Thursday, October 31, 2019

Upcoming Council Meeting 11.5.19

There are a few significant items on the agenda for the 11.5.19 meeting:

  • A proposed ordinance to allow the keeping of backyard chickens
  • Considering participating in United Against Hate Week
  • A proposed employment agreement for a new City Manager

If you have any thoughts or questions about any of these items please comment or contact me and I'll do my best to respond or find out more and report back.

Tuesday, October 15, 2019

10.15.19 Meeting Summary

Tonight there were a few significant items discussed:

  • In the consent calendar, we approved a bid to update and replace equipment at the North Valley Park off of Keller Ridge Dr.  This includes shade structures, surfaces, and various playground equipment.
  • We established an ad-hoc legislative committee to develop guidelines that are consistent with the goals of the city for the purpose of directing staff to respond more quickly to ongoing legislative matters.  This is important because state legislators want to hear from cities, but the city can't typically act without direction.  Setting out priorities in advance will both allow the city to act and respond more quickly, and it will add more transparency in what the Council determines its priorities are.Myself and Vice Mayor Pierce will serve on this ad-hoc committee to draft city policy for full council approval.
  • We banned glyphosate (Round Up) usage by city staff.  Given the changing landscape with many other municipalities banning or restricting the use of glyphosate, in addition to the staggering legal judgments that have recently been awarded based on harm caused by the product, the Council thought it was prudent to eliminate its use by the city.  I first raised this issue back in the Feb-19 meeting.  At that time, we went over the practices of staff, and made sure use was limited to non-public areas (hillsides, road medians, etc.) and wanted to find out more information.  Given the recent developments with litigation, I'm glad the rest of the Council agreed that this was an appropriate course of action to ban the use of glyphosate.  

In addition to these items, we continued to have positive discussions in closed session regarding selection of a new City Manager.  I will share more information when possible.

Thursday, October 10, 2019

Upcoming Council Meeting 10.15.19

There are a few significant items on the agenda for the 10.15.19 meeting:

  • Awarding a contract for equipment at the North Valley Park off of Keller Ridge Dr.  The equipment will include new shade structures, surfaces, and various playground equipment.  The current equipment is around 20 years old and in need of repair, though due to age the parts are no longer available.   Target completion of removal and installation of new equipment is June 2020.
  • Discussion regarding whether the city should establish a policy regarding state legislation that may affect the city.  There are often bills in the state legislature that could have impacts on Clayton, and establishing a policy regarding pending legislation could assist the city in taking a proactive approach to help influence policy.
  • Discussion of the use of Glyphosate (Round Up) by the city.  There have been recent developments that merit additional discussion from our Feb 5 meeting.  If the city ultimately ceases use of Glyphosate, the trade off could be greater presence of weeds.
If you have any thoughts or questions on any of these items, please comment or contact me and I'll do my best to respond or find out more and report back.

Tuesday, October 1, 2019

10.1.19 Meeting Summary

Even though there weren't any public hearings or action items on the agenda, there were a few things that were important to Clayton.  Two items related to our Clayton Police:

  1. Recognition of Sergeant England's retirement while the city thanked him for his service to the people of Clayton
  2. A ceremony promoting Rich Enea to Sergeant
Congratulations to both!

As part of our City Manager's report, he indicated that he intended to send letters to Governor Newsom in regard to legislation that is on his desk awaiting his signature.  While I agreed with the spirit of the letters that were intended to be sent, I questioned whether that was prudent given it is not consistent with our past practice, and the Council hasn't had the opportunity to discuss what the position of the city should be. 

Creating a process for the city taking positions on future legislation will come back as an agendized item so the Council can discuss how it wants to proceed.  I certainly believe that if the city does take a position, each Councilmember should voice their views so that the residents of Clayton are aware of the positions of those that represent them.

In addition, myself, and Councilmember Wolfe had requested that we re-look at the use of glysophate in Clayton.  That is targeted to be on the agenda at the next meeting, 10.15.19.