| Time | Speaker | Text |
|---|---|---|
| 00:00:04.79 | Mayor Withie | Welcome to the regular meeting of the Sausalito City Council, Tuesday, June 6th, 2017. Lily, would you take the role, please? |
| 00:00:16.13 | Unknown | Councilmember Burns? |
| 00:00:17.23 | Mayor Withie | Present. Thank you. |
| 00:00:17.93 | Unknown | Councilmember Hoffman? Present. Vice Mayor Cox? Here. Mayor Withey? |
| 00:00:22.49 | Mayor Withie | HERE. We will be discussing item D1, conference with legal counsel and existing litigation in closed session. Is there any public comment on the closed session item? Okay, seeing none, we will move into closed session. |
| 00:00:59.04 | Mayor Withie | Good evening. So welcome to the regular meeting of the Sausalito City Council for Tuesday, June 6th. Lily, would you please call the roll. |
| 00:01:15.48 | Unknown | Councilmember Burns? |
| 00:01:16.51 | Mayor Withie | Here. |
| 00:01:16.98 | Unknown | Thank you. Council member Hoffman? Present. Vice Mayor Cox? Here. Mayor Withy? |
| 00:01:22.97 | Mayor Withie | here. Um, Christine Scarpino. Would you lead us in the Pledge of Allegiance tonight? |
| 00:01:38.16 | Unknown | I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic |
| 00:01:38.72 | Unknown | Amen. Yeah. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. |
| 00:01:44.72 | Unknown | which it stands. foundation. under God. May it be as full. liberty and justice for all. |
| 00:01:53.45 | Unknown | Thank you, Christy. |
| 00:01:59.94 | Mayor Withie | We had a brief closed session meeting this evening. There is no announcements from that closed session. Is there any public comment on the closed session item? Seeing none, let's move on to approval of the agenda. Could I have a motion, please? |
| 00:02:22.47 | Joan Cox | So moved. |
| 00:02:23.45 | Mayor Withie | Second. All in favor? Aye. |
| 00:02:25.44 | Joan Cox | Bye. |
| 00:02:25.97 | Unknown | Thank you. |
| 00:02:27.60 | Mayor Withie | There are no special presentations or mayor's announcements tonight. Moving on to communications, this is a time for the City Council to hear from our citizens regarding matters that are not on the agenda. And as you know, except in very limited situations, we're precluded from commenting, engaging in any substantive discussion. So is there... Okay. I do have... |
| 00:03:07.19 | Mayor Withie | I too have two cards. If there's any member of the public who'd like to speak on items that are not on tonight's agenda, then please fill out a card indicating so and give to the city clerk. So the first card I've got is from Lisa Bennett. |
| 00:03:32.08 | Unknown | Hello. I emailed you all a couple days ago about something I'd like to talk about tonight, which is SB 54. This is the California Values Act, which would make California a sanctuary state. I'm here with many friends, concerned citizens, who share the same sentiments I'm going to share with you today. I would simply like to request that you vote to send the same letter the supervisor sent to Kevin DeLeon in the state senate to show support for this bill. I did provide you with a copy of the letter and the staff report that the city of Fairfax prepared. in anticipation of its vote this week to send that letter. San Anselmo also unanimously voted to do it as well. This bill is currently in the assembly, and we need to bring it across the finish line. This can be an agenda item at your next possible city council meeting, which may be June 20th. I know you have a lot on the agenda, but I'd like to respectfully request that. California Values Act makes California a sanctuary state. It's horrifying to us to see our longstanding community members jailed for just the crime of crossing the border without papers. Often these events occurred decades ago. A month ago, Hugo Mejia and Rodrigo Nunez showed up to work at Travis Air Force Base and were detained by ICE. They've been longstanding, over a decade, community members with deep ties and families here. Local community groups, Jared Huffman, community leaders have all been relentless working to get them released. Crowdfunding campaigns have started. to help their families make rent and buy groceries now that their prime breadwinner has been jailed. It is completely unacceptable that it's not the bad hombres being detained. It's the good people like Hugo, like Rodrigo, who are facing deportation now. Their families are torn apart. It may be easy to say that it couldn't and doesn't or happen in Sausalito? Our police chief is not in the business of enforcing ICE actions, we know that. However, have you considered the many, many people who come here to work who are either undocumented themselves or who know someone who's undocumented. These people create the fabric of our community in Sausalito. They work in our homes, our restaurants, our businesses. Thank you. These people are living in fear. Their families are living in fear. They don't go to clinics, they don't report crimes, and they don't have a voice. It's time for Sausalito to take a stand on this issue. We are not asking that Sausalito become a sanctuary city. We are simply asking that you send a letter of support for this bill. Just like the supervisors, just like other cities in Marin. I would like to In doing so, you will show that you represent the best of Marin and our community's values. |
| 00:06:30.49 | Unknown | Thank you, Elise. |
| 00:06:31.02 | Mayor Withie | Bye. |
| 00:06:35.35 | Mayor Withie | The next card I have is Kayla Kant. |
| 00:06:46.30 | Kayla Kahn | Hello, I'm Kayla Kahn. I live on Rodeo, and I've lived here probably longer than you've been alive, most of you. I cannot believe that we don't have an art commission. You know, the art festival was started by Sausalito artists. This town is known all over the world as a place where artists live. How can you not have an art commission? We need to support our local artists. When I was on the art commission many years ago, we used to have a reception before the the council meeting and we would hang the artist paintings and people would get to know them. We should definitely have an art commission. I hope that you think about it. Thank you very much. |
| 00:07:27.30 | Mayor Withie | Thank you, Kayla. Is there any other member of the public who'd like to Communicate with the City Council on any item that's not on tonight's agenda. Okay, seeing none, we'll move on. Action minutes of the previous meeting. We have one, two, three sets of minutes to approve. May 2nd, May 23rd, and the special council meeting of May 30th. Do we have any... Comments, corrections, changes, or could we have a motion? |
| 00:08:01.14 | Unknown | Thank you. |
| 00:08:01.15 | Jill Hoffman | you |
| 00:08:04.83 | Jill Hoffman | So move. |
| 00:08:08.76 | Mayor Withie | Do I have a second? Second. All in favor? Aye. Any opposed? No. The CARS 4-0. Item four is our consent calendar and matters listed under the consent calendar are considered routine and non-controversial, require no discussion. |
| 00:08:28.31 | Unknown | That's it. |
| 00:08:29.15 | Mayor Withie | And Sorry. require no discussion and are expected to have unanimous support and would be enacted in one motion. Is there, we have one... Um... card from Heather Richard to talk on 4A, the consent. |
| 00:08:52.15 | Joan Cox | for eggs. |
| 00:08:56.28 | Joan Cox | Only if we decide to pull it off consent. |
| 00:08:58.23 | Mayor Withie | Okay, thank you, Heather. Is there anybody else who'd like to public comment on the consent calendar? Okay, seeing none, any comments up here? We happy with the consent calendar? Could we have a motion, please? So moved. |
| 00:09:14.71 | Unknown | So much. |
| 00:09:14.97 | Unknown | of, |
| 00:09:15.22 | Unknown | Thank you. |
| 00:09:17.97 | Mayor Withie | Second. All in favor? Aye. |
| 00:09:20.20 | Joan Cox | Bye. |
| 00:09:20.23 | Unknown | Bye. |
| 00:09:22.34 | Mayor Withie | Okay, that motion carries 4-0. We have no public hearings. So, item 6A. We have a big evening tonight. We have a lot of important work to do. So, item 6A is an item to consider appointing a Sausalito resident to the City Council. or to call for a special election. I will hand this over to our city clerk, Lady Wayland. |
| 00:09:57.19 | Lily Whalen | Good evening, Mr. Mayor, Councilmembers. I am Lily Whalen, your City Clerk and Assistant City Manager. And I'm going to this evening present options for you for filling the vacancy left when Councilmember Weiner resigned, effective April 18th of this year. The council has until June 17th of this year to either fill the vacancy by appointment or call for a special election in November of this year. The person either appointed or elected would serve the remainder of the unexpired term, which is through November of 2018. |
| 00:10:35.78 | Lily Whalen | In terms of background, on May 2nd, the council discussed the options and directed staff to solicit applications from Sausalito residents with a May 17th deadline to submit the applications. The city received 13 applications by the deadline and two were found to be ineligible. 11 applicants were interviewed by the City Council at notice public meetings on May 23rd and May 30th. On May 30th, after the conclusion of the interviews, the Council selected a subset of four of the 11 candidates to move forward in the process. The four candidates selected were Susan Cleveland Knowles, Kate Storr, Keith Stone King, and Bill Warner. |
| 00:11:24.18 | Lily Whalen | In terms of the appointment process, the government code does not mandate a particular process. Staff is recommending the council employ the same process for appointments to boards and commissions as outlined in the Sausalito Municipal Code, and specifically As outlined in your staff report and on the screen here, first the mayor would announce his nomination. Then the mayor would solicit any additional nominations from the dais. Next, the mayor would then receive public comment. Then the council could proceed on with a roll call vote. Each council member would vote for one nominee, and a nominee must receive at least three votes to be appointed. |
| 00:12:08.02 | Lily Whalen | In terms of the process for a special election, which is your other option, the election would be held November 7th of this year, and the seat would be vacant until it's filled by the election. The registrar of voters has estimated that at this point in time, the cost to run a special election would be approximately $7 to $7.50 per registered voter, or about $37 to $40,000. Staff has included a draft resolution calling for a special election in your packet this evening if you choose to exercise that option. We have received over 85 letters which have been forwarded to the council and posted on the city's website regarding this topic. And with that, our staff is recommending that the council consider appointing a Sausalito resident to the city council or calling for a special election. And that concludes our staff report and we're available for any questions. |
| 00:13:09.02 | Mayor Withie | Thank you, Lily. I have a question. Um, Before we take public comment, maybe some of my colleagues also have a question. So with regards to the process, I want to make sure that we can basically pick it up on what we were told last time. This is our process. So as we have already narrowed the down from What was it, 11? |
| 00:13:42.38 | Unknown | Correct. |
| 00:13:42.82 | Mayor Withie | really excellent candidates, down to four really excellent candidates. Is there anything precluding us from Jest, rather than further nominating just assuming all four of those names are in play and just voting. |
| 00:14:00.44 | Unknown | No. |
| 00:14:00.96 | Mayor Withie | Okay. Is everybody here okay with just voting rather than going through another nomination process? Yeah. Everybody okay? |
| 00:14:09.33 | Unknown | Thank you. Thank you. |
| 00:14:10.41 | Mayor Withie | Okay, so that's what we're going to do. Does anybody else have any questions of staff before we open this up for public comment? |
| 00:14:20.86 | Unknown | . |
| 00:14:22.51 | Mayor Withie | Oh, no question? Okay. So thank you. I'm sure there's going to be lots of you. And in fact, I've got a large number of cards here. So I'm going to go in pretty much the random order in which I've got them here. And I've already mixed them up a bit, I'm afraid. So... |
| 00:14:47.81 | Mayor Withie | If You don't, obviously you have a time limit of three minutes. You do not have to keep to three minutes. If you want to say what you want to say in 30 seconds, that's great. One minute, that's great, et cetera. But you do have the right to speak for three minutes. So the first person I'm going to call is Lexi Musolem. |
| 00:14:59.18 | Kayla Kahn | if you... |
| 00:15:21.24 | Unknown | Good afternoon, council members. Thank you for giving me an opportunity to speak. I wanted to say a few words in support of Susan Cleveland Knowles as a friend and a Sausalito resident. AND A WILLOW CREEK BOARD MEMBER. Susan was the person who encouraged me to submit my name to the Willow Creek Academy Board of Directors, and I now serve on that board. She served as a bit of a role model for me, for someone who is involved in her community and who takes responsibility and accountability for what happens in this town. She has a track record of service for this town, both on the Willow Creek Foundation, And as a member of the Planning Commission, And she also has shown dedication to in her employment with the city attorney's office in San Francisco. She's passionate about this community and she walks the talk. Now more than ever we need representation on the city council that is versed in the issues that are currently facing Sausalito's public charter school, Willow Creek Academy. The success and diversity of Willow Creek has attracted and continues to attract families to Sausalito. But certain members of the Sausalito Marin City School District Board have taken the position that Children in this community are not all entitled to fair and equal treatment in terms of funding. Um, depending on where they go to school. There are board members at the Sausalito Marin City School District that believe that they're only accountable to children who attend Bayside MLK. and they have reversed themselves without a hearing or any public comment on a long-held of the Sausalito Marin City School District that children are all entitled to fair treatment regardless of whether they attend the traditional public school or the charter school in this district. And because we're in a really tenuous time with this Ossalito-Marin City School District, I think it's essential that the council appoint someone who's versed in the issues that are facing willow creek academy right now as this town's public charter school and a gem of a school. So I would ask that you appoint someone who's versed in those issues. And Susan is that person. She's also got a demonstrated track record of public service and dedication to this town. She's the best candidate on your short list, and I ask that you appoint her. Thank you. |
| 00:18:07.44 | Mayor Withie | Thank you. John DeRay. |
| 00:18:16.94 | Unknown | Good evening, thank you for letting me speak tonight. It seems that there are several qualified candidates before you for the vacancy tonight. Being this is an appointment and not an election, we need somebody who can hit the ground running. somebody with a lot of experience. In a normal election cycle, Candidates have an opportunity and an obligation to prove to voters their willingness to serve by virtue of the campaign process. Debates, meetings, signs, it's a lot of work. We don't have that here, so how can we assess someone's willingness to serve? In some cases, it's quite easy. Bill Werner has served the community of Sausalito for 30 years. 30 years unpaid in his free time. I don't think anyone else in this room can make that claim. That's commendable. You have to have a lot of character and a special devotion to your community to do that. These are ideals that are fundamental to the success of small towns in this country. When I think about the quality of life I enjoy by living in Sausalito, I know that, at least in part, it's because of Bill's volunteer work over the last 30 years. So I would encourage city council to appoint Bill Werner for this vacant spot. Thank you. |
| 00:20:00.82 | Mayor Withie | Thank you, John. |
| 00:20:07.02 | Mayor Withie | David Sudo? |
| 00:20:14.22 | David | Mayor with me and city council. |
| 00:20:16.72 | Jill Hoffman | Hey, David, before you, I'm sorry. Yeah. Can you adjust the microphone? Somehow it got off and, there you go, I'm sorry. |
| 00:20:16.92 | David | I'm not. |
| 00:20:23.03 | David | I just want to briefly say that I'm supporting both Kate Storr and Susan Cleveland Knowles. I think they both have this trait of being, even when they don't agree with what you have to say, they listen to what you have to say in a way that makes you feel that your opinion is valued. And they listen to what you have to say say and I think that's really an important trait of a city council member and both of them are you know have shown through both their service within the city and in their careers that they are really interested in building community and as we move forward in the near future with our general plan and some other interesting aspects of city council, I think that's going to be really important that we look to building community in the future and what that looks like. And these two also represent a younger demographic in this city, which is very important in a growing demographic that I think will be increasingly important. Thank you. |
