| Time | Speaker | Text |
|---|---|---|
| 00:00:00.03 | Herb Weiner | from New York, nor do I have a Twitter or a Facebook. Yay! |
| 00:00:01.03 | Mike Kelly | Thank you. |
| 00:00:01.65 | Ricky Cacho | and then, |
| 00:00:03.79 | Mike Kelly | Yay! |
| 00:00:06.24 | Herb Weiner | So there. Although just don't drive by 4th Street or else I'll be accused of something. Anyway, are we ready? Okay. I'd like to call to order the June 7th, 2011 meeting. Can I have a roll call, please? |
| 00:00:24.50 | Jonathan Leone | Council member Pfeiffer. Here. Councilmember Leone. |
| 00:00:27.61 | Herb Weiner | here. |
| 00:00:29.44 | Jonathan Leone | Councilmember Ford. Here. Vice Mayor Kelly? Mayor Weiner. |
| 00:00:33.51 | Herb Weiner | present at this time here. Is there any public comment on the closed session items? okay with that I will adjourn to close session and discuss the some litigation on Zacks v. Sausalito. and Bruce versus Sausalito and the MLK properties. Thank you. |
| 00:00:53.00 | Mike Kelly | Okay. |
| 00:00:53.41 | Herb Weiner | Thank you. |
| 00:00:59.20 | Carolyn Ford | Wow, it's warm in here, isn't it? |
| 00:01:01.17 | Carolyn Revell | you |
| 00:01:01.22 | Mike Kelly | A LOT. |
| 00:01:01.57 | Carolyn Revell | Thank you. |
| 00:01:01.83 | Mike Kelly | Love it. |
| 00:01:03.01 | Carolyn Revell | Thank you. |
| 00:01:06.27 | Carolyn Ford | I'm not sure. |
| 00:01:06.86 | Mike Kelly | Thank you. |
| 00:01:37.06 | Mike Kelly | I'll talk. |
| 00:02:20.90 | Toyomi Tanaka | Thank you. |
| 00:02:44.00 | Mike Kelly | Hmm. |
| 00:02:52.68 | Herb Weiner | We ready? Hmm. Okay, good evening and welcome to the June 7th, 2011 meeting. At this time here. Would you like to have a roll call, please? |
| 00:03:05.98 | Jonathan Leone | Thank you. you Councilmember. |
| 00:03:10.31 | Herb Weiner | God bless you. you I'm not going to stay here. |
| 00:03:13.37 | Jonathan Leone | Thank you. |
| 00:03:16.42 | Jonathan Leone | Councilmember Pfeiffer, here. |
| 00:03:20.41 | Mike Kelly | here. |
| 00:03:20.64 | Herb Weiner | Thank you. |
| 00:03:20.66 | Mike Kelly | Thank you. |
| 00:03:20.68 | Herb Weiner | Thank you. |
| 00:03:20.86 | Jonathan Leone | Councilmember Ford. Here. Vice Mayor Kelly. |
| 00:03:23.76 | Herb Weiner | Here. |
| 00:03:24.54 | Jonathan Leone | Mayor Weiner. |
| 00:03:25.57 | Herb Weiner | President. |
| 00:03:25.99 | Jonathan Leone | That's right. |
| 00:03:26.83 | Herb Weiner | at this time here. Jerry Taylor, would you lead us in the pledge, please? |
| 00:03:46.53 | Mike Kelly | Thank you. liberty and justice for all. |
| 00:03:51.13 | Herb Weiner | Thank you, Jerry. |
| 00:03:57.29 | Herb Weiner | At this time here, we had a closed session, and we discussed three items. One was Zacks versus Sausalito, Bruce versus Sausalito, and MLK Properties. At this time here, is there anybody that would like to speak on any of these closed items at this time? Okay. Thank you. At this time here I'd like to move for the approval of the agenda. |
| 00:04:26.64 | Jonathan Leone | Can I make a motion to adopt the agenda, but as amended by moving item 6C, make out the new 6A? which is the budget discussion, and then pushing the other two down to B and C. |
| 00:04:40.70 | Mike Kelly | Okay. |
| 00:04:41.51 | Carolyn Ford | and making it succeed. |
| 00:04:43.68 | Jonathan Leone | Making the budget the first business item. |
| 00:04:50.52 | Carolyn Ford | Well, Mr. Mayor? Yes. I believe we may have some people here who want to talk about the fire consolidation. So I don't think that would be – I know the budget discussion is going to take quite a while. It always does. So I would – I don't see any problem with moving it up, but I don't think – well, wait, I do, because we have the special guests giving the greenhouse report and we have the fire. We only have three items on the agenda. Yeah. I would think we'd want to have the fire consolidation because of the interest in that. |
| 00:04:51.68 | John Flavin | Thank you. |
| 00:04:51.71 | Jonathan Leone | Thank you. |
| 00:04:51.85 | John Flavin | you |
| 00:05:13.82 | Ricky Cacho | Thank you. |
| 00:05:13.84 | Mike Kelly | Thank you. |
| 00:05:13.97 | Ricky Cacho | Thank you. |
| 00:05:23.71 | Mike Kelly | Yeah. |
| 00:05:31.94 | Carolyn Ford | Kept where it is, actually. |
| 00:05:32.06 | Mike Kelly | Twitter. |
| 00:05:35.05 | Linda Pfeifer | I would concur with that. I think there are people here who are especially here for the fire consolidation. |
| 00:05:42.17 | Jonathan Leone | So why don't we keep it as the second item and move the greenhouse gas to 6C. |
| 00:05:43.05 | Linda Pfeifer | Keep it as... |
| 00:05:50.73 | Herb Weiner | Alright. |
| 00:05:51.05 | Linda Pfeifer | Well, I think. |
| 00:05:53.48 | Herb Weiner | All right, okay. All right. Second. Second. Second. Second. |
| 00:05:55.77 | Jonathan Leone | All right. |
| 00:05:58.59 | Herb Weiner | Okay. All in favor? Aye. Aye. Both? Okay. Also, let me remind everybody up at the council here that we are using the Rosenberg rules. |
| 00:06:00.40 | Mike Kelly | はい。 |
| 00:06:12.02 | Herb Weiner | not the Wiener rules. |
| 00:06:13.75 | Mike Kelly | Hehehehe. |
| 00:06:16.06 | Herb Weiner | but the Rosenberg rules. We will be working with the three minutes and one minute. And if you have something to say, please wait for me to address you on that. This time here, I, um, |
| 00:06:39.94 | Herb Weiner | Excuse me, would like to... adjourn this meeting tonight in honor of Glendon Mistel. on Thursday, June 2nd, Bye. Former council member Glendon Misko passed away. Glendon served on the City Council from 1994 to 1998. his term He was part of such projects as relocating the police department The trailer's on Locus, supporting a city website. creating a farmer's market in Dunphy Park, attempting to develop a vegetation management plan. and a reviewing and acting on a tremendous amount of number of Planning Commission appeals and hearings. Um, with Sterling Misklantin. Remember Glenda in all the years that I was in business. With that, I've invited a couple of our residents to also speak on who Glenda Misco was, and I'm going to start off with Amy Belser. |
| 00:07:53.34 | Amy Belser | Thank you, Mr. Mayor. I served with Glennon from 94 to 98, so I got to know him quite well. I didn't know him all that well when he was elected, but I got to know him very well. And Glenn was a very special person. He was totally committed, a public servant, very bright, a man of honesty and integrity, good humor, occasionally whimsy. And always a great friend. Glenn and I ended up in a a somewhat combative atmosphere during the time that we served. then that's about as nicely as I can put that. But at any rate, we were almost always on the short end of a 3-2 vote for practically everything. There were things that didn't come to a vote because we were there. And oftentimes we had the people with us, but we didn't have the votes. So if the issue was pushed... We'd lose. It's very simple, but we did... champion some some um sort of not high priority issues at the time we really championed vegetation management. Fires were were a huge problem at that time as they always are. But with our trusty firefighters and us we heckled and led the city into more awareness, let's say, of the importance of vegetation management and that the fire department can't do it all We have to help. So that was the kind of thing that Glenn and I oftentimes took on and were successful in things like that. Glenn adored his family. He worked very hard and he used to joke occasionally because he was a busy, busy lawyer, kind of a solo practitioner at the time, I think. he would say, you know, my kids think I'm the Bank of Glendon. which any parent who has kids growing up knows what that is like. He was impatient with... meetings going past 11 at the very, very latest. And, um, would usually get up and leave. regardless of what was going on on the agenda, it didn't matter. That was the hour at which he left, And so then it was three one vote. I did, there was one meeting it had to do with school and it was held over at the school and it went on quite a while and it was clear that how the thing was going to come out and so Glenn got up and left earlier than usual After a while, I finally decided I really didn't need to be there either. So I said to the mayor, you know, you really don't need me here, so I think I will excuse myself. And I walked out and as it turned out, Everybody broke into applause. It's quite funny. That's the only time I've ever done it. But at any rate, Glenn, had his criteria and that was one of them so he did not suffer fools Thank you. lightly in that regard. But he was, he was a very special guy and when I heard this bad news last week after I thought really he had taken a turn for the better, and I think he had, It really rocked me. when you work with somebody like that closely. it's just hard. That's all. No easy way around that. And so I want to end with this. And it is a crowfoot Indian philosophy that says, what is life? It is a flash of a firefly in the night. It is the breath of a buffalo in the wintertime. It is the little shadow that runs across the grass and loses itself in the sunset. And I think that says it well. Thank you. |
| 00:12:23.86 | Herb Weiner | Thank you, Amy. Jerry Taylor. |
| 00:12:32.57 | Jerry Taylor | Thank you, Mr. Mayor and city council members. The Glendon Miss School that I knew would probably rather be remembered as a proud, successful father than as a member of the City Council. I met him because my daughter is the same age as his son through the Sausage Nursery School. He was elected to the city council while he was a member of the nursery school. I remember him happily pouring beer at the nursery school Spring Fair downtown alongside the then mayor of Great. Doug Fancher, a beer booth downtown. I think one of his happiest moments that Amy didn't mention was when Vina del Mar Park was reopened after all those years of being closed since the 60s. That was something that was near and dear to him because he had kids and wanted to use the park and feel the grass. Glenn kept his office hours at Molly Stone's Market. If you wanted to discuss city business with Glenn, you would find him between 5.30 and 6.30 at Molly Stones. I was down there last night commiserating with a couple of people and they said that Glenn had been down there for the last few months talking about his affliction with somebody else who, one of the employees who shared that and they were really sorry to hear about After the nursery school, we partnered again as president of Little League Baseball here in Sausalito and Glenn was a vice president and a happy coach of Patrick's teams always. I recall one night when he, through a connection of, through Bob Lurie's secretary, he procured tickets for us to have one of the luxury boxes in Candlestick Park. Well, luxury in Candlestick Park don't, that's kind of a, But Glenn went out and found a loose seal, and we posed for pictures with this group of about 10, 15 kids from Sausageville to Marin City, and that was a very happy moment. I think Glenn told me once upon a time when he was a boy, his grandfather was a part owner of the San Francisco Seals minor 18, and he had been a bat boy for the Seals. He was so proud of Caitlin and her show horses and her championship work there. Patrick? who's finishing his junior year between Santa Cruz and I think is transferring to Berkeley in engineering. and obviously his wife, Carol. And I thank you for this opportunity to have some thoughts about Glenn. Thank you, Jerry. |
| 00:14:55.72 | Herb Weiner | Thank you. |
| 00:14:55.87 | Jerry Taylor | Jerry Williams. |
| 00:14:56.97 | Herb Weiner | Thank you. |
| 00:15:02.25 | Jerry Williams | Thank you very much. Mr. Mayor. No, Silver. Glenn was a very private person, and I agree with Jerry Taylor that he probably wants to be remembered better for being a husband of Carol and father to Caitlin and Patrick. And I just want to add one brief vignette of one of Glenn's nights that he did not get up and leave. There was an ordinance to amend the zoning ordinance in town to allow hotels from the northern border to the southern border in Sausalito. And Glenn had done his homework and he worked very hard and he was very passionate about that issue. And he managed to point out that night to one of the members of the city council that that member of the city council happened to have an ownership interest in some of the land that was on the waterfront in the city. Glenn used his passion and intelligence and convinced that person that They could not vote that evening. And so Glenn prevailed on that one because he didn't leave his perseverance. And it was a two to two vote. So today I thank Glenn for no more hotels on the waterfront. And I'd like to thank you for your service, too. Thank you. |
| 00:16:18.11 | Herb Weiner | Thank you. |
| 00:16:18.12 | Jerry Williams | Thank you. |
| 00:16:18.14 | Herb Weiner | Thank you, Jerry. Is there anybody else here in the audience I can make a comment. And then I'll bring it back up here. Anybody else that would like to say anything? |
| 00:16:29.80 | Carolyn Revell | I'm ready to see you. |
| 00:16:30.95 | Herb Weiner | Okay. Councilman before. |
| 00:16:33.61 | Carolyn Ford | Yes, thank you. I first met Glenn when he campaigned for city council. In fact, my husband Bob convinced him to run. So, He was wonderful during that time and I campaigned for him wholeheartedly. that time he and I commiserated on being in the minority on the city council. He shared stories with me that are hilarious that I really can't tell from the day of... And so, He had quite a sense of humor. He was so warm and generous and kind. And yet he had the fighting Irish in him. He was a wonderful person and I was so sad to hear of his passing, and it certainly has put a pall over the town. So we'll all miss him. |
| 00:17:35.06 | Herb Weiner | Thank you, Keanu. |
| 00:17:36.04 | Linda Pfeifer | Mr. Mayor, I'd like to make a comment. |
| 00:17:37.27 | Herb Weiner | Okay, Council Member Pfeiffer. |
| 00:17:40.02 | Linda Pfeifer | Thank you. I met Glenn first when I was first running in 2008. Boy, what a strong man and very inspirational. He had wonderful insights into so many issues. He knew so much about the history of Sausalito. You know, all I can say is I feel honored to have known him, and it truly is a great loss for our towns. |
| 00:18:11.62 | Herb Weiner | Okay, thank you. The only thing I can remember was that Usually at gas stations, you don't put up signs for people running for office, and Glendon was the only one that I ever put a sign up for at my shuttle station. He was just a He was just a real good human being, and we'll miss him. Thank you. So with that... We'll move on. and move on to a more positive note. Ah. this time here. pleased and proud to introduce I knew, Supervisor Kate Sears, she's from Sausalito. And I think you will find out she's not only very capable of the position, but I think she will. do Sausalito well. So with that, Kate's in. |
| 00:19:26.40 | Unknown | Well, you've ruined me now because it's fully downhill from here on the board of supervisors. But thank you very much, Mr. Mayor and council members. And, you know, I do want to acknowledge the sad circumstances of this opportunity that I have to be appointed of Charles McClashen's death. But I feel very honored to be appointed to fill out his term. And I want to thank the many of you in this room who were supportive to me in the process of applying. And I look forward to talking to everybody here in this room as I go forward and really start doing my work to forward the interests of Sausalito at the county level. So I know that everyone will not be shy about talking to me, and I look forward to it. Thank you very much. |
| 00:19:28.66 | Ricky Cacho | Really? |
| 00:19:29.03 | Mike Kelly | downhill I'm a part of Super Bowl. Thank you. |
| 00:20:05.88 | Mike Kelly | Thank you. |
| 00:20:10.12 | Herb Weiner | Thank you very much. |
| 00:20:57.98 | Mike Kelly | Thank you. you Thank you. |
| 00:21:01.34 | Herb Weiner | you So 11 o'clock, I could walk out. I'll work on that one. Thank you, Amy. Mr. Mayor. Yes, I'm sorry. |
| 00:21:02.01 | Mike Kelly | So I love it. |
| 00:21:09.03 | Carolyn Ford | May I say just a few words and congratulations? |
| 00:21:11.22 | Herb Weiner | Yes. |
| 00:21:13.20 | Carolyn Ford | Well, all I can say is congratulations, Kate. Governor Brown could not have chosen a better person for this job. You have the intellect and judgment and leadership that will be invaluable to Sausalito, Southern Marin, and Marin County as a whole. And We are so fortunate and I am so happy that you are following in the footsteps of the family tradition of community service. Thank you. |
| 00:21:52.23 | Linda Pfeifer | I'm sorry. |
| 00:21:53.02 | Mike Kelly | Yeah. |
| 00:21:53.02 | Herb Weiner | Yeah. |
| 00:21:53.33 | Linda Pfeifer | Mr. Mayor, may I say something? |
| 00:21:57.34 | Herb Weiner | Yes. |
| 00:21:59.66 | Linda Pfeifer | Thank you. Kate, I want to say congratulations. I was very, very pleased. with Governor Brown's selection. I know that you will provide such strong leadership for Southern Marin in a very uniting way and a collaborative way and I'm just so happy. So thank you for stepping up to the plate, and thank you for serving, and congratulations. Thank you. |
| 00:22:34.43 | Jonathan Leone | Yeah, I would just say good luck to you. You have a tough act to follow. It's interesting that no elected official ended up applying for that particular job at the end of the day because I think it's a tough job and it's a tough act to follow. And having not gone through an election, I think the public still awaits your points of view on many of the issues of the day. |
| 00:22:44.95 | Mike Kelly | I like it. |
| 00:22:45.37 | Mike Kelly | Yeah. |
| 00:22:56.05 | Jonathan Leone | You don't have any built-in constituencies since you didn't have to go through that process, so I urge you to be a caretaker of that office until the public has a chance to speak in November of 2012. And I encourage you to build bridges to folks who you maybe did not support or issues you did not support in the past. Having been part of Joan Cox's campaign, I would encourage you to be able to bridge to me. And I would encourage you not to be swayed by the whispers of a few. because you're certainly getting that now, as I would imagine. So with that, it's a daunting job, and I wish you the best of luck with it. |
| 00:23:32.96 | Mike Kelly | . |
| 00:23:35.25 | Mike Kelly | Well, I served with you, Kate, in my initial entree into public service in Slesley, on the Public Safety Facilities Committee. We argued about that word for about a week, I think. And I found you to be fair-minded, listened to both sides. You showed no partisanship in that in that endeavor and it paid big dividends we got a group together and they started working together and so I'm confident that you will do the same thing at the county level and I wish you the best Thank you. |
| 00:24:10.03 | Herb Weiner | Thank you. |
| 00:24:10.10 | Mike Kelly | Thank you. |
| 00:24:10.15 | Herb Weiner | Thank you. |
| 00:24:10.17 | Mike Kelly | Thank you. |
| 00:24:11.72 | Herb Weiner | They said it all. Thank you. but but we're very glad that you're on board and at the city level if there's anything that we can do to work with you we're here for you so thank you OK. Next, we're going to have a presentation by Larry Clinton and the Sausalito Historical Society of their annual... financial reports and a request for additional funding. Money is tight. |
| 00:24:42.97 | Unknown | Thank you, Mayor, Mr. Mayor, and Council Persons. I have some handouts that I would be referring to |
| 00:24:57.10 | Unknown | There's some further. |
| 00:25:03.12 | Unknown | Well, as noted in your agenda, The Slaughtsville Historical Society finds it necessary to request an increase in the city's monthly contribution toward the funding for the Ice House Downtown Visitor Center and historic exhibit. And in the handouts that have just been passed around, There is a stat sheet. to give us a perspective on the ice house operation. The Ice House serves over 29,000 visitors and locals every year. In addition to serving as an information source, The ice house also displays artifacts, photos, and artwork from the society's collection. It's staffed by knowledgeable and friendly docents who are paid So the ice house can maintain regular hours Those hours are Tuesday through Sunday from 11.30 a.m. to 4 p.m. in order to serve tourists and locals alike. I stopped in there recently and took a look through our visitors log. The second page of your handout contains some quotes that I picked up from just the last couple of months. One person said, enjoy the museum very much. A great place to wander about. A travel writer said, looking for an inspirational story. Found it. a very enthusiastic couple from Australia who wrote, Thanks for the great visit, drew a heart in the log. and said, Good info. Cheers. Repeat visitors said, always love coming back. Someone else had a great history, loved the variety. And one visitor said, described the center as being very carefully put together and visitor friendly. And I thought I'd bring up one other quote that I found in the log. Someone asked the question, do respectable women still fear to tread the waterfront? Now, hopefully, our docents Doris, Bea, Robin, and the other folks who work there set this person straight. |
| 00:26:59.42 | Mike Kelly | Thank you. |
| 00:27:02.07 | Unknown | But the wages and related expenses for these docents come to approximately $15,000 a year. It's the Historical Society's largest single expense category. And the third page of the handout is a year to date, not annual, but year to date profit and loss statement just for. The Ice House. As you can see, We've spent $6,500 in wages and related expenses. and leaving the society with a net operating loss not the society, but the ice house itself, a net operating loss so far this year for the first five months of $3,753. It comes out to about a $1,300 a month average loss. or an annual shortfall of $5,500 a year Even after the contributions from the Business Hospitality Development Committee and the city. Now that shortfall brings up several negative impacts on the historical society, which also negatively impact the community. Funding that shortfall takes up an inordinate amount of our time. and energy. As a result, we've had to shorten the hours that our history room is open to the public. and we have been able to stage fewer exhibits than in previous years because the board is concentrating more on fundraising these days. We also are having fewer free events, such as book readings and lectures and receptions, Because these days, everything we do has to be a fundraiser. So our proposal, to the city is If you're able to increase your monthly ice house contribution, from $500 to $1,000. the annual shortfall would be eliminated. and the historical society would be able to concentrate on serving downtown visitors, as well as preserving Sausalito's unique history for the enrichment of all with services such as our history column in the MarinScope, Our outreach program to students at Bayside and Willow Creek Academy. And also allow us to continue long-term projects to upgrade our archival storage and to make our files searchable by computer. preserving our collection and making it more accessible for everyone. Many thanks for your consideration for this proposal. If there are any questions, I'd be happy to take them. |
| 00:29:26.02 | Mike Kelly | You said 1,300 a month, and yet the 3,752 would be more like 700 or so. |
| 00:29:28.16 | Unknown | Thank you. |
| 00:29:35.30 | Unknown | Um, Thank you. |
| 00:29:37.73 | Mike Kelly | I just, And if we gave you five, that would only come up to about 6,000 |
| 00:29:44.07 | Unknown | Well, the extra $500 a month would go out to $6,000 a year, and that would definitely erase the shortfall. |
| 00:29:54.21 | Jonathan Leone | Has a society approached the Chamber of Commerce to see if they would be willing to contribute more towards that? |
| 00:30:01.05 | Unknown | Yes, I sat down with the chamber and also with the business hospitality committee. to see about ways of raising additional funds. And some suggestions were made. Nothing paid off, unfortunately. Um, We also have applied for grants to the art festival successfully, to the library foundation, to through Supervisor McLaughlin's office to the county and to organizations such as the Lions, Rotary, Um, some of the banks in the area. We're actually out. grant seeking. which is one of the things that's draining our resources from doing the things that are our core mission. |
| 00:30:48.05 | Carolyn Ford | Excuse me. Thank you. Just one quick question. What has been the response from the other organizations that you've talked to? |
| 00:30:48.06 | Unknown | with him. |
| 00:30:56.28 | Unknown | Every one that I mentioned has come through for us in some way or another in years past, not every year. |
| 00:31:01.44 | Carolyn Ford | I'm sorry. |
| 00:31:02.74 | Unknown | And we also have initiated an annual contribution solicitation amongst our members, which has been very well responded to We're trying to fund some of these other projects, such as the archival upgrades and that sort of thing through those kinds of contributions. |
| 00:31:16.73 | Carolyn Revell | Mm-hmm. |
| 00:31:20.41 | Carolyn Revell | Thank you. |
| 00:31:21.46 | Herb Weiner | Okay. |
| 00:31:22.81 | Carolyn Revell | Thank you. |
| 00:31:22.83 | Unknown | Thank you. I look forward to your decision. |
| 00:31:23.13 | Herb Weiner | look forward to |
| 00:31:31.57 | Herb Weiner | everybody. |
| 00:31:35.48 | Herb Weiner | Okay. and that item will be part of our budget cost. conversation. Thank you, Larry. At this time here... I'd like to... see if there's any public comment on items that are not on the agenda. Okay, have a raise of hands. Wow, okay. I'm Jeannie. |
| 00:32:05.87 | Unknown | Thank you, Mayor Weiner and City Council. I'm going to ask your indulgence for a couple of moments. I guess three, actually. This, this. 2.55 now. Shhh, taking my time. This past month, I had the honor of chairing the event that we did called Sunset Sake and Sushi fundraiser that we did in conjunction with the sister city program here in town, as well as the Bay Model and the five-star yachts. We did this to support the relief efforts in Japan following their devastating earthquake and tsunami. |
| 00:32:15.31 | Herb Weiner | $2.55 now, Diane. |
| 00:32:42.19 | Unknown | Um, Chris is passing out the program that we used for the event to all of you. As you probably know, Sister City has a 23-year history with Japan, so we all felt that we had to do something. We, Constructed a committee that consisted of Chris Gallagher, who I'm going to ask to stay up and join me, Kim Huff, Pam Wycliffe, Jeff Shirash, who had no choice, Toyomi Tanaka, Matsuno Patrick, and then Lisa and John Scopazi, who graciously donated their yacht for the event and the whole sale, which was amazing. I've been in events for 20 some odd years, and this was truly one of the most efficient events and the most enjoyable that I've ever worked on. We had over $16,000 of in-kind donations. Pretty much everybody we asked came through for us in some capacity. It was unbelievable. We had over $5,600 in cash donations. with. a tiny little bit of $200 of expenses. It's the most phenomenal P&L I've ever produced. So with that, we are extremely proud to present to the Benevolent Society of California with funds that will go directly to efforts for repair in Sendai, Japan, the area's hardest hit, as you know, in the amount of? $5,412.77 that we raised that night. |
| 00:34:13.40 | Mike Kelly | All right. Thank you. |
| 00:34:20.50 | Unknown | So I'm going to ask Toyomi Tanaka to introduce our guest who's here in the audience, who's here to accept the check in both Sausalito's name as well as our sister city, Sakai-des. |
