| Time | Speaker | Text |
|---|---|---|
| 00:00:00.03 | Adam Politzer | all the budget documents and then right here in this gap is where the Finance Committee began studying the budget I think we met over the course of about three weeks met more than seven times each time for about three or four hours and had very rigorous discussions about recommending a budget to the City Council and so tonight we're here with this last column and this is the budget that's being presented to the City Council tonight During this, earlier this evening, there were a number of items that were included in the budget. There were some that were not included in the budget, and there's some that we're going to be asking the community to suggest if there's any other projects that they would like for the city council to consider. So some of the major items that we considered were in the CIP fund, the marine rails, water conservation, flashing crosswalk indicators. These are all on the table. You can see in the column on the right, whether they were funded or not and this was in your packet that was that was out there earlier and here you can see some where the Dumfee Park the Robin Sweeney and Southview they were not funded in the budget but there was a possible funding source suggested so in other words there's a table this is a comprehensive table of all the things the the Finance Committee considered and recommended to the City Council on what's funded and what's not funded. So the process going forward coming out of this workshop earlier today is that the City Council will be asking the community, is there any more major items that should be considered? And that then will be added to the table. The city council then at their next meeting will say, here are some items that we definitely want to consider. Here are some items that we definitely do not want to consider. And at the end of the budget process, we'll have refined this table of projects, major items for consideration to be included in the budget or not. So that's the process going forward. But tonight, we want to talk about more the general of the operating budget, introduce the operating budget, the second year part of the budget. And so this is kind of a summary. It's a very busy table. It's got some charts, and it's got some graphs here. But our major fund is the general fund. The general fund is where we provide our police services, our maintenance, our community development, planning, and building permit inspection, our recreation, our library activities. And the revenues coming into the general fund are $14 million, and our expenditures are coming out or a little less than that. The revenue is giving us a balanced budget or a small surplus of $25,000. dollars our total budget for all funds and account groups that includes our sewer fund our old city hall, our MLK, our parking, our capital projects fund is down here on the bottom. You can see our total budget being $24.9 million, our expenditures being about a million dollars higher. Now, that's okay because we're using reserves that have been set aside just for that purpose of providing certain capital projects or certain activities. So the main fund that you want to consider as being balanced is the general fund, and we're balanced. So there's kind of a lot of things out there, but when a citizen is looking at the budget, they really usually have some, can you answer these questions in terms that I can understand? Is the budget balanced? Are there adequate reserves? Where does the money come from? Where does the money go, and what services will I get? And I'm going to try to answer those in some kind of human terms today rather than accounting terms. First of all, everything is really transparent now. If we clicked on this link that's embedded in this presentation, it'll take you right to the city of Sausalito's website where we have a series that we've called Resident Engagement Series on the Fiscal Year 1516 budget process, it's called Following the Money, and there are little videos that talk about the series, They talk about why we have a budget and what it's used for, how to use the OpenGov site, how can you find out information from there. I'm not going to take that time now, but I encourage you all to go to this site and look at it and see how easy it is to use this fiscal transparency tool that we've deployed on our website so that you can have real-time information not only to the budget process but to the city's fiscal condition at any for any point in time we keep that current through the month to date of financial transactions It's a balanced budget. We can see that down here we showed earlier where we had a small $25,000 surplus in the general fund. This is a calculation of the reserves. And in the calculation of the reserves, we show that we have at least 30% of our budget as liquid cash reserves, which exceeds the council's policy of 15%. And our total reserves, including our illiquid reserves, are almost 80%. Many cities in California during the recession were lucky if they had one month reserve. So we're very fortunate that we have good reserves, good cushions, that gives us the ability to be resilient. In other words, we can weather fiscal storms and continue delivering the same level of service and So how much will it cost me? If we went ahead and go ahead and clicked on this link and went into the OpenGov site, We can see that our Revenues come primarily from taxes. And within our taxes, almost 50% of our taxes come from property taxes here in the city, another $3.2 million coming from sales tax. A million of that $3.2 will be coming from the Measure O sales tax. And the policy that was adopted by the Finance Committee and is presented in this budget is that $1 million from the Measure O half-cent sales tax will come into the general fund and flow right out into the capital projects fund and be used for the streets the storm drains and the ADA requirements on the sidewalks the beautification and the other priority projects on the City Council and then our transient occupancy tax is about 1.4 million dollars so going backwards you can then see that that right here we got over 60% of our revenues come from taxes. The other major input of resources to the general fund are transfers in these are transfers in from our parking fund so the parking fund is run as an enterprise fund but its primary purpose is to generate revenues for the the general fund and that's where those revenues come back into the general fund we get from franchise fees from electric facilities and gas and cable tv and from the refuse company. We have building permits and planning fees that I'm gonna demonstrate a little later how they go back into the depart, offset the department expenses, the same with recreation fees from there. So we've got what I call a very, It's a more inelastic source of revenues. We have the right balance of inelastic to get us through tough economic times and elastic times to build up reserves and build up resources to deliver municipal services when times are good. So it's a very good balance of revenues. Where cities get in trouble, it would be like the cities that rely entirely on a bunch of car sales. And then a recession hits, no one's buying any cars, and the city gets in trouble because they've delivered their whole service delivery structure based on that amount of sales tax. So we have a balanced structure in our revenues. going back to the PowerPoint presentation. Once that money comes in, then the next thing people say is, well, where does the money go? And it shouldn't be any surprise that, like most professional services organizations, the city of Sausalito's in the business of delivering services. How do we deliver service? We deliver service through people. And people cost fiscal resources. And you can see over here, that a goodly amount, 64% of our budget, is for salaries and benefits to employees, police officers, maintenance workers, city manager and myself and others to deliver those services to you, our recreation aides, our recreation supervisors, our librarians, they're all included within there. And then this mix of salaries, benefits, professional services, supplies, and other services then are divided up the same way to each one of these departments. |
| 00:09:23.39 | Unknown | THE END OF THE END OF THE |
| 00:09:25.33 | Adam Politzer | So police department, our DPW, Department of Public Works, Maintenance Administration, Library, and things like that. So that's how the money comes in and where the money goes. So let's just highlight a few of the departmental activities. So the police department has a budget that we're recommending that a police officer be partially funded with a three-year grant. Now, in the table that I had shared earlier, it showed a police officer $40,000. Well, we all know a police officer doesn't cost $40,000, but police department applied for a grant it was a three-year grant for to have a fully benefited police officer each year for three years and the city only had to pay one-third of the cost so 40,000 coming from the general fund and we get a full-service police officer for the next three years In the Community Development Department, there's, first of all, the Community Development Department has two divisions. It has the building permit, building plan check, and then it's got current and advanced planning, current and future planning activities. And you can see the breakout of the, So this amount is the planning, and this is the building inspection department. And within building inspection, you can see they're almost 100% fee funded. So the building permit fees come in. They pay for most of the inspections. But on our current planning side, we're about 67% here, whatever. I can't see it. But anyway, it appears to be about 67% or 33% funded from revenues. And in the budget, there are appropriations for $30,000 for the historic preservation regulations. There's a formula retail zoning ordinance amendment project being proposed, vacation rental code enforcement offset through anticipated increase in transient occupancy tax, and training for the planning commissioners. In the Public Works Department, we have the maintenance activities and the engineering activities. Finally, well, not finally, we have the Recreation Department. The Recreation Department is pretty close to 33% funded from recreation fees. And it's interesting, if you click on this and go to the OpenGov website, there'll be some saved views, and within the saved views, you can see, for example, the 4th of July. Click on 4th of July, donations and expenses, and it shows you the revenues and expense for all 4th and July programs. If you're interested in Jazz by the Bay, Jazz by the Bay is a revenue generator for the city of Sausalito, so