| 00:21:34.65 | Mayor Withie | Thank you. Diane Brokaw. Diane? Ah, there she is. |
| 00:21:53.28 | Unknown | Good evening, Council. I wanted to come out tonight and express my support for Susan Cleveland Knowles or Kate Storr, like David Sudo, both of whom I consider to be a good friend. So I'm not going to choose a favorite. First of all, congratulations to the council for choosing these two. eminently qualified people to be on the subset list. Secondly, Sausalito would be lucky to have either one of these ladies join the dais. They each have donated countless hours already to our town on various committees and projects, as well as many, many hours at our local school, thereby benefiting the young folks in our community. Both Kate Storr and Susan Cleveland Knowles are raising their respective children here in Sausalito. And therefore, by design, have a vested interest in continuing to make Sausalito a city that works and that we can be proud of. |
| 00:22:58.58 | Unknown | I know them well enough to know that each would bring to the Council a balanced and thoughtful opinion and vote, based on well-researched information on the issues of any given agenda. Many times, each has expressed to me moderate viewpoints that represent a majority of opinions in our town. So finally, I hope you will agree with me that one or the other, Susan Cleveland Knowles or Kate Storr, should take a seat on the council. Thank you. |
| 00:23:32.57 | Mayor Withie | Thank you. |
| 00:23:32.67 | Unknown | Thank you. |
| 00:23:32.91 | Mayor Withie | Thank you. |
| 00:23:32.92 | Unknown | Thank you. |
| 00:23:32.96 | Mayor Withie | Thank you. and Now, could I remind folks that if you do wish to speak, could you please hand a card? Make a short pause so that people can hand their cards. Thank you. Okay, next, Peter Van Meter. |
| 00:23:59.94 | Unknown | Thank you, Mayor and Council members. You've got a great group of finalists, some of which are long-term friends of mine, but I'm here to speak on behalf of Susan Cleveland Knowles because of who she is, who she represents, what she's done, and what she can do. She's a person who has intellect, an open mind, a collaborative attitude, and is a clear thinker. And she represents this growing demographic of the young families in town. As previously mentioned, this is an extremely important component for the vitality of Sausalito. She's a 16-year resident who's been active in the community on the Planning Commission for four years, including chair, numerous other task force, plus her professional career is in the area of city government. Finally, she can immediately assume the duties of city council members seamlessly She could come on board and be a leader in the current process of general plan update. For these reasons and more, I support Susan Cleveland Knowles. Oh, and besides that, she's a nice person and treats people with respect. Thank you. |
| 00:25:10.14 | Mayor Withie | Thank you, Peter. Just a brief polls. |
| 00:25:34.14 | Mayor Withie | Uh... Shannon Kerr. |
| 00:25:46.89 | Unknown | Good evening council members. I'm Shannon Kerr, I've been a Sausalito resident for ten years. And I've had the pleasure and the honor to know Susan Cleveland Knowles for 20 years. Long before either one of us crossed the bridge and decided to put down roots here in Sausalito. I'd like to reiterate what a lot of the public has already said. Susan's incredible track record speaks for itself. Her service on the Planning Commission and as its current chair, her dedication to and involvement in our local schools, her credibility and experience as a city attorney for San Francisco, and her tireless commitment to community. I often wonder how she has the time and energy to do all that she does for Sausalito, but I am deeply grateful that she finds the time to do it. Susan is the best candidate for this position. She's professional, she's passionate, she's easy to work with, and she'll work hard to build consensus on the issues. The one thing I want to stress, and I'd like to reiterate what Peter just said, is that Susan Cleveland Knowles is an outstanding human being. I don't say that about many people, but she truly is an incredible woman, and she cares deeply about Sausalito and will work hard for all of us. Thank you. |
| 00:26:59.76 | Mayor Withie | Thank you. Leon Hunting. |
| 00:27:08.00 | Mayor Withie | Thank you. |
| 00:27:08.01 | Unknown | Good evening, Counsel. I want to congratulate all four candidates. Takes a lot of energy, takes a lot of thought going into this process, so congratulations to them and for the volunteer work that they had promised to give. Um, 35 years ago when I came on to the council, we had a few issues to address. We had to address the general plan, specific plans, major developments, traffic, And in fact, Golden Gate Transit was a major issue regarding our dock. And at that time, they went behind the backs of two of us to strike a deal which was a problem and has been a problem. So these are all issues that you are now visiting. They're all very serious issues. They require someone who has an extreme background, a long time in serving Sausalito and understanding Sausalito and its needs. The person who is that candidate who can make this and be a great contributor to the council is Bill Werner and so I encourage you to look at the body of work that he's presented that he's participated in freely voluntarily and the contribution that he's given to our community. And he is a great person. Thank you. |
| 00:28:46.71 | Unknown | Thank you, Leon. Thank you. |
| 00:28:49.63 | Mayor Withie | Michael Rex. |
| 00:28:59.49 | Unknown | Although I wish to speak as a local business owner and as an architect, somebody who appears before the Planning Commission and the Council on a regular basis, I think we have, of the four, one truly standout candidate, and that's Susan Cleveland Knowles. I've watched her in action up on the DS there as a member of our planning commission and I'm continually impressed I have found Susan to be smart. She has a very good and clear understanding of and a focus on the cogent issues. She is articulate, she's courteous. I've watched her lead through building consensus. That's a skill that we clearly could use on the DS. Politically, I find her well balanced. I think that's important. I think we need a council member who speaks to our broad community. For all those good reasons, I encourage you to appoint her. When I consider that one of the biggest jobs ahead is getting this general plan updated, I think her legal background, intelligence, and keen focus will be a real asset. So I encourage you to select her. |
| 00:30:31.96 | Mayor Withie | Thank you. Thank you, Michael. Again, if anybody wants to hand in cards, speaker cards, please give them to city staff. Thank you. |
| 00:30:48.47 | Mayor Withie | Doreen Cunard. |
| 00:30:58.34 | Unknown | Hello, council members. I'm Doreen Gunnar, 300 Napa Street. I'm here to talk about Susan Cleland Knowles. She's somebody that I met while sitting on the board of directors of the San Francisco Baykeeper. She has a deep understanding of what needs to be done all the time. And if she doesn't have it, she figures it out. And that I really appreciate about her. She also has the capacity to build consensus. And I think that that's really important for the council right now. We have a real nice collegial group that has formed on the council presently, and I would like to see that continue And I know that she can bring that to to the sitting members and to help you with your process. I find her very open, able to handle the difficult questions which we dealt with in dealing with the San Francisco Bay and figuring out the issues of pollution and who were some of the bad folks we had to come after sometimes and how to do that with grace and style. That is something that Susan definitely has. And more importantly, she's been sitting on our planning commission for these number of years, as well as the other task forces she was involved in prior to that. and always brought a thoughtful and a balanced view. So I think it is in our city's best interest to appoint her to the city council. Thank you. |
| 00:32:34.78 | Mayor Withie | Thank you. |
| 00:32:34.80 | Unknown | you |
| 00:32:34.87 | Mayor Withie | Thank you, Doreen. |
| 00:32:42.00 | Mayor Withie | OK, I'm sorry, I'm going to get this name wrong, so I apologize. Annika Trunkrist? I got the Attica bit right. I apologize if I completely messed up your name. |
| 00:32:52.62 | Annika Thornqvist | I, |
| 00:32:52.95 | Unknown | THE END OF THE END OF THE |
| 00:32:58.79 | Annika Thornqvist | Good evening, Council. My name is Annika Thornqvist. I have been a Southlady resident for the last 10 years, and I've known Susan for seven years. |
| 00:33:01.66 | Unknown | . |
| 00:33:07.42 | Annika Thornqvist | through the Willow Creek Academy. We both have kids about the same age. She and I handled the orientation nights that used to be kind of a mess. And then Susan and I were like, we can't stand this any longer. So we just changed everything and revamped it. And now it's an amazing event that happens every year in the fall. And that's very much thanks to Susan. She's very fair. She's just. She's listening to people, and she really, really cares about this community and the kids in this town. So I deeply encourage you to vote for her. Thank you. |
| 00:33:38.75 | Unknown | Thank you very much. Wendy Richards. |
| 00:33:50.31 | Wendy Richards | Thank you very much. As you know from my letter, I'm here tonight to speak on behalf of Bill Werner to fill the open position. You are well aware that I spoke out in favor of an election. And I continue to believe that the only true discipline to select our representatives is in elections. The four of you are volunteers. Two of you have met the voters and have been voted into your seats. And two of you were willing to do so. But you are here as volunteers, and we are looking to fill the fifth seat with yet another volunteer. That will give us three people who are not subject to contested election. I believe that Bill Werner is the only candidate among these highly qualified people who I trust to listen. I see that Mrs. Knowles said in her statement that she has heard Many people. But I question who has demonstrated that active ability to listen, to incorporate people's views, and to change one's vote based on study, learning, and figuring it out. I don't always agree with Bill's positions. I've been on both sides of the issue. I trust that he will do his best to figure it out. I think Patty Bacon's letter says it all, and I hope everyone reads her letter. She was in the most contentious situation ever against Bill. I couldn't believe when I saw her letter in the stack. It's beautiful, and I recommend that you read it. And finally, I'd like to share one thing that has upset me a lot about several of the letters that came in this cycle. A number of people have said they don't want an election. It's too expensive. We don't have time. We can't have an election. And please appoint our candidate. And we have this candidate who happens to support us because we're the young or we're the parents or we're this new group. Well, I'm sorry, San Francisco politics has groups. In San Francisco, you elect somebody from Chinatown or from the Mission or from the Castro. But we're Sausalito and we need someone who knows Sausalito. The last time I looked, Jill, you're a parent, you have a child in this town, but I supported you in your election because I knew you'd be fair and you'd do your best to represent all of us. Old or young? liveaboard or homeowner, renter or commuter, I strongly urge you to appoint Bill Werner to this position or to take it to an election, because I know I can trust Bill to listen to the people. Thank you very much. |
| 00:36:55.30 | Unknown | Thank you, Wendy. |
| 00:36:59.84 | Unknown | Rebecca Martin. Thank you. |
| 00:37:02.97 | Mayor Withie | Rebecca. There she is. Okay. |
| 00:37:11.24 | Rebecca Martin | Hi, my name is Rebecca Martin. I would like to speak on behalf of Kate Storr. Um, place her as the new city council member. Kate's a dear friend of mine and we've known each other for about ten years. We've been friends and also worked on many collaborative projects. I'm in the arts, and she's a big supporter of the arts. I've known Kate to be strong and dependable, reliable, She's an incredible collaborator Really good listener. And the main thing about Kate is that when she sets her eye on something, she will get it done. And so she is a huge force of nature, has been so in my life, in her own life, and in the life of the Sausalito community. She's the founder of Architecture for Humanity. She's done incredible work. around the world internationally. connecting architects with SITUATIONS THAT NEED HELP And she's done incredible work for the world and now she wants to do incredible work right here at home. Um, So, Again, just want to encourage you to give Kate the position in the city council. She's committed to this community. She's committed to her family, and she's committed to pushing Sausalito in the progressive direction that it needs to go. Thank you. |
| 00:38:39.31 | Mayor Withie | Thank you very much. Martina Quinn. |
| 00:38:49.27 | Martina Quinn | Good evening, council. I believe you have a tough job on your hands, really. I'm My name is Martina. Quinn, I live at 114th Street, and I am a Susan Knowles groupie. I'm here to add my voice to those that support Susan. Given the acute manner in which the opportunity arose, I think we do really need to have somebody who can hit the ground running. Susan has extensive experience in local government and in the issues that are specific to our town, so I do believe that she has good knowledge of where we stand and where we need to be. She knows how things tick around here, and I think this, as well as the wealth of professional experience and expertise she brings, will be a huge benefit to the council right from the moment she gets on board. As many other people have said, Susan represents an important and burgeoning demographic in our community. And that is the young families who are choosing to stay and educate their kids right here in town. I believe we need that continual representation on council when it comes to their particular needs, from someone who intrinsically knows the issues, can innovate around solutions, and can bring disparate views together with integrity and with respect. I think her position on many of the issues that have affected our town in recent years have been supported by the majority of our constituents. And this would seem to indicate that Susan does in fact represent a fair majority of people in town. Susan's civic dedication is amazing. I am constantly inspired by people like yourselves and anybody who dedicates their time and their talent and their treasure to being on council, to any kind of public service. I can't imagine what it demands in terms of sacrifice to yourselves and your families. Susan has demonstrated these same qualities over and over again through her community service, her volunteer work with Sausalito Nursery School, and now more recently with Willow Creek Academy working on its foundation. And it's... |
| 00:40:46.13 | Kayla Kahn | THE FAMILY. |
| 00:40:58.84 | Martina Quinn | through our experience at Willow Creek Academy that I've come to know Susan and her work. She's smart, but she also has common sense. She's an independent thinker. It'll never be hard for you to understand her rationale because she's a coherent communicator, and she's eminently reasoned in her decision-making process. But at the same time, she's a great team player. I think we'd be lucky to have her service on council, so I hope you give her a chance, and I hope you give us a chance to have her represent us also. Thank you. |
| 00:41:34.43 | Mayor Withie | Thank you very much. Tammy Blanchard. |
| 00:41:47.32 | Tammy Blanchard | Hi, I'm Tammy Blanchard, thank you. I didn't come prepared to speak tonight because I wrote a letter, I guess I wanted to address one thing that no one's saying out loud, but in the next, this is a short position if it's appointed. And there's something that is on our plate right now that has been here for the last couple of years and it's huge. And it's the Golden Gate Bridge District's Ferry Landing. No one has mentioned it. But Susan went against that 100% in her planning commission sessions. She liked it as it is, the size that it is, and the color of blue, which was against the majority of Sausalito citizens and most of the council and most of the planning commission. So from working with Bill, I know that he is extremely dedicated to this particular issue. And he is an architect, so he brings to the table all of the technical skills that this council needs to deal with this very serious issue that we have before us right now. I don't know Susan personally, but I know that she's definitely on the other side of what the rest of this town prefers for this very landing. I also know that Bill Werner is a highly educated man. He's extremely smart, and I know that he is not going to overlook education in our town. He's going to hold that high and dear. So no person at the school is going to need to worry if he's on the city council that he won't have their best interests at heart. um, Because of the time that he's been and volunteered in the city, he actually brings to the table things that most of us don't know. There's a lot of history that is kind of, it's almost like folklore, except that he knows how to get it and how to access. I've seen him do it, it's amazing. And it's going to be important as we move forward through these issues, not just the ferry landing, but the general plan. Because he was involved in helping to develop the first one that we did a few years back, maybe 20. And so I think he'll be a big asset in bringing up some of the things that may have happened, the history. He carries that stuff with him and it's really amazing. I think he'll be invaluable and I think that he will be a fair council person, as you all are. And he also, I think, emulates what this town really wants right now for this ferry landing in particular. And it is going to have a huge impact on the future of Sausalito and I think it can't be overlooked. I hope that you will appoint Bill winner. If not, I hope we go to election. |
