| Time | Speaker | Text |
|---|---|---|
| 00:00:00.45 | Unknown | A lark and a dove But first of all please . Thank you. Let there be wind and occasional rain Silicon Canin spartan champagne I'm not getting the job. What was it about me? |
| 00:00:52.04 | Unknown | Thank you. I'm going to keep going. |
| 00:01:33.74 | Unknown | and there's to get up. |
| 00:01:38.12 | Unknown | Maybe. Thank you. |
| 00:01:43.61 | Unknown | Thank you. |
| 00:02:05.18 | Unknown | . |
| 00:02:08.01 | Unknown | . |
| 00:02:11.99 | Unknown | Thank you. |
| 00:02:42.44 | Unknown | Let there be you Thank you. Let there be please |
| 00:03:14.87 | Keith Kennedy | Okay. |
| 00:03:21.79 | Jill Hoffman | Ready? Welcome everyone to the regular meeting of the Sausalito City Council for Tuesday, March 3rd, 2015. Debbie, would you take the roll please? |
| 00:03:35.51 | Unknown | Councilmember Weiner. |
| 00:03:36.64 | Unknown | President. |
| 00:03:37.33 | Unknown | Councilmember Pfeiffer? Here. Councilmember Whitty? Here. Vice Mayor Hoffman? Present. Mayor Theodorus? |
| 00:03:39.88 | Unknown | Thank you. |
| 00:03:39.90 | Jill Hoffman | here. Present. David Souto, would you lead us in the pledge, please? |
| 00:03:55.42 | Unknown | in the United States. |
| 00:03:57.78 | Unknown | Thank you. Thank you. |
| 00:04:12.67 | Jill Hoffman | So we... Prior to the 645, we adjourn to closed session. for a conference on real property negotiations with Brenda Gantner for the MLK Properties. Um, Do we have any public comment on that item, on that closed session item? Okay. Seen none. We're now to approval of agenda. Can I have a motion to approve the agenda? So, more than that. |
| 00:04:39.43 | Councilman Fyffrey | Thank you. |
| 00:04:39.53 | Jill Hoffman | Thank you. |
| 00:04:39.63 | Councilman Fyffrey | Thank you. |
| 00:04:39.83 | Jill Hoffman | seconds. |
| 00:04:40.39 | Councilman Fyffrey | Thank you. |
| 00:04:40.41 | Jill Hoffman | Thank you. I do want to note that item, and I think on this one is item 4C, has been continued. It's on the agenda, but it's been continued to a date uncertain. So I want to make that as a note. Thank you. We have a second. All in favor? Aye. |
| 00:04:56.39 | Unknown | Hi. Thank you. |
| 00:04:58.75 | Jill Hoffman | Okay. |
| 00:05:04.08 | Jill Hoffman | This is the time. for City Council to hear from citizens regarding matters that are not on the agenda. Except in very limited circumstances, state law precludes the council from taking action on or engaging in discussions concerning items of business that are not on the Agenda. Anyone here like to speak on items that are not on the agenda? So |
| 00:05:32.82 | Unknown | I wanted to speak on item 4C. So if this is the time to speak on it because it is not going to be covered in the rest of the meeting, is that correct? |
| 00:05:42.05 | Jill Hoffman | Yes, but if it is, let's defer it to 4C, which will be in minutes. Okay. Okay? Thank you. |
| 00:05:46.48 | Unknown | Okay. |
| 00:05:51.10 | Jill Hoffman | Anyone else like to speak on an item not on the agenda? |
| 00:05:56.85 | Unknown | Yeah. |
| 00:05:57.06 | Unknown | Thank you. |
| 00:05:57.48 | Unknown | I just wanted to comment on a little bit of public civility. I know things are getting very passionate around town right now, and there's been some people submitting, trying to get a petition signed. But a week ago, they were walking around and canvassing the neighborhood, and my wife and some of our neighbors were having a garage sale. some very passionate people came up and tried to get them to sign a petition. And when my wife gave a little bit of pushback, One of the members got Um... confrontational and tried to bully her. And I would just, you know, I know this is not a normal part of Sausalito. I find most people are very kind and concerned and gracious and typically people have very passionate but Um, THE END OF kind conversations about topics of interest. If people know someone, who is going around and misbehaving that they, please go and talk to them. and get them to, um, to behave in a more civil format. My wife's point was that there were three other people there with her and that group of people pretty much turned off everybody to their point of view because of the behavior of the one person. So, you know, I would just really hope that people would, you know, think about their actions and how they affect other people. Thank you. |
| 00:07:33.34 | Jill Hoffman | Thank you. Anyone else like to speak? to an item not on the agenda. Okay, seeing none, we'll move to... Three, action minutes of previous meetings, the minutes for the regular City Council meeting for February 24, 2015. Would anyone like to make a motion to approve those minutes? Thank you. |
| 00:07:52.68 | Councilman Fyffrey | So moved. |
| 00:07:53.56 | Councilwoman Pfeiffer | Exactly. I have a quick question. I wasn't here for that meeting, of course. But I have a question about the notes on the meeting. |
| 00:07:55.77 | Unknown | Thank you. |
| 00:07:55.81 | Unknown | . |
| 00:08:07.70 | Councilwoman Pfeiffer | It says regarding the spraying and the roundup, it mentions that it's been postponed, I guess during special presentations. The notes say that it's postponed and sent to the Park and Rec Department. Was that, did you also say... that meeting that it would be coming back to City Council. Was that an oversight in the minutes or? |
| 00:08:32.96 | Jill Hoffman | I believe so. We decided it would come back. We said it was on hold indefinitely, that we were going to... seek public input through parks and rec process and that no spraying would be unless it came back to this council now if if the outcome of the park and rec hearings is that we found it find another way to handle our weed problem without spraying then it may not come back But I'm certainly would probably have a report in the manager's report. But certainly it was clear that no spraying would be done unless it did come back to the council. |
| 00:09:05.25 | Councilwoman Pfeiffer | So I just wanted to clarify that because if I were just to read this paragraph, it doesn't make that clear. It just says that staff will take up the issue before the Park Commission for their input recommendations. But it doesn't say that the Park Commission will take up the issue before the Park Commission you know, that no spraying could continue after that recommendation. So... |
| 00:09:28.21 | Jill Hoffman | Do you mind if you take a look at the email we sent maybe with that clarification, I think? We were basically tracking that one part of it. Thank you. Anything else? Thank you. |
| 00:09:40.57 | Councilman Fyffrey | I'll amend my motion with that clarification. Okay. Second. |
| 00:09:42.52 | Jill Hoffman | Thank you. All in favor? |
| 00:09:46.03 | Councilman Fyffrey | I'm sorry. |
| 00:09:46.18 | Jill Hoffman | Bye. |
| 00:09:46.20 | Councilman Fyffrey | Bye. Thank you. |
| 00:09:48.07 | Jill Hoffman | Okay, we move down to the consent calendar. comment I do want to know again that Item 4C regarding the emergency shelters has been I'm not sure. And the reason that the state of the state is that last session because with the first reading it automatically we had a date set which was this council meeting But in the agenda setting meeting when we discussed the item and that we were going to have a task force looking at the emergency shelters overall, particularly the overlay, that we decided would be best to bring back item 4C with that further discussion. So we'll bring it back altogether, which makes a lot more sense. And that's why it's continuing. |
| 00:10:11.62 | Unknown | Thank you. |
| 00:10:11.85 | Unknown | Thank you. |
| 00:10:11.97 | Unknown | Thank you. |
| 00:10:30.72 | Diane Andrews | And... |
| 00:10:30.97 | Unknown | Right. |
| 00:10:31.81 | Unknown | Thank you. |
| 00:10:31.83 | Councilwoman Pfeiffer | I did have a couple clarification, and I want to thank city staff. responding to my questions from yesterday. So just to clarify, the It says continue to date uncertain. I know that the Council majority voted to adopt the ordinance. removing the management plan, et cetera, per the state, and continue it to the second reading. And that was the last council session. Now it's on... |
| 00:10:49.28 | Unknown | the mail. |
| 00:11:00.94 | Councilwoman Pfeiffer | continue to date uncertain. My question is, and I don't know if we should pull this to discuss it, but I don't think so. The task force that was created, what is the timeframe on the task force coming back with the recommendations? And the other question I have is, My understanding of the homeless ordinance, the legislation guiding that gives one year from the point of adoption for amendments. And since it was, I think, initially passed in July, than we would presumably have until July, too. |
| 00:11:34.89 | Jill Hoffman | I think the city attorney can handle both those questions. Muriel, address that. |
| 00:11:41.03 | Mary Wagner | Yeah, so as you state, the item is being continued to a date uncertain for second reading. We are... up a meeting with the task force comprised of Vice Mayor Hoffman and Councilmember Withey this week. and we'll then be able to determine next steps and what the timeframe is. respect to your second question and timing of the modifications to the ordinance that were requested. directed by HCD. When the housing element was adopted in January, it includes program 27, which requires the modifications to the provisions of the Sausalito Municipal Code that are laid out in your housing element, and it requires those to be completed in 2015. |
| 00:12:28.79 | Councilwoman Pfeiffer | So again, I guess I'm coming back and asking the council to clarify the timeframe, I think that we should escalate that and have that recommendation come back within two weeks and get clarity on this in March, by the end of March, even if it requires a special counsel session. |
| 00:12:54.76 | Jill Hoffman | First of all, amending the housing elements is important, and it's a complex issue. Not only do we have to find the right solution, that's why we appointed a task force, and an illustrious one at that, to do this. We have to – when we get that, we have to bring it back to council. Besides looking at it and including the history of it, they're going to have to consult with our consultants. They're going to have to go to HCD. We'll have to bring it back here. We have to go to the planning commission. And this is not something that we should hurry. We have to do it right. And I don't, there is no I certainly don't see any point of rushing this. We have no... Um, The city is the owner of the property. There is no one making any, uh, move toward putting an emergency shelter there. There's simply no movement toward that. We have to do this right. We have to look at it carefully because it's a complex issue and where we put the overlay and certainly I wouldn't be in favor of doing. doing anything that we'd have to go back and redo again because that would only set us |
| 00:13:58.52 | Councilwoman Pfeiffer | up. You say we have to do this right. We've already done it. You've already done it. I mean, the three, the council majority has already voted. And it's been passed. As legal counsel said, it was voted on in January. I'm referring to it. direct my question to Mary regarding going back to the housing element for 2007 to 2012. That cycle the ordinance was voted for in July of 2014. Correct? Do I have that right or wrong? |
| 00:14:28.03 | Mary Wagner | The emergency shelter overlay, which is set forth in Chapter 10.28, I believe it's 080 of the Sausalito Municipal Code, was enacted by the City Council last July. It established the boundaries or the properties that are included in the overlay zone. |
| 00:14:38.68 | Unknown | up. |
| 00:14:44.43 | Mary Wagner | since sometime in August of 2014. Okay. The modifications that were in front of the Council at the last meeting |
| 00:14:46.96 | Unknown | Thank you. |
| 00:14:51.01 | Mary Wagner | are the changes that HCD required to be part of this housing element, which was adopted by the City Council in January, the housing element that's for 2015 to 2023. They required the city to make certain modifications that are laid out in the housing element and that were discussed at your meeting in January on that item. The first read was given last week and now it's the second read is being postponed. So those changes will not go into effect until the council gives second reading and 30 days have passed. The issue regarding the location of the overlay zone, as we discussed at the last meeting, has been sent to the task force to look at options. And one of the issues that the council discussed and that the mayor mentioned is any modifications to the ordinance have to go back to the planning commission for review. and recommendations. to come to the council. after the task force meets and determines their recommendation. have the council then send that down to the planning commission if it requires modifications to the zoning ordinance. And then they would make a recommendation and we would bring it back to you for consideration. |
| 00:16:01.04 | Councilwoman Pfeiffer | So my question, though, had to do with the legislation SB2 governing the emergency shelter ordinance which is I understand we have a year to make amendments, any amendments to that. the first time. for the 2007-2012 housing element in July 2014. then is our deadline actually July 2015? with respect to making. |
| 00:16:28.32 | Mary Wagner | I'm happy to look at that for you, Councilmember Pfeiffer. It's my understanding we have the calendar year of 2015, but we can provide you with additional clarification, and we can discuss it with the task force when we meet. |
| 00:16:36.60 | Councilwoman Pfeiffer | I would appreciate that because I think we've got an important deadline coming up and it speaks to acting on the sooner rather than later, especially since the ordinance is already in place and what is upsetting residents is already in place with respect to the locations near schools. |
| 00:16:53.00 | Jill Hoffman | I have a question of clarification. Did you say second reading or 30 days have passed since the first reading? |
| 00:16:59.16 | Mary Wagner | No. In order for an ordinance to go into effect other than an urgency ordinance, the council has to give first reading, second reading, and 30 days have to pass after second reading for the ordinance to become effective. It's a referendum period basically. |
| 00:16:59.67 | Jill Hoffman | THEIR HOME. |
| 00:17:13.44 | Jill Hoffman | And just to be clear, nothing's in effect until we have the second reading and there's no time limit on the second reading. Or is there? on the... |
| 00:17:20.17 | Mary Wagner | There's no statutory time limit on giving second reading. |
| 00:17:21.69 | Jill Hoffman | Thank you. Great. Thanks. |
| 00:17:27.92 | Jill Hoffman | Go ahead. Sorry. Let me just say, I was going to say this at the end of our... |
| 00:17:29.30 | Unknown | That's right. |
| 00:17:34.57 | Jill Hoffman | At the end of our council meeting, which is when we talk about updates on committees that we're trying to schedule, I think we're scheduled for tomorrow morning for our first task force meeting. So, everybody's asleep by then, though, so I'll just say it now. The update is that we're going to meet tomorrow. And then – so I would expect by the 17th we would certainly have maybe one, if not two meetings of this task force, and then we'll give an update at the 17th about where we're at and where we expect to be in the next 30 days. |
| 00:18:02.28 | Unknown | Thank you. Sure. |
| 00:18:04.86 | Councilman Fyffrey | Yeah, Mr. Mayor, I think an update on the 17th is practical, but I don't think a full understanding of the scope of what we've got to do is going to be done by then. So just a set expectation. |
| 00:18:17.21 | Jill Hoffman | Well, what we'll do is you'll meet and have your meetings and then our agenda setting meeting the Vice Mayor can let us know whether we're ready to at what stage we're ready to bring it forward. Yeah. Anyone else to counsel on that issue? So I would move – oh, wait, we have public comment, sir. And so anything else on public comment on the consent calendar? |
| 00:18:32.65 | Councilman Fyffrey | Oh. |
| 00:18:41.86 | Unknown | Thank you. Thank you. think you've answered you might I'm sure but I'm gonna go ahead and read this anyway I was here last week with a lot of other people generally speaking we support the homeless the issue that we have is with the three locations near the school since last week I spoke with more neighbors and parents somewhere here last week some were not many neighbors live a half a block to block or two away from the sites and they have not received any notification I guess they didn't see it in the paper but my understand last week somewhere not many neighbors live a half a block to block or two away from the sites and they have not received any notification I guess they didn't see it in the paper but my understanding is 300 feet is the the line where the notices are given so talking to these residents I volunteered to come to this meeting tonight to get more information about how this is going to proceed and then report back to them there seems to be some confusion about the next step the formation of this tax task force seems strange to us some believe that the City Council can make this amendment quickly Without going to the planning department, since we are simply taking away sites, we're not adding sites. I stand corrected if I'm wrong. Um, the feeling, is that the change can be made quickly for submission to the state. The feeling is that if the state approved other Marin County homeless shelter plans, which were significantly less expansive than Sausalito's, then they will approve this change, which is just removing three of the nine sites. And if they don't, then it seems to me like there's some challenge there regarding inconsistent application of the law across these communities. More and more people that I talk to in my neighborhood say that they've never heard of this. Those that have think that the shelter is for use of natural disasters. When I let them read the wording of SB2, which says that homeless shelters will target persons with low income who have one or more of the disabilities, including mental illness, HIV, AIDS, substance abuse, they're surprised. These are people who need services. Who have one or more the disabilities including mental illness HIV AIDS substance abuse they're surprised These are people who need services not a place to spend a night in Sausalito So, again, it's only about these three sites. I'm not going to really comment about the lengths of stay, which is another issue. Something that was brought up at the last meeting, please don't expect us to... The idea that the city's process will be the mechanism to keep the shelters from these three sites. We don't think that's possible. We think that with SB2 behind him, if a homeless shelter wants to be on one of these sites and it's in the law, in the ordinance, it's going to happen. the same goes for the buffer zone we're gonna get into the same situation we did with the last two items they have to be removed because no other property is going to have to abide by a buffer zone so the homeless shelter is not going to be controlled by that So anyway, we'd just like to get more information about this, and the timing is very important to us. We wanted to find out when this was going to happen. Thank you. |
| 00:21:46.44 | Jill Hoffman | And just to comment on that, and possibly you can Mary, would you or Debbie give your email? And we would like to have anyone interested in this, including all your neighbors, sir, be on our housing element mailing list where we give out all these things. And that's certainly the surest one. There'll be other ways that we give notice, but that'd be a good one. So we have a mailing list where we send out notices about anything that goes on on the housing element. And thank you. All right. Oh, I'm sorry, on this, please. |
| 00:22:27.68 | Michael McKinley | Your Honor, Councilmembers, I thank you for listening to me. My name is Michael McKinley. I've had the pleasure and the opportunity to assist the city of Sausalito developing emergency management exercises. I'm speaking as a private citizen, and I've been interested in the zoning process. regarding sheltering. And to me it's a bit vague. And my concern is in the wording, in the emergency overlay zoning, descriptions of those specific city-owned buildings. You have the police station on Caledonia, fire station on Johnson Street. The fire station on Johnson Street is your emergency operations center. it's probably the most inappropriate place for a shelter. If we activate, the leadership of the city will in fact be there. There'll be a presence of a press, a lot of agencies. Security would be stepped up, so we'd be very concerned about unauthorized people even being in the area. So it would be a difficult shelter area. So I wonder why It's specifically delineated as the fire station, and it's probably not appropriate as a shelter. Police stations right up there also. It certainly wouldn't be an appropriate place. And I'm talking as an emergency manager doing lots of exercises with sheltering. So I just wanted to bring that to your attention, and hopefully the task force has recognized the sensitivity of those particular locations. Thank you. Appreciate it. |
| 00:24:04.31 | Jill Hoffman | Thank you. |
| 00:24:05.36 | Michael McKinley | Thank you. Anyone else? |
| 00:24:06.76 | Jill Hoffman | you |
| 00:24:08.62 | Michael McKinley | Thank you. |
| 00:24:08.63 | Jill Hoffman | Okay. Now, we have items 4A and 4B. Would someone like to make a motion for approval? |
| 00:24:14.77 | Councilman Fyffrey | I move approval of the consent calendar, items 4A through C. |
| 00:24:19.80 | Michael McKinley | Bye. |
| 00:24:19.94 | Councilman Fyffrey | Thank you. |
| 00:24:20.44 | Mary Wagner | MS. Mr. Mayor, the action is to continue to a date uncertain and unforeseen. |
| 00:24:20.55 | Michael McKinley | Thank you. |
| 00:24:20.56 | Jill Hoffman | in this room. Oh, Okay, for C I stand correct. Yes. Okay items for a through C. Okay. Do we have a second? |
| 00:24:31.63 | Unknown | SECOND. |
| 00:24:31.87 | Mary Wagner | Thank you. |
| 00:24:32.42 | Jill Hoffman | Thank you. All in favor? Aye. Okay, we move on to business, the Ferry Patron Bicycle Parking Plan, and our Chief of Police, Chief Jennifer Tejada. |
| 00:24:49.22 | Unknown | No backpedaling. |
| 00:25:11.47 | Jennifer Tiana | Good evening, Mayor, Vice Mayor, and Council Members, staff, and audience. Back here again to bring you up to date on bicycle parking and ferry landing and what our proposed plans are for the coming season. As always, every year we come back to the drawing table. We look at what happened the previous season. We look at numbers. We look at traffic. We look at what worked, what didn't work, what should we continue to do, and how can we improve upon it. And that's been a great collaborative process between the police department, my buddy Jonathan in Department of Public Works, Una Kavanaugh from the Chamber, the merchants in the downtown area have a voice in this. The bicycle companies over the last few years have really stepped up and contributed financially as well as with resources to this issue. The ferry companies have contributed significantly to problem solving and resources for this issue. And so it's been a really great journey of collaboration between private and public and residents and merchants and visitors, making sure that this is a safe environment for everybody to enjoy. And of course, I just forgot. Who could forget? Ed Fotch and the Bicycle and Pedestrian Committee and all the great work that they do and how they've enhanced the voice of the people in this process and the process itself. And outcomes are stellar. So, as always, we are tasked in this area of making order out of chaos. And this is an example of where we started. I put this in because not everybody was here when I started doing this four years ago, if you can believe that. So the way it was, chaos, mixing cyclists and pedestrians with traffic and taxis and buses. And that was what those visitors and merchants and residents who were trying to get to a ferry, people who were trying to pick residents up from their ferry, this is what they were negotiating through every day. As you hear, ridership, visitors to our wonderful city, and ridership of visitors coming in on bicycles is steadily increasing. We don't have the blue and gold numbers, but Golden Gate is always very good at tracking this and giving us their numbers. And you can see that it's steadily increasing, and we see no reason why that will not continue As I mentioned before, the steps taken to date, we have considerable collaboration from all those groups. I forgot to mention Marin County Bicycle Coalition. And then we have some specific action items that I thought we would review from 2013 and 2014. And, of course, last year was the temporary closure of Tracy Way to accommodate bicycle parking and turning El Portal into a two-way street. This was a pilot program that we hoped would build on what we had done the previous year, and it did, and the previous year we had put the bicycle parking into Lot 1. And while that took care of some of the issues of accommodating bicycle parking, what it did not address was the safety of the people on the bicycles. And we were mixing them again with vehicle traffic, which posed some safety concerns for us, as well as access to the ferry landing and getting them in and out of the parking lot. It just was not the best option. And of course, we had the ambassador program back then. We had volunteers. Yoshi gave us money to buy them nice polo shirts. And they were primarily situated in 2013 down at the ferry landing to greet people and guide them and help them understand how the boarding took place, where they could park their bicycle. Then we went to a reservation system for people who were coming into town on their bicycles. We found that a lot of that chaos was because people were just waiting there, hoping to get a ferry. They didn't want to miss a ferry. So Jim Swindler from Golden Gate is always a great problem solver. he came up with, and I think Herb was instrumental in helping us problem solve on this too, but we came up with a reservation system. And it's not that, well, the reservation system took the anxiety out of the visit and the ferry landing area for the visitor. They could come in and say, I want to go on the 320 ferry, get a chip, and they could go off and have a meal and come back and get on that ferry. And it took the weight and the anxiety out of this experience for our visitors. So we continue to do that. The ferry company adds two, if not two and a half, staff persons every season. And the chamber, of course, has the kiosk staffed by a person. We have the taxi staging area on Anchor and Bay and then tour bus staging on Humboldt. Of course, last year we had the bicycle parking ordinance and Captain Roebacher did a wonderful job with the tour bus ordinance and we increased bicycle parking. And while all of these options don't solve every single aspect of what we're dealing with down there, they have been improvements and they've brought some order to the chaos. And we can't just sit idly by and cross our fingers and bless ourselves and hope that everything will go orderly down there. We have to be proactive about this, and I really feel very blessed to have worked with all of the groups and the people mentioned previously because it's been a great collaborative effort. Of course, there are costs, and I certainly don't have the resources, and I know if I go to the finance committee, I won't get anything for funding this. And so, again, the bicycle companies, and, you know, we shouldn't. It's a collaborative effort. Everybody stepped up. The bicycle companies agreed to fund four part-time staff positions. I think it was $65,000 between them, and Una Kavanagh from the Chamber was very gracious in managing that and scheduling, as well as Dan Blythe from Golden Gate Ferry. He was the primary scheduler for that, and he runs that operation or oversees it to make sure everything runs smoothly for the boarding people. And then the equipment costs. We had bicycle racks that we needed to have, and Lieutenant Skuke and Jonathan Goldman submitted a grant to the Bay Area Quality Management District, and I think they got 20 bicycle racks through a grant, and the ferry company also provides bicycle racks to us. The reservation booth is provided by Golden Gate Ferry, and also I think 50,000 informational flyers are provided by Golden Gate Ferry, and those flyers have departure times and other information necessary to accommodate people's questions and how they get from A to B. So probably not unexpected. We, again this year, because of the success of last year, feel like closing Tracy Way was the best option of what we had. Certainly going back into lot one would have created another safety issue for us. Tracy Way eliminated that and keeps all the bicycle, as well as what it does is it takes the congestion out of the El Portal area. People flow into there, so we're not getting back up into the El Portal area. |
