South San Francisco City Council Regular Meeting - November 10, 2021
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South San Francisco City Council Regular Meeting - November 10, 2021
The South San Francisco City Council held a hybrid in-person/virtual regular meeting on Wednesday, November 10, 2021, at 6:00 PM. The meeting featured a proclamation honoring Ruby Bridges Day, a consent calendar with eight items (one pulled for discussion), and three administrative business items concerning fire inspections, the Grand Boulevard Initiative Phase III, and the sale of city-owned property at 201 Baden Avenue for affordable housing and commercial use.
Presentations
- Proclamation Honoring Ruby Bridges Day (November 14, 2021): Students from Martin Elementary School, led by Ms. Carlino, read the proclamation. They highlighted their statewide Ruby Bridges Walk to School Day campaign, which has grown to 25,000 participants across nine states. The proclamation was presented to the students.
Consent Calendar
- Items 2–9 were read by the City Clerk. Councilmember Flores requested removal of Item 8 (Guaranteed Income Pilot Program grants) for additional discussion. All other consent items were approved unanimously via roll call.
- Item 8 (Guaranteed Income Pilot Program): Interim Director Nell Selander provided an update: 113 of 160 targeted households have been fully enrolled; their first $500 payment will be made November 15. The remaining 47 households will receive a double payment on December 15. Councilmember Flores requested a detailed demographic breakdown, to be provided in a later memo. The council then approved the item unanimously.
Public Comments & Testimony
- No public comments were received in person, via eComment, or via Zoom.
Council Comments/Requests
- Councilmember Nicolas requested volunteers for holiday food drives (November 22 and December 20), noted the city’s finance team received an excellence award, and asked the city manager to explore installing two life-saving stations at Oyster Point Marina. She also requested the meeting be adjourned in memory of Lucy Barrera (mother of IT Director Tony Barrera).
- Councilmember Flores reminded the public of the Ruby Bridges Walk to School Day on November 17 at 7:45 AM (departing from Liberty Bank on Linden Avenue), promoted a housing authority meet-and-greet, and noted a $10,000 small-business grant round from San Mateo County Strong (deadline Nov. 12). He requested adjournment in memory of former Alameda County Supervisor Wilma Chan.
- Vice Mayor Nagales welcomed the Thanksgiving Fun Run (Nov. 13) and thanked colleagues for recognizing notable women in the community.
- Councilmember Coleman asked staff to pursue an education campaign on electric vehicle retrofits and sustainable appliances.
- Mayor Addiego acknowledged Veterans Day (Nov. 11), noting free swim for veterans at Orange Park and free donuts at Royal Pin Donuts from 7–10 AM. He also honored his uncle (WWII veteran) and father (Korean War veteran).
Discussion Items
- Item 10: Fire Department Annual Inspections Performance. Fire Marshal Ian Hardage reported that, under SB 1205, the department completed 18 of 19 school inspections and 481 of 503 multifamily residential inspections (96% overall). The remaining 23 inspections were completed within 60 days after the reporting period. New development inspections increased by about 1,700 compared to the prior year. The resolution approving the annual inspection performance was approved unanimously.
- Item 11: Grand Boulevard Initiative Phase III (GBI 3). Associate Engineer Jeffrey Chow presented the project from Arroyo Drive to Kaiser Way. Funding includes a $2,120,000 grant from the MTC Safe and Seamless Mobility Quick Strike Program. Staff recommended amending the Mark Thomas & Company design contract by $66,777 (total not to exceed $246,532) and awarding a construction management and inspection contract to TRC Engineers, Inc. for up to $432,959.67. Councilmember Flores noted a bus shelter lacking pedestrian connectivity near Kaiser and asked staff to inspect the area. Councilmember Nicolas pointed out a median nose at the Kaiser intersection that is frequently hit by turning cars and requested a vertical sign. The resolution was approved unanimously.
