| Time | Speaker | Text |
|---|---|---|
| 00:02:22.96 | Karen Strollia | you |
| 00:03:19.78 | Karen Strollia | Bye. |
| 00:03:52.53 | Karen Strollia | Feeling tired. you Bye-bye. Bye. Thank you. |
| 00:04:09.02 | Karen Strollia | Thank you. Aww. Day. |
| 00:04:14.68 | Karen Strollia | Is all |
| 00:04:25.19 | Karen Strollia | The wind is gone |
| 00:04:33.44 | Karen Strollia | Sleep at dawn |
| 00:04:44.05 | Karen Strollia | I'm going to go. |
| 00:05:35.12 | Mayor Burns | Good evening everybody. Thank you for being here, another packed house, I love it. Thanks all for being here and for those that are watching at home, it is Tuesday, March 26th. We're going to start this meeting at 7.05 and I am going to ask for a roll call search. |
| 00:05:52.16 | City Clerk | Council Member Cox. |
| 00:05:53.29 | Councilmember Hoffman | Here. |
| 00:05:53.50 | City Clerk | Bye. All right. Councilmember Hoffman. |
| 00:05:55.93 | Councilmember Hoffman | Here. |
| 00:05:56.65 | City Clerk | Councilmember Withey? Here. Vice Mayor Cleveland Knowles? Here. Mayor Burns? |
| 00:05:59.86 | Councilmember Hoffman | Bye. |
| 00:06:01.38 | Mayor Burns | Here. |
| 00:06:04.95 | Mayor Burns | Let's see who's looking down. Karen Strollia, you're not making eye contact. How about leading us in the Pledge of Allegiance? |
| 00:06:08.55 | Karen Strollia | Ha ha ha ha ha! you Oh, okay. Allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands. |
| 00:06:13.98 | Unknown | Thank you. |
| 00:06:14.10 | Michael Rex | to the flag. |
| 00:06:15.82 | Mayor Burns | Thank you. you |
| 00:06:16.12 | Ray | Amen. |
| 00:06:16.95 | Mayor Burns | Thank you. |
| 00:06:16.97 | Ray | States of America. and to the republic for which it stands you |
| 00:06:21.20 | Karen Strollia | you |
| 00:06:21.54 | Ray | Bye. |
| 00:06:21.69 | Karen Strollia | Yes. |
| 00:06:22.01 | Ray | under God. indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. |
| 00:06:29.45 | Mayor Burns | Thank you. There was no closed session tonight, so there'll be no public comment. I'm looking for approval of the agenda. I will say that tonight we'll be closing tonight's meeting in honor of Stephanie Wicks, who passed away this last couple weeks. A tremendous community participant from Galley Harbor, founder to part of the founding group to women's club and so many other things so we'll be closing tonight's meeting in stephanie's honor um Is there approval for the agenda? So moved. |
| 00:07:05.05 | Unknown | Second. |
| 00:07:05.72 | Mayor Burns | All in favor? Aye. |
| 00:07:06.48 | Unknown | Aye. |
| 00:07:09.63 | Mayor Burns | Also kind of an opportunity that I wish we didn't have, but We've talked about this before. I'm going to use this opportunity to read a proclamation for a resident who passed this last year as well, who meant so much to us and our community. Don Olson was one of those people that actually did leave his mark in our town as an architect and somebody who was iconic both in his buildings and in his stature and in what he left behind. So it's an honor to read this and then we'll have the family come up and accept. So a proclamation of the city of council. of the city of Sausalito remembering Donald Keith Olson. Whereas, Don Olson moved from Tulsa, Oklahoma to Sausalito in 1962. Married Sandra and raised three daughters while nurturing his lifelong love of Sausalito. And, whereas, Don started his architectural firm, Donaldson Associates, shortly after arriving here. He realized many projects in Sausalito, both residential and commercial, all with his eyes for enduring design and deep desire to complement the natural beauty of the town. He was known for his easy, non-confrontational way in getting projects through design review and rallying the community around important issues. And whereas Don's persistent and perpetual in Midwestern grace, deep knowledge and passion for his vision of this community prevailed through many city council meetings. His vision will have an enduring imprint on the character and vistas of Sausalito. And, whereas, Don embodied the values of inclusiveness. kindness and service. He welcomed new residents of all types and backgrounds to Sausalito and to his home. He was an active member of the St. Mary's Star of the Sea Church, where he donated his time and talent to lead the design and help execute church renovation projects. And whereas, he was the longest standing member of the Sausalito Rotary Club, where he also donated many hours to designing and building senior housing projects. He was active in Sausalito politics, often attending planning commission and city council meetings, even when his designs were not on the agenda. And whereas, Don's uniform of khaki pants, a denim top, and his tools of the trade, a notebook, architectural scale, and pencil was so iconic that the Rotary Club honored him on his 50th anniversary by having all members dress in the same uniform. There was actually multiple occasions that the club did that. With perfect posture, molded by his ROTC background, he confidently walked the streets of Sausalito between his home, office, and projects. If he wasn't walking, he was driving his beloved 1956 Mercedes 190 SL, making him even more recognizable and memorable. Now, therefore, the mayor of Sausalito asked the citizens of Sausalito to again recognize the bountiful contribution that Donald Keith Olsen made to the city of Sausalito and its history. And join us in sending our thoughts and prayers to his family and those in the community that impacted so deeply and touched so caringly. I'll invite the family up to receive this. I know, is Sarah? Yeah, I see the girls here. Come on up please. |
| 00:10:36.64 | Mayor Burns | If you'd like to say a few words, please do, otherwise I have this proclamation to hand you. And we'd like to shake your hand. |
| 00:10:43.64 | Unknown | We would like to shake your hand too. And thank you so much for recognizing our dad. It means so much to us. I want to just read something really quickly that Ron Albert actually had sent to us. about our dad, because it's hard to be impartial about your dad. Um, In addition to being a very talented architect, Don had a thorough knowledge of the zoning ordinance and the review process. It was said that if you needed to get something approved in Sausalito, use Don Olson. As a result, at times, owners with more aggressive plans hired Don to get their projects approved And shortly after joining the Rotary Club, Ron Albert was invited to help put together a variety comedy show at the women's club. He relied on his experience at the planning commission to write jokes, several of which featured our dad, Don. He asked Don in advance if he minded being included in the show, and he assured Ron that he didn't mind. Ron said he could still recall one of the jokes done in a game show skit. The question was in accordance with the. With the zoning of Sausalito and the City Hall, how many buildings designed by Don Olsen have been built? Contestants answered 100, 150, 200, 300, with the host saying no to each then reciting and then reciting the answer. The correct answer is no buildings designed by Don Olsen have been built in accordance with the zoning of the system. |
| 00:12:19.46 | Karen Strollia | It's so sweet. |
| 00:12:22.78 | Unknown | The punchline got a big laugh from the crowd, but no one laughed harder than our dad, Don. So thank you so much. Thank you so much. |
| 00:12:29.43 | Karen Strollia | Thank you so much. |
| 00:12:55.77 | Karen Strollia | Oh, you did it! |
| 00:12:57.14 | Kelvin Chan | Thank you. you you |
| 00:13:02.22 | Karen Strollia | you |
| 00:13:07.62 | Unknown | I should say that Adam played Don and that's good. |
| 00:13:12.48 | Mayor Burns | Adam turned his mic off when he came up, but he said he did play Don in that skit. Bye. Which would make that even more appropriate. Well, thank you for that, and that brings us to the public communications. This is a time for the community to speak to the city council, to hear from citizens regarding matters that are not on the agenda. Except in very limited situations where state law precludes the council from taking any action on the discussions concerning items that are not on the agenda. However, the council may refer items not on the agenda to city staff or direct them to the future agenda meeting. Please make sure you have completed a speaker's card. And it looks like I have 5C5C1 not on the agenda. Any others not on the agenda? I'm going to call up Karin sucks. |
| 00:14:10.94 | Unknown | Thank you, City Council members and Mayor. Just going back to February 14th and the mudslide, a friendly reminder that I've received very slim communications in the intervening five weeks. And the support that I've received has specifically come from Dr. Maureen McCoy, who's an optometrist here in the city, as well as a Sausalito member, Rebecca Litwin, who has very kindly let me stay with her for the last five weeks. I've just now been able to find a new rental place. But in terms of the communication, I guess what I'm still seeking to find out is an update on the mudslide debris field and our ability to at some point in time gain access to our belongings. In terms of the status of our red tag building, I'm sure we're going to be on hold for many, many months until we can access our belongings there. But I just wanted to keep this in the minds of the mayor and council members. |
| 00:15:18.10 | Mayor Burns | Thank you, and it is on the agenda as far as the report in tonight's consent, but I do encourage you to please talk to staff as well. They'll give you updates as best as we have, especially on the debris field. And we had a little bit of that information in our last meeting, but we will continue to provide as we know it to you. So, thanks for speaking. Thank you. |
| 00:15:35.36 | Kelvin Chan | Thank you. |
| 00:15:35.51 | Karen Strollia | Thank you. |
| 00:15:35.63 | Kelvin Chan | Thank you. |
| 00:15:36.83 | Mayor Burns | Any other communication not on the agenda? Seeing none, I will close public comment. and bring it up here for action minutes of a previous meeting. Move approval. Of the February 18th, 2019 council. |
| 00:15:53.03 | Unknown | Special meeting. Second. |
| 00:15:55.44 | Mayor Burns | All in favor? Aye. Aye. Aye. That's a 5-0. Passing. |
| 00:15:56.37 | Unknown | I. |
| 00:16:01.92 | Mayor Burns | Next up is item four, and this is our committee council member report. So we're going to go through, and I'm glad to see people in the audience, because this is the time that we get to really talk about some of the things that are happening in our community via our participation and the community's participation in committees. So, I'm going to throw some – I'll let the other start. Who would like to go with – Go ahead, John. |
| 00:16:23.00 | Joan Cox | Sure. I attended an RBRA meeting the Thursday following our last council meeting. In which there was a brief report regarding the appearance of RBRA and the city of Sausalito at the BCDC meeting of their enforcement committee and the fact that. |
| 00:16:48.99 | Unknown | Can I interrupt you, Joan? Yes. You remember we were going to explain acronyms. And you just said RBRA and BCDC. |
| 00:16:54.17 | Joan Cox | Okay. Okay. |
| 00:16:58.81 | Joan Cox | All right, the Richardson Bay Regional Agency, and I don't have BCDC in my mind, but it's the- |
| 00:17:05.14 | Unknown | Bay conservation. |
| 00:17:06.13 | Joan Cox | Bay Conservation. |
| 00:17:07.85 | Unknown | Commission, maybe? |
| 00:17:08.87 | Joan Cox | Development Commission, and it oversees development on Sausalito's waterfront, as well as infill out in the bay. And as I reported at our last meeting, I made a presentation to their enforcement committee that was very well received. Um, We shared the outcome of that meeting at the Richardson Bay Regional Agency meeting. Thank you. on that Thursday. And in addition, the Richardson Bay Regional Agency commenced consideration of ordinances that are somewhat similar to some of Sausalito's ordinances. In terms of monitoring the types of boats that exist on Richardson's Bay. That same evening I also attended a meeting of the Saucyda Marin City School District in which I urged the school board to equitably divide the property tax revenues that they have discretion about how they split. And I'll speak more about that on our agenda item this evening. I also attended a sister city event. I attended the Saucyda Women's Club Jinx at which our own Jill Hoffman sang. Sang a solo. |
| 00:18:37.41 | Joan Cox | I attended Monday morning the Marin County Gosh, I don't know, MCCMC, Marin County. Council members. |
| 00:18:48.63 | Ray | Marin County Council of Mayors and Council Members. |
| 00:18:52.51 | Joan Cox | So, Legislative Committee on Monday morning. And I was asked on behalf of that committee to write letters opposing SB50, which is a housing bill that is a one size fits all housing bill and supporting SB4, which is a housing bill that is that is much more suited for different sized towns. It's a not one size fits all bill. I'm not sure. And these are two housing bills that are coming up against one another and which housing bill passes will have a huge impact on cities and counties throughout the state. And then this morning, Council Member Hoffman and I attended a legislative committee meeting for the city of Sausalito at which we reviewed draft ordinances regarding sidewalk vendors and a gradual ban on plastics. |
| 00:19:55.78 | Mayor Burns | And that's all? Thank you. Jill, you want to go? Susan? Your big performance? |
| 00:20:04.92 | Unknown | I have a pretty short report this time. I attended our last Sustainability Commission meeting as the liaison to that committee, and we had a really excellent presentation from Marin Clean Energy, and Marin Clean Energy Board Member Ray Withey was also there. We had a great presentation from staff, and one of the things that you may be hearing more about this year is the Sustainability Commission's goal to get more Sassolito residents enrolled in deep green, which is Marin Clean Energy's most environmentally sound energy program. So we did learn a lot. That slide show presentation should be on the Sustainability Commission's website either now or soon. And I will have attend my first meeting of the Transportation Authority of Marin as the permanent member taking over from Ray Withee this Thursday. I'll report on that at our next meeting. |
| 00:21:04.20 | Mayor Burns | Thank you. Ray. |
| 00:21:08.71 | Ray | Um... last time I reported on the business advisory committee that They're working to |
| 00:21:17.18 | Karen Strollia | you |
| 00:21:18.24 | Ray | understand the overall business views on a variety of issues, the marineship, the commercial districts, to bring forward to the general plan so the general plan advisory committee can start with a lot more input from residents, start figuring out what our vision for all of these are. So that's one of the inputs. So I know the sustainability commission's doing the same thing. I don't know if bike and ped is going to do the same thing, but I think this is good that we're getting our commission's inputs into the general plan process. I, yes, I went to, I was invited to join the Marine Clean Energy, MCE Marine Clean Energy, presentation to our Sustainability Commission, and then a couple of days later, at the Marine Clean Energy Board meeting, we approved next year's budget. Marine Clean Energy operates on April 1st to March 31st fiscal year. Who knows why, but they do. |
| 00:22:30.45 | Kelvin Chan | UNO. |
| 00:22:34.54 | Ray | Thank you. Marine Clean Energy is now expanded into pretty much all of the surrounding North Bay counties other than Sonoma, which has its own CCA. There's a couple of very important things going on, actually. There's two really important initiatives. The first is in the state legislature, where a variety of committees are trying to get their arms around the fact that there needs to be perhaps a complete reorganization of the regulatory environment vis-à-vis the CPUC, California Energy Commission, and who regulates who. And that discussion's underway. And the second thing is, in light of the PG&E bankruptcy, PG&E is a very important partner for Marine Clean Energy because the distribution side of that utility distributes the Marine Clean Energy's energy to us, if you're a subscriber. And so they're a very important partner. Luckily, as within the early part of the century, the last time PG&E declared bankruptcy, operations of that nature were not disrupted. But this time, the CPUC is now, sorry, California Public Utilities Commission, sorry, is actually now beginning to understand that because the consolidated aggregators like Marine Clean Energy and others around the state, now are almost over 50% of the energy supply in California. It means that they need to ask the question, What should be the future of that side of PG&E? So that is a huge undertaking that's now going on in the Public Utilities Commission. And that means that the marine clean energy's future has some very interesting bifurcation points in the future. So that's probably more than you wanted to hear about. No, very much. Clean energy. And then very finally, I attended the county Bay Wave or sea level rise workshop last week, which brought a whole bunch of stakeholders together. It was very interesting to show the various projects that are ongoing to attempt to remediate and plan for sea level rise. A month or so ago, I felt very honored that |
| 00:24:46.82 | Mayor Burns | No, very energetic. |
| 00:25:22.91 | Ray | I was asked to join the Executive Steering Committee of BayWave, which I know I am. And so I'm hoping to bring that knowledge to the general plan advisory committee. |
| 00:25:34.49 | Mayor Burns | All right, thank you. I attended on March 16th a groundbreaking at the Bay Area Discovery Museum. down here in Campolo area that we know so well is such a great Spot if you've had young children to to bring them they are doing an 18.5 million dollar you renovation of a building that has been there off limits for a long time. It was just a decrepitated old military base building. So they're redoing that and they're adding a lot of programming. that they really haven't done before from kind of makerspace stuff, really focusing on very young, and their age is zero to ten in that realm. So they're going to be doing a lot more programming. It was just a great display of what they do there, the people they serve, the opportunities for young development that we probably will be talking about again tonight, and that is so on top of our mind right now as far as developing the minds of one, two, and three year olds. So I wanted to make sure that they got recognition as somebody in our community, though not in our city limit, in our community that's providing tremendous opportunity for our children. I attended a meeting put together by Supervisor Katie Rice, and this was also, we had the fire chiefs in our area there as well. It was put together kind of last moment, and it turned out to be pretty much all mayors of the 11 cities, and then the planning, the fire personnel. And it's called Marin Ready Together, and it's really an attempt to kind of bring our efforts together, especially as we look at vegetation management in a region. The big thing that we know, fire doesn't know city limits, so our management of the vegetation shouldn't either. Nor does it know fire districts and that type of thing. So it's the start of a process to really bring together and collaborate and bring together resources that we could attack some of these mitigated efforts in the vegetation earlier and bring on personnel that we wouldn't otherwise be able to bring on. So much more to come on that. This was an initial meeting. I think it's exciting that we are talking more in a regional approach to that. I didn't know, and Chief, was that 19 different fire agencies in our county? Is that correct? when you count all the little ones in the Yeah. Yeah, that is astounding to me. So you can see that there's a lot of synergy to be had and economies of scale to be had as well. Interesting topic there, that was at the Civic Center and Katie will be putting out more. She also is putting out for the community an event on May 4th, and that is at the Embassy Suites 10 AM to noon on May 4th, an opportunity for the community to hear readiness and um what to do in a time of fire so that's going to be you know there's so much going on we're going to talk about it tonight and here in just a little bit but we have it in the county level the local level um And a lot from the state, so it's all about fire readiness at this time. Finally, I did attend a offshoot of the BAC. I'm not on the BAC, but I attended the second informal meeting of the Caledonia merchants. This was at Sushi Ron two, one morning this last week. kind of chat about ideas that they could do to build up Caledonia Street business that is suffering right now, maybe like it hasn't before in quite a while. And some of the ideas were to really Bring more engagement with the residents to that street. A lot of talk about we've had more events, open door, open events, wine walks and those types of things that we don't have as much. The community's not engaging with that business district like they used to. Some of it might be parking, some of it might be signage, some of it might be communications. But they're really looking at kind of dividing some of this up as a informal district association. And from what I understand on the BAC, you're looking at those districts anyway, so there's a formal process through the BAC as well. But I told them I would report that that meeting did talk about those items, getting the community back to Caledonia on a regular basis to support that business group and And as we said, BJC will be discussing that as well. That's all I have. Ray did bring up a point about the BAC reporting back to the G-PAC. And later in tonight's meeting under commissions, I'm going to talk briefly and put out an idea of just kind of more of that coalescing of the groups together and communication. So that's forthcoming tonight if you're still around and you're here at 1130, 12 o'clock, you'll get to hear it as well. |
| 00:30:27.93 | Karen Strollia | Thank you. . |
| 00:30:30.26 | Mayor Burns | That's it on council member reports, nothing else? Consent calendar items. Now, Matters listed on the consent calendar are considered routine. I do have some public, thank you, thank you all. Good seeing you. DJ. I have two Items on consent, calendar, public comment. A matters list on the consent calendar are considered routine and non-controversial, require no discussion, are accepted. To have unanimous council support may be enacted by the council on one motion. There will be no separate discussion on consent calendar items. However, before the council votes on a motion to adopt the calendar items, council members, city staff, or members of the public may request that specific items be removed from the consent calendar for separate action. In order to request an item to be pulled, you must have completed a speaker's card and given it to the city's clerk. Items can be removed from the consent calendar by a vote of the council. Is there any other public comment? I have two, Peter Van Meter and Russ Irwin in that order. Peter then Russ. And these are both on item 5C, thank you. |
| 00:31:36.26 | Unknown | Can I just make a comment about- Yes, please. So I had asked our city attorney about item 5E, the approval of the first amendment to the license for Marinship Park. |
| 00:31:37.20 | Mayor Burns | Yes, please. |
| 00:31:45.27 | Unknown | to add something to that amended license related to use of single use plastics. And we have added a paragraph about using best efforts to reduce the waste at the event, having helped on the Mayor's Blue Ribbon Garbage Committee and seen the amount of |
| 00:31:52.51 | Unknown | you |
| 00:32:10.30 | Unknown | I just think that we can all do better over time, obviously recognizing that we can all the finances and other abilities. So I just wanted to make sure that everyone knew that was in there. |
| 00:32:22.70 | Joan Cox | May I say I also requested a revision to the first whereas clause where it talks about the park. I asked it to specify Marinship Park since we have a number of parks in Sausalito. |
| 00:32:34.71 | Councilmember Hoffman | So along that same line, on that same item. Sorry, I, since you know. |
| 00:32:40.86 | Unknown | Well, if the members of the public want to comment on changes, I just wanted to give them a chance. |
| 00:32:43.15 | Councilmember Hoffman | Yeah, yeah, yeah. Well, I sent Adam a series of questions with regard to the art festival. Questions that I have gotten over the time. from the public, there's I think six. And so I don't know how you want to handle this. Yes, I call people. |
| 00:32:58.61 | Mayor Burns | Yes, I called Peter up too early. If you want to have comments on these and you want to bring those, please do. Yeah, do you want me to do now? Yeah, do now. Now? Okay. |
| 00:33:02.22 | Councilmember Hoffman | Yeah, do you want me to do now? Yeah, do now. Now? |
| 00:33:04.30 | Peter | Thank you. |
| 00:33:05.36 | Councilmember Hoffman | You look good there. Okay. So... |
| 00:33:05.39 | Mayor Burns | You look good there. |
| 00:33:06.44 | Peter | Thank you. The President. |
| 00:33:08.39 | Councilmember Hoffman | So these are questions that I didn't. |
| 00:33:09.78 | Peter | Closer, I can hear you. |
| 00:33:12.24 | Councilmember Hoffman | I didn't see the answers when I was looking through the license, right? So that's why I sent the questions to Adam. So I'm just going to read through them real quick, and just so everybody will now have these answers. |
| 00:33:18.50 | Kelvin Chan | Thank you. |
| 00:33:21.39 | Councilmember Hoffman | Okay. I saw on the first page good and valuable consideration for the license, but I didn't see anywhere how much. So that was my first question, how much? Do they pay us to be at the park? So the answer was this year it was 4,987 and that's based on the fees that are set for the park. And the next one was. how does the art festival compensate the city for uses of the city staff and fire and SPD. And my recollection was that they paid for these services, but I didn't know how much or how. So the festival does pay for police services, the police are charged. Police charge the festival 6,187 this past year. The festival is required to hire a security company approved by SPD to provide Standard security services 24 seven for the event. The next question was city staff, how do we get compensated for that? The response from Adam was that this is mostly associated with inspections and maintenance work prior and post event. We invoiced the festival an additional $813 last year. And there's two more questions. Also, what benefit to the city to the extent that the current agreement It runs from 2023 and we're now extending it to 2033. The city is formalizing that the tennis courts are repaved every three years. Repaving can cost up to $20,000 each. In the past, the festival has repaved the courts as needed, averaging every five years. So we're going to get the tennis courts redone. On a more regular basis, we've added $1,000 cleaning fee. Um, And we have received other benefits related to the park this year. The festival replaced an old failing fence to the tune of about $8,000. And my next question was, this is my last question. Does Sausalito collect sales tax on the art sold? Yes, every artist pays a license fee and are taxed on the items sold in Sausalito. No, we don't get money from the sales of food or drinks. Those go to local non-profits. The art festival paid the city a total of $26,990 this year. No more mystery. Those are the answers to those questions. So thank you for letting me. Thank you for bringing those up. |
| 00:35:37.42 | Mayor Burns | Thank you for bringing those up. Very nice, Joe. Any other comments from Councilmember? Seeing none. Peter, you're up. I'm opening up public comment. |
