At its May 23 meeting, the Signal Hill City Council appointed a total of six residents to the Planning, Parks & Recreation and Civil Service commissions, amid some controversy.
As successor to the Signal Hill Redevelopment Agency, council members also authorized negotiations for sale of property to the Timmons car dealership to allow its expansion.
The council further approved new maximum rates for waste-collection services by EDCO and authorized a request for proposals for new resource planning software.
Additionally, Keir Jones was sworn in as the new city clerk.
[aesop_image img=”https://signal-tribune.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/FP-Council.jpg” credit=”Anita W. Harris | Signal Tribune” align=”right” lightbox=”on” caption=”Mayor Edward Wilson (left) swears in new City Clerk Keir Jones at the May 23 Signal Hill City Council meeting.” captionposition=”left” revealfx=”off”]
Commission appointments
In order to fill impending vacancies on three city commissions, the council interviewed applicants and appointed replacements based on Wilson’s nominations. But first the council voted to only appoint candidates to the specific commissions to which they applied rather than to any of the three commissions.
The council interviewed 15 applicants (another three had withdrawn) and Mayor Edward Wilson made recommendations accordingly. The other council members then voted to approve the recommendations or not, with an appointment requiring three or more votes.
Overall, council members expressed appreciation for the strong pool of applicants.
“There’s no one that applied that hasn’t really taken some effort on their own to participate in some city program or the other,” Wilson said.
He also discussed the importance of ensuring complete community representation in each of the commissions.
“They all bring a different background,” Wilson said of the applicants. “What we’re trying to do is bring that diverse background that we have in making our city the best it can be.”
Councilmember Lori Woods concurred.
“My votes [!] will be going toward keeping, as much as possible, each commission to reflect the community,” she said. “But also that the whole commission reflect the demographics of the city.”
Residents Carmen Brooks, Victor Parker and Christopher Wilson were appointed to the Planning Commission; Terry Rogers and Debra Russell were appointed to the Parks & Recreation Commission; and David Hopper was reappointed to the Civil Service Commission.
However, the appointments were not made without some controversy, as Wilson’s recommendations left an open seat in each of the three commissions.
City Attorney Dave Aleshire asked Wilson what would motivate him to make further nominations. Wilson replied that he would do so only if he could recommend candidates to commissions other than those to which they’d applied, which the council had earlier voted against allowing.
Despite this explanation, it was unclear to some council members why Wilson had not made additional recommendations from the applicant pool.
“I think it’s very unfair to the people that applied [that] the mayor just cut them off,” Councilmember Larry Forester said, then he asked Wilson, “Who made you emperor?”
Wilson declared his choice as being practical and necessary.
“In any application process, there are people that get voted on the commission, and there are people that don’t,” he said. “We cannot appoint everybody that applies.”
Wilson stated that such discernment was an important part of the democratic process.
“We want people to participate,” Wilson said. “We want new people to be brought into the process. If we don’t take those steps [!] then how do we really encourage people to participate?”
Woods affirmed that the greater good demands tough decisions.
“We are in that [!] position— to make decisions in the best interest of the City,” she said.
Forester expressed contrition to the applicants who were not recommended.
“To those who applied, I apologize,” he said.
Addressing the problem of the three open seats, Aleshire explained that since the positions won’t be replaced by the time they expire on May 31, then, according to the city charter, full representation for each commission would depend on continuing service by commissioners whose terms were ending.
“The incumbents continue serving until a replacement is nominated and elected in that position,” Aleshire said. “Your term ends by a date if there’s somebody selected to replace you. Otherwise, your term continues to run.”
Aleshire further explained that this is a reasonable and common provision in city charters.
“It’s not that the mayor has asked someone to continue serving. It is the provision of law,” he said. “It makes sense that if you’re in the process of replacing people, if somehow there’s a delay in that, you end up with a non-functioning commission because there’s no one to serve in the role.”
He added that serving until replaced was part of a commissioner’s duty.
It was agreed by the council that existing commissioners would continue and the remaining open seat on the Civil Service Commission would be publicized for 10 days as per the municipal code, seeking applicants to add to the pool of candidates already interviewed.
Aleshire also cautioned the council about favoring inexperienced applicants for the Civil Service Commission because it is involved in disciplinary proceedings.
“It takes a long time to earn that experience, and it’s very critical to the proceedings of the commission,” he said.
