Find complete agenda here.
Call (559) 621-8000 to speak to your council member on any one of these issues.
Watch the City Council meeting live here every Thursday, usually starting at 8:30am.
Call (559) 621-8000 to speak to your council member on any one of these issues.
Watch the City Council meeting live here every Thursday, usually starting at 8:30am.
Consent Calendar:
1A) The Fresno Director of Aviation is agreeing to lease for 2 years 17,368 square feet of aircraft hangar, office and open ramp space to Aerial Solutions Inc., a new not-for-profit business that will provide aerial surveillance services for law enforcement clients, for $800 a month.
1B) The City Council wishes to authorize the Interim Director of Aviation to execute a 5th contract amendment with ERMWEST, INC., to provide professional engineering, environmental and remedial actions concerning ground water contamination emanating from the site of the former Hammer Field Military Aircraft Facility (OHF), now Fresno Yosemite Airport, for an amount not to exceed $288,000 for the 2014 year. The City's financial responsibility for Amendment No.5 is $28,800 (10% of the total cost).
History: "The United States Army Corps of Engineers (USACE) and their subcontractor, North American Aviation (subsequently bought by Boeing), operated an extensive aircraft maintenance facility on what was then called Hammer Field in the late 1940's through the 1950's. Ground water contamination emanating from the former North American Aviation site was discovered in the 1980's. Clean-up activities began in 1990 and have included the installation of a soil vapor extraction system, monitoring wells, water treatment systems, related piping, operations and maintenance, system monitoring, and coordination with the State. So far over $17,000,000 has been spent on clean-up related activities by the three parties...Under the terms of the Settlement Agreement, the USACE was deemed responsible for 68%, Boeing for 22%, and the City for 10% of total clean-up costs beginning September 16, 2010 and to remain in effect until the State is satisfied that the clean-up is complete."
1C) Council to approve the reappointments of Steven Bedrosian to the Fresno Housing Authority, and Grace Gomes and Vonnie Franks to the Fresno-Madera Area Agency on Aging from Mayor’s Office.
1D) The City's Transportation Department contracts with Diversified Transportation, LLC (DBA Keolis Transit America), to provide demand-response transportation services, offering curb-to-curb transportation for citizens with disabilities in accordance with the ADA. They were penalized $100 per call for telephone calls in which the customer remains on "hold" in excess of 5 minutes. Staff, after further consideration, believes that $100 per call is overly punitive. This amendment would modify the disincentive to $10 per call with daily caps that increase based on a sliding scale, yielding a maximum monthly disincentive of $12,000.
1E) Unclassified employees are at will employees. The one significant exception to the at will status of unclassified employees is that represented unclassified employees have the same rights as classified employees in the event of layoff or reduction in force, other than reorganization or reduction of individual positions. Council recently approved a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) between the City the City of Fresno Management Employees Association (CFMEA) which represents employees in Unit 14 employees where those hired by the City on or after December 31, 2013 are exempted from these rights.
1F) The City is becoming a member of the Friant Water Authority (FWA) Joint Powers Agreement and will be taking a leading role in the development of long-term regional planning and management of Friant-Kern Canal water resources. The initial call-for-funds to participate in the FWA JPA is $38,419.77 which will be paid from the Water Division's FY 2014 Operations and Maintenance Program budget. A council member will be selected as the City's representative.
1G) The developer for the El Paseo project, aka John Allen Company, LLC, requested City assistance to acquire the necessary right-of-way from ten adjacent parcels for public street and public utility easements. The property owned by Jenco Farms, L.P., located on the northeast corner of Riverside Drive and Herndon Avenue (map), is one of ten partial acquisitions that will be required for the project. The property owner has agreed to the appraised value of $2,600 for approximately 514 square feet of the property. The property, zoned C-2, C-R, is currently vacant and the highest and best use has been determined to be commercial development.
