HomeMy WebLinkAbout1982-05-24 City Council Summary MinutesCITY
COUNCIL
MINUTES'
ITEM
Oral Communications
Minutes of April 5, 1982
Resolution of Appreciation to John
Northway
Resolution of Appreciation to John
Sutori us
CITY
OF
PALO
ALTO
Regular Meeting
Monday, May 24, 1982
Appointment of Two Historic Resources
Board Members to Fi11 Four -Year Terms Commencing
June 1, 1982
1982 Solar Pal Awards
Consent Calendar
Referral
1982-83 Budget - Referral to Finance and
Public Works Committee
Downtown Retail Study - Final Report
Referral to Pi anni ng Commission
Action
El Camino Park Lighting - Capital
Improvement Project 31-31
Agenda Changes, Additions and Deletions
Request of Councilrnembers Klein and Cobb
re City of Palo Alto Emergency Flan/Elimination of
Nuclear War Provisions
Policy and Procedures Committee
Recommendation re Seismic Hazard Reduction Program
Reso1 %iti on Urging al 1 Parties to Cooperate
in Providing Housing
Cameron Ridge Wind Electric Generating
Project
Cal av-eras Hydroelectric Project - Status
and Increase in Expenditures
Request of Counci lnember Klein re
Superbowl
Adjournment
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Regular Meeting
Monday, May 24, 1982
The Ci ty Council of the City of Palo Alto met on this date in the
Council Chambers at City Hall, 250 Hamilton Aveue, at 7:30 p.m,
with Vice Mayor Bechtel presiding.
PRESENT: Bechtel, Cobb (arrived at 7:45 p.m.) , Fazzino
(arrived at 7:31 p,m.) Klein, Levy, Renzel,
Witherspoon
ABSENT: Eyerly, Fletcher
ORAL COMMUNICATIONS
1. Ann Bender, 2315 Cowper, said she represented Palo Altans for
Comparable Worth, and was sorry about the way the union nego-
tiations worked out. She said that pay equity was an out-
growth of the equality of men and women in the work force.
The first step ` was to have equal .pay , for equal work, and
moving women into' positions where they could earn more money.
She said that currently women earned about 59 cents for every
one dollar earned by a man, whereas in 1962, women earned 62
cents for every one dollar that a man earned. In 1980, and
not under threat of strike, Colorado Springs decided that as
part of its moral and financial commitment, it would study the
issue of comparable worth, take a position, and begin to rec-
ti fy the situation. She said that si nce then, both San Jose
and Los Gatos had endorsed the concept. Legal cases indicated
that the problem would receive increasing scrutiny, and steps
should be taken to change the situation and work in good faith
toward that end. She urged that the City Council address this
disparity.
2. Judy Freed, 3833 Nathan Way, represented the Palo Alto
Educators Association, who supported the concept of comparable
worth She said that discrimination was not good in any
respect, lien and women worked to achieve individual goals and
to achieve credentials to qualify them for the same positions,
and it was sad when met! received more money than women for the
same positions. Equal pay for equal work deserved Council
attention.
3. Sharon Olson, 1121 Bryant Street, was a librarian for the City
of Palo Alto. She said her job required a Master's Degree,
and she used ;;ey�_ education every day. She said her salary
hovered below that of a street sweeper operator. She looked
to the City Council to turn around history and really recog-
nize the comparable worth concept.
4. Abby Boyd, 3998 Bi bbi is Drive, President of Service Employees
International Union (SEIU), said that the SEIU supported the
concept of comparable worth proposals to eliminate the 26 per-'
cent disparity between wages paid to female dominated jobs and
male dominated jobs in Palo Alto. She said she realized Palo
Alto had a comparable worth problem in September, 1980, when
she looked at a job : announcement for a Palo Alto Librarian,
and the qualifications called for a Master's Degree, and the
position only paid $6 per hour. The very next job announce-
ment was one for a laborer which called : for only a- valid
drivers license, and which paid $6.13 to $7.67 per hour. That
was when she realized that Palo Alto had a problem in under-
valuing women's work. She said "the women brought the problem
of comparable worth to the Personnel Department, and since
then the problems had been in the news, and a lot of cities
had endorsed the concept of comparable worth. The Palo Alto
union met with the Personnel Department and were told that the
matter should be brought up in negotiations.
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Ms. Boyd said that the Union did a study and found that the
average wage for a person in a women -dominated position was
$408 per month less than a person in a male -dominated
-position. She said that in the new contract which was just
ratified and signed, the Union was :unable to take any steps
towards decreasing the pay disparity; and, in fact, the pay
disparity was increased due to.' the City's insistence that
wages be increased only after comparing what Palo Alto workers
made as opposed to ,what people in the surrounding areas made
for the same job. She thought that use of the marketplace
standard had resulted in a bigger gap. Women should be paid
for what they were worth. She said women worked because of
financial need and many women were heads of families. Women
did not pay 26 percent less for food, rent, etc. She said
womens' jobs in Palo Alto were undervalued and underpaid and a
plan was needed to address the disparity in job worth and job
Faya
COBB ARRIVED AT 7:45 p.m.
5. Lynda Bryant -Comstock, 2047 Lymehaven Court, San Jose, said
that the City Manager's recent 1982-83 budget message said,
"there is no single resource more valuable than our employee
work force, and no area more deserving of attention and empha-
sis." She said that as a single employee of the City of Palo
Alto, she did not feel the value spoken about by the City
Manager, and she was sorry that the message did not speak to
the female workers of Palo Alto. Possibly Mr. Zaner spoke
about management and with regard to the male work force where
the City Council had shown attention and emphasis, but not in
regard to the female workers. Female workers were not in the
majority, but planned to become a strong and loud minoritny.
She said comparable worth was a national issue, yet to bridge
the cap in the disparity in pay it must be an issue in one'
work place. Traditionally, female workers began working due
to the need caused by the War, then some joined the ranks to
move their families into a higher socioeconomic class, but it
was proven by the Bureau of Labor that the majority of women
worked today out of necessity. Women who got paid 26 percent
less would be discouraged workers and would not be workers who
wanted to put out 100 percent. She ,,aged the Councilmembers
to take the City Manager's message to 'heart and pay attention
and direct emphasis to the City's work force- female workers
included.
6. Andra Cassen, 1016 Metro Circle, Palo Alto, represented her-
self and the Palo Alto Mid -Peninsula Chapter of the National
Organization .for Women (NOW) which had 300 members and 1400 at
1 arge members. She said that in 1974, NOW was acti ve in the
affirmative action programs. In 1979, the Council endorsed
the economic boycotts of the Equal Rights Amendment and she
commended the City on its formal actions, which were helpful
in changing .some of the social conditions for. women. She said
NOW was distressed --after reading job: bulletins --to find out
that the disparity was consistently shown between tradi-
tionally . male -dominated jobs and traditionally female -
dominated jobs. It was even more distressing that no attempt
was made to address the issues during negotiations, and the
disparity had grown. She urged .. the Council to adopt the reso-
lution proposed by the Palo Altars for Comparable Worth and
start looking at some of the policies that decided who got
what pay. Shfe understood that after the last negotiations,
most of the male -dominated po,si ti ors got a 5 percent raise and
the female -dominated positions got a 2.5 percent raise. NOW
worked hard to change some of the problems, but could not do
it alone. The help of progressive 'City Councils was needed to
help make a stand. She said the recommendation in order to
try and .attract more qualified personnel for existing jobs was
.that more ` be done to encourage City supported` 'loans for
housing. She thought that, was nice but females were in the
females were in the work force (40%), and one way to attract
qualified personnel was to change the existing disparity 1 n
the City payroll. She asked the City Coun,i 1 to consider and
pass .a resol uti.on.
; Ur. Harvey Roth, 3422 Kenneth, read a letter into the record
which related to the problem of alcoholism, and which is on
file in the . City Clerk's Office. He was not against the use
of al c)hol , but was concerned about those who could not
exercise muderati on. He urged that the Council consider the
possibility of a memorialization.
8. Gladys Stavn, '2222 Oberlin Street, spoke on behalf of she and
her' husband. She said they objected to the large amount of
unstacked lumber and several old oil drums, etc., stored on
the property of Ralph Crawford, 1111 College Avenue. They
referred to a letter written to the City Council .on April 2,
1978, in conjunction with a presentation to the. City Council.
She said that the fi rst year s lumber was brought to the site
for the construction of a house, and five years later the
exterior of the house Was not completed and the scaffolding
had not been removed. She said that the house was not com•-
pl eted on her side and the unused lumber was thrown unstacked
around the outside of the house. She had seen no attempt to
use the lumber or oil drums or anything else. She was dis-
appointed in the Division of Inspectional Services who had
written a letter to Mr. Crawford to remind him to complete the
building, remove the scaffolding and clean up the site. It
was said that if those conditions were not met, "partial occu-
pancy of the second story will be revoked, the building permit
wi l l be canceled, and the City of Palo Alto will take legal
steps to remove the scaffolding and building material from the
premises." She said that Mr. Crawford had not completed any
of the conditions, and had made no, attempt to clean up the
general site, and the Ci ty of Palo Alto, Division of
Inspectional Services had taken no action. She felt it was
negligence on behalf of the City, and favorati sm towards Ralph
Crawford. She said that five years wa► a long time especially
when inequality seemed to exist between citizens of Palo Alto.
She expected City of Palo Alto -representatives to contact her
regarding the !natter within ten days. If the natter was not
rectified within 90 days, since they had al ready been waiting
for five years, they had no choice but to see that Mr.
Crawford and the City of Palo .Alto would accept the
responsibility.
9. Elizabeth Westi e. 557 Hamilton Avenue, #2, was a Palo Alto
Library Worker, and said that the women of Palo Alto did not
work for play money, and theirs was not a supplemental income.
She said women worked to support themselves and their families
in the economically difficult times, which was nothi ng new
especially in Palo Alto where the cost of living was so high.
She said that Clerical Workers and 11 brary Workers, were
undervalued . and unappreciated. The clerical workers and
library workers were the front flees nes to the public, repre-
senting the City. Their jobs requi red high degrees of ski l 1 ,
training, responsibility, tact, discretion and formal educa-
tion. She said that representatives of the City ' had turned a
deaf` ear to their cries for recognition. A year and a hal f
ago, they were told that the issue should be addressed through
union negotiations, and despite the fact that SEIU's nego-
tiator hung onto the issue until the very, :last, the . same
representatives refused to entertain the concept and presented
a plan which amounted to telling female workers that if they
could make more money - as meter , readers, they were well come to
apply for the jobs and. let their special skills and vtraining
go to waste. She said that the wages paid to many male domi-
nated job classifications were increased, and the gap between
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the average men and women salaries also increased. The issue
of equal pay for work of comparable value was a complex one,
and it would be difficult to right the wrong that existed,
because the undervaluing of women's skills and contributions
was so deeply routed in the traditions of society. She said
it was time for the City of Palo Alto to take up the challenge
in, good faith.
10. Greg Kerber, 2050 Wellesley, addressed the problems of
speeding, drinking, and 'excessive noise which existed in
Foothills Park for at least . ten years particularly on week-
ends. He said that several months ago, he had spoken to one
of the rangers who felt that the rangers did not have proper
enforcement procedures to take care of the problem. He sug-
gested banning the use of alcohol in Foothills Park as a means
of solving the problems.
