Wednesday, February 28, 2024

Clayton Celebrates Our 60th Anniversary

Before our regular business at our next Council meeting, the City will be starting early in celebration of our 60th anniversary.  It wills start at 6:30pm on March 5, 2024.

Mayor Jim Diaz will be reading a proclamation in celebration and we are inviting speakers to attend and share their thoughts on their history with Clayton, and what living in Clayton has meant to them.  Everyone is welcome and we would be honored if you could attend and participate.

A cake and refreshments will be served.



Wednesday, February 21, 2024

My 2.20.24 Meeting Summary

On Tuesday the Council met to discuss two significant items:

- From our last meeting, there were nine strategic goals that were identified:

1. Public Safety, Infrastructure, and accessibility (roads, sidewalks, and ADA)
2. Community Parks and Recreation
3. Economic Development- promoting available spaces, growing number of families into community, improved downtown activity
4. Maintain vibrant police force, maintaining community policing model
5. Balancing the budget
6. Maintain the aesthetic of the City of Clayton (LMD)
7. Disaster Preparedness and Fire Prevention
8. Preserving the historical nature of the town
9. Environmental Sustainability

From there, we formed a mix of two person ad hoc committees among Councilmembers to discuss and present the strategic objective of each.  The intent of this would be discuss and narrow the nine goals down to five.  While all are important issues, like all organizations the City has limited resources and needs to focus and prioritize those most important right now.  After discussion, the Council chose the following five goals to prioritize (not in any specific order):

- Public Safety, Infrastructure, and accessibility (roads, sidewalks, and ADA)
- Community Parks and Recreation
- Economic Development- promoting available spaces, growing number of families into community, improved downtown activity
- Balancing the budget
- Maintain the aesthetic of the City of Clayton (LMD)

These goals will serve as guidance as staff prepares more information regarding financial projections and mid year budget discussions that will occur at our next meeting on March 5.  One thing to note about #4 above regarding the police force.  While I consider our police one of the City's most valuable assets, most Councilmembers felt that we addressed many of the needs of the police at our last meeting when we approved a renewed 3 year agreement with both the Clayton Police Officers Association and the Chief.  

The ad hoc committees among Councilmembers was an opportunity for us to collaborate on our shared visions, especially for those Councilmembers who haven't worked together very frequently.  Unfortunately there were slide presentations created as if they were authored by the committees, but during discussion it was clear that these presentation materials were never seen by either Vice Mayor Trupiano or myself and also attributed to us views that we did not agree with.  This misrepresentation undercut the ostensibly collaborative purpose of the committees.

- We formed an ad hoc committee consisting of myself and Councilmember Tillman to discuss potential solutions or actions that the Council could take regarding the impact excessive parking may create downtown.

Monday, February 19, 2024

Upcoming Council Meeting 2.20.24

 At our next Council meting we will be discussing a couple significant items:

- We will be discussing strategic goal setting.

- We will appoint two Councilmembers to an ad hoc committee to gather information on downtown parking and potential permit parking options.

If you have any thoughts or questions on the above please let me know.

Wednesday, February 7, 2024

My 2.6.24 Meeting Summary

On Tuesday the Council met to discuss several significant items:

- We approved an updated agreement with the Clayton Police Officers Association (POA).  The current agreement is set to expire at the end of June and the Council wanted to ensure that an agreement was in place prior to that occurring.  While the details and negotiations were held in closed session, I believe that the POA and the City came to terms that all were satisfied with.  

Our recent community survey highlighted what we already knew - the community highly values our police and the Council wanted to ensure that message was received.  With this new three year agreement - members of the POA will receive a 15% increase in year 1, with a 4% increase in year 2 and year 3.

- We received a presentation of the results of the community survey.  The survey was lead by a highly experienced market researcher and supported by diligent and dedicated interns at very low cost to the City thanks to contacts made by Vice Mayor Trupiano.  Originally staff had proposed conducting similar outreach and engaging consultants to do so at a cost of around $30K that was rejected.  

The results of the survey were not surprising - public safety and our police, small town feel, and great trails and parks, were among the many things that make Clayton a great place to live.  There were additional insights that were revealed, including the community's sense of prioritization, and what direction they'd like the City to go in.  There were also a significant amount of free form comments offered that were helpful to read.  This survey will serve as a tool as we move forward with strategic planning.

- We identified strategic priorities and formed ad hoc committees to flesh out these ideas.  At our next meeting we will discuss each further and narrow down the list.  The next step will be to determine if and how these priorities can be operationalized.  Ultimately all will take additional funding or a reprioritization of current funding.

