| Time | Speaker | Text |
|---|---|---|
| 00:00:01.48 | Heidi Scoble | Okay. |
| 00:00:05.48 | Heidi Scoble | So welcome to the special city council meeting of March 31st, 2020. Good evening, Mayor Cleveland Knowles and council members. This meeting is being held pursuant to section three of executive order N-29-20 issued by Governor Newsom on March 17th, 2020. And all members are joining this meeting telephonically and video conferencing through Zoom and is broadcast live on the city's website and on cable TV channel 27. |
| 00:00:37.65 | Unknown | to the parents of your suicide. |
| 00:00:42.89 | Mayor Cleveland Knowles | Okay, so welcome everyone. This is... Definitely interesting times and very glad that we can all be together tonight. on our first all virtual city council meeting So could our city clerk please call the roll? |
| 00:00:59.03 | Heidi Scoble | Council member Riley. |
| 00:01:01.51 | Adam Politzer | care. |
| 00:01:02.30 | Heidi Scoble | Councilmember Burns? |
| 00:01:04.53 | Adam Politzer | Cheers. |
| 00:01:05.62 | Heidi Scoble | Councilmember Cox. here. Vice Mayor Withey? |
| 00:01:10.35 | Vicki Nichols | Thank you. |
| 00:01:10.37 | Heidi Scoble | here. Mayor Cleveland Knowles. All members are present and there is a quorum. |
| 00:01:22.43 | Mayor Cleveland Knowles | Okay, I think I've been kicked off again, but can you hear me? |
| 00:01:27.61 | Heidi Scoble | Yes, we can hear you. Thank you. |
| 00:01:29.05 | Mayor Cleveland Knowles | We can hear you. |
| 00:01:29.84 | Heidi Scoble | And we can see you. |
| 00:01:31.46 | Mayor Cleveland Knowles | Okay. Great. |
| 00:01:33.55 | Joan Cox | Thank you. |
| 00:01:35.22 | Mayor Cleveland Knowles | Thank you. |
| 00:01:35.24 | Joan Cox | I cannot see. |
| 00:01:36.03 | Heidi Scoble | Thank you. |
| 00:01:36.10 | Mayor Cleveland Knowles | not seen. |
| 00:01:36.96 | Joan Cox | Thank you. Oh, I see you now. |
| 00:01:43.42 | Mayor Cleveland Knowles | Please call the roll. |
| 00:01:43.98 | Joan Cox | Bye. |
| 00:01:44.00 | Heidi Scoble | Thank you. |
| 00:01:44.17 | Joan Cox | Thank you. |
| 00:01:44.20 | Heidi Scoble | I'm not going to be able to do that. |
| 00:01:44.54 | Joan Cox | Thank you. |
| 00:01:44.56 | Heidi Scoble | It's called. Yes, we just called the rule, but I can do it again. Councilmember Riley? Councilmember Riley. |
| 00:01:50.78 | Mayor Cleveland Knowles | I'm sorry. |
| 00:01:55.59 | Heidi Scoble | Thanks, Farine. |
| 00:01:55.61 | Mayor Cleveland Knowles | Okay, you call the first time you call the first item |
| 00:01:57.80 | Heidi Scoble | Can you call the first item? Yes, the first item on the agenda is a COVID-19 update. Adam, sorry, Abbott Chambers, the city librarian and director of communications will be providing a PowerPoint presentation at this time. So Abbott will be sharing a screen shortly. |
| 00:02:22.78 | Unknown | Bye. |
| 00:02:32.80 | Heidi Scoble | Abbott, are you here? Oh, here I am. |
| 00:02:34.20 | Abbott Chambers | I am. |
| 00:02:34.93 | Heidi Scoble | Yes, thank you. |
| 00:02:39.75 | Abbott Chambers | Can everyone see my screen? |
| 00:02:42.49 | Lilly | Yes. |
| 00:02:43.30 | Abbott Chambers | Yes. All right. Well, good evening, Madam Mayor, members of the council. I'm Abbott Chambers, the director of communications and city librarian for the city of Sausalito. And I'm here this evening to present a COVID-19 update for Sausalito. |
| 00:03:02.09 | Abbott Chambers | As far as what I'll be covering this evening, I'm going to start with a brief overview of the COVID-19 outbreak. Then I'm going to provide an update on the Marin County response. We'll have a brief interlude after that while I'll be sharing some photos of Sausalito street scenes during the outbreak that were taken by Parking Enforcement Officer Beth DeLego. Then I'll get into a section about city of Saucyid or response to the outbreak, focusing on city departments and services. I'll have a slide about how we can all help during this difficult time And I'll conclude with a preview of the April 14th City Council meeting. with a slide that will have information about city revenue categories that are being impacted by COVID-19. So to start with a brief overview of the outbreak. On December 31st, 2019, the World Health Organization first became aware. of a pneumonia of unknown cause in Wuhan, China. The disease was determined to be caused by a new coronavirus and subsequently named coronavirus disease 2019. also known as COVID-19. Symptoms of COVID-19 include fever, cough, and shortness of breath, and appear within 2 to 14 days after exposure. The virus spreads easily from person to person and social distancing is the most effective way to reduce transmission. As of March 31, according to the World Health Organization, worldwide there have been over 750,000 confirmed cases of COVID-19. and over 36,000 deaths. In California, according to the California Department of Public Health, As of March 30th, there have been almost 7,000 confirmed cases and 150 deaths. Current models from the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation at the University of Washington Project that cases in the U.S. will peak on April 15th and the cases in California will peak on April 26th. Currently there is no vaccine. to prevent COVID-19 and what is not expected for 12 to 18 months. Moving on to an update of the Marin County response. And that response is being coordinated by the Public Health Division of Marin Health and Human Services. On March 17, Marin County and six other Bay Area jurisdictions issued a public health order to shelter at home through April 7. At that time, there were 15 total confirmed cases of COVID-15. 19, excuse me, on March 19th. The county of Marin and the Marin Community Foundation announced a $1 million relief fund for vulnerable populations. On March 20th, Marin Health and Human Services launched a new dashboard of COVID-19 statistics. At that time, there were 38 total cases in Marin. On March 22nd, Marin Health and Human Services issued a public health order to immediately close all Marin parks. That order was subsequently amended on March 24th to allow Marin residents to access parks that they can reach with non-mortarized transportation. On March 24th, the Marin County Board of Supervisors approved a moratorium on the eviction of renters and commercial leaseholders through May 31st for those unable to pay due to COVID-19 impacts. At that time, there were 53 total cases in Marin. On March 25th, school closures were extended through May 1st. And on March 26th, we had a little bit of tentatively good news from Health and Human Services saying in their daily update, there are indications that the shelter in place has been an effective tool in flattening the curve. On March 27th, Health and Human Services reported the first death from COVID-19 in Marin County. The person who died had been a passenger on the Grand Princess cruise ship. Yesterday on March 30th, Health and Human Services announced that the public health order to shelter at home would soon be extended until at least May 1st. As of yesterday, there were 98 total cases in Marin and the death total had climbed up to four. And today, the county has officially extended the shelter at home order through May 3rd. And that's in conjunction with the other Bay Area jurisdictions. And they reiterate that the purpose of this order is to keep people at home except to complete the most essential activities, such as visiting a doctor or buying groceries for your household, in order to slow the transmission of COVID-19. So we'll take a... pivot now and we'll talk about Sausalito and impacts on Sausalito. But to start with, some photos that were taken by parking enforcement officer Beth Delago, that's also a Sausalito resident, of street scenes during the outbreak and during this time that we're sheltering at home. This first photo is of Bridgeway looking towards the ferry landing, just astonishing on a beautiful spring day that there's essentially no activity going on. that have been in that part of town. A view of the ferry landing, equally empty. Parking lot two next to the Bank of America building A couple of photos, the one on the left, looking at the downtown retail section, no foot traffic. On the right, a sign in the window, a driver's market. |
