| Time | Speaker | Text |
|---|---|---|
| 00:00:20.59 | Mayor Withey | Thank you. Bye. you Lily? Yep. Good evening and welcome to the regular meeting of the Sausalito City Council for Tuesday, December 12th. Lily, would you call the roll please? |
| 00:00:37.91 | Unknown | Council member Burns here council member Hoffman |
| 00:00:38.71 | Mayor Withey | Here. |
| 00:00:42.23 | Unknown | Present. Vice Mayor Cox? Here. Mayor Withy. |
| 00:00:45.44 | Mayor Withey | here. OK. Flynn McDonald, why don't you lead us in the Pledge of Allegiance tonight? |
| 00:00:52.07 | Susan Cleveland Knowles | tonight. I would be delighted to. I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United |
| 00:00:59.97 | Joe Burns | state. |
| 00:01:00.68 | Susan Cleveland Knowles | I'm here. |
| 00:01:00.97 | Joe Burns | Thank you. Thank you. |
| 00:01:07.82 | Unknown | Thank you. you and justice for all. |
| 00:01:13.34 | Mayor Withey | Thank you. |
| 00:01:18.52 | Mayor Withey | We did meet in a special closed session this evening. We have to discuss a... some potential litigation matters. There is no announcements from that closed session discussion. Is there any public comment on our closed session items? seeing none um we will move on to approval of the agenda Thank you. |
| 00:01:54.53 | Joan Cox | So moved. It's like, |
| 00:01:57.09 | Mayor Withey | All in favor? Aye. Aye. That motion carries. |
| 00:01:58.14 | Susan Cleveland Knowles | THE END OF THE END OF THE |
| 00:01:58.21 | Joan Cox | Aye. |
| 00:02:01.89 | Mayor Withey | So we start off tonight with a very exciting special presentation or mayor's announcement. Don't know what it is, except for a very important swearing in of our newly elected city council member. So with that, I believe we hand over to our city clerk and assistant city manager, Lily Whelan. |
| 00:02:31.79 | Unknown | Thank you, Mr. Mayor, members of the council. I have the honor this evening of swearing in our new council member. So I'm going to ask Susan Cleveland Knowles to join me up here. |
| 00:02:42.17 | Susan Cleveland Knowles | Thank you. |
| 00:02:53.44 | Susan Cleveland Knowles | I can see. |
| 00:02:55.34 | Unknown | I'm gonna stand actually just right in the front. Okay. Maybe a little bit further back. There we go. So everyone can see. There we go. OK. Perfect. OK. We have three minutes. |
| 00:03:03.23 | Unknown | There we go. So everyone can see you. There we go. OK. Perfect. OK. We have three minutes. |
| 00:03:10.13 | Unknown | That's right. |
| 00:03:10.57 | Unknown | THE END OF THE END OF THE Thank you. I'm not. |
| 00:03:13.03 | Susan Cleveland Knowles | you Sassan? |
| 00:03:14.23 | Unknown | It's on. Yeah. So if you want to raise your right hand and repeat after me, I am, state your name. |
| 00:03:14.62 | Susan Cleveland Knowles | Thank you. Thank you. |
| 00:03:20.24 | Susan Cleveland Knowles | Hi, Susan Cleveland Knowles. |
| 00:03:22.06 | Unknown | Do solemnly affirm. |
| 00:03:23.41 | Susan Cleveland Knowles | Do solemnly affirm. |
| 00:03:24.79 | Unknown | that I will support and defend. |
| 00:03:26.34 | Susan Cleveland Knowles | that I will support and defend. |
| 00:03:27.91 | Unknown | the Constitution of the United States. |
| 00:03:29.60 | Susan Cleveland Knowles | The Constitution of the United States. |
| 00:03:31.68 | Unknown | and the Constitution of the State of California. |
| 00:03:33.82 | Susan Cleveland Knowles | And the constitution of the state of California. |
| 00:03:36.32 | Unknown | against all enemies. |
| 00:03:37.74 | Susan Cleveland Knowles | against all enemies. |
| 00:03:39.25 | Unknown | foreign and domestic. |
| 00:03:40.52 | Susan Cleveland Knowles | foreign and domestic. |
| 00:03:42.41 | Unknown | that I will bear true faith and allegiance. |
| 00:03:44.91 | Susan Cleveland Knowles | that I'll bear true faith and allegiance |
| 00:03:47.08 | Unknown | to the Constitution of the United States |
| 00:03:49.75 | Susan Cleveland Knowles | to the Constitution of the United States. |
| 00:03:51.62 | Unknown | and the Constitution of the State of California. |
| 00:03:53.87 | Susan Cleveland Knowles | and the Constitution of the State of California |
| 00:03:56.11 | Unknown | I agree with you. |
| 00:03:58.39 | Susan Cleveland Knowles | that I take this obligation freely |
| 00:04:00.33 | Unknown | without any mental reservation. |
| 00:04:02.27 | Susan Cleveland Knowles | without any mental reservations. |
| 00:04:04.94 | Unknown | or purpose of evasion. |
| 00:04:06.22 | Susan Cleveland Knowles | or purpose of evasion. |
| 00:04:07.74 | Unknown | and that I will well and faithfully |
| 00:04:10.20 | Susan Cleveland Knowles | and that I will well and faithfully |
| 00:04:12.01 | Unknown | discharge the duties. |
| 00:04:13.48 | Susan Cleveland Knowles | Discharge the duties. |
| 00:04:14.54 | Unknown | upon which I am about to enter. |
| 00:04:16.09 | Susan Cleveland Knowles | upon which I'm about to enter. |
| 00:04:17.73 | Unknown | Congratulations. |
| 00:04:18.77 | Susan Cleveland Knowles | Thank you. |
| 00:04:19.38 | Unknown | Thank you. |
| 00:04:30.98 | Unknown | I'm going to tell you what comes up. |
| 00:04:36.07 | Unknown | And so I'm going to now present you with the certificate of the election. And I'm going to also welcome your children, Jack and Hillary, up here. They are going to help me give you your city pin. I'm going to have Jasmine. |
| 00:05:09.43 | Unknown | Here we go. All right. |
| 00:05:24.03 | Susan Cleveland Knowles | Thank you. |
| 00:05:29.03 | Susan Cleveland Knowles | Oh, wow. Thank you. |
| 00:05:29.97 | Unknown | you Thank you. All right. |
| 00:05:35.59 | Susan Cleveland Knowles | Thank you. |
| 00:05:37.18 | Mayor Withey | Yeah, please. Yeah, you could have gone first. Sorry, but you do have to sit there. Yeah. |
| 00:05:37.55 | Unknown | Thank you. |
| 00:05:37.70 | Susan Cleveland Knowles | THE END OF |
| 00:05:37.78 | Unknown | Thank you. |
| 00:05:37.97 | Susan Cleveland Knowles | Yeah, I could have gone first. |
| 00:05:43.56 | Susan Cleveland Knowles | Okay. |
| 00:05:44.10 | Joe Burns | Yes. |
| 00:05:44.31 | Susan Cleveland Knowles | you |
| 00:05:44.90 | Mayor Withey | Yes. |
| 00:05:45.51 | Joe Burns | Thank you. |
| 00:05:45.58 | Unknown | Thank you. |
| 00:05:46.85 | Joe Burns | You don't have to stand tonight, we're gonna get out of here early. |
| 00:05:51.76 | Unknown | I have a great time. |
| 00:06:02.22 | Mayor Withey | So Susan, welcome to the City Council. I don't know if there's anything you'd like to say. |
| 00:06:14.32 | Susan Cleveland Knowles | Yeah, I would like to just say a few brief things, since I have the floor, maybe for the last time and for the next couple months. I just first wanted to thank all of the Sausalito residents who voted in the special election in November. I, you know, whether they voted for me or not, I met so many people who were very engaged in the process and who spent a lot of their time and energy trying to listen to all of the issues, to listen to the three candidates. And I just really admire the hard work that Sausalito residents put into an election and the way that they treat their vote. And I feel very honored to have won the vote, but I really also just appreciate everyone who participated. I want to especially thank my supporters. I had an excellent campaign team. Many local officials and residents who endorse my candidacy And it was just very heartwarming to have so many people put their faith in me. I can't begin to name everyone who helped, and I don't think anyone here wants me to, but... I do want to say a very, very special thank you to my children, Jack and Hilary Knowles. They were true supporters and troopers. They knocked door to door with me and without their sense of humor and without their patience, it would have been a much harder fall. I also want to thank our lovely au pair, Pilar, who is here joining us for a year and a half from Spain. And I think we literally would have fallen apart without her this fall. So thank you for keeping us all together. And I just also want to say a very special thank you to my husband and my campaign manager, Jeff, who turned out, really, as a litigator, to be a really good campaign manager. So I think maybe he has a second career. Second, I just wanted to reflect on the positive feedback the election results put on the themes of my campaign. Sausalito voted for reasonable, common-sense solutions to address our local issues. Sausalito voted for solutions that respect our small-town character, but also recognize that we need to adapt to inevitable change. And Sausalito voted for collaboration and civility. And I just wanna say to all of my new colleagues on the city council that I'm looking forward to the next year. of collaboration and civility and to finding common sense and good solutions for our town. So thank you very much, and I'm looking forward to serving with all of you. |
| 00:09:07.84 | Mayor Withey | Thank you. Thank you. |
