| Time | Speaker | Text |
|---|---|---|
| 00:00:14.66 | Unknown | Yes. |
| 00:00:19.18 | Mayor Theodore | Welcome everyone to the special meeting of the Sausalito City Council for Tuesday, May 12, 2015. And it's special in the sense that we had a number of agenda items that we had for several City Council meetings. So we added another. Council meeting tonight. So the agenda will be a variety of items as it normally looks like, but it's special because it's an additional meeting. And Debbie, would you take the role, please? |
| 00:00:42.23 | Debbie Pagliaro | Councilmember Weiner. Present. Councilmember Pfeiffer. Here. Councilmember Withey. Here. Vice Mayor Hoffman. Present. Mayor Theodores. |
| 00:00:46.91 | Mayor Theodore | here. Present. Maybe we have Peter Van Meter lead us in the Pledge of Allegiance, please. Yes, please say it with me. I pledge allegiance to the flag. of the United States of America. Thank you. Thank you. THE END OF Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. |
| 00:01:05.39 | Mary Wagner | Thank you. |
| 00:01:05.51 | Mayor Theodore | Foundation. I'm not sure. |
| 00:01:06.60 | Mary Wagner | Thank you. |
| 00:01:06.62 | Mayor Theodore | Thank you. |
| 00:01:06.64 | Mary Wagner | to God. Indivisible. liberty, and justice for all. |
| 00:01:13.98 | Mayor Theodore | Um, we, um, met in closed session on item, uh, D one, um, the, uh, Existing litigation, SCAF versus Sausalito, There is nothing to report out. Is there any public comment on that closed session item? Okay. Moving on. Can we have approval of the agenda, please? Any... So move. |
| 00:01:38.48 | Unknown | Second. |
| 00:01:39.51 | Mayor Theodore | And actually, before we do that, |
| 00:01:41.25 | Betsy Stroman | Thank you. |
| 00:01:42.14 | Mayor Theodore | I do see... Mr. Kelly in the audience, are we ready to move forward at in the earlier time? Okay. All in favor? Uh, |
| 00:01:50.58 | Unknown | THE END OF THE END OF THE |
| 00:01:50.60 | Mayor Theodore | THANK YOU. |
| 00:01:50.95 | Unknown | you |
| 00:01:51.31 | Mayor Theodore | So that passed unanimously? So we're now. Um, We're at. Special presentations and we have a A very special, special presentation. So this is... an award of distinction to our city clerk. And the The parade just keeps coming. So we want to announce because we're really proud of this. On April 23rd of this year, the City Clerk's Association of California presented Sassolito City Clerk Debbie Pagliaro with the 2015 Award of Distinction. in the organization. administration and communications category at their annual conference Thank you. in Monard Park. and it was quite a surprise and we had quite an entourage there to surprise her. recognize Debbie's dedication to her role as clerk in bringing the city into the digital age. The projects that she has worked on in recent years have benefited all societal citizens and community members by making public records and city information accessible reducing staff time, processing paperwork, and providing new opportunities for city residents to engage with their local government. Debbie grew up in Sausalito and has worked for the city of Sausalito for her entire career. She began her civic career working for the city selling parking permits after she graduated from high school. Later, she took the position of business license clerk and from there she moved Onto the planning department. building department, and the police department. Since 2007, Debbie has been Sausalito City clerk. Over her 42 years with the city, she has worked under 40 One, different council members. 24 different mayors. She tells me I'm her favorite, but that's how she's gotten by for 42 years. 11 different city managers and is Sausalito's 14th city clerk. in history. Highlighted projects which made Debbie the most qualified recipient of the award included online publication, and a comprehensive update of the Sausalito Municipal Code, Did you taste? Digit it. of all city council minutes, resolutions and ordinances dating as far back as 1893. Management of a weekly e-newsletter and automation of state required form filings. City manager Adam Pulitzer said that Debbie quote possesses all of the desirable qualities in an outstanding clerk. leadership, organization, level-headedness, proven initiative, remarkable judgment and the ability to work effectively and independently with the public and officials, all with a sense of humor. Debbie has been dead has been dedicated to the social media community for the last 42 years. has demonstrated extraordinary civil service in her tenure with the city, and is extremely well deserving of the... 2015 award of distinction in the organization administration and communications category. And so Debbie, we have a complex. I had to hide it so you wouldn't see it when you watched after it. |
| 00:05:05.96 | Mayor Theodore | And let's see how we do this. Can we get a clap of applause? |
| 00:05:32.01 | Mayor Theodore | We miss them. Okay. Thank you, Debbie. Okay, this is the... Moving on to item two, this is the time for the city council to hear from citizens regarding matters. that are not on the agenda. Except in very limited situations, state law precludes the council from taking action on or engaging in discussions concerning items that are not on the agenda. However, we may refer such items to the city staff or direct that the subject be agendized for a future meeting. We have. two speaker cards. If anyone else would like to speak, please fill out the speaker card. Our first speaker for an item not on the agenda is Adam Cravazzi. |
| 00:06:15.10 | Adam Krivacci | Mr. Mayor, honorable members of the council, my name is Adam Krivacci. I reside at 840 Olima Street. I watched with great interest the process of organized by the council to evaluate public opinion and to hear public commentary on THE PLAN changes to the ferry terminal. And I was glad to hear during this process some very creative, and and constructive comments on the fact that. Thank you. This process of negotiating with the uh, Transportation district. could be coupled with an in-house effort to improve our waterfront. Create. a waterfront that is more welcoming that is not marred by lined up bicycles. where the bicycles functionally are accommodated in the urban design of the waterfront. and where the effort and the energy lined up behind solving the problem for the appropriate ferry terminal could be coupled with, an improvement to the city that is long overdue and that has not been considered officially. So I would like to respectfully urge the City Council to think about hiring an urban designer who works with the public works director, the COMMUNITY PLANNING DEPARTMENT and an advisory group to figure out how Sarcelito's waterfront could be more welcoming and more appropriate to its other beauties. Thank you. Thank you. |
| 00:08:23.97 | Mayor Theodore | Next speaker is Betsy Stroman. |
| 00:08:35.70 | Betsy Stroman | Evening members of city council, honorable mayor and Adam. Um, eight months ago, PG and E acting under an expired encroachment permit that city staff had issued under the counter over the counter installed a new transformer above ground on a pole across the street from our house and strung 105 feet of thick, ugly cable across our primary view. to deliver power to a new house that was being built below ours. Thank you. Under the applicable statute of limitations, I will need to file an action against the city this coming September. unless we settle this matter before then, It's now May, and my understanding is that the council doesn't meet in August. So the window of opportunity for us to get this matter behind us without litigation is the rest of this month, June and July. The issue is fairly simple. Sausalito's undergrounding ordinance specifies that requests concerning the location of new transformers, new poles, and increasing the height for existing poles, shall be reviewed and approved by the Director of Public Works, who shall notify the undergrounding committee of the request upon receipt of the request. The policy behind this is pretty obvious. an undergrounding ordinance, and it reflects a public policy agreement that generally speaking, utilities should be undergrounded. When a utility asks to put up a new transformer or a new pole, or to increase the height of an existing pole, the utility is not planning to underground the service it is being asked to provide. The utility is planning to do something above ground. The ordinance is a way of regulating these requests by treating them on a case by case basis, having the director of public works review the request and giving them to the undergrounding committee so that there can be a public consideration of the request. Here, if the ordinance had been complied with, the Director of Public Works would have reviewed PG&E's request to install a new transformer on the pole across the street from my house and would have submitted the request to the undergrounding committee. The undergrounding committee would have considered the request and heard public comment before approving the request. None of this happened, however. The application never came to the director of public works, nor was it referred to the undergrounding committee. It was signed off on by a staff member as a routine over-the-counter matter. Section 851 of the California Government Code provides that if a public entity is under a mandatory duty and fails to discharge that mandatory duty, the public entity is liable for damage resulting from its failure unless it can establish that it exercised reasonable diligence. As I read the Undergrounding Ordinance, the words shall approve the location of Transformers and shall refer to the Undergrounding Committee sounds pretty mandatory. It's not discretionary. So as I read the law and apply it to the facts, it seems to me to be fair to say that if we go to trial, the city will be found liable for the damage, And, we'll have to pay for the damage. But I don't think that's a fair result. It does not seem right for the city to force one of its residents to hire an attorney and sue the city when the city is clearly in the wrong, and it sends a bad message to the community that the city is not going to stand behind its residents and take responsibility for its errors. There's a possibility that this will be able to be resolved by putting the cable down below the house on another telephone pole. But the last I heard was that this also is going to have problems. And it's likely that what is going to have to be done ultimately is to underground the cable. And I finally have an attorney, because I have to have an attorney, and the attorney has spoken to PG&E, which would never speak to me. And PG&E is now saying it will cost between $20,000 and $30,000 to do this undergrounding. I submit it's insane. to go to trial for $20,000 to $30,000. It's going to cost more than that. our time, it's a waste of judicial resources, it's a waste of money. So I would like to request that the city put this on the agenda for the next city council meeting and direct staff and the city attorney to THE FAMILY. together a proposal for how to resolve this and move forward and resolve it. This just shouldn't be allowed to continue any longer. Thank you. And I'm sorry to be so emphatic about this, but I am getting emotional after eight months. Thank you. |
| 00:13:25.83 | Mayor Theodore | Thank you, Betsy. And you've sent your letter to staff. And as I said, we can't comment on it at this level. But this will be. taken up by the city attorney and the city manager and brought to us. Thank you. We have another speaker on an item not on the agenda. Damien Morgan. |
| 00:13:51.46 | Damian Morgan | Hi, thanks for having me. I am Damian Morgan, born and raised in Marin City, Sausalito, whichever you like to call it. It's in regards to a... |
| 00:14:08.96 | Damian Morgan | In regards to a despicable incident that happened regarding the Sausalito Police Department and myself, it was exactly, ironically, one year to the day, May 12, 2014. And in a nutshell, obviously I could be here all night if I went over details and all that good stuff, but here is the complaint here that I filed a year ago today. I was at Dunphy Park, which I go to quite often, meditate, hang out, relax. I actually graduated there from eighth grade on the boat, on this cruising club boat. I'm not sure what it was called then, but I graduated on that boat. So I've been going there all my life. I've been there literally hundreds and hundreds of times. while they're engaging in conversation with random guys. I'll make this kind of quick. Random guys about just life. I was approached by Deputy Stacy Gregory and... Stacy Gregory and Officer Nick White. So as I talk to these two gentlemen about life, It was actually about my truck, but I didn't feel I had to reveal at the time. We had a conversation regarding my truck. Gregory and White approached me after haggling them and searching them, approached me and wanted me to reveal our conversation that I had to these random guys. Why? I have no idea. So, After leaving me, I haggled them first, then they came and harassed me for about 10 minutes, surrounded me in the park, broad daylight, humiliated me. Then went back to these two guys that were, you know, in the park hanging out and told these guys that I, they told these guys that I admitted, which was a lie, a conversation about me selling these guys drugs. Then they went on, Mr. White went on to tell this guy, his name was Doug, that I was a known drug dealer So, after they went over again and approached these guys and searched them and haggled them, I'm looking from a distance wondering what in the world is going on. So as these officers walk back to their car, I go to Doug. I found out later his name was Doug and asked him, what was this about? That's when they told me that the officers said you are a known drug dealer. And they said that you admitted to a drug conversation with me. So at disbelief, out of, you know, just complete, I can't even describe what I was feeling then and now, I immediately turned around and walked directly to the, Police station. I filed this complaint. one year ago today. Now, as I walk through the park, Thank you. Here comes the bicycle cop. He's watching, I guess. They called, you know, big surveillance, big. you know, bitch thing, I imagine is the bitch thing going on. So as I'm walking to Towards the bocce ball court, he comes out because he doesn't want to be sitting there when I'm walking to him. It's obvious. So he makes it seem like he's randomly pulling out. But he was watching me through the trees. So I filed this complaint. |
| 00:17:45.43 | Betsy Stroman | Yeah. Yeah. |
| 00:17:54.92 | Damian Morgan | Um, And since then... I have been in contact quite often with Mr. Skoog himself. And I would say about He interviewed me about a month later after me kind of, hey, what's up, come on, let's figure this out. |
| 00:18:15.42 | Mayor Theodore | Can you wrap it up because we limit these to three minutes? Okay, sorry, I'm wrapping it up. Okay, I understand. You're right. We'll have to refer to the city attorney anyway. Okay. Thank you. |
| 00:18:18.44 | Damian Morgan | Okay, sorry, I'm wrapping it up. Okay, I understand. You're right, I apologize. Okay. So my point is, so Mr. Skoog, he's pretty much told me many times, we'll get back to you, get back to you, get back to you. It's obviously bogus. I'm not calling you a liar. You're doing your job. But he's put me off even until today when he saw me today. He gave me some line about what we're trying to figure out. So my question to you is, how can I get an answer, a response to my complaint? Because they have refused to answer me. Why, how, anything. They just pushed me along. Told me many times, excuses. Mr. Skoog just pushed me along. How can I want to know? How can this happen? How can I be called a drug dealer? and be insulted and surrounded and corralled Civil right issue. Thank you. I want to know something. That's all I have to say. I'm not sure. Who do I follow up after this? |
| 00:19:18.67 | Mayor Theodore | I'll go through this. Thank you. Follow up with the city attorney, city manager, or follow up with Adam Pulitzer, the city manager, as I announced. I'm not sure. City. let's start with Adam and we'll go from there and as I mentioned when I announced the public comment we cannot comment on this or respond to it, but we'll refer you to the city manager. One last comment. |
| 00:19:41.32 | Unknown | respond to that. |
| 00:19:42.70 | Damian Morgan | One last comment is, Herb Wiener is no mean for all my life. Not to throw out names. All my life. You are. |
| 00:19:48.92 | Unknown | You were on my baseball team. Right. Eight years old. |
| 00:19:51.59 | Damian Morgan | I'm eight years old. That's one strike against you. |
| 00:19:52.32 | Mayor Theodore | That's one strike against you. Thank you. |
| 00:19:54.04 | Damian Morgan | me. |
| 00:19:54.11 | Mayor Theodore | Thank you. |
| 00:19:54.12 | Damian Morgan | Thank you. Thank you. |
| 00:19:55.07 | Mayor Theodore | Thank you. |
| 00:19:55.09 | Damian Morgan | Thank you. |
| 00:19:55.10 | Mayor Theodore | Thank you. |
| 00:19:55.12 | Damian Morgan | that's the first time. |
| 00:19:55.19 | Mayor Theodore | Well, thank you. |
| 00:19:55.78 | Damian Morgan | THANK YOU. |
| 00:19:55.86 | Mayor Theodore | Thank you. |
| 00:19:55.96 | Damian Morgan | Thank you. |
| 00:19:56.03 | Mayor Theodore | Thank you. |
| 00:19:56.05 | Damian Morgan | Thank you. |
| 00:19:56.23 | Mayor Theodore | Thank you. |
| 00:19:56.47 | Damian Morgan | you. |
| 00:19:58.87 | Mayor Theodore | Anyone else comment on something not on the agenda? Okay, we'll close public comment. And we'll move on to item three, action minutes of previous meetings. We have. for minutes for four meetings. And should we take them? One at a time or you take them all together comments on it. |
| 00:20:17.26 | Councilmember Pfeiffer | Um, Yeah, on the first meeting, April 21st, under future agenda items, |
| 00:20:25.68 | Unknown | Thank you. Thank you. |
| 00:20:27.52 | Councilmember Pfeiffer | April 21st. I'm sorry, is that the second one? Oh, okay. So I'm anyway on page four of seven. No, wait on page six of seven. The second bullet item Muirwood shuttle. I actually if if we could, it was Muirwood shuttle traffic impact. I was concerned about the Muirwood shuttle and that expansion that it happened. So I just wanted a little bit more context. Well, can you give us the exact this is a shuttle traffic impact. |
| 00:20:58.60 | Mayor Theodore | Well, can you give us the exact, these are meant. Okay. All right? Any objective? Okay, it's fine. Anything else? Okay, any other comments on any of the other minutes? |
| 00:21:15.26 | Councilmember Pfeiffer | I have one more comment, which is... |
| 00:21:16.64 | Mayor Theodore | OK. |
| 00:21:21.01 | Councilmember Pfeiffer | Regarding April 21st again, excuse me, I had handed out a proposal for the bike issue and had asked it to be attached to the minutes for April 21st, so I'm not sure if it would be attached as part of the approval or if it's I don't think that's |
| 00:21:45.14 | Mayor Theodore | Yeah. I don't think that's appropriate. Was that appropriate? I mean, I don't think it was not agenda. So I'm not sure that that was something that |
| 00:21:52.35 | Councilmember Pfeiffer | Mm-hmm. |
| 00:21:53.36 | Mayor Theodore | should be part of the record. |
| 00:21:56.05 | Debbie | I It was because it was made a part of the record, it is in the file, but |
| 00:21:57.41 | Mayor Theodore | anything. |
| 00:21:57.80 | Councilmember Pfeiffer | Thank you. |
| 00:22:01.36 | Councilmember Pfeiffer | Okay, okay, so it's in the file then. Okay, because I know that we can do that. |
| 00:22:02.88 | Mayor Theodore | Thank you. |
| 00:22:07.16 | Mayor Theodore | I wasn't sure. I just needed to ask. |
| 00:22:08.30 | Councilmember Pfeiffer | Just need that. |
| 00:22:10.32 | Mayor Theodore | Anything else? So maybe with that. |
| 00:22:12.89 | Unknown | Should we do all four at one point? You want to try that? So I move to approve the action minutes of the meetings of April 7th, April 21st with the one change that Council Member Pfeiffer has requested, the meeting of April 28th, and the meeting of May 4th. |
| 00:22:13.90 | Mayor Theodore | Four at one. |
| 00:22:33.81 | Jill Hoffman | Second. |
| 00:22:34.55 | Unknown | Okay. |
| 00:22:34.86 | Mayor Theodore | Thank you. All in favor? I so that passes unanimously 5 0. |
| 00:22:36.31 | Unknown | Bye. |
| 00:22:39.65 | Mayor Theodore | Okay, moving on to item four. Consent calendar. Matters listed under the consent calendar are considered routine and non-controversial. require no discussion. are expected to have unanimous council support. and may be enacted by the Council in one motion in the form listed below. We have one item. Any comment on that? Well, actually... We we should have public comment on the consent calendar. public comment or request to remove anything from the consent calendar. Seeing none, we have a motion to approve. I'm sorry. |
| 00:23:17.80 | Mayor Theodore | Okay. Yes, we're on item 4A. |
| 00:23:19.71 | Mike Gaspers | item. |
| 00:23:23.12 | Mayor Theodore | Okay, please. |
| 00:23:29.11 | Lisa Lewis | Good evening, everybody. My name is Lisa Lewis, and I live at 51 Montemar Drive. And I would like to talk about the no parking restrictions that are being looked at right now. I've lived on Montemar for 11 years, and I know the traffic issues that we have there. And this no parking restrictions, I'm going to talk about the no parking restrictions. |
| 00:23:29.95 | Unknown | Good evening, everybody. |
| 00:23:48.55 | Lisa Lewis | thing that's up the proposal that's up is not going to solve our problems and I'd very much like you guys to be able to table this and get some more input because I know that putting a no parking isn't going to solve what the problem is. The problem is that traffic goes up and down Montemar way too fast. And I should know because I live right there. If you look at where my house is, it's right there at the Y. My car's been hit three times by people coming down so fast, and they all of a sudden see somebody coming up that they have to veer into my driveway, hit my cars. No parking on the other side is only going to push it over here further, which is going to make more of a congestion. So I ask you, please give us an opportunity Talk to us. We live there. We know what the problem is. And it's putting a no parking zone and making people park more in the line of traffic is only gonna make it more dangerous. and more likely to have more accidents. The problem is the speed of people going to the freeway and down. Now the issue on Vista Clara only affects 12 homes, whereas Montemar affects everybody that lives in that area because that's their thoroughfare to the freeway. So giving a no parking for 12 homes on Vista Clara that, doesn't even solve the issue. They're having a problem getting out because people are coming up the street doing 35, 40 miles an hour. And they can't get into traffic because they're going too fast. So I would ask you to please not make a vote on this tonight and extend the deadline so that you can talk to us residents who have an opinion and who would like to see something solved, but we need to see it solved in a different manner. Thank you. |
| 00:25:23.76 | Mayor Theodore | And we actually have three other speakers on this item. So maybe you could Line up Jim Gay, Jim Smith. Or is it Tim Schmitz? And Lisa Lewis, we just had Lisa. Okay. Sorry. |
| 00:25:36.55 | Unknown | Thank you. |
| 00:25:37.53 | Jim Gay | Hi, my name's Jim Gay. I live at 54 Vista Clara. i agree with what lisa just said and that the problem primarily is speed There is a concern for the 30-foot area that you're talking about taking away parking. I do see the logic in taking that and making it a no-parking zone for that 30-foot because when people are coming down Vista Clara, that will allow them to see people coming up Montemar so that they can avoid going to the intersection if somebody's coming up. But I don't want that fact to blur the overriding concern that the speed of people coming up and down Montemar is the real issue here. Secondly, I think we need to think about unintended consequences with this as well. Right now, when you have parking on the side of Montemar, especially between my house 54, Vista Clara, and 50, which is my next-door neighbor, that stretch we were talking about not having parking there, that actually narrows down that roadway, and it's two roads coming into one, so that's a pretty big, a pretty wide piece of road right there. If you open that up further by not having parking, I think that you're going to have the unintended consequence of people speeding up, because now they have more road. They're going to be taken off. They're in a hurry to get to work in the morning, or they're in a hurry coming down the hill in the evening. So I think we need to watch what we're doing here, because I think that being a person who watches that traffic all the time, and also my wife and I have a six-year-old daughter. I'm particularly keen on what's happening out there. I don't want anything to happen that's going to speed up traffic. That's the primary issues I had. Thank you. |
| 00:27:31.20 | Mayor Theodore | We have one more. |
| 00:27:40.31 | Tim Schmitz | hi i'm tim schmidt i live at forty five money martin there since nineteen eighty seven so i've seen a lot what's goes on that particular area and i think as well was lisa and jim comment i think it'd be a mistake to go ahead making no parking area from 54 Vista Clara to 50 Montemar Drive. That's a very suitable parking area there. Not many people use it, but it's useful for the people who work in the area, and then occasionally we need to use that parking area. And I measured across from Lisa's gate to the other curb, and there's over 45 feet width of the street there. So cars are basically about six feet wide, so you can put probably about six cars in there even if there's cars parked on both sides there's at least two two and a half three lanes for part cars to pass each other the other part that they're suggesting that we put a no parking at the end of vista clara 30 feet into in front of jim's house that seems like a very useful area for parking as well. All I see is in front of Jim's house, that seems like a very useful area for parking as well. All I see happening basically with the changes that they're proposing is the parking being moved down Vista Clara Street, which, you know, that's fine with me because I don't live there, but also people are gonna be parking on Monty Mar, and Monty Mar has enough problems as it is. If you're gonna be putting, cars on my side of the street, which is the on the eastern side of the street. that's a blind curve there, and it's gonna make it really dangerous when people are flying up the hill or somebody's flying down the hill, and then cars are coming up and it's too late and they could collide. As long as I've lived there, though, for the 28 years, I've never seen an accident take place. I've known somebody's run into the rear of somebody before but never collision there. So as far as the motivation behind why they're making these proposals, I'm not sure. And that's why I think it needs to be figured out before they make a rash decision on, hey, let's stop parking here and let's stop parking here. This is solved. Well, it's not going to solve the problems. I think there's more public input that needs to be done. and you know solutions maybe speed bumps maybe a stop sign maybe mirrors but other than just no parking you know that problem solved because it's not going to solve problems going to create more so Thank you for your time. |
| 00:30:18.01 | Mayor Theodore | Thank you. Anyone else on that matter? Well, since this was a consent item, I'm sorry. Okay. |
| 00:30:34.90 | Steve Moore | Thank you. Steve Moore. And I'll take the opposite side. I'm the one who probably pushed this thing to get started because we're the ones driving out of Monte Mar trying to get into traffic. admittedly there is a speed problem on Monty Mar because Monty Mar has never had the attention that Spencer has had as far as police policing it and adding stop signs and making sure there's no speeding but They're correct about the speed. That's true. but they're not correct about the other issues. The other issues are that when people come out of Montemar, which is not just the 12 homes that are there, Vista Clara, I mean. When people come out of that street, you have to stick your nose way out into the middle of the other lane in order to be able to get up the street and it's It used to be no problem because people didn't have any |
| 00:31:27.30 | Betsy Stroman | you |
| 00:31:30.27 | Steve Moore | They weren't crazy enough to park there. There's already a no parking, no stopping sign there. but it is not enforced. It's also obscured by foliage. and it's a 15-mile-an-hour sign that's obscured by foliage. And that's one of the reasons we've had a problem there. |
| 00:31:42.33 | Betsy Stroman | out. |
| 00:31:48.36 | Steve Moore | That is... a dangerous public safety issue period and That's probably it should be reinforced the way it was set up years ago. to make it a sensible merge The city engineer has been out and reviewed it. I have reviewed it with Lieutenant Skoog and the city engineer several times. They've put it, and also I understand that a consultant has been called in to look at this situation already on top of that. So I'm saying that this isn't going to hurt anybody to have more, have a safer way for people to get onto that street. Again, remember, it's not just people on Monty Mar. A lot of people use Excuse me, on Vista Clara. A lot of people use Vista Clara just to get to Monty Mar. So it is an important issue. Thank you very much. |
| 00:32:43.83 | Mayor Theodore | Thank you. So it doesn't look like this will be something we can do on consent. So we have a long calendar tonight, so I'm suggesting that we may want to move it to another Well, we'll put on agenda setting and we'll move it on and we'll have a deal with the city manager. So right now we will. I guess we'll just pull it for tonight and move it on to another agenda. Thank you all on that issue. Okay, moving on to Item six business items. We have sister city, Qashqai, title. Project, Mike Kelly. |
| 00:33:25.02 | Unknown | Good evening, Mr. Mayor and council members. I'm here tonight representing the Sausalito Sister Cities program. And as many of you know, we have three sister cities, Sakai de Japan, Vinha da Mar, Chile, and our newest, Qashqai, Portugal. We started that process back in 2012, as I recall, and may have completed at the end of that year or early 2013. Anyway, we signed what's called a twinning agreement, and we are officially sister cities. So Qashqash is a town of about 400,000 people compared to our 7,500. they are very generous and early on I should say just for history's sake, Sausalito has a long heritage of Portuguese. Portuguese came here both as fishermen, as ranchers, raised cattle on the hillsides and there's a deep connection to Portugal in that regard. And so there's a group of folks that basically have the IDES Hall and every year stage at least two or three ceremonies to replicate what goes on with the Portuguese community in Sausalito. And that group of people really made the first attempt to try to join Qashqai and Sausalito. They were successful at that. And then they were offered, that group, before we really considered it at the City Sister Program, they were offered from Qashqais a gift, the gift being stones called calcitis. Calcitis stones are very prevalent in Europe. |
| 00:34:31.52 | Betsy Stroman | of the |
| 00:35:21.17 | Unknown | They go back to the Roman times. They're basically often granite or limestone or just stones that have been polished and put together, and then they're more or less cemented into a pattern, and you find them all over European cities. So they offered us some calcitis, about $30,000 or $40,000 worth of calcitis. And that was about a year or a year and a half ago. And since that time we've been struggling to not accept those calcitis because We didn't know what we would do with them when they came here. So lately, we decided to try to see if there was some place where those calcitis could be used in the city and give them some recognition, as Sakaidae has some recognition with cherry tree plantings. Vineyard Amar, of course, has a park. So we looked at several different places. Most all of them would have been highly, we thought, highly controversial. I'm not sure. They were in Gabrielson Park and other places near the Spinnaker and so on. So with the help of a couple of people, including Bill Werner, and his architectural skills, we began to say that maybe there's a place for them located by the restrooms, the new restrooms and the plaza that fits in front of the Bank of America. So with that in mind, Bill drew up a plan which would show how the calzadas would look, and they would be what's called a... What is this called? Compass Rose. And it looks something like this, okay? Compass Rose is a nautical thing that goes back to the Middle Ages and it shows the points of the compass and so on. So the calcitis would be tailored to make that kind of a plan work. there and he actually drew another drawing which showed how it might fit on Anchor Street And I can get this open here. as well. |
| 00:37:37.86 | Unknown | So there are the new restrooms. This is the B of A building, and here is the plaza that he would design or has designed as a preliminary that would show how that might be used. So what I'm here tonight to do is just give you the information, ask you. We have contacted Qashqais and said we can't accept the stones yet. We have a planning process in Sausalito that is long established where we're going to have various bodies look at it and talk about it and the citizens talk about it and so on. And then if it passes through all those bodies and everybody kind of agrees, then we would be able to accept the stones and put them into place. They're willing to send not only the stones, but also a worker person to come over and supervise the construction and the laying of the stones. So with all that being said, Bill's on vacation, I think, back east someplace, so he couldn't be here tonight. But Bill and I have sort of headed up a two-man straw committee to see if there is indeed an interest in doing that and improving that plaza. We're at the very preliminary stages of it. We've had no public meetings, but we've talked to several people here in Sausalito. Shelby Van Meter, who has been very much involved in the beautification of Sausalito, and we talked with some of those folks, and by and large have gotten their interest in looking at it further. So the idea here would be that we would start a process, get the drawings refined, submit an application, and then it would go through Landmarks Board Planning Commission and City Council with all the necessary hearings and so on so that's that's for you I guess to deliberate and decide if that's okay we hope that you would at least entertain the idea and let us see if it has legs. It would, I think, provide a really nice plaza in place of what is now a bunch of kind of uneven bricks and really not much of a welcome place. And it would also compliment the restroom, we think, and give a resting place after you've rested in the restroom. So with that, I'll entertain any questions or, |
| 00:40:00.95 | Councilmember Pfeiffer | I have some questions. So as you know, Mike, I was part of the first delegation to go to Qashqai, and it was just such a memorable visit. And it's just such a wonderful city, and just a great group with the sister city as well. So this is the first I'm hearing about the Kasaitis stones. So it sounds really intriguing. What color are the stones in your mind? |
| 00:40:25.90 | Unknown | They can be any color. They can manufacture them in different colors, color schemes. If you would go to Google and Google, just type in calcitis, you'll get Wikipedia and a bunch of other pictures showing how they made them with serpents in them and people in them and so on and so on. They're kind of everywhere and they're used as a decoration as well as sidewalks and plazas and so on. So it could be anything. This was just the idea here because it had a nautical connection in the compass rose. And it's pretty standard. You see that on cartographers, people that used to draw things for the shippers back in the 1400s, 1500s, |
| 00:41:04.17 | Betsy Stroman | you |
| 00:41:09.40 | Unknown | would put those on the map showing the orientation of the land based on the points on the compass. |
| 00:41:14.95 | Councilmember Pfeiffer | Yeah, I really like the compass and the nautical theme. This letter, did we just got this letter tonight? Is there a reference to cost here? Is that it will cost over 100,000? Did I read that right? |
| 00:41:30.49 | Unknown | Did you read that right? We just pulled that out of the air. Frankly, we don't know what it will cost yet. But my sense is that it's somewhere between- |
| 00:41:33.46 | Councilmember Pfeiffer | I'm not. |
| 00:41:38.14 | Councilmember Pfeiffer | Would there be fundraising or? |
| 00:41:40.23 | Unknown | Yeah, it's somewhere between $100,000, $200,000. It depends on the amount of engineering we have to do and what else is there. Bill's idea is to have a depression so that you could actually sit around the circle there. So this would facilitate- |
| 00:41:55.57 | Councilmember Pfeiffer | So this would facilitate kind of the original, I know at one point Bill did a design for the plaza when we were looking at the restroom. Right. And yeah, okay, all right. |
| 00:42:03.86 | Unknown | Right. Right. Yeah, he feels it would compliment the restroom In a very big way. |
| 00:42:10.01 | Unknown | Thank you. |
| 00:42:10.12 | Councilmember Pfeiffer | Okay. |
| 00:42:10.35 | Unknown | Thank you. |
| 00:42:10.39 | Councilmember Pfeiffer | Thank you. |
| 00:42:10.40 | Unknown | Thank you. |
| 00:42:11.06 | Councilmember Pfeiffer | Okay, those were my questions, just one clarification, and then I have a comment just for the- |
| 00:42:17.22 | Adam Politzer | Mr. Mayor, can I just, because I think there was another question there that may got missed. The question is where is that $100,000 coming from or if it's more than $100,000. |
