| Time | Speaker | Text |
|---|---|---|
| 00:00:00.03 | Mayor Withey | 2014. Debbie, would you take the role, please? |
| 00:00:04.35 | Debbie (City Clerk) | Council member Pfeiffer? Here. Council member Weiner? |
| 00:00:07.25 | Mayor Withey | present |
| 00:00:10.41 | Debbie (City Clerk) | Vice Mayor Theodorus. Present. |
| 00:00:11.47 | Mayor Withey | Present. |
| 00:00:11.95 | Debbie (City Clerk) | Thank you. Mayor Withey. |
| 00:00:14.38 | Mayor Withey | here. Dr. Kashyap, will you lead us in the pledge this evening? |
| 00:00:18.46 | Mary Wagner | Thank you. |
| 00:00:18.54 | Councilmember Weiner | Thank you. |
| 00:00:18.78 | Mary Wagner | Thank you. |
| 00:00:25.77 | Dr. Kashyap | Pledge allegiance to the flag. of the United States of America. and to the republic for which we stand. One Nation. May God. into this whole. with a liberty and justice for all. |
| 00:00:39.57 | Charlie Melton | Thank you. |
| 00:00:40.95 | Mayor Withey | Thanks, Alex. |
| 00:00:46.08 | Mayor Withey | There was no closed session this evening. Could I have a motion to approve the agenda, please? |
| 00:00:54.18 | Councilmember Pfeiffer | So move. |
| 00:00:55.43 | Mayor Withey | second. |
| 00:00:55.97 | Dr. Kashyap | So, |
| 00:00:56.53 | Mayor Withey | All in favor. Aye. |
| 00:01:01.09 | Mayor Withey | So our first item, number one, is the introduction of our new Community Development Director, Danny Castro. And over to Adam Politzar, City Manager. |
| 00:01:17.10 | Adam Politzer | Thank you, Mr. Mayor and City Council members and community staff here in the Council Chambers. I'm very pleased and excited to introduce to you Sausalito's new Community Development Director, Danny Castro. And I'll have Danny come up here in a few moments to say a few words and introduce himself to you. but we are now on week two I believe, the start of week two. And the good news is that Danny started on the 10th of November and he showed up on the 11th. So we were actually quite pleased with that. Danny has jumped into the deep end. Our department, the community development department, has a lot of very significant projects, both residential and long-range planning projects that are going on. We are in transition with staff. The closing date is coming up on the two associate planners that Danny will have the opportunity to interview and hire. So there's a lot going on in that department both in the transition of staff and getting up to speed on the projects. Danny comes to us from Sierra Madre, which is in the foothills near Pasadena. Danny was the development services director for Sierra Madre which oversaw the planning division, the building and safety division and code enforcement division, very similar to our community development department, |
| 00:01:39.07 | Charlie Melton | Shit. |
| 00:01:57.30 | Mary Wagner | Sorry. |
| 00:03:04.46 | Adam Politzer | Danny has a degree in urban and regional planning from Cal Poly Pomona. He's a member of the American Planning Association and board member, and he's a member of the California Preservation Foundation. Danny has experience leading a variety of citizens committees, but specifically important to me was leading a citizens committee in a general plan update and the housing element update while in Sierra Madre. Worth noting that he was the director there for six years, from 2008 to 2014. team. Prior to joining the Sierra Madre team, Danny worked for the city of Beverly Hills for 14 years. Four of those years as a senior planner. He started as a building technician and moved all the way up to senior planner where he was the planner there for four years. He was also while at Beverly Hills served as the staff to the architectural committee and in his own time for the past nine years right up to the day he left. |
| 00:03:48.55 | Councilmember Leon | Thank you. |
| 00:03:48.97 | Mary Wagner | this year. |
| 00:04:19.55 | Adam Politzer | Southern California to move to Northern California, Danny served as a historic preservation commissioner for the city of West Hollywood where he lived. during that time. So for nine years and twice as the Vice Chair and I think twice as the Chair, I think he resigned his post as the Chair on Tom. One of the things that I think our community will find and like about Danny is that he really takes building relationships with the community very seriously, builds the trust with the community that he works with, and it's very important to be transparent, open, and honest to the people that he serves. So I think that the community will really appreciate that style that he'll bring to that department. In addition, Danny would describe his style and the people that we talked to when we did his background checks and reference checks as calm confident, patient, and present. You will see Danny at the front counter. You will see Danny out in the community, out at the sites looking at the projects that are being proposed, meeting with the residents, and being available to them. So we're very excited about that. So with that said, I'd like to ask Danny to come up and say a few words and ask the community to welcome Danny to our community and to our team. |
| 00:05:56.65 | Danny Castro | Thank you, Adam. Mayor Withy and members of the council, I'm very excited and pleased to be here. In just the one week that I've began, I have already met wonderful residents, Sausalito residents and the business community, some members of the business community, and they've welcomed me into the city, as well as city staff. They've been very welcoming. I think this is an exciting time to come into Sausalito. I have already learned a lot in one week and look forward to learning a lot more. And I just think that it's a great opportunity to work with my community development staff and to look at all the efficiencies and things we can do to help improve service to the community. And I look forward to working with you. So if you have any questions, I'm happy to answer them. |
| 00:06:50.97 | Mayor Withey | Danny, welcome. Thank you. As we briefly spoke the other day, I know the town you've come from quite well. When I lived in Southern California, I used to always go to the Sierra Madre July 4th parties. So but I think you've found a as interesting, and if not much more interesting place. So welcome. |
| 00:07:03.10 | Councilmember Weiner | I'm sorry. |
| 00:07:17.75 | Danny Castro | So welcome. Thank you. |
| 00:07:24.52 | Mayor Withey | Yeah. Please, come on up. |
| 00:07:25.07 | Danny Castro | Please. |
| 00:07:25.70 | Unknown | I'm on it. Thank you. |
| 00:07:44.92 | Mayor Withey | Thank you, Danny. The next item is communications and this is the time for the City Council to hear from citizens regarding matters that are not on the agenda. And if there's anybody in the audience who would like to address the Council on any matter that's not on tonight's agenda, please, more than welcome to come forward. And let me remind you, you have three minutes. |
| 00:08:20.73 | Chris Skelton | Good evening, Councilmembers. My name is Chris Skelton. I'm appearing this evening on behalf of a coalition of concerned citizens. I'll keep my comments brief. This evening, I'd like to talk to you about process. specifically the public process involved with the proposed ferry terminal changes. To that end, I'm here to request that you please agendize for your December 2nd special hearing a formal matter to consider responding to my letter from November 10th and take a public position. on how you will reconcile the lack of full public review process with these proposed changes to the waterfront. |
| 00:09:13.36 | Chris Skelton | For your consideration, I'd also like to propose a few other matters. Why is the city reluctant to hold a public review process for the water side improvements, but appears to provide assurances that the land side modifications will be subject to a full formal review process? The city should not support this peace-mealing, but should rather take a holistic planning approach to make sure that the angles and interests of the community are considered. In prior correspondence from the city, it's been proposed that the district is exempt from a full planning and public review process. The changes are proposed on Sausalito land. The district is leasing that land from the city. Provision 5.4 of that agreement requires the district to obtain the city's written consent prior to making any alterations, improvements, additions, in, on, or about the premises. Has the city manager ever received formal request from the tenant to make improvements on city property And With the city holding this land in public trust, shouldn't any potential city improvements pursuant to this provision be subject to a full public review process? The district is getting ready to go to BCDC next month. They're going to be heard on December 4th. Um, I think the city should take, and I hope you will consider taking a formal position on this. I don't think it has to be objecting to the actual merits of the project. We're not here to talk about the merits of the project We're interested in the process itself. Uh, I would like to suggest that the City Council request that the district come back to the city and hold a formal process. That's a solution that I hope you'll think about. Thank you. |
| 00:11:25.95 | Mayor Withey | Thank you, Chris. Anybody else like to address again? |
| 00:11:32.63 | Unknown | Good evening, Mayor Withey and council members, and to the residents who are at home watching tonight. The public hearing process for the proposed water site improvements has been a shifting target that continuously got kicked down the road from one meeting to the next without any certainty or meaningful opportunity for public participation. Now that there appears to finally be certain plans for a project to commence in the summer of 2015, there is a demand for public input. The city's response is, we already provided an opportunity and you missed the boat. the Council should demand that the Golden Gate Bridge District return to Sausalito for an agendized public hearing. with detailed plans so that the project can properly be vetted. through the Planning Commission and any other necessary processes. It is clear that improvements are needed. at the ferry landing. In other words, we're not against everything. but the public should have an opportunity to voice concerns or give suggestions for consideration to such a monumental project. which is now being identified as a transit hub. in their city. I request the city provide full public review process with planning commission. as promised at the November 2012 Council session. I also request that the water side and land side designs be done in a holistic process, not piecemeal. Thank you. |
| 00:13:08.97 | Mayor Withey | Thank you. |
| 00:13:14.52 | Sonya Hanson | Good evening. Council Member Whiffey. |
| 00:13:15.11 | Mayor Withey | Good evening. Council Member Whiffey. Good evening, Sonny. |
| 00:13:17.64 | Sonya Hanson | Council members, my name is Sonya Hanson. I live on Spring Street. And good evening to fellow residents here and to the residents at home. And it is to the residents watching at home and here that I am addressing this specifically. You may or may not know that the Golden Gate Bridge District is planning a large expansion of our ferry landing. The San Francisco Bay Conservation and Development Commission, better known as BCDC, will hold a public hearing on the Bridge District's ferry landing plan, most likely on December 4th, and then they will vote to approve or disapprove the plan later in December or early January. There has been no public meeting requesting the residents' participation on the Bridge District's plan for our ferry landing. We have been assured that there will be a full public process for the landside development that will be needed to support the new expanded ferry landing. However, by the time we are asked for our input, the waterside portion of the project will be set in concrete, 13,000 plus square feet of it versus the less than 5,000 square feet of the existing landing. Thank you. The water side portion of the project will drive the land side portion, so the corresponding amount of construction in our own parking lots and streets will be largely decided before the promised public process begins. I think this is just plain wrong. If you agree, please send emails to the city, the bridge district, and BCDC requesting a full public process on the bridge district's ferry landing plans. Ask your City Council to place this matter on the agenda for the December 2nd Council meeting and attend the BCDC hearing on December 4th. It may well be the only opportunity you will have to express your concerns before the Bridge District receives permission from BCDC to go ahead. Thank you. |
| 00:15:09.97 | Mayor Withey | Thank you. Is there any other member of the board? Hi, Joe. |
| 00:15:16.56 | Unknown | I WOULD LIKE TO URGE THE CITY COUNCIL TO THINK ABOUT THIS MORE HOLISTICALLY BECAUSE IF WE ARE LOOKING AT THE the almost doubling the size of the ferry landing that's obviously going to impact our downtown area and the historic district surrounding that. I WOULD ASK THAT THE CITY COUNCIL, YOU KNOW, adopt an approach that looks at both of these two pieces together and one side's driving the other one. I think it was a great idea several years ago, Council I think that's a great idea. I wish we would do it. I wish they had done it and that we could do that going forward. So thank you. Thank you for your time. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you for your time. Thank you. |
| 00:16:02.46 | Mayor Withey | Thank you. |
| 00:16:09.52 | Alex Kashheff | City Council members, good evening. My name is Alex Kashheff. I live on Sausalito Boulevard. Thank you for having me lead the pledge. I haven't done that since I was a Boy Scout. That brought back a lot of good memories. I didn't realize the ferry landing was such a hot topic. I just wanted to bring up one thing. I'm not against the ferry landing. If it's needed, it's needed. I don't want to go into the details of it, but as you all know, I was heavily involved with building something beautiful in town. And I'm really surprised at the look of this very building. And I brought some photos that I just want to share with you. |
| 00:16:17.09 | Mary Wagner | Thank you. |
| 00:16:46.88 | Alex Kashheff | So when we look at this proposed gate, this looks like I'm going to an Oakland Raiders football game. And it's just not what Sausalito is. It looks like what the other terminal in San Francisco looks like at the Ferry Building. And it's very industrial, and it looks like SFO as well. But it really isn't what our town is. And there's really a lot of opportunity here to make this beautiful. This is the entrance and the exit from possibly one of the most beautiful cities in the world for one of the most beautiful experiences people have, getting on that ferry and going across. I just wanted to bring attention that there's a lot of opportunity here to fix this and make it a lot better. You know, as a private citizen, I really – I had to put a lot of money into developing the Valhalla site, and I'm glad I did, because I think we have a really beautiful project that people will walk by and be able to enjoy. This is just a quick example of what you can do. This is on a very small scale in Tiburon. I'm sure we've all been through that. We don't have to change this too much. We just have to beautify it a little bit so it's a good experience. The way I see this is when I'm 80 years old and I'm walking down Bridgeway and trying to get on the ferry to go to San Francisco to get some seafood over at Hog Island at the ferry building, I would much rather walk through this as my experience than this. So I hope there's a little bit of attention brought to the aesthetics. Everything else I don't have an opinion on. I just think it should be beautiful and it should go with our town. Thank you. |
| 00:18:15.13 | Mayor Withey | Thank you. Is there any other member of the public who'd like to comment? Hi, Pat. |
| 00:18:23.29 | Pat | I'll be fast. I wanted to just emphasize the history that this town has in wanting to be heard and have a decisive input in what goes on with the downtown potential for development. and to that end I happen to stumble over the Notice of Intent to Circulate Petition of the Citizens Initiative that was adopted and circulated and adopted in 1997. It started by referring to history 25 years before 97. It said, in 1972, the voters of Sausalito, by a two-to-one margin, passed an initiative putting into effect an ordinance requiring input from the voters regarding proposals for changes at downtown publicly owned property. The present, not you guys, the then-present City Council majority has not honored that Several proposals have been presented to or discussed by the City Council, which would impact certain properties that are totally owned by the city or in which the city has a vested interest. We, the voters of Sausalito, present the attached initiative which will give us the right to vote on the disposition of changes to or development of those properties described in the accompanying ordinance. The purpose of this is to see that the voters of Sausalito now and in the future will have a voice in protecting the quality of life and the economic well-being of the business community as it applies to those properties. I don't know whether or not, well, I certainly understand that the water side improvements proposed by the bridge district are not under the purview of either this initiative or the city of Sausalito approval process. But certainly if they would mandate or recommend or you folks would want to link the city the ferry development to landside changes, specifically changes in the parking lots 1, 2, 3, and 4, any or all of those. I think you should honor this initiative and the wishes so frequently, well, so sporadically expressed by the residents of this community to have a decisive input in those decisions. And if that means hearings, it means hearings. If it means a vote on cannibalizing the parking lots to turn them into multi-use pathways, that's what it should mean. And I hope you get behind that effort rather than in front of it. Thanks. |
| 00:21:01.00 | Mayor Withey | Thank you. Any other member of the public like to comment on any item not on the agenda? No. In that case, let's close communications. I'm wondering whether I could ask our city manager to |
| 00:21:27.27 | Mayor Withey | I don't want to use the word respond, but maybe provide some further information on this matter. |
| 00:21:39.20 | Adam Politzer | There's not a lot of new information to share. You've heard comments from the public tonight. We've received comments from the public over the past several weeks. And there is, you know, somewhat of a difference of opinion of what the process that the city has been involved in and the public's participation in that process. And we put that information out on the Currents and on the website and we will continue to work with Golden Gate Bridge District. There is, as mentioned earlier, the public process through BCDC at its next meeting on December 4th where I encourage the public to participate, be heard and have BCDC give direction back to the Bridge District in Vulgate Ferry before they take action which may happen on December 18th I believe. So there is an opportunity for the associate citizens to participate. What is clearly on the record and I stand behind it is on the land side improvements that will go through a very involved process including the citizens participation at all levels, at the conceptual level and there are no preconceived discussions. I had a discussion with a member of the public earlier this week. It may be as simple as just repaving the lots and restriping and adjusting to whatever the future parking system is that we move towards in this next year. |
| 00:21:39.36 | Charlie Melton | not a lot of |
| 00:21:51.42 | Mary Wagner | And |
| 00:23:28.33 | Adam Politzer | The council at its discretion, Can't invite. to Gongay Ferry District back. to chambers. beginning of October to give a presentation and update because there had been a two-year gap between their last visit to the city. We wanted the council to get an update of where they are and they provided that. We're happy to invite them back. But at this point the public process is available through BCDC and the city when we move forward on the land side improvements which the pass-through agreement has not yet been executed. |
| 00:23:50.29 | Mary Wagner | Thank you. |
| 00:24:07.59 | Adam Politzer | . When that's executed, then we'll have money to move forward on the land. Landside discussion. That's as simple as I can make it. |
| 00:24:15.92 | Mayor Withey | Okay, thank you. Item number three, there is no minutes of previous meetings for approval tonight. So let's move on to item four, the consent calendar. Before I take public comment, is there any questions or anything up here? Nope. Okay. Is there any member of the public who would like to comment on items on the consent calendar? Okay. Seeing none, I will close public comment on the consent calendar and ask for a motion to approve the consent. All in favor. Aye. |
| 00:25:01.77 | Dr. Kashyap | I don't know. |
| 00:25:01.94 | Councilmember Weiner | Bye. |
| 00:25:06.41 | Mayor Withey | Mary, for the record there, Council Member Leone seconded that. |
| 00:25:13.70 | Councilmember Weiner | . Thank you. |
| 00:25:14.58 | Unknown | Thank you. |
| 00:25:14.70 | Councilmember Weiner | He's so self-spoken. |
| 00:25:16.00 | Mayor Withey | Yeah. you Thank you. Okay. Moving right along, Public Hearings, Item 5A, and this is to weigh first reading and introduce and read by title, an ordinance of the City Council of the City of Sausalito amending Title 15 Chapter, we'll hear all about it, which establishes regulations regarding bicycle riding on certain designated sidewalks. |
| 00:25:49.17 | Mary Wagner | I was on. |
| 00:25:49.24 | Mayor Withey | Did I have to read the whole thing? |
| 00:25:52.53 | Mary Wagner | Not yet, but thank you. Okay. So thank you, Mr. Mayor, members of the City Council. I am going to give you a little bit of background and detail on the proposed ordinance amendment and then turn it over. |
| 00:25:53.64 | Mayor Withey | Thank you. Okay. |