11. Scott Wei kart, 3328 St. Michael Drive, member of the local
chapter of the Campaign for :Economic Democracy who supported
the concept of comparable worth. He said it was often thought
that library and clerical workers had easier jobs, and for-
gotten that oftentimes, female dominated jobs were very high
in job stress. He said the National Institute of Occupational
Safety and Health completed a study which found that a dispro-
portionate number of the ten most stressful jobs, which
included lab technician, office manager, waitress, and secre-
tary, were female dominated jobs. Nursing and other health
weighted categories that were overwhelmingly female were al so
high `on the stress scale. The job of secretary was found to
be the second _most stressful job. -He said that in Australia,
there was a mandatory system of comparable worth wages cov-
ering both the public and private sector, and it was found
that there was no substantial increase in either inflation or
unemployment as a result. The program was successful. He
said women's wages had been about 58 percent of the level of
men's', and i ncreesed to 75 percent of the level of men's.
Those workers were benefitted and it did not have a negative
effect on the economy. He said that i t had been said that the
City should not get into issues of this nature --that it was an
issue of the marketplace. He wanted to see Palo Alto be a
leader in changing the marketplace on comparable worth. Palo
Alto was al ready a leader in affirmative action programs and
anti -discrimination, and he urged that Palo Alto forge ahead
to decrease this inequity between men and women.
Vice Mayor Bechtel thanked all the speakers for making the effort
and attending the City Council meeting. She said that when an
item was not on the regular agenda, it Was not an action -item and
no action could be taken. By the peoples' presence, the Council
was showlr how strongly the people felt about the issue of women
receiving only 59 cents for every one dcl l ar paid to ,men, and per-
sonally, she supported the speakers' statements.
MINUTES OF_APRIL 5i1.982
Counci l member Renzel had the following correction:
Page 1841, third_ paragraph, MOTION, should read as follows:
"$0T1O . Counci imemoer Fenzel " moved, seconded by Fletcher, to
Refer Item 18, Usable Open Space in Mixed Use Developments to the
Planning Commission ..to address the question of bonuses "being given
to 100 percent residential rather than to mixed uses in all ' non-
residential zones.*
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Counci member Fazzi no had the following correction:
Page 1850, fourth paragraph,- sixth tine, word "beholding" should
be "beholden."
NOTION: Counci !member Witherspoon moved, seconded by Cobb,
approval of the Minutes of Apr1_! b, 1982, as corrected.
MOTION PASSED unanimously, Eyerly and Fletcher absent.
:ITEM #1 RESOLUTION OF APPRECIATION TO JOHN NORTHWAY
NOTION: Counci !member Fairs no moved, seconded by. Levy, approval
of the Resolution Qf Appreciation to John Northway.
RESOLUTION 6033 entitled "RESOLUTION OF - THE COUNCIL OF
TTIE CITV OF PALO ALTO EXPRESSING APPRECIATION TO JOHN
NORTHWAY FOR OUTSTANDING PUBLIC SERVICE AS A MEMBER OF
THE ARCHITECTURAL REVIEW GUARD"
Vice Mayor Bechtel commented that John Northway had served on the
Architectural Review Board (ARB) from 1976 until 1982. She said
he was Chairman for two years, and devoted a great deal of time
to the ARB and was leaving only to give countless more hours to
the Planning Commission. She commended his efforts and said he
brought real skill as an architect to the Board, and would
continue to do so for the Planning Commission.
MOTION PASSED unanimously, Eyerly and Fletcher absent.
Mr. Northway accepted. the resolution of appreciation, and thanked
the Council.
ITEM #2 RESOLUTION OF APPRECIATION TO JOHN SUTORIUS
MOTION: Counci lmepber Cobb moved, seconded by Levy, approval of
the Resolution of Appreciation to John Sutori us.
RESOLUTION 6034 entitled "RESOLUTION OF THE COUNCIL OF
THE CITY OF PALO ALTO EXPRESSING APPRECIATION TO JOHN
SUTORIUS FOR OUTSTANDING PUBLIC SERVICE AS A MEMBER OF
THE ARCHITECTURAL REVIEW BOARD"
Vice Mayor Bechtel said that John Sutorous was appointed to the
Architectural Review Board (ARB) in July, 1980, and served until
February, 1982, She said the Council was pleased that Mr.
Sutorius would continue to serve the City as a member of the
Planning Commission.
NOTION PASSED' unanimously, Eyerly and Fletcher absent..'
Mr. Sutori us accepted the resolution of appreciation and thanked
the Council. \,
ITEM 13, APPOINTMENT OF TWO HISTORIC RESOURCES BOARD MEMBERS TO
c i,
Vice Mayor Bechtel announced the names of the candidates for the
two vacancies on the Historic Resources Board as follows:
Ronald K. Hall
Donald D. Ellison
Robert A. Herri e
Dr. Harvey K.- Roth
Robert , T. Stei n,berg
Gail C. Woolley
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FIRST POSITION
City Clerk Ann Tanner announced the results of the first round of
voting:
VOTING FOR WOOLLEY : Levy, Fazzi no, Bechtel , Cobb,
Witherspoon, Klein
VOTING FOR NERRIE: ienzel
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Ms. Tanner announced that Ms. Woolley had six votes and was
appointed.
Vice Mayor Bechtel congratulated Gail Woolley on her appointment
to the Historic Resources Board,
SECOND POSITION
City Clerk Ann Tanner announced the results of the first round of
voting:
VOTING FOR NERRIE: Klein, Levy, Fazzino, Renzel , Bechtel,
Cobb, Witherspoon
Ms. Tanner announced that Robert Uerrie had seven votes and was
appointed.
Vice Mayor Bechtel congratulated Mr. Nerrie on his appointment to
the Historic Resources Board.
ITEM #4, 1982 SOLAR PAL AWARDS (CMR:293:2)
City Manager Bill Zaner said that the purpose of the award compe-
tition was to stimulate and recognize innovative and imaginative
solar designs in Palo Alto in order to expand the community's
understanding of solar energy potential. He said public educa-
tion, innovative design and aesthetic integration into the com-
munity were the three areas of concern. He said the Council
authorized the City Manager to appoint a Solar Pal committee which
had been meeting since Januaey, 1982, to review applicants for the
awards. He said the members of the Committee were: Brian Pegg,
John Schink, and Nancy Yeend.
Ms. Yeend showed a slide of the Kennedy home !_ on Sunol in Palo
Alto, which was an Eichler home. She said that all that was
visible from the street appeared to be a large picture window
which was typical of many Eichler homes, The system gave a green-
house effect, a double window system, which heated and cooled the
family room adjacent to it. She noted the new family room of 500
square feet. The effectiveness of the system was impressive, and
the Committee particularly liked the fact it used standard
materials, obtai itabl e from the basic building emporium, and
installed by oneself. The Committeethought the system integrated
very well with the neighborhood, and passerbys would not even know
it was solar.
Ms. Yeend showed a slide of a house on a 50 foot wide lot ewhi ch
was built by Mr. and Mrs. Paul Garrett and was designed by Roger
East, a Palo Alto architect. The main features were two large
chimneys which went up an.d eliminated any of - the hot air and
ct°eated a natural convection and took the warm air from the house
and had it leave without the use of air conditioning. She said
the Garrett `s home received the residential award.
Ms. Yeend showed slide of a house on a 50 foot wide lot which was
built by Mr. and Mrs. Paul Garrett, and was designed by Roger
East, a Palo A:to architect. The main features were two large
chimneys which went up and eliminated any of the hot air and
created a natural convection and took the warm air from the house
and had it leave without the use of air conditioning. She said
the Garrett s home received the residential award.
Ms. Yeend said that the commercial award went to the Western
Energy Building, located on East Bayshore, which was designed by
John Brooks Boyd, Architect. She said the building incorporated
solar .panels into the architectural design. The skylights on the
top of the building were at an angle so that additional sol ar col-
lectors could be put there. The building had windows which opened
and took full advantage of the afternoon bay breezes, and would
not need air conditioning on a hot day. She said the hot water
was collected_ in a large storage room underneath the building in
the carport area.
Ms. Yeend said that the remodeling award went to the Kendall
Family. Mr. James Kendall lived on Middlefield Road and hi s
family of four had wanted to add a hot tub as well as reduce their
energy consumption for household use. She said the house was a
192!) bungalow and she showed a, slide of the garage where the
entire roof line was changed. She said the Kendall family had a
very low gas bi l , and the family of four consumed less gas than
the average family of two people.
Ms. Yeend said the Committee recommended two certificates of
merit. The first certificate of meri t was recommended for the
Finston home in Palo Alto. The Finston's double -glazed their
Eichler wi ndows with large sheets of myl ar plastic, whi ch mini-
mized heat loss through windows and increased the benefits of
sol ar gain through the southerly windows.
The Eichler Swim Club also was . recommended for a certificate of
merit for installing a solar system desi gned to heat water for
both the pool and shower facilities. She said that the large
water, heating system was installed by the club members and staff
on a' smal 1 and highly visible maintenance building, but the
installed system was virtually invisible from the pool area or the
street.
Ms. Yeend ;sal d the Committee felt that all the people who sub-
mitted applications used a lot of thought and really had an eye on
cost. The Committee was impressed at how efficiently people did
things at such reasonable costs. She said most of the work was
done by the people themselves and did not require a lot of outside
help.
Mr. Zaner said that the award winning homes would be open and
available for public review on June 27, from 2:00 p.m. to 4:00
p.m.
Vice Mayor Bechtel commended Brian Pegg, John Schink and Nancy
Yeend for the time they had spent reviewing the projects he.
presented the awards to the Kendal 1 s, John Brooks Boyd, Paul and
Jean Garrett, and the Kennedy Family.
NOTION: Councileesrber: Re ze1 eared, seconded by Levy, to autho-
rize two additional Certificates of Merit for. the Solar Pa1
Awards.
NOTION PASSED unanimously Eyerly and Fletcher absent.
CONSEI4T CALENDAR
NOTION: Caunci leeeber Levy moved, seconded by Fazzi no, approval
of the Consent Calendar.
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Referral
ITEM #5 1982-83 BUDGET REFERRAL TO FINANCE AND PUBLIC WORKS
ITEM #6, DOWNTOWN RETAIL STUDY - FINAL REPORT - REFERRAL TO
Action
ITEM #7, EL CAMINO PARK LIGHTING - CAPITAL IMPROVEMENT PROJECT
Staff recommends that Council approve the Park Improvement ordi-
nance.
ORDINANCE FOR FIRST READING entitled "ORDINANCE OF THE
COUNCIL OF THE CITY OF PALO ALTO APPROVING AND ADOPTING
PLANS FOR THE EL CAMINO PARK LIGHTING PROJECT, CIP
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NOTION PASSED unanimously, Eyerly and Fletcher absent.
AGENDA CHANGES, ADDITIONS AND DELETIONS
Councilmember Fazzino proposed adding Item 16A to the agenda, to
request the Mayor to send a letter regarding proposed cable legis-
lation.