| 00:44:27.18 | Mayor Withie | Thank you, Tammy. Yasmin McCrane. |
| 00:44:40.03 | Yasmine McGrain | Hello, I'm Yasmine McGrain, and I'm a resident of Sausalito for the past 15 years. I've known Susan Cleveland Knowles for about eight years when our toddlers were toddling around, I guess, at Sausalito Nursery School. And now through Willow Creek and through softball and baseball, we're all intermingled in the community. And when I thought about supporting Susan as a candidate of choice for our family to this position, I started thinking about all the committees I've seen her on and all the discussions she's been involved in at the school, through city council, and in the community. And I actually could not think of one single word that anybody on any one of these committees has ever said negative about Susan Cleveland Knowles. I mean, I honestly couldn't, which is kind of very rare. And I think it because, to me, she exudes one key thing. She exudes trust. I mean, when Susan speaks, people listen on the committees I've seen. And the reason is because she's not the hothead in the room. She's not the big, loud person. But she takes her time to listen. She actively listens to different people's points of views. And you don't even know really where she stands personally on something. She takes the time to listen. And then she does research. She actually knows the facts. And she brings it forth in a very coherent manner. So you understand where she's going with things. And I think she's very persuasive in that. Because people trust her judgment. She's very collaborative. She's also, you know, I say progressive. And it's only because I think she's very solution-oriented. She doesn't like bureaucracy, I think, and so she wants to hear the facts, figure out where this is going to go. And instead of just making a quick decision and say, well, let's deal with it next month, she actually tries to solve things. And that's why I say she's progressive. I think you have many great candidates, but I think with Susan, you have a great balance of this really strong depth of experience being the deputy city attorney for San Francisco, her time on city planning. She's got this great experience, but then she's also got this solution-oriented forward thinking, and I think it's a great mix to have, that kind of person. I also think that she's so committed to things like the housing element and ADA, and I actually liked her position on the ferry landing, and I thought she really looked at the facts really well. And I think it's because she's so engaged in the community. And it's not just parents and young people. I think it's also she's so engaged in the community and it's not just parents and young people, I think it's also like she cares about all demographics. She's extremely fair and balanced and would be a great person I think for the committee. |
| 00:47:40.97 | Mayor Withie | Thank you very much. Susan Samuels. |
| 00:47:48.85 | Mayor Withie | And just before you begin, Susan, I notice there's a number of you out in the hallway. If you want to address the council, please come and fill out a card. Susan, please. |
| 00:48:01.76 | Susan Sammels | Hi, Susan Sammels. I'm here in support of Bill Werner. This is a unique and singular opportunity to have someone with decades of service and commitment to Sausalito serve on the council. I don't think there's a more qualified candidate from the standpoint of knowledge in history of the city. I've observed Bill on the planning commission. I've watched him create consensus by helping others understand complicated issues. I believe him to be without conflict of interest. |
| 00:48:01.99 | Mayor Withie | Thank you. |
| 00:48:33.94 | Susan Sammels | His acumen, passion for the city, and experience would be of enormous value for the council dealing with the general plan and other issues the city faces. I think Bill is the most qualified candidate, and if you can't select him for council tonight, then we should have an election. Thank you. |
| 00:48:53.11 | Mayor Withie | Thank you. Uh, Christine Scarpino. |
| 00:49:09.32 | Unknown | Good evening, city council, city staff. Thanks for letting me speak. I just would first like to take a moment and publicly thank Herbie for all of his work to the city. I don't know if it's appropriate, but I'm going to do it anyway. I have to admit, I miss seeing them downtown. We're so very fortunate to have him working with us all of these years. Herbie, even if you're not watching tonight, I'm thanking you from the council chambers. And on the record, thank you, Herbie. If you take a moment to consider the brain power of volunteers we have in Sausalito, it's pretty amazing. and to think of the backgrounds of those applicants here tonight, Again, we're so very fortunate to be in a situation with four qualified candidates vying for one seat. However, I'm here to talk about Susan Cleveland Knowles. I would appoint her if I were in your position. We all have heard about her professional qualifications and there's no doubt that she can do the work. But I also want to emphasize two important aspects that I believe make Susan the logical choice for your appointment tonight. First, it's her temperament and her work style. I think she would dovetail nicely into your mix. enabling the often delicate balance of harmony, varied ideas, and goal accomplishments. And second, I believe that Susan would win in a general election. Her views often represent the majority of voters as evidenced in the last three measure elections, which won by the majority and she supported. Appoint Susan and avoid the cost of distraction of an election with an empty seat for five months. Choose the candidate that best fits into your working group and would win the election. Thank you. |
| 00:50:59.25 | Mayor Withie | Thank you. Okay. I still have quite a few cards here. Let's have... Jack and Hillary Knowles up here. You've submitted cards, so separate cards. Go ahead. |
| 00:51:25.05 | Jack Knowles | So I'm Jack Knowles, and in case anyone was wondering, my mom did not force me to do this. And I know this is going to seem biased because she's my mom. But that's okay. So my mom has shown commitment to the Sausalito community in countless different ways. She has been a room parent at Willow Creek, has served on the Planning Commission, and was just recently part of the Willow Creek Foundation Board. My mom also campaigned with a lot of the students at Willow Creek, including me and my sister, for measure F. I think that it is important to know the views of kids because, hey, believe it or not, kids are also part of this community. She constantly makes time for the community, even though she's a lawyer for the city of San Francisco and is the parent of me and my sister, which means driving us to track meets, soccer games, concerts, baseball games, and recitals. So as you can tell, she has a lot of free time on her hands, which is why she decided to run for city council. No, the reason she decided to run for city council is because she cares about this community and preparing it for future generations. So if you could please be so kind and appoint my mom for city council. |
| 00:52:30.88 | Hillary Knowles | Hi, I'm Hillary Knowles. THE END OF THE END OF THE my mom knows more about the community than anyone else I know. She's lived in Sausalito for 16 years and she has learned as much as she can about the community and the people in it so she can help it grow. She has shown this by helping Willow Creek Academy and by serving on the Planning Commission. She is also so committed to helping Sausalito that she stays up late many nights reading her planning commission packets thoroughly. This shows how determined my mom is about keeping our community safe and fair. My mom wants to help Sausalito as much as she can, and being on the city council will help her do that. |
| 00:53:14.10 | Mayor Withie | Thank you very much. Um, Who would we get? Bonnie McGregor. |
| 00:53:32.88 | Bonnie McGregor | Good evening, Mayor and council members. and the city employees, and thank you for this opportunity. As you know, I submitted a memo, two of them as a matter of fact, because the more knowledge I gained about the whole situation, I began to realize the person I first was supporting, an extremely fine individual, there was someone else that is better qualified, in my opinion, to be of great service on the city council. And the person I'm supporting is Susan Catherine Cleveland Knowles. And among a lot of the things I've heard tonight, I've learned a lot more besides that about her career and what she knows about this area. And some of the things I really appreciate about her is her balance and her attitude. I find her to be a progressive person while being conservative. It may sound like a conundrum to some people. But she seems to have, as we said, a balance, and she looks to the future, not the behind. And she seems to have a positive attitude, which I think is extremely important to have in our council. We don't want to go backwards. We don't want to go back to where we were a few years ago. We want to move forward. So I support Susan Cleveland Knowles. |
| 00:54:53.95 | Mayor Withie | Thank you, Barney. Kurt Wonsheimer? Is Kurt here? Thank you. |
| 00:55:00.92 | Unknown | There we go. |
| 00:55:01.22 | Mayor Withie | Thank you. |
| 00:55:02.72 | Kurt Weinzimmer | It was relegated to the hall. Hi, my name's Kurt Weinzimmer. I've been a resident of Sausalito for just over 10 years. I'm currently president of the board at Willow Creek Academy. I wanted to voice my support for Susan Cleveland Knowles. I think that as you are looking at What are the characteristics that you need to have as a leader that's going to participate on a council like this. You need somebody that's going to be level handed. You've got it. have somebody that's a great listener but also somebody that will take action. I think one of the things about Susan is that She not only listens, learns, and then comes up with great ideas, decisions but she gets people to act on those decisions. And that movement forward is really important, because we can all have great ideas, but if those ideas don't get into action, They're not worth much. I think also Susan does a great job of listening objectively, but also having empathy. She really thinks about what the needs are of the people in the community. whether those are young kids, OR IF YOU WANT TO DO IT, YOU Those of us getting a little older. And I think that's critically important in this town. This is one of the most diverse communities that we have in the state probably. whether it's socioeconomic, age, perspective. There are a lot of different people with a lot of different needs. And you've got to have somebody that's really going to listen and hear. those needs. and then work with the team to come up with the right next steps. So I hope that you will make a great decision. to have someone join an already very strong city council. and appoint Susan Cleveland Knowles. Thank you. |
| 00:57:10.25 | Mayor Withie | Thank you. Now, could I remind folks that if you do want to speak and you haven't already filled in a card, so please do so and bring it up to the city clerk. Okay, Kay Mitchell. Where's Kay? There she is. |
| 00:57:34.85 | Kay Metzl | Hello, my name's Kay Metzl. I live at 119 Sacramento Way. I have been a resident for 40 years. And I want to thank you for not calling me right after the children. They were adorable. I wasn't planning on speaking tonight, as Tammy Blanchard had mentioned as well, because I sent an email to all of you expressing my support and asking you to appoint Bill Werner. But I felt it was important after hearing some of the comments. And I would like to remind everyone sitting there that your commitment to the ferry landing was most critical. and bill led the Planning Commission to discuss a way for the Golden Gate Bridge district and landing was most critical, and Bill led the Planning Commission to discuss a way for the Golden Gate Bridge District and remind them that what they were saying was not actually factual. and thankfully for Joan and Bill, at that time, the Planning Commission came around to the decision of the City Council. The other area that I'm concerned about is the open space of Sausalito, which was the property that was called Butte Street property, which is very close to my home. And I believe Bill was supportive of that. There were some other people that were not on the Planning Commission and would have loved to have seen in open space which I'm happy to report is going to continue as open space thanks to the council and to the foundation that was founded. So I ask you, and I encourage you, and I plead with you to appoint Bill Werner, or if we have to, an election. Thank you. |
| 00:59:06.19 | Unknown | Thank you, Kate. Leslie Howe? |
| 00:59:18.38 | Leslie Hale | I'm Leslie Hale and I live at 10 Cloudview Road. I grew up in Sausalito. My children went through. all of the Sausalito schools, and we have more than just one school here. Over the many past years that I've attended council meetings on a wide range of topics, I've seen Bill Werner, at various times and in various positions. He's always listened and participated in a straightforward, transparent manner with an honest, clear understanding into the items before the Council. adding valuable insight and suggestions. As an architect and a long-time resident, he sees the city from a different vantage. of design and planning, a perspective that we need both in current time and long range. |
| 01:00:16.55 | Leslie Hale | Aside from his expertise and the city participation over the many years, his answer to one question struck me profoundly as being telling of the man he is. And I'd like to quote him. He said, I believe that having passion about a single issue is antithetical to good governance. Passion often clouds reason, and reason should prevail in the deliberations and decision-making process when addressing complex or contentious issues facing this or any other governing body. I applaud him for his continued support and work with the city and for all of us who live here. I've read all the applications very carefully. I know we're down to four, but I feel strongly that Bill Werner can bring the most to the table. As an unbiased person, he pays attention and listens and is interested in how our city proceeds and works. And he wants carefully to weigh the facts before jumping to a conclusion. Please support Bill Werner. |
| 01:01:22.86 | Mayor Withie | Thank you, Leslie. I love some bear. |
| 01:01:35.35 | Alison Baer | Hello, I'm Alison Baer, I'm a resident of Sausalito at 432 Napa Street. And thank you all for giving me an opportunity to share my strong support for Susan Cleveland Knowles. I've known Susan since moving to Sausalito seven years ago, and I have tremendous respect and gratitude to Susan as both a friend and also a tireless, she's been tirelessly dedicated to our town, to our schools, and to our community. Our kids have gone to school together since kindergarten. I've spent many, many times with Susan at several school fundraisers, field trips, as well as social events. And Susan has always been incredibly welcoming. When we first moved to Sausalito, Susan invited our whole family over with a number of other neighbors purely as a volunteer effort to help us all get to know each other. And Susan actually also made our whole family feel welcome by letting our children know that their trampoline was available to my kids to enjoy at any time, which went a very long way towards making us really feel like we were part of the town quickly. I've heard several people, not even just tonight, but in the seven years that I've known Susan, comment on how she's someone that's easy to trust and to respect. And I think that's because Susan is... Perhaps it's natural, but she's naturally curious. She asks questions and she seeks input when she's trying to gauge the validity of ideas. But in addition to seeking consensus on ideas, Susan is also very clear and direct so that those ideas can then be put into action efficiently. As you all know, Susan has extensive professional and city volunteer experience, but that, in addition to her ability to look at situations from a broad perspective, makes Susan already an incredibly valuable resource for our community, and I feel as a city council member, she will continue to make our town great, and I strongly encourage you to share my support for Susan. Thank you. |
| 01:03:36.62 | Mayor Withie | Thank you. So I have three cards left. If there's anybody who hasn't submitted a card to speak, please do so. Cheryl Popp. |