| 00:26:07.03 | Mary Wagner | to Dr. Fotch, who is the chair of the Bicycle and Pedestrian Committee, to provide you some additional information. And of course, we're both available for questions. And I believe that Captain Rohrbacher is here as well, as your Public Works Director, Jonathan Goldman. So as you indicated, this item is a proposed amendment to Sausalito Municipal Code, Chapter 15.12, establishing regulations regarding bicycle riding on certain designated sidewalks in the downtown and southern portions of the city. The California Vehicle Code sets forth a lot of regulations regarding bicycle riding and generally treats bicycles in the same manner as vehicles for purpose of operation on roadways. But with respect to sidewalks, the Vehicle Code authorizes local jurisdictions to establish regulations concerning bike riding on sidewalks. And in your staff report tonight, there are a lot of examples of what some other jurisdictions have done, some Marin County jurisdictions, some city. on sidewalks. And in your staff report tonight, there are a lot of examples of what some other jurisdictions have done, some Marin County jurisdictions, some city, excuse me, statewide jurisdictions, and then also some information about what the city of San Jose is currently doing on their pilot program regarding bike riding on sidewalks. So there is some existing signage regarding bike riding on sidewalks. It's guide signage, if you will, and it's requesting people to ride their bikes on sidewalks in the southern portions of town, the Alexander, South Street, Second Street, and portions of Bridgeway. And they're in multiple languages to try and get as much information out there to our visitors as possible. The Bike and Pedestrian Committee has received some public input on this issue, and on September 8th they adopted a resolution requesting that the City Council consider this item in an the municipal code to establish an area where bikes cannot be ridden on the sidewalk unless you are under the age of 13. And I've put that forward for you. It's also included in your packet. They modeled it, I believe, after the City of San Francisco regulations, which do include the ability for somebody under the age of 13 to ride on the sidewalk. The proposed ordinance would amend Chapter 15.12 to add a new Section 1512030. which provides that it's unlawful to ride a bike on the sidewalk on the certain designated areas, there's five of them that we've listed, Bridgeway between Bay and Richardson, Richardson, Second, South, and Alexander to the Southerly City limits. The Bike and Ped Committee had phrased it as from the Southerly City limits, I believe, to the ferry landing, and we tried to capture that in identifying the streets themselves, with certain exceptions. We did include the exception for children under the age of 13, so long as they're exercising due care and giving pedestrians the right-of-way. We also included an exception for law enforcement personnel, which a number of other jurisdictions have and which I discussed with Chief DeHatta. There is also this exception that was included in the Bike and Ped Committee's recommendation for riding across a driveway. So essentially if you're coming down the street you can turn and ride through the driveway to the adjacent property and that would be allowable even though you're technically riding your bike on the sidewalk. |
| 00:29:11.62 | Pat | Yeah. |
| 00:29:34.74 | Mary Wagner | a couple of visuals to just show you the proposed area of the regulations. |
| 00:29:43.84 | Mary Wagner | And then there's also an amendment to the penalty provision of Chapter 15.12. Because Chapter 15.12, deals with bicycles. It was the most logical place, I thought, to put these regulations. But the existing regulations deal with licensing of bicycles, and they require that people register their bikes through the National Bike Registry. And the fine associated with it is $10, and you can actually cure that by going to the police department and proving within 30 days of receipt of the the violation that you registered your bike. That didn't seem to work in this situation, so taking from a portion of what you did with the The tour bus regulations, I polled the regulations regarding an infraction, and I'm suggesting that the violation would be an infraction subject to the statutory limits in the government code, which currently are $100 for the first violation. 200 for the second within one year. and 500 for each additional violation thereafter. I don't believe, and I actually have spoken with the chief about this, that this is something that the police department is going to go out and be actively ticketing people for, you know, walking the sidewalks and looking for people violating. but similarly to the tour bus discussion, You know, people who are flagrantly violating the provision could be cited. It's also an opportunity to update the signage. So instead of being guide signage, it would actually be enforcement signage that would include the reference to the municipal code which establishes the regulations. And here is the recommendation that we put forward for you, which we would ask that you read fully in accordance with the government code. And with that, I'll turn it over to Dr. Fotch to add any additional information that he would like. |
| 00:31:32.98 | Mayor Withey | Thank you, Mary. Welcome, Ed. |
| 00:31:36.85 | Ed Fotch | Good evening. Mayor Withee, members of the council, before I jump into this, and I promise I won't be too long, I just wanted to note that given our need in the planning department and Danny's background, I personally consider him our treasurer of the Sierra Madres. I was channeling Bogart there for a minute. You're welcome. You're welcome. |
| 00:31:59.68 | Dr. Kashyap | Thank you. How long did you wait for that one? |
| 00:32:03.43 | Ed Fotch | There's no bada boom, but... So this bike thing turns out to be kind of a big issue here in town. So I thought I would come down and give you some background. There was a bike forum at the Spinnaker the other night, and 250 folks showed up. And there was frankly some, as we see at the bike committee that meets every Monday at 630, everyone's welcome to join us. There were folks very much in favor of more bikes and biking in Saucyut. There were a lot of people who have concerns. And I mention that because I didn't want the council or anyone to think that this proposed resolution was a snap judgment or wasn't something that we deliberated on in fact. Patricia Pigman and John Cox are here tonight, members of the committee, and we discussed this on three separate occasions over a period of 90 days. On the one side, as this photograph shows, if you are a resident on Second Street, and you walk out your front door, and if you took that bicyclist and moved him over five and a half feet, you will be run over. And it's a real problem. You know, we have to deal with the sidewalks and the streets that we have, not the ones we wish we had. At the same time, there are parents in town. We have more young people in town than we've had. I may have presented this before, but the only demographic that grew in Sausalito from 2000 to 2010 is kids under five. And if you were at the Halloween thing, I mean, there's a lot of kids in town. And the parents of those kids, including one member of the of the, uh, a bike, um, Committee. said, hey, but down on Bridgeway on the north end of town, I want my kid to be able to bike down there. Maybe he's going to go to school up there, and I want him on the sidewalk. So we think and we've tried to create a balance in saying under 13, acceptable. I think from our standpoint, this is a good first step. Maybe it's the only step. Maybe this is all we need in terms of this specific issue. But following on to Mary's comments, it is not our expectation that the police force is going to be giving out lots of these tickets. And I don't know if $100 for the first violation is the right number, but it is our expectation that right now we have citizens literally saying to people, it's not legal to ride on the sidewalk and they're wrong. So we should be clear on this, and I think particularly on the south end of town, at least it was the feeling of the that the sidewalks are too narrow, the roads too steep, that the preponderance of safety leads you to say, if you have to have your bike on the sidewalk, then you should walk your bike on the sidewalk. It's really not that far. And we think this is, you know, again, an important first step. And to us on the committee, it really dovetails because we really think that that ambassadors wearing the appropriate vests that you YOU ALL HAVE SEEN. saying to folks in more, not an enforcement fashion, but an advisory fashion, hey, you don't get to ride here. If you're not comfortable, walk. Is the right approach? And we hope by next year to be fielding a group of ambassadors that will be reinforcing these messages starting in the south end of town going down to the to the ferry landing. So the main point here was there was a yin and a yang on this. It wasn't as though we said, oh, no bike riding on the sidewalk, there you have it. We really did take some time on this. And I think we ended up in the right place for this next step. And we encourage any, you know, questions that you might have. |
| 00:35:58.95 | Mayor Withey | Ed, thanks a lot. And thanks a lot for your volunteer efforts here. It was great. So up here, do we have any questions for Dr. Foch or Mary before I open this up for public comment? Any questions? Council Member Pfeiffer. |
| 00:36:21.19 | Councilmember Pfeiffer | Council Member Fyfer. Thank you, Mr. Mayor. I have a quick question for Ed. I've had some inquiries from residents. I was wondering if you could comment on how the bicycle committee came to the recommendation of having this ordinance focusing on the south end of town, again, and not like Caledonia Street area. |
| 00:36:46.57 | Ed Fotch | Right, I would say three factors. The first is volume. |
| 00:36:46.79 | Councilmember Pfeiffer | Thank you. |
| 00:36:50.05 | Councilmember Pfeiffer | I'm sorry, Caledonia and further north, all of Sausalito. |
| 00:36:53.22 | Ed Fotch | Sure. Sure. So three factors. The first is volume. Most of the folks who bike on the sidewalk are rental bikers, visitors. I guess they're all visitors across the bridge, but these are tourist rental bikers. And the volume really is on the south end of town, south of the ferry building. The second is the width of the sidewalk. So if you go north of the ferry landing, you see the sidewalks. The streets get a little wider. There's a dedicated sidewalk. I mean a dedicated, I don't know if it's a bike lane or a fog lane, but there's more space. Thank you. Actually, I think that's probably it. Those two things, the width of the sidewalks on the south end of town, yeah, the volume and then the width of the sidewalk on the north end of town are sort of the three factors we took in mind. And let me be clear on this. This was not a there shouldn't be a similar ordinance on the north end of town. This was our attempt to have a measured approach to beginning to take, if you will, take back the sidewalks. And I don't mean that to be as pejorative as it sounds, You know, for some of the residents, particularly non-bikers, senior citizens in the south end of town, they feel as though the sidewalks have been taken from them. And so what we're really trying to do, obviously, is find a balance. And so we thought that this was a good first step. As I said, it may not be the only step, but we thought that it was an important first step. |
| 00:38:27.30 | Councilmember Pfeiffer | Thank you. |
| 00:38:29.00 | Mayor Withey | Any other questions up here? OK, why don't we open this up for public comment? And so if any member of the public would like to comment on this proposed ordinance, please. You're welcome. |
| 00:38:45.59 | Mayor Withey | Thank you. |
| 00:38:45.61 | Alex Kashheff | Alex. |
| 00:38:46.43 | Mayor Withey | Thank you. |
| 00:38:46.96 | Alex Kashheff | Alex Kushev. Thank you for that presentation. The only thing I want to bring up that I notice in all of that is, I understand there's a need for signage, but can we try to minimize it as much as possible? I feel like that whole corridor by the water is turning into signs. You go by Rob's Market, Golden Gate Market, and you have that beautiful view, and I feel like every six months there's a new sign popping up over there with the tsunami warning and the bicycle warning and now the bicycle ticket warning. Thank you. Let's leave it up to the residents, because we know a Sausalito resident will definitely let them know to get off the site. Just something to keep in mind. Thank you. |
| 00:39:22.94 | Mayor Withey | Thank you. Any other member of the public like to comment on this topic? then I will close public comment on this topic and bring it back up here for our discussion. |
| 00:39:41.30 | Unknown | Thank you. |
| 00:39:42.21 | Dr. Kashyap | Who would like to go first? I can go first. It's fine. I really think the fines are a little too steep, and the reason for that is most of these people, you're talking about most of these rentals coming between June, |
| 00:39:58.22 | Mary Wagner | THE END OF THE END OF THE |
| 00:40:01.46 | Dr. Kashyap | June to November, early November. I think they'll come maybe once a year. And I think that more appropriate would be 50 for the first, 100 for the second, and 150 for the third. You won't see these people within a year's time anyway. That's my comment. |
| 00:40:28.34 | Councilmember Weiner | Thank you. |
| 00:40:28.85 | Unknown | Well, I support the measure. I mean, it's one of the things that the bike and pet committee has been working on for a while from early in its existence. And the thing we have to recognize is that it's a bicycle and pedestrian committee. And we have to focus on protecting the pedestrians in that area. And I think as the slide that was up there shows, especially on the downhill portion of that, there's just no room. And again, it's a tool that the police may have. We're not going to be sending police there to send out tickets, but it allows neighbors to say you have to walk your bike on the sidewalk. Otherwise, they're not going to say something that's not accurate. I think we also are able to tell the tour companies to put it in their brochures that when they enter Sausalito, this is something they have to do. It alerts them. And I think it's really a safety thing for both pedestrians and these bicyclists that they need to get off and walk, and it makes them think about it ahead of time. I think that's very important. They can walk their bikes. It's not that they have to, you know, they can't be anywhere. They just have to get off and walk during that short time. And so I think that's I think I support that. I think it's well done. I think the city attorney's drafted, taking what the bicycle and pet committee has done. And I think it's a fair thing. I think exempting those under 13 years old will allow for our children to be able to do that. And above that, uh... They won't be able to and finally I think it's as dr. Fox said it's a good first step I'm not sure that we need it in the rest of town But we certainly need it there and we should start there and I think it's a good place to start so I support it |
| 00:42:09.10 | Councilmember Leon | Yeah, I think you might want to be careful about the age limit here because it sort of ignores that a family may have... What are you going to do, ask kids for ID to prove they're under 13 on the street? So it may be more appropriate. I think the real danger is not children on the sidewalks. If you see a kid on the sidewalk with a bike, you should be Have the kindness in your heart. to get out of the way. Okay? If you don't have that, you've got bigger things to worry about in life. So the – but 13 may not be – I see that there are other jurisdictions that have chosen 13. But a family, whether it's rental bikes or local people with a kid who's 14 who can't ride a bike very well, should not have to ride in Bridgeway, should not have in that part of town. You shouldn't force them to go on the bridgeway because they're 14. So I think that's just short-sightedness. I think the fines are unreasonable, frankly. But what we should be worried about are adults, that adults don't exercise better judgment. So I think you, and this is, again, you're adopting something that's unenforceable, but that's something, you're not going to have cops cops out there ticketing people who are 14 years old. So why do you want to set up a law that encourages that? So I would tend to raise the age limit through the teenage years. We don't have that many teenagers anyway in Sausalito, but hopefully that number will grow over time. But otherwise, you're – and I think to clarify these, like you did with Bridgeway, you might want to make sure you encapsulate the portions of these streets, because some of them do continue up into the hills. Some of them have sidewalks, some don't. so that you have Bridgeway between X and Y, but you have Richardson Street Does that go all the way up to the top of Richardson Street, or is it just the part that's along the Bridgeway Corridor? Same thing with South Street. So there's some tweaks I think that need to... take place but I think you know if you want to be a children friendly city you would don't want to cat this at 13 I don't think that's fair to kids |
| 00:44:29.07 | Councilmember Pfeiffer | Thank you, Mr. Mayor. So I want to thank the Bicycle Committee and Tom for working on this. I'm very happy to see this. I've been pushing for something like this for five years. I was almost hit by a cyclist on a sidewalk leaving a resident group meeting in Old Town where we were talking about the need for this legislation. Thank you. I've been advocating this and I'm so thrilled to see this. I would like to see the rest of town covered by it, but I understand this is a first step and I think it's a real important first step. I also believe that the level of fine is appropriate. It is reflective of the grave safety risk having almost been literally hit head on by someone coming down the sidewalk on Alexander. It also reflects the need for our constrained police force to respond to concerns. I think the age is appropriate. I think that reflects a lot of thoughtful consideration from the committee. And I also think that it will take care of itself again because this is not something – I mean, our police force is not going to be out there, you know. Their top priority clearly are burglaries and, you know, speeders and DUIs, et cetera. It's complaint-driven, and I know residents will give a lot of leeway to children on sidewalks for safety. I do believe that to further strengthen this, our collaboration to go to the rental bike companies and perhaps to build on what I heard up here, ask the rental bike companies to include something in their agreements where the patrons perhaps, who are sauce-little bound, initial their understanding that riding on the sidewalks for anyone older than 13 is illegal. Because I was at Fisherman's Wharf about just three weeks ago and stopped by, there was a kiosk for one of the rental bike companies, and they had a big photo of cyclists riding sidewalks on Sausalito. I couldn't believe it. And this was the same photo that they used to feature in their websites that we complained about and they took down. Well it's evidently still there on one of their kiosks, you know. So I think they also can go a long way in terms of advocating safety on their end. And I think we should talk with them about that. So I'm ready to move forward on this. I can't wait to vote on this. |
| 00:47:22.15 | Mayor Withey | Um, So I'm obviously supportive of this ordinance and of the good work that the bike and pet committee have done. I heard that we've got consensus that as this first step, we will keep this as the south end of town for now. And it seems to me there are really two open issues, or as I view them, potentially open issues. The first is the fines, level of the fines, and the second is the age. Those are the only two things that I heard some differences up here tonight. Rather than use up my three minutes, I'd like to perhaps ask Ed or Mary some questions on those two things. I think probably the, I don't know if Ed, you even thought about fines as a remedies in your discussions, so I'm sure Mary can comment definitely on that one. But the age thing, I think, is an important one. Really, we need to get to the bottom of this. |
| 00:48:34.60 | Mary Wagner | Mr. Mayor, with respect to the penalty provision, I pulled up the language that's actually included in your draft ordinance. |
| 00:48:41.58 | Councilmember Weiner | Mm-hmm. |
| 00:48:41.80 | Mary Wagner | you And there are fines not to exceed a certain amount, which gives the police department some leeway, and I believe in the amount that they issue. I would ask Captain Moorbacher to step up if I'm mistaken. But there are fines not exceeding a certain amount. Certainly it's within the council's discretion to modify that. It seemed like a logical place to start as they're the lower of the fines that are set out in the government code. |
| 00:49:11.69 | Mayor Withey | Okay, thanks. Ed, would you be able to comment on the age or the fines or |
| 00:49:19.96 | Ed Fotch | Yes, we had really no particular deliberation on fine amounts and just a plain reading of that says not exceeding. I don't know who decides how much lower it would be than 100, but in many ways I would say our discussion would say that this is somewhat of a distinction without a difference because we don't anticipate anyone ever giving any of these tickets out. Candidly, that was the discussion. It was more about having signage that could make it clear, don't ride on the sidewalks, saying to the bike rental companies, put it in your language, and empowering citizens in particular areas. what we hope to be our empowered ambassadors to really just say, hey, you can't be on the sidewalk. Actually, you can just walk your bike. So to the extent that there is some, I mean, to me, just looking at it, again, not the committee because we didn't discuss this, 100 seemed kind of steep. If I'm a tourist from out of town, I wasn't paying any attention. But if, you know, to the extent any discretion could be given, you know, it seemed like that might be twice as much as appropriate for a first find. But I really don't think we're going to be giving out the tickets. And frankly, somewhat the same for the age issue. I mean, our biggest concern in the bike company, particularly with the rental people, actually isn't the kids. They're way better. writers than the adults that are coming in. We're really looking at our local kids and how much latitude you give there. And so if you're looking at the kids, You know, you pushed it to, you know, 15. I mean, frankly, I think most of the 13-year-olds in town could ride circles around most of us in this room. I'll speak for myself. They could, but, you know, for whatever reason, you know, a parent sort of felt like, well, boy, you know, my kid up until high school needs to have access to the sidewalk to ride to and from. |