| 00:35:46.55 | Peter | Yes, my comment is on the Wildfire Urban Interface Ordinance. I was here last meeting when Fire Marshal Fred Hilliard gave his excellent presentation of the overview of this ordinance before you tonight. As a former director of the Fire Protection District, I chose not to make any comment at that time because this is a very important thing and a very worthwhile ordinance that you're considering here tonight. But on reflection, over the last couple of weeks since that presentation, I felt the comment wasn't ordered that the way that the district has been approaching individual cities with this does allow the cities to propose modifications to the ordinance for their own special circumstances. And I'm concerned that, you may have chosen to not actually go through that extra effort to make those modifications because This ordinance is a without being demeaning, kind of cookie cutter, frankly. In other words, it's designed for a wide variety of situations. As you saw in your presentation about You know, Zone 1 being 30 feet from around the structure, Zone 2 100 feet around the structure. You heard about spacing between vegetation, particularly trees on sloped situations, where you look at the high slope situations in Sausalito, there would be potential that regularly enforced that, you know, there'd be many, many trees removed in Sausalito to provide the kind of spacing recommended in the guidelines in this ordinance, as well as the intent, perhaps properly so, for the fire district to rigorously enforce this ordinance. particularly the ability to deal with properties where they can see the property from a drive-by without actually entering the property. So I think there can be some unintended consequences that the public will be I realize that it's mostly designed to new construction. in major remodeling situations but there can be situations that would be of concern particularly in public lands where there may be some removal of vegetation that can have a significant effect on the character of town. So my only comment is it's a wonderful thing. It's the right thing to be doing. If I was still a director of the fire district, I would be more than totally supportive of it because fire is a definite risk here. But I think there could have been an opportunity to make some modifications appropriate to special circumstances in Sausalito that would have been allowed. Thank you. |
| 00:38:19.37 | Mayor Burns | Thank you. Russ. Thank you. Yeah. |
| 00:38:23.92 | Karen Strollia | Thank you. |
| 00:38:23.97 | Mayor Burns | Thank you. |
| 00:38:23.99 | Karen Strollia | I should look to us. |
| 00:38:25.80 | Russ Irwin | So first I agree with most of what Peter said, but I'd like to go more to the point and just request this item be pulled from the consent calendar. be given more public consideration, more public input, There are several things in this which Peter alluded to his unintended consequences, which I could go into, but This is really, I think, just the period to ask that these things be removed from the consent calendar. And when the item is brought back for discussion, if you agree to do that, it's probably a more appropriate time to bring up all the concerns. you Probably don't really want to hear me launch into all that right now. |
| 00:39:00.39 | Mayor Burns | Great, thanks Russ. Adam, is this coming up for Sandra? Is this item Sandra? |
| 00:39:09.17 | Sandra Bushmaker | Good evening everybody, glad to see everybody surviving. I would just like to bring to the attention, when Peter was talking, Van Meter was talking, he brought up the issue of customizing this ordinance for the special needs of Sausalito. I just wanted to bring it to the council's attention. This has not been on the Disaster Preparedness Committee's agenda yet for any kind of discussion. And that might be a good place to start for some of the modifications of this ordinance specific for Sausalito. So I would just ask that that be considered in your deliberations tonight. Thank you. |
| 00:39:09.50 | Mayor Burns | Thank you. |
| 00:39:43.76 | Mayor Burns | your Thank you. |
| 00:39:47.49 | Sandra Bushmaker | Nice, good question. |
| 00:39:48.23 | Mayor Burns | Yeah, and then I'm going to call the chief up to ask you questions, too, if you want to fill us all on to that. |
| 00:39:52.03 | Unknown | I think this is more of a question for our city attorney. So we did ask at our last meeting, we had a full hearing on the agenda on this and recognized that it had not gone to the Disaster Preparedness Committee or the Legislative Committee, which is something that would normally have happened with a piece of legislation. But this legislation seems to be sort of unique in the sense that it's a referral. If we were to adopt it on consent, can we then send it to the Disaster Preparedness Committee to consider future, whether any, modifications are appropriate and then react on it or is this type of ordinance different in that we, if there are going to be any modifications, we need to make those prior to our action tonight. Does that make any sense? Yeah, I understand the question. |
| 00:40:44.02 | Mary Wagner | I understand the question. Okay, thanks. Thank you. So I think the answer to your question is that the way the statute is crafted and you have that quoted in your staff report tonight, this is your opportunity to provide those revisions to the district and to give direct, if you were to want to make to give direction to staff on the findings that we would have to make in order to support those changes that would be in effect in Sausalito. It doesn't provide that same opportunity for future modifications, so I would be hesitant to recommend that you put it in place. I would think it would be an opportunity to discuss with the chief when the next round is coming, because it's my understanding that the next round of revisions to the building code and the fire code are relatively soon, and that this process will be starting again in the fall, and that we'll be bringing an ordinance to you in advance of the ordinance being adopted by the district to give the council an opportunity to comment on that ordinance before it's put into place, and then you'll see a similar ratification action being brought back to you in the future. So while you are doing this now with respect to the code that's currently in effect, We're a little behind schedule, if you will, in terms of when it was actually adopted by the district. But we will be returning to you in the fall to start the process again. |
| 00:42:04.01 | Karen Strollia | That's good. Thank you. |
| 00:42:05.48 | Mary Wagner | Yeah. |
| 00:42:05.49 | Joan Cox | Thank you. I read in the newspaper a couple of days ago concern by some fire chiefs in Marin County about different cities adopting |
| 00:42:05.78 | Karen Strollia | I'm not. |
| 00:42:16.41 | Joan Cox | different ordinances and the lack of uniformity. between them. And I would like to hear the chief or someone comment on the tension between our adopting this ordinance that's fairly uniform throughout the county versus adapting it, customizing it to Sausalito's needs. Which we've discussed in prior meetings the importance of customizing these types of ordinances to the manner in which Sausalito is put together in the importance of preserving Sausalito's charm. And I appreciate Ted Peterson's comments to the Terraces of Sausalito Homeowners Association last night regarding those very types of issues. So I would like to hear from the Chief on that. |
| 00:43:03.41 | Mayor Burns | Yeah, so that was my next call. Chief Tubbs, would you mind coming up, please? No, we're staying. |
| 00:43:07.34 | Ray | I'm thinking we should pull this off consent. |
| 00:43:07.49 | Joan Cox | Take it off. |
| 00:43:11.74 | Joan Cox | Yeah, I think we should move it off consent. I think we should send it to disaster preparedness for |
| 00:43:17.85 | Ray | And no, immediately put it onto the first business item. |
| 00:43:18.51 | Joan Cox | Thank you. |
| 00:43:22.21 | Ray | you |
| 00:43:22.26 | Joan Cox | Okay. |
| 00:43:22.53 | Ray | Because we're, I think. |
| 00:43:24.64 | Joan Cox | discussing it. |
| 00:43:25.28 | Ray | we're discussing it significantly and I think we should it should be a separate business item so I move that we Unless you want to... |
| 00:43:34.76 | Mayor Burns | No, it's fine. If you're already to that conclusion, let's do it. |
| 00:43:34.85 | Ray | Thank you. |
| 00:43:34.86 | Joan Cox | Yeah, that's right. |
| 00:43:35.52 | Ray | Thank you. |
| 00:43:35.64 | Joan Cox | THE END OF THE END OF THE |
| 00:43:35.69 | Ray | THE FAMILY IS NOT ABLE TO |
| 00:43:35.77 | Joan Cox | I thought of that. Okay, I'll second that motion. |
| 00:43:41.92 | Mayor Burns | All in favor? Aye. First public hearing? |
| 00:43:42.88 | Joan Cox | Bye. All right. |
| 00:43:43.20 | Karen Strollia | Bye. |
| 00:43:44.99 | Mayor Burns | Yeah. |
| 00:43:46.76 | Joan Cox | Thank you. |
| 00:43:46.78 | Mayor Burns | No, I just wanted to make sure I'm putting it in the right spot. |
| 00:43:46.79 | Karen Strollia | No, I just wanted to make sure I'm putting it |
| 00:43:48.70 | Joan Cox | I have a couple of other changes to the consent calendar. |
| 00:43:54.12 | Mayor Burns | Yes, Jones. |
| 00:43:55.23 | Joan Cox | In the Roy's item, there was a typo. It said that the current contract is 26,000. It's actually, the current contract is 24,000 and the new contract is 26,000. So that's a change to that resolution. uh, And the others are minor typos that I conveyed to the city attorney. |
| 00:44:13.71 | Ray | minor typos. |
| 00:44:18.30 | Ray | I move approval of consent calendar items 5A, 5B, and 5D through F with those changes. |
| 00:44:26.57 | Unknown | Second. |
| 00:44:27.82 | Ray | All, |
| 00:44:28.04 | Mayor Burns | favor aye |
| 00:44:28.80 | Unknown | Bye. |
| 00:44:31.33 | Mayor Burns | moving 5 C to Business items. |
| 00:44:39.48 | Joan Cox | New item six. New item seven. |
| 00:44:43.09 | Mayor Burns | Yeah, so we're on it. We're on it. |
| 00:44:44.84 | Karen Strollia | it. |
| 00:44:46.80 | Mayor Burns | All right, so we're going to open up our public business items. First on our business items, surprisingly, is. I'm not even paying attention. Ratification of the adoption of the Southern Fire District Ordinance WUI code. Instead of giving a whole presentation, let us ask you some questions. Would you like to start with that? So you heard the comments, we're kind of looking at does this go back for discussion and modifications prior to us ratifying an ordinance that was meant to be kind of broad? Do we have those discussions after we ratify, still in commissions and community? What's your input on that? |
| 00:45:29.98 | Unknown | Yeah, so I'll have to certainly look to Mary for some of this from a legal standpoint, but the ratification by the council tonight will end up having to go back to the board for opening the ordinance again in order to include Sausalito in the ordinance. the city is not in the fire districts. Will we ordinance? So we would have to open that process back up just like any other process like that. We'd have to have a first and second reading. So there would be opportunity for the community to have input at that point. Mary is also correct in noting that we're in a code cycle year this year. So all of our fire codes and building codes will be brought before the council. End of the year, first of the year? Yeah, November. So that, again, will open up that code for review and public comment. Yeah. |
| 00:46:20.83 | Mayor Burns | That's good. |
| 00:46:21.34 | Unknown | Thank you. |
| 00:46:21.64 | Mayor Burns | Yes, Joe. |
| 00:46:22.65 | Joan Cox | What is the downside to our delaying our vote tonight and undertaking the customization of this ordinance that's been suggested by some of the members of the public? |
| 00:46:35.32 | Unknown | I'll have Chief Welch help me on that a little bit, but I guess speaking as a fire professional, our concern is that the longer that we delay with putting in place practices that are known to reduce the risk from fire, we just carry that risk out a little bit further. I'm not sure I completely understand the customization part. So what we're looking at doing here, as we've mentioned to the council before, Sausalito is the only city in Marin County that has not adopted a WUI ordinance. And to the Council's point about trying to develop sort of a county-wide application of risk strategies, risk reduction strategies, this is a pocket that we've identified in the district where we have a gap. We know from the science that the ways that we create survivability for our structures is in the vegetation management defensible space arena as well as building hardening. Last night I attended a presentation the city of Mill Valley that Chief Welch put together along with the city. And one of the statistics that stood out to me again, and this is, again, I'll have Chief Welch speak to the science behind this that has developed this, is that Our recent fires in California have validated that between two-thirds to 90% of the structures destroyed from wildfire are a result of ember travel. And that ember travel landing in the three to five foot space that we talk about creating, you know, vegetation, Yeah, reduced or putting in non-pyrophytic plants and then Hardening strategies like putting the vents on the houses that don't allow ember travel into the attic space And again those things do not get um unless you're doing a substantial remodel or a new construction. So this is not retroactive relative to the building hardening aspect. Correct. Anything else you want to add? |
| 00:48:25.75 | Mayor Burns | Thank you. you |
| 00:48:26.70 | Unknown | that's, |
| 00:48:26.92 | Mayor Burns | the council's questions thank you Ray did you have a question so you can up |
| 00:48:31.02 | Ray | Yeah, I think... not being able, not really speaking for the residents, but at least the number of residents that have talked to me about this, it seems that At least the buzz around town is that the District personnel are going to be basically visiting every parcel and ordering vegetation to be removed with essentially, and again, this is not my words. I'm just trying to paraphrase a number of them. And therefore, they're basically, where's the sort of discussion? Where's the appeals? What's the financial impact? What happens with regards to privacy? What happens if a hedge has actually been mandated by the Planning Commission as part of a design review process? What if, and on and on and on. That's sort of what people are worried about, that we're going to suddenly, within a fairly short space of time, see half of Sol Solito basically denuded. Devenuated. Yeah. So what's the best way to reassure our residents? |
| 00:49:51.75 | Karen Strollia | Thank you. |
| 00:49:56.83 | Joan Cox | And just can I add on to that, Ray? So the ordinance that the WUI ordinance does provide for authority to arrest, issue citations, and issue financial penalties. And there is a 30 day appeal period, but those are still some severe sanctions. |
| 00:50:16.94 | Tom Welch | I think that first off, my name is Tom Welch. First off education is one of the key aspects and wouldn't you like to have the firefighters that you employ and protect our community who actually work up and down the state throughout the summer protecting homes educate our residents on just how to do it. This ordinance goes a long ways to doing just that. So educational up front will be essential to. I think mitigating some of the concerns that you have And I just have a couple of things I can show you real quick about embers, because I'm not sure that everybody understands what embers do and what they are. And I can bring it up for you if you'd like. |
| 00:50:53.39 | Karen Stroja | Yeah. |
| 00:50:59.72 | Karen Stroja | I'd like to see. |
| 00:51:01.17 | Unknown | I think we saw it at our last presentation. |
| 00:51:01.27 | Karen Stroja | Thank you. |
| 00:51:01.29 | Tom Welch | That's a perfect part. |
| 00:51:01.91 | Karen Stroja | I think we saw it at our... |
| 00:51:02.98 | Mayor Burns | THE END OF THE END OF THE |
| 00:51:03.03 | Tom Welch | Thank you. |
| 00:51:03.18 | Mayor Burns | presentation. SHOW. |
| 00:51:03.76 | Tom Welch | I'm pretty sure we have too. |
| 00:51:07.84 | Tom Welch | Let me just walk you through just a couple of things real quick. |
| 00:51:13.68 | Mayor Burns | And if there's anybody who didn't speak at the consent item that would like, we're still going to have a public comment on this. So if you're hearing anything you want to comment on, please grab a card because we're going to do it right after this. |
| 00:51:24.58 | Tom Welch | Just right here, I think a lot of people read the ordinance and they think, wow, we're going to denude our properties. But actually, this is what we're asking. We're asking for the vegetation that's up against your home currently threatening your home to pull some of that vegetation back in a way not necessarily denuding it limbing up trees creating islands of vegetation moving fuels back from the property lines because as the mayor mentioned earlier fire knows no boundaries civic boundaries but it also knows no neighborhood boundaries and it really doesn't care about your property lines either. So working together as a community is an essential approach. But I think this picture right here really helps to put in the minds of our public what we're actually talking about. trimming trees back from our roof lines, limbing them up so as to prevent laddering of fuels is also very essential. But this video right here, which we've really demonstrates an evacuation and what an ember shower really looks like. And this is what this ordinance is arming our homes against, by hardening them and pulling the vegetation. Everybody focuses on the large wall of fire on the right side. that's not what's going to burn our homes down actually. It's the embers that are sheeting off the top, they're going to land in vegetation adjacent to the homes, and then they will threaten those homes. So that's one of the important things. Also, the information that we're presenting here too isn't, willy-nilly it's grounded in science and this is a picture right here from the Insurance Institute of Business home safety a lab that was done back east in South Carolina Steve Quarles who's actually a member or a resident of Southern Marin area What he does is he takes the hardened structure that we're talking about here, And on the right, he has a hardened structure. On the left, he has a non-hardened structure. And he throws a thousand, a billion embers at it and then sees what happens. is that fire catches hold on the non-hardened structure and then it's off to the races. And so this is what this ordinance prevents. It helps mitigate against this. |
| 00:53:42.55 | Mayor Burns | Thank you. Was there other than I know we have lessons learned and that's been an important both discussion and now formal document that we have in our community as far as lessons learned from the fires. But really, a lot of this is not necessarily new information. And we've been discussing it. I know in my industry for 10, 15 years plus 3800 has been around forever. Um, Really what we've had is fires that made a lot of community and diocese and people say, okay, now we have to actually put in ordinances. And now we have to actually approach this from a very objective standard to do what we've been talking about for many years. And that's really where we are now, is we're finally putting some teeth into these. informal fire mitigated laws or things that we've known. |
| 00:54:26.56 | Unknown | Yeah, I guess I'd like to go back and just add one more comment to Councilmember Cox's question in regards to enforcement so the Marin County Fire Service has a a posture and an approach is really about winning hearts and minds. So to Chief Welch's point, education. So we see this as both a carrot and a stick. Now, ideally, in the work that we do with individual property owners, we're trying to arm them with education, and we're trying to help create some awareness about solutions that they can implement. And ideally, that's done on a voluntary basis. But at a certain point, if the community decides that they want to take intentional steps community-wide about reducing the risk, then there has to be an enforcement component to that. And that's the language that's in the ordinance. But again, I know that people tend to run to that piece first, and rightfully so. But, again, the approach that the fire district takes, along with the other fire agencies in Marin County, really is, how do we partner with the individual property owners to get them to this place where that home is likely to survive in the event of a wildland fire? |
| 00:55:36.05 | Mayor Burns | Thank you. Any other questions for the staff while they're up? I have two public comments. Russ Irwin and Tom Perazzo. |
| 00:55:46.53 | Mayor Burns | This is an item, which is our business item. |
| 00:55:50.97 | Russ Irwin | Thank you. First of all, on a procedural standpoint, this may be but there's no reason for the public to have expected to have this discussion this evening. and therefore no reason that the public would have been here for it. So I think this needs more than just, OK, we moved it from here to here, and now we'll have it, and then we can declare victory. Moving on, I don't have any objection to the building code standards. I complied with them and further for my house, I installed an unregulated three-quarter-inch water line to a fire hose for my own home. you which isn't required, but I did do that. I think the building standards are great. The problem is around the vegetation issues, as Ray pointed out. I'm not sure. Uh, This is not just the adoption of the Adordance, it's the adoption of a map. That map, by the regulation of the ordinance, says that these boundaries are going to be drawn where there's natural breaks in fire, fuel, or in man-made structures. I defile you to show me what the difference is between one side of Bonita and the other in terms of fire fuel or man-made structures. It's just another street in Sausalito. The expansion of the WUI in Sausalito is incorporated into this. And I haven't seen any discussion about that, or why all of Sausalito, which was not in the WUI last year, Now the entire city is in the wooey. So apparently the urban area is the bay. Because we're a wild on interface. Where's the urban? There's supposed to be the whole definition around here in the code is around an interface. I'm not sure. As Joan pointed out, we're delegating some very, very strong authorities to unelected officials with no recourse through anything that the city controls. You are giving up. all control, all authority, all recourse, all due process to, with all due respect, on elected officials. And I don't even... No, if it's our other view, no offense. But we didn't elect these gentlemen, and they have no accountability other than they're, I'm sure they're dedicated to our safety. There's also an issue, there is a trade-off between vegetation and soil stability. In a perfect world, if you're a fireman, you would have no vegetation, right? Because then nothing can burn and you can't have a fire. If you're a soils engineer, you want all kinds of vegetation because it holds the hillside up. Now, I'm not an expert on either one of those, but there's some trade-off in there somewhere. Last, we have five-foot setbacks in a lot of the cities. 30 feet, five feet. We know that doesn't make any sense, right? Are we gonna just literally Agree? to give up. Any control of that? |
| 00:58:55.26 | Mayor Burns | Thank you. |
| 00:58:56.19 | Russ Irwin | Because this is not, this is law. This is not about any of the individuals. This is a law on the books, which survives after all of you are gone. |
| 00:59:06.04 | Tom Perazzo | Yeah. |
| 00:59:06.16 | Mayor Burns | Thank you. |
| 00:59:06.18 | Russ Irwin | Thank you. |
| 00:59:06.24 | Mayor Burns | Thank you. |
| 00:59:06.26 | Tom Perazzo | Thank you. Thank you. |
| 00:59:07.14 | Russ Irwin | Thank you, Tom. |
| 00:59:07.73 | Tom Perazzo | you Yes, thank you. Uh... I'm a resident 12, 15 years out of the 20 I've lived in town. I've been on the Disaster Prepariness Committee. I am a board member of the Southern Marine Fire Protection District. My education was in fire science, fire technology, I worked in the insurance industry for almost 50 years. providing consulting and safety and fire protection. to clients. So I think there's a wide variety of reasons why. I think I kind of know what I'm talking about up here. First off, I don't think the Disaster Appearance Committee should be in the business of writing an ordinance. has been prepared. This ordinance is in effect in all towns and cities in the county except ours. I think there may be an opportunity to come back. with a super WUI that takes into consideration the characteristics of Sausalito and what we might need to go above and beyond this. And that's what some other communities have done. such as Mill Valley. They had the WUI. And then they came back and they're working on a super that takes into account what you saw as far as the amber control and all the science that's been brought up in the last few years. So, I'm kind of urging that you pass this. and then let the district. And others work on a sort of a super to come back. in the next code cycle, that kind of, It goes after some of the vegetation management things for existing residents, properties that are not covered under this WUE. But again, we're like the only ones without it, and I don't think that's a good thing. Thank you. |
| 01:00:56.54 | Mayor Burns | Thank you. Any questions for staff? Because I think there was a couple things brought up. have anything. Yeah. |
| 01:01:00.72 | Unknown | I just have, it's a question I asked, so we had a very extensive hearing on this at our last meeting. I think it was an hour and 20 minutes and a great presentation, which is online from um, are fire professionals, so thank you for that. But to Mr. Irwin's point, I did ask at the last meeting to talk about this balance between removing vegetation and soil stability. So perhaps for the benefit of the public at this hearing, you answered that very nicely at our last hearing maybe you could just quickly refresh that answer because that was something that we were concerned about |
| 01:01:40.08 | Tom Welch | Absolutely. With any hillside community, slope stability is a concern. And so where we solve one problem, like reducing fire risk, we don't want to invite another problem. So you need to have a special look at that. The ordinance doesn't advocate for removing trees. that are generally holding our soil, it advocates for maintaining those trees, limbing them up. |
| 01:02:02.17 | Karen Strollia | Mm-hmm. |
| 01:02:02.88 | Tom Welch | cutting them away from your home. It's the same with vegetation that runs along the floor. Maintaining it is what's key, and pulling it away from our home is what's key. But you're absolutely correct that we don't want to invite additional problems by solving one. |
| 01:02:19.04 | Unknown | Great. Thank you very much. |
| 01:02:21.57 | Mayor Burns | And I made the mistake of calling you staff, realizing you're not staff, you are actually managed and directed by a separate board of elected officials. |
| 01:02:30.35 | Unknown | That's correct, and I think just a point of clarification for the community. The district covers the city of Sausalito, so the folks, obviously they have the opportunity to come before the city council. They also have the opportunity to come before the board of directors, Southernman Fryer District. That is their elected body as well. |
| 01:02:49.30 | Mayor Burns | Thank you for that. All right, any comments on going forward? or motions for |
| 01:03:00.44 | Unknown | I, you I'll make a motion. |
| 01:03:01.48 | Joan Cox | I'm gonna take them. I will just say I did have the privilege, at our last meeting, Southern Marin Fire offered to visit homeowners associations. And I'm proud that the Terraces of Sausalito was the first such visit in Sausalito. They came, they surveyed our entire property, they prepared a PowerPoint presentation, and then they, Ted Peterson presented it to us last evening. And we were all very well reassured, and we all learned a tremendous amount through that service. And it's because of that that I personally am not worried about delegating this authority to the experts. It's the manner in which they have administered this program personally for my homeowner's association has reassured me regarding the intent and the manner in which this task is carried out. We now are going to be the first one on the list for July 1 to get the chipper to our property to Thank you. and chip away the vegetation that we decide to remove. They're also going to help us get Caltrans to clean up the other side of the fence that borders Highway 101 behind our unit. And so that's my personal experience and that's why I'm prepared tonight to vote in favor of this. to ratify this program. |
| 01:04:27.04 | Councilmember Hoffman | Can I have a comment? so i i'm prepared to vote for as well but i would like to and I think pursue a path with disaster preparedness to come back to us and tell us, advise us on how to implement this in Sausalito. And especially in the spaces that the city owns and that the spaces that are owned by other entities, either Caltrans or NPS that come up next to SOSLI to do an evaluation of those spaces and what needs to be done there so that we can pursue those with the. either the city staff or with the other agencies. So I think that's another important part of the whole thing. |
| 01:04:59.24 | Joan Cox | Thank you. And may I just add, Chief Barnes has visited over 400 different properties in the last several years to implement this program. That's who visited our site, and the Southerman Fire is ready, willing, and able to visit every neighborhood, every HOA, every residence that requests that service. |
| 01:05:20.97 | Mayor Burns | right? |
| 01:05:21.19 | Karen Strollia | Thank you. |
| 01:05:21.38 | Unknown | Okay. |
| 01:05:21.78 | Mayor Burns | I'm sorry, |
| 01:05:22.78 | Unknown | Thank you. That's okay, go ahead then. I'm not sure. |
