| Time | Speaker | Text |
|---|---|---|
| 00:00:14.14 | Mayor Withey | Okay, Debbie, we're ready? Good evening and welcome to the regular meeting of the Sausalito City Council, for Tuesday, March 18th. Debbie, would you call the roll, please? |
| 00:00:31.11 | Debbie (City Clerk) | Councilmember Pfeiffer? Here. Councilmember Weiner? Present. Vice Mayor Theodores? Present. Mayor Withey? |
| 00:00:34.32 | Mayor Withey | President present. here. Let's move on. |
| 00:00:40.58 | Debbie (City Clerk) | you |
| 00:00:40.67 | Mayor Withey | pledge and Doreen, why don't you lead us in the bunches? |
| 00:00:50.57 | Councilmember Pfeiffer | I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands, |
| 00:00:50.62 | Unknown | Pledge of Allegiance. Thank you. Nice. |
| 00:00:58.77 | Councilmember Pfeiffer | one nation, under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. |
| 00:01:09.64 | Mayor Withey | Thank you, Doreen. |
| 00:01:13.98 | Councilmember Pfeiffer | Thank you. Make it a monocle. . |
| 00:01:17.96 | Mayor Withey | The Council met in closed session to discuss two uh... We'll discuss with legal counsel to existing litigation matters. Is there any public comment on these closed session items? Seeing none. We will move on to approval of the agenda. So moved. |
| 00:01:45.52 | Councilmember Weiner | Mr. Mayor, I have a question. Yes. If I'm going to request the... |
| 00:01:47.22 | Councilmember Pfeiffer | Yes. |
| 00:01:47.59 | Unknown | Thank you. |
| 00:01:52.28 | Councilmember Weiner | the continuation of an agenda item, I wait until we move forward, or should I request |
| 00:01:60.00 | Mayor Withey | for a regular agenda item. I think now. |
| 00:02:01.75 | Councilmember Weiner | Mm-hmm. Okay, so with respect to the item 6B, the update on tour bus activities and remedies for complaints, that's a very important topic. It's something that a number of Saucelida residents who could not be here tonight really want to weigh in on. And on behalf of them, as well as other Sausalito residents who are watching and asked me to, the request is if we could move it to April, the April 22nd meeting to give folks more time. |
| 00:02:44.24 | Mayor Withey | Does any other council member? |
| 00:02:44.85 | Councilmember Weiner | Thank you. |
| 00:02:47.74 | Mayor Withey | a view on this. |
| 00:02:49.64 | Vice Mayor Theodores | I think we should hear it tonight, besides it being ready. I mean, this is an important issue, as we can see from the daylight and the tourism and the buses come in, we have to deal with this as soon as possible. They can come later. People are welcome to put in their Um, opinions, but also, you know, We also, if you read the agenda, this is going to be an interim plan that's subject to Um, further changes. So people can weigh in, they can send in letters, but I think we need to move on this. |
| 00:03:18.04 | Councilmember Pfeiffer | Yes, and I agree that we're already at the footsteps of April in another week or two, and I think we have to have some Plan A's, Plan B's, so I really think that we should just move ahead with this tonight. |
| 00:03:18.21 | Vice Mayor Theodores | I'm sure. |
| 00:03:35.37 | Councilmember Pfeiffer | I agree with that as well. |
| 00:03:37.31 | Councilmember Weiner | Thank you Mayor Withey and just for context, I think this is, as you know I've been asking for this since November. To me it's a very, very high priority issue. And the reason for my request was that initially it was projected as an estimate for April 1st, so a lot of residents were thinking it was going to be in April, and as such made arrangements. And so that was the reason behind requesting an April agenda, but it looks like I don't have support for that. So we'll move forward. |
| 00:04:09.70 | Mayor Withey | So could I have a motion on the second? Okay, all in favor? All right, did we get a second? |
| 00:04:11.18 | Councilmember Pfeiffer | Yeah. in the city. Okay. |
| 00:04:15.65 | Chris Huntalis | Thank you. |
| 00:04:15.69 | Vice Mayor Theodores | Thank you. |
| 00:04:15.70 | Councilmember Pfeiffer | Wait a minute. Did we get to? |
| 00:04:16.58 | Vice Mayor Theodores | I'll second. |
| 00:04:16.80 | Councilmember Pfeiffer | I will second. |
| 00:04:17.96 | Mayor Withey | Thank you. All in favor? Aye. Opposed? |
| 00:04:23.05 | Councilmember Pfeiffer | I know. |
| 00:04:23.50 | Unknown | Thank you. |
| 00:04:25.51 | Mayor Withey | Okay. |
| 00:04:29.42 | Mayor Withey | And the next topic are public communications. And this is the time for the City Council to hear from citizens regarding matters that are not on the agenda. |
| 00:04:41.57 | Unknown | Awesome. |
| 00:04:43.24 | Mayor Withey | Except in very limited situations, state law precludes the Council from taking action on or engaging in discussions concerning these items. Is there any member of the public? There is, Heather. |
| 00:04:58.23 | Heather Wilcoxon | Hi, my name is Heather Wilcoxon. I'm a member of Galley Harbor. I'm here to update you on what's going on with Mono Marsh. As you know, the city has been maintaining it for the last four years. We finally have a fence up. But that fence, the reason why I'm here is the fence really needs to be replaced with a new fence, either similar to the one that is there now, or what I'd like to see is eventually to have a... needs to be replaced with a new fence, either similar to the one that is there now, or what I'd like to see is eventually to have a permanent fence there. That fence is really falling apart and the public are sneaking around and getting on the pathways there and walking on the grasses. But I also wanted to thank Jonathan Goodman for really keeping the fence up. Of course, I'm always calling him and telling him it's falling down, but it gets of beating out there. And there's so many people in the world. And I think that's a great thing. course, I'm always calling him and telling him it's falling down, but it gets a beating out there and there's so much wonderful growth happening with the marsh and repairing a lot of birds coming in and it's something that the city should be really proud of. So I really urge you to please, you know, replace the fence now. It's on its last leg and that's really what I'm here for. Thank you so much. |
| 00:04:58.28 | Mayor Withey | Hi. |
| 00:06:05.34 | Mayor Withey | Thank you, Heather. Is there a? Yes. |
| 00:06:13.44 | Sean Harris | Good evening. Nice to be here today. My name is Sean Harris. I'm the captain of the California Highway Patrol, currently the commander of the Marin area. You're highway patrol here in Marin County. And I just want to take a couple minutes to stop by and want to introduce myself. I have been here a year now, and I have – I don't know if you want to give it to you now. I have a report that we prepared. is in brochure form about the highlights of our activity, what we did with the Highway Patrol in Moraine County this year. Thank you. Just a quick overview of what we do It says right on our car, safety, service, and security, and that is exactly what we are all about, and that is saving lives and keeping people alive out there. We also focus the four primary things, seat belt enforcement, speed enforcement, driving under the influence, which we've had an increase in medication, driving under drug. a problem in this, not only this community, but statewide. And also, as I'm sure you're aware, is distracted drivers. big issue. And so we focus on primarily those things. We have some of our statistics I've placed in there for you, and we are making some headway. We took a spike in fatality collisions in Marin County. Um, Last year we were readjusting our BIT priorities and our focus out on the coast. Primarily a good half of them were out there on the coast. One thing, part of our strategic plan, not only just keeping people alive, is cooperation with ally agencies. And I am happy to say that we do that extensively. We have an extensive public relations program. We work closely with Chief Tejada. We meet each other at least once a month, if not more, talk on the phone even more frequently. We recently did an operation. addressing auto burglaries, here in Sausalito along with up by the Golden Gate Bridge and on the south end of the bridge, which was successful. There's some bad people in jail now because of that. Also, we're going to work together to combat some of the bicycle issues in downtown Sausalito. I have a bicycle squad. highly trained highway patrolmen who get on a bike primarily out on the bridge. But we're going to come down into town and work side by side, continue to do that. and just foster that outstanding working relationship we have not only with Chief Tehada, but your fire chief as well, Jim Irving. As you may know, he's a member of our – I chair the Golden Gate Bridge Security Coalition. I met him with him just today and he's working on some maps for us so we can put together an updated emergency response plan for the bridge area. um The brochure and the information we put together for you kind of speaks for itself, gives you kind of a baseline of what we do. We're very involved in the community, but again, our primary focus is that with keeping folks alive and then specific traffic safety and working hand-in-hand with our allied Again, Sean Harris, and I am the commander of the Ohio Patrol here in Moraine County. We're happy to be here, and if there's ever anything that we can do to help you out, please do not hesitate to give us a call. All right? Thank you very much. Thank you. |
| 00:09:02.39 | Mayor Withey | Thank you very much indeed. |
| 00:09:03.07 | Sean Harris | Thank you. |
| 00:09:03.58 | Heather Wilcoxon | Thank you. |
| 00:09:06.61 | Mayor Withey | Any other communication from a member of the public? No. In that case, I will close the meeting. public communications. So the next item is the minutes of the City Council meeting of March 4. Do I have a motion to approve? |
| 00:09:30.52 | Councilmember Pfeiffer | So, |
| 00:09:33.65 | Mayor Withey | Second. |
| 00:09:34.00 | Vice Mayor Theodores | Thank you. |
| 00:09:34.59 | Mayor Withey | All in favor? Aye. Aye. Opposed? No. |
| 00:09:35.82 | Chris Huntalis | Bye. |
| 00:09:36.45 | Vice Mayor Theodores | Thank you. |
| 00:09:40.31 | Mayor Withey | Next item is the consent calendar. Is there any comments from members of the public on the consent calendar? |
| 00:09:51.85 | Unknown | Mm-hmm. |
| 00:09:52.85 | Councilmember Weiner | Thank you. |
| 00:09:52.88 | Unknown | Thank you. |
| 00:09:53.63 | Mayor Withey | No, seeing none, any comments from council? |
| 00:09:58.37 | Councilmember Weiner | Yes, Mr. Mayor, I would like to pull item 4C. This regards the single-family home or multi-family zoned amendments. As you know, I have several concerns regarding this and would like to pull it for perhaps a roll call vote just to get on the record where my standing is. |
| 00:10:25.18 | Mayor Withey | Well, I think we can definitely vote separately on that matter. |
| 00:10:29.59 | Councilmember Weiner | Thank you. |
| 00:10:29.60 | Unknown | Yeah. |
| 00:10:30.16 | Mayor Withey | Yeah. So, Let's do that then. So let's have a motion to approve the consent calendar except for item 4C and then have a separate vote of item 4C. Thank you. |
| 00:10:42.85 | Vice Mayor Theodores | Thank you. I move that we approve items 4A and 4B of the consent calendar. |
| 00:10:49.33 | Councilmember Weiner | I second. |
| 00:10:50.29 | Mayor Withey | All in favor? Aye. Aye. |
| 00:10:51.36 | Councilmember Weiner | Bye. |
| 00:10:54.70 | Mayor Withey | And then could I have a motion to approve item 4C? |
| 00:11:03.00 | Vice Mayor Theodores | I move that we approve item 4C of the consent calendar. |
| 00:11:07.13 | Mayor Withey | Second. Debbie, would you call the vote, please? |
| 00:11:11.28 | Debbie (City Clerk) | Council member Fiverr. |
| 00:11:12.77 | Councilmember Weiner | Oh. |
| 00:11:14.10 | Debbie (City Clerk) | Councilmember Weiner. |
| 00:11:15.32 | Councilmember Pfeiffer | Yes. |
| 00:11:17.14 | Debbie (City Clerk) | Vice Mayor Theodorus? |
| 00:11:18.29 | Councilmember Pfeiffer | Yes. |
| 00:11:18.58 | Debbie (City Clerk) | you Mayor Weiner. |
| 00:11:20.97 | Councilmember Pfeiffer | I did that withy. Mayor. Withy. Yes. He gets the vote for you. |
| 00:11:22.15 | Mayor Withey | Thank you. |
| 00:11:22.19 | Debbie (City Clerk) | Mayor. Withy. |
| 00:11:24.55 | Mayor Withey | Yes. That was last year. |
| 00:11:26.10 | Unknown | . |
| 00:11:29.26 | Mayor Withey | Okay, thank you. The next item is item 6A, which is the Dumpy Park Master Plan Update. And we start with... Our Parks and Rec Director, Mike Langford. |
| 00:11:46.91 | Mike Langford | Well, good evening, City Council audience, those of you that are out there in TV land. It's my pleasure today to introduce some members of the Friends of Dunphy Park who have done quite a bit of work since we were last up here. But I want to give you just a little bit of a background to catch you up where we are today, and then they'll take over from there. I'm not sure. I'm just going to start with something that I was missing in my staff report. It was that the Friends were actually formed way back around 2001 when there was a proposal to do... a large development out on what was in the Gossage property out on the peninsula. So the Friends formed. They actually got a petition with over a thousand people that said they were interested in maintaining that property and possibly even turning it into a park. Since then, they've kind of become the protectors of the land. They've done lots of different studies out there. They've worked with the Audubon Society. In 2008, they did an eelgrass study. um, they've just kind of been the voice for that land since then. Now, when we were working on, it should probably be about a year ago when we were working on the priority calendar for this current fiscal year, they came before you and asked that you guys put on the calendar a schematic, excuse me, a draft schematic plan beyond the calendar for this year, and that would be for Dunphy Park and that surrounding property. When it came down to it, that ranked fifth, so not quite number one, but definitely in the top five. So once that was approved by U City Council, the friends got to work, and boy, did they ever get to work. back in on November 5th at a regular council meeting that came before you to give their initial presentation, kind of let you know where they were and what they were doing and to reach out to the public. Once they got the green light from you, they did extensive notification to the public. And on November 16, they had a forum down at the Bay Model. I'm going to bring up Jacques Ullman, and he's going to let you know what happened at the forum and how things went there. |
| 00:13:54.94 | Jacques Ullman | Mr. Jacques Olman, Friends of Dunphy Park. So at the forum we had 14 different topics. We brought them up one by one. And we had this map always up on one screen as a sort of a background so people could relate to different parts of the park. |
| 00:14:16.28 | Unknown | Thank you. |
| 00:14:16.32 | Unknown | THE PARK. |
| 00:14:20.28 | Jacques Ullman | As you can see, we had actually at that point I was introducing a new topic, but the other map was on the right. You can see that the forum was well attended. People were really paying attention and asked a lot of questions. I feel that we were really able to get a legitimate public comment information source so that as we move forward, we know that we've got something to stand behind what we come up with, which we felt was particularly important. Paul Lethingwell, landscape architect, has worked on a number of other public parks, Cordo Madera and San Anselmo and others, and he brought that knowledge that he got of having to get public input before you move forward on a plan so that you don't have negative kickback afterwards, or if you do, you have at least some ground to stand on. And I think that we stand now on that ground, and we didn't the last time I spoke to you, and that's been, for me, the big advance. We had three different sources. We had the open City Hall forum which the website and I do have to comment that I think that that is actually a very good source of public comment that doesn't require having a forum and it's's a good thing, but it needs work. People were intimidated by it, didn't know how to use it. There were some very focused groups who must have taught each other what to do, and we got some comments. But I know my own comments didn't get included. I know of two or three other people whose comments didn't. I don't know why. But in spite of all that, I mean, we still got meaningful kickback, but I think that that's something that needs to be worked on. I don't know why. But in spite of all that, I mean, we've still got meaningful kickback, but I think that that's something that needs to be worked on. I don't think that website is quite what it should be. Then we had the questionnaires that we gave people at the forum that they filled out, and then we had the forum itself. Thank you. Obviously, if only one person commented on something, we weren't able to put that into a summary. So not everybody's comments are represented in our summary, but I think we did a fair representation. So the first subject was shoreline habitat restoration at Litho Street. and we asked them what should be done with the underdeveloped, undeveloped land that is outlined in green. And there was strong support for the shoreline habitat restoration and preservation and also a desire for passive recreation and for habitat and nature education. parking. We basically, we actually had showed them that 60 spaces is what we were advised should be provided for, and so we showed how much space 60 spaces took. And it was clear that people felt that parking was important. There was a desire for non-dusty surfaces. A lot of people brought that up. I think they were particularly relating to the railroad right-of-way. There were some objections to parking on the railroad right-of-way. I should say some. There were a fair number. During the discussion of other topics, there was a significant desire for visual connection between Bridgeway and the park. Better views from Bridgeway and integration of the railroad right-of-way into the park. A few people mentioned overnight parking with a possible fee. I bring up the visual connection issue because that relates to the current parking on the railroad right-of-way, which makes that connection difficult to achieve. Toilet facilities, we just used that as an example and then showed them that particular toilet facility, that size, not to place it for them but just to tell them what the size would be like. And we asked them to think about the relationship between parking and the toilet. And there was a strong expression for no toilets at pedestrian entrances and lots of support for having permanent toilets near the parking at the north end and elimination of porta-potties. Of those who mentioned showers, about 70% of those who brought up the subject were for them, but 30% were against them. I would say that I think that when it comes time to do toilets, this is a subject which should have some opportunity for more public dialogue, because I think there are strong feelings on both sides of that issue. And there was some desire for the ability to rinse your feet off or your dogs off. the beach. We asked them for their thoughts about the beach. There was a strong desire for important, improved improvements to the beach with access for water sports and other water-based activities. A number of requests for reorientation of the cruising club, actually the cruising club came up quite a bit on various topics and there was a concern about dangerous culvert there and the need for small non-motorized boat access. We asked them about the visual connection between the bridgeway and the park and to the community and sort of demonstrated an open approach or a closed approach. And there was a significant number of respondents who favored open space and water views and want the park kept open and visible for bridgeway and through to the waterfront. |
| 00:20:42.54 | Jacques Ullman | Events pointed out that there tend to be three kinds, the local ones, the national ones, and the regional ones. There was very strong support for events with a preference for local community events. Aside from the traditional events such as the Fourth of July and Easter, which everyone talked favorably about, there was also significant support for music events similar to Jazz by the Bay and for the farmers market. Pedestrian and Bicycle Path, essentially we wanted them to be aware that there was a study done and there was a possibility that there would be a significant bicycle path that would be running along Bridgeway in front of the park. and the yellow represents to scale all those lanes. So the reaction was a very strong one that there should be no bicycle paths or no bicycling within the park. entrances and pedestrian circulation. We sort of emphasized the four streets that run into the park. And the reaction was that we need well-defined, safe entrances with good crosswalks across Bridgeway. Planting plants to save and rehabilitate The majority of respondents favored rolling grass hills, shade trees, low water native plants, and a dissatisfaction with the present condition of some of the trees and the need for better maintenance. San Francisco Bay Conservation Development Commission just brought that up so that people would be aware because it's amazing how many people don't understand the jurisdiction of BCDC so that white line represented the 100 foot from the mean high tide over which they have jurisdiction and wanted everyone to realize that whatever we dream or whatever we talk about has to be vetted through them. |
| 00:22:57.38 | Unknown | you |
| 00:22:57.72 | Unknown | Thank you. |
| 00:23:00.24 | Jacques Ullman | Yeah. but there were no comments. Drainage, that got a lot of attention. There was a lot of concern about the poor drainage, damp areas, wet soil, and the standing water. Clear that that's something that needs to be addressed. passive facilities. There was a significant desire for a passive area in the undeveloped portion of the park for viewing restored habitat in the bay and picnicking. |
| 00:23:35.20 | Jacques Ullman | active activities, |
| 00:23:40.86 | Jacques Ullman | And there was a strong support for bocce ball, also a few mentions of other activities such as croquet, frisbee, volleyball, and geocatching that I'd never heard of before. There were a number of requests for a playground with also a number of opinions against the playground, so that's another subject that I think needs to have some public dialogue before we made any definite decisions. |
| 00:23:56.26 | Unknown | Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. playground. |
| 00:24:05.63 | Jacques Ullman | So what's the next step? Well, the next step is for us to develop this schematic master plan. And I've told you this many times before, it's basically a guideline. |
| 00:24:15.23 | Unknown | Bye. |
| 00:24:22.49 | Jacques Ullman | I say this that It'll be some sort of a graphic, but I say the process, before we may change our format, well, we've already changed it. So this is just to give you four examples on four of the subjects where we've combined some. In this case, for instance, we combined parking and toilets, that in this very first phase, there would be no specific design. What we would be doing, suggesting something like this, where just overlaid over the... And I should say that we're going to do a different base map, because one of the things that was requested at the forum was that we include... go further out into the water in the area that we plan. So we'll do a different base map. This will look a little different. But as for parking and toilets, so then this is basically, we feel we can make a statement like this that is based on the public input. a parking lot jointly used by Dunphy Park, Cass Marina, Cruising Club, and Galilee Harbor. Locate toilet facility near the parking. Parking lots should be accessed from Napa Street and be concentrated at the northern end of the park and stay away from the shoreline. Parking could occupy the northern end of the former railroad right of way, but not extend beyond B Street. |