| 00:51:05.05 | Mary Wagner | room. |
| 00:51:18.10 | Ed Fotch | I don't think we would object to that at all. And so if that brought consensus, moving it from 13 to 15, we would certainly have no Frankly, at the bike committee, we were talking about lowering it just because most of the kids are so good at biking compared to us because that's their principal means of transportation. So, I mean, sort of netting it out, I mean, if I had to just throw a dart, I'd say, if you really have the latitude, I'd cut that fine in half or just instruct the police a first time, you know, unless it's someone that's doing something flagrant. You tell them to get off and they don't and so on and so forth. And as it relates to the... or just instruct the police a first time, you know, unless it's someone that's doing something flagrant. You know, you tell them to get off and they don't and so on and so forth. And as it relates to the age, we were very flexible on that in our discussions and would have no issue with, you know, that being moved a little bit to accommodate some of the local families. |
| 00:52:07.09 | Mayor Withey | Thanks. And I'm wondering if I might ask Captain Robacher to briefly comment on the... |
| 00:52:23.17 | Mayor Withey | go get those |
| 00:52:23.98 | Dr. Kashyap | Bye. |
| 00:52:24.03 | Mayor Withey | Thanks. Captain, how do you interpret this not to exceed wording? And what do your guys do, would they do, and how would they exercise discretion, or how do you see it? |
| 00:52:40.47 | Unknown | The matter of a fine is really up to the court. The police officers never get involved in setting any kind of dollar amount. Like they wouldn't, if they were to write a citation, they wouldn't put a dollar amount on it for the court. However, if this goes through, this information will get transmitted to the court for the bail process. But I want to comment that, There's already a process in the traffic court system to handle bicycle citations and it does not start with $100. So no matter what you say here, the court's going to look at that and handle it through. The equivalent of going to traffic school if you're a motorist and get a citation, there's a similar process. It's like bicycle school. And a violator has the option of attending that if the judge agrees and they either pay a very small amount of money or no money or whatever the judge decides, but then they have to attend the class. And so that's typically how that's handled. But I would have to say that if an officer was to respond to a complaint they're going to start with a warning, and somebody would have to talk themselves into that $100 ticket. Right. And so... |
| 00:53:53.47 | Mayor Withey | So... And how do you see handling the age issue? |
| 00:53:58.73 | Unknown | You know, the age thing is a little tricky. Like Councilmember Leon said, we're not going to say, you know, show us some ID, how old you know, that's not really reasonable. And frankly, You know, it's not our intention to frighten children. And so if we, observe some kind of like the new proposed ordinance says, giving due respect for pedestrians we'd probably just ask them to, or especially if they're with adults, that should be an easy one, because that's a parent's job. not the police department's job. But if it's kids by themselves, we would probably ask them to, you know, please be courteous and look at it that way. I understand that there should be some kind of cutoff in there because you need to work within some kind of guidelines, but the officers aren't going to be questioning for age, really. Okay. It's not terribly practical, but I get that there's some guidelines involved, and we're okay with that. |
| 00:54:53.10 | Mayor Withey | Okay. |
| 00:54:59.48 | Mayor Withey | Yeah. Does anybody else have any questions before? I've got two minutes left, you see, so I'm, which I'm holding onto for a minute. So, no, does anybody want any, has the captain any questions in particular? Oh, okay, so. |
| 00:55:05.42 | Unknown | So I'm... |
| 00:55:16.68 | Mayor Withey | You can start the clock again. I'll only use the 18 seconds. The... Here's the thing, I think when it comes to the fine, based on what I've heard, which is very practical, I think it would be, I think the fine of 100 is okay actually, because it's more a deterrent. If you could stick $100 up on a warning sign, that somebody's going to see that they might actually have to pay that, even though unlikely they would. That's probably a good deterrent. So that's something to think about, but I can go either way. I can agree. You know, someone makes a mistake, rise on the sidewalk, 100 bucks, that's a lot of money. So, and on the age thing, I don't know how you solve that problem. I can go with any sort of age there. |
| 00:56:05.61 | Councilmember Leon | Yeah, I mean, I think it's important to remember it is very difficult to teach a kid how to ride a bike in most of Sausalito. So conversely to what you're saying, maybe your kids were different. Kids learn how to ride around in sharp circles inside playgrounds in Sausalito. My daughter is terrified to ride on the street. and she's getting closer to 13, unfortunately. But I think you've just got to ask yourself in your heart, like, what's right here? You know, not like, do I want to be, Do you want to have people run around streets terrorizing 14-year-olds telling them to get off the sidewalk on their bike? I mean, what type of town are you trying to define? |
| 00:56:44.06 | Mary Wagner | I mean, |
| 00:56:47.03 | Councilmember Leon | here. It's one thing if you've got kind of wild BMX guys going crazy on the street. But if it's a terrorized kid who just doesn't want to ride on Bridgeway and is old enough to go out of the house by themselves, I mean, that, you know, Sometimes you gotta just take a step back. So to me, you know, A kid is not going to – also, a kid on a bike is not going to read a sign about a $100 fine if they're 14 and stay off the sidewalk. So, I mean, that's just – it's regulation overload. So, I understand we want to keep adults off the sidewalk, and that's more where we want to go. So, for me, I would put it at 18. That's the beginning of actual relevance of cognizance of laws, by and large, in general, in a teenager. But 15, 18, I don't know what the magic number is there, but I think 13 is a little young. |
| 00:57:30.02 | Mary Wagner | For me, yeah. It's the beginning of actual racism. |
| 00:57:46.97 | Unknown | I'm just going to say that while I'm not going to, we can set the the age, but as long as we're on the subject, I mean, when you look in, again, if you looked at that graphic, that part down, I guess that's Second Street there. I mean, it's so dangerous. I would not, for their safety, I wouldn't want a child on that bicycle. If someone comes out of a driveway or a door and knocks them into the street, and we're not telling them, and I think people look at this as a choice of they get to walk right on the sidewalk or on the street. What they have to do for a short time is get off their bike and walk down that area. And both for the safety of the pedestrians and the people and the children, I think it's pretty important that it be. That's why we're not talking about a citywide. If we were talking about a citywide ordinance would be different. But right there, it's really very important that they not, and it's not very long to get off and walk it, and they certainly shouldn't be learning how to ride a bike on that steep downhill section. So, again, I think that's why the Bicycle and Pedestrian Committee limited to that because that's the dangerous area and why it's not expanded into other areas where kids should be where it's flat. |
| 00:58:54.30 | Councilmember Pfeiffer | Yeah, I would concur with Vice Mayor Theodorus. Sorry. Yeah. |
| 00:59:01.30 | Councilmember Weiner | . you |
| 00:59:01.62 | Unknown | Thank you. |
| 00:59:01.67 | Councilmember Weiner | Theodorus. Sorry. |
| 00:59:07.70 | Councilmember Pfeiffer | So, it... |
| 00:59:07.91 | Councilmember Weiner | Thank you. |
| 00:59:09.35 | Councilmember Pfeiffer | Thank you. I think also, remember, as we heard from Captain Rohrabacher, there is a fine system that kicks in. Plus, most of the police officers are going to give them a warning. And the ordinance is up to 100. I mean, I don't really see them handing out these high $100 tickets. And I also concur that I think the age 13, 14, I think that's appropriate. |
| 00:59:42.10 | Mayor Withey | OK, so it's probably time for a motion. |
| 00:59:44.64 | Dr. Kashyap | One quick comment. |
| 00:59:44.89 | Mayor Withey | one. Thank you. |
| 00:59:46.39 | Dr. Kashyap | Um... Thank you. I know we, once you make this regulation, it's set, but I'd like to review this after a year to see how it did go. You know, don't forget we might wanna January, February, March, April and months that there will be minimal use on that. We might want to go back and look at it the same way we do bike parking on Tracy Way and see if it's seasonal. You know, as far as the age, I just think if we want to go forward with this, then I think there's somewhere along the line you have to review it to see the success of it or if we want to make some changes. |
| 01:00:32.75 | Mary Wagner | I'm going to make a motion. And Mr. Mayor, if I may, there was another point that was raised by Councilmember Leon that I think we should address, which was the clarification for Richardson Street and 2nd Street about what portions we're discussing. Yes, very much so. And it was my intent in drafting, and I believe the bike and pedestrian committee's intent in their resolution, that it is that corridor, it's not the extensions. So I would suggest that in the language in the ordinance where it speaks to Richardson Street, we add that it's Richardson Street between Bridgeway and 2nd. And with respect to 2nd Street, it's between Richardson and South. |
| 01:00:33.78 | Unknown | and, |
| 01:00:43.58 | Pat | Thank you. |
| 01:00:43.70 | Unknown | you |
| 01:00:43.75 | Pat | you Yes, very much. |
| 01:00:46.03 | Councilmember Weiner | And it was. |
| 01:01:08.82 | Mayor Withey | Okay, so it's the corridor. Yeah, it's the bend. Correct. |
| 01:01:12.10 | Mary Wagner | Thank you. |
| 01:01:12.13 | Councilmember Leon | Thank you. |
| 01:01:12.17 | Mary Wagner | Thank you. |
| 01:01:12.18 | Councilmember Leon | Correct. |
| 01:01:12.47 | Mary Wagner | Thank you. Thank you. |
| 01:01:12.77 | Mayor Withey | Thank you. |
| 01:01:12.79 | Mary Wagner | Yeah. Okay. |
| 01:01:13.97 | Mayor Withey | I can't. |
| 01:01:14.04 | Councilmember Leon | Thank you. So. second and Alexander right because the south keeps going up into the hills that's right |
| 01:01:20.74 | Unknown | Thank you. |
| 01:01:20.76 | Dr. Kashyap | Thank you. |
| 01:01:20.77 | Unknown | All right. |
| 01:01:21.03 | Dr. Kashyap | into the hills. |
| 01:01:21.73 | Unknown | Thank you. |
| 01:01:21.75 | Dr. Kashyap | That's right. |
| 01:01:22.12 | Unknown | Thank you. |
| 01:01:22.17 | Dr. Kashyap | Thank you. |
| 01:01:24.47 | Councilmember Leon | Thank you. |
| 01:01:24.50 | Dr. Kashyap | Right. |
| 01:01:24.96 | Councilmember Leon | you |
| 01:01:24.99 | Dr. Kashyap | Thank you. |
| 01:01:26.04 | Unknown | I'll make a motion to waive the first reading, introduce, and read by title only. ordinance of the City Council of the City of Sausalito amending title 15 chapter 15.1 to of the Sausalito Municipal Code to establish regulations regarding bicycle riding on certain designated sidewalks with the clarification as to the designation of the corridor just mentioned by the city attorney. |
| 01:01:52.21 | Councilmember Pfeiffer | Second. |
| 01:01:54.88 | Councilmember Leon | Yeah, so just to clarify my comment earlier, Tom, I don't teach my kids how to ride on Second Street, but at some point they're going to want to get on their bike and go. That's part of being a kid. So that's the point. It's not teaching them where to ride. It's that at some point a bike is independence to a child, and so they want to be able to get on their bike and go and not have to worry about, not be terrified to ride along a city street. That's the point. |
| 01:02:27.53 | Dr. Kashyap | You've got to step in. |
| 01:02:28.80 | Mayor Withey | I know. I have a question of the city attorney. I agree with Councilmember Weiner about needing to look at this. As we need to sort of get data and see how things develop I don't think we want to put that in the ordinance but can we just sort of if we pass this then just direct staff to come back and give us a report in a year I think is and would that work for yeah yeah okay yes okay thanks so we have |
| 01:02:55.41 | Chris Skelton | Thank you. Thank you. Yes. |
| 01:03:02.49 | Mayor Withey | We have a motion, we have a second. Let's call the roll. |
| 01:03:09.90 | Debbie (City Clerk) | Council member Pfeiffer? Yes. Council member Weiner? |
| 01:03:12.84 | Mayor Withey | Thank you. |
| 01:03:12.86 | Dr. Kashyap | Thank you. |
| 01:03:12.89 | Mayor Withey | you. |
| 01:03:12.97 | Dr. Kashyap | Thank you. |
| 01:03:13.03 | Mayor Withey | Yes. |
| 01:03:14.64 | Debbie (City Clerk) | Council Member Leon. |
| 01:03:16.45 | Mayor Withey | though. |
| 01:03:17.85 | Debbie (City Clerk) | Vice Mayor Theodore. |
| 01:03:19.00 | Mayor Withey | Yes. |
| 01:03:20.48 | Debbie (City Clerk) | Mayor Whitting. |
| 01:03:21.31 | Mayor Withey | Yes, that matter carries. |
| 01:03:21.38 | Debbie (City Clerk) | Thank you. |
| 01:03:25.18 | Mayor Withey | Okay. My suggestion is we're going to hear the first business item, 6A, and then after that we'll take a short break, if that's okay with everyone. So our next item, 6A, is the 2014 Sausalito Art Festival Summary Report, and I know we Parks and Rec Director Mike Langford to start off today. |
| 01:04:03.06 | Mike Langford | Thank you whoever just did that. Good evening, Mayor Withee, City Council members. Mike Langford, your Parks and Recreation Director here. And I'm here to introduce the folks from the Art Festival, I don't really think we need too much of an introduction on the art festival. We've all been there. We've all volunteered for it. We all know its history here in town. But I do want to point out that as per the agreement with the city that was signed in 2007, the Sausalito Art Festival is required to give a report that would be a at a, excuse me, art festival, to the City Council at a noticed public meeting setting forth the then-available figures for attendance, gate revenue, and number of artist entries. So with that, I would like to bring up... Folks from the art festival, not sure who's going to... Okay, so Paul Anderson from the Sausalito Art Festival, the... Acting, interim, permanent, executive director, something along those lines. We're not sure what yet. Thank you. |
| 01:05:02.27 | Paul Anderson | Thank you, Mike. |
| 01:05:02.78 | Mike Langford | Welcome, Paul. Thank you. |
| 01:05:03.98 | Paul Anderson | Paul Anderson, managing director of the Saucelito Art Festival. first off i wanna say uh... Mr. Mayor or head of the Mayor's Blue Ribbon Committee for Garbage, all the volunteer members of the council, of which I see five total, the staff, City Manager Adam Pulitzer and his staff this year were absolutely exemplary. It was a great group to work with. We had several meetings as a group and also individually within the city. It was a pleasure to work with each and every one, and I want to thank Adam for all his participation. The police department was spectacular. The fire department, the chief. It was fantastic. And I have to actually pull out of the whole group Fred Bunker for everything he did for us. Fred. Hiller. Sorry. Wrong. I went back 30 years. There was a Fred. He was here a while back. Anyway, Fred, thank you very much. It was unbelievable. I want to introduce the right hand, the person that makes it happen. Lexi Matthews is the operation director of the festival, Our secretary of the foundation, Anne Arnott, and the treasure, Sandy McGarry. Our Food Booth Chairman Ursula It's at the very back, and I have some good numbers for you. The first thing I want to tell you is it was a major success. It was a pleasure to be at the helm this year. It's always wonderful, but this one was even more than wonderful. We've got some good numbers to report, and we've got some nice things to say about a whole lot of good people. So I'm going to start with attendance. I think it's the thing that people really want to know. We were up 16.5 percent over last year. Okay, now once again in Sausalito there's several things that make that happen. There are three. It's called attendance, followed by weather, weather, and weather. And this year we had all three. Our online sales for the first time were substantial. The largest number of online sales prior to the event came from San Francisco, The second largest group was from Mill Valley. Surprisingly, the third largest was from San Jose, and the fourth largest was from San Rafael. So things are changing. We did a lot of publicity in the South Bay to see if we could anticipate and also ask those good folks down there from Silicon Valley to come up and see our show. The show has been rated the number one show on the West Coast for years. This year, La Quinta. beat us out by numbers that were teeny tiny because they have something called a tennis tournament that Larry Ellison does. And they had a few extra people there for a change, and people spent more money. Our attendance figures this year, total attendance at the event are 27,150. That's an approximate, but it's close. And that breaks down like this. General admission tickets sold were 14,756, or 66% of the people that arrived. The seniors were 6,475, or 29%. Children 6 to 12 were 8, or excuse me, 3.8%, 845, and under 5 were 203. What's great about this is purchase of the gate were 80% of the general admissions, 20% online. a real figure that you need to keep in your mind. Online sales keep going up. 5% four years ago, 13% last year, 20% this year. In the senior category, 82% at the gate, and 18% online. Our demographics say that now the attendee at the art festival, 60% are ages 45 to 54, is female. That's what we're looking at. That's the person that comes. They like the jewelry. They like the art. They like the crafts. They like the whole feeling of it. But it is an aging group. It's always been that way. Why? Because we live in Marin County, which has the oldest population in the country. So why not? It's fun to be able to enjoy the patrons walking in the door. They have a smile on their face. The first thing we do, of course, is to give them the opportunity to purchase a glass of champagne. Know where we are. patrons walking in the door. They have a smile on their face. The first thing we do, of course, is to give them the opportunity to purchase a glass of champagne. Know where you can find a Pepsi or a Coke, a cup of coffee, or a glass of wine or a beer. The only thing you can buy when you get in the front door is a glass of champagne. This year our patrons reguiled in the fact that they could do that and they bought $55,000 worth of champagne. And a good number, we smiled a lot and it's always fun to have that happen. When they got to the food booths, of which we are only Sausalito. 94965 Nonprofits are the only people that can have a food booth in the festival. This year the food booths grossed over $200,000, and they take home 100% of their profits, and their net profit was over $115,000 going back to those nonprofits. And I have to add one little fun thing, and this is for the audience too. We didn't have a hamburger booth. And everyone said, No hamburgers, especially our chairman, Mike Stone. And I said, you know, Mike, let's see what happens. Every single food booth with the exception of one increased their sales across the board because everyone buys a hamburger and if they don't, they buy something else. So this year it was a benefit to all the food booths to not have hamburgers. Who knows what'll happen next year? Maybe the Lions Club will get rid of hot dogs. I don't know. Beverage sales were amazing this year. In the history of the show, we've never had beverage sales like this. As you know, our main stage sponsor is Stella. Stella is part of Eagle Distributors. They brought along all of their craft beers from San Francisco. Our largest ever in the history of the show was for the combined weekend was $92,000 in beer. This year, okay, we did a couple things. We added one extra booth. We also put the food booths and the Bear Beats booths together for the first time, not segregating them. It's fun to think about 16,027 beers being poured But it's also nice to think about $117,000 with an 83% profit margin. So life is good when it comes to... the actual event. Music entertainment this year, the crowds loved it. It was kind of a mix of everything from Pete Escovito to Tower of Power that we tried to get for years. People enjoyed themselves. The crowds were amazing. quote unquote really nice. Roebacher just left the captain, but the police department had no problems at all. We had one injury that actually was a volunteer going to the hospitality tent and tripped. Other than that, everything else was cuts and bruises and a couple of headaches along the way. One of the things that the art festival does each year is have a gala. This year the gala was attended by 1,100 people. We invite all of the artists to be our guests for the evening. It's expensive, but good things in life do cost a couple bucks. This year it was $300. dollars but at the end of the show after paying all of our bills and paying as the artist being our guests which were over $400, we were able to put $40,000 into a program called Artist Teaching Art, which we established two years ago. The program this year went into 22 classrooms. 