| Time | Speaker | Text |
|---|---|---|
| 00:01:06.43 | Susan Cleveland-Knowles | All right, good evening everybody and welcome to the regular city council meeting of the city of Sausalito for Tuesday, November 27, 2018. I will call the meeting to order and ask Serge to call the roll. |
| 00:01:21.86 | Serge | Councilmember Withey? Here. Councilmember Cleveland Knowles? Councilmember Hoffman. |
| 00:01:27.43 | Susan Cleveland-Knowles | here. |
| 00:01:27.59 | Serge | I'm not sure. Thank you. you Vice Mayor Burns? Here. Mayor Cox? |
| 00:01:31.24 | Susan Cleveland-Knowles | here. |
| 00:01:34.72 | Susan Cleveland-Knowles | And are not, will you lead us in the Pledge of Allegiance? |
| 00:01:41.23 | Unknown | I pledge allegiance to the flag |
| 00:01:43.19 | Susan Cleveland-Knowles | Thank you. |
| 00:01:43.27 | Unknown | you |
| 00:01:43.36 | Susan Cleveland-Knowles | of the United States of America. and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. |
| 00:01:59.56 | Susan Cleveland-Knowles | We met in closed session this evening to consider five matters and with respect to. Item two, conference with legal counsel, existing litigation pursuant to section 54956.9. I will announce that the council voted 5-0 to approve the settlement of a workers compensation claim of Jeffrey Chance, with payment by the city of Sausalito in the amount of $45,000. There are no other closed session announcements. Is there any public comment on our closed session items? All right, seeing none, we'll move on to approval of the agenda. |
| 00:02:39.23 | Susan Cleveland-Knowles | I will make a motion |
| 00:02:39.85 | Susan Cleveland-Knowles | approve the agenda. |
| 00:02:43.79 | Susan Cleveland-Knowles | All in favor? Aye. That motion carries 5-0. |
| 00:02:44.75 | Susan Cleveland-Knowles | Thank you. |
| 00:02:44.76 | Unknown | I. |
| 00:02:45.46 | Susan Cleveland-Knowles | Thank you. |
| 00:02:52.66 | Susan Cleveland-Knowles | With that, we're going to move on to special presentations and mayor's announcements. And before we hear our cyber security awareness briefing, I'm going to make a special presentation. Many of you know that we lost a cherished town leader earlier this week, and so I'm issuing a proclamation. So this is a proclamation of the City Council of the City of Sausalito, recommemorating and recognizing Robin R. Sweeney. Whereas on August 22, 2015, the city council commemorated the life of Robin Sweeney on her 90th birthday, recognizing with great joy, deep respect, and immense gratitude all that she had done for Sausalito. And whereas we know that over 65 years ago, Robin Sweeney quietly arrived in Sausalito, raised two loving girls on a hillside in Sausalito, and fulfilled a career as a registered nurse before moving to an arc on the water. And whereas just as quietly, Robin moved out of our city limits in order to step back from the visiting community she continued to serve. And then later moving in with one of her daughters. And whereas in 2015 and in Robin Sweeney Park, pictured here on our screen, Robin was recognized for her 28 years of service to the city as a mayor and council member, being the longest tenured council member in our history, along with the many civic accomplishments she worked so hard to bring to fruition. And whereas Robin became Sausalito's first female Rotarian in 1987, and fulfilled just as many great accomplishments there, most notably the Rotary Housing Projects. And whereas Robin also volunteered in various other community roles, including the Sausalito Women's Club, which she joined in 1958, and the Sausalito Historical Society. And... Whereas the citizens of Sausalito must now face the loss of such an incredible civic servant who loved making Sausalito a great place to live, play, and work. Now therefore, the Sausalito City Council asks the citizens of Sausalito to again recognize the bountiful contribution that Robin Sweeney made to the city of Sausalito. and its history, and join us in sending our thoughts and prayers to her family and those in the community that she impacted so deeply and touched so caringly. In witness whereof, I, Joan Cox, Mayor of the City of Sausalito of Heron, to set my hand and cause the seal of the City of Sausalito to be affixed this 27th day of November 2018. And Robin's daughters were not able to join us this evening, but Herb Weiner has graciously agreed to accept this proclamation and convey it to her family. |
| 00:05:31.62 | Unknown | Robin Swinney was on the city council for 28 years. Nobody's going to touch that right now. Bye. Thank you. That's for sure. |
| 00:05:39.37 | Unknown | That's for sure. |
| 00:05:40.25 | Unknown | you |
| 00:06:18.79 | Susan Cleveland-Knowles | Okay. All right, we're moving on to the next special presentation, which is Cybersecurity Awareness Briefing by Donald Hester from Mays & Associates. |
| 00:06:41.49 | Rhett Redling | Good evening, Madam Mayor, members of the City Council, staff and members of the community. I'm Rhett Redling, your IT manager. It is my pleasure to introduce you to Mr. Don Hester. He is the cyber security expert for Maize and Associates who are, as you may recall, the auditing firm that we use all year round to make sure that our financial processes are secure, transparent and accountable. Earlier this year, we recognized that all the security measures we put in place, however excellent they might be, can still be undermined by a single staff member clicking on the wrong thing. So we reached out to Don to help us craft an ongoing cybersecurity awareness program for city staff, which we kicked off in September of this year. with a two-hour mandatory training session. What you're about to see this evening is a somewhat shorter overview of his presentation tailored slightly for the City Council. Don is a local government expert with 20 years of experience in the cybersecurity field. and kind of a hidden member of our team. I'll turn it over to him. Thank you. |
| 00:07:49.07 | Don Hester | Thank you, Madam Mayor, Council, and citizens. So my presentation today, it's a little bit shorter than I thought it was going to be as far as time. So this is your presentation. Ask questions if you have any. As I go, or you can wait till the end when we can answer them. all together at the same time. One of the things that's really interesting, and I think having worked with local governments for over 20 years dealing specifically with cybersecurity, specifically related to the audits, making sure that the financial systems are secure so that you can rely upon the numbers that come out of the system. One of the things that we've noticed over those 20 years is 20 years ago, cities were not targets. In other words, hackers and criminals were not focused on cities, and most cities would say, Why would they want to hack into us? We have nothing that they want. But what we found is that over the time, whether it's cyber criminals, hackers, for whatever reason, they found new ways to make money so to speak out of attacking anybody including local governments. In the last year the increase in hacks that have happened to local governments has significantly spiked which prompted our firm to send a blanket email out to all of our clients to remind them the importance of cyber security and to watch out for certain types of attacks that are specifically targeted for those cities most of those have been focused in on either trying to get information out of the city by coaxing an employee to send information that should not be sent out or to get them to click on a link which then could lock the city systems out and then demand money from the city in order to unlock those systems and that is increased dramatically in the last year so to speak since January we've really seen a real big uptick in it last year was what we considered it's with 2017 the worst year for cybersecurity events that have happened up into that point in 2018 is going to surpass that at this point in time so next year we'll be saying 2018 was the worst year ever and then halfway through 2019 it might be that that the last. We're hoping that that's not the case, but the way it continues to happen as far as crime and breaches have happened, it continues to increase. Local governments are not immune to this, and this is just a few of the... Newspaper articles you may have seen or seen on the web with local governments that have been hit some of them Have taken a stance if they've been hit with it. We're not going to pay a ransom and End up spending the ransom was twenty three thousand dollars But the cleanup to not pay for the ransom was two million dollars and difficult choice for city to have to make do we pay the twenty three thousand dollars in ransom because that's a small amount or do we pay two million dollars to avoid that so that's a difficult decision that many cities are being faced with hopefully what I would like to see is cities to avoid that situation not be in that situation in the first place to do what they can to avoid it Atlanta you may you may have heard, got hit by ransomware earlier last year or this year. And early on, they reported that the cost to cleanup was $2.6 million. They later revised it that it was $17 million. So there is a significant cost to clean up after the fact. And Atlanta is just one of them. People thought $2.6 million was high. 17 million is considerably much more than that. And they're still not fully recovered from that incident. So it's things, if you wanna know why it's important, well, there's a dollar behind it, right? So that's one reason why it's important. In cybersecurity, it's gotten to the point that it's happening so often, and I'm sure you're getting tired of hearing about Target being breached, Equifax being breached, and all these breaches that we hear all the time. It's getting to the point where the public is getting desensitized to it, and they're having, they call it breach fatigue, they're getting tired of hearing about it. If you think about it, when Target got hit, what happened to you? You got a new credit card new credit card no big hit however when something like Equifax happened your social security number and information that will follow you for the rest of your life is now exposed so ten years from now you could become a victim of identity theft so those two breaches while most people think of them as being the same, they have a different impact to people. And so not every incident that happens has the same level of impact. And unfortunately, a lot of the public in general don't realize that there's a difference. And they think that, you know, what happened to Equus Facts is kind of like what happened to Target, not realizing that there's a significant difference in those type of breaches and the cost to individuals who are the victims of it. |
| 00:12:40.69 | Unknown | THE END OF THE END OF THE |
| 00:12:44.75 | Don Hester | In cybersecurity, we're getting to the point, it's even reported on local news here, cyber breaches, it's not a matter of if it's gonna happen, it's a matter of when it happens and how are you gonna respond to it. It is a little bit of a pessimistic way of looking at it, but it's just realistic as well. because things are going to happen. Like I said, local governments have had a spike in the last year in incidents that have happened where the cities haven't been exposed, either by ransomware or some type of social engineering that's happened recently. And like I said, people are getting tired of hearing about it. Unfortunately, there's still a cost, and we want to avoid the cost. So how do we mitigate that risk as much as possible is something that we always talk about. A lot of it contributes. There's a lot of things that contribute to it, and I can't talk into all of them, but if you have a question about a particular one, we can talk about it. One of them, in some organizations, it's management doesn't see the value of cybersecurity. In other instances, they just don't have the staff to deal with it or the budget to deal with it. So they know that, hey, we should really be doing these things. We should have antivirus in place. We should have security awareness training. But some cities either don't have the budget or the manpower or the staff to deal with it, and that leaves them exposed. And because they're exposed, then incidents happen. So trying to get it to place someplace where we can mitigate those risks. There's a lot of different threats out there and I have a few here just to kind of go over with you just to basically tell you yeah they're cyber activists and those are people that may have a beef with the city they don't like something out there and so they want to hack your website and you face it and those are really minor things there's not a large impact to the city monetarily other than the fact that the system got compromised you may have to fix it You have cyber criminals that are out there to try and make money, try to get somebody to either do a wire transfer, so they send somebody in finance a request to pay a bill that seems to come from the city manager, saying that it's very important that we need to do this wire transfer by the end of the day. They do it, and then the money gets transferred out of the city's account. So cyber criminals can get money from cities that way. There are insider threats as well. And then we've also seen an increase in nation states. Some of the software that's used that has locked out some of these cities and local governments was software that was designed by nation states, like North Korea or Russia. And so they're very sophisticated attacks. And if it is really targeted at your city, it's hard to get around those just because they have a lot more resources than most local governments. But we're seeing an increase in those type of attacks as well in the last year. And nation states being involved with it, you can just look on the internet or look in the newspaper, you should start seeing all kinds of articles talking about it now that it's been exposed. Some of it was known, like that China was hacking into U.S. companies, but it was kept quiet by the federal government because they were trying to track the information. But now we Thank you. like that China was hacking into U.S. companies, but it was kept quiet by the federal government because they were trying to track the information. But now we found out that for the last five years that we've known that they've been doing it. So it's interesting to see now that it's much more known publicly that the nation states are behind some of these attacks. And they're very sophisticated in some cases. And recent articles are even saying that if you are targeted by another government, what chance does any company have or what chance does even the local government have to withstand an attack if they were really trying to get into it? THEIR HIGHER. Organized crime's part of that as well. And criminals, you know, we used to think about hackers, and you'd think about the 1980s, the movies, you know, war games or something like that, you know, kids hacking into things, and it's really just benign. It's moved from that, which is far extreme, to being organized crime, where there's organized crime syndicates that have the whole entire process in place, all different types of people within an organization. It's just like the traditional organized crime that we have. It's just cyber-based. So they have all kinds of resources. And we find out that there's a lot of them when the federal government has been taking them down. The FBI has been arresting some of these folks. And so we found that they have very extensive networks. And one of them had like 13,000 websites on the internet used to try and get people to click on links so that they could put their malware on their systems. What are the impacts that could possibly happen to the city? City could be just collateral damage. I'm not sure. Attacks that Russia had against another nation state with cybercrime ended up taking out all kinds of businesses in the United States and in the European Union. But they were not the target. They were just collateral damage. So they weren't the target, but they ended up getting hit with the malware, which ended up taking their systems down and destroying them. And they had to be rebuilt. So there's always that possibility. You have just the idea that they may destroy your data or destroy your systems. They could hold your systems ransom, get into your systems, lock your systems out, and then require you to pay a fee, or you have to recover the systems, and hopefully the backups are adequate. Hopefully they didn't get the backups. They could just steal the data, or they can do all of the above, including a new one which is on the rise now, which is called cryptojacking. It's a new term, but it's a new attack where they basically get malware on your systems, and then they use your system to mine for Bitcoins. So they're not really stealing anything other than resources. But it still is, I mean, they're in your system. You don't want them in your system. But what we found is that some of them are now taking the cryptojacking, they'll do the cryptojacking for a while, and then maybe they'll do the ransom So once they get into your system, they can then use a combination. That's why I have all the above listed there in the end because we're now seeing that Cyber criminals are kind of like smart business people. They say, hey, I can make money this way, but I can also make money that way. So I'll make their systems mine for Bitcoins, but then I'll also lock them systems out and then require them to pay a ransom to get it unlocked. So they're very shrewd business people, I guess you might say. Ransomware, if you aren't familiar with it, it's basically locking your system out and then requiring a ransom. They encrypt the entire system, and then they require you to pay some type of fee in order to unencrypt it. The only other alternative you have is to rebuild the system from scratch from backups hopefully that you have soon enough backups that you can you know recover the systems completely or you have to read and put all the information that may have been there another huge one we call it it's called CEO fraud and it doesn't mean that the CEO is being fraudulent it's where someone impersonates the CEO and tries to get staff to either disclose information send trade secrets proprietary information or personally identifiable information or to make wire transfers and you can see from the graph over there's been a huge spike since last year just in this type of attack. And we've found that a number of local governments locally here within the Bay Area from our client base, about 100 local governments, we found at least six of them that were willing to tell their auditors that this happened to them. So I suspect there's probably more than that. There's plenty of them that have seen the attack and were able to recognize it and then their staff promptly ignored the emails. So crypto jacking, like I said, one of the other ones that's out there, they don't lock your system out, they just use your system to make money. And then here's an example of one of them where they actually lock your system out and then use the crypto jacking to mine for bitcoins while you don't have access to the system because it's encrypted. One of the interesting things is there's a research that was done in 2016 by ICMA that basically said a lot of local governments, only like 33% of them, a third of them, have a written disaster recovery plan. That's being one of the key ones to deal with if your systems were locked out with ransomware. And only less than 50% of them actually even had an information system security policy. But there's been an increase in cybersecurity incidents with local governments. And so you can see that there's an importance here to make sure that cybersecurity, which, putting it in other words, risk management, to address the risk and mitigate them to an acceptable level. If you look at the bad guys and they look at how they can get into your system, they can get into it physically. I mean, they can break the doors and get into the server room and access it that way or access a computer that way. They can break through the network. You know, we put firewalls and all kinds of other places in there and then they can also get through people. because the people have access to it. you can get into your system. And so when attackers are trying to figure out ways, the ways that we've just talked about, like the CEO fraud, It's attacking the people, so to speak, using them as a weakness to get into to get to whatever your systems are. When you look at industry reports, Verizon does an industry report every year that takes the previous year and looks at all the incidents that have happened that have been reported to find out where the faults are, like what happened, why wasn't this incident prevented. 93% of the breaches had to do with some type of what we call social engineering, which was attacking the person to get the person to do something or not do something that they should have done. and then that's how they're getting into it. So most of the attacks that we're seeing, by far, social engineering is one of the main attack methods that hackers and others are using to get into systems. So social engineering is basically where we use, if you remember the show Catch Me If You Can, the story about Frank Abagnale, the movie, where he dressed up as a pilot and went in there and got a because they thought he was a pilot, because he was dressed up as a pilot. That's social engineering. You're using a situation where someone says, oh, this person looks like he's a pilot, he must be a pilot. It's a room. Oh, he has a check from Pan Am and he wants to cast it? Well, of course, he's a pilot. He must be there. So they just would cash the check. So that's use of social engineering. But the criminals have figured out new ways of using this, using the internet as a means to do it. Phishing, you probably heard, is the one where they send an email out and they try to get you to click on something or respond to the email. VISHING with a V. is where they do it via voicemail. And we've heard a lot of people call in and say, hey, I'm from Microsoft and your computer has a problem and I need to fix it. Can I remotely connect into your computer? and then they would lock your computer out or something like that. By the way, Microsoft was never gonna call you and say, hey, you're a problem with your computer. You have to call them. So, and then another one that we have is called spear phishing, and that's when they target you. And that's when they look your information up. They find out who the right person in the organization is. They would find out who the city manager is, they would impersonate the city manager and then try and get it, so it's targeted. And then whaling is another one, probably not a PC term, but that's what they call it. And that's where you go after the big fish, so to speak, and that's where they target somebody who is like the city manager, and they specifically try to get that person to respond Typically, it's someone in the guise of saying that I'm an FBI agent and we think that your organization is involved in some cybercrime, and we don't think it's you, so we want to prove that it's not you. So if you give us access to your computer, we would do it. Mind you, the FBI is never going to contact you to say, please prove you're innocent. They're going to come with a warrant and take your stuff, right? So anyways, it tricks people in because it's authority and it's the FBI and you don't want to mess with them. So it tricks people into responding. And so these are just different methods that people are using and very common methods. And they realize, the hackers, that if they can get past your employees or they can get past staff, that they can get into the systems. And the reason why we have a Social Security awareness, not because, yes, it is because Industry Standard recommends it or it's required by NIST guidelines, but it's also because the city recognizes that the city this the staff are the most important defense in this and we want to make sure that they're prepared to be able to spot those type of emails and not respond to them Thank you. |
| 00:25:47.48 | Mike Langford | Thank you. |
| 00:25:47.59 | Don Hester | you And that's how we're going to make the world cyber safe, which is what we're trying to do. We don't have to worry about the whole world. Let's just worry about Sausalito. Let's make it cyber safe for the city, for city government, and also so that the local citizens will also know about how to avoid these problems as well, because they may also be victims of this. Which brings me to the end of almost to my presentation. My last point and that is IT governance. Which is something you probably may have never heard of before. There's IT management, you always hear about IT manager, but what's IT governance? And that's where the executive board or council of a city determines what level of risk the city is willing to accept in cybersecurity issues, and then make sure that there's oversight to make sure that their mitigation is put in place, and that that mitigation's working, and that the city is addressing the risk that it needs to address. you That also makes sure that everything aligns with the city's overall mission, objectives, and goals. So IT is at the very bottom because IT supports all other departments because almost every department uses some form of IT for something, and it's critical for their mission and objectives, which is also critical for the overall city's mission and objectives, and that's why cybersecurity is important because it underlies almost every business business process that's within the city and making sure that that's a sound process it's a secure process so that everybody else can just do their job and they don't have to worry about all the systems down I can't have access to the database we can't do permits we can't process payroll whatever making sure that this is IT and is the risks are mitigated in that level so that it cascades up so to speak so that the overall city's mission objectives are done and this kind of just tells you about IT governance there's a framework for it there's you you want to make sure that your IT investment brings value to the city does Does it really help all the organizations, departments within the city actually do their job? Does it make them more efficient? Does it manage the risk? Are we using the resources we have the best possible way we can? And is there transparency in that process? And that's what IT governance part of cybersecurity does. Then there's a business process aspect of looking at the IT lifecycle from beginning to end. |