1H) The developer for the El Paseo project, aka John Allen Company, LLC, requested City assistance to acquire the necessary right-of-way from ten adjacent parcels for public street and public utility easements. The property owned by US Property Investors Group, LLC, located on the northwest corner of Riverside Drive and Herndon Avenue (map), is one of ten partial acquisitions that will be required for the project. The property owner has agreed to the appraised value of $1,200 for approximately 599 square feet of the property. The property, zoned R-1, is currently vacant and the highest and best use has been determined to be residential development.
1I) The developer for the El Paseo project, aka John Allen Company, LLC, requested City assistance to acquire the necessary right-of-way from ten adjacent parcels for public street and public utility easements. The property owned by Herndon, LLC, located on the southeast corner of Riverside Drive and Herndon Avenue (map), is one of ten partial acquisitions that will be required for the project. The property owner has agreed to the appraised value of $5,400 for approximately 1,067 square feet of the property. The property, zoned C-1, is currently vacant and the highest and best use has been determined to be commercial development.
1J) Staff has developed a cooperative agreement with the County of Fresno for a joint street resurfacing project on Jensen Avenue from approximately Sunland Avenue to Maple Avenue (map). The project will be largely funded by a federal grant under the Regional Surface Transportation Program (RSTP) through a competitive Regional Bid application, with the City and County sharing the local match responsibility based upon each agency's proportionate share of Jensen Avenue. The estimated total project cost is $1,116,351 and the City's contribution is not to exceed $82,800, which will be paid by Proposition 111 Special Gas Tax.
1K) On April 5, 2012 the Council approved the vacation of a portion of Allen Avenue and Shepard Street at the southeast corner of West Herndon Avenue and North Riverside Drive (formerly North Bryan Avenue - map). A design change for the intersection is resulting in approximately 935 square feet more of excess right-of-way. The purpose for the vacation is to eliminate the additional excess public street right-of-way so that it can be incorporated into the development of a fast food restaurant.
1L) To accommodate the widening of West Herndon Avenue from State Route Freeway 99 to North Weber Avenue the City of Fresno acquired two parcels in fee simple title because most of the parcels would be encumbered by various easements for said widening. In order to accommodate the previously constructed street and trail improvements across the parcels it is necessary to dedicate easements for public street purposes of an easement for public pedestrian walkway and bicycle path purposes and easements for public slope purposes.
1M) A transaction including six parcels covering more than nine acres of land currently zoned residential, industrial and commercial. Two separate, but distinct projects are involved with this acquisition. Of the $725,200 purchase price, $116,800 is being attributed to the El Paseo project and the remaining $608,400 is going toward the Veterans Boulevard project. El Paseo will be connecting Riverside Drive at the Veterans Boulevard intersection. Construction is already underway with completion expected prior to the March 9, 2014 grand opening of the major retailers. The Veterans Boulevard project is expected to commence in calendar year 2015 with the construction of a multi-lane over the Union Pacific Railroad corridor boulevard that will substantially alleviate east/west traffic in and around State Route 99.
1N) The Public Works Department has successfully completed the preliminary engineering of Herndon Avenue widening from Brawley Avenue to Valentine Avenue under budget. The cost for right-of-way and utility relocation of this project including canal undergrounding, exceeded original estimate. The proposed First Amendment with Fresno County Transportation Authority (FTCA) will allow the $108,200 funds to be transferred from preliminary engineering phase to right-of-way phase. This transfer will allow different phases of project to be fully funded.
1O) Measure C funds are set to be released for the Broadway-Fulton Alley Improvements from Calaveras Street to San Joaquin Street in the amount of $456,250. The project scope will include the repaving of the alley and undergrounding of the overhead utilities in order to facilitate adjacent infill development and the construction of the proposed Cultural Arts District park project, which also backs up to this particular alley.
1P) Measure C funds are set to be released for the Broadway-Fulton Alley Improvements from San Joaquin Street to Amador Street in the amount of $63,000. The project scope will include the repaving of the alley to provide for proper circulation and drainage in the vicinity of the Fulton Village development.