14 professional artists taught those classes, 20 in artist and resident classes were held, 500 plus students were touched, and we made thousands of pieces of art. What we do is we go into a school district, we talk to the superintendent, we get the principal involved and we say, may we bring a professional artist into your classroom to teach alongside of your teacher. It has to be a collaborative effort between the two of them. What happens is that then we take a core subject. In today's world there's something called common core standards, which is now going to be adopted throughout the United States for education. And it says in common core standards that you must take and have an art element in your Common Core Standards, which means math needs to have an art element. So for us, we took Willow Creek Academy. We have something called a tall ship being built in South Slado on the waterfront. We put the two of them together. The math teacher took a piece of art that had been drawn by the students and told them, taught them how to take percentages and ratios and blow it up into a poster size. If you look at the side of the tent right now in one of the containers, there is a six by six painting the children did by taking a small image, taking the ratios and blowing it up. There are two of those there and they're part of the exhibit at the tall ship. That was one of the programs. We actually had classes throughout the county. We did Bahia Vista, Bayside MLK, Bellina Stinson Beach School, Brandis Hilli School, Davidson Middle School, Marin Horizon School, San Ramon Elementary, and of course, Willow Creek Academy, which was our number one. Onward and upward, it's always fun to tell you all about this stuff. We also took this year for the first time and put together a $30,000 grant along with the Marin – no, excuse me, the Marin County Board of Education. And this will be the first ever in Marin County a program called Integrated Learning Specialist Program, where we take teachers and teach teachers how to teach art in classrooms. And the Marin County Board of Education endorsed this. The program will start in the spring. We funded the first half of it this year. We will be paying for all the teachers, the artists, teachers to be able to go into the Marin County Board of Supervisors classrooms and put this program together. You will be hearing more about integrated learning in Marin County. It's a fabulous program and we're really happy to be a part of it. One of the things we also do is we ask our artists, we ask all of the business people in town, and we ask people throughout the Bay Area to donate to our silent auction. And this year, almost 80% of the artists did that to the tune of $30,000. We put that into our scholarship fund, which Ann Arnott is the the chair of the scholarship fund. And this year we gave away $28,000 in scholarships to seven students. So seven students will be attending Princeton, Marymount, Manhattan, Chapman University, Dominican University, the California College for the Arts, and UC Berkeley. Amazing classes they're taking, only because I think it's important that we know where our money goes, because remember, each and every one of you that's a volunteer, this is your money, your time, your energy that's making this happen. The student that's going to the California College of Art is doing painting and drawing. It's the second time we've given them a scholarship. The young lady who is going to Marymount, Manhattan is playwriting. The young lady who's going to the University of California is teaching arts, and it's the second time we've given her a scholarship. Young lady, once again, from San Francisco, graphic design at Chapman University, and that's down in Orange County. Princeton University is voice music, which is phenomenal. A young lady from Richmond, dance at Dominican College, Dominican University, excuse me. And last but not least, a gentleman from Berkeley who is going to the University of California, Berkeley, and he is studying theater. So it's a wide range of arts. That's really what we're all about. It's what we've been able to do with the Saucedo Art Festival Foundation, and it's exciting to see that the program continues. We have a fund now, a corpus of over $200,000 that's allocated only for scholarships, and we hope to grow that with other gifts and donations, and so we're always looking for people that want to drop a couple extra bucks our way. Grants, this last year we gave over $150,000 in grants to the community, $100,000 to the chamber, which was, what did they say? There was a smile on Onan's face last Friday night when I handed her the check. $30,000 in Leonard Caprillion grants, which are community grants to the community this year, the Bay Area Discovery Museum, the Friends of the Sausalito Library, the Sausalito Historical Society, the Spalding Boat Works, the Marin Mammal Center, Willow Creek Academy, Sausalito Women's Club, and the Bay Model Alliance all took the 30,000 in pieces, all with a specific program involving the arts, which is always important. So our grants for this coming year, actually right now, if you have time and you have a nonprofit that you would like something to happen, you have until Friday to be able to get your grant in. And we'll be giving that money away from the art festival from this year. There were years and years where people complained about the gridlock in Sausalito and how bad it was. One year even the Golden Gate Transit, for some crazy reason, didn't run a bus through town. But nowadays we have parking under control thanks to the Rotary Club of Sausalito. This year they parked over 7,000 cars. And if you take that, 27,000 people divided by 7,000, we had a lot of carpooling going on. But even more significant to Dr. Fudge was there were 1,200 bicycles parked during the weekend, which is significant. We had a lot of bicycles come through town and park, and the Bicycle Coalition did that job. Um, We. like people showing up. But one of the things over the years we've had to do was when there were too many people, we had to raise the price. That wasn't a bad thing because our bottom line continues to look better. Last but not least on my annual report, And once again, I want to thank all of you for volunteering, doing everything you do to make the Saucedo Art Festival a cultural icon in this community and also around the world. One of my dreams years ago when I got involved, and this was back in the 70s, was that Sausalito would be synonymous with art festivals as Confrance was to film festivals. And I think we're getting pretty close to doing that. It makes me feel really good. This year, we just repaved the tennis courts at Marinship Park. And thanks to our park and rec director, Mike Langford, who I have to also thank for all of his hard work. There'll be new benches in the tennis courts in a couple of weeks, which was great. We're going to be installing new benches. We've committed funds to a project that you've all approved that B. Seidler and the Saucido Foundation was working with us, and that's Icehouse Plaza. A couple weeks before B passed, she walked down to, she came down and saw me, and she handed me the little package, and she said, Paul, and I said, Bea, we'll get it finished for you. So that's on our list for this year, and I'm hoping that we can conclude that by the end of the year, and each of you will be there when we dedicate the Ice House Plaza, and hopefully it's to our good friend Phil Frank and Bea Seidler. It would be wonderful, and we're hoping that's going to happen. And last but not least, right here on the side of your complex, we have a George Sumner mural that was done years and years ago, and it's in sad repair. Mike brought it to my attention, and I've contacted a contractor who's donating his time to repair the windows, contacted George who said absolutely and we're paying for all of the materials they need to make that happen. All in all, the Saucydo Art Festival had a phenomenal year. It was wonderful to be a part of the community and have the community part of us. It's a really wonderful thing to be able to say to everyone, hey, if you're not having fun, don't do it. Thank you very much. Any questions? |
| 01:20:52.00 | Mary Wagner | Thank you. |
| 01:20:52.08 | Unknown | Thank you. |
| 01:20:52.13 | Mary Wagner | Thank you. |
| 01:21:48.94 | Mayor Withey | Thank you. Thanks a lot, Paul, for a really great report. I know I had fun there. I do every year. So you did a heck of a job. So thanks for all your great work. Does anybody have any questions of Paul before we throw this open for a public comment? No. I mean, does anybody from the public want to say anything about poll's exciting report. Okay. Well, yeah, it's fabulous. And thanks again for all the wonderful stuff that you guys do. Okay. |
| 01:22:31.97 | Councilmember Leon | Yeah. |
| 01:22:32.08 | Mayor Withey | Thank you. |
| 01:22:32.42 | Councilmember Leon | I would just say that's probably the most information we've had, and that's great. I mean, there weren't so many years ago that you, too, recall all the hoopla about disclosure of information and all the other rigmarole that people, including some folks who sit up here, try to drag these folks through. And I can only say you guys do great things, and that's about maybe information overload, so you're paying them back in due course. |
| 01:23:21.43 | Mayor Withey | on us. No problem. Okay, good. Paul, thanks once again. Short break. Okay, we're going to adjourn for just a few minutes. Thanks. |
| 01:23:41.47 | Mayor Withey | Okay? Thank you. Okay, item 6B is the formation of the Social Legal Financing Authority Administrative Services Director, Charlie Francis. Good evening. |
| 01:23:55.19 | Charlie Melton | Good evening, Mayor, members of the City Council. The agenda item before you tonight is the procedural next step in the city's long-term and process for continuous investment in the city's sewer infrastructure. Just for a summary and a recap of what we went through for the past year, we've undertook a sewer rate study where we saw that our 75-year-old sewer system, it's old and it's deteriorated. We have a responsibility to protect the environment, to keep spills of raw sewage out of the bay. And as we went through those sewer rate proceedings, we saw that it was, you know, essential to protect the environment and the health and safety of Sausalito residents. So we adopted new sewer rates. And as part of that new sewer rates, we studied very closely whether the investment in infrastructure should be a combination of pay-as-you-go or should we issue tax-exempt debt. And we structured the new sewer rates so that we would use tax-exempt state revolving fund loan and tax-exempt revenue bonds to finance that debt. And so this was a fiscally responsible plan that was passed by the city council and the rates were enacted. |
| 01:23:56.61 | Mayor Withey | Thank you. |
| 01:25:12.48 | Charlie Melton | I just want to reemphasize that this has been a long-term planning process. This little chart kind of just goes back to the fall of 2013. But it really started a lot before that. We went through this whole planning process of how are we going to structure the operations, the maintenance, the future investment in infrastructure, and we adopted those rates through the spring of 2014. And immediately after the budget was passed, we began the process of developing the bond financing process and getting the money together so that we can start designing the capital projects and to invest in the infrastructure after the rainy season. So along – and here's where we are. We're at today, November 18th. The bond documents are almost completely drafted. In December, we'll be asking the city council for approval of the financing. And along the way, we saw that we needed to form a public financing authority. So that's the mechanism that cities in California use in order to issue tax-exempt debt. And tax-exempt debt is what makes the financing so attractive. Right now we're looking at interest rates slightly south of 4 percent, which is just a little bit higher than what we get through the state revolving fund. So prior to 2011, we had such a financing authority. We had the Saucolito Public Improvements Authority, but it was an unintended consequence of the 2011 Budget Act enacted by the state legislature, that was dissolved. So we need to form a new financing authority in order to issue the new tax exempt revenue bonds. Under state law, the California Municipal Finance Authority was created in order to assist cities in forming these new financing authorities. So the city and the... and the California Municipal Finance Authority. We're proposing tonight that the city do its part to entering in an agreement with them in order to form the Sausalito Finance Authority. Now, the California Municipal Finance Authority has relegated all the roles and responsibility of the new authority to the city council of the city of Sausalito. So the board of directors for the Sausalito Finance Authority will be the city council of the City of Sausalito. The executive director and the treasurer and the secretary of the authority will be the city manager, the city clerk, and the administrative services director. So the CMFA has no active role in the new financing authority. This finance authority then becomes that legal mechanism for the city to issue the tax exempt debt. So tonight's action does not approve the sewer revenue bonds. It's just merely the procedural step in order to issue those revenue bonds in your December meeting. And so just a little bit of history. The city operates only a collection system. So the sewer improvements that we're proposing to do over the next three years are only the infrastructure for the collection system. The collection system collects the sewage and brings it over into the treatment system, which is part of the Southern Marin Sanitary Sewer District. And this graph is just to show that the new rates, this right here, the difference between the old rates and the new rates, was designed to put in the adequate debt service coverage and the appropriate reserves in order to issue this debt. So the next step then is in order to protect our bays, to transport the sewage, to comply with the EPA order, to keep the city financially stable, and to ensure intergenerational equity amongst today's ratepayers and future ratepayers, we're recommending that the city move – that the city council move to approve the resolution authorizing the formation of the Sausalito Finance Authority. With me today is the city's financial advisor, Craig Hill from NHA Advisors, and also the city's bond attorney, Brian Quint from Quintin-Phillig, in case you have any technical questions that I may not be able to answer. And now it's time for those questions. |
| 01:29:43.09 | Mayor Withey | Thank you, Charlie. Anybody up here have any questions on this presentation. |
| 01:30:00.40 | Councilmember Leon | Reviewed this multiple times already so yeah, okay |
| 01:30:02.90 | Mayor Withey | Yeah. Ditto. This has been obviously thoroughly reviewed by the Finance Committee. of |
| 01:30:15.79 | Councilmember Pfeiffer | Okay, so I guess I just got this on Friday and I read it. And you know, I, I think it's a good thing. debt with the bond financing. Can you comment on that? And my next question has to do with, I know we were going to do an asset assessment of what the total scope of the current sewer problem is and get a dollar sign, you know, on that. We were doing an asset inventory, you know, analysis. So I was wondering if you could comment on that. |
| 01:31:06.99 | Charlie Melton | As this graph indicates, the city council approved new sewer rates for the purpose of continuing the investment in city infrastructure. And the financing plan that was adopted by the city council was to provide rates, and this difference between the two rates, in order to issue debt for debt service coverage. That's been covered in every council meeting that we went forward with. If we would have had to raise all of the revenues from today's rate payers, the rates would have had gone up 300% to do as a pay-as-you-go type financing rather than as a debt-issued financing. So to keep the rates at the increase that we proposed, then debt financing provided the best to do – to generate the revenues to do the projects. We had multiple projects to do, not just one. And so the debt financing is the best mechanism to do that. And finally, debt financing provides for intergenerational equity. In other words, tomorrow's users of the sewer system will be paying their fair share of the cost of the infrastructure that will be gone today. If we would have asked for today's customers to pay all the costs of today's sewer costs, future ratepayers would have escaped that paying for that system. |
| 01:32:28.14 | Mayor Withey | Could I have a follow-up question to Councilmember Pfeiffer's? |
| 01:32:31.97 | Charlie Melton | Thank you. |
| 01:32:31.99 | Councilmember Weiner | Thank you. |
| 01:32:39.15 | Mayor Withey | Could – and it may be for our public works director actually to answer, but I'm wondering whether you could put this in – remind us and put this in the context of the EPA order and the actual dollar amount of the projects that we discussed way back in the last year over the course of this – so we're – Sure. – rate-increased discussions. So could you put that together for us? Of course. |
| 01:33:01.47 | Charlie Melton | Sure. |
| 01:33:07.70 | Charlie Melton | THE FAMILY. Yeah, well, and so first the, you know, now this is for the sewer infrastructure. The sewer infrastructure was identified in a technical memorandum that was attached to the rate study. This does not address storm drains, nor was it any part of Measure O sales tax. Measure storm drains were specifically called out as an infrastructure need that did not have a funding source. Sewers do have a funding source, and that's what we're moving forward with. And that technical memo identified over the next five years over $7 million worth of capital projects that were priority one projects specifically tied to our response to the EPA compliance order and consistent with our sewer system management plan that was adopted by the City Council, as was all the EPA compliance responses run through the City Council. the City Council. So the total scope of immediate capital projects that are needed now have been, were identified and have been identified as over $7 million. Now $1 million over maybe $1.3 million are being addressed right now through the state revolving fund loan and that's the humble project that you see downtown. The next $6 million could be addressed through this revenue bond issue. |
| 01:34:35.24 | Mayor Withey | Yeah. And one final follow-up. Sorry, Council Member Pfeiffer, I'll get back to you. I think it would be helpful for you to clarify for everybody watching in here, in the audience, and up here, that this isn't a new bond payment we're putting onto each parcel. This is a debt service payment that the sewer enterprise fund will be. So perhaps you could make that clear for us. |
| 01:35:02.09 | Charlie Melton | Oh, yeah, that's correct. This is not a new tax. It's not a new assessment. This was a component of the rates that were passed last summer in order to raise the revenue specifically for this purpose. If we did not do this, then the residents would say, why did you raise our sewer rates if you weren't going to do these bonds to do those capital investments? |
| 01:35:25.82 | Mayor Withey | Thank you. Any more questions? |
| 01:35:29.47 | Councilmember Pfeiffer | I do have a thought. So, Charlie, I'm very familiar with the EPA order and the 7 million, you know, estimate and the 10 projects, et cetera. But weren't there – it was my understanding we were taking a holistic view of the town and we were doing an asset inventory of all the leaks and the pipe leaks and the, you know, various – the impact of the laterals, et cetera. |
| 01:35:34.56 | Mary Wagner | you know, |
| 01:35:38.07 | Councilmember Weiner | I |
| 01:35:49.06 | Mary Wagner | in |
| 01:35:52.18 | Councilmember Pfeiffer | That was my understanding, and we were doing that to get a bigger picture of the extent of the problem and potentially the entire cost. Could you comment on that? |
| 01:35:52.19 | Unknown | Yeah. that. |
| 01:35:53.71 | Mary Wagner | my understanding. |
| 01:36:01.76 | Charlie Melton | So could you comment on that? Yes. The process that you're referring to is called the Asset Management Plan. And the Asset Management Plan looks at every element of infrastructure, the storm drains, the streets, the parks, the city buildings, et cetera. And sewer is definitely a part of our infrastructure component. But we started asset management under the EPA compliance order when we was one of our first steps was to identify all that sewer infrastructure so and one of the outputs of that asset management plan that was first identified were all the priority projects that we identified in the technical memorandum |
| 01:36:34.81 | Unknown | it. |
| 01:36:34.97 | Unknown | Thank you. |
| 01:36:45.18 | Councilmember Pfeiffer | Again, I know it, excuse me, Mary, a follow-up. I know that we identified the priority projects. I know, I remember that and I recall that. My question is, what is the time frame for getting that whole picture, that whole snapshot of the sewer problem, the extent, the full scope? of the condition of city sewer pipes throughout the |
| 01:37:05.89 | Charlie Melton | throughout. Yeah. In the, as an appendix to the sewer rate study, there was actually a 10-year infrastructure list that listed not only the $7 million that were within the first five years, but there were more capital projects in the later five years. That's the more complete picture of not only the immediate priority projects, but there are future priority projects. This is just the schedule of when they should be done in order to prevent spills from going into the bay. |
| 01:37:37.78 | Mayor Withey | of the or you know, I think. |
| 01:37:38.96 | Charlie Melton | . |
| 01:37:39.60 | Mayor Withey | Thank you. |
| 01:37:39.64 | Charlie Melton | Thank you. |
| 01:37:40.03 | Councilmember Leon | Yeah. |
| 01:37:40.15 | Charlie Melton | Thank you. |
| 01:37:40.82 | Councilmember Leon | If I could ask either one of you, Jonathan or Charlie, the first step operating under the EPA mandate, which was in 2008, I want to say, was this actual study of what are our problems and what are the higher priority projects. And we hired an engineering firm to scope most of the sewer lines throughout the city. So that process, my understanding is that process of understanding what needs to be placed and what priority was done years ago. |