| 01:03:53.47 | Unknown | Thank you and good evening council. I am here as a resident homeowner, local businesswoman, and someone who, as you know, is very active in our community, so I have a vested interest. And I am opposed to a special election. I am urging you to reach consensus this evening on filling this vacant council seat. I think a special election is expensive, not necessarily fiscally responsible, and some of you are fiscal conservatives. It places a financial burden that has not been addressed by the soon-to-be-adopted budget. In addition to being expensive, a special election can potentially, I think, be very disruptive and divisive. and it's to fill a short-term seat. I don't think we need that negativity in the community right now, and there are just far more important issues to address as several people have noted. I'm not sure if you're Without a fifth person on the council, not much is likely to get accomplished in the next five or six months. And there are really important issues that we need to move forward on, whether it's a ferry landing, bicycle congestion, tourist management, the general plan, and all the anchorage issues. So with all due respect for all the candidates who stepped up as potential civil servants, I do think one of these candidates is more qualified. More likely to be open-minded. reasonable, listen to all points of view, which is, by the way, what all of you advocated in your own campaigns. And I believe one of them has more potential to reach common sense solutions, more ability to resolve some of the current issues, and to work as a team player. And that candidate is Susan Cleveland Knowles. So I strongly urge you to unanimously support her and appoint her as your new city council colleague for the next 18 months. She also represents, I think, the majority of the residents and businesses in our community, certainly the younger demographic. Thank you. You would be appointing somebody who was in favor of the last three election initiatives, measure D, O, and F. those were supported by two-thirds of the community. So she's part of that two-thirds. So... These candidates before you now who supported these three measures represent the overwhelming majority of your constituents. You've heard a lot about Susan's qualifications on planning and Willow Creek, and I'm not going to reiterate all of that again here. I think it's very important that her moderate views and recent support for these recent ballot measures represent a majority of the community. I think it's important that she is a long-term professional commitment to local government, having worked for the city of San Francisco and served for more than 17 years as deputy city attorney. Basically, she has a proven history of working respectfully and collaboratively on many issues while keeping an open mind, a commitment to civil discourse, and a desire to reach common sense. So please put the best interests of the majority of the community above everything else tonight. Thank you. |
| 01:07:00.41 | Mayor Withie | Thank you. Jeff Knowles. |
| 01:07:04.97 | Joe Burns | the mic gets. |
| 01:07:07.59 | Unknown | Thank you. |
| 01:07:10.37 | Mayor Withie | Alice Merrill. |
| 01:07:18.91 | Alice Merrill | Hi, Alice Merrill, and I live in Pelican Harbor. I think I'm a little uninformed, but it might be interesting just to hear it set out. How long is this term? If a person is appointed, do they go to the end of Herb's term? Do they then have to go through the election process? Could you just, so that I know and maybe other people do, so how is that? And is it 18 months or is it until November? I heard two things just now. Thank you. |
| 01:07:55.33 | Mayor Withie | Thank you. I'll have staff clarify at the end. Thank you, Alice. Susan Shea? |
| 01:08:11.19 | Susan Shea | Good evening, Mayor and Council members. My name is Susan Shea, I live at 522 Spring Street. I've sent you in emails but wanted to just add a few comments from what I've been hearing tonight I'm not sure. I think one of the elephants in the room is Willow Creek. |
| 01:08:35.02 | Susan Shea | I don't know how to quite put this, but Willow Creek is a charter school that is actually run by the district. And in fact has nothing to do with the council. So it's curious to me that so much of the comments tonight have been about her leadership at Willow Creek and how that's gonna be important for her leadership on the council when the council actually has no authority over the school district at all. So I just wanted to bring that up as something that I felt was a little bit of an elephant in the room. I'm Bill Werner, I have not always agreed with, but I have watched him in multiple public venues. I trust him. I feel like he is one of the smartest people I've ever met, and is able to really think out of the box, when people are kind of all emotional and he can oftentimes bring people down and say, OK, what are the real issues here? And most of all, I think that If you can't come to a decision tonight, if it is a two to two vote on whoever the candidates are. that This is a democracy. and that elections are how we in general, get to agreement about who is going to represent us. And I think $30,000 to $40,000 is well worth upholding the democratic principles that I think we all believe in. And I think to begin with, we should have had an election. I'm happy that you didn't decide to do that, but did such a thorough job of vetting people. But if it is a two to two, I hope that you will understand that for democracy's sake, we should have a general election. Thank you. |
| 01:10:48.89 | Mayor Withie | Thank you, Susan. Okay, well, I am out of cards. So is there anybody who would like to say, Anything? If not, I'm going to close public comment. So I'm closing public comment. And with that, we'll bring it back up here. Before we engage in any discussion or voting, Lilly, could I have you clarify for the question that Alice brought up? Thank you. |
| 01:11:24.04 | Lily Whalen | Sure, so as you can see on this slide, the person either appointed or elected on a special election that would occur this November would serve the remainder of Councilmember Weiner's term which expires in November of 2018. |
| 01:11:41.16 | Unknown | THE FAMILY IS NOT |
| 01:11:41.57 | Mayor Withie | Thank you. |
| 01:11:41.64 | Unknown | Thank you. |
| 01:11:42.02 | Mayor Withie | Thank you. Okay. So we got a vote. Does anybody want to say anything? or should we just get on with it? Okay. So we have had a unbelievable response. You know, Latin qualified candidates, and we've talked to them all. It's unbelievable the amount of volunteerism and dedication to our city. So I'd just like to kick off by thanking everybody who put their application in, and I'd like to thank everybody who sent us emails and everybody who's spoken here tonight. This is a small town democracy at its best. So thank you. So we're just, there are four candidates, as you know, and we are each going to name our preference, and we need three votes for a person to be appointed. Just to break the ice, and I know usually the mayor goes last, I'm going to actually go first. So that it's just to sort of break the ice a little. So my vote is for Susan Cleveland Knowles. Who wants to go next? |
| 01:13:12.91 | Joan Cox | I will go next. My vote is for Bill Werner. |
| 01:13:16.48 | Mayor Withie | Okay. |
| 01:13:16.74 | Joe Burns | Thank you. |
| 01:13:18.13 | Joan Cox | No, Warner. |
| 01:13:20.10 | Mayor Withie | Susan Cleveland-Nold. |
| 01:13:20.96 | Joe Burns | So, |
| 01:13:21.03 | Mayor Withie | We're going to be right back. Okay. So with that, it is 2-2. I'm going to ask one time, is anybody interested in changing their vote? Seeing none. Could we have a motion? Lily, could you put the, do we have a motion up there to, it's in our packet. We don't. |
| 01:13:45.97 | Lily Whalen | We don't, but there is a draft resolution calling for a special election and requesting the Marin County Registrar Voters to run the election for us. |
| 01:13:55.74 | Joan Cox | Before we make that motion, may I, on behalf of us, thank everyone who wrote letters. We had over 85 letters, and everyone who showed up here tonight to really educate us with your views, because we, after all, are your representatives, and it is so important to us to hear from you. And, you know, since the ferry landing, this is one of the most widely responded to issues, and it's inspiring as a member of the city council to hear the real thoughtful and reasoned opinions of all of you, and it just humbles me, and I'm sure humbles us and makes it really a privilege to serve you. So thank you. |
| 01:14:42.35 | Mayor Withie | Eddie. Anybody else like to say a few words? Okay. Could we have... a motion then for, do we need to read the whole thing out? Or Mary, what can we do here? |
| 01:14:55.26 | Unknown | Thank you. You can just move to adopt the resolution that's in your packet to call for the special election. |
| 01:15:01.69 | Mayor Withie | And who'd like to... So moved. We have second. All in favor? Aye. Any opposed? That motion carries 4-0. |
| 01:15:03.38 | Unknown | Second. I... |
| 01:15:15.24 | Mayor Withie | With that, we're going to take a brief adjournment. Thank you. |
| 01:15:38.73 | Mayor Withie | Okay, let's get on to our next agenda topic, which is the consideration of appointments to the General Plan Advisory Committee. And we'll hand over to Danny Castro, our Community Development Director. |
| 01:15:55.77 | Danny Castro | Good evening Mayor Withie and members of the Council. Danny Castro, your Community Development Director. And this item next is the consideration for an appointment of the General Plan Advisory Committee. There are seven open seats on the General Plan Advisory Committee. You'll see GPAC as a... acronym to complement the current four members. The GPAC is comprised, will be comprised of a total of 11 members. Back in late April and into May, We had an application period for general plan advisory committee members. It coincided with the initial outreach of the general plan update. With that outreach, we received 34 applications. May 23rd, following the deadline of the application period, about a week after the General Plan Advisory Committee, the current four members met and approved a list of 21 applicants to move forward to the City Council for interviews. From that, three candidates did remove their names from consideration. Here is just the eligibility standards that were included in the application in narrowing down the list. The standards were geographic location by neighborhood, the stated areas of interest, educational employment and civic participation background, and conformance to desired qualifications. as well. At the June 5th, 2017 Special City Council meeting, interviews were conducted for the 18 candidates, and here are their names listed. |
| 01:17:49.95 | Danny Castro | The process to appoint the General Plan Advisory Committee meeting is established in our Sausalito Municipal Code that the mayor will announce his seven nominations. The mayor will then solicit any additional nominations from the dais. And following announcements of the nominations, the mayor will then receive public comment and proceed on to a roll call vote. Each council member may vote for seven nominees. A nominee must receive at least three votes to be appointed. And if no nominee receives three votes, the roll call vote shall continue until the vacancy is filed. The appointment shall then be announced, or the mayor may request staff to continue to recruit additional applicants. that, I'm sorry, one other item is that Lastly, for recommendation, there are two items tonight, is to appoint the seven members to the general plan advisory committee, Committee as well as adopt a resolution that establishes the membership of the general plan advisory committee that was also included. With that, that concludes my presentation. I'm available to answer any questions. |
| 01:19:10.78 | Mayor Withie | Thank you, Danny. Could you help me understand what item two is? |
| 01:19:18.11 | Danny Castro | Yes, Mr. Mayor. Sure. The resolution basically establishes the membership of the GPAC. It states the purpose of the GPAC, what its role is, as well as the ability for GPAC members to participate as a GPAC member, but also sit on other boards or commissions. that. |
| 01:19:39.98 | Mayor Withie | Thank you. Right. OK. Thank you. Yeah. Any questions of staff? |
| 01:19:48.33 | Joan Cox | I thought that we previously already adopted the purpose and the role of the GPAC in a prior meeting and a prior resolution. Thank you. |
| 01:19:57.68 | Danny Castro | It wasn't in a resolution, but you did. And this language has been included in this resolution as an intro. |
| 01:20:08.83 | Joan Cox | Too many meetings, but okay, thank you. |
| 01:20:12.78 | Mayor Withie | Well, I also think the important addition that members can serve on this as well as others is an important clarifier, right? |
| 01:20:21.76 | Joan Cox | because that's the whole point. |
| 01:20:22.70 | Mayor Withie | Right. That's all. |
| 01:20:23.90 | Joan Cox | Yeah. |
| 01:20:24.32 | Mayor Withie | Thank you. Any other questions? Okay. So, Let's make sure we're clear here. The first thing is that I'm going to nominate Up to seven people. We're then gonna ask my colleagues here to add names, so we will have, likely more than seven, will have a number. And then once that, the total universe in a sense is established, we will then call for public comment. After public comment, we will each then take turns at naming our seven out of the total pool that's been nominated. I just want to say that for clarification. Yeah. Okay. Question? No? And... How, I mean, it's going to be really tough for us. How is the tally being, what's going to happen there? Lily, can you help us? |
| 01:21:31.25 | Lily Whalen | I have a matrix that I will pull up on the screen after you provide your subset, and then I can show you in real time how you're voting. |
| 01:21:39.96 | Mayor Withie | Okay, super. That'll work. That'll work. Okay. So I guess it's up to me now to propose seven names that will go into our pool of candidates. And I'm going to do this in alphabetical order. |
| 01:21:58.89 | Joan Cox | Okay. |
| 01:22:00.95 | Mayor Withie | well. |
| 01:22:01.56 | Joan Cox | I'm using our sheet. |
| 01:22:03.24 | Mayor Withie | Yeah, okay. So, well, I'm only just using alphabetical, I'm only using alphabetical because that's the way I am. |
| 01:22:06.53 | Joan Cox | of. |
| 01:22:11.55 | Mayor Withie | OK. Are we okay? Okay, so my seven nominees are Chris Gallagher, Barbara Geisler, sorry Barbara. |
| 01:22:24.57 | Unknown | The Kucoschlorates is your present. |
| 01:22:26.23 | Mayor Withie | Oh, yeah, yeah. Sorry. Okay. So you got the first two? Yeah. Okay. Bruce Hough. Charles Kaufmann. Keith Kennedy. Kate's store. Peter Van Meter. And I think that's seven. |
| 01:22:45.30 | Joan Cox | It is. |
| 01:22:46.82 | Mayor Withie | Okay. So, um, Could I ask for any other nominees to throw into the mix? |
| 01:22:52.99 | Joan Cox | That's right. So I also nominate Jennifer Berry. John DeRay. and Pat Zook. |
| 01:23:09.26 | Mayor Withie | Joe, any additions? |
| 01:23:14.03 | Joe Burns | check view. |
| 01:23:14.81 | Mayor Withie | Chill. |
| 01:23:15.44 | Joe Burns | Thank you. |
| 01:23:15.64 | Mayor Withie | Any? |
| 01:23:15.98 | Joe Burns | Yes. |
| 01:23:16.15 | Mayor Withie | you |
| 01:23:17.97 | Jill Hoffman | Thank you. |
| 01:23:19.74 | Joe Burns | Carrie Biles. |
| 01:23:24.99 | Jill Hoffman | Thank you. And I would add CJ Spady and Chris Glennon. |
| 01:23:41.80 | Unknown | Yeah. |
| 01:23:42.84 | Mayor Withie | So by my count, that's 13. |
| 01:23:45.34 | Unknown | Thank you. . |
| 01:23:52.68 | Alice Merrill | Yep. |
| 01:24:00.44 | Mayor Withie | I don't know. |
| 01:24:05.50 | Mayor Withie | Ooh. |
| 01:24:05.86 | Danny Castro | Thank you. |
| 01:24:21.62 | Unknown | Thank you. |
| 01:24:30.56 | Kay Metzl | One, two, three, four. |
| 01:24:33.82 | Unknown | Mm-hmm. Thank you. |
| 01:24:35.10 | Mayor Withie | Okay, all right, so those 13 very qualified, and let me just say that again, as with the City Council, appointments or not. We've had an amazing response here, and so I'd like to thank everybody who's put in their applications, and to also remind people that this is only the first step. There's going to be many subcommittees, groups, task forces, etc. So if anybody has not chosen tonight or has not been chosen, that doesn't mean that you cannot participate. There's going to be enormous opportunity for participation. So, um, with that, we have 13, uh, folks and we are going to open public comment. There's no other questions from us? No? Okay. We're going to open public comment. And so would anybody, I have one card here, um, from Tricia Smith and, um, |
| 01:25:39.13 | Tricia Smith | Hi, Tricia Smith from Reed Lane in Sausalito. And it is a very impressive list. I think it's wonderful to see everyone coming out I'm speaking on behalf of one person on that list tonight because it's the person that I know the best and I've worked with the longest. and that's Charles Kaufman. Charles has been on the Sausalito Village Board of Directors for the years that I have been on and the two years, two and a half years, that I've chaired, been the president of the board. He also was with me for three out of the four years that I chaired age-friendly Sausalito Task Force. And I have to say, he has been an incredible, an incredible presence on Both of those boards. When you think about it, Age Friendly met one year. One year of that time was every week we met for a minimum of two hours. And so we had some very vibrant discussions. But you always had to leave it to Charles to listen to our discussions and then be able to succinctly give us, you know, this is what I heard. And the bullet points came out. And he was always right on. I truly appreciated it. And just a reminder that in November the city council did unanimously agree to the strategic plan for Age Friendly. So having a presence of somebody who's from the task force and from Sausalito Village on the committee would be really important because the city council did agree that Age Friendly would be a presence on in the general plan. So thank you. |
