| Time | Speaker | Text |
|---|---|---|
| 00:00:02.04 | Unknown | Thank you. |
| 00:00:06.34 | Unknown | Bye. Come here, my hand. Yeah. |
| 00:00:18.17 | Unknown | . |
| 00:00:44.72 | Unknown | Thank you. |
| 00:00:52.39 | Herb Weiner | I'm gonna help you there. Believe me. |
| 00:00:57.93 | Mayor Theodore | Welcome everyone. To the regular meeting of the Sausalito City Council for Tuesday, July 21st, 2015. Debbie, would you take the roll, please? |
| 00:01:05.83 | Unknown (Clerk/Roll Call) | Councilmember Weiner. Present. Councilmember Fiverr? Here. Councilmember Withey? Here. |
| 00:01:10.48 | Mayor Theodore | here. |
| 00:01:10.89 | Unknown (Clerk/Roll Call) | Vice Mayor Hoffman. Present. Mayor Theodorus. |
| 00:01:14.28 | Mayor Theodore | present. Can we have Mike Monsef lead us in the Pledge of Allegiance? |
| 00:01:20.15 | Herb Weiner | in English. Let your allegiance to the flag Thank you. |
| 00:01:27.43 | Mayor Theodore | of the United States of America. |
| 00:01:29.30 | Unknown | Thank you. Thank you. |
| 00:01:29.81 | Mayor Theodore | and to the recovery. for which it stands. One nation. Amen. |
| 00:01:34.95 | John Rohrabacher | Thank you. |
| 00:01:35.38 | Herb Weiner | Thank you. |
| 00:01:35.51 | Mayor Theodore | Yes. |
| 00:01:35.97 | Herb Weiner | with liberty and justice. |
| 00:01:38.02 | Unknown | for all. |
| 00:01:42.50 | Mayor Theodore | Um, we discussed, um, item D one in closed session. There's no public announcement on that. Do we have any public comment on closed session items? Okay, seeing none, We'll move on to. Item E approval of agenda. Do we have a motion to approve the agenda? |
| 00:02:01.56 | Kirby Withey | So moved. Second. |
| 00:02:03.45 | Mayor Theodore | All in favor? |
| 00:02:04.55 | Kirby Withey | Bye. |
| 00:02:04.57 | Mayor Theodore | Bye. That passes unanimously. We move on to our special presentations, and this is an important day. Introduction of Julie Myers, Recreation Supervisor, special events, and we have Mike Langford to introduce her. |
| 00:02:20.62 | Unknown | Well, good evening, Mr. Mayor, city council, staff, and all the public here. It is a, it's been quite an exciting time in Parks and Recreation. It was a very busy time with our summer, with everything going on. But I am so happy that we have Julie Myers joining us as our new special events supervisor in Parks and Recreation. She's been with us for a week. And she even came and saw what we were doing and volunteered a little bit on 4th of July. And she showed up the next week and came back. She comes from the private sector and has a lot of great experience and has already really, she just hit the ground running and said, Mike, I saw this on the checklist, so I went ahead and did it. Thank you. So, Julie? |
| 00:03:05.15 | Julie Myers | Hi, everyone. It's so great to be here. I'm so excited. Everyone I've met is so nice so far, right? So, just a little bit about me. I'm a crazy dog lady. I hear I'm replacing your crazy cat lady, so I don't know which is worse or which is better. You might see me driving around in my little Fiat with the license plate B Plucky, not BP lucky, because BP is not very lucky. But I'm plucky, which means that if you give me a job to do, I'm going to do it. And I pride myself on getting things done, and I'm really excited to just jump in and be plucky for the city of Sausalito. Thank you. |
| 00:03:46.49 | Mayor Theodore | Well, welcome Julie. We've been waiting for you. Mike's been working hard, so we're |
| 00:03:51.20 | Julie Myers | And don't forget, you're my chili cook-off, Jessica. |
| 00:03:52.96 | Mayor Theodore | I know, I know. Julie came up to me at Jazz and Blues, and Mike said, we have somebody more reserved, and that's Park and Rec Reserves. |
| 00:04:01.93 | Unknown | Julie, welcome. |
| 00:04:07.20 | Mayor Theodore | Thank you. |
| 00:04:12.25 | Mayor Theodore | 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 and discussing 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 future meeting. We ask that people fill out speaker cards. Would anyone like to speak on any matter not on today's tonight's agenda? Thank you. Seeing none, we'll move on to item three, action minutes of previous meetings. Do we have a motion to approve the meeting minutes of the regular city council meeting of June 30th, 2015? |
| 00:04:56.61 | Kirby Withey | So moved approval of the minutes. |
| 00:04:58.89 | Mayor Theodore | you |
| 00:04:58.95 | Kirby Withey | Thank you. |
| 00:04:58.97 | Mayor Theodore | Amen. All in favor? Aye. Passes unanimously. That's approved. We move on to item four consent calendar. |
| 00:05:01.10 | Kirby Withey | Bye. |
| 00:05:08.05 | Mayor Theodore | Matters listed under the consent calendar are considered routine and non-controversial, require no discussion, are expected to have unanimous council support, and may be enacted by the council in one motion in the form. listed in the agenda. However, before the council votes on a motion to adopt the consent calendar, Items council members, city staff, or members of the public may request that specific items be removed from the consent calendar for separate action. So we start out with public comment. Do we have any public comment on items A through I guess it's M of... OF THE ITEM FOUR. ANY COMMENTS ON ITEMS ON THE CONSENT CALENDAR? Okay, see no public comment. Anybody have any issues up here on the council? |
| 00:05:56.13 | Jill Hoffman | Yes, I have a couple questions that perhaps they can be just quickly resolved. I have a question about B, the municipal water conservation efforts regarding fiscal impact because it refers to the water truck is 400 a day for the medians, two applications a week. So I just- You want to address that to our public works director |
| 00:05:58.32 | Mayor Theodore | Okay. |
| 00:06:19.55 | Mayor Theodore | Thank you. |
| 00:06:19.57 | Jonathon Goldman | You want to address that to our public works director who's waiting for you? Thank you, Mr. Mayor. Jonathan Goldman, public works director and city engineer. Go ahead. |
| 00:06:23.16 | Jill Hoffman | you know. |
| 00:06:29.88 | Jill Hoffman | So my question is, what is the fiscal impact for this? Because there's a paragraph in the staff report. It refers to 2,000 gallon water trunk at $400 per day. And the medians require two applications per week. So I wasn't sure, is that 800 a week, four weeks a month, or once a month, or how many times during the year? |
| 00:06:54.13 | Jonathon Goldman | year well it depends on the weather in part in the short term what we've done is rented the water truck for a month and the rate for that is twenty seven hundred dollars because it didn't make sense to us to do it on a daily basis given that we knew we would need it more than one day so at this point we have it for a month and what we're doing fundamentally is working out the details of picking up water and protecting the community's investment in the plant materials that we have with reclaimed water. And as we go through the season, we'll know more about water. what those impacts are and what the fiscal impact is. In the short term, we don't really, you know, we're, by renting this truck and hauling reclaimed water, we're avoiding the cost associated with buying potable water from the municipal water district and using it for irrigation. And as I think is clear from the staff report, although I won't warrant it that it's clear, we're not just irrigating the decorative turf with the reclaimed water, but taking advantage of the opportunity to irrigate all the plant materials that we have there and make sure that they stay alive and look as good as we can keep them looking. |
| 00:08:16.22 | Jill Hoffman | So I didn't see that $2,700 monthly fee in the staff report, but that helps. And I certainly am a big supporter of water conservation. It just wasn't clear to me what we were... what we were giving staff direction on. uh, that, I believe you will be bringing additional projects to us as these become clearer in terms, will we see more of the financial |
| 00:08:42.31 | Jonathon Goldman | Absolutely, yes. |
| 00:08:44.67 | Jill Hoffman | Okay, thank you. |
| 00:08:49.72 | Jill Hoffman | Just a real quick question on item 4C regarding the grant fund application for the, is that the one for the Ice House? The Ice House and the Plaza, which is, you know, great. I'm glad we're moving forward on that. And I just wanted to just clarify that I realize this item is just about applying for the grant funds and that they're- I wanted to just clarify that I realize this item is just about applying for the grant funds and that we're not approving the project that it's going to go through the HLB and planning commission, etc. |
| 00:09:25.65 | Mayor Theodore | Well, it's just I don't know about the second part. I mean, I certainly know that it's just to apply for the grant. Thank you. |
| 00:09:30.58 | Unknown | Thank you. |
| 00:09:31.67 | Mayor Theodore | City Manager is, I think that's my understanding. I don't think we talked about procedures. I mean, it has to go through any city procedure. So it's not waiving any other. Whatever city procedures are in place, it will have to go through. And this is merely for the ability to make the grant and nothing else. |
| 00:09:38.15 | Unknown | Thank you. |
| 00:09:38.18 | Jill Hoffman | Yeah. |
| 00:09:39.45 | Unknown | Thank you. |
| 00:09:39.49 | Jill Hoffman | Yeah, okay. Okay. |
| 00:09:42.18 | Unknown | THANK YOU. |
| 00:09:42.27 | Jill Hoffman | Thank you. |
| 00:09:42.35 | Unknown | Thank you. |
| 00:09:42.37 | Unknown | Thank you. |
| 00:09:42.52 | Jill Hoffman | Okay. . Thank you. Okay, that was just my clarification. Thank you. Thank you. |
| 00:09:49.15 | Jill Hoffman | I have a question and this is for item 4i which is the Cass Gridley Marina of the boating My understanding is And maybe, oh, is this Jonathan again? I should have just told you to stay up here. So this is, I was looking at the staff report, and I have talked with the representatives from the Casker Lee Marina. And this is, my understanding is this is, for the city to designate the Cask Girdley Marina as part of the Bay Area Water Trail, is that correct? |
| 00:10:25.18 | Jonathon Goldman | It is, yes. Okay. The advantage to that, as again, hopefully is clear in the staff report, is that it positions that not-for-profit organization. |
| 00:10:32.08 | Jill Hoffman | is. |
| 00:10:36.52 | Jonathon Goldman | to receive grants that they wouldn't otherwise be eligible for. |
| 00:10:40.08 | Jill Hoffman | And this came up a few years ago, and there were I think four or five locations throughout Sausalito, but this only pertains to the Cass Gridley Marina. |
| 00:10:48.18 | Jonathon Goldman | Correct. |
| 00:10:48.61 | Jill Hoffman | Okay. And it's only for non-motorized small boats. Correct. Right. Okay. And this is the first reading. There'll be a second reading in September and October. Is that right? |
| 00:10:51.95 | Jonathon Goldman | Correct. |
| 00:10:58.64 | Jill Hoffman | Have I got that right, no? No, this is just. |
| 00:10:59.95 | Jonathon Goldman | No, this is just a resolution basically of support for ABAC's water trail. |
| 00:11:02.91 | Jill Hoffman | And basically, |
| 00:11:03.67 | Unknown | Thank you. |
| 00:11:07.03 | Jill Hoffman | Thank you. Oh, got it. |
| 00:11:08.40 | Unknown | you |
| 00:11:08.47 | Jill Hoffman | Okay. |
| 00:11:08.90 | Jonathon Goldman | to designate Cass Gidley as a |
| 00:11:11.40 | Jill Hoffman | Okay. I think I did see a letter of support for this from the Friends at Dunphy Park. Is that right? Yeah. Okay, that's what I thought. Okay, thanks. |
| 00:11:23.86 | Jill Hoffman | I had just a couple quick questions on that, just as a follow-up. Thank you. It says other conditions may apply based on the location of the site. I presume those, do you have an understanding as to what they mean by that, other conditions? Designation of a site by the water trail? No. |
| 00:11:44.48 | Jonathon Goldman | Thank you. If. Thank you. If I'm not mistaken, you're referring to the resolution of support. And what we wanted to do was make it clear that if council adopts this resolution this evening, that doesn't mean that there aren't other approvals that the landlord and the local land use authority is waiving with respect to the project or whatever projects. |
| 00:12:15.95 | Jill Hoffman | And then a follow-up question to Jill's comment is there was some controversy regarding some of the other locations, not Caskidly, but some of the other locations in the water trail. So just to stress again that this grant does not assume it's specifically for Caskidly. It doesn't make it, it's not dependent on the other locations. |
| 00:12:36.49 | Jonathon Goldman | It is absolutely just for Cass Gidley, and to the best of my knowledge, it's completely non-controversial. |
| 00:12:45.51 | Jill Hoffman | Thank you. |
| 00:12:48.92 | Mayor Theodore | Any other questions on consent items from counsel? No. |
| 00:12:53.24 | Kirby Withey | I move adoption of consent calendar items for A through M. |
| 00:12:53.26 | Mayor Theodore | It looks good. |
| 00:13:00.48 | Herb Weiner | Second. |
| 00:13:01.88 | Kirby Withey | Thank you. |
| 00:13:01.92 | Mayor Theodore | All in favor? Aye. That passes unanimously. |
| 00:13:02.91 | Herb Weiner | Thank you. |
| 00:13:02.93 | Kirby Withey | Thank you. |
| 00:13:02.96 | Herb Weiner | Bye. |
| 00:13:03.47 | Kirby Withey | Thank you. |
| 00:13:07.67 | Mayor Theodore | We move on to business items. And that the first item will be 6A update from the pedestrian and bicycle advisory committee. And we have the bicycle and and pedestrian Uh, committee chair. Edward Fonche, is that first or no, I'm sorry, Jonathan Goldman, Director of Public Works. |
| 00:13:27.14 | Jonathon Goldman | That's all right, Mr. Mayor. I was just getting up to give Dr. Fotch a grand introduction. But I left the pony out in the parking lot and I can't get it to come in. I did want to make the point though that in addition to the pedestrian bicycle advisory committee update, Captain Moorabacher and Chief Dehada actually from the police department and I are here, there's both a. kind of a note and file an informational item this evening, as well as at least one action item in the staff report. So we're both, all three of us, I guess, or all four of us, prepared to answer questions. After Dr. Fauci's presentation, depending upon the direction that council questions and even public comment go, I'll be happy to get up and take a couple of the other issues. One of the things that staff was asked for was kind of a cash flow financial status update on the Ambassador Program and I have a slide on that too. With no further ado, Dr. Ed Fotch, Chairman of Ped Bike Advisory Committee. |
| 00:14:53.54 | Ed Fotch | Thank you, Jonathan, for that riveting introduction. Yeah. |
| 00:15:04.63 | Ed Fotch | All right, somebody help the doctor. |
| 00:15:10.01 | Ed Fotch | I forget that. |
| 00:15:14.98 | Ed Fotch | Got the wrong one. How do you make this one go again? |
| 00:15:25.96 | Unknown | So... |
| 00:15:41.59 | Ed Fotch | All the technology staff accidentally. I was working in the ambassador program in June, and a fellow came up with his wife and a couple kids, and like unfortunately sometimes happened, he was coming from the city and he had a badge on from a conference he was at, |
| 00:15:42.55 | Unknown | while the technology staff accidentally |
| 00:16:02.73 | Ed Fotch | So I saw it, I saw it was a medical badge, and I said, oh, are you a doc? I said, what's your specialty? He said, it's emergency medicine. I said, oh, that's interesting, it was my specialty. He said you were practicing emergency medicine, now you're parking bikes? you Thank you. Things must be pretty tough here in Sausalito. I said, yeah, you take the work you can get. So I made it go away. The gremlins are out tonight. Jonathan, don't worry, I've got another story. |
| 00:16:36.43 | Unknown | Thank you. |
| 00:16:38.66 | Ed Fotch | Escape, there it is. Yes. about just doing that. There we go. Okay. So I'd like to give you, now that I've used it most of my time, I'd like to give you a committee update, some ambassador experience and learnings, and then 10 specific requests of counsel. THE CITY IS A CITY IS A CITY You may recall from past presentations that the Pedestrian and Bike Advisory Committee has five goals for the year, subject to any opportunities we have in the pedestrian and bike area in the interim. Improved communication, particularly communication with fellow citizens, improved signage, open Vista Point Trail, and as I'll touch on, I think that at least gives the city the opportunity for some bike staging and reduce the total number of bikes coming into Sausalito, begin the Ambassador Program, and begin a preferred parking program now known as the valet program. Excuse me. The good news is the Ambassador Program begun as a pilot by our committee last year, is in full operation as of mid-June, operated by Sausalito Plus, California not-for-profit. The goals are improved bike safety. adherence to local ordinances. I'm not gonna hit every one of these, but there's been a lot of collaboration with the city Thank you. There's over 30 ambassadors trained. It's a combination of paid and volunteer. Some of those folks are here tonight. not to be missed. There's some valuable summer jobs, not just for young people, but for some of our people who are my age and up. you We staff, or the ambassadors I should say, staff five or six stations starting on the south end of town and going all the way into the middle of town. There's been a lot of training materials and insurance and liability and manuals and vests and water and first aid kits and so on and so forth. the valet parking, is running reasonably well, of course, subject to fine tuning. It's the first year. There's a lot of learning that has been occurred weekly financials are provided to the city. The revenues generated go to the city, and at least the plan is at the end of the month that the city reimburses Saucedo Plus for costs associated with the program. I would say one of the things the ambassadors have been really helpful at speaking as a committee chair is providing eyes and ears for six hours a day, seven days a week, and photographs and information we just couldn't possibly have because all the members of the committee, well, some volunteer, but you just can't be down there all the time. There's been efforts to improve enforcement with some of our ordinances, I'll talk a little bit more about that, signage. Interestingly, way over 50 bandages or first aid materials given out, sunscreen, and then as of two weeks ago, one lost autistic child returned because the ambassadors just have plenty of eyes and ears out on the street and were able to locate the kid in a timely fashion. Sometimes missed is the fact that thanks to the ambassadors and the valet program, the actual amount of bike parking on Tracy Way is up a solid 40%. If you were down there last year, it kind of looked like the Congo, one bike kind of growing into the next and not particularly well organized. And so the bikes are now parked, generally speaking, 16 to a rack. And I think the ambassadors do a decent enough job, but it's really not just about the downtown because I think In the past, there's been a lot of focus on L. Pertel and Tracy Wade, but the issues associated with Bikes, both recreational and bike visitors extend all the way South in town and North in town. Now as of today, a third municipality in Marin has contacted Saucydo Plus saying, we'd like to start a program in our town. Can you come and can you help us get a similar program started. I would say none of them have the kind of challenges I'm not sure. And speaking of challenges, so I wanna go through a few and then make 10 very specific recommendations. The first is that there is a fundamental for lack of a better term disagreement on the following issue. There's a bike queue going to the ferry that on a good day if it's really well filled, there's 175 to 200 bikes in it. That's I guess the good news. The bad news is that between 4.30 and 7 o'clock on a Friday or Saturday night, sometimes Thursday, sometimes Sunday, there's 500 to 600 people who would like to be in that queue. And the question is, what happens to the overflow? And I think from a purely legal standpoint, the ferry folks say, well, we rent space from the city, and we're responsible for that space. And so we're really focused on that. And it's the city's issue as to their streets and sidewalks. And I think not inappropriately. The city sort of feels like, hey, the only reason these people are here is to get on the ferry. And what happens is the ambassadors try to step in and at times reach out to the police because at times the sidewalks are completely blocked. In fact, at times, L. Pertel is completely blocked. And I'm not sure how to resolve this. I'm pretty sure it's beyond the capabilities, it's beyond the scope of our committee, and it's well beyond the capacity of the ambassadors to do that. So what they do is they step in and they do their best. I'm not sure. The other big challenge that I'd like to focus on tonight are the bikes on the sidewalk. So the good news is that if you were walking up and down Alexander Avenue in the, I'm sorry, Bridgeway in the May, early June timeframe, you'd see a lot of bikes parked on Bridgeway. There's very few bikes parked on Bridgeway. And as I mentioned in the past, it's never a bike. It's two or three or six or eight, or it's typically a large number of bikes, and they obstruct the sidewalk, and it's a challenge for the locals as well as the visitors to get by, and it pushes folks out onto the street. The good news is Bridgeway, generally speaking, is far better. The challenge, of course, is that it is spilled over into other areas because the people aren't parking on Bridgeway, so they're parking someplace else. And it's a real challenge and I actually included in here two photographs I want. to pay particular attention to. One is in the bottom left, which is at least to my four or five times cycling through or circulating through. Though a bike's sort of parked all over the place, and yet our free bike parking is empty. |
| 00:22:52.98 | Unknown | So, |
| 00:23:02.68 | Ed Fotch | which would indicate that at a minimum we need better signage and better direction to get to the free bike parking. It's really not that far away from the middle of town. The other is the one with the red circle on it. That's actually a merchant on El Pertel who's just gotten so frustrated he created his own signage. to try to indicate that the polls in front of his particular establishment are not there for bike parking. So moving on then to specific recommendations, there was an attempt by the bike ambassadors to put what I would describe as educational placards, and I gave some examples of those out of the actual placards. And the proposal, which actually came from our committee, is to zip tie those to the bikes that are illegally parked. not in the naive hope that the bikes will move, because frankly they won't, but in the hope that the next biker comes along and says, I guess that's not where you park in this town. In fact, and I know some of the ambassadors I'm probably gonna speak to this. It's a domino effect. If you get there early and you take an area and you tell people please don't park there, you can control it for the day. the first time someone parks a bike, it asks the next one and the next one. You even get into sort of a back and forth with people saying, well, you can't park there. And they go, wait someone else just parked right here how you know how is it not legal if it's occurring. Part of this is kind of just getting out ahead of this, and I think that the ambassador's having very sort of, thanks for coming to Sausalito, please park in lots only, and a reference to what we actually have, as I think the council well knows, we have an ordinance against parking in our downtown, which is a legal description, and at a minimum, I think we need to get, to empower the ambassadors to, to educate those folks and more importantly, educate the next bikers. It would probably be helpful within the budget or just if we could get some more volunteers to increase the bike ambassador staffing in the downtown on the busy days. They really do have an impact, and when I get to the discussion vis-a-vis Vina Del Mar Park, I think you'll see that, you know, a couple more people could have a real impact during the sort of four to six hours on the peak times. you The other thing that the bike committee, and we actually have a subcommittee of the pedestrian bike committee that's been working on the parking issue because it is a pretty big issue. We came up with the idea of putting little stickers Velcro stickers onto the poles and the fences in the areas 40 or 50 of them, that are just sort of the notoriously tough places where people naturally park when they're not parking legally. And the idea is to put them on in a Velcro way. And the reason for that is our committee is quite sensitive with the fact we have one heck of a lot of signs in this town. And the ambassadors could, in a half an hour, put these little placards up and take them down at the end of the day. So we as residents don't have to look at this stuff 24 by 7. So that's within the scope of what they can do now, and that is one of our recommendations to the council. And I shouldn't skip this because this came up at our meeting last night. We also have to have adequate free parking and signage that directs people to it. We may have adequate parking, but because we don't have adequate signage directing people to parking, we don't even know if we have adequate free parking. |
| 00:26:24.96 | Unknown | Thank you. |
| 00:26:33.55 | Ed Fotch | And whether you're sort of pro-bike or anti-bike or neutral on bike, the plain fact is that these people are coming, and if you don't provide a place for them to go and provide them some direction, then they kind of make it up on the fly. We think that the committee really feels like we have to enforce our existing ordinance. We don't have to go crazy, but we have to enforce the ordinance. And the current ordinance, you may recall, indicates that a bike that's not parked in a legal place in the downtown is subject to a $25 fine and impoundment. Now, $25, frankly, it's unlikely that would even pay for the cost of removing the bike and storing the bike and dealing with that. So another option is to impound the bike in place on a selective basis, simply using a cable with a notice saying, to release your bike, call this number and the bike will be released as soon as you show a government-issued ID. And the reason that I think that that is a better and the committee as well thinks it's a better option is as follows. It requires the least work from the city. It's the least expensive. It's the least intrusive. It doesn't require damage to property. And probably equally important, it sends a message to the next group of bikes that this isn't where you park your bike. If you cut the lock and you remove the bike, it's like dead men. They tell no tales. It's a gone bike and the next person comes and then you're sort of in this cycle. really want to be is in the education business and the influence business as opposed to the crime and penalty business. And lastly, because I think like all of us, you know, I travel and I like riding bikes in various places. If I came back and the bike was gone, I mean, it's bad enough, okay, nobody told me, and the bike vendor in particular didn't tell me that I have to park in a legal lot. which I do. frankly, think. It's unrealistic to think bike visitors are going to know our laws. It's highly realistic that someone who makes a living sending bikes to Sausalito ought to know what our ordinances are. But if I was in that situation, I got my kids there, they're sunburned, And they're not happy, I'm trying to catch a ferry, and the bike is gone. That just seems really punitive. In terms of our very specific recommendations, we like the idea of selective enforcement to make the point and do it in such a way that, as we say in medicine, you target the cure for the disease so as not to kill the host. Make sure your doctor knows that before you visit. We think that this is the right way to do it, and frankly, it's the same we do with the cars, right? I mean, we don't... We don't take the cars away, generally speaking, unless it's a safety issue. And to that point, I think there are times when there's safety issues and handicapped issues where you simply have to remove the bike. Get that, understand that. But in terms of sort of keeping control of our sidewalks, we think that there's a lighter footprint way to do that. And so those are our recommendations. as it relates to the numbers and in the little trinkets that I gave you, there are bike boarding cards. and I think a couple more ones and a couple more 15s, and I'll tell you another really quick story at the beginning of the year, I met with the people from the ferry And their token system was a challenge last year, and so we came up with this idea of bike boarding groups. of 100. And so I said, well, how many cards are we gonna need? And they said, well, certainly we're not gonna need more than 20 cards because 20 cards at 100 apiece would be 2,000. more than 2,000. When as of last weekend, It was over 3,000. So the ambassadors actually do take account every day of the number of non-recreational, non-spandex bikes that come into town. But our numbers are up. They're way up. And we need to look at legal, logical ways to deal with that, and some of it is resources. So additional ambassadors, if we can't afford them this year, we probably will next year. We kind of missed the first third of the season, and so we missed the revenue associated with that. It would also be really helpful to, at least on a part-time basis, have either a police officer or a parking enforcement officer between the hours of 3 and 7, Thursday through Friday. El Patel is a different place when someone comes in that either has a badge or a weapon or some kind of an official vehicle. The ambassadors are on their own if the city is not enforcing the laws, and that's really just a tough position to put the relatively young people in. This is, again, an idea from the... from our committee, but it turns out I've had conversations with the Golden Gate Ferry District. Having $2 or $1 or $3 peak time ferry surcharge, at least according to the executives at the at the bridge district is not illegal. It may have political challenges. So you might say, well, we don't want it for local, so it shouldn't apply to non-clipper cards. And I'm not saying this is, like, the greatest idea you've ever heard. What I am saying is we need to be very creative in our thinking about how we afford the resources we need to control the challenge that we have. And bike staging, as a subcategory of that, again, not to digress, but I heard a lot of bike staging, and I think the last time I was here, some fellow got up and said, I'm ready for bike staging, and we're all ready to go. So we said, okay. Our committee took it upon ourselves to create a little request for information, questions one through eight. Do you have insurance? Have you ever done this before? What's your relationship with the bike vendors? What are you going to charge? What's your business plan? What's your staffing plan? What's your ingress plan? What's your egress plan? I mean, these are not really rocket science questions. It's sort of like common sense, how are you going to do it? And ask that anyone who had a proposal, please bring it to the committee prior to our meeting yesterday. And we have exactly zero proposals. Maybe they'll be forthcoming, but it's getting toward the end of July. you you So I would love to see a staging proposal. I'd love to frankly see one that's staging outside of the downtown. And I'm going to say a little bit more about that under the Vista Point Trail. |