| 00:08:22.77 | Abbott Chambers | And then two photos of takeout and delivery being offered at local restaurants. On the left, the Spinnaker. And on the right, Sailors. And that's Sean Sailor waving to us with his latex gloved hand. So let me move on to talking about the city of Sausalito response in our various departments and at various service offerings. We'll start with police and fire. Southern Marine Fire and the Saucity Police Department continue to respond to all calls for service. Police officers are on foot patrol, talking with our businesses and residents and educating the community by addressing compliance issues face to face. Special precautions are being taken to ensure that police officers, firefighters and paramedics remain healthy. And those include social distancing, frequent hand washing, more frequent cleaning at police and fire stations like the photo you see there on the right, trainings and briefings via Zoom, the suspension of some types of fire inspections, and our police department asking people to submit some types of police reports via online forms. Our police department also continues to sponsor the mobile showers program at Marinship Park. over on the right side of the screen there's some photos from last week and from today. Showers are offered every Tuesday and Friday from 8 until 11 a.m. and that service continues with precautions being taken through the crisis that we're experiencing right now and they've added a service to provide those in need with grab and go bags of groceries. And I gather from the chief today that over 20 people were able to get groceries. So just a tremendous service that we're able to offer to the vulnerable members of our community. I'm Moving on to parks and recreation facilities. The MLK gym and playland were closed on March 17. Our playgrounds, ball courts, Closed on March 24th. Um, The dog park is going to be closed effective April 1st, so tomorrow, based on new guidance from Marin Health and Human Services. All other parks and open spaces in Sausalito remain open. And definitely it's a good idea for all of us in this time of shelter at home to get outside for some fresh air and sunshine, as long as we maintain social distancing and stay local. So, hit your local parks, but don't hop in the car. It's also a good time for Sausalitoans to explore our many stairways and paths that dot the hillsides of Sausalito. and a good time to reacquaint ourselves with our city parks, including MLK Park. This is a photo from March 26th of the recently reopened MLK Park with beautiful new ball field and a very lush looking lawn and athletic field. Other city services during the COVID-19 outbreak, city hall has been closed to the public since March 17th. Those city staff members that are still on site are practicing rigorous social distancing. Our custodial and maintenance staff are providing frequent cleaning of services in the building. At the administration department level, the department's operating at full capacity with business transacted by phone or email. Our city manager is coordinating the local COVID-19 response with county and state officials as well as with the city managers of other municipalities in Marin As with tonight, our city council meeting is being held by a Zoom. All other Commission meetings have been temporarily suspended. The Planning Commission meetings likely to resume sometime in April. In the Community Development Department, staff continue to process existing building and planning permits. |
| 00:12:21.60 | Ray Withy | Thank you. |
| 00:12:26.77 | Abbott Chambers | All planning and building services have been moved to virtual appointments. Building inspections are being conducted virtually or with new protocols in place. Submittals are via email or the city's e-track it platform. And I say those above with the caveat that things may be soon changing. Based on the public health order that we received today, there are additional restrictions on construction activity. And these new restrictions are currently being evaluated by city staff. in the department of public works the department is providing continued maintenance of roads sewers and city facilities staff continue to see oversee ongoing infrastructure projects like dumpy park And permits for the department, as with community development, are now handled electronically. I'll also mention that other utilities are providing uninterrupted services, such as Bay City's Refuse for recycling and garbage, the Saucelita Marin City Sanitary District, and the Marin Municipal Water District. at the library. Library staff among other projects are |
| 00:13:36.76 | Abbott Chambers | very importantly they're checking in with vulnerable or isolated library patrons um with city communications the Just launched today a new COVID-19 page on the city website. We are also, or I should say, I am also active putting out currents every week, as well as special editions, and also on social media. And here's a screenshot of the new COVID-19 page that's on the city website at sasido.gov slash COVID-19. So what are some ways that we can all help? First off, do the five. This is from the World Health Organization. Let's wash our hands frequently, cough into your elbow, don't touch your face, keep a safe social distance and stay home if you can. This is also a good time for us to be checking in on our vulnerable neighbors. And in fact, just in general, checking in on family, friends, making sure or we're all okay? It's also a good time to volunteer. The volunteer opportunities in the community include the San Francisco Marin Food Bank. Other opportunities are listed on the new web page on the city website. It's also a good time to donate money to a shelter, food bank or community foundation. And also to support local business. As you could see from the photo of downtown, this is a very difficult time for our local businesses. Essential local businesses remain open, such as groceries, hardware stores, restaurants. It's a great time for us to all do what we can to continue to patronize those businesses. And I'll conclude with a quote from Susan Cleveland, Mayor Cleveland Knowles' message to the community from a little over a week ago. Let's continue to work together to keep our community healthy, safe, and strong. And now with a preview of the April 14th council meeting, I'll conclude with a slide about the impact of COVID-19 on city resource, city revenues. Besides the obviously devastating health and safety concerns, the impact of COVID-19 on the city's fiscal health is also overwhelming. This slide demonstrates the general fund revenue categories, or buckets, that are being impacted by COVID-19. We developed a lot of the adopted fiscal year 2019-20 budget revenues of 19 million into three categories. Category one. consists of those revenues that are being impacted now, i.e. revenues that we are losing as we go each day, such as sales tax, transient occupancy tax, permits and fees, parking revenues, and potentially some rental revenues. Category two, that's in green, consists of those revenues that will most likely be affected the following year, such as property taxes, franchise fees, business license taxes, and fines. Category three consists of those revenues that might be potentially impacted under a recession scenario, and this is in blue, such as rental agreements, like cell leases, some grants, and miscellaneous revenues. At this time, we cannot predict the extent of state and federal relief that would be available to the city of Sausalito and other municipalities. |
| 00:16:44.53 | Heidi Scoble | So. |
| 00:16:58.12 | Abbott Chambers | Finance is currently working on developing assumptions and will be presenting the projected impact of COVID-19 on fiscal year 2019-20 revenues at the city council meeting on April 14th. That concludes my presentation and city staff would be glad to answer any questions of the Council. |
| 00:17:17.61 | Mayor Cleveland Knowles | Great, thank you Abbott for a really excellent presentation as always and very thorough. So just on behalf of the whole city council, I wanted to thank our city manager, Adam Pulitzer all of the department heads at the city of Sausalito our police force and the downtown streets team for all the work that they've been doing and all the flexibility, innovation and dedication that they've shown. over the past couple weeks. It's a constantly evolving situation and we all really appreciate your hard work and all the hard work of your staff. So now I'm going to open it up to questions from council members, and I'm just going to call on you. in order, I don't see any hands raised. But Councilmember Riley, do you have any questions? |
| 00:18:13.13 | Tom Riley | No questions. Thank you for a thorough presentation at it. |
| 00:18:17.72 | Mayor Cleveland Knowles | Councilmember Burns. |
