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HomeMy WebLinkAbout1986 02-25 CC MINBook 66/Page 218 (r) 2/25/86 MINUTES OF THE REGULAR MEETING OF THE CITY COUNCIL OF THE CITY OF NATIONAL CITY, CALIFORNIA FEBRUARY 25, 1986 The regular meeting of the City Council of the City of National City was called to order at 7:00 p.m. by Mayor Morgan. ROLL CALL Council members present: Cooper, Dalla, VanDeventer, Waters, Morgan. Absent: None. Administrative officials present: Bolint, Campbell, Eiser, McCabe, Post, Stafford. SALUTE TO THE FLAG AND INVOCATION The meeting was opened with salute to the flag led by City Manager McCabe, followed with invocation by Father Lleva, St. Mary's Catholic Church. APPROVAL OF MINUTES Moved by Van Deventer, seconded by Waters, the minutes of the regular meetings of February 11, and February 18, 1986 be approved. Carried by unanimous vote. PROCLAMATION Moved by Van Deventer, seconded by Cooper, the Proclamation be read by title only. Carried by unanimous vote. The Mayor's proposed Proclamation, "SAVE YOUR VISION WEEK" — March 2-8, 1986, was presented. Moved by Van Deventer, seconded by Cooper, in favor of this Proclamation. Carried by unanimous vote. PRESENTATION Councilman Waters presented an Award of Merit on behalf of himself and Councilmen Cooper, Dalla and Van Deventer, to Star News Reporter Cheryl McKinnon, who was covering her last City Council meeting. Mr. Waters said, "it has been many years since Council has recognized the newspaper reporters except to complain; Cheryl has been fair to the City Council and the City employees in her unbiased reporting." Vice Mayor Van Deventer said, "Cheryl had an approach we have not seen in a reporter in a long tim e; the newer reporters are learning a lot from her." Councilman Cooper said, "Cheryl has been fair and her reporting has been factual; he hates to see her go, but he wishes her well." Councilman Dalla said, "Cheryl lives in National City and has an interest in the community which is reflected in her reporting; he wishes Cheryl the best and he wishes the new Star News reporter the best." Mrs. McKinnon said her time covering National City Council was the fastest three years of her life and she is leaving with a great deal of affection for all. PUBLIC ORAL COMMUNICATIONS CLYDE JENKINS, 3755 Ocean Front Walk, San Diego, was present and displayed plans for the two —acre property on the south side of Plaza from the Palmer Way School stairway entrance, west. Mr. Jenkins said he and his partners would like to develop a three —building complex with retail stores on the first floor and offices on the second floor under CLPD Zoning; the only variance they would require would be small car parking increased from 25 to 32; they would cover the drainage channel; they are not looking for Council approval at this time, but would like Council's feelings on the project. Discussion. Mr. Jenkins answered Council's questions. Moved by Morgan, seconded by Van Deventer, this be referred to the Planning Commission and Council be advised of what is going on. (As the development is under Planned Development, it will come before City Council.) Discussion. Carried by unanimous vote. ROBERT ANDRADE, 1609 Casa Place, was present to explain what was happening in the Philippines; he and other members of the Pilipino—American Community have lived in National City for twenty—five years and have learned about democracy; that is what the people of the Philippines want. ADOPTION OF RESOLUTIONS CONSENT RESOLUTIONS (Resolutions Nos. 14,874 through 14,879) Moved by Waters, seconded by Van Deventer, the Resolutions be presented by title only. Carried by unanimous vote. Mayor Morgan requested Resolutions Nos. 14,875 and 14,876 be considered separately. Moved by VanDeventer, seconded by Cooper, the Consent Resolutions (except 14,875 and 14,876) be adopted. Carried by unanimous vote. Book 66/Page 219 2/25/86 Resolution No. 14,874, "RESOLUTION REQUESTING THE STATE OF CALIFORNIA, DEPARTMENT OF HOUSING & COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT TO EXTEND THE PERFORMANCE PERIOD OF AN ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT BLOCK GRANT, (GRANT NO. 83—EDBG-018) BY AMENDING A SPECIAL CONDITION OF THE GRANT AGREEMENT." See Consent Resolutions above. Resolution No. 14,877, "RESOLUTION AUTHORIZING THE CITY MANAGER TO EXECUTE AN EASEMENT AGREEMENT FOR SEWER PURPOSES BETWEEN ODMARK DEVELOPMENT COMPANY AND JEAN O'GORMAN." See Consent Resolutions above. Resolution No. 14,878, "RESOLUTION AUTHORIZING THE CITY MANAGER TO EXECUTE AN EASEMENT AGREEMENT FOR SEWER PURPOSES BETWEEN ODMARK DEVELOPMENT COMPANY AND EDWIN M. CAMPBELL AND JANE F. CAMPBELL." See Consent Resolutions above. Resolution No. 14,879, "RESOLUTION AUTHORIZING APPROPRIATION AND TRANSFER OF THE EUCLID AVENUE CONTINGENCY FUND FOR VARIOUS PROJECTS IN THE CITY OF NATIONAL CITY." See Consent Resolutions above. Resolution No. 14,875, "RESOLUTION ADOPTING AN AMENDMENT TO THE GENERAL PLAN." Moved by VanDeventer, seconded by Waters, Resolution No. 14,875 be adopted. Carried, by the following vote, to —wit: Ayes: Cooper, Dalla, Van Deventer, Waters. Nays: None. Abstaining: Morgan. Resolution No. 14,876, "RESOLUTION AUTHORIZING APPROPRIATION AND TRANSFER