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The Pleasanton City Council is set Tuesday to consider allocating $500,000 from the water enterprise fund balance to the water replacement capital improvement program so staff can proceed with the planning process to develop two new city-owned wells.
According to the staff report, the council will vote on establishing the new capital improvement project for the two new wells — which are being called Well 9 and Well 10 — and will look to approve the water supply alternatives study final report draft from Oct. 12, which outlines why the two new wells are most economically viable options to bring clean water to residents.
“A comprehensive review of alternatives has preliminarily concluded the city can continue to serve high-quality groundwater and achieve the most significant benefit at the lowest cost by advancing the implementation of two new wells to be located in the Bernal subbasin outside of the influence of PFAS,” the staff report states.
PFAS, also known as forever chemicals, have plagued the city’s groundwater basin since 2019 when city staff first learned of its existence in its city-owned wells 5, 6 and 8. Those wells, which helped meet the city’s quota of producing 20% of the city’s water supply (with the rest coming from the Zone 7 Water Agency), have been turned off since then except for Well 5 and Well 6, which could both be turned on as deemed necessary during this summer’s peak water demands with the caveat that staff must test the wells every month.
Those wells have been found to have significantly less PFAS contamination than Well 8, which was the first well that the city found PFAS chemicals and continues to have the highest concentration of the chemicals.
The council originally began by eyeing plans to construct a water treatment and rehabilitation facility, known as the PFAS Treatment and Wells Rehabilitation Project, to treat and rehabilitate the three wells in Pleasanton and to create a new centralized treatment facility for PFAS treatment, disinfection and fluoridation.
But on Sept. 6, 2022, the council paused that project in order to evaluate other options, mainly due to a $46 million pricetag on the treatment facility. That number had since gone up to roughly $60 million, according to staff.
Since then, a water ad hoc subcommittee was formed; the council established a new water supply alternatives study capital project and contracted with Brown and Caldwell — an engineering and construction firm focused on water and environmental sectors — in order to evaluate different potential options.
And after several months of collecting and reviewing data from the city and from the Zone 7’s groundwater model, staff narrowed the comprehensive list of water supply alternatives down to four options and presented those options to the council on Sept. 19.
After reviewing the options, the council showed strong support for the option to build two new wells — Well 9 and Well 10 — outside of the PFAS plume, which has been spreading PFAS contaminants mostly in the East Pleasanton region.
If approved by the council on Tuesday, staff will proceed with planning and developing the two new wells and will evaluate a joint project with Zone 7. The $500,000 that staff will be asking for during the meeting will help cover the early design costs for the project during the 2023-24 fiscal year.
The City Council meeting is scheduled to begin at 7 p.m. Tuesday (Oct. 17). The full agenda can be accessed here.
In other business
* The council will be discussing several proposed improvements to the Lions Wayside and Delucchi parks project after having reviewed recommendations from the Pleasanton Downtown Association.
The discussion was originally scheduled to occur during the Oct. 3 meeting but was motioned to be continued until Tuesday’s meeting after the council received a letter from the PDA stating that the association wanted to provide more input on the proposed improvements.
In February, the council halted the Lions Wayside and Delucchi Park Master Plan update process, which was included as part of the downtown transportation corridor plan. The master plan for both parks had originally started in 1993.
But after a decade of design work, evaluations and discussions, several council members on Feb. 7 thought the complete redesign was too costly — even though staff had said they didn’t have the actual cost estimates — and that the designs were ultimately unnecessary.
Instead, the council will now be looking at smaller scaled improvements such as moving the Chan Henderson Bicentennial Bandstand at Lions Wayside to the north side of the park in order to “create a stronger connection to the Firehouse Arts Center and a larger lawn area.”
According to the staff report, other proposed changes that staff are recommending to be made to the parks include modernizing the bandstand to match the Firehouse Arts Center.
The council will also be weighing in on several Phase 2 improvements, which is where the PDA offered its input, such as constructing a playground, a restroom or a lawn with seating to provide more concert viewing areas.
