20230221 Late Correspondence Through Monday (SPC Mtg)
TO: HONORABLE MAYOR & CITY COUNCIL MEMBERS
FROM: CITY CLERK
DATE: FEBRUARY 20, 2023
SUBJECT: ADDITIONS/REVISIONS AND AMENDMENTS TO AGENDA
_____________________________________________________________________
Attached are revisions/additions and/or amendments to the agen da material received
through Monday afternoon for the Tuesday, February 21, 2023, City Council Special
meeting:
Item No. Description of Material
1 Emails from: Lowelll Wedemeyer; Phil Kent
Respectfully submitted,
__________________
Teresa Takaoka
L:\LATE CORRESPONDENCE\2023\2023 Coversheets\20230221 additions revisions to agenda thru Monday (SPC Mtg - Interviews).docx
CITY OF
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"' ~ RANCHO PALOS VERDES
Subject:
Attachments:
FW: Communication to City Council
2023-02-15-THE IMAC AT EIGHT YEARS OLD.docx
From: Lowell Wedemeyer <Lowell.Wedemeyer@rpvca.gov>
Sent: Wednesday, February 15, 2023 4:04 PM
To: CityClerk <CityClerk@rpvca.gov>
Cc: John Spielman <John.Spielman@rpvca.gov>
Subject: Communication to City Council
Madam City Clerk:
I am appending a written comment entitled !MAC at Eight Years Old.
Please distribute it to the entire City Council relevant to the February 21, 2023, 5 pm, City Council Special
Meeting to interview candidates for appointment of IMAC members.
Lowell R. Wedemeyer
1 /.
THE IMAC AT EIGHT YEARS OLD.
Around 2013 the Rancho Palos Verdes City Council perceived a need for more effective
citizen participation in review and selection of Public Works projects. To address the need,
the City Council adopted a city ordinance creating the Infrastructure Management Advisory
Committee ("IMAC"). To understand the needs of the City Council and the role of the
Infrastructure Management Advisory Committee in serving those needs, one must appreciate
the structure of city government. For those who may not be familiar with the City's structure a
summary is provided as an appendix. For a more complete description of city government see
the City's official website at www.rpvca.gov. The /MAC has no budget of its own. Rather,
funding for the IMAC is part of the Public Works budget which is managed by the Director of
Public Works and the City Manager. The city ordinance that created the IMAC directs IMAC to
review and advise the City Council on specific subjects. From time to time the City Council
asks the IMAC to review and advise on particular projects or subject matter. In principle, the
IMAC reports directly to the City Council, not to the City Manager nor to the Director of Public
Works. However, in practice the IMAC works closely and collaboratively with the Director and
Deputy Director of Public Works. An important principle is that the relationship between IMAC
and City Staff is explicitly collaborative and non-adversarial. IMAC acts in an advisory role,
not as an auditor or overseer.
1 . Public Works Performed by Private Contractors. Pursuant to long-standing city policy as
set by Council, many city functions and services are contracted out to private contractors.
This is particularly true for the city's department of Public Works. Most public works are
performed by employees of the private contractors. City employees and contracted experts
define the work to be done and manage the contracting, subject to City Council approval of
the contract terms and funding and Council acceptance of the work product. In a sense, the
City employs only a skeleton staff which supervises the work of many different private
contractors. The City cannot afford to hire as city employees all the different kinds of experts
that become necessary from time to time. Therefore, the City contracts for expert services as
needed. The size of the City's staff of course is limited by budget. Significant projects have
been deferred due to lack of qualified city employees to manage those projects. Staffing
limits have been a continuing bottleneck due to budgetary limits.
CONTRIBUTIONS OF IMAC.
2. Qualified, Uncompensated, Volunteer Services. There are many citizens of Rancho Palos
Verdes who possess the qualifications, experience and interest to help review and evaluate
proposed Public Works projects. These citizens already understand, or can quickly learn, the
science, engineering and building construction required to evaluate proposed public works
projects. They can comprehend drawings and expert reports. They understand basic physics
and engineering and can understand professional, technical language. Experience shows
that numerous qualified citizens will volunteer their time and talent without pecuniary
compensation to perform this function. IMAC routinely divides its work by subject matter so
that its subcommittees can look more deeply into the different areas that City Council assigns
to IMAC. Subcommittees are limited to two or three members so subcommittees can work
outside formal IMAC meetings while complying with the Ralph M. Brown Act. Subcommittee
Comment: IMAC at Eight Years Old 2023-02-15 Page 1
members often spend long hours between formal meetings reviewing information provided by
City Staff. IMAC members routinely visit and view proposed project sites to develop a deeper
understanding of the proposed projects. For example, IMAC members have visited proposed
storm drain works during rain storms to see why projects are necessary. Other IMAC
members have spent countless hours devising methods to objectively evaluate funding
priorities among proposed projects. Subcommittees prepare detailed written reports for
consideration by the full IMAC.
