CITY COUNCIL AGENDA REPORT DATE: OCTOBER 12, 2009 TO: FROM: HONORABLE MAYOR AND COUNCILMEMBERS GWEN PEIRCE, CITY CLERK ROBIN PARKER, ADMINISTRATIVE SERVICES DIRECTOR DEBORAH STELLER, MEDIA OPERATIONS DIRECTOR SUBJECT: DISCUSSION REGARDING RESIDENT NOTIFICATION OF CITY MEETINGS MEETING DATE: OCTOBER 28, 2009 SUMMARY RECOMMENDATION: That the City Council provide direction to staff in regards to notifying residents of City meetings and special projects. BACKGROUND: At the request of Councilmembers Maurer and Bozajian, this item was placed on the agenda for discussion. Recently, a group of residents expressed concern over the lack of personal notification regarding a City Council agenda item. Therefore, Council requested that staff provide information on how individuals are notified about City Council and Commission meetings in order to discuss options on expanding the notification scope. DISCUSSION: The City Clerk s Office is responsible for noticing and posting City Council agendas and public hearing notices and each Department is responsible for noticing the
meetings for its Commission(s). Some crossover does occur with the City Council agendas as other departments will occasionally contact interested parties on specific items on the Council agendas. The City follows the minimum posting requirements as prescribed by the Ralph M. Brown Act and also utilizes the City website, email and postal mail to notify residents of meetings, public hearings and special issues. The table below depicts what the City is required to do by law and what is generally being done to notify residents of meetings and special projects: Type of meeting/project Legal requirements City procedure City Council meetings Post agenda in legal Post agenda in legal posting places at least 72 hours in advance of posting places* one week in advance of meeting; City Council public hearings (this is the standard for most, but not all public hearings some have special requirements) Planning meetings Commission meeting (special meetings require 24 hour notice). Post notice at least 10 days before hearing; Some hearings require mailing to property owners within 300 of subject property. If a newspaper of general circulation was printed in the City, then publication is required at least 10 days before hearing. Some require publication anyway. Post agenda in legal posting places at least 72 hours in advance of meeting (special meetings require 24 hour notice). Post agenda with staff reports on City website; Email agendas to those Post notice at posting places two weeks in advance; Post notice on website; Mail notice to all HOA s; Publish ALL public hearing notices in The Acorn; If mailing is required, mail to property owners within 500 radius of subject property. Post agenda the week prior to the meeting; Post agenda with staff reports on website; Email to those who have requested to receive all agendas from Planning; Mail to HOA s. Email agendas to those 2
Planning Commission public hearings (this is the standard for most, but not all public hearings some have special requirements); Community Development Director s Hearings Development Review Committee Historic Preservation Commission Same as City Council public hearings Same as City Council public hearings; Email to individuals who are on list of those who have requested to receive all notices from Planning. n/a Post agenda at City Hall and on website; Email to individuals who are on list of those who have requested to receive all notices from Planning. Mail to HOA s. Post agenda in legal Post agenda the week posting places at least prior to the meeting at 72 hours in advance of posting places and on meeting website; Email agendas to those All other Commissions Post agenda in legal posting places at least 72 hours in advance of meeting Mail to HOA s. Post agenda at posting places and on website. Email agendas to those Development Notices/ n/a Page dedicated to posting Monthly Project notices on website; Reports Email agendas to those Street resurfacing n/a Mail notifications to projects residents who live on the street being resurfaced. Notices and timelines posted on City website. *The City s legal posting places are City Hall, the Tennis & Swim Center, DeAnza Park and Gelsons. 3
Approximately four years ago, the City s efforts to Go Green were beginning to come to the forefront, so the City Clerk s Office notified the Homeowners Association (HOA) presidents and management companies that because all the agendas and staff reports were online and in the interest of being environmentally conscious, we were no longer mailing the City Council agendas to all of the HOA s. The City Clerk s Office had also been receiving complaints from several HOA s saying that they were receiving too many notices and agendas by mail from the City. This notice, which was inserted in several different weeks Council agendas, stated that if any of the HOA s would like the agenda emailed to them, that we would do so or a paper copy would be provided for anyone who requested it. None of the HOA contacts responded. Per the Government Code, we are required to mail out agendas to anyone who requests this service or anyone who requests information on a particular issue, but the City Clerk s Office has never received such a request. What other cities do to notify residents of meetings: In our research, we contacted the surrounding cities to determine how they notify residents of their City Council Meetings and special projects: City of Agoura Hills meetings are noticed by the regular posting of the agenda on the City Hall bulletin board and website; and residents who sign up for agendas on the City s C-Mail listing on their website are emailed the agendas. If there is a special study session or workshop of importance, the City may take out a display ad in the newspaper. Agoura Hills notifies the residents of special projects through the City publication, The Leaflet, which is distributed to every resident quarterly; through press releases or display ads in the paper; sometimes by sending a letter or postcards to the affected residents in the