City Council meeting, 3-19-24

Tomorrow, 3-19 – Regular City Council meeting, 5 PM, Hybrid. You can find the agenda packet here – note that the city is shifting to a new agenda website.

To start, there are three closed session items- Conference with labor negotiators- city clerk, Conference with labor negotiators- PPEA (police union), and Conference with legal counsel- anticipated litigation. I would not expect the council to return before 6 PM.

For proclamations, there’s a proclamation for Nowruz and one for Cesar Chavez day. Then there are 2 presentations- one from ConFire, and one from Maria Picazo as acting community service director on a july 4th celebration update.

Then there’s the consent calendar- There are minutes for the last meeting, as normal- and minutes for the meeting of November 7th, which had some controversy and required closer review. Then there are the normal warrants, approval of the annual progress report on housing element implementation, and considering having the city sponsor the Pinole Valley High School’s Asian American Pacific Islander (AAPI) Heritage Month Study Stop at the Asian American Museum in San Francisco and Broadcast of Heritage Show (net cost $3200, page 93).

There are 2 old business items- Adopting a resolution to establish the new city seal, logo and branding guidelines, and amending the city’s procurement policy to include an environmentally preferable purchasing policy and program, prefer buying american-made union workforce vehicles, and include union bug on printing where feasible (page 212).

Finally, there is one new business item- the FY 2022-23 Annual Comprehensive Financial Report. There’s quite a bit in this one- some points of interest were a condition to forgive loans by Bridge Housing for Pinole Grove in 2024 if they agreed to maintain affordability for 19 years (page 366), which I suspect they did not do; the city’s top 10 employers and total workforce now and 10 years ago, which shows that the workforce in Pinole doubled in that time from 4,332 to 9,400 (page 470); and that even though the city’s population has declined, per capita and household average income have both increased substantially (page 468).

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.