| 00:18:19.78 | Ray Withy | Yeah, I have one question. One thing that stood out to me was the closing of the of the dog park, which seems reasonable other than they're just going to flood the park. which we also encourage people to go to. Um, Do we have a plan to allow dogs to run in the park? Are we gonna be extra village to not allow that mixture recreation and dogs? COB, Dan Burke, Norcal PTACCIA. Come up with a policy if the dog park is going to close knowing that that's just really going to put that population into our parks. |
| 00:18:57.41 | Adam Politzer | Council member Burns, this is This is Adam. Pulitzer. I don't know if you can hear me. |
| 00:19:04.49 | Joe Burns | Thank you. |
| 00:19:04.51 | Unknown | Yeah. |
| 00:19:04.75 | Adam Politzer | We can hear you. Good. Perfect. |
| 00:19:04.76 | Unknown | Yeah. |
| 00:19:04.98 | Joe Burns | Thank you. |
| 00:19:07.24 | Adam Politzer | just want to respond, you know, that order to close the dog park came this early afternoon. And, uh, the intentions is to, close it tomorrow morning. Um, Up until this point, we haven't had a lot of issues with people with their dogs off leash. mainly because of the social hosts, or social hosts. the the social distancing the that people are taking with social distancing. We'll continue to evaluate that. and if necessary, we'll educate folks as our police officers have been doing throughout town as they're walking about town. |
| 00:19:51.54 | Mayor Cleveland Knowles | Thank you. |
| 00:19:52.69 | Adam Politzer | We'll also post some signs. out at the parks, also encouraging people to clean up after themselves and after their dogs. and we'll continue evaluating |
| 00:20:03.37 | Ray Withy | Thank you. |
| 00:20:04.77 | Mayor Cleveland Knowles | Thank you. Councilmember Cox, do you have any questions? |
| 00:20:16.94 | Unknown | Oh, she needs to be muted. |
| 00:20:20.82 | Adam Politzer | John needs to be unmuted. |
| 00:20:31.15 | Mayor Cleveland Knowles | Yeah, I still can't hear her. |
| 00:20:36.19 | Unknown | Thank you. Thank you. |
| 00:20:37.83 | Joan Cox | Can you hear me now? |
| 00:20:39.08 | Adam Politzer | Yeah, we can hear you now. Thank you. |
| 00:20:40.24 | Joan Cox | Okay. It said I could not unmute myself because I was muted by the host. I have lots of questions. First, I want to say thank you to the city staff. and for the presentation and also for all your good work. during this challenging time. and also for your collaboration with regional agencies, and a perfect demonstration is the provision of grab and go groceries for our homeless, which of course are our most vulnerable population. Um, . Pastor Mallory to get the word out and the fact that we had 20 folks show up today to get groceries on top of the phenomenal success we had last Friday is really heartwarming. Thank you so much for those efforts. I, as I'm sure a number of members of the public, am very concerned about the impact of COVID-19 on city revenues. So thank you for that slide. Thank you for that portent. Um, And obviously we cannot heavily depend on federal and state relief. I have been hearing from our state representatives about how challenging it will be for them to meet their budgets. So we're all in this together. offline and at our next meeting, I am interested to know how we projected these numbers, you know, how we will ensure their accuracy, how we'll monitor them and what we can do. to mitigate these significant losses. And I look forward to figuring out how to run a lean and mean machine moving forward so that we continue to provide basic level of services to the residents that are depending on us. |
| 00:22:40.51 | Mayor Cleveland Knowles | Thank you. Great, thank you, Council Member Cox. Vice Mayor Withey, do you have any questions? |
| 00:22:46.52 | Joe Burns | I do not have any questions at this time. I will have comments later on. |
| 00:22:51.55 | Mayor Cleveland Knowles | Great, thank you. The only question that I'd just love staff to elaborate on is there is a lot of concern from some residents that have contacted me and on Nextdoor about people not following the social distancing policies or not operating correctly in Sausalito. In my walks around town, I've seen really exemplary activity. So that's what I have perceived myself, but I would be very interested in hearing from our chief of police or our city manager about what the police are experiencing in town. |
| 00:23:33.60 | Adam Politzer | Yes. I never step in front of me. Oh. Chief. Chief is... I know the chief is also online. John, do you want to jump in here? |
| 00:23:53.28 | Adam Politzer | Maybe he's not. I'm pretty sure that he's also observing Um, So let me just step in because the Chief and I had this conversation earlier this afternoon. As I shared earlier, And as Abbott had in his presentation, You know, our police department is not only driving around and providing the same level of service they have in the past on their patrols, but they're also doing a lot more foot patrol. And part of that is to be able to engage with our residents and our businesses and help. educate and encourage them to practice social distancing. And then also when we get complaints of businesses that may not be in compliance They walk in and they check in with them and see if in fact they should be open or not, and if they are open, if they're also practicing good protocols and keeping social distancing. I know that today there is at least one business that we got a complaint on. Police department went down. and educated the owner and they ended up closing down that business this afternoon. So we will continue to educate AND PROVIDE that level of service. I think it's something that you're hearing especially on the news in terms of San Francisco and some of the other bigger cities. as this goes on in time. there'll be some folks that try to push the boundaries and we might in fact have to administer some citations if we get to that point. I know with construction and activity in people's own homes. We've sent out our building inspector and also our code enforcement officer, So we would recommend to the public that if you have concerns, you go to our website or you call the city and we will follow up. with those concerns and those complaints. But I would also say the same as the mayor, my observations as well as the police department's observations as most people are in compliance and we are very appreciative of that level of cooperation in our community. |
| 00:25:57.12 | Mayor Cleveland Knowles | Great, thank you for that response. Okay, if there are no other questions from council members, we are going to turn it over to the clerk to start the public comment portion of the evening. And I want to thank all the members of the public that I can They have joined us and if you would like to try to provide public comment. Our clerk standing by with some instructions. |
| 00:26:23.36 | Heidi Scoble | As Mayor Cleveland Knowles noted, this is the time where members of the public may address the City Council regarding any items within this subject. |
| 00:26:23.70 | Mayor Cleveland Knowles | So Heidi? |
| 00:26:32.22 | Mayor Cleveland Knowles | Heidi, I think you're muted. |
| 00:26:37.59 | Heidi Scoble | Thank you. We're still working through the system. |
| 00:26:41.27 | Mayor Cleveland Knowles | Well first, actually before you start, I just want to thank you, especially for all the hard work you've done, getting us ready to have this meeting. I know it hasn't been easy and holding a public meeting is different from having a a conference call for business. So thank you for managing all of this. It's great to see everyone and great to be here tonight. |
| 00:27:01.57 | Heidi Scoble | Thank you for that. And as you noted, this is an opportunity or a time for the members of the public to address the City Council regarding within the subject matter. Public comment will be accepted via email and video audio audience participation. You can email your comments now to hscobell at Sausalito.gov. We also have shown on this slide right now the spelling of my email address. Email comments received this evening will be forwarded to the City Council members in real, live time, posted to the City's website and placed in the permanent record. Video or audio public comment participation is limited to three minutes per speaker. If you'd like to make a public comment, please raise your hand in the Zoom application and you'll be called upon when it's your time to speak. To raise your hand from a phone, press star nine. Each speaker will be notified when they have one minute left to speak and again when the time has elapsed. All calls will be muted after the three minute time limit has expired. Please state your name for the record before beginning your comments. Again, lastly, anyone who has not provided their comments by the close of public comments portion of the meeting can email their comments to me at hscoble.saucelito.gov and their comments will also be included in the public record. So at this time, I'm going to see who has their hands raised. And it looks like we have Vicki Nichols. who is on the line so we're gonna unmute Vicki and lower her hand |