| 00:34:34.59 | Toyomi Tanaka | Hi. Thank you. |
| 00:34:35.27 | Herb Weiner | Make sure it's in English now. |
| 00:34:37.78 | Toyomi Tanaka | Yes, I tried to speak English. I'd like to introduce who can bring all U.S. elite people's hearts and checks directly to Japan. So Ms. Seiko Fujimoto. |
| 00:35:01.51 | Seiko Fujimoto | Thank you, Mayor and Councilwoman and everybody. We're really happy that we received this money and my daughter right now working at the Sendai Miyagi and the government office and the other day she met with our honorable Ambassador Wu's and then he promised to the city and then prefecture that they will help and support as long as they take. And she was so proud to be American. And thank you so much. I appreciate it. Thank you. |
| 00:35:42.24 | Mike Kelly | Bye. |
| 00:35:42.43 | Herb Weiner | Thank you. |
| 00:35:42.53 | Mike Kelly | I don't know. |
| 00:35:42.57 | Unknown | Oh, yeah. That's a real chef. |
| 00:35:44.03 | Mike Kelly | you |
| 00:35:44.08 | Unknown | This is the fake shirt and that's the repair. |
| 00:35:44.29 | Mike Kelly | This is the fake shirt and that's the review. Thank you. Thank you. |
| 00:35:49.23 | Herb Weiner | Thank you very, very much. And thank you for... |
| 00:35:52.03 | Unknown | Just so you know, if you couldn't come to the event, you can still contribute. So it's still up on the website, and you can still, and we'll make sure that any money's coming in from now until then, continue to go to Sendai. So it's going directly to the relief effort. Thank you. |
| 00:36:08.43 | Mike Kelly | Thank you. |
| 00:36:08.77 | Unknown | Yeah. |
| 00:36:08.77 | Linda Pfeifer | Mr. Mayor, may I make a comment? |
| 00:36:08.89 | Mike Kelly | Thank you. |
| 00:36:09.03 | Unknown | Thank you. |
| 00:36:09.35 | Mike Kelly | . |
| 00:36:09.40 | Unknown | Thank you. |
| 00:36:09.46 | Mike Kelly | Yeah. |
| 00:36:09.73 | Unknown | Yes. |
| 00:36:10.04 | Mike Kelly | Thank you. |
| 00:36:10.05 | Unknown | Go ahead. |
| 00:36:11.03 | Linda Pfeifer | Thank you. I just want to say that I was at the reception fundraiser, and it was fantastic. The spirit in that room and just the giving and just everything. It was just so uplifting. And I just want to say thank you so much for everything you did and pulling this community together to help a very hard-hit little town. Thank you so much. |
| 00:36:35.01 | Herb Weiner | Thank you. Job well done. Pat, did you have your hand up? Did you want to say something? Oh, all right. Okay, go ahead. |
| 00:36:54.23 | Unknown | Herb. Mr. Mayor. Council members. Hi, Jonathan. Did you miss me? |
| 00:37:01.96 | Unknown | Yeah. |
| 00:37:02.18 | Unknown | Thank you. |
| 00:37:02.25 | Unknown | Thank you. |
| 00:37:02.55 | Unknown | Hi guys. How could I not? |
| 00:37:03.97 | Unknown | Yeah. |
| 00:37:05.00 | Unknown | Oh, I'm not wearing my coat, you know, I... Sorry. |
| 00:37:08.04 | Herb Weiner | I just came in here on a whim. Thank you. well your women's down to two minutes and forty three seconds now okay well it will take less i think i spoke to you on |
| 00:37:13.69 | Unknown | Okay, well it will take less. I think I spoke to you on the street about it. This is, I'm not even sure I'm in the right place for the right audience at this time. But this idea to address the vast avalanche of spectators and spectator boats that's going to land on Sausalito prior to and during the America's Cup in the next couple of years, My idea in brief is to put a temporary dock structure between SCOMAs and the park and have a ramp built off of a permanent pier, meaning a concrete pier that's built into the riprap. with a long ramp that goes out to a dock. It floats on the bay out there and is either anchored with temporary pilings or by cables to anchors, thereby allowing a public access dock to the downtown area of Sausalito, and then removing it during the inclement weather when the southwesterlies start to blow, and maybe we can pull it out of the water over to Anderson's or something like that. But just have it as a temporary structure for at least the next couple of years we're just going to be slammed and I really think we're ill-equipped at this point with docks I think the fastest way there are modular barges that are available that stack on trucks there's one right now available nearby for $15,000 I think it's 15 by 45. That could be tethered off the rocks, anchored quite securely. And there's an 80 foot aluminum ramp that's for sale. It's brand new. ramp that qualifies for the ADA requirement for tidal fluctuations so that the ramp isn't too steep for handicap access. And all that stuff could be put together for a pretty reasonable price. I've approached some of the merchants in the downtown area, in particular the guy at Venice Deli, Chris, and I've talked to the people at SCOMA's and talked to Mike downtown. And a few people are interested enough to say that they've at least suggesting they'd be willing to commit some funds. So can you tell me which direction I have to go with that idea at this point? |
| 00:39:26.09 | Herb Weiner | Well, we really can't answer you on that right now. We're not at... You could present what you had mentioned. Council member. |
| 00:39:35.69 | Unknown | Is there an America's Cup committee at the city yet? I understood that. That was in the formation. |
| 00:39:38.36 | Herb Weiner | the city yet? Yes. That was in the formation. We formed the America's Cup Task Force. Okay. And I suggest you get a hold of probably Jim Gabbitt, John Williams, or Chris Gallagher was here. You can go get her. But any of those can help you on that. |
| 00:39:44.59 | Unknown | Okay. |
| 00:39:49.65 | Unknown | Who is that? |
| 00:39:50.22 | Ricky Cacho | Thank you. |
| 00:39:52.18 | Unknown | Okay. |
| 00:39:52.52 | Ricky Cacho | Thank you. |
| 00:40:00.18 | Unknown | Okay. Okay. All right. Yeah. |
| 00:40:03.71 | Herb Weiner | Thank you. |
| 00:40:03.74 | Unknown | I have one other issue. Do I get another three minutes? |
| 00:40:05.80 | Herb Weiner | Thank you. |
| 00:40:05.82 | Unknown | Thank you. |
| 00:40:05.83 | Herb Weiner | No. |
| 00:40:08.18 | Unknown | Can I mention it at this moment? You've got 10 seconds. Can you give me also a direction? I see Jeremy over there. I should probably talk to him about this. Where I live, we won't talk about, but I am privy to the hoots and hollers on a regular but infuriatingly irregular basis that arise from the bocce ball court at Bar Bocce. And I am now in the back. |
| 00:40:10.24 | Herb Weiner | And can you |
| 00:40:32.73 | Unknown | 50-yard line or something of a constant, loud, and gregarious. And these people are, I mean, they treat this thing like the Super Bowl. They're screaming and yelling at the top of their lungs day in and day out over there. And I'm wondering if there's some way we could ask them to put up a sign that says, hey, respect the neighborhood. Bocce is supposed to be a... calming experience. |
| 00:40:54.60 | Herb Weiner | Are you sure they weren't watching the Giants or anything at the same time? |
| 00:40:57.59 | Unknown | No, I think they'd be probably crying maybe. I don't know. No, I don't follow the giants. |
| 00:41:00.14 | Herb Weiner | No, no, no, I don't follow the Giants. |
| 00:41:02.18 | Unknown | Who do I talk to, Jeremy? |
| 00:41:05.03 | Herb Weiner | Yes. Yes, he would be your one. You're it. Okay. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. |
| 00:41:12.52 | Mike Kelly | guys. Oh, |
| 00:41:13.70 | Herb Weiner | Are you going to be on the RBI? Your time is up. |
| 00:41:14.43 | Mike Kelly | Your time is up. I'm good. |
| 00:41:18.73 | Herb Weiner | Okay, so anybody else that would like to talk on any items that are not on the agenda? Okay, with that, we'll move on to the approval of the... The minutes of the regular council meeting are May 17th. |
| 00:41:38.91 | Carolyn Ford | I move we approve the minutes. |
| 00:41:41.18 | Herb Weiner | Can I have a second? All in favor? Aye. Aye. Opposed? Okay. Next we have the consent calendar. |
| 00:41:44.15 | Carolyn Ford | I enjoy it. |
| 00:41:44.69 | Mike Kelly | Thank you. |
| 00:41:52.68 | Herb Weiner | Yes. Yeah. |
| 00:41:57.34 | Pat Zook | I'm Pat Zook. I'll harken back to Glenn Niskell who once told me before a very contentious personal hearing that I was involved in to keep it short, Don't attack your lawyer. your opponent or his lawyer and emphasize the positives. And I think I'll try and do that. I'd like to request that you pull item A off the consent calendar. If, in fact, as the attachments seem to indicate, that you're planning to hold that workshop on July 16th. I feel that your rationale should become a part of the record for that. scheduling it's July 16th on the weekend, hopefully a nice sunny day. People are away with their kids when, if they were here and not involved in the summer activities, they might well be interested in attending this. And I think your discussion of why you would be holding this during the summer would be useful for the record. Or perhaps you could postpone it to a time when more people are around. Secondly... I would like to suggest that the agenda as presented. is potentially a bore. I think I'm trying to keep it short. The notion of devoting 25 minutes to purposes of workshops and introduction to housing elements and components that are supposed to be included Really, you know, as an attendee had forums and things I want to be there to hear the meat of the matter, to hear people pontificate about components and required elements and things like that. If you do postpone this, and I hope you do, I hope some attention can be given to the proposed flyer. I looked at this, and in all honesty, it was kind of like reading the fine print on my credit card. I don't really realize my bank account is empty until it's empty, and they've been charging me 18%. it's very not revealing as to what kinds of things are really at stake here and which neighborhoods might be affected. So I hope you can... positively address this. |
| 00:44:16.22 | Herb Weiner | Thank you, Pat. Anybody else that would like to comment on any of the items on the consent calendar? OK. to bring it up here. |
| 00:44:26.99 | Mike Kelly | Thank you. |
| 00:44:28.66 | Carolyn Ford | I would like to amend the motion. I would like to pull that item, item A for discussion. |
| 00:44:29.98 | Herb Weiner | I like that. |
| 00:44:30.43 | Mike Kelly | Thank you. |
| 00:44:39.53 | Mike Kelly | Thank you. |
| 00:44:39.55 | Herb Weiner | Okay. |
| 00:44:40.03 | Mike Kelly | Thank you. |
| 00:44:40.93 | Carolyn Ford | Thank you. |
| 00:44:41.03 | Linda Pfeifer | And I would second that. |
| 00:44:42.78 | Herb Weiner | Thank you. Okay, then all in favor of pulling that? Yes, it is. Okay. All right. Then removing that item A, have approval of the consent calendar as written. |
| 00:44:49.08 | Mike Kelly | Thank you. |
| 00:44:58.26 | Adam Politzer | Mr. Mayor, if I may. If the council, and it sounds like the council is interested in pulling item 4A, depending on the length of tonight's meeting and staff having to stay around for that item. asking staff to stay for that item. you may want to look at continuing that or sending it back to the HEC task force and have them have that discussion there and bring it back on the 21st. Both meetings are open to the public and that discussion can happen at the staff and committee level and then come back on the 21st. Obviously it's to your discretion tonight if you'd like to keep it on tonight for discussion. But understanding that you have two items that I think will be lengthfully and then an item that you're considering moving to the end. you may want to consider your options. |
| 00:45:52.82 | Herb Weiner | Yeah, well, that's fine. I think we can... I think that's how I move it to the 21st. |
| 00:46:00.09 | Carolyn Ford | Mr. Mayor, I would like to, we may need to do that if we go too late, if we go past 11. |
| 00:46:08.14 | Herb Weiner | I just walked out. |
| 00:46:09.66 | Carolyn Ford | Oh, my God. Yeah, but what I'd like to do if we can is move it to keep it on tonight's agenda, move it to the end. And if we have time to address it, let's address it. |
| 00:46:25.76 | Carolyn Ford | If not, |
| 00:46:26.04 | Herb Weiner | We can. |
| 00:46:26.11 | Linda Pfeifer | Wait. |
| 00:46:26.43 | Carolyn Ford | continue. |
| 00:46:27.04 | Linda Pfeifer | I knew it. Mr. Mayor, hi. |
| 00:46:28.51 | Herb Weiner | I'd rather continue it to the 21st. |
| 00:46:31.32 | Linda Pfeifer | May I respond, Mr. Mayor? My concern is that what has been raised by the residents and I think has support on the dais as well is the concern regarding the July |
| 00:46:32.32 | Herb Weiner | Thank you. |
| 00:46:46.18 | Linda Pfeifer | date and so one consideration is that if we do extend it you know to later this month that if we do vote to reschedule you know we're going to have to make sure that we get |
| 00:47:02.97 | Carolyn Ford | Thank you. |
| 00:47:04.52 | Mike Kelly | Thank you. |
| 00:47:04.99 | Carolyn Ford | Mr. Mayor. Yes. In addition, I believe the council, the committee could benefit by council comments and recommendations. |
| 00:47:05.78 | Mike Kelly | Yes. |
| 00:47:17.90 | Carolyn Ford | No. |
| 00:47:18.68 | Jonathan Leone | We're getting a little too far into if it's not, if we're going to... You can pull it, but you have to put it somewhere before you get out of this level of discussion. So I would either move it to the end or move it to the next meeting. |
| 00:47:18.71 | Carolyn Ford | Thank you, Mr. Reagan. |
| 00:47:19.67 | Mike Kelly | Yeah. |
| 00:47:24.95 | Charlie Francis | Yeah. |
| 00:47:29.91 | Herb Weiner | I prefer at this time here move it to the 21st. |
| 00:47:37.49 | Jonathan Leone | I'll second that. If people have issues about the agenda, they can surely come to the next HECC meeting and voice them and tweaking the agenda at that end of flyer and whatever. you |
| 00:47:48.21 | Herb Weiner | Thank you. |
| 00:47:48.22 | Mike Kelly | KILLER. |
| 00:47:48.51 | Herb Weiner | Thank you. |
| 00:47:49.07 | Jonathan Leone | and then we can come back here. |
| 00:47:50.89 | Herb Weiner | All right. |
| 00:47:53.35 | Jonathan Leone | So I'll second that motion to move it to this point. |
| 00:47:55.45 | Herb Weiner | All in favor? |
| 00:47:57.71 | Jonathan Leone | Aye. |
| 00:47:58.91 | Herb Weiner | opposed. All right, so then we'll just move that to the 21st. |
| 00:48:05.17 | Linda Pfeifer | Thank you. |
| 00:48:06.75 | Mike Kelly | Linda said no. |
| 00:48:08.44 | Linda Pfeifer | I said no. Because of the concern about the date. |
| 00:48:10.41 | Mike Kelly | because of the concern. |
| 00:48:11.19 | Carolyn Ford | Bye. Thank you. |
| 00:48:11.68 | Mike Kelly | THE END OF THE END OF THE |
| 00:48:11.71 | Carolyn Ford | I'm in the door. I'm not. |
| 00:48:14.78 | Linda Pfeifer | Bye. |
| 00:48:14.97 | Carolyn Ford | No, I know. I would like Council to give input. That's all. So I need to say no. I still think we need to address it if we have time tonight. |
| 00:48:15.24 | Linda Pfeifer | You still need those. |
| 00:48:27.02 | Mike Kelly | Thank you. |
| 00:48:27.04 | Herb Weiner | Okay, well... Well, we had a. Okay. Let's move on next to let's get an approval of the consent calendar without that item. |
| 00:48:33.67 | Carolyn Ford | Thank you. |
| 00:48:33.79 | Mike Kelly | Thank you. |
| 00:48:33.89 | Carolyn Revell | Thank you. |
| 00:48:34.49 | Carolyn Ford | you |
| 00:48:34.56 | Jonathan Leone | Thank you. |
| 00:48:42.01 | Jonathan Leone | I'll make a motion to approve the consent calendar, items 4B through 4G. |
| 00:48:47.86 | Carolyn Ford | Second. |
| 00:48:49.23 | Herb Weiner | Okay, all in favor? Aye. Aye. Okay. |
| 00:48:51.10 | Carolyn Ford | So |
| 00:48:51.32 | Jonathan Leone | Thank you. |
| 00:48:51.56 | Carolyn Ford | I suppose. |
| 00:48:55.01 | Herb Weiner | Thank you. Moving on to business items, I really would like to start off with moving the presentation of the Greenhouse Gas Inventory to... Yeah, that's going to be 6B. Is that right? That will be the. |
| 00:49:15.22 | Adam Politzer | Right now you've moved it to 6C. |
| 00:49:15.33 | Herb Weiner | No, you're sick. No, I'd like to move that to 6B. And the reason is that it's only a short period of time and Andy and some representatives are here. And I think to let them wait for the the two biggest items is a little too much. So why don't we do that? All right, so we're going to go with 6A being the budget, 6B in the presentation for the gas inventory. |
| 00:49:31.48 | Ricky Cacho | Thank you much. |
| 00:49:42.80 | Herb Weiner | You probably just need about 15, 20 minutes on that, Andy. Okay. |
| 00:49:43.18 | Mary Wagner | probably. 20 minutes. Okay. Mr. Mayor, if I may, I think that you actually had voted or previously had fire consolidation still being your first item, then the budget being the second. You had moved the greenhouse gas inventory to the third. So are you. |
| 00:49:47.21 | Herb Weiner | Thank you. |
| 00:49:59.21 | Mike Kelly | Yeah. Are you... Thank you. |
| 00:50:02.77 | Mary Wagner | Isn't that what you can do? |
| 00:50:03.17 | Jonathan Leone | Yeah, well, anyway. That was my motion, and that motion carried. |
| 00:50:03.70 | Mary Wagner | Thank you. |
| 00:50:03.85 | Carolyn Ford | Well, |
| 00:50:04.09 | Mike Kelly | MR. Yeah. |
| 00:50:08.44 | Carolyn Ford | I believe I... |
| 00:50:14.34 | Carolyn Ford | I amended that motion and we voted on my on the amended motion. |
| 00:50:18.07 | Herb Weiner | No, it didn't. |
| 00:50:18.72 | Jonathan Leone | Oh. |
| 00:50:18.80 | Herb Weiner | on the amended motion. Okay, can we do that? |
| 00:50:24.28 | Mike Kelly | Thank you. Yeah. |
| 00:50:24.88 | Herb Weiner | I want to put it in the right order for this time here. I'd like the 6A to be the budget, 6B to be the greenhouse gas inventory, and 6C on fire consolidation. Do I have a second? Second? Do I? All in favor? Aye. Aye. Okay. So be it. No. |
| 00:50:40.42 | Mike Kelly | Hi. No. |
| 00:50:44.05 | Jonathan Leone | No. So you can get three to two. Okay, so keep going. |
| 00:50:45.39 | Herb Weiner | This is... |
| 00:50:45.85 | Mike Kelly | 3 to 2. |
| 00:50:48.06 | Herb Weiner | Okay. All right, let's start off with the budget. Charlie Francis. |
| 00:50:55.43 | Linda Pfeifer | you |
| 00:50:55.74 | Mike Kelly | Thank you. |
| 00:50:55.76 | Linda Pfeifer | Thank you. You got that, Debbie, right? Okay, thank you. |
| 00:51:05.80 | Jonathan Leone | You gotta have a thinner budget, Charlie. Too much fat. It's too heavy. |
| 00:51:10.98 | Charlie Francis | John Athenity can help. Yes, sir. There's one of each. |
| 00:51:20.28 | Charlie Francis | And for the council... |
| 00:51:33.54 | Charlie Francis | Okay, good evening, Mr. Mayor, members of the council. Presented for you this evening is the first draft of the Fiscal year 2011-12 budget. |
| 00:51:47.04 | Charlie Francis | This presentation is summarized from the binders that was distributed to all of you last week and that the Finance Committee has been working on for the past month and staff has been working on for the past two months. Call it back to the basic budget because it's the second year of the two-year resource allocation plan. |
| 00:52:17.85 | Charlie Francis | and emphasizing the strategic plan goals of attaining fiscal stability and sustainability and increasing the effectiveness and efficiency of the organization. |
| 00:52:31.45 | Charlie Francis | So for the agenda tonight, I want to introduce the draft budget. briefly go over the citywide summary and then talk about what that really means to the citizen in terms of service level discussions. I'll summarize and give an outlook for the future. And then finally ask council to answer questions, give staff direction, and to talk about the next steps. Uh, As we look around California, we see a number of negative headlines in the press. We're seeing cities that are taking drastic measures to balance their budgets. And yet, when we look at City of Sausalito, our City of Sausalito headline this year is the same as it's going to read last year. It's back to the basics budgeting. We have a balanced budget. and a pretty good outlook going forward. And it's because we've been following a plan, a plan that's been in place for a number of years, a strategic plan that come back to the goals of stabilizing and sustaining the financial condition and delivering efficient and effective services. And that strategic plan, that exercise that the city council goes through every year year then translates into annual business plans. Business plans that are supplemented by reports that I give you throughout the year for financial reports talking about that. We can pay our bills, our ability to pay our bills has been improved, but we've been following the plan that will get us over the challenges of the next decade. And, So we balanced our budget with maintaining existing service levels. We've had no wage increases, no benefit reductions, no new programs unless there's revenue offsets and we've been marching down with implementing the fire consolidation strategy. And we have medium term plans for the next three to four years so that we can get to the next part. planning process is quite complex. I mean, just going from that strategic plan into the annual plan, we have mid-year budget reviews. We're continually monitoring the community, the of finance committee reviews our financial statements on a monthly basis the council reviews our financial statements and treasurer's report on a quarterly basis you go through your priority calendar setting your strategic planning and we get input from a number of people and finally we come up with a draft budget so this isn't something that has been put together within the past couple months it's been an evolving project from our original two year budget. Two year resource allocation plan that said that second year then is kind of a review of are we going in the right direction. I just wanted to really briefly, for everyone's benefit, talk about we have hundreds of millions of dollars of transactions, like I mentioned in our strategic planning session. laid dollar for dollar, the $110 million of transactions that would go 11 miles into the sky. Dollar bills piled high up. That's a lot of transactions for a city. That's summarized then into 26 funds. And then finally, so we can get to one statement. One statement of our annual budget. And when we bring your focus, your eyes all the way over to the right, you see that our expenditures and transfers out, net of Interfund expenditures and transfers is almost $23.5 million. That's a lot of money. That's the size of a major corporation here in the United States. That you were responsible for allocating resources and then delivering those resources and services and in capital projects. Of course, our primary fund is the general fund. And then our special revenue funds provide resource to our capital projects and our debt service funds. And finally there's some activities that you run as a business. In other words, the user fees that we charge are fully intended to cover the economic cost of delivering those services, including depreciation. And that would be our sewer fund, Old City Hall, the MLK Rental Park, and the parking. And finally, we accumulate funds for vehicle equipment replacement, workers comp claims and employee benefits. That was a nice little chart. but The citizen. for the citizen, it goes, what does this mean to me? And, Oh, my little citizen doesn't show up on there. I don't know. over here on the right I had a citizen standing there saying what does this mean to me? Because for the citizen's perspective they want to know is the budget balanced? Do we have reserves? How much is this going to cost the citizen? What services do I get? In other words how many police officers are there? Will a fire truck come? The focus isn't on how much dollars is being spent, it's what we're doing with those dollars, what we're delivering to our citizens and community. And finally, what does the future look like? So in this presentation tonight, I'm going to try to answer those questions for you and for the citizens. So the first question that's asked is, is the budget balanced? And the general fund, which is our primary fund of delivering services, this is where the police, the fire, the recreation and the library all come out of, is balanced with $14 million of resources going to pay for $14.6 million of general fund expenditures and transfers out. So the first thing we can do is answer the citizens' questions. Yes, we have a balanced budget. Then the second question is, well, do we have any reserves? Do we have anything in the bank in case a contingency happens? And the answer to that is truly yes. We have reserves that are tied up in prepaid loans receivable and investment in MLK. But we have liquid reserves, total of at the end of the fiscal year 12, $1.9 million. We have another emergency reserve of $717,000. And finally we have a disaster assistance fund. Those funds are all been set by council policy that went back to the 2007 and 2008 budget years where the city council, their mid-year budget review, saw that the city was accumulating some resources and said we're going to put this for these specific purposes to meet the challenges that were in the next fiscal year 2012 and beyond. And those reserves, by the way, the liquid reserves, are 25% of our expenditures Many cities in California would be lucky if they had a 5% reserve, which would be less than one month. Here we're out there with three months of liquid reserves and another six months, the nine months of illiquid reserves that we could always liquidate and then continue to operate the city. In other words, if there's a major earthquake, we could operate the city for another year without any Um, of course some of the revenues wouldn't stop. But so that's a pretty secure position for the city council to be in. |