| 00:42:30.91 | Unknown | We were going to take up a collection tonight. No, we don't know. We'd have to raise the funds somehow, and that's part of the process. The SOSA Sister Cities program has been pretty good at raising money, but all of it goes to our programs. So this would have to be a special event. We'd probably want to involve anybody we can throughout the city and maybe beyond. Maybe some agencies would get Marin County to give us some dough. Who knows? So that would be part of the plan is how do we finance it before we get too far down the road. Thank you. |
| 00:43:09.72 | Unknown | If you look under Cascades Portugal, you'll see Cascades City Hall. They have that right in front of their city hall. In fact, they are there. They look like waves because it's built right on the right on the ocean. |
| 00:43:24.77 | Councilmember Pfeiffer | I'd also say that in Cascade, they had a very large plaque in their square, the American flag in Sausalito. And it's the only, at least at that time, we were the only American sister city that they had. So that's kind of interesting. My one comment, and perhaps this is more for staff. it's actually a question for staff, is I know the Arts Commission, when we were going through the mermaid statue, created a policy for accepting public art. Now, I don't know if this qualifies because they're stones and actually they're going to be you know, created into art. anyway i just thought i'd i'd share that as something staff might take a look at if it and determine whether or not it would apply i don't know if it would |
| 00:44:18.76 | Adam Krivacci | Okay. |
| 00:44:20.86 | Mayor Theodore | Any other council questions? Okay. We'll move on to public comment on this item. Would anyone else from the public like to speak on this issue? Okay, seeing none, we'll bring it up here for comment. And I take it, and Mike, really all you're asking for us at this point is to approve the letter that we're gonna send, which accepts their offer subject to our process. Okay. |
| 00:44:41.57 | Unknown | THE END OF THE |
| 00:44:41.77 | Betsy Stroman | Thank you. |
| 00:44:46.80 | Mayor Theodore | So comment. |
| 00:44:49.10 | Councilmember Pfeiffer | Well, I just got the letter, and I confess that I haven't read it thoroughly, but it looks like it covers everything, and it explains that we have a process that we need to go through in terms of determining approval and public outreach and everything. So I think that's really key, that before we... We go forward with this, especially with respect to the costing and everything that we have those things worked out. |
| 00:45:20.36 | Mayor Theodore | Any other comments? |
| 00:45:21.72 | Unknown | I just only have a comment just for knowledge that the Portuguese community was here before the city of Sausalito became a city. Sausalito Star is, I believe, 122 years old in the Portuguese community. They came here 127 years ago. So I think it's a justified connection. Thank you. And besides the goodwill, it just I think it'd be an excellent addition to Brits in front of B of A. |
| 00:46:00.76 | Councilmember Pfeiffer | I'll say one more thing. I think any time we can integrate art into the public space is a good thing. And of course, you know, it's got to be tempered with outreach and public input and our processes and the fundraising. But I think if it can come together, it's a good thing. |
| 00:46:19.18 | Mayor Theodore | I AGREE WITH COUNCIL MEMBER PFEIFER ON THAT AND OF COURSE WE HAVE TO GO THROUGH OUR PROCESS BECAUSE MANY GOOD THINGS IN SAUCELETO HAVE TO GO THROUGH THE PROCESS AND THERE ARE DIFFERENCES OPINION ON IT SO IT'S I REALLY WANT TO THANK MIKE AND THE WHOLE TEAM AND THE SISTER CITIES AND BILL FOR WORKING ON THIS AND UM And we'll, I think, I think it'll be a great thing. We're going to have to go through the process. We have to budget the money, but I think ready to send that letter and move to the next phase. So we have a motion on this, I think Well, there's one, but I think it would probably be a good idea that we, we move to approve sending this letter and have me sign it. So can, can I have a motion? So moved. |
| 00:46:57.63 | Unknown | SECOND. |
| 00:46:58.04 | Mayor Theodore | Thank you. |
| 00:46:58.17 | Unknown | Thank you. |
| 00:46:58.19 | Mayor Theodore | Thank you. All in favor? Aye. Aye. That's approved unanimously. Okay, thank you. |
| 00:47:23.65 | Mayor Theodore | Charlie Francis. |
| 00:47:31.57 | Leslie Johnson | Thank you. |
| 00:47:31.59 | Unknown | is like. |
| 00:47:32.26 | Unknown | Thank you. |
| 00:47:37.51 | Leslie Johnson | you |
| 00:47:40.83 | Leslie Johnson | First time at this computer here. |
| 00:47:47.57 | Leslie Johnson | Voila, presentation. Any moment? Hello, Mr. Mayor. |
| 00:47:53.17 | Councilmember Pfeiffer | Thank you. |
| 00:47:53.18 | Leslie Johnson | Hello, Mr. Mayor, good evening city council members, city staff, community of Sausalito. My name is Leslie Johnson, and I'm the property manager for the MLK campus located in Sausalito. The purpose of the presentation this evening is to go ahead and review the findings and recommendations of the comprehensive facility condition assessment recently conducted at the campus. I'll go ahead and use the acronyms CFCA when referring to comprehensive facility condition assessment because my tongue gets a little tied on that one. The goal at the conclusion of this evening's overview is to give city council a clear understanding of the current condition of the MLK property and the, I'm sorry. The purpose, excuse me. is to give a clear understanding of the current condition of the MLK and the capital investment required to make the necessary corrections as outlined in the CFCA. This evening's presentation is for informational purposes only. There's no motion required. And strategy for funding will be a component of budget discussions at a future date. Before I introduce Faithwell and Gould, the firm that conducted the CFCA, for the community members who may not be familiar with the MLK property, I'd like to give a brief history and overview of the purpose of the CFCA. The MLK campus is a city owned property comprised of 17 acres of public land located at the north end of the city. It's located just off of Bridgeway behind the Shell Station between Ebb Tide and Coloma Street. Originally, the property was developed by the military in the efforts to support the shipbuilding process here in Sausalito. The campus included a cafeteria and a commissary in building one, and building seven was, or is still affectionately called, the bus barn. Following the war, the Sausalito School District purchased the property, and in the 40s and 50s, they constructed the remaining buildings on the property and then operated as the Richardson Bay School and then the MLK School. In 1987, the city acquired the property through a lease purchase agreement. And today, seven of the 11 buildings are leased by the city of Esaçalito to a number of tenants. The uses include two schools, several cottage industries, and artist studios. The remainder of the property is dedicated to community recreational purposes. We have a track and field, basketball courts, tennis courts, a dog park, and a gymnasium. The city of Sausalito recognizes the importance of this property and that it's a valuable asset to the city. It's included in the priority list calling for a long-term operational plan to rehabilitate the MLK property and preserve it. Over the years, we have been chasing leaks, we've been patching the roof as necessary, making repairs and facility improvements on a reactive, or basically in a reactive manner, without a long term plan for preserving the property in good condition for years to come. In February of this year, the Sausalito City Council approved a CFCA for the property. The purpose for developing the CFCA is to really get a clear understanding of the current condition of the property. It's to obtain complete building and property evaluations, detailed corrective and maintenance recommendations, prioritization and budget estimates for the corrective work, and a schedule for completion of all recommended corrective work. |
| 00:52:08.47 | Leslie Johnson | This allows the city to create a roadmap for the long term preservation and the capital investment of the MLK property. To provide you with an executive summary of the MLK facility condition assessment, I would like to introduce you to two of the Faithful and Gould team members who, performed the thorough on-site evaluation and prepared the reports that you're about to review. May I please introduce Dave Hills, who is the lead assessor. Thank you. and Dean Leonard, who is the project director. |
| 00:52:46.98 | Dave Hills | Thank you, Leslie. Mr. Mayor, Councilor. We'll go through a series of slides that are directly related to our findings. This first slide talks specifically to the facility cost needs index, so FCNI. Sorry, there's lots of acronyms, but to Leslie's point, then you don't have to try and remember all the full words. Anyhow, this is kind of important. Actually, it's really important. The FCNI, as you can see there, is your deferred maintenance, your capital renewal dollars, and your plant adaptation dollars divided by your CRV, which is your current replacement value. And it gives you one of the four ratings below, good, fair, poor, or very poor. If I may, I'd like to move out here a little farther so I can look to the screen. So in any case, you can see on the left the... |
| 00:53:40.24 | Mayor Theodore | Would you take, would you carry the mic with you? So we're recorded and many were followed and |
| 00:53:48.25 | Dave Hills | Okay. One minute. It's okay, I can do this. |
| 00:54:05.77 | Dave Hills | Thank you. So this is a list of the buildings on the left-hand side. Their current replacement value, column two, the gross square footage of each of the respective buildings, the immediate capital needs, which is commonly referred to deferred maintenance, then your total capital needs over 10 years, and then the FCNI rating, which was on the previous slide. The importance in this slide will show you the color coding good, fair, poor, very poor. You can see there's quite a bit of red in the two columns, both in the current year of CNI ratings and over the 10-year period. So this is the same information but put in a percentage chart campus wide. So you've got the percentages that correlate to the colors. You can see the majority of them are on the wrong side of 50% of the poor and very poor currently. This is what the pie chart would look like if the decision was made to spend no monies now at all. Deferred maintenance, capital dollars, et cetera. Ten years from now, you're down to two colors, and you've got 82% of those buildings that will just continue to degenerate. This is more of a positive slide. This is what you'll look like right now. You're basically, you're at the spike. This is fully funded over the 10 year study period. You can see on your color codes again that other than a spike about two thirds of the way across, you're where you wanna be, whether it's this facility or any city owned facility. This is the same principle, but if the decision's made not to fund it. You'll see that progressively over the 10-year study period, you just start to climb. Now, it's interesting. The next slide may look similar, but I want to point out before we go to it, this is if it's not funded at all. So the next slide is if the decision's made to spend some funds on the deferred maintenance, the priorities one and two in the next couple of years. You'll see that it doesn't escalateate near as high but you'll get the first couple years to kind of deal with the first priority ones and twos the deferred maintenance items This next chart here looks a lot different than the first one you saw that only had the two colors. But this is based on the deferred maintenance funding only, not the capital dollars. But again, it would get you over the hump, but not necessarily the ultimate. |
| 00:56:13.56 | Betsy Stroman | This is... |
| 00:56:31.99 | Dave Hills | This is ideal. Basically, it shows you the 10-year, or real, pardon me, this is the 10-year expenditure forecast in real dollars. It's extrapolated or populated right from the information that we've gathered on all the buildings, which include everything from the interior, exterior, mechanical, electrical, the hardscapes. The field house encompasses the tennis court, the basketball court, the baseball diamonds, the soccer pitch. So you know you've got quite an area over there so yeah the the number is pretty high the front end but over the ten years you'll see that the the planning works out. So here now this is the ten-year study period based on the per building so there's no magic to the colors other than each one needed its own color but you can see that the the building wise in relation to the chart ironically I just referenced all the playing fields etc you can see building 11 the field house the reason it's ironically it's probably one of the smallest buildings outside of the transformer building in squares but we we put all the fields and the playing courts with the field house where they belong, and those site development dollars are pretty high. Some of the other ones are a little higher. You'll see in a minute in the subsequent slides, roofing is an issue. Ironically, we're onto the roofing slide. So we put some key finding pictures together instead of more graphs. We figured by now you'd probably seen enough graphs. This is a cross section of some of the buildings of some of the roofing problems that are present at the end of February. This next one touches on two or three topics. The top two left slides, the top left and the middle of the top row, are both building two. They have some great issues, and to the point that the building can't drain properly, and we've actually got a small section on the left corner. The floor is dropping. This is an asphalt area between one and two, and it rains. You need hip w you need hip waders the water runs right through there the next slide in the bottom left are the steel frame windows ironically earlier before the council meeting I started I noticed that I have an analogy here you have the same windows so there definitely need to be upgraded the steel frame windows are fairly vintage the next picture is the ceiling in the gymnasium in an area that wasn't too bad but the tiles are falling ironically the next one is most of those buildings are wood frame building seven that Leslie referenced as the bus barn has no fire detection and nor does it have LED exit lights that would be a paper exit light up in the left-hand corner. The next picture is one of two transformer buildings. This one you can actually see. The other one's actually built into the hill now, but it wasn't originally. So both of them are in a situation. The water runs through them. The next one is the asphalt roadway, we'll call it, or entranceway into the tennis court. Obviously the bottom left is tennis court then you've got the basketball court and if you look hard you might be able to see but that's a outdoor running track and believe it or not there's actually a concrete curb inside and outside that track but you can't see it. It's overgrown. So moving on to this slide here now, this, back to what I referenced earlier, this is by the actual actions. So you can see the site improvement number on the right, far right, the orange, and then the roofing, bar none. They're the front runners for the expenses. You can see the other ones. I won't go too fast here if you're trying to take a look at this. Foundations is next to construction minimal superstructure again minimal exterior enclosure some windows doors roofing we touched on interior construction I got to be honest you have some incredible tenants there their due diligence inside the buildings and the in the private schools are just second to none they're well maintained-maintained, painted. Interior finishes, again, that varies, depends on the building. Plumbing was minimal. HVAC, you've got some rooftop units that ironically all went in at the same time, and believe it or not, they all ironically have the same problems. So they're due. Electrical is just some outdated panels. So now this one gets into the prioritization of work. You can see in the top left priority one two and three. So again by color you've got priority one priority two priority three. So if you remember the earlier slides when we talked about deferred maintenance, if the deferred maintenance dollars are available relative to our findings, it basically for the sake of argument would take all the priority ones and twos out of the equation. So your priority threes tend to be your year two to Okay? Thank you. Needs are sort of by plan type. Again, this is more for understanding for the financiers and the building operators. Deferred maintenance, you've heard me speak of that already. Routine, that's your painting, line striping on parking lots, so on and so forth. Capital renewal, years 2 to 10. Energy and sustainability, that would fall into some of your HVAC upgrades. Environmental, I don't believe there was any on that site. And functionality, let's use a good example. Functionality would be like the building 7, the bus barn. HVAC upgrades, environmental, I don't believe there was any on that site, and functionality. Let's use a good example. Functionality would be like the Building 7, the bus barn, not having a fire alarm control panel or fire detection. That's definitely a functionality issue. expenditure by plan type, full campus, so you've got your capital renewal, deferred maintenance, so on and so forth. So this one here, basically, I apologize. I don't know if you've ever seen these numbers ahead of time or not. So don't shoot the messenger. This is the findings. The total is a little over $3 million. Immediate capital needs, in other words, your deferred maintenance, 1.2 and change, and then 1.7 moving forward. We've made a note here. The site improvements and roofing, those two dollars of loan are substantial. substantial and then your deferred maintenance costs first year and then the last line is your capital expenditure costs years to and forward ironically unless they put this slide together it turned out to be much more information than just numbers those the top right hand corner is a set of the doors actually for one of the transformer buildings. It kind of speaks for itself. The next picture is actually the fire control panel room in building two. And the last picture, I can't tell you honestly where it's at because I'll be honest, when we were here in February, Leslie arranged sunshine, so it wasn't raining. But I can only assume that's probably next to building two, or building one. |
| 01:03:22.44 | Dave Hills | Thank you. |
| 01:03:22.49 | Unknown | Thank you. |
| 01:03:22.54 | Dave Hills | That's it for my section. |
| 01:03:29.16 | Leslie Johnson | I'll just finish up here. Because the, thank you so much. The next steps of this project would be to approve a strategy to fund the MLK capital investments required to address the deficiencies and implement the necessary corrections as outlined this evening. Some options that may be discussed would be a pay-as-you-go type of funding or the potential issuance of two certificates of participation or one certificate of participation for the entire amount to be utilized over the next three years. Again, this is for budget discussions at a later date. I just wanted to introduce you to Faithful and Gould, give you an overview, and hopefully we've given you enough information to have a clear understanding of the current condition of the property. and again provide you with enough information to move forward in the budget discussions. Please feel free, we'd like to open up to any questions while we have Faithful and Gould here or city staff with regard to tonight's presentation. |
| 01:04:37.53 | Councilmember Pfeiffer | So I was just curious with the lease with some of the schools, did we include, is there some sort of partnership with respect to maintenance in those leases? For the schools? |
| 01:04:54.73 | Leslie Johnson | For the Lycée Francais, they take care of their own maintenance through the buildings three through five, and New Village School is the same. |
| 01:04:54.75 | Councilmember Pfeiffer | Mm-hmm. |
| 01:05:04.32 | Mary Wagner | And if Council Member Pfeiffer, if I could address that as well, because I interpreted your question a little bit differently than I think than Leslie did. So certainly the interior of the structures, I believe that the responsibility for the interior is the tenants, for all of your tenants. There are a lot of responsibilities for the exterior that are the cities, and we can give you a more comprehensive answer to that. I don't have the lease in front of me. But exterior doorways, exterior windows, roof, HVAC, those are city issues that are set forth in the lease that way. |
| 01:05:38.76 | Councilmember Pfeiffer | Okay, so I think I'd like to take a look at the lease then |
| 01:05:44.48 | Mary Wagner | Sure, and as you know, we use a fairly standardized format for our MLK leases. They're all very consistent, but I'm happy to send you a representative example if you don't have one from your prior discussions on these leases. |
| 01:05:58.80 | Councilmember Pfeiffer | Yeah, I didn't keep a copy. I'd be interested in seeing the lease for the main tenants, specifically the French school, with respect to the exterior. We would be happy to provide you with a copy of that, Councilmember Frecker. Okay, thank you. Because I know that, for example, well, anyway, that was my question. Thank you. |
| 01:06:10.65 | Betsy Stroman | I, I, |
| 01:06:10.99 | Mary Wagner | We would be happy to provide you with a copy of that, Councilmember Frecker. |
| 01:06:20.15 | Jill Hoffman | I have a question for the property manager. And keep in mind, you know, my limited knowledge of classes for rents and things like that so pardon me for you know this is a stupid question but you know my limited experience is that you your rent is based on the certain class type of your building in other words an a b or c class building and that's the basis for your rent going forward in your lease and so will these improvements change the class of the the buildings in other words they going to be improved beyond the class for which the category they were rented. |
| 01:06:56.55 | Leslie Johnson | That's actually a very good question. I don't believe so. The rents are based on a fair rent basis, given that we have several artists and such on the property. The improvements that we are recommending, or that have been recommended, are I think, and maybe Faithful Gold can help with this question, very basic and structural. Most of it deals with the roof and such, I think. And maybe Charlie Francis, if let's |
| 01:07:20.34 | Jill Hoffman | Charlie. You may not be prepared for that question, but that's something I would look at when we talk about it in a budget is, you know, if you've negotiated a rent for a Class B type building and now we're improving it to a Class A type building. |
| 01:07:22.13 | Leslie Johnson | You may not be prepared for that. |
| 01:07:29.88 | Betsy Stroman | Indeed. |
| 01:07:33.74 | Jill Hoffman | Going forward, is that an investment we want to make now or closer to the time that we renegotiate the lease? And that's a policy question that we'll want to address later. And I'm happy to do that later. |
| 01:07:44.53 | Lorna Newland | you |
| 01:07:46.99 | Jill Hoffman | Sure. |
| 01:07:53.69 | Dave Hills | Thank you. That's good. Okay, so thank you. Thank you. I understand where the question's coming from. I guess it's almost a little bit as the glass half empty or half full. If you don't spend the money to retain the integrity of the buildings, what level of leasees you're going to ever have in the building will almost come to a secondary point, if not mute. Because when you start talking roofs and superstructures to retain their integrity, whether they don't leak and so on and so forth, you have the responsibility as a landlord first to retain the tenants you have, never mind changing the classification. But secondly, I think the other thing that's really significant in this dollar value that I want to make sure that's out there is that the dollar value to repair some of the shared facilities, let's say the gymnasium, Building 7, the tennis court, the basketball court, they're long past the point that you can just skin these things now. The tennis court and basketball court literally have to be completely dug up, new sub bases put in, and new playing courts surfaced. And that's why I wanted the opportunity to answer your question because I totally understand why you're asking it's a great question but when you have the opportunity to share the our findings you'll see how the dollars have broke down and which buildings and so on and so forth and it's such a great area it really is with the you know the track and the soccer pitch and so on and so forth. When those monies are spent, that could end up opening opportunities for the residents of the CSUS leader that don't currently exist because there's a huge risk factor, particularly on the tennis court. |
| 01:08:30.16 | Unknown | THE END OF THE END OF THE |
| 01:09:37.18 | Dave Hills | Does that help? |
| 01:09:37.96 | Jill Hoffman | Yeah, that does, and that breaks it down for me clearly. So I think what I'm talking about is not the functionalality of a building, roofs I get. fire systems, absolutely. But when you're talking about And you know, a gym, a tennis court, and basketball courts, right now, They're challenged and that's what they paid for. And I assume they're the least. And so if we go in there with a new million dollar track, You know, and I don't know, and this is, you know, something that I want to look at when we're talking about do we want to spend more on that or not. |
| 01:10:06.28 | Unknown | Thank you. |
| 01:10:10.43 | Mary Wagner | And just, Vice Mayor Hoffman, if I could briefly address your issue. They're not part of the lease. The track, the gym, the tennis courts are not part of any lease to any tenant. They are, if a tenant desires to utilize those facilities, they go through, on an exclusive basis, they go through Park and Rec Department, like anybody else, to rent them. Okay. |
| 01:10:10.98 | Jill Hoffman | both Yeah. TRACK. |
| 01:10:15.10 | Betsy Stroman | Thank you. |
| 01:10:19.29 | Betsy Stroman | They are... |
| 01:10:31.62 | Dave Hills | When we performed our assessments, Leslie arranged the fellow's title, but I think he was fairly senior, with Parks and Rec. And he came and spent some time with us, gave us a little bit of history on the Parks and Rec aspects of the facilities, the tennis court, the track, the soccer pitch, and so forth, which is good because our assessments are based on what we see at that time and that day, et cetera, but we'd still like to know the history. Like for instance, the soccer pitch has underground irrigation. You wanna find out when did it get put in? Has there been issues? So it was pretty all encompassing because the long-term investment for the city, especially again, the gym is shared. |
| 01:10:35.52 | Mary Wagner | Thank you. |
| 01:11:07.31 | Dave Hills | So it was interesting because when you leave the schools, and I stress that the due diligence on those tenants are just, it's phenomenal. When you get into a shared facility like the gym, it's like, oh, so who runs this? Because you see it. |
| 01:11:20.85 | Jill Hoffman | Thank you. Yeah, so that would be something when we're talking about how to prioritize. Those are going to be, I'm going to have some more questions on that, but you've answered them for right now, thanks. |
| 01:11:31.98 | Mayor Theodore | I do have a related question to that. I didn't notice it when I reviewed it before as well, is if we do nothing in 10 years, we're poor and very poor. But has it been looked at at what point in time if we don't spend this money that we would be in violation of our obligations as a landlord to maintain the property? Has that been looked at like we're if the property deteriorates up to a certain point, then we're going to be facing actions by the tenants that we not properly maintain the property? |
| 01:12:02.04 | Dave Hills | Thank you. |
| 01:12:02.09 | Mayor Theodore | Thank you. |
| 01:12:02.11 | Dave Hills | I'm looking right at the lawyer when I answer this question because actually that's more of a legal entity question within your own ranks than us as consultants because she would know where that line is. You have a legal responsibility as a landlord to provide roofs that don't leak and doors that latch and so on and so forth. You've got to remember, we're more sustainability and life cycle, if you will. That's an easier way to put at it. Maybe in a twisted way with yours, with Building 7, correct me if I'm wrong, Leslie, about a month or so, of course, after we finished the assessments, the fire marshal walked through Building 7 with Leslie. And let's just say to a minimum we communicated a lot that day because that falls under Mr. Mayor that type of question you're asking where's that line so building 7 no detection paper exit signs so on and so forth |
| 01:12:58.96 | Councilmember Pfeiffer | Yes, so I know that there are some, like the priority one and then the priority two and then the priority three. And I know that some of priority one are like really absolutely critical and urgent. For example, the fire issue you mentioned. One of the options, and perhaps we'll get this into the details during the budget, but one of the options talked about pay as you go, and it was insufficient to cover priority one. And one of the things that I've been doing go, and it was insufficient to cover priority one. And one of the things I would be interested in knowing is, you know, how would you know, how far is that gap in terms of the insufficiency? You know, are we talking about getting at least 80% of it done? You know, so I would like to see when it comes to the budget and going into the details, not tonight, but perhaps later, a little bit more detail on the pay as you go. If we were to live within our means, you know, how, what could we do with the cash flow we currently have coming in? And it's just a request. It's more of a quest, not really a request. |
| 01:14:02.78 | Dave Hills | Thank you. |
| 01:14:02.83 | Unknown | Thank you. |
| 01:14:02.95 | Dave Hills | It's a great question. Remember, these are just slides, and they have the full comprehensive report that you have access to, I'm sure, that will actually give you that information. |
| 01:14:03.03 | Unknown | Thank you. |
| 01:14:03.07 | Councilmember Pfeiffer | to grow. |
| 01:14:14.39 | Dave Hills | like where the line in the sand is for priority one, the total value of the priority ones, total priority twos, so on and so forth. |
| 01:14:23.92 | Jill Hoffman | Do we have, as part of your report, do we have a listing, a breakdown by building of the life cycle of the building and where we're at in that? |
| 01:14:33.00 | Dave Hills | Well, I guess. If you put dollars to years, we could use this one. Again, you only have the quick overview slides in this versus the actual report. But the answer is yes, because each building has its own FCNI, okay? So I don't know if we had that slide. By building, Dean? Here we go, that is a great question. Okay. |
| 01:15:06.31 | Dave Hills | and assess buildings and I don't know how to turn the mic off. Okay. So there you go here. So I believe this was your question. So if you look at the, this is actually a really great slide. Probably if all the slides are up that you've seen, this has the most information. Building name, the CRV, so on and so forth. So I believe you asked, do we know in the 10-year and or now? And you do, because you look at the last two columns. So you've got your current FCNI rating per building and over 10 years. So ironically, case in point, if you look at the two transformer buildings, I mean, a picture's worth a thousand words. Look at their rating. So I realize those are the extremes. But let's go back, I believe, to the feel of the questions I'm starting to hear. If you look at your leasee buildings, they're pretty good. Thank you. extremes, but let's go back I believe to the feel of the questions I'm starting to hear. If you look at your leasy buildings, they're pretty good. You know, 9.49, look at the, you know, buildings four and five. Those are incredible. Those are in really good shape right now. And then 6.65 and 9.06. |
| 01:16:07.27 | Jill Hoffman | So am I, and again, my inexperience is showing, but can I look at that and say, okay, this building 10 that's got this poor rating, is it the life cycle? Is it at the end of its life cycle? Right. I mean, do we want to even put any money into it or do we need to just? You know. tear it down and build up. |
| 01:16:28.14 | Dave Hills | We're hiring you now. Thank you. |
| 01:16:29.90 | Jill Hoffman | Yeah. |
| 01:16:29.98 | Dave Hills | Yeah. That's a great question. With FCNI at that rate, neither of those buildings, they're probably well beyond putting any money in. Yeah, 60% is the line in the sand that you would not invest any more money in. |
| 01:16:43.97 | Jill Hoffman | Great. Okay, that does it. So let me ask you this to our staff. Are any of those buildings historic? Have they been designated historic because they have a connection with the Murrenship or something? |
| 01:16:56.91 | Mary Wagner | I don't believe so, Vice Mayor Hoffman. They may be, because of their age, they would have to be reviewed before they were modified, but that's certainly something we could get back to you on as well. That would be... |
| 01:17:11.19 | Jill Hoffman | I'm concerned that I would. |
| 01:17:11.78 | Mary Wagner | Thank you. |
| 01:17:11.93 | Adam Politzer | Two different questions there, have they been designated historic and are they historic? So they had not been designated historic, but in a report that we had a few years ago, |
| 01:17:13.06 | Mary Wagner | Yep. |
| 01:17:22.63 | Adam Politzer | that included the history of the Marin ship, it extended to MLK. And as those pictures demonstrated from Leslie, that was part of the boat building error. So there is some historic significance to it, but we have not taken any action to designate it as historic facility. |
| 01:17:41.92 | Jill Hoffman | Thank you. Thank you. |
| 01:17:43.77 | Dave Hills | If I may too, in closing on this slide, there's a difference in the type of building construction, so that's the other thing too, why you see such a huge variance in the FCNI. Ironically, if you look at building 8, the boiler house, you go, 24.98, that's not good. But compared to the two transformer buildings, it's much better. But the reality is the boiler building is literally a solid concrete building. Concrete floors, walls, concrete roof. The only issue is there's two massive blitters in it that would cost you a few dollars to have it going there with a cutting torch. But the building itself, integrity-wise, is probably the best building on the campus. But it's full of lead paint. |
| 01:17:43.84 | Jill Hoffman | Thank you. |
| 01:17:43.86 | Adam Politzer | Yeah. |
| 01:18:23.89 | Dave Hills | So you see how it works. |
| 01:18:29.35 | Councilmember Pfeiffer | I have a follow-up question. We've got some spreadsheets that are like 0.3 font. And is this the detail of what this means, this breakdown? Because I mean, I couldn't read it. It was, what is this? |
| 01:18:44.46 | Unknown | Thank you. |
| 01:18:47.33 | Councilmember Pfeiffer | Is this the detail of, do you take the immediate capital needs and you break it down? Is that what this is? Because I just couldn't read it. The font was.3 or something. Yeah. |
| 01:18:55.98 | Dave Hills | Thank you. Yeah, probably because I can't see what it is from here. Every building has its own CapEx. Then what I believe you might have, unless it's on 1117 or maybe even a blueprint page would be better, it's really tough to read because all the information gets put on a CapEx. But at the end of the day, every one of those buildings we provided a CapEx, and Leslie has access or actually has those. So if you had a specific question, let's say I think earlier you were asked about Building 3, you could actually give you the capex just for Building 3. And it shows you every asset, what the cost is over the 10 year period, et cetera. So this is 1117 here. So it's probably a lot easier to read. |
| 01:19:22.91 | Tim Schmitz | Thank you. |
| 01:19:22.93 | Unknown | Okay. |
| 01:19:27.05 | Unknown | Yeah. |
| 01:19:31.74 | Unknown | Okay. |
| 01:19:38.36 | Councilmember Pfeiffer | Okay. Yeah, yeah, okay. Thank you. Yeah, I'd be interested in that |
| 01:19:45.01 | Mayor Theodore | ANY OTHER QUESTIONS? OKAY, WE'LL OPEN IT UP TO PUBLIC COMMENT. ANYONE LIKE TO COMMENT ON THIS? |
| 01:19:56.66 | Peter Van Meter | Peter Van Meter. As one of the volunteers who helped construct the field house, which is a, as you recall, is a Rotary Club project. and it's probably I lose track of dates maybe five to seven years old, I simply request for reporting purposes and that be disaggregated from the field work because there is certainly no Uh, separate work of any material. amount that needs to be done in the field house structure itself. being a new building. So the fact that evidently when I think he heard that he'd lumped all the playing fields and all of that into that category. So I would respectfully request that the building itself disaggregated from that figure because I'm sure the building itself being relatively new would not require any work. |
| 01:20:44.47 | Adam Politzer | And Peter, just for the record, it's close to eight years old. uh, Probably closer to nine years old. Anyone else? Lerner? |
| 01:20:54.51 | Mayor Theodore | Thank you. |
| 01:21:05.73 | Lorna Newland | Hi, I'm Lorna Newley. |