According to the PDA’s comments to the council, it would like the council to weigh in on accommodating the expansion of the farmers market by adding pavers into Delucchi Park; creating a gateway into downtown at First and Neal Streets; and, as a Phase 2 Improvement, maximizing the parking opportunities around Lions Wayside Park.
The PDA also requested that it be included in the conversations regarding the design of the bandstand, particularly in regard to providing a sound system.
“Staff recommends that, based on the public input received over the last decade, expansion of the farmers market and the creation of the gateway be considered as future phase improvements similar to the proposed phase 2 parking lot construction,” according to the staff report.
“Staff will work with the PDA on the sound system for the bandstand, and can provide accommodations … for a sound system in the Phase 1 design, but due to the limited budget, a complete sound system would need to be a later phase improvement,” the report further states.
The report also states that adding any new project features at this state of the process would require the removal of other proposed features in order to balance the budget and that further analysis and design modifications could impact the timeline of constructing the first phase of improvements — like moving the bandstand.
Originally, the construction for whatever plan the council decides to go with would have been tentatively scheduled to start next summer, with a projected completion date before the 2025 summer concert series.
* The city’s seven committees and three commissions could be consolidated down to five and two, respectively, depending on what the council has to say on Tuesday.
According to the staff report, evaluation of the city’s commission and committee structure is included in the 2023-28 Citywide Strategic Plan in order to optimize the city’s internal structure.
“To better align with the city’s organizational structure, streamline opportunities for community input and engagement and increase efficiency for the commission and committee members as well as supporting staff members, the City Council voted to create an ad-hoc council subcommittee to discuss commission and committee restructure and present a recommendation for the City Council’s consideration,” the staff report states.
That ad-hoc subcommittee has since reviewed and discussed several options for consolidation of the committees and commissions including eliminating the Housing Commission and having the Planning Commission assume the responsibilities of the Housing Commission.
Other options include combine the Human Services and Library Commissions; combine the Civic Arts and Parks and Recreation Commissions; retain the Youth Commission and modify membership to youth only; convert the Committee on Energy and the Environment to a Commission; and reduce the number of members on, and frequency of the meetings for, the Bicycle, Pedestrian, Trails and Economic Vitality Committees.
The council will discuss these options and then come back at a later meeting for a final vote.
* As part of the council’s consent calendar, which are items that are routine in nature and are typically approved by a single vote without much discussion, the council will be looking to increase City Manager Gerry Beaudin’s monthly salary of $24,500 to $26,031.
If approved, Beaudin’s monthly salary will then be increased again on Feb. 1, 2024 to $27,658.
* The council will also be looking to approve a 4.25% pay schedule increase for management and confidential employees during the consent calendar. The financial impact of the increase to the city would be approximately $665,000 for fiscal year 2023-24.
* Also during the consent calendar, the council will be looking to make a change to its public comment policies in order to not allow virtual or phone comments to be submitted during council meetings.
Staff are citing other public meetings in neighboring cities where people have used virtual public comment sessions to make hateful comments or remarks as the reason behind this decision.
Council members will still be allowed to attend the meeting virtually under emergency circumstances and the meetings themselves will still be held virtually but public speakers will now be limited to in-person meetings only. Residents can also still submit written comments as well.
* City staff will be looking for the City Council’s approval to allow Beaudin to authorize necessary agreements and other regulatory documents to formalize a $300,000 loan to Tri-Valley REACH so that the nonprofit can construct a two-bedroom accessory dwelling unit at its Hansen Drive property ​​for adult residents with developmental disabilities.
* Before the regular meeting, the council will be holding a separate special meeting at 6:30 p.m. to officially receive the Helen Putnam Award for Excellence for the development of the Pleasanton Police Department’s Alternate Response to Mental Health program.
Prior to that special meeting, the council will be holding a closed-session meeting at 6 p.m. to meet with the city’s legal counsel and discuss the existing litigation with the 3M Co., a chemical manufacturing company.
Pleasanton is settling a lawsuit against 3M related to contamination of the city’s drinking water after the company announced a nationwide resolution agreement with hundreds of other water providers.
