| Time | Speaker | Text |
|---|---|---|
| 00:00:10.26 | Heidi Scoble | 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 through Zoom and is being broadcasted, broadcast live on the city's website and on cable TV channel 27. |
| 00:00:39.72 | Heidi Scoble | At this time, it is time for the mayor's welcome. |
| 00:00:55.41 | Heidi Scoble | Mayor Cleveland Knowles, are you able to hear us? |
| 00:01:07.80 | Heidi Scoble | Mayor Cleveland Knowles, are you able to hear us? |
| 00:01:07.94 | Unknown | Mayor Cleveland Knowles, are you able to hear us? Yes. |
| 00:01:13.76 | Heidi Scoble | At this time it is your time to provide the welcome. |
| 00:01:13.79 | Unknown | At this time it is your time to provide the welcome. |
| 00:01:17.45 | Heidi Scoble | Thank you. |
| 00:01:17.47 | Unknown | and then, |
| 00:01:17.54 | Heidi Scoble | Thank you. |
| 00:01:17.56 | Unknown | Thank you. |
| 00:01:17.57 | Heidi Scoble | Thank you. |
| 00:01:22.77 | Mayor Cleveland Knowles | Okay, good evening and welcome to the April 14 city council meeting. Will the clerk please call the roll. |
| 00:01:30.75 | Heidi Scoble | Councilmember Riley Council member Burns. THE END OF THE END OF THE Excuse me, Councilmember Riley? |
| 00:01:39.69 | Councilmember Riley | Councilmember Riley I am happy to be virtually present. Council member Burns. |
| 00:01:44.57 | Heidi Scoble | Councilmember Burns. |
| 00:01:45.95 | Unknown | Thank you. |
| 00:01:46.65 | Councilmember Cox | Sure. |
| 00:01:47.46 | Heidi Scoble | Councilmember Cox. Councilmember Cox. |
| 00:01:49.28 | Councilmember Cox | here. |
| 00:01:50.21 | Heidi Scoble | Vice Mayor Whibbey. |
| 00:01:50.46 | Councilmember Cox | Vice Mayor Whitty. Thank you. |
| 00:01:52.01 | Vice Mayor Whibbey | Thank you. |
| 00:01:52.03 | Heidi Scoble | Thank you. |
| 00:01:52.05 | Vice Mayor Whibbey | here. |
| 00:01:52.42 | Heidi Scoble | Thank you. |
| 00:01:52.44 | Vice Mayor Whibbey | Thank you. |
| 00:01:52.74 | Heidi Scoble | Mayor Cleveland Knowles. |
| 00:01:52.99 | Mayor Cleveland Knowles | Mayor Cleveland Knowles. Yeah. |
| 00:01:55.98 | Heidi Scoble | All members are present and there is a quorum. |
| 00:01:56.40 | Mayor Cleveland Knowles | PEOPLE. and there is a quorum. Great, thank you very much. So good evening everyone. And I hope everyone is healthy and well as we start our fifth week of sheltering at home. |
| 00:02:08.26 | Unknown | Thank you. |
| 00:02:10.71 | Mayor Cleveland Knowles | So I will ask the clerk to call agenda item 2A, please. |
| 00:02:18.37 | Heidi Scoble | The first item on the agenda The first item on the agenda is a special presentation from Abbott Chambers, the city librarian and director of communications regarding a COVID-19 update. Abbott will be providing the presentation this evening. |
| 00:02:23.33 | Mayor Cleveland Knowles | I know. |
| 00:02:23.75 | Unknown | Bye. |
| 00:02:23.92 | Mayor Cleveland Knowles | I'm here. |
| 00:02:23.97 | Unknown | agenda is a special presentation from Abbott Chambers, the city librarian. Director of Communications. |
| 00:02:30.49 | Mayor Cleveland Knowles | Thank you. |
| 00:02:30.57 | Unknown | at COVID. |
| 00:02:31.10 | Mayor Cleveland Knowles | Thank you. |
| 00:02:31.15 | Unknown | THE FAMILY IS NOT |
| 00:02:31.21 | Mayor Cleveland Knowles | Thank you. |
| 00:02:31.23 | Unknown | 19. |
| 00:02:31.69 | Mayor Cleveland Knowles | update. Abbott will be providing the presentation this evening. Thank you. |
| 00:02:35.38 | Heidi Scoble | Thank you. |
| 00:02:38.40 | Mayor Cleveland Knowles | Great, thank you, Abbott. |
| 00:02:38.56 | Heidi Scoble | Thank you. |
| 00:02:40.92 | Vice Mayor Whibbey | Good evening Madam Mayor and members of the Council. I'm Abid Chambers, your city librarian and director of communications. And I'm here to present a COVID-19 update. Tonight's update builds upon previous updates that I gave to the city council on March 17th and March 31st. |
| 00:02:59.53 | Unknown | Thank you. |
| 00:03:03.78 | Vice Mayor Whibbey | All right, my clicker is not working. Hold on a sec. Okay, there we go. As far as what I'll be covering, I'm going to review the Marin County public health orders that are currently in effect. I'm going to provide an update on school closures. |
| 00:03:19.19 | Unknown | Thank you. |
| 00:03:20.00 | Vice Mayor Whibbey | I'll talk a little bit about the current recommendations on face covering. I'll discuss the milestones identified by public health officials for shelter at home to be partially lifted. and they'll provide a status update for Sausalito. At the end, staff will be happy to answer any questions. I'd also like to mention that you can find More COVID-19 news and resources on the city's website at Saucelito.gov slash COVID-19. |
| 00:03:50.83 | Vice Mayor Whibbey | So I think it's in Marin County are currently under a shelter at home order that was issued by public official health officers of seven Bay Area jurisdictions. The original order covered March 17th through April 7th. It was revised on March 31st to continue through May 3rd. The shelter at home order mandates social distancing. It limits operations of essential businesses to their essential components. prohibits the use of playgrounds, dog parks, and ball courts. and it prohibits most construction activities. |
| 00:04:26.71 | Vice Mayor Whibbey | Another public health order currently in effect is the closure of parks, Marin Parks, to motorized access. This basically means that you can use a park if you can either walk to it or bike to it. We're also under a public health emergency isolation order. That's for those diagnosed with or likely to have COVID-19. The duration for isolation is seven days from the onset of first symptoms and three days without fever. In addition, there's a public health emergency quarantine order That's for those who have had close contact with someone with COVID-19. The duration of the quarantine is for 14 days for that individual. From when they last were in close contact with the person with COVID-19. And last but not least, we're under a ban on short-term rentals of fewer than 30 days. Not so much of an issue for Sausalito since we already banned such rentals. School closures, schools were first closed on March 16th. On March 25th, that was extended to May 1st. And then again on April 7th, extended through the end of the school year. Our schools do continue to provide instruction through distance learning. We're also following guidance from Marin Health and Human Services on face covering. The guidance was issued on April 3rd. It reads in part, it is recommended that a face covering should be worn anytime a person is outside of their home. The guidance does note that this is not meant as a substitute for other means of reducing the spread of COVID-19, such as social distancing, hand washing, not touching your face. Cloth masks are acceptable to wear. N95 masks and medical grade PPE should be donated to hospitals and first responders. And just yesterday, Sonoma County issued a public health order taking it a step further and mandating face coverings effective this Friday. This could be a sign of things to come for Marin, though we don't have any news one way or the other, whether this is being considered for our county. that public health order from Sonoma reads in part all persons shall wear facial coverings before they enter any indoor facility besides their residence any enclosed open space or while outdoor order from Sonoma reads in part all persons shall wear facial coverings before they enter any indoor facility besides their residence any enclosed open space or while outdoors when the person is unable to maintain a six foot distance from another person at all times. I'd also like to note that the Sausalito Police Department is running low on PPE supplies. If you do have extra N95 or surgical masks, protective eyewear, latex gloves, hand sanitizer, or disinfecting wipes, it would be great if you could donate them. They can send someone out for a no contact pickup at your home. So I think a big question on all of our minds is how much longer are we going to be sheltering at home? There's no definite answer from our public health officers, and they are being justifiably cautious in making any pronouncements. Dr. Sarah Cody is the public health officer for Santa Clara County and has been a spokesperson for all of the regional public health officers in relation to the shelter at home order. She said at a recent meeting of the Santa Clara County Board of Supervisors that four criteria will need to be met before the stay-at-home order can begin to be lifted for the Bay Area. And those consist of robust hospital capacity, which means that we have enough beds if there happens to be a surge in COVID-19 cases. Also that there's enough PPE for medical personnel. that we have the ability to test for the virus broadly so that anyone who's showing any symptoms can be tested and isolated quickly. the ability to rapidly investigate new cases so that once someone has been identified as having COVID-19, their close contacts can be quarantined, tracked down and quarantined as well. And then on number four, a sustained reduction in new coronavirus cases. Governor Gavin Newsom today released his own list of six criteria. It pretty much overlaps with what Dr. Cody has said, but adds a few other elements. The ability to develop therapeutics to meet the demand, ability for businesses, schools, and childcare facilities to support physical distancing. the ability to determine when to reinstitute certain measures such as the stay-at-home orders if necessary. And Gavin Newsom in his comments upon making the announcement included the caveat to us that even when stay-at-home ends, it's not just going to stop, that it's likely to be phased out the same way it was phased in. The article on CNBC says, even once the stay-at-home order is lifted, Newsom said society won't snap back to normal. For example, he said restaurants will likely have to limit capacity and face coverings in public will likely be common. There's no light switch here. It's more like a dimmer, he said at a news briefing. normal. And the thoughts on the vaccine are that we're looking at 12 to 18 months out. |
| 00:09:57.62 | Vice Mayor Whibbey | So moving on to a status update for Sausalito, our police and fire departments continue to respond to all calls for service. They have protocols in place to limit the possible exposure of COVID-19, such as in the lovely photos below taken by Officer Nick White, wearing cloth face coverings inside the headquarters of the police station, and wearing N95 masks when out in the field. Our police officers are on foot patrol talking with our businesses and residents and educating the community by addressing compliance issues face to face. Moving to building and construction. All construction projects in Sausalito are not considered essential, have been shut down. Essential would be things like infrastructure projects, residential projects that are essential to the health and welfare of the occupants, like plumbing or a broken furnace. The Community Development Department will not be approving any more non-essential building projects. However, the Building and Planning Divisions continue to accept new permit applications and process existing permit applications to the point of issuance. And most of the submittals and tracking is taking place on the city of Sausalito's website through our permanent project center, also known as e-track Looking at parks and playgrounds, playgrounds, ball courts and the dog park are all closed. The open spaces of our parks remain open for use for those following social distancing. And the city's public bathrooms are open with more frequent cleaning by city personnel. moving to social services mobile showers and grab and go food bags are continuing to be offered twice per week at marineship park and there are other food options for those in need and you can find those listed on the city's website Age-friendly Sausalito is providing food delivery and other services for seniors and people with a disability through Calleride for Sausalito seniors or CARS. And that's a photo of CARS volunteer Christina Wallander And in the adjacent slide, you'll see the phone number that can be called to arrange for car service. like also to add that the city has begun efforts to reach out to isolated individuals who may be outside the loop of community organizations and city communications. The Sauceligo Library and Sauceligo Parks and Recreation have been offering virtual programs for people sheltering at home. On the left there is a screenshot of a library program from last week. Library assistant Tula Biederman doing a tutorial on e-books for Sauceligo Village. And on the right, a video. that is posted on the new virtual rec room on the Parks and Recreation website, and that's a belly dance fusion warm-up. Thank you. Public meetings like tonight's now being held virtually the first virtual planning Commission meeting will be held on April 15 also on zoom and additional board and Commission meetings will follow. That concludes my presentation. Staff are available to answer any questions. |
| 00:13:19.40 | Mayor Cleveland Knowles | Great, thank you very much Abbott again, as always, for a very thorough and informative presentation. Um, I will ask each council member if you have any questions for Abbott. I'll start with Joe Burns, council member. |
| 00:13:36.39 | Vice Mayor Whibbey | Thank you. |
| 00:13:36.43 | Councilmember Riley | Council member. Thank you. Thanks, Abby. |
| 00:13:39.01 | Mayor Cleveland Knowles | I have number Riley. |
| 00:13:42.53 | Councilmember Riley | No questions. Thank you, Abbott, for a great presentation. |
| 00:13:47.31 | Mayor Cleveland Knowles | Councilman, |
| 00:13:48.04 | Councilmember Cox | cock. |
| 00:13:51.83 | Councilmember Cox | Thank you, no questions. Great presentation, Abbott, very informative. |
| 00:13:55.75 | Councilmember Burns | THANK YOU. |
| 00:13:58.09 | Councilmember Cox | How do you... |
| 00:13:58.31 | Mayor Cleveland Knowles | Thank you. Thank you. Great, Council Member Withey, Vice Mayor Withey. |