you can see the revenues and expenses. And the chili cook-off, of course, is another revenue generator. So it's kind of, these are really important ways to drill down and see, you know, just where the activity's going, what kind of revenues are being generated. If you go further down, you can also then see the same for the building department and the planning department. So some good saved views there. I encourage you to go there and explore that site. Let's see if we get back to. our presentation. And then our library fund, oh, did I cover? The CARS program, revenues, grants, and expenditures. CARS stands for... There you go. call a ride for Sausalito seniors the total revenues grants and expenditures will be accounted for in the recreation department and in case there's a grant needed from the city to provide stopgap funding that would be coming from the non-departmental fund and I can explain to Sausalito Village how that works library had a modest request for an enhanced book budget, and you can click through and see all these expenses you have. Administration and finance, as many of you know, I'm going to be... retiring at the end of July and so we have a vacant position. That vacant position right now is a senior business analyst and we're recommending that it be upgraded to a finance manager as we then go off to find another administrative services director. The information technology, this is very important. We're just finishing a five-year strategic plan for information technology needs in the city. And we have a placeholder within the budget because we don't know exactly the end result of this. strategic plan but it's going to be a substantial investment in our our our network infrastructure our i.t infrastructure is getting old and it's getting to capacity and so i think we're going to have a very robust requirement for funding in our i.t strategic plan and then really important there also is a a big line item in there for planning and permitting software for the community development and engineering departments to move permits and plans through it seamlessly to be able to take online payments, to be able to do a lot of things more in contemporary 21st century work. And in the non-departmental, this is where again, the CARS grant is, there's the homeless civic funding. Earlier at the workshop, I had mentioned the amount was $7,000. We really have $11,000 in the budget for that. So it was just a mistake on my part in that table. And in the non-departmental is where the transfer of a million dollars in anticipated measure or half-cent sales tax is transferred out into the capital project fund. So that building on the basics, that's a summary of the general fund. It's the second year of a two-year budget. It continues the same level of service that the city has been accustomed to receiving for the past seven years. And also, the budget has a very robust capital improvement program where it's infusion of measure 0.5 cent sales tax over the next six years the city's anticipating having nine point two million dollars of general fund resources being transferred into the capital improvement program for these capital projects that are listed here along with an additional amounts of money coming from our gas tax our construction impact fees our measure a and b and other sources The only thing that's not funded in the capital improvement program And Thank you. and it didn't get listed in red on this chart. But these three here, the Dumpy Park, the Robin Sweeney Park, and the Southview Park, those three items do not have funds associated with, but staff has recommended a financing program and that's another one of the items on the table of decisions that the City Council will be making over the next. MOTOR. That concludes my staff report. There's a long-term financial plan. This budget is consistent with the long-term financial plan and keeps us structurally balanced through the year 2026. |
| 00:17:04.36 | Jill Hoffman | Thank you, Charlie. We'll bring it up here for questions, council questions. |
| 00:17:08.36 | Unknown | Yeah. Thank you, Charlie. |
| 00:17:15.24 | Unknown | Could you put up the table that lists what the Finance Committee in this first draft of the budget included and what it didn't include in the budget? Please. |
| 00:17:33.91 | Unknown | Okay, so if we go to Is it... The CIP fund and the general fund talk to each other simply through a transfer. Is that correct? From the general fund to the CIP fund. That's correct. And we've set that this year at 1.45 million? 1.4 million. |
| 00:17:53.99 | Unknown | Thank you. |
| 00:17:54.02 | Adam Politzer | That's correct. |
| 00:18:01.67 | Adam Politzer | 1,450,000. |
| 00:18:03.04 | Unknown | Okay, 1.45 million, and a million of which is sales tax. Correct. Is measure O sales tax, I'm sorry. Give us a sense of what that sort of transfer was. |
| 00:18:09.95 | Adam Politzer | Correct. |
| 00:18:10.22 | Unknown | Thank you. Sorry. |
| 00:18:20.72 | Unknown | four years ago and what the shift has been in terms of the total capital investment. And then I have a follow on question if I may. |
| 00:18:30.36 | Adam Politzer | Yeah. Yeah. Well, we can get the precise number of transfers from OpenGov, but it has been typically around 250,000 to 350,000 a year being coming out of the general fund to the capital improvement fund. |
| 00:18:35.60 | Unknown | from OpenGovBus. |
| 00:18:45.05 | Unknown | So the two-year resource allocation plan that we put in place last year really did emphasize a major shift in capital investment. Absolutely. Yeah. Now, if you sort of scroll down, there were a number of items on here that beyond the parks. So for instance, in the police area, there were a bunch of stuff here that the Finance Committee at this stage could not recommend funding. And could you explain the fact that how our financial policies mean that the Finance Committee and staff are really forced by our financial policies to bring forward a general fund that's in balance. Could you explain that and whether it would be okay for one-time event for one-time issue to consider an extra transfer into the general fund from somewhere so that effectively for one time issue to consider an extra transfer into the general fund from somewhere so that effectively for one time things, such as some of these police items perhaps, we can legitimately follow our policies for these one time transfers. Do you see where I'm heading? |
| 00:18:56.66 | Adam Politzer | Absolutely. |
| 00:19:56.82 | Unknown | THE FAMILY IS THE FAMILY |
| 00:20:10.54 | Adam Politzer | Absolutely. Prior to this year, the city's financial policies were not formalized. They weren't written. They weren't put into a document that was adopted by the city council. They had just been carried on from one year to the next, and they were reflected in the comprehensive annual financial report. They were reflected in the adopted budgets or in correspondence or in notes to the financial statements. I mean, somewhere there was a reference or a reflection of them, but they were never really formalized. So this past year, through the Finance Committee, I've been working on formalizing those financial policies and putting them into a document. So one of the required readings for this evening's workshops was the financial policy document. And within there, there was a financial policy that said that the city will recommend to the city council, the SAP will recommend to the city council, a budget that's balanced against its revenues. So in other words, the revenues coming to the city against the expenditures would be in balance. Now, over the years, the city has built up, like we mentioned earlier, significant amount of reserves in each one of its funds. And another project that I had through the Finance Committee this year was to do an analysis of our reserve funds based on the amount of risk we're facing. And so another one of those required reading documents then was our reserve policy based on risk mitigation. So, I guess what I'm trying to say is that many times cities will say it's okay to present a budget where the expenditures exceed the revenues, as long as there's a resource available, such as reserves that exceed the requirements that are needed for a good reserve policy, and then those then can go in to balance the budget. So because we've had an existing policy, we couldn't put forward a budget that recommended spending anything else. So the finance committee then had to work within those constraints that left projects then out there that there's a possible source of funding for. There's impacts from the annual costs and the one-time cost but the city could consider using some of its reserve funds to fund certain projects as they go through this table of major items to be considered Is that confusing or did that bring clarity to it? |
| 00:22:49.67 | Adam Politzer | By the way, what is it? |
| 00:22:54.01 | Adam Politzer | Thank you. |
| 00:22:54.14 | Unknown | No, I think that's very helpful because, you know, as you said in your introduction about process, what we're basically going to do is go through these tables and either tonight and or on the 2nd and possibly even on the 16th. Because those are the three, tonight, our next meeting on the 2nd, and then the final adoption of the budget on the 16th, we want to go through and make sure to confirm if something is in or whether we should find the funding to fund some things that the Finance Committee with the constraints behind it decided that it would be better to sort of move up to the council for discussion because it needed a policy decision about fund balances. So thanks. |
| 00:23:44.84 | Jill Hoffman | So. May make a recommendation. We're in council questions right now. But I'd recommend we do one round of questions. And because of the late hour, because we started so late, I'd then like to have public comment. then we can go back to our questions. Tonight is discussion only, so we're not gonna make any final budget decisions tonight. So what I'd recommend is let's one round of questions and we'll open to public comments. Okay. |
| 00:24:12.71 | Councilmember Pfeiffer | I just had a quick question on our homework, the reserves issues. So I know in a prior council there was a lot of debate about this topic, which centered around counting reserves that included figures for real estate that the city owned. I'm sorry, Ms. A. |
| 00:24:36.14 | Adam Politzer | I'm sorry, Ms. |
| 00:24:37.61 | Councilmember Pfeiffer | Well, there was at one point there was, and this is prior years, when I'm thinking of reserves, I'm thinking of liquid cash. |
| 00:24:48.10 | Unknown | Mm-hmm. |
| 00:24:48.41 | Councilmember Pfeiffer | Thank you. And as opposed to the fact that the city owns like MLK and the value of that, |
