City staff and council members completed their marathon policy summit Monday night after talking about some of city's most pressing concerns, from the library to salaries, transparency to teens, and everything in between.

But there was so much to talk about that the council will have to hold a study session in the very near future just to prioritize the concerns -- "A study session on study sessions," said Human Resources Director LeeAnn McPhillips -- and then schedule dozens more study sessions to tackle them individually.

The council never even talked about sidewalks because Councilman Bob Dillon left the summit Monday afternoon due to illness. The body will discuss the controversial issue Feb. 11.

"Can you imagine what this would have been like if we had talked about sidewalks?" Mayor Al Pinheiro said. "This policy summit agenda was just packed out of sight. It was ridiculous." Blurry-eyed city staff and council members all nodded their heads in response before recommending that the council hold more summits and avoid procrastination in the future.

While the council did touch on all of the agenda's 50-or-so items except for sidewalks, they ultimately decided to devote individual study sessions to 24 of them. Scroll to the bottom of this story to see a list.

Library barely cuts it with voters

More than three in five voters, or 64 percent, support a $37 million bond measure to fund library improvements, but that's not quite enough because bonds require a two-thirds voter approval.

A consultant learned this by interviewing 400 Gilroy voters earlier this month in both Spanish and English. Most said the library is important, but they were concerned about increased property taxes and existing city funds.

To remedy this concern, "the city should consider a program of public education and outreach before placing a measure before the voters," said David Metz, an employee with Fairbank, Maslin, Maullin & Associates, which compiled the study.

The council will discuss this idea at a study session specifically for this topic and the planned arts center, a presentation on which will occur Feb. 20 by the Community Services Department. The arts center and library currently have funds scheduled for use in 2012 and 2015, respectively, according to draft budget figures.

Metz pointed out that putting the bond measure on the November ballot might give it a better chance than postponing the measure because this November more younger people will turn out at the polls to vote for president, and the library study showed that younger people supported the bond more than older residents, Democrats more than Republicans, as well. But a potential bond measure for Gilroy Unified School District and another for the proposed bullet train could also appear on the ballot and draw taxpayer support away from those more concerned with transportation or education, Metz said.

When residents heard exactly how much the bond would cost them - $31 per year per $100,000 of assessed property value - then library support dropped from 64 percent to 51 percent. Raising sales tax was another unfavorable idea, but when residents learned about the dilapidated building susceptibility to earthquakes and the potential for schoolchildren to be crushed, support rose again; but again, after voters heard all the factors, support did not quite exceed the necessary two-thirds.

"The closure of the library is a legitimate possibility," Councilman Dion Bracco said. "It has a leaky roof. The heating and air system is shot. Everything in that building is shot, and heaven forbid we have an earthquake a day when the place is full of kids. We have to get these things out there so voters understand that (the state's library renovation coffers are empty) and we've been turned down two or three times by the state, and that's normally where money comes from. This is actually our last option."

Gilroy's head librarian, Lani Yoshimura, said Metz's survey still left the door open but that she was heartened by the majority of residents who want a new library.

The voters' take on the library:

• Two-thirds of voters have been to library in past year

• 71 percent satisfied with overall quality of library, but 47 percent said it needs more space

• 79 percent of voters said the Gilroy library is in greater need of repair than sidewalks, streets and the arts center

Council mulls salary issue

Although city salaries was a hot-button issue last year during the council and mayoral campaigns, Monday's debate was rather muted. Mayor Al Pinheiro said the body will reconsider the issue at a study session before springtime, when the city's 45 top-level employees will negotiate compensation.

During their campaigns, Councilman Bob Dillon said he would rather pay average wages for competent employees than pay the best salaries in the region, and Councilman Perry Woodward said he would work to over-turn the council's April 2007 salary decision. But sparks did not fly Monday morning.

Councilman Craig Gartman was the lone dissenter in April 2007, when the council approved a plan calling for the city's top 45 employees to earn 12 to 15 percent more than those they supervise and 10 percent more than the average salaries for comparable positions in 11 surrounding cities including Morgan Hill, Santa Cruz and Hollister. Compensation for Gilroy's top-level employees has lagged behind their fire, police and municipal colleagues' throughout the years because the 45 are not unionized and most cannot work overtime.

Gilroy surveyed the 11 cities in 2005 and will do so again in 2011, which means that salaries won't continuously ping-pong against the whims of nearby cities - just once every seven years, Human Resources Director LeeAnn McPhillips said. But Gartman pointed out Monday that Santa Cruz and Morgan Hill adjusted their salaries soon after Gilroy did, which means Gilroy has since become less financially attractive than the two neighbors, he said.