| 00:14:03.66 | Vice Mayor Withey | No, thank you very much Abbott for that presentation. I'm still amazed at how um, uh, effective our social distancing is and thank all the residents for Um, doing their bit as well as all of our volunteers who are helping out so thank you. |
| 00:14:25.04 | Mayor Cleveland Knowles | Great, I did have one question. There's been a lot of news in Oakland and around the country about the advantages and disadvantages of closing streets or widening sidewalks to allow more social distancing for all of the people who are able to take advantage of the fact that we can still exercise by and run. And I don't know if Chief Vorabacher is on the line or if anybody can comment on whether that might be something we could pursue here in Tessaledo. |
| 00:15:09.46 | Chief Vorabacher | So Mayor, this is Chief Weurbacher. I'm on the line. See that? |
| 00:15:16.72 | Mayor Cleveland Knowles | Yes, welcome. We can see you and hear you. |
| 00:15:19.53 | Chief Vorabacher | Great, thank you. So I can comment on that just a little bit It has come up from not only yourself, but a couple of members of the community Looking to maybe have a little bit more social distancing room as they use our city streets and sidewalks. to get their exercise. It does pose a couple of challenges for us that might be a little bit different than what you see like over in the city of Oakland We who are a smaller city and has a little bit less streets to use in that fashion. So for us, it might simply be focusing those efforts on Bridgeway or Caledonia But, working together with Kevin McGowan, Director of Public Works. We'll take a look and see what you know, might be able to be done with that. I'm concerned about leaving enough room for emergency vehicle response and separating pedestrians from vehicles. It's always my concern that there more of a barrier rather than sharing you know, the same, I think that's a good thing. piece of street So we're going to take a close look at it, though. We started that discussion yesterday, and we'll continue the next day or so. and then get back with you to that. |
| 00:16:36.55 | Mayor Cleveland Knowles | Great, thank you. We had a couple of good suggestions from residents, one of which was having sort of a one way directional walking and running on each side of the street. So that everybody you know, going northbound would be on one side of the street and everyone coming southbound would be on another. Just to keep passing so many people or crowding. So I think there are perhaps some ideas and then another is possible one way. traffic on Caledonia. But in any case, I think there are some good ideas out there that might be worth pursuing, especially if the shelter is going to use. be extended. Okay, so no other council member questions. I will turn it over to the clerk to see if there's any public comment on this item. |
| 00:17:31.06 | Heidi Scoble | Thank you, Mayor Cleveland Knowles. Before we get into the public comment, we had some technical difficulties at the beginning of the meeting, and I'm just going to read a brief statement into the record regarding this meeting. This meeting is being held pursuant to Section 3 of Executive Order N-29-20, issued by Governor Newsom on March 17th. 2020, and all members are joining this meeting telephonically through Zoom, and is being broadcast live on the city's website and on cable cable TV channel 27. So at this time, members of the public may address the City Council regarding Agenda Item 2A. Public comment will be accepted by video or audio audience participation via Zoom. Video or audio public comment 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. 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 time has expired. I will look to see if there are any raised hands. Seeing none, there are no public comments regarding, oh, regarding this item. Thank you. Oh, sorry, excuse me. It looks like Sandra Bushmaker has raised her hand. So I will ask Sandra to start her video or Sandra, would you like to? Hold on. Let's unmute her. there is a slight delay as well. Sandra, would you like to share your video or your or just see her. Okay. |
| 00:19:11.92 | Sandra Bushmaker | Right. |
| 00:19:12.04 | Councilmember Cox | Thank you. |
| 00:19:12.05 | Sandra Bushmaker | Bye. |
| 00:19:12.19 | Councilmember Cox | Thanks. |
| 00:19:12.26 | Sandra Bushmaker | Thank you. |
| 00:19:12.29 | Councilmember Cox | Thank you. |
| 00:19:12.32 | Sandra Bushmaker | Thank you. |
| 00:19:12.39 | Councilmember Cox | Thank you. |
| 00:19:12.41 | Sandra Bushmaker | Thank you. |
| 00:19:12.44 | Councilmember Cox | I'm not sure. |
| 00:19:12.68 | Sandra Bushmaker | Thank you. |
| 00:19:12.69 | Councilmember Cox | Thank you. |
| 00:19:13.93 | Sandra Bushmaker | Yes, I have a good evening, everybody. Thanks for putting this meeting together. I really appreciate it. Can you make it louder? |
| 00:19:19.21 | Heidi Scoble | Thank you. |
| 00:19:19.26 | Councilmember Cox | Thank you. |
| 00:19:19.28 | Heidi Scoble | you make it last. |
| 00:19:22.35 | Sandra Bushmaker | I really appreciate being able to have a meeting like this. So good evening, everybody, council. And I would like to raise an issue that has come to my attention, and I personally observed it. I noticed that Lappert's ice cream is open in downtown Sausalito and that there are a lot of tourists who are out there and bicyclists who are eating ice cream cones. |
| 00:19:40.79 | Unknown | and I think that's a great question. |
| 00:19:46.46 | Unknown | THE FAMILY. |
| 00:19:47.46 | Sandra Bushmaker | Do we have any comments or guidelines for this activity? As it seems to be uh, I'm going to say annoying, excuse my dog, annoying, the residents who are trying to do the social distancing and are finding crowds on Bridgeway in the downtown area. |
| 00:20:11.45 | Mayor Cleveland Knowles | Great, thank you. Heidi, is there any other public comments? |
| 00:20:17.31 | Heidi Scoble | It does not appear as though we have any additional public comment. |
| 00:20:23.79 | Mayor Cleveland Knowles | Okay, and we can, I do know that Lappert's is open and I think they are, eating establishment under the code. I don't know if our community is here and can verify that. |
| 00:20:43.14 | Mayor Cleveland Knowles | here, I believe that ice cream |
| 00:20:45.04 | Councilmember Cox | are included, but I can take a quick look to verify. But is it for people to go personally in or to pick up to go orders? It's all for to-go orders. This is not the way that's operating. There are people lined up going into the store, |
| 00:20:58.87 | Unknown | Woo! |
| 00:21:03.92 | Councilmember Cox | purchasing. wears at the counter. And then the owner, um, earlier this week posted on Facebook that he thinks he had COVID-19. So, But he's worried that he might contract it again. I think that in Maintaining social distancing is really important for all of our residents and our businesses. |
| 00:21:32.59 | Mayor Cleveland Knowles | Okay, well, why don't we leave that to Lily and her team to follow up on. And I think if there's no other public comment, can we close public comment on this matter? |
| 00:21:46.87 | Heidi Scoble | Oh, it looks like Colleen Wickwire has just raised her hand. Okay. So let me unmute Colleen. I calling but would you like to have your audio or video shown while you speak. |
| 00:22:02.19 | Colleen Wickwire | Yeah, can you hear me? |
| 00:22:03.98 | Heidi Scoble | Yes. Would you like your video as well or just audio? |
| 00:22:07.30 | Colleen Wickwire | Um, audio is great. Thank you. |
| 00:22:09.51 | Heidi Scoble | Okay, perfect. You may now speak. |
| 00:22:12.09 | Colleen Wickwire | So I just wanted to, I also had concerns and my same question was, Just about, you know, obviously with the warmer weather, you're seeing more people come over. to Sausalito from San Francisco and other areas, and I know You know, Santa Cruz recently took action to start finding $1,000 a pop for people that came from Fremont. I think just more guidelines around sheltering in place. per the city, does that mean that people from San Francisco or other towns can come here and walk around, shop, eat ice cream. |
| 00:23:02.18 | Mayor Cleveland Knowles | Okay, thank you. Heidi, is there any additional public comments? |
| 00:23:07.91 | Heidi Scoble | There is no additional public comment |
| 00:23:12.35 | Mayor Cleveland Knowles | Okay, I don't know Abbott if you want to comment on the scope of the order or if that's not within your I have expertise. |
| 00:23:21.99 | Vice Mayor Whibbey | I think that's outside of my expertise. |
| 00:23:25.23 | Mayor Cleveland Knowles | Okay. I know that our police department is actively, um, patrolling in town and if there are businesses that are out of compliance, that they are addressing those issues. Um, So Chief Vorbacher will just ask not this evening, but at some point to look into these issues. |
| 00:23:52.03 | Mayor Cleveland Knowles | Okay, if there's no further public comment, we can move on to action minutes of previous meetings. |
| 00:23:58.57 | Heidi Scoble | Yeah. It appears as though Colleen Wickwire has raised her hand again. Would you like to accept this comment or wait until there's another opportunity for her to speak? |
| 00:24:09.83 | Mayor Cleveland Knowles | So, just to, um, go over the rules about how we normally run our meetings. I know this is a little unusual because we are doing it by Zoom. but on each agenda item, every member of the public has up to three minutes to comment once. So, you people who have commented once on this item, you've had your time to public comment. And then if you'd like to comment on other agenda items later in the meeting, you're perfectly willing to do that. So thank you very much. We appreciate your participation. I think we can move on. |
| 00:24:47.28 | Unknown | health. |
| 00:24:49.45 | Mayor Cleveland Knowles | Thank you. |
| 00:24:49.47 | Heidi Scoble | Great. So although this is only a presentation, the council is requested to take or make a motion on this item to receive and file a report, if you don't have any further questions of staff. |
| 00:25:06.71 | Unknown | Thank you. |
| 00:25:06.82 | Heidi Scoble | Yeah. |
| 00:25:08.52 | Councilmember Burns | seconds. |
| 00:25:10.53 | Mayor Cleveland Knowles | Okay, we have a motion by Councilmember Cox and a second by Councilmember Burns. Will the clerk please call the roll? |
| 00:25:16.65 | Heidi Scoble | Thank you. Councilmember Riley? Thank you. |
| 00:25:19.10 | Councilmember Riley | Yes. |
| 00:25:19.40 | Heidi Scoble | Thank you. Councilmember Burns? Yes. Councilmember Cox? |
| 00:25:21.18 | Councilmember Riley | Yes. |
| 00:25:23.51 | Heidi Scoble | Yes. Vice Mayor Withey? Yes. Mayor Cleveland Knowles. |
| 00:25:25.77 | Councilmember Riley | Yeah. |
| 00:25:28.47 | Mayor Cleveland Knowles | Yes, and just for members of the public, We do need to take a roll call vote for every single item on our agenda under the special rules that we are meeting on. this evening. Okay, can we go to item three? |
| 00:25:47.13 | Heidi Scoble | The next item on the agenda is approval of the action minutes from the March 10th, 2020 meeting, the March 17th, 2020 meeting, and the March 31st, 2020 City Council meeting. |
| 00:26:00.95 | Councilmember Cox | I had one possible edit there. Okay, Councilmember Cox. For the March 17 meeting, we note that no new public comment was received at the meeting for business item 7A, but I believe we did receive some public comment by email, and I would appreciate it if the minutes reflected that. |
| 00:26:23.45 | Heidi Scoble | we can do that. |
| 00:26:26.57 | Councilmember Cox | That was my only comment on all three sets of minutes. |
| 00:26:29.84 | Mayor Cleveland Knowles | Okay, are there any other council member comments on any of the minutes? Okay, seeing none, is there a motion to approve the three minutes? |
| 00:26:39.92 | Councilmember Cox | Thank you. |
| 00:26:39.95 | Mayor Cleveland Knowles | that's a good question. |
| 00:26:40.03 | Councilmember Cox | move approval as |
| 00:26:40.96 | Mayor Cleveland Knowles | And then this. |
| 00:26:44.20 | Councilmember Riley | I second that moment. |
| 00:26:47.05 | Mayor Cleveland Knowles | Okay, we have a motion by Council Member Cox and a second by Council Member Riley. Heidi, could you please call the roll? |
| 00:26:53.53 | Heidi Scoble | Councilmember Riley? Yes. Councilmember Burns. Yes. |
| 00:26:57.97 | Councilmember Riley | Thank you. YES. |
| 00:26:58.49 | Heidi Scoble | Councilmember Cox? Yes. Vice Mayor Withey? |
| 00:27:00.30 | Mayor Cleveland Knowles | Bye. |
| 00:27:02.26 | Heidi Scoble | Yes. |
| 00:27:02.71 | Vice Mayor Withey | Thank you. |
| 00:27:02.77 | Heidi Scoble | Thank you. Mayor of Cleveland Knowles. |
| 00:27:04.69 | Mayor Cleveland Knowles | Yes. that motion passes five to zero. And we can. Move on to item number four. The next... Adam? |
| 00:27:17.83 | Heidi Scoble | Yes, the next item on the agenda, agenda item number four is for Councilmember Committee reports. |
| 00:27:26.54 | Mayor Cleveland Knowles | Okay, and this evening given we've got a couple of probably slightly larger reports, so I thought it might be good to do those thematically at the beginning and then if council members want to follow up with individual reports, we can do that. The four that I had flagged of significance are a report from Councilmember Riley and Burns on our small business BAC and hospitality efforts. Councilmember Cox and Riley on our waterfront program. Councilmember Cox and myself on the general plan update and Council Member with Ian Cox on state legislative efforts. So Council member Riley and Burns, would you like to start on our efforts to support our small businesses? |
| 00:28:19.88 | Councilmember Burns | Absolutely. Tom, why don't you start? |
| 00:28:27.78 | Councilmember Burns | Oh, he's frozen. |
| 00:28:29.28 | Sandra Bushmaker | Mom looks frozen. |
| 00:28:30.87 | Councilmember Cox | Thank you. |
| 00:28:30.90 | Sandra Bushmaker | Thank you. |
| 00:28:31.00 | Councilmember Riley | GO. |
| 00:28:31.21 | Councilmember Burns | them away. |
| 00:28:31.66 | Councilmember Riley | Thank you. |
| 00:28:33.13 | Sandra Bushmaker | like Thomas Fraser. |
| 00:28:34.35 | Mayor Cleveland Knowles | Thank you. Thank you. |
| 00:28:34.55 | Mayor Cleveland Knowles | Yeah. |
