05/17/2016 Council Preview – Civic Center

Bunch of things on this agenda.  We start the evening with a closed session to discuss ongoing litigation.  This is followed by a study session to discuss our annual performance review for the City Manager and our 6-month performance review for the City Attorney.  We do the serious reviews annually, and sort of a spot review at 6 months, but we also do a serious review six months after an employee is hired (which is the case for the City Attorney).

Our 6:00 events feature two special orders and two presentations.  The special orders recognize National Teen Self-Esteem Month and National Public Works Week.  Then we have a presentation on Schools Goin’ Green.  This is followed by discussion of our Zero Waste Composting Project.  My guess on the last one is that it involves collection of food waste, as food waste is the next big item we’re pursuing.

Our regular meeting has a moderate-sized consent calendar – an order for new computers, a contract extension for NOVA-related youth workforce development services in San Mateo County, an update to NOVA’s funding (spoiler: we got an additional $300k in grant funding), a bid to replace a 3000 amp switchboard at the SMaRT Station, and a bid for the Mary Avenue bike lanes.  The Mary Avenue bid is interesting, in that we got three bidders, but one of the bidders is also a sub-contractor for another bidder.  By our bid rules, both the bidder and the bid with the sub-contract have to be excluded from the process.

Item 2 involves a bid for one phase of reconstruction of the Water Pollution Control Plant. This is a big one, some $6 million worth of work, and it’s complicated by the fact that there were two bidders, both bidders accused the other of filing non-compliant bids, and staff found one of the two bidders to be not in compliance.

Item 3 is an application for a General Plan Amendment to rezone a parcel on East Weddell, as well as to rezone the property occupied by Seven Seas Park.  In short, a school wants to open on property currently zoned Industrial.  Staff is recommending to rezone it to be School, while the Planning Commission is recommending to rezone it to Commercial, which would then require an EIR before the school could open on it.  Hopefully, I got that right.  In addition, we’ve wanted to correct the zoning for Seven Seas Park from Industry-to-Residential to Public Facilities.  Doing the GPA study for the Weddell allowed us to do the GPA study to fix Seven Seas Park’s zoning at the same time.  So that’s up for consideration as well.

Item 4 involves looking at options for bicycle routes and streetscapes on Maude Avenue.

Item 5 is likely the big one – considerations of alternatives for the Civic Center and a potential Utility Use Tax ballot measure.  Staff reports that polling indicates insufficient support for a civic center bond measure, but support exists for broadening the scope of the UUT without raising the tax rate.

And finally, item 6 has us taking positions on June ballot measures.  Staff is recommending the following:

  • Measure AA, San Francisco Bay Clean Water, Pollution Prevention and Habitat Restoration Program. San Francisco Bay Restoration Authority – support.
  • Measure A – Extend Santa Clara County Park Charter Fund – support.
  • Proposition 50 – Suspension of Legislators. Legislative Constitutional Amendment – deemed not city business.

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