ITEM 7A, RE LEST OF COJNCI LMEMBERS KLEIN AND COBB RE CITY OF PALO
r .Tm7711r117/1"-- g. PROVISItiW
on inuef rom
Councilmember Klein said that he and Councilmember Cobb had first
put this item on the agenda for the meeting of April 1.9, as a fol-
low up to the actions the previous week in connection with the
nuclear freeze. He said that as part of that work, it came to his
attention that the City of Palo Alto Emergency Plan had a number
of provisions pertaining to the survivability of nucl ear warfare.
He said that he and Councilmember Cobb wished to hake staff
directed to review the City of Palo Alto Emergency Plan to delete
all of the sections in the Plan which gave the impression that a
nuclear attack on Palo Al to or its vicinity was survivable. He
said their memorandum pointed out a number of those sections. It
was not intended that the list be exhaustive, and staff might dis-
cover more sections which gave that erroneous impression. He sug-
gested that in lieu of all the sections being recommended for
deletion, that staff draft a section referring to a nuclear attack
which would state that given the devastation which would occur in
the event of a nuclear attack anywhere in the bay area, no emer-
gency planning was appropriate since it was clear that a high per-
centage, if not all, of _:Palo Alto residents, would be casualties
and no governmental or medical facilities would be left to handle
the survivors. He said that: if those . actions were taken, he
recommended that the appropriate governmental agencies --1 ncl udl ng
t•he governor and the President of the United States --be informed
of Palo Alto's actions and its reasons for taking them.
NOTION: Councilmember Klein . moved, seconded by Cobb, (1) to
direct the .staff to review the Emergency Plan to remove from it
all references to civil defense or survivability planning for a
nuclear war and also that staff return -to Council with. those dele-
tions; (2) That the Emergency Plan contain one s'cti on referring
to a nuclear attack which would- state that given the devastation
that would occur in the event of a nuclear attack anywhere ' in the ..
Bay Area, no emergency planning was appropriate since it was clear
that a high percentage, if not all, Palo Alto residents would be
casualties and no governmental or medical facilities would be left
to handle the survivors and (3) that upon passage of those
resolutions, that the Mayor be directed to inform the appropri-
ate governmental agencies, including the Governor and the
President of the United States, of Palo Alto's actions and its
reasons therefor.
James Little, 930 Roble Ridge, Palo Alto, Vice President of Palo
Alto Civic League, and, representing the Civic League's Steeri ng
Committee. He read a. letter. into the record from: Judy Kramer,
President of the Palo Alto Civic League, dated May 24, 1982, and
which is on file in the.. City Clerk's Office, which urged removal
of measures or implications that Palo Alto government could assist
or help protect the public against the effect of a nuclear -weapons
attack.
Grace Ki etzmann, 1014 Moffett Circle, spoke in support of the
deletion of al 1 references to a civil disaster plan as related to
a nuclear attack because in the event of an attack in the area,
she felt that survi Vebi l i ty would not be possible. She also urged
that the Council inform the citizens of ,its action and its reasons
therefor.
John Richards, 1031 Hamilton Avenue, said he thought. that what was
being proposed was not only appropri ate, but it .was absol utely
necessary for the way the people of the United States were gov-
erned. He said the federal government could only act well to the
extent that it had good feedback from the people at the local
level, who were impl ementi ng the proposals made in Washington. He
felt that the City Council should insist that the President of the
United States respond to the greatest peril that citizens have
ever had to face with a new way to approach the problem. He said
that the years of hard work and responsi verse_ ss of Palo .Alto ;City' s
Council and its predecessors had earned a respect for Palo.Alto
that reached around the country, with a weight that far exceeded
what one would expect for a _city of 55,000 people. Palo Alto had
been a model for education, city management, and today, for ho-.; a
city could respond creatively, productively, and positively to the
most significant problem of al 1 time.
Dan Beswick, 1240 Parkinson, said he supported the proposal to
del ete al 1 references in the Pala Alto Emergency P1 an to the sur-
vivability of a nuclear war. He said that in July, 1957, he was
one of the troops in the tren'hes of the Nevala test site, when an
80 kiloton bomb was exploded, ,which was about six times the
destructive force Of the ones which were exploded over Japan. He
realized that everyone was aware of the destructive force of those
weapons, but said it was with that experience that he was at the
Council meeting to share his deep concern about informing the
agencies and the federal government-, about what the City Council
was doing, but also to inform the popul us of Palo Alto. He had
worked with the County of Mari n in developing, .writing and -pro-
duci nT the booklet entitled "The Nuclear Threat to Mari n County."
He offered his, experience in the production of that book and hi.s
services to the City Ceunci l it any way posri bl a to help produce a
similar book for -Palo Alto.
Dr. Perrin french, 1240 Waverl ey, Education Coordinator- of the
Stanford Mtd-Peninsulee Chapter. of Physicians for Social
Responsibility, said he . attended the meeting to make. certain that
the peopl a Were aware of-theepeditele consequences from a nuclear
attack on the -Area. He .felt. that the pre-vious speakers had ,el_o-
quent ly said everything: ` he had to say, aria' on behalf of the Mi d-
Peni nsul.a Chapter for Phys.i ci ans .for Social .Responsi iii l 1 ty,,: they
endorsed tA0 proposed action.
Ccunci lmember Levy said it was a rare occurrence when a government
body said it could not do-. something, He said the measure proposed
to announce that the citizens of, Palo Alto;, could not be offered
'protection in the case of a1 nucl ear attack'anywhere withint the Bay
Area. He thought . it was a- wise action, for the C ounci 1 to make
sure that the right signals were given to the popul ati on, and that
1
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a direct nuclear attack on Palo Alto and its environs was not sur-
vivable. He did not believe that the action taken by the Council
should be construed as a defamation of Palo Alto's Emergency Plan
even as it regarded some aspects of a nuclear blast or a nuclear
fallout. There were other elements, besides a direct attack, that
everyone should be aware of in exercising the need to protect the
citizenry. He said that one was the possibility of an industrial
accident involving nucl ear activity, or .some kind of research
accident that could release radioactive material into the air. He
said the possibility of some kind of detonation elsewhere because
of a civil disturbance which would have a peripheral effect on
Palo Alto was survivable and that emergency plans should be avail-
able which could protect the citizenry in those cases. He said
the City of Palo Alto owed its citizenry every chance for as high
a degree of survivability as possible. He would support the reso-
1 uti rns becuase he believed it was the right kind of signal to be
given to Palo Alto citizenry. He thought the statement that
"given the devastation that would occur i n the event of a nuclear
attack anywhere in the Bay Area, no emergency planning was appro-
pri ate" was correct, but thought Palo Alto should continue to be
careful in its emergency planning for the safety and survivability
of its citizenry.
Councilmember Witherspoon said she agreed with a lot of what
Councilmember Levy said. She did not necessarily feel that by
simply saying that nothing would survive, that the threat of
nuclear war would go away. She was concerned that there were a
lot of unpleasant causes for partial or complete evacuation of the
City and/or the need for massive emergency medical aid that had
nothing to do with a nuclear war. She did not think those kinds
of things could be taken out of the emergency plan. She. thought
that if the authors of the resolution felt better taking any
reference to nuclear war out, that was fine. She asked that the
motion be divided for voting purposes.
Councilmember Klein clarified that the first part of the motion
referred only to deleting all references ' i n the Palo Alto
Emergency Plan which -implied that a nuclear attack was survivable.
He said that there were parts of the Emergency Plan which were
very appropriate, i.e., earthquake planning. He said the second
part of the motion was to replace all of those sections with a one
paragraph statement that no emergency planning for a nucl ear
attack in the Bay Area was appropri ate since it was clear that a
high percentage of the residents --if not all --would be casualties,
and no governmental or medical facilities would be left to handle
the survivors. If those parts of the motion were passed, the
higher governmental agencies would be informed of the Council's
action.
Councilmember Cobb said that in the situation of nuclear explosion
elsewhere in the world where a fallout problem occurred in Palo
Alto, the provisions to protect the citizens should be contained
i n .the Emergency Plan. He said the reason he supported the motion
was because . during the discussions on April 19 regarding the
nuclear freeze, he heard a lot of talk about one megaton bombs.
The fact was that there were weapons --first strike terror weapons
aimed at the nation's major cities including the Palo Alto target
area --which were in the 30-60 megaton range .which would make any
question of survivability ludicrous. He said that while he
supported the motion, : he thought it was silly to think that
weapons so many times` the size of the ones that obliterated.
Hiroshima, etc., were survivable. He felt it was unrealistic to
think that by passing the _,motion, anything was done to reduce the
threat that the -bombs °may be aimed at us because ° they were .first
strike weapons .in the hands of other parties who did not have City
Council meetings such as Palo Alto's. '\
2 0 6 9
6/24/82..
Corrected
7/19/82
Councilmember Renzel said she thought it was clear that in the
event of a nuclear attack, there would be very few survivors, and
virtually no infra structure to operate a plan under. She would
support the motion.
Vice Mayor Bechtel said that as pointed out by the speakers, much
as there are excellent medical facilities in the area, the kind of
disaster which would occur as a result of a nuclear attack could
not be handled'by these medical facilities.
MOTION PASSED unanimously to direct staff to delete all refer-
ences in the Emergency Plan that refer to the survivability of a
direct nuclear attack on the Bay Area, Eyerly and Fletcher
absent.
MOTION PASSED unanimously that the Emergency Plan contain one
section referring to a nuclear attack which would state that given
the devastation that would occur in the event of a nuclear attack
anywhere in the Bay Area, no emergency planning is appropriate
si nce it is clear that a hi gh percentage, if not all, Palo Alto
residents would be casualties and no governmental or medical
facilities would be left to handle the survivors, Eyerly and
Fletcher absent.
MOTION: Counci 1 member Klein moved, seconded by Cobb, that upon
passing the resolutions, the Mayor r be directed to inform the
appropriate governmental agencies, including the Governor and the
President of the United States, of our actions and the reasons for
taking them.
MOTION PASSED by a vote of 6-1 , Witherspoon voting "no," Eyerly
and Fletcher absent.
ITEM #8. POLICY AND PROCEDURES COMMITTEE RECOMMENDATION RE SEISMIC
HAZARD REOIECTI 1 PROGRAM i
:cep,
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Councilmember Levy said that at the April 20, 1982 meeting of the
Policy and Procedures (P&P) Committee they considered a seismic
hazards reduction program. He said it was in conformance with
Policy 14 of the Comprehensive ve Plan which called for a mechanism
to require correction of public safety deficiencies by private
owners. The . recommendation considered by the P&P Committee
affected 320 buildings in Palo Alto, and no single family homes.
He said they were al 1 buildings whi ch were built before 1964 where
the occupant load was over 100, or where the height was over two
stories. He said that the time ior correction of deficiencies to
bring the buildings up to the 1964 Code was one to three years;
the costs of doing it Were unclear and, unknown. He said the
Commitee heard from a large number of property owners who felt
that the objectives were l audi bl e, but that the specific propnsa \
was faulty. He said the action of .the Committee was to essen-
tially reject the staff's proposal. Tie Committee felt it was too
sweeping, too costly, ' and that it did not give property owners
enough time. He said that in addition, the Committee implicitly
reaffirmed the Comprehensive Plan . policy and ' requested staff to
develop a seismic hazards program by forming and consulting with a
committee of citizens in order to develop a proposal alleviating
seismic hazards both exterior and anterior that would be more cost
effective, economical, practical, and sensitive to time considera-
tions.
