October 24, 2013

CITY ORDINANCES

SD Plastic Bag Ban Moves Forward ( Union Tribune) A proposed ban that would keep most retail outlets from using plastic bags to pack customer purchases was passed unanimously today by the City Council's Rules and Economic Development Committee. The next steps are an environmental review and a tweaking of the language of the proposed law by the City Attorney's Office, so it might not reach the full City Council for adoption for nine months to one year from now, according to staff.

Ban on Plastic Bags Proposed for Milpitas Retail, Grocery Stores (San Jose Mercury News) City of Milpitas hosted two community meetings this week to raise public awareness about a proposed ordinance to ban single-use plastic bags at all retail stores citywide. Food establishments such as restaurants and take-out eateries would be exempt from the ban. On Monday night, city staffers told about 10 residents who attended an informational meeting inside Milpitas City Hall's first-floor committee room that the bag ban would help protect the environment, conserve energy resources and promote public health.

City Council Won’t Appeal State Rules for Ride-Sharing Services ( Times) A motion to appeal California's new rules for ride-sharing services failed by one vote Wednesday at a Los Angeles City Council meeting, capping months of debate about the city's role in regulating the new taxi competitors. The appeal motion, which needed eight votes for approval, failed on a 7-6 vote. It would have laid the groundwork for a lawsuit against the California Public Utilities Commission, which last month created the nation's and the state's first regulations for ride-sharing firms such as , X and .

Cerritos Council to Consider Moratorium on new E-Cigarette Business (Long Beach Press-Telegram) Cerritos has one electronic cigarette retailer and hasn’t received any complaints about it, but the city wants to place a 45-day moratorium on any new retailers that would sell e-cigarettes or vapors.

San Francisco Adopts Ordinance that Prohibits Caregiver Discrimination and Provides Flexible Work Arrangements for Caregivers (Mondaq/Littler) recently adopted the "Family Friendly Workplace Ordinance," which prohibits caregiver discrimination and gives employees a right to request "flexible" or "predictable working arrangements" to assist employees with caregiving responsibilities for children, family members with serious health conditions, or parents 65 years or older.1 The ordinance goes into effect on January 1, 2014, and applies to all employees in the City and County of San Francisco who work for employers with 20 or more employees in the city.2 The ordinance applies to employees who have worked for a covered employer for at least six months and regularly work at least eight hours per week. The ordinance is based on federal legislation rejected three times by Congress, and a similar statute adopted by Vermont.

PENSIONS / EMPLOYEE RELATIONS

Long Beach OKs Pension Deals with Three Unions (Long Beach Press-Telegram) The City Council sealed pension reform agreements with three employee unions late Tuesday night, but stopped short of finishing a two-year effort to get all workers to pay more toward their retirement costs.

City Sues Sergeant Over Unemployment (San Diego Union Tribune) City lawyers are asking a Superior Court judge to revoke a former police sergeant’s early-retirement deal because he applied to collect unemployment benefits after retiring with a $107,000 annual pension and a $572,000 special retirement account.

BANKRUPTCY

CalPERS Keeps Pressure on San Bernardino (Sacramento Bee) Pursuing San Bernardino for more than $14 million in overdue pension payments, CalPERS is renewing its challenge to the troubled city’s right to file for bankruptcy protection. The big pension fund filed an appeal notice Tuesday in U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Riverside, accusing San Bernardino of using the bankruptcy laws to hide from its creditors and avoid paying its debts.

REDEVELOPMENT

Council OKs Contingency Plan to Repay State (Register Pajaronian) The Watsonville City Council approved a contingency plan Tuesday should the city have to repay $4.6 million to the State Department of Finance. If the city loses a lawsuit against the state, Watsonville will enter into a cash flow loan where the Water Fund lends cash to the General Fund to pay the state, and the General Fund would pay interest to the Water Fund. The issue began in 2006 when the city made a loan from its general fund to the Redevelopment Agency, which, according to Administrative Services Director Ezequiel Vega, was used to build the Civic Plaza, the adjacent garage and the community rooms in the library.

Arcata Considers $2.1M State Repayment: City Council Calls Special Meeting on Redevelopment Funds (Eureka Times-Standard) After months of negotiation, the Arcata City Council will meet today to consider approving the repayment of about $2.1 million out of the around $4.5 million in funds it owes to the state. The issue stems from California's move to dissolve redevelopment agencies in March 2011 and freeze their spending. Despite the freeze, the council, electing to serve as the successor agency, transferred and appropriated nearly $2 million out of the condemned redevelopment agency to continue funding low- income housing projects, with the bulk of those funds -- about $1.8 million -- going toward the Sandpiper project on South G Street.

