Paso Robles City Council meeting highlights for Aug. 18 

–Highlights from the Regular City Council meeting, held on Tuesday, Aug. 18, 2020 to address time-critical items, as sent by the City of Paso Robles, are as follows.

Note: In compliance with social distancing, the council, staff, and the public participated via conference call. The public was given the opportunity to view a livestream of the meeting at www.prcity.com/youtube, invited to call into the meeting at 805-865-PASO (7276), and to email public comment to cityclerk@prcity.com prior to the meeting.

The council took the following actions:

• Honored City Clerk Dennis Fansler upon his retirement after nearly 37 years of distinctive service to the City of Paso Robles.
• Received presentations from Peter Williamson and Catalina Hubbard of Rideshare regarding their Pavement to Parks program and from J.R. Killigrew of Monterey Bay Community Power, soon to be known as Central Coast Community Energy.
• Received a Capital Projects Report from Dick McKinley, Director of Public Works, including Spring Street resurfacing, Union Road improvements, the installation of wayfinding signs, and progress with the Main West-Side Water Reservoir replacement.
• Approved an agreement with Water Systems Consulting, Inc. to complete a Water Master Plan update and to meet America’s Water Infrastructure Act of 2018 requirements. including a risk assessment and emergency response plan.
• Approval of a contract with Miller Security to provide after-hours site security for up to six months at the city’s temporary emergency homeless encampment at Borkey Flats.
• Approved an amendment to the agreement with AECOM for an increase of $50,000 to reflect the additional approved scope of work associated with the 24th Street Bridge Design. This amendment results in a not-to-exceed contract amount of $867,479.
• Reconfirmed the city’s Investment Policy and Portfolio for fiscal year 2020-21, approving minor clarifications and updates, and received and filed the monthly Treasurer’s Report for the month ending June 30, 2020.
• Approved a lower general obligation tax rate of $0.0363 per $100 of secured assessed valuation for Fiscal Year 2020-21. This reflects a 15-percent reduction in the tax rate from the prior year, yielding savings to all property owners in the city.
• Received and filed an annual status report on the Short-Term Rental Ordinance: While the ordinance is functioning as expected and no major changes are warranted at this time, city staff will enhance compliance with the ordinance by
  1. Initiating enforcement of un-permitted short-term rentals, including properties that have not applied for a permit, those that are advertising their permitted listing for an incorrect occupancy, and those with multiple verified complaints; and
  2. Creating a centralized short-term rental monitoring dashboard with monthly updates for tracking permit compliances and complaints received, to be posted on the city’s website.
• Received and filed a preliminary year-end budget report for Fiscal Year 2019-2020. Revenue loss during the April through June 2020 quarter due to the pandemic was less than anticipated, but still significant at $3.2 million. City spending was under the adopted budget by $5 million, due to emergency measures to reduce costs. The 2020-21 budget reflects overall cuts of nearly $7.5 million, reducing expenditures by 15%. The city continues to be incurring a revenue reduction of approximately $1 million per month due to the pandemic.
• Voted to continue to work with the integrated waste management authority, a joint powers authority of the county and the seven cities, to find the best path forward for the city and the entire region. The leading option appears to be having the IWMA focus primarily on helping the region implement state mandates, such as SB 1383’s food waste requirements, and assist those members who choose to implement additional programs for reducing solid waste in their jurisdictions. Focusing on implementing State mandates is an approach for the IWMA that might realistically be supported by all agencies. Councilman Hamon will continue to work with the IWMA and the representatives of the other JPA members over the coming year, working towards an update of the joint powers authority agreement.
• Addressed recent and projected increases in COVID-19 cases in Paso Robles: City Manager, Tom Frutchey expressed concern that Paso Robles continues to have the highest rate of COVID-19 cases in the county and sought city council direction for efforts that can help lead community members be more effective in taking precautions that minimize transmission of the disease. Mayor Martin is working to form a Citizens’ COVID-19 Coalition in conjunction with Travel Paso, PRJUSD, the Chamber of Commerce, local media, and concerned community members. Extra effort will be utilized to provide information in both English and Spanish.
• This represents just a subset of the total actions by the council. The full agenda can be found at https://www.prcity.com/agendacenter and the audio from the meeting can be found at https://www.prcity.com/AgendaCenter/City-Council-2. The minutes will be available as part of the packet for the city council’s next regular meeting.

The next regular City Council meeting takes place on Tuesday, Sept. 1, 2020 at 6:30 p.m.

Share To Social Media

Comments

About the author: News Staff

The news staff of the Paso Robles Daily News wrote or edited this story from local contributors and press releases. The news staff can be reached at info@pasoroblesdailynews.com.