| Time | Speaker | Text |
|---|---|---|
| 00:00:13.23 | Jill Hoffman | Welcome, everyone. Welcome to the regular meeting of the Sausalito City Council for June 2nd, 2015. Debbie, would you take the roll, please? |
| 00:00:21.19 | Unknown | Councilmember Weiner. |
| 00:00:22.37 | Jill Hoffman | THEIR HANDS OF THEIR HANDS OF |
| 00:00:22.39 | Unknown | Thank you. Councilmember Pfeiffer here Councilmember Whitty here Vice Mayor Hoffman present Mayor Theodoros |
| 00:00:25.58 | Jill Hoffman | Here. |
| 00:00:29.33 | Jill Hoffman | Present. Can we have Tammy Blanchard lead us in the Pledge of Allegiance, please? |
| 00:00:36.87 | Unknown | Don't you get it? |
| 00:00:42.52 | Unknown | Pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. |
| 00:00:42.54 | Unknown | I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America. and to the Republic for all. |
| 00:00:48.97 | Unknown | which it stands, one nation under God, Indivisible. with the |
| 00:00:59.13 | Jill Hoffman | Okay. Wait. We had closed session and items D one and two. There is nothing to report. Are there is there any public comment on the closed session items? Okay, seeing none. We'll move on to approval of agenda can we have a motion approved agenda. |
| 00:01:18.50 | Herb Weiner | so moved. |
| 00:01:19.04 | Jill Hoffman | Thank you. |
| 00:01:19.63 | Herb Weiner | Second. |
| 00:01:20.03 | Jill Hoffman | Thank you. All in favor? Bye. So that passes five zero. Now we move on to item 1A, presentation to the St. Mary Star of the CYO basketball team. Who's going to? |
| 00:01:38.28 | Unknown | Thank you, Joyce Clark. Thank you. |
| 00:01:40.18 | Unknown | I'm going to put a mic. |
| 00:01:41.86 | Unknown | Thank you. |
| 00:01:42.02 | Unknown | OK. |
| 00:01:43.09 | Jill Hoffman | Okay, Father Mike, you want to bring the team up to the front? |
| 00:01:46.75 | Unknown | 15 minutes. |
| 00:01:47.63 | Jill Hoffman | Team coaches. Everybody, the whole crew. I like to see. |
| 00:01:53.38 | Herb Weiner | Thank you. |
| 00:01:53.48 | Jill Hoffman | Thank you. |
| 00:01:53.70 | Herb Weiner | I don't know. No double dribbling. |
| 00:02:04.48 | Jill Hoffman | And if anyone wants to take photos, you can do that. In the meantime, Let's see, why don't we do that and then I'll Or should we do it while I read the proclamation? Okay. So we have Uh, A long proclamation, so everyone take your photos, and in the meantime, I'll be reading the proclamation. Okay. So. so we can have quiet, but we can do the pictures. A proclamation of the City Council of the City of Sausalito paying tribute to the youth basketball teams of Sausalito. Whereas the St. Mary's Star of the Sea Church earlier in the year proudly announced that they would be sponsoring basketball teams that had already been formed at the Manzanita Youth Center. And whereas... These already formed teams were made up of Sausalito youth and whereas, There was a sufficient number of players to make up a Fourth grade A team. a fourth grade B team. a fifth grade team and a sixth grade team. And whereas the youth center director, Paul Austin, was able to man each of these teams with a dedicated coach, and whereas Randy Raven, Raymond Huff, Lorenzo Bynum, and Garland do coached them and took them to a winning year. And whereas the fourth grade A team went all the way and took second place in the county championships. Thank you. |
| 00:03:39.39 | Jill Hoffman | And whereas St. Mary's Star of the Sea Church looks forward to a second year sponsoring these youth, knowing that many will be returning to play again. And whereas these youths, enriched the lives of the church that sponsored them, and in turn were amazed at the warm reception that came with this sponsorship. and whereas the city... Council. The Sausalito City Council... Thanks, Father Mike Quinn, pastor of the St. Mary Star of the Sea Church. for bringing this sponsorship to parishion for all involved. Now, therefore, be it proclaimed that the City Council of the City of Sausalito hereby applauds these fine players and their coaches and congratulates them on their exceptional year. |
| 00:04:43.50 | Unknown | Well done. |
| 00:05:03.36 | Jill Hoffman | Where did we go? |
| 00:05:11.15 | Adam Politzer | I can't answer. |
| 00:05:28.50 | Unknown | being filmed. |
| 00:05:29.68 | Unknown | Thank you. |
| 00:05:29.72 | Unknown | Chase. |
| 00:05:29.85 | Unknown | Cheers. |
| 00:05:30.78 | Unknown | Thank you. |
| 00:05:31.81 | Unknown | Smile. |
| 00:05:59.15 | Unknown | . |
| 00:05:59.32 | Jill Hoffman | Thank you again. |
| 00:05:59.40 | Unknown | Thank you. Thank you. I love you again. Thank you. Mark Parrish. |
| 00:06:00.87 | Unknown | Thank you, thank you, Barbara. It's a lot of. |
| 00:06:03.50 | Jill Hoffman | Thank you, Mike. |
| 00:06:03.97 | Unknown | Thank you. you |
| 00:06:04.38 | Jill Hoffman | Okay. I'm gonna see you guys. |
| 00:06:04.73 | Unknown | Okay. |
| 00:06:06.59 | Jill Hoffman | The Pressure is a great deal. |
| 00:06:07.31 | Unknown | Thank you. Thank you. |
| 00:06:09.41 | Unknown | Just do a high five. |
| 00:06:10.98 | Jill Hoffman | Thank you. That's bad. you Thank you. |
| 00:06:23.01 | Unknown | What up? Thank you. |
| 00:06:32.22 | Unknown | Thank you. |
| 00:06:32.32 | David Sudo | Yeah. |
| 00:06:32.61 | Unknown | Aw. |
| 00:06:32.71 | David Sudo | you |
| 00:06:33.22 | Unknown | Oh. Thank you. Thank you. |
| 00:06:35.29 | Unknown | Congratulations, you guys. Thank you. |
| 00:06:38.06 | Unknown | Super! |
| 00:06:38.58 | Unknown | No! I'll see. Oh. |
| 00:06:47.98 | Jill Hoffman | Well, that's the most fun part of the night for sure. Okay, well... We're moving on to communications. 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 of business that are not on the agenda. However, the council may refer matters not on the agenda to city staff or direct that the subject be agendized for a future meeting. If anyone would like to speak, please make sure you fill out a speaker card and return it to the city clerk. But, you know, If you're ready, please, for items not on the agenda. |
| 00:07:27.57 | Unknown | Right. |
| 00:07:29.82 | William Bigelow | Good evening, Mayor, Vice Mayor, and Council Members. My name is William Bigelow. I'm the owner of Easy Bike Return. It's a bike rental company here in Sausalito. We're looking to help solve the problem. in Sausalito to return the rental bikes from Sausalito back to San Francisco. I don't know if you've seen the pictures that the |
| 00:07:48.72 | Jill Hoffman | We are discussing bikes. It is on the agenda. |
| 00:07:50.98 | William Bigelow | Right. I just thought I would throw this out and do a quick introduction. I know I've sent you guys letters before. I did bring a trailer. It's parked out front. That's one of three trailers. My plan is to start off hopefully this year in Sausalito, next year Cavallo Point. Get that one up and online so we can actually pick up some of the bikes before they come to Sausalito. |
| 00:07:51.01 | Jill Hoffman | Right. |
| 00:08:12.06 | William Bigelow | And with the city's commitment to helping me find a location, I already have a staging area. I have three trailers capable of carrying 50 bikes each. That's about 150 bikes an hour we can run across the bridge. So just looking forward to opening a dialogue of communication. I was just speaking to the chief of police here, and she's directed me to the appropriate person. We're going to have a dialogue tomorrow. and hopefully facilitate a nice partnership between us. |
| 00:08:40.17 | Jill Hoffman | Thank you. Anyone else like to speak to something not on the agenda? |
| 00:08:44.13 | Linda Pfeiffer | William, I just want to say Ron Reich, you might also, he's second row, you might touch base with him about your idea too. |
| 00:08:54.23 | Leslie Alden | you Good evening, council members and staff and everyone here. I didn't realize that I'd be speaking to something on the agenda, but I have to say, those kids are amazing. What a great way to start. So I love Marin City, too. So those kids are just remarkable, and the staff over at the Manzanita Center are just quite something. So that was a delightful thing to walk into. I was a bit surprised. I'm just here very briefly. I'm Leslie Alden, and I'm aide to Supervisor Kate Sears. Just want to acknowledge the conversations, the discussion that all of you had last week at your meeting after the presentation by the Richardson Bay Regional Authority meeting staff member Ben Berto and want to just reiterate a couple of things one is that we have more boats and less funding to deal with the problems that all of you agreed and concurred are getting bigger and bigger and that something does need to be done so I'm I was thrilled to hear that I'm excited to know that Vice Mayor Hoffman and Council Member Wiener are going to be working with your staff. And it's sort of open arms and the arm-in-arm, we're all in this together sort of approach. Our BRA had proposed to do a full community process. I just wanted to reiterate that that is part of what has been discussed going forward. We want to give staff time and support to any process that you want to go through. We want to make sure that it's not duplicative so that We're not doing something and spending money, and you're doing something and spending money. We want to be as collaborative as possible as we work through this. And I think the big issue is time and course and money. It's not sustainable as it is, and you heard that from Ben last week. It's not sustainable from a funding standpoint for the Arborary to continue. We spent about half a million dollars of the taxpayers' money in the last three years and had the worst surprise at the end of that funding. We had more boats, not less. So it's sort of incumbent on all of us to put our heads together and try and figure out the best path forward. I know that that's your concern, of course, as it is ours as well. And so I'm representing, Kate can't be here tonight, and the other path forward. I know that that's your concern, of course, as it is ours as well. And so I'm representing, Kate can't be here tonight, and the other board members from the RBRA JPA are otherwise occupied this evening too, but I just wanted to say thank you for letting Ben speak and make that presentation, and know that staff at the county is really ready and willing to move forward, hopefully collaboratively and quickly. So thank you all very, very much, and you know how to find me. So look forward to hearing from you. |
| 00:11:50.96 | Jill Hoffman | Thanks, Leslie. Would anyone else like to speak on an item not on the agenda? Okay, seeing none, I will close public comment. And we'll move on to item 3A, minutes of previous meetings. And on the agenda is minutes of our regular city council meeting of May 15, 2015. anyone like to make a motion to approve those? Any comments? |
| 00:12:18.36 | Linda Pfeiffer | I have a comment on May 19th. |
| 00:12:21.53 | Jill Hoffman | Yep. I'm sorry, that was May 19th. Yes, I should have my glasses on. |
| 00:12:22.51 | Linda Pfeiffer | Thank you. |
| 00:12:22.57 | Unknown | May 19th. |
| 00:12:22.94 | Linda Pfeiffer | to be able to find. |
| 00:12:23.00 | Unknown | . |
| 00:12:23.05 | Linda Pfeiffer | Thank you. |
| 00:12:23.07 | Unknown | Thank you. |
| 00:12:23.09 | Linda Pfeiffer | Yes. So on page five of six, future agenda items, it says Council Member Pfeiffer, I'm looking at the second to the last line. She also requested the grand jury report. on pensions Specifically, it was on The grand jury report on pension transparency regarding the Southern Marin Fire District. And then my other future agenda item was the regulation of bikes. It says Endelize Playground. It was actually the regulation of bikes and the protection of public access hours for the Lisee playground be brought before council. So I just wanted to make those two clarification. |
| 00:13:18.40 | Jill Hoffman | So you have two clarifications. Two clarifications you want to? Anyone have any issue with them? Okay. Debbie, do you have those noted? Okay? So would someone like to make a motion? Any other comments on the minutes? |
| 00:13:31.36 | Unknown | Move to approve the minutes as amended. |
| 00:13:34.60 | Jill Hoffman | Thank you. |
| 00:13:34.62 | Linda Pfeiffer | Second? |
| 00:13:35.65 | Unknown | All in favor? Aye. |
| 00:13:36.97 | Jill Hoffman | So that passes 5-0. as amended. Right now we move on to the item for consent calendar. Matters listed under the consent calendar are considered routine and non-controversial. We 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. There will be no separate discussion of consent calendar items. However, before the council votes on a motion to adopt, You can send calendar items, council members, city staff, or members of the public. may request that the items be removed from the calendar for separate action. We have items for A and B. Are there any public comment on the consent? calendar at this point. Seeing none, we have a motion to approve. So move. Second. you do. All in favor? Aye. Okay, that's unanimous. Passes. Okay. |
| 00:14:30.07 | Herb Weiner | Bye. |
| 00:14:35.07 | Jill Hoffman | Now we move to item 6A. and uh It's the amending master fee schedule on parking fees. It's a very long title. It's regarding the bikes in the parking and we'll have our that's yet we have mayor's Mary Wagner, but I think we have our public works director, Jonathan Goldman, present on this, correct? |
| 00:14:56.43 | Jonathon Goldman | Yes, thank you, Mr. Mayor. Jonathan Goldman, your public works director and city engineer. I've agreed to lead off and have other batters in the wings if they're needed. This is actually a really very straightforward item, but I want to set the stage for it and remind council and members of the community how we got to where we are. the, um, place that I hope that we end up with and that I'm recommending that you consider at this point is summarized here really a summary of our staff recommendations. That we charge a fee for bicycle parking in the Tracy Way portion of municipal parking lot one during certain times of day and under certain conditions seasonally. That the city manager be authorized as the parking manager to charge from two to five dollars per bicycle for that parking depending upon whether the tickets are purchased in advance or sold on site that's a departure from what was recommended in the staff report but again we're interested in providing as much flexibility as possible through the council to address this issue downtown. So we've modified that recommendation. We're recommending that a minimum of 100 unattended free bicycle parking spaces be created between Muni lots 3 and 4 without the loss of vehicle parking spaces for as long as fees are charged for parking in Tracy Way. And we're recommending that the agreement for bicycle ambassador services be amended to extend the term of the agreement and to the extent that the city charges a fee for bicycle parking, expand those services to include directing bicyclists to parking and handling fee parking, proof of payment, et cetera. Over the past nine years, the city, the Ferry District, the Chamber of Commerce, the bicycle rental companies, Marin County Bicycle Coalition, and the city's pedestrian and bicycle advisory committee have successfully, progressively addressed seasonal congestion, with the most recent successes being the seasonal closure of Tracy Way to motor vehicles and the 2014 rollout of the Bicycle Ambassador Program. Some of the bullet points here are the highlights of the Bicycle Ambassador Program. I won't read all of these, but it are the highlights of the Bicycle Ambassador Program. I won't read all of these, but it's a program that was developed to focus on safety and education while also helping to manage congestion. Six ambassador stations from actually south of the South City limits all the way down to Tracy Way, staffed by a combination of paid seasonal workers and volunteers. The ambassadors coordinate with the Chamber of Commerce employees, as well as the ferry district employees that operate in the vicinity of the ferry landing, direct visitors to the Chamber's kiosk, answer ferry and queue-related questions, and then assist other staff in managing congestion downtown. The City Council meeting of the 12th of May, following public comment and council discussion, staff and the Pedestrian Bicycle Advisory Committee were asked to reconsider bike parking regulations, a parking fee, and other holistic solutions to seasonal congestion downtown. At the Pedestrian and Bicycle Advisory Committee meeting of the 19th of May, the committee summarized the issues, heard public comment, and made a series of recommendations. Again, I won't read all of these. They're contained in the staff report as well as in the minutes and the video and the recording of that meeting. But fundamentally, the Pedestrian Bicycle Advisory Committee recommended that the ambassador program be continued as it had been planned, as it had been developed in collaboration with Bike Coalition. Recommended that funding sources be identified with a focus on Tracy Way fee parking as a revenue source. Recommended that adequate free bike parking near downtown be provided for. Recommended that the city continue to collaborate with the ferry and chamber staff to optimize queuing and boarding systems. That the bike committee would make a public push for more ambassador volunteers. They would have the ambassadors implement a fee bicycle parking on Tracy Way if the council approved that fee. Commit or recommend that the ambassadors continue to deliver a high level of service, including parking, security, and concierge kinds of services. Collaborate as possible to pre-sell bike parking rather than have those transactions happen on site. recommended that free parking be provided, free bicycle parking for Marin County residents, specifically in the Tracy Way lot, and that the Pedestrian and Bicycle Advisory Committee continue to try to develop bike staging and or parklet alternatives. As you know, there is an existing agreement for bicycle ambassador services that was executed for an initial term and an initial budget of $20,000. One of the items before you this evening is a proposal to extend the term through October 2015 to staff the fee bicycle parking area if the council authorizes fee bicycle parking. In other words, the contract amendment would include additional scope of services if the council authorizes fee bicycle parking. Pardon these slides. There's a strange video thing going on. But key staff findings here. While staff continues to research other regulatory remedies, the existing bicycle parking ordinance and the California vehicle code give the city adequate authority to prevent the obstruction of sidewalks by parked bicycles. The ambassador program is an essential improvement to the facilities and personnel progressively implemented over the last seven years by the city. the chamber. the ferry district for orderly management of seasonal congestion downtown. And as the sole viable method identified, for managing fee-based bicycle parking downtown this season. The cost of the Ambassador program to operate from its inception through the peak summer season with reduced staffing levels from September through October is estimated at $150,000. On the basis of conservative projections of income from the recommended fee for use of bicycle parking in Tracy Way, revenues of not less than $250,000 are projected if fee parking is operated beginning June 3rd, tomorrow through October of 2015. So specifically, the recommendations before you this evening are that the master fee schedule be amended to establish fees for parking bicycles in the Tracy Way portion of municipal parking lot one beginning tomorrow and ending in October when the demand for parking will no longer require ambassador operations. And then seasonally thereafter, once demand for bicycle parking necessitates the closure of Tracy way to vehicular traffic with hours of operation to be 10 a.m. until 6 p.m. seven days a week. Bicycles parked in that facility prior to 10 a.m. and after 6 p.m. will not be charged a parking fee. Bicycles ridden by residents of Marin County may park at no charge upon display of a government issued identification with a photograph and a residence address in Marin County. Also recommending that the fee for parking of each bicycle in the Tracy Way lot, not otherwise exempt as provided for above, be not less than $2 a day if purchased in advance from a vendor supplied with tickets by the Ambassador Program or the city, or up to $5 without such a ticket. That all revenues from the bicycle parking program be remitted to the city and that a financial accounting of the bicycle parking operation be provided to the council on a monthly basis throughout the season. Should the actual costs of the Ambassador program or revenues fail to match the projected, staff will recommend appropriate actions on that basis. We also recommend that the master fee schedule be amended to create one or more unattended bicycle parking areas within or near muni lots three and four, convenient to Tracy Way in numbers sufficient to accommodate a minimum of 100 bicycles, and without the loss of any vehicular parking spaces, and that the seasonal installation during the off-peak and removal during the on-peak of on-sidewalk U-Racks be considered by staff. We're also recommending that the city execute an amendment to its existing agreement with Sausalito Plus for bicycle ambassador services, extending the term of the agreement, and to the extent that the city approves a fee for bicycle parking, authorizing additional services for directing bicyclists to parking on Tracy Way, collecting parking tickets from paid parkers upon use of the fee lot with a total authorized budget not to exceed $150,000 without further authorization. So again, I'll restate the summary of our recommendations. Recommend charging a fee. Recommend authorizing the city manager to establish those fees from $2 to $5 per bicycle for parking depending on whether the tickets are purchased in advance or sold on site. Create a minimum of 100 free parking spaces between mini lots three and four without losing any vehicle parking spaces for as long as fees are charged for Tracy Wayne. Bless you. |
| 00:24:44.09 | Unknown | way. |
| 00:24:45.98 | Jonathon Goldman | and then amend the agreement for bicycle ambassador services. So two actions before you. I think they can be taken either together or separately. And with that, I am available as is the chief and other staff for questions. City manager has a question. |
| 00:25:06.87 | Adam Politzer | Yeah, not a question. I just want to clarify one comment there, and thank you very much, Jonathan. We are asking for a range from $2 to $5, but to be clear, we're asking for the pre-sold tickets to be $2 and for on-site tickets to be sold at $3. So even though we're asking for a range, I want to be clear that there's no confusion in the audience. We're not recommending tonight're not recommending tonight charging up to five dollars but we want to have that range as as the season progresses and our communications continue through our working group |
| 00:25:42.51 | Jill Hoffman | Before we open it up to questions, Jonathan, You're presenting for staff. There will be no other presentations for now, but everyone's available for questions, I take it, including yes, the chair of the bike and pet committee, our chief and yourself and city manager, correct? |
| 00:25:52.18 | Jonathon Goldman | Yes. |
| 00:25:58.15 | Jill Hoffman | you |
| 00:25:58.22 | Jonathon Goldman | Thank you. |
| 00:25:58.37 | Jill Hoffman | Thank you. Okay. All right. So let's open up the council questions who would like to start. Okay. |
| 00:26:04.83 | Jill Hoffman | Jonathan, the $150,000 cost, can you tell us how that's broken down? That includes the salaries, or not the salaries, but the workers' pay and cost of insurance and things like that. Can you tell us? |
| 00:26:18.70 | Jonathon Goldman | Yes, I don't have the breakdown in front of me, but that's the information provided by Sausalito Plus on their costs. |
| 00:26:19.65 | Jill Hoffman | THE CITY IS A LITTLE BIT. |
| 00:26:27.07 | Jill Hoffman | Okay. Okay, that's fine. And also, I believe I saw in one of the agreements the city reserves the right to cancel the agreement at any point throughout the summer? Is that right? |
| 00:26:40.52 | Mary Wagner | CORRECT. |
| 00:26:41.08 | Jill Hoffman | Okay, so as we go forward through the summer and we're evaluating this almost on a weekly or daily basis, if it looks like it's not going where we want it to go, we have the ability to say no. |
| 00:26:52.27 | Mary Wagner | Thank you. |
| 00:26:52.29 | Jill Hoffman | Correct. |
| 00:26:52.30 | Mary Wagner | Correct. And it only requires seven days notice for any reason that the city determines. |
| 00:26:58.75 | Jill Hoffman | And just to follow up, I'll ask a question. So Sausalito Plus is a nonprofit and we're just, the city's collecting all the funds and reimbursing them for demonstrable bills that they submit to us. Is that correct for the? |
| 00:27:11.98 | Adam Politzer | That's correct, this is fast moving activity. So when Jonathan looks at me it's because we're all trying to keep up with all the changes. But as of today, all the money, all the fees collected will come through the city. that are collected out at site. If the bicycle rental companies agree to collect the $2 in advance, then they will reimburse us based on our receipts. |
| 00:27:40.77 | Unknown | Thank you. |
| 00:27:47.63 | Unknown | Um, the You stated a reasonably conservative estimate of the revenues was $250,000. Was that based on what sort of fee schedule? |
| 00:28:06.11 | Jonathon Goldman | It's based on fees along the lines that we've described, but the conservative part comes in estimating how infrequently the parking spaces turn over. And one of the pieces of information that we don't have today from our operation last year is how frequently those spaces in the bike racks turned over. We also weren't charging for parking last year. So from staff's perspective, the estimate that we prepared is conservative, but as we recommend this and as the city manager said, this isn't something that we're suggesting be approved and that we all go away and don't pay any attention to it. We need to pay very close attention to it. We need to verify that. |
| 00:28:32.89 | Unknown | Thank you. |
| 00:29:00.16 | Jonathon Goldman | those spaces are in fact turning over and that the revenues will at a minimum cover the cost of the program. To the extent they go beyond that, then council has the luxurious position of deciding what to do in that circumstance. And if it doesn't go that way, it doesn't even necessarily require council, but it can be terminated. |
| 00:29:25.78 | Adam Politzer | Can I just add to that, just to be very specific, the month of June, we estimate, and Deb Fudge did all his work, so big thanks to Deb for doing this work. We estimated based on these revenue projections, the fees, is that on the weekends during the month of June, we would have 800 bicycles come in to pay for parking. And for during weekdays, we would have 500 bicycles coming in. to pay for parking and then in the summer basically 800 seven days a week. Sorry, not summer, July and August. |
| 00:29:56.63 | Jill Hoffman | Thank you. |
| 00:29:58.01 | Adam Politzer | Thank you. |
| 00:29:58.03 | Jill Hoffman | Before we go forward, |
| 00:29:58.99 | Adam Politzer | Thank you. |
| 00:29:59.08 | Jill Hoffman | Can I get a show? we're going to have we're going to continue with Council questions but before we go forward with Can I get a show of hands or who is going to speak on this item? And And then can I also ask you to fill out speaker cards and give them to the city clerk? at some point while we're going forward with this so that when we're ready to go we have every all the speaker cards ready okay councilmember pfeiffer |
| 00:30:20.03 | Linda Pfeiffer | Yes, to follow up on the earlier question that, oh, this is just temporary. It's a pilot we can cancel if it doesn't work out. Does the converse apply as well in that if it's not working out right now, if there are grave safety concerns that we not go forward with it, that we step back and we assess it? |
| 00:30:40.43 | Jonathon Goldman | Well, if it's okay, I'll let the police chief answer the safety question. |
| 00:30:54.64 | Chief Tejada | Good evening, Mayor, Vice Mayor, City Council members. Could you repeat the question, please? |
| 00:31:00.08 | Linda Pfeiffer | I guess the question was that I heard that this was just a temporary pilot program that could be canceled if it didn't work out. And my question was, well, if we have residents who have observed or experienced safety issues as a result of the pilot program, then wouldn't we reassess this before we move forward? |
| 00:31:24.46 | Unknown | Thank you. |
| 00:31:24.48 | Chief Tejada | WE HAVE TO BE ABLE TO BE ABLE TO |
| 00:31:29.09 | Chief Tejada | So if you recall, everything about this, the bicycle issue in Sausalito has been presented as a pilot program. And it's done so so that we can step back and revisit and revise based on experiences and feedback. And so from a safety perspective, the police department has not received any information that this proposal has unsafe measures and it is important we always emphasize see something say something to the community if there is something happening that's unsafe please call us and let us know so that we can address it and you know that that's what we're here for and if we don't know about it we can't address it so i just would encourage people to call about safety issues |
| 00:32:20.29 | Linda Pfeiffer | And so just to follow through then, if we're having safety concerns and it is something that perhaps is ongoing and we've had this for two months now, then perhaps we could stop, step back, and reassess. |
| 00:32:37.19 | Chief Tejada | Yeah, if it's necessary to do that, then that's the action to take. We just need to have the information to evaluate the situation in order to take any action. |
| 00:32:50.22 | Linda Pfeiffer | Thank you Chief. Thanks. I've got a follow up question. on this. Actually, there are a couple that are related, and it's for Jonathan, actually. So looking at Tracy Way, how many revenue-producing parking meters, I know that earlier Chief had mentioned one space was worth 7,200. How many do we lose when we block Tracy Way for bike parking? |
| 00:33:20.82 | Jonathon Goldman | My recollection is that there are, when Tracy Way is open, there are 11 or 12 vehicle parking spaces there that are part of Mooney Lot 1. |
| 00:33:28.56 | Linda Pfeiffer | . |
| 00:33:33.71 | Linda Pfeiffer | Okay, and the revenue from those spaces would typically go to the general fund capital improvement or not? |
| 00:33:41.71 | Jonathon Goldman | No, it would come into the parking fund. Charlie's here if you want. |
| 00:33:46.79 | Linda Pfeiffer | I guess the parking fund is not a, is that a fund that's restricted? Is that a fund that is used for infrastructure? |
| 00:33:57.38 | Jonathon Goldman | I'll let our Administrative Services Director and Treasurer, Mr. Francis, answer that question. |
| 00:34:06.19 | Jonathon Goldman | Evening, Mayor, Council Members. Yes, the parking fund is a parking enterprise fund, which means that the enterprise fund is first purposes to recover all the costs of operations. It operates at a very high margin of revenues exceeding expenses, and the city has typically transferred the excess surplus revenues from the parking fund into the general fund on an annual basis this year that transfers 1 million four hundred thousand dollars |
| 00:34:06.31 | Jeffrey Chase | Thank you. |
| 00:34:37.68 | Linda Pfeiffer | Okay, thank you. So 11 spaces we're looking at 77,000 roughly. |
| 00:34:42.88 | Herb Weiner | Roughly. No, cut it six months. |
| 00:34:44.95 | Linda Pfeiffer | No, no, no, I'm talking about Tracy Way, you know, cumulative per year, 11 spaces. |
| 00:34:55.11 | Jonathon Goldman | No. |
| 00:34:55.52 | Linda Pfeiffer | 7,200. |
| 00:34:58.39 | Jonathon Goldman | Well parking meter revenue divided by the total number of spaces is gonna give us that amount and I can go to opengov and get you that answer real quick. |
| 00:35:08.46 | Linda Pfeiffer | Okay. |
| 00:35:09.42 | Jonathon Goldman | In fact, why don't I just do it for the audience? |
| 00:35:11.01 | Linda Pfeiffer | Okey-doke. And while you're... while you're doing that. I have a question actually for you, Tom, as the representative. Okay, all right. So I'll have a question. It is. It is about a bike and pad. Okay, yes, okay. If you'd like Ed Fotch to come up. Mm-hmm. |
| 00:35:44.20 | Linda Pfeiffer | I'll be there in one click. |
| 00:35:49.13 | Ed Fotch | I'm going to go ahead. |
| 00:35:49.53 | Linda Pfeiffer | So, Ed, I must admit I feel a little – I hadn't planned on asking you this question. I mean, you presented the solution, you know, for the paid ambassadors. I supported the volunteer ambassadors, the paid ambassadors, and then the nonprofit that is, you know – it's founded being run by your wife, and so this is going to be going there. I'm sure there's a thank you in there so much, so I appreciate that. Yeah, my question, yeah, I'm sure, could you repeat that? Could you repeat that? |
| 00:35:49.59 | Ed Fotch | . |
| 00:36:14.59 | Ed Fotch | I'm sure there's a thank you in there so much, so I appreciate it. |
| 00:36:17.23 | Unknown | THE END OF THE END OF THE |
| 00:36:21.73 | Ed Fotch | I'm sure there was a thank you in there somewhere. So on behalf of my wife, thank you. |
| 00:36:25.48 | Linda Pfeiffer | Well, I guess there's a question in there. Usually, I mean, we're talking about Tracy Way is a public street with revenue producing. It's a city asset, and the meters produce revenue. And I'm just curious as to why, and frankly, I do think it's a council question, why the typical process was not followed in which an open bid is, you know, submitted for request for proposals and we get, you know, different competitive bids on this service. |
| 00:37:02.43 | Ed Fotch | Well, I certainly can't speak on behalf of the council, and I can speak on behalf of our committee, Our assumption, which proved to be factual, was that Tracy Way would be closed this year during the season for bike parking. The issue we grappled with wasn't whether Tracy Way should be closed, but whether there should be fee-based parking. And to be clear, in 2014, we as a committee recommend not to have fee-based parking because we didn't really see that we had the infrastructure in place to pull it off. And the last thing we want to do is have a nightmare of jammed bikes down there. So we didn't recommend for or against Tracy way. It was our assumption was that Tracy way would be closed. And our recommendation was that we be charged. |