| 00:28:45.70 | Heidi Scoble | Good evening, thank you for raising your hand. Would you like a video image shown during your public comment or would you just like your voice to be heard? |
| 00:28:58.78 | Heidi Scoble | Okay, I'm not... Yeah. |
| 00:29:04.33 | Heidi Scoble | Okay, it looks like we lost Vicki. We'll go on to our next public commenter. Karen Strolia, I'll lower her hand and unmute her. Karen, thank you for calling. Do you have a comment? |
| 00:29:22.40 | Karen Strolia | Hi everyone, yes, can you hear me? I can see smiles, okay. I just wanted to say thank you so much for letting us be out in your community hosting showers. especially during this time we've seen. Just the impact, the day-to-day impact that we're out there and being able to serve food to folks who are living on their boat has left. nothing short of just a mark on my heart. You guys know how passionate I am about this program. but seeing the impact on their well-being through this time, which is really scary for everyone living on the water, Is just incredible I did also want to want to let you guys know that we are also charging phones on site, so if there are concerns for folks who were previously using the library or other. Services and the Community that are now closed, they can come to the shower site. We've worked with the county to build up that that opportunity so we can charge, I believe, 16 phones on site at a time now. So Even if people just want to come to showers to charge phones, that's okay. So we've got showers, food and phone charging ability. The county has also provided us with information that we're able, it's live, it's real time. So it's updated every time we're out there. And so we're able to at least inform folks who are on the water who don't seem to be getting up to date information. which is, it feels really good. So I'm grateful that you guys are letting us be out there. Thank you so much for supporting the program and supporting our efforts. |
| 00:30:51.88 | Mayor Cleveland Knowles | Great, Heidi, can you keep Karen on the line for just a second? Karen, thank you so much for everything that you and the rest of the Downtown Streets team has been doing to provide the showers and now the food. and for reaching out and working with Chief Warbacher and his staff. We really appreciate that and we can't thank you enough. For that, are there any special specific questions for Karen about the mobile shower food program? Okay, great. Thanks for joining us tonight. |
| 00:31:20.99 | Karen Strolia | Thank you. |
| 00:31:21.00 | Heidi Scoble | No, it's my pleasure. Thank you. Our next public commenter is Sandra Bushmaker. Sandra, would you like your video to be shown live? Sure. Yes? |
| 00:31:33.04 | Sandra Bushmaker | Sure. |
| 00:31:33.85 | Heidi Scoble | Okay. We will. You'll be prompted by a comment that is asking you to start your video and then you can click it. |
| 00:31:45.84 | Sandra Bushmaker | And where do I find that? |
| 00:31:48.12 | Heidi Scoble | it should be should be a prompt that comes up on your screen |
| 00:31:50.25 | Sandra Bushmaker | Oh, I see it. Got it. |
| 00:31:58.57 | Heidi Scoble | Great, and you can begin at any time. |
| 00:32:00.86 | Sandra Bushmaker | Good evening, council and staff. I want to tell you how much I appreciate having this ability to have a meeting like we're having now. At the last public meeting, I sent a letter to the council. Uh, requesting that the city cut back their expenditures in light of the reduced revenues. And it was mentioned by the mayor from the dais at the last most recent electronic meeting. And I would just like to know when that's going to be agendized so we can discuss those matters on decreased expenditures. And I know we have increased expenditures in other areas as a result of the pandemic. I would also like to thank Heidi Scoble for putting so much work and communicating with me in particular, and I'm sure with others, specifically how to join this that. join this event on Zoom. So I think it's really important that we continue. I'd like to ask that this council continue to communicate with the public any, uh, perhaps more frequent venue. I don't know whether that violates Brown Act or the Brown Act is suspended. but to just keep us on track uh, from. our homes on what is happening with the city and city services. So I would appreciate that very much. Thanks again for all your work on putting this together. |
| 00:33:42.23 | Mayor Cleveland Knowles | Great, thank you, Sandra. And just for the public, I just wanna let everyone know that April 14th, the main item that we will be discussing during that meeting will be budget and implications from COVID-19. |
| 00:34:04.89 | Heidi Scoble | Okay, the next public commenter we have is Vicki. I'm going to unmute Vicki. And Vicki, can you hear us? |
| 00:34:21.01 | Unknown | I just... |
| 00:34:23.08 | Heidi Scoble | Okay. Vicki, can you hear us? |
| 00:34:31.79 | Heidi Scoble | Okay, oops. |
| 00:34:38.02 | Vicki Nichols | There, is that good? |
| 00:34:39.42 | Heidi Scoble | Thank you. |
| 00:34:39.45 | Vicki Nichols | Thank you. |
| 00:34:39.55 | Heidi Scoble | Yeah. |
| 00:34:39.71 | Vicki Nichols | Thank you. |
| 00:34:39.81 | Heidi Scoble | Thank you. |
| 00:34:39.84 | Vicki Nichols | Thank you, Vicki. Okay, thank you. No camera, please. |
| 00:34:40.48 | Heidi Scoble | Okay. |
| 00:34:43.89 | Vicki Nichols | I think. Good evening, Mayor Cleveland Knowles and council members. Um, I want to again, extend my thanks as everyone else has for providing this service for us. And I have just a quick comment. Um, on Abbott's great update. And that was related to Lilly's department. community development director, I noticed that the word existing was in building permits. and it said something like existing building permits would be processed electronically. Does that mean that no future, um, Applications can come in or they will be coming in or is there criteria if they're too large that they can't be and then we have to do it. And also at our last planning commission meeting, we agreed to recommend to the council one of the things would be extending the moratorium for ADUs and JADUs for another year. The council, because of this, was not able to take action I think that we all felt strongly about that and hope that that will still be able to apply I don't know if that can be I hope none are denied, I guess, during this. this emergency process. Thank you. |
| 00:36:02.26 | Mayor Cleveland Knowles | All right, thank you, Vicki. there any additional public comments? |
| 00:36:11.30 | Heidi Scoble | Mayor Cleveland Knowles, there are no public comments that have been received for this agenda item. |
| 00:36:16.40 | Mayor Cleveland Knowles | Okay, great. Maybe just before we head to our council members' comments, Does the city manager or planning director have an update on the ADU situation, it was my understanding that there would be no denials of permits while we're in this kind of interim phase before we are able to adopt the new regulations. |
| 00:36:44.36 | Adam Politzer | I'll start from the first part of the question. Um, We're processing all permits currently. So electronically, and we have the ability now to receive full sets of files. the ability to get everything queued up. So when we do start having our Planning Commission meetings You know these these items can be addressed by the Planning Commission and then to the council as appropriate. I'm not sure. In terms of the new order, kind of issuing the permit We're issuing. new building permits. We're going to suspend that. until the order is lifted. applications come through. for regular activity. We'll get it all queued up again all the way through the Planning Commission. And then once the order's lifted, then we will, Um, We will. provide those those permits. and move the process forward. I know the city attorney's on the line. Lilly is not, but she is standing by if we need her. maybe Mary can respond to the ADU, moratorium. |
| 00:37:56.96 | Lilly | Thank you. |
| 00:37:57.09 | Adam Politzer | and where that stands. |
| 00:37:57.11 | Lilly | Yeah. Thank you. I am here, if you can hear me. Oh. |
| 00:37:59.99 | Adam Politzer | So, Thank you. |
| 00:38:00.59 | Lilly | Yeah. |
| 00:38:00.65 | Adam Politzer | Thank you. Thank you. |