3. Citizen Review and Report. It is quite literally impossible for any individual Council member
to read and recall all of the vast amount of information necessary to operate the city. Thus,
council members must rely on others to identify, select, present and prioritize the information
upon which Council must act. This, of course, is a core duty of City Staff. The City Council
can select and appoint IMAC members who have excellent personal contacts within the
community. This means that IMAC members know or can learn community concerns and
sentiment in a way that City Staff generally cannot. Experience shows that members of the
public often prefer to express themselves to IMAC members, who then take that into account
when performing their advisory duties as IMAC members.
4. Comprehensive Listing of Public Works Projects. When IMAC was first created there was
no complete list of proposed Public Works projects with project descriptions sufficient for
IMAC members to understand the need for and scope of each project. IMAC spent much of
its first five years working closely with City Staff to create a spreadsheet system to list and
characterize all existing and potential Public Works projects. An integral part of this system is
a standardized presentation format for each project. The project spreadsheet is designed to
present in lay-person language the essential facts for each particular project. Each project
description is reviewed cooperatively by Public Works staff and IMAC members. This is an
integral part of annual preparation for presentation to City Council and the public. Great effort
is made to reach consensus, if possible, on a project-by-project basis. In the few instances
where IMAC and City Staff differ, or there are significant differences among IMAC members,
the differences are described in the presentations to City Council.
5. Institutional Memory; Turnover of Council and City Staff. The "institutional memory" of the
City lies in the collective, personal memories of individual members of the City Council, City
Staff, and others who serve the City. Many significant facts reside only in these collective
personal memories. The members of IMAC and other city committees and commissions
contribute significantly to the City's institutional memory. City records often lack important
details. The memories of private contractors, who provide many city services, are poorly
available to the city if available at all. Information in stored city records often is too difficult or
burdensome to efficiently locate. Institutional memories are lost in the normal turnover of City
Council, city employees, hired experts and contracted parties. Council members are term-
limited to eight years. City managers and department heads come and go. For example,
over about fourteen years this author has worked with five city managers, seven public works
directors and numerous deputy directors, including several who were "acting" temporarily for
several months pending recruitment of permanent employees. The duration of many Public
Works projects (from conception through design, bidding, construction and maintenance)
exceeds the average term of service of City Council and senior City Staff. This is particularly
true of larger projects. The contributions to the city's institutional memory by members of
Comment: IMAC at Eight Years Old 2023-02-15 Page 2
IMAC and other committees and commissions thus are quite significant. They help buffer the
city against the relatively constant turnover of council and staff membership.
6. Budgeting and Priorities. In every annual budget the City Council is faced with more
proposed projects than can be funded. Thus there is a continuing need to develop priorities
to choose which projects get funded. IMAC works with the City Finance Department and the
Finance Advisory Committee to add into the annual project spreadsheet the potential sources
of funding for proposed projects. This is a critical, collaborative step in setting project
priorities.
7. Objective Assessment of Project Priority By Citizens. IMAC has worked continuously with
Staff over the eight years of IMAC's existence to develop and apply objective standards to
evaluate priorities for project funding. That is an on-going process. It is an annual exercise
keyed to adoption of the annual city budget. IMAC has not found any universal set of
prioritizing standards. Therefore, after projects are evaluated by objective standards human
judgement still must be applied to achieve final priorities. IMAC brings the perspective of
citizens to assignment of priorities in a way that City staff cannot do. It is remarkable that
IMAC and the Public Works staff collaborate to reach consensus on most projects, either to
fund or not to fund. This process winnows down to the relatively few projects where people
differ on priorities for funding -the closer calls. These differences are explicitly pointed out
for the City Council's attention. This sometimes is called a needs-wants listing, but the IMAC
has found needs-wants analysis to be a crude tool, poorly adaptable to the nuances of
priorities. Most projects include mixed elements of needs and wants. Of course, the elected
City Council quite properly retains and exercises the final judgement on funding priorities.