"We're trying to stay competitive, but we're going to close our eyes for seven years?" Gartman asked. He also pointed out that Sunnyvale, which is not one of the surveyed cities, has a boss-subordinate pay gap ranging from 3 to 18 percent. San Jose and Santa Cruz have similar policies. Again, Pinheiro and others stressed the possibility of tweaking Gilroy's percentages at the upcoming study session.

"After taking a second bite of this apple and looking at it again, hopefully this time we can present it the correct way," Arellano said. He added that people such as interim City Administrator Anna Jatczak, who came from San Jose, and Community Development Director Wendy Rooney, who came from Colorado, work for more than just the money. There are also the benefits, the weather and many other factors, he said: "There are so many things we cannot control."

Les White, a former city manager of San Jose and interim city manager for Seaside, facilitated Monday's discussion and said that Gilroy's salary plan is not unusual compared to other nearby cities.

White stated that Gilroy's comparable cities were good comparisons and that a city should not be ashamed of paying decent salaries to employees because of the valuable work they do. He said having the city administrator, who is a part of the top 45, handle their negotiations was a fine idea because the non-unionized group has nobody else. White also suggested loosening the 15 percent requirement as a way of hiring, retaining and promoting lower-level managers, and he even floated the idea of offering housing loan programs for city managers in this deflated housing market.

Councilwoman Cat Tucker explained that she was not interested in changing the April decision. "I intend to support it, but police and fire employees are different than managers," she said in a nod to Gartman's point about Sunnyvale's elastic percentage guide.

This idea could interest Woodward, who said Monday, "Frankly, we haven't heard anything new."

But Councilman Dion Bracco, who owns a towing company here, stressed the importance of relatively high wages for city employees even after he said there might be no end in sight if cities keep one-upping each other. "I'm in the private sector, and if I don't pay my employees what Marx Towing pays, then I get what Marx gets rid of," he said. "When you pay peanuts, don't be surprised when you get monkeys."

Residents already maintain sidewalks and trees, why not junk? council asks

Property owners need to start cleaning up their own messes, and those that don't even belong to them.

So the city council told Environmental Programs Coordinator Lisa Jensema, who reported Monday that city staff, local volunteers and South Valley Disposal & Recycling joined forces to clear junk from six alleys between November 2006 and June 2007. The total clean-up project - which included picking up 112 tons of trash and recycling 32 tons of discarded metal and electronic equipment - benefited 1,100 households and businesses and 62 city blocks, Jensema said.

Council members praised Jensema and her volunteers, but said the city should not have to pick up after residents.

"We can't allow this to continue," said Mayor Al Pinheiro, who suggested that the city adopt a trash policy similar to its weed abatement policy. That is, the city could place a lien on a property if the owner does not clean up their mess, just as the city can place a lien on a property if its weeds are growing out of control.

City Attorney Linda Callon said it is definitely possible to force a property owner to deal with mounds of trash on their own property, but when it comes to placing a lien on a property for junk abutting that property, Callon said she was unsure

"But we do it for sidewalks," Gartman retorted.

Gartman was referring to state and local laws that require residents to maintain and repair damaged sidewalks and take care of city trees along their property if they present a danger. The city can place a lien on a property for its owner's failure to repair them, though it has never done so, according to former City Administrator Jay Baksa. Residents are also required to trim bushes and weeds that seep out from their properties into public right-of-ways, according to city code.

The question, then, is whether junk that obstructs drivers' views and contributes to area blight should be treated like sidewalks and city trees.

Property owners already have to maintain their power lines, trees, weeds and sidewalks - even if they did not cause the damage - why not make them responsible for cleaning up trash abutting their property, Bracco said.

The mayor's main concern Monday, though, was to recoup costs the city spent on cleanup efforts. He also directed staff to research the council's current junk ordinances and the legal possibility of creating a new ordinance to require property owners to clean up junk adjacent to their lots. Pinheiro and Councilman Perry Woodward also discussed the idea of having a city-wide garbage day once every six months or so, but it was unclear how this would correspond with any new ordinance.

One hurdle to implementing the potential ordinance would be getting in touch with junk-laden property owners, which Jensema said can be difficult because often times they do not live in Gilroy or simply do not care.

A code enforcement officer who deals strictly with waste codes will join the Community Development Department in March, according to Director Wendy Rooney.