| 01:05:26.96 | Ray | So, We do need this ordinance, but we also need to actually commit to start working on somehow, maybe it's disaster preparedness, figuring out how this can be implemented in Sausalito so that we get the reduction in the fuel load that we need. without you know basically freaking out our resonance. You know, |
| 01:06:01.37 | Ray | Something like bamboo. you know, is gotta be removed. Unfortunately, it's got to be removed. I mean, the damn stuff explodes almost when it catches fire, right? But the problem is bamboo has been a... really, really useful plant to use, unfortunately, is all over Sol Solito. It's all over all of the property lines. You know? And so what's going to happen when that has to be removed? Is there anything the city can do to help start figuring out how these property lines are going to be put back in? We've got to start thinking about that. Thank you. |
| 01:06:47.62 | Councilmember Hoffman | The great thing is we have somebody here tonight who might be Michael Rex, who just talked about using screening material. |
| 01:06:48.03 | Ray | You know? |
| 01:06:55.30 | Mayor Burns | Okay. |
| 01:06:55.32 | Ray | Public comments closed. |
| 01:06:56.47 | Mayor Burns | Bye. |
| 01:06:56.48 | Ray | you |
| 01:06:56.64 | Councilmember Hoffman | Yeah. In lieu of bamboo. |
| 01:06:56.65 | Ray | Yeah. No, for sure, for sure, but who's paying for it? No, it's about money. Who's paying for it? |
| 01:07:01.29 | Councilmember Hoffman | Yeah. |
| 01:07:04.95 | Ray | Who's paying for it? |
| 01:07:06.89 | Karen Strollia | Right. |
| 01:07:07.05 | Ray | And when you have something that maybe a decade ago |
| 01:07:09.70 | Karen Strollia | Deck. |
| 01:07:11.42 | Ray | A screening was demanded by the Planning Commission as part of the design review permit. And it's now bamboo, it needs to be removed. Then what happens? What about a 30 year old property that's had, say, bamboo there? And then suddenly, they're forced to take it down, and you suddenly have created a whole open streetscape. Because it's got to be removed, but nobody's talking about what policies we could start thinking about to help that disruption that's going to occur. So I'm supportive of this, but we need to move on this with some urgency. Because if you want to move on it with some urgency, we're going to get residents who are going to be very, very upset. |
| 01:07:57.71 | Joan Cox | So I think we should have a two-part motion. One, two. |
| 01:08:00.37 | Ray | Thank you. |
| 01:08:00.46 | Mayor Burns | Oh, you |
| 01:08:00.88 | Ray | Thank you. |
| 01:08:00.89 | Mayor Burns | Hold on. I think We have residents who are going to be really upset when their insurance gets dropped as well. And we have to be more proactive than, again, most of this stuff has been talked about. Even some of the slides that we saw last week, I thought we had seen prior. This is not new information, and we knew that we were going to have some real tests to us coming down once the fires happened, that we were all going to have to make real tough decisions. And the insurance companies started making some of those for us, unfortunately, and just dropping people right and left. And they, as I brought up in the, or as Chief brought up in a meeting and confirmed recently at Katie Rice's meeting, they have the information, they know where the bamboo is. Let's get ahead of it. I don't even think we needed an ordinance for this. We have a lot of financial, our homeowners have a lot of financial risk here if they don't do this, let alone if we don't adopt something and the insurance companies get... wind of that as well. So I didn't see the hesitancy of this. good John go ahead but I think we go quickly and get this done well and then have a lot of public outreach |
| 01:09:00.46 | Joan Cox | Well, I would like to adopt the resolution, but I would also like to direct staff to commence the process of how best to implement this statute in Sausalito. Involving our disaster preparedness committee, but considering things like conditions of approval that will now be violated through some of these regulations. |
| 01:09:25.69 | Mayor Burns | And some are mentioned in the ordinance on how to deal with that. And then some will be, as we've heard about, there's going to be new regulations coming this year. |
| 01:09:27.68 | Joan Cox | Correct. |
| 01:09:33.07 | Mayor Burns | Thank you. |
| 01:09:33.10 | Joan Cox | And so by referring this to the Disaster Preparedness Committee, |
| 01:09:33.15 | Mayor Burns | And so by referring this to the table. |
| 01:09:36.81 | Joan Cox | our concerned residents can attend those meetings, express their concerns, and we can start to come up with a strategy for addressing those concerns. Because I do think we have to balance the safety of our overall neighborhoods with residents' concerns about the aesthetic appearance and their personal property values. |
| 01:09:56.39 | Mayor Burns | Great, later tonight we're going to talk about the Disaster Preparedness Committee and then they'll be able to see if tasking community development guidelines is something that they want to take on. |
| 01:10:07.93 | Unknown | Yeah, and just chiming in, I think we talked at our last hearing about we all agreed on the importance of this ordinance and the benefit of acting as a community across Marin County. I think it's really important to act, especially in terms of the building code, so that our new structures are as safe as possible for our residents. So that, to me, is is the urgency and I would just trust our fire departments. I have not heard of mass hysteria in other jurisdictions in Marin County that you are demanding that people rip up immediately all border. I expect that you will implement this with reasonable judgment. I just have not seen the fire departments kind of going beyond sort of a reasonable approach to this or have not heard that. So I trust that that will be the case in Sausalito and that you will address issues that are critical and important to life safety and be gradual and reasonable. in the implementation of other improvements. So I am supportive and I do think just going forward, I think this is a lesson in the sense that we should have incorporated our disaster preparedness committee earlier in this process and possibly our legislative committee But I think going forward, especially if there are new code amendments coming up in November, we can take that lesson and make sure that the appropriate people from our excellent boards and commissions are well informed and involved along the way. So I'm ready to support this tonight. |
| 01:12:02.36 | Ray | Right. Yeah, one last comment. I think the, doesn't November perhaps give us our timeline? for thinking through is there any local implementation issues. And as always, thank you very much for coming and for what you do. Thank you. |
| 01:12:27.60 | Mayor Burns | Thank you. I'm ready for a motion. Joan, you had a couple ideas. |
| 01:12:29.44 | Joan Cox | Okay. I move we adopt a resolution of the City Council of the City of Sausalito ratifying the adoption of the Southern Marin Fire Protection District Ordinance 2011 slash 11-20 Wildland Urban Interface Code and that we direct staff to devise and report back to us on an implementation plan specific to the needs of Sausalito residents. |
| 01:12:56.66 | Ray | Second. |
| 01:12:58.05 | Mayor Burns | before we so we're ratifying one districts and then in that same ratification is a statement to our staff on something fairly unrelated to the actual ordinance that we're adopting because they're You want to have two motions or one motion? So our motion of the ratification includes the city's. |
| 01:13:12.91 | Joan Cox | to see One motion to share. The city attorney is saying that's fine. |
| 01:13:17.12 | Mayor Burns | All in favor? Aye. That passes 5-0. |
| 01:13:17.99 | Joan Cox | Hi. |
| 01:13:24.34 | Mayor Burns | All right. |
| 01:13:25.62 | Councilmember Hoffman | I'm assuming that including that is an assessment of the city areas as well. |
| 01:13:38.83 | Mayor Burns | Yeah, yeah, we're going to mobile showers. |
| 01:13:39.12 | Karen Strollia | Yeah. |
| 01:13:43.00 | Karen Strollia | Next up. |
| 01:13:43.12 | Mayor Burns | Next up. Hm? |
| 01:13:45.99 | Karen Strollia | That's the point. |
| 01:13:47.66 | Mayor Burns | Yeah, next up we're going to call up Police Lieutenant Bill Frost for a mobile showers update, item 7A of our business items. |
| 01:13:59.24 | Mayor Burns | Lieutenant, Lieutenant. |
| 01:14:05.90 | Sandra Bushmaker | Thank you. |
| 01:14:06.81 | Bill Frost | Good evening, Mr. Mayor. Madam Vice Mayor, Council Members, and Distinguished City staff, I am Lieutenant Bill Frost with the Police Department, and I'm here to give an update regarding our pilot mobile shower program. Due to the heavy agenda for tonight. We're gonna be going through the presentation a little fast and not going to go through every single slide. I'm going to hit on the high notes. With me tonight is actually the ex-director of the downtown streets team. Karen Stroja. and the new director, Jesse Taylor Vermont. So what I ask is, since I will be going through, if you could just save your questions to the end, because something I mentioned may actually answer your question as we move through. So, We all are aware of the background back on September 25th and November 3rd. Sausalito Police Department and Downtown Streets Team staff provided you proposal about a possible pilot program of mobile showers in Sausalito. on the November 13th, you unanimously approved a six-month pilot program. At that time, we were given the... discretion to make sure that things were done in a safe manner and in locations such as Marin Ship Park and for a short period of time. at City Hall. to report back in June and the police department was given the ability to gauge on safety if the locations had to be moved or if a location had to be changed or stop. or if we had to discontinue the program in totality. As we go through, the program started December 4th at Marin Shep Park with the goal of being at Marin Shep Park for approximately a month and then segueing to a secondary location Act. the City Hall parking lot in January. After approximately 10 days, we decided it was moving so smoothly at Marin Ship Park that we could start at the City Hall program. So on December 14th. We started showers at the city hall. parking lot. And here is the trailer at Marina's ship. THE END OF THE City Hall parking lot was used through, December and into January, but in January 15th, safety concerns came up. It was unsafe to actually be bringing the trailer into the parking lot here because the trailer and the vehicle that was towing it was losing traction, causing the trailer to slide. that it could have caused injury to downtown street stuff. people on the roadway as well as property damaged anywhere. So upon their information, the Downtown Streets team and city staff also talked about possible other locations, reviewed some locations, And based on the information and the safety caveat that the council provided us, we felt that Maroon Ship Park was the most ideal place based on the successes we were having on the Tuesday showers as well as the layout the space, no major safety concerns or actually truly safety concerns regarding the operation of the program. And also it had ample resources such as power and water if necessary. so that we moved the Friday showers to Marin Ship Park and that became operational at Marin Ship Park on January 25th. of this year. Just some quick little, I'm not gonna go through all the statistics because There's a famous saying a long time ago, statistics, and there are statistics There's lies, damn lies, and then there's statistics. The most important thing is actually that these things are so far being very successful. has shown that we have hosted over 187 showers. During the period of time it's been in operation through December. through February the March numbers are not up if you look just at Marin ship Park the month of February was very successful out of the 108 possible showers that we could have done 98 showers were given In addition, we are also contacting numerous people about other services when we're talking about the numbers I want everybody to be aware as well that there was a two-week stand down at at the end of December for holidays throughout the entire county, so that also plays an impact on our numbers. as well as during the time we were transitioning from City Hall back to Marin Shepp Park, there was a couple of days that was missed of shower services. So, Our numbers would be much larger if possible. you if we were able to operate on those dates. Some of the most important information is not the numbers, because numbers are like widgets. You could count all day long. the but all the individuals have utilized the showers here in Sausalito have been Sausalito people from the Sausalito community we're not attracting people from San Francisco San Rafael or other locations there are individuals that are living on a boats on Richardson Bay living on the streets in Sausalito or living in their vehicles They are arriving by Walking. by foot and by bicycles and what we were BELIEVING THEY WOULD HAVE been doing so it's not people are not camping there for days on end to use the showers They're coming for the showers and then leaving. The downtown streets team has reported no issues, no problems there. And also one of the highlights too is the downtown streets team has hired a case manager to assist their, clientele. with other levels of services, trying to get them additional housing, getting them to doctor's appointments, and helping them in other methods. We always talk about housing when we're talking about these showers because the shower, this program is not just to give people showers, it's to provide them services and to assist them. Everybody who utilizes the showers are asked about housing and their interest in housing. Approximately 50% of the people utilizing the showers that live on boats are interested and approximately 75% of the people utilizing the showers that live on land are interested. However, A lot of people balk, are apprehensive about the process for the showers. This may change, but it's trust building and the fire department used an old military term, winning the hearts and minds. that's the same thing. The more success we have with the shower program, the more trust the individuals will have in the process. AND will be possibly willing to go further on. A LOT OF TIMES WHEN WE FIRST TALKED ABOUT THIS PROGRAM, that possibility of other criminal aspects or more cause for services in the area We didn't believe this would happen because San Rafael and Novato didn't see any increase and our numbers showed that we have not seen any increases as well. The Saso Police Department has received no calls for service regarding the showers or related to the showers and the regular calls for service at Marin Ship Park have not increased in any way. This is not having any impact on the public safety Marin Shep Park or in the city of Sausalito |
| 01:21:32.68 | Bill Frost | We are very successful at this time. It's continuing, but we would not be doing a professional job if we didn't provide you alternatives. to the pilot mobile program. And there are two alternatives that staff have come up to. One is we continue the pilot mobile shower program with showers being hosted at Marin Ship Park and another location. Or the second one is we discontinue the pilot mobile shower program. the Sausalito Police Department nor does the Sausalito City staff recommend either of these alternative recommendations Our recommendations are that you direct us to continue our six month pilot mobile shower program at Marin Schiff Park. until June of 2019. And then in June of 2019, we ask you to direct us to return to the council with a report regarding the pilot mobile shower program and recommendations for either adoption of the program or cancellation. of the pilot program. And with that, welcome any questions that the council may have. |
| 01:22:37.55 | Mayor Burns | Thank you, Bill. Is there any questions that the Council might have for Lieutenant Frost? I'm seeing none. I'm going to open up to public comment. Is there anybody who would like to speak on this item from the public? I'd normally make you fill out a green card, but I'm going to kind of call you part of the presentation. Thank you. Welcome. |
| 01:22:54.02 | Karen Stroja | Thank you. And congratulations. Thank you again for just, you know, it was such an exciting moment when you guys did vote to start up showers. And thank you, Bill, for all your information tonight. But I do have some updated numbers. So in Sausalito, we have about 85 people who have taken a shower to date this month. So we're almost at about 275 or so people who have taken a shower here in Sausalito adding to our two almost 2,500 people by the end of this month we expect to have served showers and again you know one thing I know Bill's not a huge data person but I love to dive into data comparing the initial start of the showers here in Sausalito with other cities, we're seeing a very large ramp up of full capacity way quicker than other cities. And I think that's, you know, a testament to the readiness of the community. The other thing that we're seeing is a steady amount of people taking vulnerability surveys. It is proportionally less than other cities, but I think that speaks to the slow kind of trust building that does happen. So I just wanted to share that little update with you. Thank you. |
| 01:22:55.69 | Mayor Burns | And congratulations. |
| 01:24:15.68 | Mayor Burns | One question, really quick. |
| 01:24:17.52 | Unknown | Yeah, thanks. Actually, that last point was one that I had wanted to ask you about. So do you think, it seemed to me when I read the staff report that it was a very encouraging number of people who are taking both the VI-SBDAT, but also accessing other services. Would just across other communities in the county, would you say that that's true? Or is there more that we can do? I mean, there's the dual purpose of the kind of dignity, but then also the accessing |
| 01:24:43.93 | Karen Stroja | Right. |
| 01:24:45.87 | Unknown | services. |
| 01:24:46.93 | Karen Stroja | Yeah, so across all of our locations, the numbers seem to be pretty consistent as far as people taking the vulnerability survey. So roughly between, you know, four to ten people a month at each location in Sausalito has proven to be similar. |
| 01:25:03.50 | Unknown | Okay, great, and welcome, and thanks for all your work on this. |
| 01:25:08.26 | Joan Cox | Thank you. |
| 01:25:08.36 | Unknown | you |
| 01:25:08.45 | Joan Cox | I had a question also. So another statistic that you're tracking is the number of people that are entered into the homelessness management information system. |
| 01:25:20.63 | Karen Strollia | Yes. |
| 01:25:20.80 | Joan Cox | And, So the value of that is that when we identify other approaches to address homelessness, such as our anchor outs, they're already in the system and we can use that data to offer services to those to whom are most needy. Is that right? |
| 01:25:39.82 | Karen Stroja | Yes, or vice versa. If someone's not in the system, it'll give us an indication that someone needs to fill out some more information. |
| 01:25:47.26 | Joan Cox | Thank you. Yeah. |
| 01:25:50.01 | Karen Stroja | All right, thank you. |
| 01:25:50.47 | Joan Cox | Thank you. |
| 01:25:50.48 | Mayor Burns | Any other questions? Nope, seeing none, thank you. Any other public comment, questions? Seeing none, I'm going to close public comment, bring it up here for any ideas, comments? |
| 01:26:00.51 | Unknown | Yeah, I've got some comments. So first, thanks to Karen Strelia for getting this off the ground here in Sausalito and for all your hard work. We're sorry to see you go, but it looks like we have good backup and good continued service. But thank you, and thanks for being here tonight. So I'm just really pleased with the way this program has rolled out with its light footprint and its high impact providing a huge number of showers. And as I just said, fulfilling this dual goal of assisting individuals with a shower for dignity and also helping people to access important county programs. So I am thrilled that the program has been going so well so far, and that even with the number of people that it's serving, there have been no incidents and no negative impacts. So I think that's a great thing to hear. I'm also really happy to hear that you've got a case manager working with you. I think that'll be a huge benefit. So I would love to see this program continue. at least until June and onward if other council members agree. I did have one question for staff, which it does seem like May, which is the end of the six month pilot, is a little late to bring it back in the sense that if there were going to be any change, we would want to give folks. we would want to have a little more time to prepare. probably prefer to see it. in May instead of June. I mean, if it's only authorized until June. |
| 01:27:47.71 | Councilmember Hoffman | Wait, don't. |
| 01:27:48.03 | Joan Cox | Because she only authorized it. |
| 01:27:51.12 | Unknown | And then if it gets continued or we don't have, I don't know, it would just stop. Right. |
| 01:27:56.12 | Joan Cox | It was a six month program and it lost two weeks in December so. |
| 01:27:56.27 | Unknown | was a |
| 01:28:01.13 | Joan Cox | Perhaps that takes us to June. |
| 01:28:03.69 | Unknown | I just think it would be great to reauthorize it if that's what we're gonna do or express any concerns prior to the end date. Thank you. |
| 01:28:12.88 | Bill Frost | It's at the council's discretion based on the logistics and effort. |
| 01:28:16.13 | Joan Cox | the agenda setting. AND I WANT TO TELL YOU, YOU |
| 01:28:17.33 | Bill Frost | Thank you. Based on the logistics, it's as quickly as the council makes a decision to continue to stop the program. |
| 01:28:19.15 | Joan Cox | Okay. |
| 01:28:24.62 | Bill Frost | we could continue the ball rolling as quickly as possible. Whether it's May or June, it's really Okay. |
| 01:28:31.42 | Unknown | Normally, if we have an end date, we usually consider whether something will be reauthorized slightly before the drop dead date. So that's all. It's not a big point, but I'd like to hear it in May. |
| 01:28:40.52 | Joan Cox | It's not a big point. |
| 01:28:45.22 | Bill Frost | Not appropriate. |
| 01:28:47.33 | Joan Cox | I also support the ongoing nature of this program. I've actually spoken with anchor outs who have utilized the showers and although they found taking the survey somewhat intrusive, they definitely appreciate the shower. And I explained to them the importance of them providing some information so that we can be sure to provide the services that may be best suited to them. I've also spoken with folks who are down in that neighborhood, including Chris Gallagher, who finds this to be a very low impact and unobtrusive program. So I've heard good reports all around. We did receive one letter from a resident who was concerned about the impact of this, but the facts of that letter were addressed in tonight's staff report and presentation. And there was no connection between the incident complained of in the letter and the offering of the mobile showers. And so I'm prepared to direct staff to continue with this program. |
| 01:29:50.29 | Mayor Burns | Thank you. |
| 01:29:53.28 | Ray | Great start and looking forward to seeing the next set of data. It's looking great. How's that for brevity? |
| 01:30:06.16 | Karen Strollia | Thank you. |
| 01:30:06.75 | Councilmember Hoffman | Yeah, so thank you for coming. I may have been the one that was most cautiously approaching this. But I think up to this point, it's been a great success. I mean, I have to say I'm glad I ended up voting for it in the end, and I'm glad. And I, yes, support going forward with the rest of the pilot program. I hope by the time you come back that we will have been successful in transitioning people to housing. That's the other prong of this, so it's not just showers, transitioning people So I would like to see, hope to see some hard numbers on that, that X number percentage were actually transitioned to housing. Because I think that's a really important part of this program and was a justification for that program. Thank you. Thank you. And great job, by the way. Awesome. Both of you guys. |
| 01:30:50.57 | Mayor Burns | Thank you. |
| 01:30:54.59 | Mayor Burns | Yeah, thank you for everybody who's helped on this and staff and mobile showers for what you've done. Obviously, I support it. I've supported it from the beginning. Thank you. And I'm willing to say I support it going forward to get it out of the six month pilot and going into a full program. I am glad that we will hear it one more time, because that one more time will also be an opportunity for us to talk about what we need to do to it after we finally have warm months in this program. Starting in December was a disadvantage to us in that it was such an off time that we will be monitoring its real use. couple months before we decide this so I see no reason whatsoever that we would not I think that opportunity would be more on how we enhance it look at other opportunities other placements so I really want to focus on that as we get into April and May for that next presentation on what what do we need is it a second location in the second day all that type of stuff. Because if we're hitting 98 of 108 now, I'm sure we'll be hitting 108 of 108 come the four months. So capacity will be maybe one of the things we talk about at that time. So thank you all for that. I'm, again, fully supportive. |
| 01:32:06.91 | Joan Cox | Then I will move that we continue the six month pilot mobile shower program at Marinship Park twice per week until June 2019 and return to the city council in June. 2019 with a report regarding the pilot mobile shower program and recommendations for either adoption of the program or other action pertaining to the program. |
| 01:32:24.55 | Unknown | Would you consider a friendly amendment until May? Of course. The agenda setting committee can set this one. |
| 01:32:30.03 | Joan Cox | they want. |
| 01:32:30.19 | Unknown | I know, we've just sometimes had arguments about when things are supposed to come back. |
| 01:32:33.69 | Joan Cox | I would just like to- Yeah, it's fine with me. I would say on or before June. |
| 01:32:35.52 | Unknown | I would say on. |
| 01:32:38.10 | Joan Cox | Thank you. |
| 01:32:38.13 | Unknown | Perfect. |
| 01:32:39.82 | Mayor Burns | All in favor? Aye. That motion passes five zero. |
| 01:32:40.58 | Joan Cox | Hi. |
| 01:32:40.85 | Unknown | Bye. I love your friend, Amanda. Hey. |
| 01:32:47.01 | Mayor Burns | Hey, we're done with business items. |
| 01:32:48.60 | Unknown | Ms. Thank you, Karen. |
| 01:32:50.30 | Lily Whalen | . Thank you. |
| 01:32:51.30 | Unknown | Thank you. |
| 01:32:51.31 | Lily Whalen | Thanks, Karen. See you. |
| 01:32:52.66 | Unknown | Thank you. |
| 01:32:52.76 | Lily Whalen | Thank you. |
| 01:32:53.29 | Unknown | Karen, thank you for everything. Thank you. Good luck. So I can announce that after you saw the same. Thank you. |
| 01:32:59.99 | Karen Strollia | Thank you. |
| 01:33:00.04 | Unknown | Thank you. |
| 01:33:00.05 | Karen Strollia | Yeah, you got it. |
| 01:33:00.97 | Unknown | Thank you. |
| 01:33:01.61 | Mayor Burns | Watch TV. |
| 01:33:01.74 | Unknown | TV. I'm going to eat cookies in the back. |
| 01:33:04.66 | Mayor Burns | I am, uh... Happy to say we are done with our business items. Then we're moving on to our public hearing items. First on is 6A, an appeal filed by Len Rifkin on behalf of the property owner, Angela Weber of the Planning Commission's decision to deny variance application. VAR 2018 00045 for relief from the city setback and building coverage requirements for the extension of a second floor deck at 75 cloud view. road and as David cherson off our system planners preparing his presentation we have one comment from vice mayor Susan |
| 01:33:41.03 | Unknown | Yeah, hi, I will need to recuse myself from this item because I live within 500 feet of the subject property, so I will. Thank you. Leave the dais. |
| 01:34:00.08 | Mayor Burns | Thank you. |
| 01:34:00.10 | Unknown | Any other comments? Seeing them. All right, David, welcome. Thank you, Mayor Burns. Good evening, council members and members of the public. Tonight's first agenda item is an appeal, consideration of an appeal of a Planning Commission decision to deny a variance application for the extension of a second floor deck at 75 Cloudby Road. |
| 01:34:12.30 | Kelvin Chan | decision. |
| 01:34:21.10 | Unknown | This agenda item is continued from the October 30th, 2018 City Council meeting. For a brief summary on the project history, in September of 2016, the Community Development Department approved a zoning permit to reconstruct a failing second floor deck at 75 Cloudview Road with a 100 square foot extension. Later in November of 2016, a building permit was issued based on that zoning permit. In September of 2017, concerns were raised from the neighbor, the next door neighbor at 81 Cloudview Road, after which the Community Development Department had investigated those concerns and informed the property owner that the deck, as approved, was not complying with the city's setback and building coverage requirements, and that the zoning permit back in September of 2016 was issued in error. Later in October of 2018, the city council first heard this appeal item of the Planning Commission's decision to deny the variance application. |
