia Dowd City Clerk The minutes of the February 3, 2000 Regular City Council Meeting were approved at the February 17, 2000 Council Meeting. • I February 3, 2000 Regular City Council Meeting 6