| 01:37:41.09 | Charlie Melton | I could ask either one. |
| 01:37:42.00 | Mayor Withey | Thank you. |
| 01:37:42.09 | Charlie Melton | Thank you. |
| 01:37:42.10 | Mayor Withey | Thank you. |
| 01:37:42.12 | Councilmember Weiner | Thank you. |
| 01:38:17.40 | Councilmember Leon | not, and that is also That is one of the many infrastructure issues of this city, but that was something that we've already done a long time ago. And now we're at, we've done a couple of projects acting on that. And now we're doing, we're proposing doing more by accelerating the funding. Is that correct? |
| 01:38:38.35 | Jonathon Goldman | Yeah, thanks. Jonathan Goldman here, Public Works Director and City Engineer. It's certainly true as you've described it. And at the same time, we have the benefit with the last set of rates that were enacted of hiring full-time wastewater maintenance workers with the training and expertise and providing them with the equipment to continually not only maintain the system we have, but improve the quality of the condition assessment information that we gather. quality of information which led us to recognize the real inefficiency of the state revolving loan program. Despite the fact that the interest rate is lower, the administrative burden associated with getting to a project that at this point we started working on four and a half years ago and still isn't finished led us to recognize that we have urgent issues here that we're behind on dealing with. They're not just purely sewer issues, although they're certainly significant sewer issues, but looking, for example, at the concrete street reconstruction that we did on Richardson, which involved not only replacement of lower laterals and sewer mainlines, but also the need at the same time to address all kinds of other infrastructure at the same time. in my mind leads to the urgency and the great benefit of having this opportunity to offer to finance this significant amount of work in a very short period of time, allow us to get a significant amount of construction complete because we really haven't been able to do that, and then measure the benefits of that construction in terms of reduced inflow and infiltration and other criteria that the EPA and our treatment agency is currently regulated for. So that's why your staff, that's why your experts both in evaluating the information that they independently generated and that your maintenance division staff generates, and evaluating rates and providing a more equitable rate platform this go-round than happened the last go-round, are here recommending that we continue on this course and deliver the funding necessary to make these capital improvements just as quickly as possible. |
| 01:41:12.23 | Councilmember Pfeiffer | Mr. Mayor. So, Jonathan, I have a follow-up question to that. So, I recall what Councilmember Leon is referring to with the EPA order very well. I'm hiring the engineer, the presentations. the top priority projects, the appendices with the different projects, you know, in the future. But. My question has to do with, I know we talked about the need to kind of get a snapshot of the extent of the entire town end to end. And I know, for example, we know the laterals a big problem, but specifically, It was my understanding that the goal of the asset inventory management of which is still is to fully document the extent of the sewer. So if we've done that, that's fine. And 7 million is the magic number. It says more than 7 million. It was my understanding we were still in the process of doing that. |
| 01:42:02.55 | Mary Wagner | Thank you. |
| 01:42:04.58 | Jonathon Goldman | Thank you. |
| 01:42:08.17 | Jonathon Goldman | . It is a continuous process, and it is intended not to primarily for the purpose of gathering to eight significant digits an accurate estimate of how bad the problem is. to helping to manage the enterprise so that the highest priority projects can be funded and delivered and that we measure our performance improvement with those projects and then reprioritize so that the ratepayers' money is best spent in avoiding the adverse impacts that EPA and your finance director just mentioned. The fact is that it's a lot easier for me to say what doesn't need to be replaced than it is to say what does, because the most significant replacement that's happened since I've been here, and I think in large part it's the most significant replacement that's happened in a long time, is the Spinnaker Anchor project that we just completed. Now, Sausalito Marin City Sanitary District has also made improvements, but if you, I'm sure you recognize that most of the infrastructure that exists in Sausalito, the youngest of it is the Marin ship, which was built in World War II in a hurry. And the oldest of it was built, you know, 50 years or 30 years before we even had wastewater treatment. And it was designed to discharge raw, untreated sewage directly to the bay. So we're way behind the curve, and I apologize for the fact that I can't tell you exactly what it's going to cost to replace all of the wastewater infrastructure in the city. But what we are trying to do is to make informed decisions and manage the enterprise effectively so that we are stopping the worst of the bleeding in the places where it's bleeding worst as quickly as possible. |
| 01:42:32.00 | Mary Wagner | . |
| 01:44:12.08 | Mayor Withey | Let's open this up for public comment. Is there any member of the public who would like to comment on this matter? |
| 01:44:21.30 | Mayor Withey | Okay, seeing none, we will close public comment and bring it up here for our discussion. |
| 01:44:31.79 | Councilmember Leon | So, um, I think this is, you know, fourth step in this process of, um, you know, initial study of what the problems were in reaction to the EPA water, um, the initial rate increase that went through, um, the second rate increase, um, that went through it for seeing this particular day. Now, so what we're acting on today is today is just, you know, creating the legal entity that will issue these bonds because the old legal entity that we could have used no longer exists because of essentially the abolition of redevelopment agencies across the state. So all we're acting on tonight is creating that legal entity. I think the next meeting is where we'll vote on the issue of the bonds. That being said, this is a window of time, and you can speak to it better than I can, where you are gonna be looking, somebody's gonna be looking back 20 years from now, say, or 10 or whatever, and say, you did a good job in just getting something out the door and issuing it in this rate environment so that you can front load your capital investments. And these rates are set, this rate mechanism, this revenue mechanism, is what you want to drive, in my opinion, drive a capital project off of. Sales tax is a little more fluctuating over time, but these are, you know, definite revenues that go out, and that's what you can easily finance in people like that. That's my general take on it. So again, as Charlie said, I think this is the, The right thing to do is be able to, you know, if you do pay as you go, you'll never catch up at all. You'll be so far behind in catching up with these capital projects on the sewer side, and you don't have a choice. At some point, the EPA will lose patience and come down on all these entities, not just Sausalito. So, for me, it's a no-brainer. It's an unfortunate reality of inheriting an aged infrastructure that hadn't had a proper reinvestment strategy for many decades. So we're cleaning up the mess, so to speak, and this is the right way to do it. I learned from you. |
| 01:46:46.35 | Councilmember Weiner | I was like, |
| 01:46:46.68 | Unknown | learned from you. |
| 01:46:47.82 | Councilmember Weiner | Thank you. |
| 01:46:47.98 | Unknown | . |
| 01:46:50.19 | Mayor Withey | Thank you. |
| 01:46:50.24 | Councilmember Leon | Thank you. |
| 01:46:50.25 | Mayor Withey | Thank you. |
| 01:46:50.44 | Councilmember Leon | So |
| 01:46:50.62 | Mayor Withey | Thank you. Thank you. |
| 01:46:59.84 | Dr. Kashyap | I'd like to make a motion that we move that the City Council of the City of Sausalito approve the resolution authorizing the execution and delivery of a joint exercise of powers agreement by and between the City of Sausalito and the California Municipal Finance Authority to create the Sausalito Financing Authority and approving the authorizing certain other matters relating thereto. |
| 01:47:28.49 | Unknown | Second. |
| 01:47:31.65 | Mayor Withey | Is there any other comment up here before we call the vote? |
| 01:47:38.68 | Councilmember Pfeiffer | I'm going to abstain. I feel like I haven't had enough time to review this, and I have questions. |
| 01:47:42.01 | Mayor Withey | Thank you. |
| 01:47:42.08 | Councilmember Leon | Okay. |
| 01:47:44.74 | Councilmember Pfeiffer | Okay. |
| 01:47:45.03 | Councilmember Leon | I want to comment on that because that is just a poor excuse for a public official to use. |
| 01:47:50.09 | Councilmember Pfeiffer | If you're not willing to take the time to ask |
| 01:47:50.63 | Councilmember Leon | If you're not willing to take the time to ask questions and find out what the information means, that's your problem. Don't make it the public's problem. |
| 01:47:58.43 | Councilmember Pfeiffer | Four days, four days of which Saturday and Sunday |
| 01:48:01.92 | Councilmember Leon | you've had since 2008 to keep up on this issue. |
| 01:48:05.13 | Councilmember Pfeiffer | This is the first time I saw it on Friday afternoon, and it's a huge decision. |
| 01:48:11.39 | Mayor Withey | Okay. So, |
| 01:48:17.40 | Mayor Withey | This is the natural consequence of a process that we began when we embarked on the decision to enter into a 218 process and increase the sewer rates. This is what's going on now and what will happen in our next meeting when we bring the actual issuance of the bonds up for discussion. So this is nothing new. This is just something that was built into the rate study that we actually approved as a city council a while ago. So I think it's important to realize that when you make a decision and then there's follow-up things to be done, then we recognize that that's what we're doing here so and I finally just want to say I agree totally with councilmember Leone it would be gross financial mismanagement not to actually issue debt in this rate environment it would be crazy not to do so. Rates are going up, and we should actually, we'll continue this discussion in the next meeting, I'm sure. |
| 01:48:46.07 | Unknown | Thank you. |
| 01:49:36.32 | Unknown | coming. Well, tonight we're setting up or approving the financing authority, and I just recommend and on the second just so the public understands that we'll be approving the issue of the sewer bonds which is part of this process. And I'd just like to request that Charlie would make himself available to any council members or any members of the public that need any information on this so that we're prepared on the second because today we're just setting up the entity, but we will be approving the bonds at that point. |
| 01:49:42.48 | Mary Wagner | And I just. |
| 01:50:12.06 | Mayor Withey | Anybody else want to say anything before we call the vote? Thank you. |
| 01:50:14.96 | Councilmember Leon | I think you should just clarify what you and Charlie talked about before, that this isn't, I think, for the public to understand. This is not a new. Right. |
| 01:50:24.02 | Mayor Withey | you |
| 01:50:24.28 | Councilmember Leon | Thank you. |
| 01:50:25.60 | Mayor Withey | And we've talked about sewer rates. We had a process, and now your sewer rates have gone up. Well, this is what we're doing with it. This is what we're doing with the extra money that you're paying on your sewer rates. We're going to front load a significant amount of sewer pipe improvements and prioritized very much by the EPA order that we're under. So... I think it's really important to recognize that the debt that we'll be issuing is going to be paid out of the sewer rates. It's not extra money we're trying to ask from you. That's the really important thing to remember. coming out of the general fund. Okay, Debbie, let's call the |
| 01:51:26.19 | Debbie (City Clerk) | Councilmember Pfeiffer. Abstain. Councilmember Weiner. |
| 01:51:29.43 | Mayor Withey | Thank you. Yes. |
| 01:51:30.87 | Debbie (City Clerk) | Council Member Leon. |
| 01:51:31.86 | Mayor Withey | Yes. |
| 01:51:33.43 | Debbie (City Clerk) | Vice Mayor Theodorus? |
| 01:51:34.46 | Mayor Withey | Yes. |
| 01:51:35.98 | Debbie (City Clerk) | Mayor Withy. |
| 01:51:36.71 | Mayor Withey | Yes. Thank you. That matter carries. Thank you for coming tonight, gentlemen. Next item is an introduction to vegetation management and wildfire risk reduction. And welcome to Fred Hilliard, our fire marshal. |
| 01:51:56.64 | Charlie Melton | JUST. |
| 01:52:03.06 | Charlie Melton | Mr. Mayor, I accidentally hit the wrong button and this is shutting down. Do you need it for a presentation? |
| 01:52:09.43 | Mayor Withey | I guess you're just going to have to ad-lib, Fred. You know, what can I say? |
| 01:52:16.97 | Unknown | Thank you. |
| 01:52:19.85 | Unknown | There we go. |
| 01:52:20.33 | Councilmember Weiner | Thank you. |
| 01:52:29.22 | Charlie Melton | I got it. It's starting. |
| 01:52:38.54 | Charlie Melton | Do you want to sign them in? Do you want to sign them in or should I just do it here? Thank you. you Okay. |
| 01:52:58.13 | Dr. Kashyap | lounge. Your door is ajar. |
| 01:53:07.97 | Councilmember Weiner | The Lazy Things Party. |
| 01:53:09.57 | Charlie Melton | I'm sorry. you |
| 01:53:12.02 | Councilmember Weiner | Thank you. |
| 01:53:12.03 | Charlie Melton | Where is that music coming from? Right here. Oh. I was gonna say, that's the best Windows music I've heard in a long time. |
| 01:53:13.94 | Councilmember Weiner | you Thank you. Thank you. Oh. Thank you. Thank you. That's right. |
| 01:53:45.16 | Councilmember Weiner | Bye. Thank you. |
| 01:53:47.49 | Unknown | Come on. |
| 01:53:49.97 | Councilmember Weiner | . you you . Thank you. Thank you. . . . . . Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. . . Oh, Thank you. |
| 01:54:44.68 | Charlie Melton | Oh. There you go, you've done it through that one? Okay, I'm gonna turn this one off then. |
| 01:54:59.19 | Charlie Melton | Sorry about that. |
| 01:55:04.18 | Unknown | Mayor, council members, staff, citizens, thank you for having me up here to talk to you really briefly about vegetation management. We've done a presentation like this in the past. Captain Kerry Glockner, who was critical in putting this presentation together also, who was unable to be here tonight, has done this in the past, but we want to reintroduce this, and we want to do this in a way that's a little different. This is really what we're talking about doing here and as we go through the slides is is not just a fire department ordinance or, you know, demands to clear brush. We want to get the citizens involved. We want to get you involved, and we want to do it in a way that's more educational because we found that works in the other part of our district. We do have fire-wise communities in the other part of our district, and they work very well. Because the citizens are actually involved in that. They actually run that. So just keep that in mind as we move through this presentation. So tonight we're going to cover a little bit of history, because we all like history about Sausalito. And we're going to cover some wildland urban interface codes, some threats that we have in the city currently, and also talk about what a fire-wise Sausalito may look like moving forward. So, of course, I'm sure that some of you or most of you have seen this picture, which is the 1929 fire of Mt. 10 that actually burned down into Mill Valley. And these are firemen running from the fire with their shovels. So the history of wildfire in Sausalito does date back quite far. In 1891, there was a large fire that destroyed the San Francisco Yacht Club, and the some cottages and whatnot in Sausalito. And this started as a wildfire and then burned into the structure. So keep that in mind also as we go through the presentation about wildfire burning into structures. In 1891, there was a huge fire that actually burned from Bolinas, if you can believe it, all the way into Larkspur. So... You can see we do have fires. We are a marine environment, and we do get fog. And we get the humidity, but we still get the fires. like this year with our drought, these are prime times for this type of thing to happen again. In 1895, December, there was a fire which threw firebrand, which is basically an ember, and it destroyed $4,000 worth of property. Now, today, that would be in the millions, obviously. |
| 01:57:52.51 | Unknown | In 1899, big fire in Mount Tam. Same situation. It was in an Indian summer type situation that we're having. It was drought. And the fire took off and it did some major destruction from Mount Tam down. In July of 1913, as we get into the 1900s, you can see, again, Tam Blaze. This one, I'd like to just point out that the soldiers of Mill Valley and Larkspur basically put this fire out. But note, at the bottom here, temperature dropped, fog moved in, and the relative humidity climbed. And that's really what extinguished the fire. They didn't have the type of fire engines and fire crews that we have today. So this is the big fire of Sausalito. This is the fire that started up above Alexander and burned down towards the water. And the San Francisco Fire Department and the military saved the town. This was a $75,000 fire in Sausalito. And it was mostly around Old Town. So let's take that last slide for instance. So wildfire burns in Old Town. What led up to that? Well, we had dry periods, just like we have right now. We have relatively low humidity. The fog pushed in, but there was really no increase in the relative humidity because it was dry days. Dry days, but then the fog came in at night. High winds, wind which superheats the fuel that's coming in. It dries stuff out so that fires can spark. And then of course quick ignition from people that didn't clear roofs or gutters. What really caused most of the damage or the loss in property was showering embers, embers that were generated from the wildfire that flew into gutters and roofs and around adjacent structures. So what's the easiest fire prevention? What did they do back in the day? Well, settlers knew right out of the gate that their shake shingled roofs needed to be cleaned because if they had embers from a fire or embers from their fireplace because they didn't have anything to cover their fireplaces, would it ignite the roofs? And once the roof's going and once it gets in the attic, that's pretty much a loss. So, They kept the areas clean and lean, a brush around their homes, and this is back in the 1800s when they were doing this. They use what they could to clear vegetation. Sure, they could chop it down, At the time, as most of Sausalito was grazing land in most of Tampa, They use their goats, and we actually do that today. I'm sure you've seen that, where they have the goats. We use it around our main station up in above strawberry there, and we clear vegetation. They also implemented ordinances because they wanted everybody on the same page. It wasn't that they were trying to get people that weren't doing something to do something, They just wanted people to know let's all be on the same page to do it together. And then technology. in conjunction with the new codes allowed this fire prevention to start happening. So, of course, fire prevention is on everybody's mind, okay? And it even dates back in the early times where, you know, what do we do? All grass, rubbish, We want to clean up. We want to make sure that we know the phone number for the fire department, and we want to do our part. But what is our part? So technology causes us to be able to to implement codes and to change codes. Because as we build structures in what was wildland, now we have something that's different. It's still important that we realize that It's not just the wildfires that are causing destruction. It's the wildfires and it's the structures. So when you combine the two together, we need to do something to help mitigate that problem and to help slow the spread of wildfire. So how do we prepare? Well, We, Um, If we live in fire-prone areas, we clean our brush. If we have threats from low temperatures, or excuse me, high temperatures and low humidity, we make sure that we don't have a burn day. We're not burning stuff in our fireplaces. We're not doing things like that. And that will diminish the risk. This is just a slide about the goats used as fire prevention. Captain Glockner and the Homestead Valley Land Trust. In the parade, we had some of the goats that actually eat all of the brush, and so they were, we thought we'd put them in the slide. So what is an, well then, urban interface code? All right. So, The first thing that when people think is, well, there's a code, that means there's a rule. Well... Kinda, but really what a wildland-urban interface code is is it's looking at a particular situation with wildfires and urban structures and houses and it's combining the two and saying, how can we make it so If we have a fire, and we don't have the resources, that there's a good chance that when you come back from being evacuated and after an ember storm, that your structure's going to be there. So what we've done as fire code officials and code writers is we've written these codes. One has to do with building construction features. The other one has to do with fire-resistive nature, basically cleaning up your brush, defensible space. We looked at water supply components, where the hydrants are, where the tanks are, where we can get our water from, roadway width issues. We all know in Sausalito we have narrow roads. We have to do something to make sure that those roads are accessible. And then we focus on ember intrusion, decks, eave vents, basement vents, things like that. So what's our current fire threat right now? Well, Sausalito is actually recognized, a nationally recognized community that's at risk because we have, Wild land. We have structures, we have steep slopes, and we do have the, you know, have the possibility for having dry, windy temperatures over an extended period of time. We have open space