| 00:59:34.11 | Charlie Francis | Our general fund revenues are generated primarily from taxes. And this is another reason why our city has been able to withstand the recession more than another city. For example, in the Marin IJ today we talked about Corte Maduro. Corte Maduro balanced its budget on sales tax. And in our case, we balance our budget on property tax and property and property related tax. So as the economy shrunk, the sales tax and TOT here did shrink also, but not enough where we had to cut back on delivery of services. We have an inelastic revenue source and we work to maintain that. by the way our public safety expenditures represent close to the same percentage that we generate in taxes. So we're able to deliver the primary services of the city, public safety, through our tax base and the other services through fines and Love fight. Peace. And transfers in from our parking fund and from our other funds that have been investments to generate general fund revenue. And I put up this chart to show a little history of revenues that were generated every year and the actual expenses that went on every year. And these are to scale. And you can see that from 2005 to 2006 to the 2005-12, we've pretty much generated more resources than we were actually spending out. No. we were transferring that money to reserves. And here's why. In 2002 and 2003, we had negative cash position. We were in a position where the city was in a fiscal crisis. that magazine called Government Finance Review. Government Finance Review is the progenitor of GASB, the Governmental Accounting Standard Board. And in this quarter's article they talk about the 12-point plan, if you will, to get out of fiscal crisis. And as I look at this 12-point plan, This is what we did. from 2002 to 2003 for all the way to the present time. We had plans. We stuck to those plans. We had the discipline. to sack away these monies into reserves so that our citizens can say, We prepared for the future. So it was... And that's an example of how to work your way out of a fiscal crisis and stabilize and sustain you met your strategic plan goals. And now the citizen wants to ask, well, what do I get for this money? Well, what kind of services do I get? And you can see here that our police and our fire are the primary services that we deliver. And then there's recreation library and public works. And I'm going to go through now and talk about each one of those departments briefly. And we get to the end of the presentation if you have questions that was in your binder or if you have direct questions from the department heads about their budget. They're all here to answer them tonight. First is our police department. $4.3 million goes to fund 23 positions. And with our new police chief, I'm not sure. She's put together strategies for reducing crime and community outreach. These are exciting strategies. It's a new direction for the police department to continue the excellent level of service that they've been delivering. And also addressing some of the concerns for the next 10 years that could be facing the city of Sausalito. It's an exciting program. WE HAD A LOSS OF FUNDING OF Cops Grant. I forget what COPS stands for. But it was a state funding grant that used to support half of a position of a police officer. So part of the increase of the general fund from this year to the prior year was a loss of that 100,000 funding. But through the staff and through the finance committee, we were able to say, we don't have to eliminate the position. We still have the resources to be able to provide the same level of police service this year that we had in previous years. So it's an exciting program. Our fire department, we're looking to get benefits from consolidation and we're going to be talking more about this in a couple of agenda items. But one of the reasons we're able to generate benefit from the fire consolidation is right now, The fire costs are over $3 million, and they consume over 52% of the property tax that comes into the city. Remember when we went back to that graph when we saw all that money coming from property tax, 52% of it goes to pay for fire. But under the fire consolidation, we would only have to transfer 35% of that property tax to the district. In other words, generating a million dollars of benefit towards the general fund. Now, yes, There is a financial steward is protecting the city's pocketbook, but as we will examine as we go into the fire consolidation, there is also a very big concern on what's the best way to deliver fire services to the citizens at the most cost effective delivery method. And this alternative, $90 a parcel, has never been denied. That's a tax that our citizens will be voting on in June. But that $90 a parcel is the best alternative that they have. The other alternatives would be $200 a parcel or $400 a parcel or critical cuts in service in other areas of the city. We'll talk about that later. Our recreation department We notice that the revenues are projected to decline this year and so are the expenses projected to decline and that's primarily because of taking the Caledonia street fair out of the budget. But other than that, their plans and goals for 2012 are to continue the classes, continue the other special events, and to complete the plans for the parks. And after the presentation, we'll be able to ask the recreation director if you have any questions about that. Staffing level stays the same. Under a library, there's this little picture of a person reading a book here and saying, I love my library, and we do love our library here in Sausalito. In fact, through the finance committee, we brought the book budget up to the full book budget that was there in the past and not having to rely on the Friends contribution. In fact, the Friends then has said, well, we're going to provide additional revenues to enhance the children's librarian program. So we've got the new city librarian. Unfortunately, Mary's going to be retiring. We're all going to miss her. But before she's leaving, she's making sure that we have approved and we have the funding available for the space. And as we get into the capital project program, we'll talk that the funding has been put aside for the library space plan. And then she presented a number of statistics on what the library does with their almost $700,000 every year. Community Development Department, because it's two divisions, we have a planning division and a building inspection division. And the staffing is proposed to stay the same, but with the downturn in the economy, we are seeing drops in revenues that are being generated from building inspection fees and from planning fees. In fact, in both of the cases, the revenues are falling a little bit below personal services. And so this is an area where we might want to focus some of our attention on our business process improvement plans. Are there other ways of delivering services that could be more cost effective? And I thought this was a nice place to be able to put the priority projects. We want to be able to provide the linkages between the strategic plan, between the priority projects the council sets, and where they are in the annual operating and capital budgets. So in the packets that I've handed out to you tonight, I've provided who it's assigned to or where in the budget we'll be able to find the funding for these priority projects. And of course the detail is in the binders that went to the council. So there's three pages of priority projects there. Our Department of Public Works is another department that has two divisions, but they have many activities. And of the 25 people, they're spread doing engineering work, maintenance work, providing staffing to enterprise funds, and also delivering capital projects. And the capital project budget, just for this year, additional new funding is $4 million. We're going'll talk about that in just two more slides. I want to point out that the staffing is 25 people. It's spread between the general fund and the sewer fund and those 10 for the sewer and 13 for the general fund and in the general fund we identified certain positions that now that we have this many capital projects going for us flip it. The engineering cost to the general fund will be going down because we're not going to be hiring as many consultants to deliver the capital projects. Our study engineer and our engineering staff and division manager will be doing the project management and the engineering on a lot of these capital projects so that we can deliver the capital projects with the staffing we have. And our maintenance budget is staying about the same and delivering the consistent level of service that they have been delivering. So on our capital projects, there's some very exciting things. There's three pages of capital projects being listed here, I believe, The other... Recently on your consent agenda, you had the status of existing capital projects Vote. What I've done in this chart is I showed you a five-year CIP where the first column is the total carry-forward budget The second column is the current year budget. So this column and this column is the amount of, both of those columns are the amount of money that's currently appropriated to do capital projects. Just let's look down here at the bottom. 8.9 million. plus 3.9 million, $5 million. This is Sausalito's economic stimulus program. But of programs that are about ready to be rolled out to fix the streets and the infrastructure needs here in Sausalito. Another interesting part to look at is These two figures here, the difference between those, 16 million is in the budget. But over the seven years, we've budgeted or spent 18 million. That means the difference, almost $2 million, has been spent in the past two years on capital projects here in the community. And we can look at... So where some of that is, much of it is right here in our traffic and transportation projects. So delivering streets and capital projects that you budgeted for and you asked for. Okay, well eventually, that takes care of most of the direct costs of the city providing services. But there's a back end. There's the indirect costs. There's the support for city operations. And it's like, who do I call when it's not going the way I thought? Well, I put the little finance guy down here saying, well, don't call me. I'm just an accountant. But this is the department that accounts for the city council's expenses, the city manager's expenses, and the staffing for HR. The three counting technicians that process those hundreds of millions of dollars of transactions. And the administrative aid that gets our council packets ready for us. So that funding is. The administrative workload grows. The funding's growing, but not faster than inflation. which has been negative. Let me say that the second item, biggest item that affected our budget this year, one of the biggest items was of course the loss of the COPS grant. But the largest by far was the expected PERS increases over the previous fiscal year. It was about $300,000 more in expenses than the previous fiscal year. But in the two-year resource allocation plan that you adopted last year, you planned for and were able to provide the resources to do that. Our information technology department is providing us with some, has It keeps our city running. It's got the public safety building up and running and provides us the technology to be able to deliver these support services at a very high level of efficiency. And some of the projects as we go off into fiscal year 12 would be some thin clients. Thin clients are a new way of delivering desktop computers so that you don't have to replace $1500 desktop computers every year. You just replace the monitor. You don't even have to replace it. You have the monitor. You have the workstation. And then the back end is all doing the work. It's almost like a return to the IBM 360 days only with contemporary and powerful programs. One of the projects is tablet-based agendas, which is really exciting, going paperless. you I am. for the past five meetings right here on my little iPad. And I showed this at one of the council finance committee meetings. The city council can take notes on there, have all their interactions for the city council meeting, bring it to the city council meeting, and it'll do away with a lot of paper. So it's a lot of, That's a very good way of getting us green and Rhett can talk. about that project shortly. No, this is the iPad 1. I can't take pictures with that one. |
| 01:14:14.15 | Charlie Francis | Finally, we have the... We have our non-departmental. I was just saying, how can I get involved in this community? And I think it was important to show this year We support the Art Commission, the Historical Society, Sister Cities Program, the Business Hospitality Community, the Business Advisory Committee. We have volunteer recognition. We have sewer rebate programs. The city does a lot of outreach and supported community groups and committees and this non-departmental category of spending is where we capture a lot. Now you see this great big, spike right there. What this represents is transfers out. And this is the years where we were able to transfer out money from the general fund into the disaster assistance fund, into the capital project fund, into the workers comp fund and the general liability fund and some of our vehicle replacement. In other words, we set aside money to meet expenditures that are expected in the future. And by the way, we set aside some money to meet our OPEB obligations as well. So that at the current time, we are able to show that we have other post-employment benefit liabilities, but we have money and a fund set aside to pay for those. You also use this spending category to pay for retiree medical benefits, our LAFCO dues, our ABAG dues, our insurance premiums, and a number of other things. So. No big increases in any of those spending areas. And so as we go back to the basics, I guess the final question is, well, what about the future? What's going to happen after this budget? And we're reaching what I call a fiscal inflection point. And the hinge to the fiscal inflection point is fire consolidation. Fire consolidation has been in our medium-term plans for the past eight years since Amy was here. We were able to go from that negative fund balance to the positive reserves that we have today because we were not paying our fair share of fire One of the main reasons was because we weren't paying our full fair share of fire services to the Southern Marin Fire District. And you ask the question then, well, why would the Southern Marine Fire District subsidize the city of Sausalito. And that's because everyone saw the mutual co-dependency and shared benefit of having a joint fire operations in the future. But we're at a critical point. We're either at the point where we're going to continue the plans and June 5, 2012 is going to be the deciding day when our citizens come and say, yes, we want to consolidate and yes, $90 is the best alternative that we have. And if we don't, we're faced with many decisions. going to a full fire department, having our own, or somewhat less. Now obviously we couldn't continue thinking like this forever. We would have to come up with some kind of plan within the first year or the second year to stabilize our revenues. But we would be right back where we were in 2002 and 2003. So this is a critical look at our future. We go in this, we're able to meet the challenges of the next five years. I'm confident we're going to do it. I'm confident we're going to do it because we're a back to the basics budgeting kind of a city. We have a strategic plan. We know what the plans are and how to get there. And. as long as we keep focused that our number one goal in our strategic plan is to stabilize and sustain our fiscal condition and to continue delivering effective services then we can put together the short term and the media term budget balancing strategies to get us where we need to be, continue the good work that this council has done over the past eight years. So with that, ask if there's any questions from the council, from either me, from department heads, and then look for direction for bringing a final budget ready for you to be adopted on your June 21st council meeting. |
| 01:18:32.71 | Herb Weiner | anybody up here Thank you. Questions? |
| 01:18:39.11 | Herb Weiner | Thank you. |
| 01:18:39.12 | Jonathan Leone | Okay, for this, I don't have any questions for you. THE END OF |
| 01:18:45.20 | Mike Kelly | THE FAMILY. |
| 01:18:45.52 | Carolyn Ford | Mr. Mayor, are we bringing up the department heads now? Or if we have questions of the department head, they come up as we have questions or how is this? What's the process? |
| 01:18:58.95 | Adam Politzer | Excellent question. The department heads are here if you have specific questions. of their department. Obviously, Charlie and I are also a resource to you as members of the Finance Committee. So if you have specific questions in the department, they are here to answer your questions. |
| 01:19:21.01 | Carolyn Ford | Um... |
| 01:19:23.42 | Adam Politzer | Thank you. |
| 01:19:23.44 | Carolyn Revell | question. |
| 01:19:23.66 | Carolyn Ford | Well, yes, I have a couple questions for Charlie, and I have a question regarding our park improvements that we have scheduled. But regarding the fire consolidation, The figures of $200,000 and $400,000 as parcel taxes that were mentioned, up to $200,000 and $400,000. I think you just mentioned it now. $200. $200. Excuse me. $200. Excuse me. $200 and $400. |
| 01:20:01.93 | Charlie Francis | but two hundred dollars |
| 01:20:04.97 | Herb Weiner | I'm going to go. |
| 01:20:05.03 | Charlie Francis | Thank you. |
| 01:20:05.36 | Ricky Cacho | Bye. |
| 01:20:05.41 | Unknown | Thank you. |
| 01:20:05.51 | Ricky Cacho | Excuse me. |
| 01:20:06.00 | Unknown | Thank you. |
| 01:20:06.03 | Ricky Cacho | Thank you. |
| 01:20:10.08 | Carolyn Ford | Can you Thank you. Show me how you came up with that. |
| 01:20:15.24 | Charlie Francis | I can't, it's in the phase one briefing report and in the phase one briefing report there was two figures, eight hundred and sixty some thousand dollars to contract for services with Southern Marin Fire District and the other one was the, actually I have it in the presentation for fire consolidation, I can answer that question then. |
| 01:20:34.36 | Carolyn Ford | I can answer that question. I have the and I can save this for the fire consolidation if you would like because I'm looking at the April report from our consultants and they talk about the the monies that would be spent if we had a contract versus the full merger. And it seems to me that the $200 her parcel tax with equal one point one million |
| 01:21:11.64 | Carolyn Revell | That's correct. |
| 01:21:12.45 | Carolyn Ford | And they, the consultants say it would cost 761 for a partial contract and 849 plus for the full contract for services. |
| 01:21:27.54 | Mike Kelly | All right. |
| 01:21:27.74 | Carolyn Ford | So with 761, that would be a couple hundred more than what we're paying and the residents are paying for the parcel tax, the 560,000 that we're getting there. And for the full services, that would be obviously 300 some. So, and full services, the 400 for our, if we went back to our own fire station, That would be $2.2 million that we would be raising, whereas our consultants report states that it would only be an increase of $1,273,841. So where is the discrepancy here? Why is that? |
| 01:22:00.95 | Ricky Cacho | Right. |
| 01:22:12.61 | Charlie Francis | Yeah. There's no discrepancy. There is a very good observation on the calculation though. The. The fire consolidation for only $90 a parcel not only allows us to transfer $3 million of expenses for only $2 million in property tax, but it generates a general fund benefit of $633,000. So we don't only pay for fire services, but the general fund gets an added benefit. In order to get an equivalent amount of general fund benefit, which we need to continue to provide parks, recreation, police services, and meet the PERS challenges, I added that up to $500,000 to $600,000 extra dollars to the amounts in the consultant report in order to show apples to apples to apples in all three scenarios. |
| 01:22:54.51 | Ricky Cacho | It's a... |
| 01:23:11.91 | Jonathan Leone | have to fund the future obligations of the city through or cut expenses in those dollar amounts in some fashion. And I think what Charlie's saying is that we'd fund it through. We'd have to fund it through some revenue source if he didn't want to cut services. |
| 01:23:23.76 | Mike Kelly | Thank you. Yeah. |
| 01:23:26.88 | Jonathan Leone | And the equivalent would be cutting the library to meet the, just the first, the $200 parcel I believe cuts the library, you know, that dollar amount. |
| 01:23:26.91 | Mike Kelly | and the equivalent. |
| 01:23:37.98 | Carolyn Ford | Well, it seems to me that you're counting it twice because I'm |
| 01:23:42.50 | Charlie Francis | I'm happy to go over the numbers with you on a detailed basis. We will be providing all that information in the community forums. And if we wait just two more agenda items, I have a summary of those, of exactly that question in the summary as we lead up to the polling results. |
| 01:23:55.13 | Carolyn Ford | Sure. |
| 01:24:00.93 | Carolyn Ford | Okay, sure. I'll wait till then. |
| 01:24:02.23 | Charlie Francis | Okay. |
| 01:24:03.02 | Adam Politzer | Mayor, if I may, I just wanted to |
| 01:24:05.37 | Carolyn Ford | Thank you. |
| 01:24:05.39 | Adam Politzer | I'm not sure. |
| 01:24:05.40 | Carolyn Ford | I'm not sure. |
| 01:24:06.77 | Adam Politzer | make another observation that this will be discussed in detail on the 21st when our consultants and staff come forward at our joint meeting with the fire Protection District with Southern Marine Fire Protection District. and the city council on the 21st where all these details will be laid out and this discussion will go into the fine details. So as Charlie has mentioned, there will be an opportunity on item 6C tonight to go into those details, but a real opportunity for the purposes of tonight. for that discussion that it looks like you're interested in pursuing would be better served on the 21st. But in terms of tonight's budget, discussion. If there are items related to assumptions made in the budget related to fire, then absolutely ask those questions. |
| 01:24:59.37 | Carolyn Ford | Yeah. And I guess the second... I'll wait until we talk about fire on those questions. But the second question I have is, Looking forward. I- we really need to know have some kind of idea what the trends are. or what we should be planning for for the future. Should we really be pulling back this year? you know, as much as we can based on on projections for next year or do we have some leeway do you have any figures on for us on that? |
| 01:25:41.02 | Unknown | Yeah. |
| 01:25:41.03 | Mike Kelly | Thank you. Thank you. |
| 01:25:42.22 | Carolyn Ford | Thank you. |
| 01:25:42.27 | Mike Kelly | Thank you. |
| 01:25:46.70 | Charlie Francis | this chart basically is a five-year look out into the future but as we also saw in this chart. Let me just come back here. What we're seeing in this chart is our revenues, We're going through almost the same growth spurt before the recession. as our expenditures were going. So we were keeping pace. But from the recession going forward, we're basically keeping level with our revenue sources. In other words, our revenue sources have flattened out. But our expenditures have flattened out as well, and that's because of the labor agreements that we negotiated. The one expense that we don't have under control but have planned for is the PERS increases. And those PERS increases came about because of the recession. No. What I did in and be able to project out to the future, As I took our revenues and flattened them for the next five years, then made no assumptions in terms of revenue growth made no assumptions in terms of expenditure growth and just said if everything stayed the same, we'd have a balanced budget. But we know there's two things that are going to change. One of those is the PERS increases. The bulk of the PERS increases we absorbed this year. It was $330,000. Next year's PERS increase is only going to be $115,000. 100,000 the year after that and 100,000 the year after that. that's going to start flattening. So, The plan of the City Council of the consolidation of the fire district is able to say, we can continue to provide library services, recreation services, police services, and meet those challenges of PERS. by consolidating our fire department. If we don't consolidate our fire department, we won't have the extra resources available to pay that extra $100,000 in and the PERS increases and we wouldn't have the extra money to continue the same level of service. The City Council would have to decide what do we want to cut or what taxes do we want to raise just to be able to stay even. |
| 01:28:06.85 | Carolyn Ford | Right. Sure. Well, we've got a tax right now on the, of course, that the residents will have to absorb when we merge. So, |
| 01:28:10.34 | Charlie Francis | Thank you. |
| 01:28:16.28 | Charlie Francis | Right. |
| 01:28:18.66 | Carolyn Ford | Yeah. Thank you. |
| 01:28:19.40 | Mike Kelly | Thank you. |
| 01:28:19.51 | Carolyn Ford | Thank you. |
| 01:28:19.59 | Charlie Francis | Thank you. So that was the plan, and that's the five-year plan. This is all in an Excel spreadsheet. There's nothing magic. It's just flattened the general fund revenues, flattened the general fund expenditures, and put it into known assumptions. |
| 01:28:33.95 | Herb Weiner | Thank you. |
| 01:28:33.97 | Charlie Francis | . |
| 01:28:34.04 | Herb Weiner | Council Member Leon. |
| 01:28:35.05 | Jonathan Leone | So Charlie, the main driver of the gap, you're seeing on the right-hand side in the upper graph is the increase in cost if we had to shoulder the cost of our own fire department. |
| 01:28:45.02 | Charlie Francis | And for this graph, I certainly don't want to use this graph to scare anybody. I just used the scenario of having our own fire department. If we contracted for services, the amount of drop here would be less the first year. |
| 01:29:02.06 | Jonathan Leone | But only half is less. Which Southern Marin has not expressed a desire to do at this point. |
| 01:29:02.71 | Charlie Francis | Only half is less. |
| 01:29:06.94 | Charlie Francis | Thank you. |
| 01:29:07.03 | Herb Weiner | Yes. Okay. Any other questions? |
| 01:29:13.59 | Linda Pfeifer | Mr. Mayor, may I? So I want to thank Council Member Ford for raising those questions because I think they are very relevant. I also have similar questions, but I'm going to hold them to the agenda item on the fire consolidation. Thank you. |
| 01:29:14.87 | Herb Weiner | So I'm... |
| 01:29:30.47 | Jonathan Leone | Thank you. |
| 01:29:30.48 | Herb Weiner | Okay. This time here, any questions from the public on that? it back up yet? No. Bye. |
| 01:29:44.76 | Carolyn Ford | Yeah, I actually wanted to hear... |
| 01:29:47.38 | Carolyn Revell | Thank you. |
| 01:29:48.39 | Carolyn Ford | Sorry, Mr. Mayor. I wanted to hear what the park from our parks and rec manager as to what the park improvements are going to be. If we could just have that. |
| 01:29:49.60 | Carolyn Revell | you |
| 01:30:01.97 | Mike Kelly | Yeah. Thank you. |
| 01:30:15.98 | Unknown | Good evening, Mr. Mayor, Council Members. Currently we're working on quite a few projects. been around town, walked around town a little bit, those projects would pretty much be completed if it wasn't raining all the time. Currently we're working on the tennis courts at MLK. The next courts that will be done will be the ones at Marinship. The art festival is actually going to be paying for those courts. We just completed work on the windows at the gym, new double-pane windows, which will increase the soundproofing of the gym, so hopefully the neighbors won't have to listen to as much of the activity that goes on in our facility there. We've also improved the electrical panel that was impossible to get breakers for. Actually, if you wanted to get a new breaker for the panel, you had to go on eBay, and you actually bought an old used breaker that you didn't know about. So we now have a modern panel in there with switches that operate the various devices. Looking forward, we're working with the consultant on Robin Sweeney Park we'll have a report to you in next month for the first phase and you get to see what our various meetings with the different user groups have brought about and some different ideas that we're bringing forward we're still working on Southview Park one of the questions with Southview Park is how is the how are the retaining walls had a neighbor call me the other day and they wanted to know if that was part of the tennis courts we were redoing. And I said, well, the first thing we want to do is basically make sure that the park is solid before we put any money into the fixtures there. So I'm working with the Jonathan Goldman and the Public Works Department. We're having a geotechnical engineer come out there and do a full evaluation of the walls at Southview Park to determine what exactly is the condition. The other parks, the smaller parks, Harrison Park, I'm working with the Community Development Department getting a building permit for the fence that's going to be going up there. And then we'll be continuing on with the building, the new park that was approved by the Planning Commission a few months ago. The remaining parks are going to go park by park as time allows. But right now between Robin Sweeney Park meetings and Harrison Park, that's kind of a lot of my time in park development. We are fortunate that we do have some funds that the council has already put aside for the parks and previous budget years. I don't have those numbers in front of me now, but I can come back to you at a later date. We also have the funds that we are working on projects right now and we are going to pay for those projects with bond funds. However, many of those projects were already allocated funds to the general fund. An example would be the power pedestal that we're having now at Gavrielson Park. That was, I believe it was either $20,000 or $25,000 was budgeted out of the general fund to put that pedestal in. We're actually paying for that with bond funds, so that frees up those funds and hopefully the council will then reallocate those to another park project. |