| 00:28:34.58 | Sandra Bushmaker | Very good. |
| 00:28:34.77 | Councilmember Riley | I did froze. I just unfrozed. |
| 00:28:34.97 | Mayor Cleveland Knowles | I'm going to go. |
| 00:28:38.19 | Mayor Cleveland Knowles | Thank you. |
| 00:28:38.36 | Councilmember Riley | Bye. Customer Burns, why don't you lead off? I will end color for an hour. |
| 00:28:43.42 | Councilmember Burns | Thank you. We're gonna pass the torch. So Council Member Riley and I have been extremely busy discussing with the business community, numerous things. And it started really with the THE BEST OF THE BEST OF THE small business loans and the opportunities for businesses to get some sort of relief during this period. The Chamber has really stepped up and then some really nice Zoom calls to try to include businesses. the initial process of getting applications in how to use those different mechanisms that fit their businesses. and then what other supports we can. offer. Tom and I then also had meetings with a few of the leaders from the R2 communities, the BAC and the HBD, hospitality, business development, on what other areas we can get involved in and I'll let Tom talked a little bit about a couple of programs that have come from that. And, and some of the opportunities that we see both currently to help support our businesses and going forward, especially as we start to come out of this on how our businesses can go further and then we have a soft presentation of an idea that we've talked about on this council before about combining the two We have a document that's not ready for you yet, Mayor, but at some point, we would like you to have to consider to have on agenda item to formally bring those two together. I'll let Tom speak in that. And then after he's done, I'll close with a little bit on um, conversations I've had with other communities about a stimulus package. So, Tom, why don't you take it from there? |
| 00:30:38.77 | Councilmember Riley | I enjoy collaborating with you, working with the business community. So we have not only Council Member Burns and I have been on conference calls with the Chamber and the business community, but I recognize that our police force, Lieutenant Gregory has been on there, our community development with Julie Myers, |
| 00:30:41.03 | Councilmember Burns | we have, |
| 00:30:41.90 | Unknown | Thank you. Yep. |
| 00:30:55.93 | Councilmember Riley | um maybe Many members of the City Council have been participating with the business community on conference calls. A shout out to the chamber. Uh, they are sharing extremely good information on this complex process and how to apply for loans. They're bringing on experts to answer questions And I will share that the Chamber is not only addressing the needs of members. I've seen Julie step up and help independent contractors who are not members really doing a good job. So that's wonderful to see the work there. And next week, the Chamber has arranged a conference call or a Zoom with our Senator Michael McGuire, which it'll be next Wednesday at 8.30 a.m. |
| 00:31:35.08 | Unknown | Zoom. |
| 00:31:42.38 | Councilmember Riley | I do want to educate the community. that Much of the work with the businesses is to help the employees of those businesses. The Chamber is helping businesses apply for what's called the PPP loan by the SBA. which is the Paycheck Protection Program, And that is to give businesses alone of which 75% has to go to pay employees to keep them off unemployment. And so it's important to understand this is really not to save businesses as much as it is to help the employees of those businesses. Um, I will mention at the behest of Council Member Burns, We've also reached out and had conference calls with our Family Supervisor Kate Sears. and our senator, Michael McGuire. and we, have been educating them on the unique challenges that Sausalito has unlike other cities, in the COVID-19 response, mostly because our revenues are severely impacted due to our dependency on tourism. And we've learned some good plans that Senator McGuire has in place and hopefully gets announced soon. And Supervisor Sears shared some great local programs that other cities are doing, that we're learning from, and we're in communications with the chamber about. And then finally, on the Business Advisory Committee and the Hospitality Committee, |
| 00:33:04.08 | Unknown | And then finally, |
| 00:33:09.66 | Councilmember Riley | Council Member Burns and I have been in discussions We think that given our new economic challenges looking forward coming out of this pandemic, given our broader challenges around climate change and our need to diversify beyond tourism, this is a great opportunity to potentially merge our two business related advisory committees, the business related committee and the hospitality into a new Economic Development Committee. We are going to have meetings with each of them. the full committees to discuss our ideas, get their input, and hopefully bring it back to the council for further review and presentation. I will conclude there and back to you, customer Burns. |
| 00:33:53.18 | Councilmember Burns | Yeah, thanks, Tom. So in that conversation with the community, the business community, really trying to look forward on what we look like as we start to roll out of the shelter in place. Obviously a community like ours is gonna be impacted more at the beginning, like we have been and longer based on long-distance domestic travel and international travel. So we, given our budget makeup, have a much more severe path in front of us to get back to that. of where we were before. So given that, that we potentially have other packages coming from the federal government, part of our reach out to both Councilman, Supervisor Sears and Senator McGuire or to make sure that communities like ours have our hand raised. to have that, allocation methodology include actual budget impact and not just population. There seems to be, you know, from the federal government coming down that based on the population, this type of money will be allocated to a state or to a county or to a city. And that would mean that we would receive something along the lines of a 7400 population town where we actually have a budget more equivalent to a 25,000 population town. So, I put together a list of 15 communities throughout California that have a budget similar to ours. heavily impacted by tourism, where not just the locals can make that budget work and have been working with those, contacting those mayors and working on a letter that I would present to the mayor at some point that we would say, keep us in mind through this allocation methodology to make sure that we get our fair share. And more importantly, that that fair share based on budget also does take into consideration tourism, which this state is going to retain going to be relying on heavily as we come out of this. California legislation is very keen on They have to get that up and going in whatever appropriateness it needs to be as far as staying with the health orders. But our path to financial success as a state is getting people to come here again in a safe manner. And we're that opportunity for the state. Small towns are really going to play a strong part in that. So, We just want to make sure that we have our voice, that we notify our leaders on that, and that we then get some of the backfield money that helps us support our local businesses moving forward. I THINK IT'S A GOOD They're taking a hit. We're taking a hit as we're gonna hear later tonight and our businesses are taking a very strong hit. We have 53 restaurants and simply our residents eating to go meals cannot do that. We cannot fund that group. So we need some serious support and we're hoping to get that from the federal and state levels. |
| 00:36:49.15 | Mayor Cleveland Knowles | Great, thank you both for all the work that you've been doing and for and to the chamber for the work that they've been doing. That's great. So I'm really looking forward to hearing your proposal. When you are ready, we will put that on the agenda for a future meeting. |
| 00:37:08.32 | Unknown | Thank you. |
| 00:37:08.54 | Mayor Cleveland Knowles | I would just chime in that I do think having a combined response group at least in the short term makes a lot of sense as opposed to separate committees. even if... that's not your recommendation for the long term. I do think in the short term having one committee will be able to do that. focusing on emerging from this crisis sounds like a great idea. So I want to return it over |
| 00:37:38.73 | Unknown | Mayor, that is not. Thank you. |
| 00:37:43.74 | Mayor Cleveland Knowles | turn it over to council member Cox and council member Riley for an update on the waterfront issues. |
| 00:37:54.93 | Councilmember Cox | Thank you, Mayor. uh, Tom, I'll lead off if that's all right with you. |
| 00:37:59.76 | Vice Mayor Whibbey | Please do. |
| 00:38:01.19 | Councilmember Cox | I mentioned on March 10 during our briefing of the council on our waterfront management plan that Senator Mike McGuire had stepped in to take a leadership role with the city to the issues posed by Richardson's Bay. So we are now looking at reaching a collaborative We received today a draft letter from the Senator to BCDC outlining the three-part plan that the parties have identified. Part one is to prioritized permanent supportive housing on land and or authorized boat slips to give those wishing to come off the water a place to go. Two, initiate efforts to restore eelgrass habitat and improve water quality in Richardson's Bay. And three, continue with sustained enforcement to ensure that new, that we don't have an increasing population of folks living on the waterfront. um, Council member Riley, the chief, the city manager, and I attended the BCDC meeting, Bay Conservation and Development I never know that these acronyms last. Thursday. |
| 00:39:23.66 | Unknown | Okay. |
| 00:39:24.66 | Councilmember Cox | and presented this plan to BCDC together with a report on our ongoing success in managing our waterfront both through the removal of marine debris and unoccupied storage boats as well as our safe harbor program providing those who wish to come off the water an alternative in to live by way of a slip in a marina and we received praise from BCDC. We also discussed a five-year transition plan for those legacy anchor outs who don't wish to come off the water and that plan was not met with much resistance by BCDC. following the meeting, we had a waterfront committee meeting in which we focused on next steps. It appears that we will go back to BCDC probably in a couple of months. One of our main next steps will be for us to research what role we can play in bay restoration and restoration of bay. the eelgrass. I want to say also that the senator has been very complimentary regarding Sausalito's can do. and the success that we've had in pursuing our waterfront management plan in both an efficient but also compassionate way. manner. Um, since its inception with that alternative for Tom for any other comments you might wish to make. |
| 00:41:05.69 | Councilmember Riley | Thank you Councilmember Cox. And I would just add a little more color for for the community. Our police department, Councilman. or Cox. are Council member in service Hoffman have been working for years to address the issue we have in Richardson Bay with illegal boats anchored out, but taking a very compassionate approach to it. And the last couple of years, We've gone from roughly 90 boats down to 12 in Sausalito waters. And we imagine we'll get to about eight legacy routes who are true mariners. who we want to respect their time in the water. That work has been extremely well received by DCDC and is kind of the example that you're using with the broader Richardson Bay where there are about 120 votes. We suspect about. close to 100 people currently living out there. The key to this is the safe harbor approach. finding homes and places for these folks that are on the water and unsafe conditions to be placed. One other thing I want to highlight, during this COVID-19 pandemic and shelter at home, it's also a shelter in boat. |
| 00:42:18.00 | Unknown | No one's going to be |
| 00:42:25.71 | Councilmember Riley | And there is no enforcement of, at this point, there's a moratorium on enforcement of removing any boats from the water so that there's gray areas of are people on boats or not, and we don't want to risk that. So there is a moratorium on that that was reviewed with BCDC that we support support and we continue to provide food, showers, consulting services to the folks in the water. our police department for doing tremendous work, working with the harbor master. in the managing our waters. |
| 00:43:09.50 | Mayor Cleveland Knowles | Great, thanks to you both. Really appreciate the update and also that's really great to know about the moratorium. enforcement at this time. I think there's a lot of stress and anxiety already. So I think that's an important move. So thank you for pursuing that. I'm going to move on to the general plan for Councilmember Cox and I. There haven't been any since the COVID-19 shelter in place orders were imposed. But, and Council Member Cox and I did have a chance to talk to Community Development Director Lily Whalen about the possibility of restarting our meetings and community development director and consultant were very supportive of that. |
| 00:43:54.27 | Unknown | starting. |
| 00:44:02.61 | Mayor Cleveland Knowles | and we are going to hold our first virtual meeting next week on the 21st. So we are very excited to get back underway and pick up where we left off. I did just want to note we have received a lot of correspondence from the public. Um, a lot of concern about whether there will be adequate public input on this. I think we've been getting a lot of excellent written correspondence, and we'll continue to do so and make every effort to reach out in all of the traditional ways that we usually reach out. and kind of new virtual ways as well. So we will be maximizing, making every effort to maximize public participation. We had good news that the administrative draft of the general plan was released last week It's available online. It's available both as an entire document as a smaller document and in pieces as each element. Hopefully that should be very accessible to everyone. I would also just like to note that we've continued to receive a lot of comments about the Marinship and zoning in the Marinship. and that we have adopted a vision for the marineship that does put the working waterfront at the forefront to guide our discussions as we move forward with a general plan. And it seems that there is some miscommunication. So I think one of the first things that we will address when we reconvene our general plan subcommittee will be clarifying steps around the marinship and the fact that the general plan is not addressing or changing at this point in time. Councilmember Cox, do you want to add anything to that? |