| 00:25:35.84 | Unknown | Look, |
| 00:25:55.86 | Jacques Ullman | drainage of parking lot should be coordinated with an overall drainage scheme for the park. And that's an important point. It sort of points out the need for having the overall plan as you do individual parts. Because as soon as you set the grades, You know, a parking lot has drainage. Drainage is a very important part of a parking lot. BCDC is very concerned about how parking lots drain, and you don't want to set the grades on the parking lot without knowing how you're going to deal with the drainage for the whole park. So then that means you've got to do that study, and that's, you know, a phase for the future. |
| 00:26:37.37 | Jacques Ullman | Shoreline and habitat restoration. Thank you. Yeah. Partner with Marin Audubon Society to implement the conceptual plan described in Marin Audubon Director Barbara Salzman's 11 to 2013 document. uh, As she says in that document, restoring native habitat would be a significant benefit for species that use the bay and would be a showcase to educate the public about the importance of the bay as habitat and an attractive amenity to the Salcedo shoreline. Explore ways to improve the condition of the Litho Street Inlet. Consider separation of small peninsula to create island to attract wildlife. In remainder of undeveloped parks south of Little Street outside the 50-foot transition zone, create a passive park area consisting of viewing areas, picnic areas, and demonstration low water native plant garden. Seek funding from environmental and related governmental sources. |
| 00:27:47.82 | Jacques Ullman | The active facilities include permanently structured facilities such as bocce ball, volleyball, and possibly children's playground, provide area for unstructured activities such as frisbee croquet, geocatching, upgrade the beach, create strong visual connection from bridgeway across park to the bay, Regrade old railroad right of way and remove some of existing hedges. Regrade grassed area as required to solve drainage problem. Create pedestrian circulation through the park from Napa Street entrance to Litho Street entrance that interconnects parking, toilets, gazebo, the beach, all structured facilities, shoreline habitat area and adjacent pass Marina, cruising club and Galilee Harbor. |
| 00:28:39.74 | Jacques Ullman | The beach. Improve an enlarged beach and provide some access for water sports and other water-based activities such as kayaks and other small non-motorized boats. Reduce impact of cruising club. Explore possibility of turning cruising club barge 90 degrees. There was quite a bit of talk about that Explorer rerouting B Street drainage to Litho Street Inlet and eliminating culvert at the beach. Now, these are just four examples and we'll expand more. But really to proceed beyond this point, I want to just state that we're going to need a little different relationship with the city and with the staff. Up until now, we've been sort of a pro bono group that has been working along. But I think we need to be sort of more considered like consultants to the city and we need to have, to be more informed about what's going on. For instance, issues but if there's any negotiation going on with adjacent property owners for anything that the city is thinking of doing if we don't know about it it's pretty hard for us to do proper planning I mean we hear rumors but we're never really informed now maybe it should just be me who's informed that there's a confidentiality thing and I can honor that but at least then it gives me the ability to guide what we do in a more intelligent way. If there are surveys that have been done, I mean we saw a scheme for handicap parking at Cass Marina, showed some contours and so on, where did those come from? We've been asking for survey information, we've never gotten any. We need that sort of information. If plans such as the Cass Marina for parking are submitted to the city, we should know about it right away. So we can have our input before it gets developed at all, because what we've seen of their proposal for their handicap parking has parking right on the shoreline. Now maybe there's no other way you can do the ADA, but there may. And we want to make an effort to keep parking off the shoreline. And if we're presented with an already done plan by an architect, it's much harder to deal with that because there's inertia. There's a lot of work that's been put into it. We should be able to have our input sooner than that. And, you know, we've been asking about parking requirements. We actually finally were able to communicate with the cruising club. We found out that there's actually no official requirement. Cruising there at least just says, well, they can park in the park, but that's it. So there needs to be more involvement between us and the city and to really deal with the parking. And just things need to be done more officially and in a tighter way. And we would appreciate it if the council could maybe direct the city manager to be more in touch with us and we can be, you know, perform like real consultants. Otherwise, quite honestly, I can't function without that information. Thank you. |
| 00:32:03.68 | Mayor Withey | Thank you, Jacques, for that very comprehensive report. So at this stage, Mike, are we over to you or are you done? |
| 00:32:19.02 | Mike Langford | Well I just have some, my recommendation is that the City Council receive and file the report from the Friends and recognize the work that they have done to date Provide the friends any input that you have as to the park or what you would like to see done next. And then request that the friends continue their work in developing a schematic master plan for Dunphy Park. I think they've done a fantastic job so far. just the tip of the iceberg, but boy, getting about 90 people together and hiring the professional facilitator and having a really excellent forum was a big step and they've got a lot of information on their plate and now they're sorting through it and it sounds like they need a little bit more information too. Thank you. |
| 00:33:04.31 | Mayor Withey | Great. |
| 00:33:04.88 | Mike Langford | Thank you. |
| 00:33:04.97 | Mayor Withey | Mike. Okay, any questions from the dais here. |
| 00:33:12.83 | Vice Mayor Theodores | I do have a question for Jacques. Now, and by the way, thank you for all the work that you have and all the friends have done, and your workshop was amazing, and thanks everyone with all their input. I just want to be clear about where we go from here. that the Friends would like to move to be consultants, and I take it that means you would like the city to take more active part. But also there was some issue about the schematic, and I wasn't sure who would do that and where that would, when it would come about. |
| 00:33:46.50 | Jacques Ullman | Okay. What we're proposing at this point is that the first phase of the schematic be just like this, an updated version of this kind of format, which would be basically stating the things that we learned from the public input and the guidelines for each of the topics. |
| 00:34:07.56 | Vice Mayor Theodores | And you would do that. that |
| 00:34:09.11 | Jacques Ullman | That we're prepared to do. Thank you. But then, let's say, for the parking, it would be a good idea to do at least some schematic layouts of what form the parking might take. But to go to that phase, we have to work tightly with the city, because otherwise we're just spinning our wheels. We may do foolish things, and because we don't have information that we should have, So we need to work in unison with the city staff to take it to that stage. But we would do all the topics this way, and actually it might be interesting to have your reaction to this, but maybe have you approve this level so that let's say if I go to the parking, just if I use that as an example, okay, I'm sorry, you know that this statement, |
| 00:35:07.50 | Jacques Ullman | that you would agree that the parking should be concentrated at the north end, that the toilets should be near the parking, that there shouldn't be any parking on the water, and so on. If those things have been vetted through you, and by some form you've indicated your approval of that direction, then that's a much stronger position than to move on to something a little more specific. But when the parking lot itself is designed, that will require a consultant because, I mean, we can't take it that far. But we can participate and we can be an advocate for the public or advocate for you, you know, kind of be the client if you wish. Is that an adequate answer? |
| 00:36:01.53 | Mayor Withey | Anybody else with questions? Council Member Fogarty? Mr Mayor. |
| 00:36:04.82 | Councilmember Weiner | Mr. Mayor, thank you. So Jacques, thank you again for this. This is just wonderful. And reading the staff reports, my understanding that that moving forward to the next phase of the schematic. That is pretty much donated expertise and time from the Friends of Dunphy Park. up until we get the consultant to create the final master plan. Am I reading that right? |
| 00:36:32.38 | Jacques Ullman | Well, Maybe some of the subjects would be left in this form. I mean, for instance, probably the beach. We've identified the problems and the things that need to be done, but we're not going to propose to go do the engineering or any of that. But maybe it's hard to define. Maybe the public works director takes over certain parts of this, maybe a consultant is taken on, but we can still be involved. Maybe our involvement will mean that the consultant doesn't have to spend as much time or at least we can be looking after the public's interest. I don't think we're going to do any really detailed drawings. I don't think that's appropriate. I mean, you know, we may have certain personal things. You know, like personally, I would like to be very involved in the habitat restoration effort and work with Barbara Salzman and so on. Maybe I'll do more of that, but I'm not an engineer. I'm not a... I'm an architect. |
| 00:37:42.70 | Councilmember Weiner | Mr. Perry, I have a follow-up question. Sorry, Jacques, you're just almost done with me. But so what is the timeframe for wrapping up for getting the schematic plan? Do we have an idea? |
| 00:37:55.39 | Jacques Ullman | This level can be done fairly quickly because we've already, the hard part was really, it was very hard to compile the public input because it was all over the place to try to fairly represent people. But that's done now, so I think we can move on on this level fairly quickly. |
| 00:38:02.19 | Chris Huntalis | Very hard. |
| 00:38:19.50 | Councilmember Weiner | Thank you. So fairly quickly, this year or next year? Oh, yeah, definitely this year. So 2014, great. Super. Super. |
| 00:38:22.14 | Jacques Ullman | Thank you. |
| 00:38:22.15 | Mayor Withey | next year? Yeah, definitely this year. Thank you. Is there any other questions? |
| 00:38:28.89 | Vice Mayor Theodores | Well, I do. Just so I'm clear, we talked about these schematics and such. Are you envisioning at some point being, before anything's done, a total master plan, or are when you referred to the parking lot, I got the sense that you were saying, Well, we might do the parking, one phase and some other bocce balls and another piecemeal, or were you looking at We would take all this input, figure out what our total plan would be, and then before we did any type of work. |
| 00:39:01.76 | Jacques Ullman | Well, that's kind of up to the city. I think that there would be a lot to choose to have it all detailed plan. I think that our goal was to have enough information so that any individual part of it that's done is not going to conflict with other parts. That's why we bring up the grading, probably a grading plan, at least some sort of a concept for the drainage would need to be done for the whole part. Now it might have to be done in greater detail when the actual work is done, but it's so that, because, I bring up the parking because obviously Casparina is moving forward. I think that's probably going to be one of the first pressures, things to get done. But if you're going to do a path that runs through the park, you need to know where the path is going. You may not have to have a detail of the plan for the place it's going to, but at least where that's going to be. so that you do proper paths. And again, it's going to, but at least where that's going to be so that you do proper path. And again, it's got to be at the right grade, otherwise you'll have to redo it sometimes. |
| 00:39:52.23 | Unknown | Thank you. Thank you. |
| 00:40:06.20 | Jacques Ullman | So I may not be giving you the answer you want, but I think it's something we have to work progressively. And I honestly don't think the city maybe wants to afford a complete, detailed plan at this point. But at least there'll be enough guideline |
| 00:40:21.66 | Unknown | Thank you. |
| 00:40:23.33 | Jacques Ullman | And it could be all on one plan. You might be more comfortable with that. The problem is there'd be so many bubbles and so many overlays, and it seemed like it was maybe clearer to do it this way. But we'll see. |
| 00:40:37.66 | Mayor Withey | Any other questions? In that case, let's open this topic up for public comment. Is there any member of the public would like to make a comment about this? |
| 00:40:52.63 | Mayor Withey | Michael. |
| 00:40:57.34 | Michael Rack | Hello, I'm Michael Rack's local architect. I want to thank Jacques and Paula and Urschel Leffingwell, Carol Peltz, and the other friends for taking this on. It's admirable and necessary. What I'd hate to see happen with these good intentions and good work is kind of what happened with Imagine Sausalito. People volunteer their time and try to come up with great vision for improving the town and nothing happens when they're done. I'd like to ask that this master plan or guideline, as Jacques describes it, actually go through some sort of hearing process so the city formally adopts it. It's not just some good idea stuck on a shelf. I think the city should take it seriously, or they shouldn't encourage it. um, and We have a plan for Dunphy Park. Plan 5B. I think it's at least 40 years old. If you looked at it, it's embarrassing. That's our official city plan for the park. Pull it out, take a look at it. You'll probably agree it's embarrassing. We need a new plan, but it should be an official plan. So please consider that. Um, I completely agree with Jacques that they need to be in the loop about what's happening with other uses that are being planned in the park currently, like Cast Marine and Cruising Club. I think even San Francisco University has that container where they row out of, or they store their shells. Galilee owns a portion of that spit and they have plans for that little building and the area of bayward of it. That should be incorporated. So that dialogue needs to occur. I think there's, I also agree with Jacques that there needs to be a good dialogue with the adjacent property owners. There's not very many of them. You got Bridgeway Marina, Vijay Mallya, and Galilee. maybe the Green family, they should be engaged in this dialogue with the friends because both parties are impacted. Um, Another thing that happened with Imagine Sauce Theater that I'd hate to see happen is, even if we have a master plan, it begs the question, how does it get implemented? Who guides it? Who funds it? Who submits an application to build it? I think that was one of the missing components in Imagine Sauce Lido. There's discussions that a nonprofit be organized as a developer. to do only the public route. to have a board of directors made of community leaders and experts who can find the funding, who can do the planning. Maybe Jacques would want to serve on such a board. But I think we should also be talking about How do we implement the plan? so it can really happen. And that's an idea to consider. Thank you. |
| 00:44:08.78 | Mayor Withey | Thank you, Michael. Any other... |
| 00:44:13.19 | Michael Rack | There is a parking lot plan that the city engineer, Gordon Sweeney, prepared a very detailed plan. We should find it. |
| 00:44:22.99 | Mayor Withey | Thank you. |
| 00:44:23.48 | Michael Rack | Thank you. |
| 00:44:23.50 | Mayor Withey | Thank you. |
| 00:44:23.58 | Michael Rack | wrap. |
| 00:44:26.43 | Mayor Withey | Any other member of the public like to comment on this topic? Seeing none, let's bring it back up here. And I'd like to actually ask... our city manager maybe. to see how you see this integrating into our planning priority calendar setting, budget setting, how you see this taking the next step from the city's perspective. |
| 00:45:04.42 | Adam Politzer | I'm normally not at a loss of words, but but I can remedy that quickly. You know, obviously tonight was a big night for the community and I would also like to thank Jacques and the friends at Dunphy Park I mean they've worked hard on this and they had their forum back in November, very well attended, a lot of energy and a lot of excitement. Um, So now it's before us and I think at this point you heard a request from Jacques on how can the city be more involved and work together and I think the next step is for us to sit down with staff with Jacques and members of his team from the friends. start a realistic conversation about next steps, because then that would fold into the priority calendar. As this came forward last year when Jacques brought this request forward during the priority calendar process last year, it was with the caveat that the friends were going to carry the water. They were going to do the heavy lifting and they did. And we appreciate that. But the council's going to have the difficult challenge as we look forward in the next two-year budget cycle on the capital projects. where are we spending our resources? Where does this park fit with the other parks that are underway? Many of them, all of them, smaller than this. But how do we keep moving this forward so it doesn't just become a good idea or a good discussion at some point in time and then forgotten and we had that experience back in the early 2000 when April Phillips tried to do a similar effort with the community to bring something forward. And again, we got to a certain spot. And then it's that. Thank you. um, And so I think we want to avoid making that mistake again, especially with Um, the efforts that the friends put in back Back in the early 2000s when that discussion was occurring, their participation and remarks. So let's staff meet with with Jacques and the friends and discuss next steps, see if we can find an area that works for both what the city has available as resources to support Jacques and the friends' effort and then bring that before the council. with any of these projects, you know, this was a moment in time when they held their Um... Yeah. workshop. A lot of... good discussion was had and people's minds were opening up to a variety of ideas. They now had some time to digest some of the comments that were made, and as Jacques talked about, showers, playgrounds, things that need further discussion because they were Um... strong feelings on either end of those discussions. the planning process, the planning commission, the landlord, the city. You know, we really need to kind of map this out as we go forward and I think that will require the Public Works Department and the Community Development Department to play an active role in that. and that would obviously take them away from other priorities. between now and the priority calendar process in April. a few weeks away. we'll need to have this meeting. So we'll reach out to you, Jacques, tomorrow and see if we can get our calendars together and at least start this conversation. |
| 00:48:35.27 | Mayor Withey | Okay, any comments from here? |
| 00:48:41.41 | Councilmember Weiner | Mr. Mayor, I have a comment. I just want to thank again the Friends of Dunphy Park and Mike Langford and the Park and Rec Department for all the hard work. It's so exciting. I know this has been something they've discussed for years, and to see this suddenly to get formed and clarified is very exciting. I would like to see, I like the comment up here about working with the Autobahn. I think that's critical with respect to the eelgrass and the wildlife habitat, the birds. And so I was very happy to see that. I also think that having that tight collaboration with city staff to know what happens that impacts Stumphy Park is key. So definitely that. And I also want to commend the amazing turnout for that workshop. That was just really, truly fantastic. So I also heard Jacques say something to us regarding perhaps something that was specific to the work of like for example the guidance regarding the parking lot. So I'm wondering if perhaps a motion to to ensure that this schematic plan, the council is behind it with regards to collaboration with staff and Audubon, you know, might give them that extra, you know, framework. So that's my comment. |
| 00:50:13.48 | Vice Mayor Theodores | Thank you. I just think, again, we want to thank Jacques, all the friends, our Park and Rucks Department, and all the people that participated in this. We have a lot of public support. We really appreciate it. And I do take to heart the comments that we really need to take the work that's done now and make sure that we can make good use of it in this next coming year in the budget process and the planning process. And I'm sure we'll still have their support. And we're also looking for the final schematics and all the further work coming from the Friends. Thank you. |
| 00:50:46.46 | Councilmember Pfeiffer | I also want to thank Jacques and Paul and Carol Peltz for really sticking in there. I remember sitting down with Paul and Jacques, who had, I think it was 2006 that we went over. this plan so I think you really have stuck with it, and I think it's time now that we kind of move ahead on this. So, thank you. |
| 00:51:16.16 | Mayor Withey | Thank you. Thanks. Obviously this is, you know, I live planning. It's really important to plan, so I think this is great. We are going to need conceptual schematic master plans for, you know, the adjacent, the waterfront as a whole, and for Sausalito as a whole, obviously, but the waterfront is in particular. um, I'm a little reluctant to You know, you haven't got your schematic plan yet. |
| 00:51:51.66 | Una Kavanaugh | you |
| 00:51:52.62 | Mayor Withey | and I'm a little reluctant to start trying to vote on bits of it until it's all complete. You know, you come back with a package, having work with staff. I don't know what, but I think staff would probably agree with me on that. And so I would suggest, Council Member Feiffer, it might be just sort of one meeting a bit premature. I'd sooner, you know, have them work with staff, come back, And then I agree completely with what Michael Wright said. We should endorse the elements of the schematic plan at that point once we see the whole thing. Suggests you sort of hold off on a motion for that one. |
| 00:52:34.68 | Councilmember Weiner | Yeah, I was actually looking at staff's recommendation regarding recommended motion |
| 00:52:39.28 | Mayor Withey | Hmm. |
| 00:52:39.57 | Councilmember Weiner | in the staff report and I was going to move that we receive and file the report from the Friends of Dunphy Park, recognize all the work that they have done to date, request that they continue their work in developing a schematic master plan for Dunphy Park collaborating with staff and seeking input from the Audubon |
