| Time | Speaker | Text |
|---|---|---|
| 00:00:41.21 | City Clerk or Chair | Good evening, and welcome to the Sausalito City Council meeting for Tuesday, September the 9th, 2014. Wow, we've been away for what, six weeks? Six weeks. So... Glad to be back and hope everybody's refreshed, staff and council and residents ready to go. So let's have the roll call. |
| 00:01:04.64 | Neil Whitelaw | Thank you. |
| 00:01:15.36 | Unknown | Councilmember Pfeiffer? Here. Councilmember Weiner? Present. Councilmember Leon? |
| 00:01:16.53 | Councilmember Pfeiffer | Here. |
| 00:01:18.26 | City Clerk or Chair | President. here. |
| 00:01:20.14 | Unknown | you Vice Mayor Theodorus? Present. Mayor Withey? |
| 00:01:21.89 | City Clerk or Chair | present. here. And Jerry Fate, would you lead us in the pledge this evening? |
| 00:01:55.49 | City Clerk or Chair | There was no closed session tonight. Item D, no public comment, obviously, on no closed session items. So could I have approval of the agenda for tonight, please? So moved. Second. All in favor? So tonight, importantly, we have a special presentation in recognition of B. Seidler. And I think Mike Langford is gonna be a guest. Again, this... |
| 00:02:41.56 | Mike | Good evening, City Council, and welcome back. I hope you guys had a nice break while we were all here working away. Yeah, well... Working in Sausalito has many benefits. We've got the weather, we've got the views, some fantastic coworkers, but for me, one of the biggest positives about working here in Sausalito is the people that we have. Recently, one of the great Sausalito icons passed away as you may know. B. Seidler was a member of the Sausalito community for over 50 years. She was a member of the Sausalito Women's Club, Sausalito Historical Society, Sausalito Village, was a founding member of the Sausalito Foundation, and of course, was a regular volunteer at the Ice House, just to name a few. So in recognition of all of her contributions to Sausalito, I've been working with B's family, who are watching via the Internet, so hello, everybody. And we're going to plant an aristocrat pear in her honor. Thank you. The tree will be in a decorative pot next to the ice house and then permanently planted as part of future improvements to the area. So we want to thank you, B, and we already miss you. |
| 00:03:58.09 | City Clerk or Chair | Thank you, Mike. I'm sure there are members of the public who'd wish to say a few words. |
| 00:04:11.57 | City Clerk or Chair | Yeah. |
| 00:04:17.15 | Jan Fidler | When I first met B, she was working on the general platform. She headed that whole committee. It must be in about 1970 something. And so the other thing that sticks in my mind about B was when Phil did the centennial in 1996, he took all these photographs around town of everybody and then he put them up in the Historical Society with a lot. And so Bea and Kayla came in. And he looked at all those people And they knew them all. He knew their names. He knew where they were. They knew where they lived, they knew what bars they went to, It was amazing. They're both very amazing people. And then, you know, towards the end, it was wonderful to see Bea with her courage, you know. She was getting around very slowly, but she was still in the ice house. Very brave lady. |
| 00:05:27.20 | City Clerk or Chair | Thank you, Jean. Would anybody else care to say a few words? Yeah. I'm sure the... some of our council members. Council Member Weiner. Mm-hmm. |
| 00:05:42.07 | Unknown | you |
| 00:05:42.27 | Council Member Weiner | Yeah. |
| 00:05:42.76 | City Clerk or Chair | Thank you. |
| 00:05:42.96 | Council Member Weiner | Thank you. I think I first met Bea in, I think it was 1980. She was real feisty then. Thank you. |
| 00:05:52.45 | Unknown | . |
| 00:05:52.72 | Council Member Weiner | Thank you. and never really slowed down. Bea used to call me on very different occasions, whether I had to drive her to the ice house, something was wrong with her, automobile, or drive her down to the art festival around Labor Day weekend, she didn't want to drive the car down, drive her to the women's club, or pick her up and drive her to Jazz by the Bay. And we used to have some real wonderful conversations. The only thing that really also sticks in my mind is, if you knew where Bea lived up on Sausalito Boulevard, There was a lot of stairs, maybe 50, 60 stairs. And I was always amazed. You know, sometimes I would get up there in two minutes. Sometimes I would get up there in 10 minutes. But no matter how quick I got up there, she was always at the bottom of those stairs. I mean, it's amazing if you've ever been there. And I've walked up those stairs, and I've come back down huffing and puffing, because it's really quite a journey. But... The thing that always stuck in my mind was she always, sometimes I remember getting up there in 120 seconds, two minutes, There she was, waiting at the bottom. So she, over the years, we had a lot of discussions, but she also instilled in me what she was, and she was very courageous. And I'll leave it with that note. She was a very classy, wonderful lady and very courageous. Thank you, B. |
| 00:07:35.56 | City Clerk or Chair | Thanks, sir. |
| 00:07:36.06 | Unknown | Thank you. I'm not sure. I just wanted to thank Bea for her kindness over the years. I wasn't going to say anything because I knew I was going to tear up. But as a, and her kindness towards me, both as a public official as well as a human being, being part of the Saucyedal Foundation, every year sitting at the, selling those sea lions at the art festival with her and Kayla is an experience. And we missed her this year, but we, I think, sold a record number of sea lions this year to support the foundation. But because we worked extra hard to make it a special day, because I think she would have wanted it that way. |
| 00:07:48.08 | Neil Whitelaw | it's a great day. |
| 00:07:48.65 | Adam Politzer | Thank you. |
| 00:08:21.64 | Unknown | Amen. |
| 00:08:24.90 | Unknown | things. |
| 00:08:30.52 | Unknown | We'll have it also. I felt privileged to know B&B, a neighbor of hers. I lived about a block away for a number of years when I was on Sunshine. First, we'd always do her shopping with a little plastic bag going up. I think it was 70 stairs. you know, at first we stopped to help, but she would all, you know, she would accept it sometimes, but year after year, she kept going up those stairs and it was just amazing. And it's just an inspiration that to keep going. And I think, you know, the. These hills in Sausalito, they'll keep you young or to the end. But she was a wonderful lady. I'm glad we have this in her memory. |
| 00:09:12.06 | Councilmember Pfeiffer | Sausalito is a better place because of Bea. Kind, generous, warm, intelligent, witty. She was an inspiration to me. Whenever I wanted some insights into controversial issues, Bea could cut through the most complex things and just tell me her story. just direct, straight talking. She was such a strong woman and was someone who, when you think about a small town and a small town community, that's, you think of Bea Seidler. I felt privileged. It was an honor to know her. And, you know, it's still hard to believe that she's not with us because, and in fact, I feel like she is with us and she will always be with us because her legacy is She supported the arts in Sausalito. She was part of the Sausalito Village Women's Club, Sausalito Foundation. You know, she was just a wonderful woman. I am so blessed to have known her, and I'll miss her greatly. |
| 00:10:37.80 | City Clerk or Chair | I will echo that and just say that it is because of folks like me and why I live in Sol Soledo and what makes Sol Soledo. So thank you. Be. |
| 00:11:02.32 | City Clerk or Chair | Is there any other member of the public who'd like to say anything? Yeah. Okay, well, that's a great tribute, so thank you, everybody. So item two on our agenda tonight. Oh, and just let me say that we will be adjourning, obviously, in the honor of her memory tonight. So the second item on the agenda is communications and this is an opportunity for any member of the public to raise an issue on matters that are not on the agenda tonight. So is there anybody who would like to? Yes, please. |
| 00:11:48.88 | Neil Whitelaw | Yes. |
| 00:12:03.11 | Neil Whitelaw | Good evening. I'm Neil Whitelaw, 408 B Street. I've been a resident of South Seattle 47 years. Managed to get to 26 countries, 46 states during that time. But I'm a resident. I'm going to leave my major point for two weeks just to give people a heads up. It'll be something that will help seniors. It'd be an advantage to keeping the city green. It's something that I think is necessary to be done, and there's a way to do it. But I want to build up some enthusiasm for it. Maybe get the newspaper here. So I'll speak about that next time. The minor point I want to talk about today, which is not minor, Three years ago, after I'd been struck by an automobile, while I was walking my bike in a crosswalk. I brought forth the idea that you needed to put some kind of pedestrian safety things like they have in Petaluma. downtown Petaluma where when somebody's in the crosswalk There's lights that flash there, and it was said to be investigated. Another meeting sometime later said the same thing. Afterwards, somebody came up to me, I don't remember who, but said that They had been a legal aide. And the fact that I had notified city council – it was now public – noted that there's a problem. If they didn't take action on it and somebody was struck dead, like I almost do about once a week crossing a bridgeway, that the city would be held responsible for gross negligence because they knew about this and never take action to correct it. When on earth before somebody dies in Sausalito on Bridgeway, Are you going to put something in like Petaluma House? Thank you. |
| 00:13:52.07 | City Clerk or Chair | Thank you. |
| 00:13:52.10 | Neil Whitelaw | Thank you, sir. |
| 00:13:52.69 | City Clerk or Chair | Thank you. |
| 00:13:57.82 | City Clerk or Chair | Is there any other member of the public? |
| 00:14:04.36 | City Clerk or Chair | Jerry. Thank you. Ahem. Thank you. |
| 00:14:07.16 | La Jerry Fait | I'm La Jerry Fait, and I live in Sausalito. I'm here to talk about the marina and the It's kind of hard. And I'm just confused. I don't know what's going on down there. And I do ask a lot of questions, and I do know there's some sort of enforcement agreement or some sort of compliance thing going on. But I want to just share my thoughts with you how I really feel. So the way I understand it is the city bid on this marina, then BMC bought it, and the city sort of gave it a break from obtaining from its permit requirements and was sort of soft on enforcement, giving it this, it's a corporation actually, this corporation time to come into compliance. And that included sort of reducing the number of boats to attrition. That was sort of like the how I understood it. So what really happened in the time since BMC has owned it is that the city has given the corporation a break from permits and was soft on enforcement and, in my opinion, created a monster. So without permits, the corporation has done a number of things that I think are immoral and safe and things I don't approve of. And I want to know why they've done that, you know, they've went ahead and did this. And I don't know if it's because the city is uninformed or the city is supportive, as our corporate landlord claims. So I think it's because the city is uninformed because they don't talk to the people who live there. And I will say this, we do have a loosely organized tenants organization still. And in November of 2012, we submitted to our corporate landlord and the city a letter listing health and safety concerns that were not cost prohibitive. And, for example, it's just now, September of 2014, we wrote the letter in 2012. We finally got the outdated fire extinguishers replaced. I mean, it's very frustrating, and there's a lot more. And so I'm asking the city to talk to us, you know, in one form or another, to approach us and not wait for us to approach them because, believe me, I've tried. Thank you. |
| 00:16:53.76 | City Clerk or Chair | Thank you, Jerry. |
| 00:16:59.69 | Adam Politzer | It's unfortunate that Jerry just left, so I will catch up with her later. It is important for the community to know, the folks that are listening to this and for the council, we actually have taken a lot of action on the property owner, and the reason why the fire hose and extinguishers were replaced is because the city did conduct inspections. We've had at least four inspections in the last six months led by our public works director and supported with fire community development. And I went on the initial tour. We brought CSG out and we went through the entire property. So I know that Council Member Leon has reached out to me and asked that we meet with the folks in the marina. Happy to do that, just as I'm happy to meet with any neighborhood that is a community. I am pleased to say that we went through. The electrical is safe. The fire is safe. The community looks like a community there, they act like a community as well, but there are some long range more significant improvements that are required property owner doesn't want to do that until they have a long-range vision which is shared by the city and at this point the city doesn't share the vision of Bridgeway Marina so there has not been any activity. So we'll continue to work with the property owner and with the tenants there and our first priority is safety. It's also worth noting that we did sewer inspection and we're working with Bill Price with RBRA to make sure that they're in compliance and we're moving in that direction where everything should be reported properly. So there has actually been a lot of activity there related to inspections and making sure that it's a safe and livable community. But there are tensions. There's been tensions there for quite some time, be it Evan Gossage when he owned it, when Dan Morgan was involved, and now with Cameron. There's tension between the tenants and the property owners. The city is trying to work towards a long-range vision, which is consistent with the city's vision, which was the same as the vision we had when we had public meetings in this room. And so we stay ready to meet with the property owner to continue that discussion and happy to meet with the tenants at their pleasure. |
| 00:19:42.38 | City Clerk or Chair | Thank you, Adam. John, I think you wanted to say a few words. |
| 00:19:50.87 | Jan Fidler | I'm Jan Fidler. I live at 501 Ulema Street. And so when last I was here, and when you were last here, we were talking about Tracy Way. Okay. And I found in the Historical Society some photographs of the ceremony that I told you about. And can I give them to you? Debbie. for somebody. |
| 00:20:18.71 | Jan Fidler | And so talking to Herb, one of my questions was if the Tracy family came to look at the dedicated place for their father, Herb tells me that the son feels that it's perfectly appropriate as far as Jack is concerned that all those bicycles are there. And I feel differently. There's no plaque there to say that it was dedicated by the city of Sausalito to this most honorable man who's responsible for the historical society and for the book Moments in Time, which is without equal as far as I know. And so I'm hoping that one day it will be Tracy Way again, and Jack can rest in peace there, because it's right up against Viena Del Mar, which was very responsible for restoring the elephants there at one stage. Thank you. |
| 00:21:14.95 | City Clerk or Chair | Thank you, Jean. Anybody else like to take this opportunity to say a few words to the council? No. In that case, I will close public communications and move on to the action minutes of the previous meeting. We have as a first matter of the minutes of the adjourned City Council meeting of July 15. |
| 00:21:46.97 | Unknown | I move that we approve the minutes of the adjourn regular City Council meeting of July 15, 2014. |
| 00:21:53.35 | City Clerk or Chair | All in favor? Aye. Aye. And then the minutes of the regular City Council meeting of July 22nd. |
| 00:21:54.59 | Unknown | Bye. |
| 00:22:01.70 | Unknown | I move we approve the City Council Minutes of July 22, 2014. Second. |
| 00:22:08.52 | City Clerk or Chair | All in favor? Aye. Item four is the consent calendar. Is there any comments from the Council on the consent calendar before I open this up for public comments? |
| 00:22:09.58 | Unknown | Bye. |
| 00:22:25.05 | Unknown | Is that a question of staff on item 4E, Jonathan? |
| 00:22:30.59 | Unknown | actually. |
| 00:22:33.95 | Unknown | It's related to this, but it's not actually included in, because what you're asking us for here doesn't really relate to it. But is there going to be some sort of a bond or anything behind this so we don't get in the same issue we had with the other, with the. What district was that where the funds kind of ran out, the private funds kind of ran out on Harrison, I think it was at the end of it? Do you know what I'm talking about? |
| 00:22:58.04 | Jonathon Goldman | I believe so, yes. And the answer is no. The city does not have any financial exposure on this particular matter. It's a private issue. utility undergrounding project. And what we're asking the council to do is to recognize that there's public benefit associated with the project, but there's no financial exposure on our |
| 00:23:23.32 | Unknown | But as far as like a completion bond, so I think the last |
| 00:23:27.81 | Jonathon Goldman | i'm sorry i misunderstood that's what i mean |
| 00:23:28.97 | Unknown | That's what I mean. Not so much to protect us financially, but to protect that the project will get done. So there will be something to that effect? Okay, great. Thank you. I did that. That's my only question. Yeah. |
| 00:23:33.41 | Jonathon Goldman | Yes. Thank you. Yes. Something to that effect. Yes. Okay, great. Yeah, and for the rest of the council's information and members of the public, the council member Leon is referring to a situation where there was a private utility undergrounding project that we issued encroachment permits for but did not require a performance bond. And the contractor, there were actually two of those. The contractor who was involved in both of those did not complete the work in a timely manner. And the city, even though the city had no direct financial exposure in that situation, we did not have the resources to help resolve the matter that we would if we required a bond. So as a matter of policy, when that happens now, we do. Thank you. |
| 00:23:44.42 | Unknown | Bye. |
| 00:24:20.24 | City Clerk or Chair | Thank you. Thanks, Jonathan. Anybody else have any questions on the consent calendar? Not, is there any member of the public who'd like to comment on the consent calendar? Seeing none, can we have a motion to approve the consent calendar? |
| 00:24:38.28 | Unknown | Sorry, I'll move to approve the consent calendar, items 4A through E. |
| 00:24:43.92 | City Clerk or Chair | I'll second. All in favor. Aye. Aye. Okay. Okay. Item 6A. |
| 00:24:46.46 | Unknown | I'll see you next time. Bye. |
| 00:24:54.18 | City Clerk or Chair | This is our first business item, a status report on the historic preservation regulations. And I believe Assistant Planner Calvin Chan is going to introduce this topic. And I was going to say I don't believe that we've met Mr. Chan before. |
| 00:25:09.77 | Unknown | Mr. |
| 00:25:19.94 | City Clerk or Chair | This is his first time. So welcome to the Community Development Department. Welcome to Sol Solito. |
| 00:25:23.54 | Adam Politzer | is. |
| 00:25:29.50 | Adam Politzer | Mr. Mayor, and excuse me, Calvin. At the next meeting on the 23rd, we're actually going to formally introduce Calvin. Okay. It was important that his family and loved ones can join him, and we wanted to give him time to make that invitation. So we're a little backwards here, but we know he's up for the challenge. But we will do the formal introduction at the next meeting. |