| 00:37:47.88 | Linda Pfeiffer | I'm sorry, perhaps I asked the question wrong. I wasn't talking about Tracy Way being used for bike parking. My question was, if Tracy Way, of course, we all know it's a fact that we're losing metered revenue when we close Tracy Way for bike parking. Typically, I mean, this is a city asset and we're looking at potentially new services. that are paid at 150 thousand a year. And I'm just curious as to why we didn't submit a request for proposal. I think it's more of a council question, Tom. |
| 00:38:25.24 | Jill Hoffman | Well, no, I agree. Well, it's as opposed to. So I agree with that. And actually I'll pass to the city manager. The short answer to this is that we weren't going to put a request for proposal for someone to do something for nothing. And that's what we're doing in this case. This is a nonprofit. This this came out. A hundred and fifty. |
| 00:38:41.96 | Linda Pfeiffer | 150,000? No. That's nothing. |
| 00:38:43.06 | Jill Hoffman | That's not- No, it is nothing. That's something. It is no profit. It is reimbursement of expenses. If we put out an RFP for that, we would say, you get reimbursed for your expenses and you are allowed zero for profit. I don't think we'd get too many. |
| 00:38:44.87 | Linda Pfeiffer | It is nothing. That's something. |
| 00:38:58.50 | Linda Pfeiffer | This was supposed to be a volunteer program. But I don't want to get |
| 00:38:59.97 | Jill Hoffman | But I don't want to get in. Can I have the city manager address that? I wanted the short answer. I didn't get too far with that. But this is not a debate for you and I. |
| 00:39:08.36 | Adam Politzer | The short answer is what the chief said earlier. It's a pilot project. We're moving, working together collaboratively with all types of entities, including the Marin County Bicycle Coalition, the Golden Gate Ferry, the Chamber of Commerce. And so as this program evolves, then we will look at do we have something, and then we'll be able to write. the RFP to send out. We may decide to keep this in house, which has been one of the discussions, looking at this as a branch of the park and rec department. But we don't know yet. So the normal process does not require us to go out to RFP. on this and you can look at rotary parking, you can look at a whole lot of other nonprofits in town that use city property to generate money and we don't go out to bid on who's going to park cars at MLK. |
| 00:40:03.81 | Linda Pfeiffer | I see this as something, I mean, rotary parking, that's during the art festival, and it's, I mean, I have major concerns about this. |
| 00:40:12.35 | Jill Hoffman | It's a question period. So do you have any other questions on it? |
| 00:40:14.69 | Linda Pfeiffer | I do have more questions, but I'll |
| 00:40:15.60 | Jill Hoffman | but I'll yield to the council. Okay. Well, we'll go around that for you. Sure. |
| 00:40:16.03 | Jill Hoffman | you |
| 00:40:16.36 | Linda Pfeiffer | to the council. |
| 00:40:16.87 | Jill Hoffman | Okay. Ed or Deb or whoever, Adam, what are the projections for the costs, for the salaries you're going to pay? And by the way, how many volunteers do you have? Because I know it's a mix of volunteers and paid workers. |
| 00:40:35.57 | Adam Politzer | Let me take the first question if Dr. Fouch wants to follow up, that's fine, or Deb. But the initial cost projected for the ambassadors, for the actual people on the street, the 12 people on the street, and depending on what happens with pre-selling or selling all of the parking on site, we're looking at 12 people. That's roughly about $110,000 for that cost. And the way to look at that is the Chamber of Commerce right now is working. with the Blue and Gold Ferry and the rental companies and they roughly get $45,000 from the rental companies and Blue and Gold Ferry. And they are funding four people, so three times that is close to this dollar amount that we're talking about, $150,000. There's some administrative costs, of course, you have to have people supervising, managing. There's administrative aid costs, there's the paperwork, and then there's equipment. So right now where we're very comfortable is $150,000 is not to exceed, and that includes all of those costs. We hope, as Deb has demonstrated in the month of May under the initial contract, that we won't spend $150,000 in cost and that if we are successful with additional volunteers and if the weather is not perfect we're not going to have people there until 6 o'clock at night standing out in the wind and the foul weather so those costs could go down. |
| 00:42:07.13 | Ed Fotch | If I could just add to that, one of the challenges with any startup is anticipating what your expenses will be and, of course, your revenue as well. And at least from our standpoint as the bike coalition, the envisioned role of the ambassadors has expanded relatively dramatically over quite a short period of time. They weren't envisioned to be ticket takers frankly they weren't envisioned initially to be bike parkers But as the options for creating revenue to cover the cost of the ambassadors shrunk pretty much down to Tracy Way, there was no other way to run a fee-based parking than have the ambassadors do it. Now, that alone, I happen to know this, and my wife's, as usual, much closer to details, added four full-time people during the parking. And actually now I think if they're going to actually be selling the tickets, that would add another three people. So I just encourage the council to understand |
| 00:42:48.32 | Unknown | than it would be. |
| 00:43:08.72 | Ed Fotch | that the city's never done this before, irrespective of who runs it. And so I think you're going to have to anticipate some latitude in your financials, both in terms of the income and the expenses. And lastly, I know I can speak. for my wife on this, if the city has someone else to step up, do this. We would really like to hear about it straight away. Thank you. |
| 00:43:33.61 | Linda Pfeiffer | I think there might be someone in the audience who will step up and take that. |
| 00:43:38.74 | Jill Hoffman | I have another follow-up. Ed or Deb, how many actual volunteers do you have on the team? |
| 00:43:44.84 | Deb Fotch | 10. |
| 00:43:50.84 | Deb Fotch | I'm sorry, we have currently 10 active volunteers with another three that are coming on board in the last couple of days. And at once or twice a week, we get an inquiry from someone about being a volunteer for the Sausalito Plus Ambassador Program. |
| 00:44:09.91 | Jill Hoffman | And then how many paid workers do you have right now? And then anticipating ramping up. I'm sorry. I know you answered this. |
| 00:44:15.89 | Deb Fotch | We have 14 paid ambassadors. They all run at different amounts of time during the week. Some of them can only work two days a week. Some of them work five days a week. But the goal is to have enough enough of an opportunity to have 12 people on the street every day for eight hours a day from 10 in the morning until six in the evening, staggered during the day as well, so that we accomplish the goals of the city without spending undue money. And we're to the point that was made earlier, |
| 00:44:47.90 | Unknown | without. |
| 00:44:52.98 | Deb Fotch | and Tom Theodorus knows this from running into us one afternoon when it was quite cold and windy. and there were no bikes coming in, and at 3.30 I shut it down, because there was no reason to spend any more money. |
| 00:45:00.22 | Unknown | Mm-hmm. |
| 00:45:08.05 | Deb Fotch | And that is the manner in which we're conducting this opportunity. Okay, thanks. Thank you. |
| 00:45:14.07 | Jill Hoffman | Thanks. |
| 00:45:14.36 | Deb Fotch | Thank you. |
| 00:45:18.56 | Unknown | Yeah, actually, as Charles is here, I'm wondering if I could follow up on the earlier questioning about parking spaces, and could you follow through with the basic question of, I think it was $275,000 from your graph of metered parking revenue. How many parking spots do we have? What's the average over the course of a year for a spot? What's the, you know? Right. We're talking. |
| 00:45:33.01 | Unknown | Thank you. |
| 00:45:33.16 | Jeffrey Chase | Bye. |
| 00:45:33.24 | Unknown | Bye. |
| 00:45:36.95 | Jeffrey Chase | Thank you. |
| 00:45:37.02 | Jonathon Goldman | So, |
| 00:45:41.66 | Jonathon Goldman | Spall What's up? Right, we're talking about parking lot one, spaces within parking lot one. And you can see here the annual revenue last year was a peak of $850,000, came from parking lot one. There's 170 spaces in parking lot one, and if you do the math, it comes down to $13.69 per day for one parking space. |
| 00:46:07.36 | Unknown | And what about Tracy Way though? The meters, are those the same, run on the same system? I've forgotten. Yes, they're all on parking lot one. They're all on parking lot one. So if it's 13, let's finish up the calculation. If it's on average 13 bucks a day, and you've got 11 spaces for how many months do we close this down? Four or five. |
| 00:46:13.62 | Jonathon Goldman | Yes, they're all on parking lot one. They're all on parking lot one. |
| 00:46:23.53 | Jonathon Goldman | 11. |
| 00:46:31.59 | Unknown | What's the loss of single space revenue from Tracy Way? |
| 00:46:34.75 | Jonathon Goldman | space revenue from Tracy way we did the math in the hallways about $22,000 |
| 00:46:39.26 | Unknown | So a loss of $22,000 potentially can yield $250,000 in revenue? That's correct. Okay, thanks. |
| 00:46:44.40 | Jonathon Goldman | That's correct. |
| 00:46:46.09 | Unknown | . |
| 00:46:48.94 | Linda Pfeiffer | Yeah, so my question was just to understand the amount of revenue that we were losing, because we were talking about initially sending that $250,000 completely to the Ambassador Program. So now, and now we're looking at 150 grand. No, that was never the intention. |
| 00:47:03.93 | Jill Hoffman | No, that was never the intention. |
| 00:47:05.16 | Linda Pfeiffer | Well, I'm looking back at April 21st, so... |
| 00:47:15.22 | Linda Pfeiffer | It's... |
| 00:47:15.54 | Jill Hoffman | Thank you. Thank you. We wanna give at least our numbers Thank you. |
| 00:47:19.70 | Linda Pfeiffer | It's 150,000 I see in the staff report this time. |
| 00:47:21.41 | Jill Hoffman | DEFINITELY. Okay, but we are collecting more than that, and that goes to other enforcement mechanisms and other parts of enforcing bikes. It's not only ambassadors that we get that for. So we're at a question. |
| 00:47:34.52 | Linda Pfeiffer | Yeah, I have a question. I noticed that on page three, it talks about ambassadors selling fee parking tickets at Ambassador Station. And that's, I think, at the Alexander East Road-Fort Baker intersection. I'm concerned about congestion and backup and turning that table into a sales spot. And I was wondering if there has been any consideration regarding congestion and turning that into a place where people stand in line to buy parking tickets. |
| 00:48:14.90 | Adam Politzer | We are asking the council to give us as much latitude and flexibility as possible. We absolutely share the same concern. We do not want to create a dangerous condition. Police Department absolutely doesn't want us to create a dangerous situation. and nor do the ambassadors want to put people in a dangerous condition. As we continue dialogue with the rental bike companies and other interested parties, look at potential apps so that people can pay on their smartphones, we are going to try to reduce as many obstacles for people to get there parking tickets in advance so that when they arrive at Tracy way, they are ready to just park their bike. and enjoy the town. So we're asking the council to give us flexibilities in case we have to use smartphones and squares. And we see sites. Throughout town that that might work than we were using but right now we feel pretty confident that working with the bicycle companies and with our current operation that we are working through the details that we'll be able to do it without selling at Alexander Avenue. But if we feel that there's an opportunity there we want that latitude. |
| 00:49:31.23 | Jill Hoffman | I'd recommend unless we have that we open it up to public comment at this point. We have further council questions. We can do that. Can I get the list? |
| 00:49:31.35 | Adam Politzer | THE FAMILY. |
| 00:49:40.61 | Jill Hoffman | Mm-hmm. Okay, and I'll just start off and R.A. Freeman. We're taking it randomly. Thank you, sir. |
| 00:49:53.42 | Unknown | . |
| 00:49:55.76 | Robert Freeman | Thank you. You pay the price for coming in late. It's Robert Freeman. I've been here before, and I don't want to go over plowed ground, but I still have mixed emotions on the whole program, and I understand a lot of people put a lot of work into it, and I'd like to make sure that if it happens, it happens right, and we don't get a black eye for the town. I'm still very concerned that if we have people there that are passing information to people, whether if they are going right and we don't get a black eye for the town. I'm still very concerned that if we have people there that are passing information to people unless they've been trained as a concierge or whatever to know what really is in the town and what's in the various businesses, it's kind of it sounds like a rough road to start with. That all will improve with time, I'm sure. I worry also about the way giving these people the idea they're going to with time, I'm sure. I worry also about the way, giving these people the idea they're gonna collect money with cash, I'm in a kind of a cash business there myself and one for me and one for the bartender, et cetera. It kind of works the same way. If you're the guy collecting money in the street, I'd like to believe everyone's honest, but I don't understand exactly how that works. I also wonder if it has to have a fence around Tracy Way. Otherwise, people will just come in from the other end. When it gets busy there on a weekend, I don't believe any number of people can defend the fort, so to speak. People will be coming in from every direction. I would throw my hands in the air if I was the person trying to control it. Anyway, I just see a lot of problems with it and obviously you can't figure out what the problems are until you do it. So I'm more than happy to say let's move forward and give it a go to try to make a better situation of what we have. But I really don't want the town to get a black eye. I mean, against bicycles. You know, the latest article in the Chronicle the other day, San Francisco taking out 1,500 parking places there and people going to bikes. When people are going to bike over from San Francisco, they're not going to be a local resident, so they won't qualify. Uh, for the free place. Anyway, I just see all these little tripwires and I know that to solve those ahead of time is almost impossible, but I just would hate like heck to see us on the front page of the papers and national news that Sausalito, the beautiful old town, is taking a step into the dark ages. Thank you. |
| 00:51:59.17 | Unknown | the free |
| 00:52:21.51 | Robert Freeman | Thank you. |
| 00:52:22.04 | Jill Hoffman | Rob, I'm sorry, I think it's Schwartz. |
| 00:52:31.59 | Unknown | We'll see. Okay. |
| 00:52:36.91 | Unknown | Hi, thanks. I'm the owner of one of the hated bike rental companies in San Francisco. And first of all, I want to thank you guys because I was here about three weeks ago. I haven't been to any of the city council meetings since then. And this proposal is far different than what we were discussing then, and it's much more friendly. A couple of things. One is I just heard that we're considering instituting this tomorrow. Is that correct? Is that? So one thing I want to recommend is that the bike rental companies have a little bit of time. Herb is shaking, saying no, that's not the case. Because for it to work smoothly, we'll need to train our staff. So to make it work smoothly on both ends both in the city and here I also want to recommend that we keep the verbiage with regard to the latitude about the fee schedule there's there's a difference of opinion among among the bike rental companies about about pre selling as. And we want to avoid the appearance that we're making a profit, $3 versus $2, whether someone pre-sells or buys here in the city. So a flat fee, it would be preferable actually. So anyway, thanks for considering this as is and the direction that we've come from three weeks ago. |
| 00:54:04.74 | Adam Politzer | Yes. I just want to clarify the, as much as we would like to start collecting money tomorrow, If you approve this tonight, we can't actually start setting up the structure or even printing tickets without your approval because if you denied it tonight, We just wasted city money. resources. We absolutely believe it's going to take at least seven to ten days for us to be up and operating. But without you pressing the green light tonight, We can't do any of our own infrastructure, let alone the bike companies as just suggested doing theirs on their end. Thanks for that, Claire. |
| 00:54:39.03 | Jill Hoffman | Patricia Pigman, please. |
| 00:54:51.62 | Patricia Pigman | Thank you. Good evening. I live at 59 Alexander Avenue. And I'm a member of the bike and pedestrian committee. And I want to start off by saying we owe a huge thank you to Ed Fotch for thinking up the Ambassador Program. doing trials last summer, and then to Deb Fotch, who was willing to implement it, interviewing people for either volunteers or paid positions, training them, getting all the equipment, a huge job. And because my house is located where it is, I can really tell you the difference between the days that there's an ambassador program and the days that there aren't. People ride their bikes on the sidewalk. when we don't have the ambassador program. And on the days we do, there's no riding bikes on the sidewalk, and most bikers are going single file. And when they were doing the spring trials this year, I was out on my deck and someone fell off their bike and I just happened to see it. And within a minute, there was an ambassador there. with a walkie-talkie so this program is working um i just can imagine what the downtown would be like if we don't do some kind of parking um oh and sunday night i was with some friends and they didn't know i was on the bike committee and they were telling me about a neighbor They didn't even know the name of the program. They said she is so enthusiastic about this program that she volunteers for. it's not only good for bikers, but it's community building. So, I really, really would encourage you to implement it. I think Sausalito's very lucky to have Ed and Deb. and their willingness to spend a lot of time and energy to make this program work. |
| 00:57:13.84 | Jill Hoffman | Thank you. Thanks, Patricia. Una Kavanaugh. And after that will be K. Mitzel. So if we can line up and then Rebecca Woodbury. So if we could have people line up afterwards, we can move this along. Thanks. |
| 00:57:28.82 | Una Kavanagh | Hello, I'm Una Kavanagh, the CEO of the Sausalito Chamber of Commerce. Over the past three years, the Sausalito Chamber has been working closely with the Sausalito Police Department, Golden Gate Ferry and the bike rental companies to help to control and manage bike congestion at the ferry landing. And our overall goal has been to improve the quality of the experience for both the visitor and the residents. So to achieve that goal, we've done a number of things. We've reorganized our kiosk, so we now have trained and paid staff down there. We have also the Chamber of Commerce, along with the Sausalito Police Department, have helped set up and manage a bike ferry reservation system. to help manage bike parking and bike boarding on the ferry. The program was totally funded by Blue and Gold Ferry and six of the bike rental companies. and the bike rental companies contributed $45,000 over a six-month period. I know that for a fact because I took the money in and paid the staff. The general consensus was that the program was successful. We had to make some changes along the line, but it was overall pretty successful. This year, just before this program, I actually got the bike rental companies and Blue and Gold to agree to finance that program again. But we aren't aware. that we need to keep on making changes. and I am in support, or the chamber is in support of the Ambassador Programme, We think it's great. We thank Ed and his Wife Deb, they're doing a stellar job. I know what it takes to run a program like this, and it's no easy task. So we also understand that to get the right people, yes, you can get volunteers, but you also have to pay people. So I know that. So I, understand that you have to raise funding and I'm pleased that city, that the city have revised their proposal and that the parking fee is more reasonable. We feel that $3 here in Sausalito is reasonable. We also, as a chamber, wanted to see the fact that there is free parking available nearby and that the residents do not have to pay a parking fee. So I acknowledge the fact that the city from three weeks ago have made those changes to the proposal, and we support the proposal. I will make a couple of caveats that I think are very important. We now have three sets of staff working at the ferry landing, and I'm sort of involved with two sets. At our last meeting with the Chief of Police and with Deb Fotch and Golden Gate, I did request that each of those parties produce a list of responsibilities and that we share that so that we can work together and rather than overlapping duties. I also would like to see proper training. There will be overlap of duties, and even though the bike ambassadors are there to help people park their bike, they'll be asked the odd question too, and I'd like to see some training, and thirdly, The funding is coming from the visitors, and I hope none of us know in this room how much we're going to raise from this, but if there's excess funding, I'd like that to be going back to provide better service to those visitors. So I'd like to make sure it's transparent, and I'm sure City Council will do that too. But in essence, the Chamber supports it, but with those three caveats. Thank you. Thank you. Kay Mitzel. |
| 01:01:22.02 | Kay Mitzel | Hello, Mayor and Council Members. I'm Kay Mitzel. I live at 119 Sacramento Avenue. I've lived in Sausalito since the late 70s. And I'm unfortunately not totally prepared to speak tonight to some of these items, but I felt it was important to stand up here and acknowledge what's going on with this process. Again, I'm a little concerned, as some other people have expressed, that there hasn't, again, been to me a lot of transparency about what's going on with this. I will mention that I did contact Deb Fouch and volunteered as a non-paid volunteer. and have not heard anything back. I don't know why. But I did call and say that I would be happy to help some volunteers or paid volunteers that might not know the town as well as I do. And I also think that there should be other options looked at to not just accommodate parking the bikes, but getting the bikes out of the town. It's not in our best interest to just accommodate more bikes and closing more streets and losing more parking spaces. So that's all I have to say for now, but I'm sure there's a lot more to come. Thank you. |
| 01:02:32.98 | Jill Hoffman | Thank you. Rebecca Woodbury. |
| 01:02:37.59 | Rebecca Woodbury | Good evening, Council. My name is Rebecca Woodbury, and I have been volunteering with the Ambassadors one measly day a week. but I've been covering Station 4, and it's been a delight. It's been so much fun. I've really only heard positive comments from locals that I've talked to along the way and also very appreciative comments from the visitors that are coming. So I felt a lot of pride not just in being able to see Sausalito for its beauty during those hours, but also a lot of pride being part of such a positive and welcoming program. So I've really enjoyed that. I think it's such a blessing that tourism is arriving here by bike instead of car. And so I think that this program is just such a great opportunity to stimulate our local economy and to encourage cycling in our community. So I look forward to future investments in making biking and walking safer for tourists and for locals in our community. And I especially love the idea of examining other locations for bike parking throughout the city. So I fully support this program, and I look forward to volunteering again next weekend. |
| 01:03:55.52 | Jill Hoffman | Thank you, Rebecca. David Suto, Norman, I think it's Pierce, Pierce, and then Tammy Blanchard, next three. |
| 01:04:11.18 | David Sudo | David Sudo. First, I'd like to really thank Deb Fotch for leading this program. You know, it's a big program to run as a volunteer, and I think it's been fairly successful right now. I also would like to thank, I'm not sure what her name is, but the English lady who's been hanging out at Station 1 on the weekends. Every time I pass, I see her enthusiastically greeting the visitors, and I'm sure that, you know, it's just a really positive, you know, presents a really positive view on Sausalito. If you haven't seen her there, you should drive by on the weekends and see her. She's just really, you know, really enthusiastic. And, you know, I see this proposal as much better compromised than the previous plan. I'm still not entirely happy with it. I would really like to see us find ways to provide parking downtown. I can kind of maybe park downtown on the weekend on the street in front of shops, but right now I can't take my bike legally and ride downtown and park anywhere. So that seems a little bit out of balance. I would also say that people say, oh, we're taking away parking spots, and except for the revenue, I don't see that as a big problem on the weekends because you really can't, as a resident, count on any of those spots being open to use on a weekend. So... You know, they're always full all the time, and you can circle for half an hour trying to find a spot. So, again, I would really like us to find a solution to find places to park downtown besides those lots that are closer to places, you know, despite what people think. Some people actually, residents go to Lappert's and Starbucks during the week and on the weekends. and like I said there's no way to park a car there so unless you're willing to walk all the way down there to Lappert's and Starbucks during the week and on the weekends. And like I said, there's no way to park a car there, so unless you're willing to walk all the way down there and back, that's, you know, bicycles make a great alternative. |
| 01:06:17.06 | Jill Hoffman | Thank you. |
| 01:06:17.08 | Norman Pierce | Thanks, David. Norman? |
| 01:06:19.90 | David Sudo | Thank you. |
| 01:06:19.91 | Norman Pierce | Good evening. Council. I'm Norman Pierce and I'm pretty new to the community about three years now, but I like what's going on in this town. I've lived in San Francisco for 35 years and your programs that you are proposing right now for this bicycle issue is far far superior and more advanced than anything I've seen in the Bay Area lately. And being a business owner in town It's been nothing but positive for me. I'm sorry. The bicyclists come in. the They mentioned the ambassadors, A lot of them say it's really nice to have seen a friendly face because coming down that hill and having somebody warn you and talk to you and welcoming to Sausalito makes them feel accepted. they're not strangers in a strange land. So it's a very positive thing all in all for the whole community. and for businesses too. They're much more relaxed. I like the fact that they're going to have valet parking because it gives that bicycle owner to be able to walk away from their bicycle and visit and, quote, spend money in my store and other people's stores. without having to stand by their bicycle in line for two and a half hours. It just you know. They rode across the bay. they got into our city and they got jammed up and they'd like to go see what's going on. But they can't leave their bike. for two hours trying to get on the ferry. With this system, it allows us pedestrians to get out there. So it's been a very positive thing for Sausalito I think you're lucky to have Ed and Deborah be involved in this. I've been a businessman. serial entrepreneur for about 40 years. These are high level business people. they have taken a project and they've taken it apart, dissected it, re-put it together, and you have a high level of a potentially successful business opportunity Not just nonprofit. People don't think nonprofit. profits of business. They are. And they've got to be run like a business, and they've got to be run professional. And they put the professional hook into this thing. to make it work. At one of the meetings I've had with them, they talked about Project Crete My feeling is, We get it together this season on this. This project creep will grow into more positive things For not just. the businesses in town and the bicyclists, but the whole community. You think about the black eye we may get I don't think we're going to get a black eye. We're going to be an example. They're going to come, the press is going to come and talk about these ambassadors. I know when I travel in other countries, in little small towns, they have little people that greet you. We have that here. Um, |
| 01:09:07.21 | Norman Pierce | Per the San Francisco visitor wanting to pay, I live in San Francisco. If I come to Sausalito over that bridge, over that car, I'm a tourist like everybody else. I don't expect to be treated as a resident of this community. I'm going to pay. I charge between $2 and $3 for a soda. Okay, and they, no problem. paying three bucks for Parking? Nothing. They pay twice that much for ice cream. So I support this. I think the best thing is to move forward as fast as you can. I'm sorry. I've got other business people that want to participate in this. I stepped up when I saw these poor people standing on the sidewalk, and nobody has any water to them. So I started delivering water to them every week. I think that energy is going to spread. It's going to grow. And it's going to grow the spirit of Sausalito. Thank you. |
| 01:09:59.49 | Jill Hoffman | Thank you. |
| 01:10:00.13 | Norman Pierce | All right. |
| 01:10:00.67 | Jill Hoffman | Thank you. him. |
| 01:10:02.02 | Unknown | . |
| 01:10:02.18 | Jill Hoffman | Thank you. |
| 01:10:02.21 | Unknown | Thank you. Tammy? Hi, I'm Tammy Blanchard, resident of Sausalito, and I am actually very much for the ambassador program. I think we need the paid parking. I'm for that. I think that a lot of people are just a little concerned about the relationship between the chair and the director. And I think if it was a little bit more in the open, if we knew what the breakdown of the fees were. And Deb, if you're doing this all from the bottom of your heart, I mean, my hat's off to you because that's a lot of work. in the open if we knew what the breakdown of the fees were. And Deb, if you're doing this all from the bottom of your heart, I mean, my hat's off to you because that's a lot of work. My concern is that it really doesn't fit with what the residents want in terms of we're promoting parking and riding the ferry. which means more bikes on the ferry. And we just went through many, many months and lots of hours of public hearing saying that what we'd really like to do is move the bikes out of town in another way. So obviously this program was put on a fast track. And they're ready to roll it out, and that's great. But there's somebody else in this room who has an alternative to this, or at least something that could work in conjunction with it. that no one's listening to. And that's Liam Bigelow. He's presented you with a business plan. He's ready to go right now. He's got three trailers. He can pull out 30,000 bikes a month. and take them back. I think we should also put that on a fast track. And the only other thing I'd like to say is this is a pilot program and I'm for it. In fact, I'm thinking about volunteering myself. Thank you. Thank you. We have to look at all options. I wanted to say one other thing that just escaped me. So I would hope, oh, I know. I would really like it if we would look at this, rather than doing a whole six-month program, I think we should talk about it once a month. Here, let us know how it's going. How is the community taking this? Are we making money? Is the, are people safer? Is the money that we're putting towards this program really paying off, rather than just signing off on a six month deal? So I would like you to consider that and consider easy bike take out. All right, thank you for your time. |
| 01:12:22.05 | Jill Hoffman | Thanks, Tammy. I'm sorry. Glest? I'm sorry if I missed your name. Gulls. And then Lambros, Sirmos, next. Next. |
| 01:12:36.30 | Karen Gullst | Hi, my name is Karen Gullst. I live on Alexander, and you can just imagine as a native from the Netherlands that biking is near and dear to my heart, and so I'm very passionate about this particular situation. I'm very excited about the Fautjes, and I find it's commendable that they've taken upon themselves initiate this program and have seen certainly and observed all of their efforts. However, specifically what I would like to talk about is some of my concerns as it relates to that stretch of road on Alexander Ave and the serious bottlenecks and issues that I've experienced there. And specifically to that effect, I've submitted a packet that includes a PowerPoint presentation along with a Word documentation. for your consideration. where you might be able to see some of the pictures that I've taken over the past two months, illustrating some of these hazardous issues specifically. I'm a little bit concerned when I hear a budget like this, that 30% of that budget, the way I see it, is being spent on that, once again, small stretch of Alexander Ave, where we have no sidewalks. We are sharing the roads, but whether it's a pedestrian or a bus or other vehicles, we are all kind of squished in there in the tiny, tiny little stretch of road. So I'm concerned about that. Specifically, I raised six questions. How were the locations for the bike ambassadors established, and were they in fact evaluated in terms of safety and other hazards? Um... How were they even considered in the first place and by whom? I'm not sure. Who is responsible and or liable for any potential expanded liability as it relates to accidents occurring to the ambassadors and cones, by the way, that are falling into the roads, I've noticed, and that are documented. Um, forcing traffic across double yellow lines, as I'm again documenting in my PowerPoint presentation. The other question of course is, you know, I mean, we're a democracy, I mean, are other bids being considered? Are other practices being considered? Is this our only option? Might there be more potential for volunteers, as Linda Pfeiffer has suggested? I don't know. And then Last but not least, in terms of the questions that I'm raising, Are there specific staff reports as it relates to these? Thank you. |
