| Time | Speaker | Text |
|---|---|---|
| 00:00:07.44 | Jill Hoffman | Welcome to the regular meeting of the Sausalito City Council for Tuesday, October 20th, 2015. Lily, would you take the roll, please? |
| 00:00:14.95 | Unknown | Councilmember Pfeiffer? here. Councilmember Withy? Here. |
| 00:00:18.85 | Unknown | Thank you. Thank you. |
| 00:00:19.02 | Unknown | Thank you. |
| 00:00:19.05 | Jill Hoffman | you you |
| 00:00:19.42 | Unknown | Mayor Theodore. |
| 00:00:20.01 | Jill Hoffman | Present. We will now. discuss item D one on the agenda in closed session, or is there any public comment on item D one before we go into public? closed session. Seeing none, we will now adjourn the closed session. |
| 00:00:50.03 | Jill Hoffman | Welcome everyone. Welcome to the regular meeting of the Sausalito City Council for Tuesday, October 20, 2015. Lily, would you take the roll, please? |
| 00:00:59.82 | Unknown | Councilmember Weiner. |
| 00:01:00.85 | Jill Hoffman | Thank you. |
| 00:01:00.92 | Unknown | THE END OF THE END OF THE |
| 00:01:01.05 | Jill Hoffman | Thank you. |
| 00:01:01.09 | Unknown | Thank you. |
| 00:01:01.12 | Jill Hoffman | THE END OF THE END OF THE |
| 00:01:01.57 | Unknown | Councilmember Pfeiffer? Here. Councilmember Withey? |
| 00:01:04.27 | Jill Hoffman | Thank you. |
| 00:01:04.38 | Unknown | there. |
| 00:01:04.98 | Unknown | Mayor Theodorus. |
| 00:01:08.09 | Jill Hoffman | Can we have Camille lead us in the Pledge of Allegiance, please? |
| 00:01:15.34 | Unknown | I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America. and to the republic for which it stands, Thank you. |
| 00:01:23.43 | Jill Hoffman | One nation. I'm really glad. indivisible. |
| 00:01:26.65 | Unknown | you with liberty and justice for all. |
| 00:01:30.46 | Jill Hoffman | Thank you. We do not we were in closed session on item D, but we do not have any closed session announcement. Do we have any public comment on closed session items? Okay, seeing none, we'll move on to item one E approval of agenda. Can we have a motion to approve the agenda? |
| 00:01:50.19 | Unknown | So, |
| 00:01:50.56 | Jill Hoffman | And then, you know, I'm going to be a little bit So. |
| 00:01:51.89 | Unknown | I can't. |
| 00:01:51.96 | Jill Hoffman | Thank you. All in favor? Aye. That passes by unanimous vote. Okay, moving on to item one, special presentation. This is our choral intern introduction, which our community development director, Danny Castro, will make. |
| 00:02:06.14 | Danny | Thank you. |
| 00:02:11.49 | Danny | Good evening, Mr. Mayor, members of the council. I would like to introduce you to Camille Toda. She is an intern who has been with us in the Community Development Department for the last six weeks. provide background as to the program that she's involved in, and also share with you her experiences with working with Sausalito. |
| 00:02:49.07 | Camille Toda | Oh, sorry. |
| 00:02:56.66 | Camille Toda | Hi everyone, thank you so much for having me. My name is Camille Toda and I'm a Coral Fellow at the Northern California Fellows Program. I'm a recent graduate from the University of California, Los Angeles, where I focus my studies on biopsychology. Throughout my time at UCLA, I was involved in many student organizations, such as UCLA Dance Marathon, which raises money for the fight against pediatric AIDS, UCLA Campus Tours, the Gamma Phi Beta Sorority, and I also worked closely with teens and college students affected by a chronic illness. I hope to one day serve the youth of San Francisco while working in the healthcare industry. The Northern California Fellows Program operates in the San Francisco Bay Area. CORO also has centers in Los Angeles, St. Louis, Pittsburgh, and New York. The Coral Fellows Program is a nine month, full-time program that puts me and 11 other of my classmates in the rotation of five internships in many areas such as business, government agencies, labor unions, and nonprofits. We hope to learn how these sectors work and how they might work together to create a better community. In addition, we also have weekly seminar classes where we learn the skills to help us serve our placements and our society in an effective and ethical way. Some of these skills include communication, critical thinking, collaboration, motivating people in action, and self-awareness. Toro strives to not just make the 12 of us better, but to also enable us to think and act in a way that makes our organizations, our communities, and our society a better place. 11 other fellows and I have been placed in many different organizations these past six weeks. And they are here with us today Right here, you guys. to observe the civic government in action. |
| 00:04:50.23 | Tricia Smith | I'm not. |
| 00:04:54.43 | Camille Toda | Each of us come from all different backgrounds, interests, and walks of life. But what we do share is a passion to make a... to make our communities a better place. For my placement, I have had the incredible opportunity working in the Community Development Department for the City of Sausalito. I am currently conducting two projects, one on formula retail ordinance or chain store regulations and the other on tourism management. I hope that my research may provide beneficial information for the city of Sausalito. but I'm so grateful for the opportunity to work closely with my project supervisors, Mr. Danny Castro, the Community Development Director and Mrs. Whalen, the city clerk. In addition to meeting regularly with the mayor, Mr. Theodoros, and the city manager, Mr. Pulitzer, I have learned so much these past few weeks about my projects and how the department works and I am so thankful for the experience. My other fellows have also shared with me their gratitude working in their placements. One fellow, Heidi Hiravonen, is working closely for Assemblywoman Catherine Baker and the California State Assembly in San Ramon. Another fellow, Damien Scott, is conducting research for the Drug Policy Alliance in Oakland. And Ayushi Roy is working at Local 21, a labor union in San Francisco. These are just some of the amazing places that we are at. I would like to end by thanking the city of Sausalito for being so gracious and allowing me to explore your beautiful town and work for your city. I especially loved walking to driver's market for lunch and my morning coffee rounds at the Phil's. I had the most delicious pizza at Barbocce, and the views from the Spinnaker left me speechless. The city of Sausalito has been the most hospitable community, and I cannot wait to visit again soon. Thank you, Danny and Lily, for taking me under your wings and providing me such valuable insight. I know I will take all that I have learned here and apply it to my next placement. Thank you Mayor Theodoris and Mr. Pulitzer for being so generous with your time and allowing me to meet with you on a regular basis about my research. Thank you to the Business Advisory Committee, the City Council of Sausalito, and to the residents in the business community at the public forum regarding tourism management for allowing me to participate in your meetings. And thank you to the entire community development department for making me feel like a valuable member of your team. I'm truly grateful for this opportunity and hope that my work may provide some helpful information for the city. Thank you. |
| 00:07:35.33 | Jill Hoffman | Thank you, Camille, for your valuable service and presence for these last six weeks in your rotation. And doing a lot of in-depth research that staff generally doesn't have time to do on both mass tourism and formula retail. And it's really been a privilege to be associated with Coral because it is really a civic leadership group that's been around for many years. We have some famous Coral graduates, Diane Feinstein, Marvin Baxter, the Supreme Court, and as you, many. if you go in in the halls of of leadership group that's been around for many years. We have some famous Coral graduates, Diane Feinstein, Marvin Baxter, Supreme Court, and HSU, many. If you go in the halls of leadership in various levels of government and business, you'll see a lot of Coral graduates. I'm a Coral graduate from their community fellows program and was on the board for five years. I've been wanting to get a fellow here for a while and it's turned out to be a great thing. Thank you so much and thank you all for coming. I was grilled by them for 45 minutes. I'm not sure that was, I should have wanting to get a fellow here for a while, and it's turned out to be a great thing. So thank you so much, and thank you all for coming. I was grilled by them for 45 minutes. I'm not sure that was, I should have agreed to that. That was a tough part, but they're a good group. So thank you so much for coming today. |
| 00:08:29.71 | Camille Toda | Thank you for having us. day. |
| 00:08:38.31 | Jill Hoffman | Now we move on to communication. This is the time for the city council to hear from citizens regarding matters that are not on the agenda. Except in very limited situations, state law precludes the council from taking action on or engaging in discussions concerning items of business that are not on the agenda. However, the council may refer matters not on the agenda. to city staff or direct that the subject be agendized for future meetings. And I have some speaker cards. If anyone else would like to speak, come up to the speaker cards. And I think the first one is John Fredericks. |
| 00:09:10.39 | Unknown | Thank you. Good evening Mayor Theodorus, council members. I just came up, actually I feel like Camille stole a bit of my thunder because I wanted to thank you all as well. And I wanted to thank the city manager and the Parks and Rec Department, but particularly thanks to you all for putting Measure F on the ballot in a timely fashion. |
| 00:09:19.03 | Tricia Smith | because I was like, |
| 00:09:33.78 | Unknown | so that the citizens of Sausalito can have a chance to make a decision on such an important issue And, It's an opportunity, I found myself, an opportunity to realize all of the hard work that you all put into these efforts all the hard work that the city manager parks and rec department the finance committee uh... there's a whole host of uh... people in the city council and the city offices and civic uh... leaders members of the community who put in a little tremendous amount of effort and it's easy to cast stones and make aspersions, but when you actually start to dig into the details, and I have, I've read all of the financing documents, I've read Standard & Poor's indicative rating where they gave the COPs a AA rating, I've read the leases, I've read the schematic plan for Dumphy Park. when you really get into all of that information and you try and sort out myth from facts schematic plan for Dumfey Park. When you really get into all of that information and you try and sort out myth from fact and you really try and get the facts, there are two things that come out. One is what you all have proposed is in the best interest of the community and I urge everybody when they vote on November 3rd to take that into consideration and vote yes on Measure F. But equally importantly, Again, the tremendous effort you all put in to this work, the tremendous effort of the rest of the city staff who've put into this. It's well thought out, financially prudent, and it's time that we take a step, a positive step in the right direction. And I was just reflecting on the next prime ministers of Canada comments the other day, yesterday, where he said a positive, optimistic, hopeful vision of public life isn't a naive dream. It can be a powerful force for change. And you guys make that real in Sausalito. Thank you. |
| 00:11:47.70 | Jill Hoffman | Thank you. Doreen Gennard. |
| 00:11:56.95 | Doreen Gennard | Hello, members of the council. I'm Doreen Gunnar, and I'm also chair of Park and Rec. And I, too, want to say that this has been a really interesting process. Having Measure F on the ballot right now has really brought the community forward and beginning to truly understand all the work that has gone in, the 24 meetings that we had for Rob and Sweeney Playground that brought us to the place where we actually have plans that are ready to go out to bid once we finally get some money in our pockets. Yes, that's where we are. And I want other people to understand, too, because I know there are, more than just everybody in this room, and you guys on the dais, but that A lot of this information is available. There is plenty of fact out there, and an easy place to find it is yes on MeasureF.com. You can find it right there. So please go look. If you really want to know what's going on, and if you have any questions, please send them to us. We will help you. The city is happy to help as well. And I know that we can do this, and we can get these parks done. sooner than later. Thank you. Thank you. |
| 00:13:12.62 | Jill Hoffman | Thank you. |
| 00:13:15.75 | Jill Hoffman | Anyone else would like to make public comment on items not on the agenda? All right, seeing none, we'll close. Public comment. and move on to the consent calendar. Matters listed under the consent calendar are considered routine and non-controversial, require no discussion, are expected to have unanimous council support, and may be enacted by the council in one motion in the form listed in the agenda. There will be no separate discussion of consent calendar items. However, before the council votes on a motion to accept 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. In order to request an item, be pulled, you must complete a speaker's card and return it to the city. work. Uh, Do we have... Anyone on council that would like to I guess we have. I'm sorry. Do we have public comment on any items on the consent calendar at this point? see none. Bring it back here. Would anyone have any comments on the consent calendar? Do we have, would you like the separate vote on? |
| 00:14:21.92 | Unknown | Yeah, as we discussed, I'd like to pull item C, which is the lease extension for the parking lot area on the horizon for a separate- |
| 00:14:36.25 | Jill Hoffman | No, my understanding is you don't want to you want a separate vote on it. Okay. Can we have a motion on everything other than C and we'll vote on and we'll do a separate vote on item C. |
| 00:14:39.20 | Unknown | separate boats. |
| 00:14:45.87 | Unknown | Yes, I move approval of the consent calendar items A and B and D, E, F. |
| 00:14:56.74 | Unknown | Second. |
| 00:14:57.16 | Unknown | Thank you. |
| 00:14:57.19 | Unknown | Thank you. |
| 00:14:57.85 | Jill Hoffman | All in favor? Aye. Aye. That passes unanimous. Now we move to item 3C. |
| 00:14:58.96 | Unknown | I'm not sure. |
| 00:14:59.05 | Unknown | Bye. |
| 00:14:59.11 | Unknown | Bye. |
| 00:14:59.28 | Unknown | Thank you. |
| 00:15:05.07 | Unknown | Thank you. I move for approval of consent calendar item 4C. 4C. And, Lily, would you take? |
| 00:15:13.96 | Jill Hoffman | Do we have a second? |
| 00:15:15.26 | Unknown | We have a second. |
| 00:15:15.80 | Unknown | and, |
| 00:15:16.06 | Unknown | you Thank you. |
| 00:15:16.99 | Jill Hoffman | Thank you. |
| 00:15:17.00 | Unknown | Thank you. |
| 00:15:17.27 | Jill Hoffman | Do you have a second? Okay. Lily, would you take the roll, please? |
| 00:15:21.05 | Unknown | Councilmember Weiner. |
| 00:15:22.01 | Jill Hoffman | Yes. |
| 00:15:22.45 | Unknown | Councilmember Pfeiffer? No. |
| 00:15:24.54 | Unknown | WITH THE CITY. |
| 00:15:24.83 | Unknown | you. |
| 00:15:24.85 | Unknown | Yes. |
| 00:15:24.93 | Jill Hoffman | Yeah. |
| 00:15:25.69 | Unknown | Mayor Theodorus. |
| 00:15:26.50 | Jill Hoffman | Yes. |
| 00:15:27.51 | Unknown | That carries 3-1. |
| 00:15:29.39 | Jill Hoffman | See. Moving on to our business items. We will now move on to item 16. |
| 00:15:34.10 | Unknown | Mr. Mayor, I'm sorry to interrupt the action minutes on item three. I don't believe we did those. |
| 00:15:43.97 | Unknown | Move it right along. Yeah. |
| 00:15:49.89 | Jill Hoffman | passed item three the a is minutes of the regular meeting city council meeting of september 6 2015. Anyone have any comments or additions to the corrections to it? Can we have a motion to approve? Thank you. |
| 00:16:03.91 | Unknown | I can. |
| 00:16:05.04 | Jill Hoffman | in favor aye aye passes unanimously so we move on to item 6a I think we're there. and you know, got through all that. Okay, it's the Sanitary Sewer Capital Projects updates and approval of... year two design contracts and that will be kicked off by our public works director jonathan goldman |
| 00:16:25.72 | Jonathon Goldman | Thank you, Mr. Mayor. Your Public Works Director, Jonathan Goldman. Let me go backwards through this presentation since it decided to start at the end. So that was your preview. There are actually two items under this heading this evening. The first is I'm going to introduce Vivian Housen, who is one of the city's key consultants and has been for a number of years in developing the capital improvement program that we have and then helping the city deliver those capital projects. She's going to give a presentation on that project. part of the program. The action item before you this evening is authorization to to amend an existing contract with Carollo engineers who are the principal designer for phase of capital projects for the wastewater enterprise, and then also approve a consulting agreement with a company called AEW Engineering out of San Francisco for soil and groundwater characterization associated with one of the projects that is a priority that we're attempting to get delivered as soon as possible. So with that, I'm going to introduce Vivian, let her kind of set the stage, the broader context for the action item, and then I'll... be happy to answer questions about the action item or go from there. |
| 00:18:06.65 | Vivian Housen | Thank you, Jonathan. Good evening, Mayor Theodorus, members of the council. Okay, great. And I'm going to have to work very hard to improve my speaking skills because your Coro intern set a very good standard for public speaking. So I'm very happy to be here to report on what's essentially concluding the first year of this capital improvement program the sewer improvements that are related to a bond sale that occurred earlier in 2015. So as an overview, your sewer system is all underground, and we always talk about sewers as being |
| 00:18:41.42 | Tricia Smith | THE FAMILY. |