| 00:33:13.73 | Ed Fotch | We have a real challenge with Vinnadelmar Park because it's immediately adjacent to the ferry terminal. If the ambassadors aren't aggressive from the beginning, it turns into a bike parking lot. For a fair amount of the time I lived here, there was no one allowed in the park. There's almost certainly folks in this town who still feel that the park's a pretty special place and maybe pedestrians shouldn't be there. But I think there's even more people who think it shouldn't be a bike parking lot. And So the request that I have is either We need an ordinance that says you can't have bikes in there. or we just allow bikes to be in there or our current ordinances can be interpreted in such a way that the ambassadors can take it upon themselves to put up a little sign saying, please don't bring your bikes into the park and ask people, not to park. I think what's not fair is to ask the ambassadors to take this on, keeping bikes out of the park, when we don't even know if it's legal to be in the park in the first place. So we'd really just like either an ordinance or some clarification. or let's just all agree that there's going to be a heck of a lot of bikes in that park. So again, Between 4 and 7 o'clock in the high volume days, the mismatch between supply to get on that ferry supply on the ferry, and the demand to get on it, is off by at least 400 bikes, and they will go somewhere. The interesting thing for me is a lot of those people paid for parking. took their bike out of Tracy Way, Saw they couldn't get on. and thought, well, I may as well just go sit down. So we either agree that that's going to be a parking lot, or we don't. On the opposite side of it, our suggestion is that we amend the current bike parking ordinance to focus on the high volume times. We've heard at our committee from a number of local folks who say, if it's a rainy Tuesday and I want to ride down and lock my bike to the meter in front of Starbucks and have coffee, why should that be illegal? you Again, focusing the cure. on the illness. Our recommendation is that we loosen it up so we focus on really when we're having a hard time keeping our sidewalks clean, Thank you. and clear from a safety and a convenience and a clutter standpoint, and let the citizens enjoy their town for the rest of the time. So we'd like to see a little bit of... latitude there I mentioned bike staging before We haven't had any recommendations, or excuse me, any proposal on that, But we have an interesting proposal laid for a water taxi service who at least said that he could take 40 to 50 bikes and visitors back at half the time that the ferry can. I think this is worthwhile for the staff to investigate. I informally asked the Bridge District folks if there was any way they could just take the next 40 bikes in the queue right off of the ferry float. I mean, that's what we really need. We need throughput. It's not like people want to hang out in downtown so they're stuck here. So if we could pull another 200 bikes, out in the three or four hours, I think that's worth looking into. I think our committee has taken that as far as we can, and now it would be something that maybe the staff could take a look at in collaboration with the Ferry District. The Vista Point Trail you've heard us talk about, we'd really like to see the city, and I know there's a meeting coming up on this, the city get very proactive here. I think our bike staging options on the south end of town hinge on our ability to concentrate the bikes. If they're coming down Alexander, we have lost the battle. There is no bike staging area on Alexander Avenue. It's steep, they're frightened, and they're not going to pull off. So we'd really like to see And then lastly, suggestion that we create a preferred bike vendor program. Because one thing that's really clear to our committee and probably clear to most of the citizens is that this is a dynamic situation that's going to take creativity and maybe staging and maybe more free parking and a lot of education. And we need bike vendors who are extremely proactive. |
| 00:37:20.15 | Unknown | about the |
| 00:37:25.64 | Ed Fotch | in working with the city, whose native instinct is, let's try it. You're, you know, great. We make money from your city, and we want to work with the city. And I just think it's unrealistic to think every bike vendor is going to be, particularly because they seem to be popping up like mushrooms, that every bike vendor is going to be, you know, rip-roaring excited to collaborate with the city, with the city staff, with the council, and our committee. So we would like to recognize the bike vendors, and we'd like the city to recognize the bike vendors who are proactive in that collaboration. Not necessarily to penalize anybody, but to reward people for positive behavior. I'm sure you all know that in the private sector this is done routinely with preferred vendors and so on and so forth. Those are our ten recommendations and we hope that you take a hard look at those and perhaps consider moving against them. Thanks. |
| 00:38:24.08 | Mayor Theodore | Thank you. Jonathan, do we have any other presentation before we move into questions? |
| 00:38:35.01 | Jonathon Goldman | My suggestion, Mr. Mayor, is that questions on Ped Bike Advisory Committee's report and recommendations would be appropriate here, and then we can go to subsequent action item and other information later, unless you'd prefer it. |
| 00:38:52.64 | Mayor Theodore | I just just to be clear, we could have questions and then you would have another presentation and other questions, then public comment or. |
| 00:38:58.60 | Jonathon Goldman | Because they're really distinct. |
| 00:39:00.31 | Mayor Theodore | Okay, fine. Then we'll come back to you. Okay. So let's bring it up here for public council questions. Council member Pfeiffer. |
| 00:39:07.70 | Jill Hoffman | Yes, I have a question. So thank you, Ed, for the presentation. Thanks for the thoroughness of it and everything. I appreciate that. So my. question is that I know we have a lot of residents who ride bikes and they actually ride bikes to run errands, do grocery shopping. I'm one of them. I have a little e-bike. I zip around sometimes. And so it's hard when we go downtown and some of the spaces that were like in front of Starbucks where we used to be able to park, you know, were removed or what have you. And then we park it in with the rental bikes and sometimes things happen. They're not necessarily, I once had my bike really damaged by rental bikes, you know, getting very congested in there. And my question, and perhaps it's more a question for Mary, I'm not sure, would be, is it possible for us to... to invite resident cyclists to get permits, perhaps they're free, with stickers showing proof of residence, and to designate certain bike parking spaces for resident permit parking only for those bikes. |
| 00:40:39.82 | Mary Wagner | That's certainly something we could explore, Council Member Pfeiffer, with the direction of the council. |
| 00:40:46.91 | Jill Hoffman | The reason I ask is I think it's linked to option two option two in that. Thank you. if we are going to have some of those other convenient you know bike parking spaces in front of Starbucks or in front of other places where residents might go or shopping you know grocery stores that it would allow us to to to reserve spaces for resident cyclists actually using their bikes instead of their cars to run errands. So my next question is, |
| 00:41:24.54 | Mayor Theodore | Do you mind, can we have maybe a comment? Yes, please. Because we, city attorney said it's |
| 00:41:27.73 | Jill Hoffman | THE END OF |
| 00:41:29.78 | Mayor Theodore | possible, could be possible legally. So maybe we could just have a comment on the practicality and then we could direct it to staff. |
| 00:41:37.94 | Ed Fotch | So just a couple quick comments. As I mentioned, we've heard this kind of feedback, and frankly, this is the way I think. I ride my bike into town, and I like to be able to lock it up. I'm not silly enough to try to ride it into town on a Saturday at 3 o'clock because it's just quicksand down there, and it's kind of a mess. The committee's attempt to begin to address this is to focus the hours of enforcement during, you know, let's say noon to 6. Certainly open to other ideas. The one challenge that we have is while we all may agree on some kind of a permit, which obviously is not going to be a great big thing because this is a little bike, and then it has to, you know, somehow for the enforcement people they have to see that this is a bike that has a permit. |
| 00:42:24.73 | Jeff Sears | THE END OF THE END OF THE |
| 00:42:25.78 | Ed Fotch | The subtlety of that is very difficult to match with the education attempt we're trying to make with bike visitors. They see a bike locked to something in the sidewalk. and They're not gonna go up and look and see if there's a permit. So that's the trade-off that we have. And so our suggestion is the first step to try to loosen the enforcement, or not the enforcement, but the rule that we have, the law that we have right now is to really just focus on the peak days and during the peak hours. But if there's some other way to do it that doesn't at the same time exacerbate the problem that we have with the sidewalks being jammed with bikes. It certainly seems like it's worth pursuing. |
| 00:43:12.13 | Jill Hoffman | Yeah, that would be great, Ed, because as a follow-up question, if you're driving a car and there's a sign that says, Permit D, parking only, and you know I don't have that permit. So I'm just applying the same type of logic to bicycle parking that would be reserved for the resident cyclists. |
| 00:43:34.37 | Ed Fotch | I don't disagree conceptually, but as a motor vehicle or as a car, you wouldn't drive into Vinnadelmar Park, and yet the bikes go in there freely. So one of the learnings that we've had both as a committee and that I've heard from the ambassadors, people have this sense of entitlement with a bike, like it can go anywhere I go. So we just have to understand that the rules that apply to cars won't necessarily translate well to the bikes. |
| 00:43:59.65 | Jill Hoffman | Yes, but Vigno Del Mar, you're not talking about, we don't have bike parking, you know, racks in Vigno Del Mar Park. We have, I'm talking about a rack with a clear sign that says D. No, I'm in no way objecting. Okay. |
| 00:44:11.09 | Ed Fotch | No, I'm in no way objecting. I'm simply saying that Thank you. |
| 00:44:15.18 | Jill Hoffman | Thank you. |
| 00:44:15.23 | Ed Fotch | Thank you. We're trying to educate and we got about six seconds to educate these bike visitors when they come in and they kind of do what they do. |
| 00:44:21.84 | Jill Hoffman | I have follow up questions but I'll yield to the rest of the council. |
| 00:44:31.41 | Kirby Withey | Thank you, Ed. I looked at the materials and was able to so far get through the first hour or so of last night's bike and peg committee on the video. But I also looked at the materials that the consulting group, was it Parisi? Parisi. Parisi produced in terms of data surrounding bicycle flows, which I thought was incredibly interesting. Was the Bike and Peg Committee planning to at some point make the Council aware of that? So that was a side question. what I was getting into was I was very impressed with the data. You alluded to the fact that you're collecting data as well. So by the end of this process this summer, will we have a pretty good database of bikes that entered, bikes that you parked, bikes that you think got on the ferry? Where do we stand on, again, very impressed with the study that did the data collecting on flows. What are we doing at the actual downtown in terms of data collection? |
| 00:45:43.40 | Ed Fotch | Right. In full disclosure, the Parisi and Associates work was not commissioned or suggested by our committee, and it may have predated the committee, but of course we were interested in looking at the data. It was a combination of bike volumes as well as alternatives and recommendations vis-a-vis changes to the south end of town from Alexander Avenue to the south end of Bridgeway. The data collection they did in terms of the Vike volumes was interesting and detailed, but for a very small period of time. And it didn't happen to be in the summer months. So that's information the city has, and it's a report that the city has. And, you know, I could present it, but it's not my data, and I think that the city has, and it's a report that the city has. And I could present it, but it's not my data, and I think that the city has it, and they would do a better job, and Jonathan would certainly do a far better job of presenting it, and we made our recommendations. As it relates to the ambassadors, and I'm not sure how exactly this happens. It started as a let's do it a few times, and now it's every day. They're collecting the number of bike visitors that come every day. Now, I would say that's going to be accurate within maybe 3% to 5%, and the reason for that is sometimes you can't tell. But usually, frankly, you can. As you can see, that it's a rented bike. I mean, it becomes pretty apparent. So that's every day. And then in addition, we have the city has and the ambassadors have |
| 00:47:00.91 | Unknown | Thank you. |
| 00:47:00.92 | Unknown | you |
| 00:47:01.13 | Unknown | you |
| 00:47:05.33 | Unknown | Thank you. Thank you. |
| 00:47:13.78 | Ed Fotch | quite detailed reports on how many bikes that have been parked every day. And then lastly, the ferry, staff. asserts that they have data every day on how many bikes have come in. Our committee has attempted to get that data, and what we've gotten is some sampling. We've never actually gotten the full data. I think the thing that we got from the Parisi and associates and the thing that we're seeing and the thing that we're seeing from the number of people boarding the ferry is that any suggestion that this is up a few percent over last year is probably missing well on the low side. you I mean, the numbers are up substantially. or appear to be. Now, the good news is we have a lot of data, and the bad news is we won't have much data to compare it to last year. A lot of the reasons we were collecting the data is for staffing purposes. know you want to target your staffing here when you have the peak flow and at some point you need more staffing in the south end and more so I think a lot of this is really from purely running a business sort of thing. But I think that the council can look forward to, probably in the September timeframe, some really neat graphs kind of showing what the maximum days were and what holidays looked like and all that stuff. I'm not sure exactly what we're going to do with it, but one thing we'll do is we'll be smarter. So a fair amount of data coming. Thank you. We all have our pub. I'm sorry, just one other thing. |
| 00:48:32.27 | Kirby Withey | Thank you. |
| 00:48:32.30 | Mayor Theodore | We'll have our public. |
| 00:48:36.99 | Ed Fotch | The ambassadors have enough time to do, you know, not lots of extra time, but they can do some other things. And one of the things, if the council was interested in, because we've taken advantage of this, as a committee is we can survey bike visitors. If there's a question about, something about where do you come from, how much money did you spend, that kind of stuff, The ambassadors develop a pretty good relationship with these people. They help them park their bike. They know they're keeping an eye on their bike. They typically are answering the question, where do I go to get a burger? Where do I go to get a smoothie? What ferry can I get on? And so they can execute against surveys. So there's other data we could collect aside from just the really basic census data. |
| 00:49:16.26 | Mayor Theodore | We'll have our public works director talk about the Parisi report when we call you up later. Let's move on to other questions. |
| 00:49:23.55 | Jill Hoffman | Thanks for this report and all of your hard work, by the way, on this project. My first question is with regard to – because I have noticed when I go down there periodically, and I try to get down there most weekends to look and see what's going on with the ferry and the sidewalks at those peak congestion times, And there's been kind of an evolution of You know, it used to be a line that would wrap all the way around the park and into Gabrielson Park, which is the park that's on the other side of the parking lot. And now it just seems like impassable sidewalks. Everywhere. once you get, like, right close to the ferry line. So is that a function of Is that a function of we're having trouble having anybody manage those lines? And if so, what is your sense of what the fix is on that? It seems to me it might be. you give one person responsibility for managing it and then we all go forward knowing that that one person is or is not managing it. |
| 00:50:21.99 | Ed Fotch | Right, so a couple things. I mean, in the past, the line would wrap around almost to the spinnaker because the only option for getting a space on a ferry was to stand in the lines. So that's gone because of the group boarding numbers. There's really not the clutter on the sidewalk that there had been before. |
| 00:50:43.67 | Jill Hoffman | Can you explain the group boarding numbers quickly? |
| 00:50:45.99 | Ed Fotch | Right. So when a biker, a bike visitor comes in, and I think that the bike vendors are getting pretty good at explaining this to them, when they come in, they are given one of those white cards. Right, and that's a group boarding number, and they give out 100 number ones at the beginning of the day, and then 100 number twos, and 100 number threes, and so on and so forth. And then there's a large orange sign hanging from the, from the, chamber kiosk. that says what number they're boarding. So there's no point in coming before your number is called. In addition, if you scan the QR code, on that card, you can check where they're at in terms of the boarding numbers from anywhere, Sausalito or elsewhere, because it's an IP camera. So the idea is don't make people wait in line, let them go enjoy the town, let them shop, let them do whatever they want to do. And they're going to get on. or they're going to get in the ferry queue when their number is called, or they can come any time. after their number is called. So when someone comes in, they get a group number, and let's say it's the middle of the afternoon, they're getting group number 15, |
| 00:51:53.65 | Unknown | you Thank you. |
| 00:51:55.85 | Ed Fotch | to currently boarding group six. at least the ambassadors can say you probably have an hour and a half before you're going to get in that queue. The point, though, vis-a-vis your question is they don't have to stand in the line on the sidewalk to know that there's going to be space for them. They can go and enjoy the town or sit in Gabrielson Park or go have another beer or do whatever they want to do. As the ferry works through the volume of people and they call the next hundred or the next hundred or the next hundred. That's the group boarding system and that's how it works now. I think the issue is that that works reasonably well until in order of magnitude 4 o'clock. Because at 2 o'clock if you tell someone you've got an hour and a half, go do something, that's fine. At 4.30 when you're sunburned or drunk or your kids are crying, you don't want to go anywhere. You're just going to sit. Unless someone tells you you can't, you're going to sit down. on the sidewalk or stand in the street or whatever and wait for your group boarding number. you Now, there are days when the ambassadors are quite good at dispersing those folks and saying, you know, you don't have to wait here. In fact, this is probably the least comfortable place you could wait. You can go to Gabrielson Park, you can go relax someplace else. So I think to your point, Having ambassadors and, frankly, ferry staff collaborate to try to disperse the crowds when it just gets to be a whole bunch of people is the right first line of defense. That line of defense breaks down unless they can call some park enforcement or police officers when things get completely out of hand because sometimes they're just, frankly, they're just overrun. And when you, if you imagine your ambassador, you're standing there and you say, you can't stay here, why? Well, because it's the middle of the road. So what? Well, because it's illegal. Then call the police. Well, if the police or the traffic people come and clear them out, Now I as an ambassador have authority. But if they never come, I'm just a little squeaky wheel. I got no badge, I got no weapon. And our ambassadors have been trained to just ask people once, and then back off. Thank you. Not, you know, they're not Again, no weapon, no badge, man, just because we don't want fights and we don't want problems. And so I think we need to do a better job of keeping that clear. And I think there needs to be a collaboration with the city staff and the ambassadors and the ambassadors are I mean these kids and they're not all kids you know there's folks in their 70s. They're gung ho. I mean, I can tell you, when ALF's working down there, you know, it's law and order. But not everyone has got that sort of chutzpah, and we just need a little bit firmer effort to keep that area clear. |
| 00:54:41.90 | Jill Hoffman | And if we had then, so then we would want to be focusing our staging efforts, whether it be trailers, whether it be extra ferries, whether it be water taxis, whatever. I mean, that's a pretty finite period. We're talking about two hours on peak days, which are Friday, Saturday, Sunday. to get just move people out of Sausalito. Thank you. |
| 00:55:02.91 | Ed Fotch | Right, so I would differentiate between the two in a perfect world and the perfect world staging, at least from the committee's standpoint, and I realize there's politics around this, means 500 bikes a day never even get to Saus Leader. |
| 00:55:02.92 | Jill Hoffman | Right. |
| 00:55:12.86 | Unknown | Right. |
| 00:55:13.59 | Ed Fotch | They're down and you know, they went down Vista Point Trail, they're down there, they stay there, they either take a ferry back from there, they come up on a hop on hop off bus, they go back, they get their, |
| 00:55:14.36 | Unknown | Yeah. |
| 00:55:22.50 | Ed Fotch | We never even see the bike. |
| 00:55:22.62 | Unknown | that you have. Thank you. |
| 00:55:25.28 | Ed Fotch | that the water taxi concept in a perfect world would simply, during the peak hours, simply take the next 40 or 50 people right off of the ferry terminal and take them out of town. Conceptually, you could say, well, they could go over to... where they have landing rights so they could go up to the Bay Model or the Gadon to Cavallo Point, where apparently they now have landing rates The challenge logistically of organizing 40 people and getting them in a caravan to even go two blocks is massive. It's just really hard. And the people who drive those ferry taxis or those boats back and forth don't have the staff. So again it would be one more, well why don't the ambassadors do that. And in the meantime the ambassadors are trying to keep to help or tell clear. we've really focused on and maybe it's just a bridge too far on you know can they just take the next 40 people out of the ferry queue because if in fact they can run every 30 or 40 minutes during those peak times out of that queue. And that's material. I mean, that's, you know, arguably 20%, 30% of the issue. And the last thing I'll just mention is, you know, there's this old study they have in psychology where you start putting rats into a box, and the rats are pretty good with each other. And then at one point, you put one extra rat in there and... |
| 00:56:29.51 | Unknown | Thank you. |
| 00:56:45.41 | Ed Fotch | They go nuts. And there's that issue, too. The challenge is not a linear challenge. You hit a point, and it's just really tough stuff down there. And that's why I think 200 bikes off the pier or 500 bikes sort of tamps down the noise and lets the ambassadors kind of do their job and probably better collaboration with the police. So we're way open to ideas on this. And maybe this is self-serving for the committee. I would hate to think of what things would be like right now if there was no ambassador program this year, given the volume of bikes that we had. I mean, it's pretty tough stuff. |
| 00:57:02.47 | Unknown | you know, |
| 00:57:23.95 | Mayor Theodore | Council Member Weyer, no questions? JUST A REMINDER, WE'LL HAVE QUESTIONS FOR DR. FACH. WE'LL HAVE PRESENTATIONS FROM PUBLIC WORKS AND POLICE AND WE'LL HOLD THOSE QUESTIONS FOR |
| 00:57:34.31 | Jill Hoffman | Okay, so I actually had a question about the fine. I'm all for enforcement of fining the illegally parked bikes. And the $25, I'm just wondering, it just seems to me that should be higher, like $50 or something. I don't know. Do you have a comment on that? |
| 00:57:58.00 | Ed Fotch | So that ordinance actually came into effect and predates our committee. I would say that the goal of the, at least I think that if I can speak for the committee, the goal of the ordinance should be to motivate behavior that is consistent with all of us enjoying the downtown. I'm not convinced that $50 is going to be twice as good as $25. I don't think we should be in a position where our cost of enforcing a law is higher than what we get in the fine. But since we haven't ever enforced it a single time to my knowledge, And since it takes time, as my understanding, if you wanted to change this ordinance, it would be October by the time you changed it. So my suggestion would be let's start by enforcing what we have using the lowest touch possible. And then if there's evidence that says, well, if it was 50, then I'd, you know. |
| 00:58:58.45 | Jill Hoffman | Thank you. And the reason I asked that was because looking at option two, it seems to me that the police are really the key here in terms of enforcement. It's really about upping the staffing so that we can have that police enforcement for writing the fines and issuing that for enforcement. I was curious to see that you were suggesting the hours of 3 to 7 during the week time when I know we also have heavy rental bike traffic during the weekend. With regards to the police, you mentioned the officer. One police officer from 3 to 7.30, oh, Thursday to Sunday. Okay, sorry, I read that wrong. Okay. Thank you. No questions. |