| 01:15:21.99 | Jill Hoffman | Thank you. |
| 01:15:26.11 | Lambros Sermos | Hello, my name is Lambros Sermos, and I'm not a resident of Sausalito, but my mom is. And I've just gotten off school, and I've been here for two weeks, and I've noticed the ambassador program as I live right outside of it or part-time live. And so I've come up with two questions that I'd like to ask. Was the bike club members in Marin consulted about the ambassador program? And also, what qualifications does the staff have? And will these qualifications be posted online? Thank you. I yield my time to the floor. |
| 01:15:59.40 | Jill Hoffman | Thank you. |
| 01:16:02.74 | Jill Hoffman | That's I have no other speaker cards would anyone else like to speak who hasn't and please stand in line and I if we could have speaker cards, but just let's go online and hi Jeff. |
| 01:16:15.03 | Jeffrey Chase | blazing saddles since our May 8th meeting with the city manager this plan has gotten become more favorable towards for that most of the bike rental companies and I've seen a lot of collaboration that's been real positive it's still unfortunate that the official policy as far as I'm concerned, was told to reduce the amount of bicycles entering Sausalito. I don't think that's a good mission statement for town, and I think that is really my main concern about this entire proposal. I definitely think that the ambassador program is a needed service, and I also think that the revenue generated and lost by the displacement of cars during the season when bikes are using Tracy Way should be reimbursed, and I also feel that a certain amount of paid parking would be fair also. What I'm really concerned about is the amount. I feel $3 is too much. I think it needs to really, the valet parking needs to really stand on its own and when people arrive in town, they need to feel that this is a really value service and one of my main concerns is that if it isn't affordable, that people will decide to, rather than stay, just get into the ferry line. So I think when people get to town, I think it needs to be a no-brainer that the $2 fee that I think should be the max on site for parking, for valley parking, I think that will be really attractive and I think that will create an environment where people will be able to make a quick decision that it's a value and they will pull in and pay their $2. And I could only go that high for the parking as far as us being able to support it at Blazing Saddles. In addition, I feel that the fees that we contributed last year to help with the ferry service should be combined with the revenue generated from the parking and going to one fund that would support the ambassador program, and that would also include the staff at the ferry. I really feel that the ferry staff needs to be wearing the same uniforms and be under the same management as the Ambassador Program, excluding the Golden Gate Recreation, the ferry company that's currently on staff now. Thank you. |
| 01:19:25.31 | Wendy Richards | Hi, Wendy Richards. I came to listen tonight and I'm really excited to hear all the energy around this solution and to have the bike companies here being part of the solution and to hear the good news from the chamber. I think it's all very good news. I am concerned about integrity and transparency, as you know from my previous comments on other issues. And I'd like to offer a couple of suggestions. First of all, the contract itself is very vague about responsibilities. It's simply a staffing contract, right? that there shall be these many people at these locations. And the only other task in the contract is that the bike flow shall be improved. I think it's not too difficult to add a few other words that we can actually use to measure the results of the program. that are in the contract, that are clear responsibilities, that we then have data that we get from the team and they come back and they report on the data, and it's in the contract and it's agreed upon. Secondly, it would be very simple to add a clause to the contract that requires public audit of the books. That would solve the transparency issue. It's a common thing in these sorts of public contracts. It would allow our staff at the end of the period to determine whether to do in-house, whether to continue, whatever, and it would take away all this issue of transparency, if it is transparent. um, And thirdly, I agree with a point that was made earlier by Tammy, which is I do believe we definitely need midterm check-in points before the end of the contract. And that needs to be reflected in the contract as well. And we need to have these kinds of meetings because if our the owners of the bike companies are coming here with new information or if the chamber is finding out at the booth that it's too much money, or if, in fact, people aren't using it and the bikes are piling up some other location, which they'll only be the ones to figure out, We need to know that, and we need to make those corrections midstream. So those are my three suggestions. Thank you. |
| 01:21:46.03 | Alicia O'Loughlin | Good evening, Alicia O'Loughlin, Marin County Bicycle Coalition. I sent out a letter, a comment letter, earlier this afternoon. Hopefully everyone received it, so I'm gonna make my comments a little brief, but MCBC fully supports the recommendations on the table. We would like to thank you for going back to the table with the stakeholders and really trying to readdress possible ways to work around the situation downtown and to come up with some creative solutions. We particularly like the addition of free parking downtown in lots 3 and 4 or wherever they end up being, some sort of bike corral in the ferry terminal vicinity, as well as free bicycle parking at Tracy Way for Marin County residents. We love the ambassadors program, can't say enough about it. I think it's long overdue and it's a huge asset for the city of Sausalito and funding that program and keeping it rolling is very forward-thinking and positive approach to many of the city's needs. So we, again, just want to support the recommendations on the table, and thank you for bringing it to this point. |
| 01:22:54.66 | Jill Hoffman | Thanks, Lisa. Peter. |
| 01:22:58.02 | Peter van Meter | Peter Van Meter, I support you going ahead with this program and the program to have maximum flexibility for staff as you evolve. But I will say this, sharing experience from Rotary Parking, we have volunteers collecting cash and handing out tickets you need to have absolute accounting controls over numbers of tickets issued versus cash And in order to have that program be successful, which it has been for decades now, The cash is picked up and the tickets are counted like every 15 minutes. So if you're going to administer people, ambassadors selling tickets with cash out on the street somewhere, You've got safety issues to be concerned with, particularly in a remote location. Keep that flexibility in the program, but I would, on the surface, go kind of against that concept. Secondly, I think it's absolutely essential in this program to have the bike companies collect the fee at point of rental. So a ticket is issued to the bike rider at the time that they depart for Sausalito because, in my opinion, you're going to have chaos if you're trying to collect fees at the bike rental station. People arriving here will not have cash. They won't have the way to pay. There's got language problems. You've got the administration of cash collections at the point of parking of that rental. So great. Collect that fee from the rental company, have that apply to the rental bikes, and do the best you can then with the ones that are not within that part of the program. Thank you. |
| 01:24:23.38 | Jill Hoffman | Thank you, Peter. |
| 01:24:28.17 | Mike Soray | I'm Mike Soray. I'm a 30-year resident of Saucedo, and I ride my bike to work in the city of San Francisco. And I just want to make sure that the interest of the Saucedo bike riders are number one, especially when it gets to getting on that ferry or moving around downtown. Now, I commend all the programs that have been announced tonight. I think everybody's made great progress of trying to come up with solutions, and I think great progress has been made. I hope everyone keeps pushing forward, and I think great progress has been made. I hope everyone keeps pushing forward. I appreciate when Herb's been down there at the ferry and sees me running late for a meeting and flags me up and gets me out of the ferry. But sometimes I feel like you're running a gauntlet. You go past all the other tourists, and they kind of look at you like, what's going on here? So I don't know what the rules really are or how clear they are, but I'd like to make sure that if you are living in Sausalito and are working in San Francisco and you have to go to a meeting, that you are not back at the end of the line, or being bullish and jumping up the headline and getting a lot of black eyes, as Bob would say, for the people in town. So I'm not sure really what the policy is. If there is such a policy that a social resident with, I guess, a transit card can go up to the head of the line and get on the ferry and get to work, I'd appreciate you considering that as well. |
| 01:25:46.75 | Herb Weiner | You better hope that I'm still down there. |
| 01:25:47.02 | Mike Soray | YOU BETTER. |
| 01:25:48.95 | Herb Weiner | Thank you. |
| 01:25:49.51 | Maria | Thank you. |
| 01:25:50.85 | Herb Weiner | Yes. |
| 01:25:51.73 | Maria | Hi, my name's Maria. I was actually not planning on speaking, but I live on 26 Alexander. So right on the curve. And I am tired of picking up tourists from my yard. I am tired of going outside handing out band-aids because they're coming down the hill It's not expected. The cop literally sits in my driveway, gives cars that stop tickets, but he doesn't give the bicyclists tickets, and he still lets them ride on the bike, even when they have been out there. And so I don't. I think the program is great, but I mean, I see the cop and he just sits there, gives tickets but not the bicyclist, doesn't tell the bicyclist to get off the sidewalk. I can see the sidewalk from my kitchen window. And I sit there and I am literally the neighborhood watch. And I see everything that happens. I am tired of them breaking my maple trees. So... It's a big issue. I mean, that stretch of sidewalk in front of my house is very slippery. I've ridden my bike and I've you know, stumbled on it. So now I've blocked my bike because it's very slippery. And I tell those people, Don't ride the bikes on sidewalks. They don't listen. They don't care. So that's my concern. And I do call, I don't call 911, but I do call the police and they tell me, well, what do you want me to do? I'm just letting you know that somebody landed in my yard. Again, So. That's my concern. |
| 01:27:15.77 | Jill Hoffman | Thank you. Anyone else? Okay. Dr. Fotch, or... funny. |
| 01:27:26.33 | Bonnie | Good evening, I'm Bonnie McGregor, long time resident of Sausalito and other places now. I think the program sounds wonderful. I understand that there'll be variations and |
| 01:27:26.40 | Jill Hoffman | Thank you. EVENING. |
| 01:27:37.74 | Bonnie | Options are staying open to evaluate and make the proper changes. I won't go into the details of some of the things I've seen around the city, but I'm bicycling. My biggest concern is something to sort of corral the people I've given the nickname of spandroids. They continue to mostly, totally ignore the rules of the road. I've been tapped three times by them as I'm standing in the crosswalk waiting for the light to cross the street at Bridgeway and Princess Street. And they come screaming north into the city. They do not, they run the lights, And they see me step out, because I've got the green light, and don't stop. I mean, that's one sidewalk to the other. I've been hit three times. A dear friend of mine, Stacy Frazier, was knocked down and broke some ribs by one of them, and he proceeded to swear at her. Fortunately, he got arrested. But I don't know what the solution to that is, but I have an idea, but of course it won't fly. I wanna get paint guns. Thank you. And label them. But it is an issue that is every time I cross and a bicycle does stop, I make sure I thank them profusely for obeying the rules. I hope this program really works out, but we do need to address the other. |
| 01:29:04.43 | Jill Hoffman | Thanks, Bonnie. |
| 01:29:08.31 | Ed Fotch | Edward? Thank you, Mr. Mayor. If I could ask for just a bit of latitude, because I want to respond to some of the questions or comments. I tell you, we really appreciate the enthusiasm around bike-related issues because we have a pedestrian and bike committee every third Wednesday And until quite recently, we were the Maytag repairman. We were just by ourselves there kicking around ideas. We've had a few more folks of late, but I can tell you we've had Seven resolutions that we have passed and it went to the City Council and the City Council is taking action on every one So I don't think it's just an empty bag to come down to our meetings and I really encourage you to do that Secondly, there's been a number of comments about staging and staging is not on the agenda tonight, but it is on our agenda. THE CITY IS A LITTLE BIT. which will be a week from Monday. So if you're interested in staging, that would be a heck of a good time There was a question about insurance. So Osloido Plus carries, couple million dollar insurance policy as they have to. If a volunteer is injured, they're covered by the city's insurance and Saucelotl Plus. If it's a paid volunteer, I think it's just Saucelotl Plus. locations of the ambassadors, really came from the pedestrian bike committee. We piloted this, but like many things, this is flexible. And we really need to see what works best. One of the problems is where the biggest problem is, the biggest congestion, that's where you need an ambassador. And if the ambassadors aren't good, it adds to congestion, but if they're good, it can subtract from the congestion. The training material will be posted online shortly, Saucyutal Plus's website, southsadalplus.org. Speaking for my wife and I, we don't need anything. Volunteers is really what we need. I've heard over the past several weeks that the Ambassador Program is essential, impossible, and can be handled by a handful of volunteers. It's hard to believe it could be all those things, but I think it's closer to impossible, which is why I'm glad my wife's doing it, because she's capable of those kinds of things. I want to thank the Marin Bike Coalition, really helpful. From the council, I can't stress enough, this is a startup business. You're going to need a lot of latitude on this. From the city folks from my... fellow citizens, encouragement would be great, volunteering even better. I think this thing has some staying power. I think it will have scope creep. I think when you start looking at who's going to run a program down in the Fort Baker area, if we can have staging down there. I can tell you the National Park Service ain't gonna run it, So you're going to need folks to do that. If we're going to solve this problem and tame it in such a way that everybody's happy, We really need some new solutions and I think this is One, we'll see if it's successful, if there's Other solutions out there, we'd sure love to hear about it. every Monday night. on the third Monday of the month, And last, I'd just like to thank my wife. She will not be doing this next year. She will be the chief operating officer of our technology company again. But I do want to thank you, Deb, very much. |
| 01:32:20.08 | Jill Hoffman | Thank you. Okay, anyone else? All right. Seeing none, I'll close public comment and bring it back up here for comment. Who would like to start? |
| 01:32:33.54 | Linda Pfeiffer | I actually have a couple more questions. |
| 01:32:34.93 | Jill Hoffman | Okay. |
| 01:32:35.97 | Linda Pfeiffer | So some of the comments really resonated with me with regards to the questions regarding residents and the resident cyclists. And I guess my question is, and also the comment about the need to regulate the number of bikes. Like we had 1,000 bikes a day, over 30,000 in August. And the numbers keep increasing exponentially, and it's kind of unsustainable. And so the question I had is, it looked like I'm seeing municipal lots three and four for unattended seasonal free bicycle parking. So are we adding more bicycle racks here? I don't know who to direct that question. |
| 01:33:21.18 | Adam Politzer | I don't know who to direct that question. There are unused areas that you can see. Public Works has already cleared it out and put racks at the end of Lot 3, where we used to have a booth and other support areas. So there is no loss of parking, as it says in the staff report, in Lot 3. I'm sorry, just to be clear. We're adding, as the staff report says, we're adding additional bike parking that will support up to 100 bikes. |
| 01:33:43.20 | Linda Pfeiffer | No. Thank you. I'm sorry, just to be clear. |
| 01:33:55.57 | Linda Pfeiffer | Whoa. Okay. So this is what I'm concerned about. So for lots three and four, |
| 01:33:58.56 | Adam Politzer | And it says in the staff report. |
| 01:34:02.56 | Linda Pfeiffer | Cumulatively, three and four, we're going to be adding the equivalent of 100 additional spaces for bikes. |
| 01:34:12.55 | Adam Politzer | Yeah, that's roughly seven reps. |
| 01:34:12.78 | Linda Pfeiffer | It's roughly seven rounds. Okay, so, and so for Tracy Way, How many bikes approximately can Tracy Way accommodate at capacity? |
| 01:34:24.70 | Adam Politzer | The curb is probably best to answer the question, but we're looking in the neighborhood of 800 bikes. |
| 01:34:26.99 | Linda Pfeiffer | THE END OF |
| 01:34:31.69 | Linda Pfeiffer | $800. Okay, and with respect to, I'm hearing about, you know, residents can park for free on Tracy Way. If I'm a resident and I'm a commuter and I've got all these, you know, the rental bikes in front, and I don't really want to stand in line, you know, I'm not paying. Um, Are the rental bikes restricted to park in Tracy Way? Can rental bikes go to lots three and four and park free? |
| 01:35:05.32 | Adam Politzer | Yes, rental bikes can park anywhere. We can't restrict where people park, but that's why it's called valet parking to assist them. |
| 01:35:13.13 | Linda Pfeiffer | So basically, if I'm a resident, then My choices are lots three and four, but then the rental bikes can fill that up. I can't pipe my bike. |
| 01:35:31.64 | Adam Politzer | If you're a resident, you can park in Tracy Way. |
| 01:35:33.89 | Linda Pfeiffer | No, I know that, but if I'm a resident, can I also park in the bike racks three and four? Okay. I'll save my comment about that. |
| 01:35:36.45 | Adam Politzer | Yes. Yeah. |
| 01:35:38.76 | Unknown | Thank you. |
| 01:35:47.00 | Linda Pfeiffer | in for the comment period. Let's see, I had another question. |
| 01:35:56.19 | Linda Pfeiffer | Oh yeah, so some comment from a resident, Mr. Sutro, and his comment about bike racks being moved, removed downtown. I know I used to use like the rack near Starbucks as well. And so were those, I heard that those were, have been removed, have they been removed? Why are they coming? You know, can they come back? Is it because? Anyway, that's my question. |
| 01:36:26.27 | Adam Politzer | The loops or the hoops, depending on how you want to describe them, those have been removed. Don't know if it's more than six of them, roughly a handful have been removed. Residents and visitors can park before 10 o'clock for free, everybody. |
| 01:36:29.57 | Linda Pfeiffer | Yes. |
| 01:36:43.95 | Adam Politzer | So we believe that downtown for Marin County residents. Tracy Way is not that far for folks to be able to walk to their favorite cafe or restaurant or shop. Um, During the off season, we're going to evaluate if we put the hoops or loops back Right now it's our intentions to do so. Part of the reason why we made that decision was based on recommendations from and pet committee that hoops were creating as Dr. Fotz showed at a previous meeting April maybe he came in and showed pictures of multiple bikes tying up to each other on those hoops creating a hazard and block an obstacle on the sidewalk so that's part of the reason why we removed the hoops from there But it's our intention to evaluate that during the off-season when Tracy Way is back open to vehicle traffic and parking. |
| 01:37:38.73 | Linda Pfeiffer | So bottom line, you're putting the hoops back? |
| 01:37:42.88 | Adam Politzer | our intentions but we'll evaluate it when we get to the end of the season |
| 01:37:47.22 | Linda Pfeiffer | Thank you. |
| 01:37:59.43 | Jill Hoffman | No other questions? Okay. So now we'll move into comment. Council comment. Who would like to start? |
| 01:38:05.14 | Linda Pfeiffer | Yeah, I'll start. So I supported the volunteer ambassador program. I guess my concern with the whole rental bike situation is the need for a holistic solution that looks at a way to regulate the number. For example, I support charging for rental bike parking. I would like to see that point of sale is as resident Peter van meter said when they get the bike when they rent the bike. And I'd like to see some strategy. I'd like to review this a little bit more to see if we can't, you know... regulate where the rental bikes park as commercial vehicles. I want to research that a little bit more, do a legal analysis on that. I am concerned that we're in an unsustainable model. I have nothing against bikes. I own, I mean I ride, you'll see me around town a lot on my bike, and I really support the tourists, obviously. But the challenge I have is we have a situation where the rental bikes are inundating us and we just can't keep adding and adding 800 spaces at Tracy Way another hundred you know here I mean we're turned our downtown our charming downtown is turning into a bike parking lot and it just seems to me like we should be looking at a holistic solution that integrates staging and, you know, more regulation strategies than just going full on on a strategy that focuses on parking alone and adding 100 more spaces. So really, that's my concern. And also in terms of the parking itself, the bike parking, I heard the comment about the black eye. I concur about that. I know that we heard one resident say she's been hit three times. We know resident Stacy was hit once injured seriously. One of the things on my list is to get the pedestrian crosswalks downtown lighted. You can put lights that automatically light up when a pedestrian walks up. There's no mistaking. A bike must stop. All the lights go right along the ground. I'd like to see every crosswalk down there. So when I see this 250K of of which 150K is going to overhead for this, I don't know. I'd just like to review strategies for automation, automated bike parking. We've heard that the new parking system might be able to accommodate automated bike parking meters. So, you know, I just hope that by running forward in this program without fully doing a deep dive research on other things, that we're not locking ourselves into something that is going to be very hard to extract ourselves from in the future. Thank you. |
| 01:41:17.36 | Unknown | Yeah, it's worth bearing in mind that our, and I agree, beautiful, quaint downtown has a huge parking lot in the middle of it for cars. And it's time, more generally, forget the bike parking fees for a second. It's my view that throughout town, there needs to be more accommodation for bike parking. That, more than anything else, will reduce congestion. Thank you. With regards to actually the issue in front of us tonight, I agree we need to be thinking about many solutions. to reduce the congestion downtown. I've said that many times. This is one of many solutions That is being tried. Over the last number of years, Councilmember Weiner. And others have worked very hard to try things out for a season, assess whether they worked. And then if they didn't work, abandoning it. If it did work, on we go. And it becomes something you employ the following season. So with this, this is a program that's going to go for this season. And I'm fully supportive of it. If during the program it doesn't work, we'll stop it. You know, I mean, we're not stupid. If it's not working and it's not raising money and it's not reducing congestion, I think, as Deb and Ed said, common sense would say, shut it down. But it's not. It's been piloted and it's been very well received. And I think now if we couple paid parking on top of this, again, that will add to another tool to see if, again, we can reduce congestion and chaos. Because half of it's due to numbers. And I agree. I'd like to see less bikes. but half of it's due to numbers and I agree I'd like to see less bikes but half of it's also due to the management of the congestion and those are the experiments we've been trying for a number of years successfully I would say and this is another important experiment to do this season so I'm fully supportive of it |
| 01:43:42.97 | Unknown | you Anybody who's heard me talk in the last six months knows that I'm all for the handle on. And so I see this as one, like my fellow council members say, this is one method by which we do it. It's not the only method. I also said when we talk, I'm looking at everybody for solutions. So I'm not just looking for one solution. I'm also looking in this pilot program season for maximum flexibility, maximum agility, maximum stress on the target city to start or manage our plan. I'm looking for maximum transparency. So everybody that said we want to see transparency, I want transparency on all of it. I want to see a great team. They've been very agile so far. We started in one spot. Thank you. to give us that insight. I think we have a great team. They've been very agile so far. We started in one spot. I don't expect us to end up in the same spot where we're starting to try to do this. The point of all this is that it's a pilot program and it's going to evolve over time. You know, I'm unapologetic about raising revenues from assets in the city. I see parking spaces as assets in the city, and that's my responsibility to the citizens of the city to effectively manage those assets. And so we are unapologetic about charging for parking and parking in certain parts of town, certainly most of the dozen parts of town. And I see that as part of our mandate here as your city council members. the amount of money we charge that bike firm has due to experts that are involved. and I see that as part of our mandate here as your city council members. The amount of money we charge at that bike park, we have to be to experts that are involved in the future of this program, and now that's the bottom line of our city manager, and I'm comfortable with that decision. I expect that we're going to look at this as we go forward through the summer, and we're going to look at it as any good business person would, what will the market bear, and how is that being successful throughout the summer? I looked at other methods as some of the people commented to move bikes around town, and other methods by which the uh stage bikes so i look and i've said this before and i'm consistent because i'm looking at three or four of my station areas one at the south side of the bridge one at the north side of the bridge and i look to our partners very friendly to join us in this effort i look at other parts of sausalito i welcome liam to the fray liam i believe this may 15th is the next uh issues to go to the Bicomplank Committee and be around zero in the planning process. and so i i think we're we're good we're on our way um i hope we're going to go through tonight and |
| 01:46:42.02 | Herb Weiner | First of all, I want to thank Dr. Fotch and Debbie. Debbie, Deb, if it wasn't for you, this program wouldn't have gotten off the ground. And it is a success. It's working. As far as what we're doing, this has been for many years, and I got involved in this seven years ago. This is an evolving process. When we started seven years ago, we didn't have anywhere near the amount of bikes that we have now. All right. And that's a sign of the times. All right? I don't have a bike. But I certainly know that anybody that thinks the bikes are going to go away is living in a fantasy. Direction is how well do we manage it? How well do we? greet the people coming in and how safely we can get them. what they really desire to do and what is advertised. Ride over the Icon Golden Gate Bridge. and take a ride back on the second most beautiful ferry ride in the world. That's what they come over here for. And the other thing, and I've said it many times, is they're coming over to Sausalito because you can't see San Francisco from San Francisco. You have to come over here to see San Francisco. And that's why they come over, and I don't blame them, I do the same thing. As far as how it's evolved on Crazy Way, Last year was the first year that we closed it down and it was successful. Of course it's going to be, because it's adjacent to the ferry. It's the easiest and safest delivery rather than out on Bridgeway. As far as the charging goes, I think it's essential, essential that we get the bike companies to work with us. Forget the cash idea, that's ridiculous. Our idea should be that 80% of the bike rental companies now that we have been talking to now are willing to come forward to see if this can work and pay. I think what we should do is start it off at $2.00. review it after one month, to see what the numbers are. to see if that number is sufficient to support the ambassadors and pay for the 11 spaces that we use on Tracy Way. If it isn't, then we'll go up in the price. The idea first is to make sure that this is a very successful working And it will be, and thanks to the ambassadors, I'm sure it will be. I'm still down there every day observing how this flows. Once again, I told, as I mentioned, the idea is if we can get 80% of the bike companies to give them tickets that we get reimbursed when they come over. That leaves us only 20% to be able to capture, and that could be captured May I have? That could be captured in the pay station. You go up to the pay station, you put in your money for the bike and you get your ticket. You can't do it with 80% because they'll be out in the street all day. So it's very important that we get the bike companies to buy into this because it makes sense for them and it makes sense for us. One other note, last year we transported approximately Um, I believe, I think it was almost a million and a half people excuse me, a million and a half people on that ferry system. Not one person with a bike was turned away. They might have not got on the ferry time that they wanted to, but they still got on that ferry. So we're not way behind, we're not getting inundated, it's just naturally. You can't make a street any wider than you can on South Street, Richardson, those are old streets. So we're going to have to live with that. The same as we lived with that 12 years ago, when you couldn't go through downtown, because there were so many damn automobiles. It's changed. And we have to change with it. Don't stick your head in the sand. Let's keep on piloting these programs and see how they work. And as far as once again, I'll tell you, if you really look at all we hear about, the ambassadors are the ones that help maybe with the band-aids. But if you really look at the calls that come to the police department to react to accidents, At the south end of town in 2014, there were three reported accidents to the police department. Okay, thanks. |
| 01:51:32.20 | Jill Hoffman | Well, I wanna thank everyone from coming. We have a full house and we have just about every, possible bike interest here from bike companies to people. And it seems like everyone's slightly unhappy. And I think that means we have a good solution on the table here. Because we're all compromising on this. And that's true. And I think what everyone needs to know is, we've said it over and over, it's a work in progress, but I think there are two important evidence, elements, and that we're not trying to solve everything tonight. We're looking at staging in other places. We're looking at Vista everything tonight. We're looking at staging in other places. We're looking at Vista Point Road. We're looking at other safety things and possibly bringing Ways to stage bikes even in downtown. There's a lot more that we're looking at now, but we can't weight on anything. This bicycle issue is growing for us, and we have to take some measures now. I think it's and they're really too important. I haven't heard that the ambassador programs been in place and certainly we've experimented since the spring break We hear nothing but positive things. It brings the community together and it helps with the traffic flow. I think it's a really important thing that we're doing. It's a great idea. I think we have to support it, but we can't do it only on volunteers. Certainly not at this point. We now have roughly half and half. We need money. The second piece of this is collecting Bike parking. allow the bikes to pay for the ambassadors. The ambassadors are for us, but we're having the bikes pay for. And we also have something in place to start managing these things. So I think there are two important components to go forward with. Um, We understand some of the concerns of people. They want to go slower. We thought about this, but we would lose another season and maybe more. We're going to have a little heartburn, but I think we're really on the right track. I think it's important. I think we're going to make a lot of progress on this. I do want to say one more thing. One thing on the Sausalito Plus that goes in the CATEGORY OF NO GOOD DEED GOES UNPUNISHED BECAUSE WE CAME AND SAID WE NEED THIS GOING. WHO CAN DO IT? WE DIDN'T WANT TO HIRE ANYBODY. There was nothing we were doing. It was a work in progress. We couldn't put an RFP. We had Deb Fodds step up to it. We agree we're gonna have The finance is transparent. They've set up a non-profit. They put on residents on the board to watch this. We'll have their finances nonprofit. We appreciate transparent. In terms of transparency, this was at the bike and ped committee. It's been before us a few times. That's why we all know. who's running it. Deb has gotten a lot of publicity, so it's certainly very transparent, but we'll certainly have the finances transparent as well. And, um, THE FAMILY IS I think we need to be patient, but I really think we're on the right road with this thing. We have to give some flexibility to staff. While we want to bring this up here frequently, we can't argue about every 50 cents or every time we move a bike rack one way or another. We have to give them some latitude. I think the staff has done a great job I don't have time to thank everybody, but starting with Councilmember Weiner, I mean, ferry district. our police, public works, our bike and ped committee, our chamber of commerce. We've had a lot of people working on this for a long time and I think we're on the right road. So I support it. And I think we should vote for anyone want to make a motion. |