| 00:18:46.32 | Vivian Housen | out of sight, out of mind. But if you were able to look underground, this is what it would look like. All of those green lines are sanitary sewers. You have about 28 miles of pipe. and three city owned pump stations that are operated by Sausalito and Marin City In addition, within your city limits, Sausalito Marin City Sanitary District has three additional pump stations. They also have an interceptor, which is shown as the red line, which runs through Sausalito and conveys wastewater from Sausalito and also from Marin City to the north. And your system serves your population, which is approximately 7,000. If you look on this pie chart, this is based on the sanitary sewer overflow records, SSO records, that have been collected over time. The cause of most sanitary sewer overflows are roots and structural defects in your pipe. There are other causes such as debris, occasional debris, construction debris, fats, oils, and grease, which is affectionately called fog. and also heavy rainfall, but the primary culprits are structural defects and roots. And the roots come through aging pipe joints. The capital improvement program, our objectives were, you have a lot of pipe and it's all old pipe. And there's a limited budget, and so what we are working very hard to do is to pinpoint the highest risk defects. We're not intending to fix your entire system. In fact, good asset management dictates that you fix your system over the life cycle of the system, which we're saying is 75 to 100 years. So it's not a good idea to fix it all at once, but it is a very good idea to fix what needs to be fixed now with the funds that you have. And so that's what we're working toward. So we're looking at the highest risk defects, which do look very similar to the pipe in the upper left there. That is not your pipe. I'd like to say that's an example bad pipe. We also are looking at areas where you have very high inflow and infiltration. and that's water that comes in through the joints in the pipe into your system. So it's water that is actually clear water that mixes with your wastewater, and you end up having to... transport it and treat it. So you're paying money to handle this clear water. And also we're looking to coordinate with other priorities that are in progress by the city. You have a lot of things going on. You have ADA work, you have roadway improvements. There's work in progress by Sausalito River in city. And so we're doing our best to coordinate with those priorities. The timeline, this work has been going for some time, Before 2015, before your bond issuance, we had attempted to begin this program anticipating state revolving loan funding. That turned out to be very, very challenging for a system, the size of your system, mostly because there are other agencies that are huge, that are doing work similar to ours on a large scale, who are also requesting that funding. And I'll talk about that more in a second. So at the beginning of this year, the city issued wastewater bonds, and the first bond issuance requires completion of projects related to that bond within three years, and so that is our target. Just to give some history of the work that's been completed, in 2014, the Spinnaker and Anchor Pump Station project was completed. This project added a grease interceptor at the Spinnaker restaurant. very highly needed and also repair the pipeline from the Spinnaker restaurant to the anchor pump station and rehabilitated the anchor pump station. And this was all in a very public part of town, and it was coordinated outside of the holiday season to minimize impact to your residents and also to the visitors to the city. also completed, there's the portion, just a very small portion that's shown by the yellow highlight of a pipeline from Toyon to Woodward. And that pipe is a pipe in a very, very steep Hill. in dirt off of a street and it was, it had very severe defects, was falling apart and was very difficult to access and we were able to repair that pipe using a method called pipe bursting. So just, I had mentioned state revolving loan funding. Funding presented many challenges for us. We try very hard to obtain that funding. The way that the state revolving loan funding works is that it's a low interest loan and you have to spend the money and then they reimburse you for the money. But your system is very complex. The sewer system was built over a lot of time. A lot of it was just piece by piece. So you don't have beautiful straight pipes under beautiful streets with no trees and houses every 50 feet. That's not Sausalito. And so the way that the funding process worked is that you had to have a plan, a solidified plan, and then the opportunity to change that plan was just not there. Once you submitted it, then that went through the huge machine that eventually resulted in loan funding. And in addition, because the state revolving loan funding was considered a federal fund, there was additional environmental funding. clearance that was required and those clearances would not otherwise be required for your pipeline project so it added more complexity to the planning of these projects. And then finally, the city, the great city, but the size of these projects compared to the projects that were in process by huge entities, such as LA San and Sacramento, these projects just didn't get all the attention that they deserved from the state. And so as a result, we're now working with the bond issuance, and it's actually, I think, a much better way to go. And we've been able to make quite a bit of progress in this last year. So the 2015 and future CIPs initially focused on three areas, and they're shown here. And these are the areas that had the greatest need. as determined through previous studies and previous pipeline inspections. So the three areas were Hurricane Gulch, and we're calling that the Urgent Sewers Project. |
| 00:25:25.45 | Tricia Smith | three areas. |
| 00:25:30.90 | Vivian Housen | addressing some beach issues on what we're calling the beach street issues, sewer, and I have another slide that goes into that in more detail. And then looking up at Gate 5 Road, and in Gate 5 Road we have very serious infiltration from the bay. And so there's a pump station there. It doesn't have enough capacity when we're in high tide. You're pumping basically bay water through your pump stations to the treatment plant treating it. So that was a very high priority. And we've adjusted the year one scope also through the work that has been done in year one. There have been additional pipelines identified as the urgent two sewers. So we have urgent sewers and we have urgent two sewers now. And also, through some of the work that we've done on Beach Street, we've realized that we need to do more investigation, and there's going to be fairly significant environmental work there because that pipeline is actually within the beach on the bayfront, and it's partially submerged much of the time. And so we shifted priorities there, and we moved Beach Street out, moved Urgent 2 in. |
| 00:26:40.89 | Vivian Housen | The Urgent Sewers Project addresses severe structural defects in areas where the existing pipes have sagged. Where the pipes have sagged, the joints, of course, have separated. But you also get areas where you collect a lot of debris, and these are six-inch pipes. So if you can imagine, it doesn't take much debris to fill them up. And then when the rains come, they fill up and they overflow into the roads. So these are priority pipes to repair. The streets that are going to be impacted are 3rd Street, 4th Street, and Main, and Miller Avenue also. And we also coordinated this project with a portion of the paving program, which goes on Main Street below Lower Crescent and 4th, which was not included in the original project. The other project, Gate 5 Road, as I mentioned before, reduces tidal inflow and associated sanitary sewer overflows. and it also repairs the lower laterals on Gate 5 Road. lower laterals are privately owned but they admit what we believe to be about half of the inflow and infiltration that comes into sewers. So if we're in the roadway, if we're fixing mainline pipe, it's very common to fix the laterals as well. It's very difficult for the homeowner or the property owner to come in and fix laterals in a public roadway. And that way we're addressing the entire problem and not just the city's part of the problem. We do have some issues in this area. We have existing asbestos cement pipe. which takes special care to remove and replace. We believe that there might be some groundwater quality issues because the fact that this area was used as a shipyard In fact, the contract that Jonathan mentioned with the AEW involves taking borings and testing the groundwater and the soils. So we know ahead of time what we might find so the city is not presented with a large change order due to unknown conditions in this area. The estimated cost of this project Well, I put a million dollars up there. Our original estimate was about 900,000. I think we won't know until we find out what's under the ground, but we're looking at about a million dollars. And then this is more information on the soils and groundwater testing. There was a proposal received by AEW They have provided service to the city addressing underground fuel storage tanks found during the public safety buildings construction. They did a very good job for the city, and so they were selected to provide this service because we have confidence that their results will tell us what we need about what's under the ground. The proposal includes 14 borings and 3 groundwater samples, so if you are out on Gate 5 Road during this work, you'll see a boring rig. It's actually pretty interesting to watch if you like that sort of thing, so that might be a good time to go out and take a walk on Gate 5 Road. The recommended budget for their work is $49,700. And then moving back to Beach Street. So Beach Street was an original year one project and it looks like it'll go to year two and year three. As you can see, the structure in the middle there is a manhole. That's a sewer manhole. And this is a picture taken during lower tide. So when the tide is higher, that manhole is about half submerged. And then the arrow in the background there is another manhole on Sweets Beach. And that beach is also submerged during higher tide. And then connecting between those manholes, that white line, that's the sewer pipeline. So that is the reason why this is a very difficult project. It would not be possible to construct this using normal construction methods, just because of the proximity to the bay. There are environmental clearances that are required. But not only that, The pipeline serves these homes and properties to the right, and they have private laterals that are also submerged. And so to fix just the pipe and not deal with the laterals wouldn't make sense. So there is new budget and scope in the year two project that involves working with a plumber to locate those laterals and to figure out how that whole system is connected. So if you're going to go in and fix it, it's fixed right. |
| 00:31:17.12 | Vivian Housen | So our plan for year two and three is to conduct CCTV inspection. We want to make sure that we are refining priorities and fixing the worst pipes, and not just worst based on gut feel or historical knowledge, but actually what we see. And so this year we are getting ready to do our phase two CCTV inspection of pipes so that we can hone in on the worst areas. We're going to continue with the objective of removing inflow and infiltration. |
| 00:31:40.38 | Tricia Smith | in. |
| 00:31:47.41 | Vivian Housen | and replacing the infrastructure that's aging the fastest. The projects will continue to be coordinated with your ongoing projects, including pavement restoration and other ADA improvements. There is a requirement, actually, with your bond issuance to utilize the entire budget of approximately $5.5 million over the balance of two years. We have determined that that's about 7,000 feet of pipe. or no, I'm sorry, 7,000 feet of pipe in year two, and then about the same length in year three. So 7,000 feet of pipe. we've decided to make sure that the construction is coordinated well to try to group the footage of pipes so you don't have contractors going all over the city causing disturbance. and to be able to continue with your asset management program And these maps show where we plan to do the closed circuit television inspection. The entire area around the downtown core, as you can tell by the roadways, there's a lot going on under there, and those roadways are going to get replaced. Also, Bridgeway, the southern portion of Bridgeway, we know there's infiltration and inflow there. That'll be very interesting, and actually that portion of the city will require environmental clearance as well because of the proximity to the bay, and we also know that that pipeline is located in Hard Rock, and also that there are a lot of utilities in that roadway because there's nowhere else to put utilities, and also it's a very heavily traveled roadway. So that one stretch on the far left will be a very challenging stretch. And then over on the right on Coloma Street by Martin Luther King Park, there are known issues. Plus, the city and Sausalito Marin City are looking at options for the Whiskey Springs pump station, so it seemed appropriate to focus on that area as well. The other portion of year two, which we've included after we learned what we learned about Beach Street is that we need to look at Cote d'Azur. This area, It also flows downhill to a pipeline that's within the water. There's a maze of private laterals in there. We don't know really where they are. We don't know how they're connected. It would not make sense. We know that there's inflow and infiltration. We've done salinity testing, and there is seawater coming into this area. It would not make sense to fix the main line and to leave the lateral. So, again, there's investigation here to determine what this system looks like so that when we touch it, we hopefully touch it once and do the right thing for the property owners as well as for the city. And that concludes my presentation. I'm open to any questions you might have. |
| 00:34:46.17 | Jill Hoffman | Thank you, Vivian. We'll bring it up for council questions. Who would like to start? Yeah. |
| 00:34:49.61 | Unknown | Thank you. I have just a couple. Thank you for that thorough presentation. I appreciate it. First of all, we had just like a two-page staff report prior to this, and I don't see this PowerPoint slide in our packet. Is there a reason we didn't get that? |
| 00:35:11.38 | Jonathon Goldman | I would be delighted to make copies, but we just got this finalized this afternoon, so it wasn't in your package. |
| 00:35:21.56 | Unknown | Okay, thank you. It's just hard to kind of track all the information to ask the questions. But one question I do have is you mentioned the gate five road sewers. You mentioned that the lower laterals are privately owned. You mentioned that if you were doing the cities that you might do the lower laterals. Will the private owners in the Marin ship be contributing? Has that been discussed with them, some negotiations? |
| 00:35:58.46 | Jonathon Goldman | The short answer, Dr. Pfeiffer, is that under our ordinance, when the city does a mainline replacement, the city may take responsibility for replacing the lower laterals at that time, and then the responsibility for maintenance of those replaced laterals reverts to the private property owner once the replacement is done and it's that program that we've baked into the into the rates and the debt service associated with the bond so the expectation from a design perspective with all of these projects and the bond issuance is that the city would replace the lower laterals at the time the main lines are replaced |
| 00:36:44.99 | Unknown | So I remember you mentioning this earlier, and my request was that council receive information as to the amount of money spent on those lower laterals. For example, also a follow-up question was the mention of testing, existing asbestos, spoilage from the toxins from the war, etc. Are we getting into that with the lower laterals as well that are privately owned? |
| 00:37:17.07 | Jonathon Goldman | So with respect to the Gate 5 Road project, the testing that we're asking the council to approve a contract for this evening will address all of the residuals that would potentially be associated with that project. So soil and groundwater that could be excavated and have to be disposed of as a result of the construction project is what AEW will be characterizing. Sure. |
| 00:37:48.07 | Vivian Housen | Also, I think if we're going to look at the cost to replace lower laterals, we have to look at it in the big picture. The reason why we are repairing these pipes is to remove inflow and infiltration. If we don't do that, then the gate five pump station will have to be upsized and perhaps the downstream pipeline infrastructure will have to be upsized because you're basically conveying and pumping and treating water from the bay. So any opportunity to remove that I&I is very, very important here in order to avoid having to upsize that Gate 5 Road pump station. |
| 00:38:22.20 | Unknown | So I noticed that also there was a mention of, I think it was Lincoln and Nevada streets. |
| 00:38:30.96 | Jonathon Goldman | Yeah, I can address that. |
| 00:38:33.61 | Unknown | Not in this presentation, but. |
| 00:38:34.94 | Jonathon Goldman | It's in the staff report and it's not in this presentation, but one of the drawbacks to the sequence of proposal and authorization that we're on with this capital program altogether is that we don't have as much flexibility in dealing with... urgent situations that come up that don't necessarily aren't going to be million-dollar level projects but are clearly maintenance priorities and priorities in terms of compliance with the EPA administrative order. Because when we do identify a situation, and I'm sure in the last few years we've seen several circumstances where we'll, for example, have an overflow and follow up as a result of those overflows with a detailed site-specific inspection and identify something, for example, like a collapsed section of pipe. We have no choice but to dig that section of pipe up and replace it. It can't be maintained with the staff that we have available to do that. Since Carollo prepared their initial proposal, which was some time ago, city staff has identified the need for two other projects that weren't on this list. One of those is a pipeline segment underneath a row of eucalyptus trees in the vicinity of Lincoln that we can no longer properly maintain. The other is a pipeline segment that extends down to Nevada between Tomales and Bridgeway that similarly has been adversely affected by trees and the age of the pipe. And |
| 00:40:01.90 | Tricia Smith | Yes. |
| 00:40:33.83 | Jonathon Goldman | While those are relatively small projects, the details associated with design exceed city staff's capacity to design. So what we're asking the council to do this evening is in addition to the work that Ms. Housen described and that Carollo has proposed, we're requesting that you authorize $40,000 in budget for Corolla and housing to help us with the design necessary to get those two pipeline segments dealt with. |
| 00:40:44.97 | Unknown | What? |
| 00:41:06.57 | Unknown | And that's a main pipeline for Lincoln and a main pipeline for Nevada? |
| 00:41:11.39 | Jonathon Goldman | Correct, well, not Nevada, but there is a public collector, if you will, that receives wastewater on the south side of Nevada and conveys it down to the main line in Nevada. And it's that collector that has to be replaced because it can't be maintained. |
| 00:41:32.33 | Unknown | Are we going to be picking up any private lateral work on either of those projects? |
| 00:41:35.54 | Jonathon Goldman | I'm like, I would |
| 00:41:37.97 | Jill Hoffman | Can we move on? Can we have a question or two, a reasonable follow-up and then we'll move on. |
| 00:41:44.75 | Unknown | Thank you, Mr. Mayor. either Vivian maybe, could you go back to the Beach Street slide please? I have a very quick question there. Yeah. |
| 00:42:00.30 | Tricia Smith | Thank you. |
| 00:42:03.10 | Unknown | I just wanted to clarify, you indicated that... Is this an investigative piece of work for that particular main pipeline? And I think you mentioned, and this is my question, that there are in fact laterals coming down from all of those properties to that pipeline. Could you clarify that for me? |
| 00:42:26.96 | Vivian Housen | Yes, there are laterals coming from the properties to the west of the Beach Street sewer into the Beach Street sewer. And we are assuming, and I think we're correct to assume, that those laterals are admitting as much of the saltwater intrusion as the main line. And so to fix the main line, to fix the problem, we have to figure out how the laterals are connected so that if there are issues in the laterals, we can address those as well. |
| 00:42:56.10 | Unknown | Thank you. |
| 00:42:58.97 | Jill Hoffman | Now, to be clear, we're talking about a three-year cycle. And where exactly are we in this three-year cycle so everyone knows? Yeah. So we're finishing year one. |
| 00:43:05.74 | Vivian Housen | So we're finishing year one. It's a calendar year. And so as of December, we'll have finished year one. And we'll be moving into year two. And we're on schedule. |
| 00:43:13.55 | Jill Hoffman | And we're on schedule? Yes, we are. And we're on schedule. And would you, the three-year budget, the total three-year budget on this that we have? |