| 00:25:36.20 | Neil Whitelaw | THE END OF |
| 00:25:37.60 | Lauren | Thank you. Yeah. |
| 00:25:37.88 | Neil Whitelaw | Thank you. |
| 00:25:53.11 | City Clerk or Chair | And I look forward to that. So over to you. |
| 00:25:54.86 | Adam Politzer | Thank you. |
| 00:26:06.52 | Council Member Weiner | I'll need my glasses on this one. |
| 00:26:19.70 | Unknown | Now Calvin, if you get the laser clicker thing to work too, then you get extra bonus points. |
| 00:26:20.51 | Neil Whitelaw | Thank you. |
| 00:26:24.39 | Calvin Chan | I'll just say that. I'll do my best. |
| 00:26:31.24 | Unknown | Thank you. |
| 00:26:31.33 | Council Member Weiner | The President. |
| 00:26:42.16 | Calvin Chan | So this evening we have for you a status report for the Historic Preservation Regulations Update. In September of 2013, The City Council authorized the execution of a professional services agreement with Daya and Batia, who are urban and regional planners, for an update of the City's historic preservation regulations. In February of 2014, an issues and options memorandum was prepared by our consultant, and it was completed in identifying four major goals for this updated process. These four goals were to make the regulations easier to understand and more user friendly, to improve administration of the permit review process, to clarify the review process for historic resource review, and to have the city take proactive actions for historic preservation. Some of these proactive measures would include reinforcing and improving the permitting processes, |
| 00:27:35.15 | Neil Whitelaw | Thank you. |
| 00:27:42.34 | Calvin Chan | and having a citywide survey to identify the historic resources in our city. Displayed is this diagram, a flow chart showing the major components of the public review process as well as the project's current status, which is denoted by the yellow arrow. The legislative committee with one representative from the Historic Landmarks Board, Chair Morgan Pierce, and also one Planning Commissioner representative, Planning Commissioner Nichols, has held 12 publicly noticed meetings with staff and also the consultant in reviewing the draft regulations. We're about two-thirds through of the review. The Legislative Committee has come to a point where they request some policy confirmation as well as direction from the Council in moving forward. |
| 00:28:42.43 | Calvin Chan | So here we have a flow chart of the current design review procedures for a project that involves a structure in the historic overlay zoning district and or is listed on the national, state, or local historic register. The process begins with a design review permit application being submitted to the community development department. This is box one. And we'll take, for example, a project for a new 1,000-square-foot office space that adds building area coverage in the historic overlay zoning district just for discussion purposes. If the design review permit application requires either partial or complete demolition, additional demolition structures may be enacted by the Planning Commission or the Historic Landworks Board. This is boxes two and three. |
| 00:29:28.84 | Unknown | Thank you. |
| 00:29:29.12 | Calvin Chan | Thank you. If the design review permit application is for the modification, addition, or new construction of a structure, the review procedure continues with a joint hearing between the Planning Commission and the Historic Landworks Board. This is boxes four and five. For our example of a thousand square foot office space in the historic overlay zoning district, that would fall under that category. The Planning Commission and the Historic Landworks Board hold a joint hearing on the design review permit, and each body must individually approve a design review permit. That's boxes five and six. While it is possible that the bodies may have conflicting decisions on the design review permit, to date that has not happened due to coordination and staff working with the applicant. If the design review permit is approved by both bodies at a joint hearing, the permit then becomes effective after the 10-day appeal period, which is box seven. |
| 00:30:39.19 | Calvin Chan | Staff would also like to point out that currently there is a 50-year review process that the Historic Landworks Board takes on. The Historic Landworks Board currently reviews applications for exterior alterations and or demolition of structures that are 50 years of age or older. The Historic Landworks Board prepares a detailed report, a memo, and forwards a recommendation to the Planning Commission if findings of significance are made. The proposed regulations in this update will shift this review responsibility over to the applicant, and the applicant will then be responsible for hiring a qualified professional to complete a historical resource evaluation report. That completed report will be subject to historic landmarks board review. |
| 00:31:32.01 | Calvin Chan | So getting to the heart of the update, the proposed regulations introduce a new historic design review permit, which we abbreviate as the HDRP. The HDRP provides additional discretionary review by the HLB for projects on properties in the historic overlay zoning district and or registered properties. The HDRP functions as a tool to meet the four goals of the update that we previously discussed, and also just adds a layer of discretionary review by the HLB which draws on their expertise and experience in protecting historic resources and managing the wealth of historic resources that we have in our city. |
| 00:31:41.15 | Unknown | Thank you. |
| 00:32:13.33 | Calvin Chan | The HDRP, one of the major components is that it will be an extra level of protection that aligns with the United States National Park Service, Secretary of Interior Standards for rehab. Please note that under this new permit, the HLB will no longer be acting on the DRP, the design review permit. Other options were explored in developing this HDRP process. Some of these options included the potential review by the planning commission once the HLB has done their review. Another option was to transfer the design review permit process for projects in the historic overlay zoning district or registered properties over to the HLB completely. But upon further discussion, the legislative committee staff and consultant came to the conclusion that these options were not reflective of the goals of this update process and that it would rather complicate and make the whole process less clear. So the HCRP process that we have before you is what staff and the Legislative Committee have come up with and feel that is the most clear expression of this update. So here we have a Venn diagram showing the distinct issues addressed by the H3RP as well as the design review permit, as well as some shared issues in the middle column. When there are no shared issues between the design review permit, DRP, or the historical design review permit, HDRP, then the bodies will hold separate hearings. When there are shared issues, then they will hold a joint hearing. The design review permit issues that continue to be reviewed by the Planning Commission include public views and private property, primary views, building profile silhouette, maintenance of light and air, appropriate design of exterior lighting and mechanical equipment and chinneys, privacy, traffic safety and circulation, protected trees and significant natural features, crowding or overwhelming of surrounding properties, floor area ratios, building coverage, height setbacks and impervious surfaces. The H3RP issues will focus on compliance with the Secretary of Interior Standards as well as preservation, enhancement and restoration of exterior architectural features, protection of special character, historic architectural or aesthetic features, compatibility with the Historic zoning district, compliance with the general plan including the community design and historic preservation element, and just other general historic character defining features. The shared issues to be reviewed by the design review permit as well as the historic design review permit will be compatibility of architecture and site design to neighborhood character or district, landscaping that provides visual relief and is compatible to surroundings, and also signed applications. |
| 00:35:10.62 | Adam Politzer | Calvin, can I just interrupt you and ask you to remind the council that because the font's a little small here, that this attachment is actually in your staff report? Absolutely. |
| 00:35:21.84 | Calvin Chan | Absolutely. All of the diagrams are provided in your package. |
| 00:35:32.09 | Calvin Chan | So here we have a flow chart of the proposed design review procedures for a project in the historic overlay zoning district or on the national, state, or local register. The process begins with a design review permit and historic design review permit being submitted to community development. This is box one. This time we'll use the example of a thousand square foot second story addition to an existing structure in the overlay zoning district as our example. Similar to the current procedures, if the design review permit and or the historic design review permit application requires either partial or complete demolition, then additional demolition procedures may be imposed, Boxes 2 and and three if the design review permit or the HDRP application is for the modification addition or new construction of a structure then the review procedure continues with a joint Planning Commission and historic Land Works Board hearing boxes four and five our second story edition example would certainly fall under this category. As mentioned before, the applicant for this type of project would be required to have a complete historic resource evaluation completed subject to the review and approval by the Historic Landworks Board. The proposed second-story addition would, with this evaluation, have to show that it fits into the existing conditions and will be designed in a manner that does not degrade the historicity of the structure site or the overlay zoning district. As shown in boxes five through nine, the Planning Commission and the Historic Landworks Board will hold a joint hearing, and the Commission reviews the design review permit and makes the decision, and the Historic Landworks Board will make a decision on the historical design review permit and make their decision. While it is, again, possible for the bodies to reach conflicting decisions, staff believes that by having a joint meeting where both bodies can hear the rationale and discussion for why a project is recommended to go a certain direction, these conflicting decisions will be avoided. If in the chance that a conflicting decision is made, then the decision will have to be appealed for one of the bodies to City Council. Following the 10-day appeal period, the decisions on the design review permit and the historical design review permit will be in effect. |
| 00:38:21.28 | Calvin Chan | So just briefly mentioning two additional update features from our update. It's an establishment of a local historic resources inventory and a local historic register. The HLB will periodically review, amend, and update the local inventory. Resources listed on the local inventory are eligible for nomination to the local historic register and or historic overlay zoning district and all designations will require City Council approval. Another feature is a preliminary historic design review permit. Applicants will have the option to request a study session. This is a preliminary review of their proposed project which requires a fee, but it is a chance for the historic Landworks Board to provide some general direction and guidance for the project. |
| 00:39:17.32 | Calvin Chan | And to conclude, the yellow arrow again is showing our current status. Staff recommends that the council provide some direction this evening regarding the establishment of our new historic design review permit, HDRP. for properties in the historic overlay zoning district, as well as registered properties. Following the council's review, the legislative committee will complete their review of the draft regulations and provide a complete draft of the regulations to the council for review prior to the community workshop. And that concludes staff's presentation. |
| 00:39:53.02 | City Clerk or Chair | Thank you, Calvin. Do any of us have any questions of the staff on this matter? |
| 00:40:05.14 | City Clerk or Chair | Questions? |
| 00:40:09.86 | City Clerk or Chair | Yeah. So shall I open it for public comment then? Is there any member of the public? Thank you, Calvin. We may come back to you or Jeremy perhaps for questions later. But right now, does any member of the public wish to make a comment on this subject? |
| 00:40:23.21 | Unknown | Thank you. |
| 00:40:32.49 | City Clerk or Chair | Seeing none, we will close public comment and bring it up here for... I keep turning my microphone off. I don't know why. For comment, questions, comment? |
| 00:40:51.11 | Unknown | So, to the public. And I think that's a good question. I think that's a good question. I think that's a good question. I think that's a good question. I think that's a good question. I think that's a good question. I think that's a good question. I think that's a good question. I think that's a good question. I think that's a good question. I think that's a good question. I think that's a good question. I think that's a good question. I think that's a good question. I think that's a good question. I think that's a good question. I think that's a good question. I think that's a good question. I think that's a good question. I think that's a good question. I think that's a good question. I think that's a good question. I think that's a good question. I think that's a good question. I think that's a good question. I think that's a good question. or looking to make changes to a historic home. the process of theB for historic properties and that the more of the zoning related issues would go through the planning commission. So I mean that this is a sort of compromise before bringing it to the council rather than sort of make you make that decision for us kind of thing. So, but I'm happy to discuss whether you want to revisit that or not. But that's up to the council. |
| 00:42:10.74 | Unknown | Yeah. |
| 00:42:10.94 | Unknown | I agree with that. And just adding on that, this is part of the historic regulations updates, which was on our priority calendar list for quite a while. And mainly it's to update the regulations and removing consistencies and that kind of thing. And we're working on that. And that's not anything that we need counsel's input at this point, but as we came to the procedural portion of this and being able to and the recommendations to make it clear who has what jurisdiction over on certain design review processes we thought we'd bring it to the council first i think this it is a compromised position in in a sense i think it's much closer than what is the is existing we thought about having um separate design review on historic structures and historic district to the HLB. But we've decided this is a good compromise in the sense that there are two different permits. We try to be clear about what goes in front of the Historic Landmarks Board, what goes in front of the Planning Commission. There are these shared issues, and of course, they're going to need to be developed. And that'll be the part that is going to have to be worked out as time goes on. But I think that's important. I think the thing that we did was It's important while, Calvin, by the way, thank you for your presentation and pointed out that there haven't been conflicts, but certainly if we go back far enough, there were and certainly there's the potential for it. And we look at under the current structure. The Planning Commission can veto the HLB on historic issues, and the HLB can veto the Planning Commission on what would naturally be Planning Commission issues. And so we're trying to separate them so they have various issues that come in their own province. On shared issues, as was on the chart, they would both have joint jurisdiction. And an important element of it all is we wanted to keep a joint meeting because we wanted to make sure that applicants didn't have to go before one board and then another board and back and forth and have inconsistent rulings. We wanted them there together. hear each other's objection on any of the issues, particularly the shared issues, and have staff work that out. So I think this is a good way to go. I think this provides for greater protection for our historic district and historic properties, and we look for guidance from the council as we go forward and complete these regulations. |
| 00:44:41.77 | City Clerk or Chair | Council Member Fyfer. |
| 00:44:44.29 | Councilmember Pfeiffer | Well, I have some concerns about this, but at the same time, I'm willing to, you know, move forward on it and see how it goes with the caveat that the council is going to listen to the public and be responsive, of course, if this doesn't, this, you know, raises problems that we didn't anticipate. because when we're looking at our historic district, a lot of things can surface kind of late in the game. And so I think it's important that if we go forward with this, we keep an open mind and listening. |
| 00:45:25.92 | Unknown | So I think that's one of the reasons why we're back here is to kind of hear what your concerns are so that we need to change the process. So I think that's a good question. |
| 00:45:53.44 | Unknown | Thank you. |
| 00:45:53.47 | Neil Whitelaw | Thank you. |
| 00:45:54.89 | Unknown | Yeah. Thank you. |
| 00:46:08.09 | City Clerk or Chair | I've been tracking this reasonably closely as it's passed through the subgroups. I was, I have to confess, some months ago a little concerned with where things were because I didn't feel, I think I just had the impression that things were outside of the scope of the goals that you clearly identified. But I actually am really comfortable with where you've ended up, as compromised as it is, and that's what politics is all about, and that's what finding solutions is all about, is finding the middle ground. I think it clearly helps us delineate the various responsibilities, keeps the joint meeting, which I think is very important. And I know some people thought that joint meetings were inefficient, but I actually think in this particular instance they're really important. And I think there's a nice balance there. So the one thing I would just, because all you're looking is just to get our sense and guidance, I think. The only thing I would say is the next step is, you know, to make sure you fulfill the goal of enabling this to be efficient, let's also make sure that we don't think about each resident who's going to be applying and make sure that were not put in an undue burden on them. I mean, I see already something that I probably is a good idea but caught me a bit by surprise, was the fact that, you know, you're switching the whole 50-year analysis over to the responsibility of the applicant. I mean, you've just increased the burden significantly for an applicant. I understand why you've done it, and it's probably a good idea. But it's still nonetheless a significant burden you're putting on an applicant now and I don't know what the unintended consequences of that's going to be so think through that would be my suggestion and then the other thing is you're going to have two permits now does that mean two fees our design review permit fees are very expensive I think you know for someone who's on a fixed income that needs to structurally upgrade their home you know this is important and so make sure that are we going to double the fees because we've now got another permit let's think through that I hope I sure we won't and I'm sure we'll find a way of making it work within the whole umbrella concept of our current design review permit but it's something you need to work through But in terms of conceptually where the compromise was reached, I'm very supportive. |