| 00:46:05.99 | Councilmember Cox | No, thank you, Mayor. I thought that summed it up well. I want to encourage all of those who have submitted correspondence to us regarding the general plan process and or the Marineship, for this meeting to please join us a week from today for our general plan working group meeting. |
| 00:46:28.96 | Mayor Cleveland Knowles | . Absolutely and I'm really glad to see so many people engaged and writing to us. Do any other council members have comments on the general plan process at this point? Okay, if not, we'll turn it over to Vice Mayor Withy and Council Member Cox. I know there's a lot going on. at the state level. So maybe, Vice Mayor, you want to kick it off? |
| 00:46:58.24 | Vice Mayor Withey | Yes, I'd be happy to. Can you hear me OK? Yeah. Okay. I have been focusing mainly through my role as an officer of the North Bay Division of the League of California Cities. to work with the league leadership on liaison with the state governor's office and the state legislature that's also been participating in the League's tax and policy MASSIVE. tax and revenue policy committees, which has also involved a number of those discussions, Cal OES discussions, working with CalPERS as well as I did attend a webinar with the Marin Economic Forum, which I'll end up with. I'm going to actually start very briefly at the federal level because people have asked me through the league what the league is doing to try and influence what's going on at the... in Congress. And the League leadership is working with the national league of cities to actually influence the current legislation that's pending and is blocked in Congress at the moment. and the thought that people understand what the nature of that deadlock is. First of all, the I don't know. Senate majority is pushing to get 200 to 250 a billion dollar package to supplement the PPP program, which is the SBA small loan program, because they're almost with the applications running out of money. the Speaker Pelosi and minority leader Schumer while in full agreement with that, in addition, through the league's efforts is pushing to get a significant amount of money solely dedicated to with populations less than 500,000. You remember in the CARES Act, direct funding to cities was limited to those who had populations over 500,000 or jurisdictions with populations over 500,000 and that's not going to help Sal Salido. So that is currently being negotiated in Congress and it's, as I said, it's currently a little bit deadlocked. With regards to the initial money that came from the CARES Act to State of California, The state is due to receive or has received 15 to $16 billion of that the state of that money that went directly to the state Up to five to six billion of it could be allocated to smaller cities, but that's a state decision And so part of what the league has been doing in addition to promoting new legislation that's trying to get THE STATE TO CONSIDER distributing some of that money to smaller jurisdictions. And as Council Member Burns pointed out, the big debate at the state level, which is going to ensue, is going to be whether that money is allocated on a per capita basis or on a budgetary needs basis, normalized to the amount of money available. So that's going to be a very significant fight, actually, between the large citizens and the small citizens in the state. specifically at the state level, All the action to date has been at the governor's, from the governor's office by executive order. The legislature has not been in session. They were due to come back into session today, actually. They're not formally coming back into session until early May. but a Senate subcommittee for the COVID-19 response has been set up And as I know, the council member Riley and Burns have been talking to Senator McGuire We at the leadership have been talking to pretty much the governor's office and the legislative aides for most of the Senate and the Assembly. to get across the point that the smaller cities and towns need to have some relief in the terms, in the form of backfilling the revenue loss that each of the citizen towns are facing, in particular, those that are uh, heavily dependent upon the hospitality an entertainment industry and the tourist industry and that is actually those discussions are going very well. And we hope that when the budget process There should have been budget meetings going on for the last several weeks. They are resuming on Monday. And in the budget, which the governor is, going to present, he has basically indicated that this is going to be a streamlined, slimmed down, no extra spending budget. And of course the pushback is going to be yes, but where's the relief for the smaller jurisdictions? So things are going to really start happening next week as the budget subcommittees start doing the budget hearings. Thank you. Let me see, moving on very quickly. The governor has indicated that Of the thousands of bills that have come into the state, that have been presented to the state legislature, he is only interested in the following Um, three topics, COVID-19 response, The PGE bankruptcy and wildfires and homelessness and housing. And therefore, the League is anticipating that of the thousands of bills that are very few will actually get acted upon. |
| 00:53:29.89 | Unknown | the |
| 00:53:37.82 | Vice Mayor Withey | But the governor's priority still does remain with homelessness and housing. So we are expecting a number of the housing bills to advance this session. California Transportation Commission, SB1 Monies, for local streets and road programs are going to be severely curtailed. The California Department of Finance is not yet issued its numbers, its projections for SB1 monies. But considering it's they're dependent upon gas tax as well as a large portion coming from airline fuel taxes. As you can see, those are going to be dramatically reduced, and therefore SB1 projections are going to come in pretty low. The deadlines and reporting deadlines for SB1 have been pushed out And then finally, a couple of comments on CalPERS. I think a number of us were on a CalPERS But in addition, through the league, we've had some direct contact with CalPERS board members One of the CalPERS board members is actually the vice chair of the revenue and tax committee. Let me start with the good news. The good news is that CalPERS as a fund is much better prepared than they were in 2018. In particular, they've downside protected the portfolio in ways that did not exist in 2008. And importantly, they have much, much greater liquidity. In 2008, at the lows of the when the market crashed, they were having to sell their portfolio just to meet their funding obligations for their retirees. this time around with the market drop of 30% or whatever it was, 25-30%, they had enough liquidity not only to meet their obligations, but they used it as a buying opportunity for managing their portfolio. So that's the good news. However, the year-to-date total return was 4%. And that said, CalPERS are advising we should be planning for this year's, this next, this year's returns for the CalPERS portfolio to be in the range of zero to minus 5%. Big range, I know. But at the moment, they don't have the numbers to be able to project. What that means is that, Whereas, for instance, let's say the average safety, public safety fund was approximately 70% totally funded. That's going to drop to somewhere of 62%, 65% within the next quarter. And so what that will mean is that certainly rates will be increasing and there's some potential significant increases of rates, but that rates will not start seeing the effects of this market drop until 2022. And then there will be the usual five-year ramp up |
| 00:56:52.81 | Councilmember Riley | it. |
| 00:56:53.07 | Vice Mayor Withey | 20 year amortization. And finally, Marin Economic Forum held a a webinar on how the recovery might occur. In general, there was some optimism that the general GDP of Marin and North California will recover fairly quickly. But there was a basic message of caution that we should not rely upon past recoveries as a guide. And in particular, The economists who were given this presentation were warning that visitor-dependent businesses, of which obviously Sausalito has a major component, will take a much longer time to come back than they did in 2008. And so that ends my report. |
| 00:57:52.30 | Mayor Cleveland Knowles | Joan, do you have... I know you've been to the as well at the state level. |
| 00:57:58.66 | Councilmember Cox | Yes, I have. I'll just give some examples of some of the actions taken by the governor through his executive orders. So he has implemented a package to provide 90-day mortgage payment relief. He has implemented, established a statewide moratorium on evictions. He has signed several bills, several executive orders providing relief to California small businesses. He has launched a campaign to protect the health and well-being of older Californians during the COVID-19 pandemic. He has issued several executive orders providing for expedited resources for the COVID-19 response on several fronts. He's issued an executive order protecting homes, small businesses from water shutoffs, as well as announcing new help for small businesses and workers displaced by COVID-19. Yesterday, during Child Abuse Prevention Month, he announced 42 million in new investments to protect younger Californians who are at heightened risk for abuse and mistreatment due to COVID-19. Our librarian Abbott Chambers went over California's six indicators announced by the governor today for modifying the stay at home order. But in addition, yesterday he teamed up with the governors of Washington and Oregon to collaborate on a shared vision for reopening their economies and controlling COVID-19 and really taking a regional approach to identifying the best path forward. He said today that localism is determinative. And that even when the shelter in place order is lifted. It's not going to simply be a light switch turning on. It's going to be a ramp up and things are not going to necessarily be the same. So restaurant capacity may decrease to accommodate social distancing. Um, as well as he said mass gatherings, I think Abbott made reference to this, mass gatherings are going to be negligible until we get to a vaccine or are confident that we have this virus under control. I think it's important to note, and this comes from the town hall yesterday of the public health officer for Marin County, that This shelter in place order has the purpose of flattening the curve. But it does not mean that the COVID-19 will be eradicated by the time the shelter in place order is eliminated. Rather, we will simply have had a better opportunity to the curve of the number of incidences so that we have the resources and personnel to assist those who most need it. So the message is to proceed with caution. As of April 12, we had more than 212,900 COVID-19 tests conducted in California. 2,145 of those were in Marin. Um, In Marin, we have, as of the latest numbers, 170 cases of COVID-19, 41 of those in southern Marin. The death toll is at 10. in Marin County, all of whom were 65 years or older, a total of 29 folks and hospitalized. And I think that covers I did want to thank our mayor and all of the mayors in Marin County for the inspiring message of unity that they issued during these challenging times. And I particularly appreciated our mayor's words. I thought you did a great job on behalf of the city of |
| 01:02:04.97 | Mayor Cleveland Knowles | Thank you. Thank you to all of you. I just want to say, I think it's amazing how much work you have all been able to do Um, while sheltering in place and how much is going on. I'm just, it's unbelievable. And I am very grateful that we are in Marin where all the jurisdictions are cooperating, that we are in the Bay Area where the counties are cooperating, that we are in California where we have strong leadership at the state level and that we're in the region where the states are cooperating. I think that is the only way that we are going to successfully Uh, beat this pandemic. So I'm very grateful. um, for everything happening and for all the work that you're all doing. |
| 01:02:51.90 | Councilmember Burns | Thank you. |
| 01:02:54.83 | Mayor Cleveland Knowles | Are there other committee reports or anything you'd like to add? |
| 01:02:58.48 | Councilmember Burns | Yes, Mayor, can I just say one thing? given the Brown Act. I was working with Councilman Riley and obviously Councilmember Withey and I have crossed over some areas that I think are very important that we can't necessarily discuss I'm not sure. other than right now. THE FAMILY. Some of the feedback I've received from the league I think all of it's been exactly what council members said, THE FAMILY. there just could be a hinge towards it going through a per capita, given their membership being so heavily, weighted towards communities like that. don't want to supersede what they're doing, but if we feel like they might not get traction that we might have take our own path is kind of what we're preparing for. I don't know how we communicate that other than if we start feeling that, and it still is a couple of weeks away before these decisions were made, we start feeling like the league might not get the traction to really push a per need basis and it's gonna rely on per capita that we do our own process with communities more like-minded with ours. |