| 00:43:14.65 | Vivian Housen | Yes, we are. |
| 00:43:22.11 | Vivian Housen | Thank you. |
| 00:43:22.12 | Jill Hoffman | Thank you. |
| 00:43:22.14 | Vivian Housen | The budget for the project work was 5.5 million. The bond issuance would have been more. Six point. It would have been over six. Because there are other fees. |
| 00:43:22.19 | Jill Hoffman | Then maybe Jonathan. |
| 00:43:32.65 | Jill Hoffman | there are fees, but all of the all this sewer work that we're talking about is covered by our bond issue doesn't come out outside the general fund. I think that's just for public information. Okay. Councilmember Pfeiffer. |
| 00:43:45.53 | Unknown | Yeah, so I was chatting with Jonathan before the session began. This is a question I ask. It's not a new surprise question. It's a question that I ask every time we discuss sewers here. I asked it, I guess, first in 2009 when we did the first sewer fee increases. We have the EPA mandates. And I guess when I'm looking at this, I understand it feels like, you know, every six years, you know, the approach is to look at what's the next set of urgent, you know, sewer items to look at and then potentially raise sewer fees again to fund it. And I guess for me, I'm just trying to get a broader understanding of what just the scope of this problem is. If that's too broad, and I had mentioned to Jonathan before this session began that I'd follow up with city staff and have a separate meeting on that, but going at least the epa mandate does has the epa communicated any specific scope in terms of what needs to happen it will this do it you know i know i know that the first round from 2009 that funding it was clear it was not going to the 2014 round of funding seems like we're doing a lot of, you know, high priority urgent. Will that meet that EPA? Not that will be done, but that, you know, that priority bar. |
| 00:45:21.34 | Vivian Housen | I'll try to answer then. So the EPA and the regional board, they really are looking at asset management as a lifetime. of improvements they would like every agency to get into the cycle where it is replacing pipes exactly when they need to be replaced over the course of the life. So it's a 75 year replacement cycle, never ends. And that way you have smooth funding and you can anticipate funding. As with every other agency in the Bay Area and in California, there has been a lot of deferred maintenance for the sewer system. And so. every agency that I know is playing catch up. And that's what's happening here. So to answer your question, back in 2009, there was a 10-year plan that was developed. And that 10-year plan is what began the projects that anticipated state-revolving loan funding. This is the next three years of that 10-year plan But after that 10-year plan is achieved, and we don't even know if that 10-year plan will actually be the 10-year plan because we're reprioritizing the projects as we go. But after your 10 years of highest priority are done, you'll have 10 more to do. It'll be an ongoing process. |
| 00:46:34.67 | Unknown | So just a follow-up question for you. I get the deferred maintenance and the whole issue and the need to continuously do that. I completely concur and I agree with that. But Sausalito was unique in that we had hundreds of thousands of gallons of raw sewage just flowing into the bay with repeated, you know, breaks and spills. And that's why, unlike other cities, we were hit with a lawsuit under the Clean Water Act and we were hit with the EPA mandates. And so that's why, you know, I understand the need for continuous maintenance, but I see the EPA bar as a higher, you know, bar specifically and for the environment. And I think that's a good thing. I understand the need for continuous maintenance, but I see the EPA bar as a higher bar specifically and for the environment. And so that was the nature of my question. So are you saying that implementing that 10 year plan will at least stop some of those spills, which we're still sometimes seeing? |
| 00:47:30.49 | Jonathon Goldman | I'll I'll start with an answer to that and Vivian can kick me or push me out of the way. Certainly, and I think this is really what she said, the EPA issued an order to us in part based on our accuracy in reporting overflows. And I think there's a distinction to be drawn there because our community isn't that unique. There's lots of old infrastructure, and I think, unfortunately, for the public health and the environment, at least historically, there were communities, utility staff, that didn't pay. attention. It got. cleaned up a blockage got removed and they didn't follow up and investigate and determine that a capital repair was necessary at the moment we are in compliance with the EPA administrative order and The EPA is from What Vivian said I agree with. The EPA expects us to manage our our infrastructure in a way that reduces or eliminates spills. Not just from public sewer mains and public facilities, but also from the private facilities that we actually regulate. Sausalito is a very good idea. To this day, in fact ahead of a lot of communities in Marin County in that we have an ordinance that allows us to require an inspection of private facilities when a property sold are substantially remodeled and gives us the authority to require that repairs get made at that point in time. And up until very recently, there wasn't another agency in Marin County that had that authority and was exercising in that way. The process, and Vivian alluded to it as an asset management process, the management process is what we are expected to be doing. And it doesn't mean that we blindly, bless you, blindly replace pipes on some regular schedule all the time. We aren't repainting a bridge necessarily. What we are doing is making our best efforts to Thank you. identify the real priorities, the places in the system that. are a maintenance challenge and need to be replaced so that they aren't a maintenance challenge and continuously go through that process. It does not mean that we're lockstep headed towards having you know, very high sewer rates. What we're doing is being responsible with the sewer rates that we have, being responsible with evaluating the condition and capacity of our assets, and judiciously making capital expenditures and capital repairs to reduce the risk of overflows and spills and things like that, and then ultimately to reduce our maintenance costs. |
| 00:50:54.51 | Unknown | Thank you. |
| 00:50:57.61 | Jill Hoffman | We'll open it up to public comment. I don't have any cards, but would anyone when the public like to speak on this issue. and on our other schedules if anyone would like to speak on any of the other business items that we had please fill out a speaker card ahead of time if we could Peter? |
| 00:51:14.72 | Peter Van Meter | Thank you, Peter Van Meter. First a question, then a comment. uh, Well, actually, a comment first. This is obviously a massive... area of concern for us. A lot of money, a lot of things that need to be done. Uh, The mention about funding was from bonds on this project. Is this also measure O funds going toward this project, or is that simply ongoing maintenance? |
| 00:51:40.36 | Jill Hoffman | Well, do you want to speak? I mean, Jonathan will let you present on that. |
| 00:51:46.25 | Jonathon Goldman | Yeah, just briefly, there are no measure of funds expended in the wastewater enterprise and no wastewater enterprise funds expended on anything but wastewater enterprise. |
| 00:51:56.20 | Jill Hoffman | And this is fully funded by our sewer bonds, correct? |
| 00:51:58.50 | Jonathon Goldman | Right. |
| 00:51:58.80 | Jill Hoffman | Okay. |
| 00:52:02.66 | Peter Van Meter | That's it. |
| 00:52:03.04 | Jill Hoffman | Thank you. Anyone else? Okay. We'll close public comment and bring it back here for council comment, who would like to start. |
| 00:52:15.57 | Jill Hoffman | One thing, Jonathan, we do have a resolution that like the past. So we have that on a slide so that we can explain exactly what we're doing, because this is the overview. |
| 00:52:24.20 | Jonathon Goldman | Yeah, unfortunately I don't, but I can potentially bring it up. |
| 00:52:29.11 | Jill Hoffman | Thank you. All right, so any comment from Council at this point? |
| 00:52:32.16 | Unknown | Yeah, I'll just make a comment. Yeah, I want to thank staff for the work on this and I also look forward to getting the slides and any ancillary information Because this is really important to me I am a little bit I understand all cities are grappling with aging infrastructure and sewers are a big issue. I think Southern Marin has a unique challenge with our proximity and our history with respect to spills in the bay. The EPA specifically targeted the agencies in Southern Marin, including Sausalito, with regarding the EPA mandates that we're facing. And so this is a high priority. I look forward to seeing more, you know, the progress as we go along and the information. At this point, I'm just going to follow up with city staff and get my additional questions answered and Yep. Thank you very much. |
| 00:53:54.56 | Unknown | Yeah, well, I would echo our thanks to our public works department and also to Vivian and her team. I've been grappling with this since I've been on the city council through finance committee for the last three years. And I think one of the most important things that for me that Vivian said was that our standard practice, standard practice in this is to fix over the lifetime of the asset, and that's a long time, 75 to 100 years or so. Enormous amount of deferred maintenance over many, many decades by nearly every municipality because there isn't the funding other than through a sewer enterprise with a prop-218 process to fund this is the source of the funds. And we put in place back last year a 218 process to raise funds to get these urgent projects done. And we have to just keep at it basically. I think it's praise to our staff for having and our consultants here to be able to find and focus on the most urgent things and to go down that list and that's what this is all about. |
| 00:55:37.53 | Unknown | Thank you. |
| 00:55:37.55 | Unknown | Thank you. |
| 00:55:39.12 | Unknown | And I want to thank the staff and Jonathan Goldman and Vivian for all the work that you've done. I think one of the best things that we have done is making sure that the sewer laterals I've really been looked at. because for years, not only the deferred maintenance on the mains, People haven't really. Thank you. wanting to have their sewer laterals checked. I think they waited until the homes were sold. I think it's important for us as homeowners to step up and have our sewer laterals inspected. before we even think of selling our homes. And as the saying goes in Sausalito, most people want to live here for the rest of their lives. So I think it's really up to us as citizens to go ahead and to have our surlaterals because I think we find out. That's one of our biggest problems in this community is that. And the other thing to keep in mind, there's no question in my mind that And by tackling it now, we know that every ten years, Things double. So, Thank you very much for a good job. And as you said, this will go on after my lifetime and our lifetime, so thank you. |
| 00:57:10.65 | Jill Hoffman | And I also want to echo the thanks to both Vivian and Jonathan for excellent presentation. And I think it was wise that we put it up earlier. Usually we're discussing this. about 11 at night. And, uh, We do have this on our agenda. fairly frequently because it's an important item. And it's an important item for people to know there's confusion, I think. Peter's question is a good one. I mean, this is done with our sewer fees only. We do not use any of our general fund. We do not use measure O monies. It's well managed. It's an ongoing thing. It's going to go beyond us in our lifetime. But the key is that we manage it. We have it under control. And as they pointed out, we're going into the second year of a three-year project of our 10-year plan. And we'll just keep managing it. The Finance Committee keeps a close eye on the funds that go there. and again just sewer funds so we're I want to thank you for again for coming and giving a very clear presentation it's important for everyone to know so That's it. |
| 00:58:10.42 | Unknown | so uh... mr mayor i'll do this as one resolution i think that's okay um... so i move to approve and authorize the city manager to execute uh... first of all an amendment number one to the consulting services contract with corallo ink for the second year of sewer projects design and related services and to approve and authorize the city manager to execute a standard form of professional consulting services agreement with AEW Engineering, Inc., for environmental consulting services. |
| 00:58:10.98 | Jill Hoffman | Mr. Mayor, I'll do... |
| 00:58:44.32 | Unknown | I'll second. |
| 00:58:45.62 | Jill Hoffman | Can we do this by acclamation, or should we take roll? Okay, all in favor? Aye. That's passed four zero. |
| 00:58:50.40 | Tricia Smith | Thank you. |
| 00:58:50.50 | Unknown | Bye. |
| 00:58:50.64 | Unknown | . |
| 00:58:50.67 | Unknown | I |
| 00:58:54.26 | Jill Hoffman | Thank you. you Now we move on to item six B circular circulation element one on one of our general plan. And that's again our community development director, Danny Castro. |
| 00:59:29.87 | Danny | Thank you again, Mr. Mayor, members of the council. I will be presenting to you a circulation element 101 And we start here. The circulation element is one of seven elements that make up the general plan. It involves all transportation networks issues, including systems that move people, goods, water, storm drainage, and communications. It involves It contains goals, objectives, policies, and programs for the mobility of cars, Bikes, transit, shuttle, ferry, and pedestrians. It addresses public safety and accessibility. and it contains background on current and future circulation and parking issues and impacts and ways to address issues in the short term and in the long term. also contains technical information technical transportation analysis as the metrics to understand our current impacts and the projections to plan for future impacts. |
| 01:00:45.55 | Danny | Starting the general plan update comes from the Marinship's steering committee's recommendation that the Marinship specific plan be updated in conjunction with the general plan update. The committee identified that circulation issues in the marineship are critical for its future and it should be the first topic to discuss. for the general plan update. The city council also agreed that circulation is a critical issue to address for the marinship, but also citywide. The City Council in its mid-year budget review in July directed that the circulation element be the first topic to discuss for the update and appropriated funding for this current fiscal year for this initial task. The task force is comprised of Vice Mayor Hoffman, Councilmember Withey. Planning Commission Chair Bill Werner Historic Landmarks Board Chair John McCoy and myself. staff members Lily Whalen and Mary Wagner. The task force will be meeting in early November. We are confirming a date in early November, the first week of November and that would be the November 9th to begin their assessment of the circulation element and the task force meetings will be open to the public. So this presentation this evening is a 101 presentation. I'm not asking the council this evening to solve all circulation issues in Sausalito. There is no action this evening. This presentation is for information only. And the purpose is to provide the council and the community information on what goes into a circulation element and what will be asked of the task force to think about as we approach this important element in the update to the general plan. |
| 01:02:36.83 | Danny | So it's important to step back and understand the purpose of a general plan. Every city in California must have a general plan. The general plan is a long range planning document that provides the city a framework for action and the direction in which to focus that action. The general plan is a visionary document. and a roadmap for the next 10 to 20 years. The general plan shapes future budget decisions and the allocation of city services. It's important to update the general plan periodically to ensure it reflects the values of the community and the policies and objectives for the future. Sausalito's last general plan update was in 1995. |
| 01:03:22.36 | Danny | The housing element is one of the elements, whoops, let me go back. is one element that we recently updated. And what is shown here in the slide are the seven mandatory elements of a general plan. Again, one element, housing, one of the seven, was recently updated. It was required by mandate to be updated every five years. and now it's every eight years, we will not be required to update the housing element until 2023, and we accomplish this with an adopted housing element that meets statutory requirements at the start of this year, and the states certified the element following that in February of this year. The next element in the city's approach to update the general plan is to work on the circulation element. |
| 01:04:16.91 | Danny | It's important that when you update a general plan, you understand new legislation, and the California Complete Streets Act, Assembly Bill 1358, was adopted in 2008. And I'll read an excerpt from that. In order to fulfill the commitment to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, make the most efficient use of urban land and transportation infrastructure, and improve public health by encouraging physical activity, transportation planners must find innovative ways to reduce vehicle miles traveled or VMT, and to shift from short trips in the automobile to biking, walking, and use of public transit. |
| 01:05:03.98 | Danny | The legislation requires that general plan updates done after 2011, year 2011, January 2011, modifies the circulation element to plan for a balanced multimodal transportation network that meets the needs of all users of the streets, roads, and highways for safe and convenient travel in a manner that is suitable to the urban context. The Governor's Office of Planning and Research has published an update to the general plan guidelines, complete streets and the circulation element to provide guidance on how to plan for multimodal transportation networks in general plan circulation elements. The guidelines provide a checklist of mandatory statutory requirements and possible policy areas and data collection considerations. |
| 01:05:57.93 | Danny | Another new legislation is Senate Bill 743, and this was adopted in September 2013, where Governor Jerry Brown signed the bill into law and started a process that could fundamentally changed transportation impact analysis as part of CEQA compliance. These changes will include elimination of auto delay, which is level of service, LOS, which is the metric to determine vehicle capacity and traffic congestion as a basis for determining significant impacts. LOS, or level of service of an intersection, is a grading system used to rank the efficiency of each intersection in handling peak traffic loads. LOSC represents a condition with limited congestion and is widely accepted as a desirable level of traffic operation. The intent, legislative intent, is to more appropriately balance the needs of congestion management with statewide goals. related to infill development, promotion of public health through active transportation or alternate modes of transportation, biking, walking, Um, and reduction of greenhouse gas emissions. |