1Q) Measure C funds are set to be released for the Storm Drain Improvements on "L" Street from Calaveras Street to San Joaquin Street in the amount of $89,680. The project scope will include the installation of a storm drain pipeline and drain inlet to improve drainage in the immediate vicinity of the project.
1R) Staff has completed the annual update of City-wide priority ranking lists for new traffic signal installations and left turn phasing installations that are partially or wholly funded through traffic signal mitigation impact fees. Check out here of page 4 to see the list.
General Administration:
2A) The City will apply for $1,800,000 from the Measure "C" Transit-Oriented Development (TOD) program to serve as local matching funds for the proposed Fulton Mall Reconstruction Project, subject to future Council consideration of whether to authorize the project and whether to approve a contract for and budget the funds, if awarded.
2B) The public and employee parking lots at FAT are currently operated under a management contract with Standard Parking Corporation (Standard), a Delaware Corporation and is renewing their contract for a total potential cost of $1,961,858 for 5 years.
2C) The City will adopt a policy authorizing the City Manager the authority to reduce and/or eliminate selected Citywide impact fees for industrial development projects that create new jobs, increase assessed property valuation, and promote economic development. No documents were provided for this item as of this posting.
2D) The City Administrative Officer (CAO), City Attorney, City Controller and Risk/Safety Manager currently have varying levels of discretion to deny claims, including a claim in litigation, approve payment for any claim or pending litigation, or compromise any claim. This proposed Ordinance amends the Fresno Municipal Code by increasing the authority of the CAO, City Attorney and City Controller to:
1) approve settlements;
2) compromise claims; and
3) write-off code enforcement fines, penalties, abatement costs, attorney fees, interest and liens.
This also increases the levels when these staff can use this authority, otherwise amounts exceeding the authorized limits will be submitted to the City Council for approval.
2E) Three new classifications have been developed to meet the evolving needs of City operations.
10:00AM) A hearing regarding the proposed amendment of the City of Fresno’s Master Fee Schedule to increase water connection fees has been continued to 3/27/2014 at 10:00 a.m.
10:15AM) The adoption of City of Fresno Design Guidelines for the California High Speed Rail Project for property located in Districts 1, 2 & 3 has been continued to 2/6/2014 at 10:15 a.m.
10:40AM) A proposed 160 unit multiple family residential gated community with community building, swimming pool, detached garages, and carports project, filed by Bryan Sassano of S.I.M Architects, on behalf of Spencer Enterprises, Inc., that pertains to approximately 9.99 net acres of property located on the northeast corner of East Nees and North Chestnut Avenues (map) proposes to amend the 2025 Fresno General Plan and the Woodward Park Community Plan from the neighborhood commercial planned land use designated for the site, to the medium-high density residential planned land use designation. The applicant also proposes to reclassify the site from the Neighborhood Shopping Center use to a Low Density Multiple Family Residential zone district. This item has been continued to 2/6/2014 at 5pm.
5:00PM) The Department of Transportation/Fresno Area Express (FAX) is proposing to construct a Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) project to improve the level of public transportation in the City of Fresno. The project is an approximately 15.7-mile BRT line connecting the major north-south corridor (Blackstone Ave.) and a major east-west corridor (Ventura Ave. and Kings Canyon Rd) to Downtown. In addition to improving the level of service, it is anticipated that BRT will encourage redevelopment of underdeveloped parcels and attract infill transit oriented development along both corridors. This item will approve of the environmental reports done on the project furthering it along on the process.
1A) The Fresno Director of Aviation is agreeing to lease for 2 years 17,368 square feet of aircraft hangar, office and open ramp space to Aerial Solutions Inc., a new not-for-profit business that will provide aerial surveillance services for law enforcement clients, for $800 a month.
1B) The City Council wishes to authorize the Interim Director of Aviation to execute a 5th contract amendment with ERMWEST, INC., to provide professional engineering, environmental and remedial actions concerning ground water contamination emanating from the site of the former Hammer Field Military Aircraft Facility (OHF), now Fresno Yosemite Airport, for an amount not to exceed $288,000 for the 2014 year. The City's financial responsibility for Amendment No.5 is $28,800 (10% of the total cost).