| 01:35:23.26 | Unknown | The City Council reviewed the appeal of the Planning Commission's decision within the context of late mail and public testimony heard at that meeting. Staff was then directed to return with a resolution upholding the appeal after a settlement agreement was finalized between both parties. staff has developed that resolution upholding the appeal finding that all six findings of the variant has, staff has developed that resolution upholding the appeal, finding that the all six findings of the variance can be made pursuant to the closing remarks from the City Council. |
| 01:36:00.55 | Unknown | Staff recommends that the city council adopt the draft resolution in the staff report, attachment one, which would uphold the appeal to overturn the planning commission's decision to deny the variance application. Alternatively, the city council can approve the draft resolution from the previous city council meeting, which would require the property owner to remove the improvements made from the approved zoning permit or to continue the hearing for additional information. This concludes staff's presentation. |
| 01:36:32.34 | Mayor Burns | Thank you. Before we go on, once again, miss the agenda. I want to do ex parte communications. Joe. |
| 01:36:39.92 | Joan Cox | I have had no ex parte communications since the last hearing on this matter. |
| 01:36:47.06 | Ray | Thank you. |
| 01:36:47.07 | Mayor Burns | Neither have I. |
| 01:36:47.92 | Ray | you |
| 01:36:48.90 | Joan Cox | Thank you. |
| 01:36:48.93 | Councilmember Hoffman | Neither are I. |
| 01:36:49.94 | Mayor Burns | Neither have I. It wasn't as hard as I thought it was going to be. |
| 01:36:54.92 | Joan Cox | I have a question. |
| 01:36:56.45 | Mayor Burns | Yeah. |
| 01:36:57.18 | Joan Cox | Um, Thank you for the staff report. This may be a question for you or for the city attorney. I reviewed the variance findings that we're being asked to make tonight. And finding A did not contain some of the same language that findings B and C did. about the exceptional circumstance arising from the mistaken approval of the application. And so, in order to ensure that The granting of this variance is a one time only matter and we do not set precedent for granting variances because of staff errors. My question is whether we can add to the language for variance finding A, that we can characterize the community development director's approval as an extraordinary circumstance applying to the property involved, just as we do for findings B and C, that's question one. |
| 01:37:54.30 | Mary Wagner | Yes, and thank you, Councilmember Cox. And I did have the opportunity to talk about those changes with staff and they incorporated those revisions into a slide if the council would like to direct that those changes be made. |
| 01:38:07.52 | Joan Cox | Thank you. And the second question was, may we add a sentence to each of the three findings, making it clear that these findings are project specific to the facts of this specific project, and are not intended to set a precedent for staff error being utilized as a basis for a variance. |
| 01:38:25.17 | Mayor Burns | Excellent. Thank you. Are we going to hear from the appellant? THE END OF We're going to hear from the parties. Thank you. |
| 01:38:32.96 | Mary Wagner | No, this is a. It's a public hearing item and if they have, you can decide whether you want to give them how much time you would like to give them. |
| 01:38:42.55 | Mayor Burns | Do you want a couple minutes each to say anything? Sure. Okay. |
| 01:38:47.69 | Joan Cox | Well, may I recommend an expedited- |
| 01:38:49.89 | Mayor Burns | If they don't, then they don't. THE END OF |
| 01:38:51.71 | Joan Cox | Approval process, if we're prepared to approve this, does the applicant still want to, does the appellant still want to testify? Thank you. |
| 01:39:04.57 | Mayor Burns | Go ahead, 30 seconds, and then we're going to open up to public comment. |
| 01:39:10.80 | Len Rifkind | Good evening, Mr. Mayor, members of the council, Len Rifkind on behalf of Angela Weber, 75 Cloudview. And we have no objection to any of the suggested augmented findings that Councilmember Cox is suggesting. The only comment I have is I hope that you, of course, uphold the appeal. And I was just looking at the language of the resolution, perhaps there's a typo in it. It says resolution of the Sausalito City Council denying an appeal of the Planning Commission. So I'm hoping that we could change the word denying to uphold. Thank you. |
| 01:39:42.12 | Karen Strollia | Thank you. |
| 01:39:44.92 | Len Rifkind | Assuming I'm reading the resolution title correctly. |
| 01:39:49.44 | Unknown | THE END OF THE END OF THE |
| 01:39:52.97 | Unknown | Well, |
| 01:39:59.94 | Joan Cox | But we're granting the variance exception. Okay, go ahead, Lily. |
| 01:40:07.94 | Lily Whalen | From looking at page 106 of your packet, I do believe that denial word needs to be changed to approval. So it would be approval of a variance from relief at the very top of the page. |
| 01:40:20.41 | Mayor Burns | I'm not going to find one of the same. |
| 01:40:21.34 | Joan Cox | But this resolution doesn't discuss the upholding or denial of the appeal. There is a resolution on page 99 that does that. |
| 01:40:39.88 | Joan Cox | And that was denying an appeal of a planning commission decision to deny the variance application. |
| 01:40:47.05 | Councilmember Hoffman | you |
| 01:40:47.34 | Joan Cox | So... |
| 01:40:48.62 | Councilmember Hoffman | Thank you. |
| 01:40:50.21 | Joan Cox | Thank you. |
| 01:40:50.23 | Councilmember Hoffman | There's a lot of double negatives. Yeah. So maybe we should just offline. We are approving the variance. And then maybe we should confirm the correct You know, is it a double denial? Is it a, you know? Does that mean it's an approval? So, |
| 01:41:15.81 | Councilmember Hoffman | We can resolve this issue, can't we? Okay. |
| 01:41:26.68 | Lily Whalen | It should be upholding the appeal. The appeal was filed by Ms. Weber. |
| 01:41:31.33 | Joan Cox | Okay. Mm-hmm. |
| 01:41:33.07 | Councilmember Hoffman | Thank you. |
| 01:41:33.10 | Lily Whalen | Thank you. |
| 01:41:33.15 | Councilmember Hoffman | Thank you. |
| 01:41:35.25 | Mayor Burns | So we'll make that so change. Is there any public comment? Would anybody like to make a public comment on this item? Seeing none, I'll be closing public comment, bringing it back up here for discussion. |
| 01:41:46.52 | Joan Cox | With the revisions, I believe that we are solid in terms of the exceptional circumstances applying to this specific property. |
| 01:41:59.85 | Councilmember Hoffman | Mm-hmm. |
| 01:42:00.66 | Joan Cox | Thank you. |
| 01:42:00.69 | Sandra Bushmaker | Thank you. |
| 01:42:01.32 | Councilmember Hoffman | Agreed. |
| 01:42:03.43 | Joan Cox | And I believe that we're carrying out an agreement that's reached by all of the neighbors. |
| 01:42:08.15 | Ray | I agree with that and I'm glad the party's reached an agreement. That's the way it should happen. |
| 01:42:16.46 | Mayor Burns | Yes, I agree, and thank you for catching those items as well. Joan. |
| 01:42:23.22 | Joan Cox | So Lily, we have two resolutions, which of these do you, Actually, the... |
| 01:42:31.36 | Mayor Burns | RECOMMENDED MY FAMILY. |
| 01:42:31.81 | Joan Cox | the one on page |
| 01:42:31.83 | Lily Whalen | That would be the one on page 99, so that's the council's draft resolution. |
| 01:42:35.98 | Joan Cox | And should be upholding instead of denying. |
| 01:42:37.50 | Lily Whalen | Exactly. |
| 01:42:38.51 | Joan Cox | So I move we approve a resolution of the Sausalito City Council upholding an appeal of a planning commission decision to deny variance application VAR 2018-00045 for the extension of a second floor deck. THE END OF |
| 01:42:57.18 | Mayor Burns | Yeah. |
| 01:42:57.88 | Joan Cox | Thank you. |
| 01:42:58.04 | Councilmember Hoffman | One second. |
| 01:42:59.56 | Mayor Burns | All in favor. Thank you. I that motion passes for zero with one abstain with a recusal of Susan Cleveland notes. |
| 01:43:00.60 | Councilmember Hoffman | Bye. |
| 01:43:11.38 | Mayor Burns | Thank you, parties, for your agreement and work on that. |
| 01:43:14.02 | Joan Cox | And congratulations. |
| 01:43:16.99 | Mayor Burns | Yeah, we're going to just take a really quick while you guys line up. We're not going anywhere. We're just going to get Susan back in the room. Two minutes. |
| 01:43:23.38 | Joan Cox | And Michael, you have to go just as fast as this last one. |
| 01:43:41.98 | Michael Rex | I just want to check to see if I can make it work. |
| 01:44:12.03 | Kelvin Chan | Yeah, to the satisfaction of the CDD director. |
| 01:44:15.29 | Kevin McGowan | Okay. |
| 01:44:15.85 | Kelvin Chan | If that's as far as we go on these elements. |
| 01:44:17.59 | Mark Rushford | Thank you. |
| 01:44:17.60 | Kevin McGowan | That's how we can show it. |
| 01:44:18.73 | Mark Rushford | I like those. Yeah. Thank you. |
| 01:44:33.45 | Mayor Burns | Attorney and applicants and Michaels and |
| 01:44:36.59 | Karen Strollia | Thank you. Thank you. |
| 01:44:38.24 | Mayor Burns | We're back. |
| 01:44:43.77 | Mayor Burns | Next up on our docket tonight, public hearing items, appeal of a planning commission decision approving a design review permit, non-conforming permit, and encroachment agreement at 416 Napa Street, Kelvin Chan, our senior planner. Thanks, Kelvin. |
| 01:44:57.04 | Kelvin Chan | you |
| 01:44:57.32 | Mayor Burns | you Thank you. |
| 01:44:57.85 | Kelvin Chan | Thank you, good evening Mayor Burns, members of the council staff, and members of our public in the audience. This item is returning to the city council for the second consideration. This item was last before the city council on February 26th of 2019. A public hearing was conducted, comments were provided from both the appellant and the applicant as well as other members of the public, and there was discussion amongst the four then present council members. The public hearing was continued to a date uncertain. And then prior to this meeting this evening, |
| 01:45:29.99 | Karen Strollia | Thank you. |
| 01:45:34.70 | Kelvin Chan | the meeting has been properly noticed. Just a reminder, the appellant is Mark Rushford, who is the westerly adjacent property owner at 420 Napa Street. The applicant is Michael Rex Architects, who represents his clients, Matt Smith and Kirsten Thomas, who reside at 416 Napa Street. A reminder about the general parcel specifics. It's a 3,900 square foot lot in the multiple family R3 zoning district and in the general plan high density residential land use designation. Displayed on the right hand side of the screen are the entitlements that were reviewed and determined by the Planning Commission at their December 5, 2018 meeting. These are the entitlements under appeal. |
| 01:46:20.92 | Kelvin Chan | The structure of my presentation this evening will be going through the revisions to the Western edition, as well as other areas of the site. If you'd like to follow along, I'm going to be referencing the applicant's project narrative, which is in your staff report on page 148. The first change to mention is that the south wall of the Western Addition has been pulled back five feet from the north. I'm going to take a little moment for each slide and try to point some of these things out, as it may be a little difficult to see on the screen. So the change here is this pulling back of the five feet. So displayed in the blue dashed outline is the outline of the previous design that you saw at your last meeting. So these are the changes that have occurred since your last meeting. So the front has been pulled back five feet. Additionally, the west wall has been pulled back one foot seven to the west. So this is this area right here. So it's been pulled back five feet, but then also extends one foot seven closer to the property at 420. |
| 01:47:35.21 | Kelvin Chan | Change number three is that the rear wall has extended 2 foot 6. So this is where my mouse is hovering over right here. So you see the jog here, that it jogs back 2 foot 6. So the extension of the north rear wall 2 foot 6 beyond the existing rear wall goes into the backyard. And I'll talk about that a little bit more. Change number four is for the revision of the floor plan of this Western Edition. So this is the area where my mouse is hovering right here. As shown on these plans, it is a study and a guest room. And I'll talk more about some of the intended future designs for this space in just a moment. And as you can see on the rendering, the upper level of the Western edition where we're talking about is where my mouse is pointing. |
| 01:48:29.46 | Kelvin Chan | Change number five is a revision to the roof plan, adding a hip right here for pulling back the Western addition. Change number six is the elimination of one of the previous two skylights. So here you see just one skylight here. The location has been shifted slightly. I'd just like to point out that you have within your draft conditions of approval, condition of approval number three, which talks about automatic nightshade controls for these skylights. These are written into the plans as well as in your draft resolution. Additionally, the skylight trims would have a low luster finish to minimize glare, and a matte film would be present on the northern glass panel where my mouse is hovering that faces the rear adjacent neighbor at 420. 418, excuse me. |
| 01:49:21.52 | Kelvin Chan | Change number seven is the elimination of one window at the upper level west elevation, where my mouse is hovering right here. Change number eight is for the placement of translucent or privacy glazing at the upper level Western Edition windows here. I'd like to point out in your reso that you have draft condition of approval number six, which requires the property owner at 416 to permanently maintain these translucent privacy glazed windows at this portion of the site. |
| 01:49:56.60 | Kelvin Chan | Change number nine is the addition of an entry door at the north exterior wall into the backyard. So this would be the rear side of the western addition. Change number 10 is a lowering of the roof ridge of the Western Edition by a one foot five. So this is where my mouse is hovering right here. So this is the backside of the house which faces 418. Looking at it from the front, if you were standing on Napa, here's that same 1'5 differential. |
| 01:50:31.67 | Kelvin Chan | Change number 11 is a reduction in the overhangs by 6 inches at the upper level southwest and north eaves. Previously, they were 18 inches or 1 foot 6, and now they are just 1 feet. So the changes are right here. as well as on this side facing 420. |
| 01:51:00.44 | Kelvin Chan | Change number 12 has to do with a balcony design. So I'd just like to point out on the screen right now, what you're seeing is a superseded balcony design. This was the balcony design that was presented to you in your packet compilation. As you've seen in some late mail, there have been some further developments for your consideration. So the previous balcony design had doors that would swing open and would have a permanent planter at the south side to limit walking ability. And the balcony area we're talking about is where my mouse is pointing here on the rendering. |
| 01:51:45.16 | Kelvin Chan | Here is the revised balcony design. The revised balcony design has a planter that occupies the entire space of the balcony. So this balcony is right above the first level master bedroom. The project plans as well as a draft revised condition of approval would require that the property owner maintain this green roof. And to also, instead of the swinging doors, to have windows here. So that would prevent someone from actually walking out onto this balcony area and to mitigate any potential privacy concerns between 416 and 420. |
| 01:52:28.72 | Kelvin Chan | Change number 13 displayed on your screen. Here's a snapshot of the landscape plan. So change number 13 has to do with the green screen between the two properties. So on the right would be 416, and then over here where our mouse is would be 420. So we're talking about the green screening between the two properties. The landscape plans right now would call for a preference of either Fotini or Pudocarpus, and there is a draft condition of approval, condition of approval number four, which would require that the property owner of 416 permanently maintain this green screen between the two properties with the purpose of preventing viewing opportunity between the two properties, also providing maximum light and air to the satisfaction of the CDD director. Here on the left hand side of the screen, you can see the green screening and a rendering. |
| 01:53:25.19 | Kelvin Chan | Change number 14 is a little bit hard to see, but it's in the location of where my mouse is hovering. There would be the installation of two wood planters having a maximum height of two feet along the west side of this Western Edition. And the purpose of that is to create an elevated pad so that whatever green screening material goes there would be able to start and grow at a higher height than it would otherwise. and that would allow more screening between the two properties. |
| 01:54:02.02 | Kelvin Chan | Moving along to some of the other site modifications since your last City Council hearing. If you're following along in your staff report, I'm now talking about page 149. |
| 01:54:15.35 | Kelvin Chan | The rear yard patio has been shifted north towards the property owner at 418, and this is partly due to the 2'6 extension of the Western Edition that we talked about previously. So where my mouse is hovering, this is the rear patio area that we are talking about. You can see in a faint outline, and I'm hovering over it right now, there's a current roof overhang of the site that would be eliminated as part of this design. Where I'm hovering right now is an existing wood retaining wall that is proposed to be demolished. And that wood retaining wall would be replaced by a new concrete retaining wall about five feet away. And this would be able, and the purpose of this is to provide this rear patio space. in this rear patio area. The Pressure on the Press. |
| 01:55:08.54 | Joan Cox | Calvin, can you put your cursor over where the five foot concrete retaining wall would be? |
| 01:55:08.82 | Mayor Burns | you |
| 01:55:08.88 | Kelvin Chan | Thank you. |
| 01:55:17.87 | Joan Cox | Yep. And how far away is that from the existing roof line? |
| 01:55:23.44 | Kelvin Chan | from the existing roof. |
| 01:55:24.72 | Joan Cox | I'm going to go. |
| 01:55:24.91 | Kelvin Chan | Thank you. |
| 01:55:24.97 | Joan Cox | That's going to be demolished. So the dotted line that's vertically below that. |
| 01:55:30.49 | Kelvin Chan | Five foot one. Five foot one. So it's five foot one past the existing wood retaining. |
| 01:55:31.52 | Joan Cox | 5 foot 1 feet. |
| 01:55:32.77 | Mayor Burns | Bye. |
| 01:55:35.40 | Joan Cox | . |
| 01:55:35.49 | Mayor Burns | Thank you. |
| 01:55:35.59 | Joan Cox | Thank you. |
| 01:55:35.69 | Mayor Burns | Thank you. |
| 01:55:35.76 | Joan Cox | Thank you. |
| 01:55:35.82 | Kelvin Chan | you |
| 01:55:35.91 | Mayor Burns | you Thank you. |
| 01:55:36.31 | Kelvin Chan | Bye. |
| 01:55:36.64 | Mayor Burns | Yeah. |
| 01:55:36.65 | Kelvin Chan | Yeah. |
| 01:55:38.59 | Mayor Burns | Those are two different things. |
| 01:55:41.46 | Unknown | I think Joan asked about the distance from the roof line, not the existing retaining wall. |
| 01:55:47.23 | Kelvin Chan | I want to. distance from the existing roof line so you there yes |
| 01:55:50.83 | Unknown | There. Thank you. |
| 01:55:54.98 | Kelvin Chan | It would be less than the five foot one. I'm just based off of this graphic perhaps three feet Approximate. Thank you. So a second modification would be the installation of this upper patio area. Currently at the site, if you walked up the steps to the eastern side of 416, you notice that there is an elevated pad here. So the proposal is to put some guardrails, wood guardrails with hog wire mesh, around the different sides of this elevated area to create this upper patio area. And all surrounding this rear yard back, this rear yard would be new landscaping to provide privacy between the two properties. And I'll show this a little bit more clearly in the next slide. So if you were walking up the steps of 416, you probably stopped at this landing right here. And this is the elevated path that is currently overgrown with some dirt and other plantings. So the proposal is to add a railing here to make it an upper level patio. |
| 01:57:09.46 | Kelvin Chan | I wanted to just point out that this red line here that I colored, this is the rear yard property line at 416. So this is the property line that separates 416 and 418. You can see on this screen, just to show you a graphic of what the Planning Commission last considered in their November hearings, this was a diagram that was prepared to show some of the site and design constraints of 416 Napa. So you can see outlined in this green dotted rectangle, this is the area of the garden within the property of 416 Napa that has historically been used by the uphill neighbor at 418. So this area will not be affected as part of any of the proposed design modifications. So you can compare the two graphics here to show the equivalent nature, so to speak. |
| 01:58:10.65 | Kelvin Chan | Another change elsewhere on the site, aside from the Western addition, is the elimination of this guardrail that was previously behind the garage where my mouse is hovering. Previously, this guardrail right here extended all the way to the Western property line. The modified design does not do that. So it eliminates some of that bulk and mass that would be potentially experienced by the neighbor at 420. Instead of going all the way to the western property line, now this guard rail doesn't return back to the north. And lastly, one of the modifications is the widening of this garage door. So in the area that my mouse is pointing here, and you can also see it in elevation form. Staff does note that the applicant has stated some interest in the future to apply for a variance in order to infill this little segment right here so that they can provide adequate space for two parking, on-site off-street parking spaces. Currently, there's only one parking space, and that is the only one that is required as of this application. |
| 01:59:27.96 | Mayor Burns | So, I'll get that back. All right. That would, doing that |
| 01:59:35.03 | Kelvin Chan | solve a second parking spot it would add to their space to provide a second parking spot both the parking spots would not be our standard 9 by 19 but they would be close okay And the variance would be required because you would be adding more to a structure in this side dirt setback. |
| 01:59:52.66 | Joan Cox | But in order to apply for the variance, they'd have to go back to the planning commission, which is why they're not bringing it to us tonight. |
| 01:59:59.53 | Kelvin Chan | Exactly. |
| 01:59:59.70 | Mayor Burns | Thank you. THE END OF THE END OF THE wondering how mechanical |
| 02:00:01.71 | Kelvin Chan | Exactly, and that's also a great segue into talking about what you've read as a future intended accessory dwelling unit at this site. For the same reason that a variance application was not brought to you this evening as it would be a new entitlement. The ADU application was not submitted or brought before you because that would be a new entitlement that was not reviewed by the Planning Commission. |
| 02:00:04.42 | Mayor Burns | Thank you. you |
| 02:00:24.61 | Kelvin Chan | So displayed on your screen on the right-hand side. We have a question. |
| 02:00:26.92 | Joan Cox | Thank you. |
| 02:00:27.09 | Mayor Burns | We have a question. Yes. |
| 02:00:28.61 | Kelvin Chan | Thank you. |
| 02:00:28.62 | Joan Cox | Calvin, have you reviewed the project entitlements to identify for yourself when and if an ADU application is made, whether it's likely to be granted? |
| 02:00:38.71 | Kelvin Chan | I'll talk about that in just a moment. I think it is probable that it will be ministerial. |
| 02:00:40.22 | Joan Cox | Okay. Okay. Thank you. |
| 02:00:46.97 | Kelvin Chan | So you've seen in the applicant's project narrative that the study and the guest room at this upper level, the Western edition, is intended to be an accessory dwelling unit or an ADU. The current plans, as you see, they don't show in ADU. And I just mentioned the reason why we're processing these entitlements. With regard to zoning compliance, the proposed ADU, the site without the ADU right now as just a single family residence is eight square feet of building coverage over that allowed for a single unit in this R3 zoning district. with an ADU, When you have an ADU application, those building coverage, floor area, and those other development standards are taken out or considered separately. So in essence, if you have the ADU application, then this site would meet zoning. But as it stands right now, the project is eight square feet of building coverage over that which is allowed for a single unit in this R3 zoning district. So we have on the left-hand side some of these conditions of approval in order to address that. |
| 02:01:34.42 | Tom Perazzo | have this |
| 02:01:53.69 | Kelvin Chan | So prior to submission of a building permit application, the applicant or the property owner would need to address this excessive building coverage. And the ways to do it are threefold. They can either receive approval of an accessory dwelling unit permit, and staff has been in communication with the project team to guide them through this process. And to Council Member Cox's question, the reason why we could not process it today is also because we don't have the application, and we don't know whether or not the ADU application will be processed ministerially. So it can be processed ministerially if it meets our standard ADU requirements, or the alternative is for an ADU application with a conditional use permit if it does not meet those standard requirements. And some of those standard requirements that potentially wouldn't be met, that would require or trigger a conditional use permit would be concern for views, privacy, excessive floor area, and other development factors. |
| 02:02:57.86 | Kelvin Chan | So just to continue on with this draft condition of approval, number one that you have in your resolution, the options for the applicant to address this overage and building coverage is to either receive approval of the ADU permit. So by receiving approval of the ADU permit, then the entire site and everything would be in compliance. The applicant and property owner, alternatively, if they choose not to go forward with the ADU permit, would need to apply for and receive approval of a variance for this excessive building coverage or lastly to submit an application to the planning commission for consideration of an amendment to the approved design review permit to address this overage in building coverage. |
| 02:03:51.75 | Kelvin Chan | So in correspondence with the project team today, the project team has suggested some new conditions of approval. Staff has reviewed the three draft conditions of approval. The ones that are highlighted in green text, these are ones that staff feels most appropriate for inclusion in your draft resolution should the council deem appropriate. The first one has to do with the privacy hedge between 416 and 418, the maintenance of this hedge, the heights to ensure that there's adequate privacy while not impacting views. Draft condition B talks about potential alternative tree planting in the northwest corner. So it's where my mouse is hovering right now. Currently it's a pepper tree. There are some stated desires to potentially change that pepper tree to something else that would be agreeable to both 416 and 418. The last one has to do with a potential relocation of an air conditioning unit and approximately the location that my mouse is hovering over. The language of this particular condition staff did not feel appropriate for inclusion in your draft resolution as it leaves some ambiguity as to what is actually feasible and who will be deciding this. But we have told this to the applicant and they will be addressing this as part of their presentation. And all these new conditions of approval can be incorporated into your draft resolution should you see fit. |
| 02:05:34.63 | Kelvin Chan | After conducting numerous site visits, most recently at 420, as well as the rear yard, rear applicant, rear property owner at 418, and in reviewing all the required findings for approval of the entitlements, staff recommends that all the findings can be made for project approval, and we have provided within your staff report attachment one a a draft resolution which would deny the appeal and approve this particular project that you see on your screen, subject to modifications and any conditions of approval. |