| 00:09:20.84 | Mayor Withey | So we're back to five. Thank you. You know, the uh, Councilmember Cleveland Knowles and will appreciate, quickly appreciate if she doesn't already, and my colleagues here who I've been serving with for a while will recognize that those who, you know, serve in public office, even though we disagree with each other, and I'm talking about especially in other jurisdictions, we may disagree with each other, we may not, they still respect the service that we do. And I just wanted to mention that for Sausalito to express our significant loss that we feel for Mayor Edley's a very recent death today. That was very sad news. Every jurisdiction, neighboring jurisdiction, whatever, understands that A job like that is a big job. We thank him and we wish his family are very Great condolences. So, um... With that, let's move on to agenda item number two, communications. This is the time for the City Council to hear from citizens regarding matters that are not on the agenda. And as you know, we can't really respond to questions or engage in substantive discussions about these matters. So is there any member of the public? who would like to raise any matter with the City Council that is not on tonight's agenda. And if you do, if you could fill in a green speaker card and you have three minutes. And Jeff Jacob, good evening. |
| 00:11:37.34 | Mayor Withey | Please, good evening. |
| 00:11:38.47 | Jeffrey Chase | Thank you, Mayor, and happy holy days to all of you and especially to the new city councilwoman sitting to the left hand side. Uh, I'm happy. FOR MYSELF. that I did not fight this election seeing how well-spoken this new city councilwoman is, and that if I had done that, it would have become personal, I think. However, For the Anchorage, for the 100 people out there, this year they were not allowed to vote in this election. that had to do with the mailbox being taken down with no street address in Sausalito. There goes the voting rights. |
| 00:12:33.67 | Jeffrey Chase | You said something about civility and collaboration. Hanukkah's coming up. It's a bit of an anti-civility and collaboration holiday, which is why the rabbis say that it's a minor holiday, that it's not as important as the festivals, or as the Day of Atonement as the New Year. What happened was that when the second temple was built by a man named Herod, who was collaborating with The Romans... And you can still see the results. A part of it, it's called the Western Wall. That in fact, what was going on, even though there were high priests there, and there were kings, King Herod, that these people were not up to snuff, that every year when they went into the holiest place, the high priest, he did not survive that year and maybe died right there. I don't want to give a message of death, even though the sun is going. It will come back, hopefully. But a message of life that is... who God is. God is here for chai, for life. Not a God of the dead. Not a God of what is past. So I'm hoping there's a new spirit, Here, the portion for this week is about a man named Joseph. If you can find out a little bit about him beyond what I'm going to be able to say in the next 27 seconds... But what it is, whether you take it historically or symbolically, is the story of a buildup of civilization. That when you have agricultural people, that if they have a surplus, they can store it, and with that, they can provide some things that are luxuries, including this, our government. So thank you, Joseph, and thank you, City Council. |
| 00:14:41.24 | Mayor Withey | Thanks, Jeff. Anybody else like to address the City Council on any matter that's not on tonight's agenda? Okay, seeing none. Let's bring it back up here. Action minutes of the previous meeting. We have, I think, to both the November 20th, 2017 meeting and the special city council meeting of December 4th. Is there any comments? |
| 00:15:07.86 | Joan Cox | I do. |
| 00:15:07.87 | Mayor Withey | Changes required. |
| 00:15:09.48 | Joan Cox | I transmitted some comments to city staff, and there are some redlined minutes in your packet, and I move to approve as amended. |
| 00:15:18.37 | Mayor Withey | Anything else? Nope. Do I have a second? Thank you. |
| 00:15:21.41 | Joe Burns | Say it. Second. |
| 00:15:23.11 | Mayor Withey | Okay, all in favor? Aye. Any opposed? |
| 00:15:25.19 | Joe Burns | Bye. Bye. |
| 00:15:28.41 | Mayor Withey | Number four is the consent calendar. So matters listed under the consent calendar are considered routine, non-controversial, require no discussion, and are expected to have unanimous counsel support and therefore is enacted in this one motion unless there is any comments or requests to separately vote or remove any item. Is there any public comment on any matter on the consent calendar? Jeff, do you want to talk on the consent calendar? I notice you put another thing in. |
| 00:16:10.97 | Jeffrey Chase | you Yes, this is about the certification of the vote. This is What happened is that I went to register at the at the registrar's office in the county building. Frank Lloyd Wright's building, and I was able to do so Registering. on Richardson Bay. I CAME HERE. And with a pan and a spoon, If I was not on the list, I wasn't gonna be very happy. I was not on the list, but I think, and I brought in a few spoons and some yogurts as well for people and especially the poll workers to have a snack. So I didn't come in there in a real super adversarial way. But I was conscious of the vote. I think what happened with especially the presidential election, what we see now is a president with a third to 40% of public approval, and that's the amount of people who voted for him. among the eligible voters. in the United States. This isn't a problem just in Florida, it's not a problem. Just in Ohio, the places that seem to be selecting the president, It's a problem here in California too. THE FAMILY. |
| 00:17:50.58 | Jeffrey Chase | There's... a part of the Gospels where Yeshua ben Nazareth, Jesus in Greek, says, Don't go and be in a big hurry to sue somebody. because you might go with your shirt. Halfway there, you're not going to have that shirt anymore. Maybe when you finish up, you're not going to have pants either. If you read the most famous Writer on legal matters, John Grisham, He tells you how it can happen. AND HOW IT IS HAPPENING. I don't want to make this litigation. I promised my mom on her death bed that I would take the LSATs. My entire family is My dad, mom, brother, my nuclear family, my uncle, are or were lawyers? |
| 00:19:03.72 | Jeffrey Chase | The way I'm looking at this, is there's got to be a better way than fighting. In court for money. to deal with our political issues, especially this one of the vote. |
| 00:19:19.14 | Susan Cleveland Knowles | Thank you. |
| 00:19:19.60 | Mayor Withey | you |
| 00:19:23.06 | Mayor Withey | Any other public comment on the consent calendar? OK, seeing none. Any comments, questions? Do we need to vote separately on anything? |
| 00:19:37.13 | Joan Cox | I would just like to comment that while we are receiving the City Council meeting schedule, we aren't going to approve it until January. So it could be subject to change when we approve it at our first meeting in January. |
| 00:19:52.92 | Mayor Withey | Anything else? Thank you. No? Okay. Let's have a motion for the consent calendar then. |
| 00:19:59.25 | Joan Cox | So moved. Thank you. |
| 00:20:01.09 | Mayor Withey | All in favor? Aye. Any opposed? No, that motion carries. |
| 00:20:02.19 | Joan Cox | Bye. |
| 00:20:03.08 | Mary Kay Sweeney | Yeah. |
| 00:20:05.97 | Mayor Withey | Thank you. Okay. Moving right along to item number 6A, award of grants from the Holiday Parking Donation Fund to nonprofit organizations. And I believe Lieutenant Stacy Gregory is going to lead off our presentation. Hi, Stacy. |
| 00:20:28.75 | Lieutenant Stacy Gregory | Hi, good evening, Mayor, City Council members, Lieutenant Stacy Gregory, Sausalito Police Department. I'm grateful to be here tonight to recognize and announce the recipients of our holiday parking grants. And, um, As you all know, for the month of December, all of our on-street parking meters are free. There's a sign on them that says, Free parking, three hours. But in return for that three hours of free parking, we ask for donations in the parking meters. And the purpose of those donations is to award these grants, which will be given tonight, to those agencies, nonprofits that serve the underserved in our county. A lot of the people that live in Sausalito, and need the services, go to these county resources. And so we're going to be supporting those organizations. So tonight, the five organizations that we... recognize that Collectively, they They do everything. They provide food, shelter, Um, clothing, life skills, job skills, legal issues, and the list goes on. So for the people that struggle in their daily lives, the organizations that we're going to see tonight are kind of the behind the scenes help for these particular people. So I'm not going to take a lot of time talking about them because I don't want to do them any service. So I'm going to call each organization up individually, have them just say a few words, and then we'll will award them their grant. So we'll start with Homeward Bound of Marin. And we'll have Executive Director Mary Kay Sweeney come on up. |