MOTION Councilmember Levy moved for the Policy.. and Procedures
Committee to reject the ordinance . re seismic Hazard Reduction
Program 1n its present fern; and that staff be directed to form a
committee of citizens to draft an ordinance_ "which would have two
-: effects: 1) as effective, exterior hazard prigras consistent with
the recommendations ceetai ned 'in CKR:233:2; and 2) that the
committee return to the Policy end Procedures CsMmittee with some
practical, cost-effective and economical" approaches to alleviate
seismic hazards in Palo Alto.
2 0 7 O
5/24/82
As Corrected
7`19/82.
Councilmember Fazz-ino asked how much the proposed parapet ordi-
nance would cost rel ati ve to the original staff proposal
Chi of Hui 1 di ng Of fi ci al Fred Herman sai d: he did not have fi gures
on average costs although it would be much cheaper than redoing
the whole building.
Councilmember Witherspoon said that the reference was made in the
study to review the buildings in the named categories , and she
asked if those :i ndi vi dual property owners were gi ven an ev al uati on
of their seismic danger.
Mr. Herman responded that those bui l di ng owners noti fi ed were
those that had bui 1 di ngs which were constructed prior to 1935, had
buildings over two stories.in height, and buildings of potentially
greater than 100 occupants. He said the staff report that went to
the City Council was enclosed together with a cover letter.
Cauncilmember Witherspoon said that if the City had a program to
determine "defi ci enci es" and set standards for the earthquake sur
vivabi1ity of a building, would it increase the building owner's
personal i i abi 1 i ty .
City Attorney Diane Lee responded that a similar questi on was
asked at the Policy and Procedures Committee. She said that si nce
she was not an expert i n some of the areas involved, she tried to
determine what effect that kind of ordinance would have vis-a-vis
pri pri v ate owners in pri v ate rel ati onshi ps . She sai d there seemed to
be a great deal of uncertai my about what effect the ordi nonce
wog;l d have i n the rel ati onshi p between parti es. Dependent upon
how specific the ordi nance was and how easy it was to determine
what the standards were, there cou id be sorne liability for failure
to adhere to the standards in the ordi nance. She said that the
ordinance in its present form would say that some buildings needed
to be looked at more carefully, and that recommendations from a
structural engineer were needed . She said there were 320
buildings, and not every one of them were necessarily going to
have to do more work.
Counci lmember Fazzi no asked 1 f there were any legal problems with
regard to the noni ncl usi on of si ngle farni ly resi dences i n the pro-
gram.
Ms. Lee said that either a bui 1 di ng covered by the ordinance had a
high occupancy load or was in an area where there was a lot of
pedestri an traffic or other type of "commerce" so that 1f the
building were to fall down or parts of it were to come off, it
would be more likely that people would be injured than in a single
family nei ghborhood.
Counci lmember Fazzi no clarified that the indi vi dual buildings were
not important, it was the question of the zoning in the area.
Ms. Lee sai d she thought it was basi cal ly on the 1 i kel i hood that
more people would be Injured in certain types of buildings located
in certain kinds of areas.
Vice Mayor Bechtel advi sed that the City Council had received` over
25 1 etters from the public. She said the Council had .al so
received the minutes of the Po?icy and Procedures Committee at
which 24 speakers addressed the Committee.
Charles Keenan, 3000 Sand Hill Road, Menlo Park, said he thought
it was .:important to note that although the Chambers were not,
packed, those on the Policy and Procedures Committee could attest
to the fact that _it was a packed house for the .first meeting. -. He
said there-_ was s a lot of concern by many property owners, and it
was interesting to note who attended the meeting. He said: there
were people that attended who had not been seen or heard from
si rice 1969. All of a sudden the efforts, and many ; years of hard
work on the part of the City, in directing the type of devel opment:
tc occur in downtown Palo Alto were all of a sudden threatened;.
He recalled when Super Block, etc. was threatening the look and
style of downtown Palo Alto, and downtown Palo Al t ans were encour-
aged .to spend money on rehabilitating their buildings and creating
parking districts and assessment districts of every type in order
to get a look and feel for downtown Palo Alto that was consistent
with its past. He thought this seismic hazards proposal was a
threat to, those many years of hard work, effort and money. The
people t at attended the Policy and Procedures Committee meeting
thought they had walked away with a victory --that the ordinance
had been killed. He said that if the Council decided to pursue
the ordinance with all the negative ramifications involved, the
house would be packed again. He was currently having a masonry
building at the corner of University and High rehabilitated, which
building was the example used in the staff's report, where the
front came off in the 1906 earthquake and had since been rebuilt.
He said they intended to rehabilitate the building and intended to
earthquake it --not to just the 1965 ordinance, but to a degree of
safety which would exceed it. He said that in order to rectify
the masonry. frontage from coming off a building, the entire wall
has to be shotcreted and then the shotcreting had to be tied to a
structural frame which would keep it from falling down. All of a
sudden the parapet ordinance turned into an entire earthquake
retrofitting of the building. He was in a fortunate position
where the building was going to be rehabilitated anyway, they were
looking at new tenants with newer rents. They were not subject to
leases that would financially prohibit the expenditure. He said
most of the buildings that would be addressed by the parapet ordi-
nance would be caught in that trap. His building would cost
between $15 and $20 per square foot, which would have to be
realized in rents. He was surprised that more tenants had not
attended the meeting because more commercial tenants would leave
town as a result of the higher rents created by a retrofitting
ordinance. He thought the ordinance was about ten years late in
its entire concept as far as people having already spent enormous
sums of money on their buildings, and in parking districts. Now
that the buildings were all upgraded and downtown was revitalized,
the owners were faced a retrofitting. He urged that the Council
not only reject the proposed ordinance, but else adopt the concept
of a citizens' committee.
Counci lrnembe_r Levy asked Mr. Keenan if he were not al ready reha-
bilitating the entire building, how much it would cost if he were
forced to redo the masonry frontage to make it conform to the 1964
Earthquake Code.
Mr. Keenan responded that it would cost approximately $50,000,
Betsy Crowder, 133 Rapachi, Portola Valley, said that she authored
the Seismic Safety section of the Comprehensive Plan as well as
the background report on which it was based. She said there was a
summary on pages 19 and 20 of the background report of the envi-
ronmental hazards in Palo Al to and some proposals for dealing with
them. She noted that there were some sections of Palo Alto where
development should not have taken place duE to an environmental
hazard which were shown on the Composite Risk Zone Map, but which
had not yet been indicated in the Zoning and Subdivision Ordinance
or on the :Land Use Plan. She said the report suggested that the
Building and Grading Codes be updated. The Building Code was
updated regularly to conform with the Uniform Building Code, and a
new Grading Ordinance was adopted in 1978 or 1979. She said that
to her knowledge, the City had not yet engaged an engineering
geologist on a retainer basis to review applications in hazardous
areas and to review the submitted geologic and soils reports which
were requi redo: i n some ar' as of the City. She said that the sub-
ject consideration was for the implementation of -the third sugges-
_ti on of the Seismic Safety Report, which was an ordinance to abate
,hazardous buildings as identified by the. City. Some of the con-
cerns raised by developers, bUsi nessmen, and property owners were
valid in that it would cost -them a great deal of '-Honey to redo the
buildings, but the need to correct hazardous buildings could
2 0 7 2
5/24/82
1
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hardly be disputed. The Palo Alto Times/Tribune on April 17,
1982, quoted Scott Carey, one of those whose building would be
affected by the proposed ordinance, as saying that the Cornish and
Carey building at the corner of Emerson Street and .University
Avenue was built around the turn of the century and survived the
1906 earthquake. She said that page 66 of the Comprehensive Plan
had a photograph of the building which showed the damage sustained
by the earthquake. Had the earthquake occurred at a time when
there were people on the City's sidewalks, instead of before dawn,
one could hardly imagine the injuries which would have resulted.
She said the same applied to Mr. Keenan's building at the corner
of High Street. She said that refaced with new masonry, both of
the buildings still stood as did a number of other hazardous
buildings. She directed the Council's attention to a Downtown
Building Survey done in 1934 and 1935, which was contained in the
Chief Building Official's office. It surveyed all the buildings
in the business area of Palo Alto and discussed what deficiencies
existed with regard to earthquake hazards. She said it was still
unknown whether the reported structural deficiencies had ever been
corrected. A number of the buildings were still standing, and it
could be determined whether the buildings had been corrected. She
did _ erot believe that a hazardous buildings ordinance would result
in demolitions. She thought it was common sense to make sure that
the buildings in Palo Alto were safe --not only for the occupants,
but for those passing by on the sidewalks. She said there was no
reason that the time for repairing the defects could not be
extended, and she was sure that staff was capable of coming up
with a valid financing plan to assist property owners. As she
read the newspaper reports of the Policy and Procedures Committee,
almost every speaker supported the intent of the ordinance, but
disagreed with its imposition. She urged the Council to proceed
with the proposed committee and eventually adopt such an ordinance
to protect its citizens.
Marilyn Taketa, Partner, Finch, Sauers, Player & Bell, 755 Page
Mill Road, represented clients of her law firm. She questioned
the basic premise of the particular ordinance and the program.
She thought the premise was that buildings not built to the 1964
Code o, those built before 1935, were inherently dangerous; and,
that the City required additional legislation to eliminate the
hazard. She thought it might well be that some or all of the
buildings were hazardous, but questioned the need for additional
legislation. She pointed out that the City already had Chapter
16.40 in the Municipal Code, which defined dangerous and unsafe
buildings, provided the authority to the City to eliminate the
hazards, and provided the kind of procedural safeguards --the
hearing and appeal. process --which was lacking in the ordinance.
She said ,the question arose that since the City al ready had a pro-
cedure in place for identifying -hazardous .buildings and for elimi-
nating them and for giving the required due process safeguards,
why was an additional program needed. Utilizing the existing pro-
cedure would be swift in the sense that nothing was hanging over
the owners of the buildings waiting -.for something to happen. She•
said that under the existing legislation,, the hazardous nature of
a particular building would not be cal l ed-into question until the
City was ready to proceed, witha a particular Lase and ready to
present . the facts on the dangerous si tuati_on .-. of that particular
building. Further, blanket prohibitions and assunpti ons would ;not
exist which were an i nherert pert of the parts cul er ordi narice.
She saicT the building would be looked at in terms of its i ndi -
vidual situation, and given its —current conditions, whether it was
in fact hazardous. She thought that if a ' bui I di ng. could net be
found _dangerous and unsafe under presently .existing' Chapter 16.40,-:.
whether it was hazardous had to be questioned. alft those safe-
guards could not be used, one would ,have to question_ ._whether ,the
present program was trying to go a little --too far --to : forc'e renno-
v ati ons on bui l di ergs that real]_ y were _not hazardous-. She said she
would- like, to- see ' adds ti onall - l egi sl ati ors In . several ,, areas..--
financial aid to those bui 1 di rig' owners where _ dangerous tondi ti ons
were identified, and a longer amorti rata on -pert od tailored -ate -,the
particular_ peeds and special condi ti pns of a parts cul ar pL ce of.
property.. _
2 0 7 3
5/24/82
Uon Mullen, 2046 Bryant Street, said there was an element of panic
throughout the entire proceeding which might have been engendered
by the photographs. He said he was concerned because :two of the
photographs were of the same building. He had checked with the
Palo Alto Historical Society to find out -why it was necessary to
have two photos of the same building. .0ne problem was that in the
1906 earthquake, only three buildings were affected, and -one of
them was under construction. He said that most of the additional
damage which occurred in town, occurred to residences that were
knocked off their foundations, and because of falling chimneys.