REVENUE & TAXATION / FINANCE

Prop 13 Under Attach in El Cerrito, Tax Group Plans to Protect, Oct. 24 (Halfway to Concord) A group called Evolve-CA from San Francisco, CA is trying to pass a West County resolution to dramatically weaken Prop 13. Evolve-CA will present a resolution at the West County Mayor’s and Supervisors Association meeting this Thursday, October 24 at 8am El Cerrito, CA. Concerned citizens should attend this meeting and urge local officials to protect Pro 13.

Azusa-to-Montclair Gold Line Seeking New Tax Dollars (Pasadena Star-News) The project will cost $950 million and only $36 million has been raised. The rest of the money will have to come from Los Angeles County taxpayers through another transit tax measure being considered for the ballot in 2014 or 2016. The Metro Gold Line Foothill Extension Construction Authority has given up on asking for federal or state dollars and is putting its funding eggs in the taxpayers’ basket, said Habib Balian, the light-rail authority’s chief executive officer.

WATER INFRASTRUCTURE

House Overwhelmingly Passes Bill for Sacramento Levees (McClatchyDC) The House of Representatives voted 417-3 Wednesday to approve a bill authorizing a broad array of water-related infrastructure projects across the country, including the completion of levee improvements to protect Sacramento from a catastrophic flood.

Water Bill Might Hold Benefits for Local Ports () Rep. Janice Hahn, D-San Pedro, sat down with us Wednesday, hours before the House approved its broad water infrastructure bill. Hahn serves on the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee and is co-chairwoman of the bipartisan Ports Opportunity Renewal Trade and Security caucus, with Rep. Ted Poe, R-Texas. One of Hahn's goals has been to promote a more equitable distribution of the Harbor Maintenance Trust Fund and to call for full spending of the fund. California ports collect taxes that account for roughly one-third of the fund, but receive only 7 percent back because most don't have the specific dredging needs the fund is designed to pay for. The government also disburses only about half of the fund's receipts – a figure Hahn would like to see at 100 percent.

Federal Shutdown Delays Release of Bay Delta Conservation Plan (Capitol Public Radio) The 16-day federal government shutdown has caused a month-long delay in the release of California's Bay Delta conservation plan. Known as the BDCP, it includes Gov. Jerry Brown's twin tunnel project to carry water from the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta to central and southern California.

Construction Begins on Water Pipeline from Santa Maria to Nipomo (San Luis Obispo Tribune) With the hum of heavy drilling machinery in the background, elected officials from San Luis Obispo and Santa Barbara counties Wednesday celebrated the beginning of construction of a water project that will help stabilize the depleted Nipomo groundwater basin. The Nipomo Community Services District has begun construction of a $17.5 million pipeline under the Santa Maria River that will eventually bring 3,000 acre-feet of water a year to the Nipomo Mesa for the next 70 years.

Pacific Grove, Monterey Team Up on Stormwater Project (The Monterey County Herald) Pacific Grove and Monterey are embarking on a project to reduce Monterey Bay pollution from storm drain runoff and save always precious water for reuse. The cities' proposed stormwater project is the subject of a public meeting on Thursday at Pacific Grove City Hall to allow for comment on the project's upcoming environmental review.

LEGAL

Pico Rivera Refuses to Pay Water Pumping Bill (Whittier ) The city has refused to pay the $2.7 million that a Los Angeles Superior Court judge said earlier this month it owed a regional water agency for pumping groundwater from the basin. City Manager Ron Bates said the city doesn’t need to pay the Water Replenishment District of Southern California yet because it is appealing the decision of Judge Ralph Dau.

HEALTHCARE

Obamacare 101: Enroll by March 31 to Avoid Penalty, White House Clarifies (The Christian Science Monitor) The Obama administration has clarified the deadline by which Americans must sign up for health insurance to avoid paying a penalty. That deadline is in fact March 31, not Feb. 15, according to guidance released by the White House Wednesday night.

TRANSPARENCY & OPEN GOVERNMENT

L.A. Controller Unveils Website to Make City Finances More Transparent (Los Angeles Times) Los Angeles' new controller moved Wednesday to open city finances to quick and easy public scrutiny online, unveiling a website with extensive detail on how City Hall collects and spends billions of dollars. The website, Control Panel L.A., gives users access to a huge volume of data on taxpayer expenditures for police, sanitation, street repairs and other services — information that previously would have taken weeks or months to get through formal requests for records.