| 00:53:06.20 | Mayor Withey | fun. Do I have a second? I will, actually I'll second that motion. |
| 00:53:12.97 | Unknown | Yeah. |
| 00:53:16.43 | Mayor Withey | Right. No, it's fine. Okay. So let's take a vote. All those in favor? Aye. Any opposed? |
| 00:53:18.43 | Councilmember Pfeiffer | So let's say Hi. |
| 00:53:23.33 | Mayor Withey | Okay, thank you very much. Thank you, Jacques. Thank you, Paul. Whoops, I didn't have my microphone on. Thank you, Mike. Sorry. Sorry, folks. I didn't have my microphone on. Well, okay. |
| 00:53:30.09 | Unknown | Sorry. |
| 00:53:38.23 | Mayor Withey | The next item 6B is an update on tour bus activities and remedies for complaints. We have Captain John Rohrbacher here. Please, Captain. |
| 00:53:55.32 | Captain Rohrabacher | Good evening, Mayor, members, and City Council. I'm pleased to be here tonight to offer you our second update on the tour bus activity and our proposed joint remedies for the problems. I think we've made significant progress, and I'm pleased to share them with you tonight. Before I do that, I just want to recap that We had a very busy tourist season last year, but at the same time we received a lot of complaints about the tour buses. You received them, we received them, and I categorized them basically as frequency of trips, as in too many. Noisy, smelly, pollution creating and also some really bad driver behavior. and I was directed by staff to prepare my first update with some information for you. It was just an overview of those problems and some potential things to work on, and you accepted that report in November. |
| 00:54:56.17 | Unknown | number. |
| 00:54:57.10 | Captain Rohrabacher | Shortly after my November report, the President and CEO of Grey Line Tours, Ray Sargoni, he reached out to the Chamber of Commerce, to Una Kavanaugh, and asked for a meeting. with whoever would be the appropriate person, turned out to be me at the time. And I want to point out that Mr. Sargoni is one of the members of the San Francisco Tour Operators Association, and he happens to also be a member of the Saucydo Chamber of Commerce. And so he had a significant amount of interest helping address the complaints that were brought up and heard by the council in November. So shortly... After that, I met with Una and Jeff Bisharash and Ray Sargoni at the chamber building and reviewed what we were hearing about the complaints, which I said were the frequency of trips, the noise, the pollution, and of course the driver behavior. Mr. Sargoni promised to get back to the larger group, the San Francisco Tour Operators Association, and meet with them about our concerns, and then propose a meeting with some solutions. And he did exactly that. He reached back out to Una, and we scheduled a meeting at the police department in January. And there I met with nine members of the San Francisco Tour Operators Association At that point, I took the opportunity to review the complaints in detail with all of the members that were present, including Mr. Sargoni, who was back. And They listened to everything that I had to say, but in the meantime, they had had their own meetings to work on solutions to our concerns. And so at the January meeting, not only did they listen to what I had to say, but they already had some proposed solutions, and they were... later outlined by Mr. Damien Moragugi, who is here tonight, in case you have questions for him, in his letter after the meeting. But in essence, he was summarized what we talked about the meeting, where the group had proposed to agree to leave Sausalito by traveling northbound on Bridgeway rather than southbound, therefore cutting the trips literally in half the amount of buses leaving Sausalito to the south. The group explained that The air pollution laws from the California Environmental Protection Agency and the Air Resources Board had required them to make some changes to their bus engines. I'm not a mechanic, but I understand that it had something to do with capturing particulate matter. That's like my whole knowledge about diesel exhaust. and also would serve to keep the buses a little bit quieter They agreed to have the Alexander South, Second, and Richardson Corridor, a quiet zone. And then they also agreed, not that they would have much choice about this, but we talked about the driver behavior. And I talked about that we would not Thank you. tolerate any longer the drivers that were crossing over WL lines or failing to yield to the pedestrians and bicyclists, et cetera. And they agreed, of course, that that would be the right answer to the question is to have serious enforcement efforts, as staffing allowed for the drivers that were driving illegally. But I wanted to clarify with them that they had not somehow given their driver's instruction you know, do anything at all costs to get the tourists their pictures or whatever they wanted by stopping in the middle of the road and that type of thing which, you know, people found very irksome. Shortly after we had our January meeting, we received our letter from the Tour Bus Operators Association. I've included that with my staff report. I'm happy to say that since that time, as each company has made their own with the California Public Utilities Commission to get their routes approved to head north out of town. They've already started doing that. So most, if not all, the buses are already now going northbound out of town. instead of turning south and going back up the hill and making noise and spewing exhaust smoke. And also since that time, since I filed my report for tonight's meeting, I had the pleasure of meeting with Ms. Frances Gorman. She's a member of the San Francisco Tour Guides Guild. and she is a tour guide for many of the independent bus companies, and she heard about what we were doing and wanted to meet with me at the police department and talk about what she could do with all the people like herself who independently lead tours in Sausalito or asked to lead a tour on a bus. and so that they could work in compliance with what our agreement was with the San Francisco Tour Operators Association. So I think we've made significant progress hearing the complaints, addressing them, and having you know, voluntary compliance. more so than I would have expected since they reached out to us first and beat me to it. Thank you. |
| 01:00:19.20 | Unknown | Thank you. |
| 01:00:19.25 | Captain Rohrabacher | you of in setting up the meetings and and wanting to cooperate. I believe that they're very invested in being good partners with the city of Sausalito and being able to continue their business and are trying their best to you know, do whatever we need to do to see that the complaints are reduced. So tonight we're asking that the council just accept my report with the direction that we report back to you as needed or no later, of course, than at the end of the season with how this is going. But certainly this is not a you know, forget it kind of deal after tonight. We're certainly going to monitor this, you know, throughout the entire season and see how this goes. We hope for, you know, the best from the tour companies that they are going to do exactly what they said they're going to do. So I'm happy to take any questions. |
| 01:01:12.11 | Mayor Withey | Thank you, Captain. Any questions from up here? |
| 01:01:18.51 | Vice Mayor Theodores | I do, and thank you for your report. And thank you and the bus operators and such, because I The best way to approach this is in a cooperative manner so that we can all Business can go on. benefit from the business as well. also that we work together on this type of thing. And so I think this is a step in the right direction and we'll see how this goes. I do have a question on the noise pollution and I'm not talking so much about their Um, or verbal guidance, because you said that they were going to look at that. But I noticed that a lot of the buses, there's a wide range of noise from the buses themselves. And the same thing with some of the pollution. Now, you did refer to some Um, that they would be There's some voluntary addressing of that issue, but I still see these buses and some of them make quite a bit of noise. Are we taking a look at that and either from an enforcement or a voluntary change on the part of the bus operators. |
| 01:02:24.76 | Captain Rohrabacher | Sure. As I understand it, The inspection of the buses is done by a couple of other different agencies, one of them being the Highway Patrol, and I forget who the second one might be, but it's a strictly regulated industry and in addition to the like the decibel level type noise. It's also part and parcel of the pollution emissions that come with diesel engines. I know that at least one of the companies has converted or only gonna be running natural gas buses into Sausalito. also in response to our concerns about the pollution and the noise and also having them leave to the north rather than to the south should relieve that. pressure considerably since they're not what I call chugging up the hill trying to get because the buses are laboring pretty hard to do that. And so by leaving to the north, it's a little easier for the bus engine and would create less noise. I don't know that I answered your question, but I'm not really all that fluent in Exhaust stuff, but... Thank you. |
| 01:03:40.58 | Vice Mayor Theodores | Well, no, I appreciate that, but what I'm saying is I think that going forward we should take a look at both voluntary measures and to make sure that everyone's complying with what the law is in terms of both the noise and air pollution, I think that some an area that we can make progress on. I know it helps going north, But every bid helps, and some of these buses do seem to be uh, make a lot more noise and seem to pollute more than a lot of the other buses. So I think we should take a look at that because that's really, I mean, some of it is just that the buses are making traffic, but a lot of it is the noise that it makes. And to the greatest extent, we can reduce it. |
| 01:04:17.12 | Captain Rohrabacher | Sure. |
| 01:04:17.34 | Vice Mayor Theodores | the better we do. |
| 01:04:17.69 | Captain Rohrabacher | And we're happy to do that, but I think I should point out that if we did see something that we would |
| 01:04:17.74 | Vice Mayor Theodores | And we're... |
| 01:04:22.63 | Captain Rohrabacher | because like outside what it should be in terms of the standards, we would probably take the information down and report it to one of the other agencies to do the inspection because frankly we're not really equipped to do that. but we would certainly take note of one that was like, seemed like a gross polluter or extraordinarily loud And I think we'd also reach out to the bus company first and say, oh boy, what's with that bus? Can you get that one out of our city? But I think that the... new requirements for them to have complied by January 1st with some of their retrofitting of those bus engines should produce some difference. So we can cross our fingers and hope that's the case. If you have more technical questions, maybe somebody else from the tour operators group here tonight could answer that for you. But we would do that part. |
| 01:05:03.61 | Jonathon Goldman | Thank you. |
| 01:05:08.62 | Councilmember Pfeiffer | Thank you. |
| 01:05:12.14 | Captain Rohrabacher | Thank you. |
| 01:05:12.85 | Councilmember Pfeiffer | Councilmember Weiner. Thank you, Captain Rohrabacher for really |
| 01:05:13.06 | Captain Rohrabacher | Thank you. you |
| 01:05:19.01 | Councilmember Pfeiffer | doing an excellent job on this. I think we will, and we're starting to now see the difference right away. this all really happened really started coming down about a year ago when all of a sudden three companies. One was City Sightseeing. The other was San Francisco sightseeing and the big bus. And if you really look at their equipment, it's not outdated. It's just not really well-kept equipment in my opinion. And when they climb up that hill, They do make a tremendous amount of noise And I think that by going to the bridgeway north, going out, I think we'll really see a tremendous reduction because coming down Alexander into Sausalito, It's a quicker run. You're coming downhill, so the demand on the engine is not as great. And I really think that by them being aware of now that we have some good communication, thanks to you with them, that I think this summer we will be able to hopefully make it a much more pleasant more pleasant for the buses coming in. And just so you know, approximately 250,000 people come in a year by bus, and I expect that to go up. So thank you, Captain. And I will. |
| 01:06:51.24 | Captain Rohrabacher | And I would be remiss if I didn't again mention how much assistance that we got from Una Kavanaugh in the Chamber of Commerce. She really started that rolling with Mr. Sargoni from Gray Lines, and she also came to the police department and was an equal partner with me in having that meeting with the tour bus operators. So without having her stand up here and present with me, I think we should acknowledge that she was a significant help as well. I think Council Member Pfeiffer has some questions. |
| 01:07:19.97 | Mayor Withey | Thank you. |
| 01:07:20.06 | Councilmember Weiner | Thank you, Mr. Mayor. Yeah, I have about, I think, three questions. So my first question is, well, thank you, Captain Rohrabacher, for your hard work on this. I think that... with your efforts and with the Chamber's efforts, you've probably you know, covered a lot of ground here and done what you know, can be done with respect to verbal agreements and, you know, the letter that was written, we promise we will do this. I was, I guess my question, my first question is really more for the city manager because I was interested in legislation specifically. And so I guess my first question is, I've been very, very supportive of educating the council with respect to types of things that we can do to enforce safety on the roads. Because in addition to the noise and the air pollution, we also have a severe safety issue with respect to the cyclists, many of whom are tourists. We have 800,000 over a year now coming in down Alexander through the course of a year. And no bike lanes and at one point no sidewalks. And now we have all the tour buss. So my question is, is there a reason why we didn't have our city attorney also exploring possible legislative opportunities with respect to enforcement and for road safety and this sort of thing? |
| 01:09:03.62 | Adam Politzer | The short answer is that I think as Captain Robacher shared that when we presented how we were going to address this back in November, we were looking for voluntary compliance and cooperation from the tour bus companies. And if there was a lack of cooperation or interest from the tour bus companies to work with our city, then I think we would have asked the city attorney to explore other options. So, Other options aren't off the table, but as the captain has shared tonight, We think that we're off to a good start on cooperation, but if there doesn't, if these promises or agreements, verbal agreements don't amount to anything, then we'll be back at the next council meeting or the council meeting after that with other options. What we said in November is what we're doing here in front of you tonight, which is saying that we've met with them, And at that time, nothing was off the table until we met with them. They had a very successful meeting. meeting. Thank you. And we've seen already a demonstrated effort of change. So, you know, we want to continue to explore this. But if necessary, we'll take other actions, but that would be on the direction of the council. |
| 01:10:22.00 | Councilmember Weiner | Thank you, Mr. City Manager. You may recall that I believe in February during the future agenda items, I raised this topic and clarified that by tour bus update, we also were referring to legislation. So just to set the record straight, if you went back and in the discussion I had up here, at least with city council, was that I expected to see legislation options for us to discuss, not necessarily move on, although I would like to see that, but to discuss. So my second question is regarding Section 15.28 of the Municipal Code, and this refers to operation of passenger buses and I believe those were for hire buses specifically I think, is that correct? |
| 01:11:11.09 | Captain Rohrabacher | You're talking about the one that keeps the buses off of Princess and Bulkley? |
| 01:11:15.04 | Councilmember Weiner | Yeah, well the one in the staff report it says the adoption of section 15.26 the operation of passenger buses west of Bridgeway and |
| 01:11:24.05 | Unknown | Yes. |
| 01:11:24.10 | Councilmember Weiner | Yes. Okay. So it looks like the City Council took action at one point, recognized that you know, the buses were an issue. Was this, it says passenger buses, were these for hire? I mean, they weren't the, The public buses, were they? |
| 01:11:43.95 | Captain Rohrabacher | As I could find out from my research, this was a 1989 City Council ordinance and it was brought before council in response to problems with the tourists at what was at the Altamira before was that. Not really sure what it was, but it was something else that had a lot of tourists and so they |
| 01:12:02.61 | Jonathon Goldman | Yeah. |
| 01:12:02.97 | Unknown | life. |
| 01:12:07.22 | Captain Rohrabacher | Council's response at the time was to limit the size of the buses to go up Princess and Sometimes you'll hear eight or nine, the number, but it really means the driver counts as one, and that could be a nine or a nine. seat or passenger, but it's really the driver and passenger. So anything larger than that, the council chose to ban and it was for hire buses at the time. |
| 01:12:28.75 | Councilmember Weiner | Thank you. Okay, thank you. And my last question is, If, you know, I'm seeing what the... the San Francisco the tour operators association is saying in their letter and their proposals, what happens if a bus I'm not sure. what this letter promises that they're going to do. What happens? Is there a fine? Is there enforcement? Do they get a ticket right now? What happens if they get a ticket? You know what? |
| 01:13:01.22 | Captain Rohrabacher | It depends on which part of the agreement they don't comply with. I think that's a good question. The one about the frequency of trips, you really don't have any enforcement teeth behind that. The ones concerning noise or pollution or bad driver behavior, the other remaining three items. We certainly do have some enforcement options for that. |
| 01:13:27.36 | Councilmember Weiner | What about the exiting coming in from the south, exiting from the north? |
| 01:13:32.19 | Captain Rohrabacher | That's the first one I referred to about the trips coming back out. That is going to be on the honor system at this point because that's what they agreed to. If they did not, or we found that they were not, then we would have to go back to the we're gonna be contacting the bus company and see how come. That would be the easiest first step is to ask what's happened to our agreement. and then go from there. The first step in that one would be making contact. I would probably do that myself once I found out that there was any of the buses represented by the agreement that were leaving town southbound rather than northbound. |
| 01:14:11.34 | Councilmember Weiner | So about two weeks ago I saw one of the tour buses and they were stopped right in the intersection when you come down on Richardson and you have Bridgeway. stopped right there in the middle of the island and they were folks were snapping pictures. would you, to me, that's definitely a safety hazard. You've got bikes whizzing around, you've got cars, you know, at certain point it's blind, you know, and it curves right around. Would you consider that a safety hazard, is that something we could take it? |
| 01:14:42.65 | Captain Rohrabacher | I would consider that a violation of the vehicle code that they could be cited for. |
| 01:14:46.37 | Councilmember Weiner | Thank you. |
| 01:14:48.66 | Mayor Withey | OK, before we open this to public comments, any other questions of the captain? OK, this time, are there any members of the public who'd like to comment on this item? Please, come forward. |
| 01:15:12.57 | Karen Emerson | Mr. Mayor and Council Members, I'm Karen Emerson, 215 Bridgeway. So I have a clear view of right where you were talking about, Linda, the buses stopping there at Richardson and Bridgeway so that folks can take their pictures. So I'm looking to you for relief from the disturbing increase in the number of tour buses that have been entering and exiting Sausalito by way of Alexander Avenue. The issues are pollution, noise, traffic congestion, and safety. The buses are polluting the air we breathe. Thank you. air filters from my sister's building, the capital died at the seat at the corner of the bridgeway, in Richardson. Her property manager changes these filters, which are- |
| 01:16:01.80 | Councilmember Weiner | I want to make sure the microphone, you get the microphone. You can carry the microphone with you. you |
| 01:16:09.31 | Karen Emerson | Anyway, it's a two-filter system under the eaves of the top floor of the building and the property manager who is very responsible, he changes them every six months and he says he's never seen them so filthy. |
| 01:16:22.39 | Unknown | Thank you. |
| 01:16:23.13 | Karen Emerson | Thank you. And that's what people are reading. |
| 01:16:29.24 | Karen Emerson | Thank you. clean filter. Thank you. |
| 01:16:32.23 | Councilmember Weiner | Incredible. |
| 01:16:33.12 | Karen Emerson | I say. The diners on the sidewalks along Bridgeway and the servers would be interested in seeing how filthy these things are and they're breathing the same air. The buses are noisy, particularly the big bus, which has a very whiny engine. And the microphones are on. Some of the buses are too loud. I can hear them coming from two blocks away. We have double-pane windows, which usually blocks out all the traffic noise. Because of traffic congestion in the 60s or early 70s, Sausalito had Caltrans change the exit sign from the Golden Gate Bridge to Alexander Avenue. and then directed traffic to Sausalito to go over the Moldova grade. But that secret's been found out a long time ago. San Francisco recently banned tour buses from the Alamo Square area. They had already banned them from Seacliff and other neighborhoods. Old Town is primarily a residential neighborhood. |
| 01:17:26.56 | Unknown | I don't know. |
| 01:17:41.09 | Karen Emerson | On October 13th of last year, I witnessed one of the tour buses stop in the southbound lane itself. and let passengers get off. walk in front of the bus, across the median, across the northbound lane to take pictures. And buses coming south couldn't see that there were people coming from that bus. So they were endangered. At the February 11th City Council meeting, Mr. Weiner said that it was the Council's job to care for the quality of life of residents. I hope you all believe in that responsibility. At the very least, tour buses could enter and exit Los Lito from the north end of town. But I was glad to hear the captain's report that some progress is being made. I hope it continues. |
| 01:18:30.84 | Mayor Withey | Thank you. Who would like to comment next, please? |
| 01:18:43.38 | Bonnie Johnson | Hi, my name is Bonnie Johnson. I'm at 210 Second Street, which is right on the main street. We're carrying this down on the corner. and everything she said I had to say, but also It was really nice to hear what the captain had to say, and I can appreciate that, and a lot of work has been done around this. I also am very grateful for that, but still, buses are... |
