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12/5/2000 - Council Minutes - CC Minutes Adj APPROVED BY THE CITY COUNCIL ON DECEMBER 12, 2000 CITY COUNCIL MINUTES ORANGE, CALIFORNIA OF AN ADJOURNED REGULAR MEETING DECEMBER 5, 2000 The City Council of the City of Orange, California, convened on December 5, 2000 at 7:00 in an Adjoumed Regular Meeting in the Council Chambers, 300 E. Chapman Avenue, Orange, California. 7:00 p.m. Session OATH OF OFFICE CEREMONY 1. MUSICAL PRELUDE Nate Tarvin Jazz Band 1.1 INVOCATION Given by Gaddi H. Vasquez 1.2 PRESENTATION OF COLORS Led by Orange Police Department Color Guard PLEDGE OF ALLEGIANCE TO THE FLAG Given by Cayce Lee, Miss Orange 2001 2. PUBLIC COMMENTS - None 3. CONSENT CALENDAR 3.1 Declaration of City Clerk, Cassandra J. Cathcart, declaring posting of City Council agenda of a regular meeting of December 5, 2000 at Orange Civic Center, Main Library at 101 N. Center Street, Police facility at 1107 North Batavia, the Eisenhower Park Bulletin Board, and summarized on Time- Warner Communications, all of said locations being in the City of Orange and freely accessible to members of the public at least 72 hours before commencement of said regular meeting. MOTION - Slater SECOND - Murphy AYES - Murphy, Slater, Mayor Coontz, Spurgeon, Alvarez ACTION: Accepted Declaration of Agenda Posting and authorize its retention as a public record in the Office of the City Clerk. ADJOURNED REGULAR MEETING MINUTES DECEMBER 5, 2000 4. LEGAL AFFAIRS RESOLUTION NO. 9370 A Resolution of the City Council of the City of Orange, California, reciting the fact of the General Municipal Election held on November 7, 2000 declaring the results and such other matters as provided by Law. MOTION - Spurgeon SECOND - Slater AYES - Murphy, Slater, Mayor Coontz, Spurgeon, Alvarez Moved that Resolution No. 9370 as introduced be adopted and same was passed and adopted by the preceding vote. SPECIAL TRIBUTE TO MAYOR PRO TEM SPURGEON BY WILLIAM STEINER. Presentations: State Resolution by Senator John Lewis and Assemblyman Bill Campbell Orange County Proclamation by Supervisor Coad, 4th District and Supervisor Spitzer, 3rd District City Council Resolution No. 9365 presented by Mayor Coontz and Councilmembers Police Chief Romeo and Steve Booze, City of Orange Police Association 5. OATH OF OFFICE Administration of Oath of Office to City Clerk-Elect Cassandra J. Cathcart by Mayor Joanne Coontz Administration of Oath of Office by the City Clerk to Mayor-Elect Mark Murphy Administration of Oath of Office by the City Clerk to: Councilmember-Elect Joanne Coontz Councilmember-Elect Mike Alvarez City Treasurer-Elect Helen Walker Comments by newly-elected Mayor and Councilmembers, City Clerk and City Treasurer Newly-elected Councilmember Alvarez gave the following comments: I want to thank my immediate family that is here, my close friends and everyone that helped put me into office. All those that sit up here know that it takes a lot of people that sacrifice time away from their families and their children to help us get out there and get our campaigns going. I want to personally thank each one after tonight that helped me put out another effort. I really appreciate it. I want to thank Mike Spurgeon again for his friendship when I first came on the Council as well as the rest of the Councilmembers. I want to thank all the staff members; all the ADJOURNED REGULAR MEETING MINUTES DECEMBER 5, 2000 S. OATH OF OFFICE (Continued) staff that is here and Department Heads. They are wonderful to work with and are a lot of the reasons why our City runs so well. We get to work with them and it's quite an honor. Again, I extend my thanks one last time and pledge to work as hard as I can like I've done the first four years and we will do a lot in the next four years. We have a new Mayor and a new person coming, we don't know who yet, but they are coming. I am looking forward to the next four years, I think it will be real exciting. Newly-elected Councilmember Coontz gave the following comments: The message I continue to emphasize at our Oath of Office Ceremonies is that Orange is a great community and I am honored to be elected as a representative of this very unique City. I look forward to helping to build upon the many successes we have enjoyed in recent years. What made it easier for me to participate in that success has been my supporters and my family. Among those here tonight are my husband Lee, son Lee, grandson Lee, Francis, Elaine Coontz Bevacqua, husband Dave and kind of adopted son from Russia, Visily Shorohov. My supporters believed in me and worked so vigorously on my behalf and I appreciate it. I was given the opportunity to speak twice, once as outgoing Mayor and then again as incoming Councilmember and because I feel that my service to Orange as a community volunteer and elected representative is really continuous and dedication of service, I decided to speak once. My family for many generations has worked to sustain the principles of good government. It has been an honor and will continue to be to carry on that tradition. Of course, my heart is really in local government and the City and people of Orange are extremely important to me and I've always felt that. As the first woman Councilmember and Mayor it became evident to me that women were expected to do twice as much work in half the time, maybe with no credit. Of course that could be a family tradition too. I knew it but kept on going. I wasn't going to include that but all the women at City Hall said say it, so I did. Within a few days of first holding office as Mayor, the Orange County bankruptcy hit. While County governments stumbled