| 01:21:06.97 | Lorna Newland | I'm a 21-year homeowner in Sausalito and a small business owner, and I have been a tenant at MLK in the bus barn, Building 7, for nine years. And I would like to commend Leslie on her involvement. I think in my nine years, I've had possibly five different property managers, and she's been very reactive and proactive to tenant needs, and I'm glad she did this to look at the safety of it. I know the whole building had a pretty bad rodent infestation last winter. I had a pretty significant water leak that was not necessarily roof-related, but it was a clogged downspout that came in through the window. But I ended up with about three inches of water in my studio. But what I really would like to talk about is I'm glad we're looking at the safety of the building and especially in Building 7, safety issues with lights and fire exits. And Leslie is very aware of this, too. The ventilation is terrible. So anytime there's anything in the building, it just lurks in the halls, and it doesn't go out because we all, most of us face out to the outside, not to the inside. But my main issue, and I've addressed it with the city for several years now, is about speeding in the parking lot and the inadequate speed limit signs that we have. There's a five-mile-an-hour sign on right on the wall. of the Morton Studio. People don't even see it. It's a small sign, very high up. People go so fast through the parking lot that they don't see it. I face out there. I love where I am. I've seen deer. I've seen coyotes in the field. And I see speeders. And it's not just the Lise school, but that's predominantly what it is. When they're coming in to pick up their children after work or after school or after daycare, that you can tell the parents late because they just fly through. and they did install speed bumps or humps last October but they're very small I was told they cost $10,000 this the the They installed them, but they didn't put up any kind of striping for about a week. And so nobody even knew they were there because it was just blacktop, just like a little... Here. And it doesn't help. So I really think, and also we were promised that somebody from the Licea would be, it would be in their budget for this year, that they would be out by the gate. to Remind their parents. I've gone on the Lise website, and it says five miles an hour to them, but they don't pay attention. But it's not just the parents. It's also people who bring their dogs to the park. It's lacrosse players. I've seen people going to Playland. Pizza delivery. Anyway, so thank you for looking into this. Please put up. I did email again today city council with the information. Thank you. |
| 01:24:16.19 | Mayor Theodore | Thank you. Anyone else like to speak on this issue? Okay, with that, we'll close public comment and bring it back here for Council discussion. Who'd like to start? |
| 01:24:30.38 | Jill Hoffman | I, for discussion, we're not voting on anything today, right? So I've just, you know. |
| 01:24:35.00 | Unknown | I mean, if you're not. If at all. |
| 01:24:36.52 | Jill Hoffman | Beyond my other comments about what I'd like to hear when we're actually talking about prioritizing, those are going to be significant for me. |
| 01:24:37.65 | Unknown | Thank you. |
| 01:24:45.62 | Councilmember Pfeiffer | I'll just comment that MLK is a very important piece of land in Sausalito. It's really important to me and I'm sure to Council to maintain this and to keep it in good repair it's unfortunate that we're we're facing what we are here but it's also really good I want to commend Leslie for you know looking at this and and the consultants for this report I'm looking forward to getting a little bit more detail on the the lease you know we have I know that the for example the dog park which is also part of MLK, but it's more of a community thing. When there's flooding, they do fundraising. They bring in infrastructure. They've really done a lot to improve that area. So I'm just interested in looking at the leases and how we can make sure that we're being a responsible and a good landlord to our tenants. and at the same time that we are looking at this in a responsible way. So I'm also looking forward to seeing how the... The pay-as-you-go approach will work as well. And hopefully we'll be able to, you know, look at something a little bit prudently. Uh. |
| 01:26:22.98 | Unknown | I have nothing much to add except to remind everybody that we have gone through a process of acquiring this asset, MLK. We now fully own it. And as the option part of the option lease now got through, and we're now the complete owner and landlord. And with that, and we're also collecting for large square footage of that property we're collecting pretty much near if not at market rates and at a pretty reasonable market rates at that. Therefore if we want to sustain the asset and be responsible and actually look after our property we've got to invest in it so it doesn't fall down. And one of the most important things is as we've now entered into a phase with MLK where we're certainly cash flow positive because we no longer have the debt service payment on it, I think we've got to ask the question, is there an efficiency to be gained by front-loading this and getting all of the deferred maintenance done in one go? That's an economic and finance analysis that we can discuss at the time of the budget. But if we want to maintain the asset, we have to invest in the property in order to collect the rents that we collect. |
| 01:27:53.38 | Mayor Theodore | Well, I want to thank Leslie and Charlie. I think they've really done a great job in has been in talked about before in both on this presentation, but it, but more importantly, in managing the property, we have two, two excellent anchor tenants that not only are excellent tenants, but add to the community in the schools, the new village school was say school and that we've, um, have a wonderful tenants in the rest of the, um, properties that have added and they're all up to date and we have good solid tenants there. So I want to thank thank them and they've done a great job in the last year or so really bringing that along to the place it is i um echo the comments that the mlk is a a very valuable property for the city it was a great thing that we acquired it AND THAT WE NEED TO INVEST IN. AND OF COURSE, THE DIFFICULT DISCUSSION IS GOING TO COME WHEN WE TALK ABOUT THE MONEY AND WHAT HAS TO BE INVESTED IN IT. BUT IT'S AN IMPORTANT THING THAT WE SHOULD DO. That's it. I think... No other comments with that? I just want to thank everyone and faithful and Gould. And thanks for coming tonight and excellent presentation. So I think we're closed on that item. Thank you. |
| 01:29:00.44 | Unknown | Thank you. |
| 01:29:04.51 | Mayor Theodore | Okay, we move on to item 6C, supplemental budget appropriations to pre-fund the PARS post employment benefit trust. program pension and post retirement health care of plan trust program. That's a mouthful and that's Administrative Services Director Charlie Francis. |
| 01:29:27.16 | Charlie Francis | Okay, good evening, Mr. Mayor, Vice Mayor, members of the council. This is a continuation of an item that we talked about several meetings ago. Several meetings ago, on March 3rd, we authorized establishing both a pension trust fund and an OPEB trust fund. And we'll talk about the purposes of that in a minute. Since that meeting, we've developed investment policies and procedures, restructured duties and responsibilities of the trustee and we'll be bringing that back to the city council in June along with the investment policies and procedures for adoption. But tonight's action is just to approve the initial deposit going into each of the trust funds. So why are we establishing a trust fund now? This was part of that March 3rd meeting that we have GASB, Governmental Accounting Standard Board pronouncements, numbers 45 and 68, that designated that certain pension and OPEB liabilities belong on balance sheet. Because contributions into an irrevocable trust can be considered assets, they will offset any unfunded liabilities that appear on our financial statement. So they're very important for financial positioning. But more important, they become tools. They become tools that will allow us to mitigate volatility risk to pension costs and also allow us to mitigate medical cost inflation, which is usually higher than general inflation, by putting money into an irrevocable trust that can earn a greater rate of return than we can in our typical LEIF and U.S. Treasury portfolio, and so it will stabilize our balance sheet liabilities. You know, GFOA recommends pre-funding these. They consider it a best practice. Credit rating companies look favorably on agencies that do that. So establishing a trust makes sense. It makes financial sense. They consider it a best practice. Credit rating companies look favorably on agencies that do that. So establishing a trust makes sense. It makes financial sense. And I congratulate the council for taking that action to establish the trust in their March 3rd meeting. Another reason why we establish OPEB trust is because it helps us to lower certain liabilities. and in fact a typical actuarial valuation on a pay-as-you-go basis would have a present value of projected benefits of $7.8 million. But if we establish an irrevocable trust, the allowed discount rate done by the actuaries would be 6.5%, and we would lower our current and future liabilities by $3 million on our, which then goes to a reduction in the actuarial liability of $1.4 million, and it also would reduce our annual recorded OPEB expenses. All of that, then, means that the amount of money we put into the trust would stabilize the general fund and the liabilities over time. We talked about it at our last meeting how CalPERS has amortized over 30 years, and there is a 30-year plan to pay off the CalPERS unfunded liability. But there's volatility risk within that because CalPERS assumes an investment rate of return in the 7.5%. Well, we can actually fund our pension costs at a lower assumed rate of return and put the marginal difference between CalPERS 7.5% calculation and our investment returns into the investment trust and then thereby stabilize future general fund contributions. In other words, we will know what our contributions are 30 years in the future. We can plan for those contributions and any shortfalls that CalPERS has would come out of that accumulated balance that we're putting into the irrevocable trust. Thank you. We don't need to go over that. Again, in the irrevocable trust, the city council governs it. They provide the overall governance and establishes the policies to do that. So we've established it. Next meeting, we'll... THE FAMILY. adopt the policies. The city manager and staff have the responsibility to manage the procedures in accordance with your policies. The public agency retirement services, PARS, they're the plan administrator who reports to the city council through the city manager and finance director. U.S. Bank is the custodian and we have not appointed an investment advisor. We'll be recommended an investment advisor at the next meeting. In order to be considered an asset and thereby offset a liability, the irrevocable trust must have an IRS letter ruling. The trust that we established have that. They can only be for retiree pension and health care benefits. That's what you adopted at your last meeting. And it's not accessible by creditors, which is one of the questions that was asked at the last meeting. The other side of it, though, is the assets can be accessed at any time for valid pension and OPEB expenses. So it's not locked away where the city has lost all control over it. If there was a situation where the city needed to pay pension costs or OPEB costs directly out of those trust funds, it can do so. U.S. Bank is pretty well known and well financed bank. And the action tonight is being requested because we have to have two actions. One is to fund the irrevocable trust prior to June 30, 2015, and then to continue funding it after June 30, 2015. And the reason we want to fund it before June 30, 2015, is so our financial statements would reflect that we established the fund We've set aside money and we would stabilize our liabilities. So for the initial deposit to the pension OPEB trust fund, this graph kind of designates that for the past two years and also the current year, we've been setting aside $215,000 in the employee benefit fund for the purpose of... you know, offsetting pension liabilities. So that equals a total of 645,000. Then we have an ongoing contribution of about 200,000 from our general fund to the employee benefit fund, but now we'll be recommending that that would be going into the revocable trust. And in OPEB, in the past we've designated about 1% of salaries or $50,000 a year have been set aside in the employee benefit fund for paying OPEB liabilities. So that's accumulated about $400,000 over the past eight years. The next year we're recommending that that 1% go to 2.5% in order to fully fund the ARC, the future ARC, the annual required contribution for the OPEB cost. So that would make a total initial deposit of 1,045,000 and you can see over on the right of the graph over here that we've accumulated that amount of money and we'd still have remaining balance in the employee benefit fund for the other purposes the employee benefit fund was set up for, which is to cover accumulated leave balances. So the next steps are after tonight, and is to determine our risk tolerance level and asset allocation, in other words, the investment policies and procedures, designate the structure of the trustees' duties, and promulgate the correct financial policies and procedures for the annual contribution amounts to the future, and to do that, we'll be, again, talking with experts like Bartel, with CalPERS, with other financial investment advisors, as well as examining best practices from GFOA, the Government Finance Officers Association, and other agencies. So the recommended motion tonight is a simple motion just providing for a current year supplemental appropriation of 1,045,000 I guess that was a little redundant there. from the existing city reserves and the employee benefit fund that had already been specifically set aside for partial offsets to accrued pension and other than pensions post-employment benefits. liabilities. I'm ready to answer any questions you might have. |
| 01:38:01.05 | Mayor Theodore | I'm ready to answer any questions you might have. All right, thank you Charlie. Questions? Next start. |
| 01:38:07.72 | Jill Hoffman | So, Charlie, we've talked in the past about paying off the police side fund, and I've harped on it a little bit. But my understanding is there was a change in the law as of February that we no longer have a benefit if we do that. That's correct. |
| 01:38:14.11 | Mayor Theodore | THE FAMILY. |
| 01:38:20.69 | Charlie Francis | Yeah. That's correct. Prior to February of this year, it has always been a good best practice to pay off the side funds. And in fact, the city took that action twice. It paid off the miscellaneous and it paid off the fire side fund. And if we would have had enough accumulated funds, we would have paid off the police side fund also. But on February of this year, KELPRERS effectively eliminated the benefit from paying off the side fund by taking away the nine-year amortization period, in other words, the nine years that was left to pay off the side fund and created it to be a 30-year. So whatever you would borrow the money to put in there, the investment risk is that CalPERS would either gain more or lose more by putting it in there. So you completely lose the whole benefit of the interest rate savings. But on the other side, establishing the irrevocable trust gives us the ability to mitigate against the investment rate of return risk that we experience with CalPERS's aggressive investment portfolio at 7.5, we would be recommending a rate of return less than that. |
| 01:39:36.46 | Jill Hoffman | So is it true that if for some reason we did decide to pay off the side fund, could we do it out of this fund? |
| 01:39:42.27 | Charlie Francis | It's correct. We could do it out of this fund. Yes. |
| 01:39:44.82 | Jill Hoffman | We still have that option. |
| 01:39:45.83 | Charlie Francis | We still have that option, yes. |
| 01:39:52.29 | Councilmember Pfeiffer | So Charlie, regarding the change in the law, so from What you just said, explain this again. You mean they've put smoothing to the side fund? Is that what they've done in the Senate 30 years? |
| 01:40:05.39 | Charlie Francis | So, you know, like the, um, it's, um, Oh. It's really not a change in the laws, it's a change in Kilper's regulations, as Bartell explained last time. But what it was, was the side fund before when we first entered into it, was for a fixed period of amortization, like 15 years. And then the prior to February, all of the other liabilities were on a, what was called a rolling 30 year. And then they created a fixed 30 year |
| 01:40:14.06 | Councilmember Pfeiffer | Okay. |
| 01:40:14.50 | Unknown | Thank you. Thank you. |
| 01:40:34.97 | Charlie Francis | smoothing. And then they said you know what, we're just going to roll the remaining years you have left, and I think in the police side fund it was about nine, and we're just going to roll that all into one big liability to pay it off over 30 years. That make sense? |
| 01:40:49.11 | Councilmember Pfeiffer | Yeah, but we're still talking about interest with the side fund. I mean, that we would be paying over that. |
| 01:40:57.38 | Charlie Francis | I mean, on the whole amount of the unfunded liability, which we pay principal and interest on. |
| 01:40:59.08 | Councilmember Pfeiffer | So it's still... |
| 01:41:07.20 | Councilmember Pfeiffer | and the employee benefit fund That... that doesn't i mean that's still there right and even if we took the money out that's not going away and i mean it's still you know there as in a m |
| 01:41:14.36 | Charlie Francis | I mean, even |
| 01:41:14.80 | Betsy Stroman | Thank you. . |
| 01:41:17.38 | Charlie Francis | No. |
| 01:41:17.63 | Betsy Stroman | Thank you. |
| 01:41:23.25 | Charlie Francis | From a flow of funds standpoint, the money would come from the general fund as a charge to every department, go into the employee benefit fund, and then the amount that would come out of the employee benefit fund and into the irrevocable trust would be the amount that we set by policy on an annual basis by the city council. |
| 01:41:24.77 | Councilmember Pfeiffer | THE MONEY IS |
| 01:41:42.81 | Councilmember Pfeiffer | So your slide showed the 645 and then the 400K. And are those two figures right now, they're both in the employee benefit fund. Was it clear when those funds went in that this is for the OPEB and this is for the pension? |
| 01:42:04.63 | Charlie Francis | Yeah, it was very clear that the pension funds were going in there for pension purposes. And I believe we actually reserved the balance for the pension part. On the OPEB part, it wasn't so clear. We put aside 1% every year for OPEB, accumulated absences, and things like that. Now that we have a revised actuarial valuation that clearly shows our ARC is 2.5%, we're gonna be charging an ARC at 2.5%. |
| 01:42:38.75 | Councilmember Pfeiffer | So conceivably then, the 400K and the 645 could go... to the, I mean, I'm assuming that the irrevocable trust, the part that could pay off the side fund, because I still see it as, you know, as debt, I'd like to pay it, could go into, because it seems like we've got two irrevocable trusts, right? We've got one for the OPEB and one for the OPEB. |
| 01:42:59.17 | Charlie Francis | Yeah. |
| 01:42:59.98 | Betsy Stroman | Thank you. |
| 01:43:00.08 | Charlie Francis | I would, yeah. |
| 01:43:08.65 | Charlie Francis | Right, and of course the recommendation is the 645 goes into the pension trust and the 400 into the OPEP trust. |
| 01:43:13.00 | Councilmember Pfeiffer | Yeah. |
| 01:43:16.43 | Councilmember Pfeiffer | Right, and I guess my question here is that there's nothing preventing us from putting more money into the pension piece. It's my understanding that if we put it in the OPEB, we couldn't use that money to pay off the side fund. Is that correct? That's correct. We would have to pull from the pension side to pay off. |
| 01:43:31.62 | Unknown | Thank you. |
| 01:43:31.63 | Charlie Francis | That's good. |
| 01:43:31.97 | Unknown | Thank you. |
| 01:43:36.92 | Councilmember Pfeiffer | the the sign. Yes. |
| 01:43:39.41 | Charlie Francis | Yes. Pension trust can only be used for pension expenses. OPEB trust can only be used for OPEB expenses. |
| 01:43:43.31 | Councilmember Pfeiffer | Right. Right. Okay. Thank you. Because I, yeah, okay. All right. Thank you. |
| 01:43:53.94 | Mayor Theodore | We'll open up the public comment. Anyone from the public like to comment on this item? |
| 01:44:01.10 | Mayor Theodore | Seeing none, we'll close public comment and bring it back up here. Any comments who would like to start? |
| 01:44:10.73 | Councilmember Pfeiffer | Well, I have a comment and... I guess one of the things I'm looking at is that the pension, the side fund for the police, even though they have rolled it in and it's part of that 30-year stretch, it still is debt and it still is something that we could pay off. And so I'm looking at this and I'm wondering if wondering if I mean I'm still more more motivated in terms of getting getting that side fund paid off the other thing that strikes me is just how fluid legislation is with respect to this pension issue and it makes it really makes me very concerned because I mean, just, what, a year and a half ago, it was the greatest thing in the world to pay off a side fund. And now, well... you know, not so much. financial decisions were made in the past that, you know, had we known you know what I mean, in terms of how we invested that money, how many millions we've used to pay off the fireside fund, etc. So it just goes to show that I know prior councils looked at creating an irrevocable trust and they opted not to do that. partially because of kind of everything that was going on in terms of the state of flex partly because they they weren't sure if they would need it and also because if the city really needed funds um... there was a concern that uh... you know they couldn't get to the funds in the irrevocable trust. Whereas in an employee benefit fund, you can access in an emergency. in a worst case scenario. I'm all for setting aside funds to to meet our pension obligations but Um, I'm looking at this and I'm just questioning if we want to split the dollars in this way. And I also have questions in terms of making commitments in terms of the amount of percentage we set aside each year. moving forward. I'm more flexible in terms of setting that money, that 1% or 2.5% aside in the employee benefit fund than I am in the irrevocable trust. There's just a, you know, I don't know. Just my first thoughts, and I'm open to persuasion, so... |
| 01:46:53.69 | Unknown | Quick question, Charlie, if I may. |
| 01:47:00.73 | Unknown | Sorry, I'm having a senior moment. I've just forgotten what my question was. No, but it was following on from, sorry. It had come to me. It had come to me. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Thank you. Charlie, forget the initial amount of $600,400,000. For then the subsequent ongoing amount that we put in annually, presumably that is something that the council can change as a policy decision at any time. |
| 01:47:38.47 | Mayor Theodore | That's correct. |
| 01:47:39.31 | Unknown | you. |
| 01:47:41.22 | Mayor Theodore | So we're just making the decision for this year, what we're doing, and we can put any amount any other years from zero to whatever we feel is. |
| 01:47:46.33 | Charlie Francis | zero to The recommendation for how much to put in next year will be included in the budget package. |
| 01:47:57.65 | Jill Hoffman | I think I have it. I think I'm clear on this. We're on comment, actually. |
| 01:47:59.49 | Mayor Theodore | We're on comment actually. Yeah. Unless there's a question. Yeah. I just want to remind everybody. We're in comment. Yeah. |
| 01:48:01.75 | Jill Hoffman | I mean, if you have a question to Charlie, I just want to remind you. Yeah, yeah. No, I think from a policy standpoint, you know, my position has been that we needed to pay off the side fund. It's changed a little bit because of the change in the way that the interest is now spread out over 30 years instead of nine. But I agree with Council Member Pfeiffer. I think that's another reason why you have to approach these things with a lot of caution in how you plan going forward. It's better to go forward with no debt. and not having that the state monkey around with our finances even further. So that's sort of where I'm coming at on this. |
| 01:48:42.81 | Mayor Theodore | Well, and from what I hear, I think that I'm hearing the arguments for putting in the irrevocable trust because one, it shows our commitment. And the fact that it's irrevocable, we can't touch it, is something we want. This shows our commitment to paying down our pensions. But the beauty of the irrevocable trust, besides certain other ancillary accounting benefits, et cetera, is that we can use it to pay off a side fund if we need to. But right now it's not. in a position. I THINK IT'S A BETTER PLACE TO BE. IT'S NOT SUBJECT TO CREDITORS. AND I MEAN, PART OF THIS DISCUSSION WE HAD WHEN WE SET IT UP, BUT WE'RE HERE AGAIN HOW MUCH WE FUNDED. BUT I THINK IT'S A GOOD IDEA, AND I THINK I ALSO HAVE TO COMMEND THE CITY AND CHARLIE AND TO BE IN A POSITION TO FUND THIS IS IS AN EXCELLENT THING THAT WE HAVE A MILLION DOLLARS AND THAT WE'RE GOING TO PUT TOWARD OUR PENSION |
| 01:49:32.17 | Councilmember Pfeiffer | I just want to add to that. I guess the question is, I mean, we had set aside this money in the employee benefit fund in the first place. So I can see, you know, I guess the question for me is the distribution. do we want to do 645 and 400? Or do we wanna do Eight hundred. and you know, And 200, I guess, is what I'm grappling with because we cannot pay off the side fund from the OPEB. Irrevocable trust. |
| 01:50:03.49 | Mayor Theodore | Thank you. well i mean just in response to that if we feel the allocation somewhat off this year we can we can change it next year as well and |
| 01:50:12.55 | Debbie | Bye. |
| 01:50:12.67 | Mayor Theodore | Thank you. |
| 01:50:13.55 | Unknown | I was going to perhaps ask Charlie again, what was the basis for the recommended numbers that you made? The 600 versus 400 and what it is. |
| 01:50:25.04 | Charlie Francis | It's been city policy for the current and the past two fiscal years to set aside $200,000 specifically for pension liabilities that had to do with moving the remaining fire balance into the inactive pool. So that money had been specifically designated for pension liabilities. And now that all safety is in one pool, it would go into the irrevocable trust specifically for that purpose. And that was the reasoning behind that. |
| 01:51:02.26 | Councilmember Pfeiffer | I know we're in comment period. I do have a question, a point of clarification from Charlie. Charlie, we're going to have the budget, what, next week? |
| 01:51:10.38 | Michael Lappert | Yes. |
| 01:51:11.51 | Councilmember Pfeiffer | So I guess I'm still wondering why we just don't wait seven days so that I can see the whole allocation of where we are fiscally with our budget and do this at the same time we're doing that. |
| 01:51:31.42 | Charlie Francis | Question for the council? |
| 01:51:32.67 | Councilmember Pfeiffer | So in other words, we could We could continue this and kind of look at the whole budget and I mean, I'm not suggesting obviously this is for our pensions. I am clear on that. I guess what I'm just. |
| 01:51:48.92 | Charlie Francis | This action does not affect any of the recommendations for the future year budgets. It only reflects allocating reserves that have been specifically set aside for this purpose for this year. |
| 01:51:49.48 | Councilmember Pfeiffer | Bye. |
| 01:52:01.55 | Councilmember Pfeiffer | Thank you. Okay, all right. So. |
| 01:52:03.94 | Mayor Theodore | I mean, I understand, but I think we have so much with the budget and part of it is we're, we're taking it off now and we, we should do it. I think it is a discreet item. I mean, again, it's, it's something that we've planned for. We're in a good position to do, uh, obviously to some degree it's, it's arbitrary, but I think, uh, in the allocation, but I think Charlie's made a good rationale for it and |
| 01:52:07.27 | Councilmember Pfeiffer | Yeah. |
| 01:52:24.98 | Mayor Theodore | The thing we have to bear in mind, we're going to be putting money in every year if we feel we've made an allocation that was a little one side one year, we can we can switch to the next year. So I view it as having looked at it, it looks like a reasonable allocation and a good thing to be able to do. |
| 01:52:40.70 | Councilmember Pfeiffer | I guess I'm just wondering if we shouldn't put a little bit more in the pension side than the OPEB side, because we could pay off the side fund from the pension funds. |
| 01:52:54.11 | Unknown | But we've just been told that there's absolutely no financial benefit from paying off the site fund, so why would we do that? |
| 01:53:02.41 | Councilmember Pfeiffer | Well, I'm... I know that the side fund is still going to be we're still going to be paying interest on that over a 30-year period. I mean, again, it goes back to generational equity. Is it right to saddle people, you know, future generations 30 years down the road with our debt? You know, I just think that we have a moral obligation to pay off as much as possible. That's all. So anyway, I guess, Charlie, please help me. I mean, if I'm wrong about this, please educate me. |
| 01:53:38.24 | Charlie Francis | I was going to say, when you put it in the revocable trust, you are paying it off. You're just paying it to a different pocket. |
| 01:53:45.90 | Councilmember Pfeiffer | No, no, but I, I, again my issue is not about using these funds for pension, I'm totally there. what I'm saying is that we have an opportunity to pay off the side fund pension debt. |
| 01:54:02.39 | Charlie Francis | You don't have that opportunity anymore. You can't say, this is for the side fund, and I don't want it to go to the other side. CalPERS does not recognize the side fund for being paid off. Okay, so I'm sorry, I didn't understand that part. If you gave it to CalPERS, and they thought they were going to get 7.5%, and they lost 7.5%, |
| 01:54:12.56 | Councilmember Pfeiffer | Ugh. Okay, so I'm sorry, I didn't understand that part. |
| 01:54:24.46 | Charlie Francis | evaporates. If you put it in the revocable trust, which we're recommending has a more conservative rate of return policy than kilpers, you won't lose as much or you might not lose at all. |
| 01:54:35.68 | Councilmember Pfeiffer | Yeah, again, I get the evocable trust. I guess I was just, I needed a little bit more clarification on the changes made to the side fund. I didn't realize we could even have the, so you're saying we don't even have the option to pay off the side fund now? |
| 01:54:50.82 | Charlie Francis | The only option you have is to make a payment to the total unfunded liability. The total unfunded liability had a number of components that are now all blended to one. |
| 01:54:53.92 | Councilmember Pfeiffer | Uh-huh. |
| 01:55:02.16 | Councilmember Pfeiffer | All blended to one. Okay. Well, |
| 01:55:04.00 | Charlie Francis | Thank you. they still track those individual components. |
| 01:55:06.21 | Councilmember Pfeiffer | And it still does take a dent out of our debt, out of our unfended pension liability when we do that. THE END OF THE |
| 01:55:15.07 | Charlie Francis | When we do this, it does too. It automatically reduces our unfunded liability by putting it in here. |
| 01:55:20.08 | Councilmember Pfeiffer | Yeah. |
| 01:55:20.72 | Unknown | Thank you. |
| 01:55:20.82 | Councilmember Pfeiffer | Thank you. |
| 01:55:20.87 | Unknown | Thank you. |
| 01:55:20.91 | Councilmember Pfeiffer | Thank you. here. No, I got it. |
| 01:55:24.08 | Unknown | Mr. Mayor, I'm going to make a motion, if I may. |
| 01:55:24.45 | Mayor Theodore | Yeah. |
| 01:55:24.47 | Councilmember Pfeiffer | Okay. |
| 01:55:25.06 | Mayor Theodore | Amen. |
| 01:55:26.27 | Councilmember Pfeiffer | Thank you. |
| 01:55:27.29 | Mayor Theodore | I just want to say, We're debating, and these are reasonable questions and comments, but the good news at the high level is that we have over a million dollars that we're paying toward our unfunded pension liabilities, and that we're moving on this, and I think it's all good news, and these are reasonable approaches to it, and we can pay them. So I entertain a motion. |
| 01:55:45.63 | Unknown | Okay, so I move to provide for a supplemental appropriation of $1,045,000 from the existing city reserves that are in the employee benefits funds. That have been specifically set aside for partial offsets to accrued pension and other than pensions post employment benefits, OPEB liabilities. |
| 01:56:11.75 | Unknown | Second. Thank you. |
| 01:56:14.67 | Mayor Theodore | Debbie, would you take the roll? |
| 01:56:21.22 | Debbie | Councilmember Weiner? Yes. Councilmember Pfeiffer? Yes. Councilmember Withey? Yes. |
| 01:56:22.42 | Unknown | Yes. |
| 01:56:26.52 | Unknown | Yes |
| 01:56:26.53 | Debbie | Thank you. Vice Mayor Hoffman. Yes. Mayor Theodore. |
| 01:56:32.95 | Mayor Theodore | Yes, 5-0, and so... So we will go on, I think we have one item and then we'll take a break, but I think we'll go on to item unless anyone needs to take a break. Okay. So we'll take a break right now. And we'll be back five minutes, please. |
| 01:57:19.13 | Mayor Theodore | Thank you everyone for your patience, we're back. We move on to item 6D, rental parking meters for off-street parking, our administrative services director, Charlie Francis. |
| 01:57:30.15 | Charlie Francis | Thank you, Mr. Mayor, members of the City Council. Tonight I'm going to give a brief summary of the parking procurement process that we've been engaged on in the past six to eight months, and then talk about the bankruptcy, which we announced at our April 21st meeting, talk about the temporary response that staff went through in conjunction with the finance committee, the interim solution that we have implemented, and then the next steps that we're recommending. And then close it for questions and discussion, and I'll be asking city council to make three motions at the end of this agenda item. First of all, just to rehash that we've had a parking technology team. |
| 01:57:37.63 | Betsy Stroman | and |
| 01:58:16.42 | Charlie Francis | Included the city manager the police chief public works director But the core of the team was Lieutenant Skoog and Elliot Holt and Jean Schertz and the parking enforcement officers, all led by our parking consultant, Julie Dixon, who couldn't be here this evening. But we have Elliot and Curtis here, who really did the heavy lifting throughout the whole parking technology procurement process. It was a very public process. It started with the priority calendar and the adopted budget, finance committee meetings, and finally a citizen and customer engagement that began on February 10th and concluded April 21st. And today now this agenda item is not bringing it to a close on, I hope to bring the whole parking procurement to a complete close at your next council meeting when we address the single space on-street meters but tonight we're just talking about the off-street meters so at the end of our last city council meeting we had the completion of phase four we gave recommendations that we would be analyzing the fiscal impact to replace all the single street space meters with IPS single space smart meters. We're still going through that fiscal analysis right now, and we'll have it completed for your next agenda packet. At your last meeting, we shortlisted digital payment technologies or T2 technologies and Ventec as possible vendors for the pay station, and we were going to go through a vetting process and analyze the purchase versus the lease costs. And finally, we were going to ensure that any parking technology vendor agreements incorporate performance requirements and liquidated damages for system uptimes and revenue reconciliation. Well, the bankruptcy occurred and the bankruptcy had a significant impact. Now this diagram is meant to, was drawn up for the finance committee at the eight o'clock in the morning to show how complex a parking technology solution is. Now what made it particularly complex with APARC is APARC as a company had entered into a number of subcontracts with different companies. Now the solution that we're recommending you today would be one solution fits all, one company performs most of these major functions. But what we had was a place where we were being almost held hostage by subcontractors who were saying if you don't pay us a current amount going forward and the equivalent of what APARC hasn't been paying us for the past couple months we'll turn you off and so we were we were at risk of parking revenue failure we would have not been able to either take credit cards or enforce parking within our parking lots. In other words, we would have had to give a parking holiday. So we were moving fast to either, if we had to face a parking holiday, to make sure it was short, and what can we do to mitigate not having a parking holiday at all. So eventually it we were able to keep the system running and it's still up and running today but we didn't know that last week we were on a day-to-day basis but we did enter into for a contract with five thousand dollars with cloud adhesive to keep most of the back end and operations going and for a small price with multi-guide to make sure that the credit card payments were still in place and then elliot working with signet was able to get the enforcement part back up and running so big kudos for for the whole team for keeping keeping it running but meanwhile not knowing whether the failure was going to be imminent or not we um Oh. that we accelerated our analysis and evaluation of the shortlisted vendors. Remember those two vendors were T2 Digital Technology and Ventec. And the criteria we used to shortlist them was who had the most robust and responsive back-end management reporting system. How about responses from certain referees? What's the lead time for installing and implementing equipment? Because time was of the essence. as of a week ago, and it still is. Versatility of putting add odds and services for parking management and then the ability to meet the requirements of our current resident parking programs, which I'll talk about here at the end, so those were the criteria that we used to evaluate the two firms and then after a meeting where we, sat down with the parking enforcement officers, with the parking consultant, Curtis Gug, myself. We unanimously all agreed that Even if we did not have to accelerate the analysis Evaluation. we would have, all of us individually, have chosen T2 digital technology because they better met all those individual criteria. So with that, going forward, I still wanted to limit the risk, the risk that was, what if we put this in here for six months and it doesn't perform like we thought it would? And I didn't want to make a $150,000 decision outside of a city council meeting. So I said, what's the best way we can do this? And so we sat down to make a $150,000 decision outside of a city council meeting. So I said, what's the best way we can do this? And so we sat down as a team and said, what if we enter into a rental agreement through the summer months that's under the city manager's signing the authority? And, you know, while we're doing it, let's negotiate how much of that rent can be applied to a future purchase price because we believe the technology is going to work. So we sat down with the vendor, we talked about different types of rental agreements, and we finally agreed upon 80% of the rental price would be applied to the option purchase price. We can exercise that option anytime we want within the next six months. We could probably even extend the six months if we wanted to, but what I felt comfortable entering into was a four-month rental agreement with two additional option months if needed, and then at the end of that six months or four months you could apply 80% of the rents to purchase the technology. And then you'll be purchasing a proven technology or not. Along the way, during the pilot evaluation period, we had been talking to DataTicket. DataTicket has been handling our back end of ticket enforcement for a long time, ever since we terminated the LES agreement. But they have a front end piece that's very robust. If you recall back from this slide up here in the upper right, you'll see the ticket manager had been doing that front end piece, and the back end was all being, I may be using front end and backwards and forwards, but I think you get the gist. They were doing one end and then someone else was doing the other. And we had several meetings with them as well as a, here we go, as well as a demonstration. They came for a couple hours right here in this room and met with all the parking enforcement officers, Curtis and Elliot, and talked about their solution and what they could do. And we really, really thought that they could do a good job for it. So we accelerated our discussions with them for citations and citation processing. And then we started talking with Park Mobile. Park Mobile is the firm that does the pay by phone. If you wanted to go up and not put a credit card in there, not put numbers in there, but like San Francisco, dial a number on your phone and have an account set up with them and pay for your parking there, the parking then talks to the back end and the enforcement system and makes sure that they don't get a ticket. So we had them unplug their current contract with APARC and plug it in to us so that any credit card payments that was going through Park Mobile would not go to APARC and then be subject to any bankruptcy proceedings, but would come directly to us. And today we just... . Thank you. We just completed the, we got the check. I mean, the check's in the mail for that interim period when Park Mobile unplugged APARC and brought it in to us. So that was a good decision. And we're still analyzing the fiscal impact to replace the single space meters. So specifically here on, we have the rental price is $380 per pay station. There's 14 pay stations that we're recommending be installed. If we purchase them, the purchase price for those 14 units would be $127,252. There's a management fee of $65 a month, and a bundled transaction for the transaction fees is $30 per unit per month. And our total purchase price would be $138,640 when we decide to purchase or if we decide to purchase. There was an installation fee, $12,385.42. The units have been shipped. They're in Sacramento now being made ready to be brought here and to be installed. And Elliot informed me today that the due date for complete installation is next Wednesday. if not sooner. So. Elliot and Lauren will be going out looking at all the places where we designated tomorrow to make sure that they work for where they go in the public right away. |