| 00:59:50.32 | Ed Fotch | And just one thing that ties back to the question. In early August, we may do 3,000 bikes on a Tuesday. I mean, nothing's going to surprise us. So this is just a first shot. One of the points of collecting the data is now you can look back on the data and, again, match the cure to the symptoms or to the illness. So, you know, as the bike committee just tried to take a shot at this, certainly we have high volumes Thursday to Sunday, and so that would be a good starting point. |
| 01:00:28.17 | Kirby Withey | Ed, again, referring back to the materials in last night's bike and peg committee. I haven't been able to go through the whole thing, but I've looked at all the materials. One of the documents I found in the package was, entitled Identical Response to City Ambassador-slash-Valley Program from Multiple Bike Vendors. It's actually this one pager with some yellow highlights on it. I couldn't tell from the package the context of this. So could you tell me who authored that and who provided the highlights for that document? |
| 01:01:06.02 | Ed Fotch | Well, I can tell you who highlighted it, because that's the easy part. That's me. I'll tell you the context first, and then I'll tell you my, you know, then I'll comment on the authorship. |
| 01:01:14.09 | Unknown | I |
| 01:01:17.97 | Ed Fotch | The city made a decision, the city staff with, I think some of you folks made a decision that, one way or another, we needed ambassadors this year. And our recommendation was that best chance for making sure that the ambassadors were not funded by taxpayer dollars was to have value parking on Tracy Way. There was then the sort of logistics question of how do you rope that area off and who's going to do the valet parking and why the tickets and so on and so forth. And so there was an effort by led by, I believe, by the police department to engage the bike vendors to pre-sell the tickets. Because having never done this before, as I'm telling you, we're on a steep learning curve, there was real fear that the bikes would come and there'd be long lines to buy the tickets. There was a request from the police, I believe, to all the bike vendors, all the known bike vendors. Again, there's some new folks. to participate in pre-sell the tickets and to pre-sell them at $2 versus $3. And there may have, I wasn't involved in the meetings. I know there's some meetings associated with this. And there was also just some discussion about participation in bike staging and other things that are, I think, referenced in there. And interestingly, the city, and Saucydo Plus copied on this, got back the identical email from a number of the bike vendors. And that identical, if you will, form email is what you have there, in that it wasn't marked personal, confidential, or anything else. It seemed like a public domain document. And it seemed germane particularly From the bike committee's standpoint, it wasn't in your packet, but it was in our packet. because it's our firm belief Unless we get motivated partners on the vendor side. |
| 01:03:11.54 | Unknown | motivated. |
| 01:03:14.78 | Ed Fotch | that we have, it's one more rock to push up the hill. in the kind of rich irony of life, It turns out that those same vendors helped us out. from this standpoint. They didn't agree to pre-sell the tickets. We haven't had any problems with lines. the per- valet parking fee is now $3 instead of $2, and the revenue is up. I mean, it's only a buck difference, but that's 50% in your revenue model, as I'm sure you're well aware. So, I provided that to the rest of the, some of the members of the committee were already aware of it. Because we look at this as a challenge to figure out how to motivate folks who don't live here, who don't pay taxes here, and yet who send bikes here, or if they don't send them, they certainly know that they're coming here, to be as proactive as possible. I WANT TO TAKE A LOOK AT THE uh, piece of the packet was tied to the preferred bike vendor program. In a perfect world, again, it would be how can we help the city of Sausli to deal with this challenge, as opposed to, well, that's not particularly good for our business this month, which is not very helpful to us. |
| 01:04:32.98 | Unknown | Thank you. and I have a number three of that. It says last year the chair of the chamber, Last year, the Chamber of the Fairies in that program made over $50,000. and had enough plans left over for all spring break in 2015. Do you have any idea what that means? The Chamber of the Barrier Intimate Program debate |
| 01:05:00.16 | Ed Fotch | I don't think there was... |
| 01:05:01.34 | Jill Hoffman | My microphone. wasn't on. Let me repeat that. I'm looking at the identical bike vendor response that's part of the bicycle package from last night. I'm looking at bullet number three, sentence number two. And it says, last year, the Chamber Ferry Attendant Program made over $50,000 and had enough funds left over to cover all of spring break 2015. Do you know what that's – do you have any knowledge of what that's – |
| 01:05:28.78 | Ed Fotch | I have enough to be dangerous. First of all, I don't believe that sentence represents gap accounting when you say made. I believe that's a reference to the fact that the the revenue, not even revenue, the dollars available to what we refer to downtown and the ambassadors is the orange vest folks, the folks who help with the queue for the ferry line itself, not the ambassadors, has been funded, to my knowledge, for at least the last two years, perhaps three, by a combination of dollars that come from the ferry companies and some but not all of the bike vendors. And I believe the reference to the $50,000 is the compilation of the money that come from those various groups. It wasn't revenue. It certainly wasn't a profit. It was just dollar available to pay for those young people who work down there. And I'll just mention they work fewer hours than the ambassadors do, and they work in one place. And I'm not saying that's bad. I'm saying so for them, $50,000 apparently covered some cost last year. It doesn't do anything for El Patel, for Bridgeway, for South Street, for Richardson, for Second Street, for Alexander. You know, I mean, it's sort of a limited thing. And while I think every dollar is helpful, just to look at it in context, I think we have a, |
| 01:06:51.20 | Unknown | Yeah. |
| 01:07:01.76 | Ed Fotch | hundred plus thousand dollar problem than a ten thousand-ish dollar |
| 01:07:03.52 | Unknown | that he needs. |
| 01:07:05.97 | Ed Fotch | that source of revenue is simply not gonna be sufficient. So anyway, I've been And lastly, my knowledge is that those dollars go to the chamber and then the chamber pays the salary or the wages of of the young people, and I think there's some training done by the folks from the ferry company. |
| 01:07:27.40 | Jill Hoffman | I have a follow-up question based on another comment that's made in this identical bike vendor response about that they, whoever wrote it, would not agree to charge anything over $2 for paid bike parking. and that $1 would suffice. I think Jonathan's going to... come up and talk to us about the burn rate on our dollars here in a minute. Is there any, we're charging $3 right now, is that right? |
| 01:07:52.96 | Ed Fotch | Yes, I think there's some bike vendors who are pre-selling it too, but it represents such a small number that you can just assume it's three less the administrative fee charged by the people who run the kiosk. |
| 01:08:02.94 | Jill Hoffman | Is there is the $3 charge driving anybody away and how amenable do you think or how Would it hurt the program if we increase that $3 to a higher number, if necessary, to cover the cost of the program? |
| 01:08:18.26 | Ed Fotch | So I'll preface my comments by saying I don't have any hard data on this, but it really wouldn't be that hard to get hard data. Would you just raise the fee one day? I just would strongly suggest you don't do it this year. We've got about 100 balls in the air, and I just would suggest let's not. So I'll tell you my anecdotal experience, having spent some number of hundreds of hours at the intersection and watching the human nature. My personal belief is that $3, if you said, well, how many more people would you get at $2? My answer is very few. The people who don't pay, I don't think don't pay. The reason they don't pay isn't that they think three is too high and two is the right amount or one's perfect or anything. There's just some people who fundamentally go, why am I paying for bike parking? That's ridiculous. AND, In point of fact, they're really not paying for bike parking. They're paying for convenience. They're paying for security. They're paying for some lightweight concierge. They want to be right next to that ferry. You can go park your bike for free. |
| 01:09:07.38 | Unknown | next to that. |
| 01:09:10.64 | Ed Fotch | anywhere. I mean, go to Des Moines. It's free all over the place. You know, there's plenty of free bike parking out there. they are paying for convenience. My sense is, and some of the subtlety as Kids under 10 don't pay. Groups over eight, the manager down there is given some authority to discount for larger groups to try to address, you know, we're not here to gouge people. And maybe that will change in the future with other folks that are running the program, but I don't think it's fair to be, you know, we didn't think it was fair to be charging little kids on, you know, on these bikes. Okay. My sense is, from a purely economic standpoint, if you lowered the fee to two, even if you thought, oh, that's going to bring in some more people, it better bring in 50% more people or you just lost money. And I also keep in mind that several times while we've never actually fully We've never filled Tracy way, we've gotten pretty close. If you cut the fee to two, And you fill it, and now you by definition you've lost money because you're going to have to send people away. I mean, it's not really, you know, super complicated stuff. That having been said, I also have a sense that it was $5. There were some people saying, That's just a lot of money. And to the extent that we want to test that, I think that the thing to do, and I think this is a next year thing, is try some days at $4 and just see the reaction image. normally you'd say, oh, let's do some market research. You ask people what they're going to do, you're going to get some amount of information. You won't know until you actually put that $4 nut up and see what your revenues look like. And I do, as the council has heard before, I do think that that is exquisitely valuable property that is taken away from the citizens of this town every year for a period of six or so months. If some outside group like Oracle said, we want to rent that thing out, the price tag would be extremely high. I don't see it as a what's, quote, unquote, the bare minimum price. I really think it has to. I think the fiduciary responsibility for us as a committee and for you folks is to say, what is the fair market value of that? Maybe let's target the low end of that to cut people a break. but I think $3 for this year was a wise decision made by the city staff with collaboration with the council It wasn't my number, but in my opinion, it was the right number. |
| 01:11:31.29 | Mayor Theodore | I'D RECOMMEND AT THIS POINT IS POSSIBLY HAVE OUR PUBLIC WORKS DIRECTOR COME UP AND POSSIBLY THE POLICE HAVE THE REST OF PRESENTATION. WE CAN THEN GO ASK THEM QUESTIONS AND THEN WE CAN ASK all of them questions if there are any other questions be asked. Jonathan? |
| 01:11:55.37 | Jonathon Goldman | Thank you, Mr. Mayor. Let's see here. |
| 01:12:10.24 | Jonathon Goldman | This will come up shortly and be very brief. And I didn't really prepare a slide on the recommended action that's in your staff report, but I'm happy to talk about that. The staff and the ambassadors, Sausalito Plus, continue to track daily cash flow, and based on the most recent of those reports, I just threw this spreadsheet together to kind of our chronology, these are not audited, but are based on the information that the company that We're renting the pay stations that get used for bike parking provides, as well as information provided by South Salado Plus, the ambassadors program. So with week ending June 22nd was really our first year of operations, and then we have data here through the week ending July 19th. As you can see, in every week week the total revenue associated with the bicycle parking operation has exceeded the total expenses some of those have been smaller than others we have a cumulative calculated net gain revenues minus expenses of $8,500 round numbers as of the end of last week. So I wanted to provide this information to council. I don't think that police necessarily has anything else to offer, although they're certainly here to answer questions. The action that staff is recommending this evening is to to again amend the master fee schedule and give the city manager who is the parking manager under some of our ordinance the authority to charge for bike parking on property that the city owns immediately adjacent to the downtown restrooms and in front of the Bank of America branch, should that be necessary or warranted coming into the peak part of the season. So happy to answer questions on that or, any other. questions you have. |
| 01:14:38.77 | Jill Hoffman | So I'm looking over on the communal of net column. It looks like you're adding the net every week, and so the total that we're ahead right now from the 622 Is it we're $8,480 ahead of our expenses? |
| 01:14:56.58 | Jonathon Goldman | Correct. |
| 01:14:57.22 | Jill Hoffman | Okay, and so that doesn't count though. the expenses from in May and early part of June when we weren't earning revenue, right? So we're in the hole right now. We're sort of digging our way out. |
| 01:15:09.22 | Jonathon Goldman | That's certainly one way to look at it. On the other hand, what these are are operating expenditures associated with the bicycle parking operation. So it's true that there were ambassadors, operations, and other costs that Sausalito Plus and the city incurred prior to when we started charging for bike parking. |
| 01:15:30.68 | Jill Hoffman | Yeah, so that's my concern. And I want to, you know, obviously the whole point of, of, charging for parking was to pay for Sausalito Plus and said that it would be at best, worse than neutral and at best maybe earn a little bit of money from for the town at the end of the season. I like, you know, if we are, in fact, in the hole, which is my sense that we are. Um, then yeah, I would like to consider additional paid parking areas if the bike and ped in South Slewia Plus can be if that pencil's out. But, okay, thanks. |
| 01:16:12.31 | Jill Hoffman | I actually have a question for Chief Tejada, but I guess I'm jumping the gun because. No, you're not. Oh, okay, all right. Or Captain Rohrabacher, my question has to do with |
| 01:16:29.52 | Mayor Theodore | Could you come up? Or. |
| 01:16:32.73 | Jill Hoffman | has to do with staffing levels. |
| 01:16:42.27 | Jill Hoffman | Thank you. |
| 01:16:43.09 | John Rohrabacher | Hi, good evening, Mayor and members of the council. I'm John Rohrabacher, police captain. |
| 01:16:46.72 | Jill Hoffman | Thank you. So I look at this proposal and I think that a key element of this is police enforcement. The ability, as we heard from Ed, the ability to write the citations and enforce the illegal bicycle parking. What increase in staffing does the police department need in order to provide the level of enforcement that we think we're going to need for this I know that it's currently proposed from I guess Thursday to Sunday it is but you know do you have the staffing to to meet that right now that you're doing What kind of pressure is that putting on the department in terms of resources? What would we be looking at if we expanded those hours for the police to write those citations? |
| 01:17:43.89 | John Rohrabacher | Okay, so it's a several-part question, but to start with, we really don't have current staffing to take on the responsibility of stationing either a police officer or a parking enforcement officer at Orr Patel Tracy Way to work congestion management there now. And adding people would be just a matter of calculating how many hours we would need. It sounds like to start with, it might be best addressed by adding part-time staff |
| 01:17:45.48 | Jill Hoffman | somebody |
| 01:18:14.49 | John Rohrabacher | personnel, possibly even a parking officer rather than a police officer, a little less expensive. The ramp up time is actually the biggest challenge, one is to recruit and find somebody that would do that and then do the required background in order to hire them and that wouldn't probably be happening anytime quickly, even if we started it tomorrow. It would probably take at least a month to do that. |
| 01:18:40.48 | Jill Hoffman | Mm-hmm. THE END OF END OF THE END OF THE END OF THE END OF THE Thank you. How much would it cost to have a new parking enforcement staff, I mean, full time, someone full time on this? |
| 01:18:50.24 | John Rohrabacher | I don't know the answer to the number, but as an example, I believe, for instance, a top step parking officer without benefits is approximately $30 an hour. And so you could just take that as either a potential pay rate for a part-time person without benefits. But if we added the city benefits, we'd probably have to add another 30%, 40% on top of that to be a fully burdened position full time. |
| 01:19:18.56 | Unknown | Mm-hmm. |
| 01:19:19.66 | John Rohrabacher | And then we'd have to ask the question, do we have enough work for that person to justify a full time hire? year-round or not, whether it's really worth that or not, or whether it's best to maybe look at that as a |
| 01:19:24.35 | Unknown | Thank you. Right. |
| 01:19:29.66 | John Rohrabacher | you know, part-time employee solutions. |
| 01:19:33.55 | Jill Hoffman | Thank you. |
| 01:19:37.14 | Kirby Withey | Captain, good evening. I remember during the budget process, we were talking about bringing in a seasonal officer this year again. Did we do that? Did we bring in someone for the season to part-time? |
| 01:19:55.87 | John Rohrabacher | No, we still have the authorization of the budget to pay our current part-time police officer. So he's going to be working now. And he's also... |
| 01:20:05.81 | Kirby Withey | That is... And he's on the job right now. Yes. Okay, that is what I'm thinking of, right. And so that position isn't being assigned downtown at all for congestion management. |
| 01:20:09.27 | John Rohrabacher | Yes. |
| 01:20:18.42 | John Rohrabacher | He is not, even though he is available for some of those calls depending on what might be happening. But his primary assignment, he works on one of the police motorcycles, is traffic enforcement primarily on Alexander South, 2nd Richardson Bridgeway, and wherever we have need for extra traffic enforcement. Yeah, thank you. So he's restricted to our part-time hours, so it's not every day of the week. |
| 01:20:37.94 | Kirby Withey | Thank you. Yeah. Okay, thank you, Captain. |
| 01:20:46.78 | Jill Hoffman | Yeah, I guess I do. |
| 01:20:47.39 | Mayor Theodore | By the way, in anticipation of public comment, can we make sure everyone fills out a speaker card who would like to speak so we can get them going? |
| 01:20:47.68 | Kirby Withey | THE FAMILY. |
| 01:20:47.75 | Jill Hoffman | they, |
| 01:20:56.66 | Jill Hoffman | Sorry, Captain, I have a question. This is a police question. So, and this is a follow-up question to the last one. So, then how much would it cost? If we said we think we do need a seasonal additional police officer to manage El Portal, just And it doesn't have to be you know Anyway, a full-time police officer, but someone during the peak hours to be present at El Portal between the hours of 3 to 7. Thursday, Friday, Saturday, Sunday. Um, you know would that be another thirty dollar per hour seasonal part time hire or do you have the bandwidth right now to reassign somebody to that area. |
| 01:21:39.99 | John Rohrabacher | We actually don't have the capacity to do it now. It would require an extra hire to do that. And then depending on how many hours that totaled up to be, We would have to be cautious about exceeding the amount of hours a part-time person can work without incurring other employee costs. It might require two part-time people and be more effective. I'm not really sure of the numbers of that. I didn't do the math on the hours that were being suggested, but typically we're looking at no more than 20 hours a week for part-time people. |
| 01:21:54.99 | Unknown | Yeah. |
| 01:22:10.25 | Jill Hoffman | Right, so four hours, four days, 16 hours a week. So that's a one person job. |
| 01:22:15.94 | John Rohrabacher | Then that's a one person job, sure. |
| 01:22:17.47 | Jill Hoffman | Thank you. Okay, all right, thanks. Thank you. |
| 01:22:22.47 | Jill Hoffman | I have a follow-up question for Captain Rohrabacher. Sorry about that. It's about staffing again. And I know this is kind of a... |
| 01:22:24.57 | Jill Hoffman | THE END OF |
| 01:22:25.42 | Unknown | Thank you. Thank you. |
| 01:22:25.64 | Jill Hoffman | about that. |
| 01:22:33.69 | Jill Hoffman | you curveball here because it's about the post study that was done on the the staffing did and I can't remember did post look at bicycle you know the illegal parking of bicycles do they did did post consider that in its assessment I can't remember because I know the post report showed that the police department was was understaffed and so I'm looking at the result of the post and then I'm also looking at now this new requirement. And it just seems like we're really stretching things further than |
| 01:23:08.97 | John Rohrabacher | Sure. So it's a little bit of combination of both. In Dan Koenig's report, He did a bit of an introduction about the complexity of our small city and our policing obligations, including the ferry terminal and bicycle area. But when he was... constructing his data for his report, he was relying on call for service data from our dispatch center, and so not everything that occurs as a result of the influx of visitors results in a call for service, so that's not included in the data report. So it's just a little bit of both. |
| 01:23:47.89 | Jill Hoffman | Thank you. |
| 01:23:49.32 | John Rohrabacher | Thank you. |
| 01:23:49.35 | Mayor Theodore | I stay here. What I would recommend is that we open it up to public comment if we have any other issues. Howard List. top is Rebecca Woodbury. |
| 01:24:11.01 | Rebecca Woodbury | Good evening, Council. My name is Rebecca Woodbury, and I'm a co-chair for the Sustainability Commission. And at our last meeting on July 9th, we passed a resolution. And so I just wanted to quickly read a little bit on behalf of the Commission Whereas Sausalito is a gateway to Marin County from San Francisco, making the city a popular bike route and destination. Whereas hundreds of thousands of visitors come to Sausalito each year and many of them visit via bicycle, Whereas the city's climate action plan calls for a 15% reduction in greenhouse gas emissions by 2020, and motorized vehicles are the single largest contributor to Sausalito's greenhouse gas emission inventory, 42%, compared to all other sectors. And whereas objective CP 4.0 of the general plan is to enhance bicycle and pedestrian infrastructure and programs to reduce the use of motorized vehicles within the city and reduce conflicts between bicyclists, pedestrians, and motorists, yada, yada, yada, there's some more, there's some more. Whereas Sausalito Plus is a California nonprofit organization created to support the management and safety of bicyclists and pedestrians through the Bicycle Ambassador Program. Whereas the Bicycle Ambassador Program uses both paid staff and volunteers to focus on safety and education, ease congestion, and provide valet bicycle parking services. Now, therefore, be it resolved that the Sausalito Sustainability Commission supports the efforts of the bicycle ambassadors to make cycling and walking safer in Sausalito. Be it further resolved that the Sausalito Sustainability Commission extends their gratitude and thanks to the PBAC and Sausalito Plus for their tireless efforts and to support and manage the bicycle ambassadors. Be it further resolved that the Sustainability Commission encourages the community to volunteer with the ambassadors, create a bike friendly Sausalito and cycle more often. I think the key here is to really encourage the community to step up and volunteer, even if it's just a couple hours here and there. It's fun and it eases the burden on the people that are volunteering. So that's a big push that the commission would like to encourage the community to do. |
| 01:26:17.72 | Mayor Theodore | Thank you. Megan Bordas. |
| 01:26:27.95 | Megan Bordas | Good evening and thank you for your time this evening. My name is Megan Bordas and I am a resident of Sausalito. I'm a student athlete at Berkeley and most importantly, what we're talking about today I am an ambassador for the Sausli to Ambassador Program. Before the ambassador program, visitors biking into Sausalito were causing safety hazards. They were blocking the sidewalks, visitors parking in the streets, general lack of knowledge for safety policies. Since the arrival of the Ambassador Program, there has been increased organization for the city, There's been more signs, instructions, and safety thanks to... Thank you. Um, Ed and Deborah Fotch, as well as the city council. Our number one policy is safety as ambassadors representing the city. And, Furthermore, due to this program, I have met so many new people and made new relationships with the visitors, as well as my coworkers. Thank you. Um, Yeah, it's been great. Although as an ambassador I cannot enforce or prevent all incidents, we do the best that we can and we make the most in the most polite manner that we can. I mostly work on El Portal, Tracy Way, and I interact with the visitors coming in. And I've gotten both positive and negative feedback about our program, but Most of the feedback has been really, really positive from people revisiting the city. They're being like, wow, this is really, really organized, and I'm very impressed of what you all have done. Um, Yeah, there's been a general rightfulness for the program and I'd like to say thanks to the bike company participants, especially Blazing Saddles. Um, and Edward and Deb Votch. And in my opinion, this program's been a complete success thus far, and I can't wait to see, you know, where it goes from now. Thank you for your time, and thank you. |
| 01:28:38.26 | Mayor Theodore | Thank you. Russ Irwin. After that, we'll have Jeff Sears and Al Fusifor. And those are all the speaker cards. If anyone else wants to speak, please hand them to staff. Thanks. |
| 01:28:54.15 | Russ Irwin | So I just had a couple of comments. First, following up on the presentation, I want to thank the committee, the Bicycles Committee. There's an outrageous amount of volunteer work that's gone on there on a pretty intense basis for a significant issue for all of us. And I'd like to thank the committee and the Bicycles The suggestions are really well thought out, I thought, and they're creative. I suspect that the council will have a spirited discussion about which ones they like and don't like. The one I would like to endorse is the notion that we need a little more public safety presence down there. I traverse, currently I traverse that whole area about three times a day. So it's six times, really, three times in and out. And from the Trident to the Poggio it's frequently pretty chaotic and I drive very carefully but people literally will flood off the sidewalk into the street sometimes people are double parked in front of the barrel house it's just pretty chaotic I occasionally see the motorcycle policeman down there, which is good I think. I think a little more presence would probably, hopefully would help instill a little more discipline in the visitors. I know the ambassadors do a lot of great work there, but there's, you put that many people in one space, I think public safety is just an issue that we should think more about. Thank you. |
| 01:30:18.46 | Mayor Theodore | Thank you. |
| 01:30:23.06 | Russ Irwin | Thank you. |
| 01:30:23.22 | Jeff Sears | Thank you. |
| 01:30:23.35 | Russ Irwin | Thank you. |