| 00:49:10.00 | City Clerk or Chair | So do you have enough guidance? |
| 00:49:11.94 | Unknown | And by the way, just addressing... We need guidance now because we're going to be, and I think we've gotten it, because we'll be drafting these regulations, of course, in response to Councilmember Pfeiffer's concern. If it doesn't work out, of course, we'll have to change it. But it's one of those we want input, and we hope that it's going to work in any of these issues. And we are going to run into issues like the permit fees and such. We're now, look, this is at the higher level to see which way we're going. And we will get to details on that type of thing. And I, we agree with you. And one of the things that we look at all along the way is what this will do to applicant, to staff, to our committees and to the council. All of them, there are ramifications to all in all the things that we do. |
| 00:49:57.79 | Unknown | Jeremy, can I ask you a question, if you would, since you brought up the fees, which we haven't discussed, and generally those are set by staff and not by a committee. But with any city fee, it's all based off of staff time, recouping staff time, is my understanding. That is correct. I would imagine that would be the same process here. Correct. So it wouldn't necessarily be double counting for something that – it wouldn't create necessarily additional – it might be an additional cost, but it probably would have been done anyway under the existing permitting structure for a 50-year-old process for a 50-year-old structure. We'd still have to have staff review – be a part of the review of the historic properties of an applicant's family. |
| 00:50:17.74 | Unknown | That is correct. Correct. |
| 00:50:45.68 | Unknown | Thank you. |
| 00:50:45.72 | Unknown | That is correct, and we currently have an additional fee for projects which require HLB review. So this would already probably be substantially included in that fee. We might have to have a slight adjustment, but I don't think we're looking at a substantial increase in the historic design view permit aspect of the review. |
| 00:50:46.00 | Unknown | That's correct. |
| 00:51:11.23 | Unknown | Thanks. |
| 00:51:11.59 | Unknown | Thank you. |
| 00:51:12.78 | City Clerk or Chair | While you're there, Jeremy, let's – could I sort of expand a little bit and what's your understanding of how the – having the applicant produce the 50-year – are they going to have to hire a consultant to produce a sort of standardized letter or – I think that's true. How is that going to work? |
| 00:51:32.19 | Unknown | or is this? How is that going to work? So what we – the current process we have, and it's been for decades and the responsibility for preparing the background study that identifies whether a particular residence that's over 50 years old using a residence as an example, the responsibility for preparing that is on the HLB members themselves and at the beginning of the meeting two HLB members are volunteered to prepare this study. They do the research at the historic society and sometimes beyond that. And then they bring their findings back to the HLB for review and concurrence by the HLB. And the HLB in turn uses that study to make its determinations on whether that particular structure has historic significance or not. With some highly visible projects such as working with the Casa Madrona, the HALA, or other highly visible projects, the HLB has said, you know, really this is beyond our expertise. It makes more sense for the applicant to retain their own architectural historian who can do a more in-depth study and give us, the HLB, the basis for making an informed decision on whether the particular project is going to alter the character designing features of that structure. I think we're at we're squeezing we're trying to squeeze more and more I was going to say blood but probably juice is a better word on this out of the HLB turn up and so the HLB members with and Vice Mayor Theodores may speak to this they're feeling like geez, geez, they're doing a lot of work here, and isn't this really more appropriately the responsibility of the party who's bringing forward this application? Let the party internalize their external cost, and so that is the wherefore that the recommendation is that the responsibility for preparation of the historic background study be shifted over to the applicant. Of course, the HLB is going to have to review it and concur in any of its findings. So I think we have proper protections there. |
| 00:53:56.61 | City Clerk or Chair | Mm-hmm. Yeah, I get that. I fully understand that because you're putting on the backs of volunteers something that could be a very complex project. I appreciate that. But so how is staff going to make an assessment of the accuracy or completeness or thoroughness of something, if it's up to the applicants? |
| 00:54:19.17 | Unknown | As with any technical study, the individual preparing this have to have the proper qualifications just as with a geologist or a traffic engineer, things along that line. The architectural historians have a couple of letters after the name. Thank you. |
| 00:54:36.80 | City Clerk or Chair | Yeah. |
| 00:54:36.82 | Unknown | So I wouldn't say they have a license, but they certainly have experience on this, and we're not going to look toward someone off the street preparing this. |
| 00:54:47.97 | City Clerk or Chair | but then okay, and therefore, doesn't that mean that anybody who wants to remodel a house that's older than 50 years now has to hire an architectural historian? |
| 00:55:02.10 | Unknown | I think we would be looking at that. But I think as we go through time, there's a certain pool of architectural historians who know how the Sausalito way is to do it and the research for the smaller projects, certainly the standard research using the historical society archives is adequate and frequently these reports are simply a letter report for the minor projects. |
| 00:55:34.14 | Councilmember Pfeiffer | for them. |
| 00:55:35.86 | Unknown | Thank you. Thanks, Jeremy. You're welcome. |
| 00:55:40.10 | Councilmember Pfeiffer | Mr. Mayor, I have a quick question. So Jeremy, sorry, a quick question. So if If I'm an applicant and there's this historic structure and my goal is demolition, you know, and you've just told me it's my responsibility to do the research on the 50-year application, I think it's a good question. You know, I mean, how do we know that that thorough due diligence will have been done by this applicant that, you know, is motivated to get to yes? |
| 00:56:14.47 | Unknown | You're concerned that there may be an inherent conflict of interest. Thank you. Yes. Well, that's why we have your appointed HLB members who are scrupulous and take their job very seriously. If they don't feel that the proper documentation is provided, it is within their prerogative or their responsibility to reject the study and ask for a more thorough study that fully addresses the issues that need to be addressed and the historic significance or lack thereof of that particular building. |
| 00:56:17.65 | Councilmember Pfeiffer | Thank you. |
| 00:56:47.26 | Councilmember Pfeiffer | So you're confident that before when we had the HLB volunteers do that due diligence and that research, you're confident that if they are presented with a package, that they will recognize that things are missing. I mean, you wouldn't, as an HLB board member, wouldn't I have to do the research to know what was missing? |
| 00:57:06.25 | Unknown | Well, good question. And I think one of the things to keep in mind is the HLB, let's use a hypothetical situation, of a new HLB board member is appointed and while they have an interest in historic matters, do they know how to do research to come up with the basis for making a determination? It's basically on-the-job training, which maybe, Thank you. have less of a basis for being able to make a determination than an architectural historian. Just brainstorming as you ask the question, another idea of the architecture of the architecture Option would be for a pool of qualified architectural historians to be maintained and that that that, uh, uh, on a rotational basis an architectural historian could be assigned. But that gets into the, if that person's assigned, then that architectural historian can almost set their own price, and is that fair to the applicant? So there are some issues that have to be worked out there. |
| 00:58:16.26 | City Clerk or Chair | Thank you. |
| 00:58:25.74 | City Clerk or Chair | I'm presuming, Jeremy, that you Thank you. As with any other receipt of professional services report that community development receives, you will begin setting a set of standards and expectations of what's required. So over time, it will quickly develop into what Sol Soledo expects as a... |
| 00:58:46.05 | Unknown | And in the historical community preparation of these type of background reports, it's a historical resources evaluation report, it's a standard practice. Sausalito is not making this up out of whole cloth. It's a standard practice. That's helpful. |
| 00:58:47.16 | City Clerk or Chair | SHAUN. |
| 00:58:47.45 | Unknown | Thank you. |
| 00:58:52.93 | City Clerk or Chair | YES. |
| 00:58:53.20 | Unknown | So, |
| 00:59:00.73 | Unknown | Thank you. |
| 00:59:00.78 | City Clerk or Chair | That's helpful. |
| 00:59:02.53 | Unknown | Right. I mean, this is using the DRP forms that the state requires. Correct. That would be one of the resources. So we're not reinventing the wheel here. This is a standard practice that architects who have this skill set and actually lay people also fill these out. True. |
| 00:59:06.08 | Unknown | That's correct. That would be one of the reasons. |
| 00:59:08.08 | Neil Whitelaw | Thank you. |
| 00:59:19.46 | Unknown | True. Cities who take their historical resources seriously and many in the Bay Area require such studies as part of the documentation to know whether the decision makers should feel comfortable moving forward on a project that involves a historic property. |
| 00:59:26.26 | Neil Whitelaw | Thank you. |
| 00:59:26.29 | Unknown | Bay Area. |
| 00:59:26.88 | Neil Whitelaw | Thank you. |
| 00:59:37.87 | Unknown | Yeah, I mean, if I could. Yeah, no, please. You know, it's kind of like the devil. There's six of a dozen, you know, half of a dozen, six of another, whatever the phrase is. You get the complaints that a group of lay people can't do the proper research to understand whether, from someone proposing a project, do an accurate assessment of a historical structure. And then you're getting the complaint, well, I have to hire someone who actually knows what they're doing professionally, and they're going to stake their professional reputation that this is a valid report. So it's the two, so you can get a |
| 00:59:39.35 | Unknown | Yeah. Oh, please. |
| 01:00:13.07 | Unknown | to do this. Same thing as a geotech or whatever. There are geotechs, supposedly, that give you the report that you pay them to do. But most people want to keep their license and want to keep their reputation and don't produce reports that are not of value. And then they're going to be reviewed by the HLV. And then they're going to be reviewed by the HLV. not of value. And then they're going to be reviewed by the HLV as, you know, just make sure they're up to snuff and in accordance to what we, our community standards for compatibility and other things. So yes, it creates an additional, you know, a lot of the things that we're doing are going to be doing in the HLV, but, you know, most people want to keep their license and want to keep their reputation and don't produce reports that are not of to have applicants, I mean, board members doing that research, in my mind, is not a fair use of their time. I think it's a very important thing to do with the city. I think it's a very important thing to do with the city. I think it's a very important thing to do with the city. I think it's a very important thing to do with the city. I think it's a very important thing to do with the city. I think it's a very important thing to do with the city. Thank you. |
| 01:01:28.79 | Unknown | And just to add, I mean, I think this is going to add another level of diligence and raise our level of diligence. We'll start out with architectural historians who have to sign the deadline. That's their professional reputation. And also, but then we have the HLB who have the interest in historic preservation and is able to take that work product and vet it and to see if there are other things. And not only that, and of course when these issues come up, we also have the public and many of the public who are interested in historic issues. So I think it just adds another level of diligence and protection. in my view. |
| 01:02:06.67 | City Clerk or Chair | Councilmember Pfeiffer. Sorry. |
| 01:02:07.89 | Councilmember Pfeiffer | Career and comment period. |
| 01:02:09.61 | City Clerk or Chair | Mm. |
| 01:02:10.00 | Councilmember Pfeiffer | Uh-huh. Yeah, I still, like I said, I have concerns about some aspects of this process. This is one of them. I think there's a conflict of interest asking the applicant. You're giving them, you know, it feels like the fox in the hen house. You know, the applicant wants to do substantial changes to historic structure, and they're in charge of doing the research and hiring. the know, the fact that they hire, you know, an expert, you know, to build the case for why, you know, they should be able to do what they want to do. To me, it just weakens the process. I also would compare How does that mean the process? |
| 01:02:50.58 | Unknown | And how did you propose to do otherwise? |
| 01:02:52.54 | Councilmember Pfeiffer | Well, I believe that we have a Historic Landmarks Board for a reason. And the question was, how does that weaken the process, and how would I do it differently? I'm looking at the Historic Landmarks Board. These are volunteers who are intrinsically motivated to preserve Sausalito's small-town character. They are intrinsically motivated. We know that intrinsic motivation is the most powerful form of motivation compared to the applicant who is extrinsically motivated. You know, it's about the dollar sign. So yeah, I'm concerned about this. |
| 01:03:29.68 | Unknown | Well, But... But we're not relying on this. I mean, we have the HLB vetting them. This helps the HLB. And having served on the HLB for four years and been in the historic society room for a long time, it would have been a lot better and a lot better work product if we had something to start with and were able to check it out. So I think this only increases the level of and the type of work product that we need to protect our historic structures and districts. |
| 01:04:00.04 | Unknown | I can't see in any way this weakening the process. If it provides another data point, it's not the, the HLB can choose to accept the report or not. If it, if it, the HLB chooses to not accept it, they can direct the historic architect, go back to the drawing board or just disagree with its, with the assumptions made there and you won't get your, your HDRP. So that's. |
| 01:04:00.92 | Unknown | ANYWHERE. |
| 01:04:23.07 | City Clerk or Chair | OK, I think we've sort of heard all the points of view. |
| 01:04:23.80 | Unknown | Thank you. Thank you. |
| 01:04:30.04 | City Clerk or Chair | No? |
| 01:04:30.46 | Unknown | Thank you. |
| 01:04:30.48 | City Clerk or Chair | Thank you. |
| 01:04:30.58 | Unknown | . |
| 01:04:30.62 | City Clerk or Chair | Thank you. |
| 01:04:30.72 | Unknown | I mean, at some point we need to step up to the plate. If you really believe in historic preservation, it's a value judgment on the community side. Just like you can make a similar somewhat analogy to the commotion around private sewer laterals. Nobody wanted to do it, but now people realize, okay, well, this is the real problem. And the way to fix the problem is to have the – |
| 01:04:30.73 | City Clerk or Chair | I mean, |
| 01:04:36.56 | City Clerk or Chair | community. |
| 01:04:37.10 | Neil Whitelaw | Thank you. |
| 01:04:55.66 | Unknown | and we have to do that. And we have to do that. of a time commitment that these folks have to do on the hlb unless to be more productive in carrying out additional preservation in town |
| 01:05:22.83 | Councilmember Pfeiffer | Mr. Mayor, I will respond. Yeah, please. Yeah. I just think it's a conflict of interest to ask the applicant to give the applicant who wants to demolish a historic structure the responsibility to do the research on the historic nature of it and to remove that from the historic landmarks board. Before there were two volunteers who would do that. And now you have the applicant doing it. So I mean that's what I'm looking at in this process. That's what I'm saying. That is like super spam. |
| 01:05:24.51 | Unknown | Yeah. |
| 01:05:24.82 | Unknown | Thank you. |
| 01:05:24.97 | Unknown | But... |
| 01:05:25.04 | Unknown | Thank you. |
| 01:05:25.17 | Unknown | Thank you. |
| 01:05:25.19 | Unknown | Thank you. |
| 01:05:50.01 | Unknown | That is like super spam. So this is. That is like super. No, this is just what I. No, this is just what I heard. No. That's not what you heard. It's a data point with the research. This is what I'm looking at. No. Okay. We understand. We've heard both points. So every geotechnical report that is done by an applicant that gets submitted to the city is biased. Right. |
| 01:05:52.98 | Councilmember Pfeiffer | No, this is just what I heard. No, this is just what I'm looking at. Wait on that. |
| 01:06:07.18 | Councilmember Pfeiffer | We're talking about our historic character, our small-town historic character, and I want to make sure that we protect that and we don't have a conflict of interest. That's all. |
| 01:06:10.38 | Unknown | Every report that. |
| 01:06:13.22 | Unknown | Well, we- |
| 01:06:19.22 | Unknown | But let me just give you an... |
| 01:06:19.26 | Councilmember Pfeiffer | Thank you. I'm sorry, I just wanted to wrap up. I said in the beginning of this discussion, I was clear. I said I have concerns, but I'm willing to go forward, see more detail. And with the understanding that I'm sure the council will be open-minded and listen to the community if there are concerns. I think that if this process has cracks in it, hopefully we will know soon enough. |
| 01:06:45.92 | Unknown | I do just want to weigh in that the respect that we all have, and you noted on the Historic Landmarks Board, that the Historic Landmarks Board, our current Historic Landmarks Board supports this change. A LONG TIME LIAISON TO THE HISTORIC LANDMARKS BOARD. COUNCILMAN LEON SUPPORTS IT. I HAD BEEN ON THE HISTORIC LANDMARKS BOARD FOR FOUR YEARS. and chaired it and also the planning commissioners that had that um commissioner Nichols had been all of them who all of us who have been involved in this think this is a better way to go and this will add to the protection of our historic district and our historic buildings |
| 01:07:23.52 | City Clerk or Chair | Okay, the important thing is does staff have the direction they need? I think they do. I actually came into this discussion with quite an open mind and actually benefited a lot from this discussion in terms of the discussion. I see the issues and it seems to me that we do put a big burden on our START Landmark Board members and they could probably be more efficient reacting to a professionally produced argument. And so I'm convinced by that argument. So you know, I think Council Member Pfeiffer is right. We're going to have plenty of more discussions on this and the public is going to weigh in. will catch any other things as it moves along. So thank you. Any other comment? No, this matter is then closed. So thank you, Calvin. Thank you, Jeremy. So the next... Eight, 10. Okay, so we're doing all right. Item 6B. Sorry, I need to put my glasses on. Read this. Receive and file update on the city's water usage. |
