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HomeMy WebLinkAboutMinutes 07/22/1996July 22, 1996 Vol. 30, Page 27 ~ MINLJ'I'ES a OF A REGITI.AIZ ADJO~JRNEI)1VIEETING s ~'ETAI,UIVIA CITY COUNCII. a 1VIONI)AY, ~TI.Y B2, 1996 s ItO~.i, CALL 3:00 ~.m. 6 Present: Maguire, Hamilton, Barlas, Read, Shea, Vice Mayor Stompe, Mayor Hilligoss ~ Absent: None a PI,EDGE OF ALI.EGIANCE 9 Ciry Clerk Pat Bernard led the Pledge of Allegiance to the flag. io MOlV~N'~ OF SIY.~NCE ii P~JBLIC COn~~NT ia The City Attorney was asked who certifies the petition. City Attorney Rudnansky is advised the Council the City Clerk would be the person who certifies a petition; it is his ia understanding the City Clerk will not certify the Janice Cader-Thompson/Bruce Hagen is petition because of the publishing defect and pursuant to legal advice given to the City ~6 Clerk on that issue. i~ Peter Pfendler, owner of Moon Ranch - read a letter advising of their, "...withdrawal is from this transaction effective tonight. This week we will be listing the Moon Ranch r9 for sale." The letter went on to say that it is up to the Council to plan and manage Zo Lafferty Ranch with the respect and dignity it deserves as a wilderness preserve. zi Leland Parker, 482 Lagoon Vista Road, Santa Rosa 95401 - this was a big surprise. 22 He has worked on this over the years and got to know Peter Pfendler. They and z~ everyone in the County deserve respect. I guess we can move on. Za Joanie Wilson, 497 Laguna Vista Road, Santa Rosa 95401 - Peter Pfendler is deserving as of a great deal of respect and admiration. It is a shame about those of you that worked 26 to bar this. I think you are going to owe a tremendous debt to this community. We 2~ had an opportunity to add a great equestrian facility and to protect property; and, that's Zs gone. I think that it will all come out in the wash. 29 Bruce Hagen, 145 Grevillia Drive - Keep Lafferty Committee - surprised at Mr. so Pfendler's comments. ~'hanked him for the fairly bold act, and he hopes it is an act of s~ genuine concern for this community. Moon Ranch is already protected as Open Space; 32 that will restrict the interest of any party to buy it for development; Supervisor 33 Harberson has pledged to help us find a regional park. Now we have the opportunity sa to take that course of action. ss Jim McCormick, 1019 Santa Clara Lane - not all parks are for everyone, and clearly 36 Lafferty is not going to be park for everyone. I'm not going to be up there walking s~ around. But, there are a few people who will visit Lafferty. And it will be mostly 38 wilderness space. And he will continue to be protected. Mr. Pfendler has done a 39 public service. . Page B8, Vol. 30 July 22, 1996 i Peter DeKramer, 515 Western Avenue - last week's appointments to various cornmittees a as well as the appointment of the new Vice Mayor was quite disappointing. One who was s being considered for the tree committee, Mr. Doug Dailey, is a plaintiff in a lawsuit a alleging violations of the Brown Act by Councilmembers Read, Shea, Stompe and Ndayor s I~illigoss. The public is due an explanation by those Councfllmembers as to why they did 6 not remove themselves from participation in that appointment due to what appears to be a ~ conflict of interest. ~Ie hoped the process would be act~d upon again without such s appearances of conflict. 9 Vince Landof, 12 Cordelia Drive - expressed his observations of the Council: The Councifl io has been a source of embarrassment for a long time. In Vallejo when we had that ii problem, we .kicked all seven off the Council and started over fresh. This nonsense has iz got to stop. There is no excuse whatsoever of having a majority and a minoriry on a i3 Council that's supposed to be representing the people of ~his community. To set your ia minds in stone before the citizens speak on any given topic is wrong. You should be is ashamed of yourselves. It looks to the community as a whoYe that there is an awful lot of i6 juvenile pettiness going on up there. He welcomes Peter Pfendler's comments this i~ evening. If Mr. Pfendier was so persistent on his privacy, I don't understand with his r~ millions why he doesn't buy an island in the middle of the Pacific or Atlantic with 500 i9 miles of ocean around him. VVe can offer him tliree visits to the City of Petaluma each Zo year so long as he is chaperoned by a citizens appointed group. Ask Supervisor zi Harberson to help get a regional park. aa Colin McKenzie - he was not born a citizen, his understanding of a democracy is that the ~ electorate eleets people to do, not