However, compounding the issue, two of the three commissioners expected to continue their duties due to non-replacement resigned from their positions during the meeting. Steve Strichart resigned from the Civil Service Commission, as did Gary Dudley from the Parks and Recreation Commission, despite each having previously applied to renew their respective seats. [Editor’s note: Strichart is the associate publisher of the Signal Tribune.]
“At this time, I would like to tell you that I am not going to fill the seat until I’m replaced,” Strichart said. “I resign now.”
Dudley expressed similar sentiments.
“I would rather resign than operate under this kind of situation,” he said.
Whether the council accepted these commissioners’ resignations was never addressed, but, after some heated discussion, Vice Mayor Tina Hansen, who was clearly emotional, excused herself from the remainder of the meeting.
Timmons expansion
Acting as the successor agency to the Signal Hill Redevelopment Agency, the council members heard from Economic Development Manager Elise McCaleb and car-dealership owner Greg Timmons about the need for Timmons’s Subaru business to expand its property holdings due to sales growth.
“We are literally breaking at the seams,” Timmons stated of his Subaru business. “We don’t have room to service all our customers.”
Councilmembers authorized a 12-month exclusive right-to-negotiate agreement with Timmons over properties on 27th Street at Cherry Avenue, and a lot adjacent to Best Buy at 28th Street and Cherry Avenue for additional storage of vehicles.
Property development would entail the closure of 27th Street at that location, but Aleshire underscored the importance of this kind of property development.
“It went back to the ’80s, when this was originally envisioned,” Aleshire said. “You can really see today the foresight of that in terms of [!] that additional economic power added to the Auto Center.”
EDCO increases
The council approved a resolution confirming a rate adjustment by EDCO for their solid waste collection services. City Manager Charlie Honeycutt explained that the adjustment conforms to EDCO’s 2010 agreement with the City that includes capping inflation increases at 3.5 percent.
Single-family residential waste collection will increase by 59 cents per month. Commercial unit rates will increase by $1.59 and multi-family units by $1.69.
Honeycutt stated that, compared to benchmark cities, Signal Hill residents continue to enjoy among the lowest trash-collection rates in the region. By comparison, Long Beach residents average $24.11 in waste collection costs compared to an average of $15.82 for Signal Hill residents.
Looking ahead, Steve South, owner of EDCO, explained that in the next two to five years, state legislation requirements stemming from Assembly Bill 32 passed in 2006 will require organic material, including green waste, to be separately collected and processed, and additional infrastructure developed to convert such waste to natural gas and electricity.
Software proposals
The council authorized Acting Finance Director Scott Williams to issue a request for proposals for an enterprise resource planning (ERP) system for the City.
Williams explained the necessity for such software due to challenges with the existing system and the need to stay current with technology. Known providers would be contacted to solicit proposals, as well as large and stable publicly traded firms.
Williams emphasized that an ERP was not just a financial system.
“We look for a fully integrated system,” Williams said. “This includes personnel costing, tracking, scenario budgeting, things of that nature.”
Williams also explained that such systems allow for workflow enhancements, increased internal controls, purchase requisition approvals, contract tracking, project tracking and robust reporting.
“Knowledge is power,” Williams said. “Data is everything to us. That’s [how] we know where we’re at, in a timely, relevant and accurate manner of reporting.”
Staff recommended that the ERP evaluation committee include one or two council members. Wilson was approved by the council to be on the committee due to his financial background, as well as newest Councilmember Robert Copeland, to add to his experience.
Member reports
Councilmembers reported on attending the Long Beach Gay Pride Parade and the California Contract Cities Association (CCCA).
Forester described traveling in the same parade car as City Treasurer Larry Blunden and referring to themselves as “Larry squared.”
“I’m proud to represent the LGBT community on this council,” he stated.
Copeland, Wilson and Woods reported on attending the CCCA meeting to discuss pressing municipal issues such as marijuana regulation, pension modeling and the impact of propositions.
“That’s one of the best conferences for elected officials,” Wilson said of the CCCA. “We don’t live in isolation. And for all of us to do a good job, [!] it’s important to know what’s going on around us.”
Swearing-in
Wilson swore in Keir Jones as new city clerk. Jones pledged his support of the national and state constitutions and the charter of Signal Hill.
“I will well and faithfully discharge the duties upon which I am about to enter,” Keir pledged, followed by audience applause.
The next meeting of the Signal Hill City Council will be a budget workshop, taking place Wednesday, May 31 at 6pm in the council chamber at 2175 Cherry Ave. The next regular council meeting will be Tuesday, June 13 at 7pm.