| 00:24:52.57 | Unknown | Right. |
| 00:24:56.12 | Councilmember Pfeiffer | um, the Gene Hiller building, the value of that, or Spinnaker, et cetera. So when I look at the... Okay, sorry that I heard a question over here. When I look at the emergency reserve, I'm looking at 2.5. And so... That... that is I made the assumption that you know that this is cash correct |
| 00:25:24.11 | Adam Politzer | Yeah, what page are you on, Councilman? |
| 00:25:26.04 | Councilmember Pfeiffer | Oh, I'm sorry. I'm on page 19 of 20. So I'm looking at total targeted reserves of the draft risk based analysis of general fund reserve requirements. |
| 00:25:37.85 | Unknown | Oh. |
| 00:25:38.63 | Jill Hoffman | you |
| 00:25:40.77 | Unknown | Oh, okay. |
| 00:25:41.88 | Councilmember Pfeiffer | I'm sorry, that's right, we had a lot of documents here. |
| 00:25:48.48 | Jill Hoffman | Thank you. |
| 00:25:48.53 | Councilmember Pfeiffer | PAGE. |
| 00:25:48.55 | Jill Hoffman | Is that the reserve policy? |
| 00:25:50.51 | Councilmember Pfeiffer | 19 of 20, the budgetary. I'm seeing targeted reserves. So I'm just seeing a lot of figures. And I guess... Are these numbers like the emergency reserve for 2.5 million, that's liquid? |
| 00:26:11.36 | Unknown | Let me go to that page. |
| 00:26:12.53 | Councilmember Pfeiffer | Okay, thanks. 19 of 20. |
| 00:26:19.85 | Councilmember Pfeiffer | Thank you. I'm assuming the answer's yes, so I just wanted to confirm my understanding. |
| 00:26:34.23 | Adam Politzer | Well, so pages 19 are the targets. I mean, that's what we would like to have |
| 00:26:41.16 | Councilmember Pfeiffer | Okay, that was my question. |
| 00:26:43.91 | Adam Politzer | THE END OF for these specific risks. |
| 00:26:46.88 | Councilmember Pfeiffer | Okay. |
| 00:26:47.34 | Adam Politzer | Thank you. And then on page 20, we show this is what we really have in liquid reserves and that's the $8 million figure. |
| 00:26:55.91 | Councilmember Pfeiffer | Okay, so with the $8 million, because that was my next question, so the $8 million, I see liquid reserves, so I'm assuming that's cash. Yes. That's all cash. Good. Okay, that was my question. |
| 00:27:07.27 | Unknown | Yes. |
| 00:27:12.42 | Jill Hoffman | So at this stage, we'll suspend council questions, and then we'll open it up to public comment. And so who would like to start? |
| 00:27:27.64 | Cheryl Popp | I'm always so shy. Good evening, Mr. Mayor and City Council. I'm Cheryl Popp. I'm a resident of Sausalito, and I chair the Sausalito Business Advisory Committee. I'm here on their behalf this evening. We are tasked, as most of you know, with advising the city on how to keep Sausalito economically sustainable and robust. We have two proposals for the Finance Committee and City Council that Charlie referred to that are not on the list yet that we will be bringing to you prior to June 2nd and will formally present on June 2nd. One reason we don't have them yet is we're doing a lot of research and analysis because we want to demonstrate the return on investment that these investments will have to you. and one of them is all about reinvesting in areas that are generating the greatest amount of tax revenue and are the most robust business areas in this community where there's been no reinvestment in infrastructure and other issues. So that's one of them. I'm not going to go into detail because it's a late night. And we are also looking at the $1.4 million in transient occupancy tax and looking at a marketing program not to bring more people to town but to spend dollars managing those people and bringing in higher caliber people during off season. So I encourage you to wait with bated breath to hear our proposals. We think they're really good and they make a lot of sense. They're very rational and they really have a tremendous return on investment for this community. And like every smart business, you should reinvest in your business community. |
| 00:29:05.46 | Jill Hoffman | Thank you. Thank you. Oh. Oh, shall we go ahead? I'm sorry. I'm going to. We're going to have speaker cards and I'll read off for now. And then anyone that doesn't have a speaker card. So I'll, Sybil, do you want to go next? |
| 00:29:24.72 | Sybil Boutillier | I'm Sybil Boutillier, your commissioner on aging and a member of the Sal Salido Age Family Task Force. And I just want to say a couple of words about the CARS program. I'm sure you've received some communications from members of the community. Hmm. The Excuse me. The program started with the rides. This is the volunteer driver program for seniors or people with disabilities in South Salido who can ride in a sedan car. All the drivers are volunteers. We started on May 6th, and in just two weeks, it's been very successful and popular. 25 riders have signed up so far and 13 drivers. And this is just in the first two weeks. So every day we're getting more people signing up that want to participate. And So we have a lot more promotion and word of mouth that will be coming down the pike. The community has really stepped up. We've gotten tremendous support from the service groups as well as individuals throughout town. As you know, we had a grant from Marin Transit to pay for a coordinator who takes the phone calls for the riders and tells the drivers what their route will be. Thank you. But all of the other things have been either in kind from volunteers or paid for from members of the community, businesses and service organizations that want this program really to succeed. And so far, it's really been a wonderful support for seniors in our community. So I'm very glad to see that you have it in the budget. And just wanted to mention, that yesterday a senior who lives on B Street suggested, well, let's put out a petition to get people to say they're interested in the city council supporting this. And in just two hours, only two hours because we were busy doing other things, 32 people signed on. And so you can just imagine if we actually went around. And these weren't the writers. These were other people, just community members. So it's really popular, and everyone that hears about it supports it. So I hope you will too. Thank you very much. |
| 00:31:57.67 | Jill Hoffman | Thank you. Shelby? |
| 00:32:01.40 | Sybil Boutillier | Thank you. |
| 00:32:01.42 | Shelby | I was confused because some people call me Sybil. |
| 00:32:04.24 | Jill Hoffman | Oh, I'm sorry. No, we don't mistake you. |
| 00:32:05.05 | Shelby | Oh, I'm sorry. Bye. |
| 00:32:07.97 | Jill Hoffman | you |
| 00:32:08.03 | Shelby | you |
| 00:32:08.12 | Jill Hoffman | Anyway, good evening. |
| 00:32:09.69 | Shelby | Anyway, good evening. Good evening. I represent South Little Beautiful, as you all know by this time. As you know, our mission is to enhance and protect South Lido's public landscapes. We're very pleased to be working in partnership with the city, and we really have enjoyed working with Lauren Umberides with the support of Adam and the support of Jonathan and the support of all of you. A lot of things are underway. Pardon me. So our requests this budget season come as requests from our board of directors. We have a seated board of directors now for the last four months. And from all these people who are here tonight, I'm really impressed with how many people came to support what we're talking about. Some of them had to leave because it was getting a little late. So we want to express Our thanks to the city of Sausalito for all you've done. And we want to present our requests in the context of beautification being the number one project priority for 2014-15, which you all, with the exception of Jill perhaps, |
| 00:33:15.14 | Jill Hoffman | Only because I wasn't on the city council. |
| 00:33:18.27 | Shelby | approved last year. So in that context, And in the context of how much we enjoy working with the city, we'd like to point out a few things. Before I do that, though, if you've gone to our website, you see that we, in a short time, have a number of great projects underway. Our Green Thumbs team does light landscaping on the first Saturday morning of every month. Beautification Day 2015 is scheduled for October 10. The Easterby Bus Shelter has been painted and the landscape cleaned up. And we presented Lauren with a proposal for the renovation of Bolinar Plaza for which we will find the funding. So with that in mind, we have three larger priority projects which we can't manage on our own, and this is why we're coming to you. The Civic Center Landscape Improvement Project, the Medians Improvement Project, and if at all possible, a higher level of care and maintenance for our public landscapes. So I will start with the Civic Center Landscape Project proposed by SWA in January of 2014. We were thrilled to see that $145,000 was budgeted for fiscal 15-16. Thank you very much. But we see nothing thereafter. This was an estimated very modest $300,000 budget. Relative to all the other major expenditures we see, this really is a modest proposal to make our landscapes at the Civic Center look better. I think we've shared before that there are at least 6,000 people, residents who come to the Civic Center every month. all the way from toddlers to our most senior, senior citizens. With concerns for current water limitations, Tom Wilhite, who many of you know, a highly regarded plant consultant who's on our board, has come up with some suggestions for phase one planting as proposed by SWA. to include more plants that require little or no water and low maintenance. So he's available to work with you. What we would like to ask, and I will hurry along here, is that the additional $155,000 that remains in the $300,000 We'd like you, if possible, to find a way to include that in the 2016-17 budget, and if not then, to carry it over to the second year. So with that in mind, I remember what happened last... July when SWA made their proposal, someone who was our mayor at the time said, We... We will find a way to get this done. So with that in mind, I hope you, the current council, will find a way to get this done. There is something wonderful about a project being completed as a project being partially done. We will find some funding to help you with that, but until there's something that people can get excited about, there's not a lot we can do. So thank you very much. Millie Zinman is going to speak to you briefly about the medians, and then Chris Ryan will mention the care and maintenance. Thank you so much. |
| 00:36:20.28 | Jill Hoffman | Thank you. |
