| Time | Speaker | Text |
|---|---|---|
| 00:00:00.69 | City Clerk | Council member Riley. |
| 00:00:02.98 | Councilmember Riley | Thank you. |
| 00:00:03.00 | Councilmember Cox | Thank you. Yeah. |
| 00:00:03.78 | City Clerk | It never burns. |
| 00:00:05.84 | Councilmember Cox | Thank you. |
| 00:00:06.14 | City Clerk | Thank you. Council member Cox. |
| 00:00:08.64 | Mayor Cleveland Knowles | here. |
| 00:00:09.21 | City Clerk | Vice Mayor Withey. Mayor Cleveland Knowles. |
| 00:00:11.49 | Mayor Cleveland Knowles | And you're, here. |
| 00:00:18.59 | Mayor Cleveland Knowles | Do we have to do the Pledge of Allegiance? Thank you. |
| 00:00:20.86 | City Clerk | of. |
| 00:00:21.87 | Mayor Cleveland Knowles | Thank you. |
| 00:00:21.97 | City Clerk | Thank you. |
| 00:00:22.04 | Mayor Cleveland Knowles | Thank you. OK, I'm going to forbear on the Pledge of Allegiance tonight since I'm the only one here on the dais. So good evening, everybody. We are here tonight. for a special meeting to consider declaring an emergency in Sausalito. Do I have a motion to approve the agenda? |
| 00:00:46.69 | Councilmember Cox | is. |
| 00:00:49.90 | Mayor Cleveland Knowles | Okay, and because this is a meeting that includes telephonic appearances, we will take a roll call vote. |
| 00:00:56.73 | City Clerk | Council member Riley. THE CITY IS A CITY IS A CITY Councilmember Burns. |
| 00:01:02.40 | Councilmember Cox | Yeah. |
| 00:01:03.04 | City Clerk | Council member Cox. Yes. Vice Mayor Withey. |
| 00:01:07.87 | Councilmember Cox | Yeah. |
| 00:01:08.11 | Vice Mayor Withey | THE END OF THE END OF THE |
| 00:01:08.14 | Councilmember Cox | Thank you. |
| 00:01:08.19 | City Clerk | Thank you. Mayor Cleveland Knowles. |
| 00:01:10.60 | Mayor Cleveland Knowles | Here. I mean, yes, sorry. Okay, we're gonna move on to our business item, which is the consideration of a resolution declaring a local emergency in response to COVID-19. So again, as with last week, this room looks a lot different, and this is an emerging situation. I want to assure the public that tonight we have a full complement of the City Council with all five members here in town and four who are appropriately following the county's order to shelter in place and are participating by phone. I want to thank the council for modeling good social distancing behavior. Please know that your city's leadership, myself as mayor, my fellow city council members, Vice Mayor Ray Withy, Joan Cox, Joe Burns, and Tom Riley, together with our city manager, Adam Pulitzer, and all his staff are committed to ensuring the health and safety of city employees, residents, visitors, and those who work in Sausalito. This is our highest priority. We wanted to meet tonight in light of the extraordinary order by six Bay Area counties yesterday to shelter in place and begin the conversation on what this means for our town. We as a city are staying in constant touch with our health officials at the county and state levels to be sure our decisions are fully informed by the best available information. And I think on behalf of the whole council, we wanna give huge thanks to our extraordinary health officials and health workers at all levels here in Marin. They have been great partners so far. So just a few things. Please know that despite the order, Thank you. levels here in Marin. They have been great partners so far. So just a few things. Please know that despite the order, police and fire services continue uninterrupted. There may be some differences, rather than sending out an officer, the police department may be encouraging callers to report some types of incidents using an online form. But if you could see our room here, we have a full contingent of first responders, our emergency preparedness team, and everyone is continuing to work to ensure the safety of people in Sausalito. Secondly, as we'll hear a little bit more later tonight, we will have frequent updates on the status of city services to the community via our city website and the Sausalito Currents. For now, City Hall is closed to the public. we've canceled city-sponsored classes and programs and we've suspended the meetings of our boards and commissions The order also still permits essential businesses to stay open. So I'd like to reassure the public that they will still have access to grocery stores, drug stores, hardware stores, and restaurants for takeout purposes. Be assured that you can leave your home to perform these essential tasks. And if you are in a vulnerable population, there are services to get items such as food, pet food, and medication to your home. So just a few housekeeping items before I introduce Abbott Chambers. So for the folks on the phone, what I think we would do is we will go in order and just have comments and questions for every person on the phone since there's so many on the phone. Does that sound okay? after Abbott's presentation? Okay, great. So I'm gonna introduce Abbott Chambers, our Director of Communications, and who's been working very hard with our city manager and other city staff to keep up to date on all this information as it constantly changes and emerges. |
| 00:04:56.19 | Abbott Chambers | THEIR OWNERS. |
| 00:05:14.56 | Abbott Chambers | Thank you, Madam Mayor. Good evening to members of the council on the phone. I'm the Director of Communications, Abbott Chambers. I am here to ask your consideration of a resolution declaring a local emergency in response to COVID-19. As far as what I'll be covering in my presentation. |
| 00:05:33.23 | Mayor Cleveland Knowles | I'm sorry, one other housekeeping thing. You have to say next slide, because the folks on the telephone will be about 20 seconds behind the live stream, I think. |
| 00:05:43.71 | Abbott Chambers | Thank you. I will do my best. |
| 00:05:45.01 | Mayor Cleveland Knowles | Okay. |
| 00:05:45.60 | Abbott Chambers | We're on slide number two. As far as what I will be covering, I will provide a quick overview of the COVID-19 outbreak I'm going to talk briefly also about the Marin County response to the outbreak. I'll provide a current status of COVID-19 here in Marin County. |
| 00:06:11.23 | Abbott Chambers | I will provide some information about the public health order to shelter at home that's currently in effect. And then I'm going to talk about the city of Sausalito response to COVID-19. I will address the question of why the council would want to declare a local emergency. And then I will conclude with the recommended action that the council proclaim the existence of a local emergency in response to COVID-19. Next slide. |