| 01:54:49.82 | Jill Hoffman | Can I make one comment? Based on what someone else has said. So I just want to make one comment about the price. I know Council Member Weiner is comfortable with two. You know, I'm comfortable with five, and I'm comfortable with north of five. And that goes back to I am unapologetically looking at this as an asset of the city and as a revenue generator. And if anybody wants to stay to the budget, and we're talking about the budget later tonight, we're going to talk about some of the unfunded things from the police department down to the parks that are on that budget. So I'm looking at it. as a revenue generator. And if anybody wants to stay to the budget, we're talking about the budget later tonight. We're going to talk about some of the unfunded things from the police department down to the parks that are on that budget. So I'm looking for sources of revenue. So that's my comment with regard to... |
| 01:54:50.23 | Jill Hoffman | Yeah. |
| 01:55:25.23 | Linda Pfeiffer | And I just want to make a quick comment too. Yeah, I certainly have long supported charging fees for bikes. It's just that I wanted the money to go to the infrastructure. Um, So I heard a couple comments from resident Wendy Richards regarding adding a clause for public audit of the books. I thought that was a good idea. Midterm checkpoints, I thought that was a good idea. and a little bit more details with regards to, I guess, the breakdown of costs. So anyway, I just wanted to reiterate that for the council. I would like to make a motion that I know is not going to move forward, but I just want to get this on the record that I'd like to move to approve the volunteer ambassador program and conduct a legal analysis on rental bike regulation, including staging and charging for rental bike parking and directing bike parking fees to pedestrian infrastructure. |
| 01:56:41.54 | Jill Hoffman | If you know a second, |
| 01:56:42.43 | Unknown | Yes, I move to adopt a resolution amend in the master fee schedule, parking fees and hours of operation for A, the Tracy Way portion of the municipal parking lot number 1, to establish a seasonal fee for parking of bicycles during certain hours, and B, for municipal parking lots 3 and 4, to establish unattended seasonal free parking. And I believe we can do this in one go. Two, to approve and authorize the city manager to execute the first amendment to the agreement for bicycle ambassador services. |
| 01:57:16.89 | Jill Hoffman | You have a second? Second. Debbie, would you take the roll on this, please? |
| 01:57:22.95 | Unknown | Councilmember Weiner. |
| 01:57:24.10 | Herb Weiner | Yes. |
| 01:57:25.19 | Unknown | Councilmember Pfeiffer. |
| 01:57:26.90 | Linda Pfeiffer | I believe the focus should be on regulation and I support the charging and the payment for the infrastructure, so I'm going to vote no. |
| 01:57:30.91 | Susan Rogers | Thank you. |
| 01:57:38.98 | Unknown | Councilmember Whitty. |
| 01:57:40.07 | Unknown | Yes. |
| 01:57:42.61 | Unknown | Vice Mayor Hoffman. Thank you. |
| 01:57:43.64 | Jill Hoffman | Yes. |
| 01:57:43.89 | Unknown | Thank you. and Mayor Theodore. |
| 01:57:47.59 | Jill Hoffman | Yes, that passed four to one. So thank you, everyone. We really appreciate you all coming out tonight on this. We're gonna take a five minute break. We're gonna have more fun with the budget if you all wanna stay around, so. |
| 01:57:59.60 | Unknown | Thank you. |
| 01:59:50.65 | Unknown | Thank you. Thank you. |
| 01:59:52.97 | Susan Rogers | Thank you. |
| 01:59:54.23 | Paul Leffingwell | I'm a good guy. |
| 01:59:54.45 | Unknown | Thank you. |
| 02:00:03.02 | Unknown | Thank you. |
| 02:00:03.12 | Unknown | . |
| 02:00:03.31 | Jill Hoffman | We've been on a thing. We had the great boys. |
| 02:00:03.38 | Unknown | We've been on. |
| 02:00:05.25 | Jill Hoffman | Thank you. |
| 02:00:05.30 | Unknown | Thank you. |
| 02:00:06.10 | Jill Hoffman | Sorry, that wasn't good. Yeah, yeah, I know. No, I wanted to buy them on. Thank you. . |
| 02:00:11.60 | Unknown | I'm sorry. |
| 02:00:11.88 | Unknown | you I |
| 02:00:13.18 | Jill Hoffman | Plants. |
| 02:00:13.72 | Unknown | you Thank you. |
| 02:00:14.80 | Unknown | All right, we'll see you guys later. |
| 02:00:14.89 | Unknown | All right, we'll see you guys later. |
| 02:00:17.40 | Unknown | Thank you. |
| 02:00:17.47 | Unknown | Bye. |
| 02:00:17.52 | Unknown | Bye. |
| 02:00:17.91 | Unknown | Thank you. That one bar. Thank you. . |
| 02:00:25.42 | Unknown | Yeah. |
| 02:01:21.63 | Unknown | Missed. Thank you. |
| 02:01:23.85 | Unknown | Thank you. |
| 02:01:24.85 | Unknown | Good job, good speech. You are excellent politics. |
| 02:01:25.68 | Unknown | Thank you. |
| 02:01:25.74 | Unknown | . Here we go. |
| 02:01:32.02 | Unknown | Thank you. |
| 02:01:32.81 | Unknown | gets me in trouble at half. I don't think so. Thank you. Thank you. you Thank you. Thank you. I ran a bit, once I see them work, I mean, they use a bar, but, you know, |
| 02:01:50.97 | Unknown | Thank you. |
| 02:01:54.87 | Unknown | . |
| 02:01:55.49 | Unknown | and then we get full genitals. |
| 02:02:23.85 | Jonathon Goldman | Thank you. |
| 02:02:24.18 | Unknown | Thank you. UK. |
| 02:02:25.63 | Jonathon Goldman | Good job, Ed. So how do we keep you from here? Oh, you can. |
| 02:02:28.44 | Unknown | I can't. |
| 02:02:30.86 | Jonathon Goldman | Thank you. |
| 02:02:30.88 | Unknown | Thank you. |
| 02:02:30.92 | Jonathon Goldman | but I did arrange for rental or vendors to come in. It's been off, one bike, two bikes, three bikes, times for the race, it goes, I'll probably take it, finally written on the ticket. |
| 02:02:32.48 | Unknown | Thank you. |
| 02:02:45.70 | Unknown | Thank you. |
| 02:02:46.66 | Jonathon Goldman | Thank you. |
| 02:02:46.96 | Unknown | and then we can scale, because we're working on it, we can scale up to six, and up to two, |
| 02:02:54.56 | Unknown | Thank you. Thank you. You know, Ed, for Jeff, Thank you. |
| 02:03:00.13 | Jonathon Goldman | You know, I've showed you this open coat. |
| 02:03:00.45 | Unknown | Thank you. Thank you. |
| 02:03:03.38 | Unknown | Thank you. So it's a good, so it's a tough time. pretty small. You want to get your own URL, your own website? And he will be reporting on the |
| 02:03:12.97 | Unknown | Thank you. |
| 02:03:13.04 | Unknown | Thank you. |
| 02:03:13.15 | Unknown | We're going to bring college to the future. |
| 02:03:14.37 | Michael Rex | Thank you. |
| 02:03:16.07 | Unknown | Yeah, it leaves that blood rate for good time. |
| 02:03:18.32 | Unknown | Thank you. |
| 02:03:18.42 | Unknown | So careful. |
| 02:03:19.36 | Unknown | Thank you. |
| 02:03:19.79 | Unknown | Thank you. |
| 02:03:19.80 | Unknown | Thank you. |
| 02:03:19.85 | Unknown | Thank you. |
| 02:03:19.90 | Unknown | I'm not. |
| 02:03:20.21 | Unknown | Thank you. |
| 02:03:20.27 | Unknown | Thank you. |
| 02:03:20.31 | Unknown | Thank you. |
| 02:03:20.34 | Unknown | Thank you. |
| 02:03:20.61 | Unknown | you |
| 02:03:20.81 | Unknown | Thank you. |
| 02:03:23.85 | Unknown | Yeah, we could, because I think we have all answers I'm getting open now for a lot of people. I don't know if anyone may know tomorrow what's like the real cost of it. |
| 02:03:31.07 | Jonathon Goldman | What's the real cost? |
| 02:03:33.20 | Unknown | Thank you. |
| 02:03:36.97 | Jonathon Goldman | I just... |
| 02:03:37.45 | Unknown | I'm just saying that. |
| 02:03:38.77 | Jonathon Goldman | I just told that I talked to Thank you. You know, when we went through the pilot project, we were selecting the new business. There was one company that came in second place, but I loved the screen this way. So I talked to them today, and I arranged for scalable rentals on a per day basis through this pilot period. So we can either rent one machine or six machines. And the screen says one bike, two bikes, three bikes, and press the button, it'll calculate the fee, print on a ticket, say how many bikes are on there. |
| 02:03:45.11 | Unknown | Congratulations. |
| 02:04:03.97 | Unknown | THE END OF THE END OF THE |
| 02:04:06.83 | Unknown | Thank you. |
| 02:04:06.88 | Unknown | How many bikes are around there? |
| 02:04:08.30 | Unknown | Thank you. |
| 02:04:09.82 | Jonathon Goldman | Yeah, those machines. Those blue ones. Not the blue ones. I'm getting rid of the blue ones. But these will be other ones that we can bring out. Because probably within 10 days. That's really cool. So no cash at all. They'll take credit cards. If you come up with a five, it'll give you $2 and change. |
| 02:04:10.07 | Unknown | Thank you. Thank you. |
| 02:04:11.15 | Unknown | Those balloons. |
| 02:04:11.96 | Unknown | Thank you. |
| 02:04:12.20 | Unknown | Yeah. |
| 02:04:14.11 | Unknown | The President. you |
| 02:04:24.91 | Unknown | Thank you. |
| 02:04:24.97 | Unknown | you |
| 02:04:25.02 | Unknown | Thank you. Thank you. |
| 02:04:25.26 | Unknown | Okay. |
| 02:04:26.05 | Unknown | Thank you. |
| 02:04:26.12 | Unknown | Thank you. |
| 02:04:26.24 | Jonathon Goldman | and coin dollars. |
| 02:04:26.27 | Unknown | Yeah. |
| 02:04:28.28 | Unknown | Thank you. Coin dollars. Yeah, but what about the money from the |
| 02:04:31.23 | Jonathon Goldman | Yeah. |
| 02:04:34.49 | Unknown | Thank you. Squares. |
| 02:04:35.72 | Jonathon Goldman | We all need the square use of sediment machines. |
| 02:04:37.14 | Unknown | Thank you. . |
| 02:04:38.31 | Jonathon Goldman | There'll be enough of them so they won't have any crowds. |
| 02:04:42.61 | Unknown | Okay, so can we pitch up to the end? Yeah. Okay. I'll be over at 10.30. |
| 02:04:44.72 | Jonathon Goldman | Yeah. |
| 02:04:45.85 | Unknown | THE END OF THE END OF THE |
| 02:04:46.25 | Jonathon Goldman | I'll be over in 10. |
| 02:04:47.33 | Unknown | 30. Thank you. |
| 02:04:48.60 | Jonathon Goldman | Thank you. |
| 02:04:48.87 | Unknown | you Thank you. |
| 02:04:49.36 | Jonathon Goldman | Yeah, I don't know what tomorrow looks like, but we'll try. Yeah. |
| 02:04:49.41 | Unknown | Thank you. Thank you. We'll try. Yeah. Okay, all right, thank you. |
| 02:04:54.44 | Jonathon Goldman | Thank you. |
| 02:05:04.98 | Jonathon Goldman | I'm doing well, and yourself? |
| 02:05:05.98 | Shelby | We're running out of time. |
| 02:05:07.48 | Jonathon Goldman | I am, two more ones. On this month and next. What am I going to do? I'm going to try to keep out a living on $2,000 a month so small things. That's right. |
| 02:05:16.78 | Unknown | THE FAMILY. |
| 02:05:17.27 | Unknown | Thank you. |
| 02:05:18.22 | Unknown | Thank you. Yeah. |
| 02:05:19.82 | Jonathon Goldman | Thank you. Thank you. Just go live in Thumseys Park. |
| 02:05:23.77 | Unknown | Yeah. Oh, my God. Thank you. |
| 02:05:25.98 | Jonathon Goldman | and then run for concert. |
| 02:05:26.06 | Unknown | everyone. That's an idea. Did you both get a car on your story? |
| 02:05:32.46 | Jonathon Goldman | I'm still busy. |
| 02:05:33.71 | Unknown | . Thank you. |
| 02:05:35.81 | Jonathon Goldman | I don't know. |
| 02:05:35.85 | Unknown | . Thank you. |
| 02:05:36.24 | Jonathon Goldman | Thank you. |
| 02:05:36.27 | Unknown | Thank you. |
| 02:05:36.39 | Jonathon Goldman | you I don't know, if my son gets married in January, the youngest son, then I don't know, I might go somewhere to the same. |
| 02:05:56.00 | Unknown | Oh, well, I... |
| 02:05:56.56 | Unknown | I have maybe tea or water. |
| 02:05:57.15 | Unknown | I have maybe tea or water. |
| 02:05:59.02 | Jonathon Goldman | Thank you. |
| 02:05:59.03 | Unknown | Yeah. |
| 02:05:59.15 | Jonathon Goldman | Thank you. |
| 02:05:59.17 | Unknown | Yeah. Thank you. |
| 02:05:59.52 | Unknown | you |
| 02:05:59.71 | Unknown | Thank you. |
| 02:05:59.73 | Unknown | Thank you. |
| 02:05:59.74 | Unknown | Yeah. |
| 02:06:00.18 | Unknown | . |
| 02:06:00.45 | Unknown | Thank you. |
| 02:06:00.47 | Unknown | I like you when you're watching the water. |
| 02:06:02.53 | Unknown | Okay. |
| 02:06:03.66 | Unknown | Amen. |
| 02:07:02.25 | Unknown | Thank you. |
| 02:07:02.37 | Doreen Gurnard | Thank you. |
| 02:07:02.98 | Unknown | Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. |
| 02:07:07.97 | Unknown | I'm going to go ahead and get the Just a moment. Rachel, how are you? See you. Thank you. |
| 02:07:18.41 | Unknown | I'm sorry. |
| 02:07:19.09 | Unknown | Oh, my God. |
| 02:07:19.19 | Unknown | I'm not. Yeah. |
| 02:07:20.20 | Unknown | No, I said, where you get me $10? |
| 02:07:22.47 | Unknown | This is a council member of my own house. |
| 02:07:25.03 | Unknown | Thank you. |
| 02:07:25.15 | Unknown | I love it. Thank you. |
| 02:07:25.98 | Unknown | Thank you. |
| 02:07:26.19 | Unknown | Thank you. |
| 02:07:26.58 | Unknown | Thank you. |
| 02:07:26.87 | Unknown | Thank you. |
| 02:07:27.04 | Unknown | Thank you. |
| 02:07:27.09 | Unknown | Thank you. |
| 02:07:29.08 | Unknown | Thank you. |
| 02:07:29.11 | Susan Rogers | Thank you. |
| 02:07:29.13 | Unknown | Just about the... Oh, sorry. |
| 02:07:34.97 | Unknown | you Thank you. |
| 02:07:40.42 | Unknown | Unless you're. I'm ready to go. |
| 02:07:47.10 | Unknown | Thank you. |
| 02:07:47.26 | Unknown | . |
| 02:07:47.96 | Unknown | Thank you. |
| 02:07:52.74 | Susan Rogers | Thank you. Thank you. It just makes it nice when you're just in your own position. |
| 02:08:01.46 | Unknown | Thank you. |
| 02:08:01.51 | Susan Rogers | Thank you. |
| 02:08:01.55 | Unknown | Thank you. |
| 02:08:01.56 | Susan Rogers | Thank you. |
| 02:08:01.58 | Unknown | Thank you. |
| 02:08:11.69 | Carol Peltz | . back. |
| 02:08:15.79 | Norman Pierce | Thank you. |
| 02:08:15.81 | Jonathon Goldman | Oh, you Thank you. Good, are we winning tonight? No, we're losing. 64. Yeah. |
| 02:08:24.13 | Paul Leffingwell | Thank you. All right. |
| 02:10:04.25 | Jill Hoffman | All right. Can we get started? And we've had a suggestion, and because we have people here, some with babies, that need to go home. I there's a suggestion been made that we move the item C in front of item B, so that we do the budget first and then we move into the policy guidelines on par. Anyone counsel, you guys have any? I so that we could have that. Any support of that? |
| 02:10:40.12 | Unknown | Thank you. |
| 02:10:40.16 | Jill Hoffman | FULL OF SHOW. |
| 02:10:40.44 | Unknown | THE FAMILY. |
| 02:10:40.80 | Jill Hoffman | All right, would someone like to make a motion? |
| 02:10:40.85 | Unknown | Right, with someone like that. |
| 02:10:42.99 | Jill Hoffman | Yeah. |
| 02:10:43.19 | Unknown | So I move to amend the agenda to move item, is it 6? 6. C up to before 6B. |
| 02:10:43.23 | Jill Hoffman | Thank you. |
| 02:10:50.90 | Jill Hoffman | All right, do we have a second to that? All right, all in favor? Aye. That's unanimous. So Charlie, you're both, so we're gonna move into 6C. And what we're gonna do for |
| 02:10:51.61 | Unknown | Yeah. |
| 02:10:53.18 | Unknown | Bye. |
| 02:11:00.17 | Jill Hoffman | What we're going to try to do, because we know the hour is late and some people need to go home, we're going to have Charlie give his presentation. And if Council doesn't mind, we will then take public comment before our questions. and then go from there if that's okay. All right? So Charlie, our finance director? Hey. |
| 02:11:16.35 | Jonathon Goldman | Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Mayor. The Senate, Debbie. |
| 02:11:30.48 | Jonathon Goldman | Okay, thank you very much, Mr. Mayor, Madam Vice Mayor, City Council. Tonight is the second meeting of the City Council considering the budget, and we're considering the second-year budget of the two-year resource allocation plan. We're coming to the end of a series of events and budget consideration that started off with finance committee, long-term financial plan modeling budget calendars budget preparation and all the way through to and we're asking the City Council on June 16th to adopt the budget and the action we're requesting you tonight to do is to bring back a budget that you're going to be recommending amendments to tonight and bring it back to you on June 16th for adoption |
| 02:12:23.21 | Jonathon Goldman | Just notice my R fell off in calendar there. Anyway, just to reiterate once again the control P, is that on July 1st of 2014, we started enacting a two-year budget. And so the second year of the two-year budget was posted online. It was in the budget book and of course there's revisions that occur between the beginning of July 2014 and July 2015 one of the major revisions was the passage of Measure O. And so we revised the second year budget, not officially, just in the budget preparation process to include those and other items that we knew had changed. Then the department heads made some minor requests and adjustments to the budget in terms of what they needed for to continue the level of service that they were providing. And then right here in this gap is where the finance committee met, identified a number of items that needed additional consideration. And tonight, now we're in this stage where the city council will be considering the draft second year budget. We're recommending that after tonight's deliberations, you direct staff to come back to the city council on June 16th to adopt the budget. Now, the major items that were considered during finance committee review, of course, the first item was the Measure O sales tax, and we're estimating that $1 million a year is going to come from the Measure O half-cent sales tax, and the finance committee has recommended to the full city council that $1 million for this year be transferred to the capital projects fund, and in the long-term financial plan and the five-year capital improvement plan we save one million dollars every year for capital projects that will be allocated amongst the streets the storm drains the ADA improvements and those other necessary improvements that were highlighted during the measure O campaign |
| 02:14:30.55 | Jonathon Goldman | Within the CIP fund then, the allocation of the measure came to those items that I just mentioned, where right now we've got a number of significant traffic and transportation repairs that you've authorized within the past few months of 600,000. We've identified that we really need a storm drain master plan to lay out the roadmap, if you will, to which storm drain infrastructure will be improved first second and third although we don't have which storm drains particularly will be done the we identified that we'll probably be able to afford four hundred thousand dollars a year in storm drain costs that will we told us which storm drains are going to be repaired will come out of the master plan. And then we have some more minor ADA transition plan and enhanced street repairs and concrete streets, as well as more significant transportation repairs for ADA. So that's pretty much currently the allocation of the million dollars that was being transferred from the general fund and into the capital project fund. So then it gets into what were some of the other additions to the different funds. that were not in the original second year budget. And one of those was the Marine Rails Project, which came out of your consideration of the Mariners-Shot Pacific Plan. Another item that was considered and included within the proposed budget that's in front of you is the water conservation program of a one-time cost of 15,000 in the annual cost thousand dollars a flashing crosswalk indicator is included for a one-time cost of thirty thousand dollars the Dumphy Park modular restroom for seventy five thousand dollars the City Hall beautification project the first year of that program is in the budget for a hundred and forty five thousand downtown Bridgeway tree and median maintenance for forty five thousand and annually ten thousand is included in the six-year CIP fund enhanced media a landscape median for $15,000 and annually 10,000 is included in the six year CIP fund. Enhanced landscape median for 15,000 a year during the first year and the six years of the CIP program. And then 125,000 a year to start with a circulation element as we move towards a general plan, 125,000 is budgeted each year for the six years of the CIP plan. Within MLK fund, we had the 10 year A facility assessment. 10-year facility assessment, which you saw the summary document for at a meeting several years ago, is really a compendium of an assessment from every one of the building's facilities that was listed, and these are all on a drive that the city council and the public can go see. But the summary of that document was there's a one-time, the annual cost in year one, they've identified $1,244,000 of improvements, necessary repairs to protect the asset are needed in year one. And then from years two through 10, there's another $1,793,440 that's identified as needed, which most of that is front-ended towards the early years. So staff recommended the finance committee, the finance committee concurred and put it into the recommended budget that the total of that $3 million be included in the MLK fund and that that be front-loaded as a bond issue and we go forward with that. So that's in the proposed budget. Now, the next thing that was identified as a major item during the Finance Committee reviews is that there's three parks that are out there, and the estimated costs of those parks are, I just circled, $1,150,000 each for Robin Sweeney and Southview, and $1.85 million for Dunphy Park. They are not included in the recommended budget, but staff did bring a proposal to the Finance Committee which the Finance Committee is now bringing back to the full City Council that it's not currently in the budget but a possible funding source for those parks would be to leverage the the surplus cash flow that exists in the MLK fund, and use those monies to build the parks with payments from the lease revenues of the MLK Enterprise Fund. And in return for that, there would be, which I'll go into a little more detail later, there would be a forgiving of the, or a liquidation or an elimination of the inter-fund loan from the MLK Enterprise Fund to the general fund. The parking fund has $250,000 revenue neutral program for the bicycle parking congestion management program, the item we just considered. City and district sewer consolidation study, there's a $15,000 appropriation in the sewer fund. I'm going to start on the general fund by saying the Chamber of Commerce kiosk project came before the city Finance Committee last Wednesday and $11,000 is the additional funding request that the Chamber is asking for that |
| 02:20:02.99 | Jonathon Goldman | In the police department, there were a number of items identified that were not included in the budget. There should be a no, let's put it right here, in the budgeted column. That doesn't mean no, I don't agree with it. It just means no, it's not budgeted at the current time. And these are updated one-time costs and annual costs that we received from your last city council meeting to this city council meeting the police department came back with good numbers on what those costs would be for body cameras mobile and stationary license plate readers for both patrol cars and PEO mobile and stationary Thank you. Okay, but on the good news side in the police department, there was $40,000 allocated in the general fund for additional police officers. We all know a police officer doesn't cost $40,000. The $40,000 is one-third of the annual cost. The police department was awarded a grant, which upon adoption of this budget will be accepted, meaning that the full-time police officer at a loaded cost of approximately $120,000 will be funded through the grant in the city at a cost of $40,000. The electric bicycle, the emergency services planner, and the mobile force option trailer were not included in the proposed budget. And within the administration and finance department, the soon to be vacant business analyst position is being recommended to be upgraded to a finance manager position, and that was an additional $20,000 cost. Okay, in community development, there were a number of proposals, both within the department itself and within the capital project program. The first was additional enhanced code enforcement and an annual cost of $50,000. This is code enforcement that would not have a concomitant revenue source, so that $50,000 was not included in the budget. But the code enforcement to deal with vacation rentals is looked upon to be revenue neutral, so that revenue neutral we added $50,000 in revenue and we added $50,000 in expenses for vacation rental code enforcement. There was an additional $6,000 in total included for planning commissioner training. Historic preservation regulations and the formula retail zoning ordinance amendment is included in the fiscal year 15-16 proposed budget. And then noteworthy structures are in there for the 16-17 budget in the CIP fund. So this is all programmed out. this is in the 17-18 budget, 18-19 budget, and you can follow it down then. 2017 budget in the CIP fund. So this is all programmed out. This is in the 17-18 budget, 18-19 budget, and you can follow it down. And this seems to be a logical progression of how you would do these projects, first, second, third, fourth, fifth. And finally, the Richardson Bay proposal, an additional $92,000 is not included in the budget at the present time. |
| 02:23:17.32 | Jonathon Goldman | For the IT department, this kind of finishes off the general fund and the IT department. We're going through the draft IT strategic plan now. It will be presented to the full city council on July 7th at their city council meeting. So at the present time, we just put a placeholder amount of $125,000. It may be too much. It may be too little. But right now, that $125,000 placeholder is in the general fund IT department. And also there's an additional $100,000 with a $10,000 annual cost for community development, permitting, and planning software. So that's going to be evaluated. And from what I did see in the IT strategic plan, there's a specific list of requirements in there and criteria that we can then evaluate the different planning and permitting packages against. So already we're gonna start seeing some value from the IT strategic plan. The call a ride senior. I can't think of the last word there. Program is included in the budget as well as the homeless civic program, $11,000 for three years. The library requested an enhanced book budget of $2,500. And then we have approximately $100,000 additional cost for the annual required contribution of OPEB costs and pay-as-you-go, prepaid lump sum for the amortization payment to go into the item that we just put off till after the budget, and that's the last of a sequence of actions to pre-fund our OPEB and pension obligations. So there is a lot in the budget and a lot of decisions and discussion that needs to be made at the present time and I ask the council now if I could help them in any way moderate. I mean, the discussion. |
| 02:25:28.41 | Jill Hoffman | Thank you. you Thank you. |
| 02:25:36.98 | Jill Hoffman | of course we would be able to give their comments and say for questions, but then give them |
| 02:25:41.96 | Linda Pfeiffer | I'd like to comment on that. I do think that there are some topics here that are not in the staff report that people may not be aware of that our questions would shed light and possibly, you know, create more informed questions or statements from the public. |
| 02:26:00.52 | Jill Hoffman | It's a good point, but let us know that we're not making a final budget decision tonight. And we will on the 16th, so it's a longer process. So do I have other feedback for, I guess you would prefer not to do that. |
| 02:26:09.12 | Linda Pfeiffer | Bye. I feel very strongly I'd like to ask at least a few questions before we open it up. Thank you. |
| 02:26:18.37 | Jill Hoffman | We'll open it to council questions. |
| 02:26:22.46 | Linda Pfeiffer | Okay, thank you. Shall I just jump in? |
| 02:26:24.97 | Linda Pfeiffer | Thanks. Thank you. So really quickly, Charlie, with regards to the certificate of participation, so right now MLK has $3 million for deferred maintenance. I mean right now for maintenance, right? And I believe, what is its income right now per year? |
| 02:26:46.13 | Jonathon Goldman | About 1.4 million. |
| 02:26:47.63 | Linda Pfeiffer | 1.4 million okay so 1.4 million so and then it it owes the city roughly 6 million |
| 02:27:00.85 | Ed Fotch | Okay. |
| 02:27:01.52 | Linda Pfeiffer | for maintenance that the city Actually, like if MLK had a leaky roof, the city would take money from that fund and then loan it to MLK as if MLK was a person and then charge interest on that loan. And so that is accumulated to $6 million over the years. Does the city treat other, I'm just curious, other sites, other city owned sites like the way it does with MLK, with like for example, the Spinnaker or the underwater streets or the other city property? Do we treat it like if there's maintenance, do we charge it? |
| 02:27:45.48 | Jonathon Goldman | So the- |
| 02:27:45.87 | Linda Pfeiffer | With interest and compounding on interest. |
| 02:27:48.81 | Jonathon Goldman | The MLK facility is handled as a MLK enterprise fund which means that just like the parking enterprise fund the operations of the fund are intended to pay for each other. So over the years from the 80s till the recent decade the MLK did not generate enough money to pay the debt service for the school purchase loan, nor the money to pay the West American Bank loan. And so the general fund had to loan the MLK enterprise fund money in order to continue those operations. And that was the accumulation of money that it totaled about $3.4 million up until |
| 02:28:39.92 | Linda Pfeiffer | 2010. |
| 02:28:41.34 | Jonathon Goldman | Well, there was a council action in 2002 or 2003, I believe, when the loan was actually, the inter-funded loan from the MLK Enterprise Fund and the General Fund was put on the books. And then over that time, there were some payments made back on the loan. Then there were some payments because there was operating deficits in the MLK Enterprise Fund, so payments were made back. There were years when the enterprise fund had enough cash flow to make interest payments and there was years when it did not have enough money to make interest payments. So the combination of both of those ended up with $3 million in interest that was not paid to the original $3.4 million. |
| 02:29:29.41 | Linda Pfeiffer | Thank you for that clarification. So it wasn't maintenance, it was an overage of the, not its income not being able to pay the cover of the- Well, the operations of the MLK Enterprise Fund was maintenance. Oh, okay. All right. But with regards to the, currently it owes 6 million and the certificate of participation would be roughly 7.2 million, at least if, if you were going to bundle all of these, these part costs and, um, |
| 02:29:36.82 | Jonathon Goldman | The operations of the MLK Enterprise Fund is maintenance. |
| 02:29:57.00 | Unknown | Right. |
| 02:30:01.48 | Linda Pfeiffer | Is a certificate of participation, is that like a mortgage? Is that, you know, how does that work? |
| 02:30:07.26 | Jonathon Goldman | Thank you. |
| 02:30:07.28 | Jill Hoffman | THE END OF THE END OF THE |
| 02:30:07.37 | Jonathon Goldman | It's just like a bun. |
| 02:30:08.36 | Jill Hoffman | May I, just if you don't mind. |
| 02:30:08.48 | Jonathon Goldman | May I? |
| 02:30:10.24 | Linda Pfeiffer | Yeah. |
| 02:30:10.50 | Jill Hoffman | Could we maybe, we back up, because I think you have a good line of questioning. We maybe have Charlie take two or three minutes and go through the proposal and then maybe answer some of the questions, Oh, that's fine. Give us all, including the public, some. |
| 02:30:19.89 | Linda Pfeiffer | Oh, that's fine. Yeah, that's fine. Yeah, that's good. |
| 02:30:22.87 | Jill Hoffman | Yeah, that's good. So Charlie, do you want to take I know you just sure said it, but just give give the proposal. It's in broad form at this point. But what currently is on the table? |
| 02:30:23.65 | Linda Pfeiffer | Thank you. |
