[0:01] but there it is
[0:05] calling to order the monday august 9th
2021 regular meeting of the 38th council
[0:12] of the city of berkeley
miss harold would you please call the
[0:15] roll council member baker here council
member blanchard here
[0:19] councilmember mayor pro tem dean here
council member gavin here
[0:24] council member hennan here
council member price here
[0:28] mayor turbrack here
our first order of business this evening
[0:33] is the approval of tonight's agenda is
there a motion to approve
[0:37] so moved your honor support motion made
by councilmember baker with support from
[0:41] council member blanchard are there any
changes or additions
[0:47] okay
seeing none miss harold would you please
[0:50] call the role on tonight's agenda
blanchard yes
[0:55] dean yes
gavin yes hennen yes price yes baker yes
[1:01] turbric yes
at this time please stand for the
[1:05] invocation and remain standing for the
pledge of allegiance with us this
[1:09] evening is pastor zach dunlap
let's pray
[1:14] good and loving god
thank you for the opportunity to live
[1:19] work
worship learn pray grow eat shop and
[1:24] make music in this wonderful community
of berkeley
[1:27] we come from many different faith
traditions and belief systems yet we are
[1:32] united in our pursuit of the common good
may we truly look for the good in each
[1:38] person
may you grant us and our mayor and city
[1:41] council members wisdom and discernment
to lead well
[1:46] and may you empower us
to set aside our differences and truly
[1:52] love our neighbors
as ourselves
[1:56] in the strong name of jesus i pray
[2:07] of amen united states of america
and to the republic for which it stands
[2:13] one nation under god
indivisible with liberty and justice for
[2:18] all
[2:28] all right we will now move to public
comments and just as we did last time
[2:33] please bear with me for a few minutes so
i can
[2:35] go through the process because we have a
number of different folks with us today
[2:39] possibly
uh per our normal rules and procedures
[2:44] uh you may comment on specific agenda
items while they are being considered
[2:47] and as we have done in the past at
normal in-person meetings
[2:53] council members still will not engage
you in discussion but if your concern
[2:56] needs to be addressed by a member of
city staff please sign your name um on
[3:00] the at the clerk's table there
for those attending in person
[3:04] you will have the opportunity to speak
in just a moment you can simply come up
[3:08] to the podium state your name and city
of residence just as normal
[3:12] for those attending virtually uh
participants in the webcast can utilize
[3:16] the raise your hand function by
selecting manage participants on the
[3:19] bottom of your dashboard and then select
the more button in the bottom right hand
[3:23] corner and our moderator will call your
name and unmute you so that you can
[3:26] speak when it is your turn
if you have called in
[3:31] please
select star 9 or hit star 9 on your
[3:34] phone that will put you in the queue and
you will be announced by the last four
[3:37] digits of your phone number when it is
your turn to comment
[3:41] again in the virtual environment you
will have three minutes to speak and
[3:44] once the three minutes are up you will
be muted by the moderators
[3:48] additionally we will read public
comments that were emailed to the clerk
[3:52] prior to 5 pm today
and we'll make sure that those
[3:56] electronic communications are part of
the public record so we're going to do
[3:59] this
in in a couple turns here and we're
[4:01] going to follow the same thing
throughout the evening when it comes
[4:04] time to comment on events so the first
thing we're going to do is i'll open up
[4:07] to anybody here for public comments
again items that are not included on
[4:10] tonight's agenda
then i will ask the clerk if there are
[4:12] any email communications and thirdly we
will go to our folks that are visiting
[4:16] with us virtually make sense hopefully
if not i apologize
[4:21] all right
uh we will now begin with those folks
[4:23] that are with us today
in person
[4:29] man i said all that
thank you
[4:32] thank you
[4:35] so i'm uh
a berkeley resident my name is jamie
[4:39] stefanian bennett and i am here in
support of the small business community
[4:43] here
as a resident not a business owner here
[4:47] but specific to if i look at the agenda
specifically is resolution number
[4:52] r27-21 and i wanted to state my support
representing
[4:57] a great deal of my neighbors colleagues
and friends here in town to
[5:02] voice my support of extending the
temporary outdoor dining
[5:07] there has been a great deal of
pride that we've had even throughout
[5:13] covid by inviting
friends and family members to these
[5:17] outdoor spaces bringing people to town
and we feel that
[5:21] it will only help the efforts of the dda
and other businesses to come into town
[5:26] when they see berkeley act in such a
progressive manner with the blood
[5:30] sweat and tears that so many of our
small business community have made to
[5:36] stay in business let alone thrive and so
we want our small businesses here to
[5:40] thrive and i state my full unequivocal
support of our small business community
[5:46] thank you jamie um
again we're talking about items that are
[5:50] not covered on the agenda we will
certainly get to that and i will make
[5:52] sure that we
started off with this one
[5:55] i i appreciate you about this coming up
to the microphone thank you thank you
[5:59] any other public comments for any other
items that are not covered on tonight's
[6:03] agenda
[6:06] all right miss harold did you receive
any email communications to be read into
[6:10] the public record no i did not your
honor okay thank you
[6:15] miss mathis
i will now switch over to
[6:18] our hybrid version anybody virtually
like to comment
[6:22] um i believe so steve if you want to
unmute yourself you can go ahead
[6:26] and get some more volume sarah
oh can you guys hear me okay that's
[6:32] better it's getting a little bit better
okay
[6:36] i'll adjust the volume over here
steve if you have anything to say you
[6:40] can go ahead and speak
[6:47] okay thank you very much uh members of
council and honorable mayor i'd like to
[6:53] uh
correct a little something
[6:56] that
had transpired uh
[6:58] prior
to myself and paul
[7:03] resigning from the zoning board of
appeals
[7:06] we did have a conversation with you on
the telephone subsequently it was said
[7:11] in that last pc meeting that
that there were discussions ongoing with
[7:17] staff
and uh and council people that is
[7:21] absolutely not true i talked to six of
the seven
[7:26] that were seated at the time of the
resignation they have not heard anything
[7:31] from anyone other than dennis hennan
who contacted them and said if you have
[7:36] anything you need information on
please feel free to ask i don't know
[7:41] what happened with that
but
[7:44] you know i
it's it's very frustrating
[7:48] we need to to get this out
on the table
[7:52] and we need people
to understand what happened this is a
[7:58] learning opportunity if we don't take
advantage of it it's really really silly
[8:05] and i know for a fact
that a number of members of the planning
[8:09] commission are not very happy about this
either what this kind of stuff does is
[8:14] it really degrades the zba and the
planning commission
[8:18] and i just wanted to say that and get it
out in the public thank you
[8:23] thank you steve
[8:26] miss mathis who's next
um chief tim do you have anything to say
[8:33] for
[8:38] today you're gonna have to go ahead and
mute yourself there you go yeah there
[8:42] you go
um you know my comments as a
[8:46] restaurant owner and seeing the
conversations that have happened at
[8:51] different meetings
[8:54] and conversations i've had
[8:58] with business owners
so it's really comes down to a decision
[9:03] of whether we want to
be together as berkeley businesses
[9:09] or
if we want to
[9:13] remain divided and kind of protect our
acorns um but i think we need to
[9:20] uh
you know it's if this doesn't pass it's
[9:23] really a vote for
division
[9:26] um
and it's uh
[9:29] it's out of fear if we are able to drive
any sort of restaurant or retail
[9:35] business to berkeley everybody wins
i i just don't understand um
[9:42] the opposition um
we want businesses to succeed
[9:47] and that's really my
my two cents
[9:51] is to
commit to some growth for berkeley
[9:58] thank you thank you
thank you and again we will be
[10:01] commenting on that agenda item later and
there will be an opportunity for those
[10:05] with us virtually as well to to be able
to comment um while we're discussing
[10:08] that item
miss mathis who is next
[10:14] that is all i see at this time mr mayor
all right
[10:20] sure
[10:23] cinder 2772 cummings i just wanted
to put out the good news that we have
[10:29] our silver medalist kate nye who will be
one of our grand marshals at the cruise
[10:35] fest parade
we also are honoring
[10:41] our
first responders there's a family
[10:45] in particular here in the city and also
all of our public safety officers
[10:50] so
we're pretty proud about that
[10:53] thank you cindy and thank you for being
instrumental i know and making sure that
[10:57] katie was available and here and would
be able to participate so thank you so
[11:01] much that's awesome
anybody else
[11:05] before we wrap up public comments
[11:09] all right
we will move on to our order of business
[11:13] this evening first up is our consent
agenda
[11:16] miss harold would you please read the
items on tonight's consent agenda
[11:21] one approval of the minutes matter of
approving the minutes of the 38th
[11:25] regular city council meeting on monday
july 19 2021 two warrant matter of
[11:30] approving warrant number one three six
five
[11:34] motion number
m-44-21 matter of approving to cast
[11:38] berkeley's official vote for the fouling
to serve as a trustee
[11:42] on the board of trustees for the mml
workers compensation fund directing the
[11:47] city clerk to send in a marked ballot
vote for three incumbent trustees and
[11:53] first and two first-time trustees for a
four-year term beginning october 1st
[11:57] 2021.
thank you miss harold is there a motion
[12:02] to approve tonight's consent agenda so
moved support moved by council member
[12:07] gavin with support from council member
price are there any comments or changes
[12:11] from council
[12:15] are there any questions or comments from
those that are with us in person
[12:22] miss mathis anybody
on the virtual side
[12:28] not at this time sir thank you
uh seeing no comments uh miss harold
[12:33] would you please call the role on
tonight's consent agenda dean yes gavin
[12:38] yes hennen yes price yes baker yes
blanchard yes turbrack yes
[12:45] we now move on to our regular agenda
miss harold would you please read item
[12:49] number one
recognitions presentations matter of any
[12:54] recognitions or presentations from the
consent agenda
[12:58] seeing no recognitions or presentations
from the consent agenda we'll move on to
[13:03] item number two
motion number m-45-21
[13:09] matter of authorizing the berkeley
berkeley orchestra association 2325
[13:14] catalpa drive berkeley michigan to
conduct berkeley tag days 2021 in the
[13:18] city of berkeley on friday october 8th
from 4 p.m to 9 p.m saturday october 9th
[13:24] from 9 00 a.m to 5 p.m and sunday
october 10th from 9 a.m to 5 p.m
[13:29] is there a motion to approve m4521
so moved support
[13:35] motion made by council member hennan
with support from council member
[13:38] blanchard
mr baumgarten uh that was mayor
[13:42] it's good to see this come back to us
this application has been reviewed by
[13:46] each of the appropriate departments
as noted in the application packet
[13:50] students will stand outside businesses
and sing and play instruments
[13:54] they will have a bucket to collect
donations and these funds these will go
[13:58] to the purchase of instruments
scholarships music uh support programs
[14:02] and the like the reason this comes
before council is because this does take
[14:05] place in the public's right-of-way uh
that's it that's owned by the city uh so
[14:10] they come every year and they're they're
always very diligent about uh filling
[14:13] out the proper paperwork and it's this
item has been recommended by the
[14:17] departments that reviewed it for
approval
[14:19] thank you
uh comments or questions for mr
[14:23] baumgarten from council
[14:28] recruit all our stuff and everything
looks good uh the insurance is up to
[14:31] date and so everything looks fine
figured if you were good with a jack
[14:37] we would be okay
um other questions any other comments
[14:40] as mr baumgarten as a manager mentioned
we are certainly excited to see this
[14:45] able to come back
as we've seen some other events slowly
[14:49] but surely beginning to come back we saw
last week we've got a few more coming up
[14:52] in the following weeks
as long as we can continue to do these
[14:57] things safely
it's good to see certainly
[15:01] any comments from anybody
here or is anybody representing the
[15:05] orchestra association today either here
or virtually
[15:13] no one here virtually
nobody here virtually okay
[15:17] well with that and seeing no additional
comments uh miss harold then would you
[15:21] please call the roll on
m4521
[15:25] gavin yes hennen yes price yes baker yes
blanchard yes dean yes turbrack yes
[15:34] we now move on to item number three
please
[15:38] motion number m-46-21
matter of authorizing the mayor to
[15:43] execute a contract between smart and the
city of berkeley for fiscal year 2022
[15:48] for municipal credit and community
credit funds in order to provide public
[15:53] transportation services for the period
of july 1st 2021 to june 30th 2022.