| 00:36:24.67 | Millie Zinman | Thank you, and good evening, and almost good morning, so I'll be very brief. I just want to, first of all, thank all of you, as Shelby did. I'm on the board. All of these people out here that are with Sausalito Beautiful all work so hard. I forgot to say, I'm a resident. I live at 618 Sausalito Boulevard for 37 years. So I've been looking around this town for a long time. And the medians are such an important thing. It's almost like your front teeth. on your face because when people come into our town If they see an ugly medium, It immediately Um, gives an impression of the town. And just like the broken window theory, Bad mediums also bring bad things so I know that we have 45,000 proposed, and in looking at the budget tonight, that It's been kind of reduced. to 10,000 for ongoing And I'm wondering if maybe you could take that 30,000 that's for the flashing light signal and possibly transfer that to the median. and if you can use the money that has been proposed for removing dead wood and shaping the remeading. Okay? So that's it. Thank you. |
| 00:37:49.55 | Jill Hoffman | Christian. |
| 00:37:55.29 | Chris Ryan | Hey there, I'm Chris Ryan. I'm a volunteer at Sausalito Beautiful. And we just want to encourage you guys to do all that you can to fund increased maintenance and landscape for our beautiful city. And, you know, Lauren has done a great job, his crew. But there's only three guys that are out there maintaining the city. And so we really recommend that you guys possibly hire a maintenance contractor to come in, once a quarter. and help these guys out. So thank you. |
| 00:38:28.13 | Jill Hoffman | Thank you. Carolyn Revell. |
| 00:38:33.80 | Carolyn Revell | Good evening. I'm Carolyn Revell, 515 North Street, and a member of the Board of Sausalito Beautiful. I urge the Council to support the budgeted amount of $145,000, the City Hall beautification project for 2015-16, plus the additional $160,000 that shall be requested to complete the project. I also urge enhanced funding for the Bridgeway median trees, which I agree with Millie, are so critical to our image as a community that cares about its public landscape, and also funding to ensure improved landscape care and maintenance. The drought is on all our minds these days. Drought must not mean neglect of our public landscapes. Rather, we should take the opportunity of the renewed focus on responsible water use to have our public landscapes be examples of beautiful, sustainable landscapes using drought-tolerant plants suitable to our Mediterranean climate. The city of Sausalito can set an example for our residents of well-maintained sustainable landscapes that they can repeat in their own gardens. And we in Sausalito Beautiful look forward to working with you on these projects and enhancing the education of our public about sustainable landscapes. Thank you so much. |
| 00:39:48.84 | Jill Hoffman | Thank you. Anyone else from the public? I don't have any further, any other speaker cards. Anyone else in the public like to speak on the budget? |
| 00:39:57.97 | Unknown | Thank you. Thank you. |
| 00:40:02.51 | Cheryl Popp | On behalf of Sausalito Beautiful, and I'll be quick, I'm on their advisory committee, and I'm speaking now as a member of the Chamber of Commerce, former president of the chamber on the board, and as the business advisory committee. A beautiful Sausalito is very good for business, but I'm also a 25-year resident. It's very good for residents. It's good for our visitors. Why do we not want to be as beautiful as possible? And I really encourage you to support all of their amazing volunteer efforts. Thank you. |
| 00:40:35.87 | Jill Hoffman | Thank you. Anyone else? Okay. SO, UH, WE'LL CLOSE PUBLIC COMMENT AND WE'LL BRING IT BACK UP HERE. DOES ANY, WE'LL GO BACK TO COUNCIL QUESTIONS. DOES ANYONE FROM THE COUNCIL HAVE ANY OTHER QUESTIONS? Thank you. I'm grateful. |
| 00:40:53.50 | Unknown | Um, Charlie. |
| 00:41:01.01 | Unknown | Could you... put up the five-year capital improvement budget that was in the it was in the staff report but you've probably got it in the |
| 00:41:16.82 | Unknown | Okay. |
| 00:41:17.28 | Unknown | Thank you. |
| 00:41:22.78 | Unknown | Let's see. |
| 00:41:33.01 | Unknown | Here we go. |
| 00:41:33.72 | Unknown | Yeah, cool. So I just wanted to clarify the... Sausalito beautiful beautification initiatives. First of all, the city hall is under there under building and waterfront projects. Okay. And where did that 145, There we go. |
| 00:42:04.95 | Unknown | I can't remember the discussion about why we didn't or did not put in the second year of this. |
| 00:42:14.47 | Jonathon Goldman | If I may, Mr. Mayor, Jonathan Goldman, we discussed that in finance committee. I answered the question to myself and never shared the answer with anyone else. So I'm glad you asked and I'm glad that Sausalito Beautiful brought it up. |
| 00:42:14.86 | Unknown | FINE. |
| 00:42:30.91 | Jonathon Goldman | The $145,000 is based on estimates for the fencing and the landscaping work on the Bonita Street side of the Civic Center, with the expectation that to the extent that the Robin Sweeney Park project is funded, the Caledonia side of City Hall would be taken care of as part of that project. |
| 00:43:06.24 | Jill Hoffman | Okay, see. |
| 00:43:07.66 | Unknown | Oh, yeah. |
| 00:43:07.85 | Jill Hoffman | . |
| 00:43:08.12 | Unknown | Charlie, when we sort of start moving ahead to make some decisions, right, in terms of if we want to fund something that's not funded, we've either got to defund something or we've got to draw on one of the reserve, one of the fund balances. Could you help us understand that if we want to increase funding in the general fund, we either got to transfer less into the CAP. We can't reduce a capital project and get benefit from it in the general fund unless we decide to transfer a different amount from the general fund, a lesser amount, for instance, than is possible. So as we're looking at what to keep in and what to keep out, we've got to remember that these two funds don't cross over other than that one cash flow. Could you elaborate on that for us, sir? |
| 00:44:08.21 | Adam Politzer | Yes, if for example, if we go back to the, |
| 00:44:16.90 | Unknown | The PowerPoint here. and come down to the Yeah. |
| 00:44:29.20 | Unknown | . |
| 00:44:32.63 | Unknown | There we go. |
| 00:44:36.89 | Unknown | Thank you. |
| 00:44:36.96 | Adam Politzer | Thank you. So this column It says CIP Fund 140. is the amount of the capital project that's being funded from the CIP Fund 140. So if we took out, Let's just say we said we're not gonna do this project right here. That would create $120,000 in the capital project fund for some other capital project. It would not create money in the general fund. It could create money in the general fund. You would just not transfer as much from the general fund into the capital project fund for that current year. There is a pass through, there's a relationship between these two funds. What primarily the policy that the finance committee is recommending is for funding $1 million in sales tax, $450,000 this year for capital projects into the capital project fund. And that's the recommended policy. Now if that policy changes, then we can do other things with that money. Thank you. |
| 00:45:50.93 | Unknown | One last question, maybe for, I don't know if it's for city manager or for Charlie. The chamber is not here tonight, but did put in a request for the funding of the kiosk, which has not been reviewed by the Finance Committee and's not part of this budget now presumably they're going to show up on June 2nd and So could we make sure that's added to the list so that we're you know We've got a comprehensive list so the Finance Committee can look at it |
| 00:46:34.53 | Adam Politzer | Yes to the answer is a short answer. The longer answer is that Una, the CEO of the Chamber of Commerce, back in town last night or this morning. called me promptly. And I invited her to the Finance Committee meeting next Wednesday. And just as Age Friendly and Sausalito Beautiful had an opportunity to present at the Finance Committee in more detail and have a dialogue with us, the Chamber of Commerce will come next Wednesday and talk about their request for funding for the kiosk. And then that would be reflected on the June 2nd. As Charlie had announced earlier, requests from the community, so the chamber is is lined up to come next Wednesday. |
| 00:47:21.05 | Unknown | Thank you. |
| 00:47:21.11 | Adam Politzer | Thank you. |
| 00:47:21.14 | Adam Politzer | Thank you. |
| 00:47:21.19 | Adam Politzer | Thank you. you |
| 00:47:21.48 | Adam Politzer | And |
| 00:47:22.03 | Adam Politzer | I think next Wednesday is tomorrow, right? |
| 00:47:29.07 | Adam Politzer | Isn't tomorrow the 20th? |
| 00:47:33.31 | Adam Politzer | I was confused this afternoon, too. They're coming next Wednesday. They're not coming tomorrow. |
| 00:47:36.19 | Adam Politzer | So, |
| 00:47:36.23 | Unknown | So, |
| 00:47:36.24 | Adam Politzer | coming. |
| 00:47:37.49 | Unknown | They're not coming tomorrow. Uh-oh. The President. The President. Well, you wait another hour or a couple of hours, you could say today. |
| 00:47:43.38 | Adam Politzer | The President. |
| 00:47:44.19 | Unknown | Thank you. You could |
| 00:47:44.82 | Adam Politzer | This is kind of an advanced notice to the finance committee. We have a finance committee meeting tomorrow morning and we're going to have another one next Wednesday. |
| 00:47:57.66 | Jill Hoffman | Okay, any other questions? Now we'll move. move on to comment but I guess I'll ask you, Charlie, since this is just a discussion issue, So we go back. We made a call to the public to see if there are any other items. We talked about, I think we asked during our study session. whether the council had any items they wanted to add in We got none, I think. And so then the other two things that were suggested that we would go through the items and say, what would start the discussion of what we'd like to take out you know, that's obvious and what we'd like to let in. Were you planning to do that tonight or have we gone far enough on the budget discussion? |
| 00:48:37.47 | Adam Politzer | in the budget discussion. So when the staff report was written, it was written with a recommendation that this was for discussion only. Of course, that's just staff recommending. The council could take action tonight to say, we don't wanna fund this or we do wanna fund any particular line item. And hopefully then that would be binding as you go through further deliberations. |
| 00:48:57.36 | Jill Hoffman | You go through further. But in terms of the schedule, if we were to terminate tonight and not make any progress on those, that would be still – We would be within the schedule. All right, so I would recommend that unless we have any other general comments that we tackle the specifics at our next session. |
| 00:49:06.93 | Adam Politzer | We would be within the space. |