| 00:22:20.31 | Mary Kay Sweeney | There's your... Thank you. Thank you, Cecilia. You're welcome. Well, good evening, Mayor and Council Members and new Council Member and staff. We really, really, really appreciate your support. And I think such a clever way of raising money, too. I think you all go out there and park and donate. Really, it would be really wonderful to support this. But just a little bit about Homeward Bound. We've been around for 40-some years and are the chief provider of residential and support services for people who are homeless in our community across the entire county. Every night about 500 people are who we serve in shelter, transitional housing, also in permanent supportive housing, and we have a culinary academy where we train people to become cooks and chefs. As a matter of fact, the Sausalito Yacht Club has four of our graduates who have gone through our program. But we're really supportive of people who are really struggling to make ends meet. And of course, as you know, the housing crisis in our county is legendary. the more work we do together to create more housing options for people, the better that will be. And I think this year especially we've worked very closely with all of our colleagues, so that collaboration piece is really important to us too. Ritter Center and St. Vincent's and a whole lot of other folks, we're working together to really house some of our most fragile people out there in the community, and that's really, really important. So we thank you for your support and wish you a happy holiday. |
| 00:23:56.13 | Lieutenant Stacy Gregory | Okay, next I'll invite up Benjamin Leroy from the Ritter Center. |
| 00:24:01.60 | Susan Cleveland Knowles | Thank you. Thank you. |
| 00:24:07.11 | Benjamin Leroy | Well, thank you, Stacy, and thank you to the city council and city staff. We appreciate it. This is a wonderful annual tradition that we've been able to come here and benefit from this grant program. I can give you just a little bit of information about Ritter Center. I know we have a few new city council members from last year. Ritter Center provides health care, primary medical care, mental health counseling, substance use treatment, permanent supportive housing, and comprehensive case management to low income and homeless individuals in Marin County. Our permanent supportive housing program is part of the new coordinated entry process where we're housing the most vulnerable homeless in our community, taking them oftentimes directly from the streets and putting them directly into housing. Most recently, Ritter Center is the awardee of the county's whole person care pilot grant in conjunction with St. Vincent de Paul and the Marin Housing Authority. And the Marin Housing Authority has very generously put forth 50 of their housing vouchers to be paired with the services coming through the whole person care grant. So we're able to take now 50 of the most medically fragile homeless in our county and being able to house them in the first year of this program. So it's just a really wonderful evidence of the collaboration that's taking place in the community, working very closely with Homeward Bound of Marin and Buckaloo programs through the coordinated entry process to house the most vulnerable people living on our streets today. So I want to thank you for your contribution to that effort, and we really do appreciate it. Happy holidays to everybody. |
| 00:25:35.25 | Lieutenant Stacy Gregory | Okay, next from the Sausalito Presbyterian Church is Julie Carlson. She's an elder with the church. Unfortunately, Paul couldn't be here tonight, so Julie is here to represent them. |
| 00:25:48.58 | Julie Carlson | Thank you, Stacy, welcome. Mayor, council, and staff. Some of you might know that the Southern, Hot. This lunch program was started many years ago by Robin Sweeney when she was on the city council. Robin wanted to offer housing to the homeless, but when that proved too difficult, she said at least we can provide a hot lunch. And so in Sausalito, On Wednesday, the Sausalito community has served the hot lunch program. And it's the responsibility of three churches, Star of the Sea, Sausalito Presbyterian, and Christ Church. And the lunch has been held at Sausalito Presbyterian Church since it began. It serves a core group of probably 25 to 30 people. All of them Some of them help set up the lunch, some of them help clean up the lunch, But what this lunch does really is to provide an opportunity for people to sit down in dignity and share a meal with one another, which is so important. If Paul were here, he would have a funny story to tell you and he would also have an inspirational story. But all I can say is that on behalf of the Reverend. Paul Mowry of the Sausalito Presbyterian Church, who's done so much for this program and this community. We're very grateful, and we thank you so much. And Merry Christmas. |
| 00:27:31.89 | Lieutenant Stacy Gregory | Okay, the fourth organization is Marin Link and specifically Project Warm Wishes. Unfortunately, the co-founder and executive director, Mary O'Mara, couldn't be here tonight because she's not feeling well. So we will be sending her her check. What Project Warm Wishes does is they put together street packs in their backpacks. They have gloves, scarves, toiletries, socks, and... Volunteers get together. I know Adam goes. I've gone several times. 250 volunteers. It's an amazing event. Get together, and it's a huge assembly line putting these packs together. And that same day, another group of volunteers takes them out and delivers 5,000 packs to homeless people in the Bay Area. It's an awesome organization. So they will be receiving a check from us as well. Open Door Ministries is our fifth recipient. And unfortunately, they couldn't be here today either. They are up on Filbert, and they provide the Friday night dinner. They're also open every Friday night. They're also open on Thanksgiving and on Christmas for dinner. They also provide a little bit of food and clothing to take. And just the support services of being able to sit down and bend somebody's ear about something and get advice. So they couldn't be here tonight either. Um. And, That's it for us. If I could get everybody, we like to take an annual picture. If I could get everybody to come back up to take a picture at Adam, you wanna join us? |
| 00:29:49.00 | Susan Cleveland Knowles | Thank you. Thank you. |
| 00:30:10.97 | Mayor Withey | That was great. Now is there any member of the public who'd like to say anything on this topic? |
| 00:30:16.24 | Susan Cleveland Knowles | yes |
| 00:30:34.09 | Mayor Withey | All right, Jeff, on topic. |
| 00:30:37.38 | Jeffrey Chase | Absolutely, haven't I been? |
| 00:30:40.38 | Mayor Withey | Absolutely. |
| 00:30:41.23 | Jeffrey Chase | Thank you. Okay. In my, I wanted to just finish with the voting. I was able to vote. This is from before. I am not confident that the vote was counted in Sausalito. There was a number to call to verify that, and there was no answer at that number, and the rest of the Anchorage was not able to vote. This is why we have the president we do. This is why our system is under a lot of pressure. Right now, and here's another reason. I did work in the industry. of helping the houseless, and the hungry, and the clothes list and doing it for money. I did it in Boston and Denver, Colorado. for a while. I don't do it anymore. FOR MONEY. There's a reason for that according to the California Constitution. This is Article 16, Section 6. It says the legislature cannot make any gift or authorize the making of any gift of any public money or thing of value to any individual, municipal, or other corporation, whatever. This is kind of aspirational idea. that if the money that's given for charity, as... The Anchorage is responsible for one third of the people who are houseless in Marin County. Most of them were born in Marin. |
| 00:32:20.27 | Jeffrey Chase | And... For many different reasons, they have chosen to live on the anchorage. There is a waiting list of people to get land housing. That waiting list is years long. And as far as I know, in the many years that I've been here, there's only been one person who's been able to go from the anchorage to a place and be standing up during a low tide and be caught in the mud. as the tide rose and he was saved, and it would have been a kind of a blot on Sausalito were this older gentleman to have died out there. in such a way. So they found a place on the canal, and that's great, that's one person. Meanwhile, there's 100 out there now. There was a garbage pickup I just found out it only cost $3,800. to pick up the garbage, mainly from one boat, We were thinking that that was hundreds of dollars a bag, that to bring the garbage... The recycled part to the Safeway and the rest to the dump would have been far cheaper and more efficient. |
