| Time | Speaker | Text |
|---|---|---|
| 00:00:05.09 | Joe Burns | Okay. you We're ready? |
| 00:00:10.16 | Joan Cox | Good evening and welcome to the A regular meeting of the Sausalito City Council Tuesday, February 14th. Lillie, would you take the role please? |
| 00:00:21.95 | Unknown | Councilmember Weiner? |
| 00:00:23.07 | Joan Cox | President. |
| 00:00:23.81 | Unknown | Council member Burns? |
| 00:00:25.04 | Joan Cox | Present. |
| 00:00:25.80 | Unknown | Vice Mayor Cox? Here. Mayor Withy? |
| 00:00:28.09 | Joan Cox | here. We will be discussing items D1 and D2 in closed session. D1, conference with legal counsel. existing litigation and conference with legal counsel, existing litigation. One is Terrace's Homeowners Association claim. The other is Ravi Murthy. Morthy claim on 47 Marin Avenue. Is there any public comment for items on this closed session agenda? Thank you. Seeing none, we will adjourn into closed session. |
| 00:01:19.06 | Joan Cox | Good evening. Welcome to the regular meeting of the Sausalito City Council for Tuesday, February the 14th. Lily, would you call the roll, please? |
| 00:01:31.86 | Unknown | Councilmember Weiner. |
| 00:01:32.94 | Joan Cox | THE COUNTRY. |
| 00:01:33.59 | Unknown | Councilmember Burns. |
| 00:01:34.80 | Joan Cox | THE FAMILY. |
| 00:01:34.97 | Unknown | you Vice Mayor Cox? Here. Mayor Withy? |
| 00:01:38.41 | Joan Cox | here. Bill Ring, would you lead us in the Pledge of Allegiance tonight, please? |
| 00:01:45.95 | Jeffrey Chase | Yeah, there we go. |
| 00:01:51.15 | Jeffrey Chase | Thank you. |
| 00:01:51.27 | Unknown | Thank you. |
| 00:01:51.29 | Jeffrey Chase | I pledge allegiance to the flag |
| 00:01:51.44 | Joan Cox | I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America. |
| 00:01:53.28 | Unknown | of the United States of America. |
| 00:01:55.98 | Joan Cox | and to the republic for which it stands. |
| 00:01:57.78 | Alice Merrill | Thank you. |
| 00:01:57.97 | Unknown | Thank you. |
| 00:01:59.14 | Joan Cox | one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. |
| 00:02:06.00 | Joan Cox | Thank you, Bill. |
| 00:02:11.88 | Joan Cox | There are no closed session announcements. Our vice mayor has a brief announcement. |
| 00:02:20.68 | Joan Cox | Yes, I wanted to state for the record that I recused myself from item 1D or D1 in closed session due to a conflict of interest because I reside at the terraces of Sausalito. |
| 00:02:36.12 | Joan Cox | Thank you very much. Is there any public comment on the closed session items? Okay, seeing none, we now Oh, yeah, I will. Yeah. Thank you. Before we move on to the approval of the agenda, Council Member, I want to let you know that Council Member Hoffman unfortunately can't be here tonight. She is out of town on a personal matter and we wish her well. Approval of the agenda is the next topic. I want to recommend some changes to the agenda, if I may. The first is that item 6. |
| 00:03:35.42 | Joan Cox | E. which is... the adopt a resolution of the City Council of the City of Sausalito to authorize the City Manager to execute the professional services agreement with the M Group for the general plan update. We are going to continue that item, move that item, for two weeks' time on February 28th. So that will not be on the agenda tonight, if my colleagues agree. And even though we will come to the consent calendar later on, item number 4B, which is to adopt a resolution confirming solid waste collection and disposal rates, are going to pull that and move that into item 6A, let's call it 6A1, which would be the first of the business items, and then we will immediately follow with the update on vegetation management, which we'll call 6A2. Assuming our city attorney is happy with that. Okay. With those two changes, we'll obviously come to the consent later. With those two changes, do I have a motion for approval of the agenda? |
| 00:04:56.49 | Joan Cox | I move approval of the agenda as amended. |
| 00:04:59.65 | Joan Cox | I'll second. All in favor? Aye. Any opposed? Okay, that motion carries. |
| 00:05:01.76 | Joan Cox | Hi. |
| 00:05:11.73 | Joan Cox | We have a special presentation this evening, and our Public Works Director, City Engineer, Jonathan Goldman. |
| 00:05:26.27 | Unknown | . |
| 00:05:28.30 | Jonathon Goldman | Thank you, Mr. Mayor, members of the council, staff, members of the community. I'm pleased to announce the newest addition to the Department of Public Works's team, Ana Rezension, who's the new administrative aide. Come on up, Ana. She holds a Bachelor's of Science degree in Secondary Education from Texas A&M in Kingsville, Texas. Worked previously for Emerus Holdings Corporate Office in the Woodlands, Texas, just north of Houston, as an Engagement Programs Manager, where she managed company meetings, seminars, events, and various employee engagement applications. She also worked for USO Houston as a programs manager, implementing and managing services and programming for the military and their families. On his first day with the city was Tuesday, January 17th. And she has continued to report for work regularly since then, which I personally am incredibly grateful. She's very excited about her new role with the Department of Public Works and will be an essential asset in supporting the department. Ana recently moved to Sausalito from the Woodlands, Texas, with her husband, Michael, and together they have three grown daughters. She enjoys jogging and going to the movies in her spare time, and I'm sure will enjoy the new Sausalito Theater as soon as we can get it open. So please help me in welcoming Ana to our city of Sausalito team. |
| 00:06:55.75 | Jonathon Goldman | The Press. |
| 00:06:58.92 | Ana Rezension | Thank you, Jonathan. That was very nice. Just want to say that it is an honor to be a part of the city of Sausalito. I'm very excited to be a part of the Public Works Department. I plan to do an awesome job for the city and to serve all of the people that of the city of Sausalito as well. Thank you very much. |
| 00:07:20.91 | Joan Cox | Thank you, Anna. |
| 00:07:36.63 | Joan Cox | Thank you, and welcome to honor. Item two is communications, and this is the time for the City Council to hear from citizens regarding matters that are not on the agenda. And I think as you all know, except in very limited situation, state law precludes the Council from taking action or really engaging in any discussions concerning items of business that are not on the agenda. I have a number of cards for items that are not on the agenda. Let me just... Quickly go through them. OK. And I'm going to call your name out. And please come up. And remember, you have three minutes. And please address the council. So I'm not any particular orders, just the ones I've sorted. Michael Grelnick? Microp, please. |
| 00:08:39.85 | Michael Grelnick | Good evening. As I think all of you know, I represent the laundromat, its customers, my family, my daughter Faith is here to learn about civics. And two comments on the situation. You all know the situation. I want to thank you for taking it as seriously as you have, recognizing that this is a public service and I think as you know, to the benefit of the city and the sewers systems reducing water, you know the arguments already, and I thank you for taking this seriously, Mr. Goldman's work, in moving this along. I want to raise two things. One is... Uh, As City Council members, I understand your position, which is if you exempt us, what happens if everybody else shows up asking for an exemption? The people likely to do that are restaurants, and I want to submit for your consideration if this becomes an issue. that there's a difference between a lot of that. This is a public service at a restaurant which people do not need to use. So just consider if you think you're gonna get flack from restaurants that I don't think that should be an issue. The second of the two points is I would ask you You know from the motion that the time constraints I have with the machinery coming in for Tiburon and us having to make the decision about whether to proceed it or lose the order, which is probably gonna come in in late February. If Mr. Goldman and NDS reach A RECOMMENDATION WHICH IS WORKABLE. and it can't be signed off on prior to this coming city council meeting in two weeks. I would ask you to see if you can find a way to approve whatever is agreed upon and recommended outside of the city council so we don't have to wait another month. Those are the requests, and I thank you for taking this seriously. |
| 00:10:38.55 | Joan Cox | Thank you, sir. Um, the next one. I've got Nancy And Patricia, is that two of you? Yeah, or one of you? Two. Okay. Okay. |
| 00:10:52.92 | Unknown | Thank you. English problems. |
| 00:10:54.71 | Joan Cox | No problem. No problem. Thank you. |
| 00:10:54.75 | Unknown | you |
| 00:11:03.25 | Nancy Lee | My name is Nancy Lee. She's gonna help me for the translation. I have English problems. |
| 00:11:11.59 | Patricia Cornell | So basically what Nancy would like to convey to everybody, and this I can attest to the truth, is that Nancy Ashley has been a business owner in Saucido for more than 27 years. She owned the Sauceta Market on Caledonia Street for 27 years and now the Um, a laundromat for six years. She's also a friend of mine because I've been in this town for over 25 years. And my concern is two things basically. AND I WANT TO TAKE A LOOK Nancy pretty much does most of the work at the laundromat. So if the laundromat closes, then she will lose her job and she does have to, she has children to support And that's one thing that I like to say. And as a customer of the laundromat, I don't know where else I would go to do my laundry because The other laundromat is so far at the other end of town, and it's hard to get there for people who don't have a car. It's kind of a, if you've got a lot of laundry, it's a lot to carry on the bus. And those hours are very short. They don't stay open as late, and they're not, I don't even think they're open on Sundays, which is like a lot of people do their laundry on the weekends. So that's very hard to get to. And also, you I'm kind of confused as to the amount, what this, really is all about. I'm actually just new to learning about it. But I'm kind of wondering the money part of it, the financial part of it. Why really does there have to be such a hike and the fees and all of these things are going on. I mean, I haven't seen any evidence that any of that's really necessary. And so, Basically, Is there anything else that you wanted me to say? |
| 00:13:16.99 | Nancy Lee | I like disabled laundromats. |
| 00:13:20.08 | Patricia Cornell | She just said, Nancy's Korean, and what she just said was that she would like to save the laundromat But there's so many of us that use that laundromat. It's not like that it's not a need. It's utilized every day and a lot of customers use it. So maybe you could keep that in mind when you're thinking about the future of anything financial. Um, And anything else? That's it, except I, my last concern is once again, I guess the laundromat owner has other places of laundromats. Like I said, I'm just new into coming into this problem. Just a second, please. It's in Tiburon. So that would be really far for people to go. And once again, if you could just think about the money, is this really necessary, what you're doing to everybody in the community? Thank you. |
| 00:14:18.73 | Joan Cox | Thank you Nancy, thank you Patricia. Rick Kornow. |
| 00:14:34.51 | Rick Kornow | Thank you. Always has a flair for the dramatic. Thank you. So... So what I thought I would do, introduce myself and my flag. I've used the laundromat for over 15 years in Sausalito here locally. In the past two years, I've known that Michael has not only renovated the entire laundromat. He's also instigated hours that close at 11 PM, which before it was open 24 hours, it was subject to a lot of extracurricular activities. So I'd like to commend Michael for his commitment to reducing his water usage 67 percent. only to see that almost 2,000% on an annual basis is what he has to pay. So I plead with the council for a fairness in the way that his wastewater services are billed, and I trust that all of our friends will have compassion on him and concern for his business. I'd also like to raise, in addition to enjoying clean shorts, and these are clean, by the way. I'd like to... illustrate one other point is that the parking close to the street is you know, is open to the public. For commuters, they park there all day and there are three businesses in that lot. that service the area. There's Pilates business, and her sessions run six to eight students for an hour. There's the 7-Eleven and there's Michaels. And I've, especially on weekends, driven up with lots of laundry only to find there's no parking available. And I'd like to know why this isn't two-hour parking, why it's not enforced. The signs are not up. It's open to commuters to park there freely all day long. |
| 00:16:19.84 | Mary Wagner | I'm not a fan. |
| 00:16:25.04 | Rick Kornow | So, if you would consider that in addition to making it fair for a a citizen in our community who I believe really gets it. and wants to invest in Sausalito and not leave Sausalito. And so thank you for your consideration. |
| 00:16:40.99 | Joan Cox | Thank you, Rick. Um... Kevin Koefer, I have two cards for you, one for a later agenda item, but I believe you wanted to communicate on items not on the agenda, is that right? |
| 00:17:01.52 | Kevin Kuefer | No, actually, I... you I'll go ahead and pass it. |
| 00:17:05.44 | Joan Cox | Okay, thank you. Jeff Jacobs. |
| 00:17:15.92 | Jeffrey Chase | Hello, Mayor and City Council and citizens of Sausalito. The laundromat has received mail. as a house of refuge for the anchorage of Sausalito. During storms and bad weather, especially, people need a place to not die. get out on their skiffs or their kayaks, and they're not going to make it to their boat, and the laundromat It used to be a place that was open overnight. I would go there on Wednesdays, and we would bring poetry and music And like that, and this is a poem that was written there at the laundromat about this Wednesday Eve And the spring has sprung a leak. Birds and flowers despite it all, A bangy or big bang is what the poet sees. Hump day on a twisty blue ball Sends flying those strong and those meek Over imaginary heavens and walls and they stopped working eight days a week. The coyote below waits for their stall. The stork is wetting her beak. If they can just flap their flappers and not cry out in a seagull brawl over a piece of bread in a creek, A wrong word could make them fall, and Icarusian endings too bleak. So leave them there with their boots floating tall. Some look now like a Valentine's baby or other airborne freak. One recites with a deep southern drawl Another translates it to Greek. Coyote goes without even a growl. Now go to learn a song from an eagle that waits on the highest peak. And the portion for the month, The portion for this week is about Mount Sinai, which is for the Israelites. a very high peak where we get a very high law. And the law is basic, which is that we help each other. And the laundromat has helped a lot of people. I'm doing my laundry right now. at John Fee Park. My stuff is hanging right near the fountain. I'm doing it by hand. But I was planning on going to the laundromat to dry. Maybe not, maybe I'll put it out of my boom, I'm not sure yet. The rate was raised from $300 and something to $6,000. They say that what happens is often An atrocity is is hitting in between two layers of banality, like two layers of Wonder Bread. and In this case, I think it would be an atrocity if this laundromat were to close for everybody in Sausalito. So keep it open, please. |
| 00:20:18.81 | Joan Cox | Thank you, Jeff. Kevin. |
| 00:20:24.18 | Kevin Kuefer | Kevin Kiefer I'm anchor out so technically not a resident but technically I do fall under I believe the sphere of influence of the city And there's been a lot of questions lately about the enhanced enforcement of the bay, and obviously something needs to be done. But I came across a little bit of research. I came across some questions concerning the public trust over parcels of the bay or sections of the bay. I brought them up at meetings here in this chamber with both the city of Sausalito and at meetings with the RBRA and they've never been addressed and they've never been brought up as an agenda topic. So according to Assembly Bill number 2620, The tidelands and submerged lands have been granted public trust status. So public trust requires that there is a public trustee. So whether or not that trustee is this city, or if the special district, the special area of Richardson Bay has been redistricted from who knows, an enclave of San Francisco Bay, an enclave of federal jurisdiction during the war. It doesn't appear to be part of the Coastal Commission, so it is an enclave. but it is under the direction of the State Lands Commission. Therefore, the state legislature has determined it is public trust, public trust Parcels are subject to reporting. State Comptroller's Office offers directives for determining parcel tax reporting. No agency that I can find in my research has been reporting any of the Thailand revenues. Whether they're taxes, whether they're citations, whether fees, penalties, none of them are being reported. The public trust is not being met and it needs to be. The State Comptroller's Office has required fiduciary reporting changes. And those are required to be done each year annually. The RBRA does biannual when it does them. Audits, those don't qualify. The state comptroller's office knows that there are several thousand agencies, special districts and agencies that are not meeting its requirements. This one needs to be met because we are not talking about pocket change. We're talking about millions of dollars over the course of decades. |
| 00:23:21.89 | Joan Cox | Thank you. I have no other cards. Is there anybody else who'd like to address the Council on matters that are not on the agenda? Okay. See you in a minute. Please? |
| 00:23:44.23 | Faith Ann | By the way, my name is actually Faith Ann. I know you want to cost more and... You guys want to cost less, so why can't you just put it in between? |
| 00:24:11.11 | Unknown | Yes, he was just kidding. I keep the water on the surface. Okay. Thank you. |
| 00:24:17.59 | Faith Ann | Good. Okay, and the other people say, give the laundromat open, and I say that too. Thank you. |
| 00:24:24.22 | Joan Cox | Okay. |
| 00:24:26.16 | Michael Grelnick | you |
| 00:24:26.18 | Faith Ann | Thank you. |
| 00:24:26.20 | Michael Grelnick | Bye. |
| 00:24:26.23 | Faith Ann | And... |
| 00:24:27.97 | Michael Grelnick | I think I'd rather not have a split difference. I'd rather the full exemption to split difference. |
| 00:24:31.08 | Faith Ann | Yeah. That's good. |
| 00:24:35.33 | Rick Kornow | you Good job. Thank you. |
| 00:24:38.35 | Faith Ann | you And why don't keep the whole country together and keep the whole world together forever? The end. |
| 00:24:58.04 | Unknown | you |
| 00:24:58.19 | Jonathon Goldman | It's up. |
| 00:24:59.02 | Unknown | Yeah. |
| 00:25:00.66 | Joan Cox | Thank you very much. You're very brave getting up there. |
| 00:25:03.68 | Unknown | Yeah. |
| 00:25:05.35 | Joan Cox | Okay. |
| 00:25:18.61 | Mike McKinley | Your Honor, City Council members, Mike McKinley, I'm the Emergency Services Coordinator for the city, work for the SPD. During our last couple months, we've had some serious storms that have created some issues in our town. Mud slides and trees down, power outages, responses by fire into Richardson Bay for those type of activities, but I would like to really thank Jonathan He's gone. Oh, there he is. Jonathan Goldman, Public Works Department. I mean, I had the pleasure of working with Jonathan in our Emergency Operations Center, which we have activated twice during the storms, and been in the field with him and watching his crews, and the extraordinary service they provided to folks that were threatened by the landslides or impacted by the landslides and mud inundation. So again, wonderful public works department beyond what they really had to do to service the citizens of the city. So I thought I'd better take the opportunity now. So thank you. |
| 00:26:26.97 | Joan Cox | Thank you. Thank you, Mike. And I'm not supposed to make any comment, but thank you and all your colleagues for all the hard work you've done during this very difficult time. |
| 00:26:50.16 | Joan Cox | THEIR OWN. |
| 00:26:54.66 | Joan Cox | Patricia, you wanted to talk about the homeless shelter Okay, that's not on the agenda, so if you wanted to say something, |
| 00:27:07.32 | Joan Cox | briefly. |
| 00:27:08.70 | Patricia Cornell | Okay. Patricia Cornell. And, yes, in light of, I think this would be a good time, in light of the Lake Oroville situation with everybody, all those evacuees, I was really happy that they were all given emergency homeless shelters. There was fairgrounds, churches, just a whole line of things for them, and all of those people were taken care of. And yet, Saucito still does not, although they have been advised to do so for a couple years, if not more, to have an emergency homeless shelter. And I'm kind of, I have some ideas about that as a young 20 year old something gentleman said one time to everybody here one night yes that he was a homeless young adult yes there are bad homeless and good homeless so on that but everybody still deserves to be in from the cold so that they don't die of the cold. And I have some ideas, but I said it before, and I feel like... I think it was Dallas, Texas that actually found that economically it was cheaper to give each homeless person a tiny house on wheels than it was an actual emergency homeless shelter. If somebody could look into it, that would be great. And it actually, so in that particular town, there's a lot of homeless that now each have their own tiny house on wheels. And I'll repeat it again. Santa Rosa has at least 40 homeless now each have their own tiny house on wheels. So, and they put it, they have enough common sense to put it in a place that's accessible to transportation for the homeless. As well as in a place where nobody might be harmed by the bad homeless. So, and then there's homeless that are working. So my recommendation is to try and find some land around here in Saucelito, but two parcels of land. They don't have to be very big. And so that the people who are working who are homeless have lost their homes or lost a job can feel safe, maybe put up just a couple of tiny houses on wheels for those situations somewhere in a neighborhood where everybody's happy about it. And then another part where there's just homeless who aren't interested in working but give them, put up another two tiny houses on wheels. That's only four small trailers that you would have to erect somewhere. And then everybody feels safe from everybody. They could lock their door at night. They don't have to sleep next to somebody that might attack them. Anyway, it's working in other counties. I guess it's the trend. And, um, I feel that a lot of people have been harmed here in Sausalito that have gotten attacked at night. Some of the homeless, some have died of the cold. And I really, it's overdue. You're overdue. Please do your job. Thank you. |