| 00:06:44.07 | Abbott Chambers | Next slide. Okay, so now I'm going to provide this quick overview of the COVID-19 outbreak. On December 31st, 2019, the World Health Organization was informed that a pneumonia of unknown cause had been detected in Wuhan, China. The disease was determined to be caused by a new coronavirus and was subsequently named Coronavirus Disease 2019 or COVID-19. Symptoms of COVID-19 include fever, cough, and shortness of breath, and appear within two to 14 days after exposure, according to the CDC. The virus spreads easily from person to person, and social distancing is considered the most effective way to reduce transmission. As of March 16th, there have been 167,511 confirmed cases of COVID-19 and 6,606 deaths worldwide. That's according to the World Health Organization. And in California, we have 472 confirmed cases and 11 deaths. And those are numbers today from the California Department of Public Health. Next slide. Next slide. At the county level, our response is being led by the Marin County Department of Health and Human Services. They are working in close coordination with the California Department of Public Health and the CDC. I just wanted to provide a quick overview of the timeline here in Marin and just emphasize to how fast things have been moving. On February 26th, a patient with COVID-19 was transferred to Marin from outside the county. Then on March 3rd, Marin Health and Human Services declared a local emergency. On March 6th, we had the first of our social distancing recommendations for those who are 65 years of age and older or with health conditions. On March 9th, another development. A Marin resident who was a passenger on the Grand Princess cruise ship was diagnosed with COVID-19. That was followed by more recommendations for social distancing on March 9th and 10th. Slide number 5. Also on March 12th, with a recommendation that outdoor gatherings of people of more than 250, crowds of more than 250 be postponed or canceled. Things really got serious on March 13th with the direction from County Public Health that all public school campuses suspend classroom instruction for at least two weeks, beginning on Monday, March 16th. Then on March 14th, the Saturday, the first community cases of case of community spread of COVID-19 were reported in Marin. And that means that these cases had no known exposures to other cases. On March 15th, there was another public health recommendation that county hospitals exclude visitors and non-essential personnel. And then on March 16th, yesterday, We had the a public health order that we're currently under directing residents to shelter in place for three weeks beginning March 17th. The shelter at home order, just to go through some of the details of it, The order employs a more extreme form of social distancing than has been recommended so far. Individuals are directed to stay at home and less engaged in essential activities, like getting food and medical supplies. Essential businesses may stay open and their employees may leave home to go to work. And these essential businesses include health care providers, groceries, hardware stores, plumbers and electricians, and restaurants, but only for providing delivery or takeout. A much more complete list of these essential activities and essential businesses are provided at an FAQ on the Marin Health and Human Services Coronavirus webpage. And they have also answers to lots of other questions that members of the community may have. Russ? Ah, thanks. The shelter at home order also directs that essential government functions are to continue, including first responders, emergency management personnel, emergency dispatchers, and law enforcement, as mentioned earlier by the mayor. The definition of other essential government services to provide during the order is at the discretion of local jurisdictions like the city of Sausalito. And just to mention last, the order is subject to change if conditions warrant, like the possibility that it will be extended beyond April 7th. Next slide. |
| 00:11:33.39 | Abbott Chambers | Russ, I need help. There we go. Looking at the current status in Marin, As of March 16th, there are a total of 11 COVID-19 cases Currently, no reported deaths from COVID-19 in Marin. But we expect, health officials expect that as testing increases, the number of lab confirmed COVID-19 cases will increase markedly. |
| 00:12:06.99 | Abbott Chambers | Just to give you an idea of the impact of COVID-19 on daily life here in Marin and the Bay Area, we've got some statistics today from the Golden Gate Bridge Highway and Transportation District. They are reporting... Bus ridership down by half. Ferry ridership down by two-thirds, and traffic on the bridge down by 20%. And they have already implemented some schedule changes, reduced schedule changes for buses and ferries. Next slide. So let me give you a rundown on the city of Sausalito's response to the COVID-19 crisis. And we're working in coordination with Marin Health and Human Services, the California Department of Public Health. And we're also working closely with other Marin municipalities, particularly at the city manager level, but also at the department level. As far as our response, on February 28th, we started reinforcing basic messages to employees and to the community about hand washing, respiratory etiquette, and staying at home when sick. On March 3rd, we began an increase in cleaning frequency at city facilities. We also launched our coronavirus page at Sausalito.gov slash coronavirus. |
| 00:13:30.25 | Abbott Chambers | On March 6th, we made the decision to cancel the volunteer recommendation event on March 7th, which would have been a gathering that would have been predominantly made up of seniors. On March 13th, we made the decisions to cancel all non-essential city meetings, to cancel all library events and increase social distancing in the library by removing chairs and computers, and to cancel parks and recreation after school programs. And that was the same day that the school closures were announced. Next slide. So continuing with Sausalito's response, On March 15th, we made the decision to close City Hall and the Sausalito Library effective March 16th. |
| 00:14:20.23 | Abbott Chambers | Then we had the public health order on March 16th to go into effect, March 17th, and our response included implementing social distancing measures at City Hall, like you're seeing in the council chambers tonight, where we are attempting to maintain a six-foot distance. I'm not sure the mayor and I are six feet apart. We've also canceled all parks and recreation programs and events. We are in the process of determining essential government functions to provide beyond police, fire, maintenance, and utilities, and how best we can continue to provide them safely, most likely online and by telephone. We're working to determine how city employees can best be deployed to serve the public during this crisis. And overall, we're endeavoring to do our part to flatten the curve in the sense of slowing down the increase in the number of COVID-19 cases so that we can reduce the impact on the health care system. Last but not least, we want to be sure to continue and also to ramp up our efforts to provide responsive and effective communications to the community about what we're doing at all levels and how the community can get answers to the questions that they have. Next slide. We're currently under county, state, and federal declarations. At the county level, the local health emergency declared by RINHHS on March 3rd and ratified by the Board of Supervisors on March 10th. At the state level, the governor declared a state of emergency on March 4th. |
