The South San Francisco City Council met virtually on Wednesday, May 26, 2021, at 6:00 PM for a regular meeting conducted via teleconference under Governor's Executive Orders due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The council addressed a lengthy agenda including presentations, a consent calendar with 20 items, administrative business items, and closed session. Notable outcomes included the introduction of a reach code ordinance for all-electric new residential construction, approval of a Shop Local Gift Card Program, and direction to staff on Reimagine SamTrans bus service changes. The meeting also featured recognition of youth art scholarship winners and a proclamation honoring a longtime Cultural Arts Commissioner.
Reimagine SamTrans (Items 3 & 18): SamTrans staff (Jessica Epstein and Jonathan Steketee) presented three alternatives for countywide bus service changes, with detailed impacts on South San Francisco routes. The council discussed:
Shop Local Gift Card Program (Item 17): Staff (Heather Ruiz) presented a revised program: $40 gift cards to 2,200 low-income households, redeemable only at local restaurants, groceries, pharmacies, gas stations, and personal services. The total cost is $96,700 (including 8% administration fee), funded from the general fund with expected reimbursement from the American Rescue Plan. Gift cards cannot be used for alcohol or tobacco. Distribution will be through nonprofit partners (YMCA, JobTrain, housing staff). Councilmember Flores praised the program's focus on supporting both businesses and food-insecure households. The program was approved unanimously (5-0).
Old Firehouse Property – 201 Baden Avenue (Item 19): Staff (Julie Barnard) reported that after several developer changes (Habitat for Humanity, Anton DevCo), Eden Housing has been secured as the affordable housing partner. The proposal now includes 82 affordable senior housing units (100% affordable) combined with the adjacent KFC/Taco Bell site, plus rehabilitation of the firehouse for office use. The current action was to approve the Second Amendment to the Exclusive Negotiating Rights Agreement (ENRA) to replace Anton DevCo with Eden Housing. Councilmember Flores disclosed a prior meeting with Eden Housing. Vice Mayor Nagales expressed confidence in Eden's financing ability given the site's transit-oriented location. Councilman Coleman suggested exploring a 100-year lease instead of a land sale, but other members favored the upfront sale ($1.1 million). The amendment was approved unanimously (5-0).
Animal Control Services Agreement (Item 20): Assistant City Manager Sharon Reynolds presented a five-year agreement with the County of San Mateo for animal control services, effective July 1, 2021, at a cost not to exceed $662,368 for FY2021-22. The contract includes enhanced services: patrols of parks and neighborhoods, priority response times (e.g., aggressive animals within 1 hour), and 36 performance indicators (up from 4). Sharon noted that increased pet licensing can offset city costs. The resolution was approved unanimously (5-0).
Reach Codes Ordinance (Item 21): Director Alex Greenwood and consultant Farhad Farmand presented an ordinance requiring all-electric construction for new residential buildings and increased electric vehicle (EV) charging infrastructure. Key elements:
Councilmember Comments and Requests:
Ready to go, Mayor. Okay. So we'll go ahead and call this regular meeting of the South San Francisco City Council for this Wednesday, May the 26th to order. And we'll begin with a roll call. Councilmember Coleman. Here. Councilmember Flores. Present. Councilmember Nicholas. Present. Vice Mayor Nagales. Here. Mayor Adiego. Here. Thank you. And we'll move on to agenda review, Mayor. Yes, thank you. Um, Mr. Fuchell, any changes to this lengthy agenda? Uh request, Mr. Mayor. Uh, we have a presentation item three by Sam Trans. Right. We could move up item 18, which is the council's consideration of the same trans bus route. Uh, that might make uh for an efficient meeting. No, that would be yeah, exactly. It might um if we have the presentation and then wait till item 18. We might need the presentation yet again. So wonderful suggestion. So after after that presentation, we'll move 18 up into the next spot. Um Mike, any announcements from your staff? Uh we have one that I'm aware of from the finance department. If uh Janet Salisbury could be promoted to um a panelist. There we go. Janet uh good evening, uh Mayor Adiego, Vice Mayor Nagales, and uh council members, Janet Salisbury, your finance director. And uh tonight I wanted to share with you the great news that we successfully priced um the city's lease revenue bonds earlier today, and that will fund the library parks and rec building, the streets program, and the solar roof for the civic campus and uh the courtyard. Recording in progress. The total um proceeds we will receive from the sale is 104 million dollars. And uh to remind the council when we issued the phase one bonds last year for to fund the police station, it was uh right at the cusp of the pandemic. So it was in February, and uh we were at all-time historic lows in terms of overall interest rates, and so we um priced that deal at 2.3 percent all in uh total interest cost. So uh since that's sale, the markets recovered a bit, and we were expecting um kind of higher rates going into this morning. And when I met with you last, I think it was the last council meeting May 14th, and when the council um approved the bond documents, our total interest cost assumption was about two and a half percent. And so um the assumption was that the average annual debt service would be about 5.7 million dollars. And um I'm happy to report it was an extremely successful sale. Um we're right on top of where we were even last year. So we're at 2.3 percent in terms of all in total interest costs, and um the average annual debt service is actually down from when we spoke last a couple weeks ago. So the average annual debt service on this new deal will be 5.5 million dollars, so it's about 200 um dollars lower than what we were assuming going in. And while hindsight is you know 2020, as you know, I think breaking these uh deals into two tranches instead of doing it all in one go. So we did decide to separate that and do the police station first because the LPR was not uh ready yet. It's actually saved the city just even in the past 15 months over three million dollars, and so that's what's you know, the savings that we've had, and so um it was great going into this morning.