APPRO-2023-40 : An Appropriation from free cash (account 01-324001) in the amount of $67,650 to Public Works, Parks and Forestry Department (#475) for tree plantings.

Transcript (~6 min @ 1:32:25)

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▶ 1:32:17 Speaker 3: Vice chair Jamine? Yes. Councilor McMaster? Yes. Councilor Sin? Yes. Counselor Les? Yes. Councilor Gepe? Yes. Councilor Stewart? Yes. Council crochet? Yes. Uh, president Gregs? Yes. And Chair Maguire? Yes. That's nine. Yes. You unanim us. Okay.

▶ 1:32:35 Leila Migliorelli: The order will be brought to the full council meeting. Um, next is appropriation 2023 dash 40 appropriation from free cash account zero one dash 3 24 0 1 in the amount of 67,650 to Public Works parks and Forestry Department 4 75 for tree plantings.

▶ 1:32:56 Speaker 1: Thank you. Um, so this order, as we've discussed in the past, is a rec recurring free cash request each year, um, in the absence of a tree budget in the operating budget. And this amount that we had come up with is roughly equivalent to the number of removals that we tend to do each year. Um, at the time when we came up with this estimate, it was 123 this year. We looked to date, we've had 126 removal work orders in our system. Um, about just under 70 of them have been accomplished, but that's about the number that we remove each year. Um, so this, as we've said before, it keeps us on pace with tree replacements. It doesn't really move us forward with increasing the number of trees in the city street trees. Um, but at a minimum we like to be able to at least replace what we're taking down.

▶ 1:33:51 Speaker 4: Questions, counselor, Gar,

▶ 1:33:52 Mark Garipay: Uh, what's the, um, the wait time from the time you put a request in to when you'd see a tree? Is it a year?

▶ 1:34:01 Speaker 1: It's, so now we're just a little over a year. Um, at one point in the time I've been here, we were at about three years. And that free cash that you all approved, I believe it was last year, it may have been the year before of 150,000, we were able to catch up. So we're now in good shape where we're fulfilling basically 2022 requests in 2023. And hopefully we can keep up with that.

▶ 1:34:26 Mark Garipay: And it's 120, what did you say? 123 trees? It's

▶ 1:34:30 Speaker 1: 123, which is an awfully specific. Those,

▶ 1:34:32 Mark Garipay: Those are all replacement or that's, that's the list. Like I'm assuming some people don't want a replacement, so We, yeah. So Are we getting,

▶ 1:34:40 Speaker 1: So we're, yeah, we're replacing one for one, but we're not necessarily replacing in the same place. Okay. We automatically create a work order to replace in the same place when a tree's taken down, but before we put it on the planting list to the contractor, we go out and mark where we put a tree, we drop a notice and sometimes the residents say, no, I don't want another tree there. If there were problems with the tree there, that's why it didn't survive or whatnot. And so we don't always plant in those same places, so we have a net net zero, but it's not necessarily the same spots.

▶ 1:35:11 Speaker 4: Okay. Thank you Councilor Stewart?

▶ 1:35:13 Robb Stewart: Thank you Madam Chair. Thanks for being here this evening. Um, just a kind of a little bit of a follow on question. When, when I'm all walking my dog and I see the, the tree stumps that have little orange paint on it, right? I mean those are trees that have been taken down and those are due for replacement or there's gonna be replacement elsewhere. What about those tree stumps? You gonna get rid of those or? Yeah,

▶ 1:35:38 Speaker 1: They get ground. We have a, we have an on-call contract with a company that comes in and grinds stumps, but we wait until we have enough stumps for them to come in and spend a day grinding so they're painted to identify that they're part of that program.

▶ 1:35:51 Robb Stewart: I think you have a day already lined up just based on what I've seen. Uh, this, there's a bunch of 'em. So, alright. That, that's all. Thanks. Thank you much.

▶ 1:36:01 Speaker 1: Thanks.

▶ 1:36:03 Speaker 4: Um, any other questions? I have one,

▶ 1:36:07 Leila Migliorelli: sorry. Um, just about the free cash. So I noticed I went back through, we were given a report on free cash updates, um, over the past few years. And so I noticed that in the past free cash requests for trees, there's been a, there is a balance left over. Um, do you want to, like, for example, in 2022, um, we approved 70,000 for trees and there's a, currently, according to the documentation, we were provided by the mayor's office, $28,000 balance in that. Um, just wanting to kind of get a sense of how you're

▶ 1:36:45 Speaker 1: Yeah. So that is accurate. Okay. And we're still paying our invoices from, we just planted in the spring, so we still have some trailing invoices for maintenance, for police details, that sort of thing. Okay. I think we've paid the main invoice for the contractor, but anything left over will be used toward our fall planting. And then anything left over between this order and the balance will be used in the spring. So by the time we're before you again for another free cash order, we will have spent hopefully that 28 plus the 67 or sometimes a little shy of it. Sometimes when we go to to plant, we give the contractor our list and you know, the day that they get out there, there are residents who have had our notice that said call within five days and they wait till they're out there planting and they go out and say, I don't want a tree. And so we always end up a little short of, we give them about a hundred trees and each round. Mm-hmm. And we, um, or at least the last few rounds and we end up planting probably 90 each time.

▶ 1:37:46 Leila Migliorelli: Okay. And so it's safe to say that when you take down a tree and if the, you know, person who lives there doesn't say, don't plant another one, it's to say you should see another tree within, within a year or a year, year and a half. Year and a half, depending on when it's happening. Yeah. Okay. All right. Thank you. Okay. What is the will of the committee?

▶ 1:38:06 Speaker 3: I'll make a motion to recommend this for passage.

▶ 1:38:11 Leila Migliorelli: Second. Motion to recommend made by Counselor Gepe, seconded by Counselor Car Shady. On discussion. Seeing none, Mr. Clerk,

▶ 1:38:17 Speaker 4: will you please call the rule

▶ 1:38:20 Speaker 3: Vice chair Jamine? Yes. Councilor McMaster? Yes. Councilor Sin? Yes. Councilor Eccles? Yes. Councilor Gepe? Yes. Councilor Stewart? Yes. Councilor Kche? Yes. President Gregs Yes. And Chair Elli? Yes. That's nine. Yes. Unanimous. Okay.