| 01:30:24.40 | Jeff Sears | Good evening. I just want to say first of all, thanks a lot to all the ambassadors that have really made a big positive impact so far this season. It really has been a big plus for our business and all the other bicrential businesses and most importantly for our customers that have benefited directly from all of the nice greetings and directions given to them and advice. So I really think that's been a big positive so far. And I think I can speak for most of the bike rental companies that we also are very behind changing the behavior of bicyclists that come into Sausalito so that they can not create a negative impact to the community residents and other visitors to Sausalito. We realized that there's only so much space in the downtown area, and with that many bikes and people coming into town, something has to give. And we think that there are a lot of really nice and positive recommendations here in the current PBAC recommendation that were before you tonight some of those are we're talking about improved increasing signage which is really important and we've seen that already create Thank you. Some of those we're talking about increasing signage, which is really important, and we've seen that already create some positive results on the sidewalk. Riding has been decreasing dramatically as far as we've seen, and that was brought up at last night's meeting, and it seems that everybody thinks that that's because of increased signage. We also know that sign pollution is not something that we want, but we also know that that's something that's really makes things work, and we think that the new proposal for increased signage on meters and posts that are easily understandable by international visitors is going to make a positive impact to decreasing the amount of bikes parking illegally on the sidewalk. We also think that the no bike parking in Vina del Mar Park is a common sense, no-brainer ordinance that we can all support. And there's some other ideas, too, that are positive. What I think is the bigger picture is what really the goals are. I read the five goals of the PVAC. Can I have another few minutes? |
| 01:33:29.42 | Mayor Theodore | Can you wrap up pretty quickly? Yes. |
| 01:33:30.06 | Jeff Sears | But, The President. |
| 01:33:32.79 | Mayor Theodore | BEFORE. |
| 01:33:32.84 | Jeff Sears | THE END OF THE END OF THE |
| 01:33:33.01 | Mayor Theodore | Just wrap |
| 01:33:36.40 | Jeff Sears | I think a lot of this is very passive aggressive. I think that the ultimate goal that Adam, city manager, told us last May that the reduction of bikes to Sausalito is the goal of Sausalito, I think that is really difficult for us to work with. And I think it would be much better if we had an honest working relationship and we come to some agreement that there are going to be bikes coming into Sausalito, but to try to reduce them and try to not be transparent in the way that that's being conducted is not the right way to be going about this. And I'd really like to hear from Adam if that is the policy of the city to reduce bikes coming into Sausalito. I've heard that it is and I've heard that it isn't. |
| 01:34:06.19 | Unknown | with. |
| 01:34:20.65 | Jeff Sears | you And I'd like to know what your answer is. |
| 01:34:24.23 | Mayor Theodore | Thank you. Alf? |
| 01:34:34.13 | Mayor Theodore | and we're, |
| 01:34:35.53 | Al Fusifor | watching the time on these. Thank you, Mr. Mayor. Apologies for my attire. I came from a workout session. I came to support the 10 recommendations. As many of you will know, I was vocal on this issue going back to last September, October, November, because as one who walks and runs the streets, I felt the impact of the bicycles. But at some point, you've got to put your money where your mouth is. So I go to the PBAC meetings, and that's a lesson in in perseverance because you've got to listen to everything very, very clearly and carefully for three hours. And I've started doing ambassador duty. I've done about five or six weeks. I've got the ugly area down there around El Portal and the elephants. But it's been interesting. My impression is that the ambassador is a good – I always thought it was good, but I had doubts about whether we could pull it off with people and funding and organization. And it's obvious that we can. It's working. It's making a difference. The visitors like it. They talk to you. They have questions. They get a smile on their face if you respond accordingly. And we're fixing some of the problems. I mean, we are getting rid of the bikes parked up against the trees and stuff like that. The program definitely has to keep going. There's no question about that. I think it's a learning process. There are things that we need to tighten up, and there's constant feedback. I know I'm always, you know, bugging Deb Farch about things I saw, and why don't we do this and why don't we do that. But I think there's good feedback going back to PBAC and the city from us, and that can only be good. So I see this as a learning year. We tighten up, we tweak here, we little this, little that. I think next year it's going to be absolutely spectacular. The money is flowing the right way. At least we're in the black there. We'll be able to pay back, pay down that $180,000. So I would suggest to you that we're going to have a Don't do anything to... to harm ambassadors and do everything to support it. And the 10 recommendations that that Dr. Fotch presented this evening were thrashed out last night at PBAC. A lot of good discussion in there. And they're the right track. There's nothing hurtful there. I heard what Mr. Sears had to say, but those ten recommendations are geared towards continued improvement of the process and of the system, and I would highly encourage you to support them when it comes to vote time tonight. Thank you. |
| 01:37:11.64 | Mayor Theodore | Thank you. And that's the last speaker card I have. So unless there's someone else, this is the end of public comment. |
| 01:37:20.45 | Unknown | Una Kavanagh, I'm the CEO of the Sausalito Chamber of Commerce and a 20-year resident of Sausalito. I would like to publicly say that the Sausalito Chamber of Commerce really does support the Ambassador Programme and to thank Deb and Ed Foch and all their volunteers for their great work and City Council for supporting it. I think that It's improved things a lot. But it's a... As we've all said, it's a learning curve. We're only two months into that program. I think it's really important that everybody works together, that the Ambassador Program works alongside the boarding staff program and the Chamber kiosk. So I think it's really important we continue to have dialogue and communication. I've told Deb and Ed that I appreciate that there are people who are sometimes asked for recommendations, but I would strongly advise and like to say publicly that that's what our kiosk staff are supposed to do. But again, I'd also like to publicly say I have offered to give cross-training because I really don't want a lot of ambassadors giving their recommendations based on No training. So I just want to make sure we do that. but again, I think it's Everyone's working together pretty well at the moment and you guys are doing a great job. I wanted to also say I agree that we need better signage particularly for the free parking. I know there's been a lot of stuff on the web where people have felt They've gone in and not realized that they had to pay. and there were options available for free parking. I'd like to make sure that the signage does that. And just for clarification, Ed was correct. that money, that 50K was not a prophet that was money paid by the bike rental companies Blue and Gold Fairy and it was administered by the Chamber and paid out. Nobody made any money out of that program, but it was financed by the bike rental companies Blue and Gold and the Ferry Company. and I'm, Also like to say we had a great meeting today. where the Golden Gate, Fairy, Blue and Gold, the bike rental companies the chamber met with, source leader police department and we discussed continuing the boarding program and I'm very pleased to announce that the bike rental companies in blue and gold are going to continue to fund that. The chamber will continue to administer the program. Nobody is making any money. It's going directly. All of the money goes to staffing that program. So I really want to continue to work together. Thank you very much. Thank you. |
| 01:40:24.05 | Mayor Theodore | Thank you. |
| 01:40:24.15 | Unknown | Thank you. |
| 01:40:24.78 | Mayor Theodore | So I have no other speaker cards, so I'll close public comment at this point. And what I'd recommend before we go into council discussion is THIS WAS AN UPDATE AND WE'RE NOT GOING TO SOLVE ALL THE BIKE PROBLEMS TODAY AND THERE'S A LOT BUT WHAT I'D RECOMMEND AND I'M GOING TO LOOK TO THE CITY MANAGER UNLESS HE HAS THAT WE SHOULD WE HAVE A FEW ACTION ITEMS THAT THE CITY COUNCIL NEEDS TO LOOK AT TODAY. AND A NUMBER OF THE RECOMMENDATIONS MADE BY DR. FOTCH I THINK ARE GOING TO BE HANDLED AT A STAFF AND AND LEVEL. BUT SOME WE HAVE CERTAIN ONES INCLUDING A RESOLUTION THAT'S IN OUR PACKET. SO MAYBE Would you like to take a stab at what we have so we should uh what I'd say suggest is what we have on the table we'll have Council comment and then we'll take our votes |
| 01:41:10.37 | Adam Politzer | Thank you Mr. Mayor and council members I think what you have before you are mostly operational recommendations from the Ped and Bike Committee and I feel confident working with Ed and Deb and with police and Public Works that we can move forward with several of those recommendations with no necessary action from the council but with that said I think that it would be helpful if there are particular items that you think are sensitive that you would like us to push off for future discussions when we have a similar recap meeting in August at the staff level that you know you you give us direction to get through the month of July, which is for the most of those recommendations, we still need to get through the month of July and then implement some of these things in August. If there are things that are sensitive on the other end of the balance, where the residents are looking for a little bit more aggressive action by the team that are operating this and working together with city staff and and all involved you know that you point those out and ask us to push on those a little bit harder but all in all I think that these are very sound recommendations things that staff has met with the ambassadors with Deb Fodge to go through certain items. Signage, we all agree with the signage, and I know that signage is ordered so that we can make sure that people know where the free parking is and how to get to where they need to get to you know I think that you've heard that the bikes bike rental companies are working with us they may not be pre-selling the bike parking but their tour guides and their staff that come into town are working very well with our staff the ambassadors and the the ferry district folks that are managing the queue and helping people get on the ferry. So again, I think the collaboration of us continuing to work together in terms of organizing and signage and what have you, that will continue to move forward. In terms of the impounding and impounding in place, staff is also in agreement that we should do that. That's an ordinance on the book today, and we should look at problem areas and go do active enforcement on that. And I'm actively meeting with the chief and the captain and our public works director and our city attorney to make sure that the I's and T's are crossed for us to do it. I've asked that the captain reach out to the bicycle companies to inform them that we are going to start this so that they can Again, we don't want to impound anyone's bike, the better that they are communicating to their customers advance of where to park Um, And how to enjoy Sausalito, the better for them. I want to make sure that we have proper signage And so that's when the proper signage is up, including a phone number, information on where to call just like when your car is towed You need to know how to figure out If it was stolen, or if it's been impounded. And then I want to make sure that our ambassadors, which they're doing, art. paying particular interest in the areas what have popped up to be more troubled areas this time around I think they've done a much better job obviously down on Richardson to Princess Street and but Bank of America has been and being in Delmar Park as you've seen in the photos have been areas where it's become more problematic so again I want to make sure that we've given the best effort to manage those areas, and I think that we have. Once the signage is in place, then we will move forward and impound in areas that are causing problems, and specifically bikes that are, Unclogging the street. with a path or creating access problems so we are looking for the council to give us a nod to do that I'm assuming that that you will you will in fact do that we've also put there as Jonathan Goldman has put forward in his staff report we do feel the need to be able to have the option to expand into the plaza at Bank of America where we traditionally park bikes there when Tracy Way is not closed and last year we expanded into the Bank of America as overflow parking. We think there's an opportunity there if the crowds continue to grow as we've seen on a few weekends here that the need to be able to expand there is important. And as Vice Mayor Huffman stated in one of her comments, asking questions about Bank of America if it gives us the ability to raise additional revenues so that we can be certain that we cover our costs, then we think there's an opportunity to potentially charge something again between Zero dollars. And $5 again, I think working with Deb Fodge and Ed and staff will look at what makes sense, just like we have in our parking lots. Lot one costs $3 an hour, three. cost $2 an hour and lot one cost $4 an hour. we may look at stepping it down. We may look at peak parking times. We have an early bird special. There's all types of options that we'll consider, but without the council's permission and approval to park bikes at the Bank of America Plaza, we don't have an option to do anything there. So we're asking you to give us that authorization and then we'll work with the powers to be in terms of operations and move forward with a program that works. So I think that you can take two easy actions, give us the nod that you want us to do in balance, And if you want to differentiate, that's up to you and pound in place. or impound and remove. Um, And we may want to do both, so if you want to give us the discretion to do both, that would be fine, too. So you don't need to take any action. We're just asking for a nod for you to give us the ability to impound bikes and impose the $25 fee. And then the second action is to give us permission to use Bank of America's plaza, the city's plaza in front of the Bank of America building to park bikes and choose to charge a fee or not based on what the committee decides to do the other actions are Recommendations, I think that we as long as the city is comfortable and with the bike and ped committee and our team including Deb Fudge and the ambassadors And the ferry and the bike rental companies and city staff. continue to work through the other items that are recommended. We can do that without any direction, but obviously your comments are welcome. |
| 01:48:17.78 | Mayor Theodore | Thank you. I would add that we certainly have to vote on the resolution in our packet on the master fee schedule and I also would recommend that we vote on whether we give staff we direct staff to bring back an ordinance on the Vigna Del Mar parking because we're gonna need to do that by ordinance so who would like to start on Council comment. |
| 01:48:39.15 | Jill Hoffman | actually have a question for the city manager so Adam you'll recall that the argument that was used to use Tracy way to block that off as a street and take that whole street as parking with I believe it was 800 bike parking spaces for Tracy way was the argument used was that we were taking a cumulative effect with the bike parking so that all of downtown Sausalito didn't look like a big bicycle parking lot, such as the downtown, I mean the plaza at B of A, or even the waterfront, which at one point it happened and I was not happy about that at all. So I'm concerned about this, and it speaks to what my concern has been all along, is that the focus has been to accommodate as opposed to regulate the infrastructure and to, yes, reduce the number of bikes. Not block bikes, but reduce the rental bikes, not commuters or resident bikes. So my question is, if we have 800 bicycle spaces at Tracy Way and then this other space area between municipal parking lots three and four, I think when I asked you, you said that was, what, 200 or 300 spaces? How many spaces? 100? 100. |
| 01:50:08.33 | Adam Politzer | THE END OF THE END OF THE Well, roughly 100. |
| 01:50:08.75 | Jill Hoffman | Well, 100 spaces. How many bicycle spaces are we now looking at in terms of accommodating at B of A? |
| 01:50:19.60 | Adam Politzer | I haven't done the calculation, but I'm confident that Councilmember Weiner would remember what we did there. 10 bikes, right? Yeah, 10, so how many bikes is this? |
| 01:50:29.53 | Unknown (Clerk/Roll Call) | many bikes help |
| 01:50:30.93 | Herb Weiner | Thank you. |
| 01:50:32.80 | Adam Politzer | So about 200 bikes. |
| 01:50:33.20 | Herb Weiner | Thank you. THE CITY IS A CITY IS A CITY |
| 01:50:33.49 | Jill Hoffman | The average is 16 right now. |
| 01:50:35.57 | Herb Weiner | Thank you. |
| 01:50:36.16 | Jill Hoffman | Thank you. |
| 01:50:36.18 | Adam Politzer | 160 to 200 bikes. |
| 01:50:36.33 | Herb Weiner | to the next step. |
| 01:50:38.44 | Jill Hoffman | So roughly 200 bikes. Okay. So we're looking at 1,000, over 1,000 bike parking spaces if we expand this. And that is, you know, it just speaks to my concern in the very beginning, which is there is no ceiling here with these bikes, these rental bikes. There's no ceilings. |
| 01:51:04.07 | Mayor Theodore | You're in the comments. Sorry, yeah, you're right. |
| 01:51:05.27 | Jill Hoffman | Sorry, yeah, you're right. |
| 01:51:06.30 | Adam Politzer | Thank you. |
| 01:51:06.40 | Adam Politzer | Can I respond? |
| 01:51:07.48 | Jill Hoffman | Right. Go ahead. Yeah. |
| 01:51:09.59 | Adam Politzer | Yes, I agree with your comment, Councilmember Pfeiffer, that the intent at the beginning was to try to manage this at Tracy Way. And I'm assuming that we still have roughly 800 bike parking spaces there. And as Dr. Fudge shared earlier, we're managing it and organizing it. So we're maximizing it. But also as what was presented was that we had over 3,000 bikes show up during the 4th of July, Friday, or Saturday night. And then again, we experienced the same thing a couple Saturdays ago where the 800 spaces doesn't want to manage that but what was approved by the City Council was different than what what we agreed upon in or what we presented as the initial program What was agreed upon by the City Council based on the comments from the public was that they wanted Additional parking that was for free And so we've tried to accommodate that. down in lots three at the end of lot three and the beginning of lot four and maybe signage will help there, but it's only 100 spaces. What we've actually seen in reality is that they're parked all over the place. Because regardless if they're paying $3, or not. know their their bikes are expanding in other areas of town and tying up to poles so Again, the primary objective here is to manage the bikes and have bikes parked in places where the city is trying to direct them. and at the same time recover our costs in doing that. That's why we are now asking the council permission because between now and September 1st, there's not another council meeting And so this is our opportunity to ask permission to do this. And so that's what's before you. |
| 01:52:56.05 | Mayor Theodore | Would you like to start off comment? Thank you. |
| 01:52:58.26 | Adam Politzer | or, |
| 01:52:58.52 | Mayor Theodore | Thank you. |
| 01:52:58.82 | Jill Hoffman | Sure. Okay. Yeah. Okay. So I have a few comments. First of all, I'm very reticent to authorize the city manager to open the Bank of America Plaza for yet more bike parking, taking us to over 1,000, I guess 1,100 bicycle spaces in downtown Sausalito. 3,000 bikes, that's almost half our population. 3,000 bikes in a day. So this is not about blocking or stopping rental bikes. It's about creating a safe environment downtown so that our beautiful downtown does not turn into a bike parking lot. And the experience that the tourists have is very favorable. Now, how do we do this? first of all enforcement we need to enforce the infrastructure regulate where the bikes park which we've done i guess with chasey way but we need to act on this enforcement how do we act on enforcement we need we need a parking enforcer downtown we need we need more staffing for our police we need we need a full-time parking enforcement officer full-time or two part-time down down there all the time implementing these option two which is the the ticket fines to get those illegally parked bikes where they're they need to be Secondly, and it's just unconscionable to me, I don't even think we can move forward without increasing police staffing numbers for full-time enforcement downtown. Secondly, and also, I'm not even going to talk about the number of times I see bikes breaking the log, mowing through crosswalks, nearly hitting pedestrians. I mean, it's just the safety issues are horrendous downtown. It is a is a safety issue secondly we need to start a resident cyclist permit program subsidized by the fines coming from the illegal rental bikes and bike parking fees and to designate resident and commuters ability to park free and to always have availability downtown That's something that we need to start working on right away I would like to direct Mary with council support to direct Mary to Investigate that the resident cyclist permit program and also for commuter cyclists as well Next signage a new infrastructure. I saw a little kiosk that has popped up for the ambassadors on Tracy way you know we have a historic landmarks board and you know and I'm seeing all these little signs we're talking about more and more signage I really think we need to include the historic landmarks board in some of this to provide a sense of cultural integrity to what we're doing as we look at these different infrastructure options with regards to signage and new structures downtown. Vigna Del Mar Park, that photo just was my worst nightmare, seeing all those rental bikes on the grass. The issue around closing Vigna Del Mar was really about the fact that the lawn is only like 12 inches deep. I mean, it's really very shallow because of the history of that park. We have two 150-year-old canary palm trees in that park. And so the concern was that we would have what that photo is showing, and we would have the degradation that, frankly, I'm seeing now when I've gone to the park, I've taken photos. It's a great concern. I have more comments, but my time's out, so I will yield to the council. |
| 01:56:31.60 | Unknown | to the council. finish up in the morning. |
| 01:56:33.71 | Jill Hoffman | Mm-hmm. |
| 01:56:36.09 | Unknown | Let's all try to do that. |
| 01:56:37.54 | Jill Hoffman | Well, really quickly then, I would just say that I heard the comment about ziplock ties for some of these signs. You know, ziplock ties are plastic. I know it's a knit, but if we can avoid using the ziplock ties and use something, you know, a little bit more recyclable, that would be appreciative. and you know finally you know just to answer the question that Jeff Sears of Blazing Saddles asked, is the city's goal to reduce rental bikes? You know, I'll answer, you know, directly, yes, that's my goal. That's my goal is to reduce the number of rental bikes. When we've got 3,000 rental bikes in our little downtown, which is all of, what, two, three blocks, it's a safety hazard. It truly, truly is. And I'm not saying that we stop the rental bikes i'm just saying we need to get we need to get a grip on this i have sat and watched this these numbers grow exponentially every single year there is no ceiling there is no ceiling it just keeps growing so what i um and I also go back to the need for the resident parking permit program to enable our commuter cyclists and our resident cyclists to be able to actually use bikes for transportation around our town |
| 01:57:56.60 | Mayor Theodore | We'd like to go next. |
| 01:58:01.24 | Mayor Theodore | Kirby? |
| 01:58:02.50 | Al Fusifor | Great. |
| 01:58:08.61 | Kirby Withey | So once again, thank you to the pedestrian bicycle committee. And to all the ambassadors, the ambassador program, I'm totally supportive of that effort. I think it's a difficult job. And you're part way through a very important experiment this year to figure out how to make that work. Sausalito, and so everybody who's, everybody, there's a lot of people trying to work hard to solve this problem. I still worry there's maybe too many cooks down there, but, you know, it will work itself out. It will work itself out, and that's partly what we're trying to figure out. In terms of the recommendations that you've presented, Ed, I generally support them. I think city think city managers right most of them are operational issues and I would fully support authorizing the city manager and move ahead with getting those tactical operational things done if you wanted a preference I'd sooner youound it in place because just of the logistics, but I have no problem giving you authority for both, whatever you want to do there. I think the other point I want to make is around there is not going to be one solution to this problem. We need to... actually begin figuring out how to operationalize the other things that we've been talking about, staging, how to get bikes out of the downtown by other means. We need to figure out ways to stop them getting to the downtown in the first place, such as rerouting them to Fort Baker or wherever. I was, I must admit, really quite disappointed in this memorandum that you guys put together. I think, Mr. Sears, you may have led that effort. I don't know. But basically, it was the views that was presented last night in a document formed to the Bike and Peg Committee. Until the bicycle companies are willing to actually be our partner in solving this problem. That document that you presented does not suggest to me that you have any desire to be a partner to the city. And that's the fundamental problem. The reason why we have so much congestion downtown is your product is there's actually too much of it downtown. Other people on bicycles can't enjoy the downtown. because they're being overwhelmed by the tourist bikes. That's the problem. |
| 02:01:06.44 | Herb Weiner | Well, Um, |
| 02:01:11.60 | Herb Weiner | The ambassador program is an excellent program, it's working. It's working right up to Anchor and Bridgeway. After that, it's a nightmare. Okay. And this is why. First of all, had our bike racks in front of B of A. I've had them for three years. Why we took it away, I have no idea. All right. But let me give you an example of what's really going on downtown after. after Anchor. Anchor is. by Bank of America. You now continue down. You will see bikes that you won't believe parked everywhere. I'm there every day. Let me give you an example. Down on Bridgeway, there's. There's four bike racks that can accommodate Um... 32 bikes. Monday I counted 72 bikes parked in that area. All right? That is, that's, and I have nothing against that. It's a nightmare that's taking place after that. At 12.30 or 1 o'clock, you now have... Guides coming in, 15, 18, 19 bites at a time. Okay. We're only capturing half the bikes in Tracy Way right now. Okay. Whether it's the discouragement from the bike companies, I don't know. But this is where the nightmare takes place. You're driving down Humboldt now, and you're taking him down parking lot 3. Okay. to show them where the power. Then, when they leave, where are they coming? back right through the parking lot, which is also, by the way, putting it in arms way when you have so many automobiles. And the nightmare is people backing up. They'll see one, they won't see four. They won't see five. Now you get on to Humboldt. It's a one way. You get onto Anchor Street, it's a one way. Go down there and see how many bikes are going through this one way. You could have a field day. As far as their parking, they don't care. And you're not going to worry about putting a space for locals? Are you kidding me? They'll overrun that in two hours. So that is not what has really bothered me and get me boiling is the inability to teach your customers how unsafe they are driving. The way they're doing it, coming up one-way streets. Okay, they have no idea. The other thing is, Bicycles traveling on crosswalks. You're supposed to walk your bike, not take 15 bikes. And I've got to stop traffic because they're riding across. Okay, I'm there every single day. I see what's going on. If we don't start grabbing and confiscating these bikes, and show These... companies that we mean business, you're gonna just push and push and push. And it isn't the idea of $25, it's $100. Because what happens is, it's four people. Families are coming in by four, not one. And I've got a lot more, but that's enough for now. |
| 02:04:27.56 | Unknown | Oh, yeah. |