| 00:16:15.85 | Abbott Chambers | And at the federal level, the president declared a national emergency on March 13th. Next slide. So why does this, where would the city of Sausalito want to declare a local emergency? Well, first off, it allows the city manager to take any actions necessary to address or mitigate the impacts of COVID-19 on city operations and services. It allows the city council to approve emergency regulations to prevent the spread of the illness should that become necessary. And it puts the city in a position to seek reimbursement from federal and state government for costs associated with local impacts related to the emergency. Next slide. So the action that staff is recommending tonight is that the city council adopt resolution number 5905 for the City Council to proclaim the existence of a local emergency in response to COVID-19. That concludes my presentation. I would be glad to take any questions. I'm sure other staff would be available as well. |
| 00:17:21.67 | Mayor Cleveland Knowles | Great, should we go to council member questions? Or does our city manager wanna add anything to the presentation? |
| 00:17:29.81 | Adam Politzer | I know, Mr. Mayor, I don't need to add anything to your presentation other than to thank Abbott and the staff for their good work putting the presentation together and and I |
| 00:17:40.19 | Councilmember Cox | I cannot hear the speaker. |
| 00:17:53.69 | Adam Politzer | Thank you, Council Member Cox. I was joking around earlier with the staff that my speaking quota is coming to an end, so I'll try to make sure that I talk loudly enough. But I wanted to just thank the staff, in particular our communications director of trying to capture all the information in real time and be able to pass that along to our community and keep our webpage up to date. And then clearly the teamwork from the other department heads, our city clerk and our city attorney I think their efforts have been terrific. What you have before you, and I'll turn it back over to the mayor, is the council members have sent in questions that we put into buckets of themes so that the mayor can kind of work through those questions, and clearly we can attempt to respond to some of them, and others will be coming back later with responses and we'll put that out in the current or in our weekly reports as we kind of shift to a different format as we go through the order. But to the mayor's liking, I'll turn to you on how you'd like to proceed. If there are general questions that are outside of this, we can start there if you'd like. |
| 00:19:15.48 | Mayor Cleveland Knowles | Okay, yeah, I will first ask council members, we have a really good list of questions. Did everyone get those by email? |
| 00:19:24.07 | Councilmember Riley | Yes, yes. |
| 00:19:25.54 | Mayor Cleveland Knowles | Okay, so in terms of things that are not on that list, do you have questions for Abbott on his presentation? I'll start with Joan. |
| 00:19:41.37 | Unknown | I emailed a list of all of my questions. Are you asking for questions beyond that? |
| 00:19:45.84 | Mayor Cleveland Knowles | Yes, just did you have any questions on Abbott's presentation beyond the questions in the email on the list? |
| 00:19:53.33 | Councilmember Cox | No. No, thank you. |
| 00:19:56.55 | Mayor Cleveland Knowles | Uh, Joe Burns, Councilmember Burns. |
| 00:19:59.02 | Councilmember Cox | Not a race. Thank you. |
| 00:19:59.98 | Councilmember Riley | Thank you. |
| 00:20:00.13 | Mayor Cleveland Knowles | Thank you. Tom, Tom Riley. |
| 00:20:02.98 | Councilmember Riley | I'd say it just came up during his presentation. Abbott, thank you for a great presentation. Is there from your studies of what's happening elsewhere in the world, such as Italy, Is there another turn on the crank, or is the shelter-on-home the most aggressive posture we can take. |
| 00:20:23.10 | Abbott Chambers | I don't feel qualified to answer that question. |
| 00:20:33.14 | Adam Politzer | It's a good question. I think I'm optimistic and hopeful that what the six counties and now seven, and I believe Sonoma and Solano County are coming on board here either today or tomorrow. But clearly we've taken aggressive steps to try to slow down the virus. But I don't know if it's, I would agree with that, but I don't think we can answer the question if this is the best practice or the most effective. |
| 00:21:07.97 | Mayor Cleveland Knowles | Great. Ray? |
| 00:21:08.47 | Adam Politzer | Thank you. |
| 00:21:08.71 | Councilmember Riley | you. |
| 00:21:08.85 | Adam Politzer | Thank you. |
| 00:21:08.98 | Councilmember Riley | I'm sorry. |
| 00:21:09.03 | Vice Mayor Withey | Thank you. |
| 00:21:09.15 | Councilmember Riley | All right. |
| 00:21:09.28 | Vice Mayor Withey | No more questions. |
| 00:21:10.09 | Adam Politzer | Thank you. |
| 00:21:10.53 | Mayor Cleveland Knowles | Ray, do you have any questions? |
| 00:21:13.37 | Vice Mayor Withey | Yes, I have no questions. on a point I'm getting a lot of feedback it may be that people who are not could go on mute if they don't want to speak Um, And I just think, Abbott, that was a very nice outline of where we are right now. |
| 00:21:33.33 | Mayor Cleveland Knowles | Yeah, great. Thank you so much. So this is the time that we would normally take public comment. There are... uh... No... members of the public here. They are sheltering in place. We did get three emails today, and I would just, in the interest of those who are watching at home, the emails fell into several categories. One was a general, plea to support our local businesses through the restaurants providing takeout service. One resident asked about a possible moratorium on evictions. Somebody's trying to call in. Moratorium on evictions, which is permitted under the governor's order. And the third piece of correspondence, which could have been for this evening or for the march 24th meeting was to consider um the fact that we will have reduced revenues and reduced expenditures and to not move forward with further economic development contracts at this time so that's the public comment that we have to date in summary form then turning thank you to all the council members who sent in questions we are not going to be able to discuss or address all of these questions tonight but I think this is a really good evolving discussion so I I thought we could at least highlight the things that we'd like to prioritize for tonight's discussion. We had several questions around the topic of governance. Some of those were addressed in Abbott's presentation. So I think I'm just looking through this And I think... one thing that we may want to discuss briefly tonight is public meetings and input going forward and perhaps to ask staff to look into technology and other outreach ideas for city council or other meetings we definitely had a request from at least one member of the public to look into an eviction moratorium. There have been other cities talking about the city as a landlord with rent issues. Are there other questions on here of urgent interest to council members that you'd like to call out tonight on the first category governance? I'll ask Joan. |
| 00:24:22.20 | Councilmember Cox | that under the category of government, um, The most important things to me were the revictions and rent Thank you. |
| 00:24:36.63 | Mayor Cleveland Knowles | Okay, great. Councilmember Burns? Anything else to prioritize on this list? |
| 00:24:42.65 | Vice Mayor Withey | Nothing else. |
| 00:24:43.48 | Mayor Cleveland Knowles | Okay. |
| 00:24:46.38 | Vice Mayor Withey | Thank you. Thank you. |
| 00:24:47.38 | Mayor Cleveland Knowles | Oh, that was right. Okay. So we're going to take a pause and allow Council Member Withy to call back in. Oh, we caught him. Okay, sorry. |
