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Recommendation to Approve the City Council’s Priorities Established at the February 17, 2017 Priority Setting Workshop, the Referral Tracking Table, the Revised Form for Submitting City Council Referrals and a Process for Ranking/Addressing New Referrals. (City Manager 2110)
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To: Honorable Mayor and Members of the City Council
From: Jill Keimach, City Manager
Re: Recommendation to Approve the City Council’s Priorities Established at the February 17, 2017 Priority Setting Workshop, the Referral Tracking Table, the Revised Form for Submitting City Council Referrals and a Process for Ranking/Addressing New Referrals
BACKGROUND
On February 17, 2017, the City Council held a priority setting workshop. The City’s executive management team attended the workshop and it was open to the public. The workshop was facilitated by Mr. Bill Chiat, former Napa County Chief Executive Officer and current President of Alta Mesa Group. The first half of the workshop focused on effective governance strategies and the importance of a long-term vision when setting policy direction. As part of developing that long-term vision, the facilitator led a Council discussion on the City’s strengths and opportunities and then asked the Council where it would like the City to be in 5 to 10 years.
The Council’s vision included a well maintained and engaged City where Site A at Alameda Point was a neighborhood with new infrastructure, homes, jobs and recreational opportunities; social responsibility was articulated with outside partners and progress was made to provide a safe community; employment and housing needs were met with high quality jobs and homes; and more residents and employees were using public transit, walking and riding bicycles.
With an articulated Council vision, the City Council then identified key issues to focus its efforts on how to achieve that vision. The key issues were:
• Housing/Homelessness
• Transportation
• Fiscal Solvency
• Quality of Life/Environment
• Business Development/Economic Development
With a vision established and key issues identified, City Council began the work of prioritizing 13 referrals that were approved for staff action in 2016. It started with discussing criteria to evaluate each referral. Evaluation criteria included:
• is it easy to address (“low-hanging fruit”)
• workload of staff
• urgency
• can multiple referrals be grouped together
• is a referral dependent on another City project or work effort
• does it fit within other legally required work we must and are already doing
• does it fit with the Council’s 2020 vision
The Council established a two-part methodology for ranking the referrals that used the evaluation criteria above and a continuum of urgency and importance (is the referral less urgent/less important, more urgent/less important, urgent/important, less urgent/important). Based on this methodology, the four high priority referrals were:
• Address the City’s Inclusionary Housing Ordinance/Program and the creation of workforce housing
• Direct the Social Service Human Relations Board (SSHRB) to develop policies and procedures for aiding Alameda’s homeless
• Ensure the MX Zoning has standards that preserve and minimize impacts to the City’s commercial businesses
• Immigrant and refugee support services with minimal expenditures
In addition to the four high priority referrals, the City Council ranked the remaining nine referrals as medium or low priority. Exhibit 1 is a table that groups each of the referrals under one of the key issues identified by the Council (e.g., housing, homelessness, transportation, fiscal sustainability, etc.), assigns it a priority based on the Council’s ranking, provides a description, status, next steps and lead department. Staff proposes to use this table as a referral tracking system and to report back to the City Council at least every 4 months on progress on the referrals.
The Discussion section below provides more details on the next steps for the four top priority referrals as well as the future referral process. Staff is requesting approval of the Referral Tracking Table, the revised Form for Submitting Referrals (Exhibit 2), and a process for ranking/addressing new referrals beyond the 13 that were addressed at the priority setting workshop.
DISCUSSION
Priority Referrals
The following referrals are the top four highest priorities as identified by the City Council at its priority setting workshop.
Propose Revisions to the Ordinance and Code Sections Defining Alameda’s Inclusionary Housing including addressing Workforce Housing.
Revise the MX Zoning Designation and Related Policies to Aid Retention of Beneficial Commercial Uses.
Staff proposes to initiate each of these priority referrals with a City Council Study Session. The purpose of each study session would be to allow staff to present the basic issues, laws, and policies that are currently in place and the consequences/impacts/benefits of a range of actions that the City Council might consider for affordable and workforce housing as well as the MX Zoning designation. Following staff’s presentation, the Council would discuss its preferred course(s) of action. Council consensus on a direction for staff would allow staff to be responsive to the specific outcomes the Council would like to achieve. This direction would not only be helpful to staff, but would also be helpful for the Planning Board if ordinance amendments were required to achieve Council policy direction. This approach also ensures that staff and the Planning Board are working on programs and policies that are a reflection of the Council’s direction. In other words, the initial workshops would take the “guess work” out of staff’s understanding of the intent of the referrals regarding affordable housing and the MX Zoning district.