| 00:33:37.37 | Jeffrey Chase | I'm hoping this new year brings a new change. Thank you. Thank you. |
| 00:33:41.67 | Mayor Withey | Thank you. |
| 00:33:44.86 | Mayor Withey | Anybody else want to comment on this? No, let's close public comment. I'd just like to say that I think this parking meter program is a great one for So it really works. |
| 00:33:57.97 | Joan Cox | I agree. It's a great way for residents to make monetary contributions to worthy programs that are then distributed by the Sausalito Police Department. |
| 00:34:08.79 | Joe Burns | I agree. I was looking forward to this meeting to hear from the groups because I always think that's such a neat way to end our year is to hear all the great work people are doing. So to the groups that were awarded money, thank you for your contribution to our community. Great. Okay. |
| 00:34:24.94 | Mayor Withey | Let's move on. Item 6B, introduction of the 2017 City of Solskjaer Southern Marine Management Academy graduates. And Susan Patterson, our human resources manager, is going to... Tell us all about it. Good evening. |
| 00:34:43.15 | Susan Patterson | Good evening. Good evening, Mr. Mayor, council members, and congratulations, Councilmember Cleveland Knowles, welcome. I'm very excited tonight to introduce our 2017 Southern Marin Management Academy graduates. three of whom are here this evening and have a little thing they'd like to say. And then I will end with a note from one of the members who couldn't be here tonight. But to give you a little bit of background, the Southern Marin Management Academy started in 2013. Since 2013, where we originally began with five agencies, we have grown to include nine Southern Marin agencies. The City of Sausalito, City of Belvedere, Town of Corte Madera, City of Larkspur, City of Mill Valley, Southern Marin Fire Protection District, the Town of San Anselmo, Town of Tiburon, and the Southern Marin Police Authority. Yes, I have them all. We have graduated 30 City of Sausalito employees and 93 employees total with Southern Marin. The challenge of being the coordinator of the academy is to keep it fresh and evaluate the needs of those participating every year. And so this year's sessions included. Leadership and vision, effective leadership going from good to great, public meetings 101, strategic management, financial management, we've included a background in accounting, budgets, audits, and OPEB. workers compensation with risk management, generational diversity and succession planning, strategic planning, organizational evaluation, and we always conclude with foods for thought, what if and why not, presented by our city manager. And then we always have Kate Sears come in, who addresses the graduation group, our superintendent with the county of Marin. So with that, I'm pleased to announce our 2017 graduates. We have Rebecca Bergen, who has our senior librarian assistant, recently promoted from librarian assistant two. |
| 00:37:10.79 | Susan Patterson | Heather Lepore, Administrative Analyst. |
| 00:37:17.40 | Susan Patterson | Julie Myers, recreation supervisor. |
| 00:37:23.41 | Susan Patterson | And who couldn't be here tonight is Mark Morales, our maintenance worker too in public works. And Josh Montemayor, our business manager. But I have a little thing that Josh would like me to say, but after. So, if you would like to say something, I'll start with Heather. |
| 00:37:42.33 | Heather Lepore | Thank you very much to Susan and Adam for setting up the Management Academy. It's fantastic, it's a wonderful program. I think it's helpful for anybody in any role. to understand the context in which they work. And that's what we discovered during the program because we worked alongside other people within the city and learnt about their roles. We worked with other cities and learnt about how they do things. And I think that leads to better job satisfaction and better productivity. So thank you very much. And best wishes for a wonderful holiday season. |
| 00:38:19.50 | Susan Cleveland Knowles | Cardidishes. |
| 00:38:20.97 | Rebecca Bergen | I'm Rebecca Bergen, good evening mayor and council and my familiar staff over here. I just want to thank everybody who made this program possible for us to do. Susie and of course Serge, deserve a big, huge thank you for just putting together a really well-organized program. Um, We had our moments of fun, especially with some of my favorite buddies here from Sausalito. But I really learned a lot going through each month of the program, and I tried to incorporate Thank you. those lessons immediately into my job And a couple weeks after I finished the program, I was promoted to the circulation supervisor of Sausalito Library. So if any of the Sausalito staff happened to be listening to this and are interested in taking the program. I don't promise that you get a promotion to supervisor, but it worked for me. |
| 00:39:31.22 | Julie Myers | Julie Myers, I don't know how to follow this because they basically have said everything that I'd like to say. So I loved each. class we went to just got better and better. And there's an expectation of you don't really know what to expect when you get there. And when I got there, it was like, wow, this is cool. And then the next week, wow, this is cooler. This is stuff I can really take home. It's the meat of what you can take with you and use in your job. And I couldn't have done this without Susie and Adam. He kind of made me do this, I guess. Encouraged. That's it. That's the right word. And, you know, yeah. So, you know, thank you to everyone who put this on. And Susie, you did a phenomenal job. And I can't recommend this to anyone more than words can say. Actually, I do want to say one thing real quick. My favorite quote is, if I've seen further, it's standing on shoulders of giants. And I just want to let you know that I met a lot of giants in this academy. And I just can't wait to see what's going to happen with those relationships and with all the jobs that we have. Thank you. |
| 00:40:51.50 | Susan Patterson | Julie, Rebecca, Heather, thank you. And then I have a little something that Josh would like me to read for him. Josh couldn't be here because he's on vacation and I didn't think it was fair to make him come back this evening. So it reads... Good evening, Mayor Withey and members of the council. If you ask me, Josh, what is the one thing you took away from the Management Academy? My answer would be to take advantage of opportunities. My answer is this, because I was inspired by the different people I met while in the academy and hearing their success stories of how they ended up where they are today. Their experiences and roles inspire me to break out of my comfort zone and stretch the limits of my career. I know it in myself that I want to be a leader in the workplace. Management Academy reinforces my goals to someday become a leader and to never underestimate the potential I can deliver. He continues to thank Melanie Purcell and Danny Castro for the opportunities that have stretched him beyond property manager and have still included planning and of course his recent project, Marijuana Regulations. I'm not sure when or what leader I will become, but right now I'm okay with learning and taking on new responsibilities. I'm enjoying the ride so much, especially because I get to work with amazing people in Sausalito. Thank you, City Council. Thank you, Susan Patterson, for allowing me to put together this amazing experience. I hope Management Academy continues to grow, and I encourage all of our employees to take advantage of it. And with that, I thank you all personally. Have a nice holiday. |
| 00:42:35.77 | Mayor Withey | Thank you. |
| 00:42:43.61 | Mayor Withey | Thanks a lot. What a lot of people maybe don't quite realize is that this is an academy that's now contributed by many of our neighboring jurisdictions. And one of the leading forces behind the creation of the academy and its subsequent success is our city manager, Adam Pollitzer, who has really pioneered this effort across the county. Thank you, Adam. And congratulations to you all. |
| 00:43:21.21 | Mayor Withey | Foucares, anybody want to? |
| 00:43:24.23 | Joan Cox | THANK YOU. |
| 00:43:30.26 | Mayor Withey | All right, thank you. Okay. |
| 00:43:38.09 | Mayor Withey | Next, item 6C, presentation to outgoing mayor, and I guess that means me. Yes, yeah. |
| 00:43:47.59 | Susan Cleveland Knowles | See ya. Um... |
| 00:43:50.72 | Mayor Withey | So I believe our city manager is planning to say something. |
| 00:44:02.71 | Susan Cleveland Knowles | We were. |
| 00:44:04.97 | Adam Politzer | Thank you. you |
| 00:44:05.30 | Susan Cleveland Knowles | I'm not. |
| 00:44:06.27 | Adam Politzer | I knew that was coming, so I've asked the city attorney, I've asked Mary if she would start the clock. |
| 00:44:11.03 | Susan Cleveland Knowles | clock. |
| 00:44:12.01 | Adam Politzer | And let's see if I can stay within three minutes. This 10 years I've been here, I've never been able to stay within 20 minutes. |
| 00:44:17.37 | Susan Cleveland Knowles | been able to stay within 20 minutes. So, you know, |