areas. Still, the same open space areas that wreaked havoc in some of the earlier slides that I showed you are still there, and they still are a threat. And then we have a map that kind of shows us that the state of California put together about the fire hazard severity zone to tell us where these hazards are. So this slide right here is a draft slide from the CAL FIRE, and it's the local response area, that's what LRA stands for, and it's the Very High Fire Hazard Severity Zone. And as you can see, Sausalito, where it is right now, you can see that in Marin City, that the red zone stops right at the line. And the reason that is, is because When CAL FIRE did these maps, they didn't include a lot of the cities in it, they just included a lot of the area that is in the SRA, which is the state responsibility area. But it doesn't mean that that's not part of the hazard. So what we want to do is, we have looked at and we've layered GIS maps together and we've shown modeling where these fires would go now. So we have the technology to really show us when a fire starts in Wildland, where is this fire going to go? How is it going to travel? How far are the firebrands going to be broadcasted out? And of course, it's an estimate, but it's based on pretty good material. It's average winds, average weather, climate, and whatnot. So we're going to put a map together that's going to show those. So these were the three threat areas that we talked about in the earlier slides. The Alexander Avenue area, the Wolfback Ridge area, above Spring Street, the Rodeo Avenue. These areas, they actually come down into the city quite far, so these could be potentially wildland areas that – wildfires that burn down into the city and actually get into the city. So these are target places that we want to be concerned with as we move forward. And of course, the urban threat area. As you can see, we depicted the entire Sausalito because really, if you look at the topography of Sausalito, if we have firebrand broadcasting and fire that's burning into the city, and the houses are being threatened on each other, it could be the whole city that's threatened in a big incident like that. So let's transition from wildland urban interface to urban fire. What does that look like? Well, we've seen some pictures on the news of fires that are down south and fires that are up in northern California where you have these fires Los Angeles-sized communities, I like to use the term, which is basically like a four-lane highway, which is their street, right? And you have these homes that look like there's nothing to burn. There's no way that that's gonna burn. But the reality is that There is because the houses weren't necessarily built with wildfire or the ember storm that you see in the picture in mind. So part of an ordinance would require that where we find these areas that are a target hazard, we would implement Chapter 7A of the building code, which basically says that if you have a house that's within the wildland-urban interface and you're building it new, new construction or possibly a substantial remodel, we haven't gotten that far, then there's certain building type materials you would use and building methods you would use to encapsulate that home. to make it. more fires safe from an oncoming fire. So how do we stop? conflagrations like I'm talking about. Will we adopt a WUI code? That's a way of doing it. We enforce codes. by more engine company inspections, but we need the codes to enforce, so we have to adopt those. We implement firewise communities. Like I said at the very beginning, we want to get the community involved. And we've found that getting the community involved really works well because they police themselves. So we can go out and write citations all day and say you have to clean your weeds up, and they say, okay, yeah, I'll clean my weeds up. But if you have that whole block as a Firewise community and your neighbor comes out to you and says, hey, we're part of the Firewise community, you've got to clean your leaves up, you've got to trim your weeds up, You know, he brushed down. that works better because they work together. Plus, there's grant money to work with. We can help with grant money and getting grants for areas that are the big target hazard areas. So what would that look like? It would be a Firewise type Sausalito community. |
| 02:09:25.30 | Unknown | So every resident we urge to clean their roofs and gutters monthly in the summertime of flammable materials. I know a lot of roofs are really tall so it's hard to get onto the roof, but it's really important. Or trim your trees back. Get your brush, get the trees and the leaves back away to the roofs. And then you'll be able, then not as much material will drop onto the roofs. Educate the public. We offer fire classes all the time. regarding defensible space. Unfortunately, we don't have a huge turnout, but we hope to turn that around. We really want the public to be involved, and we offer these classes, and as a matter of fact, Carrie, Captain Glockner, our vegetation management specialist, teaches these classes. So Firewise Sausalito. So how that works, Firewise Communities is a nationally recognized Firewise community. model against basically taking wildland urban interface and urban interface and putting it together And having the people of the community, like homeowners associations or just groups that come together, go through a process of being nationally recognized and certified. We have two already in our district over in Tam Valley, and it works great, because every year there's one resident usually who's involved, and they have a committee, and they do that. They patrol their own neighborhoods. they go knocking on doors. And then when they don't get what they need, then they come to us and we help them with it. And it works really well. So what we want to do is we want to assess the entire city. Uh, We want to host free classes. We want to apply for grants where those target areas that we need to mitigate whatever brush and create defensible spaces that we could get chippers up there. We want to hold a community day focused on fire prevention. So during fire prevention week, we would actually have a presentation or several presentations within the fire department at one of the fire stations. And then, of course, we would assist with the paperwork to become a FireWise community. So there's plenty of information on how to get you know, There's plenty of information out there for what I'm talking about and what we want to do. There's the Firewise Communities, Adaptive Community, Firewise Community, and then FireSafe Marin, which I'm a member of, which is basically a county-wide FireSafe Council. Southern Marin Fires website, and then, of course, Ready, Set, Go. And we always have the sign down there at Station 1 on how to get involved with Ready, Set, Go. So the key is education. So we need to educate the public. We need to educate ourselves. And we need to have some rules in there, but as a guideline to really tell people, this is what you need to do. And we need to go together to make this work. So in the future, What we're going to do is we're going to come back to you, and we're going to have those maps showing those areas that we're talking about. We're going to have a plan, a strategic plan as far as what kind of codes that we want to adopt. And we're going to hope that you're going to be on board with us. You can give us a suggestion on what you want to do, and we're hoping that the public does too. And we want to also have a series of public education. Do you have any questions? Right. Thanks. Thanks. |
| 02:12:59.69 | Mayor Withey | Thanks very much. That was a great presentation. Thank you. Any questions of our fire marshal tonight? |
| 02:13:01.65 | Unknown | Thank you. presentation. |
| 02:13:08.72 | Councilmember Leon | We might want to revisit the dock design to incorporate these large archways that were present historically in Sausalito. |
| 02:13:08.77 | Mayor Withey | We might want to. |
| 02:13:19.47 | Councilmember Leon | I don't have a question. I have a comment more so if you were. you |
| 02:13:23.98 | Councilmember Weiner | Thank you. |
| 02:13:24.08 | Councilmember Leon | Thank you. Thank you. |
| 02:13:24.81 | Unknown | On the fireside communities, now, do you anticipate dividing up the city and having a variety of fireside communities, or are we going to be one fireside community? |
| 02:13:33.97 | Unknown | So the fire safe communities would be divided up by homeowners associations. It would be divided up by group streets that would become their own community, you know, areas. So, yeah, it would be many smaller. community within Sausalito. Yeah. |
| 02:13:56.77 | Councilmember Leon | Yeah, in a neighborhood while I- |
| 02:13:58.05 | Unknown | Yeah, exactly. You know, it's actually based, the model is almost exactly like the name of the watch. |
| 02:13:58.81 | Mayor Withey | Yeah, just the same thing. |
| 02:14:05.44 | Mayor Withey | Let's open this for public comment. Any member of the public like to comment on this item? |
| 02:14:05.61 | Unknown | So... |
| 02:14:12.71 | Mayor Withey | Seeing none, spring this back here. Again, I don't think there are any questions. This is really good. Thanks for the presentation. Sure, absolutely. And looking forward to see the next step. Absolutely. Because I think you'll find everybody will say that this is a really important thing to do. |
| 02:14:19.28 | Mary Wagner | Thank you. |
| 02:14:23.38 | Mary Wagner | Absolutely. |
| 02:14:24.04 | Unknown | Yeah. |
| 02:14:24.46 | Mary Wagner | Thank you. |
| 02:14:27.80 | Mary Wagner | Thank you. |
| 02:14:27.82 | Unknown | Absolutely. |
| 02:14:33.01 | Mayor Withey | Thank you. |
| 02:14:33.03 | Unknown | Thank you very much for your time. |
| 02:14:33.86 | Councilmember Leon | Thank you. |
| 02:14:33.99 | Unknown | Thank you. |
| 02:14:35.98 | Councilmember Leon | It's unfortunate that it's nothing for Southern Marin, but this has fallen off the priority calendar. It used to be above the line. This is not your problem, but in years past, but it's gotten pushed down by a number of things. And I know the priority thing is shortened up a little bit here. But as Amy used to always, this was one of her top issues for somebody who had perspective of the past. But I hope now that I think Southern Marin is being a little more proactive and pushing us a little harder, which is good. I hope we as a city act on this a little bit further because it is, it will be a big problem someday and we wish we will have done this earlier. So. Thank you. |
| 02:15:15.96 | Unknown | We looked at the past presentations and how we were going to go about doing it, and I think that, you know, to say also we had something to do with kind of falling off a little bit to reevaluate the way, the methods that we were going to go out to do this project, and so I think some of it was definitely us. So we're looking forward to being very much proactive and coming to you very soon. |
| 02:15:44.50 | Mayor Withey | Thanks a lot. Anybody else? Thanks very much, Fred. |
| 02:15:52.09 | Mayor Withey | Okay, item 6D, approve supplemental appropriation for an authorizing invitations to bid for construction of the fishing pier repair project. Jonathan Goldman, Public Works, thank you. |
| 02:16:13.27 | Jonathon Goldman | Thank you, Mr. Mayor. I have kind of a big slide deck here, but it's just kind of a review of the chronology for this project. And then at the end, in the time that has passed between the cutoff for the agenda packet and tonight, I've, with some advice from the city manager I've tweaked some of the recommendations a little bit. The intent this evening is to to let the council know what our options are with respect to this project at this point in time. And then so for your benefit and also for the benefit of the people here in the audience and watching at home and in the future, if that's the best way to describe it, just talk about a few things here. Background, the appeal, community feedback on alternatives, and then the resolution that the City Council passed in January, recent steps, and then funding. As you may recall, there was a public peer at the at this location as far back as 1936. It was in use in 2001 when a storm destroyed it or leaves it as pretty much as you see it today. 2013, the city was successful in competition where we were awarded a grant to reconstruct it in wood using materials very similar to those that were used for the boardwalk along the Bay Street bulkhead. In October of 2013, the Planning Commission considered the design review and nonconformity permits, and the Planning Commission asked that staff prepare a resolution of denial. The original design, as you may recall, had in order to comply with our floodplain ordinance and also to take into account the expected increase in the base flood elevation in the vicinity of the fishing pier, the original design actually recommended that it be 3 1⁄2 feet higher than the street level. um... you Based on the Planning Commission's recommendation that the project, the original project, be denied, we came back to City Council for direction as owner, and staff was directed to return to the Planning Commission with a modified design at the minimum elevation that would comply with the floodplain ordinance. In addition, we... advised the grant administrator of the delay in the project and requested and then received an extension on the period for performance in that grant. November 6th of last year, the Planning Commission saw the revised plans, saw the redesign and a simplified ramp for accessibility to accommodate the transition from the sidewalk elevation to the elevated top of the ramp. Here are just some visualizations of that 2.5-foot height increase and the ramp I've alluded to there. The Planning Commission was asked for design direction and didn't really provide much except a 4-0 vote to deny the original project, which I guess is clear design direction. November 15th of last year, I filed an appeal that came to the November 19th City Council meeting, and the council asked the OMIT committee to review the design elements and try and get some more community input in the design. into the process to make sure that that the community was adequately represented and the community sentiments were adequately represented in the council's subsequent deliberations. December, we did an open city hall survey. 194 people visited, 44 people participated. December 12th of last year, there was an OMIT public meeting with about 20 people. uh 20 attendees. And then this presentation, as I recall, was originally crafted when we came back to Council. So in summary, I'm going to skip that for now. The design options that the OMIT committee looked at included narrow ramp alternative and a wide ramp alternative, vertical railings versus horizontal railings, and then based on both the open city hall input and the OMIT meeting, there was at least an open city hall and with a 44 total response as a preference for a rebuilt pier even if it's elevated two to two and a half feet above the sidewalk. At the OMIT meeting there was a pretty significant majority opposed, 11 to five, and then there were 11 percent or five other responses. I'm not sure what those could have been in the context, but never mind. Community feedback on design and use, 58 percent preferred horizontal cable railing, 49 percent preferred benches with backs, 63 percent preferred that fishing be allowed, and 75 percent preferred no bikes or bike parking. We also got feedback on the access. The preference was for And then staff subsequently recommended a narrow ramp, the 2 1⁄2-foot height, horizontal cables with a wood cap, Thank you. Let's see. With action in January of this year, the City Council upheld the appeal and approved a design review permit with the staff recommended conditions, but added three additional conditions, no smoking, addition of historical plaques as appropriate, and then returning in a year to review the fishing safety issues. Plans were revised on that basis and issued for bid. Bids were opened in April, and the low bid exceeded statutory limits for informal bidding. We had only advertised for a 10-day notice. It was extended a few times, but there's a statutory requirement in the public contract code about how one procures a project that's of a value of $173,000 or more. So on that basis, we recommended and council rejected the bids on April 22, 2014 and directed staff to do some more work to try and deliver the project. We have done some more of that work. We, in addition, have |
| 02:22:41.63 | Mary Wagner | Thank you. |
| 02:23:17.27 | Unknown | Thank you. |
| 02:23:20.46 | Jonathon Goldman | the grant administrator for an additional extension and discussed other funding sources both with the grant administrator and other funding sources. The grant administrator, again, this is the fund that was created, punitive fund that was created in settlement of the litigation associated with the Costco-Busan oil spill. The grant administrator has agreed to make, whoops, $145,000 available. for construction, but on the condition that the city has to agree to complete the project. In other words, they're already into this. They've reimbursed us for the design fees and the redesign fees and the other permit fees that we've incurred so far, but they're not willing to give the city more money unless the city's going to commit that a project is going to be built because they have other They have other competing uses for the funds that will, in fact, deliver the intent of the funding, which was to enhance water access for the public. Southern Marin Firefighters Association has committed to raise $35,000 in memory of Deputy Chief Jeff Powers. And then we've also, at a staff level, identified the Humboldt – I've done that twice, sorry. I can't chew gum and – what's the other thing? Walk and chew gum at the same time. The Humboldt bulkhead could be partially defunded, bless you. There are other potential sources of funding. that we've identified, measure A, and then potentially the opportunity to apply for other grants. So the one alternative that was recommended in the staff report would take advantage of the Costco-Bousson fund with a commitment from the city to make sure that the project is delivered, take advantage of the firefighters' fundraising, defund $45,000 of the $100-something that's currently appropriated for replacement of the Humboldt bulkhead for a total project budget of $225,000. Other alternatives that we identified that council can consider direct that the peer be removed. My preliminary estimate is that that would be less than $20,000 if the pilings are cut at the mud line as opposed to being extracted. At this point, if council wants to go in that direction, I'd propose to handle that as a midyear supplemental appropriation because I would want to go out and get firm fixed quotes for the work before we do that. you know, ask for that specific budget. Another alternative is that |
| 02:26:12.68 | Jonathon Goldman | Council could direct that a new pier be designed at a lower elevation with the understanding that the cost for design and construction of a pier at street level will be significantly more than the cost of the elevated pile-supported pier using existing pilings. |
| 02:26:29.85 | Jonathon Goldman | The proposal here is that we would issue a request for proposals for design. and then request an appropriation for next fiscal year once we had a more detailed design for the project. |
| 02:26:45.61 | Jonathon Goldman | Yes, I think in both of these cases, the grant administrator expects by December 1st that council's going to either fish or cut bait, I think is the line I was looking for there, Mr. Weiner, on this project. I A street elevation pier may not be able to be pile supported. Just a reminder, the triggering words in the floodplain management ordinance have to do with the lowest elevation of the lowest horizontal member of a pile supported structure in this zone. So it may be that it couldn't be a pile supported structure if it's going to be at street level. Someone with expertise and looking at alternatives would have to work on that. A floating pier or dock is another possibility that had been suggested. that would require access for persons with mobility disabilities, meaning that someone at the street needs to be able to get down to the floating dock. There are other issues that come up with floating docks, but And then finally, another alternative we identified was to leave the period as it is until more detailed plans for the protection of sewer facilities and other infrastructure along the waterfront south of Princess from flooding and sea level rise can be developed and funding found. That, too, is one that probably means telling the grant administrator, thanks, we're going to go this on our own from this point forward. So I'll skip to the end because I teased you with that. The process obviously here is cut and dried, but I think My recommendation at this point is that council direct that a new grant agreement be executed and commit that the project will be built. There may be lots of other details that we have to work out going forward, but I think if we're in a position as a council, if you're in a position to make that commitment, then we can continue to work forward on the process. on delivering it and to the extent that funding sources other than defunding the Humboldt bulkhead are the direction that you'd like us to take, then by all means I encourage you to do that. |
| 02:29:09.70 | Mayor Withey | Okay, let's throw this open for questions. If I may, I'd like to begin. And, Thank you. Help, well, remind me about the... Humboldt bulkhead project and what a defunding of 45k is going to do. Why can we defund this by 45k? |
| 02:29:43.32 | Jonathon Goldman | Fundamentally, it means one of two things. One, that the construction of that project would be delayed until it could be refunded. Secondly, it's possible that the council would decide that that isn't a priority and that it wouldn't be constructed for the foreseeable future. There would be some costs associated with that. For example, we have materials for that project stockpiled near that project site. that we would have to dispose of. Those are two alternatives. The city manager has at least one more. |