| 00:27:49.54 | Unknown | Thank you. |
| 00:27:49.56 | Unknown | Thank you. |
| 00:27:49.76 | Unknown | Thank you. |
| 00:28:15.51 | Don Hester | With that, are there any questions? |
| 00:28:20.12 | Susan Cleveland-Knowles | Any questions? |
| 00:28:24.14 | Susan Cleveland-Knowles | Thank you for that very frightening overview. It's a cautionary tale for sure. |
| 00:28:26.57 | Unknown | Thank you. |
| 00:28:26.70 | Don Hester | Thank you. |
| 00:28:26.72 | Unknown | Thank you. |
| 00:28:26.77 | Don Hester | Thank you. |
| 00:28:26.82 | Unknown | Thank you. I appreciate it. |
| 00:28:29.00 | Unknown | Thank you. |
| 00:28:29.03 | Don Hester | Thank you. |
| 00:28:29.25 | Unknown | Thank you. |
| 00:28:29.28 | Don Hester | It's a cautionary. |
| 00:28:30.18 | Unknown | Thank you. |
| 00:28:31.71 | Don Hester | you |
| 00:28:36.37 | Susan Cleveland-Knowles | Thanks, Rhett. |
| 00:28:40.25 | Susan Cleveland-Knowles | Okay. Now we'll move on to an update from the Sausalito Art Festival. We will hear the 2018 summary report. |
| 00:28:56.92 | Mike Langford | Good evening, Mayor Cox, Vice Mayor Burns, City Council. As you know, many of us all participate in the art festival. We volunteer, we work for that great weekend that we have. It's been going on since 1952 in Sausalito. Back in, let's see. get my thoughts here for a moment. Part of the agreement that the city has with the art festival is that they deliver a summary report on the immediately preceding art festival to the city council at a notice public meeting setting forth the then available figures for attendance, gate revenue, number of artists, and entries. So it's a very brief overview of what happened at the art festival this past Labor Day weekend. So what I'd like to do now is bring up the board chair, Mr. Wayne Kalick, to give you that information. |
| 00:29:56.48 | Susan Cleveland-Knowles | Yeah, Mike, is there a PowerPoint associated with this? And can you email that to us? It's not in our packet and not on iLegisleet. |
| 00:30:00.02 | Unknown | AND K-10. Is it right? |
| 00:30:01.15 | Unknown | MADISON. |
| 00:30:20.07 | Unknown | or surge, can you email that to us? Okay, thank you. |
| 00:30:25.97 | Wayne Kalick | Hello Mayor Cox, council members, staff, City of Sausalito. This is going to be a brief overview of the 66th Annual Sausalito Art Festival. That was Labor Day weekend, September 1st through the 3rd. |
| 00:30:41.65 | Wayne Kalick | As we all know, we like to believe that it is the America's premier waterfront fine arts festival. And that's what we're going to continue to do. So this year we had 22,822 tickets sold for the art festival this year. Attendance breakdown by the numbers, we had 12,260 box office tickets sold. We had 9,572 online tickets and 990 complimentary tickets scanned. However, we did give out over 2,000 comp tickets, but 990 people attended, so that's nice. Total gate revenue gross sales was $596,204,000. And we were up 5% over 2017. |
| 00:31:34.77 | Unknown | Okay. |
| 00:31:37.07 | Wayne Kalick | So the artists this year, we had 250 artists. 125 of them were all new, and they really enjoyed the layout of the Saucer Art Festival. And they took in about $3 million in total sales for the weekend for all the artists that were there. For our entertainment this year, on the main stage we had George Clinton, which was a total crazy show. We had a lot of fun on that, packed house. Parliament, Funkadelic, Drive-By Truckers, and Eric Bird and the Animals to end the Labor Day weekend on Monday. Food and beverage, of course, you know that comes from 10 of our local nonprofit groups, such as the Women's Club and the Rotary does the parking for us that weekend. Patrons enjoyed craft beers, premium wine and champagne all weekend long. We had the Mulan Nights Gala, which was a very good success this year. We had a different size tent, so I brought the tenants down to about 650 guests, which sold out. As I said prior to that, parking for the festival was run by the Rotary, and they parked 5,720 cars this year. are great volunteers of the city of Sausalito. We couldn't do it without them. The festival had over 1,200 volunteers and filled nearly 300 shifts this year. Thank you, Councilman Hoffman. So what was new this year? Our layout, okay? Our layout was, we took it over to the Marina Plaza. We didn't know how exactly everything was gonna work out, but I think it was well received. I wanna thank Carlo Berg for allowing us to do that. That kept everything nice and clean. It was separated. We had our food. We had our music on one side, and then we had our art on the other side. And it turned out to be a very nice weekend overall. and not to mention our first ever Saucer Art Festival after party. I want to thank Jerry Spolter and Louis Brionis for bringing that to fruition. Dave Cause and the Summer Horns tour was amazing. He literally, that group just blew the roof off the tent for sure. The after party was sold out with over 1,000 guests in attendance. The Saucyotl Art Festival Community Involvement. So this year we're going to give out $125,000. It's going to be given back to the community by the Saucyotl Art Festival. $100,000 will go to the Saucyotl Chamber of Commerce. $10,000 to the Bay Model Alliance. $5,000 to the Women's Club Scholarship Program. And $10,000 in grants we'll be giving out December the 11th for the Leonard Caprillion Community Grants. And that is my report for now. Any questions? |
| 00:34:37.02 | Susan Cleveland-Knowles | How much money did the Saucydo Art Festival make? What was your net revenue after all of your expenses and contributions? |
| 00:34:47.69 | Wayne Kalick | You know, I'm actually going to honestly say I don't think we're going to make any money this year, this past year. |
| 00:34:48.18 | Susan Cleveland-Knowles | I'm actually going to say, |
| 00:34:53.05 | Susan Cleveland-Knowles | And so are you viable moving forward? |
| 00:34:56.73 | Wayne Kalick | We are, our board is getting together and we're coming up with some new great ideas for the coming year 2019. We're going to make some changes and we have some great ideas and I look forward to sharing those with you in the future. |
| 00:35:13.30 | Unknown | Great. Yeah, go ahead, Rick. |
| 00:35:16.22 | Unknown | Wayne, thanks for that presentation. Thank you, councilor. You said revenue was up about 5%. In terms of total attendees or tickets sold, you said about 22,000. Correct. How does that number compare to previous years? Was it about the same or was it significantly up and down? |
| 00:35:38.53 | Wayne Kalick | You know what, I think it was about the same, but I think the attendance was up due to online sales this year. I think we pre-sold a lot of online sale tickets and the ferry, we didn't have the ferry the year before. So the ferry brought in more guests, which was great. I want to thank Herb for lining all that up. But I think that's where that 5% is coming from. |
| 00:35:44.02 | Unknown | This is... |
| 00:35:58.61 | Wayne Kalick | Well, we had bad weather last year. It was terrible last year. Absolutely terrible. |
| 00:36:00.39 | Unknown | He was 10. |
| 00:36:03.00 | Wayne Kalick | And then, you know, knowing the change of the, we didn't exactly know how the layout was going to work with our patrons this year, but I would say, as I said, it was well-received. Yeah. |
| 00:36:14.24 | Unknown | Could I make a comment on that because as you know, I end up Thank you. doing garbage all three days. |
| 00:36:20.87 | Wayne Kalick | And speaking of that, Robin Sweeney actually was in charge of garbage. She was indeed. |
| 00:36:25.97 | Unknown | I just learned that tonight. We've, she, that's why it's called the Mayor's Blue Ribbon, because it's after, right, we should actually rename that the Robin Sweeney Blue Ribbon Committee. You know what, we'll certainly talk about that. |
| 00:36:31.70 | Wayne Kalick | stuff. |
| 00:36:36.35 | Wayne Kalick | But anyway. We'll certainly take that up for consideration. |
| 00:36:38.18 | Unknown | Um. You know, I'm all over the festival every day, and I've done that for now a number of years. So I get to see all the flaws. I get to see where the congestion is. I get to see all the bottlenecks, what's going wrong. And I know I was really worried, Jack and I were really worried this year about the new layout, but I can tell you this was the least congested. festival that I've worked. And I think that's a credit to the layup. |
| 00:37:08.68 | Wayne Kalick | I'm very happy to do that. Thank you. It is indeed. Thank you, Councilman. |
| 00:37:17.05 | Wayne Kalick | That's all? |
| 00:37:18.40 | Susan Cleveland-Knowles | All right. Thank you so much for the presentation. We look forward to hearing back from you when you have more to report and more deals to negotiate with the city. |
| 00:37:27.76 | Wayne Kalick | I'll be glad to do that. |
| 00:37:28.74 | Susan Cleveland-Knowles | All right, thank you. Thank you. Thanks everybody from the Saw City Art Festival Board for being here. Thank you very much. And for all of your efforts. |
| 00:37:29.01 | Wayne Kalick | Thank you. |
| 00:37:33.06 | Wayne Kalick | Thank you very much, and to my board over here. |
| 00:37:35.21 | Susan Cleveland-Knowles | Thank you. |
| 00:37:39.43 | Susan Cleveland-Knowles | It's a special presentation, so there's no public comment. |
| 00:37:54.32 | Wayne Kalick | Good night. |
| 00:37:54.95 | Susan Cleveland-Knowles | Good night. |
| 00:37:55.61 | Wayne Kalick | Thank you. you Just so you know the automatic. |
| 00:38:00.74 | Susan Cleveland-Knowles | I'm sorry. you I think it's a good thing. |
| 00:38:02.93 | Unknown | Thank you. |
| 00:38:02.97 | Wayne Kalick | But, Jill Hoffman, you guys are fine. |
| 00:38:07.27 | Susan Cleveland-Knowles | All right, we will move on next to communications. This is the time for the city council to hear from citizens regarding matters that are not on the agenda. Except in very limited situations, state law precludes the council from taking action on or engaging in discussions concerning items of business that are not on the agenda. Is there anyone here this evening who wants to speak on an item not on the agenda? I do have one speaker card from Sandra Bushmaker. |
| 00:38:38.50 | Sandra Bushmaker | Good evening, council and staff. Good to see you again. This is purely an administrative deal that I have for tonight. issue off of the city council agenda on October 30th. That day I had sent a. an email in late mail and I just want to make sure you all received it And if you didn't, I have copies for you. |
| 00:39:03.06 | Susan Cleveland-Knowles | Thank you. |
| 00:39:03.82 | Sandra Bushmaker | I'm sorry. |
| 00:39:03.97 | Susan Cleveland-Knowles | I certainly received it. |
| 00:39:04.98 | Sandra Bushmaker | Thank you. Thank you. |
| 00:39:05.07 | Susan Cleveland-Knowles | And you should, it should be on the city's website. All mail should be posted on the city's website. I didn't see it. Then would you please just contact our city clerk, Serge Avila, and he will ensure that any correspondence relating to a particular matter is properly posted. |
| 00:39:12.07 | Unknown | then I- |
| 00:39:21.57 | Sandra Bushmaker | Why don't I give him a copy of it and he can search it out and let me know. Is there anyone on the council who needs a copy? |
| 00:39:24.27 | Susan Cleveland-Knowles | Let me know. IT'S A GOOD THING. |
| 00:39:28.57 | Jill Hoffman | I can see that we received your email. |
| 00:39:30.83 | Sandra Bushmaker | OK, great. |
| 00:39:31.02 | Jill Hoffman | OK, great. I can see. Right now, I just looked it up. Thank you. |
| 00:39:32.76 | Sandra Bushmaker | Did you? Okay, great. Thank you very much. All right, thank you very much. |
| 00:39:33.48 | Jill Hoffman | Okay. |
| 00:39:33.67 | Susan Cleveland-Knowles | Thank you. THE END OF THE END OF THE |
| 00:39:35.00 | Jill Hoffman | Thank you very much. Thank you very much. Thank you. |
| 00:39:36.82 | Susan Cleveland-Knowles | Thank you. All right, any other public comment on items not on our agenda this evening? OK, seeing none, we will move on to approval of the action minutes of the prior meeting. And we did get corrected minutes that properly noted various recusals. so may I have a motion approving our corrected minutes for the October 30, 2018 council meeting. I'll move to approve. |
| 00:40:09.16 | Unknown | Second. |
| 00:40:09.97 | Susan Cleveland-Knowles | All in favor? you Aye. That motion carries 5-0. |
| 00:40:11.20 | Unknown | Hi. |
| 00:40:14.71 | Susan Cleveland-Knowles | We'll move on now to our consent calendar. Matters listed under the consent calendar are considered routine and non-controversial, require no discussion, are expected to have unanimous council support and may be enacted by the council in one motion in the form listed below. Any questions on our consent calendar? Any public comment on our consent calendar? All right, then I'll bring it back up here for a motion. |
| 00:40:36.04 | Jill Hoffman | I'd like to |
| 00:40:36.83 | Susan Cleveland-Knowles | And... |
| 00:40:37.03 | Jill Hoffman | request that we take the one item off consent calendar. I would like to have a short discussion on that later in the agenda. |
| 00:40:46.43 | Susan Cleveland-Knowles | Okay, we're going to move that item as a new item 6D. Thank you. |
| 00:41:01.35 | Susan Cleveland-Knowles | Uh, you That being the only item on our consent calendar this evening, we'll move on to our business items. The first business item is to appropriate funds to increase contract code enforcement services and contract with a vendor for short term rental monitoring and compliance. And welcome, Lily Whalen. |
| 00:41:21.82 | Lily Whalen | Thank you. Thank you, Madam Mayor, Council members. Good evening. I'm Lily Whalen, your community |
| 00:41:32.92 | Lily Whalen | Sorry, that's something in my throat. Thank you. Community Development Director. I'm going to get my water real quick. |
| 00:42:02.18 | Lily Whalen | Looks like we're having a problem with the PowerPoint. I'm just going to begin the first slide, and the slides are in your packet here. First slide is an overview of the purpose of this meeting. |
| 00:42:19.13 | Lily Whalen | And that is going to be providing some background on the city's existing regulations with regard to short term rentals. THE END OF THE END OF THE |
| 00:42:28.04 | Susan Cleveland-Knowles | This is not about short term rentals. This is about code enforcement. |
| 00:42:31.95 | Lily Whalen | Correct. Okay. Yeah, very brief background on the issue. |
| 00:42:31.97 | Susan Cleveland-Knowles | Correct. |
| 00:42:36.73 | Lily Whalen | And then I will be giving the Finance Committee's recent recommendations with regards to code enforcement, and then some discussion topics including the cost for vendor services and contract code enforcement services, and then I'll end with staff's recommendations. So very brief background are short term rentals are the rental of a home or a dwelling unit for less than 30 days. And short term rentals are currently prohibited in Sausalito. Despite their prohibition, short term rental activity has continued and significantly grown over the years with online platforms such as VRBO and Airbnb. Thank you. |
| 00:42:58.55 | Unknown | home. |
| 00:43:17.14 | Lily Whalen | In October of this year, the council discussed a pilot program which would regulate and allow a limited number of short-term rentals with restrictions. The council removed that item from their agenda at the end of October on October 30th for further legal review of particular issues. In November, the Finance Committee reviewed the costs and revenues associated with short-term rentals, and the Finance Committee is recommending increasing contract code enforcement services from the once a week officer to a three-day a week officer for all code enforcement issues and then also to retain a vendor to assist with identifying short-term rentals in Sausalito |
| 00:43:59.20 | Lily Whalen | So staff had an opportunity to focus on two vendors who offer short-term rental monitoring and compliance services and was able to receive a brief demo from both vendors last week. They offer competitive services including address identification, routine compliance, monitoring a 24-7 hotline, and compliance letter mail merge services that could assist a code enforcement officer. So the first is host compliance. They work with 150 cities and counties across the country. Close to 50 of them are in California, including Carmel-by-the-Sea, Mill Valley, San Rafael, Napa, Oakland, and the county of Marin. They provide services which can assist cities when enforcing bans and they also help cities who regulate short term rentals. The cost for host compliance to help enforce a ban for Sausalito is $10,809 a year. Additional costs associated with helping a city regulate short term rentals were provided in the staff report. After discussions with staff, host compliance has indicated that they'd be willing to enter into a one-year contract with the city of Sausalito, as opposed to the three-year contract that they mentioned previously. |
| 00:45:21.80 | Lily Whalen | The other vendor we spoke with is Short Term Rental Helper. They're a little bit newer to this scene. They've indicated that they serve 70 cities and counties across the country, including Healdsburg, Indio, and Seaside. They provide similar services to host compliance and will assist cities who have bans and then cities who also regulate short-term rentals. They also allow for a one-year contract, and they charge $16,000 a year to help enforce a ban. They also have additional fees that they charge to help cities regulate short-term rentals. And those were provided in the staff report as well. |
| 00:46:03.55 | Lily Whalen | After discussions with both of these companies, staff is recommending that Sausalito contract with Host Compliance, the first company I mentioned, for a one-year period for services to assist in enforcing the current prohibition on short-term rentals. We found that Host Compliance's experience working with other Marin County jurisdictions, and then their experience also worth working with smaller California cities like Carmel-by-the-Sea. is a good fit for Sausalito. Additionally, staff has found that their high rate of achieved compliance, and for example, Monterey achieved a rate of compliance they had in the hundreds of short-term rentals being advertised, and they went down to the single digits in under a year working with host compliance. And so that high rate of compliance is desirable as well. If the council at any point decides to regulate and allow short term rentals, host compliance would be agreeable to amending the contract to add those additional services they provide. to regulate short-term rentals. Due to the city's current prohibition on short-term rentals, contracting with the vendor would be to enforce the ban community-wide unless other directions was provided by the council to work with that vendor. Staff did speak with host complaints today to see if they would be able to assist the city. in enforcing the ban on a prioritization basis, and they are able to do that. So they are able to Um, if we purchase they have a module additional module that's a rental activity monitoring module that wasn't included in the $10,000 cost I quoted And if we had that, then they could scrape the sites and look back in time at the frequency that a particular property was being rented out. |
| 00:48:00.05 | Lily Whalen | So shifting to code enforcement, it's anticipated that additional code enforcement services are needed to actively enforce either a prohibition of or regulations allowing short-term rentals, in addition to keeping up with all of our other code enforcement issues in the city. Since January 2018 to date, the city closed 26 general code enforcement cases, and we currently have 51 active general code enforcement cases. So that's all code enforcement, not just short-term rental. Staff in the Finance Committee are recommending the council increase existing contract code enforcement services from the one day a week officer we currently have to a three day a week officer. CSG, the company that the city contracts with for building inspection services and code enforcement services and plan checking services, is able to begin this increased code enforcement contract service beginning in early December. And the code enforcement officer could work two weekdays and one weekend day up until the new year and then they can shift that Saturday to an additional weekday if we desire. As the contract with CSG for code enforcement services hasn't been visited in some time, their costs have increased. So if we did amend the contract to retain the additional code enforcement officer services, the rates would increase. We're currently paying about $35,000 a year. and with the up-to-date rates which are provided in the staff report, the three-day-a-week officer would be approximately $137,000 annually. And to ensure that we have the most competitive pricing, we could do some research and pursue other discussions with other companies that provide similar services and companies that may have additional availability or greater experience with short-term rentals in the new year if the council desires. |
| 00:50:07.04 | Lily Whalen | So the cost of moving ahead with the recommended level of contract code enforcement services, the three-day-a-week, and the short-term rental data monitoring enforcement total is $148,850. $89 annually. With the passage of the recent ballot measure L, the city anticipates receiving an additional $150,000 during the first six months of 2019. These new funds could cover the cost of the additional code enforcement officer and short-term rental services recommended. So with that, staff is recommending that the council adopt a resolution that's in your packet, appropriating the $10,809 to contract with host compliance. for short-term rental monitoring and compliance services for a one-year period, and then also appropriate Appropriate $137,280 for contract code enforcement services, the three-day-a-week officer. And that concludes my staff report, and I'm available for any questions. |
| 00:51:14.34 | Susan Cleveland-Knowles | Yeah, so several of our council members were not at the finance committee, so I do want to ask a couple of clarifying questions. So during the finance committee, I asked. the city manager if We needed a three-day-a-week code enforcement person regardless of short-term rentals? And as I understand it, the answer was yes. So even if that compliance officer spent no time on short term rentals, we have 51 outstanding complaints now and we have need. for three days a week, not one day a week. |
| 00:51:50.43 | Lily Whalen | Correct. |
| 00:51:50.97 | Susan Cleveland-Knowles | Okay, so your presentation focused on short term rentals, which was dismaying to me because The purpose of forwarding the code compliance officer was, were behind on code compliance throughout Sausalito. |
| 00:52:03.81 | Lily Whalen | Apologies if that wasn't clear. |
| 00:52:05.47 | Susan Cleveland-Knowles | OK. Okay, and then separately from that, we did talk about a vendor who could provide data for short regarding short term rentals in town, correct? And you mentioned a module that would enable us to enforce short term rentals on a prioritized basis. seeking out the most troublesome |
| 00:52:25.90 | Lily Whalen | Correct. |
| 00:52:28.50 | Susan Cleveland-Knowles | absentee. landlords as a priority, what's the cost of that module? |
| 00:52:34.42 | Lily Whalen | It's about $4,000. It's a little under $4,000. It's in the staff report. I can direct you to the page number. |
| 00:52:35.96 | Susan Cleveland-Knowles | THE END OF THE END OF THE |
| 00:52:40.26 | Susan Cleveland-Knowles | No, I saw it in the staff report, but my question is, is it included in the 148,000? It is not. It would have to be added. Okay. |
| 00:52:45.68 | Lily Whalen | Thank you. |
| 00:52:47.40 | Susan Cleveland-Knowles | So we'd be at 152. if we added the module. Thanks. |
| 00:52:56.73 | Jill Hoffman | Was that with host compliance or the other? With host compliance. With host compliance, okay, thanks. |
| 00:52:58.62 | Susan Cleveland-Knowles | With post compliance. you And have you interviewed other agencies about who will use host compliance or short term rentals. |
| 00:53:10.45 | Lily Whalen | I have spoken with some, yes. |
| 00:53:12.75 | Susan Cleveland-Knowles | Okay. and what- |
| 00:53:14.28 | Lily Whalen | For both companies. |
| 00:53:15.65 | Susan Cleveland-Knowles | And, I mean, what? |
| 00:53:16.04 | Lily Whalen | THE FEDBACK. So for both companies, I received positive feedback. For host compliance? Correct. And the short-term rental helper company. |
| 00:53:22.05 | Susan Cleveland-Knowles | Thank you. |
| 00:53:22.06 | Meg | Thank you. |
| 00:53:22.08 | Susan Cleveland-Knowles | in. |
| 00:53:25.67 | Lily Whalen | I spoke with Healdsburg. All right, I think Susan had a question. |
| 00:53:29.18 | Susan Cleveland-Knowles | Yeah, so I wasn't at the finance committee meeting. So when we were considering the budget last spring and this summer, there were a number of different things on our list that we either took out of the budget or that we were hoping to fund. So did the finance committee discuss, so this is $140,000-something. Did the finance committee discuss, so this is 140,000 something. Did the Finance Committee discuss other uses? I do remember that code enforcement was one of the items that was on the would like to fund but can't fund list. Did the Finance Committee talk about the other things that were on that list and how else this money might be spent? you |