| 01:07:19.96 | Danny | Um, Again, vehicle LOS, level of service, is an important part of transportation analysis. It has been as a practice of transportation traffic analysis. A question would be, will we have to change the analysis we apply due to this new legislation? There is no definitive answer until final SQL guidelines are adopted. Currently, it's been a discussion. It hasn't been finally adopted at this point. What we know so far is that SB 73 will not change laws related to general plans. there would be no change to the use of the LOS analysis regarding sizing of roadways in the general plans or determine impact fee programs or any nexus to impact fee programs. Staff, with the assistance of a traffic consultant, will continue to monitor the legislation and will determine as to whether in any way does it impact our general plan update effort. |
| 01:08:30.86 | Danny | the Sausalito's circulation element and reviewing the city's element, it's a very comprehensive plan. It includes a background section. It describes all the transportation conditions that existed in 1995. It classified the street network and data on public transit, bus and ferry, tourist traffic, and future transportation issues. It also did a count of parking in the downtown area. and assess the downtown parking demand on also the residential streets and impact on parking in residential streets. It also studied street capacity in specific intersections within the city. And the goal there was to achieve an LOSC or better in its objectives. The technical traffic analysis included daily vehicle trip generation, parking counts as I mentioned, and I think that's a good thing. LOS analysis and the mapping of the city street network, parking areas, bus stops locations, and pathways and bikeway paths. |
| 01:09:51.38 | Danny | This background provided the basis for the creation of objectives, goals, policies, and programs. the objectives, policies, and programs in the element really is a wide range of issues. And what I've done on this slide is begin to bullet most of all the objectives that are in the plan. And again, this illustrates that there was quite an extensive review of a variety of circulation issues. And I can name a few. Everything from, again, I mentioned LOS, but circulation systems within the marine ship, minimizing commuter through traffic, review and revising zoning parking standards, live-aboard parking standards, street widening efforts, maximizing public transit, There was issues regarding the ferry system, promoting alternate transportation, such as shuttle service, developing and implementing a bike master plan, Amen. creating pedestrian trails and paths, shoreline pedestrian pathways, shuttle service related to Fort Baker, and cooperating with the regional transportation system. |
| 01:11:23.55 | Danny | The staff believes that the current circulation element does comply with the Complete Streets Act, in that the policies in place address the needs of all users of the streets, roads, and highways, a multimodal transportation network. The staff is working with the Transportation Authority of Marin, TAM. and the MTC, the Metropolitan Transportation Commission, to address Sausalito's compliance in order to maintain eligibility for state funding of various circulation infrastructure improvements. If the current circulation element is found not to fully comply, A resolution of City Council is required by January 2016, stating that the city will incorporate complete street Act policies in the next update of the general plan. So this is timely. A major amendment was done in 1999, of the circulation element. It was done in October 1999 to add policies and programs to enhance bike and pedestrian circulation including a plan to implement a comprehensive bicycle master plan. The city currently has acted on that and does have a bicycle master plan. It's presently being updated. And the pedestrian and bike advisory committee plays an active role in carrying out these objectives and policies. |
| 01:12:54.08 | Danny | Does the circulation element need to be updated? The answer is yes. The introduction and purpose statement at the beginning of the document says that the element establishes policies and implementation programs for the transportation system which will accommodate and support the land use and economic activities plan for Sausalito to the year 2005. It does not project further than 2005. It will be important to review and evaluate these projections and consider future circulation planning to a future year. whether it's up to 10 years or up to 20 years, from now. And as I mentioned earlier, any update to the circulation element requires inclusion of policies that meet the mandatory new legislation requirements of the Complete Streets Act, and possibly the policies of SB 743, Again, the guidelines on complete streets does provide a great resource. And again, through this effort, we would be determining whether and monitoring SB 743 and how it at all impacts our update to the circulation element. Another important thing that I find important as part of a general plan update is to include an implementation plan. Uh, General plans now typically include that. And the plan in 1995 did not have an implementation plan Basically, it's an action plan. that includes timelines for carrying out the policies and programs, whether they be short term or long term, and long term and ongoing, and identifies who is responsible for implementing them. A plan helps to ensure that programs do not sit on the shelf. and the stated objectives, policies, and programs are carried out and achieved. This is an example of the town of Fairfax where they state the goal, they state the policy, and the program, which is the action, is to reevaluate speed limits in residential neighborhoods to promote a self and livable community. It says who's responsible, it says public works, and then the schedule must be done in year one after the adoption of the general plan. And so this goes on and on with all the objectives and programs that you place in every aspect of the general plan, but you actually place timelines on them. This exercise, if you will, really answers the question if the policies are practical, feasible, and achievable within certain time frames. I was involved with the general plan update in the previous city in which I worked for, and it was actually quite eye-opening to undergo a general plan update and then reach one of the last major tasks of creating an implementation plan. And it really checked everyone, including the community's input, as to whether these objectives were achievable. |
| 01:16:10.84 | Danny | Here's just another example. This is not a great slide, but this is one that was done in Sierra Madre, the last city I worked for, in their general plan update. And they didn't include it in the body of the policies, but they included it as an appendix. So it was a separate working document, but part of the general plan that, again, listed the policies, referenced them by number in the general plan document, and then if you see to the very right column, it has the year span in every five-year increments with a check mark that indicates that that's when we need to go back and achieve those goals by that time period and who's responsible for them. whether it be public works, whether it be the community development department, in concert with the city council, et cetera. |
| 01:17:00.86 | Danny | So there are some questions to consider, which I will forward to the task force, who will review and assess the current 1995 circulation element. And I'll read some of them now. For example, are the goals, policies, and programs established in 1995 relevant today? and looking to the future. Have we not taken action on some policies and programs? Why? Were they overreaching or infeasible? Is new traffic and transportation analysis necessary to understand existing and future impacts to the city's street network? How has parking demand changed in downtown? How has it changed citywide? Does the impact of visitor and tourism traffic change the way we plan for the future? How should streets, roadways, and pathways be planned for the future of the Marin ship? What are the circulation opportunities and improvements that the Marin ship can benefit from? So these are just some thoughts. So as I said, there is no action tonight. My recommendation is the task force begin their review and assessment of the circulation element. They will return to the council with recommendations and with directions to the next steps. The circulation element, I would say one other recommendation, is the circulation element must correlate directly with the land use element. the land use plan and the transportation network should be complementary. My recommendation is that as we start the circulation element first, we follow it directly behind with the land use, because we need to understand the connection between the land use impacts and being able to make sure that the circulation element, and that they're complementary and that they're working together. And that concludes my presentation, and I'm available for questions. |
| 01:19:06.01 | Jill Hoffman | Thank you, Danny. Who would like to start with questions? something in favor. |
| 01:19:11.73 | Unknown | So with SB 743, I have to say I was rather concerned when I heard about SB 743. And I just want to confirm my understanding, and maybe you can correct me if I'm wrong, because the slide said parking impacts would not be considered as a significant impact on environment for infill development. Can you, how does SB 743 change the way our planning commission, for example, might look at a proposed development project with respect to our parking requirements? Is it, you know, I understand that there are incentives right now that can be given to developers to reduce some of the parking requirements but now SB 743 I'm concerned it even goes a step further so can you comment on that sure well |
| 01:20:11.89 | Danny | are Any local city will have parking requirements established in their zoning code, and that will not change. Our own city's zoning standards will continue to be applied. However, in... However, in the CEQA review, in the environmental review of a project, the parking and the impact to parking can no longer be used as, it can no longer be identified as an impact that would need to be mitigated by way of other means. If it meets the parking requirements of, if a project meets the requirements of our local zoning standard, that is one thing. But it cannot be identified if an issue is identified that the parking impacts are, that there are impacts to parking in the surrounding area, it no longer can be used to mitigate. |
| 01:21:07.00 | Unknown | so another so in other words if a developer received some you know as the the state density bonus or the incentives to be able to reduce the number of parking spaces for a development project that parking would no longer be considered or the reduction parking, or perhaps the perceived lack of parking for the proposal would not be considered as something that could be included in CEQA review. Is that correct? |
| 01:21:07.24 | Danny | THE END OF THE and |
| 01:21:41.91 | Danny | Right, this is shifting away from the ability of parking to be identified as a significant impact. |
| 01:21:49.20 | Unknown | Yeah, okay, so concerned about that, but next question. |
| 01:21:53.17 | Danny | Councilmember Pfeiffer, just to take that a step further, is that it's shifting away from that, but the shift is to alternate modes of transportation. |
| 01:21:53.98 | Jill Hoffman | Yeah. |
| 01:22:10.82 | Unknown | Yeah, but can we force someone who's living in an infill project next to mass transit to take mass transit? |
| 01:22:20.93 | Unknown | No. |
| 01:22:25.25 | Unknown | THEIR OWNERS. May I, Mr. Mayor? Yep. Actually, as an aside, you should really be worried about AB 744, which the governor's just signed. Yeah, yeah, that too. But that's another matter. We're not talking about land use right now. So. |
| 01:22:36.00 | Tricia Smith | but that's another matter we're not talking about |
| 01:22:43.42 | Unknown | Danny, some have questioned our strategy of dividing this up into elements in a serial manner. you'll recall in the budget we did that simply because we didn't have the funds to do it all in one go. So how do you see eventually sort of wrapping all of them together over time so that the various elements actually talk to each other? Do you see this as a staged approach? Talk to us a little bit about that if you would. |
| 01:23:22.62 | Danny | Sure. I think a staged approach can be appropriate just so that we understand how we are laying out, I mean, this is a comprehensive effort and a big effort a city must undertake. And understanding that, you know, you would begin with one particular element, but you always need to be mindful when you begin a general plan update that there are other elements of the general plan that relate to the element in which you're working on now. It doesn't mean that you complete it and finalize that one element, but that you come back. And I think that's the important part of it, is that you decide that these are your draft set of objectives in one particular element. You move on, or you overlap another one. in the effort. And that you ensure that those, or you may in fact have something that's included in the circulation element and you may say, you know. These set of objectives need to make sure that they're aligned in the land use, or they're aligned in housing, or they're aligned in open space or noise. I mean, those aren't. So it's organization that's really, and with staff and with the assistance of a consultant, we would be ensuring that we monitor that and place other important issues aside for the moment. |
| 01:24:51.73 | Unknown | And as a follow-up, Mr. Mayor. And so presumably nothing would then preclude us as if we, in this first bolus of work, we identified policies and programs that could immediately be implemented by city council. presumably that's something that we could, you know, ahead of getting a fully integrated plan, there's nothing stopping us doing that, right? Yeah. |
| 01:25:26.96 | Danny | There isn't. The city council, by way of an ordinance, can do whatever it chooses to do, whether it's changing a zoning standard or changing a policy. I think the important thing to remember when you're doing a general plan update is these are the overarching goals and objectives. They're not intended to be specific. They're meant to be overarching. And in fact, when I reviewed the circulation element, a lot of things you're doing yesterday and today are in fact consistent with the goals and objectives of the general plan. So it doesn't stop you from taking care of more immediate issues related to circulation. But again, I think that's often mistaken when a city embarks on a general plan, the idea that everything else stops It's just not. It's just that's not the way a city operates. Thank you. |
| 01:26:23.47 | Jill Hoffman | Thank you. |
| 01:26:23.63 | Unknown | Thank you. |
| 01:26:23.81 | Jill Hoffman | you You mentioned that we have to make a certification that our circulation element complies with the complete streets. criteria by January 2016. And I've reviewed the two and it doesn't seem we're far off, but we we do have to make that comparison. And I just wonder procedurally, as we we're getting very close to that so what is the plan to make sure that we do that and come to council if any changes need to be made and make our certification |
| 01:26:49.83 | Danny | Well, what, and I've been involved with regionally the Marin cities, that there are some cities whose general plans are older or, you know, not as updated as ours even. And there is a resolution that basically promises in January 2016 that we will implement complete street act policy. So while it's important to identify those now, we're not required to actually amend the general plan by that date. |
| 01:27:25.10 | Unknown | One last question, Danny. The task force, I just want to clarify something. It's not your expectation that the task force is going to start in November and rewrite the circulation element, right? Is it what do you, there's going to be a report back to the council, and presumably it's going to be, sort of correct me if I'm making a mistake here, it's going to come back with a recommendation of having reviewed the existing element, what are the next steps to put together a more comprehensive team with members of the public, not residents to move to the next step of the circulation? Yes, you're correct. |
| 01:28:07.17 | Danny | Yes, you're correct. I think the idea is for this task force to take an initial assessment of the circulation element and, as you said, make the appropriate recommendations they feel, understand what those policies are, what is still relevant today and what can be carried over, and perhaps what is not relevant anymore and what needs more fine-tuning. |
| 01:28:33.06 | Unknown | Yes, well, the circulation element, consider the current things we have in place locally, like the traffic initiative and, you know, things like, in other words, this, I would imagine that the task force would consider and respect the things that the citizens have voted on, you know, |
| 01:28:56.82 | Danny | Yes. They would. |
| 01:28:59.42 | Unknown | And I saw that the public, the meetings would be open to the public. Will public comment be allowed at these task force meetings and will there be noticing? |
| 01:29:11.31 | Danny | Thank you. We will post the notice of the agenda of the meeting like we do for committee meetings and task force meetings. They will have the opportunity to add to it. Often my experience with general plan task force or advisory committees, it's a pretty loose open forum that encourages public input. I think that's the general rule for updating a general plan is extensive public outreach and community input. |
| 01:29:44.76 | Unknown | And another question as to process. We've got this task force, and then I just heard that there is an intent to kind of go beyond the task force with a broader appointment. When does that next step happen? Is that next year, or is that, I mean, is it 2017? When does that second phase kick in? |
| 01:30:06.09 | Danny | When does that second phase kick in? The intent here is for the task force to have as many meetings as necessary to assess and come back to the city council for next steps. I think we, and again, we've been appropriated the funding to begin the technical and consultant assistance with doing the circulation element. My recommendation is that we begin to look at expanding that later on, is assistance with doing the circulation element. My recommendation is that we begin to look at expanding that later on, is expanding that task force to some type of advisory committee that involves a larger number of community members. That number will depend on the city council, whether they would like 10 or 15 or 20. And it will be organized by topics and discussion issues. It could even involve public forums and meetings to gather the input necessary to work on the circulation element. |
| 01:31:08.02 | Adam Politzer | Danny, just to jump in here, the intent is near the beginning of the year of 2016. So, task force does its work between now and the beginning of 2016. Come back to council with recommendations, potentially as early as February, maybe as late as March. That's correct. |
| 01:31:27.21 | Jill Hoffman | That's clear. And after the task force, we're going to come back here, and the council will decide what the next steps are, what other committees and that type of thing. And, of course, the task force is going to be noticed properly, and we're going to have also opportunity for public comment on that as well. Yes. Can I? Yes. My question. I do have a question. We will, of course, we have to start with the task force on this because we're going to do a review and see what needs to be done to be updated. But almost certainly I believe we'll have to do a traffic analysis. Is that correct? And and can you comment on a |
| 01:31:42.51 | Unknown | Thank you. |
| 01:31:42.92 | Unknown | Thanks. |
| 01:32:00.69 | Jill Hoffman | approximately the cost of that and how long that would take once once we get to that point and when and we get the task force back and they say yes we're gonna go forward the circulation element and needs to be updated we need an updated traffic analysis traffic study |