Staff believes that two study sessions, one on each of the referrals, would be an effective and efficient approach to getting a clear understanding of Council’s direction on a list of possible courses of action that staff could then move forward to implement. Staff proposes that the initial study session address affordable housing, including the City’s Inclusionary Zoning Ordinance and be held in May. The second study session would focus on the MX Zoning designation in June/July. Work on both of this priorities would take place concurrently once direction on a course of action is determined.
Social Service Human Relations Board (SSHRB) Make Recommendations for City Policy Revisions and Additions related to Aiding Alameda’s Homeless Individuals.
The City of Alameda and its non-profit and community-based organizations have a long history working together to meet the needs the homeless, and those in our community at-risk of becoming homeless. The City helps fund a variety of Homelessness Prevention Services such as emergency food programs, utility assistance programs, counseling, and eviction prevention rental assistance programs primarily through the federally funded Community Development Block Grant (CDBG) program. The City, through its CDBG program, also helps fund Midway Shelter for homeless domestic violence survivors.
The City recently established a Homeless Action Plan Committee (HAPC) that has met regularly over the past several months in an effort to address the growing homeless encampments at the Jean Sweeney Open Space Park, as well as other areas throughout the City. In addition, last year the City Council approved funding for Operation Dignity (OD) to provide services to Alameda’s chronically homeless that includes outreach, assessment, case-management services, and, when possible, referrals to housing programs. It is anticipated that OD’s work will continue through calendar year 2017.
The City is also actively engaged in partnering to provide service-enriched housing for formerly homeless families and individuals, such as the Alameda Point Collaborative’s 200 units at Alameda Point, and the future construction of up to 90 housing units at the former North Housing property as part of a homeless accommodation conveyance from the US Navy.
Homelessness is a regional issue and therefore, the City is a member of Everyone Home, the County’s effort to end homelessness in the next 15 years.
In addition to the City’s on-going efforts to address the needs of homeless individuals and families, over the past 20 years, SSHRB has conducted periodic Community Needs Surveys, and annual Public Needs Hearings. Until three years ago, the information gathered regarding the homeless was mostly related to homeless prevention programs, and services provided by Building Futures with Women and Children (BFWC) at Midway Shelter.
In April 2014, in response to community concerns raised about a perceived increase in the number of homeless living on the streets, SSHRB convened a meeting of various service providers, the Police Department (APD), and other stakeholders. After receiving input and discussing which actions might be appropriate to respond to these concerns, the SSHRB voted to move forward with developing and conducting a survey of homeless people living on the streets of Alameda. SSHRB has conducted two homeless counts and this year, Alameda was involved in the first County-wide homeless count. The consensus is that the number of homeless people is increasing and that it is increasingly critical to do as much as possible to assist these individuals and families.
Together with SSHRB, staff is pursuing the following steps to address the referral regarding homelessness in Alameda:
• Expand the membership of SSHRB’s Homeless Action Plan Workgroup (HAPW) to include three Board members and two or three community members with expertise in service delivery to the homeless.
• Continue to participate in Homeless Action Plan Committee meetings.
• Collect information from APD, the Fire Department (AFD), Mastick Senior Center, Alameda Free Library, and other City departments as appropriate, regarding policies and procedures now in place regarding their interaction with\services to Alameda’s homeless living on the streets.
• Review policies, procedures, and best practices of other municipalities for aiding the homeless.
• Compile a report on Alameda’s current policies and procedures for aiding Alameda’s homeless.
• Create a document outlining policies and procedures for City Council’s consideration.
SSHRB is already working on the first four steps listed above. However, the proposed timing of the balance of the steps would follow completion of the periodic Community Needs Assessment which is well underway. After the assessment, staff believes it can commence work with the SSHRB on the remaining steps by Fall 2017.
Consider Outreach Efforts to Provide Immigrant and Refugee Support Services and Programs.
The City Council has embraced the Everyone Belongs Here campaign, declared Alameda a Sanctuary City, and, in the priority setting workshop, identified being a safe, welcoming City as one of this community’s strengths.