| 02:30:33.61 | Jonathon Goldman | Sure. This is the proposed budget of revenues of $1.3 million in 2015-2016 and accreting based on the leases that we have on the property where the lease goes up at 3% a year, other leases go up at 4% a year for an escalator that they have. And then we have salaries and benefits and operating expenses which are these two lines here and that's basically the operating expense so the difference between that 400,000 and the 1.3 million is about $900,000 that's the that's the cash flow from the from the MLK fund out of that we make an interest payment to the general fund of $ hundred thousand dollars that's what's in the budget now the city could put up an amortization schedule to pay that general fund loan back but the if the right now the way the budget is structured the total expenses including that interest expense bar to seven hundred seventeen thousand which leaves six hundred and seven thousand which would be available for pay- for pay as you go financing for the necessary repairs that are needed to repair the asset. If we add all those up, this comes up to the $3 million that's needed for the necessary repairs. So we would be able to complete all the repairs in five years and then we would have this kind of excess cash flow going off into the future. What's in the budget is that we don't do that, that we front load all of the repairs that are needed, and by issuing certificates of participation, certificates of participation is just another terminology, legal terminology that means lease revenue bonds. So the lease of the property provides the revenue to pay debt service payments to bond holders or certificate holders in this case. So we have the same amount of expenses, salaries and benefits, operating expenses, the same general fund interest payment and we're adding the debt service payment which leads a net cash flow of 400,000 building up to 863,000 in the future. So that's what's in the budget right now. And so we looked at that and said, if we used the cash flow, the cash flow of these two amounts, whoops, Yeah. I didn't want to do it. If we took... The $300,000 and the $208,000, that's a total payment that's available of $500,000 a year. And so that $500,000, or in this case, $494,000, would be used for debt service on a much larger issue, a $7.6 million issue. So by forgiving the general fund loan, And then using 500,000, we have the same amount of cash flow that we had, if we didn't do. the $7.6 million. So, and what this would do then, is since we're not taking money and giving it to the general fund, we can't do that without the certificates of participation becoming a taxable issue, which takes a lot of the leverage out of it. So why don't we do general fund projects that the general fund typically would do and probably would do if it had that six million dollars paid off. So by forgiving the loan, using that debt service, we're able then to have $6 million. And by the way, we could take this cash flow here, whoops. Take this cash flow. And then that could be, after putting away a portion for renewal and replacement, make sure we have a maintenance program in place after the 10 years of the program. That could be used to accumulate for a community center. Thank you. something else so now this whole and and actually turn the MLK facility in what it was originally intended to be a a complete recreation center for the full city now there's other scenarios and I don't want to go through all the variations because tonight we're not talking about yes to doing a financing we're just saying yes let's include this in the budget that's what this item is all about let's just code it the budget we can come back to you with financing But we could do a 10-year program. We have enough cash flow to pay. a 10-year certificate of participation rather than the 30-year certificate of participation. Or we might do a 15-year. That might be the sweet spot where you get the, still get some cash flow, enough coverage to do the bond issue. All of that will be analyzed if we get the green light by you adopting a budget that includes funding three parks, funding all the park improvements within MLK as well, so you're really getting four parks, and protecting the asset. So that's a summary of the proposal. |
| 02:35:41.27 | Linda Pfeiffer | Okay, thank you. I have more concerns and questions, but I'm gonna, maybe we should let it, let the public speak. Okay. Because I will keep asking lots of questions. |
| 02:35:48.58 | Jill Hoffman | Okay. Okay. I appreciate that. And that was a good, anyone else have questions or we want to be okay with taking public comment now? Okay, and again, we'll take public comment now. We're not suggesting that you're not safe for the further discussion, but this gives you an opportunity. And I'll start with actually, I'm gonna do, we have speaker cards. So if anyone wants to speak on this, fill out a speaker card. I think Heather Richard is she, she wasn't able to, she left. Okay, Lance Alameda. |
| 02:36:29.09 | Lance Alameda | Good evening, my name is Lance Alameda, also known as The Walking Dad, also known as that loud mouth with the crazy mustache. I came here tonight specifically for a very important reason. and that is to ask you all to include the certificates of participation in the annual budget. Now I know, and also, not just that, but to ask for your assurances that those monies will be earmarked directly for the use of parks and rec, to renovate those parks. I've lived here over 20 years and have only had children in the last six, but those kids go to those parks every single day, and they're only getting more and more dilapidated And poor Mike back here, his hands are tied. Because every time they try and have a fundraiser, they raise this much money. And then something else happens, whether it's a storm drain or a sewer issue or something, nut job coming in with a nuisance lawsuit because of ADA compliance, and all the money is Magically gone. So, that said, This money will not only allow... the Parks and Rec Department, to renovate and improve, but also get those parks up to ADA compliance with the exception of Southview. I don't think that's possible. But I have assurances that According to federal guidelines, if you have an ADA park within a certain distance of another park that is not ADA compliant, as long as you post signs, You're fine. So if you renovate Southview and put up a sign that says the nearest ADA compliant park, is Robin Sweeney, You're covered. But the problem being, We've been looking at the same park for the last, I've been looking at that park for 20 something years. taking my nieces and nephews there and going, geez, this place is a dive. And then we got the Lycee Park, which is beautiful, but now they want to keep us out of there. That's another issue. I know you discussed that before. but that's also a pain in the behind, so we need to have our parks renovated, we need to have them up to standard, up to code, and we got to give Mike some more to do. because now he's just coming over and talking my ear off about coming here. and talking your guys' ear off. about green lighting this thing. So please. Please include those in the budget. And in conclusion, go Giants. |
| 02:38:50.78 | Jill Hoffman | Thank you. Jack Ullman. |
| 02:39:02.24 | Jack Ullman | It's a tough act to follow. I just want to address, I've written you a letter, and you know how I stand about Dunphy Park and that it should be funded. But I want to point out that I think comparisons with Mill Valley and suggesting that we try to have a rec center like Mill Valley has is perhaps not a good thing to interject into this issue. Mill Valley is a much larger city and we use the... is perhaps not a good thing to interject into this issue. Mill Valley is a much larger city, and we use the rec center. We go swimming there. And on the other hand, Mill Valley does not have a waterfront park. And so we should concentrate on what we have and make that work before we start on a new project. So people don't even realize that we own property next to Dunphy Park that is a corporation yard now that is supposed to be part of the park. That's something that's well overdue. That's something we should do and not talk right now about a community center. So it's really past time for Dunphy Park to be brought up to proper standards people in the community have given up on Dunphy Park people don't go there they think it's just they only go for the big events because of course then there are enough people but it's really long overdue and so I hope you do the right thing thank you |
| 02:40:28.60 | Jill Hoffman | Thank you. |
| 02:40:29.14 | Jack Ullman | Thank you. |
| 02:40:29.18 | Jill Hoffman | Thanks, Jacques. Susan, we'll have people call a few names. Susan Rogers, Natasha Demner, and Doreen Gurnard. Can we? So please. |
| 02:40:49.76 | Susan Rogers | I'm Susan Rogier. And I've lived here since 1969. I do hope that you can fix up Bumpy Park. I concur with everything Jacques said. |
| 02:41:02.00 | Jill Hoffman | Thanks, Susan. Okay. |
| 02:41:07.57 | Natasha Demner | Hi, my name is Natasha Damner. This is the first time I've ever been to any of these meetings. I'm a Sausalito resident, and I'm all for the renovations of all the parks here in Sausalito. I feel like it's something that's been ignored for way too long. I actually live across the street from Southview Park, and we've had friends over that live in Sausalito and never even knew that park was there. It has one of the most amazing views in the city. And it's just so dilapidated that I rarely bring my boys anymore. There's a water fountain there that doesn't work. We're in one of the most expensive counties. in the country, and it's just a real shame. I think we need to really focus on the children and the future of SOSLeader. |
| 02:41:57.95 | Jill Hoffman | THE END OF |
| 02:41:58.02 | Doreen Gurnard | Thank you. Hello, everybody. It's good to see everybody tonight. I'm Doreen Gunnar, and I live in Sausalito and have for the last 21 years. I raised my kids here. They're now 21 and 27. Now, the same equipment that's down there in Robin Sweeney Park is what my kids played on. Now that's a generation ago now. And I don't want us to find This generation of children in this town right now on that same equipment. Because that's what it's going to be if we don't do the COP. That's really what it is. We have an opportunity. And I think it is a brilliant opportunity right now where the rates are, interest rates are as low as they are. We can actually do this thing. We can actually get parks built. I've got families. I had a meeting just two weeks ago regarding the lease, and we did not change the lease at all down at Park and Rec in the commission during that meeting. We sent all the parties back. to figure it out. because there's lots of solutions that can be made. But I did learn during that meeting about how much pressure is on that First, brand new big kid playground that we have in town. That's the difference, you see, is that if we do this now, we're gonna take the pressure off of that park and really put it on ourselves in a sense that we're gonna finally have parks that our children deserve. This town... In the last 10 years since the 2000 census, we had 7.4% of the population was under 18 years old. in 2010, We came up to 8.7%. 2013, 9.95, almost 10% of the population in this town is under 18 years old. Those numbers are doing nothing but going up. And yet our parks look like there's no kids live here. That's wrong. San Francisco is bleeding families and children, and yet every single park that I used to go to with my kids 20 years ago, they've all been renovated. This is a shame for Sausalito not to be doing this. I think it just doesn't make sense for us not to invest in our parks, and I do believe that the COP is the way to do it. Thank you. |
| 02:44:29.34 | Jill Hoffman | Thanks, Doreen. Paul Leffingwell. Then Peter van meter and Wendy Richards and |
| 02:44:41.46 | Paul Leffingwell | I'm Paul Livingwell, 415 Litho. I am my I've sent you an email so you know where I stand, but I want to make a point that Dunphy Park needs to be upgraded, additions that are there included. In effect, it's probably the Central Park of Sausalito when you talk about activities and the great sense of it is a waterfront relationship. You can experience nature, and that's why we have support from Audubon and other people because of that. So I encourage you to... Include it, and let's get going and do something about it. Thank you. Peter? |
| 02:45:39.59 | Peter van Meter | Yeah, Peter Van Meter people now, I already heard tonight, like to tell how long they've been here. So this is our 40th year or more. I don't know. I kind of lose count. Anyway, absolutely go for this certificate of participation. take care of these issues. And I suggest, in fact, that you go big and bold, because with a stroke of a pen, You can do far more. than just those certificates of participation. We heard at one of the earlier presentations that you have reserves, that far exceed your prudent minimum requirements. which generally, for instance, on our fire board, we look at like 15% of operating budget as sort of a minimum reserve, and we'd like to have Trita more than that. Well, you've got reserves that far exceed As I heard, it was like $8 million. out of like a $12 million budget or something. Like you've got way more reserves than you actually need. not suggesting you don't have a prudent balance. you can take some money your stroke of the pen is transferring some of those reserves into these funds you're creating with this COP, and do these projects sooner rather than later. You're always better off taking care of your infrastructure now rather than putting it off because it only gets worse. So I suggest you go big and bold and get more money into these projects than just the COP, but certainly do at least that in your current budget. Thank you. |
| 02:47:01.47 | Jill Hoffman | Thanks Peter, Wendy, and then Carol. |
| 02:47:05.99 | Wendy Richards | So it won't come as a surprise that if Peter says go big, I say go small. So... What I heard tonight that I was glad to hear is that we are not committing to a 30-year COP tonight. I looked through all that material and tried to find what Charlie presented tonight and I think it's very important that the residents get a chance to review when we're making this kind of a long-term capital commitment. Are the leases 30 years? There's a basic tenant of finance that says you've got to match the timing of your obligations with your revenues. And if only some of our leases are 30 years and the rest are 20 or 10 year, then let's make the COP match those revenues. I remember when we tried to lease that space out and it wasn't meeting its obligations and we could be in 2008 again in some other form. So let's be prudent. You can structure these bond issues in phases. Let's start with an amount that we know we can cover and let's then maybe prioritize the parks and go step by step. Also, I think it would be very helpful for the residents to know what other obligations do we still have? Do we still have a balloon payment on the police and the fire building? Do we have other big obligations? Because if Peter is correct that we do have excess Capital then let's pay down our debts so that we're debt free and we can take care of our kids and Build our parks and make it look beautiful. I love that I'm totally in favor that and I'd like to do it in a way that I know that we can meet our obligations. Thanks |
| 02:48:48.20 | Jill Hoffman | Thank you. Carol. Carol Peltz. And then Roylene, Meg Fawcett, Michael Rex. |
| 02:48:59.48 | Carol Peltz | Hi, my name is Carol Peltz. I'm a member of Friends of Dunphy Park. We have had conversations with the city for as long as this organization has existed, which seems like forever. And the purpose of all of our conversations have been to improve Dunphy Park for the better use. to be better used by the public. And I think it's very important You have all the information you could possibly need. this point. to be able to make a reasonable decision about Establishing Dunphy Park. as a really, good working park. using all parts of it, especially addressing the waterfront issues. And so I urge you very, very strongly to support the improvements that we have proposed And of course, we would be delighted to follow up and give you more information if you feel that you need it. But I think it's pretty clear and I hope you will put your effort there and your money. Thank you. |
| 02:50:11.72 | Unknown | Hello, I'm here to represent myself and also some friends of who are parents of young children who couldn't be here this late at night. But I'd just like to also chime in with support for parks for the younger children and parents in this town and those who are looking to come to this town who I'm always trying to advocate for the wonderful parts of Sausalito. But it does kind of appear at first blush to be Not exactly welcoming as for the younger set. In addition, I'd like to support what the second gentleman talked about with Dunphy Park, being in desperate need of a facelift. And I like the idea of it being kind of a crown jewel. It's such an asset. It's a beautiful waterfront property, but I drive past it. I ride my bike past it. I walk past it every day, and I never stop there. The other parks also need some love, and thank you for your time. |
| 02:51:18.58 | Jill Hoffman | Thank you. Meg Fawcett. |
| 02:51:21.31 | Meg Fawcett | I'm Meg Fawcett and I live at 72 Cypress Place. I'm here for numerous reasons. I don't want you to take anything out of the budget for Sauselot Beautiful or for the medians or anything else. But I also want you to very much consider and put into the budget the plan for the COP. I mean, this city is so generous to have passed Measure O, and you can use that money for the hard core infrastructure. But now you also have the ability because you paid off the mortgage and interest rates are low. to leverage that revenue stream and do something that is so significant for the town. for many, many years to come. And I think it's just such a wonderful opportunity that you should go big. Thank you. |
| 02:52:08.44 | Jill Hoffman | Michael Rex. |
| 02:52:11.50 | Michael Rex | Hi, I'm Michael Racks, local architect, and I want to speak in support of A citizens initiative, you have two very prominent groups here tonight, the Friends of Dunphy Park and Sausalito Beautiful, and there's a groundswell movement to give back to this town. And this is an opportunity to partner between public and private. And tonight you're hearing that we're asking for your share, the the public part. to a partner with the private citizens here who are trying to better this town. to not only enhance its beauty and its use, but its spirit. And it's going to take some money. And I see that you've put up some cash here for Saucyutobutiful. Dunphy Park clearly needs the help. I want you to build on this groundswell momentum and this spirit to give back to this town by supporting their initiatives. Thank you. |
| 02:53:18.95 | Jill Hoffman | Thank you. Christine Scarpino, do we have any other cards? |
| 02:53:26.42 | Unknown | Amen. All right. |
| 02:53:27.97 | Jill Hoffman | and ruin. |
| 02:53:30.07 | Christine Scarpino | Good evening, city councilmen and city staff and Sausalito citizens. My name's Christine Scarpino, first time at the podium, 20 year resident of Sausalito. I also sit on the business advisory committee. I sent an email last week to all of you as well as my peer group, who are mostly families in Sausalito, urging the city council to consider the integrity of the proposal that, um, is set before you. regarding the park initiative Today I spent. about five hours looking at the transaction. My daughter missed her cupware class at Park and Rec. And I want to tell you that there is a lot of integrity to this. I looked at it a variety of different ways, and this transaction pencils out. If anyone has any questions for the numbers, I know it's very difficult to sift through. I am available. If any of you want to sit down and talk with me about some of the numbers that I've been looking at through OpenGov, through everything that's accessible over the internet, And over our website, the city website, please ask. So thank you for your considerations. |
| 02:54:42.41 | Jill Hoffman | Thank you. |
| 02:54:43.73 | Christine Scarpino | Thank you. |
| 02:54:43.74 | Jill Hoffman | to get it. |
| 02:54:43.96 | Christine Scarpino | Thank you. |
| 02:54:44.96 | Jill Hoffman | Um... Thank you. Sela Seleska? Thank you. |
| 02:54:50.92 | Celia Seleska | Yes, I'm Celia Seleska, and I'm a 30-year resident of Sausalito. I currently sit on the Park and Rec Commission, and I have for the last four years. So parks are near and dear to my heart. |
| 02:54:52.08 | Jill Hoffman | Yeah, I feel like. |
| 02:55:05.51 | Celia Seleska | And We really need you to help us, not help us, we need you to approve this and put it in the budget to improve our parks now. Our parks are outdated. They're old. There are safety hazards. We have more children now in Sausalito than ever. And where are they going? Other cities? There's just nowhere to go. So I implore you, please do not let us lose this opportunity to improve our parks. It's just taken years to do very minor things on our commission. So this is just wonderful. So please, please consider this. It's very important to all of us. Thank you. |
| 02:55:54.23 | Jill Hoffman | Thank you. Governor Kavanaugh. than Shelby? And meter. |
| 02:56:04.07 | Una Kavanagh | I'm Una Kavanagh, CEO of the Sausalito Chamber. I just really wanted to clarify that the funding The chamber is asking for the kiosk. We aren't just looking for a handout, we're actually asking to match funds that we will go out and get from the business community. So I'd be very happy to explain to anyone who needs more detail. I did do an hour and a half presentation to the finance committee and happy to update anyone who wasn't at that but i do want to make that clear that it is a matching of funds and we're only looking for the monies for that part that role that the kiosk plays for the city as opposed to business referrals we're talking about general information for visitors to the town but i also did want to say i'm a 21 year resident and i agree on the parks It's an absolute shame. And I think it's wonderful that we have so many young kids in this town but i think it's disgraceful that we don't have parks where they can play and feel comfortable i don't feel comfortable in dumpy park i can tell you um and also a plug for sauce Beautiful, Michael Rex is right, we are very fortunate to have a community of people here who are stepping up and doing something, so please, please reward that. and they deserve it. They're putting their money where they're putting their So time. in and we should recognize that. Thanks Zuba, you know, Shelby. |
| 02:57:42.08 | Shelby | I'd like to thank all of those who've spoken on behalf of Sausalito Beautiful. I'm the president of Sausalito Beautiful and the founder of the initiative that started the whole beautification process a year and a half ago. So what I'd like to say. that no one has really mentioned, but the Civic Center, the Medians, and the parks, I would say really represent Sausalito and how Sausalito thinks of itself. I think they represent our dignity. I think they should reflect our... our respect for the residents of this town. And the COP idea to me, as little as I know about financing, Sounds absolutely brilliant. How else will we ever, ever, ever take care of these very expensive park renovations. There's no way. As someone said, Mike Langford has been nobly trying to raise money and through all kinds of hard work and all kinds of effort supported by a number of residents and it goes nowhere near dealing with Rob and Sweeney Park. So please, please keep the COP in the budget and also the monies that support the beautification of our medians. and our Civic Center and that increased care and maintenance of our landscapes. Thank you so much. |
| 02:59:02.30 | Jill Hoffman | Thank you, Charlie. Thank you. Thank you. Uh, uh, I have no other speaker cards. Would anyone else like to speak? Pat, please. And if anyone else would like to speak, please line up, and then otherwise we're going to close public comment. |
| 02:59:16.73 | Pat Zook | Yes, I would like to speak. I'm Pat Zook, and I was involved in the beginning of the initiative to obtain MLK for community purposes. Am I feedbacking or, no. That is a property that was originally purchased by initiative by the people of this town to segregate a parcel for our community purposes. Whether or not it is used to back a COP, or whether or not it becomes a community center, is an issue that should be put forth before the people of this community. There is a strong opinion that the money flow from the rentals of MLK should be used to finance other options in the community, I'm not going to speak against that. What I will speak for is the notion that whether or not MLK becomes a community center or becomes a funding source for other parks and community resources should be put forth to the people of this community for a re-vote or a re-assessment because as it stands now, the way the initiative is phrased, this property should become a a community center. It may not be a feasible alternative. or a desired alternative. I think it should be a re-examined alternative, and I hope you will be willing to examine it in that context. Thank you. |
| 03:01:07.11 | Jill Hoffman | Thanks, Pat. Are you funny? Anyone else? We'll close public comment after Bonnie unless we have any other hands up here. |
| 03:01:18.65 | Bonnie | Well, good evening again. I'm here now representing the Sauce Little Beautiful group. And thank goodness for Shelby's inspiration a year or so ago. And we're all doing this of our own time. I love getting the exercise. I sit in the chair too much. So that was a main reason for me really getting out of my chair, was to go down and pull weeds and whack this and that. Another reason we're doing it is that there is not staff to take care of it. So part of the COP, of course, should include proper staffing to help us do the right thing. The first time I was involved, we did the stretch between the ice house up to almost to the Taste of Rome. And the guys from the Park and Rec, not Park and Rec, but what's the group they were? Public Works. I don't know why I have trouble with that one. They could not believe what we accomplished in about three or four hours. They were absolutely amazed. But they did all the heavy work. Big truckloads of bark and compost and what have you and hauling all of our weeds away. But that's a very important thing. I think they're staffed by only three or four people now, and you think that the number of parks we have and thoughts of taking on new parks when we don't have the staff to take care of what we've got now. So I'm not ready to quit volunteering and doing it, but I think we need to give the other a consideration. |
| 03:02:57.54 | Jill Hoffman | Thank you. Anyone else like to speak on budget matters? Okay, seeing none, we'll close public comment. And I do have a question for staff. Before we go into the questions, I see that public comment was just a little beautiful and the majority, overwhelming majority was on the MLK COP. And of course, we have a much more, many more items in the budget than those. So possibly, and I'm not sure how you were gonna do it, We socially beautiful is already included in the budget at this point. So what I might recommend is that we Council take a look at the questions on this MLK COP possibly have our discussion decide what we do with that and move on since we have so many people in the public for this. Uh, city managers that sound like a way to go and council so let's do that let's focus on on this MLK COP will will will ask those questions. We'll do our comment, maybe take some action, and then we'll move to the next budget item. Okay? Who would like to start with questions? |
| 03:03:58.39 | Linda Pfeiffer | I have a question. actually. And it's for Friends of Dunphy Park, and I don't know who wants to take this. Maybe you can respond. But in 2003, I know you received a grant from the California Coastal Conservancy, you know, to move forward with purchasing, et cetera. And I guess my question is, you know, I've always been a big supporter of Dunphy Park and I've always encouraged you guys moving forward. And of course now I'm looking at all opportunities with respect to funding. Are grants from the California Coastal Conservancy or for that matter like TAM grants given it's going to be pedestrian access as well, are there any opportunities there? |
| 03:04:53.17 | Linda Pfeiffer | funding. |
| 03:04:57.32 | Jack Ullman | I'm not much of a funding person. But first of all, the funding from the Coastal Conservancy was to the city. It was not through us. It was done with the help of Marin Audubon. And I think that what we need to do before we can go for more of that kind of funding is to get the plan completed, get the information that we've requested so that we can complete our plan, and then have that plan go through some sort of approval process or at least be in a condition that allows someone then to go to various organizations for funding. You can't really go for funding on something that's nebulous so that it hasn't been approved or isn't really a plan. But on the other hand, there are things that need to be done to the park that can follow the guidelines of the plan we have now that are infrastructure problems and that are part of safety issues and so on that could be done before the plan is approved. So I think that there shouldn't be a confusion. Now, we do have some sources going for maybe doing the rehab work on the waterfront and getting some funding for that. But for things like grading and drainage and all that sort of thing, that's beyond me to know how you get funding from the outside. |
| 03:06:36.66 | Linda Pfeiffer | Thank you. |
| 03:06:43.01 | Unknown | Yeah, Charlie, could you comment on the 15 year, 20 year, 30 year for the bond, for the COP? Sorry. How does the cash flow look if we went to a shorter term? |
| 03:07:01.58 | Jonathon Goldman | So I haven't done a detailed analysis on the different cash flows. Christine did earlier today and she shared with me her calculations, they looked reasonable. But just from looking at the, let's just go to, The slide. |
| 03:07:25.23 | Jonathon Goldman | Here we go. Just by looking at this slide, we can see that we have Thank you. 800,000. Oops. Okay. |
| 03:07:42.76 | Jonathon Goldman | There we go, so we have the 494, which is a 30 year amortization and then we have net cash flow of 413,000. So I mean just from my ballpark figure, that seems if we took 813,000 times 10 years, that's $8 million. So probably we don't have enough for a 10 year and have the right revenue or certificate of participation behind coverage, but it looks like it would be enough for a 15 year. |
| 03:08:11.03 | Unknown | Thank you. Follow-up, Mr. Mayor. But in terms of the markets right now, where would be the sweet spots? If there is one. |
| 03:08:22.89 | Jonathon Goldman | Yeah so the shorter the amortization period the higher the interest rate you're gonna pay but I don't think the, but on tax exempt issues right now it's not a huge margin difference so again we would bring all those financing options back to the council tonight is just to authorize, well to put it in the budget and once it's in the budget staff would then bring back financial analysis on what the sweet spot option is. |
| 03:08:51.12 | Unknown | Thank you. Final question. So you're not, if we decided to go ahead with, I mean, really there's two options for us. There's to go ahead with, well, there's three, I suppose. A CIP for the, I keep calling it a CIP. A CIP is a continuation in part of a patent application, which has nothing to do with this. But I've spent 30 years doing it, so it's just in my head. Sorry. Sorry. The... patent application which has nothing to do with this but I've spent 30 years doing it so it's just in my head sorry the you're not we're not being asked to consider tonight length of term or length of the debt the nature of the debt you know any of that stuff This is just placeholders in the budget so that you guys can go off and start working the deal on that. |
| 03:09:12.89 | Unknown | Thank you. But I've... |
| 03:09:14.97 | Unknown | especially in the world. |
| 03:09:15.17 | Unknown | Thank you. |
| 03:09:15.30 | Unknown | 30. |
| 03:09:41.04 | Jonathon Goldman | That's correct. Start working there. There would be further counsel actions that would be necessary to take in order to effectuate the concept. This is just getting the ball rolling. |
| 03:09:43.81 | Unknown | in the market. |
| 03:09:56.39 | Unknown | Right. And so the three options then are not to do any COPs and finance the MLK deferred maintenance with basically annually from the net cash flow. That's option one. Option two, which the Finance Committee did not recommend., option two is put debt on the MLK of about $3 million to fund the deferred maintenance or up to $7 or whatever million to fund both the deferred maintenance and the part. So those are the three things. And you want some direction tonight? That's correct. As to which of those options? Yes. Yeah. |
| 03:10:16.24 | Unknown | Yeah. |
| 03:10:40.83 | Unknown | That's right. |
| 03:10:46.87 | Jill Hoffman | Yeah, I have a couple questions. So, and Charlie, this may be a question for you, or it may be a question for our city attorney or Adam. So with regard to the initiative that resulted in the purchase of the MLK property, I understand that there are conditions on that. the terms of the purchase and that the property can only be used for certain purposes. And there's also, an aspect of debt carrying on that property. So can anybody here tonight explain how those three things work together and how those dovetail with the certificate of participations? Or do I need to agendize that? |
| 03:11:29.69 | Mary Wagner | with respect to I think a portion of your question which is what are the restrictions placed on the MLK site by ordinance 1128 which is the shorthand reference to the initiative it specifically amended the general plan to include language that the MLK school site may have commercial uses as a temporary condition without any increase in land area etc. until the city is able to finance its permanent use as a public recreation facility. So that is the language, the operative language. There's been discussion in the past about the city's ability to continue those leases, and as you are aware, the city has entered into long-term leases with both the New Village School and the Lisey School. So I believe that the council has interpreted that to find that it's able to continue those leases, and that's not a violation of 1128. I think the operative language is until the city is able to finance its permanent use as a public recreation facility I believe another portion of your question related to the restrictions in the lease purchase agreement |
| 03:11:37.34 | Unknown | which is. |
| 03:12:36.96 | Unknown | Thank you. |
| 03:12:42.48 | Mary Wagner | I think I don't have that document in front of me I'm certainly able to put my fingers on it and provide it to you and to be able to address that portion of the question at some specifically you know at your next meeting or Provide that to you and have a conversation with you outside of this council meeting |