| 02:07:56.28 | Charlie Francis | These were the processing costs for data ticket. Curtis and his parking enforcement team recommend that we get four handholds in case we get an extra or if we get an extra enforcement officer during the summer months that they can use the Samsung Galaxy Android device handhold. I don't know if you've seen their current handholds, but they're these big, heavy devices that they carry around that have a printer on it and everything and they're kind of unwieldy and certainly not comfortable. The Android devices will allow them to have more flexibility with their hands and not be as encumbered with all that. |
| 02:08:36.97 | Charlie Francis | And finally, Park Mobile has been wonderful for the past five years, and we went ahead and we have other cities that want to piggyback on our contract right now, so we'll be adding some language for both DataTicket and Park Mobile to let people piggyback on those contracts. So that was kind of a confirmation that we negotiated good deals. So the next steps is, well, we'll continue analyzing the cost, bring that back to you, but on the commuter cards, a temporary fix, Elliot worked out with the vendor T2 Technologies to use codes based on the current commuter card number, and then a long-term option is to be able to put value cards and there's a four-week lead time to print those cards and get them ready. So we'll be able to move forward on the long-term option here fairly soon. For resident cards, the temporary fix is to use coupon codes based on their current smart code and a long-term option is to go to a residential pass, which we'll describe for the city council when we're ready to go to that option. And then finally, the new technology will allow us to do valet parking and merchant validations. They're actually giving us two possibilities, one called flex permit enforcement, the other one called click and park, and we'll be vetting those and bringing you back a recommendation on those ones also. So I think it's pretty clear that the whole process from the start to begin was filled with analysis, filled with evaluation. We had plenty of opportunity for citizen council and staff Thank you. So I think it's pretty clear that the whole process from the start to begin was filled with analysis, filled with evaluation. We had plenty of opportunity for citizen council and staff input. It was a very public process. We were worried when the bankruptcy occurred. We thought that we were going to have to rush into a decision we didn't want to make. But I think we got through the bankruptcy by putting in a stopgap measure, still be able to do our due diligence, and then recommend an option that retains your flexibility going forward in the future by doing the rental agreement with an option to purchase. So staff is recommending that you make the three motions that are up here to approve the agreement that we already executed with T2 Digital Technology and Park Parkmobile and then to approve the city manager executing a contract with data ticket that would include an amendment for allow other cities to piggyback. |
| 02:10:53.79 | Mayor Theodore | Great. Thank you, Charlie. You're welcome. I'll bring it back here for questions. |
| 02:10:54.74 | Charlie Francis | YOU'RE WELCOME. |
| 02:10:57.88 | Mayor Theodore | Thank you. |
| 02:10:57.91 | Jill Hoffman | THE END OF |
| 02:10:58.16 | Mayor Theodore | Thank you. |
| 02:10:59.33 | Jill Hoffman | I just have one really easy question for you. So the 14, how many do we have now? |
| 02:11:03.92 | Charlie Francis | 22. |
| 02:11:04.66 | Jill Hoffman | Okay, so we're going from 22 down to 14? |
| 02:11:06.36 | Charlie Francis | Yes. |
| 02:11:06.72 | Jill Hoffman | Okay. And are the locations going to be substantially similar to where they are now? |
| 02:11:10.77 | Charlie Francis | No, they'll be different. But they're in a place that some will be the same, but we're trying to line up so two would be side by side. So if one's busy with someone accepting a credit card, they can go in and pay at the other one, make it more user, customer friendly. |
| 02:11:11.98 | Jill Hoffman | Thank you. Thank you. |
| 02:11:18.51 | Jill Hoffman | Mm-hmm. |
| 02:11:26.43 | Jill Hoffman | Do we have the ability to get more if we think 14 is not going to be enough? Oh, absolutely. Okay. |
| 02:11:30.31 | Charlie Francis | Oh, absolutely. |
| 02:11:32.10 | Jill Hoffman | Thank you. |
| 02:11:33.35 | Charlie Francis | We also have the ability to put codes for parking bicycles on. |
| 02:11:37.82 | Jill Hoffman | Great. Thank you. I didn't ask that question, but thank you very much. |
| 02:11:38.76 | Councilmember Pfeiffer | THE FAMILY. |
| 02:11:42.37 | Councilmember Pfeiffer | Yes, so could you go back to that first slide, the criteria for selection? Okay. I'm getting dizzy. There it was. There it is. There we go. So I know, so this was the criteria for the interim solution, but also the criteria for the T2 digital technology. That's correct. For moving forward with that. So I know we also had residents and volunteers |
| 02:11:57.48 | Lisa Lewis | There it is. |
| 02:12:10.34 | Unknown | for moving forward with that. Thank you. |
| 02:12:11.94 | Betsy Stroman | So. |
| 02:12:16.88 | Councilmember Pfeiffer | a whole group of folks go out and how did they, I know user friendliness was a big criteria as well. Where did user friendliness and ease of use fall for T2 digital technology? |
| 02:12:30.89 | Charlie Francis | Yeah. You know, I don't remember that right at the top of my head, Elliot, do you? Oh good, number two. |
| 02:12:37.08 | Councilmember Pfeiffer | Second. Oh, good. Number two. Okay, great. Another quick question. So regarding the data ticket contract with... |
| 02:12:38.23 | Charlie Francis | Okay. |
| 02:12:45.00 | Alice Merrill | Yes. |
| 02:12:47.41 | Councilmember Pfeiffer | So I, It's my understanding that this company would be processing the citations. So is that correct? |
| 02:12:56.19 | Charlie Francis | There already are processes. |
| 02:12:56.32 | Councilmember Pfeiffer | They're already processing. So help me understand, how is this new? Is that they're just going to take over the T2 digital technology, the new vendor? |
| 02:13:03.63 | Charlie Francis | you're just. We're going to... I'm going to try to refer to this map. When the parking machine sends data to the cloud, then it goes off to something right now that's called Ticket Manager, who then sends it back to the cloud and to the handheld device. Once the handheld device issues the ticket, it goes back up to the cloud and says back to the parking. Ticket's been issued. Then Data Ticket picks up and handles the citation processing. So now Data Ticket will be replaced Ticket Manager, and so it'll be doing this end as well as the end back here. |
| 02:13:41.46 | Councilmember Pfeiffer | Okay, so in taking the place of ticket manager, Yes. Is that adding to the cost of the citation for the person getting the citation? No, not at all. Okay, all right. |
| 02:13:46.76 | Charlie Francis | Thank you. |
| 02:13:46.78 | Unknown | Yes. |
| 02:13:55.13 | Charlie Francis | No, not at all. |
| 02:13:59.18 | Charlie Francis | Unless you wanted it to. No. Okay. And. |
| 02:14:00.33 | Councilmember Pfeiffer | No. And the other question I had is, we're a small town. We sometimes, you know, residents get a ticket and they want to go to the local police department and talk about the ticket. I presume that's still gonna be an option that they can not have to go through. |
| 02:14:13.68 | Unknown | Thank you. |
| 02:14:13.69 | Charlie Francis | Yes. Yes, we still have Gene here that people can go talk to. Yes. |
| 02:14:20.97 | Councilmember Pfeiffer | Okay. Okay, and my last question is with respect to the four month option to purchase, That also, I presume that gives us some wiggle room in case for whatever reason, even though this is great and we've all vetted it and we all think this is the right way to go. Thank you. My interpretation of this is that if we have this for like four, is it four months? Is that like a probationary period, a four month of rent? And if it's rental and if it doesn't work, we can cancel? Or is it the six month or what? |
| 02:14:56.42 | Charlie Francis | It's four months, and then I don't think we would want to cancel before the four months, because that will get us through the summer period. Yeah. And then we have two optional months that we can cancel. And at that point, we could continue with a month-to-month rent, but we'd probably have to go back and renegotiate the rents. And then lose that amount that was being applied to the option. |
| 02:14:57.40 | Councilmember Pfeiffer | And then. |
| 02:15:02.27 | Councilmember Pfeiffer | NO. Yeah. |
| 02:15:20.13 | Councilmember Pfeiffer | Okay, good. So one thing I, okay, so that's good. That was my question. Thank you. |
| 02:15:20.69 | Charlie Francis | Yeah. |
| 02:15:28.52 | Mayor Theodore | ONE QUESTION. WHEN YOU MENTIONED THE PIGGYBACK, THAT'S NEW. I HADN'T HEARD THAT. AND WHO, HOW WOULD THAT WORK AND WHO WOULD PIGGYBACK ON US? |
| 02:15:36.87 | Charlie Francis | We would just put language into the contract that we signed that says any other governmental agency that wants to get the same pricing that we got, they could. It's common in governments to write that kind of language in contracts. Great, any other questions? |
| 02:15:54.79 | Councilmember Pfeiffer | I just have one more quick question. |
| 02:15:56.88 | Charlie Francis | What it allows other agencies to do then is to say, City X went through a good due diligence. We're going to use their due diligence to justify our decision so they don't have to go through a complete R&D. It doesn't affect us in any way. It does not affect us. Okay. |
| 02:16:10.99 | Mayor Theodore | It doesn't affect us in any way. |
| 02:16:14.97 | Councilmember Pfeiffer | So this is a question I'm asking just because the last system we had problems with it. I know that you had a bullet up here about the resident cards and that now we're going to have a residential pass. And I just want to confirm that this vendor can track the three hours a day. And that if those three hours happen at different times of the day, that the vendor can track that. And yeah. |
| 02:16:46.11 | Charlie Francis | Yeah, what I know for sure is that this system will handle resident cards exactly the way we're doing it now. Thank you. And what we're going to work with the resident to do is be able to handle the three hours per day. We'd like to make it so that no matter where they park, it tracks just that amount of time for where they parked. That's pretty difficult to do without sensors. But that's the optimum goal. But we're going to settle for nothing less than three hours free per day. |
| 02:17:18.17 | Councilmember Pfeiffer | So I'm a little bit confused. Just to clarify, is that what we're getting then? Because I thought that's what we had right now, is that if you're a resident and you have three hours a day free parking, that if you put your card in and then logged out, it logged that time that you were there and no more. |
| 02:17:37.93 | Charlie Francis | THEY ARE. You don't have that today. |
| 02:17:41.37 | Councilmember Pfeiffer | Oh. What do we have today? |
| 02:17:43.80 | Charlie Francis | You have three hours, but you don't have three hours log in, log out, go somewhere else, log in, log out, up until three hours. Because we have no way of logging out at the present time. |
| 02:17:48.92 | Councilmember Pfeiffer | Yeah. Thank you. |
| 02:17:55.85 | Councilmember Pfeiffer | Ah, so if I go to parking lot one today and I'm there at 10 and I log in and I log out 11, it only logs one hour, correct? |
| 02:18:03.19 | Charlie Francis | Thank you. |
| 02:18:03.26 | Unknown | Yeah. |
| 02:18:03.34 | Charlie Francis | Thank you. |
| 02:18:06.60 | Councilmember Pfeiffer | I don't know. It logs three. You want to explain all that? Elliot, how it's currently working? This is new to me. |
| 02:18:06.74 | Charlie Francis | It logs three. You wanna explain all that, Elliot, how it's currently working? |
| 02:18:16.81 | Councilmember Pfeiffer | To the microphone, please. And I'd also like clarification as to how the new system is going to work. Because I think it's very important to residents. We're supposed to get three free hours a day. |
| 02:18:26.99 | Charlie Francis | Yeah. Thank you. I do wanna say that before we go with the long-term resident solution, we will come back to the City Council and make it very clear exactly how it's gonna work. So what Elliot's about to describe is what you've identified right now as a long-term solution, right? |
| 02:18:42.29 | Elliot Holt | Yes, so the current long-term solution provided by T2 DPT would allow for a resident to receive an incremental three-hour period per day, also free parking after 6 p.m., and only that much. So it would be a point where they would have to select how much time they'd want, but would only ever provide a three-hour validation period per day. |
| 02:19:06.59 | Councilmember Pfeiffer | So I go to parking lot one and it's 10 a.m. and I put my card in and I come back at 11 and I clock out. It uses my one hour for that three hour allocation for that day. |
| 02:19:18.22 | Elliot Holt | Yes, you could select upfront a prepaid situation. You'd select an hour upfront. And if you would like to extend that time, you could. |
| 02:19:26.03 | Councilmember Pfeiffer | So what you're saying then is when I... when I go in at 10 a.m., I need to know ahead of time that I'm only going to be there an hour. That if it goes, if I'm there longer than an hour, am I going to get a ticket as a resident? |
| 02:19:42.91 | Elliot Holt | Well, I think that's a policy decision what to do in that case because we can provide kind of a safety net for our residents in a way. But, yeah, it would be on the resident to decide how much time they want to park up front. |
| 02:19:43.61 | Councilmember Pfeiffer | I think that's a policy decision. |
| 02:19:58.26 | Councilmember Pfeiffer | okay all right yeah so yeah well I guess I guess what I'm hearing then is that right now we that would be something to to make sure to put on the agenda when we we talk about this to make sure that residents don't get tickets if you know so yeah so and then you're saying in the future we're looking at a situation where they would be able to track to track this |
| 02:20:01.32 | Elliot Holt | THE END OF THE END OF THE |
| 02:20:01.39 | Unknown | That helps. |
| 02:20:01.70 | Elliot Holt | Thank you. |
| 02:20:01.81 | Unknown | Thank you. |
| 02:20:01.92 | Elliot Holt | Thank you. |
| 02:20:01.98 | Unknown | Thank you. |
| 02:20:01.99 | Elliot Holt | Thank you. |
| 02:20:13.92 | Betsy Stroman | Yes. |
| 02:20:29.26 | Councilmember Pfeiffer | or is that the- |
| 02:20:29.87 | Charlie Francis | We'll always explore technology to get to that optimum, and then we'll compare. These are the requirements, this is the cost to build the system and the requirements and then the city council can decide whether that's the correct policy for residents or not. |
| 02:20:30.44 | Councilmember Pfeiffer | THE FAMILY. |
| 02:20:42.12 | Councilmember Pfeiffer | And will this apply for parking lot one and two and three? Yes. Okay. |
| 02:20:47.62 | Elliot Holt | MR. And just another note there, the technology that we're looking at with the T2 DPT system would allow for us to go with the tap and go. So you would tap in, then tap out as you leave. That's an option we can explore. Oh, okay. |
| 02:21:01.00 | Councilmember Pfeiffer | uh... uh... that's good so as i entered the parking lot i can could just beep it and then leave i'd beep it again all that's that's great that that would be like the original system we had when someone was there |
| 02:21:11.62 | Charlie Francis | That's great. System. It's great if you remember to tap out. That's right. Yeah. So that's one of the limitations. You can't have a perfect system. So, you know, well, we're trying. |
| 02:21:16.83 | Councilmember Pfeiffer | That's right. Yeah. But still, it's. Yeah. Thank you. |
| 02:21:27.60 | Mayor Theodore | OTHER CONSULQUENCES QUESTIONS SO WE CAN OPEN IT UP PUBLIC COMMENT Michael. |
| 02:21:38.99 | Michael Lappert | I'm just watching the use of that system. Is the new system going to require that the user make a notation of the parking space before they go to the pay station? And if so, Who will maintain those numbers? I think that for the amount of money that you're paying for the right to have their system, perhaps you can get them. Right now the numbers you have there, most of them are very faded. And if you're Japanese, you already have a hard time with American numerals. Most of those numerals are illegible and they're expensive to redo. So it would seem that anyone providing this service, that would be part of the service, is to ensure that it's always on a clear black background and the numbers are legible through the mayor for your thoughts. |
| 02:22:20.05 | Mayor Theodore | Anyone else like to comment on this item? |
| 02:22:25.43 | Peter Romanowski | Peter Romanowski, chaplain of Sausalito, the only man of God left. |
| 02:22:25.61 | Mayor Theodore | Romanowski. |
| 02:22:32.38 | Peter Romanowski | that hasn't turned gay. Anyways, parking. I just got a car. After 10 years of playing my guitar at the waterfront, I finally got a car. And it's very hard to find a place to park. in this town, especially for its waterfront people. We're discriminated against, we're hated. were vilified. We're dying. We're dying on the waterfront. We got no cars. No license. The cops keep ticketing. poor American citizens with tickets. I had to pay $1,000 on my boat alone for two registration tickets. They're killing us. You guys are killing us. The cops would kill him. And by the way, And now that I've got in the car, Thank you. I'm not just talking. I got a picture of Jesus Christ I took. I'm donating to the city. And I got a picture of God's hand holding the devil. you |
| 02:23:28.48 | Councilmember Pfeiffer | Peter, could you address the council? |
| 02:23:29.72 | Peter Romanowski | Okay, okay, okay, okay. I know you don't want to hear it. I got a picture of me in heaven. Okay, I'm going to donate this. Okay, now the parking situation is really, really bad. You know what I mean? I mean, for us waterfront people. |
| 02:23:36.52 | Betsy Stroman | Okay, now the park was... |
| 02:23:44.35 | Peter Romanowski | The illegal aliens, rhinos and dinos have taken over this county. taken over this place. the only people with money or Mexicans working in restaurants And I know the truth is hard, but we need more parking. I need long-term parking. I got a new car. I love it. I'm on Social Security now. I'm a force to be reckoned with, as long as the cops don't ask me. |
| 02:24:07.29 | Betsy Stroman | THE FAMILY. |
| 02:24:12.57 | Peter Romanowski | I've been arrested, I hold a record for being body bag by the cops in this town. And I'm the minister. Imagine what's happening to the rest of the people. But anyway, so my three minutes. All I can say is, please help us park. Find us, help us. Find a place, help us have cars, tell the cops to quit ticketing. American citizens. and taking their driver's license, because we're dying. I have survived 30 years on the waterfront in this atrocious town. 30 years on the waterfront, I have survived. And I am the chaplain now. Beware. I have a picture of Satan's head in God's hand. Whose head is next? beware, and if you don't believe me, Hey, Scooter. Thank you. |
| 02:24:56.92 | Mayor Theodore | The President's name is the President. |
| 02:24:58.18 | Peter Romanowski | The President. |
| 02:25:01.22 | Mayor Theodore | Anyone else like to speak on this item? All right, so seeing none, we'll close public comment and bring it up here. Who would like to speak? Is that public? Oh, yeah. Very public. |
| 02:25:13.00 | Betsy Stroman | Thank you. |
| 02:25:16.46 | Mayor Theodore | It is. |
| 02:25:25.67 | Mayor Theodore | Peter, Peter, Peter, we're trying to. Okay, good night. |
| 02:25:30.92 | Councilmember Pfeiffer | I want to thank city staff and the police department. |
| 02:25:39.83 | Unknown | Yeah. |
| 02:25:47.91 | Councilmember Pfeiffer | I want to thank city staff and the police department and Charlie for the research and the coordination and everything that went into this. I think it was a great effort. I like Michael's suggestion regarding the maintenance of the numbers, something that we could potentially add to, to look into. and I also want to say that I'm looking forward to seeing how this works. I like the fact that we've worked in an option to buy, and we're starting off conservatively. We're making sure that everything works, and it's user-friendly, and we have some wiggle room in case things don't go right that we can cancel and we can, in a worst case scenario, start over. I don't anticipate that happening at all, but what I've learned is that it's always good to approach these things conservatively. So anyway, great job. Thank you very much for everyone for your hard work, and I'm looking forward to testing this out. |
| 02:27:04.17 | Unknown | Thank you. |
| 02:27:04.20 | Unknown | Thank you. |
| 02:27:04.29 | Unknown | you Nothing much to add there. We did a lot of diligence, and the staff and the team that worked through this worked very hard, as Council Member Pfeiffer said. But just as importantly, I was there in the conference room when that drawing was put up on the board because literally the staff were working real time to figure out how to solve a problem that had occurred just then and within the space of 24 hours through an amazing piece of work they got the negotiations pretty much done to move ahead to the next step so that was an impressive piece of work Charlie and all the team thank you very much |
| 02:27:58.24 | Jill Hoffman | Yeah, I just want to echo that. Thanks for being agile and hardworking and your ability to work out a solution very quickly. So we appreciate that and there was no parking holiday. I'd like to agendize, maybe this isn't the right time to talk about, but in four months to look at it again and have a follow-up report. If we're talking about we have a four-month rental agreement, let's look at it again in four months and see where we are, just so it doesn't fall off our radar. |
| 02:28:27.31 | Mayor Theodore | And I just want to thank Charlie and Curtis and Elliott for the hard work, and particularly with the Parktoria bankruptcy and having to move on that so quickly, last minute notice, and really cut a deal that really helped us. We now actually have the option to look at something which we wouldn't have had otherwise. And I think we're on the right track for the right technology. And thank everyone who participated in it, and all the trials. And people went down there and worked on it. And I know we're going to be a lot happier with this system than the last system. So we're all anxious for Wednesday to start that going. So thanks. So I think we need a motion. We have three motions one. |
| 02:29:04.96 | Unknown | separately or over? |
| 02:29:06.02 | Mayor Theodore | Um, can we, well, why don't, why don't we just read them all off if there's, and then we'll, okay. Who would like to do that? |
| 02:29:11.21 | Unknown | and then we'll okay |
| 02:29:15.54 | Mayor Theodore | Harvey, come on up. |
| 02:29:18.87 | Councilmember Pfeiffer | Trying to find it. Thank you. |
| 02:29:19.86 | Mayor Theodore | Oh, it's right here, Linda. It's right up there. |
| 02:29:20.40 | Councilmember Pfeiffer | Thank you. |
| 02:29:20.44 | Unknown | Oh, it's right here. |
| 02:29:22.60 | Councilmember Pfeiffer | Okay, I move to approve the execution of a four month rental agreement with option to purchase 14T2 digital technology off street parking meters. Should I go through the rest? Yeah. And I make a motion to approve the execution of a contract with Park Mobile for pay-by-phone services. And I make a motion to approve the city manager executing a contract with data ticket for citation and citation processing services. |
| 02:29:34.17 | Jill Hoffman | Thank you. |
| 02:29:34.19 | Unknown | Yeah. |
| 02:29:34.58 | Jill Hoffman | Thank you. |
| 02:29:48.77 | Unknown | Thank you. |
| 02:29:48.79 | Councilmember Pfeiffer | Thank you. |
| 02:29:49.04 | Unknown | Thank you. |
| 02:29:50.07 | Mayor Theodore | This one, all in favor? Thank you. |
| 02:29:52.11 | Unknown | Hi. |
| 02:29:52.19 | Mayor Theodore | Aye. So that's unanimous, 5-0. Thank you very much. |
| 02:29:56.89 | Unknown | Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. |
| 02:29:58.59 | Mayor Theodore | Now we're... |
| 02:30:00.33 | Unknown | Under the front seat. |
| 02:30:01.59 | Mayor Theodore | Now we move on to Item 6E, consideration of City of Sausalito Municipal Code Amendment. to authorize the issuance of citation for bicycles that are in violation of the municipal code. And this will be led by our city attorney, Mary Wagner. Mary? |
| 02:30:24.48 | Alice Merrill | Okay. |
| 02:30:37.50 | Mary Wagner | Thank you, Mr. Mayor, members of the City Council. The item for your consideration this evening is an amendment to your existing regulations in the Sausalito Municipal Code regarding bikes which are parked illegally in the downtown area. First, based upon some of the correspondence that you've received as late mail this afternoon, I thought it was important to clarify what this is not doing and what is not being proposed tonight. First, we are not proposing any new licensing regulations. Second, we are also not proposing or presenting tonight a charge for bike parking on Tracy Way or anywhere else in the downtown area tonight. Again, what we are proposing is an amendment to the existing bicycle parking regulations that are set forth in your municipal code. So currently Sausalito municipal code chapter 15.13 pursuant to an ordinance that the city council adopted. Not quite a year ago, July of 2014. Bicycles are required to park in designated downtown areas. Specifically what the regulations say is no person shall park or allowed to be parked their bicycles in the downtown area of Sausalito unless it is within a designated bicycle parking zone or other fixed items specifically intended for bicycle parking. To clarify, the downtown area is a defined term in this chapter of municipal code, and I've put the definition up there for you. It's specifically those areas of public property within the 539 Bridgeway and 833 Bridgeway area, and those public streets and public rights of way east of Bridgeway. That's Tracy Way, Bay Street, Anchor Street, and Humboldt Street. And west of Bridgeway on Princess, up to 62 Princess. These are all the existing regulations that have been in fact almost for a year now. A quick visual to give you an idea of what portion of the city we're talking about. |
| 02:32:43.53 | Mary Wagner | So currently, Chapter 15.13 includes a penalty of impoundment. So if someone parks their bike illegally, the remedy is impoundment of that bicycle and then a payment of administrative bicycle release fees in order to get the bike back. The current release fee in the regulations is $25, and there's a bicycle storage fee of $5 per calendar day. The regulations also currently provide that bicycles that are not claimed can be auctioned off in compliance with the California Civil Code. What's being proposed for your consideration this evening are modifications to the code to allow for an additional enforcement mechanism of a citation. And the first step in that was to require that bicycles have identification. This we're not requiring that they receive a license from the city. We're just requiring that the owner of the bicycle is identified and how to get in touch with the owner is included on the bicycle. allows for the enforcement of the provisions that you already have and the provisions that are being proposed tonight there's been some concern I believe in the community that this is creating an additional citable offense so say for example you're riding your bike through Sausalito and you're stopped for a moving violation. You run a stop sign, sorry, or have some other interaction regarding your bicycle unrelated to parking in the downtown area. There's some concern that this would be a separate citable offense if your bike is not identified. We're proposing to you that that is not the intent of this identification and would actually suggest some additional language to the ordinance you have in front of you tonight. And I'm sorry, I've been sick. So you're hearing that come out and in specifically in the new section 1513 070 regarding bicycle identification proposed for the council's consideration adding language to the effect of the purpose of this section 1513 070 is solely to facilitate the penalty provisions set forth in section 1513 080 For bicycles parked in violation of this chapter 1513 to remove that concern that somewhere down the line this is used as a separate citable offense. There is language in the proposed ordinance that any bicycle that's parked without the appropriate identification would be subject to impoundment. |
| 02:35:14.98 | Mary Wagner | The citation language included in your proposed ordinance this evening includes that bikes parked illegally can be cited and fined in the amount set forth in the, we had indicated the California government code section. I believe the better citation is to the California vehicle code section, which sets forth the penalties for infractions of any of the provisions of that code. The penalty provisions are the same except for the third citable offense. |
| 02:35:49.91 | Mary Wagner | Oops. |
| 02:35:50.81 | Unknown | Thank you. |
| 02:35:51.38 | Mary Wagner | So what they actually would be, it's $100 for the first offense, $200 for the second offense within a one year period, and then $250 for a third and subsequent offense in a one year period. Any, uh, bike park sites by parking citation, which is unpaid for 14 calendar days, but also, um, incur a delinquent late charge of $25. After 60 days, it could be impounded. The proposed modifications also suggest and include increases in the impoundment fees that you currently have in your ordinance. We are suggesting that the bicycle release fee be increased from $25 to $100, and that the bicycle storage fee be increased from $5 to $25 to actually the actual cost of staff time and They were the staff time that's necessary to impound a bike Quickly, the authority for these regulations is set forth in the California Vehicle Code, specifically Vehicle Code Section 21206 gives the city the authority to establish by ordinance regulations governing the registration, bike parking, and operation of bicycles on pedestrians or bike facilities. This is the same authority that gave you the ability to adopt the regulations that are currently in place. And then we've already discussed the Vehicle Code Section, which establishes the fine structure of the 100, 200, and 250. So our staff's recommendation this evening is to introduce and read by title only the ordinance that you have in front of you. The next steps would be to do a second reading on May 19th, which is your next meeting next week. The provisions would go into effect 30 days thereafter, which would be June 20th. And it's also staff's recommendation that you make the two modifications suggested this evening to add the language to 1513 070 regarding the intent of the identification And then also to change the government code citation to a vehicle code citation And with that the chair of the bike and ped committee dr Fudge is is here this evening and is prepared to give you a brief presentation as well as to the The information in the background that led to the suggestion of these modifications We have to switch over there, Debbie. |
| 02:38:18.58 | Unknown | Thank you, Mr. Mayor, Vice Mayor, members of the Council. Thank you once again for your time. |
| 02:38:27.34 | Unknown | First I'd like to acknowledge the other members of the Pedestrian Bicycle Committee. They're not here tonight, but I can guarantee you every third Monday of the month we dutifully are here in those very same chairs, often quite lonely, much lonelier than you are tonight. And so I'll begin and end by... asking that folks who really have an interest in bicycle and pedestrian issues in town, join us. It's a relatively informal setting and it's great to have some input. Secondly, I I want to apologize. It's the goal of the Pedestrian and Bicycle Committee to bring solutions forward. It's easy to identify problems. It's really hard to identify solutions. And I have to say, either because we're not smart enough, we're not experienced enough, we really haven't come too far in identifying the solution to this particular challenge. This is an image of a bunch of cyclists. I actually don't know where it's from, but it sort of reminded me of the people coming into town. There's two ways of looking at this. One is you can look at it as all these people are coming at you, and I think there's a lot of residents in town that see it that way. And the other is to imagine yourself as one of these poor pilgrims who's about to go on a bike ride, not knowing where the heck they're going or what they're supposed to do when they get there. And I think one of the great things about The ambassador program that has now begun is that we have now 30-plus trained ambassadors who get to meet these people every day and see that there are two sides of the bicyclists. There's them and there's us. And it turns out that them is we. We've all been tourists and we all know what it's like to be in an area where you're not particularly familiar And although we're not talking about it tonight, some of the information I'll share with you tonight in four slides, this will not be death by PowerPoint, at least I hope not, is coming from the Ambassador Program. The specific issue before us tonight is bicycle parking on the sidewalks in the downtown area. And in the really very busy tourist season, the reality for folks who come downtown, both the visitors and the locals, is that the sidewalks are extremely crowded. and oftentimes there are bicycles that are parked and or locked onto parking meters, trees, slow-moving children, anything that is there. And also, to be clear, it's never a bike. We recently did another survey the bike ambassadors did, and the average group size coming to Sausalito now is just under. It's about 3.8 bikes, so roughly four bikes. So when they park, they don't park a bike, lock to a meter, lock to a tree, lock to whatever. And that's not a huge problem if you're able-bodied. But imagine that you're with your family and you've got a relative in a wheelchair and the whole streets are crowded and you've got literally 2,000 people in the downtown What happens is, the pedestrians spill out onto the busy streets. We did a survey of residents in town and of merchants in town back just over a year ago, and the number one issue was the bikes and the sidewalks. And so we have identified that as a committee as a problem, unfortunately, We, like to a large degree, I think the city has struggled as, you know, so what do we do about that specifically? There is a bike ordinance now, but it's largely unenforceable for various reasons I can touch on or Police Chief Tahada can touch on. But essentially what we can do is impound bikes that will actually cost the city money to impound the bikes. If I was biking in town and my bike was impounded, I don't think I'd be particularly happy. So that's a tough thing, issuing tickets because the bikes don't have license plates, like cars is a problem. So again, I apologize in saying that we just really haven't come up with a great solution. And what we've done is dump the problem on the staff. But the problem, to be specific, is that during the very specific peak visitor times, the sidewalks are crowded. It's a safety, convenience, congestion issue. the bike ambassadors, can help. but they cannot solve this problem. And let me be specific. We had three bike ambassadors who were trained who were quite good, who were all quite mobile, trying for three consecutive weekends to keep people from parking bikes in the downtown and locking them to meters and trees and so on and so forth. And they just, frankly, couldn't keep up. It is too many bikes in too short a period of time. So you either sort of give up on the problem and you say the sidewalks are going to be a bike parking area or you come up with another solution. As I mentioned, the current ordinance has logistics problems, has economic problems, and has fairness challenge. I wouldn't like my bike to be impounded if I was careless at the same time. I think that we have a challenge and that there needs to be adequate warning. And lastly, the solutions on this I think need to be a bit more focused than the current proposed ordinance. They need to look at the peak visitor hours. Honestly, as I had a discussion earlier with members of the chamber, |