| 01:33:12.96 | Carolyn Revell | the audience where |
| 01:33:14.14 | Mike Kelly | you |
| 01:33:20.39 | Unknown | Well, we couldn't use, I know you wanted to get an arborist report and actually then have the work done on those. We couldn't do that through the bond funds because bond funds don't allow for maintenance such as that work. So having them pruned would be something that the Public Works Department would be taking care of and that would be in their budget. Sorry, Jonathan. You're welcome. Thank you. |
| 01:33:46.34 | Herb Weiner | Thank you. |
| 01:33:46.43 | Unknown | Thank you. |
| 01:33:46.44 | Herb Weiner | Okay. |
| 01:33:46.53 | Unknown | Okay. |
| 01:33:46.60 | Herb Weiner | Thank you. |
| 01:33:47.39 | Carolyn Revell | Well, I think China is... Thank you. |
| 01:33:49.58 | Herb Weiner | you |
| 01:33:49.65 | Jonathon Goldman | you |
| 01:33:49.82 | Herb Weiner | Thank you. |
| 01:33:49.85 | Jonathon Goldman | Thank you. |
| 01:33:49.87 | Herb Weiner | Thank you. |
| 01:33:49.89 | Jonathon Goldman | If I may, Mr. Mayor, I'll just indicate that the Parks and Rec Director was absolutely correct. |
| 01:33:49.90 | Herb Weiner | I can see that. |
| 01:33:55.67 | Herb Weiner | Thank you. |
| 01:33:58.96 | Herb Weiner | Thank you for that, Jonathan. Appreciate that. |
| 01:34:01.51 | Mike Kelly | Jonathan. |
| 01:34:02.93 | Herb Weiner | Jonathan, do you have any other updates? |
| 01:34:03.79 | Jonathan Leone | Thank you. |
| 01:34:07.44 | Herb Weiner | Hey. |
| 01:34:07.76 | Jonathan Leone | I think it's important to note that there's money set aside just to, you know, implementation willing for Harrison Park, Itok, G.W.A., Gabrielson, Beena Del Mar, Thank you. various small parts, small improvements that aren't of the above. South Beach Park. and as well as the Parks Capital Project Planning to scope all the parks out to know what we're going to have to get ourselves into down the road. So there is certainly money in the budget. There's about $1.4 million that will be spent towards the parks this budget year, which is a big change from the past. |
| 01:34:48.29 | Herb Weiner | Okay. I think that's it. |
| 01:34:53.35 | Herb Weiner | Okay. |
| 01:34:56.02 | Betsy Elliott | Hello, I'm Betsy Elliott and I'm representing the Trees and Views Committee. And it has come to our attention that we need to request an independent contractor, an arborist that is unbiased for certain projects that we have in the works. And we appeal to the committee to allow us and afford us that. you In addition, I'd like to bring your attention to, I think there's a need for a street light at the four-way intersection on Napa and Bridgeway. I think it's a very dangerous intersection. I've recently had an unfortunate incident there. I think that we seriously need to look at that as a city for the safety reasons. |
| 01:35:47.66 | Herb Weiner | Okay. Any other comments from the public? Questions? Okay, let's move on. |
| 01:35:55.39 | Jonathan Leone | Thank you. |
| 01:35:55.42 | Herb Weiner | Thank you. |
| 01:35:55.49 | Jonathan Leone | I'll just quickly, if so. People want people to know that there certainly were a lot of things that. |
| 01:35:57.26 | Herb Weiner | I'm just a few boys. |
| 01:36:02.44 | Jonathan Leone | both staff and the public and the council had asked to spend money on that we did not spend money on. because you have limited resources, you obviously can't do that. And as we also try to match ongoing revenues with one-time expenditures, One time revenues with one time expenditures and ongoing revenues with ongoing expenditures. A lot of these were deferred for later days. you know, everything from large community-developed planning projects to additional headcount in the police department or a capital request for police and fire. |
| 01:36:39.48 | John Flavin | you |
| 01:36:39.73 | Jonathan Leone | My recollection is there's no increased headcount. Maybe there's one full-time increase in the whole budget. Yeah. But we're also trying to make sure people are paid adequately so there's people are not – There are no increases in the labor agreement this year. We negotiated almost a year ago now. But people are getting, you know, step-ups for hitting their targets for service as well as for performance. So I think we've tried to do our best with the resources we have and I think we've done very well compared to most cities put us up against most every city in California in terms of services delivered and even certainly in Marin County if you look at the status of our |
| 01:36:52.98 | Ray Gerges | keep them. |
| 01:37:27.03 | Jonathan Leone | Capital infrastructure, we're making our headway into that and just the quality of our major arterial roads. Look at Miller Avenue and Throgmorton Avenue. You tell me Mill Valley is doing a better job with capital infrastructure than Tossley is. Even though they probably have greater resources. So I think we're certainly shouldering the costs that we know we need to bear. trying to plan for the future. We are looking down the road. We are seeing PERS increased costs. We are seeing Southern Marin saying we can't carry as much of the load anymore. So we have to plan for those, and we are planning for those out beyond this current budget cycle. Thank you. |
| 01:38:02.49 | Herb Weiner | Okay. Thank you. |
| 01:38:03.20 | Mike Kelly | THE END OF THE END OF THE |
| 01:38:03.40 | Herb Weiner | Thank you. |
| 01:38:03.45 | Mike Kelly | Thank you. |
| 01:38:03.47 | Herb Weiner | Thank you. Thank you. |
| 01:38:04.93 | Mike Kelly | Just a couple of additional things. We began caring about these things two budget cycles ago. So we were looking ahead at the future. In 2007, when things were getting frothy and before everybody went broke, we had already made and put in place plans to take us through this current budget period. In addition to that, we're looking at revenues. We're looking at pensions. We're looking at the things we can control, as well as the things we can't control. And if you can't control it, The best you can do is budget for it. And that's what we're doing. If some miracle happens in Sacramento and there's a change in the way CalPERS does business, And there's some programs that we can enter into that are new and refreshing and will get us down the road and help everybody. stay solvent, we'll jump all over those. But we made a lot of the changes that were necessary to make in the pension arena before the pension crisis. Because we saw, we didn't see that coming necessarily, but we saw the rising costs coming. And so that was clear on the horizon. So the budget you're looking at today is a pared down, a thoughtful budget which really began three or four years ago. And the same, with the same intensity we're looking forward to the future as well. So we're already thinking about 2012, 2013. what are we going to have to do to keep those revenues in line? Charlie's probably the only person in the county who has produced a a CalPERS smoothing schedule clear out into the long future. And then I would invite you to look at the Marin IJ this week if you want to see how Sausalito stacks up against the other sister cities here in the county. And it's pretty darn good. So you can rest comfortably for tonight. Thank you. |
| 01:39:49.91 | Herb Weiner | Okay. All right. With that, you have... That's it. |
| 01:39:55.80 | Carolyn Ford | follow-up question for Jonathan Govrin I know it'll be brief do we have money in the budget for a an arborist |
| 01:40:00.32 | Herb Weiner | Thank you. |
| 01:40:00.39 | Mike Kelly | . |
| 01:40:11.33 | Jonathon Goldman | We do, not in the, and I'm not sure whether you're asking whether we have money in the budget for an employee as an arborist or no. What we do as a matter of course in Department of Public Works maintenance division is we have a professional services line item that we use for the retention of an arborist, an independent arborist to act as the city arborist in the event that an issue comes up with respect to a tree in the public right of way or a tree on public property. That has been the case since well before I was here and since after the city's last employee arborist retired. In fact that gentleman at Gurka is regularly on the list of independent arborists that we contact to try to review those issues. He's not always available. |
| 01:40:20.10 | Ricky Cacho | No. Contractor. |
| 01:41:07.76 | Ricky Cacho | Thank you. |
| 01:41:09.51 | Jonathon Goldman | So any time that that kind of issue comes up, and the Canary Island palms at Vigno del Mar are an example where You have asked about them. We recently retained an arborist expressly to evaluate those trees and tell us whether there were any issues associated both with their current condition to reevaluate, as Mr. Gurka had, the potential impacts associated with some of the improvements to the park that are contemplated, and also just to give us advice. I recently, in the last couple of days, received a copy of that report. So we retain arborists and do the maintenance that is recommended, including removals, based on their recommendations out of an operations line item. |
| 01:41:47.67 | Carolyn Ford | Thank you. |
| 01:41:47.78 | Mike Kelly | Thank you. |
| 01:41:56.05 | Carolyn Ford | Thank you. |
| 01:41:56.07 | Linda Pfeifer | Thank you. |
| 01:41:56.73 | Jonathon Goldman | Thank you. |
| 01:41:56.75 | Herb Weiner | Okay. Thank you, Jonathan. |
| 01:41:57.91 | Jonathon Goldman | We don't want you to go out. |
| 01:41:58.97 | Herb Weiner | on the limb on that. |
| 01:42:01.03 | Linda Pfeifer | Mr. Mayor, I just have a comment for actually my fellow council members regarding the housing element budget item, which is $30,000. One of the issues, as I think we all know about the housing element, is the importance of community outreach with that topic. And for $4,000, we could mail a little postcard to everyone in town alerting them, you know, as to what is being discussed, the date of the next workshop, whether that is in July or whether we move it out. And I think it's money well spent. And I think it's something we should consider with regards to, you know, I don't know if we want to look at that $30,000 and provide, you know, carve out specific funds for mailing or, you know, I just think it's very important. |
| 01:42:58.63 | Herb Weiner | KIDS. taken. |
| 01:43:00.41 | Carolyn Ford | Well, I would agree with that, that we need to get this Workshop advertised. um, as best we can and hit as many people as we can because it's so important particularly when we're talking about possible zoning changes so however we can do that and 4,000 seems like a small amount to inform our public Thank you. |
| 01:43:29.37 | Adam Politzer | to the |
| 01:43:29.39 | Carolyn Ford | So I would support that. |
| 01:43:31.38 | Adam Politzer | Mr. Mayor, if I can just jump in here because I hear the questions that are starting to come. The, um, you know, the $30,000 for the housing element, or the $30,000 for the Hospitality Committee, for example, Traditionally, the council would approve the sum of money, the $30,000, and then let the committee come back to the council and make recommendations. The business advisory committee also do that when they came forward with some of the economic development studies that you folks approved. So the question that this council would have tonight or on the 21st when this comes back for further discussion, is that is $30,000 enough? And so what I'm hearing Councilmember Pfeiffer say, is that 30,000 may be enough or you may want to consider raising that to 34 and some change. But if you raise it to 34, if you raise it to 4,000, then you've got to find somewhere else in the budget you would take it from. |
| 01:44:31.40 | Linda Pfeifer | They get it. Thank you. |
| 01:44:33.50 | Adam Politzer | Bye. |
| 01:44:33.97 | Linda Pfeifer | And the other reason I raised it was because it was discussed at the task force level and there was differing opinions. And in a topic that is as critical and as important and as controversial as a housing element, it seemed like it might be an opportunity for the council to provide guidance or, you know, feedback to the task force as appropriate with regards to community outreach, given the history of the housing element. |
| 01:45:02.54 | Herb Weiner | Okay. So noted. Okay. Thank you. We'll just move on with the next item. And yes. |
| 01:45:10.54 | Carolyn Ford | And Mr. Mayor, are we finished with the budget? |
| 01:45:15.43 | Jonathan Leone | No, it'll come back again. It comes back on the 23rd. Oh, okay. Well, I know that. |
| 01:45:16.51 | Herb Weiner | It comes back. |
| 01:45:17.32 | Carolyn Ford | Oh, OK. Well, I know that. But I have one more comment then. We heard about the ICE House and they're needing 6,000 more. |
| 01:45:23.24 | Mike Kelly | Thank you. |
| 01:45:23.31 | Jonathan Leone | THEIR HANDS. |
| 01:45:30.86 | Jonathan Leone | It's already in. |
| 01:45:32.48 | Carolyn Ford | Is it? Okay, so we are saying that that's part of the supplemental? |
| 01:45:34.47 | Jonathan Leone | Yeah. |
| 01:45:39.72 | Linda Pfeifer | Thank you. |
| 01:45:39.77 | Mike Kelly | that |
| 01:45:40.29 | Linda Pfeifer | So we've increased it from 500 to 1,000 a month? |
| 01:45:40.34 | Mike Kelly | I know. |
| 01:45:40.39 | Carolyn Ford | Thank you. |
| 01:45:40.41 | Mike Kelly | Okay. |
| 01:45:40.83 | Herb Weiner | Thank you. |
| 01:45:40.98 | Mike Kelly | So, |
| 01:45:41.06 | Herb Weiner | Thank you. |
| 01:45:42.26 | Carolyn Ford | Thank you. |
| 01:45:42.31 | Herb Weiner | Yeah. |
| 01:45:42.50 | Carolyn Ford | Okay. Okay, good. |
| 01:45:44.86 | Herb Weiner | Okay, good. Thank you. All right. Thank you. Not that I'm trying to move it along. All right. Next, we have the presentation of the final greenhouse gas inventory report. And Andy? |
| 01:45:45.52 | Linda Pfeifer | Thank you. |
| 01:45:56.88 | Jonathan Leone | Mr. Mayor, I'm going to have to excuse myself. I have a travel commitment that I need to scurry to quickly, or I'll be back. So I'll just have to catch up. |
| 01:45:58.89 | Herb Weiner | Thank you. |
| 01:46:01.99 | Mike Kelly | I'm sorry. |
| 01:46:02.19 | Herb Weiner | Yeah. |
| 01:46:06.04 | Herb Weiner | Okay. Have a good trip. |
| 01:46:18.81 | Herb Weiner | Okay. |
| 01:46:20.74 | Andrew Davidson | Good evening. Andy. I'd like to thank the mayor, the council, the city manager, the director of Public Works for this opportunity to reintroduce the city of Sausalito's 2005 greenhouse gas operations. It's coming up, I'm sure, very quickly. My name is Andrew Davidson, staff engineer with your Department of Public Works. |
| 01:46:21.08 | Herb Weiner | Andy? |
| 01:46:36.74 | Ricky Cacho | And it's... |
| 01:46:43.79 | Andrew Davidson | I will also touch on the inventory's results and then ask Mr. Ricky Kachaus, the person who put in the hard work preparing the inventory to present it. Thank you. We're also fortunate enough to have staff from ICLEI, PG&E, and ABAG here who may be very helpful in answering any questions that you might have. It shouldn't be under presentation. And there should be an intro. That's the next one. |
| 01:47:21.69 | Andrew Davidson | Thank you. We're already here. By way of a reminder, the project was introduced at the March 8, 2011 City Council meeting in much more detail. Briefly. In 2008. Sausalito joined ICLEE, Local Governments for Sustainability, and pledged to take a leadership role in promoting public awareness about the causes and impacts of climate change. The city also resolved to undertake the City's for Climate Protection Campaign's Five Milestone Process to reduce greenhouse gas emissions throughout the community. the city is currently working on milestone number one. |
| 01:48:05.60 | Andrew Davidson | Milestone one is a greenhouse gas emissions inventory, which is of itself composed of two parts. The first part is a local government operations component. The second part is a community-wide inventory. In January of this year, the city partnered with ICLE, ABAG, and PG&E in a program called Green Communities to conduct an inventory of greenhouse gas emissions generated by the city's local government operations. at no cost to the city, a bag assigned, and in turn to complete the inventory under the supervision of the community development department. This inventory is now complete. The second part of the milestone one is the community wide inventory. You may recall that greenhouse gas emissions from the community are anticipated to be much larger than those produced by local government operations. They're anticipated to be, local government operations are anticipated to be approximately 2% of a community-wide emissions happily, ICLEA BAG and PG&E have recently announced a similar partnership for the community-wide inventory, which is to commence in early 2012. |
| 01:49:22.52 | Andrew Davidson | Briefly, I'll touch on the results. This is a table out of Mr. Caccio's report. You can see for 2005, the government operations emissions total to be approximately 1,760 metric tons of greenhouse gas emissions. The vast majority or about 60% comes from employee commute. |
| 01:49:51.29 | Andrew Davidson | Here's another reorganization of the same data, same amount of emissions. This shows gasoline at about 70% of the emissions burning of gasoline at about 70% of total emissions. That makes sense regarding the employee commute. Electricity usage is around 15% at 270 metric tons of greenhouse gas emissions. Now before I turn this over to Ricky, I'd like to thank ABAG, ICLEI, and PG&E for their efforts, without which I don't know where we would be related to in this greenhouse gas inventory. I'd also like to thank the city's department heads and city staff for providing Ricky with a lot of the data he needed to prepare this inventory. Now without any further ado, here is Mr. Ricky Cacho to present the city of Sausalito's 2005 government operations greenhouse gas emissions inventory. |
| 01:50:59.02 | Ricky Cacho | Good evening, Mr. Mayor, council members. First, I'd like to thank South Salido staff for allowing me to actually helping me with the greenhouse gas inventory, with the data collection and the information that they provided. I'd also like to thank ABAG, ICLE, and PG&E as well for implementing this program. And without further ado, I shall start the presentation. So the Green Communities Program is designed to provide support to local governments and communities to achieve greenhouse gas reduction goals related to energy usage. San Francisco Bay Area has collaborated with PG&E ICLEE to offer trainings for local governments and interns to support inventories for municipal operations. Other local governments participating in this program include Napa, Oakley, Concord, Yonville, Lafayette, Pleasant Hill, and Sonoma County. |
| 01:52:03.23 | Ricky Cacho | Now what is a greenhouse gas inventory? A greenhouse gas inventory is an assessment of greenhouse gas emissions with activities at the local government scale and community. scale. What we're focused on here for the inventory is the local government operation scale. The local government inventory is a small subset of community-wide inventories, approximately 1 to 2 percent of total emissions of community-wide inventories. Even though it's so small, the main motivation is to demonstrate leadership on climate litigation and realize potential cost savings from energy efficiency. |
| 01:52:43.19 | Mike Kelly | Amen. |
| 01:52:48.46 | Ricky Cacho | As you can see on this list here, our greenhouse gases to the left includes carbon dioxide, methane, nitrous oxide, hydrofluoric carbons, perfluorocarbons, and sulfur hexafluoroid. Each greenhouse gas has a global warming potential or GWP. GWP, global warming potential is defined as heat trapping of availability of each greenhouse gas relative to carbon dioxide. The units are reported into carbon dioxide equivalent. So for example, with methane, methane has a global warming potential of 24 and carbon dioxide has a global warming potential of 1. That means that methane has 24 times more potent than carbon dioxide. So one metric ton of methane is equal to 24 metric tons of carbon dioxide equivalent. To the right is sources of emissions in the local government inventory. That includes stationary sources from buildings and facilities, public lighting, water infrastructure, and leaked refrigerants or fire suppressants. Other sources include mobile emissions from vehicle fleet, mobile equipment, and leaked refrigerants from mobile fleets as well. Others include waste from government operations and employee commute. What's not included in inventory is the facilities leased to others and jointly owned facilities not operated, as well as JPA operated facilities. |
| 01:54:44.54 | Ricky Cacho | The emissions from the local government inventory can be broken down by scope and sectors. With scope one, emissions from scope one are direct emissions from sources within the local government boundaries. For example, government operated vehicles, diesel generators, and mobile combustion of fuels on road and off road vehicles. Scope two is indirect emissions associated with consumption of purchased or acquired electricity, steam, heating, or cooling. Scope 3 are all other endocromissions not covered in scope 2. Other examples of scope 3 are employee commute and contracted services such as services like waste collection. The other categorization of emissions in the inventory is categorizing the inventory into sectors. This enables the government officials to communicate inventory results more easily to the public and also identify opportunities for reductions. For Sausalito, the sectors that were included are buildings and facilities, employee commute, vehicle fleet, public lighting, solid government generated waste, and water transport. Now onto the results of the inventory. |
| 01:56:17.34 | Ricky Cacho | As you can see, the main emissions that come from this inventory are from employee commute with 59%. As you can see, 1,039.1 metric tons of carbon dioxide equivalent comes from employee commute. followed by buildings and facilities with 19%. |
| 01:56:44.61 | Ricky Cacho | Here is another breakdown by source. With the source, we divided it by gasoline, electricity, refrigerants, natural gas, diesel, solid waste, compressed natural gas, and propane. As you can see, gasoline is the major contributor of emissions by source. Gasoline includes the emissions from the government operated vehicles as well as the employee commute. |
| 01:57:18.02 | Ricky Cacho | This other slide also breaks down the emissions by department and vehicle fleet as well as employee commute. The emissions by department shows that City Hall and the Fire Department are the two major contributors of greenhouse gas emissions for the city of Sausalito. To the top right is emissions from vehicle fleet by sort. The vehicle fleet only includes the government operated vehicle fleets and does not include the employee commutes. So as you can see, the majority of the government operated fleet uses approximately about 81% of gasoline and 14% of the emissions come from diesel. |
| 01:58:11.65 | Ricky Cacho | Now these are emission reduction targets that are to be considered. The IPCC or the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change recommends 20 to 45% reduction below 1990 levels by the year 2020 and 80 to 95% below 1990 levels by 2050. On the state level, there's AB 32 and executive order S305. AB 32 sets the playing field for what local governments are going to be doing in the coming years. AB 32 recommends GHG reduction goals of 15% below today's levels by the year 2020. And executive order S305 recommends 80% below 1990 levels by the year 2050. Based on the inventory results, here are some recommended emission reduction strategies. So the first one is implementing an employee commute program aimed at reducing greenhouse gas emissions. Based on the inventory, it shows that this strategy could drastically reduce or significantly reduce the emissions coming from employee commute, with employee commute emissions being more than 50% from the city of Sausalito. Other recommended strategies include retrofits of existing buildings, switching public lighting to LEDs, and changing procurement policy to high fuel efficiency for vehicle class. |
| 01:59:51.97 | Ricky Cacho | next steps into the inventory. To monitor the effectiveness of its programs, the city should plan to reinventory its emissions on a regular basis. Many jurisdictions are electing to perform annual inventories. Other steps include putting data collection systems in place, for example, making sure fuel usage and the vehicle miles traveled is recorded, as well as document fleet refrigerant work and diesel generation run time. Other steps include establishing emission reduction targets, writing a climate action plan and implementing a municipal energy action plan. I believe the next step after the local government inventory is the community wide inventory. I think that will start maybe in around beginning of the year, of next year 2012. So writing a climate action plan should demonstrate commitment to a specific set of programs, policies, by analyzing them in detail and their expected implementation level and emissions reductions. Also establishing roles, responsibilities, timelines, as well as funding measures. With that, I conclude the presentation and open up for questions. |
| 02:01:14.91 | Linda Pfeifer | Mr. Mayor? |
| 02:01:16.51 | Ricky Cacho | Council member of the First Lady. |
| 02:01:17.78 | Linda Pfeifer | Thank you. So I noticed, thank you very much for doing this for us. It was very insightful and a lot of data that I think is very helpful. So thank you. I had a question. I noticed that you had in looking at the employee commute in terms of being the biggest contributor to the pollution. That your respondents said 85% that they were not drove alone. and 0% you know, telecommute. And I was wondering, has there been any kind of attempt to look at opportunities for telecommuting as a potential way of reducing, I mean obviously not in this report, but is there an intent to kind of explore that as a potential solution? |
| 02:02:14.95 | Andrew Davidson | I think all opportunities to reduce that employee commute number need to be explored not only I mean telecommuting is a great idea. It might be difficult to accomplish, but looking at that, possibly looking at encouraging people who live within 20 miles of the city to start getting on their bike a little bit more often or carpooling is difficult. because people are comfortable driving alone and they feel, I know for me, that if there's an emergency, I need to get home. |
| 02:02:42.69 | Linda Pfeifer | So follow-up question. So I noticed that you asked reasons for not carpooling and reasons for not walking or biking. Did you ask reasons for not telecommuting? Did you look at those inhibitors? |
| 02:02:56.08 | Andrew Davidson | No. Okay. We'll have to look at that as a method. |
| 02:02:56.95 | Linda Pfeifer | Okay, just for us. We'll have to look at that as a method. Okay, great, okay, thank you very much. |
| 02:03:03.37 | Herb Weiner | Okay. Any other questions? Thank you. Okay, any questions from the public on this? Okay. Thank you very much. |
| 02:03:14.39 | Unknown | Thank you. Good work. Interesting report. |
| 02:03:18.62 | Andrew Davidson | Thank you. |
| 02:03:18.69 | Herb Weiner | THE END OF THE END OF THE |