| 02:05:51.19 | Tom Perazzo | THE END OF THE END OF THE |
| 02:06:07.83 | Kelvin Chan | Thank you. So item number one would be staff's recommendation. Alternative options for action for council this evening are to uphold the appeal and deny the project. And if that were to be the direction, then the council would provide some direction to staff to return with that resolution for denial. The city council may also continue the public hearing for further consideration or to remand the project back to the planning commission if they see that there is particular aspects of this project that need further consideration. I'll pause my presentation here and I'm available for any questions that you may have. |
| 02:06:44.83 | Mayor Burns | Any questions for Kelvin? |
| 02:06:46.03 | Ray | Mr. Mayor, I don't think we did ex-part. We haven't. I was going to do that. |
| 02:06:49.59 | Mayor Burns | We have a new timeframe on that. We do it differently now. Any questions for Calvin? I've seen none, this would be a good time for us to do our ex parte communications that we are now doing afterwards. Joan, any expertise? |
| 02:07:09.12 | Joan Cox | Yes, since our last hearing I visited the site and spoke with Mark Rushford and with Matt and Kristen. And I received correspondence from anonymous. Unfortunately, I did not receive it until Monday and I had no time. Monday or today to visit the site. I typically visit the sites on the weekends, so I apologize that I was not able to go back out to the site yesterday or today. |
| 02:07:40.72 | Unknown | Yeah, I'm in the same situation as council member Cox. I met with the owners of 420 and 416 and was not able to visit 418 today. but I wasn't. As I said at the earlier meeting, I have visited that site before. |
| 02:07:59.14 | Ray | So I didn't revisit 416 or 420, but this afternoon I did visit 418 with the owner present this time, so I could go inside and see it from the inside. |
| 02:08:16.87 | Councilmember Hoffman | I reviewed the last city council meeting that this was addressed at the entire hearing. And I did visit the property owners of both 416 and 420. And I spoke with the owner of 418 today. And I will say, even though I didn't go back to 418 today, pretty thoroughly looked at the site without any property, but walked up the stairs right next to her site when I was there on Sunday. And I read the correspondence from the owner of 418 this afternoon as well. And actually discussed the contents with the owner and also with Mr. Rex. |
| 02:09:00.20 | Mayor Burns | I have not revisited the three properties since the previous time out at the properties. But I had today, ironically ran into Mark Rushford at the coffee shop. And we talked briefly about maybe the time frame of tonight's meeting as well as kind of confirming their emails that they were still working on. you negotiations and getting something done. Did not attend to the properties, though. Anything else? Seeing none. The appellant. The applicant. |
| 02:09:33.90 | Unknown | and, oh, yeah, yeah. Can I just ask a question before we go to that? Did we receive correspondence other than your correspondence, Calvin, from the owner of 418? Substantive correspondence? |
| 02:09:45.73 | Kelvin Chan | So you received late mail today? |
| 02:09:48.55 | Unknown | Okay, is that on the dais or? I'm not finding it. |
| 02:09:55.79 | Councilmember Hoffman | I sent it in an email, email. |
| 02:09:58.41 | Unknown | you |
| 02:09:58.56 | Councilmember Hoffman | Thank you. |
| 02:09:58.64 | Unknown | Thank you. |
| 02:09:59.54 | Kelvin Chan | It was. |
| 02:10:00.74 | Unknown | Would the email come today? |
| 02:10:02.59 | Kelvin Chan | It did at, I would say, around 4 or 5 PM. |
| 02:10:11.45 | Kelvin Chan | I emailed it. You can see the redacted portion. |
| 02:10:19.81 | Joan Cox | Do you have copies to hand out because it's not on the dais, Calvin? Thank you. |
| 02:10:23.35 | Unknown | And I have an email from yesterday with attachment. |
| 02:10:23.74 | Joan Cox | I have an email from you. I did see it on the email today, but it's not on the dais. |
| 02:10:31.55 | Kelvin Chan | I see our city clerk going to make some copies, but we can definitely bring it to you. |
| 02:10:38.18 | Unknown | Okay, thank you. |
| 02:10:39.33 | Mayor Burns | All right, order Mary that we go here. Appellant is still Mark Rushford, this is still the second here of the appeal. |
| 02:10:39.63 | Unknown | Thank you. |
| 02:10:46.47 | Mary Wagner | You would typically hear first from the appellants, the entire team. They have 10 minutes total for that. And then you would hear from the applicant, 10 minutes also for their entire team. Okay. And then public comment, and then five minutes each for rebuttal. |
| 02:10:49.18 | Mayor Burns | Yep. |
| 02:10:57.37 | Joan Cox | you |
| 02:10:57.42 | Mayor Burns | OK. |
| 02:10:57.69 | Joan Cox | Thank you. |
| 02:11:00.27 | Mayor Burns | Yeah. |
| 02:11:00.79 | Joan Cox | Can I ask a procedural question? We did receive correspondence indicating that there had been a settlement between the appellant and the appellee. So under those circumstances, is it still necessary to hear the entire ten minute presentation from each? |
| 02:11:16.93 | Mary Wagner | It's at the council's discretion on how much time you wanted to give each party. I would suggest that you make it equal. So, but if you think ten minutes is too much, you can decide to reduce that. |
| 02:11:30.16 | Joan Cox | to reduce that. |
| 02:11:31.66 | Mayor Burns | Thank you. |
| 02:11:31.71 | Karen Strollia | you |
| 02:11:32.00 | Joan Cox | Because there's been a settlement between the appellant and the Pellee, I would prefer to use our time to hear about the issues from 2, team. you 418. |
| 02:11:45.19 | Mayor Burns | Well, 418 is not an appellant or an applicant. |
| 02:11:47.94 | Joan Cox | True, but we're hearing this application de novo, and so we're- |
| 02:11:51.79 | Mayor Burns | So where would you want to hear that? |
| 02:11:53.97 | Joan Cox | I love it. As a part of the presentation from the applicant. No? No. |
| 02:12:01.36 | Unknown | of a comment. |
| 02:12:02.20 | Joan Cox | Okay. Well, but the applicant gets to address it in their I'm saying the applicant gets to address it. In their rebuttal, yes. In their rebuttal, yeah. |
| 02:12:08.01 | Mayor Burns | In their rebuttal. |
| 02:12:08.97 | Karen Strollia | And... |
| 02:12:09.04 | Mayor Burns | Yes. |
| 02:12:12.12 | Karen Strollia | Thank you. |
| 02:12:12.14 | Mayor Burns | Yeah. |
| 02:12:12.24 | Joan Cox | So maybe reserve the time for the rebuttal and hear public comment. |
| 02:12:12.28 | Karen Strollia | Thank you. |
| 02:12:12.29 | Mayor Burns | Thank you. |
| 02:12:16.41 | Mayor Burns | Yeah, do we want to do 10 minutes total? for this item for both the appellant and the applicant? Does that sound good or just go with the normal time from that we have, 10 to 5? |
| 02:12:18.96 | Joan Cox | Thank you. |
| 02:12:22.22 | Unknown | Yeah, I prefer five minutes each. |
| 02:12:26.40 | Mayor Burns | five minutes each, I hear a nod for five minutes each. We're going to make it five minutes each. I know you guys don't have much. Do you have much that you need to say after five minutes? |
| 02:12:36.81 | Joan Cox | All right, so I would say let's hear public comment and then allow them to read. |
| 02:12:40.42 | Mayor Burns | Let's go five and then we'll go with rebuttal of five as well in case anything comes up in these two comments. The appellant, you have five minutes. |
| 02:12:45.08 | Joan Cox | Yeah. |
| 02:12:45.45 | Unknown | and it's, you know, |
| 02:12:46.70 | Joan Cox | I think Joan was saying take public comment and then do five each. |
| 02:12:49.87 | Unknown | you |
| 02:12:50.03 | Mayor Burns | We are going to do public. |
| 02:12:51.14 | Joan Cox | I was just saying two public comment first, then five each, because they don't need to talk about each other. Let's just do this. At your pleasure, Mr. Mayor. |
| 02:13:00.40 | Mayor Burns | Thank you. |
| 02:13:00.45 | Joan Cox | you |
| 02:13:00.54 | Mayor Burns | Thank you. |
| 02:13:00.57 | Mark Rushford | Why not? All set? Mark Rushford, 420 Napa Street, as you know. Thank you all for your time. And thank you for visiting our sites both times, as many of you did. Obviously, in the last meeting after that, as you now know, we spent a tremendous amount of time working diligently to come to a resolution that included just Matt Kirsten and I meeting first and them understanding my issues and my hearing theirs and Then we did designs and I got an architect a little bit of help there ultimately we went with the applicants design which As you have in your hands through the late mail, is something we've signed off on. So I'm very happy about that. And I just want to note that |
| 02:13:27.37 | Kelvin Chan | was. |
| 02:13:59.30 | Mark Rushford | In reaching that agreement with the issue regarding a second-story balcony, we agreed in writing the applicants will execute a deed restriction ensuring the balcony will permanently remain inaccessible and not used by persons. This is very similar to the deed restriction that you just saw in the previous agenda item, which is essentially attachment 7 with 75 CloudView. It's almost a similar scenario. We'll just modify it to our particular case based on that deed restriction I'm now able to support the project which was option one and staff recommendation That's it. |
| 02:14:37.60 | Mayor Burns | Thank you, Mark. Any questions for the appellant? |
| 02:14:41.01 | Mark Rushford | Thank you. |
| 02:14:41.03 | Mayor Burns | Do you have a question for the panel? Seeing none. Is there any public comment? Let's go with the applicant. The applicant, the applicant. Michael, where are you? Applicant. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. |
| 02:14:55.14 | Michael Rex | Thank you. |
| 02:14:55.19 | Karen Strollia | Thank you. |
| 02:15:00.62 | Michael Rex | Hello, I'm Michael Rex. I'm here with Matt Smith and Kristen Thomas. I'm too pleased we were able to reach an agreement. We were working up till six o'clock tonight. I want to thank Calvin for hanging in there with us, scrambling at the last minute to bang out the additional conditions of approval that he presented to you tonight. We made a total of 19 changes to the project since the last hearing. You asked that we, Also consider an ADU because we're in a multi-unit zone. We had hoped to include that tonight, but we're told subsequently that it has to be a separate process. We've already filled out the application and hope to submit it promptly. TO TAKE CARE OF THAT ADDITIONAL 8 SQUARE FEET, BUT ALSO PROVIDE ANOTHER UNIT. And that's the purpose of the door in the back. As you know, an ADU requires its own entry. And that's the only place we can put it, so it's essential. uh... We also hope to apply for the variance to provide two parking spaces on site. You can actually fit two cars in there if we could get that variance approved. That additional area in the garage will be completely invisible, 100% underground. Shouldn't have any impact on anybody except the benefit of providing another parking space. We're kind of disappointed we have to pay a $4,500 fee for that opportunity. Maybe we'll ask for a waiver of that fee, we do intend to apply for that variance and go through the Planning Commission once again, even though this is our 8th hearing. I do want to show you just a couple of things. I'll make it really brief because Calvin did such a superb job. uh, Yeah, here we go. One thing we noticed that you might not appreciate, This is what you saw last time. This is what we're proposing now. When we pull that second floor back five feet, What I've observed from seeing the story pulse is the whole building looks less massive because it's set so far back, it's more subordinate. And you don't read the whole breadth of the building from east and west. You really just see the existing house. And so it's not just working it out with the neighbors. We're ending up with a building that looks less massive, less bulky, more akin to what's there now. And I think that's... probably all I need to show you. I think Calvin covered... Oh, this shows when we had doors out to this little balcony... and there's where it is Windows. So we've made all those changes. in your packet and now there's a deed restriction that would bind not only Matt and Kristen, but all future owners, that that could never be converted back to a balcony or those windows could become doors. So that gives Mark the assurance that he needs should the property ever change hands. We also, last thing I want to point out is we had communication with the owner behind us up above at the North at four, 16, 418, sorry. today. And we talked about a lot of possibilities. We ended up with three that we could reach an agreement on. And you saw those proposed conditions of approval that we'll work to find maybe an agreeable tree species for that larger tree in the northwest corner. If it's not a pepper, it will be something else. That's agreeable. We also agreed to try to relocate the air conditioner. I think we can put it in the front of the house, buried in the landscaping, and not have it in the back of the house, which would be a benefit. The major change was to put a condition of approval to limit the height of the hedge in the back so it never blocked views. The other things we couldn't reach agreement on but at least we got that far on those items and if you so tonight I I asked that you adopt the resolution that's in your packet which Denies the appeal because it's no longer necessary But based on all these revisions that have been presented to you tonight, and I'm here for any questions. I Thank you. Thank you. |
| 02:19:35.47 | Mayor Burns | It looks like you have a question. |
| 02:19:36.19 | Councilmember Hoffman | I do have a question for Michael. Michael, this is about the skylight, a question about the skylight. Can you change the color of the skylight to a neutral gray color? Is that possible? |
| 02:19:36.24 | Michael Rex | you |
| 02:19:36.29 | Mayor Burns | Bye. |
| 02:19:36.33 | Michael Rex | Yeah. |
| 02:19:36.34 | Mayor Burns | Thank you. |
| 02:19:41.00 | Mayor Burns | Thank you. |
| 02:19:41.02 | Michael Rex | Okay. |
| 02:19:48.32 | Michael Rex | We thought the most muted color |
| 02:19:48.63 | Councilmember Hoffman | I mean not that. |
| 02:19:52.15 | Michael Rex | would be to match the tone of the roof so it just kind of becomes part of the roof. |
| 02:19:55.56 | Councilmember Hoffman | kind of. |
| 02:19:57.62 | Michael Rex | We could paint a lighter color, but it seems like then it would contrast the roof and jump out more. So that's why we've We're keeping it the way it is because we really think that's going to be the quietest, most discreet appearance. The condition of approval requires a film on the panel facing uphill, but we're going to provide that film on all four faces so it won't glare in anybody's view. But to paint it a lighter color, I think, is a mistake. It's just going to jump out instead of blend in. |
| 02:20:34.75 | Councilmember Hoffman | Can you work with the appeal neighbor though? Because her point, I think, is that she has to look at it. People that are in the house are looking up, they don't have to look down at it. I mean, I understand that, and I'm happy that you've reached consensus on almost everything else. And it's, I just, I think that's a valid. |
| 02:20:41.06 | Kelvin Chan | Yeah. Yeah. I mean I |
| 02:20:49.19 | Michael Rex | Yeah. I think that's a valid term. We didn't reach consensus on that point. we think it's better if it blends in than Contrast. |
| 02:21:00.21 | Councilmember Hoffman | And I have a question for my planning commission maybe, and also for you. Because I don't have as much experience with skylights as everybody else does, but I know that there's issues with light coming up through skylights at night, obviously, right? And I know that you've agreed to this auto closure. What recourse does the homeowner then have if it's not being used or if it's broken or if. So code enforcement, so then she would have a recourse to. Contact the city for code enforcement. |
| 02:21:34.20 | Michael Rex | We'd be out of compliance with the approval. It's a condition. It has to be maintained and closed each night automatically, permanently. |
| 02:21:36.37 | Councilmember Hoffman | Yeah. |
| 02:21:40.69 | Michael Rex | you |
| 02:21:40.76 | Councilmember Hoffman | Okay. |
| 02:21:41.08 | Michael Rex | GRAPHY. |
| 02:21:41.27 | Councilmember Hoffman | Thank you. |
| 02:21:41.35 | Michael Rex | Thank you. |
| 02:21:41.52 | Councilmember Hoffman | Thank you for answering that. |
| 02:21:41.62 | Michael Rex | Thank you for answering that. |
| 02:21:45.01 | Mayor Burns | Any other questions for the... Applicant, seeing none. Now open it up to public comment. I have one public comment from Anonymous. Any other public comments? Anonymous, you're up. |
| 02:21:58.57 | Anonymous | Before we start my three minutes, I just want to say it's lovely to see, as a woman in business, three really educated, experienced, capable women lawyers on our committee here. So you go girlfriends. |
| 02:22:12.49 | Mayor Burns | Agreed. |
| 02:22:13.42 | Anonymous | I'm given three minutes like the rest of the public, but I have a vested interest in this, so I'm going to ask you to invite me back with any questions or let me carry on because |
| 02:22:16.27 | Mayor Burns | THE FAMILY. |
| 02:22:22.83 | Anonymous | Most of the agreements were taken place in the appeal. I was not part of the appeal. I sent in a letter on December 17th. I didn't attend the appeal. I haven't talked to Mark Rushford since before the appeal. I don't really know what took place during that appeal. What I do know is When I was contacted last Monday and I looked at these plans, I was like, oh my God, why are there so many changes to the back that profoundly affect me? I understood that there may or may not have been money involved, We heard 15,000 that was offered. I also heard 50,000 in a letter from council. I don't know if that took place. But what I can tell you is that If money took place and it's between two parties, fine. If you're going to push the problems into somebody else's lap, look, pay attention, that's not quite fair game. So I am bothered that I wake up to the fact that I now have to come and look at this issue and realize that there's a new door, glass door in the back, There are new windows. Michael said he had to have the skylight because he wasn't allowed to have windows. There is a barbecue that's pushed really far back just underneath me and just centered where that smoke's going to come right up in my balcony. I did ask them to move that right or left. The 70-foot tree that was there, they're now building over. They may put a pepper tree, and they may put something else. I did send three trees on the list, and Kirsten did tell me that she would be happy to give me a lemon tree because maybe that was spiteful. I don't know. But I've had a difficult time with the owners, so I'm willing to liaison with Michael Rex, who used to work for me as a client when we looked at this originally. And Michael and I are both experienced business folks and able to negotiate, and even today I called him some names that I thought were appropriate, that he was greedy and self-serving on behalf of his clients because they were pushing every avenue on this project. But most of it now has landed in my lap, and I realize everybody's tired, and it would be easy for the supervisors to move this thing forward because we did hear from Kirsten who presented well and said, hey, how much is this taken and sort of Nancy Kerrigan, why me, where she said, what mistakes did I made? Well, there were mistakes made, but mostly it's this changing of the plan and now I have to show up and say, this is pretty unacceptable to have an ADU with an extra door and more people, and you've got multi-family living there already because it's a nanny and a granny, and the family and two young kids and a barbecue in what appears to be a restaurant lounge out back. without much consideration to me. So, you know, Michael suggests that we might come to terms. We may have to go rock, paper, scissors to figure some of these things out. But I would ask the supervisors to invite the couple who would like to build a house, that they deserve to build a house, but they're going to have to compromise. I believe I was the only one that suggested a compromise, actual build, which is this is kind of like, and that pitched roof I do not care for at all, looking back at me, because that's an architectural mess that now pushes back to me versus the slope that was there. |
| 02:25:24.74 | Mayor Burns | Thank you, Anonymous. Any questions for Anonymous? Thank you. Thanks for your time. |
| 02:25:28.91 | Joan Cox | Anonymous, I do have a question. Sure. So the things that stand out to me in your letter are the barbecue, the Um... the coloring of the skylight. And the skylight itself. Well, that was the subject of a prior approval, but the coloring, I hear you. Um, and So what it, I mean, there's nothing we can do about the ADU and the door, so what else |
| 02:26:00.26 | Anonymous | Sure, there's something you can do about the EDU. |
| 02:26:01.92 | Joan Cox | This is an architect, he can design around that. I'm not sure. So the barbecue and the color of the skylight. |
| 02:26:11.28 | Anonymous | The air conditioner, the push of the cement wall all the way back. I have no backyard at all. I have a three-foot walkway. I can't push my barbecue to the backyard. And these guys are living where everybody on the hill is living on the front side of the house. These guys are living on every possible angle, including that backside, taking maximum attention. So I'll take a deed for a landscape for an extra four feet that they promised that they'd put in but they don't want to agree to now. so they don't have to hear and see as much. I mean, we're talking a 70 foot tree. provided my privacy, they're now building over that. they were mandated to put up a new tree. And so instead of having a privacy of a tree, I've got a new unit, an ADU unit, I've got extra windows, I've got an extra door, I've got a light on that extra door, I've got air conditioning, I've got a table. Okay, you've answered my question. Thank you so much. |
| 02:26:55.99 | Mayor Burns | Okay, you've answered my question. Thank you so much. Any other questions? Thank you. Thanks, Ananis. |
| 02:27:02.45 | Anonymous | Thank you. |
| 02:27:03.55 | Mayor Burns | What are you doing? |
| 02:27:05.18 | Anonymous | Thank you. |
| 02:27:05.20 | Mayor Burns | Thank you. |
| 02:27:05.27 | Anonymous | Thank you. Yeah. |
| 02:27:07.97 | Joan Cox | THE END OF THE END OF THE |
| 02:27:08.03 | Anonymous | I'd like to know what my recourse is. |
| 02:27:10.06 | Joan Cox | You can speak to the city attorney at the conclusion of this meeting. |
| 02:27:12.69 | Anonymous | THIS HAPPENED. |
| 02:27:13.03 | Mayor Burns | after the meeting. Okay. Thank you. All right, so the appellant heard anything that they wanted to address in that rebuttal? Well. Yes, Joan. |
| 02:27:22.34 | Joan Cox | Well, I'm not. I would like to ask questions of the applicant, not the appellate, but if the appellate is something. |
| 02:27:31.83 | Mark Rushford | Thank you. |
| 02:27:31.85 | Karen Strollia | five minutes but |
| 02:27:31.88 | Mark Rushford | Five minutes, but yeah. I just want to address the one thing that was brought up just now by the anonymous. No money exchanged hands. Zero. I offered to help pay for some plantings between our houses, and we've come to that agreement. I'm very happy we have. And I look forward to working with the applicant. It's been a good exercise for the past month. Thank you again. Thank you. |
| 02:27:58.93 | Mayor Burns | You have questions? |
| 02:27:59.42 | Joan Cox | Yeah, I had a question for the city attorney. We had this evening adopted a WUI ordinance. Will that now apply to this construction? So I want to be sure that the types of plantings and the types of construction will now be governed by the WUI ordinance that we ratified. this evening. |
| 02:28:18.79 | Mary Wagner | Yes, I believe so. |
| 02:28:21.66 | Joan Cox | And then I had questions for Michael. Michael, are you able to move the barbecue? |
| 02:28:27.97 | Michael Rex | on, We explored the idea of putting it against the house instead of against the garden wall. And we're concerned about a fire hazard. So we'd like to keep it where it is. We did offer to limit it to gas so there'd be no mesquite or charcoal to create a lot of smoke. Um, But that offer wasn't accepted. It's not uncommon to have a barbecue in one's backyard. |
| 02:28:52.22 | Karen Strollia | Thank you. |
| 02:28:52.27 | Joan Cox | Thank you. |
| 02:28:52.37 | Karen Strollia | Bye. |
| 02:28:52.39 | Joan Cox | Bye. |
| 02:28:56.15 | Joan Cox | And the green screen between the upper retaining wall and 416 |
| 02:29:02.13 | Michael Rex | What's your question, Joe? |
| 02:29:04.02 | Joan Cox | So number four on anonymous's letter requests a green screen to be four feet wide, running across the length of the uppermost retaining wall. Yeah, unfortunately, |
| 02:29:14.02 | Michael Rex | I never got a copy of that letter, |
| 02:29:16.98 | Joan Cox | I can provide one to you. |
| 02:29:23.91 | Unknown | I'm actually already |
| 02:29:24.71 | Joan Cox | Thank you. |
| 02:29:36.25 | Joan Cox | It's number four on the back of the letter. |
| 02:29:47.93 | Michael Rex | Um, Yes, that was something we agreed to. It's a condition of approval that has been presented here on the screen. that we'd limit the height of that hedge and maintain it at that height. you |
| 02:29:59.99 | Joan Cox | All right. And then the air conditioner? |
| 02:30:01.34 | Michael Rex | Thank you. |
| 02:30:01.38 | Joan Cox | Thank you. |
| 02:30:01.39 | Michael Rex | Thank you. |
| 02:30:01.43 | Joan Cox | Thank you. |
| 02:30:02.12 | Michael Rex | We agreed to study if we can locate it to the front yard instead of the backyard. I'm hoping we can. I think that benefits everybody. If we do put it in the front yard, I need to tell the mechanic engineer that that's doable. I think it is, but I need to confirm it. Didn't have time to do that. If we do put it in the front yard, we're going to screen it adequately so no one could see it. But that's one thing I think we can do. And then the skylight. |
| 02:30:27.50 | Joan Cox | And then the skylight. Thank you. |
| 02:30:29.05 | Michael Rex | Thank you. |
| 02:30:29.07 | Joan Cox | Thank you. And then the skylight. So it doesn't seem like, since you're not going to be looking at it, I understand you have a different point of view regarding the covering of the skylight, but it's not going to affect |
| 02:30:30.38 | Michael Rex | So. |
| 02:30:40.58 | Joan Cox | your client, so why not agree to what Anonymous is requesting? |
| 02:30:44.54 | Michael Rex | Uh, Well, that skylight scene from all around that neighborhood, when you're moving around in the hills and looking across this house, which is readily apparent, |
| 02:30:55.51 | Joan Cox | Thank you. |
| 02:30:55.54 | Michael Rex | Thank you. |
| 02:30:55.58 | Joan Cox | So what they did. |
| 02:30:55.80 | Michael Rex | So what they did. |
| 02:30:57.53 | Joan Cox | What they did for the terraces of Sausalito when they were looking at new roofing materials, they put the two out there side by side. Would you be willing to put samples out side by side so they can be evaluated on site? |
| 02:31:08.03 | Michael Rex | Um, For the color of the skylight? Yeah. We'd be willing to look at alternatives, but I don't want to be obligated to reach an agreement. We've had a lot of difficulty trying to reach an agreement with the owner of 418. But yeah, we can look at a different color. I just can't promise that we'll succeed in reaching an agreement. |
| 02:31:35.99 | Joan Cox | Those are my questions, thank you. |
| 02:31:37.61 | Michael Rex | Thank you. Do you have anything else? Yes, please. I have a few minutes for the rebuttal. Yeah. |
| 02:31:38.05 | Joan Cox | Do you have anything else? Yes, please. |