| 01:08:49.88 | Lauren | Thank you, Mayor Withey and Vice Mayor Theodorus, other council members tonight, for letting me come before you. |
| 01:08:50.37 | City Clerk or Chair | I'm fine, Lauren. |
| 01:08:56.77 | Lauren | I'm here before you as a result of a conversation that the Council had with the Director of Public Works, Jonathan Goldman, on January 28th of this year regarding the drought conditions that the State of California is currently experiencing and what Sausalito was going to do about it. Councilmember Leon asked that we come back before the Council and give a report on some of the activities that the Department has been doing to reduce our water usage per the direction of the council and also per the recommendations of the municipal water district. So I am here for that reason and to give you a report. |
| 01:09:38.38 | Lauren | So as you're all well aware, California is experiencing an unprecedented drought this year. You can see from this, this is from the United States Drought Monitor, specifically about California. And currently, 96, 97 percent of the state of California is experiencing a severe drought, and approximately 60% of the state is experiencing an exceptional drought. You can see just in that little spot right there That's Marin County. And Marin County fortunately has been spared some of the worst. Some of our reservoirs are actually doing okay compared to the rest of the state, but we still have drought conditions that we need to be cognizant of and be aware of and take proper action. I think it's ironic that if you take a look down at the very lowest part of the state as you get closer to Nevada and towards our southern border, that actually has some of the most mild is drought conditions and you would imagine that part of California is being. down at the very lowest part of the state as you get closer to Nevada and towards our southern border. That actually has some of the most mildest drought conditions, and you would imagine that part of California as being desert. But you can see there, the extreme drought conditions that are all through the Central Valley, which is some of the most prime farm country in the United States. So here are some pictures that I've brought. You can find these on the Internet. Many of you may have seen them. This kind of gives an example of some of the conditions that are just so extraordinary. I myself drove up past Shasta a few months ago and was shocked at what I saw. This is Lake Oroville. And this picture was taken, I believe, a couple of years ago. And here are some current conditions of this same location. |
| 01:11:16.26 | Unknown | Maybe a Calvin back in there could help, yeah. |
| 01:11:18.06 | Lauren | Yeah, no doubt. I think I have to hit enter because it's supposed to fade in, possibly. Can you hit enter on that? Yeah, there we go. |
| 01:11:18.91 | Unknown | you |
| 01:11:28.37 | Lauren | So that's a picture of Lake Oroville. And you can see that that's essentially taken from the same location. And you can see how dramatic the water loss is at that location. |
| 01:11:41.22 | Lauren | Okay, so this is other pictures of Lake Oroville. I took these because they're just outrageously informative about how much of a crisis we're in. The picture on the left, picture of the bridge, and you can see how much lower it is. And the picture on the right, you can see where that little tiny bridge is right there. And you can see that little bridge is right there. That's just to give you some idea of what's going on So here are some important dates with regard to our drought. In January 21st, the Marin Municipal Water District advocated that and requested all customers to make a 25 percent voluntary reduction in their water usage. The week after that, the City Council, in the discussion with the Director of Public Works, essentially directed the department to reduce our water consumption in the city by 10%. July 29th of 2014, State Water Resources Control Board adopted emergency regulations placing prohibitions on spraying down sidewalks, driveways. You must use a shutoff nozzle on your hose when you're washing anything. And if you do have irrigation, you should not be allowing that irrigation to leave that irrigated site, go into the streets, go into gutters, go into adjacent areas. And on August 19th, MMWD adopted those same restrictions as the State Water Resources Control Board, but also added a restriction on irrigation use and restricting that timing between 7 p.m. and 9 a.m. in the morning. going back real quickly, just for information's sake, MMWD does offer free shutoff nozzles, four hoses, one per customer. So if you wanted to get one of those, they will give those So the city took the direction from the council and immediately started to reduce our water usage. And the low hanging fruit of course is our irrigated areas. You can see here Marincia, Vigne Del Mar, Dunphy Park, Gabrielson, MLK Field, City Hall and Robin Sweeney Park in particular. The medians along Bridgeway adjacent to Harborway and the downtown public restroom adjacent. You can see that we have the totals for 2013 and we have the totals for 2014. And you can see that we've made significant improvements in every area except for the MLK field and facilities, which are buildings one through seven. And I believe that we can explain that away because last year, this last year in the time that we've been checking this usage, we have a school there of 250 students. Prior to that, it was under construction. There were no students. And if you go back and take a look at some of the water records for that campus, you'll see that there are some variations there that I believe are dependent upon the fact that we've increased the number of students there and the fact that there weren't students there last year. So that explains it. Now, if you take a look at the overall reduction in usage compared to last year, we've been able to reduce our water usage at these locations by 16%. If you remove MLK field in the facilities, that water reduction is actually 31%, 32%. So we've done a great job in trying to reduce our usage on that. Now... This next page is what the city worked with MMWD. We contacted MMWD and said, what can we do to reduce our water usage? How do we evaluate how we're using our water? And they were extraordinarily helpful. They came out, they visited each one of our locations and evaluated our irrigation systems, spoke with our gardeners and landscapers. They invited our landscapers to the MMWD offices, gave them a class, day-long class, on how to evaluate if we have water leaks, how to determine proper water usage, some tips, recommendations. And they also talked about irrigation systems that we could upgrade to that are more efficient, that actually evaluate the water content of the soil and automatically adjust those times. So they've been extraordinarily helpful. So this is what we took a look at. And you can see here that we have records from seven years, 2007 through 2014, per the meter readings. And this is from Marinship. And you'll note that those numbers fluctuate from month to month, from year to year, and that'll be important when we get to this next page. MMWD takes a look at properties in particular fields. And what they can do is they can use an algorithm to determine what is called evotranspiration, which is a combination of evaporation and transpiration from plants, basically sweating of plants and how much water is released. And what you'll see here is that this graph shows what is water consumption, what is water when you should irrigate, compared to the evotranspiration. These lines should match up. that as the water is being released from the soil, you need to add that water in order to keep the fields irrigated. So this is a base study, and I believe it's for the golf course in San Rafael. So the next slide is, this is City of Sausalito historical irrigation practices for Dunphy And this is for seven years. So you'll notice that In the same way, are graph. follows essentially the same curve as the evaporation transpiration that's occurring at that field based upon the calculations and type of grass and weather conditions. And they provided this to us, MMWD. So you can see that we're matching that very well. and go to the next one here. |
| 01:17:58.83 | Lauren | This is again, marintia. So you can see that the graph of the evaporation of water and our water usage is following that graph. The reason we're successful and we were able to get a lot of this reduction on water was our gardening and landscaping staff. Um, They use the water as it's needed. and as they see that it's needed. They don't go and turn on the irrigation and it's on Monday, Wednesdays, and Fridays for half an hour, regardless of whether it rained or regardless of if it's really dry. They take a look at the conditions of their fields and they make water use modifications based upon that. When the mandate from the City Council came down to reduce our water usage, We basically said, that there are certain fields that we need to maintain because they're publicly used. We need to be able to provide publicly accessible spaces because individuals may not be able to do that for their own lawn. So we're creating community spaces, but we have to be judicious. So we reduced our water usage by one day a week, or we reduced the amount of time that we were watering from 30 minutes to 20 minutes. So I want to give credit where credit is due, which is in large part to our landscaping and gardening staff by being very judicious about how they use their water. So that's been really positive to see. Thank you. going on in this report, what I wanted to point out and let the public know is that there are many ways that water gets wasted and many things that we can do. This is an example up on Sausalito Boulevard, and this was going on for months. And there was a residence residents continue to call me and said there's ponding here and we're in a drought. How is there possibly ponding? And there was concerns about standing water. And we kept on trying to figure out, was this spring water? Was it MMWD? And we've been working on this. went up the road a little ways, and we took a look, and what we were able to was that, um, |
| 01:20:11.47 | Lauren | the culprit was this hanging wall. And I have to give credit to the homeowner or the property owner. They put in low water use succulents and plants, but they did have it irrigated. the was actually an absentee landlord and the residents were renters here. And so they never noticed that this water was continued. and it was running 24 hours. And we were able to find a meter that was located just adjacent to this wall and looked at the meter, found that the meter was spinning. We contacted MMWD. MMWD was able to reach out to the homeowner, send them a letter saying, you have excessive water usage. The homeowner was happy to receive that message, was able to make, I believe, a repair to the irrigation, and within a day, That street was dry. So, When you see water and when the community sees water and the street We do have springs in Sausalito. They do exist. But more often than not, it probably is a problem with irrigation and that nobody's paying attention to it. |
| 01:21:19.62 | Lauren | This report, we'll make sure that it's available on Current, so if anyone wants to download this, this is more of a supplement to your report that you've received. There are some water-saving tips and recommendations that were produced and given to us by the Muram Municipal Water District. These are things that people can do. Some of them that are interesting and easy to do are things like applying mulch to your planting areas. That will retain the moisture, which means you'll have to use less moisture on your plants. Obviously, choosing the types of plants is important as well, as we'll see here in the next picture. This is an example of a collaboration between the Department of Public Works and Blooming Bridgeway. This is the north end of town where we took this section of landscaping and with the assistance of Tom Wilhite, member of the Trees and Views Committee, also a member of Blooming Bridgeway and also Sausalito Beautiful, helped us choose drought-tolerant plants, native plants that work well in our environment. And we made these improvements here. And this doesn't require a lot of water, not as much as what would be required by a lawn, for instance. And you can see, you'll see in the next couple pictures that just because they're drought tolerant doesn't mean that they can't have color. You can see that there are lots of colors in here and can really add quite a bit to the community. |
| 01:22:44.22 | Lauren | Thank you. Thank you. Go back one, please. Here are some other examples where community members have gotten and done their own improvements and used drought tolerant plants. And there's a restaurant whose name will go unmentioned because it's not my job to give shout outs. But they've done a really nice job along Bridgeway of using drought tolerant plants to beautify that stretch. And it's a great example. And they're out there keeping that clean on a weekly basis. So that looks really nice. Thank you. |
| 01:23:15.22 | Unknown | Thank you. |
| 01:23:15.37 | Lauren | Thank you. This is another example. This is over at Whiskey Springs along Coloma. And they recently did this. They did this within the last year and added these landscaping improvements. And again, you can see that just because they're drought tolerant, just because they're native grasses doesn't mean that they don't have color. You've got salvias in there that are the purple flowers, kind of a sage type, and some of these low shrubs with a really vibrant yellow and some of the kind of purples that are up in these trees. And it looks really, really nice. And it's good for the water compared to the lawn that they have along Bridgeway that they keep irrigated, which drives me a little bit nuts every time I drive by it. But there you go. So I'm proud to come before you and be able to say that we actually did reduce some water usage in some of our public parks and still been able to retain as much as we can. those public spaces so that people can use them and enjoy them, particularly Robin Sweeney where we have so many children. Um, Gabrielson Park where we had Jazz by the Bay. We were able to use our water there. Now, there have been other areas where we have stopped using water and reduced it significantly, and there are brown spots. Some of the medians you'll see are a little bit browner than they would be under normal circumstances. Some of our smaller parks, Southview, Cloudview, have probably seen a reduction in water, and we may need to go back up in there and replace some of the landscaping as a result of this drought. |
| 01:24:22.11 | Unknown | Thank you. |
| 01:24:22.21 | Neil Whitelaw | We'll be right back. |
| 01:24:46.49 | Lauren | The hope is that this coming winter will bring some water, and based on certain information from the National Oceanographic Association, there's the potential that we may have a wet winter, and we're all keeping our fingers crossed for that. |
| 01:24:56.75 | Neil Whitelaw | So, |
| 01:25:03.96 | Lauren | But we still need to be diligent about the use of our water. So I come before you now and provide some options and ask for some direction from the council. One, we can continue with our current strategies regarding our water usage. We'll continue to identify areas of improvement in our irrigation systems, our other water uses of course, but essentially we're going to stay the course and not reduce our water usage significantly, especially in some of our fields. Or if the council directs, we can try to meet what the Marin Municipal Water District has mandated or requested, which is a 25 percent reduction. That may result in some more browning of some of our public fields, We can choose which fields we want to go brown and leave other ones maybe green The department can research other sources of water. We reached out to MMWD about potentially using non-potable water resources from their reclamation plants. There are some odd restrictions about that. Can't go into the storm system, you know, can't leave the property. You have to post it as non-potable water. So there are some challenges to that, but it's a possibility. Herb told me that years ago they dug some wells over at MLK. We tested those. Unfortunately, they didn't produce a very large amount of water, so they're not really effective. But if that's something that we want to look at, we can always take a look at possibly finding some other sources of water using wells. Again, the last point on that is identify parks and other public spaces that maybe we want to reduce because we want Gabrielson, but we're willing to let Dunphy maybe brown a little bit further. Or we can basically cross our fingers and hope that rain is coming and then just return to our pre-drought water policies and just go to town. So if you have any recommendations, we're here to listen. The department is proud to be able to say that we were able to meet your goals, and we'll continue to do so. And, again, I just want to say that, you know, our staff at DPW has done a great job. MMWD was very impressed by the fact that the fire and the police stations were facilities that, you know, waterless urinals, low flush, dual flush water closets. They basically couldn't offer any more suggestions on how to reduce water usage over at those locations other than shorter showers water, you know, run when you're shaving. But they were impressed by those improvements. This bathroom over here they were impressed by as well. They did come into this facility and they did give us some – the aerators for some of the older sinks. So I do also want to give a shout to Marin Municipal Water District. They've been fantastic and they have some really great resources which I've included on this page. This page can – includes MMWD's recommendations for how to reduce water, information from the State Water Resources Control Board, California State Government information on the drought. So – and then this last item is the images of the drought, which I took those pictures of Lake Oroville, and there are some really amazing pictures that show what the effects are. So I'll leave that. And if you have any questions, and also if you have some recommendations and directions for staff. |
| 01:28:32.82 | City Clerk or Chair | Great. Lauren, thanks. That was a great report. Thank you. Questions? |
| 01:28:42.31 | City Clerk or Chair | Questions? Thank you. Okay. Thank you. Is there any member of the public who would like to make a comment on this particular topic? |
| 01:28:59.03 | City Clerk or Chair | Please. |