| 02:03:18.77 | Andrew Davidson | real quick, the PowerPoint presentations can be made available if anybody would like them. If they just contact me, you can get a hold of me through the website. |
| 02:03:20.70 | Herb Weiner | that's a great sensation. |
| 02:03:28.63 | Mike Kelly | Thank you. |
| 02:03:28.65 | Andrew Davidson | Thank you. |
| 02:03:28.78 | Carolyn Ford | One quick comment, Mr. Mayor, is that we may want to look at |
| 02:03:28.80 | Andrew Davidson | Thank you. Thank you. |
| 02:03:31.85 | Mike Kelly | Thank you. |
| 02:03:31.89 | Andrew Davidson | And, |
| 02:03:37.37 | Carolyn Ford | hiring policies and perhaps think about giving a point or two extra if future employees are willing to live in town or close by in terms of hiring. Thank you. |
| 02:03:54.68 | Linda Pfeifer | Mr. Mayor, may you make a comment? |
| 02:03:56.56 | Herb Weiner | I don't know. |
| 02:03:56.94 | Mike Kelly | Thank you. |
| 02:03:57.43 | Linda Pfeifer | I think that's an excellent point with respect to hiring practices. And I would add to that another comment, which is looking at, in the hiring process, looking at local talent, you know, people who are already here. I know that, you know, with the recession and everything, a lot of people are out of work. and just because someone has not had experience or skill sets or experience in a specific job doesn't mean that skills are not transferable from the corporate sector to the public sector. So just to go ahead and see if you have a question. comment on that. |
| 02:04:40.36 | Herb Weiner | Okay, noted. All right, thank you very much. At this time here, we're going to take up to a four-minute break. Cutting it down. is the file consolidation and the results of the polling. |
| 02:04:57.12 | Charlie Francis | Thank you. Hey. Mr. Mayor and members of the Council, It says fire consolidation timeline, but gee, it looks like a budget graph, doesn't it? |
| 02:05:03.18 | Herb Weiner | required. |
| 02:05:07.40 | Charlie Francis | You wonder who did that? This is not a continuation of the budget discussion, but I did want to represent this chart that I presented at the last meeting. Because when we talked about the timetable and the progress of the community outreach, community polling at our last meeting, I also tied it into the the deficit in the general fund and the track that we've been on and how important this was business plan. And once again, it's a pivotal time for us. And just to summarize what was on the budget, 52% of our property taxes are currently consumed. 35% are going. And we have a $90 parcel tax being proposed. How did I get to the other two questions? other two scenarios. Basically the JPA full contract was $849,000. And to generate an equivalent amount of general fund budget, I added the $849,000 and $678,000 together to get the $200 parcel tax. See, what the $90 gives us is a 678,000 surplus of revenues over expenses. Right now, we're exactly even. Our revenues equal our expenses. If we went to a full fire department, it would cost $1.2 million more. If we went to a contract, it would be $800,000 more. But we wouldn't have the general fund surplus. So in order to compare apples to apples, this $678,000, to this cost plus 678,000, to this cost close to 678,000, That's how I got to the $200 parcel or $400 parcel. Now, they were estimates at the time that I did it. Certainly if we did the math, it might come to $379.82. We can go over that in the detail at our June 21st meeting. But I did want to explain that the $90 parcel doesn't only pay for the fire service but it generates the necessary general fund surplus that we need to continue providing the fire services and the police services, the recreation services and library services and also meet the PRRS challenges. The reason I bring this up at this present time and to introduce the agenda item to you today is because when we presented these scenarios in Nepal, people moved in an unprecedented fashion in the poll. And David Metz from FM3 and Rufus Jeffries from Whitehurst Mosier are gonna present the results of that poll. But what it did is people responded positively to the $90 parcel from when they first took the survey to when they finished the survey. And so with that, introduce David Metz first and then Rufus Jeffries to talk about the community outreach and the polling. |
| 02:08:20.06 | David Metz | Great, thank you very much. Members of the council and staff and members of the public, I'm David Metz. I'm a partner with FM3 Research and we conducted the recently completed survey I'm going to walk through a series of the highlights with you tonight. I know the hour is late and there's a lot of data here and probably a fair number of questions about the results and their implications, so I'll walk fairly quickly through the overall findings, and then be happy to answer questions any of you might have, and we can talk in more depth about any of them. I'm also joined here by Rufus Jeffries with Whitehurst Mosher who's my partner in the consulting team and he can talk about the implications of the results and potential opportunities for public outreach as well. |
| 02:08:58.72 | Ricky Cacho | HIT. |
| 02:09:05.47 | David Metz | So to start with, I just want to give a brief summary of the methodology of the survey. We completed 267 interviews with likely voters here in Sausalito. Those interviews were conducted both on landlines and on cell phones and completed over about a two-week period between May 4th and May 19th. This was in order to make sure, given the small size of the community, that we gave as many respondents as possible an opportunity to participate. The overall results that I'm sharing have a margin of error of plus or minus 5.9%. And that's just due to the random sampling error. And there's a couple of places where you may note that some of the percentages don't add up to 100% exactly, and that's because they've been individually rounded. So they might be plus or minus 1 from that number. Some of the key findings that emerged from the research are highlighted here and there's six key points. First is that this is a relatively happy community. We do surveys like this in hundreds of cities and special districts around the state. And obviously the mood out there is generally not good. But in Sausalito there's both a positive attitude about the direction of the city and positive feelings about local public agencies. The second point is that this issue is one that is still relatively new to most residents of the city. We found that only a minority said they had heard a great deal about the issue of potential consolidation with the fire district. Um, And once we gave them a description of what consolidation would involve, We found broad support for that concept. with about three in five voters saying that they favored it. Now when we got into the issue of costs, not surprisingly, the support tended to be a bit lower. The support for the $90 parcel tax initially was 50% to 35%. So a clear majority in favor. but less than the two thirds that would be required for passage. But those numbers did go up significantly once the respondents heard a series of pro and con arguments. In fact, rising to 63% within the margin of error of that two-thirds threshold. Some of the things that the respondents expressed to us in terms of their reactions to the concept First, in terms of their concerns with the proposal. dealt with the overall condition of the economy and having to address the tax impact at a time when many voters are economically pressed. And then also a desire for the city to cut costs to in order to free up the money to potentially fund fire service. But when we went through those list of potential options for funding fire service, Mr. Francis just walked through. The $90 parcel tax and then the alternatives which would have higher costs of either $200 a year or $400 a year. or alternatively making cuts to other city services in order to free up money to fund fire service The $90 parcel tax and consolidation was overwhelmingly the preferred option from those four approaches. Thank you. And when we asked people a little bit about what they saw as the benefits of consolidation, what they generally pointed to, It was a desire to maintain services, fire and emergency services, particularly in the face of potential disasters. as well as ensuring the stability of the city's overall finances. So that's an overview. I'll walk through some of the specific numbers here, starting with those relatively rosy attitudes toward community conditions. We asked the respondents whether they thought things in the city are headed in the right direction or off on the wrong track, which is a fairly standard opening question in surveys of this type. Nearly two-thirds said they thought things in Sausalito We're headed in the right direction. That's not to say that there were not some issues that concerned them. And we had an open-ended question where we asked the respondents to tell us what they saw as the two biggest issues currently facing the city. So this is what they told us in their own words, that grouped and categorized. The top issues generally dealt with development. Some mentioned waterfront development specifically, others development more broadly. But you'll see here there's no one issue that seems to be a dominant concern. And only 3% mentioned issues relating to fire services or consolidation as the thing that they thought was one of the biggest issues facing the city. Thank you. Attitudes toward public agencies here in Sausalito are also remarkably positive relative to what we see around the state The police department has an 86% favorable response. The fire district, 84%. And the city council, 61%, with only 18% offering a negative evaluation. So across the board, there seems to be a fairly high degree of confidence in local public agencies. We also dug a little bit more deeply into evaluations of the fire district in order to understand, since they play a central role here, whether the public felt they were receiving good service from the fire district. And we asked them to rate it on a four-point scale as either excellent, good, only fair, or poor. And overall, the results were very positive. A total of 73% rated at excellent or good. And in fact, the proportion offering excellent ratings, the top end of the scale, was more than three times as many as offered either a fair or poor evaluation. So overall, very positive. So all of that provides the background through which voters view the issue of consolidation. And as I mentioned at the outset, it's an issue that a lot of voters haven't spent a lot of time thinking about today. While 48% of those that we spoke with told us they had heard at least something about the issue, There's only a small proportion, about 15%, to tell us they've heard a great deal. And that's the proportion we usually focus on, on relatively complicated issues like this. So it's a small group that's been following this closely to date. Anticipating that that might be the case, we included in the survey a brief description. of the way that fire protection is currently provided under the contract with the district. The reasons why the city is looking at potential alternatives to replace that And then what consolidation would involve, as you see in the final paragraph, in terms of the changes and who would be responsible for providing services, what the city's role would be, and what the district's role would be. We haven't broached the issue of cost in this question. We're just trying to get an understanding of whether this general path of moving towards consolidation is one that voters tend to support. And the answer is that they do. 62% indicated that they would support it. 19% said that they would oppose it. with the remaining 19% of voters indicating that they were undecided. Now there's a fairly sizable group among the supporters that are not totally committed, saying they somewhat support it. And obviously, again, this is a new concept and a fairly complex set of backgrounds that were giving the respondents But there's still a three to one ratio of reactions to negative reactions to this concept of consolidation. And we went through a list of some of the potential outcomes that might be goals of consolidation to understand which the public viewed as most important. And they're ranked here by the proportion that rated them extremely important. which is the dark blue bar on the left. And so you'll see at the very top of the list, perhaps not surprisingly, making sure that there is better coordination and a maintenance of fire protection and emergency services both on an ongoing basis for Sausalito residents and then particularly in the event of major disasters such as earthquakes were the two items that tended to emerge as the highest priority. So we also had a series of questions to get to the critical issue of cost. And we started the survey by reading the respondents a draft ballot question of the kind that might actually appear on the ballot on Election Day. You're allowed 75 words for a ballot measure, and so we worked up a draft of what that language might look like, noting the levying a tax of $90 per parcel per year as the funding mechanism. So given just that language, again, at the beginning of the survey, before we'd explained anything else about consolidation, 50% indicated that they would vote yes. 35% no. So a 15 point margin of yes over no. And if we look at those who feel most strongly about the issue, indicating they would definitely vote for it or vote against it, There's a seven point margin of support over opposition. So this falls short of the two-thirds vote that would be required for the measure to pass. But critically, there's a lot of voters who have not firmly made up their minds here. Fewer than two in five say that they're definitely for it or against it. The vast majority of voters either undecided or falling somewhere in the middle. between probably no or probably yes. Thank you. So in circumstances like this, What we often see is that the additional information that voters receive is critical to those voters making up their minds and seeing which way they're going to go. And so the rest of the survey tried to give them a little bit more information and context to see how it might affect their positions. We walked through the four potential financing alternatives that were described just a moment ago by staff. and we asked the respondents whether they would support or oppose each one. So if there isn't a $90 parcel tax to fund fire service and we want to maintain the same level of fire protection, would any of these ways be ones that the public would see their way clear to support? And what you'll see here is that while 59% indicate that they would support consolidation and a $90 parcel tax, Um, paying through the consolidation through cuts to other city services, Developing a new contract with the district with a parcel tax of $200 per year or reinstating the city's fire department with a parcel tax of up to $400 per year all received support from only about a quarter of voters. And you'll note that the support for the $90 parcel tax, when it's placed in context with the alternatives, goes up by nine points from where it started. So understanding what the choices are here, on its own yields a higher level of support for consolidation. Now we also went through a series of statements that supporters or opponents of the proposed ballot measure might offer and asked the respondents whether they saw each as a convincing reason to vote yes or to vote no, depending on the nature of the argument. So what you'll see right here were the messages that the residents saw as the most persuasive reasons to vote yes on the measure. And the top two address the subject that I just described, which is comparing a $90 parcel tax and consolidation to the other potential financing alternatives. Those stood out as the most compelling reasons to support it, along with eliminating duplication. Moving down the list, you'll see a number of other messages that were all broadly persuasive but the proportion who rated them as very convincing tended to be a little bit lower. These were ones talking about improving the effectiveness of fire service. Um, making consolidation possible and then talking about the existing track record of the fire The items that are on the lower end of the scale here were all rated as convincing by at least two thirds of voters polled but we still see the number that found them very convincing to drop off a little bit. And these dealt with providing stability for the city's finances, making it possible to avoid cuts to other city services, and then having mechanisms in place to ensure accountability in a consolidated district. on the other side of the ledger. We also asked about some arguments that opponents might offer. And the two that were most persuasive here, with majorities rating them at least somewhat convincing, or an argument that rather than imposing taxes, the city should be looking for ways to cut costs in order to fund fire services. emphasizing the economic context with people getting laid off, and a bad economy, saying that that's a poor time to raise taxes, and then a general argument against increased taxation, all of those were the ones that came in at the top of the list. Other messages which between about one-third and one-half of voters saw as convincing reasons to vote no, are listed here. arguing that we'd be adding to potential bureaucracy, spending city tax dollars outside of Sausalito, potentially reducing local control, and then arguing that potentially service could be harmed through a consolidated district rather than the current arrangement. So after going through all of these messages pro and con, at the end of the survey, we came back and asked the respondents how they would be inclined to vote. on that same initial ballot proposal that we offered them. The $90 parcel tax. which would fund consolidation. And what we saw was that overall support went up. from 50 percent. to 63% while opposition dropped by a roughly equivalent amount from 35 down to 27. So at the end of the survey, while still short of the two-thirds threshold, it is within the survey's margin of error. Thank you. of that number. So in conclusion, a couple of the broad opportunities and challenges that we see facing the city as it moves forward. with this effort. The first is none of the options that we looked at were appealing. I mean, at the bottom line, we're talking about providing people with the level of fire and emergency service they've come to expect. and either asking them to pay more taxes for it or reduce other city services. And obviously none of those are things that voters are totally enthusiastic about. So there's an inherent challenge there. Overall economic conditions we heard from the respondents are also a concern and for any kind of tax increase provide another level of hesitation among the public. There's also an inclination, which we see at many levels of government, for voters to want to see the city look at cutting spending before pursuing a potential tax increase. And finally, we should note that the two-thirds supermajority requirement for a tax increase which is something... that's rather unique to our state here in California. is a daunting threshold under the best of circumstances for many different communities. We do find that local communities do regularly win approval for ballot measures at that two-thirds level. but it requires a carefully designed proposal and it also requires some dialogue with the public to make sure that they understand what it is that they're voting for. Now in terms of opportunities, things that may strengthen the ability to pass a ballot measure of this type, first is the high degree of confidence that the public has both in city government and in the fire district. which is something that we don't see in every community around the state, And generally speaking, that makes voters a little bit more confident about increasing their taxes if they trust the agencies that would potentially be spending them. Voters are largely uninformed about this issue. It's something where most members of the public haven't really thought it through yet. So there is an opportunity here for public dialogue. And as we saw from the survey data, getting more information tends to yield higher levels of support. for the proposal. both the idea of consolidation on its own And then also, as the alternatives are outlined, the idea of a parcel tax that would fund it. Finally, what we see here is that many of the primary goals that have been identified for a consolidated fire district providing reliable service at the most in the most cost-effective manner, are the outcomes which voters say that they are most interested in seeing. from a ballot measure of the kind that we presented them with in the survey. So I think the bottom line overall out of the results is that while It's clearly a There has to be a process of public education here before you're going to have the level of support for a ballot measure you would need. The survey results do suggest that once voters are more informed about that issue, their level of support is likely to increase significantly. So with that, I think Rufus, I don't know if you have anything to add to questions. you Thank you. |
| 02:24:49.64 | Rufus Jeffries | Thank you. |
| 02:24:50.20 | Herb Weiner | Thank you. go back for questions. |
| 02:24:52.21 | Rufus Jeffries | you |
| 02:24:52.26 | Herb Weiner | you |
| 02:24:52.51 | Rufus Jeffries | Yeah. Thanks, Dave. Mr. Mayor, City Council, thank you very much. Just to kind of, I guess another kind of interpretation of these results, and I think it was pretty clear here, is that voters seem to agree with the policy direction of consolidation and annexation, but they're not ready to open their checkbooks. And so I think what it does also point out is the need for more information about this topic. It's a complex topic, which is the segue to kind of the next step after this research is the community forums that we've got scheduled for June 29th, five community forums scheduled June 29th and then July 6th, 9th, 14th and 18th. Those are listed on the city website now. We've installed a new page on the city website under what's current that talks about the – provides information on the history and the process for the consolidation proposal. And so that's our initial step. As you know, as the city and the district are moving forward with this process, there's kind of two steps here. We've got the first step is the LAFCO annexation process, which the council and the district will need to agree on here later this summer according to the schedule that we've developed that your other experts have developed and we're working towards. So hopefully this research combined with the workshop feedback that we get can help inform your decision at that point. Of course, that process then is going to step out anywhere from four to five to six months, depending on the LAFCO process, what questions they have, what issues might come up, and then looking at a June 2012 election. And so we're going to have to kind of figure out, you know, sustaining a communication program over that period of time can be challenging. So, you know, initially we want to get these community forums set up and then look at kind of how we stage information or communications as this moves forward. |
| 02:27:20.57 | Linda Pfeifer | Mr. Mayor? |
| 02:27:21.50 | Herb Weiner | you |
| 02:27:21.53 | Rufus Jeffries | Council Member Fyfer. |
| 02:27:22.78 | Herb Weiner | Thank you. |
| 02:27:23.42 | Linda Pfeifer | So thank you. I actually have a question for Charlie regarding the survey and the getting back to a question that Council Member Ford raised earlier during the budget with regards to $90 to $200 to $400. So you probably know this. The grand jury report was released today on Insera's financial health, and it said that during 2008 and 2009, IMCARA net assets declined by 25.5% due to investment losses. And so I guess my question is, You're saying it's only $90 to do this consolidation, but how do we know |
| 02:28:03.33 | Ricky Cacho | Not. |
| 02:28:09.29 | Linda Pfeifer | that the taxpayer won't need to pay more you know, or pay the same amount, 200 or even 400, under the consolidation. |
| 02:28:19.96 | Charlie Francis | well. First of all, the taxpayers can't pay more unless they vote to pay more. And so right now the cap on the $90 is $90. And the district will never be able to raise that unless they go to everyone in the whole district and everyone in the whole district on a two-thirds supermajority vote approves it. But second of all, In negotiating over the past two and a half years with the district on the most equitable way to fund this, Part of the focus was on to make sure that the district was sustainable in the future. Because the last thing that that the staff would want, or a citizen would want, or you, the city council, would want Would they have an unsustainable fiscal condition for the Southern Marin Fire District? And as we looked at the Southern Marin Fire District finance, including their pension and OPEB obligations, we believe that the amount of contribution that they receive is fair for today and their future. as well as being the best Um, cost-effective way of delivering service to the city of Sausalito at the least amount of money for our citizens. So that's a long way of saying that we did study that. We've studied their pension. We've studied their OPEVs. And we believe that the amount of resources they're being provided in the future is a sustainable amount of resources. |
| 02:29:46.04 | Linda Pfeifer | So by sustainable, you were saying that it is your opinion that in lieu of the grand jury's findings with regards to MSERA health, that moving forward, the taxpayer would not see that $90 go up in the near future? |
| 02:30:04.16 | Mike Kelly | What's so about? |
| 02:30:05.27 | Jonathan Leone | Thank you. |
| 02:30:05.31 | Mike Kelly | Thank you. |
| 02:30:05.41 | Mike Kelly | Thank you. |
| 02:30:05.44 | Mike Kelly | Thank you. |
| 02:30:05.46 | Linda Pfeifer | Excuse me, I'm asking Charlie. |
| 02:30:05.49 | Mike Kelly | I'm sorry. Thank you. Excuse me, I'm asking Charles. Yeah, I understand. But you're asking a question which is, irrelevant because we have the same exposure under CalPERS. So it makes no difference. Calipers actually lost 30%. CalPERS and MSERA are pension plans. And the same exposure exists for us under the current situation and would under a joint powers agreement or under the |
| 02:30:27.41 | Linda Pfeifer | Okay, Mr. Mayor, if I may respond to Council Member Kelly. So that's correct, Mike. But the The issue that I have is related to the survey and how we couch the questions in the survey, because we consider the pension liability with respect to looking at, you know, the $200 or the $400 increase. But with the $90, we just go with what we know today. And isn't that correct? |
| 02:30:58.02 | Charlie Francis | The $90 is what the current cap of the district is. And we looked at that amount of resource, the amount of resource coming in the transfer of property tax and their other revenue sources, as well as their future potential growth in property taxes. And it is my opinion that it is a sustainable amount of resources for the district. in the foreseeable future. |
| 02:31:21.65 | Linda Pfeifer | So my other question was, would you say that the survey questions that were asked of residents communicated the fact that the $90 could go up? |
| 02:31:33.97 | Herb Weiner | Thank you. |
| 02:31:34.22 | Linda Pfeifer | Albeit with a vote, but that... |
| 02:31:34.27 | Herb Weiner | I'm sorry. Excuse me. Excuse me. I just want you to ask him a question. That's the Rosen... It was a question. |
| 02:31:42.95 | Linda Pfeifer | It was a question. It was a question. |
| 02:31:45.31 | Mike Kelly | He's not the survey guy, I asked the survey guy. |
| 02:31:47.11 | Herb Weiner | Thank you. |