| 02:43:13.37 | Betsy Stroman | that |
| 02:43:53.82 | Unknown | If I want to bike down at 7 a.m. on a rainy Tuesday morning in November and lock my bike to a meter in front of Starbucks, I just really don't think that's a problem. If I want to dump my bike and my four kids' bikes in the middle of Bridgeway on the busiest time of the year, I think that is a problem. And I think we can be a little bit more focused in terms of our attempts to address this. I think this needs to be practical in nature. We have a focus on education and enforcement. I think we need to leave heavily on the bike rental vendors who have a 100% touch point with the rental bikers who are 90 plus percent of the folks who are parking on the streets. This is not commuters. This is not recreational cyclists. They come through town and blow right through town or stop at Cappi Chivo. And lastly, I think we need to have the smallest possible footprint on locals to achieve the maximum impact. To that end, just a couple final notes. I think that one of the concepts in medicine is make sure that the cure is not worse than the disease. And the ordinance needs to address the fact that we can't have this be such an impact on all of us or even on some people in an inordinate way that we've stepped back for that. denial and hope is not a plan. And we, you know, and I start this by saying, and I'm still there, this is one area where the bike committee didn't say, here's what you should do. I guess we're not smart enough, or maybe we don't have enough attorneys on it. We don't know what the laws are. We don't know we can do what we can't do, but we do know that on the one hand, We don't want to cause a bigger problem, but the other hand, the status quo for the citizens of this town is not sufficient. And I think from a political and practical standpoint, we're all very much aware of that. I want to thank the staff for the ordinance that was written. because having struggled and failed with coming up a solution. I have a lot of respect for people who put pen to paper and come up with something, even if it's not perfect, it gives us something to work with. And so I very much appreciate that because we weren't able to do it as a committee. Two final points. Bikes are a big issue in this town, and the council created a bike committee. We're like the Maytag repairman. We're the loneliest people in town. To the extent that you really care about bike issues, We would absolutely love to see you. I mean, we're right here in council chambers. We serve Altoids. I mean, it's a party atmosphere. You really ought to come and be part of it. And lastly, just to plug, if you care a lot about the town, we do have a robust ambassador program. Half the ambassadors that are trained are volunteers. go to SaucedoPlus.org and volunteer. Or better yet, come on Monday night. We have a committee meeting with a reception afterwards. We can meet the ambassadors who are already trained and learn more about this. Obviously, bicycles are a big issue in town. I think there's a lot of areas where we can make substantial improvement. I think this is one where, unfortunately, we've defined the problem more when we've defined the solution. And I'm sure the council will make the right decision as to how to address the very specific issue of enforcement. Thank you. Thank you. |
| 02:47:15.58 | Mayor Theodore | makes it. |
| 02:47:15.91 | Unknown | Thank you. |
| 02:47:16.22 | Mary Wagner | Mr. Mayor, if I may, just quickly a couple other points of clarification. This was intended to be and is designed to be a less impactful penalty provision to the bike rider, the person who is in Sausalito operating their bicycle and would come back to find their bicycle gone and try to decide what to do. This allows for a less draconian, if you will, enforcement mechanism. It's also important, I think, to clarify and reiterate, applies in the. try to decide what to do. This allows for a less draconian, if you will, enforcement mechanism. It's also important, I think, to clarify and reiterate, applies in the downtown area, which is a very specifically defined area. It's bikes that are unattended and parked illegally on public property. So it's a fairly narrow universe of a regulation and not quite as broad, I believe, as some of the people have been led to believe. |
| 02:47:17.64 | Unknown | Sure. |
| 02:47:19.42 | Mayor Theodore | Thank you. |
| 02:47:19.44 | Unknown | Thank you. |
| 02:47:19.46 | Mayor Theodore | and the |
| 02:48:06.37 | Mary Wagner | And just another quick point of clarification, it's been pointed out to me that we ran out of speaker cards. So while you have quite a stack, there are other people here who would probably like to address you as well. |
| 02:48:18.39 | Mayor Theodore | Thank you. |
| 02:48:18.40 | Unknown | Thank you. |
| 02:48:18.50 | Mayor Theodore | Thank you. So before we go to public comment we have any questions I have |
| 02:48:22.28 | Unknown | I bet. I have a question for Dr. Fosch actually. Ed, thanks a lot. Ongoing great work. sort of implied that, um, You know, despite the best efforts, there was maybe some things with this ordinance that weren't, maybe I'm, that weren't. that were potentially problematic. I'm putting words in your mouth. Can you sort of, I know you said that you were frustrated because you hadn't perhaps come up with as many solutions, although your committee seems to have put a lot of solutions forward, so I wouldn't quite be so self-deprecating. The, what would be your suggestions for how we could improve this ordinance? |
| 02:49:21.01 | Unknown | And I will say two things and then specifically answer your question. One is I didn't actually read the ordinance until I think yesterday. But reading it stimulated a lot of thought. And I, unfortunately, just me, because of practical issues in the Brown Act, I don't have the input from all the other members. But a couple things really jumped to mind. The first is the dates and time of enforcement of any bike parking issue seems to me to be one that's kind of a slam dunk. I met people today who, like me, say, well, I just like coming downtown, and, you know, if it's November or if it's early in the morning, what difference does it make, and why is that hurting anything? And, you know, I was like, yeah. I don't only agree with you, I mean, I am you. That's just... I think, saying you know times of enforcement when there's really a challenge with bikes on the sidewalk which you know you could It varies a little bit depending on the length of the day, but you could certainly say 10 or 11 until five or something like that, and then you can also deal with months of the year. really isn't a big issue for a lot of months of the year. And then we have some data we've generated at the pedestrian bike committee. I think the city has some, but if we really targeted the dates, the months, and the hours of the day, I think we could have maximum impact with minimum footprint. The second thing is I think that I have a bike. I used to have two bikes, but unfortunately, one was stolen three weeks ago, so now I'm down on one bike. |
| 02:50:50.16 | Betsy Stroman | Yeah. |
| 02:50:55.66 | Unknown | but I'm sort of put out to have to put my name on my bike. And I'm not sure I should have to if I follow all the rules. So I'm not sure you can do this, but you say, if you follow the rules, you don't have to have your name on your bike. And I know that, as Wagner said, this isn't a separate citable offense, which I certainly think it shouldn't be. But if you don't park illegally, then you should be able to have a bike and not have your name on the bike. And maybe, and this is just, remember, I hate it when lawyers try to practice medicine. It's even worse when, well, it's bad when doctors try to be lawyers. But it seems to me that if you don't have some evidence of the ownership of the bike, that should only be an issue when you break the law. And so the extent you can say, well, if you violate the law and your bike's impounded or whatever, it's, you know, whatever, 50 bucks, and it's an extra 20 bucks if you don't have the contact information. But the solution I would sort of lean toward is one that doesn't ask every single person in Sausalito or in Marin County who happens to ride to Sausalito, to put their name on their bike. for a whole bunch of reasons, but it just seems very intrusive. I get the problem. I totally get the challenge, but those are sort of the two things. time. dates of enforcement, and how do you create a workaround so that you're only focused on people who are not following the rules And it almost goes without saying, you have to have sufficient signage so people know what the rules are. I mean, there's a lot of people coming to town, limited language skills, and so, you know, there's all that stuff. I have to, one last, I hate signs all over the place, and we have a lot of those already, but I think if you're going to ask people, and I think we have to, to not clog our sidewalks, you have to give them fair warning as to here's what the rules are, And that may be, and I met with Jonathan Goldman, our engineer, it may be some temporary signage we need during those peak hours |
| 02:53:00.65 | Unknown | that the ambassadors can put out and take away. So we need to look at all the arrows in our quiver. So I would say those are the three things. You have to tell people about it. You have to focus it during the times that it's relevant. And you have to make sure that we're not asking more of just local folks who have a bike than is perhaps reasonable. |
| 02:53:19.92 | Unknown | Thank you. |
| 02:53:22.20 | Mayor Theodore | ask a follow on that to our city attorney on that point. Well, currently, it's it's illegal to park in the defined downtown area. So we're at that point. But if we were so inclined to take Dr. Fotch's recommendation of limiting it to date and time and and that type of thing, would we need to do that in the ordinance? Or would could there be certain policy? For example, we have parking meters and it's nine to six. Is it set in the ordinance ordinance or are there some administrative ways that we can adjust the time and dates of enforcement. |
| 02:53:55.90 | Mary Wagner | No, I think you need to be very specific about the dates and times of enforcement, and it's somewhat problematic because it's somewhat weather-dependent, you know, and it's definitely tourist season-dependent. So I like the concept of look at when it's most impactful. You know, you have representatives from the police department here also who I believe would share that concern, that they need to know what they're enforcing. And we need to know when it's applicable. And as to Dr. Fotch's notice provision, and maybe if I could practice medicine, I wouldn't still be sick. But the notification is very important. In order for us to tell people when you can and can't do something, we need to know what it is that we're enforcing. So I'm hesitant to recommend to you that you kind of give an amorphous definition of, you know, when there's a lot of people in the downtown area, not that you would be that vague, but I do think you need to be specific, and it does need to be in the regulations about what the proposed hours and days and times would be. I'd also I think I need to speak to this identifier again and I included it in my presentation because I think it's also an enforcement issue that we need the ability and the enforcement officers need an ability to know what bike they're dealing with and I concur with dr. Fudge that if you don't park illegally it's not a problem and that was the intent of the language that I suggested that you add to the proposed ordinance to clearly state you know if you're just riding through town you don't have to have your name on your bike but if you're gonna park you're gonna park downtown that's when it becomes an issue |
| 02:55:43.99 | Jill Hoffman | Mary, would you mind putting up that map of what we call the downtown area? It was in one of your slides. And, Ed, can you tell us, in your opinion, as the chair of the bike and ped committee, what months are we finding most problematic? |
| 02:56:03.97 | Unknown | So before I give you the specific months, I have to... give you a doctor plug. If you ride your bike without your name and contact information on your person, you're making a huge mistake. I ran an emergency department for 10 years, and we would get cyclists in periodically, and we wouldn't know who the heck they are, and that's really bad. So it may not need to be on your bike, but I'm just like, this is the don't smoke commercial. Please have your name somewhere identifiable on your person. Yeah, there's really the summer months start. And frankly, my suggestion would be err on the side of caution here. I wouldn't start anything until June 1st. Thank you. |
| 02:56:54.71 | Unknown | Mm-hmm. |
| 02:56:54.93 | Unknown | and I would end it, you know, pick a date in September, September 15th. Could even be earlier. I can't honestly say I have the dates off the top of my head, but all you do is, and we have this if you are interested on, I can get this for you, but just look at the logs from the Golden Gate Ferry District and see what the numbers are. And when it pushes over 1,000 bikes a day, you know that you've got too many. But if I had to pick dates right now, I'd probably say June 1st, September, June 15th, September 1st. And then if you see that you need more than that, |
| 02:57:00.45 | Unknown | Mm-hmm. |
| 02:57:19.28 | Betsy Stroman | I'm not sure. |
| 02:57:34.30 | Unknown | I'd go outside. You know, there's probably an argument to do something over spring break. We had a pretty big volume, particularly this year over spring break. But you can always expand it. And I think we need to start with something and sort of, you know, see how it goes. And clearly the July-August months are the, you know, that's ground zero for the volumes of bikes. Okay. |
| 02:57:52.15 | Jill Hoffman | Thank you. Mm-hmm. for the bond. And what hours are we, you know, you said maybe 10 to 5? |
| 02:58:01.62 | Unknown | Yeah, or you might start 11 to 4. I mean, you can pick those. It's sort of funny, as Herb mentioned to me the other day, it shifts because as the days get longer, people stay longer. So it's a little bit of a wiggle room. But honestly, if I had to, I'd say sort of 11 to 5 maybe. I've been downtown a lot now with this ambassador thing over the last two months. And it's pretty rare that there's a real bike park. |
| 02:58:13.42 | Betsy Stroman | Thank you. |
| 02:58:13.43 | Unknown | It's a little bit. |
| 02:58:20.81 | Unknown | Mm-hmm. |
| 02:58:27.76 | Unknown | sidewalk parking problem at 10 a.m. 11 it starts to build and it's almost always just because of the ferry departure time it's always dissipated by you know four or five o'clock so |
| 02:58:29.85 | Unknown | Thank you. |
| 02:58:29.97 | Unknown | Mm-hmm. |
| 02:58:30.04 | Unknown | Thank you. |
| 02:58:30.12 | Unknown | Thank you. |
| 02:58:38.25 | Unknown | If you want to err on the side of caution, I'd make it 11 to 4. |
| 02:58:42.37 | Jill Hoffman | And so on the northern end of our little blue map up there, what street is that? on the very northern end. Is that Johnson? I should know this, but I don't know. |
| 02:59:01.46 | Unknown | Thank you. You wanted to see the blue mark. Yeah. How far would it extend? |
| 02:59:03.67 | Jill Hoffman | Yeah. Yeah, what's that street up there? So if I say, okay, I see the southern, right? |
| 02:59:11.70 | Unknown | Thank you. |
| 02:59:11.72 | Unknown | Thank you. |
| 02:59:11.74 | Unknown | Thank you. |
| 02:59:11.89 | Unknown | Thank you. |
| 02:59:12.04 | Adam Politzer | Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. |
| 02:59:14.98 | Jill Hoffman | Okay, yeah, okay. So if you wanna, so to be clear, if you wanna park, outside that blue area, we're not talking about enforcement outside that blue area. So if you want to park on a bicycle loop, north of that or south of the blue area, that's fine. |
| 02:59:32.02 | Unknown | Yeah, or up in the hills. I mean, like when I first came to Saucyote, it was too cheap to pay for the downtown, so I parked up on bulkly. |
| 02:59:35.41 | Jill Hoffman | Okay. So what we're talking about is congestion on the public sidewalks in our downtown area that are causing a safety problem. |
| 02:59:45.13 | Unknown | Yeah, that's clearly the real problem tends to be sort of between the Bank of America-ish building and maybe SCOMAs. I mean, that's really where it gets. |
| 02:59:52.28 | Jill Hoffman | ISH. |
| 02:59:58.11 | Unknown | absolutely jam packed although as you'll recall from my last presentation of the council there's also an area at the I think base of Richardson Street, Richardson and Bridgeway that becomes an impromptu picnic area |
| 03:00:10.00 | Unknown | Thank you. |
| 03:00:10.02 | Jill Hoffman | Yeah. Thank you. |
| 03:00:10.39 | Unknown | Thank you. which I don't think is an issue of citations. Just ask people to move along because the locals need to walk up and down the street. But in terms of this issue of bikes locked to meters and locked to trees, I think it's a really relatively small area. |
| 03:00:25.82 | Jill Hoffman | Okay. Amen. Go ahead. |
| 03:00:30.41 | Adam Politzer | Just want to another point of clarification that's probably important. Cuz I don't have any trouble with what Dr. Fotch is recommending in terms of time or dates. But one of the clarifications is necessary, if the bike is parked illegally, outside of those hours or those dates. cause either a safety issue or an impediment to right away those bikes would have to be removed not just sighted the citation one matter because we would have a situation where circulation was impacted so we need to make sure that that's addressed as well |
| 03:01:09.47 | Jill Hoffman | Right, for a different, yeah. Is that what happened to anything? |
| 03:01:11.97 | Mayor Theodore | Thank you. |
| 03:01:19.72 | Councilmember Pfeiffer | Thank you, Ed. So I actually have some questions. Thank you. Thank you, and thank you also to the Bike Committee for their wonderful work on this, because I know it's quite a daunting challenge here. So we received, as council, we received a number of e-mails, folks concerned about the bike parking with respect to the charging for the bikes. And just for the history that was actually passed, I guess a couple of weeks ago at the April 21st meeting when you made your presentation. for the rental bike parking. And it was my understanding that the most- |
| 03:02:07.22 | Betsy Stroman | Thank you. |
| 03:02:07.25 | Debbie | THE END. |
| 03:02:07.52 | Betsy Stroman | Thank you. |
| 03:02:09.50 | Adam Politzer | Council member Pfeiffer, can you clarify what you're stating? Because I'm not quite sure what you just said there. |
| 03:02:15.37 | Councilmember Pfeiffer | Oh, okay. Well, I'm looking at the motion, and the motion was that Council Member Withey moved, seconded by Council Member Weiner, to direct staff to move forward with the preferred parking program, which was the bike parking. under the terms and conditions as recommended by the Pedestrian and Bicycle Advisory Committee. And that included charging for the bike parking. |
| 03:02:41.02 | Adam Politzer | preferred preferred by parking and correct and absolutely Dr. Fudd. |
| 03:02:43.74 | Councilmember Pfeiffer | Correct. And absolutely, Dr. Fudge can comment on that. And I just wanted to say, we received a lot of emails about that. And as you'll recall, I actually while I actually supported charging for the bike fees, the bike parking, but I had concerns. I voted against that motion because the revenue from the bike parking was proposed in your presentation to go to the nonprofit sauce little plus that your wife has founded correct is that Deb and she's and Deb's doing a great job I mean she's just awesome amazing work but my my um |
| 03:03:22.89 | Betsy Stroman | Yep. |
| 03:03:30.97 | Councilmember Pfeiffer | I guess I supported a program where the ambassadors were volunteers, it was the deviation. So my first question is, did the bicycle committee do a formal vote on that nonprofit, the establishment of Sausalito Plus? Yes. You did? Okay. And... |
| 03:03:51.25 | Betsy Stroman | Yes. |
| 03:03:56.92 | Councilmember Pfeiffer | Okay, so... Is there another reason? |
| 03:04:02.80 | Adam Politzer | Can I just want to clarify, so two different discussions going on. One is the proposed amendment to the existing ordinance. The second is that the preferred parking program that Dr. Fudge presented |
| 03:04:03.84 | Councilmember Pfeiffer | Yes, please. |
| 03:04:21.07 | Adam Politzer | at whatever last council meeting that we had, not the very one, but before that, Um, that program no longer the preferred parking program never materialized it was dependent on the rental companies participating to some level of degree. there was two components of it there was the preferred parking where you would pay an extra fee and be at the front of the line. When you got your reservation, they get on the ferry. You were on the front of the line. THE OTHER. component of that was preferred return which meant that We use the official parking lots to actually drop off your bike and the bike rental companies would come and pick up those bikes after hours And but that program never materialized because it was dependent. So the discussion that you're reading in the emails that we received earlier today is about what we're going to be discussing at the council meeting on the 19th. which is charging for parking in Tracy Way. So the preferred parking program at this moment in time no longer exists. |
| 03:05:25.72 | Councilmember Pfeiffer | Oh, okay. All right. So I didn't know that. So I guess as a follow-up question, the ambassador program was originally presented as a volunteer program. What percentage are you proposing that the ambassadors, what percentage of ambassadors would be paid and you know in the next in the next meeting I presume will we see a more kind of fleshed out detail in terms of you know what that would look like. |
| 03:06:00.25 | Mayor Theodore | would look like this is not on the agenda today. So we're going to do it on the 19th when we talk about that. Okay. And so we really should limit it to the current what's currently on the enforcement. I mean, if you want to address it, but I think I want to do that for both |
| 03:06:03.42 | Councilmember Pfeiffer | We're going to do it. Okay. |
| 03:06:09.95 | Betsy Stroman | Okay. |
| 03:06:10.62 | Unknown | Yeah. |
| 03:06:10.98 | Betsy Stroman | I love it. |
| 03:06:11.20 | Unknown | But if I could. |
| 03:06:11.94 | Betsy Stroman | I mean, |
| 03:06:12.53 | Unknown | Thank you. |
| 03:06:12.72 | Betsy Stroman | President Biden. |
| 03:06:15.64 | Mayor Theodore | When we have public comment and up here, just so we keep it focused, there are a lot of bicycle issues that we have and the bike and ped committee has done a lot of work. And for tonight, we need to focus on the enforcement issues that are before us. So I ask everyone. |
| 03:06:28.33 | Councilmember Pfeiffer | Okay, great. So I'll go straight to the parking enforcement. So part of the parking enforcement, and we requested some research on the enforcement as a result of that prior conversation on April 21st. I remember that, and so that's why we're seeing this now. But my question is, it's my understanding that by concentrating the parking there, that we have removed some of the bike racks that were previously located elsewhere in town. Is that correct? In the downtown. In the downtown. I believe. |
| 03:07:04.99 | Jill Hoffman | Maybe we're talking about the loops? The loops, yeah. |
| 03:07:07.20 | Councilmember Pfeiffer | Thank you. |
| 03:07:07.25 | Mayor Theodore | They're loops, yeah. |
| 03:07:08.35 | Councilmember Pfeiffer | Thank you. |
| 03:07:09.95 | Jill Hoffman | And we can address that to maybe our you |
| 03:07:11.84 | Mayor Theodore | City manager, I think, in this case. Thank you. |
| 03:07:13.72 | Jill Hoffman | Okay. |
| 03:07:13.74 | Mayor Theodore | THE END OF Thank you. |
| 03:07:16.40 | Adam Politzer | Yeah, again, based on what Dr. Fudge and the Bike and Ped Committee were recommending to the council, during the peak time with the heavy congestion that the parking loops were actually creating a health and safety issue downtown. And so they recommended that we remove them during the peak period of time. Because the ambassadors, as Dr. Facher earlier, mentioned this evening. can't actually keep up with people parking illegally not illegally, legally, but taking up the amount of space becoming illegally because of becoming a barrier for path of travel on on our sidewalks and a congestion issue. So staff took that recommendation. and eliminated the loops and hoops that are out there. And staff at this current period of time is looking at additional parking areas that either those are reestablished at or other parking, bike parking racks are placed south of lot three so that people can continue to enjoy parking outside of the downtown area. Thank you. |
| 03:08:24.68 | Councilmember Pfeiffer | So, um, |
| 03:08:25.79 | Adam Politzer | Thank you. |
| 03:08:25.84 | Unknown | I look at this map. Because I can tell you, we kind of came up with this. It's very difficult to ask a visitor who's coming to town that looks at six bikes parked to some object in the middle of six bikes. One of those bikes is a tandem bike, and the other one has a little kid thing on the back. So you can't actually see what's in the middle. There could be a person in there, and you wouldn't know it. |
| 03:08:25.93 | Councilmember Pfeiffer | Bye. |
| 03:08:25.98 | Adam Politzer | Look at this map. If I could just... |
| 03:08:27.17 | Councilmember Pfeiffer | Thank you. |
| 03:08:27.29 | Councilmember Pfeiffer | Yeah. |
| 03:08:27.31 | Adam Politzer | Yeah. |
| 03:08:27.33 | Councilmember Pfeiffer | I can tell you this. |
| 03:08:46.68 | Unknown | and to say to them, well, that's a bike loop. And that's fine. But this is a parking meter, and that's not fine. So our suggestion for, I think it was three or possibly four loops in the middle of the downtown, within 100 feet or so of the intersection of Princess and Bridgeway, was to either live with the fact that we're going to have parking on the streets or eliminate those loops in that specific area. And frankly, three bike loops, when you're talking about 2,000 bikes coming into town, is a bit of a drop in the bucket. But it did clearly send the wrong message to our visitors that our sidewalks are there for bike parking. |
| 03:09:28.43 | Councilmember Pfeiffer | So my question is, when I look at this map, does that include Caledonia Street? No, good. That was good. Okay, great. Okay, great. Good. And I have another question, but it's actually for our city attorney. And it's related to, you know, the whole, you know, bike issue and one of the reasons we're looking at enforcement. which would be, I know a couple months ago we asked you to do some research on the regulation issue. Is that something we're going to see at the next council session as well? Yes. Okay, thank you. |
| 03:10:13.96 | Mayor Theodore | Okay, so we'd like to open this up to public comment. Now, before we get started, I have 16 cards that people have submitted. We ran out of speaker, Okay, and would you send them? Anyone who hasn't filled out a speaker card who would like to speak, would you raise your hand? I'd like to find out, one. Okay. All right. So we'll start. We're gonna start off, I'll read three at a time so you could line up. I'd ask everyone to please, Be mindful we're having a three minute and I'm going to be very strict on it because the hours getting late and we have a number of speaker cards here and I'll ask you to line up and when you do so please state your name and and where you live in and and limit yourself to three minutes So we have Marjorie Thomas Craig Thomas and and Mike Gaspers first, and then I'll start announcing them as we go along. Marjorie, your first. |
| 03:11:21.65 | Unknown | Hello, Mr. Mayor, Council Members, Marjorie Thomas, owner and resident in Sausalito, a regular cyclist downtown and wherever I can. |
| 03:11:29.26 | Lisa Lewis | Yes, yes. |
| 03:11:35.05 | Unknown | I sent an email to city manager, I believe, and a member of the police, and I'll just read from that. I realise that this evening is in connection with the enforcement that has been drafted, and I would respectfully request the council to consider not approving the enforcement as written or as adjusted. that we should be looking at adding bike parking not removing it from Sausalito, because I think we need to encourage cyclists to Sausalito, and if it's a case of making it safer here, let's provide the parking so that the bikes are not clogging the sidewalks. As I understand it, there have not been complaints made to the police department for bicycles to be removed from sidewalks because of health and safety issues. So basically, I'm a homeowner and resident of Sorcellito, and I've recently noticed that the bicycle rack outside of Starbucks on Princess Street has been removed. I used to cycle to Starbucks every day with my husband for a morning coffee. One of the reasons we bought our home here was because it was a bicycle-friendly city and area. It's not logical to charge more for someone to park a bike instead of a car. Because of local crime, I need to lock my bicycle using a U-lock, not a cable or chain, as recommended by police. The single standing racks were perfect, and certainly used by many cyclists who frequented Starbucks and other downtown establishments. When the Bank of Marin moved its location on Harbour Drive to Bridgeway, they didn't have a bicycle wreck as their only location. At the opening celebration, my husband asked the president of the bank, Russell Colombo, a keen cyclist himself, to consider installing one. Several weeks later, a rack was installed. We continue to be customers of the bank. I realise that the city has an issue with cycling tourists and that many residents have been vocal about this. I know that efforts are being made to resolve the issue and I'm pleased to see Tracy Way closed and used for bicycle parking. It solves both the issue of bike parking and removes a dangerous intersection. |
| 03:14:03.97 | Unknown | I used to enjoy my daily cycle to downtown. After all, it was one of the reasons I came to live in Sorcellito. In fact, I first came here by cycling over the Golden Gate Bridge on a tourist bicycle. I fell in love with the place and we purchased a home here and moved here a year later. That's it. Thank you. |
| 03:14:30.56 | Mayor Theodore | We ask people not applaud on these things because we have people on either side and we want to make sure that we create an atmosphere that everyone's free to speak their mind. I'd ask everyone to hold their applause. Thank you. |
| 03:14:43.20 | Craig Thomas | Thank you, Mr. Mayor and Councilmembers. First off, I agree with everything she just said. Thank you. |
| 03:14:47.81 | Mayor Theodore | Thank you. |
| 03:14:47.83 | Craig Thomas | Thank you. |
| 03:14:47.88 | Unknown | Thank you. |
| 03:14:47.89 | Craig Thomas | Thank you. |
| 03:14:47.91 | Unknown | Thank you. |
| 03:14:48.03 | Unknown | Thank you. |
| 03:14:48.13 | Unknown | Thanks. |
| 03:14:48.65 | Unknown | you |
| 03:14:48.72 | Unknown | . |
| 03:14:49.01 | Unknown | Excuse me, do you have a choice? No. |
| 03:14:49.11 | Unknown | Excuse me, do you have a choice? |
| 03:14:50.95 | Craig Thomas | No. So that's not an issue. As Marjorie said, we moved here. We came across the Golden Gate Bridge on the bicycles. We fell in love with the place because of the biking. We even got a home down on the flats so we could bike back and forth, and we love biking |
| 03:14:51.71 | Unknown | Thank you. |
| 03:14:51.76 | Unknown | Thank you. |
| 03:14:51.77 | Unknown | Thank you. |
| 03:14:51.81 | Unknown | Nah. |
| 03:15:07.85 | Craig Thomas | I have to say what I learned tonight, I feel bad that I haven't join Dr. Fosh on his committee and I'm going to make an effort to do that in the future. But I am a little concerned that he only heard about the ordinance and read it yesterday, from what I understood. And so I think that's a little disheartening for somebody thinking of joining the committee if he's put a lot of work into it from what I've seen, and he's very well respected, and he's doing it properly, and to only get the information yesterday is a little naughty. we've lived abroad and we've lived all over the world and we have friends from all over the world, and they all know Sausalito. It's amazing. They may not know a city like Des Moines, Iowa, or even Houston, Texas, but they know Sausalito. And a lot of the reasons they know it is because of the biking. It's a huge impact that we have overseas on the biking community. And they're not even bikers. They're just tourists, as Dr. Fosh said. And so for us to start pushing them away and doing this type of thing is not going to be well received. My main point and Marjorie's point is we're local bikers, and it's just pushing us away from the bikes. It's just a backwards movement. So we'd ask you to reconsider and to pay a lot more attention to the bike and ped committee and let them be at the forefront of these things or in the communication versus being surprised, which, as I say, rather daunting. Thank you very much. |
| 03:16:44.95 | Mike Gaspers | Good evening. I'm Mike Gaspers. I live in San Anselmo. And sorry, I'm a little nervous, but this also used to be my second grade classroom, so I'm like a little hurr. So I think that as you move forward, I think you should consider that we're kind of polluting this planet as fast as we can almost with our car exhaust and such. And I think that we should be encouraging bicycling. AND I THINK THAT WE SHOULD BE ENCOURAGING BICYCLING AND NON-MOTORIZED FORMS OF TRANSPORTATION AS MUCH AS WE CAN. AND I KNOW YOU HAVE A LOT OF PEOPLE THAT ARE INCREDIBLE. have challenges in Sausalito to consider also. And I admit I don't have any short term solutions to that. That said, I think I have a A an approach that is longer term that you might want to take into consideration I think it would be in the best interests of the city of Sausalito to to to realize the completion, to support the completion of the north-south bikeway from Sausalito to Larkspur Ferry Terminal, because that way it would give bicyclists coming into Sausalito an option to not just clog Sausalito and go back on the ferry, but to keep going north and go to the Larkspur Ferry and also go back to sauce to San Francisco that way that way would kind of give bicyclists an option you know to go back to the city another way and relieve some congestion in Sausalito while at the same time the bicyclists still come by and and give the city business and it could also be Promoted if you city of Sausalito could partner up with cities of Mill Valley, Corner Madera, Larkspur and with Blazing Saddles to maybe promote this as kind of like a Marin bicycle tour or a tunnel tour or something like that and so and so that would also promote bicyclists to kind of keep going and not necessarily congest Sausalito, you know, with all of them parking here. And they could also go the other way. They could take the Larkspur Ferry up to Larkspur and come down through Sausalito. They could do it that way, too. And so that's something I think you should consider as a long-term thing. It would kind of disperse the bicyclists and maybe decongest Sausalito a little bit. So thank you. |
| 03:19:20.54 | Mayor Theodore | Thank you, Aaron Singer, Michael Lappert, Peggy Clark, and Jeff Sears. And I just remind everyone that the item is on the enforcement of parking downtown. |