| 01:19:11.81 | Bonnie Johnson | They should have headphones. They're speaking like this. So they'll say, go by my house. you can hear every word that they're saying, and I thought that that had been stopped, but it hasn't. And that was on just today, was on two different buses. nobody is going out north. They're still coming back the same way, and they are stopping. Now they're starting to stop out in front of my house. There's four cute little houses there. and now they're starting to stop right there and take pictures. So that would be right across the street from well, a little bit up from the Golden Gate Market, just so you all know. And it's cute in there. And it's getting cuter. We need some help here." And it was really funny because with I have double pane windows. I've got dirt. all inside my double pane windows and inside the shutters on the inside of my house. And I kept thinking, what is going on here? Well, Karen just enlightened me what is going on here. So thank you very much. |
| 01:20:20.76 | Mayor Withey | Thank you. |
| 01:20:29.28 | Unknown | Good evening. My name is Marina O'Neill. I run SF Bay Adventures in the schooner Free-to-Be. We're the 2013 recipient of the Small Business of the Year Award here in Sausalito, and I'm on the board of directors for the Chamber of Commerce. I have three boats in the Saucedo Yacht Harbor and multiple parking spaces in the Madden's lot. And I am very closely affected by these tour buses. I find them to be very well organized thanks to Herbie. who I see down there often. I find them to be... You know, their engines are off. I'm not living here in Sausalito, but I spend most of my time here between my office at 1001 Bridgeway and my boats in the Yacht Harbor. These, what I can tell you is I'm a fourth generation Marin County resident. And I also have spent a considerable amount of time in my youth and now in my adult life here in Sausalito In the early 1990s, we had such a traffic issue in this county, in this town. I'm sorry. It didn't matter what day of the week it was. We had bumper to bumper traffic. and I think in great credit to some of these things that seem to be pretty unpleasant for the residents here in Sausalito, the bicycles, the buses, and maybe not the ferries, but the ferries do definitely contribute to less cars on the road and make it easier to get around in this town. So I'm here tonight in support of continuing to look for a solution to make a workable relationship with these buses. Because I believe that for me to get from one end of town to the other, it alleviates a lot of the traffic. These visitors are going to come and visit Sausalito. It's been a destination since the early 1900s. And I think this actually helps us with our traffic congestion. So I'm here tonight in support of the tour bus operators and continuing to work towards a solution with them. Thank you. |
| 01:22:39.51 | Mayor Withey | Thank you, Maria. |
| 01:22:47.26 | Patricia Pigman | Good evening. |
| 01:22:51.62 | Patricia Pigman | My name is Patricia Pigman. I live at 59 Alexander Avenue. which I things should be changed to Alexander Freeway because That's what's been happening. As someone mentioned last year, I noticed the tour buses were increasing like rabbits. And we've now had an increase in bikers. So, on Alexander south and second. We have bikers, pedestrians, Cars. And now these huge tour buses And it's just an accident waiting to happen. I've lived here for 51 years, and I've never seen a situation like this. I can, as the two women mentioned, I can no longer go out on my desk because of the pollution. And you know, these are residential streets. They're not freeways. And yet somehow, there now. have been turned into freeways. And I think you know, Our neighborhoods have been taken away from us. So, Somebody's got to look after the 7,000 residents that live in Sausalito. I'm all for the tourists. coming. And there was something, maybe I misread it in the report, that it There could be a law that the tour buses couldn't come on Alexander South or 2nd. Is that? Did I misread that or? |
| 01:24:45.62 | Mayor Withey | Thank you. |
| 01:24:45.63 | Adam Politzer | THE FAMILY. I think the Chief and Council Member Pfeiffer explained that that was a law that banned buses from going west up Princess to Bulkley to keep the buses from going up to the Altamira when the Altamira was a hotel. |
| 01:24:47.14 | Mayor Withey | I think the Chief and Councilor |
| 01:25:00.43 | Adam Politzer | Okay. |
| 01:25:00.62 | Patricia Pigman | I didn't quite understand that. I would... that there was a possibility that buses could be banned on Alexander Second and South. because it is a residential area and that they could come in the other end of town as well as leave the other end of town. Um... So I just hope that that the residents will be taken into consideration as well as to our buses because We live here. It also affects property values. I have a duplex in my tenant refused to sign a year's lease because of the noise from the tour buses. you know, it affects residents economically also. I just really plead with you to Somehow, give us back our neighborhood, and have the tour buses come in the other way and leave the other way. Thank you. |
| 01:26:12.77 | Mayor Withey | Thank you. Josh. |
| 01:26:17.52 | Chris Huntalis | I'm sorry. |
| 01:26:17.72 | Jacques Ullman | Just a quick thought. I've traveled a lot in Europe and North Africa, and I've never taken a tour bus. I've taken public transportation. |
| 01:26:17.94 | Chris Huntalis | I'm not. |
| 01:26:27.51 | Jacques Ullman | I took public transportation to the city today, and if somehow there were arrangements where public transportation could dovetail with tourists more with certain arrangements, then we would also benefit by having more frequent buses. That might be a much better way to go about things. |
| 01:26:50.10 | Unknown | . |
| 01:26:55.89 | Jerry Clare | I'm Jerry Clare. I live at 100 South Street. I don't know when it became an issue that Sausalito was going to become Atlantic City, but it seems to have taken place right under our noses. And for 100 years, people have found their way to Sausalito. Yet in the last year, we suddenly now have talked about being partners with the tour bus industry. And I don't understand where that came from. People have found their way here, they have patronized the restaurants, they have They have made it a tourist destination in smaller increments. And yet now we're talking about a staff report that says, well, let's see how this goes until November. I think we wanted some legislation that would stop some of this proliferation. We're not in partners with the tour bus industry. If I came to you and said that I wanted to do a 10-story hotel right in downtown Sausalito, you'd laugh me out of these chambers. But in allowing the tour buses in, it's the same principle. You're changing the character of downtown. And it's the character of downtown. Every time I've ever been to a planning commission, every time I've been to the city council, The issue on projects is always about the existing character and the existing scale of things. And those tour buses, If we need an aircraft carrier to bring people in, in order to enjoy Sausalito, something is wrong. Because in the staff report, and I know it was done with all sincerity, there was one line that says it's more efficient to have many people on a bus versus people coming individually. If the size of those buses is more ecologically efficient than some people coming in for cars, I don't see it. And I really don't understand why we're entertaining the idea of working with this issue. The people who come to Sausalito, we don't sell cars, we don't sell appliances, we don't sell any of the things that have heavy taxes and heavy sales tax. And if somebody can tell me that 30 ice creams a day is going to make a difference, in Sausalito's income, I don't really understand it. And I think that this may have crept up on you, you may not have noticed this was gonna happen, but this came on We got along a long time without it, and I really think you ought to consider the idea that Councilmember Pfeiffer had brought up about doing some legislation about this. I could stand, whether I'm in a restaurant, whether I'm in Molly's Stone's, whether I'm in the post office, and even at Côte d'Azur, where I live, The board meeting two weeks ago couldn't get started when 40 people were talking about what's happened to downtown Sausalito. I think that's something you really ought to consider, and I would not embrace the staff report and carry that forward. I'd really have this as an open issue and talk about doing what Carmel, what Darien, Connecticut, what every city across the United States has done to stop this. |
| 01:29:48.02 | Unknown | and Kinetic. |
| 01:29:54.73 | Jerry Clare | Thank you. |
| 01:29:54.77 | Mayor Withey | Thank you. |
| 01:29:54.82 | Jerry Clare | THE FAMILY. |
| 01:29:54.97 | Mayor Withey | Thank you. |
| 01:29:55.15 | Jerry Clare | Thank you. |
| 01:29:55.19 | Mayor Withey | Thank you. |
| 01:30:00.22 | Chris Huntalis | Good evening, my name is Chris Huntalis. I run a business in town and also I'm a property owner. I really like the captain's approach. There are problems with the buses, and he's taken first hand and trying to address every one of them. If there's pollution from exhaust, He's going to address it. If there's noise, he's going to address it. |
| 01:30:26.02 | Unknown | going to address |
| 01:30:27.93 | Chris Huntalis | He's going to communicate with the operators and whoever he needs to talk to, the highway patrol. And I think these problems can be solved. But to outright stop the tour buses, I think, is a mistake. Thank you very much. Thank you. |
| 01:30:47.15 | Mayor Withey | Is there any other member of the public who'd like to comment on this issue? Please, sir. |
| 01:30:59.36 | Damian Morzumi | My name is Damian Morzumi. I'm the author of the letter that you were referring to. I'm also a member of the SFTOA. I represent San Francisco to the left sightseeing. I'm here tonight after speaking with Captain Robrocker and being in attendance in all those meetings and seeing that there are obviously a lot of questions. I believe most of those have been addressed, and I have listened to the comments of the public as well. just to we are starting with our discussions with the captain and have immediately, I believe, proposed what will probably start in April with all of the tour bus companies that come out and that are part of the Tour Bus Association of San Francisco, which is to only come in one way and come out the other way, which does two or three things. Number one, reduces the number of tour buses, or at least these hop-on, hop-off tour buses that come into Sausalito because they're not coming back out that same direction. Also the noise factor is reduced because they're not straining to come up the hills. The other issue is the CARB issue, which is coming into effect incrementally through the state, and that is to reduce the particulate matter that comes out of these diesel engines. And again, as the captain indicated, San Francisco Deluxe sightseeing is going to be using clean air buses, which will be natural gas buses as well. As far as enforcement goes, the captain's made it very clear that he's not going to tolerate stopping in inappropriate places or safety issues. And he does have a direct line to our association, not only through me, but through the other representatives of those bus companies. One thing I don't know if people are aware of, and I don't think it's obvious, is we're only discussing, when we talk about SFTOA, we're only talking about a small group of bus companies, maybe four or five. There are many, many buses that come into Sausalito that we have no association or affiliation with, and those are the buses also that need some addressing as well, but cannot be addressed through the hop-on, hop-off issues. And this is a unique type of tour bus because it does bring passengers into Sausalito and allows them to stay here for as long as a period of time during the day, because there will be another bus on schedule to bring them back to San Francisco. So that also does increase to the shopping and patronage of the restaurants. But I think what is most important that I hope people here understand is we are dedicated to being a good neighbor. We are dedicated to working with the members of Sausalito and understand these concerns and problems. We're not going to be perfect, and we're not going to be perfect every time, but we will address issues as they come up, just as we did when we first heard about this, and I think we did it quite promptly. I don't know if you have any questions, but I came here tonight to answer any questions that I could, if you had any. |
| 01:34:17.38 | Mayor Withey | Thank you. Please, please, please. |
| 01:34:22.86 | Councilmember Leon | Can you just please state for the record that the members, the bus companies that are members of your organization |
| 01:34:29.07 | Damian Morzumi | The members of the organization are San Francisco Deluxe Sightseeing, Big Bus, which is the Big Bus. The other one that comes out here would be Super Sightseeing. I believe it's City sightseeing is kind of a loose affiliated member as well as super sightseeing. Those are the main bus companies. Those are the hop-on, hop-off style bus companies that are part of the SFTOA that are hop-on, hop-off. There are other members that don't do these type of tours, so they're not part of this |
| 01:35:10.38 | Councilmember Pfeiffer | Sanford. |
| 01:35:10.97 | Damian Morzumi | Francisco sightseeing? I'm sorry, San Francisco sightseeing, which is part of Horizon Bus Company. |
| 01:35:17.45 | Councilmember Pfeiffer | Very. Thank you. |
| 01:35:18.11 | Damian Morzumi | latest. |
| 01:35:18.61 | Councilmember Pfeiffer | And they were hop on, hop on. They are now. |
| 01:35:20.39 | Damian Morzumi | Thank you. |
| 01:35:20.42 | Mayor Withey | they are now. |
| 01:35:20.96 | Damian Morzumi | Thank you. |
| 01:35:24.94 | Mayor Withey | Okay, thank you. Okay, thank you. Is there any other member of the public who'd like to comment on this matter? Una. |
| 01:35:39.84 | Una Kavanaugh | Luna Kavanagh, the CEO of the Sausalito Chamber of Commerce. I'm also a 20-year resident of Sausalito. I do appreciate how frustrating it is for the residents who live along that corridor but I did want to I referenced the gentleman who said that we're only talking 30 ice creams. We're talking and I'm quoting from the Sausalito Chamber of Commerce Guide and that visitors fuel our local economy with an estimated 82 million a year. and for every $100 spent locally, $68 goes back to the community. So those visitors bring a lot of sales tax dollars to this town. And the tour buses are helping us have less cars on the road I do believe that we have to improve the situation and also the reason why I spent my time, this is a city issue, not necessarily a chamber issue but I was happy to go to those meetings with Catherine Robacher because this is an for our businesses and our residents. We really do understand the frustration and we're trying our best to work with the bus companies and I do think we have to give them the opportunity to improve. and I was very, very surprised by the fact that they called me to say, what can we do? They do not want to have to stop coming here. You know, that's their business, but it also brings sales tax dollars to our town and helps our local community for both the businesses and the residents. And again, I speak as a 20-year resident here in town. Thank you. |
| 01:37:18.97 | Mayor Withey | Thank you. Any other member of the public like to comment? |
| 01:37:30.20 | Ines Pongier | Hello, my name is Ines Pongier and I am owner of Jewelry by the Bay. It's been in Sausalito for 26 years. and Soxolito. I was here in 1992 when the buses stopped coming, and it really hurt business. As a business community, we need a different way of bringing the tourists into town. At the same time, I'm hearing what the residents are going through, I can feel for them. I think there's ways of coming up with some kind of resolution. I like what's going on. Thank you. Mr. Weiner has said, you know, pushing the buses on the other side of town and, and, um, having them come down the street, to come down Alexander and then go out, I think less pollution's gonna happen because they could coast down And I think there's some way that we can have a happy medium because maybe not as many buses coming, Um, but we need them, you know, and there is less parking in town You know, I don't, we can't find it. locals from Mill Valley. Um, employees business owners, it's hard to find parking and that's early in the morning. I don't know where they're going to park otherwise. during the day. So I think bringing in people in other ways, like buses, is the way to go. And it seems like the, I'm right across the street from where the buses are. |
| 01:38:52.91 | Unknown | Hey. |
| 01:39:01.45 | Ines Pongier | And people come in and they're happy. and they leave happy. But I can understand about the noise driving down the street. I think maybe the microphones have to stop. And, um... I think we can work together to get something. I hope. |
| 01:39:19.76 | Mayor Withey | Thank you. Any other member of the public like to comment? Hi, Jeff. |
| 01:39:33.65 | Jeff Shirash | Good evening, Jeff Shirash, Spinnaker Restaurant, also chairman of the board of the Sauceto Chamber. A number of years ago, we had a nice hotel in town called Del Tamero. And during that time, they had a restaurant associated with the property. And through the years, the residents got tired of tour buses going up the street. Over the years, Altamira had to close their restaurant because of lack of business from locals and or being able to get tour buses up the street. Obviously, you know, there's ways that we can work with the tour bus companies, which we are, to make sure that it's a quiet way to get up the street and not affect the residents. But in this situation here, we lost a great property. Over the years, of course, we know now Al Samira is not a hotel anymore. We have a nice facility for those that need help with alcohol and other treatment issues, but we did lose that TOT. We lost a revenue source to the city. That's something we can control. So we're hoping that, of course, that doesn't happen to our town as far as the downtown, which I think the bus companies have done a great job of finding other ways to get into Sausalito here or at least to leave Sausalito, come through a down Alexander, and, of course, leave at the other end of town. I've been in the city quite a bit now since I teach a couple days a week. And prior to the change, we did see, of course, getting stuck behind a big bus. It's not so fun going up Alexander, but recently I haven't seen any buses going up that way. So it's a lot easier to leave town of Alexander for those that either work here and or live here. So I'm hoping that we continue to work with our bus companies because we definitely need them as far as merchants and people coming into town. So thank you. |
| 01:41:16.23 | Mayor Withey | Thank you. Any other member of the public like to comment? And I see none. So I'm going to close public comment and bring the discussion up here. |
| 01:41:34.96 | Councilmember Pfeiffer | Well, I think we've seen over the last five, six years how how many visitors, and don't forget also, Um. while we were in a lull with the economy. That didn't help us as far as people visiting Sausalito. In 1992, they made it so difficult for the buses to come here that they decided that they didn't have to come to Sausalito, so they went to Tiburon. And we felt that. This is something that is not going to go away. It's just how well we can manage it. Um, And there has been a shift, not only just on the hop-on, hop-off buses, which really came into their own last year, but now there's a tremendous amount of advertising that goes into not only ride your bicycle over to Sausalito, and take the ferry back. but they're doing it with the buses too. There's a tremendous amount of buses that are now coming into Sausalito that are coming from your woods or Napa. And they drop them off here. They let them stay here for a while, and they go back by ferry. The other thing that I have noticed, and I hope you have, is except for the pedestrians crossing the street on Bridgeway downtown. It's not difficult to go through downtown now. All right. the amount of automobiles is substantially much lower than it used to be because of the alternate |
| 01:43:03.39 | Unknown | mobiles. |
| 01:43:11.69 | Councilmember Pfeiffer | transportation that we have now. As I said, the numbers I think were quoted wrong before. Bicycles, approximately 321,000 bikes come here. 250,000 people come in by shuttle and bus, and almost 600,000 come in by ferry. That's a million people without an automobile. Even if you had three people in a per automobile, the savings on that amount of automobiles is tremendous. And I think that Captain Rohrbacker has really done a real good job on seeing if this solution of having them go to come in from Alexander and go out on Bridgeway North is the first step. We hope that I can tell you that you won't starting next week when I'm down there, you won't see too many buses thinking of taking a left. Okay. Okay, either that or I'm going to have tire marks on my face. So I think we're going to handle them properly, and I think they'll fall in place. And let's hope that this is one of the solutions as we move forward on how people are coming into Sausalito. |
| 01:44:42.86 | Mayor Withey | Council Member Fyker. |
| 01:44:44.96 | Councilmember Weiner | Oh, I'm preparing my remarks. |
| 01:44:49.87 | Vice Mayor Theodores | Well, it is a significant change over the last year, and it's a problem. And I certainly sympathize with all the residents that live in the south end of town, and I know that when We see these buses going by and you're sitting at the outdoor cafe. It does change things. But I think all the comments, I mean, we do have to realize when there are 40 people on this on and off bus, if they came in cars, they'd be coming in at least 20 cars. We talk about the bike problem that we have now, but someone would be on bikes, so they actually take some bikes. I do think this is a good start. We do have to do something about them. And I think it's kudos to Captain Murbarker and everyone working on this that we are where, having them start at the south and going north. And we have to keep looking at this to see if this works, if there's other things. As I mentioned in my question, really should look at both voluntary and mandatory uh, EXAMINATION OF THIS NOISE, AND the noise and air pollution because I think if we can cut that down that will also help. We had the graphic with the air filters there. So we have to take a look at that. And the one other thing, we've had this come up. The idea of legislative options have come up. And like we can say, let's legislate that'd be no tour bus problem. We can't quite do it that way. What I'd like to see though, we should examine all the legislative options we may have. I don't think it's fair to city attorney to say, what are all the things we can do to buses to stop them? So Councilman Pfeiffer, I'd ask you, You know, legislation are ordinances that we pass to affect people's behavior. So that, what do we want to have that happen? And we can pass rules to make that happen. So what I'd invite you to do is to say, what would you have as an ordinance that we could look at? We can have the city attorney look at whether this is something we can do. and then we can discuss it. Because it would be a good thing to know what we can and can't do on the legal side of it. Although I do think, I'm happy with this particular approach. Being a lawyer myself, I know that it's always better to work with people and pass rules or laws. And if we have to, we'll pass a rule or a law, but I think the starting point is We're working together. the, the tour bus operators coming here and being willing to work with us. And I think we should go on that path until there's another reason not to. Thank you. Thank you. |