| 01:27:17.37 | Mayor Withie | Thank you, Tricia. Would any other member of the public like to comment David. |
| 01:27:28.95 | David | Since Kate got passed over today, I'm gonna put a recommendation in for her. I've recently been working with her on an ad hoc committee about our school district. She's a Willow Creek parent, but she's been, you know, trying to bring both sides together on this. And what I've seen briefly with my interaction with her is she's really good at committees and brainstorming and, |
| 01:27:38.94 | Kayla Kahn | Thank you. |
| 01:27:59.97 | David | bringing a lot of ideas together and figuring out where the focus should be and really going in outreach and looking for ideas which are different than hers and seeing where she can find commonalities. So I would strongly recommend her for this. Thank you. |
| 01:28:23.98 | Mayor Withie | Thank you. Anybody else like to say anything? Okay, seeing none, we'll close public comment, bring it back here. And unless we have any comments or questions, again, I suggest we get on with it. |
| 01:28:42.73 | Unknown | Bye. |
| 01:28:42.74 | Lily Whalen | OK. Thank you. |
| 01:28:44.92 | Unknown | Okay. |
| 01:28:44.99 | Unknown | Bye. |
| 01:28:45.01 | Unknown | Thank you. |
| 01:28:45.04 | Lily Whalen | Yeah. I'm going to call council members' names, and you can vote for seven people. So council member Burns. And if you could go slowly so I can get down the list. |
| 01:28:45.14 | Mayor Withie | Yeah. Thank you. |
| 01:28:46.57 | Unknown | Thank you. |
| 01:28:57.24 | Joe Burns | Slow is a challenge for me. |
| 01:29:02.89 | Joe Burns | Huff. Than Meter. Kaufman. Biles, Kennedy, Gallagher store |
| 01:29:19.31 | Unknown | Thank you. |
| 01:29:19.33 | Jill Hoffman | Councilmember Hoffman. Chris Gallagher, Keith Kennedy, John Dyer, Kate Storr, Chris Glennon, Pat Zuck, and CJ Spady. |
| 01:29:42.97 | Jill Hoffman | Vice Mayor Cox. Hold on, Lily that was seven, right? Yeah, okay. |
| 01:29:51.49 | Jill Hoffman | Let me read them off again. Chris Gallagher, Keith Kennedy, John Dyer, Kate Storr, Chris Glennon, Pat Suck, and CJ Spady. |
| 01:30:11.96 | Joan Cox | Barbara Geisler, Chris Gallagher. Bruce Hough. |
| 01:30:21.58 | Joan Cox | Charles Kaufman. Keith Kennedy. |
| 01:30:27.89 | Joan Cox | Pat Zook, |
| 01:30:35.50 | Joan Cox | What is that? I have six. I'm totally doing this wrong. All right. So, yeah, I've totally got my, okay. Geisler, Gallagher, Huff, Kaufman. Kennedy. So |
| 01:30:57.22 | Joan Cox | DeRay. I'm sorry, Berry, B-E-R-R-Y. |
| 01:31:06.28 | Joan Cox | Thank you. |
| 01:31:06.30 | Unknown | Mayor Withey. |
| 01:31:06.79 | Joan Cox | marriage. |
| 01:31:07.60 | Unknown | Yeah. |
| 01:31:07.78 | David | so |
| 01:31:08.88 | Mayor Withie | Sorry, I'll just go with those I nominated, which is Chris Gallagher. |
| 01:31:16.58 | Mayor Withie | Barbara Geiser. Bruce Hough. Charles Kaufman. |
| 01:31:25.81 | Mayor Withie | Keith Kennedy. Kate Starr. Peter van Meter. |
| 01:31:35.80 | Lily Whalen | Thank you. I'm going to sort these now so you can easily see who you just appointed. |
| 01:31:52.59 | Lily Whalen | So you've made five appointments of Bruce Huff, Charles Kaufman, Kate Storr, Chris Gallagher, and Keith Kennedy. And you have two seats that are still vacant. Per the Saucyde Municipal Code, you can call for another round of votes to fill those two vacant seats. |
| 01:32:17.78 | Mayor Withie | OK, so let's do that. I note that some folks have Two votes, some have won. |
| 01:32:35.16 | Joan Cox | I'm gonna go ahead and change one of my votes. So I'm gonna change my vote from I thought, yeah, oh, okay, let's see. |
| 01:32:47.19 | Mayor Withie | Do you mean initially changed so that you're on the pointing or change or? |
| 01:32:50.15 | Joan Cox | No, change. change in the second round. |
| 01:32:53.56 | Mayor Withie | Okay. |
| 01:32:54.01 | Joan Cox | Yeah, so I voted for someone that only has one vote. So I'm changing Jennifer Berry to Peter Van Meter. |
| 01:32:54.59 | Mayor Withie | Thank you. |
| 01:33:13.57 | Joe Burns | I'm sorry, until now I'm just trying to get one vote. One, two, three. I put it for four. |
| 01:33:18.99 | Mayor Withie | Thank you. |
| 01:33:19.00 | Joan Cox | Well, we now have six appointed, so we're down. |
| 01:33:19.02 | Mayor Withie | Yeah, so how- We now have six appointed, so we have one more to appoint. |
| 01:33:22.36 | Joan Cox | So we have |
| 01:33:33.65 | Unknown | OK. |
| 01:33:35.20 | Mayor Withie | Yeah. Somebody who's not appointed, you could change. |
| 01:33:43.15 | Unknown | Thank you. |
| 01:33:43.17 | Joe Burns | I'll change my vote from Gary Biles to Pat Zook. |
| 01:33:51.07 | Joan Cox | Okay, that does it. |
| 01:33:55.03 | Mayor Withie | So I think, Lily, with that, we have seven votes. |
| 01:34:02.00 | Mayor Withie | seven folks. |
| 01:34:03.00 | Lily Whalen | Yes, I have them. So I've added Peter Van Meter and Pat Sook. |
| 01:34:06.56 | Mayor Withie | Okay, so if you could... Just list the folks who have been appointed, please. |
| 01:34:14.68 | Lily Whalen | Yes, so you have Peter Van Bieter, Pat Zook, Bruce Huff, Charles Kaufman, Kate Storr, Chris Gallagher, and Keith Kennedy. |
| 01:34:22.28 | Mayor Withie | Okay, thank you very much. |
| 01:34:28.36 | Alice Merrill | Mr. |
| 01:34:28.90 | Mayor Withie | Again, thank you all who applied. Whether you were shortlisted or whether you end up getting voted, there's going to be plenty of opportunity to participate in the general plan. So we're all looking forward to it. So thank you very much. |
| 01:34:44.05 | Lily Whalen | Mr. Mayor, the second part of this was the adoption of a resolution allowing folks to serve on multiple boards and committees. |
| 01:34:51.06 | Mayor Withie | Thank you. Yeah, we have a motion and so moved or by motion. So moved. |
| 01:34:55.39 | Joan Cox | Second. |
| 01:34:55.82 | Mayor Withie | Thank you. All in favor? Aye. Any opposed? That carries 4-0. Thank you. |
| 01:34:57.20 | Joan Cox | Bye. |
| 01:35:01.08 | Joan Cox | We have like two minutes that I'll be there. |
| 01:35:03.58 | Mayor Withie | Yeah, we'll take another just two minute break. Thank you. |
| 01:35:13.69 | Unknown | as always. |
| 01:35:21.13 | Unknown | Don't say that. Thank you. Thank you. |
| 01:35:24.65 | Mayor Withie | Okay, we're back. Thank you. |
| 01:35:26.88 | Unknown | This is the best. Thank you. |
| 01:35:27.91 | Mayor Withie | Item. |
| 01:35:27.93 | Unknown | Item. |
| 01:35:31.32 | Mayor Withie | 6C is the introduction of FY 2018 budget. And Melanie Purcell, our Administrative Services Director. Good evening, Melanie. |
| 01:35:44.75 | Melanie Purcell | Thank you. |
| 01:35:44.90 | Mayor Withie | Thank you. Thank you. |
| 01:35:45.14 | Melanie Purcell | Good evening, and I'll apologize for the frog right up front. It's my pleasure to bring to you the FYI fiscal year 2017-18, budget for the city of Sausalito. This is the first formal introduction to the council of the entire budget. We'll bring it back to council for final adoption June 20th. |
| 01:36:07.31 | Unknown | Okay. |
| 01:36:07.72 | Melanie Purcell | Real quickly, we're going to run through all funds of the city, including a review of the fund balances and proposed changes, if any. Overview of the general fund, including the operating departments, the general fund being the largest fund of the city and responsible for the majority of services, and then a quick review of the capital projects. It should be noted this is the second year of the biennial budget. So the majority of heavy lifting or deep dive review or whatever term you want to use really took place during last year's budget season. And this year we approached the budget as an exceptions based. So we intentionally went through and looked for changes to what had originally been published and proposed last June to the City Council for FY 1718. This is an overview of the general fund, the debt service funds and the capital project funds simply summarizes for you the revenues and transfers. and then the expenditures out indicating a $21,000 intentional surplus in the general fund. That's a comfortable level or close to comfortable. to allow us to maintain a conservative revenue estimate, as well as being comfortable in our expenditures. We want to ensure that we don't have to come to council and say, oops, we fell short. We don't like that. You don't like that. We don't make that happen. So your debt services are, there's no significant changes on those. And in capital projects, as you'll see in just a moment, there's a dramatic decrease. The majority of the activity in the general capital projects fund as well as in the sewer capital project fund are budgeted in the current year. And so we work with the assumption when we're starting the budget process that those projects will be ended or we will come back to you to carry them forward. as part of the final resolution. Again, overview here, the special revenue funds, these are funds that are dedicated revenue streams and are restricted in their use. So they are typically kept separate, they're grants, or in the case of title ends, it's specific rent revenues that by state law cannot be used for any other purpose. All of the others you'll see, County Measure A and B constitute grants, Traffic Safety Gas Tax are all specifically governed by state law. Enterprise funds are those that under the general accounting standards, we look at generally accepted accounting principles. I'm sorry, I have to go correct myself. It's GAP. We treat those as if they were a separate business. So they are considered to be completely self-contained operations, sewer, Old City Hall, which is a rental property, obviously the Martin Luther King Jr. complex, and then the parking fund. Internal service funds are those that serve all of the funds, including the general fund, and we keep the accounting separate. Everything on the right-hand side are treated as if they are separate businesses. Do you notice that the city is looking at net of transfers, 22.8, just shy of $23 million total budget. That is a significant reduction from this year, all set in capital. So as you notice here, this is net of transfers. So again, that $23 million. Obviously, the general fund is the largest portion. Second, coming into these are your revenues. I apologize, taxes, including those that are paid to the sewer fund. And all of the general fund taxes show up here, rental income. Parking fees and then everything else comes after that Again, this is the history of revenues. You'll see very early on there's a huge spike. Those are the general obligation bond proceeds that show up. and then you'll see smaller amounts. Again, we're seeing, reasonable Revenue estimates, again, staying very conservative. Property taxes remain quite strong. As we'll note in a minute, other taxes that are more tourism or visitor based are somewhat stagnant. |
| 01:40:33.55 | Melanie Purcell | Again, a breakdown, general fund, everything, you see the large spike for capital projects. And then we come back down even further than in past. |
| 01:40:44.22 | Melanie Purcell | This is a breakdown of the cost of operating. Again, this is not including capital funds or transfers. Just should be noted real quick here that you'll see approximately, excuse me, Almost 60% of the budget is in salaries. That's pretty typical. Actually, it's rather low, but does include a number of areas that we contract out. So you see professional services quite high relative to many communities. This is actually a pretty balanced distribution. |
| 01:41:20.90 | Melanie Purcell | Again, just kind of showing the history of where we've come and where we're going, anticipated to go. the biggest changes obviously are as we look at our somewhat in benefits you'll see an increase and then offsetting a little bit more investment in professional services and capital outlay this capital outlay does not constitute capital projects I do want to make the distinction that's capital outlay that we consider part of operating activities The changes that are proposed to this budget include changes in information technology, accounting software, and TRAC-IT software. We're in the process of implementing as part of a capital project the new permitting and planning software. That's called TRAC-IT. That will be up and running during the upcoming fiscal year, and so we need to include some of the maintenance costs. We're proposing to upgrade the accounting software, which if as proposed we go with the current vendor We are proposing to upgrade the accounting software, which, if as proposed, we go with the current vendor. we'll see a large shift from capital costs to maintenance costs. Again, this total increase is approximately $25,000. The increase in public works training, we want to make a strong commitment to ensuring our employees are kept safe and we're looking at updating a number of areas for compliance. This would be split between the general and the sewer funds. related and spread across all funds is a very large increase in workers compensation. We have seen a relative spike in claims and reserves required. for the last two years, so the city has now spent down the reserves that it had built up. And we need to restore that and continue to place the city in a safe position. The reduction in capital projects, as I mentioned, will complete or we assume completion. for the sake of budgeting, the projects that have already been initiated, those related to the sewer bonds and those related to certificates of participation and we'll go into those details in just a minute. But we would, again, expect to spend a lot less in the initial purchase or upgrade of the accounting software. We do not anticipate needing to go forward with the document management update. We're able to roll some of that into the IT infrastructure update. So that's a nice surprise. And we're reducing the transfers from tidal and traffic safety and sewer because the projects that are proposed for the next year in streets and ADA are not related to those sources. So because they are a tide source to expense, we're very careful to ensure that we maintain those. So you'll see a reduction in the general capital improvement project fund. And it's due to a offsetting expense in revenue. Fund balance projections, you'll notice that there's actually very little proposed. Majority of these are quite small. We are proposing a small decrease to the MLK fund. I do want to note that the employee benefits fund is negative. That is where liabilities are stored for citywide. It is not a cash negative. It is an accounting negative related to OPEB liability. The MLK rental property is a reflection of the transfer of the $7.2 million in COP, funds to the general improvement or general capital project funds. I refer to it as trying to translate to counties, but basically it is a bookkeeping entry. These, while the projects are under construction, those cash dollars are housed in the general capital project funds, but the debt remains with the MLK fund. When the projects are complete, the completed assets return back to the MLK fund and you'll you'll see a positive number there. You'll notice that at the end, MLK fund. When the projects are complete, the completed assets return back to the MLK fund, and you'll see a positive number there. You'll notice that at the very bottom here, I've estimated what the actual cash balance is, and that's close to $650,000. So we had a good discussion about this at the Finance Committee and had some entertaining accounting conversation with the auditors over OK English, please. Fund balances, again, the other one that's notable is the Tidelands Fund. That is a reflection and will remain in this reflection. You'll slowly see the negative number get smaller over the next, I believe, 10 to 15 years. But that is the unearned revenue associated with the past major project there. And you'll notice, again, work comp is in a negative position, and we're slowly trying to build that reserve back up, to reverse the negative and bring it back. That is a result of a very large reserve required to pay expected claims. So the general fund being the bulk of things, $16 million of our 23. I apologize. you'll notice that there's some distribution changes, significant, and then there are... Some significant increases in departments. Most of those are reflective of changes in actual personnel. So the city of Sausalito, we budget to the specific individuals. So when we have an individual retire or resign from the city, particularly if they've been a longstanding employee, they are replaced with a bottom-of-the-range employee, which is a six-step difference. It can be a significant amount of money. Also, new employees are hired in under what is called PEPRA, or Tier 3 in the pension system, which has a contribution rate at just about 7% as opposed to the contribution rate for Tier 1, which is much higher. |
| 01:47:08.19 | Melanie Purcell | Okay, this is a history of what's going on on the revenue side and the general fund. I wanted to highlight here that you see the taxes have been fairly strong, but again, at a moderate pace. Transfers in, we continue in the general fund to be reliant on transfers from the parking and from MLK funds. So those are two that provided that there is adequate fund balance in those funds. we continue to transfer any surplus revenue to the general fund. All other fees are tending toward a fairly straight line we're not anticipating significant increases. We will be bringing forward the master fee schedule update However, we are not anticipating or planning on any significant revenue increase, but more of a kind of a reset to make sure that we're in line with the market. |