what any individual wants, but, what the general public Za wants. It is high time the Council starts to listen to the peopl~. zs Guy Gillian, 9 Eddie Court - it makes him happy to be u~ at the microphone and feel z6 good about Peter Pfendler. It has been hard for him to find a free date when there were z~ ~.afferty Yours. g.et's bury the hatchet novv. Zs David Keller, 1327 I Street - regarding the Rainier project, the design phase was approved z9 at approximately $800,000 more than was predicted, unless the Councii has dropped so $100,000+ for studying the underpass. That is a 50% over-run. The Council has to be 3i fully accountable. It is important this is not ~a precedent for the wastewater and flood 3a control projects. 33 Dougias Y~ailey, 320 Pleasant Street - he brought a huge pile of left-over unsigned sa petitions to show the Council the size of the pile of petifions that were ;submitted. He 3s discussed the other ~wo initiatives which did not have sufficient signatures due to 36 questionable similarities with the voter registration forms. He said the Keep Lafferty s~ Committee spent over $1,000 and he can't believe the other committees did not spend as 3a much. ~ 39 Paul DeLay, 7228 Oakmont, Sonoma County Riding and Llriving Club - we need places ao to recreate in the County. Moon Ranch would have been a good place to do that; and it ai would have been a wonderful park. Please pick up the pieces and help us to get that parlc. az We have ridden there and it is wonderful. We would be happy to assist you in any way. .. - .r. ' ye:.iF.. :` ~~- . .. -.. ,. July 22, 1996 Vol. 30, Page 29 COiTNCIL COMNIENT 2 In answer to a Council question, how do we assure the communiry that is represented here 3 tonight about access to Lafferry and keeping it in City ownership; what kinds of things can a the Council do to assure them? City Attorney Richard Rudnansky responded that this s Council can adopt legislation, but whether it is binding on future councils is questionable. 6 The other possibility would be to have a ballot measure restricting the disposition which ~ would only be subject to reversal by voter approval if it passes. J~.~ I w~~~~ ~appropriate to agendize the request for Supervisor Harberson's help in 9 purchasing Moon Ranch and pursuing development of an access plan for Lafferty. We io should aim to resolve this by the end of the year. She wants the following issues ii agendized: rotation of the Vice Mayor on a January to January basis, with seniority ~z governing; write down the process for City Council liaison appointments; discussion of i3 the end of 3 p. m. meetings and have meetings every Monday night; she wants staffs' input ia on what that would do; she wants the Council to end the evening dinners; she expects the is Council to engage in team building sessions before the goal setting sessions each year; she i6 is interested in "interest based negotiations"; she wants the Council to engage in training i~ sessions where they work for the community as a group and serve the community as a i8 group. -~ ~ i9 She' ~d theC~cil several months ago to formulate a committee and to look at zo alternative ways to set up an access plan, funding alternatives for a regional park, Zi environmental impact report and all of those things that need to be addressed. She asked ~ that this be agendized in the near future. She asked that everybody, including the public, z~ to get back to civil discourse. It's not civil discourse when you're told that you will do Za whatever it takes to keep Lafferty, or, you couldn't work with me on the Council because u of my stand on the Moon-Lafferty issue. She would like to look at some kind of 26 ordinance or resolution. If the Council ever wants to trade Lafferty again, the question 2~ should go to a vote of the people. She supports the team building. Team building was as scheduled for a June weekday session, and she works at a school, so obviously that z9 doesn't work for her schedule. Alternative times could work. She did nominate Jane so Hamilton for Vice Mayor in January, and the Councilwoman turned it down. 3i He wou il~investigation of the fraudulent signatures. He wants to find out what the 32 Committee for Choice costs were. He thanked Peter and Conni Pfendler for taking 33 Lafferty out of the equation. i~Ve still need to address the issue of access and the moral sa im erative for ~this body. , ss She i~appoint we are not going to get Moon Ranch. The Pfendlers have been 36 maligned almost as much as we have. People have been very rude. She has never been 3~ treated like this in her life. She wishes everyone would be more polite. 