| 02:31:47.13 | Mike Kelly | Yeah. |
| 02:31:47.37 | Linda Pfeifer | Okay, well then I'll ask the survey. |
| 02:31:52.57 | David Metz | Would you like to? |
| 02:31:52.61 | Linda Pfeifer | Would you like me to restate the question? No, I heard the question. |
| 02:31:53.98 | David Metz | No, I heard the question, council member. No, the survey presented the respondents with the ballot measure they would be asked to vote on, which would be a $90 cap. And as I think Mr. Francis noted, that couldn't be raised without another vote of the people. So it was consistently presented as being $90 throughout the survey. |
| 02:32:09.68 | Linda Pfeifer | I know it was consistently presented as $90. My question is, at any time, was the fact that residents would potentially be voting on increases also addressed in the survey? |
| 02:32:23.58 | Herb Weiner | Thank you. |
| 02:32:23.60 | Mike Kelly | No. |
| 02:32:23.90 | Linda Pfeifer | Because I did not see that. |
| 02:32:25.34 | Herb Weiner | Thank you. |
| 02:32:25.37 | Mike Kelly | Thank you. |
| 02:32:25.39 | Herb Weiner | Yeah. |
| 02:32:27.07 | Mike Kelly | Okay. |
| 02:32:28.75 | Linda Pfeifer | Thank you. |
| 02:32:28.76 | Carolyn Ford | Mr. Mayor. |
| 02:32:30.42 | Herb Weiner | Councilmember Ford. |
| 02:32:31.50 | Carolyn Ford | I have a question for Charlie. Charlie, thank you for being there. I have the greatest respect for you and for the work you do. Thank you, Councillor. I am having a problem with reconciling the numbers. The numbers that are in the report that our consultants gave us in April, on April 28, state that the the current contract agreement that they would charge us 761,000 more Um, to say with the current contract agreement since over the years we have not been paying the full 34 percent. And that 761,000 is one point is 761,000. If you compare that to the $200 parcel tax, That would provide for 1.1 million. And that's way over what is needed for fire services. So that's an issue, I think. And the... then if you go to a full service contract with them where we don't have our employees they take over the employees and provide everything turnkey then it's 849,000 And. |
| 02:34:12.20 | Charlie Francis | That number right? |
| 02:34:12.46 | Carolyn Ford | That actually is the $1.1 million. |
| 02:34:14.99 | Charlie Francis | at one point. That's that number right there. That's it. |
| 02:34:19.56 | Carolyn Ford | Yeah, right. So that does not equate to a $200 |
| 02:34:21.72 | Charlie Francis | Thank you. You're absolutely right. And as I explained before, $849 plus $678 is the $200. |
| 02:34:26.45 | Carolyn Ford | Rehearsal, Ted. |
| 02:34:33.05 | Carolyn Ford | Now, the 678 is what? |
| 02:34:36.59 | Charlie Francis | $90 parcel tax pays for the fire service and generates a 678,000 surplus in the general fund. to get an equivalent amount of surplus in the general fund and pay for the full contract of fireplaces would be $200 a person. |
| 02:34:53.45 | Carolyn Ford | Well, yes, but we're talking about the general fund. What we're not saying is that the residents pick up. what the city is not paying. So yes, the general fund, is accruing that amount of money, but the residents are paying for it. |
| 02:35:08.67 | Mike Kelly | You're absolutely right. They're paying $19. |
| 02:35:08.70 | Carolyn Ford | Thank you. You're absolutely right. Okay. It's a very nice dollar. I know that. Thank you. I know the $90 tax. Yeah, I know. That's what they would be paying. |
| 02:35:17.76 | Ricky Cacho | Thanks. |
| 02:35:21.39 | Carolyn Ford | Now, if we wanted, we could get a full service then contract. with the fire department, with the Southern Fire District, if they were willing. That's a big yes. At, I still have the floor, at 849,000. |
| 02:35:37.32 | Mike Kelly | It's a big hit. |
| 02:35:45.44 | Carolyn Ford | which is only $300 more than what would be generated by the property tax. Um, The city could in fact put a property tax on the parcels and find 300,000 more in the and thereby still maintain control. I guess is my point, my question, and asking for your confirmation. If that's true. |
| 02:36:16.17 | Adam Politzer | That's true. I just, my eyes brow went up on the control issue because it just to again identify what a JPA stands for. The JPA would mean that in this, if the buyer, |
| 02:36:18.08 | Carolyn Ford | No. |
| 02:36:35.78 | Adam Politzer | if Southerman and Fire would go along with this idea, it would be a weak JPA, which would be no different than the circumstance we're in today, which means that their board ultimately makes the decision on expenses, on the use of equipment, the use of personnel. So it wouldn't be that we would have any more control than we have today, which we outsource our fire service today. to Southern Marin. So I just wanted to make sure that we understood that a JPA doesn't give us any local control Unless it's a... strong JPA which means that the seven-member board, by Southern Marin. would give up their responsibility and give that to a minority of their board members to sit with our council to make the members of our council to make those decisions independent of the full board's support. And at this point, Southern Marin, early in the process is that they are not interested in a strong JPA but they would at that time, which they had no longer supported, at that time when this was discussed they were of the concept of a weak GPA, which gives us no more control than we have today. |
| 02:37:46.35 | Carolyn Ford | Which is significant in my view because we are codependent today. And question. |
| 02:37:52.58 | Adam Politzer | Thank you. |
| 02:37:52.59 | Herb Weiner | I have. |
| 02:37:53.54 | Carolyn Ford | Thank you. All right, well, we were getting into discussion of control here, so |
| 02:37:58.08 | Herb Weiner | Well, I have a question. |
| 02:37:58.11 | Carolyn Ford | I have a question. All right. |
| 02:38:00.76 | Herb Weiner | On the JPA full contract, would that cover Is that in addition to overtime? |
| 02:38:10.92 | Herb Weiner | Because last year the overtime, I believe, was 270,000. |
| 02:38:16.66 | Mike Kelly | Great. |
| 02:38:17.20 | Mike Kelly | It's a full pass-through, isn't it, Charlie? Right. Yeah. So whatever the expenses are, you just pass them through to the JPA members. So if they went out of, let's say they have a big surplus on their side of the equation, they decided to hire five more firemen, they could just charge us for the extra firemen. |
| 02:38:19.07 | Herb Weiner | THE FAMILY. |
| 02:38:23.36 | Mike Kelly | Thank you. |
| 02:38:23.37 | Jonathan Leone | So, |
| 02:38:32.06 | Jonathan Leone | Rick. |
| 02:38:32.74 | Mike Kelly | Thank you. |
| 02:38:34.93 | Jonathan Leone | Thank you. |
| 02:38:34.97 | Mike Kelly | Thank you. |
| 02:38:34.98 | Jonathan Leone | Thank you. |
| 02:38:35.00 | Mike Kelly | Thank you. |
| 02:38:35.05 | Jonathan Leone | Thank you. |
| 02:38:35.10 | Mike Kelly | Thank you. |
| 02:38:35.61 | Herb Weiner | So we, under that, would be responsible for not only the overtime but the workman's comp. Is that correct? That's correct. You're looking at 500 grand right there. |
| 02:38:46.73 | Carolyn Revell | Thank you. Mr. Mayor, I wasn't referring to a full, oh, the meeting there, the full JPA, Charlie, is that they would provide all the... |
| 02:38:53.04 | Herb Weiner | Yeah. Yeah. |
| 02:38:59.81 | Carolyn Revell | all the fire services. |
| 02:39:01.31 | Herb Weiner | But my question is that the last two years we've spent approximately at least $250,000 per year just for the overtime. Under that, where would that change? It isn't. That's going to just continue. And it'll be fast food To us. All right, never mind the work, Ms. Carl. |
| 02:39:22.98 | Linda Pfeifer | I have a question, Mr. Mayor. |
| 02:39:23.62 | Herb Weiner | Any question, Mr. Mayor? Thank you. Right here. |
| 02:39:26.70 | Linda Pfeifer | I'm just curious with respect to overtime, do we have the numbers with respect to like a history of how much overtime has been charged year to year? |
| 02:39:38.05 | Charlie Francis | Since 2002, of course. |
| 02:39:40.00 | Linda Pfeifer | I'd be interested in those numbers. I know you don't have them now. |
| 02:39:41.25 | Charlie Francis | Okay. |
| 02:39:45.44 | Charlie Francis | You know, with that will come an explanation on the three, the four different sources of overtime. There's four different sources of overtime in a fire department. The first is Fair Labor Standards Act overtime. That's the, because a firefighter's work schedule exceeds by its very nature 40 hours per week, the Fair Labor Standards Act of the U.S. government says that you have to pay them X amount of overtime for a 40 hour what we consider, what we would consider a normal 40 hour work week. |
| 02:40:12.67 | Jerry Williams | We would. |
| 02:40:12.98 | Ricky Cacho | that are going to be a good |
| 02:40:15.32 | Charlie Francis | The second part of overtime would be the overtime when they're off fighting state fires. That amount of overtime is reimbursed by the state, usually on a lag basis. They go off and work and we get it later. The third source of overtime in our current arrangement is when our firefighters are working because a district employee didn't come to work that day. And in those situations, the district reimburses us for the overtime that we pay our employees for working as a district employee. Then the last source of overtime is when we have to pay overtime because one of our own persons is on workers' comp or is on sick or on vacation and we don't have the minimum manning. And so then we have to pay our person, another person, to work overtime. |
| 02:41:05.78 | Linda Pfeifer | So Charlie, I have a follow- So when you look at those numbers, we don't |
| 02:41:07.77 | Charlie Francis | So when you look at those numbers, we don't have that overtime broken down into those four components. It's just a lump sum. |
| 02:41:12.82 | Linda Pfeifer | It's just a lump sum. So in other words, we don't know if that $270,000, there are parts of that that are going to be reimbursed to us. |
| 02:41:20.39 | Charlie Francis | It would take a lot of research to find out how much is reimbursed. |
| 02:41:22.77 | Linda Pfeifer | which is really important. |
| 02:41:23.26 | Mike Kelly | But it's an important question. Wait, wait, ask him. Jim, he's right here. |
| 02:41:23.56 | Linda Pfeifer | It's an important question. |
| 02:41:27.60 | Charlie Francis | Oh good. |
| 02:41:27.95 | Linda Pfeifer | Okay, okay. Thank you. So in other words, just to be clear, then that's $270,000. There are parts of that that will be reimbursed to us. |
| 02:41:39.61 | Mike Kelly | There were parts that were reinforced. |
| 02:41:39.95 | Linda Pfeifer | There were. There were parts that were reimbursed. And so I would be interested in, since 2002, that breakdown, and as well as how those four slices were. |
| 02:41:54.43 | Jonathon Goldman | You can do it. |
| 02:41:55.86 | Jim | I don't know how many years I can go back with the next one. |
| 02:41:58.14 | Mike Kelly | Thank you. Thank you. Jim, isn't it also true that when you have available staff at the fire department over there, from your side of the equation, and we have a guy go out, if you can cover that, you can do it sometimes in a non-overtime situation. |
| 02:42:19.64 | Jim | That is correct. We provide staffing of one over what our minimum staffing is, whereas Sausalito has a minimum staffing. |
| 02:42:27.88 | Mike Kelly | Right. Ours is 15 and that's... Right. So if you have even... |
| 02:42:30.24 | Jim | Right. So if you have even one person gone, it needs to be refilled. If we have an extra person on that day, we provide it to Sausalito at no charge. |
| 02:42:33.19 | Mike Kelly | need to refill. |
| 02:42:38.88 | Mike Kelly | which is a savings to us that we wouldn't otherwise have. We'd have to staff up for that. |
| 02:42:38.96 | Jim | It was just a |
| 02:42:42.67 | Jim | That is correct. |
| 02:42:45.76 | Mike Kelly | Okay. |
| 02:42:50.08 | Herb Weiner | Any other questions? |
| 02:42:50.99 | Adam Politzer | Thank you. Thank you. |
| 02:42:54.49 | Herb Weiner | Questions from the public? |
| 02:42:55.77 | Adam Politzer | Excuse me, Ms. Mayor, I just wanted to refocus the council on the real item that's here tonight, which is the survey and the results of the survey. So if there are no other questions for the consultants, then absolutely turn it over to questions to the public. But I know we got a little bit off into the numbers there with our finance director. I just wanted to make sure if you had questions of our consultants on the poll results, that you had an opportunity to ask those questions tonight. |
| 02:43:23.09 | Mike Kelly | Okay. John. |
| 02:43:31.58 | John Flavin | My name is John Flavin. I'm a resident here at Sausalito. The conversation that just unfolded reminded me of an old quote from my first boss, which was, tortured numbers will confess to anything. |
| 02:43:44.76 | Mike Kelly | Bye. |
| 02:43:46.19 | John Flavin | I'm here basically to talk about the survey like what Adam said, but I have a concern for you. I've given you a memo. and it's got some length to it. But in summary, you all know that California law prohibits you from advocating a ballot measure. You also know that you could be individually liable, civilly and criminally, if you violate that law. You may not know that a number of the participants, a number of the people who participated in this survey, had the distinct feeling that the survey questions were steering them toward supporting the consolidation. I have raised several points based on strictly the consultant's report, Mr. Metz's report, primarily a little bit on the staff. it would sort of support that concern. If I were litigating this, if I were trying to get an injunction to stop all this, I would bring Mr. Metz, I would put him on the stand, I would replay that recording, and note how many times he said consolidation and never mentioned the other options. And you might say, well, John, you're exaggerating, Look at the last line of his report to you. It reads, |
| 02:45:15.55 | John Flavin | Give me a minute while I find it. Given the small size of the community and the ample time remaining before an election next year, the survey results suggest that efforts to engage and educate the public over the next year can put the city on a path toward voter approval of a parcel tax and consolidation. That does not appear to me to be objective, in the manner that you have to do in this type of work. um Vice Mayor Kelly, you're shaking your head no. Am I wrong? |
| 02:45:51.76 | Mike Kelly | Am I wrong? |
| 02:45:53.41 | John Flavin | Why? |
| 02:45:53.51 | Mike Kelly | Why? because we're providing objective information. You're getting absolutely information that has been vetted It's all in black and white. The numbers are public. You can see them. You can subtract and add. Do you have any problem with the numbers you saw tonight? What is wrong with those numbers? |
| 02:46:15.28 | John Flavin | Do you want me to go into length? I only got 32 seconds left. I don't think you can, John. I can. |
| 02:46:17.54 | Mike Kelly | I don't think you can, John. You can talk to me. i can't i was going to see the right |
| 02:46:20.26 | John Flavin | I can see it. All right. Every time we go through this, |
| 02:46:23.89 | Mike Kelly | Every time I ask you for something in writing, I never get it. |
| 02:46:26.39 | John Flavin | or you're going to get you're going to get the housing element you're going to get this but i would get to you in writing and you will have what you |
| 02:46:30.03 | Mike Kelly | Good. Let me say one other thing, that having gone through a bond election, an election where the city has to watch out what it does, There's a very bright light. about when we can advocate and when we cannot advocate. So you should refresh yourself with that bright line as we will. And we'll put that out so you can see it. |
| 02:46:50.45 | Mike Kelly | Thank you. |
| 02:46:50.47 | Mike Kelly | Because your facts in this are half-half. |
| 02:46:50.50 | Mike Kelly | Right? |
| 02:46:53.23 | Mike Kelly | And you know, it reminds me of Daniel Moynihan, who said, you know, Mr. Flavin, you're entitled to your opinion, but you're not entitled to your own separate set of facts, and that's what you're doing. |
| 02:47:04.76 | John Flavin | I beg to differ. Thank you. |
| 02:47:05.98 | Mike Kelly | Well, you will. Okay. Ugh. |
| 02:47:12.94 | Herb Weiner | This is why Sausalito is so different than other cities in Marin County. you Thank you. Okay, any other questions? Thank you. |
| 02:47:22.21 | Carolyn Ford | Yes, I have one. And this is for our consultant. |
| 02:47:26.58 | Herb Weiner | Thank you. |
| 02:47:26.97 | Mike Kelly | Thank you. |
| 02:47:27.49 | Herb Weiner | Thank you. |
| 02:47:29.23 | Mike Kelly | We're still in the middle of public comment, aren't we? Oh, I'm sorry. Oh, sorry. |
| 02:47:32.32 | Carolyn Revell | Oh, I'm sorry. Oh, sorry. Sorry, I'm out of order. |
| 02:47:35.14 | Herb Weiner | . |
| 02:47:35.22 | Mike Kelly | I'm sorry. |
| 02:47:35.98 | Mike Kelly | . |
| 02:47:38.24 | Herb Weiner | Vicky? Yeah, I think I have some. Rosenberg rules. |
| 02:47:43.42 | Vicki Nichols | Vicki Nichols, 117 Caledonia. I just wanted to... Um, state my recognition of the Measure S campaign that we went through recently that Mike Kelly was speaking about. I served as the chair and it was very clear to us at what point the city had to disengage from this. It's very spelled out. We did the same amount of research. There was a phone survey. We did phone banks. We did all kinds of things before, but once it's actually declared that there is an election, Um, not to argue with my colleague on the Landmarks Board, who I have great respect for, but just to make it very clear this is all spelled out But doing research prior to this, how is a council supposed to know if you're even going to spend the money on an election if you don't do some research? This clearly says, and what I'm hearing the consultants say, is they've made a conclusion from these numbers. And that's the summary of this. That's what I heard. that based on the numbers that you all saw, they made a a conclusion, a concluding statement not an advocacy position. So I think this is very standard. I think people do this all the time. You pick up the IJ. Everybody's doing consultants for polls on all. The Dixie School District just did this. San Rafael did it for their library. This is done all the time. But once it's actually determined that you're going to put this on the ballot, the city backs off, and they did before. like you don't even know they're around. And it's at that point, that a citizen's group gets together or someone less than the majority on the council and you can legally then form citizens to do education and that kind of thing. The city did not help us, the previous city manager was really clear and Honest to God, really, we were very careful. So I'm sure that if this comes up again, that can be done. It's very clear how to do that. keep it separate. |
| 02:49:40.11 | Herb Weiner | Thank you, Vicki. Any other comments from the public? OK, bring it back up. Carolyn Ford. |
| 02:49:47.17 | Carolyn Ford | Yes, I have one question and actually I think it's for Rufus. Sorry. |
| 02:49:50.17 | Herb Weiner | Yes. |
| 02:49:53.98 | Carolyn Ford | I'm sure you're delighted to sit back down. Yes. This regards the workshop. Earlier this evening, we heard from the public about having the workshops in during the summer months, and I noticed that all the workshops for this are in the summer months, yet we have quite some time. |
| 02:50:09.41 | Ricky Cacho | I noticed. |
| 02:50:16.19 | Carolyn Ford | Um, I'm, people are on vacation. People are doing other things. Um, can't. Would it be feasible to spread these workshops out. The other reason I'm asking this is I noticed you said that you needed to keep up the communication during this whole year's time. So would it be possible to spread some of these workshops out to say September or October when people are back in town and life is back to normal? |
| 02:50:50.87 | Rufus Jeffries | It's certainly possible to do that. I mean, nothing precludes us for doing that. I think the main objective of doing the workshops now was leading into the deliberation and possible decision by the city council and the fire protection district board on submitting a LAPCO application for annexation. And so these and the reason we're doing five, which is a fairly robust number in a small community like this, and that may help us during the summer months. So the main objective of these workshops was to provide not only information to the community about annexation, consolidation, and the finances behind it, but also to provide the council with information back from those workshops to help with your decision making as it relates to the LAFCO process. But again, there's nothing that precludes us from holding additional workshops later in the year. And I think that's one of the things that we're going to be working with city staff is kind of figuring out how to stage necessary communications and additional workshops if |
| 02:52:11.18 | Adam Politzer | Thank you. Can I just add to that? I think it's really important. as we've gone down this path. to remind the council and the public that You know, the survey tool that was just introduced tonight It's just that. It's just a tool. It's to give us some information on where we are in terms of our public's knowledge of the subject, what their level of support or not support, maybe, and that's one tool. The next set of tools are the public forums and that's when you actually get to have some Discussion. hopefully not too much debate, but at least some discussion where people bring questions forward that they would like to have answered by staff, our consultants, and by our council. So the public forums is just another tool to make sure that we're hearing from our public on the questions that are being raised today. all the way up to when the Council has to make a decision to file an application. If we have a groundswell of folks that come out and say this is a ridiculous idea, They don't want to give up local control. And their answer is that they would rather have our own stand-alone fire department, which neither staff or our consultants are recommending. Um, If that was what came forward, if that's what came out of these five forums, then the the council would be foolish to go forward in the LAFCO process. But if we have what we have at most of our council meetings, a handful of people, some more passionate than others, some that are doing homework equal to our council, which is very important, then we won't have a and outpouring. of people participating regardless if we have it in June. or if we have it in January. There's reasons why people don't come out for a lot of reasons, including if it's raining. We saw blues and jazz by the bay. Uh, You know, the night was actually quite nice for the first half hour. But people just chose not to come because they knew that the weather forecast was going to be bad. But I think as Rufus has stated, This is one tool to give the council the knowledge that the community thinks that we should go forward with the application. and then we'll continue to hold if the council directs. additional forums, discussions. And then at some point, as Vicki Nichols and others have stated, Um, Councilmember Kelly. Staff has to step away. And a community group, such as the group that supported the Yes on S committee will have to come forward and host coffees and meetings and discussions with the public and that will be separate from what the staff's role would be in any process such as that. So we're a little bit less than a year away now. from this action, but there are time schedules that we have to make for LAFCO to do its work to actually say that this is something that LAFCO could support. And if they support it, then it's all continuing on the vote of the people on June 5th of 2012. And so there will be other opportunities for the public to weigh in. during that process. But I would be remiss, you know, to not make this comment, and I probably need to make it more often. Charlie Francis and I, are directed by the council to make sure that we keep our city moving in the right direction. And this council, and I support this council and appreciate the direction that this council has given, wants us to improve our streets. They want us to improve our parks. They want us to maintain the level of service that's expected from our community. And I think we're doing an absolutely great job and meeting that mission. And you saw in our capital improvement list You know, there is multiple millions of dollars in the next five years that are getting allocated to fixing our infrastructure. to improving the things that are important. but, If you want to go another direction, if local control is very important to this community and to this council, and looking at other options, that's fine, but we have to change course. to where we're going. and our financial plan. to address that to buy more time. and be willing that Southern Moraine will step away. And I know that folks think that it's equal and codependent but it really is not. At the end of the day, the Southern Marin Fire Protection District has been very patient with us. They've been very patient since 2004. I've shared with members of the public that we've done this exercise with Mill Valley and Southern Marin early in the 2000s. in 1995. with Larkspur and Corte Madera and Tiburon in the county And the city of Mill Valley and Southern Marin went through this very exact same exercise. I have those reports in my office if anyone would like to see those. and Corner Madera and Mill Valley stepped aside and said they're not interested. as did Tiburon And just as they did back in 2004 when the same exercise went through and Mill Valley stepped aside and said they're not interested. Member of the public. and the council, has asked me. Is there any other agency that's knocking on our door asking for the same deal that they would love to receive the $500,000 or the $800,000 to operate our business? Command staff and provide fire service for the city of Sausalito. The answer is no in the four years I've been here There hasn't been a single phone call from a single agency asking for us to consider them to run our fire department I sat down to be more direct I sat down with the city manager at Mill Valley, at Poggio in a public setting so people could see that I was meeting with the city manager Jim McCann from Mill Valley and asked him, is there any interest? And the answer was no. It's not on his radar. It's not on their fire chief's radar. And it's not on their city council's radar. Could that change? Absolutely. Could change. But how long will it take for them to get to where we are today? And the question is, you know, the question hasn't been answered, but we know that it won't take less than a year or two. So it's taken us seven years to get to an agreement with someone that wants to be our partner, and that's Heather Marin, who continues to sit here patiently to try to help us provide the service. And as the poll results showed, Our community is very satisfied with the level of service with a patch that's on that. on our uniforms. The symbol that's on those trucks that say Southern Marin. There hasn't been a phone call in the four years I've been city manager. that it said otherwise, that we're not happy with a level of service. So I do want to remind the council and the public that at the end of the day, the finance director and myself have the responsibility to make sure that we don't end up in the newspaper. Thank you, Vicki, for this. I'm not using it to say that we have good reserves, but that didn't happen by chance. And it's happened because this council The Finance Committee and the staff has taken very careful steps in looking backwards and looking forward. And with that, I know that the council and the community are aware, Charlie and I will meet with anybody, anytime, anywhere to discuss our finances. And Jim has also made himself available to do so. And as questions come up, we encourage people to come and meet with us. We'll be at the forums and we'll give this information But I do think it's important that that you hear also from your city manager. I've been pretty quiet during these presentations. and let the debate and the discussion go forward But. We are really in a critical moment in time as we look forward. And the decision that the five council members make One, to actually file the LAFCO application is going to be a very important moment in time. The second is hearing from your public. between now and June 5th. on if they want to move forward And if they don't want to move forward, and that's what we hear from the community, then we better get a plan B Keep going quickly. And a plan B may be, let's look at the types of services that we'll reduce or the type Reserves that we're going to go into the first year just to maintain. The earthquake fund, which Charlie calls it, to keep us afloat for a few months or a year, depending on how far you want to go into those reserves. Or another tax, a special tax to support whatever service delivery you want to bring, but it would be a special text requiring two-thirds vote. And some folks may be upset that we didn't do what staff is recommending and advocating that we go forward with Spire consolidation. |