| 00:25:26.02 | Vice Mayor Withey | Hello? |
| 00:25:28.50 | City Clerk | Mary, are you there? Yes, I am. Great. Thank you. |
| 00:25:32.26 | Mayor Cleveland Knowles | Okay, I'm just going to go through everyone again just to make sure, Council Member Withey, |
| 00:25:32.40 | Vice Mayor Withey | Okay, I'm just... |
| 00:25:39.34 | Councilmember Riley | Yes, I'm here. |
| 00:25:40.62 | Mayor Cleveland Knowles | Councilmember Riley. |
| 00:25:42.86 | Councilmember Riley | Yes, I'm good with these questions. Thank you. |
| 00:25:44.52 | Mayor Cleveland Knowles | council member burns i'm just trying to make sure everyone's still on the phone and council member cox |
| 00:25:50.81 | Councilmember Cox | Yeah. |
| 00:25:51.72 | Mayor Cleveland Knowles | Great, okay, this is definitely one of our technology challenges moving forward. So I think this is a good experiment tonight. So thank you for everyone who's here supporting us with our technology. Okay, so I think, Ray, we had, I went through the governance items and picked out a few that I thought were priorities on there for me. Councilmember Cox added, or I think concurred in a few I had mentioned. Councilmember Burns and Riley didn't have further ones. Is there anything on this first bucket of governance issues that you would like to highlight or prioritize for staff? |
| 00:26:37.23 | Vice Mayor Withey | No, not at this time. |
| 00:26:38.97 | Mayor Cleveland Knowles | Okay, thanks. So let's move forward to community outreach and services, which I think is obviously a very big priority at this time. I... I think almost all of these are high priority, so why don't I just go through them and then if other people would like to add on, please do. So number one, and these again for the public are items that the council has already written in to our clerk today on items that they would like staff to address. begin to work on. So first, which was discussed by Ada, was communicating out. Not everyone is on the currents. We've already seen a good use of our website and the currents, but are there other things that we can be doing or other organizations, such as Sausalito Village, that we can work through? Second, clarity to residents and businesses on the terms of the order. Where should questions be directed to? I don't think that we'll have an answer to that tonight. There's also a question on here, number four, do we have a hotline? That may not be possible, but that's something that we could consider. Third, how can the city work with our volunteer groups to ensure that our senior population has access to essential services such as food and medication while ensuring the safety and social distancing of all involved? and I think there's another theme of residents and volunteer services. I know that Councilmember Cox and I have both raised this issue of looking after our residents experiencing homelessness or partially housed, particularly those on Richardson's Bay, and those who customarily rely on the library and city hall for internet and shelter. |
| 00:28:58.11 | Mayor Cleveland Knowles | And then an item on here that I've also heard, can we generate a list of local businesses that are open and providing essential services? So again, I'll just ask council members if there's anything you'd like to say about those items or add on any additional things. I'll start with council member Burns. |
| 00:29:23.25 | Councilmember Burns | in not a question it I think we're always challenged with this, How do we communicate? |
| 00:29:29.42 | Vice Mayor Withey | me. |
| 00:29:30.37 | Councilmember Burns | you know, Some people don't get current. Some people aren't in Nextdoor. Some people aren't in Facebook. But somebody is at least one of those. because we get the feedback from those. So I never know how every time we have an issue, it comes down to how do we coordinate communicate with people who might not have any other way. So I think that's a a common question we need to answer. I'm not sure. If it's one one spot. I've noticed businesses who start the day open and then close, Um, So, I'm interested to kind of figure out how we do get to that point if we're going to be in this for a long period of time. as we kind of hit that. the stage of low. that we know somebody's going to be open based on one point of information. |
| 00:30:25.30 | Mayor Cleveland Knowles | Great, thank you. Council Member Riley? |
| 00:30:30.19 | Councilmember Riley | I am fine with the list as presented. Thank you. |
| 00:30:33.77 | Mayor Cleveland Knowles | Thank you. Councilmember Cox. |
| 00:30:36.89 | Councilmember Cox | The only thing I wanted to say about the homelessness issue that you mentioned is that there was a nice article in the Marin I Day a couple of days ago about how the homeless and the and Rissell are being looked after by and so, You know, an initial approach, obviously, is to have Frosalitos homeless included. in those programs, but in addition, we are fortunate to have some of our churches that had raised their hands and offered to assist in collaborating on solution. including their normal lunch that will go forward tomorrow as scheduled. So I just want to make sure we include them in the loop when we're discussing food. |
| 00:31:26.96 | Mayor Cleveland Knowles | Great, thank you, that's an excellent point. And I believe our city manager has also reached out to the county to inquire about increased county health and human services help in the southern part of the county, including here. Is that correct? |
| 00:31:47.50 | Councilmember Burns | Yeah. |
| 00:31:48.04 | Adam Politzer | That's it. |
| 00:31:48.44 | Councilmember Burns | I guess I do have one other area in the front of you where this fits in. and I think it does on community outreach. advocating for our seniors. when the testing becomes I'm not sure. available. We don't necessarily have medical centers here that get, I think we'll probably get first dibs at a lot of that testing, So we have to maybe have a place. be communicating with those medical. industries so that we make sure that our seniors are are included or our residents in general And it's not just through a healthcare system that we don't really have community access to like that have healthcare in that community. I'm not sure. maybe it's going to be a location. I have no idea what testing is going to look like, but we want to be on the given our population, we want to be on the forefront of that next step. |
| 00:32:41.92 | Mayor Cleveland Knowles | Yeah, that's a great point. I think the communication in general around testing has been less than ideal. So that's clearly an area that I'm sure we'll just be adding our voice to that debate. Vice Mayor Withey, did you have comments to add in this category? Yes. |
| 00:33:05.71 | Vice Mayor Withey | No, I think this is at this stage a pretty comprehensive list. Things are moving. pretty fast. I also want to emphasize the homeless and the other side of the But Also, I'm very concerned about some of our seniors that are I'm not sure if you're pretty much isolated. and sort of want to know eventually what can the city do to help and make sure that our seniors get what they need. I'm not sure. So. that. |
| 00:33:37.93 | Councilmember Riley | Thank you. |
| 00:33:38.62 | Vice Mayor Withey | That will lead. |
| 00:33:39.02 | Councilmember Riley | all. |