| 02:31:40.82 | Michael Rex | Uh, We certainly haven't been able to have communications with Anonymous in the back. Matt and Kirsten reached out to her on numerous occasions. She won't reply. But we did speak today, which is helpful. And we didn't add any windows in the back. We did add a door, it has a glass panel in it, but we replaced, we got rid of a skylight. So there's some trade-offs there and because we're applying for the ADU, We need the door and Anonymous asks if we find an alternative location. for that door, I'm unable to find an alternative location. But no new windows and we trade the skylight for the glass door. I don't think she'll be able to see that door whatsoever with the planting and the hedge that we're putting in. So I think that concern will be resolved through landscaping. That big shed roof's coming off in the back, which is probably more bulky than this little hip roof that we're now proposing. And the We're pushing back into the backyard because we're pushing the addition further back. But it's our backyard. Anonymous has used 25% of our backyard, so we should be able to use some of it as well. We'll be adding to the cost to build that wall, which is fairly new and wasn't necessary, and we'll be looking at higher terraces, and we'll have very little room for the vegetable garden that we're hoping so those are compromises We've offered and are willing to make have made But it didn't succeed in keeping the neighbor happy we're still doing it and the The objections to the ADU You you there were suggestions at the last hearing that because we're in a multi-unit zone could we create a multi-unit and we said yes If if the neighbor doesn't like multiple units in a multi-unit zone Maybe she should take up request a zoning amendment and I'm not being facetious And the last thing I want to point out is when neighbors object to families and kids and barbecue, maybe they're also living in the wrong neighborhood. |
| 02:34:05.51 | Karen Strollia | That's fair. |
| 02:34:06.53 | Michael Rex | That's typical use in- |
| 02:34:07.92 | Vicki Nichols | Thank you. |
| 02:34:08.05 | Karen Strollia | And... |
| 02:34:08.86 | Michael Rex | It's typical use in our town. |
| 02:34:08.93 | Karen Strollia | Thank you. time. That's critical. Okay. |
| 02:34:11.28 | Vicki Nichols | Thank you. |
| 02:34:12.00 | Michael Rex | uh, We've done all we can, and I ask that you approve the resolution in your packet. Thank you. |
| 02:34:18.23 | Mayor Burns | Thank you, Michael. Any comments? |
| 02:34:23.00 | Joan Cox | Yeah, do you have additional questions for |
| 02:34:24.25 | Mayor Burns | Yeah, do you have additional questions for the- |
| 02:34:25.91 | Joan Cox | No questions, I'm ready to comment. |
| 02:34:26.67 | Mayor Burns | Any questions? Any more additional questions? I do. We have one question. |
| 02:34:34.51 | Ray | I realized I saw the shingle samples that were up on the roof. and the skylight then above that. This is looking from 418. So my question's for Michael or the applicant. So Michael, what is the actual, because I don't know if there's confusion or if we could ask perhaps the neighbor at 418. really wants the paint the paint it the color of the skylight trim to be different from the roof color and the samples that you put up there are Those are the current samples, right? Those are the current proposed shingles. |
| 02:35:25.29 | Michael Rex | The diagonal shingle is the actual material we propose. |
| 02:35:27.91 | Ray | Yeah. You propose. Yeah. Right. What would be the equivalent paint tone that you would, if you were going to match them as close as you could, what would be the tone of the, because we're here in charcoal black, right? What would be the tone of the? |
| 02:35:30.98 | Michael Rex | Yeah. |
| 02:35:46.06 | Michael Rex | We didn't propose charcoal black. We proposed we matched the roof shingle color exactly. Okay, that's what I'm asking. |
| 02:35:53.32 | Ray | Okay, that's what I'm asking. We could go lighter. No, that's what I'm asking. |
| 02:35:56.65 | Michael Rex | But we're not proposing dark charcoal. It advanced the roof. Also, WUI came up. I wanted to mention this building will be clad with cementitious hardy shakes, which the fire department was showing you is fire resistant. And we won't be venting the roof. We'll have closed seal ventilation. It'll conform to the WUI standards. you Thank you. |
| 02:36:24.52 | Joan Cox | Thank you. Mary, is that something we have to put in the conditions of approval? No. Because it's already a statute. No. |
| 02:36:31.75 | Ray | Mr. Mayor, if I may just let's remind ourselves that Um, they got to go back for a building permit. Go back for a building permit you've got to the fire department, the fire district comes around again and has another look in detail of all the landscaping plans and so on. Yeah. |
| 02:36:58.71 | Mayor Burns | Are we good? Let's make some comments. |
| 02:37:01.11 | Joan Cox | So I would be inclined to impose a couple of conditions of approval to address some of Anonymous's concerns. One of which would be to limit the barbecue to gas. Another of which would be to locate the air conditioner to the front yard instead of the backyard. Um, And Evidently, there's already a green screen in the conditions of approval. Um, I'm inclined to have the skylight match the shingle. I don't see a reason to change that. I feel as though that will be absorbed. Um... So it sounds like the only one |
| 02:37:38.91 | Mayor Burns | So it sounds like the only one really that's on the table then is the barbecue because the other one's addressed here. The green screen's been addressed. |
| 02:37:43.40 | Joan Cox | They don't. |
| 02:37:43.83 | Unknown | Thank you. |
| 02:37:46.28 | Joan Cox | And the air conditioner. |
| 02:37:47.11 | Mayor Burns | It's been addressed here. |
| 02:37:47.78 | Joan Cox | Yeah. |
| 02:37:48.04 | Unknown | Yeah. |
| 02:37:48.17 | Joan Cox | . |
| 02:37:48.97 | Unknown | that we include that. |
| 02:37:50.15 | Joan Cox | Thank you. |
| 02:37:50.16 | Unknown | Thank you. Does not. |
| 02:37:51.17 | Joan Cox | Thank you. |
| 02:37:51.19 | Unknown | you |
| 02:37:51.48 | Joan Cox | you |
| 02:37:51.53 | Unknown | No. |
| 02:37:51.58 | Mayor Burns | Does anybody want to change their barbecue? |
| 02:37:51.73 | Joan Cox | Thank you. |
| 02:37:53.93 | Unknown | No. |
| 02:37:55.60 | Mayor Burns | I don't either. |
| 02:37:57.20 | Unknown | I mean, it sounded like the applicant asked if that would suffice and that was not agreed to, so I don't think that we should weigh in. |
| 02:38:08.81 | Joan Cox | I know that the neighbors use the gas barbecue, so I don't know. Because Anonymous has not been involved in this process, I'm just trying to provide some accommodations as possible. |
| 02:38:22.11 | Russ Irwin | That's nice. |
| 02:38:24.32 | Unknown | So I have a couple, oh, go ahead. Oh, no, go ahead. No, we haven't heard from you. |
| 02:38:28.37 | Councilmember Hoffman | Thank you. |
| 02:38:28.39 | Mayor Burns | Yeah, hey, Jill, go ahead. We missed you last time we heard this. Yeah. We love your comments. I saw. |
| 02:38:32.99 | Councilmember Hoffman | I saw that. I'm so delighted you guys could work everything out, right? Just say thank you for working so hard, I know you guys have been working. So, but I do want to be, with regard to low impact things that we can help her with, I want to help her with it. And so if it's not going to materially change the skylight, and if we can at least accommodate this thing that she's going to be looking at, because she's the one that's looking down on it. Michael, if you say you're going to work with her in your best, you're going to work with her in a good faith effort to find a shade that she is within the realm of what she finds attractive. I would appreciate that and accept that. And with the idea that we do want it to meld into and be the color of the roof, right? I mean, that's the point is that there's no contrast. But anyway. So, yes, thank you for that. And, yeah, I do take also Joan's point with regard to the gas barbecue. You know, I live in close proximity to my neighbor, and we do feel the effects of each other's barbecues. So a gas barbecue is less impactful for sure. But obviously, because all the rest of the issues have been resolved, I'm inclined to approve. |
| 02:39:23.40 | Kelvin Chan | Thank you. |
| 02:40:06.16 | Karen Strollia | Yeah. |
| 02:40:10.51 | Unknown | Yeah, so I'll just echo Councilmember Hoffman's comments. I am really glad that the two neighbors at 420 and 416 actually were able to have a dialogue. Not only do I think the project has improved, but I think I hope that that will make for better. relationships going forward. So thank you for your time and effort doing that. I can continue to make all of the findings, including finding number seven, as I discussed at our last hearing. I'm glad to see the potential addition of the accessory dwelling unit on the multi-unit parcel. So thank you for your continued efforts in moving in that direction. And, you know, to Anonymous, I would say, as I said at our last hearing, this is a really challenging property. And I think we all recognize that this impacts all three property owners, the project. And everyone has given and is accepting some negative impacts, the applicants, the property owner to the west, and you, definitely. And I think there has been a give and take. The project is mainly still moving to the west as opposed to the back. And I think a number of the items that you wrote to us about have been accommodated, including the tree, the color of the skylight if it does match the rooftop, I think that's what you asked for. They're going to make best efforts on the air conditioning and the green screen. So I think that is. majority of what was requested it's not everything and i don't think anyone is getting everything they want in this particular project so i'm inclined um to approve the project tonight, recognizing all the hard work and good result. |
| 02:42:10.33 | Joan Cox | I forgot to say two things, sorry. One is, I would like to encourage. the applicant to apply For the ADU permit and also to apply for the variance and for the waiver of the fee for the variance. Given that you will be up to nine hearings by the time this is all said and done. |
| 02:42:29.65 | Unknown | And actually, shoot, what was I going to say? Go ahead and I'll come back. |
| 02:42:38.83 | Ray | um... i'd really have very little to add. I think it's very important that we have the color of the trim of the skylight the same as the color of the roof. not only for 418's benefit but for all the other uphill neighbors who are going to see this you don't want to suddenly see something stand out for everybody else um and i'm glad uh this could um get worked out |
| 02:43:07.02 | Mayor Burns | Um... |
| 02:43:07.89 | Ray | Thank you. |
| 02:43:08.04 | Mayor Burns | So, good. Thank you. I'm not going to talk about barbecues or skylights. I'm just going to say that the appellant and the applicant worked from the moment we stepped out here the other night and they were meeting here in the hallway to all the work you guys have done. I appreciate you three and you for doing that, for making this meeting the way it is. My initial problem with this project was I thought it was imposing, and you scaled that back, and you did a lot of work to do that. You've done everything that people have asked, and you've worked well with your neighbors. I hear now pronounce you neighbor and neighbor. Good luck. No. I think it's great. I think we got a project, and I look forward to you building, and as the others have said, doing your ADUs and getting that completed. So congratulations. I'm in support of it as well. I think you have one more comment? |
| 02:44:01.95 | Unknown | Yeah, I just wanted to address your point about the barbecue. |
| 02:44:04.96 | Kelvin Chan | Yeah. |
| 02:44:06.97 | Unknown | It takes me back, I think, to the Valhalla project Um, Joan and I had many, many, many hearings along with Michael about that project. And we had a similar situation where there were multiple interests and multiple neighbors. And I just don't feel like you can make every issue between neighbors a condition of approval. And I really feel like a barbecue is one of those things that that neighbors can change, circumstances can change, and that hopefully everyone will respect everyone's Yeah, interests. Interests. Neighborly interests. And that when we start putting conditions like |
| 02:44:44.14 | Joan Cox | I'm really interested. |
| 02:44:47.90 | Unknown | what kind of barbecue you can have in a land use approval. I just feel like we are micromanaging and it's not enforceable. I mean, our code enforcement staff, I think really has more hear you yeah so i i point taken right i i explained my motivation for raising the issue and i appreciate that but that's why i would not be supportive of that condition |
| 02:45:02.60 | Kelvin Chan | Thank you. |
| 02:45:02.62 | Karen Strollia | Point taken. |
| 02:45:03.41 | Joan Cox | Thank you. Right. |
| 02:45:03.67 | Karen Strollia | Yeah. |
| 02:45:03.68 | Joan Cox | I- |
| 02:45:04.04 | Karen Strollia | I appreciate the sentiment. raising the issue. |
| 02:45:11.38 | Joan Cox | I do want to commend Michael Rex. This was brilliant. He did this within like four days after our last hearing, the revised plans. So, and I commend the neighbors also, and if I may. |
| 02:45:11.48 | Unknown | I don't know. |
| 02:45:22.73 | Joan Cox | I will move. that we deny the appeal and approve the project subject to modifications and conditions including the new conditions of approval suggested by the applicant. |
| 02:45:33.15 | Mary Wagner | Thank you. |
| 02:45:33.18 | Karen Strollia | Thank you. |
| 02:45:33.21 | Mary Wagner | Okay. Let's do a roll, Cal. |
| 02:45:34.66 | Mayor Burns | Do a roll, Cal. you |
| 02:45:35.32 | Mary Wagner | Thank you. Point of clarification, Mr. Mayor? Yes, sorry. I apologize, just to make sure that we are clear on the direction. So that would be the new conditions of approval A and B that are on your screen, correct? Correct. But not C? Correct. Okay, thank you. |
| 02:45:36.40 | Mayor Burns | Thank you, Shemesh. |
| 02:45:36.74 | Joan Cox | Thank you. |
| 02:45:36.76 | Mayor Burns | Yes. |
| 02:45:37.16 | Joan Cox | Okay. |
| 02:45:37.19 | Mayor Burns | and, you know, I think, I |
| 02:45:37.28 | Joan Cox | Sorry. |
| 02:45:49.97 | Mayor Burns | Serge, please show all roll call. |
| 02:45:50.97 | City Clerk | Thank you. |
| 02:45:55.08 | City Clerk | Councilmember Cox. |
| 02:45:56.97 | Joan Cox | Thank you. |
| 02:45:57.02 | Councilmember Hoffman | Yes. |
| 02:45:57.87 | City Clerk | Councilmember Hoffman. |
| 02:46:00.72 | Councilmember Hoffman | Yes. |
| 02:46:01.70 | City Clerk | Council member Withey? Yes. Vice Mayor Cleveland Knowles? Yes. |
| 02:46:05.92 | Mayor Burns | Yes, that denial of the appeal passes five to zero. Thank you all. |
| 02:46:16.87 | Mayor Burns | I thought we could. considering being a vegetarian after all that barbecue. |
| 02:46:25.19 | Mayor Burns | Hey, look at that. Speaking of ADUs. |
| 02:46:29.71 | Russ Irwin | Mommy. you |
| 02:46:30.92 | Mayor Burns | Thank you. |
| 02:46:30.96 | Russ Irwin | Oh yeah, we're gonna be here for a while. |
| 02:46:35.06 | Mayor Burns | Lily Whalen, second and final extension of the interim permit fees for accessory dwelling unit permits, amnesty accessory dwelling unit permits, junior accessory dwelling unit permits, and amnesty junior accessory dwelling unit permits as an urgency measure. Lily Whalen, our Director of Community Development. |
| 02:46:44.68 | Kelvin Chan | is. |
| 02:46:54.95 | Lily Whalen | Thank you, Mr. Mayor, Councilmembers. I promise this will be quick, as was the last one. Just to refresh your memory, on February 5th, the Council adopted fees for ADU permits, JADU permits, and amnesty permits of both ADU and JADUs. Those fees were not effective until 60 days after adoption, so April 6. So in the interim, We put together some interim fees that could be adopted every 30 days. This is the last and final adoption of those interim fees. These are the fees that are on the screen here for ADUs. and JADUs. And with that, staff is recommending that you adopt the resolution, which allows the second and final extension of the interim fees, which would be through April 6th, which coincides with the effective date of the permanent fees. And I'm available for any questions if you have them. |
| 02:47:55.84 | Mayor Burns | Any questions for staff? Seeing none. Is there any public comment on this item? Anybody from the public that would like to speak about ADUs? Seeing none. Closing public comment and bringing it up here for our comments. Jill. You can hop into the |
| 02:48:17.09 | Joan Cox | I move we adopt the extension of the interim measure, attachment one by a four-fifths vote. Interim fees would be in place from March 26th through April 6th, and permanent fees would be in effect on that date. |
| 02:48:17.71 | Mayor Burns | Yeah. |
| 02:48:27.14 | Mayor Burns | Thank you. |
| 02:48:27.25 | Ray | Second. |
| 02:48:27.70 | Mayor Burns | you All in favor? Aye. That passes five to zero. |
| 02:48:29.30 | Joan Cox | Aye. Aye. |
| 02:48:33.69 | Unknown | And before Lily leaves, I just would like to give a special shout out to Calvin for all his hard work on that last item. |
| 02:48:42.15 | Russ Irwin | Thank you. |
| 02:48:42.26 | Mayor Burns | THE END OF |
| 02:48:42.30 | Russ Irwin | you |
| 02:48:43.21 | Mayor Burns | That's a great point because I was going to say, the way those slides were. |
| 02:48:44.22 | Unknown | the way those slides were. |
| 02:48:46.35 | Mayor Burns | No, seriously, the way those slides were that they had- |
| 02:48:46.42 | Unknown | THE FAMILY. Yeah, incredibly. |
| 02:48:48.90 | Mayor Burns | the components on them. |
| 02:48:49.99 | Councilmember Hoffman | Bye. |
| 02:48:51.26 | Mayor Burns | a huge help. Thank you. |
| 02:48:52.19 | Councilmember Hoffman | Thank you. I will let him know. |
| 02:48:52.22 | Mayor Burns | Thank you, I will let him know. |
| 02:48:53.64 | Unknown | Yeah. |
| 02:48:53.79 | Councilmember Hoffman | Bye. |
| 02:48:53.81 | Unknown | Thank you. |
| 02:48:53.98 | Councilmember Hoffman | Thank you. |
| 02:48:54.02 | Unknown | Yes, I have. |
| 02:48:54.13 | Councilmember Hoffman | Bye. |
| 02:48:54.36 | Mayor Burns | and sneak out. |
| 02:48:54.60 | Councilmember Hoffman | Thank you. |
| 02:48:54.62 | Unknown | Yeah. |
| 02:48:54.68 | Councilmember Hoffman | So one more thing, in the staff reports where you put the links to the prior meetings, that's super helpful too. You guys are doing that really well. Great, great. |
| 02:49:00.07 | Lily Whalen | Yeah. Thank you. |
| 02:49:02.19 | Mayor Burns | THANK YOU. |
| 02:49:02.56 | Lily Whalen | Thank you. |
| 02:49:02.60 | Mayor Burns | Yeah. |
| 02:49:02.75 | Lily Whalen | Good. Thanks for the feedback. |
| 02:49:03.98 | Mayor Burns | Thank you. |
| 02:49:07.76 | Mayor Burns | Okay, well we are finished with our How about... Hearing items and our business items bringing us to number eight. Our city manager. Reports city council appointments and other council business is there any public comment on anything related to 8 a through are actually 8B through 8F. Any public comment on these items? Seeing none. City manager. |
| 02:49:38.19 | Kevin McGowan | Yes, council members, very quickly. Earlier this evening we heard from one of the tenants on Sasseta Boulevard and staff, including myself, the public works director, |
| 02:49:41.82 | Mayor Burns | THE END OF THE END OF THE |
| 02:49:57.16 | Kevin McGowan | Public Works Division Manager. and our community development department staff, Kenneth Henry in particular. We continue to outreach to the community and we will continue to do so. The only real update that we've been able to share in the last five, six days here is that we are focused right now as we shared in the last update to the council on Crescent Avenue. And so we've interviewed two firms, actually three different firms. One was an individual that provides these types of services. The others are two firms that we're going to engage one of them to help us with the removal of the debris, the documentation. As you saw when the public works director Dave Bracken got up the bill. planning documents that are required is a thick manual so we wanted to make sure that we do it properly so we can maximize any reimbursement the city will be entitled to. So we hope to finalize that decision this week, move forward under my authority for the initial $25,000 for the contract, and then come back to council on the 16th for approval of the full scope of the work. so again that we can expedite the removal of the debris sorted into the various categories that are required by law and then return what we can of people's property. So I'd just like to share that update with the council. Happy to answer any questions on any other items. But that concludes my report. |
| 02:51:34.22 | Unknown | I'm sorry, did you say that would come back to us on the 15th? |
| 02:51:38.15 | Kevin McGowan | I think 16. 16. |
| 02:51:39.16 | Unknown | 16th. Sorry. Great. |
| 02:51:43.77 | Mayor Burns | Thank you. Any questions for the seat manager? Thanks Adam. Next up, other council business items. The Sausalito Morin City School District. In our board packet we have a letter that was sent to the Attorney General on behalf of the city, requesting transparency in their process with the school district. That is the. was the direction that we discussed at our last meeting when we did have the school district here. And then we sent that out. this point I'm opening up this portion of this meeting to talk about discussions related to both that effort as well as maybe positions that we want to take as a council and related to this item, especially the school district, the Sausage Moran City School District, the report back to us, our letter to the AG, and maybe some common area where we stand as a body as far as our expectation or how we want to get involved in this arena. It's obviously not going away. It's going to have a lot of apparently a lot of changes to it regardless what the AG comes out with, how the budget goes from the school district to Willow Creek, how Willow Creek transforms to that new budget. All those things are going to be moving. They're not really falling into our domain, but we should probably have at least a basis of how we want to approach that discussion and how we want quality public education considered in our town. So without a more specific business item, I think first, is there any questions on the the AG letter. concerns on that. Yeah. |
| 02:53:36.46 | Joan Cox | Yeah, I was hoping during our discussion that there would be a way for us to have a closed session meeting. to discuss the AG's perspective on this, not a Public Records Act request, not documentation, but actually a briefing in closed session. So I'm not sure there's a procedural mechanism for that, but that was what I was hoping would be accomplished out of our last meeting. |
| 02:54:03.43 | Mayor Burns | a meeting with the AG to give us the close? |
| 02:54:05.54 | Joan Cox | Yeah. I'm meeting with because we are a, our student, our kids are stakeholders in the outcome of this and they are being excluded from this conversation and so. Again, I don't know that there's a procedural mechanism for accomplishing that. I don't know whether any research has been done. As I have said and as Ray said at our last meeting, it may well be that the solution to this is not writing to the AG, it may be that this requires a political solution and that we should align on how we're going to seek that political solution. but, Thank you. I made some comments that I do want to share with you tonight at the last Sausalito-Marin City School District meeting after our meeting. two days before. because where discretion lies is in the allocation of the basic aid excess funds, the majority of which are funded from our property taxes. And so that is where discretion lies and that is where Willow Creek is being unfairly penalized. So if you don't mind, I'll say another few words about why. Just before you go ahead. |
| 02:55:21.29 | Mayor Burns | I was just going to say, great, and let's have that discussion. Thank you. The comments that you make, and we all agree that there's going to have to be other avenues, I don't think those are mutually exclusive from our attempt to reach the AG with the letter. Correct. I don't think sitting down with the AG was going to be a possibility and definitely wasn't in the time frame we were presented. |
| 02:55:32.65 | Joan Cox | Correct. |
| 02:55:40.14 | Mayor Burns | as far as at least getting on the record and getting Mike McGuire and Kate Sears knowing what we were up to as well. |
| 02:55:47.89 | Joan Cox | And Mark Levine. Mike McGuire... has publicly been critical. of the charter school system. And so I'm not sure that's our best resource, although it may be a resource. A resource is a good way to say. |
| 02:56:00.34 | Unknown | . Yeah, so I think just in terms of the closed session, I think there was just some concern that there was any basis for that. To begin with, I mean, I think it's very unclear actually at this time what the closed session and confidentiality of the district's conversations with the Attorney General is. at all. I mean the citations on their website right now do not really align with any usual. confidentiality, So I think that was why we hesitated. But I mean, if we could get the city attorney to weigh in or |
| 02:56:42.61 | Joan Cox | Well, I think that the city attorney, that was not the direction given to the city attorney. So the city attorney hasn't spent any resources researching this issue, that's why I'm raising it as a potential. avenue to consider. If we were considering intervening in some manner, that would be a threat of litigation, which would entitle us to have a closed session discussion. |
| 02:56:54.35 | Kelvin Chan | you know, |
| 02:57:02.91 | Joan Cox | So. |
| 02:57:03.57 | Unknown | Oh, for us. I thought you meant with the attorney general. |
| 02:57:05.07 | Joan Cox | No, with the attorney general. So I have not. fully explored this, the specter of this was raised at our last meeting. I understand why it was not pursued in this letter, but I wanted to raise it again as something to consider whether we'd like to pursue. |
| 02:57:27.31 | Ray | I think there's a couple of ways to look at those. The first is, um... But let me back up. In the balancing act of trying to figure out what's our business and what isn't our business, okay. The first thing is, I don't know that we've necessarily, and this is perhaps, Mr. Mayor, what we're trying to get to. I actually, going back and thinking about our discussions, I'm not sure we've adequately really expressed to our residents why we're so concerned. I mean, we are. . remarkably unified as a council here you know we may have some different tactical approaches we want to take but we're really unified and you know but have we done a good job articulating why we're so worried so that's the first thing Second thing is, We, I think, have a duty to Just like we as residents and City Council members have. zero transparency into it. I mean, there's zero transparency, and in our letter that transparency is our overriding thing. The community needs to understand the series of discussions going on. I certainly don't feel, and I don't know whether we should be spending city resources doing it. I just don't know, but I feel completely inadequately informed. as to what is the actual law under which the Attorney General is operating, if any. Okay? So I feel totally inadequate. I don't know the answer to that because it needs expert legal advice. And then the other thing, if we are... Um, we need to participate in the in as constructive as a way we can to actually send the messages of, you know, equity, fair treatment for all of the children in the district, et cetera, et cetera, et cetera. In terms of closed session, with getting then all of the information from the attorney, I don't, A, I don't think it would happen, but B, even if it did, What do we then do with the information? |
| 03:00:23.66 | Joan Cox | Knowledge is power. We're then better equipped to be able to understand what our options are. |
| 03:00:24.01 | Ray | It's knowledge. |
| 03:00:29.34 | Ray | Okay, but we'll be under confidentiality In which case we can't share it. We can't share it, but we could. |
| 03:00:34.42 | Joan Cox | We can't share it, but we could decide on action moving forward. Okay. |
| 03:00:39.32 | Ray | So anyway, those are my thoughts. |
| 03:00:45.16 | Councilmember Hoffman | Yeah, I kind of echo what Ray said, I think to your point, Joe, if we're thinking about what we want to do as a city council. what action we want to take collectively or through a motion or through a proclamation or through whatever announcement. It's not. It's not specifically under our purview, however, as we've discussed at the last one, it is a service provider in our district and it is funded by our tax dollars to a significant So I think that does make it our business in the fact that we represent the people that live here. And we are their elected officials. So in something this important where it looks like our public school that services 80% of our children is at peril because of a funding decision by the school district. So I think it is within our purview. I've said that in the past many times and taken means to communicate with people in my way, my position. So that's no surprise to anybody that that's my position. In the context that we support all the kids in the district, obviously, but when we see something this egregious with regard to funding, I think it's something that's within our Thank you. purview to act on. So I think, um, I don't know. You know, I think to Ray's point, we want to see probably what the scope of the AG's authority and action is and sort of Understand that there are some briefs out there that address this, so I think we can look at those for direction and maybe discuss it perhaps in the context of a closed session, if we're looking at taking action, if we're looking at perhaps intervening in a current action. I don't know that we have standing to do that. Well, I don't know. Yeah. I don't know. |