| 00:32:37.31 | Unknown | Um, |
| 00:32:43.42 | Unknown | Thanks. |
| 00:34:05.60 | Jennifer Tiana | And it helped reduce the parking and the piling up of bicycles on the sidewalks because people had more space to park their bikes. And I think we had 14 parking spaces there that were utilized, and there was no impact on parking revenues from that. Most importantly for me, this mitigated the safety issues down in that area with the mixing of cyclists and pedestrians and cars and taxis and buses. And this was some of the justification we used last year for closing it, which we – we |
| 00:34:15.89 | Unknown | Bye. |
| 00:34:15.96 | Unknown | Bye. |
| 00:34:49.97 | Jennifer Tiana | are considering again this year. So making things better in 2015. This is what we'll be moving forward with, working with Department of Public Works again to collaborate with all of the previously mentioned stakeholders. We now have an ordinance that permits us to enforce the prohibition against riding on sidewalks, certain sidewalks throughout the city. The chamber has stepped up and Oona's gonna coordinate the hiring of four employees, which will be funded by the bicycle companies. And Golden Gate and Blue and Gold will also continue to increase staffing. They also increase their ferry service as demand dictates. We have a great communication system down there between the part-time workers and the ferry staff, and everybody knows when we need to get another ferry in there outside of, in addition to what is scheduled for the day. And then our Bicycle Pedestrian Advisory Committee is researching more parking options to help make further improvements. So our recommendation again this year is the closure of Tracy Way between October and April. And I'm happy to take any questions. |
| 00:36:05.14 | Jill Hoffman | Do we have any – by the way, are we going to have the chair of the Bike and Ped Committee involved in this particular one? Do you want to have that now or questions? Should we do questions first, Chief Tejada? |
| 00:36:11.72 | Jennifer Tiana | They're coming up next. |
| 00:36:16.77 | Jennifer Tiana | Well, they might actually answer some of your questions. I don't know. |
| 00:36:21.02 | Jill Hoffman | So, I'm going to go ahead and get started. |
| 00:36:32.62 | Jill Hoffman | We only had chief to hunt on this one. And so. Maybe we'll have the full presentation and we'll have questions. |
| 00:36:38.57 | Jennifer Tiana | only? |
| 00:36:43.01 | Jonathon Goldman | Thanks, Mr. Mayor. Jonathan Goldman, your Public Works Director and City Engineer. I'm really just here to introduce Ed Fodsch, who's the chairperson of the Pedestrian and Bicycle Advisory Committee. He'll describe for you their priorities, their goals for 2015, status on some of those key priorities, and also talk a little bit about the Ambassadors Program. Thank you. |
| 00:37:11.90 | Jill Hoffman | Thank you. |
| 00:37:11.92 | Jonathon Goldman | THE END OF THE |
| 00:37:12.70 | Jill Hoffman | I'm sorry. I may have confused all of us. So I did want to move down to B, but I thought that the Bike and Pet Committee had some input on this one. I think I've change. |
| 00:37:24.12 | Jonathon Goldman | I withdraw my introduction. |
| 00:37:24.32 | Jill Hoffman | Okay. Okay. |
| 00:37:25.59 | Jonathon Goldman | Yeah. |
| 00:37:26.11 | Jill Hoffman | That's a separate... Alright, let's just start with questions Chief Dejada. Yeah. Well, it's actually a separate presentation. I just thought there was some input on this part of it. My apologies. Any questions of Chief Tejada at this point? |
| 00:37:42.60 | Jill Hoffman | I have some questions, but I think it makes more sense just to wait for both the presentations and then just ask my questions, but I may have a question for Chief or maybe even Una. I see Una back there as the Chamber of Commerce. |
| 00:37:55.44 | Councilman Fyffrey | Yeah, I would agree, Mr. Mayor. The subjects are so linked that it might be worth dealing with them together, perhaps. |
| 00:38:06.80 | Jill Hoffman | Well, actually, I think, well, first of all, from just a formatic point of view, I think we have to take them separately as agenda. And I do believe the bike and pet committee has a much broader agenda than this particular item. So I actually suggest that we talk about this one and then go to the bike and pet committee. So, sorry. So any other questions? Now we're limiting it to the... of bicycle parking plan that the chief has outlined. We'll focus on that, and then Bike and Pet will be next on their activities in general. Now back to question. |
| 00:38:42.86 | Councilwoman Pfeiffer | Okay, so I'll go ahead and ask my question on this one. Could we see the picture, the photo again, of the after the closure, I mean the order? |
| 00:39:01.82 | Councilwoman Pfeiffer | not the chaos, but the order, I guess it was. |
| 00:39:14.77 | Unknown | Thank you. Maybe that was. Okay. Yeah. |
| 00:39:20.95 | Councilwoman Pfeiffer | you |
| 00:39:21.01 | Unknown | Thank you. Okay. |
| 00:39:23.68 | Councilwoman Pfeiffer | So first of all, I want to thank you for the data here in the staff report, because it was very helpful in getting this. So I'm looking at these numbers, and this is the same question that I ask every time. So I don't know if it's really a question for for our chief so much as it's a discussion maybe later, but I'll ask you the question. So in August, the population of Sausalito is roughly 7,200. |
| 00:39:54.86 | Unknown | Mm-hmm. |
| 00:39:55.94 | Councilwoman Pfeiffer | In just the month of August, we had in 2014, 30,000 cyclists. That's just the month of August. And if we compound those numbers and you said we see steadily increasing and see no reason that that should not continue, and in fact, the Golden Gate Bridge District said the same thing. And if we're looking at 30,000 just for the month of August, and this is what it looks like, compounded in two years you know, what, in, we could be looking at 60,000. I mean, it doubled between I mean, in two years we've seen this huge increase. My numbers, we could see 60,000 in 2019 and 120,000 in just the month of August, which is 4,000 bikes a day. alone just for one month. And, I say this every time, I'm not sure why we're not looking and researching capping the number of rental bikes. So my question is, the reservation system you mentioned, which was, you know, implemented, has that been explored as a means of capping the number of rental bikes per day for Sausalito? |
| 00:41:26.26 | Jennifer Tiana | No. |
| 00:41:28.91 | Councilwoman Pfeiffer | And my next question, I have another question, |
| 00:41:32.42 | Jill Hoffman | but that's that example. |
| 00:41:33.80 | Councilwoman Pfeiffer | Okay. So my next question is, and this was in 2010, But in 2010, one of the, I think the co-owners of one of the rental bike companies said that he would be – they would definitely consider picking up the bikes. |
| 00:41:58.59 | Unknown | Thank you. |
| 00:41:59.06 | Councilwoman Pfeiffer | So if we picked up the bikes, then, you know, the bikes are the things we don't have the infrastructure for, and it backs up the ferries. So have we explored bicycle staging? |
| 00:42:12.34 | Jennifer Tiana | To some degree, yes, but that's a complicated issue because where do you stage to do that? In order to make it an efficient process, you would have to have a large vehicle to carry 100, 200 bikes. So if you look at the number of bikes that come in and then calculate how many large vehicles you are putting back onto the road to bring those bikes back to where they originated from. And then because we have anywhere from 10 to 20 bicycle companies renting to these people. Where do you bring those bikes to? Does each company have a vehicle to collect? And then, okay, so now we have to create a staging area for 20 large trucks to bring those back, and how many trips do they have to make to make an impact on this? So there has been discussion. but nothing in depth to analyze you Thank you. the benefit of doing that because really at a glance it doesn't appear that there is a benefit to that at this moment. |
| 00:43:34.66 | Councilwoman Pfeiffer | So what I'm hearing then is it relates to my first question, which is cap the number and then pick them up. Because if the number is capped, then it would be more feasible. I mean, if we're closing a whole street, for parking, certainly that street could be converted to just staging, to loading up the bikes. And then in terms of the logistics, |
| 00:43:52.13 | Jill Hoffman | VOTING UP. |
| 00:43:55.94 | Councilwoman Pfeiffer | YOU KNOW, work with the rental companies. I'm just saying I've never seen a report on, you know, exploring the pros and cons. |
| 00:44:04.53 | Jennifer Tiana | Yeah, and I don't know how you would cap it. |
| 00:44:09.07 | Councilwoman Pfeiffer | Okay, so thank you. Those are my questions. |
| 00:44:15.95 | Jill Hoffman | Hi, Chief. How are you? Thanks for coming tonight. Thanks. My question is, you know, there seem – I know that there's a lot of concern amongst the residents about closing off Tracy Way and depriving the residents of the use of that street and the ease of the traffic flow through there, but I also understand the balance of having a place to put the bikes and a safe place for the bikes. So my next question is, with regard to that parking lot one, if you shifted the bikes from Tracy Way to the the two lines of parking right next to Tracy Way, like if you just lifted all those and you'd have a little bit more room for some more bikes. And from a safety perspective, it seems to me that might be even better because then they could queue up through the parking lot instead of where they're queuing up now, which is out into the street or along that street. But so really, I mean, for you, I have that same question for Ed, and he knows that's coming. But from the safety perspective, there's no difference, it looks like to me, between using Tracyway or taking the parking lot, taking out the issues of revenue from parking spots and things like that. |
| 00:45:26.93 | Jennifer Tiana | Well, there is a difference, and I can tell you that for however many ways you come up to slice and dice this, we've probably looked at it. And when we go into parking lot one for bicycle parking, we are introducing cyclists and people riding and walking into an area that is primarily for vehicles. And to get them from the area you're speaking about where they would park onto the ferry would cause them to come through that parking lot |
| 00:45:36.99 | Unknown | Yeah. |
| 00:46:01.49 | Jennifer Tiana | This system just keeps them on the sidewalk and they enter the staging area on the other side of those big cement tree planters. So there's no entry into the parking lot where cars are moving. And when I look at something like this, I'm looking at it from a safety perspective. And that's my number one concern, and that drives my solutions is how do I minimize the safety risk in this situation? And it is keeping cyclists and pedestrians out of the way of cars and anything that's got four or more wheels moving through the area. So I can guarantee you anything – well, you know, nothing's for certain, but we have sliced and diced this many, many ways, and we feel like this is the safest option at this time. We have limited real estate and many, many users, and so this appears at this time to be the safest option and the one that contributes to the efficient flow of cyclists boarding the ferries. So that's another consideration. Does the flow from parking onto the ferry, is it efficient or does it cause backup into the street or into the parking lot? And this does neither. So that's part of why we recommend this again this year. |
| 00:47:34.22 | Unknown | OK. |
| 00:47:39.60 | Jill Hoffman | That's it. Thank you. Yeah. Chief Todd, I just want to be clear about one thing as our chief law enforcement officer, and I know that we've looked at it, sliced and diced it, and looked at it many times, but I want to be clear. Are you aware of any legal way that we can cap the number of bicycles coming in? That is, that we can tell bicycle rental companies that you cannot rent bicycles to come into Sausalito. |
| 00:48:05.96 | Jennifer Tiana | I think that falls under a free economy. I don't think we can dictate to them |
| 00:48:09.18 | Jill Hoffman | I don't think we can dictate to them. Please. And then my next question is moving to another. On this proposal for coming up in April through October, is there any change that you're going to make other from last year or is it pretty much what we had put in place last year? |
| 00:48:26.78 | Jennifer Tiana | It's consistent with last year with the exception of what the Bicycle and Pedestrian Committee is going to propose. |
| 00:48:38.22 | Councilwoman Pfeiffer | Yeah, I just want to say that when we're looking at these numbers and the prospect of bicycles coming in one month in the future in compounding every year. This will be all of downtown. This is what I'm looking at of bikes. Tracy Street alone will not be able to accommodate all of those bicycles. So I see this as an unsustainable model. So my question is, I know you're not aware of |
| 00:49:04.04 | Unknown | Bicycle. |
| 00:49:04.45 | Unknown | Thank you. |
| 00:49:14.52 | Councilwoman Pfeiffer | a way to cap the number of bikes. But is it correct that I, it's my understanding that that topic has not been thoroughly researched? Is that a fair statement? |
| 00:49:26.57 | Jennifer Tiana | I haven't researched it. I don't believe I have the authority to do that. And while I agree with you that the solution that's in place today not be the solution. three or five years from now. We have only the benefit of looking at last year and the trends and planning for this year. I don't plan for two years from now. That wouldn't be prudent because things are going to change down there, maybe. So we just plan for the next year, and that's my job. What is the next season going to look like, and how do I address the safety issues? |
| 00:50:07.19 | Councilwoman Pfeiffer | your comment about things are going to change down there possibly. You were referring to the land side changes affiliated with the massive ferry design that's being proposed. |
| 00:50:10.77 | Jennifer Tiana | THE END OF THE END OF THE |
| 00:50:16.79 | Jennifer Tiana | There are a lot of things being discussed. I have a very narrow focus. We're going to redesign for bikes? |
| 00:50:19.96 | Councilwoman Pfeiffer | We're going to redesign for bikes downtown? Okay. So I guess my – just to clarify then, you have not researched that. You don't see that as your – you don't have the authority to research capping the numbers and the strategies that we might have. |
| 00:50:38.44 | Jennifer Tiana | No, and I have limited resources, so I try to focus them where they'll be most efficient and beneficial, and that's not something I have. |
| 00:50:44.40 | Councilwoman Pfeiffer | And that's not something I have. Focus on safety. |
| 00:50:47.01 | Jennifer Tiana | Yeah. |
| 00:50:47.03 | Jill Hoffman | Okay, good. Thank you. |
| 00:50:47.39 | Councilwoman Pfeiffer | Thank you. Thank you. |
| 00:50:48.72 | Unknown | Oh, sure. |
| 00:50:49.51 | Jill Hoffman | Sorry. I do have another question. So one of the things that we've been talking about and I've been talking about this year, maybe this year, maybe next year, whatever, as a point of discussion, is parking for bicycles. And I know Dr. Fox is going to talk about a concierge or, you know, premier parking or whatever. But I'm talking about just the bikes along the racks there, number the racks, and then just incorporate them in our parking system. And one of the issues that came up was maybe that people wouldn't want to park there and that pushed the bikes back out on the street or in different areas. But it seems to me that we probably had this hurdle to cross when we came up with the designated bike parking area anyway when we first started. And so what – do you have a sense of if we did start charging some nominal fee for you know, if that would be a significant impact. And I'm just asking for your opinion based on past experience when we first initiated a designated parking area. |
| 00:51:58.13 | Unknown | Thank you. |
| 00:51:58.14 | Jill Hoffman | and up. |
| 00:51:58.16 | Jennifer Tiana | And how, |
| 00:51:58.97 | Jill Hoffman | Boy, that was a really long question. I know. Could you restate the question, please? Yeah, sure. |
| 00:52:01.13 | Jennifer Tiana | Should we state the question, please? |
| 00:52:03.27 | Jill Hoffman | So how would you – how do you think that would impact the parking, the bicycle parking in Sausalito and whether or not people would actually use that or whether or not that would cause a problem of people not using the parking and pushing back out on the streets? |
| 00:52:18.73 | Jennifer Tiana | if we charged with people not going yeah |
| 00:52:18.76 | Jill Hoffman | I don't know. not go in. |
| 00:52:23.29 | Jennifer Tiana | I don't know. And right now we don't have the resources or the space in order to make something like that work for Tracy Way because you would have to have a system for payment. It's another layer that certainly has been discussed but not to the extent, at least on my part, where we've come up with a way to achieve that. And I think that's another discussion and something that the Bicycle and Ped Committee will bring to your attention tonight as sort of a pilot of that concept. |
| 00:52:23.39 | Jill Hoffman | I don't know. |
| 00:53:05.76 | Jill Hoffman | My concept, and this is just as an open matter of discussion, would just be to number the stalls, just like we do for car parking, and then just incorporate that into parking machines and you pay with a credit card. So anybody that rents a park has to have a credit card. So that's – I mean, you know, and see how it goes. It may not be perfect the first year we try it, but I don't know. Like I said, it's a point of discussion. |
| 00:53:25.30 | Jennifer Tiana | but. Well, I think we've demonstrated that we are open to solutions, and anybody wants to come to the table and help us work it out and analyze it and see if it's a workable solution, and then City Council has to... you know, approve it. And, you know, it's a work in progress every year. |
| 00:53:47.66 | Councilwoman Pfeiffer | So I have a follow-up question to that. So back in 2010, then Councilmember Carolyn Ford and I were really pushing for charging bike fees for parking to help fund the lost parking spaces and the hit on our revenue in your time, all of your time. So my question is, if this council majority made the researching of of charging rental bicycle parking fees a priority for you or someone to research and as well as by staging. And then that would be a good question. I mean, could we pass legislation that would require the rental bikes to park in that one area? Is that feasible? In other words, they couldn't be pushed out. They would have no choice. They would have to park there or charge the parking fee up front, bundle it when they rented the bike. |
| 00:54:54.34 | Jennifer Tiana | Right now, in this area, people have to park in designated bicycle parking. |
| 00:55:02.35 | Jennifer Tiana | Thank you. |
| 00:55:04.61 | Jill Hoffman | So I think it's time to open it up to public comments. Would anyone in the public like to comment on this item? |
| 00:55:19.48 | Jacques Ullman | Jacques Ullman, 423A Litho Street. For a small community like this of 7,200 people, I'm impressed with all the effort that's gone into solving this problem and all the various city groups and the police department and the citizens and so on. and the situation has been very, very much improved. But there's still an area that I'm upset about that I think we should be concerned. In fact, the word pedestrian was only mentioned once in the conversation so far this evening, and that was the pedestrians in the parking lot, the absolute priority in all our plans downtown should be the pedestrian. You think about it, if you're in a car, you're on a bicycle, you're in a bus, You're on the ferry. you end up being a pedestrian. And it's the pedestrian who goes into the restaurant, who goes into the stores, who goes into the parks. And so I know that maybe this is too early to talk about design issues in downtown, but we're setting precedents. I believe that It's fine to have closed off Tracy Lane. In fact, I'm amazed that we managed to do it. I've been working at this downtown for years and years. It was considered a sin to even mention removing one car parked downtown. And we've managed to remove a lot of cars. So I know that if there's a will to do something, it's done. So why don't we, first of all, the cars that go down, not Tracy Lane, but the other street, El Portal, okay, that is a major pedestrian thoroughfare from the ferry to downtown. And there's an interface now with bicycles and cars. And you have to watch your back when you're going down El Portal because the bicycles come whipping around there. Why aren't they routed on to the north side of Vina del Mar Park and brought into Tracy Lane that way? and eventually change the paving on El Portal so that it identifies it as predominantly pedestrian. Yes, cars have to be able to make the loop and they have to go to the hotel and so on, but the pedestrian should be the primary emphasis. And also, we don't have to have one solution to this problem. I realize there are several companies that rent. So maybe – because certainly you can do little things that will alleviate the problem. It's not that one thing that will solve it. But the Bicycle Committee has been working on the idea, I believe, of having a staging area at the south end of town and have some of those bicycles stay there because, again, you enjoy our shoreline when you're walking, and people should walk from down there and to the ferry, leave the bicycles up there. That would be a much more beautiful experience. So my time is up, but I just want to speak for the pedestrian, you know, remember the pedestrian. |
| 00:58:45.40 | Jill Hoffman | Thank you. Anyone else from the public like to speak on this issue? |
| 00:58:53.86 | Unknown | David Sudo. I just wanted to thank the last speaker because I think he brought some vital things to think about with El Portal. you know, when the chairs are out on the sidewalk there, it can get kind of narrow and people are going both directions. So I can, you know, it would be nice to have more pedestrian emphasis on that street. Um. And one thing to think about with these numbers and the increasing number of bikes, I guess one thing to remember is these are only Golden Gate and there's also the Blue and Gold Ferry. But at some point, the Golden Gate Ferry's gonna hit an absolute limit. And it's probably about twice the number of bikes they have right now. Because you can only maybe, I think they're only probably capable of running 10 ferries a day from Sausalito in the afternoon. And logistically, they can't hold more than 150 or 200 bikes apiece. So you're going to hit a wall of about 2,000 bikes. And then the rental companies are going to have to do something on their own to get the people back into the city. So it's kind of a self-limiting thing. Also, if you've ever been on the Golden Gate Bridge at 2 o'clock in the afternoon you'll find that there's a there's a traffic issue with getting any more bikes into the city into the city of Sausalito at this point the average speed limit speed is probably three to five miles an hour right now it's just packed just physically can't get any more bikes during that period of time in so just a couple things about thanks |
| 01:00:32.34 | Jill Hoffman | Thank you. Thank you. Anyone else from the public like to comment on this issue? Okay, seeing none, I'll close public comment and bring it back here for discussion. |
| 01:00:46.41 | Councilwoman Pfeiffer | So I guess I would comment on with the Golden Gate Ferry's plans for trying to |
| 01:00:46.62 | Jill Hoffman | I think. |
| 01:00:58.67 | Councilwoman Pfeiffer | the massive ferry landing, build the bring in more boats, bigger boats, who knows what could be coming in in the future. there will be a way to be accommodating ever increasing larger number of bikes. Right now, 30,000 in August, it's just unsustainable. I've seen this. growing exponentially since 2008. And I keep saying the same thing. We need to research. We need to make a priority. on at least researching strategies for capping the number of bikes. If I'm going to Alcatraz, I mean Alcatraz is a finite space. I buy a ticket, I go. There's got to be a reservation system that exists for rental bikes where we can cap the number bundle in a parking fee so that they're paying towards this infrastructure. and cap that number because otherwise our entire downtown is not only going to turn into one massive bicycle parking lot, But... we're going to have massive, I mean, casualties with our pedestrians. It's already very, very unsafe with the way that many of the cyclists are AND THE RENTAL BIKE ARE OBVIOUSLY LOOKING AT THE SCENERY AND COMING IN. You combine that These numbers, we need to make this a priority. |
| 01:02:30.40 | Unknown | Thank you. |
| 01:02:32.27 | Councilwoman Pfeiffer | I think we should make a motion to read. bicycle staging and capping the number of bikes. |
| 01:02:36.76 | Unknown | Thank you. |
| 01:02:42.30 | Jill Hoffman | We have to get with our motion, but we also have to have a discussion here because if you take staging and we can address it in. with the These are a couple of fairly two obvious things. And the bike staging is chief Tehada said, the problem we have is when people come in now, they get on what's already there as the ferry. We would then compound it by having probably hundreds of vans come in and come through our downtown area to pick up these bikes, which would add traffic where we now have ferries to take it. So we could defer that to, I would say, to the bike committee. on this issue of capping the number. We can have a discussion. I mean, for most things, these are one of the obvious things. Can we cap how many cars come in or the number of people? Actually, I believe we had this issue in the 60s where they tried to look at how many limiting people would come in here. It's a difficult thing. We're not a national park. So we can have discussion about taking a look at it, but we'll – and by the way, and all of us, including you, Councilmember Pfeiffer, if you have some ideas of how that can be done, please bring them forward. Um, Comments? you |
| 01:04:02.47 | Councilwoman Pfeiffer | Bye. |
| 01:04:02.62 | Jill Hoffman | you |
| 01:04:02.67 | Councilwoman Pfeiffer | you |
| 01:04:02.84 | Jill Hoffman | Thank you. |
| 01:04:02.86 | Councilwoman Pfeiffer | Thank you. |
| 01:04:02.87 | Jill Hoffman | Thank you. |
| 01:04:02.97 | Councilwoman Pfeiffer | Thank you. |
| 01:04:02.99 | Jill Hoffman | Thank you. |
| 01:04:03.01 | Councilwoman Pfeiffer | I will certainly research that. That would be great. I appreciate it. |