Sunshine ordinance needs refinement and more discussion, city attorney says

City officials expressed both positive and negative concerns Saturday about Councilman Perry Woodward's comprehensive open government ordinance.

Attorneys from the city's law firm, Berliner-Cohen, told the council that the Open Government Commission included in the proposed "sunshine" ordinance needs more guidance and specifications. They also recommended that parts of the ordinance defer to less stringent state laws when it comes to responding to public records requests and revealing information from closed sessions.

Councilman Craig Gartman was absent Sunday, but the rest of the council unanimously agreed to hold a more in-depth study session on the ordinance in the near future. This will give city staff additional opportunities to air concerns about how much time and effort it will take to implement Woodward's ordinance. Interim City Administrator Anna Jatczak and Councilman Dion Bracco began to express these concerns Saturday.

"It seems like we're putting up a lot of barriers and stumbling blocks for staff and anybody involved in the city," Bracco said.

Jatczak agreed, but she said it was too early to tell: "When it comes to impacts on staff resources, it's very hard to quantify those at this point and time," Jatczak said. "But I can say the turn-around time (for responding to Public Records Acts requests) is going to be an issue, so we'll need to talk about that...We also need to talk about the cost-benefit ratio for some of (the ordinance's requirements)."

Jatczak was specifically referring to the three-and-a-half days she and City Clerk Shawna Freels spent gathering drafts of a controversial police study and all city e-mails related to them because The Dispatch filed PRA requests to obtain them late last year.

"I'm all for transparency, but I'm weighing the balance between transparency and efficiency in government," Jatczak said. "With the recent Matrix police study request (from The Dispatch) for those draft documents, we did that, but I'm not exactly sure that translated into any benefit or gain for the community" because the newspaper never followed up with a story. "We really need to understand what the costs are as it relates to staff resources."

By and large, The Dispatch has been making all the PRA requests Berliner-Cohen has received recently, according to City Attorney Linda Callon. Mayor Al Pinheiro noted that the city can get a bad reputation when it naturally pushes back against the newspaper, which is a much different entity than a private resident seeking answers or documents, he said.

"I think the paper might see that differently," Councilman Bob Dillon said.

The conversation routinely turned back to the police study. Woodward and Councilman Peter Arellano argued that the issue with the drafts was not whether they contained discrepancies or eyebrow-raising redactions, but the length of time the city took to release the drafts. Woodward also questioned the timing of the final report's release after the election and said the city's inclination to withhold the drafts bred suspicion because top-level police personnel and former City Administrator Jay Baksa were reviewing the drafts and offering input on the supposedly "outside" audit, Woodward said.

"I'm fine with just seeing the final draft. I'll review that with a tooth pick, and if I don't agree with parts, then I'll change them at that time. But with the Matrix report, the city administrator and police were involved, so it was no longer an outside review. That was the perception," Arellano said. "Was that a true outside evaluation or not?"

"Thank you, Peter. You articulated my point exactly," Woodward said.

The 31-page sunshine ordinance also calls for more detailed agendas and record-keeping and requires that council members submit any topics of conversation to Freels before meetings. Within 12 months of the ordinance's passage, Freels would also have to compile an index of documents for each department, agency, task force, commission and elected officer. Department heads, who must receive open government training under the ordinance, would also become part-time liaisons, updating their particular Web sites regularly with documents and happenings and answering residents' questions on where they could find certain department materials.

The ordinance aims to supersede the state's current open government law, known as the Brown Act, and make it easier for residents to get government documents without filing PRA requests, which can take weeks. Woodward proposes to do this, in part, by creating the Open Government Commission: a five-member body of transparency-minded residents appointed by the council, but Callon said that the commission -- which will facilitate records requests and report to the council periodically -- needs more guidance and clarification to make sure it does not assume Berliner-Cohen's legal authority when it reviews open government issues.

Callon also cautioned against the ordinance's requirement to tape closed sessions. State and local laws allow closed sessions for legal and personnel matters and union and land negotiations. Members of the public could review the tapes after whatever matter is resolved, Woodward said, and this would discourage forays into topics "that ought not be discussed in closed sessions." But Callon and Pinheiro said that such tapes could allow unions to peek at city strategies and then adjust their own negotiation techniques accordingly.

"Once we let that out -- that kind of conversation -- then when the next contract negotiation comes up, (the union) can certainly come up with what some of us think," Pinheiro said. Perhaps, then, transcribing the video tape and redacting it -- and also blacking out names when it comes to personnel matters -- could be a solution, Callon said.