| 01:04:02.94 | Vice Mayor Withey | Yeah, let me add, I totally agree with that with Council Member Burns there because, you know, the League is a conglomeration of everybody, you know, all the cities in California and. |
| 01:04:03.01 | Councilmember Burns | Great. |
| 01:04:03.08 | Unknown | Yeah. |
| 01:04:11.82 | Unknown | Thank you. |
| 01:04:15.02 | Vice Mayor Withey | in the end, If there is any money to be had, I would imagine the state legislature is gonna unfortunately probably end up with a per capita. number. |
| 01:04:27.65 | Councilmember Cox | I want to, Mayor, if I might, And I want to add on to the report we had last meeting regarding our grab and go bags. services available in Sausalito two days a week. It's been expanded. |
| 01:04:46.63 | Councilmember Riley | Thank you. |
| 01:04:47.02 | Councilmember Cox | Joan, we can't hear you. |
| 01:04:51.14 | Councilmember Cox | I had it unmuted. I don't know how it. |
| 01:04:53.53 | Councilmember Riley | You did, John. |
| 01:04:54.65 | Councilmember Cox | Okay. I don't know where I cut out, but I wanted to make mention of the fact that the grab and go program available two days a week at our mobile showers is now also available two days a week in san rafael so mondays and thursdays in san rafael in addition to the two days a week here And Sausalito and I am so grateful to various organizations that are making it possible to assist those of our population who are most vulnerable. |
| 01:05:28.85 | Mayor Cleveland Knowles | Great. And I was able to go down to Marinship Park this morning and we were also able through a great local donation to add masks to give away as well. So I want to thank Terry Lang from Tivoli on Caledonia Street for making and donating masks for the guests at the shower program. So that was a really nice addition, a great program. |
| 01:05:56.51 | Councilmember Riley | Mayor, I have two items. |
| 01:05:58.25 | Mayor Cleveland Knowles | I'm sorry. |
| 01:05:59.19 | Councilmember Riley | So one lighthearted, but relevant, during council member Cox's committee update, In my background, she was being recognized with great howling in our neighborhood. And, um, This is my first night not participating in the Howling, but it does reflect the spirit of our community. really shows our resilience and positive nature and can-do attitude. |
| 01:06:22.16 | Unknown | really should. |
| 01:06:26.39 | Councilmember Riley | On another note, as liaison to the school district, and looking long term. I'm a firm believer that it's very important to the vitality of our city to have a high performing K through eight school. in our district. And I last reported my concerns about us losing teachers and students. I think it's positive news that Willow Creek has found a path to retain many of its teachers for the coming school year. And there was a notice on that. Um, It doesn't sound like an easy path, but I'm looking forward to a formal announcement of possibly a settlement in this area. The hard work is going to be how we retain students by having a clear path of how we merge our schools into a well-integrated high-performing school. |
| 01:07:11.67 | Unknown | goals. |
| 01:07:14.15 | Councilmember Riley | And then finally, a great shout out to many folks, the chefs at Willow Creek. the Bayside MLK, Conscious Kitchen, Bridge the Gap, Play Marin, They're all coming together and preparing hundreds of meals for families and students in need. And of course, a shout out to the teachers at all our schools who are stepping up in this hard time. So I also want to report on that. Thank you. |
| 01:07:40.41 | Mayor Cleveland Knowles | Thank you. Yes, it's really great work that's going on. Anyone else? |
| 01:07:46.01 | Vice Mayor Withey | Very briefly, MCE is managing the whole board meetings still, as well as technical committee meetings. I've experienced now a Zoom meeting which had 56 participants. the board staff and public comment, we even managed to get public comment. The only update is MC passed a significant budget. It also put in place a set of principles for micro grids and it also put in place for the microgrids being for resiliency during possible future and then finally it also authorized should the circumstances be right, which we think they still may be in the fall, which we think they still may be in the fall, which we think they still may be in the fall, to issue a significant amount of municipal debt in order to also pursue battery storage technology. |
| 01:08:53.07 | Mayor Cleveland Knowles | Great, thank you. Okay, there are no other reports. I'm gonna ask the clerk to see if there's any public comment. |
| 01:09:01.66 | Heidi Scoble | Yes, at this time, members of the public may address- Council member committee report. |
| 01:09:04.02 | Unknown | on California. |
| 01:09:04.48 | Mayor Cleveland Knowles | Remember. |
| 01:09:04.99 | Unknown | Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. |
| 01:09:06.02 | Mayor Cleveland Knowles | Thank you. |
| 01:09:06.19 | Unknown | Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. |
| 01:09:10.20 | Mayor Cleveland Knowles | Thank you. |
| 01:09:10.28 | Heidi Scoble | Thank you. |
| 01:09:10.30 | Mayor Cleveland Knowles | HEAR ME. |
| 01:09:12.61 | Heidi Scoble | Can you hear me? |
| 01:09:13.31 | Mayor Cleveland Knowles | And Heidi, we cannot hear you. |
| 01:09:16.09 | Heidi Scoble | Okay. |
| 01:09:22.67 | Heidi Scoble | Can you hear me now? Yes, we can. Okay, thank you. At this time, members of the public may address the City Council regarding agenda item four. Public comment will be accepted by video or audio audience participation via Zoom. |
| 01:09:22.82 | Mayor Cleveland Knowles | Can you hear me now? |
| 01:09:25.32 | Councilmember Cox | Thank you. |
| 01:09:25.34 | Unknown | Thank you. Thank you. At this time, members of the public may address the City Council regarding Agenda Item 4. comment will be accepted by video or audio audience participation via Zoom. |
| 01:09:37.82 | Heidi Scoble | Video or audio public comment participation is limited to three minutes per speaker. If you'd like to make a comment, please raise your hand in the Zoom application and you'll be called upon when it's your time to speak. |
| 01:09:37.86 | Unknown | Video or audio public comment participation is limited to three minutes per speaker. If you'd like to make a comment, please raise your hand in the Zoom application upon when it's your time to |
| 01:09:50.08 | Heidi Scoble | To raise your hand from a phone, press star 9. |
| 01:09:50.33 | Unknown | Okay. |
| 01:09:50.35 | Unknown | You can raise your hand from a phone. It's fine. |
| 01:09:53.03 | Mayor Cleveland Knowles | Bye. |
| 01:09:53.45 | Unknown | Thank you. |
| 01:09:53.89 | Heidi Scoble | Each speaker will be notified when they have one minute left to speak. And again when that time has elapsed. |
| 01:10:00.42 | Mayor Cleveland Knowles | Heidi, we've lost you again. |
| 01:10:06.24 | Unknown | Thank you. |
| 01:10:07.14 | Mayor Cleveland Knowles | Is everybody having problems hearing Heidi or is it just me? |
| 01:10:10.97 | Vice Mayor Withey | No, I can't hear it. |
| 01:10:12.76 | Mayor Cleveland Knowles | Okay. |
| 01:10:13.15 | Heidi Scoble | Thank you. |
| 01:10:13.80 | Mayor Cleveland Knowles | Thank you. |
| 01:10:13.84 | Heidi Scoble | Can you hear me now? |
| 01:10:14.92 | Vice Mayor Withey | Yeah, it ended at each speaker. |
| 01:10:16.40 | Councilmember Burns | Thank you. |
| 01:10:16.64 | Heidi Scoble | Okay, thank you. 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 time has expired. It looks like we have two public speakers. We will start with Charlene Eldon. I will unmute Charlene's audio. And welcome back, Charlene. |
| 01:10:45.32 | Heidi Scoble | Hi, can you hear me? |
| 01:10:46.39 | Charlene Eldon | Thank you. |
| 01:10:46.74 | Heidi Scoble | Hi. |
| 01:10:47.03 | Charlene Eldon | Charlene, would you like your video to be shown or just to speak? No, that's okay. Thank you. Okay, you may speak now. |
| 01:10:49.71 | Heidi Scoble | to speak. |
| 01:10:53.78 | Charlene Eldon | I just wanted to address concerns that the SF Chronicle just brought up a couple of days ago about our poor communities like Marin cities being hit the hardest by COVID because of their inability to stop working. I know that there are you know, the nonprofits and organizations that are there on the front lines, but I'm not sure that there has been enough of a push for donations. I'm wondering if there's a way that city council can share that. I'm wondering if there is a diversion of funds |
| 01:11:14.59 | Unknown | and |
| 01:11:30.26 | Charlene Eldon | I used to volunteer at MLK with the Boys and Girls Club, and I'm very concerned about the safety of the community Um, Just wondering what the plan is for that. |
| 01:11:42.62 | Mayor Cleveland Knowles | Thank you. Great, thank you very much. There are a number of organizations that are working hard in Marin City and in Sausalito, many of which were mentioned by both Council Member Cox and Council Member Riley, Bags of Love is the program being run through the schools and Play Marin is providing food to residents and then Health and Human Services, County Health and Human Services is continuing to run their programs. I think we have resources on our website. I'm not sure. And if we don't, I will work with our director of communications to make sure that it's clear how to reach out to our neighboring 94965 community. |
| 01:12:31.91 | Charlene Eldon | That's great. I know that the Play Marin has a GoFundMe account open or a fundraiser that is still just at half of the donations that they're looking for. I would be happy to share that. But I was wondering if there's some kind of newsletter or, yeah, the website, some way to publicize that they are taking donations and still very much in need. |
| 01:12:59.04 | Mayor Cleveland Knowles | Thank you. |
| 01:13:00.07 | Charlene Eldon | Thank you. |
| 01:13:00.11 | Mayor Cleveland Knowles | Great, thank you. We'll pass that on to our director of communications to see if that's appropriate to put in our weekly Sausalito Currents. So thank you very much. |
| 01:13:09.08 | Heidi Scoble | Thank you. |
| 01:13:10.45 | Mayor Cleveland Knowles | Thank you. Okay, next speaker. |
| 01:13:13.81 | Heidi Scoble | We have Sandra Bushmaker, who is here. So let me unmute Sandra and share her video. |
| 01:13:30.75 | Heidi Scoble | And here's Sandra. You may speak. |
| 01:13:34.01 | Sandra Bushmaker | Good evening again. I wanted to comment on the restart of the work group with the two planning commissioners and the two city council members for wrapping up the general plan update. And you mentioned, Mayor, Susan that there was, um, You received a lot of partnership comments, and I would also like that related to the working waterfront. And I would like to make sure that we understand that the marineship is comprised of light industry and the arts, not just the working waterfront, although that's an important aspect of the marineship. We also have those two other zones, the light industry and the arts, which are very important. So I want to make sure that those conversations, uses of the maroon ship are included in the discussion next week. Thank you. |
| 01:14:34.03 | Mayor Cleveland Knowles | Thank you. |
| 01:14:34.07 | Sandra Bushmaker | Thank you. |
| 01:14:34.08 | Mayor Cleveland Knowles | Thank you. |
| 01:14:35.08 | Sandra Bushmaker | Thank you. |
| 01:14:35.11 | Mayor Cleveland Knowles | Thank you. Okay, is there any other public comments? |
| 01:14:40.31 | Heidi Scoble | Yes, we have one more public commenter, Sybil. I will lower. Yes. |
| 01:14:48.48 | Mayor Cleveland Knowles | And. So just while you're doing that, I want to say it's so great to see everyone in the Zoom room that's here. It's a great crowd tonight. So thank you all for participating. |
| 01:15:00.64 | Heidi Scoble | And Sandra, would you like your video to be shown? And Sybil. Oh, Sybil, sorry. |
| 01:15:04.39 | Unknown | Thank you. |
| 01:15:04.41 | Mayor Cleveland Knowles | Bye. |
| 01:15:04.54 | Unknown | Bye. um, Thank you. I just wanted to give sort of a shout out to All the volunteers that have been working so hard to help the seniors that are sheltering in place. Different organizations were mentioned, I just wanted to particularly call out all the individual volunteers that have stepped up We're not allowing the older cars drivers to be out driving. because it isn't safer. vulnerable people. A lot of younger people have stepped up and we've been able to vet them. There are people who are doing errands and picking up groceries and And, you know, Abbott's been doing a great job of helping let people know about that. But I just wanted to thank all of the individuals in the community that have been stepping up in that way. And I wanted to also give a shout out to waterfront folks involved with David Jones Locker that have been providing free. dinners three nights a week to um, a couple dozen seniors in the community. So, Um, All of these are ways that people kept up and in addition to what you folks have been talking about tonight. And I just wanted to, make sure that those folks knew that we all were remembering them and we're grateful to them. |
| 01:16:37.79 | Mayor Cleveland Knowles | Thank you, Sybil. It's great to hear your voice. And that did remind me actually that... I've been working on a lot. been reading about an effort in the town of Fairfax about no neighbor left behind and they were going door to door. in Fairfax to check on, not to talk to residents, but leaving. information for residents. I have been talking to our city Um, And I talking about ways that we can sit down with Sausalito Village and all of the different volunteer organizations that are doing such a great job in town. and just making sure that we really do have the whole spectrum of our community covered not only our seniors but also people that might be particularly vulnerable at this time with isolation that can cause depression and anxiety. and that they might not be part of the already existing networks. So we'll be looking at whether we need to step up some volunteer efforts in those areas as well. But Sybil, thank you for that thanks to our great volunteers. There are so many people doing a lot right now. It's great to see. Okay, is there any other public comments? |