| 01:29:05.12 | Unknown | Hello, Mayor and Council. A few members of the public here too. I'm a little sad there aren't more people here. We're talking about something that is... kind of important, the water in California. It's always been the important thing here. And that's not just here in California, but Thank you. It's in the Southwest. It's in many places on the planet. USA Today said it was a 100-year drought on the front page, and then they had a graph taken from tree rings of the water in each year, the rainfall. And, According to that graph, it's a thousand-year drought, and the last time this happened, If you go look at Mesa Verde and Chaco Canyon, They now are pretty empty except for the Taurus. that travel through, that civilization disappeared. We don't know exactly how. I'm just going to read a little bit from the portion for this week. In the Torah, it's from Deuteronomy 26. This is 28. It says... With scorching heat and drought, with blight and mildew, which will plague you until you perish. The sky over your head will be bronze, the ground beneath you iron, The Lord will turn the reign of your country into dust and powder. It will come down from the skies. until you are ruined. I'm starting with the curse. This portion contains the blessings and the curses. And like a Hollywood movie, have a happy ending, I hope. I hope and I don't think we just need to cross our fingers. There is a solution for this. This says, Therefore, in hunger and thirst and nakedness, In poverty you will dwell. This is the third portion. It says, The Lord will open the heavens, the storehouses of His bounty. This is the blessing. to send rain on your land in season and to bless all the work of your hands. And this says to me that this drought that's happening here in California is not just something scientific. It's something that runs a little deeper. And to me, the way to deal with this is to apportion the water equally. One way that we tried to do that on the anchorage was to talk about showers. That didn't exactly happen. It's symbolic. It isn't just because we don't know how to wash ourselves in the Starbucks bathroom. In Exodus 16, even when the manna comes down from heaven, it's apportioned according to our need. to everybody equally. Right? So this is in the Constitution and in the Declaration. of independence. Our creator is the one who gave us these inalienable rights, and one of them is to water. So in Detroit, my hometown, we're now facing the issue there. So thank you. Thank you for your indulgence. I will bring the portion for next week ahead of time so you can look at it and maybe even we could talk about it. I want to see more people here. That would be great. |
| 01:32:32.99 | City Clerk or Chair | Thank you. |
| 01:32:34.00 | Unknown | Thank you. |
| 01:32:36.50 | City Clerk or Chair | Any other member of the public like to comment on this important topic? Please, sir. |
| 01:32:59.51 | Neil Whitelaw | Neil Whitelaw 408 B Street resident for 47 years I'm close friends with two people that are doing a lot of revelation of what's going on with water. Um, One's a writer, one's a legal person. I happen to know that if the two tunnels that Jerry Brown wants to put through in California. to run water down to Southern California agribusiness goes through. the consequences will be a saltwater bay. with mud swamps, and they don't care. Former head of one of the water divisions of uh, California and Sacramento has resigned He said this. He said, we don't really care what happens to the bay. And if they do that, they've already before the beginning of the dry season, this year. Five Northern California reservoirs were drained 90% and the water put down to Southern California. So. This really is two states, I'm afraid. and the South is an agribusiness, and Jerry Brown is just robbing us of our heritage. Something to be aware of. Most people don't know things about that. |
| 01:34:20.41 | City Clerk or Chair | Thank you. Okay, I'll close public comment. And I think Lauren was looking for some direction from us. |
| 01:34:33.62 | Unknown | So, Lauren, if we were going to try to meet that goal, the MWD, I think it's still voluntary. I don't know if it's still voluntary. It is still voluntary at this time. But I think it's something, if we were going to try to meet that, because I think it's something we should try to do. Beyond the measures you've already done, which, you know, certainly have helped a lot in terms of the volume decreases, what, besides like browning a couple, I mean, is there anything really, what else would you be able to do? |
| 01:34:43.11 | Lauren | It is still voluntary at this time. |
| 01:35:02.77 | Adam Politzer | Excellent. I think one other thing said in the... One of the things that's important here that Lauren mentioned that I hadn't Um, necessarily heard before. When you compare apples to apples, we're actually significantly conserving water greater than that number. And one of the apples to apples that we didn't compare and Lauren didn't mention was also the downtown restroom, which is also significantly bigger, more stalls, and also I think has the same type of water conservation tool. So I don't necessarily think that we are asking you to direct us to Brown, the Medians, or Marinship Park. I think we want to make sure that we're going the right direction, that you don't see anything glaring out there in the public space that you'd like us to change significantly. I think as Lauren gave credit to his staff, I think a lot of credit needs to go to Lauren, Kent, and Jonathan for also their leadership and direction on this. But I don't necessarily think that we have a clear picture of what the apples to apples are when you take out the change at MLK and the change at the downtown restroom. Thank you. |
| 01:36:23.33 | Unknown | Thank you. |
| 01:36:23.97 | Adam Politzer | Thank you. |
| 01:36:24.04 | Unknown | Thank you. |
| 01:36:24.09 | Adam Politzer | Thank you. |
| 01:36:24.19 | Unknown | Thank you. |
| 01:36:24.56 | Adam Politzer | THE END OF THE END OF THE |
| 01:36:25.20 | Unknown | I hear you, but it's still like the volume of water is the volume of water. Whatever you're consuming versus what it was before, it's still, you know, trying to find ways to conserve given that there's less of a supply. So if there are, I mean, this is probably something that if we were to decide to, as a, you know, community, not just, you know, staff or not just the city council to go further in what we've done. You know, certainly, you know, it'd be good to communicate this out in the currents and see if, you know, the IJ or whatever could also communicate this out to the community so we can get some feedback and then have another review of saying, okay, you know, what else do you want us to do? So, Hey, do we want to let Marin ship park go Brown for, you know, until the support. you know, what else do you want us to do? So, hey, do we want to let Marinship Park go brown for, you know, until the supply situation is different? You know, so there's, you know, kind of feedback. |
| 01:37:18.70 | Lauren | Yeah. Yeah, it becomes tough. There's a point of diminishing returns. And in California, for years, building code has and the other side of the building. as I mentioned, the fire and police station, waterless urinals, the next steps start to become very incremental unless we do take dramatic measures like saying we have Gabrielson, Dunphy, and Marinship. One of them will not be watered this year and we will allow it to go brown. If you take a look at some of these water figures on the graph that I provided to you in your report, where you see something like Marinship using 1,000 cubic feet. Each cubic feet is 700 gallons. So you start multiplying that out. We're talking tens of thousands of gallons that we could reduce if we chose to make those types of decisions. I believe that at one time historically in Sausalito they did get water trucks and they did go and get reclaimed water and brought out. I seem to recall that. And there's an expense to that. We can keep our fields irrigated and keep them green. But at the end of your report, I think I tried to show what that might take. So if you take a look at a regular truck and say it assumes a full load of 4,000 gallons, that's 6 CCF per truck. Now, to irrigate MarinShip Field in those restrooms, that would require |
| 01:38:49.05 | Unknown | Thank you. |
| 01:38:49.15 | Neil Whitelaw | Thank you. |
| 01:38:56.74 | Lauren | 180 deliveries. I just did the very quick math. That's 180 trips on a 4,000 gallon, which is a very large truck, going back and forth. That's staff. It's the purchase of the water, which is more expensive than regular water. But, you know, we keep the lawn and we keep it green. And we prevent the cost of having to replace the field in the future because we've allowed it to go brown and then we have to replace the whole thing. So there's going to be some decisions there. If we enter into this new winter and we find the same conditions that we did last year, the same conditions that we had this year, I mean our problems are going to get really severe, and it's not going to be a matter of letting a field go It's really going to be a good What are we going to do? about water resources. and there are going to be some tough decisions. I mean, you can see these lakes. We're doing OK. We turn on our water. and water comes out. And there are communities probably that are in central California where they're getting close to where they're turning on the water and nothing's coming So, We're in a good spot thanks to Kenfield probably because they get so much rain. But if we really want to start reducing our water levels, it's going to be a matter of making some tough decisions about what we think are important places for our community. City Hall, we have the water fountain over here, and we have members of the community who come here and come to the library and rely on this facility, both for the restrooms and for water. And some of the anchor outs, they don't have ready access to water. That's an issue for a lot of them. So there are certain areas where we can't do a lot of modification. Downtown restroom. We're lucky that that's reduced because of the facilities that we have in there. But, you know, I suspect that at the end of this month, when we take a look at the new meter rings, that's going to go back up again. Thankfully those facilities are in good shape and we don't have a lot of landscaping in front, They're, they're, There are some areas where we can make the reductions by making some hard choices. There are some areas where it may not be in our best interest to do so, like at City Hall or Downtown Rush Room, we can't restrict those facilities. So I don't have a good answer for you. That's a long story. |
| 01:41:10.68 | Unknown | I think we've all gotten some emails from people asking what, A, what the city is doing, and B, can we use reclaimed water? to do stuff like water lawns. But you also have to have a system of delivering that reclaimed water that is separate from the water that is not So, you know, one that's going to cost a lot of money to meet. But, you know, I think it's a lot of, you know, a lot of people are going to be able to use it. And, you know, I think it's a lot of people are going to be able to use it. And, you know, I think it's a lot of people are going to be able to use it. |
| 01:41:47.01 | Neil Whitelaw | with water. |
| 01:42:00.39 | Unknown | I think that's a good question. |
| 01:42:07.63 | Neil Whitelaw | you have. |
| 01:42:13.45 | Unknown | We should consider having Plan B. We did Plan A. That's great. We should have a Plan B and not wait until after the winter to come up with Plan B. Thank you. |
| 01:42:25.81 | Unknown | And thank you for this. It's a critical issue. And thank you for all the work you've done in terms of the conservation that we have done. But we know there's a cost if we let things go brown to redo it. And are we looking at a timeframe we're going to know in December, January, as the winter evolves, which is several months away. Thank you. it's going to start looking what the rain will be. Are we making decisions for the next three or four months, or are you talking about if we enter another drought year where we really enter a severe drought? |
| 01:42:44.52 | Council Member Weiner | Thank you. |
| 01:42:55.79 | Lauren | What we'll continue to do from a staff standpoint is continue to be cognizant of how we use the water. This period of drought has been good for staff in that they've been able to really look at the fields and kind of spend a little bit more time, you know, looking at them and evaluating what our water usage is. So, you know, we're going to be able to So now that we know that we can keep our water at a relatively low usage and still keep some of those public areas, green, We'll continue to do that. the Marin Municipal Water District did evaluate all of our systems and has put together a spreadsheet of rebates that will be available to us when we have the time and ability to start upgrading some of those controllers and add those to our system. It's just a matter of time, of finding the time to get that equipment into place. But we'll try to continue to make the improvements and we'll continue to move forward doing what we're doing. And if we start We'll try to continue to make the improvements, and we'll continue to move forward doing what we're doing. And if we start getting into October, which is when our first rains are supposed to, you know, start occurring, our first flush, if you will, and into November, if, you know, we continue to see dryness, you know, then we'll start, I think, having to really acknowledge that we might be in a crisis mode. I believe that the NOAA a few months ago anticipated that there was an 85% chance that this was going to be an El Nino year and higher water precipitation. About two months ago, they reduced that to about 65%. Now, 65% and 85% from Weatherman isn't all that great, so we could probably have tons of water or none. So, you know, we just have to wait and see and, you know, According to, I believe it's which one of you, one of your walnut trees has indicated to us that we're going to have a wet season. So, I mean, we're keeping our fingers crossed. We'll continue to do the proper monitoring of our systems. What I think is really important from a staff standpoint is to really keep an eye on the systems and make sure that we don't have leaks. We had, when we were out with MMWD at MarinShip, a valve happened to get stuck while we were testing the water. And when we were about to leave, we looked at the meter again before we left, and we saw that the meter was spinning. And the gentleman from MMWD said, there's something happening. This wasn't happening five minutes ago. So we went out onto the field, and we happened to find one of our pop-ups that had gotten stuck, and it was flowing. And he... took a look at the meter, and he explained how to do this to our staff, but he said, watch where this arm goes and look over it for 20 seconds and you'll see how much water is actually going. It was thousands of gallons in an hour. I mean, it was a crazy amount of water that, had we not noticed, might have gone on for 24 or 48 hours until the next cycle of irrigation. And, you know, those are the types of things that we've instructed staff to do, is take a look at the meter when the water is off to make sure that the water is actually off and not flowing. And it's just going to take a lot of diligence on staff's part and review of these records that I showed you that are taken every, you know, two months or take a look, you know, at the meters ourselves to make sure that we're not, you know, having problems like that. That's what will really hurt us. It's not necessarily the irrigation, but the waste of just flowing water in our irrigation systems. |
| 01:46:26.46 | Neil Whitelaw | Now. |
| 01:46:26.54 | Unknown | I'm sorry. |
| 01:46:26.58 | Neil Whitelaw | Thank you. |
| 01:46:34.98 | Council Member Weiner | Lauren, let's go back to Wells again. The one at MLK, by the way, And that's why they probably never used it because it wasn't enough volume to pop out. And if you really look at the history of that, that area there was at one time it was all swampland to begin with way back. So but yet, you know, Sausalito still has, I'm sure, a lot of springs. still going through it. And maybe that I recommend that. I wouldn't wait until November if we're still dry to make a decision of Thank you. then calling out people in the well business right now. They're probably almost two, three months behind anyway. So I wouldn't really want to wait too long to see the availability of tapping into springs that we still have. I mean, we still, if you go up Richardson Street at the bottom of my street at 4th, You can still hear the water running, and those are springs. And if you really heard recently up in Napa where they had the earthquake, that has opened up areas that they never had before that are now getting plenty of water in certain areas. I'm not waiting for an earthquake to do that here. But I'm just saying to you, I think we could have a resource and maybe look at some of the city properties that we have around that we might be able to tap in. So I wouldn't wait too long because, as I said, you're not going to be able to get someone on the phone and say, I'd like you to come out in a month because they might say, I can't come out for three months. So I wouldn't want to let it go beyond maybe the middle of November if we're that dry. And that's my recommendation. |
| 01:48:00.22 | Unknown | Yeah. |
| 01:48:00.98 | Neil Whitelaw | But |
| 01:48:29.63 | Lauren | We'll take a look at some of those resources. I do know that the Bayside Willow Creek School, Forrester Pump, who's the organization that we had to come out and evaluate our well, they thought when I first called them that they were talking about that school. And they said, oh, we already have your well up there. And I believe they have like a 15,000-gallon |
| 01:48:39.33 | Neil Whitelaw | that we had to come out about. |
| 01:48:50.00 | Lauren | tank in a well that serves that Thank you. |
| 01:48:52.90 | Unknown | Thank you. |
| 01:48:52.93 | Lauren | So you're right. There is water, and it would be worth reaching out and seeing how we might go about it. |
| 01:48:52.97 | Unknown | School. |
| 01:48:53.46 | Council Member Weiner | you |
| 01:48:59.62 | Council Member Weiner | And the other thing to keep in mind, I don't know what Caltrans uses at the Marin City Sausalito exit. If that's gray water. uh, |
| 01:49:09.52 | Lauren | It is not. That is water. And actually, as recently as last week, Caltrans went and changed out the water control system at that location because we used to tap into that water for that little stretch of landscaping at the north end. And one day we turned on the water and it wasn't there. But they've gone in and they've changed out at a lot of their irrigated locations the controllers to make them more efficient. So they're going through the same process that we are trying to find better ways to use them. |
| 01:49:25.47 | Neil Whitelaw | Thank you. |
| 01:49:25.60 | Unknown | THE END OF THE END OF THE |
| 01:49:25.69 | Neil Whitelaw | Thank you. |
| 01:49:43.19 | Councilmember Pfeiffer | So, Lauren, I just want to commend city staff for this 16% overall reduction in water. That's pretty amazing, and the fact that you achieved it in a way that, you know, did not have a hard aesthetic hit, you know, to the city. As you know, we live in a small town where, you know, folks notice, you know, every little thing and yet you did it in a way that was creative and, you know, just very thoughtful and efficient. And in maximizing the MMWD and the rebates they're providing and everything, that's just really wonderful and I really want to thank you for that and acknowledge staff. And... |
| 01:50:24.14 | Unknown | Thank you. |
| 01:50:28.50 | Councilmember Pfeiffer | Yeah, so, and I think, you know, moving forward, I know that you will continue to explore creative ways, possibly pioneering ways, to to maximize water efficiencies. And so thank you very much. |
| 01:50:46.23 | Lauren | I think the big takeaway that I'd like the public to take from this is that water reduction can be done relatively simply, and it requires thoughtfulness. It requires thinking about what you're doing with your water. Not necessarily huge changes in your lifestyle, which is minor modifications on how long you take a shower, turning the faucet off when you shave or when you brush your teeth, keeping an eye on your irrigation systems. They're small ways of making a big |
| 01:51:21.76 | City Clerk or Chair | Okay, anybody else? So once again, thank you, Lauren. I think your savings are greater than 16% because I think the apples to apples thing, when you take it out, I think you've convinced me that you've made a pretty significant reduction. So well done. And most importantly, or as importantly, this presentation is, I think, should be part of an ongoing effort to communicate to our residents because I know from my own personal experience, even when you're with drought-resistant plants and, you know, drip irrigation, all it needs is one of those things that pop off and you're using a lot of water. So the education component is an important service you've done here, so thank you. You're welcome. Okay. I suggest we take a five-minute break. |
