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HomeMy WebLinkAboutMinutes - Minutes - City Council - Meeting Date: 2/19/2013 ab GEE P ' . E GLENDALE CITY COUNCIL WORKSHOP SESSION Council Chambers 5850 West Glendale Avenue February 19, 2013 1:30 p.m. PRESENT: Mayor Jerry P. Weiers, Vice Mayor Yvonne J. Knaack and Councilmembers Norma S. Alvarez, Ian Hugh, Manuel D. Martinez, Gary D. Sherwood, and Samuel U. Chavira ALSO PRESENT: Horatio Skeete, Acting City Manager; Jamsheed Mehta, Interim Assistant City Manager; Craig Tindall, City Attorney; and Pamela Hanna, City Clerk 1. GLENDALE COMMUNITY HOUSING PRESENTED BY: Elaine Adamczyk, Housing Services Administrator This is a request to provide City Council with information about the Glendale Community Housing Division and its required Annual Agency Plan submittal to the U. S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD). HUD requires all housing authorities to have an Agency Plan and to update it annually. Staff is currently finalizing the Agency Plan for fiscal year (FY) 2013/14 and will present it at the Community Development Advisory Committee's (CDAC) February meeting. At that meeting, CDAC will review policy updates, hold a public hearing and recommend approval to the City Council. Ms. Elaine Adamczyk, the program's Administrator, will provide an overview of Conventional Public Housing, which includes the Public Housing Capital Fund Program; Section 8 Housing Choice Voucher Program; and the Annual Agency Plan. Ms. Adamczyk spoke about the program which is helping low-income residents to find safe, decent and affordable housing for residents and the rules they must follow to comply with federal rules and regulations. Since federal funds are decreasing every year, the city applies for community development block grant funds each year as well. She also discussed the Section 8 Housing Choice Voucher Program. It is a federal program that provides housing assistance to eligible Glendale families. She said this program is 100 percent federally funded. The Section 8 program responsibilities mirror those of the Public Housing program that City is not the landlord. It is three way partnership between Housing, the landlord and the family. The city pays the subsidy directly to the landlord every month. She said over 700 landlords participate in the Section 8 program. In FY12, over $11 million in rent payments were made to Glendale landlords with federal funds. 1 Ms. Adamczyk said the Section 8 program has been designated as a HUD high performer for FY12 with a score of 99 percent. The City of Glendale's conventional public housing has been designated as a HUD high performer for 19 years in a row. Their most recent HUD physical inspection of public housing passed with a score of 99.6 percent. The agency plan is due to HUD on April 17th of each year. Councilmember Martinez congratulated Ms. Adamczyk for the designation of high performer in both programs. He asked if there was a subsidy for public housing. Ms. Adamczyk said the family pays rent based on 30 percent of their annual adjusted income. Councilmember Martinez asked about the Section 8 housing and if the percentage was the same. Ms. Adamczyk said it was the same and housing would pick up the rest of the cost. She said both programs have waiting lists and there are between 800 and 1,000 people on those lists. Councilmember Knaack asked what the cost was to the City for these programs. Ms. Adamczyk said the Section 8 program is 100 percent federally funded. She said there is a small general fund transfer of$307,000 for the public housing program. Councilmember Sherwood asked about applying for federal funds and how the city's excellent rating played a part. Ms. Adamczyk the 99.6 percent rating put the city on a three year rotation instead of a 2 year rotation and if there were any capital funds available, Glendale would receive them without application. Councilmember Alvarez asked if there was emergency housing in either of the programs. Ms. Adamczyk said there is no emergency housing, they are wait listed only. Councilmember Alvarez asked if they could look into that. Ms. Adamczyk said HPRP money comes through the Community Revitalization division and last year it was distributed to the Community Action Program. She said there is no emergency Section 8 or public housing units available. She said by federal regulation, it is the wait list process. Councilmember Alvarez asked questions about vouchers from other cities or states. Councilmember Chavira commented this is a great example of several layers of government coming together to help people. 2. COUNCIL ITEM OF SPECIAL INTEREST: INTERNAL AUDITOR INDEPENDENCE PRESENTED BY: Candace MacLeod, City Auditor The purpose of this City Council Report is to address City Council's requested information on internal auditor independence at the December 4, 2012 Council Workshop. Ms. MacLeod said it is standard practice for an internal auditor to be independent. This independence is safeguarded by a charter and the charter defines the purpose and responsibility of the audit function. She said the model legislation for local government auditors include establishment of the internal audit function by charter and the establishment of finance and audit committee to review internal audit reports and the annual internal audit plan and provide input. 