[15:59] is there a motion to approve
m4621 motion to approve emotion approved
[16:04] by council member baker with support
from mayor pro pro-tem dean
[16:09] mr baumgarten
thank you mayor this is an annual item
[16:12] that continues our contractual
relationship with the with the smart
[16:16] organization
as noted in the the application or the
[16:21] memo from your recreation director these
these services have been absolutely
[16:25] crucial in the past uh 18 months or so
as
[16:29] sometimes our department has been the
only ones that have been available to
[16:33] take our most vulnerable populations to
the get the groceries go the doctors off
[16:38] appointments that they uh that they
depend on regularly so um smart uh
[16:42] annually gets this to us a little bit
after our fiscal year so this year is uh
[16:46] is no different there
but we've uh had a long history of
[16:50] putting these to good use
[16:53] any questions for
city manager
[16:57] mr comment that's mark blanchard i'd
like to let people are watching know
[17:01] that this is
five 40
[17:03] dollars that we get to provide this
service so it's it's quite a significant
[17:06] chunk of money and uh our parks and rec
people put it through very good use to
[17:10] ensure that our senior citizens can get
where they need to get
[17:14] and doctors appointments that sort of
thing so it's
[17:16] great to get the money and it's well
used by our city yes incredibly well
[17:20] used and and very important especially
as we saw over the past year and a half
[17:25] other councilmember price
yes um mr baumgarten could you tell any
[17:30] residents who might be hearing about
this program tonight a little bit about
[17:34] what they would need to do to make use
of it
[17:37] uh we have a fantastic parks and rec
staff i would say that that should be
[17:41] anybody's first call if they're
interested making use of these wonderful
[17:43] services dan mcmahon our senior services
coordinator
[17:47] would be a fantastic person to reach out
to through the rec department
[17:50] anybody there would be able to help them
but dan mcmahon does a runnable
[17:53] wonderful job of being our point person
for each of these services
[17:57] sometimes even going as far as being the
driver of the day even
[18:01] that's how involved he is uh with this
program so uh that'd be my first thing
[18:05] if anybody asked me that question i
would say reach out to dan mcmahon he'll
[18:08] get you signed up and even if
something's not initially available they
[18:12] make every stride possible to to make
sure that you get the service that
[18:16] you're looking for
thank you absolutely
[18:19] thank you
other questions or comments i feel like
[18:22] this is a little early i know smart i
think this is earlier than normal i feel
[18:26] like it's like an october thing usually
they're october late this time august
[18:29] late yeah okay well
let's make it happen earlier
[18:33] um are there any comments or questions
from anybody that is with us today in
[18:36] person
[18:40] ms mathis any virtual comments
sure yeah we do have um mr mcmahon here
[18:45] if you'd like to hear from wow
my apologies mayor oh boy
[18:50] dan
welcome
[18:53] good evening uh mr mayor members of city
council as mr baumgarten said
[18:58] um this is a contract that comes to you
every year um we are i am happy to
[19:04] report that we are running our services
in full capacity at this time
[19:08] that means doctors appointments grocery
stores uh hair salons you know the works
[19:14] we run monday through friday uh 8 30
till about 4 pm each day
[19:20] you can make an appointment by calling
the rec center
[19:23] at two four eight six five eight
three four seven zero between the hours
[19:29] of nine and eleven thirty
um to make an appointment for those
[19:33] rides uh our boundaries are eight mile
to sixteen mile lasser to john r so
[19:39] that's just a little bit more
information
[19:42] um
to uh
[19:44] miss price's question earlier so
again our phone number is
[19:50] seven 248-658-3470 and uh we will do
everything that we can to help you out
[19:56] and get you to and from your
appointments and
[19:59] um
i cannot thank our drivers enough uh
[20:04] james dunlap and tim renaud they've been
working throughout this pandemic and
[20:08] they deserve
the most praise i can offer they are
[20:13] both in the senior um
demographics so they are not only
[20:18] out there doing great work but they're
also putting their uh
[20:22] their selves in at risk um we are still
uh requiring masks as we are public
[20:28] transportation um so when you're riding
you just have to wear a mask and
[20:33] give us a call again if you if you need
any assistance
[20:37] well thank you dan if we knew you were
uh here which i probably should ask
[20:41] before if you were with us today i
wouldn't have made mr baumgarten pretend
[20:43] to say all those nice things about you
[20:48] do you want to give out your personal
cell phone too for everybody i heard you
[20:51] give up no i'm just kidding dan i'm i'm
just kidding there's a question
[20:55] thank you your honor um how far in
advance would someone have to call to
[20:59] reserve a ride absolutely we do suggest
at least a two day uh in advance to
[21:07] for us to provide time to get the
drivers their schedules uh however we do
[21:11] allow people to call months in advance
if you have an appointment in december
[21:15] call now
and we can get you on the schedule uh
[21:19] for then we do ask for two days as i
said but if you have something further
[21:23] down the line we are more than willing
to get those on the books for you at
[21:26] this time
thank you
[21:31] any other questions or comments for mr
mcminn
[21:36] no all right well dan thank you for
being with us this evening to answer
[21:39] some of those questions and to provide
some additional context and recognize
[21:43] the drivers
we've internally spoken about that so i
[21:47] am very glad that you were able to to
mention them and thank them
[21:50] for the work that they've provided
any comments from anybody else
[21:58] uh seeing no additional comments uh miss
harold would you please call the roll on
[22:03] m4621 hennen yes price yes baker yes
blanchard yes dean yes gavin yes turbrac
[22:13] yes
we now move on to item number four
[22:18] please miss harold
motion number m-47-21
[22:23] matter of authorizing hubble roth and
clark for professional design and
[22:27] engineering services related to the
kenmore slash cornwall road
[22:30] reconstruction and water main
replacement project at a cost not to
[22:35] exceed
[22:38] three 149
[22:39] three
dollars and seventy cents funding has
[22:43] been allocated in the road millage and
water service accounts
[22:51] 313-938-821-0 and 592-536-821-000
[22:59] is there a motion to approve m 47-21
motion to approve
[23:04] support abortion approved by council
member blanchard with support from
[23:07] council member baker
mr baumgarten uh legos mayor as we
[23:11] talked about way back in 2018 where we
asked voters
[23:15] for their support and putting a
substantial investment in our roads
[23:19] they would see both small patches medium
patches and large and full
[23:23] reconstructions
we have done
[23:26] the first of those two and now we are
bringing to you the the scope and tasks
[23:31] involved in doing the third category as
well so in this situation it would be
[23:34] the uh kenmore kenwall kenmore and
cornwall
[23:39] uh sections as outlined in your in your
packets
[23:42] there's also a uh the full scope is
including your packet as well as the
[23:46] individual tasks and project thresholds
as well so as you can see with us in
[23:51] person is derek schuler and roland alex
our dpw director as well as our
[23:55] engineering partner mr schuler mr alex
good to see you this evening i will turn
[24:00] it over to you thank you thank you mr
baumgard mayor and city council so
[24:03] before you tonight is our recommendation
for the next phase i guess what we call
[24:08] year three 2022
which is a
[24:12] road and water main reconstruction
project similar to harvard back in 2017
[24:16] a half mile section so
and i'm joined by roland alex vice
[24:20] president from hrc
uh selecting the next road is
[24:25] took quite a bit of time and what we did
is we took the paiser road rankings as
[24:29] well as the water main rankings and
working closely with hrc
[24:34] put those together and identified
basically our half dozen
[24:38] worst half-mile segments
which are shown on the map that we
[24:42] provided to council
just to let everybody know what those
[24:45] roads were that's wiltshire west of
woodward two sections of bacon
[24:50] cumberland north of 12 mile harvard east
of coolidge and then the cornwall
[24:55] kenmore section as well so
those were the six that rose to the top
[25:00] and ultimately we selected kenmore and
cornwall because it had the most water
[25:04] main breaks over the last five years
also consumers energy is going to be
[25:09] replacing the gas main this fall on that
street so that's a significant factor as
[25:13] well
so we've we've settled on that street
[25:16] that'll be our next half mile segment
with your approval
[25:20] design takes several months we're hoping
to bid this out during the winter months
[25:24] and then have construction start next
spring
[25:27] the estimated construction cost is
around 2.5 million dollars so
[25:33] a significant expenditure will be using
road millage funds as well as water main
[25:37] funds to fund that so
i'm happy to answer any questions you
[25:41] have i'm sure there's a few roland and i
can answer those
[25:45] uh mr schuler just to compare the scope
as you mentioned 2017 harvard project
[25:49] what is the difference in the cost
four years later
[25:53] i think it's really just increased in
cost per se it's a very similar segment
[25:58] we're doing the exact same things
we do have a little bit more in there
[26:03] for
replacing any lead service lines that we
[26:06] encounter
so there's a little bit addition there
[26:09] but by and large it's the same scope of
work uh it'll be sidewalk new road and
[26:14] new eight-inch water main
questions for mr schuler mr alex
[26:19] councilmember baker oh thank you honor
thank you guys for bringing this to us
[26:22] tonight and for your diligence in
identifying where the the trouble spots
[26:27] are on our city streets and doing the
best we can to prioritize and make these
[26:31] tough decisions limited resources i
think this was a good deciding uh
[26:35] decision approach that you took um
looking ahead obviously you gave us a
[26:40] a rough time frame
uh of when you know obviously ground
[26:44] isn't going to be broken anytime soon
but
[26:47] looking ahead to when we approach those
uh those times could you just share with
[26:53] us a little bit about the communication
that will take place with the residents
[26:56] that will be affected either directly or
indirectly
[26:59] how we communicate with them and keep
them abreast of timing so this
[27:02] communication question and secondly the
notion of trees so as i recall on the
[27:06] harvard project which i think was a
great success a lot of the um
[27:10] the the wonderful trees along that road
were unfortunately taken as part of that
[27:14] uh project do we anticipate
any kind of
[27:18] you know similar considerations for
trees this time so communication with
[27:21] residents and trees sure thank you i'll
go ahead and start with the trees um
[27:26] trees are going to be a big issue for us
and and we're going to make every
[27:29] attempt to save trees
we're going to follow the same
[27:32] i guess procedure that we used for
harvard which was to
[27:36] work with the engineers to identify the
locations where we needed to have the
[27:40] arbors look at the trees ultimately the
arborist is going to look at all the
[27:43] trees
and we're going to make a decision about
[27:46] what can be saved and what has to be
removed there are going to be
[27:50] constraints whether it's elevations
size of easement those are sort of
[27:54] things that are going to come into play
obviously the health of the tree also
[27:58] but we're going to work closely with
them to identify what can be saved and
[28:02] what unfortunately cannot and we'll
communicate that to everybody
[28:06] i am happy to say that with the harvard
project one of uh
[28:10] i guess one of the things that we're
proud of is we were able to plant more
[28:12] trees ultimately than were removed we
did have to remove some trees with
[28:16] harvard but we were able to plant more
we've got a lot of big trees on the
[28:21] north side and we're going to make every
attempt to try to save those but we're
[28:24] going to have constraints
we're going to have grading constraints
[28:27] this is going to be all new concrete
curb and gutter we need to make sure
[28:30] that the right-of-way drains towards the
road so we need to
[28:34] hrc looking at elevations to make sure
that we've got the proper elevation
[28:38] ultimately but
trees are going to be a big story in
[28:42] this and i and i suspect after hrc gets
going on design we'll be having several
[28:46] meetings to determine
you know where we're going can we shift
[28:49] the road a little bit to save some trees
you know i'm perfectly willing to
[28:53] entertain that option obviously there's
trees on both sides but you know can we
[28:56] do some things to try to save trees
we're more than willing to try to do
[28:59] that
communication wise
[29:03] i don't know if many remember but on the
harvard project we had a
[29:06] meeting
on the street in the fall i'm certainly
[29:10] not opposed to doing that again it was
pretty well attended
[29:14] we deliver resident notices working
closely with hrc regularly there were
[29:19] several notices delivered with harvard
at least a half dozen i suspect we'll be
[29:23] doing the same thing
encouraging residents to look at their
[29:27] own utilities beforehand it obviously
makes sense to to look at your own lines
[29:31] before we come in and tear up the
right-of-way so that'll be one of the
[29:34] key things that we focus on as well so
there will be many opportunities for
[29:38] communications getting email addresses
having that that meeting on site is if
[29:43] folks want to attend as well as
distributing the flyers so a lot more to
[29:47] come and and really that communication
plan
[29:50] starts pretty quick so we'll be looking
to get that going as soon as possible
[29:54] because some of these things can take
some time right
[29:57] thank you
thank you
[30:00] councilmember blanton thank you your
honor i noticed we're going from a
[30:03] six-inch wire line to an eight-inch
water line is this going to tie into the
[30:08] part on the webster where we came off
the new coolies line to make that a
[30:11] complete circuit which is something
we've been talking about for years it is
[30:14] it is and so we're going to upsize this
main which will help us with fire flows
[30:18] we're also going to be doing a little
bit of water main work along webster so
[30:21] we're going to pick up where we left off
last time and extend that water main to
[30:25] the west and connect in with the new
eight inch main
[30:29] thank you i just want to make sure that
the residents understand that this is
[30:33] being funded by both the infrastructure
bond that we passed and their water
[30:38] bills because some of their water bills
go into a fund and the fund is used for
[30:42] fixing water main breaks and hopefully
in the long term replacing the water
[30:46] main so we don't have to fix the water
main breaks so
[30:51] that's it thank you
thank you
[30:54] additional questions councilmember
hennan yes uh i have two questions after
[30:59] my treat question was taken
the first is you know this is an area
[31:04] that we've had some historic basement
flooding so is there anything in this
[31:09] project that will help mitigate that in
the future
[31:12] so we'll be
um
[31:14] this section does have
uh as far as i know all full restricted
[31:18] covers so we'll be maintaining that i
will say that
[31:21] um
the existence of the curb and gutter
[31:23] section here is pretty well non-existent
and we have roads that several roads
[31:28] that have that as well so i think we'll
be able to more efficiently store water
[31:33] in the road section without it having to
extend
[31:37] into folks front yard so i think that's
a positive with that we're going to make
[31:41] sure that the line is
structurally lined as we always do and
[31:45] maintain those restricted covers hrc
suggested and i think it's a great idea
[31:49] that we explore a green infrastructure
alternative here as well
[31:53] so we're excited about that i don't know
where that's going to end up for us
[31:57] but we're looking at the triangle there
in the middle section to see if we can
[32:00] incorporate some type of green
infrastructure again i appreciate hrc
[32:04] suggesting that i think it's a great
idea we'll see where it ends up but that
[32:08] might be another way of
assisting with the stormwater
[32:12] and the
other question i have is
[32:15] it comes to me frequently and there's
often a conception that uh concrete
[32:19] lasts longer and you know is more of
value so why is it that the city you
[32:24] know uses asphalt on many of our roads
sure so we view asphalt
[32:30] for residential applications as the
preferred method and and the main thing
[32:34] that comes up for me at least is that
you're able to
[32:37] you know mill and overlay that surface
after it reaches its life expectancy
[32:41] very easily and cost effectively which
concrete you've got to do full depth
[32:45] replacement on that on a very similar
life span so
[32:49] we're very happy with how harvard has
held up i would encourage anybody to
[32:53] take a look the road has done very well
it is an extremely beefy cross section
[32:57] meaning it's very thick there's a deep
stone base course with that hrc
[33:03] recommended and it's held up very well
so we're very happy with that section i
[33:07] do think it is
in the long run the best alternative for
[33:10] berkeley
thank you
[33:13] mayor pro tempting thank you i'm i was
really happy to see the um
[33:18] green infrastructure the potential for
you know the storm water retention so
[33:22] kudos to you roland and your team for
bringing that up i do have a question
[33:27] about the lead service lines how do so
are you testing every home
[33:32] um to see if there's lead or do you know
going into it do you have
[33:36] an idea of which ones might be
you know unfortunately we don't have a
[33:40] great idea of this you know we have old
water service cards that give us some
[33:44] information on the city side but that's
not always the case on the private side
[33:49] so i think what we're going to have to
do is do a little bit of exploration
[33:52] at the stop box which is near the curb
to determine how many of those that we
[33:56] have
and then react from there so it's going
[33:59] to take you know a little bit of
exploratory work to determine how many
[34:02] lead services that we have
thank you
[34:06] uh mr alex you're with us this evening
normally i see you in your basement um
[34:11] thank you for for being with us any
anything you'd like to add um on the
[34:15] project um not really i do love coming
to berkeley meetings because derek does
[34:19] such a great job of explaining the
project and
[34:22] i only get softball so
no i think they're did a great job but
[34:26] it is exciting for the community to be
investing in your infrastructure
[34:31] you know if you're not putting money
towards your roads towards your sewers
[34:34] towards your water mains they're only
going to continue to deteriorate and
[34:38] somebody's going to have to pay that
bill in the future so kudos to
[34:42] the council for being proactive in the
residence recognizing that it's a need
[34:45] that needs to be addressed now and not
just kick down the road like so many
[34:48] communities do so
i have nothing else though thank you
[34:52] thank you uh for being with us um and i
think what mr schuler said a few minutes
[34:56] ago is important if you haven't seen
harvard or driven on harvard to to get a
[35:00] sense of what it looks like now
there's certainly a stark contrast and
[35:04] in general a lot of that is the curbs
and the gutters that are not super
[35:08] existent on many of our roads anymore
not at least a lot of them um and that
[35:12] as mr schuler mentioned higher curbs are
not going to hold that water there
[35:15] instead of creeping up through
front lawns and sidewalks hopefully
[35:20] certainly not on its own going to help
but just
[35:23] the contrast and how the road looks and
travels
[35:27] certainly is what we want to see every
road if in an ideal world we'll be able
[35:31] to do that obviously we can't so we're
trying to plan these roads every four to
[35:34] five years when we have the opportunity
we have funds we can save
[35:37] to to make a project like this happen
but it is very exciting when it does
[35:41] happen and especially once we're able to
complete this as was mentioned there
[35:44] will be a lot more conversation
as we get closer to what the process
[35:48] actually looks like and the timelines
and certainly the trees is going to be
[35:52] an important part of what we do moving
forward this is the first step to having
[35:56] hrc get cracking
right okay any comments from anybody
[36:02] that is with us in the audience today
[36:08] ms mathis any comments uh with those
visiting with us virtually today
[36:16] i'm seeing no hands raised at this time
okay
[36:20] well seeing nobody else thank you both
for being with us and miss harold would
[36:24] you please call the roll on m4721
price
[36:28] yes baker yes blanchard yes dean yes
kevin yes kennen yes turbric yes
[36:38] we now move on to item number five
please on tonight's agenda
[36:43] motion number m-48-21
matter of approving the appointments to
[36:48] the zoning board of appeals
is there a motion to approve m 48-21
[36:55] so moved support promotion made by
councilmember hannah with support
[36:59] council member blanchard
mr baumgarten thanks mayor you have four
[37:03] appointments for you before you this
evening
[37:05] two alternate members to the zba as well
as two regular full members
[37:09] the two alternates this evening are mark
reilly
[37:12] for a term would expire next year july
1st 2022
[37:17] and next the other alternate is joanne
sir with an appointment expiring uh july
[37:22] 1 of 2024.
