City Council Update 11.15.22

City Council Update 11.15.22: Audio automatically transcribed by Sonix

City Council Update 11.15.22: this mp3 audio file was automatically transcribed by Sonix with the best speech-to-text algorithms. This transcript may contain errors.

Katie:
I'm Katie.

Steve:
And I'm Steve, and this is the City of Reading podcast. Welcome to a reading City Council update. For full details on each of the items covered or to watch meeting online, visit the City of Redding dot org or find the links in the episode. Show notes for any questions, suggestions or comments. Please Email podcast at City of Redding dot org. Today we will give a brief synopsis of the meeting from Tuesday, November 15. Once again, this is a high level overview, so be sure to watch the council video if you want more details on any particular topic.

Katie:
Or the consent calendar. There was an amendment to the city budget to purchase some additional equipment needed for the growth at the Redding Airport. This included some funding for additional security amenities to help with increased traffic. Public Works also asked for an authorization for on call sidewalk repairs for areas in the city with lifted sidewalks. So previously the city would contract with a vendor each time a repair was needed. But with this on call agreement, the city can authorize one vendor to do multiple repairs, which helps get repairs done more quickly in areas that are highlighted by the community as important. Next, the mayor made some appointments for the C DAC Committee, which is the Community Development Advisory Committee. Five appointments were made to fill a few unscheduled vacancies and a few scheduled vacancies. So welcome to all those new seat members.

Steve:
And now onto the regular agenda. First up, Mayor Schroeder and Vice Mayor de Cristo approved the award of audit services to Clifton Larson, Allen LLP for a four year term. The city gets audited on an annual basis and is required to change auditing groups every so often. Mayor Schrader noted that the city was served well by the last auditing group, and after a review of several proposals, Clifton Larson Allen LLP was selected.

Katie:
Jim Wadleigh Airport's manager, presented the Airport Strategic Plan for the Redding Regional Airport for Council approval. His strategic plan includes maintaining the pavements, particularly on the airport runways, adding and expanding facilities to accommodate increased passenger numbers and maintaining an appropriate level of staffing to make sure the airport stays safe and efficient for the community. Lots of great things happening at the airport and they are looking to plan for future growth.

Steve:
Next up, Jeremy Pagan, Development Service director presented to the council asking them to consider updating and adopting the new 2022 California Building Standards Code to the Redding Municipal Code. Some of these new ordinances would include electric ready requirements to comply with the state of California's direction to move toward electric solar, which is already required on new home construction, will now be required on commercial buildings as well. There are some exceptions, but many new commercial buildings will need to factor in solar in the years to come. Some local amendments will include requirements for wet, heavy snow, wildfire, seismic events and clay soil, an example being fire sprinklers will be required for new additions and renovations that change more than 50% of the structure. Also, a few others were highlighted, but we recommend you watch the full video for all details on this section if you're interested in more information next.

Katie:
Joe Bowers, electric manager from R-U, presented their quarterly financial report. Revenues were higher in the summer due to hotter than average temperatures in August and September. However, operating expenses for infrastructure repairs were higher than expected as well. Construction costs are up 100% and this includes transformers, poles, vehicles, etc. Cost pressures for RSU to maintain the electric infrastructure. Here are high power costs are also more expensive, and this is the power that RSU is buying for our community to use. Rates will be increasing by 2% this January, but that was already planned and passed by city council last year. Some of that will help offset the increased cost of energy, but R-u is watching expenses and the energy markets carefully.

Steve:
Kim Niemer, director of Community Services, also presented a design plan for the redevelopment of South City Park. The proposed design included a youth area, flex lawn, pickleball courts, a dog area and a multi-use pavilion, among other amenities. There was some disagreement on the council on the elements of the plan, and the vote to move forward was split 2 to 2. The plan will come back before a full council for another review in December.

Katie:
The fire department also had several items come before the council. Two of these items were updates to the Reading Municipal Code. The first was to remove outdated language and reflect updates to the processes of the fire department to include items such as emergency medical services and to remove male specific gender izing language in favor of more neutral terms such as firefighter and fire personnel. The second was to adopt amendments for the 2022 Fire Code, which works closely with the changes to the building code presented earlier in the evening. These new fire codes in the building code may help insurance rates for our community once implemented.

Steve:
Jay Summerlin, deputy fire chief, also gave a presentation on the Community Emergency Response Team or CERT not to be confused with the police CERT team, which stands for Crisis Intervention Response Team. The fire department's CERT team is a FEMA organized and authorized team of community members who are trained to respond to local disasters. The fire department would like to launch the formation and education of a local community emergency response team here in Redding.

Katie:
Greg Robinette, finance officer with the City of Redding, gave the quarterly General Fund report for the quarter ending in September of 2022. Overall revenues and cash reserves are looking good, but some of the tax specific revenues are down, so there are definitely signs of a slowing economy. However, the transient occupancy tax or tote went up and property taxes are still trending as projected. So no bad news in the last quarter, but signs are showing that the economy may be slowing in our area next.

Steve:
Josh Vandiver wastewater utility manager, presented the Wastewater Master Plan update for 2022. It's a comprehensive look at the health of our wastewater infrastructure and plans for the needs of our future, he outlined. Among other items that 33% of our pipes are still old clay pipe, along with an outdated cement style pipe from the 1960s. There are infrastructure upgrades that are needed, along with the need to upgrade some of the facilities to comply with current state regulations. Overall, the projected water flows outlined in the previous master plan were higher than they are now, meaning that our wastewater system is still in pretty good shape.

Katie:
Finally, there was a resolution approving an updated MOU and salary schedules for the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers Maintenance Employees. And that was it. A good meeting with a lot of good community information. As always, this is just a brief recap for all the details. Be sure to check out the video linked in the show notes.

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