| 03:19:35.93 | Unknown | Mayor, Vice Mayor, and Council Members, thank you for allowing us to speak on this issue. I'm here as a business owner here in town and also Chair of the Sausalito Chamber of Commerce. I'd like to thank you. truly believe this is the wrong direction on this issue. To create a huge punitive stick before we've brought stakeholders together to discuss potential solutions is absolutely the wrong message to send and the wrong direction to go right out of the gate. the chamber, the ferry district the Sausalito Police Department and in the wrong direction to go right out of the gate. The chamber, the ferry district, the Sausalito Police Department, and bike companies have been working on this issue. and steadily improving this problem for the past four years. So this isn't something that has not been addressed by people. I think the problem is that there are groups that are working at contra purposes. I believe that these moves that you're discussing, especially the ordinance tonight and potentially other issues that will be coming up next week, will undo a lot of this work that has been done over the last four years. The process needs to be more deliberative and it needs to involve all stakeholders all stakeholders and that includes the merchants of this town includes the folks that work with tourists and it includes the bike companies not simply the city government here you will not stop people from visiting the of this town. on bikes or in buses or in cars. This is a famous place. People have been visiting this town for decades and so that's not going to go away. We risk exacerbating a narrative that has already been circulating that Sausalito and, and I want to stress, this is a direct quote from a high end hotel in San Francisco from a head concierge there that hostile is quote hostile to visitors. Now, we just hosted 64 concierge, the chamber did, last week from hotels all over uh... the bay area and we had numerous conversations and it is something that is starting uh... to be discussed that this town is becoming hostile to the very people uh... who are providing part of its livelihood So just quickly, I just want to say we need to put a task force and we need to potentially do a bike summit that invites all the stakeholders together to discuss this issue and find compromised solutions and not simply punitive. Well, thank you. Okay. |
| 03:22:38.62 | Unknown | Thank you. |
| 03:22:57.37 | Unknown | Thank you. |
| 03:22:57.72 | Mayor Theodore | Michael? |
| 03:22:57.98 | Michael Lappert | I'm going to go. |
| 03:22:57.99 | Mayor Theodore | Thank you. |
| 03:22:58.01 | Michael Lappert | you |
| 03:23:00.88 | Unknown | Thank you. |
| 03:23:00.90 | Michael Lappert | Hello, Michael Leppert. I'm going to speak just to the enforcement thing. I think you don't want to do something that's going to cause more problems. I think any time that you take somebody's private property and you destroy it by first of all cutting a very expensive lock and doing all of that, you are exposing yourself to liability. The lawyer will tell you she can defend it, and I'm sure she can, but it will still cost you money. The second problem you have here is we have a very small police force. very small police force for the amount of people that are here. And these guys are very busy on their motorbikes and on their cars patrolling the streets, for vehicle infractions which are far, far more dangerous from a health and safety standpoint with respect to pedestrians and crosswalks and everything that comes with it. If you have to take a man or woman out of his car or off his motorcycle to start doing this stuff, you're going to do two things. One, you're going to It's going to suffer on the end of the vehicle enforcement, and it's also going to cause a lot of dissension amongst the guys that are supposed to be enforcing this thing. This is a very nebulous, ill-crafted scheme. There are certain laws that have not been addressed here. You have to have signage. You cannot just take somebody's private property and impound it. And if you're going to do it, you're going to have to impound a lot of stuff. You're going to need a place to put it. You're going to need the tools to do it. You're going to need the vehicles to move that bicycle. It's not just, oh, we're going to take it, and too bad. Believe me, the first time you take somebody's $10,000 bike and put a scratch on it, that paint job is going to cost us a lot of money. Okay? So, but I'm also an offer of solutions. I'm totally on board with you guys having to deal with this traffic issue. So I would like to help. We allowed a parklet, for example, to go in front of the Venice Gourmet. The mistake we made is we made him put in benches for people to park their butts on it. What we should have done is put an area that's for bicycles. If I do a parklet in any of my, in front of my shops, I would ask the council to allow me to put a place for bicycles. We can handle the bicycles, but to do this punitive. towing, impounding, It's not good. It's not good for us. It'll be much harder. You'll cause more problems than you're going to solve. But I also agree what we need to have revenues to enforce all this parking uh amounts to park a bicycle, I'm on board with that. I'll support anything you guys want to do to be able to give you the money and the resources to do the policing, but you got to do it intelligently. I think this might be the you're going in the wrong direction on this one. So but I'm there to help. If you need space, if you need our help on the city, the merchant side, with parklets, with places to park the bikes, just come and ask us. We'll work with you on it. We understand the problem. Thank you. Thank you. Peggy Clark? |
| 03:25:55.05 | Mayor Theodore | Thank you. |
| 03:25:55.48 | Peggy Clark | Hi, thanks for having me. I live in Mill Valley. I ride my bicycle to Sausalito. Actually, I drove tonight, and I can't remember the last time I drove to Sausalito because I ride my bike here all the time. I have a child who rides his bike everywhere since elementary school and high school. He only comes to Sausalito on his bike. He does carry identification on him when he rides his bike. I would not want him to have identification, his name printed on his bike for number of reasons and I would not mind what mine on it. I know where my identifications are in a place where if I was injured, those people that were servicing me would find them. Just to have it plastered on my bike is not what I would do. I, I, yeah, it doesn't make sense. The ordinance is not what, the city met with the council and the I don't know all the political names for people but what what Sausalito has been working on for the past four years for the past year with regards to readjusting where bike parking would go. This is just dumping all of that work. It's not a positive, it's a negative. AND I THINK THAT'S A I am in the cycling world for my work, and we don't need any more contentious behavior or feelings toward cyclists in Marin County. We need to get probably more people on their bikes and less cars. We would all be a lot happier if we didn't have to deal with rude traffic. And I think cyclists, if they're embraced and the facilities are there, they'll come. They'll spend money. and they'll be happier, so I'm just into keeping it in a good positive place the ordinance is not in that place it's not from the heart so thank you |
| 03:27:45.07 | Unknown | Hello, Jeff Sears, Blazing Saddles. I was here last year when the ordinance for the sidewalk riding over 12 years old and the illegal parking on sidewalk ordinances were passed. Alicia from the Bike Coalition attended those meetings that we went to regarding that prior to the vote. We thought those were reasonable, being a good tool in order to remove bikes that were causing hazards on the sidewalk. I know that we haven't gotten any calls this year from the police department for any bikes that were impounded with that ordinance that was passed, and I'm not really sure, I don't know how many bikes, if any, were impounded. What I do think, though, that this is, it's a thinly veiled tool to increase the penalty and make it easier for bikes to be targeted to use to force them into the upcoming proposed ordinance that will be on the next agenda at Tracy Way. So I really think that this needs to be rethought. I think that the community outreach prior to this has been very minimal and substandard. I was shocked at the meeting that Adam, city manager, invited us to last Friday, myself and two other bike rental companies, and we discussed this So, that Adam, city manager, invited us to last Friday, myself and two other bike rental companies. And we discussed this ordinance, the upcoming proposed $5 fee for parking on Tracy way, and his marching orders to reduce bicycles. numbers coming into Sausalito. We were shocked. We didn't understand this the way things were done here. We've been trying for several years to improve the system down at the ferry terminal. We think we've been doing a great job. We also think the ambassador program is a very, it's a great improvement that really needs to be here. We don't think that this should be used as a tool in order to finance that. There are several other ways that we could come to the table and help finance this worthy service that needs to happen in Sausalito and needs to be done with a lot of community outreach and a lot of participation from all the different team players that have already been involved and the residents and the business communities of Sausalito thank you |
| 03:30:26.12 | Mayor Theodore | Kathy, I'm sorry, McLeod, McLeod? Let me get my glasses here, we have. Peter Van Meter. And Anise Pogue, I'm sorry if I mispronounce it. |
| 03:30:46.78 | David Schonbrunn | this side |
| 03:30:48.22 | Mayor Theodore | Well, I'm getting to all of them, hopefully. Your name's on one. I don't know what. Please. Um, if at the end someone submitted a card was not able to speak, we'll make sure that we have time for them |
| 03:30:57.41 | Kathy McLeod | Yeah. |
| 03:31:03.86 | Kathy McLeod | Kathy McLeod and I'm from Tiburon and we're trying to get bikes to come to Tiburon. So we want to put the signs down here pointing to Tiburon. |
| 03:31:13.51 | Unknown | So, . |
| 03:31:20.97 | Kathy McLeod | I know it must be hard to run a city and All the things that you have to think about. Bicycling is probably not the thing that you do a lot of, but here are all these people in here doing a lot of bicycling, me included. And I just can't. figure out how how it came to this. It just isn't even in my psyche. I just I agree with what everybody said already. There's not a thing that anyone has said that I can't even think that I don't agree with. Everything is right. I don't agree with paying for parking. Somebody did say that. You know, they could see that. But unless it's a bike... parking garage like I'm not sure. You know, they have bike stations down in Long Beach. They're great. you can take your bike inside this whole entire, almost like a big bike shop. and park it inside of a building. I know that's over the top, but. It's an idea if you're gonna do a bike station. And MCBC has a bike parking program Biketoberfest happens every year, and everyone comes there on their bike. And it kind of reminds me of maybe what it's like here with no bike parking. That's what would happen. At Biketoberfest, Um... Maybe MCBC could come... and do the bike parking and it's for free. They have volunteers, and it's great. You could do it for that whole... time between 10 and 4. The other thing, why not have like a, you know, farmer's market right there in the middle of the street and have a place where you can have, sorry, part of it be bicycling. Just shut off the streets on those busy days on the weekends and just have pedestrian and bike stuff. And then also, if you've been to San Anselmo, I've seen where the. where the sidewalk actually kind of goes down into the street, so it's easy for the bikes to come right up onto the sidewalk. It extends out into the street. So I could imagine having just a long row of bike parking down the sidewalks. So it's more bike-friendly and pedestrian-friendly with room for everybody. So anyway, thanks for having us. And, you know, this whole issue, the bike summit, let's do that. That sounds like a good idea. |
| 03:34:08.69 | Mayor Theodore | Thank you. |
| 03:34:08.96 | Peter Van Meter | Thank you. |
| 03:34:10.16 | Mayor Theodore | Peter. |
| 03:34:15.68 | Peter Van Meter | Short court. Anyway, yeah, I was thinking that the charging was on the agenda tonight, but let me just say that that's a really bad idea because if you're going to create chaos and congestion like you've never seen before when you start dealing with that. Parking. pay for parking issue. But regarding this ordinance here tonight, Uh, First of all, it's a gotcha because nobody's going to have their name on their bike. So when these bikes start being impounded, They're, you know, who are they, who do they belong to, and so on. Because no one has a name on a bike. So, you know, it won't happen. And how are you going to get enough education to have everybody that's going to be coming to Sausalito put their name on their bike? Thank you. impractical, unreal, is just not going to work. So when your bike disappears, And then you say, where's my bike? Where do I go? How do I get my bike? I'm missing my ferry. I got my family waiting for me, you know, on the other side of the bay. You know, another huge issue, another problem for everybody that's visiting town and stuck in that situation. Then you go where it is, you find out where it is, and you got your pay your hundred bucks. I don't have 100 bucks. I got a problem. We're spending all our money on this trip to the great San Francisco in Sausalito. I mean, There's just so many issues with this that, to me, it's just a really impractical bad idea. So again, if you've got to go back to Ed's great committee, Having other people get involved, terrific. But I think this needs to be rethought. Don't do it tonight. Thanks. |
| 03:35:43.97 | Ines Ponyay | Yes, Ines Ponyay. Hi, my name's Ines Ponyay and I have two businesses downtown. I own Jewelry by the Bay for 30 years and Sox Alito for two years. I... I can't really say whether bikes help or hurt my business. I just know that this issue... being A negative. saying another no we were blocking bikes from coming into Sausalito is going to be a big red mark on Sausalito's reputation. So I think if we stop the bikes from coming here and deter them from coming here and having these kind of solutions, it's going to really hurt. the downtown businesses. because, you know, it's just going to be negative. I, I do agree that what I do think that we need is better management. And I'm so thankful for Dr. Fodge for what you're doing and I agree with a lot of your points that you have. I agree that There needs to be limited Um. You know, the impounding, maybe we just have it from the 11 to 4 idea is a great idea. In the summer months, that would be great. Even, you know, some weekends because weekends are busy. I think that's a solution. um So I'm all for a better management of the bikes, but having a big negative and that it's a sweep thing like this, it's not right. And I also agree with Michael Lappert. I think you're opening up yourself for a lot of problems because, you know, I don't know how you're going to control all this, taking the bikes and damages and all that. So I'm up for solutions, some good positive solutions for this. Thank you for listening. |
| 03:37:50.60 | Mayor Theodore | Sandy Allen, David Merrick, and Christopher Holbrook. |
| 03:38:07.98 | Sandy Allen | Sandy Allen Hello. I am Sandy Allen. I'm a resident and a business owner in Sausalito. I own something, anything downtown on Princess Street. And I often ride my bike from my house to the store. I believe that I've been parking illegally for some time. I think maybe my orange bike was in your PowerPoint presentation. |
| 03:38:23.82 | Betsy Stroman | Maybe my orange. President. |
| 03:38:27.94 | Sandy Allen | And I'm totally unaware of any of the municipal codes that are talking about tonight. So I can't imagine that a tourist that's here for the day is going to recognize anything that they're doing wrong And then if you take their bike, I agree with everyone. It's just a black mark on the community. I can't imagine that that's a good solution. And I don't have a better solution, so I would be happy to help with anybody who wants to come up with some ideas. But I also want to address the idea of putting my name on my bike, because I just see that. as one creepy guy following a pretty girl And then you're set up for all kinds of lawsuits. there's no reason for anybody to have their name on their bike. So that's all. Thank you very much. |
| 03:39:16.46 | David Merrick | Thank you. I'm David Merrick. I live here in Sausalito. Just bought a house three months ago. We like it here because of the bicycle idea, and I was shocked by this law coming up, or the string of rules coming up. I'm against it. It seems funny. Punitive actions are to train people to not do something, But each person coming is a new face. And so you teach a lesson, the next one comes along. You teach them a lesson, the next one comes along. They're not going to get it. |
| 03:39:55.34 | David Merrick | I was thinking of Monty Python, where you whack the tourist. They just keep on coming, and you keep whacking them. And so it sends a message. to the world it's very negative And with global warming, this is stupid. |
| 03:40:26.05 | Christopher Holbrook | Good evening, Christopher Holbrook. I live here in Sausalito. I have two businesses. One of them is downtown, is Studio 333. I've written so many notes right now and questions that I don't even know where to start. But one of them is. if we're gonna enforce this law, you need to let these people know. And one of the questions is, how are you gonna let bike riders know that there is this law? There needs to be some signs posted, There needs to be some signs posted if they do park here that you're going to be Your bikes will be impounded. This is the number that you need to call. There's going to be all that that you need to do. It has to be posted. This is going towards this whole thing is going towards getting people to park on Tracy way that the next meeting is for parking on Tracy way. So we're trying to be, get people to go that way. If you're going to have people parking in a paid place, you're going to need just as big a place as a non-paid place for people to park, legally, I believe. I'm not a lawyer. Where are you going to put all these bikes? There's over 1,000, 2,000 bikes a day on a summer day. I can guarantee you that our police force does not want to be downtown giving tickets to citations and taking bikes off the streets. Where are you going to put them? Where are they going to go? You need your own police force just to put the bikes there. A group of six people come in, and they park their bikes in the wrong space. The next six people are going to park there just because they're not told where to go. I don't think this has been thought out very well. I think there's a lot of questions that need to be answered. There's even going to be more questions next week when it comes to the paid parking. I'll stop there. |
| 03:42:26.25 | Mayor Theodore | Marina O'Neill, David Sudo, and David Shunbrunn. |
| 03:42:35.83 | Marina O'Neill | Mayor, vice mayor, council, Marina O'Neill, SF Bay Adventures, schooner free to be. I am a Saucido Chamber of Commerce member, a previous board member, and my neighbors are the bicycles downtown. my staff rides their bikes from the north end of town to come down to work to the free to be. So I have a real interest in a solution for what's going on downtown. I am a little bit concerned to see a committee Put together by the city and council that is just of the residents to advise the city council. I Have seen a lot of success with Task Force and other committees Like the WAM committee where you put Everybody who is concerned about a hot issue Together to try to come up with a way to advise you I'm very concerned that this is just a committee of um, of your residents advising. And tonight's meeting, all of these people here should have an opportunity to sit at a table before you guys are advised to get all of this fleshed out. I mean, it's 11 o'clock now. All this should be done ahead of time before you're advised. I don't agree with a punitive stance on this. I don't think that you've been presented with a solution or enough solutions to consider. So I would ask you tonight to not move forward with this before you get this maybe task force together and everybody can come together and give you some, you know, to weigh in with some strong advice. So please consider not moving forward with this. task force would be great. Thanks. |
| 03:44:30.84 | Mayor Theodore | I think David's not here. Okay. David, the other David. |
| 03:44:37.64 | David Schonbrunn | I'm David Schonbrunn. I live downtown. I don't have a bike. I don't ride a bike. This is not about me. Thank you. Having bikes parked locked to meters is a hassle. But... my message is get over it. This is not a big deal and it certainly is not worth this council's time, I believe. What I saw at the ferry landing hearing was not even disguised hostility not towards bikes but actually towards tourists. And I think there's an inherent tension in this town But the reality as I see it is the tourists don't come here to see the residents. The residents didn't move here to see the tourists. Let everyone continue on their way and be happy. Okay? So I found myself surprised to fully agree with the Chamber of Commerce. That doesn't happen very often. But I thought those remarks were extremely well taken. And this is just the wrong direction to send, and it's the wrong message to be sending about this community. So I'm in favor of benign neglect and just taking care of things that are more important. And I think it's important to note that the whole bike issue is something that's been a huge policy success for Sausalito, because the reality is all these people otherwise would have been here driving cars, which would be a nightmare. This is an annoyance. Driving with bike people riding alongside is an annoyance, and there's a lot of worry and focus that's necessary, but hey, this is where we are in the world today, and given climate change, it's entirely appropriate that people are riding. If you insist on going forward with this silly thing, the idea of names on bikes seems superfluous except for rental bikes. Those are the ones that are causing your problem. And the rental bikes are pretty well marked now. But that's something that you could, again, if this did have to go forward, that would be the one reasonable thing that could be done. Thank you. |
| 03:47:41.47 | Mayor Theodore | I have a name Jay, I am a bike rental company, so Oh, okay. What is it? It's Jay. Jay, okay. And then we have Rebecca Woodbury and Alicia Lockland. |
| 03:47:52.16 | Unknown | Thank you. |
| 03:47:58.89 | Jeannie Orellana | Thank you for having us, Jeannie Orellana. I'm representing Bay City Bike tonight. For several years, we've worked with this destination city, and Herb, for one, for many years, spending money, time, and resources to collaborate on resolving the bike traffic issues. Um, As far as ticketing and impounding and the new ordinances to sort of ramp up the efforts, We don't understand how you can feasibly enforce that. That's been repeated over and over again. We just see a multitude of problems, we imagine you'll impound the wrong $7,000 unidentified bike and make the wrong local, very angry, or you'll be forced to profile rental bikes and be accused of selective enforcement. We also understand your plan is to do this without accompanying signage. We learned that at our Friday meeting with the city manager. There's no plan to put signage anywhere telling people who are parking their bikes that this is going to happen to their bikes. At the same time, You want to turn away federal money for a ferry landing that would handle the massive flow of bikes during the identified peak season. and move the bikes in an orderly fashion out of your town, which is kind of the goal. That seems like the wrong direction. We urge you to not take this punitive and unfriendly. Measure. and consider another solution. We bike rental companies are happy to continue, as we have for the last several years, to work with your city to mitigate the situation. Thank you. |
| 03:49:36.14 | Rebecca Woodbury | Good evening, it's late. My name is Rebecca Woodbury. And first I wanted to thank the Bike and Ped Committee for their amazing work, and Dr. Fotch for his thoughtful and candid comments. They were wonderful. I'm excited to volunteer with the ambassadors soon. It's encouraging to see such a positive program put forth with a tricky issue that's ahead of us. But I urge you for the environment and for our health to really think about creating a bike-friendly community and not implement policies that impose punitive measures on cyclists. I'm a little creeped out about putting my bike and address on, sorry, my name and address on my bike for one. I'd love to see things like bike corrals. I was just in Portland where they've turned parking spaces into places to park bikes and they're wonderful and they're well used. I'd love to see new measures like that where we can look at innovative places around us and get ideas. So I'm encouraged by a lot of the comments tonight, and again, I'd just like you to think about creating a bike-friendly place for our environment and our health. Thank you. |
| 03:50:53.38 | Alicia O'Loughlin | Good evening, Alicia O'Loughlin, Marin County Bicycle Coalition. MCBC's worked very closely with city staff and the Pedestrian Bicycle Advisory Committee over the past year and way beyond that. but Recently, particularly to install free bike URACs downtown and on the language that was in the original bike parking ordinance that was passed last year. We recognize the city's in a very unique situation in trying to manage its volume of visitors by bike. And this is why we supported the original bike parking ordinance last year. provided it contains certain assurances. The first, that an adequate number of conveniently located free bike parking would remain available within the affected enforcement area. And also a commitment by the city to work with local bicycle organizations and |
| 03:51:37.67 | Betsy Stroman | and also, |
| 03:51:43.19 | Alicia O'Loughlin | to ensure an adequate supply remained. That language has been stricken from the current proposed ordinance. Downtown URACs within the designated enforcement area have already been removed. And there's no assurance in the proposed ordinance that free bike parking will remain within that same area. which by default forces local and visiting cyclists to park in a congested, inconvenient bicycle corral on Tracy way down by the ferry terminal. which is concurrently being considered to be converted to a paid only parking area. If you connect the dots, this leaves cyclists who want to park in the downtown designated area with no alternative than to park in the paid parking area. Please consider the ripple effects that this kind of ordinance will have on local and at large residents who wish to park in the downtown or who are relying upon their bicycles as their only means of transportation. Also, the legality of requiring personal contact information on bicycles, including the owner's address, is questionable. When a similar proposal was before the San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency in 2009, it was determined by the city attorney that licensing at the local level is preempted by the state law. and cannot be carried out with first amending state code. One could argue that requiring identifying information on your bicycle is not technically the same as licensing, but it certainly seems to be a form of licensing. If nothing else, it's an invasion of privacy, and it could pose real personal and property security risks. The city is taking great strides to manage peak bicycle periods and has experienced a lot of success. The ambassador program will be another very valuable tool in this larger bike parking strategy toolbox. We urge the city to not adopt the proposed ordinance, but to instead work with stakeholders to explore alternative means of accomplishing the same end. Thank you. |
| 03:53:38.94 | Mayor Theodore | Thank you. Anyone else is? Okay? That's okay. Who else would like to speak? Would you raise your hand if we have anybody else? All right, so would you start lining up and please state your name for the record. Certainly. |
| 03:53:51.07 | Betsy Stroman | Thank you. |
| 03:53:51.10 | Chris Allen | All right. And... Certainly. My name's Chris Allen. I am a resident. My wife, Sandy, and I own a business downtown. And I work for Specialized Bicycles, so I get the trifecta. I have a $15,000 bike. And if you cut it off a rack, and I have to go find it, I'm going to be bummed. This is... This is Marin County. Mountain biking was invented here. I mean, people come here to see the beauty, the joy. I love Sausalito. My wife and I live here. can't think of living anywhere else. This is not good for us. This is not good going forward. This is the type of law that discourages people from coming here. and absolutely sends the wrong message. I agree with a lot of people. Let's get rid of greenhouse gases. Let's do things that keep us healthy, keep us alive longer. Cycling is one of those great things. No way am I ever putting my name on my bike. Got lots of bikes, you get one of them, You're going to go find my house and get the rest? right? And there's no other city I know of that can make you put your name on your bike with your address and everything. I would definitely consider that one and then I love the spirit in here from everyone behind me. Let's look for solutions. Let's be a leader in this. Let's come up with positive things where people from other parts of the world look at us and say, hey, They had a problem, and it was a pain in the butt. but they put their heads together They wanted to focus on the goal, which is solve the problem. Let's find places where we can park bikes. Paint a yellow brick road down the road if you have to. Here's your little path, follow it straight to the bike parking. Maybe, designate certain areas, have people on the street with bike parking flags, whatever we have to do, let's find leadership roles. Let's do that. Sounds like the good doctor has done a lot of that work already. I will definitely be at the next meeting. And I'm grateful that you all take the time, stay as late as you do, to hear all of this. I strongly urge you not to pass this tonight. Thank you very much. And please don't cut my bike. |
| 03:56:07.93 | Lorna Newland | Hi, I'm Lorna Newland. I am a resident, I am a small business owner, and I am a member of the Chamber of Commerce. My business is at the |
| 03:56:16.97 | Lorna Newland | I would welcome any bike to come find me, but it's not easy. But I still love the town. I would like to acknowledge how positive everybody has been tonight and how many good ideas have come out, and everybody seems to be wanting to have a solution, but this isn't it. As opposed to, I was at that ferry meeting at the IDEST hall and it was so hostile, I did not feel comfortable to speak about it. Somebody tonight said, one of the solutions, if we had a bigger ferry landing, we could park bikes right there. And that's what I would have said at that meeting, but I felt like the villagers had the pitchforks out. Anyway, I really want to talk as a resident because... I've heard so many things that the residents hate the bikes and the residents don't want the tourists coming to town and all that. And I'm a world traveler. And I love my town, and I'm proud of it, and I like going someplace, and I say I'm from Sausalito. I don't even have to say California. People know it. And I would... hate it to go to a town and try to ride a bike there and feel like there's a big barrier. We don't want you. And I would hate to see our town turn away tourists, visitors, locals. Here we had tourists who moved here. One of those tourists on a bike may come here the next year and spend a week in our hotels. We don't know. We want to have everybody have a nice experience here. It's like having a bad Yelp. I hate... What's happening is... People are just lumping it all into one. And I think we have to find the best solutions for all of this. But we do want to have. positive visitor experiences because that's what we would want when we go to another town also. I'd hate to also see us look like Bellinas hiding the signs. You know, we are on the track, and there is a bike path all the way to the Larkspur Ferry, because I have done it. But anyway, thank you for your time. |
| 03:58:30.98 | Mayor Theodore | Thank you. Ellis. |
| 03:58:34.10 | Alice Merrill | Alice Merrill, I want to ditto what she just said, ditto what he said, Mr. Schonbrunn, and say that the Sausalito residents have got to get over themselves. This town has had tourists for as long as it's been here, and it's gonna keep having tourists, and if you really don't like them, just don't come downtown. between you know nine and four and do your walks early and late and just... I'm sorry. So I think this is a bad thing because it's so sort of impossible to do. And we've just, the Sausalito people have got to get over themselves. That's why. |
| 03:59:22.21 | Unknown | Hi, good evening Yoshidome. The... |
| 03:59:22.76 | Betsy Stroman | and you're going to be |
| 03:59:25.87 | Unknown | I think Ed Fatsch's group has done tremendous work for bicycle pedestrian committees. And city studies find a way to enforcement laws or whatever we're talking about tonight. However, I think we need to recognize how much work he has done. Yes, we do have an issue of living in such a beautiful city, Sassariro, more visitors come in Sassariro, more bike riders come in Sassariro. But the news is more riders will come to Sassariro next five years, 10 years. Myself, I ride, I don't come to Sassariro. I go to Tapeze Mountain. I go to Fairfax, I go to San Anselmo somewhere else, West Marine. But however, I think one of the solution is not penalizing, find a way to funding ambassador program. Let's fund the money for them and let them guide the traffic before park the bicycle, go find the direct to them, Princess Bridgeway or ferry landing area. So everybody have a good time. Don't just find a parking ticket. Let's go find the money to support for bicycle and pedestrian program. Thank you. |
| 04:00:33.96 | Mayor Theodore | Thank you. |
| 04:00:33.98 | Unknown | Thank you. |
| 04:00:34.00 | Mayor Theodore | Thank you. |
| 04:00:34.03 | Unknown | Thank you. I'll be right back. |
| 04:00:36.69 | Mayor Theodore | Thank you. |
| 04:00:36.75 | Unknown | Thank you. |
| 04:00:36.76 | Mayor Theodore | Thank you. |
| 04:00:45.10 | Alf Nusifor | Council members, thank you very much. Alf Nusifor, 43 Cable Roadway here in Sorcelledo, 10-year resident and business owner. I ride a bike other than Dr. Farcher, the only other one who comes to PBAC meetings, so I know what happens at those meetings, and I've also signed up for the ambassadors program. I'm actually, I guess, the only one here to support the amendment tonight. And I actually found one of the comments quite rude and out of line. You're associating a resident, get over it. I found that very upsetting. I am a social leader resident. When I came here 10 years ago, the city was different from the way the city is today. And part of the reason is that we have a million bikes coming in every year. And let me just stress the point. I'm not a xenophobe. I want visitors to come to this town. I want their money. I want to share the experience of Sorcerita with them. I want people to know what a great city we have here. But there has to be some control and there has to be some management. because our quality of life is equally as important as somebody who just wants to tool through the town and tool back home again. That's why we moved here. That's why I made the investment to buy a house here, and that's why I pay taxes here. So we can talk about this is not an anti-biking issue. This is not a save the environment issue. This is a management and control issue. You've got a million bikes coming in, and they park everywhere. And for those of us who do walk and not ride, You can't walk down Bridgeway of the daytime now. The extent that we don't do business in Bridgeway anymore. We try to keep to Caledonia or go somewhere out of town. Out of Socialito. So it's a major issue. By the way, when we start to stage bikes at Fort Baker, and then let visitors come in by bus, that will solve the problem. We won't have a bike problem ever again. Having said all that, I think the ordinance is, with all due respect, I think the ordinance is not well thought out. You can't put license tags on bikes. It needs to be thought out. There's a better way of doing it. And I'm sure that wiser heads will find a better way to do it. But I do believe in enforcement. And I'll tell you why I believe in enforcement. I've sat in meetings where the bike rental companies have been here, and we've talked about how much they're... You know what? Bike rental companies take $7 to $9 to $10 million out of this city every year. That's the revenue that's generated by bicycles coming over the Golden Gate Bridge and coming into Source Lido. What we do is we get all the problems, they take all the money, and we're left to clean it up. So if we could find a money source that will help us I'm all for that, but I find it very hard to find a money source. We have multi-county jurisdictions, so we can't tax people in San Francisco, obviously. We can't apply taxes. So enforcement may be a tool that we have to use in order to get some action, because you know what, this issue has been debated. for years now. And by the way, we can have another task force, another town meeting We're not going to solve it because a lot of these problems are intractable. And it may well be that enforcing ordinance is the only way to go. |
| 04:04:02.74 | Mayor Theodore | Thank you. Thank you. Anyone else? OK, see no other public comment. We'll close public comment and bring it up here. Who would like to start? |