| 00:54:14.97 | Susan Cleveland-Knowles | Because we were looking at TOT revenues, it had to be something that we could find a nexus to TOT. And so I think that's why code enforcement was- |
| 00:54:24.21 | Susan Cleveland-Knowles | So I'm not aware that there's any need for a nexus. Maybe the city attorney could clarify that. THE END OF |
| 00:54:30.96 | Unknown | Thank you. |
| 00:54:30.98 | Susan Cleveland-Knowles | The TOT funds are general fund revenue. |
| 00:54:33.04 | Susan Cleveland-Knowles | Thank you. |
| 00:54:33.07 | Susan Cleveland-Knowles | Okay. |
| 00:54:34.46 | Susan Cleveland-Knowles | you |
| 00:54:34.49 | Susan Cleveland-Knowles | Thank you. The answer is no, we didn't. |
| 00:54:39.94 | Susan Cleveland-Knowles | Okay, well that's just something, there were a lot of items on that list, including City Hall, beautification, other issues. I just... I think it would be questions. Helpful to have. I would like to have that context. So |
| 00:55:02.27 | Susan Cleveland-Knowles | point. |
| 00:55:02.72 | Unknown | I realize this isn't comment time, but just to help here, you know, that's the sort of thing that we'd normally do in the mid-year budget review. |
| 00:55:02.76 | Susan Cleveland-Knowles | you |
| 00:55:13.35 | Unknown | Right. |
| 00:55:15.14 | Unknown | look at all those items and ask the question, should they be funded? Obviously, we're fast tracking code enforcement. |
| 00:55:24.78 | Unknown | And the finance committee was fast-tracking what we didn't agree. So I'll put into context some of the comments here. Do we have a list of the other code enforcements other than short-term rentals that the code enforcement officer would be working on? And have we applied the benefit to those, the need for those, the reasoning to bring those forward prior to a normal mid-year budget discussion? |
| 00:55:56.20 | Lily Whalen | So I looked at the list of code enforcement cases, and there's 51 active cases right now in varying states of review, so some of them have been able to be looked at by the code enforcement officer, and she's investigating Some she's not able to get to at this point because there's other higher priority health and safety complaints. So they're all in varying states, but there's 51 active cases right now. |
| 00:56:22.25 | Unknown | and they warrant attention now as opposed to when we would normally do those in the mid-year budget review. |
| 00:56:31.47 | Lily Whalen | I think it's a council decision at this point, right now. and |
| 00:56:35.97 | Susan Cleveland-Knowles | with them. |
| 00:56:36.61 | Lily Whalen | Thank you. Thank you. |
| 00:56:36.95 | Susan Cleveland-Knowles | So I do want to say the Finance Committee did unanimously forward this to the City Council. |
| 00:56:42.82 | Unknown | We forwarded it to the City Council, correct, to discuss. Right. We didn't use the words that we agreed. I don't have the slide here, but we did not. |
| 00:56:45.09 | Susan Cleveland-Knowles | to discuss. |
| 00:56:53.78 | Unknown | agree to hire host compliance or |
| 00:56:55.99 | Susan Cleveland-Knowles | Agreed. |
| 00:56:56.48 | Unknown | together. |
| 00:56:57.61 | Susan Cleveland-Knowles | we recommended it be forwarded to the City Council for consideration |
| 00:57:07.48 | Unknown | Finance Committee recommend increasing contract code enforcement and to retain a vendor to assist with identifying short-term rentals. That was not what we agreed to do. |
| 00:57:17.30 | Susan Cleveland-Knowles | right i haven't watched the tape but i do clearly remember turning to you and saying are you okay with this recommendation to the council so |
| 00:57:24.12 | Unknown | Thank you. I said I'm okay with the council hearing it But no, I do not want to hire somebody because I wanted to appropriate the money. We could save for this for comment. |
| 00:57:39.98 | Unknown | Thank you. |
| 00:57:40.00 | Jill Hoffman | All right, any other questions of Lily? I think, yeah, I do have a question. So do I have it right that that if we hired a part time, or increase a part time code enforcement from one day to three days, regardless of short term rentals, that that person would be fully employed. |
| 00:58:01.11 | Lily Whalen | practice. |
| 00:58:01.80 | Jill Hoffman | Okay, so yeah, go ahead. |
| 00:58:04.80 | Adam Politzer | I think the important difference between a full time employee that would show up to work, expecting to work versus contract. If we don't have anything for them to do, we're not charged the money. So they're not guaranteed three days of pay if there isn't anything to do. So if they go through the list of 50 and they complete it and we only have a handful of others, then they won't do three days of work. |
| 00:58:30.94 | Jill Hoffman | Yeah, okay, thank you for that clarification, because my concern was that the person, that they would be fully employed before they even got to whatever we wanted them to do with regard to short term rentals. But what I'm hearing is that we can expand and contract that, okay, as we need, up to three days. Okay. |
| 00:58:51.23 | Adam Politzer | So I think this is not to exceed amount. |
| 00:58:51.26 | Jill Hoffman | So I think this is not to exceed. Okay. |
| 00:58:54.03 | Susan Cleveland-Knowles | Thank you. |
| 00:58:54.14 | Jill Hoffman | Thank you. |
| 00:58:55.29 | Susan Cleveland-Knowles | Okay, thank you. Thanks. Okay, if there are no more questions, I'll open it up to public comment. I only have one speaker card so far from Sandra Bushmaker. |
| 00:59:11.49 | Sandra Bushmaker | I believe Wendy Richards also submitted one and I'm going to have her proceed me if that's all right with the council. That's fine. |
| 00:59:20.39 | Susan Cleveland-Knowles | Yeah. Lily, can you help Wendy with her PowerPoint? |
| 00:59:24.71 | Wendy Richards | Oh, there is already a stick. you |
| 00:59:49.16 | Lily Whalen | And then before you start, let me just use that. |
| 00:59:49.61 | Unknown | Thank you. |
| 00:59:53.33 | Lily Whalen | Thank you. I'll be okay. Thank you. you Thank you. |
| 00:59:58.73 | Susan Cleveland-Knowles | Thank you. |
| 00:59:58.74 | Lily Whalen | Thanks. |
| 00:59:58.96 | Susan Cleveland-Knowles | No, it's this one. Yeah. Okay. It says STR, so it's hard to read. Okay. Okay. |
| 01:00:04.90 | Unknown | Okay. Thank you. |
| 01:00:06.12 | Wendy Richards | you |
| 01:00:06.29 | Unknown | Thank you. |
| 01:00:06.32 | Wendy Richards | Stay by yourself. |
| 01:00:21.47 | Wendy Richards | Wendy Richards, resident, business owner, taxpayer, homeowner. So I was shocked that we're even discussing enforcement, because to me, that's your job. You took an oath of office in your service to uphold the law. And for me, this is way bigger than STRs. It is about our democracy and standing behind the laws. Why should I get a permit to fix my house if you're not going to enforce this other law? Why should I pay my taxes if you're not going to enforce the law? It's time to enforce the law. |
| 01:01:00.86 | Wendy Richards | And if that isn't enough, those of you who are lawyers know that it's your job to uphold the law. The state bar says so, and that applies even when you're not practicing law. So let's uphold the law. Now, on this question, who stands to gain by us not upholding the law? There is an elephant in this room. It is Airbnb. Despite all the other companies, they are siphoning off the profits. They announced a billion in revenues in the last quarter. They just hired a new CFO who came straight from Amazon, and they're looking at other businesses. So this is a serious threat to our community because there is essentially a monopoly operating in this market with a lot of data that we don't have. So why else do we need enforcement? I believe we need enforcement because STRs pose a threat to our community. And I'll go through the five points in a moment. Number one, STRs destroy our sense of belonging. And if it isn't enough to get a sense of walking around this city and seeing how many visitors we have living in our homes, here's a report from Ikea. That tells you why we need to enforce |
| 01:02:18.97 | Susan Cleveland-Knowles | All right, Wendy, I'm going to stop you there for one second. It's important that tonight we focus on whether we're going to hire a code enforcement officer. And not argue the pros and cons of short term rentals, which is a matter the Sausalito City Council has already considered and will consider again. I am doing that, may I continue? I did not take your time in order to have this discussion with you. I'm simply making a point of order. |
| 01:02:37.25 | Wendy Richards | I want to just- Okay. |
| 01:02:44.30 | Susan Cleveland-Knowles | in order to manage this meeting to be sure we stay on topic. Thank you. |
| 01:02:48.27 | Wendy Richards | Thank you. Got it. Okay, number two as to why it's important to enforce is that this is attracting institutional and investor capital into our community and that's why we need good enforcement. This is a website that tells you exactly how to invest, where to invest. And they have a chart that tells you as an investor, what's the return you can make versus what a normal apartment goes for. And this affects our housing element, it affects rental prices, and that's an important piece of this enforcement. And we need an enforcement officer who understands these issues. We also need that enforcement officer to understand the divisiveness of this industry. People are using the Airbnb popularity, now it's all over the television. And the first launch on Netflix is a houseboat in Seattle telling you how to build it, how to renew it, what gets you more money. These are the kind of things that our enforcement officer needs to know. |
| 01:03:56.75 | Susan Cleveland-Knowles | Thank you. If you want Sandra to continue, or whoever. Who was it that deferred? I have two more slides, if I may. Is that okay with folks that she finish up? |
| 01:04:08.32 | Wendy Richards | Okay. Okay, lastly, two slides. I believe the enforcement officer needs to know that our lives are at risk. When fire broke out above my house last year, I was boarding the ferry and I had the privilege of standing next to the ferry officers with the radios. And I knew where that fire was and I knew who lived up there and I called them. I called the people on Monty Mar. I called the people on Rodeo when I found out the fire moved. And I called my neighbor, who's 90, and by the five minutes later, neighbors were calling me to make sure I was okay. And when these houses have visitors, number one, they can't call us, and number two, we can't call them. And it's so critical. It is about lives here. So please uphold the law and give us the data, demonstrate over at least the next six months that you can enforce these laws. That you do get the results from Monterey because I bought a home in R1, not H1. Thank you very much, and thank you for the extra time. Thank you. |
| 01:05:16.84 | Susan Cleveland-Knowles | All right. Sandra Bushmaker. |
| 01:05:24.73 | Sandra Bushmaker | Sandra Bushmaker, citizen and resident of Sausalito. I would like to reiterate some of the points that Wendy just made, but I will save my breath for other points that I wish to make. I believe it's very important that we have enforcement officers on any given night I can look up Airbnb. And see at least 15 to 20 advertised here in Sausalito. In addition, when I first moved back to Sausalito in the summer of 2017, Next door was advertising less than 30 day rentals. Let us enforce the 30 day rental. statute that or ordinance that we have on the books right now. And we also know And I think that hiring a compliance or enforcement officer, that is a professional will give us the ability to data that is statistically significant and statistically reliable. rather than just calling complaints. We know that calling complaints is not a measure of compliance. And so I would encourage the council to Hire a person. Host compliance is my choice, and I would encourage the council to do that in order that we get hard data that we can start enforcing Since I've been a resident of Sausalito since 1979, enforcement in all areas has been a problem. not just short term rentals. So we have a huge problem, much larger than short term rentals, in order to address. here in our community. In addition, my neighbors, And if we are truly an age-friendly community, we'll be sensitive to the neighbors who are afraid who live alone, who are afraid of the transient nature of short term rental uh, events in their neighborhood. People in Sausalito, in the residences, want to know their neighbors. They don't want a different set of people a different set of cars, a different set of problems in their neighborhoods. week after week after week. It's a real issue, and let's get some hard data so we can make some decisions. And I also would encourage the council to not take any further action until we have product from the new enforcement officer that we can look at these hard numbers. Thank you. Thank you. Susan Shea. |
| 01:07:57.98 | Susan Cleveland-Knowles | Sonia Hanson. Madame Mayor. |
| 01:07:58.60 | Unknown | Madam Mayor, I'm sorry to interrupt. simple matter of protocol, could we ask the staff to take down the presentation that's currently on there, which is a presentation from a member of the public. You've effectively extended their public communications time beyond the two minutes you already gave that person. |
| 01:08:22.01 | Susan Cleveland-Knowles | Thanks, Lily. |
| 01:08:22.55 | Unknown | Thank you. |
| 01:08:22.56 | Unknown | Even though I agree with it. |
| 01:08:28.28 | Unknown | Good evening, my name is Susan Shea on Spring Street. So it was really interesting hearing the comments before, public comments. It seems like some of you have already made up your minds about this enforcement person. I'm not sure. I've lived here quite a long time and ever since I've moved here enforcement in this town has been dreadful. except for building codes. Any of you that have tried to put up a fence, changed a window, done it even a toilet seat. can sometimes be a problem in this town. Um, Because building codes are something that really do enforce. However, most other things we do not enforce. Um, So I would strongly encourage you, since one of the things that came out of many of these meetings is that we can all agree that enforcement is something that the city really needs to dig in and do. So I, I really urge you to not turn this into another thing that we have to fight about. and to really, to hire this person and get host compliance and do what you're supposed to do. |
| 01:09:42.30 | Susan Cleveland-Knowles | Thank you. you Sonia Hanson. And then David Souto. |
| 01:09:56.54 | Sonya Hansen | My name is Sonya Hansen. tonight I'm not going to lose my glasses. I even put it in big print. So, good evening, Mayor, Council, staff, and fellow residents. My name is Sonya Hansen. I am a resident living on Spring Street. Whatever course you vote to take in the future regarding short-term rentals, the City requires data now and will require data in the future in order to enforce the law in place. I urge you to engage host compliance now to provide that data. The City also needs an enforcement arm. We have needed and been promised code enforcement for years, long before the phrase short-term rentals had ever been heard. A person one day a week to cover enforcement of the numerous codes, rules, laws that the city has adopted over the years is, to put it bluntly, a joke. It is a disservice to all of us. Like many other laws defined by our city codes, our current ban on short-term rentals has never been enforced. Laws are only as good as the enforcement effort that is made to bring human beings into compliance with them. At this point in time, we have no reason to believe any rules on short-term rentals, pilots or otherwise, will be enforced. I implore you to finally fulfill the hollow promise we have heard for years and higher code enforcement. Three days a week is a start. Please approve that investment in our community tonight. |
| 01:11:28.63 | Susan Cleveland-Knowles | Thank you. David Suto and then Russ Irwin. |
| 01:11:36.62 | David Souto | I don't know what the 51, it would be great to know what that 51 caseload is in man hours or approximate or what kind of, how many months that is of backlog for comparison. But I think both of these are important to do, whether we have short-term rentals or not. We need code compliance. If we begin to allow to have short-term rentals, we're going to need building inspections also. And we're going to have to have code compliance, um, with building standards for those short-term rentals. And I expect that that would increase our workload. Um, I would, |
| 01:12:15.94 | David Souto | If we do allow short-term rentals, I would certainly expect that these budget items would be built into the fees for those short-term rental licenses for the system so that the city wouldn't be impacted in the long run on these contract amounts. So I think that's important since it looks like City Council is leaning towards allowing short-term rentals sometime in the future. And, you know, I think it's a problem that impacts us in many different ways. And one way I can tell is sometimes I come home at night and I can find plenty of parking, and then other times I can't find any parking. And the only difference I can think of is that there's a fair number of short-term rentals going on in my neighborhood, and it's enough to make a material difference in whether I can find a parking spot on my block or if I have to go two blocks from my house. So we need to get a handle on what we're doing. We need to have rules, and we need to follow them, whether we have short-term rentals or not. Thank you. |
| 01:13:23.63 | Susan Cleveland-Knowles | Thank you, Russ Irwin, and that's the last speaker card I have. |
| 01:13:32.03 | Unknown | you Russ Irwin, Johnson Street. I appreciate that the council has a responsibility to trade off on resources. We have more demand for resources than we do resources. One of those is clearly in code compliance. We have a full-time, at least in my experience, full-time five-day-a-week enforcement officer for building code who doesn't wait for the neighbors to call He doesn't wait for anybody to call. He actually comes by your job. random times and FINDS PROBLEMS OR? going to be dozens. my house he stopped and Stopped the whole project for two weeks, which was the right thing to do. I mean, he was doing his job. It was code compliance. There was a problem. He came around. He didn't wait for somebody to call him. Found a problem. Stopped the job. That's what people are supposed to do. So you've got, as I understand it, one person working five days a week, on building code. And one person working one day a week on everything else. So if you have to balance your resources, maybe you should get three in three. Or maybe you should have four and six. I don't know. But if you're balancing resources, you're pretty heavily weighted to building code Which... is at the expense of everything else. You have trade-offs to make. You can make them. That's your job. I know you know it, you don't have to have me tell you it. but, You're kind of out of balance here. Five. |
| 01:15:04.98 | Susan Cleveland-Knowles | you |
| 01:15:05.05 | Unknown | One. |
| 01:15:05.52 | Susan Cleveland-Knowles | Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. And Alice Merrill. |
| 01:15:15.38 | Alice Merrill | Hello, Alice Merrill. What I want to say is, in code compliance, I think that if somebody is doing work on properties, that they're supposed to have some kind of carpooling for the workers, that they're not supposed to just take up the entire neighborhood with trucks. And I can say that that is not addressed. Most of the time in an area that I happen to be hanging out in a lot these days, which is up by the Women's Club, and we have two very large projects, and there is never any parking. And they are three projects on that street. And that's never addressed in my experience, thank you. |
| 01:16:06.52 | Susan Cleveland-Knowles | you |
| 01:16:07.99 | Alice Merrill | Thank you. |
| 01:16:08.03 | Susan Cleveland-Knowles | Thank you. All right. There being no further public comment, I will close public comment and bring it up here for discussion. Who would like to lead off? |
| 01:16:19.08 | Jill Hoffman | Thank you. |
| 01:16:22.44 | Jill Hoffman | I'll lead off if you want to. So yeah, I'm in favor of this. I mean, we looked at host compliance two years ago when we first started talking. When we, like really early on when we were just doing public. outreach, actually, I think, for short-term rentals. And so... Um, You have to have a way to manage it, regardless whether it's legal or not legal. And if you're talking about it, and really discussion started back then was about enforcement. About there were problems, we weren't being effective at addressing them. How can we address them? At that time, host compliance, you could not engage them unless you had a short-term rental program. So that was sort of the progression back then. But I'm happy that now they've changed, that that's not a requirement so that we can engage them at the beginning. And I'm all for that, and if that gives people confidence in our ability to manage going forward, then all the better. So I'm in favor of both. The one The caution that I have though is we're looking at the stress on the budget, right? So really I think it's going to be, I think we're going to want the $4,000 module with all the other the other functionalities that come with that that are incredibly cost effective. I mean just incredibly to have most of that stuff automated and then the compliance, person. the code enforcement person would then follow up on that. So we're looking at $152,000 a year. And I think it was to raise someone's point about where does that come at the budget when during our budget discussions, I think it was Susan actually. you know, We were stretched really thin, and when you talk about using the TOT money, that TOT money was already sort of earmarked for 2020. in the way that we had structured the budget with regard to money we allocated to the parks and money that we allocated to the pension fund. So, So I am very cognizant about how that's going to stress the budget and the structure we have going forward. And I guess we'll talk about that at the mid year budget review. But yeah, I'm very much in favor of this. I'm very interested to see the metrics. I'm very interested in the city's ability to create a system where we can effectively manage what we have right now and manage compliance and then giving people confidence going forward. If we do want to go forward with a short one year pilot program for further metrics on our ability to manage going forward. With the idea that if we are not successful at managing a short term rental pilot program, that the pilot program ends and we go to zero. So that's sort of my thought process right now. But I'm happy to hear from my fellow council members. Thank you. |
| 01:19:06.58 | Susan Cleveland-Knowles | Thank you. I'll weigh in. So I have a couple comments. I guess one of the things here that I am concerned about is the process of how this came forward to us. |
| 01:19:07.80 | Jill Hoffman | Yeah. |
| 01:19:18.53 | Susan Cleveland-Knowles | We did have a lot of budget challenges in our last budget, and there were a lot of things coming forward. Our parks, city hall, code enforcement was definitely one of them. Many, many requests that will do wonderful things to the city, and we didn't have enough money and our pension. Yeah. obligations and so we did make a lot of hard choices and This is a significant amount of money given our budget. So I'm not necessarily, I mean code enforcement is a priority. We talked about it at that time, I still think it's a priority, but Would really rather personally have this discussion with the whole array of choices of how to use the money Um, from the new TOT wisely and well. So, but that said, what we have in front of us tonight is this particular question. Again, code enforcement, I agree with all of the comments that it's incredibly important. I have also said throughout the short term rental discussion that my most important priority with a pilot or is that we only, we do not allow hoteling of units, meaning empty units that are only used for STRs, that only people who live in this town and are permanent residents can host. So I asked staff earlier today if there was a way to prioritize since we are right in the middle of our short-term rental discussion we ended one conversation and we haven't really finished it. So I asked staff if it was possible to sort of similar to how we've addressed our anchor out issues and waterfront management, if it's possible to phase enforcement. So that if we do go forward with host compliance, and I agree that host compliance is a better choice here. Can we phase compliance so that we really target the most problematic short-term rentals first. And I think there is no disagreement on the council that anyone who is not a resident and is solely using a unit for hosting is not something that we are in favor with the pilot would not allow that. And the band does not allow that so that we prioritize. in that way. I also think that that avoids sending a mixed message in the event that we adopt a pilot, then we'll We'll be consistent, we'll continue to have host compliance in force on those. And if we go to a ban, then we can just ramp up. So that's how I would like to direct host compliance if we move forward, is to look at our most egregious STRs first, and then continue our conversation on short-term rentals, see if we do move forward with a pilot or not, and then... go from there. But I do agree that enforcement is an incredibly important issue. But I do wish this had come up in a different way, not in the middle, our conversation about short-term rentals and in the context of other very very important budget items |