| 01:47:24.97 | Unknown | Councilman Fletcher. |
| 01:47:25.93 | Vice Mayor Theodores | you |
| 01:47:26.10 | Councilmember Weiner | Yes, thank you, Mayor Withy. So I guess the first thing I'd say is I |
| 01:47:26.11 | Vice Mayor Theodores | I... |
| 01:47:32.93 | Councilmember Weiner | I am not a lawyer, but in 30 minutes back in November, I identified four examples of legislation that other cities had done and shared three of them at the time with city staff with respect to New York legislating the loudspeakers on the double-decker open air buses with respect to the Seacliff ordinance in San Francisco. And so I am quite disappointed that we didn't have our city attorney looking at that and educating this council on our legislative options. Especially since I was told that that was the nature of this agenda item. The other comment I have is, you know, we're not talking about banning tour buses. We're talking about a narrow, very dangerous winding. two-lane road called Alexander that is extremely treacherous, where we have, as I mentioned, over 800,000 tour bikes |
| 01:48:39.18 | Councilmember Pfeiffer | Oh, that's not, you have 325. |
| 01:48:41.31 | Councilmember Weiner | I'm sorry. From the point of order, Mr. Mayor, I have the floor. The research I have done, a quote from an article lists in excess of over 800,000 cyclists coming over every year, and they're crossing the Golden Gate Bridge, and they are going down Alexander. There's not enough space for cycle lanes on the downhill side. There's one side that doesn't have a sidewalk for pedestrians, so it's very treacherous. This has been a severe impact on our residents. There would be more residents here tonight had it not been for the fact that many residents looked at the projections of future agendas and saw that, |
| 01:48:44.18 | Councilmember Pfeiffer | I have the floor. |
| 01:48:45.51 | Una Kavanaugh | Thank you. |
| 01:49:28.81 | Councilmember Weiner | The future agenda item was going to be sometime in April. It was moved and that's fine, but when you move it, you should move it forward, not backwards. People had five days, of which one was a Saturday and Sunday, to learn about this being on the agenda. Um, Let's see, finally, I would say what concerns me most when I hear some of the commentary up here is that I'm hearing the same language that has been used to describe the cyclist. It's not going away. Oh, it's actually better because we have a reduction of CARs. I look at those hop-on-hop-on buses and we're looking at three people, five people. Okay? Maybe a couple months during the summer, maybe they're full, but Year round you see them. Five people, three people, two people, one I saw empty. Even at the Housing Element workshop on Saturday when I was down there, I saw a hop-on-hop bus rolling down to the Bay Model with three people in it. I have taken mass transit a month ago on the number 10. And some tourists got on. And I mentioned to the bus driver with respect to the tourists using the mass transit, like we heard from the audience, that that would help residents get more public mass transit buses. |
| 01:50:59.75 | Mayor Withey | Thank you. |
| 01:51:01.40 | Councilmember Weiner | are a major problem. |
| 01:51:01.47 | Mayor Withey | I'll see you next time. a major problem. Council Member Pfeiffer. Thank you. |
| 01:51:05.81 | Councilmember Leon | Council Member Leão. Well, I concur with, and I'm sorry, I missed the beginning of this. I took the bus, and I missed the earlier bus from San Francisco, so that's one of the reasons why I was late. Not knocking the bus, okay. It wasn't on an off tour bus. It was regular Golden Gate Transit. |
| 01:51:23.22 | Unknown | And it wasn't |
| 01:51:29.82 | Councilmember Leon | There's certainly points on both sides here. The nature of tourism in Sausalito is changing over the years for certain with the bikes, and this is a new incarnation of another way to get to tour the parts of the Bay Area. Um, There are similarities to the bikes, frankly. It was something that was happening in San Francisco for years, on and off buses, and they decided to extend their route to the bridge and now they decided to extend their route down into Sausalito. And last year, we saw kind of more of a volume of those buses. And I do live in Old Town, and I do hear the buses, and they are loud. And they are struggle to get up the hill, and they labor to get up that hill, and you hear them echo through the, no matter what part of that valley you live in, you're going to hear those buses go up the hill. So that being said, there is a problem. I don't think we can wall off Sausalito. So there's two ends of the spectrum. You can't say no. I don't think we can say no on the other end. We need to do something. I think certainly having them go out the north end of town is a good thing, but at the same time, it doesn't solve all the problem that there's probably more buses coming than need to come. Certainly in the off-season, there's no doubt about that. So I would reach out to Mr. Moizumo and say, if there's a way that we can work with the bus companies to both educate the drivers, because the drivers are part of the problem. The drivers can't stop wherever they want to stop. And that's what we had to do with the bike companies, repeated meetings with, over the course of a number of years, with the bike company operators to make sure they're telling the drivers what to do. And we're going to have to do that with your organization members. And I encourage the city to work with you to organize those meetings before the tourist season gets into full swing. And in the winter schedule, maybe there's some talk we can have with the operators to reduce the number of buses that come. I mean, it doesn't make any sense economically for them. Anyway, I know they are offering a service that operates with some degree of frequency, otherwise it's not very... to those using it, but there needs to be some coordination here where there hasn't been. On the other side, I think the city can certainly write to the state level as a letter from the City of the Air Quality Resources Board, the Public Utility Commission, and to the DMV saying, hey, there has to be greater regulation of these buses, both from the particulate matter, the noise. And we can, but we do have noise regulations, so I'll see if we can look into whether we can regulate the audio speakers. But I would say, just to take advantage of Linda doing the same thing going over time, is I would say let's revisit this shortly in a month or two. We had some meetings. There's been some agreements to do some things. Let's revisit it in a relatively short period of time and not wait until November to see what we need to do. |
| 01:54:37.08 | Mayor Withey | Thank you. I particularly agree with that last comment. I think it would probably not be wise to let the whole season go through before we ask the question, how did it work? So I would certainly recommend that come back to City Council and figure out how it's gone, how this voluntary agreement has worked. Quite frankly, if the voluntary agreement doesn't work, then we need to sadly put some rules in place. But I would very much encourage us to take the spirit of cooperation and collaboration and try and work it out first before we put any rules on. So that's all I've got to say. Please, Council Member Pfeiffer. |
| 01:55:35.15 | Councilmember Weiner | Thank you. I just want to make a comment. I've heard the phrase, oh, we have to collaborate, we have to talk with them, we have to partner with them, as if legislation is some sort of a bad word. Legislation provides enforcement to ensure that lives are possibly saved on a very treacherous intersection. It is, I don't see, and I know that other towns and other cities have not seen legislation as some bad negative thing. Legislation sets everyone up for success, and most importantly, it protects the folks like the cyclists, the pedestrians that are going around that very dangerous intersection from harm. So I just wanted to say that with respect to legislation. I don't see it as a negative and I don't see it as a non-collaborative solution. I see it as leadership. |
| 01:56:38.47 | Mayor Withey | Thank you. Anybody else? |
| 01:56:41.13 | Councilmember Pfeiffer | Thank you. Council Member Weiner. just for some statistics. By the way, when you hear the ambulance and the fire truck going up, Second Street. South Street. They're not going into Sausalito, they're going up I believe most of the accidents severe bicycle accidents happening up on Councilman Road. But we here have the Southern Marin has an agreement to be the ambulance service that goes up there. So that's where you see them. As far as the statistics go, If you look at the south end of town with all of its bikes and all of its buses and all of its pedestrians, there's approximately five to six reported accidents that take place within the Sausalito limits at the south end of town. And if you really look at that, for the number of bikes that come in, that's tremendously very, very low. Most of them, the tourists usually are going very slow. We see what happens to them. They fall. We catch them at the information booth because they have scrapes. But really, they're going slow. All the vehicles, most of them that know that route go slow. The only problem that we have that's creeping up on us now is now that when you look at Google, Google is telling you to get off at Alexander. And that's a little change. when they came up with the bridge. The first time they saw the word Sausalito was at Marin City's Sausalito exit. So we will also be very aware of that, but I'm not saying it's not dangerous because it is tricky. But the statistics show that I think everybody is aware of being very careful when they drive down there. |
| 01:58:44.17 | Mayor Withey | Thank you. |
| 01:58:45.45 | Councilmember Pfeiffer | Thank you. Thank you. |
| 01:58:45.52 | Councilmember Leon | Thank you. |
| 01:58:45.74 | Jacques Ullman | Thank you. |
| 01:58:46.02 | Mayor Withey | Thank you. |
| 01:58:46.04 | Councilmember Leon | you |
| 01:58:46.11 | Mayor Withey | you |
| 01:58:46.16 | Councilmember Leon | Thank you. |
| 01:58:47.64 | Mayor Withey | Please, Councilmember Leone has a question. |
| 01:58:50.44 | Councilmember Leon | Can I ask you a question? Sorry I missed your... Presentation. In your meetings with the tour bus operators, Did it strike you as reminiscent of the bike side of things as well? a way to kind of maybe work with them more closely on educating their drivers and something we can do early on that's going to limit some of the traffic issues in terms of the starting and stopping and the megaphone, the loudspeakers, or did it seem, was the spirit of cooperation there or was it less? reading your report, it seemed like it was they are starting out with a positive mode rather than, no, I don't have to do these things. |
| 01:59:45.93 | Captain Rohrabacher | Sure, there's actually two parts to your question. The piece about the you know, speaking over the PA systems and making a lot of noise. The companies have agreed already to make Alexander, South, Second, and Richardson a quiet zone. And so we should be seeing the results of that now or soon if they're waiting for after tonight to see what the council's action is. But the other is that if, in fact, some of that noise exceeds the 50-foot rule that's already in the vehicle code, then we can simply just issue the citation without any, you know, concern about the tour bus operators. The piece about the driving behavior is actually a bit more in our control. In our meeting, I actually just asked them outright, telling your drivers, do whatever it takes to make the tourist happy. Stop where you want, take pictures where you want, cross over the line if you feel like it. And of course they weren't going to say yes, but they were frank about |
| 02:00:48.74 | Unknown | in the room. |
| 02:00:50.54 | Captain Rohrabacher | that they don't want their drivers breaking the law or stopping in the median or doing the things that are illegal. And we talked about the actual realities of that is that They're not getting that instruction from the companies. The drivers are doing that for whatever reason. And I told them that we were not gonna tolerate it, that this season they could expect their drivers to be sighted to the best of our ability based on resources, we would do that. any other consequences for the drivers really more than the companies other than If the drivers get cited, the companies will hear about it because they're part of the Department of Motor Vehicle Pull Notice Program, allows them to know what their drivers are doing. The drivers will lose their job. And so there's some incentive for the drivers to follow the law. And I think it's a little bit like maybe barbaric, but if we put a couple of heads on the stake in the front, then people will get the message that we are not going to tolerate it. I think that some of the sighted drivers will go back to their fellow drivers and say, I think you ought to not stop in the center median or across the different line because the saucer-to-cops are going to give you a ticket, and it's going to cost you Thank you, Captain. |
| 02:02:02.73 | Councilmember Weiner | Mr. Mayor, I will respond to Councilmember Weiner's comment around, I believe he said just a few accidents, four, five or something, six accidents in the Alexander area. I've seen a child fall. and get hurt. that intersection that's one too many |
| 02:02:36.96 | Councilmember Leon | Okay. Do you want to ban children from riding bicycles in Sausalito? Is that the solution? |
| 02:02:43.17 | Councilmember Weiner | Well, it was a point. The point I'm making is that when you have a big bus, behind a flock of cyclists. If someone falls, Buses don't stop on a dime, Councilmember Leo. |
| 02:02:59.62 | Unknown | They don't stop on a dime. Buses take time to |
| 02:03:00.08 | Councilmember Weiner | They don't stop on a dime. Buses take time to respond to that type of congestion, Councilmember Leon. And that was my point. |
| 02:03:06.10 | Councilmember Leon | a suggestion, Councilmember Leon. We are talking about |
| 02:03:10.25 | Councilmember Weiner | We are talking about redirecting these buses. Thank you. |
| 02:03:14.12 | Unknown | Thank you. |
| 02:03:15.74 | Councilmember Leon | Thank you. |
| 02:03:15.75 | Unknown | Thank you. |
| 02:03:16.02 | Councilmember Weiner | No, I'm still within my time. Please go. Excuse me, Mr. Mayor. |
| 02:03:18.05 | Unknown | Please go. I'll explain. |
| 02:03:20.87 | Councilmember Weiner | So my point before I was interrupted was that we're not talking about banning buses. We're talking about Alexander being a treacherous place for buses. We're also talking about this being a new phenomena. This just happened last year. Okay? And that is my point. Now, if the residents are becoming very disillusioned with the lack of action, frankly, especially since I was assured verbally that we were going to look at legislative options. You know, and that didn't happen this time. So, and that's on the public record. So... Moving forward, I would not be surprised to see this go to a public referendum, because the people will take the leadership on this issue if the council does not. |
| 02:04:09.77 | Mayor Withey | Okay, thank you. I have one. Could I just ask the city manager what action do you need from us tonight or, Captain, what action do you need from us tonight? |
| 02:04:20.92 | Adam Politzer | There is specifically no action that's required by the council tonight but there were some recommendations of when to bring this back for further evaluation and comment from the the work of the good captain here. So if the council would like to give direction to bring back a status report in one month's time, we can do that. |
| 02:04:44.89 | Councilmember Leon | Can I also suggest that we put some of this stuff in writing? Mr. Morizumi, is that better this time? Sorry. Put some things that the bus companies have agreed to do in writing. And so let's take the time, send a letter to each one of these bus companies saying, okay, this is what we, or our understanding of what you are agreeing to do, and we're going to measure that in a very short period of time, let's say two months. It's March now, we're going to measure it, you know, let's say in June, before it hits the full peak volume, and see if any of these things are actually taking place. If they're not taking place, if the police department, or if there are a large number of resident complaints, |
| 02:05:03.62 | Unknown | Take the time. |
| 02:05:31.93 | Councilmember Leon | will proceed to adopt other measures. Okay, in the meantime, um we'll do some review of what those measures could be and if they're practically able to be enforced. That's the other thing for us to always keep in mind. Enforcement is costly. If you enforce one thing without hiring new police officers, they're not going to enforce something else. So we have to keep that in mind. But if it's a problem and we need to enforce it, we do need to follow up on it. But let's hold these guys' feet to the fire, folks. and tell them, hey, you've got to live up to your to your word, and if you don't, we're gonna take action. And I would address the same sort of concerns that are outlined in the staff report about for the noise, the particulate matter. It may be barking up the tree, but at least you're registering your concern with the state at the right levels. to saying, hey, this is a problem and you need to enforce these regulations either more quickly or more strictly. But I also suggest we come back in June and see how this has gone and see what we can do if it's not working. Day for May, June. |
| 02:06:41.32 | Mayor Withey | Yeah, okay. I think that's reasonable. Everybody okay? |
| 02:06:49.37 | Councilmember Weiner | Mr. Mayor, I have a comment because I want to make sure that I'm hearing this correctly and I want to articulate again like I did in November and like I did in the January-February timeframe that what I'm hearing is correct. is that in June when we revisit this, we will We will also look at the legislative options that other towns and cities have explored so that this council is educated as to the types of solutions that we have |
| 02:07:27.66 | Councilmember Leon | Any council member is always free to draft legislation and bring it in and put it on the dais. If you or Herb or whoever has some good ideas to put forward, great. |
| 02:07:28.37 | Unknown | THE END OF |
| 02:07:40.45 | Councilmember Leon | We're going through our priority calendar also in about a month. And this is probably going to rise up to the top of the priority calendar. If necessary, we can allocate staff time and or budget to start looking into the legislative options. |
| 02:07:59.35 | Councilmember Weiner | So what I heard was that, no, that this is not going to, that if I want to look at legislation, I need to draft it myself and I'll do that and bring it here. and bring the options, I'd be happy to do that. |
| 02:08:13.72 | Councilmember Leon | Well, you're always free to do that, and we'll see if there's a majority of people who want to push it through. But in the meantime, we're going to see if these guys keep their word and adopt at least these minimal measures they're saying they're going to do up front. Let's give them a chance to actually respond to the criticisms that we're giving them. If they don't, then we'll bring the hammer down. Thank you. |
| 02:08:33.53 | Vice Mayor Theodores | Thank you. |
| 02:08:33.53 | Unknown | I'm sorry. |
| 02:08:33.54 | Councilmember Leon | Thank you. |
| 02:08:33.56 | Vice Mayor Theodores | Okay. |
| 02:08:33.61 | Councilmember Leon | Okay. |
| 02:08:34.03 | Unknown | Yeah. Thank you. |
| 02:08:34.15 | Councilmember Leon | Thank you. |
| 02:08:34.51 | Unknown | Thank you. |
| 02:08:34.82 | Councilmember Leon | THE FAMILY. |
| 02:08:35.03 | Vice Mayor Theodores | And I agree, I agree with |
| 02:08:35.82 | Councilmember Leon | I agree. |
| 02:08:37.73 | Vice Mayor Theodores | Council Member Leon, that we should get it in writing and enforce it. I don't think we don't need to draft it in lawyer's way, but if you say we want no buses in Sausalito, we can look at that legislative option. If we want to say that we don't want noise, we can look at that legislative option. Anyone's free to do that. I think it's difficult to just look at other places because even Alamo Square in the city is not the same. We have to decide what we want, and we can ask the bus companies if they'll do that. If they don't, we can pass a rule. We can pass a rule that they have to go in on the south and out at the north. That's all legislation is. If there's any more, it's not that you have to draft the verbiage. It's what do we want done via legislation. We can see if it's possible to do, and then we'll bring it up here and see if we want to pass it. |
| 02:09:21.97 | Councilmember Weiner | Yeah, and I just want to clarify because you mentioned no buses. This is not about banning buses. This is about a safety issue. And like I said before, I'd just, I'd be happy to bring, you know, whatever. And I'll let the city manager know so he can include it in the staff report. |
| 02:09:27.27 | Patricia Pigman | This is about a safety issue. |
| 02:09:38.33 | Mayor Withey | Thank you. |
| 02:09:42.46 | Councilmember Leon | not all |
| 02:09:43.00 | Sean Harris | Thank you. |
| 02:09:43.34 | Mayor Withey | Okay, so we're bringing this back in June. Okay, thank you. With that, I'm going to call for a five-minute break. Thank you all for coming. Thank you. |
| 02:10:01.28 | Unknown | So we go. |
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| 02:10:24.18 | Mayor Withey | They... oh, hang on. |
| 02:10:45.66 | Mayor Withey | Okay, thanks Debbie. The next item is the Ferry Patron Bicycle Parking Plan for the Summer of 2014. Chief. |
| 02:11:00.19 | Unknown | Good evening, Mayor and Council members and city staff and audience members. Thank you for this opportunity this evening to give you an update on the downtown bicycle parking. This is a no action item. It's for information only. We do value your input and that of the community, the merchants and residents, so we're happy to answer any questions. As you recall, in April of 2013, we came before you with five possible solutions to your forgiven. |
| 02:11:37.45 | Unknown | Sorry, too. |
