New Rocklin city manager begins job on Nov. 16

Rocklin City Council has named a new city manager, officially approving the appointment and employment agreement at Tuesday's council meeting. Alexandra (Aly) Zimmermann, who has been Vista's assistant city manager since 2012, begins the job on Nov. 16. She replaces Steven Rudolph, who retired on Sept. 18. Zimmermann's three-year employment agreement provides an annual base salary of $240,000. She will also receive a city-paid $200,000 basic life insurance plan, AD&D policy for up to $200,000, automobile and cell phone allowance of $6,000 yearly, a retirement plan and other benefits provided to non-public safety department heads, a city press release said. Zimmermann's responsibilities in Vista included oversight of the city's $150-million operating budget, administration of the law enforcement contract with the San Diego County Sheriff and acting as city of Vista's chief labor negotiator, according to the release. "Ms. Zimmermann's experience across a broad spectrum of public administration responsibilities, along with her creative approach to new economic opportunities make her an ideal candidate to build on Rocklin's success well into the future," Rocklin Mayor Greg Janda said in the release. "We welcome Aly to Team Rocklin." Zimmermann was selected from a field of 73 applicants. Rocklin Police Chief Chad Butler will continue as interim city manager until Zimmermann arrives. Quarry Park outdoor public market A proposal to establish an outdoor public market at the entrance to Quarry Park Adventures received an enthusiastic response from City Council members. The market would be on the .79 acre overflow parking lot on city property. "The basic concept is to allow an open environment … so it would be potentially retail uses, restaurant use with alcohol, etc.," Assistant City Manager Marc Mondell said. "It may include a small stage, seating areas, bathrooms but doing it on a sort of portable temporary basis. So rather than site-built construction, it might include food trucks, for example, or may include temporary stage construction or bathroom facilities that are rented facilities. Or it may include the modification of cargo containers." Mondell described the project as short-term: a three-to-five year lease agreement with the city. "The developer would be obligated to pay all costs associated with the project, so the city would not have any public funds in the project," he said. "Hopefully the city would receive some funding through the lease payments and perhaps even sales tax revenue or other revenue, property tax revenue perhaps, as a result of the development. But the developer of course would be obligated to pay all permitting fees, impact fees so on and so forth." Timing of the outdoor market opening would depend on the specifics of the proposal, Mondell said. Council members unanimously agreed on moving forward on putting out a request for proposals. "I'm very excited about this especially as we've got the amphitheater and Quarry Park Adventures but we're missing the food component and adult-sort-of activities before and after shows that kind of brings energy to downtown," Janda said. "I echo my fellow council members on doing what we need to do from a permitting standpoint but certainly not create barriers if we get some good interest and see what we can do to make it happen somewhat quickly, at least initially, to see if it even would work. I'm certainly excited to see what comes back." CalPERS annual report A report on the California Public Employees' Retirement System, or CalPers, shows the city of Rocklin's unfunded accrued liability, or UAL, as of June 30, 2019 was $57,851,321, up from $54,645,934 on June 30, 2018. The employer cost to the city in fiscal year 2019-20 was $6.6 million and is budgeted to be $7.6 million in fiscal year 20-21. At the same time, the city's funded status from 2018 to 2019 increased slightly. "(It increased) because of council's efforts through key management practices of paying down the debt," Finance Department analyst Andy Schiltz said in his presentation. Currently, the city is paying an additional 1 percent yearly to CalPERS, he said. The report encourages increasing payments to the unfunded accrued liability, as the budget permits, to save interest costs and achieve long-term pension stability. City CFO Kim Sarkovich described to the council a couple of ways to accelerate that pay down. "The pension liabilities is always a concerning issue and something we need to address… You take steps to pay that down, it pays great dividend in the future. It's addressing it now …," Councilman Ken Broadway said. "Don't stop asking and don't stop pushing to make monthly payments also. We as an elected body, also with our representatives in the Senate and in the Assembly, need to push as well to say this needs to be an option that's available to us because we all know if you run the numbers, that being able to pay monthly, accelerates that pay down." In other business Council held a swearing-in ceremony for the following appointees: * Anish Nalluri as youth commissioner to the Parks, Recreation and Arts Commission. * Roberto Cortez to the Planning Commission * Twiana Armstrong-Bryant, Christine Anderson and Susanne Stockton to the Parks, Recreation and Arts Commission * Georgetta Dolinsek and Warren Jorgensen to the Community Recognition Commission. Planning Commission re-appointee Gregg McKenzie will be sworn in at a later date.