ENVIRONMENTAL QUALITY

Greenhouse Gas Emissions on the Decline, EPA Study Says (Los Angeles Times) Emissions of heat-trapping greenhouse gases from power plants fell 10% from 2010 to 2012, as a result of more electricity being generated with natural gas rather than coal, according to new data released Wednesday by the Environmental Protection Agency.

Brown, Governors of Seven Other States Join to Spur Growth of Zero-Emission Vehicles (Sacramento Bee) Gov. Jerry Brown and governors of seven other states today will announce an initiative that aims to put 3.3 million zero-emission vehicles on the roadways within a dozen years. The multi-state effort dovetails with California’s previously stated goal of putting 1.5 million zero-emission vehicles on the road by 2025.

TRANSPORTATION & INFRASTRUCTURE

Pavement Survey Shows Room for Improvement (Daily Republic) Dixon once again has the best-maintained roads in Solano County, with Fairfield coming in second. Those results come from the Metropolitan Transportation Commission’s annual pavement report. The report rates the roads in Bay Area communities on a scale of 1 to 100, with 100 being the best. It uses a three-year moving average.

El Cerrito Envisions Bikes on San Pablo Ave. (Inside Bay Area) The status of cyclists on busy San Pablo Avenue turned out to be a major focus of a meeting Saturday between residents and planners who are working on plans for the city's transportation future. The thoroughfare needs to accommodate growing numbers of bicyclists and encourage walking, while maintaining adequate parking for businesses and allowing for buses and continued use by cars and trucks, said Melanie Mintz, the city's Environmental Service Division manager.

CITY PLANNING & DEVELOPMENT

City Impact Fees Lowered (Napa Valley Register) The cost of development in St. Helena is about to get cheaper. The council voted 5-0 Tuesday to introduce an ordinance that would decrease impact fees for most types of development. Councilmembers were glad to see the new fees lowered building expenses. City Manager Gary Broad said impact fees are definitely on the minds of potential builders.

PUBLIC SAFETY

South Bay Domestic Violence Agencies Confront Difficult Challenges (Easy Reader News) In the , there are more than twice as many animal shelters as there are shelters for battered women. Though domestic violence is a rampant societal illness – a woman is assaulted or beaten every nine seconds – it is also an issue that largely evades the public eye. Often victims feel too ashamed to confide in anyone, so the problem proliferates beneath a blanket of silence. And often, those who are not affected look the other way.

HOUSING

City Preps for Sale of Affordable Orinda Grove Units (Contra Costa Times) A handful of new affordable-housing units will soon be up for grabs in Orinda, but only to buyers who meet certain criteria to purchase them. City staffers told officials this week they plan to hold a random drawing at a future public meeting to select interested buyers to receive the opportunity to purchase the first affordable-housing units being built as part of the 73-unit Orinda Grove residential development on Altarinda Road. The city council is also considering partnering with the city of Walnut Creek to allow that city's affordable housing program to manage the units. Pulte Homes is building eight affordable housing units as part of an agreement reached with the city in 2008 for the development of the former Pine Grove school site. The first four below-market duplexes will cost $385,000 and will be interspersed among single-family dwellings whose prices are estimated to range from $1.17 million to $1.24 million. The price of the remaining four "affordable" units will be determined by future average mortgage rates and other factors.

DIFFERENT VIEWPOINTS

What is a Taxi and What is Not? (Los Angeles Times) Angelenos have more options for getting around town than ever before, thanks to the arrival of services such as Uber, Lyft and Sidecar, whose drivers can be summoned with a smartphone app. But to some members of the City Council, that's a bad thing because the services aren't regulated the same way taxi companies are — by them, in other words. The city doesn't need to throw its bureaucracy at these services, however; the state Public Utilities Commission has adopted rules that address the public's safety concerns without forcing the upstarts to abandon innovative business models.

IN OTHER CITY NEWS

Assembly Hearing Here Friday Explores Sea Level Impacts (Gazettes) A state Assembly hearing will convene this Friday afternoon at the Aquarium of the Pacific to explore the impact sea level rise will have on the state’s infrastructure, including the Port of Long Beach. Long Beach’s own state Assemblywoman, Bonnie Lowenthal, will chair the hearing in her role as chair of the Select Committee on Ports. She will be joined by Assemblyman Rich Gordon, who chairs the Select Committee on Sea Rise.