| 00:30:17.16 | Joan Cox | Thank you. Is there anybody else who wants to address the council on matters not on the agenda? Okay, seeing none, we'll move on to item three, which is the action minutes of the previous meeting. Do I? Is everybody okay with the minutes? Any questions? Additions, corrections, if not, can we have a motion? |
| 00:30:39.86 | Joan Cox | I move approval. |
| 00:30:40.94 | Joan Cox | Second. All in favor? Aye. Aye. Any opposed? No. Okay, now the consent calendar. |
| 00:30:43.07 | Joan Cox | Bye. |
| 00:30:50.44 | Joan Cox | So matters listed on the consent calendar are considered routine, should be non-controversial, and should require no discussion. And we have, as we indicated in the beginning, already removed item 4. B, to be our first business item tonight. Is there any public comment on the remaining matters on the consent calendar? |
| 00:31:23.21 | Jeffrey Chase | Yes. |
| 00:31:24.73 | Joan Cox | Jeff. |
| 00:31:30.98 | Jeffrey Chase | Thank you. Are you saying that solid waste collection is going to be discussed later? |
| 00:31:36.73 | Joan Cox | Yes, it is. |
| 00:31:38.18 | Jeffrey Chase | I'll wait until then. |
| 00:31:39.75 | Joan Cox | Thank you. Anybody else have any comments on the consent calendar? No, moving back up here, is everybody okay with the remaining consent calendar items? In which case, can I have a motion? |
| 00:31:53.47 | Joan Cox | Move approval of consent items for A, C, D, and E. |
| 00:32:00.81 | Joan Cox | you |
| 00:32:01.20 | Joe Burns | you |
| 00:32:01.27 | Joan Cox | Second. All in favor? Aye. |
| 00:32:03.19 | Joan Cox | I know. |
| 00:32:04.93 | Joan Cox | Any opposed? That motion carries. Okay, so we're gonna move on to the business items. And so this is the new business item, 6A1, which is been, which was item 4B on the consent calendar, which is to adopt a resolution confirming solid waste collection and disposal rates. And Melanie Purcell, our Administrative Services Director. |
| 00:33:05.41 | Melanie Purcell | Good evening, Melanie Purcell, Administrative Services Director. I'd like to introduce Mr. Peter Dybler from HF&H Consultants. He's going to assist me with any detailed questions regarding the rate study. But real quick. you We have a, we do have a slide slide. |
| 00:33:29.67 | Melanie Purcell | Just real quick, we wanted to run through The solid waste contract is automatically extended for 10 years on the request of our franchisee, Bay Cities Refuge Services, if they meet certain conditions. And they have met each of those conditions. They include one year prior request. They did make their request last year ago fall. Bay Cities is not in default of their contract, which is also durable. And they have a rate review conducted by an industry consultant, in this case, HF&H, and it's included in your packet. The rate review is very specifically laid out in the contract in Exhibit J and how it is conducted. But the gist of it is that it needs to indicate that Sausalito residents and rate payers are being charged at the median or below. of the five neighboring communities that are specified. And that is in fact the case. They are not requesting a structural rate increase as permitted. They haven't requested the CPI increase and the contract does provide for automatic CPI increases in non-rate review years. The residential rate comparison, this is kind of a little bit of a difficult portion when we talk about comparing rates from agency to agency, from city to city, because each city has a different set of services, a different combination of customers and types of customers, retail, commercial, bulk, compost, et cetera. But the easiest way and probably the way that most makes sense to us, certainly as households, is to look at the typical household collection. What you'll see here is that Sausalito is second to lowest in the region. We added two extra. communities, Tam Valley and San Rafael, to the five that are part of the rate review, just to give some additional perspective, because we have the rate sheets available to us. So you notice Tam Valley is the highest at $47.78 per month for weekly pickup of a 30 or 32 gallon can. Please note that none of these include the additional charges that some communities charge for side yard or backyard pickup. Sausalito includes that in its rates. So, in fact, we actually are a little lower than this would indicate. The majority of the city of Sausalito is actually east of 101. and pays a slightly lower rate than that 4170. But I wanted to make sure that we were showing as conservatively as possible where we meet within the group. |
| 00:36:07.79 | Melanie Purcell | So the contract and rate structure methodology used for the solid waste has been in place for at least 20 years. It's frequently used throughout Northern California. The city of Sausalito has evolved significantly in how it expects solid waste to be addressed. Certainly we have a sustainability commission. We have a lot of community dialogue about who we are and what we want to be. The franchise agreement also includes a rate review every four years. We're recommending the City work with the industry experts. Bay Cities is our franchisee, and they appropriate boards and commissions to develop a broader approach for looking at alternative structures. We think that it's time. Obviously, the contract itself includes the automatic extension, includes the CPI increases. But that being said, we want to recommend that over the next two years, because we believe it will take that long to do a comprehensive, in-depth analysis, but to have a conversation about what the brake structure best suits the city of Sausalito, what our utilizations are. long to do a comprehensive in-depth analysis, but to have a conversation about what the rate structure best suits the city of Sausalito, what our utilizations are, and what the community needs in planning are. Great timing, given that the general plan is also underway. STAT projects two years timeline for that. Our next steps would be feedback or any direction if there's any additional information that you need. Mr. Dybler is here to answer any questions about the particulars of the rate review and I, myself, or Mary can answer comments with questions about the contract. Thank you. |
| 00:37:34.51 | Joan Cox | Thank you. Do we have any questions of staff, please? |
| 00:37:42.41 | Joan Cox | Um... I noticed a rate increase in my January bill. So it looks like the rate increase already went into effect before it came before us for approval. Is there a reason for that? |
| 00:37:57.30 | Melanie Purcell | The contract actually specifies that the rate increases are not, there's two phrases that actually apply to this. The CPI is automatic in non-rate review years. and that the city cannot reject any reasonable request. |
| 00:38:14.71 | Joan Cox | But I thought there was no CPI increase this time. |
| 00:38:17.73 | Melanie Purcell | It's a rate review year. They chose to not go with a rate, structural rate increase, but instead just go with the CPI. And they did have that prerogative, rather than go through a comprehensive increase, |
| 00:38:31.11 | Joan Cox | So in your staff report just now, I was taking notes and you said Bay Cities is not seeking a CPI increase. THEY ARE NOT SEEKING A |
| 00:38:38.98 | Melanie Purcell | structural rate increase. |
| 00:38:41.57 | Joan Cox | OK. |
| 00:38:44.14 | Melanie Purcell | I'm making the distinction between having a comprehensive increase of the last one was 9.5%. as opposed to a CPI, which for the contract would be 2.7%. |
| 00:38:54.76 | Joan Cox | So the increase that we saw in the bills is the CPI increase. |
| 00:38:58.32 | Melanie Purcell | Yes. |
| 00:38:58.64 | Joan Cox | not the increase contemplated by the contract, |
| 00:39:04.88 | Melanie Purcell | if there was a full rate. |
| 00:39:06.30 | Joan Cox | If there was a full rate review. Correct. Okay. Does the CPI increase still require the same conditions that Bay Cities not be in default, that the rates remain at or below the median for the five surrounding cities? The CPI increase requires that there be no defaults. So it does not require the rate comparison. Okay. |
| 00:39:07.66 | Melanie Purcell | Correct. |
| 00:39:28.12 | Unknown | Amen. |
| 00:39:30.18 | Joan Cox | So then. This whole presentation on the rate comparison is irrelevant to the rate increase that Bay Cities is seeking. They're only seeking the CPI increase. |
| 00:39:44.37 | Melanie Purcell | It is still a requirement of the extension that they do this rate comparison. |
| 00:39:48.70 | Joan Cox | Of the 10 year extension to their contract. Which is automatic. It was discussed in the staff report. Okay. |
| 00:39:51.17 | Melanie Purcell | Which is automatic, but it is a part. |
| 00:40:02.80 | Joan Cox | The contract includes a rate review every four years. When was the last rate review conducted? |
| 00:40:09.46 | Unknown | would have been 23rd to 12th. I apologize, 2012. |
| 00:40:13.70 | Mary Wagner | If I may, Madam Vice Mayor, it occurred in 2012 because additional services were added. That's when the composting and other services became part of this contract. So there was an extensive review that was done at that time. |
| 00:40:28.19 | Joan Cox | Okay, and then if you could flip back to that slide, Melanie. So how This is just a fixed rate for each city per, for a 30, 32 gallon can. |
| 00:40:47.04 | Melanie Purcell | for this specific service, this specific customer. |
| 00:40:51.83 | Joan Cox | Okay, the reason I ask is, the initial staff report contained a list of monthly revenues. And I shared this with you. I just did a quick and dirty chart by looking at what are the monthly revenues of each city and what is the population of each city. And that breaks down into the unit cost per resident of each city, assuming It does take into account the fact, because I don't know what's residential, what's commercial, what's bulk. So I had asked for a per capita Evaluation rather than just a per can, because if we're being charged, this is just per can, but suppose that, I mean, the actual revenues are significantly different between the towns. Larkspur is a whole lot larger than Sausalito, but Sausalito pays more, there are more revenues collected from Sausalito by Bay Cities. So I wanted to reconcile that data, if you could help me with that. |
| 00:42:09.19 | Melanie Purcell | Actually, I'm going to defer to Mr. Dibler because we're getting into an arena that |
| 00:42:13.19 | Joan Cox | And do you want to see my little chart? Lily has it, if that's. |
| 00:42:16.06 | Melanie Purcell | Actually, I had shared with him the conversation so that he was aware of the question. |
| 00:42:17.24 | Joan Cox | Okay. |
| 00:42:20.92 | Joan Cox | Thank you. |
| 00:42:20.93 | Peter Dybler | Thank you. . |
| 00:42:22.60 | Melanie Purcell | you |
| 00:42:23.55 | Peter Dybler | Mayor and members of the council, Ms. Cox. you The analysis that we did, the purpose of the revenue comparison is really the outcome of the analysis. And the analysis is a way to look across all the services provided in all five of those cities. the rate categories for residential, commercial, and debris box service that represent far more than the majority of the revenue for base cities. and then to use those same rate categories for the other cities. And then to make adjustments. we identified 34 areas in which there are differences in how services are provided or there are fiscal differences. A disposal rate per ton at the landfill is different, the franchise fee is different, whatever it might be. We quantified as many of those as we could and then made those adjustments. And the key example of that is the one that Melanie mentioned, which is that In Sausalito, you can get side yard or back yard service for the same rate. all the other four cities, you pay a surcharge. that service. So those kinds of adjustments were made. There were some adjustments in the other direction. I think there's one example where in Larkspur, the commercial can is customer provided instead of company provided. So that adjustment is sort of in favor of Larkspur, if you will. The outcome of that is a comparison of revenues that's derived by comparing, using those rates in Sausalito's customer base per rate category, they're five rates, and it's really a construct. because it has all those adjustments. It's a way of just saying, if you tried to put all these services in a level playing field and look at the cost of service between the five cities, what would that look like? And that is that revenue comparison that shows for the quantitative adjustments that can be made that Sausalito's rates across those services, if you think of cost of service, if you will, are very favourable. They're almost the lowest. And, If you were able to quantify a few of the additional services that we did not quantify that are provided by Bay Cities, and I'm thinking particularly the street can, the level of street can collection, street sweeping, and the bathroom. service provided downtown Um, the revenues would probably be the lowest. and maybe substantially. Does that help? |
| 00:45:03.96 | Joan Cox | Thank you. That helps, so I had not realized the revenue figures were a construct as opposed to raw. |
| 00:45:10.32 | Unknown | Yeah. |
| 00:45:10.56 | Joan Cox | . But as a resident and a rate payer, It would be interesting to me to know how much I'm paying each month compares to how much residents of Mill Valley, residents of Larkspur, residents of Tiburon are paying. In other words, the per capita cost. Is that? |
| 00:45:29.63 | Peter Dybler | Mm-hmm. |
| 00:45:30.93 | Joan Cox | you |
| 00:45:31.10 | Peter Dybler | available. |
| 00:45:32.35 | Joan Cox | Thank you. |
| 00:45:32.50 | Peter Dybler | Well, that's where it gets tricky because very quickly you get into these sort of arcane comparisons in order to treat, you know, be able to answer the question fairly. Whether it's per capita or whether it's per household, which is probably a fairer way to look at it. There's variation of how many people live in a house, obviously. across the jurisdictions. And you've done per house, you've done a start per can per household. Right, so this is just very simply saying these are the published rates. If you just look at a rate sheet, and many councils, that's how they make decisions, sort of as a check-in to say, well, where are we relative to other cities in our county? It might be for residential rates, it might be for commercial rates. So that's a snapshot of what those rates look like. They've all been adjusted recently, et cetera. a per capita calculation, you could do something similar to that, I suppose, to what we did for the revenue analysis that, again, you'd have to make a number of assumptions. I think it's tougher for residential only because the effect of any assumptions are sort of larger the smaller the base you're looking at. I don't want to get, too into the weeds here. Um, I think a way to think of it is that this information really corroborates what our analysis showed and vice versa. THEIR OWNERS. Based on our analysis, you would expect or hope to see something like this. And this is what you see. And again, without adding in the side and backyard collection costs for the other cities. |
| 00:47:14.37 | Joan Cox | Thank you. You're welcome. |
| 00:47:18.00 | Joe Burns | Joe. I didn't research this question, so I'm going to ask it. Are there other surcharges applied in these communities that we don't see? Like, I know my bill doesn't equal three times that number. So what else are we paying that's not showing in the rate survey as far as surcharges or franchise fees or anything that might appear in our bill that could differ from community to community? Is there anything else on there? |
| 00:47:45.52 | Peter Dybler | on there. Well, as surcharges, I guess you're thinking of specific fees? |
| 00:47:51.87 | Joe Burns | I pay $160 every three months. So that's not reflective here. So there's got to be some other charges in my bill. |
| 00:48:02.20 | Joe Burns | decisions. |
| 00:48:02.80 | Peter Dybler | Yeah, I don't know exactly what's in there. I'm sorry, I don't think it's six months. |
| 00:48:04.24 | Joe Burns | So. |
| 00:48:06.06 | Joe Burns | Thank you. |
| 00:48:06.09 | Joe Burns | Thank you. |
| 00:48:06.11 | Joe Burns | I'm sorry, I don't. Thank you. |
| 00:48:08.53 | Joan Cox | It's every three months. It's quarterly. |
| 00:48:11.68 | Joe Burns | in the South Florida. Thank you. |
| 00:48:12.95 | Joan Cox | Right. |
| 00:48:13.15 | Joe Burns | Thank you. That's per month. Yeah, so you're saying 160. So if you go four months. three months. |
| 00:48:21.25 | Joan Cox | think it is January through April. May through, I think it is three times a year. |
| 00:48:24.47 | Joe Burns | Yeah. |
| 00:48:24.81 | Unknown | I'M GOING TO BE ABLE TO |
| 00:48:26.28 | Peter Dybler | Thank you. |
| 00:48:26.31 | Unknown | Thank you. |
| 00:48:26.34 | Peter Dybler | you Thank you. |
| 00:48:27.16 | Joe Burns | We'll be right back. |
| 00:48:27.24 | Peter Dybler | Thank you. |
| 00:48:27.27 | Joe Burns | Thank you. |
| 00:48:27.36 | Peter Dybler | Thank you. |
| 00:48:27.37 | Joe Burns | to get up to 160, it doesn't matter. |
| 00:48:28.98 | Peter Dybler | Okay. |
| 00:48:29.97 | Joe Burns | you I thought it was no game. |
| 00:48:31.56 | Joe Burns | Yeah. |
| 00:48:32.08 | Peter Dybler | No. |
| 00:48:32.64 | Jonathon Goldman | I'm sorry. |
| 00:48:33.95 | Peter Dybler | Yeah, I'm sorry, I need to look at your bill to give you a clear answer on that. There may have been some other charges that were involved in that given period. I'm not certain. |
| 00:48:34.60 | Joe Burns | I NEED TO LOOK AT YOUR |
| 00:48:44.54 | Peter Dybler | But the fees, franchise fees and that sort of thing are all built into these rates for all the cities. They're not a separate charge on the bill. |
| 00:48:44.62 | Unknown | Thank you. THE END OF THE END OF THE |
| 00:48:57.60 | Joan Cox | Is there any other questions up here? OK. Any public? Thank you, sir. Any public? We may need to come back to you for questions. Is there any public comment on this agenda item? |
| 00:49:12.60 | Unknown | Yes, yes. |
| 00:49:13.44 | Jeffrey Chase | Thank you. |
| 00:49:15.43 | Joan Cox | Okay Jeff, let's. you Move it along, please. |
| 00:49:20.60 | Jeffrey Chase | Thank you. |
| 00:49:25.96 | Jeffrey Chase | of the world's population |
| 00:49:26.98 | Joan Cox | Jeff, would you please address the council? |
| 00:49:28.55 | Jeffrey Chase | The United States has 5% of the world's population, Mr. Mayor. Do you want to guess what percentage of the solid waste we produce? in the world. Anybody want to put out a guess? It's 40. 100%. you We're number one. |
| 00:49:50.96 | Jeffrey Chase | What are we going to do about this? |
| 00:49:56.51 | Jeffrey Chase | There has been some backwards Movement. Motley stones used to have a recycling outside and they would pay as they're mandated by state law to have that has been removed. The other stores in Sausalito that sell recyclable containers are also mandated. to accept recycling when it's brought to their door. That seems really like common sense. the Port-a-potty for the anchorage has been removed. There is no trash. for the anchorage. And now the laundromat's in danger. |
| 00:50:41.60 | Jeffrey Chase | It's difficult. to... hear all this happening. And so that's why I seek refuge in whatever holy words I can find And this is for Faith, who, and her dad, who came out here, mainly. I find it in the Torah. It says even in the Torah, this portion is about Moses, purifying himself in front of all the people so he can confront the unity, the highest. He says, HE SAYS, Go, all of you people of Israel, and wash your garments. Wash your garments, he says, so you can be clean in front of the highest, Elyon. Now the chances of that happening while the laundromat, issues being discussed seem exactly one in about 52. But it happened, faith. So, like faith, I have faith that this issue will be corrected. If it's not corrected here, It will be corrected in higher courts. |
| 00:51:49.35 | Joan Cox | Thank you. |
| 00:51:49.77 | Jeffrey Chase | Thank you. |
| 00:51:49.97 | Joan Cox | Thanks. |
| 00:51:50.18 | Jeffrey Chase | Thank you. |
| 00:51:50.21 | Joan Cox | Thank you. Thank you, Jeff. . Kevin. |
| 00:51:57.37 | Kevin Kuefer | Thank you, Mr. Mayor. Kevin Kiefer, anchor out. THIS, UH, This is very associative to the the reason I mentioned it earlier, reasonable maintenance of the designated access areas and other areas associated with the public's use, which includes trash pickup, all these things. is an acceptable use of Thailand revenues. So this would be a considerable amount of revenue available for the city's implementation to this issue if the city was not misappropriating these funds into other accounts and then transferring them through intergovernmental transfers into its general fund where it can and possibly is being ultimately invested in the employee's pension funds, which is not acceptable use of TITAN's revenues. |
| 00:52:54.10 | Joan Cox | Thank you. Is there any other member of the public who would like to comment on our garbage and solid waste pickup? |
| 00:53:14.92 | Joan Cox | Okay, let's bring it back here for comment. |
| 00:53:16.04 | Mary Wagner | . |