Because of the dramatic nature of earthquakes, a series of hasty
recommendations had been drawn, i .e. , a list of 320 buildings was
drawn. He said the list' was inaccurate, and there were buildings
on the list which should not be, and there were buildings that
were not on i t that should be on 1 t . He said that in presenting
the list, questions of insurability, -lease `ability, _and sale
ability were raised. He wanted to know what was going to be done
about the inaccurately. prepared list. Given the dramatic nature
of the problem, a hastily put together ordinance, which was in
fact the toughest in the State of Cal i forni a •was proposed. He di d
not think there was anyone at the meeting who believed that the
ordinance should be passed as written. As a result, he thought At
seemed -politically expedient to come up with a compromise -ea
parapet ordinance. He said that in his discussions with most
people about the topic, most people did -not seem to know the dif-
ference between a parapet and a cornice. He was the owner .of a
parapet, and also had a fully leased second floor that would be
directly affected. It was a long term lease, and he was not sure
what would happen as they began to saw through the roof to fasten
the parapet more adequately: to the central structure of the
building. He said that if a committee was actually proposed, he
recommended that it explore other matters besides parapets. For
example, Palo Alto had_: no public safety plan or procedures in the
event of a major earthquake, which was probably the most important
factor in the Al aska earthquake of 1964. In short, he thought the
recommendation was poorly drawn based upon misinformation. He
recommended that both proposals be killed, and that they start
again to come up with something that would mean something and
night do something in the event of a. major earthquake in Palo
Alto.
Vice Mayor Bechtel said that Palo Alto's Emergency Plan contained
an extensive secti on on earthquakes.
Scott Carey, 180 University Avenue, said that ::the proposed ordi-
nance would put the burden on him to hire an engineer to .tel 1 him
that he would have to spend about $600,000 to $800,000 to meet the
1964 Code, at which point he would request a demolition permit
from the City of Palo Alto. He said the current building was two
stories, and they could put up four stories. Why spend that kind
of money when they could increase density. He knew that was what
the Council wanted downtown --more density. He said if one walked
up and down university Avenue they would be astounded to see the
number of one story buildings that, were . built prior to 1964, prior
to 1954, and prior to 1933. He said that the Council was, by its
own hand, forcing the most significant change in the appearance of
the downtown and other areas of the community by enacting such an
ordinance. The ordinance got at the very buildings the City
wanted to preserve and proposed destroying them. He thought that
what was particularly disturbing to the people that attended the
Committee ttee meeting was that those people were not i rrati anal
people, And yet they were' -i nsensed by the fact tnat the timing of
the City for adopting such an ordinance could not have come at a
worse time. The country was in a recession, and there were more
foreclosures today than he had seen in 20 years, in the business.
He said there was no mortgage money available, and if it could be
obtained, one would pay i7' and 7 points. He did not think it
made sense, to do anything in such an economic Climate and sub-
mitted that now was the time to adopt recommendation (2; which was
to go back to the status quo. No one could -afford to comply with
the proposed_ ordinance..
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5/24/82
Doug Vossbri nck , 552 Kellogg Avenue, said he was a businessman
whose office was on University Avenue. He said he wore two hats
tonight --as a part owner of the building in which his office was
located, and as a consulting engineer whose office had done a lot
of work on some of the buildings in Palo Alto. He hoped a plan
could be achieved whereby all people could work together to have
safe buildings in downtown Palo Alto and, that the architectural
integrity of the City could be maintained. The worst case situa-
tion would be that the owners would be forced to tear down old
buildings. He said he had done structural retrofits, and studies
had shown that there were a lot of unsafe buildings in Palo Alto.
He thought that the owners who were knowledgeable about the struc-
tural requirements were attempting to do the right thing. He said
that more education was needed for the unsophisticated individuals
that owned buildings who did not understand the effects of an
earthquake on a building. He urged the formation of a citizens
action group to determine the requirements of, a building on a
building -by -building basis. As a building owner, he thought it
was important that the City determine its own responsibility for
maintaining the buildings i . e. , low interest loans or some kind of
subsidy by the City for the program.
Bill Byxbee, 101 Lytton Avenue, building owner on university
Avenue, said that in the past five years he had spent thousands of
dollars remodeling his building His building was sound, under 40
feet in height, and should have a high resistance to earthquake
shock He said that if he had to spenu another $50,000 to have
his building retrofitted, seven merchants on University Avenue
would. lose their leases because he would abate the building. He
could not afford to spend another $50,000 on it. He said that the
San Fernando Valley Earthquake was discussed at the Committee
level, and he visited the area about two days after the earth-
quake. All single story homes and buildings built prior to 1935
and after 1935 stood up beautifully. He said some damage occurred
to multi -story buildings and glass. Several interchanges of the
main highways collapsed and a hospital collapsed in Lancaster,
California. The interchanges and the hospital were new and built
under modern structural engineering techniques. The aftermath of
an earthquake generally involved trouble with utilities. He asked
if .Palo Alto had gas mains that could be turned off instantane-
ously in the event of an earthquake. If not, a flash fire could
occur. He said Palo Alto had tal 1 electrical poles in downtown
Palo Alto with a very high center of gravity. Recently *.here was
a fire .in Anaheim, California, where a pole system fell down and a
big apartment house caught on fire. He asked if Palo Alto had a.
way to turn off its electrical system instantaneously in the event
of an emergency. He thought it was important because that could
compound any damage that could occur from an earthquake.
Regarding highway interchanges, the. Embarcadero subway was
building prior to 1935, the University Avenue subway was built
about 1940, San Antonio and Page Mill structure were built in ,the
late 1950's or early 1960's, He asked how strong they were. He
was concerned because the interchanges in the San Fernando Valley
fell" down. He thought those questions should be reviewed in addi-
tion to the buildings. He was sure that Palo Alto's single story
buildings were fairly -safe, but .the tenuous things . related to an
earthquake and the aftermath were jest as important.
Carol Mullen, 2046 Bryant Street, said there was:, a question of
greater safety in the masonry buildings from fire : under ; all cir-
cumstances. She said she called the, Ci ty Police Department and
the Fire Department about the City's Emergency Plan, and the Fi re
Department indicated that an Emergency Plan might exist, but they
were not sure what it was, that it was In the process of being
changed, and she could not get: information about it. She thought
that if the City had an Emergency P1 an and if' the people who had
to implement it knew nothing about, the plan was fictitious. She
Said the ordinance as proposed would cost her more money " as a
businesswoman, than as the owner- of a building because it was
difficult to rebuild a business that had been shut down for three
months, and it would be punitive to try and rebuild a business
that had been shut down for six months. She requested that the
City tend to its public responsibilities first, i.e., if it only
had enough money to do overpasses and emergency shut offs, and
something about a plan, those things should be done rather than
hiring consultants to walk around and look at buildings.
Sam Webster, 335 Lowell, said he represented the owners of the
hotel apartments on University Avenue and Cowper. The effect on
that would be catastrophic because 40 percent of the people were
senior citizens who would never be able to afford the rents of a
renovated building. He urged that since the City Council was con-
cerned about its citizens, it should think seriously about assu-
ming the financial burden with bonds.
David Ali dl o, 32U University Avenue, represented the Merchant's
Committee of Downtown Palo Alto, and said they were concerned
about their businesses, downtown, and the possibility of more
four-story office P;ui ldings replacing their businesses.
.John Farrar, Far Western Land Investment Company, 261 Hamilton
Avenue, said they had a building on Fabian Way, which was cited as
one of the 320 buildings considered dangerous and hazardous. He
wondered how many of the 320 buildings fit into the classifica-
tions. His building was 22,000 square feet, a two-story true,
built in 1960/1961, and had about 50-55 tenants/occupants. He
said that such a classification placed a stigma on the building in
the event of a sale or refinance.
City Manager Ri l i Zaner said tnat staff had been accused of pre-
paring a "hasty" ordinance. The ordinance was not prepared in a
hasty manner, and he resented the implication. He said the ordi-
nance was Carefully researched, and staff spent a considerable
amount of time on it. There could be persons who disagreed with
the content of the ordinance or its purpose, but•`the ordinance was
done in -a careful and professional manner. Further, he said that
staff had tried to underscore the fact that a public hazard
existed, and no comments had been made disputing. that. Staff
looked to the City Council for guidance at this point as to its
policy on how to deal with the public hazard issue. He said that
with regard to the Emergency Plan, on page 14, the statement read,
"The City of Palo Al to wi 11 respond to -the fol 1 owi ng types of
emergency situations: Earthquake etc." He said that fol-
lowing that list of situations was 200 pages worth of preparation
for those kinds of emergencies including earthquake. To indicate
that the City of --Palo Alto had no earthquake plan was an -absolute
f al sehood. The Plan existed, and Counci l members had . copi es at
their places. He said the Emergency P1 an was exercised regularly,
staff used it practiced it, worked: on it, . improved it, and as
long as the opportunity -existed to serve the Counci 1 , staff would
continue to do so.
Director of. Planning and Community Environment Ken Schreiber com-
mented in response to Mr. Farrar, that no list of hazardous or
dangerous buildings existed. He said that as noted in the March.
18, 1982 staff report, buildings that fell into several different
categories were identified, and the staff report explained why
those buildings were placed in certain :.categories, He said the
entire effort of the <initial inspections, and the follow up work,
was never intended to identify hazards, but rather to indicate a
general status of, the building.
,RECESS FROM 104)05 p.m. TO 10:15 .m.:
i
Councilmember Fazzino said he had a lot of respect for the City
staff's integrity and the responsible way in which' they approached
recommendations. Me felt the staff deserved credit for their
courage in presenting such an ordi riance with the possibility of
untold costs to property owners during the worst recession since
World War I I . In his opinion, staff strongly believed that their
recommendations were appropriate despite the concerns about costs.
He said he was as concerned about the potential hazards of an
earthquake as anyone, but the potentials costs associated with the
staff's proposal were totally out of line with the economic
reality. He would prefer to see further development of the City's
Emergency P1 an, and that the City School Liaison Committee on
Earthquake Preparedness, which began four years ago, be completed.