| 01:32:13.73 | Danny | Regarding a traffic consultant, the cost can vary depending on the extent of traffic analysis that we feel is important to look to the future. We're not required to do any particular traffic analysis, but I think it's important to understand vehicle trips, the intersection analysis on our collector streets and our main bridgeway area, how we come and go from our freeway entrances and exits from the south end to the north. streets and our main bridgeway area. How we come and go from our freeway entrances and exits from the south end to the north end. |
| 01:32:13.75 | Jill Hoffman | Thank you. |
| 01:32:46.99 | Danny | So it can vary. It can be, in terms of a range of costs, it could be as low as 60,000 to perhaps 100,000. But again, that's something that we have to assess as to what extent that we feel that analysis will help support future objectives. |
| 01:33:13.65 | Jill Hoffman | Any other questions before we open? |
| 01:33:15.29 | Unknown | I do, just a couple. So we're spending $125,000 on this this year. We've got another $60,000 to $100,000 for just the traffic analysis piece alone. What is the total cost estimate range for doing a circulation element update? |
| 01:33:37.23 | Danny | It's not. There's no particular number. It would just depend on as we continue to work forward, and that would be something that in future budget discussions with the city council, we would determine what that amount would be to appropriate it for it. I mean, it's within this budget cycle that that amount of 125 has been appropriated thus far. |
| 01:34:09.34 | Adam Politzer | Danny, if I can jump in again on that. You know, again, it's, as Danny explained, going through the circulation element 101, that the task force is going to assess our current circulation element. And as Danny shared earlier, Some of it's still valid. And so the degree. that we need to update our circulation element, I think we'll get a report back from the task force if it needs to be completely redone. We don't believe that's the case. If it just needs to be enhanced, well, we think it probably needs to be a little bit more than enhanced. So the $125,000 that's been budgeted in this fiscal year |
| 01:34:43.33 | Tricia Smith | Thank you. |
| 01:34:47.95 | Adam Politzer | The time that the task force actually makes a recommendation together are actually working group. that will work with a consultant similar to the Marin Ship Steering Committee that we had last year. it's probably unlikely that we're going to spend $125,000 in that three to four month period of time. Nor do we know that that's the amount of money that is necessary to complete the task. So I think we'll have a better understanding when the task force gives their recommendation and update. and then we'll assess that as well. And as Danny said, even with the traffic analysis know from sixty thousand to a hundred thousand dollars again it depends on what we're looking at and what hasn't already been done. We have the South Gate project that's underway on Alexander Avenue to Richardson. We have an Alta plan from Gate 6 Road all the way down to the ferry landing. We have Gate 6 Road that's got considerable activity going on by the county right now that comes with extensive information and study. The Lise School when they went into operation were required to have a traffic study, the traffic initiative that has been raised earlier. So we have a lot of information. Again, it's going to be looking at this and determining along the way. what additional studies or information we need to gather. I think it's premature to start labeling if we have enough money or not enough money at this stage. |
| 01:36:11.35 | Unknown | Mr. Mayor, I just wanted to remind everyone that I think we budgeted over a five-year period, $125,000 a year, for the general plan as a whole. And obviously that's going to move around depending upon what we find we've got to do, if I'm correct. I've got |
| 01:36:37.25 | Jill Hoffman | And any other questions before we open it to? Yeah, I had two questions. Sure. |
| 01:36:39.16 | Unknown | Yeah, I had two questions. Okay, sure. One was what's the cost, so I heard. And then I heard Councilmember Withee say 125 a year. for the general plan as a whole over five years. I just think it's good to have parameters on the budget. And the second question I had was regarding the traffic analysis. um, The fact that we have a situation right now that a lot of residents, including me and I think shared by some of my fellow council members, regarding the need to reduce the number of rental bikes coming in all at once, like 3,000 a day. I mean, we're a small town having that convergence. We just don't have the capacity. And my concern is that doing a traffic analysis using the current traffic flows, which is not ideal and not what we want, could influence the direction or the solutions, you know, the circulation plan. So can you comment on that? and you know, uh, |
| 01:37:56.46 | Danny | Well, I think what you described is something that our traffic analysis would factor into their analysis, given how our street network and sidewalks and streets are being used will factor into that analysis. So, you know, it's not a measure of what the impact is, but also to understand how that impact is within the street network. |
| 01:38:23.09 | Unknown | And I would presume to consider what the ideal state would be, which is to reduce the number of rental bikes. In other words, to understand that the current number is not ideal and it's not something we want to see necessarily continue or definitely not increase. Thank you. |
| 01:38:44.57 | Unknown | Just as a point of correction, it was a total budget of $750,000 over six years as a placeholder. It's a placeholder. Right. |
| 01:38:52.27 | Unknown | It's a placeholder. you |
| 01:38:53.79 | Unknown | 750,000, which is 125,000 per year for six years we put in as a placeholder. |
| 01:39:01.43 | Jill Hoffman | I'm sorry. But, I mean, also the task force is also going to be looking at that and whether or how much of that consulting can we use? Absolutely. Staff or others to work on that. So it's a number. It's a placeholder. |
| 01:39:07.59 | Unknown | Absolutely. |
| 01:39:12.81 | Jill Hoffman | I'd like to open it up to public comment now. I have one speaker card David Suto. Others can, we'll start with David. And you can line up. It'd be great if you had speaker cards. It'd be appreciated. But we'll start with David, since he's the one who did it. Okay. Not her. I can't say no to her. |
| 01:39:29.04 | David Sudo | We didn't want her. Thank you. |
| 01:39:33.81 | David Sudo | David Sudo, 411 Locust. I guess I was going to talk about some other things, but I had time here to dig into the old circulation element. So now I think I have two points. One is I think, you know, we have a lot of new challenges and opportunities that are going to present themselves. If everybody here hasn't heard about Waze yet or used it, you know, I think that's going to affect our traffic circulation a lot in town. We're going to see more traffic dumping off of 101 and coming through town on a regular basis because their computers tell them to. And more people are going to be going through residential areas to get up to 101 exits because, again, the computer is going to tell you that's the fastest way, and people are going to do it. So as far as some of these current goals, you're going to be very impacted by that, and I'm not sure what we can do about it. The other opportunity we have here is since Sausalito is an affluent city, I suspect that we're going to end up rapidly developing an affinity for autonomous cars that all the car companies are saying are coming in five years. It's going to reduce our need for downtown parking. It's going to change how people park in town, how people move around in town, how people interact with mass transit. And then my other point, since I was looking at the plan, and I think there's going to be a lot of talk and a lot of revisions, I had a chance to look at the ferry element. It said it would lead the ferry going gate to think that their new plan is great, and it aligns with our current plan that was developed 20 years ago because it says we should have more efficient service, and we should encourage connections between buses and ferries in that area. And then there's some other interesting things. It anticipated that our tourist automobile traffic would grow exponentially, and it thought that perhaps getting tourists on bicycles and buses and ferries would be a good idea. Things shift and things change, but maybe we should look at that. And also, finally, I noticed there was a lot of – a huge part of the circulation plan was the bicycle master plan. And it encouraged creating Sausley as a bicycle friendly place and providing parking in all areas of the city. And also encouraging a zoning element to provide bicycle parking in new developments. And I don't think that has been, and put in our zoning documents. But I know that other towns in Marin have done a much better job of putting those pedestrian and bicycle master plan items into their zoning. And I think Sausalena needs to do a better job of it. Thank you. Thank you. |
| 01:42:40.72 | Jill Hoffman | Thank you. Patricia Smith. |
| 01:42:43.74 | Tricia Smith | Hi, I'm Tricia Smith, 7 Reed Lane, and I'm the proud chair of the Age-Friendly Sausalito Task Force, and I want to recognize two members here, Charles Kaufman and Sybil Boutelier, who have spent a lot of time on this task force. Okay, two minutes and 53 seconds. Here we go. I want to thank you for your faith in the efforts of our task force over the last few years. I believe that we are doing you proud. We have created programs, presentations, events, and made changes that have dovetailed with the goals outlined in the general plan, including the circulation element that Danny just presented. |
| 01:42:44.01 | Jill Hoffman | I'm Tricia. |
| 01:43:17.39 | Tricia Smith | It is important to our task force that you understand the opportunity that is before you in revising the circulation element. Age Friendly has done the work of creating a baseline assessment utilizing the eight domains of urban living. that are part of the World Health Organization guidelines. This work was done by surveying 1,200 seniors in our town, interviewing stakeholders, and spending hundreds of hours analyzing the data. Three of the domains overlap with the circulation element, respect and inclusion, outdoor spaces, and transportation. Out of the 11 priorities that emerged from the community's response in the survey, four directly overlap with the circulation element. Number one, shuttle-like transportation. Two, sidewalk repair. Three, safer crosswalks, including lighting at intersections. Three, And four, ease of walkability in commercial areas. Cars has become the city's answer to the need for shuttle-like transportation that topped the age-friendly survey list, and was on the list of the 1995 circulation element. Someone recently said to me, cars is not rocket science, just common sense to have neighbors providing rides for neighbors free of charge. Age-friendly and partnership with Sausalito Village has successfully made this happen, and CARS is now part of the fabric of our community. In further reviewing the circulation element, it becomes evident that the City's Age-Friendly Task Force has a major role to play in keeping the focus on the age-friendly priorities. These priorities are being written up by our consultant, Susan Poore, whom all of you have now met. Through a grant from the Marine Community Foundation and the Board of Supervisors, we will be we will be giving the city and the World Health Organization an age-friendly Sausalito roadmap via the completed plan. We urge you to utilize this plan and incorporate it in the circulation element and all parts of the general plan that relate to the age-friendly priorities. In conclusion tonight, our task force has three requests. One that you move forward in your work on the circulation element and the other elements of the general plan. with an age-friendly lens. The second is that you include age-friendly task force members in committees and meetings that relate to age-friendly priorities in the circulation element and other elements of the general plan. And finally, that you consider including the age-friendly strategic plan in part or whole in the revision and updating of the city's general plan, including the circulation element. Thank you. |
| 01:45:37.17 | Jill Hoffman | Thank you. |
| 01:45:42.84 | Peter Van Meter | Peter Van Meter, I came down here specifically tonight to comment on this in anticipation of Danny's presentation. Thank you. Very comprehensive. And the reason for my comment is this, that I hope that the backers of the tourism impact. the TIP. are either in the audience or watching here tonight. And they can see that this comprehensive scope of the circulation element It covers probably 90% of the issues that have been brought by that group. They can see the substantial amount of funds that are going to be expended on this project and the comprehensive nature of the work that's required. If they come forth with a petition that forces the council to adopt either. an election. for that matter. or to adopt their language word for word as ordinance, it will pull funds away from this force the hiring of additional consultants, getting into a total different planning process, completely separate from this mandated general plan update, become a duplicative effort then it would be a waste of time and money, in my opinion. the valid issues that they bring forth. which are of concern to major citizens of Sausalito, groundswell of opinion in favor of the TIP. They can be addressed within the scope of the existing planning process. Don't force the city council to make decisions that are going to be a waste of time and money. Come down, get involved in this, come to these first Tax Force meetings, get involved in the committee, as it's going forward. and all of the other elements that are going to address the issues brought forth in the you Thank you. |
| 01:47:19.97 | Jill Hoffman | Thank you. Thanks, Peter. |
| 01:47:25.03 | Jill Hoffman | And then Adam follows. |
| 01:47:27.58 | Adam Politzer | Uh, I don't have my, okay, thank you, hi. Hello, City Mayor, City Council. city workers and citizens of Sausalito I've been reading a little bit from the Torah. I started doing this when the Supreme Court ruled that any religion could come and speak before any city meetings or county or state. I'm following the The Jewish reading of the Torah begins in the first book of Genesis. And it ends in Deuteronomy. We've just begun again. So... Last week was Noah, which in Hebrew, it's Noah. And he had a transportation element. He had a 101 plan. This is what they This is what is said about Noah. It said this is. This is the line of Noah. Noah was a righteous man, He was blameless in his age. Noah walked with God. Now, Noah had Three things that he was really good at. One is prayer. A second one was sacrifice. He would set up an altar and sacrifice his peace of mind to be different from everybody else and build a boat. And the third element that Noah had was action. that he built that boat. Right now we have a tall ship that's being built. over on Marin ships. And it's been It's been fun to work with these people. That's not going to fit everybody in Sausalito. I am, I have a bicycle, and that's, I'm about to be, bicycle, boats, and occasionally a bus. All along Sausalito now, in the downtown area, we have no bicycle parking signs. Vino Del Mar Park. We have it in front of the barber shop on Caledonia, many other places, including the a threat to take bicycles that are locked to poles. Though, as far as I know, that hasn't happened yet, and I'm glad it's not being enforced that way. AB 32 says the greenhouse gases have to be reduced to 1990 levels. By 2020, we're eight years into that. It was passed in 2006. There's only six years left. How far are we? How are we going to reduce greenhouse gas levels if we don't reduce the number of car trips taken by the people on the hill, the people on the flats, and the people on the boats don't use cars as much. So we're a little... Less blameworthy there. What is the plan to do that? that there were 40 people who were hired for bicycle parking. I'm happy that they had a job. Are we going to do it for cars next? |
| 01:50:36.01 | Jill Hoffman | Are we going to do Can we wrap up? Thanks. Thank you. Adam? |
| 01:50:46.18 | Unknown | Good evening, Mr. Mayor, honorable counsel. Good evening, everybody. I am very excited about the City Council's decision to budget money for amending the general plan. We have been waiting for this for a long time. starting with the circulation element the way Denny explained it. That means educating ourselves about circulation issues and then addressing land use issues and addressing other issues is a good way of going about it. We cannot do it all at once anyway. you And I am fascinated about what Sausalito will mean to a professional who might help us because we have, in contrast with other communities, we have only 1.2 residents per household here. the average trip is calculated as 11 vehicle trips per day, per household, in other communities. We are not generating 11 vehicle trips per day with our 1.2 residents in a household. So that is a very special situation. We have considerable through traffic bicycles and automobiles. We have 3,000 employees coming to town every day, every work day of the week. That is a special imposition on our north end of town. So we are not able to think of ourselves in the standard fashion. We have to be very creative, very responsive to the situation, who we are, how we live, and what the conditions are. We have spent some time through a committee, about 16 people worked together for two years, on transportation element not circulation element, but transportation element of the general plan through the Imagine Sausalito program. That so far has not been taken into account. I would like to urge you that the document that was submitted to the chief planner on the 9th of March in 2009 should be looked upon by the committee and should be evaluated because lots of thought went into it. I would like to take this opportunity to thank the City Council at that time to designate the staff and working with us the city manager allowed us to work with the city engineer at every meeting and base our recommendations on valid facts. Thank you. |
| 01:54:12.01 | Jill Hoffman | Thank you. Anyone else from the public like to comment on this item? Okay, seeing no other. We'll close public comment and bring it up here for City Council coming. Who would like to start? |
| 01:54:26.40 | Unknown | you |
| 01:54:26.45 | Unknown | Thank you. Oh. |
| 01:54:37.34 | Unknown | really clearing out, aren't |
| 01:54:38.28 | Unknown | really clear. |
| 01:54:52.88 | Unknown | Thank you. |
| 01:54:56.02 | Unknown | Since I have been on the city council, um... It seems that at least one of the following topics has been discussed at every city council meeting. |
| 01:55:12.44 | Unknown | bikes, visitors, cars, ferries, parking, all topics that are covered by the circulation element. Um... Thank you. We formed a marineship specific plan steering committee to make some recommendations. The primary recommendation was that before we did anything, we looked at infrastructure in the marine ship and in particular the circulation, but made the strong recommendation that if you're going to look at circulation, you've got to do it citywide. And so I'm very pleased and was very active at ensuring that that $750,000 was put in the budget as a placeholder to begin the general plan process. |
