HomeMy WebLinkAbout01-24-1995 City Council Minutes MINUTES
SARATOGA CITY COUNCIL
TIME: Tuesday, January 24, 1995 - 7:30 p.m.
PLACE: City Hall Administration Meeting Room, 13777 Fruitvale Ave.
TYPE: Adjourned Regular Meeting
1. Roll Call
Mayor Burger called the adjourned regular meeting to order at 7:30 PM.
Councilmembers present-Mayor Burger, Vice Mayor Jacobs, Councilmember
Moran, Councilmember Wolfe (arrives at 7:35 PM).
Councilmembers absent-Councilmember Tucker
Staff present-City Manager Peacock
2. Report of city clerk on Posting of Agenda
Pursuant to Government Code 54954.2, the city clerk reported that the
agenda for this meeting was properly posted on January 20, 1995. The
notice of adjournment from the January 18 Council meeting was properly
posted on January 19, 1995.
3. Notes from Town Hall Meeting, January 7, 1995 and Instructions
to Staff
a. Vision Statements-it was clear from public comment that those
attending the meeting and commenting on the statement about
commerce and business intended their comments to reflect the
feeling that no expansion of commercial zoning should take place
in the future. Council agreed to make this section clearer when
the Vision Statements are finalized in March. Mayor Burger
indicated that subsequent to the meeting she had received a
letter from a constituent suggesting that the Vision Statements
lacked a wrap up statement which summarizes what the city is
striving to do. This too will be taken up and finalized in
March.
b. Illegal turning movements at Saratoga/Kosichintersection-staff
was instructed to notify the sheriff of this concern and to
respond with increased traffic unit enforcement.
c. Street Sweeping-staff was instructed to continue monitoring the
street sweeping service to insure maximum performance.
d. Signal at Saratoga Avenue and Kosich neighborhood-staff
instructed to analyze need and alternative locations for same
with new traffic on Saratoga Avenue, the possibility of added
development at the E1 Paseo Shopping Center in San Jose and the
development of the Kosich property whether commercial,
residential or a mix of both.
e. Railroad Tracks-staff instructed to write letter of concern to
the Public Utilities Commission regarding the condition of the
tracks asking for an investigation into their adequacy in
assuring the public safety. Copies of the letter to be sent to
the Public Safety Commission and Southern Pacific Railroad.
f. Landscaping and Lighting District; City Wide-City Manager
Peacock discussed the possible uses of a city wide district to
build and maintain future medians, help with maintenance of park
sites as well as areas currently being maintained which arguably
could be viewed as more community rather than neighborhood
oriented. The council indicated that it did not intend to go
forward with such a concept now as too much background work
still needed to be done by staff. It was generally agreed that
if such a proposal was to go forward it should most
appropriately be the subject of an advisoryvote first, possibly
targeted to the March 1996 Presidential primary. Accordingly,
the council agreed to make this a topic of discussion at the
City Council Minutes 2 Janual-/24, 1995
April 1st Town Hall Meeting and to consider the matter further
before the end of the calendar year so a decision could be made
on a timely basis as to a Mazrch 1996 ballot measure. If this
subject does go forward and is favorably received by the
electorate the target for implementation would be July 1, 1997.
4. Evaluation of the Regular Council Meeting of January 18, 1995
a. The city manager was 'inst}.*ucted to inform the Community
Development Director to let the city council know ahead of time
if there are errors in the staff reports on appeal items.
Reference was to the Constantin appeals where they indicated
they were appealing all three denials from the Planning
Commission, not just the denial of the lot line adjustment.
b. Freeway Issues-what should the city council be doing so that the
issues being discussed now are not still a concern a year from
now with nothing having changed? Councilmember Wolfe indicated
that he and Mrs. Hershkowitz and Mr. Browne had met with
Caltrans officials in Oakland and would be meeting with the
Executive Director of the Traffic Authority tomorrow regarding
the changes being demanded in the landscaping plans. Caltrans
has indicated that the Traffic Authority must authorize the
changes to plant material being sought by the citizens through
the city. It was agreed by all that Councilmember Wolfe should
continue in his efforts and that the city council and staff need
to work to provide some measure of success to these endeavors.
c. Dealing With Major New Issues at Regular Meetings-the city
council expressed concern that when major new issues surface at
a regular meeting where extensive input from staff and legal
counsel may be needed that tI~ing to do so on the spot is not
productive as neither staff nor the council have the time to
consider the problem and discuss it on a factual or process
basis. Council would prefer to continue the matter for two
weeks and in the interim have! the topic or issue discussed at
the subsequent adjourned meeting where staff, the city attorney
and the council members have had some opportunity to look at
the problem from various perspectives before going forward with
a response. Council agreed to implement this process for future
regular meetings.
d. Length of Regular Meetings-council reminded itself that its 10
minute break stretched to 20 minutes last week. The city
manager was asked for the future to call the council back into
session at the 10 minute mark. Council also agreed again to
limit reports from committee assignments to only those meetings
actually attended and where something significant occurred.
Council also remarked that it was getting lax on the three
minute rule and it was agreed that the Vice Mayor would-set the
timer for 2 1/2 minutes and then inform the Mayor the speaker
has 30seconds to wrap up his or her comments.
e. Commendations for Retiring Hakone Foundation Board Members-
staff was asked to contact the President of the Foundation for
information to include in resolutions for those long serving
members who have recently asked to retire from the Board.
5. Adjournment
The meeting was adjourned at 9:15 PM.
Respectfully submitted,
Harry R.
City Manager