| 01:04:07.92 | Councilman Fyffrey | Yeah, the agenda item in front of us right now is for this coming season whether or not to support the staff to do what we did last year, which was to temporarily close Tracy Wake. In terms of the longer-term issues of how to start reversing the trend of the number of bikes, especially these tourist bikes from San Francisco coming in. Obviously, we must address that. And I think that's one of the things the pedestrian and bike committee have been thinking about for a long period of time. So I'm going to be interested in hearing that perspective in the next agenda item. Right now, as I said, the issue before us is whether the experiment that we did last year of closing Tracy way during the peak period was better than the experiment we did the year before which was to take up part of parking lot one and I witness in detail both of those experiments and I from my observation it observation, it was very clear that closed and traced away was a preferred, least best option, least best option. And that I think we need to sort of go with the judgment and professional advice of our public safety officials who are saying this is a safer option. So it's not the ideal solution. We need to be working through our committee on longer-term issues, but for this next season, I'm certainly supportive of closing Traceaway and carrying on with the good work that we did last year. |
| 01:05:52.36 | Jill Hoffman | Um, With regard to the parking and the staging this year on Tracy Way, I would prefer that we move back to parking lot one, but I understand that the police chief's input, and I take her input seriously about that the safety concerns are better in Tracy Way than in parking lot one. I accept that for this year, but I would like to look at all different options and configurations of not having to use Tracy Way to stage bikes. And that's just a fundamental principle that I have about the residents of this town and the inconvenience that causes the residents and the flow of traffic through there. I'm very cognizant of that and the overwhelming nature of the bikes that keep multiplying. line. And I also – and that sort of traffic through there. I'm very cognizant of that and the overwhelming nature of the bikes that keep multiplying. And I also, and that sort of feeds into, Councilwoman Pfeiffer's comments about how can we limit this and what can we do? I think there's two different things, and this will take some research, obviously, and legal research, which is, is there a fundamental difference between a commercial enterprise, which are the rental bikes, and the rental bikes? recreational local users who come through our roads. And so I think that there probably is a fundamental difference in someone that's imposing a certain business interest on our town to their benefit for a commercial purpose instead of recreational riding. Just as we can limit tourist buses that come through town, I think that we might want to explore ways to limit other commercial vehicles that come through town. So I think that's just something that we should look at as a city in our policies going forward. Um, and how we manage that. The other thing is with regard to the staging issues, I would like us to look at that, and I would like to get a partnership with the Bridge District in offering staging stations at the Golden Gate Bridge because I think there is a problem as David pointed out that there are problems with so many rental bikes coming across the Golden Gate Bridge and that that's causing a problem at the bridge as well and so I would like to partner even further with the bridge. as we do in managing the ferries and the ferry landing, I think that's also part of the conversation. because this is an impact that's being imposed on our town with very little benefit to our town. And I've looked at, and that's why I'm glad Una Kavanaugh's here from the Chamber of Commerce, we have some merchants that benefit and we have some merchants that don't benefit. And I haven't seen the increase in the sales tax revenues that I would look at over – that I looked at today from 2011 through 2014. commensurate with the increase in bikes. So I don't think that there's a strong correlation between the number of bikes that are coming through town and the benefit through taxes or through our merchants uniformly. in town. And so for that reason, I think we have a valid purpose in thinking about how many bikes are coming into town and how to manage those effectively |
| 01:09:06.07 | Unknown | Yeah, I'll clarify one thing also. We didn't limit the buses, we just made them come in one way and go out the other. We didn't limit and say that you can't come in. Thank you. Let's go over this last year. It's probably weather-wise, and we're still feeling it. I think the winter never came. So basically we had tremendous weather throughout the whole season. The numbers that we've been given from Golden Gate Ferry was that there were, not counting December, 950,000 people came by ferry. And out of that, 185,000 of them, that's a little less than 20%, were bicycles. Okay. As far as the pickup, The staging, a couple things. It was noted before where you're going to put these vehicles, large vehicles, to stage, number one. And these people aren't going to pay $3, $4 per bike to stage them. They're going to pay somewhere between $10 and $15 a bike to stage them and bring them back. For a family of four, that's a hit. that's 40 to $50 just to put them back. If you really look at the numbers and how they all work, and by the way, our busiest two weeks are the last week in July and the first week in August. We, no person has ever been turned away. They might not get on the ferry that they wanted to, time-wise, but we've been able to put every person that wanted to go back on those ferries. We either have the ability or the Golden Gate ferry people have the ability, which they still, in fact, it was done a week ago, where they bring over an extra boat and, in some instances, two extra boats. |
| 01:11:13.51 | Unknown | I really feel that Tracy Way right now can accommodate 37 bike racks. Plus, we also have six on Tracy Way where the police cars were. And also keep in mind, usually, except for Sunday, at 2.30 in the afternoon, more people are going back than are coming in. Sunday, it's 3.30. It's an hour difference. I'm curious to see this year if it does increase that much. As this economy increases and more and more people come to San Francisco, Thank you. Yes, we will probably see an increase. but not to the numbers that you might as well scare people. We go with that tactic again. |
| 01:12:07.37 | Jill Hoffman | Thank you. |
| 01:12:07.78 | Unknown | SCAREN. |
| 01:12:11.00 | Jill Hoffman | THANK YOU. SINCE WE ARE MOVING INTO THE BIKE AND PED, WHAT I'D RECOMMEND IS I TAKE COUNCILMEMBER WITH THESE ADVICE. ON THIS ONE, I THINK WE SHOULD make our decision on the Tracy Wade closure, and then We'll have – if we can hold the issues we'd like research, we'll see if any of them are answered. At that point, we will then – some of them may go to the bike and pet committee. Some we may have our city staff take a look at. So now I'm a little confused. Are you asking us for – are you advising us, or is there – are you asking for direction? No action. Okay. No action. So we're – |
| 01:12:40.43 | Unknown | asking for directions. No action. No action. |
| 01:12:43.03 | Unknown | Thank you. |
| 01:12:43.65 | Jill Hoffman | We're done with this one then. Then we're going to move on. Okay. Thank you so much. |
| 01:12:46.03 | Unknown | Thank you so much. |
| 01:12:47.53 | Jill Hoffman | Okay, now we will. And... All the other questions you would like, we'll do in this case, and we will do it at the end of this next... So we're moving on to the Pedestrian and Bicycle Advisory Committee update. |
| 01:12:59.75 | Unknown | THE END OF THE END OF THE |
| 01:13:00.11 | Jonathon Goldman | thank you again mister me I apologize for the weakness of my prior introduction of Dr. Fotch, and I'm delighted to have I do want to, in addition to introducing him, acknowledge John Cox, who's a member of Bike and Ped Advisory Committee, who's here in the audience this evening. The other members who aren't here, Bob Page, Patricia Pigman, and Tom Riley, and, of course, our mayor is a liaison, along with Captain Rohrabacher and myself. Again, Dr. Fotch is going to deliver this BIPED committee update, talking about their 2015 priorities, the status of key priorities, and then, drum roll please, the new and improved Ambassador Program. |
| 01:13:52.89 | Dr. Fotch | I like the first introduction better. Mayor, Vice Mayor, members of the council, thanks for giving me some time tonight. I'd like to first acknowledge the other members of the committee who have worked hard on some issues that frankly are a challenge. Also want to mention our appreciation for the work of Chief Dejada, Jonathan Goldman, Una. One of the things we find is there's just a lot of moving pieces on bike issues. And so when you think you have a simple solution and then you start bumping into all of the reasons that they're not simple, I'm 18 months or so into my 36 months on this committee. I will undoubtedly not run for reelection. |
| 01:14:44.41 | Unknown | How many days? |
| 01:14:44.97 | Unknown | for reelection. |
| 01:14:48.83 | Dr. Fotch | So just a few reflections and then I'll take you through the material. The first is we're in somewhat of a conundrum here. We're in a very pro-bike state. Our offices, my healthcare technology company, we're on Bush Street and then on Pine Street. And on every last Friday of the month, they these bikers that would roll around town and tie up traffic where I grew up in the Midwest, Milwaukee, that would never happen. It just would happen. Well, it happened one time. And here it happens every month. And so you have that critical mass thing. And it's just a very pro-bike kind of environment. And yet we are impacted as a city of just over 7,000 people with a tremendous number of bikers. But if you look at the environment we're in, it's very pro-bike. In fact, the very resolution that created the bike committee, which I have, I to you, is actually quite pro-bike. Our charge really is to improve bicycle and pedestrian infrastructure and come up with a bike plan. and there's nothing in it that says, you know, she'd reduce the number of bikes and so on and so forth, and yet the reality of the folks who live in town, at least many of them certainly a vocal group is that there's at best a big issue with bikes. Which brings me to my second point. So I would go so far as to say there's a lot of people in town who think there's not an issue, there is a problem. with bikes. And what I learned among other things in my 10 years of practicing medicine is that there's were two kinds of problems, the kind of problem folks came in with and the kind of problem they left with. They had a problem. alone on their shoulders. When they walked out, even if I hadn't really done too much or written a prescription, they felt better because they had shifted some of the burden to me and they felt like someone was doing something about it. And I think one of the challenges we have in town, we've certainly heard this at the Bike Committee, is that Despite all of the tremendous work that Chief Tejada has mentioned and Una's effort and the ferry, Folks, in rationalizing that little area at the end of El Portal. The average Sausalito citizen doesn't spend much time at the end of El Portel, and they're smart enough not to go down there on a busy Saturday or Sunday. But there on Second Street and there on Richardson and there on Alexander and there on Bridgeway And what they see is that a whole bunch of people are coming in. There's a big change. The sidewalks are crowded, sometimes clogged. The streets are crowded, sometimes clogged, and they're not Seeing. change and they have the sense that there's no one doing anything about it. And part of what I want to stress today is that it is our intention as a committee to do something about it And equally important to let the citizens know we are doing something about it. The third and last thing is that the metaphor that I've come to, as John Cox has heard many times, the metaphor I have come to think of about our town is the metaphor of a ski hill. If you don't ski, I can tell you at Squaw Valley in the parking lot at you have your choice of any spot. At 6 p.m. it's pretty much empty. But at noon and 1 and 2, it's jam. tens of thousands of people. So how do they manage that? Well, they have. Lift. operators, and they have people to keep you in line, and they have ski patrol, and they have ticket takers, and they have people who are there who are recognized as having some authority. They're not police, but they have authority, and they keep folks in line, and they keep things moving, and they keep things organized. So it's with those reflections in mind that I'd like to take you through, our priorities for the year, it's only 10 slides, so it wouldn't be death by PowerPoint. But hopefully it'll be interesting things. And I will touch on some of the topics including staging and capping and things, because we've touched on those. They need more work. We do have some ideas. So, oh, I was gonna say, next slide, and tell how old I am. at home. |
| 01:18:54.31 | Keith Kennedy | All right. |
| 01:18:55.44 | Dr. Fotch | Push to the middle. Yeah, well. Oh, just how about this? Yeah, this thing's broken. So what I'd like to talk to you about briefly are our priorities for this year, the status of those priorities, specific focus on the Ambassador Program because I think that's key and I believe others believe it's key, and then a couple of requests from the council So as background, you'll recall that the committee was created, and remember it is the Pedestrian and Bicycle Committee. We have passed resolutions about pedestrian issues, including suggested crosswalks. I am focusing on bicycles tonight, frankly, because it seems to be the pain point. So that is not to say that we're not focused on pedestrian issues, but we sort of feel like we don't get the bike thing improved and people feel like something's being done. that we're going to have continued challenges that will overshadow some of our other efforts last report was in June first meeting was It was in 2013. Our meetings are held on the third Monday of the month in council chambers. I'm pleased to report that we do have more folks coming than we had in the past. It was a lonely first year. We passed several resolutions in 12 months, and I'm also pleased to say that several of those resolutions have turned into action items, both some things that didn't take counsel efforts like the Police monitoring especially during the hours of 9 to 11 or 8 to 10 on Saturday and Sunday. trying to keep the recreational cyclists from blowing through our stop signs, and others that turned into resolutions and ordinances, including, excuse me, the no riding on the sidewalk in the South Minutown. I'll say a little bit more about that. The agenda minutes and resolutions are available online, and I mention that mainly for the for the public, our goals this year are as follows. We want to improve communications with the citizens, the council, and the stakeholders. And that sounds kind of like high-level pie-in-the-sky stuff, but it really ties into the Ambassador Program and ties into the fact that The fact that there is a bicycle and pedestrian committee, or more accurately a pedestrian bicycle committee, is important for citizens to know. or five of us who volunteer our time along with staff and liaisons and our non-voting members to try to come up with ideas that can improve things for everyone. Secondly, to optimize signage, road striping, and the sharrows, and I'm going to say a little bit more about each of these. We think importantly to promote and support the opening of Vista Point Trail. I've spoken about that before. I'll say a little bit more tonight. Very importantly to stand up this season starting actually later this month, a robust ambassadors to improve bike safety and compliance with the laws while hopefully reducing the impact of the growing bicycle traffic on Sausalito citizens and let them know that there is something going on and in tandem with that, create a preferred parking program to fund the ambassadors without using taxpayer dollars. In addition to being on the White Committee, I live here, and even in my own home, I can tell you it wouldn't be very popular to use tax dollars. to hire bike babysitters, which is what they would, I believe, be considered if they were our tax dollars. So the idea is come up with the funding and the ambassadors so that the that the ambassadors are actually being funded. taking those one at a time, our optimized signs and striping, it's a focus of the committee. Some – we've come up with some new ideas, one that hopefully will find its way to the council, and you'll recognize the – you The picture on the left is looking up Alexander Avenue, and you have East Fort Baker Road. Right now, it's legal to make a left-hand turn. I can tell you when the bikes are pouring – bikes and cars are pouring down. from the bridge, that backs up into town and inconveniences my neighbors and citizens of Sausseita who are trying to get out. And for those of us who live locally, Pardon me, we know you can make a right-hand turn, and go right around and it's no problem at all. So it seems reasonable that we put a no left term, some better signage. We passed a resolution to that effect, and I believe that Jonathan Goldman seems supportive of that, and I think that that's something that we've sort of brought to the table. We think that that's kind of a no-brainer. And yet, We can't do that ourselves because that's not our property. It's in the Park Service. preface my comments. We think that things are easy, and then you come up with the reality and now we're working with the federal government. Hopefully we get that through, but that's a simple convenience for all of us. Secondly, as it relates to parking, We have a no parking. or excuse me, no writing in the sidewalk ordinance. There are a lot of signs in Sausalito already. And when people are biking, especially in those steep parts on the south end of town, I'm not sure how many of the signs I actually see But I do think that they look at where they're riding, and so we passed a resolution to get a couple of these symbols not every 10 feet throughout town, but a couple on the south end of town, let people know. as examples of things that we think we can do that are going to improve things, get bikes off of the sidewalk, which is a particular concern in the south end of town, particularly on Second Street. So, improved Vista Point Trail. So Vista Point Trail, you may recall, as I presented this once before, is a way that you can get the bikers who are coming off of the east sidewalk. and get them into Fort Baker, and if they want to, onto Sausalito without going down Alexander Avenue. This was a trail that was open. When I moved here 35 years ago and was open for a long time, I believe it was closed around Park Service is now working to have it open. I do not believe that this will have any impact on the number of bikes that come into Sausalito. I do believe it will have a huge impact of getting the bikes off of Alexander Avenue and away from our cars. It's better for their safety, and I can guarantee you it's better for us not having to try to make our way past the gaggles of inexperienced bikers who are rolling down sometimes towing a kid behind them or on those tandem bicycles. So we think that this is really important And without jumping ahead, I also believe it's essential if we're ever going to come up with a viable plan for bike Because in Fort Baker, ignoring the issues of carbon footprint and so on and so forth, there's a heck of a lot more space to stage bicycles in Fort Baker than there is in downtown Sausalito. So to the extent that that is a goal, And, you know, I certainly – we haven't been – by the way, the bike committee has not been told your charge is to come up with a way to decrease the number of bikes in town. nothing in our charge and the resolution that said that's what we're supposed to be But there's certainly people in town who think, as as Councilwoman Pfeiffer said, this isn't sustainable and if you assume the growth will continue and, you know, that's debatable. So how do you accommodate the people who want to ride across the Golden Gate Bridge and yet and perhaps visit our town, If you want to think through staging, to the degree we've looked at it, Fort Baker seems like a great place to look at, and you're never going to get it done when people are coming down Alexander. So for a convenience standpoint, for the citizens, safety standpoint, for the bikes, and potential staging in the future, I think that that's an component. onto the Ambassador Program. So the concept with the Ambassador Program is to get trained individuals supported by volunteers, but a core group that are paid to show up, this is in addition to the four people that are already down at the ferry to engage people, the current plan is six ambassadors, one engaging people right as they come into Sausalito, in fact, on the Park Service property. We've just been notified that our proposal or our application for temporary signage and a temporary table on the Park Service property to engage people as they're coming into town has been approved. The idea is then to get someone at that tight turn between Alexander Avenue and in South Street. both to slow them down when they're going too fast and to speed them up when they're going too slow. Because if you live in that neighborhood, which happens to be mine, you know that they become this amoeba of bicycles that clogs the road right there at what turns out to be the choke point of Alexander Avenue. Then along, Second Street and Bridgeway to keep the bicycles moving. direct them into the traffic, and then to run the preferred bike parking area. We have some volunteers who are going to be working in March and early April to create the – The training program for these for these ambassadors. Again, it's our intention to fund this through a preferred parking program so that we're not using Saucedo taxpayer dollars to fund this. The Preferred Parking Program is a fee-based parking program adjacent to the ferry terminal. We've been working with Chief Tejada and her folks and Jonathan and Una and others to, you know, nail this down but we think we're zeroing in on an area where people will pay And they'll pay, frankly, for a better experience. They'll pay to be adjacent to the ferry, a better chance of getting on the ferry that they want to get on. And if you read the Yelp reviews and if you look at the social media, there is demand for that. To maybe Herb's point, maybe not everyone can afford to pay for parking, but I can guarantee you there are people who need to get back. for that reservation at the slanted door. And when you tell them they're not going to get on, and their other choice is, you know, 50 bucks up and up for a cab, this will be attractive to them. by gruntle companies for them to promote this. We think that this is going to work. Actually, I think it's going to work very well. And as I mentioned, a lot of work with the Ferry District, the GGNRA, the city, the chamber, Um, And frankly, this has been a pretty big undertaking. And I say that, I want to just stress that because I'm actually very supportive of the idea of looking at other ways to generate revenue from the bicyclists. I actually think that's not only fair, it's almost going to be essential to put the kind of infrastructure and resources that we need at the same time But I found with just putting a preferred parking program and six ambassadors is it's a heck of a lot of work. And you need people who are really focused on it, and there's a lot of details to work through. So I would actually be supportive of looking at, you know, how we create more fee-based parking, but I would like to prove to ourselves we can pull off what we've laid out for this year And so it's my strong hope that this is a very successful first year for the ambassadors. And I will mention that these are going to be not unlike the seasonal workers that the city hires for their events and the seasonal workers that the Ferry District hires. These tend to be 17-year-old kids, young ladies and young men. Um, and they get trained And they're generally learned to be good with the public. But the first thing these kids are going to do after they get their training is go up into the hills. We're going to split – assuming we're training 12 of these, we're going to split the town into 12 districts. And they're going to go door to door doing a very simple survey that the bike committee is going to put together. But part of it is to introduce themselves. with their little vests on, their little shirts on, so we get the word out. there's something happening in this town. and we are making an effort to make things better. So I think that that's going to be important mainly in terms not changing people's mind and thinking, oh, there's no problem, but there's someone doing something about it. There's somebody putting some effort into it. to plan and hopefully it gets better this year and better the following year. There's other... working on where there's a group, Tam and Ulta, Consulting. who are coming up with a bicycle master plan, we have to have a bicycle master plan. It's not an option. Frankly, there are so many things right now in that bicycle master plan. It's kind of more important we need to figure out the three things we're going to put on our plate, which you saw. Those are... things but it has to be done and in addition we're working with the consultants not just those consultants but others on areas of signage there's actually folks from Marin County who have some money for improved signage obviously you want to collaborate with the police and engineering and related topics I mentioned these and you can read through them say those five things aren't the only thing we're doing, but those are the sort of things we have prioritized. And of course, we listen to the citizens who take their time and come down and spend their time with us. So my ask of you, in addition to my thanks for the support and certainly the support of the staff is number one, to support our efforts Help us get the word out. and appreciate the fact that – and I think you already do – it's way more complex than some of the solutions that citizens have said to be when they unfortunately find out at social gatherings that I'm on the Vice Committee, because it seems like they have a snappy answer, Let's just do this. And some of them involve firearms. So those are simple, but they aren't necessarily ideal. You know, it's a complex issue, and I think we should be – perhaps piling on to Chief DeHaz, I think we should be coming up with concrete plans for this year. with an eye towards And what do we do the next year? Where's this thing really going? And how do we within the law accommodate the needs, the growing needs and desires of people to come into town? With our next... have a decent town that's not completely trashed because, you know, 3,000 people decide to stop by and... afternoon because it's a breeze out so I feel like we're making some progress and I and I Tremendous hope and expectations that I will be reporting back to you this summer, and maybe you'll |
| 01:33:45.85 | Jonathon Goldman | Remember, |
| 01:33:51.19 | Dr. Fotch | telling me, well, those ambassadors really made a difference. I've heard from a lot of people who said, you know, something's happening in this town. Boy, I didn't realize it's not just Herb wandering, you know, back and forth in front of B of A. There's really something happening in this town from the south end of town, right down to the ferry landing. So let me stop there and see if you have any questions. |
| 01:34:14.52 | Jill Hoffman | Thank you, Dr. Fotch and let's start here questions from Council |