along through 1995 with management and fiscal problems, we wrote off our losses and I vowed we would recover the moneys, and recently we did - every cent - with the help of our City Attorney. Our City's financial responsibility is very important to me. I created our first citizens audit committee, there is someone representing that committee here tonight, and the Investment Oversight Committee. New financial policies that were introduced with the help of our excellent staff resulted recently in national awards, and we are very proud of that. We came out from behind the counter with the Economic Development Department partnership with the business community and performance based contract with The Block and the new Katella Corridor businesses are now the standard for success. There is increased interest in activity in Old Towne, our County's only real downtown. ADJOURNED REGULAR MEETING MINUTES DECEMBER 5, 2000 S. OATH OF OFFICE (Continued) One of my first efforts as Mayor was to let our City Manager and staff know I was open to their ideas for a better and more responsive City. Family community events took off and we are into our sixth year of the July 3rd Independence Day celebration, with our Holiday Tree Lighting Ceremony and the Halloween Treats in the Streets following close behind for the third year. The Holiday Tree Lighting last Sunday night had 6,000-7,000 people in attendance so there is a lot of success with family events. I gave approval for Tom Hanks crew to film "That Thing You Do" and the movie industry has fallen in love with our Mayberry image. Mark and Brian liked us too, and we have enjoyed two of their parades. One of my favorite community projects has been the Veterans Memorial recently unveiled honoring veterans of our past, present and future. With great consideration for our young people, I let our staff know I needed more sites for youth sports. We have achieved success with our Master Plan of Parks, McPherson and Santiago Canyon College Sports programs. The purchase of the Prospect Park site and another large acreage for a park to be aunounced soon, and I think I will let our new Mayor talk about that. Our Main Library needed help as did our two branches. It's been a long term goal of mine to bring our Library system up-to-date with the new technology. We are making great strides in that direction. Throughout the state, the Bank of America was divesting property and that caught my eye. We now have an opportunity for future expansion of the main Library through the purchase of the property across the street. There are a great many other successes of the past six years including City wide technological upgrades, Council meetings on TV, although sometimes I do not like those, and our City website. In the field of education, we've begun partnerships with Orange Unified School District and Santiago Canyon College and achieved the location of Chapman University's new Law School in Orange. The list of City accomplishments is long and we can credit our staff, their loyalty and capabilities. We've had labor peace for six years. The quality and reputation of our City is foremost to all of our Department Heads as they pursue improvements to land use policy, traffic safety, community policing, fire protection and paramedic services and we are very proud of them. There are a number of issues on the table including a plan to address the preservation of Santiago Creek and develop recreational trails throughout the City. The Irvine Company will be pursuing their ambitious plans for annexation development and there is a strong possibility that the County will renege on their promise to not place yet another maximum security jail in Orange. We are looking to Mike Spurgeon and Cynthia Coad, Supervisor, who already has been helping us. These issues are before us at a time when many economists foresee a 30-40% likelihood of a recession. Some of us on this Council have gone through that and we don't look forward to that as an opportunity. With all signs pointing to a slow economic growth, according to Dr. Jim Doti we will hear more about these predictions at the Chapman University Economic Forecast this coming Thursday. Indeed you can see that this City Council must continue to address priorities, ADJOURNED REGULAR MEETING MINUTES DECEMBER 5, 2000 S. OATH OF OFFICE (Continued opportunities and constraints in our 2000/2001 Budget, yet still hold to our policy of no new taxes. This is a great Council and I know that we will be able to have some fun and come up with a number of successes and hold to the line that I've talked about - no new taxes. I thank you for giving me the opportunity to serve you for the next four years and the opportunities that you gave me before. Newly-elected Mayor Murphy gave the following comments: I want to say how honored and proud I am to serve as your next Mayor of the City of Orange. I have the utmost respect for the proud legacy of Orange that has been entrusted to this Council from our past Mayors and Councils. I see so many folks that have given community service, it makes me particularly proud to be a part ofthat distinguished group. One thing that everyone in Orange has in common is that they are proud to call Orange their home, whether it is their place of business or the place they live. I think that is something that makes this particular community so strong and have such a home town atmosphere. First and foremost I want to introduce my wife Vikki, and my parents Lois and Paul Murphy. What Mike Spurgeon said earlier really is true, the families are the unsung heroes for all of us that have served in elected office and have that honor. They