| 01:56:15.01 | Unknown | For the last three years, I've also been on the theme of the infrastructure deficit that we have as a city, that we have as a state, that we have as a nation, and that we have to focus on our infrastructure. The thing I want to say tonight is, and the reason why it's important to look back in the budget, is that the money we put in, we put in the capital project because planning, critical planning, is just as important a capital investment into our future as is roads, sewers, storm drains, et cetera, because it helps in the long term make all that work together. We've heard from Danny how starting with the circulation element in an iterative way can start interfacing with all the other elements of the plan over time. And I'm particularly supportive of Danny's emphasis on the fact that the endgame here is not only the, but the implementation plan of that element. And so, Danny, I'd like to thank you for your work on this and look forward to the meeting on November 9th. |
| 01:57:42.12 | Unknown | Well, I wanna thank Danny also. for really bringing together something that Hasn't been done in really 20 years. I think it's overdue. and I think we have to look a little into the future. We do know that we actually do have less cars coming at the Sausalito now. than we did ten years ago, because they're coming in. the way they should have, non-motivized. Bicycles are still, they're not going away. And I think rather than trying to slow them down, I think we should learn how to work a little more efficiently with that. |
| 01:58:34.50 | Unknown | And as we move ahead. We're going to see definitely hybrids. electric cars. And that will also help. Thank you. in the idea of our carbon footprint. But I think that nonetheless, people are still going to come to Sausalito to visit. It's just a matter of how well we handle it. I think some of the problems that we have to look in the circulation. As far as from The local standpoint also is. The alleviation of traffic trying to get out of Sausalito at the north end of town. during the summertime. when Tam Junction. backs up all the way and doesn't allow us to get out of town. We also have to realize that. When you come off the bridge, there isn't a sign that says Sausalito until the fourth exit. But now with the new navigation systems. It is guiding automobiles down Alexander. So I think we have to address that because Now there'll be possibly a shift on More automobiles coming down Alexander rather than coming down where the Marin City Sausalito exit is. So I think we have our work cut out for us. I started working on transportation eight years ago. And we've seen it evolve. Eight years ago, we didn't have the amount of bikes that we had. we do now. the amount of buses, we do now. And I think it's very, very important to maintain that we make sure that we follow our carbon footprint. |
| 02:00:26.26 | Unknown | So I also want to thank city staff for the presentation. And I think the important thing when I look at this circulation element is that we have a shared vision with respect to circulation in Sausalito. And by that, I mean that shared vision that Sausalito not turn into a tourist transit hub, which I view happening with, especially with the rental bikes, with the Mirwood shuttle, which is coming in now and picking people up, which, you know, just started about two or three years ago and should have come before this council that we respect the traffic initiative that we understand that the the number of rental bikes coming in and they're ever-increasing numbers every year is something that's not sustainable it's something that our town can't handle so we need to get a grip on how to limit those numbers we need to consider SB 743 and the fact that parking does make a difference actually in Sausalito and that people need parking in Sausalito and it's something we need to consider with infill development even though Sacramento has signed in SB 743 removing it as a consideration for CEQA it needs to be a consideration in Sausalito I also want to caution that there are perhaps lessons learned from the housing element the time and and money spent chasing programs that were very unpopular with residents to consider that with respect to the circulation element. You know, things like the tourist transit hub I mentioned, street widening, these types of things. There was a comment about Imagine Sausalito. Imagine Sausalito did have some very controversial proposals, including an underground parking level across from Poggio and a second level on street ground, trolleys, things that were rather controversial. And with respect to the TIP, the tourist impact plan that's being discussed in town, that's a totally separate issue from what I understand, from what I'm seeing of it. I talked to two people about the TIP. I get two different opinions about what it is. I think that that has got a long way to go. And I have many questions about it. I do not see it as linked to this in any way. So those are my comments on this consideration. My final comment I would make is I saw a bullet up here in the presentation about the marineship circulation. I want to stress that my vision with respect to Sausalito is those streets in the Marin ship at least are privately owned I would not support the city taking on the expense of maintaining the streets in the Marin ship we're doing all we can to maintain the streets and the potholes here and in the rest of Sausalito without taking on streets that are privately owned thank you |
| 02:03:42.45 | Jill Hoffman | Thank you. Thank you, Danny, for an excellent presentation. AND WE'RE DUE TO DO OUR GENERAL PLAN. WE'RE SUPPOSED TO DO A GENERAL PLAN EVERY 10 YEARS, AND WE'RE NOW AT 20 YEARS. I THINK IT'S REALLY IMPORTANT, THE GENERAL PLAN IS THE GUIDELINE FOR ALL OF US, AND IT'S REALLY IMPORTANT TO KNOW THAT This is a process that we need to get all the residents involved. This is not a matter of what any particular council member or the council in general feel we are this is going to be an extensive process. We start out with a task force, but ultimately there'll be many workshops, If we use the housing element as an example, I think it was important that we had so much resident input. It's really important that we have resident input in our general plan. That's what it is. It's the plan of the whole city. It's extremely important that we're starting with the circulation element because I think as Council Member Withey said, We spend so much of our time on circulation issues. We go from the south end of town, from Vista Point, traffic on 101, when it backs up it goes into our streets. Bicycles and cars coming down on the south end, parking downtown, all the way to gate 6. And circulation affects every part of our life. So it's really, really important that we're starting there and that we do a comprehensive job. This hopefully implementation is critical. Plans are important. Implementation is even more important. But we'll start with our plan. And it's important to start there. I do want to say our 1995 circulation element, and it's a good thing to read. I think I suggest there's a line in there about they did their estimate of how many visitors came in and they said 90% by cars. And that's a lot different than it is today. And they had certain policies. So I think there were certain policies that had some effect but, Um, Also, I think it was very clearly written and it was forward looking. We have a lot of our people who are out there watching tonight that have worked on it, so I have to give them. some kudos on an excellent job of what was done. Of course, we're going to look at everything the traffic initiative, we're gonna look at our climate action plan, age friendly issues, Um, complete streets, all of that, that will be considered, and including Imagine Sausselin and everything else, because we want to take our best thinking that we've done and use it as we go forward. But certainly nothing's gonna, be the final product is going to be reviewed by the residents in general and by this council. So we have a long way to go, but I think In that process, it will be important because we'll find solutions to a lot of the problems that we have. and certainly ways and plans to go forward with it. Again, thank you. I think this is informational... only so I think we're done so we'll take a five minute break |
| 02:06:28.36 | Unknown | All right, let's get ready to bumble. |
| 02:06:40.95 | Unknown | Just heat up the hamburger a couple more times. |
| 02:06:47.97 | Tricia Smith | Thank you. |
| 02:06:54.39 | Jill Hoffman | You ready? Okay. Now we move on to item six C community development. Department quarterly update our Community Development Director Danny Castro again |
| 02:07:06.60 | Danny | Thank you again, Mr. Mayor, members of the Council. I am pleased to report to you the 2015 year report of the Community Development Department. I know on your agenda it is a quarter, it says a quarter title is a quarterly report And I decided to to highlight my previous year here as your community development director. And so I've got a little bit more extensive in the background I'm providing you this evening. And just an overview, I will be discussing the Sausalito Community Development Department and what it does. And also the building permit activity, discretionary permits that were processed, the building inspections within this first quarter, and I say first quarter beginning July through September of this year. It's a fiscal quarter. The daily public counter service. The commissions and committees and the highlights of their activities. the department accomplishments, current projects, public counter, and the 2016 priorities and goals. So it's a lot, but I won't, I'll try not to. So the Community Development Department in Sausalito is responsible for guiding the physical development of the city, including public and private building projects. This is achieved by ensuring new development projects are consistent with the general plan and the zoning ordinance. In addition, development projects may be subject to the marinship-specific plan, the design guidelines, subdivision regulations and other municipal code provisions. All construction projects must conform with the California construction codes and the city's local amendments of the construction codes. And department staff conducts in progress inspections of construction projects and enforces the city's health, safety, and environmental regulations related to the physical environment. The department is comprised of the planning and building divisions. Here's an organizational chart, maybe a little bit small here, but I'm proud to say that we are now fully staffed in our department. I began here with two part-time planners and one planner that was full-time. We made some adjustments in the department, promotions, as well as I was able to hire two full-time planners to complete full-time staff, and I'll get into that a little bit more. But again, as I mentioned, I'm the community development director. We have an admin administrative aide who oversees the management of the department, and that administrative aide supports both the building division and the planning division. |
| 02:10:00.79 | Danny | I'll start with the building permit activity, and I was able to- |
| 02:10:03.49 | Adam Politzer | Danny, can you actually go back and just go through each one of those positions and who they are? Sure. |
| 02:10:08.78 | Danny | So, yeah, the very top is myself as a community development director and managing both planning and building divisions of the department. We do have an administrative aide, and that's the square just below. And right now that is a temporary full-time position. Thank you. And we are in the middle of recruiting for a permanent full-time position. The building division is comprised of a building official, and he is currently, his name is Doug Reiter. He is a CSG consultant who acts as our city's building official. Kenneth Henry is our building inspector. That's the second one on the left side. And the third one on the left side is our permit technician, Albert Vianna, who was promoted, who was formerly our administrative aide, and he was promoted as our new permit technician. In the planning division, the associate planner is Calvin Chan. And he was promoted from as an assistant planner to now as an associate planner. And then I recruited two assistant planners, Joshua Montemayor and Rebecca Walters, who have been here for the last about three or four months. And I have to say that with this new team, we are beginning to establish the team and the working functions of the department with this new team. |
| 02:11:45.40 | Danny | This is a table that shows the building permit activity beginning with the years 2007 and forward up to 2014. And then at the very right column reports the first quarter of 2015. And I can say that in terms of the trends of the number of building permits that we issued per year, we're about on target. In fact, I predict we'll be higher. In fact, when you look at the first quarter, we could be upwards of 700 building permits issued this year, given this first quarter's numbers. Here is a chart that reflects how that looks on a chart form. In 2007, we had over 800 building permits that were issued. It dipped down a little bit, increased in 2011, and remained pretty much above 600 or more in terms of building permits being issued. |
| 02:12:50.58 | Danny | Planning permits are. Everything from the discretionary permits, to the ministerial zoning permits and encroachments into the right-of-way. Regarding planning permits, as you're aware, especially when they come before the planning commission or a zoning administrator hearing, these are everything from conditional use permits to variances and design review permits. And this is a chart that shows, beginning in 2007, the number of discretionary permits, the number of ministerial permits that were issued within those years, and also the first quarter numbers. I think this graph or chart shows throughout the years the number in terms of the division of those three, you know, being discretionary, ministerial, and encroachments. In 2011, I mean, the economy improved to the extent that that really grew. There were a lot of ministerial zoning permits. A lot of home improvements were occurring, and they continue to be... as we move forward. But they can vary from year to year, as this chart shows. With regard to 2015 first quarter, it pretty much is in line with the previous years. In terms of building inspections, The building inspections are a very significant part of Kenneth's job, Kenneth Henry's job. After one obtains a building permit, an inspection or a series of inspections are required to ensure that the activity is conducted in compliance with the California Building Code standards and practices. Contractors or residents call in to schedule site inspections with the building inspector when certain milestones are reached. And again, this is a significant part of Kenneth Henry's job. While these show averages per day for these three months, actually I think it's the next one. Yeah, this does, averages per day. There are days when inspection appointments can be 22 in one day, which is an extremely busy inspection day, and as low as seven to eight on other days, which I think are average or below average. When I know that Kenneth is not in the office and I don't see him at all, it's because he's got a huge number of inspections and he's literally going from home to home or site, just trying to reach all his inspections. We also have been tracking our daily public counter service more recently. And this is really telling of the activity we have at our public counter. We share our public counter with the Department of Public Works. So you'll see that we've been tracking our activity here beginning in July through August and September. The majority of inquiries or activity that occurs at the counter is building related. However, there are a lot of folks who come in who ask about planning and land use. And then with the Department of Public Works, whether it's engineering related, right-of-way related or sewer related Those are also on a daily basis. We can have an average, you'll see in July, of 26 visits per day. August, we had 21 on average in September 19. This is really reflective of when there's a planner on duty or when Kenneth is on duty at the counter. They are at the counter every minute. We don't turn people away. So, you know, that is something that, you know, that's part of our... our service, customer service. Here you can see it distributed between Department of Public Works, inquiries, planning, and with building. And again, building being the most planning second, and Department of Public Works, not as much in terms of the interaction with the community, with the counter. |
| 02:17:22.46 | Danny | Here I'm just going to give some of the commission and committee highlights. The planning commission meets twice a month. There's been 14 meetings held to date. Highlights were that this past year was participated, the planning commission participated in the ferry landing public review process. We even had extra meetings that were held for the planning commission as well as the HLB, Historic Landmarks Board. The Planning Commission reviewed three zoning ordinances. They held public hearings for 14 design review permits, four CUPs, three signed permits, a number of dwelling units and encroachment agreements, a variance, and a minor use permit. The Historic Landmarks Board, again, also meets twice per month. There were 10 public meetings held to date. 28 projects were reviewed. A study session for a property that's on our local historic register, 168 Harrison. It's called Tanglewood. It has also been reviewed and will be coming forth on a project. And there was a local historic register nomination that's currently pending for the pilot houses at Galilee Harbor. |
| 02:18:35.96 | Danny | Thank you. That shows that. There are a legislative committee that has been formed on the historic preservation regulations to resume that work. And they have met now and will be meeting monthly to resume the work on updating our preservation requirements. And also a general task force, as we just discussed in the last discussion, will begin with the circulation element review. |
