Committee Meeting on Budget, Outside Counsel, Banking, and Dockless Vehicles - June 20, 2018
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Committee Meeting on Budget, Outside Counsel, Banking, and Dockless Vehicles - June 20, 2018
The Smart Growth and Land Use Committee met on June 20, 2018, at 5:00 PM to consider three action items and hold a discussion on dockless vehicle regulation. The meeting was chaired by Councilmember Bree, with Vice Chair Ward and Councilmembers Gomez and Kate present. All action items were approved unanimously. A working group was established to develop a regulatory framework for dockless bikes and scooters.
Public Comments & Testimony (on Dockless Vehicles)
- Maior Rosus (Circulate): Expressed support for regulations that promote bike/scooter share and oppose caps; emphasized education and encouragement over restriction.
- Matthew Vasilakis (Climate Action Campaign): Supported dockless vehicles as key to CAP transportation targets; urged investment in protected bike infrastructure and bike counting.
- Mikey Nabb (Business for Good San Diego): Supported dockless vehicles for business benefits (more customers per parking space, tourism); suggested permit fees fund bike lanes.
- Sam Mazio (Wilkinson Mazio PC, Business for Good): Supported permitting structure if funds go to education and equitable distribution; praised dockless vehicles for CAP goals.
- Matt Gardiner (bike rental business owner): Supported a smart program; noted differences between bikes and scooters; recommended speed limits, helmet distribution, and learning from technology experts.
- Kwa Wynn (Lyft representative): Represented Lyft's interest in entering the market; expressed desire to collaborate with the city.
- Angie Priesendorfer (President, La Jolla Shores Business Association): Opposed haphazard deployment; cited safety concerns on boardwalks, damaged bikes left for days, and liability issues; urged strict regulation.
- Jamie Emerson (La Jolla Shores resident): Opposed lack of regulation; described an accident involving a senior citizen and a dockless bike; demanded strict rules and enforcement.
Discussion Items
- Item 1: Fiscal Year 2019 Appropriation Ordinance – Matt Vesby (Deputy Director, Financial Management) presented the ordinance as the final budget step. It incorporates new delegated authorities for recreation center funds and grant approvals, plus technical adjustments. The IBA had no comments. No public speakers. The committee forwarded the ordinance to City Council for adoption on June 25, 2018.
- Item 2: Authorization to Retain Outside Counsel and Approve Certain As-Needed Contracts – City Attorney Mara Elliott and Deputy City Attorney Ken So requested authority to contract with 17 law firms in seven practice areas (bankruptcy, employment litigation, environmental, police excessive force, insurance coverage, workers' compensation, business/financial). Each contract is for five years, up to $250,000, with rotational use. Approval needed for four firms (Burke Williams & Sorensen, Gordon & Reese, Procopio, Colentuno) because cumulative awards exceed $250,000. Committee members praised the competitive bidding process and diversity focus. Motion passed unanimously.
- Item 3: Extension of Banking Services Contract with Bank of America – Kent Morris (Chief Investment Officer) and Trissy Deentz requested a four-month extension (through November 26, 2018) with month-to-month termination, increasing the not-to-exceed amount by $750,000, to ensure continuity while finalizing a new RFP selection. No public speakers. Motion passed unanimously.
- Item 4: Dockless Vehicle Permit Program and Fee Structure Discussion – Raymond Kahn (Policy Advisor) presented research on permit programs in Seattle, Dallas, San Francisco, Chicago, and other cities. Key benefits: affordable transit, first/last mile solution, climate action. Issues: parking clutter, company responsiveness, safety. Strategies: time-based removal, user education, gamification, bike corrals, equity requirements, data sharing, and user protection. Seattle reported 70% bikes parked correctly and 75% of riders use them for transit access. Committee members and the public spoke in favor of regulation but cautioned against overly restrictive fees or caps. Councilmembers Ward, Kate, and Gomez emphasized infrastructure, equity, and a collaborative working group. Chair Bree noted the existing contract with Discover Bike (through 2025) and asked for legal clarity on the city's ability to impose fees. The committee agreed to form a working group with stakeholders to develop a draft ordinance by fall 2018.