| 01:51:29.26 | Neil Whitelaw | Thank you. |
| 01:52:04.57 | Lauren | Correct. |
| 01:52:25.96 | Unknown | Thank you. Thank you. |
| 01:52:27.82 | Unknown | Thank you. |
| 01:52:29.63 | Unknown | But you went on. Idiot way. |
| 01:52:35.03 | Unknown | Thank you. |
| 01:52:36.55 | Unknown | I would search all night for you, darling. |
| 01:52:38.11 | Jonathon Goldman | Thank you. |
| 01:52:38.23 | Unknown | Thank you. Thank you. |
| 01:52:41.32 | Unknown | You know my search will always end in vain. |
| 01:52:45.29 | Jonathon Goldman | you |
| 01:52:45.35 | Unknown | So you always Oh, okay. You crazy. |
| 01:52:53.39 | Unknown | at ease. |
| 01:52:54.79 | Unknown | when you're trying to do it. |
| 01:52:59.97 | Unknown | Seems to. That all night, every night Thank you. you Thank you. I'm just going to. You know my son? We're all way! All right. |
| 01:53:13.53 | Unknown | Always. |
| 01:53:13.70 | Unknown | you Exactly. Amen. |
| 01:53:16.40 | Unknown | THE END OF |
| 01:53:16.66 | Unknown | Thank you. |
| 01:53:16.69 | Unknown | . |
| 01:53:16.77 | Unknown | Thank you. |
| 01:53:17.62 | Unknown | Thank you. Thank you. |
| 01:53:18.33 | Unknown | Stick around. |
| 01:53:18.97 | Unknown | They have more interest. |
| 01:53:20.49 | Unknown | you |
| 01:53:20.93 | Unknown | All the time I knew, you didn't know I knew, but I knew. That you were scared |
| 01:53:29.72 | Unknown | Thank you. |
| 01:53:29.97 | Neil Whitelaw | to work. |
| 01:53:30.24 | Unknown | It's him. |
| 01:53:31.34 | Neil Whitelaw | you |
| 01:53:32.55 | Unknown | You was hit out. |
| 01:53:32.81 | Neil Whitelaw | Really? |
| 01:53:33.02 | Jan Fidler | Thank you. |
| 01:53:33.14 | Neil Whitelaw | you |
| 01:53:34.32 | Unknown | You was held out with another man. |
| 01:53:34.60 | Jan Fidler | Yeah! |
| 01:53:35.02 | Neil Whitelaw | Oh, |
| 01:53:37.35 | Unknown | Yes, you were! |
| 01:53:37.40 | Neil Whitelaw | Thank you. |
| 01:53:37.41 | Jan Fidler | Yes, you were! |
| 01:53:38.32 | Neil Whitelaw | you |
| 01:53:40.38 | Unknown | I'm gonna send you home! To your mama. You're not serving my food, do you? |
| 01:53:40.62 | Neil Whitelaw | Thank you. |
| 01:53:40.69 | Jan Fidler | I'm gonna send you home. |
| 01:53:41.95 | Neil Whitelaw | Thank you. |
| 01:53:47.84 | Unknown | you And I'm going back to my little ghetto family. |
| 01:53:50.39 | Unknown | I want you to flap it back and forth and get some ventilation. |
| 01:53:54.22 | Unknown | Thank you. Thank you. |
| 01:53:54.49 | Unknown | you |
| 01:53:54.95 | Unknown | Thank you. |
| 01:53:55.03 | Unknown | see my text out Thank you. Oh, yeah. |
| 01:54:03.42 | Unknown | Oh, great. Yeah, exactly. you |
| 01:54:04.95 | Unknown | Yeah, see, thank you. And he's Jewish, too, so we all know. Your family will be glad to see you. And I know my family will be glad. |
| 01:54:14.06 | Unknown | All right. |
| 01:54:14.62 | Unknown | Thank you. |
| 01:54:14.74 | Unknown | you |
| 01:54:14.81 | Unknown | you |
| 01:54:14.98 | Unknown | you Thank you. |
| 01:54:15.26 | Unknown | This is representative. |
| 01:54:15.41 | Unknown | This is Reverend Giddley. you |
| 01:54:16.65 | Unknown | Thank you. |
| 01:54:28.97 | Unknown | I just can't. Get him! Mmm! |
| 01:54:33.96 | Unknown | So we'll be here. Just take it. Now, man, I can't get it now. We'll be here. I knew that. You can't do so. So I guess that. |
| 01:54:55.12 | Unknown | Thank you. |
| 01:54:55.14 | Jonathon Goldman | Thank you. |
| 01:54:55.19 | Unknown | I don't know. |
| 01:54:55.49 | Jonathon Goldman | No. |
| 01:54:55.81 | Unknown | I don't know, it's cable access from channel 26. |
| 01:54:59.21 | Jonathon Goldman | or via the web, I really don't know. |
| 01:55:02.02 | Unknown | Just look at that. |
| 01:55:03.05 | Jonathon Goldman | Thank you. |
| 01:55:03.20 | Unknown | you |
| 01:55:04.69 | Jonathon Goldman | Well... |
| 01:55:05.11 | Unknown | Thank you. |
| 01:55:05.25 | Jonathon Goldman | Amen. |
| 01:55:06.02 | Unknown | More than used to watch. |
| 01:55:06.38 | Unknown | More than you? Are there going to be any debates? Any council members? |
| 01:55:10.83 | Unknown | Uh, I assume so. There usually are. But there are only three people for two seats. Three people for two seats. Is it too late to fly? Yes. It is. Not right at all. Go for it. I didn't say me. |
| 01:55:10.85 | Unknown | I assume so. They probably are. |
| 01:55:22.54 | Unknown | Yes. Go for it. . |
| 01:55:29.48 | Unknown | Thank you. |
| 01:55:29.51 | Unknown | Thank you. |
| 01:55:29.55 | Unknown | Thank you. I can't wait. Thank you. I don't think Jesus would have to. |
| 01:55:36.90 | Jonathon Goldman | Right. |
| 01:55:39.59 | Unknown | He wouldn't want to. No. I don't think it's been great. I don't think we're a boy, you know. It's going to be a place in an empty house. Son of empty brains. Can I call you that? Ah, no. You're probably not. Sure. Yes, yes, yes. I'm not. I'm not. No, I'm not. |
| 01:55:49.54 | Unknown | Thank you. |
| 01:56:01.54 | Unknown | Mr. Mayor, don't keep going up. |
| 01:56:04.02 | Unknown | No, no, no. Hey! |
| 01:56:06.00 | Unknown | Bye. |
| 01:56:07.63 | Unknown | Hey, how you doing? Good to see you. Is there a city of office like a necklace? Do you wear a special jacket or something? |
| 01:56:17.79 | Unknown | you |
| 01:56:17.86 | Unknown | Oh, everybody gets it. You don't do special bear, Joe. I don't care. I love the nonsense. Is he allowed to eat? You're listening to Radio Saucy. |
| 01:56:28.39 | Unknown | You're listening to Radio Sausalito, a non-commercial, Part 15-compliant radio station, broadcasting great music and community information 24 hours a day. You can hear us on 1610 AM in Southern Marin and 1710 AM Central San Rafael. |
| 01:56:32.20 | Unknown | Thank you. |
| 01:56:42.52 | Unknown | Yes. Also heard on cable as the Formula Company now, four minutes. That's his name. Our FCC. |
| 01:56:45.82 | Unknown | I want to be in the company. Our FCC IDs are NWSAM1000 and MQ5FM10TS. Our web address is radiosalcinitas.org. |
| 01:56:50.36 | Unknown | Yes. |
| 01:56:54.40 | Unknown | All right. at Webinar. |
| 01:56:55.59 | Unknown | Thank you. |
| 01:57:14.81 | Unknown | Thank you. |
| 01:57:14.86 | Unknown | Yes. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. She is still there. |
| 01:57:25.11 | Unknown | Amen. |
| 01:57:29.73 | Unknown | Thank you. |
| 01:57:34.20 | Unknown | Thank you. |
| 01:57:37.29 | Unknown | on a 50 minutes and a half minutes. |
| 01:57:38.62 | Unknown | Thank you. |
| 01:57:40.75 | Unknown | You know, I was thinking about that today. Why don't we just get the same line? We're gonna be true. Oh yeah, we're just gonna slide. We're just gonna place the second. We're gonna have to do this. We're proud of that. you Thank you. you Thank you. Thank you. I'm sorry. I think Thank you. Thank you. Just a kind of question. you Thank you. Thank you. you Thank you. Thank you. you you Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. you you . Thank you. National Guard. you you Thank you. Bye. Thank you. |
| 01:59:40.14 | City Clerk or Chair | Okay, folks, should we... Get going again. |
| 01:59:54.11 | City Clerk or Chair | Okay. |
| 02:00:01.79 | City Clerk or Chair | So let us see a status update on future urban runoff pollution prevention ordinance amendments. Our director of public works. Sir. |
| 02:00:15.78 | Jonathon Goldman | Thank you, Mr. Mayor, members of the council, staff, and members of the community. Jonathan Goldman, your public works director and city engineer. This is really just a trailer, kind of a prequel, if you will, for an ordinance amendment that We as a community are responsible for crafting over the next eight months or so. And I wanted to bring it to your attention in the context of our new stormwater permit. See, now I'm having trouble and I don't even have any special effects. In any event, you're, I think, aware that actually as of February of 2013, the State Water Resources Control Board adopted the Phase II Small Municipal Separate Storm Sewer System, which is way too many words already. MS4 is how that's abbreviated. National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System Permit that regulates, that changed the regulations that we as a municipality, as a small MS4, operate under. We had a prior permit. This is a new permit that became effective July 1st of 2013. And as I recall, there's a five-year implementation period within which the requirements of that permit are phased in. |
| 02:02:01.45 | Jonathon Goldman | Our permit, our new permit, requires each permittee to review and revise relevant ordinances or other regulatory mechanisms, or adopt any new ordinances or other regulatory mechanisms, why is there a comma there, to obtain adequate legal authority to the extent allowable under state or local law to control pollutant discharges into and from our jurisdiction and to meet the requirements of the statewide permit. |
| 02:02:36.87 | Jonathon Goldman | There's more detail in the staff report, but just summarizing for purposes of the presentation and certainly if you or members of the public have questions about the staff report is actually really lengthy. There is a kind of confusing probably set of attachments that include copies of both our existing ordinance as well as proposed changes in a couple of different redline versions. But again, the objective of the contemplated amendments, the objectives kind of boiled down to a few, are to give the city additional authority to minimize discharges of anything other than storm runoff to storm drains or watercourses. And serendipitously, Mr. Umbertus gave us a presentation earlier that actually pointed out |
| 02:03:33.71 | City Clerk or Chair | Thank you. |
| 02:03:34.31 | Jonathon Goldman | certain illicit discharges to storm drains or water courses. The discharge of potable water to the storm drain is actually currently against the law. while it can happen incidentally, in other words, if a person over-irrigates accidentally, they're not doing it on purpose. That's less of an issue than if, for example, we were to flush our storm drains with chlorinated water and fail to recover the chlorinated water before it could reach the bay. We're also required to respond to the discharge of spills, prevent and control the discharge of spills to storm drains or watercourses, and prohibit dumping or disposal of materials other than stormwater. reduce pollutants and stormwater discharges to the maximum extent practicable, which is a term of art that is common in pollution law. It doesn't say that the water is It doesn't say as the maximum extent convenient. It really establishes a relatively high standard. We're expected to know what we can practically do, and we're required to do it to the maximum extent to reduce these pollutants. We're obligated or will be required at a higher level than we currently are to require operators of construction sites, new or redeveloped land, and industrial and commercial facilities to install, implement, or maintain appropriate best management practices. Again, a term of art that's abbreviated BMPs. And to require newly developed or redeveloped land to maintain the pre-development stormwater runoff rates, and this is kind of important, and prevent stormwater pollution wherever possible through stormwater management controls and ensuring that these management controls are properly maintained. Thank you. So, for example, when we entertain an application for private development on a piece of property, and this is actually a standard that is not a standard that is not a standard that is that we in engineering currently apply. But the record keeping and the details under the new permit are, you know, more extensive. We are required to maintain pre-development runoff rates, so a property that's increasing area coverage or something like that, they are required to do the hydrology studies necessary to quantify the change in runoff rates that that change in impervious area would create and implement best management practices to make sure that the rates that leave the property post-development do not exceed what they did pre-development. |
| 02:06:34.64 | Jonathon Goldman | Key changes to the ordinance, this is kind of a laundry list and I won't read them all, but the red lines do provide additional definitions, revised description of the exceptions to the discharge prohibitions, discussions about illicit discharges and illicit connections, specifically adding authority to the city that wasn't necessarily expressed before. Broaden the definitions of activities that could result in pollution and therefore the activities that were expected and will regulate. Let's see, again, some additions of expressed and more explicit authorities that might not have been as clearly defined before. |
| 02:07:32.42 | Jonathon Goldman | authorities for the enforcement official under this ordinance to inspect facilities, including routine, active, or potential discharges, and whenever necessary to enforce the ordinance or phase two permit. So what might in the past have required a more burdensome process of seeking permission to enter property for inspection. This ordinance provides the authority without anything except notification, for example. And then also some more Thank you. alternatives and progressive types of actions that are called out in the ordinance with respect to actions that we can take when we identify a violation. Um, Just kind of for purposes of comparison between the proposed amendments to the ordinance and what will ultimately come forward and hopefully ultimately be adopted by Sausalito as a community, between that and, for example, a grading ordinance, the revisions to the urban runoff section are intended to give agencies sufficient authority for the E10 and E12 requirements. forgive me, I copied boilerplate from McStop, so I have no idea what those mean, but they're sections of the permit. But if more specificity is desired, the language from the county grading ordinance could be incorporated or the grading or land development code sections could be updated. The urban runoff ordinance is intended to specify the projects that require erosion and sedimentation control plans, et cetera. That's not a material difference from what we have now, but I think there's probably more specificity. Establishes minimum requirements for those plans, and then this ordinance revision references a technical guidance document that I think it's BASMA has prepared the area stormwater management agencies or something like that. So the idea is to try to get the entire construction community and the entire regulatory community kind of on the same page about the requirements, the minimum standards, and how these documents will be prepared and also allow our regulatory process to happen more consistently and efficiently. Excuse me. Um. This is just a reiteration. A new piece is that it will give us the authority to require, and this came up in a different context earlier this evening, bonding, performance bonding in the event that a project is permitted, it will give us the authority to require a bond to ensure that those measures are performed. So, for example, if a contractor says, I'm going to do this work and then fails to do it or disappears from the job site and we as the permittee are essentially liable to the state and to the EPA for protecting against violations of the Clean Water Act, we would have financial resources to draw on to do whatever was necessary to prevent an illicit discharge. Um, We have the great advantage, the benefit of having Terry Fashing, who's the stormwater program administrator for Marin County Stormwater Pollution Prevention Program, scheduled for a presentation on the permit and then the necessary ordinance revisions and other kind of broader permit compliance issues at Council's October 21st, 2014 meeting. So following that presentation, working with McStop, her organization, Office of County Council, who's reviewing the model ordinance that McStop has prepared with our city attorney, will be in a position to bring back progressive revisions to the proposed amendments to the ordinance. One of the advantages to trotting this out here this evening is that if you or members of the community have comments on what is being contemplated, now's the time to think about it, to provide us with that input so that we can figure out how best to craft what think think would be the appropriate public policy changes and then ultimately if council agrees that that's the appropriate course of action to take, there would be a first reading on an amended ordinance and then a second reading and then the ordinance would go into effect whatever the statutory time period is afterwards. I think we're required to have an ordinance in effect by June 30th of 2015 as I recall. So with that, I'm happy to answer, or try to answer questions. Thank you, Jonathan. |
| 02:12:51.04 | City Clerk or Chair | Okay. Any questions from the dais here? |
| 02:13:00.57 | Unknown | So, Jonathan, my understanding of this is it kind of dovetails, it's kind of an authority and implementation for a system operator, which in this case, I guess, we're a system, I mean, I don't know if that's the right term, but we're an operator, we're a permittee of this. That dovetails with the increased water quality standards that stormwater discharge is going to have to meet in going into the bay. Yes. So this is sort of part and parcel of that evolution of higher standards and then what the authority to implement those standards and also at some point the changes we're going to have to make to the discharge system to meet those standards at the end of the pipe. Is that a fair way to say it? |
| 02:13:26.22 | Jonathon Goldman | Yes. |
| 02:13:47.48 | Unknown | Okay. |
| 02:13:48.08 | Jonathon Goldman | It's absolutely true, and one analog that I think is relevant is we're currently operating under an EPA administrative order with respect to our sanitary sewer system. You know, despite the fact, for example, that our local regulations say the lower laterals and the upper laterals are not the cities. They're private. The city owns and operates the sanitary sewer system, and will be responsible for that. EPA's position in the order is, that's fine, but you're the regulator of the private laterals and we're going to hold you as the system operator in a holistic sense, responsible for making sure that whether it's private sewage or public sewage, that it doesn't get into the bay and doesn't get into places that represent potential environmental or human health concerns. The difference between that system and our storm sewer system, which is really what this is about, is that we don't have a stormwater utility, and we don't have stormwater rates, but we do have an increasingly stringent mandate to protect the environment and protect water quality. And so we're obligated to comply with that mandate and obligated to understand what that means. But in the short term, we don't have, we know that we don't have the resources that we're going to need to in order to ensure compliance going forward. We're just trying to set the stage for that, make sure that we're dotting the I's and crossing the T's and providing you and the community with information about what those requirements really mean as we figure out. you know, going forward in time, how we're going to most efficiently protect the environment and comply with that, those permit conditions. |
| 02:15:53.31 | Unknown | I don't think any of us here attend mixed up meetings, but I think some have bigger challenges than we do, actually, like from my memory of some mixed up stuff. Like Novato has a huge impact on the community. And I think that's a huge impact on the community. And I think that's a huge impact on the community. I think that's a huge impact on the community. I think that's a huge impact on the community. issue with Even though they're not draining directly into the bay, it's because of the territory of how big Nevada was. |