| 02:04:28.70 | Jill Hoffman | Well, obviously, I've been harboring this for a long time. I believe that it's a big problem. You know, it's not a secret. We need to reduce the volume of bikes in Sausalito. That's a fact. And part of this, you know, part of the step one was management through Sausalito Plus. We have to manage what's coming in town. Step two is putting in programs and coordinating with the other agencies that are here to help us reduce that number. Now, I was very disappointed to hear just now that there was a meeting between the ferry, the city, the police, the bikes, and the chamber, but Sausalio Plus wasn't invited. I think they're a key player in managing the whole system and what's going on down on the waterfront. So if there's a meeting that's going on without Saucido Plus, I think you're missing a big part. of the solution. Thirdly, the ferry, the bike companies, and anybody that's interested in carrying bikes out of town between four and seven need to work together to get bikes out of town between 4 and 7. It's ridiculous that we have people that are operating businesses, outside that are licensed outside of Sausalito that are putting this burden on Sausalito and you're expecting us not to control that. I don't think that's reasonable. I think we're very quickly moving into the realm of public health and safety with the burden of bikes on our streets during those hours. Um, I wholeheartedly support the recommendations by the bike and ped committee Yes, Adam, I say yes, paid parking. Bank of America parking lot. We, because we are not being funded, By the bike companies, we have to raise our own revenue to help deal with the problem that you're imposing on our town. That's our policy. It would be irresponsible of us as a city council not to marshal our assets to do that. And certainly not use taxes that we collect from our citizens to support your business plan. So, yes, I say paid parking and... Bank of America Plaza. only through the end of the summer because I assume we're going to reassess everything in at the end of September or the beginning of October. Yes, impound the bikes. I leave it to you in your discretion. As you're in the leadership position, you have my confidence and authority to carry that out as you see fit. With regard to the rest of the recommendations from the Bike and Ped Committee, Yes, I see no reason not to use the placards. If we have biodegradable plastic, please use it. As always, Councilwoman Pfeiffer brings up good points. I certainly would like to see the kiosk at the Tracy Way, in keeping with the historic nature of downtown, knowing that this year we had a fast start. Hopefully next year we'll be able to do that. Yes, place the signs, the no parking signs. Use Velcro, I think that's a great idea. Some of your, the other recommendations, absolutely we need a law enforcement officer in El Portal during those hours, absolutely. I have some other things, but I think, okay. |
| 02:07:34.58 | Unknown | but I think. |
| 02:07:42.16 | Jill Hoffman | Nice. |
| 02:07:45.90 | Jill Hoffman | This is, okay. My hair stands on end when I hear that there are 10-year-old kids riding down Alexander Avenue on blazing saddles or any rental bikes. This tells me, blazing saddles, because 90% of the bikes coming in are blazing saddles. I drive down there, and I see 10-year-old kids, and I see them on those bikes, and it's just... That... to me is one of the biggest Uh, I would like to see the bike companies voluntarily put on their rentals. people who rent recreational vehicles all the time put controls on the age of the person that's participating in that activity and I think that's a reasonable one And that's my |
| 02:08:27.48 | Mayor Theodore | We've covered a lot tonight and this is only about the downtown bike issues. And we're doing a lot of work on looking at other ways to move the bikes and to stage them in other places, to possibly have them go to Fort Baker, maybe go on to. Tiburon or other places. So this is only part of it, but it's obviously the most most important part I do want to thank everybody involved I mean we have besides the bicycle and ped committee which has done a lot of work and all the ambassadors which Everyone says is fantastic. I want to thank Every day, our police, our public works, our city manager, Our Chamber of Commerce, the ferry companies, bike companies are working together. I do agree on the bike companies I know I've heard it said yesterday they don't want the city to tell them how to do their business, but you can't tell us how to run our city. And I think the best way to do it is really work together. In the end, when we start working together and when the bike companies understand our problems and we can work together, we're not there yet. I think you've heard that from the council. We have a long way to go, and I think we have to look at the preferred vendor. Because we really, just like in business and everything else that we do in the city, we want to give preference to people that are going to work with us. I think I support changing the master fee schedule, so we don't want to forget that in this whole thing. I think Bank of America, for now, I think we have to give staff, and I do encourage all the people I thank to be working together and be together and all these things. That's the hardest part of this, and I recognize it's very difficult to coordinate everybody. For this year, although I'd like to see ultimately, we're going to have a Portuguese tile there, and I don't think it's a long-term solution in front of Bank of America, but we need to get through this year. We're doing well, but we need to do this year. I think... We should authorize our city attorney to get together an ordinance on Vina Del Mar about no bicycle parking. I think the simplest thing is just say no bicycle parking. But, you know, the devil's in the details and she'll need to work that out. I think we also have should have staff look at, you know, having police presence down there and parking enforcement officers. That's something we should do. The resident cycling. I do want to remember remind everybody that we have free resident actually all risen RENDER. Residents have free cycling and we can have staff take a look at free parking I'm sorry and And I think we should look at if there's anything more that we can do for that. I know bike and pet have said differences in hours, but we can look at other places. We do run into problems because if you have a stand for residents, it'll be filled up on two o'clock, you know, on Saturday in a minute. So we do have to deal with that issue. With that, I'd like to start entertaining some motions to move this. |
| 02:11:15.53 | Jill Hoffman | I WANT TO BE ABLE TO BE ABLE TO Tom, I just had a quick question. What we heard from the police was that the staffing is, they don't have the staffing right now. So is this counsel behind finding the funds Finding the funds either through the bike parking fees or whatnot to fund a full-time parking or two part-time parking enforcement officer officers downtown. |
| 02:11:46.74 | Mayor Theodore | I think that's what I said, but I think that I just wanted clarity. Well, well, it would to get clarity and I believe it to staff, I think to recommend, but I think what we should endorse what I'm recommending we endorse is that we direct staff to look at what the appropriate level of additional police down there is. So I have the city manager. |
| 02:11:48.30 | Jill Hoffman | I just wanted clarity. I did your fund. |
| 02:12:04.19 | Jill Hoffman | Yeah, because Adam, what I heard when I asked that question, what I heard was that They didn't have the the staffing to be able to do what we need them to do So that means we need to find funds to hire more staffing |
| 02:12:22.91 | Adam Politzer | I think there was splitting hairs a little bit. I think the recommendation on staffing is something that we really are only gonna be able to address for next year. We're, you know, we don't have another council meeting and we're not gonna come to you and say, we need $180,000 for a full time, you know, police officer and maybe $100,000 for parking enforcement. But with that said, I think that, for some short-term solutions and again working collaboratively And looking at peak times, we'll be able to direct resources. That's something that we have to work with the police department on and look at what our options are. So I think that we will be required to be creative for the next six weeks on what we can and cannot do. um, with any police activity when there is a need, like we had up in Cable Roadway when we had a lot of activity. the police department's going to shift their resources where there's a most critical need. Thank you. but can we sustain it? The answer is absolutely not. We can't sustain that we're going to be there every day. or every Thursday through Sunday. From 2 o'clock to 7 o'clock. We can't do that. We don't have those resources. But are there creative ways to problem solve that Absolutely, and I have confidence in our police department in working with the other members of this team to find creative ways. But when we come with recommendations next year and then we start the two year budget cycle probably in December, soon after our strategic plan and I imagine that Bicycle management will be right there on the top of the chart for strategic plan. We'll have to budget resources at that time to address this with police resources. |
| 02:14:05.61 | Jill Hoffman | resources Adam a follow-up question if I may we have 8,000 right now in in in profit or whatever I mean couldn't we use that to to bring someone in I know there's a one-month ramp up I mean I just think the situation is dire downtown and we need that enforcement and we can't even move forward on option two unless we have that enforcement that police enforcement and we know from the post study they don't have the staffing so I guess I'm just stuck on this . I don't see how we can act. |
| 02:14:37.93 | Kirby Withey | I don't see how we can act on this. I think, City manager might want to make sure we've got our facts correct. I think the post-study indicated that we have a seasonal problem. I don't think it said that we actually needed generally full-time staff across the board at all. But I think therein lies the answer. I mean, Jordan, we talked about seasonal officers, part-time seasonal officers. You know, it's possibly too late for this season, but... If I recall, we could get a seasonal officer for about 30K. Yeah, I'm getting a nod from our chief there. So, you know, that's what a seasonal resources can bring. And that's a lot more doable than considering a full-time officer, which is not the right approach according to the post study, if I understood that correctly. |
| 02:15:39.70 | Jill Hoffman | Thank you. |
| 02:15:39.82 | Herb Weiner | Exactly. |
| 02:15:40.02 | Jill Hoffman | Thank you, Ray. You're right. Yeah, I remember that now. |
| 02:15:40.09 | Kirby Withey | THE END OF THE END OF THE |
| 02:15:40.24 | Herb Weiner | Thank you. Yeah, I remember that now. Also keep in mind, next week and the first two weeks in August are your busiest times of the year. I should say of the season. So what he. it starts going down. after that. After the third week, people, kids are going back, getting prepared, going back to school. you have an older, usually visitors that come in after that. So you got three weeks of the peak. If you look at your records last year, you'll see it. Last week in July, first two weeks in August are your three busiest weeks and that's it. Then it dissipates. So that's what you gotta kinda get through the next three weeks. Good luck. |
| 02:16:31.12 | Jill Hoffman | So I guess the question is to the chief is can we redeploy somebody during those hours or reconfigure the schedule for the next three weeks? |
| 02:16:47.74 | Adam Politzer | And that's part of the creative solution. I think that the police department with the promotion of Stacey Gregory to administrative sergeant, I think that our ability to work with Sausalito Plus and the ferry folks, the meetings that are happening, Um, You know, that is a way to identify the problem and then the role of the police department You go down there, and we all have seen this. It's also kind of similar to some of the photos that we've that we all have on our phones, including myself. You know, Monday through Thursday, at 4 o'clock in the afternoon, 3 o'clock in the afternoon, There's not a need for a police officer to be sitting there. yeah absolutely and you know again you know the the how we collaborate and cooperate when there is a need for officers to be there I think that the chief is absolutely supportive of that we'll work through that give that that's operational leave that with us we hear the council loud and clear that that's a priority the chief hears that that's a priority and we'll make sure that |
| 02:17:27.94 | Unknown | Right. |
| 02:17:48.58 | Adam Politzer | that we give the proper attention to that. But, we can't forget. that there's potentially only three officers working. And so when there's a traffic accident or a call for service, up in the hills or down in the Marinship, we have to respond. We've been in the news a little bit this last year on to take people off of the street and actually into desks or into meetings. So we're going to do our best with the resources we have right now. If we have some creative opportunities, we will exercise those. And when we come back in September with an update, hopefully again with good news, with everyone working together, I think we'll manage through this. |
| 02:18:30.90 | Jill Hoffman | I think, you know, especially as Council Member Weiner said, it's really just a problem for the next three weeks. I think on balance and operationally. |
| 02:18:41.28 | Herb Weiner | Well, that's the heaviest. |
| 02:18:42.33 | Jill Hoffman | Yeah, exactly, operationally. With the challenges, but I mean, I don't think anybody in this council would disagree that perhaps we wouldn't have as much parking enforcement You know on Tuesday Wednesday Thursday morning and that person is redeployed toward, you know Maybe we don't rise many tickets for overdue meters on those mornings I mean, I think that's a priority, but I'll leave it to you to work it out |
| 02:19:06.56 | Mayor Theodore | And I agree with that, but I do want to emphasize that I think this is an important season. We're learning a lot of lessons. We're not going to do it perfectly. I think we, it's not only the next three weeks, and certainly it's the heaviest, but we're going to be very busy well into September. And besides allocating resources, I certainly would be in support of using some excess funds that we get from the, you know, from the parking. or other funds IF WE HAVE TO, I JUST WANT TO MAKE SURE THAT STAFF UNDERSTANDS THAT CERTAINLY I'M, I'M WILLING IF WE HAVE TO USE SOME OTHER FUNDS WE, WE FIND OUT LATER BECAUSE IT'S REALLY A CRITICAL component of getting things under control. I mean, it's health and safety and police. So I would give that strong recommendation to staff to find ways that we would support that. |
| 02:19:52.04 | Herb Weiner | expensive that way because you're not going to be able to just go and get somebody so basically what you're going to have to do is you're going to have to take the people that are available that may be not beyond that shift and pay them over times to be able to accommodate that so it isn't just a matter of a few dollars it's it will jump up quite extensively very quickly |
| 02:20:13.20 | Mayor Theodore | No, but we'll leave it. Our city manager is a frugal person. No, no, it's important, but that's something the staff can work out. |
| 02:20:14.33 | Herb Weiner | Our city managers And don't and by the way. No, no, it's important, but that's something the staff can work out. And by the way, Deb and Ed, and they're working with the city on trying to make it a little more easier flow down at El Portal. It is not going to stay just like it is. They're addressing it, and the idea is to be able to get the people that aren't going into the lot and get them to be able to get a boarding pass so it isn't a double dip and riding on the sidewalk. All right. that the people that aren't going into the lot and get them to be able to get a boarding pass so it isn't a double dip and riding on the sidewalk, let them figure out. They've done a good job, as I said, right up until where their job is, and that's right up at Anchor. |
| 02:20:54.74 | Jill Hoffman | Amen. |
| 02:20:56.50 | Herb Weiner | Thank you. |
| 02:20:56.53 | Jill Hoffman | So I... |
| 02:20:56.55 | Herb Weiner | We have to figure out the others. |
| 02:20:58.41 | Jill Hoffman | I just have a real quick question. I know the post-study did recommend the seasonal staffing, and, Ray, you're correct on that. I'd forgotten. However, remember that the post-study was done before we saw, you know, the options before us, the recommendations before us. And when I look at these, the whole key here rests on enforcement and so I I personally would love to see city staff come back to the council with what that recommendation is in terms of enforcement in terms of funding for that enforcement you know I see these numbers only increasing every single year and the seasonal issue is is just expanding expanding beyond the summer |
| 02:21:43.39 | Kirby Withey | So, so Mr. Mayor, um, just so that we don't lose what we were trying to do here. Um, let me move to amend the master fee schedule, parking fees and hours of operation to establish a seasonal fee for parking. of bicycles during certain hours in racks on city-owned property adjacent to the downtown public restroom. |
| 02:22:04.67 | Jill Hoffman | I have a... I guess an addendum would be to approve the resolution, but without the B of A Plaza for the bike parking. |
| 02:22:23.57 | Kirby Withey | No, I wouldn't accept that. I don't think that's where we need to go. It's not the recommendations. I need a second for my motion. |
| 02:22:34.58 | Herb Weiner | Oh, second. |
| 02:22:35.98 | Kirby Withey | Amen. |
| 02:22:36.50 | Herb Weiner | you |
| 02:22:36.72 | Mayor Theodore | I think we'll have to take the role in this one. Debbie? you |
| 02:22:42.78 | Jill Hoffman | Can I make, is it too late to offer an amendment? That we just do the B of A parking for this summer? |
| 02:22:43.79 | Mayor Theodore | Thank you. |
| 02:22:43.86 | Unknown | Thank you. |
| 02:22:43.89 | Mayor Theodore | MAKE SURE THAT THEY ARE |
| 02:22:51.89 | Jill Hoffman | through September 30, 2000. Is that already part of the |
| 02:22:54.88 | Mayor Theodore | Is that already part of it or do we need that? |
| 02:22:55.70 | Herb Weiner | Or do we need that? To the end of this season. Yeah, to the end of this season. Whatever the season. If the weather maintains. Right. Last year you almost went off. That's what exhausted everybody. You went almost into December. December was better than May. Okay. |
| 02:22:58.20 | Jill Hoffman | Yeah, to the end of this season. Right. |
| 02:23:08.65 | Kirby Withey | I would accept that amendment if we made it so for the season rather than a time specific. |
| 02:23:12.85 | Herb Weiner | you |
| 02:23:12.88 | Mayor Theodore | The 2015 season. |
| 02:23:14.96 | Kirby Withey | Thank you. |
| 02:23:14.98 | Mayor Theodore | So we have a second. |
| 02:23:16.24 | Kirby Withey | Is staff okay with that? I'll give you a second. |
| 02:23:18.32 | Mayor Theodore | but I'll give you a second. So let's go. |
| 02:23:29.17 | Unknown (Clerk/Roll Call) | Councilmember Weiner. Yes. Councilmember Pfeiffer. |
| 02:23:30.28 | Herb Weiner | Thank you. |
| 02:23:33.55 | Jill Hoffman | You know, I like the fact that it's been changed to seasonal, but I still just on principle just cannot support a resolution that keeps turning our downtown into a bicycle parking lot. That's a no. |
| 02:23:38.45 | Unknown (Clerk/Roll Call) | I just cannot. ANYWAY. |
| 02:23:43.27 | Unknown (Clerk/Roll Call) | Council Member Withey. yes no vice mayor Hoffman |
| 02:23:46.36 | Jill Hoffman | That's a no. Thank you. Thank you. |
| 02:23:52.54 | Unknown (Clerk/Roll Call) | Yes. Mayor Theodore. |
| 02:23:55.04 | Mayor Theodore | Yes, that passes four to one. I think the only other thing I would recommend that we direct staff to look at an ordinance, because I believe it's correct, unless the city attorney wants to weigh in to ban bikes from Vina Del Mar. |
| 02:24:12.11 | Jill Hoffman | Thank you. Definitely. |
| 02:24:13.80 | Mary Wagner | Mr. Mayor, if I may suggest. Yeah, do you want to comment on that? Well, I think leave the option open. Let me look into the issue, work with the Bike and Ped Committee and Sausalito Plus to understand what's actually taking place, and then bring back to you staff's suggested enforcement mechanism, whether it's an ordinance or a report that there's something currently on the books or whatever it is that we believe would be the best solution to the problem. |
| 02:24:14.73 | Jill Hoffman | ME. |
| 02:24:15.03 | Mayor Theodore | Yeah, do you want to comment on that? |
| 02:24:44.58 | Jill Hoffman | So what about asking Mary to research the resident permit for bicycle parking? |
| 02:24:50.17 | Mayor Theodore | for bicycle parking. |
| 02:24:53.05 | Jill Hoffman | I think that's key. |
| 02:24:53.31 | Mayor Theodore | you Well, can we get agreement on the Vina Del Mara? Oh, definitely. |
| 02:24:57.34 | Jill Hoffman | Oh, definitely agree with that. Definitely. |
| 02:24:59.36 | Mayor Theodore | Definitely. |
| 02:25:01.30 | Jill Hoffman | Oh, yeah. |
| 02:25:01.32 | Mayor Theodore | Oh, yeah. |
| 02:25:01.91 | Unknown | Now, are you proposing something different? |
| 02:25:04.73 | Jill Hoffman | Well, remember, I think it was in January or February when I had requested looking into regulation of bikes. I'd like to suggest that Mary research the legalities of a resident bicycle parking permit. program where we would have spaces for you know we designate places downtown for for residents who would you know get a permit that would be free like a sticker or something for their bikes to be able to you know, park downtown without getting overwhelmed with rental bikes. |
| 02:25:46.68 | Mayor Theodore | I just might recommend that we ask staff in general with Mary being a component of it and working with the bicycle and pet committee to see is that feasible what would need to be done and the legality of it in total so that rather |
| 02:25:59.25 | Jill Hoffman | Okay, so can I just say formally I move that Mary work with the pedestrian bicycle committee to explore a resident cyclist permit program. |
| 02:26:12.38 | Mary Wagner | Yeah, I think, Mr. Mayor, if I may, I'm happy to be a component of that. I think it's a broader staff issue than me. |
| 02:26:15.39 | Jill Hoffman | for parking. |
| 02:26:20.53 | Jill Hoffman | Thank you. Okay, so I amend my motion to be city staff to work with the pedestrian bicycle committee to explore a resident bicycle permit program that would be free to residents and would allocate parking throughout Sausalito for resident permits. |
| 02:26:43.43 | Mayor Theodore | I second that. I think it's no issues. |
| 02:26:47.21 | Jill Hoffman | Thank you. |
| 02:26:47.23 | Unknown (Clerk/Roll Call) | Could I get, I'd like one clarification. The first time around you said the downtown area and now you're saying throughout all of Sausalito. |
| 02:26:50.27 | Kirby Withey | Okay. |
| 02:26:50.32 | Jill Hoffman | THE END OF THE END OF THE |
| 02:26:50.52 | Kirby Withey | you |
| 02:26:55.23 | Jill Hoffman | you're saying. Yeah, it would be throughout. |
| 02:26:58.97 | Herb Weiner | Thank you. |
| 02:26:58.99 | Mary Wagner | different sections mr. mayor if I may the only place we have the bike parking restriction in place is the downtown area |
| 02:27:07.26 | Jill Hoffman | Oh, well then, okay, downtown. I'm fine. I'm fine with that, downtown. |
| 02:27:09.37 | Mary Wagner | I'm fine with that, downtown. |
| 02:27:10.97 | Herb Weiner | We already have free bike parking for residents. |
| 02:27:15.51 | Jill Hoffman | Yeah, it's completely overwhelmed by rental bikes, Herb. It's not restricted. |
| 02:27:19.16 | Herb Weiner | So |
| 02:27:19.38 | Mayor Theodore | It's not restricted. You're overwhelmed. I think we have acclimation on that, everyone? |
| 02:27:25.72 | Unknown (Clerk/Roll Call) | No, I lost the second. |
| 02:27:26.85 | Mayor Theodore | Okay. I'm sorry, you lost what? Oh, the mayor was the second. |
| 02:27:35.59 | Mayor Theodore | Can we all agree? No, okay, so let's do it by roll. All right, let's do it by, let's do roll. |
| 02:27:38.98 | Unknown (Clerk/Roll Call) | All right. Council member Weiner? No. Council member Pfeiffer? Thank you. Councilmember Withey. |
| 02:27:48.55 | Kirby Withey | Yes. |
| 02:27:50.69 | Unknown (Clerk/Roll Call) | Vice Mayor Hoffman. Yes. Mayor Theodore. |
| 02:27:54.41 | Mayor Theodore | Yes. Okay, I believe... that we're through this issue now. Are we, anything else? So let's, we're going to take a break and then we'll come back. |
| 02:28:07.15 | Herb Weiner | Thank you. Where are you gonna put it? You know how quickly you'll get 50 bites there? It is common sense. |
| 02:28:15.01 | Unknown | Thank you. |
| 02:28:15.18 | Herb Weiner | Jesus. |
| 02:28:15.47 | Mayor Theodore | . Thank you. |
| 02:28:16.82 | Unknown | Thank you. |
| 02:28:16.83 | Mayor Theodore | Thank you. |
| 02:28:16.85 | Herb Weiner | Thank you. |
| 02:28:16.97 | Mayor Theodore | One more. |
| 02:28:18.07 | Unknown | Thank you. |
| 02:28:23.03 | Unknown | Thank you. |
| 02:28:23.05 | Russ Irwin | Thank you. |
| 02:28:23.15 | Unknown | you |
| 02:28:23.21 | Russ Irwin | you |
| 02:28:23.28 | Unknown | you |
| 02:28:23.77 | Russ Irwin | you you |
| 02:28:24.14 | Unknown | Thank you. |
| 02:28:26.40 | Unknown | Thank you. |
| 02:28:33.24 | Mayor Theodore | We're reconvening. We're now on item business item 6B discussion of an infrastructure district in the Marin Bruce Hough will present. |
| 02:28:45.77 | Bruce Hough | I'd like to thank you so much for having me follow the bicycle. |
| 02:28:54.97 | Bruce Hough | And, Anyway, after that, I'll probably put you to sleep. I have a couple things I'd like to preface the presentation with. |
| 02:29:09.00 | Bruce Hough | First of all, I have to read what I wrote. Oh, first of all, because my request is at the end of this presentation, I'd kind of like to explain that my request is only going to be for some staff time allocation so that as I go through what the improvement district is about and the magnitude of it that you don't think I'm asking you for hard dollars to pay for it at this juncture. Secondly, I like to put a little history to my remarks, we were involved with the development and the construction of Schoonamaker Marina. you in 1984, 1985, in the Second building in the marina in 1989. and the A part of the entitlement process for Schoonamaker Marina was the dedication of public access to a public beach, which has subsequently become extremely popular. Also, as part of the conditions of approval, Schoonemaker Marina was the creation of a bike path in the, on the lands that the then owners of Scooter Marina controlled. And the result of that, of, was that a tremendous amount of public, activity and access occurred to the beach. And so as we did our subsequent projects, What I began to... become concerned about. was the influx of the public on infrastructure that was never designed to accommodate the public. And so, It became to me a, um, an issue of safety and safety, particularly of children that are in the area. So I wanted to give a little history to that. Um, I also wanted to, um, speak to my personal motivation. in this district, which has always been and continues to be the safety of pedestrians and bicyclists as well as a functioning circulation system. The There seems to be somewhat of a misconception that in the southern part of the marineship, all of the infrastructure private that's not true the sanitary sewer system the bulk of the storm sewer system all the public utilities are all publicly owned sanitary sewer system and The entire sanitary sewer system as it runs past the laterals and the storm sewer and the bulk of the storm sewer system is owned by the city of Sausalito. And it is... It's tied to the circulation system. The circulation system is privately owned. Not all of the infrastructure is privately owned, but the circulation system is. So with that, I'll just say, I'm a member of the Business Advisory Committee, And in March of this year, the Business Advisory Committee was asked to present its various business challenges to the city of Sausalito. Now I'm going to try and deal with this. |
| 02:33:23.28 | Unknown | Oh. |
| 02:33:23.62 | Bruce Hough | works. The Various sectors of the business community came forward, presented their challenges. The representatives from council on the business advisory committee then came back and asked the business advisory committee to kind of identify two major areas of concern and try and narrow down the issues. One of which was a marketing, which resulted in a marketing plan for downtown, which is being handled by Tom Gagentano and is not part of this presentation. And the second of which was the infrastructure improvements in the Southern Marineship. And so that's the reason I'm here. Um, |