| 03:01:09.81 | Carolyn Revell | Thank you. |
| 03:01:09.83 | Carolyn Ford | Mr. Mayor. |
| 03:01:10.11 | Carolyn Revell | Thank you. Thank you. |
| 03:01:13.40 | Carolyn Ford | I just wanted to ask if I could have as much time as our city manager. |
| 03:01:19.46 | Mike Kelly | Thank you. |
| 03:01:19.56 | Herb Weiner | I'll ask Rosenberg. |
| 03:01:22.52 | Linda Pfeifer | Mr. Mayor, I have a question for our city manager. |
| 03:01:25.69 | Herb Weiner | Okay. |
| 03:01:26.94 | Linda Pfeifer | So what is the time frame that we're talking about here? Because I'm hearing five workshops from the survey. I'm hearing the June 5th. I understand that, but what is the timeline? When do we have to decide on the, is it the LAFCO application, that filing? |
| 03:01:44.42 | Mike Kelly | Page one of your report has a timeline. |
| 03:01:47.36 | Linda Pfeifer | Oh, okay, okay. |
| 03:01:49.03 | Herb Weiner | I have a question, believe it or not. Jim, explain to me mutual aid and why it can be or cannot be mutual. |
| 03:01:49.33 | Linda Pfeifer | I have a question. |
| 03:02:01.68 | Jim | Mutual aid is an agreement by all fire agencies that we're in to help each other out when they need it. In order to get mutual aid, you have to be able to give mutual aid. So it means that it has to be mutual by the meaning of the word. Is that you can't expect your neighboring agency to provide something to you if you're not willing to provide something to them. |
| 03:02:13.04 | John Flavin | Thank you. |
| 03:02:19.39 | Ricky Cacho | Thank you. |
| 03:02:19.40 | Herb Weiner | is, |
| 03:02:28.46 | Herb Weiner | King. |
| 03:02:29.02 | Linda Pfeifer | Mr. Mayor, to respond to Council Member Kelly's statement about the timeframe. Mike, this is not answering my question, this timeframe on page one. This is just a generic 2001, it's by year. My question to our city manager, |
| 03:02:30.02 | Jim | to receive. |
| 03:02:45.59 | Linda Pfeifer | was what is the deadline? What is the deadline? What is the date by which Sausalito, the city, needs to confirm that, yes, we're going to file for LAFCO application. Yes, we're going to have this ballot. in June. What is that date, that deadline? |
| 03:03:04.09 | Adam Politzer | So I'm going to try to do a few of these things by the top of my mind, but in the council packet from the last presentation, you folks received this beautiful Thank you. color chart here. |
| 03:03:15.48 | Mike Kelly | I remember that. |
| 03:03:16.41 | Adam Politzer | Thank you. And, um, what we laid out is a pretty tight timeline and the tight line is based on the LAFCO process. So on the next council meeting on June 21st, that meeting is going to be a joint meeting with the Southern Marin Fire Protection District and the City Council to go over all the deal points. And the deal points will lay out. what the equipment, the vehicle replacement fund how much money is being transferred over, what's going to happen with our employees or terminated from the city of Sausalito and become Southern Marin Fire So that meeting will put all the deals in front of the council and the public so that they can see all the numbers that reach these conclusions that Charlie has summarized in today's council package. |
| 03:03:52.75 | Ricky Cacho | So, |
| 03:03:52.77 | Mike Kelly | Thank you. |
| 03:03:52.85 | Ricky Cacho | Okay. |
| 03:04:05.23 | Adam Politzer | Then we'll come back in July with a draft application, draft application for the Council to review. and give direction and approval to then come back in September. with the final version of the draft that will then go forward to LAFCO and will file that application at the September 12th Council meeting. |
| 03:04:30.23 | Linda Pfeifer | Okay. |
| 03:04:31.03 | Adam Politzer | Thank you. Thank you. |
| 03:04:31.31 | Linda Pfeifer | Thank you. So September 12th. |
| 03:04:32.85 | Adam Politzer | Yeah, and if I may, this continues. So from September 12th, It will leave the city of Sausalito, this council, will now have done their job. So that was... |
| 03:04:42.65 | Linda Pfeifer | So that's when we step back. |
| 03:04:44.02 | Adam Politzer | Well, we don't have to step back on that bright line that Councilmember Kelly and Vicki Nichols spoke of, that I believe is a 188 day threshold. But before the item comes to the ballot. |
| 03:04:47.99 | Linda Pfeifer | Okay. |
| 03:04:55.04 | Linda Pfeifer | before the balance. |
| 03:05:00.24 | Linda Pfeifer | That was my question. I wanted to know when the right line was. |
| 03:05:01.99 | Adam Politzer | when the right line was. Let me just continue and then I'm sure that there are plenty of people that are going to jump in here and correct me. I'm not always correct and I'm not shy to admit that sometimes I'm not always correct. But the process though that's important to talk about here is once we file that application. |
| 03:05:07.71 | Linda Pfeifer | That's that. |
| 03:05:08.32 | Mike Kelly | Yes. |
| 03:05:08.64 | Unknown | Thank you. |
| 03:05:19.22 | Adam Politzer | Ken Lafco takes it. and then they have their own public hearings that the public from Sausalito, Southern Marin, there may be members of Southern Marin community that come forward and say, we object. We don't want to take on the baggage of Sausalito or be subject to Sausalito residents running to be on the district board because this is what the local control we will end up having is that our community members will now be able to run for election and serve on the board of directors for the Southern Marin Protection District. So at that moment, LAFCO will take it. They'll conduct their public hearings. As Rufus has mentioned, that could take up to six months. We're hoping that it's going to be less. Once they conclude their hearings, then it will come back to our public to decide on |
| 03:05:48.64 | Mike Kelly | Thank you. |
| 03:06:07.37 | Adam Politzer | if we're going to support it at the ballot and the council Up until a threshold, we'll be able to give direction. to continue to hold community forums if you folks would like. with your council members present and participating. |
| 03:06:20.43 | Linda Pfeifer | So my question referred to the bright line. I'd like to know when that bright line is, when the city steps back. |
| 03:06:27.13 | Adam Politzer | That's a new question. |
| 03:06:29.03 | Linda Pfeifer | That's a what? |
| 03:06:29.74 | Adam Politzer | That's a new question. A new question. |
| 03:06:30.49 | Linda Pfeifer | A new question. Well, that was what I was, maybe if I wasn't clear, but that was my question. |
| 03:06:35.09 | Mike Kelly | Thank you. We took. |
| 03:06:38.35 | Linda Pfeifer | Thank you. |
| 03:06:39.50 | Mike Kelly | Thank you. |
| 03:06:39.63 | Linda Pfeifer | you |
| 03:06:39.80 | Mary Wagner | Yeah, and typically it's when the council actually adopts to put a ballot measure on the ballot which I don't have the number of days before, but it's probably January, I think. It's 88. 88 days. |
| 03:06:51.65 | Seiko Fujimoto | Oh, yeah. |
| 03:06:52.86 | Mary Wagner | Thank you. And so if the election is June 5th, you've got to back off of that. I think that puts us into January. |
| 03:06:58.48 | Mike Kelly | Thank you. Thank you. |
| 03:06:59.02 | Mike Kelly | Thank you. Am I correct that what that means is the city can no longer put any staff time or any funds in any shape, size, description toward |
| 03:06:59.09 | Mary Wagner | Thank you. |
| 03:06:59.24 | Mike Kelly | very cute. |
| 03:06:59.54 | Mary Wagner | Thank you. |
| 03:06:59.68 | Mike Kelly | Thank you. |
| 03:07:10.21 | Mike Kelly | any advocacy or anything to do with that election. |
| 03:07:13.38 | Mary Wagner | At that point, the city can only provide neutral information. |
| 03:07:13.89 | Mike Kelly | That's a good point. Correct. And then, but individual council members, Thank you. Acting in their industry. |
| 03:07:20.11 | Mary Wagner | Acting in their individual capacity. |
| 03:07:21.21 | Mike Kelly | You can't act in the individual capacity, join the citizens committee that would be formed, et cetera, et cetera. |
| 03:07:26.19 | Mary Wagner | Right? |
| 03:07:28.52 | Mike Kelly | That's correct. |
| 03:07:28.67 | Mary Wagner | Thank you. |
| 03:07:29.80 | Mike Kelly | Number one, two, because you get a Neubron Act problem. Right. |
| 03:07:32.01 | Mary Wagner | Well, I mean... |
| 03:07:33.04 | Mike Kelly | But you can still join the committee and get money. Yeah. |
| 03:07:35.13 | Mary Wagner | Yeah. |
| 03:07:35.15 | Mike Kelly | Yeah. |
| 03:07:36.03 | Mary Wagner | Yeah, individual council members aren't prohibited from joining. |
| 03:07:38.93 | Mike Kelly | But, |
| 03:07:39.15 | Mike Kelly | from, uh, |
| 03:07:39.81 | Mike Kelly | I'm joking. |
| 03:07:41.24 | Herb Weiner | Thank you. |
| 03:07:41.34 | Mike Kelly | Bye. |
| 03:07:41.70 | Herb Weiner | I'll get you good money for that. |
| 03:07:43.69 | Carolyn Ford | Thank you. |
| 03:07:49.00 | Carolyn Ford | don't say it that way please I have a question for our fire chief I again am going to go back to the report of April where the the full contract for service full JPA would be 849,853 and ask why you would not why the board is saying |
| 03:07:51.25 | Herb Weiner | Yeah. |
| 03:07:51.59 | Mike Kelly | Bye. |
| 03:07:51.62 | Herb Weiner | Thank you. |
| 03:07:51.64 | Mike Kelly | Yeah. |
| 03:07:51.96 | Herb Weiner | Yeah. |
| 03:07:51.97 | Mike Kelly | Please. I know. |
| 03:08:25.47 | Carolyn Ford | that they would not offer that to us if we – |
| 03:08:28.61 | Jim | Actually, the board has not said that. That is not their desire, but they have not said that they absolutely would not do that. |
| 03:08:35.97 | Carolyn Ford | I see. So that's still an option. |
| 03:08:38.06 | Jim | That is an option. |
| 03:08:39.51 | Carolyn Ford | Okay, thank you very much. |
| 03:08:45.74 | Herb Weiner | Any of them? Ray? You can call me Ray. |
| 03:08:52.59 | Herb Weiner | Why don't you do the hand? |
| 03:08:57.75 | Ray Gerges | Sprained wrist. Ray Gerges, 60 Woodward Avenue. I'm sorry I came in late for the report. I've been trying to be a good listener, however. I have at least two comments. One phrase that I noticed tonight that really bugged me, and that's the phrase local control. That's all. Very nice word. to toss around. What does it really mean? I can tell you what it means to me right now. It means a question of control over level of service. And it means control over the amount of money it's going to cost. Regarding money. I can only say that I am completely convinced that consolidation is the most economical way for us to go. The most economical way. The other issue is service. I can only speak from a personal point of view. with respect to the consolidation that we have seen in the past several years. My household has had no need to for a fire call. but we've had two needs for medical calls. It's a matter of fact that any fire department has more medical calls than fire calls. So it's an appropriate... point to make. Our household has had two medical calls involving or fire department. And in both cases, it's been more than exceptional. And the last call involving my wife I had to call 911, and before I finished on that phone call, are consolidated fire departments was coming down Woodward Avenue. I could hear the silence. Before I hung up that phone, That is what I call outstanding service. And that's what we can expect to see if we continue to pursue consolidation. The other quick comment I would like to make with respect to a comment that Councilwoman Ford made with respect to the scheduling of these forums. To me, the absolute worst time of the year to have forms would be the Christmas season. The next to the worst time would be during the summer vacation season. And I heard late June and July and August It would be the best thing in the world to have these forums after summer vacation is over. Lastly, Thank you. Thank you. Any comments that Vicki Nichols made with respect to the campaign, I worked with her. Not as much as I would like to, but what she said is absolutely accurate. And I completely thank our manager, Adam Pollitzer, for the comments that he just finished making a few minutes ago. It was both educational and both gratifying. I appreciate it and I agree with him. Thank you. I mean. Thank you. Thank you, Rick. Any other comments? |
| 03:12:23.19 | John Flavin | Thank you. |
| 03:12:24.03 | Herb Weiner | Thank you, Rick. |
| 03:12:25.72 | Mike Kelly | Thank you. |
| 03:12:25.87 | Herb Weiner | Any other comments? Any here? |
| 03:12:29.97 | Mike Kelly | Yeah, I want to say something. |
| 03:12:31.91 | Herb Weiner | Yeah, and I'm going to say something to |
| 03:12:33.74 | Mike Kelly | Me too, we all are. |
| 03:12:36.00 | Carolyn Revell | I'm sorry. |
| 03:12:36.57 | Mike Kelly | No. |
| 03:12:36.94 | Herb Weiner | Good, then I'll go first. |
| 03:12:37.62 | Carolyn Revell | Thank you. Thank you. |
| 03:12:38.97 | Herb Weiner | Um. You know, I'm aware that 52% of our budget, of our property taxes go to firemen, and we're talking all these numbers back and forth. But what we're really should be looking at also is the people. the people that have these jobs. You know, it's... It's not like in each, you know, Police departments are different in each city because they have different problems. like Senafel and Novato, have gang problems, which we don't have here. And we don't have the high crime rates Thank you. Jennifer, like some of the other cities and the biggest cities in Marin. But meanwhile, a fire. man. Oh, woman. When they go out, It's almost the same in every city. They're taking their lives in their hands. I think we just saw in San Francisco, two firemen just died. going into a fire and the liability is very, very high. They put their lives on the line. So it isn't to me just numbers. It's how well people are trained. And I can honestly say that last year or two observing this Southern Marin Fire Department is that they are well trained and that's why we have the good service that we have. I just don't look at it all the time just with numbers. But it's, and when it really comes down to it, it's really all about people. And that's an important, very important issue with me. and I Uh. Still. no matter what. My thinking is my job up here is to Listen to both sides, not predetermined. Which way to go? but listen to both sides and make a determination which is best for our community. I don't remember. |
| 03:14:45.58 | Mike Kelly | What? |
| 03:14:46.15 | Carolyn Revell | You go ahead. you Thank you. |
| 03:14:50.90 | Mike Kelly | Well, I'm okay with opposition to this. If somebody doesn't like it, it's fine. They're welcome to that opinion. But as I said earlier, my aphorism, I'm not okay with misinformation. There are some things that are information-driven, and the budget, the numbers, what it's cost us to run the fire department, how it impacts our general fund. And so Charlie has done a magnificent job of pulling that all out and sticking it in various different ways so we can look at it. It's indisputable if you buy the facts behind that particular set of logic, number of employees, number of fire chiefs, number of battalion chiefs, and so on. It's just there. It's just black and white. There's no mess around. You can cut the level of service, take off the firemen from every fire truck, give the ambulance service away, Do all those kinds of things, and you can reduce the staff and all that, but you're going to reduce the level of service dramatically to the city. There are some things, however, which are arguable. Control. John, control is arguable. And it's a real thing. And John, you're a very smart guy. I know you have spent some time on this. But you and I, or Charlie, should sit down together and look at the facts. And I think we'll agree on that. and then we can do something different with the rest of it. I may never convince you that control is the way to go. But, But that notwithstanding, This gives us a level of service It does give us a lot of control. We end up with people running for the district board and knowing Sausalito We may get criticized from the other end for having too many seats on the board. It gives us, the $90 gives us protection against tax increases without a vote of the people. The JPA does not, it's an expense pass-through. Even a strong JPA will not protect against extra costs and others being passed through. Thank you. I've worked with this since 2006. I've been very objective about it. I have to say I started out not believing this would work because there were so many personality problems and other things between fire, not the firefighters themselves but between the district boards and I'm thinking this is never going to happen. And it's come together kind of magnificently. I wouldn't do this if I didn't think it was in the absolute best interest of Sausalito. Absolute best interest of Sausalito. Both fiscally and physically and at level of service and so on, And it's just there. So I'm sort of passionate about it, and I'll be an advocate for it unless somebody can convince me otherwise. And I'm happy to talk to anybody about it, but I want to get the facts out there so we all have the same set of facts. And then we can agree to disagree, okay? |
| 03:17:25.84 | Carolyn Ford | Mr. Mayor? |
| 03:17:26.97 | Herb Weiner | Go on. Three minutes, Rosenberg. |
| 03:17:29.81 | Carolyn Ford | Well, I want to make it clear that I have I don't have as much time as Adam. I want to make it clear first that I appreciate the services, the fire services that we're receiving right now. I think they're outstanding as well. I have no problem with that. But I also want to make sure that we protect our city going forward because organizations do change. And that's where control comes into it. But before I talk about control, I want to say that I think that this survey is completely misleading. And the question about the 200,000 and 400,000 Why do I say thousands? That's because I've been dealing with big numbers here. The 200 and 400K parcel tax is outrageously misleading. and it goes back to Um, what I discovered when I first came into this project. I was new on the council and I asked Um. when I was told that the city was saving $500,000 or close to $600,000, I asked how that could be. because the costs were more. And, um, I was told, oh, well, we're putting a parcel tax on. I said, well, wait. The city isn't saving 500, 600,000. a year. The residents are the city. The residents are picking that amount up and they're paying for it. So what I see in this particular survey and in the numbers that we are looking at is the same thing at work. We are Actually, that we are counting. the 560 as city income. And we should not be doing that. We should be comparing apples to apples. And the apples to apples is that under consolidation, we will be paying $560,000. Excuse me, $600. six, whatever the new numbers are, 600,000-something. If we were to stay with our current agreement, pay our 34% we would pay be paying 761. That's only like 100,000 more, not quite 100,000 more than we're paying with the consolidation. If we were to go for full services, then we would be paying a couple hundred thousand more for full services. So, I am very distraught about the fact that this survey has used figures that are wrong, that discount what the residents are paying. as a property tax, as a parcel tax. And the other thing about the questionnaire is it's nowhere does it say um... asked the residents if they would be willing to pay a slightly higher amount to maintain local control of our fire services. Just one more quick. The control issue, I just have to say this about the control issue, is not sufficiently addressed. I'm sorry, but Adam went on for quite some time about the control. |
| 03:21:29.38 | Mike Kelly | for quite some time about the control. We've all promised to stop. |
| 03:21:34.56 | Carolyn Ford | Okay, I'll catch up on the next round. |
| 03:21:37.77 | Mike Kelly | Okay. |
| 03:21:39.79 | Linda Pfeifer | Mr. Mayor, I'd like to make a comment. Thank you. I, too, am concerned over the survey questions. I do not believe it was clear with respect to the $90 parcel tax. I remain concerned over the path to consolidation. I feel that we're pushing the burden to the taxpayer and indirectly to renters. That said, I want to say that no matter where the council members fall up here on consolidation pro or con, I know we're united in our appreciation for what our firefighters and our police officers give to Sausalito. and they really are our local heroes. And I just did want to communicate that. Because I think it's important to understand that while we may disagree on the path and the data, that we do appreciate what we have. So thank you. |
| 03:22:58.55 | Carolyn Ford | Mr. Mayor. |
| 03:22:58.97 | Linda Pfeifer | Thank you. |
| 03:23:00.44 | Mike Kelly | Thank you. |
| 03:23:00.46 | Herb Weiner | Yeah. |
| 03:23:00.71 | Mike Kelly | Thank you. |
| 03:23:01.76 | Carolyn Ford | May I have my one minute? |
| 03:23:03.85 | Herb Weiner | Go ahead. |
| 03:23:05.60 | Carolyn Ford | The other thing I would like to say about the control issue is that I don't think it's sufficiently addressed in the... in the survey. Fire services is one of our most important services. It's right there with the other safety employees, the police officers. And if we merge, we give up control of that. We give up control of our people, of control of our service. We give up control of 30-some percent of our property taxes. really dislike the idea of doing that. The issue with how much influence we have is that the directors are elected at large. We may or may not have someone on that council, on the board. And they're also looking at expanding with Corte Madera and other cities. So we will have very little to say. I firmly believe that it's in the best interest of the city to keep control of one of our most important services. |
| 03:24:19.58 | Herb Weiner | Go ahead. |
| 03:24:20.36 | Mike Kelly | Um, The, um, What was I going to say? The, the, oh, I know. Council has voted on this and the vote was 3-2 to move forward with consolidation. So I would like to propose that we don't debate this every time we have an issue when we have somebody make a presentation. That we're going forward and we're going to go forward through the process and have a vote of the people. That's not going to change. The only thing I think we can do together is to get the facts out on the table so that we're all talking about the same thing. But the vote was taken, and we're moving forward on consolidation. Mr. Mayor. |
| 03:25:08.69 | Carolyn Ford | Thank you. |
| 03:25:08.77 | Mike Kelly | . |
| 03:25:08.81 | Carolyn Ford | Thank you. |
| 03:25:08.84 | Linda Pfeifer | Mr. Mayor. Thank you. You go ahead. I'll go ahead. Go ahead. Mr. Mayor? |
| 03:25:13.23 | Mike Kelly | Go ahead. Thank you. |
| 03:25:15.78 | Herb Weiner | Yeah, go ahead. |
| 03:25:16.94 | Linda Pfeifer | Okay, thank you. So I think that the agenda item is the survey results and to ask questions with respect to the survey results. and the survey questions. Naturally, we're going to ask questions about the data and the assumptions that were made when formulating those questions. So I think this is healthy. I think we have a fiduciary duty to our constituents to ask these questions and to really have a thorough understanding of what we are putting out there in the community. And if we have concerns about that, I think we have a responsibility to raise those concerns. Thank you. Mr. Mayor. |
| 03:26:05.93 | Carolyn Ford | you. I completely agree with that, and I think our residents deserve to hear both sides of this issue. I think it's important that we discuss issues in an open way. and that everyone have their say. And frankly, I I was elected to voice my opinion and I will continue to do so. Um, I do not support these figures, the $200, the $400, Parcel tax that is not correct it's not apples to apples and I want the city to change that secondly I want... us to spread those workshops out they're all in one week now I believe or close to that we need to spread those out so that people everyone has a chance to go and so that it gets wide publicity because when someone goes to a meeting, they talk about it. And so that passes on and the word spreads and that kind of talk needs time to build up. |
| 03:27:18.19 | Mike Kelly | Mr. Voter? I'm sorry. |
| 03:27:21.28 | Carolyn Ford | I'm sorry. Do you want us to move on? Yeah, I'll move. I'll move that we correct the figures, the $200 and the $400 parcel tax. clarify that point state that it doesn't it doesn't recognize the residents paying for the the parcel tax or that it doesn't include it properly. And... Hold. The second part of this is that we hold the workshops over a period of time. Okay, go for it. |
| 03:28:01.30 | Mike Kelly | Thank you. |
| 03:28:01.32 | Linda Pfeifer | I second. |
| 03:28:01.86 | Herb Weiner | and, again, the Okay. All in favor? All in favor? |
| 03:28:04.66 | Carolyn Ford | Thank you. |
| 03:28:04.68 | Vicki Nichols | Aye. |
| 03:28:05.54 | Herb Weiner | Opposed? No. No. Done. |
| 03:28:05.89 | Vicki Nichols | Go. |
| 03:28:10.01 | Herb Weiner | I'm just gonna make a last minute comment. Um... |
| 03:28:15.04 | Mike Kelly | . |
| 03:28:16.12 | Herb Weiner | Last year, we had an election. And I got more votes than any other council person has ever gotten. and Sausalito. So I'm very attuned to a pulse for this community and what leadership is Um, I guess one of the weaknesses that I see up here is that I've always grown up in a business where it was very labor intensity. worry. And without labor, I couldn't operate my businesses. And I learned also that through a necessity service business. how people react and how you Um, Communicate with people. and One of the jobs that we have up here is leadership. And I hear the residents. I don't hear the residents. I go out and I speak to them in all different areas. So as far as leadership, where is the leadership? The leadership isn't out there in the residence. The leadership is out for us to communicate with the residents out there and then come to this dais and show that leadership. I see it in the county, I see it in meetings, some of these Councils don't have leadership. Well, this council, as far as I'm concerned when I'm here, will have that leadership. And my opinion right now is that I'll just leave it at that, okay? I won't give an opinion because I want to still be open-minded. And I'll leave it like that. But, but leadership is what I've been always taught in the business world and I've been brought up in a necessity public service business world directly. And I see that lack, very honestly, up here. Okay, you could talk about all your numbers and everything else, but it still comes down to people. and that's what we're talking about. And you, some of you, do not see that. You can call for transparency, but I can see through transparency. I'll put it that way. Do you have a comment? Yeah. City Manager's report. |