Council does differ at times from both IMAC and staff recommendations. But the issues for
the City budget as a whole are teed up by Staff and IMAC for efficient review and decision by
council.
THEFUTUREFORIMAC
The future of IMAC is up to the City Council. The single most critical action by council is the
selection of appointees to IMAC who are best qualified to meaningfully review, understand
and evaluate Public Works projects. People who have managed engineering and science
projects are particularly helpful. People who physically view and evaluate project sites bring
invaluable perspective to the IMAC. The City Council is in the best position to recognize the
projects and issues where the Council would find IMAC review and advice most helpful. The
Council can refer such issues to IMAC. Over the years, IMAC has been keen to receive
assignments which indicate where the council itself recognizes a need.
The views expressed in this comment are those of the author personally. They should
not be attributed to the IMAC, the City or any City Staff. As always, nothing herein should be
interpreted as a criticism of anyone.
Lowell R. Wedemeyer.
Comment: IMAC at Eight Years Old 2023-02-15 Page 3
Appendix: CITY STRUCTURE
1 . The fundamental structure of city government defines and limits the powers of the City
Council and its Members. In principle, the council has no managerial or supervisory authority,
except for supervision of the City Manager. The City Council sets city policy. The City
Manager implements the Council's policy and controls day to day operations. As a general
rule, the Council can act only in a noticed meeting pursuant to a published agenda. Council
members are part time and receive relatively nominal compensation. The Council members
maintain their personal occupations separately from their duties as Council members. These
structural limits impose severe time and procedural constraints on individual Council
members and on the whole Council.
2. The City Manager holds managerial authority. The City Manager hires and fires city
employees, with some limited degree of approval by the City Council of the City Manager's
selection of department directors. Employees are collectively called the Staff. The City
Manager, the department heads and most other city employees hold full-time employment, by
contrast with the part time Council members. City government is divided into departments by
subject matter, including finance, public works, recreation and parks, and community
development plus a city clerk. Each department is managed by a director, except that the
clerical officer is called City Clerk.
3. The City Manager reports to the Council and routinely delegates some reporting to senior
Staff. The City Manager and designated senior Staff are the principal sources of information
for the council.
4. The City Council also has many duties and civic functions that are mandated by state and
federal law. The City Manager and Staff must track these mandates and keep the council
advised of them.
5. Police and fire services are contracted through the County of Los Angeles.
6. IMAC deals primarily with Public Works. Other City committees and commissions deal with
other City departments.
Comment: IMAC at Eight Years Old 2023-02-15 Page 4
Subject: FW: Agenda times for February 21st Interviews
From: P K <pek 90275@yahoo.com>
Sent: Sunday, February 19, 2023 7:28 PM
To: Teresa Takaoka <TeriT@rpvca.gov>
Subject: Re: Agenda times for February 21st Interviews
Teresa,
Regrettably, I need to withdraw my name from consideration for the traffic safety committee. Unfortunately, I have a
schedule conflict with the committee's regular meeting time I wasn't able to resolve.
Thank you,
Phil Kent
Sent from my iPhone
On Feb 15, 2023, at 2:04 PM, Teresa Takaoka <TeriT@rpvca.gov> wrote:
Hello,
Yesterday you should have all received a zoom invitation from our Adm in Assistant Nathan Zweizig for
your interview schedule on February 21 st commencing at 5:30PM and proceeding in approximate 10-
minute intervals.
I have attached the agenda for ease of reference as well.
I wanted to call your attention to a few things.
1. Even though the agenda states the manner in which you will be participating (zoom or in
person), you are always welcome to change this, hence you all received the zoom invite.
2. We used the committee that you listed as your No. 1 preference for the agenda preparation,
however, as noted on the application, the City Council may appoint you to another committee
and we hope this is agreeable to you.
3. Link to the various committee pages to which you have applied -for reference only if you wish
to familiarize yourself with various items undertaken by the committees:
https://www.rpvca.gov/149/Advisory-Boards-Committees
Please let me know if you have any questions or concerns.
Thank you.
1 /.
<image006.png> Teresa Takaoka
City Clerk
terit@rpvca.gov
Phone -(310) 544-5217
Address:
30940 Hawthorne Blvd.
Rancho Palos Verdes, CA 90275
Website: www.rpvca.gov
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<20230221 CC AGENDA Special Meeting _lnterviews.docx>
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