| 00:38:00.87 | Lilly | Yeah. |
| 00:38:01.16 | Adam Politzer | I'm not. Thank you. |
| 00:38:01.40 | Lilly | Thank you. Hi, hi there. Good evening, council members. So regarding the ADU amnesty question, I think I heard the mayor ask. Right now, so the deadline was today for submitting applications for the amnesty program. As staff didn't have any administrative ability to extend that program, we did relax the requirements for submitting amnesty permits, and so all we were requiring was that folks just fill out their contact information on the form and then submit the required fees and that got them in the queue for an amnesty adu permit we will be recommending at the appropriate time from my department that the council extend that program for a certain amount of time to deal with this delay regarding the pandemic |
| 00:38:56.05 | Mayor Cleveland Knowles | Great, thank you, Lily. And I think the other part of the question was whether any ADU permits would be denied that might otherwise be permitted under the ordinance that's making its way through the Planning Commission. and the city council. |
| 00:39:11.22 | Lilly | Sorry, I missed that part of the question. No, we will, we will be processing the ad new eight applications for new ad permits pursuant to this the state regulations that are in place right now. |
| 00:39:23.21 | Mayor Cleveland Knowles | great. Super, thank you. Great to hear your voice. Thank you. |
| 00:39:28.03 | Lilly | THE END OF THE END OF THE |
| 00:39:28.07 | Unknown | Thank you. |
| 00:39:28.32 | Lilly | you |
| 00:39:29.79 | Mayor Cleveland Knowles | PB, Sarah Silver, Okay, so now we've had public comment and i'll turn it over to Council members, if you have any concluding remarks or statements that you'd like to make. PB, Sarah Silver, Council member burns. |
| 00:39:48.18 | Ray Withy | Thank you, Mayor. Thank you all the staff. I know we've said a lot tonight, but this is so powerful. not just in the times that we are in, but for the ability for us to communicate this way, as well as with the community on an ongoing basis with the updates on our website to the next door updates. There's just so much information coming from every angle state, Um, federal, New York, which I guess we're a borough of New York now, and the county and the city, we're just, it's nonstop. And for us to be involved in that process and get our information out in real time as well has been such a great demonstration. So thank you all that have worked on that all the city employees that have been functional all the way down to the, to, You know, people on the streets, people in the building, people doing things. It means a lot to us as council. The community is really stepping up. There's been some really neat things that we've watched, whether it be howling or teddy bears, or as the mayor said, when you walk around, you do see people practicing social distancing. We're in this really unique time. And with transmission-based viruses and diseases, you are only as good as your weakest link. We have to all be strong and think of us before the eye because we have to come out of this with a long-term picture. and a long-term vision of of being safe and not just trying to you know, do something in the short term. So, and I know we're all approaching that. And I've been really impressed with our community in general, the way they have stepped up and taken this on. And I'm really proud of Sauce Leader right now. So thank you all. |
| 00:41:48.60 | Mayor Cleveland Knowles | Thank you. Councilmember Cox, would you like, do you have any comments? |
| 00:42:00.51 | Mayor Cleveland Knowles | Heidi, it looks like Joan is having trouble unmuting again. I'm not sure. |
| 00:42:04.68 | Joan Cox | Okay. |
| 00:42:05.00 | Mayor Cleveland Knowles | Can you hear me now? It says I'm muted by the host. Bye. We're not trying to do that. Thank you. |
| 00:42:13.04 | Joan Cox | Thank you. |
| 00:42:13.15 | Mayor Cleveland Knowles | Okay. |
| 00:42:13.37 | Joan Cox | Thank you. |
| 00:42:13.64 | Mayor Cleveland Knowles | Can you hear me now? |
| 00:42:13.88 | Joan Cox | hear me now. |
| 00:42:14.28 | Mayor Cleveland Knowles | Yeah. |
| 00:42:14.62 | Joan Cox | Thank you. |
| 00:42:14.72 | Mayor Cleveland Knowles | Thank you. |
| 00:42:14.76 | Joan Cox | Yes. I'm not going to comment further. I mistakenly made comments when I was supposed to ask questions. So I made my comments. Thank you all very much. Right? |
| 00:42:26.03 | Mayor Cleveland Knowles | Thank you. |
| 00:42:27.35 | Joan Cox | Thank you. |
| 00:42:27.36 | Mayor Cleveland Knowles | Councilmember Riley |
| 00:42:32.73 | Tom Riley | Thank you, Mayor. I just want to give another shout out to the staff. It dawned on me just two weeks ago that while we're all figuring out how to shelter at home, do our work from home, spend time with our families, Our staff were putting in 14, 16, 18 hour days. in working really hard keeping our city operating And I talked to many of them. And I can't thank you enough for the sacrifice you're making for our city. you're really delivering on your job. I wanna just comment on our city. My observations in over walking my dog every day is that our city is really stepping up to flatten the curve. And I know that every so often we hear about someone kind of pushing the edge, but for the most part, I think this city is really, really stepping up. Um, Councilmember Cox and Councilmember Burns, myself, participated on a Chamber of Commerce call yesterday with 40 businesses. I was so impressed to see the business community rallying together. and sharing ideas about how they can survive through this. Um, I, been able to participate in some of the volunteer programs. And I know that we have a lot of our citizens stepping up, volunteering. to help our seniors out, is tremendous. So my only comments are, I'm anxious for our next meeting. Um, I think our financial planning is, Priority number one. I almost worry about waiting till April 14th is gonna be too late for some of the decisions we need to make because of the, fiscal cliff that we're gonna be facing. I've given my input to staff But I think for the citizens on the phone, I, as well as I know the other city council members and staff are taking our fiscal responsibilities very, very seriously. And we will tackle them on April 14th and going forward. Thank you. |
| 00:44:28.34 | Mayor Cleveland Knowles | Great, thank you so much for those comments. Vice mayor Withy? |
| 00:44:32.29 | Joe Burns | Yeah, sure. I'm I'm in all of our residents and the discipline that we have taken difficult as it is really difficult to stay at home, you know? We, In general, the Bay Area has, which was the first to go through a lockdown, we the leadership of our health officers in the Bay Area, has given us the potential, and it's now made national news, you know, We have the potential of being the case study as to whether the social distancing is actually going to flatten the curve. And the very, very early preliminary data suggests that it might do, and we'll know within two or three weeks. So that is due to the sacrifice that our residents have taken and the sense of community that our residents and everybody in the Bay Area has taken to do this and so. On behalf of everybody, I mean, I'm thanking you all stay at home. You've got to stay at home And most of you are doing it. We may end up being a case study in how to do this, unfortunately. The second thing is our businesses. They're hurting. They're going to really hurt. And it's a great credit to our businesses that they are trying every way to find a way to support the community quite frankly, to stay alive in some cases. And I want to give a shout out to Julie Vera, our Chamber CEO, who's rallied the troops here and We are fortunate to have a group of people, a community that our community, part of our community, that is really working together to try and get us through this. And then thirdly, our staff. I've, we're going to talk a little bit later on about what we can all do. I've been spending a lot of time with colleagues in Marin and colleagues in the North Bay. talking to them about what their communities are doing. And all I can say is that the feedback I'm getting is the tremendous leadership that the city of Sausalito staff has taken throughout this to lead the way. Adam? You're doing a great job. you believe in team. It's a team effort, I know, and a team needs a coach and a leader, and you're providing it. And I have received through league and through MCCMC enormous compliments as to the leadership role that you're taking and your staff and your team is taking to help the Bay Area, the county of Marin through this. You're really the only city manager who's been through a crisis, the financial crisis of 2007-8. You're the only one there who's done it. And I thank you and the staff for your leadership very, very much. Thank you. Several of you have mentioned the fiscal cliff and crisis that we're gonna face. And there is no doubt that that's the case. What I've learned when you're in a situation like this You need analysis. You need rigor. You need urgency. And you need to make decisions that you are often not quite having all the information. You're gonna have to make decisions based on imperfect information, and we understand that. And so on the 14th, we're going to have to have some, you know, difficult conversations. And I know everybody's up for it. And so all the groups that I've mentioned, I thank you very, very much. And stay safe, everyone. |