Key Outcomes
- Unanimous approval of the corrected records from the April 18 and May 23 hearings.
- Forwarded the Fiscal Year 2019 Appropriation Ordinance to City Council for adoption on June 25, 2018.
- Approved authority to contract with 17 law firms on an as-needed basis and specifically approved contracts with Burke Williams & Sorensen, Gordon & Reese, Procopio, and Colentuno law firms (cumulative over $250,000).
- Approved a four-month extension of the banking services contract with Bank of America, increasing the cap by $750,000.
- Established a working group (including council staff, city departments, operators, and stakeholders) to develop a dockless vehicle permit and regulatory framework, with a report back to the committee in the fall.
Meeting Transcript
Record of actions from the May 23rd hearing and the April 18th hearing have been corrected and will be approved by unanimous consent unless pulled for discussion. Do we have a request to pull the record of actions? Great. Seeing none, we will now proceed with the non-agenda public comment. Do we have any? Nope. Okay. Moving right along. Do we have any committee member, Mayor, IBA, or city attorney comments today? Nope. Okay. As we have no consent agenda items, we'll proceed directly to the action agenda. But first, do we have any requests for continuance? No. Okay. So item number one, uh to review a report from financial management recommending approval of the fiscal year 2019 appropriation ordinance. Welcome, Matt, and would you please have everybody introduce themselves? Sure. Good morning. My name is Matt Vesby. I'm the Deputy Director of the Financial Management Department. And with me this morning is Adrian Del Rio, budget coordinator within financial management, and Molly Robledo, associate manager associate budget development analyst with financial management. And as you mentioned, this morning we're here to present the fiscal year 2019 appropriations ordinance. So the appropriations ordinance marks the final step in the fiscal year 2019 budget process. This ordinance appropriates the budget based on the two controlling documents that have already come through City Council and been approved. Those are the salary ordinance, which was approved in April, and then the budget resolution, which uh was adopted on July or sorry, June 11th. Um the appropriations ordinance defines the legal levels of control for operational and capital expenditures in accordance with City Charter Section 69 and must be adopted each year by June 30th for the coming fiscal year. Again, that's a requirement of the City Charter Section 69. Staff's recommendation is to forward the fiscal year 2019 appropriations ordinance to City Council for approval. The updates that we have to the appropriations ordinance for fiscal year 19 are pretty minimal. We've grouped them into two categories. Those are new delegated authorities, authorities and technical adjustments. The two new delegated authorities are related to recreation center funds and uh grant approval process, two items that have come through city council in recent months. We've also got uh two group two items of technical adjustments, one uh that's an annual item related to the Mission Bay Park Improvement Fund and the San Diego Regional Park Improvement Fund. Additionally, we've got minor edits uh text updates throughout the document. Um Adrian's gonna cover the detail on each of one of these four uh requested changes. With that, I'll turn it over to Adrian. Thank you, Matt, and good morning, members of this committee. Uh as mentioned earlier, the fiscal year 2019 appropriations ordinance includes two new delegated authorities. The first pertains to recreation center funds. As you may recall, in December, City Council approved the recruit the creation of recreation center funds. And on June 11th, uh City Council appropriated the annual budgets for these recreation center funds. This new section in the AO authorizes the CFO to appropriate and expend funds deposited in recreation center funds from excess budgeted revenue or carry over monies from the prior fiscal year for which each fund was created. By having this authority, we will be allowed to more effectively support recreation center programs since we will be able to administratively add budget and spend for these programs if they are supported by available funds. The second new delegated authority pertains to the new grants approval process. On June 12, City Council approved revisions to the municipal code, providing authority to the mayor or designee to budget grants in an amount not to exceed $1 million, among other municipal code revisions. The requested authority in the appropriations ordinance simply provides complementary language for city staff regarding the authority already available in the municipal code. For city staff, the AAO is a more commonly cited and reviewed reviewed document regarding available appropriations authority. We also have two technical adjustments in the appropriations ordinance. They are categorized as technical because they do not change the intent of the authority language, but rather reflect annual updates to existing language.
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