| 03:12:43.96 | Unknown | Mm-hmm. |
| 03:12:53.14 | Jill Hoffman | specifically. |
| 03:13:00.31 | Jill Hoffman | Thanks. I mean, that's one of my concerns is that this is sort of a special property, that it was purchased by a special initiative and that if we continue to you know, load it with debt, then are we changing the nature of the property and the purpose for which it was purchased for? So that's why I'm taking a hard look at that. Um, Charlie, what... Thank you. What other revenue generating parcels or if we didn't want to do a certificate of participation on the MLK because of these issues in 1128, if we wanted to look at other revenue generating properties in the city, what would we look to? I mean, we own other properties that are revenue generating, right? |
| 03:13:40.10 | Jonathon Goldman | Well we have old city hall but old city hall revenues are about a hundred and then the net revenues are about a hundred Let me pull it up. |
| 03:13:52.93 | Jill Hoffman | Sorry, I know I'm throwing these questions to you. |
| 03:13:54.91 | Jonathon Goldman | you |
| 03:13:56.80 | Jill Hoffman | I'm just looking at options. |
| 03:13:59.51 | Jonathon Goldman | But there really isn't any revenue source that drives that amount of cash flow to provide those kinds of funds. There is. |
| 03:14:07.95 | Jill Hoffman | On one parcel. |
| 03:14:08.81 | Jonathon Goldman | you and a compendium of parcels. |
| 03:14:11.34 | Jill Hoffman | So if we took together, what do we have? We have three or four other revenue generating parcels in town. And if we sort of threw all those together and did the same sort of, process I mean if I'm not alone on the council that other people have concerns about the MLK property we could still do the certificate deposit if we just pivoted to different revenues I mean it's Thank you. in Sausalito. |
| 03:14:33.28 | Jonathon Goldman | We have other parcels but you know all of these funds some of these funds are restricted in what the revenues can be used for that generate leases so like our tidelands fund the leases for the restaurant and the harbor and all that those monies by law can only be used for tideland activity now we might be able to make a nexus argument that parts of Dumpy Park or maybe all of it are connected to the tideland but it would be what's called a story bond and you'd have to you know convince the rating agencies that that the risk risk that would be faced by using those revenues on that park has been mitigated. I don't see that same condition being there. But we don't really have any other combination of parcels. We have Old City Hall, we have this building, |
| 03:15:00.83 | Unknown | Okay. |
| 03:15:34.48 | Jonathon Goldman | We have the MLK facility, and then we have a vacant property that generates no revenue. |
| 03:15:40.71 | Jill Hoffman | Okay. And with regard to the The $6 million that's currently the debt on the property, which I understand is interest and the principle of the debt. And so if we issue the certificate of participation, do I have it right that that would that would extinguish the $6 million debt, the $6 million principal debt? |
| 03:16:03.73 | Jonathon Goldman | Yes the council would do that by fiat the council but where the concept is is there's the original as councilmember Pfeiffer was asking there's the original loan 3.4 million dollars and then there's the interest there's about you four million dollars of park projects out there so if we just said we're gonna forgive the interest that accumulated over the years and just we're gonna eliminate the general fund loan and in return we're gonna build these parks then that would liquidate that loan and and the MLK enterprise fund would be unencumbered anymore |
| 03:16:34.25 | Unknown | Mm-hmm. |
| 03:16:42.59 | Unknown | Thank you. |
| 03:16:42.79 | Jonathon Goldman | Thank you. |
| 03:16:44.35 | Jill Hoffman | And we would do that as part of the certificate of participation is that? |
| 03:16:47.13 | Jonathon Goldman | No, we would do that as a separate item, but it would be the... It would be part of the complete package that That's why it makes sense. it's not like a mortgage where you can wrap it up, take out a new mortgage, and pay off this other loan because then it would make it a taxable issue and it just wouldn't make sense. You know, just give the general fund the $6.4 million. What we're really saying is the MLK fund is going to lean its leases, use that lease revenue in order to produce a pile of money that would be used for public projects, public projects that the general fund normally would do. And the general fund would then say, in return for that, we're going to liquidate the loan. |
| 03:17:40.25 | Jill Hoffman | And is that the mechanism that's before us tonight, or is that a mechanism? |
| 03:17:44.78 | Jonathon Goldman | No, the mechanism before you tonight is just to explore all this and bring it back to you for your action after the budget's passed. |
| 03:17:51.81 | Jill Hoffman | Okay. |
| 03:17:54.68 | Jonathon Goldman | But the action that is before you tonight is to put the full amount of, is put the three parks into the CIP as funded, and to put a proposed bond issue in the MLK fund for the total amount for that purpose. And the budget would then show the elimination of that interfund loan, just as a matter of this is the policy that we're adopting to move forward with. |
| 03:17:54.73 | Jill Hoffman | that's a good thing. |
| 03:18:22.20 | Jill Hoffman | And Charlie, just to clarify that, though, you're putting it in the budget, but that does not commit us to do it. No, because all of these actions. We have a lot more work to do. |
| 03:18:27.98 | Jonathon Goldman | No, because all of these actions would require separate council actions. |
| 03:18:32.30 | Jill Hoffman | So we go back, look at options, bring it to public, and vote on it whichever way we decide to vote. Okay. |
| 03:18:39.05 | Jill Hoffman | Thank you. |
| 03:18:39.06 | Jonathon Goldman | THE END OF THE END OF THE |
| 03:18:39.22 | Paul Leffingwell | Absolutely. |
| 03:18:39.53 | Jonathon Goldman | Thank you. |
| 03:18:39.57 | Paul Leffingwell | Thank you. |
| 03:18:40.72 | Jill Hoffman | And so at the end of the day, the way that, end of the day, After whatever it is we decide on the 30-year, 10-year, whatever. it wouldn't be that we'd have the certificate of deposit debt and still the $6 million out there. One would extinguish the other? Yes. Okay. Is there a way to earmark or segregate the certificate of deposit funds so that we can ensure that they're not spent by, for any other purpose other than |
| 03:18:57.58 | Unknown | Yes. |
| 03:19:10.99 | Jill Hoffman | the parks because I remember as part of measure O, Part of that was supposed to go to parks. And I don't see anything in the budget about Measure O going to parks. |
| 03:19:21.17 | Jonathon Goldman | Well, |
| 03:19:21.42 | Jill Hoffman | So I, this is. The question is. |
| 03:19:22.35 | Jonathon Goldman | The question is, the financing documents normally would say, here are the projects that are going to be done by this certificate of participation or by this issuance. And so then by policy, the city is saying, we're going to use these funds exactly for those purposes. |
| 03:19:33.57 | Unknown | Thank you. |
| 03:19:33.60 | Jill Hoffman | I just want to say, |
| 03:19:42.48 | Jill Hoffman | So that would be the policy, but if we had |
| 03:19:45.94 | Jonathon Goldman | If one park costs $500,000 more than another park, you have the fungibility to move that money around. But every one of those decisions comes back to the city council. |
| 03:19:56.98 | Jill Hoffman | And for instance, we have a... say a street water main broke and the street caved in That money can also be used to fix this trade. |
| 03:20:05.50 | Jonathon Goldman | The city council could, now I'm not a financial advisor, you know I'm in terms for bond issuance but the I'm |
| 03:20:13.16 | Jill Hoffman | Thank you. Thank you. |
| 03:20:15.11 | Jonathon Goldman | under the strong impression that if you said this bond money can only be used for these projects, like the general obligation bond, then it could not be used for any other purpose you could put that restriction into the covenants that that the City Council enacts in order to do the issuance |
| 03:20:22.35 | Unknown | All right. |
| 03:20:32.83 | Jonathon Goldman | So if you wanted the covenant to do that, and then if something happened where you didn't do a particular part, then the money would go back to liquidate that equivalent amount of debt. |
| 03:20:32.87 | Norman Pierce | Mr. Mayor. |
| 03:20:33.46 | Unknown | What? |
| 03:20:44.58 | Adam Politzer | Mr. Mayor, I just wanted to address part of Vice Mayor Hoffman's question as well. The Measure O money absolutely said, listed a whole bunch of categories, including parks. Sure did. But it's a 10-year window. And so we put up the highest urgent needs, which are storm drains, ADA. And as members of the public recognize, time that we fix those, and we all know that we have more than $10 million worth of storm drain work, but we'll find that out when we spend $250,000 to give us the road forward, which is just be the map of storm drains. The things that are different with storm drains is that as we also all know, As contamination reaches the bay, we are fined by all types of agencies and or sued. It is a high priority to deal with the storm drain. So I don't want to mislead the public that we passed this just to fix storm drains and we hung out parks. But as we go forward and make improvements and or find grants or other opportunity to expand how we protect our natural resources, then we hope to have money for parks. But that's at a minimum five years from now, if not. close to the last year. And so part of what's being suggested is a way, it's an alternative for the council to consider and to get more detail at future meetings. The other part that I wanted to talk about, your example of a storm drain broke or something. Well, that's an emergency. We have reserves, and we have three different categories of reserves for things that happen. And to Peter Van Meter's point, I wish we had $8 million in reserves. But we have a large amount of money in reserves, but it's something that the council and the finance committee needs to consider, to continue to look at, to make sure that we have a prudent but we also aren't stashing money away for no purpose at all. |
| 03:22:44.86 | Susan Rogers | you |
| 03:22:48.34 | Unknown | Where are they? |
| 03:22:51.60 | Jonathon Goldman | I think it was, I don't know, it was replacement value was in the assessment report. And, uh, $10.6 million is the current replacement value. That was in the facility assessment report that we just that. |
| 03:23:12.56 | Jonathon Goldman | Oh, just the facilities, to replace the facilities, not the property itself. |
| 03:23:16.54 | Jill Hoffman | Yes, I- So hold on, so okay. So if we wanted to, or not we wanted to, I'm not saying that. I'm not saying it. I'm just saying, like what's the, you know, the sign went up tomorrow. What would the range be or what would the- I have no idea. No one? It depends on what it's zoned. I mean- |
| 03:23:23.41 | Linda Pfeiffer | I'm not saying it. |
| 03:23:30.61 | Jonathon Goldman | I have no idea. No one. It depends on what it's zoned. I mean, if you zoned it industrial, you're gonna get a big, different property value if it was zoned open space. |
| 03:23:40.70 | Unknown | Thank you. |
| 03:23:40.75 | Linda Pfeiffer | Okay, all right. So I have a question. |
| 03:23:44.53 | Unknown | Thank you. I'm not sure. |
| 03:23:49.92 | Linda Pfeiffer | a few first of all I I've seen the schematic for for Dunphy Park but I as as we heard there there is a path that they're following to get you know approval and vetting etc we know Robin Sweeney has gone a little bit further with that and you know my preference is to take a phased approach you know which which is, I think it was 500,000 for the playground or of that 1.1. and you know my preference is to take a phased approach you know which is I think it was 500,000 for the playground or of that 1.15 was it 500,000 for the playground No, I know it was 1.150 for the whole Robin Sweeney, but when I asked, Mike, maybe you can respond. Was it, I was looking at all of Robin Sweeney Park and I said, what if we were to prioritize and work on the playground first? And your response at that time was, it would be better to do the playground with the ADA access. And I believe you said it was either 500,000 or was it 700,000? |
| 03:24:53.35 | Mike Langford | If we combine the ADA access improvements that are necessary, along with the playground improvements, that's $750,000. However, that was budgeted while doing everything else at the same time, because there's grading involved in doing the property. So if we were to do that in phases, then the lawn area would be fallow until we had the rest of the money to finish the project. |
| 03:24:56.03 | Linda Pfeiffer | with the playground. |
| 03:25:19.49 | Linda Pfeiffer | I understand it's not ideal, but I'm just trying to look at strategies, different options. And then Southview Park, is there a design for Southview Park yet? What is the status on Southview Park with regards to design? |
| 03:25:36.72 | Adam Politzer | While our public works director is making his way up, the major costs that we are been studying for some time now are the engineering of the at least three retaining walls. Two, the one that's right on the buildings, on the south end of the park and then the ones that's between the tennis courts and the basketball court in the middle. |
| 03:25:57.76 | Linda Pfeiffer | So we're not talking about a redesign so much as the retaining walls for that? |
| 03:26:01.76 | Adam Politzer | Well there'll be a redesign required because we heard earlier that we may not need to make it ADA compliant. I don't agree with that statement. So we have to make the park whatever today's building codes require, the park would have to be built to that standard. |
| 03:26:01.78 | Linda Pfeiffer | Thank you. though. |
| 03:26:19.67 | Jonathon Goldman | And then just to more directly answer your question, Dr. Pfeiffer, the plans that we have now are for reinforcing the retaining walls. If we did that work, the basketball court and tennis courts would no longer be as marginally usable as they are today. So we have a consultant, but in the absence of funding in the past, have not encouraged that consultant to start preparing conceptual designs for complete overhaul of the park. If the funding is available, then certainly that would be a priority. |
| 03:26:56.12 | Linda Pfeiffer | Okay, and so now I have one more question. So I've got the status on the different phases of, you know, designs with the different parks. When I look at the estimates of these things, and I'm especially with respect to, well, like MLK, the maintenance, 3 million, and then an estimate of $1.8 for dump fee, and $1.15 for Robin, and $1.15 for Southview One of the concerns I have is that, as you know, with every project, there are overruns there are things we don't expect to encounter we you know start working pulling things up and suddenly there's you know toxic something there and you know it the price shoots way up so my concern is we've we've take if we if we do this with mlk and take so much debt out you know against that um And given the odds of things not working out perfectly, what kind of wiggle room is there? I mean, what happens with MLK if there's a discovery for more maintenance needs? I mean, where does that money come from? |
| 03:28:14.09 | Jonathon Goldman | I'm not sure of the question, you're saying we first do MLK and we find something there? |
| 03:28:18.80 | Linda Pfeiffer | Take your pick. I guess my question is we're doing a COP for 7.2. |
| 03:28:22.31 | Jonathon Goldman | We have a pretty good estimate. We have a professional facility assessment estimate of the MLK facility. They're the kind of repairs that don't dig down into the ground and find activities. So I'm not as concerned about that as I am about the others, because the others are purely, at this point, estimates without good design figures. You're always chasing the, we can't give you a cost to the proposal till we design it well we're not going to design it till you give us an estimate of the cost so right now between now and when the issuance occurs again this action tonight is not to authorize us to go and do a bond issue we will will explore those issues, bring them back, talk to the financial consultant, the bond consultant, the tax consultant, and as we come through, we'll probably have better estimates on the cost, better estimates on the amount that we're able to leverage, and the council can then make a financing decision. |
| 03:29:21.92 | Adam Politzer | And just to add to that, I think we also have a pretty darn good track record from the public safety buildings to the bulk edge to the number of streets that we've done, the sewer projects, And we're working with a team, again, this community team from the Friends of Dumpy Park, the associate of beautiful So the Councils, once these projects come forward, are making recommendations then it goes through the Planning Commission as they go through the more scrutiny of the project, You have then from conceptual design to come back to the you know, to the drawings, to the contract drawing. I think that those estimates with contingencies built in, give us the ability to feel pretty safe that We're not going to come across. surprises. Public safety building, yep, we found a surprise. Four tanks, four from former gas stations sitting underneath. We brought that project in $2 million under budget. The bulkhead project, We pulled the. Well, they... Uh, stakes into the ground and hit the gas tank of a ship that was burnt and sunk a whole bunch of them and we still was able to come in. So I have confidence in our public works Director, I have confidence in the volunteers in our community that helped steer us forward. And I have confidence in the consultants that we've hired in the past and the consultants that we're working with. right now, with Dunphy Park, which is planning on going into the Planning Commission next month. |
| 03:30:50.98 | Linda Pfeiffer | I understand we've had bad luck and we've had good luck. But we've also got, for example, the fishing pier where we had overages and We just had to step back. You know, every, I mean, Thank you. I'm just looking at these numbers and I think it's prudent to look at what if. you Okay, I think I have one more question. |
| 03:31:20.83 | Unknown | One more question. Thank you. Thank you. |
| 03:31:22.49 | Linda Pfeiffer | Go ahead. |
| 03:31:23.05 | Unknown | Thank you. THE FAMILY IS You mentioned, obviously, we would not be tonight authorizing, obviously, a bond issuance. But what would be the timings? In a sort of, you know, what would be a reasonable time in? I mean, we got low interest rates. Or forget the parks for a second. If we just did the $3 million for the deferred maintenance and pushed that button and said, okay, let's go real fast on that, what would be the timing for that, for instance? |
| 03:31:52.34 | Jonathon Goldman | Yeah, it's reasonable to assume that the financing would be complete by July 31st if it didn't have any stories to tell or anything special to go along with it. That's about the normal six- to eight-week time frame. So, you know, from when you start preparing for it and you start getting documents ready, so the first council meeting in in July you could consider something that would be done by July 31st that's if you wanted to get something done before you went on your summer break If you wanted to wait till afterwards, then you know it could be done afterwards. |
| 03:32:31.14 | Unknown | One more, again, follow-up from an earlier questions and statements. We keep, you know, using language like there's $6.3 million worth of debt on MLK. I mean, I don't see $6.3 million worth of debt on MLK at all. In fact, there's zero debt on MLK. Is that correct? So what is the difference between MLK and the MLK enterprise fund? |
| 03:33:05.71 | Jonathon Goldman | Yeah, the MLK facility has no debt, you're absolutely right, but the MLK enterprise fund has an inter-fund loan with the general fund for $6.3 million. |
| 03:33:18.37 | Unknown | And so in our consolidated financial statements, it looks like a whole city, that transaction nets out to zero and you see absolutely no debt. That's correct. Thank you. |
| 03:33:21.31 | Jonathon Goldman | I said, no, no. |
| 03:33:26.65 | Jonathon Goldman | That's great. |
| 03:33:32.02 | Linda Pfeiffer | Yeah. So we were talking about the title and funds, and you were talking about the story bond, and you mentioned you'd have to prove that risk has been mitigated. And I was just wondering, when you said risk has been mitigated, what were you referring to in terms of risk? |
| 03:33:54.51 | Jonathon Goldman | the use of Tideland Fund, money that's dedicated to Tideland Fund for a parcel of a park that has more of a general public purpose. |
| 03:34:04.03 | Linda Pfeiffer | Okay, so the risk is that they would say no? They wouldn't approve it? |
| 03:34:04.45 | Jonathon Goldman | Yeah. |
| 03:34:09.43 | Jonathon Goldman | The risk would be that the tax attorney or the bond attorney or somebody would say that is not a valid use of the Title and Fund money. |
| 03:34:19.54 | Linda Pfeiffer | Is that something we can vet? There isn't enough cash for that. |
| 03:34:23.37 | Jonathon Goldman | there isn't enough cash flow in the titheland fund to even look at it because when we did the bulkhead improvement we entered into an agreement that the monies from the Sausalito Yacht Harbor were split 50-50 with the city But then the yacht harbor paid. 90% of the city's costs which are being recovered through the lease. And so that is a, an obligation that's carried on the financial statements and it doesn't have the revenue coverage to be able to even come anywhere close to the cash flow that's needed for this kind of a transit, to do even one part of it. |
| 03:35:07.89 | Linda Pfeiffer | So what you're saying then is the title fund actually already is overloaded with |
| 03:35:15.11 | Jonathon Goldman | The Thailand Fund has maximized its use of resources and expenses and has a cash balance that is necessary to keep it solvent. |
| 03:35:27.01 | Jill Hoffman | Thank you. |
| 03:35:28.96 | Unknown | Thank you. |
| 03:35:30.18 | Jill Hoffman | So what I would suggest is we're not going to make this decision tonight, but I think we've A lot of questions. There will be more questions. We certainly had a lot of public support. We've had 30 other emails that supported this. I think it's an idea that needs to be pursued. I'd recommend that we authorize the Finance Committee work with staff to put together more of the details and answer a lot of the questions that were raised tonight that we put together. We decide on what there can be in terms of, you know, what what the proper amount of time would be on, you know, the term we may need to have it as same term as our current leases so that that when they terminate we can make other decisions. I do have to say it's a great opportunity I'm a little puzzled by the look for other properties. This is a park and we would be using it to finance parks. What was done back when it was purchased was bold by the council and they made a good decision. They invested in the community they made. There is always hazard when you do that. They made a good decision to invest in it. We can use it to invest again. We certainly have to be prudent. We have to look at all the issues. So what I'm recommending is we go back to finance. A week or two ago, there wasn't a lot of traction with it. We also have to make sure that we solve the MLK financing thing. So I'd say we'll answer all these questions, bring it back to council, and we'll certainly make sure that there's a lot of information available to the public. |
| 03:36:51.06 | Unknown | But Mr. Mayor, we have to adopt a budget in two weeks. Well, I have a comment. So how are we going to do that? |
| 03:36:54.08 | Jill Hoffman | I have accomplished. Well, we could, I mean, well, that's a good question. adopted but when we say that we adopt the budget but we're certainly going to have to come back we're not going to try to make a decision to do this in two weeks. I think. |
| 03:37:10.55 | Adam Politzer | What Charlie was advising the council to do is to adopt the understanding to place these items, the MLK facilities and the parks and turn the parks into yeses with the understanding that there they'll be funded through this, uh, COP. The action to exercise the COP won't happen until later, Charlie's suggesting in July. But tonight you'll make the recommendation that that's the strategy to fund you know, these projects. if for some reason, It doesn't pencil out. It's too risky or the community doesn't support it. you then you just defund it because we're not pulling the trigger on doing any of the improvements at MLK. come July 1st and we're not making any recommendations to make improvements to the parks. come July 1st, but we're asking you to give us the tools give us direction to come back and give you the tools and the mechanisms and the process that would be required Thank you. as a standalone item. Thank you. that is well vetted well publicized so the community can come. You can have two or three meetings in the month of July. You can carry it over to September. I'm not sure. you lose the risk of Charlie not being available. when we come in September. But that shouldn't be what prevents us making the decision. So tonight your action is saying that we're putting a yes on next to parks. with the idea that the funding source would be issuing the COP. If we don't issue the COP, then the yes turns to no. on all three of those boxes at the top of the page. |
| 03:39:01.05 | Jill Hoffman | Thank you. |
| 03:39:01.08 | Adam Politzer | Thank you. |
| 03:39:01.12 | Jill Hoffman | Let me. |
| 03:39:01.15 | Jill Hoffman | Let me. |
| 03:39:01.77 | Jill Hoffman | Excuse me. |
| 03:39:02.69 | Jill Hoffman | HE WAS ADDRESSED IN ME. I MEAN, I HAVE NO PROBLEM WITH THAT. I MEAN, BUT WE HAVE TO BE CLEAR. WE CAN PUT IT IN THE BUDGET, BUT THAT IF IT DOESN'T WORK OUT, WE DON'T GET COMMUNITY SUPPORT, THIS COUNCIL DOESN'T AGREE TO IT, THAT IT COMES OUT OF THE BUDGET. I MEAN, NOT BY PUTTING IN THE BUDGET, WE DON'T COMMIT TO SOMETHING THAT WE DON'T OTHERWISE DO. |
| 03:39:04.09 | Jill Hoffman | I'm going to come. |
| 03:39:16.86 | Linda Pfeiffer | I-I-I-I-I-I-I-I-I-I-I-I-I-I-I-I-I-I-I-I-I-I-I-I-I-I-I-I-I-I-I-I-I-I-I-I-I-I-I-I-I-I-I-I-I-I-I-I-I-I-I-I-I-I-I-I-I-I-I-I-I-I-I-I-I-I-I-I-I-I-I-I-I-I-I-I-I-I-I-I-I-I-I-I-I-I-I-I-I-I-I-I-I-I-I-I-I-I-I-I-I-I-I-I-I-I-I-I-I-I-I-I-I-I-I-I-I-I-I-I-I-I-I-I-I-I-I-I-I-I-I-I-I-I-I-I-I-I-I-I-I-I-I-I-I-I-I-I-I-I-I-I-I-I-I-I-I-I-I-I-I-I-I-I-I-I-I-I-I-I-I-I-I-I-I-I-I-I-I-I-I-I-I-I-I-I-I-I-I-I-I-I-I-I-I-I-I-I-I-I-I-I-I-I-I-I-I-I-I-I-I-I-I-I-I-I-I-I-I-I-I-I- that we don't otherwise do. I think the issue here is the phrase community support because I've received so many emails supporting the certificates, but the key word is fix our parks. I have also received as many emails or phone calls regarding don't. don't add debt to MLK. I mean, my concern here is, is that We all want to fix these parks. what are the other alternatives in terms of funding And can we take a phased approach, which is... which is, Thank you. you know, a little bit more perhaps doable within without going into this sort of debt. And I do think that if we go in this direction it raises, it goes, comes to the level of a ballot vote. Because of the ordinance 1128 folks. I mean, we all want to see these parks, you know, fixed, but it's like, you know, how do we go about doing this within the framework? of the ordinance and also the vision that so many people have of MLK. |
| 03:40:42.69 | Jill Hoffman | So I like actually what the mayor suggested, which was I have a couple of questions that I want to talk to Charlie about how to structure this. And so, you know, I'd like to come back in a couple weeks, in the 16th at our next. you know, meeting, we were talking about scheduling an extra meeting anyway. We may have to do that so that we can just talk about budget issues. And I'm fine with that. So, you know, I'd like to have a little bit of extra time to talk about this. We didn't have this on the agenda as a vote. I think this was on the agenda as more discussion about this issue, which we've certainly been discussing. So, and I agree, you know, we need to fix our parks. I mean, it's absolutely a necessity, but, um, you know, we also have this asset of MLK and we have to make sure that I'm fully informed of all the, you know, goes into that. The other thing too is, if the six, you know, and this is a question I have, if this enterprise fund, you know, debt or whatever you want to call it isn't a debt, then is it true that MLK is debt free at the moment? And if that is true, in fact, then you have to go back to the ordinance and see what that says about if MLK is free of debt, you know? And that's something that I want to talk about offline and we can talk about it then on the 16th, but I'm not ready to vote on it yet and it wasn't on the agenda as a vote and so I don't think we should. |
| 03:41:56.90 | Unknown | I am Mr. Mayor. On the point of procedure, anything that's in this budget document is up for a vote. |
| 03:42:05.46 | Unknown | I'm not suggesting |
| 03:42:05.59 | Unknown | I'm not suggesting we necessarily vote on it, but we can't procedurally say we can't vote because it's not on the agenda. |
| 03:42:12.83 | Jill Hoffman | and I'm going to take something right in between. We're going to make our final vote on the 16th, and that's when it's set to vote. Tonight we were hoping to get through some issues and knock them off and kind of get But I think tonight we're not going to make a fully agreement on this. I think we have council members that need more vote. I do recommend Councilmember Pfeiffer has an interesting comment that she may be The council may be in favor of funding the parks and finding other sources. We can look at that. Let's be prepared. On the 16th, we're going to have to vote. I think we're not going to do it tonight. Then we can get more data on this. I think the vice mayor needs some. |
| 03:42:45.44 | Linda Pfeiffer | Yeah. Because I. |
| 03:42:46.36 | Unknown | Thank you. |
| 03:42:48.68 | Linda Pfeiffer | Thank you. Thank you. |
| 03:42:49.37 | Linda Pfeiffer | Yeah, because I know there are grants, TAM. If we can get funding now through other venues, why wouldn't we? I mean, why wouldn't we? If we could do what we want to do and fix these parks without going into debt and potentially needing to go to a vote, why wouldn't we do that? |
| 03:43:13.67 | Jill Hoffman | Why wouldn't we have done it in the last 20 or 30 years? Oh, I've pushed for it. I have pushed for that as a matter of fact. That's a very good question. Would you have another? |
| 03:43:16.18 | Linda Pfeiffer | Oh, I've pushed for it. I have pushed for that as a matter of fact. That's a very good question. |
| 03:43:26.97 | Jill Hoffman | I suggest that we're going to come back. I think we've spent a lot of time. I appreciate everyone giving their input. So we're- Well, Mr. Mayor, |
| 03:43:34.02 | Unknown | Mr. Mayor, at some point, we've got to make a decision. And we'll do it on the same page. |
| 03:43:37.36 | Jill Hoffman | And we'll do it on the 16th. |
| 03:43:42.44 | Jill Hoffman | make all the budget decisions on the 16th, correct? |
| 03:43:45.43 | Unknown | It's not my understanding. Okay, well. Well, we'll, |
| 03:43:48.25 | Linda Pfeiffer | I guess the question here that that's, it is, if we vote on this budget, then it sounds like we're making a decision whether or not to go with the CIP or not, or COP or not. Is that correct? |
| 03:44:06.42 | Jill Hoffman | Well, we still, as we've said a number of times, we'd still come back to the public. We'd have to agree on this and agree as a council. merely be putting in the budget, just like everything else in the budget. We have the flashing lights. We haven't, decided which ones we're going to we're going to do. And if they're too expensive, we won't do it. They're budgeted. And it'd be very much like this. It's not a final decision by this council. But, our finance director and our staff needs to know what are we looking for to spend our money on this year? So it's an important purpose, Mason. |
| 03:44:33.18 | Unknown | But Mr. Mayor, again, I'm sorry for keeping this discussion going, but our Charlie asked for a direction tonight. Which of these three options do you want in the budget that I'm presenting to you on the 16th for approval? That's what he asked. And we can't apparently give him that answer. I would. |
| 03:44:51.71 | Linda Pfeiffer | Well... I think the direction was to, I know I'm going to, Thank you. look at alternative funding sources to see if we can get where we need to go. |
| 03:45:05.08 | Unknown | Thank you. |
| 03:45:05.11 | Linda Pfeiffer | Um, |
| 03:45:07.67 | Unknown | you |
| 03:45:07.74 | Susan Rogers | The Pressure Manninger I think that's only fair. |
| 03:45:08.10 | Jill Hoffman | I think that's only fair. I think that's only fair. I understand that the Finance Committee has been looking at this for the past six months. Other members of this council have not been looking at it for the past six months. So I know, Ray, that you're comfortable with this. I'm not necessarily comfortable with it, and I'm ready to wait and do my own due diligence on this issue. |
| 03:45:09.92 | Linda Pfeiffer | Thank you. |
| 03:45:24.35 | Unknown | Yeah, let me explain. This, the finance committee did not recommend it. Remember. |
| 03:45:31.57 | Unknown | Thank you. |
| 03:45:31.72 | Jill Hoffman | Absolutely. |
| 03:45:32.01 | Unknown | Thank you. |
| 03:45:32.68 | Unknown | Right. The finance committee actually only recommended that we definitely move forward with certificates of participation to fund the deferred maintenance of $3 million. And I mean, at some point, we've got to make at least that decision. |
| 03:45:57.69 | Jill Hoffman | I think it's an important issue and we've done a lot tonight, but I think we're not, I think we can defer it to the sixth. I just don't see us being prepared to do that. Let's take our time to move on to. other items at this point. So but I think council needs to know that we WE ARE PREPARED AT OUR NEXT MEETING TO PASS THE ENTIRE BUDGET. WE HAVEN'T MOVED PASS ITEM ONE ON ALL AT CHARLIE'S LIST. SO. Moving on, I think that- |