Building on these efforts, staff, including the City Attorney’s Office, is working with SSHRB on the following items to address the referral:
• Working to assemble a SSHRB Immigration and Refugee Support Services Workgroup
• Gathering data to estimate scope of need for services
• Bringing together agencies and community organizations to develop a strategy to meet these needs
• Identifying immigrant and refugee support services already planned or in place - for example ACLU’s train-the-trainer program Meeting with AUSD to discuss a partnership effort for providing outreach, education, and support services to AUSD students and their families - AUSD would be a valuable partner for identifying and reaching out to this population, as it already has staff dedicated to working with the Hispanic, Muslim, and other at-risk groups
• Identifying additional organizations and individuals able and willing to provide pro bono legal services and other services to support immigrants and refugees, as needed.
• Implementing a similar model to serve non-AUSD students and their families
Given the overlap of staffing and mission, it may be appropriate to make this referral a joint effort of SSHRB and the Alameda Collaborative of Children, Youth and their Families (ACCYF). Based on the time-sensitive nature of this effort, staff has already begun to work on items outlined above.
Staff is requesting direction on the proposed approach to addressing the Council-identified top five referral priorities. If approved, staff will commence work as outlined above and will report back to Council on progress within 120 days.
Revised Council Referral Form
As part of its priority setting workshop, the Council identified key issues it wanted to focus on to help it achieve its 2020 vision for the City. In addition, Council developed criteria for evaluating referrals. To reinforce those evaluation criteria and focus on key issues, staff is proposing that the Council referral form be revised to include additional information such as: 1) how the proposed referral meets one of the key issues (housing/homelessness, transportation, fiscal sustainability, quality of life/environment, business development/economic development, social progress), 2) what criteria was used in evaluating the referral (e.g., is it easy to address, is it urgent, staff/funding capacity, etc.), and 3) what priority would it be assigned relative to all of the existing referrals. Exhibit 2 is a proposed new referral form.
Staff is requesting that the City Council review and approve the revised referral form.
Referral Process
In addition to the new form, staff is proposing that referrals be submitted in accordance with Alameda Municipal Code Section 2-1.5 (Submission of Matters), which requires that referrals be submitted by 5:00 p.m. on the Monday two weeks prior to the Council meeting. This schedule would allow time for staff to briefly assess the referral. This assessment would assist the Council in its consideration of the requested referral.
City Council prioritized 13 outstanding referrals at its priority setting workshop. It also directed staff to move forward on the top four priority referrals. Therefore, there are nine referrals that have been prioritized but not yet scoped or scheduled since it is dependent on when the high priority referrals can be resolved to Council satisfaction. In addition, at its February 21 meeting, the Council approved two more referrals (these referrals are noted on the attached table as “unranked”) and two additional referrals are scheduled for review at the time this staff report was written.
If Council referrals are to be meaningful, there must be a recognition that existing referrals should be addressed before new referrals are added to the list. Therefore, staff is proposing that as part of consideration of a new referral, the Council should prioritize the new referral at the time it is approved or during the regular referral updates.
Staff is requesting Council direction on the referral process.
FINANCIAL IMPACT
There is no impact financial impact to the General Fund to approve the City Council Referral Tracking Table, the revised form for submitting City Council referrals and a process for ranking/addressing new referrals. However, as staff implements the programs/initiatives proposed in the referrals, there may be costs associated with those activities. An example might be if the City Council decides it would like to subsidize temporary housing for homeless people as part of enhancing services to homeless individuals or families. Another example might be producing a directory of immigrant and refugee services. To date, no funds have been budgeted to carry out programs or initiatives that may result from the current or future referrals.
MUNICIPAL CODE/POLICY DOCUMENT CROSS REFERENCE
The referrals listed in the tracking table were considered and approved consistent with City Council policy.
ENVIRONMENTAL REVIEW
Tracking and addressing Council referrals is not a project under the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA). However, subsequent actions taken may be subject to CEQA and will be evaluated at the time any discretionary approvals are requested.
RECOMMENDATION
Approve the City Council’s priorities established at the February 17, 2017 Priority Setting Workshop, the Referral Tracking Table, the revised form for submitting City Council referrals and a process for ranking/addressing new referrals
Respectfully submitted,
Jill Keimach, City Manager
Financial Impact section reviewed,
Elena Adair, Finance Director
Exhibits:
1. City Council Referral Tracker
2. Draft Council Referral Form