| 00:44:20.53 | Unknown | Thank you. |
| 00:44:21.24 | Adam Politzer | Well, I think I'd like to see if we can do this. |
| 00:44:23.93 | Susan Cleveland Knowles | Thank you. So... |
| 00:44:25.49 | Adam Politzer | So Mary, go ahead, start. |
| 00:44:27.21 | Susan Cleveland Knowles | All right. I think I should start |
| 00:44:30.67 | Adam Politzer | Thank you. So I only have two pages. I started off with six. And so let me just start by thanking the mayor, the city council, for really a wonderful 2017. We had a terrific year across the board. And what I need to remind the public, because a lot of the public sees this event today and the activities at council meetings throughout the year. But the real... uh, The real activity of the city happens every day out in the street. It happens in the police department, happens in the public works corporation yard, the maintenance workers, and the parks and recreation staff, the community development planners, the engineers. That's the day-to-day work of the city that the council and the management team oversees. And so we had a very successful year providing services to our community. But it starts with the mayor, the tone, and the direction and this mayor's support of the city manager, the city attorney, and the department head is really important. And Ray, I can't thank you enough for your leadership as we've ventured off into a difficult time with only four council members, something that we haven't had to experience at least not for long. in my tenure here with the city. But you did it well and each of you, Joan and Jill and Joe, you deserve credit for also how well you guys work together I listed a handful. How am I doing on time? I listed a handful of things that I thought were worth pointing out. And first, probably what I know that Ray is very proud of is his leadership with the finance committee and the overall budget presentation and the material that goes into the budget and the whole process that we go through to bring the budget forward to the council for their review, starting with hours and hours of meetings with the department heads, hours of meetings with the community members, and then coming by the end of June with the proposed budget for the council's adoption. And once again, we received the GFOA, Government Finance Officers Association, Budget Presentation Award and the Comprehensive Annual Financial Report Award. And this is something when I started back in 2007, I told the finance director, we're going to win awards for how we manage our budgets. It's something that the city of Belmont, where I worked, was proud of and it was something that I thought was important to us. And so I believe at least for the last three years, if not four, we won these awards based on how well we put our budgets together and how understandably they are to the public when they take a look and try to understand how we're spending the city's money. Also important, and I know it was very important to the mayor when we sat down with our community development director and our finance director when we were looking at the strategic plan, was actually starting the general plan update. And this year we started that process by forming a 13-member general plan advisory committee, and they are actively meeting. Those meetings are on tape. They're available on the website and recommend that you take an opportunity to listen to those. But again, the leadership of the mayor with the support of the council members to appoint 13 members, get them working. We're completing the understanding phase, which has been really interesting, but we're going into the visioning phase in 2018 and that I would imagine will be very active and eventful, to say politely. It will be fun to go through that process, and I hope the community engages with us. We've wrapped up the strategic planning effort in terms of the work. We'll be holding a workshop in January, which we'll want the public to participate, to go through the strategic plan. And in our website, there are videos that people can go through the strategic plan. Again, when I started, Ray came into the priority calendar process that I had started and couldn't make heads or toes. It kind of rolled along with it, but eventually it wore out its use and we really moved into the strategic plan process and Ray with his leadership helped us move to a really robust and process that I think really reflects what happens in community as we look at these two year segments at a time and then attach that to the budget process so that we're funding what we think our priorities of the city through our strategic planning process. We had some ups and downs with Dunphy Park and Southview Park. The ups were that the parks were approved by the Planning Commission, so we have an approved project. The challenge right now is actually working through the funding process of those parks and searching for grants. But we still have the momentum behind us and the wind in our sail, and obviously those parks need to be improved. And so in 2018, I see those parks moving forward. But getting through the public process is the most difficult part. Finding the money just takes work, but getting through the public process is where you need to bring people together. And I think that we did that through the council and through the planning commission to thank them. All right, stop the clock. I didn't make it. I'm still on page one. Thank you. |
| 00:50:05.72 | Mayor Withey | It's been. it's been stopped for a while adam yeah |
| 00:50:08.27 | Adam Politzer | It's been stopped for a while. You know? I tried. Thank you. Okay, so let me go through a few of these What's important is that there are six pages of information, and Abbott and Lily will have the challenge of using that document to turn into our end-of-the-year highlights for the community. So even though I won't cover everything that was listed there, those will find its way onto our website and through the currents, and I recommend the public take a look and see what this council with Mayor Withee's leadership helped us. But on that point, communication was really important in how we worked with our community was something that was important to Ray. And so this year we updated our website and we launched that, our new website, we launched that in August. We've had the currents continues to get better and better on each issue. We now have over 2,800 subscribers. And during just 2017, we added 541 new people. So I think it's important to recognize that as we work with communication, work with our community. Again, it starts with the mayor, that's the voice in the face of the community, and then the council, and then the management team. Interesting, the Sausalito fire that we had during the North Bay fire on southbound 101, we had over 1,300, almost 1,400 people open that current posting to find out what was going on and to get information. Um, The surveys that we do on open town hall, again, something that the mayor helped us launch several years ago. And so the mayor and the council thought it'd be a good idea to ask the community what they think about the new regulations on marijuana and how they'd like Sausalito to deal with both recreational and medical marijuana. As of about 635, we had close to 480 people so far participate in the survey, which blows the doors on all the other surveys that we've had before, including short-term rentals, which also had a lot of excitement behind that. But 480 people and it doesn't close for I think a few more weeks, so there's still time if you haven't participated. Um, license plate readers, making the city safe. And then I think that that's probably something that we heard especially from the folks on Spencer Avenue early on. about how important it was to make our city safe. So the council through the budget approved license plate readers. And just in this short window of time that they've been up and running, We've had 14... stolen cars recovered and we've had, or sorry, 11 stolen cars recovered and 14 people arrested. And as the chief shared with me earlier today, those folks weren't coming in town to have lunch at Skomas or check out the art in our galleries. They were here to do bad things and we were able to arrest them. on almost every case well on every occasion there is at least one person there with tools with stolen property and in our last case we actually arrested four women and each of them had some level of stolen property and tools on them to commit crimes on their possession. So this has been a great tool for our police department and for protecting our community. um, Golden Gate Ferry, obviously that had a lot of discussion in our community and a lot of challenges that we face navigating through that project, including a ton of legal analysis, a variety of various engineering challenges. But to the mayor, it's important that we maintain a public process and maintain engagement with our community. So we held several meetings at the IDES Hall because we didn't feel that this space was big