| 01:48:00.65 | Melanie Purcell | I wanted to do the breakout here. Property taxes, again, are our strongest. Sales tax are relatively flat. TOT, you'll actually see a slight decline. And the half-cent sales tax for Measure O, dedicated to capital, is, again, remaining fairly flat. |
| 01:48:18.68 | Melanie Purcell | General fund expenditures, the police department, as expected, is the largest. Non-departmental includes transfers to other funds and also our fire pension obligation. the majority of that being transfers out. And most of the departments are staying fairly as expected. No significant changes are proposed in operations or in services. We are continuing, however, the proposed, implemented projects from initiatives from last year, which included the two part-time Positions in the police department, the additional parking enforcement officer, and contract services in community development and public works. |
| 01:49:04.27 | Melanie Purcell | This is the distribution, again, you see quite a large distribution for salaries and benefits and personnel. It's pretty typical, it's about 73%. This is net of transfers, include that specifically so that the number is more comparable with what I would see in other agencies. Typically when I teach budgeting, we talk about personnel budgeting being the most important aspect because it typically ranges 70 to 90% of operations. So Sausalito has actually made a strong commitment to maintaining a balance with professional services. You can see the difference here just when you bring back in the transfers. General fund, ending fund balance, this is an area that we get quite a bit of conversation because fund balance frequently can include assets and non-spendable items. So here I've broken out, you have your ending fund balance per the audit of $8,194,000, and you have less unspendable. Those are things that you cannot cash out, including the repayments receivable from MLK. The liquid fund balance is just under $5.4 million. Then by policy, the city has established a 5% budget stabilization. reserve, a 10% shortfall reserve, and then what's called the Disaster Assistance Fund that has set aside, I believe, in the late 90s. And that is subject to the council declaring a disaster in order to access those funds or They recognize that. And that grows on its own. No contributions have been made to it recently. but it does grow with interest. Net of the policy that leaves us about $2 million. At this point we are not recommending. Any additional use of fund balance? I think that at this point, what we are recommending is that as part of the strategic planning conversation in the fall, and building up for the next biennial we would want to have some pretty detailed conversations about how we approach a number of issues and revisit all of the policies associated with fund balance. |
| 01:51:13.23 | Melanie Purcell | Okay, the capital improvement program, highlighted in a couple of places are I'm just going over changes specifically to this. At this point, we're not recommending any changes in the ADA traffic and transportation or in the general plan update. You do have a contract for the total amount of the general plan update that will carry us through FY20. IN, the Civic Center landscape the changes are proposed we are proposing to revisit the city hall waterproofing and painting. Internally, we were having some conversations about how best to utilize those funds. I have put a placeholder out in the future, simply in recognition that we will need to have a conversation in the fall, particularly in prioritizing infrastructure repairs to this building, particularly the roof. ADA buildings and waterfront, because we do not have a proposed project related to that, this is one of those places where I've reduced the transfer from the Tide Lens Fund and reduced the corresponding expense. no changes in the wave attenuator MLK. License plate readers are up and running and rumor has it quite successfully. IT strategic plan is We have implemented phase one, we have contracted for phase two, that will be implemented this summer. We will be coming back to council hopefully in July to give you an update and begin discussions of phase three. Also to be included in prioritization and conversation as part of the strategic planning. The document management update I mentioned earlier has been, we don't need the rest of that. And the financial system was also reduced. No changes proposed in the rest of the IT projects. Excuse me. There is no actual change in the budgeted dollars for Southview Park, but I wanted to acknowledge that there was, when we established this last year and published it, we took the 10% model. as a way to kind of start outlining the timing And what can be used. as a differentiation of the design and construction. So I've made note of the changes that are anticipated as well as the changes that have been adopted in Dunphy Park, and then just kind of took off at the other end what happens, because it must remain balanced in this. scenario. So the bottom line for both Dunphy and Southview has not changed in any way. It's $1.15 million for Southview and $1.855 million. 333 for Dunphy. No changes at the storm water and storm drain projects. No changes in the right-of-way projects or in the sidewalks, plans, and boardwalks. And there are small reductions in the street repair and roadway repair at this point. $20,000 in roadway base repair and $100,000 in street repair. Again, a reduction in the transfer from sewer and tidelands because the proposed streets are not related to work that's been done or is eligible for those funds. No other changes are proposed there. And South City Limits was put on last year as part of the CIP document, so I've carried it forward just noting that this is a project that's wholly subjected to grants availability. So it's in the outlying years pending further conversation. Thank you. The sewer bond projects are, as outlined, this was updated most recently in January. Whatever remains at the end of this year will carry forward and reassess and bring back to council as well Just to give it a new distribution as we're able to move between projects. I mentioned earlier that we had a couple of supplemental, we had quite a few supplemental capital items. I had asked all of the departments to think five years out, and they did. So of those, we brought forward two that we know will be relatively urgent. and are able to secure funding for the replacement of the HVAC system serving the IT room within operating dollars. So we're actually starting that in the current fiscal year, hopefully before any more heat waves. And then we will be applying to FEMA. We're in the FEMA evaluation process right now for grant funding, and that will come back to council if and when there's an award. Just to note, you can see a lot of volatility in capital projects as we conduct them and go over them, but you see the massive spike in 2016-17. That really is indicative of the sewer bond and of the certificates of participation. Between the two of them, that's $13 million. So I just wanted to make sure you can see the public safety building in there and some other activity that's really indicative of the investment that Sausalito has been putting into its infrastructure. As I noted earlier, we have a number of projects that we'll probably be carrying forward. I don't reflect them in the proposed budget dollars at this moment. However, I am proposing a resolved clause within the resolution adopting the budget that allows us to carry forward those projects that are in progress. It's a... matter of estimates I can give you an estimate today is where we're at and that number will change between now and June 30th and I can come back to you I would prefer to simply come back to you at the beginning of July and let you know it's the exact balances but we anticipate as expected Southview Park Dunphy Park MLK the general plan gate 6 safe pathways streets sewer and gate 5 will all be in process because they're currently in process now and we have no expectation that those projects will be closed in the next three weeks But just so it's an awareness that these are multi-year projects. We budget in the first year, and then we re-appropriate each year per state law. The next steps for the budget process is for you to let me know what you think and that to any questions that you might have or additional information or if there's other direction that the council would like to see incorporated The Finance Committee is scheduled for a review this Friday at 10.30. City Council is asked to adopt a budget by June 20th at the June 20th meeting, and then we get to celebrate our new fiscal year on July 1st, and we start strategic planning when you come back from break in September. Thank you. |
| 01:57:52.36 | Unknown | I want to take a word. |
| 01:57:56.92 | Mayor Withie | OK, thank you. Questions for Melanie. |
| 01:58:05.44 | Joan Cox | I'm sorry, but I have six questions. Great. Go for it. Okay. Where in this overview does it reflect fire? Because we make a certain, we pay a certain piece of our pie every year to Southern Marin Fire. And I saw police, but I couldn't figure out where |
| 01:58:08.34 | Mayor Withie | Go for it. |
| 01:58:23.41 | Melanie Purcell | Thank you. Thank you. |
| 01:58:23.68 | Joan Cox | FIVE. |
| 01:58:24.03 | Melanie Purcell | FIRE is actually incorporated under non-departmental We make a contribution to CalPERS per the agreement that is for unfunded liability, and we make a $58,000 contribution toward retiree medical. Each year, so it's about $400,000. I can get you an exact one. |
| 01:58:44.94 | Joan Cox | I know. So $400,000 is for both the pension and the operating |
| 01:58:50.98 | Melanie Purcell | Thank you. We do not make any direct contribution for operations. |
| 01:58:58.48 | Melanie Purcell | of the |
| 01:58:58.65 | Joan Cox | Okay. So, What is it that we, I'm sorry, but what is it that we, because we consolidated with them and we said, in exchange for our consolidation, we're going to pay you a piece of our pie every year. |
| 01:59:11.03 | Melanie Purcell | same thing. |
| 01:59:11.45 | Joan Cox | Thank you. |
| 01:59:11.49 | Melanie Purcell | There is a tax contribution, and I can get you the exact distribution on that. I don't have it at my fingertips. Okay, so I'm interested. But it is actually paid directly to them from the county. So it does not pass through our books. |
| 01:59:17.44 | Joan Cox | But it is actually... |
| 01:59:21.90 | Joan Cox | you |
| 01:59:22.57 | Melanie Purcell | Thank you. |
| 01:59:22.62 | Joan Cox | Okay, so I'm interested to know what we're paying to Southern Marine Fire each year by category. |
| 01:59:22.79 | Melanie Purcell | Okay. |
| 01:59:29.34 | Susan Shea | Okay. |
| 01:59:29.76 | Joan Cox | Okay. Pension, I know that we established a pension trust account Where is that reflected? |
| 01:59:38.03 | Melanie Purcell | Thank you. Excuse me. It's actually not an adopted budget fund. It is a trust fund. The, and I'll be honest, part of |
| 01:59:44.48 | Kayla Kahn | Thank you. |
| 01:59:51.56 | Melanie Purcell | more information than you probably want to know. There is actually a dispute at GASB in that they do not allow us to have it as a completely separate trust fund, but instead as a sub-trust fund of the general fund in order to count those assets against our liabilities. So it's actually rolled into the fund balance of the general fund. but separate. We currently have a balance of about $1.3 million And it does not show up in here because it is not a budgeted amount. I can get you a... |
| 02:00:14.36 | Joan Cox | And it does not work. |
| 02:00:18.33 | Melanie Purcell | full distribution now. |
| 02:00:20.74 | Joan Cox | Well, if we're counting that as part of our general fund, shouldn't we reflect that as part of our general fund? No, because there's not actually |
| 02:00:26.77 | Melanie Purcell | because there's not actually a transfer. If we were making a transfer, yes, it would show up as an expense. Right now it is simply housed as a savings account. Yeah, that doesn't make sense. I understand. |
| 02:00:37.15 | Joan Cox | I'm not an accountant, so it's really challenging for me. But I think it's important for us to track that we're holding this. And if the auditor has us listed as a subfund within our general fund, I think we should... reflect that in what we report, because that's a huge part of our |
| 02:01:00.04 | Melanie Purcell | or liability. Yes, and we did actually create funds specifically. In the budget, I didn't report them because we don't actually have any activity. Okay. But I can get you a full display of what they look like and the history of their behaviors because I can show you the transfers of interest that we put into it. |
| 02:01:17.14 | Joan Cox | You are speaking. |
| 02:01:18.62 | Martina Quinn | Thank you. |
| 02:01:18.66 | Joan Cox | Thank you. |
| 02:01:18.71 | Martina Quinn | I agree. |
| 02:01:19.03 | Joan Cox | differential equations to a five-year-old. |
| 02:01:19.10 | Melanie Purcell | I'm sorry. |
| 02:01:23.89 | Joan Cox | But I will get there. What about our... |
| 02:01:27.03 | Melanie Purcell | pension liabilities. Okay, pension liabilities are actually reflected across the entire beast. Under that benefits amount, that includes medical, and pension. as well as work comp and FICA for part-timers and Medicare, all those things. So all of the legally mandated as well as pension and health care. in non-departmental. we house the Unfunded liability related to fire. We are non-departmental. Okay, it is not in here because that's under the transfers, so let me show it. I did see it on one of your slides. It was, and I'm just going to go find it. |
| 02:02:00.79 | Joan Cox | We're at last. |
| 02:02:07.65 | Joan Cox | I did see it. |
| 02:02:11.63 | Joan Cox | Thank you. |
| 02:02:12.20 | Melanie Purcell | it's in here. um, |
| 02:02:14.97 | Joan Cox | you |
| 02:02:15.04 | Melanie Purcell | It's definitely on there. I saw it tonight, too. There it is. It's actually in here. That's transfers in. I apologize. |
| 02:02:23.80 | Joan Cox | Thank you. |
| 02:02:23.81 | Melanie Purcell | . |
| 02:02:23.96 | Joan Cox | Thank you. |
| 02:02:24.17 | Melanie Purcell | You just skipped, it's on that slide. Non-departmental. Yeah. So you see non-departmental, that includes transfers out, payments to other agencies, things like that. I can actually show you the distribution, and I'm a little reluctant because it is one very ugly spreadsheet. |
| 02:02:25.58 | Joan Cox | NONDEPARTMENTAL. |
| 02:02:37.65 | Melanie Purcell | And I would prefer to sit down and walk you through the spreadsheet or to provide you cleaner version. I did show the finance committee what my spreadsheet looks like. And I have total confidence in it, but it is, differential equations. And I don't mean that disrespectfully in any way, The distribute, what we did do last year, and this was part of a really detailed conversation with the council and the finance committee, is we took the unfunded liability out of non-departmental, where it had been historically. and we put it into the departments as a separate line item. What CalPERS did recently was they said, look, we're not going to roll it in as a percentage of payroll anymore. We're going to charge you a dollar amount, because it is a fixed cost, and it doesn't vary It's already been, it's basically a benefit you already owe. It's a cost that's already spent. . |
| 02:03:26.98 | Joan Cox | What's the... |
| 02:03:27.02 | Melanie Purcell | It varies when they lower the percentage rate though. Absolutely. |
| 02:03:29.30 | Joan Cox | Thank you. |
| 02:03:29.32 | Unknown | Absolutely. |
| 02:03:31.11 | Melanie Purcell | It changes when they change it. Right. It doesn't change it based on any behavior that we do. But we are being sick. |
| 02:03:36.09 | Joe Burns | Thank you. |
| 02:03:36.10 | Joan Cox | Thank you. |
| 02:03:36.15 | Joe Burns | Thank you. |
| 02:03:36.27 | Joan Cox | Yeah. |
| 02:03:36.49 | Joe Burns | Thank you. |
| 02:03:37.40 | Melanie Purcell | Go ahead, Jennifer. |
| 02:03:37.98 | Joan Cox | We distribute it. |
| 02:03:38.15 | Joe Burns | Thank you. |
| 02:03:38.18 | Melanie Purcell | But we need to have a secret. |
| 02:03:38.97 | Joe Burns | change. |
| 02:03:39.77 | Joan Cox | Yeah, so can you flip back a couple slides to the pie chart that shows the benefits? |
| 02:03:39.82 | Joe Burns | Thank you. |
| 02:03:39.85 | Melanie Purcell | Thank you. |
| 02:03:39.97 | Joe Burns | Yeah. |
| 02:03:40.68 | Melanie Purcell | you |
| 02:03:48.07 | Joan Cox | Thank you. |
| 02:03:48.09 | Joe Burns | Thank you. |
| 02:03:48.10 | Joan Cox | Would it be possible as a piece of that pie to show the pension liability portion that's included in benefits? |
| 02:03:48.17 | Joe Burns | Yeah. Thank you. Would it be possible |
| 02:03:49.67 | Tammy Blanchard | Bye. |
| 02:03:56.35 | Melanie Purcell | I can get that for you. |
| 02:03:57.06 | Joan Cox | And then we can see progressively how that compares. |
| 02:04:04.82 | Jill Hoffman | So I think what Council member sorry, but the vice mayor saying is that can you include that in the pie chart? Yes, instead of giving that as a separate piece of information to include those pension liabilities wherever they lie in the pie charts because then it makes it easier for us to see. |