| 03:46:21.40 | Herb Weiner | He still wants direction. |
| 03:46:22.97 | Jill Hoffman | We're going to have direction. We're going to have direction at our next meeting. I think that's the 16th. |
| 03:46:23.93 | Herb Weiner | direction where they have to. |
| 03:46:25.01 | Linda Pfeiffer | Thank you. |
| 03:46:28.29 | Linda Pfeiffer | We had to look at alternative funding sources was one of the points of direction. |
| 03:46:29.65 | Jill Hoffman | looking at |
| 03:46:33.89 | Unknown | What is your joy? |
| 03:46:37.06 | Jill Hoffman | Charlie, what direction are you? I don't think we're ready to make the final decision on this tonight. What direction are you looking for? education. |
| 03:46:45.92 | Herb Weiner | made a decision. |
| 03:46:46.09 | Jill Hoffman | Wow. Well, can we have the direction that, Charlie, that you take a look at all the options and bring them to council with a lot of the detail that included the questions that we had today? |
| 03:46:57.67 | Jonathon Goldman | What about this? Do you want these in the budget or not? |
| 03:47:02.02 | Jill Hoffman | We haven't gotten to them. We're moving on to the parks and we're going to go to them. |
| 03:47:05.89 | Jonathon Goldman | Well, the budget I bring on the 16th has to have something in it. I understand that. And we haven't gotten direction of whether you want these in or out of the budget. |
| 03:47:06.48 | Jill Hoffman | The budget I |
| 03:47:18.34 | Jill Hoffman | We are going to go on through them one by one. No. Well, yes, but we're trying to get through the parks. I'm not sure. Maybe I'm confused. I'm talking about this COP issue at this point. |
| 03:47:21.34 | Jonathon Goldman | Yeah. you know, |
| 03:47:22.25 | Unknown | Well, |
| 03:47:22.49 | Jonathon Goldman | Thank you. |
| 03:47:22.67 | Unknown | Thank you. |
| 03:47:22.69 | Jonathon Goldman | Yes, but we're trying to get that |
| 03:47:23.98 | Adam Politzer | Okay. |
| 03:47:29.48 | Unknown | Yeah, yeah. |
| 03:47:30.77 | Adam Politzer | Mr. Mayor I think to that point and thanks for clarifying I mean I think what Charlie and I both need and if it goes back to the finance committee between now and the 16th that's fine too but what we need to know is give us a little bit of parameters. Do you want us to come back with a 10 year, 15 year, 20 year, 30 year, do you want us to come back with some models for you that give you more information so that when you make the decision that you want us to look at this more closely at a future meeting. We have to make. To be honest with you, I'm not. sure why the decision can't be made tonight. that you don't want to, look more closely at the COP option. as its own standalone item at some future meeting after June 16th so you know conceptually I think that you folks are understanding that that is a viable option |
| 03:48:21.23 | Unknown | Amen. |
| 03:48:28.25 | Adam Politzer | even if it's what Councilmember Withey said, just on the MLK improvements. but if you want to, go big. like Peter Van Meter suggested, then you could include the parks or even further than that. But the discussion about pulling the trigger on the COP isn't, until much later in this process. This is this. We think that this option, if we're going to fund these projects, that this option to do the COP is the direction we want to go. between now and when that item comes back to the council if Councilmember Pfeiffer wants to explore other funding sources and bring those at the same time or before that still exists no one would take that opportunity away from any of the council members or the members of the public |
| 03:49:06.81 | Unknown | IT'S NOT. |
| 03:49:10.19 | Unknown | Councilman. Thank you. THE END OF THE END OF THE |
| 03:49:12.11 | Adam Politzer | But to say that this is, the direction we want to head, So that we can explore it, it's no different than the bike parking. know we can't actually pull the trigger on bike parking until we build the infrastructure. |
| 03:49:23.87 | Linda Pfeiffer | I'm sorry. |
| 03:49:24.21 | Adam Politzer | Charlie can't move forward on issuing a COP. without going through a very public with the camera. |
| 03:49:29.52 | Linda Pfeiffer | So just to respond to that, I would say that the issue here is this COP or CIP, I get those mixed up, it has been fully explored. I mean, we've seen Charlie's spreadsheet. We've seen that cash flow. I know I'm... certainly not ready to go forward. I want to understand what the options are with respect to other funding sources. There are no other funding sources. |
| 03:49:56.17 | Jonathon Goldman | There are no other funding sources |
| 03:49:58.33 | Linda Pfeiffer | Yeah, I don't, I would like to take a look at that, take a closer look at that. What's to look at? There's no other fun. |
| 03:50:03.49 | Unknown | MISSING. |
| 03:50:03.56 | Jonathon Goldman | What's to look at? There's no other fund that has money that can be used to fund these parks. So the question is do you want to fund the parks? |
| 03:50:10.26 | Linda Pfeiffer | I, |
| 03:50:14.38 | Jill Hoffman | or not. if I could yeah if I could speak so we've been talking about the budget here for another whatever what we've been at our hour and a half perhaps we haven't budgeted enough time because there are lots of other things in the budget that we need to look at and you know, balance, yes or no. And it's 11 o'clock, and we have two more issues on our agenda. And you all are welcome to stay and listen to those, too. So I would suggest at this point that we do as a mayor suggested that we come back on the 16th and we move on for our agenda tonight. And if we need to have an extra session, then we have an extra session for the budget. And I would respond to, |
| 03:50:49.90 | Jill Hoffman | And I would respond to the city manager's, I think we, I mean, I'm supportive of certainly going forward. I think we're having a little procedural where this goes. I would like, I mean, I would recommend, and I hope the council support me, that we have our staff go back and certainly look at this and prepare it as it's something, a viable option, Council was going to move on and that and be prepared to have us vote on the 16th, whether it goes in the budget. I think we should do all the work. And if we need a special finance committee, I think for some reason, people council level are not prepared to commit to it at this point. So I'm not sure. Maybe it's getting laid. Why can't we just get further information and bring it on the 16th? I'm not quite sure. what the problem with that would be. |
| 03:51:33.15 | Unknown | I don't know. |
| 03:51:33.37 | Jill Hoffman | I mean, we have a lot of unanswered questions, and we certainly know before we pull the trigger I'm fully supportive of this, but I think that we have to go in stages and get support of both Other council members. |
| 03:51:44.22 | Adam Politzer | I don't believe it's a problem it just you as the vice mayor also stated it pretty much guarantees that you're gonna have to have a special meeting because next week you know I mean there's other things in here that are equally |
| 03:51:53.94 | Herb Weiner | Yeah. |
| 03:51:54.21 | Jeffrey Chase | Thank you. |
| 03:51:58.99 | Adam Politzer | exciting that haven't yet even been discussed that we have to work through. So if we're not ready to give real clear direction to the finance director tonight to put it in or not put in whatever the item is on the list, then we're pretty much guaranteeing a second meeting. Unless we dedicate the 16th to budget only. That's right. |
| 03:51:59.14 | Jeffrey Chase | it's a great day. |
| 03:52:21.25 | Jill Hoffman | That's right, but I don't want to lose the opportunity of giving staff direction to move forward in terms of getting details so that we can have these questions answered and be prepared to make a decision on the 16th. |
| 03:52:34.14 | Herb Weiner | Excuse me. I just have to say, this is not spending money. This is investing in our community. If you really look at it, every 10 years, the cost of these things double. What are we waiting for? Interest rates are low. the opportunity |
| 03:52:52.94 | Unknown | you |
| 03:52:53.22 | Herb Weiner | Thank you. |
| 03:52:53.24 | Unknown | Thank you. |
| 03:52:53.38 | Herb Weiner | Charlie, unbelievably creative to be able to come up with this. I mean, it's just good sense. Kicking it down the can, piecemealing it. Is that the way you want your city run, in piecemails? Well, that's what you're going to get if you listen to this. Okay? Thank you. |
| 03:53:17.47 | Jill Hoffman | And I've been up here nine years. All right, we're not making the decision tonight, but we're directing staff to go forward with getting together what we need to make this decision. We're making a budget decision on the 16th and we'll be prepared to do it, I think. Thank you. |
| 03:53:32.20 | Herb Weiner | You'll be no different prepared than you are now. |
| 03:53:32.51 | Jill Hoffman | We no different prepared. Okay. |
| 03:53:37.40 | Herb Weiner | Thank you. |
| 03:53:38.41 | Jill Hoffman | Five minute break. |
| 03:53:40.62 | Unknown | . |
| 03:53:40.94 | Jill Hoffman | We need a little breather because I'm not understanding it. |
| 03:53:43.97 | Unknown | Thank you. |
| 03:54:52.50 | Paul Leffingwell | So... |
| 03:55:09.57 | Paul Leffingwell | in time ago. Very good. I agree. And then we've got more of the good parts of this. |
| 03:55:15.09 | Unknown | Thank you. |
| 03:55:17.81 | Paul Leffingwell | Oh, we were pretty sure. |
| 03:55:24.25 | Paul Leffingwell | So I don't know if it's enough. the whole part. |
| 03:55:26.06 | Unknown | I'm going to go. you |
| 03:55:26.75 | Paul Leffingwell | That's my concern. |
| 03:55:28.03 | Unknown | No, no, no, no. |
| 03:55:28.96 | Paul Leffingwell | Thank you. |
| 03:55:29.03 | Unknown | We can. |
| 03:55:29.98 | Paul Leffingwell | Thank you. |
| 03:55:30.02 | Unknown | Thank you. |
| 03:55:30.97 | Paul Leffingwell | And so we have to get together and then somehow we can be costed. |
| 03:55:31.92 | Unknown | And totally. |
| 03:55:42.44 | Unknown | I know. |
| 03:56:16.16 | Paul Leffingwell | That's what will be paid. Thank you. |
| 03:56:25.86 | Unknown | Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. |
| 03:56:32.14 | Unknown | Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. . |
| 03:56:34.03 | Unknown | you |
| 03:56:34.08 | Unknown | Thank you. |
| 03:56:34.15 | Unknown | Thank you. |
| 03:56:34.18 | Unknown | you |
| 03:56:34.35 | Unknown | Thank you. |
| 03:56:34.64 | Unknown | Thank you. |
| 03:56:34.69 | Unknown | Thank you. |
| 03:56:34.71 | Unknown | Thank you. |
| 03:56:34.79 | Unknown | And my observation is on this CLP now, |
| 03:56:34.81 | Unknown | Thank you. My consideration is Yeah. |
| 03:56:38.98 | Pat Zook | which is 1,850,000 something. you not even close to what it is necessary to have that artwork. |
| 03:56:47.68 | Unknown | ST. |
| 03:56:47.97 | Unknown | of business. |
| 03:56:48.97 | Unknown | Thank you. |
| 03:56:49.03 | Unknown | Go ahead. Enjoy. |
| 03:56:53.32 | Unknown | Thank you. |
| 03:56:54.03 | Unknown | to start |
| 03:57:12.96 | Unknown | Thank you. |
| 03:57:13.86 | Unknown | I'm going to be lousy with all the poems of Dr. Donovan starting to be a good idea. Thank you. |
| 03:57:19.10 | Unknown | 14 years. |
| 03:57:20.69 | Unknown | Thank you. |
| 03:57:20.73 | Unknown | Thank you. |
| 03:57:20.76 | Unknown | . |
| 03:57:21.03 | Unknown | Jersey. |
| 03:57:21.45 | Unknown | Okay. |
| 03:57:21.97 | Unknown | 36,000. |
| 03:57:22.61 | Unknown | Thank you. |
| 03:57:25.21 | Unknown | . |
| 03:57:25.55 | Unknown | Thank you. |
| 03:57:25.97 | Unknown | I'm going to play in the office club. Yeah. |
| 03:57:29.03 | Unknown | . |
| 03:57:29.36 | Unknown | Thank you. |
| 03:57:34.56 | Unknown | Thank you. |
| 03:57:34.63 | Unknown | It's not going to be all right. |
| 03:57:34.93 | Unknown | Thank you. |
| 03:57:34.97 | Unknown | I'm going to go. |
| 03:57:37.97 | Unknown | We're not getting anybody. |
| 03:57:38.34 | Unknown | We're not getting anywhere. |
| 03:57:40.64 | Unknown | Thank you. |
| 03:57:40.70 | Unknown | you Thank you. |
| 03:57:41.19 | Unknown | Thank you. |
| 03:57:41.26 | Unknown | Thank you. |
| 03:57:41.33 | Unknown | Thank you. |
| 03:57:41.35 | Unknown | you |
| 03:57:41.53 | Unknown | Thank you. |
| 03:57:41.57 | Unknown | Thank you. |
| 03:57:41.70 | Unknown | Thank you. |
| 03:57:41.97 | Unknown | Somebody wants to stay over. |
| 03:57:42.17 | Unknown | Somebody. |
| 03:57:42.86 | Unknown | Thank you. |
| 03:57:42.88 | Unknown | It has to be there. |
| 03:57:43.96 | Unknown | . Thank you. |
| 03:57:44.47 | Unknown | It has to be finished. |
| 03:57:45.68 | Paul Leffingwell | I'm just going to get the stairs. |
| 03:57:45.97 | Unknown | There it is. |
| 03:57:46.51 | Unknown | Oh, okay. |
| 03:57:46.78 | Unknown | Thank you. |
| 03:57:47.42 | Paul Leffingwell | So Thank you. Thank you. |
| 03:58:02.91 | Unknown | Thank you. Thank you. |
| 03:58:07.98 | Unknown | Thank you. Thank you. |
| 03:58:10.41 | Paul Leffingwell | Thank you. you No, no. Yeah. Thank you. It was true. I'm going to go. |
| 03:58:24.97 | Unknown | Thank you. Thank you. |
| 03:58:39.02 | Unknown | Thank you. |
| 03:58:43.02 | Unknown | No. |
| 03:58:44.04 | Unknown | I'm kind of large enough. |
| 03:58:45.54 | Unknown | So what is that? |
| 03:58:45.61 | Unknown | Thank you. I'm not. you Thank you. |
| 03:58:48.37 | Unknown | It's my part. It's my part. It's your part. |
| 03:58:48.39 | Unknown | Mr. President. |
| 03:58:48.97 | Linda Pfeiffer | Thank you. |
| 03:58:49.69 | Unknown | Thank you. |
| 03:58:49.98 | Linda Pfeiffer | you |
| 03:58:50.05 | Unknown | I like water. Thank you. |
| 03:58:50.97 | Linda Pfeiffer | Thank you. |
| 03:58:51.02 | Unknown | Thank you. |
| 03:58:51.06 | Linda Pfeiffer | Thank you. |
| 03:58:51.23 | Unknown | Thank you. |
| 03:58:51.33 | Linda Pfeiffer | Thank you. |
| 03:58:51.55 | Unknown | the glow. Thank you. |
| 03:58:52.36 | Linda Pfeiffer | I'm not sure. |
| 03:58:53.93 | Unknown | Well, with the inputs that came |
| 03:58:53.94 | Linda Pfeiffer | you |
| 03:58:54.03 | Unknown | with it. |
| 03:58:54.67 | Linda Pfeiffer | Thank you. |
| 03:58:56.36 | Unknown | That's all that time, right? |
| 03:58:56.41 | Unknown | Thank you. I just want to understand. Can we put that on the screen? |
| 03:59:02.97 | Unknown | Thank you. |
| 03:59:03.00 | Unknown | Thank you. |
| 03:59:16.17 | David Sudo | Thank you. |
| 03:59:16.22 | Unknown | about the arrest. |
| 03:59:16.88 | David Sudo | Thank you. |
| 03:59:16.98 | Unknown | Thank you. |
| 03:59:17.18 | David Sudo | Thank you. |
| 03:59:17.21 | Unknown | Thank you. |
| 03:59:17.62 | Unknown | Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. you |
| 03:59:19.96 | Unknown | Thank you. |
| 03:59:20.22 | Unknown | Thank you. |
| 03:59:21.03 | Unknown | Thanks. |
| 03:59:21.97 | Unknown | Thank you. |
| 03:59:22.02 | Unknown | Okay. Thank you. Oh, it's a special education. Thank you. Thank you. I have another point. |
| 03:59:27.34 | Unknown | . Thank you. Thank you. |
| 03:59:30.66 | Celia Seleska | Good. |
| 03:59:31.14 | Unknown | Thank you. |
| 03:59:31.17 | Celia Seleska | I have friends. Five minutes. |
| 03:59:33.02 | Unknown | I'm gonna put it a little bit. Please. |
| 03:59:35.02 | Celia Seleska | Thank you. Thank you. |
| 03:59:36.01 | Unknown | And again, what do you do? |
| 03:59:36.08 | Celia Seleska | out again. Absolutely. Thank you. Thank you. |
| 03:59:39.00 | Unknown | I think that's what I'm doing. Thank you. |
| 03:59:40.97 | Unknown | you |
| 03:59:41.02 | Unknown | Thank you. |
| 03:59:41.12 | Unknown | I guess. |
| 03:59:42.32 | Unknown | Y'all see those analogies. Yeah. I just realized that I have something else in time. |
| 03:59:51.35 | Unknown | Thank you. |
| 03:59:51.72 | Unknown | Thank you. you . |
| 03:59:53.66 | Unknown | Yeah, we're gonna go outside. |
| 03:59:55.96 | Unknown | Well, I can never go around. |
| 03:59:59.82 | Unknown | Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. |
| 04:00:11.32 | Unknown | So, Thank you. Yeah. |
| 04:00:15.09 | Unknown | Thank you. |
| 04:00:15.45 | Unknown | Hi. |
| 04:00:15.53 | Unknown | All right. Thank you. Any time before 11 or after. |
| 04:00:21.25 | Unknown | Thank you. I'm trying to think of my mic. Oh, there's something. It should be still. Okay, we'll find out. |
| 04:00:24.53 | Unknown | Thank you. |
| 04:00:27.18 | Unknown | Thank you. |
| 04:00:27.60 | Bonnie | you |
| 04:00:28.51 | Unknown | Thank you. I'll find. |
| 04:00:29.84 | Bonnie | Thank you. |
| 04:00:31.38 | Unknown | We need to have time to talk to you. We don't have to say what's happening. |
| 04:00:34.89 | Susan Rogers | Yeah. I'm Christine. |
| 04:00:40.04 | Unknown | All right, not so full. No, no. |
| 04:00:41.59 | Susan Rogers | you No, it's a very, yeah, and it's a very, |
| 04:00:42.97 | Unknown | you Yeah. |
| 04:00:44.32 | Unknown | This is a very difficult time. Thank you. I mean, you know, it's got so many facets to it. |
| 04:00:49.25 | Unknown | Yeah, I'm the state. |
| 04:00:49.98 | Paul Leffingwell | you |
| 04:00:50.03 | Unknown | and |
| 04:01:03.97 | Paul Leffingwell | We did show the council what it's called, because we were pushed to do it, an early idea, but there was no input. Now we have soils input, some idea of horticultural input, which are necessary, because it's a mess, |
| 04:01:46.03 | Unknown | Thank you. you . I think we need to do what I have. |
| 04:01:51.35 | Unknown | I can give you an input. |
| 04:01:54.69 | Unknown | Thank you. Thank you. |
| 04:01:57.51 | Unknown | Oh, you're welcome, man. it. |
| 04:02:56.72 | Herb Weiner | Green light, this should be us. Thank you. |
| 04:03:45.58 | Norman Pierce | It's going to. They found. |
| 04:03:47.05 | Unknown | Thank you. Thank you. |
| 04:03:51.26 | Norman Pierce | Thank you. |
| 04:03:51.30 | Jonathon Goldman | because of certain violations. Thank you. |
| 04:03:59.21 | Jonathon Goldman | Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. and all that role. |
| 04:04:01.96 | Norman Pierce | Thank you. |
| 04:04:42.06 | Jill Hoffman | Um, I think what I recommend, unless we have object in from the council that we because of late hour. because we have consultants that we terminate the budget discussion for tonight. to our next meeting and possibly a special meeting. to be convened by council. And we move on to the next item. |
| 04:05:01.97 | Unknown | All right. |
| 04:05:02.75 | Jill Hoffman | Okay? All right. And then I recommend another agenda change. Can we move item? 6D, the management study from the state of California, Commission on peace officer standards and training the post. Can we move that up to we'll address that now and then move item 6D into 16 to 60. So moved. Okay. |
| 04:05:26.81 | Unknown | So moved. Thank you. |
| 04:05:27.64 | Linda Pfeiffer | I'm sorry, are we continuing one of these? |
| 04:05:30.05 | Jill Hoffman | OK. you We're terminating the budget discussion for now. We're moving on to the next item, but I'm suggesting that we move the post discussion, which is 60 into 60 because we have a consultant that's been waiting for hours. We do that and then we move six C to 60. Okay. |
| 04:05:47.50 | Linda Pfeiffer | Should we continue 6C? |
| 04:05:49.74 | Jill Hoffman | Well, let's do the post report first, then we'll do it. |
| 04:05:52.29 | Linda Pfeiffer | I mean, six... |
| 04:05:53.03 | Pat Zook | Bye. |
| 04:05:54.81 | Jill Hoffman | Well, of course. All right. Let's go to post, and then maybe we'll go, and we'll see how we do. |
| 04:06:01.30 | Pat Zook | you |
| 04:06:01.39 | Chief Tejada | Thank you. |
| 04:06:01.44 | Pat Zook | Thank you. |
| 04:06:01.49 | Chief Tejada | Yeah. |
| 04:06:06.55 | Chief Tejada | Awesome. Thank you. Good evening again, Mayor, Vice Mayor, and City Council members. Thank you so much for moving this item forward. I do have a consultant here this evening, and he traveled all the way from Los Angeles. So this evening, I'm delighted that we are here to present the POST Workload and Staffing Study. POST, as you know, stands for the Commission on Police Officer Standards and Training. When I came here in 2011, I did an assessment of our staffing and our workload as best I could and looked at previous years of staffing and current workload and calls for service and realized that we had reduced staffing back in 2002 from 24 to 18 and had never restored staffing in spite of calls for service and volume of people in town increasing. And at that time I requested, knowing that there was no funding for a study, I asked if POST would do the study for us. They have a service to police agencies in California, and they provide management services, and one of them is a study such as this, and they do it for free. So it is a great benefit to the city to have Post foot the bill for this study. So in 2011, I requested the study. Due to budget cuts and staffing reductions, Post was not able to grant that study until 2014. So last April, I believe it was, Post approved the study. We were delighted to have Mr. Dan Koenig do the study, who is an expert in this field. He has a ton of law enforcement experience over three decades, and now he is considered an expert in this area of management study. So I will, without further ado, pass you over to Mr. Koenig, who will talk you through the post-study. And at this point tonight, we are just asking that you receive the study. We'll answer any questions, or we can come back at a later date. But thank you for your time. |
| 04:08:15.54 | Jill Hoffman | Thank you. |
| 04:08:15.56 | Dan Koenig | Thank you. Good evening. My name is Dan Koenig. I retired from LAPD about 10 years ago, kind of high up the food chain, and I did deployment for LAPD on and off for 35 years. And since I've retired, Post hired me to provide consulting services to law enforcement agencies, basically whatever they're concerned with, I do. And in this case, it was deployment and staffing, which is quite common. A lot of agencies did a lot of cutbacks prior to the recession. Now they're starting to look at some money coming back in. Where do you want to put it? What do you want to do? So we take a look at what's going on. There are some subtleties to the report. I'd like to kind of walk you through so that you can appreciate those subtleties. And then I'm free to answer any questions you may have. You have the report, so I'm just going to refer to the hearts. that I'm concerned with. Initially, and you'll find this on page six, initially we did a one-year study. you We try to break the year into quarters so that you can look at seasonal fluctuations. Initially, we looked at 2013, first quarter, second, third, and fourth. The differences in call load were so startling that it caused me concern. So what we did is we decided to take a second year. So we took the first, second, and third quarter of 2014 to see if the same pattern repeated itself again. And it did. So this is a two... two-year study On page 11, there's a little discussion about queuing. Um, It always amazes people, and it certainly amazed me, that The seemingly random nature of law enforcement calls for service could be predictable, but they are. They are predictable. The private industry has been using this for decades, supermarkets, businesses, airlines. The example I like to use is McDonald's. McDonald's can tell you how many quarter pounders they're going to sell next Tuesday from 11 o'clock to 1 based on 10, 15 years of selling quarter pounders on Tuesday. Law enforcement is no different. You'll see in these charts in this report Even though there are quarter differences, the calls themselves tend to follow a predictable pattern. especially by quarters. So the queuing theory is what really allowed us in law enforcement to get into the business of predicting workload and deploying people to that workload. On page 13, there's two charts. I'll draw your attention to 13 and 14. This has to do with calls for service. |
| 04:11:33.42 | Dan Koenig | Black and whites in this city and in most cities have an MDT, a mobile – MDC, mobile digital computer in the front seat. Because they're one officer units, officers generally do not tend to do police work. without hitting something on there, telling somebody what they're doing. All that's captured. It's all captured in what's called the CAD system, or the computer-aided dispatch system. CADs have a variety of approaches, but they all have basically the same type of thing. in your particular CAD they use nine priorities Now, why they use nine priorities is beyond me. Usually three, four is about it, maybe a fifth for dogs, but they don't need that many priorities. In this particular case, I grouped them up to make it a little more reasonable, a little more understanding. E and 1P, that's the classification that the computer uses, are basically emergency calls for service. One is the next level, an urgent call for service. Two P and two are on page 13. 2p and 2. are just a gradation of routine calls. What's interesting is when you look at the priority one calls, you have 261 in quarter one. And 106... lower priority calls. So it makes you think that the priorities may be a little bit out of sync. Generally, you would expect to see a graduated volume of calls. Emergencies are fairly small. Urgents are a little bigger. Routines are a little bigger than that. What happens sometimes, especially in communities like this, is there'll be mission creep. Somebody's vandalism call didn't get handled quite quickly enough, so let's move it up in the order so that it's handled as a higher priority call. It gets a quicker call. So that may be what's going on, but the numbers don't match what you would expect to see. So one of the recommendations that we made is that somebody drills down and takes a look at exactly what's in there. When the person answers the phone call, they enter words into the type of call. That's what gives it the priority based upon a preconceived or pre-patterned program. |
| 04:13:30.21 | Unknown | for a long time. |
| 04:14:02.34 | Dan Koenig | So the numbers are a little bit out of sequence. They indicate that there may have been some mission creep. On page 14, we talk about zones. The city of Sausalito has been broken up into a number of smaller pieces, and it's the way we keep track of things in law enforcement. Normally, zones will coincide with census tracts. It allows us to not only look at crime data, arrest data, call data, but also to correlate it with demographic data, which you can get from a census tract. So we try to keep those together. In this case, you have some of the zones are very, very large. You have two zones, one on the north end, one on the south end, that account for almost 45% of your call load. There's so much activity in them that it inhibits you from being able to figure out what's going on. We're asking you to take a look at those zones again and make sure that they're doing what you want. That's on page 15. You can see Zone 2 and Zone 11 have very large numbers, 24% in Zone 2 and 20% in Zone 11. |
| 04:15:20.20 | Dan Koenig | The next I'm going to come to is page 16. There's two charts there. Calls by month 2013 and 2014. Now I've been doing this for a long time. I've never seen this big a difference in calls for service. Looking at 13, in February there were 625 calls for service. And in June, it goes up to 1,014. A lot of communities have summer traffic. Newport Beach has summer traffic. A lot of places, especially beach communities, vacation communities, have large summer increases in work. What's different here is how quiet the winter is. In Newport, there's UC Irvine right there, where all the kids rent the houses down on the Newport Strip. in the winter. have some winter activity and then some summer activity. You guys have very, very little winter activity. I'm not telling you anything you don't know. but your summer activity is huge. That becomes important because in order to staff a police department, You almost have to have enough people or enough officers. to handle the summer load. What are they going to do in the winter? and there's nothing to do. You can't have people standing around looking at each other, and you can only do so much training. And we'll get into some of those options in a second. but that disparity in call load really is a challenge. To be able to meet the summer call load and yet not have people standing on top of each other in the winter. on the next page 17, you see it again by quarter. This is just a side-by-side demonstration. I love Excel, so I make all kinds of charts. And the bottom down is this paragraph down at the bottom where it says this increase in calls from winter to summer is very rare and represents a challenge to the Sausalito PD as well as the city's leaders. It can't keep up with the summer workload, and alternatively we'll be discussed here in a minute. The reason this becomes important is now we get over to What really jumps out at me on this study On page 20, When you look at response time, and this really is the bottom line, it's the response to calls for service by priority. On emergencies, it's 4.1. on one which is the next highest level of urgency We're talking 10.8, 11.8, 10.9, 10.1. They're getting to the. two Ps and the two Ps quicker than the ones. So that caused me some concern, and I started looking at what's going on. Why is this happening? Keep in mind in a call for service, It actually can be broken down into three pieces. The first piece is from the time the dispatcher decides to create a call until the time that call is ready to go. Thank you. That's the preparation time. From the time that call is ready to go until it's given to somebody, that's the cue time. And then from the time it's given to somebody until somebody's at scene, That's the response time. That's the driving time, if you will. If you come to page... |
| 04:18:49.42 | Dan Koenig | Next page, 21. This is where I got concerned. on the highest priority calls They're in the queue for less than a minute. Now that's what you would expect. If somebody calls and says somebody's breaking in my door, you're not going to do spend a lot of time getting that thing ready to go. So it's in queue, ready to be dispatched for a short period of time, it's given to somebody, And look at the response times. Response times are all around three. Some are a little quicker, some are a little slower. But that's pretty good. I mean, that's a very good response time. usually it takes a black and white from the time they get a call to the time they get it seen four five to five four point five five minutes is considered good this is very good what's concerning is when you look at the next highest level of calls the the uh... The second highest, these are the priority ones. Look at the queue times. They're sitting in the queue five, six, seven minutes. Now that's a median time. And I like median because it cuts out those outliers, lets you focus on the meat in the middle. That means that a good portion of the time it's taking longer than that, sitting in a queue. That's not even a unit rolling. That's sitting there waiting to give it to somebody. And that indicates generally, that indicates there's nobody to give it to. That's the problem. There's nobody to give it to. So you've got some fairly high priority. Your true emergencies are getting handled quickly. Your next level, and this would be I WANT TO TALK ABOUT IT. I hear a noise outside. I think somebody's in my backyard. Prowler. Prowler. heard, not seen, that type of a call. Prowler seen. That's going to be an emergency call. heard, not seen, that type of thing. Somebody's out in the car out in front of my house, 11 o'clock at night, 2 o'clock in the morning, that type of thing. That's where these Party 1 calls would come in. And they're waiting a long time. And that, we need to go drill down and figure out what's going on there. Why are those sitting in that queue so long? What you're probably going to find is there's nobody to give them to. And that's a problem. You talk about alternatives and this is on page 23. There's There's different ways to do this. One way is just to hire enough people to be able to handle the spikes. The problem is deploying to spikes is expensive. It costs you a lot of money. And then you have a lot of dead time in the winter when there's nothing going on. So that's an alternative. but it probably isn't a good one. Another alternative is to hire some officers from other agencies. Agencies do this all the time. When they do the Pasadena Rose Bowl parade, the Rose Bowl game, Pasadena PD hires cops from all over the area to come over there and work. They all have things that they're given to go do. A third alternative is to consider in the summer just contracting with the sheriff to handle a late-night shift and then move your resources over to the day to handle it during the day. September, October, when things start to settle down, you can go back into your normal configuration. None of these are cheap. None of them are certainly free. And, but those are some alternatives you may want to think about and look at. I've talked to the chief about it and Captain Rohrabacher. Anyway, that's what we've got. I'm sure you've been through this, and if you have any questions, I'd be happy to answer them. |
| 04:22:44.08 | Jill Hoffman | Well, I have a question on the timing. I noticed that we go back to fiscal, well, |
| 04:22:44.17 | Dan Koenig | I've, |
| 04:22:49.68 | Jill Hoffman | certainly to 2013 and 2014. So some of this data has changed over time. I mean, so |
| 04:22:55.98 | Dan Koenig | I guarantee you your 2015 call load will be the same. Is that right? Yeah. Okay. |
| 04:23:01.18 | Jill Hoffman | Yeah, we, okay. I mean, there's there's been no change in staff. There'll be nothing like that. |
| 04:23:05.33 | Dan Koenig | It'll be the same. Calls for service are impervious to staffing. Calls are calls. How quickly they get handled. That staffing Handles does that, but calls are calls are calls. And that's how you deploy a police department. You deploy it on the basis of calls for service. We used to do it on the basis of crime reports. But that doesn't work because crime reports don't get, completed in certain parts of a city as well as they do in others. So calls for service is the name of the game. Also keep in mind on calls for service almost Uniformly, 55% of any agency's calls for services are disputes, disturbances, and alarms. That's 55% of their call load. Most of those don't result in a police report. They result in a unit, but not necessarily a police report. Your 2015 data is going to be the same, maybe a little higher. A lot of your data seems to be weather-driven. I'm sure you had more people here today than you did last week. So it's a pretty day, people come over the bridge. Anybody? |
