Your City Council Live: Council Closes In On Balancing Budget

The Hercules City Council inched closer to balancing its 2012-13 budget Tuesday night. With a June 30 deadline to adopt the budget approaching, the council held additional meetings this month to discuss the budget.

Tuesday, it considered ways to cut costs and raise revenues to bring the budget gap down from $1.5 million as of early June. Some of the measures the council discussed to close the gap included raising fees for city services, putting a tax on pot dispensaries and speeding up city-owned land sales.

The council is scheduled to meet again before the end of the month to adopt the budget. City Manager Steve Duran said he will meet with city employee unions to negotiate compensations between Tuesday and next week’s council meeting.

Also at Tuesday’s meeting, the Council unanimously adopted a nepotism policy, while pushing back a decision to adopt a whistle-blower policy for further discussion at later a meeting. Both policies were vetted through the Legal Ad Hoc Committee, with resident Jennifer Ways chairing the committee.

CITY COUNCIL REPORTS AND RESOLUTIONS

1. Conduct Discussion And Consider Adoption Of A Whistle-blower Policy (Continued from June 12, 2012) -- Discussion pushed back to a later meeting.

2. Review And Consider Adoption Of A City Policy Prohibiting Nepotism And
Cronyism In Employment And Contracting (Continued from June 12, 2012) -- Approved 5-0.

7:40 p.m., CITY MANAGER REPORTS AND RESOLUTIONS

1. Adopt A Resolution Authorizing The Expenditure Of An Amount Not To Exceed
$357,727.00 To Fund Lighting And Landscaping Services City-Wide For Fiscal Year 2012/2013 And Awarding The Contract To D&H Landscaping With The Execution Of Said Contract Subject To Budget Approval (Continued from June 12, 2012) -- Approved 5-0

2. Receive Report And Conduct Discussion Regarding Proposed Planning Fee Revisions In 2012–13 Master Fee Schedule And Provide Direction To Staff -- Pushed back for action at a future meeting.

Comments on item 2:

-Brent Marin, Bayside residents are eager to come up with a parking plan "that would be fair to all the residents."

-Selina Williams, "Our city can use some aesthetic uplift...(our environment) can be enhanced with (public art)."

3. Receive Report And Conduct Discussion Regarding Proposed Fiscal Year 2012-13 Budgets And Proposed Additions, Deletions And Adjustments To The Master Fee Schedule --

7:20 p.m., CONSENT CALENDAR

1. Authorize City Hall Closure For The Week Of 4th Of July And Authorize the
Cancellation Of All August City Council Meetings (Continued from June 12, 2012)-- Approved 5-0 with an amendment to close for a shorter period of time.

2. Adopt A Resolution Approving A Cooperation Agreement Between The City Of
Hercules And The Contra Costa Transportation Authority (CCTA) For The Use Of
Measure J Expenditures Related To The Intermodal Transit Center (ITC) Project And Authorizing The City Manager To Execute The Agreement And Any Ancillary
Documents Necessary To Implement The Agreement And The Intent Of This
Resolution, And To Take All Other Necessary Actions To Implement The  Agreement (Continued from June 12, 2012), Approved 3-0

7:10 p.m., PUBLIC COMMENT (If your comments were missed or cut short, please add them under this article page).

Lori Chinn, “I commend the council and the staff for all the work they have done…this is a very difficult time…It’s not the ideal situation, but I support the sale of Parcel C…In any city, there are going to be disagreements and different points of view.”

Sarah Creeley, Please reconsider the DeNova decision. Wants a detailed EIR for the apartments planned to be developed on Parcel C.

Ken Morrison, A workshop about Parks and Rec will be held this Thursday at the Swim Center to raise funds for Parks and Rec…

Cindy Rasmussen, Parcel C, I’m fully aware how difficult all of decisions are for all or you…I really admire the effort your putting in…I think we’re faced with terrible, terrible choices…just like we have to balance our personal budgets at home, I think that the Parcel C decision is not what we all would have liked, but…we have to pay off our debt…given all of that, this decision was the best that it could be. I just want to say that I support the very difficult decision that you’ve made…