enough. And not did we hold those meetings at IDES Hall but we had them televised so that people could watch them from home if they couldn't be there or watch them later to hear what to see for their own eyes and ears on what happened. But to navigate through that process and get to an outcome that led to an approval of a project that will lead to a new ferry landing by 2020. We left, made the announcement to leave RBRA in December of last year. And so through the last six months, we've worked through a process, including changing our ordinances so we can enforce the law on the water. So the council made those decisions and adopted ordinances for the municipal code for boat and harbor regulations. Again, these are tools that help take enforcement out on the water, but also maintain a safe place for people that are living out there, as well as people that are recreating out there. So I think that we've made a lot of progress in Sausalito's waters by taking the action that the council did last year. But once you take that action, it takes leadership to get us all the way through the process and into something that is being effective in terms of working on management of Sausalito's waters out in Richardson's Bay. Congestion management, another area that is high on the list from our community to find solutions. We continue to make incremental improvements this year, adding the Sausalito bike return program. And then at our last meeting, we gave direction to go out to an RFP to issue an RFP for parking and management services and continue to work with our partners with Sausalito Plus and the Golden Gate Ferry District. I don't know. Several things on this list that the community isn't aware of is the local and regional leadership that Ray Withey provides to to the county and also to our residents here in Sausalito. So as you all see on our agendas, we normally list the various boards and commissions, and we have reports from them, and the council members give reports at the end of the meeting. So in addition to... My eyes are really getting bent. In addition to, to the day-to-day work of the council. Ray also serves on the Finance Committee, the Business Advisory Committee, the Hospitality Business Development Plan Advisory Committee. He sits on the ad hoc working group that included the ferry landing and continues to serve on the machine shop. And then at the regional level, he sits on marine clean energy, he sits on the mayors and council, Countywide Legislative Committee, and then the North Bay Division League of California Cities, which includes Napa, Sonoma, and I think Solano counties. And then he also serves the county on transportation authority of Marin. So the whole discussion about congestion and transportation, the mayor sits and represents the city of Sausalito and provides that leadership. In closing, You know, Ray brings a tremendous amount of leadership to this council, tremendous amount of experience. And he leads by example by doing his homework. When you hear him talk on complicated item, be it an appeal, be it on a legal issue, He's read every page. He's gone back and listened to the tapes of any public meeting that's related to the item. He's asked staff questions in advance of the meeting and comes prepared. He's given it a lot of thought. He's fair. He listens to the community. He listens to the public when they come to the mic and gives them their opportunity to speak and then weighs that before he makes his final decision. So I appreciate the leadership that Ray has provided. I hope that this council and other councils see the leadership and mentoring that Ray has provided, both to councils here and to staff that work with him. And with that, I want to thank Ray for his service as mayor of Sausalito. |
| 00:58:59.90 | Adam Politzer | On your second term, we have a gold mallet for you and plaque for you, so it's an upgrade from the wood one. |
| 00:59:07.83 | Susan Cleveland Knowles | . |
| 00:59:22.29 | Adam Politzer | And I also think that it's important to recognize Flynn. Flynn has to put up with Ray. When he comes home from these meetings and replay the activity that happens at these meetings, she has to put up after Ray has spent a day with me, meeting with me and the finance committee. And then he has, and then all the activities that happen in my office or on the phone during and after hours. So, Flynn, thank you very much for your support of both the city and to Ray. |
| 01:00:07.91 | Mayor Withey | Well, um... My vice mayor is saying that I need to see if there's anybody who wants to address the council on this topic, hopefully on Adam's synopsis of the year rather than on me. But seeing none, Vicki, please. |
| 01:00:38.09 | Vicki Nichols | I wasn't going to say anything, but when I heard your, liaisons with the other committees and work in the county, I just wanted to relay that the other evening I had the occasion to be at a holiday party with some board members that I serve with and one of them is one of our co-chairs of our Climate Action Working Committee and one of his favorite projects is Marin Clean Energy. So he says to me, do you know Ray Withy? And I said, sure, Ray's our mayor. He went on to talk about how effective you've been on that committee, how you've been able to make suggestions that weren't currently before the board about looking forward, finding solutions of the community helping to reach its goal. And he said, you know, he's very smart. He's run a business. So he appreciated the contribution that you have made with your financial acumen and you're making Sausalito look good, so I appreciate that. Secondly, today I had the pleasure of working with the Sausalito Historical Society with the third grade students. We ended up in Adams, our city manager's office. We bring the students in here. They sit at your dais. They play the city engineer. They play, I mean, city manager, clerk, and mayor. And they get up there with the gavel. So I usually work with the citizens telling them, well, you may not be an elected, but you have a very important position in the community because you're a citizen. So you're going to bring your desires to your council, elected council. So today we had a lot of requests and some complaints. And then I did tell them, I said, well, you know, it's not always a complaint that you give the council everybody's hard-working they're doing everything up there as volunteers etc etc so I would just like to bring a compliment to all of you that we taught them today they could bring something positive to the council and in light of the fact that you're changing your mayor duties today, thank all of you for your service. I know there are big staff report packages. It's thankless and everybody's got an opinion, but I appreciate all of your service. Thank you. |
| 01:02:53.47 | Mayor Withey | Thanks, Vicky. |
| 01:02:57.58 | Peter Van Meter | I'm Peter Van Meter and I just want to thank you, Mayor Withey, for your service as Mayor and as Councilmember. Your management skills are extraordinary. Your ability to run a meeting effectively and on time and to be open to all comment and opinion is just really a benefit to the town. And just thank you for your dedicated service. And while I'm here, I also want to make a comment about the formation of our new Council. We've been kind of hanging around town here for a while and we've seen councils sort of come and go and some have been very effective and some have been a little bit less effective. And I think we have a composition with our new council here today that has an opportunity to be extremely productive, effective, collaborative, and of a great benefit for the city of Sausalito. So I'm very excited about the future. Congratulations Mayor Withey on your continuing on the council, but also I understand your joy. at retiring from their role as mayor. Thank you. |
| 01:04:01.91 | Mayor Withey | Thank you, Peter. Jeff. |
| 01:04:05.32 | Jeffrey Chase | Um, I also want to thank the City Council, especially the Mayor, for listening to what I have to say, even though I know you're not allowed to ask questions. I want to thank Abbott for the library and the librarian, Rebecca, that was here, and the others that are there, that if the library was a little less good, it might make it easier for me to leave this beautiful port town. But I like that there's a haven and that it's the best library I've ever seen in the world. Uh, I'd like to thank the people that have helped. that go out of their way not working in a government function to help the people who don't have a place to stay, don't have food. I'd like to thank Chad and Carolyn Carvey. They, without getting funding from any of you all, they managed to go from their little raft and give beautiful gifts, lights and dry bags and ponchos to the anchorage, and they don't get paid for that. And sometimes I feel like I'm giving grief to people who are already doing something that I'm asking. They don't have to answer my questions. As long as they listen, that's really enough. So thank you for all of that. |