uh your next two are full members uh
[37:27] kevin wilner as a regular member with
the term expiring of 2023 as well as
[37:32] eric mcdonald who previously served as
an alternate being promoted if you will
[37:37] to a full regular board appointment
expiring 20 july 1 2024 so that is the
[37:43] slate before you this evening
thank you
[37:47] questions or comments from council on
our volunteers this evening
[37:54] well certainly we all want to thank them
for their service as we've talked about
[37:58] in the past um you know the volunteers
in these boards and commissions advisory
[38:03] boards are certainly the backbone of
much of what we are able to do up here
[38:06] as council members it's incredibly
important and these folks continue to to
[38:10] give their time and talents um to our
community and we are incredibly grateful
[38:16] any comments from anybody with us this
evening
[38:21] miss mathis you know what's coming
[38:25] not at this time sir not at this time
all right well i want to thank all four
[38:30] of them as i mentioned for uh
volunteering their time and their
[38:33] talents for our community
and i'm sure they're all on pins and
[38:38] needles right now waiting to see if they
get approved so miss harold would you
[38:41] please call the roll on m4821
baker yes blanchard yes dean yes
[38:49] gavin yes hennen yes price yes turbric
yes
[38:57] we now move on miss harold to item
number six please
[39:01] resolution number r-27-21
matter of extending r-20-20
[39:09] for temporary outdoor
slash seating and outdoor sales and
[39:13] service areas and to allow temporary
enclosures in the outdoor areas in
[39:18] response to
covet 19 closures and restrictions
[39:23] is there a motion to approve r2721
so moved
[39:28] support motion made by mayor pro-tem
dean i heard council member blanchard as
[39:32] well as three other people
mr baumgarten i think mayor
[39:37] coburn still remains uh part of our
daily lives here as you can probably
[39:41] tell even if every day when you look at
the news or even this evening with those
[39:46] of us um you know still in the situation
where there were masks for personal
[39:50] protection
that translates into people's
[39:53] apprehension to
hurriedly rush back indoors and be close
[39:58] to one another be under the same roof
and so what we're suggesting for council
[40:03] this evening is a continuation of the
actions that they have taken up to this
[40:07] point
which would be restrict the outdoor
[40:10] dining restrictions that we have in our
regular ordinance
[40:14] um
that would be
[40:16] allowing those people to use parking
lots or
[40:19] their own space as well as the
north robina north phillips south
[40:24] griffith south thomas east dorothea
right of ways owned by the city as well
[40:29] any of those are on the table for
restaurants that are potentially
[40:33] interested in taking advantage of that
if they find that it would better suit
[40:37] their restaurant or their operations to
do so
[40:41] in addition to that uh
this particular ordinance now uh with
[40:46] this continuation uh city council or
we're also administration is asking the
[40:50] city council permission to study the
feasibility
[40:53] of creating a public plaza at griffith
on the south side of 12 mile this is an
[40:58] area that has been closed now for quite
a while
[41:01] we've gotten high marks people have
remarked that they like the outdoor
[41:05] dining they like the visibility
they like to see people
[41:09] utilizing the space our own master plan
in 2007 called for
[41:14] public plaza to be created downtown it
specifically said robina the city as you
[41:19] recall attempted that um it had limited
success uh but one of the things that we
[41:24] heard
as part of the feedback was that it felt
[41:27] uh rushed and it didn't um didn't really
have the public community embrace it
[41:32] like we would have hoped uh so not so
learning from from past uh feedback we'd
[41:37] like again the opportunity to study
something that could be fully embraced
[41:41] by the community uh the city would be
able to use it in
[41:44] any of our departments including
recreation
[41:47] local community groups our chamber for
various events
[41:51] uh local businesses uh even local groups
even
[41:55] people that have like the taste of
berkeley could potentially go there i
[41:58] think that's been part of the
conversation at one point uh but any so
[42:01] anyway a public gathering place that has
high visibility right in our in our
[42:05] downtown are our heaviest trafficked
areas this would be open for anyone to
[42:08] use
uh it wouldn't be dedicated to any one
[42:11] particular business or use all the time
so
[42:14] um again if if not for
our master plan calling for something
[42:18] like this to be located downtown we
wouldn't be asking for for this to even
[42:22] move forward
but it's a culmination of various events
[42:26] that bring this before you this evening
so with that uh our community
[42:32] development director erin schlutto
is has
[42:35] authored the resolution as well as the
memo you find then they see in your
[42:39] packet this evening outlining what a
feasibility study for public plaza it
[42:43] would look like as well as has her
department is tasked with the
[42:47] administrative functionality of
permitting the temporary use permits for
[42:51] the outdoor dining so
she is absolutely your content expert
[42:54] here sir
director schlutel we'll turn it over to
[42:57] you there anything you'd like to add to
give us some additional context well uh
[43:02] thank you uh good evening everyone the
city manager outlined it really
[43:05] beautifully um the one thing i wanted to
focus on is
[43:09] the extension of this of this relaxation
of the temporary outdoor dining
[43:14] enclosures and stuff like that this is
the longest one we've ever asked for and
[43:17] the intent of that is to make sure that
we have given ourselves enough time not
[43:21] only to conduct the feasibility study
and see if it works there not only with
[43:25] the south griffith but um on a dorothy
at coolidge as well but also to engage
[43:30] the public
we really want to make sure that we have
[43:32] the buy-in and the understanding and we
have the input not only from the local
[43:36] businesses that are in that area but the
residents who will be impacted by this
[43:40] type of closure as well there are a
number of things that we we did and um
[43:45] we really want to make sure that we we
bring them to to our table we work with
[43:49] them we talk with them is there
something that they have a concern with
[43:51] that we didn't think about well let's
let's look at that
[43:54] um so
extending this to the end of next year
[43:57] will really give us an opportunity to do
an in-depth community engagement
[44:00] engagement strategy now that we're
opening things back up and we can do
[44:04] face-to-face engagement
we also extended it that long to make
[44:08] sure and build in uh time so that way we
don't have to come back for an extension
[44:13] from you so we can maybe we'll get this
done in six months and we can come back
[44:18] and say okay we're done this is the
recommendation blah blah and then we can
[44:21] shorten this resolution but the intent
is to not
[44:24] extend it beyond this this end date of
december 31st 2022.
[44:28] additionally it will give us time to
explore our ordinances all of our
[44:32] ordinances currently right now with
outdoor dining sales and service areas
[44:36] is related is regulated by special land
use approval now as i outlined in my
[44:40] review letter uh
review memo here it's that's a complex
[44:44] thing
and looking at it from a special land
[44:47] use perspective when there's seven
members i'm sorry nine members of the
[44:50] planning commission who look at it first
and make a recommendation and then city
[44:54] council ultimately adopts it or approves
it
[44:57] if we were to make that an
administrative function we really need
[44:59] to make sure we look at the parking and
the public
[45:03] implications and the neighborhood
impacts and those are all things that
[45:06] are discussed in the public meeting so
if we were to to look at making that
[45:09] more of an administrative function we
want to make sure we don't have any
[45:12] unintended consequences due to that
finally the feasibility that i mentioned
[45:18] um so
this would really give us the
[45:21] opportunity to study this and and focus
and make sure that this is uh this is a
[45:25] beneficial thing for the community in
this area at this time
[45:28] okay thank you
uh because we've had
[45:34] some very passionate members of our
community already uh during our initial
[45:38] public comments i'm going to open it up
to the residents that are here first in
[45:42] person
um to comment we'll go then to the folks
[45:46] that are visiting with us uh via the
hybrid model to talk to us as well and
[45:50] then council will ultimately discuss but
i want to give everybody that's here
[45:54] that would like to speak an opportunity
to speak first
[45:57] so if you're with us and you'd like to
comment on uh the
[46:01] resolution in front of us
r2721 now is the perfect time
[46:11] can we do a second time
[46:15] uh mr sabanian bennett did speak during
public comments i i feel like if people
[46:19] did not remember that no anybody i mean
no no no no anybody that's with us here
[46:23] sorry i didn't mean that okay all right
[46:33] hello
mr mayor and city council i'm not i'm
[46:37] not going to go to these meetings so i
apologize for the informalness but um
[46:41] i'm april macron and my husband steve
and i have been doing business in
[46:43] berkeley in the corner greater than 12
miles since 2000
[46:47] we love the berkeley community and have
thoroughly enjoyed growing our business
[46:50] here over the years
we also own yellow door art market and
[46:53] manage four apartments above our
catching fireflies shop
[46:56] we are glad the city offered unique
options for businesses to survive during
[46:59] these unprecedented times and we think
berkeley common did a great job
[47:02] transforming the street into an open
eating area and have encouraged our
[47:06] guests to dine there however we would
like to see griffith reopen again this
[47:10] fall
we purchased our catching fireflies
[47:13] building as a highly visible corner
location with easy access at an
[47:17] intersection with a traffic light
closing griffith diminishes all these
[47:20] advantages and devalues our property
investment as we feel because corner
[47:24] corner you know property investments are
just more valuable than in the line of
[47:27] street you know businesses
um it's inconvenience for our team
[47:31] members customers and tenants not to
have easy access to our delighted side
[47:35] street that directly borders our
business we feel the many questions from
[47:38] our guests over the past year inquiring
when the street would reopen and we
[47:41] expressed it was a temporary sacrifice
to help fellow businesses get through
[47:45] crippling capacity limitations
um berkeley common also purchased a
[47:49] highly visible corner location with the
easy access and intersection with the
[47:52] traffic light this purchase did not
include a 2 000 square foot outdoor
[47:56] patio which is roughly the same amount
of space of their entire first floor
[48:01] between the wide sidewalk that borders
griffith along the front of the building
[48:04] at 12 mile we feel they would have
adequate space for outdoor dining
[48:07] options moving forward
another concern is catching fireflies is
[48:11] open seven days a week um
ten to six month through saturday ten to
[48:15] eight on thursdays and twelve to five on
sundays it is frustrating that the
[48:19] street closure is only used five
evenings a week and more recently on
[48:23] saturday afternoons and just very
recently on sunday afternoons and let's
[48:26] not forget it can't be used when the
weather is not cooperative either
[48:30] i'm just curious has a study ever been
done with the traffic patterns on
[48:33] griffith
i know having a business that borders
[48:36] the intersection for the past 21 years
many more patrons would benefit from
[48:40] using that street to get through and
easy access to all the stores in the
[48:45] area
i understand a recent survey also
[48:48] pitched the street closure as a positive
public space
[48:51] um and that extended closure for 15
months would give them time to study
[48:54] this um i just think it's only
reasonable for businesses and residents
[48:57] to know more specific actionable plans
on what is going to be study before it's
[49:01] passed
i mean and and i'm just you know i'm
[49:05] curious about the survey results too i
know a big survey was released i would i
[49:09] would be very interested in maybe the
public postings of those um so everybody
[49:13] has a better idea where everybody you
know falls
[49:16] on the spectrum for their opinion on
this
[49:18] and also for berkeley common i would
imagine they would want to have that
[49:22] space open for a while it's not public
space because it is to their advantage
[49:26] you know having their um you know patio
help help them but for example like how
[49:31] would this be advertised as a public
space since it's been only used by a
[49:34] private business for the past year
um is a birthday common good lend their
[49:37] host set up for you know patrons to
enjoy like take out lunches from tlc or
[49:41] cams or cottage injury in the day um how
about when brooklyn commons open like
[49:46] what percentage of and if they keep
their tables there like what percentage
[49:50] you know would be available for open
availability it's just i feel there's
[49:52] like a lot of
really unanswered questions before we
[49:56] just like sign off and let's do it you
know
[49:58] um
these are just a few of the numerous
[50:01] questions to be addressed before a
closure extension
[50:04] um and maybe if it's not studied as a
public you know place what are the
[50:08] ramifications of one single business
benefiting from a permanent closure of a
[50:12] public street
that's just even a longer list of
[50:15] questions to be addressed but and on a
safety note
[50:18] since griffith has been closed for over
a year many vehicles that travel along
[50:22] the alleyway regularly
has increased their speed
[50:25] and we've seen them zip right by you
know and so that is a safety center for
[50:29] us for our customers across that path to
enter or return from our shop um as well
[50:33] as tenants who part directly behind our
catching fireflies building
[50:37] and also the louder sounds coming from
the outdoor eating area on a special
[50:40] themed music nights um from or from
busier weekend crowds you know are
[50:43] definitely a concern for our tenants and
future tenants if griffith was to be
[50:47] permanently closed as we did not
purchase a building next to a bustling
[50:51] you know outdoor evening
crowd so thank you for listening to my
[50:55] concerns and considering my business
um because my building is by far the
[50:59] most impacted by the street closure i do
have copies of my notes if you have any
[51:03] interest of having them i'm happy to
pass them out if not that's fine too so
[51:08] thank you april and i appreciate the
email um
[51:14] as we move through um
these these comments here i do
[51:20] i have a request
i do not want this to
[51:24] get into various namings of businesses
and back and forth between anybody that
[51:29] is here
um so
[51:31] i asked for your comments about your own
personal perspective please and not uh
[51:38] any putting on the other businesses that
may be involved in this just because
[51:42] i i just don't want to get into a spot
where people feel like they have to then
[51:44] respond to everything or respond to
something put anybody in an awkward spot
[51:48] in a public meeting when we want to
support all of our businesses here in
[51:51] the community and certainly don't want
to put pit anybody against each other so
[51:54] i just want to make that clear and i ask
that in all of your comments kind of if
[51:59] you can take that in consideration i
would be very appreciative
[52:02] cindy looks like you're coming out come
on
[52:06] cinda
owner of the lunch cafe first i want to
[52:11] thank
our city
[52:14] and our council for making things v
you've been very accommodating
[52:20] we had asked because the
my building in particular went through a
[52:26] sale during the middle of this pandemic
and so there was a there's a new owner
[52:32] and
they have
[52:35] a lot of employees
and my
[52:38] poor staff
myself my old body
[52:42] running around in the back parking lot
because we had carryouts
[52:47] we
worked through this entire pandemic
[52:51] only because of staff shortage have we
had to cut our saturday hours because i
[52:55] think my staff would kill me if i made
them off saturday but
[52:59] i do want to thank you for that
um it is
[53:06] because you've been very accommodating
and you have suggested oh well you can
[53:10] do this
you can close the street you can put
[53:14] tables out in front and absolutely we
can okay i don't have um
[53:21] uh
the accessibility
[53:24] of having
to block off the back parking lot i
[53:28] don't have i didn't hear in the reading
of this
[53:32] you know the north side of griffith
that we can you know put tables out
[53:37] there or anything else
i
[53:40] do have a wider portion of my sidewalk
and
[53:45] i can use i have two tables out there i
need
[53:49] more i guess and
we all
[53:55] not naming any we all business owners
have had to recreate
[54:00] you either recreate
or you lock your doors
[54:05] and that's how it was
and it's
[54:09] now i know that covet is not over mr
hennen i do realize that firsthand
[54:15] um i'm just
responding to that but um
[54:21] we're moving forward
we can't look back we're moving forward
[54:25] and moving forward
i love what common has done i think it
[54:30] is great i