| 02:30:30.91 | Adam Politzer | And I want to remind the council that there are private property owners there that may also benefit from that particular parking lot that's falling into the land to be restored in part of whatever future negotiations with Bridgeway Marina or the owners of what used to be Wellington's. You know, there's no shortage of parking, so I think there's an opportunity for the property owners to contribute towards that. And we've heard in the past that the property owners were willing to contribute towards that. I think Michael Rex may have stood up at one of these past meetings making that comment. |
| 02:30:51.80 | Jonathon Goldman | Well, I'm well-known. |
| 02:31:09.42 | Adam Politzer | Thank you. |
| 02:31:09.43 | Mayor Withey | Thank you. Thank you. |
| 02:31:13.74 | Unknown | On the numbers, if I read this correct, that at this stage, that basically between what we would get in the grant and what the firefighters would donate, we would be on the hook for $45,000 to start. The additional, is that right? The city would be, if it doesn't come from other funds. That's right. |
| 02:31:29.33 | Jonathon Goldman | This is... The city would be, if it doesn't work. That's the proposal, but again, the way the procurement project delivery process works, we won't know what it's actually going to cost until we have bids. |
| 02:31:42.93 | Unknown | Thank you. So, and we don't have bids, so it may be over the $225,000. And even if it comes in, if there were cost overruns, it may go over that. So those are two risks in? Correct. Okay. |
| 02:31:57.63 | Councilmember Leon | Jonathan, and just in terms of the Humboldt thing, you're pretty far away from – you don't have design |
| 02:32:04.31 | Jonathon Goldman | Actually, it is 100% designed and in permit. |
| 02:32:09.34 | Councilmember Leon | Okay. And you do have design. So the question would be then if you'd talk with, I believe at midyear, you, there might be some, in addition to the, you could fund that in anticipation of the property owners, um, contribution separately while you work that out. You could, I mean, there's enough Right. Time's a good way to put it, to figure out if you had to defund that by this amount, you could still. But I mean, you don't know how much that hasn't had a full |
| 02:32:41.23 | Jonathon Goldman | It has an engineer's estimate, but has not been bid yet. |
| 02:32:44.27 | Councilmember Leon | been bids, right. And I think the original, what were the original bids for this? |
| 02:32:52.28 | Jonathon Goldman | The ones we had to reject. $215, as I recall, was the low bid with an alternate. And, again, I think that was above the engineer's estimate. But some addenda got published during the bidding process in response to questions that actually drove the cost up. And we've taken advantage of the time, as long as it's been, to try to figure out how we can reduce those costs without departing from the, you know, the horizontal cable railings and the aluminum poles and things like that that the community said they wanted. I'm reasonably confident with a $225,000 budget that we can deliver the project. |
| 02:32:53.42 | Councilmember Leon | The ones we had to reject. |
| 02:33:50.60 | Councilmember Pfeiffer | Yeah, so what is the estimate of staff resources that we're looking at for this project? |
| 02:33:57.59 | Jonathon Goldman | Are you talking about going forward or sunk? Thank you. |
| 02:34:02.23 | Councilmember Pfeiffer | Well, perhaps using what has been sunk in the past as an estimate moving forward, what would you, what range, best case to worst case? |
| 02:34:13.00 | Jonathon Goldman | Well, we're fortunate in that we have our design review permit, and unless the design is significantly altered, it doesn't have to go back to the Planning Commission. And that's where the preponderance of the staff time and the grant costs. We spent $60,000 in design and permitting without including staff time just to get to denial from the Planning Commission. |
| 02:34:14.09 | Councilmember Pfeiffer | If you can. |
| 02:34:41.65 | Councilmember Pfeiffer | But I know you spend a lot of time with the construction of the bathroom, the work on the bulkhead, et cetera. So from a project management standpoint, what is the staff resource estimate? |
| 02:34:54.48 | Jonathon Goldman | I don't have a good number, I'm afraid. It's much smaller than our private development workload in engineering, but it's not insignificant. I mean, there's definitely construction administration, there's contract administration that it's our responsibility to do |
| 02:35:18.76 | Councilmember Leon | Can I ask, so Adam, I believe that this project became part of the normal, this wasn't a priority project because it became part of the normal responsibilities of public works to do. So that question is kind of a. |
| 02:35:29.04 | Mary Wagner | response. to do. |
| 02:35:36.23 | Councilmember Leon | It's already in his forecast for how much time he's going to need to do his job and his department's job through this year. So this isn't a new thing for him to include in his list of things to do that's within the normal realm of his job. Thank you. |
| 02:35:52.12 | Adam Politzer | Yes, I'd like to answer that question. Yeah, I mean, the pier was destroyed in 2002. And from 2002 forward, the community asked, when are you going to fix it? And then when I became the manager, the city manager in 2007, I don't know what it was called, community watch, but my picture was in the Chronicle saying, you know, this is obviously a terrible situation and here's who's responsible, contact And so... It never was a priority calendar item. It was always a capital projects item. It was always in the budget. unfund it because we didn't have the funds. It was a lower priority. So when. our public works director and our parks and recreation director got together with Todd DeChow and applied for the grant. All of a sudden we had funding and then all along from actually the very beginning the fire department, John Alper, Captain Alper, and Captain Martinez approached the city and said we want to raise this money in honor of our fallen deputy fire chief, Jeff Power. So and then more history came up that that's actually where the fire station began. So you know the fire department was committed to this effort. So until the funding came available, we didn't have the ability to move forward. So it goes back to 2002. was committed to this effort. So until the funding came available, we didn't have the ability to move forward. So, you know, but it goes back to 2002, it was destroyed, the community trying to figure out when the city was actually going to deal with this. As you come into town, here is this debris with no plan and no funding for it. |
| 02:37:35.95 | Unknown | Jonathan. |
| 02:37:37.17 | Debbie (City Clerk) | Thank you. |
| 02:37:37.42 | Unknown | you Thank you. Have you already value engineered this or you plan to? And I guess my question is, if you have or if you plan to, will it affect the finishes, the railings, other things? Maybe you could give us an idea of what would change in the current design if you value engineer it. |
| 02:37:54.62 | Jonathon Goldman | Well, some value engineering has been done and I alluded to some of the addenda that were issued during the informal bidding process. One of those was a change from pressure treated Douglas fir structural timbers to cedar. that increases the cost. And based on subsequent conversations I've had with people who know a great deal about this, for example, Jim Madden, It might look nice for a little while or nicer for a little while, but it won't last nearly as long in a structural context as pressure treated Douglas fir or glue laminated beams do. So we have the opportunity to adjust those costs further downward. There are other places where I think we used the same contract documents that we did for the bulkhead project. The bulkhead project is a $6 million project. So we're asking in those contract documents for contractors to carry the bulkhead project. |
| 02:38:42.49 | Mary Wagner | JUSTICE. |
| 02:39:04.14 | Jonathon Goldman | insurance that probably is excessive for this kind of project. So we have the opportunity to reevaluate those contract documents and decrease the cost for contractors and expect that's the purpose of the free market and low bid is to expect that to the extent that their risk is reduced, they reflect that in a lower cost for the project. But at the same time, we haven't had any funds available since the project was bid to retain to go back to our designer and do any additional work. So one of the benefits to being directed to negotiate a new agreement and having the commitment from the city council for the continuity that this project will be delivered is that we can then bring the designer back into the equation and say, this is too expensive. It has to look the same. We can't reduce the quality of the finishes and things like that. How can we reduce the cost to the contract? |
| 02:40:18.38 | Jonathon Goldman | but, |
| 02:40:18.59 | Mayor Withey | open this up. Oh, no, carry on. |
| 02:40:20.28 | Unknown | No, carry on. The $57,000 in the design cost plus, we've been reimbursed, correct? Yes. And if we don't go forward with this project, do we have to give that money back or are we |
| 02:40:31.47 | Jonathon Goldman | Yes. |
| 02:40:37.44 | Jonathon Goldman | No, not to my knowledge. That has not been raised. It's not, to the best of my knowledge, a term in our agreement. It's been reimbursed. The grant administrator knows full well the situation that we're in, and it was their recommendation that that grant be the reimbursement, you know, the disbursement application be submitted, the reimbursement be made, and that that grant be terminated. And then they came back and said, we'll give you another $145,000, but you've got to agree that the project will be built. |
| 02:41:13.94 | Councilmember Pfeiffer | One last question. Your slide said that a street level, you know, minimal impact peer would cost more from a design perspective. Is that because you have to go through the process again of designing and everything? |
| 02:41:24.61 | Jonathon Goldman | Yes. |
| 02:41:30.91 | Jonathon Goldman | No, it has to do with the floodplain ordinance. the lowest elevation of the lowest horizontal structural member in a pile-supported structure, meaning on top of wooden pilings over the water, has to be elevated above the base float elevation. In order for that to happen here, we may not even be able to use wood. We may have to use reinforced concrete or steel or possibly not even have it be pile supported but instead consist of a concrete sheet pile wall with some appropriate level of wave energy analysis so that we can demonstrate to the Trident's satisfaction that we're not going to reflect wave energy to a point that would destroy their structure, satisfy BCDC that we wouldn't be causing adverse aquatic environmental impacts and things like that. It's not just additional engineering, it's that it potentially can't be a woodpile supported structure at all. |
| 02:42:37.61 | Councilmember Pfeiffer | And that's if it's street level. And right now you said it's two feet high, two feet above the street level? |
| 02:42:43.87 | Jonathon Goldman | Two and a half is what is proposed. |
| 02:42:45.49 | Councilmember Pfeiffer | Thank you. And it could. And could it go down further? Could it be a more, less of an impact visually? |
| 02:42:56.68 | Jonathon Goldman | I'm sorry. |
| 02:42:58.15 | Adam Politzer | Thank you. The commitment that we made when it was approved was it be no greater than two and a half feet. |
| 02:43:03.38 | Jonathon Goldman | And in answer to your question, yes, it can be lower, and it will cost significantly more. |
| 02:43:12.90 | Mayor Withey | Is there any other questions up here for now? Let's open this up for public comment. Is there any member of the public who would like to comment on this? Hello, Vicky. |
| 02:43:25.52 | Vicki Nichols | Vicki Nichols, 117, Caledonia. I have a couple of questions. It is true that the Planning Commission voted this down. It is true that we were asked to look at the second design, and we chose to again vote down the first design. We did not comment because we thought we'd made ourselves clear. This design, and it sounds like there's going to be no more discussion with the Planning Commission. You've just heard it's going to be a little bit tweaked again. I think we – some of our discussion was that we had $145,000. We've spent – we've spent $145,000. I think 60 or 90 of that on Design 60. We're going to get more money, but this is going to cost a lot more money. which is what some of the public said and which we said. So I think the whole thing to my understanding came up because we got this money Great, you get to build something within money that you're going to get. Now all of a sudden we're going to be asked to Defund other projects And clearly, This has not gone through planning commission review. We said no. We're not going to get to comment again. I know there were other people rallied to comment on this. But I think the fact that we just went through the Valhalla project, what they had to go through for the engineering of the boardwalk I think there's going to be more costs here so I think that's a good thing. I think this needs to be delayed till the the sewer considerations are talked about and everything else. It feels like it's a project that's being forced to be completed at any way it can be. And this is with all due respect. This is just not making sense to me. |
| 02:45:33.95 | Mayor Withey | Thank you. Any other member of the public like to comment on this? Okay, seeing none, we'll close public comment. and bring it up here for discussion. |
| 02:45:48.33 | Councilmember Pfeiffer | Yeah, Mr. Mayor, you know, initially when I heard the concept of the fishing pier, I supported it. I think people were excited about, you know, fixing this fishing pier. Unfortunately, I concur with Commissioner Nichols. It has just gone on and on and on. And I don't see overwhelming resident support for the current design, frankly, with its being over two feet above the street level. But most of all, I just feel uncomfortable, very uncomfortable defunding an infrastructure project like the Humboldt bulkhead. I feel very uncomfortable about doing that. And I'm not saying that this might, you know, perhaps in the future be done with perhaps our local talent putting their heads together and doing something, rallying the community for a design that everyone can get excited about that's not high impact and doesn't have this high cost affiliated and doesn't require defunding our infrastructure projects, our other, like the Humboldt bulkheads. |
| 02:47:12.22 | Councilmember Leon | I'll just say that as far as the – I'm not really concerned where the money comes from. that what you're proposing is you're saying it's we were proposing is going to cost X. If it, if the bids came back for multiples of X, you, it wouldn't go forward. You'd have to revisit the whole concept. But as far as the taking $45,000 out of the Humboldt bulkhead, that's not going to be built this winter in any scenario because you just, you can't do it anyway. Well, you just can't, it's the herring season. You can't touch the waterfront in that area anyway, versus this, which you aren't doing the same degree of excavation. And my thought is there will be a way to find that funding in other sources, whether it's within other parts of the budget or, or from participatory neighbors. So I think that's a different issue. As far as the merits of the project or not goes, nobody likes to see something they didn't envision because the realities of the world today are different. And I think that's the same fear that's driving this fairy dock wildness, just because things change. It changes because it's not smart to build something that's going to get washed away again. So you have to choose whether there's something you didn't really envision as the recreation of the past or don't do it at all. So I can't even remember how I voted on this. I probably voted against it the last time around. But I think in the revisiting the whole concept here, you either have to want to do it or don't do it. If you want to do it, it has to be the smart way to do it. It may not be the most desirable way. Maybe you can revisit the finishes and some of the more the angular nature of everything or what have you. It doesn't make sense to build it at street level and have it get washed away again. It's a waste of taxpayer money, whether it's the Costco-Buson money or the money that the firefighters raise or the money the city puts in the pot here. So you just need to decide whether you want to do it or not. |
| 02:49:39.72 | Dr. Kashyap | now. We talk about preserving our town. Well, there's one avenue that we can go back in time, put back the pier that was there. Um, I think it'll be very beneficial, and I really think we should move forward on it. Let's wait and see and be able to see what estimates we get and then decide what to do. my comment. |
| 02:50:12.66 | Unknown | Well, I wouldn't be supportive of going forward. I mean, we have to make a commitment that we're going to complete the project. We don't know what the bid is going to be. We know that we're at least going to be $45,000 into it. And then, as in many projects, there could be cost overruns. And once we start on this, we're down that slope. I think the other part, I mean, I respect Council Member Leon's comment, you know, do we do it or not want to do it? And a lot of it, I mean, that design, was was i think marginal certainly when they came to us and said we're going to do it at water level we're going to replace the old one we had a 5-0 vote i think as this design changed i think the enthusiasm uh seemed to wane and certainly was um uh we we ended up i mean i think what really swayed everything was that it was not going to cost us anything at this stage It's really it's definitely going to cost it cost the city money and it's going to be unforeseen about how much that will be in the end of the day so um i really think although i think it was a great thing on behalf of staff bringing us going out and getting the money i think it's it's one of those things that right now it doesn't look like it's something that I'd want to support since again, with the design, we have to value engineer it further. It could run more. We don't even know what the bid is going to be. So I'd probably be supportive of alternative C. |
| 02:51:42.12 | Mayor Withey | Quick question of our public works director. If we went out and say we voted tonight to say, yeah, okay, go ahead, we'll redirect the defund 45K out of the Humboldt project. And we're estimating, what, $2.25,000? Yes. Okay. We've got to make a commitment with the grant agency that we're going to do it by December 1st. Let's say the bids came back at half a million. What does that mean for us? What would we have to do? |
| 02:52:07.16 | Unknown | Bye. |
| 02:52:25.18 | Jonathon Goldman | Well, |
| 02:52:26.70 | Mayor Withey | Okay, let me not exaggerate. Let's say it came at 310. What would we have to do? |
| 02:52:26.75 | Jonathon Goldman | Thank you. Let me not exaggerate so much. Let's say it came at 300. |
| 02:52:34.28 | Jonathon Goldman | We've already bid the project once, and the lowest bid was less than $225,000. So if we stayed with the wrong, most expensive structural timbers, I think there's a good chance that we could deliver that project for less than what I'm recommending that you look at this evening. |
| 02:52:34.31 | Mayor Withey | Thank you. |
| 02:52:58.17 | Jonathon Goldman | That was then, and one of the benefits of the low bid process is that the market changes. This is actually, for reasons that have already been described, the best time of year to be seeking bids for a project that can't be built because the fish window closes at the end of this month and won't open again until next year. This is the best time of the year for us to be advertising a project. But I certainly was surprised that the bids that we got were as high as they were when we hired A-A-A-A-A-A-A-A-A-A-A-A-A-A-A-A-A-A-A-A-A-A-A-A-A-A-A-A-A-A-A-A-A-A-A-A-A-A-A-A-A-A-A-A-A-A-A-A-A-A-A-A-A-A-A-A-A-A-A-A-A-A-A-A-A-A-A-A-A-A-A-A-A-A-A-A-A-A-A-A-A-A-A-A-A-A-A-A-A-A-A-A-A-A-A-A-A-A-A-A-A-A-A-A-A-A-A-A-A-A-A-A-A-A-A-A-A-A-A-A-A-A-A-A-A-A-A-A-A-A-A-A-A-A-A-A-A-A-A-A-A-A-A-A-A-A-A-A-A-A-A-A-A-A-A-A-A-A-A-A-A-A-A-A-A-A-A-A-A-A-A-A-A-A-A-A-A-A-A-A-A-A-A-A-A-A-A-A-A-A-A-A-A-A-A-A-A-A-A-A-A-A-A-A-A-A-A-A-A-A-A-A-A-A-A-A-A-A-A-A-A-A- a firm that I know to be a competent a marine structural engineering firm, and they prepared a cost estimate. And the market is what the market is. I think one strategy that we can employ is not to draw down the 145 at all, And then in the event that the bids come in at significantly more than the estimate, Costco-Buson isn't out anything, and I think we'd have a much better position to say at that time, the market didn't help us out here. You know, we're going to encourage you to invest those funds somewhere else. |
| 02:54:12.29 | Mary Wagner | know. |
| 02:54:17.87 | Jonathon Goldman | And to the extent that Council wants to direct us in negotiating a grant agreement in that fashion, I think they'd be very receptive. They might want to know how soon it's going to be bid, but at least they wouldn't be out another $145,000 only to find out that we didn't deliver the project. |
| 02:54:41.67 | Councilmember Leon | Question, if you might remember this. How many hearings either at the Planning Commission or at the City Council does public bathrooms have? I'm going to guess one at the Planning Commission maybe. And like I call it a negative one here because we didn't really have a chance to – no one stopped the flow. Just because it was designed by Bill Warner, it doesn't make it a good design. So the whole idea that the public hasn't had it – I mean, that is a good example where a few people push something forward. It costs three times this, no, five times this without a lot of review at the planning process. So while I respect your opinion, and I don't really say this is the most beautiful thing I've ever seen by far it's it's but It ain't gonna happen if it doesn't happen this go-round is the way I would look at it |
| 02:54:48.35 | Mary Wagner | I'm going to |
| 02:55:39.73 | Councilmember Leon | Thank you. |
| 02:55:39.75 | Mayor Withey | So, um... |
| 02:55:44.12 | Mayor Withey | I mean, it looks like I could very well be the deciding vote here. And I'm not quite sure I know what to do, to be honest. I'm being quite honest. You could abstain. |