| 00:53:21.59 | Joan Cox | Anybody have anything to say? |
| 00:53:23.48 | Joe Burns | Yeah, I don't know. You know, we've been doing business with Bay City for many, many years, and I think they do an excellent job. And just the very idea of the terrain in Sausalito that they have to deal with. It is a little different than Laxberg and a few of the others, similar to Belvedere and Tiburon, but I think... I think they do an excellent job, and I think they've been very fair with us. |
| 00:54:00.10 | Joe Burns | And I'll second that in that we also, the extra services we do receive, especially in the downtown, are a real benefit to our community. So thank you. |
| 00:54:13.36 | Joan Cox | I would like to thank and acknowledge the additional information from Melanie Purcell and Peter Dybler that was extraordinarily helpful. I'm new to this, so I have to get my head around some of these issues. And so while I still believe it's difficult to analyze this on a per capita basis, the unit rates for the cans do make me more comfortable that we aren't overpaying and that we are within that median range. And the fact that the revenues that were reported in the staff report are a construct and not raw data also makes me more comfortable with the apparent revenue per capita for cities with different populations. So I thank and appreciate you for the assistance with the analysis. |
| 00:55:04.73 | Joan Cox | Thank you. I would hate to think I've become an expert in garbage, but I've learned a little bit about it. And I think if you read Attachment 3, you'll see that to actually perform, at least analyze this, it requires some work. So, sir, thank you very much for coming tonight on very short notice. I really appreciate that. And Melanie, thank you. I just also want to say that I've |
| 00:55:13.64 | Joe Burns | THE END OF THE END OF THE |
| 00:55:40.93 | Joan Cox | We put our major recycling and most importantly compost and program in place. In fact, it was... urged on by our sustainability commission then and in fact we have one of the members of that old sustainability commission in the audience here bill you were a pioneer in making that happen so thank you in the time i've lived in socialito with composting and with recycling literally My actual garbage has reduced to like a very small amount, which was the goal, and it's worked. so I also like to just make the point that you know I've base cities I think have provided a really enormous flexible service for us, and they do a fantastic job for us, in my humble opinion. Do we need a motion? We need an action item tonight, right? So can I have a motion, which is, I think, to approve something. Let me look. |
| 00:56:55.75 | Melanie Purcell | The resolution. Is to affirm the rates. |
| 00:56:57.94 | Joan Cox | Yeah, to affirm the right. So do I have a motion? Some moved. Okay. Okay. Second. Okay, all in favor? Aye. That motion carries in again. Thank you very much for coming. Okay, our next item is item 6A2, which is an update on vegetation management. And I'm gonna ask Scott Barnes, who's Battalion Chief with Southern Marine Fire Protection District and I would just like to make the point this is the third time that we've asked our friends from Southern Marin to be here and give this and we had to punt them twice. So apologies for that and welcome this evening. |
| 00:57:59.74 | Michael St. John | Good evening, my name is Michael St. John. Unfortunately, Scott Barnes came down sick tonight, but we wanted to proceed with the show. So this might be a little bit of a review for some of you and I think new to others, but the goal of this is to kind of give you an overview of our wildland-urban interface challenges and strategies to mitigate some of those threats. So what makes Sausalito similar? As you guys know, through shared services, we now serve the communities Mill Valley, unincorporated Mill Valley, Tam Valley, and Sausalito, and the unincorporated areas. With that, we share a lot of the similar challenges as far as hillside homes and topography. We share the same weather and while oftentimes we have a marine influence that kind of keeps us a little cooler and moist, we have days during the summer where it's really hot and dry and the fire threat is as significant here in Sausalito as it is in the rest of the southern Marin area. Our biggest challenges in our communities, including Sausalito, is that we have a lot of wildland urban interface where we basically have homes that are built in a forest. And if we get a structure fire, a car fire, a vegetation fire, it has potential to be a very significant event and impact a number of different properties. The factors that influence fire is fuel. So fuel reduction is important or mitigating it. We also have those things that influence the weather. Probably most of our significant fires in Marin County have always occurred on days where you get the hot, dry winds out of the east. And those are the same days we had the Oakland Firestorm, the Vision Fire, and other fires. Sausalito is mostly on an aspect that faces towards the east, but we have, you know, there's all these different aspects within towns, and aspect influences how intense a fire is going to be based on the time of day. As far as our significant fire history, this is the 1929 fire that took out a large section of Mill Valley. It burned pretty much to downtown. At that time, it was 100 homes. In the same footprint today, there's about 1,100 homes. And on those days where we get those northeast winds, while we have worked excellent together with our cooperating agencies, the state, and a significant fire event could still be very difficult to stop at its peak with extreme winds and dry weather. Just some recent fire histories, the Vision Fire, which was in 1995, consumed over 40 homes and 12,000 acres, and it was stopped by what we call the Great Pacific Fuel Break. It burned to the ocean. And there's a number of fires in Marin's history that that's what stopped the fire. We had the Mother's Day Fire in Tam Valley, which posed a significant threat to hundreds of homes. the Angel Island fire several years ago, and then throughout Sausalito, Mill Valley, Southern Marin, we've had a number of other smaller vegetation fires that happened on days where we were able to put a quick stop to it and prevent catastrophic fires. So our current programs in many of our communities is to perform annual weed abatements and windshield inspections. We've created Firewise communities in some of our neighborhoods throughout the Southern Marin area. We've upgraded our county notification system, so if there is a significant fire that's posing a risk today, we can immediately reverse 911 people's phones and cell phones. In Mill Valley City, as well as some of the unincorporated areas, we perform annual evacuation drills. We invite the residents of a specific series of neighborhoods to participate in. We've created a hazard assessment program where we go out to homes and give people kind of a rating on how they're doing. Throughout some of these communities, we've done significant water main upgrades and we provide chipper days to residents so they can get rid of flammable bed vegetation to just drag it out to the street and we come and take it away from them or for them and then we've also we have a wildland urban interface or mutual threat zone plan, because if we have a significant fire in one community, it could threaten other communities. So as the fire service in Marin County, we have one plan that standardizes communications, fire response, dispatch, and a large scale incident management plan of how we're gonna deal with a significant wildland fire. So what are the opportunities? We want to look at creating and coordinating a weed abatement program for the city of Sausalito, where we would start off in an education piece of going out and handing people notices of where they can reduce their vegetation, put street numbers up, add chimney screens, things like that. Our goal is to create community awareness for the hazards associated with wild land fires. We want to look at creating a severity map of where our worst areas are in the South Salido community, so residents in those areas are better educated as far as what the threat is. We want to create and coordinate a vegetation management program for the city and see if we can find funds to help people reduce some of the flammable vegetation and coordinate neighborhood programs. We want to thank at coordinating firewise communities and also just collaborate with other city departments such as Public Works and Building and Planning because they also have tools that can help us reduce flammable vegetation, improve access, and things like that. For the short term, we want to start and plan to start an annual weed abatement program for the city of Sausalito's wildland urban interface areas. We would focus on the hill areas where the threat is greatest. You know, the people in the flats, you know, would not see that program. We would provide public education in the form of defensible space postcards, which we're hopefully going to be rolling out very shortly here, increase our public awareness campaign, and identify and regularly attend scheduled homeowner association meetings to meet fire department staff and also do our public education at that time. Long-term opportunities for South Saludo could be considering adopting a wildland urban interface code like the county of Marin and Mill Valley and many of other communities have that have wildland fire threat. Consider adopting a vegetation management plan for all new constructions over 50%, which is again common amidst most other marine communities. And consider allocating funds towards a vegetation management program. What is vegetation management program? It's a program where we kind of do a multifaceted design program to reduce wildland fire threat. And the tools for that are community education, encouraging people through enforcement to clear their vegetation, adjusting building codes, and supporting the community in things like Chipper Days and Firewise Communities. We also have paved fuel reduction programs. uh, you Reducing fire at the top of the ridges is oftentimes where we plan to stop fires. wildland urban area fuel breaks, TREES. and public education. This is a recent app that we've implemented within the city of Mill Valley. and designated parking spaces. Access around the community is a difficult problem sometimes. So one way we've effectively done that, and we've worked with not just Mill Valley, but other communities in Moran have designated parking spaces. So people are clear where to park to make sure we can get fire equipment by. and fuel reduction on city properties. We also, like South Saluda, have steps, lanes, and paths, so reducing fuel on that, because these can serve as evacuation routes during a wildland fire. And then we have a hazard assessment program in Mill Valley that I'm familiar with. We've had a number of residents that are faced with insurance cancellations. And so we've worked with those residents to mitigate their property and send a letter to the insurance company that they've complied to make sure people can continue on with their homeowners insurance. And then sending out, this is the newsletter that we plan to send out throughout the Southern Marin Fire Protection District areas as far as starting our public education for this next fire season. |
| 01:07:00.01 | Michael St. John | Some success stories in the Southern Marin area is Mill Valley started our vegetation management program in 1996. We allocated at that time some money towards fuel projects. We, since then, have passed a municipal service tax, and we annually spend approximately $300,000 in vegetation management. I think our problem in that area is bigger than Sausalito, but still there. And on average, we remove approximately 300 tons of flammable vegetation. And since its inception, we've removed over 6,000 tons. And it's made a huge difference in our community on a number of different levels. Do you have any questions? |
| 01:07:49.17 | Joan Cox | Thank you. Any questions? |
| 01:07:55.16 | Joan Cox | I will kick us off then, if I may. If you could go back to the slide that shows your 50, that one will do. Yeah, that, great. |
| 01:07:58.08 | Mary Wagner | Thank you. |
| 01:07:58.14 | Unknown | All right. |
| 01:08:07.59 | Joan Cox | So, um... One of the advantages or disadvantages of inviting you guys three times here and managing to eventually get you up here tonight is that your presentation has been available to the public for quite a period of time, which means that residents have had a long time to ask me questions about this. And this diagram is the thing that probably has raised the most questions, because it implies that you're doing something in the inner 50-foot radius from the house than you would be in the next 50-foot radius. And in fact, some have interpreted that inner 50-foot radius as meaning you need to clear all the vegetation there. Now I've got a fairly large lot, but there isn't 50 feet from the side of my house to the lot line in any direction. And in fact there are very few lots in Sausalito where you would actually have a lot less than 50 feet before you get to the lot line. So practically, what are you actually suggesting people do? Three weeks ago we had an appeal from the planning commission here where an applicant was actually making the statement that he can cut down all his trees because they're a fire hazard and the southern marine fire would demand it. If you take this to its ultimate conclusion, there would be no trees in Sausalito. So help us understand practically what it is that you want us to do near our home. |
| 01:10:00.03 | Michael St. John | I can see how this diagram is super helpful, and I totally appreciate that. And in other communities that we've worked in, I think it's important that planning, building, and the fire department are on the same page. To that end, what they're trying to illustrate is that within 50 feet is ornamental vegetation that's managed, irrigated. In many communities, they have a plant list of approved plants. This is for new construction only, not heritage. And this is an area that's going to be basically greatly reduced fire risk because it's your garden. To the outer 50 feet, and I have an added aspect into this quite yet, is those areas or communities that have a lot of, you know, basically unmaintained vegetation. And we want to see that mowed, groomed, reduced. And in this community, you know, I think it might be good for us to take a second look of what is practical, because I can see for a lot of the hillside residents, this diagram isn't super helpful. |
| 01:11:13.32 | Joan Cox | Thank you. Anya blessings. |
| 01:11:16.98 | Joan Cox | Yes, can you talk about why our fire rating for insurance purposes has improved? |
| 01:11:25.20 | Michael St. John | So the main reason that that's improved is ISO changed how they view communities. So a lot of towns that were ISOs, threes and fours, went down to ISO class one. Now, it's important to understand that ISO ratings apply generally to commercial areas and don't impact the wildland urban interface areas. So just because your ISO one doesn't mean you have reduced threat of wildland urban interface. They're really looking at the commercial areas that the city serves primarily. |
| 01:12:04.89 | Joan Cox | And what more can we do to continue to reduce the ISO? |
| 01:12:11.62 | Michael St. John | I think, are you guys at a class one now? That's as low as it gets. You guys are there. |
| 01:12:17.12 | Joe Burns | You guys are there. |
| 01:12:20.85 | Joe Burns | My only do you work in conjunction with the get ready program at all? We do. Okay. |
| 01:12:28.26 | Michael St. John | Get ready does not include a lot of education on this type of stuff though. It's more for home preparedness in the event of an earthquake or disaster. and probably just deals a little bit around evacuation for a wildland fire. In the end, I think, we think that Sausalito has been very fortunate not to have a significant fire loss, but the potential is there, particularly with the hillside community with alignment of wind, the potential is there and we feel that this community education is very important. |
| 01:12:58.08 | Joan Cox | One more question. Assuming that we come up with a policy, what do you have in mind and what do you typically do for enforcement? |
| 01:13:09.00 | Michael St. John | So in the other communities that we work in, we start off with education, and we encourage people to cut their vegetation back. If you have one neighbor that doesn't comply, it impacts people's, your adjacent neighbors. So we give people typically 14 to 21 days. We go back and check, and we give them a second notice. And if it's still not complied with, and each community approaches this a little bit differently. In the city of Mill Valley that I'm familiar with in the county area, they have an administrative citation that it goes to eventually, and they get a warning, certified mail, that you have an administrative citation. And that's typically how it's done. The same thing is you might be enforcing a building code. |
| 01:13:59.66 | Joe Burns | In the mountains, we have the potential for cone fires. Is that something that would take place on our hillside, or would it be kind of brush level if it went up a hill, or is it tree top to tree top, especially in our taller eucalyptus trees? What would it look like? |
| 01:14:02.54 | Michael St. John | Thank you. |
| 01:14:02.56 | Mike McKinley | to be. |
| 01:14:15.40 | Joe Burns | Thank you. |
| 01:14:15.54 | Michael St. John | You have potential for every type of fire in Sausalito based in the right conditions. Now, for a crown fire, it would have to be dry. You'd have to have some warm days ahead of time and then a good east wind, and these conditions line up between five to ten times a year where you could have a significant crown fire fire event. And fires typically in this area don't move along a predicted fire front. You just have a lot of ember cast sometimes hundreds of yards ahead of the main fire. And so you have a bunch of little fires starting well in advance of the main fire front. And those provide very challenging situations. |
| 01:14:58.82 | Unknown | No. |
| 01:15:01.45 | Adam Politzer | I have a question, if you would indulge me. Mike, can you, many years ago, maybe six, seven years ago, Captain Gluckner did some public education and served a program in Tam Valley area, and I attended some of those meetings over in Tam Valley to kind of understand the discussion. And since that time, we've kind of had start, stop, start, stop on what we're going to do here in Sausalito. I don't know if you can answer this, Mike, or if this is for the chief, but how do we move forward? So we talk about public education. We talk about forums. We talk about potentially adopting some policies. Can you describe what that process looks like, what the timing of that is? Are we proposing to start this based on some of the public outreach that you've shared in tonight's presentation, but so that we don't go three, four, five months again and then start again, you know, how do you see this folding forward so that we can actually get to some policy discussions here at the City Council for the Planning Commission's consideration when we're looking at building material and stuff like that. But is that something that you can, and I see the chief coming up behind you. So I'm going to have the fire chief answer that question since he's coming up. |
| 01:16:12.77 | Michael St. John | Thank you. |
| 01:16:12.78 | Chris Tupps | I'm going to have the fire chief answer that question since he's coming up. |
| 01:16:15.32 | Unknown | Thank you. |
| 01:16:17.49 | Chris Tupps | Good evening, Council for the record, Chris Tupps, Fire Chief. So as you know, last year when we did the presentation to the Council in September, Captain Glockner talked about launching. a program we would start doing an assessment. In other words, we would go out doing windshield surveys and so on and so forth. And we had intended to start that in November, but due to some of the issues we had last year with wildland fire, subsequent firefighter injuries, we ran into some staffing issues. However, during that time, we've still proceeded ahead with putting the building blocks in place such as training our personnel to do the windshield surveys, finalizing the documents that we would do internally. And our plan is to start that this May, is to actually get out and start to do the windshield surveys. So that gets us, first of all, a map so we know where our areas of risk, our greatest areas of risk are, so that when we apply certain strategies like chipper programs, we're doing it effectively. So to answer your question, Mr. City Manager, yes, we're trying to take intentional steps forward. We've been a little bit back and forth over the last few years, but I think we're now on the right path to having some momentum that will continue. |
| 01:17:25.03 | Joe Burns | So does that mean you'll get back to us about maybe what we should enact? |
| 01:17:29.04 | Chris Tupps | Yeah, I think the next step that we forecast for this is, first of all, is we want to do an assessment. We want to determine what the level of risk is in the community and then begin to build maybe some draft options in regards to maybe the types of programs, what kind of funding that might require. As Chief St. John noted, education is a very big part of this. We're going to go ahead and push that out right away. We see that's part of the windshield survey is creating an awareness in the community, giving them some education so they can take some steps on their own. In regards to other things that the council might want to consider, whether that's through ordinances or so on and so forth, that that'll be determined as we get more information about the risks in the community and where we think we should apply funds most effectively. |
| 01:18:11.65 | Joan Cox | Okay, why don't we open this up for public comment? Is there anybody in the public who'd like to... say anything. |
| 01:18:24.11 | Jeffrey Chase | Yes. |