| 02:34:22.99 | Bruce Hough | The current conditions of the circulation system in the Southern Marineship is that, A, it's privately owned, There are absolutely... Well, I can't say absolutely. With the rare exceptions of two small areas, there are absolutely no pedestrian improvements. The bicycle system is disconnected. It begins and it stops. It comes from the public bicycle path system, goes around Scudermaker Marina, and it just dead you know both ends in the marina there's no provisions for uniform maintenance and repair we have two failing intersections which I'll point out Thank you. the We present pedestrian safety issues, there's no street lighting. There is substandard roadway widths that are used by pedestrians. And we have- |
| 02:35:34.52 | Jill Hoffman | And we have- Sorry to interrupt. I just had a quick question. When you say the circulation system is privately owned, by circulation are you talking about the roads, the sidewalks? What do you mean by circulation? |
| 02:35:46.89 | Bruce Hough | There are virtually, with some exceptions, no sidewalks. So what do you mean by circulation? I'm going to get to that in the next slide, actually. And we, you know, I personally believe that the infrastructure systems is beginning to contribute to the blight of the marine ship. We have what I consider institutional and non-institutional blight that is starting to take hold. I come from an area of the country that has suffered blight, and once blight takes hold, I can tell you from personal experience, it's almost impossible to reverse. So I'm very concerned with the blight of the area. |
| 02:35:52.65 | Jill Hoffman | So what do you mean by circulation? |
| 02:35:54.18 | Unknown | THE FAMILY. |
| 02:35:55.26 | Jill Hoffman | I don't know what you mean. |
| 02:35:55.97 | Unknown | Thank you. |
| 02:36:42.55 | Bruce Hough | this. How do I work? to stay in here. Oh, yeah. This is our circulation system. This is Bridgeway here, so that's public. The circulation system basically comes from the Easterby ramp, runs down Liberty Shipway, comes around through Schoonmaker Marina, back out and down through Marin Shipway, and then out to the intersection at Harbor Drive and Marinship Way. We have two failing intersections that three traffic studies have identified. One is right at the tennis courts at Marinship Way, and the second one is at Harbor Drive and Marinship Way. and they are level F and the city of Saucyid requires level C or better. and the second one is at Harbor Drive and Marine Shipway. And they are level F, and the city of Saucyuta requires level C or better. The infrastructure along Liberty Shipway has some limited curbs and gutter. One half of the entire side of it has no curb and gutter, which is your drainage issues. Secondly, the only sidewalk... It's in front of 28 and 30 Liberty Shipway. There's absolutely no street lighting. Substandard streets exist behind the bay model. You have a 25-foot road here that has very recently, because the Army Corps insisted on it, it's become one way. Then you have a failing intersection out here simply because the intersection is too close to the intersection at Harbor Drive and Bridgeway. There's no provision for maintenance. The reason the Army Corps took the initiative to make this one way was a result of a lawsuit. We've suffered a lawsuit down here for the same reason. And it's just a deteriorating situation of the state Um... substandard circulation system. Coincidentally, a sanitary sewer system is right underneath it, which I think then contributes to some issues the city's having with their sanitary sewer. |
| 02:39:32.51 | Bruce Hough | The... Improvements that to the we would like to propose are through an improvement district. An improvement district is a privately funded when I say privately funded, it's funded by the owners of the properties in the area, admittedly of which the city of Sausalito is one. so is the US government, and so is the Veterans Administration. But the improvements would include sidewalks and street lighting, a curbing gutter system all the way through to provide street drainage, bicycle access on the roadway system, No failing intersections. all engineered roadway whiffs, and then the dedications of improvements to the city of Sausalito. So primarily what we're proposing |
| 02:40:43.55 | Bruce Hough | that thing working. Oh, there it is. Okay. So... We're proposing By the way, almost all of this, not 100%. Practically 100% of this is done on existing easements. existing 40-foot-wide easements. And there are some exceptions to that. There's an exception to that back here at Scudemaker Marina where it's 25 feet, and we propose taking this on a one-way system. And the other is behind Maui Stones. That's a 25-foot easement that we again propose taking a one-way system. The rest of it is either on 40-foot easements or involves some condemnation, which would be behind the record plant and SWA in here. We have three traffic studies. All three traffic studies say that with the implementation of the improvements envisioned in this district, we would take all intersections to a level C or better. not only in existing conditions, but the conditions that envision the full build out of the area, which is a requirement of a traffic study to envision. We would have street lighting. We have enough room for street lighting. We have enough room for sidewalks, pedestrian improvements. The bicycle path system would be along the roadway. Right now, we've got a disjointed bicycle path system, I say, basically comes around Schoonmaker Point, comes out here and stops, and comes down this roadway to Liberty Ship and stops again. So anyway, those are the proposed improvements. The... under normal conditions, Um... Where all the property was privately owned, this would be a straightforward process. Our historical problem, since we designed this in 1997, has been that a significant portion of this is publicly owned. And we cannot, through the normal process, enjoin the public entities from participating. And if we can't get cooperation from the public entities, then We can't by law. enforce the other property owners to pick up that portion of the tab. So that's always been our, our, uh, you know, challenge in the process. What the, well, The benefits, we'll go back to the benefits. What the process of the district normally would be is that Project sponsors would be us. and a couple other property owners would petition the city for the formation of an improvement district. Council. would normally, much like an undergrounding district or any other improvement district, would approve that petition. The project sponsors would provide and pay for the working engineering drawings. the evaluation by an assessment engineer, which basically determines what each parcel's benefit is and then assigns a percentage of the cost to that parcel. And then we'd have to bid out the project. And then we would know what the price is. We have the assessment engineer who has provided a percentage cost to each parcel, And then it goes to a vote of the property owners. If 51% approve, it's approved. If 49% approve and the rest don't, it doesn't go. project sponsors at that point. have. Their risk in the projects is the cost of doing those three things. If the vote was successful, then the city would confirm the improvement district and there would be a sale of bonds and the repayment of those bonds comes through our tax bills. I have to say, though, because there's public agencies involved here, there's a veto power, no matter what the vote is. If a single public agency does not participate can't happen so my purpose here is twofold one to explain the situation and be to kind of illicit council support for participation. Although at this point you don't know what that participation would cost. I will say that the city of Sausalito's, um, percentage of, of, you know, land in the area is relatively small. So... the benefits that I see to the city is through tax revenue. 35% of the city's revenues come from real estate taxes, 45% of the city's 25 taxpayers are located in the marine ship in this portion of the marine ship I might add and 50% of business license fees come from service and professionals the bulk of which are in the marine ship |
| 02:46:46.84 | Bruce Hough | So, What am I asking for? because of the complication that's involved with the public agencies that are involved in this area, the Marinship, I'm looking for some staff time to determine if this is feasible, if this is workable. And so what we're looking for is a little bit of time from the city engineer, the finance director, which... I understand is in a position in transition at this moment. and probably the city attorney. The laws have changed that involve improvement district. I'm not completely up to date on what they are, but that's what our request is. So thank you for your time. |
| 02:47:39.08 | Mayor Theodore | Thank you, Bruce. We'll bring it up here for council questions. We'd like to start. |
| 02:47:43.28 | Jill Hoffman | And I have some questions if I may. So Bruce, you said the city's ownership in this part of the Marin ship is small. What does the city own? |
| 02:47:52.79 | Bruce Hough | It owns Marinship Park, which is probably about two acres, I would guess. out of |
| 02:48:00.01 | Jill Hoffman | You mentioned part your time at the plaza there by the south? No, where the tennis courts are. |
| 02:48:02.18 | Bruce Hough | I know where the tennis courts are. |
| 02:48:03.79 | Jill Hoffman | Oh, the tennis courts where the art festival is held. Okay. So I – |
| 02:48:06.49 | Bruce Hough | Yeah. And so just a rough estimate tells me that's probably two acres, maybe two and a half acres. The entire area here, because you have to remember the water's publicly owned, or I'm sorry, privately owned here. So the marinas are involved in this, is well over 100 acres. |
| 02:48:30.10 | Jill Hoffman | So you're saying that the circulation, the vast majority of this then, is privately owned. The circulation, you know, as you said. All the circulation is privately owned. All the circulation. And I'm just, I'm looking at the circulation. Oh, with one exception. And, well, now the bicycle paths that exist, it's my understanding that they were privately funded, correct? |
| 02:48:39.16 | Bruce Hough | all the circulation are certainly With one exception. |
| 02:48:52.57 | Bruce Hough | Absolutely. |
| 02:48:53.45 | Jill Hoffman | And the... So I guess what I'm struggling with is These, you know, adding sidewalks, adding, you know, more bike access paths, adding streetlights, to me, that falls under that circulation piece. |
| 02:49:11.81 | Bruce Hough | Well, there's not a bicycle circulation system. it doesn't exist. Bicycle circulation system comes off of the |
| 02:49:24.33 | Jill Hoffman | I guess my, yeah, I'm sorry. |
| 02:49:24.37 | Bruce Hough | I guess my, yeah, I'm sorry. It comes off the public path by Dunphy Park then turns by Galilee. And comes around and then it becomes privately owned It goes around Schoonamaic Marina and stops. |
| 02:49:44.97 | Jill Hoffman | So, |
| 02:49:45.29 | Bruce Hough | and |
| 02:49:45.38 | Jill Hoffman | Okay. |
| 02:49:46.14 | Bruce Hough | It comes down. parallel to Bridgeway, and it stops. The bulk of pedestrian traffic, or, you know, I can't say the bulk of it, but it used to be the bulk of it. But a lot of the pedestrian traffic walks down a sidewalk on Easter Bee Ramp. and walks down the street. and goes to the beach that way. A tremendous amount of children are at the Bay Model and come out and walk down the street. and go to the beach. So they're in the street, they're not on the, |
| 02:50:21.37 | Jill Hoffman | So- |
| 02:50:25.40 | Bruce Hough | Thank you. Bike path. |
| 02:50:26.65 | Jill Hoffman | Sorry to deviate with the bike thing. It was just one of a checklist. I guess the point I was trying to make is you mentioned the circulation plan is privately owned. And to me, sidewalks, bike paths, streetlights, those things fall under a circulation path. I mean, that road is privately owned. Yeah. |
| 02:50:48.49 | Bruce Hough | Yeah, well, with the exception of the ramp, the roadway is privately owned. |
| 02:50:49.30 | Jill Hoffman | Well, exactly. Yeah, the roadway, these all these roads are privately owned. So I guess I would be looking to the owners of the roads to look at putting investments into their infrastructure. |
| 02:51:08.35 | Bruce Hough | Thank you. |
| 02:51:08.37 | Jill Hoffman | Yeah. |
| 02:51:08.38 | Bruce Hough | Some of them do, some of them don't. As a matter of fact, probably the worst piece of roadway |
| 02:51:10.80 | Jill Hoffman | But I guess- |
| 02:51:16.96 | Bruce Hough | in the Marin ship until recently fronted the city of Sausalito's parcel. The single worst piece of roadway. That's where the lawsuit occurred. |
| 02:51:22.52 | Unknown | single worst |
| 02:51:26.58 | Bruce Hough | Now, the Army Corps of Engineers was unpleasantly surprised to note that they didn't actually deed that when they deeded the rest of the land. |
| 02:51:26.76 | Unknown | Now, |
| 02:51:36.08 | Bruce Hough | So... and they took another action with it. The city of Sausalito the property owner fronting the roadway took no responsibility for improving the roadway And you have a similar situation with virtually every other property owner. |
| 02:51:49.00 | Jill Hoffman | So, |
| 02:51:54.89 | Jill Hoffman | I have a follow-up question, and then I'll Okay, sorry. So my follow-up question is, you mentioned the 45%, you know, with respect to the tax dollars from the rent ship, 45% are located in this piece of the rent ship. |
| 02:52:08.97 | Bruce Hough | said 45% of the top 25 taxpayers real estate taxpayers are located here |
| 02:52:14.96 | Jill Hoffman | are located here. 25 real estate taxpayers. Right. Are those manufacturers, are they a shipyard? Are they, what is the industry for that 25%? I have no idea. |
| 02:52:17.15 | Bruce Hough | Right. |
| 02:52:24.14 | Bruce Hough | I have no idea. They're parcels. |
| 02:52:30.19 | Jill Hoffman | The reason I don't know. |
| 02:52:30.48 | Bruce Hough | You know, real estate's taxed by parcels. Yeah. The, I'm, you know, Marina Plaza's one. I know collectively we pay |
| 02:52:32.71 | Jill Hoffman | Yeah. |
| 02:52:42.04 | Bruce Hough | probably close to half a million dollars a year in real estate taxes on what I manage which in real estate taxes, not in valuations. |
| 02:52:53.28 | Jill Hoffman | And finally, what is the amount of, what are the number of staff hours? What's, how many hours? I'm not sure. |
| 02:53:01.40 | Bruce Hough | I'm not sure. It, it, it, um, We need to determine, you know, a couple things. One, if there's been, because an improvement district has to bring roadways up to current standards, and I'm not entirely sure what those standards are today. and they probably changed over 20 years. Although I'm sure the city engineer absolutely does know what the standards are. The city engineer also knows what the turning radiuses are that would produce a level C or better intersections. The city attorney probably may or may not know, but certainly could find out, what the what current legislation or case law says about the improvement districts. I mean, I knew it 20 years ago. I'm not sure what it is today. I am not sure what occurs, if a vote occurs and a public agency does not voluntarily participate, but there's a majority vote. So I think there's some time before the sponsors go out and spend half a million dollars on the engineering costs that are involved here. We'd like to get probably a little bit more of a collaborative idea of what we're faced with because This would, in any case, would have to be a collaboration The Army Corps who's the largest public agency there, has expressed a lot of support for this and will voluntarily join the a Honestly can't say although the army corps the one in discussions with them and the other public agency is city of Sausalito so it's We kind of need that and the finance director is deals with the sale of bonds. That's probably a pretty academic conversation or pretty straightforward conversation. And I would assume it wouldn't take a lot of time from the finance director. City engineer may need some more time and certainly from legal counsel, We need some time. But I have no idea what the estimate of hours would be. I'm sure it would not be tremendously burdensome. |
| 02:55:39.23 | Bruce Hough | I'm trying to move it above your line. Thank you. |
| 02:55:43.36 | Kirby Withey | Um, thank you, Bruce. Couple of clarifying questions following on from council member Pfeiffer's questions. So, um, but first of all, I think you've now identified, uh, clearly identified, we've got three public entities here, city of social Edo, VA and the army corps. Right. Um, now you said that in the past, um, an impediment has been the fact that the district was. |
| 02:56:01.13 | Unknown | Right. |
| 02:56:12.56 | Kirby Withey | or stymied my word, by the fact that we had the public agencies. Has anything changed that you think that this is now doable? |
| 02:56:19.09 | Bruce Hough | Yeah. Yeah, the Army Corps has currently, or their current, let's put it this way, I can't speak for the whole Army Corps. I can speak for their local leadership. has they consider this improvement district to be a solution to their problems with their safety issues. And their access issues, I might add. So within that, they have, um, indicated to me that they will participate to their share now their share may involve hard costs of construction as opposed to hard dollars but it would be equivalent to what their share would be And they've also fully indicated to me that they, that with the, the new system. That's the existing system there, and that runs the Army. This is all Army Corps here. And with the new system, they would have to dedicate or contribute the land from here to here and then participate in the payment of this portion here. And they've virtually said they would give it up. In other words, they'll abandon their easements on the old roadway to the adjoining property owners, and they'll give up their land to the toe of the hill. |
| 02:58:05.36 | Kirby Withey | Thank you. |
| 02:58:05.38 | Bruce Hough | I'm. So, yeah, it had a major impact on, and they also are a major voting block. simply because of the area that they occupy. |
| 02:58:17.55 | Kirby Withey | Thank you. |
| 02:58:18.55 | Bruce Hough | So, |
| 02:58:18.97 | Kirby Withey | Just a couple of quick questions to make sure the nature of this is fully understood by everybody, because I'm not sure it totally is. So you said that the current circulation system is privately owned, but we have associated infrastructure with it, is sort of storm drains and the like okay the and the basic concept of an improvement district is that all the property owners involved I'm I'm sort of saying this and if I'm wrong correct me if I'm wrong all the property owners involved then actually pay for the improvement of the roads putting in in the sidewalks, putting in the lighting. All of that infrastructure is paid by the property owners. Right. And then at the end of that process, the circulation system, having been so improved, is then dedicated to the city so that afterwards the city owns that circulation system. |
| 02:58:43.37 | Unknown | Yeah. |
| 02:59:21.25 | Bruce Hough | Yeah, that, actually, that would be, uh, uh, a precondition of going forward with the district. The, and, and, and there's precedent for that, um, that, that was involved with the, with the Easterby ramp, um. As I said, which is right here. |
| 02:59:46.23 | Bruce Hough | When we built 28 and 30 Liberty Shipway, this, the improvement district has been used as the basis of a mitigated negative declaration on two projects. as the entire mitigated. as the entire mitigation, I might add. IT WAS USED FOR the mitigation of 28 and 30 Liberty Shipway, because the only identified impact of those projects was traffic. And it was the mitigation of the project that never got built back on 76 Liberty Shipway. The... and 28 and 30 Liberty Shipway because There was no... project per se that was approved. the Community Development Department required that we do a portion of the project. which was the Easter Bee Ramp. And we rebuilt the Easter Bee Ramp. We widened the Easter Bee Ramp. We added streetlights and sidewalks to the Easter Bee Ramp. And actually, if you look at the Easter Bee Ramp, it goes... it points into the toe of what the future roadway would be right there. Um, you We completed the project. We didn't offer a dedication. The city accepted dedication. That's now a public street. to the. right to the base of the hill. So there is precedent for it. And the city engineer and the city staff at that time decided it was beneficial. and should be a public improvement. So we spent, I don't know what we spent, half a million, three quarters of a million dollars doing the ramp and the city benefited from the ramp. Also there were drainage improvements. I mean, all the improvements you would do and infrastructure improvements were put into the ramp. So yeah, at the end of the day, If there's not an offer and acceptance of dedication, it's a moot. It's a fruitless project because it will then turn into what it was before. |
| 03:02:21.73 | Jill Hoffman | I, just a clarification. Thank you. |
| 03:02:24.18 | Jill Hoffman | Thank you. I guess I had a, sorry, excuse me. Specific couple questions. Sure. About how the fair traffic initiative would affect this plan. I mean, I know this is really preliminary. |
| 03:02:32.67 | Jill Hoffman | Thank you. |
| 03:02:32.70 | Bruce Hough | Sure. |
| 03:02:39.21 | Bruce Hough | It had no, the Fair Traffic Initiative to my knowledge, And probably one of the reasons for asking for some staff time from legal is. would be to assess that. but the To my knowledge, the Fair Traffic Initiative didn't enter into it at all. It's a It's a public improvement project. And it doesn't... develop or improve any single piece of property. So, I don't, you know, I'm not an attorney. I'm not going to represent myself to be one, but I don't think it has any impact on it at all. |
| 03:03:20.76 | Jill Hoffman | Okay, I guess that's, yeah, I guess that's, we might wanna look into it if we get further along. Did you have any sense of how many hours you were going to specifically ask for? |
| 03:03:36.98 | Bruce Hough | I wish I did. I think it varies between the disciplines. I certainly would be looking for more legal consultation but if if if I was to take a wild guess you know and I'll take a wild guess it probably equals 40 hours per discipline you know but I think it's going to be a lot less on the finance director because I think the answers are far clearer there and they're more structured because of the impact of of public entities in a private kind of enterprise here. I think it's going to be far more be leaning on Mary. The engineering. Um, hours are looking for simply to give us standards to deal with if anything's changed, because to my knowledge, we have to kind of meet a Caltrans standard on the streets. So I have no idea if those standards are the same as they were when we did the last one in 2000, or if they've changed or increased. And also, I think it's very important, um, because the city-owned sanitary sewers are not probably in that great of shape down there. So the city may have a benefit incorporating some sanitary sewer, at least sanitary sewage work with the roadway work, you know, uh, and that may take some engineering, um, look. I mean, there may be some hours involved with that. And that may not be the city of Sausalito. That's probably the Well, some of them are the... the Saucy-No Marin City Sanitary District has a high-pressure line, but the city owns the stuff under the streets. So... Um, I think that there may be some additional benefit there to just put some engineering in there. Cause right now what you have is Roy sewer service down there five, six times a year, flushing out lines because they're, they've settled. you know. |
| 03:05:56.97 | Bruce Hough | So I really wish I could answer the question. Maybe you just want to put a cap on it and that's fine. But obviously I don't know because it's, I don't know what necessarily... I mean, I know what the questions are, but I don't know how long it takes to get to the answers. |
| 03:06:18.42 | Mayor Theodore | THE END OF THE END OF THE Um, since they're asking for staff time, I want to ask the staff, I guess, first of all, there's a staff in the staff's opinion, believe it's, it's a project worth expending staff time. And more importantly, do you have time to expend on this? So can we have you weigh in on that? |
| 03:06:37.15 | Herb Weiner | be done after midnight. |
| 03:06:41.28 | Adam Politzer | The short answer is yes, I think it's something that the staff should work with Bruce and his team on evaluating this and then bring it back. council with you know whatever additional detail that we need to bring forward so council can give further direction you know the challenge the challenge is you kind of what Bruce is suggesting we don't know we don't know how much staff time and we had a little bit of this discussion during the Marineship steering committee meetings and we put Jonathan on the spot of what's all the activity that's necessary, And what starts dominoing is exactly what Bruce has started suggesting as you look the infrastructure underneath the road, so if you move the roadway, what opportunities present themselves to correct some of the other issues are involved. So some would say that will delay this project because you now have to look comprehensively. at this. But at the other side of it, people will say this is the smart way to do business and looking at it. You know, we have to be careful of how far we push this open but I think the initial steps that Bruce is recommending you know both I can't I won't speak for Mary but I think that she has some expertise here that would be helpful but regardless of who's sitting in the finance directors department's seat I think they'll be able to be helpful and then I know for certain that Jonathan will be my, which should be your fear, is that we know that Public Works has a lot on its plate right now. Um, And with Bruce's understanding that we may need to delay or push things off so that we get other things done, I think we are comfortable moving forward with that understanding. |
| 03:08:32.22 | Bruce Hough | Thank you. I will say that the civil engineering itself is... in a detailed fashion is another function. We're not asking the city to do the civil engineering. That's a cost of the sponsorship of the district. That's our risk cost, so to speak. The what we're trying to do here is kind of mitigate our risk by ascertaining what the standards are we have to meet, and do it in a collaborative fashion with staff as opposed to, here's our plan. you know, comment on it type of thing. And because we have public agencies involved and because the city is Probably the lead public agency in the whole thing. We'd like to have a collaborative Um, kind of relationship from the get-go because we're going to spend a lot of money before we ever get to a vote. AND I THINK IT'S A The last thing we would like to see is a city going now. Sorry. because To my knowledge, it's an absolute veto power. if any of the public agencies say no. So what we're trying to do is we've got one on board. We'd like to work collaboratively with the others so that there's a good comfortable feeling and everybody's working to the same purpose. And the third one, kind of let the Second one, deal with the third one. we'll let the Army Corps deal with the VA, but I think they have some influence with the VA. So I think, and the VA has, a limited amount of frontage here and I'm less concerned about them. |
| 03:10:18.65 | Jill Hoffman | Yeah, I have a couple questions. So you mentioned that after the city... if this were to happen, you know, would, after this road work, which is currently all privately owned, is done, that the city would own it? So the city maintains it now? The city has the cost of maintenance? Yeah, I think. Of all of this road, all these infrastructures? |
| 03:10:43.17 | Bruce Hough | Yeah, I think- I believe that The city of Sausalito really needs to... in some fashion maybe come to grips with where they see the Mariners. in 20 years, 50 years. The, I mean, if the city collectively decides that it should be Marsh, you kind of answer the question. It's done. But if you decide you want it to be a thriving... |
| 03:11:29.00 | Bruce Hough | kind of exciting area, if you want it to be your industrial slash business area, if you want it to be your employment area, then... infrastructure of this type. cannot survive privately owned. unless it's owned by one owner. But what you have For instance, if you take 10 Liberty Shipway, 10 Liberty Shipway probably has the most frontage of Liberty Shipway of any property there. But is the traffic generated by 10 Liberty Shipway? Probably not. is probably generated by 28 and 30 and 85 and 80. and Schoonermaker Marina, but they don't know the road. 10 Liberty ship owns the road. So you get into this kind of situation where the beneficiary of the improvements doesn't own them. and says, I don't own it, why should I improve it? and People that own it say, we don't really benefit from it. Same thing. And it's not that we don't do what we have to do. But. this type of infrastructure should be A PUBLIC IMPROVEMENT IN MY MIND. IF THE CITY OF SAUSALIDO Maybe this is kind of a come to Jesus moment. But. If the city of Sausalito decides... that the Marinship should be a marsh. It's moot. If they decide it needs to be vibrant, and it needs to work in the future. Those improvements should be public. |