| 01:34:19.03 | Jill Hoffman | Naturally, I have questions. So Dr. Fotch, has there been any – let me – sorry, strike that. Let me start again. Is there a representative from the bike companies, collective bike companies, that regularly attends the bike and pedestrian committee? |
| 01:34:39.31 | Dr. Fotch | To my knowledge, the only representative of the bike vendors – you did say bike vendors? Yeah. That has come is Jeff Sears, and I believe he's come twice. In concert with our efforts vis-à-vis the Ambassador Program and the Preferred Parking, we have begun meeting one-on-one with all of the relevant bike vendors, of which I believe there are six, but of the six they have multiple locations. And so we have engaged them, but they are not on the committee. They're not a non-voting member. We have invited them. And frankly, when we have reached out to them, it's largely been Jeff Sears. I think now, because we've frankly just met more of these folks, when we need to engage those folks, we'll probably bring in others. |
| 01:34:45.20 | Unknown | Yeah. |
| 01:35:33.24 | Jill Hoffman | Have there ever been any discussion with the buy companies about them limiting you know, the scope of the bicyclists, especially with regard to the age of the bicyclists. I see little kids riding down Alexander, which I think is completely I mean, and if I think it's incumbent upon the buy companies to say, you know, children under a certain age, you know, shouldn't be going down or actually just say they're not authorized to go past the north end of the Golden Gate Bridge. Have they ever, has there been any discussion about that scope of limiting the bikes? |
| 01:36:11.28 | Dr. Fotch | Yeah, actually that specific issue came up two meetings ago, but it could be three meetings ago. A member of the public brought that up, and Jeff Sears spoke to it and basically said that they're pretty aggressive with their warnings, and they actually have a video that they ask people to look at that shows how steep the ride is, so on and so forth. But at the He said one thing, and I believed, in addition, something else. You know, it's our job to warn them. It's our job to tell them. We tell them the kids have to have helmets, so on and so forth. But at the end of the day, they are their parents, and they make the decision. and I'm sure that he believed that. those folks who are in business to rent bicycles and not renting bicycles not as good for business, so the topic has come up I don't believe we have, frankly, much authority to do too much about that specific issue. Frankly, we've also engaged them, and we've told them based on our surveys, that 20 percent of their clients aren't wearing helmets. And that's, you know, That's not smart either. And they say, we don't charge extra for helmets. We tell people to wear helmets. They sign a thing saying they've been offered a helmet. There are some people Um, bad hair day, whatever it is. They just don't want to wear a helmet. So, you know, we've kind of pushed on those things, but Canada, we don't have much authority to make them do much on the safety side of things, and we've certainly encouraged them to provide warnings. |
| 01:37:41.44 | Jill Hoffman | Okay. But that's certainly within their prerogative to say we're not going to, you know, we're going to limit the scope of the, you know, where you can ride your bike. I mean, right? I mean, I sign things like that all the time. The bicycle companies themselves could just say you can't go any further than the north side of the Golden Gate Bridge, certainly if you're a certain age. |
| 01:38:00.16 | Dr. Fotch | I think that... |
| 01:38:01.51 | Jill Hoffman | Yeah. |
| 01:38:01.74 | Dr. Fotch | Thank you. |
| 01:38:01.78 | Jill Hoffman | Thank you. |
| 01:38:01.98 | Dr. Fotch | you my opinion, and beware doctors pretending to be lawyers and vice versa, that they could almost certainly put that in. I've rented sailboats that say you can't go beyond a certain point and so on and so forth. Now, enforcing that is another issue from their standpoint. But I don't think that there's anything that would stop them from saying, you know, I'm just making it up, children are 10 years old, you know. the Golden Gate Bridge or something. They could put that in their contract. Whether they would, I don't know, and whether they could enforce it, I think it would be difficult to enforce, It might just represent a higher level of warning to the parents you know, that there's potential problems here. |
| 01:38:47.32 | Jill Hoffman | Do you think it would be helpful for them to have one representative that comes to the bicycle committee and participates as a non-voting member? |
| 01:38:55.68 | Dr. Fotch | You know, we discussed that, and I think that the – these are a group of competitors. So on some topics, they might think, oh, thank God, Charlie's the poor guy who has to go on that thing. But from others, they might feel like that's insider – inside baseball sort of thing. Jeff Sears has been extremely responsive. When we asked him to come, he's come. I think that just – and I haven't discussed this with my fellow committee members, but I think what we need to do going forward is be more inclusive. And when we have topics that we think the bike companies should be involved in, which is quite common, I think we should be inviting, you know, all five or six – I'm not sure if it's or six, of the real bike volume vendors to participate. And then if they don't come, |
| 01:39:46.20 | Jill Hoffman | Okay. And with regard to the bridge district, have they offered staging areas at either the north side or the south side of the Golden Gate Bridge for the bike companies? |
| 01:39:57.96 | Dr. Fotch | The topic hasn't come up with the bridge district, and I will just say, just because I bike a fair amount recreationally, on the north side of the bridge, on the east side, you have Vista Point, which is a complete circus. You know, at the peak times. At midnight, there's plenty of parking available. And then you have on the west side, north |
| 01:40:20.27 | Unknown | You know, admittance. |
| 01:40:27.24 | Dr. Fotch | end of the bridge west side. That parking lot now is – it used to be empty. I mean, five years ago it was not that popular. Now, along with the drive up into the headlands, That's gotten to be jammed. And it's jammed, among other people, with a lot of recreational riders who come from the city or the South Bay, drop their car there, get in their bike, and start heading north going through Sausalito and up. So the idea of come across the bridge and stage or just turn around and go back, I do know that anecdotally some of the bike vendors have said some of their of their clients do just that. They've sort of checked the box, a road across the Golden Ape Bridge, And I wrote back, but to the previous Speaker, having ridden on Saturdays and Sundays across the Golden Gate Bridge – and I do it sort of once a year just to remember how bad it is. Once you've ridden the cross, you don't want to go back. All the bikes are asked to go to the west side of the bridge. the equipment for maintaining the bridge is on the west side of the bridge. There are multiple places where it's extremely narrow. And unless they change that, and God forbid you try to go to the east side with all the pedestrians, so I think it's a real tough nut to get people to get people to turn around and go back. I do and I know that there are other opinions on this. you know, Thank you. for, My way of thinking is Fort Baker is the place to try to play that card. Thank you. Just because when you're down there, there's just so much space. If it's acres and acres. So I think that's a good question. You know, there's no perfect solution, but I think that I think it would be hard to find staging areas at bridge level on the north side. And on the south side, Frankly, I don't know the area as well on the southeast side. There's a whole lot of sort of former military stuff there. Some of it's kind of funky. I drive through it not – infrequently because when the bridge backs up, if you don't know, there's sort of a backdoor way through there. shave like 15 minutes off your trip but I don't even know who controls that, but maybe that's a solution, but that's still a quarter mile from the bridge. |
| 01:42:40.76 | Unknown | Thank you. |
| 01:42:41.89 | Dr. Fotch | Once you get at the bridge within 200 yards of the bridge, it's pretty tight on both sides. |
| 01:42:48.67 | Jill Hoffman | Okay. And when... Yeah, yeah. Just go around and... Sure, of course. And I'll just... Go ahead. just so that we can. you Thank you. |
| 01:43:00.67 | Councilwoman Pfeiffer | I'm fine if Vice Mayor Hoffman wants to continue her line of questioning and |
| 01:43:08.87 | Jill Hoffman | Well, I mean, I think that the... |
| 01:43:11.16 | Councilwoman Pfeiffer | I have some questions, but I, you know. |
| 01:43:13.53 | Jill Hoffman | Thank you. Thank you. |
| 01:43:19.74 | Councilman Fyffrey | Yeah, I really don't have much to ask because I think your presentation was very lucid. Thanks a lot, Ed. That was great. To what extent has the committee asked the question, are there a set of policies to begin to at least bend the curve in terms of the growth of bikes? And are there some sensible policies we could put, knowing that we have very little control over some of the hydraulics of this, is there some sensible policies that we could, in place, to start trying to move towards a sustainable development of a bike input? |
| 01:44:09.89 | Dr. Fotch | Well, I would say that informally the topic comes up because, frankly, not everyone on the committee – some of the members of the committee haven't ridden a bike in a lot of years and I think came to the committee saying we need to reduce the number of bikes in town. There's really no hardcore bike riders, despite the fact that the committee, based on the resolution, is supposed to be made up of bicycle and pedestrian advocates. I mean, it's right in the language. But I can say – so the topic – the fact that the committee, based on the resolution, is supposed to be made up of bicycle and pedestrian advocates. I mean, it's right in the language. But I can say that, you know, so the topic does come up. But – so a few things. I mean, From the committee's standpoint, I think it would be important for the council. to say that it is the policy or it is the feeling of this city that we need to begin to look at ways to reduce or – whatever the right words are – make more sustainable the number of bikes that come into this town. You have a committee of five volunteers. If there are any attorneys on it, I'm hoping – I don't know, and I don't want to know. But, you know, we don't have a staff, and some of these are legal issues. I mean, they are public roads, and a bicycle is a vehicle. So to the extent that you want the the committee to more formally have that as a resolution item and converse with staff and look at things, I think that giving some direction as a council saying, We would like. to the bike and pedestrian committee to include in their charge ways to – manage or reduce or not even maybe not reduce the number, reduce the speed of increase. Um, you I will just say, this is my own opinion, that when you have something that's in short supply and you want to decrease demand for it, you charge more for it. And so I'm – again, just one member of the committee – I am extremely interested in ideas about generating revenue from bike parking. Um, And at the same time, having tried to put that in place with this preferred parking, which isn't bike parking for everyone. It's actually managed. It's almost like valet parking. having seen the challenges associated with that, I'm just very sanguine. as to what it's gonna take to get that done, I think if we were really good, we would get that going, prove we could do it, stand up the Ambassador Program, show that the Ambassadors can do their work, including bike parking, and then look for a fee-based way to either have part of Lot 1 available for bike parking or Tracy Way. for bike parking, but you have to work through all the things. And these people come at 20 or 30 at a time. And if you run a cash business with 17-year-olds, It's good for the 17-year-olds. but not very good for the business. I'm not sure. So just a lot of moving pieces. So just to net all it out, if it's the thought of the council that we should be looking at that, I think a resolution would be helpful. I think we're going to need some help from staff. Obviously Mary Wagner, because we could come up with all the things in the world we want, toll booths and all kinds of neat stuff, but if it's illegal. And then the police chief, do we really want our our police chief – or our police, you know, driving around with bike racks on, impounding bikes. I mean, there's all the moving pieces. We're willing to do the work on that, but I'm hoping that in six months, everyone's going to say, well, look how great that turned out. Now let's look for 2015 – excuse me, 2016, and let's build on our success. |
| 01:47:57.18 | Councilman Fyffrey | Thank you. |
| 01:48:01.31 | Jill Hoffman | Sure, I just had one quick about the Vista Point Trail. What's the ETA on the completion of that trail? |
| 01:48:08.81 | Dr. Fotch | So the... The short answer is that we are told it's a quote-unquote 2016 project and what we as the bike committee have pushed for and asked does that mean it'll be ready for May of 2016 or does it mean that it will be worked on in August of 2016 so we don't have any benefit until 2017 and there's a A woman, Andrea Lucas, that we've been working with, who's the patron saint of Vista Point Trail, who works for the National Park Service, who's looking for support, actually just asked us as a bike committee in the city to write a letter of support because they were going to ABAG for a grant to expedite their lead abatement thing. There's money that's been set aside. I get the sense that it is – in terms of it actually being opened, it's a bit of a The issue is, Will it be 2016 or does the can get get kicked down the road. And so one of the things I mentioned, one of the things we're asking is support our five goals. That's one of our five goals. And I think. you know, as powerful as it is to be the chairman of the Pedestrian Bicycle Committee, you know, something from the city manager or from the council. in support. would be helpful. Actually, we walked it with Kate Sears. Now you can really tell all the time. Thank you. Um, but with Kate Sears, and she was very supportive. It seems like all the Balls are lined up for the shot on the table, and we just need a little more push behind the cue stick. I'm sorry. |
| 01:49:52.11 | Jill Hoffman | Thank you. On the idea of the bike parking and charging for it on your concierge proposal, Now, my understanding of it that is that the charges there would be to fund the ambassador program. Do you you talked about earlier about one way of controlling the number of bikes is through a pricing mechanism. Now, would you be pricing this to merely to assimilate money to pay for the ambassadors or would this be a way to reduce bike parking? I mean bicycles coming into town. |
| 01:50:24.55 | Dr. Fotch | I don't – I in no way saw the preferred parking as a way to reduce bicycles. I looked at it purely as a way to generate revenue, to stand up an ambassador program that was self-funding without tapping into the pockets of Sausalito citizens, and frankly, there's sort of a component of it that when you say, oh, who's paying for the ambassadors? you know, we are is a bad answer, they are is a good answer, as in most, you know, tax and revenue situations. My suggestion is if you can pull that off, stand up the Ambassador Program, have – because none of this stuff happens without people, and the people probably can't be uniformed police officers. So you need someone And to say, well, we've got an organized group of people, not unlike the ski hills. right, and there's things you can do in some places and other things you can do in other places. If we can stand this up get this going this year I like to think that by next year we could say, okay, now we're going to have a broader parking program that's fee-based. at least to me, It would be ideal if we could find a place where there's free parking someplace that's just not real convenient. But if you want to be in our downtown, you're going to pay something. And if you want to be right next to that ferry, You're going to pay more. I've seen that other, I mean, it's not a, I mean, It's not an uncommon metaphor. You want something nicer, you pay a little bit more for it. The idea that you have to pay everywhere in town to park a bicycle I'm not sure. I have a big issue with that, but I know a lot of people in town will, and I know a lot of people around here will have an issue with that because they'll say, oh, you know, that's not fair. So I think some kind of a tiered system. But I'd like to take this off a bite at a time. And some of it is you have to step back and say, what's your goal? Is it to reduce bikes or is it to reduce tourists? And you'll forgive me, but 20 years ago, I was here and we were all talking about how do you reduce the number of tourists in Sausalito. But if it's really just about reducing bikes, then I think you can default to let's keep them out of our downtown, let's look at staging, let's look at some of the other options that we have. But none of it happens until – it's hard to be successful at a big thing until you've been successful at anything. And I'm trying to be successful at something, which is what we have proposed for this year. |
| 01:52:38.47 | Councilwoman Pfeiffer | Okay, so thank you, Ed, for the presentation and for everything that the Pedestrian and Bicycle Committee is doing. So my question is, the preferred parking, where is the preferred parking going to be? |
| 01:52:54.77 | Dr. Fotch | in a relatively small area that is adjacent to the chamber kiosk, between the chamber kiosk and – |
| 01:53:05.44 | Councilwoman Pfeiffer | where parking is right now for the electric bikes. |
| 01:53:07.39 | Dr. Fotch | Where the bikes are placed right now. Yeah. |
| 01:53:10.04 | Councilwoman Pfeiffer | I see. So that's going – the idea is to change that. So I understand the spirit of the Ambassador concept, but I think you said it earlier when you commented that you didn't want to use taxpayer dollars to finance bike babysitters. And it – to me, when I – in listening to the Ambassador program, it sounds like we basically funding employees for the bike rental companies to maintain their business model. And my My question is, were you aware that it's my understanding that years ago, I think 2008 or 9, that there was an agreement with the bike rental companies. to provide paid staff. in Sausalito, there was some sort of an agreement You know, they couldn't just start sending their bikes over. you know had some sort of an agreement that they would they would staff people. So when I heard the earlier presentation from Chief Tejada saying that they had increased their staffing, well, frankly, it makes sense because their numbers have exponentially increased. So I'm looking at the ambassadors and I'm thinking that actually the bike rental company Perhaps that's something Would you be... Does that sound like something you could revisit with respect to looking at more funded employees from the bicycle rental company and another agreement? |
| 01:54:50.04 | Dr. Fotch | So a few things. So I don't know what happened, I think you said, in the late 80s. |
| 01:54:57.82 | Councilwoman Pfeiffer | No, it wasn't the late 80s. It was the two – it was past the millennium. I want to say it was 2008, 2009. |
| 01:55:02.70 | Dr. Fotch | Okay. So I'm only familiar with the bicycle rental vendors contributing dollars last year, which they did for roughly four staff members right at the ferry. And it was, you know, order of magnitude, $50,000 sort of a thing. And so when you look at more than doubling that, you quickly bump up to a number that's close to $100,000 of revenue you need to cover that. From my standpoint, whether you get it from the bicycle rental company or the bicycle renters is somewhat of a distinction without a difference. It's still coming from the bikes. So I personally found it easier. to come up with a Conceptually. with a preferred parking thing that someone would willingly purchase. than spending staff time trying to get another $100,000 out of the bike vendors, which would ultimately come from the bicyclists anyway. |
| 01:56:11.78 | Councilwoman Pfeiffer | I guess the reason I'm asking this question is because you're talking about taking fees, you know, the revenues from the preferred parking and using it to fund ambassadors whom, frankly, I view as we're basically funding employees of the bicycle rental company. And I would like to see those preferred parking fees go to ADA, disability, you know, requirements. We know we have a lot of work to do downtown. you know, pedestrian access improvements, the lighted crosswalks that we've heard about now that greatly enhance pedestrian safety and would pick up the bicycle sensors and illuminate the crosswalks. I would like to see fees from preferred parking go into that, not to go into funding these ambassadors who are basically going to be in my mind. their employees of the bike rental company to mitigate their business plan, the fact that they're not investing in our infrastructure. So I guess, Mike, my question is is that something you could perhaps maybe in the next committee meeting discuss and revisit. I just think that the bicycle rental companies are making so much money, and I'd like to see them step up and provide more resources to mitigate what's happening to our downtown. |
| 01:57:40.26 | Dr. Fotch | So a few responses. The pedestrian and bicycle committee will be happy to look at that. The chances that the bike rental vendors step up to the kind of dollars we're talking about in the next 45 days – actually, it would be less than that, 30 days – so that you know you've got funding for an ambassador program that's in the low six figures, I think is pretty tough stuff. If you ask the people, in my opinion, when the ambassadors start showing up in my neighborhood and you ask who are they helping, they're going to say they're helping us. Because up until recently, there's been nobody kind of directing traffic, moving the bikes along, keeping them off of our driveways, keeping them from plugging the streets, keeping them off the sidewalks. So while I appreciate the perspective of their, you know, an extension, of, the bike rental companies Um, I can guarantee you the bike rental companies didn't come to us and say we need ambassadors. It was the citizens who came to us and said, we need ambassadors. |
| 01:58:53.23 | Councilwoman Pfeiffer | And I think that's my point, is that we have allowed the earlier agreement from over a decade ago to stand and they have only increased their resources by, what, four, seven people? I think we need to expand that. I guess I'm just looking at not the question of whether we don't need more resources to mitigate the bikes because we I feel uncomfortable with the bike rental companies. using the fees and revenues from a parking scheme for bikes, which I support, to funding employees for the bike company, which I see the ambassadors as. |
| 01:59:38.03 | Dr. Fotch | Well, I appreciate that perspective. I can tell you when people start seeing these folks on their streets keeping the people off the bicycles, they won't feel like they're working for the bicycle, feel like they're working for them. But to sort of take this as you were looking to, just so I think we're on the same page, I think that bicycle parking in the city of Sausalito should be a source of revenue for the general fund. I'd just like to get there by doing something that works, that moves us in that direction. But I think this should – and I don't think it should be a minor source of revenue. But right now it's not a source of revenue at all. And I'm trying to play the cards that I have in my hand, not the ones I wish I had. |
| 02:00:23.48 | Councilwoman Pfeiffer | Thanks, Ed. And I just want to reiterate, I'm not in question of adding more people to mitigate things. I agree. It's just to me it's where that revenue is going to be invested and what the rental bike company should be stepping up to do. But the other question I have has to do with sharrows. It was page 4 of 10, optimized signage, road striping sharrows. So I think you and I live on the same drag, the main street. And I don't know about you, I woke up one morning and I walked outside my door and there was a Shero painted in one of the lanes and overnight, overnight it went from cyclists going to the right to you know, the entire road. being allocated for cyclists. And it's, I can tell you, it's been a nightmare for the communities living around there. My question is, when you're looking at sheroes, how will you engage the community and the neighborhoods before moving forward with those sheroes? |
| 02:01:32.01 | Dr. Fotch | So as you point out, the sharrows, which for those of you who don't know what a sharrow is, it's those arrows on the road that is a picture of a bike. And what it's supposed to say, I'm told, is that the bikes and the bikes are cars should be sharing the road. What it in fact says to bikers is, bike here. And they're not unique to Sausalito. They've got them all over Marin, all over California, and other places. So I think the specific question, as I understand it, which happens to be one that I brought up now in the last two meetings, is should the Shero be in the middle or should it be telling bikers, please be off to the right. So you and I are very much on the same page on this. |
| 02:02:16.23 | Councilwoman Pfeiffer | Exactly. |
| 02:02:16.88 | Dr. Fotch | A couple things, the member of the bike coalition who is a non-voting member, Actually, Alicia said that The goal of the share is not just share the road, it is to direct people where the bike should be. And when there are cars parked on the right, they frequently put the sharrows in the middle. because car doors can open and then there's bad accidents. But when there's no parking on the right, think, bridgeway from the north end of town all the way to the ferry It was, well, if you want the people to write, you should be on the write, and we actually had one of the cities, consultants and brought up that very point and said, you know, unless there's a strong reason not to do that, our recommendation would be to move the Sherros to the right so you're essentially telling people this isn't a road, this is a big bike lane. And the response was – it was a long response, but it was that they would look into it. And this is actually a little bit of a police issue, and it's definitely an engineering issue. And I know that Mr. Goldman is aware of this. But when there aren't cars parked, and then that's been amplified by the fact that there seems to be some kind of a disconnect between the California vehicle code and the DMV on this issue, which is also on our next bike committee meeting, which you're definitely – we're all definitely invited to come to because One of the challenges we have here in town is a lot of the rental bikers are riding quite slowly tying up. the road which doesn't seem like it's that big a deal. but then people get frustrated and then they go around them, and so it's a safety issue. |
| 02:03:56.98 | Councilwoman Pfeiffer | I'm the one. |
| 02:04:00.86 | Dr. Fotch | topics right in front of us. |
| 02:04:01.33 | Councilwoman Pfeiffer | Right in front. And they weren't doing that before the Sherrows were put in. And when the Sherrows were put in, suddenly they thought, oh, now we've got the whole road as our bike lane. um, The other, and which when they're going the speed limit It is, but when they're going below the speed limit, It's my understanding they're supposed to go to the right. But my question had to do with public outreach before the Sheroes are implemented. Because had there been public outreach first by, you know, before staff went forward with these Sheroes, I'm sure all of these things would have been vetted beforehand and that it would not have happened. So my comment is just public outreach. |