150 percent
[54:35] support any parklet any any area in the
city that will
[54:41] bring people downtown better our
business structure
[54:45] do any of it i think it is awesome i
think it is great
[54:50] um
it definitely
[54:53] it's needed for sure
um i know that the master plan states
[54:58] robina
um i would love i have had many
[55:03] customers who have said oh could i take
on on the nice days because yes people
[55:09] want to eat outside
can i take my lunch and can i go across
[55:13] the street
i'm sorry you can't you know that's
[55:17] that's not ours
okay it's not opened it's not open to
[55:21] the public
so i guess what i'm
[55:25] saying for
our cafe is that if we can have an open
[55:29] area and make it usable to everyone if
you get a coffee down at
[55:35] the
the other place that's down the street
[55:40] and you want to go read a book i mean
whatever it's to make it not
[55:46] for one particular business
you know i love you guys dearly as
[55:52] business owners and a restaurant
and it's
[55:57] it is this is not directed to it it's
just let's make it let's
[56:04] let's be a family let's put it all
together
[56:07] and
not
[56:10] push people out
thank you thank you cindy
[56:20] hello mr mayor city council
um i own vitrine i'm not on 12 mile i do
[56:25] not own a restaurant um the first time i
saw this space my name is susan susan
[56:31] rogel sorry
um the first time i saw this space we
[56:36] were doing an interview for a ladies
night out a long time ago
[56:39] i had a business in ann arbor for years
the second i laid eyes on it i said we
[56:45] need this permanently
it's dynamic it makes us competitive
[56:49] it's a outdoor space it's we should need
more than one not just one
[56:54] i saw it as such a forward thinking
space not in answer to the kovid um the
[57:00] code has taught us a lot and this is one
of the many things that's taught us that
[57:03] this is engaging and it's compelling and
it makes the city very dynamic and
[57:08] instead of driving right through you're
stopping and enjoying it i love this
[57:13] space the second i saw it
i think we could do more you know with
[57:18] it um who's using it and all those
things are all those moving parts um i
[57:23] think it affects the city as a whole
it makes us
[57:27] extremely competitive
and i i can't say enough about keeping
[57:32] this space and adding more i'm doing
more not less
[57:36] figuring out what our dear friends and
and peers and these hard-working
[57:41] well-meaning people find wrong with it
and
[57:45] reacting
if it's a speed issue how do other towns
[57:48] that have done this well
um
[57:52] you know react to slowing people down
um if it's something about you know the
[57:58] time it is and the noise i will tell you
in ann arbor um
[58:02] that noise just makes it hip and
happening and people really love that
[58:06] you know what i mean it's
it gets people out um
[58:10] but so reacting to rather than fight or
flight you know finding out what's wrong
[58:14] with it and and fixing it and not only
having just one but more than one
[58:19] so i just heard it was on the ballot and
i thought i'd come and share thank you
[58:22] thank you all
[58:26] uh mr superintendent bennett i i do not
want to make you feel like you can't
[58:29] come back up again if you wanted to
comment again yes this time if you would
[58:33] like to we're on it's the right time
again i will double down on uh what our
[58:39] friend from vitrine said um
a lot of families in the neighborhood
[58:44] directly behind
get a kick out of coming down there
[58:47] so i'm not just representing my personal
opinion i said i would come on behalf of
[58:50] a lot of the neighbors in the community
obviously there's differing opinions on
[58:55] different things but
i'm coming in support of
[58:59] this specific extension while we do our
due diligence to find do our research do
[59:04] what we're supposed to um but again we
hope to extend these types of things be
[59:09] progressive not be afraid to
be left behind let's make berkeley
[59:14] unique and cool in a place where people
want to move into and continue to deepen
[59:19] our city thank you thanks
[59:26] [Music]
hi
[59:29] i'm katie cutcher owner one of the three
owners of berkeley common and um
[59:34] i'm here to speak about
the extension tonight as well as i i
[59:40] didn't really realize the other piece of
this was on the agenda today i thought
[59:43] we were just talking about the extension
not making this a permanent fixture
[59:47] right now but i will touch on both
subjects i first and foremost want to
[59:51] thank council for being progressive
saying yes when you could have said no
[59:55] it kept us in business
this has been a challenging year for all
[1:00:00] my retailers and
restaurants and personally mentally
[1:00:05] everybody here sitting here together
we are an inclusive business always have
[1:00:10] been always well
we invested here for many reasons
[1:00:14] because we are a community business
never did i want anybody not to have
[1:00:17] lunch in our space
actually if anybody asks us i say hop
[1:00:21] the fence
and i will continue to do so
[1:00:25] that going forward
outdoor dining is imperative for
[1:00:30] restaurants right now
we are not moving uh the covet button
[1:00:35] for it's going to a different place a
different phase we are masked up as of
[1:00:39] tomorrow again
we are not using our
[1:00:43] indoor private dining uh event room
because of coven it is just too
[1:00:48] dangerous
we are operating an outdoor dining room
[1:00:52] right now and i don't think it's a bad
thing and i'm not ashamed of it and i
[1:00:56] think it's only brought business to the
city
[1:00:59] every time somebody comes in and they
can't get in whether it's restrictions
[1:01:02] or anything like that we tell them to go
shopping and discover berkeley
[1:01:06] and the feedback has i have never gone
to this store before and we're coming
[1:01:10] back so i hope that continues
the other big part of this is the
[1:01:16] relationships and partnerships we're
developing with the other businesses in
[1:01:19] town we're sharing ideas we're inviting
progress together and we're promoting a
[1:01:24] thriving downtown something that would
be a shame to squash
[1:01:29] it is code is open pandora's box the
community support behind this project
[1:01:33] has been overwhelming positive can it be
tweaked absolutely do we want to tweak
[1:01:38] it with you one hundred percent
uh do we want this community space one
[1:01:43] hundred percent it has never been our
idea just to benefit financially from
[1:01:47] this space to be our own we serve on
boards my sister and i
[1:01:51] we live breathe eat
berkeley and that's why we're here
[1:01:56] we want to see other things like this
exist is this number one initiative
[1:02:00] possibly could there be others i hope so
we'll work very hard for that
[1:02:06] why we realize this is not everybody's
shared vision we're asking for extension
[1:02:10] on these areas tonight and we invite an
open discussion for anything more
[1:02:14] permanently in the future this is just
one step of many
[1:02:18] so this doesn't have to be definite or
permanent or has to be so negative we
[1:02:22] want to continue to be a good business
in this area we want to be good
[1:02:26] neighbors to all of our businesses
um
[1:02:30] and time of is of the essence so we ask
you to approve this tonight for just the
[1:02:34] extension the bigger discussion can
exist at a later date thank you
[1:02:38] thank you
[1:02:47] hello good evening
i am chris gross
[1:02:50] one of the three partners at berkeley
common
[1:02:53] my sister spoke to most of the things i
wanted to say
[1:02:57] i guess i just wanted to add that
first again i'll echo our appreciation
[1:03:03] um our business was saved by having this
outdoor space
[1:03:06] um
and second
[1:03:09] it's been our intention and it will
continue to be to to work as a team in
[1:03:13] berkeley um
and lit in the way we live and the way
[1:03:18] we run our business i think are the same
we we want to project positivity and
[1:03:22] inclusion um we want to invite people in
this
[1:03:26] having this outdoor space and this
visibility has brought people
[1:03:30] from outside berkeley
i have all of the data because i have a
[1:03:34] system now to track that and there are
people coming from 45 minutes and away
[1:03:40] to
dying outdoors
[1:03:43] because we had that available last
winter when not many people did
[1:03:47] and i i don't
know if it'll be true but it i it very
[1:03:50] well might be true that this winter is
the same thing people will still want to
[1:03:54] eat outside and we are
aiming to provide that um
[1:03:59] and i i i've heard um
some of the concerns tonight and i'm i'm
[1:04:05] sorry i haven't heard those before
but i think if we prove that's the whole
[1:04:10] reason to approve this extension is to
be able to hear those concerns and
[1:04:14] address them we want to be good partners
we want to be good neighbors
[1:04:19] and that's why we
volunteer here work here live here
[1:04:25] we're all in um and
we are happy to partner up in any way
[1:04:31] and move forward as a city and bring
people here
[1:04:35] thanks
thank you chris
[1:04:44] good evening mike mcginnis interim
executive director for berkeley's
[1:04:47] downtown development authority and
to the esteemed honorable local elected
[1:04:54] officials and public servants thank you
for your leadership i wanted to you know
[1:04:58] these do the your honor thing so i just
want to lay it on thick
[1:05:02] on behalf of
the entire mile stretch of 12 mile and
[1:05:07] the entire mile stretch of coolidge that
falls within
[1:05:10] the downtown district authority
footprint i want to encourage for the
[1:05:15] sake of allowing downtown berkeley to
have that competitive advantage
[1:05:20] regionally speaking and to not lose that
i would hate for the multiple
[1:05:25] restaurants to have that competitive
disadvantage
[1:05:28] if it were to expire or lapse in just a
matter of weeks so
[1:05:32] i think that this has been a very
instructive and helpful deliberation
[1:05:36] this evening and that can continue
beyond this evening and beyond this
[1:05:39] chamber where we can make it as maximum
benefit for all entities not solely
[1:05:45] restaurants and i look forward to the
dda being at that table and being a part
[1:05:50] of those conversations to make any
decision
[1:05:53] with temporary or long term to make it
the best bang for the buck and the best
[1:05:59] residual impact for our downtown and
residents
[1:06:02] i think the empirical and anecdotal
evidence speaks to this temporary
[1:06:07] measure benefiting both the community
overall but specifically our downtown
[1:06:12] corridors with that extension and so i
just want to offer that perspective from
[1:06:16] what's been shared through the dda to
you this evening thank you very much
[1:06:21] thank you mike
[1:06:29] good evening everybody
uh dan mccourt at 30 63 12 mile just a
[1:06:34] couple buildings down from
the griffith that we're discussing but
[1:06:39] derek got out of here tonight before i
got a chance to give him some major
[1:06:42] props on
uh dpw's handling of
[1:06:46] the incredibly disgusting dumpster
situation that we've got going on in the
[1:06:50] back of that parking lot um
tried for years and years and years and
[1:06:53] the only reason i bring it up tonight is
because many of us here tonight are part
[1:06:57] of that guilty party and i just want to
now that we've got everybody in the same
[1:07:00] room
that we all get on the same page it's
[1:07:03] literally a rat not even a rat trap it's
a rat haven
[1:07:06] uh it got to the point where there was
in several inches of rotting garbage
[1:07:11] along
below the dumpsters themselves there's
[1:07:13] three dumpsters in there we talked about
maybe removing the brown one hopefully
[1:07:17] leaving more room
we can't keep people from dumping
[1:07:20] you know uh old
restaurant supplies and things like that
[1:07:24] in the middle of the night but we can
put our own garbage in our own bags put
[1:07:28] those bags into the dumpster the way
that it's supposed to happen
[1:07:31] derek um has been instrumental
in
[1:07:36] his feedback and then getting that place
cleaned out just uh this last week
[1:07:40] but i challenge everybody that has a
business here that uses that dumpster to
[1:07:44] take your own garbage out on once in a
while pick up the stuff with your
[1:07:47] address on it and put it in the dumpster
so
[1:07:50] that said
um in talking about the outdoor dining
[1:07:54] in the space that we're looking at i've
eaten everywhere as you can tell this
[1:07:58] doesn't happen by mistake um wonderful
restaurants love berkeley live just a
[1:08:02] mile away
and
[1:08:05] i'm all for eating outside i like eating
i like eating outside
[1:08:08] i wasn't super aware of
the understanding as to what
[1:08:13] this meant i i was thinking that this
would be an open space where someone
[1:08:17] could get something from a restaurant
a cocktail and some dinner and walk over
[1:08:22] to the space and enjoy that space that
to me seems like a city space that would
[1:08:26] be something that during the coke this
was a great idea at the time it was the
[1:08:29] right idea at the time
my concern is two things first of all
[1:08:33] safety
right now
[1:08:36] are the outdoor spaces being observed
with inspections like our buildings
[1:08:42] do they get looked at
there right now there are extension
[1:08:45] cores running through puddles there are
various things that would not pass if
[1:08:50] the inspectors came into my building
so safety first right we want to make
[1:08:55] sure that everybody is safe in doing
this and enjoying themselves
[1:08:58] while dining outdoors
and the second is inclusion you know to
[1:09:02] me if it's a city space it's a city
street if you guys are going to make
[1:09:06] this decision and i don't envy your
decision tonight
[1:09:10] the street i can see maybe a sidewalk
being able to encompass that as your own
[1:09:15] city street not so much if it's going to
be a city street like that it should be
[1:09:19] open we shouldn't have to hop offense
to enjoy something
[1:09:23] on a city street that we all pay taxes
for so we pay taxes based on the square
[1:09:27] footage of our building
that's where we should own our business
[1:09:30] if we want to have the ability to do
this we did this during covid it was
[1:09:34] great but
i urge you to reconsider and and not
[1:09:38] extend the outdoor dining
for the end of griffith anyway if you're
[1:09:42] looking for an
option moving forward my building will
[1:09:45] be available
you can raise that
[1:09:49] create a nice green space and
not have to worry about a street so
[1:09:53] that's all thank you thank you
we're not raising your building though
[1:09:58] sorry
[1:10:02] any additional comments from folks that
are here before i go to our folks that
[1:10:05] are with us virtually
can i have some clarification
[1:10:11] what aaron presented okay what you're
voting on is
[1:10:17] the continued closure
of griffith avenue
[1:10:22] south of 12 mile
for
[1:10:27] only no no no no we're voting on the
temporary restrictions that are in
[1:10:32] multiple places right now that anybody
has access to that happens to be one of
[1:10:36] those locations griffith that is under
this ordinance right or this resolution
[1:10:40] right now that's why it's come up it's
it's not really what the conversation is
[1:10:44] about it's a part of it the
conversation's about extending the
[1:10:47] restrictions extending for all
businesses across berkeley under the
[1:10:51] ordinance correct okay earn the
resolution yes
[1:10:56] okay
so we'll look we will
[1:10:59] we will council has a lot of questions
and i think it's going to clarify a lot
[1:11:02] of what you you are asking right now
again i want to give everybody an
[1:11:06] opportunity to comment first based on
the feedback that we've heard um and
[1:11:10] then we will obviously deliberate and we
have certainly questions of our own uh
[1:11:14] that i think are going to go a long way
to helping to maybe clarify some of the
[1:11:18] questions that have come up recently is
that fair if not you can come back up
[1:11:21] don't worry i'm not going to not going
to say you can't come up anymore
[1:11:30] i do know because i am a resident of the
city
[1:11:33] um
the traffic on beverly
[1:11:39] people know
that griffith is closed
[1:11:42] and it is a four-way stop
um
[1:11:47] no it's not
it's not
[1:11:51] people blow
that stop sign
[1:11:56] multiple times a day night
doesn't matter so it's that's a concern
[1:12:01] for me there's been accidents there i
know that i appreciate that feedback's
[1:12:06] in you that's not something that
necessarily we hear about all the time
[1:12:08] but i can promise you that we do know a
department um right there across the
[1:12:12] street that would love to
monitor that area if it does in fact
[1:12:17] what's happening what you mentioned okay
miss mathis let's go to the folks that
[1:12:21] are with us virtually here so we can
allow them to to get their comments on
[1:12:28] i know we had one already he's certainly
welcome to come back again
[1:12:34] tim you're welcome to speak yep
yeah i think i you know although i said
[1:12:38] it at the wrong time because i thought i
was uh late so um i'm not gonna repeat
[1:12:43] myself i think we've been
yapping
[1:12:46] long enough um
just um
[1:12:50] that's it thank you for the opportunity
certainly
[1:12:55] miss mathis who else who's next
there's no one else at this time
[1:13:01] all right
so mr baumgarten and director salute i'm
[1:13:05] going to throw it back over to you just
for a minute um we're going to again
[1:13:08] clarify exactly what we're doing today
what what this ordinance r27 and our 28
[1:13:14] i believe i think it's our 28 right
right after yes okay what those
[1:13:18] ordinances do and why it seems that