- Item 12: Sale of 201 Baden Avenue. Acting Deputy Director Julie Barnard (on vacation; presented by Nell Selander) explained the city owned site at 201 Baden Avenue. Two purchase and sale agreements were presented:
- 12A – Firehouse Work LLC (201A Baden): Sale price $1,025,000. Firehouse Work (architectural firm group four) will restore the historic firehouse for commercial use, with local business Group 4 as tenant. The building will be listed on the California Historic Register.
- 12B – Eden Housing (201B Baden): Sale for $1.00 plus a city loan of up to $4.5 million. Eden Housing will acquire the adjacent KFC/Taco Bell property and construct 82 affordable senior rental units (deeply affordable, averaging 55% of area median income). To secure the KFC/Taco Bell owner’s cooperation, a drive-through will be included in the new ground-floor commercial condominium. Staff noted proceeds from the Firehouse sale may be directed to housing programs. Councilmembers expressed strong support, especially for senior affordable housing. Two separate resolutions were approved unanimously via roll call.
Key Outcomes
- Consent calendar approved (items 2–9), including the Guaranteed Income Pilot Program grants after discussion.
- Resolution approving Fire Department annual inspection performance (Item 10) passed unanimously.
- Resolution accepting $2,120,000 grant and authorizing contracts for Grand Boulevard Initiative Phase III (Item 11) passed unanimously.
- Resolution approving sale to Firehouse Work LLC (Item 12A) passed unanimously.
- Resolution approving sale to Eden Housing (Item 12B) passed unanimously.
- Meeting adjourned at approximately 7:15 PM in memory of Lucy Barrera and Wilma Chan.
Meeting Transcript
Recording in progress. You have three staff in house right. Okay, Gabriel. All right, thank you. So we'll go ahead and call this regular meeting of the South San Francisco City Council to order for this Wednesday, November the 10th. And we'll begin with a roll call. Mayor Adiego here. Vice Mayor Nogales. Councilmember Nicholas. Present. Councilmember Coleman here. Councilmember Flores. Present. And our next item. Next we have the Pledge of Allegiance, Mayor. So looking out in the audience is the chief here. Is uh Yeah, yeah. I think I don't have a lot of opportunities to call on you to do some of our important work. So you get to lead us. I pledge of allegiance. One nation undergoing liberty and justice for all. Thank you, Chief, as a party. Next we have agenda review mayor. Okay. No minister. No changes, Mr. Mayor, but we do have a couple of staff announcements with your permission. Cool. So that um Gabriel will announce that next. We have announcements from staff mayor. Mr. Futrell, do you have anything? And we do have a few staff announcements with his permission, Mr. Mayor. Okay. Hello, good evening, uh, Sharon Randall's here, assistant city manager and park and rec director. I just have three short announcements uh for the community. The first is that on Saturday, this coming Saturday, November 13th, we'll be holding the 48th annual Thanksgiving fun run. Uh it's uh runners and walkers of all ages and abilities are encouraged to uh join the uh event. Top finishers will be awarded following the race. You can register in advance, and if you'd like a t-shirt, you do need to register in advance because but you can also register the day of, uh, but t shirts are not available if you do it uh the day of. And um you can visit our uh website at www.ssf.net slash rec for more information. It's out at Oyster Point. Um, and it's a different course this year uh due to some of the construction activities, but it should still be a really fun race. Um the next item is uh now through November 30th, we're having a virtual art exhibit, and it's called one scrap at a time, and it's a fiber arts presentation, and it's again it's virtual, but it's really lovely. There's two rooms that you can visit, and there's a lot of quilts and different fiber art. So um the galleries are open through November 30th, and it is free. So again, um visit the site at SSF.net uh forward slash cultural arts. And then this last event, this is ongoing, and the parks and recreation department has this um uh software called agents of discovery in South San Francisco, and it's kind of a Pokemon similar to that, only we customize it. Um so there's uh different different um challenges that you can go on, and so we encourage uh the community to join that, and it's um you get little um tokens as you complete each mission and they're educational and interesting.
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