| 01:18:28.93 | Mike McKinley | Thank you, Mike McKinley, Emergency Services. So right now, to dovetail onto the Chief's presentation, we're involved with the County of Marin's Office of Emergency Services to develop a hazard mitigation plan for Sausalito. So we're in the process of analyzing the threats that we see, whether they're earthquake, urban, wild land, fire, etc. We're putting this document together. It will be an annex of the county's hazard mitigation plan. And this is a requirement every five years for FEMA that ensures our participation in any kind of loss recovery from FEMA. It's a very important and strategic kind of a document we're putting together, and it's ongoing right now. And this all dovetails into the urban wildland fire situation is one that's essentially frightening because, as the firefighters can tell you, you need air tankers right now for the kind of terrain that we have here. Evacuation is another one that is on my mind. How do we evacuate out of those hills if we have an urban wildland fire situation? Again, as the emergency manager, I look at this as part of our hazard mitigation planning and really hope that we can get something going quickly. So thank you. |
| 01:20:11.26 | Rick Kornow | Rick Carnall, resident Sausalito. Just an observation, I was at Cobb Mountain, And let's not woo ourselves into thinking 50 feet's gonna keep the fire away from us. It goes where it wants to go, but it's a good guideline. My question is more of the infrastructure that we've got in place. Is Marin Fire working with PG&E? to prevent a San Bruno situation from happening. infrastructure is just as old as some of that other thing. Is that part of your program as well? |
| 01:20:49.30 | Michael St. John | So since San Bruno, just to address that, PG&E has really strived to be much more cooperative and interactive with public safety agencies. They've appointed public safety specialists that I can call at any time if we have an incident and get answers and questions much more immediately. But our sense, since San Bruno's PG&E has really dramatically changed how they approach things in a much more positive, constructive way. |
| 01:21:17.55 | Joan Cox | Anybody else who would like to... make a public comment on this, Jeff? Yeah. |
| 01:21:30.24 | Jeffrey Chase | The President. |
| 01:21:35.18 | Jeffrey Chase | I appreciate that you're working. I appreciate the work that's done to keep people safe here, and I think... It fires a big danger like flood and earthquake in California but I don't think we wanna scare people too much. There's been a lot of rain, so the fire danger is gonna go down. But the level of difficulty for this Torah portion has gone up. because trees are also here, it says, and when there is yet a tenth of it, This is talking about the land of Israel. that's been purged because the people become fat and their ears no longer hear, their eyes don't see. So nine-tenths of the Israelites are... are not necessarily gonna make it in the same way that the one-tenth. It says there is yet a tenth of it, it will again be purged like the terebinth and like the oak. which in the fall have but a trunk, but the holy seed is in its trunk. So for both of these issues, the laundromat and now the trees to be in the Torah, level of difficulty has gone up to one in 5800. That's a nice little proof. I am concerned about something else that I'm going to be talking about a little bit later, which is community gardens. That instead of taking something that is potentially hazardous, which is growth of weeds and of trees, Um, TO TAKE IT AWAY AND NOT REPLACE People learning AA never works. So it needs to be replaced with something called Community Gardens Sausalito. Okay, I'm gonna talk about this a little later too. For the two people that are new to the council, this has been discussed many times. We've had groups of hundreds of people show up And yet, one neighbor decides that they can't walk their dog anymore through that area that was going to be the community garden, and somehow, the community garden idea disappears. In the 1940s, one half. of what people ate was produced by community gardens. Before that, any waste area, any place that wasn't being used was planted with trees and with tomatoes and cucumbers. So the poor in Sausalito, they are provided housing. They do get food stamps or general assistance. They can work and provide their own food. It seems like... common sense to me. So thank you. I planted five trees now where the police station was. That will be the community garden there. I planted it on two bush pot. Thank you, Jeff. I've got the Shabbos to do it. Thank you. That's the trees for the Israelites. |
| 01:24:32.40 | Joan Cox | Thank you, Jeff. Thank you. Thank you. Is there anybody else who would like to... make a public comment on this item. Okay, let's bring it back here. I just want to say thank you very much. If you could just keep that up for one second, because each time you guys come, I make a little speech, and I just I'm going to do it again. You didn't emphasize this so much tonight about clean gutters and roof of leaves. I think personally that's probably the most important thing that you can do to protect your home. Because what people forget is. The leaves come down, it rains, people only worry about leaves in their gutters when it's raining. And yet the real danger, and hopefully I'm right here, the real danger is in the middle of summer or early fall, when all the gutters are full of leaves, absolutely dry, and you could create a major fire hazard. Do you want to comment on, am I sort of right here on this one? You're more than sorry. |
| 01:25:42.03 | Michael St. John | right? |
| 01:25:42.38 | Joan Cox | Thank you. |
| 01:25:42.55 | Michael St. John | When those embers land on roofs, if there's a receptable fuel bed, as we call it, it will carry fire. Thank you. |
| 01:25:50.70 | Joan Cox | Yeah. And in the gutters, if a timber gets in the gutters, the flames will start getting underneath the shingles and your house is gone. So you don't only clean your gutters when it's raining. You clean the gutters when it's not raining. That's probably most important. Anyway, anybody else want to say anything? Thank you, gentlemen, very much indeed for coming. And sorry we bumped you twice in the past. Thank you. No problem. Okay, thanks. |
| 01:26:16.08 | Mary Wagner | Thank you. |
| 01:26:21.87 | Joan Cox | Let's quickly move on. Our next item is 6B, which is an update on Southview Park renovations. Mike Langford, Parks and Rec Director. |
| 01:26:42.97 | Mike Langford | It's going to take just a minute here to load up. |
| 01:27:08.78 | Mike Langford | Well, good evening, Mr. Mayor, City Council, members of the public, and everybody watching out there in TV land. My name is Mike Langford. I'm the Parks and Recreation Director, and I'm here before you today to give you an update on what's going on with Southview Park. Now, for those of you that don't know, Southview Park is located in what's Old Town. It's between 3rd and 4th Street, just off North Street. |
| 01:27:34.21 | Mike Langford | has a playground. basketball court. Grass area, doesn't look like grass there right now, but it is right in this view, but it is right now with all the reins we have, and of course, the tennis court. Originally the site was a school, but it was closed in 1941. During World War II, the site was then used as a recreation center. But then sometime between the end of the war and 1961, the school site was demolished, and it was turned into a park. These are some photos that I dug up from that time. If you could take note of the photo on the right that has the different terraces there, that'll come into play a little bit later. |
| 01:28:21.80 | Mike Langford | In 1989, the original play equipment was removed and replaced as what you see today. So from 1961... than to 1989. But from 1989 to today, Nothing has changed there. It looks good from afar, but when you get up close to it, you can see that it's starting to wear out. But most importantly, the equipment is out of compliance with current safety and accessibility standards. Even of greater concern is the condition of the retaining walls. Many are beginning to fail. or have completely failed. The steps, paths, and court surfaces are also in desperate need of repair. So way back in September 2011, the city hired surveyor Linda Carruthers and associates to survey the map and give us a base of what we have there, take all the good measurements, the heights, the distances, everything we needed to do to move forward. We also hired a geotechnical engineer, Rollo and Ridley, to evaluate the retaining walls. They worked with FTF Engineering and they drew up some plans on what needs to be done to fix the retaining walls. Kind of took a little break there, but then we re-energized. So in February 2017, so just earlier this month, we had an arborist from Bartlett Trees come out and take a look at the trees. There were some minor issues, little things that they said are very common in the area, but the trees were all in really good health. |
| 01:29:56.96 | Mike Langford | Why did we start up again? So the issuance of the certificates of participation in 2016. where 1.15 million was appropriated for the renovation of Southview Park. So on October 1st, staff held a community meeting at the park. to talk to residents and see what their ideas were for the park. It was a very well attended meeting with over 40 residents in attendance. Most of them left us their emails, so I've been in touch with them since then. We spoke for about an hour and a half and we had lots of great input. Here's a list of some of the highlights from that meeting. In your packet is a full list of all of the notes that I took. And then I circulated to the participants of the meeting and they edited them a little and gave me a little bit more feedback. So we really captured what they said. I'm not going to go through all of this because it's in your packet. But the overwhelming response was to keep the park the same and repair what is there. So these findings were brought to the local and well-renowned landscape firm, SWA, who were originally brought in on board in 2016 on a limited basis. We were working with them. They were looking at the base maps that Linda Caruthers produced, and we were kind of talking some different ideas. But we didn't want to get too far until we had that community meeting and got community input to really see what the residents wanted for the park. Another big question was ADA. Slopes on the streets on the west and east side are about 22 degrees. That's pretty steep for a street, and especially for a sidewalk. The slope of the sidewalk at the top of the park varies between 12 degrees and 15 degrees. So again, a very steep terrain, very difficult to work with. I contacted the ADA Center in Washington, DC, spoke with some different people, spoke with some experts in the field through some organizations, professional organizations I belong to. And we came up with a couple of things. to ramp the park would basically destroy the park. It would also take up way more so much of the cost that it becomes impractical to do. But with that, each primary functionary of the park must comply with ADA standards. So what does that mean? That means that the playground itself, all the equipment in that playground, will need to comply with ADA standards. So the surfacing in the playgrounds, the amount of play equipment in the playgrounds, the transition platforms within the playground, all of that has to comply. We also will need to comply with all these facilities. any codes relating to stairways, steps, handrails, drinking fountain heights, seating, benches, everything else like that. We're also going to need to put up proper signage to direct people to the fully accessible parks in Sausalito. We're very fortunate that we have Robin Sweeney Park, which is now fully accessible, the park that Lycée Francais put in at MLK, which is fully accessible, and Mary Ann Sears Park up on Harrison, which is fully accessible. We're very fortunate to have those here, and we can direct people to those. The whole town is, what, two miles? So it's a very short distance. And again, we confirmed with SWA, and they confirmed these findings. So based on the information by the public, SWA produced one draft concept. Lauren and I looked at it and said, no, you can't flip things around. Put it back. So then they sent me this. And then just a few hours ago, I was sent this. So this is the... latest and greatest. And I want to emphasize that there's going to be a public meeting on the 21st down in the game room. Sorry, Joe, we can't have any drumming that night. So the drum circles off. But we're going to go into this plan. Representatives from SWA are here tonight, but they're also going to be there at this meeting. But real briefly, and actually, why don't I have you I've got Bill. from SWA and I can have him point out some features of the park here. But if you do notice, everything's in the same place it was before. |
| 01:34:19.15 | Bill Hines | Thank you, Mike. Bill Hines from SWA. We were the consultant, the landscape architectural consultant, that was brought on board to study the park and sort of see what we could make of this. And I guess, you know, the basic observation is we kind of have these YOU MIGHT ENTERTAIN A SERIES OF RAMPS IN ORDER TO ACHIEVE ACCESSIBILITY. AND IT REALLY ENDS UP TAKING UP THE WHOLE FOOTPRINT OF THE ENTIRE PARK. So short of doing something that invasive and that costly and that has as much impact to the character of the park, since we can demonstrate there are equivalent facilities at other places, we just have the sort of current footprint to work in. And as Mike confirmed through the community meetings, there's a very strong interest in keeping the tennis court, the basketball court, the playground, and the lawn area up here. I think one of the key attributes of this park is really the fact that you have this commanding view of the bay. It's a really incredible place to just stand and admire the natural beauty that we're sort of surrounded in, and you can sort of look behind you and look up into the hills of Sausalito, and it's a very picturesque sight. So what this design really looks to do is make a little bit more of a feature out of that viewshed. What we've done, the current entrance to the park is right here. We've sort of slid it down a little bit so that all of this could be at the same elevation. Right now there are a few steps as you come in here and a few more steps as you come down to the lawn level. And what this would allow is if, you know, somebody was able to get access up here, they could come in with a stroller or a wheelchair to this upper level. that would be kind of all at the same level. And as a part of that, we've integrated some kind of seat steps in here for like a two-foot grade change down to a lower lawn, basically providing opportunities for people to sit on these different terraces that could be planted out. And there would be some potentially decomposed granite or some sort of softer surfacing down here. People could sit and kind of wait until the tennis court was available since we're anticipating when the project gets redone that those courts are going to see a lot of use. again, with just the kind of main circulation and all the steps running through the park, we're going to try to keep whichever steps we can. This is kind of a primary candidate for just keeping what's there existing, but we're also examining a little bit of wall work as well there that needs to happen just with some of the photos that Mike showed earlier with the walls kind of overturning and cracking. But we want to make sure that in the final design, we're incorporating necessary landings that are required in the proximity of gates and kind of bringing all these potential tripping hazards or things that would not be allowed by current building codes. We're attempting to bring all those up to current standards. And as Mike mentioned, by revisiting this playground, there's a substantial opportunity, I think, with current play equipment to provide a kind of higher amount of play in a given area. You know, one of the things that we've done is kept the existing swings, which was a direct outcome of the community meeting. And those are highly desirable. Under current codes, those swings take up a fair bit of the playground. As you can see, probably nearly half the playground or so, depending on the height and ultimate fall zones of those. But I think it is possible with some of the newer structures to really create a lot of play value in there for the younger families that are wanting to use the park. So in terms of the court surfaces, the idea is really just to restore the tennis court and keep the basketball court kind of as is. Mike and I have talked about a couple of different potential options there, but we weren't really able to come up with something that was significantly more compelling than what's here. And part of what we're dealing with in terms of a global issue with the amount of walls and the extent of repairs that are required, trying to work with our engineers to really develop the most cost-effective solution for the park that keeps all of the existing uses and creates a nicer park environment that really capitalizes on the views available from the site. |
| 01:39:22.96 | Joan Cox | Okay, thanks. |
| 01:39:24.75 | Mike Langford | A little bit more for you. |
| 01:39:25.97 | Joan Cox | Okay, before you move on, Mike, can you make sure that the city council gets a copy of- |
| 01:39:31.70 | Mike Langford | I'll send you this right after we're done here. |
| 01:39:33.83 | Joan Cox | Thank you. |
| 01:39:34.03 | Mike Langford | Thank you. |
| 01:39:34.12 | Joan Cox | you |
| 01:39:34.15 | Mike Langford | Like I said, this was hot off the presses here. |
| 01:39:38.35 | Joe Burns | Yes. |
| 01:39:39.48 | Mike Langford | So, We'll go through the next steps and then we can come back. So next steps, as I said, we're going to have a public meeting on the 21st to review the design. I call it design number two because we saw number one and rejected it right away. Sorry, Bill. put him back to work. So that's going to be on the 21st. I've already sent out notice and had a really good response from residents saying, thank you, good to hear it's going, and I'll be there. Excuse me, later in February, or as soon as we can, we're going to meet with the geotechnical engineers to review the previous work and determine future work. So that's those retaining walls. What do we know about them, and what more do we need to know about all the walls before we move forward? February, March, we're going to return to Council with a recommendation to approve an amendment to the existing design contracts with SWA, as well as Rollo and Ridley, and authorized preparation of documents to take to the Planning Commission. That's going to be a big, important step. When we do that, we're going, that ball's rolling, it's going full speed. Because in April, we want to bring it to the Planning Commission with the design. All goes well, we'll get it approved. We'll finalize the construction drawings in May. Go out to bid in June. and sometime July and August begin construction. And if we can make this schedule move faster so that we can get the results the residents want, we'll do that. So that's the end of my show, but it sounds like you wanted to go back to. That one right there. |
| 01:41:14.00 | Joe Burns | Yeah. |
| 01:41:14.76 | Mike Langford | to the |
| 01:41:14.96 | Joe Burns | My question is, on the basketball court, |
| 01:41:15.15 | Mike Langford | my question. |
| 01:41:19.42 | Joe Burns | THAT WILL BE EVEN. IF YOU LOOK AT IT NOW, IT Depending on |
| 01:41:23.92 | Mike Langford | Depending on what we do, if we have to tear up the court, yes, we'll make it as flat as we can. You do need to take in the drainage and all the different wall heights and things like that. Yeah, all the basketballs roll into the southeast corner right now. It's a good place to store them. |
| 01:41:44.31 | Joan Cox | Has SWA prepared an order of magnitude construction estimate for these plans? |
| 01:41:55.18 | Bill Hines | Yes, Vice Mayor Cox, we have prepared a version of the cost estimate that actually corresponded to one of our earlier plans. And that cost estimate was an effort to really try to hit the mark in terms of the budget, both hard and soft costs. What that demonstrated was that we really need to get a handle on the engineering costs associated with this in much greater detail to be reasonably assured of our construction cost estimate. In other words, we know kind of what the park costs, but it's like what's holding the park up. that is sort of the question mark at this point. And so some of the embellishments that we added from the original design just to really try to improve this area that takes advantage of the view isn't fully represented in that estimate, nor is the full extent of the wall work, but that estimate was developed with the best information we had at the time, both from the geotechnical engineers and the structural engineer as well. |
| 01:43:11.50 | Joan Cox | So the $50,000 question. What was the estimate? |
| 01:43:15.89 | Joe Burns | you Hey, hey, hey. $4 million. |
| 01:43:19.57 | Mary Wagner | Well, yeah. |
| 01:43:19.99 | Mike Langford | I'm sorry. It did not include all the work on the walls, and so it's really a very, very preliminary estimate. |
| 01:43:26.96 | Joan Cox | But is it within the 1.15 million or is it already over? |
| 01:43:31.47 | Mike Langford | What? It was within it. It was definitely within, yeah, it was right around it. We're just looking at the walls. They have done some additional work to bring down the cost since then, and we're looking at other. areas to reduce the cost while not sacrificing anything at the park. I don't want to value engineer the park away to where we don't have anything there. It doesn't make sense to do. One of the notice from the public is the residents in the area, one of them brought up and says, do you think what the city has is going to pay for it? I said, I don't know. We won't know. And the overwhelming consensus from the people that were there said, no, we're going to have to do something to raise the funds. So the residents are aware that it's going to be an expensive endeavor. You know, I couldn't even tell you, and I don't know if Jonathan can tell you how old those walls are. They might be from the original school. I'm sure that some of them are, at least the footings are. |