| 00:49:14.24 | Jill Hoffman | Okay? So with that said, let's bring it back to, are there any comments from council? So anybody? All right, well, okay, we have, Ray, go ahead. Oh, I'm sorry. |
| 00:49:25.32 | Councilmember Pfeiffer | No, it's okay. You can go first and then I'll go. You were ahead and. |
| 00:49:26.86 | Jill Hoffman | Amen. |
| 00:49:31.14 | Unknown | So, first of all, I'd like to – this is my third year at working through the Finance Committee on Budgeting. And a lot of the heavy lifting was done last year to put a two-year resource allocation plan together. And as Charlie confirmed earlier, the major, if you like, emphasis was to continue and change the slope of the investment curve into capital projects. This was in part driven by ADA, is driven by mandates, EPA mandates, is driven by a desire from the community to continue the accelerated rate of investment into streets. We now had storm drain mandates that were looming. And the community basically gave us a heads up to increase the sales tax in order to further fund that. And this is what we've done. So in the first year, we identified last year in this two-year plan that we needed another revenue stream if we really wanted to up the investment in infrastructure. We did that, and that's what we've done in this budget. And I think that's really important to emphasize. Second thing is we've got some outstanding items. I think on June 2nd we're going to particularly need to ask the question whether any of the items that were requested from the police department, body cameras, for instance, we should consider funding out of one of our funds, such as parking. I think we need to ask the question as we legitimately go through that, and Charlie helped us explain that for these one-time costs and I'm just picking on buddy cameras that may not be the right ones to put in and the the third point I want to make is that you know over the last three years working with Charlie we have moved this budget to be ever more transparent. So the tables that Charlie's showing, you've got the real choices to make. Are you going to spend money on this, or are you going to spend money on that? And this is what Charlie and we as a finance committee have tried to help direct the staff to move this towards. And we have, over the course of the last six months or more, this city has won three outstanding awards for budget transparency. This is an important deal. And I personally, and I know the buzzer's going to go on me now, I'm personally very saddened to know, to learn that Charlie is intending leaving us. This is going to be a very, very great loss to our city. |
| 00:52:55.72 | Councilmember Pfeiffer | Okay, thank you. And I wanna echo, thank you, Charlie, for a really great presentation and going through all of her questions in the public as well. And I'd be a fan of recording or getting on video the finance committee meetings because I know you guys walk through, you know, all of these budgets line by line. And so that would be, you know, probably very interesting to observe beforehand. But bottom line is I think this is great. I'm excited to see so many people from CARS here, too. I remember... When Saucido Village got started, I was a volunteer driver and it was a great program. So to see something like cars evolve and get established and everything, it's really wonderful and everybody up here at this council is excited by it. Saucido Beautiful, welcome. You guys are doing a great job. No surprise there. I know there's a lot of passion and focus and you have vision and we saw that in your report last year. I think as we walk through this, clearly we've got some hard choices ahead. And I know that with respect to the crosswalk, driving through town, that's a priority for me. When I drive through town and I see pedestrians, sometimes they're almost hit by speeding cyclists or what have you. And the ability to have a crosswalk light up like that, I think it's a safety issue. We've heard from residents before, a couple residents that were actually injured asking for it. So I really support the funding on that. I do hope we can find a little bit more for Sassudo Beautiful. And with respect to uh the there is one line item there that um i i don't agree with and it's no secret up here i've mentioned it before it's the um it's take it's it's taking the the fees that they're talking about for bikes bike parking and using that 250 grand to pay for the ambassadors ambassador program And I think that that should be a volunteer program. I think our VIPs do a fantastic job supporting the police as volunteers. Of course, that's a policy decision, whether or not we want to charge for bike parking downtown but if we do I'd like to see that money go into investment because then we could fund The other half is also beautiful. We could also fund multiple crosswalks. We could fund a number of things up here, and it would be recurring. So anyway, but the decision about whether or not to even charge for bike parking, to me, the first step is looking at bike regulation and doing some research on that. So thank you. |
| 00:56:03.18 | Jill Hoffman | I just want to thank Charlie for an excellent presentation and just remind everyone and also thank everyone from the public, including all the people from Sausalito Beautiful and from Cars, THEY'VE HELPED US ALL ALONG THE WAY AND KEPT US POSTED AND HELPED US DEVELOP THE BUDGET AND WE'RE WITH THE FINANCE COMMITTEE AND HERE. WE WANT TO THANK EVERYONE. AND TO KEEP POSTED, WE WILL HAVE BUDGET DISCUSSIONS ON THE 2ND AND ON THE 16TH OF JUNE WHEN WE FINALLY VOTE ON THIS. SO WE WANT TO THANK EVERYONE. SO WE'LL CLOSE THAT ITEM FOR TONIGHT. AND THEN BEFORE WE MOVE ON, WE'LL GIVE EVERYONE A CHANCE TO, I DON'T, IF YOU WANT TO MOVE AND THEN WE'LL TAKE UP THE OTHER. Okay. We'll take a two minute break. You can go home now. |
| 00:56:46.93 | Unknown | Thank you. |
| 00:57:06.09 | Unknown | Mr. President, I'm going to Thank you. |
| 00:57:08.81 | Unknown | Thank you. |
| 00:57:08.95 | Unknown | of his future to give. |
| 00:57:10.92 | Unknown | Yeah. |
| 00:57:11.53 | Adam Politzer | So you can control it from there. |
| 00:57:14.97 | Unknown | Thank you. |
| 00:57:14.99 | Unknown | So. Thank you. Thank you. |
| 00:57:16.59 | Sybil Boutillier | Yes, that's my, that's the whole thing I can do. |
| 00:57:20.30 | Unknown | Yes. |
| 00:57:31.09 | Adam Politzer | She's coming on the 27th. She's coming next Wednesday, not tomorrow. |
| 00:57:32.45 | Jill Hoffman | Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. We were joking, but I couldn't see. you Thank you. |
| 00:57:42.56 | Unknown | President. Amen. |
| 00:57:46.75 | Jill Hoffman | No, that says presentation, doesn't it? Thank you. |
| 00:57:49.41 | Unknown | That's the right one. |
| 00:58:00.14 | Unknown | Yeah, the skinny one. |
| 00:58:02.57 | Jill Hoffman | Tell us what it is. |
| 00:58:04.03 | Sybil Boutillier | Thank you. |
| 00:58:04.04 | Susan Tracy | We're ready. |
| 00:58:07.15 | Unknown | Thank you. |
| 00:58:07.22 | Susan Tracy | No one. Yes, we are. |
| 00:58:12.13 | Jill Hoffman | Okay, we're moving on to item 6C, Proposal for Funding a Community Homeless Fund. And the presenter is Mayor Thomas Theodorus. So this will be unusual and different. So we're talking about the MCC-MC Homeless Subcommittee Proposal for Funding a Community Homeless Fund. And back in 2014, recognizing that homelessness is a countywide concern, Marine County Council of Mayors and Council Members, MCCMC, established an elected officials homeless subcommittee. So we've got to get all those names straight. We started in 2014. Every town and city in Moran had an elected representative on the committee. And I represented Sausalito during the entire time. We... attended all the meetings. We even had one of the meetings here in Sausalito. We've had Chief Tejada and Sergeant Stacy Gregory attended because of our homeless policies that WON AWARDS AND SO WE WORKED ON THAT. THE COMMITTEE CONCLUDED ITS WORK IN MARCH OF THIS YEAR AND WITH A REPORT THAT'S IN THE PACKET AND BY THE WAY FOR ALL THE COUNCIL MEMBERS WE HAVE a staff report, the MCC committee's report and PowerPoint to follow with. As described in the report from the MCC MC, which is in the packet, the concept is for each town or city to contribute annually for three years to a to be formed community homeless fund at the Marin Community Center. foundation. The funds would be utilized for homeless services, which would include funding of the rest program. And essentially that's what it would be for. Originally, this committee took a look at possibly Um, creating more permanent emergency shelter, but The plan hadn't formalized and got forward, so the plan was to help expand the REST program, which is the current rotating homeless winter emergency shelter program. And it's been in operation operating in churches and synagogues in Marin for a number of years. The proposal required six of 11 city towns supported to proceed. AT THIS POINT, EIGHT CITIES HAVE APPROVED IT, I THINK VIRTUALLY ALL UNANIMOUSLY, AND THE ONLY TOWNS THAT ARE WAITING, NONE HAVE DISAPPROVED IT, ARE SOCIALITO, TIBORON, AND ROSS. SO THEY'RE ONE OF THE REASONS WE HAVE IT ON THE AGENDA BECAUSE WE ARE LOOKING, THEY ARE LOOKING FOR OUR SUPPORT TO GO FORWARD WITH THIS. THE MARIN MANAGERS ASSOCIATION, WHICH IS COMPRISED OF ALL THE CITY MANAGERS, INCLUDING OUR CITY MANAGER, TOOK A LOOK AT THIS AND HAVE DISCUSSED THE PROPOSAL. AND THAT'S AN IMPORTANT ELEMENT BECAUSE THEY TAKE A LOOK AT IT IN TERMS OF PRACTICALITY, IN TERMS OF THE BUDGET, TO MAKE SURE THAT THE MONEY IS SPENT WISELY. AND THEY'VE ALSO RECOMMENDED THAT THE PROPOSAL GO FORWARD AS WELL. SO THE FISCAL IMPACT TO CREATE THIS FUND WOULD BE THAT We would make a annual contributions of $11,540. We would commit to a three-year cycle. and that we would look at Further funding of these sources in the future. So the recommendation of staff I think staff and me. is that we... include the eleven thousand five hundred forty dollars in our fiscal 1516 budget from the general fund. We direct the city manager to work with the staff of the city of County Marin to help implement this community homeless fund. And we also direct the city manager to work with the Marin Managers Association to create a Marin Managers Association subcommittee to work annually to review the use of this fund to ensure consistency with the county's continuum of care. So with that, that's the general overview. There's more in your packets. Do we have any questions of counsel? Do we have any questions? Seeing none, we'll open up to public comment. We see we have some public here, so Anyone like to come up and comment on this issue? |
