Gayle's Richmond City Council (RCC)
Votes, Actions, and Comments

January 31, 2006, RCC Session

Voted in favor of:
Elected Councilmember Maria Viramontes as Vice Mayor for 2006. Motion passed

Appointments to City Council Standing Committees and Regional Committees. Motion passed

Contract with Ross Recreation to provide additional play ground equipment and rubberized surfacing at La Moine Park. The total amount of the contract is $111,375.63. The contract period is January 1, 2006, through June 30, 2006. Motion passed

Levy special assessments on certain properties for recovery costs for Lot Cleanup Notifications, inspections, re-inspections, cleanups, and/or boarding of buildings performed by the City of Richmond. and on certain properties for administrative citations issued by the City of Richmond. Motion passed

Limit allowable time to complete a permitted project. The purpose is to reduce the allowable time to complete work under a building permit from 730 days to 365 days, as specified in California State Building Code and reduce the number of allowable extensions from two to one. included language states the revocation of a building permit for projects with square footage of 100,000 and over shall be appealed to the City Council at the end of 365 days. Motion passed

Accepted Mid-Year Review of the 2005/06 Budget. Jim Goins, Finance Director, presented the overview. He gave updates on the (1) Status of the Financial Recovery Plan, (2) Fiscal Year 2003-04 Audit, (3) Multi-Year General Fund Budget—Actuals and Projections, (4) Finance Director’s Priorities, (5) Next Steps, (6) Mid-Year Budget Review, and (7) 2006-07 Budget Process. He highlighted key budget items as being the City’s achievement of structurally balanced budgets for FY 2003-04 and FY2004-05. Structurally balanced budgets are projected for FY 2005-06 through FY 2007-08 as well. A Reserve Policy of 10% or $10 million dollars has been established. Motion passed

Appointed a committee that includes Vice Mayor Viramontes, Councilmembers Bates, and Thurmond. to consider holding a strategic planning session to identify Council priorities for 2006. Any suggestions are to be given to any Committee member, Trina Jackson, Office of the Mayor, or Office of the City Manager. Motion passed

In the matter to discuss the following recommendations from the Rules and Procedures Committee: (a) Restructure meetings for the City Council and (b) allow a one to two minute rebuttal option for appellants and applicants during public hearings. Bill Lindsay, City Manager, gave an overview of the matter. Councilmember McLaughlin met with the City Manager prior to the Rules and Procedures Standing Committee meeting to come up with ideas for making City Council meetings more efficient. Later, the Rules and Procedures committee discussed the matter and made recommendations.

Under Restructure meetings of the City Council (Item a): Councilmember Bates added item number 14 that states that Councilmembers should not dominate the discussion on an item and the Mayor should have the latitude of determining when a Councilmember is dominating the discussion on an item. A motion was made by Councilmember Bates, seconded by Councilmember Thurmond, to direct staff to make the changes to the following items: Item 2: add the statement when necessary. Item 6: There should be flexibility based on time sensitivity .Item 7: add the statement no later than Tuesday at 5:30 p.m. Item 11: Mayor Anderson requests the Code of Ethics be placed on the wall of the Council Chamber. Item 13: The City Manager will make the determination regarding time limit for staff reports. Motion passed

Item b: A motion was to follow the Planning Commission format: an eight minute presentation for the appellant and the applicant, two minutes for all others, hear all proponents at the same time and all of the opponents at the same time. Motion passed (John Eastman, City Attorney, will draft and submit a resolution for the Council to adopt, including the Rosenberg Rules of Order.)

Gayle’s Reports
Councilmember McLaughlin, Chairperson, reported that the next meeting will be held on February 22, 2006, at 8:30a.m.

Councilmember McLaughlin thanked the community for attending the Solar Richmond kick-off meeting.

For Gayle's votes, actions, and comments at other Richmond City Council meetings, go to the previous RCC meeting, the next RCC meeting, other RCC meetings.