| 01:44:29.45 | Joe Burns | Yeah, because the entrance to that school is right up at the top. That's how you came into the school. And the tennis court was actually the playground. |
| 01:44:41.97 | Mike Langford | So for being 100 years old, they're Still looking pretty good. |
| 01:44:45.82 | Joan Cox | If you have to undertake a private fundraising effort, how much time does that add to your schedule? |
| 01:44:51.50 | Mike Langford | Who's the big donor? All it takes is one check. There's some residents in the area that previously have suggested that they would contribute and we hope that we can get a few more residents and there's opportunities there for I think, yes. You know, purchasing play equipment, benches, tennis courts, basketball courts, it's going to be up to the council what they want to put people's names on. There is a plaque up there already from when it was redone quite a few years ago when somebody donated about $25,000. |
| 01:45:25.81 | Adam Politzer | And Vice Mayor Cox, if I can just add to the answer. I think what you heard from SWA is that we told them what the budget was. You know, they're focused on that budget. We're still at the preliminary stage of this, making sure that what we're trying to improve is what the community is looking for. And so, you know, we can sit here and speculate, you know, up or down. The economy, you know, can control that as well. But at this point, we have to move to that next level. So having this final community meeting to show this most recent conceptual design, get that feedback, have a Park and Recreation Commission meeting, and then bring back a recommendation to the city council on moving forward to engaging SWH and now take this to the next level. Which then will put us in a position to get a better understanding of what the estimate is. As we shared before, as the Robin Sweeney Park went through the process, we designed it with no budget. We just said, what do you want? And there, and off we went. And then changes happened throughout that process that added costs or took away costs based on the various changes. So we need to get to a more firm standing. And obviously, we all understand that the condition of those retaining walls, just like the condition of the retaining walls here at Robin Sini Park, is going to be the million-dollar question. Thank you. Ciao. |
| 01:46:57.27 | Joe Burns | My question is really quick, and I don't need to get into the specifics of the design, but if you go back to the, just curious on one element, the slope where we have the slope planning between the playground and the basketball court, what is that? |
| 01:47:09.98 | Mike Langford | What is that? That's a grass area or a planted area right now. you |
| 01:47:13.54 | Joe Burns | Will it be a kid play area type thing? |
| 01:47:16.39 | Mike Langford | It's a sloped area. Right now, it's too steep to really play on. It just has plants. That's what I'm wondering. Will it change its elevation in this plant? No, that area... |
| 01:47:22.74 | Joe Burns | THE FAMILY. |
| 01:47:26.87 | Mike Langford | If we're fortunate enough that both of those retaining walls are stable, then we won't have to do anything to it. And it'll just basically stay how it is now, but with new plants and planting. |
| 01:47:37.01 | Joe Burns | We know kids will go where they should. |
| 01:47:39.43 | Mike Langford | Kids will go where they want to go. |
| 01:47:42.23 | Bill Hines | And I guess, You know, simplistically, from a structural standpoint, you can reduce the height of walls, and that doesn't require any sort of calculation or reengineering, because you're theoretically making the retaining condition less, so just less concern. When you're looking at adding height to walls, obviously that's a consideration. So in order to flatten this out, this area here, we'd either have to look at raising this wall or lowering the footing of this wall, which basically means replacing that entire wall. So it's one of those things where you're kind of in for a penny, in for a pound, and we really tried to be strategic where we were making those decisions with the park, especially knowing that the overall uses wanted to be the same in terms of what was heard from the community. |
| 01:48:36.50 | Joan Cox | Okay, any other questions? No. Okay, public comment. Does anybody like to comment on this particular agenda item? you Okay, this agenda item, right? Yes, absolutely. Please, Jeff. |
| 01:49:00.63 | Jeffrey Chase | Southview Park. you I was outside in the hallway here. of four or five months ago and we were having an Anchorage meeting and it was getting very heated Doug was there and I was talking with him in my voice. I was excited. I had a lot of garlic and onions that week, so my passion was up. And... AS I WAS SPEAKING, Mary and Jonathan Goldman came up to me. And they said this, because I got involved in this whole political thing because of a community garden, because of wanting to plant a seed and let it grow. And they came up to me, I didn't come up to them asking, and they said, What about Southview Park. What about there as a place for a community garden? I don't remember the exact words. We certainly didn't sign any contracts. Uh, I gathered a few people, one of them called himself Jesus, he's had a kid and he's with his wife now in New Jersey. They're very happy. I brought up another couple. and two other people. We came to the meeting to look at Southview Park and to see what kind of community garden, to see what the height, to see where it could be, to see where the dogs were, and the tennis courts, et cetera. We came back and there was a city council meeting that night. And I announced... that It seemed like a great place to have a garden. As soon as I did that, Mary said there was no promises made. I misunderstood. |
| 01:51:05.60 | Jeffrey Chase | Now, I've talked to David Levin, he's the head of legal aid for Marin. And he says when two people are negotiating and one has all the power, all of the money, all the salaries, all the employees. and the other one does not have as much power, the person without the power must find leverage. The city and the state are going to have to do that with the federal government now. And... In the same way that the city of Sausalito and the state of California are going to have to deal with all of the- Miss you guys, the craziness that's coming out of Washington, D.C. The people on the Anchorage have to deal with this city council. And all I've ever talked about when I've come up here has been bicycles, and boats and budding flowers and gardens. Only those three issues. Thank you. There has not been any progress yet. |
| 01:52:03.55 | Joan Cox | Thank you. |
| 01:52:05.87 | Jeffrey Chase | you |
| 01:52:05.90 | Joan Cox | Thank you, Jeff. |
| 01:52:06.90 | Jeffrey Chase | We'll be right back. |
| 01:52:06.96 | Joan Cox | Look at that. |
| 01:52:07.05 | Jeffrey Chase | FOR LEVERAGE. |
| 01:52:07.98 | Joan Cox | thank you I will find it is there anybody else who wants to comment on Southview Park Peter. |
| 01:52:18.64 | Peter Romanowski | Peter Romanowski. the longest living anchor out on Richardson Bay, at least longest living single anchor out. since A.L.'s death. Now, I got here a little bit late. Now, we're talking Southview Park. We're talking Southview Park. The tennis court. |
| 01:52:29.91 | Unknown | We're talking Southview Park. Mm-hmm. |
| 01:52:34.37 | Peter Romanowski | That's the main thing, the tennis court, right? I tell you, I'll tell you what I think about the whole thing. For one thing, we need showers. We need a cold shower somewhere in the park system. As the leader of the anchor outs and the homeless people, um, and as the president of a 501 non-profit corporation, of which we're going to get a couple million bucks from the Marine Community Foundation sooner or later, I mean just so we can get like legal aid and some cushion, We are the homeless people of Sausalito. Now, Southview Parking thing, For one thing, whoever voted to block access to there, down the lower road, I mean, it's terrible. It's terrible. I mean, we don't have a lower road down there. But on Southview Park, why not put a cold shower in there? Okay, no, it doesn't sound like very practical. put us out in a tennis court area, a cold shower, just a cold shower. and in now All I'm saying is that We need a shower. Us homeless people need a shower. I've been over 50 years. I will win. I will when when you guys are long dead long gone. we're anchor outs are going to still be here, and we're still going to need a shower. You know what I mean? We're still going to shower. So one of these parks somewhere, at least a cold shower. I have gone years without a shower as a guru, as an ascetic. I have gone years without a shower. And you know that. |
| 01:54:18.60 | Jeffrey Chase | Right? |
| 01:54:19.90 | Peter Romanowski | I mean, I have learned you don't have to have a shower, but you don't have to have a shower. All you shower every night. I mean, I can't remember the last time I had a hot bath or a shower. I just take a knife and scrape my skin and, you know, pour alcohol, rubbing alcohol on my back. You know, we have learned. Could you imagine the Mongols on the steps of Mongolia ever having a shower? Yeah. Could you, they got no water there? They heat their huts with horse dung. They cook their food on horse dung. No wonder the Mongols went crazy. And sooner or later, the Ankarats are going to go crazy. The Mongols. You know what steps are? Grass. There's no wood there. NO WOOD. We are so used to talking at you, and we never have time to listen to you. And I want to apologize for that, honestly. We are so wound up, us anchor outs and poor and waterfront people. We're so wound up that we don't listen, but pray for us that we will listen to you. Thank you, Peter. God bless you. Thank you. |
| 01:55:23.78 | Joan Cox | Thank you, Peter. Thank you. |
| 01:55:27.35 | Peter Romanowski | OKAY. |
| 01:55:29.68 | Joan Cox | Uh... Yes, Kevin. |
| 01:55:34.48 | Kevin Kuefer | Yeah, just briefly, I don't see... any potential for this current plan because it doesn't seem, doesn't appear to be ADA compliant. If a mobility challenged child enters the park and can't use the rest of the park when all the other kids can. And that child then has to leave. and go around to another section of the park to get in to play? I don't think it'll fly, but good luck with it. If that's an unused portion of the park right there, and it appears to be on that mid-level, You need to figure out some way to tie in Tie our park together. Uh, These guys are engineers at your contracting with, and I think that's an open space that needs to be used as a ramp. Good luck. |
| 01:56:27.72 | Joan Cox | Thank you. |
| 01:56:27.73 | Kevin Kuefer | Thank you. |
| 01:56:28.63 | Joan Cox | Thank you. Is there anybody else who'd like to comment on Southview Park? Okay, seeing none, we'll close public comment. Bye. just we look forward to the next update and have a good community meeting and thank you for the update there's no action needed tonight |
| 01:56:49.30 | Mike Langford | No action needed. Just wanted to bring you guys up to date. Thank you very much. |
| 01:56:52.54 | Joan Cox | Okay. |
| 01:56:52.98 | Mike Langford | And I'll be sending you the latest and greatest this evening. |
| 01:56:57.72 | Joan Cox | Thank you. Okay. It's 5 after 9. So I'm going to suggest we take a short break. And five minutes or so. Okay? Thank you. |
| 01:57:18.97 | Mary Wagner | you |
| 01:57:19.25 | Jeffrey Chase | you |
| 01:57:19.30 | Mary Wagner | Oh, |
| 01:57:19.84 | Jeffrey Chase | Thank you. |
| 01:57:19.98 | Mary Wagner | you |
| 01:57:33.85 | Joan Cox | Yep. Thank you very much. Let's resume. Okay. Item 6C is to approve a resolution to amend the master fee schedule to increase on-street parking meter rates. Melanie Prasar, Administrative Services Director. |
| 01:57:53.19 | Melanie Purcell | Good evening. This is to discuss phase one. what we would like to do is actually consider eventually getting through the whole parking system but at this point what we'd really like to talk about is on-street parking meters the rates actually were originally established as best we can tell sometime prior to 2004 at a dollar an hour for a brief time they went up to 150 and then they went down for quite four years or so for it 75 cents and then came back to a dollar in 2008. So we've looked at our neighbors, particularly San Rafael to the north is at $1.50 an hour. Looking at some of the other folks in the region, obviously San Francisco is much higher. But we've included kind of a review. We took this to the finance committee and provided a survey done by the city of Palo Alto. The idea is to kind of take advantage of the market position that we have and increase our competitiveness on street parking. This would mean no changes to lots and no changes to the residential permit program. Strictly on the street. swipe meters. Phase two, just to give you a heads up, we'll have this conversation toward middle of the year, we'd be looking at what would be appropriate special event parking for non-residents, primarily in the lots. And then phase three, really getting into a conversation about what peak demand type of parking rates might look like and that's usually by location Thank you. and by time, and that's something that with the new technology we have on our meters, we can get into a pretty detailed I was going to say drill down of when and how meters can be programmed, both in the lots and on the street. That is intended for next fall. because we have a lot of research and analysis to do before that point. So the request for council today. is to look at the phase one at $1.50 an hour From the current dollar an hour, no changes to the parking lot rates, Mill Valley and San Anselmo were 75 cents and 60 cents per hour, but they also have a little different market position than we do. San Francisco, 250 to 650 an hour. They actually use a very sophisticated peak demand methodology. Our meters have the capacity already. They accept credit cards, which would mean the quarters issue is not an issue. Our estimated revenue increase would be about $40,000 for the three month period. I am not recommending that we adjust the budget and assume that. I'm saying let's see what we get and then we can make our projections for FY18 accordingly. The recommendation is to make this go into effect April 1st. |
| 02:00:49.46 | Mike McKinley | Thank you. |
| 02:00:49.48 | Joan Cox | Bye. |
| 02:00:49.50 | Mike McKinley | Thank you. |
| 02:00:49.78 | Joan Cox | Thank you. |
| 02:00:49.80 | Mike McKinley | Thank you. |
| 02:00:50.58 | Joan Cox | Okay, thank you, Melanie. Any questions of Melanie or Steph? |
| 02:00:58.20 | Joe Burns | Would that be for all the meter spots? ON THE STREET. ON THE STREET IN DOWNTOWN, |
| 02:01:06.22 | Joan Cox | everywhere. |
| 02:01:06.96 | Joe Burns | Okay. Thank you. |
| 02:01:09.97 | Joan Cox | I had asked you some questions earlier and I think you told me that the city currently nets 43,000 from parking fees. And that's net of indirect costs like city manager, enforcement, etc. So I'm unclear how we're going to get a revenue increase of 40,000 for three months. |
| 02:01:32.09 | Melanie Purcell | The way our revenues are heavily coming from parking meters, so given that that is three of the highest traffic months, for us other than July and August, that's where the $40,000 is coming from. That's why I really don't want to make an adjustment in the budget. I just want to see that's what we think it would be in talking with our parking staff |
| 02:01:44.81 | Mary Wagner | from. |
| 02:01:53.56 | Melanie Purcell | And myself, that's what we think it should be. But I'd really like to test that. Okay. Thank you. |
| 02:01:58.40 | Joan Cox | Thank you. |
| 02:01:58.82 | Rick Kornow | pretty close. Thank you. |
| 02:02:01.96 | Joan Cox | Okay, public comment. Would anybody like to talk about parking meters? |
| 02:02:10.51 | Unknown | Yes. |
| 02:02:13.75 | Joan Cox | And could I just remind speakers to speak into the microphone and speak directly to us, the City Council, not to the audience, please? Thank you. |
| 02:02:28.06 | Jeffrey Chase | THANK YOU. |
| 02:02:28.20 | Joan Cox | Thank you. |
| 02:02:28.44 | Jeffrey Chase | Thank you. |
| 02:02:28.45 | Joan Cox | Thank you. |
| 02:02:30.27 | Jeffrey Chase | Okay, were you having a problem hearing me? when I wasn't speaking in the microphone. |
| 02:02:36.15 | Joan Cox | Yeah, because when you turn around, people can't hear you. Okay. Thanks. Thank you. |
| 02:02:42.32 | Jeffrey Chase | Thank you. This is... THE CITY IS GOING TO BE I understood as I was researching the history of city planning that it became an economic plan, mainly. that the reason that cars are sponsored is because when a car comes in, it, It costs money to fill up the gas tank. It costs money to park it. It costs money to fix it. It costs money to protect the... Oil. whether it's in Saudi Arabia or Texas, and it costs money to ship it, whether it's on pipelines or on tankers. I ride a bicycle at the moment. Um, What has happened in Sausalito? As I've talked about bicycles many times, we've gone backwards again. That for one parking place for a car and each car in Sausalito has at least two, if not three or four parking places. In San Francisco, each parking place costs $35,000. I don't know what the comparable figure is here, whether it's less or more. For that same amount of space, you can park... a dozen bicycles. I pull my kayak up to Salido's, the half of one public dock that is given to the anchorage. And there were yellow tags that were put around the bicycles there. I was using a cart there and a yellow tag was put around that as well. There at the same time I saw Jonathan and there were a few bicycle racks that he had brought up. And I said I hope the bicycle racks are going to be replacing this haphazard parking of bicycles and parts bicycles. here along Salido's to make it look better. But what's happened is I took the bikes off of there, a couple bikes that nobody claimed, and I put them on the rack. I fake locked them. I didn't have a real lock for them, and they weren't my bikes. And the next day they were brought back to Salido. So there's no overnight parking at those racks that are in front of the joinery and Salido's. That all of the bicycle racks have been put downtown, and the idea that a person would have to go four or five or seven blocks to park their bicycle while they could move their car to a parking lot seems absolutely ludicrous. Thank you. |
| 02:05:40.29 | Joan Cox | Thank you. |
| 02:05:40.79 | Jeffrey Chase | Thank you. |
| 02:05:42.36 | Joan Cox | Anybody else, Kevin? |
| 02:05:48.84 | Kevin Kuefer | Uh, yeah. I really think Melanie's doing a great job. I really appreciate fact that she's she's so thorough everything she does and I think as an Anchorage community sorry I turn the Anchorage community I think we should keep in mind that maybe we need somebody like her as our community administrator at some point because that's what's good that's what's gonna happen eventually So agenda planning is probably part of community planning. So when the agenda says Richardson Bay Enforcement Abatement Project Update F, approximately estimated to be 10 PM, you can pretty much count on a group of anchor outs hanging out here till the very end. So if you don't want us, if you want us to hit it and get it, then plan it. |
| 02:06:47.53 | Joan Cox | Um, anybody else, Peter? |
| 02:06:53.71 | Peter Romanowski | First of all, I want to assure that I do bathe. I just don't have hot showers or hot baths. I do bathe. I mean, most of the world is dying from lack of water. I don't know. Africa, they can't bathe. They got no bathing water. So every time you take a shower, remember, Most of the world Does not shower. You know, OK, but on the thing, as the ostensible self-proclaimed leader of the Anchor House and the waterfront people, we have cars. I have to move my car every three days, right? OK. If I don't move my car every three or four days, it's a $275 ticket, right? $275. Is that right, officer? Thank you. |
| 02:07:45.77 | Joan Cox | Peter, could you talk into the microphone, please? |
| 02:07:47.05 | Peter Romanowski | Okay, now I'm getting, now I've been to New York Port Authority. I know how expensive parking is, I know that. So there's nothing we can do about that. But I just want to have assurance that once the parking meter runs out, we can sleep in our cars until 8 in the morning. Right, officers? There's no law against sleeping in your car, right? |
| 02:08:13.68 | Joe Burns | that. This way. |
| 02:08:15.67 | Peter Romanowski | Okay. Last I heard, there's no law against sleeping in your car anymore because there's three and a half million homeless people in America. and, and. OBAMA. And Democrats are bringing... They want to flood us with more homeless people. And flood us. with people that don't pay taxes. They have no social security numbers. I mean, so I'm just saying, Have mercy on us, you know, like if our car, I mean, so far so good. I haven't had my car red tagged. I've had, all my cars have been towed away except the one I have now, you know. Except the one I'm not going to let it tow away. But I'm just saying that, it's right, you can sleep in your car overnight in Salcido, right, officer? |
| 02:08:58.94 | Joe Burns | THE CITY IS GOING TO BE this way. |
| 02:09:01.15 | Peter Romanowski | Right? It's, It's a state law... It's no longer a crime for a homeless person to sleep in their car. And I just want to advocate that, you know. And that means that we can, somebody goes down there to the dock of the bay where I play my guitar. Every day I raise money for our church. And by the way, if any of you would like to write a check, and the police department too, if you'd like to write a check to feed the homeless and pay the rent for our church service every Sunday, you can make it out to the New Covenant Evangelistic Association, Incorporated, We're a 501. All of you can. Now, I'm expecting all of you to pull out your checkbooks now and to feed the poor. And I'm going to work my way over the police station and I'm going to ask them for the police association for a check for the new covenant because I am the CEO of a 501. Thank you. I'm looking forward to your donations. |