| 04:04:22.50 | Councilmember Pfeiffer | Okay, so first of all, I want to thank everyone who sent emails, everyone who came tonight and spoke and shared your thoughts and your suggestions, because we are listening, and this is something that we are grappling with. We all welcome guests. You can't live in Sausalito and not have a respect for out-of-town guests and the diversity and the cultural diversity. It's part of the charm of Sausalito. Here's the challenge. And when I reflect on this, I have to say I lived in Europe. And when I lived in Europe, I rode a bicycle. And the thought of leaving my cycle in the middle of a sidewalk or, you know, rutted into a tree was just not something culturally that was acceptable there. There were designated places for bike parking, and it was also convenient. What we have today is a situation where, because of our proximity to the Golden Gate Bridge and the desire for so many folks to come over the Golden Gate Bridge and we welcome them. is that in August, for example, we had more than 30,000 cyclists coming in for the month. And those numbers are going to increase. And the challenge is that, you know, I was walking downtown, and you see bicycles blocking the sidewalk. You see bicycles strewn across the rocks. It's a safety hazard. I saw some bicycles actually locked together that hindered someone in a wheelchair from accessing the ADA ramp. This is not welcoming to our guests. When we welcome guests, we have to welcome everyone, the pedestrians too. We wouldn't want pedestrians sitting down and having picnics in the middle of bike lanes. We can't have cyclists dropping bikes in the middle of sidewalks. So this is about about safety it's about making Sausalito welcoming for for everyone so I support enforcement in terms of the safety aspect I think we need to have that balance having said that, I do have some concerns regarding this ordinance with respect to specifically, I think what we have at issue here. is an issue mostly with the rental bikes. I mean, I don't see a lot of the residents. The residents are using their cyclists to do errands. The commuters are going through. The rental bikes are the ones, unfortunately, that appear to be leaving their bicycles in hazardous locations. So the way this ordinance is currently written you know we it looks like we are we we have grouped everyone together and so I I don't know those are just my initial thoughts I'm just getting started with the conversation. So my time is up, so I'd like to hear from the rest of my council members. |
| 04:08:15.90 | Councilmember Pfeiffer | Thank you. |
| 04:08:15.95 | Unknown | Thank you. |
| 04:08:15.97 | Councilmember Pfeiffer | Mm-hmm. |
| 04:08:16.05 | Unknown | Thank you. |
| 04:08:16.20 | Councilmember Pfeiffer | Thank you. |
| 04:08:16.27 | Unknown | Thank you. |
| 04:08:17.64 | Unknown | Well, this is a very difficult topic because it... actually brings together a whole bunch of stuff And it's also the specific topic we're discussing tonight is also one component of an overall set of plans to try and more efficiently manage bicycles in town. Thank you. There is something that hasn't been said though, that really does need to be said. And that is... I know I'm a huge supporter of the business community in the chamber, as you all know. That those are, well, but I think on some of the comments that I heard tonight, you're a little off base. you Thank you. And you're off base because the thing that's not been said is that a majority of the residents of this town want less congestion. They want less tour bikes, rental bikes in particular, visiting town. That's a simple fact. Now, there are some people in this, there are many people in this room who don't agree with that. But I can assure you there could be 300 people trying to get into this room arguing the other side. The residents of the town, the residents of this town, one, could you let me speak? I sat here and listened to you for a long period of time. Could you at least extend me the same courtesy? And could you please take 15 seconds off my time? You know, I mean, residents in this town, and in fact, I would have thought the business owners want less congestion, want a calmer, downtown where actually people can, with more leisure and less stress, spend money You don't want to fill up your town with rental bicycles, no offense, Michael, who just decided to go buy an ice cream, you know, and are not actually spending much money. I'm looking at this from a purely economic sense. There needs to be a way to reduce the total number of bicycles in this town. Therefore, there needs to be parking and efficient management of the bicycles that do come here. There needs to be more bicycle parking, not less. I agree with that. so that we can more efficiently manage it. Now, with all that said... I'm actually not I think this ordinance has got some problems. And it's got some problems, one, I still don't quite figure out how the enforcement's going to work. So I'm struggling with that part of it. Now, to be honest, we've only actually modestly tweaked this ordinance. The ability to impound bikes is already part of our ordinance. It's already there. So I will stop. I've got more to say. But I think it's important to Remember. that the overall Sausalito community wants the question answered of how it's going to reduce the total volume of congestion in this town. |
| 04:12:02.88 | Unknown | Hmm. |
| 04:12:03.79 | Unknown | Well, first of all, there's not a million bikes that come into this community. Let's get it straight. It's 320,000. It's a big difference, all right? |
| 04:12:13.51 | Alf Nusifor | All right. |
| 04:12:13.60 | Mayor Theodore | If that's not true, Councilman, can you take- Please, please, no discussion. This is our time. |
| 04:12:20.32 | Unknown | Okay. Thank you. |
| 04:12:21.87 | Mayor Theodore | Thank you. Thank you. |
| 04:12:21.97 | Unknown | Well, I understand. |
| 04:12:22.63 | Mayor Theodore | Well, I understand. Thank you. |
| 04:12:29.53 | Unknown | Let... Last year was the first year that we closed down Tracy Way. We have done this every single year, we have sat down. and attempted to figure out Plan A, Plan B, Plan C on how to do things. This is telling us there is no Plan A, B and C. This is a direct It's a direct way of saying we don't want you in this town, and there's no question about it. It's not trying to manage it. It's trying to put a control on it, and we're not ready for controls. Let us keep on trying to work out things like we did last year on managing these bikes that are coming in. And as far as the congestion goes, look at where the congestion goes. Let's go to Princess and Bridgeway. You got a guy out there on the waterfront that's showing you all these rocks. If you notice, there's your biggest congestion right there because everybody, including bikes, have to go around it, even on the streets. All right, look at the spots where they are. We are the gateway to Marin. You can't get into Marin unless you go through Sausalito. So we have to keep that in mind. Um, I think the approach, first of all, these should all be done whatever we do. These have to be pilot programs. Do it for a month, if you want to try to do things, let's do it for a month. And we haven't had the full cooperation yet. With the bike companies really insisting on telling their customers, what the rules are in Sausalito. Then you have the ambassadors to remind them of what's going on. And then you have to have a facility that can handle it off of Bridgeway. And we've been able to do that. Keep in mind there's 18 million people visits San Francisco. 2.3 million come here. All right, last year, and I said this before, it was kind of a perfect storm year. Look at the weather. December was still like, we're getting our winter now. December, was as big as a month as any of the other months. And as, but if you watched like Easter Saturday or Easter Sunday, Easter Saturday was jammed. The minute the weather was a little lousy, the next day Sunday, it was quiet. So that's one of the reasons that I look at all these numbers, but I do believe if we're going to do something, it has to be on a pilot program. We did it on Tracy Way, we said let's do it on a pilot program, and we knew after two months, this is the right way to go. But just to throw in these ideas of confiscating bikes, at this point, I say let's try to communicate with the bike company. The ambassadors, the business community has to step forward also to say, hey, don't put your bike here. And I think you'll find out that that might work a lot better than saying, hey, you put your bike there, it's going to be confiscated. That is not the way to go, and I'll come back later. |
| 04:15:50.04 | Jill Hoffman | Okay, here's my position, it hasn't changed since the Ferry District. We're looking for partners in solving our bike problem. We have a bike volume problem. We don't have a tourist problem. We have a bike volume problem in downtown during the hours of 11 to 5. during the months from May through September. I'm glad everybody's in the room. We've been inviting people to come and solve this problem for a long time. I wish the Bridge District was here as well because I view them as a partner in solving this problem. This is what we need. We need staging areas along the route so that people can voluntarily leave their bikes and continue on to Sausalito on the buses if they so wish. People, in the words of Dr. Fotch, when you get to Sausalito, most of the bike people that have rented their bikes, their bike is an albatross around their neck. If you give them the ability to leave their bike at earlier stages, then the problem is solved. So that, I believe, is a burden on the bicycle companies to provide that option for their customers. We as a city have invited you to come. I'm glad you're here. Let's be part of this solution. The other issue that we have is we have crowding on our sidewalks. Here's how we're going to try to solve it without any other solution and that is I think this ordinance is one step I think we have a lot of different tools that we can use this is one part of our solution when I would my first pass at this I would add in uh... page 2 section 15.3.080 I would add in section A during the hours of 11 to 4 and the dates June 1 through September 15th and I think that is a reasonable a way to address the volume of bikes in town i do not believe that's burdensome on commuters i do not believe that's burdensome on residents and let me just say i am fully supportive of commuters and residents riding their bikes in and through town and to the extent that we can extend courtesies to our residents and commuters much in the same way that we extend them to cars, people that drive cars into town, I am all for that and I am for that solution. Much the way that we provide discounted ferry tickets for commuters, and discounted tickets on the Golden Gate Bridge and we provide discounted parking for commuters and for residents. And so I would like to see that built into our ordinance Right now, the way that it's going to work is, You know, if you, If we're looking at parking on Tracy way and charging for parking there, I would expect, I would expect those courtesies of discounted or free parking to be extended to commuters and residents. If you get my understanding is if you get there before 11, |
| 04:18:34.89 | Betsy Stroman | Thank you. |
| 04:18:35.08 | Unknown | Thank you. |
| 04:18:35.11 | Betsy Stroman | I'M GOING TO GET MY |
| 04:18:38.60 | Jill Hoffman | you get free parking. There's not going to be anybody there to collect a ticket. So I am fully supportive of that. |
| 04:18:51.83 | Jill Hoffman | I think. That's it for now. I'm sure I'll come back. |
| 04:18:57.40 | Mayor Theodore | Okay, I think we, what was a fairly basic item has been really exploded to a total anti bicycle. We want no bicycles in Sausalito. This is really just an extra component to an ordinance we passed. a year ago, and it merely says in a very, very limited area that we don't want bikes parking there, downtown area, for a variety of reasons, including that, They clog up the streets. They actually are harmful for business. It's really interesting that, And just to enforce it, by the way, at that point in time, we had the bicycle coalition. We did have some bike racks, but that's minimal, what goes down there. And they present more problems than they solve. We certainly had the chamber involved. And I can tell you, at that time, We did that in response to many businesses complaining. All of us up here can tell you how many businesses complain that the bikes were causing congestion, hurting the business, turning Sausalito into Pier 39, really hurting everything. And so it's this is not just a resident issue. The other point is, it's really interesting when you look at any particular council meeting. At this point, we could see that There was a... the chamber. got their people out and the bike coalition. But we could tell you that all of us, have run on, on, dealing with the bicycle issue has been going on for years. And there have been bike bike uh, forums with 250 people, much angrier than here about why isn't the council doing something about these bikes? We see it at the ferry landing. So there is a huge element of what we, um, of that we have to deal with the bikes. Now, I think, so let's keep in perspective. We're, we have closed Tracy way much to the chagrin of many people. for our bikes. And you talked about someone said we should get a bike corral. That's what we have. What we're trying to do here is get the bikes off the sidewalks so pedestrians and everyone can enjoy the sidewalks in this very limited area. We put them in Tracy Way where they can park there. or they can park an outlying area. So this is a very limited thing to try to get control. And this is for the benefit of the, The rental bikes for regular bikes, for citizens, and for businesses, so we don't have this congestion. Anyone that doesn't live near there or go down there much, I live right above it. You should go down there on a busy day. day and you can look at the confusion, and it's not a happy place for anyone. So we need to deal with this. I'd say I'm very happy about this meeting because I would like to see more people at our bicycle and ped committee because they do great work. YOU CAN BE ON TELEVISION, BECAUSE WE TELEVISE THEM. IT'S HELD IN HERE. YOU CAN LOOK AT THEM IF YOU DON'T MAKE IT HERE. AND I'D LIKE TO REALLY SEE EVERYONE INVOLVED. I'D LIKE TO SEE PEOPLE VOLUNTEER FOR THE for the Ambassador Program, including people that are very big bicycle advocates. They come through Sausalito. And, they can help us deal with that because we use both I'm not sure. volunteers and paid people. And we'd love to move that to a fully volunteer staff. So I'm glad you're all here. Leave your names. We'll contact you to be volunteers. But let me go around again. |
| 04:22:23.07 | Councilmember Pfeiffer | Well, yeah, to me, it really comes down to safety. It comes down to making an environment where everyone is welcomed and everyone is safe. I think we've all seen the accidents in town and it's very disconcerting when you see that and it's because of the congestion regarding the enforcement I guess for me I mean, absolutely, we need enforcement. I mean, to me, again, to have the sidewalks blocked, to have the ADA access ramps blocked, I've seen this. It needs to be, we need to enforce legal parking. Regarding the So we can't, I guess this is a question for the city attorney, we can't make this ordinance focused on commercial commercial bikes, the rental bikes? So it's gotta be all bikes, okay. |
| 04:23:16.47 | Mary Wagner | No. |
| 04:23:20.43 | Mary Wagner | Yeah, and to clarify again, it's bikes that park illegally. |
| 04:23:23.96 | Councilmember Pfeiffer | No, I gotcha. In a very... |
| 04:23:24.51 | Mary Wagner | Thank you. in a very confined area of downtown. |
| 04:23:25.70 | Councilmember Pfeiffer | Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, yeah. Okay, yeah. So I... |
| 04:23:28.43 | Mary Wagner | Thank you. |
| 04:23:32.72 | Councilmember Pfeiffer | Yeah, okay good. Well, I liked the suggestion about the 11 to 4 timeframe and then what were the months from... |
| 04:23:43.58 | Jill Hoffman | June, this was the recommendation of Dr. Fotch off the top of his head. Yeah, okay. June 15th is September 15th, seems to be the highest volume. |
| 04:23:46.86 | Councilmember Pfeiffer | Off the top of his head. |
| 04:23:51.92 | Jill Hoffman | Thank you. |
| 04:23:51.94 | Mary Wagner | Okay, good. Mr. Mayor? If you're going to discuss that, I'd like to talk to the council about where that belongs, when that's appropriate. |
| 04:24:02.20 | Unknown | Thank you. |
| 04:24:07.21 | Unknown | Yeah, I want to emphasize on one thing that the mayor said. We don't need another task force. Task Force was set up almost two years ago to deal with this and It's being run very efficiently. but it also has a lot of people showing up coming up with good ideas. So if the business community and all of you want to participate in a citizens, business owners, residents, expanded group, that's the committee, third Thursday of every Third Monday, next Monday, third Monday of every month, show up. That's the best place to start working the solutions. Secondly, We have to, I mean, we're cluttering the town up with signs. But we do have to have signs. We do have to warn people if their bike's going to get taken away if they leave it there. I mean, we just got to do that. And then finally, I'm sorry I'm going to go over... I'm really concerned about this putting names on bikes. I I know where you're coming from. I know where you're coming from, Mary, but... I am actually Not sure I can support that ordinance with that in. |
| 04:25:32.14 | Councilmember Pfeiffer | Is there an alternative |
| 04:25:35.90 | Unknown | Well, I don't know why that's in. I mean, I know why it's in, but it could never, you know, is it enforceable? I mean, can you... |
| 04:25:36.00 | Councilmember Pfeiffer | . |
| 04:25:43.02 | Councilmember Pfeiffer | It's forcible. |
| 04:25:44.97 | Adam Politzer | Thank you. |
| 04:25:45.42 | Councilmember Pfeiffer | Is there an alternative ID we could bring? |
| 04:25:45.44 | Unknown | Thank you. |
| 04:25:45.47 | Adam Politzer | Thank you. |
| 04:25:45.49 | Unknown | THE END OF THE END OF THE |
| 04:25:45.54 | Adam Politzer | Thank you. |
| 04:25:45.59 | Unknown | Really? |
| 04:25:45.98 | Adam Politzer | Bye. |
| 04:25:46.06 | Unknown | for the next episode. |
| 04:25:46.13 | Adam Politzer | So, we could. I think that the identification component has been also taken out of context here. If we impound a bike, which the law today says we can, How do we give you your bike back when you show up and you say the bike was impounded? And, of course, we will put signage up throughout town. Those are obvious things that have to be worked out, and it would have to be worked out prior to June 20th. And yes, there would be lots of information through the Bicycle Coalition. through the rental companies, through all the ways to make sure that people understand And we may even do warnings just like we did when we changed the parking lot from people there with a gate to people using a machine and not understanding how to do it. you know, probably a month or two. without issuing a ticket. because we needed people to understand how the new system works. But, In terms of Some in the language is unique identifier. so that we have the ability And for the rental bikes, in my conversation with the rental companies, it was something that make sure that the owner has the ability to come down and either claim their bike wherever we end up holding them. or for the rental bike company to pass on that responsibility to the person that parked their bike illegally and the bike was impounded. Or which the new ordinance is suggesting to give another tool so we do not have to actually impound the bike. So us to be able to, the city to be able to write a citation that is either passed on directly to the person that rented the bike. or the bike company pays it themselves and tracks down the owner to do it. So some identification that's unique so that the bike can actually either be claimed or the bike can be ticketed properly. |
| 04:27:48.68 | Unknown | Mr. Mayor, may I? Sure. I understand all that, but just because we put in our ordinance, the fact that we're requiring a unique identifier, whatever we're calling it, doesn't mean that the vast majority, other than if you – If the rental bike companies can be persuaded that that should be something that they do, Thank you. I mean, if you've got blazing saddles on a thing, you sort of know who owns the bike, right? But... If you, the majority, there's going to be a bunch of people who show up who don't have their name on it. So what do you do? What do you do today? Well, exactly. So why do you need it in the organ? |
| 04:28:39.98 | Mayor Theodore | Please, please, please, this is not a discussion. |
| 04:28:42.81 | Unknown | the |
| 04:28:43.15 | Mayor Theodore | I'm sorry. It's all up here now. |
| 04:28:44.57 | Unknown | Thank you. You see, what I'm trying – let me clarify my question. My question is, you want to put this in the ordinance to gain some teeth to do something, but the fact remains, the only time you need it is when somebody parks illegally, and if they park illegally without it on there, you're no better off, and you've got a problem. So you've got a problem either way around. Sure, right. |
| 04:28:46.86 | Unknown | Thank you. |
| 04:28:56.31 | Betsy Stroman | The other way. |
| 04:29:08.39 | Adam Politzer | I don't think that the self-unique identifier is to create teeth. It's the ability to give the bike back. so that someone has the ability, the non rental bikes, the non rental bikes, know that is a separate problem I mean, the rental bikes is a separate problem. But the bikes that park illegally. that aren't a rental bike. How do you come and claim your bike without some proof that you either registered it through the state or registered it with your local police department or, or you have some receipt that this is the bike that you actually own. |
| 04:29:34.19 | Betsy Stroman | Yeah. |
| 04:29:45.86 | Unknown | You can have that problem anyway. |
| 04:29:46.99 | Adam Politzer | Anyway. That's why we're trying to create a tool. |
| 04:29:47.85 | Unknown | That's why we're trying to create a tool that helps. Just because you put it in the ordinance won't make people who are visiting town put their name on a bike. |
| 04:29:50.21 | Unknown | That's because you put it |
| 04:29:54.46 | Unknown | Thank you. Thank you. |
| 04:29:57.52 | Councilmember Pfeiffer | there's a there's a let's say there's a bike blocking the sidewalk breaking all kinds of rules and you impound it it doesn't have any ID it's a rental bike do you call the rental bike company is that is that how you would enforce that |
| 04:30:21.58 | Adam Politzer | The rental bike and from the discussions that I had with the rental bike companies that preferred that we impound bikes. Because they themselves consistently don't have universal identification on the bikes. Some bike companies like Blazing Saddles. You can see that it's a blazing saddle bike, but other companies don't have that. So the rental companies would like the bike to be impounded so that the customer has to work with them to give them the money to go get the bike out and pounding. |
| 04:30:50.37 | Councilmember Pfeiffer | Right now. |
| 04:30:50.71 | Adam Politzer | right now they don't have the ability to charge that to the customer |
| 04:30:54.39 | Councilmember Pfeiffer | Follow up question. So you would you would |
| 04:30:55.40 | Adam Politzer | Thank you. |
| 04:30:56.93 | Mayor Theodore | We're at a Thank you. |
| 04:30:57.84 | Councilmember Pfeiffer | I just wanted to. |
| 04:30:58.20 | Mayor Theodore | No. Let's do that but move on. You're on comment going this way. |
| 04:31:02.77 | Councilmember Pfeiffer | Well, I didn't quite get my answer in that you, so my question was, I'm a rental bike, I leave it on the sidewalk, And my question was, so are you going to Contact the rental bike company. You answered it with, we're going to impound the bike. Because that's the preference. So does that mean you're not going to be writing tickets for the rental bikes that block sidewalks? |
| 04:31:27.04 | Adam Politzer | Is this a selective? |
| 04:31:27.36 | Councilmember Pfeiffer | Is this a selective enforcement? |
| 04:31:29.42 | Adam Politzer | No, it won't be selective enforcement. So any illegal bike, and so let's say that it's a rental bike that has been parked illegally. The person that actually parked the bike will come back and find their bike is gone and there will either be |
| 04:31:45.31 | Councilmember Pfeiffer | Wait a minute, what about a ticket though? We're talking this enforcement's talking about citations. |
| 04:31:47.98 | Adam Politzer | if the council in acts the recommendation to be able to write a citation it would be the equivalent of you parking a car on one of the streets in San Francisco. where it's street sweeping morning. and you will get a ticket and you will be towed and you will be charged a fee to get your bike. |
| 04:32:08.74 | Councilmember Pfeiffer | So- |
| 04:32:09.26 | Adam Politzer | Similar to how we would do it, how it happens with cars. |
| 04:32:12.20 | Councilmember Pfeiffer | Sorry to interrupt you, but I just want to clarify what you're saying. So what you're saying is that if I'm a rental bike and I leave my bike in a legal place, |
| 04:32:14.54 | Adam Politzer | Thank you. |
| 04:32:21.33 | Councilmember Pfeiffer | it's not a matter of just writing a ticket. It's impounding the bike and writing a ticket. Correct. |
| 04:32:29.29 | Adam Politzer | What we're asking for is discretion here. So right now our only choice is to impound. So by giving us the option to write a citation, And the bike is not a hazard, it's just parked illegally. And based on what the ordinance had suggested as its recommendation, was not limited to times or not limited to time of year. But let's say that we limit it to time of year and times of the day. Um, we will be able to exercise discretion that the bike isn't blocking a path of travel It's attached to a bench in a park. and it's not causing any problem, we'll just issue a ticket. but if the bike is is causing an unsafe condition then it'll be issued a ticket and it'll be impounded |
| 04:33:13.08 | Betsy Stroman | Thank you. |
| 04:33:13.10 | Councilmember Pfeiffer | But if you get a bike, |
| 04:33:17.25 | Councilmember Pfeiffer | He issued a ticket and Again, a question. My question was, I'm a rental bike. I dropped my bike in the middle of the sidewalk and I took off. Will I get a ticket? Is there an opportunity for me to get a ticket or are you going to impound the bike? |
| 04:33:34.92 | Adam Politzer | Assuming that what you just described is an unsafe in the middle of the sidewalk The bike would get a ticket. And be impounded. |
| 04:33:44.32 | Councilmember Pfeiffer | Is there a situation where I would only get a ticket? |
| 04:33:47.08 | Adam Politzer | Yes. |
| 04:33:48.08 | Councilmember Pfeiffer | As a rental bike. Correct. Thank you. |
| 04:33:49.45 | Adam Politzer | Correct. |
| 04:33:52.30 | Unknown | Thank you. |
| 04:33:52.33 | Adam Politzer | Thank you. |
| 04:33:52.35 | Unknown | you |
| 04:33:52.42 | Adam Politzer | the |
| 04:33:52.97 | Unknown | Thank you. Okay. I don't like the names on bikes. First of all, when we had neighborhood, groups in our neighborhoods around where I live, all of a sudden the names of children are popping up. And we didn't want that to be exposed, that anybody that desired could find out where children are. I don't like that idea of a child being able to know where they live and things like that. I'm Some numbers, I'd like to go to numbers sometimes. If there were a million bikes, then let's go back to that. All right? Excuse me, let me just finish it. Last year. that were reported to the police department. A total of 12. Bicycle accidents in the home. in the whole town. Three of them were at the south end of town. There was a total of 82 automobile accidents reported to the police in that same span of time. So. Don't blow things out of proportion. Sure, it's... It's an unsafe, it's not a great situation, but the numbers mean something. And those numbers mean at the Town Hall. at the south end of town where you enter your bike. Three accidents were reported to the police department in the year 2014. Thank you. |
| 04:35:24.81 | Jill Hoffman | Yes. Thank you. What's my feeling about the names on the bikes? you I don't support that. I'll just, let me just come right out and say, I just don't, you know, it is too much information out there. I don't see any other way to do it other than like licenses. Unless we go consistently across the state to licensing and numbers on the bike, I understand that it's going to be difficult to write tickets for bikes. I say we still write the tickets. You slap the ticket on the bike. If that person who gets the ticket pays it, they pay it. It's not going to be 100% perfect system as we're starting. I see this as an evolutionary process. I've said this before. but I think it's worth the effort. It's worth telling people to take a main act of warning if we're not able to actually track that person down. We will bring them on their bike, and I see being counted as the same issue as if your bike is stolen. You've got to be able to identify at some point. I'm assuming as a bike rider, you're able to identify your bike to the police. So if your bike is missing, you might want to call the income number, and then you might want to describe your bike or text them a picture of you on that bike, and they want people to tell you where your bike is. So I don't see that as a whole one-way problem. I would, you know, again, I would leave those sections of the proposed ordinance that talk about identification on the bike. I think it's a smart idea if you're a person with a personal bike to put some kind of identifier on there so that you can identify whether it's in the UK Thank you. identification on the bike, I think it's a smart idea if you're a person with a personal bike to put some kind of identifier on there so that you can identify better so that you can't. But that's up to you. |
| 04:36:41.25 | Unknown | So, I... |
| 04:37:03.29 | Jill Hoffman | Um, I don't think that that should be performance. |
| 04:37:06.02 | Betsy Stroman | Thank you. |
| 04:37:06.04 | Unknown | you |
| 04:37:06.11 | Betsy Stroman | you |
| 04:37:09.26 | Jill Hoffman | With regard to I like heard what he said about, you know, I don't view it as a pilot program, but I view this, everything that we're trying to implement this season, I view it as something that we're going to review. And is it going to continue? We're going to look at it. Then we're going to look at the metrics from the bicycle ambassadors and from the police. They're going to tell us how many tickets we're writing, how's the impalent process working, what we need to do to tweak it and fix it as we go along. So I also don't see that as an overwhelming problem or a reason why we wouldn't want to proceed with this program. I like the idea of mornings, and so I don't think Thank you. Thank you. |
| 04:37:53.61 | Mayor Theodore | I do want to point out that the citation provision where we had the identifier and citation was to be a less impactful and more bike friendly alternative to impounding the bikes. But I can see there's no question that this identifier is not gonna work. So that's just gonna be off the table. I think I don't see that working right now. We'll have to go back to the drawing board on that. But I do want people to understand that that was the purpose of it. So rather than impounding someone's bike, they would get a citation instead. And that was the way to do it. But we here, the multitude of problems that that would entail that we're not gonna be able to do that. I think we can go to the drawing board on the dates. I think right now, Last year we passed an ordinance that it's illegal to park downtown. I think we should just maintain it. I'm not in support. at this time. at this hour without having it vetted through the Bike and Ped Committee with more public input. about what dates that we should have. I mean, we just need to give it more thought. So we already have and in place so We can probably call this officially no action, but that'd be my thing. But I do, I do, Appreciate everyone coming tonight. All the input. I want everyone to realize, though, that there's a whole other group. There's another side to this, and we'll we'll bring it all together. I really want to encourage you all to go to the |
| 04:39:15.59 | Betsy Stroman | want to |
| 04:39:17.72 | Mayor Theodore | Bicycle and pedestrian committee, because as council member with he said, that's where we're working on it. We have a good committee. We have things going. That's where the input we don't need a multitude of task force to do that. And they can, we'll vet all this, we'll do the details. They'll bring it back up here. It is an ongoing problem. It's one that's growing. I know we're at the at the Chamber of Commerce today and Mr. Sears talked about bringing in more people from other countries to to do familiarization trips to bring more bikes. And this is only gonna grow So this is not something that this is just a natural demand that You know, bikes happen to come in. This is a demand from business people. who are encouraging it This has been growing for a long time and we have to address this problem. It's it's only getting bigger. We could we could talk about there's just bikes, but it's growing exponentially. It's not only hurting residents are going to hurt business, and it's going to hurt these bicyclists who spend two or three hours in line for the For the fairy, and who are scared to death at the top of the hill when they hit the town, because they haven't been briefed properly, I think this, they don't wear helmets. I think we need the Bike Coalition and people to worry about these rental bicyclists and what the experience is for them. So at any rate, I don't know that we have any action for tonight in my view. |
| 04:40:41.70 | Alicia O'Loughlin | Yeah. |
| 04:40:42.09 | Councilmember Pfeiffer | Thank you. Thank you. |
| 04:40:42.29 | Alicia O'Loughlin | Thank you. Thank you. |
| 04:40:42.78 | Councilmember Pfeiffer | I... |
| 04:40:43.10 | Unknown | you |
| 04:40:43.15 | Mayor Theodore | I'm sorry. |
| 04:40:43.36 | Unknown | All right. |
| 04:40:43.54 | Mayor Theodore | I'm |
| 04:40:44.20 | Alicia O'Loughlin | Thank you. Thank you. |
| 04:40:44.40 | Councilmember Pfeiffer | Thank you. |
| 04:40:44.42 | Alicia O'Loughlin | Thank you. |
| 04:40:44.44 | Councilmember Pfeiffer | Ah, ha ha ha. Yeah, I just want to echo that. I think we've got a situation here where we... it's unsustainable. We are a small town. We can't keep handling... these numbers of rental bikes without some sort of holistic strategy that looks at regulation and looks at a way to make our streets safer and downtown safer. |
| 04:41:20.48 | Unknown | So are we agreed no action tonight? |
| 04:41:22.51 | Mayor Theodore | tonight. |
| 04:41:23.97 | Unknown | I would agree with that. Would you agree with that? Yeah. All right. |
| 04:41:27.18 | Mayor Theodore | Yeah. All right. |
| 04:41:30.29 | Unknown | Thank you. |
| 04:41:30.34 | Mayor Theodore | Long time to get. Anyone final? So this item is officially closed. Thank you all for coming and your input. We want to see you at the Bike and Ped Committee, and we should get a list of volunteers for the ambassadors as well. See Dr. Files. |
| 04:41:45.59 | Councilmember Pfeiffer | You know, when, oh no, never mind. We're gonna take a short break. Yeah, okay, great. |
| 04:41:47.89 | Mayor Theodore | We're going to take a short break. |
| 04:41:58.65 | Mayor Theodore | All right, can we... Wait, wait. Please take it outside. Thank you so much. And we have to finish our last We have a few things to go. So we're moving on to item 6F. Yelka transferring embarkation draft. environmental impact statement draft comment letter. And we, this is our community development director, Danny Castro. |
| 04:42:21.40 | Unknown | Thank you. |
| 04:42:21.42 | Mayor Theodore | Good evening, Mr. Mayor, members of the |
| 04:42:23.04 | Unknown | Council. Um, the issue before you is the Alcatraz ferry embarkation project draft environmental impact statement. At your April 7th City Council meeting, the City Council reviewed staff's initial comments on the draft environmental impact statement. And at that meeting, the City Council directed staff to prepare a comment letter with the assistance of an environmental expert and return to the City Council for review. I'll give you a brief background on the project especially for those who may not have followed at the April 7th meeting or are not familiar with the project. And I'm here this evening to present an overview of the draft comment letter. The NPS is the lead federal agency. I say NPS. I should say what that is, the National Park Service, is the lead federal agency of the project working with the Port of San Francisco. The draft document was prepared in accordance with the National Environmental Policy Act, and the document evaluates the impact of the project regarding land use, transportation and circulation, air quality, noise, water, public services, and a number of other environmental issues. |
| 04:43:43.01 | Unknown | The project is a, the Alcatraz Ferry Embarkation Project is to establish a new long-term ferry embarkation site for passenger services between the Northern San Francisco waterfront and the Alcatraz Island. The document analyzes three pier locations in the northern San Francisco waterfront, one to be selected as a ferry site, an embarkation site to Alcatraz Island. The three are listed there, Port Pier 31 1⁄2, Port Pier 41, and Fort Mason Pier 3. 31 1⁄2 is currently the embarkation site now. The project includes, all three alternatives include constructing a ferry berth at Fort Baker for special ferry service to Aquachaz Island and connection to other national park lands to be used for special events such as conferences, occasional excursions, and special occasional service. Here's a map of the three peer alternative sites, including the Fort Baker site. And the proposed improvements at Fort Baker, again, the Fort Baker Ferry Service, proposed Fort Baker Ferry Service, would be used for special ferry service to operate for special events such as conferences, occasional excursions, or special occasional service to and from Alcatraz Island and between Fort Baker and Fort Mason. The construction necessary to establish ferry service at Fort Baker would involve upgrades to the existing concrete pier, installation of a new gangway and float. Other improvements include a shuttle drop-off located west of the Bay Area Discovery Museum, a concrete pathway for pedestrians, and a covered waiting area near the fishing pier to house an interpretive exhibit. Here is a photo simulation of the improvements. |