| 02:04:22.17 | Melanie Purcell | for us to see. I can do that. And actually, these are taken directly from OpenGov, and you can drill down into OpenGov, and it will show you by department as you drill into each department, or if you distributed by Expense type, you can actually filter and just show that, and you can see some time. But I will give you one that's much easier to read. Thank you. |
| 02:04:42.31 | Joan Cox | Well, and also, this PowerPoint is distributed to our general public. And there are seminars constantly about pension liability. So I think it's important that we're particularly transparent about that particular issue, if that's possible. Can you turn to the slide where we list the Tide Land funds as a source of revenue? And you have a footnote on that slide. And this one? |
| 02:04:57.49 | Kayla Kahn | . Yeah. |
| 02:05:06.35 | Joan Cox | Thank you. |
| 02:05:06.44 | Unknown | Thank you. |
| 02:05:06.67 | Joan Cox | Thank you. No. Or? That's it. Oh, wait. Go back. |
| 02:05:09.95 | Unknown | THE FAMILY. Yes, sir. |
| 02:05:11.72 | Joan Cox | Um... Maybe the next one. There you go. You have a footnote that said, no. Where's the double asterisk footnote? So there's a double asterisk. |
| 02:05:22.43 | Melanie Purcell | Thank you. |
| 02:05:22.45 | Unknown | So there's a double asterisk. |
| 02:05:26.08 | Joan Cox | There, let's see. That is referring to the MLK fund. No, I'm referring to the Tidelands Fund. And see where there are two asterisks after Tidelands Fund? It should be three asterisks, you're correct. And then it should be three. |
| 02:05:39.06 | Melanie Purcell | It should be three. It is directly. |
| 02:05:39.73 | Joan Cox | As directly. Thank you. |
| 02:05:40.37 | Melanie Purcell | referring to the one at the bottom. |
| 02:05:41.22 | Joan Cox | So this is what I did not understand. You have a number there, and then you say, includes $4.3 million in unearned revenue, recorded as a liability. That just goes right over my head. |
| 02:05:57.72 | Melanie Purcell | I'm going to let Adam explain the history of this particular project. |
| 02:06:00.89 | Joan Cox | And he has actually spoken to me about this before, so I'm sorry to make you go through this again. |
| 02:06:06.44 | Melanie Purcell | I can explain the accounting, but the history is, I think, important to get at context. |
| 02:06:10.27 | Adam Politzer | Well, Thank you. The The brief history of this is that we had a $6 million bulkhead project that holds up the retaining wall between the Spinnaker and the Yacht Harbor. And we renegotiated the leases with the Yacht Harbor to basically pay for our share in the future. Thank you. |
| 02:06:35.69 | Unknown | . |
| 02:06:35.84 | Adam Politzer | they're getting a rent credit. Um, for the money that they put up front to actually pay for the construction of the bulkhead. So we're getting our money in the future for money that they spent today. and that was brought to the city council. I think it was a 401 vote with Councilmember Leon voting against it. |
| 02:07:00.49 | Joan Cox | So why is that then not listed as bulkhead project instead of tied lands, unearned revenue. |
| 02:07:09.99 | Adam Politzer | Well, the Tide Lens is the account that all of the properties along the waterfront that pay rent to the city pay into the Tide Lens Fund. Tide Lens Fund is restricted to only uses to waterfront activity. So the footnote should probably indicate that this is the bulkhead project so that it's clear what this revenue is associated to, assuming that all that revenue is associated to just that one project. |
| 02:07:37.67 | Joan Cox | Correct. Thank you. I'm Thank you. I think, okay, next is the parks. So you have two parks, Southview and Dunphy, in which you show that, you show an amendment to the design line item there. So... Initially, we budgeted 10% of construction for design. Sorry, go ahead. I couldn't hear, okay. and now we have spent more on design than initially anticipated. Is there some level of certainty that the construction cost will come in on budget, even though we're spending $150,000 more on design for Southview Park than anticipated. |
| 02:08:38.82 | Melanie Purcell | At this point, I can't speak to what level of confidences. What we have asked RHA, for example, to come in and speak to council about what those design activities include. we use the 10% as a generic guideline when we set up, And it is the standard in the industry. |
| 02:08:58.81 | Joan Cox | Thank you. |
| 02:08:59.19 | Melanie Purcell | Yes, and it heavily depends on the project. At MLK, I've been able to enforce that much more strictly, comprehensive facilities, condition assessment, and we actually own the building, so we have more of the plans and drawings. other areas that hasn't been the case. In this instance, we set up the thumbnail so that we could really speak to, in this document, the timing of the project. The budget itself is one number, one line item. And I believe it's next meeting that we've invited RHA to come speak about the design complexities. |
| 02:09:39.47 | Adam Politzer | Yeah, Mellon, let me just add in, because we had some discussion about this at the last council meeting when we brought forward the request to move to the next phase of the design process of Dunphy Park, which the council... approved. with the understanding that we'd come back and continue this dialogue. And so what we thought that, you know, the conversation that we've had at the Finance Committee and then the meeting that we had with staff, with the Public Works Director and with Melanie, we thought that it was actually important to bring our HANA to come and actually talk about the complexity of the project and why the design fees are significantly more than the 10% model that most cities use. In terms of are we confident that we're going to hit the mark of 1.8, you know, what we have received from RHNA as an initial scope, looking again at a project that was already designed conceptually by the Friends of Dunphy Park before we ever went out for the COP, was a range of 1.7 to 2.4. And again, that was looking at the complexity of the project. What you heard from Jacques Goldman is that they believe that there are grants available to help offset that cost regarding the wetlands, regarding other environmental opportunities there for donations and grants, and then working with the Audubon Society in terms of what we do with the other side of the wetlands on the other side of the peninsula. We're working, Mike Langford, Parks and Recreation, working with Cal Recycle because we have a dump that sits underneath that property and that also needs to be taken into consideration and there may be funds and grants available to offset some of those costs. So I think what Jonathan Goldman, our public works director, said at the last meeting was that The design services help us get the complexity of the project identified, all the engineering, all the environmental review. We go out to bid and then we award the contract to the lowest responsible bidder with the understanding that we would then go into value and engineering. And either we bring it down to $1.8 million or we have offsetting grants and funds that are available. that will offset that cost if in fact it is up to $2.4 million, or a combination of using city funds to offset some of those costs depending on the nature of the project. We have money in the budget for ADA. We have money in the budget for storm drains. We have money in the budget for parking lot improvements. Obviously, we have a relationship with Gali, the Cruising Club, and Cass Gidley that are all partners in the project, especially on the north end of the project. So until we actually go out to bid, know what the cost is, and then work with the contractor as we did here at Southview, not Southview, with... Robin Sweeney Park to see where we can reduce the costs. That's that's our answer. And that's what we want our chain income and talk specifically about the design costs at our next meeting. |
| 02:12:57.67 | Joan Cox | Thank you, Mr. City Manager. You actually addressed Dunphy Park, and I was on Southview Park. But I'm going to switch to Dunphy Park, because Southview Park, we've more than doubled our design budget. And we only increased our design budget for Dunphy Park by $80,000. Um... With respect to both Dunphy and Southview, and Joe, I'm going to yield in a minute. Have we included in our contract with the designer that they must design to our budget or perform value engineering services at no charge to the city? Or are we giving them an incentive to design however they like, and then we're going to pay them more money to value engineer if they don't meet our budget? |
| 02:13:43.77 | Adam Politzer | That was not part of the RFP, nor was that part of the approved contract. But from our past practice with other projects in town, that has been the project manager's role, staff's role, and how we've tried to manage all the other projects, including the very successful completion of the public safety building, where we brought that in, $2 million under budget. So it's still our anticipation and our commitment. you know, our effort on working with the architects, the contractors and staff to make sure that we are not giving an incentive to the architect to continue to change the design and charging us for that work. |
| 02:14:29.23 | Joan Cox | Yeah. Joe, I'm going to yield to you, but then I have another question. |
| 02:14:33.98 | Joe Burns | We have another question. Mine's pretty quick. It's regarding the Dunphy Park design and the $23,000. Does that mean that's different than what we approved last week or last meeting? Have we had a change in RHA's bid to us since that last meeting? |
| 02:14:34.62 | Joan Cox | Thank you. |
| 02:14:52.17 | Joe Burns | WE APPROVED 283 AT THE LAST MEETING, AND I THOUGHT IF ALL THE NUMBERS ON HERE, THAT WOULD BE THE ONE THAT'S ON THERE UNLESS THERE'S BEEN A CHANGE. |
| 02:15:00.49 | Melanie Purcell | I'll go back and verify it. |
| 02:15:01.40 | Joe Burns | I mean, it's not a big deal, but that's kind of where we're just... |
| 02:15:03.19 | Melanie Purcell | It still remains within the 1.8. Exactly. |
| 02:15:05.62 | Joe Burns | Exactly. Exactly. But my question was more, have we already started engineering? I think that's the wrong number. |
| 02:15:07.29 | Melanie Purcell | I was... |
| 02:15:11.40 | Adam Politzer | Thank you. |
| 02:15:11.84 | Melanie Purcell | doing. |
| 02:15:12.03 | Adam Politzer | The President. |
| 02:15:14.73 | Melanie Purcell | I'll double check the number. The offset then will be that the construction number will go down 20,000 or so. |
| 02:15:19.89 | Joe Burns | Right. I was just wondering if we'd already started a discussion with RHA. RHA. |
| 02:15:25.18 | Joan Cox | RGC. On a subsequent slide, and you don't need to flip to it, it says that one of the carryover projects is Dunphy Park, including storm drains. Does this budget here, I didn't want you to flip. Does this budget here include that storm drain work that you referenced in your later slide about being part of the Dunphy Park carryover work? |
| 02:15:52.75 | Melanie Purcell | No, it does not. The storm drain is above and beyond. That was set aside some time ago from Tide Lens funds because it would be impacting directly on the waterfront. So that is an additional source of funds. So is that a separate source? |
| 02:16:04.97 | Joan Cox | and use that's already fully funded? |
| 02:16:07.35 | Melanie Purcell | you |
| 02:16:07.51 | Joan Cox | It's fully funded. |
| 02:16:08.04 | Melanie Purcell | Yes. And it's designed to be in concert with part of the project. But again, we track Tidelands eligibility and Tidelands funding closely. |
| 02:16:22.31 | Joan Cox | Are these issues about design and construction costs going to be assigned? Is our COP committee that we're going to refill tonight, are they going to be looking at these issues going forward? |
| 02:16:35.68 | Melanie Purcell | Yes, they review all invoices. They also receive all the contracts. I am just waiting a couple more emails so that I can get their next meeting confirmed in the next two weeks. |
| 02:16:36.07 | Joan Cox | Okay. |
| 02:16:46.70 | Joan Cox | you |
| 02:16:46.88 | Melanie Purcell | you |
| 02:16:46.97 | Joan Cox | Okay, I have two more questions. In our future design and construction contracts, can we please include in the RFP a requirement to have the architect stay within a budget and have the architect design to keep the construction within a budget? Can we please include that in our future RFPs, which is a very common... Um, Um... that is a very common practice in other municipalities. |
| 02:17:17.06 | Adam Politzer | I think it would be helpful because that hasn't been our practice, but I respect your opinion and your experiences to have a discussion at the council about the pros and cons of that. And, and there may be someone, you know, like a, planning commissioner that was considered appointment. There may be other members of the community that can tell us the pros and cons of doing that from the architectural viewpoint and or the contractors, but I want to make sure that we have a discussion. And ultimately, that is a policy discussion or decision by the council. So you don't have to ask us. You can direct us. |
| 02:17:53.84 | Joan Cox | Okay, I will speak with my colleague about adding that as a future agenda item. Okay, my last question is, minor question. If you flip through, you refer to South City as you have two, it's a two line there. Is that the South Gateway Project? Okay, can we be consistent? I mean that's just a nit, but we have presented that to the council previously as the South Gateway Project. Again, just so the public is familiar with what it is we're referring to, I learned in the last couple of weeks that more and more members of the public are watching these meetings. So I just want to be consistent in our nomenclature. Thank you. |
| 02:18:38.83 | Jill Hoffman | Thank you. I have a comment actually about, and a question I guess about the COP committee because I'm not on it. And I believe to your question, Joan, I believe the purpose of the COP committee is to review expenditures after the fact and reconcile them to make sure they're within the scope of the certificates of the language of the certificates of participation. Now that's after the budget has already been set, things are already spent. So when you're talking about a change in design that's $100,000 over... That train has left the station by the time it gets to the COP committee. If you're looking at it, and this would be, I think, a fundamental policy change or addition to the COP committee if we then said, we also want you to monitor going forward you know, proposed expenditures or significant changes in shifting. Can we go back to the parks? So do you see how the money's shifting forward significantly? Which means that instead of $500,000 in fiscal year 18-19 on actual construction, that's moved forward to just the design. And we had that same problem with Dunphy Park, which I think is a significant issue that we probably need to look at. So Adam, to your point about coming back to the City Council with regard to how we write our RFPs, we might want to add that in as well respectfully, the agenda setting committee, we might want to add that discussion as well. |
| 02:20:20.35 | Joan Cox | Thank you. |
| 02:20:20.83 | Jill Hoffman | Thank you. |
| 02:20:24.91 | Mayor Withie | Any other questions? |
| 02:20:27.31 | Joe Burns | One just came up then on the COP. Is the design elements of the tideland area then where the island is and that side of the park then taken out of the Tidelands Fund for that portion of planting and scope of that design? |
| 02:20:45.21 | Melanie Purcell | It may be eligible for tithe response. |
| 02:20:46.44 | Joe Burns | So that's what the Oversight Committee would review |
| 02:20:49.19 | Melanie Purcell | That's actually a significant part of what they would review is whether this is truly eligible for COP or whether they might recommend that in fact consideration. Their job isn't to evaluate its eligibility for tidal ends. |
| 02:20:56.67 | Joe Burns | Right. |
| 02:20:57.29 | Unknown | Thank you. |
| 02:20:57.43 | Joe Burns | Thank you. |
| 02:21:02.05 | Melanie Purcell | But We certainly have embraced the full disclosure, full conversation, saying is this something that should be considered for other funding rather than use the COP funds for that? |
| 02:21:12.28 | Joe Burns | Okay. um, It looked like there was three pie graphs on the expenditures of the general fund that showed the benefits and salaries. And I heard you say the differences and I wasn't sure what they were |
| 02:21:28.78 | Melanie Purcell | This one in particular is general fund only, but it also includes transfers. So that is the transfers out to capital and to other funds. In this case, the general fund does not include the transfers. And the reason I put both slides in was to show the distinction of how much is spent relative. So for example, if I want to do more traditional comparison with other communities, you know, I eyeball to see whether or not we're in line. Is, you know, our personnel on the high end or on the low end of the spectrum of what I would expect for an operating budget? And I do that by excluding transfers. I also look at it, though. with transfers just to keep some perspective on that because we do a significant amount of movement between our funds. The reason that I just, I think it's important to note is because I don't want to understate or exaggerate where we are in the budget. So it's more of a semantics, but again, it's a budget geeks. |
