City Council OK's Bond Sales, Moves to Expand City Limits

City council on Tuesday approved the sale of $14.5 million in bonds to refinance some debt.

City leaders also agreed to file an application to annex nearly 90 acres of new land in the Dougherty Valley's Gale Ranch neighborhood. The city has to file an application with the Local Agency Formation Commission before the annexation is finalized. Adding the land will boost the city's property tax revenue.

The city’s AA+ and AAA ratings, the latter of which only 25 cities in the entire state have, will help the city’s bonds appeal to investors, according to the city.

"Weak economic data, a declining stock market and deflationary concerns have caused investors to reallocate their investments away from equities and into Treasuries and municipal bonds in recent," Interim Administrative Services Director Eva Phelps wrote in a staff report. "This 'flight-to-quality' shift has caused Treasury and tax-exempt municipal bond rates to drop significantly over the last several months as investors have sought 'safer' investments."

Mayor H. Abram Wilson said the exemplary credit rating is a huge asset to the city in the tough economic climate and that it is a direct result of the hard work of city staff and citizens.

Refinancing will save the city $2.3 million over the next two years, Phelps wrote. The savings will go back into the city's rainy day fund. The cost of refinancing will be $235,000.

The debt comes from $7.5 million of bonds issued in 1996 to pay for Central Park's expansion and another $13.9 million issued in 2001 to build the adjacent community center on Alcosta Boulevard.

The vote to annex land in the Gale Ranch subdivision will add 88.67 acres of land to San Ramon.

The 71.33 acres of planned developemtn will have 355 homes built on it with the remaining 17.34 acres designated as public and semi-public land, according to Assistant City Planner Ryan Driscoll.

Driscoll also said that this new piece of San Ramon will bring the city $40,000 in property taxes next year with that amount growing to $200,000 by the 2014-15 fiscal year.

Also at the meeting

About 10 members of Service Employees International Union Local 1021 showed up before the meeting for a closed sessions where its labor negotiators met to talk with City Council about a controversial change to employee work schedules.

The conflict stemmed from the union saying that the city unexpectedly and for no apparent reason changed their schedules to force them to work seven to 10 days in a row without a day off and without paying overtime. That 10-day run is broken up by four days off.

“We appreciate the opportunity to speak about the unilateral schedule and shift change,” Local 1021 member Bill Hudson told council members. “We understand that when we took this job there would be occasional weekend work. What we don’t understand on the work schedule is the ten days on or seven days of work and no overtime. There are state and federal laws that are against that.”

As the item was previously discussed in a closed session, the City Council did not comment publicly on the workers' comments.

Angela Osayande, a field representative for Local 1021, said that the city had only just agreed to meet with them Tuesday after previously refusing to meet.

AT&T was recognized by the city for its fifth annual Street Smarts Be Reel video contest after which AT&T presented the winners of the contest to the city council.

First place went to San Ramon students Katie Chan, Selena Joe, Allyson Koo and Eileen Liu and second place went to Kevin John.

During the meeting Mayor Wilson also introduced Girl Scout Troop 30608 and recognized them for the public service work they did painting a wall mural.