| 04:45:56.37 | Unknown | The draft document letter builds on staff's initial comments at your April 7th meeting regarding transportation and circulation impacts and also expands its commentary on a number of environmental issues. I will run through some of the highlights of this draft or the primary highlights. First, the draft environmental impact statement fails to adequately and completely comply with NEPA, the National Environmental Policy Act, not Quality Act, but Policy Act. The first step is adequate review under the National Environmental Policy Act. After a close review of the draft document, it is apparent that the Fort Baker Ferry Service project component and the NPS's environmental review of it in the DEIS is flawed. The draft document fails to include essential facts necessary to accurately and completely describe the Fort Baker Ferry Service project component It fails to provide a factual basis for critical conclusions contained in the draft document It relies on misleading assumptions. And it understates substantially the potential impacts of the Fort Baker Ferry Service component of the project. The project description concerning Fort Baker Ferry Service component is incomplete. No qualification is provided as to what occasional means in terms of the number of annual excursions, and no upper limit is provided. Each of the primary alternatives for the San Francisco embarkation site includes a third berth component that will be used for cross-bay ferry service to other national park lands, including Fort Baker. Third birth, the third birth is expected to accommodate 100,000 annual passengers as part of a circular ferry route that takes visitors to other national parkland, parklands, including Fort Baker. Although the ultimate use of this third berth is yet undefined, the additional ferry service could be a water taxi or a circular route that serves multiple park service sites in the bay, for example. The park service has forecasted that this service, again, would add up to 100,000 additional visitors annually, and it states that the document states that the Fort Baker element of the project is assumed to accommodate approximately 14 ferry trips or 28 events per day. Again, the analysis understates substantially the potential impacts of the Fort Baker Ferry Service components of the project. |
| 04:48:16.21 | Betsy Stroman | example. |
| 04:48:48.36 | Unknown | The draft environmental impact statement improperly piecemeals and segments the project, thus minimizing impacts and avoiding necessary mitigation. The draft document is inadequate in its characterization of the project components as undefined when they will occur at Fort Baker. the third berth component with its 100,000 passengers and circular route impacts in Marin County has been piecemealed out of the project by use of the terms... component with its 100,000 passengers and circular route impacts in Marin County has been piecemealed out of the project by use of the terms occasional and intermittent ferry service at Fort Baker, the National Park Service cannot leave analysis of such impacts to future review. |
| 04:49:33.67 | Unknown | The draft document fails to analyze a reasonable range of feasible alternatives. The purpose of the alternatives discussion in environmental impact statement is to identify ways to reduce avoidable significant environmental impacts. NEPA requires the lead agency to explore and objectively evaluate all reasonable alternatives. the draft document alternative analysis fails in its attempt to address NEPA requirements because it makes no attempt to analyze a project alternative that does not include the proposed Fort Baker ferry service such an alternative would eliminate some other environmental impacts the project while still fulfilling National Park Service's primary project objective for landing along the San Francisco waterfront. Under NEPA, an adequate environmental impact statement must consider its cumulative impacts. And that's another highlight, the last bullet there. The draft document fails to properly analyze cumulative impacts. It fails to tie the new ferry landing at Fort Baker to the probable but undefined future project identified in the draft document as the circular route, generating up to 100,000 additional passenger visits to the National Park Service park lands, including Fort Baker. By failing to link the Fort Baker Ferry Service component to the circular route component, The document fails to include major developments in and around Marin County and its cumulative impact analysis. These emissions must be remedied and the analysis revised to fully address the cumulative impacts of the project. The draft environmental impact statement does not properly identify or describe significant impacts of the project. In terms of land use, the document refers to a 1980 general management plan describing the development of a ferry landing and later in a Fort Baker plan, many years later, describes amenities as improvements to the fishing pier, does not address development of a Fort Baker ferry landing. The document should have evaluated the Fort Baker's ferry service consistency with the goals with the Fort Baker plan and discussed the impacts of losing the pier as a visitor-friendly fishing pier with benches and railing. The use is now proposed to be converted to a ferry terminal. This intensity of use is not consistent with the Fort Baker plan and the draft document. With regard to traffic, the document has separated the Fort Baker Ferry Service component of occasional ferry service from the 100,000 annual ferry passengers traveling on this circular route. the document assures us that the project will not have substantial traffic and circulation impacts in Marin County. In this, we disagree. These project components will generate short-term construction-related traffic, as well as long-term traffic effects that we believe are inevitable. The draft document fails to even discuss the major roadways near Fort Baker, that may be affected, including Sausalito roadways leading to and within downtown Sausalito. The statement discusses discussion of traffic must be revised, again to take into account the estimated and forecast of 100,000 passenger visits to Fort Baker. |
| 04:53:27.46 | Unknown | The document does go through each of the environmental issues, and I'm sorry, the letter does go through each of the environmental issues and finds it deficient because it's all evaluated on the basis of a low-level activity and intermittent ferry service at Fort Baker. but again, with the numbers in the admission of the noise as well as in the transportation and circulation portion of the document, it's substantially under-analyzed and needs to be reviewed. So in conclusion, the draft document letter recommends recirculation of a substantially revised draft environmental impact statement. and concludes that the draft document fundamentally fails to provide the necessary and accurate information required for informed decision-making under NEPA. |
| 04:54:38.92 | Unknown | This just provides the project schedule. Comment letters are due by May 20th. on the draft environmental impact statement, and then it also discusses, well, the project schedule also shows in the coming months the National Park Service to respond to comments and later on in the year possibly the preparation of the final environmental impact statement. |
| 04:55:11.91 | Unknown | This is also the document is available on the National Park Service website. and a hard copy is also available in the Sausalito library. the recommendation tonight is to receive the report and provide direction to staff to prepare a final comment letter to NPS and also to direct the mayor to sign the letter and to send the comment letter to the NPS prior to the May 20th deadline And that concludes my report. Mr. Thank you. |
| 04:55:44.28 | Mayor Theodore | Thank you. Thank you. |
| 04:55:45.04 | Unknown | any questions. |
| 04:55:45.78 | Mayor Theodore | Thank you, Danny. Any questions up here? |
| 04:55:49.71 | Councilmember Pfeiffer | have a question so when years ago when the Marriott wanted to was moving forward and wanting wanted to build their five-story hotel in the middle of the parade ground and the City Council in Sausalito you know pursued legal action over that. The mission blue butterfly, and the result, of course, was Cavallo Point, which is lovely. I'm looking at this, and I recall the mission blue butterfly, it's an endangered species, was a major factor in that. And I was just wondering if the DEIS addressed the endangered mission blue butterfly as well as, I can't recall, but there are a couple other endangered species, and specifically the mission blue in that habitat. The thought of having, you know, this much traffic coming in there, I'm just wondering, you know, |
| 04:55:50.24 | Mayor Theodore | to see. |
| 04:57:01.94 | Councilmember Pfeiffer | I mean, do they mention the Mission Blue habitat at all? |
| 04:57:03.68 | Unknown | I don't recall a specific mention of that. And again, it's because it's on the basis of very low and intermittent traffic impact to the area, which we, as I mentioned, disagree with the potential for the increase of traffic. |
| 04:57:07.32 | Councilmember Pfeiffer | again it's |
| 04:57:11.94 | Councilmember Pfeiffer | Oh, |
| 04:57:17.28 | Councilmember Pfeiffer | Yeah. |
| 04:57:20.60 | Councilmember Pfeiffer | So that would be something that I would recommend adding is that this is the habitat of the endangered Mission Blue Butterfly. I know that even Cavallo Point with their respect for maintaining the current historic buildings that they had to set aside other habitat to mitigate the impact that they made. So, I mean, when I'm looking at this, I can only imagine the impact that this would have. |
| 04:57:50.05 | Mayor Theodore | Any other questions? Okay. Public comment, David first and then Bill. |
| 04:58:01.00 | David Schonbrunn | Good morning, David Schoenbrunn. I am, I stuck around because I'm really troubled by the tone of this draft letter. It comes off as almost clinically paranoid. Sausalito has been getting a reputation as Nimbí city with its hostility towards tourists lately, and this letter takes that to the next level. In particular... I have the impression that what the intention of the ferry is to drop people off for activities at Fort Baker. And so there's a very simple solution. to the potential of impacts on Sausalito, which is to ask them as mitigation to commit to not authorizing landside transportation connecting to this ferry. If the ferry passengers arrive at the fort and recreate at the fort, do you care? It's a non-event. And yet, your draft letter is going, oh my God, the world's coming to an end. This is just, it's stupid. It's just frankly stupid. So there is an obvious mitigation. You could demand a commitment that they would do full environmental review if they are to authorize any landside transportation. I think that's the way to look like you're actually welcoming the NPS, and allowing them to do what the taxpayers have paid for, which is to have a beautiful recreation area. And then the question is, how do people get there? If they come by ferry, that's the least impactful of any way to come to that part of Sausalito. So I urge you to encourage them, but set a bar about bringing in transportation. Thank you. |
| 05:00:24.39 | Mayor Theodore | Thank you. |
| 05:00:31.64 | Bill Versace | Bill Versace, I can see everybody up there cringing. First of all out of order I know but I've had been in two accidents on Monte Mart Which I was not at fault because I live up there At both intersections on either side of the intersection there's discussion so that's a serious problem is people speeding up and down that and and I agree that the the At any rate, I agree with both Danny and David on this subject. I think that we want to, the tone of this letter should be welcoming. However, I think that the Park Service is stepping right in it. We've been through it last week. I mean, we may as well have been listening to the discussions about that we're having last week about the other ferry project, you know, verbatim in Danny's letter, as you didn't anticipate this. When I was working for the Port of San Francisco with Larry Ellison doing the America's Cup, this was first presented by the Park Service as a ferry that would take people from either Fort Mason or Fisherman's Wharf to Fort Baker, where they would go on buses to the headlands and any other representation. When you're talking about 14 to 28 trips a day That's what it's for period and again that's has all sorts of landside impacts. I think that I |
| 05:01:36.46 | Betsy Stroman | when I was in the |
| 05:02:14.87 | Bill Versace | you Certainly the Park Service is not aware of the reaction the other ferry has had. Certainly the two are related since at the other ferry meeting everybody was talking about the Fort Baker ferry. And I'm just mimicking what people said there. An idea that came up was a shuttle so that people could drop off their bikes at Fort Baker. I don't think the Park Service is ready for 1,000 people a day on bikes to be taking the ferry, which would happen regardless of what their intentions are would happen. So I think we need to be proactive in this and study the entire thing as a shuttle connecting the Muir Woods shuttle to Fort Baker and to the headlands. And whether that involves downtown or not is an issue, whether it involves the ferry. But this is just one of those components, you know, the bikes are a component we talked about in terms of the ferry. Fort Baker's an alternative is something we talked about, and the connection from the ferry to Muir Woods. And I think we have to take proactive role and, I hate to say it, have a task force. Thank you. Thank you. |
| 05:03:37.79 | Adam Krivacci | Wonderful. |
| 05:03:44.19 | Lorna Newland | Lorna Newland, didn't think I would be up three times tonight. I saw, I'm on Councilman, Council. member? I'm sorry. Anyway, I'm on Linda's email, and I actually read both the attachments. I wasn't quite clear if one was from city staff and one was signed by the mayor, and I couldn't tell if they were the same things. And I'm sorry, you're tired too. I'm realizing my words aren't the best. But I'm a member of the Dolphin Swimming and Boating Club in San Francisco, a life member. And I was very aware of this project because they want to build, have a ferry terminal at Fort Mason. And I agreed with everything that was in that letter I read because they did not do due diligence on the environmental impact. They also clearly said there was no recreational... anything in the waters there. And it's a prime. The Dolphin Club now has 1,400 members. The South End has about 1,000 members. That's the only place where so many people go swimming or boating. It's the largest rowboat fleet, I believe, on the West Coast, kayaks. And Fort Mason is primarily in the Marina District. Having a ferry there would be incredibly impactful to everything. I don't know if the ferry. And what I learned was, They're in negotiations right now with their lease, with the port. They really don't want to move, but they're offering all these other alternatives. And when I read about Fort Baker, the same thing, it didn't make sense to me. But I agree they did not do due diligence. They're trying to just pass this through. I'm glad Linda brought up about an endangered species, but And, yes, I am for tourism, but this is a ferry line that doesn't currently exist. It doesn't seem to make sense, especially impacting a very – A very small area there, so thank you. |
| 05:05:59.14 | Mayor Theodore | Thank you. Anyone else? Okay. Close public comment. Bring it up here. Who would like to start? |
| 05:06:06.85 | Councilmember Pfeiffer | Yes, I just wanted to add, I looked up the DEIS just to confirm this because I had seen it earlier. They're saying no impact for the Mission Blue Butterfly, the American Badger. I just find that hard to believe when I look at these numbers that that habitat would not be impacted. They say minor to negligible impacts for the western red bat, California least turn. You know, again, I really question that very much. So I would add issues relating to those species as well as the mission blue butterfly. And for a resource, you may look to the environmental the lawsuit that was initially filed to keep Fort Baker as pristine as it is right now. because I know there was a lot of research on the habitat of the Mission Blue butterfly in there. |
| 05:07:20.17 | Unknown | Thank you. Thank you. |
| 05:07:22.75 | Unknown | The only other comment is, you know, we just went through last week about the ferry and how the currents affected over here, which is actually very, very protected. |
| 05:07:22.77 | Unknown | THE END OF THE END OF THE |
| 05:07:36.96 | Unknown | I really would like to see how they're going, how they would think that a ferry terminal there, I'd like to see how they would plan to have a ferry coming in with those currents, which are much, much more severe than over here. |
| 05:07:55.64 | Jill Hoffman | I, you know, I've read the comments. I think it's fine. I think the staff did a great job. It's a very exhaustive, I think, review of the reports. You know, as a matter of policy, we in Sausalito keep a very close eye about what happens over at Fort Baker as our nearest neighbor and the biggest impact on our traffic and our flow into town. And so I think it's an appropriate thing for us to look at. I don't think that the report that they've issued is sufficiently Um, specific about what the impact and what their plans are for the traffic in and out of that area and so for that reason I think the comments as written are appropriate thanks |
| 05:08:33.73 | Unknown | Yeah, I would agree with that. I think the letter was finally crafted, and there was a lot of work went into that, clearly. You know, the strange thing is, it's, you know, I'm almost, every time I hear about this project, I keep asking the question, but why are they doing that? You know, what's the point of the whole thing? And the basic reason just seems to be rather weak and so it's very clear that there's I'm not a conspiracy theorist and not a paranoid person but it's obvious that there are some plans that in the distant future for the use of that, which is more impactful than they've stated. And so it's almost, this is, it's needed to object to this at this point, almost to try and flush that out, to try and understand what really is going on there. Because the thing for special events is just, doesn't make sense. |
| 05:09:41.09 | Mayor Theodore | Just to put in perspective, this is culmination of months of working with them. We met with the Park Service, trying to find out what they're doing. WE SUPPORT IT. WE WROTE A LETTER IN OCTOBER, A WELCOMING TYPE LETTER, A NICER LETTER. THESE LETTERS GO, BY THE WAY, WE TRY TO FOSTER A GOOD RELATIONSHIP WITH THE PARK SERVICE. But these letters go to their planning department in Washington or in the regional levels. This is the kind of stuff they listen to. They don't listen to the welcoming part. They haven't thought, we don't know why they're doing it. I think they don't even know why they're doing it. It's been stuck in the fort. uh... Mason part of it. It's not well thought up, it's based on information that's erroneous. AND I, YOU KNOW, WE DID IT. I THINK WE PUT IT OUT THERE. WE'RE CERTAINLY OPEN TO THE PARK SERVICE DOING SOMETHING. BUT WHEN THEY DO, THEY HAVE TO TELL US WHAT, WHAT IN REALITY WHAT THEY'RE GOING TO DO AND SHOW US THE IMPACTS OF IT. BECAUSE THERE ARE A LOT OF THINGS HERE THAT THEY CLAIM THERE ARE NO IMPACTS AND THERE LARGELY WOULD BE. SO LET'S JUST SEND THEM TO THE BACK TO THE DRAWING BOARD. WE'RE ALWAYS CAN GO. work with them. So I'd entertain a motion to to send the letter. |
| 05:10:44.65 | Councilmember Pfeiffer | I just have one other comment. I'm wondering under traffic if we should mention that the traffic impact study should include projective rental bike growth. |
| 05:10:54.03 | Mayor Theodore | I think we pretty much put belt and suspenders and really, I mean, I think at some point, you know, |
| 05:10:54.06 | Councilmember Pfeiffer | I think we've. |
| 05:11:00.14 | Councilmember Pfeiffer | Okay. |
| 05:11:00.46 | Mayor Theodore | We've told them that they have to go back to the drawing board so we can |
| 05:11:03.19 | Councilmember Pfeiffer | Yeah. |
| 05:11:03.80 | Mayor Theodore | I mean, I... |
| 05:11:03.90 | Councilmember Pfeiffer | Okay, so the only thing I- |
| 05:11:05.54 | Mayor Theodore | We have to send this letter, unfortunately. We have to send it in the next day, right? |
| 05:11:08.47 | Councilmember Pfeiffer | Okay. Well, the only thing I felt real strongly about would be the endangered species, because the Mission Blue Butterfly in particular, that is the... |
| 05:11:17.50 | Mayor Theodore | And can we add a sentence that says that also doesn't adequately explore why these aren't protected? |
| 05:11:22.56 | Mary Wagner | I think we can certainly wrap into the body of the letter with Danny's concurrence that because they failed to adequately analyze the number of trips that they're proposing, that that also in turn means they didn't adequately analyze impacts to the existing species. Does that sound good? |
| 05:11:43.24 | Councilmember Pfeiffer | Yeah, and specifically to mention such as Mission Blue Butterfly. Okay. Yeah, and Mission Blue Butterfly Habitat. |
| 05:11:47.30 | Mary Wagner | Thank you. |
| 05:11:47.33 | Mayor Theodore | Thank you. |
| 05:11:47.37 | Mary Wagner | Okay. |
| 05:11:47.98 | Mayor Theodore | Thank you. |
| 05:11:48.08 | Mary Wagner | AN ELECTION. |
| 05:11:50.12 | Mayor Theodore | Okay. guys. All right? Does that work? Yes. Is that about it? |
| 05:11:53.46 | Unknown | Do you need any motion or did you just need direction? |
| 05:11:57.76 | Mayor Theodore | Oh. Can you? to receive the report. Thank you. the whole thing. |
| 05:12:04.90 | Mary Wagner | You need to finalize the letter incorporating the comments regarding the- Can you read that recommendation in the motion? I move to- Put it in by Council Member Faber. |
| 05:12:08.28 | Mayor Theodore | and you're like, I don't know. |
| 05:12:10.15 | Councilmember Pfeiffer | I move to direct the mayor to sign the letter with my addendum regarding the inadequate assessment of the impact to the Mission Blue Butterfly and its habitat, and to send the comment letter to the NPS prior to the May 20th, 2015 public comment period deadline. |
| 05:12:37.72 | Unknown | You okay with that? I'll second. I'll second that. |
| 05:12:40.24 | Mayor Theodore | How about all in favor? Aye. That's unanimous, thank you. |
| 05:12:41.57 | Unknown | Bye. |
| 05:12:42.18 | Councilmember Pfeiffer | Thank you. |
| 05:12:44.83 | Mayor Theodore | Moving into moving on to. Item 7A, City Manager reports. Council Member reports. So City Manager report at this point. |
| 05:12:54.55 | Adam Politzer | I have nothing really to add tonight. The budget's going to be the big discussion of the next meeting. I do need to have a quick conference with the mayor and the vice mayor following this meeting. Because one of the items on the next agenda is talking about bicycle parking. And we may want to defer that also back to the Bike and Ped Committee before bringing it to the City Council next Tuesday. STILL. |
| 05:13:21.97 | Mayor Theodore | We can do that. All right. All right. Councilmember Committee reports. Okay, none. |
| 05:13:30.39 | Unknown | Just one thing I will, there is the workshop organized by ABAG and MTC to begin public comment on the proposed future planning for Plan Bay Area. and there's a bag and MTC are basically going around each of the counties in their region doing this. The workshop in Marin is scheduled for next Saturday 16th. Linda is at Nevada City Hall. Nevada, isn't it? Yes. Nevada, yeah. Starting at 9, am I making that up? I could be. I thought it was 9. 9, right. So anyway, that's I think another milestone along their increased attempt to be much more public outreach. |
| 05:14:10.45 | Unknown | Thank you. |
| 05:14:10.50 | Betsy Stroman | Yes, the photo, yeah. |
| 05:14:18.64 | Unknown | Five, that's nine. |
| 05:14:33.25 | Mayor Theodore | Anything else? No public, so there'll be no public comment. Future agenda items. |
| 05:14:38.87 | Jill Hoffman | Okay, future, I think I may be not procedurally doing this correctly, but with regard to the parking ordinance, we said no action. But I think what we wanted to do was send it back to staff to look at amending the ordinance as we discussed during our, right? And then agendize it at a future. Do we want to input? |
| 05:15:02.68 | Councilmember Pfeiffer | I can weigh in on that future agenda item. I'm wondering if a... kind of looking at the bike issue, um, and the enforcement. you know, in hand with the whole bike parking and the charging piece. Because, and also to dovetail, I would love to get the city attorney's Um, analysis on how we might be able to regulate bikes. Because to me, taking a holistic look, that all works together. It all works together. I get concerned when there are perceptions of perhaps taking a piecemeal approach. Because when I was looking at the ordinance tonight for the enforcement, it was, you know, I mean, I had questions about rental bikes. And if we could regulate the rental bikes and we could keep the numbers to a... a number that were, that was, um, that was not such a safety hazard downtown, then we may not need all the, you know, even... the level of enforcement. In other words, the problem might go away. So anyway, to me, it's a holistic thing. I want to see the regulation. I definitely want to see enforcement, but I want to see all of these answers together so I can see the whole strategy and all the solutions. Thank you. |
| 05:16:39.07 | Mayor Theodore | What I might recommend is I think I'm not sure. Following on city managers, what I'd recommend is this group, that we take off |
| 05:16:49.92 | Mayor Theodore | the bike parking thing on the May 19th. We just do that. as a council. that we go back to agenda setting And I think some of it we're going to do, it's a little bit late hour. Some of it we're going to need to have staff look at some we'll need to send back to the bike and pet committee. And then we can, I agree with you. Maybe we will come up with a strategy that we take a look at a little more holistically as we come, as we saw tonight coming partly piecemeal, didn't service, so we'll have to think it through. I don't think we're ready to do this by next week. And I think we should take a look at all of it. Staff agree? You guys agree? |
| 05:17:23.69 | Councilmember Pfeiffer | And my concern still exists, as you know, regarding the conflict of interest question I have regarding Saucydo Plus. |
| 05:17:23.72 | Mayor Theodore | AND I'M GOING TO GO TO THE |
| 05:17:31.58 | Councilmember Pfeiffer | We can. |
| 05:17:31.64 | Mayor Theodore | But it's very simple. It's like many other things. They are just. cities get collecting the money paying the paying their uh the employees they make no money on it so that's about yeah okay let's there is no money there is no money so well let's |
| 05:17:47.60 | Councilmember Pfeiffer | There's nobody. Well, if we start charging for parking, though. |
| 05:17:49.39 | Mayor Theodore | Well, if we start |
| 05:17:54.23 | Mayor Theodore | It's all part of the discussion, so we don't need to |
| 05:17:55.97 | Unknown | So, Mr. Mayor, the only issue with delay is that the season is upon us, and this has some significant urgency, I think. Thank you. |
| 05:18:05.98 | Mayor Theodore | I mean, I agree with that. But I understand. But as we saw tonight, to go in without a fully planet defensible |
| 05:18:06.20 | Unknown | I mean, I agree with that. But I understand. |
| 05:18:14.60 | Mayor Theodore | I mean, I agree with you. That's why we did it, and it didn't work out so well. So let's go back, and, you know, the season still goes on. I think the ambassadors are still in place. I think that's the key part. It's the funding of the ambassadors that's the harder part, and we'll go from there. |
| 05:18:32.62 | Councilmember Pfeiffer | And so the funding of the ambassadors, right now they are volunteer, correct? No. |
| 05:18:38.09 | Mayor Theodore | in page. |
| 05:18:38.44 | Councilmember Pfeiffer | Well, how are they being paid? |
| 05:18:41.26 | Mayor Theodore | They're being fronted by And we're looking for a funding source. |
| 05:18:46.51 | Councilmember Pfeiffer | Okay, in other words, it's not being paid coming from a city source. Not yet. Okay. |
| 05:18:49.99 | Mayor Theodore | Thank you. Yeah. |
| 05:18:51.89 | Jill Hoffman | Yeah, I think that's why, I think Ray had a good point. That's why it's important to keep it on the agenda. We may vote next week. I think it's important to keep the... ordinance piece of it on the agenda for next week I think it's important to keep the parking part of it on the agenda for next week we may say No action. to the parking part of it, we may say we want to bundle the ordinance, the enforcement ordinance and the parking. into June 2nd and that'll give us another two weeks to look at it and come up with whatever ordinance language that we like. But I think it needs to stay, we need to keep the movement going forward on the different tools that we're going to use this season because we're getting close to being into our season and not being able to react. Well, my question. |
| 05:19:26.81 | Jeannie Orellana | Thank you. |
| 05:19:26.98 | Betsy Stroman | Thank you. |
| 05:19:35.45 | Councilmember Pfeiffer | Well, my, my, my, my, my, |
| 05:19:38.01 | Jill Hoffman | Can we have this? |
| 05:19:40.58 | Adam Politzer | Yeah, I'm afraid that based on tonight's events with just roughly 30 people in the audience, including staff, we had 45 minutes or longer of public comment and one-sided public comment. And I think that there, as stated by the council there, is probably 10, 15 times the number of people that have a very different opinion based on what we are tonight. So we could have this item on next Tuesday's agenda. but have maybe more chaos in here versus solution. What I thought was. the, good direction from the council. to send this back to the bike and ped committee to let them, hold these discussions. Um, you know, Police Department is currently working and has been working on the How do we organize parking downtown and how do we get people. their reservations back onto the ferry and back home. but I don't think we'll have any, I don't think we'll have a productive meeting next week. based on the feedback we had tonight and the non-action that the council took based on a very small. a group of citizens, not all necessarily Sausalito residents. and not even 100% united on what their issue was with what we were Thank you. proposing. So I think that it's best to send it back to the Bike and Ped Committee. and for staff. to continue to look at the ordinance, the language of the ordinance, As Councilmember Withey was asking of staff, What is, let's forget about the bike parking for a second. if we were to enforce the existing ordinance that's on the book today, How would we actually do it? Um, And so staff, based on that, we need to... spend some time on the feedback that we've heard. If we don't have a unique identifier, which looked like there was a 5-0 vote in support of not having a unique identifier, then how do we actually move the, impounding a bike program forward. and to introduce Another wrinkle into this in terms of charging for bike parking Without. a more united understanding of the whole picture, I think is a false step that continues to create misinformation out in the community |
| 05:22:13.50 | Mayor Theodore | And I think two other things. One is that's one week away, and we would really need to give public notice so that we have a full and an adequately represented group, but also Next week's agenda is quite full, fuller than tonight's is from a time point of view. And if we have a big bike meeting, we may have to. THE END OF THE Looking at Councilmember Pfeiffer's, we may have to put this together as a comprehensive, we may have to have a special meeting on the bikes. I don't think it's a good idea to try to rush it through next year. |
| 05:22:42.78 | Councilmember Pfeiffer | Thank you. |
| 05:22:42.79 | Betsy Stroman | I can't. |
| 05:22:43.03 | Councilmember Pfeiffer | Yeah. Yeah, I think that a holistic approach that begins, frankly, with our city attorney's analysis. I would like to get that next week, the regulation analysis. If we could make that a priority to get that next week. |
| 05:23:01.98 | Mayor Theodore | BECAUSE WE HAVE TO AGENDAIZE IT AND HAVE EVERYONE HERE. |
| 05:23:04.41 | Councilmember Pfeiffer | No, no, I mean, well, I mean, can, I'm sorry, I just, quick question. |
| 05:23:09.47 | Councilmember Pfeiffer | Is the analysis something that we can request the city attorney to do to release as sort of like a white paper to to inform council and we could post it as well. I mean, is there anything wrong with that? |
| 05:23:28.47 | Mary Wagner | I don't recommend it, Councilmember Pfeiffer. I think that in a vacuum is not going to answer the questions that you ask. |
| 05:23:35.28 | Councilmember Pfeiffer | Well, I mean, but it's a starting point. The reason I'd like to get that is because that's going to drive which direction I go in terms of my questions. I think that To a certain extent, the bike committee, at least what I've heard from some members, Is that they actually need the answer to that question. before they can go forward with that holistic solution. I mean, if you know that there are strategies to regulate the number of bikes, then that shapes the types of solutions you might fashion. |
| 05:24:15.10 | Mary Wagner | Yeah, and just to caution you all too, this isn't on your agenda, and we're spending a lot of time talking about it. |
| 05:24:21.48 | Councilmember Pfeiffer | A future agenda item. Yeah. |
| 05:24:23.76 | Mary Wagner | Right, but we're now getting into the meat of the item. |
| 05:24:27.71 | Councilmember Pfeiffer | When can we get your analysis? |
| 05:24:31.35 | Mary Wagner | I don't know. I think we need to analyze all of it together. |
| 05:24:32.43 | Councilmember Pfeiffer | Well, |
| 05:24:35.71 | Mayor Theodore | to go to agenda. I think we'll have to do it. We'll have to spend time. And maybe you can give us a date that you can have that. |
| 05:24:41.68 | Councilmember Pfeiffer | Or maybe we can give. |
| 05:24:41.76 | Mayor Theodore | But... |
| 05:24:43.30 | Councilmember Pfeiffer | Thank you. |
| 05:24:43.33 | Mayor Theodore | Bye. |
| 05:24:43.37 | Unknown | I'm sorry. |
| 05:24:43.50 | Mayor Theodore | Can we... |
| 05:24:43.53 | Unknown | Can I make the recommendation that we don't come back anymore on piecemeal issues with bikes? To your point, we come back. So, you know, I agree with Mary completely. You don't want to send something out of context. If we're talking about parking, I want to also talk about enforcement have if we're going to put an ordinance in place and charge for bikes and do this let's have one big discussion where we've got all the facts and our bike and peg committee is actually added yeah because i'm you know tonight was an example of where half the people were here thinking they were talking about |
| 05:24:43.74 | Councilmember Pfeiffer | Bye. |
| 05:24:43.75 | Mayor Theodore | I'm going to go. |
| 05:24:43.77 | Councilmember Pfeiffer | direction as to a date? |
| 05:25:18.47 | Unknown | Thank you. |
| 05:25:18.48 | Mayor Theodore | you |
| 05:25:18.55 | Unknown | And... |
| 05:25:20.93 | Debbie | Because. |
| 05:25:27.04 | Unknown | charge him for a bike five bucks that's why most of them were here because you know let's have Five items if it's necessary, all on one meeting to deal with it all. |
| 05:25:38.45 | Jill Hoffman | I agree with Council Member Pfeiffer. We have to know what the parameter is of the of the legality it may be one way maybe the other but I think it's driving the discussion and sort of you know what do we have as authority as a city and what are you know what's our defensible position on that so I you know I'd really like to see a possible whatever you know it doesn't have to be an exhaustive report it doesn't have to be you know but be nice to have something by next week and then we can direct the bike and ped committee |
| 05:25:54.56 | Betsy Stroman | you know. |
| 05:26:12.40 | Mary Wagner | Mr. Mayor, if I may, I do not recommend that you have this as an agendized item next week. No, we're not saying that. Can I continue, please? Sorry, Council Member Pfeiffer, I can't finish a sentence. I may make a suggestion, which I think is where we're going. If we have an agenda-setting committee meeting and we can have a discussion about the overall issue, I can work with that committee on when, if it's necessary to be a privileged communication, can go out to the entire council. I think it's important that there be a lot of context to the discussion and that you understand it's not going to be exhaustive. It's an iterative process because you are breaking new ground. There's not a lot out there to base this on and I don't believe it will benefit you to push for that information to come out in a public forum yet |
| 05:26:14.44 | Jill Hoffman | Thank you. |
| 05:26:17.56 | Lorna Newland | No, we're just... |
| 05:26:17.97 | Betsy Stroman | I'm not saying that. |
| 05:27:11.93 | Mayor Theodore | All right, any other future agenda items? Okay, moving on to the appointment of sustainability commission. I wrote it down. on the list. I recommend that we appoint Kathy Hutton to the open position of sustainability and that we appoint Marjorie Thomas as an alternate to the sustainability commission. we have. Can we have consensus on that? So let the record show that we have unanimous consensus on that. No public comment so other reports that can significance. Okay, adjourn. Move to adjourn. Okay, all in favor? Aye. |
Betsy Stroman — Against: Argued the city failed to follow its undergrounding ordinance regarding a PG&E transformer installation, leading to view obstruction. Requested the matter be agendized for resolution to avoid costly litigation, estimating undergrounding costs at $20,000-$30,000. ▶ 📄
Damian Morgan — Against: Alleged harassment and defamation by Sausalito police officers one year prior, claiming officers falsely told others he was a drug dealer. Expressed frustration with the lack of investigation or response to his complaint and sought answers from the council. ▶ 📄