38 City Attorney Rich Rudnansky - In response to a Council question about the cost of the 39 two initiatives, if that is part of the State attorney's investigation, we can ask him to do ao so. He went on to brief the Council on what transpired with the Keep Lafferty petition. ai On July 8 of this year the City Clerk received in the mail a letter challenging the validity az of the petition that was turned in by the sponsors of the Keep Lafferty initiative. Prior to a3 this time, in May, the sponsors of the initiative provided the City Clerk with various aa documents as they are required under the Elections Code. One of those document they as requested was that the City Attorney prepare a"ballot title and summary". He did so and a~ submitted it to the Clerk. The other requirement of Elections Law is that there be a a~ publication of a"notice of intent to circulate the petition" as well as publication of the as "ballot title and summary" in the adjudicated newspaper. 7; sa"a!"'°'wrf;.'-~4 ' •:z _ •`:.i,? , ~ ~ Page 30, Vol. 30 July 22, 1996 . :~;,'~~~. : ~'r»' i The "ballot title and summary" was published in the Ar us Courier, and the City Clerk a received, through the sponsors of the initiative, a"certi icate" rom the Ar us Courier 3 indicating that the "ballot title and summary" had been published and also the ity er a received a copy of exactly what had been published. T'here was no certification that the s "bntent to circulate" was published nor did the copy of what was published in the paper 6 indicate that such notice had been published. ~ Subsequent to that, the sponsors of the petition did go out and circulate -the petition, s obtained signatures and submitted those signed petitions to the City Clerk. The Counry 9 Registrar of Voters then looked at the signatures and verified that they were valid io signatures for that particular petition. As most of you are aware the other two initiatives ii that had been circulated it was determined by the IZegistrar that they did not have the ia requisite number of signatures. ~3 'Then the City Clerk received a letter ch~llenging the initiative based on the failure of the ia sponsors to publish the "notice of intea~t to circulate". A. letter was submitted by an is attorney who has indicated that he was representing a citizen in town; and the petition i6 sponsor's attorney submitted a letter in response to the challenge. i~ i~ir. Rudnansky took both of those letters and contacted the I.eague of California Cities to ~s find out the names of specialists in the area of elections. ~ased on the controversy, the i9 split in the community as well as the Gouncil, he felt it was a good idea to get an outside ao counsel who specializes in the area of elecfions to give a totally objective opinion. He z~ subsequently contacted an attorney in Los Angeles, Stephanie Scher, who has considerable Zz expertise and experience in this are~. I~e. provided h~r with the documents, the a~ chronology of events and asked her to give him her most objective opinion as to whether ~a or not the City Clerk should certify the petition to have it on ghe ballot or not. u 'The opinion of that attomey, Stephanie Scher, was she felt there was neither compliance ~ with the Elections I.aw, nor was their substantial compliance under the Election Law. 'I'he 2~ argument that the sponsor's attorney had put forth was that there was an advertisement 2~ that was published in the paper, and their ~argument ~vas that substantially was in 29 compliance with the Elections I.aw. The outside specialist indicated that in her opinion, it so was not. He has advised the City Clerk of that opinion. And the City Clerk has indicated 3i that she will not certify the petition based on the legal opinions. 32 Stephanie Scher - She has been practicing municipal law since 1976. She has dealt~with 33 quite a large number of cities that have had initiatives; referendums, and recalls. She 34 currently acts as special counsel to a couple of cities where the politics have reached a 3s point where the City Clerks actually got authority to hire independent counsel. She is not 36 familiar at all with the underlying issue here. She said sh~ has never met any of you, s~ including 1VIr. Rudnansky and she has never met the City Clerk before. 3s She reviewed a series of documents received from the City Attorney including a letter, 39 from the proponents' attorney, that also stated what had happened. She said that she ao Yooked at those documerits with blinders ~ on, so to spea-c, in the sense of having no ai understanding or concern about what the underlying issue actually was. ~-Ier job was az simply to see whether the Election process had been followed. .. . ~"'S` ..::i't,~y:w {i:~y.