History: "The United States Army Corps of Engineers (USACE) and their subcontractor, North American Aviation (subsequently bought by Boeing), operated an extensive aircraft maintenance facility on what was then called Hammer Field in the late 1940's through the 1950's. Ground water contamination emanating from the former North American Aviation site was discovered in the 1980's. Clean-up activities began in 1990 and have included the installation of a soil vapor extraction system, monitoring wells, water treatment systems, related piping, operations and maintenance, system monitoring, and coordination with the State. So far over $17,000,000 has been spent on clean-up related activities by the three parties...Under the terms of the Settlement Agreement, the USACE was deemed responsible for 68%, Boeing for 22%, and the City for 10% of total clean-up costs beginning September 16, 2010 and to remain in effect until the State is satisfied that the clean-up is complete."
1C) Council to approve the reappointments of Steven Bedrosian to the Fresno Housing Authority, and Grace Gomes and Vonnie Franks to the Fresno-Madera Area Agency on Aging from Mayor’s Office.
1D) The City's Transportation Department contracts with Diversified Transportation, LLC (DBA Keolis Transit America), to provide demand-response transportation services, offering curb-to-curb transportation for citizens with disabilities in accordance with the ADA. They were penalized $100 per call for telephone calls in which the customer remains on "hold" in excess of 5 minutes. Staff, after further consideration, believes that $100 per call is overly punitive. This amendment would modify the disincentive to $10 per call with daily caps that increase based on a sliding scale, yielding a maximum monthly disincentive of $12,000.
1E) Unclassified employees are at will employees. The one significant exception to the at will status of unclassified employees is that represented unclassified employees have the same rights as classified employees in the event of layoff or reduction in force, other than reorganization or reduction of individual positions. Council recently approved a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) between the City the City of Fresno Management Employees Association (CFMEA) which represents employees in Unit 14 employees where those hired by the City on or after December 31, 2013 are exempted from these rights.
1F) The City is becoming a member of the Friant Water Authority (FWA) Joint Powers Agreement and will be taking a leading role in the development of long-term regional planning and management of Friant-Kern Canal water resources. The initial call-for-funds to participate in the FWA JPA is $38,419.77 which will be paid from the Water Division's FY 2014 Operations and Maintenance Program budget. A council member will be selected as the City's representative.
1G) The developer for the El Paseo project, aka John Allen Company, LLC, requested City assistance to acquire the necessary right-of-way from ten adjacent parcels for public street and public utility easements. The property owned by Jenco Farms, L.P., located on the northeast corner of Riverside Drive and Herndon Avenue (map), is one of ten partial acquisitions that will be required for the project. The property owner has agreed to the appraised value of $2,600 for approximately 514 square feet of the property. The property, zoned C-2, C-R, is currently vacant and the highest and best use has been determined to be commercial development.
1H) The developer for the El Paseo project, aka John Allen Company, LLC, requested City assistance to acquire the necessary right-of-way from ten adjacent parcels for public street and public utility easements. The property owned by US Property Investors Group, LLC, located on the northwest corner of Riverside Drive and Herndon Avenue (map), is one of ten partial acquisitions that will be required for the project. The property owner has agreed to the appraised value of $1,200 for approximately 599 square feet of the property. The property, zoned R-1, is currently vacant and the highest and best use has been determined to be residential development.
1I) The developer for the El Paseo project, aka John Allen Company, LLC, requested City assistance to acquire the necessary right-of-way from ten adjacent parcels for public street and public utility easements. The property owned by Herndon, LLC, located on the southeast corner of Riverside Drive and Herndon Avenue (map), is one of ten partial acquisitions that will be required for the project. The property owner has agreed to the appraised value of $5,400 for approximately 1,067 square feet of the property. The property, zoned C-1, is currently vacant and the highest and best use has been determined to be commercial development.