| 02:04:43.99 | Dr. Fotch | So just a couple of quick comments. The Sheriffs went in before the Bike Committee was created. I know. I know. So that was one of our first things. |
| 02:04:47.28 | Councilwoman Pfeiffer | Thank you. I know, I know. So that was one of our first things. Oh yeah, you guys, yeah. |
| 02:04:51.92 | Dr. Fotch | And then secondly, |
| 02:04:53.32 | Councilwoman Pfeiffer | Thank you. |
| 02:04:53.36 | Unknown | THE END OF |
| 02:04:53.65 | Councilwoman Pfeiffer | Thank you. |
| 02:04:54.57 | Dr. Fotch | While getting public input is really helpful, at the end of the day, our authority as a committee is to recommend to you. I mean, we don't have a budget and we don't have a lot of stuff. And so we're trying to come up with a recommendation, and I think we will on this Sharrows thing, but ultimately even you are going to listen to the police who say, well, here's the safety aspects and you're going to listen to, you know, Mr. Goldman and here's, you know, what the consultants say, because you obviously don't want to do something that, you know liability associated with it but we have definitely had the share of location particularly for northbound bike traffic from Alexander Avenue to the ferry terminal is one of our can't we |
| 02:05:28.00 | Unknown | know has like |
| 02:05:43.54 | Dr. Fotch | please. |
| 02:05:44.69 | Councilwoman Pfeiffer | Change it. . |
| 02:05:45.52 | Dr. Fotch | Well, let's either change it or get a concrete reason why we cannot change it. |
| 02:05:45.55 | Councilwoman Pfeiffer | Well, I think that's a good thing. I love you. . M-hm. Yeah, and that leads me to my last question regarding one of your 2015, it says other, it says collaborate with consultant on potential improvements in Old Town area. I know an earlier, I know that I've seen an earlier staff report referred to right-of-way, you know, topics and such. And, you know, just I don't know what number two here means. Can you share this with me a little bit? |
| 02:06:27.54 | Dr. Fotch | I'm not sure enough to |
| 02:06:28.84 | Councilwoman Pfeiffer | collaborate with consultant on potential improvements. |
| 02:06:30.91 | Dr. Fotch | Yeah, so it's our understanding that they're actually – not my understanding. There is a consultant currently engaged for coming up with ideas for improving – I believe it's pedestrian, bicycle, and automobile flow on the south end of town. So that, as I recall, is pretty much everywhere from Alexander, from the south end of Alexander to Bridgeway. So Richardson and 2nd Street South, North Street. |
| 02:06:57.71 | Councilwoman Pfeiffer | So is the process |
| 02:06:58.50 | Dr. Fotch | Not North Street, it's L Street, sorry. |
| 02:07:00.41 | Councilwoman Pfeiffer | Okay. Is the process, I'd be interested in learning more about the process with respect to the consultant, what they're doing, how that's going to move forward. Because I think transparency here is so critical because of what has happened in the past with those sharrows. And I just want to avoid that. |
| 02:07:21.05 | Dr. Fotch | Well, I completely agree. |
| 02:07:22.28 | Councilwoman Pfeiffer | And again, you guys, you were not in place when the Sherros were done. |
| 02:07:26.19 | Dr. Fotch | Well, and this project on the south end of town is not under the purview of the Pedestrian and Bicycle Committee. We asked for a report on it. But it's not our – we're just – you know, we're collaborating, chipping in our two cents. Got it. Okay. Thanks. But it's not our – it's not our – Very good. Thank you. |
| 02:07:34.77 | Councilwoman Pfeiffer | OKAY. |
| 02:07:35.36 | Unknown | Right. |
| 02:07:38.46 | Councilwoman Pfeiffer | Got it. Okay. Thanks. Very good. Thank you. I saw number two here, so I wanted to – I thought it was. Thank you. |
| 02:07:47.14 | Jill Hoffman | Thank you. |
| 02:07:51.00 | Jill Hoffman | Now we'll open up to public comment. at least one at a time. |
| 02:08:00.52 | Jacques Ullman | Jacques Ullman. Well, I'm just – I think that the committee has done a fantastic job, and I'm not being negative about them at all. But I'm again upset that it was mentioned that, well, not that many citizens of Saucedo go near the ferry landing or, you know, Vina del Mar Park. I mean, I've lived here since 1970, and it's true. I have seen |
| 02:08:11.66 | Unknown | Thank you. |
| 02:08:11.69 | Unknown | Yeah. |
| 02:08:12.01 | Unknown | Thank you. |
| 02:08:30.07 | Jacques Ullman | We citizens being more and more alienated from our downtown. Who ever heard of a community where one can say that the citizens don't go downtown? We've got to think about that. I mean, it is a priority. So when you talk about having high-paid parking spots for the bicycles that are placed next to the kiosk, you're working against what I was talking about before. Now, nothing is so permanent as temporary. So if you start putting those there, they're going to stay there, and that's just where we don't want them. So, you know, we've got to be careful, you know. I mean, the intentions are good, and I'm not criticizing the work of the committee. I mean, you've worked hard and you're doing good things, and that new trail from the Vista Point down, that's a terrific idea, and taking the cars off of Alexander, I mean, and all the staging possibilities down at Fort Baker. There's tons of good things I can say. This is just, I want to emphasize this part because I don't want to see downtown get lost. And that's going to come up also when we're talking about the ferry landing. I mean, we've got, Gabrielston Park is an incredible place. And citizens do go there, but getting there is difficult. And so we can accommodate the tourists and we can accommodate the buses and all, but we still have to think about ourselves. |
| 02:10:06.51 | Diane Andrews | I'm Diane Andrews. I'm on Spring Street, although I used to live on 26 Alexander, so I know the curve well. I have a couple of questions, a couple of comments. I love the VistaView coming down, but Will that be mandatory or just optional? I mean, it totally makes sense. but I think they can still use Alexander, which is just a death trap. the staging area down there. I think it's a marvelous idea. But I think the conundrum And the biggest nut to crack on this whole thing, which is I don't have any idea of how to do it, Jeff Sears came to a meeting, and it was proposed or asked of him about what they put in their brochure and where their business comes from. And he said quite specifically that the bulk of their business is saying, we provide bikes to go over the Golden Gate Bridge and drive into Sausalito. which eliminates the staging area because it's all about the pleasure of going all the way into town and taking the ferry back. And I think that's, you know, the staging area's a great idea, but that's not what they're promoting. and to be asking the bike companies to fork up all this money if there was some agreement made before, maybe you can find it, but I think it's a big issue in That's their business is to bring the bikers over here, make their money, come all the way into town and take the ferry back. |
| 02:12:00.53 | Jill Hoffman | Anyone else? Well, let's see. Any more public comment on this issue? Okay, so I'll close public comment. Please. |
| 02:12:13.63 | Adam Politzer | I just wanted to comment and Dr. Focz and I haven't had this conversation nor I've had this conversation with staff that attends the meeting. but I do want to caution the Fort Baker option, and, you know, we have a Fort Baker task force that is very sensitive to what happens down at Fort Baker. And I'm not suggesting that we don't explore it. I think that it's important to explore it. But one of the things that didn't get pointed out, which got discussed when we talked about downtown staging, is that if you have roughly 1,000 to 2,000 bikes that come in per day during the peak season, and those bikes are now being dropped off down at Fort Baker. You have to do something with the people. And so it may be additional vehicles, especially if those people want to come into Sausalito. and take the ferry back. So I just want to make sure that we didn't leave out that component of it, that it's one thing to drop off the bikes, but then you still have the same volume of people. and you need to get them to wherever they need to get to, which may add more buses coming into Sausalito or, you know, some other – some other challenge. So not to – not to tell you folks not to explore it. Absolutely do so, but recognize there's a very – keen sense of sensitivity as we see behind our council members on what happens at Fort Baker and how we impact the natural environment that we're trying to preserve. |
| 02:13:44.60 | Jill Hoffman | Bring it back here for public comment. And Councilman Fyffrey, please start off. |
| 02:13:57.73 | Councilwoman Pfeiffer | I'm not quite ready. |
| 02:14:06.10 | Councilman Fyffrey | Again, I'd like to thank you, in particular, Ed, but also all of the committee, obviously, for the work that you've been doing. This is a very complicated problem. When you have a very complicated problem, there's a – But a real problem. It's a real problem, and it's a complicated problem That it's not been quickly solved is just testament to the complexity and the moving parts here the one thing I know After spending a long time over my career working on very complicated projects It's the worst thing to do is to think there's some magic solution and that you can do something just like that and the problem goes away. It never works like that. Basically, all of the potential solutions should be explored we should try that we can, because ultimately, it's a little bit of managing the situation here, trying to create an incentive or a disincentive there such as pricing for parking except together and working with the ferry district and working with the bike companies. to start crafting, there's only so much we can do. So what we've got to figure out is what are the policies that we can put in place to start shift in the curve shift in the in terms of the growth in numbers I think it's a little bit |
| 02:15:39.06 | Unknown | Thank you. |
| 02:15:42.84 | Councilman Fyffrey | ...disingenuous, throwing out numbers like 120,000, I mean, that's never going to happen. There's just not the capacity anywhere to absorb that sort of thing. But we don't want it done. And so we want to try and find policies to start reversing the direction that we're going. becomes sustainable comes manageable so everything we need to do is we need some short-term solutions. Our last presentation was about a short-term solution for this summer. supportive of your committee's work and the concept of the Ambassador Program and in the |
| 02:16:14.96 | Unknown | Thank you. |
| 02:16:19.97 | Councilman Fyffrey | I'm extremely supportive of starting off with this, but moving towards in 2016, we have a comprehensive parking program in which we generate revenue. Because in the end, that will start creating the incentives to actually limit or the disincentives to limit. |
| 02:16:20.85 | Unknown | dream. |
| 02:16:39.17 | Councilman Fyffrey | We'd be very interested to see if that's the case. It's touch and go whether that actually would happen. But the bottom line in the end, it would be a step towards managing it and it would be revenue. |
| 02:16:58.81 | Unknown | Um, yeah. |
| 02:16:59.98 | Councilwoman Pfeiffer | So I've watched the bike members double, triple, quadruple over the last, you know, six years, seven years. It took three years to get the council majority to form a bicycle pedestrian committee, but we finally got them to agree to that. it seems to be taking longer to pass a motion to direct staff to research bike staging and potential for bike capping strategies. I think I'm going to make a motion for that. I think that this is more complex than the bicycleicycle Pedestrian Committee has a scope for. I agree with Dr. Fotch's comments that there's a lot of legal issues involved in this and I concur. And I frankly think. It's a council leadership issue, and I think one of the things we can do is pass a motion to direct staff to research those two things. And the other thing we can do is, for the first time, place a priority issue that council members can rate. when we do priority rating every year. Every year that's something that Council Member Ford and I continuously pushed and we were continuously outvoted on. But I think it's disingenuous to say, you know, that we need to |
| 02:18:21.35 | Unknown | and then we do priority. |
| 02:18:37.92 | Councilwoman Pfeiffer | SO MANY SOLUTIONS WHEN WE'RE NOT ALLOWING THE bikes as an issue to be included as one of the priorities that we rank. during our priority setting process. And I also think that we need to take leadership and make a stand on the whole bike staging. So I'll make a motion at the end of this. But regarding the ambassador program, I concur. I think we need more, you know, people on the front lines with the safety issue is just untenable. Every time I drive through town, I see, you know, bikes, breaking laws, running stoplights or whatever. But I don't think that parking fees should go to pay for these ambassadors. I don't – I believe that We need to sit down with the bike rental companies and ask them to step up some more with resources. It is their business model. tens of hundreds of thousands in profits and frankly it's what they should do and they should do it beyond what they've done so far. Finally with – and I'd like to see any – I have concerns as well about the preferred parking program. I think what we need to do is step back and look at charging fees for bicycle parking period, research that, figure out how to make that happen, and I think those revenues should go to fund pedestrian infrastructure and safety issues downtown, which are pretty bad right now. So I would move to direct staff to research bike staging and bike capping and bike fees for parking. |
| 02:20:22.82 | Jill Hoffman | Well, we're not at a, we haven't had other comments, but we can, if you, would you mind on that? |
| 02:20:32.57 | Jill Hoffman | Yeah, I'd like to thank the committee. What a great job and just a tremendous amount of work and thought. PUT INTO THAT YOUR RECOMMENDATIONS. AND I AGREE WITH YOUR RECOMMENDATIONS. You know, I, um, I THINK THAT, YOU KNOW, IT'S DIFFICULT TO IMPLEMENT NEW PROGRAMS, AND I UNDERSTAND, YOU KNOW, WHEN DR. FOCH SAYS HE'S GOT HIS PROGRAM. and he wants to try to implement that this year, and then we'll see how it goes, and then incrementally Because, you know, last year was the first year we designated parking areas, and we got people to do that, and now we're taking another step. You know, I'm supportive of that process. And I agree with Councilwoman Pfeiffer's comments as well. I think – but I think they sort of all work together. We want to bring the buy companies more to support their own business model, and I think we do that through knowledge and from a position of strength of what we can do legally to bring them to the table, and that comes with the staff doing some research and, you know, seeing if there is a basis to do that, and I'm hopeful that there is legally that we can somehow figure out a way to regulate them if they won't self-regulate themselves. I'm very concerned about the safety issues and the bicycle companies not making that a priority in their programs, and I would look to the Bicycle Coalition and the Bicycle Safety Coalition to partner with us more strongly on that as well. So I'm happy that we have these people sort of, you know, participating, but I'd like to move forward on bringing them in a more close relationship with us, a more effective relationship. |
| 02:22:15.73 | Unknown | Well... Ed, thank you. I mean, really appreciate all the work that you and your committee have done. For me, it's a relief. I started with this eight years ago downtown. And we've seen it grow every single year, and every single year we've been able to manage Last year was the first year that we closed down Tracy Way, and I think that was a very positive move. What it did was it allowed us to capture as they came into town as quick as we could, taking them off of Bridgeway. And then the job that we had for the last few years was making sure that they didn't go back by bicycle, but they went back by ferry. And we've been able to do that. There's some changes. The preferred. I think it's a pilot program. I think we're going in the right direction. Charging, I brought that up four years ago, but we weren't in a position to do it four years ago. And this preferred hopefully will be the first step to lead us into charging for bikes, not only preferred but all the bikes that want to use the parking facility on Tracy Way. Staging, there's no room. You're just bringing in more vehicles. The bikes are already here. The idea was to manage them. we'll have a good field this year. on how it is to see if it does increase the numbers because I really feel that I think the numbers are gonna increase but very modestly. Last year was the perfect year. It really was. 2014, the weather was great. People were traveling, tremendous amount of visitors from Europe came. 70% of the rentals that came in were from Europe, mainly France, Italy, Germany, where they do use bicycles more extensively than probably any other places. So I think it's a good step, and as I said, it's just like any other business, we will to grow with it. And if we have to put some obstacles in the way, If it's accelerating, then we might have to do that. But for now, I'd rather just see how your program goes. As far as the funds go, I'm out of money. |
| 02:25:19.87 | Jill Hoffman | Bye. |
| 02:25:22.19 | Unknown | I'll stop. |
| 02:25:23.19 | Jill Hoffman | Thanks, Ed and John, and the whole pedestrian bicycle committee and also to staff, Jonathan Goldman and the Public Works and Captain Rohrbacher and Chief Tejada and Lieutenant Skuge. They're at these meetings and working closely with the committee on these issues. And the entire city staff, I mean, bicycles is… critically important. to that. And so I appreciate that. I would say on the Ambassador Program, I think it's really important – actually, it never even dawned on me that this is for the bike companies. This is for us to help control these bikes. There's a physical limitation on the south end of town. We're not going to be able to create bigger and better bike lanes, and this is really one of the only ways we've come up to managing it. So I look at it as a health and safety and traffic control issue. And I think this is for Sausalito. Now, I think it's a great way to have the bicycles pay for it through the parking. We don't want to do it through taxes. But I think it's a bit difficult to just say, well, we're going to make the bike companies pay for this. We can ask, of course. On that point, I think we need to, and I I'm going back to Councilmember Fivers. I mean, as all of us that have worked on this a lot of a while, look at freedom of movement that we have in our Constitution and those types of things. But I do think we need to, as we go forward, we have to know what we can do and what we can't do so we can have things. So I think I recommend to have staff take a look at can we put a cap on the number of bicycles that come into town? Again, I think we've looked at this at some level back in the 60s when they tried to get rid of cars and tourists. But we have to look at this. And so when we talk about it, we need to know can anything be done? And if we can't, then we move on to other solutions. I think Vice Mayor Hoffman's suggestion about it, if there's a distinction between commercial and private, I suspect not, but I think we should take a look at that, whether if someone privately can come in or if they have just rented a bicycle can come in. And I think, thirdly, we have to look at that. I think we need to take a look at whether we can require the bike companies to pay for us. I mean, again, we can all – there's this issue of negotiating with them and asking them and incentivizing them versus we require them. So this is so that we understand what our options are going forward. I THINK WE UNDERSTAND IT, BUT WE WANT TO MAKE SURE THAT WE HAVE SO THAT WE KNOW IT. ON THE STAGING ISSUE, I THINK WE...I TEND TO AGREE VIOLENTLY WITH COUNCILMEMBER WEINER THAT STAGING JUST BRINGS MORE I suggest that's something I think we need to ask the pedestrian and bicycle committee to look at. I think we need to do that. And I think that's a good question. I think that's a good question. um, So we need to take a look at that. And finally, one last thing. I believe that a priority calendar bikes were quite high. Is that correct, Adam? |
| 02:28:35.89 | Adam Politzer | Thank you. Well, it's a very specific item, and it is looking at the south end of town. |
| 02:28:43.87 | Councilwoman Pfeiffer | It was – no, because we had this discussion at the time. I wanted to put it on the priority. It is on the – You know, the south end of town, it was the green – I forget how they – the wording it, but it wasn't the whole – the downtown issue of the bike traffic and capping and staging and all of that stuff. |
| 02:28:49.59 | Unknown | Thank you. |
| 02:28:49.61 | Adam Politzer | And instead... |
| 02:28:50.65 | Unknown | you. Yeah. |
| 02:28:59.24 | Adam Politzer | and capping and staging and all of that stuff. |
| 02:29:01.60 | Councilwoman Pfeiffer | Thank you. |
| 02:29:01.62 | Adam Politzer | If I if I may mr. Mayor the third item on the priority count |
| 02:29:02.36 | Councilwoman Pfeiffer | If I could. |
| 02:29:06.73 | Adam Politzer | is something when it's to the ferry landing pedestrian bike permits that's it was |
| 02:29:11.61 | Councilwoman Pfeiffer | IT WAS THE ORIGINAL BIKE PLAN THAT I HAVE REPEATEDLY MENTIONED EARLIER THAT I HAD REAL ISSUES WITH BECAUSE IT MENTIONED RIGHT AWAY. |
| 02:29:14.58 | Adam Politzer | REPEATEDLY. |
| 02:29:15.37 | Jill Hoffman | Thank you. |
| 02:29:19.46 | Jill Hoffman | Well, we had that as number three and this is from the south end of the town and bike ferry And by the way you voted against that priority calendar and making I |
| 02:29:26.85 | Councilwoman Pfeiffer | I certainly did, and if you look at my original priority calendar that I submitted, I wrote, bike mitigation at the top. I wrote bike mitigation because we wanted to look at the whole bike issue, not just some plan that has an OBAG grant. And that's what we wanted to look at. |
| 02:29:48.35 | Jill Hoffman | Okay. So, now are there that's what I would recommend in terms of our direction of staff that we need to Um, Motion on that. |
| 02:29:59.92 | Councilwoman Pfeiffer | So... so I I can reword my motion to direct staff to research capping the number of bikes and I think the other one was collaborating with the bike rental companies for bike safety by 50. |
| 02:30:21.07 | Jill Hoffman | I think because well may I see I well I said if we go to the city staff that we need it illegal whether we can make bike companies pay |
| 02:30:25.37 | Councilwoman Pfeiffer | Well, I... |
| 02:30:30.99 | Councilwoman Pfeiffer | Oh, okay. Whether we can legally require bike companies to – well, I know we can because we had that earlier agreement where they stepped up. |
| 02:30:31.89 | Jill Hoffman | Whether we can make by... |
| 02:30:41.23 | Jill Hoffman | It was voluntary though. Can we make that? |
| 02:30:45.40 | Councilwoman Pfeiffer | okay I have an idea let's vote on I'd like to make a motion to direct city staff to research capping rental bike numbers into the town so I'd like to have a motion just on that and then you can word the next one Salam. |
| 02:31:04.25 | Jill Hoffman | Yeah, I would say capping or otherwise limiting the number of bikes. Yep, that's good. |
| 02:31:08.83 | Councilwoman Pfeiffer | yes that's good yeah capping or limiting the number yeah rental by yeah I'm |
| 02:31:11.58 | Jill Hoffman | rental by yeah and this right exactly rental is very important absolutely |
| 02:31:15.56 | Councilwoman Pfeiffer | Rental is very important. |
| 02:31:19.79 | Jill Hoffman | I just want to make sure it's something that we can understand. Is that something that you would understand? |
| 02:31:21.80 | Jill Hoffman | Thank you. |
| 02:31:26.44 | Jill Hoffman | Limit the number that come in. |
| 02:31:26.46 | Adam Politzer | Limit the number that come in. |
| 02:31:28.43 | Jill Hoffman | And that's legally limiting them from coming into town. Is that correct? Okay. |
| 02:31:28.69 | Adam Politzer | Right. |
| 02:31:33.58 | Jill Hoffman | And do you want to add the distinction of commercial versus commercial? |
| 02:31:35.64 | Jill Hoffman | Or, yeah, commercial, well, yeah. Rental bicycles. or otherwise regulate the numbers coming into town. I mean, CAP is one word. Otherwise regulate may be during certain months you have – you can only come – you know, whatever. However broad you want to do it so that you can... |
| 02:31:53.05 | Councilwoman Pfeiffer | if you want to do it. Thank you. |
| 02:31:54.74 | Jill Hoffman | I'm sorry. |
| 02:31:54.76 | Councilwoman Pfeiffer | Thank you. |
| 02:31:54.89 | Jill Hoffman | Bye. |
| 02:31:54.93 | Councilwoman Pfeiffer | Thank you. |
| 02:31:54.98 | Jill Hoffman | Thank you. |
| 02:31:55.62 | Councilwoman Pfeiffer | I moved to direct staff to research solutions for capping or regulating the number of rental bikes that come into South Salido. Yeah. What was that? |
| 02:32:10.22 | Jill Hoffman | Well, I'll tell you, it's broad. I think we need, if we're going to have a legal response, we have to be very clear. That's a different question. I think we have to be clear whether we have the power. |
| 02:32:14.57 | Councilwoman Pfeiffer | I'm very clear. That's a different question. I think we have to be clear whether we have the parlor. Looking at solutions will include the legality of it. I mean, you know, what solutions exist that, you know, we can legally pursue? |
| 02:32:28.44 | Jill Hoffman | Thank you. |
| 02:32:28.46 | Adam Politzer | Mr. |
| 02:32:28.68 | Councilwoman Pfeiffer | I |
| 02:32:29.03 | Jill Hoffman | Yeah. Thank you. |
| 02:32:29.60 | Adam Politzer | you Thank you. Well, and I don't know if this is helpful or not. I think there are two questions there. I think the second question, I'm looking at solutions, we would ask the council to direct that to the Bike and Bed Committee. And if there is a legal – if you want the staff to look at a narrow legal, we can do that. |
| 02:32:41.23 | Unknown | I hate it. |
| 02:32:41.30 | Councilwoman Pfeiffer | There is. |
| 02:32:41.65 | Unknown | League. |
| 02:32:42.62 | Councilwoman Pfeiffer | Yeah. |
| 02:32:46.89 | Councilwoman Pfeiffer | Well, I'm specifically interested in researching solutions. I want to look at solutions that we can legally pursue. I mean, because if you just ask staff, can you legally limit the number of bikes, rental bikes, it's like, well, you know, no. But different solutions like an online registration system or something like this, maybe we could. So I think you have to look at it in the context of solutions out there. Does that make sense? |
| 02:33:12.28 | Jill Hoffman | It makes sense, but it's a very, I mean, you're asking a legal staff to do something that's our job. I mean, and again, we need to bring solutions. These are, we're the policymakers here, and we can ask staff to help us with technicalities but to just research solutions in general and it may be again it depends who you're asking to do what but if we're asking legal staff I think |
| 02:33:33.49 | Jill Hoffman | well I'm asking staff I think it's I think it may be a two-step process I think we want to look at what's legally been done before in another jurisdictions and whether jurisdictions who've challenged it and what the outcome's been so it may not be it may be California it may also be other jurisdictions so I mean that that's the first question right and then you know you come back and say you know the county of Monterey tried to limit you know scooters or something and we're successful or not successful or whatever anecdotal you know legal authority you can find And then you present us with those findings, and then we can better able to direct the Bicycle and Pedestrian Committee on other solutions, I think. I think that's what I'm maybe. |
