The City Council has a smorgasbord of items to cover for their regular meeting Monday night. Here is a sampling of what City leaders in your community will be discussing:
-Can it be true? Will the City finally decide what to do with that slanting time capsule, AKA Gilroy’s familiar “Red Barn” in the middle of Christmas Hill Park’s Ranch side? It’s been sitting there for like, a thousand years (OK, closer to 100. You get the drift. That thing is old). Demolishing the structure would cost $67,950, in addition to other expenses including site re-vegetation and construction administration, putting the cost at a little more than $100,000. City staff recommends that Council receive a report with background information on the barn and provide staff with direction regarding its disposition, along with a nearby modular trailer and ranch house. Read more about the Red Barn here.
-A motion to approve the extension of consultant services agreement with the Lew Edwards Group, which was contracted by the City of Gilroy to conduct phone polling for the potential Quality of Life tax proposed by Mayor Don Gage. Want to learn more about the proposed measure? Click here.
-Disposition and sale of deaccessioned museum books and periodicals. City staff recommends that City Council, by motion, approve the sale of the 61 books and periodicals to Norman H. Davis, Books, in the amount of $4,116.50, and the disposition of the remaining 2,312 books and periodicals, consistent with the Museum’s Collection Policy.
-The introduction of an ordinance amending Gilroy City Code Section 18.6(b) to allow for the consumption of alcohol in public parks on a permit basis in certain designated drinking areas only. It is recommended by staff that Council, by motion, introduce the ordinance. Read more about this here.
-A proposal to extend the City’s seismic safety ordinance deadline from Dec. 16, 2013 to Dec. 15, 2014, as staff “recognizes the need for additional time to complete the prescribed seismic safety retrofitting requirements” for unreinforced masonry buildings, or URMs – buildings that are structurally unfit to survive a high-magnitude earthquake. Also coming up in a Nov. 21 meeting, the URM Task Force will “strive to meet with the property owners to discuss the unique challenges of each URM building.”
According to the agenda item, the anticipated outcome of this meeting – the first of several – is to determine areas under the current ordinance where staff can assist the URM owners in moving through the retrofit process and identifying areas of the current ordinance where modifications are appropriate.
-A motion to approve a 2 percent salary increase for City Administrator Tom Haglund, bringing his compensation to $219,255.00, effective retroactively July 1, 2013. According to the agenda item, the raise will keep Haglund’s compensation “competitive with regional markets around Gilroy for like City Administrator positions.”
