The City will continue providing virtual meetings under AB 361

ATASCADERO—The Atascadero City Council met for their regularly scheduled meeting on Tuesday, Feb. 22, at 6 p.m. The hybrid meeting was held in the City Council Chambers and preceded by the Council’s 5 p.m. closed session.

“For those of you that don’t know, we are back in Chambers. You can probably tell that, and we are working it out. Thank you for your patience. It’s good to be back, though,” Mayor Heather Moreno said at the top of the meeting.

The evening’s agenda passed unanimously.

The Consent Calendar, which included donating eight fire radios to Templeton Fire Department and 12 fire radios to Morro Bay Fire Department, as well as moving SB 1383 along, unanimously passed.

In her updates, City Manager, Rachelle Rickard stated that the City received an Excellence Award for the City’s 21/23 Budget.

“Congratulations from all to Finance. That’s not surprising, because we do an excellent job on the budget, but again, congratulations. Good job. Thank you for all that you do, making that budget really accessible, right, where people can see it, it’s easy to understand and trace things back. So, fantastic,” said Moreno.

The Council held two Public Hearings at their meeting.

Public Works Director, Nick DeBar gave a presentation on Step Two of the City’s Community Development Block Grant (CDBG) Fund, final recommendations.

At the Dec. 14 meeting, the Council was presented with applications, which the Council reviewed, allocating preliminary funds at said meeting.

“So tonight, Council review and approve the funding recommendations for the 2022 CDBG, and then authorize staff to adjust the final awards proportionate to the receiving of the final funding amount,” said DeBar.

The City’s $139,465 in CDBG Funds will be split accordingly.

City of Atascadero [for the Santa Rosa Project] – $90,652
City of Atascadero [Youth Activity Scholarships] – $10,752
El Camino Homeless Organization [ECHO] – $8,524
5 Cities Homeless Coalition – $1,644
And $27,893 going to Administration

The original CDBG distribution numbers were approved by the Council, stating they would like any excess funds coming in to go to ECHO.

Deputy City Manager, Lara Christensen brought a report to the Council on SB 1383. SB 1383 is a State-wide effort to reduce emissions of methane gas. Residents will be required to use three trash receptacles instead of two.

“So what we’re doing tonight is a draft ordinance that will add those sections that they want; they will add those specifically to our code,” added Christensen. “What it’s going to do under Title 8 under Chapter 8 it’s going to add Section 8.102, which are basically the CALGreen requirements, which impact multi-family construction and new commercial and multi-family construction. Basically saying that those constructions are required to provide readily accessible areas with adequate storage for the storage and collection of both recyclable and organic materials.”

Water-efficient landscaping will also be required for new construction under SB 1383.

The motion passed unanimously.

DeBar then gave a presentation on the City’s proposed Sewer Service Rate Increases.

The proposed increase is $40.46 a month over the $34.00 current monthly rate, which is an increase of $6.46 a month. The fee is collected annually and included in Property Taxes. The proposed rate increase would create an estimated revenue increase of $650,000 a year.

The following steps would be that before Mar. 25 every customer will have a notice mailed to them, with a public hearing held on May 10, 2022. New rates would become effective on Jul. 1, 2022.

The staff recommendations were approved unanimously.

The Council also approved to continue with Virtual Meetings under AB 361.

The next Atascadero City Council meeting will be held on Tuesday, Mar. 22, at 6 p.m.