2 Vice Mayor Knaack said she believes the City Auditor should be an appointed position. Councilmember Sherwood also thinks this should be an appointed position, and that position should report to an internal audit committee or to the council. Councilmember Chavira asked if the guidelines Ms. MacLeod presented to the council were being used in other cities. Ms. MacLeod said the other nearby cities using an internal auditor have an internal audit charter, which is in their city code as well as an audit committee which the auditor does report to. Councilmember Alvarez asked if the auditor in the other cities reports to Finance. Ms. MacLeod discussed the various cities and City Auditor position was handled. Councilmember Alvarez said the city manager has to be accountable to the council. She said the auditor should report to the city manager and the city auditor alongside the city manager should make the report to the council. She would vote no for having the auditor appointed. Councilmember Martinez asked if Ms. MacLeod felt she has been allowed to do your audits unhindered. Ms. MacLeod said the most important thing is to have the charter define the reporting relationship of the auditor. She also said it is critical that the auditor be able to distribute reports directly to management and city council and not having someone else do that. Councilmember Martinez recommended looking at the language to potentially amend the charter. Councilmember Sherwood said the city charter currently does not have any auditor function. Ms. MacLeod said it did not. He also asked if the cities most often closely compared to Glendale all have the auditor information in their charter. Ms. MacLeod said they did. He suggested amending the charter to define the auditor's reporting responsibilities. Councilmember Alvarez said she didn't believe in changing the charter without the vote of the people. Vice Mayor Knaack said the city auditor should be an appointed official. She wants the reports to come to the Council to ensure autonomy. Councilmember Hugh asked if the City Charter called for the city auditor to report directly to Council. Mr. Tindall said the charter does not call for the city auditor to report directly to Council. Councilmember Alvarez said there have been problems with transparency in the past and she thinks the auditor should report to the city manager. Councilmember Knaack said she would like the city auditor as an appointed official and the charter should be changed to reflect that. 3 Mr. Tindall said amendments to the charter would require a vote of the citizens. He said this could be done at a regularly scheduled or special election. In the meantime, Council could make decisions by ordinance, pending a charter change, to address the situation. Vice Mayor Knaack said the Council has discussed reviewing the entire charter. She said she would like to review the entire charter, rather than just changing one item. She said she didn't want to pay for a special election for this one change. Councilmember Martinez asked if they could have one or several things changed in the charter in an election. Mr. Tindall said they could make just one change or several changes and submit them to the voters. He said Council would not have the authority do make changes without going through the voters. Councilmember Sherwood asked if there was consensus to go forward with an ordinance right now changing the reporting structure for the city auditor to report functionally to Council and administratively to the City Manager and then have a discussion in the future about the reporting relationship and forming an audit committee. There was council consensus. Mayor Weiers said is there a consensus to bring this item back to a workshop. There was council consensus. 3. COUNCIL ITEM OF SPECIAL INTEREST: COMMUNITY OUTREACH PRESENTED BY: Debora Black, Interim Police Chief This report contains information on the recent media story aired on Univision, as well as an explanation of the Police Department's policy on racial profiling, a summary of SB 1070 training, racial profiling complaint history and the process of how a citizen can make a complaint. Chief Black discussed the story aired on Univision. She said the Police Department has requested to view the unedited video of the traffic stop, but there has been no response from Univision regarding these requests. The Police Department stands by the actions of the officer based on his account of the violation and the stop. Department employees receive annual training on racial profiling and discrimination. Chief Black talked about the three different ways the public can make complaints to the department. Since 2007, the department received a total of 11 biased based policing complaints. The complaints were investigated and none sustained allegations of bias by the officers involved. Councilmember Sherwood said it was a shame that something like this has been staged; the department hasn't had any type of these incidents in the past. Councilmember Chavira commented that Chief Black has been very responsive to any questions regarding this issue and has been diligent in trying to get the word out about how department policies and how they have handled this issue. 