| 01:05:37.63 | Mayor Withey | Thanks, Jeff. Okay. It is obviously after... Such kind words from our city manager and Thank you. residents I need to say something. Now obviously, the obvious thing to do is to say thank you. But I was thinking this afternoon, who am I thanking, and what am I thanking them for? So bear with me for a minute or two. So first of all, I want to thank all of our residents and all of the overall stakeholders in Sausalito, all of the residents, because in the end, we are here to serve you, to make decisions on your behalf. And all of us try to do our best. But the one thing I've learned so far, being up here, not as mayor, but as city council and then working with the city, is that in the end, I feel pretty confident that our residents, our voters, will make the right decision when you ask them to. So that's the first thing. Thank you to all our residents. And really importantly, also all of our stakeholders, because there's a lot of groups, our business groups, our volunteers, for example, that actually make Sausalito work. So it's the residents, it's all of the volunteers, many of which are residents. It's our business owners, many of which are residents, and everybody else coming together that actually makes this city work for all of us. So thank you to all of those. Volunteers, I have been saying to my colleagues in the county and in the wider region that one of Sausalito's The primary source of competitive advantage is its volunteers and its spirit of volunteerism. There's nowhere else in the county like it that can quite command the number of volunteers to bring to an occasion. We've got, you know, non-profits and volunteer groups of all sorts. And if I start naming some, I'm going to leave somebody out. So I've got to be a bit careful. Let me give you a few examples. Sol Solito-Butyl, historic society. Something that's fairly dear to my heart, the Arts Festival. I do garbage three days a week at the Arts Festival. It's one of my favorite times of the year. And then there's an organization I've got really close to, which is the Sister City Organization. And this year we had three important Sister City events. we sent a delegation to Sakai This year, we had three important sister city events. We sent a delegation to Sakaide, along with our vice mayor, and Chris Gallagher, and other folks. And, you know, those young people going to visit Japan for the first time, it was a big deal. Secondly, we had the sailing team, the youth sailing team visit here. It's fun to see the young sailors centered at the Yacht Club, you know, learning to sail, racing against each other. This is from Qashqash, And they always beat our kids somehow, but that's okay. Everybody has a great time. And then we had a delegation from Vina Domarcelli, a group of women entrepreneurs. And I just want to mention a little bit about that. You know, they visited in April and we decided to throw a a dinner party for them, actually, at our home here. And so we actually have a photo from that evening. And I think Lily's going to try and find it for us. There it is. |
| 01:10:19.14 | Mayor Withey | Now, the fellow in the middle, who sort of in the middle, is Enrique Barroso, who's the Consul General of Chile, who was here for us that evening. This slide is my transition to actually talk about the other five characters that are in this photo, rather than Enrique. And I want to, who's the second group I want to say a big thank you to? Well, it's those guys. First of all, Adam alluded to the fact that, you know, Herbie decided in April, about a week after this meeting, to leave the council. Decision we all respected. And I still don't think that as a community we've managed to find the time or the place to really thank Herbie for all the work he did for us over the 10 years that he was on the council and even before. So if, you know, it's been said many times, I'm going to say it again. Herbie, thank you very much for all you did. Second point I want to make, and for all you City Council members out there that have been that have served over the decades I'm sure you can find a photograph to prove it but I I'm not aware of a group of five city council members in one council member's home celebrating together at a social event, enjoying each other's company, and also welcoming an important group of visitors. The fact that we ran this city council for eight months with only four people required teamwork, it required respect, it required folks being able to recognize the difficult situation, but nonetheless thinking first of Sausalito. So to my colleagues here, thank you very, very much indeed. We would not have been able to get through this year without you all. So thank you very much indeed for that. Now, Can you actually... remember. It may be a shock. For some of you to remember, that it was only last year, up until last year, that we used to, as part of our standard protocols, time each other. We were joking tonight about Adam putting the three-minute clock on. We all used to have a three-minute clock on. We would speak only for three minutes. Now, I'll tell you one thing, as opposed to what you're seeing me tonight, it actually teaches you to be short when you say something you know three minutes but nonetheless i think it more than anything else illustrates the fact that this council knew how to work together well together in a very respectful way and so again thanks So then the very final group of people that I want to mention are the staff. And sorry, Lily, you can take the staff. I don't have a photo of the staff. But it's my great pleasure to have worked with you all this year. Our staff work hard, our staff are professionals. And it's really important to remember that local government, staff in local government, is an important profession in which you have, you know, you're proud of the profession you're in. You have best practices and you look continually to advance. And so it's been a great pleasure working with all the staff particularly the senior management team and of course Adam so thank you all very very much indeed everybody working together as a team has done a fantastic job this year and with that I'll just reiterate to residents and the stakeholders to my fellow to my colleagues here and then to all the staff a huge thank you thank you very much |
| 01:15:11.11 | Mayor Withey | All right, so now the exciting part. |
| 01:15:14.36 | Susan Cleveland Knowles | Thank you. |
| 01:15:17.47 | Mayor Withey | Yeah, committee reports, right. So next is item 6D, which is the City Council election of mayor. And first thing we're going to do is ask for public comment. Is there any member of the public who'd like to say anything about the election of a new mayor? Seeing none, we'll bring it up here. And the way this is going to work is that I'm going to nominate someone as mayor. And then I'm going to ask if any of my colleagues have any other nomination for mayor. And we will then vote and a person with three votes is our next mayor. So without further ado, it's my pleasure to nominate our Vice Mayor, Joan Cox, to be our new mayor. I've worked with Joan. actually for quite a number of years, but in particularly this year, the mayor and the vice mayor have worked together quite extensively as the agenda setting. And I've got to know Joan and in my view, she will do a wonderful job next year. So that's my nomination. Does anybody else want to nominate anybody else as mayor? Okay, well seeing none, this is a fairly easy vote. So can we just say all in favor? Aye. Any opposed? No? So that motion carries 5-0. Congratulations, Mayor Cox. |
| 01:17:10.55 | Susan Cleveland Knowles | . |
| 01:17:22.97 | Susan Cleveland Knowles | That makes it easy. |
| 01:17:26.80 | Joan Cox | When Ray took the gavel last year, one of his first comments was, he's a bit out of practice. And I feel the same way. I'm a bit out of practice. But thank you all. Thank you very much. I just want to say a couple of things. which Ray said pretty much what I was going to say, which is that we're all so grateful to the residents and to the volunteers and to the staff for allowing us to really do extraordinary work up here on behalf of the city. I do want to thank Herbie for all of his dedication to the city over his nearly 10 years on the council. He helped to make this a better community advocating tirelessly on behalf of the people of Sausalito. I also want to thank Susan Cleveland Knowles and welcome her to the council and thank her in advance for all the contributions I know she will be making. I worked with her for years on the planning commission and so I know very well the talents that she will bring to the city council. Ray, it's been fun and a privilege to serve as your vice mayor, so thank you. You've done an excellent job as mayor, and I've tried to soak up as much of your wisdom and counsel as possible. And I appreciate the thoughtful and balanced way in which you've addressed the various issues that we faced. I also appreciate your gentle coaching of me to lead by example and learn better how to delegate. So thank you for that. I'm so proud that there has not been a quote-unquote minority vote or minority group on this council this year. So we have done an extraordinary job of collaborating. And three of us on this dais made a pledge to be cordial and convivial in the manner in which we ran our campaign. And I'm proud that we've brought that to the work that we've done here on the dais. All four of us have been collaborative and collegial. And as a result, I think we've accomplished a lot, despite the fact that we only had a four-person council for much of the year. THE CITY IS A CITY IS A CITY So thank you to the new council for your support. We have an important year in front of us. It's my privilege and honor to be your mayor next year, and I'm looking forward to getting to work. Thank you. |