| 02:11:40.75 | Unknown | mitigate the congestion on El Portal that was caused by the mix of pedestrians, cars, and tourists on bicycles. And so tonight is our information to you on how we're going to build on what we did last year. And our record over the last three years is that with each effort, we have improved the experience in the El Pratel fair landing area. We hope to do that again this summer. So as you know, bike ridership, tourism has increased in Sausalito. And here are some figures that we have received from the ferry company. This is all in your staff report. Um... We have an 18.8% increase in bike ridership for Golden Gate. Blue and gold does not keep records of the bicycle passengers, but there's an 8% increase overall between last year and 2012. in their ridership. And the bicycle rental companies anticipate a 3% to 5% increase in their rental clients Um... So this is just a reminder of what El-Pertal can look like in mid-afternoon. And what steps have we taken to date? From a police department perspective, we do traffic enforcement and issue an average of 28 citations for bicycle-related violations a month. We do targeted enforcement for pedestrian and red light violations by cyclists. The Police Department of Public Works participate in the Pedestrian Bicycle Advisory Committee that just started a few months ago. At the Police Department, we partner with Marin County Bicycle Coalition in their efforts to create safety and education around cycling in Marin. We host bicycle safety classes and basic street skill classes in collaboration with the Marin County Bicycle Coalition at their request. And then we collaborate, as you heard earlier tonight, with agencies like CHP to do targeted enforcement. And then we have a wonderful relationship with Jonathan and the staff in the Department of Public Works to work together to find solutions to enhance facilities and roadways and signage and consistent messaging about safe roads We had the bicycle reservation system last year that allowed visitors to predetermine their ferry departure time, and that helped relieve some of the congestion that was caused by them just waiting, hoping to get on the next ferry. And it gave them time to shop and walk around Sausalito and enjoy what we have to offer here. We had part-time staff from one to two people a day, depending on the day, provided by Blazing Saddles, and that's part of our objective, is to have all of the stakeholders take responsibility. for solving the issues in the ferry landing. We had two full-time staff persons provided by the Golden Gate Ferry Company. We had the Ambassador Program, which was staffed by volunteers who were essentially greeters and people movers or bicycle movers, directing people to the parking area. The Chamber provided a full-time staff person in the kiosk to again provide information to visitors, but she also was significant in helping mitigate the congestion in the immediate ferry landing area. Taxi staging was moved after 1 o'clock from the end of El Portal over to Anchor and Bay Street, and tour bus staging was an area that was created on Humboldt. Last summer we came to you, or last May, and of the five options that were presented to you, we determined that option number five was the best option to explore at that time, and that was to move bicycle parking out of the street and into lot one. It was an improvement on the previous year, and for the better part of the summer, it did get the majority of the congestion, mitigate the majority of the congestion on El-Pertal. But once again, we have run out of room, and towards the height of the tourist season, we were seeing back up again on El-Pertal and a mixture of pedestrians and cyclists and vehicles. |
| 02:16:51.10 | Unknown | And... This is a reminder of what it can look like. And the line can stretch from the ferry landing all the way out to the end of Pertal and all the way down to the end of Tracy, past the taxi stand and beyond. |
| 02:17:11.20 | Unknown | So, um... This is the option that we are presenting to you tonight, and I'm going to hand it over to Jonathan to give you a little overview of this. |
| 02:17:32.83 | Jonathon Goldman | Jonathan Goldman, your Public Works Director and City Engineer. As the Chief reminded us, we looked at a number of alternatives last year and went with the use of parking spaces in Lot 1 and started out a little bit big and based on complaints that we received about the loss of vehicle parking, reduced the area of Lot 1 that we devoted to bicycle parking. Having evaluated that experience and recognizing that even with those facilities in place, we still had occasions where we weren't adequately accommodating pedestrians and bicyclists. Our plans this year are to close Tracy Way to vehicular traffic. We'll do it in a way that protects pedestrians and bicyclists in Tracy Way against the possibility that a vehicle can get into that space and cause any injury. and turn El Portal into a two-way street. That's going to involve removing some signage and some pavement markings on El Portal. We've done some engineering evaluations with the help of a now local consulting firm, Parisi Transportation, and identify the feasibility of vehicles being able to turn around in the easterly part of El Portal and safely make their way back out. There are a couple of things that we need to do in order to... to accomplish that. One is that, and it's discussed in some detail in the staff report, but we need to eliminate some of the on-street parking that currently exists in El Portal in order to get as much turning radius here as we possibly can. Not that we need to perfectly accommodate every vehicle, but we certainly don't want to allow a vehicle in that can't safely negotiate the turnaround without doing a three-point turn or something like that. In addition, during the most congested time periods of the day, and there's a little inconsistency in the staff report, but during the periods of time when this area is most likely to be congested with pedestrians and bicyclists, we don't want anybody to park there. And the reason is that it just invites the prospect of a conflict between a motor vehicle and a pedestrian or bicyclist, and we recognize that that creates some short-term hardships, but there's adequate parking available in lot one. We also, as of today, if I'm not mistaken, have lot two returned to parking service from having been used for our sewer project staging. in judgment, it just is the safest way for us to start this alternative at this point in the season. And those spaces would then be available in off-peak hours. In other words, before about 11 in the morning and then after 6 or 7 at night, would be available for parking for when that congestion isn't there. We're going to have to just see how that works out. But if parking is prohibited there, the entire area would still be usable for commercial and pedestrian loading. So, for example, a hotel customer, a hotel guest that is coming to the hotel would still be allowed to drive up to the hotel. They would be allowed to give their car to a valet or unload their luggage and then make the turnaround and then go back and find parking. Same with commercial vehicles. We certainly don't want to unnecessarily regulate the movement of commercial vehicles, but working with the police department and the route drivers, we're going to encourage commercial vehicles to make their deliveries before that pedestrian and bicycle peak starts happening every day with the objective being to avoid conflicts. |
| 02:22:01.43 | Unknown | Thank you. |
| 02:22:01.45 | Jacques Ullman | Thank you. |
| 02:22:06.19 | Jonathon Goldman | Positives associated with this alternative, it does give us better control, us primarily public safety, police, but all of us in a way, better control of the environment. It improves our ability to prevent bike and pedestrian collisions or interactions with vehicles. Negatives are it limits the timeframe for commercial vehicle deliveries. In my limited experience, commercial vehicle drivers are on a route and they need to get through their route. And so I'm certain that anything that we can do to help them get in and out, they will greatly appreciate. |
| 02:22:12.00 | Unknown | it, it, |
| 02:22:50.64 | Jonathon Goldman | Other negatives, limits vehicle access to the businesses, but again, I think in the context of the demands placed on these road segments, we're providing alternatives, and to the extent that businesses identify a conflict or an issue, we're flexible enough to be able to make other changes, including the possibility of short-term parking in Lot 1 or in other places, et cetera. This is actually kind of an old negative at this point. When we last year contemplated this alternative, we had tried to build some flexibility into the excuse me, the barriers. At this point, it's our intent to to install bollards to close Tracy Way for the season. They can be removed in an emergency if an emergency vehicle needs to get into that space, but we won't be reconfiguring that space at all. It will be configured for the season and closed, and the bike racks will be there, so this really isn't an issue. Um, That's why this was a last year issue. These are our last year's slides. So I'm not going to go through all of the other alternatives, but just to remind the council that we looked at other alternatives last year, the possibility of having, you know, a lane of traffic, a one-way lane of traffic in Tracy Way and also accommodating We looked at utilizing the small car spaces here in Mini Lot 1. |
| 02:24:36.23 | Jonathon Goldman | portions of Tracy. So our recommendation and plan for this year is, again, to close Tracy Way for the season and try to manage the parking and the use of the curb space on El Portal as two-way. |
| 02:24:43.52 | Unknown | Thank you. |
| 02:25:01.69 | Unknown | Thank you. |
| 02:25:01.71 | Jonathon Goldman | Thank you. |
| 02:25:01.73 | Unknown | Yeah. |
| 02:25:02.15 | Unknown | Thank you. |
| 02:25:02.17 | Jonathon Goldman | Thank you. |
| 02:25:02.20 | Unknown | Thank you. |
| 02:25:02.64 | Unknown | Thank you. |
| 02:25:02.92 | Unknown | Thank you. |
| 02:25:02.99 | Unknown | you So we have done some. I would just like to emphasize that this, again, like last year, is a temporary solution to a situation. And if at any time, as I have assured the merchants and hotel operators on El Pertal, that we discover that this is not working, well, then we take it away and we go back to the table. So while Jonathan said those ballers are in place for this season, that's as long as this works. And, you know, we will, we've had, I have had conversations with the merchants and hotel operators on El Patel, and I think we have consensus to move forward with this from them, with the understanding that we communicate regularly on this. We meet beforehand to discuss signage, operations of how it's going to take effect, and then continue to meet and see how they evaluate it as we move through the season. And again, this is for your information and no action necessary, and we're happy to take questions. |
| 02:26:19.30 | Mayor Withey | Thank you, Chief. Does any Council member have any questions of the Chief or our Public Works Director? |
| 02:26:29.36 | Councilmember Weiner | Mr. Mayor, I have questions. |
| 02:26:30.67 | Mayor Withey | Peace. |
| 02:26:30.98 | Debbie (City Clerk) | Thank you. |
| 02:26:31.57 | Councilmember Weiner | So I was just curious, I remember when we looked at this, I think it was last year, one of the questions I had, because it seemed like we were initially you'll recall we had rocks on the waterfront, then we had rocks and the Plaza Bank of America now, then we took out 10 or how many parking spaces for racks there. Now we're closing Tracy Way to I guess consolidate all the racks closing a whole street. When the bicycle rental companies were here in, I think it was 2012, I asked them if they would just pick up their because if all we had to deal with was were the cyclists coming in and then the rental companies would pick up their bikes, we wouldn't have to lose our metered parking revenue, we wouldn't have to close streets, we wouldn't have to lose the aesthetics of our charm in downtown Sausalito. So has that been pursued? Has it been explored? And if not, Can you shed some light on that? Is that something we could explore further? |
| 02:27:41.72 | Unknown | Yeah, I believe it's a good option and a good way of thinking about problem solving this. our whole intention is to move those bikes out of the way. In order to move thousands of bikes a day, you would have to have a significant area devoted to staging a vehicle to take those bikes. So there are some community members who are exploring that option as a business, and there are a couple of issues around that, and one is in order to impact the volume of bicycles in Sausalito on a high tourist day, you'd have to have a significant truck to move enough to make an impact, and it would be a constant flow to get them all out of there. And the other consideration is the drop-off in San Francisco. Where do you stage to drop off all those bikes? So there's issues on both ends. I think it's a good avenue to explore, but not something that we can take on. |
| 02:28:45.47 | Councilmember Weiner | So, yeah, because it seemed to me that irrespective of what they have, in San Francisco, my focus is obviously Sausalito. My concern The question I had last time it was answered with your, it's expected a 3 to 5% increase in bikes every year. I mean, what, we're all Tracy Way is going to get filled up too. Um, you know, when does it stop? We're gonna lose our whole parking lot. The fact that they raised |
| 02:29:16.62 | Mayor Withey | Is there... Question? |
| 02:29:18.87 | Councilmember Weiner | I'm sorry, yeah. So I guess the question is what would be that first step because Could we ask the bike company, the rental company, to come up with a proposal, a game plan for what it would take to how many bikes they could move out and you know, I mean something has got to happen because this is unsustainable. |
| 02:29:42.51 | Unknown | We can ask the bicycle companies to cooperate with us as they have been and explore solutions. And that's something that has been discussed. I don't know their capability, but we're continuing to explore options. |
| 02:30:03.42 | Jonathon Goldman | If I may, Mr. Mayor, just to add to that response. At this point, the destination of the tourist bicyclists is the ferry. And in order to accomplish separating the bicyclists from their bicycles successfully, that's going to require the same basic space. So if the bicycles are going to be separated from the ferry passengers and loaded onto a vehicle, that has to take place in the same vicinity where we're now accommodating bicycles for parking. It doesn't have to take place at the ferry passengers. |
| 02:30:20.60 | Unknown | So... |
| 02:30:36.42 | Unknown | Yes. |
| 02:30:46.11 | Councilmember Weiner | It doesn't have to take place at the ferry landing. It could be further out. They could go further a few blocks downtown or something. It doesn't necessarily have to be at the ferry landing. |
| 02:30:55.53 | Jonathon Goldman | But my point is that the destination of the bicyclists is the ferry landing. And for us to successfully separate them from the bicycles, that transaction has to happen someplace. And what's more, the logistics, as the chief alluded to, associated with getting their bicycles into something that can drive on the road and take them into San Francisco is still going to, is likely to involve either public right of way or municipal parking lots. And given that, for example, this winter we have already seen peak tourist bicycle days that equaled the peak of last summer, Our job is to deal with what is happening now and what we can expect this summer with the expectation that with the pass-through grant from the ferry district we'll have a consultant helping the community to figure out what the long-term solutions are to this problem so that we aren't on an annual basis having to do exactly what you're objecting to, which is try to keep up and try to sustain operations. |
| 02:32:12.65 | Mayor Withey | Before you continue, Council Member Pfeiffer, let's figure out if there are any other questions from others. |
| 02:32:21.00 | Councilmember Leon | I just had some technical questions. So just to be, so you're closing the street for the whole summer, right? |
| 02:32:29.32 | Unknown | Thank you. if that works. |
| 02:32:31.90 | Councilmember Leon | Right, if it works. Are any of the spaces that were given up in lot one for bike parking going to be returned to car parking and then the parking for the bikes will be in the street? |
| 02:32:42.77 | Unknown | Those spaces have already been returned to the lot. |
| 02:32:45.59 | Councilmember Leon | I know, but... Okay, and then in the three spaces that are kind of on the corner there, and I think there's only two meters on the |
| 02:32:57.03 | Councilmember Pfeiffer | Thank you. |
| 02:32:57.30 | Councilmember Pfeiffer | the right to. |
| 02:32:57.97 | Councilmember Leon | Yeah, those are the ones you're talking about eliminating. Okay. And those are tentatively you're talking about eliminating them from or having no parking there from 11 to 7 or something around that time frame? |
| 02:32:58.88 | Councilmember Pfeiffer | Yeah. |
| 02:33:11.45 | Jonathon Goldman | You're referring to spaces on El Portal? Yeah. It's actually a total of five spaces that we need to eliminate completely, and the remainder would be available for parking before 11 in the morning and then after the peak period, but would be available for loading all the time. Most of that's yellow, though, isn't it? Right. And we can adjust with signage and with paint how those spaces are identified. The other... |
| 02:33:15.05 | Councilmember Leon | Yeah. |
| 02:33:30.27 | Councilmember Leon | Most of that's yellow. isn't it? |
| 02:33:42.24 | Councilmember Leon | Can I interrupt you because I'm going to forget. So there'll be no public parking during the summer on that street. |
| 02:33:43.21 | Jonathon Goldman | to be good. |
| 02:33:50.25 | Jonathon Goldman | The public parking will be allowed in certain spaces before 11 in the morning and then after 6 or 7 at night. Okay. Okay. |
| 02:33:54.54 | Councilmember Leon | Thank you. Okay. |
| 02:33:57.81 | Jonathon Goldman | Um, |
| 02:33:58.62 | Councilmember Leon | And then as far as signage goes, you're going to label it kind of like dead end because you want to keep people from taking that turn. And you're going to say you can't take a left-hand turn coming out of there. |
| 02:34:14.40 | Unknown | Yeah, so the signage will be worked out between Jonathan from an engineering perspective, as well as meeting the needs of the merchants, because having a sign that says dead end discourages people from going down there. So we want to stay away from that kind of signage. But we're going to meet with them before we enter into this to see what their desires are on the signage, and as well as whatever Jonathan feels is necessary. |
| 02:34:43.12 | Councilmember Leon | Just one last quick technical question, rather than policy. So in terms of, you know, I agree with the strategy we've taken over the years where we're taking incremental steps to try and solve the problem. The problem keeps changing. |
| 02:34:45.13 | Unknown | That's it. |
| 02:34:56.59 | Councilmember Leon | and issue. It's not a problem that implies it's all bad. Having bikes come to Saucyutu is not all bad. Um, There's definite benefits to it. What are we going to, you know, you showed a picture before of the lovely tree planters and there was worse stuff there before years ago that were even less just visually appealing. What are we talking about blocking the street with? So we just have some idea before it just shows up. |
| 02:35:21.97 | Jonathon Goldman | bollards, similar to those that are in place at the foot of locust right now. |
| 02:35:25.93 | Councilmember Leon | So they have that anchor part on the pavement, and then you can take it on and off? Correct. |
| 02:35:31.75 | Jonathon Goldman | and it'll take two bollards to close each end. |
| 02:35:36.16 | Councilmember Leon | And is that where Captain Rohrabacher's gonna put the heads of the... |
| 02:35:40.11 | Unknown | Thank you. Yeah. |
| 02:35:40.34 | Jonathon Goldman | Bye. |
| 02:35:40.66 | Unknown | Bye. |
| 02:35:41.96 | Councilmember Leon | THE FAMILY. Nothing. Never mind. |
| 02:35:46.00 | Jonathon Goldman | I'm not sure we have enough followers. |
| 02:35:46.01 | Councilmember Leon | I'm not sure. |
| 02:35:48.68 | Mayor Withey | Thank you. |
| 02:35:48.80 | Unknown | . |
| 02:35:48.85 | Mayor Withey | I'm not sure. |
| 02:35:48.90 | Unknown | you. |
| 02:35:48.97 | Mayor Withey | Bye. |
| 02:35:49.10 | Unknown | Thank you. |
| 02:35:49.19 | Mayor Withey | THE END OF THE END OF THE . |
| 02:35:49.67 | Jonathon Goldman | . |
| 02:35:50.47 | Mayor Withey | Thank you. Okay. |
| 02:35:57.32 | Councilmember Weiner | Yes, thank you. We're closing a street again and my question now is, are we going to, have we revisited the possibility of charging a fee for bike parking? to try to recoup some of the infrastructure costs and the staff time and creating all of this. That's not part of the recommendation at this time. |
| 02:36:16.51 | Unknown | That's not part of the recommendation. Thank you. |
| 02:36:22.02 | Jonathon Goldman | If we, just to provide a little bit more detail, we certainly have considered that. Um... But. in the short term. uh, in my judgment, the benefits and the costs don't justify that particular action at this point in time. And as an example, if we create a new a place where we want the bicycles to park, but create an economic disincentive to park there. We run the risk of having bicycles in places that we don't want them. |
| 02:37:00.31 | Councilmember Weiner | If we have bikes illegally parked, wouldn't we issue tickets for those bikes? How are we going to ticket a bike? Well, maybe there's the problem. If we have a rental bike, can we write a ticket for it if it breaks the law, if it parks in a rosebush garden, if it |
| 02:37:12.09 | Unknown | I had a bike. |
| 02:37:12.68 | Unknown | . |
| 02:37:22.37 | Unknown | See you. it. We currently do not have regulation on prohibiting bicycle parking in public places, such as against meters or trees, garbage cans. And in terms of blocking the sidewalk, that's a citable offense. So yes, when we're called to a complaint about that, then we respond with a citation if that's necessary. We do not have an ordinance in place prohibiting bicycle parking in specific areas. |
| 02:38:03.09 | Councilmember Weiner | And, |
| 02:38:03.31 | Unknown | Thank you. Thank you. |
| 02:38:03.78 | Councilmember Weiner | One more question, Mr. Mayor? |
| 02:38:05.65 | Mayor Withey | Okay, one more. |
| 02:38:06.70 | Councilmember Weiner | Thank you. Speaking back to the recouping the cost of the all the staff time being spent here on this and Thank you. Obviously the rental bikes are making a profit quite considerably on this. Have we explored assessing a fee per bike, you know, like can we an infrastructure fee to the bike rental companies to help try to compensate all of the staff time and all of the effort we're doing in terms of reconfiguring our town for bike parking? |
| 02:38:41.04 | Unknown | bike parking? Not at this time, because think of this as a temporary solution that is part of a series of improvements in addressing these issues, so that when it comes time to overhaul the entire area, we can look back and see what option has worked. And so I think entering into some sort of long-term agreements and charging for bicycles and et cetera, it takes time and maybe not appropriate at this moment in time, but certainly an option in the future. |
| 02:39:16.39 | Councilmember Weiner | Thank you. |
| 02:39:16.90 | Mayor Withey | Thank you. Thanks. Let's open this subject. If I could just add. |
| 02:39:19.52 | Unknown | Next up, Chief. Chief, please. If I could just add that the bicycle companies have contributed to our costs by providing part-time staff at the ferry landing as well as the ferry companies providing staff. |
| 02:39:31.40 | Councilmember Weiner | I have a question on that point because I looked at a prior agreement from an article, I think it was in the, early 90s or something recently. in agreement with the bike companies that they were going to provide staff, at the ferry landing in agreement to us allowing, there was some sort of an agreement where they are actually contractually obligated to provide staff to mitigate that congestion downtown. |
| 02:40:03.04 | Unknown | I did that research. |
| 02:40:04.94 | Councilmember Weiner | Yeah. |
| 02:40:04.96 | Unknown | Yeah. I don't know about 1990, but I do know that they contribute by providing the staff. |
| 02:40:12.71 | Mayor Withey | Thank you. |
| 02:40:12.72 | Councilmember Leon | Okay, let's- If there's an agreement, then provide it to the city attorney. |
| 02:40:18.36 | Councilmember Weiner | Yeah, evidently I absolutely will. |
