Agenda for regular Monday City Council meeting shaping up
October 01, 2010
By Peggy Kelly
Santa Paula City Council
The final agenda for Monday’s regularly scheduled City Council meeting was still being finalized at press deadline, but City Manager Jaime Fontes said Thursday there are several items likely to be addressed.
The meeting will start at 5:45 p.m. with interviews of Planning Commission candidates, including incumbent Michael Sommer - whose term has drawn to a close - and Cindy Minear. The council will meet in open session at 6:30 p.m. and the meeting will be televised live by Time Warner Cable Channel 10 and replayed according to schedule.
“The one thing I’m pretty sure about is we’re going to have a budget update,” and Fontes said the news isn’t good, as the city is projecting its reserve will be gone by June 2011. The update, said Fontes, “is timely and important... we need to know where we are.”
An issue that might or might not be presented Monday is the proposal to meld the Public Works and Finance departments. The item was pulled from the agenda at a previous meeting and failed to make the agenda for the next session. “We’re still fine-tuning it,” noted Fontes.
The council will also consider support of Proposition 22, a November 2 ballot measure created by the League of California Cities to help cash-strapped municipalities stop state money grabs.
Fontes said the council will also be updated on grant efforts. Staff “has been all over, an exhaustive effort” in securing outside funding for various projects and programs, and Fontes said the effort has been “successful.”
There will be an update on the California Oil Museum and a resolution asking the council to support keeping the UC Hansen Trust “Faulkner Farm intact and carrying out its present operations.... The council does not want to see it sold” as recommended to the state university system by the Hansen Trust Advisory Board.
Fontes said the resolution supports retaining the farm, a Ventura County landmark and home to the annual Rotary Pumpkin Patch & Harvest Festival, “both on the legal and the agricultural end... we are convinced the trust has been carrying out its mission” on all levels. “We are also looking to see if we can somehow we can support this legally,” citing not only benefit to community, but also fulfilling the intent of the trust of the late Thelma Hansen who willed her considerable assets to the university system.
The council will also be asked to confirm appointments to the Recreation Commission, Mobile Home Rent Review Commission and the Santa Paula Design Assistance Committee.