OF SUPPLEMENTAL FUNDS TO ENGINEERING SPECIFICATION NO. 949." Moved by Waters, seconded by Van Deventer, Resolution No. 14,876 be adopted. Lengthy discussion. Carried, by the following vote, to —wit: Ayes: Dalla, VanDeventer, Waters. Nays: Cooper, Morgan. ORDINANCE FOR INTRODUCTION (FIRST READING) Moved by Waters, seconded by Van Deventer, the Ordinance be presented by title only. Carried by unanimous vote. "Ordinance rezoning certain parcels of real property pursuant to the Land Use Code of the City of National City (GP-10-85 and ZC-7-85)." OLD BUSINESS A letter from the DELGADO TERRACE HOMEOWNERS ASSOCIATION with regard to a problem created by the Euclid Ave. extension (Previously considered and held over. See minutes of 2/22/86 and 2/18/86) was presented. City Engineer Stafford said he does not have a firm recommendation because he does not have a price as yet; he received one price but he thinks we can do better. Moved by Morgan, seconded by Van Deventer, this be held over two weeks until the Engineer gets the costs of the gates, Tess the cost of unneeded cement blocks (amended motion). Discussion. Carried by unanimous vote. NEW BUSINESS The Finance Director's request for RATIFICATION of WARRANT REGISTER NO. 34, dated February 18, 1986, in the amount of $112,219.65 (Warrants Nos. 91065 through 91149) was presented. Moved by Waters, seconded by Cooper, the bills be paid and warrants drawn. Carried, by the following vote, to —wit: Ayes: Cooper, Dalla, VanDeventer, Waters. Nays: Morgan. WRITTEN COMMUNICATIONS A letter from SWEETWATER UNION HIGH SCHOOL DISTRICT for DONATION for the PARTNERSHIP —ARTS ALLIANCE (The PARTNERSHIP —ARTS ALLIANCE Program was started this year as a means of establishing close ties between the School District's fine arts programs and various community and business groups; one such program is a fine arts project for beginning and intermediate ESL students at National City Junior High; this project will provide these students with experiences in the areas of art and music, with an emphasis on Mexican culture; any contribution will be recognized by the Sweetwater High School District in the form of a letter of appreciation and a PARTNERSHIP —ARTS ALLIANCE certificate presented to the City) was presented. Moved by Waters, seconded by VanDeventer, we donate ;250. Carried, by the following vote, to —wit: Ayes: Dalla, Van Deventer, Waters, Morgan. Nays: Cooper. Book 66/Page 220 2/25/86 The request of the NATIONAL CITY AMERICAN LITTLE LEAGUE to SERVE ALCOHOLIC BEVERAGES in the KIMBALL COMMUNITY BUILDING (The National City American Little League has reserved the Kimball Community Bldg. for a benefit dance on April 19, 1986, approximately 200 adults expected to attend; the League is requesting Council authorization to serve alcoholic beverages in conjunction with the event; City Building Rental Policy requires that the following be done when alcoholic beverages are to be served: 1. Applicant shall obtain a use permit from ABC, a copy to be filed with Public Works prior to the event; 2. A Certificate of Insurance [personal liability and property damage in the amounts of $100,000 for a single occurrence and $300,000 for multiple occurrences ] naming the City as co—insured shall be submitted; 3. Security arrangements shall be approved by the Chief of Police; staff recommends approval subject to these three requirements) was presented. Moved by Van Deventer, seconded by Cooper, in favor of staff's recommendation. Carried, by the following vote, to —wit: Ayes: Cooper, Dalla, Van Deventer, Waters. Nays: None. Abstaining: Morgan. Public Works Director Williams said the amount of insurance needed has been increased to $1 million, and asked permission to make this correction; the Little League does have insurance in this amount. A letter from Father Lleva, ST. MARY'S CATHOLIC CHURCH, requesting the use of KIMBALL PARK on March 26, 1986 for an evening of prayer, called STATIONS OF THE C ROSS ("The Stations of the Cross is a kind of procession wherein the faithful will stop on a designated place of the park fourteen times and hold a prayer") was presented. Moved by Waters, seconded by Cooper, in favor of this request. Discussion. Carried, by the following vote, to —wit: Ayes: Cooper, Waters, Morgan. Nays: None. Abstaining: Dalla, VanDeventer. OTHER BUSINESS The Building & Safety Director's report on VECTOR/RODENT CONTROL PROGRAM INFORMATION (...in response to a rat complaint from Mr. James Marler, 2111 Melrose St.; see Document No. 73435) was presented. Moved by Waters, seconded by Van Deventer, this be approved. Vice Mayor Van Deventer reported there have been rats in the area of the Masonic Hall and requested this area be included. Councilman Waters said if we are going to do a rat survey, perhaps we should include the entire City; we have gotten a lot of complaints about rats. Mayor Morgan inquired how much it would cost to include the entire City. Bldg. & Safety Director Reid said he didn't know, but he would like to find out. Discussion. Moved by Waters, seconded by Morgan, this be tabled for 30 days. Discussion. Motion carried by unanimous vote. CITY MANAGER City Manager McCabe said in the past week or so, comments have been made about our project