| 03:13:12.31 | Unknown | Bruce. |
| 03:13:12.58 | Bruce Hough | We can pay... to bring them to standards, but they should be public improvements, and they should be publicly controlled. |
| 03:13:22.57 | Jill Hoffman | So to answer my question, then the city owns it. In other words, we would inherit all the maintenance costs of those roads. And I need... Just like you do in Bridgeway. I mean, it's of concern to me when I look at the shape of our roads in Sausalito proper alone to be taking on this. And I know that part of the Marin ship is sinking. Is that part of this particular parcel in the Marin ship? |
| 03:13:29.91 | Unknown | Just like you do in Bridgeway. |
| 03:13:48.48 | Bruce Hough | Actually, in the Southern Marineship, you have a lot. Less. Well, actually, in the 25 years I've been down there, we haven't seen any settlement. We saw a little bit. after the earthquake in 89. But that was it. When you get down towards Harbor Drive, when you get into Clipper, well, Clipper's not involved with this project, but when you get down that way, you get to Arkez, maybe along the waterfront where the rails are. Yeah, you probably have some subsidence there. But Liberty Ship way has maintained an eight-foot level eight-foot elevation since I've been there, which is 1983 or 84, and our elevation certificates consistently come in at eight feet. |
| 03:14:49.41 | Jill Hoffman | So part of what you're saying is part of this looks okay. And there is part that has this not where the roadway is. |
| 03:14:56.51 | Bruce Hough | Thank you. Not where the roadway is, though. No, not where the roadway is. Not where the improvements are. The toe of the hill basically has a shelf that comes out And so, yeah, I mean, if you get down to Arkez and you go out to the waterfront, You probably have settlements and subsidence going out there. certainly where, um, |
| 03:15:20.68 | Jill Hoffman | I am. |
| 03:15:21.12 | Bruce Hough | I'm trying to think of the boat yard is, but at the toe of the hill, which is where all these improvements occur. There's no subsidence that I'm aware of. |
| 03:15:30.94 | Jill Hoffman | So I have a question about staff time. I mean, there are a lot, I have so many questions about this. There were no materials, so I couldn't prepare, and I wasn't sure what was going to be presented. I apologize for that. |
| 03:15:42.50 | Bruce Hough | I apologize for that. I didn't get the, I was begging for graphics. |
| 03:15:45.47 | Jill Hoffman | for graphics. It's a huge thing that you're presenting here and I'm reticent to you know personally I'm reticent. I have so many questions. Could you you said you have a list of questions a lot of questions. Could you create that list of questions and submit it to staff to get staff to provide an assessment for how much hours how many hours they would estimate it would need to answer your questions. I feel far more comfortable if you put it together. |
| 03:16:13.80 | Bruce Hough | I feel far more comfortable if you put a cap on it, personally, because |
| 03:16:20.06 | Unknown | but they may not answer your question. |
| 03:16:20.23 | Bruce Hough | I don't even know halfway. I mean, I know what some of my legal questions are. I have no idea what my engineering questions are because I'd be looking for the engineer to tell me what the standards are before I have questions. As I say, the finance piece, I think, is really straightforward. It's whatever the law is today with selling bonds so on so forth the legal aspect is probably the great unknown here and i i mean i don't know how to answer it if it's what i'm looking for |
| 03:16:53.53 | Unknown (Clerk/Roll Call) | Thank you. I'm just... |
| 03:16:59.32 | Bruce Hough | is some collaboration on behalf of the city so we can determine whether a major piece of infrastructure in the city of Sausalito Thank you. is feasible to upgrade and bring into the public realm. It's the only private piece of circulation infrastructure that I'm aware of in this city. |
| 03:17:23.31 | Jill Hoffman | THE END OF THE END OF THE the It's... |
| 03:17:24.26 | Bruce Hough | . |
| 03:17:24.56 | Jill Hoffman | Thank you. |
| 03:17:24.59 | Bruce Hough | Thank you. |
| 03:17:24.61 | Jill Hoffman | Thank you. What I'm grappling with here is that it's much bigger than that. I mean, we're talking about the city. winding up with maintenance cost ownerships of the entire southern area of the circulation for the Marin, the cost, I mean, |
| 03:17:42.67 | Bruce Hough | I would say that that's probably less than a half a percent of your entire infrastructure, if that. |
| 03:17:44.32 | Jill Hoffman | That's huge. What is that dollar sign? |
| 03:17:49.26 | Bruce Hough | I have no idea what your budget is. |
| 03:17:50.14 | Jill Hoffman | That's my point. So I guess I just need more data. |
| 03:17:54.82 | Kirby Withey | Mr. Mayor, we are going around in circles. |
| 03:17:55.78 | Mayor Theodore | We are going around in circles. And we can't answer all your questions on this because That's the purpose of this is to bring out the questions and answer them. Anybody else have any questions on this? No more questions. |
| 03:18:01.63 | Unknown | questions and answer them. |
| 03:18:04.98 | Kirby Withey | No more questions. |
| 03:18:15.18 | Mayor Theodore | Yes. |
| 03:18:17.09 | Adam Politzer | I mean, I understand the kind of the chicken and egg situation that we've got ourselves in here, but at the end of the day, if Mr. Huff is comfortable Thank you. with looking at a time span between now and the end of September working with staff and having 40 hours potentially a little bit more Not a little bit more, but... 40 hours between the public works director and 40 hours with the city attorney between now and the end of September. I think staff would be comfortable with that allocation. obviously if we need more than that, we would come back in the first meeting in September. and say here's where we are. I think we can get to the end of the September you know, with some preliminary information. because I think Right now, this is just an introduction of the subject. hasn't been able to spend any time on this. because we want council to say, as as Bruce is asking, Is there an interest to the city as the public agency to participate in this If there is zero interest, and don't waste anyone's time if there's interest which we believe there is because there was discussion about this during the Marin-Chip Serum Committee meeting I think it would benefit for staff to spend 40 hours between now and the end of September working with Bruce to bring forward something in October for Council's further consideration. |
| 03:19:36.54 | Mayor Theodore | Okay, having said, let's move the comment, council comment, who would like to start? |
| 03:19:41.74 | Jill Hoffman | Well, I'll start in that there were no materials, no staff report, nothing, not even the PowerPoints that we're seeing up here tonight for the public to review or for council, that matter, to review before this very, very important proposal was provided for us. I certainly hadn't heard anything about it with regards to this detail. I'm very concerned we have hired extra public works folks to you know fix our sewers. We have a lot of research that needs to happen that involves legal counsel. We have a finance director who is retiring in weeks and no doubt is swamped with uh, a lot of transitioning activities, and we're basically going in here with potentially a week's worth of work for each. For the city engineer, I mean, Lord knows they're busy with our road systems and our sewers. Legal counsel, again, very busy, and our finance director. So, you know, I would, and plus I just have so many questions regarding not only the use of staff time, but the premise of this. Ray and I attended the ABAG delegate meeting and in that we learned that Plan B area was considering something called a priority manufacturing area where they might have a new program for promoting manufacturing and preserving manufacturing sections. There might be possibilities there that could be explored because as you know, that light industrial sector in the marinship provides that economic diversity for us. So I would move to direct Mr. Huff to provide the questions to staff, some of the questions he raised at the podium, so that staff can take a look at those questions, for example, Caltrans standards, et cetera, to assess how much staff time we're talking about. You know, my concern, even if we cap it, I mean, obviously staff's not going to keep a log on spend an hour here and an hour there. um you know i i think it it will be um scope creep and there will be a lot of time spent on this and i'm just i have a lot of questions about this whole proposal that you know and i and i have no preparation for it either because i received nothing and the public didn't either so i would urge council not to move forward on this we need more data Thank you. |
| 03:22:28.09 | Kirby Withey | I would strongly urge the council to move forward with this A short while ago, Councilmember Pfeiffer, when questioning Mr. Huff, said, what about Sausalito proper? Okay. And that's the fundamental issue here. Councilmember Pfeiffer has to come to the realization that the marineship is part of Sausalito proper. It is part of Sausalito. Its circulation system needs to be owned by the city. because of all the liabilities in the future that it will face. We have an opportunity through an improvement district and there's So many questions to understand about this. I fully agree with that. I don't know the answers to them. That's why there must got to be the discussion. Because in the end, I think if it turned out that the property owners were willing to invest to bring all of this infrastructure up to modern standards, basically new infrastructure, and then actually donated it to the city, that is a really, really good deal for us. We should take control of the circulation system down there. It's that simple. It's part of Sol Solito. And this way, it could get paid for. But we may be talking fantasy. I don't know if the district can even be formed. I don't even know if Bruce can soft circle all the property owners so they would pay for it. We don't know any of that. We don't know how it would legally work. We don't know... exactly what the ballpark figure will cost that the district would end up paying for we're going to be talking ourselves around in circles unless we do some preliminary work to actually find out but fundamentally more importantly we've got to come to the conclusion that the Marin ship is part of Sausalito and Thank you. that we intend to ensure that the infrastructure is upgraded. Because in 10 years' time, we will have a revenue shortage. In 10 years' time, in 15 years' time, the revenues that are coming out of the marine ship will start to evaporate. I have been the only council member up here, from I can gather for about 20 years, who's ever had the courage to say that the marine ship, there is blight. There is blight, and Bruce is absolutely right. You just got to go to New Jersey. You just got to go to areas on the East Coast to see that once it sets in, it's over forever. This is potentially an opportunity. Let's at least talk about it, use some staff time to find out. And then finally, we should not be in the business of micromanaging hours of staff time. |
| 03:25:31.18 | Jill Hoffman | Okay, thanks. You know, well, I have some general questions about how that's going to work and the traffic flow and if there's going to be an increased burden on the... the neighborhoods and the people that live on that section of town, obviously. But you know, I understand we're very preliminary, and those studies will naturally come later. My question right now though is to the extent that And I like the public-private collaboration between districts in our town and to the extent that we can help them as a city. Um, the. The one concern I have is that it seems that there may be some general legal and engineering that isn't Sausalito specific, it's just an attorney looking it up. So to the extent that that's sort of what we're going to task. our you know attorney that that's a contract attorney that we pay her by the hour that You know, that is of concern to me. And so. That's the distinction between using our legal counsel, Mary Wagner, and are staff people that are paid employees. you know that I'm looking very closely that so to the extent that the project has Sausalito specific questions for our engineering staff or for our legal counsel then I think is appropriate that we direct staff to support that but, you know on the other hand to the extent that it's just general sort of legal work and that any attorney that you could ask any attorney and there's plenty around here that can do it that have expertise in this area that I would look to the property owners to come up with their own plan for supporting that and then in collaboration with our city attorney on specific questions they need answered so I would I would speak to that request from our staff in that manner But otherwise, I understand that we're very preliminary, and I'd like to move forward and look at it. |
| 03:27:28.13 | Herb Weiner | Well, I think it's very, very important, very essential that the marineship stay very, very vibrant It's part of our tax, our employment. I wouldn't want to see it go towards a marsh. I think it's time that we've been kicking this down the road. We put up roadblocks, traffic initiatives, and everything else over the years to be able to say, Just keep building ships down there on Marinship that don't even exist anymore on the commercial basis. So I think it's important that we make a little investment in staff to see if any of this is feasible. |
| 03:28:04.73 | Unknown | Thank you. |
| 03:28:15.29 | Herb Weiner | Don't kick it down the road like we've been doing for years. |
| 03:28:21.30 | Mayor Theodore | I agree with council member Weiner. I mean, such, I mean, one thing. We learned during our campaign, I mean, when I ran, that people wonder, you know, what is Marin ship? Marin ship needs to be part of Sausalito is pretty clear. It is part of Sausalito. And we try to have this Uh, two way relationship with it. This this is a potential golden opportunity to get private owners to make public infrastructure improvements that we would take over. I mean, that he doesn't get too much better than that. We again, many, many questions, but certainly this is something that we need to take a look at. I do trust staff knowing how protective they are of their staff time that they will be judicious in using the staff time, including the city attorney and that they will help on the sauce little parts. When I get to generic questions of setting up the improvement district, et cetera, that they'll need to get their own attorneys and civil engineers and that type of thing. So I think this is something that we need to look at. I think we should go forward with it. And so I would entertain a motion to that effect. |
| 03:29:25.24 | Adam Politzer | Just one clarification, I just realized we're in the middle of July, and people do take some time off in August. So I said to the end of September, I'd like to change that to the end of October, so that 40 hours between now and the end of October. |
| 03:29:42.23 | Mayor Theodore | . |
| 03:29:42.28 | Unknown | Thank you. |
| 03:29:42.52 | Mayor Theodore | Thank you. Yeah, plenty of time. Why don't we give you to the end of the year and you have 40 hours, whatever. Whatever. Because we trust that you're going to work with that. And we trust that Bruce will work with you in terms of work, you know, planning this out and the best use of staff time. |
| 03:29:42.66 | Adam Politzer | got plenty of time. Yeah, 40 hours. |
| 03:29:45.64 | Unknown | Bye. |
| 03:29:45.83 | Adam Politzer | Thank you. |
| 03:29:45.90 | Unknown | Whatever. |
| 03:29:46.39 | Adam Politzer | Whatever. |
| 03:29:54.97 | Jill Hoffman | Tom, I'd like to comment on something. Council Member Withey made some comments, called me out by name, and I'd like to respond to him. So first of all, of course marineship is part of Sausalito. Pardon me, that's insulting to suggest otherwise. Marineship has a part of our maritime culture in Sausalito. It's part of our history in Sausalito. You know that when I use the term Sausalito proper, I was referring to the lands of Sausalito where the city owns the maintenance of the roads. What we're talking about here is a proposal in which the city would inherit the maintenance of all the roads in the Marinship. And I'm very concerned about the cost of that and that's what I was referring to secondly not micromanaging staff time there's a difference between micromanaging and it giving it away I believe that when without the structure of how much time is needed not sure what questions do you have not sure I think we data. And more importantly, there's been no transparency on this discussion. No one knows what we were going to talk about. There was no staff report. There were no PowerPoints from Mr. Huff before we had this conversation. So I have major concerns about this. Having said that, I do support and have always supported the Marin ship. And I would welcome Bruce, Mr. Huff, if he wants to join me. I will... Contact ABAG and we can schedule a meeting and go talk to them about the priority. It's actually called a priority. I think it's priority industrial area. We could go and talk with them and explore that a little bit. I mean, it's a very exciting concept that they shared with us at the ABAG delegate meeting. So anyway, and it wouldn't involve, from what I would certainly not, the city inheriting even more roads to maintain when we have our hands full with what we're maintaining right now. |
| 03:31:56.83 | Kirby Withey | one thing I can absolutely guarantee you is that a priority manufacturing district would not conform to the fair traffic initiative and it's a priority |
| 03:32:04.61 | Mayor Theodore | And I, |
| 03:32:04.96 | Jill Hoffman | No, it's a priority industrial area. And of course, we wouldn't do it if it didn't. I mean, I'm a champion of the traffic initiative as well. But I mean, I'm just saying that Marinship is a part of Sausalito, but it is largely privately owned, as we've seen with the circulation. And I'm very reticent to have Sausalito inherit that as a maintenance cost to taxpayers. |
| 03:32:30.82 | Mayor Theodore | And I just want to, I mean, I think it's insulting to Mr. Huff, this, using this term lack of transparency, He has come here, he's put it up here. The fact that it's not in the agenda doesn't mean anything. We are at a public hearing and we're putting that out exactly there. It's a totally wrong use of that term. |
| 03:32:45.46 | Jill Hoffman | I am not insulting Mr. Huff. It's a comment more on council, frankly. We should have had material on this item before this council. Before this council discussion. It is not transparent. People don't know what's going on. |
| 03:32:48.11 | Mayor Theodore | Bye. Frankly, we should have this item before the council right now you tell us what we're hiding They do know. They look at- |
| 03:32:58.46 | Jill Hoffman | Thank you. People don't know what it means. |
| 03:33:01.04 | Unknown | you Bye. You're asking me for it by Wednesday. |
| 03:33:08.85 | Unknown | Thank you. |
| 03:33:12.31 | Unknown | Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. were done by an architect that I've been working with that worked for the value model, and you couldn't get it to be. And then they were 25 gigabytes. |
| 03:33:33.40 | Bruce Hough | Thank you. Thank you. It was, I couldn't, |
| 03:33:36.48 | Herb Weiner | Wouldn't have made any difference to her anyway. |
| 03:33:38.70 | Kirby Withey | So, Mr. Mayor, I would move to authorize staff to spend more time. |
| 03:33:38.72 | Jill Hoffman | So, |
| 03:33:38.80 | Herb Weiner | THE END OF THE END OF THE |
| 03:33:43.16 | Jill Hoffman | It would have made a difference to the public, Herb. |
| 03:33:45.92 | Herb Weiner | No was spelt with a K, not an N. |
| 03:33:51.26 | Mayor Theodore | Gotcha. |
| 03:33:51.59 | Kirby Withey | Mr. Mayor, I would move to authorize staff. to enter into the dialogue to spend. what hours that they feel in their discretion over the next number of months to explore with Mr. Huff the feasibility of this improvement district and to report back to Council at the appropriate time. I think that's probably all you need. If you wanted to get more specific, I can make it so. But if that's all you need, then that's my motion. |
| 03:34:26.24 | Jill Hoffman | May I offer an amendment? I would still like to cap it at 40. And if you need more hours and come back, but, you know. |
| 03:34:36.16 | Kirby Withey | I'll accept that amendment. |
| 03:34:37.53 | Jill Hoffman | And also, can we post Mr. Huff's slides on the web with the agenda? |
| 03:34:45.61 | Mayor Theodore | Debbie, would you take the role on this? |
| 03:34:46.91 | Jill Hoffman | THE END OF |
| 03:34:53.75 | Unknown (Clerk/Roll Call) | moment. |
| 03:34:57.32 | Unknown (Clerk/Roll Call) | Councilmember Weiner. |
| 03:34:58.39 | Herb Weiner | Yes. |
| 03:34:59.99 | Unknown (Clerk/Roll Call) | Councilmember Pfeiffer? No. Councilmember Withey? Yes. |
| 03:35:01.00 | Jill Hoffman | Thank you. |
| 03:35:01.02 | Herb Weiner | Thank you. |
| 03:35:01.04 | Jill Hoffman | Thank you. |
| 03:35:01.19 | Herb Weiner | Thank you. Yes. |
| 03:35:03.97 | Unknown (Clerk/Roll Call) | Vice Mayor Hoffman. Thank you. |
| 03:35:05.69 | Jill Hoffman | Thank you. |
| 03:35:05.71 | Unknown (Clerk/Roll Call) | Yeah. |
| 03:35:05.80 | Jill Hoffman | Thank you. |
| 03:35:05.81 | Unknown (Clerk/Roll Call) | Thank you. Mayor Theodores. |
| 03:35:08.44 | Mayor Theodore | Yes. Okay, that passes for the one. Okay. Now we move on to item 6C, update on the ADA improvement project. Director of Public Works, Jonathan Goldman. Thank you so much, Bruce. Thank you. |
| 03:35:19.75 | Adam Politzer | . Mr. Mayor, in the hour of the evening, 10 to 11, I asked our Public Works Director if, with two items left, if the council has a preference and maybe punting one of them. Or he is ready and able to present on both of them, but we just wanted to give you some flexibility at 10 to 11 or 8 to 11, if you only wanted to take one of them. Well, can we... |
| 03:35:46.83 | Mayor Theodore | Well, can we go through both quickly? Thank you. |
| 03:35:50.36 | Adam Politzer | or is that, |
| 03:35:52.34 | Mayor Theodore | Absolutely. I would recommend. Let's see first, but I would. |
| 03:35:56.47 | Herb Weiner | flip a coin. You got a coin? |
| 03:35:58.24 | Jill Hoffman | I have, I need to make a comment on this, that we didn't receive any materials on item D. At least I don't have materials on item D in my hard copy. you |
| 03:36:09.31 | Mayor Theodore | Thank you. |
| 03:36:09.48 | Jill Hoffman | And I would... |
| 03:36:10.04 | Mayor Theodore | And I would. There's no, I mean, there's a lot that we discussed. |
| 03:36:12.70 | Jill Hoffman | There's a lot that we discussed. I would recommend we continue item D. |
| 03:36:17.40 | Adam Politzer | Well, can I go? |
| 03:36:18.42 | Mayor Theodore | Thank you. |
| 03:36:18.48 | Adam Politzer | I'm not sure. |
| 03:36:18.56 | Mayor Theodore | That's, that's, sure, we can do that. |
| 03:36:18.59 | Adam Politzer | That's sure we can do that. |
| 03:36:20.40 | Mayor Theodore | Thank you. |
| 03:36:20.42 | Adam Politzer | The public works director and the community development director and I attended a meeting last week with TAM and they talked about the process and timing of some of the projects that the county is looking at. And at the conclusion of that meeting after the after we had already had our agenda setting meeting, I thought that it was important that we bring this item forward as informational to the council, and part of it was based on some of the comments that Councilmember Pfeiffer had requested that this item come forward. We can wait till September 1st, it's not a problem. We just think that there is, ongoing discussion. in the county, the TAM board will be discussing this on Thursday night, I understand. And then there'll be discussions with all the cities between now in January. So that may be the only update that you need of what I just reported and we can come back with more information in September. but we thought that it was important to put an informational item on the agenda and we didn't have time to prepare any materials for it. |
| 03:37:21.11 | Jill Hoffman | I'm tired. THE END OF THE Thank you, Adam. I have a follow-up question just to clarify. The reason I was asking for the TAM projects to come forward was I wanted the council to be able to weigh in on, priority-wise, which projects we felt we should really be going after for funding because in the past that has been a city staff exercise that frankly I've had no visibility into it's been basically just here's what we got funding for and so the intent was to look at what the options were so that council could weigh in on that process |
| 03:37:58.53 | Herb Weiner | I don't think we really have to pay the year, I mean, Thank you. Thank you. |
| 03:38:02.14 | Jill Hoffman | No, it's not ADA. |
| 03:38:02.36 | Herb Weiner | It's not ADA. |
| 03:38:07.30 | Herb Weiner | the way you see. |
| 03:38:08.70 | Mayor Theodore | No, no, I think I think it's the opposite. Unfortunately, we're not prepared for D. Let's do we agree that we'll move D into September? |
| 03:38:10.22 | Herb Weiner | Thank you. |
| 03:38:10.24 | Jill Hoffman | We're just... |
| 03:38:15.15 | Mayor Theodore | We... |
| 03:38:15.40 | Jill Hoffman | I do want want to clarify if we move D into September you mentioned there's a TAM meeting on Thursday are they making decisions on Thursday in terms of funding I mean is this something we need to move on sooner than that |
| 03:38:26.86 | Adam Politzer | No, they're going to be working through the board, through staff, meeting with cities between now and January to make their recommendations. We may be also mixing apples and oranges because other than the South City limits to Richardson, the projects that we're talking about Um, not anything new and their items that have actually been before the council on several times. There are different pots of money that TAM taps into, but in what we heard, was that they were non-competitive for these MTC funds and zero out of 16 countywide projects None got funded. None got funded. |
| 03:39:06.36 | Unknown | That fun? |
| 03:39:08.49 | Adam Politzer | So, You know, it's important that we come to you, and we wanted to make sure that between now and September 1st, as these discussions may be happening in other council and making the front page of the newspaper that you weren't caught off guard. So we're happy to delay this till September. There's no urgency on this. There's the projects that are on the list are projects that we're well aware of. |
| 03:39:33.87 | Jill Hoffman | Well, I guess what I'm saying is can we change the projects on the list, you know, if we delay this to September 1st? |
| 03:39:42.12 | Adam Politzer | You can change the projects on the list and we can add and delete all that you want. |
| 03:39:44.43 | Jill Hoffman | and we can add and delete all the information. |
| 03:39:47.44 | Adam Politzer | We're looking at a more of a regional approach because our efforts in the past haven't been |
| 03:39:54.22 | Jill Hoffman | That's all I needed to know. Thank you, Adam. |
| 03:39:56.47 | Kirby Withey | the amount of time we've been talking about this. We could have probably had the presentation. |
| 03:39:59.10 | Jill Hoffman | the presentation. That was exactly |
| 03:40:00.30 | Mayor Theodore | So we're going to defer this. That's item D, 6D, okay? |
| 03:40:00.43 | Jill Hoffman | THE END OF THE END OF THE |
| 03:40:07.45 | Mayor Theodore | As a consensus, the council will defer that, and we'll take it up at agenda setting in... Well, Okay, so let's go on to item 6C, again, update on the ADA improvement project. |