| 02:22:33.24 | Joe Burns | Okay. |
| 02:22:33.65 | Melanie Purcell | viewpoint. |
| 02:22:34.83 | Joe Burns | As far as graphs go, I do appreciate this one better. I think my learning style doesn't quite comprehend the bar graphs, and especially on the one that discussed taxes and the breakdown between property and sales tax. Do you have that in a slide? I imagine not. Do you have that in the number format, what the decrease in sales tax? |
| 02:22:41.16 | Melanie Purcell | Okay. |
| 02:22:41.39 | Kayla Kahn | THE END OF THE END OF THE |
| 02:22:56.97 | Melanie Purcell | Yes, I can get you a chart to that effect, and I can also show it to you with a lot fewer lines. |
| 02:23:02.13 | Joe Burns | Okay. |
| 02:23:02.77 | Melanie Purcell | Mm-hmm. This is also, again, taken from the OpenGov site, directly lifted. Yeah, yeah, right. |
| 02:23:07.16 | Joe Burns | directly lifted. So it's a great click on, but looking at it up here, it means... |
| 02:23:10.94 | Melanie Purcell | right. It's easier to click through it, but I wanted there to be a tangible document that, |
| 02:23:11.19 | Joe Burns | It's easier to click through. |
| 02:23:17.24 | Melanie Purcell | citizens and council could download. |
| 02:23:18.50 | Joe Burns | Yeah. |
| 02:23:20.21 | Melanie Purcell | But I will get you a chart. as well as an |
| 02:23:24.97 | Joe Burns | Or I can click through it. Click through it as well, please. |
| 02:23:25.98 | Melanie Purcell | I'll see you on the line. Click through it as well, please. |
| 02:23:32.32 | Joe Burns | if I had any questions. |
| 02:23:35.85 | Mayor Withie | Any other questions? Okay, public comment. Does anybody, any member of the public like to weigh in on the budget? |
| 02:23:42.73 | Unknown | Thank you. |
| 02:23:49.84 | Mayor Withie | Seeing none, I'll bring it back up here. Melanie, before I'm sure some of my colleagues may have some comments here. One of the struggles that I know some folks are having up here, not unreasonably, is that we, in a sense, have to present this as the accountants. And so let's take the Tidelines Fund as an example, or let's take the MLK, |
| 02:24:21.60 | Kayla Kahn | as an example. |
| 02:24:25.41 | Mayor Withie | There's sort of like two issues where we've got an accounting complexity that then leads to a little bit of confusion as to what the fund balance actually really is. Could you next time, you know, you can't mess with this because this is the formal chart, but can you have a sort of separate schedule so that you can explain as much as possible what's cash and what's accounting and how, especially the unearned revenue? That's a tough one for people to get. If you could just sort of schedule it out so that you can explain it a bit more fully, I think it would be very helpful. As the vice mayor said, there are people watching, and they could benefit from a little bit more of a detailed explanation. The danger is they're going to run away thinking we're $1.3 million in debt or something, which is not what we are. So I think that would be helpful. Any other comments? Nope. Okay. Thank you. Then thank you. |
| 02:25:28.57 | Joan Cox | Okay. |
| 02:25:28.83 | Unknown | Thank you. |
| 02:25:29.28 | Joan Cox | you |
| 02:25:29.89 | Melanie Purcell | Thank you. My pleasure. I would ask that if you have any questions or additional information other than what you have requested this evening that you let me know. And I would be happy to make sure that you get that in advance of the next meeting. |
| 02:25:31.21 | Mayor Withie | Yeah. |
| 02:25:42.12 | Melanie Purcell | Yeah. |
| 02:25:42.51 | Joan Cox | Yeah, and Melanie, I want to also acknowledge, I know that I, not as much as I should, but also other residents have asked to sit down with you and you've made yourself very much available and, you are really facile with the open government system that makes this not quite as challenging to understand for us newbies. So many thanks to you for your efforts for the residents. |
| 02:26:11.27 | Mayor Withie | Thank you, Melanie. Okay. Item number seven is a combination of city manager and council member reports and appointments. Is there any member of the public who'd like to comment on any of these items that are here? |
| 02:26:38.52 | Mayor Withie | Looks like no. Okay, good. So city manager report. |
| 02:26:48.48 | Adam Politzer | I don't think there's much for me to add. I think the budget discussions, obviously the general plan and the appointment or the special election for the open council seat has taken up a lot of our time and we've reported and had those in these open meetings either here or at the general plan advisory committee meetings or at the... finance committee meetings but there is a concern on studio 333 that i think everyone has received the letter concerning potentially the uses there and expanded uses and i wanted to let the council know and the public know and we've contacted members of the litho street neighborhood and folks there on caledonia that we did do a site inspection with our building official building inspector the fire marshal and collected information danny kastner our community development director and chris tubbs our fire chief sat down late this afternoon to go through the evaluation the report and we assured the public if the change of use an application for change of use comes forward, which has not, it would go to the Planning Commission and they would be noticed and there would be a public meeting and people would be able to give their opinions. But the use of that facility for many, many years, even before Chris Holbrook, the owner of Studio 33, took it over, has been an eclectic use. And some of those uses fell into the category of the artist's space and having the reception. and broad definition reception is something that we're talking to the owner with now. And obviously, I believe based on the initial feedback is that there are lots of building code issues that have to be resolved and they will be and just like with Bridgeway Marina will work with the property owner and resolve it but I wanted the public to know that any application for change use there would come before the planning commission and they would be noticed That concludes my report. Happy to answer any questions from the council. Any questions for Adam? |
| 02:29:06.70 | Mayor Withie | Okay. Council member committee reports. Anybody got anything? Yeah. |
| 02:29:14.97 | Joe Burns | you |
| 02:29:15.14 | Mayor Withie | Thank you. show. |
| 02:29:16.12 | Joe Burns | ON MONDAY I ATTENDED THE ABAG MEETING, GENERAL ASSEMBLY MEETING, WHICH VOTED TO APPROVE THE BUDGET AND WORK PLAN FOR THE converging of staff of ABAG and MTC. So that was the first step. And through that, the discussion is that in the next year, as the staffs combine, the staff will work on a plan of merging the governance. And that discussion will probably take place starting in July of 18 and be completed by July of 19. In broad numbers it basically reduces staff from 71 to 60 and There will be a lot of combined services. They try to assure us that when planning, land use planners come out, they'll have the added breadth of a traffic consultant with them. Oh joy. A lot of discussion on keeping a local. So that resonated loud through the cities at that meeting. On the school district, I have a slight update of just some occurrences that happened this week. And first I want to acknowledge that I, in a comment that came up about us, our purview into the city, I mean the school district, it's a district within our city like a fire district and a sewer district and a water district and any other district and if they're going to change route on us I think we have a very strong responsibility to be involved. If somebody said they're going to change our fire district I think we would opine. So when somebody's going to close a school I think we should opine. And that step took, that was a tough week where the members of the Willow Creek had identified, or parents and board members of Willow Creek had identified a potential $5.6 million state grant, and they simply wanted to put their hat in the ring for consideration without a binding contract. agreement through it but just to have a facility repairs for the Willow Creek campus. The board the district trustees declined and had a lot of feedback, and so then they did decide to meet on Monday to discuss, and during that process or prior to that process, were basically advised by their counsel that because the district, I mean the deputy attorney general had been told of this, that the attorney general stated that they should not apply and they followed through. So it continues to be the recusion of two board members that stymies us and Thank you. |
| 02:32:20.42 | Jill Hoffman | Joe, let me clarify that. |
| 02:32:21.05 | Joe Burns | Yeah, correct me. |
| 02:32:22.58 | Jill Hoffman | You mean they refuse to apply for a grant? |
| 02:32:25.37 | Joe Burns | They refused to apply for consideration of a grant. The binding portion of the grant could have taken place at a different time, but had they not got their application in by Monday evening, they were taken out of the running. I believe there were 15 schools that this money could have been applied to and 14 took it. or one school didn't simply because they didn't have something else unrelated, but yeah, it was pretty much a complete and blatant attempt. So, yeah. That's how I read the situation based on the feedback that I've been getting. |
| 02:33:03.88 | Jill Hoffman | And when you say complete and blatant attempt, you mean it's a refusal to apply for a grant |
| 02:33:06.86 | Joe Burns | It's a resort. |
| 02:33:10.51 | Jill Hoffman | of money. on behalf of Willow Creek Academy by the district. |
| 02:33:15.27 | Joe Burns | Yes. to improve the campus that sits in our city limit. Regardless of who's, what kids go there or anything else, the campus is in our city limits, and we had an opportunity to receive state funds to improve that campus, and they chose not to. And maybe there is a legal, you know, if the Attorney General says something, it might be something, I don't even know how that all came about that they even found out, but, I can guess. |
| 02:33:46.91 | Joe Burns | That's all I have. |
| 02:33:51.06 | Unknown | Bye. |
| 02:33:51.08 | Joe Burns | But... |
| 02:33:51.25 | Unknown | Thank you. |
| 02:33:51.33 | Unknown | Thank you. |
| 02:33:51.36 | Unknown | I can't remember what. Thank you. |
| 02:33:52.43 | Joe Burns | Thank you. |
| 02:33:52.55 | Unknown | I don't know. |
| 02:33:53.17 | Joan Cox | I do, sort of committee, this came up during our agenda setting committee. I want to acknowledge and thank staff for sending an updated response to the updated Bay Area 2040 report. So a revised report came out. There was very small turnaround time. and staff. The council had previous authorized response based on the prior numbers and staff the council had previous authorized response based on the prior numbers and staff in the last week sent out an updated response based on the updated numbers continuing Sausalito's objections to some of the inaccurate projections so my thanks to staff for getting that done. |
| 02:34:36.29 | Mayor Withie | I concur with that. I was very responsive. Very quickly, something that we learned at TAM, even though TAM is not directly related, they have a Caltrans report at the TAM meeting. And what I learned at the Caltrans report is that Caltrans is reactivating their project to put metering lights, ramp metering on all of the interchanges, including in Southern Marin, I pointed out that previously it was Sausalito City Council policy to object to ramp metering. A, on Marin City on ramp, you're going to get a backup. It's already difficult enough if the freeway's crowded to get out of town that way. Ramp metering is just going to cause even more problems. And secondly, if they're stupid enough, sorry for being direct, to put a ramp meter on the Roteo on ramp, right, which will just stand there as a white elephant, then it's probably going to be a poster for a complete and utter waste of government money. So I made my thoughts known to our TAM board, although I think staff I know are going to be investigating what Caltrans is actually up to. And. We should then, as a future agenda item, if we need to, come up with a formal objection to Caltrans. So, thought you should know that. |
| 02:36:18.83 | Unknown | Thank you. |
| 02:36:20.00 | Mayor Withie | Any other reports? No. Appointments to boards and commissions. We have one. Oh, sorry, Joe. Did you? So appointments to boards and commissions. Before we move on to the actual appointment we're going to make tonight, let me say in light of the fact that we did not appoint a council member tonight then um in some some point in the future we're going to have to rethink assignments for us because there are a few of herby's duties that need to be reassigned so i'll work on that and the specific appointment tonight is to our COP Oversight Committee. We interviewed two candidates. I think our, I don't know if anybody has any questions of staff. I think our protocol is that I will nominate a candidate. We'll see if there's any other nomination and then vote on it. I would like to nominate Keith Kennedy to the COP Oversight Committee. Is there any other nominations? This is for one appointment. Okay. |
| 02:37:36.88 | Joan Cox | I will second the nomination of Keith Kennedy. |
| 02:37:38.81 | Mayor Withie | OK, I'm going to sneeze. Sorry. All in favor of Keith? |
| 02:37:42.79 | Joan Cox | Bye. |
| 02:37:42.97 | Mayor Withie | Aye. |
| 02:37:46.26 | Joe Burns | you |
| 02:37:46.32 | Mayor Withie | . |
| 02:37:46.48 | Unknown | Thank you. |
| 02:37:46.70 | Mayor Withie | That motion carries 4-0. Congratulations, Keith. You're getting in deeper than you probably want. |
| 02:37:55.90 | Jill Hoffman | Can I just say, Mr. Mayor, but I would like to thank our other candidate, Payam Bahendria. to come in and it was a pleasure to meet him and thank him for for throwing his hat in the ring |
| 02:38:06.02 | Joan Cox | Yeah, and he did express interest in some other boards and commissions, so I will encourage us to consider him for those. |
| 02:38:13.82 | Mayor Withie | Well, I think with both the general plan, even the city council appointments, and then all of the various things, we now have a pool of very talented people that identified or could suddenly find themselves being asked to join various boards and commissions. |
| 02:38:26.39 | Kayla Kahn | We did that. I think it's a good thing. |
| 02:38:27.42 | Joe Burns | Thank you. |
| 02:38:33.99 | Joe Burns | But we need to sort |
| 02:38:34.54 | Mayor Withie | Thank you. |
| 02:38:34.59 | Joe Burns | So, |
| 02:38:34.73 | Mayor Withie | back. |
| 02:38:34.97 | Joe Burns | some we started the art |
| 02:38:36.33 | Mayor Withie | to the world. |
| 02:38:36.52 | Joe Burns | Thank you. |
| 02:38:36.62 | Mayor Withie | AND I WANT TO TAKE A LOOK AT |
| 02:38:36.89 | Joe Burns | Yeah. |
| 02:38:37.13 | Mayor Withie | We need to circle back. |
| 02:38:37.97 | Joe Burns | Thank you. |
| 02:38:38.04 | Mayor Withie | that guy. |
| 02:38:38.27 | Joe Burns | to be able to get the |
| 02:38:38.32 | Mayor Withie | We've got to finish that. That's our next priority. Yeah. Okay, future agenda items. Is there anything that we don't know about that some needs to alert us to? Heart condition. Yeah. |
| 02:38:50.73 | Jill Hoffman | to alert us to that. |
| 02:38:51.81 | Joe Burns | Thank you. |
| 02:38:51.86 | Jill Hoffman | Thank you. |
| 02:38:51.94 | Joe Burns | Thank you. |
| 02:38:53.61 | Jill Hoffman | Mr. Mayor, I'm not sure if it's on the lineup yet, but we have our historic our historic ordinance that we have been working on updating. I believe it's almost, Danny, of course, is left. I believe it's just about ready to come back. So, you know, if we could add that into the lineups, I think July is now full, but maybe September. timeframe? I think that would be helpful just so that we can finish that as we're going into the general plan and things like that? Because that's been kind of hanging around for a while. I think. |
| 02:39:32.29 | Mayor Withie | Yeah. Thank you. I agree. |
| 02:39:34.47 | Jill Hoffman | OK. |
| 02:39:36.16 | Mayor Withie | Any questions? I think we'll pick that up in agenda setting. I want to make sure that we collect all the stuff that's outstanding, get it done, and that's one of them. |
| 02:39:49.50 | Joan Cox | So the other two things I added for us to consider at agenda setting is the request of Lisa Bennett regarding the sanctuary. the support and the architectural construction |
| 02:39:56.49 | Rebecca Martin | Thank you. |
| 02:40:00.37 | Joan Cox | issue that we discussed earlier tonight. |
| 02:40:01.70 | Mayor Withie | TONIGHT. Thank you. Any other reports of significance? |
| 02:40:07.90 | Joan Cox | I did want to report, sorry, that three of us did attend the Festo do Santo, which has actually been celebrated here in Sausalito for five years longer than the city has been incorporated. So it was a pleasure to celebrate with our Portuguese sisters and brothers. And I just wanted to acknowledge and shout out to that organization. |
| 02:40:38.00 | Mayor Withie | Thank you. So with that, we're adjourned. Thank you very much. |
Kayla Kahn — Neutral: Expressed disbelief that Sausalito lacks an art commission, emphasized the town's artistic reputation, and suggested reinstating the commission to support local artists through events like pre-council meeting receptions. ▶ 📄