PURPOSE:

This memo responds to the City Council�s request to hold community forum meetings regarding the proposed Airport development agreement.  This memo discusses possible meeting dates, locations, and format.

BACKGROUND:

At the City Council meeting of December 7, 2004, the Council requested that staff arrange for open community forum meetings on the proposed development agreement with the Burbank-Glendale-Pasadena Airport Authority and actions related thereto prior to the Council�s consideration of those actions (currently scheduled for January 18, 2005).  The goal of these meetings would be to provide an opportunity for the public to have questions answered and provide comments about the proposed agreement in an open forum outside of the formal public hearings conducted by the Airport Authority, Planning Board, and City Council.

The public has already had several opportunities to provide input on the proposed development agreement and related actions.  These include the following:

• Airport Authority public hearing (October 27, 2004)

• Comment period for Preliminary Analyses on Public Utilities Code Section 21661.6 applications (November 19, 2004 through December 6, 2004)

• Planning Board public hearing (December 6, 2004)

• Los Angeles County Airport Land Use Commission public hearing (December 8, 2004)

There will be additional opportunities for public comment, tentatively scheduled as follows:

• Airport Authority public hearing to consider Title Transfer Agreements (December 20, 2004 or January 3, 2005)

• Building and Fire Code Appeals Board meeting to consider proposed sound insulation ordinance (January 5, 2005)

• City Council public hearing to consider agreement and all related actions (January 18, 2005)

ANALYSIS:

Meeting Dates

With the City Council hearing tentatively scheduled for January 18, 2005 and the scheduling conflicts that arise during the holiday season, there are limited opportunities for the requested meetings.  Staff has identified Thursday, January 6, 2005 and Wednesday, January 12, 2005 as the most feasible and practical meeting dates.  These meetings would occur after the holiday season when there are fewer competing events and would offer two different nights of the week to maximize the opportunity for interested persons to attend.  On December 7, Council member Murphy requested that there be three meetings, one at each of the middle schools.  However, staff does not believe there is adequate time to hold more than two meetings prior to the January 18 hearing.

Meeting Locations

During the discussion of this matter at the December 7 Council meeting, Council member Murphy requested that the meetings be held at the middle school campuses.  Staff checked with the School District and learned that no middle school campuses are available on either of the proposed meeting dates.  Staff has reserved both the Buena Vista Library community room and the Fire Training Center for both meeting dates and seeks direction from the Council on the preferred location for each meeting.

Brown Act

Staff seeks direction from the Council as to whether these meetings are intended to be official Council meetings subject to the Brown Act, or informal community meetings.  The Brown Act would prohibit more than two Council members from attending the proposed meetings unless the meetings are noticed Council meetings.  Although the meeting format could still be less formal than a regular Council meeting, the meetings must be noticed as official Council meetings if more than two Council members wish to be present.  An official Council meeting would require attendance by a majority of the Council members to establish a quorum.

The official Council meeting approach would be appropriate if the intent is for all of the Council members to participate in the meetings.  The informal community meeting approach would be more appropriate if the intent of the meetings is for community members to have questions about the proposed actions answered by staff and provide their input about the agreement to staff or individual Council members, for later forwarding to the whole Council.

A significant difference between these two meeting formats is that nothing discussed at an informal community meeting would be part of the public record.  With an official Council meeting, minutes are prepared such that the questions asked and issues raised by the community become part of the official public record for the Airport agreement.  At an informal community meeting, no minutes are prepared and the comments or questions from the public are not officially recorded and do not become part of the record.  As such, any person providing input at the meeting would also have to attend the Council public hearing on the agreement or submit their questions or concerns in writing in order to have their comments considered as part of the official record.

Meeting Format

Staff recommends that one of the two alternative formats below be used for the meetings and seeks direction from Council on its preferred approach.  The meeting format is somewhat dictated by whether the meetings are conducted as official Council meetings or informal community meetings.

Town Hall Meeting: This type of meeting would consist of staff presenting an overview of the proposed agreement and the various actions related thereto.  This would be followed by a public comment period, with residents asking questions or expressing concerns, followed by staff and Council member responses when appropriate.  Staff and Council member responses could occur after each individual speaker to address that individual�s concerns, or could occur at the end of the comment period to address the questions and comments of all speakers at the same time.  If the meeting were an official meeting of the Council, this format would allow the Council members to hear the questions and concerns of all speakers and respond to questions.  An alternative to this format would be to forego the initial staff presentation and have staff only respond to questions from the community.

Workshop/Open House: This type of meeting would not include a formal presentation by staff to a single audience or comments from the group of attendees as a whole.  Instead, a series of tables would be arranged around the meeting room.  Each table would be setup for a different topic related to the agreement and would have materials and staff members to address that particular topic.  Individual topics would likely include the following:

�        Development agreement

�        Planned development zones/parking lot projects

�        Title Transfer Agreements

�        Public Utilities Code Applications/Preliminary Analyses

�        Zoning Ordinance and Building Code amendments

�        Environmental review/Mitigated Negative Declaration

This format would allow residents to move from table to table to receive information and have their questions answered in a small group setting.  Meeting attendees could elect to focus on specific individual topics if they so chose.  This meeting format would not be conducive to a unified question and answer period involving the entire group of attendees, unless such a discussion was held at the end of the workshop after the attendees had an opportunity to visit all of the tables.  Further, this format would not be practical if the meeting were conducted as an official Council meeting.  The individual discussions taking place around the room would prevent the Council from participating and would not allow the creation of a single set of meeting minutes for the public record.

Public Notice

To provide maximum notice of the meetings, staff proposes to mail a notice of the meeting to all postal patrons citywide.  As is typical with announcements for other community meetings, staff would also provide notices on cable television channel 6, in the newspaper, on the City�s web site, and through City Council announcements.

FISCAL IMPACT:

The proposed community meetings would require staff resources for scheduling, preparation of public notices, preparation of materials and presentations, and attendance at the meetings.  To provide adequate resources to address all possible questions from the community, it would also be necessary to have special counsel present at the meetings at additional cost to the City.  Direct costs to the City would be incurred from the preparation and mailing of public notices, and preparation and duplication of printed meeting materials.

CONCLUSION:

There are several options available to the Council for the type and format of the proposed meetings.  Staff has identified the most feasible dates and possible locations for the meetings. 

RECOMMENDATION:

If the Council�s desire is to go forward with the meetings discussed herein, staff recommends that the Council direct staff to schedule two community meetings for January 6, 2005 and January 12, 2005 at the Buena Vista Library or the Fire Training Center.  Staff recommends that Council provide direction as to whether the meetings should be scheduled as official Council meetings or informal community meetings, and as to the desired format of the meetings.

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