out in front (diesel tank project); there have been some misconceptions and some misstatements made by various people; he has asked the Public Works Director to give an update so everybody will have the same facts. Mayor Morgan said it is ridiculous that this thing got out of hand with the gas leak and the potential danger; gas seeped through the building and people had to go home with headaches, etc.; it is out of line when the staff doesn't send the Mayor a note and advise him of what is going on; a situation like this could bring on a lot of lawsuits. Public Works Director Williams said because of the condition of the vent line, the fill line, the product line and the tank itself, a determination has been made to attempt to abandon the tank in place; this afternoon he received a call from the Hazardous Waste Materials Handling Unit, who are the enforcement agents for the County, who in turn enforce the State Law, that the permit to abandon the tank in place is available; he will pick up the permit tomorrow morning; that will permit us to abandon the tank in place; they will pump the tank dry, purge the tank so that it becomes inert, and fill it with a concrete slurry; the end result is that we will have a large inert boulder in the area where the tank currently is; then they will backfill, installing the utilities that were taken out; the purging and filling of the tank will be done by contract. Mr. Williams continued, last week an OSHA inspector visited the site, and when he arrived, the young man that works with the contractor was down in the hole; that caused the OSHA inspector considerable concern; he also pointed out the necessity for some shoring that had to be done before anyone could enter the excavation; he (Mr. Williams) spoke to the inspector the following morning, and the inspector indicated exactly what shoring is required; he advised the inspector that before anyone else went down into the excavation, he (inspector) would be invited to come out and review the site; the following morning, at the recom mendation of Vic Hernandez, we elected to stop work on the site because of the presence of the natural gas Book 66/Page 221 2/25/86 pipeline that crossed the south edge of the excavation; we determined that the pipeline appeared to be more brittle than normal, and there had been a leak on that gas line already that had gotten into the building and caused the problems the Mayor mentioned; they determined that it was unsafe to continue to work there, so they stopped the job pending relocation of that line; the line is in the process of being relocated right now and it is anticipated that it will be completed some time tomorrow; there is a possibility of some minor escape of gas tomorrow associated with the reconnection of the line itself; they are installing valves so they will be able to shut it off; they don't currently have the valves. Mr. Williams continued, on Thursday, unless we run into problems, we will be able to start the backfill operation; it will take a day or two to get the backfill up to the level where we can safely go in and do the draining, purging and filling of the tank; once that is done, they will continue the backfill and reinstall the utilities; Bldg. & Safety Director Reid has requested that Public Works keep him advised so he can take photos and measurements and get the utilities onto an "as —built" drawing of the area so that we don't run into the unknown utilities problem again; barring further complications, we should be out of the hole by the end of next week; he sent out a request for proposal today, requesting engineering services to design a new tank to go in; the present tank is 12,000 gallons at an elevation of minus twenty—five feet; we are looking at a new tank to be approximately 2,000 gallons and it will be the normal distance below the surface; the exact location will be subject to engineering determination. Mayor Morgan said he heard the new tank would not be put in now, because Mr. Williams did not want to ask for the money; perhaps it could be done now instead of sometime down the road. Mr. Williams said if that were the intelligent course to go, he would have asked for the funds; the problem is that the tank was initially designed to be below the floor level in the operation control center so that in the event of some sort of a mishap, the fuel could not siphon onto the floor down there; one way to accomplish that is to put the tank before the floor level, but there are other ways to do that; it has been recommended that we put a tank in now while the hole is open and then worry about designing it later, but he is unwilling to do that; he doesn't want to make another mistake. Councilman Cooper inquired if Mr. Williams called OSHA and Mr. Williams replied he did not. Councilman Cooper said somebody who works for this City called OSHA and he doesn't believe it was their place to do it; there were two or three of the Councilmen walking around the project several times during the day, just about every day this has been going on; if someone who works for the City had a problem and felt OSHA should have been called, they should have notified one of the Councilmen, or the Mayor and had them call OSHA; the