| 01:22:43.69 | Unknown | I'm in favor of this. I think we should also appropriate the extra 4,000 or change or whatever it is to beef up host compliances. remit or whatever you want to call it. I want to make a couple of points about code enforcement. generally. I have the good fortune and privilege of representing Sausalito on different county and regional agencies. What's that got to do with it? Well, I get to talk to a lot of people. I get to talk to a lot of people who run other cities, run other jurisdictions, not only in Marin, in the North Bay, in the South Bay, in Costa County, you know where I mean. CCC, right. Everybody has a code enforcement problem. Everybody. Nobody solves the problem. You throw more resources at it and, yeah, you make incremental improvements. But I would be shocked if we cleared up a backlog. I mean, good luck, Lily. Maybe you will. I don't know. It's going to be very tough. And so what you can do is put a dent in it and put a dent in it where it really needs to happen. And it's very clear this is something that needs to happen. And so I'm. I'm very much in favor of this. I do understand Councilmember Cleveland-Knowell's point, which is we do really need to look at this in the context of all the things that we didn't fund last time. Code enforcement's been up and down. I've been doing this for six years. It's been going up and down. Sometimes it's been successful. We had someone for half time or full time. Adam, you can help us out. It was very efficient. Got a lot of stuff done. We just weren't focusing on short term rentals. But we did some. A fair amount, 50,000 on the short term rentals. We had a spreadsheet that showed we shut some down. We shut some down. So I don't. I hear all the noise about and all the concerns about the fact that the city doesn't enforce. It's just not true. |
| 01:25:23.11 | Unknown | . |
| 01:25:25.68 | Unknown | Every city, Sausalito faces the same thing that every other city faces in code enforcement. But the only way you're going to actually improve it is to actually spend money on it and so that's why I support this. |
| 01:25:44.58 | Unknown | I have a few items here. I'll start with, once again, Ray kind of stole something that I was going to say as far as our ability to enforce codes. I'm in and out of houses all day long throughout the county, throughout the North Bay actually. And one of the number one things we hear is, that wasn't done to code. That water heater wasn't done to code. That gas line wasn't done to code. So this idea that our building departments, are doing a better job. They're doing a great job. They're not slamming any building departments. I'm just saying code enforcement is an issue. The reason short term rentals hasn't been an issue as much as a house burning down due to a little gas line or a water heater is because the community hasn't told us until recently that's an issue. And I'm going off our FM3 survey here, short term rentals, 49%, not too serious. Where 46 for parks, 36 for taxes, and 47 for transit. So those items are more serious. So our community, other than some really loud voices at certain meetings, hasn't told us in mass or in a high majority that this is something that we have to put a lot of code enforcement dollars towards. In fact, On the same survey, they had us at over 70% of people that expect us to have fees for short term rentals. I knew I wouldn't be able to find it. Anyway, it was on the establishing fees for short term rentals, 67%. expect that out of us. So it seems to me, at least the people that answered the surveys, that maybe they're the same people that have done the online polls, That our community does want us to do something positive with short term rentals. And that is to regulate them. Because if they're expecting fees out of them, they're not expecting fees from a banned product. We continue to say, and I'm glad that Councilmember Cleveland Knowles mentioned it again, that we are all, all, 7,400 people in Sausalito I believe, It sounds a few, are interested in stopping the hoteling of properties, absentee owners using their home as a hotel. I don't think any of us have said anything to the difference. Yet most of the items that come up fall into the line of that type of issue. And we're all in agreement that we want to take care of that. I think where we differ is how we protect the people who might actually need to rent out a room occasionally. And I'm not going to go much further into the purpose of the short term rentals because, as the mayor pointed out, and I want to thank the speakers today, we didn't get into that and that's not this item. But it is the item as far as how far do we want to go to enforce something that the community hasn't told us in a majority that it's as high as a priority as other things. Again, some of the building codes. streaming more than 25% of your tree. Has anybody done that? It's against the law. that it's as high as a priority as other things. Again, some of the building codes. Trimming more than 25% of your tree, has anybody done that? It's against the law. Most of it happens on Saturdays. So I wanted to bring those items up. And what happened at the finance committee meeting is we talked about this item and we talked about the budgeting or being at a finance committee meeting, how we're gonna get the finances and that we appropriate the money out of the budget. And I did agree to that and I still do. What the mayor had said and what I had agreed upon is it's gonna take a couple months to get that going. And in that meantime, we would be able to bring the short term rental issue back to the public at a council meeting. That's changed. As of this staff report, because now this mentions the December one start date, which is different than the two months I think we mentioned. So that's one of the context items I wanted to bring up. The other was at the meeting that we last opined, it looked like we had a support for short term rental pilot program. At the Finance Committee, we talked in numbers as far as a pilot program, yet the staff report focuses on a ban only and doesn't provide us the clear cut numbers. We can pull them out, but it kind of backed us back up to a ban where, if anything, it should kind of show what those number and comparisons were for the pilot, since at that point we were favoring that approach. And I'm still favoring that approach. I'm still favoring regulating so that we can protect residents while we eliminate the bad actors and the bad impacts and the hoteling of short term rentals. I also know that host compliance is going to provide us a tremendous amount of data. Airbnb, whether we like them or not, because they're profitable, they're going to provide us a tremendous amount of data. The hosts that we bring out of the shadows are going to provide us a tremendous amount of data. And I brought up some ideas as far as what businesses do, and I found some businesses that, cater in this regard. They work with hosts to provide commerce ideas for that guest to shop locally. They don't necessarily wanna come out and speak, but they will provide us tremendous amount of data. So I think a pilot will provide us much more data than continuing a ban with increased enforcement. And again, I'm not hearing from the majority, Based on the surveys and the things that we've done, that a majority of the residents wants to do 100% ban and spend $150,000 on that. Either way, we have to spend money on enforcement. It's how we're going to stop those bad actors. So I am supporting that we go forth with this plan. I'm just not comfortable with the time frame, starting the code enforcement before we vote again on a pilot or ban. I think it sends a mixed message to everybody, but mostly the host, the potential guests, the vendor that we hire. If we're going to start them off in December and switch gears in January, I don't see the need for that. Um, |
| 01:32:03.27 | Susan Cleveland-Knowles | Well, guys, sorry, public comment is closed. The audience member said what is changing in January? What's changing is when and if a short term rental pilot program |
| 01:32:08.69 | Unknown | That might be much easier. |
| 01:32:09.70 | Alice Merrill | . right? |
| 01:32:15.82 | Susan Cleveland-Knowles | is adopted, the instructions that city staff may give to a code enforcement officer would then change to enforce the parameters of that pilot program rather than now enforcing the ban that's in place. |
| 01:32:28.48 | Unknown | Thank you. So yeah, so that's it. I support that we allocate this money, that we are going to have three day a week, up to three day a week code enforcement because we have a lot of other issues that need enforcing as we know. Through the building department, I think there's a ton of things out there that we're breaking the law and that we can fine people for. So we can look at those. I just don't want to put the cart in front of the horse yet. I would say that we allocate, I'm even saying it's okay that we would use host. I prefer them as well, host compliance. That we include the dollars amount for a pilot program, that we do the $4,000 module, but we don't engage their contract. until we engage an answer from this dais if it's banned or regulated. So that's where I sit. |
| 01:33:22.63 | Susan Cleveland-Knowles | Thanks. So I just want to clarify a couple of things. How this came to the Finance Committee is it was actually listed as a future agenda item. So a council member requested that the city immediately undertake the hiring of host compliance. And so I put it on the future agenda items list where it was published. And from there on the future agenda items list that was a part of our agenda, it was referred to the finance committee for examination of the finances. At the same time, I did request further analysis by the finance committee of a potential short term rental program. It came on to the finance committee and then to our agenda. Any council member who believes there's another Pressing item. that should not wait until mid-year can request that be put on a future agenda items list to be addressed now by the Finance Committee. We have evolved this future agenda items list, I think, very effectively, Ray, Withy, and I over the last two years. Any council member that thinks something is urgent can put it on the finance committee list, on the Future agenda items list, the agenda setting committee then refers it or doesn't, but it's reports at every council meeting what the status of that item is. So that's the process by which this went to the finance committee and then to us tonight. I want to make it clear also that during our budget briefing, it was made very clear that our budget is balanced in the year 2019. And that it was for future years that we were hoping to have monies from Measure L and Measure M, But even without those monies, we now have received grant funding that we were not aware of. And so our budget is now balanced through 2038 without Measure L and Measure M. We have the opportunity to use Measure L and Measure M to bolster those very things that Councilmember Cleveland Knowles raised and that we were all briefed on during the budget briefings. Um, I believe we have a new resource in the form of our new community development director, whom I have great confidence and optimism, will address our outstanding list of code enforcement issues, along with many other things that I've already observed her accomplishing in her short tenure in that position. But I do think it's a priority. This was something I personally pushed very hard for, before the short-term rental enforcement issue arose during the finance committee meetings leading up to our budget and during our budget. I lobbied very hard that we have a code enforcement officer for three days a week. And so I continue to believe That's an important priority for our city. Um, I do agree that we should hire host compliance now, start to gather data now, so that whatever the city decides, when this issue comes back to us, we are better equipped and have more data to evaluate as we consider our path forward. However, I do. think it's smart to by the $4,000 module that allows us to prioritize our focus. And I do think we should give direction to our code enforcement person to focus on the 51 complaints now in our system that aren't related to short term rentals. I think that's plenty to keep them busy in the month of December. Until. the council. weighs in on its final decision on a pilot program. um, I learned something distressing tonight, which is that there is a belief that some of the people who have spoken to us in favor of short term rentals, have now become the subject of complaints about their own short term rental. And I was very dismayed to hear that, and I sincerely hope that is not the case. I believe that our complaint based system is flawed. It's another reason I favor the data collection from host compliance. That will allow us to enforce whatever program we ultimately put in place without having to have neighbors complain about neighbors. I'm not saying neighbors shouldn't be able to complain about neighbors, but I think it will be important for us to have a resource other than neighbor complaints in order to enforce whatever law we ultimately adopt. um, And I want to say, whenever we do focus on enforcement regarding short-term rentals, I urge that we consult with Roy Givens, the finance director for the county, who's currently working on a county enforcement program since they have adopted a short-term rental program and expects to have something flushed out in the next three months or so so and rather than reinvent the wheel I would urge us to consult with him and other jurisdictions that have grappled with these same same issues and so um, With that, unless there's any further comment, |
| 01:38:57.43 | Jill Hoffman | I actually do have a question based on other questions. |
| 01:38:57.45 | Susan Cleveland-Knowles | Amen. |
| 01:39:00.67 | Jill Hoffman | And I'm wondering, and I'm the last person to suggest a subcommittee or more work for meetings or anything, but based on my experience with the, the change in direction that we've had on the waterfront and actually enforcing laws that are on the books. But doing it in a phased way and in a way that can be with plenty of notice to the people. Even though the rules are that they've been violated for many years, but a phased process and also you know, as we go forward on sort of the infrastructure, the management infrastructure that you would need for any kind of program, short-term rental pilot program or anything else. Other than just an enforcement officer, I mean, you'll need a whole other level of sort of processes in place and how are we going to do that? And that's a fairly complicated. Someone at some point said that's a lot of bells and whistles, and I kind of agree. So I don't know, I'm just asking how the rest of the council and you as mayor feel about, do we need that? Do we need a subcommittee? for ad hoc committee or whatever you want to call it, task force. to sort of help shepherd those questions through in the process as we move from the system we have now to a more exact enforcement program. So, because, to be fair... |
| 01:40:24.66 | Susan Cleveland-Knowles | So that's again, |
| 01:40:25.86 | Jill Hoffman | Yeah. |
| 01:40:26.04 | Susan Cleveland-Knowles | That's not on our agenda for tonight. Tonight is, are we going to hire a code enforcement officer? |
| 01:40:31.06 | Jill Hoffman | Thank you. |
| 01:40:31.26 | Unknown | Thank you. |
| 01:40:31.29 | Jill Hoffman | Thank you. |
| 01:40:31.32 | Susan Cleveland-Knowles | Thank you. |
| 01:40:31.34 | Unknown | Thank you. |
| 01:40:31.53 | Jill Hoffman | I'm sorry. |
| 01:40:31.58 | Susan Cleveland-Knowles | Yep. |
| 01:40:31.65 | Jill Hoffman | Thank you. |
| 01:40:31.66 | Susan Cleveland-Knowles | Okay, so- Let me just feature an item. I think that should be something that would be included as part of the discussion of a pilot program. Yeah, okay. Is whether it would be helpful to have an ad hoc committee to assist in developing an enforcement strategy. |
| 01:40:38.12 | Unknown | Yeah. |
| 01:40:46.49 | Unknown | . |
| 01:40:47.59 | Susan Cleveland-Knowles | All right, so I'm going to move that we adopt the resolution in our packet, appropriating funds for additional code enforcement services and approving and authorizing the city manager to execute a professional consulting services agreement post-compliance for short-term rental monitoring and compliance services with the amendment that we will add the module that allows us to prioritize the the types of data that we want from host compliance. |
| 01:41:23.76 | Unknown | Second. |
| 01:41:25.53 | Susan Cleveland-Knowles | And Serge, will you call the roll? No discussion? |
| 01:41:27.97 | Unknown | Thank you. |
| 01:41:28.01 | Susan Cleveland-Knowles | Thank you. |
| 01:41:28.53 | Unknown | AND WE'RE GOING TO TALK |
| 01:41:28.95 | Susan Cleveland-Knowles | Thank you. |
| 01:41:28.97 | Unknown | you |
| 01:41:29.04 | Susan Cleveland-Knowles | you |
| 01:41:29.09 | Unknown | Thank you. |
| 01:41:29.10 | Susan Cleveland-Knowles | The motion is made. If you have further discussion, you may. It's been seconded. You can discuss. |
| 01:41:29.12 | Unknown | It does. |
| 01:41:33.43 | Unknown | Okay, great. So it says that we prioritize, but it doesn't give priority to that. So are we prioritizing on? Thank you. of the 51 that we have and absentees after that? Or what's that priority? So I'm happy to amend my motion. |
| 01:41:48.88 | Susan Cleveland-Knowles | So I'm happy to amend my motion. So I will include in my motion, direction to staff, that we prioritize the 51 existing code compliance issues currently pending from the city of Sausalito. and If the code compliance officer doesn't have enough to do after that, that we prioritize those um, short term rentals that appear to be, um, problematic in terms of complaints and or absentee landlords. |
| 01:42:24.57 | Susan Cleveland-Knowles | Is there a second to my amended motion? |
| 01:42:26.92 | Unknown | Well, well, I mean, I think the protocol is to ask whether I'm willing to amend, I'm willing to second the amended motion. |
| 01:42:35.03 | Unknown | That's what I just said. Are you willing to... |
| 01:42:36.22 | Unknown | And the I mean... you I'm a bit worried about micromanaging this. We're going to start micromanaging consultants work product. I mean, I'd just like to hear the city manager's view on this before I'm willing to second that. |
| 01:43:00.77 | Adam Politzer | I agree with a lot of the discussion the council's had and Councilmember Susan Cleveland Knowles in an earlier conversation this evening was pointing the similarity to the enforcement program that we have on South Souda waters regarding the anchor out. So I think the direction that I'm hearing from council is direction that staff can work with and work with our code enforcement officer to start with the 51, then move to the problematic ones, the party houses and the folks that are using it as more of a hotel versus their residents. I think that direction is fairly clear. |
| 01:43:38.01 | Unknown | Okay, so with that, I will second the amended motion. |
| 01:43:42.01 | Unknown | Thank you. Is there any further discussion? Serge, will you call the roll? Thank you for the question. |
| 01:43:48.05 | Serge | Council member Withey? Yes. Councilmember Cleveland Knowles. |
| 01:43:52.56 | Unknown | Thank you. |
| 01:43:52.58 | Susan Cleveland-Knowles | Yeah. Yes. |
| 01:43:53.64 | Serge | Council Member Hoffman? Yes. Vice Mayor Burns? Yes. Mayor Cox? |
| 01:43:54.85 | Susan Cleveland-Knowles | Yes. |
| 01:43:58.45 | Susan Cleveland-Knowles | Yes, that motion carries 5-0. Thank you. |
| 01:44:07.58 | Unknown | Everybody okay? Anybody need a break? |
| 01:44:09.05 | Susan Cleveland-Knowles | Thank you. Okay. All right, with that we'll move on to business item 6B, status update on parks capital improvement projects. |
| 01:44:23.95 | Jonathon Goldman | Thank you, Madam Mayor, members of council, staff, and community. Jonathan Goldman, your public works director and city engineer. There's no staff report for this item, just a PowerPoint that went out with the agenda packet. The intent is just to provide kind of an overview status update because it's been some time since there was a more holistic presentation on parks. The presentation is perhaps lacking in some details that I know, for example, that Councilmember Hoffman's interested in. So by all means, if there are questions or information that Council would like to have, I'm happy to bring any of that information back subsequently. I'm also optimistic that between now and the mid-year budget that we'll have a lot clearer picture of a number of things here, including budget status on certain things. So very briefly, just wanted to update on three parks projects, the MLK Field Project. as you're aware October 30th we awarded a contract and the contractor had actually asked if they could start work before the contract was awarded I just didn't think that was a good idea but they did start work promptly thereafter that project will regrade the field to improve drainage add new storm drain facilities and address some drainage issues that have traditionally occurred between the field and the businesses that front on Bridgeway there, add an approximately one-third mile long circumferential, that's an Andy Davidson word, I stole this from his PowerPoint,umferential path around the field with connections at Ebtai, Coloma, the restroom, and the parking lot. an outdoor fitness area, and you'll note in a subsequent portion of the presentation that the location and shape of that facility have changed. It's possible that we will pull that out of the current contract and do it separately, but made some changes there. We'll also be installing a car gate on the Coloma fence, which should make both access to the field for maintenance as well as that Occasional use for for parking a little bit easier and safer than it has been in the past And then additional landscaping and irrigation Here's an aerial image and it's kind of hard to see but the the area of the project is kind of delineated in white this is an old slide but it was easy to steal so here it is here's highlighting the change in location the outdoor gym area was originally proposed again at the kind of easterly margin of the site but based on comments from members of the community about the likely users of that facility and some clear direction from the city manager we're proposing to relocate it and and change the shape to make it more efficient so that's currently In discussions with the contractor Yes question |
| 01:47:40.32 | Susan Cleveland-Knowles | your mic on. |
| 01:47:42.23 | Jill Hoffman | Sorry, thank you. I just can't tell what the streets are. So the relocated, I'm sorry to interrupt you. It's okay. |
| 01:47:46.61 | Jonathon Goldman | It's okay You're allowed to interrupt with questions. This alignment, and people in the audience can't see my laser, but this is Coloma Street. Coloma Street side of the project. Ebtide is up here. The businesses along Bridgeway are here. So the field house, for example, the restrooms and the basketball court are here. The bus barn. So rather than asking the students Some people who might be less comfortable walking all the way across the field to use the gym equipment, rather than locating it some distance from where people can park, the recommendation is to move that equipment closer to where parking is. It will also be closer to the restrooms and water, for example. While you're taking questions, |
| 01:48:42.61 | Unknown | Will you confirm where that auto gate is? It's mid-fence there on Coloma and not at the infield? |
| 01:48:50.17 | Jonathon Goldman | I might even be able to read this on my screen if I put my glasses on, but I'm there is a |
| 01:48:58.62 | Unknown | There is a cutout right there about mid, that's, okay. |
| 01:49:03.38 | Jonathon Goldman | All right. Construction contract was awarded, as I said, the end of October. Just for your information and information of other people who might be listening, there are a number of steps that the city has to go through and the contractor have to go through when we plan to construct something that's significant that involves disturbance of a significant land area. We have to submit a notice of intent for coverage under a state stormwater permit and prepare and submit. I have to certify the submittal of a stormwater pollution prevention plan. We also have to register a project of any significance, a public works project of more than $1,000 with California Department of Industrial Relations. At this point, the project is underway. It's ahead of schedule and tentatively under budget. I'll say that. because it's true, but at the same time, and some of you who are there for the groundbreaking, for example, recognize that having the contractor find railroad tracks in the field was not something we expected. We've also had some issues with cross-connected water lines and things like that. So we have a good contractor. We're continuing to work with them. And I'm perhaps delusionally optimistic still. But, you know, this project is going well and continuing to go well. The rain is going to slow us down a little bit at this point. But that's where we are at the moment. Question? Question? Thank you. |
| 01:50:43.40 | Unknown | Good. |
| 01:50:43.97 | Susan Cleveland-Knowles | Thank you. Yeah, so we had some correspondence, and Mr. Langford, I think, responded to it, but just to repeat it. So there were a lot of trees removed, and I think there's been some concern about tree replacement. And also some thought about, I had a couple questions from other members of the public about possibly contributing to additional landscaping. Can you just fill us in on where that is? |