Regarding the proposed ordinance, he was concerned about the cost
of repair, the cost to finance, the loss of historic structures,
the loss of retail to new office buildings, the general business
area disruption, loss of retail sales, hiring a consultant at
x104,000 to perform an undefined task, and potential problems with
insurance coverage. He thought further refinement of the Earth-
quake Preparedness Plan and the Dangerous Buildings Provision of
the Palo Alto Municipal. Code would be better. He said he also
opposed a parapet ordinance at the present time because the Policy
and Procedures Committee wanted to enact a compromise solution,
but no information was presented about the number ;f buildings
impacted or the financial impacts of the proposal. He would need
far more precise information about the proposal 's impact before he
could approve such an ordinance. He urged that the recommendation
of the Policy and Procedures Committee regarding the ordinance
setting forth a seismic hazards reduction program be rejected.
i
Councilmember Cobb said he thought the biggest concern associated
with the ordinance --other than the obvious cost problems --was that
the economics, as viewed by a potential building owner in most
cases, were so bad that the City would lose buildings, people
would be displaced, businesses would be displaced, and the costs
would be passed along. He thought that the potential social dam-
ages were significant, and that the ordinance, as proposed, should
be rejected. Regarding the statement that a parapet ordinance, or
exterior hazards ordinance, would b.e just as onerous as the other
ordinance, that issue was not discussed at the Policy and Proce-
dures Committee meeting. He thought that rather than a compro-
mise, the Committee felt it was doing something that was reason-
able, economic, etc., and now he heard something different. He
urged that the motion be split, and that the ordinance as origi-
nally proposed be passed.
Councilmember Klein said the issue was a difficult one for hi m
because he felt that the ordinance was unworkable, but that would
not make earthquakes go away. He agreed with the .economic analy-
sis of many of the speakers, but was concerned. that no. one
expressed much concern about what would happen if an earthquake
occurred. He said that °aoci ety took a ldt of ri .ks and were
_willing to sacrifice lives for conveniences, and used the automo-
bile as an. example. He said: society was not without, precedent to
ignore the problem, .but he was concerned that if the next earth-
quake occurred daring business hours, a lot of lives would be
lost._ He recognized that economics were such that the proposed
ordinance would probably domore harm than good, at; least in the
short run. He, said he would ,like to see, the private sector
address the problem rather than say they could not handle it. The
problem already existed, and if a building owner :already knew that
the building was unsafe, and _ if an earthquake -occurred, and the
building fell and killed someone," a smart lawyer would sue the
building owner. He preferred that staff explore ways to define
cost effective. practical appt-oaches to the seismic hazards in
Palo Alto with 2, 3, or 4 interested members of the private
sector.
2 0 7 7
5/24/82
As Corrected
7/19/82
Counci lrnember Renzel agreed with Counci lmember Klein, and said
that an earthquake would have no respect for a recession, could
come at any time, and cause significant damage. She thought that
the City Council had to be mindful ofthe economic impacts of what
it proposed,. and said that the timeframe, which was incorporated
into whatever was done, provided ample time for any property owner
to pursue solutions without tremendous penalties. She thought it
was important to involve the building owners who were closest to
their own buildings and knew what they needed and didn't need.
She felt that if everyone looked at what they could do, creative
methods could be developed to minimize the injuries in an earth-
quake situation.
Counci lmember Levy urged his colleagues to vote in favor- of both
recommendations of the Policy and Procedures Committee. He said
there was no question that the. ordinance :in its present form
should be rejected, but that the .question, of a seismic hazards
program should be pursued. He said governments did a lot of
things it should not be doing, but public, safety was the most
important function of government. The citizens of Palo Alto
looked to the City Council to protect them When .they were in
buildings where public access was normal and _ when walking on the
streets of town. He .said everyone knew that an earthquake was
corning-ait was just a question of when. He said there was no
question that the Palo Alto City Council needed to be aware .of the
earthquake needs in order to protect its citizens. He thought an
ordinance should be developed to correct the problems of the pro-
posed ordinance. He thought the proposed ordinance was too
sweeping and that the buildings which were a real problem had to
be pinpointed and focused on first. He thought the proposed ordi-
nance was too costly. He felt that everyone needed ample time to
correct the problems, and suggested that where a severe need
existed, perhaps three to five year's should be the ti mefrarne; and
where less of a problem existed, more of a ti mef rame should be
given. He also felt that historic structures should be protected.
He thought that while the ordinance was costly, the consequences
were far more costly. He urged that the policy not be dropped
from .the Compre;ensi ve Plan, but felt that it was necessary to
drop the ordinance as proposed.
Vice Mayor Bechtel commented that several speakers had ex -pressed.
concern about .being on the City's list inaccurately. She reit-
erated Mr. Schreiber's statement that no Iist of hazardous
buildings existed --that 320 property owners were notified that
their bui l di ngs -fit into certain categories. She said she would
support the motion to eliminate the ordinance as proposed because
it was too expensive, and a three-year time limit was out of sight
at a time when it was almost impossible to get 'money for loans.
On the other hand, she felt that something needed to be done just
as the City had a responsibility, for public safety under public.
buildings. She said that the motion as proposed by the Policy and
Procedures Committee stated that the Committee would return with
:carne practical , cost effective and economical approaches. The
Comm ttee. even proposed the poss.i bi l i ty of some -type of low i ntere
est loans and financial aid. eShe -agreed with Council -member Klein
that a 12 -member Committee seemed too large
MOTION DIV1DE1
FIRST- PART OF NOTION PASSED unanimously,to reject the ordl:narnce
in its present form, Eyerly)-- Fletcher absent�
Mr. Schreiber commented: that the May 20, 1082, staff report out-
lined additional implementation efforts i.-e,, to fora th - citi-zens
committee and .to direct staff to retur=n to the Cou{►_ci 1. with a
-consultant contract. .to provide the necessary technical ,,and
Staffing assistance. Reg ards rig , the ci tl zens t - staff.
ttee, ,staff
realized that 12 members Was a large conml.t.tee;' however, staff was
concerned that If the .Committee` was, too weal i it would appear to
be a closed process. Staff felt the Committee needed to be` i arge
enough to get a spectrum of opi ni ons _ and expertise.
1
1
1
Vice Mayor Bechtel said that the Council realized the complexity
of the issue, and as pointed out by staff, not all unreinforced
masonry buildings could be considered inherently unsafe, nor could
all reinforced concrete buildings be considered inherently safe.
Councilmember Cobb clarified -that the motion which just passed in
effect killed the list of 320 buildings, And that the uncertainty
:which hung over peoples' heads had been removed. . He said that
when he made the motion at the P8P •Committee, he intended that the
issue of cost effectiveness and economics would apply to exterior
hazards as well as the larger question 'of seismic hazards. He
thought that the Committee should contain one or more structural
engineers in order to obtain good, hard technical information. He
hoped enough people from the real estate :community would be
involved in order to tell the Council about the cost of thi ng.s,
and to advise before the Council started to venture into require-
ments which made it uneconomic fore a building to continue to
exist, and forcing such ,buildings to be torn down and something
larger and more dense and more offensive put up in their place.
He felt that Planning Commissioners, Architectural, Review Board
members, and Historic Resources Board members should not be
committee -members, and that the Chamber of Commerce and the Board
of Realtors should be allowed one member each rather than two. He
wanted information to come back: to the Council that would enable
them to know what was going on so as to deal .With good, hard
dollar -type numbers and.engineering-typet considerations in order
to make good, solid decisions.
Councilmember Witherspoon said she noticed that $50,000 had been
appropriated in the Capital Improvement Program . 1ast year for
seismic hazards studies, and asked how much was left.
Chief Building Official Fred Herman said that none of the $50,000
had been used. He said money was appropriated, and that staff had
to return to Council with a contract.
Councilmember Witherspoon said she would vote against forming the
Committee. She said that in the Council's role of trying to pro-
tect the public's safety, they had run,.up against the realities of
the economic situation. She felt that if the Council was going to
focus on a reduced program, no need existed for an elaborate
Committee. She preferred _that the Council work with staff and a
consultant to identify the three potential extreme hazards in the
City and focus on them, and concentrate any money to be spent on
the extreme hazard buildings.
AMENDMENT: Councilmember Klein moved, seconded by Witherspoon,
that the Seismic Hazard Reduction Committee have no more than
seven members.
Councilmember Levy said he would not support the amendment because
he thought it was .staff's j`b to put the Committee, the ordinance,
and the recommendations together, andto return to Council with a
final product. If staff felt that 12 people would get a better,
product than six or seven, he thought it was their choice.
Councilmember Renzel agreed with Councilmember Levy. As she saw
the Committee, most of its work would probably be by way of memo-
randa and review and comment of staff's material. She did not see
it as a typical kind of Committee that would have to meet _ as a
body, but rather one that would offer feedback and suggestions.
She thought it was better to let staff handle .it, and that there
might be some merit in having al member of the Historic Resources
Board on the Committee to offer .the prospective of that particular
subi Li vi son of government. She would oppose the amendment.
Councilmember Fazzi no • said he agreed with Councilmember
Witherspoon, and thought the entire discussion was i rreleiant.
2 -0. 7 9
5/24/82
Corrected
7/19/82
1
e
Vice Mayor Bechtel was prepared to vote in favor of the amendment
because she had heard staff say that they would like some direc-
tion as to the size and composition of the Committee.
AMENDMENT FAILED by a vote of 3-4, Bechtel, Cobb, Klein voting.
"aye,* Fletcher, Eyerly absent.
AMENDMENT: Council ember Renzel moved, seconded by Levy, that
staff be directed to return to Council with a consultant contract
to provide necessary consultant and staffing assistance to the
Division of Inspectional Services.
AMENDMENT PASSED by a vote of 6-1, Fazzino voting "no,"
Fletcher, Eyerly absent.
REMAINDER OF MOTION AS AMENDED PASSED by a vote of 5-2,
Witherspoon and Fazzino voting "no,' Eyerly and Fletcher
absent.
Vice Mayor Bechtel asked if the Council wished to complete the
remainder of the agenda.
MOTION: Counci Member Renzel moved, seconded by Levy, to con-
tinue Item 112, AB 2920, Airports: Land Use Planning; Item 113,
Request of Counci l aaembers Bechtel, Eyerly and Renzel re Displaying
City Collections; Item 114, Request of Mayor Eyerly re June 8
Benefit Assessment Measure Concerning Flood Control; Item 015,
Request of Counci lmembers Fazzino and Cobb re College Terrace
Multi -family Zone; and Item 16-A, Request of Counci lmember Fazzino
re Cable Legislation, to the meeting of June 7 1982.
MOTION PASSED unanimously, Eyerly and Fletcher absent.
ITEM #9 RESOLUTION URGING ALL PARTIES TO COOPERATE IN PROVIDING
Nu
City Manager Bill Zaner said that the item was placed on the
agenda at the request of the Council.
Frank Morrow, Director of Real Estate of Stanford University, 1247
Pitman Avenue, said he understood the City Council's disappoint-
ment at the failure of the Syntex Housing Mitigation proposal at
1050 Arastradero. He said that City had long focused on .that par-
cel for housing and that the University had agreed to consider
such use in the Industrial Park. He said that a major problem
with the proposal from : Stanford's point of view was that after
agreeing to lease the land for at least $2,000,000 less than mar-
ket value, Stanford was asked to further subsidize the project by
reducing its price to the equivalent of at least an additional
$500,000. In Stanford's judgment, it called for too large a
University subsidy for housing that would not directly benefit the
institution's own faculty and staff. He said it should be noted
that if the site were to be used for housing, it should be used
for rental units rather than "for sale" housing. He did not
believe that requirement : i n and of itself killed the deal. = More-
over, contrary to Section 2 of the Resolution, it was his opinion
that in the final analysis, the proponents of the project made a
determination that even with Stanford University's subsidy of
approximately $30,000 per unit, they could not make the project
work. He pointed out that the University had .built thousands of
housing units for faculty, students and staff over the past.
decade, and had 940 units under construction at the present . time.