| 00:33:42.31 | Mayor Cleveland Knowles | Great, thank you. Thank you. Abbott or Adam, do you have anything to add on this category at this point? |
| 00:33:49.45 | Adam Politzer | Yeah, just want to know when you'd like us to respond. You know, some of these we have some brief responses to and others will need to seek outside information. |
| 00:33:59.14 | Mayor Cleveland Knowles | Sure, why don't you, should we walk through each category maybe after we've gotten any additional input? Perfect. Okay, so we have a couple questions on police enforcement about enforcing, ensuring non-essential businesses are not vandalized while closed, and just a general question about enforcing the shelter-in-place order. I was able to ask how things, right before we started the meeting, several members of our police force were here about how things were going in town today. and they reported that it was very quiet and that everyone seemed to be in compliance with the order so that's just an update from today but i think these are important questions moving forward does any council member have anything to add to this category or any comments or questions |
| 00:34:59.70 | Mayor Cleveland Knowles | Okay, we'll move on to essential versus non-essential. And I think the county order, as our director of communications stated, uses the word essential in a couple of different ways. And it includes the use of essential to city and county staff as being essential or not. So I think the question that we have on our list is can Sassolito work with other Marin jurisdictions to clarify and expand upon what essential means in terms of our employees and then also in terms of services that are provided. So what businesses qualify under this category? Do any council members have questions, comments, or clarification on this category? |
| 00:36:02.06 | Mayor Cleveland Knowles | OK, hearing none. |
| 00:36:02.71 | Vice Mayor Withey | Yeah, this is Ray. I'd just like to see... The collaboration between the cities and the county elaborate more because You know, there's a lot of questions out there. And so I think the more types of services. that are not essential. We, you know, publish that they're not essential in a coordinated fashion with our colleagues. in Marin. |
| 00:36:30.05 | Mayor Cleveland Knowles | Great. I think the thing that was really amazing this week or yesterday, feels like forever ago, was that six Bay Area counties were able to act in unison with essentially the same order, which I think provided for me a lot of assurance and clarity and relief that we were acting together. And so, yes, I think in kind of all the follow-up questions that are going to be coming forward to the extent that we were acting together and so yes I think in kind of all the follow-up questions that are going to be coming forward to the extent that we can all be consisting consistently communicating the same information is is ideal so thank you for that point |
| 00:37:09.93 | Councilmember Riley | And this is Tom Riley. Um, Well, I didn't submit this question. I did receive the question about nail and hair salons from a salon owner. But it's just there's going to be more and more questions about, you know, boat repair. I mean, auto mechanics are a lot of work, but our boat shop's a lot of work. And you can go down probably a list of people who have questions. And we need a place where they can find answers. So that's the only thing I would suggest here. |
| 00:37:39.12 | Mayor Cleveland Knowles | Great. And I think our question to our city staff is, do we have capacity to collect questions and to advocate with other cities and the county to get consistent responses? I see. |
| 00:37:54.97 | Councilmember Cox | So I can assist in that process, and my law firm is in the process of doing that for various municipalities. |
| 00:38:03.62 | Mayor Cleveland Knowles | Great, and I can also assist as in my job working for the city and county of San Francisco, they are also struggling with some of these issues. So to the extent that that information is shareable, I'm happy to communicate back out as well. So thank you, Councilmember Cox. And then a last question here about grocery stores, and I think this would probably qualify for any essential service. and ensuring that they are following the social distancing criteria in their stores, in line, particularly in checkout lines. I think that will also be an evolving issue. Okay, so I think. |
| 00:38:52.90 | Councilmember Burns | I'm going to go. |
| 00:38:54.10 | Mayor Cleveland Knowles | Great. Councilmember Burns. |
| 00:38:55.63 | Councilmember Burns | Thank you. yesterday i made the mistake of running out of potato chips and i had to go to safety and this is a terrible line and a terrible place to be. Um, I don't, I know our, Molly Stones isn't like that. But I really like the direction of the grocery stores of creating senior hours because That's actually who was in the store a lot yesterday. And, um, I thought that was a really interesting that happened today that grocery stores are doing that. If we encourage Molly Stone, I don't know if there's any other businesses that fall into that, but, It's definitely being the at-risk population a little bit, even in these essential businesses. I'm not sure. is a good distancing. practice. |
| 00:39:42.48 | Mayor Cleveland Knowles | Great, yes, I think drivers and Golden Gate Market would fall potentially into that category. So I think the first question, probably for the Marin Health is that I mean, is that it seems like a good idea, but again, not being a public health official. And then secondly, could we have our local businesses consider adopting that? All right, so any additions from council members? I'll just walk through each of you. Council Member Cox, anything else to add to this list? |
| 00:40:28.14 | Mayor Cleveland Knowles | Councilmember Cox, are you still there? |
| 00:40:33.88 | Councilmember Cox | I'm here. |
| 00:40:34.33 | Mayor Cleveland Knowles | Okay, do you have anything to add to the list? |
| 00:40:37.46 | Councilmember Cox | No, I have nothing to ask. |
| 00:40:39.01 | Mayor Cleveland Knowles | Okay, Councilmember Burns. |
| 00:40:41.47 | Councilmember Cox | Thank you. |
| 00:40:41.49 | Councilmember Riley | No, nothing to add. Thank you. |
| 00:40:42.67 | Mayor Cleveland Knowles | Councilmember Riley. |
| 00:40:44.97 | Councilmember Riley | uh... one thing i would add In the event when we have a resident that is diagnosed with coronavirus We're going to need a process to outreach to people |
| 00:40:55.46 | Mayor Cleveland Knowles | Thank you. I'm sorry. |
| 00:40:58.94 | Councilmember Riley | that that individual is connected with in the last two to do further isolation. And I think we should, come up with a process of how we go about doing that. |
| 00:41:09.67 | Mayor Cleveland Knowles | So I won't speak for our communications director, but I do know that each county health department has issued guidelines for employers and others about reporting that through county health officers. So I think it would probably be appropriate to find the guidance. I've read the San Francisco guidance, but to find the guidance for Marin and to communicate that out. There's privacy and other concerns, and so they do have a protocol. |
| 00:41:43.78 | Councilmember Riley | Thank you. |
| 00:41:47.25 | Mayor Cleveland Knowles | Vice Mayor Withy, anything? add. |