| 02:55:56.20 | Councilmember Leon | Thank you. |
| 02:55:56.56 | Unknown | I think. |
| 02:55:56.78 | Councilmember Leon | Thank you. |
| 02:55:56.91 | Councilmember Weiner | Yeah. |
| 02:55:57.77 | Councilmember Leon | And then there would be no action. |
| 02:55:57.96 | Councilmember Weiner | Thank you. |
| 02:55:57.98 | Unknown | Thank you. |
| 02:55:58.50 | Mayor Withey | And then... |
| 02:56:00.27 | Unknown | And then there would be no action. Exactly. So I might as well, yeah. |
| 02:56:03.58 | Councilmember Weiner | Thank you. |
| 02:56:03.78 | Councilmember Leon | Thank you. |
| 02:56:03.82 | Councilmember Weiner | Thank you. |
| 02:56:03.85 | Councilmember Leon | Thank you. Well, yeah, I think the point – If you go ahead, I think the mechanism that you – and I would be curious if Mary is along the road for that. You can do what you want, but you should have a way out. If it's like crazy town and expensive, that doesn't make – just because it's grant money doesn't mean you should be held down as the boat sinks. Okay. |
| 02:56:05.28 | Unknown | The point is... |
| 02:56:26.38 | Councilmember Pfeiffer | Mr. Mayor, I have a comment. |
| 02:56:28.60 | Councilmember Leon | you know. |
| 02:56:28.66 | Councilmember Pfeiffer | I mean, I think that, you know, coming out of... |
| 02:56:28.87 | Unknown | Thank you. |
| 02:56:33.04 | Councilmember Pfeiffer | an election where the residents voted overwhelmingly, you know, what, 60% for the sales tax, with a focus on, which I did not support, as you know, I did not support the sales tax, or the second sewer tax, to fund and go back to the basics and focus on infrastructure and our infrastructure, and to take something like the Humboldt bulkhead and defund that for a fishing pier that unfortunately the design has not created a lot of support. And although the concept, like was said before, everybody really liked the concept of the fishing pier, unfortunately the cost is something that at this point is I just don't want to defund something as a Important I think is the bulkhead Give me this. |
| 02:57:39.01 | Councilmember Leon | is a basic misunderstanding of how the city budget works. There are many capital projects that are funded every year that don't get built because they just don't happen that year. |
| 02:57:39.06 | Councilmember Pfeiffer | as a basic |
| 02:57:53.87 | Councilmember Leon | And those monies get carried over into the friar year, or Charlie says, forget it, we're going to defund all those projects, and you've got to start over from scratch. The other concept, which seems to be getting lost here is Actually, we're not so bad on a budget performance year today. and if you've been paying attention to your emails. So the, and you'll have a mid-year budget review in when is that gonna be? January, I would guess. |
| 02:58:13.11 | Mary Wagner | email. |
| 02:58:21.43 | Councilmember Leon | Your mid-year budget? February. February. And my tea leaf reading of that is that you will have money that you can play around with to cover at least $45,000 worth of defunding of this project. The reality also is that the BOLTH-KED project, will not be funded of anything until Even if you wanted to, no money will be drawn down for that until next summer at the earliest. so you have an ample opportunity in the next budget cycle to actually revisit that whole |
| 02:58:54.84 | Dr. Kashyap | I think if we don't move on this now, I think in the future the cost will go up And we'll just abandon this. So I think now is the time. to preserve our town with something that was always there. for a long time. you And I hear from a lot of people. There might be a few that say they don't like it. but you have ADA requirements and things like that that alter it. No matter what you put there, it's going to not look exactly like the way it was way back then because it can't be done that way. There's new requirements. But to abandon it, I think, I don't think it's a wise move. I think we should move ahead and see what the bid is. And. work our way in or work our way out, but move ahead. |
| 02:59:49.48 | Unknown | I just want to address, I mean, word comes in the budgeting. Not too worried about that, but in the end, I think This was brought to us. It was going to cost the city nothing. And it'll come from somewhere. It'll cost us some money. And I'm concerned about what that figure is. It's not even $45,000 or it may be much more. But probably more importantly is this pair itself and with this design. And I would really doubt that if we were really going to be funding it and paying for it without getting this money, that we would actually do it? And do we want something on the waterfront that the design is not so widely received, even if it's being paid? So I don't have a problem that we don't go forward at this point. At some point in time, we may have we lose this money. We may have to do it in another way, if at all. |
| 03:00:43.52 | Mayor Withey | I actually haven't had my three minutes yet. |
| 03:00:47.91 | Councilmember Weiner | Yeah, I know. |
| 03:00:50.28 | Charlie Melton | . |
| 03:00:50.98 | Unknown | Thank you. |
| 03:00:51.18 | Mayor Withey | Yeah, I know. And I'm still no better off than I was. Mr. Mayor? Actually, that's all right. Let me make a couple of points. I actually like the idea of some sort of thing on that side of the Triton. A pier, a fishing pier, a dock, something. I think there's a balance and a symmetry in that structure that needs something that side. I can clearly see why a pier was built there, why a dock was built there, whatever it was. So that's the first thing. Second thing is that we are going to increasingly face this every year because anything on the waterfront is going to have to be raised if it needs to be rebuilt. |
| 03:00:56.12 | Councilmember Weiner | I don't know. |
| 03:00:56.36 | Councilmember Pfeiffer | Bye. |
| 03:00:56.41 | Councilmember Weiner | Bye. |
| 03:00:56.44 | Councilmember Pfeiffer | Mr. Mayor? |
| 03:01:47.12 | Mayor Withey | Now, that's an extreme statement. I'm sure our city engineer would like to spend an hour clarifying that statement. But the reality is that with changes in the codes, changing in the floodplain ornaments, we are going to face this over and over and over again. And so if we and increasingly we either abandon parts of the waterfront or we're gonna have to put some modern structures there that can withstand what the new codes demand. And that's a real problem because I don't think this community is ready for that. So what does it do? Just let every single project just go life hallow because it can't make a decision about it? I mean, that's, I think, a real issue here. With this particular one, the design is, I actually think it would look a bit better with the pressure treated for personally, but that's just because of the more rustic nature of the whole thing, but that's another matter. So... But I am worried about the issue the vice mayor is raising, which is, are we tonight committing ourselves for some unknown amount of money? And that's what really, really worries me. And I don't know what the answer is. I also don't worry about the defunding of the Humboldt project, because as Council Member Leone has indicated, you know, that that's the way this this happens and also I think you'll find also in budget major budget review that our finances will be looking pretty good so there we are Yeah. I mean, I tell you one thing. I really think that the community is split on this. It doesn't, you know, there's not an overwhelming... If there was an overwhelming positive for this, everybody would be lined up. If there was an overwhelming negative, again, a number would be lined up. We went to one meeting when, you know, everybody who was in the room were yeses, and we went to another meeting where everybody in the room was noes. So what do you do? |
| 03:03:44.22 | Unknown | . Thank you. |
| 03:03:52.43 | Chris Skelton | Over. |
| 03:04:12.67 | Mayor Withey | Yeah. |
| 03:04:12.97 | Councilmember Leon | You know, it's funny, I forget Mr. Valhalla's name who was in here before. You know, he now trumps his projects as the most beautiful thing since sliced bread. It's kind of one of those things if you just put something out there and let it live long enough, people get used to it. And unfortunately, this hasn't, because it really isn't a beautiful project, sorry, all things considered, the structure as it is, is maybe it's much more attractive than what's going in there. So it's all, things are relative. This hasn't had the light of day for a long enough period of time. Then again, it will never be beautiful. It's a pier. There's very little you can do to it to make it look Good. I'm hoping in this review of the design that you guys do, as far as finishes, as far as different types of materials, There's some things that can be done. But having a ramp that goes up, that's really the nature of it. It's elevated, and it has a ramp. And that doesn't look like a pier anymore. It looks like a loading dock or something to sort of grant. But that's, as you said, that's just what You got it. So the question is, do you want it or not? Do you want a dock that you want something that goes down to the ferry where two wheelchairs can go down and freak out that it's going to increase development in your town? Or do you want to realize that that's what you got to do now? That's just the way of the world. I love Anguap. |
| 03:05:28.32 | Councilmember Pfeiffer | Mr. Mayor, I have a comment about the many comments about my budget. concern. You know, we have a budget. We have actually an annual budget. And the reason we have an annual budget is to set priorities and to allocate funds for certain projects that we believe are important to get done. And so the Humboldt bulkhead has been funded, and it's in the current budget. So that was the spirit of my comment, and I stick by it. I think it's important when we are looking at how we have allocated funds that we remember the thought process we had in going through those allocations. And in addition to the fact that, you know, we're looking at something that initially was going to be funded by grants, but now it's going to require a defunding of a priority project, that we also don't know in terms of staff time, you know, what we could be in for. So, you know, I'm concerned about this. |
| 03:06:39.21 | Mayor Withey | Thank you. |
| 03:06:39.23 | Dr. Kashyap | Anyway. |
| 03:06:39.44 | Mayor Withey | I'm sorry. |
| 03:06:39.70 | Dr. Kashyap | want to say anything? Other than if we don't do it now it never will because there is no way that we're going to turn around then and turn around and look for $175,000 to do it because that's what you're looking at The 145 goes away, the 35 goes away. You'll never get the money to do that. |
| 03:07:05.30 | Councilmember Leon | in your |
| 03:07:06.02 | Dr. Kashyap | Thank you. |
| 03:07:06.04 | Councilmember Leon | Sales tax money is programmed for other things. So that's not a source of funds for this. |
| 03:07:08.27 | Dr. Kashyap | So. |
| 03:07:08.56 | Chris Skelton | Thank you. |
| 03:07:15.68 | Mayor Withey | So let's Let's call the vote. Oh, we need a motion. We need a motion. We need a motion. Sorry. Thank you. |
| 03:07:24.57 | Dr. Kashyap | Okay, I make a motion to approve a supplemental appropriation for and direct staff to invite bids for fishing pier repair project. |
| 03:07:36.03 | Alex Kashheff | So |
| 03:07:36.23 | Councilmember Weiner | Thank you. |
| 03:07:37.26 | Dr. Kashyap | Thank you. |
| 03:07:37.28 | Mayor Withey | Thank you. You've got the second Mary? Yeah. |
| 03:07:47.35 | Debbie (City Clerk) | Council Member Pfeiffer. |
| 03:07:48.45 | Councilmember Pfeiffer | know. |
| 03:07:50.27 | Debbie (City Clerk) | Council Member Weiner. |
| 03:07:52.14 | Dr. Kashyap | Yes, without abstaining. |
| 03:07:55.69 | Debbie (City Clerk) | Council member Leon. |
| 03:07:56.93 | Dr. Kashyap | Yes. |
| 03:07:58.72 | Debbie (City Clerk) | Vice Mayor Theodora. Thank you. |
| 03:07:59.92 | Dr. Kashyap | Thank you. |
| 03:07:59.94 | Mayor Withey | Now, |
| 03:08:01.48 | Debbie (City Clerk) | Bear with me. |
| 03:08:03.64 | Mayor Withey | Yes. This matters, Karis. Thank you. Okay. |
| 03:08:16.27 | Councilmember Leon | We should thank, whether you're for or against the project, we should thank the Southern Marine folks for, A, coming, and B, for, you know, I know you guys have been on this for many years now, and thank you for your commitment to do it in memory of Jeff. He was a good guy and a part of Sausalito, and, you know, I'm glad this will come to fruition for him as a memorial for him as well as for the good fun of fishing in Sausalito. So thanks, Jim and folks. HERE IS THE |
| 03:08:47.04 | Mayor Withey | Okay, item seven. Start with city manager information for council. |
| 03:08:59.96 | Adam Politzer | Just a handful of quick items here, mostly as reminders. We will have the State Council retreat on Saturday, September 13th from nine to noon, and I sent everybody an email reminding them of that today. |
| 03:09:18.71 | Unknown | you |
| 03:09:18.78 | Adam Politzer | you |
| 03:09:18.97 | Unknown | Thank you. |
| 03:09:18.98 | Adam Politzer | you |
| 03:09:19.12 | Unknown | Thank you. |
| 03:09:19.15 | Adam Politzer | Thank you. So that is... |
| 03:09:24.97 | Adam Politzer | you All right. Thank you. view the council's protocols that we unfold. I also wanted to confirm and remind the council that we will have a special City Council meeting on December 2nd. We talked about this at the last meeting. And so that item, so please have it on your calendar. And that meeting will start at 6 PM. It started an hour earlier with hopes to get us out an hour sooner. Worth noting that we have three appeals sitting on the docket, so that's why we're taking advantage of the time to try to get at least one of those appeals satisfied to the best of our ability on the second. And then when we get to the new year, we'll have two more appeals waiting for us and a lot of other serious city business to take on at that same time including some of the fun things like the friends of donkey park want to come back and tell us where they are they've been talking with our public works director and working on their own to move forward from the concept to something that they can share with the public and continue to move that process forward. The Casano Park design will come to the council and then will build the parking recognition onto the council and most likely to the Planning Commission. The Robin Sweeney part was just waiting for Dan and Castro to start and that will also go to the Planning Commission for their approval. So I know that Mike Landberg and the Parking and Rec Commission are anxious for that to move forward and that will be another significant fundraising effort and the strategy that the city has to take because we're looking probably in a million three for construction of that project and so we're going to have to prioritize what the city is able to do what grants we're able to receive and then what level of participation the communities want to take similar to the Millennium Park in San Salam where the community raised a million dollars to build that park. Um, And then just two other very brief items here. A reminder that Jim Irving, his retirement party is this Saturday. If you haven't got a RSVP, please get contact to me or to Debbie right away. We had a nice send-off for Jeremy Graves last Thursday. Really well attended. and we we appreciated all the nice words, both the informal nice words that people said during the social time, and then the nice comments led off by our mayor, Joan Cox, Michael Rex, and myself, and then his best friend who lives in New Valley, from college. So I think we really appreciate it. We leave the entire event. So thanks for everyone who participated and made that happen. And then one last note. I know that the chief and the department's working very hard with our Sassalita residents as follow- up in the last council meeting for the thorough presentation and committed to come back in the new year with a plan and with some options with council to consider moving forward but if you notice in the news almost immediately after there was two news stories, one was the city of San Jose with the drones that they had and the police department didn't go through any Thank you. Almost immediately after, there was two news stories. One was the city of San Jose with the drones that they had, and the police department didn't go through any approval process. It was just the police department's general fund, and San Jose's police department has a general fund. And they went and bought their own drone for $7,000, and the public got very upset because they were concerned for their privacy rights. And then earlier this week, maybe it was yesterday or the weekend, Belvedere was in the news with their cameras because they also didn't go through a public process to buy those cameras. And so they put up the town of Tiburon as a model of the process that the city council should go through to make sure that folks understand what is being proposed. But it is very interesting. We have this discussion, and then the other side of the coin up on itself on the news about the invasion of privacy and people's concerns on that. But I'm not opening up for a discussion. I just wanted to let you know that there is another side up there, and we have to make sure we go through the process very clearly, and we will do that, and I'm confident that our chief will do a good job leading us through that process when that day. |
| 03:13:24.16 | Councilmember Weiner | . |
| 03:13:24.46 | Mary Wagner | Thank you. on their own ground. |
| 03:14:25.31 | Adam Politzer | That ends from our report after victory. |
| 03:14:28.30 | Mayor Withey | Thank you, Adam. Any questions of Adam? |
| 03:14:34.02 | Mayor Withey | Any comments from the public? |
| 03:14:37.95 | Unknown | . |
| 03:14:39.64 | Mayor Withey | Okay. Councilmember Committee reports. I have nothing. |
| 03:14:44.91 | Unknown | Bye. I have one. This Thursday, we are hosting in this room in the City Council Chambers the MCC-MC Homeless Subcommittee. So anyone who would want to join us, and including any members of the public, one of the things that will be looked at at that particular meeting will be whether this committee will be recommending any county-wide funding of homeless measures. So they're going to look at funding, what mechanisms can be done, and should there be a role for the county or the cities in funding that. So that will be an important discussion. Everyone's welcome. Thank you. |
| 03:15:27.02 | Mayor Withey | Anything else? Any comment from the public? No. Future agenda items. |
| 03:15:33.64 | Councilmember Pfeiffer | Mr. Mayor, we heard tonight from the community that, again, that they would like to agendize the ferry landing. I would request that the council agendize the ferry landing review process as an agenda item on December 2nd, the special meeting we're having, because BCDC is meeting on December 4th. So that's really possibly our last shot to respond to the public's interest, residents' interests on this. This is our downtown waterfront. And specifically, that agenda item we would discuss process for public review process, public hearing, et cetera. |
| 03:16:29.93 | Councilmember Leon | Anything else? |
| 03:16:30.53 | Mayor Withey | Thank you. |
| 03:16:32.65 | Councilmember Leon | Yes, drones. You need to agendize drones, observing every movement within Sausalito. Actually, I'd like to, actually for December 2nd, can we put the appeal last and put the bond discussion at the beginning since Herb and I don't have to, can't sit on the appeal. That would be my request for that. |
| 03:16:52.36 | Dr. Kashyap | Fred, do we need any drones up there for the vegetation management? That's what I'm asking you. |
| 03:16:57.63 | Councilmember Leon | Thank you. |
| 03:16:57.78 | Councilmember Weiner | Thank you. |
| 03:16:57.97 | Councilmember Leon | you |
| 03:17:02.20 | Councilmember Leon | Okay. Drones on bikes. |
| 03:17:02.27 | Mayor Withey | Okay. Thank you. |
| 03:17:03.64 | Councilmember Leon | that. |
| 03:17:03.97 | Mayor Withey | Thank you. |
| 03:17:04.01 | Councilmember Leon | that you said so any other |
| 03:17:04.04 | Mayor Withey | Is there any other future agenda items? Any member of the public like to comment on that? I'm assuming there's no other reports of significance. So I just want to make the point I should have made this earlier, so I apologize. I should have made this earlier. Tonight, we're going to adjourn tonight's meeting in memory of Fritz Warren, who passed away a week or so ago. Thank you. you And we are adjourning tonight's regular City Council meeting to December 2, 2014. Okay. With that, this meeting is adjourned. |
Unknown (Speaker 2) — Against (the process): Criticized the shifting public hearing process for water-side improvements. Urged the Council to demand the Bridge District return for an agendized public hearing with detailed plans to be vetted through the Planning Commission, and requested a holistic process combining water-side and land-side designs. ▶ 📄
Sonya Hanson — Against (the process): Noted the BCDC hearing on Dec 4th and the lack of public meeting on the Bridge District's plan. Expressed concern that the water-side portion (13,000+ sq ft) will be set before the promised land-side public process begins, driving corresponding construction. Urged residents to email officials, request the Council agendize the matter for Dec 2nd, and attend the BCDC hearing. ▶ 📄
Unknown (Speaker 4) — Against (the process): Urged the Council to adopt a holistic approach considering both water-side and land-side pieces together, as the expansion will impact the downtown and historic district. ▶ 📄
Alex Kashheff — Neutral: Not against the ferry landing but criticized the proposed design as industrial and unattractive, comparing it to Oakland Raiders or SFO. Advocated for beautifying the structure to fit Sausalito's aesthetic, using Tiburon as an example, to enhance the visitor experience. ▶ 📄
Pat — In Favor (of public input): Referenced a 1997 citizens initiative requiring voter input on changes to downtown publicly owned property. Suggested that if water-side improvements mandate land-side changes (like parking lots 1-4), the Council should honor the initiative and ensure decisive public input, which could mean hearings or a vote. ▶ 📄