| 01:51:10.79 | Jonathon Goldman | Just very briefly, and I know our Parks and Rec director is here in the audience as well, so if there are follow-up questions, I'll certainly defer to him. One, to begin with, both this project and the tennis courts project that I'll talk about in a minute have involved construction either in the immediate vicinity of trees or construction in an area where trees you know on inspection were found to be either dead or dying or Thank you. diseased. One of the things that happens when we do a construction project, and this one is a good example, is that we're operating heavy equipment, we're digging, and to the extent that the roots of a significant tree, and specifically what are called anchoring roots, not the diamond harbors, but the roots that the tree uses to stabilize itself, to the extent those can be cut or damaged, that destabilizes the tree. So with the field project, Before the project started we removed trees that we knew were in the way of the project and wouldn't survive no matter what when the contractor started they appropriately pointed out to us that Building some portions of it as designed was going to compromise the roots of some trees So we've actually modified the design the The drainage work that was intended on the east side of the park We have redesigned and pulled the path and the drainage further away from the roots of the trees that bound the property there between Between the project and the businesses on bridgeway in addition in response to a request from one of the neighbors we have We are attempting to relocate some storm drain facilities to avoid having to remove two not otherwise diseased or dead or dying trees. it's always a work in progress and at the same time we had the the project that was approved And the funds that we have available did not include new trees or significant landscaping. So what Parks and Rec Director Lankford has started is a program in the neighborhood to give people an opportunity to work with the city to identify trees that the neighbors would like to have planted. And ideally, we plant trees that are the right tree for the location after this project is done. And whether those are entirely donated or some kind of partnership, that's something that the Parks and Rec Director is coordinating. Same with benches. |
| 01:54:02.44 | Susan Cleveland-Knowles | Okay, that's great because I had been approached by some people that might be interested in that effort. |
| 01:54:07.42 | Jonathon Goldman | If they gave you a check, just give it to them. |
| 01:54:07.45 | Susan Cleveland-Knowles | Thank you. I didn't take a check, but okay, great. And then my second. |
| 01:54:12.46 | Jonathon Goldman | Check. |
| 01:54:16.23 | Susan Cleveland-Knowles | Question is, I think this, it was such a dramatic, It's a visually dramatic project. So I think it's really generating a lot of interest in this site and a lot of people have asked, you know, what's going on? And I didn't have a chance to go look at the city's website about sort of if there's a good visual of what it's going to look like after, but that would be helpful. |
| 01:54:32.00 | Unknown | Yes. |
| 01:54:39.82 | Susan Cleveland-Knowles | Thank you. |
| 01:54:39.83 | Unknown | Mm-hmm. |
| 01:54:40.34 | Susan Cleveland-Knowles | if there is a rendering. And then kind of to take a page out of Jill's book, Um, I think there's a lot of families in town, including another council member who have really used and enjoyed the softball field there. And I know the project doesn't include dugouts for the girls. I think there could be opportunities for folks to get really interested in adding some additional amenities. |
| 01:55:08.06 | Unknown | Mm-hmm. |
| 01:55:08.50 | Susan Cleveland-Knowles | So maybe that's something along the lines of the trees that I can follow up with. Absolutely. Rent Park Director. Absolutely. Okay. |
| 01:55:14.80 | Jonathon Goldman | Absolutely. |
| 01:55:15.29 | Unknown | I can't. |
| 01:55:15.42 | Jonathon Goldman | Thank you. Thank you. you Absolutely. And boys as well. |
| 01:55:16.96 | Susan Cleveland-Knowles | Bye. |
| 01:55:17.03 | Susan Cleveland-Knowles | Thank you. |
| 01:55:17.08 | Unknown | Thank you. |
| 01:55:21.41 | Jonathon Goldman | Dougouts for voices. |
| 01:55:21.55 | Susan Cleveland-Knowles | for boys. of the |
| 01:55:23.08 | Jonathon Goldman | of all. |
| 01:55:23.32 | Susan Cleveland-Knowles | Thank you. |
| 01:55:23.34 | Jonathon Goldman | you |
| 01:55:23.68 | Susan Cleveland-Knowles | Thank you. Thank you. |
| 01:55:23.83 | Unknown | Well, the boys have the dugout at Willow Creek. So just trying to. Softball is too good of a game for boys. |
| 01:55:24.10 | Susan Cleveland-Knowles | Thank you. Thank you. |
| 01:55:30.78 | Susan Cleveland-Knowles | So, I'm going to go. |
| 01:55:30.97 | Unknown | Bye. |
| 01:55:31.00 | Unknown | Football's too good of a game for boys. |
| 01:55:32.55 | Jonathon Goldman | . Wait a minute. Bless you. Moving on. |
| 01:55:37.58 | Susan Cleveland-Knowles | Moving on. And Jonathan, to your last point about some of the unforeseen conditions that you've encountered. |
| 01:55:39.71 | Jonathon Goldman | Yes. |
| 01:55:45.66 | Susan Cleveland-Knowles | I want to reemphasize, I think you told us that this contractor has also identified some significant cost savings measures for you at the outset of the project, right? |
| 01:55:56.83 | Jonathon Goldman | Yes, and that in my book, and I won't tell any really lengthy stories, although I had the opportunity to do so at the groundbreaking, but a contractor that before they start work tells us how to save money, I really enjoy dealing with. I'd far rather work with a contractor, and to be honest, and any of you who've ever done any home renovation, know that you don't really know what your project is going to be until the demolition is completed and so having a contractor who you know they're not allowed to participate directly in the design process but when we award a contract and we're able to sit down and say I think we can cut the number of truck trips for your project in half I'm like all ears so knock, at this point, we're in good shape on that project. The MLK Tennis Court project, just a reminder, this project was previously bid. Bids were opened in April. The low bid was significantly higher than the engineer's estimate, and so we staff allowed those bids to expire. We're making some changes to the bid form, moving some of the project that, in my judgment, does not need to be built at the same time that the base project does. So we're moving some elements. I can show you in a minute. Moving some elements of the project into an additive alternate so that to the extent that we do get a good base bid and a project that's compliant with building code for accessibility for example and can award that and then either defer other improvements or integrate them into a prioritized set of accessibility improvements for the MLK campus as a whole that's our plan that project is currently back out to bid with a bid opening scheduled for January 4th 2019 this I'll just kind of point to this area again this is Coloma and Olima and the tennis courts the the plans include an accessible parking stall off of Coloma and access to the entire court area plans also included a ramp that would connect the tennis courts with the lower level there's a tabletop crosswalk down here that leads to the basketball court so we're gonna make these additive alternates and to the extent that we can recommend to council award of a contract to complete this project we will do so one other project at MLK that that is part of what I think the community expects us to deliver is a hybrid pickleball basketball court combination on the existing basketball courts and Staff's confident that we can do that with negotiated contracts dispensing and it's court resurfacing and painting and and the Our procurement regulations allow us to negotiate contracts below a certain dollar amount, so we're confident that we'll be able to deliver those projects in spring of 2019. |
| 01:59:05.61 | Susan Cleveland-Knowles | I have a question, but I want to make sure I can ask it. So I'm looking to the city attorney. So I have not been able to weigh in on this project because I'm a nearby resident, but may I ask a question about you know, the project itself. I'm not giving direction. So I play tennis at Boyle Park and they have pickleball courts on the tennis courts. So I'm just asking if you've considered which is more financially feasible to have pickleball courts as part of the tennis courts or pickleball courts as part of the basketball court. And you don't need to answer me because I can't weigh in on this project, but I want to make sure. I have a |
| 01:59:46.03 | Jill Hoffman | Question. OK. Can you tell us the difference between the cost between the |
| 01:59:52.19 | Unknown | The |
| 01:59:52.31 | Jill Hoffman | The pickleball course on the basketball course and on the tennis course. Do you happen to have an opinion on that, anybody? |
| 01:59:59.89 | Jonathon Goldman | We probably can't tell you the difference in cost, but Mike, you would want to ask. |
| 02:00:05.57 | Jill Hoffman | Feasibility then. Mike Langford, Parks and Recreation. |
| 02:00:07.09 | Jonathon Goldman | Thank you. |
| 02:00:07.12 | Mike Langford | Mike Langford, Parks and Recreation Director. We talked about the pickleball courts and encompassing them or including them in the tennis courts. And the tennis community was very vocal against that at this time. There are times on the weekends or nice days or evenings that all the courts are in use. And when the courts are redone, I expect that use to increase. So we decided to go with two separate pickleball courts that will be dedicated for pickleball. |
| 02:00:17.06 | Unknown | I'm not sure. |
| 02:00:36.94 | Jill Hoffman | THANK YOU. |
| 02:00:37.99 | Jonathon Goldman | And in further answer, if the pickleball community swells to thousands, one advantage to, |
| 02:00:38.02 | Jill Hoffman | Thank you. Thank you. And then, first, |
| 02:00:38.95 | Mike Langford | Thank you. |
| 02:00:38.97 | Jill Hoffman | Thank you. |
| 02:00:46.80 | Jonathon Goldman | converting courts is that it really is just the surface and the markings and maybe some fencing. Here's a graphic showing the proposed re-striping and re-fencing of the basketball courts. It's kind of hard to see, so I apologize for that, but to show how they will be usable for both basketball and pickleball. |
| 02:01:16.14 | Jonathon Goldman | Dunphy Park, just a note, this is a lengthy slide, and I made one change since the packet went out. I'll point that out as a highlight. I won't read all this, but again, I think it's important that You and members of the community understand what is going on and has gone on in the process of acquiring permits and Initiating construction on this project. I'm not going to read these But the San Francisco Regional Water Quality Control Board has Issued their preliminary water quality certification. We had minor comments on that I was advised on Monday that they were going to issue their final certification I have not seen it yet. It is admittedly only Tuesday, but I haven't seen it yet Bay Conservation and Development Commission once they receive that certification We'll go to their board their next board meeting is scheduled for December 2nd. So I have been actively on a multiple times a day basis, trying to help the regional board facilitate their issuance of that certification and facilitate BCDC's issuance of their permit. We did receive, for those of you who are fascinated with these processes, the Section 106 Consultation under National Historic Preservation Act. State Historic Preservation Officer concurred with Corps of Engineers. No significant adverse effect, so we have that certification. We responded the end of the day yesterday to National Marine Fisheries questions about some of the Dunphy Park Project. We have a very good relationship with the Corps of Engineers regulatory specialist who's responsible for permitting this project and expect, again, within a matter of days that we will receive both of the permits that the Corps is required to issue. And on that basis, I issued notice to proceed to the contractor. So we're expecting to close the park as soon as the contractor wants to, but they're 150-day Thank you. I issued notice to proceed to the contractor so We're expecting to close the park as soon as the contractor wants to but there are 150 day construction clock starts December 3rd so we are Right still on the verge and I'm again sometimes delusionally optimistic But we've been permitting in permitting on this project for 18 months and it it's a very complicated project in some respects, and yet on the face of it, a very simple project. What we are proposing to do is renovate an existing park, provide better protection against human and environmental exposure to the form of burned up contents, remove sources of sediments to bait discharges for stormwater. And we have successfully negotiated an agreement for tribal monitoring with Federated Indians of Great Rancheria. |
| 02:03:33.02 | Unknown | Yeah. |
| 02:04:24.05 | Jonathon Goldman | you Thank you. So I'm... issuing that good news, if you will. But the park's still open. Southview Park, again, very briefly, as I recall, this was July 17th. Council authorized us to invite bids on this project. There was kind of a summary of potential funding issued in that staff report. This project is back out to bid and bids open November 29th. So we'll know more about the prognosis on delivery of the Southview Park project very soon, maybe as early as your December 11th meeting, but it depends on how the bids look and what our analysis of them looks like. These are impossible to look at in the screen. They're virtually impossible to look at even on a computer, but they are the approved plans for Southview Park. And I don't think in any of these park cases that we have any particularly good. Probably Dunphy was the best in terms of visualizations of how how the project will look when it's completed I think it is a good idea and I happen to be a very visual person and I don't read plans well at all because they're to me they're not official so I don't know how we could do a better job of that in the future And that is the end of the parks status update presentation. Any other questions of staff? |
| 02:06:01.63 | Jill Hoffman | Go ahead. Yeah. So one of the, we traded emails earlier today, Jonathan, and one of the things I was asking about and I feel like I'm really loud, was a financing summary. When you give updates, if you could give us like a summary of measure F money, additional allocations, and then where we're at on the burn for those. Yes. And so, |
| 02:06:10.09 | Unknown | Thank you. |
| 02:06:10.12 | Unknown | Yeah. |
| 02:06:10.14 | Unknown | Thank you. |
| 02:06:25.72 | Jill Hoffman | I would request that when you give updates in the future, I think this update is fantastic. Thank you so much for doing that. But this is the one missing piece that would really, I think, sort of encapsulate where we're at for everybody that's sort of watching this. |
| 02:06:32.99 | Unknown | Thank you. |
| 02:06:38.98 | Jill Hoffman | My understanding is, isn't it that we talked about funding and where we're at for MLK on October 30th at our city council meeting. And with regard to the other two parks, Southview and Dunphy, that was on July 17th, should people be interested. |
| 02:06:54.71 | Jonathon Goldman | Yeah, Southview was July 17th. I can't remember when Dunphy was awarded. I was looking for that earlier. But those staff reports had those snapshots in time, but I absolutely agree with you that what I haven't done in this update, and we haven't done it, you know, even the budget process, that didn't work out particularly well. So we owe you that. |
| 02:07:11.92 | Jill Hoffman | As long as- Yeah, yeah, okay, that'd be great. I don't know how, somehow we do an update or the next time you do an update, just include that as a slide. But otherwise, good, and I understand that it's going to change at the end of this month with bid year opening, so I think that's great too. |
| 02:07:28.17 | Unknown | Thank you. |
| 02:07:28.19 | Susan Cleveland-Knowles | Questions? You did uncover some grant money, I think, since you last discussed this with us. Please include that in your report. Thank you. |
| 02:07:44.03 | Jonathon Goldman | We certainly will and again, and this was mentioned in the context of the July 17th Southview. Depending on what happens with state bond measures and things like that, that affects the finances as well as the Calvin Cycle Grant for Dunphy Park. |
| 02:07:59.10 | Jill Hoffman | Yeah. Thank you. |
| 02:08:00.81 | Susan Cleveland-Knowles | Yeah, most definitely. |
| 02:08:02.36 | Jonathon Goldman | Yeah. |
| 02:08:02.39 | Susan Cleveland-Knowles | Yeah. you Thank you. If there are no other questions, I'll open it up for public comment. Seeing none, I'll bring it up here. This was just an informational report. I want to join Councilmember Hoffman in saying job very well done and congratulations on issuing notice to proceed for Dunphy. I know that's been |
| 02:08:20.21 | Unknown | Thank you. |
| 02:08:22.79 | Susan Cleveland-Knowles | A big mountain to climb, so job well done on that. |
| 02:08:27.72 | Unknown | Yes, I'm going to say thank you to both you and Mike for all your work and all the staff to getting us to this point. We're getting so close, so exciting. Let's just move that pickleball. My pickleball days are waning here, so let's get it going. |
| 02:08:45.03 | Susan Cleveland-Knowles | Great. |
| 02:08:45.61 | Susan Cleveland-Knowles | Thank you. |
| 02:08:47.06 | Susan Cleveland-Knowles | All right, and with that, we'll move, unless anybody needs a break. Okay, we'll move smartly on to item 6C, sewer rate study 101 and update on sewer capital projects. |
| 02:08:59.46 | Jonathon Goldman | Yes, thank you again. I'm still Jonathan Goldman. I want to introduce a couple of folks who are going to join me in this presentation. Jeff Kingston, who's also a California registered civil engineer, is the general manager of South Lake Emergency Sanitary District. And Vivian Housen, who's also a California registered civil engineer, who's been a very valuable consultant to the city, and I'm sure to numerous other entities over the years, are both here. attempted to change the agenda title to make it clear that South Dakota emergency sanitary district was also going to give us a capital project update I apologize for the fact that that apparently didn't successfully happen but Jeff came anyway so we get the benefit of that presentation we're gonna mix this up a little bit I'm gonna go through just for for those of you on the council and staff and members of the community who haven't been through a rate study process or understand how a sewer enterprise fund or other utility enterprises work and how their fees are set, just wanted to do a one-on-one there, do a little bit of an update on on operational improvements that the city has made in our wastewater collection system operations over the last 10 years and then I'm going to ask Vivian to talk about capital improvements that we've made over the past years as well as those that are on our short-term priority list, if you will, for the next five years. And then if you have questions of either of us, feel free to interrupt. And then at the end, I don't think Jeff has a PowerPoint or anything, but I know he's prepared to talk about the Sa Dakota Marine City Sanitary District's capital program, as well as the fact that we're both anticipating retaining consultants for rate studies in the near future and want to make sure that those consultants are collaborating and working well. |
| 02:11:13.27 | Susan Cleveland-Knowles | Yeah, and for those who haven't heard this before, I remember when this happened the last time, I was puzzled about why we're getting two separate rate hikes. So it would be helpful for you to include that in your presentation. You did include in our staff report an annual report. I did. That started on page 123. So I was wondering what happened to the first 122 pages. Unless this is some kind of numbering of our packet, but it's- |
| 02:11:48.23 | Jonathon Goldman | Yeah. I'll check. I included two recent regulatory submittals of the cities. One is, and the staff report does provide some of this background. In addition to being regulated under normal circumstances by the State Water Resources Control Board through authority that flows from the United States Environmental Protection Agency and Code of Federal Regulations, We're operating with Sausalito-Marin City Sanitary District and Tentapai's Community Services District under an EPA administrative order that was issued in 2008. There's a lot of background information there, but the short version of that is all three of our agencies, and as I've told a number of people over the last few years if they came to talk to me about a |
| 02:11:50.31 | Susan Cleveland-Knowles | Okay. |
| 02:12:22.79 | Unknown | Right. |
| 02:12:32.59 | Unknown | Yeah. Yeah, it is. |
| 02:12:39.88 | Jonathon Goldman | that now I would have asked that the county of Marin be named as a respondent in that order as well and I'm happy to provide details but fundamentally we're under an obligation both as the operator of our collection system and Saucer-Solidum Marin City Sanitary District and TCSD as operators of collection systems as well as Saucer-Solidum Marin City Sanitary District as the operator of a treatment plant that treats the wastewater from both of us, the other collection agencies, to reduce pollution, to reduce spills, to reduce both private lateral discharges or overflows as well as discharges from the public storage system. So the two reports that I intended to attach are our most recent annual report to EPA regarding our compliance with the order, as well as the most recent week quarterly report on sanitary sewer overflows and what are called private lateral service. |
| 02:13:35.00 | Susan Cleveland-Knowles | You included that, it reported the two spills we had that quarter. |
| 02:13:38.76 | Jonathon Goldman | Yeah. But if it started at page 127, hopefully. |
| 02:13:43.89 | Susan Cleveland-Knowles | I can't tell, so this might be some kind of Bates numbering of our entire packet. |
| 02:13:45.27 | Jonathon Goldman | This might be some kind of... |
| 02:13:47.44 | Jill Hoffman | It's sequentially, I think it's sequential number for the whole council packet, yeah. |
| 02:13:48.35 | Jonathon Goldman | you |
| 02:13:48.38 | Susan Cleveland-Knowles | Thank you. |
| 02:13:48.40 | Jonathon Goldman | Yes. |
| 02:13:51.27 | Susan Cleveland-Knowles | Thank you. |
| 02:13:51.52 | Jonathon Goldman | I think so. If I fail to deliver everything that I wanted you to have, I'll make sure you get it. |
| 02:13:52.87 | Jill Hoffman | I think so. |
| 02:13:57.64 | Susan Cleveland-Knowles | What you gave us was pretty comprehensive. |
| 02:13:59.84 | Jonathon Goldman | Well, and again, those are Those are routine reports and not just the reports themselves, but the information that we track and and the metrics that we use to to To operate our collection system are really reflected there |
| 02:14:20.46 | Susan Cleveland-Knowles | So one other thing that's not in these reports or in your presentation is the new technology available. So you and I met with a consultant earlier this year. And so... What is the progress on the city's consideration of utilizing new technology such as the White House is now using to reduce the cost and increase the efficacy of its upgrades to its systems. |
| 02:14:45.40 | Jonathon Goldman | there really hasn't been a change the city continues to be open to any reasonable defensible proposal to to do what needs to be done an example of that and I I'll just be brief, is that, for example, trenchless technologies in general, when I started work here, were virtually nonexistent. But the technology of bursting pipes, replacing pipes with new pipes without having to open cut, open, you know, dig ditches and remove old pipe and put no pipe in, are, you know, significantly more viable than they once were. The sewer lateral here at City Hall, which was replaced relatively recently, in part because if we regulate our private customers and require them to replace laterals or inspect and replace them when certain triggering events occur, I think it's appropriate that we live by the same rules to some extent. So those technologies, absolutely. The technology that you and I met about has plenty of potential, and to the best of my knowledge, we have not received an application for a permit to use that technology. That was a cured in place liner kind of technology. But we're absolutely open to that. It's not, there's no reason for us to be closed-minded about it. I think there are reasons for us to be conservative, and as was discussed earlier in the context of code compliance, we want to make sure that we're protecting our customers and our residents and property owners against the possibility that they spend excuse me, a small amount of money now and have to do something else again in a relatively short period of time when they could have spent, let's say, twice as much and not have to do it again for 50 years. So let me try to fly through some of these just by background and I Mentioned this already we own an operator at wastewater collection system we convey wastewater to salsa different city sanitary district for treatment at the Plant at Fort Baker where it is treated and then the treated effluent is discharged to the bay there are several throughout the city for reasons that uh, I haven't quite figured out. Pumping stations, some of which are owned by the city, some of which are owned by Saucyde and Marin City Sanitary District. Both are operated by the district. And we'll probably talk more about some of those in a few minutes. The rates that our customers are currently charged were established in 2014, and the rate schedule goes through this fiscal year. Thanks, Mary. |
| 02:18:00.39 | Unknown | route. I'm going to give them some money for the money. |
| 02:18:02.97 | Unknown | I know, I've just about drunk my whole thing. |
| 02:18:05.10 | Jonathon Goldman | The rates that we charge are for collection, and they appear on property tax rolls. They aren't really taxes, but they appear on property tax rolls primarily because the tax assessor I better drink some of this. |