| 02:09:55.37 | Joan Cox | Thank you. Thank you, Peter. Thank you, Peter. Any other member of the public like to make a comment about parking meter rates? Okay. Back up here, we need a motion. |
| 02:10:12.89 | Joan Cox | I move we approve a resolution to amend the master fee schedule to increase on street parking meter rates in the manner discussed by Melanie Purcell, the administrative services director. |
| 02:10:24.94 | Joan Cox | Second. All in favor? Aye. Any opposed? No. That motion carries. Okay, the next item is 6D, which is relating to the mid-year budget approval. |
| 02:10:27.01 | Joan Cox | Aye |
| 02:10:38.76 | Unknown | Thank you. to Thank you. |
| 02:10:50.60 | Melanie Purcell | We spoke last week and presented the introduction to the midyear budget amendment and capital update. Just to clarify, we're looking at some minor staffing changes. I want to provide a little bit of highlights on the department and capital. Um, Councilmember Hoffman had asked for an update on the certificates of participation, so I've also included a slide on that. You will be receiving a more detailed update from the actual COP Oversight Committee in April. We're looking at the general fund department expenditures, our city wide summary. your direction. So real quick, the proposal on hand that we introduced last meeting is to modify the city librarian position to actually include the communication director function. The resolution itself specifically says to create the job title. it is not intended to add a position to the budget isn't intended to reclass an employee from one position to a separate position. The idea is that the city has made increased public communications the top priority. And that includes the currents, our relaunch and redesign of the website, use, consistent use of open town hall, as well as looking at our approach to social media. Particularly as recently as we've even been seen as dealing with emergencies. The city librarian in particular has sufficient experience in this area and has been acting in this capacity temporarily. The 5% increase associated with modifying this position to include both titles is equal to $6,605 and $1,113 in pension in year one. What we would like to recommend is this be a temporary through the next budget, and then reevaluate it as we head into the next biennial. The other things that we did consider were possibly using a professional services contract with a firm that specializes in municipal communications or using a part-time contractor. Both of those are significantly more expensive in both the short-term and long-term. Also included in the resolution is to expand and increase the wage ranges for part-time library staff. This is not to increase the budget in any way, but rather to mirror the actions that the council took regarding recreation employees. We create a range. It's easier for the staff to be managed in terms of recognizing people's tenure and performance. And also allows us to react much easier to changes in state and federal legislation regarding minimum wage as well as market. Managers are expected and held to their budget to manage the existing staff they have within these ranges. So they make the assignment, but they still have to spend only up to their budget amount. Here are the communications options that we talked about briefly. We did a 15 year cost because that would be considered the life, work life of the incumbent. 15 year cost obviously is much higher. 217,000 for a Reclassification of an existing employee, 1.5 million if we were to use a professional services contract, 432,000 if we were to use a part time contractor. |
| 02:14:12.70 | Melanie Purcell | Just a heads up on some of what we have accomplished and have underway that were included in the FY16-17 budget. We have contracted for code enforcement. We've contracted to increase building official activities. are phase one. Infrastructure replacement, thank you very much for your approval earlier this evening. The planning and permitting software, we have our next kickoff meeting with the on-site staff. at the end of the month, and the website update is well underway. They have hired their parking enforcement officer who's working out very well. Obviously, you see Mike McKinley very active as our part-time emergency management, and our seasonal patrol will start soon. Public Works, we are in discussions with the union and moving forward on the contract maintenance foreman. Enhanced maintenance is very much underway with expenditures flowing. And construction management is also well underway, as you see with the various projects. License plate readers have been purchased and are in the process of being installed. You've heard the update on Southview, you'll be hearing an update on Dunphy soon. The phase one repairs are under contract and underway. We will be bringing forward a modification on that particular contract in reflection of some changes recently to the roof. The 2016 streets projects complete 2017 will be coming forward to you for award. Gate 6 project is underway, storm drain master plan mapping is underway. Obviously, it's been a very busy, busy fall. And the Tourney Gangway project is underway. I actually just finished approving POs this morning. Quick update on the certificates of participation. We want to clarify, the Dunphy Park is under-designed. The budget itself is $1,855,333. Year-to-date, $8,400. THE FAMILY. Southview Park, $1,150,000. Year to date, it's just over $11,000. Martin Luther King Campus, this includes the design, roof, HVAC gas line repairs. The entire comprehensive facility condition assessment is for $3 million. we've spent just under $200,000, predominantly in design, but beginning the mobilization for the other work. Robin Sweeney is considered complete. We are doing our final account closure, and we'll be taking that to the COP oversight committee. for final review that included. 1,192,633 in COP funds, ADA funds of just over 41,000, and non-COP general support of 400,000. |
| 02:16:54.93 | Melanie Purcell | Majority of the changes for the general fund expenditures, you'll notice that it is a slight increase. Those are appropriations of previously received and currently received donations and grants. There is no proposed additional use of fund balance. City Council did propose to use some fund balance of $157,000. Was proposed in the original budget for undesignated and reserve fund balance. This change to 164 reflects previously donated funds that are restricted for BACHE and other activities. |
| 02:17:34.52 | Melanie Purcell | This is pretty much this is the, both the legal and component requirements of spelling out exactly what's included in the budget. THEIR OWNERS. It's $43 million. 62. $43,062,984, and that includes all capital. Do you have any questions for me? |
| 02:18:01.64 | Joan Cox | Thank you, Melanie. I just want to make sure everybody understands, and maybe you can clarify for us. Other than the small, amount that you've requested for the communications function, all of the other things that you've shown, departmental and capital expenditures, are essentially budgeted. Anne? there's available funds for. |
| 02:18:33.20 | Melanie Purcell | Yes, the only increase to any component of the budget or in total is actually the use of donated grants and funds. So even the cost of the communications director is expected to be withheld within the total original preparation of budget. |
| 02:18:49.82 | Joan Cox | And the other thing for my colleagues here is this has been reviewed fairly extensively by Finance Committee. Any questions? Okay, let's open this for public comment. Does anybody have anything to say about the budget? |
| 02:19:22.49 | Jeffrey Chase | Thank you again. I was looking at the next item that you're going to be I'm not sure. doing on the budget, which is a consultant fee for the master plan. Oh. |
| 02:19:37.96 | Joan Cox | Geoff, can I just interrupt you a second? |
| 02:19:39.09 | Jeffrey Chase | Bye. |
| 02:19:39.23 | Unknown | I'm sorry. |
| 02:19:40.51 | Joan Cox | Could I just interrupt you a second? We actually, you may have missed at the beginning that we've actually moved that agenda item to February 28th. Okay. So we will not be talking about that tonight. |
| 02:19:51.02 | Jeffrey Chase | Okay, well that's good. Good. I'm happy about that. |
| 02:19:55.99 | Unknown | Thank you. |
| 02:19:56.02 | Joan Cox | Thank you. |
| 02:19:56.03 | Unknown | Okay. |
| 02:19:56.49 | Jeffrey Chase | Uh... I'm reading this Torah part even though for some people it's very difficult even for people who are understanding this and reading it on the Holy Shabbos on Saturdays. But this portion is called Yitro. This is about money and how we spend it and how we appoint judges and people to... I'm not sure if I'm to deal with disputes that we have. Yitro is the father-in-law of Moses, Jethro. in English. And... He comes because Moses has proved himself and proved that God is on the side of the Israelites, on the side of the slaves. Jethro is very impressed. Moses' father-in-law, sees what Moses is doing to his people, judging them. And he says, what is this thing that you are doing to the people? Why do you sit by yourself while all the people stand before you from morning until evening? Moses said to his father-in-law, For the people come to me to seek God. If any of them has a case, he comes to me, and I judge between a man and his neighbor, and I make known the statutes of God and his teachings. Moses' father-in-law said to him, The thing that you are doing is not good. You will surely wear yourself out, both you and these people who are with you, for the matter is too heavy for you because you cannot do it alone. Now listen to me. I will advise you, and may the Lord be with you. You represent the people before God, and you shall bring the matters to God. You shall admonish them concerning the statutes and the teachings. You shall make known to them the way they shall go and the deeds they shall do. And this is now how we choose the people to administer this. He says, you shall choose out of the entire nation. And the nation, the word is goy, goyim. And this is a holy nation, which is also included in this portion, which is goyim kadosh. You shall choose out of the entire nation men of substance, which means men who are not so poor they're going to take a bribe, or they'll do things only for money. God fears men of truth and men and women who hate monetary gain. You shall appoint them over the thousands, leaders over the hundreds, leaders over fifties, and leaders over tens. And they shall judge the people at all times. So we are not in Israel, we're in America. I understand how painful it is, and I'm saying I'm here to help the same way Jethro is. I'm not a member of your tribe, but anything I can do. |
| 02:22:45.34 | Joan Cox | Thank you. |
| 02:22:45.82 | Unknown | Thank you. |
| 02:22:51.18 | Jeffrey Chase | Thank you. |
| 02:22:51.22 | Joan Cox | Thank you. Any other member of the public like to talk? Mr. Roe. |
| 02:22:51.26 | Jeffrey Chase | Thank you. |
| 02:22:56.97 | Joan Cox | And could I ask you please to talk into the microphone and address us, not the audience, please. |
| 02:23:02.64 | Peter Romanowski | US. I hope... |
| 02:23:05.15 | Joan Cox | Thank you. |
| 02:23:05.31 | Peter Romanowski | Is this going like over the radio and everything? Is this going like? Good, good. Now, they're not going to edit it, right? Good. Thanks for reminding me. First of all, I want to wish everybody a happy Valentine's Day. And it's a big sacrifice, you coming here on Valentine's Day. |
| 02:23:08.82 | Unknown | THE FAMILY. |
| 02:23:24.07 | Peter Romanowski | I don't know if you know the story, but St. Valentine's was known for three things. First, he did illegal weddings when the Roman emperor outlawed weddings. And then they beheaded him. And his head is in the Vatican, you can see it in a glass case, you know, if you ever, it's on the internet. But he was beheaded for doing illegal weddings. Now, but he was also apparently known from my memory for writing love letters. You know, he was a priest. I'm a priest. I'm a celibate priest. We are, but I'd have to, for Valentine's Day, this is a Valentine's Day thing. I just wanted to open up and say, you made a big sacrifice coming here on Valentine's Day. I just, I didn't want to say that. I was out there looking for women, lonely women, to buy a drink for and everything went, Everywhere, I can't find anybody, but anyways, to buy a drain. But anyways, on the budget, I live on Social Security, $1,000 a month. That's what, $10,000, $12,000 a year, right? Average income here is 80, and I don't begrudge anybody for making a decent salary because it costs $90,000 a year as the average income, or in county. I live on $10,000 a year, and then I have to raise another $10,000 to keep our church going, you know. So if you want to write a check, New Covenant. So anyway, so I have to raise another $10,000 a year to keep our church going. And so that's why you see me down there and down there. I don't begrudge anybody for getting a good salary, because that's what it costs here. And just, it'd be nice to see the names and how much everybody makes. Wouldn't that be cool? Okay, we can see that. But I just want to remind everybody that I am the richest, homeless person on the water. And all my parish, the only donation I got last Sunday was a flask of vodka. That was it. So I have to pay $900, I have to raise $900 a year. So if you'd like to feed the anchor out some poor, that they have no money at all. Absolutely nothing, $5 a day. I mean, and I don't begrudge anybody getting, but with a budget of $45 million, I don't know, just remember. These poor people out there in the 7-Eleven, the waterfront, you give them a buck. Every time you see them, just give them a buck. And that's all I can say, you know, because, you know, we're going to rule. The meek shall inherit the earth. We're going to rule the world in the next quarter. You guys are going to be sitting and judging. |
| 02:26:08.77 | Joan Cox | Thank you. |
| 02:26:09.68 | Peter Romanowski | Um. |
| 02:26:12.09 | Joan Cox | Kevin, before you begin, could I ask members of the audience, including Jeff, to please be respectful and quiet when others are talking? Thank you. Kevin. |
| 02:26:28.94 | Peter Romanowski | We have to interrupt even our church meeting. Thank you. |
| 02:26:33.10 | Joan Cox | Well, okay. No comment. |
| 02:26:37.41 | Kevin Kuefer | With all due respect, Mr. Mayor, it's difficult to be respectful when your community has been displaced and disenfranchised. So according to the city budget reports, doesn't appear that They include the correct Tidelands parcel reporting of Tidelands revenues in compliance with California State Controller Division of Accounting and Reporting. Fiscal transactions reporting changes for 2015-2016 reporting year. Parcel tax reporting, government code, 12463.2 chapter statutes requires local government agencies, counties, cities, and special districts. So whichever seems to be the authority over Richardson Bay and the parcels lying underneath Richardson Bay Anchorage. And that Anchorage actually includes all of the water of the entire Bay. That to report information relating to the imposition of each locally assessed partial tax. It should be reported annually. So if it is the RBRA, they don't even do their audits annually, so how could they report annually? Each local agency must submit the report to the SCO for the previous calendar year, no later than April 30th. This report, the 2015 report, will be due April 30th, 2016. The alert letters were sent out and should have been received December 2015. These due dates are effective for the close of the fiscal year or within 110 days if filed correctly. Why are they not being filed correctly? Where are they? What's going on? It's apparent what's going on. And it's going on all over this county, but specifically it's going on in this bay. And it's going on with every member of the Richardson Bay Regional Agency, including the county. These papers, these files are not being made. because the monies are ending up twisted around through intergovernmental transfers and they're ending up in the general fund and they're not accountable. and they should not be ending up in any pension investors. because somebody can go to prison for 20 years for stuff like that. So I hope you guys aren't doing that. |
| 02:29:06.53 | Joan Cox | Thank you. Any other public comment on this item? Okay, let's bring it back here. I don't know if there's any comments, questions. We need a, now here we need two resolutions, I believe. |
| 02:29:19.25 | Joe Burns | Resolution. you Good job. |
| 02:29:23.95 | Joan Cox | Yeah, go first. |
| 02:29:25.26 | Joe Burns | He can do it. Joy. |
| 02:29:34.31 | Rick Kornow | you |
| 02:29:36.37 | Joe Burns | I move that we amend the |
| 02:29:42.58 | Joe Burns | 2016-17 budget. and established authorized staffing levels. Is that just the one? |
| 02:29:52.80 | Joan Cox | and to adopt two budget resolutions. |
| 02:29:55.76 | Joe Burns | And to adopt. Okay, I don't have that in front of me yet. Here. That's why I wanted to wait. There we go. Thank you. Move to adopt the following budget resolutions. Approve the resolution to amend the budget 2016-17 fiscal year. approving the resolution to amend off the rise staffing levels and so ranges for all permanent and temporary positions for the fiscal year 2016 and 17. |
| 02:30:20.63 | Joan Cox | Thank you. Do I have a second? . |
| 02:30:23.58 | Joe Burns | SET. |
| 02:30:23.97 | Joan Cox | . Okay, all in favor? Aye. Any opposed? That motion carries. Thank you very much, Melanie. |
| 02:30:25.98 | Joe Burns | Hi. |
| 02:30:34.32 | Joan Cox | you have to go back and then come back on it again. It takes a minute to come out sometimes, just go back and forth. |
| 02:30:39.11 | Joan Cox | Okay, our next item is the, now if you remember we have moved item 6E to our meeting on February 28th. Let's move on to item 6F, which is the Richardson Bay Enforcement Abatement Project Update. And, |
| 02:31:09.13 | Joan Cox | Is it the chief or Lieutenant Frost? |
| 02:31:47.82 | Lieutenant Frost | Good evening, Mr. Mayor. City Council members. distinguished city. staff as well as the public. Tonight I will be providing a quick update regarding the efforts we have done on Richardson Bay as part of our enhanced enforcement and abatement plan. Just a little recap. Richardson Bay is comprised of multiple jurisdictions with problems and issues that overlap jurisdictional boundaries. As you can see, Richardson Bay is comprised of waters of the city of Sausalito, the county of Marin, Belvedere, Tiburon, and a small portion in Mill Valley. the issues that we see regarding vessels Derelict mooring balls, derelict vessels do not know boundaries. They will go through one individual's water to another individual's water. So in order to address these issues, we needed a comprehensive plan with multiple working groups and multiple individuals working together. So, the Sausalu Police Department, Marin County Sheriff's Office, and the members of the Richardson Bay Regional Agency developed a law enforcement working group at the behest of the managers and the mayors of the Southern Marin jurisdictions and the county administrators from Marin County to address the issue of derelict vessels, marine debris vessels and abandoned mooring balls and devices upon Richardson Bay. In order to have the most comprehensive and most effective plan, we realized that we have to work together and we didn't want to. do anything that's going to be a duplication of efforts. So in working in conjunction with the Richardson Bay Regional Agency, it was determined that it would be best to have one law enforcement agency concentrate on the marine debris vessels and the other law enforcement agency concentrate on the removal of unattended mooring balls and mooring devices that were found upon the waters of Richardson Bay. The Marin County Sheriff's Office has taken the lead regarding the removal of marine debris vessels. And these vessels are unoccupied at this time. These vessels are removed under the Harbors and Navigational Code 551, which outlines what marine debris is and the regulations for removing these vessels from the waterway. Since our enhanced enforcement and abatement plan has come started. the Murray County Sheriff's Office has removed 16 marine debris vessels from Richardson Bay. The vessel below is just one of the vessels that were upon Richardson Bay, was unoccupied, and met the definition of marine debris. As we move forward over the next few slides, we'll be seeing additional vessels that have been removed and abated from Richardson Bay that were unsafe and marine debris. As you see, this one vessel, the deck is giving out. You have numerous items of rotting, and growth upon the vessel and the vessel was not seaworthy whatsoever. as we continue forward. We see more vessels that did not meet the criteria seaworthy inward marine debris that has been abated THE CITY IS GOING TO BE Marin County Sheriff's Office in conjunction with the members of the Richardson Bay Regional Agency. Additional, they're not always big boats, but they're small boats. Boats have a habit of multiplying at times, and little boats will show up in all parts of Richardson Bay in various states and conditions. You can see one which was being used as basically a floating debris storage container, and another one that had capsized and started sinking. AND MARINE DEBRIS VESSELS break loose of their anchors and wash up on shores. As you can see, this vessel, which was afterwards abated as marine debris and destroyed, had washed up after one of our storms upon the shores of Belvedere. In addition to the marine debris, Sausalito Police Department has taken the lead on the removal of unintended mooring balls and mooring devices that have been found in all waters of Richardson Bay. This is being done under the Harbors and Navigation Codes 525 and 526. Since our abatement and enforcement plan has started. These are some of the devices we have seen upon the water. As you can see, some are true mooring balls. Others are fenders that have been used as mooring devices in various states of conditions. Every single one, no matter what condition it is, is illegal upon Richardson Bay. We have removed