Pinole City Council meeting, 9-5-23

Tonight, 9-5- Regular City Council meeting, 5 PM, Hybrid. You can find the agenda packet here.

To start, there’s one closed session item on appointing an Interim City Manager.

There are quite a few proclamations this time- acknowledging the retirement of John Anderson, California Firefighter Memorial Day, Constitution Day, National Suicide Prevention Week, Suicide Prevention Day, National Punctuation Day, Rosh Hashanah, and Building and Code Staff Appreciation Day. There are also presentations by ConFire and the Car Show committee.

Then there’s the consent calendar- There’s the normal minutes and warrants, a raise for the city clerk as per her contract match with AFSCME, appointment of council members as voting delegates to represent Pinole at the League of Cities conference (late- was due on the 28th of last month), a contract for Townsend Public Affairs (primarily) $96k and Evan Brooks Associates $40k (as needed) for grant-writing services, a response to the grand jury report on affordable housing, a contract with Tetra Tech for an Energy Conservation/generation/storage assessment for $47,938 (already budgeted, though I thought this passed last meeting), second read and adoption of an ordinance to change the start time of City Council meetings to 5 PM and limit the ability of individual council members to direct the City Manager, and finally a resolution to apply for the state’s Prohousing designation program.

There are 2 items under new business- background information on a potential future commercial cannabis tax, and background information on a potential future vacant parcel tax.

You can join the meeting by zoom direct link here, entering the webinar ID 893 3500 0272 into zoom directly, or calling +1 (669) 900-6833 or +1 (253) 215-8782 or +1 (346) 248-7799, then entering the meeting ID 893 3500 0272#. Once in the meeting by phone, you can raise your hand by pressing *9, and unmute by pressing *6 once called on. You can also attend the meeting in person at Pinole City Hall, 2131 Pear St.