| 01:17:59.10 | Heidi Scoble | There are no other public comments. |
| 01:18:00.72 | Mayor Cleveland Knowles | And Heidi, again, I can't hear you. |
| 01:18:06.64 | Heidi Scoble | There are no other public comments. |
| 01:18:08.78 | Mayor Cleveland Knowles | Okay, great. Thank you. Thank you, okay, we will move on to our consent calendar. |
| 01:18:17.29 | Heidi Scoble | The next item is the consent calendar. There are three items on the consent calendar. Consent calendar item 5A is an approval of an amendment to the lease with the Sauce Leader Yacht Club. Consent calendar item 5B is a report to accept update on the 2019 annual housing element progress report and authorized staff to send the report to the state. And lastly, agenda item 5C is a proclamation acknowledging April 2020 as fair housing month. |
| 01:18:50.68 | Mayor Cleveland Knowles | Great. Are there any council members who want to take any of these items off the consent calendar? Seeing none, we'll move to public comment. I'm sorry, Joe, I think you need to come off mute. |
| 01:19:07.14 | Councilmember Burns | Yeah. And I'm not pulling a five B just stating that I think the numbers, um, are something that we need to take a look at as a council. We're trending below in three of the four categories. the overall number given the trend. If you take the first year out, I know we have an ADU and I asked Lily about this and she gave me a wonderful breakdown, but it is something that we need to keep our eye on or we're going to miss three of the four categories. I just wanted to bring that up. |
| 01:19:37.29 | Mayor Cleveland Knowles | Okay, so maybe we can try to remember for future agenda items to see when the Community Development Department has a chance to talk about that. Okay, any other council member comments or should we go to public comments? |
| 01:19:57.64 | Councilmember Cox | I do have a comment, but I'll wait until after public comment. Okay. |
| 01:20:02.89 | Heidi Scoble | Similar to the last time we accepted public comment, public comment will be accepted via video or audio public participation and you're limited to 3 minutes per speaker. You can raise your hand in Zoom or you could press star 9 on the phone. |
| 01:20:03.11 | Councilmember Cox | Bye. |
| 01:20:16.07 | Heidi Scoble | It does not appear as though we have any hands raised at this time, so there are no public comments. |
| 01:20:24.02 | Mayor Cleveland Knowles | Okay, thank you. Council Member Cox, did you have a comment? |
| 01:20:28.56 | Councilmember Cox | I just wanted to comment that I know that an upcoming item for the planning commission is to continue our amnesty program for ADUs which is one way to address the very low and low income as you can see from the staff report those were some of the dwelling units that were permitted in 2019. I look forward to having that recommendation come to us from the planning commission. |
| 01:20:57.82 | Mayor Cleveland Knowles | Right. And will the shelter in place also help us on that front? I'm not the shelter in place, I'm sorry, the safe harbor |
| 01:21:10.68 | Mayor Cleveland Knowles | Thank you. |
| 01:21:10.70 | Councilmember Cox | The hope is for safe harbor to transition into live aboard slips at which time they would be counted as low income housing. But in the safe harbor program that is supportive housing and it's transitional so that is not to my understanding counted for our quota. Okay, thank you. |
| 01:21:37.04 | Mayor Cleveland Knowles | Thank you. Thank you. |
| 01:21:37.36 | Councilmember Cox | That sounds right. |
| 01:21:37.97 | Mayor Cleveland Knowles | Thank you. Okay, does anyone have a motion for the consent calendar? |
| 01:21:44.45 | Councilmember Burns | I move we accept items 5A, B, and C. |
| 01:21:49.90 | Councilmember Cox | Second. I think move we approve them. |
| 01:21:55.72 | Councilmember Burns | Move we approve items 5A, 5B, and 5C. Thank you. |
| 01:21:59.41 | Mayor Cleveland Knowles | Exactly. |
| 01:21:59.63 | Councilmember Burns | Thank you. |
| 01:22:00.66 | Mayor Cleveland Knowles | Great. We have a motion by council member Burns and a second by council member Cox. Will you call the roll? |
| 01:22:06.35 | Heidi Scoble | Thank you. Thank you. |
| 01:22:06.79 | Mayor Cleveland Knowles | Thank you. |
| 01:22:07.02 | Heidi Scoble | member Riley. |
| 01:22:08.53 | Councilmember Riley | Yes. |
| 01:22:09.02 | Heidi Scoble | Councilmember Burns. Yes. Councilmember Cox. Yes. Vice Mayor Withey. |
| 01:22:10.50 | Councilmember Riley | Yes. |
| 01:22:14.52 | Councilmember Riley | Thank you. |
| 01:22:14.55 | Heidi Scoble | Yes. Mayor Cleveland Knowles. Thank you. |
| 01:22:16.76 | Mayor Cleveland Knowles | Yes. That motion passes five zero. And we will move on to our business items. We have no public hearing items tonight. Do you want to call item 7A? Yes. |
| 01:22:32.62 | Heidi Scoble | The next item on the agenda is business item 7A, the mid-year review and adoption of a resolution to adjust the fiscal year 2019-2020 budget and preliminary discussion on the fiscal year 2020 2021 budget process. We have Adam Pulitzer, our city manager, and Yulia Carter, assistant city manager and administrative services director that will be providing a presentation on this item. We will bring Yulia up and unmute Yulia's audio. |
| 01:23:12.16 | Adam Politzer | Hi, Mayor Cleveland Knowles, it's Adam Pulitzer here. Nice to see everyone. like council members. Nice to see everyone tonight. Hope everyone continues to be well. I'm going to kick off tonight's presentation and introduce the item and then turn it over to to walk through the details. And at the conclusion of our presentation, We'll come back and go through any of the slides The council members may have questions on. So we ask that you take notes. as we go through the presentation. And if there's a slide you'd like us to go back to, we'd be happy to do just that. But let me first start. as you've heard this evening, Just a big thank you to our city council and the leadership they're providing during this COVID-19 event. Obviously, on March 16th on Sunday night after we had a conference call with the county health official and they had made the decision to close all cities facilities. and institute these shelter in place order we had to scramble that Monday, the 17th, to actually make heads and tails of how that's going to impact city services. let alone how that's going to impact our community. And as we have learned over the last month, just shy of a month now it's impacted our community. our residents, our businesses, our visitors and all those involved, our service organizations, our schools, young and old in our town significantly. really Uh. devastating impacts to many in our community. those that are Um, not able that have mobility issues that count on people helping to provide rides to social events and services. and clearly those that have other challenges that now find them isolated. And so as the mayor, shared earlier, we are turning our attention I'm working with the county mental health official to look at strategies to reach those that are maybe slipping through the cracks. I also like to acknowledge you know, how the council has rolled up their sleeves and you heard from some of the reports earlier We're not sitting. back idly. We're working with our our local community groups, we're working with our neighboring cities and partners We're working with the county representatives, our state representatives, and our federal representative. So we are actively rolling up our sleeves And as you heard from our council members earlier Sausalito is really well respected. We have been for years. or a city that has a can-do attitude and attitude to get things done. With that, I'd like to thank the community, all of our nonprofits, as civil mentioned earlier. We have individuals that aren't a part of these. They're just volunteering to help out. as I can. And the random acts of kindness, it's heartwarming. from or leaving flowers or or treats for first responders or firefighters and our police officers I can't tell you how grateful and thankful they are for the support from the community And again, it's those acts of kindness that bring us together, make us stronger and help us get through this event I also wanna thank my management team. their teamwork, their commitment to one another, is outstanding, it's inspirational. I can't thank them enough. for how hard they're working with creative solutions looking at ways to to manage through this time and obviously work within the order and communicate the order that comes from the county to the health officials. that impacts the quality of life. on our residents. just going out and recreating is becoming more and more difficult. Closing the dog park is a big deal. not allowing kids to play at the playground has a huge impact. on our parents here in our community. the challenges that our residents are facing today. and I want you to know that you're department heads, your city staff from top to bottom. we're working on this day and night. trying to help. provide services, be them virtual, as our, A librarian shared earlier with some of the virtual programs the libraries offer and Park and Rec is moving in that same direction so that there are some also fun things to do. through virtual recreation and virtual services. So a big thank you there. You're gonna hear in great detail tonight from Yulia Carter, our Assistant City Manager and Administrative Services Director, I can't thank her enough. and her staff, Amina and Heather in particular, for really their tireless efforts. I've shared this with the mayor and the vice mayor. I've received emails from Julia at 2.30 in the morning, 1 in the morning, as I have from other staff, but really as we're pulling all the time information together. I can't tell you how hard they're working seven days a week, as we're dealing with this, feel really serious. that's facing our budget. You heard a little bit of that from Councilmember Riley and Burns earlier. as they talk about, the impacts to our sales tax, our hotel tax, our parking revenues, our fees to community development, park and rec, I mean, you just go through the list of the of revenues that we count on, especially going into this fourth quarter. April 1 through June 30th. And those revenues are devastating. and you'll hear specifics on that. as Julia goes into this, I made a few notes here. As the council knows and staff laughs at me, I'm a little bit long-winded. So since I haven't had a city manager report for over a month. I'm building up a little bit of credit here. to share a little bit of information that I think is important to kind of set the stage as we go into this budget presentation. The first is let's kind of step back and look at the big picture here. over the last three years, and we think about the devastating events one after the other that we've experienced and the devastating wildfires in Northern California and although most of that impacted mostly Sonoma and Napa County. But if you remember the air quality and the smoke, that limit people from going outside because the air quality was so bad. We were basically sheltered in place then the impacts of that event too visitors coming to town obviously also had a great impact one or on our budget and our revenues. It also, could have focused on the concern that we have here in Sausalito, of vegetation management and how important that is to our community. to make sure we defend So as we look towards the summer, which is rapidly coming, we have to, actively work now on vegetation management. So as you see our maintenance workers and our landscapers out in the field They're not just trying to make Sasa Udo beautiful, which is important. but we're also trying to make South Florida fire safe as we come into probably one of the worst, if not the worst, Fire season. It seems like every year, the chief tells me this is the worst fire season yet. But think of the conditions right now. We didn't have much rain. And when we did, it was on and off rain and sun. Rain and sun. which is the greatest growing time. for our vegetation. So we're working hard. Department of Public Works our parks department with the fire department to address vegetation management now. rather than deferring those projects to later this fall. So you'll see our maintenance workers hard at work. And as much as I appreciate our first responders, let's not forget our maintenance workers that are out there I'm working hard. and also taking protection for social distancing. to make sure that they protect themselves and others. as we go forward. You know, moving to the next event, our atmospheric river that we experienced, the amount of rain that came out of the sky in February that caused a massive mudslide that took down two homes. devastated a whole neighborhood. and Crescent, as still to this day, cleaning up. after that event. continuing to work with FEMA and our state officials to get reimbursed. looking for short term and long term strategies with our... Landslide Task Force. working with our community development department and our public course department. to come back to council here. later this spring with strategies to continue to protect against future landslides as we look towards next winter. which again, in a blink of the eye, will be past the fire season. and right back into the winter season that brings those fears too. So that was just another big event. and followed that shortly after. and we just came out of it this past summer, which was, the PG&E power shutdown. Again, another devastating event on our local economy, our local businesses. and a great impact on our residents and community members that had to live through that and obviously our library our police department, public works, park and rec staff, step forward. And we made city hall as inviting as possible. and tried to keep the public engaged throughout that. I mentioned all of these big events, and now here we are with COVID-19. And so they only get worse and more impactful. and more difficult to manage but I mentioned these as a big picture discussion in light of COVID-19 impacts right now especially here on our fourth quarter of our fiscal year. Yeah. that each one of these events had. impact on our revenues and our expenditures and our level of service. And so we continue to build out of one event and move on to the next. hoping that we're moving into recovery just to find ourselves I'm right back. at at this type of discussion. where we're looking how we're going to balance our budget moving forward. I'm not sure. Again, I want to thank the council past. And present. You know, the actions we took 10 years ago when we were in the middle of the last recession and we were building up our our fund balances, especially in our in our reserve funds. We had none in our reserve funds when I took over. and we took the opportunity to build those up. And League of California Cities recommends anywhere between 10 and 20% in your reserves. And that was our goal. from zero to 10, we got to 10. We said, okay, now let's get to 20. We got to 20. then the next thing you know we are at 30. And as Julia will share later in the presentation, as of this year prior to COVID-19, our fund balance was up to 60% plus. And now even with this impact for this first quarter, we're still in strong financial position with funds. that have some discretion to them. in the 50% level. We're much better than our neighbors. here in Marin County. let alone North Bay, where folks are really scrambling to look at how they survive just the current budget between now and June 30. |