| 02:40:20.45 | Mayor Withey | Okay, we are now going to open this up for public comment. And so is there any member of the public who would like to comment on this item? Thank you. |
| 02:40:34.32 | Unknown | Good evening. My name is Willie McDevitt. I represent the owners of the Inn Above Tide, who are all here with me tonight, as well as our general manager, Mark Flaherty. In preparation of this meeting, so I wouldn't be up here speaking forever, and after talking with Chief Tejada, developed this document of things that we want to do to proactively work with the city to, you know, make this choice a success for all concerned. And I want to address a couple of things and tell you a few things about the hotel that are sort of high level that the council would be interested in. First of all, I want to Inn Above Tide has a number one TripAdvisor rating and has for a few years for hotels in the area. That's not easily gained, and it takes constant vigilance to keep it. We've worked very hard to get there, and we're going to continue to work very hard to stay there. A few things about the inn and what it contributes to the city. Based on the city's 2013-14 budget, the Inabove Tide contributes 47.5 of the TOT revenue. Um, It also, that works out, the total contribution of money the city, the hotel sends to the city is about 4.8% of general fund revenues. So it's a pretty big chunk. That works out to about $530,000 on the 2013-2014 year. you know, goes up a little bit each year. The biggest increase has been because in 2013, we invested approximately a million dollars in the hotel. that investment, just that one investment in which raised some revenues, created two rooms, will, it's hard to figure exactly, but it's our million dollar investment, will yield about $70,000 a year in increased TOT revenue. So you guys are getting a 7% return on our million bucks. And that's every year. And the reason that's important is to answer your question, Councilman Pfeiffer, is I think I just figured out where you can come up with some funding to implement these improvements ongoing. Um... I know you'll have some questions or possibly have some questions, but the most important thing for us at the end is to be partners in a solution. It's what's important for our business. It's what's important for the city. A lot of people depend on what happens in that little area working well to create the ambiance, the feel that is... Please continue. |
| 02:43:37.92 | Mayor Withey | Please continue. |
| 02:43:40.77 | Unknown | is what you're trying to achieve in Sausalito. And it's a great town, and we want to help make it better. Any questions? |
| 02:43:50.66 | Mayor Withey | Any questions of Mr. McDiffie? |
| 02:43:53.80 | Unknown | We read your letter and it was pretty clear. Great. Thank you. And thank you all for volunteering. It's not an easy job. |
| 02:43:57.26 | Mayor Withey | Yeah. |
| 02:44:01.89 | Unknown | you |
| 02:44:02.16 | Unknown | Thank you. |
| 02:44:02.75 | Mayor Withey | Thank you. Mark. |
| 02:44:07.22 | Unknown | Mark Flaherty from The Unabove Time as well. I just wanted to underline the importance of having a smooth entrance to the hotel. We strive and have strived for the last 18 years to provide a memorable experience for our guests only in the positive. And I don't want to have the entrance to and the exit from my hotel turning into a nightmare. Travelers are hassled at the airport, they're hassled on the road. When they get to the Inn above Tide, we want them to unwind, and we don't want the entrance or the exit from our property to turn into a negative. So I think all the rest of our concerns are really voiced well in our letter. The most important thing that I wanted to say is if this does turn out to be disastrous, We need to revisit it during the summer. We need to address the changes, make the changes, and not wait until next year. So thank you for joining us. |
| 02:45:27.73 | Mayor Withey | Thank you, Mark. Any other members? |
| 02:45:34.01 | Jacques Ullman | Jacques Ullman. I appreciate the difficulty of this problem and I'm not proposing to solve it. I think that the people who are, the police chief and Jonathan are working on this and I have faith in their dealing with this as an immediate problem, but |
| 02:45:34.34 | Mayor Withey | Almond. |
| 02:45:54.61 | Jacques Ullman | They want to warn that you have to have some kind of a long range vision of what this area is going to be like. And I don't think I'm not feeling a real vision. I'm feeling a need to address a serious problem for now. But what about the future? I believe that El Portal should be predominantly a pedestrian street. I realize that there are service vehicles and there are people going to the hotel and so on who may have to drive there. But I think that if we want to really have an elegant and beautiful connection between the ferry and downtown, El Patel should not be messed up with bicycles or cars. It should be for pedestrians, and it should be connected more elegantly than it is now to the ferry terminal. I've said this many, many, many times. So I'd like for us to at least have as a vision and admit that in the long range we should be working that way and not let these solutions that are necessary now because of an emergency deter us from the better solution. Certain things in the future that might involve a change of pavement that declares that street as a pedestrian street and not really a vehicular street. And maybe think about, as Councilman Pfeiffer suggested, there may be in the long range much better ways to deal with the bicycles. And we should really aggressively look for alternatives because right now this is killing us and it's going to kill us even more. And from a design and aesthetic point of view, it's not working. |
| 02:47:45.06 | Mayor Withey | Thank you. Is there any other member of the public who would like to comment on this item? In that case, I'll close public comment and bring it up here. |
| 02:48:00.01 | Mayor Withey | Thank you. |
| 02:48:00.02 | Councilmember Pfeiffer | go. |
| 02:48:00.97 | Mayor Withey | you |
| 02:48:01.36 | Councilmember Pfeiffer | Just a few notes. |
| 02:48:03.01 | Unknown | Mm-hmm. |
| 02:48:03.86 | Councilmember Pfeiffer | 40% of the automobiles that go down El Portal and Tracy Way are trying to get into parking lot one. This would. hopefully alleviate that problem. Um... Safety-wise, I think you all know that Bridgeway and Tracyway or I should say anchor, By that being closed, I think it'll make it a lot safer. If you watch automobiles go down Tracy Way, You have, during the summer, you have a tremendous amount of bikes coming the opposite way on Tracy Way. I hate to tell you how many times you could stand there and watch an automobile come down Tracy Way and bang a U-turn. to the left and head out towards the Golden Gate Bridge. I really think that we heard often from other council people how aesthetically when we put the bikes in front of a B of A, how horrible it looked, And I have to agree that it wasn't aesthetically pleasing, but it's what we had to do as it expanded. I think this is not a band-aid as far as the closing of Tracy Way. I feel that we should be able to accommodate somewhere between 850 to 900 bikes. on that street. as far as the future goes. We've already discussed with the ferry people. and they know their obligations are going to be more ferries. to be able to accommodate what is coming in. Um, One other note, just on bicycles, just on a Other note, when we talk about safety, I think the city should go in a direction where If you're on a bicycle, you better wear a helmet. I think when you hear about Some people and young kids having accidents, most likely because they didn't have a helmet on. So I think one of the rules that, if anything, we pass legislatively. is a A helmet. Laura. in Sausalito. And that's my comment for now. Thank you. |
| 02:50:27.50 | Councilmember Leon | I'll go. Are you ready? So I think, Jacques, you're right. What this points to is the bigger picture of... I'm not saying what you're proposing is the right or wrong way of doing that, but I think now that we have grant money coming through from the Golden Gate Ferry at some point, I'm not sure when it's actually going to come, to help redesign this whole, the ferry's interaction with this part, we should take a big picture look and hire a professional to come in and actually get the information. help us evaluate all the flows here. And we'll finally have the money to do that. And I think, Jacques, you and Peter, Van Meter in part of the Imagine Sausalito thing, not to bring that source subject up, but had envisioned kind of revisiting the whole area here. We can't really lease, my memory, city attorney, is that we can't really lease Tracy Wade to anybody who's gotten to the city who's gotten itself in trouble before leasing public right away to private individuals or companies, and that is not allowed by state law, I think. And we found that out down here on the... in front of Evan Goss and Bridge on Edgewater, whatever that is, is that right? But that being said, I think we should definitely go back to the bike company and say, hey man, this is the second time. Every year you've got to cough up money to help us cover the cost of shuffling this stuff around. Um, until we have the grand solution here is we're going to put these, you know, whatever the cost of putting the bollards, you know, signage, all this other nonsense, and removing whatever we have in parking lot one to bring the spaces back, we should go back to bike companies and say, hey, you got a pony up for this. And if you don't, it's, you know, a black mark on your record, and we'll keep that in mind going forward. Because, you know, they're... Doing an enforceable parking thing, I think, is incredibly difficult and probably not cost effective at the end of the day. And so, but I think we should go back to them for help to cover the costs for whatever we're having to do here at the moment. I don't like closing Tracy Way. I didn't like it. Remember you brought it up last year? I don't, you know, I'm not a big fan of change for change's sake, but, you know, we tried something. It worked partially. It didn't solve the whole problem. And that, you know, every year that's been the case because it's just a, it's not a problem, it's an issue. Let's put it that way again. So I think we have to try another approach. Let's do it tastefully if we can. You know, let's not just throw cement things in the street and, you know, have temporary signs that aren't, you know, good looking or just in English so people can't understand them. If you don't speak English, let's think it all the way through and do it at both ends of the street in ways that – and get money out of the bike guys to cover it. |
| 02:53:36.02 | Councilmember Weiner | Thank you. I missed a mirror. So, uh, I am concerned, I remain concerned, I state this every time this topic comes up, that Sausalito, our little quaint, charming downtown Sausalito is turning into a bicycle parking lot. And there has to be a more strategic solution to that. And the rental bike companies need to be... leading the way with that solution. They were here, I believe it was 2012. They said that they would be amenable to picking up the bikes. If there are issues with the staging area, let's talk to them about that, what that would look like. I understand the bikes are heading for the ferry landing to get the ferry back, but if they're parking their bikes, they're presumably walking around town. So that means they could go a little bit further and not happen to park right at the ferry landing and then walk back. So I think there is definitely solutions we haven't explored, and my concern is that time is running out. At the same time, because every year, every two years, we seem to be expanding the bicycle parking landscape here. Hearing that we might have 850 to 900 bikes parking downtown, is that what I heard? That's of great concern to me. That's not the Sausalito I know. I think we need to revisit leveraging a fee per bike with the rental bike companies to cover infrastructure costs. And I want to thank Chief Tejeda very much and Public Works Director Jonathan Goldman for their efforts to create a solution under dire circumstances. Again, I see this as a leadership we need as a council to be able to do that. to... provide coaching to the rental bike companies and leadership that they need to be part of the solution with respect to not us to reconfigure our downtown. And we know that there's going to be a 3% to 5% increase a year since I was, I've been here, what, this is my second term. Like I said, every year the footprint grows, grows, grows. This is just not sustainable. So, and I also want to thank the N Above Tide for coming here tonight and sharing with us their insights and how they've collaborated with our Chief of Police and our city staff in communicating their concerns and being part of the solution. I too am concerned. We don't want to have a mess down there. It's a very elegant, Sassado is an elegant small town. We're charming. The N above tide is one of the jewels in that, and we really need to consider the impact that all of this congestion has, not only with safety but in terms of aesthetics. |
| 02:56:44.91 | Vice Mayor Theodores | Thank you. |
| 02:56:44.96 | Mayor Withey | Thank you. |
| 02:56:45.24 | Vice Mayor Theodores | Thank you. Thank you. Well, I agree. We don't have a long-term solution right now, but we have to do something as this, our busiest tourist season ever is really upon us. This is a start. I think we have to continue looking for the long range solutions and I kind of agree it'd be We should be looking for parking outside of that particular area. Um, and I'm not sure that that having the bicycle, I agree that we should ask the bicycle companies to to help us with the infrastructure costs. I'm not so sure about this idea of having them pick up because we just had a hearing on the tour buses, and that would mean we'd have larger vehicles coming in to pick them up. So we'd actually add more vehicles, and then we'd have them park longer. I'm not sure that's an answer. I do think that having more of the ferries coming in and picking them up because then we have bicycles accomplish what we want them to do. is to get vehicles off our streets, so I'm not sure that having large trucks come in will help that. I do think we do have to look for a way that these bicycle parking's out of that district and somewhere else if we can. It's just not an appropriate place. It's growing. I like the idea of pedestrian traffic, but I think for right now we have to do that. And I think we – I agree with the comment that we have to take a look at this. Again, I appreciate in and above the tides coming here. We probably should again, like the buses, put it on the agenda for maybe three months from now, I don't think we, or certainly if any problems come up, we have to revisit this. |
| 02:58:25.94 | Mayor Withey | Yes, thanks for coming. I think it's really important that the business community, the hotel, most directly affected, and staff, our police department, chief, and our director of public works have been in dialogue about this. So thank you for that, for everybody who's participated. This is... I agree with this proposal. This is worth trying. And with the understanding that if it doesn't work, we've got to get back to the Council fairly quickly. Um... And I think we should in the budgeting process and our longer range planning process figure out Thank you. Um... What council member, Leon? and Jacques and others have pointed out, which is we need to start working towards a longer-term But at the moment, we all know it's a very difficult solution, a very difficult problem to solve. We keep trying things and we pick the things that work, and we picked some things that worked last time and we've now incorporated them to a new plan. We'll learn more things that work and we'll then modify the plan. we hopefully will start getting towards a longer-term solution So that's my view. |
| 02:59:58.39 | Councilmember Weiner | Mr. Mayor, I have just a quick comment. If I may, I forgot to mention just for the record that I am opposed to closing Tracy Way because I believe that this is yet again another repeat of our past approaches to a problem that is ultimately unsustainable. Regarding the bike parking on the ferries too, with the ferries offloading the bikes, bike parking on ferries are... in my opinion a big problem too. have someone sent me photos of bikes that they'd run out of space underneath and the bikes were parked on the, on the, the, uh, deck of the ferry in the lanes and people were perched atop the benches on the ferries. So that's not safe from a marine standpoint. So this bike parking issue is not only the problem that we have in terms of our little town turning into a bike parking lot, it's also a problem with respect to those bikes getting having to get somehow jammed into the ferry. And I know they were supposed to add extra ferry boats to compensate for that. I'm just saying I got these pictures and they were recent. It was of great concern. It was not boating safety either. |
| 03:01:18.50 | Mayor Withey | . |
| 03:01:18.53 | Councilmember Pfeiffer | Voting. Thank you. Any other, one last, one minute comment? As this has evolved, |
| 03:01:21.05 | Mayor Withey | Any other? I'M NOT GOING TO BE ABLE TO |
| 03:01:26.99 | Councilmember Pfeiffer | If you remember, we first put it in a little small section of parking lot one. And then we went down to where the official automobiles were packed. down at Tracy Way and took that space. for bike parking. Then we found out that we owned the land in front of B of A. and we utilize that. All of those. add up to approximately 26 to 27 bike racks. And by the way, the bike companies did pay for, I believe, up to almost as many as 20. bike racks, and those bike racks go for $500 each. They also pay for a person to be at the terminal full time. I don't know. to make the reservations for the ferry. by taking Tracy Way, we can now go from 26 racks to up to 46 or 50 racks. why we didn't able to really go through the downtown zone. if you want to call it that, when people were parking everywhere, on the meters, on the trees, We really didn't push it. Because we didn't have the... facility to accommodate them other than these 25 racks. So we will... over this year here, hopefully, with Tracy Way and an additional 20 racks. we will hopefully be able to corral all of these bikes into that area and be able to push the idea that you park only at a designated bike rack area. And hopefully this will open it up to that. And then we will hopefully with the improvement coming from the ferry and the additional. And the ferry people have their own laws as far as how many bikes or where they put them and everything else. And it'll be mentioned to them. But blue and gold. Blue and gold at its best will take 125 bites. Golden Gate Ferry is our savior. Because even though that's the commuter, they take up to 250 bikes. All right. So, all right. |
| 03:03:51.88 | Councilmember Weiner | Mr. Mayor, I do have one response there. Bikes, and thanks for reminding me about this point, Councilmember Leon. Bikes are still parking against meters. Bikes are still parking against trees. That hasn't gone away. And now I've heard earlier, I learned that we don't have ordinances that make this illegal. And I think it's a safety hazard, and I think that's an opportunity for us to look at. |
| 03:03:54.02 | Councilmember Pfeiffer | Please. |
| 03:04:17.81 | Councilmember Pfeiffer | Well, the only comment I can say on that is because we didn't have the adequate spaces to give them, |
| 03:04:19.25 | Unknown | Thank you. |
| 03:04:26.71 | Councilmember Pfeiffer | then they packed where they could. Now, hopefully, we will be able to have enough spaces where they all will fit in there plus. |
| 03:04:37.12 | Mayor Withey | Thank you. Okay. |
| 03:04:39.01 | Councilmember Leon | Thank you. Can I just make one suggestion of the chief and the other chief? One thing you might want to consider this summer is you push the queue to make them go into Tracy Way. The queue to get on the boat doesn't disperse people away from your busiest part of the town, the way parking lot one is set up with the |
| 03:04:48.71 | Unknown | The President's going to clarify that. |
| 03:05:03.31 | Councilmember Leon | trees and the line coming towards Tracy Waite. we might consider pushing the queue away from the street and have the queue go out towards whatever that street is, the one next to B of A. along the other side of the bushes from Gabrielson Park. You know, it's an impact on parking, but we might want to consider that rather than of this solution. Because if you move, you've got to move the queue away from where you don't want it to be. So that's something we want to think about. And in the long run, I know Herb and others are talking with Golden Gate Ferry. I think the better solution for trying to cope with the, you know, the better solution is from a cost standpoint, because you're not going to stop it from a cost standpoint, It's again, the tourism has changed. The nature of how tourists come to Saucyut has changed. When I first moved here 20 years ago, the roads were packed on the weekend. and it was a parking lot, though it's roadwise. So, but here you've got a different parking lot, So the people are coming. You can't put up a wall or you can't tell them not to come. but we might want to The ferry should charge bikes an extra fee to go on the ferry, and that should be something that you work with them, and those costs should offset their costs and our costs, and that rather than have to do it through enforcement, because otherwise you're going to have a heck of a time collecting any kind of bike parking. |
| 03:06:29.78 | Councilmember Pfeiffer | And that might be down the road. The only thing that, to me, right now, the most important thing is to see if this works. I don't want to go, we shouldn't go in there with a plan of charging right away, because we might have to change things. But I still think that, let's move forward with it. |
| 03:06:50.60 | Councilmember Leon | I'm just saying the longer term solutions. |
| 03:06:52.00 | Councilmember Pfeiffer | There will be that, but let's first make sure that it works and then and we'll go from there. |
| 03:07:00.22 | Councilmember Leon | That's Colgate Perry calling me right now. They saw you on TV. Okay. What's that? |
| 03:07:01.64 | Councilmember Pfeiffer | Thank you. Okay. What time is the last ferry? |
| 03:07:04.98 | Mayor Withey | Yeah. Thank you. I would like to draw this to a conclusion. And I think everybody knows what they're doing. Chief, you're Thank you. Thank you. you've got your marching along with what you need to do, right? |
| 03:07:24.82 | Councilmember Leon | Can I suggest what Tom brought forward is to come back sometime in June saying, hey, this is what we did, this is how it's gone so far, and just so we can decide. In the meantime, you have the freedom to change it as you fit. |
| 03:07:28.85 | Mayor Withey | Yeah. Yeah. |
| 03:07:44.13 | Councilmember Leon | And you know, feedback from the businesses from the two hotels. We always forget Sonsolita Hotels there too, but, and how it's working for you folks, and let's try to adapt it as soon as we need to. |
| 03:07:50.22 | Mayor Withey | Sure. |
| 03:07:57.83 | Mayor Withey | Okay, good. Thanks a lot for coming. Next agenda item. is the recommended use of the County Measure A tax proceeds for fiscal years 2014 and 2015, Mike Langford. |
| 03:08:16.09 | Mike Langford | Thank you. So I scared everybody out of the room. I promise to not take too long. |
| 03:08:27.41 | Mike Langford | If we... |
| 03:08:27.97 | Mayor Withey | could |
| 03:08:34.53 | Mayor Withey | If we could relocate, if you want to talk. |