He said it had invested or authorized over $16 million to hell)
faculty and staff finance the purchase of housing . in the local
area. The Stanford West proposal was now in process, which was
another large residential housing development. No other private
entity in the entire region had done as much towards providing
housing, and Stanford looked forward to cooperating with the City
and its : agencies. He said that as observed in earlier Council
discussion, the loss of some 80 units at 1050 Atastradero should -
be kept in context with the many hundreds of. units that Stanford
w 9s preparing to build on : other sites on its land. Stanford
2 0 8 0
5/24/82
welcomed the section of the resolution that urged all interested
parties to join in meeting Palo Alto's housing needs. He said the
Stanford West proposal would soon be before the Council, and
Stanford believed that it would go far toward easing the pressure
on the local housing stock.
Mark Chandler, Palo Al to Housing Corporation (PAHC) Board Member,
2333 Williams said that he observed and participated in discus-
sions of PAHC at public meetings on the issue. He said that Lou
Goldsmith from the Housing Corporation negotiated in good faith
over a long period of time with the University, and went to the
Board several times for authorization to al ter proposals he had
on li nal 1y made. He concluded ultimately that the University was
unwilling to see housing of any sort on that site. He said that
at a Housing Corporation Board meeting it was indicated that Mr.
Morrow and others on his staff had worked hard to facilitate
housing, but that the Real Estate Committee of the Stanford Board
of Trustees were unalterably opposed to such a use. He thought
that the position of Stanford as employer and houser of its stu-
dents and employees needed to be separated from the City's view of
the University as the landlord of the industrial park which was a
nonuniversity use, but which greatly affected the community. He
said that as an employer and educator, the University responded to
housing needs on the basis of its own internal calculus. He
believed that some private investors had approached the University
with respect to the Syntex land and they also .concluded that the
University was unwilling to countenance housing on that site on
any reasonable terms. He felt that the notion that the site
involved only 70 or 80 units and was unimportant relative to the
University building housing for its employees and students else-
where was a misplaced one. The City had worked long and hard to
develop policies for remedying the jobs/housing imbalance and for
using some industrial parkl and for residential use. He said that
in this case, Syntex had worked in a public spirited manner toward
facilitating housing on that land. The University had sent the
signal to all lessees in the Industrial Park that it was not in
their interest to pursue the idea of housing in that area. He
thought the Council's disappointment at the frustration of the
City's policy was well -placed and that the resolution should go
forward.
Councilmember Fazzino said that the issue was never one of pro-
viding total units. He said Stanford had been very good in that
respect and he fully expected that Stanford West would provide the
City with many new units. The issue was one of the willingness of
Stanford University to build units in the Industrial Park or in
another area which was already well developed --in essence to build
upon an existing infra structure. He said that the decision to
develop a housing proposal on the Arastradero Site occurred after
a careful evaluation of the entire Industrial Park by the City and
the seeming willingness by St an,ford to let the City find a place
and develop the units there. Stanford's decision to back off from
their commitment still troubled him. He did not feel very
friendly towards Stanford because of their decision to back off.
He said he would approach Stanford West and other projects very
carefully and with more reluctance than he would have before
Stanford backed off on their commitment with regard to 1050
Arastradero.
Councilmember Levy, said the resolution confused him because he was
not sure if it talked about housing or low and moderate -income
housing. He said the resolution talked about cooperation in pro-
viding house. The first whereas clause talked about low and
moderate income hausi. r'c , = and the third and fourth whereas clauses
talked about a housing project and the concept of housing, and the
resolution itself talked about . new housing. - He said. he, had only
been involved with: rezoning the land to multi -family housing. He
thought that had been done, and industrial uses could no longer be
Put there --only housing units. The land could now only be used as
2 0 8 1
5/24/82
1
8
open space or for housing. He said that low and moderate income
housing was another concept, and it was worthwhile to have good
low and moderate income housing in Palo Alto, but it was also
worfihwhi l e to have good housing period in Palo Alto. He was
unclear about what the resolution- accomplished. He was concerned
about punishing anybody on one thing because of what had happened
on another thing.
Councilmember Renzel said she had always favored trying to reduce;
the jobs/housing imbal ance in a significant way and had always
felt that the most significant way to do it was to rezone property
from nonresidential uses to residential uses. That was done with
the Arastradero Road site, and she supported it. She supported
the resolution and thought it was extremely important for the
Council to make some headway to reduce the jobs/housing imbalance
and in providing significant amounts of housi nn. She did not
thi nk the Counci 1 could consider 70 units of housing as insignifi-
cant because in Palo Alto, every unit of housing counted.
Councilmember Klein said he agreed with Councilmember Renzel's
comments, but would vote the other way, He was troubled by the
resolution when it was fi rst introduced, and after seeing the
actual language, he could not regard it as an innocuous resolu-
tion. He was not on the Counci 1 at the time of the original dis-
cussions several years ago, but did not think it was relevant.
The psychology of the resolution was important to him, and he di d
not think anything was accomplished by "spanking" Stamford
University in public. He thought the City had other ways of
enforcing its housing goals and zoning, and agreed with Council -
member Renzel that if the Ci ty really wanted to see housing there,
the Council had the right to rezone parcels of the industrial
park, and that was how they should move, He would vote against
the resolution.
Vice Mayor Bechtel said she leaned toward Councilmember Klein's
position in that the land was designated in ihn Comprehensive Plan
as housing, and that as part of the clean-up process, it would be
before the Planning Commission shortly to be certain that it was
designated housing on the Zoning Map. She said two representa-
tives of Stanford had attended the meeting, and she thought
Stanford probably got the message.
MOTION: Councilmember Fazzino moved, seconded by Renzel,
approval of the resolution urging all parties to cooperate in pro-
viding housing.
NOTION FAILED by a vote of 3-3-1, Fazzino, Renzel, Witherspoon
voting "aye, Bechtel, Cobb and Klein voting "no," and Levy
'abstain,'' Fletcher, Eyerly absent.
ITEM #10, CAMERON RIDGE WIND ELECTRIC GENERATING PROJECT
Director of Utilities Edward Aghjayan commented that at the last
Energy Planning session on May 6, staff went into extensive detail
about the Cameron Ridge Wind Electric Generating project, and
indicated that they would bring it back to the Council, for .a deci-
sion. He said staff. recommended that Council proceed with the
project provided that certain changes were made in the contractual
relationship between NCPA and the Wind Energy company. He said
the most important change was to split the profit share from 50.50
to 15-25. In the year ZOOO, the current agreement contained a
provision that said that if in fact wind power was cheaper ,than
the alternative of buying power from PG&E under the R-_ 1 rate
structure, that NCPA and the ; Wind Energy Corporation would split
the difference on the' profit. He said it was staff's opinion that
since NCPA and the cities were putting up the money for the proj
'ect that the cities ought to be rewarded with a more significant
financial gain from any °benefits that may accrue. _ He said that
other than that, it seemed that the profit line matched very
2 0 8 2.
5/24/82
closely with the PG&E rate line` and -offered the same kinds of
advantages that other projects would offered in the latter stages
of the life of the project where six investors should provide a
benefit to the City. He said staff was also concerned over the
lay off of the sale of power during the early years of the project
to Southern California Edison who would be the likely buyer, and
whi l,e the, City did not want to attach any conditions at this
stage, he believed the City would be pressing NCPA very hard to
get a better agreement with.;: Southern California Edison. NCPA had
indicated that they thought they could get a better agreement
within 90 days. He directed Council's attention to . Exhibit 1 of
CMR:286:2, which presented the basic economics of the project
vis-a-vis the alternatives of buying wholesale power from PG&E
with the lay off that 'the project would break even until the year
1991. He said there was a period of time until 1998 when the
project was more expensive than the alternative of just buying
power, and then the project became much more economically viable
than purchasing power. He said the staff report indicated the
amount of $212,500 which was the full share of the development
funds for the project per the agreement with Wind Energy
Corporation and NCPA. He said staff would return to Council in a
few months with a Phase 11 agreement which would finalize the
agreement -between the City of Palo Alto and NCPA. That agreement
would call Jor a budget somewhat in excess of $20,000 to $40,000
on top of the $212,500, which would allow the City to proceed with
NCPA going ahead with the agreement with Wind Energy Corporation.
He noted that staff's recommendation to proceed with a string
attached was a nonacceptance of the proposal because the City was
making a counterproposal and a recommendation for NCPA to nego-
tiate a better agreement. He expected that staff would return tc
Council with a status report on the.. counterproposal. Staff
requested some policy direction from Council on wind power and the
specific project. He said that if the Council was not interested
in the project, tonight was the appropri ate time to tel 1 staff to
drop all interest.
Counci lmernber .Cobb said that the staff report contained the state-
ment that "while the City will not have the ability to cancel its
contract wi tt. NCPA on the project prior to completion of Stage 1,"
and clarified that the City's commitment in that situation was
only to the $212,000.
Mr. Aghjayan said th et was correct.
Councll:nember Cobb- said he assumed that in terms of the investment
in the project, that the moneys were already figured into the
Utilities Budget, and he asked if there was any impact on the
City's utility rates and when the impact would hit.
Mr. Aghjayan responded that the impact would not take place until
1991 when the City would _ have to swallow the difference between
the alternative of purchasing power from PG&E and the wind proj-
ect. He said the reasons they did not just sell the excess power
was that there was a 25%, power limitation to invest your own
utilities and maintain it as a public project where the bonds were
not taxable. Once that 25% limitation was exceeded, it became a
project under which the bonds: would be taxable.
Counci lmember Cobb clarified that it would take about five years
before there was a cost to the City's utility rate payers. He
asked in terms of the overall picture how large it would be.
Mr. Aghjayan said it was very small --that it was five megawatts on
top of an existing load of 175 megawatts.
Counci lmember Levy said he thought the concept was exciting. He
asked for a clarification on the graph because . conceptually he
thought the City should lose a lot of money between 1984 and 1991
instead of making money or should at least break even because that
was the point at which PG&E costs were lower and the costs of wind
went 0 at a higher level because it was a high =fixed cost.
Mr. Aghjayan said that staff was advised by NCPA in preliminary
discussions on the sale that it felt it could sell the power on a
break even basis to Southern California Edison, and Southern
California Edi son had different cost factors than PG&E. He said
staff was not sure that NCPA could deliver on that promise.
Counci lmember Levy said that if the break even figure was 10 cents
to 12 cents a kilowatt hour, and PG&E ran from four cents up to 12
cents by 1997, and the City would be able to layoff the power at
12 cents starting now. Southern California Edison would pay
initially three times what the PG&E rate was right now.
Mr. Aghjayan said that the PG&E rate was its average rate and that
it would actually be sold at marginal incremental costs which were
higher.
Counci lmember Levy clarified that all the projects the City was
currently involved in had to reach completion in order for the
City to have enough capacity in the year 2000. -
Mr. Aghjayan responded that Councilmember Levy was correct, but
emphasized that the City would have enough capacity in the year
2000 only because of its supplemental power agreement with PG&E.