to date 28 unattended mooring balls or devices. As we see, one was a mooring ball that actually had split in half and was being held by a chain. And right next to it was a second device, that fender that was being used to hold a secondary vessel that was outfitted and prepared for two vessels to be in one small area. As we could see, another device that's floating right there is a fender. The only time that was ever actually visible was at low tide. So if somebody were operating their boats during normal tide or a high tide, they would have never been able to see that and would have been fouling their anchor causing an emergency distress situation and possibly causing injury or damage to vessels upon the waterway. and It may look simple to remove a mooring ball, just tug on it, pull it up. It's not, it takes specialized equipment, they're heavy, and it actually takes a work crew comprised of two to three individuals, sometimes divers, usually using winches and vessels that are designed for the removal of heavy equipment off the waterways. some further photos of a commercial mooring device, which was illegally placed upon our waters. It was actually anchored with a abandoned railroad axle. that was unable to be lifted, so we had to use a torch to cut a thick chain in order to remove the mooring ball from our waters. And then it shows that looks can be deceiving. That small little innocent mooring ball you see in the corner actually, took approximately 30 minutes to remove and had approximately 100 and somewhat feet of line. Thank you. more chain and five anchors that needed a winch, a landing craft door to go up and down to break loose the mud and the debris on the bottom and two very strong individuals that had been working on waterways for the great majority of their lives. They actually said the removal of this mooring ball was one of the more difficult ones they had done. And you look at it, it looks like it's an innocent child's toy or a blow-up. a little balloon, or a ball. In addition to Saucyotl PD's efforts and the Marin County Sheriff's efforts, the Richardson Bay Regional Agency has been an active partner with us in order to try to solve some of the issues that we see upon the waterway. They have either abated or arranged for the abatement of the 16 vessels taken by the Marin County Sheriff's Office. They themselves have identified and abated 14 additional unoccupied marine debris vessels that was located on Richardson Bay. and 35 other vessels that have been either turned in to the Richardson Bay Regional Agency. or abandoned upon the waterways had been removed and abated by the Richardson Bay Regional Agency. Out of those 35 other vessels, 32 were vessels that were either abandoned or removed from the waterways, only three were actually turned in under the volunteer turn in program. In addition to the marine debris vessels and the mooring balls, we're also concentrating enforcement efforts in a coordinated fashion with the Marin County Sheriff's Office regarding registration violations. There had been 18 citations issued by the two law enforcement agencies since the beginning of this program for vessels that were not currently registered or not currently federally documented. Both agencies are being proactive in their search for vessels and are working together in order to find the vessels and take proper law enforcement action. the fiscal impact. Both the Richardson Bay Regional Agency and the Sausalito Police Department received grants for the California Division of Boating and Waterways to fund our efforts upon the waterway. Out of the Sausalito Police Department's approximately $129,800, we have been reimbursed approximately uh, THE CITY OF THE CITY OF THE Most of our efforts are being done towards the mooring balls, so the costs are a little bit lower at this time. As we segue in possible assisting with the removal of vessels and marine debris vessels as part of the program, we're going to see our of our grant funding and use go further, higher, and be utilized more often. In addition, in order to the matching funds that we have to meet. of the approximately 12,000 we've spent $1,200 of matching funds, we must match 10% of our grant to continue to be awarded the grant. Regarding the Richardson Bay during this grant cycle, out of the approximately $199,000 they received, they've spent approximately $115,000 at this time to abate vessels upon the waterway and to remove some of the other issues that we see for the marine debris that have been upon the waterways of all the jurisdictions that comprise Richardson Bay Regional Agency. AND AT THIS TIME, Is there any other questions I'll be glad to answer regarding our efforts on the waterway Thank you. |
| 02:41:45.28 | Unknown | Thank you. |
| 02:41:45.30 | Lieutenant Frost | Thank you. |
| 02:41:45.38 | Unknown | you |
| 02:41:51.29 | Joan Cox | Thank you, Lieutenant, for that update. I have one quick question. If you could go back to your previous slide, I think. Yes. The... |
| 02:42:06.46 | Joan Cox | So is it a question of timing or Why have we so far only been reimbursed, like 5K out of the 130,000? |
| 02:42:21.29 | Lieutenant Frost | Part of that is in order for us to remove the mooring balls, we have to have the logistical support system in place to be able to do that. And that concludes obtaining outside vendors and specialized equipment. And due to the last several months dealing with storms, bad weather conditions, and the availability of our vendors, they have not been available to go out on these operations. In addition, the location where we remove the mooring balls and deliver them to is the Army Corps of Engineers. For approximately two and a half months, there was a vessel, the Spirit of Sacramento, that was there that was taking up the dock. that were unable for us to be able to bring the landing craft with the moor and balls and be able to utilize that as a workstation. |
| 02:43:04.38 | Adam Politzer | Mr. Mayor, can I just interrupt Lieutenant here for a quick moment and ask Lieutenant Frost to also share that our original intentions was to remove 60 illegal mooring balls. That's our objective. And to date, based on what we've removed, 28, and people on the bay picking up their mooring balls because they don't want them to be removed. We don't have a whole lot more on our original objective to continue to recover, is that? |
| 02:43:36.07 | Lieutenant Frost | Thank you. That is correct. As we've gone forward with our removal efforts for the mooring balls and mooring devices, we have seen a dramatic decrease of the |
| 02:43:38.26 | Adam Politzer | That's correct. |
| 02:43:45.30 | Lieutenant Frost | mooring balls and devices that were out there. People are policing themselves and removing themselves. We do see every often a few pop up and we obtain them. But out of the 60 that we are originally looking for, We have removed 28 of them and the other numbers have dramatically been reduced. Several, some other balls have been removed when other vessels have been abated as marine debris as well. |
| 02:44:08.69 | Adam Politzer | And also, Mr. Mayor and City Council, worth noting again, Our original intent was that we were going to use our monies for Sausalito's waters, which meant the vessels as well. And so because we just divided the task with the sheriff overseeing the vessel and marine debris enforcement activity, that's the greater expense. And that's why you see in the balance there where they have spent significantly more money than we have. in this period. |
| 02:44:39.21 | Joan Cox | Thank you. |
| 02:44:39.23 | Adam Politzer | Thank you. Thank you. |
| 02:44:39.95 | Joan Cox | I guess my question is we're anticipating that the grant monies will be totally used up though. |
| 02:44:45.19 | Lieutenant Frost | Yes, just as we go through the different aspects of the program as our program continues forward, mooring boats are less expensive than taking the boats. Once additional boats are taken, we're going to see more money being utilized. |
| 02:44:57.39 | Joan Cox | Thank you. |
| 02:44:57.89 | Lieutenant Frost | And it's a two-year grant. |
| 02:44:59.50 | Joan Cox | Thank you. Any other questions? |
| 02:45:02.96 | Joe Burns | Yeah, I had just a quick question on the slide before, and Lieutenant, this might be to you or to the sheriff. What is the 18 citations, what is that process, and what is the dollar amount of, say, a citation, or actually getting it recouped or paid? |
| 02:45:20.57 | Lieutenant Frost | Well, the issuance of a citation for registration for a vessel is different than it is for a vehicle. A citation on a vessel for a registration violation goes to the registered owner of the vessel. It does not get attached to the vessel itself like a parking ticket for a registration does. The fines I offhand do not know exactly because they, set by the county. Citations are issued to the registered owner if they are there. we're obtaining the are provided information if not the register owner gets a citation delivered to them by mail Marin County, if an individual decides not to pay a citation, then it goes to the court system and then it goes to a collection system they're no longer warrants being issued for traffic tickets that haven't been that way in marine county for approximately 10 years, I would say. and then it goes through a collection system. The problem with the, we have no control once it gets past that. We do attempt to contact the owners through letters and through email when we send the letter to them it's the citation attached If we have no authority to force them to pay that citation however, after approximately one year of a vessel being out of registration, the vessel can be impounded and held. until a person is able to pay the registration. |
| 02:46:44.88 | Joe Burns | THANK YOU. |
| 02:46:45.17 | Joe Burns | Thank you. |
| 02:46:49.13 | Joan Cox | any questions? Okay. Okay, we may have some questions for you later, but we're going to open this up for public comment now. Who do we have for public comment? I actually have a card here on this item from Kevin Kiefer. |
| 02:47:22.87 | Kevin Kuefer | Well, it's interesting to note at the RBRA meeting, which happened a week or so ago there, that some of these similar numbers were brought up. And the factor at the end was the sum gained or the net gain didn't appear to be what everyone expected it was going to be. And so all the great success of the program is still debatable. Also, the parameters of pulling what you don't know is there, and you don't know where it's connected. and yet you just pull it up, and even if it's connected to a boat, you cut it off or remove it because you can't have it. Does that make that boat more or less likely to end up on the shore? because In a normal situation, you would have to investigate these things, determine what it is there for. But in this case, it's been targeted, it's been listed that whatever that is, it's not supposed to be there. And how does somebody who lives on the beach determine the traditions and the customs of somebody who doesn't. Because I think we on the water would say, if you have a boat in a storage yard or in your garage or in your backyard, and you haven't put it in the water, in 72 hours and we're going to come up and take it. We're going to smash it to pieces because you obviously don't know what to do with the boat. We don't see that happening. That's preposterous. almost as preposterous as having some agency here come out onto the water. We don't see the people of this agency who are pushing the buttons come out on the water. We just see you grab money and throw it at this condition. But a lot of that money that you grabbed and threw out there for decades has gone into a boat bounty. cash bounty for used boats. And I had a judge, a Superior Court judge in this county ask me, or ask my attorney, Does your client really believe or want the court to believe that the government buys used boats. Yes, I do, because I sold the government used boats. and you paid for them. And you paid for the next years, and the next round, and the next round. You developed a system of used boats coming into this bay, into this harbor, And from that evolved a criminal enterprise. And this board paid for part of it. And now you just want to wave your hand like a little wand, and it's all going to go away. |
| 02:50:30.03 | Joan Cox | Thank you. Anybody else want? |
| 02:50:39.98 | Jeffrey Chase | Thank you again, and this is one of the three issues that I care most about and talk about and I'm not up here to mainly quote Torah, to find Jewish people that get turned on by that. I'm not here to hear myself. I like hearing other people Uh, I'm... here to drag a bunch of bugs behind me, which are my... problems, things that I've done. being a bad anchor out. I'm not the only person that has to deal with this. The prophet Isaiah, and this is in the portion, he says, what was me for I am lost for I am a man of unclean lips and amidst a people of unclean lips I dwell. For the King, the Lord of hosts, have my eyes seen. And one of the seraphim, a seraphim, our... of Beautiful messengers of God. He flew to me and in his hand was a glowing coal with tongs he had taken it from upon the altar and he caused it to touch my mouth and he said, behold this has touched your lips and your iniquity shall be removed and your sins shall be atoned for. And I heard the voice of the Lord saying, whom shall I send and who will go for us? And I said, Hinai, here am I, send me. So I'm very happy that we have people that are still showing up despite What seems to be a backwards movement here to call something enhanced enforcement, it seems very much like enhanced interrogation. When, WHAT NEEDS TO BE DONE IS FOR PEOPLE WHO KNOW a little bit about the Anchorage to get with people who don't know as much about it and to educate them. And that's what's happening tonight. Kevin has told me a lot that I don't know, and Peter, too. and I hope that you're learning something about this. We're all gonna have to do this. We're facing this in a bigger issue. I didn't mean to compare you people here to Trump. I think we have to come together. We're all facing big, big problems and I want us to face it together and the anchor outs can help you to do this by learning how to come together and actually be effective. We've lost many battles personally and politically. We're here. We're in it. to win it will work. We're willing to listen, and we want the same respect given to us. And I thank you for doing that. |
| 02:53:38.20 | Joan Cox | Thank you. Is there anybody else who'd like to comment on Peter? |
| 02:53:46.25 | Peter Romanowski | Again, I want to thank everybody for being out here on Valentine's Day. I tried to get my ex-wife to go to Burger King. I tried to get her to go to the Indian Palace. I tried to get her to go to Trieste, nothing worked. But she's the treasurer of our nonprofit corporation. So we're married corporately, even though we've been divorced 33 years. I had about five officers come on my boat. A FEW MONTHS AGO IN THE SHERF AND Coast Guard and five big guys get on my boat without asking permission. And I said, well, can we come aboard? I said, well, you can. But no, no. I said, no, I can't give you permission. But I won't stop. So these big guys get on my boat, right? And they're using the sheriff's boat and the Coast Guard and everything. I said, well, we're here to do an inspection on your boat. And I said, well, God, I can't stop you. Okay, so they get on the side of my boat. And they say, Is your son... name, Michael Romanowski. I said, yeah. Yeah, he's my son. He's, I went to Berkeley with him. and they all split. They left, they folded up their things. It pays to have family and high power. I WANT TO ASSURE YOU, I'm family. Herb knows that. I'M FAMILY. I'm a member of the Kettenhofen family, the most notorious Donald Trump. My in-laws owned the... Everything in this town, industrial center building, the bought the courthouse, you know that. You know, I am family, even though they kicked me out from my spiritual beliefs. don't touch us because we're untouchable. AND, I just want to say that taking people's moorings It's, it's, it's, it's ludicrous. And having five police departments come after us, the Tiburon, the Mill Valley, the Sausalito, the Scherff, the Coast Guard, what you're doing is you're opening the door for every police agency to come after us like a swarm of Nazis. And they're not coming after us. to give us social workers. I mean, we need to fire these cops. There used to only be one cop on the beat in Sausalito, and there was 7,000 people. Nothing's changed. We need to fire Frass. He's the number one bad guy in this town. This guy, I could imagine him in the closet playing with plastic guns. He came out and gave me a ticket, ticket for registration was $250. Then the sheriff came out and gave me a ticket for registration, $250, $500. And with all due respect for us, I am praying that you retire. Because you are the number one bad guy in this whole town. |
| 02:56:48.53 | Joan Cox | Thank you. |
| 02:56:48.97 | Peter Romanowski | Good thing. |
| 02:56:49.76 | Joan Cox | Thank you, Peter. |
| 02:56:50.22 | Peter Romanowski | Peter. I'm sorry. Am I right? |
| 02:56:54.95 | Joan Cox | Okay, is there any other member of the public who would like to say anything on this topic? Okay, seeing none, let's bring it back here. I don't, there wasn't any action for tonight, right? Anybody want to say anything? |
| 02:57:11.99 | Joe Burns | Thank you. |
| 02:57:14.13 | Joan Cox | Thank you. |
| 02:57:14.15 | Joe Burns | I hope you stay on the job a little longer, Lieutenant. |
| 02:57:20.29 | Joan Cox | I'm sorry. Okay, I would just like to say that you told us what you were going to do. back September, I think, wasn't it? Or last year. You seem to be, it's... You're moving ahead with it. It's going well. The enhanced enforcement and abatement program is moving along, and I'd also like to acknowledge what appears to be an excellent collaboration between the Sausalito Police Department and the Marin County Sheriff's Department. We have a deputy from the Sheriff's Department here, so welcome and thanks for all your hard work on Marine Patrol, and thank you, Lieutenant. |
| 02:58:23.91 | Joan Cox | Alice go on I shouldn't really you know but but |
| 02:58:28.50 | Joe Burns | Thank you. |
| 02:58:30.37 | Joan Cox | No, that's all right. |
| 02:58:32.84 | Joe Burns | Thank you. |
| 02:58:33.02 | Alice Merrill | you. |
| 02:58:33.29 | Joe Burns | you |
| 02:58:33.77 | Alice Merrill | I'm Alice Merrill. And this whole subject really disturbs me. And it does because We have grown up in this town having two different groups, very different groups, and they've been here a very long time. And, um... And I do think that maybe there's discussions between the anchor outs and the staff you know about how it's happening and what's happening and I hear people say that there is some abuse and then I've you know you look at the police you say why are they doing that and are they doing that and if they are, why? And if they aren't, why does it look like they are? Is it just being, people are just feeling pushed and pressured and Is there some kind of an organization in the town that has just regular people talking to each other about this and how Thank you. And is there dialogue that's possible? I know I'm sort of a Pollyanna, but, um, And I know that some of these characters here. you know, are hard for me to listen to. and to be around because I'm I'm about as middle class as they come. But I have lived with the people on the water for my whole life. And I think that we're all people. I just would I'd like to know, maybe I just am out of it enough that I don't know, but I wonder how much time I have. I would like to know. Is there any dialogue happening? Am I missing it? Is it true that it is or isn't it? It's a problem, all these boats coming over. And what is Bill Price's part in it? His... Yeah, I mean, I think it's a bigger discussion than just... than just rousting people out. I do, and I know that it's a big mess out there. We have one fellow who's just moved off the docks and is living out there now and has practically an island You know, I'm wondering if maybe he isn't abusing everybody out there. Maybe everybody likes him. Maybe they don't. I don't know. But I'd like to know if there's some dialogue that's happening other than just enforcement. Thank you. |
| 03:01:24.58 | Joan Cox | Thank you, Alice. |
| 03:01:27.97 | Alice Merrill | Thank you. |
| 03:01:27.98 | Joan Cox | you |
| 03:01:28.02 | Alice Merrill | So, |
| 03:01:28.24 | Joan Cox | you Thank you. |
| 03:01:28.69 | Alice Merrill | THE FAMILY. |
| 03:01:28.88 | Joan Cox | Thank you. Okay, so thank you for all coming out. And again, thanks for all your hard work. Okay, so we're going to move on to item number seven. And before anybody leaves, I should say, happy Valentine's Day. And thanks for sticking through this. |
| 03:01:56.11 | Joan Cox | Okay. 7A, our city manager. |