| 01:02:27.66 | Susan Tracy | Well, I just want to introduce myself. I'm Susan Tracy, and I live at 191 Prospect Avenue in Sausalito. But I do want to acknowledge that there's many here that do not live in Sausalito, but they are so devoted to the cause that they came in support and they want to stay as many hours as we've been here tonight for the cause. So I just want to acknowledge them as well. I also represent as a member of the Marin Organizing Committee, and I have also coordinated the rest program at the Community Congregational Church in Tiburon. And so I had the experience of really sharing meals, getting to know the rest guests, and being able to learn from them and serve them. I do want to say that this is why I'm standing here today, is to advocate for people Like Tom, who is one of the... He frequents the REST program, and he works for the Downtown Streets team, and he... has so much hope within him that he is going to be... getting back on track and become independent. And so I'm here for Tom. I'm also here for Albert, and Albert is a man that loves to camp outdoors, and he's really looking forward to his Social Security. He's almost 65, and he's looking forward to living on that and being independent and healthy. being on his own. Thank you. I'm also here for David, and David was in the foster system program. He's, I think, 24 now. He's in the foster program for most of his life. and graduated from that. They couldn't take him in the foster program because of his age, and he's with the rest program. So I'm here for David. I'm also here for Nick. And Nick used to be a jeweler, and he was fired from his job as a jeweler and couldn't find another job, and he's temporarily homeless as well. So I'm here for all of them, and I just want to say that... St. Vincent de Paul is the group that actually provides the logistics, the transportation, the management. And so they will be managing a lot of the funds in the future for the REST program. And I want to make a point that St. Vincent de Paul also has a driver that comes into Sausalito and picks up throughout the year and picks up homeless people and takes them to the different churches in Southern Marin for meals. And one of the... One of the people that One of the places is the Sausalito Presbyterian Church, and that's on Wednesday lunches. And so the drivers actually bring the meals from the church the, the Presbyterian, I mean, from St. Vincent de Paul to the Presbyterian Church. So I want to just have one other thing that I want to point out because I wanted to show the connection with Sausalito. I also am on the Home for All County Committee, and I just wanted to share that just the last meeting we had the point in time count, which is... Counting, it's kind of a verifiable estimate of the count of the homeless in Marin County. And I wanted to just share the results from that is that they counted in 2013, they counted 933. and in 2015, which they counted, the count was January 29th, they counted 1,309 as the total of homeless this year. And out of that, 835 were unsheltered. 269 had transitional housing and 205 were in emergency shelters. And I found it interesting that actually 365 were youth from that count 365 were youth between the ages of 18 and 24. and there were also 57 families from that count. So I just want to celebrate the fact that we've had eight out of eight municipalities vote for this and I'm just here to really recommend and applaud you, too, for being so forthright about bringing this to the table. Thank you. |
| 01:07:30.94 | Jill Hoffman | Thank you. Anyone else? |
| 01:07:36.83 | Stan Deck | Good evening, Mr. Mayor, council members. My name is Stan Deck. I live up on Harrison Avenue 174. I'm also a member of Congregation Kohl Shofar. I've been there for about 36 years. Our rabbi, whose name is Susan Leiter, lives in Sausalito, and she went back to her daughter's graduation back east. So I get to stand in for her. I get to be a rabbi for about two minutes. So I hope this goes well. Okay. |
| 01:08:05.59 | Unknown | Yeah. |
| 01:08:06.48 | Stan Deck | Anyway, I just wanted to say that we were, along with others, founding members of MOC and also very active participants in the REST program. For about 24 years, we've had a meal program over at Kohl's Shafar, which is on the Mill Valley Tiburon line. I participated in that, and I can say it's just a win-win situation, not only for the folks that come for food, but also the volunteers that get to have a one-to-one exchange that they ordinarily wouldn't have had. We are hoping that you join with the other towns. I think of the three hundred and sixty thousand dollars, eleven thousand five hundred would represent about 3% of the total that Sausalito would be contributing. And it represents maybe $1.50 or so for every resident of Sausalito or something like that. So for a worthy cause like this, we're hoping that you join with the other towns. And I'll end by saying that I spoke to the Marin Community Foundation today. And Tom Peters' message to you is just two sentences, which was that Marin Community Foundation is pleased to offer continued administrative support to St. Vincent de Paul to act as the operational backbone in providing rest winter shelter for the ninth year in a row. And he just mentioned that he knows that those philanthropic dollars, not only part of a larger equation, but he wants to thank the hundreds of congregants throughout the county that have participated in these programs and they really made a difference. And as a resident, I'm really hoping Sausalito is on the list. Thank you. Thank you. |
| 01:09:54.31 | Jill Hoffman | Anyone else? Anyone else like to speak on this matter? Okay. Seeing none, closed public comment. We'll bring it up here for a comment. Who would like to start? |
| 01:10:06.53 | Councilmember Pfeiffer | I actually do have a quick question. Oh, sure. So I just located this. It was frequently asked questions about rest. It says, what are the rest site criteria? It says, is space large enough for 40 men and 20 women plus staff to sleep in separate areas? Is that what I know we received a handout in our packet that lists, you know, different sites currently used. Is there an alignment here or is this out of date? This. |
| 01:10:08.56 | Unknown | Oh, sure. |
| 01:10:36.95 | Jill Hoffman | Well, it could be, but also this money is also to supplement and to possibly expand the rest program. Would you like, do you have a, do you have the answer? |
| 01:10:46.52 | Susan Tracy | The women are at the Health and Wellness Center, and so they have been there, and they will continue to be there. And then the 40 men will be at the St. and Selms Church. They have a gymnasium at the school, their middle school, so that's where the men will be. Does that help answer your question? |
| 01:11:12.88 | Susan Tracy | Yeah, this is the summer pilot I'm talking about. And then the winner, part of the money will expand the program for one more month, so instead of starting in the middle of November, they're going to start in the beginning of November and then they're going to go all the way through April instead of stopping on April 15th. |
| 01:11:36.05 | Councilmember Pfeiffer | So when you say expand the program, you don't mean to go beyond 40 men or 20 women. That's kind of your maximum focus. But when you say expand, you mean expand the months of the year in terms of |
| 01:11:52.00 | Susan Tracy | For the three years that we're looking at, yeah, we're expanding the time that we would provide the service for them. |
| 01:11:52.47 | Councilmember Pfeiffer | But you. |
| 01:11:54.72 | Carolyn Revell | I'm sorry. |
| 01:11:54.73 | Councilmember Pfeiffer | We're expanding. |
| 01:11:55.39 | Carolyn Revell | THE END OF |
| 01:11:56.60 | Councilmember Pfeiffer | that we're going to do. |
| 01:11:59.80 | Susan Tracy | and that's part of the three-year decision, yeah. |
| 01:12:04.81 | Councilmember Pfeiffer | And you receive funding from the Marin Community Foundation. Thank you. |
| 01:12:09.70 | Susan Tracy | Yes, yeah, the Marin Community Foundation has provided money along with the Catholic charities to help with the van that transports, and they help with repairs and so forth, and and Yes, we do have that funding through them as well. |
| 01:12:29.98 | Councilmember Pfeiffer | Okay. you Mm. |
| 01:12:31.98 | Susan Tracy | Thank you. |
| 01:12:32.03 | Councilmember Pfeiffer | All right. |
| 01:12:32.41 | Susan Tracy | Thank you. |
| 01:12:32.47 | Councilmember Pfeiffer | Thank you. |
| 01:12:41.41 | Councilmember Pfeiffer | Does rest have it so I guess it's the Vincent de Paul that runs it St. Vincent and Paul so it are the headquarters for rest there are they Is that where they're based? |
| 01:12:52.06 | Susan Tracy | Well, the rest doesn't really have any headquarters. St. Vincent de Paul actually is an intake for most of them, and then they... They are sent out. And right now, what they're doing in San Rafael is men are stationed at different corners, and they're picked up at different corners so that it doesn't interfere too much with a number of people standing in front of businesses or whatever. |
| 01:13:21.74 | Councilmember Pfeiffer | Okay, great. Thank you. |
| 01:13:23.27 | Susan Tracy | MAKING A LITTLE BIT. |
| 01:13:23.53 | Councilmember Pfeiffer | Thank you. |
| 01:13:23.56 | Susan Tracy | Thank you. |
| 01:13:25.42 | Councilmember Pfeiffer | Okay, I think that's all my questions. Thank you. |
| 01:13:27.97 | Jill Hoffman | Okay, so now we move on to council member comments who would like to start. |
| 01:13:33.35 | Councilmember Pfeiffer | So I am. I guess I have just a couple more questions before my comment, which is basically I think this sounds like a great program, and, you know, I really like the... you know the premise and everything and and uh... Homelessness is such a tremendous problem. We need to step up with a strategy that's really going to be, I mean, address something that just seems to be an issue everywhere. My challenge is that I would have been more comfortable had we in Sausalito had our housing element homeless policy clarified, you know, at this time, because I know we had, it just seems like we're We've got the homeless policy we're clarifying right now, and then we're voting on rest, and that's the homeless solution as well. I really like rest, and at the same time, I'd like to get this other piece of the puzzle. you know, aligned. uh, before moving forward on this. So I don't wanna say no to Russ so much as I wanna understand what that homeless policy is for us in the housing element. And we had a room full of people here who were asking us a lot of questions about that. And, you know, we formed the subcommittee, and I know they've been working hard on that, and they're going to come back to us, I'm sure, in the near future. I'm just wondering if, if possible, we could continue this item to I'd just like to see the whole solution for the town is all. I'd like to see the whole, you know, kind of what you guys are saying. |