| 00:41:52.80 | Vice Mayor Withey | THE END OF THE END OF THE No, but I'm sure much will come up. And so... This is going to be a continually evolving set of questions. |
| 00:42:01.24 | Mayor Cleveland Knowles | Great. Well, I think this is a really excellent list. I'm going to ask our city manager and director of communications if there's anything on here that they'd like to comment on tonight. And then otherwise we will sort of have this as a future work and agenda item list. And then just before they start, after that, just for the council, if there's anything else, I'll ask each of you if there's anything else you'd like to say before we conclude for the evening. So after the city manager and director of communications have spoken. |
| 00:42:20.63 | Abbott Chambers | Yeah. |
| 00:42:40.32 | Adam Politzer | Thank you, Madam Mayor and council members. I'll go really quickly through a handful of these, and then if there's anything that you want us to come back to, we can. But as the mayor said, we're not going to go through each one of the items here. But let me just reiterate what Mayor Cleveland Knoll said at the beginning of this. We're at day two of this order, and obviously there's a lot of information that requires interpretation clarification and the additional discussion so where I think the community and the employees and our residents should feel confident is that we are all working collaboratively to seek the best ways to move forward on several of the questions that were asked this evening by the council members. So I have a lot of pride and confidence that here in our county, here in our neighboring cities in Southern Marin, and here with our team of department heads along with our council members and their leadership, specifically the mayor and the vice mayor who I'm working very closely with every day, that I'm confident that we will be able to ride a consistent level of services at some level to the city as we move forward. The first question is really one of those questions that every city is asking right now is the difference between essential and non-essential employees. The town managers in the county have basically put the recreation and and daycare. and uh and live and library staff in the non-essential category but we're trying to re deploy those people especially the daycare staff into what the county is setting up right now county daycare services for our health care providers those that we need critically Working out in the field and in the hospital Making sure that with the school closures that their children are being cared for So at this moment in time again on day two we have the capacity for 300 children here in Marin County of health care providers throughout most of the they're there in in pods circulated around the Thank you. of healthcare providers throughout most of the, they're in pods circulated around the hospitals and medical services that are here mostly in Central Marin and Nevada. So that's a good start and those daycare centers will go live on Thursday. The second priority of the healthcare services or the daycare services will then extend to our first responders for both firefighters, paramedics and EMTs and police officers, because those is the next critical people that we need out in the field serving our community and keeping law in order and obviously emergency response for medical calls. So that discussion will continue as we look at the other services, obviously administration, planning and building, maintenance. Those discussions are continuing as we have facilities like public restrooms that are still open to the public. They need to continue to be cleaned and a higher level of maintenance is required and same here in the city facilities as we have staff that are continuing to do work both at the City Hall our police station and our fire station again the level in our corporation yard again the level of maintenance needs to go up to keep a healthy environment for those that are working within the city So the rest of those areas, there's a question later in this about construction, both public construction like Dunphy Park and other projects that the city has led. And we are continuing to work with those contractors to continue progress on those projects. under the umbrella of social distancing, making sure that they are also following those same categories. The same when our maintenance workers go out to do maintenance, be it trash, storm drains, from our usual practice of two in a truck, we're going to one in a truck and trying to figure out how to prioritize those so that we can do smaller projects with fewer people at any given time or do a focus project and again practice social distancing the big discussion in the county right now is probably the hottest topic which is what is going on at home in terms of people that have open projects you You have a window construction project going on where you're replacing your windows and you're halfway through and you don't have your windows covered. are secured. You know what do we allow that work to continue? Or is the shelter in place order impacting those folks from continuing those projects? So that discussion is sitting at the county official's office weighing in, but there's not one city that hasn't had an issue on how to answer that question. So we'll try to answer that question as rapidly as we can. And again, consistently throughout the county. The senior care, how do we support our seniors? Very important question. And I would like to recognize and thank Lieutenant Stacy Gregory and our Park and Recreation Director Mike Langford and Trisha Smith from Age Friendly Sausalito. We will continue to work with Age Friendly. They've already jumped in right away as of last week and then continuing this week, you know, to see how we, our volunteers that are under 65 can. |
| 00:49:01.83 | Councilmember Cox | Bye. I'm just starting to turn out. |
| 00:49:07.93 | Mayor Cleveland Knowles | Councilmember Cox, could you say that again, please? |
| 00:49:11.50 | Councilmember Cox | Yes, the city manager's voice is starting to cut in and out for some reason. |
| 00:49:19.60 | Mayor Cleveland Knowles | Okay, thanks. get the phone closer to him. |
| 00:49:31.36 | Councilmember Burns | It's not an okay on my side. |
| 00:49:37.49 | Mayor Cleveland Knowles | Okay, we're just readjusting, give us a second. |
| 00:49:41.37 | Adam Politzer | the senior services are probably very high on the list from staff and the community age friendly sausalito obviously with trish smith and her team have taken the lead working with lieutenant stacy gregory and our parks and recreation director mike langford and this is an area that we see our service clubs rotary lions and the women's club also being able to team together a councilmember burns asked the question about the queuing in lines at Safeway you know one of the areas where we think it would be a lot more effective is that you know that we have our volunteers help with the shopping and work together in picking up the pharmacy prescriptions that are waiting for them. People really in this community going back to our family forum, when people were talking about how magical our community is, this is another example of when things are down and challenging, our community steps forward. So looking for opportunities for those that want to join us. and help I think that the service organizations will be a good place to start and opportunity for people to volunteer to do those types of things so Mike Langford and Stacy are leading that effort from the city side and are working with age-friendly and and we'll continue to do that a reminder that many of these stores grocery stores have food delivery service Molly stones does so again if you don't want to stand in line if you want to reduce your contact you can |