| 00:49:39.55 | Mayor Cleveland Knowles | Great. Thank you, Vice Mayor Withy. And thank you, everybody, for all your amazing comments. There's not too much to add after all of that. But I just do want to recognize for everyone that this is a very uncertain time and that there are so many changes and new messages and terrible messages every day. And I know a lot of people are experiencing a lot of anxiety and I just want to say it's been amazing to see the positive, upbeat responses coming out of that in our community. And just the kind of acts of kindness and generosity and just messages of support that people have been sending is really heartwarming and wonderful to see. So I think our community is strong. I think we're coming together even as we distance ourselves, that the spirit is really shining through. So I wanna thank all of the people that are working so hard to make that happen. As the vice mayor said, our local businesses who are really, really suffering are still staying positive, residents who are also experiencing anxiety and not able to go out in the usual way are also staying positive And it's been great to have the support of city staff as well. I just would also like to echo that it is truly amazing what's happening in the Bay Area. right now at the county level. and the extreme coordination among the seven or eight Bay Area counties in issuing uniform strong public health orders It takes an amazing amount of coordination among the public health officers. And I think we should just be unbelievably thankful that we have such strong leadership at each county level that no one has broken ranks And all of the cities, including Sausalito, are falling in line. and striving for uniform application and enforcement Um, of the orders and the fact that the health officers have all worked together so hard on this is truly outstanding. So I want to thank. our county partners, especially. here in Marin County for their hard work and efforts to keep in line with the rest of the Bay Area so that we can react to this as one interconnected which we are obviously at this time. So I just having, you know, working by day and my job in San Francisco and working here with the Sausalito and Marin County. It's just been Truly amazing to see the level of coordination um, and response. So I am confident that we will get through this and both as a community, a small community here in Sausalito and also as a broader Bay Area community. So thank you for all that. And I think we can move on to the second item on our agenda. If there's no other comments from city council. Great. So Heidi, do you mind calling our next? Oh, I'm sorry. We need to accept this report, I think. Yes. So we are going to practice our |
| 00:52:52.57 | Heidi Scoble | There are. |
| 00:52:52.97 | Ray Withy | Thank you. |
| 00:52:59.43 | Heidi Scoble | you Yes. |
| 00:53:02.67 | Mayor Cleveland Knowles | Melanie Lawrence, MNC, Making motions, so if I could have a motion and a second to accept the staff report. |
| 00:53:10.33 | Ray Withy | I move to accept the staff report I second that. |
| 00:53:15.13 | Mayor Cleveland Knowles | Great so we have a motion by Council Member Burns and a second by Council Member Riley. Could the clerk please call the roll? |
| 00:53:23.46 | Heidi Scoble | Yes, Councilmember Riley. |
| 00:53:25.98 | Tom Riley | Yes. |
| 00:53:26.65 | Heidi Scoble | Councilmember Burns. |
| 00:53:28.20 | Tom Riley | Yes. |
| 00:53:29.22 | Heidi Scoble | Council member Cox. |
| 00:53:32.73 | Joan Cox | Yes. |
| 00:53:33.17 | Heidi Scoble | Thank you. VICE MAYOR WITHEE. Yes. Mayor Cleveland Knowles. |
| 00:53:37.89 | Mayor Cleveland Knowles | Yes, so that motion passes five to zero. And now we can move on to the second item on our agenda. |
| 00:53:45.76 | Heidi Scoble | The second item on the agenda is for council member updates and discussion on ways for the city council members to engage with the community during the COVID-19 epidemic. I will be providing just a brief staff report to the council. And the purpose of this agenda item is to give an opportunity for council members to provide updates on how they are engaging with the community, in addition to discussing other ways for the city council members to engage with the community during this epidemic. Since the executive order, Marin managers and city staff members have been brainstorming on ways to engage the community. keep them informed and let them know that there are resources out there that are available. I'd like to point out Abbott Chambers' constant updates to the website and the new microsite that he actually created today that provides a one-stop shop of local, state, and national information regarding this epidemic. So those are just some things that we have been implementing. However, there are some other ideas that have been identified and are identified as opportunities for consideration. The staff report identified potential opportunities such as business support messaging, encouraging people to sign up to vote by mail. Locally, we've identified hosting neighborhood meetings via Zoom, whereby council members can host local meetings for their neighborhoods. And there's the possibility of public polling, so we could elicit comments from the community members. So with that, staff is requesting that the council review the list of options and items that were listed in the staff report, as well as identify other opportunities to engage the community so with that i will conclude my presentation and you can open this up for discussion |
| 00:55:34.55 | Mayor Cleveland Knowles | Great, thank you very much. I think I know everybody has been hard at work. Um, doing a lot for the community already. And I think apropos of Sandra Bushmaker's comment earlier that it would be great if we can kind of divide off into ones or pairs to I do some smaller events and be out, so to speak, in the community. um, a little bit more. you know, I think we've already got some areas of specialty. I know that Joe and Tom have been working with our small business community. Um, doing that. Joan and to some extent myself have been advocating for our homeless and our anchor outs. And Ray, as he mentioned earlier, has been working very hard through the league. Um, to keep involved in what's going on kind of statewide. So I think these are great natural areas for all of us to continue. And I love some of the ideas that the staff have suggested in the staff report. So are there any suggestions that were not in the staff report that council members would like to add to the list before we start public comment? |
| 00:56:58.60 | Mayor Cleveland Knowles | don't see any hands raised but I will just call does anybody want to raise their hand no yes councilmember Cox um, |
| 00:57:07.97 | Joan Cox | I. I so appreciate the website that Abbott created. And I know that many of our regional leaders are holding town halls. Senator McGuire held one last Wednesday. He's holding another one tomorrow evening at 6. I think adding a list of those opportunities for public participation in regional as well as local updates would be helpful. |
| 00:57:35.37 | Mayor Cleveland Knowles | Great, thank you. Anyone else? Yes, Council Member Riley. |
| 00:57:43.37 | Tom Riley | I learned quite a bit on the Chamber of Commerce call yesterday with Councilmember Cox and Councilmember Burns. but I think that's a good question. And what I realized is that a lot of our businesses are Desiring more information. And a lot of this information happens to do with new legislation coming out of state and federal level. And I'm hoping that possibly with our general counsel maybe myself or Joe Burns We can help also get some of this information that's happening through legislation and help the council get that information to our businesses. The other one is also for many of our renters in town. I'm receiving lots of questions about the rent moratorium and what that means. And so maybe we can get just further information out to the community to help around that legislation as well. So those are my comments. |
