Wednesday, October 7, 2020

10.6.20 Meeting Summary

Last night, there was also a great presentation by Contra Costa County Fire Protection District that talked about the work they've been doing, and things that our residents should be aware of.  I'll link to the presentation when it's posted at the city's website.

Afterwards, there were two significant items discussed last night:

We made permanent the pilot preferential parking program near Regency Gate. What was adopted last night differed than the original pilot in a few key areas:

  • Made the effective time 24/7.  The pilot program was during the day on weekends and holidays.  Due to change in patterns of utilization we felt it appropriate to expand the effective times of the restrictions
  • Increase the fine from $45 to $49 to normalize with other fines in the city and in our neighboring cities
  • Leave costs for permits the same, but change them to one time fees instead of annual therefore residents don't have to pay each year to renew.  This eases administrative burden and cost on the police department.  The fees and fines thus far has already lead to a near break even with the initial cost outlays.
  • Adjust boundaries back to what they were at original pilot inception (leaving open the bottom of Regency, and the other side of Seminary where no cars are).  We had expanded the permit area to the bottom of Regency shortly after the Shelter in Place orders were issued.  While these are still present, we felt that having available no permit parking at the end of Regency allows us to accomplish our primary goal of ensuring residents are able to park in front of their house, while still allowing general access to the trail head.  Part of the recommendation was to install a type of rubberized parking block at the demarcation point to make it clear where the permit and no permit areas are.
We  adopted a 2 year Memorandum of Agreement (MOA) with certain city employees for various compensation related changes.

In addition, I requested as a future item that we discuss the city taking over maintenance of the Clayton Dog Park.  The park was originally approved in 2000.  Over the next several years, a non-profit was formed for the purpose of funding improvements to the park, including a water line and shade structure.  These were installed sometime around or after 2005.  After that time, the non-profit group has paid to replace and maintain the bark at the park and perform weed abatement, while the city has performed other maintenance items.  Given the park is owned by the city, and the costs involved are relatively low for the work that being done by the non-profit, I think it's appropriate for us to discuss the city taking over this activity.