The City of Portola City Council held a regularly scheduled meeting Wednesday, Feb. 14, with a full agenda focused on a review of the City of Portola general plan.
The meeting was called to order and opened with the Pledge of Allegiance. Council called for public comment, and resident Lindsey Shaw stated that she liked the new website’s accessibility and clarity.
City communications
The meeting moved to city communications, starting with reports from council members. Mayor Pat Morton reported that she attended the latest meeting of the new Beckwourth Peak Fire District, and that the district was focusing on organizing people and equipment, along with budget planning. “They’re busy and moving forward,” Morton said.
Mayor Pro Tem Jim Murphy reported that he had attended a Local Agency Formation Commission meeting, with the note that Eastern Plumas Rural Fire Protection District has submitted to annex to the new fire department, “which was good news.” It was also noted that as of December 2023, LAFCo no longer accepts public comment via Zoom.
Staff communications
The Northern Sierra Air Quality Management District reported that Portola was still in non-attainment for ambient air quality standards, as well as the fact that they were encouraging folks to get their annual chimney sweep vouchers early. It was also noted that city residents may qualify for free heat pumps for wood stoves certified by the Environmental Protection Agency, specifically for those that only utilize wood heat to stay warm in their homes.
Interim City Manager Jon Kennedy then went over a few items, stating that the city has settled on a part-time planner, potentially saving the city money. “We’re working on the code enforcement job description currently,” Kennedy said. “It’s a work in progress.”
Kennedy noted that there is a new city website that went live Tuesday, Feb. 13. City Clerk Jason Shaw added that he was finding it very streamlined and easy to navigate. Kennedy gave an update on the bridge in the City of Portola over the Feather River, noting that the recommendation is that a monitoring program be put in to place with some highway bridge program funding potentially identified for future restructuring. “As I have more information I will share it,” Kennedy added.
Council approved the consent agenda before moving onto the next agenda item.
City of Portola Engineer Dan Bastian gave an update on the North Loop project, asking council for approval for the final progress payment for Phase 1 of the project. The request asked to submit payment to Q&D Construction for work completed to date in the amount of $258,869.29.
North Loop Phase 1 final payment
“This should be the last time you see me as regards the Phase 1 North Loop project,” Bastian said. He noted that he needed council to “address and authorize change orders 2 through 7 that had been implemented and constructed on the project,” which would result in the approval of the final requested payment amount.
After minimal discussion, council unanimously approved the proposed request for payment and authorized the noted change orders on the project.
End-of-year budget review
City Finance Officer Susan Scarlett reviewed the budget for the 2023-2024 fiscal year, noting that the city cash balance has remained healthy, and that Eastern Plumas Health Care continues to pay down their note with the city. For Fund 207 in streets, Scarlett put a negative in the budget.
“Right now, we’re in the negative for $85,000 for streets, as well as a negative for snow, but our snow monies don’t come until later in the year,” she said.
Scarlett also reported that Statewide Transportation Improvement Program projects are in the negative as they have not yet been reconciled with Caltrans. “Water and sewer, as well as solid waste, look good,” Scarlett noted. “We’re in the black for solid waste. When it comes to budget versus actual, a preliminary spreadsheet showed that the revenue looks low but that is due to property tax not coming through yet for the beginning of the year.”
“The street and snow funds are about where I would expect them, but we’ve not had the kind of snow year that we had last year. There’s no revenue in snow removal right now,” Scarlett explained. Scarlett spoke to the many water leaks that the city has had to address as well. “We are also getting vehicle abatement funds again,” Scarlett said. “We are finally back in the vehicle abatement program.”
General plan review
Next up on the agenda was a review and acceptance of the 2022 and 2023 general plan annual progress reports, and a review of the draft 2045 general plan for the City of Portola. The general plan links community values, visions and objectives with decisions that affect the physical development of the community, such as subdivisions and public works projects. It is a comprehensive policy document that defines the type, amount and location of future growth and development within the city, and forms the base for the city’s planning activities and its decisions regarding development proposals.
Karen Downs, of Manhard Consulting, began by explaining the purpose of the general plan annual progress reports for 2022 and 2023. “The purpose is to help identify statewide trends and document progress in meeting the city’s share of regional housing needs, and inform local decision makers,” she said.
California recently implemented a requirement that the annual progress reports needed to go before city council, thus their presence on the agenda. The city’s current general plan was adopted in January 2012. California Government Code Section 65400 requires all cities to file a general plan annual progress report, or APR, to the Governor’s Office of Planning and Research. For the full language of the 2022 APR, click here.
For the full verbiage of the 2023 general plan progress report, click here. The progress reports for 2022 and 2023 were both unanimously approved by roll call vote.