He did not expect that the wind proj ect woul d be the end of the
list because the City was continuing to look at new projects. He
expected that staff would juggle six to twelve projects at any' on.e
time so that when the decision had to be made as to which project
to really invest in aside from development funds, there would be a
variety to pick from of different makes, environmental impacts and
costs associated with them. He said the process was normal in any
power procurement program for utilities where a lot more projects
had to be looked at than one would expect would ever come around
or that one might ever want to be involved in.
Counci lmember Levy said he thought this project was the highest
cost project that the City was involved i n , and perhaps the
highest cost project the City would consi der. He asked that if
the City undertook the commitment, would it still have enough
money to be able to make commitments in all the other proposed
projects likely to come up or would the City be precluded from
something more favorable in the near future.
Mr. Aghj ayan said that without qualification that the City cur-
rently had sufficient funds in the reserve fund to balance a
number of projects. He said the subject project was at $212,000
expenditure plus perhaps another $30,000. Currently, the City had
about $2 million in the reserve fund and generated about $800,000
into it annually. He said the fund was established for that pur-
pose. The key came when the decision point came on whether, to
build a project because then you were talking about bonding
liability, commitments to purchase large amount of power over a
long perioti of time. He said that the Harry Allen Project 'was
only $30,000 to develop and bring up to a decision point, but was
a $30 million commitment if the project was built. He said_that
the City of Santa Clara had 21 projects which were currently, at
some phase of study, but that they did not have as good a contract
as Palo Alto for federal power and their growth level was much
greater.
Counci la€ember Witherspoon said she thought the project was very
appealing, but ' was concerned about the costs and the state of the
art as far as the wind mac.hi nes themsel ves were concerned. She
was willing to proceed if the contract could be rewritten.
1
1
Councilmember Renzel said she was very supportive of a clean
energy project. She said that while the cost was somewhat high,
she thought the City paid many other kinds of costs besi des just
dollars with things like the Harry Allen Project, and that this
project +:as far better for the City and more representative of the
desires of the Council's constituents to participate in clean
energy sources.
MOTION: Councilmember Renzel moved, seconded. by Witherspoon,
approval of the ordinance, and that staff be directed to
renegotiate the contract.
ORDINANCE 3357 entitled "ORDINANCE OF THE COUNCIL OF YHE
CITY 'F PALO -ALTO AMENDING THE BUDGET FOR FISCAL YEAR
1981-82 TO PROVIDE FUNDING FOR PALO ALTO'S PARTICIPATION
IN THE CAMERON RIDGE WIND ELECTRIC GENERATING PROJFCT
THROUGH THE NORTHERN CALIFORNIA POWER AGENCY"
MOTION PASSED unanimously, Eyerly and Fletcher absent.
ITEM #11 CALAVERAS HYDROELECTRIC PROJECT - STATUS AND INCREASE IN
t
Director of Utilities Edward Aghjayan had a correction on page 3
of CMR:290:2, line 3, $692,000 should be $687,600. Line 4,
$738,000 should be $733,600. He said the budget amendment was
correct and the figure was $46,000. He said that the increase in
expenditure was a result of the legal and regulatory process with
the FERC to get the project licensed. Currently, the project was
still involved in that process and the money needed to be kept
flowing into the attorneys, engineers and administrators to keep
the project flowing. He said that the $46,000 was Palo Alto's
share of the additional $200,000 budget increase to keep the proj-
ect going unti 1 the end of the fiscal year. He said staff
expected to return again with some other financing need or mech-
anism for the rest of the year until the project was bonded and
staff did not know when that would take place. Staff was comfort-
able ,,that the project was proceeding as well as possible, but were
not sure how long it would run. He said the City was still com-
mitted that once the license was granted, it had 120 days to make
up its mired on the project. Staff would have an ,extensive review
of the project with the Council wherein the Council would make a
conclusion of whether At wanted to participate, and if so, to what
extent.
Councilmember Witherspoon urged Council approval.
Councilmember Cobb asked if the Council was going to have a con-
tinuing problem of the project going over on cost, and asked if
Mr. ,.Aghj cyan was confident that he would not have to ask for more
money before June 30, 1982 .
Mr. Aghj ayan said he was confident that he would not be back
before June 30, but was confident that he would be back after June
30 to come up with some financing for the rest of the year.
Councilmember Cobb asked if the Utilities Department_, had a point
at which it would say enough.
Mr. Aqhjayan said that had been said already with respect to any
design work. He said that Mayor Eyerly had taken that position
with the NCPA and with the Calaveras Couhty Water District. He
said that the level of spending currently on the project was down
to the base bones necessary to keep the project going.
Vice Mayor Bechtel asked if the ° ordinance could wait two weeks.
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5/24/82
Mr. Aghjayan advised the Council that HCPA had authorized the
level of spending to continue, and they were making some commit-
ments which were due for the City to pay. He said that although
the City had no legal obligation to pay, he wanted to proceed if
possible.
Vice Mayor Bechtel said she had been asking for a tour, and a tour
was being scheduled, She said that so far the City had spent over
$750,000 on the project in the past four or five years. She had:a
conflict because she knew that in two weeks at least one other
Councilmember would be present who }could vote in favor of the
motion, and by her voting no and another potential Councilmember
or two voting no, the project would just be delayed for two weeks.
She said that reluctantly she would vote in favor of the ordi-
nance, but wanted the record to reflect thet she still had to be
convinced.
MOTION: Councl1member Fazzino moved, seconded by Klein,
approval of the ordinance.
ORDINANCE 3358 entitled "ORDINANCE OF THE COUNCIL OF THE
CITY OF PAD —ALTO AMENDING THE BUDGET FOR FISCAL YEAR
1981-82 TO PROVIDE ADDITIONAL FUNDING FOR PALO ALTO'S
PARTICIPATION IN THE CALAYERAS HYDROELECTRIC PROJECT
THROUGH THE NORTHERN CALIFORNIA POWER AGENCY"
Councilmember Renzel said she would not support the ordinance
because she continued to be concerned about the City's participa-
tion in projects which were doing environmental damage in other
communities and in other areas. She would continue to be very
discriminatory in her support in terms of energy projects partici-
pated in by the City. She thought the Council needed to reNember
that each of the projects the City was participating in were not
because the City did not have electricity available, but because
there was a potential that other alternatives would be more expen-
sive. She commented that it was trading dollars for the environ-
ment, and at this point she would stick with the environment.
MOTION PASSED by a vote of 6-1, Renzel voting "no," Eyerly„
Fletcher absent.
ITEM f16, REQUEST OF COUNCILMEMBER KLEIN RE SUPERBOWL
Councilmember Klein said that he and . Counci lmember Fazzino had
attended the meeting of the Superbowl Steering Cot%mittee which was
held at the Al rport Hilton Hotel. He said that over the weekend
the National Footbal 1 League (NFL) representatives had a tour of
the facilities and particularly the athletic facilities at
Stanford and by all reports were impressed and encouraging to the
Bay Area representatives. Plans were moving forward to send a
delegation back to the NFL Owners Meeting, where presentations
would be made by the ten cities that were bidding on the Super -
Bowls for 1985 and 1986.- He said that the likelihood was that a
decision would not be made until later in the summer, but that
presentations would be made on June 3. He said that staff had
prepared some estimates as to what the expenses would be and what
revenue could ' be anticipated from the commercial activities which
would surround the Superbowi, and the bottom line was that Palo
Alto would cone out ahead.
MOTION Councilmember Klein moved, seconded by Fazzino,
approval: of the resolution.
RESOLUTION 6035 entitled "RESOLUTION OF THE COUNCIL OF
`THE CIl't' OF 1ALO ALTO INVITING. THE NATIONAL FOOTBALL
LEAGUE TO HOLD SUPERBOWL XIX, XX OR XXI AT STANFORD
STADIUM'
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5/24/82
4
Assistant City Manager June Fleming said that the preliminary
estimates were based on information that was secured from sites
which had hoped'to host a Superbowl or had been actual hosts. She
said that the best estimate was that Transient Occupancy Tax would
generate about $22,500 additional dollars, and Sales Tax would
yield about $59,000. She said the City's largest expense for
accommodating the Superbowl would be in the rol i ce Department.
The Police Department contacted Pontiac, Michigan, and based on ,
figures received from them, as well as Palo Alto's experience with
The Big Game, salaries would cost an additional $23,000 on game
day, and some gearing up two days in advance would be about an
additional $15,000. She said the largest single expense would be
for the pregame and game activities for the Police Department,
which would be about around $38,100, and with the other depart-
ments, the minimum impacts would be $4,000 to $5,000, or a total
of $43,000. By comparison, The Big Game in 1985 would cost about
$3,500.
Counci lmember Cobb clarified that the anticipated revenue was
about $30,000.
1
Mss Fleming said that her best estimates were based . on purely
looking at direct expenses and had nothing to do with any other
commercial activities the City might engage in --strictly in terms
of costs that could be projected at this time.
Counci lmember Cobb said he thought that one concern was the ques-
tion of costs. He thought it was an interesting idea to have the
Superbowl in Palo Alto, but did not think the Superbowl was a "big
game." It would bring into Palo Alto a totally different element
of people and in much larger quantities. He understood from Chief
Zurcher that a short-term significant increase in the crime prob-
lem could be expected, and might include crimes which were not
often seen in Palo Alto. He asked what kinds of extraord i nar,
crime problems Palo Alto might face during the Superbowl.
Ms. Fleming responded that the cost of $23,000 was for game day,
and included costs for the police services that ranged from traf-
fic control, routine patrol, special assignments, communications
additional needs, and personnel. She said the work force would be
augmented 'y 20 reserve officers on 24 -hour assignments, 44 sworn
officers, 5 communicators and 3 support service personnel. The
Police Department had been in contact with the Police Department
in Pontiac, Michigan, and the various kinds of related activities
were discussed. She said the Police department felt that that
level of activities which Palo Aito would experience is a level
which it could handle.
Councilmember Levy said he was concerned that a clause i n the
resolution said that the "City of Palo Alto hereby expresses its
intent to take all action necessary and appropriate to effectuate
the selection of the 1985-86..." He asked if the City was making
an open-ended commitment. He was concerned that perhaps the NFL
would ask the City of Pal o Alto to do various things and at thi s
point he was not ready to make any commitments.
Councilmember Klein responded that the Superbowl was not a con-
tract, and the NFL would not make demands on the City, but at this
stage would talk to the City, and the resolution was not part of
the ` bid package. He said.., the NFL had a series of requests and
requirements, but the City was only being asked to provide traffic
control on the day of the game. He said the clause in the resolu-
tion was included because a copy of the resolution was going to be
sent to the NFL Owners.
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5/24/82
Councilmember Renzel said she was concerned about whether the
Council could properly compare a game in Palo Alto where the bulk
of the people would stay in San Francisco with a game that was
held in a community where the people actually stayed in the com-
munity. She was concerned enough that she would abstain from
voting.
Vice Mayor Bechtel said she understood that Pontiac, Michigan
never would have been able to house the fans that attended the
Superbowl, and that many of them were housed in Detroit.
NOTION PASSED by a vote of 6-0-1, Renzel "abstaining," Eyerly
and Fletcher absence.
ADJOURN;1ENT
Council adjourned at 11:45 p.m.
ATTEST:
c
APPROVED:
Vice M jr r
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5/Z4/82