| 02:16:26.73 | Jonathon Goldman | Right. |
| 02:16:28.35 | Unknown | Thank you. |
| 02:16:28.39 | Jonathon Goldman | The answer is yes. We're actually very fortunate. The fees that the city pays to McStop, to fund McStop, which as I recall are something like $15 per parcel per year, go a long way. Terri Fasching is very good at what she does. Um, And the staff that the county has and the consultants that the county have are functioning very well at trying to provide as much value countywide, not just for the benefit of the county of Marin, but for all the member agencies that make stop. Um, Marin County is actually somewhat behind some of the other counties. The last county I worked in as a public works director was Napa County, with the Napa River being steelhead habitat and an impaired water body for steelhead. So St. Helena, for example, has been operating under these same small MS4, more stringent permit requirements for almost 10 years. It's just new to us. And it doesn't, you know, that doesn't necessarily matter. The circumstances are very different. The challenge for us, as for other communities in Marin, is that our contracting community, our development community, our design professionals are not familiar with these requirements. |
| 02:17:10.85 | Neil Whitelaw | Thank you. |
| 02:17:53.59 | Jonathon Goldman | They do create, you know, it's unfortunate, but they do create more work for someone who's trying to Um, you know, not that we have a whole bunch of development of raw land here, but certainly even redevelopment of a piece of property. The requirements are just more stringent. Even our utilities, we had an incident in the city of last week where the water district had a contractor doing work on Gate 5 Road. We had a resident complain about potential water pollution issues. THE between the contractor and the water district, there was kind of a ball that got dropped, and we're the regulator there. We're responsible for making sure that those, the current permit conditions get complied with. So there's a lot more work on lots of parties' part. I'm optimistic because that's my nature, but it's a bit of a sea change, a bit of a difference from the way things have historically been done. |
| 02:19:06.25 | City Clerk or Chair | Any other questions? |
| 02:19:08.67 | Adam Politzer | I kind of have a question and a leading comment for our Public Works Director. I sit on the MGSA board, which is the JPA that oversees this entity, and Terry came and gave a presentation a couple years ago and then came and gave an update. Can you talk at all, and maybe we can have Terry do this when she comes, but there are significant budget increases to the JPA a year from now, two years from now, just on the administrative part. Can you comment at all on that? |
| 02:19:42.87 | Jonathon Goldman | Well, that is certainly true. I think that there's an ongoing series of negotiations between the regulated community and some of the, I mentioned BASMA, for example. There are organizations of regulated communities that essentially work with the regional boards and the state board to try to manage this process. So what our fees to McStop will be next year isn't necessarily easy to predict, but knowing that, for example, the county, my understanding is the county is estimating that just their compliance, not the McStott piece, is five full-time equivalents that they're planning to fund from the general fund. Last time I talked to Craig Tackaberry or Terry about it. The fact is our costs are going to go up, and that's not just the cost of paying for the McStott program, but it's definitely the cost of the regulations that we have to do. |
| 02:20:57.66 | Jonathon Goldman | you |
| 02:20:57.73 | Unknown | question. Thanks, Jonathan. And I think it's a good idea that you previewed this for us. It's pretty complicated. Um, just starting to get a grasp on it. And just these regulations as I go through them seem to be at a fairly um, generalized levels. Do they anticipate further regulations? I guess that's one part. And the second thing, We already have, the law is that we cannot put non-storm water into storm water drains, correct? Yes. And so... |
| 02:21:29.56 | Jonathon Goldman | Yes. |
| 02:21:31.70 | Unknown | Let's take a regular homeowner. What differences, just for example, again, just partly for our understanding, what is this likely to mean for a homeowner, differences in what they're allowed to do? |
| 02:21:46.28 | Jonathon Goldman | Well, I think it's really twofold. I mentioned one example where the expectation is that flow rates, peak flow rates, you know, a pre-development, post-development comparison, peak flow rates from a property won't be allowed to change. In addition, there are post-development standards that will apply. So for example, and we've seen several of them go in in the last year where there are either bioswales or bioretention facilities that are intended to remove the, if you're familiar with the term hydrograph, and I probably should have grabbed some of the some of Lauren's graphics or something like that. But the hydrograph is the flow rate versus time for a discharge, let's say. So the peak rate is, you know, the highest point in the hydrograph. If development is going to increase that peak, The objective of a retention facility, for example, would be we need to store that quantity of water so that the peak flow rate stays the same but the duration of flow is longer because there's more water being released than would have been. So the obligation to maintain those facilities, which, frankly, is a very important thing a big and challenging thing because we're certainly not in a position to go out and collect measurements of, you know, somebody's three-bedroom home, you know, every storm for the next 60 years to verify that their retention facility has been working. More importantly, I think, the objective is consciousness, awareness that these are issues. And it's not even necessarily flow rates. It's more things like application of pesticides. um, washing your car in the driveway and having you know, free and gentle rushing down the gutter. We see these issues downtown, frankly. with restaurants washing their mats out on the sidewalk in the morning. I ironically, probably eight months ago, took the ferry into San Francisco for a meeting and was early, and I'm watching a restaurant guy washing his mats right there at the ferry building, and the water's running directly into the bay. It's things like that that what that our obligation is to make sure the community is aware of, and that to the extent that we can educate and provide people with viable alternatives, ways to conduct their business, you know, have their gardens, whether they're low water using or not, but not have pollutants in the broad sense leaving their property and getting into the bay. That's the objective. And the way the regulators will I mean, there are lots of ways that our regulators will verify our performance. One thing is they have and will, because I went through three of these when I was in St. Helena for five years, they'll come audit our records, and they want to know that when we approve a project that we required certain things. They want to know that we've inspected, and they want to know that when somebody complains or alleges that there's an illicit discharge, that we follow up on it and that we've inspected and that they want to know that when somebody complains or alleges that there's an illicit discharge, that we follow up on it and that we document the results of that. The other thing they do is they have the opportunity to and may even require us to more quantitatively and more precise detail, collect samples from the stormwater that leaves our system, to collect samples from the bay, and try and identify places where are being employed aren't being successful. So for example, I learned this from Terry the other day, diazinon used to be a big deal as a pesticide applied to lots of people's landscaping. And it showed up in water samples all over the place, you know, including in the bay. So that gives the regulators then a chance to say, you know, between public education and other regulations, if there's a persistent, you know, and environmentally toxic pesticide that isn't, is getting to places where it shouldn't, not because it's being used commercially, but because it's being used residentially, then they have the opportunity to take those kinds of things off the market. So it's not, in know, in a way it's a long-term process of feedback with hopefully the ecosystem, and I know that at least some people would love to see, you know, shellfish beds and the opportunity for reasonable people to feel safe consuming, you know, fish and shellfish and things like that that they get out of Richardson's or San Francisco Bay. You know, that's the long-term objective. |
| 02:27:01.13 | City Clerk or Chair | Any other questions before I open this up for public comment? So is there any member of the public who would like to say anything on this topic? Okay, seeing none, let's bring it back up here. |
| 02:27:24.57 | Unknown | And I think that's a good thing to do for the Bay as well. And it's going to follow on to be an infrastructure issue going forward as well, so not just a regulatory issue. So I think that's a good thing to do for the Bay as well. And it's going to follow on to be an infrastructure issue going and I think that's a good thing to do at the same time. |
| 02:27:57.99 | City Clerk or Chair | against the other folks. Thank you, Jonathan. Another important topic and another one where actually the story is as much about education and informing our residents. Thank you. So, moving right along. Item 7A, City Manager Information for Council. And after a six-week break, this |
| 02:28:31.13 | Adam Politzer | I have a handful of items to share with council members in the community, kind of broken up into a couple of different categories. First, you can see that we have a new set up here. Staff working with our IT manager thought that there was an opportunity to look at how this room was facilitating meetings and change to set up to welcome the public in versus how we had a kind of a wall as you walked tables and barriers. So this is the new setup. It is reversible if someone had a strong objection to it. The Planning Commission held its first meeting last week so they got the trial run so we could get rid of any of the little bugs. And so we're moving to stay this direction and during the winter break when we're closed during the holidays break when we're closed during the holidays we'll make these changes permanent and move forward. So between now and in December we look at the new year and the new year towards your Your feedback? feedback from the public, again welcoming into the room with an open area, looking at how we use the dais, how people can view the screen. and then obviously for the staff's perspective, how and we all operate here. Part of our interest is also to downsize the amount of clutter that's up here. and actually make some of this more permanent and build it into a permanent table and desk area. that we're sitting at. and we have a lot of people who are working with the community and we have a lot of people who are working with the community and we have a lot of people who are working with the community and we have a lot of people who are working with the community. And I think that's a great question. So we now have gone from two to three. gives us the ability to also have different shots of the community in the public here and be able to provide more images to people that are watching at home on their computers or on TV. And a shot of actually staff. People are complaining, we can't see staff when you folks talk. So now we are right in your view. So that's the first change. So we are looking for feedback there. |
| 02:31:04.30 | Unknown | I'm not so crazy about the left side of your face. |
| 02:31:06.87 | Adam Politzer | Thank you. |
| 02:31:06.88 | Unknown | Thank you. |
| 02:31:06.99 | Adam Politzer | Okay. |
| 02:31:07.25 | Unknown | I got used to the right side. I love my hair. |
| 02:31:08.84 | Adam Politzer | my hair. Yes. We're going to have to get the makeup people. Now we'll definitely get the makeup people in here. I want to move just to the end of the special events season, and so the chili cook-off kind of marks the end of the big events for the summer, and then we'll obviously have the Halloween parade that will come up in October, and then the special events group downstairs in Park and Rec, Park and Rec Commission, all the volunteers and committees that put these events together will take the off season to start planning and regearing for the next season. So again, feedback to the Park and Rec Commission as you talk to the public. and they like certain things or they can see things be enhanced or changed, this is a great opportunity to provide that feedback during the months of November through January as they're doing the planning process. So please encourage the public to reach out and share the good, the bad, and the ugly with them so that they can continue to improve the events. We had a very successful art festival, the community had a very successful art festival. This is probably the fewest number of concerns that come from the public. There's the traditional, we're worried about the pre-event set up and the noise, especially on the turnover from Friday night's gala to Saturday mornings open to the public event. I assured a couple members that had emailed me that that was their concern, that Parks and Rec, Mike Langford and Jennifer Tata with the police department would communicate that to the event organizers to try to minimize that. Obviously, we can't eliminate the noise, but we can definitely be attentive to it and responsive. I think that they were. But from all that I've heard, very large crowds. They benefited from terrific weather. The food booths all did very well. The community food booths all did very well. The police department had no significant events that was good to report. Rotary Club did a good job as they've done in the past with controlling the traffic related to parking and the downtown merchants seemed to be happy with the balance of activity on both ends of town. So again if you've heard something different from the community or the community would like to provide feedback directly to me or to Mike Langford or the police chief or directly to the art festival through the chamber, please encourage them to do it, opportunity to keep these programs going in the right direction. And positive feedback is also important. So I encourage the positive feedback as well. Next theme here, we've talked about this a little bit before. We're going to be going through a transition in staff, particularly in the Community Development Department. You met Calvin tonight. our new assistant, I'm not an associate planner. You're used to seeing Heidi and Lily and he's on his way up. We're very excited about Calvin. We think he has a bright future with the department. We held interviews for the Community Development Director earlier last month. Had seven candidates come through. 12 members of the community serve on two interview panels, very thorough. I've narrowed that down to two finalists. I've spent probably in the neighborhood of 15 to 20 hours continuing to talk to them and interview. We've actually made a conditional offer to one of the candidates. If the candidate clears background in medical. than they would start on November 10th. So we are moving in a very positive direction on community development. There are two associate planner positions that are vacant. They're in the budget. They're vacant. When the new director comes on board, they will take a look to confirm that that's the direction we want to go. Some cities have an assistant planner and a senior planner. Some cities have an assistant and two associates. So we'll kind of look at the pros and cons of both. It'll be the decision of the director on which direction to go. And then we'll go and advertise and fill those positions and hope to have them filled by the first of the year. So we start 2015. with our new team assembled in there ready to serve to offset the two positions that are open and knock on wood or the other side of the board. So we're going to have a couple of questions that are going to be in the chat. So we're going to have a couple of questions that are We're paddling through the water okay. We're not doing great, but we'll survive this and the next team will come in and I think they'll do an exceptional job serving the community. I'm very excited about the candidate that we're focused in on hiring and I think that you will as well. So we look forward to introducing this individual in November. |
| 02:36:19.33 | Neil Whitelaw | Yeah. |
