2014 file photo of Signal Hill City Hall
During its Aug. 27 meeting, the Signal Hill City Council agreed to increase stipends for council members and commissioners as well as salaries for city employees. It also approved updating the city’s fee schedule and creating a policy in response to recent changes to the California Public Records Act.
Stipend increases
The council passed resolutions increasing monthly stipends given to elected city officials and certain appointed commissioners.
Deputy City Manager Shin-Heydorn reminded the council that during its May 30 workshop on the 2019-2020 fiscal-year budget, it had evaluated stipends for its members as well as the city’s clerk, treasurer and commissioner positions.
Shin-Heydorn said that after reviewing data for similar positions from 13 comparable cities, and considering the increase allowed by California’s government code, the council had directed staff to apply the same increase to its stipends as Signal Hill Employees Association (SHEA) employees received in salary increases during the same period.
“As a result, the stipends for the elected positions for city-council members, city clerk and city treasurer are proposed to increase by 4%,” Shin-Heydorn said. “California government code allows increases up to 15%.”
The council had also agreed to increase stipends for appointed positions on the Civil Service and Parks and Recreation Commissions by $10 per meeting, Shin-Heydorn said. The council did not adjust planning-commissioner stipends, which it had already increased to $125 per meeting.
The new stipends will apply as of Dec. 8, 2020, after the November 2020 municipal elections, Shin-Heydorn said.
She showed a chart indicating that council members’ monthly stipends will be $694.14 per month, with the city clerk’s and city treasurer’s stipends at $421.20 each. Civil-service and parks-and-recreation commissioner stipends will be $85 per meeting, representing a 13% increase from the current $75 per meeting.
Screenshot of livestream of Signal Hill City Council meeting.
Pay increases
The council also agreed to increase municipal salaries based on previous contracts.
“These are items related to commitments made to the employees’ associations and their current memorandums of understanding,” City Manager Charlie Honeycutt said.
Human Resources Manager Sylvia Soong said that in 2017, the city council had approved three-year memorandums of understanding (MOU) with both the Police Officers Association (POA) and SHEA.
Both MOUs allow cost-of-living adjustments (COLA) during the contracts’ second and third years, she said.
“We are currently in the third fiscal year of 2019 to 2020 of the MOU in which the MOU provisions provide a two-tiered cost-of-living adjustment,” Soong said.
She said the council approved the first-tier COLA of 1% for SHEA and 1.5% for POA during its June 25 meeting.
The consumer-price index (CPI) for Los Angeles County from July 2018 to July 2019 increased by 3.3% and therefore the SHEA MOU allows for a total COLA of 2% and a 3% total COLA for the POA, Soong said.
She added that a management resolution allows management-salary increases of 2% as well, as per the SHEA MOU.
Fee schedule
After conducting a public hearing and receiving no comment, the council also approved a resolution amending the city’s service-fee schedule to add charges for audio- and video-based public records.
Honeycutt said the new fees are a result of recent state legislation allowing public access to police records.
The staff report cites California laws AB 748 and SB 1421 that amend the California Public Records Act to allow public access to police audio and video records and personnel files if pertinent, such as for incidents related to firearm discharge.
Finance Director Scott Williams said the updated fee schedule will allow the city to recover costs incurred for video, audio and photographic public-record requests that hadn’t previously been covered.
The new schedule will include $5 each for a DVD or USB flash drive for audio and video records, as well as actual costs for the city to redact part of a recording, if necessary.
“When the city receives these types of requests, it may be necessary to redact portions of the audio or video,” Williams said. “In this case, the city must contract with a […] third-party vendor to provide this service, and in order to pass on the redaction cost to the requester, it must be listed on the fee schedule.”
In response to Councilmember Edward Wilson’s question about how much the service costs, Shin-Heydorn said the city recently had to pay $3,000 to cover such a redaction.
“It’s very specialized technical services,” she said.
Public-record policy
Shin-Heydorn also said that the same state legislation amending the 1968 California Public Records Act prompted the city attorney to draft a Signal Hill Public Records Act Policy, which the council approved in a resolution.
Deputy City Attorney Danny Aleshire said that the new policy allows the city to respond more easily to public requests and further changes in state law by providing a comprehensive toolkit and guide to process public-record requests in the context of the law.
“Because of recent changes in state law and looking at the city’s policies and procedures and the way that it implements the Public Records Act, we thought it would be a good idea to formally adopt a policy so that staff, commissioners and council [are] all on the same page as to what the requirements are and what the process should be going forward,” he said.
He added that the city has 10 days to respond to a request for public records, but that state law allows exceptions if withholding records outweighs disclosing them in terms of the public interest.
Other exceptions include drafts, notes, pending litigation claims, unsigned settlement agreements, personnel records and records related to government officials’ deliberation processes that might discourage candid discussion, he said.
City Attorney Dave Aleshire elaborated on part of the policy that addresses city employee use of private communications for public work.
Based on his experience with another, unspecified city that he also serves, Aleshire stressed that council members should use their city email addresses for public work.
“If it’s city related, then it’s subject to the Public Records Act,” he said. “And if you’ve made the mistake of putting that on your private email, […] then there is a search that has to occur and it can be an intrusive search.”
Vice Mayor Robert Copeland suggested sharing this policy with other city employees as well.
Wilson and Mayor Lori Woods said they each have two phones– one for private use and one for public– as well as two email addresses.
City Clerk Carmen Brooks said she doesn’t have a city phone and Woods responded that city staff would follow up with her and also advise other city staff on the policy.
Ranchos walk
Michelle Mowery, a mobility officer with the City of Long Beach Public Works Department, said that Long Beach will once again host a Ranchos Walk on Sept. 28.
The walk is an urban-trail hike that connects Rancho Los Alamitos and Rancho Los Cerritos and goes through both Long Beach and Signal Hill.
She said that last year– the first time the city offered the event– nearly 400 people participated in the nearly10-mile walk. She added that walkers can opt for a 6-mile or 3-mile route as well.
Mowery showed a video of last year’s event with information from organizers and reactions from its participants.
“We’re pleased to say we almost did nothing wrong,” Mowery said about results from a follow-up survey.
This year, Rancho Los Cerritos will also host a 175th anniversary party at 10am the same day, Mowery said. She said participants can find more information and register online at longbeach.gov/ranchoswalk.
New library
Community Service Director Aly Mancini shared a video of the grand opening of the new Signal Hill Public Library located at 1800 E. Hill St.
Mancini estimated that 600 people attended the city-sponsored event on Aug. 10, adding that Librarian Charles Hughes estimates that over 3,500 patrons have visited the library since then.
“We’re averaging about 250 to 300 visitors a day,” Mancini said. “When we had our [former] permanent facility, we averaged about 150 people per day.”
Mancini also said the library will offer a free blues concert on Friday, Aug. 30 from 6-8pm on the terrace.
“All are welcome” she said. “We’re looking at getting a food truck out there, but people are welcome to bring their own picnic because we’ll be out on the terrace. It should be a great show.”
The next Signal Hill City Council meeting will take place Tuesday, Sept. 10 at 7pm in the council chamber at 2175 Cherry Ave.