| 02:18:24.10 | Jonathon Goldman | The tax assessor guarantees 100% recovery of the fees. Sausalito Marin City Sanitary District's charges for treatment of wastewater that's generated at Sausalito also appear on the tax roll. It's true that our customers see two line items for sewer on their tax bill. And that in and of itself is sometimes confusing. The last raid study that was performed for the city was performed by NBS. And there's just some boilerplate here about the components of a rate study, but the overall goal is to identify equitable charges in support of sustainable utility services that address essential sewer upgrade needs. And they have to be compliant with state law and must be sufficient to fund the programs mandated by state regulations and our EPA order. Let me go back one second. So the components of that process include financial plan revenue requirements, a cost of service analysis, and then a design of sewer rates based on that information. Those rates don't automatically become the rates. There's a lot of community conversation, public participation, and frankly, the rates have to be politically feasible. Otherwise, there is a process under Proposition 218, a majority protest process by which the ratepayers can say, no, we don't want you to enact those rates, and the council then can't enact them. Very briefly, kind of summarizing some operational improvements that we've implemented here over the last 10 years. We added certified wastewater maintenance technician staff. When I got here, we had one full-time sewer enterprise employee at Pat Glosco. With the rate study that was completed in 2008-2009, we were able to add full-time sewer. wastewater maintenance personnel and added the requirement that they had to be certified by California Water Environment Association. We, for a variety of reasons have changed the supervision of wastewater maintenance in the last 10 years and Pat Guasco is now the supervisor of all of our wastewater maintenance personnel. We've added a couple of pieces of equipment, new equipment in the last 10 years to improve the productivity and reliability of our ability to maintain the system. A vacuum flushing combination piece of equipment called a VACTOR, that's a trademark. We also purchased a continuous mechanical rotter, which allows much longer lengths of sewer mainline to be rotted, kind of like a drill or, you know, it's a mechanical cleaning tool. We've added closed-circuit television inspection equipment and automatic software that keeps track of footages as well as allows our technicians to input pipeline condition codes that conform to national standards, this NASCO pipeline assessment system, and we have asset management software that generates work orders and allows us to keep track, and therefore, if if and when the regulators return to audit or want to review our records, we're able to easily maintain pretty comprehensive records, keeping track of how we maintain the system, how we've chosen to prioritize things, and for example, those. Sewage spill and other reports we use to prioritize our maintenance efforts. If we find that we have a problem with grease or roots in some part of the system, we're able to change the maintenance frequencies so that we're reducing the likelihood that sewage will escape from its cage and go someplace that it's not supposed to go. one other thing that I'll highlight here is that we have significantly increased increased the amount of cross training and cross communication with especially Sauselita Marin City Sanitary District over the last 10 years as I mentioned a minute ago they operate our our pump stations but we have a lot of expertise in collection system maintenance. So having employees of both agencies understand one another's safety protocols, know their equipment, et cetera, I think is very valuable to the community. With that, I'm going to ask Vivian to come up and just fly through our capital projects over the last 10 years and then the next five. |
| 02:23:36.32 | Vivian Housen | Thank you. Good evening, Mayor Cox, members of the council. So in looking... |
| 02:23:41.74 | Unknown | and looking. Tell us your name again. |
| 02:23:43.09 | Vivian Housen | Oh, my name is Vivian Housen, and I'm a consultant with VW Housen & Associates, and I started working with the city about 10 years ago on the hydraulic model and master plan that was the basis for some of the projects that we'll be discussing tonight. And then in looking through this list, so just to give a little history, the city didn't have a structured capital improvement program, either short-term or long-term. And so about 10 years ago, put together a model and did some risk assessments and looked at available data for the existing infrastructure and came up with the first of the capital improvement programs that have been implemented since that time. And just looking at these projects, about nine years ago, the first of those projects began here at the city, and that was the Woodward to Toyon pipeline replacement, and that was the replacement of a small pipe between two streets on a very steep hill that had a lot of defects. So that was the first project. of the journey into capital projects, and then replacement of a temporary generator with a permanent generator. the beginning projects and then the city launched into the spinnaker anchor project which was a major overhaul of a pump station down where you catch the ferry and installation of a grease interceptor at Spinnaker Restaurant and replacement of the pipe between Spinnaker and the anchor pump station. That was a big project. And then next launched into the Gate 5 Road project, which was very, very technically complex. It still is, I say was, but it still is. and most recently completed the interim project which involved rehabilitating manholes to try to eliminate the infiltration of groundwater from high tides from the bay coming into that system and going to the gate five pump station. In addition, over the course of the 10 years, there have been a number of mainline |
| 02:25:48.66 | Unknown | IN THE CITY. |
| 02:25:53.58 | Vivian Housen | sewer replacements and with the replacement of every main line The city does replace the lower laterals also, and the lower laterals are the portion of the pipes coming from the home from the edge of the property line to the main line. And so Johnson Street, Richardson Street, Glen Court, Third, Fourth, and Miller, and Nevada, those were all projects to replace aging and defective main lines along with the lower laterals. There were also a number of other spot repairs and manhole replacements that occurred throughout the city that didn't involve full pipe replacement. THE END OF And those projects continue, and they will be continuing over the next five years. So if you go to the next slide, I didn't ask for instructions on this, there we go. Um, So the city has, as part of the next five years, a number of projects that are involve mainline and lower lateral replacements, but also a few other major improvements. The first on that list is Whiskey Springs, Scotty's Pump Station. Whiskey Springs, Pump Station, and Scotty's are both at Coloma and Bridgeway. And they are getting a full overhaul, actually under design by Sausalito Marin City And the stations need additional capacity, also additional reliability and safety. In addition, there are further mainline and lower lateral replacements. One of them is West Street. The other is Litho Bonita B. Right by City Hall. In addition to the mainline replacements, the city will be replacing the lower laterals and also doing road construction. The road condition is pretty severe outside of City Hall here. There are also a few projects, Nevada Street, and then on to the next slide, Coloma and Caledonia. And those projects are capacity improvements. So when the hydraulic model and master plan was completed back in 2009, These are the projects that were shown as having surcharging, meaning the sewer was was filling the pipe and then coming up into the manholes above the pipe but not coming out of the ground. And so these projects address those issues. And then also in the next five years, there will be ongoing sewer repairs that are identified through maintenance activities and television inspection that are not specifically named in the five-year CIP but will be completed within that time frame. Now all of these projects are going to be looked at in the upcoming rate study, and their priorities refined as part of that work. |
| 02:28:48.26 | Susan Cleveland-Knowles | ask a question. Thank you. |
| 02:28:48.98 | Unknown | you |
| 02:28:49.03 | Susan Cleveland-Knowles | Yeah. |
| 02:28:49.83 | Unknown | you |
| 02:28:49.88 | Susan Cleveland-Knowles | Thank you. |
| 02:28:50.94 | Susan Cleveland-Knowles | Any questions for Vivian? Yeah, we have some questions. |
| 02:28:54.18 | Susan Cleveland-Knowles | Yeah, I just had a question. So on one of the slides it noted that there was 27 miles of pipeline. What does this 15 years kind of represent? of that total amount. |
| 02:29:09.01 | Susan Cleveland-Knowles | Well, your report says that you've worked on 58 miles in the last year. |
| 02:29:15.34 | Unknown | Right. |
| 02:29:16.30 | Jonathon Goldman | Yeah, that probably refers to maintenance, not a replacement. My guess is that we probably have less than five miles of mainline replacement done in the last 10 years. |
| 02:29:24.01 | Unknown | Thank you. |
| 02:29:24.03 | Unknown | I'm not going to be a |
| 02:29:24.30 | Unknown | Thank you. |
| 02:29:35.37 | Susan Cleveland-Knowles | And pretty much everything eventually needs to be replaced. |
| 02:29:40.00 | Jonathon Goldman | Yes, pretty much everything does need to be replaced. I was telling a story earlier about I was researching. It was at the time we awarded the contract that Team Gelati was successful in building third and fourth in Miller work. I was looking for something else on our DocuWare system, which is an archiving system for historic documents, and found the staff report and the detailed resolution that Council awarded a contract in 1911 for construction of the sewers that we replaced. In those days, as I recall, the council had to specifically approve each individual piece of pipe. So we've come a long way in some respects, but as a practical matter, we're dealing with infrastructure that is way beyond its useful life to begin with, and the standard of care that existed in 1911 was, gee, I'm delighted that there's not raw sewage running down my unpaved floor. |
| 02:30:27.51 | Unknown | Oh. |
| 02:30:36.16 | Unknown | So, |
| 02:30:36.54 | Unknown | Thank you. |
| 02:30:37.01 | Unknown | useful. |
| 02:30:46.89 | Jonathon Goldman | gutter into the bay anymore. |
| 02:30:48.68 | Unknown | Uh... |
| 02:30:48.98 | Jonathon Goldman | It wasn't until 1954 that we even had wastewater treatment here. We have a long way to go, but again, as a practical matter, if we tried to pay as you go, tried to adopt rates that would allow us to completely replace everything, number one, there would be a majority protest. Number two, there'd be likely to be recall elections for city council members. It's not politically feasible. But that doesn't mean just like painting the bridge that we don't have to continually pay attention to what our priorities are, try and identify the highest priority replacements and capital projects and figure out how to pay for them. |
| 02:31:20.27 | Unknown | Oh. |
| 02:31:35.52 | Susan Cleveland-Knowles | So your, the 2010 EPA order identified, 10-year CIP prioritized schedule that was then re-looked at in 2014 as part of the rate schedule. Um, But the projects identified in 2010 needed to address capacity and other critical rehabilitation needs, and only seven of those have been completed. are in construction or are in the design phase. That's 2010. And that was a 10 year plan. But then separately, you talk about your capital improvement program, in which the city issued wastewater bonds for over 5 million in improvements. So it's not clear to me. the distinction between the $5 million in improvements, the 2014 increase in the rate study. And the projects identified in 2010, that were then revamped. in the 2014 rate study, so I'm not sure. how All of those relate to the projects you've listed here. |
| 02:32:47.09 | David Souto | Thank you. |
| 02:32:47.10 | Jonathon Goldman | So, |
| 02:32:47.51 | Unknown | you |
| 02:32:47.56 | Jonathon Goldman | Thank you. I won't be able to completely answer that, but as an example, what we did in response to the order and what we do with every rate study is the prioritization process and prepare cost estimates based on the information available at that time. So you may recall that when we, and Vivian alluded to to how difficult the gate 5 mainline replacement project was we've looked at Because it is in a low-lying area where our customers structures are sinking and we have a historic pattern of subsidence there we've looked at at the possibility of vacuum sewers. We've looked at the possibility of providing all of our customers with ejection systems so that we then have a pressurized system. We decided ultimately, I decided, that those alternatives were too expensive. So we went out to bid with a conventional pipeline replacement project. And as you pointed out, we were able to borrow about $5 million with the last rate study. And the only bidder on that project bid $4.3 million. |
| 02:33:57.56 | Unknown | Yeah. |
| 02:34:07.94 | Jonathon Goldman | In my judgment, it would not have been wise for us to put all of our capital resources into one project when we know we have these other priorities and we are continuously having to reprioritize, address short-term issues when we find a collapsed pipe, for example, or when we can combine our sewer capital project with a streets project and a storm drain project and leverage those funds. That's why Litho and B. When we can combine our sewer capital project with a streets project and a storm drain project and leverage those funds, that's why Litho and B and Bonita are on our list in the short term. That's how we try to manage our capital program, and it has to be a continuous process. |
| 02:34:47.37 | Susan Cleveland-Knowles | So as you bring forward, as you commence a rate study for this period going forward, will you be able to provide to us a matrix that shows, here were our priorities in 2010, here's what the 5 million went towards, here's what the 2014 rate study did. paid for so that we can distinguish what projects taxpayers will be paying for moving forward. Whether it's new projects, overages from prior projects, so that it's transparent. what these monies are going to because again when these two fees were imposed in 2014 that was a challenging political conversation as you discussed earlier |
| 02:35:35.87 | Jonathon Goldman | Yeah. |
| 02:35:38.12 | Susan Cleveland-Knowles | Yes, Ray. |
| 02:35:40.58 | Unknown | Hi, Vivian. It's good to see you again. |
| 02:35:46.43 | Unknown | When we did the 2014 rate study, or 13, 14, I don't know when exactly it was, and the last presentation you gave us the council. You made some really important strategic points about the long range thinking and the fact that we need to be thinking of this is almost like a 70 hundred years of work and could you sort of just briefly address that so that you can help people understand you know the how you start trying to prioritize something that in reality is going to go on forever. |
| 02:36:37.82 | Vivian Housen | And actually, I was thinking about that in response to the question about how much pipe has been replaced over the past five years. So the city has a very challenging sewer system, as you know, with the topography and the age of the system, and also the fact that it's very small. So you have a smaller rate base that is necessary to cover all the repairs, plus the proximity to the water, plus a lot of other things. I mean, there's just so many factors that make this a challenging system. |
| 02:36:43.00 | Unknown | Yeah. |
| 02:36:43.20 | Unknown | I don't know. over the past five years. you |
| 02:37:10.44 | Vivian Housen | The inclination is to go out and try to take care of everything. It's not uncommon, most agencies have that feeling as you run out and you see something that's falling apart and you need to fix it. You just have to fix it. but, um, if you step back, a sewer system is really projected to have a life of 100 years. I mean, that's generally what Pump stations and mechanical equipment have to be replaced more frequently, but pipelines, and most of your system is comprised of pipelines, should really last 100 years. Now your pipes have lasted 100 years, so they're at the end of their design cycle, If you replace everything now, then you're going to have a great system and there will be a huge expenditure now and then no expenditure for a long time because the system will be good and then another huge expenditure 100 years from now. So what we try to do in managing assets, sewer assets, is we try to flatten out that that curve so it doesn't look like they call it the Nessie curve. It looks like Loch Ness Monster coming out of water. We try to flatten that out and make it nice and even so that you can plan your rates and you can |
| 02:38:15.51 | Unknown | coming out. |
| 02:38:22.61 | Vivian Housen | continuously repair your system in a way that's organized and that's fundable. And so the challenge that you have as a city now is to get from that place where you have everything to fix to that black curve. every time we look at the CIP and we look at the needs, and every time we do that, we also have more information that we've gotten in the past few years, we try to flatten it out a little bit more. And so that's what's been happening since 2009 is we had this first attempt, and then got more information about the system, and then brought in some other priorities, and then recast, and then the plan now is to do the same thing, to bring in the latest priorities, Yeah. expenditure information, contract information, the bid climate's very different now than 10 years ago, All of that information will come into the decision making, and we'll try to cast out a nice even plan again for the next five, 10, 15 years. And then, of course, every few years, we need to redo that. So I don't know if that really describes the process. |
| 02:39:20.27 | Unknown | AND I'M GOING TO BE |
| 02:39:27.46 | Unknown | Thank you. |
| 02:39:27.94 | Vivian Housen | you |
| 02:39:27.99 | Unknown | Thank you. |
| 02:39:28.00 | Vivian Housen | And you are 10 years into the process, so you're in a better place now than you were 10 years ago, quite honestly. And it'll get easier and easier as you keep going. |
| 02:39:39.04 | Unknown | Thank you. |
| 02:39:42.20 | Jonathon Goldman | . Let's see. The rest of these are kind of self-explanatory. I will spend, just to kind of reiterate, the elements of a rate study, the financial plan. These slides were actually taken from a presentation that Charlie Francis probably delivered when the last rates were implemented in 2014. So just provided it for information. The Proposition 218 process, just some details here. Again, it's a requirement is to send them, that there's a notice of intent. And for any of you who have questions about what happened last time, I'm happy to provide links or information about the process. And we're certainly available for questions. There was one more thing I wanted to mention, though, and we've talked about this previously in the budget hearings and with the finance committee. I think it is important with this rate study that we also get some advice on the SB 231 stormwater fee process and the possibility, even if we don't enact a fee, but the possibility of getting advice on some steps that we could take to set us up for a dedicated revenue source for stormwater in the future, I think is worthwhile. Vivian and I are easy to contact if you or members of the community have any questions, and with that, I'm gonna invite Jeff Kingston to come up and give us an update on the district's similar situation. |
| 02:41:30.01 | Jeffrey Kingston | Thank you, Jonathan. I'm Jeffrey Kingston. I'm the general manager for the Sausalito Marin City Sanitary District. And I'd first like to say that we've been working together since 1953. So in fact, our current service agreement was dated and signed in 1953 and hasn't changed since then. So that's one order of business is to update that. But we have worked together well since that point. It is a symbiotic relationship that we have. |
| 02:41:59.93 | Unknown | Yeah. You look great. Yeah. It's been a rough 100 years. |
| 02:42:01.38 | Jeffrey Kingston | Yeah, it's been a rough hundred years. So we serve the city of Sausalito, Marin City. We provide treatment and conveyance for the city of Sausalito. We also provide conveyance and we manage a sewer system for Marin City. And we also provide conveyance and treatment for Kim O'Piess Community Services District, in Mill Valley and we also provide an in-kind service to the National Park Service in order to offset our occupancy of seven acres of land within the park. We're one of the few treatment plants not only positioned in the Bay, but or on the beach and parts of us in the bay, but also in a national park. So we are rather unique. . I think to get really down to business here is that we are also under the EPA consent decree, and they require us to increase our capacity. We had a couple options. You could put the capacity for wet weather flow, which is times 10. So if one gallon during the dry weather, we get 10 gallons during the wet weather so that that's a pretty amazing spike that we get that comes to the plant at the end of the day so there were two options one was that were looked at one was to put the capacity in the sewer system the other was to put the capacity at the plant and so putting putting capacity in the sources the men putting retention basins in the community which is not very popular so I think the right decision was made was to handle the capacity of the plant so We did the design of an upgrade project, and we bid that, and we issued revenue bonds. And the good news is that the payment on those revenue bonds is already included in the current rate. So our board is a five-member board. They're elected, had the foresight to gently but consistently increase rates to accommodate and anticipate this challenge that we had ahead of us. The EPA order required us not only to increase capacity to handle these wet weather flows from the sewer systems, which each of these, the EPA also requires that each of these agencies that manage the sewer systems also reduce their what's called INI, which is inflow and infiltration, and reduce that peak. So there's pressure on the agencies that we serve to reduce that peak, but we also have accommodated capacity at the plant to handle that so that it doesn't flow into the bay. Our mission is to protect public health in the community and also protect the bay. So the second part of the EPA order also required us to increase our quality of effluent that went into the bay which is a good thing for all of us I think that you know and I'll hit a couple points on that but that initiated the upgrade project it's about a 25 million dollar project we because there's gonna be secondary effects to this project we issue bonds for about 34 million dollars to accommodate all the upgrades from the 1953 components of our plant that have never been offline, because there was no redundancy at the plant. So what we're doing is building the redundancy. We'll shift the processes over to the new components. We'll take the old components offline and retrofit those. So in the end, we'll spend about $34 million. We started this project in the construction of this project in June of 2017. So hopefully you didn't really notice. That was our intent. You know, the truck traffic, and it's an intense project. It's $25 million done over 24 months. So a million dollars a month in construction is happening off of East Road. And hopefully not only the Park Service doesn't realize it, that all of you don't realize it. And the only way we hope you notice if you come visit us, we'll take you for a tour and you see the amount of construction that's happening. And it's pretty amazing. So on that particular project, one impact we've had to the community, actually two impacts, has been that our contractor, the only place we could place our contractor was lease some land off of Locust Street. And they'll be there. They've been there for 12 months. They'll be there for another 12 months. And hopefully they're being good neighbors. If they're not, call me, and we'll make sure they're good neighbors and then we've closed if you noticed the Park Service gave us the the right turn that goes into East Road we closed that off and and that has allowed us to have the contractor stage materials there so that'll happen for another 12 both of those the projects gonna go on for another 12 months so bear with us |
| 02:47:00.52 | Unknown | there. |