| 00:51:14.45 | Mayor Cleveland Knowles | A REMOVED. |
| 00:51:29.05 | Adam Politzer | You can also go online and do that both at Safeway and at Molly Stone so I'm sure there's several others that do it as well so we want to make sure that we provide all that information communication out and communication in definitely one of our priorities we're we're probably pretty good at getting communication out i think avid chambers our communication directors does a terrific job using as many different social means as possible social media means as possible to get our information out. And so we'll continue to do that. We would love to continue to get feedback from the community. So creating an opportunity, an inbox for people to give us information coming back in, we are working on setting that up. Similar to like the pothole report, you know, or vandalism reporting. So people have an opportunity to come in and put in information. The challenge right now, again, on day two, It coming to the end of day two is just prioritizing all of these requests and putting them in the right order But we're we're moving forward in that fashion And I wanted to ensure to the public that this is important to us and critical that it's not just information going out Some of the best ideas and creative solutions come from those within our community and we recognize that The homeless, I didn't get a chance to respond when the mayor had asked me to respond and to Councilmember Cox's question about our vulnerable folks that are living on the water, the homeless population here in our county. And as Councilmember Cox mentioned, there was an article in the IJ. I have reached out to County Health and Human Services, thanking them for what they're doing in the county for all of our people in need. I know that our county staff, including the person that we work most closely with, Ashley Hart McIntyre from County Health and Human Services, is actually working the EOC and We are reminding them that the same services that are being provided throughout the county We have a hundred people that live out on our water and they too need those same services Chief Robacher and Captain Bill Frost are following up Again our collaborations are strong. We have the By Names group here in Southern Marin that have been working on this issue and making sure that we provide and identify services for our people on Richardson Bay. So that is one of the groups that we're working with. And then our partnership with the Ritter Center, obviously with our safe harbor program, gives us someone that's at the table with all the healthcare providers, health services providers, and obviously the partnership. strongly that our relationship with County Health and Human Services will also extend to the folks that are out here living on Richardson Bay and those that are that are homeless in our Southern Marin communities So we will continue to help support those efforts and again Thank our local churches and organizations that are also providing those services as we heard during the humanitarian grant Recognition when we hand out the the money from our meter program We have at least three days Or nights where we have meal service here provided by our churches. And so if we can continue to bridge that program with the help of County Health and Human Services and our service clubs, I think that would be a great answer to that need. So we will continue to work diligently on that. The eviction moratorium, that too, every town in the county has had that same request made. We all take that very seriously. We all think that what the governor is doing in that action is right and good leadership. The county of Marin is going to take an aggressive position on all of our behalf and put the moratorium in. They're working with the city managers and now the city attorneys to confirm the language, gives us the protection that we're seeking during this order and we will continue to follow that discussion and work with the mayor and the vice mayor to see if any further action is needed by the city of Sausalito but the county on our behalf is is stepping in to try to provide that additional layer of protection so that people are not being evicted from their homes during this time of crisis PG&E that questions on here. I think it's already been answered that PG&E and all of the utilities are Right now suspending any shutout shut off or cut off of power or water services I think that's consistent across the board with the utilities if people are experiencing differently we have The representative which all the council members know who's our point of contact? which is Jim Wickham, who's the former mayor and presently the council member. He might be still the mayor right now of Mill Valley, but he also works for PG&E, and he's serving in the EOC to support our communications with PG&E. So if we have any issues with PG&E that are not consistent with what PG&E statements are, please reach out to us directly. our primary contact here will be through uh email we're asking people to communicate via email we don't have the capacity or staff to manage a phone and then we're just passing phone messages on or putting people on hold and that's not the most effective way to deal with our customers so we're asking them to email the city clerk at this point and or directly you know through our website you can still directly communicate with our police chief with our community development director with our Public Works director so again we'd like people to continue to work through the existing communication tools but if they're not getting timely responses to come to the city clerk or directly to me And we will we will make sure that your questions are being answered and even if the answer is we're looking into it But it's a lower priority that might be the answer to is my hair salon an essential service right now it is not but as things progress you know there may be other ways because personal care includes hair hair and other needs and so you know we also are not overlooking that it's not just getting our hair done for the prom, it's there's other things that come with that that's also health related and important. So we're taking all those things very seriously. I'm going to pause. I think I covered some of the highlights there. If I missed any, I'm happy to respond. |
| 00:59:13.15 | Mayor Cleveland Knowles | Great, okay, thank you. Well, that's a, yes. |
| 00:59:19.37 | Councilmember Cox | about We continue to hold our regular meetings, telephonically and postponement important matters until we're able to resume normal operations. |