The ordinance also requires that requests for public records be fulfilled within 24 hours unless the relevant city department needs more time for a specific reason. Woodward said this will allow residents to avoid waiting 10 days to receive a response under the PRA, but again Callon and Jatczak raised concerns about staff time and resources. "Is it practicable?" Callon asked.

Woodward based his ordinance off Milpitas' two-year-old open-government law, he said. For this reason, Pinheiro said he wanted to hear from the city about its experience.

"What is it Milpitas had in there that it found out it couldn't have?" Pinheiro asked. "That will give us more information and allow us to learn from them."

Assistant City Attorney Jolie Houston said she spoke with a former Milpitas city attorney who told her the city was having trouble getting its commission formed. She also noted that the city does video tape its closed sessions.

Either way, the council is set to move forward.

"We need a long study session because I have enough questions for at least an hour," Bracco said. "Before you can fix something, you have to identify the problem. What's wrong? What are we trying to fix? I'd like to get into that during the study session."

Council debates high cost of odd-year elections

Last November the city spent nearly $200,000 to hold the council and mayoral elections, plus one ballot measure.

In comparison, the City of Morgan Hill only spent $50,184 for the same number of races in 2006, City Clerk Shawna Freels told the council Friday afternoon in an effort to shift Gilroy's election cycle to even years.

Nearly 17,000 voted in Morgan Hill and about 15,000 in Gilroy in November 2006 and 2007, respectively, but because Morgan Hill held its election on an even year, the city piggy-backed on state and federal elections and saved taxpayer money. The 2005 Gilroy City Council election cost about $90,000, Freels said, and about 20,000 people voted, according to www.SmartVoter.org.

Much can be gleaned from Gilroy's charter, which mandates odd-year elections. Partly for this reason, council members were split on the idea of making Gilroy an even-year city. Doing this would require a referendum to redact the charter to put the city on track by 2010, Callon said.

As the proposed ballot measure now reads, shifting to even years would also mean adding one year to each council member's now-four-year term. City Attorney Linda Callon said she had not looked into the possibility of shortening terms after Dillon jokingly told his colleagues they would have to talk to his lawyer to shave a year off his term.

The body also discussed how even-year elections promise higher voter-turnout due to a more crowded ballot. Yet while odd-year elections give council candidates roomier ballots, it also costs taxpayers more. Almost $150,000 more last year, Freels stressed.

"But we don't know what the 2008 election is going to cost," Gartman cautioned. "We don't know if this will save $100,000, $150,000 or $25,000 a year. Back in the 1970s, Gilroy did have even-year elections, but we got out of it for a number of reasons: Congress, State Assembly, presidential elections and tons of ballot measures… Suddenly we're going to get tied up in that, and you're going to have to scream even louder or you're going to get lost. It's a disservice to voters."

Woodward said even-year elections would also make campaigns even expensive for "good people" to run. It would also liberalize the electorate because smaller voter pools tend to consist of more conservative, self-informed voters rather than huge presidential elections that bring the more sporadic, less ardent voters to the polls, Woodward said.

Dillon gave the even-year idea an immediate thumbs-down in agreement with Gartman, but the council ended up directing staff to return with more historical figures by Feb. 25, the date of the council's last regular February meeting. If the city wants to place the referendum on the June 3 state primary ballot, it must submit the council-approved wording by March 3.

Arellano said he was happy to learn more next month and told Gartman he was underestimating voters by predicting that a crowded, even-year ballots would confuse them.

"I don't think you're giving the voter enough credit," Arellano told Gartman. "It clearly says on the ballot, 'City Council race, School Board race, Congressional race...This is a win-win situation because if you're really interested in the taxpayer, then this will save them money…and to save $150 every two years for the next ten years -- that could go to something like a teen center."

Council members Dion Bracco and Cat Tucker sided with Arellano. They said higher voter turnout will serve the community better, and Tucker added that even-year elections would also mean more younger voters voting locally.

"Our young people will get more involved because of the primary," Tucker said, "so then they might get involved locally, and we should be a part of their thoughts and on their radar."

Council members up for re-election in 2009

• Dion Bracco, Craig Gartman and Peter Arellano

Council members up for re-election in 2011

• Mayor Al Pinheiro, Perry Woodward, Bob Dillon and Cat Tucker

Gartman's election idea falls on deaf ears

On Friday Councilman Craig Gartman floated the idea of basing elections (whenever they might occur) on numbered council seats.