After reviewing the progress reports, Downs moved on to a review of the 2045 general plan. “The City Council gave previous direction to staff in 2019 to prepare a draft general plan (General Plan 2045) that would incorporate and meet the State of California 2017 General Plan Guidelines (GPG). At that time, staff initiated a public review process and started reviewing the GPG,” Downs noted.
The draft 2045 general plan was provided to council and that document, along with all changes and updates made to the initial draft, can be found here. According to the document, the general plan has been revised to include updates to reflect changes in state and federal law, including the California 2017 general plan guidelines and updates to reflect completed projects and current operations and conditions, which have changed since the previous general plan was adopted. The draft update also includes the elimination of goals and policies that have been accomplished, and engineering standards from the general plan, which are maintained by the City of Portola or other externally regulating agencies such as Caltrans in standalone documents.
Finally, the updated draft includes typographical corrections regarding grammar, format and consistency, updates to reflect the current status of approved projects, such as the Woodbridge at Portola project and editorial changes, consisting of clarifications and cross referencing with internal documents. It was noted that a California Environmental Quality Act document to come would likely be an addendum due to a reduced growth assumption from the previous document.
“The City of Portola general plan … presents a lower growth projection.”
Karen Downs, general plan consultant
“The City of Portola general plan 2045 recommends no changes to existing land uses and presents a lower growth projection than provided in previous iterations of the general plan,” said Downs. “There are minor changes to address state law requirements, slight changes to policy numbering, and minor changes to certain policies, while maintaining existing goals and the structure of the previous general plan.”
Elements in the City of Portola general plan include land use, community design, circulation, economic development, public services and facilities, safety, conservation and open space, noise, air quality and housing.
Updates to the draft include such items as Federal Emergency Management Agency flood maps, the addition of land use maps with zoning to help guide future planning efforts and updated projected population growth tables to reflect current population projections and updated protection of open space and natural resources to ensure Firewise standards are implemented, per the National Fire Protection Association. Other changes to the plan include additional code enforcement strategies aimed at reducing blight and increasing safe living conditions in the city, consolidated design standards for recreation and business opportunities along the river and updated existing major streets/streets in need of repair maps to show where improvements can be made.
“What we are looking for tonight is any questions, comments, direction on the review process as a whole or for the environmental review so we can come back with an environmental document,” Downs said. “Should this be introduced to the public before the final product?” Mayor Pro Tem Murphy asked. Downs answered that a public workshop could be scheduled, and Murphy noted that he would prefer to have the public as involved as possible. Downs noted that there were 12 public workshops in 2021 and 2022 but that it had been some time. Kennedy suggested a workshop for the public might make sense before council reviewed the final draft.
The City Council of Portola reviewed the draft for the 2045 general plan and directed staff to prepare a final draft with the appropriate environmental review document. A public hearing will be scheduled soon and announced to the public.
Authorizing agent for public assistance
This agenda item asked council to approve Interim City Manager Jon Kennedy as the authorized agent for public assistance on behalf of the City of Portola. The document would be filed with the California Governor’s Office of Emergency Services for the purpose of obtaining federal financial assistance for any existing or future grant programs related to disaster assistance. Among the possibilities are a federally declared disaster, a fire mitigation assistance grant, a California state-only disaster, the Immediate Services Program, the Hazard Mitigation Grant Program, funds for building resilient infrastructure and communities, the Legislative Pre-Disaster Mitigation Program and other FEMA funds.
After some discussion, the council approved the resolution unanimously by roll call vote. “The mayor is listed as the representative of the governing body,” clarified City Clerk Shaw.
City attorney rate increase
Council tackled the final item on the agenda: an hourly rate fee increase for City Attorney Steve Gross, of Porter Simon. After Gross recused himself from the meeting, council reviewed a letter which requested a 12% increase in the city attorney’s hourly billing rate for services. That would bring the monthly rate retainer fee from the current $4,950 to $5,545 a month, and from $250 an hour up to $280 an hour for services not included within the fixed fee arrangement. The increase would also bring up rates for litigation services from $325 an hour to $365 an hour.
Gross asked that the new rates become effective as of March 1.
“I am very cognizant of the challenging financial environment in which we all operate. While my new rates will represent a 12% increase to my current rates, I have not increased rates since May 2021. Therefore, the average annual increase in my rate over the past three years is 4% per year,” his letter stated.
During his time as city attorney, he said, “We have experienced some very high inflation, and my costs continue to rise. This is only the sixth time since 1997 that I have requested an adjustment in my billing rates.”
A motion was made to approve the 12% increase in fee rates with unanimous approval from city council by roll call vote.
The meeting was then adjourned.