attorney for the MEA called OSHA and he thinks it is terrible; it is by—passing people; they are going out of their realm to do it; he doesn't think they have the right to do it; we didn't have anything that great going on there that was going to kill anybody; he thinks they (MEA) are trying to upstage Mr. Williams and to possibly get his job; he doesn't like this thing at all. Councilman Waters said he also feels they (MEA) were way out of line; someone is trying to be cute; he will guarantee that if he finds out who it is, they will be pulled on the carpet, and they had better have a good explanation for it; we have a system, a leadership position, and if they don't get satisfaction through that, they have an Asst. City Manager, City Manager and members of the Council to go to; someone was trying to be cute and get the City a lot of unnecessary publicity and he doesn't like it. Mr. Waters said Mr. Williams had two supervisors on the job and inquired why they weren't paying more attention, and why did the individual working for the contractor go into the hole without a hard hat. Mr. Williams replied that the basic agreement was that either Vic Hernandez (Street Div.) or Dan McCadam (Facilities Maint.) would be on site any tim e there was work being done in the hole; the reason was to have a responsible supervisor on site at all times; this is a major job, a difficult job, a hazardous job. Mr. Waters inquired if Mr. Williams had checked with the supervisors and inquired why they failed to observe something like that without having to call in half the County. Mr. Williams replied there were not City employees — the problem with OSHA was not with a City employee, but with the young man who was working with the contractor. Mr. Waters inquired who was in charge of the scene. Mr. Williams replied his supervisors were. Mr. Waters said "There is your blame." Mr. Williams replied, "Yes, sir." Councilman Dalla inquired if we had plans that showed the area and all the lines, utility and otherwise, that existed. Mr. Williams replied we did not; they were working from the initial contract drawings that were sent out to the contractor indicating what we wanted built; the "as —built" drawings are not available; we have been unable to discover them; it appears that the tank may have been installed backwards; there were a few things that were relative surprises; they did know of the existence of some of the underground utilities because they were able to check them out with the utilities companies; the location of the gas line was well identified; a water Book 66/Page 222 2/25/86 line was well—defined in terms of its location; the heavy fire line was reversed from the normal domestic water supply and that caused some problems; they anticipated some problems, and knowing that there would be problems, they had to excavate extremely carefully; fortunately they didn't cause any more damage than they did. Councilman Dalla said the gas line was right below the pavement and inquired if the line was broken or if there was a leak. Mr. Williams replied when they hooked the line initially, they did not break it; the line had been leaking for some time, as evidenced by watching them come out to make the repairs; they made a repair out towards the middle and it was an area that we had not excavated; the original dirt was around the line; when the repair crew came out to make the repairs, they sloughed the dirt off into the hole and they could see the discoloration of the dirt, indicating there had been a leak for some period of time; their activity no doubt increased the leak, but the leak was already there. Councilman Cooper said the reason they hooked the gas line to begin with is because the gas line was embedded in the footing of the curbing, which is illegal and highly irregular. CITY ATTORNEY — No report. OTHER STAFF — No reports. MAYOR — No report. CITY COUNCIL Councilman Waters reported on a tour he took with Port District Director Don Nay and Commissioner Reopelle, saying he pointed out weeds, debris, trees needing trim ming, and trailers that have been parked for fifteen years; he advised them Council would appreciate anything they could do to clean up the area. Councilman Dalla reported the first Neighborhood Meeting will be at 7:00 p.m., Wednesday, March 5, at El Toyon School. Mayor Morgan requested an executive session. City Attorney Eiser said it would be for the purpose of discussing two matters of pending litigation, the Duck Pond under Code Section 54956.9(a) and the other under Section 54956.9(c), and suggested that in order to comply with the Brown Act Council should vote to have the executive session. Moved by Waters, seconded by Van Deventer, Council go into executive session. Carried by unanimous vote. Council left the chambers at 8:03 p.m. Council reconvened at 8:16 p.m. ROLL CALL Council members present: Cooper, Dalla, Van Deventer, Waters, Morgan. Absent: None. ADJOURNMENT Moved by Waters, seconded by VanDeventer, the meeting be adjourned to 4:00 p.m., March 4, 1986. Carried by unanimous vote. The meeting closed at 8:17 p.m. The foregoing minutes were approved at the regular meeting of March 4, 1986. Corrections No c rections M CITY OF NATIO AL CITY, CALIFORNIA