Here are the ideas we gathered for further discussion:

- Public Safety, Infrastructure, and accessibility (roads, sidewalks, and ADA)
- Community Parks and Recreation
- Economic Development- promoting available spaces, growing number of families into community, improved downtown activity
- Maintain vibrant police force, maintaining community policing model
- Balancing the budget
- Maintain the aesthetic of the City of Clayton (LMD)
- Disaster Preparedness and Fire Prevention
- Preserving the historical nature of the town
- Environmental Sustainability

Monday, February 5, 2024

Upcoming Council Meeting 2.6.24

At our next meeting we will be discussing several significant items:

- We will be discussing the terms of an updated collective bargaining agreement between the City and the Clayton Police Officers Association.  The current agreement will expire at the end of June this year and the Council wanted to get a head start on negotiating and finalizing this agreement.  The police are an incredibly valuable asset of this community and this agreement recognizes that.

- We will discuss the recent community survey and its results.

- We will discuss strategic goals in preparation for future meetings in February and March.

If you have any thoughts or questions on these items please let me know.

Wednesday, January 17, 2024

My 1.16.24 Meeting Summary

Last night the Council discussed two signficant items:

- We approved a new contract with our Police Chief.  This concludes multiple rounds of closed session discussion regarding the details of that agreement.  I am extremely happy where we landed and am grateful for the service of our Police Chief.

- We then discussed a potential parking program near the planned 81 unit Olivia Project downtown.  The Council gave direction to staff to come back with an agenda item to establish an ad-hoc committee to discuss potential solutions or actions that we could take regarding the impact excessive parking may create.  

While I think the Council ended up in the right place, how we got there left a lot of room for improvement.  Initially Staff recommended that no action be taken.  Further, if any action were to be taken, it would be costly, involve hiring more people, purchasing a vehicle, hiring an outside consultant, perform City wide analysis, and tie our hands for future activities.  While these are possible outcomes, they are far from the only ones, and not even highly likely ones.  Rather than present options and elicit discussion on policy decisions, the staff report seemed designed to push towards the desired result of taking no action. 

There was widespread agreement and acknowledgement that if the 81 units are built, it will result in a parking problem.  This problem would most directly be borne by the immediately surrounding areas in Stranahan.  But when faced with concern from residents that has persisted unaddressed for years, staff's recommendation was to do nothing.  It is true that there isn't a specific problem at this very moment, but the challenge that has been identified is a question of when, not if.

The Staff report contemplated hiring 2 additional employees, making the cost of a parking program to be approximately $275K/year in addition to hiring an outside parking consultant at $50-$75K.  This seemed odd as when we implemented the parking program at Regency none of these costs were incurred.  In fact, the only out of pocket cost borne by the City for the Regency program was the cost of installing signage, approximately $750 per sign.  It's unclear why an option similar to what already exists was not presented.

During staff presentation, there was also the implication that if we were to implement a parking program, there would need to be city wide analysis which meant hiring consultants.  I questioned that.  The problem that we are trying to address is not the same at the far west end of town as it would be right in the nearby neighborhoods.  It seemed artificially burdensome to saddle a discreet program for a discreet area with an entire city of administrative bloat.  We should be focused on the problem we are trying to solve, not inflate the scenario to make it unwieldy.

Related to the push for a city wide effort was the idea that if we moved forward in this area that the City would be obligated to move forward in other areas.  This is not so - the Council always has discretion when it comes to matters of parking on City streets.  If there were known issues that existed in other areas, or were expected to exist, then certainly the Council should take action.  And that is what moving this issue forward would do.  It does not create any obligation to take action beyond what was being discussed.

In considering possible solutions, I made a suggestion that a relatively few number of signs restricting street parking could be placed at the entrance of Stranahan.  For our Downtown area, a small number of signs could be posted to prohibit overnight parking.  These could even be established to be effective at a date in the future.  This way, our residents know that their concerns will be addressed without incurring an exorbitant cost to the City.  This is only one possible solution however.  

When the ad hoc committee is constituted more discussion will be had and the Council determine the next course of action.

Monday, January 15, 2024

Upcoming Council Meeting 1.16.24

At our next Council meeting we will be discussing two significant items:

 - An updated employment agreement with our Police Chief.  The existing contract for the Chief ends this June and we are getting a head start in renewing it.

 - A discussion related to a parking permit program near the Olivia development.  Last year we were presented with a petition to restrict parking in nearby neighborhoods to mitigate potential impacts of the development receiving waivers for required parking as a result of CA density bonus law.

If you have any thoughts or questions on the above please let me know.