Say an incumbent in seat number three is unopposed during an election, Gartman said, then he or she should not have to waste money campaigning. Only challenged incumbents should have to wage a campaign, he said.

"This would allow elections to be more focused on particular people, so you know who you're running against, not just the top three," Gartman said.

The conversation tapered off quickly once the rest of the council failed to express interest in the idea.

Artists get thumbs-up from council to include 'Arts' in city's long-term General Plan

About 20 artists and art-lovers showed up Friday afternoon to convince the council that the arts deserve specific mention in the city's long-term General Plan.

While no formal decisions were made, the council agreed to the Public Art Committee and the Arts and Culture Commission's request to add a 'Public Art' policy in the General Plan. This would mean adding to the sundry fees developers now pay to build projects in the city, some going to the school district, some to the city for new roads and more police, and perhaps soon, some for the arts.

"The importance of the arts throughout the community of Gilroy remains undefined and silent in the General Plan," wrote Recreation Manager Maria De Leon and Cultural Arts Supervisor Catherine Mirelez in a memo to the city administrator.

"Incorporating a strong visioning narrative and policy in the General Plan will elevate the significance of the arts in all its forms and confirms its value," the memo read.

Members of the Public Art Committee, led by Chair Shirley Willard, the Gilroy Arts Alliance and the Arts and Culture Commission cheered as the council gave a thumbs up to consider revising the General Plan in the near future.

1970s-era City Hall needs $180,000 face-lift, council agrees

"The council chambers is embarrassing now," Councilman Dion Bracco said. "We need to make it more presentable for the public, who owns it. Even the carpet has cigarette burns in it from when you were able to smoke in there."

Bracco sits on a remodeling subcommittee along with Councilman Craig Gartman and Mayor Al Pinheiro, and the entire council agreed Friday that it's time for the orange-tinted chambers to join modern decor, though the majority of spending was already included in the city's capital improvement budget; the council approved just $8,000 in new spending Saturday.

Only purchases greater than $35,000 require public bidding, according to City Clerk Shawna Freels, so the council's direction for staff to start remodeling will not come back before the council for formal approval. The one remodeling item greater than $35,000 will be split up into multiple purchases, Freels added, meaning it won't require a bidding process.

Some planned improvements and prices that total more than $180,000:

• $2,800 to replace 16-year old window blinds

• $4,000 for two flat-screen monitors

• $7,500 for new painting

• $15,000 to replace 16-year old carpeting

• $21,000 for new seating

• $25,000 to remodel dais

• $35,000 for state-of-the-art electronic voting system with 15" touch-screens

• $45,000 for new audio system to replace 17-year-old system

Talking Business - No alarms and no surprises, please.

Everyone knows about the Westfield mall planned for east Gilroy, but incumbent council members reminded staff Friday how embarrassing the 2006 Garlic Festival was, when some had to admit to concerned constituents that they had no idea about the mega mall even though news of it had already broke. The Dispatch learned about Westfield's interest in the city before the full council did because the company had requested confidentiality from city staff before it actually filed any application. Once an application is filed, it becomes public record and is readily available to council members, who agreed Friday that this will remain standard practice at City Hall.

"Westfield is a good example because that hit us all off guard," said Councilman Peter Arellano. "If you remember the (2006) Garlic Festival, 50,000 people were asking me what was going on, and I had no idea. That was embarrassing"

To avoid another contretemps, Community Development Director Wendy Rooney said Friday that staff has worked hard to inform the council of projects once they have applications. Rooney and a close-knit group of staff worked sporadically with Westfield in early 2006 before the company pulled an application. Before that happened, Rooney said she honored the Australian company's request for confidentiality so the two parties could have candid conversations. Without that assurance, the council cannot expect businesses to approach the city, said Mayor Al Pinheiro and Economic Development Corporation President Larry Cope. They expect the mayor and knowledgeable city staff to have certain ethics and to serve as quiet sounding boards so their business intentions don't become profit-killing public records, Cope said.

For this reason, the entire council should not have to know about every conversation Cope, Pinheiro or city staff have with potential developers, they said.

But despite everybody's right to have a confidential conversation, Councilman Bob Dillon said that the mayor, or anyone, should qualify promises of confidentiality by telling businesses that he might inform the full council of an applicaion-less project to avoid another Garlic Festival fiasco. Pinheiro said he would continue keeping conversations with business leaders to himself, but the council seemed to agree that it's a judgment call. In the words of Arellano, the mayor or Cope need to decide "who's more important, a company's board or the public?"