| 01:15:25.35 | Jill Hoffman | Well, I mean, the short answer is first of all, this is a real program that needs to be funded now. Our housing element is just a plan. And it may never and likely will never be built. So this is something that needs to be done now. We have homeless, we have people providing the service and this is the time to fund it. I mean, we have a housing element already. We're just looking at we have a task force who's going to look at changing it. But at most, that's a plan. It's not a reality of an emergency shelter that homeless can look. So they're really not related in my book or certainly tangentially. So I would, you know, I understand your thing, but I would certainly urge the council to vote on this as proposed. I don't think we can get there in terms of... Thank you. |
| 01:16:17.24 | Unknown | Yeah, I... Thank you. you have been following the work of the committee task force or whatever it was from MCC MC. Tom, you've been on for two, three years. I was part of the mayor's group of side meeting several years ago, last year when I was mayor, that approved the formation of the committee right at the very beginning of the last year. So I also think that I'd like to acknowledge the leadership role that Kate Collin up in San Rafael has made. And to all the members of that group that have worked on behalf of MCCMC to do this. It's a small step to try and solve a, to make a small contribution to a very big problem. And whereas I can appreciate Council Member Pfeiffer's point of view, the actual specific or specific ordinance on our SB2 mandated shelter is really I don't see much of a nexus between that and this. So I fully support this and would be quite willing to make the motion if needed. |
| 01:17:46.52 | Jill Hoffman | Okay. Yeah, you know, this is a you know, pretty very well run, very low overhead, which I always like to see in charities, mostly run by volunteers, which I love. And so I'm very well managed, it seems. So I think it's a very good value for Sausalito for the benefit, so I would support it. I understand and agree also with Councilwoman Pfeiffer with regard to looking at Problems in a holistic manner. And also, you know, we are working on the ordinance and updating that or amending that as we see fit. But I think at this point, I feel confident that I can vote on it tonight and continue to work on the homeless issue as well. |
| 01:18:32.12 | Unknown | I agree. First of all, I believe that Sausalito... has more homeless people in southern Marin than probably Mill Valley, Tiburon, Belvedere, and Corte Madera put together. So I think it's not only, it's a small amount, and I think it's a benefit for our community to have an option for some of these homeless to go up there. So I totally favor it, and it's a small amount for a big problem. |
| 01:19:06.87 | Councilmember Pfeiffer | Yeah, I'm really torn about this because the program is very appealing to me. I really like so many aspects of it. And at the same time, I feel like I need more information. I want to know where we are with the homeless policy, and I want to see that whole... that whole thing together. I guess I'll have to abstain. I don't want to vote against it, you know, but I feel like I don't have all the information before me. |
| 01:19:42.69 | Chris Ryan | No. |
| 01:19:43.89 | Jill Hoffman | And I've been on the committee, and I certainly support it. I think most of the churches and synagogues are in other cities. And certainly, we have a homeless population. And so they take some of our homeless there. Of course, we have the Presbyterian Church, which has meals. I live down the street from there, so I participate some. And I think it's a valuable thing to do. It's something we need to do now. And so I support it. So would someone like to make the motion? |
| 01:20:13.44 | Unknown | Thank you. |
| 01:20:13.46 | Unknown | or. |
| 01:20:14.00 | Jill Hoffman | Thank you. |
| 01:20:14.05 | Unknown | Are you happy to? |
| 01:20:14.10 | Jill Hoffman | Okay. |
| 01:20:17.27 | Unknown | So I move to include the amount of $11,540 in fiscal year 1516 budget from the general fund for the MCCMC homelessness proposal to direct the city manager to work with the staff of the county of Marin and the Marin Community Foundation to create a community homeless fund and execute any necessary agreements in the form to be approved by the city attorney to enable social media to contribute to such fund for three years. And to direct the city manager to work with the Marine Managers Association to create a Marine Managers Association subcommittee to work annually to review the use of the community homeless fund to ensure consistency with the count is continue. |
| 01:21:06.32 | Unknown | I'll second that. |
| 01:21:08.35 | Jill Hoffman | Debbie, would you take the role on this? |
| 01:21:14.14 | Unknown | Councilmember Weiner. |
| 01:21:15.79 | Jill Hoffman | Thank you. |
| 01:21:15.81 | Unknown | Yes. |
| 01:21:16.64 | Unknown | Councilmember Pfeiffer. |
| 01:21:17.97 | Councilmember Pfeiffer | abstain. |
| 01:21:20.84 | Unknown | Council member Withey. |
| 01:21:21.87 | Unknown | Yes. |
| 01:21:22.20 | Jill Hoffman | Thank you. |
| 01:21:22.26 | Unknown | Thank you. |
| 01:21:23.35 | Unknown | Vice Mayor Hoffman. Yes. And Mayor Theodore Doris. |
| 01:21:26.86 | Jill Hoffman | Yes, okay, thank you all, thank you for coming. Nine, now you're at nine. Get on those guys from Tiburon and Ross. Get them going. Sorry. I know. I know. I couldn't. |
| 01:21:38.14 | Unknown | Bye. |
| 01:21:38.22 | Unknown | What did I say? |
| 01:21:39.86 | Unknown | . |
| 01:21:47.47 | Jill Hoffman | Okay, now we're moving on item seven a city manager information for council. |
| 01:21:57.51 | Adam Politzer | I think I'll pass on any city manager report, the budget speaks for itself. And obviously, I think that next week is the 20th, so I lost a week somewhere along the way. Either through bikes, Alcatraz, embarkation, or budget meeting. So I have nothing further to report, but happy to answer any questions from the council. |
| 01:22:19.46 | Jill Hoffman | Any council questions? |
| 01:22:22.63 | Adam Politzer | Thank you. |
| 01:22:22.82 | Jill Hoffman | Thank you. All right. And we have a couple of and seeing there's no public so there'll be no public comments. So moving on to Councilmember Committee reports. Do we have any Councilmember Committee reports? |
| 01:22:23.70 | Adam Politzer | and we're going to be |
| 01:22:25.16 | Unknown | Thank you. |
| 01:22:36.86 | Unknown | Just to report that Council Member Pfeiffer and I attended the ABAG workshop on last Saturday, which is one of the public outreach projects for the revision to Plan Bay Area for 2017, and to either inform or remind people that MTC is holding an open house at the Marin Civic Center on the 28th I think that's right, 28th. And I'm sorry, I don't know the time. It's like five in the afternoon or something, I think, to, as part of MTC's outreach process. |
| 01:23:32.92 | Jill Hoffman | Any other committee reports? Okay, I have two things. Oops, the first is that I received an email from our county supervisor, Kate Sears. And I'll just read the text of it. It's short. Dear Mayor Theodorus, I applaud the time and attention extended by the City Council. the Planning Commission and Historic Landmarks Board as well as... as the... Broad public engagement regarding the Golden Gate Bridge District Sausalito ferry landing proposal. Now is the time to work together to find a solution that achieves our shared goal of an improved ferry landing that suits Sausalito you unique character. To that end, I intend to convene a stakeholders group which will include representatives of the city council, the Golden Gate Bridge District, and Sausalito residents to find a collaborative path forward I will contact you to work out scheduling details to date. I haven't had any further contact with her, so I don't have any other details. I will work and find those details and then I will bring it to our agenda setting committee and run it past legal counsel. And for the best way to bring it back to this council, to bring it back to the city council with a way to move forward in response to that statement by Supervisor Sears. |
| 01:24:59.52 | Jill Hoffman | We had a well attended and very productive bicycle and pedestrian committee meeting last night. And we've also had a lot of communication and, um, responsiveness from the bicycle committee about possibly working on some of the bicycle parking issues. So what I would like to do, because there are a lot of things going forward and we intend to bring this back to the Council on June 2nd, I would like to um uh, appoint a working group to contact the bicycle companies to work out some proposals that we would bring back to this council. We not to agree to anything, but to work out some proposals that we could then look at and narrow down the issues. So I'd like to appoint, um, Councilmember Weiner, Chief Tejada, Jonathan Goldman, since he's out there, we're going to tap him to our city and our and our city manager. And they cover all the bases and they understand all the issues and have been working on this and to work with them and to see what kind of proposals we can come forward again. without authority to make any binding commitments on part of the Council, but to bring it back so that we can move this issue forward. Okay. |
| 01:26:21.13 | Councilmember Pfeiffer | I have a comment on that. Last, I think at the last council session, we... I remember I asked about of the regulation aspect and the regulation analysis that our city attorney was doing with respect to regulating bikes. And that was gonna be a starting point. We were gonna get that report and you guys were gonna follow up to bring that forward. So will we be seeing that next week or at the next convening as well? |
| 01:26:48.65 | Jill Hoffman | We have to ask council. Now, one thing to bear in mind, we will follow through. And you have to talk to the city attorney on that. But this proposal with the ambassadors and the parking there, regardless if we find which about the ability to regulate bicycles, It's extremely unlikely when you see public comment that we would BAN BICYCLES. SO AT A MINIMUM, WE WILL ALWAYS NEED THE WE WILL NEED THE AMBASSADORS AND THIS PARKING PROGRAM EITHER WAY. |
| 01:27:16.98 | Councilmember Pfeiffer | No one is talking about banning. OK, well, so we |
| 01:27:18.65 | Jill Hoffman | Well, that's the point, actually. And the idea is If we regulate them or limit them, we will still need the other things because we will have them coming. |