| 01:20:17.02 | Joan Cox | Okay, and with that, we'll move on to the next item on our agenda, which is City Council election of the Vice Mayor. And so I'm going to open this up. I'm going to follow the agenda, which first I'm going to open it up to public comment for anyone who'd like to comment on who our vice mayor should be. All right, seeing none, I'm going to call for nominations for Vice Mayor. |
| 01:20:45.05 | Susan Cleveland Knowles | I'd like to nominate Joe Burns as vice mayor. |
| 01:20:49.03 | Joan Cox | Are there any other nominations for vice mayor? Seeing none, is there a second? |
| 01:20:56.27 | Mayor Withey | Sorry. |
| 01:20:56.67 | Joan Cox | Thank you. Okay, and all in favor? Aye. Aye. And that motion carries unanimously, 5-0. Congratulations to Joe Burns, our new Vice Mayor. |
| 01:20:59.22 | Mayor Withey | Bye. |
| 01:21:06.06 | Susan Cleveland Knowles | Thank you. |
| 01:21:13.60 | Joe Burns | Thank you very much. Tonight's about our new council member and about our mayor, but I just want to say that I had a great first year. I feel like my freshman year is over, and I get to really dig deeper and learn more and increase my fire hose of information that's coming on all different levels, and I absolutely love it, but I encourage you to please bring me more information. It's all about constituents in the community, and that's why I'm up here. And I really appreciate the support and the four people, and now the fifth person that I'm working with up here on this dais. It's very exciting for 2018, so thank you very much. |
| 01:21:58.62 | Joan Cox | Okay, with that we'll move on to city manager reports, council member reports, city council appointments and other council business. I'm going to open it up to public comment on any of those items. Seeing none, we'll move on to, item B, city manager information for council. |
| 01:22:17.00 | Adam Politzer | I was asked just before the council meeting to give a very brief report on the tunnel between Marin City and Sausalito and just status update. The brief status update is that the county is working through their approval process and have put later this month the project out to bid. The bid will be open for the lights. The bid will be open on January 4th it'll work through some details including being approved by the county and with the expectation that the project would be in construction in February potentially completed the end of February, or more likely by the beginning of March. That's what we know to date. We'll know a lot more when the project comes before the county through the bid process, and that if the bid is responsive and within their budget, budgets roughly $142,000. $116 is the base bid and with some options included. So roughly $142,000 if the bid comes in within budget, it'll be awarded. And then the construction will start in February and depending on the weather, the project could be done as early as the end of February, but more likely the beginning of March. Thank you. and then the construction will start in February. And depending on the weather, the project could be done as early as the end of February, but more likely the beginning of March. That concludes my report. I'm happy to answer any other questions from the council. |
| 01:23:50.99 | Joe Burns | I have a follow-up question on that. Adam, is there any way that we can get this under some sort of emergency measure to get the lighting up in that tunnel? And my main concern is because that's the main path of travel for kids going back and forth from Marin City to Willow Creek Academy. And, you know, now's the time where we need the lights in there. It's not, you know, it'd be nice to have them up. you know, the four years that they've been dark. But I think that's, you know, I think we need to move more quickly on that, I feel like, especially given the history of it. So the question is, I guess, are there emergency measures or emergency sort of basis that we can request that the county move forward. more quickly on this because of the length of time we've been waiting and because of the situation. |
| 01:24:37.08 | Adam Politzer | Um, The short answer is that we can always make the request, and I believe that we, as a city, has made that request. several times and as we know the community has made that request in a variety of forms is from attending meetings to writing letters to campaigns in the newspaper and and various rallies and there's rally coming up in the in the very near future here but the challenge is it's the its county project it's outside of the city limits and so our ability to do more than that becomes a little bit challenging. So we as our public works continues to do is to touch base with the county staff and continue to ask them to move as quickly as possible and we'll continue to do so. |
| 01:25:38.70 | Joan Cox | So the County Board of Supervisors does have provision that allows it to hire for an emergency without going through a public bidding process and to spend, you know, whatever is necessary to repair the emergency. So we could request that they avail themselves of those measures rather than going through the normal bidding process. |
| 01:26:01.62 | Joe Burns | Is anybody here opposed to doing that? I mean, can we... Can we make that request? Have we made that request in the county? |
| 01:26:06.63 | Joan Cox | how we made that request. Unfortunately this is not an item on our agenda tonight so we can't take action on this item tonight this was part of the city manager I WANT TO MAKE SURE THAT I |
| 01:26:17.25 | Joe Burns | No. Okay, so we can put it on the agenda for January. When's our first meeting January 9? |
| 01:26:23.39 | Joan Cox | to our list of future agenda items. Okay. Council member committee reports. Anybody want to report on MCCMC? Or do you want to report on Southern Marine fire, the tour of the? |
| 01:26:39.99 | Susan Cleveland Knowles | Sure. |
| 01:26:43.54 | Mayor Withey | The. MCCMC is the Marin County Commission of Mayors and Council Members. It's the once a month all of the council members of all 11 cities and Marin together possibly sometimes with the supervisors meet for a dinner meeting and presentation. We, Sausalito happened to be the host. We rotate through and we were the host a couple of weeks ago. We invited our fire chief, Chris Tubbs. We had fire chief from Mill Valley, Tom Walsh, Thank you. lives in Santa Rosa and whose own home burnt down. He was there together with the Marin County Fire Chief, whose name escapes me. But they gave a very compelling presentation to the whole group on the fire prevention, the evacuation, the current state of knowledge as to what happened up north. And a week later, the vice mayor and I went on a tour, if you can call it a tour, of, it's an inappropriate use of the word, but tour of Santa Rosa and the fire-devastated areas. It is quite a somber and emotional experience to be up there and to realize the thousands of lives that have been affected and the 50 lives that were lost. So that was a very sobering experience, but a lot learned in that process. And I think we're going to try and do that again. Is there anything you wanted to add to? |
| 01:28:51.94 | Joan Cox | And we're going to try to schedule a community meeting sometime in January for the fire folks to come speak with interested residents about various measures you can take to A, avoid adverse impact if a fire hits Sausalito, and B, to ensure you have an evacuation plan and other such matters. Any other committee reports? Okay. |
| 01:29:22.03 | Joe Burns | I'm sorry, Mayor Cox. I DON'T HAVE A REPORT AND Library trustees with Abbott will be meeting on Thursday. And our library has done so many wonderful things. So you're getting a pre-report. You don't even... I'm going to have to wait until January 9th now. |
| 01:30:22.02 | Joan Cox | Okay, next on the agenda is appointments to boards, commissions, and committees. We have none for this evening. although we are interviewing, so I expect we'll do, we'll hope to do that some in January. Next is future agenda items. um, Any discussion on future agenda items other than the Marin City Tunnel? All right. Any other reports of significance? All right, then. I have the privilege of adjourning my first meeting. We're adjourned. Congratulations. |