| 00:58:34.18 | Mayor Cleveland Knowles | Great, thank you. Okay, seeing no other hands raised. Heidi, would you like to see if there's any public comment? |
| 00:58:46.99 | Heidi Scoble | Excuse me. At this time, members of the public may address the City Council regarding any items within this subject matter. Public comment will again be accepted via email and video audio audience participation. Again, you can email me at hscoble at Sausalito.gov. Again, Email comments received will be forwarded to the City Council members in real time, posted to the City's website, and placed in the permanent record. Video or audio public participation is limited to three minutes per speaker. If you would like to make a comment, please raise your hand in the Zoom application. And you will be called upon when it's your time to speak. Lastly, anyone who has not provided their comments by the close of the public comments portion of the meeting can email their comments to hscoble at saucelido.gov, and their comments will be included in the public record. At this time, it does not appear as though we have any hands raised, and there are no members of the public that would like to provide comment. |
| 01:00:05.46 | Unknown | Thank you. She has a unmute herself. |
| 01:00:16.39 | Mayor Cleveland Knowles | I'm sorry, I was muted. Okay. So I was just looking at some of the ideas on the staff report page. And I really think some of the use of video you know, brief video updates from some of us that we could circulate in occurrence and then would be a resource on the great webpage that Abbott has, um, Karen Hollweg, created could be really helpful, and I think if Council Member Riley and Council Member burns are already. kind of getting up to speed on some of these small business opportunities that might be a great opportunity for doing a video message and helping Abbott keep our webpage populated. with any of the most recent updates from the legislature. that'd be something you'd be willing to do? with you. |
| 01:01:15.74 | Ray Withy | Yes, and in comments, I'll go a little further on something as well. |
| 01:01:19.37 | Mayor Cleveland Knowles | Okay. |
| 01:01:20.22 | Ray Withy | Yes, ma'am. |
| 01:01:21.95 | Mayor Cleveland Knowles | Right. And I think the same, Ray, for some of them, Joan, are you still working on the legislative committee? Thank you. |
| 01:01:29.11 | Joan Cox | I am. And as a part of my job, I prepare daily |
| 01:01:29.12 | Mayor Cleveland Knowles | I am. |
| 01:01:34.93 | Joan Cox | updates and overview summaries of each day's legislation. |
| 01:01:40.03 | Mayor Cleveland Knowles | Great. So maybe it would be great if you and Ray can coordinate on what is happening statewide and maybe do a Some video presentations, you can divide the issues as you see appropriate, but just to keep our local residents up to speed on some of the state efforts, would that be something you'd be willing to do? I'd be happy to do that. |
| 01:02:05.63 | Joe Burns | That'd be great. |
| 01:02:07.23 | Mayor Cleveland Knowles | Great. Good, and then I would definitely like to, in response to Council Member Riley's question, I address some of the landlord tenant issues that are recurring and the resources for both landlords and tenants during this time. So that is something I'd be happy to work on in cooperation with anyone else that's Okay, great, council member Burns raised, literally raised his hand, so that's great. Thank you. Okay, well, I will, why don't we go around to everyone and see what other Great ideas you have. I did like the idea of some kind of a poll just to check in on in on our residents and see how we can better help them during this time. I thought that was a good idea as well. Um, Councilmember Burns, should I start with you? |
| 01:03:01.67 | Ray Withy | Thank you, Mayor. Yeah, getting back to kind of the rental and then as we get into this mortgage relief, those are some of the things that I'm looking at through my day job as well. Um, We have, you know, putting that in two categories with real estate as a group on what we can do in the market right now, but then also the information that we can bring to a community like some of the tenant and mortgage opportunities. So I will continue to try to, I've reached out to a lot of my clients, both in and out of the community, but we'll try to put something together for Saucelib as well and be happy to work with you on that. Another area that I have used personally during this time is, as mentioned in here, the Zoom. Chris Warnes, component for happy hours and they are a lot of fun it's more than just a happy hour, it is a time. to connect with people you might not have otherwise connected with or haven't in a while. I've used professionally, but more personally as well with old fraternity friends to people that live out of the area. And my next step, and I encourage everybody to do this, is to just send an email to 10 community members. that we know and just say, hey, do you want to have a happy hour on Tuesday night? And if you do the basic package of Zoom, without paying, it's 40 minutes. And if you pay the $15 a month, which is nothing, you get unlimited. You can just check in with some people and put a, put a fun group, eclectic group of people together. You know, some people that live in different areas that come to us in different, um, ways. And just that communication alone It kind of spreads, the old alpha beta. They tell a friend and they tell a friend. Um, using the tools that we do have in front of us now that we didn't know were tools for us in the past. they're there for our taking and I think we should utilize them as we reach out in the community. |
| 01:05:03.37 | Mayor Cleveland Knowles | Great, thank you. Our council member Riley. |
| 01:05:09.93 | Tom Riley | Thank you, Mayor. And I realized during this conversation, we do have some great assets on the city council. Council Member Cox and the work she does every day. can have some valuable information for our residents. And I would love to see You know, a video, just what you're learning, Joan, for our businesses and residents. Constable Burns, with your real estate background, also understanding these issues is amazing. Um, |
| 01:05:35.99 | Mayor Cleveland Knowles | Bye. |
| 01:05:36.45 | Tom Riley | I think, you know, With Council Member Burns and I assigned to working with the hospitality committee and We need to start planning now. for a recovery. And we need to start getting creative about how we as a city can help our businesses recover. The last thing we want to see is all of Bridgeway in Caledonia with four lease signs. We need to keep these businesses viable and we need to help them in a recovery. We need to come up with creative ways. |
| 01:06:06.92 | Tom Riley | I mean, everyone in the country is itching to travel when this thing's done. We need to make sure that Sausalito is a place that they're traveling to. And we gotta think about how we can help them. So that's where I hope to devote some of my time in working Thank you. |
| 01:06:24.72 | Mayor Cleveland Knowles | Great, thank you, Councilmember Cox. |
| 01:06:30.63 | Mayor Cleveland Knowles | Erika Endrijonas, heidi Councilmember Cox's needs to be unmuted. Thank you. |
| 01:06:36.22 | Joan Cox | Can you hear me now? |
| 01:06:37.41 | Mayor Cleveland Knowles | Thank you. |
| 01:06:37.47 | Joan Cox | Yep. |
| 01:06:37.74 | Mayor Cleveland Knowles | Thank you. |
| 01:06:39.07 | Joan Cox | I'll endorse what council member Riley said. It was illuminating to attend virtually the Chamber of Commerce meeting yesterday and to hear firsthand how some of our local businesses are already struggling and planning for what they know will be an even bigger struggle. It was also heartwarming to hear some of the actions taken by some of our local landlords already to provide relief on commercial rentals and to work with commercial tenants who are facing tough times. Another resource and the executive director of the Chamber of Commerce, Julie Vieira, has lots of experience working with the Small Business Administration and is assisting the members and non-members of the chamber with efforts to get small business administration loans and other assistance. But there's also a whole department within the White House devoted to small businesses. When I was a mayor I had an opportunity to go to the White House and meet some of the department heads. And so I'd like us also to tap that resource and make that available to our residents and more than anything provide an information tree so that they what is available to them. Both are... residents with their personal homes as well as our merchants with their commercial leases and their commercial businesses. |