| 02:47:10.99 | Jeffrey Kingston | The, also would like to share with you that not only are the rate payers participating, but the Park Service has also participated financially in this and we've replaced components of their system and they've paid for those components. Um, So let me just quickly go through a couple points on the upgrade project, and I'll go to a second project. I'm going to talk about two projects. But this is the major project. And so we're substantially complete on earthwork. If you have been on the water and have gone by the plant, you can most likely see the difference. It's a 600,000-gallon equalization basin. So when we have these peak flows, we'll draw the additional flow into gallon equalization basin so when we have these peak flows we'll draw the additional flow into the equalization basin keep the plant at steady state and process all the flow at a at a high quality of treatment now we meet all of our regulatory when we do what we call is blending but this way hopefully will eliminate blending So this basin is about 42 feet long by 42 feet high. So if you need place for your pickleball during dry weather, we can paint some stripes in there, as long as you get out of there by wet weather. Thank you. We've also, we're increasing our fixed film reactors, which is our secondary treatment. And so we have the equalization basin. The flow comes in there. We're adding a head works, which... This is the only plant I've ever seen that didn't have a head works, which cleans out all the materials that come in and clog pipes and rags and all kinds of material that gets flushed into the plant. This will strain that out. That currently doesn't happen. We also have what's called primary treatment, which are clarifiers. We only have one clarifier. We're going to build a second clarifier. So all this improves the quality of the longer that water stays in the flow, the solids settle out of the water, and it becomes a cleaner product that's discharging to the bay. you I think the most significant thing we've added is that the plant was six million gallons per day. It's going to be increased to nine million gallons per day. the tertiary treatment which is the uh um we used to use sand filters and it was just one mgd we're gonna we're gonna now be six million gallons per day that go through a tertiary treatment process so let me give you perspective on that the tertiary treatment is going to be done now by disc filters you And those disc filters will filter up to 10 microns, filter the water down to 10 microns. It can go down as far as 5 microns. And to put that in perspective, the human hair is 40 microns. So what we discharge into the bay will be much higher quality effluent than in the past. So basically, that is the project. And you just have to bear with us for 12 more months. We've got it paid for. We've got it funded. All we have to do is get it done. So if there are any questions about the upgrade project, Thank you. |
| 02:50:27.60 | Susan Cleveland-Knowles | Yeah. |
| 02:50:27.63 | Jeffrey Kingston | I'm more than happy to answer those, otherwise they'll go on to the other projects. Thank you. |
| 02:50:31.09 | Susan Cleveland-Knowles | Yeah, with your Um, With the construction of the equalization basin, I think I heard you say that you will no longer have to do blended treatment. So you'll be able to treat storm water runoff separately from Sewer. SEWAGE. |
| 02:50:49.32 | Jeffrey Kingston | So we only treat sewage. Right now, your stormwater and your sewage is separate. And what you're facing is a regulatory environment that's going to regulate your stormwater runoff and may force you to treat the stormwater. Right. |
| 02:51:02.61 | Unknown | Right. |
| 02:51:02.83 | Jeffrey Kingston | But when we get our peak flows, a lot of that is your stormwater flowing into our system. That's my point. Which we don't like. Right. We've got to reduce that. And that's what Jonathan and Vivian are working on is closing the system to reduce that 10 to 1 peak. Because, to be honest with you, our guys were working all Thanksgiving week to include Thanksgiving because of the rains because the flow increases and we call everyone you know all hands on deck to deal with with the issue so we're trying to eliminate that |
| 02:51:07.76 | Unknown | That's my point. |
| 02:51:08.59 | Susan Cleveland-Knowles | Thank you. |
| 02:51:08.60 | Unknown | THE END OF THE END OF THE |
| 02:51:08.65 | Susan Cleveland-Knowles | I'm not sure. |
| 02:51:09.21 | Unknown | Thank you. |
| 02:51:09.25 | Susan Cleveland-Knowles | Thank you. |
| 02:51:09.28 | Unknown | THE END OF THE END OF THE |
| 02:51:31.57 | Susan Cleveland-Knowles | So we're trying to eliminate. So will you be able to segregate the water that's flowing into your system that is not sewage? |
| 02:51:40.19 | Jeffrey Kingston | No. Whatever comes into our conveyance system, we take. We treat it all the same. And so if there is stormwater, what we'll try to do is find out where the stormwater is entering the system and close that off and let the stormwater run to the bay as it should. |
| 02:51:53.69 | Susan Cleveland-Knowles | I see. |
| 02:51:57.61 | Jeffrey Kingston | and get it out of the sewer system. |
| 02:52:00.26 | Susan Cleveland-Knowles | unless we become required to treat stormwater. |
| 02:52:04.44 | Jeffrey Kingston | If you're required to treat stormwater, we're going to have to do that in a different way than sending it to the plant, because that really is a different process and will require a different approach. But right now, when it rains, we go from a low flow of one MGD to 10 or 12 million gallons a day. So everything comes our way, and we are required to treat it all. And because it's so diluted, the retention time isn't so necessary, but we do still treat the bacteria side of it, and the chemical, and we increase our testing, and we still have to comply with the regulatory requirements. But that's a big challenge for us because if Marin City, what I listed off, Marin City, you're all different watersheds. If you all get hit with the same storm, we're in trouble. Right? Typically, in the past, the storm has crossed over the watersheds, and it's come delayed from the different watersheds, and we can handle it. But it's possible that if we got hit with a storm that lasts a long time and hits all the watersheds, that we would not be able to handle that capacity. But we're designed for a 10-year storm event. If we get the 50-year storm event, then that's something different. The other challenge is your own system, your pump stations and our conveyance system, will most likely overflow before the plant does. So that's the other thing where we work closely with the city on, is making sure those pump stations are functioning correctly. And that's a good segue, actually, into the Whiskey Springs Coloma pump station, which is probably the highest risk, weakest point in the system that we jointly are working on together. And so we're – the Whiskey Springs, if you're ready to go on, if you have any questions on the plant. And I would like to invite anyone to come out, and we'll take you for a tour of the plant and see what we're doing there and understand what really happens there. But Whiskey Springs is the city of Sausalito's pump station. But across the street, we have what's called the Coloma Pump Station. and they're parallel pipelines, and during high flow, we actually stage a secondary larger pump there to move flow from one side to the other. So this project, what we're trying to do is combine those two pump stations. Right now, we're about to stage a pump, and you've seen it in the past. It's a big blue thing that sits in front of Scott's hairdresser, and it impacts his business. Thank you. We're about to stage a pump, and you've seen in the past, it's a big blue thing that sits in front of Scott's hairdresser. It impacts his business. And I feel sorry for him, and we rent a parking space from him to position it there, but it's just not good for business. But it is our weakest point. And the other alternative is if we don't have that pump there, that we would have what's called the SSO or storm sewer or sewer overflow. So we do that as a defensive mechanism, and that pump comes on during high flows. But it does cost the rate payers about $20,000 a month for three or four months through the wet season. And we've been doing this for years, and it's just time for us to fix it. And so that's where we have, We have a design for a new station that still needs to be permitted and go through the city planning process, but we're really trying to work towards shared funding where we are, the district right now would put in $3 million and we're asking the city to put in $1.5 million in order to start construction, excuse me, hopefully next summer. If we don't start construction next summer, then we, you know, we again have to stage pumps and, you know, expend those funds. So that's the second project that, you know, we're going to get this EPA order lifted by upgrading the project, upgrading the plant, completing the wet weather project that we have. And then the next priority is to complete this design for this Whiskey Spring-Koloma joint station and construct it. It'll take about 12 months to construct it. |
| 02:56:37.55 | Susan Cleveland-Knowles | And so we had an item on our consent calendar a month ago that we pulled because there was some dialogue between Sausalito Marin City School Sanitary District and Whiskey Springs. So what is the status of that dialogue? |
| 02:56:56.23 | Jeffrey Kingston | So we actually have been working with that group throughout the design, so we were a little surprised by that. And it's unfortunate in that because the funding didn't go through, we really can't respond to their questions because we need funding to complete the design. And we need funding to do the permitting process, and we need funding to go through the planning process with the city. And all of that input and those questions would get addressed through that process but basically by not approving the funding that stopped that process which was to me really unfortunate because our engineer that works for us was pretty sure we were very close to addressing all of those questions the other concern we have is if we don't follow the process, we circumvent the process, what about the other parts of the community that have issues and then come back around and say, well, you addressed their issues, but you haven't addressed ours. So what we want to do is have a very clear and transparent process, which includes you approving the funding, our board approving the funding, completing the design as part of that design completion go through the city planning process and allow all community members to provide input to the design and we we've done this before we've done it in the city we did the locust street pump station and we work well with the city, and we worked well with the community. So we were really disappointed that that tactic was employed to prevent the funding from getting approved. |
| 02:58:33.99 | Susan Cleveland-Knowles | Well, I was not aware of a tactic, I just had heard that that there was a discussion. that you and our director of public works were engaged in And that with a little bit more time, there was confidence that you could resolve that discussion so that it would not be the entire Whiskey Springs community showing up in our Chambers to discuss something. but that it could be made clear that design review of this project would be facilitated just as it was For the Locust Street, I was on the planning commission when the Locust Street project came through. So... That's why I wanted to know where those discussions stand and also what is your deadline funding from the city in order to move forward with that project. on your timeline. |
| 02:59:30.01 | Jeffrey Kingston | So as far as the process goes, we engaged that community early, and as we do, early and often, and we collected all that information. My understanding was they wanted They wanted to have language inserted into the funding agreement that gave them control that would potentially conflict with the city planning process. And so I asked our engineer to just hold off until we get the funding agreement in place and we engage all community members equally. And we have a good track record with the community. And so, as far as the timeline goes, we We were hoping to complete the design so we could make the construction period during the dry weather season. So there's a short window in which we can do construction. So if we could get that funding agreement approved in January, we could issue the bids, and we'd do a notice proceed for construction in the summer months and get that project going so that we can have at least temporary wet weather provisions in place with the contractor to handle that wet weather season because it will pass through a wet weather season. So if we miss that, then it will put the project probably another year behind schedule. |
| 03:00:56.87 | Unknown | Thank you. at the end of your presentation. |
| 03:01:00.49 | Jeffrey Kingston | Yes. |
| 03:01:00.56 | Susan Cleveland-Knowles | Thank you. |
| 03:01:00.65 | Unknown | Thank you. |
| 03:01:00.78 | Susan Cleveland-Knowles | you Any questions? All right, then I'm going to open it up for public comment. I'll call on Charles Kaufman first. |
| 03:01:13.32 | Susan Cleveland-Knowles | Thank you. |
| 03:01:13.37 | Charles Kaufman | Thank you. |
| 03:01:13.39 | Susan Cleveland-Knowles | Thank you. |
| 03:01:13.40 | Charles Kaufman | I think there's a need for a little clarification. So Whiskey Springs, this project impacts Whiskey Springs as the only residential area that's going to be impacted. The businesses there are minimally impacted. other than during the hours when they operate. And the only business that would be impacted is Scotty's, really, is a significant one. So there's really significant concern about the impact of the visual quality of the project, the noise that will be attached to it. So when we've talked, we've only had Meg, you've been involved in this earlier than I was, We've had a few conversations but very few regarding the design. We were in the process of discussing alternatives to the proposed size of the generator, which is, nobody's ever heard of a quiet generator that I know of. So when you see that on a drawing, you're concerned about what that's going to lead to immediately for the people who are living next to it. But we never went any further than that. The whole project suddenly got stopped, and then we didn't see anything happening after that. until it showed up on the consent calendar, which is why we raised the issue to say, We would still like to be participating in this to see what's going on. That's the main concern we have. We'd be interested in applying some new technology ideas that might be possible to reduce the need for a generator or certainly reduce the size of the generator. So we want to be participating in this, but the characterization that somehow we're not being cooperative or that we're in some way interfering with this process regarding funding and scheduling. That's simply not an accurate representation. |
| 03:03:05.88 | Susan Cleveland-Knowles | So, you pause. Charles, you wrote to me when this was on consent and felt as though you needed to have those conversations prior to the approval of the funding agreement. Why is it not sufficient to have that discussion as a part of the design review process that will occur as it did for the Locust Street pump station? |
| 03:03:31.39 | Charles Kaufman | Our concern is that we actually had been dealing with the Public Works Department, not with the sewer department. We don't know anybody at the sewer department. We've never been involved in a discussion directly with them. |
| 03:03:36.91 | Susan Cleveland-Knowles | Thank you. |
| 03:03:37.06 | Rhett Redling | Thank you. |
| 03:03:42.41 | Charles Kaufman | We certainly didn't want to wind up losing the contacts we had with an agency where we have good relationships to suddenly show up and have a group of people say, Thank you very much, but we're taking care of this. We don't need your input. We have no experience with them at all. |
| 03:03:54.54 | Susan Cleveland-Knowles | So, but... But, Are you under the misapprehension that Sausalito Marin City Sanitary District will not have to gain design approval from the city of Sausalito? |
| 03:04:08.35 | Charles Kaufman | We had no idea how that was going to work. We weren't informed about it. |
| 03:04:11.28 | Susan Cleveland-Knowles | So now that you know, that a condition of moving forward with this project will be approval from the city of Sausalito through its normal planning process, including the planning commission, with a possible appeal to the city council if someone is unhappy does that assuage your concern about this process? |
| 03:04:33.56 | Charles Kaufman | Let me have, since Meg was on this earlier, let me include her in this because she's got a much longer view of this than I. All right, thank you. |
| 03:04:34.37 | Susan Cleveland-Knowles | Okay. |
| 03:04:44.71 | Meg | I live down at Whiskey Springs, and I was involved in it a couple of years ago when we first heard about it, only when there was actually a surveyor that we saw on the property. and said, what are you doing? And they were surveying for SMCSD. One of our major concerns is that the city is putting in money without any control. And we are trying to alleviate having maybe 156. property owners coming down here and being upset about something. and having an ability to have the SMCST or or public works. answer questions about the size of a generator, which at one point was small and suddenly when we had our last meeting was going to be 10 feet tall. Then we learned there was going to be a PG&E was going to require a transformer. We have no idea where that might be or how it might be mitigated. the humming, the noise, et cetera. And if we could have a meeting, which Jonathan thought was a good idea, and Kevin also, who is the engineer for SMCSD, we have... |
| 03:05:51.57 | Unknown | Thank you. |
| 03:05:58.86 | Meg | several times gave dates that we could be available for the three the landscape committee and the president of the board, that would be four people, and there's been no response back. from either the Department of Public Works or Kevin to have such a meeting. So we really don't want to have it come on a consent calendar. and approved without having some knowledge of it. And we don't wanna only have to go through design review. We would like to have some questions answered. We don't wanna be in a contractual relationship, obviously. |
| 03:06:33.96 | Susan Cleveland-Knowles | But you understand from the testimony this evening that they can't do their design until they have funding. |
| 03:06:40.80 | Meg | No, but they can answer questions. |
| 03:06:42.75 | Susan Cleveland-Knowles | But they. |
| 03:06:43.07 | Meg | about sizes and what's going to be on the property and where the locations might be. They have three alternatives they've already drafted. and there's no transformer shown on any of them, for example. |
| 03:06:56.73 | Susan Cleveland-Knowles | Okay, so I'll ask... |
| 03:06:59.24 | Meg | Be nice to have a meeting. |
| 03:07:00.57 | Susan Cleveland-Knowles | I'll ask Jeff Kingston to respond. What I heard Mr. Kingston say this evening is that they aren't equipped to have that meeting until They, can. they can get further along with design, which they can't do until they get funding. And their process historically with the city of Sausalito has been to get funding, finished design and then go through a design review process which will include Whiskey Springs. |
| 03:07:25.75 | Meg | It will, but it would be wise of them, I think, quite frankly, to be talking to the leaders of the community community of Whiskey Springs, the Landscape Committee, and the President of the Board who can then go to our board and get some kind of approval in advance of sending out |
| 03:07:42.20 | Susan Cleveland-Knowles | Yeah, they're not required to get your approval, but I think they're very willing to participate in design review with your group when they get there. They're not there yet. But Mr. Kingston, please correct me if I'm wrong. |
| 03:07:56.93 | Jeffrey Kingston | Yeah, we're happy to meet with the Whiskey Springs group. And Kevin Rahman, who's our district engineer, has met with him several times and has shown them conceptual designs that we have, through our funding, have developed to a certain point in order to conceptually estimate the cost so that we can understand what the funding is. But if we into asking questions that affect the design we need the design engineer and we need funding to move this forward and we also need to have an organized approach to collecting all the inputs from from everyone and in that process we as we understood and we followed in the past is to follow the city planning and permitting processes. But we're also more than happy to meet with you and share any information we have to date and we always have. But right now we're sort of stuck in this no man's land without the funding and the commitment from the city to be able to make these decisions. And I would also share with you that some of the things that they've mentioned are in conflict with city code versus PG&E code. But we're more than happy to help them understand what that is. And we're willing to optimize the design to make it work for everyone. The other part I know the issue is generators but the generators only run during emergency situation and or their exercise for 15 minutes every month so they run 15 minutes a month and they only run when there's a power outage and so but the city has noise ordinances that we're complying with that require a cabinet that make the generator larger in order to meet this decibel level. |
| 03:08:29.57 | David Souto | No. |
| 03:09:50.86 | Jeffrey Kingston | It requires us putting a cabinet over the generator. But I would also share with you that most of the pump station is put underground, so their actual profile will be less except for that generator. |
| 03:10:03.28 | Susan Cleveland-Knowles | So does your funding agreement with the city of Sausalito include a requirement that you follow the city's planning and permitting processes? |
| 03:10:11.73 | Jeffrey Kingston | Yes, I believe that language is in there. I'd have to defer to Jonathan. |
| 03:10:15.19 | Susan Cleveland-Knowles | Okay, all right, any other questions? Any other public comment on this? All right, I'm going to close public comment and bring it back up here. There's no action. for us to take this evening, it's an informational matter, but I appreciate Um, the Whiskey Springs stakeholders showing up and sharing their concerns. And it is my hope that with the explanation and direction that has been heard this evening that you can work out Um, and and agreement so that Jonathan, you can bring this back to us on consent either on December 11 which would be my preference, or January 8th. Any other comment? Thank you very much. Jeff, it has been on my schedule since I was the vice mayor last year for Ray Withey and I, who are the members of our subcommittee on our sanitary and sewer system, to meet with you. So I haven't yet done it in person, but I'm thrilled to have the opportunity to do it at least from the dais. |
| 03:11:29.24 | Jeffrey Kingston | I would just like to share with you, Ben. are, My board has also asked that there's two board members that are also part of that committee, that we get that committee together and begin to dialogue around all of the items of business that we have. So I'll work with Jonathan or Adam to facilitate getting that group together. |
| 03:11:39.16 | Susan Cleveland-Knowles | Yeah. |
| 03:11:55.73 | Susan Cleveland-Knowles | So I would love to do that in December because committee assignments could change next year. So, all right, thanks. |
| 03:12:03.85 | Unknown | I can't remember who up here came with me and visited the plant. Jill. |
| 03:12:10.68 | Unknown | On the construction site? |
| 03:12:12.96 | Unknown | No, a while ago, a couple of years ago, we visited the plant. It's a fun morning. |
| 03:12:22.02 | Jill Hoffman | you |
| 03:12:22.09 | Unknown | you |
| 03:12:22.11 | Jill Hoffman | I don't know. |
| 03:12:24.02 | Unknown | Yeah. |
| 03:12:24.18 | Jill Hoffman | It's a beautiful location. It's right on the bay. It is a beautiful location. |
| 03:12:27.32 | Unknown | It is beautiful. |
| 03:12:27.98 | Unknown | If you like large infrastructure. |
| 03:12:30.65 | Jill Hoffman | It's got to be the most beautiful sewer plant in the country. |
| 03:12:33.65 | Unknown | in the country. Yeah. To see big, you know, stuff doing |
| 03:12:39.15 | Unknown | Thank you. |
| 03:12:39.19 | Unknown | Simple chemistry. |
| 03:12:41.03 | Unknown | It's kind of fun. Well, they get to use the word quality affluent. I mean, that's just, |
| 03:12:42.14 | Unknown | I have to use that. |
| 03:12:48.52 | Susan Cleveland-Knowles | All right, thank you, Jonathan, and thank you, Mr. Kingston, and thank you, Charles and Meg. All right, we're going to move on. We're now going to address what was on consent, our Route 95. David, I apologize that you had to sit through this entire meeting. Um, for an item that was on our consent calendar for the second time. |
| 03:13:12.95 | Jill Hoffman | Well, I think we took it off the consent calendar last time, but we went so late. We didn't get to it. |
| 03:13:18.47 | Susan Cleveland-Knowles | What happened? We postponed it so that I could ask some questions. I asked the questions and no one else had raised any questions, so it went back on consent. |
| 03:13:18.81 | Jill Hoffman | What happened that we were talking about? |
| 03:13:22.74 | Jill Hoffman | Well. |
| 03:13:27.26 | Jill Hoffman | you Well, I emailed, and this is, I don't perceive this to be a big issue, but I wanted these things to be addressed on the record so that people watching know that we at least addressed this before we approved it. So I emailed you four questions earlier today. Do you want me to just go through and ask you those again for the- Please. They're kind of easy. |
| 03:13:49.86 | Jonathon Goldman | Please, and then if I answer inconsistently, I'll pull the fire off. |
| 03:13:55.73 | Jill Hoffman | I'm sure we'll be fine. So one of the questions was that what's the impact of Do we lose any ability, okay, so we're talking about, let me just. We're talking about the Adopting a resolution recommended by the pedestrian bicycle advisory committee approving US bicycle route 95 through Sausalito. So that's the item that was on the consent calendar. And so my question is to you, or do we lose any ability to manage the designated route in the future by virtue of it being part of the US bike route? |
| 03:14:33.83 | Jonathon Goldman | And my understanding is that the process of designation is reversible. What the resolution does is recommends to Caltrans that it be designated as a route. If the city council, in its wisdom at some point in the future, including the day after tomorrow, decides to de-designate it, the process, I think, works the same way. |
| 03:14:44.45 | Unknown | Mm-hmm. |