"If you read the charter, I'm the point man for the city," Pinheiro said. "We've got to have an opportunity to sit with these folks and give them a flavor - let them test the waters - but they need confidentiality because their competition might be doing the same thing."

Councilwoman Cat Tucker agreed.

"He's our mayor. The citizens elected him to be the mayor, and the charter says he's the point man, and I trust him," Tucker said. "I may not agree with Westfield mall, but I trust him and would like to let him make the call whether to let us know or not...If he doesn't want to, then he can keep the confidence."

Cope opined similarly.

"If this community gets the reputation of not being able to keep potential projects in confidence, we might as well close up business here because every business has competitors," said Cope, adding that he does not even talk to his own board about tentative, application-less projects because costs can double once another company reads about it in the newspaper. "Businesses will go to Monterey, Salinas, Morgan Hill, San Jose and Hollister. That's just a warning after doing this for 15 years."

But with all this confidentiality, another council blindsiding could happen, Arellano said. Councilman Craig Gartman also wondered why a business can trust the mayor and city staff, but not the entire council.

"What I'm asking is, should the mayor keep secrets and keep confidential information from the rest of the council? I'm questioning that -- that openness of government," Arellano said before he specifically addressed the mayor: "Take us along with you, if it breaks out (and the information becomes public), then we all go down with you...I'd rather have it that we all know a little than nothing at all."

Gartman added, "There's a difference between going public and coming to the council. The public is everybody compared to the council, which is seven of us, being informed."

This information-sharing idea did not sing with the rest of the council, though, as the conversation faded into a tacit agreement for Rooney to continue updating the council when applications are actually filed. Until then, confidential conversations will be honored, the council agreed. The body also directed Rooney to provide it with the same rolling list of applications she continually gives Planning Commissioners.

Beyond this, Councilman Dion Bracco said everyone should learn from the past and move on.

"We're talking about old news. There were mistakes made, and I believe everybody learned a lot from it," Bracco said. "Let's not talk about what screwed up two years ago." Bracco added that ensuring confidentiality was also a practical matter because just a tiny fraction of the people who meet with the mayor end up filing an official city application.

"I don't care who you meet with during the day, and I really don't want to have your calendar," Bracco told the mayor in jest. "We all get contacted by businesses."

Gartman told Rooney, "When you think a business is serious and an application is likely in the next month or so then give council a heads-up. You guys work with different people, and you know when they're just fishing."

For now, at least, it is still safe for businesses to keep fishing confidentially.

FOLLOW-UP STUDY SESSIONS

City staff will prepare further financial materials on the 24 items listed below, but Finance Director Cindy Murphy said the city's first budget study session won't happen until April at the earliest. Council members all said they needed to know the cost of, say, implementing Councilman Perry Woodward's 'sunshine' ordinance, or how much it might cost to build a teen center. But in order to outline these costs, city staff responded that they first need a better idea from the council as to how it plans on implementing certain ideas. Hence the need for 24 separate study sessions.

"We need to know the scope and implementation of the open government ordinance, for example, before we know the cost," said interim City Administrator Anna Jatczak. "We also need to identify time-sensitive items."

Community Development Director Wendy Rooney cautioned that staff already has other council-directed projects in the queue, and they will be hard-pressed to accommodate preparing for the study sessions in the near future.

Left-over summit topics to be discussed at separate study sessions

• Sidewalks - Feb. 11

• Even- or odd-year elections - Feb. 25

• Salaries for top-level employees - TBD

• Sunshine ordinance - TBD

• Teen Center - TBD

• Funding for arts center and library - TBD

• Housing allocation process - TBD

• Bike/Pedestrian advisory group - TBD

• General Plan Amendment to include 'Arts' - TBD

• Council Chambers remodeling - TBD

• Update charter - TBD

• City attorney's contract - TBD

• Underground utilities - TBD

• Las Animas industrial district - TBD

• Traffic problems around Camino Arroyo-SR-152 intersection - TBD

  Other To-Dos

• Status report on police department after Matrix report - TBD

• E-mail for boards and Planning Commission - TBD

• Creating cell phone numbers for council members - TBD

• Re-development Agency - TBD

• Creating a city brand - TBD

• Addressing unpaid sewer and water bills - TBD

• Gavilan College housing - TBD

• Refining downtown development incentives - TBD

• Traffic and pedestrian issues with school district - TBD