| 02:34:19.19 | Jill Hoffman | Within that, I'd like to see the specific question, can we legally cap them as well? |
| 02:34:22.43 | Jill Hoffman | them as well. Yeah. |
| 02:34:23.53 | Jill Hoffman | so that we take either have certain solutions or take things off the table. |
| 02:34:27.66 | Councilman Fyffrey | Mr. Mayor. |
| 02:34:28.19 | Jill Hoffman | I'm sorry it's council member oh you go ahead and then you yeah I think |
| 02:34:31.61 | Councilman Fyffrey | I think this would be very useful as much to communicate to our residents what we can and what we can't do. Because residents come with very creative ideas as to what to do with bikes, most of which are, you know, pretty illegal. so I think to get just some pragmatic, rational, objective legal advice as to what is our playing field, what we can do should be the spirit of this. I think, totally, Council Member Fyferl has the spirit of this. |
| 02:34:45.55 | Unknown | it. |
| 02:35:06.68 | Councilwoman Pfeiffer | Yeah. And I... Yeah, and I think that the phrasing is, you know, how can we legally I'm sorry. how can we legally then you know cap and and or legislate or limit rather regulate the number of bikes |
| 02:35:19.86 | Unknown | That's right. |
| 02:35:23.89 | Unknown | or limit. |
| 02:35:27.84 | Councilwoman Pfeiffer | Bottom line is it's unsustainable, they keep going up. Bye. you Thank you. |
| 02:35:37.22 | Mary Wagner | so mr. mayor I think there's a number of different versions of the same question that have been proposed and I think starting with the broader and then working our way towards the narrower may be the best approach vice mayor Hoffman worded it to look at the city's ability to regulate the number of rental bikes and specifically asked that we look into what other jurisdictions California and beyond have done you know and find out if this is a question of first impression with respect to rental bikes and then try and expand it to look at other similar types of industries I will tell you it's not going to be a simple I'll get back to you in a couple days answer it's going to be one of those questions that has many permutations and is going to take some time and some legal resources to figure out but I concur with what I sense to be the set the direction of the council is look at the big picture what can we do and specifically understanding that the council is interested in its ability to impose restrictions on the number of rental bikes that are coming into town at potentially peak times you know if you're looking at the middle of the day on a weekend in the end of July or August but I understand that the direction so if you can give us some time and the ability to kind of work with those parameters I think we can at least provide you with the starting point for either direction to the bike and ped committee |
| 02:36:59.50 | Unknown | Bye. |
| 02:37:03.66 | Mary Wagner | direction for potential regulations or additional research that's necessary. |
| 02:37:10.49 | Councilwoman Pfeiffer | Yeah, I would like – I personally would love to have that come back to council for us to kind of look at that and understand the scope of what, you know, we're dealing with. Because I agree with the comments of Dr. Fotch earlier that, you know, this is – and I agree with what was said about the complexity of this. And I think that leadership is needed, you know, to provide kind of the framework in moving forward, because, like, we heard the – Pedestrian and bicycle committee their their their charter is not tasked with reducing bikes, you know I mean that's something that you know, we might have to look at creative new solutions and Legislation that is beyond the purview of the committee of the bicycle and pedestrian committee |
| 02:37:59.70 | Jill Hoffman | on this specific issue, are you comfortable having staff Do the research that the city attorney has just articulated? Yes. Okay. So we're all set with that one? |
| 02:38:05.50 | Councilwoman Pfeiffer | Yes. Yes. Consensus? Okay, good. |
| 02:38:18.11 | Councilwoman Pfeiffer | Thank you. Yeah. you Okay. |
| 02:38:22.11 | Jill Hoffman | Anything else on that? Okay. |
| 02:38:26.51 | Councilwoman Pfeiffer | I will make one comment. |
| 02:38:28.06 | Jill Hoffman | Sure. |
| 02:38:28.35 | Councilwoman Pfeiffer | one more comment I got about a minute for 30 seconds I just want to clarify that when I was talking about the priority calendar and the topics we have for the priority calendar the item that I city manager referred to was the South Side City limits to the ferry landing. That referred to a bike plan for how to kind of navigate bike lanes, looking at, you know, the median, just looking at all sorts of things with respect to the bike flow. What I'm talking about are the things that we have taken a vote on and discussed just now. Bike staging, capping the limits, or, you know, what we can do to regulate the numbers of bikes. and make things safer for pedestrians. That was what I was talking about, and that is what we had been, Carolyn Ford and I, were advocating in terms of making that. BIKES ISSUE. an issue on the priority ranking calendar, and it consistently was not supported. |
| 02:39:38.87 | Jill Hoffman | Well, Carolyn Ford hasn't been on the council since... I've been on in the last two months. And since then, I mean. Moving on. Let's move on. And recently as last year. We'll have the opportunity in a month or two to look at our priority calendar again. |
| 02:39:43.34 | Councilwoman Pfeiffer | Well, and since then, I mean, since recently as last year. |
| 02:39:47.56 | Unknown | you |
| 02:39:52.03 | Unknown | Bye. |
| 02:39:52.05 | Jill Hoffman | Okay. |
| 02:39:52.10 | Unknown | okay yes I just I just hope that we're already this summer to do some volunteerism downtown to really see and get a feel of what's |
| 02:40:04.03 | Jill Hoffman | going on. Well, thanks everyone again, and I think we'll take a five minute break before we move on to our next item. Thank you. |
| 02:40:49.97 | Jill Hoffman | I'm going to get better this. I mean, in the sense that we come to Bishop, you know, we're all in this. We've got to find it. |
| 02:40:58.05 | Unknown | Thank you. |
| 02:40:58.32 | Jill Hoffman | Yeah. |
| 02:41:40.78 | Unknown | Thank you. you Yeah. |
| 02:42:08.98 | Unknown | Thank you. |
| 02:42:13.77 | Unknown | You need a close car. |
| 02:42:32.97 | Jonathon Goldman | you |
| 02:42:33.04 | Keith Kennedy | just like the people who are doing it. |
| 02:42:36.99 | Jonathon Goldman | No, I was watching from my office. Oh, thanks. I said hi. I said hi. OK. Hi, Leonard. He thought, why is this under office? |
| 02:42:42.13 | Unknown | Thank you. |
| 02:42:46.18 | Jonathon Goldman | Bye. I'm just Thank you. you Thank you. Oh. |
| 02:42:48.41 | Unknown | Yeah. |
| 02:42:49.19 | Jonathon Goldman | Thank you. |
| 02:42:49.22 | Unknown | Thank you. |
| 02:42:49.32 | Jonathon Goldman | Bye. |
| 02:42:49.44 | Unknown | Bye. |
| 02:42:49.48 | Jonathon Goldman | you Thank you. |
| 02:42:49.68 | Unknown | Thank you. |
| 02:42:49.71 | Jonathon Goldman | I'm trying to get drunk. |
| 02:43:08.58 | Unknown | Thank you. |
| 02:43:08.61 | Unknown | Very refreshing. |
| 02:43:09.98 | Unknown | you you Thank you. |
| 02:43:11.46 | Unknown | Yeah. |
| 02:43:11.73 | Unknown | Thank you. |
| 02:43:15.93 | Unknown | Oh. |
| 02:43:22.89 | Unknown | I'm not sure. |
| 02:43:33.03 | Unknown | I'm standing right. |
| 02:44:13.41 | Unknown | I'm working by Section 40. Well, That's your problem. Thank you. |
| 02:44:45.68 | Diane Andrews | I should have too. |
| 02:44:57.18 | Jennifer Tiana | I am. |
| 02:45:01.98 | Unknown | What? you Okay. Thank you. of the Red Sox and the Red Sox. and you need your heart after somebody else. Stop it. Yeah, he was embarrassed. |
| 02:45:19.41 | Jennifer Tiana | I was reading. |
| 02:45:21.22 | Unknown | and how it gets to do it. |
| 02:45:33.03 | Unknown | Thank you. |
| 02:45:33.04 | Jennifer Tiana | Oh, yeah. Thank you. Yes, we're going to all stand up there with a clicker. That's right. OK, you're the last one. |
| 02:45:37.50 | Unknown | Okay. you |
| 02:46:10.29 | Unknown | Thank you. |
| 02:46:12.97 | Unknown | I can't believe it. |
| 02:46:18.45 | Unknown | Yes, I like you. |
| 02:46:26.13 | Unknown | you I'm here. and I forget your sins. Here we go. Thank you. Thank you. you |
| 02:47:05.18 | Unknown | Yes. you you you Thank you. you |
| 02:47:07.38 | Unknown | Yeah. |
| 02:47:07.66 | Unknown | Thank you. Yeah, exactly. |
| 02:47:07.97 | Unknown | you Thanks. Yeah. |
| 02:47:08.81 | Unknown | Thank you. |
| 02:47:09.42 | Unknown | I'm sorry. you you |
| 02:48:13.29 | Unknown | Thank you. Bye. Bye. Debbie. Thank you. |
| 02:48:21.86 | Unknown | Thank you. Thank you. Oh my God. you |
| 02:48:25.96 | Unknown | you Amen. So fast. |
| 02:48:52.91 | Jill Hoffman | Well, we're back, and we're now on item... 6c security camera systems as a tool to reduce the impacts of crime again our chief of police Jennifer Tiana |
| 02:49:06.24 | Jennifer Tiana | Good evening. Thanks for the drum roll. So tonight I'm here in follow-up to some questions that were posed at the November 11th City Council meeting. At that meeting we heard a lot of residents speak to the value of having cameras, specifically license plate readers, in their neighborhood. And then at the same time, that conversation morphed into sort of a more global conversation about crime prevention and the post-workload and staffing study that is being done. At that time, we expected that the post-workload and staffing study would be completed by now, and due to some data retrieval issues that did not happen we are now expecting it to come this month so I told you I would come back I think I said February and and present to you some an overview of the license plate readers as a crime prevention tool, along with the other things that the post workload and staffing study would cover, which also would address crime prevention in the context of staffing, beat realignment, resource deployment, service delivery standards, all of those things. And so since I don't have that post-study, I'm here to deliver a portion of that in the context of crime prevention, and that's license plate readers. And so license plate reader systems essentially do three things. They are a great post-crime tool when we're looking for specific vehicle activity in an area where a crime has occurred. We can review the data to see who has been there, or we can review the data for a specific license plate. It's also good when we have alerts that need to be sent out. Maybe a child has been abducted or there's a felon fleeing in a vehicle. We can enter that vehicle license plate into the system and if it hits a system that that information is in, then we get an alert and we know where that is. and then we can also enter plate information on well sorry I just said that and it so it does those three things since an alert we can enter the information and it's a post-crime tool it's late I'm sorry So how does it work? This is a little overview of how it works. You have the camera and then you have software on board that allows it to capture the picture and then search databases that you decide upfront which ones are going to interface with your system. You can just have a local system, or you can be connected to a larger statewide system, or just your local county systems. So when you invest in a system like this, you decide things like how much information are we going to have in our system, and who are we going to share it with, and who will we seek reciprocal sharing with. the slide says it does not do speed enforcement it does not take pictures of the driver's face and plate information is not shared with the public The benefits, again, in some cities like Tiburon, they feel that having that, an LPR system, acts as a deterrent. The would-be criminals know that their license plate can be captured on the system, and should something happen that's a tool to identify who they are. It is a 24-7 operation, so we consider something like that a force multiplier for us. And you can have access to hundreds of thousands of plates depending again on how you configure your system and what agreements are in place to share that information. And in our case would address community concerns about that were the results of several residential burglaries that occurred in the Cloudview Spencer area last year Um... Tiburon reported a 30% reduction in serious crime over three years that they attribute to their license plate reader system. This is sort of a repeat of some of the other stuff. We have used this technology when we have a plate that we're looking for and we ask other agencies to run it in their system and see if we can identify where that plate has been. This is a picture here of a recent case that we had and it was on the news. This suspect stole a $15,000 bicycle out of a locked vehicle and used some device that we have yet to identify or radio frequency to unlock the locked car and take the property. Had we had a license plate reader on this street, we would certainly have captured the vehicle license plate as it left the scene. So what are the costs? We didn't do an RFP for this, of course, but we did a request for information. And we have six entry and exit points, and it would require 14 cameras to do all of them. And the equipment and installation costs I think on the far end of the spectrum would be about $260,000. And then you choose how much of, These exits and entrances, what do you want to do? Do you want to do them all? Do you want to do half? and then there's an annual maintenance cost. In keeping track of, you know, current events and concerns, I certainly pay attention to what's going on in other cities for things like this. And we do see concerns from citizens about privacy issues and does the need to capture and identify criminals and solve crime outweigh privacy interests of the public. And so if you were to move forward at some point and say, well, chief, let's get those systems, I think we would have to do some very full vetting with our community to make sure everybody understands what the system does and is comfortable that their privacy issues are addressed. We would have other agencies are seeing an increase in Public Records Act requests for information that's captured, and in some cases it has created an inordinate amount of administrative work for those agencies. So that's another consideration. And then maintaining the records, depending on how you set your system up, is something else to consider. So when we talk about crime prevention, that's one program, license plate readers. I like to always say, that crime prevention is not just your police department's... responsibility. Prevention is everybody's responsibility. And one of the programs we have in place is Citizen View, where we ask residents to register with us any cameras that they have on their private property. To date, we have 36 cameras. And, in fact, the slide with the picture of the suspect vehicle came from one of the cameras in our system on a privately owned camera. And it's great footage. we have had so much success with this program that I'm you know I just can't speak highly enough of it and there are other you know programs when we talk about neighborhood watch you know that's another community program that that that introduces a partnership between the police department and the community to address crime prevention issues you know we have our VIPs program we have you know a multifaceted crime prevention approach in the department and I would even extend that into you know Sausalito village we have our postal alert program Sausalito beautiful for example part of our job is to identify areas that are attractive nuisances where people can come and congregate and and have an opportunity to commit crime in one of the areas that we identified Some time ago was the bus stop at 7-Eleven, and the junipers there create great coverage for people to come in and brown bag it, AND I THINK WE'RE GOING TO So I asked Jonathan if we could work together on that, and I know Shelby Van Meter's group is also doing that. So that's another example of how crime prevention the residents and government can work together to enhance our community. And one of the values of Sausalito beautiful is, When you show that you care about your community and you're beautifying it and you're making sure that, you know, your hedges are trimmed and your bus stops are clean and, areas are cared for. you really do send a message to people that this is a place we care about and we don't want you to come here and victimize us. And the more of that that we can do, bigger the message and the more frequent the message is we care about this place and we're working together to ensure that we have an environment that says you're not welcome to commit a crime here so we have lots of crime prevention you know programs within the department and certainly the license plate readers would be another component of that should you choose to move forward in that direction. This is the footage from one of the cameras from the Citizen View Program. And so this is the final slide. program was part of our discussion on the 11th we don't have the post workload and staffing study to provide you the information on that but we will have bring it to you as soon as post has it completed |
| 03:00:07.25 | Jill Hoffman | Thank you. Council questions? Would you like to start? |
| 03:00:10.14 | Councilwoman Pfeiffer | Thank you. Thank you very much, Chief Tejada, for that presentation. I'm so looking forward to the post-report in April, and I know you are too. So the numbers you quoted earlier, I think it was the second slide or so, and I think you said those would be for 14 cameras. Is that right? So you probably kind of eyeballed the town and kind of assessed how many... |
| 03:00:31.11 | Unknown | Is that right? |
| 03:00:36.70 | Councilwoman Pfeiffer | cameras it might take to blanket the town, is that it? |
| 03:00:39.59 | Jennifer Tiana | yeah I think it's in the staff report there were six streets identified and 14 cameras was suggested as coverage for those areas |
| 03:00:41.69 | Councilwoman Pfeiffer | streets identified. |
| 03:00:50.17 | Councilwoman Pfeiffer | So how, If we, Is it possible to implement this in a staged approach where we could start with a new approach for example, Spencer, and then, so, And... How much would it cost to do that if we were just going to look at Spencer? |
| 03:01:14.57 | Jennifer Tiana | Depends on the location. It depends on what's available on Spencer to mount a camera. Is there power to that location? So there are different considerations. What is the communication factor in terms of cellular communication? So you would have to, in order to get that information, do an RFP and have somebody come out and do it, but you can certainly divide this up into |
| 03:01:30.41 | Unknown | Thank you. You would have to. |
| 03:01:42.70 | Jennifer Tiana | you know, we'll do Spencer now and then Bridgeway and then other areas that have a plan to do |
| 03:01:49.13 | Councilwoman Pfeiffer | So the first step would be to issue an RFP for vendors to assess the Spencer situation and come forward with a proposal and a cost. |
| 03:01:59.67 | Unknown | Mm-hmm. |
| 03:02:01.73 | Councilwoman Pfeiffer | Okay? Yeah. |
| 03:02:05.50 | Adam Politzer | Thank you. Thank you. clarify I think what the chief is saying was we probably do an RFP for the entire town and then ask them to call out |
| 03:02:12.48 | Unknown | Yeah. |
| 03:02:13.56 | Adam Politzer | dispenser so that we can phase it in as |
| 03:02:15.96 | Unknown | Yeah. |
| 03:02:15.99 | Adam Politzer | Thank you. Councilman Pfeiffer, I think, is suggesting |
| 03:02:18.02 | Jill Hoffman | Thank you. |
| 03:02:19.28 | Adam Politzer | Thank you. |
| 03:02:19.30 | Jill Hoffman | Mm-hmm. |
| 03:02:20.06 | Adam Politzer | Thank you. |
| 03:02:20.08 | Jill Hoffman | And just as a follow up with that, we can stage it, but would you recommend staging it? Because my understanding is, you put it on one or two streets when we have six ways of getting in and out and we can have criminals understand that and then they take the alternate ways so have you thought I mean would you recommend that we do it all all six or would you recommend that we might stage it |
| 03:02:42.05 | Jennifer Tiana | If I had a choice, it would be all at once. |
| 03:02:47.26 | Councilman Fyffrey | That was sort of my question so that um thanks for asking Tiburon is suggesting that they think their crime is reduced by 30 percent because of this. Have you actually seen any data that support that? |
| 03:03:05.62 | Jennifer Tiana | They did provide some figures, which I think is in your staff report. You know, crime is down everywhere this year. So, you know, you just, it depends on how you look at the stat. You can look at it in different ways. But the general thought is that when criminals know the streets have that technology, they will choose to go to someplace else. A lot of criminals that we see are driving stolen vehicles, so they don't care about the plate. But I just want to say that anything we do |
| 03:03:08.41 | Councilman Fyffrey | for it. Right. |
| 03:03:42.88 | Jennifer Tiana | makes a difference and has the potential to make a difference. in whether or not we appear to be invading criminal activity. |
| 03:03:54.86 | Councilman Fyffrey | So Tiberium has an easier job because of it. They do. One way in and one way out. Right. |
| 03:03:55.34 | Jennifer Tiana | Fuck. They do. |
| 03:03:59.12 | Unknown | Thank you. |
| 03:03:59.17 | Jennifer Tiana | Yeah, I'm going to be out. |
| 03:04:00.85 | Unknown | Thank you. |
| 03:04:02.14 | Councilman Fyffrey | Bye. |
| 03:04:04.11 | Unknown | These cameras, they are capable of taking pictures at night time. Thank you. |
| 03:04:10.90 | Unknown | Yeah. |
| 03:04:11.17 | Unknown | Thank you. Okay, so we're saying that Bridgeway... which is about Thank you. 10,000 cars a day. 10,000 pictures. |
| 03:04:23.67 | Unknown | Mm-hmm. |
| 03:04:26.79 | Unknown | You'll need another room at the police station to put all that stuff. |
| 03:04:30.62 | Jennifer Tiana | Yep. |
| 03:04:33.62 | Jill Hoffman | well the the the play the cameras is that they scan when you have a report of a crime and it's easier for you to go back and see who the suspects are and leads to an actual arrest right more quickly yeah you know I think it's I think it's a great system I look forward to your recommendation of the post post report in conjunction with that thanks |
| 03:04:45.64 | Jennifer Tiana | Right. Yeah. Yeah. |
| 03:04:59.43 | Jill Hoffman | I have a question on the You had the picture in... They were caught on citizen view, and they stole the bike on Central Avenue. mentioned if you had a reader, but we wouldn't have a reader on Central. on I take it on. |
| 03:05:12.52 | Jennifer Tiana | well whoever it is if they don't live here they're gonna go out one of one of us |
| 03:05:15.97 | Jill Hoffman | One of them. But that was my question. So that would help you, and you would be able in time look at – unless they were here for you. |
| 03:05:16.99 | Jennifer Tiana | That was my question. So that would help. We would look at the timeframe of this incident and look at what passed by those cameras during that timeframe to see if we can identify who it is. |
| 03:05:26.44 | Jill Hoffman | Yeah. It would be helpful. Thank you. |
| 03:05:33.35 | Councilwoman Pfeiffer | So what would you need from the council to take the next step for the cameras, the security |
| 03:05:41.38 | Jennifer Tiana | some direction. |
| 03:05:43.17 | Councilwoman Pfeiffer | So, like a motion to seek RFPs for what you have here in the staff report? |
| 03:05:52.77 | Jennifer Tiana | That's an option. |
| 03:05:54.35 | Councilwoman Pfeiffer | Okay. |
| 03:05:58.78 | Councilwoman Pfeiffer | so perhaps I'd listen to see I mean that |
| 03:06:00.26 | Unknown | and just take the city. |
| 03:06:02.03 | Unknown | Thank you. |
| 03:06:03.37 | Councilwoman Pfeiffer | But yeah, I was going to say listen to public comment and then we can form a motion based on what we hear. Yeah. |
| 03:06:10.24 | Unknown | Thank you. |
| 03:06:11.55 | Adam Politzer | just a different response from the chiefs because we had a little bit of a conversation this afternoon you know we're now at the beginning of the mid-year budget discussion for the next budget cycle and so the police department will have the opportunity during the finance committee meetings to make their recommendations and so the direction from the council tonight maybe to send them out to get the information, to do the RFP, bring back the recommendation to the council, and then direct it back through the budget process for adoption. |
| 03:06:48.34 | Jill Hoffman | another well one more I do have one more question and now we asked you to come back on this camera specifically on this particular issue and you gave us the numbers which are significant but maybe something we want to do but |
| 03:06:59.02 | Unknown | Mm-hmm. |
| 03:07:01.03 | Jill Hoffman | Have you made a determination, I know it's before you have the post report, whether this would be, in your opinion, the best use of those funds to prevent crime or? Or not. |
| 03:07:12.81 | Jennifer Tiana | No, I'm not in a position to evaluate that because I don't know what's in the post-study. And, you know, as I've been saying for the last four years, we need a lot of resources, and this needs to be evaluated along with all of the other resources that we've been asking for. So it's ultimately up to you to prioritize those requests. |
| 03:07:42.37 | Unknown | Yeah. So what do we have? We have four outlets that people can get out of? Six. Rodeo, Spencer, and two ends of Bridgeway? |
| 03:07:47.82 | Jennifer Tiana | Sixth. |
| 03:07:51.65 | Jennifer Tiana | no you have sex you have Bridgeway you have Alexander Spencer Montemar rodeo and Nevada |
| 03:07:55.16 | Unknown | You have Alexander. |
| 03:07:59.35 | Jennifer Tiana | According to the |
| 03:07:59.97 | Councilwoman Pfeiffer | The NAF report, yes. From Nevada. Nevada. |
| 03:08:01.34 | Unknown | Nevada Nevada Nevada will take up to Rodeo |
| 03:08:05.51 | Jennifer Tiana | Right, so you'd have one up there, one... |
| 03:08:07.45 | Unknown | So the only other one I forgot was Monty Mott. |
| 03:08:10.23 | Jennifer Tiana | Yeah. |
| 03:08:11.06 | Unknown | five. |
| 03:08:15.85 | Jill Hoffman | We'll now open it up to public comment. Would anyone like to comment on this issue? |
| 03:08:26.77 | Keith Kennedy | My name's Keith Kennedy. I'm on prospect. I've been here before. As you can imagine, I'm probably very much in support of this. |
| 03:08:27.28 | Unknown | Thank you. |
| 03:08:27.34 | Jill Hoffman | Canada. |
| 03:08:35.85 | Keith Kennedy | I do agree with the comment that you need the full report from the chief about what she feels is the most effective. The one point the chief made I'd like to emphasize is that this system would let you have access to stolen cars and you could actually have an automatic alert without someone sitting there staring at the screen So you would know when you had a stolen vehicle or something involved with an Amber Alert coming into the town. |
| 03:09:08.74 | Unknown | Very. |
| 03:09:08.87 | Keith Kennedy | very positive feature. I'd like to take a little bit of my time to also compliment the chief and the police department Thank you. While the two young ladies here sitting in the front were in the Caribbean, there was a car I couldn't identify in their car, in their driveway. I parked behind it, called 911, The police responded, very quickly And we discovered that it was the cat sitter. But the officer was very professional, and I hadn't told the chief yet this, because I was waiting for this opportunity to comment publicly in front of the council. So thank you for supporting her. |
| 03:10:05.98 | Unknown | Thank you. |