`~ . -..:::F:',?.':, i,. . July 22, 1996 Vol. 30, Page 31 i It is important for the Council, the proponents, and people who signed the petition to 2 understand that the initiative power is indeed reserved to the electorate. But, it is the s power to enact legislation. Because it is legislation, the State I,egislature has enacted a certain guidelines and certain criteria that the State Legislature has decided is important to s be followed. Among the requirements is the publication of the "notice of intent to 6 circulate" the petition as well as the "ballot title and summary." ~ There have been a couple of recent appellate court decisions which have talked about why s that pre-circulation publication is so important, why it cannot be substituted for through 9 other mechanisms. So she took what had been done, compared that with the cases, looked ~o at what she thinks the law would be, and she is sure that there was not strict compliance ii with the requirements of the Election Code and there was not substantial compliance i2 through the extra mechanism of the publication of the extra advertisement for several is reasons. One of which is the advertisement was, according to the proponents' own ia attomey, published in a different part of the paper from the legal notice. If you read the is two documents cold, with no background, you can't even make a leap between one and i6 the other. You don't know that one deals with the other. And, even if you could make i~ that leap, there is certain criteria required of the "intent to circulate" which requires is inclusion of the name of the proponents; and that is not found anywhere in the i9 advertisement. The appellate courts of the state have held that the name of the proponents Zo is a vital factor for people to know prior to and during the circulation of a petition. Those Zi are the reasons she rendered the opinion. She emphasized that she has no interest in this • Za issue whatsoever. z~ Tod Manning, 325 Post Street - attorney in Petaluma - he is absolutely opposed to selling Za Lafferty. Because of the initial discussion that was going on about the initiative not being zs validated due to the failure to properly notice the "intent to circulate", he dove into z~ research of the cases and statutes on the subject. He was looking as an advocate for 2~ himself; he is not representing anybody. He is not being paid. He said that he came to Zs the same conclusion that Ms. Scher did. He said he was speaking on this because he a9 didn't want the members of the citizenry of Petaluma to think that there was a technicality 3o here that was minor and that a pro-swap majority finagled. "This, I think was very valid 3i decision that was reached by the City Clerk, the City Attorney and the City Manager on s2 this thing. I lend my support to it retuctantly and whoieheartedly. " Thank you. 33 Hank Zucker, 15 Lone Oak Court - there is still unfinished business here. There is still 34 need for a vote. Put the initiative on the ballot. 35 Madeline Asche, 421 Yosemite Court - part of the closure is to put it on the ballot. 36 Wayne Vieler, 286 L Douglas Street - Peter Pfendler has given himself a certain measure s~ of digniry with the action this evening. It is too bad there has been a dehumanization of 3s human dignity recently. The People for Lafferty have passionately stood their ground and 39 in a round about way have caused attainment of the goals they wished. ao Bob Greene, 311 Olympic Court - the closure has not yet come to this issue, access has ai not been addressed. aa Janice Cader-Thompson, 732 Carlsbad Court - the last two weeks have been very a3 stressful. She feels responsible for not publishing the "notice of intent to circulate" the aa petition. She would like to thank the committee for its support. She would like to see this as put on the ballot. 1'ou should never give ridge-top property away. Thanks to Mr. 46 Pfendler for what he did tonight, and she hopes there can be peace in the communiry and a~ within the Council. Page 32, Vol. 30 July 22, 1996 i Will Stapp, 48 Jess Avenue - he apologized to the voters for not doing things correctly. 2 ~Ie still feels something smells bad. He is not elated about Peter Pfendler's action tonight. 