| 03:02:42.30 | Mayor Burns | I know you want to talk a little bit about your thing. I do. And that's fine. As far as what our expectation you know and I said it before and thank you for bringing that up again Jill about you know we should have an expectation for for a level of service We did have the school district here and My questions were a little soft and we were playing to the room at that point, or at least I was. She doesn't have a plan. There is no plan from our school district or our Board of Education to educate the children of Sausalito. Zero, none, never has been. It was very forthright what their plan is. It's to bridge an achievement gap, which is a great goal of any district to bridge achievement gap. But the presentation from their school and her comments, her being Tarina Mars acting, both representing the Board of Education and the school district. is that's the extent of their vision. That's as far as they take it. And that is not suitable public education commensurate to what we expect as far as a community, given where we live and the money we pay. The numbers show it, and the numbers being, I hate to do old numbers, because I can't read this new CAASPP reports, but the old API reports that I luckily saved before they closed the website from 2007-8, they weren't succeeding at educating children. to the level they say they were. They had a distinguished school But there was no bar on that achievement cap. There was no upper limit. The upper limit It's been established at Willow Creek and there is a gap. There's a gap between social, economic, disadvantaged children and what would be listed here as white children, there's a gap. but both are so much higher. Both, the low bar is higher than the low bar that the district has maintained for many, many, many, many years. and they have no goal for lifting the bar. Their best goal for achievement gap is to eliminate the top bar, and they've closed the gap. So we can prove on numbers and on comments that they have not provided Sausalito families an education option. They currently have zero education option as they defined their purview, zero Sayta families in their purview as far as what they provide and planning for as a district and as a Board of Education. Their plan for education does not include any families in Sausalito. That seems like neglect to me. At least have a plan that says we are going to take a lot of funding away from Willow Creek, but we're going to build the market that Willow Creek, or we have a plan to do something. There is zero plan for our community. And that's what I kind of wanted to hear is, yes, you know what, we are taking this money, but here's what we're going to do, and we're going to increase the education. both bars. We're going to increase the platform of education in your town. That's apparently not the case. So I think our leaders have to be asked and tell us why they don't believe we deserve the same public education as other communities. Or at least a plan for public education. Because if there's a plan or at least an expectation, then we can come together with ideas as far as funding and all day schools or all those things. But short of even having the vision that someday they want to educate the children of Sausalito, plan. You know? I mean, there's, so that's where I'm kind of at a loss is, That's, I think, where we might want to start talking to the people above us is Our district doesn't have a plan for our families, and they've said it. So. That's where I get worked up. |
| 03:06:40.81 | Mary Wagner | Mr. Mayor, you did have a request from the public to open public comment on this item. I know that you took public comment at the beginning. |
| 03:06:46.26 | Mayor Burns | Yeah, I have it. Yeah. Thank you. Do you want to do your want to do public comments? Sure. I have some comments. OK. Do you need to second, Alice? |
| 03:06:49.96 | Mary Wagner | Sure. |
| 03:06:50.40 | Joan Cox | you |
| 03:06:50.78 | Mary Wagner | Thank you. AND I WANT TO TAKE A LOOK AT |
| 03:06:51.12 | Joan Cox | Yeah. |
| 03:06:51.29 | Mary Wagner | I have some comments. |
| 03:06:51.97 | Joan Cox | you |
| 03:06:52.05 | Mary Wagner | Thank you. |
| 03:06:52.07 | Karen Strollia | Thank you. |
| 03:06:52.10 | Joan Cox | Thank you. |
| 03:06:52.12 | Karen Strollia | Thank you. |
| 03:06:52.20 | Joan Cox | Thank you. |
| 03:06:52.22 | Karen Strollia | Yeah. |
| 03:06:54.87 | Mayor Burns | Stitch. |
| 03:06:55.51 | Joan Cox | So A, I think we should write a demand letter to the Sausalito-Maroon City School District demanding their plan to educate the students of Sausalito. B, I think that we should consider our options if the Sausalito Marin City School District continues to decline to educate, or to devote resources to educate Sausalito students like, can we withdraw from the school district? So this is the Sausalito Marin City School District. Can we withdraw? |
| 03:07:27.30 | Karen Strollia | Thank you. |
| 03:07:27.50 | Joan Cox | Can Willow Creek attach to a different anchor school other Bayside MLK, can Willow Creek attach to Mill Valley? for example, school district. in some manner. I mean, I'm talking about outrageous Options. But the reason that I think it's important is that there is a local control funding formula. that was revamped by the legislature in 2013. And it's that local control funding formula that Willow Creek and Bayside MLK have no choice about. The goal of the overhaul of that system in 2013 was to ensure, was to reduce disparities in funding and improving outcomes for high need students. And so under that formula. It provides funding to the school district through uniform based grants, augmented by two levels of funding for high needs students. The supplemental grant and the funding for the high needs students is not available to the charter school. The reason for that is they did not want school districts, funneling all of their high needs students into the charter schools where they had no funding. They overhauled this system in 2013 in order to ensure that high needs students, that are typically in the anchor schools are looked after. But here, Unlike most situations, there's a majority of high needs students at Willow Creek. And yet, they're ineligible for this supplemental funding under the local control funding formula that is why Um. It's important. that the Property taxes which fund the basic aid access be allocated more to Willow Creek than to AND I THINK IT'S A LOT OF Bayside MLK because Willow Creek has 80% of the students and has the majority of the high needs students. That's the reason for a more equitable distribution Not mentioning the fact that the majority of the basic aid excess funds comes from Sausalito property taxes. And so, I think this letter should be a demand letter to ensure high level education for the students of Sausalito and B, an equitable allocation of the basic aid excess funds, given the facts of, Willow Creek serving 80% of the students and Willow Creek serving a high majority of the special needs students. |
| 03:10:37.47 | Mayor Burns | And that has been Willow Creek's. That's their playbook. And they're fighting that battle. I agree with that. You want to hear from L.S.? |
| 03:10:48.03 | Unknown | Yeah, I think we can hear a public comment, and then I just had some comments. |
| 03:10:52.33 | Mayor Burns | We're going to open up public comment, or as we call it, Alice's comment. Mm-hmm. Peter, you want to do one too? You standing? |
| 03:10:57.55 | Kelvin Chan | I said, you went to the |
| 03:11:02.00 | Mayor Burns | You want to end on this Vicki? |
| 03:11:08.85 | Vicki Nichols | Thank you. I'm probably in the minority in this discussion. I think that. |
| 03:11:09.16 | Mayor Burns | Thank you. |
| 03:11:19.45 | Vicki Nichols | There's a lot of lawyer talk. I mean, I could never talk what Joan just said. That would never come out of my mouth. Um, But what I do know is that Mm. that just a couple of years ago When I finally started paying attention, which I apologize to everybody for, including the kids. Willow Creek was very represented on the school board, way represented on the school board. And the kids over at Bayside MLK were were really declining, struggling. It was horrible. And when it got a little more equal, suddenly Willow Creek. is really upset that they're not getting the funding that they want. And I've heard people say, well, why don't we just have one school? And then practically in the same breath say, of course, if it weren't for Willow Creek, I wouldn't be able to live in Sausalito. So there was one school, there's been one school for a very long time. Where was the support to actually make that school thrive? Where was the support for the kids in Sausalito to go to that school? And really get the parents support to really think about educational possibilities. When my kids were in school, they cut out the funding for the arts. So we got the PTA together and we provided art program, a huge art program for the schools. That Where's that been? Until all of a sudden it's Willow Creek. Now we're talking about, well, our Taxes are paying for the schools so we should be paying for The kids here, well this is a school district in Mill Valley. You don't talk about the taxes going to this school and not that school. It's all there, and I don't know about charter schools. in Mill Valley. I'm just really, I think there's a great irony when people say we want one school and then they say if we didn't have Willow Creek we couldn't have our kids here, we would have to move out. I find that to be very ironic. because we did have one school. And nobody wanted to send their kids there. But it would have taken. an effort, which is what people are doing at Willow Creek. I'm really concerned. |
| 03:14:22.26 | Peter | I thought your letter was a... Can you hear me? I thought your letter was a great start. opening the door. to a conversation. As you've been alluding to in your discussion so far, this is really a political situation. You may find some sort of legal way that you can actually get involved in it, but I'm not sure how much resources you're going to be doing for that. It's kind of a bully pulpit situation where, like you've been discussing here, but it is going to be a political resolution to what is equitable funding for all students. at the same meeting that Joan made her comments, Basically, I challenged the trustees to give us the reasons why They're doing what they're doing. either two choices as a personal reason, they just have some hidden agenda within their own mind is why they don't want to have equitable funding. Or they could give us a second alternative, show us the numbers. give us the sources of funds and uses of funds in a very simple format, explain where the money comes from and where it goes into each one of our schools. and if the numbers quote, prove that you cannot provide equitable funding for all students, Great. then you guys are doing the right thing. But if the numbers don't prove that case, then that will show that, in fact, another solution is possible where you do get equal funding. I was in the school more than 20 years at Bayside. Thank you. and tutoring program in that class every week. As you all know, I've said it many times before, And I saw the devastation going on there firsthand. and then, Horrible situation. Thank God it's better now for everything that I hear. But there were years, yes, they were really bad. But. The solution is not to continue that bad story or not to like, make a bad story happen at Willow Creek. is to have an equitable solution. as the bully pulpit. coming forth and exposing more transparency. is a very good way to go. I'm really so happy you guys are getting involved and to do whatever you can to educate the public on why this is important to everybody in the district, including Sausalito. Thanks. |
| 03:16:48.57 | Vicki Nichols | Vicki Nichols, I'm going to agree with Peter, but I think I would appreciate a slightly different tone. Everything I hear between discussion between them and us is derogatory, not trustful. I was with the Willow Creek kids today. We were down at the Marinship in the class. I mentioned last time I spoke to you that I was with the kids again. The third graders are calling names of the board of trustees at one school and then the other ones are saying the other school is bad. These are third graders. So the discussions you guys are having, the adults at this level, are impacting the kids. to a degree that they shouldn't have to be thinking about this. It's embarrassing to me and I'm ashamed of it. What I believe should be happening rather than demand letters is a discussion and a request for the budget, it is complicated. I see it when I look at their staff reports. I see it. I also have been reading that they have been, Willow Creek is possibly being considered about having their special needs program being done by another agency or something. There's discussions. I don't know the outcome. They can either go and have it done somewhere else. They have to apply. or if they don't, then the district does it. So there's all kinds of situations happening here that I don't feel anybody is researching but just talking about it being a bad situation. So, um, I will be very disappointed if I see the council just jump right into this angrily. I don't think it's really your purview. Unless you're willing to get to the facts and talk with them, they're elected too. And see where is the money? Peter's right, if the money's not being spread, then you should get it fixed, or you should try to get it fixed. But I just don't think anybody truly knows what the conditions are of the money and the way it's being required. And all the programs have to be equal. They have to be equal. when everybody's whole, then if you have leftover, 50-50, 60-40, doesn't matter. But everybody has to be whole, both schools, before this money is considered that it's surplus. And there are underlying situations that they're discussing in their meetings. I don't know if you're reading their board material. It's very transparent. You just get on their agendas. I get it. They're having a lot of meetings. So anyway, thank you. |
| 03:19:29.03 | Joan Cox | I'll just respond to the budget. They had a board member request the budget and they had a board member complain about the lack of transparency in the budget at the last meeting. if you were at that meeting, but their own board |
| 03:19:43.73 | Vicki Nichols | Yeah. |
| 03:19:43.75 | Karen Strollia | It's not a dialogue. |
| 03:19:45.03 | Joan Cox | cannot get Thank you. the transparency that the board is seeking to understand where the money's going. |
| 03:19:51.93 | Vicki Nichols | I'll give current board member Carolyn Van Alts, is that it? Carolyn? Carolyn? She has expertise in finances and one of their board meetings, this was a while ago, gave one of the best presentations I've ever seen, very transparent, so perhaps- |
| 03:20:08.60 | Joan Cox | She's the one requesting the information and unable to get that information from the district. |
| 03:20:14.88 | Vicki Nichols | Okay, I don't understand, because it gets published, it's in their reports. |
| 03:20:24.33 | Mayor Burns | OK, so we have obviously a lot of opinions here. |
| 03:20:30.03 | Joan Cox | As always. |
| 03:20:33.81 | Mayor Burns | Is there a path we can get to a common denominator of what our expectation or what our path should be here? A path to our path of what we should be doing here? Do we want to lay in the weeds and... We're going through a general plan update. We've spent tons of monies on safe route to schools, parks, paths through the MLK to get to Marin City. We have a vested financial interest in the success of the schools. And I think we have many platforms of diligence to be asking this provider of service to step up. Thank you. |
| 03:21:10.43 | Unknown | So, oh, go ahead. So I'm the only one. |
| 03:21:10.77 | Karen Strollia | you |
| 03:21:13.27 | Unknown | spoken yeah but i just wanted to have public comment and thank you To the people who spoke, I think those were all good points. So, I mean, the two things that resonated with me in this discussion are first of all, transparency and outreach in a positive way. So I agree that So I do not find the district's proceedings transparent, and I don't find their budget transparent, and I think There is a lot of debate about what the numbers are. And I think almost every discussion about the schools comes down to, I don't believe your numbers on both ways. So in terms of transparency, we've written a letter to the Attorney General. I think the Attorney General, from all I understand, the investigation is finished. This should be an open public discussion. There's good points of view on both sides, on all sides, not even both, every side. And so we've done that, we've asked for transparency. I believe that we must have transparency in a discussion about how to get to one school or successful schools for everyone. So that's important. Two is transparency on the budget. And I think one thing that we could suggest and not maybe demand from the district is some common set of numbers. So we could get three people, we have tons of people in our community who are experts on finance. Get, you know, like an arbitration. Get three people. together. And break down the budget and look at what is really happening. So that's one thing I think that just would be helpful so that there's numbers that everyone can work with. that are also easy to understand. Um, And then the second, and there's other things to do about transparency, but those are the two main things I see right now. And then secondly is back to Ray's point about kind of, um, expressing our concerns in some, why is this body concerned? And are those legitimate concerns for this body to have, or are those things for other decision makers to express? And so I think that's worth a discussion. I mean, to me, The lack of transparency with the process and the use of the funding is a concern about why I'm worried. A huge amount, over 85% of our tax, over 85% of the district's tax funding comes from Sausalito. That's a legitimate, issue for us to look into. Secondly, You know, families in town would like a decent public education wherever that is. other families in Marin, are getting excellent public education. So I think that's a concern. We wanna make sure that our families continue to get a decent public education wherever that is. the stability of the schools. There's a lot of fear and a lot of discord right now. I think that's a legitimate concern of leveling that out and having civil discourse. I think that's something that we are legitimately concerned about. And kind of to the service provider issue that you've talked about, having the district members recognize that Sausalito is part of the school district. And I was very upset at our hearing the last time to hear the superintendent not recognize the two schools in the district and all of the kids. I thought that's an issue. And that's also. So I mean, those are just some of my reasons. any, you know, and I don't know if that's a resolution or A letter. But I think we do have, we should not be inserting ourselves in the decision making process, but I do feel like we should let We should express concerns if we have them. So those are my ideas. |
| 03:25:33.17 | Councilmember Hoffman | I think we are stakeholders in the situation for all the reasons. And so perhaps we might want to, of point THE END OF I don't know if it wouldn't be a task force because it would be two council members to work on in the context of this conversation that we've had. look at all of the issues that we talked about and then come back with recommendations on the path forward. |
| 03:26:01.39 | Unknown | Yes. Thank you. APPOINTED. I think so. |
| 03:26:04.88 | Mayor Burns | We are the two liaisons to the school district. Yeah. |
| 03:26:08.04 | Unknown | Thank you. |
| 03:26:08.34 | Mayor Burns | There are somewhat limitations in that. It's to the district. |
| 03:26:16.63 | Mayor Burns | I'm not sure if we go that route, I think we should go that route. It might be from a blue ribbon to a task force or something that looks at this, but maybe it does encompass the financial side of it in identifying the financial situation. We've talked about that. but that's only as good as information that we're given and they're not gonna They're not giving it. |
| 03:26:39.71 | Unknown | I think the information is there. They have a budget. |
| 03:26:48.25 | Councilmember Hoffman | So, what is the question? Thank you. |
| 03:26:50.85 | Bill Frost | There's... |
| 03:26:51.97 | Mark Rushford | Thank you. |
| 03:26:52.25 | Councilmember Hoffman | So that's what I would suggest that you appoint two people from the city council to work on it. |
| 03:26:56.66 | Karen Strollia | it. |
| 03:26:56.96 | Councilmember Hoffman | And then come back with a path forward. And for discussion, right? Not for discussion amongst us and with public comment. This is what we're thinking. What do we all think? |
| 03:27:08.01 | Ray | Yeah. |
| 03:27:08.33 | Councilmember Hoffman | or, |
| 03:27:09.43 | Ray | I think we need to perhaps have a little clarity among ourselves as to what it is. You know, what are you coming back to? What is it? What are we trying to get to? So if you form a group to look at this and come back with recommendations I mean, to me, you're creating, you have a group that There is fumbling around in the dark. Perhaps we are. I think you framed it. |
| 03:27:39.64 | Joan Cox | I think you framed it, Ray. I think you framed it, that we have a duty to articulate why we are worried. and then to identify what to do about the fact that we're worried. We're, you know, I have people coming to me all the time saying, I'm not going to move to Sausalito because your schools are in jeopardy. you know, people, I remember when, 30 years ago, sending kids to school when it was one school. Bayside MLK in the middle of town on Nevada Street. And it was problematic then. It has been a problem for over 30 years. Whether it was one school or two schools, it's been a problem. So I think we have a duty to articulate why we're worried. and then to identify a plan, whether the plan includes reaching out to politicians who are our our representatives. reaching out to the Attorney General, which we've already done, writing a letter to the district, expressing our concern and requesting some some action. perhaps data, perhaps action, I think that's what the task force would be charged with. |
| 03:28:58.02 | Karen Strollia | Thank you. |
| 03:28:58.10 | Unknown | Or it could be that the people that get together decide there isn't anything else. There might be nothing to do. Is appropriate to do. But I think- I think that also has to be on the table. But, Ray, yeah, I feel like we have just articulated. |
| 03:28:58.22 | Joan Cox | Yeah. |
| 03:29:02.88 | Karen Strollia | you you know. |
| 03:29:03.00 | Joan Cox | Nothing to do. |
| 03:29:03.76 | Kelvin Chan | Thank you. |
| 03:29:04.77 | Karen Strollia | Thank you. |
| 03:29:04.82 | Joan Cox | . |
| 03:29:04.97 | Karen Strollia | Thank you. |
| 03:29:05.43 | Kelvin Chan | and go. |
| 03:29:11.71 | Unknown | a task and So I would be comfortable having I don't think this is an extended thing. I mean, uh, Board President, Um, green at the last meeting indicated that there might be an attorney general there might be a decision by April 4th. So we're not I mean, and we'll know a lot more soon. |
| 03:29:40.12 | Joan Cox | That decision doesn't necessarily resolve the issues though. |
| 03:29:42.44 | Unknown | No, it doesn't. The issues, though. No, it doesn't. but I'm not thinking of this as some extended |
| 03:29:50.55 | Mayor Burns | I, yeah, I'm still confused. Even I'm falling into, we want to protect the school for our community because we're a city council looking at what's best for our community. The school that we're talking about, is not made up of only our kids in our school. That's right. And it's made up of kids that also needed special attention. that bar increase they there need to be an achievement gap there and while one person was saying my goal is to closed achievement gap and the next presentation said here's how we're doing and they are closing the gap not it's not as great but it is you know That's the last place to be taking the money from. So it's not even an attack on Sausalito. It's more attack on the formula that's getting the job done doesn't seem to fit certain people who are making these decisions. So I think what we're talking about is how do we break through the tradition to get to a point where let's look at what's educating the children Thank you. the best. And I know that's what The Willow Creek group is saying that's what the board, the district elections were about. It's not about money. because the one with the less amount of money has a plan. for the kids who don't live in our community. in our city limits. So if we want to just look at funding, that's one thing. I think just that we need to get attention that somebody has to look at the educational process. It's not just about which dollars are going where. Which educational process is doing the goal that they wanted to get done? |
| 03:31:35.94 | Joan Cox | So, What do you want to do, Mr. Mayor? |
| 03:31:40.31 | Mayor Burns | If you believe, it sounds like you believe a task force might get to the root of identifying whether there is something to say or nothing to say at all. |
| 03:31:49.22 | Joan Cox | I think whatever we do, we have to do it in a transparent manner. We cannot be guilty of what we're accusing others of. And so, if we have a task force, the task force has to come back, report to the council. The council has to have a transparent dialogue about. |
| 03:32:02.11 | Mayor Burns | Let's give the task force some direction. They're looking at what is- Articulating why we're worried. Why the city council is worried about- |
| 03:32:11.38 | Joan Cox | the quality of education in the Sausalito Marin City School. |
| 03:32:13.38 | Mayor Burns | to Marin City School District. Straight to our paradigm of it's our town. It's our squad. |
| 03:32:18.75 | Joan Cox | and then possible solutions to address the concern, whether it be political. you know, involving our our higher elected representatives, whether it be writing to the school district to express our concerns, ask for information to be able to address some of the concerns. Whatever those ideas may be, I don't know. Not having spent the time, I don't know what all the ideas |
| 03:32:43.96 | Mayor Burns | Who are the three of us that are having, or five of us that are having this conversation now want to break off into two and have the conversation further and come up with a solution All right. you Yeah. |
| 03:32:55.40 | Unknown | I mean, I... |
| 03:32:56.11 | Joan Cox | Yeah. Thank you. |
| 03:32:57.48 | Unknown | I'd be happy with anyone here. I personally am not. |
| 03:32:57.61 | Mayor Burns | Oh, |
| 03:32:57.90 | Joan Cox | I'll be here. |
| 03:32:58.30 | Karen Strollia | . |
| 03:33:02.78 | Unknown | I don't need to be involved. You know, you and Jill have been the liaisons. Joan has been very involved. I'm happy with any combination of you. |
| 03:33:11.62 | Mayor Burns | I'll select Jill and Joan to head up a task force to come to a path for us to take as far as articulating our what we want to say as a council and who we're going to say it to. |
| 03:33:25.00 | Unknown | Can I just ask a point of clarification? So I would prefer I think it would be more nimble and probably if it's just the two council people. So are you talking about a task force that has a bigger group? No, we're talking about just the two council people. |
| 03:33:38.74 | Joan Cox | No, we're talking about just the two concepts. |
| 03:33:44.03 | Unknown | I mean, in a very short term, right? Do you want to be open public comment? |
| 03:33:49.42 | Mayor Burns | We never really opened closed. Peter. |
| 03:33:53.03 | Unknown | We're going to have everybody come back up. So then we're going to have to let everyone talk. Hey, we talked about bargaining for 25 minutes. |
| 03:34:02.73 | Peter | 25 minutes. Will your task force have public meetings? No. No. Okay, well. But they'll get back to us in public meetings. So much for that I did. Anyway, I think I'll |
| 03:34:06.58 | Unknown | No. |
| 03:34:09.91 | Mayor Burns | What is good? Thank you. I don't know. |
| 03:34:11.81 | Joan Cox | The task force reads every email received. |
| 03:34:14.17 | Peter | All right. And takes phone calls. Observer of the school district, if you're talking about ideas about the curriculum, like the mayor was referring about the teaching program, the curriculum, these things, |
| 03:34:16.62 | Joan Cox | And takes phone calls. |
| 03:34:29.83 | Peter | Frankly, you're going to waste in your time, in my opinion, because those things are set by other policies and other authorities that you're not going to have any influence on. If you get to the way they make decisions on budgeting and funding, |