| 03:08:43.27 | Mayor Withey | Thank you. Mike. |
| 03:08:47.04 | Mike Langford | Well, good evening again, City Council. I'll keep this brief. In November of 2012, the Marin County voters voted for a quarter of a percent sales tax that would go towards parks and open space. Part of this agreement, in addition to the county parks, was the city parks. The county and local agencies, including our own city manager, were on a task force and put together a way how were these funds going to be divided and they decided to go on a per capita basis. With that formula in mind, Sausalito for this current fiscal year we received just over $40,000. Looking at forecasts going into the future, that amount is going to stay the same, increase slightly hopefully as the economy continues to improve. But we can pretty much count on $40,000 that we have in the bank this year as well as for the next eight years. With that in mind, you know, it's not a lot of money, but it's enough money to do a few things with. At our Parks and Recreation Commission, we actually had two meetings where we talked about this. The first one, I asked the commissioners to look at some various lists that I presented with them, but also to take visits to our local parks, go around town, and think of things that they could do, that they would like to see for the commissioners. |
| 03:08:47.14 | Mayor Withey | Thank you. |
| 03:10:13.81 | Mike Langford | this $40,000 to be spent. When they were making this list, they used a variety of |
| 03:10:23.56 | Councilmember Leon | Don't you forget him, Michael. |
| 03:10:33.13 | Mike Langford | He couldn't forget Tux. I'm not sure. |
| 03:10:34.89 | Mayor Withey | Thank you. |
| 03:10:38.06 | Mike Langford | Yeah. They looked at a few things, their criteria. One of them, of course, one of the first criteria was safety. What can we do to make our parks and public playgrounds safer? The other one is what could we do immediately with these funds that wouldn't take a long time, wouldn't have to go through a long planning process? And also what would be visible to the public? What could they see an instant impact on and say, wow, where did that come from? And we can say that this Measure A tax money was put to good use and they had an obvious positive impact to the city. So with that in mind, for the current fiscal year, with the $40,000 for this fiscal year, the Parks and Recreation Commission along with city staff is recommending the following $10,000 to go towards the Robins-Sweeney Park Tree Maintenance. That was also suggested by the Suskito Beautiful folks. $5,000 to go towards Robin Swinney Park basketball court resurfacing. If you ever come by the court in the afternoon and even the evenings, it's one of the most popular places in the city. We redid the court five years ago completely, and in order to keep that maintained properly, it should be resurfaced. Basically, it's kind of a repainting to keep the asphalt sealed and in good shape. $5,000 towards play equipment repairs. That also includes some small park repairs. That's things like chains on the swings that we have now. Some of the pivot points are worn out. Little things like that that we can do. Even though we're going to be replacing this equipment, hopefully sometime in the future there's some things that need to be done now to keep the play equipment safe. If there's funds left over after doing that, we talked about doing things like replacing a few fences, some seeds, some fertilizer, things like that. Obviously we wouldn't do seed and fertilizer if there's a drought going on, but doing things like that towards the future. $10,000 towards the Parks and Recreation ceiling tile replacement. If you've been down there, you know that you can look up and almost see the folks in the library. Public Works is working on a budget for that. It's going to come, what they've told me is going to come in a little bit more than what they had budgeted. So the Parks and Recreation Commission would like to kick in 10 grand towards that. And then $10,000 to be held for a future restroom at Dunphy Park. You heard from Jacques today the different priorities that people had and a restroom was high on that list. $10,000 may not go far towards a permanent restroom, but it is a, dare I say a drop in the bucket. There are some portable restroom options that may be viable. We still need to look at those and completely vet those out. But again, $10,000 is a start. So that's what the Parks and Recreation Commission is recommending that you approve today. those people crazy |
| 03:13:36.85 | Mayor Withey | Thank you. |
| 03:13:36.88 | Unknown | Oh, sorry, Doreen. |
| 03:13:41.20 | Mayor Withey | Thank you, Mike. Any, quickly, any questions of Mike, staff in general? Any public comment on this topic? Okay. |
| 03:13:58.35 | Unknown | Yeah. |
| 03:13:58.36 | Councilmember Leon | Thank you. . All right. |
| 03:14:00.39 | Mayor Withey | Go. |
| 03:14:00.68 | Councilmember Leon | See, you've got to call her crazy, then she'll come up. |
| 03:14:02.47 | Mayor Withey | Doreen. |
| 03:14:03.27 | Councilmember Leon | Thank you. |
| 03:14:03.31 | Doreen Gunnar | Who called me crazy? I am Doreen Gunnar. I live at 300 Napa Street, and I sit on Park and Rack Commission. And yes, this is our recommendation to you all. We really try to get the biggest bang from our little bucks here and do it in an impactful way that the city residents can see where their money's going. So that's why we really wanted to look at the parts of town, the parks that are really utilized the most and really try to start there. |
| 03:14:04.10 | Councilmember Leon | I am |
| 03:14:38.14 | Doreen Gunnar | And that's really where our emphasis is. And then we were looking a little bit in the future too, as far as the idea of a of a proper restroom in Dunphy Park, because that is something that really did come from that forum. And it's been, you know, and I think that it's probably the one thing that in town that consolidates everybody. I don't care who you are, from the anchor outs to the folks on the hill, everybody wants a bathroom down there that's proper. Thank you. |
| 03:15:07.16 | Mayor Withey | Thanks, Doreen. |
| 03:15:10.88 | Mayor Withey | Okay, I think we need a motion to approve the allocation of these funds. Is that right? Yeah. |
| 03:15:20.46 | Councilmember Leon | Can I make a comment? Although I'm all in favor of going to the bathroom in general. Who's Genoa? In general, I said. In Genoa, you could go in Genoa if that's what you said, Eric Klein. But I know it's like seed money, but I'd rather we use this money for something that's more immediate in nature. It's going to take a significant investment to build restrooms along the waterfront, hopefully with showers for folks who need that. But I think we can put this money to better use in the short term that will have immediate impact. That's just my personal opinion. |
| 03:15:27.36 | Councilmember Pfeiffer | Yeah. |
| 03:15:27.43 | Unknown | Um, |
| 03:15:28.14 | Councilmember Pfeiffer | He's generous. |
| 03:15:28.90 | Unknown | Though... THE FAMILY. In Genoa, you could go. |
| 03:15:33.61 | Councilmember Pfeiffer | Bye. |
| 03:15:33.66 | Unknown | Thank you. |
| 03:15:36.09 | Councilmember Pfeiffer | Thank you. |
| 03:15:36.10 | Unknown | Yeah. |
| 03:15:41.07 | Unknown | Hmm. |
| 03:16:06.97 | Adam Politzer | opinion. |
| 03:16:07.80 | Mayor Withey | I think our city manager. |
| 03:16:09.99 | Adam Politzer | Yeah, Mr. Mayor, I just wanted to respond to Councilmember Leone's comment. I think what Mike Lankford was referencing towards is that right now I think the public is tolerating to be polite, the porta-potties out there And there is a stage, there is another temporary restroom option that costs a little bit more than roughly $400 a month or $400 a week, whatever we pay for one port-a-potty out there or two, that may be a solution in the short run and $10,000 may be worth putting aside in case we want to explore this. option this summer. similar to what we did with downtown when we knocked out the restroom and we had to put something out there, we started with a smaller unit, obviously, activity down there required us to put a trailer out there later. But I think we want to explore something other than You either have a porta potty or an $800,000 restaurant. And what could we do between now and then because we're going to go through another season and another season of porta potties out there unless we start putting something aside to consider another option. And Mike and Jonathan have been looking at their options and they you know, they have pros and cons to them as well. |
| 03:17:33.59 | Councilmember Leon | I hear you, but I mean, you know, there's some very simple things involving the parts that we don't do. There's no signs on most of the parts that tell you when they're open and how long you stay there or where your dog can go to the bathroom or where it can't or we haven't done it, changed any of the sprinkler irrigation into drip irrigation. And that is stuff we should be doing. We have a lot that's sitting over here that's got old dock equipment on it that, you know, in the prior, maybe somebody brought this up earlier, open it up. Get rid of the fence. Get the stuff off it. You know, just put it back to nature, and we'll deal with it as part of the master planning. Yeah, everybody's got to go to the bathroom as my kids, there's a book that everybody poops or whatever it is. But so yes, that's true and nobody likes porta potties. Porta potties are not high on anybody's list. But at the same time, let's, you know, |
| 03:18:25.38 | Unknown | Thank you. |
| 03:18:25.43 | Unknown | THE END OF THE END OF THE |
| 03:18:25.51 | Unknown | I'm not sure. |
| 03:18:36.16 | Councilmember Leon | Um, Or let's get rid of this hedge that blocks off Dunphy Park. So it looks like you can't see what's happening there. Interesting behavior behind the hedge. So, you know, let's do some of the more immediate things and not look for something that's going to be, I agree it's no fun for the, |
| 03:18:43.58 | Unknown | Interesting. |
| 03:18:43.97 | Unknown | behavior behind the hedge. |
| 03:18:46.03 | Unknown | So |
| 03:18:54.50 | Councilmember Leon | for the holidays or for the parties down there or for the the bocce ball people to use the porta potties. But there's some immediate things we can do that are going to be much more beneficial to the entire community and aren't going to create overhead that we can't sustain going forward. So you're against a loyal flush. |
| 03:19:17.84 | Councilmember Pfeiffer | Anybody? |
| 03:19:19.02 | Mayor Withey | Anybody else have thoughts on Council Member Leone's |
| 03:19:25.49 | Vice Mayor Theodores | Well, I just think, I just defer to the Parks and Rec and and our Parks and Rec Director and our Parks and Rec Commission. I think they put a lot of work into it. I know there's a million ways we can do things. I have to say I was admiring their deferred gratification because I was doing the math and it was 80 years to build a new bathroom there. |
| 03:19:34.24 | Unknown | I know there's a... |
| 03:19:42.97 | Vice Mayor Theodores | Our city manager has clarified that. I do think that, you know, we're going to have a change in the bathroom, and I have to say, Dumpy Park and having something different in Dumpy Park would certainly be worth the thing. So I would defer to their judgment and just – I'd make a motion to approve the allocation as in the staff report. |
| 03:20:06.10 | Councilmember Pfeiffer | I'll second. |
| 03:20:07.62 | Councilmember Leon | I just have a point of clarification. Have we ever gotten a report from the wreckers of where that money goes? Gone? Have we ever gotten? Because there's some money for it. |
| 03:20:18.88 | Adam Politzer | They have not reported to the City Council. I don't believe that they've reported to the Park and Rec Commission, but... |
| 03:20:26.32 | Councilmember Leon | This is the money from the nonprofit that sells |
| 03:20:27.06 | Mike Langford | Thank you. |
| 03:20:27.22 | Adam Politzer | All right. |
| 03:20:27.33 | Mike Langford | Thank you. They've made numerous donations throughout the year. They supported our haunted house. They bought the chairs that we have downstairs. I'm working with them right now to actually getting prices for a new stage for Jazz and Blues. And they said they would purchase that. So we have been receiving funds for some of the extra things that we couldn't otherwise afford. What they make isn't going to buy us the bathroom though. |
| 03:20:30.12 | Councilmember Leon | They made it. |
| 03:20:59.97 | Councilmember Leon | But it can cover some of the equivalent of maintaining whatever you want to put in Dumpy Park. |
| 03:21:08.64 | Mayor Withey | Okay, we have a motion and a second. All in favor. Aye. |
| 03:21:14.31 | Councilmember Leon | Aye. Opposed? I abstain because those people are crazy at the parking and rent commission. |
| 03:21:22.06 | Councilmember Weiner | Who are those people? What are we talking about? |
| 03:21:23.88 | Councilmember Leon | Thanks, Tori. |
| 03:21:24.86 | Councilmember Weiner | Who are we talking? |
| 03:21:26.65 | Mayor Withey | Okay. Oh, the... |
| 03:21:27.44 | Councilmember Weiner | The Parks and Rec Commission? Thank you. |
| 03:21:33.43 | Mayor Withey | City Manager Information for Council. |
| 03:21:39.59 | Adam Politzer | 10.30. I'll be quick. MCC-MC, next meeting is next week, next Wednesday night. Please make sure you have RSPP'd. TO OUR CITY CLEAR. and they're our menu choices, so you have to do more than just RSVP. um, We have several recruitments going on. and two of them are in the Community Development Department. We are currently recruiting for the assistant planner position. and those interviews will begin shortly and then we are starting the recruitment process Community Development Director, as most of you received, all of you received. An email from Jeremy Graves announcing his retirement and he and his wife are going to explore the world. So he's going off in the right direction. So that will be active, and we have hired, or we're in the process of hiring a consulting firm, just as we did with the police chief, to try to recruit. the best and the brightest to help guide that department forward. As mentioned earlier, the priority calendar will begin on April 22. The department heads are working with their boards and commissions to ask them for priority calendar items. So you'll hear from the HLB, from the Planning Commission, crazy folks down in parks and recreation. |
| 03:23:08.07 | Councilmember Leon | I was just joking, by the way, that you're crazy. |
| 03:23:11.19 | Adam Politzer | Thank you. |
| 03:23:11.21 | Unknown | Thank you. |
| 03:23:11.24 | Adam Politzer | Let's go. |
| 03:23:11.97 | Unknown | I thought you were going to be |
| 03:23:12.96 | Councilmember Weiner | I thought you were talking about the construction folks. No, it's the Park and Rec Commission. Those people are crazy. Yes. |
| 03:23:16.94 | Councilmember Leon | No, it's the party rec commission. Those people are crazy. |
| 03:23:19.44 | Unknown | Thank you. |
| 03:23:19.49 | Councilmember Weiner | Thank you. Go! I couldn't figure that out. I was like, what's got the... It's not important. Sorry, Ms. Ray. |
| 03:23:24.76 | Mayor Withey | What? I, |
| 03:23:27.03 | Adam Politzer | . |
| 03:23:27.64 | Mayor Withey | . |
| 03:23:28.03 | Unknown | Sorry, Ms. Ray. |
| 03:23:28.99 | Mayor Withey | Thank you. |
| 03:23:29.03 | Unknown | you Thank you. |
| 03:23:29.45 | Councilmember Weiner | Thank you. Thank you. |
| 03:23:29.65 | Mayor Withey | Thank you. |
| 03:23:29.68 | Adam Politzer | out of. |
| 03:23:30.39 | Mayor Withey | Thank you. |
| 03:23:30.55 | Councilmember Weiner | Thank you. |
| 03:23:30.66 | Mayor Withey | Thank you. |
| 03:23:30.82 | Councilmember Weiner | Thank you. |
| 03:23:30.90 | Mayor Withey | you |
| 03:23:30.97 | Councilmember Weiner | Thank you. |
| 03:23:31.00 | Unknown | . |
| 03:23:31.19 | Councilmember Weiner | Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. |
| 03:23:32.65 | Unknown | Thank you. |
| 03:23:32.79 | Councilmember Weiner | you |
| 03:23:33.55 | Adam Politzer | Just expanding on that, just as we've done in the past, we encourage the community to either in writing in advance or the night of, ideas that they would like the Council to consider as priority calendar. consideration. you We like this to also be a grassroots opportunity for the public to participate, including our boards and commissions. So that will start on April 22nd. The budget process is well underway. The Finance Committee continues to work with our finance director reviewing the budget calendar. We will begin. meeting with the department heads later next month. And then coming forward with a series of meetings with the council to go through the various budget requirements and items and levels of service and capital projects. And then the council and the community with the community's input will help direct how we spend those monies and use our resources. So I will end with that and defer to any questions from the council. |
| 03:24:45.60 | Mayor Withey | Any questions for City Manager? Any questions, comments from the public on this? Seeing none, OK. Council member committee reports. Does anybody have anything? Thank you. |
| 03:25:02.38 | Councilmember Leon | As the liaison for the Park and Rec Commission, |
| 03:25:04.24 | Mayor Withey | Thank you. Thank you. |
| 03:25:05.43 | Unknown | Thank you. |
| 03:25:05.75 | Mayor Withey | Thank you. |
| 03:25:05.85 | Councilmember Leon | Thank you. I'm sorry. No, I will say that now that the benches and stuff have been moved in Vina Del Mar, I think it looks nice. It looked better than I thought it was going to look. And though we all got used to the red color of the brick, I think it came out well. And it's much easier for people to access. So thanks to you guys for that, for getting that done. |
| 03:25:15.86 | Unknown | Yeah. |
| 03:25:33.88 | Councilmember Leon | Committee report. |
| 03:25:34.93 | Councilmember Weiner | Yeah, I have nothing to report on the Butte task force. I sent an email to the chair, Leon Hunting, suggesting a meeting, and I guess he's working on something right now. So, but I don't, I'm not privy to the inner workings of exactly what's going on. So I have nothing to report. They have not met. |
| 03:25:40.79 | Unknown | Thank you. |
| 03:25:40.80 | Mayor Withey | AND I'M SURE THAT I'M SU |
| 03:25:41.21 | Unknown | Thank you. |
| 03:25:55.74 | Mayor Withey | Any public comment on this item? Seeing none, we'll move on to future agenda items. And my only comment is there's a lot of them. |
| 03:26:12.07 | Mayor Withey | So, agenda setting committee is going to have to do some prioritization, I think. |
| 03:26:20.54 | Councilmember Leon | Those people are crazy, by the way. |
| 03:26:25.22 | Vice Mayor Theodores | And I gave you- And- and- |
| 03:26:26.58 | Councilmember Leon | I mean, you're jealous. |
| 03:26:27.95 | Vice Mayor Theodores | And some of the confusion with this future agenda, I think we should have a little disclaimer on the future agenda items. We go tentative future agenda items. There's some disclaimer that these may be moved. So that people, because when you do look at it, it looks like these are set on that date, and we can understand the confusion. The problem is we have to move these things because sometimes something moved would have an agenda with nothing on it. And so we should just let the public know that this is our, we're looking at these dates, but they may be moved. |
| 03:26:50.40 | Unknown | close to the door. |
| 03:26:57.13 | Councilmember Weiner | Look. |
| 03:26:57.43 | Unknown | Thank you. |
| 03:27:00.17 | Councilmember Weiner | Right, and I've always, Mr. Mayor, I want to just add a comment there. I've always... |
| 03:27:03.95 | Vice Mayor Theodores | Thank you. |
| 03:27:07.56 | Councilmember Weiner | shared with folks it is a tentative guesstimate at the same time It does set people's expectations, especially if the topic is kind of controversial or there's a high public interest. And so with that respect, I think my only recommendation would be that if you know something's really, has a high degree of public interest to perhaps keep it at the spot or move it forward as opposed to a shift backwards a month where it's on the very next agenda. That would be the only thing that might upset folks. |
| 03:27:45.34 | Mayor Withey | Thanks. Any public comment on this matter? Again, seeing none. Thank you. |
| 03:27:49.83 | Councilmember Weiner | Mr. Mayor, I just wanted to add that tonight we added two more future agenda items to the |
| 03:27:50.64 | Mayor Withey | I just, |
| 03:27:58.25 | Councilmember Weiner | to the June timeframe, which is a revisiting of the tour bus mess and a revisiting of how the new, the bike parking is going. |
| 03:28:14.11 | Mayor Withey | We did indeed. |
| 03:28:16.32 | Councilmember Weiner | Yes. |
| 03:28:17.69 | Councilmember Leon | Thank you. |
| 03:28:17.71 | Mayor Withey | Okay. |
| 03:28:18.57 | Councilmember Leon | So Adam, bump the budget out past the state requirement because now June's taken up by downtown. |
| 03:28:27.98 | Mayor Withey | We will now move to item 3. |
| 03:28:30.65 | Councilmember Weiner | Actually, we could have a special meeting. |
| 03:28:33.16 | Mayor Withey | we could indeed. Item 7D is Mayor's appointment for an alternate liaison position with the Marine Telecommunications Agency. Do you want to say a brief word on that? |
| 03:28:47.84 | Vice Mayor Theodores | I'll just... Well, and this may apply to other agencies. On the MTA, if you don't have an alternate and someone's not there, someone can go there and and observe, but they can't vote. They have police warn. So I think it's a good idea to have an alternate. And actually, there's an April 9th meeting, and I won't be able to make it. So that's why we have it. So there's a specific reason. But we probably should have that in all of these commissions to the extent we can in case we need to make a vote and someone |
| 03:29:21.71 | Councilmember Leon | I used to in years past have alternates, the ones that required alternates. But the city clerk, jeez. |
| 03:29:28.94 | Vice Mayor Theodores | Thank you. |
| 03:29:28.97 | Unknown | Right. |
| 03:29:29.44 | Councilmember Weiner | Thank you. |
| 03:29:29.46 | Unknown | All right. |
| 03:29:29.76 | Councilmember Weiner | We're going to get to the end of the day. |
| 03:29:30.03 | Unknown | Thank you. Okay. |
| 03:29:31.72 | Councilmember Leon | Thank you. |
| 03:29:31.75 | Councilmember Weiner | I think the challenge with the alternate was that if you... In order for the alternate concept to work, the person |
| 03:29:31.77 | Unknown | I think the challenge is. |
| 03:29:32.46 | Mayor Withey | I'm not. |
| 03:29:33.75 | Unknown | that if you... |
| 03:29:39.65 | Councilmember Weiner | the regular member has to alert the alternate that the regular member is not going to be present. |
| 03:29:42.17 | Mayor Withey | Yep. |
| 03:29:45.96 | Mayor Withey | Okay. I'm going to appoint myself as the alternate... Are you so hungry? |
| 03:29:51.85 | Unknown | Thank you. |
| 03:29:51.87 | Vice Mayor Theodores | I'm so hungry. Mayor Ann Alter, MCA. |
| 03:29:57.18 | Mayor Withey | Is there any public comment on this item? With that, we will move on to other reports of significance. |
| 03:30:04.71 | Councilmember Pfeiffer | With a real Doreen Ghanads, please stand. |
| 03:30:08.98 | Mayor Withey | And seeing none, I will call for an adjournment. |
| 03:30:13.35 | Unknown | It's adjourned. |
| 03:30:14.11 | Mayor Withey | Adjourned. No move. Okay, we are adjourned. |
| 03:30:14.28 | Unknown | I'll move. Okay. |
Sean Harris — Neutral: Introduced himself as CHP Marin Area commander; highlighted CHP's safety focus and collaboration with local agencies on traffic enforcement and community issues. ▶ 📄