| 01:34:21.41 | Adam Politzer | Hold on one moment here. So you may be asking, what are we doing now? You know, that I think we heard that. at our last council meeting from a comment from the public. What are we doing now to deal with this? So we're doing a lot of things right now. our staff. our department heads are looking at What? what What do they have? in their budgets right now that they can suspend? What things can we put on hold that we haven't started? what things can be delayed. that don't have a negative impact immediately on services. Again, looking at our professional service contracts, what are essential versus non-essential. So again, when we look at vegetation management, how are we working with PG&E and the fire department, those are types of contracts that we're going to want to keep moving forward. to deal with the future threats of fire. Again, we're looking at technology. I'm very proud of the work that Lily Whalen, our Community Development Director, has taken the leadership, not just here in Sausalito, but with her peers here in Marin County working on virtual inspections so that Kenneth Henry, your building inspector, can continue to do inspections but not have to go out on site and either make contact with the public. that has the ability to make do the inspections virtually and make the approval. And in fact, it's made us a lot more efficient. We've able to do a lot more inspections because we've removed driving and all the small talk, as much as we enjoy having small talk with our community members when we go out. And in some case, ask if we can move some things around for them because they need a little assistance. which Kenneth was always willing to provide. Clearly, any one of these inspections could take 30 minutes to an hour depending on on the need and in this case they could be taking from 10 minutes to 30 minutes again depending on the information that needs to be gathered. So again, using Zoom like our meeting tonight, in other meetings that we're having tomorrow night with the planning commission And as we continue to move forward to having other workshops and meetings as council member Cox mentioned with Councilmember Riley. We participated in the BCDC meeting last Thursday. and that was very successful, successful presentation that the council member gave to BCBC's because, Enforcement subcommittee. Again, using technology, And as I shared with the mayor, It's not about technology just for today. It's technology that we want to use going forward. So as the mayor has said repeatedly prior to COVID-19, What can we do to be more efficient? What can we do with technology to also reduce the impacts on our environment by being smarter. with the use of technology. And this has forced us to do that. This has shown that we can work from home, we can still provide services to the community, and we still can be effective in running our meetings. And again, using these tools is really, really important. Tonight? um, Yulia is going to walk through really the first of our three Um, step process here. The first step tonight is to look at our financial Um, our financial a forecast for where we are right now. looking at the end of the year Prior to COVID-19, we were trending ahead. We looked like we were in a very strong financial position. both with our control of our our projects, our programs, and looking at our revenues as we were bringing for strong revenue on projections. clearly now with COVID-19. those projections have been thrown off significantly. and I'm sorry, Yulia, I know you're keeping the presentation going. I'm working off of my own notes. you didn't. You can keep moving them or not, but I don't need them. Thank you. Um, But as we look at this first quarter, the projections through June 30th, Clearly we have significant impact from our hotel revenue, our parking revenue and our sales tax amongst many others and we'll go into detail there. But that's what tonight's presentation is about letting the community and the council know where we are and how we're going to get through this, you know, this fiscal year. we have good news there because of what this council has done and passed counsel. We've been putting funds away in our rainy day reserves. for just this type of an event. I was talking to Councilmember Withey earlier today Even through the recession, we didn't tap into our reserves. And again, we have a a stabilization fund, and a shortfall reserve fund. And again, that's when your revenues, or your services are not stable, or your revenues come up short because of some significant event, like an earthquake. for a devastating fire. or in this case, the pandemic. that we're going through. So, The good news is that we have a shortfall fund And really, we'll go into that and talk about how that will shore us up. for this year so that we don't have to make any significant changes. It doesn't mean that we're not going to make changes. We're not going to control our spending. We are controlling our spending. I can tell you that Abbott Chambers has put through a request for $100, and I asked him to defer it. Obviously, we've looked at bigger events like capital projects that are in the hundreds, thousands, to millions of dollars, and those are also, we're looking to defer those. can totally have better news on the economy. What are the feds going to do? What's the state going to do? What's the county going to do to help? secure our revenue sources, particularly with taxes and in TOT and sales tax in particular. And then what's the road to recovery over this next six months? So we're going to come back as our second step in the process. at our April 28th meeting. And we'll give you scenarios as council member Withey, vice mayor Withey has shared, It's going to be good, bad, and ugly. And it might be, we might not have the good in there. It might just be ugly, ugly, and uglier. There'll be scenarios really looking at the next six months. that first quarter, as many of our residents know, and clearly our council knows, that first quarter, July and August and September. Those are our big money-making months. We fill our parking lots every single day, Our restaurants are full. Our hotels are full. We have a lot of activity in town in terms of building. Our recreation programs and classes and special events are thriving. But clearly those are all gonna be disrupted. So when we come back at the April 28th meeting, We'll talk about those scenarios and we'll forecast out. the early part of our next fiscal year. and start looking at how deep and how long this shelter-in-place order will be in effect. and hopefully start having some information that helps us understand what the recovery looks like. as you heard earlier from our communications director, and from our council members, the governor has started that conversation but it's still way early and premature to understand what the recovery looks like come next fiscal year. But we're going to work on it every month as we go forward. We're gonna come back at the May 12th meeting And at that meeting, we'll come back with strategies. We'll come back with a variety of solutions that both look at the impacts of the loss of revenue and look at changes in our expenditure forecasting. And that might include changing the types of services that we deliver. It may include, as we've done in the past, again, it's not something new to Sausalito, but sharing services, how we work with our JPAs, how we work with our neighboring communities to provide services. An example of that is that we don't have an evidence person. We share evidence for the police department. with the city of Mill Valley. Prior to that we shared our evidence person. with the Central Marin Police Authority. So there's lots of opportunities where we brought our resources together and share them with our neighbors. So we're looking at strategies on how we can do that, let alone some of the services that we can delay. or postpone. and then and or look at other funding sources an example the state is looking at how to stimulate the economy by putting money back into the parks. and issuing park grants for park projects. So again, we could defer money from Southview Park, for example, that we have general fund money designated for and replace the general fund money to to complement the COP money that we have in that project so that we can use the general fund money for other services. So as we get information from the federal government, the state and the county, we'll bring these strategies forward and we are lining that up for your May 12th council meeting when we bring these strategies and have this discussion then. from that point forward, from May forward. every month. maybe every meeting. and we'll be bringing back various strategies various items for discussion for consideration as information becomes available to us. Again, it's more clarity moves forward. Again, this is a very grim situation if you're listening to any news channel. I don't care which news channel you're listening to. This isn't going away. This is the new reality, just like the power shutdown that PG&E started this past summer. That's the new reality. We're gonna have power shutdown come this fall. And I'm not trying to be doom and gloom here. I'm just trying to make sure that we're speaking to our audience and to our community directly, letting them know that this is really serious and you have real serious people working on this at the state, at the county, and here with your council, and here with your staff, and we're committed to it. We're committed to protecting our community, protecting our employees, and providing the best services we possibly can. And thankfully, because of decisions that were made in the past, we're in a strong position to do just that. I'm gonna end with this before I introduce Yulia. and turn it over to Yulia. We live in a great community here. I am so proud of our team. I'm so proud of our community. I'm so proud that we're known Each of us, every one of you in the audience, every one of the folks in our community are rolling up their sleeves and asking, how can I help you? Even those that aren't able to help still want to help. And sometimes that's by just making a phone call or writing a check. and supporting all of these great causes out there that need our help. So please continue to be generous, continue to practice acts of kindness. and continue to communicate with the city. please come to our website, give us feedback. please reach out to me directly If you have questions or concerns or comments, we are here to help. and we are here to listen. and we're and here to move the ball forward. as we planned. for this really challenging time. So with that, I'm very proud to introduce Yulia Carter, our Administrative Services Director and our Assistant City Manager, and she'll walk you through the details and then I'll come back or questions at the conclusion. |
| 01:45:51.55 | Yulia Carter | Thank you, Adam. I'm Yulia Carter, Assistant City Manager and Administrative Services Director. And as Adam mentioned, it is a very difficult task for us to present this report to you. As he pointed out, the impact of COVID-19 is devastating on the city's financial health. I'm not sure. I think it might be beneficial to jump to the conclusion right away, and then I will kind of walk you through the details of the summary slide in front of you right now. So the overall citywide revenues decrease about 3.6 million, which is about 10% of our revenues, total revenues across all funds. At the same time, the citywide expenditures are going up by about 1.4 million, which is 4%, but not negligible. And. Altogether, this creates a general fund projected structural deficit of about 820,000. And we have a recommendation for you tonight. We will talk about it a little bit later on future slides. but we do recommend the one-time reduction of the shortfall policy contingency. from 10% to 5.5% to balance the budget. Again, we'll talk about it a little bit later as well. Here's a little bit of good news as Adam shared. Again, we are fiscally strong getting into this health crisis. We were strong and we continue to be strong. We project the 9.2 million in general fund balance, which is about 51% of total operating expenditures. and includes 3.8 million in undesignated fund balance. As Adam mentioned, we are much better off than our neighboring cities. I... hosted a call with Marin County cities and asked these questions about the fund balance and I heard all kinds of answers and by far, all. fund balance was the strongest thing on all. So I've heard anything from 5% to 15%, as you can imagine. that would be. create a real challenge, kind of immediate challenge on the cash flow. And luckily, we don't have this problem. I'm not trying to minimize the impact of the revenue loss. It is a real threat. but again, the healthy fund balances in general and now the funds reflect the better financial position than many other agencies around us. that allows us take some time to develop strategic and programmatic approach to this crisis as we As Adam said, we will bring it forward to you at the future meetings. So let me add and touch base on some of these items. Again, we'll get back to this a little bit. Later. let me start from the basics so the mid-year budget Review is an industry standard. The purpose of the mid-year review is to analyze year-to-date revenues and expenditures to review assumptions that were made at the beginning of the budget cycle. and update council on the status of revenues and expenditures and bring forward any necessary adjustments. um, and update you on the revised fund balances. While this year we obviously have another objective to make necessary adjustments to reflect changes in economic and business conditions created by COVID-19. And that's, Another objective that we definitely will move forward to discuss with you tonight prepare for the budget discussion in this environment. So today we'll talk about mid-year methodology very quickly. We'll talk about general fund. revenues expenditures and fund balances. will then move to status of all other city funds we have 24 funds all together and we update you on revenues, expenditures, and fund balances on those. And as I mentioned, the open discussion on the, fiscal year 2021 budget process that will be continued on April 28th. |