| 03:14:57.17 | Jill Hoffman | And must we, because when I looked on the website, there was signage like any other road route. There was US Bike Route, whatever signage, and so that's always a big issue in Sausalito. So my second question to you was, if it's designated as US Bike Route 95 through Sausalito, do we have to post signage through Sausalito along the route? |
| 03:15:20.93 | Jonathon Goldman | Not only are we not required to post signage, but the substantive change between when this came to council last time and now is that the resolution is silent with respect to signage. It's been removed from the resolution. That was a question I raised, so it was removed from the resolution. There's no requirement, and certainly if, again, at some point in the future, if the council or staff or members of the community thought that signage was necessary That can come back to council to be revisited, but in my judgment There's no need for signage now and there's no requirement for signage. That's not a judgment The fact is there's no requirement for some first signage |
| 03:15:32.75 | Susan Cleveland-Knowles | It's been removed from the rest of the, that was a question I raised so it was removed from the rest of the. |
| 03:15:36.54 | Unknown | Thank you. |
| 03:15:36.69 | Susan Cleveland-Knowles | Yeah. |
| 03:15:58.09 | Jill Hoffman | I'm not. |
| 03:16:01.33 | Jill Hoffman | Okay, and then the third question I asked was, Even if we don't request inclusion of bike route 95, won't the roads in Sausalio still be included anyway? Because it's the only path really from the Golden Gate Bridge north or south, whatever. |
| 03:16:17.19 | Unknown | North or South. |
| 03:16:18.83 | Jonathon Goldman | Yeah, the answer to that is that it won't be included in the official bike route 95 unless the city council asks Caltrans to do so. But as a practical matter, and I think this was your point and my response, I suppose there are alternate routes, including riding through the headlands and trying to get back to the South Slido Mill Valley Path through Tennessee Valley. but the the riders who are likely to want to know what their route would be if they want to ride from Tijuana to the Canadian border are pretty likely to go this way whether it's an official bike route or not because this is the best route so the the you know it's it's just a it's a way of designated designating a continuous route north to south that for people who want to ride bicycles for hundreds of miles at a time who haven't necessarily been here before to know what the the preferred route for doing that is preferred route for their safety for the efficiency of their getting from point A to point B and and my judgment and in the pedestrian bicycle advisory committee's judgment that route is you know what's shown on the screen now that's the map but it's entirely |
| 03:16:28.20 | Unknown | Mm-hmm. |
| 03:17:46.94 | Jonathon Goldman | City Council's discretion whether we ask Caltrans to designate this alignment in Sausalito as part of the bike route or not. |
| 03:17:56.59 | Jill Hoffman | So, and then my last question, and then there's, we had some questions sent to us by Susan Frank. So I'm just going to ask a couple of those as well. The last question I asked you though was, the USBRS, which is the agency that's doing the bike route, website stated their goal is of building broad support for bicycling and bicycle travel in communities across the country. So logically the purpose is to promote and facilitate more more bike travel or more recreational bike travel. So then, The question is, did the bike and ped committee rely on any studies that address the effect of inclusion of Sausalito and US Bike Route 95 will increase and attract more bike traffic along that already crowded corridor. So that was addressed in the staff report. |
| 03:18:50.59 | Unknown | and, |
| 03:18:51.03 | Jill Hoffman | I didn't see that in the staff board. About studies? Because my understanding is there's no studies. |
| 03:18:51.21 | Jonathon Goldman | Thank you. |
| 03:18:51.25 | Susan Cleveland-Knowles | I'm sorry. |
| 03:18:51.30 | Jonathon Goldman | . |
| 03:18:56.88 | Jill Hoffman | Why not? |
| 03:18:56.95 | Jonathon Goldman | Thank you. Thank you. We didn't study the impacts of route designation compared with the alternative of not designating the route, and I haven't necessarily seen any studies. But as I said, let's assume for the sake of argument that the entire route is designated with the exception of within the Sausalito city limits. Any bicyclist or someone and whether someone's going to consciously make a decision to leave their motor vehicle and take a bike, |
| 03:18:57.62 | Jill Hoffman | We were. |
| 03:19:10.38 | Unknown | Mm-hmm. |
| 03:19:35.63 | Jonathon Goldman | instead of driving from Tijuana to Canada. |
| 03:19:37.23 | Unknown | from. |
| 03:19:39.32 | Jonathon Goldman | You know, I don't know that designation of the route is somehow going to, you know, be the straw that broke that camel and convince somebody to ride their bicycle through Sausalito. But as a practical matter, anyone who does want to ride their bicycle is likely to take this route. And I would be shocked, frankly, if designating a route is going to stimulate demand for long-distance bicycling. whether it's interaction frankly if designating a route is going to stimulate demand for long-distance bicycling whether whether it's in or out |
| 03:20:06.44 | Unknown | Thank you. |
| 03:20:06.46 | Jill Hoffman | Yeah. |
| 03:20:06.66 | Unknown | you |
| 03:20:10.17 | Jill Hoffman | Okay, and then I think Susan, she's got two more, three more, Susan Frank, who emailed these questions in. Will the route help mitigate current traffic congestion that we're experiencing in Sausalito? I guess, did the bike and ped committee address that at all? |
| 03:20:28.26 | Susan Cleveland-Knowles | So point of order, I did not receive a letter from Susan Frank. |
| 03:20:29.78 | Jill Hoffman | SHE TOOK A LOT OF PEOPLE. It was on the dais. I did not see it. |
| 03:20:36.63 | Unknown | Thank you. |
| 03:20:38.50 | Susan Cleveland-Knowles | Okay. |
| 03:20:39.31 | Unknown | Yeah, thank you. Sorry. |
| 03:20:41.56 | Jill Hoffman | Thank you. |
| 03:20:41.86 | Jonathon Goldman | I don't recall that that question was considered at Pedestrian and Bicycle Advisory Committee, no. |
| 03:20:48.34 | Jill Hoffman | Her next question is, will there be a speed limit posted for these new bicyclists? |
| 03:20:54.05 | Jonathon Goldman | Or any bicyclist. The current regulatory limits apply to all bicyclists. |
| 03:20:58.77 | Jill Hoffman | And it, okay. |
| 03:20:59.56 | Jonathon Goldman | There wouldn't be the need for a new speed limit. |
| 03:21:02.26 | Jill Hoffman | Okay. And is that the same speed limit that applies to cars going through that? Correct. And what is? |
| 03:21:06.72 | Jonathon Goldman | Correct. Yeah. It ranges from 20 to 35 depending on where one is and what direction it's going. Don't ask me any more detailed questions about that. |
| 03:21:18.70 | Jill Hoffman | I have it. And then her last question is what improvements will be made to the current bike path as a result of this new federally designated route, if any? |
| 03:21:29.26 | Jonathon Goldman | There are none contemplated and no funding for improvements that come with either designation or lack of designation. |
| 03:21:37.87 | Jill Hoffman | Okay, thanks very much. |
| 03:21:38.29 | Jonathon Goldman | Thanks very much. It would be nice if there were. |
| 03:21:40.15 | Jill Hoffman | Yeah, wouldn't that be great? Thanks, those are all the questions that I have on this subject. Thank you. |
| 03:21:46.22 | Unknown | Thank you. |
| 03:21:46.24 | Jill Hoffman | Okay. |
| 03:21:46.49 | Unknown | Thank you. |
| 03:21:46.51 | Jill Hoffman | Thank you. |
| 03:21:47.57 | Susan Cleveland-Knowles | May I just ask, in the future, if something is directed to the city attorney or the city clerk, if they could forward it to the city council, I did not receive this before this evening. And so it was sent this morning at 11.51 a.m., but I was not aware of it. So I apologize, Jill, because I was unaware of it. |
| 03:22:09.93 | Jill Hoffman | I didn't see either, I found it on the dais too. |
| 03:22:12.09 | Adam Politzer | Thank you. |
| 03:22:12.13 | Susan Cleveland-Knowles | Thank you. |
| 03:22:12.28 | Adam Politzer | Okay. |
| 03:22:12.90 | Jill Hoffman | Thank you. |
| 03:22:12.94 | Adam Politzer | Just for clarification, that's a good request for us to make sure it does get loaded onto iLegislate, so those that are working from their iPad has it as an attachment. |
| 03:22:23.85 | Susan Cleveland-Knowles | But I don't review, I legislate on the morning of a city council meeting. I review it on the weekend. So if we get late mail. |
| 03:22:30.08 | Adam Politzer | I understand. |
| 03:22:31.89 | Susan Cleveland-Knowles | I have to get, it has to be forwarded. |
| 03:22:33.12 | Adam Politzer | I think we're taking your direction to make sure that we don't just load it on- |
| 03:22:35.40 | Susan Cleveland-Knowles | Yeah. on Granicus, but please forward. That has been the practice in the past. Okay. With that, are you ready to vote on this? Okay. Is there any public comment? Alright seeing none I'll bring it up here for a motion who would like to |
| 03:22:53.98 | Jill Hoffman | Do you mind if we comment first before we do the motion? Sure. So just briefly, I just want to make it clear that I don't truly have concerns really about the type of bicyclist that I think may be reacting to this US bike. But I just wanted to make it clear on the record that we had thought about these issues and that we addressed them and |
| 03:22:54.03 | Susan Cleveland-Knowles | Do you mind? |
| 03:23:15.24 | Jill Hoffman | have the ability to maintain some control if there is a problem going forward. So, but in all, I'm in favor of it. Thank you. Thanks for your indulgence, dude. |
| 03:23:28.89 | Jill Hoffman | THE END OF THE END OF THE |
| 03:23:29.06 | Susan Cleveland-Knowles | Okay. Would you like to move approval? |
| 03:23:33.73 | Unknown | I move that we approve item 6D, approving the route 95 resolution. |
| 03:23:39.08 | Susan Cleveland-Knowles | Thank you. |
| 03:23:39.12 | Unknown | Thank you. |
| 03:23:39.22 | Susan Cleveland-Knowles | Thank you. |
| 03:23:44.09 | Unknown | I want to pull the whole thing up. Do we need the whole thing? That's adequate. Good. Thanks. |
| 03:23:46.37 | Susan Cleveland-Knowles | The whole thing. That's adequate. Good. Is there a second? |
| 03:23:51.98 | Unknown | I didn't want to see it. |
| 03:23:52.52 | Unknown | Exactly. Thank you. |
| 03:23:53.09 | Unknown | Thank you. |
| 03:23:53.24 | Susan Cleveland-Knowles | All in favor? Aye. Aye. That motion carries 5-0. |
| 03:23:54.52 | Unknown | I. |
| 03:23:54.96 | Unknown | Bye. |
| 03:23:57.53 | Susan Cleveland-Knowles | All right, we'll now move on to city manager reports, council member reports, city council appointments, and other council business. Public comment on our items 7B through 7F. Seeing none, I'll turn it over to the city manager for his report, bearing in mind we're only one hour behind schedule. |
| 03:24:16.51 | Adam Politzer | Just one announcement and council members met Yulia Carter, our new assistant city manager, administrative services director. She began on Monday. She started here with us on Monday. We had a nice reception for her. yesterday morning at 10 o'clock in the library and a nice welcome to our community i encourage the council members to meet with her one-on-one to get to know her share your ideas as we look forward she will start to populate lots of various committees including the bac of the business Advisory Committee, the General Plan Advisory Committee obviously she'll be staffing the Finance Committee and the OMIC committee so as we start getting back into our routine regular meetings you and the community will get to meet her and work with her we also ran a nice current article introducing her to the community in our last edition of the current. I will... and my comments and be happy to answer any questions from the council. |
| 03:25:29.24 | Susan Cleveland-Knowles | Thank you. Any questions about them? All right, council member committee reports. Great. |
| 03:25:37.24 | Unknown | Thank you. |
| 03:25:37.83 | Unknown | I just have two internal committee BAC. They met, I don't know. just before Thanksgiving. Very interesting, I mentioned last time that the BAC had formed two small subcommittees that were looking at really two areas of the general plan. And the first is the marineship, not surprisingly, and the second is the downtown commercial area. Brian, our current interim administrative services director who's done a lot of improvement districts and things like that, contributed some towards the group having, I think, a really excellent discussion on some sensible ideas to move forward and communicate to the general plan advisory committee. So, What so I just wanted to report that that was moving along and I found that to be a very constructive Advance Related to that, we were asked, the question was asked and I conveyed it to Lily who's Obviously the major staff person on the general plan advisory committee work that We now have three this was part the goal to have some of our internal committees start working on their specialist subjects and reporting and to sort of Start getting involved in the general plan process. We've got sustainability doing it. We've got the bike and ped committee once was going to get involved. And now we have BAC. And one of the questions was, and I've conveyed this to Lily to think through, talk to eventually the general plan advisory committee and the M group and for staff to work through this at some point in the spring, rather than force them, shoehorn them into a three minute public comment, we should have a general plan advisory committee that doesn't need to necessarily have the M group present. So it's not a cost issue. For all three committees to come together in one meeting and present their work. And I thought that was a really good idea. So Lily's off and running with that, and I think she'll be talking to the general plan committee about that at some point. second one I want to mention is Tam we had a special meeting in the middle of November I don't know what that was because of Thanksgiving and the way things were moving around to approve some funding allocations from rm3 which was read rm2 rather regional measure two which was something that was enacted ages ago. That's not the story. That's not the story. So we had to be there. I was hoping the meeting would be canceled, but it wasn't. So I had to be there. And we moved this funding around. But what emerged, and for those who are going to go to MCCMC tomorrow night, you're going to definitely hear about it. If Damon's there, you're going to hear about it in an MTC report and Pat is almost certainly going to give it as an ABAG report. And that is the joint MTC ABAG. thing, agency, has now has sort of created what they called, and I see where can I write this? Okay. Sizorien, the Bay Area, you could do this. The committee to house the Bay Area. There's a committee, a joint committee, subcommittee of MTC and ABAG, a committee to house the Bay Area that they've called Casa. Right? And you're familiar with that, right? |
| 03:30:10.19 | Unknown | Thank you. |
| 03:30:10.23 | Unknown | Yep. |
| 03:30:10.50 | Unknown | Yeah. |
| 03:30:13.98 | Unknown | The thing that both Damon pointed out at MTC is that for everybody to be aware of that the draft CASA compact, which I've got a copy of here, and we can put it on the website if you want, is basically in part to support legislation in Sacramento and Jointly MTC and a bag are pushing very strongly for the streamlining legislation pretty much most of the provisions of Scott Weiner's bills from last year and Damon's perspective was this is really going to happen. So I just want to make sure that everybody's familiar with that. And I'm sure Pat will talk about that in detail tomorrow night for anybody who's there. Because, I mean, it's on her mind very much. |
| 03:31:00.42 | Unknown | Yep. |
| 03:31:15.75 | Unknown | This is the bigger governance of MTC overruling the smaller governance of ABAC. |
| 03:31:20.18 | Unknown | Yeah, but what this is, is the, almost certainly this is MTC driven, right? And what it's doing is, and, you know, wherever you stand on the housing stance, what it is, is basically MTC is pushing and advocating for the housing, the loss of local control of housing that many people in the bay air have been fighting against the important thing is and what was freaking out um damon was supervisor connolly was um that MTC is pushing to link transportation funding to housing. And so if that does transpire, then a lot of strings will be attached to future MTC funding that they're in control of. That's the important message. |
| 03:32:15.42 | Susan Cleveland-Knowles | And eradicate local control over development near transportation. |
| 03:32:22.65 | Unknown | For some people, that's a good thing. You know, for others, it's definitely not so, but, um, The power of MTC has now formally been charged in that direction. That's the point. They were doing it before, but now it's... formally through this compact, you know, the CASA compact. So that's what I have to say. |
| 03:32:50.64 | Susan Cleveland-Knowles | I don't have anything that dramatic, but just following up on your point about the local commissions and the general plan, tomorrow night, Pedestrian and Bike Advisory Commission and the Sustainability Commission are having a joint meeting with the topic of the general plan and also i think which will be nice is the ferry land side improvement issues so they'll be discussing both of those tomorrow and then last night i went to the mccmc disaster preparedness committee meeting and that meeting was held up at the marin county EOC and we got a tour of that which was interesting very well appointed well-funded area and so we had some discussion but mostly got the tour and that committee will be circulating a draft white paper at some point which will be coming forward so that's it for me |
| 03:33:55.78 | Unknown | Can I ask a question on that, sorry, on the disaster preparedness? |
| 03:33:55.85 | Susan Cleveland-Knowles | Thank you. I ask a question. |
| 03:34:02.58 | Unknown | That was the ad hoc committee. Is the white paper that's being produced then the sort of final work product of that committee or is it going to be an ongoing committee? What do you think? |
| 03:34:12.72 | Susan Cleveland-Knowles | It sounds like it will not be an ongoing committee, but I think that's to be determined. I think that people want to close it out. |
| 03:34:20.40 | Unknown | Okay. |
| 03:34:21.53 | Susan Cleveland-Knowles | Seems to be the thought, and we don't have a draft yet, so it's a little unclear. I think it was sort of local kind of best practices from different local governments and opportunities to collaborate sort of seemed to be the thing. But it sounds like that committee will probably unform itself after. |
| 03:34:26.93 | Unknown | Mm-hmm. |
| 03:34:45.34 | Susan Cleveland-Knowles | after this, but it's not completely certain. |
| 03:34:46.66 | Unknown | Yeah. Thank you. I'm not. I mean, the other committee report I failed to give was the MCC Pension and OPEB Reform Committee. That's with its aim is to write the definitive report on... Again, on pensions, we actually haven't met for a couple of months because we've got individual folks writing pieces. It's not been sort of collated and put together yet. So that's probably going to be delayed until January, February. And as I'm the rate limited step on one chapter, it's definitely not going to be available until January or February. So, but what we're trying to do at MCCMC is actually find a time for both disaster and the pension thing to be given a time slot at MCCMC to be able to present their report. |
| 03:35:50.50 | Unknown | I'll report on PBAC and included with Susan's report that the group's getting together tomorrow night with sustainability and PBAC. And for the general plan update, but as well as the land site, as she mentioned. And all the committees are being asked. We're really pushing the committee involvement in these two areas. I was hoping tonight that we might hear from committees. I've been challenging various people just to come and speak about something. One of those recently was at our PBAC meeting last week where we heard a wonderful presentation by Aaron Roller. And I ask you all to pull it up on your granicus and look at the buffered bike lane update on the last pedestrian bike committee. This is something that the PBAC supports, it looks like, as a group. And it's basically re-striping Bridgeway from Golden Gate Market to Princess Street to have two buffered bike lanes on each side, taking away the median. It's a large project, larger I think than what maybe they understood, that some of the expectations were But I think really relevant, and really relevant in that it was partially called for in the last general plan update to look at that, or the last general plan. But also the work was done so nice with so many considerations of all the variables involved. So I challenge you to look at that because, not challenge, I ask you to, because it's something that that committee really wants to push forward fast. Staff is looking to an extent at what can be done, and then we're going to look at where we need to maybe bring in a consultant and what needs to be done. But there's a lot of variables obviously involved. We're redoing a major street that's going to have a lot of bikes on it for US 95 bike route. But the buffer bike plan is really super cool, and I think you have to see the presentation that alternate member Aaron Roller put forth on that. |
| 03:37:57.26 | Susan Cleveland-Knowles | Well, I think the General Plan Advisory Committee would love to see that. So I'd love to see that brought forward or added to the agenda for the GPAC. |
| 03:38:06.04 | Unknown | That'd be great, and PBAC does want to have that involvement as well. |
| 03:38:09.63 | Susan Cleveland-Knowles | as well. Yeah. Okay, briefly, I'm going to dovetail off of Ray's comments from Supervisor Connolly because the MCCMC Legislative Committee met last week with, Senator Mike McGuire, who shares those concerns about the connection, the nexus being strengthened between Um, Yeah. transportation and housing. This city council after some discussion did write a letter opposing legislation near rail transportation in in another county, that would streamline that process because it is challenging to juxtapose the two priorities of maintaining local control, over development and ensuring the development of appropriate housing near transportation. So right now, Senator McGuire seems to believe that. the, Pending legislation will focus on transportation and not other modes. of transportation. But that is not to say that I think eroding local control over any kind of housing, is the right way to go. I emphasized that small towns like Sausalito. Tiburon. that are A, ahead of the curve in providing very low and low income housing, and B, that already have easily accessible housing near transportation. should not necessarily be the subject of a one size fits all bill. And so, The MCCMC Legislative Committee recently completed a paper with the assistance of Belvedere the city manager that was forwarded to Mike McGuire for in consideration of these types of matters to demonstrate Marin County's overall success in meeting many of the goals of this proposed legislation already. And so I think that's going to importantly be the subject of much discussion and debate so that cities such as ours can identify alternative strategies to still meet the housing crisis that all of California faces. And so that segues nicely into my next report, which is Mayor's Blue Ribbon Housing Committee which met this past Sunday and will meet the final time this coming Sunday, and we'll have a report to this city council on December 11. with several different topics for consideration. One has to do with streamlining the approval process, but another has to do with identifying housing in Sausalito that does not change the character of Sausalito's neighborhoods and is a low impact way to address some of the housing needs facing California. And then Councilmember Hoffman and I participated with the city manager. in a meeting on November 16 with our waterfront working group to which we included the RBRA, BC, and BCDC. We had a senior member from BCDC we had not previously met. who shed a lot of light on BCDC's current evaluation of its waterfront management program and the importance that BCDC places on keeping up with evolving needs. but who very clearly said that Yeah. California and particularly the Bay Area is not going to solve its housing crisis by putting residents on the water. And so. Um, And that reiterated BCDC's position that Um, The only boats that should be on the water are recreational boats. Now, that's not to say that we can't figure out in collaboration with RBRA a sensible plan. moving forward. And so all of the agencies committed to continue to collaborate on that. We promised to share some research that we're doing about our special anchorage when that research is complete. and we're scheduled to meet again on, um, December 19. But it was a very encouraging meeting in that, Everybody seems to be in lockstep in wanting to collaborate to find solutions to a very challenging issue. and beef up enforcement our current enforcement strategy that addresses the empty boats, the marine debris, the boats that are used as storage that endanger our waterfront dwellers, the people living on the water, and our public health and safety personnel. Okay. And with that, I have no further reports we have no appointments to boards commissions and committees and There's a future agenda items list attached. Um, We're down to very few future agenda items, which I'm very, very proud of. Thank you. No other reports of significance. We issued a proclamation tonight, but I will adjourn this evening's meeting in honor of our longest serving mayor ever, Robin Sweeney. Thank you, we stand adjourned at 1025, at 1052 p.m. |