area (i.e., street paving); through updates during staff comments at Council meetings; and by posting updates on the front page of their website. (i.e., for Reyes Adobe Interchange). Homeowners Associations are not sent agendas or notices unless the individuals sign up on the C-Mail listing. City of Malibu meetings are noticed by the regular posting of the agenda to their legal posting places and the posting of the agenda and staff reports to the website; also, the agenda is emailed to the Chamber of Commerce, Malibu s local representatives, newspapers, and interested citizens (about 2). City of Westlake Village meetings are noticed by the regular posting of the agenda to their legal posting places and the posting of the agenda and staff reports to the website; residents who sign up to receive agendas and/or public hearing notices on the City s website on their website are emailed the agendas/notices; and agendas and public hearing notices are mailed to newspapers (Ventura County Star, Acorn, LA Times, Daily News), all HOA 4
presidents, neighboring agencies, Water District, School District, and various contract staff. The City is in the process of reducing paper and postage by giving those individuals the option of receiving emailed agendas and notices. Anyone wishing to continue to receive paper copies will be accommodated. What is being done by our staff currently to expand resident notification? The City Clerk s Office has a dedicated staff person who maintains the contact information for all of the homeowners associations and resident management companies in the City. In September of this year, that staff person contacted via email and/or telephone all of the HOA s asking them if they would like to continue to receive public hearing notices by mail or if they would like them emailed. We also asked that if they wanted them emailed, would they also like the Council agenda emailed to them. Of the 54 individuals, 10 requested the notices and agendas emailed; 20 requested that the notices be mailed in the U.S. Mail; the rest of the HOA s have not responded. We have set up the email list and are still working on contacting those from whom we have not yet heard. Because we had not been alerted to the concern over HOA s not receiving agendas, the option of mailing them was not offered at that time, however, at Council s request we can contact those receiving mailed notices to ask them if they would also like mailed agendas. The Media Operations Department currently posts all City Council meeting and Commission meeting agendas online at least one week prior to the meeting and Development Review Committee meeting and Director Hearing agendas as soon as they are received. All Calabasas meeting agendas are accessible via a single Agendas page linked at the top of the Calabasas website. The City also places a weekly advertisement in the Acorn that lists all City meetings televised live on CTV for the upcoming week. All Council and Commission meetings are posted on the City website calendar. City Council meetings are also listed in the Dates to Remember section of the monthly e.news newsletter emailed to subscribing residents and posted on the City website. Notices of Public Hearings are posted on the City website as soon as possible after receipt from the notifying department. The Media Operations Department posts information about upcoming and ongoing projects including road resurfacing on the City website and in e.news upon request from the Public Works and Community Development Departments. The Media Operations Department has developed a Connect with Calabasas webpage as a one-stop place for residents to sign-up to receive informational emails from the City of On the Connect with Calabasas site, residents are able to sign up to receive City Council, Commission and any other meeting agenda currently posted online. Residents may also sign up to receive Monthly Development Reports, updates on Development or Public Works projects, and sign up for e.news. The City website is also being redesigned with drop 5
down menus to make the site easier to navigate. A separate menu tab will be dedicated to public notices which will include Connect with Calabasas and project updates. The Department of Public Works has begun the development of a Public Outreach Policy to keep residents informed of projects in the area that may impact them. The policy is still in a rough working draft, but the strategies being considered include: Minimum notification time of two weeks before scheduled occurrence of community workshops or meetings; Post important meetings, updates and information on City Website, City Facebook Page, and City Twitter Page and send via e.news; Gather email addresses of interested and involved parties to the project and provide email updates; Mailouts for those who do not utilize the internet; Advertising in the Acorn and Daily News. Additionally, this document will outline how the Department of Public Works will encourage input from the community early in a major project in order to gain support and educate residents on engineering and design elements of the project. Other alternative options for notification: Although not recommended, staff has identified two other options to notify residents of specific issues on agendas: direct mail and/or calling residents utilizing the City s ConnectCTY program. Direct mail can be accomplished by either identifying the particular postal routes in the area affected by the specific issue or by using the City s Geographic Information System (GIS) to pinpoint specific addresses in the affected areas. Either way, direct mail can become costly, can be annoying to residents who do not want to receive additional mail from the City and does not appear to follow the City s desire to be environmentally conscious. Additionally, the City s ConnectCTY program is generally used sparingly in order to not have too many phone calls to residents, which can become annoying and can have the ill effect of residents ignoring the City s call in the case of emergency. ATTACHMENTS: 1. Connect with Calabasas website 6