| 02:19:09.26 | Danny | I'll now talk about some of the department accomplishments. We approved early this year or late last year, the Valhalla eight unit residential development. It was very extensive review of the city and planning commission and public participation. which is an adaptive reuse of what was an old beer tavern and formerly a restaurant. We certified the 2015-23 housing element update, quite an effort with numerous public meetings, which culminated in the adoption and then certification by the state. as I mentioned earlier. A few months this year we were occupied with the Fair Landing Public Review Process. And we had promotions of department members. Two members, Albert Vianna, was promoted from permit technician to I'm sorry, from the admin aide to permanent technician, and Calvin Chan was promoted from assistant planner to associate planner. And we hired two full-time assistant planners, as I mentioned, Joshua Montemayor and Rebecca Walters. We introduced the general plan update earlier this year. I presented a 101, which then initiated the start of the general plan and the funding appropriated for this fiscal year. We also appointed, there was a vacancy in the Planning Commission, and Morgan Pierce, who was a former Historic Landmarks Board member, was appointed as a Planning Commissioner and has been for the past few months now active on the Planning Commission. We also appointed, we had three vacancies in our Historic Landmarks Board, and we appointed Aldo Mercado, Shasha Richardson, and Ben Brown to the Historic Landmarks Board, and they have now for the last few months have participated in HLB meetings. We also, Planning Commission reviewed and approved the Robin Sweeney Park Improvements Plan. In terms of current projects, again, I mentioned the General Plan Task Force is currently on our workload, in staffing and participating in that task force. We have initiated a short-term rental code enforcement program with the assistance of a code enforcement officer. That has begun and per council's direction to provide enforce our current prohibition on short-term rentals. We are going to come back to you by the end of this year and give you an update on that enforcement program. And we are currently conducting a historic evaluation report of the marine rails and shipways as directed by the council. This comes from the Marine Ship Steering Committee's recommendation that we review and assess the marine rails in determining how we look at land use with regard to that particular operation and the existing infrastructure and the marine rails. And this will come back to you at your meeting on November 10. And as I mentioned earlier, the regulations update, historic preservation regulations update. We are also updating our fee schedule. This was something that I know my predecessor was working on in terms of looking at cost recovery of the work that we do in terms of processing applications and updating those fees. With regard to the public counter, we were able to I think this past year has, provided the opportunity for me to assess our customer service and public counter balance with the workload and the projects to move projects forward and some of the behind the scenes. When we're not at the public counter, researching projects. preparing agenda reports, preparing staff reports for the various committees and commissions. That factored into some of the analysis on how we can better serve our customers while also moving forward with the work that we do on a daily basis. With an entirely new community development department staff, we have now a work of 540 schedule with the exception of one individual. But that 540 schedule is 8 to 5 every day, Monday through Friday. so with that we I am I've updated the new public counter hours to be Monday through Thursday 8 8 a.m. to 4.30, to better align with the new work schedule of folks. And Friday from 8 a.m. to 12. That doesn't change. Monday through Thursday is 8 a.m. to 4.30. We do have staff that comes in at 7.30, but for the purpose of getting, for example, the CAS register open and getting things organized for the day and, you know, getting the inspection schedule going in the morning, that half an hour enables that person to be ready for the 8.00 start time when the counter is open. And also for the 4.30 close time of the counter. that enables that person who's closing up to close the cash register because we take those transactions and to just, you know, file a lot of permit files away and take care of those things on the close of day. |
| 02:25:07.97 | Danny | In terms of 2016 priorities and goals, we are going to continue work on the general plan circulation element. I have been working throughout this year and we'll go into next year but my goal is to implement and have a planning and permit tracking software which I believe will will help make our work much more efficient in inventorying and tracking our software. Also the relationship with our plan checking with the various departments and improving that turnaround time when one gets construction projects applied for. Thank you. We are currently working on our, what I would like to be done is to have a formula retail ordinance amendment before the planning commission and the city council. Also, commissioner training in your mid-year budget. You did approve funding because we have new planning commissioners that they have the opportunity to receive some training on, I think, a very difficult job. And we also hope to, in 2016, adopt a new update to the historic preservation regulations. And what has come of late is parklets. As you know, earlier, over a year ago, the City Council approved a temporary parklet on Bridgeway. And, um, that review and assessment will come back to you as to whether the city council wishes to extend that or develop standards for this parklet and any other request for parklets throughout the city. And again, I mentioned the update to the fee schedule we hope to be complete by next year. |
| 02:27:11.34 | Danny | That concludes my report of the 2015 year in community development, and I'm available for any questions. |
| 02:27:20.00 | Jill Hoffman | Who would like to start off with questions? and for the rest of the day. |
| 02:27:25.65 | Unknown | Thank you. |
| 02:27:25.69 | Jill Hoffman | Thank you. |
| 02:27:26.48 | Unknown | Yes, thank you, Danny. Thanks for that thorough presentation. It's amazing how much has been accomplished. So congratulations to you and your team. I know you've hit the ground running since the beginning, and it's been quite exciting, no doubt. So thank you very much. I did have a question. The hour shift was a surprise to me. It looks like we're losing an hour from Tuesday through Thursday for the public access for the community development and a half hour on Friday. And I mean, why... I don't understand the catalyst for this. and I was wondering if you could elaborate on that a bit more because earlier days, I know that you had made the comment that Kenneth is at the counter every single minute. I know you guys are so busy and I appreciate the hard work you do. So in light of that, why are we reducing the hours? |
| 02:28:42.15 | Danny | I think, and you bring up a good point, I think it's counter in terms, I'm using the word counter, but it's counter to thinking in terms of providing the best and the most efficient service to the community. And I think what that does is better organize our staff so that when they do have the non-counter time, they're able to start their day and provide their, I mean, start their day and look at what their priorities are in the morning. Also a chance to have uninterrupted time to write their reports. Because it's not often just one planner, but there's two planners or three planners that come to the counter. What I'm looking and exploring for the future is, in fact, a reservation system so that people can come in and know that they can be helped at a certain time as opposed to sometimes there's two or three people deep before, and we can't guarantee a time that they will be. So they're waiting, I'm sure you experience that wherever you are, whether it's a doctor's office or at the DMV. Well, we hope that a reservation system will make that more efficient. But I found that with this bit of shaving in the morning and the afternoon, I think will help make our department much more efficient in terms of providing good customer service. |
| 02:30:04.75 | Unknown | So just to clarify then, what you're saying then is that the staff, do you have a set start time where everyone is in the office at 7.30 then? Is that it? |
| 02:30:17.51 | Danny | Is that it? Most of our staff is from 8 to 5. And we have one person that would begin at 730, and that's to account for, and that's our permit technician. Because that person needs to get all the inspection calls. Sometimes people leave, well, a majority of people leave messages on our inspection call-in line. And that gives the... Albert, that half hour to make sure that all those schedules are accounted for and that Kenneth has his workload for the day in terms of inspections done before the counter actually rolls up. |
| 02:30:52.61 | Unknown | THE FAMILY. |
| 02:30:52.86 | Unknown | THE END OF THE END OF THE |
| 02:30:55.92 | Unknown | So I guess I'm just trying to follow this because you've got, right now the hours are 730 to, what is it? 430 from Tuesday to Thursday or 5? Yes. Yeah, to 5. To 5 p.m. 730 to 5 from Tuesday to Thursday and that's open to the public. |
| 02:31:08.32 | Danny | about. 7 to 5 PM. to five. |
| 02:31:15.91 | Unknown | Now you're shifting it from 8 to 4.30, so that's a half hour on either end or an hour that the public does not have access. And you're saying that only one employee comes in at 7.30? and |
| 02:31:32.50 | Danny | Actually I should correct that. Kenneth and Albert come in at 7.30 to start their day. And right now, they start their day, and there are people who are there at 7.30. You have contractors who begin their morning. But they find it difficult to catch up with just starting their day. |
| 02:31:37.88 | Unknown | Okay. Okay. |
| 02:31:45.26 | Unknown | Thank you. |
| 02:31:45.29 | Unknown | you |
| 02:31:45.63 | Tricia Smith | Thank you. |
| 02:31:47.22 | Unknown | Thank you. |
| 02:31:47.25 | Unknown | Thank you. |
| 02:31:47.30 | Unknown | Thank you. |
| 02:31:47.37 | Unknown | Mm-hmm. |
| 02:31:52.02 | Unknown | Yeah. So you're still going to have the same amount of people in those hours, but they're just going to be behind the counter working before they come. Right. Okay. All right. So in other words, okay, thank you. |
| 02:32:08.71 | Danny | Thank you. |
| 02:32:08.82 | Jill Hoffman | you want. |
| 02:32:09.08 | Danny | Thank you. |
| 02:32:09.12 | Jill Hoffman | Thank you. |
| 02:32:12.33 | Jill Hoffman | Danny, you started out with your orchard, so It was a you started out in it with a tough challenge because you didn't have much staff and you had a lot of open positions. Now, do I take it that you're at a full complement at this point? I noticed that building officials still CSG. And do you plan to fill that with a permanent employee? |
| 02:32:33.18 | Danny | I think it's something that I can assess in the near future. Right now, our building official, by way of contract, satisfies the needs in Sausalito. Being a smaller city, I don't think we need the building official on a daily basis. I know Kenneth and I rely on the building official to make some determinations that aren't often the building inspector's role when it comes to much more complex, larger issues, and we can always call on Doug Ryder for that. The great thing about the contract service is that it's always a percentage of the fees. So his service is not, you know, if building activity is low or if it's higher, it's at a percentage for his services. |
| 02:33:19.20 | Jill Hoffman | So you are. You feel that now you're fully staffed. |
| 02:33:23.17 | Danny | Yes. |
| 02:33:23.20 | Jill Hoffman | Yes. Going forward. Good. Okay. Well, it's good to know. I mean, it's something the public needs to know because we've, you know, it was a tough year with that and now you're fully staffed and that's a great thing. |
| 02:33:29.82 | Unknown | All right. |
| 02:33:29.83 | Unknown | your friends. |
| 02:33:33.12 | Jill Hoffman | Other questions? |
| 02:33:34.94 | Unknown | Does Kenneth still do Tuesdays, his all-day counters? He does. |
| 02:33:39.30 | Danny | Thank you. He does. And that's something I'm working on with him. Tuesdays, if you ever come on a Tuesday during the day, it can be extremely, extremely busy for Kenneth, as well as a planner. Because oftentimes they're asking Kenneth something, and then Kenneth says, well, that's a planning issue. You've got to talk to the planner. So it's kind of double the time that a person spends there. But people come on Tuesdays because they know that Kenneth is available, and they can tend to take the time for that. I'd like to begin a reservation system starting on Tuesdays because they know that Kenneth is available and they can tend to take the time for that. I'd like to begin a reservation system starting on Tuesdays because I think it's – I have to tell you, Kenneth can't take a lunch sometimes. Thank you. |
| 02:34:16.04 | Unknown | That makes a lot of sense. That makes a lot of sense. |
| 02:34:18.87 | Danny | And I hope to be able to put it online so that people have the option of saying, well, I'm going to reserve a 20 minute time frame in which They can come in. |
| 02:34:29.00 | Unknown | No, my only comment is that I think the |
| 02:34:30.78 | Danny | We can. |
| 02:34:33.38 | Unknown | Well, okay. |
| 02:34:34.60 | Jill Hoffman | Any other questions? Right. |
| 02:34:37.45 | Unknown | I guess I do have one follow-up question to your observation. So to the question that you feel like you're fully staffed, but we know how busy Kenneth is. Is there the need for another building inspector? |
| 02:34:39.07 | Jill Hoffman | Oh, good. |
| 02:34:55.88 | Danny | I do want to assess that. Right now we seem to be okay with that. Tuesdays are extremely busy for him. And we do have on two days out of the month where we have CSG that helps offset where Kenneth can work on the administrative tasks that he has. So two days out of the month we do have a CSG inspector who takes Kenneth's job as a substitute and Kenneth can be in the office, is not at the counter, but is able to respond to emails, process his permits, plan check that is necessary and stamp the plans. Kenneth never complains, but I really want to keep monitoring his workload and make sure that he is not, he doesn't experience |
| 02:35:48.24 | Jill Hoffman | Any other questions? Okay, we'll open up to public comment. Any public comment on this item? Okay, sin. |
| 02:35:57.27 | Adam Politzer | Thank you. I'm looking at the... you |
| 02:36:01.05 | Jill Hoffman | Thank you. |
| 02:36:01.07 | Unknown | Mike. |
| 02:36:10.03 | Adam Politzer | Yeah, I'm looking at the, this is a request for waiver of fees regarding Cass Gidley Marina. Was that already discussed? That has been passed. We've waived the fees. That has been passed. Done, yeah, we've done it. That's done. Well, just one comment. I think it has something to do with community development. Is this Caskidly has been closed now for six years. |
| 02:36:35.22 | Unknown | Thank you. |
| 02:36:36.52 | Adam Politzer | And, um, There is the Modern Sailing Academy. They teach people in the yacht clubs do as well. And sometimes I do. I have a visitor here from France. I'm hosting people who are on Couchsurfers and a lot of others and teaching them how to sail. And we need a place to land and docks. So right now, this is kind of how I got involved in politics, was I put my boat at Caskedley's right after it was closed and that was a while ago so now we're at year six and I I guess maybe I need to talk to to Inca and the people who are who are doing that in the Lions Club and not just to the city council but uh Yes. So that's, yeah, that's it. Thank you. Thank you. And good night. |
| 02:37:27.72 | Jill Hoffman | Thank you. Okay, with no other public comment, we'll bring it back here for council comment. We'd like to start. |
| 02:37:37.83 | Unknown | My only comment is I think the reservation idea is an excellent idea. |
| 02:37:48.39 | Unknown | And if anybody tries to stay up with Kenneth Henry, Good luck, he really works very, very hard. And I do appreciate the idea that you're aware enough that you don't want to burn him out. So thank you for that. |
| 02:38:08.25 | Unknown | Yeah, I want to thank Danny for the presentation and again, all of the things that have been accomplished. I will say that I look forward to Danny's recommendation, you know, in terms of resources and the way forward in addition to the reservation system. with respect to the building inspector situation with Kenneth. I do think that, know it one of the questions to ask is you know if we were to lose uh you know kenneth uh it sounds like we would replace him with two people you know so i'm i'm just i'm just thinking that it it uh it – I look forward to the recommendation. It could very well be that we do need another full-time building inspector to back Kenneth up so that we have more – you know, not more bandwidth with that. |
| 02:39:15.70 | Unknown | Thank you, Danny. I think the it's great to see the department being rebuilt and the team starting to come together. So that's great. And, you know, over the years, as you probably are aware, I've had a pretty thorough working knowledge of your overall department, both building and planning. It's part of the nature of the job with building inspectors. They're always rushing around. But Kenneth is really good. I don't think people realize how you made the point that how inspections are important. I mean, you know, the night before, the day before you make a phone call, and you're asking for the inspector to show up the next day, you've got, you've probably got, I don't know how much of form work and rebar done that Kenneth must inspect, and you've had to pre-order concrete trucks, and if Kenneth didn't show up, thousands of dollars have gone down the drain or hardened in a concrete truck or whatever. So it's a critically important, you know, job. And Kenneth does it well. He does it really well. And it's great to see the team being built. So great. |
| 02:40:49.97 | Jill Hoffman | Danny, thank you for an excellent presentation and all the work you've done in the year you've been here. And a lot of progress we've made. I'm glad to see you're fully staffed. So now you've done a lot in the year building that up. So there'll be more to be done. I like the reservation system. I think that's really important because I've been down here many times on Tuesday. And it's difficult. So that just makes a lot more sense. I look forward to the permit tracking software. And Kenneth's getting aES A LOT MORE SENSE. I LOOK FORWARD TO PERMIT TRACKING SOFTWARE. AND KENNEDH IS GETTING A LOT OF AIRTIME TONIGHT. BUT I HAVE TO ADD ANOTHER PROPS AND ALSO THE COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT. KENNEDH TOOK TIME OUT OF A WELL ACKNOWLEDGED BUSY SCHEDULE TO ADDRESS AGE FRIENDLY. AND HE HAD A PACT THAT WAS Edgewater room, and it was really helpful to help them from a building inspectors perspective and to see what what can be done. It was people really, appreciated all the help one of the things that came from it was that when we do the permit review permit fee review They would like to see things like shower grab and such that would make things safer for for seniors to waive the permits. And that makes a lot of sense because that means that they're more apt to take out permits, get the help, and it'll make it a safer community. So I really appreciate Uh, the community development staff and specifically Kenneth in that case going outside their normal daily routine to help be proactive in protecting protecting our our residents and our seniors. So great job. That's it. Thanks. OK moving on to. Item 6D. approval of resolution to the 180 day wait period to hire a couple of retirees. I wonder who that is for government code sections. seven to seven five to two point five six and two one two two four and Lily will present it |
| 02:42:41.16 | Unknown | Thank you, Mr. Mayor. This is your last and final business item this evening. As we all know, Debbie Pagliaro retired on September 18th after 42 years with the city. The city is currently in need of immediate assistance with a backlog of records that we have, which Debbie took on as a special project during her time here. She was able to digitally archive all of the council's minutes, resolutions, and ordinances dating back to 1893. So we have all of that information now digitally. But there's still a massive backlog of records that need to be identified, sorted, organized, and retained or purged. And if they're retained, they then need to be scanned, tagged, labeled, and then archived for the public and staff's use. Statutes require a recent retiree to wait 180 days before working for a CalPERS employer, unless authorized by the City Council to return within that 180 days. CalPERS requires the Council to formally adopt a resolution approving the return within 180 days, and then the resolution needs to just be sent to CalPERS, and no further action is required. The position is limited to a total number of 960 hours per year and Debbie would work between 12 to 15 hours per week. She's the most qualified person to assist with this special project. And she can also train other employees with the city and using the records management system that we currently have. With that, staff is recommending the council adopt a resolution approving the exception to the 180-day rule. |
