Big night ahead.  We get right into it after a closed session regarding ongoing litigation.

We start the general meeting with two special orders.  The first acknowledges Teen Awareness Month.  The second is a fun one – celebrating Earth Day by handing out green business certificates and by awarding this year’s Earth Day poster contest winners. There’s also a presentation on the current status of the Grand Boulevard Initiative, which should be interesting.

The consent calendar is pretty typical.  We’ve got a contract regarding our recycled water pipes, another tract map, another investment report, and the second reading of the R-3 height change ordinance.  There’s also a resolution so we can apply for various bicycle and pedestrian grants.

Item 2 has us potentially hiring a new city manager.  This is potentially the end of a six month process to identify a successor for Gary Luebbers.  We started by hiring a recruiting firm to identify qualified applicants.  After we identified a pool of eligible candidates, we convened a number of panels to interview the candidates – one each representing residents, employees, businesses, the city Directors, and the City Council.  From this, the City Council then pursued a candidate and formed a framework for an employment agreement.  The candidate that is proposed for hiring is Deanna Santana, previously the City Administrator for the City of Oakland, and the Deputy City Manager for the City of San Jose before that.

Item 3 is a proposed update to the city’s Salary Table.  The Affordable Care Act treats seasonal workers differently from non-seasonal.  So to better clarify how the ACA applies, staff is proposing to designate certain employees as “casual” or “casual seasonal”.

Item 4 updates the Salary Table to reflect changes to the state’s minimum wage, which we already know are coming in 2015 and 2016.

Item 5 is an appeal of a Planning Commission decision regarding the old Connect building on Pastoria, which is proposed to become a child care center.  A resident has filed an appeal, which staff is recommending should be denied.

Item 6 is consideration of additional council policies regarding labor negotiations.  Currently councilmembers are free to meet or not meet with labor representatives while negotiations are ongoing, and there are concerns that such meetings can undermine the efforts of the city’s labor negotiator.  So this would have Council adopt policies regarding when councilmembers can and cannot discuss labor issues with labor units.

Item 7 is another policy change – an update to Council Policy regarding the process for acquiring, leasing, and disposing of city-owned property.  This issue will not address any specific properties or any specific transactions currently in process or proposed for the future.  Instead, it proposes changes to the existing policies, mostly to conform with existing law.

And item 8 has us potentially taking positions on ballot issues for the May and June elections.

That’s about it.

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