| 01:08:16.47 | Mayor Cleveland Knowles | Great, thank you. Vice mayor with me. |
| 01:08:20.50 | Joe Burns | Yeah, I, well, I absolutely endorse everything that's been said so far by my colleagues. It's interesting. This has shown us how, as a community, all the different stakeholders are synergized together and need to work together. And this has come through more than anything else, I think. I really thank those who are focusing on our local businesses because they're going to need major, major help. and we've got to think through what we can do there. Personally, I'm working on two fronts. The first is as the vice president of the North Bay Division of the League, California Cities, I'm participating in a lot of interactions. I'm, to be honest, I'm sort of zoomed out, to be honest. But what we can do is really bring back to the community and also tell the audience, leaders, both at the state level and the national level, what needs to be done for the local community. I mean, the last relief stimulus package essentially did zero for small governments like us. And we are determined to make sure that changes. We need help. And I'm committed to working with the League to make sure that Sausalito and small communities like Sausalito get some of the help that at the moment, organizations in the big cities are getting. at the local level, I am committed to help in any way I can with our fiscal issues. As is discussed by a number of my colleagues here tonight, we are facing a a cliff, a wall, whatever analogy you want to use, there are some serious, serious issues we've got to confront. And I've committed to help staff in any way I can with the skills I could possibly bring to the table to help get us through this time. We're in a strong position. But no small community, no small enterprise can really We've got some challenges and we've got to confront them. So I'm committed to help that. So at the state level and at the very local level, I'm trying to do what I can to make sure that we can get through this, which I'm convinced we can do. |
| 01:11:43.24 | Mayor Cleveland Knowles | Great, thank you. We just really have an amazing group here at the city council level. I'm really honored to be able to work with all of you this year. I don't think we realized what a challenging year it was going to be. Just a couple weeks ago, we were at our strategic planning session, brainstorming all the zillions of great things we were going to do, and now Yeah, I think our biggest challenge is going to be our fiscal responsibilities this year and how We can Conserve our resources and act responsibly and support our residents, both our small businesses, but also our residents who are unemployed and challenged because of the massive impact of COVID-19 on the economy. So it's going to be a challenging I Next week, next month and year for all of us to work together. But I couldn't think of a better team to be working with and, um, Looking forward to supporting our city manager and getting through this time with the rest of staff. So I think that concludes this. I would like to say if any city council members have opportunities, more opportunities that they learn about, or other ideas for engaging with our community, please reach out to me or to the city manager make sure that we can coordinate our efforts and get as much information and support and words of encouragement out to the community as we can. Before we conclude, I just had a couple of thanks that I had neglected, and then just a few words about what's kind of next. two groups that I think we all forgot to mention, but one I would just really like to thank our local school community. Both my kids have been learning online steadily since this crisis started and the, Teachers. both in the Tam High Union School District and the Sausalito Marin City School District have just been absolutely amazing getting organized and getting all of the kids in their classes online and learning as this crisis has unfolded. It's just been really amazing to see how quickly they were able to mobilize. And then I'd also just like to thank the people who have been staffing our local grocery outlets just tirelessly. and organizing everyone's shopping and We really are so lucky to have so many great food outlets here in town. And I know it's stressful to be working and out with the public at this time. And then lastly, I mentioned our great clerk, but I forgot to mention our IT team and Russ Jaycox, who has really been supporting Heidi and all of us in being able to... be able to be here tonight and to communicate. And he has just worked tirelessly to make sure that this can all happen. So, and Serge Avila as well, backing up our Clark. So thank you for all of those, to those people as well. And then what's next? I think we've already talked about our next meeting will be our regularly scheduled meeting for April 14th. I realize that does seem like a long time away, but we also did want to make sure that our finance staff wasn't rushed and has a little bit of time to get the benefit of some forecasting and assumptions that are coming out to be able to put together a good presentation for us. So I think we will next gather on the 14th. And we are also in the process of trying to get our planning commission. So I think we will next gather on the 14th. And we are also in the process of trying to get our planning commission back up and running for their meeting on the 15th. And if all of these meetings go well, and we've gotten some great public participation tonight, I think we've had nine or 10 members of the public online with us tonight and others probably watching just the streaming. But if we can get that up, then we can talk about gradually getting the rest of our boards and commissions started again. So with that, does anybody else have any parting Comments? |
| 01:16:27.70 | Joe Burns | Well, Madam Mayor, I would just like to, on behalf of everybody, thank you for your leadership tonight. You've done a great job, so thank you. |
| 01:16:40.61 | Ray Withy | Absolutely. Thank you, Vice Mayor, for saying that. And I think she's done an incredible job keeping these meetings before 10 o'clock. I don't know what the goal is. Joe in my records. |
| 01:16:54.57 | Mayor Cleveland Knowles | Even so. Well, thank you. It's been a great first meeting, and I think this was a... a good way to get started. So I look forward to seeing everyone on the 14th. And Heidi, do you wanna close our meeting out? Bye. |
| 01:17:11.31 | Heidi Scoble | Before we close our meeting out, we will need you to ask for a motion to file and receive agenda item 1B, and then I will take a roll call. |
| 01:17:20.88 | Mayor Cleveland Knowles | I'm sorry. |
| 01:17:20.89 | Ray Withy | Thank you. |
| 01:17:20.93 | Mayor Cleveland Knowles | Thank you. |
| 01:17:21.03 | Ray Withy | Yeah. I'm not going to be a second. |
| 01:17:24.13 | Mayor Cleveland Knowles | Okay, that motion was made by Council Member Cox and seconded by Council Member Burns. Will you call the roll? |
| 01:17:24.17 | Heidi Scoble | Okay. |
| 01:17:24.55 | Ray Withy | Yeah. |
| 01:17:32.03 | Heidi Scoble | Yes Councilmember Riley. Yes. Councilmember Burns. Yes. Councilmember Cox. |
| 01:17:36.99 | Ray Withy | Yes. |
| 01:17:39.08 | Heidi Scoble | Yes, vice mayor withy. Yes. Mayor Cleveland Knowles. |
| 01:17:40.91 | Joe Burns | Yes. |
| 01:17:41.28 | Ray Withy | Thank you. |
| 01:17:42.95 | Heidi Scoble | Yes. So you can officially adjourn the meeting and I will end it. |
| 01:17:47.49 | Mayor Cleveland Knowles | Okay, actually, I think we need to say that motion carries five zero. Yes. |
| 01:17:50.09 | Heidi Scoble | Thank you. |
| 01:17:50.61 | Ray Withy | Thank you. |
| 01:17:52.31 | Mayor Cleveland Knowles | All right, everybody have a good evening and stay safe. Thank you. Thank you, everybody. Good night. |
| 01:17:54.85 | Ray Withy | Thank you. Thank you. |
Sandra Bushmaker — Neutral: Appreciated the virtual meeting capability, requested agendizing discussion on reduced city expenditures due to revenue losses, and urged more frequent communication with the public during the pandemic. ▶ 📄
Vicki Nichols — Neutral: Asked for clarification on processing of building permits (existing vs. new) and status of ADU/JADU moratorium extension, hoping no permits are denied during the emergency. ▶ 📄