3 Something wasn't right about this deal. This is a big lesson for this cornmunity. Put the a initiative on the ballot. Contact Supervisor Harberson about obtaining a regional park. s Peter de Kramer, 515 Western Avenue - the legal opinions were well put together. The 6 City Clerk made the right decision. Which piece of land would make the best park is not ~ the question. We need access to Lafferty. He questioned the vote for Mary Stompe for a Vice Mayor. Put the quesfion on the ballot. 9 Jerry Price, 775 Baywood Drive #101 - to Janice Cader-'Thompson, we love you. g-Ie io wished Peter Pfendler was still present because he's the center of this. Adopt the citizens' ii initiative. ia Alon Haramati, 505 7th Street - put this to a vote. He would sign another petition in the is future. Close the issue and move on. ~a David Keller, 1327 I Street - There are issues that need resolution relating to Lafferty: is access, keep Lafferty in perpetuity, water rites should be kept in perpetuity and the related i6 issue of I.awler Reservoir, General Plan issues related to Lafferty, arrange for Lafferty ~~ tours, acquisition of a regional park, address the resolutiom m~ the "freeze" of actions ,on i~ I.afferty. The text of the initiative should be adopted in its entirety, i9 Robert Rarnirez - he hopes they won't have to come here every Monday night anymore. Zo I.et the people vote on the issue. Rescind the 1994 Council action. Zi Joe Durney - having three initiatives was a good trick. ThP public idea of this was if it zz was not a dirty trick, it was a good marketing ploy. Yt was tricky but more likely ~ deceitful. He is skeptical. aa Alison Marks, 1327 I Street - the access issue needs to be addressed. The citizens need to ~s vote. All of you need to sit down and work together on a managed plan. She is sorry the z6 Ivlayor feels that l~loon Ranch is a lost cause. She doesn9t want Peter Pfendler to control a~ this action. Zs Michelle Ahnberg, 20 Wallace Court - she doesn't care about either ranch and is horrified. z9 by the Councilmembers, the DUI and the assault. It is important we stay focused on so democracy. 3i Yigal Toister = Put two options on the ballot - Keep Lafferty and the Swap. A lot of you 3a pa~nted yourselves into a corner. Here is a solution that was presented to you in a very 33 easy manner. 34 ~ruce I-Iagen - this should go on the ballot. There is a difference between the two petition ss disqualifications. Respect ttie will of the people. He hopes Peter Pfendler won't obsfruct s6 access to Lafferty or we will go for a special election. He w~ults guarantees of access. 3~ Leland Parker - talked about democracy and tyranny of the masses. The issues need to be 3~ studied carefully. 39 ,.. ... ,.. .., ,... .... ,.., ..., ,.. .., July 22, 1996 Vol. 30, Page 33 i CO~JNCYL CON~IV~S z The "freeze" resolution was not meant to stop public input. It was a review period; one s of the reasons was to have Supervisor Harberson look into finding a regional park in this a area. Do not want to place the issue on the ballot. Rather the City Attomey should be s directed to bring back an ordinance which would address the issues. That would include 6 making a commitment to pursing an access plan for Lafferty Ranch and to work with ~ Supervisor Harberson to find funding to acquire a regional park. s We came here tonight to hear the people on this issue. Several months ago the Council 9 was asked for establishment of a committee. This council needs to work together tonight. io We need to establish a solid access plan. We don't want to extend this another four ii months. Put in the ordinance that the City Council will not sell Lafferty Ranch without a iz vote of the people. We need to establish a management plan. The ordinance should have is the specifics of the initiative text. ia The Council asked the City Attorney if they can act on this tonight. Richard Rudnansky is said there needs to be some analysis made of the text. Stephanie Scher added that there ib may be some linguistic issues that need to be addressed and some things will have to be i~ researched. Richard Rudnansky said that he would recommend rescinding the September, is 1994, action at the next meeting. ~9 The Council seemed to agree to ask the- City Attorney to prepare an ordinance which says Zo substantially what the Keep Lafferty initiative said and adding that there will be a vote of ai the people if the Ciry should ever decide to consider selling Lafferty Ranch. The ~ ordinance would address the access plan, best management practices for park visitation ~ and development of a committee. Za AI~JOiJRN u The meeting was adjourned at 9:40 p.m. to July 29 at 7:00 p.m. ~ a~ 28 29 ~ 30 si ATTEST: 32 33 34 35 Patricia E. Bernard, City Clerk