| 04:24:20.56 | Linda Pfeiffer | I actually have a question, but it might be for Chief Tejada. It's regarding option three, the contract. with the sheriff to patrol the late shift during the summer, that option. And I know that different organizations have different cultures, and I don't have any insight into the sheriff's, you know, that, that, agency and the culture there in terms of um you know, management, et cetera. So, um... Do you see that as a viable option, that third one? I mean, do you think that that would be? that would mesh with respect to the cultures of the two. |
| 04:24:58.46 | Chief Tejada | Well, it deserves much more analysis than we can give it tonight. All of those options have merit, and I really – it just deserves a lot of analysis because when you – for, you know, one point of consideration is that if we were to go to that, we would want to have a dedicated staff from the sheriff's office. It couldn't be whoever is available that night because they would have to learn our policies, procedures, our geography. So it deserves a little bit more analysis than we can give it tonight. Unless you want to stay here, we can dig in a little. But all of those options have merit. We just need to spend more time exploring. |
| 04:24:58.49 | Linda Pfeiffer | Well, |
| 04:25:44.32 | Linda Pfeiffer | I have a follow-up question, but Thank you. Okay, actually it's for our consultant. If I could just add to what the chief said. |
| 04:25:51.28 | Dan Koenig | I just want to add to what the chief said. Most sheriff's departments are in the business of contracts. They do that. And they've become quite enlightened over the last few years. I know in West Hollywood, they let the city council pick their chief. He or she is a sheriff's captain. The sheriff will give them three or four names. They decide who they want to be their chief. So they work with the communities. I'm sure Marin's no different. |
| 04:26:24.84 | Linda Pfeiffer | Do you have any recommendations in terms of the way the zones are right now in terms of |
| 04:26:30.83 | Dan Koenig | Yeah, well, that's the biggie, is that there's two zones. The idea of a zone is to break things down into more manageable, understandable, |
| 04:26:31.07 | Linda Pfeiffer | What? |
| 04:26:41.16 | Dan Koenig | anticipatable pieces, if you will. You have two zones that are just so big, they have so much activity, it's hard to tell what's going on. The other factor you have is you have two beats right now. It's kind of like take a line down the middle, you take the north and I'll take the south. But if you look at your city, and you know it far better than I do, you really have three different parts of the city, the The waterway ideally should be its own beat. It has unique needs that also match other cities in the area. It also allows officers from one jurisdiction to talk to their counterparts in other parts of the county. And then the residential, I would have three beats. I'd have one along the waterfront and then the residential divided in two. |
| 04:27:33.94 | Linda Pfeiffer | Would you divide the residential in terms of the hillside? I know that there is versus the flats. |
| 04:27:39.80 | Dan Koenig | What you try to do with a beat is you try to maintain community identity as much as you can. It's tempting as a law enforcement officer, it's tempting to just use freeways and dividers and things like that. But if a community identifies itself as a community, you wouldn't want to split it between beats. Your waterfront community is very different than the rest of the city. It is. It has different needs and different problems and the boats and everything. All the stuff that go with it. |
| 04:28:15.15 | Jill Hoffman | understand you haven't done the analysis yet but i mean if we were to add additional services or part-time officers from other agencies and such. Would you be able to, would someone be able to do analysis of how many officers would need to bring down the time on this and what that would cost? |
| 04:28:34.31 | Dan Koenig | You have to drill down on those high queue periods really concern me. |
| 04:28:45.41 | Dan Koenig | You've really got to drill down and find out why it's so long. What is going on here that's causing that? And part of it, I think, is lack of units to give it to. But, yeah, you can analyze this any way you want. And that's the beauty of the CAD system, the commuterated dispatch system, the MDCs. It's all there. If any of you have a business that's data-driven, I mean, it's just a case of mining it and pulling it out and looking at it and figuring it out. And it is amazingly predictable. Amazingly. I did deployment for LAPD. We deployed our patrol force 6,000 guys every four weeks. We deployed them based on queuing and data. And we hit it pretty well. |
| 04:29:32.00 | Linda Pfeiffer | So what would be the next step? I mean, we have analysis. We have a list of recommendations. Are the recommendations prioritized? Are they... in terms of what would be the next step? |
| 04:29:43.75 | Dan Koenig | This is an unusually small number of recommendations. Your department's very well run. I mean, it's well run. They picked up a couple extra people here a while back and they put them in the right places on this mid shift, uh, It's just a case of volume. It's you just get killed in the summer and I don't know I frankly don't know how they keep their head above water. One of the things I have seen is over time, And you can hire officers on overtime. But there comes a point at which that's just not practical anymore. They're tired. They're just tired. And I always tell my guys, you know, I want 100%, no more, no less, because if you're giving me 110%, that 10% is coming from home, and sooner or later you're going to be out looking for an apartment because you're going to be out of the house. So you have to draw that balance. |
| 04:30:38.79 | Unknown | THANK YOU. |
| 04:30:38.98 | Unknown | So, |
| 04:30:42.37 | Dan Koenig | that balance on people. I don't know how you get through the summer without some help. |
| 04:30:49.22 | Linda Pfeiffer | What do you think? |
| 04:30:49.27 | Herb Weiner | Thank you. Thank you. |
| 04:30:49.41 | Dan Koenig | Where they... |
| 04:30:49.98 | Herb Weiner | Thank you. doing this summer. |
| 04:30:51.28 | Linda Pfeiffer | No, I know where the second $150,000 is going, right, from the parking fees. |
| 04:30:51.31 | Dan Koenig | Thank you. |
| 04:30:51.35 | Herb Weiner | Thank you. |
| 04:30:51.36 | Dan Koenig | I know. |
| 04:30:57.44 | Dan Koenig | I think the chief, you were looking at some, working up some information on some of these, Yeah. You've got to sit down and run some numbers and look at the calls and talk to the sheriff and get a nice sense of what they can and can't do and what it would take. |
| 04:31:15.82 | Jill Hoffman | Do we have any information, statistical or anecdotal, of issues that were caused by slow response times? I mean, you know, that some crime happened, we missed somebody, or is any of that? I mean, we have the statistics about how long it's been, but do we know of any, Do we know? of issues that were created because we had a slow response time. No. |
| 04:31:40.79 | Chief Tejada | No, we don't have any feedback on that. |
| 04:31:45.25 | Jill Hoffman | Thank you. |
| 04:31:45.40 | Chief Tejada | Yeah. |
| 04:31:46.06 | Jill Hoffman | Yeah. Difficult. Okay. |
| 04:31:51.84 | Jill Hoffman | Okay, thank you, thank you very much. |
| 04:31:56.05 | Linda Pfeiffer | I do have a comment. Thank you very much for this. I know we've all been waiting for this and so excited to see it. And really we're all committed to doing what it takes to address these gaps. And it's just so insightful to get this knowledge and see what's going on in that |
| 04:31:56.79 | Jill Hoffman | Oh, yeah. |
| 04:32:18.54 | Linda Pfeiffer | dramatic change in the summer Because we always hear, gee, our population goes from 7,000 to 13,000 in this town during the summer months. But to see those numbers just really drives it home. and shows us the hard data of what we're facing here. |
| 04:32:36.75 | Chief Tejada | And I just, as your chief, I want to just say thank you to my staff, because what Mr. Koenig said is, you know, he doesn't know how we get through those busy months, and it's because everybody rolls up their sleeves, and we have an amazing staff in this department, and when you think about how overwhelmed they are during these months and how few, if any, complaints we get. So you have a very good... |
| 04:32:37.37 | Linda Pfeiffer | THE FAMILY. |
| 04:33:01.15 | Chief Tejada | professional police force and as their chief I just want to take this time to say thank you to everybody because this really shows just what the challenges are and how well everybody steps up to the plate during those months to do what's necessary. And thank you for your consideration of this. And also I wanted to say that... We do have that extra position that we got because we pulled out of the task force and we didn't hire the parking enforcement officers, so we got that one and you approved that. And then we do have the COPS grant in the report. We're the only agency in Marin County that got that COPS grant, so that's pretty unique and important to recognize. So we're on our way, and things are getting better, and we appreciate your support. Thank you, and I appreciate Mr. Koenig and all of the work that he put into this. So thank you. |
| 04:33:56.40 | Jill Hoffman | I'm sorry I have a question it's a short one and an easy one because our our summer population is so odd and in other tourist towns it's not like we have a winter population where there's 2,000 people live here and then the summer population that has 7,000 people we have 7,000 residents year round. during certain hours of the day in the summer we have a lot more people in town but they leave at night so in as part of the report do you have an analysis of the times where there's an increase in calls and can you tell me that off the top of your head or |
| 04:34:27.04 | Dan Koenig | Oh, it's definitely. It's definitely daytime from about 10 during the summer, spring, |
| 04:34:29.76 | Jill Hoffman | Yeah, okay. |
| 04:34:33.27 | Dan Koenig | Late spring through fall, it's about 9, 10 in the morning until about 8, 7, 8 o'clock at night. There's a bunch of charts at the end of the report too. |
| 04:34:42.53 | Jill Hoffman | So, Chief, does that make it easier when you're talking about a supplemental person to say, we know the hours that we need that supplemental person during, and it's not perhaps a full shift or it's something like that? I don't know. |
| 04:34:52.90 | Chief Tejada | Yeah, it certainly gives us direction. And, like, one of the changes we made last year was putting two people on a midday into the evening shift. We shifted them from their day shift to midday to give us better coverage. So it does give us direction on deployment decisions, yeah. |
| 04:35:13.40 | Jill Hoffman | Any other comments before we close? I do want to thank you both. And I also reiterate of what Chief D'Hatta said. We really thank the force. We know that they work under, they would definitely benefit from more resources and they work under difficult conditions and do a superb job under those conditions. We thank you. And thank you for staying so late. Our apologies for keeping us late, but thanks so much. Good night. |
| 04:35:36.55 | Herb Weiner | Thanks so much. Thank you. And I... Don't get a ticket. |
| 04:35:42.15 | Jill Hoffman | All right, so we have one more item and I think Charlie, are we? Ready to go on this? which is, I have no idea what letter it is anymore because we've moved it around about five times, but okay. And that is the investment policy guidelines on our PARS post-regard retirement health care trust program. |
| 04:36:13.58 | Jonathon Goldman | Okay, this item for you is the last in a sequence of items to establish pension trust and OPEB trust funds. The first action was the actual establishing it, authorizing, establishing both a pension trust fund and an OPEB trust fund. Then in May, you appropriated 645,000 to be placed in the pension trust fund and 400,000 to be placed in the OPEB trust fund and tonight we're recommending investment policies and procedures and that'll complete the process. So just recap real quickly that the reason for establishing pension and OPEB trust funds is because that GASB 45, GASB 68 and exposure drafts require that pension and OPEB liabilities on the balance sheets. And then when you make contributions into trust, these are considered assets that offset the unfunded liability so you get a direct benefit. They're also used to to mitigate risk there we explained how there's pension cost and rate volatility risk in CalPERS and then offsets the OPEB medical cost inflation because of medical cost inflation exceeds typical revenue inflation there's you can allow to make a greater rate of return than you could on a normal city investment and so therefore it stabilizes the balance sheet liabilities and of course the way we're funding the trust allows us to stabilize our costs in our general fund so that we don't impact key public services not only does gfoa consider pre-funding a best practice, also credit rating agencies look favorably on it, but finally the point that's not on here is it's the right thing to do. It also gives us substantial financial impacts where we're allowed to have a $3 million reduction in our present value of projected benefits, which results in a $1.6 million reduction in the actuarial accrued viability and a $120,000 reduction in the annual recorded OPEB ARC expenses. On the pension side, it allows us to set up a methodology where we would contribute into the investment scenario at the 2.8% scenario rather than the 7.5, and then because of the difference of market rates, we're able to bank the difference and thereby mitigate pension rate volatility. So again these are just best practices. The governance is the city council managed by the city manager and staff. Public agency retirement services are the administrators. US Bank could be the trustee and custodian. Oh and the investment advisor take, that's wrong. is Highmark, which is indicated in your staff report. Pension trust funds have to be irrevocable. We have IRS letter rulings saying that these trust funds are indeed meet the IRS qualifications. They can only be used for retiree pension and healthcare benefits only, and they're not accessible by creditors. However, the assets can be accessed at any time for pension and OPEB expenses. A city emergency where the city general fund couldn't pay its pension or its OPEB expenses, the trust fund could. Of course, that's not the purpose of the fund, but that does give you that added assurance of you're not completely restricting your choices. Trustee, custodian U.S. bank, pretty large bank, and I don't think there's any risk of that bank. mishandling our funds in any way. And we did establish it prior to June 30th. You've authorized us to put money in it prior to June 30th, so we will benefit from the balance sheet implications of doing that. And then the budget that we're considering has continuing deposits into the irrevocable trusts. And this was a graph from the last meeting which briefly described how the monies were set aside in previous year's budgets in the employee benefit fund. So the investment guidelines document has a number of sections, scope and purpose, investment authority, and investment objectives and constraints. But overall, it's what's called a moderately balanced investment portfolio and is being recommended by the investment advisor, by PARS, by the finance director and the finance committee I could go into each one of these items I have a little slide on them but if we just wanted to go right into questions for the sake of time we could do that |
| 04:41:19.72 | Linda Pfeiffer | Sorry, it's kind of late. Yeah. I'm just trying to remember my questions. So, Charlie, last year, I presume we made a similar, we set aside money for the benefits fund, correct? |
| 04:41:19.89 | Unknown | Thank you. |
| 04:41:20.03 | Patricia Pigman | It's kind of late. Yeah. |
| 04:41:21.48 | Unknown | . |
| 04:41:21.61 | Patricia Pigman | Oh, okay. |
| 04:41:22.25 | Unknown | It's just... |
| 04:41:39.87 | Jonathon Goldman | Every year we set aside money in the budget to pull a benefit from it. |
| 04:41:41.31 | Linda Pfeiffer | in the budget to employee benefit. So how much has it, I mean, it's, this year it's Let's see, where is it? You're recommending $1,045,000? I'm just curious. What was it last year? |
| 04:41:54.52 | Jonathon Goldman | with the |
| 04:41:57.91 | Jonathon Goldman | I don't understand the question. The money was set aside every year in the budget to go into the employee benefit fund. This year, at your last council meeting, you authorized taking money out of the employee benefit fund and putting it into the irrevocable trust. |
| 04:42:12.59 | Linda Pfeiffer | Yes. |
| 04:42:16.10 | Linda Pfeiffer | So the policy that we're looking at tonight, I mean, aren't we looking at moving |
| 04:42:22.51 | Jonathon Goldman | Oh no, the policy is only to say that the time horizon cash flows, it's this chart right here, objective risk tolerance, strategic asset allocation, security guidelines as outlined in the two documents that were attached to the staff report are what we want to implement and tell the investment advisor this is how the portfolio allocation that we want, here's how we want you to manage the fund, and here's your duties and responsibilities. |
| 04:42:50.56 | Unknown | um man mr. mayor so what what motion are you looking for tonight charlie because the staff report i think had had um the motion from two weeks ago um so i don't know what motion you're looking for is it to approve the investment guidelines is it |
| 04:43:12.90 | Jonathon Goldman | Oh, so it's the motion and the title of the staff report. Okay. This is embarrassing. I did have a recommendation. What is it? |
| 04:43:13.76 | Unknown | So, it's not. Which one is it? |
| 04:43:15.77 | Unknown | THE FAMILY. |
| 04:43:16.82 | Unknown | Okay. |
| 04:43:21.54 | Jill Hoffman | But it's at the bottom of your staff report, which is slightly different. |
| 04:43:24.34 | Jonathon Goldman | It's very much different, this is not the recommendation. The recommendation is the one on the title of the staff report. |
| 04:43:25.36 | Jill Hoffman | This is not the recommendation. |
| 04:43:31.92 | Linda Pfeiffer | Thank you. |
| 04:43:33.62 | Jonathon Goldman | I apologize for that. The motion is approve the investment policy guidelines documents. There's two of them. For the public agency retirement service post-employment benefits trust program and the PARS post-retirement health care trust program. Both documents are identical except for ones for the pension trust and ones for the OPEP trust. |
| 04:43:57.94 | Jill Hoffman | And they both set out the investment guidelines in terms of asset allocations between- |
| 04:44:03.78 | Jonathon Goldman | Correct, and they're identical. |
| 04:44:04.02 | Jill Hoffman | And they're, And you want to comment on the level of risk that that's being proposed in these? |
| 04:44:09.87 | Jonathon Goldman | The asset allocation is what's labeled by the investment advisor as moderately conservative. It's the second most conservative investment allocation that they have available. |
| 04:44:25.03 | Unknown | Okay. Were we not thinking that in order to get maximal benefit on the... pension side that sorry I'm not phrasing this question really very well considering it's before midnight answer I think I know it's you know the question I'm what is what was the we were we were initially thinking a bit more of an aggressive mix for the pension trust for the open for the open |
| 04:44:43.37 | Unknown | Thank you. |
| 04:44:46.34 | Jonathon Goldman | It's before midnight. I think I know what you're saying. |
| 04:45:00.51 | Jonathon Goldman | For the OPEB. Could you explain what? And the reason is the OPEB trust is created under two scenarios, a 4% discount rate on a pay-as-you-go and a 6.5% discount rate for having an OPEB trust established. Of course, from the investment advisor through the finance committee to this document, no one wanted to move all of the assets immediately into a portfolio that targets a 6.5% interest rate. The asset allocation was more heavily weighted on equities than it was on fixed income and cash. And so the finance committee recommended that we just put together a moderately conservative asset allocation, and then over the three years of the – until we do the next actuarial analysis that's required by GASB, that we may want to consider each year stepping up the OPEB investment closer to an anticipated 6.5% rate of return in order to get the benefits of the full 6.5% discount rate. However, between now and three years from now, I'm sure GASB is going to come up with some new rules for discount rates, and so we would rather stay conservative. in preparation for that more conservative GASB rating. |
| 04:46:27.02 | Jill Hoffman | And how would we make the change? Would it need to come to council to change to a more aggressive- |
| 04:46:30.66 | Jonathon Goldman | Council would need to change the policy document that you're adopting. |
| 04:46:33.55 | Jill Hoffman | Okay. |
| 04:46:35.18 | Linda Pfeiffer | So... For some reason, I thought we were going the opposite direction. I thought we were in terms of the investments for these irrevocable trusts. I thought we were going for the low but steady and low risk. That's what we did. Okay, well, I'm seeing moderate risk. Am I reading this wrong? |
| 04:46:50.29 | Jonathon Goldman | That's what we did. |
| 04:46:56.48 | Linda Pfeiffer | Because I'm seeing... |
| 04:47:08.80 | Linda Pfeiffer | I guess I'm seeing a lot of... And I guess I thought we were going to be a little bit |
| 04:47:19.26 | Linda Pfeiffer | Page 5 of 7, what am I looking at wrong? Total portfolio blended benchmarks, S&P 500, Barclays, aggregate, |
| 04:47:32.15 | Jill Hoffman | Charlie, why don't you point us to which page? Because I think that's page. |
| 04:47:33.57 | Jonathon Goldman | because I think that's page. On page six, there's a chart. I have it here. |
| 04:47:38.23 | Unknown | you There you go. |
| 04:47:40.07 | Jonathon Goldman | So the strategic asset allocation is the ranges are cash, 0% to 20%, with a policy target of 5%. So at any given point in time, the investment advisor keeps it within this 0% to 20% range, but targets try to keep it at 5%. In the fixed income, they look at 50% to 80%, but the policy being target 65%. and on the equity side being 20 to 40 percent with the target being I mean the policy target being 30 percent and what that would look like when the security guidelines is here's the different definitions of equity style so they're looking at of within that 20 to 40 percent equities where is 30%, they're saying 10% to 30% of that would be domestic large cap, 0% to 10% mid cap. We see it gets more conservative. Small cap, 0% to 12%. And international, 0% to 12%. And real estate, 0% to 8%. So that's the equity allocation. For the fixed income portion, again, it's very long-term bond maturities, 0% to 30%. So if you're putting it in long-term bonds, you hold it because as interest rates go up, the bond principle goes down. So it's a buy and hold strategy. Intermediate-term bonds, 3 to 7 years, 30 to 80%, and then short term bond maturity is there. These are the performance benchmarks where they have the portfolio allocated to target a blended benchmark that represents these numbers here on the right. So. Of all of the investment options that is available to you, and there's like six or seven, this is the second most. Second most conservative. Yeah. |
| 04:49:29.20 | Unknown | Thank you. |
| 04:49:29.23 | Unknown | THE FAMILY. |
| 04:49:29.44 | Jill Hoffman | Thank you. |
| 04:49:30.45 | Unknown | Thank you. |
| 04:49:31.19 | Jill Hoffman | Waiting for the edge. |
| 04:49:32.46 | Jonathon Goldman | Yeah. |
| 04:49:34.06 | Jill Hoffman | Thank you. All right, any other questions? |
| 04:49:37.79 | Unknown | Thank you. Thank you. |
| 04:49:39.69 | Jill Hoffman | Thank you. Ready for comments? Anyone like to start? Okay. Well, I think, you know, we've gone through stages. We've gotten to the part where we've made the investment decision, and now it's just which, I mean, we made the decision to fund these irrevocable trusts. Now it's which investment decision. There's always risk in any of them because if we get too conservative, then you lose, As the market goes up, if you put it all in cash, then you lose it to inflation. This is a fairly conservative model. I think it's the way we should go because you never know with the stock market and I'd support, you know, put it in this level of risk. |
| 04:50:21.75 | Linda Pfeiffer | I have one more question really quickly. How does this compare to CalPERS? I mean, isn't CalPERS much more risky in terms of their investments and what they're pursuing? Absolutely. Or is that old news? |
| 04:50:31.23 | Jonathon Goldman | they're pursuing absolutely that's old news CalPERS is very heavy on the equity side plus they have the land and where they that's where they experience most of their losses |
| 04:50:36.80 | Linda Pfeiffer | Thank you. They have. |
| 04:50:41.71 | Linda Pfeiffer | Okay, gotcha. Thank you. |
| 04:50:44.90 | Jill Hoffman | So can, do you have a motion you put up or would someone, would you like to make a motion? |
| 04:50:47.72 | Unknown | Make a motion. Thank you. Thank you. Yeah, let me just say I fully support this. I think we really are going quite conservative, and that's why. So I support that. And we're not trying to beat CalPERS. |
| 04:51:04.86 | Jonathon Goldman | Absolutely not. In fact, just the opposite is we provide a hedge against CalPERS's losses, but we don't make as much during CalPERS game time. But it steadies it, and it smooths out the market risk. Right, yeah. |
| 04:51:06.72 | Unknown | Opposite, right. Yeah. |
| 04:51:19.68 | Unknown | Thank you. I think that hedge strategy is really important. So I move that... We, to approve the investment policy guideline documents for public agency retirement services, PARS post employment benefits trust program and the PARS post retirement healthcare trust program. |
| 04:51:39.62 | Herb Weiner | Second. |
| 04:51:41.01 | Jill Hoffman | Can we do this by acclamation or all in favor? Aye. That's unanimous. Five zero. Okay. Thank you, Charlie. Thank you, Charlie, very much. We appreciate it. |
| 04:51:45.78 | Unknown | Bye. |
| 04:51:47.62 | Herb Weiner | Thank you. |
| 04:51:47.64 | Adam Politzer | Thank you. |
| 04:51:47.67 | Herb Weiner | Okay. |
| 04:51:47.76 | Adam Politzer | Okay? |
| 04:51:47.94 | Herb Weiner | Thank you, Charlie. They have a great job. |
| 04:51:48.97 | Paul Leffingwell | Thank you. |
| 04:51:49.06 | Unknown | Thank you. Yeah. |
| 04:51:49.67 | Adam Politzer | Thank you so much. |
| 04:51:51.24 | Jill Hoffman | All right, moving on to item seven, a city manager report. |
| 04:51:55.89 | Adam Politzer | I have nothing to report at 1159, but happy to answer any of the council members questions if you have any. |
| 04:51:59.12 | Unknown | Thank you. |
| 04:51:59.13 | Jill Hoffman | IN. Yeah. |
| 04:52:02.59 | Unknown | Thank you. |
| 04:52:02.79 | Jill Hoffman | All right. Any council members public comment? Seeing none, we move on to item 7B council member committee reports, any reports? Seeing none, moving on, future agenda items. |
| 04:52:20.43 | Jill Hoffman | All right, any future agenda and comments on future agenda items? |
| 04:52:23.75 | Linda Pfeiffer | I guess I have a question. We've got lots of different future agenda items. I'd mentioned the grand jury. I think we need to, is there a time frame in terms of responding to this? This is the pensions. On pensions was the Southern Rind Fire District. |
| 04:52:40.49 | Jill Hoffman | Since we were in part, I don't think we were required in response. |
| 04:52:42.33 | Linda Pfeiffer | required a response. Well, our... our services are provided by But I don't think we. |
| 04:52:47.82 | Jill Hoffman | But I don't think we are recording. I don't know. |
| 04:52:49.45 | Linda Pfeiffer | I don't know. Well, we may not be required, but I would like to, and I'm wondering what that time frame is, even if it's just me responding. |
| 04:52:58.58 | Adam Politzer | Yeah, we don't know, but I have had communication with the chief, and the chief is happy to come here with the board member to talk about the subject matter. But I don't know what the deadline is, and so happy to look in that. Could you email me? |
| 04:52:58.85 | Jill Hoffman | Thank you. |
| 04:52:58.89 | Linda Pfeiffer | with the |
| 04:52:59.06 | Unknown | Thank you. |
| 04:52:59.07 | Linda Pfeiffer | Thank you. |
| 04:52:59.12 | Unknown | Thank you. |
| 04:52:59.24 | Linda Pfeiffer | No. |
| 04:52:59.28 | Unknown | THE FAMILY. |
| 04:53:18.11 | Linda Pfeiffer | Could you email me and let me know because I would like to comment if we're not going to as a council. Sure. |
| 04:53:24.88 | Jill Hoffman | And I agree, I think on our future agenda items, we certainly want the Southern Marin to be here with the chief and possibly one of our board members to talk in general and specifically about pensions. I think another one and we'll put it on our list as well is they have |
| 04:53:41.50 | Jill Hoffman | the our school district and some reports as well as what's going on with that. Some of this, unfortunately, because we have the budget coming up, we're going to have to do that first. So some of this may get pushed back, but those are two important agenda items. Anything else? |
| 04:53:56.55 | Jill Hoffman | I have two issues. One is, Adam, do we have a Is there a method by which we can engage somebody just to review or look for grants that we may be missing out on? Do we, and I know that some, You know, they can take a percentage of whatever grant they find. You're laughing at me. Is this? |
| 04:54:17.07 | Adam Politzer | Not laughing at you, absolutely not. Probably every two years that same question is asked. Part of the answer, I mean, we continue to explore that, but part of the answer is that we end up doing most of the work. So the person comes in and has to find out everything that they need and then basically staff did 80% of the work. And they're going to get some percentage. |
| 04:54:42.96 | Unknown | Okay. |
| 04:54:43.46 | Adam Politzer | We have not successfully found anyone to do this work. We've had leads and we've talked to other cities and we've put out Listserv's asking for people that have followed this model, and we have not had any success. But we can, again, put out a listserv and see if there is community that's having success in this and and explore it and bring it back to council for their consideration. |
| 04:55:04.86 | Linda Pfeiffer | That's a good point and What about the TAM? I raised it earlier. I know Steph. typically meets with TAM and it includes transportation oriented grants. And I know for example Dunphy Park includes the walkway for pedestrians. So is there a timeframe for that? |
| 04:55:28.47 | Adam Politzer | Last year, none of the county's projects got funded by the TAM grant that goes out for the bigger grants this year we recommended partnering with Marin County And Marin County we put out the idea of partnering with Marin County and Marin County said they didn't want to partner with us so the likelihood of us getting grants is probably pretty slim. Because we're not packaging these things together and we're not competing against the bigger counties. in Northern California, let alone the rest of the state. when we look at these metropolitan dollars the grants that were handed out last year through tam which may be what councilmember pfeiffer is referring to i i want to say was less than 50 million dollars worth of grant money they had something in the neighborhood of 245 million dollars worth of requests and those all went to very high priority projects not none of them being parks or infrastructure, more towards major road projects, including looking at SMART. I think $11 million went to SMART, to the Novato Civic Center and San Rafael connections. I'm happy to have Jonathan come and give you an update on what the process is, what some of the proposed projects could be from the city of Sausalito. None of them are, a lot of them we've discussed over the years. But they've never risen very high on the list and obviously haven't been funded. |
| 04:57:18.12 | Linda Pfeiffer | Thank you. |
| 04:57:18.14 | Mike Soray | Thank you. |
| 04:57:18.15 | Linda Pfeiffer | If it's. |
| 04:57:23.50 | Linda Pfeiffer | I guess the question is, if you have the timeframe for it, maybe you could just send us an email and let council know the timeframe. One of the questions that was raised up here is what are the alternate sources of funding? Thank you. We don't know unless we ask, so. |
| 04:57:44.53 | Jill Hoffman | And just in response to a request you made at an earlier meeting at the agenda setting, We agreed. and staff agreed that if we were to make any applications to Tam or others that we would include it and notify Council of that, correct? So I think that was your request, and we've made that a policy now, and city staff. That's great. |
| 04:58:08.46 | Linda Pfeiffer | That's great. Yeah, that's really great. Exactly. |
| 04:58:10.74 | Jill Hoffman | Is that correct? That's great. |
| 04:58:11.78 | Linda Pfeiffer | That's great. Yeah, my questions tonight, of course, is slightly different in that I'm thinking there's staff going after something, but then I want to know if there are some options that, you know. Anyway, time frame, that's all I need. Thank you. |
| 04:58:27.44 | Jill Hoffman | Thank you. Any other reports of significance? Motion to adjourn. |
| 04:58:34.65 | Linda Pfeiffer | So moved. |
| 04:58:35.59 | Jill Hoffman | All in favor? Aye. Well, look at 12-02. We made it the next day. |
| 04:58:36.69 | Linda Pfeiffer | Well, look at 12-2. |
Leslie Alden — Neutral: Expressed appreciation for Marin City kids and staff, reiterated concerns from Richardson Bay Regional Authority presentation about funding and boat increases, emphasized need for collaborative community process to address sustainability issues. ▶ 📄