we're having two conversations at once
[1:13:22] here
okay yes i'd be happy to address so the
[1:13:26] resolution before you this evening is a
continuation of the resolution that has
[1:13:30] been effect in effect since june of last
year
[1:13:33] with the inclusion of the temporary
enclosures which we brought about i want
[1:13:37] to say october november of 2020 for the
winter months so really
[1:13:42] the context of the feasibility study was
just to give context of why we're going
[1:13:46] this late
but it is an extension of the resolution
[1:13:49] that would allow outdoor dining in
private parking areas where special land
[1:13:53] use approval has not been granted yet in
municipal parking areas
[1:13:58] in on the residential side streets where
um and it's the four of them are listed
[1:14:03] in um in the ordinance but it's uh south
griffith north
[1:14:07] sorry
apologize north robin at 12 mile north
[1:14:10] phillips at 12 mile south griffith at 12
mile south thomas at 12 mile and
[1:14:15] eastworthia at coolidge now we put these
in the resolution after careful
[1:14:19] consideration with uh with the city
manager as well as with the former dda
[1:14:23] director and those were the areas that
we thought might be
[1:14:27] more utilized because there's a
congregation of either restaurants or a
[1:14:32] large swath of retail businesses that
could use it for their outdoor sales or
[1:14:36] service areas so it wasn't just intended
for this one this one location
[1:14:40] however this one location is the only
one that has been utilized we haven't
[1:14:44] received any any
real interest from from any of the other
[1:14:48] ones now
if someone were interested and wanted to
[1:14:50] pursue that by all means we're more than
happy to look at this or if there's
[1:14:54] another intersection that that might
work we can talk about that as well
[1:14:57] there has been some interest at
eastworthia coolidge but it just never
[1:15:01] kind of came to fruition so
the the resolution before you is just
[1:15:06] that extension to allow that which has
been happening for the past year to
[1:15:09] continue
and like i said we we put the
[1:15:13] as we've gone along we've put an end
date on them um sometimes it was for six
[1:15:17] months sometimes it was for three months
this one is the longest one only in the
[1:15:21] sense that um hopefully by the end of
2022
[1:15:24] most of or all restrictions will be
over and done with and we'll be into a
[1:15:28] new phase but also to really look at
this space
[1:15:32] and and see if that's something that we
would want to do east cool or the
[1:15:36] coolidge space griffith
but the resolution before you is just to
[1:15:40] extend that which is already in place
right we are not voting on
[1:15:45] potentially griffith permanently closing
that is not what we are talking about
[1:15:48] today we are we do want to study which
is what director schlutel mentioned give
[1:15:52] us some time to actually study if that
would make sense as a public plaza
[1:15:57] but this is not a vote on up or down on
griffith that is not what we're trying
[1:16:01] to accomplish today we're trying to
we're discussing
[1:16:04] potentially using those restrictions
that director mentioned that apply to
[1:16:08] various places in the community a number
of different businesses are taking
[1:16:12] advantage of some of the
uh relaxed
[1:16:15] guidelines right now where normally a
special land use would have been
[1:16:19] the typical process to try to make it
easier for folks to continue operating
[1:16:23] especially
not knowing when this covet is going to
[1:16:28] allow us to to resume eating inside
comfortably in
[1:16:31] close quarters with some other folks
that is the primary concern i did not
[1:16:34] want this to get into a
specifically griffith conversation
[1:16:38] although i also am
not stifling anybody's comments or
[1:16:43] communication because i think it is
important especially as we do talk about
[1:16:46] this in the future and what is a public
plaza there what does that public plaza
[1:16:50] look like
how would folks have access to it i
[1:16:53] guess i kind of in speaking with the
city manager earlier we kind of envision
[1:16:56] it
maybe something similar to what we have
[1:16:58] for park right now if somebody wants to
run out of park for something they can
[1:17:01] sign up we have a you know sign up at
some point and there are probably some
[1:17:06] fees associated with renting and for a
small time period that space but it
[1:17:11] would also just be open city space so if
somebody does grab some food somewhere
[1:17:14] and wants to go and eat they could
certainly do that
[1:17:17] at any time but again that's a further
down the road kind of conversation
[1:17:23] that fair clear ish maybe
council i'm going to open it up to us
[1:17:28] because i know there are a lot of
questions as well that we have
[1:17:31] and i want to give everybody the
opportunity to
[1:17:34] discuss those right now
council member price
[1:17:39] yes director chaluto i wanted to thank
you and your team for all the
[1:17:43] information around
this proposed extension
[1:17:47] i wanted you to speak too if you could a
little bit about the
[1:17:51] survey that you put out to area
residents and how they felt like they've
[1:17:55] been impacted
by this
[1:17:59] closure so far
yes that's a great question thank you so
[1:18:03] um
let me go back in time just a little bit
[1:18:06] so when we were going to do the first
the first closure and the first
[1:18:10] temporary relaxation of
our ordinances for
[1:18:14] outdoor dining we did put out one survey
and it was for those business property
[1:18:19] owners that were on griffith one block
south of that intersection so it just
[1:18:23] went down to beverly and then east and
west of griffith so it was a very small
[1:18:28] survey pool now overwhelming people
liked it blah blah
[1:18:31] this time given that we are
looking at the possible well first of
[1:18:35] all i wanted to ask how things have been
impacting them in the past year
[1:18:39] would they like this to continue would
they like it to be a public plaza we
[1:18:42] opened it a little bit more broadly and
so that area went out much broader so we
[1:18:47] went one block north of
of 12 mile
[1:18:52] two blocks south of no i'm sorry two
blocks north of 12 mile two blocks south
[1:18:56] of of 12 mile and then gardner to robina
so we had a much much larger swath of of
[1:19:02] residents who who could participate
mailed it out to 448 business owners
[1:19:08] property owners residents occupants etc
and we received 365 responses in that
[1:19:14] survey so
overwhelmingly we had people say that
[1:19:18] they've reacted felt very positively
about the closure over the past year
[1:19:23] 49.86 percent 182 responses felt that
the the griffith closure has impacted
[1:19:30] them very positively
there were about 10 questions here we
[1:19:34] were trying to keep it as broad as
possible again this was just the first
[1:19:37] of many community engagement efforts and
if this had skewed wildly the other way
[1:19:42] we would be having a different
conversation right now but
[1:19:45] we had a lot of people say that they
would be interested in um discussing how
[1:19:51] this could be extended either seasonally
or permanently um most people that
[1:19:56] responded did not want to see it
returned to the former configuration of
[1:19:59] the two-way
stop uh immediately they the numbers
[1:20:04] kind of speak from sorry yes oh i just
could you clarify you said um
[1:20:09] 49 said it impacted them very positively
what were the other options like
[1:20:15] very negatively negatively neutral
hadn't really noticed positively or very
[1:20:19] positively okay so it was on a scale of
one yeah okay so it wasn't just very
[1:20:23] positively or negatively just right we
tried we tried to yeah try to give them
[1:20:26] a little bit more and then you said 49
very positively and then how many about
[1:20:31] positively neutral yeah positively was
11.51 percent so about 42 people neutral
[1:20:38] uh 25.48 93 people negatively 4.93
18 persons
[1:20:45] very negatively 8.22 which is about 30
persons thank you so much for clarifying
[1:20:50] that okay
um
[1:20:52] so in addition to some of these
questions of you know would you like to
[1:20:56] see it as a temporary seasonal um and or
permanent
[1:21:01] like i said
things were very positive we even
[1:21:04] included a question of how many times
you visited berkeley common in the last
[1:21:07] year just to kind of get a gauges of the
people who did respond were they
[1:21:11] frequent visitors here or not just to
give a little bit more context and then
[1:21:15] we did open it up for any additional
thoughts comments concerns questions or
[1:21:19] anything and the number of
responses we've received was
[1:21:25] well over 240 not to mention we also
noted that if you wanted to include your
[1:21:29] email address on this to receive updates
excuse me please do so and we'll make
[1:21:35] sure to keep you updated on how things
progress in the future and this will be
[1:21:38] a really good
email blast list for when we start doing
[1:21:41] the community engagement uh component of
this if if we continue moving forward so
[1:21:46] um this has been a really good gauge as
to how people have been feeling over the
[1:21:50] past year and also where they want to go
in the future
[1:21:53] that's fantastic thank you for being
proactive with communicating with the
[1:21:56] residents um before we have to make this
decision
[1:22:01] additional comments
still looking this way so i'll stay over
[1:22:04] here in case there's already if not i'll
turn the other way okay all right i
[1:22:08] guess i'll come over to this side
councilmember henning
[1:22:12] yeah and
just to
[1:22:14] do some summation there that was 86
percent of people thought were neutral
[1:22:19] or some form of positive with the change
with a
[1:22:23] pretty large
sample size so i mean
[1:22:27] that number speaks a lot to me
so
[1:22:31] so i do support the extension i have two
modifications that i want to see um
[1:22:37] and the first is i do think we need to
be charging rent at this point this is
[1:22:43] any place that we have um
not just griffith any place we have
[1:22:48] uh private use of public property uh
we're past the acute phase of covid um
[1:22:54] and there's uh but there are still
issues and so i do think um
[1:23:01] that it does
let's say even the playing field uh if
[1:23:04] we start to charge rent
and the second place second item is
[1:23:10] where we do close publicly close close
public roads i do think we should carve
[1:23:16] out a part
that is clearly public access that
[1:23:22] anyone can use it's it's clearly marked
as such uh so we can start to see
[1:23:27] um
the public plaza aspect of it so we're
[1:23:31] we're experimenting
you know we're getting data on the
[1:23:35] experimentation on that part as well you
know while we have these other things
[1:23:40] so those are the two things that i'd
like to see
[1:23:43] added to this
[1:23:51] okay
[1:23:54] anything we're here no okay any other
comments or as we make our way back here
[1:23:59] mr m may i address
the second point um so yeah the part of
[1:24:03] the community engagement strategy and
the reason for this extension is to
[1:24:07] really look at the programming of that
space so if we were to to look at that
[1:24:11] area as a public plaza how can we ensure
that this is done
[1:24:16] correctly that brings everybody here
that they they now know that this has
[1:24:20] transitioned from that which it was to
what it will be in the future and making
[1:24:24] sure that that is done
where there's not any any ambiguity in
[1:24:28] it whatsoever so while it'd still be a
place where people could you know go get
[1:24:32] a sandwich and come over here making
sure that they understand that there's a
[1:24:36] clear demarcation from
from a private use to a public use and
[1:24:41] that'll all be part of the the
feasibility study the design of it the
[1:24:44] programming of it these were things that
we noted that weren't done at the robina
[1:24:48] plaza
and that's why maybe reasons why it
[1:24:51] didn't didn't flourish is we want to
make sure that we we correct those
[1:24:55] mistakes if we do this going forward
okay
[1:25:01] councilman baker oh thank your honor
thank you
[1:25:03] for
this information for bringing this back
[1:25:06] to us and i want to thank everybody for
their comments and thoughts uh tonight i
[1:25:09] know this
specifically for before us now is just
[1:25:12] the extension but it's it's easy to get
into the dialogue about the broader what
[1:25:17] ifs and could be
especially into your point about the
[1:25:19] robina issue
some of the comments we've received here
[1:25:22] in the short term looking at the
barricades and everything it feels like
[1:25:26] a disaster zone if you're going by there
and there's all sorts of great safety
[1:25:30] reasons why we have those barriers and
all the kind of protective things
[1:25:34] because folks you know if they haven't
been in town in a while they might just
[1:25:38] hit turn signal and try to pop in there
so not to not to get into the the
[1:25:43] closure conversation but just to help
paint the picture
[1:25:47] if if any of these
properties or other spots were
[1:25:51] eventually deemed to be to be closed
it would actually be
[1:25:55] closed at the street you'd have like on
street parking so it would just be an
[1:25:59] extension of whether it's coolage or 12
mile
[1:26:02] and it would be there would be no way to
turn in
[1:26:05] because it would actually be sealed off
and it would actually just continue the
[1:26:08] street there'd be additional parking
we'd gain parking in those kind of
[1:26:11] scenarios
and and then to your point there'd be
[1:26:14] proper signage we'd we'd amend the
wayfinding that's been put in place uh
[1:26:18] to indicate that this is a public
facility and then to the comment that
[1:26:22] was made earlier it would just be rented
out as needed for specific events just
[1:26:26] like you could rent out jc park or
anything like that now
[1:26:29] now back to the the the temporary
extension
[1:26:33] a lot of it does
hinge first on the the kovid right
[1:26:37] because cove is right in the middle of
this
[1:26:39] title even of of what we're doing here
so certainly since the delta thing is
[1:26:44] going crazy right now uh i think we need
to to keep that bigger picture in mind
[1:26:48] and i'm glad that we were reminded again
that this is more than just one
[1:26:52] one intersection uh and secondly um the
notion of so i'm going to come back to
[1:26:56] you with the timing question again uh
when do we imagine um there's additional
[1:27:00] conversations and studies continuing and
i uh like my colleague i applaud the
[1:27:06] proactive work that's already been done
with the with the studies that have been
[1:27:10] put in place can you describe
not even to pin you down to specific
[1:27:13] dates or anything but the general
sequence or the kinds of conversations
[1:27:17] that we'll have
to get a better feel for how this space
[1:27:20] could be used to benefit the entire
community
[1:27:23] yeah so i've i've started unofficially
putting out some feelers with a couple
[1:27:27] planning firms that that i know
just to get an idea of what a
[1:27:30] feasibility study would cost for for
those two spaces that i mentioned um
[1:27:35] have started to brainstorm a little bit
with our communications uh guru mr
[1:27:40] mathis on ways that we can
bring people together and talk about it
[1:27:44] as you know we had a really robust
community engagement strategy planned
[1:27:48] for our master plan which didn't come to
fruition so now maybe we can use some of
[1:27:51] those ideas
to do this but it would involve
[1:27:55] meetings with the residents it would
involve meetings with the business
[1:27:58] owners because there concerns and their
viewpoints are very very different so we
[1:28:02] need to make sure that we've we've
looked at everything
[1:28:06] secularly but then you know
comprehensively together
[1:28:09] so those are the kinds of things we want
to do the survey was a good a good start
[1:28:13] and i imagine we'll probably do another
one of those because it gives people the
[1:28:17] opportunity to do it from the comfort of
their own home they don't have to leave
[1:28:20] they don't have to go out and they can
also maybe be a little more honest about
[1:28:24] what they're feeling rather than a
face-to-face conversation but certainly
[1:28:27] this is not the only like i said it's
not the only way we're going to be doing
[1:28:31] this there's going to be a lot more
face-to-face conversations
[1:28:33] once we get into a little bit more of
the
[1:28:36] what would you like to see component
design component and if we have a
[1:28:39] conceptual then and i'm just
brainstorming here but um you know then
[1:28:43] there's opportunities for bringing
people into that space and showing them
[1:28:46] renderings and say which one do you like
better do you like this better what
[1:28:49] about this um and really making it so
that the community is is more or less
[1:28:54] designing this they're helping us design
and telling us what they want to see so
[1:28:58] that's that's really kind of where i
my thought process is coming from
[1:29:03] great thank you that makes a lot of
sense and uh and i'll just wrap up my
[1:29:06] bit here again to kind of reinforce some
of the comments that we heard from folks
[1:29:09] uh to ensure that the here and now is is
safe certainly we don't want to you know
[1:29:14] trip hazards
uh and i too you guys know i'm a big fan
[1:29:17] of speed limits right there's a reason
we have those things and they are
[1:29:20] important and stop signs even more so uh
so whatever um so this is my request
[1:29:26] whatever we can do to ask our friends
across the street uh to help keep an eye