| 02:36:25.60 | Adam Politzer | The fire chief, I think you have heard that Jim Irving is retiring in October, the end of October. Myself and the city manager for the city of Mill Valley sat on the interview panel for right now they're looking at a deputy chief with the option of promoting that person to chief. They are talking, Southern Marin is talking with the city of Mill Valley and Tiburon. Again do we need three chiefs in this small area and is there an opportunity to consolidate and share that service? So they are looking at a contract to share the service and the boards that are involved, the city council from Mill Valley that's involved, they'll all evaluate that. But we interviewed, I think we had six outstanding candidates for the position. All were chiefs, all had the ability to be our chief, and all understood the position that they were applying for. So the three candidates that we sent forward to the Southern Wind Board, they may have already been interviewed or they are probably in the process of being interviewed and hopefully selecting one of those three to take Jim's position. We'll invite Jim to our council meeting in October to recognize him. I think he's done an outstanding job serving our community. for the seven years that I've been the city manager He's been in Southern Marin for well over 25 years, maybe more than that. He started off in Tampa Valley. as you may remember. So we'll take an opportunity to thank him for his service. We'll do the same with Jeremy Graves in October when we get to the end of his service. And for Jeremy, we'll have a party for him because he's our employee. We'll let the fire association have a party for Jim, and we'll invite the community to come and join in with that celebration. One thing that I shared with the interview panel, the 12 members of the interview panel that I think was really important Because before we actually I met with a lot of folks in the community and got some feedback. What are we looking for, you know, from the community's perspective on the next director But one of the things that I wanted to share is that when I was in the Park and Rec Department from 2000 to 2006, we went through four community development directors full time and then we had Diane Henderson in there twice as interim. So we basically had six bodies, if you include Diane as two different bodies, during that same six year period. The six plus years that Jeremy's been here, we've just had him. And then you go back and you look at the associate planners in that previous six years. And I can't even tell you the number of and Jonathan was on the Planning Commission during that time And you talk about the contract planners that came through. During that same six years, four of those years were with Heidi, four of those years were with Lily. and Allison was probably close to four of those years. So we also had consistency at the staffing level. So as much as we have a bubble and a challenge going on at this very moment, It will smooth out and I think again we'll hire an outstanding director that will also bring outstanding employees to the table as Jeremy brought Heidi to the city and Lily to the city and Allison to the city. I think we'll continue that track record of attracting talented and energized folks. We're excited about Calvin. He's already a part of that team, and I think he'll thrive with experienced planners working with him and the new director, the energy that the director will bring to the table. So I just wanted to talk about, you know, those are two pretty significant changes that are happening with your fire chief and your community development director, and by the end of the year, you will see new leadership in both of those areas. and I'm sure you're going to be able to do that. I'm sure you're going to be able to do that. I'm sure you're going to be able to do that. I'm sure you're going to be able to do that. I'm sure you're going to be able to do that. I'm sure you're going to be able to do that. I'm sure you're going to be able to do that. I'm sure you're going to be able to do that. I'm sure we're going to be able to do that. I'm sure we're going to be able to do that. I'm sure we're going to be able to do that. I'm sure we're going to be able to do that. I'm sure we're going to be able to do that. the environmental concerns and some that Jonathan shared. You know, we need to make sure that we're educating everyone, the people that live on the Bay, that we're educating everyone, and use the bay for various activities. You heard Jennifer several months ago talk about the direction that we are going and looking at the vessels that look like they're just being used for storage, that no one's actually living in those vessels and looking to get those off of the water because they're the ones just like someone's property that watching the water, you know, they're the renter, they're not the owner, they're not paying attention to the water. Thank you. Thank you. When someone's actually not paying attention to what they have on the water, it may be causing more harm than good. So that's some of the activity that's happening. But it's gotten a lot of heightened awareness through the papers, through public activity. But it's an incredibly sensitive issue and something that we have to pay attention to, both environmentally sensitive and then the humanitarian sensitivity to the people that actually live on the water and make sure that we stepped with solid footsteps forward as we address this. And I think RBRA is doing that and I'm certain that members of the council that are actively engaged with the RBRA, you may want to talk about that later at some other time. But we are paying attention. Police Department, Public Works Department, and myself are engaged in these discussions, and we will continue to keep you apprised as information comes forward. The last on my list here, well, there's two on my list here, the last things. School is back in session. Sorry, there's a whole bunch of things that I'm not going to talk about. |
| 02:42:52.24 | Unknown | SCHOOL. Yes. must have a lot to say and you're following through on it so he i blame it i blame him not you |
| 02:43:03.45 | Adam Politzer | to whatever extent this is worth, we have at least six schools in this community. and I think that's a great question. to the nursery school, to MLK Academy, Bayside, Willow Creek Academy, New Village School, and the Licea. |
| 02:43:26.30 | Unknown | The other preschool that's next to |
| 02:43:26.31 | Adam Politzer | the other day. Yes, Robin's Ness. Yeah. So thank you. That's seven. So, you know, and school is back in session. |
| 02:43:29.10 | Unknown | Yeah. |
| 02:43:34.75 | Adam Politzer | and anyone that's driving on the freeway or Sir Francis Drake or E. Blythdale, Okay, we're on. Tehran is looking. to have the city fund a school bus to help reduce the traffic in Tiburon because of Del Mar and is it Reed? I think it's the other school there. And so the city council is actually looking to contribute funds to fund the school bus in their community to help relieve the traffic. But school is back in session throughout. our town. It's exciting to see the number of elementary schools and younger to help grow that population in town. And as always, when the first day of school happens, there's usually a lot of chaos and we've never had a year without it. And the police department, the public works department worked very hard with the schools to try to help communicate the traffic circulation, make sure that in advance in all their mailings to their parents that they receive, here's the drop-ups, drop-off, and pick up circulation and times, and then we help try to facilitate that. So on the first day of school, there was a little bit of chaos, both during the morning after the morning time both at Willow Creek Academy as well as the Lise and New Village School. But I think by the time we get to next week, it'll be pretty routine, and we'll see that settle back down into a normal pattern. The excitement of having to walk your child to the classroom will also dissipate, and they'll be off at the line and the same with picking them up from the classroom will dissipate and that will happen. The playground got off to a similar bit of confusion where the daycare providers of the Lise did not understand that the park is open to everybody, not just the daycare. And so not only did our public get told that they couldn't use the park, but so were the parents of students of the lycée. that actually attended the school, they were told that they couldn't use the park. After about 15, 20 minutes of a little bit of confusion, the help of Lauren and Leslie, that all got sorted out and everyone was able to use the park. The very next day, there was no problems and there hasn't been any problems since. And we've gotten a lot of nice comments back on what a great asset it is to have that playground available. available and as the weekends continue to provide excellent weather I'm sure that that park will be a destination not just for the Sausalito families but probably some of the families in Southern Marin because all our families kind of mingle together and enjoy each other's company. So a nice asset but it's worth noting with all of the activity on the first day of school, that didn't miss the opportunity to have a little bit of its own chaos. But it's been, I'm happy to say it's been all sorted out. So I'll leave you with that. Hopefully you'll be at the chili cook-off, start planning ahead for your Halloween table, and we'll go into this new year. We have six meetings left, if we have no special meetings, until we're done in December. And we are working – I'm working with the agenda setting committee and a lot with Charlie and Sherry Lund our strategic plan facilitator to pick a date in December to hold our strategic planning session that's what we're kind of targeting so for you folks to have that on your radar that strategic planning which we've moved to an annual we used to be twice a year now we're back to annual schedule so that's that's where we are last year we did it to an annual. We used to be twice a year. Now we're back to annual schedule. So that's where we are. Last year we did it in November due to the election. We thought maybe we'll wait until we know who's sitting here and do it in December and then move forward. |
| 02:47:40.79 | City Clerk or Chair | Thank you, Adam. Any questions of our City Manager? Any, yeah, please, Council Member, if I... |
| 02:47:48.74 | Councilmember Pfeiffer | So I have a question about the traffic with the Lize School and the emails that we saw from the businesses from the bus barn. And it's my understanding that that issue has been actually over the past year and not something that's just recently. And I guess that there has been discussion around a speed bump, installing a speed bump in that area. Can you comment on that? |
| 02:48:15.36 | Adam Politzer | Yeah, thank you. Thanks for reminding me. Didn't make my list. It's a very interesting situation. Everyone is making the assumption that it's the school It's actually not the school. The majority of the issue is related to the gym. So it's the drivers going into Playland. It's the drivers going into the adult dance classes, the Sweat Your Tears program, the dog users, the dog park users that actually don't use the dog park but they take their dogs out on the field. So during the school time, and not to say that there isn't a parent or two that, you know, comes driving through there, but during the school pickup time or drop-off time, it's pretty much a parade of cars all going in the same speed, the same direction. It's that in between time, basically from 9 o'clock to 3 o'clock, where there's the person that's either lost, they don't know where they're actually going, or someone that's rushing to get to the play land in time or on the weekend because a lot of the folks in the bus barn are out there on the weekend. So we're working with Lauren and I talked to her this morning. The police department's working on it. As you referred to, the public works department is in the process of installing speed bumps out there to help deal with that. We've placed placed some signs we'll look and see if those signs are adequate and then we've asked the police department to actually have a presence down there and then we'll also put the speed speed whatever it is trailer out there to to record the sign i shared with lorna this morning that maybe she'd be willing to do and she she said she would, what the Spencer Avenue residents did where they worked with the police department, they got the speed gun, they had a pad, and they took a sighting of everyone at their speeding. They wrote down their license plate. They gave it to the police department. The police department sent them a nice courtesy notice saying, if you were seen speeding through your neighborhood, please reduce your speed. So Lorna said that she was willing to do that and recruit a couple people to help her so I think enough time used on me in my |
| 02:50:16.46 | Jonathon Goldman | You get to use this. |
| 02:50:18.97 | Unknown | Right. |
| 02:50:19.19 | Neil Whitelaw | Thank you. |
| 02:50:19.53 | Unknown | Thank you. |
| 02:50:19.55 | Councilmember Pfeiffer | Yeah. |
| 02:50:19.72 | Unknown | Thank you. |
| 02:50:19.78 | Neil Whitelaw | Thank you. |
| 02:50:23.53 | Unknown | Enough time used on me, you might as well use it on |
| 02:50:25.40 | Adam Politzer | Thank you. |
| 02:50:25.49 | Unknown | Real stuff. |
| 02:50:25.91 | Adam Politzer | Thank you. |
| 02:50:25.94 | Unknown | Yes. |
| 02:50:26.01 | Councilmember Pfeiffer | And a follow-up on that, do we have enforcement? I mean, if we see repeat offenders, is there a ticket if they break the speed limit? Yes, right now we don't actually. |
| 02:50:26.36 | Adam Politzer | of |
| 02:50:34.42 | Adam Politzer | Yeah, so right now we don't actually know, you know, we don't know that it's Debbie that's the one speeding through there. But we know the time of the activity. So in the enforcement, it's probably not much different, which I shared with Lorna earlier. We have this activity on Nevada. We have this activity on 2nd Street. We have this activity on Spencer Avenue. We can move the trailer around, and we put enforcement there, visible enforcement there during periods of time. But, you know, someone that speeds and that's just how they drive, they'll slow down when they see us. But once we're gone, their behavior probably won't change. I guess my- Can I just say with the speed bumps, signs, and continued education, I've asked Mike to reach out to his, to reach out to the class users of Playland, to the Dog Park Association, because they have a big mailer, and to the adult classes to remind them to be courteous as they drive through. So we'll try to cover all those areas as best as possible. |
| 02:51:14.56 | Councilmember Pfeiffer | I guess my, Mm-hmm. |
| 02:51:41.68 | Councilmember Pfeiffer | Thank you, Adam. My point specifically was if we're going to start getting volunteers to, you know, use the radar gun and the city staff time to send out, letters and warnings, I guess, is there an opportunity where if they find, you know, repeat offenders who are continuously, you know, breaking the limit that we can go into enforcement and write a ticket? |
| 02:52:08.66 | Adam Politzer | I think if the problem persists, tickets will be written out there. |
| 02:52:12.78 | Councilmember Pfeiffer | Perfect, thank you. I just want to prevent an injury or something. Any other questions? |
| 02:52:16.76 | Adam Politzer | Thank you. |
| 02:52:16.81 | City Clerk or Chair | Any other questions, City Manager? Any member of the public like to comment on the City Manager report? Seeing none. |
| 02:52:18.09 | Adam Politzer | Thank you. |
| 02:52:28.49 | City Clerk or Chair | Item 7B, Councilmember Committee reports. Does anybody have anything to – yes, Councilmember Fivert. |
| 02:52:35.63 | Councilmember Pfeiffer | Mr. Mayor, the Butte Task Force is meeting on Wednesday the 17th at 6 o'clock here at City Hall. And we have, it's my understanding, we have an appraisal that we're going to be looking at for the Butte site. And so I just wanted to announce that. Wednesday, September 17th at 6 o'clock. |
| 02:53:01.55 | Unknown | Thank you. you |
| 02:53:03.29 | Unknown | Thank you. |
| 02:53:03.39 | Unknown | Thank you. Bicycle and Pedestrian Committee met yesterday and they typically meet the first Mondays of the month. We have the continued engagement and attendance of our Public Works Director and the Police Department in these meetings and they're tackling all issues relating to the bicycles including Bicycles coming into town and on sidewalks, parking. But the important part is that the Bicycle and Pedestrian Committee, in conjunction with Public Works and Police, will be holding, I guess, an open forum early in October to answer all the public's questions relating to bicycles and to present what the Bicycle and Pedestrian Committee is doing, what the city staff is doing, both works and police and but more importantly what will be different about this will be uh allowing the public uh although they're all always invited to all the meetings uh but to have a more active engagement it'll be a meeting set up for public to ask questions of of that the date is early october we haven't finalized that but that will be announced i guess through the currents or So. And again, the public is also encouraged to come to the Bicycle and Pedestrian Committee meetings that are every month, and they also are announced in the current. |
| 02:54:26.95 | City Clerk or Chair | Thanks. A couple of things from me. The Housing Element Committee is meeting Thursday. That's been well publicized. I'm just going to take really a look at now the proposed revised new element that the consultants have put in front of the committee. remember we have a deadline of January 15th and importantly that the consultants have put in front of the committee. Remember, we have a deadline of January 15th. And importantly, a public workshop on the new housing element has been scheduled for September 20th. Is that right, Debbie? And I'm not quite sure where, but I'm sure we will be publishing that in the current. So I'm sorry, I just can't remember where that is. But it's on the website. It's on the email list that Lily sends out, and we'll make sure it goes out in this week's current. And just a follow-up on Marine Clean Energy. I brought up several times, and in fact we discussed here the fact there was Senate Bill 1245, which was potentially going to have a significant negative impact. Just to complete the loop, that bill actually got stolen in Senate, never got out, and so is effectively dead. So that's my report. Any public comment on the committee reports? Seeing none. Future agenda items. And I think we have an appendix to the shows the next at least the next couple of meetings. And is there any comments on future agenda items? |
| 02:56:23.07 | Councilmember Pfeiffer | So, Mr. Mayor, I have a couple comments, but I want to look at the, I see the priority calendar. I was going to, okay, so we're looking at the Marin City PDA will be on September 23rd then? because that was one of my future agenda items again, was the Marin PDA. |
| 02:56:50.12 | City Clerk or Chair | Maybe we could ask the city manager, is that absolutely confirmed now for |
| 02:56:56.01 | Adam Politzer | It's pretty darn close. Diane Steinhauser is confirmed, Jonathan Logan is confirmed and they are looking for a county person, Diane is asking a county person to join them and so that's the only person that hasn't been confirmed so we're probably at 90%. Thank you. |
| 02:57:16.68 | Unknown | Okay. It would be possible to get somebody from the supervisor's office to come as well? |
| 02:57:16.93 | Adam Politzer | Thank you. |
| 02:57:26.20 | Adam Politzer | as possible. Okay. |
| 02:57:28.66 | Councilmember Pfeiffer | Another future agenda item I have is the research staging areas to pick up bike rentals. That is something that I've brought up before along with an ordinance to get folks off the sidewalks. And I guess I'll hold off on a couple of the others, because I'm going to wait and see how they evolve. It has to do with what Jerry Fate was mentioning during public comment in the beginning with the marina issues that she's observing. at what is it, Sausalito Marine. So anyway, that's it. Most of all right now it's the Marin PDA. |
| 02:58:16.77 | City Clerk or Chair | Okay. |
| 02:58:23.56 | City Clerk or Chair | Okay. |
| 02:58:26.56 | Councilmember Pfeiffer | Marin City PDA, Marin City. |
| 02:58:28.74 | City Clerk or Chair | Any member of the public like to comment on future agenda items? Yes, sir. |
| 02:58:46.66 | Unknown | I'm here after a little while. I have missed the last few meetings. And... I talked about over where the police station stood that that would be a community garden and that I was going to plant it. Now, I did not do that. That's on me. I'm sitting and watching what you folks are doing. It's pretty amazing that you're on top of all of these details. You have iron bottoms. You're sitting in your chairs. That this city runs so well in so many different ways. That we are very close. to having I don't want to say a perfection. I mean, I'm hosting people on my boat as a couch surfing people, not as a profit thing, but just to see... kind of what Sausalito's lifeblood is. It's from all over the world that people come from everywhere to see this place. And that's incredible. And that, you know, is because you're doing a good job in a lot of ways. And the only thing that I'm thinking of, I say showers, I don't really need that. Uh, The community garden issue, that's the big one. And we, after having talked about this and worked for it and then not worked for it, done nothing, we are still where we're at, which is that in a town with less than a third of the population of Sausalito right next door, they have a community garden here in Sausalito. It does not exist that if we – got the excitement back that was here when there were meetings with dozens, a hundred and more people showed up to them. And then it disappeared without anything happening. I saw that happen with the docks too, that there was going to be a dock and then we talked about it and we all felt really good and then the dock was gone. So... We're close. We're close. We have the good intentions. We have the right thinking. Now we just have to have the action. And that's on me too. Okay, so thank you for what you do. I appreciate it. |
| 03:01:02.57 | City Clerk or Chair | Thank you. Okay, other reports of significance. Okay, so let's remember we are adjourning in memory of B. Seidler. So can I have a motion for adjournment? Some moves. |
| 03:01:25.25 | Jan Fidler | Second. |
| 03:01:26.26 | City Clerk or Chair | And so we're adjourned. Thank you very much for coming or listening. |