During its Dec. 11 meeting, the Signal Hill City Council approved extending two construction contracts for the new library, now scheduled to be completed by July 2019.
The council also agreed to amend a conditional-use permit (CUP) for Ten Mile Brewing Company to allow outdoor events, and approved a user-fee schedule for the City’s electric-vehicle charging stations, among other decisions.
Library delay
Public Works Director Kelli Tunnicliff cited the low availability of skilled construction labor and rain delays as reasons why the new municipal library won’t be completed until late July rather than March.
The council therefore approved contract extensions for Robert R. Coffee Architect (RCA) to conduct additional architectural site-visits and for Simplus Management Corporation to manage construction.
RCA will receive an additional $127,600, for a total of $901,145, and Simplus will receive an additional $442,344, for a total of $1,770,252. Both contracts also include a five-percent contingency, for a total additional cost of $703,514.
Tunnicliff said that the additional amount is covered by the original budget’s contingency fund.
Construction of the new library had begun in January 2018. Once complete, it will consist of a two-story, 14,000 square-foot multi-use facility with reading areas, event spaces, a children’s area, technology lab, conference rooms, teen gathering-space and a dedicated room for historical and cultural displays, according to the staff report.
Brewery permit
The council considered and approved a request by Ten Mile Brewing Company owner Daniel Sundstrom to amend the site’s CUP to allow up to 12 outdoor events per year with live music in its parking lot at 1136 E. Willow St.
The brewery had recently celebrated its one-year anniversary with such an event, hosting over 300 people and featuring live music and food between noon and 11pm, for which the City received no complaints, Planning Manager Colleen Doan said.
Doan said that Sundstrom’s application included extensive research from other cities and breweries regarding their outdoor-event standards and best practices. She also said her department used the brewery’s anniversary event as a template for what to expect.
Sundstrom’s request had already been approved by the community-development department, public-works department and police department before the planning commissions approved it in November, Doan said.
Doan said the permit amendment limits the hours for such events and makes provisions for off-site parking and fire safety.
Besides live music, the staff report indicates that events might include multiple food trucks, classic cars, pet adoptions, games and outdoor movies.
Each event requires a $2,000 deposit to cover City time and resources, a detailed description, and plans traffic management, security and fire safety, according to the staff report.
Doan explained that because CUPs are assigned to the property and not the business, the City takes care to ensure permits fit the needs of the community.
“The conditions of approval are not intended as a reflection of the character of the operator,” she said. “We all agree Ten Mile Brewery has proven to be a good operator and a good neighbor. Because future brewery operators are unknown, conditions of approval are addressed to develop worst-case scenarios.”
EV-charging fees
The council also adopted a resolution amending the City’s Uniform Schedule of Fees to include a toll for using the City’s electric-vehicle (EV) charging stations.
Beginning Jan. 1, users will pay 55 cents per kilowatt-hour for charging– or $1 to $3 per charge– using a mobile application called ChargePoint. Tunnicliff said the City anticipates $14,454 in revenue over two years that it will use to recover costs and pay for maintenance.
Tunnicliff said the City installed two dual-port ChargePoint chargers in the upper civic-center parking lot with two more planned at the new library. The estimated annual operating cost associated with these chargers is $7,129, she said.
Neighboring cities charge fees ranging from free in Lakewood to 59 cents per kilowatt-hour in Long Beach, Tunnicliff said, adding that municipalities are still developing policies regarding charging fees.
“The goal is to charge users the lowest rate possible while maintaining cost recovery to the City,” she said. “The fee includes the two-year ChargePoint operational software cost, the cost of the maintenance plan– that includes the cost of replacement parts, if necessary– the ChargePoint revenue fee and the cost of the electricity to the City, as well as the replacement fund.”
Furthermore, to mitigate extended parking at charging stations, Tunncliff said that users will be charged a $2.50 per hour parking fee after a 30-minute grace period.
She said that the City uses All-Purpose Level 2 chargers with the most common connector for public charging-stations, capable of charging most electric vehicles, including the Kia Soul, Nissan LEAF, Ford Focus and Teslas that use a connector cable.
Environmental assessor
The council awarded a three-year contract to Mearns Consulting LLC to perform as-needed environmental assessments for an annual amount not to exceed $100,000.
City Manager Charlie Honeycutt said that principal consultant, Dr. Susan Mearns, brings over 30 years of assessment practice, including significant experience assessing the environmental conditions of Signal Hill’s former oil fields.
Dave Aleshire, city attorney, said that the annual figure is an estimate.
“The idea of this budget is not that we project we’re going to spend $100,000 on environmental [assessment] each year,” he said. “This seems a good range for the normal day-to-day stuff […]. If there was a project that was for a large site with a lot of special effort, then rather than use up this expenditure, we’d come back with a different contract just for that site.”
Water director
The council authorized Honeycutt to nominate a director candidate to represent water purveyors within the Central Basin Municipal Water District (CBMWD), which includes Signal Hill.
Honeycutt will also vote on behalf of the City from the slate of nominees.
Honeycutt explained that a 2016 State law– Assembly Bill 1794– had changed the structure of the CBMWD board of directors after an audit identified numerous concerns.
The law created three director positions for the agency’s different member categories: large water-purveyors, city purveyors and an at-large board member.
Honeycutt said that two of those positions are open and Signal Hill could nominate a candidate for the at-large board member.
He said candidates must have a minimum of five years of technical experience in a public water-system, be employed by or represent the City of Signal Hill and may not have held an elected office nor own more than a small share of a private company.
Nominations are due Jan. 3 and the member agencies will then vote on the candidates to serve a four-year term, Honeycutt said.
During public business, Steve Koffroth, a field director for the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees (AFSCME) union, asked the council for support of the union’s contract negotiations with the LA County Sanitation District (LACSD).
“Our members manage the vast infrastructure of solid waste,” he said. “If anything goes wrong with that system, the proverbial you-know-what hits the fan.”
Koffroth said that AFSCME represents 1.6 million members nationwide, including 1,000 workers at LACSD, several of whom attended the meeting with placards asking for support.
AFSCME has been in contract negotiations with LACSD management for over 18 months over pension contributions and a cost-of-living adjustment, which has been withheld for two years, Koffroth said.
“We don’t relish the idea [of striking], but we understand that we must stand up for what is right,” he said. “We ask for your support in making sure that our members receive a fair contract.”
Another representative and sanitation-district worker told the council that many diseases such as typhoid are curbed because of proper sanitation.
He said that the union had reached out to Mayor Tina Hansen, who sits on the board of directors for one of the county’s sanitation districts, but she had declined to meet them. He said he wished to enter into the council meeting’s record a petition signed by over 1,000 sanitation workers expressing “no confidence in upper management’s ability to lead.”
Jimmy Eleopoulos, owner of Big E Pizza, promoted his forthcoming new restaurant, Jimmy E’s, during the meeting’s “small-business spotlight.”
The new “rustic-urban” restaurant is scheduled to open in February at 2951 Cherry Ave., the former site of Delius restaurant. The space will be revamped to include communal tables and a patio area, Eleopoulos said.
He added that there will be a full bar, including 20 beers on tap, and the menu will feature steaks, fish, and “comfort foods” like hamburgers, salads, and pastas.
“I’ve been doing restaurants my whole life,” Eleopoulos said of his experience and interest. “Since I was a kid.”
The next Signal Hill City Council meeting will take place Tuesday, Jan. 8, at 7pm in the council chamber at 2175 Cherry Ave. There will be no regular council meeting on Dec. 25.