[1:29:29] on that and find some ways to instrument
that just to um to let folks know that
[1:29:33] it's not a thoroughfare right it's meant
to stop signs of there for all the right
[1:29:37] reasons and we want to make sure people
stay safe and and obey those so
[1:29:41] so thanks again for folks for bringing
those up to our attention so we can
[1:29:44] address those
councilmember blanchard thank you your
[1:29:47] honor i'd just like to say that i think
that what berkeley commons has done it's
[1:29:50] been very good for the city brought us a
lot of business both to the restaurant
[1:29:54] and for the retail i think it's a good
thing i think we need to need to move
[1:29:58] forward i think our feasibility study
would be a good thing there is one other
[1:30:02] thing that we have thrown out feelers
about but not had any response and that
[1:30:06] are social districts
uh royal oak is institute social
[1:30:10] districts and that's
something that we could think about but
[1:30:13] we need businesses to come to us with
some ideas to help out so if some of the
[1:30:18] businesses think
that they have a good case or a good
[1:30:21] idea
on what we could do to implement a
[1:30:24] social district in addition to what
we're doing now
[1:30:27] that could be an improvement so
i think the feasibility study is good we
[1:30:32] need to get more public access space
but
[1:30:36] what berkeley commons is doing right now
i think is helping us out a lot and
[1:30:39] getting people into the city and getting
them
[1:30:41] through there safely so thank you for
what you've done and let's think about
[1:30:45] the other part of it as a social
district maybe later on if we can find a
[1:30:48] way to do that successfully in our city
thank you
[1:30:52] thank you um aaron i could read this or
you can read it either way i just again
[1:30:57] try to keep this on
the the resolution that we're talking
[1:31:00] about i know there's there's a larger
thing that continues to come up uh
[1:31:04] potentially for the future in our
community but again there are one two
[1:31:07] three four five six seven eight nine
plus the five that you mentioned there
[1:31:11] are a number of different things that
this
[1:31:13] resolution continues to provide
um you know if allowing the use of
[1:31:19] private parking spaces you know up to
fifty percent of their current lawful
[1:31:22] usable space or by thirty percent of the
existing parking area temporarily adding
[1:31:26] or expanding outdoor dining or seating
sales and service areas not encroaching
[1:31:30] or obstructing fire lanes you know
obviously being respectful of the noise
[1:31:34] and then if there's a municipal lot you
know up to 25 percent of the municipal
[1:31:37] parking area may be used available there
are a number of other businesses that
[1:31:41] are taking advantage of these things and
have been taking advantage of them
[1:31:44] the conversation today has seemed to
center around just one particular
[1:31:49] instance but there are far more that we
are talking about
[1:31:53] and in speaking with colleagues in other
communities especially after the past
[1:31:57] year
outdoor dining outdoor dining access
[1:32:02] i don't see that going away
even if
[1:32:06] hopefully soon covet is something that
is behind us i don't see a need or a
[1:32:10] desire for outdoor dining to just vanish
that's not happening actually we're
[1:32:14] seeing a number of communities close to
us going
[1:32:18] in the opposite direction which is
something that i think we need to
[1:32:20] certainly be available and open to
as well
[1:32:24] because that's what people want and
that's what businesses are going to need
[1:32:27] to be able to offer to continue to be
competitive is to have some of those
[1:32:30] spaces to me
that is the most important part of
[1:32:34] continuing
the temporary ease of these restrictions
[1:32:38] today that is what is most important for
me
[1:32:41] the griffith
opportunity
[1:32:44] i think as a public space in a public
plaza and maybe its own little social
[1:32:48] district where
you know anybody who's out and about can
[1:32:51] enjoy that spot certainly
private businesses can also enjoy that
[1:32:55] spot or rent it out by perming or
however we're going to figure that out
[1:32:59] if we decide to go that way in the
future permanently
[1:33:01] those are going to be ongoing
conversations
[1:33:05] but under this
that intersection is one of the five
[1:33:09] where anybody else again could have
applied and hadn't yet to utilize one of
[1:33:13] those spaces that would be able to
continue now my question for you miss
[1:33:16] luto is if we do approve this and it's
continued up through december of 2022
[1:33:22] when does it become
our public plaza for us to program and
[1:33:27] try out and really study and feasibility
and all of those things versus where
[1:33:32] it's kind of seen right now as it's only
for one particular space
[1:33:39] well a lot of that comes down to the
once the feasibility study is done and
[1:33:42] we've engaged the public and and if
there's buy-in we'll bring those results
[1:33:47] and we'll bring all that feedback back
to you and how we want to do this
[1:33:51] it wouldn't be a start and stop on a
saturday and then this is now a public
[1:33:54] plaza there would be a transitional
component
[1:33:58] i'm assuming i haven't quite gotten that
far as to how to roll that out but there
[1:34:01] would be a point of
the use can continue as a private
[1:34:05] outdoor dining space until this day and
then the programming in the plaza would
[1:34:09] be ready to go um
you know shortly thereafter
[1:34:13] but leading them up so that way the the
business can
[1:34:18] acclimate can get their their last
um the last hurrah i guess you want to
[1:34:23] call it um so that way they can um
make their arrangements on all of the
[1:34:28] the investments they've done on their on
their side all right so then i have a
[1:34:31] legal question for the attorney if that
is the case
[1:34:34] and the resolution as written
i mean it just says you can apply at
[1:34:40] this space and now it basically says
this through december of 2022 do we have
[1:34:44] to add
any language
[1:34:48] in here
to
[1:34:50] you know be again as transparent as
possible with everybody involved and not
[1:34:53] to just call one day and say hey you
were on let's use somebody else you were
[1:34:57] at east north ian coolidge well guess
what we're taking this over now and they
[1:35:02] say no you approve this to december of
2022 you don't have any access to it
[1:35:07] would we have to change the language or
put anything in here to give us that
[1:35:10] ability other than we take the
resolution out i think you already have
[1:35:14] i mean they're right right uh uh
further down in that resolution it says
[1:35:20] it is further resolved that the city
council
[1:35:23] reserves the authority to modify shorten
or lengthen the duration terms and
[1:35:29] conditions of this resolution
as the council deems reasonable and
[1:35:34] appropriate under the circumstances that
is something we've carried over from the
[1:35:38] prior
resolutions recognizing that
[1:35:43] facts and circumstances do change
and the council is making this as a
[1:35:50] temporary
accommodation but as we become
[1:35:54] more informed as i said circumstances
change
[1:35:57] council wants that to have that ability
to either
[1:36:01] backtrack or move in a different
direction so
[1:36:04] um
it's a long answer to your simple
[1:36:07] question i
i i just feel like we seem to have found
[1:36:11] ourselves in a lot of uh a lot of places
where there's some gray area let's see
[1:36:15] and we end up having people in robes
having to tell us i can't say that
[1:36:19] people
i can't say people won't either applaud
[1:36:22] or or complain
if council goes in a different direction
[1:36:26] but you are reserving the authority to
do that and that is a very general
[1:36:29] question it's certainly not it was it
was directed at the people at east or
[1:36:32] thea and coolidge first of all uh just
to make sure that if something changed
[1:36:36] because
my goal is to make that a public plaza
[1:36:39] yes as soon as expediently as soon as
possible and feasibly possible given
[1:36:44] what we want to have
um just because i think it would be such
[1:36:49] a good benefit for the entire community
and then look at potential other places
[1:36:52] back to dorothea again
that's my goal yes i am in favor of
[1:36:57] expending these restrictions or easing
of these restrictions right now for
[1:37:00] everybody else especially with what's
going on and delta coming back and
[1:37:04] hitting more waves but also keeping our
eye on what the future could look like
[1:37:09] and at least having a timeline i'm not
big on
[1:37:12] approving things
[1:37:16] there with a lot of ambiguity
because
[1:37:19] if i if we don't know when the next
steps are happening i feel like that's
[1:37:22] what
can create a lot of consternation and
[1:37:25] anger and questions in our community and
i don't want that to happen here what's
[1:37:29] that make sense councilman baker oh
thank you honor just to kind of build on
[1:37:32] that and kind of get right back to just
kind of the the obvious point that i
[1:37:36] think we drive by often and you've
pointed out here uh if someone at one of
[1:37:40] these other locations or somewhere else
in the city was interested in
[1:37:44] uh taking advantage of of this and
leveraging it to to
[1:37:48] bolster their business especially as we
get into this thing
[1:37:52] at risk of just being completely obvious
about it what would how would they go
[1:37:55] about contacting you uh and what would
you um ask of them to bring
[1:38:00] in terms of uh like if they did want to
do the you know something on coolidge or
[1:38:04] something like that
how would they get a hold of you and and
[1:38:07] what kind of materials might you suggest
that they bring again just to kind of
[1:38:11] ensure that we're broadening the
conversation here tonight
[1:38:13] yeah certainly so uh you can call me
here at city hall 248 658 3329 um you
[1:38:19] can email me but we have an application
a permit application available online
[1:38:24] it's for the temporary outdoor dining
closures and it very specifically says
[1:38:28] where you're looking to do your outdoor
dining sales service areas whether it's
[1:38:32] on a sidewalk cafe whether it's in a
municipal private lot or if it's on one
[1:38:36] of those intersections
you know we haven't had any one except
[1:38:39] for
this one here but
[1:38:42] you know we would need a site plan
showing exactly where everything is
[1:38:44] going to be what type of barricades
you're going to do we have to work with
[1:38:48] uh the road commission of oakland county
if it's on 12 mile because that's a
[1:38:51] county road
work with them and get a traffic control
[1:38:55] order from the department of public
safety so there are a number of things
[1:38:58] that need to go into it but if certainly
if anyone is interested take a look at
[1:39:02] our our website for the application and
feel free to reach out to me
[1:39:05] at city hall and my email address and we
can walk through all the steps
[1:39:09] thank you and just to kind of put folks
minds at ease when you you mentioned a
[1:39:12] lot of very important requirements there
that are all um completely valid and
[1:39:15] understandable uh it almost sounds
arduous is it actually as daunting as it
[1:39:19] sounds or like when you say site plan
could they just come in with like a
[1:39:21] sketch and a kind of a thing or does it
have to be an official
[1:39:25] no it doesn't have to be signed and
sealed by an architect or anything but
[1:39:27] just showing where the building is where
the spaces are what type of um uh
[1:39:33] barricades you're planning on using to
separate especially if it's on the
[1:39:37] one of these residential streets we want
to make sure that there is a clear
[1:39:41] and
very identifiable blockade from from the
[1:39:46] traffic area to
to the pedestrian area and where the
[1:39:49] patrons will be sitting so we want to
make sure that that is very very clear
[1:39:52] for everybody so making sure that that
is um
[1:39:56] is understood and there last year there
were a couple of people who submitted
[1:39:59] this and was like no that that's that
that doesn't quite work that's not safe
[1:40:03] enough we you know try doing this over
here oh yeah sure we'll we'll do that
[1:40:06] we'll use those materials cool no
problem but just making sure that
[1:40:09] something is safe and not just having a
velvet rope um across it wasn't you know
[1:40:13] didn't
wasn't enough so we want to make sure
[1:40:16] that there is something that that is
very clear and and
[1:40:19] not permanent but a little bit more
permanent than a velvet rope right so
[1:40:22] yeah any of those questions can be
directed to me and we can walk through
[1:40:26] all of those steps together certainly if
it's a a private parking area or
[1:40:29] municipal parking area or sidewalk those
are a little bit easier to to do
[1:40:33] when you get into the side streets with
the traffic control orders and rcoc and
[1:40:37] all the signage that needs to be done
there's a lot more to it
[1:40:40] so i would encourage anyone who's
interested to contact me and we can walk
[1:40:43] through all those steps together thank
you
[1:40:47] thank you erin you mentioned the
programming component
[1:40:52] do you envision that happening
during that
[1:40:56] feasibility
study period if we approve this
[1:40:59] extending the closure do you envision
that programming being part of that
[1:41:05] time frame yes i do okay you know we
would be working with parks and rec we'd
[1:41:08] be working with um
the dda we'd be working with the school
[1:41:12] district we'd be working with any other
local organizations to make sure that
[1:41:15] really this is program within within an
inch of its life to make sure that we
[1:41:19] have
a lot of engaging activities and things
[1:41:22] to bring the public to this space um so
that way they they do know that it is a
[1:41:27] public a public area
that that's a big component to make sure
[1:41:32] it's done and and the maintenance and
and the the routine cleaning and all
[1:41:36] that stuff that that goes in hand in
hand with all of this perfect um because
[1:41:39] that really was i think a
[1:41:43] a a ball drop if you will on robina i
think that to your point earlier that um
[1:41:48] those things weren't
as robust as they as they could have
[1:41:53] been so i'm glad to hear that that's the
thinking now so thank you
[1:41:58] councilmember hammond
um
[1:42:01] before we approve tonight i would just
like to get the pulse of the rest of
[1:42:06] council if
you know if we approve tonight
[1:42:09] is there interest at the next meeting
considering
[1:42:13] modifications that require rent and
considering some clearly identifiable
[1:42:19] public space
where we have these closures
[1:42:23] i think first i want to ask
director saluto
[1:42:27] how long would it take for us to i mean
i i assume on the rent or fee structure
[1:42:32] we probably would default to what we are
using maybe in some other places in the
[1:42:36] city but in terms of
the the additional steps
[1:42:40] granted we don't have another meeting
for a little while is that enough time
[1:42:44] to come back and talk a little bit more
about what
[1:42:47] this next step with what the next phases
are going to look like in terms of the
[1:42:51] timeline of the overall yes
yes yes
[1:42:55] uh i mean is that okay with council to
come back and want to take a quick yes
[1:42:59] if we do that i apologize
but you're still looking to approve this
[1:43:03] extension this evening and then just
okay just wanted some clarification on
[1:43:06] my nts yes we're looking to make sure
that we have um some next steps and we
[1:43:11] know what those next steps are
potentially going to look like so that
[1:43:13] we can continue these conversations as
it relates to the other item
[1:43:18] that is not that's a part of what we're
talking about right now yes and that's
[1:43:21] the sole point of what we're talking
about right now you will be you'll be
[1:43:24] annoyed by how many emails you're going
to get from me on timelines and and
[1:43:26] materials and things to go over
any other comments from council
[1:43:34] final
thoughts from folks that are with us
[1:43:37] today before we
vote
[1:43:43] okay
it is a gray area
[1:43:52] the master plan states robina
would it be
[1:43:56] more feasible
and just a suggestion i don't know
[1:44:00] just me sitting here thinking um
[1:44:05] the closure is already to september 30th
correct
[1:44:11] for berkeley commons well
it's under the under the resolution for
[1:44:15] everything yes okay
would it be
[1:44:19] clearer
to
[1:44:22] open that back up
[1:44:25] take this feasibility study
take it and do this study in the survey
[1:44:31] and everything else
on robino
[1:44:37] start
with that makes it a public area
[1:44:42] you're not affecting tenants in the
upstairs
[1:44:46] that april owns okay
you're not a fa because there's no
[1:44:51] tenants there i know that
i it's
[1:44:55] just a thought
so either way
[1:44:59] if this gets approved that is a part of
it obviously
[1:45:03] because that's one of the areas that was
identified in one of the places where
[1:45:06] somebody applied
and used and we have north rubin at 12
[1:45:10] mile which had not been
it was one of the areas that was
[1:45:14] targeted as is a good potential for this
nobody took advantage of that yet so
[1:45:18] for us to either way if this gets
approved that is allowed to continue
[1:45:22] regardless while we're studying the
feasibility so we wouldn't be closing
[1:45:26] one down to move one either because
that's already an area that they could
[1:45:30] be in permitted by this
so which you're talking about then
[1:45:34] shifting what we have in here