| 03:40:20.99 | Jonathon Goldman | uh... thank you mr. mayor again jonathan goldman your public works director and city engineer and eighty a coordinator title i omitted from my previous testimony this evening so i apologize uh... this uh... PowerPoint was not contained in your packet, and it's really just a summary of our project status as of earlier this week, and I'll just kind of go through it. Obviously, if there are questions that come up during the presentation feel free to interrupt me and then at the end it won't be an interruption so you can just ask questions at the end too. We have two kind of broad categories of projects that are currently underway. The first is our self-evaluation and transition plan update. February 10th of this year, the council authorized the second phase of work by Jill DePuente Peters architects for two elements of the self evaluation and transition plan update um, That firm has completed and delivered expedited, updated surveys of City Hall and the Library, the MLK Park, MLK Campus, and Remington Dog Park, as well as the Sweeney Park plans, which, as Council is probably aware, are in the hopper to be heard by the Planning Commission on the 29th of this month. As of June 30th, that consultant is under budget and behind schedule. There were two of the items that they performed were out of scope but were necessary for our operations. So we asked them for help on Sweeney Park and some of the MLK work. The next steps associated with this particular task, certainly we're expecting them to continue to expand the budget that they have been authorized and complete the deliverables associated with that phase of the project that was intended to be completed June 30th. But the next steps based on their original proposal, and I'm Thank you. awaiting a an update from them as to, just to confirm what they would like to see with a subsequent contract amendment. But the next steps for which council appropriated $85,000 in this fiscal year's budget would include the first part of their proposal, which is the self-evaluation update, an access compliance manual, and a staff training program, which in my opinion is at least as valuable as the entire rest of the document. Part 2.A is already completed. There's additional work to be done in buildings and facilities evaluations. They have not addressed the public right-of-way at all. Fortunately, we have the benefit of a number of other consultants and the federal court to have helped us with identification of some of our barriers to accessibility in the public right of way. So I anticipate that Jill DePonte Peters will not have to expend a significant level of effort there. And then the same with respect to the transition plan update for public right of way. As council and the community are also aware. We have been involved by virtue or in a chronology of events kind of beginning in February of this year with the retention of Ratinger Consulting to assist us in delivering priority capital and accessibility improvements. March 17th, the council uh, approved budget transfers to allow us to start spending construction dollars on removal of some of those priority removal of some of those barriers The adopted budget for fiscal 15 and 16 includes, as I alluded to earlier, the $85,000 for the transition plan update, continuation of that multi-year contract. In addition, a total of $680,000 for accessibility improvements or removal of barriers in two general categories, traffic and transportation, and then also buildings and waterfront. Staff and the city's consultants continue to review the locations and details for the work that is being packaged to confirm the projects or maintenance projects won't appreciably change the appearance of the area being approved, or that projects that would result that aren't maintenance or would result in an appreciable change get scheduled for design review. This is just kind of intended to be a quick photo summary of some of the completed projects. We have a nomenclature that we've used for identifying these locations that tracks back to |
| 03:45:51.55 | Unknown | Thank you. |
| 03:46:05.47 | Jonathon Goldman | basically the complaint associated with litigation. So these strange letters and codes are not intended to be devious, it's just our way of kind of tracking locations. BW in this case refers to Bridgeway 16 as a map number and then 04 here is an item number. You can see this is Dunphy Park at Looks like this might be B or Litho. There's a new ramp on the Dunphy Park side of that. intersection, here's another, this is the intersection here at B, where we have a new curb ramp that was installed. I included this inset photograph just to kind of conceptually illustrate the level of the documentation that that we are using not only in, well, not just documentation, specification in the design because the codes are very specific, but also photo documentation of the compliance of what gets built. This is what's called a smart level, and so we photo documented the measurement of the smart level in this particular section of pavement, and you can see it looks like we're at a 0.1% slope in that particular section of pavement, and you can see it looks like we're at a 0.1% slope in that particular piece of pavement. So our documentation process associated with verifying that what gets built complies with the code involves large numbers of these measurements and these photographs, so that in the event someone complains in the future, we can document what was built when we did this work and be better prepared for those kinds of questions going forward. I think this is the opposite side of that intersection, another curb ramp. Bridgeway and B. This is downtown actually, the triangle at Plaza Vigna Del Mar where Um, this curb ramp was actually replaced as part of the Plaza de Finna Del Mar project. And we're simply documenting that what was constructed then complies with current code Um, this is on Bridgeway downtown. Yeah. probably the city of princess or maybe on the other side. Gene Heller, yeah, so it's further down. We have Sears Princess. |
| 03:48:41.21 | Unknown | IT'S A LITTLE BIT OF THE |
| 03:48:44.37 | Jonathon Goldman | Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Here's my favorite. You all know Norm and Gloria Walschlager. I ran into them one day downtown, and Norm had some very pointed observations about this particular improvement which i will take from norm and accept it as my responsibility this curb ramp now has a a guard associated with it because we had a number of people trip on it shortly after it was constructed so it's not as easy to trip on anymore and we also provided some protection to discourage people from locking bicycles to it. |
| 03:49:25.51 | Jill Hoffman | Can you take questions now or do you want to wait until we're done? Okay. Regarding the gate that has been put up, it's kind of a neon blue kind of color. I was wondering, is that something we could have the HLB look at with respect to a design? I mean, perhaps something more muted? Yes. Yeah. |
| 03:49:27.06 | Jonathon Goldman | Absolutely. |
| 03:49:48.19 | Jonathon Goldman | Yes. Yes, I refer to it as a guard cozy. |
| 03:49:57.08 | Jonathon Goldman | here's the ramp on the opposite side of Princess there. and then in front of the t-shirt shop, Princess and Bridgeway. you You may have noticed that we reconfigured a number of parking stalls in municipal lot number one and regraded the stalls to ensure that they conform to the appropriate standards. We did this to make sure that the number of disabled stalls in lot one complies with the code and then rather than regrade in other areas where the disabled stalls were located previously, it just made more sense to combine them here and probably cost us less money because the amount of regrading necessary was less. This driveway cut, we refer to this as the official parking lot at the intersection of Tracy and Anchor. The driveway cut that was here did not include a 48-inch wide path of travel at less than 2% cross slope across the back, which is what the Marin County Unified Standard is, as well as the standard under California Building Code and any number of other codes. And because the requirement that that is, driveway approach be compliant was triggered at some point in the past we replaced the driveway approach I don't know why I included this picture the complaint involved a vertical displacement that as you can see from the photograph has been filled with cold patch temporary, it's actually permanent cold patch asphalt. Another, not only a ramp, this ramp was constructed at Vina Del Mar, but we ended up replacing this grate over the drain inlet in order to comply with current code. We have another ramp that was installed here. This is municipal parking lot number four, and we'll have a guard that goes in here as well. |
| 03:52:18.04 | Jill Hoffman | Uh, Jonathan, that looks like another trip hazard to me. And I'm just curious, why are we seeing this configuration as opposed to the other pictures you showed where it was just, there must be some reason? |
| 03:52:33.61 | Jonathon Goldman | There isn't room. for any other solution that complies with the code. |
| 03:52:35.20 | Jill Hoffman | or any other solution. Okay. |
| 03:52:39.94 | Jonathon Goldman | You have a finely developed eye for trip hazards. To the best of my knowledge, no one has tripped here. But this, as I indicated, is going to have a guard. I have not ordered a cozy for it, but that's always a possibility. |
| 03:52:49.44 | Unknown | up. |
| 03:53:01.29 | Jonathon Goldman | Another curb ramp here, this is actually Johnson Street at the margins of Muni Lot 4 with Pelican down here to the left. We replaced that ramp. Seafood Peddler is here. This is also Johnson and Muni Lot 4, our Humboldt. As part of the work that we did in lot four, we added a stall for persons with disabilities to park here along this sidewalk segment. This is also seafood peddler, and in doing that, we were also able to resolve a poor drainage problem that we think may have been caused by tree roots, but able to fix that issue there as well without incurring any additional costs. We rearranged the parking for persons with disabilities in what's technically municipal lot five, so created a disabled parking stall here at the end of Locust with a path of travel that allows a person access to the shoreline path as well as to the boardwalk behind and to the left Remaining projects that we have to do in that priority category, bid package seven we're referring to, which will be less than $175,000 worth of work, includes a number of curb ramp replacements in combination with the anchor wastewater pump station landscaping. I'm sure you're familiar with the area in municipal parking lot number one where the anchor wastewater pump station is that we've had fenced off because We were grateful to thank the contractor who had been working there and let them go somewhere else while we developed plans to complete the landscaping there separately. We also have some projects that are not in that bid package, but that overlap with the Gate 6 intersection improvements projects, which is currently unfunded. But to the extent that we can either spend money now and avoid having to spend it with a subsequent project or vice versa, we're trying to take advantage of the time that we have to do that. Thank you. We have some other issues. The Bridgeway and Ensign intersection at Taste of Rome restaurant is frankly just too complex for us to have developed a good solution for just yet. It's complicated by the fact that there's a 40-seat sidewalk dining permit there. So we're taking some more time to do more detailed surveying and develop a more comprehensive design there. In addition, other areas where we've identified with a bulb out or a change in the area of sidewalk as a potential solution. to the accessibility issue. We have a couple of those, Caledonia Pine, and then also Caledonia at Napa. those have the potential to rise to a design review level, more diligent and conscientious about evaluating and preparing those designs and then coordinate with the community development director to determine what appropriate design review process there would be for those. And we also have two Safe Pathways grants. with overlap on these issues. |
| 03:56:35.20 | Jonathon Goldman | Yeah. Go ahead, Dr. |
| 03:56:36.31 | Jill Hoffman | Just a quick question about that one. The Safe Pathways, in fact, that's a question I had about linked to consent calendar item A. The staff report mentioned widening the sidewalk, but it wasn't clear. It looked like there was a typo, North Bridge. I assumed it was Bridgeway and Ebb Tide. Are we losing any parking in that? No. Because it wasn't clear to me where the sidewalk was being. |
| 03:57:00.20 | Unknown | Thank you. |
| 03:57:00.22 | Jonathon Goldman | No. |
| 03:57:00.59 | Unknown | Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. |
| 03:57:01.52 | Jonathon Goldman | No, it's... The sidewalk was being in the creek. The west side of Bridgeway between Ebb Tide and basically the northerly city limit. |
| 03:57:13.01 | Jill Hoffman | Oh, okay, gotcha, thank you. |
| 03:57:16.14 | Jonathon Goldman | Sweeney Park improvements overlap as well. There were curb ramps identified as issues on Caledonia. We certainly didn't wanna construct a new curb ramp only to have the Sweeney Park folks come in and rip it back out again if we can avoid that. So we're coordinating on those projects. And then the same with the the temporary restroom. that council appropriated the funds for our initial pass at Dunphy Park and access to the bocce courts was such that we want to take a step back, make sure we aren't, again, constructing something that in a matter of weeks or months is no longer useful. No matter how temporary, I'd rather not see our resources get wasted that way. So these are the categories of remaining priority projects that we're continuing to work on. um we i had endeavored to have a schedule update for council this evening what was in the packet was a schedule update based on a september 30th completion date we're now looking at a longer period of time for that so uh My intent at this point is when council returns in September will be in a position to update the overall project schedule As well as the budget status and I'm certainly available for questions if there are any. |
| 03:58:55.97 | Jill Hoffman | I have a, well, actually I wanted to thank you for including that schedule. I thought it was really excellent You know, just seeing all the projects laid out and everything. And schedules slip. You know, things happen we can't predict. But it was really, I really appreciated getting that. I'll tell Constance. Just wanted to give you that feedback. |
| 03:59:13.47 | Unknown | Oh, totally. |
| 03:59:13.97 | Mayor Theodore | Constance. |
| 03:59:14.65 | Unknown (Clerk/Roll Call) | Thank you. |
| 03:59:22.80 | Mayor Theodore | see no public comment we'll bring it up here for uh it's public comment for council comment we'd like to start |
| 03:59:31.00 | Kirby Withey | I don't think there's any action, is there for tonight? No, there's no. |
| 03:59:33.21 | Mayor Theodore | No, there's no, I mean, so we could, but we can comment. |
| 03:59:36.13 | Kirby Withey | Right. I would just say that, you know, the ADA plans, transition plans, critically important, and we're moving along very nicely. Well done, Jonathan, engineering, and all the public works folks who are working on this. |
| 03:59:53.56 | Jill Hoffman | would I would echo that I think that it's really great to see this moving forward it falls under the age-friendly city vision and it helps those with disabilities as well as those with strollers and you know the whole nine yards so it's great to see this progress again I really like the project management aspect that that the scheduling, I mean, having that visibility there to be able to see exactly what's broken down and how the pacing is. And the only thing I would add is I think I heard you say, I heard a comment about pulling in the HLB for some of these things. I think that makes complete sense, especially when we're looking at certain things in downtown. So anyway, kudos to you, Jonathan, and the whole team. |
| 04:00:49.74 | Jill Hoffman | echoing the same, and I like the, I saw the ramp cozy the other day, and I thought it looked gray, I mean the color maybe, but I mean the solution was great I think it improves the area. |
| 04:01:05.11 | Mayor Theodore | I just want to echo and thank you for the great job both on the report and getting this all done. And I was only disappointed not having the picture of the one in front of Napa Burger, because the public needs to know, I'm just going to reiterate, that is handled, that's been done, and there's the proper railing and all that kind of thing there. So again, thank you very much. So move on. |
| 04:01:29.87 | Mayor Theodore | Herbie, you didn't have a question. We'll now go to item 7A, the city manager information for council. |
| 04:01:38.76 | Adam Politzer | I think you've heard enough from me tonight, so if you have specific questions, I'd be happy to answer them. You are aware, because I shared it at the last meeting, that Charlie Francis will be retiring at the end of this month, and Brian Mora. is going to be the interim finance manager during our search for the new administrative services director. We anticipate that Brian will be with us for a minimum of four months and potentially through the end of the year. Finance director, administrative services director position is probably rivals the city engineer position in terms of recruiting. A very limited pool of qualified candidates. I've talked to already three recruiting firms about their successes in other communities and we should all be concerned that the pool is shallow. But. The pool was shallow and we found Charlie And so I'm confident that we will find another great candidate. We'll introduce Brian when you come back in September. And let him get a little bit acclimated to Sausalito and the Sausalito way. But he started on Monday, yesterday, overlapping with Charlie, trying to transfer all the information that Charlie has to him. And and then Charlie has as anyone else that's worked for the city and worked for our team has committed to be available to Brian and myself As we make this transition the big the big opportunity will be once we hire the next Director and there may be an opportunity to bring Charlie back to also help with that transition as well. So wish us luck between now and then. That's the only real announcement I wanted to share with the council, but happy to answer any questions you folks have of me. |
| 04:03:43.55 | Jill Hoffman | Thank you, Adam. I just had a quick question. As you know, Charlie was a contractor, and I personally feel that, and maybe this is more a council comment, perhaps it should be a discussion at some point, maybe a future agenda item, I don't know. But I think that the finance director of the city should be a permanent full-time employee I think that that level of accountability is in autonomy is very important and and so I mean that's part of our core team and I think that's just something I wanted to share and perhaps we can discuss We can't discuss it tonight. No, no, no, we can't. |
| 04:04:24.81 | Unknown | Thank you. |
| 04:04:24.95 | Mayor Theodore | Yeah, we can. |
| 04:04:25.64 | Unknown | It's |
| 04:04:25.86 | Jeff Sears | to the next one. |
| 04:04:26.03 | Unknown | No, no, no. |
| 04:04:28.41 | Jill Hoffman | Thank you. |
| 04:04:29.60 | Unknown | Thank you. |
| 04:04:30.65 | Jill Hoffman | Adam, I have a question on that issue. Is there a hiring committee or a group that's going to be looking at that? the higher. |
| 04:04:40.39 | Adam Politzer | No, all hiring, especially the department heads, go through me. Our process is we've had panels in the past that we've brought a professional panel, a peer panel, and a community panel together. We did not do that for the finance director's position. Their interaction with the public compared to the police chief or the community development director, the public works director, which is where we've used that process in the past. But we've hired a recruiter and the recruitment firm is doing the work for us to solicit qualified candidates and then narrow that down to a group of candidates that are worth interviewing. Once we get to that point in time, we'll take a look at what process. But the hiring process has all gone through the City Manager's Office. |
| 04:05:36.50 | Jill Hoffman | But, but Adam, that is, I mean, just to clarify that the recruiter is seeking, is it a full time position this time? |
| 04:05:45.35 | Adam Politzer | Yes, just as it was last night. |
| 04:05:46.27 | Jill Hoffman | Just as it was last night. Full-time permanent. In other words, it's not a contractor like Charlie White. |
| 04:05:49.44 | Adam Politzer | In other words, Yeah, and just for clarification, we've had this conversation before, how we pay Charlie is the differentiate what's differentiating. He's paid through a contract, but Charlie works here 40 plus hours a week. and reports to the city manager and reports to the finance committee and reports to the council just as any other employee does. I understand your question and yes, the recruiting firm is recruited for a full-time through the city's normal process position. |
| 04:06:21.84 | Jill Hoffman | Okay, thank you. |
| 04:06:26.56 | Jill Hoffman | I do have another quick question. So you received a letter from Mr. Sweeney, a resident, regarding he was required to move his car or something. There was some with the bridge district and he's an elderly citizen. I just wanted to comment on that. Were you able to find out, could you debrief the council? |
| 04:06:49.51 | Adam Politzer | Yeah, I'm not aware. I received this letter. I talked to the chief. I've talked to the ferry folks, the ferry district folks. We need some ferry folks in our community. But the ferry district about the use of those spaces and they have needs for their personnel that we were accommodating and so we have addressed that where they're not taking up spaces and reserving spaces for their personnel so we're not we're not quite sure what happened because from mr. Sweeney's letter it appeared that someone went into the Yacht Club and informed him that he would be towed if he didn't move his car And we can't verify. um, that we know the police department didn't do that. No, no, he told me it |
| 04:07:41.86 | Jill Hoffman | No, no, he told me it was the district. It was someone with the district. |
| 04:07:45.18 | Adam Politzer | Yeah, so the district doesn't have the authority to tell anyone. So I've brought that up to Jim Swindler, and they're looking into it. |
| 04:07:52.44 | Jill Hoffman | And just to debrief the council in case you |
| 04:07:55.24 | Mayor Theodore | You know, I'm not sure that we. Okay, no worries. Okay, no worries. I don't think, especially at this late hour. Any other questions? |
| 04:07:56.86 | Jill Hoffman | Oh, okay, no worries. Okay, no worries. |
| 04:08:03.55 | Mayor Theodore | Okay. Thank you. Thank you. Moving on to council member committee reports. Thank you. Thank you. I have an update on the ferry. Do you have something? |
| 04:08:13.81 | Jill Hoffman | Oh, you can go first. |
| 04:08:15.20 | Mayor Theodore | Thank you. Yeah, on the fair, as I reported at the June 30th meeting, we had had a a stakeholders meeting convened by Supervisor Kate Sears, which was held at the Bay Model on June 27th. And I had reported on that on June 30th. When I reported on on June 30th, There were no next steps. So the Golden Gate Bridge District had rescinded or pulled its permit application from the BCDC, and we were waiting on next step. So now we have the next step. which is basically another stakeholders meeting at the Bay Model. A date that hasn't been determined yet. It may be as early as August 27th or sometime in September. Kate Sears is staff is working on trying to get the stakeholders will be the same They're looking at convene the same stakeholders basically the same place and since the last one was successful um they're looking to REPEAT THAT AND MOVE THE DISCUSSION ALONG, INCLUDING HAVING INPUT FROM social leaders stakeholders and getting responses back from the, um, Bridge District. So we don't have a date on that yet. |
| 04:09:26.87 | Jill Hoffman | Tom, can I ask a couple questions about that just for clarification? Okay. Clarification? So on this August 27th follow-up meeting with the stakeholders, did you say- |
| 04:09:30.15 | Mayor Theodore | Okay. |
| 04:09:38.05 | Mayor Theodore | date's not there's no date set okay there might there it's as early that's the earliest possible date but they're still because of summer vacations and stuff they're still trying to work trying to make sure that they can get everyone together |
| 04:09:39.46 | Jill Hoffman | Okay, great. |
| 04:09:43.73 | Jill Hoffman | OKAY. |
| 04:09:49.99 | Jill Hoffman | And did you say that the district was working on a new design? No. |
| 04:09:53.35 | Mayor Theodore | No, well, I don't know what they're doing. But basically, they're coming back, and at the last meeting, the stakeholders had asked a lot of technical questions, and they're going to come back and have some responses and then have a further dialogue. I don't know what they're doing, but I really doubt there was no talk of another design at that point. |
| 04:10:08.57 | Jill Hoffman | Okay. |
| 04:10:14.21 | Jill Hoffman | Okay, and I've said this before, but... I don't know if you care to comment, but I believe any design And anything that the district comes up with needs to go through the same process with planning commission and historic landmarks review and, you know, the full public review process. And I have the same response. |
| 04:10:31.57 | Mayor Theodore | And I have the same response. We have no project and they'll go through all the appropriate city processes. at the time. |
| 04:10:37.51 | Jill Hoffman | Thank you. |
| 04:10:38.66 | Mayor Theodore | Thank you. Any other council member committee reports? Right, future agenda items, anybody have any? Um. |
| 04:10:46.93 | Kirby Withey | Thank you. Yeah, Mr. Mayor. Sure. Yeah, I've been through the future agenda items, the beginning of the list you've got for the fall. It seems like a big list, of course. It always is. Um, I'd like to make sure that the agenda setting committee doesn't lose sight of the fact that we budgeted for some big planning projects, in particular to begin looking at our general plan and in particular starting with the transportation circulation element. I can't think of anything more urgent. So I would strongly recommend that you don't let the pressing needs of the moment override some long-term work that we need to do. And in that regard, the second item is we have not been very successful in previous years at getting our act together with regards to strategic planning. And I think it's really important for this time period in the late fall that we do a thorough job there so that we've then got a budget to start working on in January February which is now a new two-year budget that really does need to be informed by some strict long-term strategic planning I'm thinking to do that so you know we can walk and chew gum at the same time it's okay let's remember there are some long-term things that must be done Thank you. |
| 04:12:24.40 | Mayor Theodore | And I, of course, I think that was, but we'll certainly make note of that and discuss it our next meeting. Anyone else? |
| 04:12:32.82 | Jill Hoffman | yeah just this was just actually a going back to the committee reports we went real quick into future agenda items. They didn't get a chance to say the sustainability committee. One of the things that, uh, that I had mentioned to them very briefly. There's Plastic Free Tuesdays, where there's actually a website on it where every Tuesday you try to avoid plastic. And anyway, just looking at that a little bit. Future agenda. |
| 04:13:04.00 | Mayor Theodore | Are they going to put that in the courage? |
| 04:13:05.42 | Jill Hoffman | Thank you. No, no, I don't know. I mean, it wasn't on the agenda formally. I just brought a book, and it was something. But anyway, I just wanted to share it with the council, because it might be something we want to pursue. Future agenda item, Dorothy Gibson's report on stairs, the status of stairs. I thought that that was very interesting. She puts a lot of work into that. She does it almost every year. It's all handwritten and it's really almost a historical document that, you know, I mean, to have all the stairs just so meticulously written down. So anyway, looking at the maintenance on that. |
| 04:13:45.48 | Mayor Theodore | maybe we can accept it. We'll talk about it agenda setting. |
| 04:13:49.16 | Jill Hoffman | Okay. |
| 04:13:51.83 | Mayor Theodore | on future agenda items. Okay. Any reports, any other reports of significance? I move to adjourn. Okay, we're adjourned. So we are adjourned until September 1st. Kids are on summer vacation, so we're... That's us. Thank you. Thank you. Ray, we beat Midnight. |
Megan Bordas — In Favor: Spoke as a Bicycle Ambassador, stating the program has increased organization and safety, and received positive feedback from visitors. ▶ 📄
Russ Irwin — In Favor: Thanked the PBAC for their volunteer work, endorsed the recommendations, and emphasized the need for more public safety presence downtown due to chaotic conditions. ▶ 📄
Jeff Sears — Neutral: Thanked the ambassadors and supported some recommendations (improved signage, no bikes in Vina Del Mar Park). Expressed concern that the city's goal is to reduce bikes and asked for transparency and an honest working relationship with bike rental companies. ▶ 📄
Al Fusifor — In Favor: Supported the 10 recommendations, shared his experience as an ambassador, and urged the council to support the program and its continued improvement. ▶ 📄
Una Kavanagh — In Favor: Stated the Sausalito Chamber of Commerce supports the Ambassador Program, emphasized the need for collaboration and cross-training, clarified funding for the ferry boarding program, and noted a meeting was held to continue funding that program. ▶ 📄