deal with us for 24 hours a day seven days a week vs. just the hours that we contribute to public service where the rest of you see us. Our families see us in our best times and our worst times but are always beside us to make sure we are strong and move forward, and I am eternally grateful for that. Next the thanks has to go to everyone that got involved in my efforts for election. If I began naming names, even just in this room, we would be here for too long and I don't want to single anyone out but I want to say a collective thanks to everyone involved. The levels of effort were incredible. I never ceased to be amazed when I'd hear about the next idea, the next thing that was coming forward, the amount of energy, the all night runs, putting up signs and mysteriously finding them gone, so they went out the next night and did them again. The walking of precincts, the making of phone calls, stuffing of envelopes and working the hours at the office which is what all candidates go through, not just the ones that win, but every candidate when they put their name on the line and go on the ballot. I have the utmost respect for all of my fellow candidates that ran for public office. It is an incredible experience and I just admire all of them for having the courage to put their names forward and run for public office. It is truly a wonderful experience. Clearly it was a team effort here and I am almost embarrassed to say every vote counted - with what we have going on at the National scene, but clearly at a local situation as well, nothing could be truer. A couple of things from a vision standpoint, and then I have an announcement. I think it's pretty simple what the citizens expect us to do. From my perspective it can be centered around three particular items: (1) Protecting our neighborhoods and streets - we are blessed with the ADJOURNED REGULAR MEETING MINUTES DECEMBER 5, 2000 S. OATH OF OFFICE (Continued) best in public safety services. We have to make sure collectively as a Council that we continue to give them the resources necessary to make it a city where we are not concerned about walking downtown during the evening and enjoying shopping and feeling safe and secure in our neighborhoods and businesses. Without that a lot of other things don't become near as important in my opinion. (2) We have to preserve the quality oflife that we've come to expect in the City of Orange. High standards have been set for all of us to maintain and I know collectively we all will aspire to continue those standards both from a City Council perspective and for all the wonderful employees directed by our City Manager and City Attorney that work so hard to make sure this is a great place to live and raise a family. Finally, we have a plan and continue to plan for our future. Perhaps things will be different than what they have been in the last few years; different challenges will confront us all, but I believe collectively if we put our energies together Orange will continue to grow and continue to be the best place it can be. We have to look and plan for a strong business community. I look around this room and see the number of entrepreneurs that have lived out the American dream in the City of Orange. I am proud to see the American dream is alive and well here. So many of you have enjoyed that prosperity here in Orange and contributed to the prosperity of Orange as well. We have to be fiscally responsible which was talked about earlier and goes without saying. We have to manage our growth responsibly and make sure that as we have a growth of population and growth in areas, that we make sure we grow our resources as well to make sure for our kids and our kids' kids, Orange is still the best place in the world to be. Many of you know that parks and open space from an acquisition and planning standpoint continues to be a top priority for not only this Council but the previous one that Mike Spurgeon was actively involved in. I am very happy to announce this evening that the City of Orange has come to a conceptual agreement to acquire the 27 12 acres at McPherson and Spring which border our current park site at Prospect and Spring. The reason we are all so happy about that is the fact of the new opportunities this presents for a 40 plus acre parcel to be developed for active sports use as well as passive park use in the eastern end of our City where those resources are sorely needed. I have to commend all the Councilmembers and City staff that were involved in that negotiation because it has clearly been a team effort on all our parts in order to secure this piece of property. I'll close with a quote: Ronald Reagan said, "A great leader is not necessarily the one who does the greatest things; he's the one who gets the people to do the greatest things." As far as I'm concerned everyone in this room and all the residents of Orange should be considered great leaders in this City. With the help of all of you, there are great things ahead for our City. Thanks again for the trust and confidence you have placed in me and my family and God bless all of you and God bless the City of Orange. ADJOURNED REGULAR MEETING MINUTES DECEMBER 5, 2000 6. COUNCIL REORGANIZATION - Election of Mayor pro tern MOTION - Murphy SECOND - Slater AYES - Coontz, Slater, Mayor Murphy, Alvarez Moved to continue the election of Mayor pro tem to the January 9, 2001 Council Meeting. ADJOURNMENT MOTION - Mayor Murphy SECOND - Alvarez AYES - Coontz, Slater, Mayor Murphy, Alvarez The City Council adjourned at 8:15 p.m. to the George Weimer Room for a reception in honor of the newly-elected officials. Cu~~~~~~~ CASSANDRA J AT CART, CMC CITY CLERK