| 03:34:32.69 | Kelvin Chan | Yeah. |
| 03:34:41.33 | Peter | you know, then you can have some influence on that, like Councilmember Cleveland Knowles mentioned where somebody's running the numbers. They go and they get the information. And Vicki will be the source of that information. Thank you. |
| 03:34:54.93 | Mayor Burns | The point is that they can't change their programming. |
| 03:34:57.63 | Peter | Yeah, and so that might be your more productive approach, in my opinion. Thank you. That is the point. |
| 03:34:57.66 | Mayor Burns | Yeah. |
| 03:35:05.98 | Mayor Burns | All right, we're good. |
| 03:35:11.23 | Mayor Burns | Appointments to boards, commissions, and committees. We have to make two appointments tonight, but first, I'm going to go with the committee's part. I want to ask your basically nod that I initiate a letter to the chairs of committees that aren't, well, basically the Library of Sustainability, Parks, and Rec, Pedestrian, Disaster, Business, and Hospitality. and it's to start the program of committee communication both to us as well as how we use them as a tool to the community and how they speak to each other. So there's kind of three areas, four areas, but... It's encouraged them, and what some of them are doing on their own, some of these committees based on your directions as liaisons, to create an annual paper, basically, that states what their objectives and goals are. And that type of paper would be best done in April, May time frame so that we can include it in our budget profiling and strategic planning in June. So it's giving them kind of that autonomy and authority to say, here's what we want to do. It's opening up a communication channel to us that's a little more formal than they've had. Often I hear that they don't know how to really approach us or how to get ideas to us. I want them to, as a chair, have kind of a standing opportunity at this point of the meeting to say, here's what we're working on, and that'll be developed in this as well. And that communication that they develop through basically a white paper or an objective paper also goes to each of the committees. So sometimes we have a lot of overlap, where parks is maybe doing something that sustainability is doing. I think back to the cigarette button places. Business, doing parks. that each committee sees what the other committee's goals and objectives are for the following year. It's almost kind of what we used to do where they have a little more engagement and involvement, both in figuring out their path but also a direct relationship with us to say, here's what we're thinking. And then we can say, yeah, that's a good path. Take it. Or, you know, here's this other committee's doing that. So it's just kind of the start of getting them a little more organized and cohesive in what they're doing. Is there OK if I take that initiative |
| 03:37:41.11 | Unknown | I just, did you say a written report? |
| 03:37:42.16 | Mayor Burns | Yeah, please. Yeah, I think an annual written report from the chair based on what the committee is, because that has to go to the other committees as well. |
| 03:37:50.00 | Joan Cox | you |
| 03:37:50.73 | Unknown | Thank you. |
| 03:37:50.76 | Joan Cox | Okay. We used to have them report to the City Council. |
| 03:37:51.42 | Mayor Burns | We used to have that. |
| 03:37:53.82 | Joan Cox | Thank you. |
| 03:37:53.84 | Mayor Burns | Right. |
| 03:37:54.02 | Joan Cox | at least once a year. Every committee would come. provide a report to the city council. |
| 03:37:59.00 | Mayor Burns | Right. And Abbott does a quarterly- |
| 03:38:01.50 | Joan Cox | Written and a presentation. |
| 03:38:05.58 | Mayor Burns | And they're all videoed. I mean, we have all that type of, you know, open transparency anyway. But I think for them to go through the process of identifying, and let's look at bike and pedestrian. Bike and pedestrian is going through a tremendous amount of ideas right now. They need to prioritize those. They need to come to us and say, here's what we think should be done in 2020. Here's what you might look at 2022. Here's what goes to the GPAC. Um, But I also want it to be documented so that it can go to the other committees as well. I'm going to encourage that they get together more often. We had a great meeting with the sustainability and the bike and ped, and it was great for them to see how each other worked. Any comments on that, Ray? |
| 03:38:48.88 | Ray | Yeah, I think this is a very good idea. First of all, if each group can undergo, and some do more than others, the intellectual exercise of asking the question, why are we in existence? What are we supposed to be doing? What's our role, et cetera? Every group should be doing that on a somewhat periodic basis. But the other thing is, and Adam may smile because he's heard this before. We need to do more at the committee level, but I think also, at the staff level to help connect the dots. We assume that people can connect the dots, you know, about the various initiatives. And, you know, We have volunteers who are serving on committees that are, you know, committees that are working in a sense for the whole community and for us to be able to come back. But they among themselves are not connecting the dots. And that's the most important thing. And so I've seen this with, so like, Let's take BAC. It's trying to put together three fairly small, but concise reports on some different areas. They still don't know how they're supposed to be presenting this. They're assuming that do they just make a nuisance of themselves and go bang it on the door and get this done? Or is for instance, say with GPAC or more generally with stuff that needs to come here, Nobody's guiding them. as to how to connect the dots. And that's what we need to start thinking about, how to help connect the dots among all the various initiatives that are going on. |
| 03:41:00.59 | Mayor Burns | Yeah, agreed. And what I've seen in at least two of the committees is it's leading to attrition because they don't feel they have necessarily value. They don't know how to get to that value. |
| 03:41:10.38 | Karen Strollia | Thank you. I'm gonna write him on the edge. |
| 03:41:11.41 | Mayor Burns | And I think that they should be out |
| 03:41:11.75 | Karen Strollia | And I, |
| 03:41:15.41 | Mayor Burns | looking for ideas based on the |
| 03:41:16.17 | Ray | Thank you. |
| 03:41:16.20 | Len Rifkind | Thank you. |
| 03:41:16.30 | Ray | Thank you. |
| 03:41:16.40 | Len Rifkind | I'm sorry. |
| 03:41:16.49 | Ray | I don't know. |
| 03:41:16.57 | Len Rifkind | is based on their commissions. |
| 03:41:18.19 | Mayor Burns | Thank you. |
| 03:41:18.21 | Ray | their |
| 03:41:19.05 | Mayor Burns | you |
| 03:41:19.32 | Ray | Well, the way you achieve it is to do what you say and provide a framework. And then let the framework be draft and they start talking about it and it all comes together. It all comes together, you know. |
| 03:41:30.04 | Unknown | I also think, I mean, that's how I've kind of perceived my role as a liaison to the, to the Sustainability Commission, along with Andy Davidson, who's the staff, is to provide that guidance. So for example, if you have a piece of legislation, you need to adopt a resolution by a majority and then forward that to the legislative committee through Mary, you know, that kind of thing. And so I think You know, staff is very, has a lot of demands on their times, I think. we can help to some extent with that. And I do think that having the heads of the boards and commissions come in front of us at least once a year would be great. |
| 03:42:15.36 | Mayor Burns | And everybody does something different, you know, and again, I reach to say Abbott gives us a quarterly report You know exactly what the trustees are doing what his his department is doing. That's a department-based committee that's a little different than something like a pedestrian bike that isn't a department based and parks is. So they all operate different. I kind of want to get them a little more streamlined, consistent, using a lot of what we've seen successful in sustainability and library, frankly. |
| 03:42:44.09 | Mayor Burns | That's good. I have your blessing to send a letter and start a profile for that. |
| 03:42:51.59 | Mayor Burns | Okay, we have a couple appointments to make. Is there appetite to increase the size of the general plan advisory committee? |
| 03:42:58.41 | Unknown | So before we have this discussion, can I just note something that's kind of bothering me? We had two people who interviewed for the general plan committee who were architects and good. They both indicated in their interviews that they would be interested in the planning commission as well or in addition, one of them actually had a preference. but they are not currently on our planning commission list. And I emailed Serge, and he's not in our interviews, and he had no, he says he doesn't have any record of them filing a separate application. So I don't know if they did or they didn't, but in any case, it's just kind of, um, making my decision making a little hard. |
| 03:43:47.03 | Councilmember Hoffman | THE END OF THE END OF THE |
| 03:43:47.33 | Unknown | you you |
| 03:43:47.69 | Councilmember Hoffman | I'm Well, we don't we don't have to point to the planning commission tonight. The application for still have. |
| 03:43:52.46 | Joan Cox | We only have three applications on our staff report for the Planning Commission tonight. I'm comfortable postponing that to seek more applications and encouraging GPAC applicants who expressed interest in the Planning Commission to submit an application to the Planning Commission. |
| 03:44:11.77 | Unknown | Yeah. That might affect nominations. |
| 03:44:16.07 | Joan Cox | It won't affect my nomination, but perhaps it would affect yours. Okay. |
| 03:44:19.04 | Unknown | Okay. All right. Well, that's fine. So we should get back to both of them then. |
| 03:44:23.08 | Ray | Could I ask staff a question? Seems to me that Do we, when someone volunteers and puts their name in to you guys, From what I can see from some of the applications, they may very well indicate that they're interested in several things, all in one application. If they do that, do you then go back and ask them to apply for each, all the different ones? Or do we just rely on that one piece of paper as a thing? Because I think that's where the issue is. |
| 03:45:01.01 | Karen Strollia | Mm-hmm. |
| 03:45:03.32 | City Clerk | I'm happy to answer that, council member Withy. The way we started working on the GPAC, this particular run, we ask everyone to fill out one application for the GPAC only. I did go back to our Granica's Boards and Commissions pool, and realized that there were folks or applicants that were interested in both. More than two. The way I understood the direction was to only interview for GPAC for those that were interested in GPAC only. So in other words, you could have an application for the Planning Commission and General Advisory Committee, but our priority was to fill out the seat. for the GPAC. Later down the road, we decided to open up to planning commission and I went ahead and I just invite others to apply for the planning commission. So in other words, there are some that are interested in the GPAC. Some that are interested on the Planning Commission, some that are interested in both. But I made sure that whenever I made the appointments, they knew that they were being interviewed for one or the other, not for both. |
| 03:46:38.12 | Mayor Burns | The general plan application does not ask if you are interested or submitted for other applications, right? |
| 03:46:45.18 | City Clerk | Correct. |
| 03:46:45.58 | Tom Perazzo | Thank you. |
| 03:46:46.09 | Mayor Burns | So it's only when we get the Planning Commission one does it say that you have others because we've used this other vehicle for the general plan. process. |
| 03:46:54.27 | City Clerk | That is correct. |
| 03:46:57.21 | Unknown | Okay, I think going forward, we should always know during an interview if they're interested in multiple commissions, because I ask different questions for a potential planning commissioner than I ask. for a GPAC. And we did find out from a couple of them. So just, I mean, I understand why you did what you did. It's not a criticism. I just think going forward, I'd prefer to know. |
| 03:47:18.74 | Mayor Burns | And we have in the past when we had the same application. It's just simple. It's just application that... |
| 03:47:20.78 | Unknown | Yeah, right. Right. |
| 03:47:23.84 | Mayor Burns | So if we do a GPAC submission again, Let's use R. application process. that has that in there and not run it however we're running these. Is that a possibility? |
| 03:47:37.37 | City Clerk | I'll pass it on to Lily and the M group. |
| 03:47:41.64 | Kevin McGowan | Yeah, and just to answer that question, it is a possibility. We would just have an amendment or an attachment, supplemental application. So if there are specific questions that the GPEC application was seeking, we would just have that as a supplemental question. So they can still fill out the cover sheet that gives them the opportunity to |
| 03:47:42.52 | Mayor Burns | answer that question. |
| 03:48:03.56 | Kevin McGowan | respond to any of the other boards that they might be interested in serving. So yes, we can do that. Okay. Okay. |
| 03:48:10.74 | Unknown | And then going back to your initial question. about the number of people on the GPAC. I mean, I think this is a really good opportunity to increase the number of folks on the GPAC. And if you don't need more people, I mean, I heard you at the last meeting, Joan, But maybe we could take this opportunity to appoint alternates. I mean, I think everyone has made a really good point that we're at a very critical point in time. And we did lose one, just unexpectedly, one member. I don't expect that we might lose another, but if we did, it would be nice to have- |
| 03:48:54.90 | Joan Cox | And I'll turn it up and running. |
| 03:48:56.65 | Unknown | I would suggest two alternates. |
| 03:48:58.80 | Joan Cox | So I'll just, as a point of order, we don't have on our agenda this evening a discussion of increasing the number of GPAC members. We only have on our agenda this evening the appointment of a single |
| 03:49:06.24 | Unknown | on our agenda. |
| 03:49:09.33 | Joan Cox | GPAC member. |
| 03:49:10.32 | Unknown | So I was under the understanding that we could do that tonight. We asked for that. to be on our agenda so I thought that was within the purview of our Process. |
| 03:49:21.80 | Joan Cox | Thank you. I believe there are members of the community who would like to weigh in on that discussion if we have it. And it was not noticed on our agenda for this evening. |
| 03:49:29.54 | Mayor Burns | Either way, if we come up with that idea now, we will still have to ratify it in a next meeting because we're also going to change the verbiage regarding the mayor sitting as opposed to two council members. So we still have to make that change. |
| 03:49:42.59 | Unknown | I thought we were making that tonight. |
| 03:49:43.80 | Mayor Burns | the resolution it's not on our agenda we don't have that resolution |
| 03:49:44.51 | Joan Cox | It's not on our agenda. |
| 03:49:46.89 | Mayor Burns | So that would be in the next one. as well. |
| 03:49:49.03 | Ray | So my suggestion is exactly the way this conversation is going. I mean, I personally am only prepared to make one appointment tonight and I think that's the only thing our agenda allows us to do. I didn't enter tonight thinking I was going to make three appointments. So that's the first thing. Second thing is I do think, however, at the next meeting, we need to come back and of having as an agenda item, are we going to increase add to members and Then maybe later on, once that's done, make two more appointments or whatever. |
| 03:50:32.96 | Joan Cox | And we have to change the composition, so as Susan, to comport with. That's right. That it's two council members as opposed to. |
| 03:50:40.03 | Ray | Right. We've got a good talent pool there. |
| 03:50:44.13 | Joan Cox | Mm-hmm. |
| 03:50:44.53 | Ray | and it would be good to pull three from it rather than just one. |
| 03:50:48.57 | Joan Cox | I love the idea of alternates. |
| 03:50:50.37 | Ray | Yeah. |
| 03:50:51.23 | Joan Cox | I think that's really strong. So I would appreciate the opportunity to discuss that. |
| 03:50:53.80 | Ray | I appreciate the opportunity to discuss that. Get that on the next agenda, for sure. Well, I'd like a discussion of that because it's the difference of, what's the difference? What's the difference? |
| 03:51:02.83 | Joan Cox | What's the difference of the alternate versus? |
| 03:51:04.58 | Ray | The difference is that |
| 03:51:05.31 | Joan Cox | The difference is if someone resigns, we have somebody ready to step into their shoes. |
| 03:51:08.53 | Ray | step into their shoes. Yes. I understand. |
| 03:51:11.53 | Joan Cox | But we already debated, well, we can't debate it tonight, but we already debated the composition and the numerosity. |
| 03:51:17.84 | Mayor Burns | So let's not let this next agenda item just be about alternates. Let it be adding three because it might not be alternates. |
| 03:51:17.90 | Joan Cox | So let's not... |
| 03:51:22.94 | Joan Cox | Yep. |
| 03:51:23.62 | Joan Cox | Yeah. |
| 03:51:23.97 | Ray | I agree. |
| 03:51:24.21 | Joan Cox | Thank you. |
| 03:51:24.33 | Ray | might not be all of it. |
| 03:51:25.12 | Joan Cox | Thank you. Thank you. |
| 03:51:25.30 | Ray | That's good. |
| 03:51:25.93 | Joan Cox | Thank you. |
| 03:51:26.35 | Ray | Great. |
| 03:51:27.80 | Mayor Burns | Are we still want to do one tonight? |
| 03:51:29.22 | Ray | Yeah. |
| 03:51:29.94 | Mayor Burns | Now we have 12. And, that we all have the same person in mind is probably not necessarily the case. There's 18 applicants. |
| 03:51:37.49 | Joan Cox | There's 18. |
| 03:51:40.58 | Mayor Burns | Yeah. You're going to make me do this other list, too. |
| 03:51:43.55 | Michael Rex | Thank you. |
| 03:51:43.56 | Mayor Burns | you |
| 03:51:43.61 | Michael Rex | Thank you. |
| 03:51:43.75 | Mayor Burns | Yeah, there we go. |
| 03:51:43.95 | Michael Rex | Thank you. |
| 03:51:44.25 | Unknown | Thank you. |
| 03:51:46.72 | Mayor Burns | Um, |
| 03:51:48.32 | Ray | Thank you. |
| 03:51:48.35 | Mayor Burns | Thank you. you that would be great as opposed to just doing a nomination it's in there |
| 03:51:53.60 | Ray | Thank you. |
| 03:51:53.67 | Vicki Nichols | It's very good. |
| 03:51:55.09 | Joan Cox | It's in there. |
| 03:51:55.66 | Karen Strollia | Thank you. |
| 03:51:56.56 | Mayor Burns | Thank you. |
| 03:51:58.08 | Joan Cox | It's in the staff report, but okay. |
| 03:51:59.41 | Mayor Burns | I had this second. |
| 03:52:01.75 | Joan Cox | The mayor shall announce his nomination for the position. |
| 03:52:04.05 | Mayor Burns | I know. But how we've done this... I WANTED TO TAKE A LOOK AT THE COMMITTEE. I WANTED TO TAKE A LOOK AT THE |
| 03:52:12.71 | Karen Strollia | and, you know, |
| 03:52:12.76 | Joan Cox | We did. |
| 03:52:12.98 | Karen Strollia | because... |
| 03:52:13.19 | Kelvin Chan | as well. |
| 03:52:17.14 | Mayor Burns | Do we want to do that process or do we want me to nominate one person? You should nominate. |
| 03:52:20.99 | Mary Wagner | You should nominate. So just to be clear, Mr. Mayor, your nomination process is laid out in your municipal code. So the mayor makes a nomination, calls for other nominations, and then you vote. And the person getting the most votes is appointed to the commission. I nominate Susan. |
| 03:52:38.37 | Mayor Burns | Nominate Susan Currier. |
| 03:52:43.03 | Mayor Burns | Is there other nominations? |
| 03:52:44.97 | Unknown | Yeah, I'd like to nominate Melissa Blaustein. |
| 03:52:53.29 | Mayor Burns | Is there other nominations? |
| 03:52:54.86 | Joan Cox | I will nominate Reason Bradley. |
| 03:53:00.24 | Mayor Burns | Are there other nominations? |
| 03:53:09.61 | Mayor Burns | Would anybody from the public like to comment closing nominations? |
| 03:53:12.33 | Kelvin Chan | closing no |
| 03:53:14.38 | Mayor Burns | Any others? Seeing none, I'm closing nominations. Would anybody from the public like to comment |
| 03:53:16.43 | Kelvin Chan | I'm going to go. |
| 03:53:24.75 | Mayor Burns | Well, I was told to go by the process for appointment. No, I'm doing it. It says to go by public comment. |
| 03:53:32.59 | Mary Wagner | Mr. Mayor, I apologize that this is somewhat confusing. Only for me. You did take public comment on all these items together as a block. You chose to open it on the school district item because you had special requests from the public. Certainly at the council's discretion, if you want to take additional public comment, you may. But you did comply with the requirements of the Brown Act and took public comment on that item. |
| 03:53:33.37 | Mayor Burns | Yes, please. Only for me. |
| 03:53:57.45 | Mayor Burns | closing public comment. |
| 03:54:03.64 | Unknown | So before we vote, I just, I did think we just had a great applicant pool. I thought we interviewed numbers of people who all were great and that's all. |
| 03:54:17.60 | Mayor Burns | Okay, each council member may vote for one nominee per position. We have one position. To be appointed, a nominee must receive at least three votes. We have three nominations. Do we want me to ask the votes? Serge, please roll call for votes |
| 03:54:36.36 | Unknown | So we just state a name. |
| 03:54:37.68 | Mayor Burns | Yes. |
| 03:54:38.88 | City Clerk | Councilmember Cox. |
| 03:54:40.80 | Councilmember Hoffman | Thank you. |
| 03:54:40.82 | Unknown | AND I THINK IT'S A LOT OF |
| 03:54:43.16 | City Clerk | Councilmember Huffman. |
| 03:54:44.97 | Councilmember Hoffman | Melissa Blaustein. |
| 03:54:47.75 | City Clerk | Councilmember Withey? Thank you. |
| 03:54:49.14 | Ray | Melissa Blasting. |
| 03:54:51.91 | City Clerk | Vice Mayor Cleveland Knowles. |
| 03:54:53.80 | Unknown | Melissa Blastin. |
| 03:54:55.42 | City Clerk | Mayor Burns. Melissa Blaustein. |
| 03:54:57.17 | Mayor Burns | Thank you. |
| 03:55:02.57 | Mary Wagner | So Mr. Mayor, Melissa Blasden is appointed to your committee with a vote. I voted four to one. |
| 03:55:03.19 | Karen Strollia | Yeah. by a vote of four to one. |
| 03:55:07.23 | Mary Wagner | Correct. Well, she received the majority vote for the nomination, correct. |
| 03:55:15.65 | Mayor Burns | She had received the three that she needed. |
| 03:55:17.56 | Unknown | It's weird process. It's weird. It's a very weird process. |
| 03:55:21.89 | Mayor Burns | Don't try to change it up on the dais. You will get a lot of earful. So now Planning Commission, would we like to make a nomination? Are we good with saying we want to keep it open? |
| 03:55:32.30 | Joan Cox | I think we should keep it open and invite the people who expressed interest during our GPAC interviews on serving on the planning commission to I agree with the the vice mayor that we interviewed some very qualified applicants who expressed interest in the planning commission. I think we should expand our pool to the extent we're able and then appoint at our next meeting. |
| 03:55:54.82 | Mayor Burns | Serge, have we closed that? We did, right? The Planning Commission? Applications, no. Thank you. |
| 03:56:00.26 | City Clerk | Thank you. |
| 03:56:00.35 | Mayor Burns | Okay. |
| 03:56:00.49 | City Clerk | No, Planning Commission is still open. |
| 03:56:05.53 | Mayor Burns | Great. So we'll keep it open. |
| 03:56:07.81 | Councilmember Hoffman | And so... Thank you. Sorry, I interrupted you, go ahead. |
| 03:56:11.30 | Mayor Burns | Yeah. |
| 03:56:11.83 | Karen Strollia | Thank you. |
| 03:56:12.03 | Mayor Burns | Thank you. |
| 03:56:12.06 | Karen Strollia | it. |
| 03:56:12.15 | Mayor Burns | you |
| 03:56:12.23 | Karen Strollia | No. |
| 03:56:12.35 | Councilmember Hoffman | Thank you. So at our next meeting, we're going to talk about perhaps increasing the GPAC and appointing alternates for the GPAC. |
| 03:56:19.40 | Mayor Burns | or have non-alternates, just new members. |
| 03:56:22.90 | Councilmember Hoffman | Thank you. |
| 03:56:22.91 | Joan Cox | Yeah, okay. |
| 03:56:23.45 | Councilmember Hoffman | Thank you. Thank you. |
| 03:56:23.91 | Joan Cox | Great. |
| 03:56:24.21 | Councilmember Hoffman | Thank you. Thank you. |
| 03:56:24.58 | Mayor Burns | And clarifying. So I'm just going |
| 03:56:24.65 | Joan Cox | So I'm just going to make a point of order. I just received an email from Sandra Bushmaker who says she applied for the GPAC and was never interviewed. |
| 03:56:37.20 | Mayor Burns | Was it this round? |
| 03:56:38.69 | Joan Cox | I don't know. She says, Joan and Serge, I applied for GPAC, never interviewed. |
| 03:56:44.75 | City Clerk | I don't have any recollection of receiving any application from Sandra, but we'll check tomorrow. |
| 03:56:54.30 | Joan Cox | So I would recommend that if an application was received, And since we are going to undertake The consideration of appointing additional members or alternates that if an application was received, we interview Sandra at our next meeting prior to that discussion. |
| 03:57:11.56 | Unknown | Yeah, I would just add if an application was received prior, we closed the application at our last meeting. So if she applied within the time period, then I definitely agree we should interview her. |
| 03:57:16.54 | Joan Cox | at our last meeting. within the time period. Yeah. |
| 03:57:25.21 | Unknown | but not accept new |
| 03:57:26.93 | Joan Cox | Not accept new, just if there are any applications that were received and we did not interview. we should include them in our pool. Right. |
| 03:57:36.18 | Mayor Burns | And on this item with the tree pack nomination size at the next one will also have the. Thank you. proper wording to change my role. |
| 03:57:46.43 | Mary Wagner | So we need to bring that resolution back to you with requested modifications and a staff report that describes the items you discussed tonight. Changing the number of members and or having alternates and changing the wording and the resolution that says it's the mayor versus just a council member appointed by the mayor. |
| 03:58:05.60 | Mayor Burns | Okay, so those we'll discuss next meeting, and then you'll bring it back the following meeting. |
| 03:58:12.01 | Mary Wagner | I think we would bring that item to you for action on the 16th, and the council will have the opportunity to take any of those actions. So we'll bring the resolution to you with a staff report that describes the discussion you had tonight and gives you options to make those changes. |
| 03:58:28.55 | Mayor Burns | Including removing? Yes. Yes, thank you. That's what it is. |
| 03:58:29.83 | Mary Wagner | Yes. |
| 03:58:34.70 | Mayor Burns | Future agenda items. Anything additional that we learned tonight? |
| 03:58:39.31 | Joan Cox | There's an item on there that I asked to be put on there that I realized does not need to be on there and that had to do with the short term rentals that were offered for free. If they were offered for free, they don't violate our program. And so we can remove that. I think we- It's on the list that was published this evening. |
| 03:58:54.74 | Karen Strollia | It's on the list. |
| 03:58:55.76 | Unknown | Yeah. |
| 03:58:55.78 | Karen Strollia | Thank you. |
| 03:58:58.74 | Joan Cox | It's not a rental if it was offered for free. |
| 03:59:00.84 | Unknown | I think. Yeah. It sounded like a request for staff to confirm that, I think, when you made that. request. |
| 03:59:10.63 | Mayor Burns | that there was no that the language was consistent throughout the |
| 03:59:15.78 | Joan Cox | So it's still on there, it still says. Thank you. No code enforcement for short term rental helping victims of the mudslide. So I think that could come off. There's also a blue ribbon task force for GPAC, I wasn't sure what that meant. |
| 03:59:34.70 | Joan Cox | I was not aware of a blue ribbon task force for GPAC, so I wasn't sure what that meant. |
| 03:59:34.90 | Karen Strollia | I wasn't aware. |
| 03:59:42.80 | Joan Cox | And then the plastic use item, it says it's at sustainability commission. It actually went from sustainability to legislative committee. who considered it today, and it's now on its way to the council. at your At your pleasure. |
| 03:59:55.57 | Mayor Burns | OK. |
| 03:59:59.42 | Mayor Burns | Anything else? Seeing none. we want. |
| 04:00:04.46 | Joan Cox | We already made it. |
| 04:00:04.89 | Mayor Burns | We already made it. Just chat with us afterwards. |
| 04:00:08.65 | Joan Cox | We took comment on everything already. |
| 04:00:14.22 | Mayor Burns | I'm going to close tonight's meeting in the honor of Stephanie Wicks, who passed away last weekend. Stephanie was very instrumental in the startup of Galley Harbor, as well as a women's club member and participant in many events around the city. there are discussions underway to have a tribute or service for her in April and so that will both be announced here and uh through Galilee probably. We adjourned. |