| 00:59:30.78 | Mayor Cleveland Knowles | Yes, so this, as, You know, the city manager and our director of communications have all stated this is ever-changing and fluid. And there are definitely currently technological complications. I think keeping meetings short and to essential business is a priority right now. So the vice mayor, you know, our agenda setting committee, which is the vice mayor, myself, the city manager, and our clerk and city attorney are continuing to discuss that. We wanted to hold this meeting tonight because of the scope of the order that was issued yesterday and the need to consider a declaration of emergency but our next priority will be considering if to hold our meeting next Tuesday, and if so, what agenda items would be discussed at that meeting. So- Thank you so much. Sorry, go ahead. |
| 01:00:41.08 | Councilmember Cox | I think so thank you so much. OK. |
| 01:00:45.84 | Mayor Cleveland Knowles | I'm just going to move. |
| 01:00:50.95 | Mayor Cleveland Knowles | Okay, so before we consider the motion that is in front of me, in front of us, I wanted to give each council member the opportunity to make any remarks or thoughts about either the resolution or any of the things that we've discussed tonight. I'll start with the council member Burns. |
| 01:01:16.15 | Councilmember Burns | I'm going to go to the I'll support the resolution obviously when we vote and I appreciate so much I THINK WE HAVE A LOT OF Today, the clerk and the technology team as well as you, the vice mayor, city manager, communications director, It is a changing time, but I thought this was very effective. I hope the public... Those that are interested were able to I know they often do via the government channel So, Um, I appreciate the effort that was put forth into this meeting for tonight. So thank you all. |
| 01:01:53.41 | Mayor Cleveland Knowles | Great, thank you. Council member Riley? |
| 01:01:57.34 | Councilmember Riley | I follow Council Member Burns' compliments and thanks to city staff. mayor, vice mayor, Um, And my thank you won't be for the work you've done. It's going to be for the work you're going to do in the weeks to come ahead. I think tensions are gonna get high. Um, And you guys are on the front line. I can't thank you enough. Do not hesitate to call upon us if we can help in any way. |
| 01:02:18.08 | Mayor Cleveland Knowles | that has been a great |
| 01:02:21.88 | Councilmember Riley | be more able bodies to assist you. So thank you, those are my comments. |
| 01:02:26.67 | Mayor Cleveland Knowles | Great, thank you very much. Councilmember Cox? |
| 01:02:31.04 | Councilmember Cox | I echo my fellow council members comments. I appreciate the swift action that Flacalito has taken to comply with Marin County shelter in place order and noticing this special meeting to facilitate the offering of services throughout this emergency to all of our businesses and residents. So I'm in support of the resolution. |
| 01:02:56.20 | Mayor Cleveland Knowles | Great, thank you. Vice Mayor Withy? |
| 01:03:00.03 | Vice Mayor Withey | Yeah, of course I support the resolution. And echo, thanks to our staff, I don't think people realize our staff are working hard extremely hard right now. I'm not sure. I've been very impressed with the coordination among the marine jurisdictions and the county, led by the city managers. And I can't stress enough the, six county order that was put out yesterday, which is unprecedented. is not only achieved national attention, it's actually received international attention I've received emails from ex-colleagues all over the world that's on the front page of their newspapers. Unbelievable. I'm not sure. So, We've sort of made history with this, and I think it as where the Bay Area is in understanding this. I'm not sure. I think finally in terms of we may have to accept the fact that this is the new normal. The governor unbelievably announced just in the last hour that it is quite likely that all parents have to be prepared for the fact the schools may not reopen this academic year. I mean, that. sort of puts us front and center as to where we are. but I would say to all of us and to all our residents We will get through this, and as long as we look after our neighbors, look after our families. everything will eventually be well. |
| 01:04:27.39 | Mayor Cleveland Knowles | Thank you. Thank you so much for all of your thoughts, and especially to the vice mayor for those great remarks. I think, as you said, this is a rapidly evolving situation. Things are happening in minutes and hours, not days or weeks. And as I heard somewhere today, this is definitely going to be a marathon, not a sprint, and that we all need to take care of ourselves, care of our health take care of our families take care of our neighbors as best we can given the social distancing rules so that we can be prepared to work through this over the next you know what sounds like will be be months not weeks so I just want to echo all of the council members thanks to our first responders to our city staff and to all of our residents who are working hard to comply with this order it is not easy to be in this current situation, but I think everyone is really pulling together for the health, the public health, and doing that in a way that is admirable. So thank you to everyone. And do I have a motion? Adopting the resolution of the City Council of the City of Sausalito proclaiming the existence of a local emergency caused by the novel coronavirus, COVID-19. |
| 01:05:59.26 | Councilmember Cox | I'm going to go. SECOND. |
| 01:06:01.10 | City Clerk | Thank you. |
| 01:06:02.06 | Mayor Cleveland Knowles | And we will take a roll call vote, please. Actually, I could do the roll call if, or. |
| 01:06:07.26 | City Clerk | THE END OF THE END OF THE Okay. |
| 01:06:09.45 | Mayor Cleveland Knowles | Go ahead, I just thought maybe they couldn't hear you. |
| 01:06:11.36 | City Clerk | Councilmember Riley? |
| 01:06:13.54 | Vice Mayor Withey | Yeah. |
| 01:06:13.66 | Councilmember Riley | Thank you. |
| 01:06:13.74 | Vice Mayor Withey | Thank you. |
| 01:06:13.97 | City Clerk | Councilmember Burns. Thank you. |
| 01:06:15.97 | Councilmember Cox | Thank you. |
| 01:06:15.98 | Vice Mayor Withey | Yeah. |
| 01:06:16.30 | City Clerk | you Councilmember Cox. All right. Vice Mayor Withey. |
| 01:06:21.74 | Vice Mayor Withey | Yeah. |
| 01:06:22.11 | City Clerk | Thank you. Mayor Cleveland Knowles. |
| 01:06:23.59 | Mayor Cleveland Knowles | yes uh that motion carries five zero and there being no i'm sorry and who uh seconded it i think it was council member withy oh burns sorry you guys both have deep voices all right so the second was um council member burns great thank you and seeing no other business in front of us tonight I will adjourn this meeting. And thank you and seeing no other business in front of us tonight I will adjourn this meeting and thank you again to the City Council members and staff for convening this meeting so quickly and especially to our IT staff for everything they did to make this possible |
| 01:06:35.91 | Vice Mayor Withey | Thank you. |
| 01:06:35.93 | Councilmember Burns | So, |
| 01:06:36.18 | Vice Mayor Withey | Yeah. |
| 01:06:36.20 | City Clerk | Thank you. |
| 01:07:03.10 | Mayor Cleveland Knowles | Thank you. |
| 01:07:04.06 | Councilmember Riley | Thank you. Thank you, Mayor. Thank you. |
| 01:07:07.66 | Councilmember Burns | Thank you. |
| 01:07:07.91 | Councilmember Riley | Thanks. |
| 01:07:08.28 | Councilmember Burns | Thank you. |
| 01:07:08.50 | Councilmember Riley | Thanks, man. |
| 01:07:08.97 | Councilmember Burns | Thank you. |