1J) Staff has developed a cooperative agreement with the County of Fresno for a joint street resurfacing project on Jensen Avenue from approximately Sunland Avenue to Maple Avenue (map). The project will be largely funded by a federal grant under the Regional Surface Transportation Program (RSTP) through a competitive Regional Bid application, with the City and County sharing the local match responsibility based upon each agency's proportionate share of Jensen Avenue. The estimated total project cost is $1,116,351 and the City's contribution is not to exceed $82,800, which will be paid by Proposition 111 Special Gas Tax.
1K) On April 5, 2012 the Council approved the vacation of a portion of Allen Avenue and Shepard Street at the southeast corner of West Herndon Avenue and North Riverside Drive (formerly North Bryan Avenue - map). A design change for the intersection is resulting in approximately 935 square feet more of excess right-of-way. The purpose for the vacation is to eliminate the additional excess public street right-of-way so that it can be incorporated into the development of a fast food restaurant.
1L) To accommodate the widening of West Herndon Avenue from State Route Freeway 99 to North Weber Avenue the City of Fresno acquired two parcels in fee simple title because most of the parcels would be encumbered by various easements for said widening. In order to accommodate the previously constructed street and trail improvements across the parcels it is necessary to dedicate easements for public street purposes of an easement for public pedestrian walkway and bicycle path purposes and easements for public slope purposes.
1M) A transaction including six parcels covering more than nine acres of land currently zoned residential, industrial and commercial. Two separate, but distinct projects are involved with this acquisition. Of the $725,200 purchase price, $116,800 is being attributed to the El Paseo project and the remaining $608,400 is going toward the Veterans Boulevard project. El Paseo will be connecting Riverside Drive at the Veterans Boulevard intersection. Construction is already underway with completion expected prior to the March 9, 2014 grand opening of the major retailers. The Veterans Boulevard project is expected to commence in calendar year 2015 with the construction of a multi-lane over the Union Pacific Railroad corridor boulevard that will substantially alleviate east/west traffic in and around State Route 99.
1N) The Public Works Department has successfully completed the preliminary engineering of Herndon Avenue widening from Brawley Avenue to Valentine Avenue under budget. The cost for right-of-way and utility relocation of this project including canal undergrounding, exceeded original estimate. The proposed First Amendment with Fresno County Transportation Authority (FTCA) will allow the $108,200 funds to be transferred from preliminary engineering phase to right-of-way phase. This transfer will allow different phases of project to be fully funded.
1O) Measure C funds are set to be released for the Broadway-Fulton Alley Improvements from Calaveras Street to San Joaquin Street in the amount of $456,250. The project scope will include the repaving of the alley and undergrounding of the overhead utilities in order to facilitate adjacent infill development and the construction of the proposed Cultural Arts District park project, which also backs up to this particular alley.
1P) Measure C funds are set to be released for the Broadway-Fulton Alley Improvements from San Joaquin Street to Amador Street in the amount of $63,000. The project scope will include the repaving of the alley to provide for proper circulation and drainage in the vicinity of the Fulton Village development.
1Q) Measure C funds are set to be released for the Storm Drain Improvements on "L" Street from Calaveras Street to San Joaquin Street in the amount of $89,680. The project scope will include the installation of a storm drain pipeline and drain inlet to improve drainage in the immediate vicinity of the project.
1R) Staff has completed the annual update of City-wide priority ranking lists for new traffic signal installations and left turn phasing installations that are partially or wholly funded through traffic signal mitigation impact fees. Check out here of page 4 to see the list.
General Administration:
2A) The City will apply for $1,800,000 from the Measure "C" Transit-Oriented Development (TOD) program to serve as local matching funds for the proposed Fulton Mall Reconstruction Project, subject to future Council consideration of whether to authorize the project and whether to approve a contract for and budget the funds, if awarded.
2B) The public and employee parking lots at FAT are currently operated under a management contract with Standard Parking Corporation (Standard), a Delaware Corporation and is renewing their contract for a total potential cost of $1,961,858 for 5 years.
2C) The City will adopt a policy authorizing the City Manager the authority to reduce and/or eliminate selected Citywide impact fees for industrial development projects that create new jobs, increase assessed property valuation, and promote economic development. No documents were provided for this item as of this posting.