| 03:10:06.74 | Bunny Zeruba | My name is Bunny Zeruba. I live up on Booker. And I I would urge you to consider this, these license plate reading cameras, because I think it would be an incredible deterrent to crime. It has proven as such for Tiburon And I think there should be a publicity campaign if you do decide to do this and I think the word will get out that we're not going to tolerate criminals um, Also, I'd like to remind the council that last year, in the summertime, a license plate was taken down by a neighbor on Cloudview who noticed two people that were strangers coming out of a house with a computer. that information was relayed to the police department and on those They burglarized the home and they were apprehended and they are, I think, in prison now, in jail. So these license plate reading cameras have great value. I'd also like to say that I know that the police department is at they have low resources they need more And I don't know why the cameras are like in their lap. This should be a city-wide thing. the council. provides. you know, for our safety. Thank you. |
| 03:11:48.86 | Jill Hoffman | Anyone else from the public like to comment? Okay, we'll close public comment and bring it back up here for comments. |
| 03:11:58.64 | Councilwoman Pfeiffer | Well, I know that we had a big outcry from residents last year seeking cameras specifically at Spencer because of the burlery spree I guess they had over some years. And so I do see value, of course, in getting the post report so that we have context, you know, in terms of how that fits in the overall equation. I'm not sure, though, if we can't move forward on the RFPs for the cameras, because I personally can't imagine a scenario where that wouldn't be you know part of the solution if we were able to get RFPs on the security cameras then that could be viewed and weighed against the recommendations of the post report with regards to resource requirements and beat patrols, et cetera. So that would be my recommendation. |
| 03:13:02.49 | Councilman Fyffrey | well I think the city manager mentioned that that would be the next step I think from the staff's perspective which would get more information which is go out get get some actual quotes on this I also believe that this needs to be looked at in the context of the overall resourcing in the police department and I was a big supporter of getting this study done and so it'll be good to see the results once we got all that information will be in the budget process and then it's a question of prioritizing to prioritize this or do we prioritize something else and that's some I... Overall though, I'll let you know that I'm really supportive of surveillance systems in general. I think I've lived in cities in Europe where the introduction of surveillance systems actually had a dramatic, dramatic effect on crime. Where previously you couldn't walk in the street from here of being mugged that changed now this what we're talking about but in general I think surveillance is a good thing not a and so would be quite supportive of trying to figure out a way if it makes sense to integrate it into the overall resource allocation for the police department |
| 03:14:21.11 | Jill Hoffman | Um, And building on those two comments, I think, Chief, it would be helpful, too, if you have a sense of – ASSOCIATE THEIR OWNERS, AND THE from certain entry points like do you think more people are coming in through Spencer or through you know Monty Mar or those you know then that would be helpful to impart in conjunction with this larger conversation about are we gonna have cameras are we gonna have cameras at every entrance or just some entrance is a cost-saving method so that would be part of the later conversation I Thank you. |
| 03:14:57.16 | Jill Hoffman | I agree with all the comments I certainly would love to have this system and it's it's a significant amount of money But we have to look at it, but I also agree that we have to get the post report We have to look at it in detail during the budget process And we have to set our priorities and then when we have the priorities will bring it before the council and we'll make a decision so So I think it's it's great that we've talked about in the budget processes will be in the next several months So I think it. |
| 03:15:23.21 | Councilwoman Pfeiffer | so do you need to make a motion a motion to Okay. All right. Yeah. We're already in. |
| 03:15:33.24 | Unknown | So consider that I think we... |
| 03:15:35.23 | Unknown | Thank you. |
| 03:15:35.38 | Councilwoman Pfeiffer | Yeah. |
| 03:15:35.43 | Unknown | Can you clarify the consensus? |
| 03:15:35.51 | Councilwoman Pfeiffer | So I'm terrified. |
| 03:15:36.04 | Unknown | The consensus? |
| 03:15:38.69 | Unknown | you know I I I definitely think that surveillance cameras are very effective I would like to see it come in phases. It'll probably, if we put it up on Spencer and we put it up on Montymont, that'll probably drive him down a bridgeway to get out. But I think our most vulnerable places are the easy access to 101. And I would like to see us go into stages and one would be Spencer and Monty Mount and possibly Rodeo. |
| 03:16:17.78 | Councilwoman Pfeiffer | So just to clarify then, the consensus is that Chief Tejada can seek RFPs? on the camera system with the 14 cameras at the points that are listed in the staff report. Uh-huh. Everyone's on board. |
| 03:16:39.20 | Jill Hoffman | as well as looking at the surveillance cameras along with the post report in the during the budget process for the police department Thank you. |
| 03:16:49.31 | Councilwoman Pfeiffer | Okay. Is that clear? But in other words, the RFPs can be collected now. She can move forward on the RFPs now. and then when the post report receipt is received then she'll have that data point. |
| 03:17:04.07 | Jill Hoffman | Sorry, can I ask you one more thing? |
| 03:17:05.29 | Councilwoman Pfeiffer | you |
| 03:17:06.37 | Jill Hoffman | I know there are other cameras around town I think there's one at the intersection of Easterby and Bridgeway is there no there's not a camera on that |
| 03:17:06.44 | Councilwoman Pfeiffer | I know there are other can't. |
| 03:17:17.45 | Jill Hoffman | That's... |
| 03:17:18.64 | Councilwoman Pfeiffer | . |
| 03:17:18.67 | Jill Hoffman | I'm not. |
| 03:17:20.34 | Councilwoman Pfeiffer | I actually think it's a good question, though. Could we have a statement on what those cameras are from city staff, perhaps? Because I think they're for bicycles and traffic |
| 03:17:32.00 | Jennifer Tiana | Jonathan is gone. It's a traffic monitoring device. It just, I think, counts traffic. It doesn't take pictures. It looks like a camera, but it just, it's for traffic engineering purposes. Yeah. There's an article in The Currents about it, |
| 03:17:43.93 | Adam Politzer | Yeah, it is. A year ago, there was an article on Current, so we'll resend it out because there have been questions about it. |
| 03:17:48.32 | Jennifer Tiana | Yeah. |
| 03:17:48.67 | Councilwoman Pfeiffer | All right. Yeah. Yeah. people I can see that and they get concerned. |
| 03:17:57.04 | Jill Hoffman | Okay, so we're all in consensus on that, so thank you very much. Thank you. we're moving on to items Sixty. Are we? Oh, wait, that, yeah. 15 minutes. Consider adoption of resolutions authorizing the establishment of both a pension benefits trust fund and a post-employment benefits trust fund and our finance director, Charlie Francis. |
| 03:18:31.79 | Jill Hoffman | Evening mr. Mayor members of the City Council Can we just pause it for a minute? you |
| 03:18:36.85 | Unknown | There he is. |
| 03:18:37.26 | Jill Hoffman | Oh, oh, she's okay. |
| 03:18:43.70 | Jill Hoffman | Sorry, Charlie, go ahead. |
| 03:18:45.42 | Councilwoman Pfeiffer | materials. |
| 03:18:49.14 | Jonathon Goldman | and this is a picture of the cover of our budget and within the budget on page 42 there was a summary statement right here that said that how serious the city considers its pension obligations and that we're continually looking at all options to reduce our pension obligations in our annual pension costs and when feasible and legally permissible we bring those to the City Council for implementation so in other words there's a three our approach first we realize what we're looking at when we're pensions we recognize the opportunities that are in front of us and then we respond with recommendations to the City Council and that's sort of like the genesis of this item the the item before you is to authorize the city manager to establish the trust and as we walk through the agenda we'll be going through a couple definitions then what are the who what wise where's wins and how much of a trust fund and then conclude with next steps but I just want to emphasize that tonight's council action is only authorizing the city manager to establish the trust there we are oops here I'm recommending to trust to be found and then in April and May and in June as we go through the budget deliberations will be bringing back to the City Council investment policies procedures how much to initially deposit into the trust fund and then how much to annually deposit into the trust fund so tonight is only just establish the trust I'm not gonna read these definitions rather than go through definitions, I'm gonna use pictures. And the first picture and the realize and what we have is that the present value of benefits is the actuarial way of saying how much are the total dollars that need to be available in order to provide pension benefits in the future. And that category of present value of benefits can be subdivided into two subcategories. The first category is how many of those benefits have been earned to date through the past to the present time. And that is called the actuarial accrued liability. And then how much of the present value of benefits are yet to be earned in the future. So future normal cost contributions. And the next year's contribution is called the current normal cost contribution. So that's the benefit side. That's how much dollars need to be put away in order to provide funding in the future for those either retiree pension or retiree healthcare benefits. Now offsetting it is money that's actually been deposited in banks. In this case, the market value of assets. And when the market value of assets exactly equals the actuarial accrued liability then you have a totally funded pension or retiree health care plan and this actually was the scenario in the mid-2000s the city was a hundred percent funded and the next scenario could be where the assets exceed the actuarial accrued liabilities. This happened in the early 2000s where we were super funded. In other words, we had more assets in bank than we had actuarial accrued liabilities. And then 2008 came along and we ended up with the market value of assets being less than the actuarial accrued liability and we had what's called a unfunded actuarial accrued liability. Now, that kind of describes pensions, health care benefits, and all the definitions. Let's kind of now look at, the there's really two components there. There's the left-hand side, which is things that you can do that affect the present value of benefits and then therefore affect either the future contributions or the actuarial contributions. And then there's activities that the city can undertake that affect the market value of assets and the unfunded crude liability. So the first thing we wanna recognize is there are two components. And then the second thing we want to recognize is that this is a picture of what occurs at a given point in time. This could be at June 30, 2013. And on June 30, On July 1st of 2013, maybe there were specific actions the city council took that reduced the present value of benefits and then started adding up the crude liability and as we went through demographics change and the present value of benefits have decreased and caught up with the market value assets and you became 100% funded just by reducing the left hand side of the equation. Of course the opposite could occur on the right hand side of the equation. Things can happen to the market value of assets over time as it's moving through time. The market value of assets could increase. Stock market could have just two wonderful years like they just had. 18% last year, 14% the year before. Or it could decline. Or it could stay the same. uh... With that... All of those activities, whether it's the left hand and the right hand as it moves through time, not only do they affect the equation of actuarial crude liabilities versus the market value of assets, but it impacts the annual costs. So that's the third area where a city can take action to improve its financial position in regards to these kinds of obligations, liabilities, and costs. So, um... So then let's go into the response. So we can look at things that can respond to the left side, things that can respond to the right side, and what we can do to respond to the changes in employer costs. And here's a summary of actions that we've taken in the past on both sides of the equation. For example, we closed our legacy defined benefit plan Right there. That affected the left hand side. It brought the left hand side down. In fact, we did it on both sides of the equation, on the pension side and on the pension side. Something that we did to affect the right hand side, the market failure of assets. We set aside lump sum monies in the separate fund to offset the liabilities. We started, charging a percentage of payroll cost to put them in a separate fund to increase the Assets that we have available we set aside lump sum monies in a separate fund offset land funded liabilities on the pension and we paid down pension fund Unliabilities we paid off the side fund for the miscellaneous Employees and we paid off the side fund for the fire employees. We still have outstanding the side fund for the police employees. Vice Mayor Hoffman and I had a little conversation this afternoon about how much money that was and I have a little slide at the end to answer questions that we have about that. So these are all activities that we've taken in the past, and now tonight we want to give ourselves the ability to have more tools in our toolkit. By establishing a pension trust fund and establishing an OPEB trust fund, we can do two things. We can pre-fund liabilities, and we can help mitigate volatility. And I want to give you an example of that volatility mitigation. So over here I put a little diagram, this is the summary of what we've been talking about. And specifically I want to talk about the actuarial accrued liability. We have a plan to pay off that liability in 30 years. It's a CalPERS plan. And it's not unlike a mortgage where over 30 years you're gonna pay off the unfunded liability. But it's not like a mortgage in that a fixed mortgage would have a fixed rate going across, where here you're paying across, let's just say we have $100,000 house and our monthly payment is $1,000 a month. So over time you pay $1,000 a month, you start off with your $100,000, whoops, Bye. Start off with your $100,000 house here, and every month you pay a thousand, eventually your house is gonna be worth, your house will be paid off with zero. So that's a typical 30 year straight line amortization program, that's not what we have. What we have is, Kelper said, well we want to this unfunded liability is going to be a big impact on cities when we do this so we're going to have five years to to come up to a level series of payments, and then five years to come up. It's called ramp up and ramp down. And because the first five years are less than the normal payment, the twenty years ago that the higher than a normal payment so you with a little less coming up here paying a little bit more and then paying a little bit less over the 30 year program. And because of that, the unfunded liabilities are built in to increase during the first five years because you're not making the full payment towards the unfunded liability. But then the payoff is escalated as it comes down because you're paying more than the 20 years that you come down here. So what you have, It's kind of like... To put it in mortgage terminology, you have an arm, adjustable rate mortgage till you get to here, and then you have a fixed rate mortgage. but it gets a little more complicated than that. Because the stock market of CalPERS assumes that they're going to earn a 7.5% interest rate of return. And if they don't earn that, if they earn more or less, It's gonna affect this table. So if they earn, if the market underperforms the seven and a half percent, It's going to go up. If the market overperforms, It's gonna go down. Come on. There we go. It's going to go down and you see what that going up and down year by year that's called volatility and So in fact what you actually have is an arm and a variable rate mortgage as you go through time And there's a lot of volatility and a lot of Uncertainty of what our annual payment would be and so to mitigate that volatility one of the opportunities by forming this trust a lot what it allows us to do is to and fund our pension obligation into the pension trust fund at the higher rate, the rate of assuming CalPERS only earns 2.8% a year instead of the 7.5% per year. And then the difference between what was we actually paid into PARS and that what we have to actually pay into CalPERS would be money that we could then save in the bank or use to offset the fluctuation of the volatility Does that make sense so far? I'm seeing three yeses. Yes, all right five guesses so we're we're funding it at the two point eight percentile So in the first year it would you know the net increase to the city would be 20,000 because we're ramping up the second year would be 160,000 in the third year we're up there on 250,000 we're building that up into the parse fund and the second advantage of it is is that if also gets deposited against our market value of assets. It doesn't get deposited into KELPERS, it gets deposited into PARS. And so the second part of volatility risk that it offsets is our investment portfolio in PARS will more than likely be more conservative than kelpers. So if kelpers experiences high gains, we would be experiencing less high gains. But if they experience losses, our losses would be less, or they probably would still be gains. And so what we're doing is mitigating that volatility of the market risk and thereby always ensuring that we have more money to offset our liabilities than we'd had if we didn't do this and Finally we want to the advantage of putting it into a a trust Well, I'll come to this but it's it's local control. It's our investment portfolio It's the city of Sausalito money that can then be accessed at any time So let's get to the who, what, where, why's, and how's. The first of who, the trust governance and administration is 100% locally controlled. The city council is responsible for the governance of the trust funds and the establishment of the policies and the administration of the funds. And the way we're walking through establishing these trusts is that the staff will be coming through the finance committee to the city council for direction and input and just and adoption of the investment policy the policies and procedures of the operation of the fund and the funding of policies to second city manager and staff a responsibility for managing and implementing the Policies that the City Council adopts pars the public agency retirement services. They're an experienced plan administrator They make sure that the plan is operating according to the trust keeps consistent with all the IRS laws US Bank is the trustee and the custodian Safeguarding the assets and making sure that the trust is and the custodian safeguarding the assets and making sure that the trust is being used exactly for its purposes and then an investment advisor who's to be determined through the Finance Committee and eventually the City Council recommends the investment portfolio allocations based on our adopted investment policy which incorporates our adopted level of risk tolerance that we're willing to accept Um, Now what are they? What are our pension OPEB trust funds? Well, first of all, In order to be considered an asset and then offset the liability It has to be an irrevocable trust in other words there be an IRS letter ruling stating that this trust meets all the requirements of a section 115 trust and that the Retiree pension and health care benefits are the only use of the pro of those funds and finally it can't be accessible by creditors, so I'm. But, That doesn't mean that there isn't flexibility. The assets can be accessed at any time any pension OPEB expenses with these options we can pay the pension OPEB cost directly out of the trust and The city can be reimbursed for direct pension OPEB costs that we're paying including actuarial valuations out of the trust so the trust can make the payments to CalPERS or to OPEB and or to our retirees for health care or the city can make it and get reimbursed from the trust at any point in time in the future and They'll be located with US Bank, and you can see all the qualifications of US Bank. I don't need to read them all here. Very, very competent financial institution. So when, when will we do this? Well, first of all, all we're doing tonight is authorize the city manager to establish the trust fund. But prior to June 30, 2015, in order to have assets offset the liability on this next comprehensive annual financial report we would want to make a deposit of some amount of money and then annually we would want to make a deposit of some amount of money those amounts of money are to be determined in the future I have a few recommendations or examples not recommendations of how we would do that in a second And then why we would do it? Well, GASB 45 exposure drafts coming up for OPEB. changes the way that we report pension and OPEB liabilities on the balance sheet and contributions into the trust are asset that offset these liabilities. So they actually were paying more into there than we've been paying in the past. They mitigate risk for volatility and inflation as we highlighted earlier. The greater rate of return, and a trust than what the city can earn stabilizes our balance sheet liabilities. In fact, for our OPEB, it would freeze our balance sheet liability that we have there right now. GFOA recommends it as a best practice, and of course, credit agencies look more favorably when they see that cities are aggressively addressing their pension and OPEB problems. Here's an example, this is a draft of our soon to be revised OPEB actuarial valuation. And you can see our currently, we're on the pay as you go basis. And if we set up the trust fund, our present value of projected benefits reduced $3 million. Our actuarial accrued liability will reduce $1.6 million. And our arc goes down to about $120,000 there. So this is an example of the benefit on the OPEB side. |
| 03:36:52.36 | Jonathon Goldman | so how much to be deposited well it's again it's to be determined but we have built up significant reserves and the our internal services funds as the City Council knows every year for the past three years and including next year we've taken two hundred thousand dollars out of the general fund and deposited it into the internal service fund specifically to offset the fire liability a fire pension liability that could be placed into the pension fund, either directly against fire or spread against everyone in order to get that immediate offset on our balance sheet and set up the fund. We also have been setting aside monies for our OPEB liability and our internal trust fund. We have about another $200,000 that's been accumulated there. And we have prior years, ends of year surpluses that could be moved over there during the budget preparation process I have prepared and will be recommending a reserve policy that that comprehensively looks at the reserves and each one of our funds and recommends a level that's adequate for the city's security and then says at these excess levels, do you want to use them for operations, do you want to use them for capital, do you want to use them for funding, do you want to use them for cameras? You know, it'll just go into the prioritization process. annually then we'll be we'll be making recommendations my initial thought is to recommend for pension to not do the shorter amortization period but to do the fund the CalPERS at the 2.8 percent or the 25th percentile investment return assume CalPERS is going to miss the mark is and fund at that level and I'm sure when dr. dr. John Bartell comes next at your next council meeting to go over the pension actuarial evaluation, he'll be confirming that recommendation as a best business practice. And then for OPEB, we'll probably be recommending that we fund the full ARC every year so that not only the retiree, and actually probably a little bit more than the full are can do the full OPEB pension costs it's a technicality but we would then be able to freeze our liability on our balance sheet But you don't have to determine that tonight. Those are just my preliminary recommendations. So the next steps after tonight are to determine our risk tolerance, develop the investment policies, design the structure of the trustees' duties, and then appropriate the amounts to initially contribute because they're not appropriated in the budget right now, and finally promulgate financial policies and procedures for annual contributions to the pension and OPEB trusts in the future. I talk fast, it's late, but I hope that the diagrams helped me not read the definitions to you. So I'm ready to answer any questions you might have. |
| 03:39:49.78 | Councilwoman Pfeiffer | Thanks, Charlie. Well, thanks for the presentation. As you know, I disagree with the mortgage comparison, but my question has to do with The So the police side fund is 2.8 million right now Oh. |
| 03:40:07.69 | Jonathon Goldman | at June 30 it'll be 2.5 I have a graph right here |
| 03:40:10.24 | Councilwoman Pfeiffer | Oh, okay. 2.5. Okay. so yeah so this sounds good because we could conceivably then use the the pension |
| 03:40:13.04 | Jonathon Goldman | Thank you. |
| 03:40:20.97 | Councilwoman Pfeiffer | trust fund to accumulate funds for the to pay off the police side fund it could yes yeah and the the other question I have has to do with |
| 03:40:28.06 | Jonathon Goldman | It could, yes. |
| 03:40:37.08 | Councilwoman Pfeiffer | Uh, oh. In the event of bankruptcy, not that that's going to happen, but in the event of bankruptcy, What happens to those funds? Are those funds, because I saw the bullet, you know, exempt from creditors, does that mean that in the event of bankruptcy those funds are untouchable? |
| 03:40:59.66 | Jonathon Goldman | The funds and... Well... I'm not a bankruptcy attorney. but what I do know is once you put them into an irrevocable trust they can only be used for the purpose of the trust and the purpose of the trust would be to pay the city's pension and OPEB obligations so this you know the city then would use the trust fund to make those payments rather than city appropriations and creditors would not be able to touch it. |
| 03:41:29.30 | Councilwoman Pfeiffer | So it sounds like in the event – and I ask the bankruptcy question because, as you know, pensions are causing major problems around the state. |
| 03:41:34.85 | Jonathon Goldman | your problem. |
| 03:41:35.44 | Unknown | Thank you. |
| 03:41:36.69 | Councilwoman Pfeiffer | with the country. SO, It sounds like my interpretation is that in the event of bankruptcy, those funds would not be touched. They would be preserved for pension and OPEB. |
| 03:41:47.12 | Jonathon Goldman | That's great. |
| 03:41:51.44 | Jonathon Goldman | Thank you. |
| 03:41:51.47 | Jill Hoffman | Yes. |
| 03:41:52.35 | Councilwoman Pfeiffer | Okay, thank you. |
| 03:41:55.84 | Jill Hoffman | we would have two funds. And so I take it on the pension trust fund, We could do It's irrevocable, but it has to be used for Sausalito's pension liabilities. We can't use it for OPAD. or vice versa, I take that as a second. That's correct. But you can use it for a variety of pension liabilities. And yes. |