| 01:27:29.10 | Councilmember Pfeiffer | Well, I actually disagree on that, but I don't want to get into a discussion because, I mean, if there was a time when rental bikes were coming and they were not, you know, overwhelming our streets and they weren't clogging the ferries. So, you know, I think if we look at regulation in terms of what Sausalito can handle, you know, I think that the strategies we might wind up with are very, very different from the direction being taken right now. That's why I think the regulation on rental bikes is so very important. |
| 01:27:33.25 | Jill Hoffman | Because I'm |
| 01:27:59.61 | Jill Hoffman | Well, we will get to that and they're not mutually exclusive. And whatever we do, certainly will be a pilot program. We're going to we're working through this. But the thing that we have to bear in mind is we're in May. We'll have a meeting in June. We have to take action. I think it's pretty clear. And when you look at the bike and pet committee, all resident input and input of all our staff and interested parties know that we have to take action now and we can look at it and again, this is an all evolving. thing and we could change things, but we don't want to wait on one issue to look at research on another. So we're going to bring it back in a second. |
| 01:28:36.10 | Jill Hoffman | Can we perhaps, do you want to do a subcommittee just to look at the regulatory part of it? And then we can work with Mary. How do you want to do that? Because I think we need to have it. We have some sort of discussion before June 2nd. |
| 01:28:52.26 | Jill Hoffman | I'll tell you that what we do, I recommend, how about the agenda setting committee work with, and we'll have that as a task that we need to, and that really fits in with council member Pfeiffer's desire to have that done. Is that, I think it's a good recommendation. |
| 01:29:03.13 | Councilmember Pfeiffer | I think it's a good recommendation. We asked for it, what, two and a half months ago? So... |
| 01:29:06.89 | Jill Hoffman | Okay, no, I, we understand. |
| 01:29:07.16 | Councilmember Pfeiffer | I'm not sure. No. THE END OF THE END OF THE I... |
| 01:29:08.17 | Unknown | Mr. Mayor, if I may, just to be clear, there was council discussion. As Councilmember Pfeiffer said, I'm sure it was two and a half months ago. At that time, we indicated to you that there was a lot of priorities we were juggling. At your last meeting, the council brought it up again, and there was discussion about ensuring that we brought you a comprehensive approach. I'm happy to work with whoever the council would like me to work with i've obviously been working with staff on the issues that have been coming forward to you it'd be very helpful to have the opportunity to work with the mayor and the vice mayor on bringing that forward yeah |
| 01:29:08.93 | Councilmember Pfeiffer | Thank you. |
| 01:29:45.15 | Jill Hoffman | AND WHAT WE'LL DO IS I THINK AT A MINIMUM WE NEED TO COME BACK FOR A DATE OF WHEN WE'RE GOING TO ADDRESS THAT. SO WE'LL DO THAT AND THAT'S A GOOD SUGGESTION AND WE'LL WORK TOGETHER ON THE AGENDA. OKAY. MOVING ON. FUTURE AGENDA ITEMS. |
| 01:29:59.59 | Councilmember Pfeiffer | So, yeah, I have a couple. One is, I guess, we're coming up to a point where TAM funds projects and I learned that in the past what's happened is city staff and one or two council members have you know, collaborated on that and basically by the time the full council sees this, Um, the grant or the applications are already in or whatever the funds uh the projects are funded so i i would like to see that brought before the entire council to see what the opportunities are with respect to you know the tam funding and the and the projects i'd like that to be um you know more of a of a of an open process as opposed to you you know, those decisions being made at a staff or just, you know, a less transparent way. So I'd love to see that on the agenda. The other thing is the grand jury report on the pension transparency and Southern Roman Fire was the board was mentioned on that. I've mentioned this before as an agenda item, I haven't heard back when we might have that on the agenda? I don't |
| 01:31:19.61 | Jill Hoffman | WELCOME. I don't recall that because that report just came out recently. Yeah. |
| 01:31:23.24 | Councilmember Pfeiffer | Yeah, yeah, and I mentioned it. |
| 01:31:24.27 | Jill Hoffman | I'm not. But I mean, it doesn't apply to Sausalito. It's Southern Marin. |
| 01:31:28.76 | Councilmember Pfeiffer | Well, but Southern Marin Fire District, our residents with annexation, you know, it does apply to us as our fire services for the city. |
| 01:31:34.41 | Jill Hoffman | That's our favorite. Well, we'll put that on the agenda, so I didn't discuss it. |
| 01:31:39.63 | Councilmember Pfeiffer | And the last thing is, let's see, regulation of rental bikes, the TAM projects, the grand jury report, and the... You've probably heard about this, the French school playground. I voted against this playground at the time because the public access hours were not clarified. it was when school was in session it was understood to be 3 30 You know, and And now I guess it's coming before park and rec because there was a lease amendment that said divert it to, you know, issues go to park and rec. I think we need to revisit that lease amendment that we made which sends those issues to park and rec. And I think it should rise to the level of council. and this is the second time this issue has popped up where the French school has wanted to frankly curtail the hours for public access. And parents are very busy for them to have to you know, come to a a meeting and petition, et cetera. |
| 01:32:50.08 | Jill Hoffman | Well, we'll put it on agenda setting, but just to get clear with the public, we have the ability to say no. Our staff has issued a report with a very strong recommendation against it. I have no doubt that the park and recs, if you think about it, will probably take the staff's recommendation. So I don't think there's any really risk here. |
| 01:33:12.88 | Councilmember Pfeiffer | I think what we have is a situation that it popped up in September, and now it's May, and it's popped up again. And every time something like this, you know, pops up, and it's always around the playground hours. And, you know, parents have to run and rally and organize and petition and write letters and come down to the meeting, and it's very hard. And I just think we need, as a council, we need to take leadership in this and say, these are the hours, public access, and get this clarified. Because some of those parents, if they hadn't seen the posting at the playground, would never have known that the hours were in danger of being curtailed. |
| 01:33:58.04 | Jill Hoffman | we'll take it but again we have staff protecting us on that and but again we'll we'll discuss that agenda setting and see what can be done Thank you. |
| 01:34:05.58 | Stan Deck | Yeah. |
| 01:34:06.22 | Unknown | I would actually support that last item of councilmember Fifer at least to clarify I'd like to understand even if the agenda item is to understand what the role of parks and wrecks it is in this process so and the second thing is the Work with in connection with RBRA's proposal. I think the agenda setting committee needs to decide if, and we're working with staff and working with RBRA staff to start figuring out whether we need |
| 01:34:21.95 | Unknown | At a certain time. |
| 01:34:46.08 | Unknown | timing for a workshop, either sponsored by Sol Solito or sponsored by RBRA, so that we can begin to move that process along. |
| 01:34:53.99 | Jill Hoffman | Well, I'm a little, but I mean, we, it has to start with the RBRA task force and then come to the agenda. Are you asking for something on the agenda first? |
| 01:34:59.11 | Unknown | asking for something on the agenda first? Yeah, I'm asking, what I'm asking is, we've said that we've basically now shut down any work on The bulls in our court is my point. Therefore, this needs to become a priority for us here. |
| 01:35:21.85 | Jill Hoffman | Thank you. |
| 01:35:23.80 | Unknown | Right. Thank you. |
| 01:35:28.16 | Jill Hoffman | I said one more thing and it flew out of my head the minute we moved on the next thing. With regard to working the task force with the bikes. Do we want to? you know with Councilmember Weiner and And Adam said, Do we need to put the head of our bike and ped committee as well? on that. |
| 01:35:48.58 | Jill Hoffman | I think on this is, They're more advisory. I think, I mean, we could do a lot of things, but I think the council and the bike and peg, we could do that. But I think this group might be the right one. I mean, no, it's a good suggestion and it's thought, |
| 01:36:06.10 | Unknown | that's everybody they'll be coming for maybe |
| 01:36:06.25 | Jill Hoffman | through, buddy. They'll be coming for it. |
| 01:36:22.33 | Jill Hoffman | And, but also the council is going to have to approve whatever. Yeah, I agree. Okay. Okay. Anything else? Okay. Any other reports of significance? All right. Seeing none, we have a motion of adjourn. |
| 01:36:36.31 | Councilmember Pfeiffer | So moved. |
| 01:36:37.03 | Jill Hoffman | Okay, all in favor? Aye. |
| 01:36:38.42 | Councilmember Pfeiffer | Hi. |
Sybil Boutillier — In Favor: Commissioner on Aging and member of the Age Family Task Force, advocated for the CARS program, highlighting its rapid success with 25 riders and 13 drivers in two weeks, and strong community support including a petition with 32 signatures. ▶ 📄
Shelby — In Favor: Representing Sausalito Beautiful, requested funding for Civic Center Landscape Improvement Project ($155,000 for 2016-17), Medians Improvement Project, and higher maintenance for public landscapes, citing beautification as a top priority and ongoing volunteer efforts. ▶ 📄
Millie Zinman — In Favor: Board member of Sausalito Beautiful, emphasized the importance of medians for town image, suggested reallocating $30,000 from a flashing light signal to median improvements, and supported ongoing maintenance funding. ▶ 📄
Chris Ryan — In Favor: Volunteer with Sausalito Beautiful, urged increased funding for landscape maintenance, recommending hiring a contractor quarterly to support the existing three-person crew. ▶ 📄
Carolyn Revell — In Favor: Board member of Sausalito Beautiful, supported full funding for City Hall beautification ($145,000 plus $160,000), median tree enhancements, and improved maintenance, advocating for drought-tolerant, sustainable landscapes as a community example. ▶ 📄
Cheryl Popp (second comment) — In Favor: Speaking as a Chamber of Commerce member and resident, endorsed Sausalito Beautiful's requests, stating that a beautiful city benefits business, residents, and visitors, and encouraged council support for volunteer efforts. ▶ 📄