| 03:30:43.79 | Adam Politzer | Thank you, Mr. Mayor, council members. I do have a city manager's report for your entertainment tonight. And because it's not 11 o'clock, there are only one council member left. |
| 03:30:52.96 | Ricky Cacho | because it's not 11 o'clock, you know. |
| 03:30:57.75 | Adam Politzer | Give it to your thoughts. |
| 03:31:01.72 | Adam Politzer | Just there are mostly just items for the council's information. Obviously, I wanted to bring forward to them that Sausalito will be hosting the MCC MC on June 22nd. So it is important that as many of you are at the meeting that we actually host here in Sausalito. I also wanted to let folks know that the Park and Recreation Department has made a change with blues and jazz by the bay. And in the past, we've had council members have the responsibility, opportunity, or burden, depending on how you looked at it. to be the hosts of the evening and introduce the band and make public announcements. Mike Langford and I sat down last week and determined that we have an excellent broadcaster, voice and entertainer with Jonathan Westerling and thought that it would be best to give him the opportunity to do it. and we will take the council's We've been fired! lesson in the future. |
| 03:32:08.00 | Mike Kelly | Fire. Fire. |
| 03:32:10.30 | Adam Politzer | into consideration, but at the end of the day, not to hurt any of your feelings. The people are there to see the bands and they really are not. |
| 03:32:18.99 | Mike Kelly | All right. Like, yeah. |
| 03:32:22.02 | Adam Politzer | We'd really like to get to the music, so we thought that it would be in the best interest of everyone that we just moved forward. and go with Jonathan as our host for the evening. We are going to acknowledge any dignitaries that come, including you folks as our council. If we have other county folks that come, county supervisors or Some of our elected officials like Mark Leno. or Assemblyman Huffman. Obviously, we'd like to recognize them as they come. If you're there, please make sure that both Jonathan and or Mike know that you're there so we can properly have you stand up and wave your hands and be acknowledged because the importance and why we created this in the first place And and. I'd like to take a moment here to go off on a tangent. |
| 03:33:12.23 | Carolyn Revell | Thank you. I hate that sneaky, sneaky genre. |
| 03:33:12.77 | Toyomi Tanaka | Bye. Thank you. |
| 03:33:15.08 | Adam Politzer | At least the camera can catch the smile on my face. |
| 03:33:16.02 | Mike Kelly | I could catch the smile on my face. |
| 03:33:18.00 | Adam Politzer | Thank you. |
| 03:33:20.36 | Mike Kelly | Thank you. |
| 03:33:20.38 | Adam Politzer | Thank you. |
| 03:33:20.39 | Mike Kelly | Thank you. |
| 03:33:20.48 | Adam Politzer | I'm not sure. |
| 03:33:21.61 | Amy Belser | I know. |
| 03:33:22.91 | Adam Politzer | I'm dead. |
| 03:33:23.03 | Amy Belser | Bye. Thank you. I'm devastated. |
| 03:33:24.86 | Adam Politzer | At my staff meetings, it's like soccer time. You watch the soccer game and the clock expires, and then there's unused time that continues, so they keep playing. because they take account for the timeouts, injuries, ball going out of bounds, whatever. And so, Because I've deferred my manager's report. for probably three months now, I'm using my five minutes and now taking the opportunity to share what's on my mind. But, to go back to blues and jazz by the bay, one of the purposes of having council members get up and introduce the bands was not because we needed you to introduce the band. It was really for the It was... Yes. |
| 03:34:07.44 | Mike Kelly | Thank you. |
| 03:34:07.46 | Carolyn Revell | Yeah. |
| 03:34:07.49 | Mike Kelly | Thank you. |
| 03:34:07.51 | Carolyn Revell | All right. |
| 03:34:07.76 | Mike Kelly | What? |
| 03:34:09.45 | Carolyn Revell | See this adds, this adds. |
| 03:34:09.45 | Adam Politzer | See, this adds to the clock. |
| 03:34:10.88 | Mike Kelly | Thank you. |
| 03:34:13.01 | Carolyn Revell | Is it just... Thank you. |
| 03:34:14.16 | Adam Politzer | But it is important to make this statement. It was so that the public, because it is such a well attended event, |
| 03:34:14.17 | Carolyn Revell | But it is important to make sure |
| 03:34:21.97 | Adam Politzer | by our residents obviously that rent the tables. The majority of the tables are by folks here that live in our town. And still the majority of the folks that lay out the picnic tables and blankets are from our town. And so that they know who you folks are because they're not coming to these meetings here. And it is important that they know who they've elected to run their city and the council. We didn't take that decision lightly and I wanted you to know that there was great thought there. Uh, with the opportunity with July 4th to get your day in the sun. Hopefully their sun. is we will need your help again as we always do, finding convertible cars so you folks can ride in the cars. time in the past you folks have rode together so we don't need so many cars. and other times you folks like to write individually, which is also fine with us, but whatever effort that you folks can help in securing convertibles will go a long way, If Mike Langford was here, he would appreciate the plug and also a reminder for you folks for that day's event. Other note worthy report item here for you folks is that we've secured an intern a video production intern. And this is what David Weatherford and I and Redlings have been working on is now taking what's collected on tape here. and shown on our web stream. and to consolidate it because not everyone's going to sit and watch four hours of a council meeting or three hours of a council meeting. So our intent is to edit down and create a highlight reel and put the highlight reel on the website. And if folks want to see more, then obviously they can go to any of those items on the agenda and click on that agenda item. But give them a quick snapshot. look in, a window into what happens on each of these items and for them for them to make the decision to review the entire meeting if they so choose. |
| 03:36:23.83 | Carolyn Ford | Will we have editing veto? No. |
| 03:36:25.58 | Adam Politzer | No. No, just the facts and your voices will, but we will do our best to make you look good because that's the staff's job, is always to make the council look their best. As the city manager in San Rafael once said to me. |
| 03:36:39.94 | Linda Pfeifer | That's what he just fired us from our head. |
| 03:36:43.08 | Adam Politzer | What the city manager once said to me in San Rafael, we only work for winter. So it's a good place for us to be. I'm at this seat here. But, um... Moving that production forward will then if we have the ability to do so, which is what our intent. is then to go out on the road and also capture things that are events, things that are going on in town. The workshop for the housing elements is an example of that, where we can also take film of that and give an insight to the community on what's going on. So we're trying to to, bring the city to the people in all the different communication tools that we have at our disposal and try to get to the younger generation that doesn't have the time to attend meetings or watch these meetings and look to their media and to communicate. So that's something that you will see develop in the next three months or so as this person will start later this month. I wanted to jump in during the budget discussion and also thank Charlie Francis and all the department heads and the finance committee that went through hours and days AND MONTHS OF MEETINGS IN PREPARATION. easy task. or feet to get through this process, especially when you are looking at trying to maintain the services that you have with increased costs, and many of those costs, he talked about a $300,000 pension increase, talked about a $100,000 loss of a grant from the COPS funds. Each of these service providers, including RBRA, they send us the JPA invoice, and their invoice went up 10%. animal control services that the county provide. Their invoice is going up. Each of these services come with a dollar And they're not always flat. and they go up and in some cases we just have to pay because there's not a cheaper way to do it. And so, It is trying times for all of these small agencies that are trying to provide services for the benefit of our community and the communities here in Marin County. But it is no small task and it is sometimes controversial and difficult to have the discussion. But the staff tries to bring this information without a bias with the understanding that we're trying to just maintain what we have. and provide excellent level of service to our community. with the dollars that we have to our resources. On that note, one of the positions that we are looking to fill, which was vacated by Dan Ciponi, was our division manager position, and we look to introduce our new division manager in July. at the July meeting. We have focused on an excellent candidate I think you all will be. very pleased with when the person is introduced because it was our intentions to elevate this position from not just someone that's able to manage the 18 employees or as Jonathan showed earlier, Charlie showed earlier, the 25 employees if you look at that, the Public Works Department. But someone that can actually run projects and take some of the workload off of our Public Works Director that works tirelessly and has done an exceptional job of moving our infrastructure projects forward, including our streets and sewers and everything else on that list that he's responsible for. But someone that can help him lead. someone that can be the right-hand person to his department as Todd Teachout. is his left hand in the engineering side. So the person now is in background. They've accepted the position. It's contingent on medical and drug testing and other background that we have to do to make sure the person is an outstanding candidate for employment, which we believe this person is, And so we look forward to introducing the division manager to you folks in July. As we come into this lovely summer weather schedule of rain and fog and wind and frost and snow. and all the other great things that are occurring. Um, Please let me know if you're going on vacation that takes you out of the Bay Area, if you're just going up to Sonoma or somewhere local. or just staying overnight in the city. I don't need to know that, but if you're going out of state Down south, it's important that Debbie and I both know where you are, so in case we have to call a special meeting of any sort that we know who's around, if we have a majority of the council or not, We encourage you during the month of August when we take our break. to schedule something fun. and relaxing and revigorating. So that when you come back in September, you're ready to go The last thing, which is also in the paper, there's a lot of things that have been in the paper lately that haven't always been the greatest of news, but the one that should concern you folks here is what's going on with the Sausalito Marin City School District. And I've had the opportunity to talk to a lot of folks and we'll be inviting the school district, at least the president of the board and members, of the parent community and surrounding community to come to a future council meeting to give us a little bit more information in detail of of what the issue is. Why it's important to this city, and people ask, why do you have such a strong opinion, Adam? And so I share, I need Charlie's little bubbles here. So I can ask the question and answer at the same time. But the reason why is because one of the proposals is to start a new charter school in Marin City. And when I met with Jonathan Logan, who at the time was considering for the Marin City Community Service District to author the application for the charter school I said that that school would have to be equal or better. advocating for a school that's not equal or better. So if you advocate for a school that's equal or better and that's what you achieve, then what's left here in Sausalito? Because if I'm a resident of Marin City, why would I send my child to a school that right now is proposing the bus service so they would have to walk. So if they're gonna walk, why wouldn't they walk to a school that's equal or better right there in their community? We don't have very many students in the school district in the first place, 400 or less. Of those students, there's not very many that are actually Sausalito residents. So at some point, you may have a charter school in Marin City and a charter school in Sausalito. If we can't sustain the number of students in a school in Sausalito, then there is a strong case to be made to close down the Sausalito campus, which would leave our only public school choice in Marin City. which is not the end of the world. but I want to make sure that everyone's eyes are wide open as these discussions are happening. because as the city council and as the city manager for our community looking out for the interests of our residents, we want to make sure that there is a local public school here in our boundaries, our city limits. And if there's not, then we better be with our eyes. bite opening, wide open and our community behind that decision. to look to see if we can support A LOCAL SCHOOL. charter school, Willow Creek Academy, which has done very well. if they are to continue, is there enough local support with our residents to send their kids there rather than to the private schools that many of them send them to today. And if there isn't, then we need to recognize that there is a possibility down the road that that school would not be able to financially sustain itself. So that's why I bring it up tonight. That's why it's important that we ask the school district to come and talk to us about what decisions are before them and allow you folks to ask those questions. And I encourage you to engage these discussions with the young families here in Sausalito to find out what their knowledge of this issue is and encourage them to go to the board meeting. There's one on Thursday night. The item that's in front of them in our police department will be sending a representative is cutting the local school bus. And it's the staff's position that we don't feel that it's safe. That was... and you're talking about kindergarteners, and I have one, all the way up to third grade, kindergartner to third grader to walk from Marin City to the Bayside Willow Creek campus It's not appropriate. And if we had parents that are in my school district, that organized similar to our Chief Tejada School District organized and she's one of these organizers with the community walking bus. where all the parents come together and they bring their kids and they walk Well, then that would be great, but we know that that's not the type of parents because they're all that are actively participating are working two or three jobs just to make ends meet. So they don't have the ability to coordinate these AND WE ALSO KNOW, UNFORTUNATELY, IN THE SCHOOL DISTRICT, that there are absent parents. that are participating. to look at how these kids get to school there will be many kids that choose not to go to school. the older ones in particular that are left to their own means to get themselves fed, dressed, and to school. And we also have to take that seriously as this decision gets debated and discussed at the school district level. So I recommend that you folks pay attention to this item. If you feel inclined, write a letter to the school board prior to the ninth the Thursday, June 9th meeting. or attend and encourage others because it's really important what's going on the future of our school district is at the balance here and at a crossroads, and it's very important for our residents. That concludes my report. answer any questions you may have Thank you. |
| 03:46:22.97 | Herb Weiner | Thank you, Adam. Next, future agenda items. We have any future agenda items? |
| 03:46:33.38 | Mike Kelly | Oh, yeah. I'm On the 23rd of June, Tam is going to vote on whether to give money to SMART, $8 million worth. So if we could put that on just five minutes on here. Thank you. Okay, but I'd like Jonathan to be here too. |
| 03:46:58.73 | Mike Kelly | Okay. |
| 03:46:59.05 | Herb Weiner | Thank you. |
| 03:46:59.27 | Mike Kelly | So just do it on the 21st. We don't have to do anything before then. |
| 03:47:03.64 | Herb Weiner | Okay, any other future items? Council Committee reports. you know, |
| 03:47:17.11 | Herb Weiner | I've been to the last three or four housing element cash force meetings. And the last one. I went to really disturbed me. on how that meeting was going, how it was conducted. And, uh, |
| 03:47:40.63 | Herb Weiner | I met with a council member, we spoke about, with council member Pfeiffer on how I thought Some things were very inappropriate. At the last meeting, I saw that It really Um, It got worse. So at this time here, I'm going to make a move. on the task force and remove Councilmember Pfeiffer from that task force. Oh. I have a list of things. I... Don't want to go through all of them unless you want to hear them all. but There was... I want this task force to work together and come out and not have any obstructions. Thank you. but to get to a point where we can make some correct recommendations with And I understand disagreements. but not when it gets to a point that it's going to be the one person's opinion and not have the flexibility to listen to others and when there's a consensus. The idea is to go with that consensus. With that, that's my decision. |
| 03:49:10.98 | Linda Pfeifer | Yeah, Mr. Mayor, if I may. In my opinion, I believe that this is political. I believe that I did express a minority opinion in the housing element task force as I have. I know that my opinion is a minority opinion and has not been supported by the majority on this city council. And I regret your decision, but there it is. And by the way. |
| 03:49:47.19 | Herb Weiner | And by the way, this is not political. I'm the last one from the political. thinking of it, all right? When... what? Yes? |
| 03:49:55.53 | Carolyn Ford | Mr. Mayor, I'd like to comment on that. |
| 03:49:56.25 | Herb Weiner | like. Mm-hmm. |
| 03:49:58.30 | Carolyn Ford | I do think it is political and the reason I think it is political is because the housing element committee. Task force. |
| 03:50:08.49 | Carolyn Revell | That's what we stand for. |
| 03:50:09.75 | Carolyn Ford | was changed from a committee to a task force and that has been a that was done so that the mayor could appoint and I think it's wrong I have registered my concern with the city attorney the mayor has no more powers than an individual city council member. And that is in accordance with the law, state law for general city, for... sorry it's getting late, general law cities. So I really think this is a very important thing It's an indication of not being able to deal with a minority opinion. We need minority opinions in our committees. Excuse me. And they need to be heirs. |
| 03:51:08.18 | Herb Weiner | Excuse me. Thank you. Excuse me. Have you been to any of the meetings? |
| 03:51:13.81 | Carolyn Revell | I've been to one. |
| 03:51:14.93 | Herb Weiner | Okay, well, but you went to the last four. that I've been to. No, I haven't. Okay, then you haven't seen what goes on. |
| 03:51:18.98 | Carolyn Revell | No, I haven't. |
| 03:51:22.82 | Herb Weiner | to make that a comment. All right. First of all, Well, you chuckle, but this is serious, okay? |
| 03:51:30.72 | Linda Pfeifer | Mr. Mayor, if I may. |
| 03:51:32.92 | Herb Weiner | Okay? |
| 03:51:33.61 | Linda Pfeifer | I am not laughing at this. I am, I am, it is, it is incredulous. I'm incredulous. |
| 03:51:35.92 | Herb Weiner | I am. |
| 03:51:41.01 | Herb Weiner | Listen. |
| 03:51:41.30 | Linda Pfeifer | Listen. |
| 03:51:41.88 | Herb Weiner | Listen, when you were at the last meeting, you turned around and you're attempting to make a motion. on something, on an item that wasn't on the agenda. You should know long enough that you cannot do that. And then when you couldn't get a motion on it, then the first thing you turned around and did was, well, I want a consensus. And the consensus was seven to zero. Okay? And the other thing that leads me to making a decision, not politically, is when you have two council people They're supposed to be basically liaisons. All right? And when I see at the last meeting two council people going after each other, back and forth, and watching other members not even making a motion, so set back on it that they couldn't say a word. That's when there's an obstruction. |
| 03:52:36.42 | Linda Pfeifer | Mr. Mayor. |
| 03:52:36.57 | Herb Weiner | So that's my decision. |
| 03:52:37.99 | Linda Pfeifer | Mr. Mayor, if I may, you said it, two council members. Mike and I disagreed on the mailing of postcards to alert the community about what was on the table with respect to the a historic Valhalla, turning that into affordable housing in the Spencer Firehouse. And Mike and I disagreed. Regarding the 7-0, well, that's called democracy. we have differences of opinion. Excuse me, that was a decision. |
| 03:53:08.34 | Mike Kelly | Thank you. |
| 03:53:08.39 | Herb Weiner | And the motion |
| 03:53:10.52 | Linda Pfeifer | And the motion was on the agenda, Mr. Mayor. |
| 03:53:11.58 | Mike Kelly | So, let's go. |
| 03:53:12.63 | Herb Weiner | The decision was made by the Council before, and you keep on bringing it up and bringing it up. Stubbornness is not the direction that I want to see that committee go through. |
| 03:53:19.13 | Linda Pfeifer | And this is not- |
| 03:53:22.70 | Linda Pfeifer | The council has not made a decision on turning the Valhalla into affordable housing or affordable overlay zones on Lincoln or... |
| 03:53:31.58 | Herb Weiner | on Lincoln or? But the council had a vote and you wanted to bring it back up to the council. That's what you wanted to do. and then you wanted to get a consensus to bring it back up to the council. |
| 03:53:44.66 | Carolyn Ford | Mr. Mayor, may I ask you to please reconsider? This is unprecedented. This is unprecedented. |
| 03:53:49.91 | Herb Weiner | This is unpleasant. You weren't at any of the meetings to see what went on. That's what bothers me to make an opinion like that. |
| 03:53:57.28 | Carolyn Ford | I know I am at a meeting right now with Councilmember Pfeiffer and I know how she behaves so I cannot... |
| 03:54:04.30 | Mike Kelly | The meetings take a long time because we have to go to sort through everything that she brings up. She's got one point of view. Linda, you have one point of view, your point of view. And you put it on your website. We've read your website. It says that we can satisfy all of our housing elements by nothing more than counting the liver boards and second units. And it's absolutely not true. So we've got to move forward beyond that. A majority of people on that board believe that that's not true. So we are moving forward, and we can't have continued obstruction |
| 03:54:34.32 | Ricky Cacho | Thank you. |
| 03:54:34.37 | Carolyn Ford | Yeah. |
| 03:54:38.93 | Mike Kelly | where there's just one person trying to throw a monkey wrench in the process. |
| 03:54:43.06 | Carolyn Ford | Well, Mike, from what I understand, there are two points of view here. There's one from our consultant and there's one from the state. But if you go, if we have a point of view. One from the state. |
| 03:54:43.38 | Mike Kelly | from |
| 03:54:48.58 | Mike Kelly | CONSIDERING. |
| 03:54:52.88 | Mike Kelly | One question. If you have a point of view, and I have a point of view, and you get three people on this council to vote on your point of view, and they agree with you, |
| 03:54:56.41 | Carolyn Ford | Thank you. Yeah. |
| 03:55:01.67 | Mike Kelly | I got to drop back. because I have been outvoted. I have been told that the council's gonna move in a different direction than I am Thinking. Now, I don't have to change my opinion. But am I going to be then an obstructionist from that point on? And every time, every time I get a chance, I'm going to throw a hammer in there to see if I can't stop the problem? |
| 03:55:19.12 | Linda Pfeifer | If I may, Mr. Mayor, making a motion on, it was a motion on the analysis of impediments to fair housing, and it was on the agenda. And the prior motion had to do with the options list with respect to the Valhalla historic, turning that into affordable housing, and the Spencer fire station. And my motion was to remove those two. And I didn't get a second, and I was shut down, which is fine. I mean, this is my opinion. |
| 03:55:24.39 | Mike Kelly | Thank you. Yeah. |
| 03:55:48.79 | Unknown | Well... |
| 03:55:49.26 | Linda Pfeifer | But I mean, what I, it is called democracy, and it's messy, and it's not necessarily |
| 03:55:49.33 | Herb Weiner | Thank you. |
| 03:55:49.35 | Unknown | Thank you. |
| 03:55:49.40 | Mike Kelly | But I mean, what- |
| 03:55:50.39 | Herb Weiner | I don't know. |
| 03:55:50.53 | Unknown | Bye. |
| 03:55:50.56 | Herb Weiner | Bye. |
| 03:55:50.73 | Unknown | Y'all know. |
| 03:55:51.03 | Herb Weiner | It is. Not necessarily. Excuse me. Excuse me. I want to end this now. But it's. My decision. |
| 03:55:57.85 | Linda Pfeifer | But it's... |
| 03:55:59.56 | Herb Weiner | You can take all you want that it's political, but I'm telling you right now it is not political. And that's why the first question I asked you was, were you at any of those meetings to see what went on? Thank you. All right? And that's what I... That's what I picked up, not the president. |
| 03:56:13.24 | Mike Kelly | Yeah. |
| 03:56:13.26 | Carolyn Revell | Thank you. |
| 03:56:13.41 | Mike Kelly | Thank you. |
| 03:56:13.56 | Carolyn Revell | Not the tourism. |
| 03:56:14.44 | Carolyn Ford | It's just unbelievable. I am so disappointed. I am disappointed. It is really, really, really. |
| 03:56:14.56 | Carolyn Revell | I am so disappointed. I am disappointed. |
| 03:56:18.19 | Herb Weiner | Well, |
| 03:56:19.20 | Carolyn Revell | Thank you. Thank you. Yeah. |
| 03:56:19.98 | Carolyn Ford | I can't believe it. |
| 03:56:22.71 | Herb Weiner | Um... |
| 03:56:23.54 | Carolyn Ford | Might as well. It's passed away. |
| 03:56:27.06 | Carolyn Revell | So |
| 03:56:28.48 | Carolyn Ford | Thank you. |
| 03:56:28.50 | Mike Kelly | Thank you. |
| 03:56:28.53 | Carolyn Ford | Thank you. |
| 03:56:28.55 | Mike Kelly | I'm sorry. |
| 03:56:28.58 | Carolyn Revell | THE END OF THE END OF THE |
| 03:56:28.61 | Mike Kelly | Thank you. |
| 03:56:28.75 | Carolyn Ford | Thank you. |
| 03:56:29.17 | Mike Kelly | Thank you. |
| 03:56:29.21 | Carolyn Ford | Thank you. |
| 03:56:29.24 | Mike Kelly | Thank you. |
| 03:56:29.41 | Carolyn Ford | Bye. |
| 03:56:29.42 | Mike Kelly | I know. |
| 03:56:29.53 | Carolyn Ford | you I know. |
| 03:56:31.97 | Herb Weiner | Can't move. |
| 03:56:32.46 | Mike Kelly | Thank you. |
| 03:56:32.53 | Herb Weiner | New Jersey. |
| 03:56:32.97 | Mike Kelly | Thank you. |
Jerry Taylor — Neutral: Remembered Glendon as a dedicated father and community member, sharing stories from nursery school, Little League, and his office hours at Molly Stone's Market, highlighting his pride in his family. ▶ 📄
Jerry Williams — Neutral: Recalled Glendon's private nature and a specific victory where his research and passion led to a council member recusing themselves, preventing hotels on the waterfront. ▶ 📄