4 Councilmember Martinez said there was discrimination a long time ago when he was growing up, but he hasn't seen it since he has been adult. He said it is unfortunate this story appeared. Councilmember Alvarez said there was always going to be discrimination. She supported the job the police department has done in responding to this issue. She will report any incidents of citizens reporting discrimination to her. Vice Mayor Knaack said the police department handled this situation well and has provided training to make sure that racial profiling does not occur. Councilmember Alvarez said she was satisfied with the police department at this time and they have done an excellent job. Chief Black thanked the Mayor and Council for the opportunity to respond to this issue and said it has presented an opportunity for outreach to the community on this issue. 4. CITY MANAGER SELECTION PRESENTED BY: Jim Brown, Interim Executive Director, Human Resources and Risk Management and Bob Murray, Bob Murray& Associates This report contains information to introduce the City Council to Bob Murray of Murray and Associates and to begin the first step of the process for the City Manager Recruitment. The recommended action is for the Council to give direction to Bob Murray of Murray and Associates for the City Manager recruitment. Mr. Brown introduced Bob Murray to the council. Mr. Murray spoke about the process to recruit candidates for the position of City Manager. He wanted to speak with each of the Councilmembers about the issues facing the city and what they were looking for in a new city manager. Once he obtains that information, they will develop the recruitment information and brochure. He went over how the process works from screening resumes, narrowing the list and personally interviewing the candidates. He said an active recruitment would be about 60 days and it should be about 3 weeks after that to review resumes. Councilmember Sherwood said he would like to see the process kept to the 90 to 100 day time frame to keep the process moving. Councilmember Martinez said he also would like this process expedited. He asked Mr. Brown if some of the materials used in hiring the former city manager were still available as he thought it would be helpful to the Councilmembers. Mayor Weiers asked Mr. Murray where he was from. He said his offices were in Roseville, California. Mayor Weiers also asked Mr. Murray how long he was in town. Mr. Murray said he would be here until his flight at 7 p.m. Mr. Murray said he would like to set up phone conferences with each of the Councilmembers next Thursday. 5 CITY MANAGER'S REPORT This report allows the City Manager to update the City Council. Mr. Skeete had no additional comments at this time. COUNCIL ITEMS OF SPECIAL INTEREST Councilmembers may indicate topic(s) they would like to have discussed by the Council at a future Workshop and the reason for their interest. Councilmember Alvarez said she would like to hear about the Utah Compact from a group that had asked to speak to council before. Councilmember Martinez said he would like to know more about the group Councilmember Alvarez is talking about. Councilmember Martinez also said if they allow this group to come speak to the council and put it on the agenda, would they have to do this for all the other groups that might want to speak as well. Mr. Skeete said it was always the Council's decision to invite anyone or entertain discussion at the meetings. Councilmember Martinez said the group might want to just come in and fill out a speaker card and speak during the public comments portion of an evening meeting. Mayor Weiers said he and the newer Councilmembers never got any information on the group and he would be happy to speak with the group. Vice Mayor Knaack said there was a previous Councilmember item of interest and staff did some background work on this. She said the group did attend a meeting, but since it was a workshop, they were not allowed to speak. She said at that time, Council direction was not to go forward with a compact. She said if the new Council wanted to look at it, there was no harm in that. Councilmember Hugh said he would like to have an opportunity to review the information Councilmember Alvarez is talking about and is interested in meeting with the group. Councilmember Chavira said he has heard the group speak before at a different time and feels the council would benefit from what they have to say. Mayor Weiers suggested providing the new Councilmembers the information on this group then new councilmembers can decide whether to meet with them. We'll see what happens after that also since the group has four members if they came to an evening meeting then they would have 20 minutes total under citizens appearing to speak. ADJOURNMENT The meeting was adjourned at 2:48 p.m. 6