| 03:42:10.50 | Jonathon Goldman | That's correct. |
| 03:42:16.63 | Jill Hoffman | And then the other question is, We could pay into CalPERS. We could pay, overpay into CalPERS or into this irrevocable trust one. Of course, it gives us more flexibility as we But in terms of the return on investments, We're assuming that an independent investment advisor that we choose would do better than CalPERS. And can you speak to that? Because I mean, it may or may not, I take it. |
| 03:42:42.45 | Jonathon Goldman | Thank you. Yeah. |
| 03:42:44.41 | Jill Hoffman | I'd be happy. |
| 03:42:44.96 | Jonathon Goldman | to a first You can't pay into CalPERS for OPEP. CalPERS offers a OPEB trust program called SERPT, but it has nowhere near the flexibility as PARS. So I don't recommend that we pursue that avenue. I recommend that we pursue the PARS approach. But then the second part of your question was the investment portfolio. I think that we would want to have two risk tolerances, one for each trust fund. The pension trust fund, I don't think we would want to outperform kilpers. In fact, I think we want to be pretty conservative. underperform killers and that takes the there's volatility market risk out of the equation for the use of our funds you know if we wanted that way we preserve local control so if we gave it to CalPERS we lose all local control and we also lose the ability to use the money and the trust to pay a future obligation if we wanted to it just only goes in and disappears where in this case it remains the same so you get two Those are two really huge advantages. One, local construction. If we wanted to it just only goes in and disappears where in this case it remains the same So you get two those are two really huge advantages one local control over the investment portfolio Which we probably want to be more conservative Isn't it? second The OPEB trust. We don't want to compare to kelpers at all. But we do want to have an investment portfolio that allows us to, or risk tolerance, that allows us to come closer to the discount rate that's assumed by the actuary. So we would want to have a different risk tolerance and a different asset allocation in the OPEB trust than that. And I'll be bringing all of these to the City Council. Those also are good questions to ask our actuary, John Bartell, at your next council meeting because he's an advisor for both pension and for OPEB and he'll probably talk specifically about what he thinks risk tolerance should be for each one of those polls. |
| 03:45:03.90 | Jill Hoffman | height Charlie thanks for the thanks for the slide it's so much easier when you have it especially with the police side fun |
| 03:45:07.81 | Unknown | I was. |
| 03:45:09.97 | Jill Hoffman | So with regard to the outstanding amount of police siphon, and I I THINK I HAVE THIS RIGHT, BUT THAT'S THE ONLY SIDE FUND WE CAN PAY OFF EARLY IF WE WANT TO. |
| 03:45:21.38 | Jonathon Goldman | All right. This is the only one left that we can pay off early. Now, of course, we can – so how they structured, there's like four components to the – |
| 03:45:26.49 | Jill Hoffman | Thank you. |
| 03:45:26.51 | Unknown | That's right. That's right. |
| 03:45:27.40 | Jill Hoffman | Bye. |
| 03:45:33.36 | Jonathon Goldman | Let's go back to... this picture This picture over here on the right. four components to that unfunded liability one of them is the side fund and the only side fund that we have left is the police and so that's that's the one that I would recommend that we pay off it only has nine years we're paying seven and a half percent interest it is really like a mortgage because it's it's a it's fixed doesn't have any of the variable that the the others do now of Of other remaining three which are a combination of losses from and gains from the two prior years those are on a 30-year amortization schedule and they have that built-in flexibility and you can pay those off early but then you just lose the control that I was just talking about. So it's better to put it into a pension trust fund that accomplishes the same purpose, but it reserves it just for those pension trust funds with lower volatility. |
| 03:46:36.84 | Jill Hoffman | Volatility. With regard to prioritizing budget items, so if we could, can you go back to the police siphon? Yeah. I mean, how do you recommend |
| 03:46:43.14 | Jonathon Goldman | Yeah. |
| 03:46:45.53 | Jill Hoffman | aggressive you know do you recommend aggressively paying that off higher than other priorities on our budget because it looks to me like you know we would save almost a million |
| 03:46:53.19 | Unknown | Thank you. |
| 03:46:53.23 | Jonathon Goldman | Almost. |
| 03:46:54.86 | Jill Hoffman | if we paid that off sooner. |
| 03:46:57.97 | Jonathon Goldman | Over time... over time we pay off we save nine hundred sixty thousand dollars in interest it has been a recommendation of staff to the City Council for the past three years I believe that we pay off all of our side funds we just didn't have the the cash to do the police one fire we ended up with excess funds in our vehicle and equipment replacement fund because of the agreement that we had with southern marine fire protection district so we used the excess cash of the vehicle replacement fund for that for the miscellaneous side fund we had built up a pot of money specifically for paying off the miscellaneous side fund within another fund. And so the police side fund, this $2 million right here, that two and a half million that needs to be paid off, would be wonderful if we could do it. And our annual, Savings and our budget would be three hundred and forty three thousand dollars. So now The city back in 2007 did authorize pension obligation bonds. They're still unissued at the time that we That they went out to do the pension obligation bond. I wasn't here then I don't know exactly what happened But they they decided not to issue it. It was kind of a good thing because the market crashed and the pension obligations as they were being defined right then were similar to how Stockton did it. Stockton took their pension obligation bonds and did nothing but invest it in securities and changed their level of payroll percentage method for paying off pensions to a fixed amortization period and they lost all their money in the stock market anyway so that's what contributed to their bankruptcy |
| 03:48:02.91 | Unknown | you |
| 03:48:49.36 | Jonathon Goldman | but a good use of a pension obligation bond would be to pay off the side front so this the second part of a pension obligation bond is they're taxable they're not I'm not not taxable so you're paying 200 or more basis points on the debt service still would be a good deal to trade a seven and a half percent debt for a five percent loan you know I think we would all do that but the issuance costs are what gets you because the attorneys costs and the underwriter costs and everything they eat up or they can offset much of the present value savings so that at the end you were almost break even so We... have Thought of other ways to swap monies that are in the general fund for other obligations and I'll be recommending them through the finance committee, again through the budget process. This is a big priority for staff. |
| 03:49:49.67 | Jill Hoffman | Yeah. |
| 03:49:50.03 | Jonathon Goldman | Yeah. |
| 03:49:51.40 | Jill Hoffman | You know, when we're talking about later with regard to the budget and funding of the different trust funds, you know, it might be good to have this part of the conversation as well. |
| 03:50:01.79 | Jonathon Goldman | Okay, yes. |
| 03:50:02.97 | Unknown | Thank you. |
| 03:50:03.46 | Jill Hoffman | I would find it. |
| 03:50:07.07 | Jonathon Goldman | questions. |
| 03:50:10.11 | Jill Hoffman | Okay, public comment? I've seen no public. |
| 03:50:13.03 | Councilwoman Pfeiffer | I just want a confirmation with Charlie real quick. |
| 03:50:15.29 | Jill Hoffman | Oh, sure. |
| 03:50:16.12 | Councilwoman Pfeiffer | So I know in 2005, and I really Yeah, I would not support a pension obligation bond. That would – no. But in 2005 when the council looked at this, I guess – did they look at the trust option too? |
| 03:50:31.47 | Adam Politzer | Well, it was later in 2005 because I was here as city manager. And so we were looking at joining a pool, and we were looking at doing it as a private investment. And for lots of reasons, it didn't happen, right? |
| 03:50:45.97 | Councilwoman Pfeiffer | I was just curious as to why it didn't happen. |
| 03:50:47.99 | Adam Politzer | Thank you. |
| 03:50:48.03 | Jonathon Goldman | You're lying. |
| 03:50:48.85 | Adam Politzer | Bye. Thank you. |
| 03:50:49.63 | Jonathon Goldman | And well, I'm not too sure about the why, but they did look at it in 2008, and it was a council direction to stay as a pay-as-you-go city and not to pre-fund OPEB. And also in 2008, |
| 03:50:51.60 | Councilwoman Pfeiffer | Why didn't they do this really? |
| 03:51:03.26 | Jonathon Goldman | You didn't have the opportunity to do a pension trust fund. That only came about this fiscal year. It was, the letter ruling came out just before November. I was at the Kel Pellar Conference and was talking to these people, and they said, yeah, we just got our letter ruling, and in the next finance committee meeting, I brought it to the finance committee saying, we need to look at this, this is an opportunity. Since then, Solano County has has established their pension trust fund and the Finance Committee is saying, we need to look at this, this is an opportunity. Since then, Solano County has established their pension trust fund. There are several other cities that are just about to. We would be the first city if we establish it tonight. But there's all kinds of cities in the pipeline. John Bartell, so I also talked to him at the same conference and then I told him that PARS had got their letter ruling for an IRS and then I described my pension volatility whatever I call it volatility pension volatility risk mitigation that has become he's gone to CSM fo he's gone to ISC ma he's speaking at all of his clients saying you need to do this it's so |
| 03:52:09.82 | Councilwoman Pfeiffer | did a search on this and it looked like other cities are doing this actually setting up these trust funds they've been setting up |
| 03:52:16.77 | Jonathon Goldman | They've been setting up trust funds since 2008, but only on the OPEB side. The pension trust fund side has not been. 2008, we considered a trust fund for OPEB and we decided to stay as a pay as you go. Now it makes sense to move forward with both. |
| 03:52:22.12 | Councilwoman Pfeiffer | Trust Fund. |
| 03:52:22.85 | Unknown | Thank you. |
| 03:52:23.41 | Councilwoman Pfeiffer | That's right. |
| 03:52:24.33 | Unknown | Thank you. |
| 03:52:24.47 | Councilwoman Pfeiffer | 2008. |
| 03:52:25.30 | Unknown | Bye. |
| 03:52:33.56 | Councilwoman Pfeiffer | It was my understanding the council at that time didn't go there with the OPEB because they didn't want to lock in the funds, I guess, that they could – was that one of the reasons that they couldn't access it? |
| 03:52:45.70 | Jonathon Goldman | and they couldn't access it. Well, again, it was a good decision because in November they would have lost half of the money they put in there anyway. |
| 03:52:53.48 | Councilwoman Pfeiffer | I'm not talking about the pension obligation, John. No, this was the OPF. |
| 03:52:56.28 | Jonathon Goldman | No, this was the OPEP. That was in 2008, which was after the 2007 pension decision. They decided to stay and not, to stay as a pay as you go city and not establish the fund. And that's also all on page 42 and 43 on the budget, the history of that. |
| 03:53:15.43 | Unknown | Okay. |
| 03:53:20.04 | Jill Hoffman | we we have no okay comment motion Thank you. Would someone like to make the motion that we have in the staff report? |
| 03:53:28.52 | Councilman Fyffrey | to separate motions reach out trust |
| 03:53:28.58 | Jill Hoffman | you We do. |
| 03:53:47.75 | Jonathon Goldman | I apologize, I didn't put their motions up there. |
| 03:53:48.52 | Unknown | Okay. |
| 03:53:50.04 | Councilman Fyffrey | that's a great there so the first motion I move to adopt the resolution in the staff report authorizing participation in the powers post employment benefits trust program to be administered by public agency retirement services powers and US Bank is trustee appointing the city manager as the city plans administrator and authorizing the city manager to execute the documents to implement the program Certainly. |
| 03:54:22.17 | Jill Hoffman | I avoid, it's a weak school. |
| 03:54:24.30 | Councilman Fyffrey | Aye. The second motion is to adopt the resolution also in the staff report authoring participation in the PARs post-retirement health care. |
| 03:54:24.58 | Unknown | Bye. |
| 03:54:35.47 | Councilman Fyffrey | plan trust program to be administered by Public Agency Retirement Services PARS and U.S. Bank is trustee appointing the city manager as the city plan administrator and authorizing the city manager to execute the documents to implement the program. second. |
| 03:54:52.51 | Unknown | Should I have you on all before that? |
| 03:54:52.75 | Councilman Fyffrey | Bye. |
| 03:54:52.88 | Jill Hoffman | Thank you. |
| 03:54:54.86 | Unknown | you |
| 03:54:54.94 | Councilman Fyffrey | you |
| 03:54:54.98 | Jill Hoffman | All in favor? Aye. And that's a unanimous vote on both motions. |
| 03:54:55.25 | Councilman Fyffrey | Oh, |
| 03:54:55.63 | Unknown | IN THE FAVOR. |
| 03:54:56.31 | Councilman Fyffrey | Oh, my God. |
| 03:54:56.53 | Unknown | Bye. |
| 03:54:56.70 | Councilman Fyffrey | Bye. |
| 03:55:00.04 | Jonathon Goldman | you you |
| 03:55:00.34 | Jill Hoffman | Thank you, City Council. |
| 03:55:02.22 | Jonathon Goldman | you |
| 03:55:02.38 | Unknown | Thank you. |
| 03:55:02.70 | Jonathon Goldman | Thank you. |
| 03:55:02.84 | Jill Hoffman | not about how likes very complex follow the money |
| 03:55:02.86 | Jonathon Goldman | Thank you. you |
| 03:55:03.63 | Unknown | Oh, wow. |
| 03:55:03.97 | Jonathon Goldman | Very complex. Follow them. |
| 03:55:06.03 | Unknown | Bye. |
| 03:55:06.16 | Jonathon Goldman | Thank you. |
| 03:55:06.23 | Unknown | you |
| 03:55:06.40 | Unknown | Thank you. |
| 03:55:06.69 | Unknown | Thank you. Thank you. |
| 03:55:15.17 | Adam Politzer | Thank You mr. mayor and city council members just three items hopefully each of them are quick |
| 03:55:15.67 | Unknown | Thank you. |
| 03:55:23.19 | Adam Politzer | and there might be four items here one was Charlie so I thought he's gonna put a plug in as as he left but I mentioned at the last meeting that Charlie is heading up the parking equipment effort in lots one with the test that's going on all that equipment will be looked at evaluated and then brought back to the council with a progress report and then eventually brought forward to the council for your direction as we make a recommendation on moving forward so I would imagine next month there'll be a staff report giving you an update. But in the meantime, we are still looking for residents to volunteer and work with Charlie and Curtis and Elliot and their team to test the equipment to give feedback to Charlie. I know that Vice Mayor Hoffman went down there with Charlie and they did some testing and he appreciated her efforts and feedback that they generated just between the two of them right now there's roughly ten folks that have come forward from the community that have said that they would like to be evaluators and their the plan is to start next week launching those folks out there and testing the equipment in lot one and then obviously the equipment to pay the meters, the single space meters on Princess Street. So again, a plug to the community to contact Charlie. If interested, we'll put it out in the currents again. And if you folks know of residents that would be good candidates, please encourage them to volunteer. on yesterday Monday the associate planner position that is open is held interviews they interviewed eight candidates and it looks like there are three good candidates that they are going to follow up with for a second round so we are hopeful that that the planning the associate planner positions will both be filled by the end of this month and then we'll have the assistant planning position and the building technician position that they are also evaluating and posting those positions as we move forward. Danny is planning on coming forward Danny Castro our community development director coming forward and and having some face time with the council on the things that have been going on in that department since he's taken over since November I talked to you about where they are and where they're going and so we should get an update from from our community development department very soon so as the agenda setting committee looks at the future agenda items that's one of them that I'd like to bring forward it's probably at the same time that we talk about a general plan 101 where we introduce the general plan update what it looks like what it means what's involved and then also I would expect to report back from Danny and Lillie shinsing on next steps on the marine rails that council gave direction when we talked about the marinship on what the costs and and the timing would be to move that that item forward so hopefully within the next six weeks when the next two or three council meetings this items able to get agendized and an opportunity for Danny to talk about the department and where it's heading as you all are aware the ferry Landing Project is coming up to have its first joint meeting of the Planning Commission and HLB, the study session that's scheduled for March 11th. City staff has been working on putting information out through the currents, and community members have also been putting out their own flyers and door hangers, and I think that any publicity is good publicity. and so this information that's out there identifying the three dates that are scheduled for HLB in the planning commission's joint meetings I think that that is is good to have as much publicity as possible we put a banner on the basketball court here at City Hall and I believe I have not I don't have confirmation that we were also putting a banner out on the ferry landing advertising those dates as well so we'll continue to work with the community and I ask that you folks through your network of folks in the community through next door through Facebook all the other social media is to get the word out so we have a large crowd in here on March 11th to help the district do the right thing as we move forward And postcards, I think I mentioned that last time that we were working on postcards, but I know that those are going out to every resident in town. They went out? Okay, so they went out today to every postal resident. customer will receive an invitation to come to our meeting. So that's good news. you Herb Weiner, Councilmember Weiner, had mentioned last meeting that RBRA will be having a community workshop on the Richardson Bay it's a Richardson's Bay Anchorage workshop on the 14th of March at the bay model from 9 to 1230 and they just sent out a press release the county just sent out a press release the county as the staff to the RB RA which we are a member of with the other Southern Marine communities that surround Richardson's Bay but they put out some information in the press release and this will go out in the current that in 2008 there were 98 vessels on the water between 2008 and 2014 they actually removed 484 vessels during that period of time and now here we are at the end of 2014 there are now 205 vessels on the water so you know it's a serious issue you know it's one thing to remove vessels and it's another thing to continue to house on the best use vessels out there so the workshop is is to educate the communities that attend the meeting and our residents here and the residents around Richardson's Bay and what the issues are and and to look at that solution so councilmember Weiner may talk more about this during council reports or what's in the press release and what comes out in the currents may be all that is necessary at this point in time. think that's it so any questions from the council happy to answer their questions See you next time. |
| 04:02:40.03 | Jill Hoffman | I hope. Public there will move past public comment any questions |
| 04:02:44.25 | Councilwoman Pfeiffer | I have a couple questions regarding the paid parking meters. You said Lot 1 and Princess Street. Can volunteers just go and park their car there and test the system or – do they need to contact Charlie formally to be able to test the system? |
| 04:03:02.36 | Adam Politzer | If the volunteers would like to use their own money, they can do it right now. And the system's working right now, so people can test it and report back to us. |
| 04:03:04.92 | Councilwoman Pfeiffer | Yeah. Right now. Okay. |
| 04:03:07.69 | Unknown | Thank you. |
| 04:03:07.71 | Councilwoman Pfeiffer | Thank you. |
| 04:03:09.57 | Unknown | All right. Thank you. |
| 04:03:13.82 | Adam Politzer | if they have problems with it. Um, but if they would like the assistance of the city to fund it and reimburse them. |
| 04:03:21.31 | Councilwoman Pfeiffer | I don't know. Uh, |
| 04:03:23.08 | Adam Politzer | then they need to go through Charlie. |
| 04:03:25.36 | Councilwoman Pfeiffer | Okay, another question is, can we get a banner at the Trident? because we're in front of the fishing pier. That is a primo spot to communicate the ferry landing And that should be a high priority for us, to get a banner up there. |
| 04:03:47.52 | Adam Politzer | Yeah, I think that's in my report I mentioned that. |
| 04:03:50.28 | Councilwoman Pfeiffer | You said fairy landing. I thought you meant. |
| 04:03:52.19 | Adam Politzer | I meant the fishing pier oh yeah I hadn't got confirmation but my understanding is that they created two banners once here on the on the fence and the other one is supposed to be on the fishing pier good sorry my mistake no that's okay I just wanted to |
| 04:03:53.22 | Councilwoman Pfeiffer | Oh, good. Excuse me. Yeah. |
| 04:04:03.13 | Councilwoman Pfeiffer | Sorry, my mistake. No, that's okay. I just want to clarify. And the other question I had, and this came from a resident, and I asked them to contact city staff about this. The tree is being tagged on the median. Can you comment on that and the process for… you know, public outreach and feedback on that. |
| 04:04:27.12 | Adam Politzer | It's the tags are to remove the trees, and removing the trees is in response to the public outcry to the city well over a year ago which is kind of how Sassou de Beaufort came forward with Shelby that the community wanted us to remove the dead trees or the trees that were in serious bad condition. So over the course of the year we've had an arborist look at the trees and identify which trees, and the council budgeted money for us to actually evaluate those trees. The council budgeted money to have the trees removed. And so what has happened is that they've been all tagged as our city's policy and process, and then the current article went out at least once, if not than once identifying that these trees will come down no sooner than 10 days after being posted I think we're close to 20 days being posted and we'll continue to you know to respond to questions to this date neither I or the Public Works director or our Public Works maintenance manager Lauren and Burtis have received anybody saying that they have questions about the trees being removed we've been got more questions about one of those trees going to be removed and what's taking you so long so that that's kind of a year-long process that's taken for us to identify that the community want the trees removed making sure an arborist has confirmed that the tree should be removed and then the city putting funding and to make funding available to remove the trees the funding to replace the trees the funding to replace the trees at this point is not is not significant it's something that the council is going to have to consider in the budget process we put $25,000 in there for the next two years for landscape improvements which could include trees Sassaleta beautiful understands that the cost to replace trees and actually do it correctly so they don't just come down on to the cement. |
| 04:05:57.34 | Unknown | I did that. |
| 04:06:18.14 | Unknown | Thank you. |
| 04:06:18.16 | Unknown | you |
| 04:06:18.19 | Unknown | Bye. |
| 04:06:38.76 | Adam Politzer | which is what they're doing now. um, will cost a lot more than $25,000 to replace somewhere in the neighborhood of 30 trees. |
| 04:06:47.49 | Councilwoman Pfeiffer | So this email was sent yesterday at 10 a.m. by Denny Gagarin to you, and I'm going to forward it to you. It was also sent to, I think, Tom. anyway and and he's asking about the tree so just for that I know you get a lot of email and but he's done it yesterday at 10 |
| 04:07:07.57 | Adam Politzer | But he sent it yesterday. also gets caught in spam if they don't. |
| 04:07:11.35 | Councilwoman Pfeiffer | if they don't okay gotcha so I just forwarded to you again so yeah and I guess I I get the impression he's he's speaking on behalf of other residents who are concerned so we might want to get ahead of that process and let them know You're telling me all those trees are dead? in that median. |
| 04:07:36.29 | Adam Politzer | I'm not saying that they're all dead because we see every year that there is some growth on the trees, but the trees are not sustainable. and through. the process that we went through prior to the priority calendar last year, the community asked for those trees to be removed. and that was identified in the budget it specifically calls out the trees in the media |
| 04:08:01.76 | Councilwoman Pfeiffer | Yeah, I had issue. I didn't support the budget last year. That's beside the point. Yeah, okay. Well, anyway, I forwarded you their emails so you can respond to them. Thank you. |
| 04:08:18.28 | Jill Hoffman | Moving on to Councilmember Committee Reports. Thank you. you okay we just did okay all right and well since there is no one from the public we'll skip public comment on these last |
| 04:08:22.70 | Unknown | Okay. |
| 04:08:22.95 | Unknown | Thank you. |
| 04:08:22.99 | Unknown | you |
| 04:08:23.05 | Unknown | did it. |
| 04:08:28.55 | Councilwoman Pfeiffer | I have a committee report. Oh, I'm sorry. The Butte Task Force met. |
| 04:08:29.90 | Jill Hoffman | Oh, I'm sorry. |
| 04:08:33.06 | Councilwoman Pfeiffer | And we'll be on the March 17th, you know, agenda to give an update and our recommendation for disbanding and moving, you know, forward with the private fundraising. So there you go. |
| 04:08:53.60 | Jill Hoffman | Future agenda items? |
| 04:08:57.09 | Unknown | Um... you Yeah, I would like to... revisit the taxi stage |
| 04:09:05.97 | Councilwoman Pfeiffer | area at Anchor and Bay. I still don't understand why that happened. I didn't support it, but I just don't get that. I don't get two blocks of taxis downtown. Um, |
| 04:09:21.68 | Jill Hoffman | home. I mean, can you discuss that with the city manager? I mean, this is not. All right. |
| 04:09:25.84 | Councilwoman Pfeiffer | All right. It just seemed like it happened because of the council moving forward on it it was a staff decision to do that or was it a city council vote |
| 04:09:36.07 | Jill Hoffman | Well, we're on a few present. I know that I've. Instead of, we don't have it. Would you mind? And then we can. I will. If it needs to be on the agenda, we can do it later. |
| 04:09:39.80 | Councilwoman Pfeiffer | I will. If it needs to be on the agenda, we can do it later. All right. OK. |
| 04:09:47.78 | Jill Hoffman | Other reports of significance? Seeing none, motion adjourned. We're adjourned. Move to adjourn. |
| 04:09:53.03 | Unknown | Move to adjourn. |
| 04:09:55.36 | Unknown | Thank you. |
| 04:09:55.38 | Jill Hoffman | OK. |
| 04:09:55.68 | Unknown | you you |
| 04:09:57.97 | Jill Hoffman | Thank you. |
| 04:09:58.16 | Unknown | Thank you. |
| 04:10:54.03 | Unknown | Amen. |