2D) The City Administrative Officer (CAO), City Attorney, City Controller and Risk/Safety Manager currently have varying levels of discretion to deny claims, including a claim in litigation, approve payment for any claim or pending litigation, or compromise any claim. This proposed Ordinance amends the Fresno Municipal Code by increasing the authority of the CAO, City Attorney and City Controller to:
1) approve settlements;
2) compromise claims; and
3) write-off code enforcement fines, penalties, abatement costs, attorney fees, interest and liens.
This also increases the levels when these staff can use this authority, otherwise amounts exceeding the authorized limits will be submitted to the City Council for approval.
2E) Three new classifications have been developed to meet the evolving needs of City operations.
- The Development Service Coordinator: serves a vital role as the initial point of contact in the development process under the Business Friendly Fresno initiative. It is estimated that the salary and benefit expenses of this position are approximately $75,000 on an annual basis.
- Housing Rehabilitation Specialist: created to inspect and evaluate housing structures in accordance with the City's housing rehabilitation programs and building codes, and to ensure compliance with HUD grant terms. It is estimated that the salary and benefits expenses for this position are approximately $73,300 on an annual basis. This position is fully funded through grant programs; primarily the Healthy Homes Lead Hazard Control Grant.
- Energy Efficiency Supervisor: new class defines the level of the duties and responsibilities associated with the City's Business and Home Energy Tune-up Programs. It is estimated that the salary and benefit expenses for this position are approximately $82,300 on an annual basis. This position is funded by PG&E Energy Efficiency funding for the Sustainability Division's Central Valley Energy Tune up program
2F) Staff recommends awarding a contract in the amount of $694,562.50 to Repipe-California of Riverside, California, for the Sewer Rehabilitation of Downtown Sewer System on Kern Street and Fulton Alleys.
2G) The City of Fresno and the Fire Department have negotiated and come to an agreement on "a wide array of changes which will assist the City in recovering from a major recession." These changes include: salaries, health & welfare, bilingual certification, conversions between 56 and 40 hour work schedules, bereavement leave, health reimbursement, workers comp, pension, deferred compensation, paid time off, leave, language clean-up, deputy chief salary range, holiday accruals, vacation accruals and shift replacement. It is estimated there to be a savings of $1.9 million of the next 3 years due to these changes.
Scheduled Council Hearings and Matters:
10:00AM) A hearing regarding the proposed amendment of the City of Fresno’s Master Fee Schedule to increase water connection fees has been continued to 3/27/2014 at 10:00 a.m.
10:15AM) The adoption of City of Fresno Design Guidelines for the California High Speed Rail Project for property located in Districts 1, 2 & 3 has been continued to 2/6/2014 at 10:15 a.m.
10:40AM) A proposed 160 unit multiple family residential gated community with community building, swimming pool, detached garages, and carports project, filed by Bryan Sassano of S.I.M Architects, on behalf of Spencer Enterprises, Inc., that pertains to approximately 9.99 net acres of property located on the northeast corner of East Nees and North Chestnut Avenues (map) proposes to amend the 2025 Fresno General Plan and the Woodward Park Community Plan from the neighborhood commercial planned land use designated for the site, to the medium-high density residential planned land use designation. The applicant also proposes to reclassify the site from the Neighborhood Shopping Center use to a Low Density Multiple Family Residential zone district. This item has been continued to 2/6/2014 at 5pm.
5:00PM) The Department of Transportation/Fresno Area Express (FAX) is proposing to construct a Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) project to improve the level of public transportation in the City of Fresno. The project is an approximately 15.7-mile BRT line connecting the major north-south corridor (Blackstone Ave.) and a major east-west corridor (Ventura Ave. and Kings Canyon Rd) to Downtown. In addition to improving the level of service, it is anticipated that BRT will encourage redevelopment of underdeveloped parcels and attract infill transit oriented development along both corridors. This item will approve of the environmental reports done on the project furthering it along on the process.