| 03:02:03.62 | Adam Politzer | It's still Valentine's Day and so I will also wish our city council members and our community happy Valentine's Day as well. and I will keep my comments brief so that we can enjoy the rest of the evening, but would like to share a few highlights and and some thoughts here. We as a, in Northern California are being hit by significant storm events and we have another big event coming up late Wednesday night, early Thursday morning and into the weekend and we'll send out another current update to the community. It's out, reminding folks to be prepared for the storm that's on its way. We have had significant earth movement and property damage, but in comparison to the rest of the county, the rest of Northern California, we've actually have come out of this very well at this moment in time. But we go into the next storm, and because of the amount of rain, it's really important that our community sticks together, comes together, help one another. And if it's cleaning out the gutters or sweeping the storm drains where the leaves or debris have clogged in the roadway, creating the water going forward, we please ask that the community continue together to work with us. And as you heard earlier, our public works department, our police department, our fire department is working very hard to respond to calls for service, respond to pretty significant slides, the one we had on Bridgeway, the one we had on Alexander Avenue, which technically was not in our jurisdiction. But we were still out there with the backhoe because it was in all of our interest to get that roadway back open. And they did it actually rather quickly in terms of the type of challenge that we had there. And thanks to the bridge district, they could have said, we're just going to close the road and we'll deal with this at some other point in time. But they responded and worked with our staff to get that open. The folks, unfortunately, on San Carlos and Caledonia, that is a significant slide. That's significant damage and it's going to take a lot of effort to move forward into restoring what has moved there. But again, Public Works Department, Fire, Police jumped on it right away, got in touch with PG&E. Councilmember Burns questioned about the relationship with PG&E. I think that was your question or did you ask the Fire Department about San Bruno and PG&E? But that relationship with PG&E, they were right here on top of it because we had to be concerned about any type of gas main break and other utilities being exposed and damaged. So again, that cooperation is important to recognize and thank and appreciate that we do live in a community where I think our staff go above and beyond, and we try to keep that communication flowing to the community as best as possible. And so we hope that we work collaboratively as we go forward. Two fun events for training-wise, and I don't think that we've had a chance to share this, but the last council meeting we went to the League of California Cities Academy for new mayor and council members. So Mayor Withey and Vice Mayor Cox and Council Member Burns and I went to that training. And if they want to comment on that later during council reports, they can. But I think that's one of the best trainings that the academy hosts. I always learn something and I've been to it seven times. It's something that I to benefit from coming and going to and learning from our counterparts up and down the state. It always sells out which is also a testament of it being an outstanding training. at the City Managers Conference that was held in Monterey. That bounces between Southern California and Northern California this year. It was in Northern California. And again, in my mind, one of the top trainings that the league puts on for our profession. So a really good opportunity for me to take a step back, meet with my colleagues from up and down the state, you know, here where we have things in common and struggles in common and creative solutions to try to move forward on those items and then also looking at innovative solutions and programs that other communities are involved in. I think at both the League Academy for the new council members and mayors and the city managers conference, technology is right there at the top. You know, the pros and cons of it, the good and the bad of technology and how quick communication runs through community. Well in advance of us trying to even get alerts out through next door, through various social medias. So how do we work with the community to help make sure that the information that is getting out into the neighborhoods is factual, accurate, and helpful for community members? So that's one of the things that working with Abbott Chambers and Lily and our team is really looking at social media to try to get in a better position to get information out as quickly and as timely as possible, especially in events of emergencies. one note that will work at the agenda setting committee is that we do have a variety of appointments that need to be made and i met with our parks and recreation director earlier today and they basically don't have a park and rec commission they have we have uh councilmember burns that has moved up as a commissioner to here and we've had at least one commissioner that has that has resigned and two that have their terms have expired and they don't seem to be interested in continuing so i'm going to be working with mike langford and lily to look at what applications we have i would encourage the council to look out into the community this is the best commission to serve on. They have the most fun and obviously we have significant money to spend on upgrading parks. And obviously the events that the Park and Recreation Department hosts is a big part of this community. So I'm hopeful by the 28th that we have a pile of applications and we can give the council an opportunity to interview and move to appointment. So as they review proposals and projects like the Southview Park project, we can have the weight of the Park and Rec Commission's recommendation behind it as it goes through the process. I'll conclude my report there and happy to answer any questions from the City Council. |
| 03:09:32.09 | Joan Cox | Any questions of our city manager on his report? Thank you. Any public comment on City Manager's report? |
| 03:09:45.63 | Peter Romanowski | Peter Romanowski, I just want to thank the city manager, especially the Parks and Recreation Department head for renting us the... Senior Center every Sunday for renting us, because we have church there. Every Sunday, we have a dinner, a free dinner, every Sunday from 11 to 4, and it costs $450 a month and, you know, $450 a month for the food and drink, you know. And so I want to thank you all because we do have a place for us. homeless people, because all us anchor outs are homeless. We're all registered as homeless people. And I just want to thank you all for not, everybody. And especially the parks director for not kicking us out. We've been there a year and we haven't torn the place down and we haven't burned the place down. Thank you. And we cleaned the place up. I just want to thank everybody. But seriously, if you want to help in any way, you can write a check to the New Covenant Advancelistic Association. It's a nonprofit. And we will continue feeding the poor and the homeless. And you know what? The more we feed them, the less they'll be on drugs, the less they'll be on all that stuff. And the more grateful they're going to be and cooperative, honestly. Once people eat and get their stomach fulls, they're a lot happier. They're a lot happier people. So God bless you all, you know. God bless you all, in Jesus' name. And I'm sorry I went off on frass. I just couldn't help myself. I just couldn't help. He gave me, I just couldn't, I couldn't help myself. He gave me a ticket for riding my bike too slow one time. Right, my bike too slow. Sorry. God bless you. I hope you have a good evening. I'm gonna be alone with my dog. and my two beers. |
| 03:11:32.97 | Joan Cox | Thank you, Peter. |
| 03:11:41.07 | Kevin Kuefer | Kevin Kuefer, anchor out. So it wouldn't be difficult for anybody sitting here on the council to ask the question, what's happening with the Tidelands revenues? maybe you already know. Or maybe you don't, but I don't seem to get any answers. I can't find any answers online. I can't find any answers when I look at the state controllers website. All of these things are supposed to be listed there. There's supposed to be accountability for Thailand's revenues. Tideland's revenue is generated from parcels, parcels that lie under the water that are submerged lands or tidelands. The State Lands Commission is directly involved with this. counties directly involved with this, the transference of sovereignty the redeclaration of sovereignty by the state and then the granting of that sovereignty to the county and the transfer of that sovereignty to the The member agencies or the subdivisional cities or special districts, what is this? It's a special area. That was a redistricting. If that redistricting took place, the residents of that area, if there were 12 capable of voting, they should have been consulted about the redistricting. Did that take place? So there's a lot of issues here, and I don't hear anybody saying, hey, I'll look into that, because that's serious. It is serious. And it doesn't go away when I go away. It's gone beyond me. We've given you the opportunity for a long time to start digging into this, start researching this. All we hear back is we have legal. We have legal authority. but you don't have due process of law. It's a vague, vague description of law. and it needs to be looked at, and it doesn't need to be enforced until we can determine what the truth of the matter is, and that's why we can't give you guys any more chances. That's why the attorneys are now taking over. that's what you want if you think that it's air omission and negligent action and it's all covered by by your risk management pools, massive pools, we don't know, countering umbrellas of, of risk management. You know, we don't really know what's going to happen here. We tried to work with you guys because we plan on being here and it doesn't do us any good to cause harm to the communities here. We know there's a rift between the county and Sausalito and there should be. The county's been using bullying tactics, especially when the county holds the purse strings to the HUD money. |
| 03:14:43.98 | Joan Cox | Thank you, Kevin. |
| 03:14:44.26 | Kevin Kuefer | Thank you. There's going to be some census adjustments made here, and we're not going to be Thank you. |
| 03:14:50.36 | Joan Cox | Thank you. Okay, item 7. B is council member committee reports. I... The Vice Mayor gave a very comprehensive report. |
| 03:15:08.18 | Joan Cox | And there's another one on your dais from the Sustainability Commission. |
| 03:15:09.51 | Joan Cox | I'm just going to say. |
| 03:15:10.71 | Joe Burns | Commission. |
| 03:15:12.73 | Joan Cox | Yeah. |
| 03:15:12.95 | Joe Burns | I'm sorry. |
| 03:15:14.42 | Joan Cox | Watch out. |
| 03:15:14.98 | Joe Burns | I don't have to get a typewriter. |
| 03:15:15.79 | Joan Cox | Thank you. |
| 03:15:15.91 | Joe Burns | Thank you. |
| 03:15:15.92 | Joan Cox | . |
| 03:15:15.97 | Joe Burns | Thank you. |
| 03:15:17.91 | Joan Cox | So did you want to add anything to your reports or? |
| 03:15:21.76 | Joan Cox | I don't want to add anything to that. You and I and Councilmember Hoffman also attended the Marin County Council of Mayors and Council Members Dinner. during which we heard a very interesting presentation from Dr. Grant Colfax, Associate of Resident and Director of the Marin County Health and Human Services. He shared what was to me an unbelievable statistic that the life expectancy in Sausalito is ten years higher than that of Marin City. |
| 03:15:53.23 | Unknown | Thank you. |
| 03:15:55.17 | Joan Cox | He also stated that focus on juvenile education and juvenile justice are two key areas identified to reduce numbers of youth at risk. So very interesting presentation from him. |
| 03:16:10.90 | Joe Burns | Yes. Thank you. I have a few things. I want to echo back to the city manager's report on the community to get involved in the Parks and Rec Commission, and I hope there are a lot of applications. I could say that it was a wonderful commission to be on. I like you guys. You're fine. But the Parks and Rec Commission is a super commission to be on. I hope we can get that filled up soon. It's very important. California League of Cities meeting was excellent, so thank you, City Manager, for bringing that up. It really drove home our role both in the county as well as in the larger region. And then since then, I've been appointed to some committees as well with the A bag as the alternate and the MTA which I enjoy and I look forward to representing Sausalito. So in those regional committees, you really get an idea of how important it is for us to have a voice in that area, in the larger area. What I want to talk on tonight really quickly is my role on the school district liaison as an alternate with Councilmember Hoffman, who unfortunately wasn't here tonight to prepare something with me to say. But really what we are looking to do is get involved in the current discussion at our school district level. We've all heard the reports on the FICMAT, the threat to our local public school. We realize the importance of a community having a public school offering and a quality education for its taxpaying base. We have a duty to protect that as a council. We look forward to working with both the school, the district, and looking for your nod of support for us to take this representation to the Board of Education, the County Board of Education as well. I think that Jill and I need to get in and have a meeting with Mary Jane Burke and her group to really fact find on that side as well we hear a lot of the information coming from our community and and it's a it's a big issue that's not going to go away it's going to have if if it goes awry it can have a serious impact on our community and our constituents so we're kind of looking for your support to take that to a to a higher level |
| 03:18:38.42 | Joan Cox | Yeah. |
| 03:18:38.51 | Joe Burns | Yeah. |
| 03:18:38.52 | Joan Cox | Thanks. Couple of comments. The Finance Committee, I don't need to really update anybody on. work of the Finance Committee for the budget today, as well as the meeting notes from the Finance Committee. On the External stuff, um... Marine Clean Energy, there really isn't much to report. The actual fund stuff for me begins right now because we'll be seeing the budget in a couple of days time and the first pass at any rate adjustments for power. So I'll report back on that when we know what's going on. we were actually able to reduce, bring clean energy's residential rates last year, which is a good thing. So it's one of the reasons why we can do better than an investor-owned utility is that we're not, the profits can go into reduced rates. Yeah. So I'll report back on that when that's more fully evolved. The other point I want to make is on TAM. There's been a lot of press, there's been a lot of stuff in the press about TAM, the IJ in particular, has run quite a few stories on it. I've only been to one meeting so I'm getting my arms around it and I uh... basically uh... I think the most important thing that TAM is working on is looking at some seriously big projects and to figure out and to prioritize them. Seriously big projects like the interchange between 101 and 580 to actually make one instead of going on surface streets to change freeways. It's ridiculous. But that's one big thing it's looking at. The other one is the... the narrows on 101 between into Nevada and Yeah, and that is, you know, that's been moving along and it's another big project. There's a number of these projects that are downtown San Rafael transit station and so on. One of the things, they were looking at several possible funding mechanisms for a couple of years time. One is by potentially raising the bridge tolls, the bridges they control anyway. which is most of the bridges other than the Golden Gate Bridge. something to do in 2018. And the other one, which where the big controversy occurred was potentially asking the question whether there should be a sales tax increase in the whole of Marin County to pay for infrastructure, pay for transportation projects. And what TAM was asked was going to do was to come to each council and get a sort of a vote from each council about that tax increase. Now, procedurally, it wasn't to actually increase any taxes, it was to remove a cap that exists by the state legislature in the early 90s, I think, so that sales tax cannot go beyond a certain amount. In order for TAM to actually attempt to put a sales tax on the ballot in a couple of years' time, they would have to get the state legislature to increase that cap. And the first couple of cities they tried to do this with, things didn't go too well. and they didn't get on our agenda. and The reason is that you know, If you're going to talk about increasing the cap, then you're raising the cap. Then you're really talking about raising taxes. And I don't think the the communities in Marin were yet ready for that discussion in particular because TAM has not yet worked out what it was going to spend the money on. So what has happened is that AND, UM, Time is regrouped and will be working very hard at putting implementation plans, projects together that are clearly needed, and to look at them comprehensively, and then ask the question, okay, now we've prioritized these projects, what is the revenue streams that we need to obtain in order to fund these things? And this is in a time period where the state legislature is also trying to figure out how to significantly fund transportation. So 2017 is a big year for transportation and to figure out what the solutions for basically the gridlock that occurs, in particular, in Marin. So I'll keep us informed as to how that's going along to the extent I can. I've only been to one meeting, so I'm trying to get my arms around it. And that's all I've got on committee reports. Is there... |
| 03:25:08.44 | Joan Cox | Any public comment on... the committee reports. Seeing none we'll move on to appointments to board commissions and committees. There will be no appointments that we're going to make tonight. As you know that we have asked staff to there are some Um, Internal committees that we have not yet nominated liaisons for, there's a few empty spots. And partly the reason, or in fact the reason that we've not done that, is that we've asked staff to examine whether some of those committees should be reconfigured possibly, their charters looked at, possibly in some cases the committee's merged. And also once we figure out what are first steps in the general plan process, that will interface with some of our boards and commissions. And so I decided, assuming it's acceptable to everybody here, that we just hold off on those appointments that haven't been made until staff comes back with the recommendations on the committees. I think then we'll know what we're dealing with. So there won't be any appointments made tonight. Future agenda items, there's a pretty comprehensive list that we've started developing that's in your packet. I don't know if anybody has any comments or questions about future agenda items at this point. |
| 03:26:46.40 | Joan Cox | I just appreciate the comprehensiveness and the growing length of the future agenda list, and I look forward to continuing to expand it so that we really have a great look forward. Yeah. |
| 03:27:00.54 | Joan Cox | And is there any Member of the public would like to make a comment about suggestions for future agenda items. |
| 03:27:09.58 | Jeffrey Chase | Yes. |
| 03:27:10.51 | Joan Cox | Jeff. Thank you. |
| 03:27:11.41 | Jeffrey Chase | Thank you. |
| 03:27:11.44 | Joan Cox | future agenda items. Absolutely. |
| 03:27:12.99 | Jeffrey Chase | Absolutely. The Brown Act has two exceptions for the mayor and the council, and city manager and lawyers responding to public comments. One is if it's an emergency, and the other one is for future agenda items. If there's a suggestion for a future agenda item, there can be a demand that the City Council and the Mayor have a vote on whether that's going to become a future agenda item immediately. This suggestion Demand is for a Coordinated resistance now to what's going on in Washington, DC. I'm not sure. Specifically, on January 24th, there were two things that happened. I was talking about my dad, he was a city council person in Southfield, Michigan, and he's very ill. And I was talking about visiting him and Stacy, a police officer, offered me a ticket. On Greyhound, at first I thought, well, she's going to give me a one-way ticket. That'll be it. But it turns out now it's a round trip. And also on January 24th is when Donald Trump announced that there would be expedited approval of pipelines, And... and infrastructure for specifically for the oil industry and for the Dakota pipeline. And then that happened. The Army Corps was given the go ahead. to cross the Missouri River. with what the Indians call there the black snake. And the Anchorage here, of course, also has the Army Corps of Engineers. to deal with as well. Uh, We have a lawyer from Marin Legal Aid named David Levin. He's a Levite. He is not charging money for us, and he's listening to people whose boats have been destroyed. And boats that were registered and or occupied. We have 10 people now that are testifying with him. I hope. Um, But it's not just a hope. committed to action. That we resolve this, I think that in the same way that All the avenues are closed off as far as Senate and the House and the federal government except for the courts. So because of my relationship with my dad and him being a lawyer, and my whole family actually, all lawyers, I didn't want to go to court unless I was dragged there. But now I feel like that's a place where There's justice. There's a potential for justice. that. Thanks. Thank you. |
| 03:30:19.39 | Joan Cox | you |
| 03:30:23.66 | Joan Cox | I believe there's probably no other reports of significance in which case I'm adjourning tonight's meeting. Thank you very much, and for everybody out there, happy Valentine's for what's left of it. |
| 03:30:36.50 | Unknown | what's left of it. Thank you. |
Nancy Lee (via Patricia Cornell) — In Favor: Expressed concern about laundromat closure leading to job loss for Nancy Lee and reduced access for customers without cars, questioning the necessity of the fee hike. ▶ 📄
Rick Kornow — In Favor: Commended laundromat owner for renovations and water reduction, pleaded for fairness in wastewater billing, and raised parking enforcement issues near the laundromat. ▶ 📄
Jeffrey Chase — In Favor: Described the laundromat as a refuge during storms and a community hub, urging the Council to keep it open to avoid what he called an 'atrocity'. ▶ 📄
Kevin Kuefer — Neutral: Raised concerns about public trust reporting and revenue transparency for Richardson Bay parcels, stating no agency appears to be reporting tideland revenues as required. ▶ 📄
Faith Ann — In Favor: Briefly urged the Council to find a compromise to keep the laundromat open. ▶ 📄
Mike McKinley — Neutral: Thanked Public Works, specifically Jonathan Goldman, for extraordinary service during recent storms and landslides. ▶ 📄
Patricia Cornell — In Favor: Advocated for establishing an emergency homeless shelter in Sausalito, suggesting using tiny houses on wheels on separate parcels for working and non-working homeless populations. ▶ 📄