i'm personally
[1:45:39] not
going to recommend that we shift it now
[1:45:42] just because this is how it's been and
they've used it at this point
[1:45:46] had it not been
one of the initial places i think that's
[1:45:49] a different conversation maybe we would
have had that before
[1:45:52] but i think we're kind of here now
i'm personally loved to change that
[1:45:57] um any other comments
i would just like to follow up i mean
[1:46:01] it's just the only reason why grip this
is not considered to be a public space
[1:46:05] is because
berkeley common is only one that you
[1:46:08] know one of the main restaurants that
chose to take advantage of that which i
[1:46:11] think is great i think they did a great
job i mean i don't know if a public
[1:46:13] space is
awesome for them either because you're
[1:46:17] going to lose your dining i mean part of
the i mean i will say privatized you
[1:46:21] know
you know gusto goes a long way and they
[1:46:24] are clear you know they're clearly
showing that because they do they have a
[1:46:27] dynamic situation i almost rather
personally i would rather have them have
[1:46:32] a robust awesome restaurant open for
lunch
[1:46:36] you know you know lunches saturdays and
sundays as opposed to public space
[1:46:40] personally i mean it's a fellow business
oh no no no i'm saying like long term it
[1:46:45] could set up instead of a public space
that's used periodically here and there
[1:46:48] the loitering and i mean i know i don't
want to be negative but i'm just like
[1:46:51] i'm looking through my eyes my manager
and i can hear it already as i say that
[1:46:55] i would rather have a robust
you know restaurant that's open you know
[1:46:59] six days a week for lunches i mean
personally i'm just saying i believe
[1:47:04] or not is because of the dynamics
correct well right oh yeah i know saying
[1:47:07] long term i guess i would rather have i
mean well the reality is
[1:47:11] i mean if you guys could close it
regardless i would rather have these
[1:47:13] guys buy it and do what they do because
they do a great job i mean if it's going
[1:47:16] to be close that's just my opinion okay
it is a public road we i mean that's the
[1:47:20] issue you guys can sell stuff i don't
know you guys make things happen right i
[1:47:23] don't know rent things okay i'm just
saying preferably if it's going to be
[1:47:26] closed regardless i have i would rather
have these guys to do what they're doing
[1:47:29] because i i would like it for that more
so than just a in a public space but
[1:47:33] that's my two cents all right so thank
you april appreciate that
[1:47:37] any final comments before i call for the
vote
[1:47:40] mike
and then ms mathis i'm going to be
[1:47:43] coming to you so if anybody is in the
queue please we'll get them ready i just
[1:47:47] want to say thank you to the berkeley
residents who have been so resoundingly
[1:47:51] supportive of the the small businesses
in our downtown footprint i know that's
[1:47:55] true beyond just the downtown borders
but
[1:47:58] centering that in this conversation as
this is a temporary measure that will be
[1:48:02] temporarily extended a little bit longer
i want to thank the residents because
[1:48:06] we're going to need you even more so to
continue
[1:48:09] that local support i think that's
distinctly true for berkeley even more
[1:48:13] than other communities
that's already been helpful and just
[1:48:16] want to celebrate that and thank the
community's leaders because our downtown
[1:48:20] businesses and the entire communities
small businesses really need that
[1:48:24] continued rallying as we meander and
navigate all the obstacles that continue
[1:48:29] to rise for our small enterprises thank
you
[1:48:33] miss mathis
[1:48:39] okay there is no one in the queue at
this time
[1:48:42] okay
any last minute comments from council
[1:48:45] members or clarifications or questions
seeing none
[1:48:50] miss herald
um
[1:48:52] go back to my numbers here please would
you please call the role on r
[1:48:57] 2721
to get any temporary
[1:49:00] easing of restrictions for outdoor
dining in our community
[1:49:04] blanchard yes dean yes gavin yes hennen
yes price yes baker yes terbrak
[1:49:13] yes
[1:49:16] we now move to item number seven please
resolution number r-28-21
[1:49:24] matter of extending
r-21-20 for temporary signage in
[1:49:28] response to covet 19 coba 19
restrictions
[1:49:35] anybody wants to see the end of the
party here
[1:49:38] this is part two
we're going gonna have communications
[1:49:42] sometimes those are entertaining
sometimes not okay all right emotional
[1:49:46] proof
support
[1:49:50] uh is there a motion to prove our 2821
motion by council member baker support
[1:49:54] for mayor pro tem dean
mr barman garden ms schluteau i'll let
[1:49:59] you guys take it away this is the second
part you are now talking to our uh
[1:50:03] interim director of the dda as well as
anybody that is with us virtually
[1:50:08] here mr mayor along with the relaxation
of outdoor dining across the community
[1:50:14] we have also uh been relaxing some of
the
[1:50:17] signage requirements that go along with
this in order to allow those that are
[1:50:21] driving through a community or walking
through any potential customer
[1:50:25] can be alerted to businesses being open
closed having different hours
[1:50:30] having a sale any fantastic opportunity
there is to dine shop or enjoy berkeley
[1:50:36] we have allowed our our businesses to
take advantage of uh some relaxed
[1:50:41] ordinances it has not been uh largely
used uh but it is uh something that we
[1:50:46] would like to continue to offer um
certainly as items change this would run
[1:50:51] along parallel to the timeline that
we've indicated for uh outdoor dining as
[1:50:56] well right there's a follow-up to the
item that we just spoke with in terms of
[1:50:59] the timelines those are the same this is
obviously focused on signs whereas the
[1:51:02] first one was focused on outdoor dining
and easing some of those restrictions
[1:51:07] erin anything you'd like to add
no uh this really just comes to you it
[1:51:13] it it has gone in tandem with the
outdoor dining so it only seemed right
[1:51:16] that if we were going to extend one to
extend the other so it comes before you
[1:51:19] there hasn't been any issues problems
concerns complaints from any residents
[1:51:24] that i've heard or business owners so um
you know if it continues to attract
[1:51:28] people and bring people in and show
people that we are open and we are a
[1:51:31] vibrant community
that's why it's before you this evening
[1:51:34] okay
miss mathis i'm going to come over to
[1:51:37] you first do we have any folks um
that would like to comment on this
[1:51:44] not at this time sir not at this time
okay mr mcginnis uh you don't have to
[1:51:50] believe me you're just the only person
outside of
[1:51:53] that
that is with us in person so you'll know
[1:51:56] you're not compelled by any stretch but
i do know that you also do like downtown
[1:52:00] love signs all right
thank you that was that was mike
[1:52:04] mcginnis in case anybody could not see
him he chose not to step up to the
[1:52:07] microphone but he does project well
enough
[1:52:10] downtown loves signs
council councilmember thank you your
[1:52:14] honor and uh thank you again it is i
just wonder how the conversation would
[1:52:17] have been if we put this one first
instead of
[1:52:20] at least they would have been aware that
this opportunity so i think i have a
[1:52:23] question and a request the question and
you may have hinted at this
[1:52:27] um
how what's the uptake on on the extended
[1:52:30] uh
sign
[1:52:33] um ability and permissions do
is there can you give us any kind of
[1:52:37] sense as the degree to which
um
[1:52:40] the extension or the the relaxation of
the of the ordinances have been utilized
[1:52:46] thus far
yeah they're really i'm sorry
[1:52:49] only to say it's been slight so slight
yes that's yeah there hasn't been nearly
[1:52:53] as many um this was just more as a
method to for people to do grand
[1:52:57] openings and you know we are open or
just yeah know that you're open and just
[1:53:01] to let us know that we're open now that
things have been open for quite some
[1:53:04] time there really hasn't been a whole
lot of um continued uh
[1:53:08] need
that's not the right word there hasn't
[1:53:10] been a whole lot of people who have
continued to do that so
[1:53:14] it really was the the very beginning but
given that things are
[1:53:18] trending in another way we want to make
sure that we continue to offer this as a
[1:53:22] relaxed incentive for people to to
advertise their businesses here in our
[1:53:26] community in case that does happen in
case it does hopefully not thank you
[1:53:30] then my uh my request might be given our
dynamic dda director here and and many
[1:53:36] other fantastic folks that are here to
help promote the city maybe there's a
[1:53:40] way that we can provide
some additional information or some
[1:53:44] reminders or some
ways to help let people know that this
[1:53:48] is
an option available to them they may
[1:53:51] choose to make it covid related or just
general hey we're here we're around and
[1:53:57] get the word out it seems to me
i am not a business owner in the city
[1:54:02] but it seems to me that this kind of an
opportunity to have the ability to put
[1:54:05] additional signage out
can only help right to raise awareness
[1:54:09] to draw more folks into the city and so
i guess i'm wondering if there's some
[1:54:13] kind of way that we could put together
just even a pamphlet or some kind of
[1:54:17] resources
so that
[1:54:20] mr mcginnis and others can can help let
folks know that this resource is
[1:54:24] available to them don't count on it
forever because it's a temporary
[1:54:27] extension of the
relaxation of the ordinances but
[1:54:31] while it's here let's at least see
if there is any long-term benefit to uh
[1:54:36] to re-evaluating those ordinances uh
down the road as well so i think that's
[1:54:39] my request that really long and verbose
but between mr mcginnis and the dda and
[1:54:43] councilmember blanchard liaisoning to
the chamber i think let's make sure that
[1:54:48] we are reinforcing this message
so that so that folks know so that all
[1:54:52] of our businesses know is that fair can
you handle that
[1:54:55] i thought you could
thank you also it is nice too that
[1:54:59] there's no fees associated
because i know if you have a sandwich
[1:55:03] board and you want to put it outside
it's
[1:55:06] i don't know i'm not going to say a
number because i don't know what the fee
[1:55:08] is now but there's a fee for that so it
has it is nice that that's been taken
[1:55:13] away and i think probably to council
member baker's point
[1:55:16] many businesses may not know um that
this has been relaxed that they can put
[1:55:21] the signage out there aren't additional
fees i mean you can't put it where
[1:55:25] people are going to walk but you know
all the information's there but
[1:55:29] to your point getting the word out i
think would be really helpful um because
[1:55:32] people may not know
especially if we had like some kind of i
[1:55:36] don't know like a parade or something
going down 12 mile
[1:55:40] businesses could potentially just if
they needed to i mean it seems like that
[1:55:43] would be an art festival right street
art fest that we just had and uh uh an
[1:55:47] art bash that we're basically coming as
well and there's certainly some
[1:55:50] opportunities to raise um visibility
with this yeah if folks do decide to do
[1:55:56] that and i think that's
our way of trying to get more folks to
[1:55:59] take advantage of this if it's something
that is makes sense to them
[1:56:03] any other questions from council members
on that this one is a little bit more
[1:56:06] straightforward we're not talking about
a potential road closure in the future
[1:56:12] um okay well seeing no additional
questions or comments
[1:56:16] miss harold would you please call the
role on our 28-21
[1:56:21] dean yes gavin yes hennen yes price yes
baker yes blanchard yes turbrac yes
[1:56:31] uh would we now move on to item number
eight please miss harold
[1:56:35] matter of authorizing the city manager
to sign the application for additional
[1:56:39] service credit purchase for gina harold
approving two years of additional
[1:56:42] service credit this service credit
purchase is allowed by the city of
[1:56:45] berkeley merit system of human resource
management section
[1:56:49] 1001.08
[1:56:52] and meets all the requirements of the
mers plan document
[1:56:57] i feel like you will have to abstain on
this
[1:57:00] is there a motion to approve i'm 49 21.
so moved support
[1:57:05] motion made by councilmember price with
support from council member gavin mr
[1:57:09] baumgarten thank you mayor this is a
pretty robust motion it does explain
[1:57:14] sort of uh the internal logic behind
this coming before you this evening
[1:57:18] the merit system is uh it covers
basically any of our employees that
[1:57:24] aren't tied to a a different bargaining
unit such as our maple dpw or
[1:57:30] the
police unions
[1:57:33] so gina does fall under the merit system
being an administrative
[1:57:37] personnel
this is adopted by council so this
[1:57:41] benefit is not something that is just
developed internally it is actually it
[1:57:45] carries the weight of an action by
council and gina is fully qualified
[1:57:50] under those provisions to take advantage
of this benefit that we offer
[1:57:55] this does not come
without some calculations the numbers
[1:57:58] that you see within the memorandum
attached are developed by our finance
[1:58:03] director who works with mers on coming
up with these per their calculations
[1:58:08] and these
costs are shared by both the employee as
[1:58:12] well as the city itself
we do find this benefit to be mutually
[1:58:15] beneficial to both the employee
and our overall financial health when it
[1:58:20] comes to our retirement system so uh we
like to see people take advantage of
[1:58:23] this uh thankfully uh gina as far as i
know plans to uh stick around for what
[1:58:29] 30 40 more years
uh and we're lucky to have her uh
[1:58:35] and hope that she has a long and
fruitful career right here in berkeley i
[1:58:38] do want to point out that in the memo
from our finance director mark pollock
[1:58:41] he does clearly say in here since gina
is a long way from her
[1:58:47] i retirement that was to you know push
off us telling her not to leave any
[1:58:51] earlier and i haven't even messed up yet
i haven't called you miss mitchell as
[1:58:54] far as i know at least once tonight so
that also bodes well for us in the
[1:58:58] future
additional questions uh from council
[1:59:02] we've seen a number of these obviously
recently and
[1:59:05] there are certain mutual benefits uh
certainly we do not want to see anybody
[1:59:10] leave our community who does a
tremendous job but there are benefits on
[1:59:13] both sides and and the contracts are
structured in a way to allow this it's
[1:59:17] our role as the final governing body to
approve them which we have done in the
[1:59:21] past
[1:59:24] seeing no additional questions or
comments
[1:59:28] almost messed up on purpose that time
miss harold would you please call the
[1:59:32] roll on m4921
gavin yes hennen yes price yes faker yes
[1:59:39] blanchard yes dean yes turbrack
yes we have now reached
[1:59:45] communications and i believe it is
council member hannah's turn to go first
[1:59:49] but i am going to start with council
member gavin anyway so we can work right
[1:59:52] around
thank you your honor uh so planning
[1:59:55] commission the main topic of discussion
uh was proposed ordinance amendments on
[1:59:59] a permitted locations
for exterior appliance there were also
[2:00:02] elections for chair vice chair and
secretary and liaison appointments to
[2:00:06] various boards as well so
the next meeting will be tuesday the
[2:00:10] 24th at 7 pm and as i indicated last
time the eac does not meet this month
[2:00:15] but a reminder about the bike corral
that the
[2:00:18] eac will host for the art bash that was
already mentioned earlier on september
[2:00:22] 11th
and a reminder if you'd like to
[2:00:24] volunteer uh to staff the bike crowd you
can contact me at ourgavin at
[2:00:29] berkeleymich.net
and we'll get you signed up and so the
[2:00:32] next meeting of the eac will be on
september 16th at 6 30. and that's all i
[2:00:36] have
thank you thank you and councilmember
[2:00:39] hannah that was not a slight to you by
starting there i just wanted to keep it
[2:00:43] this way go ahead
all right uh first with the zba i just
[2:00:47] wanted to welcome our new members uh
their next meeting is tomorrow august
[2:00:52] 10th
7 7pm and it'll be the continuation of
[2:00:55] the case they already started hearing on
a home edition
[2:00:59] the tree board hasn't met since our next
last meeting and but their next meeting
[2:01:03] is scheduled for september 13th
however i'm happy to report the city has
[2:01:08] been awarded
a four thousand dollar matching grant
[2:01:12] from the michigan department of natural
resources and this is going to allow us
[2:01:16] to plant at least 25 additional trees
this year in addition to the roughly 200
[2:01:22] that were already scheduled to be added
so and then finally i just wanted to
[2:01:27] thank the members of the berkeley
gardeners who put together the inaugural
[2:01:31] garden walk on saturday it was well
organized my wife and i we learned a lot
[2:01:37] talking to the people looking at their
gardens and got to see some really
[2:01:41] beautiful things you know some hidden
gems inside berkeley
[2:01:45] thank you excellent thank you
mayor pro tem thank you
[2:01:49] um i have some fun parks and rec updates
summerfest 2021 continues with an
[2:01:54] outdoor movie in the park tomorrow