| 02:44:25.61 | Jill Hoffman | Thank you. Thank you. Council questions? Would you like to start? Anybody have questions? No questions. Moving on to public comment. We have no public, so we'll close public comment and move on to council discussion. Anyone have any comments? Thank you. I think it makes a lot of sense. I think we're very lucky to have somebody with 42 years experience in Sausalito available to take on that type of task, which is she's perfectly, you know, perfectly suited for that. And, and this is merely a technicality that comes here because normally the rules require 180 day wait. So it makes a lot of sense. And I certainly suggest that we do that. Would someone like to make a motion? |
| 02:45:10.65 | Unknown | when the |
| 02:45:12.93 | Jill Hoffman | again. |
| 02:45:13.20 | Unknown | Thank you. |
| 02:45:13.98 | Unknown | Thank you. |
| 02:45:13.99 | Unknown | Yeah. |
| 02:45:17.60 | Unknown | OK. So moved. I'm just so moved. Do we need to read? |
| 02:45:18.78 | Jill Hoffman | I'll move. I'll just so move it. Do we need to read? |
| 02:45:21.72 | Unknown | Thank you. |
| 02:45:21.87 | Jill Hoffman | We don't need to read it. Read it. Okay. I'm sorry. Okay, we'd like a second. So he's moving to approve the resolution specified in attachment one to item 60. And we have we have a second. Yeah. Okay. All in favor. Aye. Aye. |
| 02:45:29.32 | Unknown | I'll say it. the, |
| 02:45:38.70 | Unknown | Yeah. |
| 02:45:38.95 | Unknown | Okay. |
| 02:45:39.29 | Unknown | Thank you. |
| 02:45:40.54 | Unknown | Hi. |
| 02:45:41.08 | Tricia Smith | Thank you. |
| 02:45:41.68 | Jill Hoffman | That's unanimous for, oh, okay. Great. Thank you. Now we move on to item 7A, city manager, information for council. |
| 02:45:50.66 | Adam Politzer | Thank you, Mr. Mayor and council members. I think what you're hearing tonight earlier with the sewer update, you had the quarterly report, which was kind of his annual report. Danny's anniversary of being with the city will be later next month. So I think as well-deserved, he really has brought the Department of Community Development full circle. and I think we're getting a lot of very positive comments from the community, both on his leadership with the community and also his leadership within the organization. So nice to have someone of Danny's skill and also his personality, very warm and welcoming and inclusive, and I think that that's also being represented by the warm and welcoming and inclusive. And I think that that's also being represented by the people that Danny is hiring and also very well deserved and nice recognition for Kenneth Henry, who you also remember came as part of the Southern Marine Management Academy as one of our graduates from that program. And you heard from him his own genuine And thanks for allowing him to participate in that program for him to continue to grow. and develop as a professional. I think as the community development department gets their feedback solidly underground and we start taking on some of these long-range planning projects that are before us that Danny laid out in his program, similar with our public works department, looking at the pretty aggressive capital improvement projects that we've been working on and we continue to work on, including an aggressive ADA improvement program, an aggressive streets program, and obviously all the other important infrastructure projects that await us going into the future. I think when we have information coming forward in the next few council meetings, and I just want to clarify a couple things on the future council agenda. The folks that are in charge of the tourist impact plan, they held their forum earlier this month at the Spinnaker, very well attended, and I think a lot of positive feedback was provided by the community to the organizers. They were scheduled to come to the November 17th council meeting. You'll see on the future agenda that's what's indicated. They've communicated through the mayor that they would like to postpone until the end of the year, potentially beginning of next year so we anticipate them coming sometime in 2016 either january or february as time allows and as their schedule also allows i also wanted to call to the council's attention that um we traditionally only have one meeting in december and so through the agenda setting and working with staff and we're recommending that we cancel the December 15th City Council meeting but ask you to hold that on your calendars in case we need to hold a special council meeting you just don't know what items come up that needs council attention. So since you have it on your calendars now, as a regularly scheduled meeting, I'm asking you to hold it as a potential special meeting. But at this moment, the council agenda setting committee has forecasted that we will not need that meeting date. So we will have our traditional one meeting in December. Also worth noting that the city clerk and I, that Lily and I are both working and looking at next year's calendar. If there are dates that you already know that you're traveling or have conflicts, please let us know as soon as possible. We hope to have this proposed calendar out to you potentially by the end of this week, early next week. And important to note that our first meeting in January would be the 12th. The first Tuesday in January is the day after we come back from the winter holiday, New Year's vacation. And so we'll be postponing the first meeting till the 12th, which if you look back the last few years is traditionally when we've started our first meeting of the calendar year. So as soon as you get that, critically important that you get that information to us, because it's just not our calendar that we are working on. It's the planning commission that usually doves off of ours. So we're every other Tuesday, they're every other Wednesday, and they try to be off. WE CAN TAKE A LOOK AT THE We have sustainability commission, the HLB, the Variety of Task Force, Parks and Recreation Commission, so on and so forth. And then we have finance committee, OMIT meetings, all the various council committees that are also dominoing off of when council meetings happen. So we can't have a council meeting. and then find ourselves with a finance committee meeting, which we have tomorrow. vice versa have a finance committee meeting before a councilman because we're trying to make recommendations to the council from these committee meetings and give staff enough time to prepare staff reports and get those documents to to the council so the calendar on the surface to the public probably looks pretty easy but internally it's it's a it's a moving target with a lot of complexities to it so we'll try to get that out to you as as early as Friday but potentially early next week and then then the other staff members will work with their boards and commissions and task force to set their schedules for the year and then we'll post those on the website Two other quick items to share is that you may have noticed that the meter heads have started coming off starting today. And so they are as quickly as they're taking them off, they're trying to get them back on. They have to be at the new height, which is ADA accessible. and with the new meter heads that accept credit cards. So, you know, as we shorten the meters and put the new heads on, we'll be moving into the latest technology of collecting parking revenues. And then bike parking is the other item that will change. Tracy Way is scheduled to open up this week. And bike parking is scheduled to end as we know it in terms of the ambassadors collecting fees and so the bike and pet committee are continuing to work with staff looking at Thank you. the challenges that we'll still exist out there. because the queuing of the ferry landing is still going to be an issue with or without the bike parking piece of it. So the police department has reached out to the ferry district and trying to get the ferry district to take responsibility of managing the queue. And so as we continue to have nice weather, that responsibility doesn't fall on to the ambassadors. As we've shared before, the police department in coordination with the Ped and Bike Committee will be coming on the November 17th Council meeting to give a year-end report, a little bit more comprehensive report than what you got from the bike and Ped, looking at it from the lens of the police department, working collaboration of all the partners that are involved, And then... little buzzing going on. And then talking about next steps. So between November and February, we'll be coming back with next steps on implementing the next season's congestion management plan as we move forward with Sausalito Plus and the ferry district and all the other players involved. It does look like we have a very full agenda on the November 10th meeting. And just to remind the council that we have the Forest Street Appeal coming back on that meeting, we directed the two parties to work with Danny and other professionals to see if there are any compromises that can be made. They have had at least two meetings with Danny, and I know that their consultants and architects have been working with the various folks to try to come up with compromise. So that could be a very quick appeal and resolution or it could be another longer process. So that meeting, come prepared, obviously review your past notes. You guys all did a very good job in preparing for the original appeal, but I don't want to give anyone false impression that just because we sent them off to go work together, that they're gonna come back with it nicely and a nice gift box and a bow and a greeting card. That is usually not what happens. So come prepared for that. We'll be looking now that we have opened up a little bit of time with the tourist impact plan not coming on the 17. We'll probably look to the police department to come forward with some of the. post recommendations that were presented to you early in the year and we indicated we were to come back and drill down in some of those recommendations, including seasonal staffing options versus hiring full-time people to work year-round to address some of the issues that came up in the post report. So I'll work with the agenda setting committee to see if that still remains a priority to the agenda setting committee and compare it to some of the other items that may be a potential to come on to the evening of the 17th. That concludes my report. We are actively interviewing on Monday six candidates for the administrative services director. And we are still evaluating the police chief position in terms of what the department needs now five years after we hired Jennifer. And what the community needs five years after we hired Jennifer. And what the senior management team, including the city manager city manager needs in its next police chief we're very happy and very pleased that Scott Paulin is is back working for us in the interim capacity but we're also very mindful that the clock is running with him and we only have him for a short period of time so we're maximizing his expertise and guidance and his collaborative approach with the department and specifically with captain Robacher that concludes my report happy to answer any questions of the council |
| 02:56:43.17 | Unknown | Any council questions? |
| 02:56:46.17 | Adam Politzer | Thank you. |
| 02:56:46.19 | Jill Hoffman | Okay, we have nobody in the public, so we'll pass on public comment on the next several items. So we'll move on. No council comments on this. Okay, next is council member committee reports. |
| 02:57:01.24 | Unknown | Any? Oh, you have the other reports of significance. Yeah, significance. |
| 02:57:02.57 | Jill Hoffman | Thank you. |
| 02:57:08.09 | Unknown | Oh, I just want to put a plug in for the Butte property and the fundraising efforts and to let folks know who are watching this that Open Space Sausalito is raising funds to keep that. It's the last largest open space site in Sausalito. It has more than 100 species of birds and birds. many, many, many wildlife, gray fox, coyote, deer, etc. So anyway, we're doing the fundraising and encourage everyone to take a look at the website, which is www.openspacesausalito.org, and please donate. Thank you. |
| 02:57:52.08 | Jill Hoffman | Thank you. any other Councilmember, committee reports. Okay, moving on to future agenda items. |
| 02:57:59.86 | Unknown | I've mentioned this before, and I haven't seen it waitlisted yet, but drones, some sort of legislation with respect to drones. I don't know if I'm just ahead of the curve on that. You sound way ahead. |
| 02:58:16.23 | Jill Hoffman | You sound way ahead because I'm not, certainly, |
| 02:58:19.17 | Unknown | Well, I've seen a couple of residents have been disturbed by drones, you know, kind of dropping on their decks and hovering around and invading their privacy. So anyway, I just wanted to share that. |
| 02:58:32.70 | Unknown | I know. you Okay. The there's some federal legislation being planned and it may very well be better to see what the feds are going to do before we move. |
| 02:58:42.73 | Jill Hoffman | Thank you. |
| 02:58:42.78 | Unknown | Thank you. |
| 02:58:42.81 | Jill Hoffman | Yeah. |
| 02:58:42.96 | Unknown | you Oh, okay. I didn't know that. Okay, good. |
| 02:58:45.17 | Unknown | Thank you. |
| 02:58:45.19 | Jill Hoffman | you |
| 02:58:45.27 | Unknown | Thank you. Oh, yeah. |
| 02:58:45.58 | Jill Hoffman | Thank you. It's a major problem. Anything else on the future agenda items? Seeing none, other reports of significance. |
| 02:58:53.81 | Unknown | Yeah, I'd like to spend a couple of minutes to report on the fact that Councilmember Weiner and I were in Chile last week visiting our sister city, Vina del Mar. We were accompanying the sister city delegation, probably, it's better to say, led by Monica Finnegan and Karen Aitken. Kathy Styroff was there as well as Oh, and of course, Susan Rowe, who heads up all of our Sister City programs. To remind you, the focus of the Vigne de Mar relationship is a mentoring program that our team has provided to a group of women entrepreneurs in an organization called AHEP, which has been established for actually a very long period of time. The reason we were over at this particular time was that they were celebrating their 50th anniversary of the foundation of that organization. So Hervey and I were over there. Just a couple of highlights that I think people may be very interested in. We met with the mayor of Sausselin, of Vigna, Virginia Reganado, who we now know quite well. Let's remember, Herbie rejuvenated this relationship in 2010. And it's a very active relationship. And the city was very receptive to our being there. We have a park here. Our major park is right in downtown is Vina del Mar Park. What many people may not know is that there is a major park, lagoon, and stadium, sports stadium, called um at Sausalito Park and Sausalito Stadium. And this was closed for a while and underwent a major renovation. So Virginia presented us for the city with a medal. them that we will |
| 03:01:26.62 | Unknown | That's beautiful. |
| 03:01:27.68 | Unknown | I'll put in the safekeeping of our city manager and maybe we can figure out some way to display that in our case or whatever. It says the inauguration of, I'm translating the inauguration of Sausalito Stadium 2015, Vina del Mar, and presented to us in recognition of the visit of the delegation of Sausalito, Sister City, Vina del Mar, October 2015. So that's a really nice thing that we received. The second thing is that on their 50th anniversary, what the major thing that the AHEP friends were putting together was a major exhibition of all their work and the fruits of all of the actually some of the work that our team had been helping with them with over a number of years there's a there's a branding platform in San Francisco called SF made and it allows smaller |
| 03:02:01.73 | Tricia Smith | thing. |
| 03:02:41.12 | Unknown | uh, I'm not sure. cottage groups in and some pretty large ones actually at times in San Francisco to brand together and form a brand. So these ladies have put together a H.O. in Valparaiso which is made in Valparaiso. as a brand and this was a major event going on in Valparaiso or one of the major events going on in Valparaiso. So we went to that. We visited Valparaiso a number of times. We had the good fortune to meet with Jorge Munoz, who is the mayor of Valparaiso. He actually embraced the whole program and us and was very supportive. He actually came to three events which three maybe four events which is amazing because Valparaiso is second largest city in Chile and is a very very important city. So he spent a lot of time with us, a lot of time with our group, and was very supportive. This is the first time we'd met him. He actually wanted to, insisted that we maintain the relationship with him and with the city and thinking of something to do. Don't worry, we're not going to have a fourth sister City program, so don't worry. But, you know, it was very, very warm reception that we got from him. And then finally, and this is what makes going to that particular region a lot of fun, it's like going to, even though the weather is almost exactly the same as San Francisco and Sausalito, it's a lot like being in San Diego or like in Norfolk, Virginia, because it is the center of the Chilean Navy, Valparaiso and Vina del Mar. And what a lot of people don't realize is that Chile is probably our closest military ally in South America, in particular the Navy. We just happen to coincide with the fact that every year, every October, their spring, our fall, the U.S. and Chile with other South American countries, including New Zealand this year, hold major, major naval and joint military exercises. So the USS George Washington aircraft carrier was down there, together with the whole of the carrier strike group. And our delegates and the AHEP group, who were all women, were very excited, as we all were, to learn that the carrier strike group |
| 03:03:45.40 | Tricia Smith | Thank you. |
| 03:05:41.21 | Unknown | actually, headed with the carrier, USS George Washington, is actually commanded by a woman, Rear Admiral Lisa Fracelli from the United States. And it was a very interesting sort of synergistic theme that one of our senior naval commanders was down there, and everybody was excited about that. You know, it's always amazing each time you are in a place where our men and women in uniform are to see how, what great ambassadors they are for our country because they are, we, I mean many who stay in the hotel we stay in and they're all over the place. You know, just to see them act with being great ambassadors, acting with decorum, openness, friendliness and enormous professionalism, it sort of always brings a lump to your throat when you're down there to see that so overall I think it was an extremely productive trip there was a bunch of other stuff we did but it's you know so Herbie I don't know if you want to add anything yeah and And so thanks to our delegation, thanks to add anything. I was just being Herbie. Yeah. And so thanks to our delegation, thanks to its leaders and all their hard work because Sausalito is respected around the world and it's certainly very well respected in Chile. |
| 03:07:13.53 | Unknown | The only other thing I will add to, there was a tremendous amount of pressure. when they redid the stadium to change the name. Because the big corporations wanted to get in there. But they wouldn't let them in. They wanted to keep it Sausalito. So it was really very comforting how they felt about it. |
| 03:07:36.43 | Unknown | Well, I just want to say that that just sounds like an amazing trip. And I just am so impressed with the whole Sister City program and everything they do. And just congratulations on a wonderful visit and everything that was accomplished there. That's great. |
| 03:08:00.58 | Jill Hoffman | And thank you both for going down there and being representatives and everyone that was in the delegation. |
| 03:08:06.77 | Unknown | Thank you. |
| 03:08:08.39 | Jill Hoffman | Any other reports of significance? Okay, so I think we're adjourned. Thanks. |
Doreen Gennard — In Favor: As Park and Rec chair, highlighted the community process leading to ready park plans, directed people to yesonmeasuref.com for facts, and expressed confidence in completing the parks. ▶ 📄