tuesday august 10th at 7 p.m
[2:01:59] this will take place at oxford park and
our featured film is mighty ducks
[2:02:04] ducks fly together gordon bombay who
doesn't like a good triple d
[2:02:08] um please bring blankets chairs or your
and your picnic basket if you choose
[2:02:13] uh cruise fest and dream cruise are
august 20th and 21st respectively and we
[2:02:18] have lots of fun in store the cruise
fest parade begins at 6 30 p.m on the
[2:02:23] 20th bring your chairs and get a spot on
12 mile to watch the classic car parade
[2:02:27] which goes from woodward to greenfield
along 12 mile
[2:02:30] then post parade activities we have
musical entertainment you know because
[2:02:34] the street's blocked off so why not take
advantage of that musical entertainment
[2:02:38] food vendors street dance party bouncers
and new this year
[2:02:42] parks and recreation is hosting another
outdoor movie night in front of the
[2:02:46] neighbor shop
following the parade so 7 30 8
[2:02:49] o'clock-ish they'll be showing grease
so again just
[2:02:53] pick up your chair and move it in front
of the neighbor shop and enjoy another
[2:02:56] um classic movie
and then finally parks and recreation is
[2:03:00] hosting
an ice cream social in community park on
[2:03:04] tuesday august 25th at 5 30 p.m
pre-registration is not required to show
[2:03:10] up and what a sweet way to end the
summer thank you
[2:03:15] thank you councilmember baker yes thank
you your honor a couple quick updates as
[2:03:18] well the downtown development authority
dda board
[2:03:21] meets this week's wednesday in two days
time
[2:03:24] uh and i'd certainly like to help
congratulate all of the volunteers and
[2:03:28] businesses and and residents and artists
that came out this past weekend for the
[2:03:32] uh the berkeley street art fest it was a
fantastic time the weather ended up
[2:03:36] working out pretty well for us and uh
and i saw folks young and old having a
[2:03:40] terrific time as i walked up and down
and had a great time talking with
[2:03:43] everyone and admiring the tremendous
skill of what they brought to uh to the
[2:03:47] city here with
just little pieces of chalk it's
[2:03:49] absolutely amazing
uh and please visit downtownberkeley.org
[2:03:54] to to learn more about what's going on
in our beautiful in our beautiful city
[2:03:58] here and
upcoming events
[2:04:01] historical committee meets tomorrow
august 10th
[2:04:05] in the conference room around the corner
and they want to thank all the all the
[2:04:09] folks residents that have been lining up
to come in and visit the museum since it
[2:04:13] reopened
uh and uh you know because whether it
[2:04:16] was your first time or a repeat visitor
a splendid time was had by all
[2:04:21] i know they're still trying to uh to be
able to receive credit card payments i'm
[2:04:26] not sure where that is in the process
it's been a couple of months now
[2:04:30] uh but hopefully they'll be able to
expedite um the ability to make an
[2:04:35] exchange of your money for items from
that commemorate the city's history i
[2:04:40] think it'd be a great exchange
the technology committee meets next
[2:04:44] week's wednesday august 18th
and again just a friendly reminder that
[2:04:49] although the city's website remains
unsecure it's been several months as
[2:04:52] well
any financial transactions are conducted
[2:04:56] through a third party so any financial
information
[2:04:59] like the upcoming ability to pay taxes
online is done through a third party so
[2:05:03] your information will not be at risk
with the unsecured website
[2:05:08] and finally it
a quote from david cothrell here who
[2:05:12] said
doing the right thing isn't always easy
[2:05:16] in fact sometimes it's real hard
but just remembering that doing the
[2:05:21] right but just remember that doing the
right thing
[2:05:23] is the right thing
and i want to keep this quick
[2:05:28] i want to thank
all of the residents and folks here in
[2:05:31] the city that have done the right thing
and gotten the covet vaccine
[2:05:35] we lead many of the cities in the state
at a exceptionally high vaccination rate
[2:05:40] which is fantastic
it goes to
[2:05:43] the care with which we have for
ourselves and our families and our
[2:05:47] neighbors and and our fellow residents
here
[2:05:50] uh and
um for those who choose not to um i just
[2:05:54] hope that it's not based on all the
false information and and
[2:05:58] misconceptions that are out there if
anybody has any questions about um about
[2:06:02] the vaccine it's
its um ability to help protect uh
[2:06:07] especially given the the new delta thing
that's ripping its way through the
[2:06:10] country uh it's it's on its way here and
it's already been detected so whatever
[2:06:16] we can do to help
put your mind at ease and let you know
[2:06:20] that
to take care not only of yourself
[2:06:22] but also again for your family for your
loved ones for your neighbors for your
[2:06:27] co-workers for the places that you go to
uh here in the city and beyond uh please
[2:06:32] do the right thing
and help um because unlike many
[2:06:35] decisions this isn't just an individual
decision because your decision affects
[2:06:39] everybody around you
uh so thank you uh and let's continue to
[2:06:42] do the right thing and and have berkeley
lead by example with the tremendous
[2:06:46] vaccination rate
thanks thank you councilmember baker
[2:06:50] councilmember price
yes thank you mayor turbrack um like
[2:06:55] councilmember baker i'd like to offer
big thanks to everyone the berkeley
[2:07:00] chamber city staff and all the
volunteers who pulled off yet another
[2:07:04] amazing street art fest on saturday
my kids and i had a blast doing crafts
[2:07:10] admiring the chalk art
chatting with davidson their very
[2:07:15] favorite artists in the whole world
and reconnecting with so many members of
[2:07:20] our community in the festive and fun
environment
[2:07:23] what a great way to showcase our
coolidge businesses and the creative
[2:07:28] spirit that drives berkeley forward
bravo
[2:07:32] and finally with covet cases on the rise
and schools preparing to reopen i also
[2:07:37] wanted to urge everyone who is eligible
to receive the vaccine to get one
[2:07:42] coveted vaccines are safe and effective
and they will protect you your family
[2:07:46] and our community
thank you
[2:07:50] thank you councilmember blanchard thank
you honor i have a bunch i saw you run
[2:07:54] down that thing last minute too i almost
got you too soon uh
[2:07:58] the daily tribute had the best of the
best readers choice awards and a number
[2:08:02] of our businesses were selected and i'd
like to read them off
[2:08:05] they were rated as one two or three
berkeley or the best coney island was
[2:08:09] berkeley a w best family restaurant
number one was alex's berkeley best ice
[2:08:15] cream number two clark's ice cream best
lunch place
[2:08:19] three third place was the lunch cafe
best middle eastern lebanese restaurant
[2:08:24] number one the original mr kebab in
berkeley
[2:08:27] best collision shop number two was
berkeley collision best dentist dr
[2:08:32] dr sarah ruddy
best dry cleaners number two was janet
[2:08:37] davis
best eye doctor berkeley eyewear and
[2:08:40] local sunglass company
best tattoo parlor number three was
[2:08:43] american pride tattoo and they were out
at the
[2:08:47] chalk fest giving tattoos to kids that
was very interesting
[2:08:51] [Laughter]
our best veterinary clinic number three
[2:08:57] was berkeley animal clinic best bike
store number third place was d bicycles
[2:09:03] best bridal store
number one the wedding shop and number
[2:09:07] two jenna and white so we got the
wedding business pretty well taken up
[2:09:10] here
uh best candy store number two was
[2:09:13] sydney bog suite essentials
best gift shop and boutique two was
[2:09:17] catching fireflies and three was yellow
door art market
[2:09:20] best jeweler number three was matt gross
jeweler studio best resale shop was some
[2:09:27] girl boutique
that was every third place and the best
[2:09:30] unique store three was the twisted
shamrock
[2:09:34] so we had a number of great businesses
that showed up on that list and i'm
[2:09:37] proud of all of them
on my last minute notes we're making a
[2:09:41] note that one thing nobody's talking
about yet that i almost forgot is on
[2:09:44] saturday we had the grand opening of
pinspiration down on cartwheels a new uh
[2:09:50] arts and crafts store so
i take 20 years away mr mayor no that's
[2:09:55] fine i i'm glad
and i also like to thank the berkeley
[2:09:59] chamber for their great efforts at the
street rfs they did a great job
[2:10:02] and i'd also like to thank berkeley
american legion post 374 for honoring
[2:10:06] public safety officer brian gather
saturday in what we hope will be an
[2:10:11] annual event honoring the public safety
officer of the year
[2:10:15] and my quote
successful emergency management relies
[2:10:18] upon experience and expertise
leo bonzer
[2:10:23] will you bring both
thank you council member blanchard mr
[2:10:28] baumgarten uh thank you samaras i want
to remind everybody that our newsletter
[2:10:32] comes out every month it is chock full
of great information a couple of
[2:10:36] highlights this month outside of my bad
jokes are the clerk's office represented
[2:10:40] by ms harold this evening did note that
av ballot applications uh are being
[2:10:45] mailed out to the permanent list this
week
[2:10:48] that is not to say the ballots
themselves but if that's uh what you
[2:10:52] would like to do if you'd like to vote
in that way
[2:10:55] that application makes you return that
application in time so that you can get
[2:10:58] that mailed to you as well very
convenient uh
[2:11:02] do it's uh fun to talk about election
season until it actually gets here but
[2:11:06] we're still in that fun phase right now
before the the work associated that
[2:11:10] really starts to ramp up
next up our community development
[2:11:14] department
has boxes all throughout the city each
[2:11:18] of our public buildings city hall the
library the recreation department as
[2:11:22] well as public works all soliciting
feedback and information on our
[2:11:27] draft master plan that's out for a 63
day period right now we only ask that
[2:11:31] you get those comments back to us by
september 23rd
[2:11:35] but certainly take a chance read the
documents understand the vision of the
[2:11:41] collective vision of the community
as told by you the the residents that
[2:11:44] live here and that's how that's how we
got to this point and that's how we will
[2:11:48] proceed as well so
there's still not plenty of opportunity
[2:11:51] to to have your voice heard on that item
and then uh last but not least the uh
[2:11:57] not just us but other depa apartments or
uh community groups
[2:12:01] facilitates or uh the content that goes
into that this document so you can read
[2:12:06] wonderful information from the chamber
as well as the dda
[2:12:10] all sorts of fun fun information and the
very last page gives a full listing of
[2:12:15] all of the different meetings and stuff
that come are coming up in the month of
[2:12:18] august so
keep in mind these are all public and
[2:12:21] in-person meetings once again so we'd
love to see you come by and see what's
[2:12:25] happening not just at the council
meeting but also the individual groups
[2:12:28] that make this city wonderful so that's
my only item mr mayor thank you mr
[2:12:33] attorney uh mr mayor thank you uh
nothing new to report this evening all
[2:12:39] is well
when you say that that is a good thing i
[2:12:42] i appreciate that
um
[2:12:45] i have a number of things but you're
going to sense a common theme because i
[2:12:48] think just about all of them have been
mentioned i do want to congratulate
[2:12:51] brian gothard as the public safety
officer of the year and i want to thank
[2:12:56] the legion for putting that event
together
[2:12:59] um
ike and and the crew just a tremendous
[2:13:02] night for brian something that i think
is going to continue in the future um
[2:13:06] but recognizing the public uh public
safety officers in our community for
[2:13:10] what they do on a daily basis again
these are true community police officers
[2:13:14] many of the things um that the the chief
was speaking about in his introduction
[2:13:19] who has worse jokes than you might i add
um
[2:13:23] you know was was not just about the life
saving and and the typical things that
[2:13:27] we think about with public safety
officers it was the times when brian
[2:13:30] stopped and played basketball with some
kids or just interacted with people
[2:13:34] those are the things that really that
people remember and that's that's how
[2:13:37] they form their perception of our
community it's not just if you do
[2:13:40] something wrong
they're here when you're doing things
[2:13:43] that are right as well and they want to
be here and are part of the community so
[2:13:45] that was a great night
certainly want to congratulate the
[2:13:48] chamber it was the first real city-wide
event we've had in about a year and a
[2:13:52] half
and it was
[2:13:54] tremendous it went off without a hitch
to have the event but also the
[2:13:58] additional spacing this year i think
also made other made folks feel more
[2:14:01] comfortable and being able to walk
around
[2:14:04] you know hit hit some of the different
booths and vendors there but also see
[2:14:07] the chalk art and do it in a way that
allowed folks to remain socially distant
[2:14:11] and feel safe and comfortable out there
um and as was mentioned pinspiration um
[2:14:17] also with the ribbon cutting uh that day
as well where community meets creativity
[2:14:21] that is that is what inspiration is all
about um and it's i imagine a place that
[2:14:25] my children are going to want to visit
quite frequently
[2:14:28] um
on the subject of
[2:14:31] cutting ribbons vibe credit union on
july 21st actually officially cut their
[2:14:36] ribbon on their new
branch it's not new but it if you have
[2:14:41] driven past it certainly looks brand new
and if you've been inside it is
[2:14:43] definitely brand new a place that has
not been changed in the 41 years that
[2:14:48] i've been around this community
has seen a significant change
[2:14:52] and they they were able to cut the
ribbon on the 21st it was relatively
[2:14:55] small um there had some executives there
and their board
[2:14:59] of directors was there as well but on
this wednesday they are doing an event
[2:15:02] for the members um in the afternoon on
wednesday and i've been told that there
[2:15:08] is supposed to be ice cream there and if
not
[2:15:10] please go inside and ask to see tamara
she will certainly
[2:15:14] help you out um if there is not
um also as mentioned cruise fest is
[2:15:20] coming up the art bash is coming up
before our next meeting as well has been
[2:15:24] mentioned
and hopefully another public safety golf
[2:15:26] outing for the one that was
unfortunately cancelled rather last
[2:15:31] minute
i mean and also again please remain
[2:15:34] vigilant there are new cdc guidelines
now even if you are fully
[2:15:38] vaccinated recommending in public indoor
settings when there's a lot of people
[2:15:43] packed in a substantial or high
transmission risk to please they
[2:15:47] recommend wearing a mask
also fully vaccinated people might
[2:15:50] choose to wear a mask
if they live with folks who are
[2:15:54] immunocompromised or potentially at
higher risk again this is coming back to
[2:15:57] recommending now even vaccinated folks
if they want to to continue to be as
[2:16:02] safe as possible recommending that they
continue to wear masks in those in those
[2:16:06] settings
and for schools
[2:16:09] cdc recommends universal indoor masking
for all teachers staff and students and
[2:16:14] visitors to schools regardless of
vaccination status and i say that as
[2:16:18] well because school will be back before
our next meeting and our district is
[2:16:24] following those same rules that were
announced just last week
[2:16:27] that teacher staff students visitors
everybody has to be masked regardless of
[2:16:32] vaccination status and i think that is
the correct decision uh superintendent
[2:16:37] scott francis really his first you know
big decisions getting really thrown into
[2:16:40] the fire here
but i do certainly support that decision
[2:16:44] i don't know that he really could have
made any other decision on him and the
[2:16:47] school board and i do support that and i
think it is the the correct decision for
[2:16:52] all of our kids so they can safely
return to school and actually have a
[2:16:55] school year that is at least
more in person and more like you know
[2:17:01] school
should be i think for all of the
[2:17:03] students
and to the teachers
[2:17:07] another school year is already here
summer flew by
[2:17:09] thank you for your service and what you
do
[2:17:12] for all of our kids and and last year
was especially difficult on educators um
[2:17:17] a former educator sure but my wife is an
educator still and i cannot imagine how
[2:17:22] difficult it was for teachers to be
making multiple sets of plans where
[2:17:25] virtually are we in person and still
trying to
[2:17:28] educate the children to the absolute
best of their ability in just absolutely
[2:17:34] unforeseen and unbearable circumstances
hopefully the school year certainly goes
[2:17:38] better for them
as well
[2:17:40] and with that
i will ask for a motion to adjourn
[2:17:45] motion adjourn support motion to adjourn
by council member baker with support
[2:17:49] from council member hennen are there any
questions no there are not perfect miss
[2:17:53] harold would you please call the roll
price
[2:17:57] yes baker yes blanchard yes dean yes
gavin yes hennen yes turbrac yes
[2:18:04] the august 9th
2021 meeting of the 38th council of the
[2:18:08] city of berkeley is adjourned
[2:18:23] [Music]
[2:18:50] you