| 01:50:07.57 | Yulia Carter | Before we dive into financial analysis, I just wanted to make a few key points on the methodology that we used. for the mid-year. budget analysis. We used actual data. from the last available quarter, which would be quarter two that ended in December. 2019. or midpoint. mid-year point of our fiscal year. So that's the data we used to prepare this report. We also went back to the beginning of the fiscal year to review and capture all previously approved council agendas that might have modified the budget year to date. These items included in your attachment to your staff reports. And we also made the year-end estimates in the period in revenues and expenditures within each budget unit. Typically, our normal methodology, what we do during this exercise, the last item, Uh, on the slide. Because estimate access of the adopted budget by 5% and 25,000. So those estimates in access of this over the adopted budget would be considered material in nature to trigger some adjustments. |
| 01:51:31.48 | Yulia Carter | Well, I also want to point out, we obviously not in a typical year this year, so we adjusted our methodology a little bit. And instead of pointing out some miscellaneous items that might go over budget here and there, We actually not asking for additional budget amendments tonight, except for those that you already previously approved. And again, as I said, listed in the, in attachment 2. so we anticipate that together with the closure of facilities and our response to in the and reduction in in-city programs. be will generate some additional savings. are not going to ask you for any additional budget appropriations. except for the ones that are listed in the staff report and on this presentation. |
| 01:52:26.59 | Yulia Carter | I mentioned the quarter two financial data, and here's the summary of the general fund year to date data through December again, December actuals. Please keep in mind we don't need to discuss this slide in details. We will be bringing this. Reports, quarter two financial and treasurer's reports are scheduled to go to Council at the next meeting. that will be a consent item. So that's our new practice that we continue to bring forward to you. And this slide provides a big picture view again on the fiscal year 2019-20 projections. Again, this is across all funds. You can see that citywide revenues increased by 3.6 million, that's your chart on the left. That's about 10% of our total revenues. And expenses are going up by 1.4 million. That's about 4% on the right. Again, we will dive into details this estimates include in a little bit in, in, future slides, but I want to bring your attention to, the middle box right here. This middle chart represents the total impact of the mid-year budget adjustments. So you can see the loss of revenues as shown in red. and increase in expenditure is shown in orange. And the first bar is a city-wide impact and the second bar is a subset of this impact or general fund portion of this adjustment. |
| 01:54:09.90 | Yulia Carter | We shared this slide with you at the last meeting. to show the anticipated impact of COVID-19 on serious revenues. and the timing of this impact. You can see the structure in three Categories what has been impacted now what will be impacted soon or. other revenues that will be impacted on the recession scenario. So today we are presenting the projected impact on all of these revenues. And now we can take a closer look at the general fund revenues. The blue column represents the adopted budget, The green is the revised budget. you can see that all budget categories are showing some, significant adjustments. With the exception of the other taxes, you can see zero there. So these are all business license tax revenues. the got very fortunate to complete our annual renewal process this year. So the budget continues to be on track here, Again, it doesn't mean that this revenue category will not be affected. Actually, we know for sure it will be affected next year. So now let's take a deeper look at the the general fund Revenience. Property tax is projected to increase by 192,000. This is based on the information we received from Marine County Department of Finance. I, Again. say for sure that we will probably get a little bit more than that in revenues, but this is our comfort zones view, so we want to. go by county numbers and adjust these revenues conservatively At the same time, sales tax revenues are projected to drop by $678,000. That's a huge decrease as you can imagine. Well, again, Adam mentioned that this is our one of the most important quarters. for the year and This estimate is based on the analysis provided to us by HDL. We actually reached out to HDL to help us a little bit to look a little bit deeper in what sections of the, and the sections of the sales tax revenues and segments being affected and how they've been affected. The TOT revenues are projected to show decrease of 400,000, again, this is due to significant drop in travel and tourism activities, obviously. in March and even further decline at the accelerated pace in April and June. we assume that the March revenues for TOT dropped 50%. and for April and the through June, we assumed 90% reduction in this revenue. permits. showing 350 nearly 350,000 drops. One item here will obviously be it's due to the slowdown in permanent activities in CDD. followed by already the slow quarter before. So we, actually received less revenues than we projected. in the previous quarter as well. Fines, we reduced this category as well by 220,000. It's about 40% decrease. This is due to decrease in issuance of municipal code fines and citations. That includes parking citations as well. the parks and recreation, fees and rentals also decreased by about 125,000. That's about 27% reduction. Again, this is due to closure and cancellation of recreation activities, classes, and rentals. You can see the slight increase in fees, miscellaneous fees, grants, contributions, and other miscellaneous revenues. So this is due to some miscellaneous reimbursements and zero waste grant that we received earlier in the year. And we also decreased the transfer in general fund. This is a transfer from parking. We'll talk about parking funds a little bit more in details in future slides, but I just want to point out that our total parking revenues We're budgeted at $2.8 million. and that included the transfer of 2.25 Milan and Jane O'Fan. So the revised 2019-20 budget indicates that they are not going to receive the full amount and only 2.22 is projected to be collected for the year. So that triggers some adjustments from, |
| 01:59:19.65 | Unknown | Thank you. |
| 01:59:19.72 | Yulia Carter | reduction in the general fund transfer by about 30,000. Thank you. that you can see here. So altogether we are projecting about 1.6 million reduction in general fund revenues, that's about 8.2%. of the total general fund revenues. So we just went over all this. individual categories. And now we can look at the general fund expenditures. |
| 01:59:48.34 | Yulia Carter | We reviewed general fund expenditures by four major categories, salaries and benefits, contract services, materials, supply, and transfers out. So you can see we didn't make any adjustments to transfers. They remained as they were originally budgeted. But For the personnel cost amendments, we factored in MOU provisions that went into fact as of July 1, as you may remember. When we adopted the budget, we did not. Factor in any mo you provisions. because we were still in negotiations with the unions. So obviously that's additional cost that we factored in. but we also factored in salary savings we had very unusual year we had unusually high vacancy rate this year So typically we won't recommend factoring it in the midyear adjustments. We will do it. keep the personal cost the way it is, because otherwise it's unfair representation of personal cost. But given that, again, they are not in the usual year, V.E. we are proposing to make this adjustment and one time salary. savings of cellular deductions by 400,000. And we also, as I mentioned before, we looked at the previously approved budget amendments That's your attachment to. We divided these items in two categories. So obviously we factored in all of them, included items approved by council year to date, and you can see the date when it was heard by council. And we also included items that were originally scheduled to go to council in March. but since they didn't go to you technically, we marked them as pending council approval. on attachment two, and that's about 345,000 of this uh, total amendment and includes the biggest item here is the contract amendment with RGS. That's about 250. 84,000 additional, well, 285,000 Um, amendment to clean up budget shortfall for planning advisor services. year to date, that's for the last 10 months. And it's also projected for the rest of the fiscal year for of the existing vacancies at the Community Development Department. |
| 02:02:20.34 | Yulia Carter | So now the bad news. The general, the fiscal year 2019-20 budget was adopted as a balanced budget. So what it means that operating expenditures did not exceed operating revenues. After completing the mid-year analysis, unfortunately have to report that the revised fiscal year 1920 now project the structural deficit and you can see this in the red circle right here. So that's the same 820,000 that I mentioned earlier. |
| 02:02:59.10 | Yulia Carter | Now let's look a little bit deeper in the fund balances, and that would be kind of conclusion of our general fund analysis. We project total Indian fund balance of general fund balance of 9.2 million. out of this fund balance about 3.8 million is listed under undesignated fund balances, the council previously approved operating contingencies. That's a policy that was set by council a few years ago. Uh, to allocate portions of the fund balance. to cover for or to set aside for 5% of the population of operating expenditures for budget stabilization policy and 10% for shortfall policy. You can see it right here. And what we are proposing for the, current fiscal year to cover this deficit, we are proposing to reduce this. 10% shortfall policy as a one-time this fiscal year only reduction. So, to reduce it by 820,000, and which brings it down from 10% to 5.5%. |
| 02:04:20.11 | Yulia Carter | Well, please keep in mind that we adjusted the revised budget beginning fund balances to the audit of fiscal year 2019. balances after the audit and here comes the good news So when we put budget together, the books were not closed. we anticipated much lower begin fund balance that we actually um, So we finished the year on a much better note and increased the general fund balance to 12.6 million. which is a combination of multiple things. So increase in revenues, reduction in spending and some year end adjustments that we made during the audit. And that results in the fact that our Indian fund balance, adjustments that they're proposing to you and all the losses and revenues. we are still ending on the better note than what we uh, anticipated that the B at the budget adoption. So our Indian total Indian fund balance is projected to be 9.2 million, which is about 51%, you can see it here, about 51% of the operating expenditures. which is way above GFO-recommended guidelines. And as I mentioned before, it puts us in a much stronger financial position than many other cities around us. to start developing budget strategies and options to build the next year's budget. obviously this is a very good indicator to the city's strong financial position and as Adam mentioned, before as well, I just want to give council credit for Uh, exercising such a strong, fiscally responsible leadership. |
| 02:06:15.59 | Yulia Carter | was the last slide on the general fund balance so now we are moving to the other funds And other funds also project, unfortunately, some losses in revenues. We anticipated about 2 million decrease in non-general funds. Most of these adjustments, all of them are split between enterprise funds and special revenue funds. this adjustments at least here on the net. |
| 02:06:44.83 | Colleen Wickwire | Right. |
| 02:06:46.51 | Yulia Carter | about 787,000 falling into enterprise funds so we are showing a little bit of increase of 24 000 in the seo fund this is due to the reimbursement that the council approved previously from Marine City Sanitary District. MLK fund reduced by 200,000 in rent revenues the budget the the current budget carried over the original adopted revenues from two years ago because it was a two year budget, so you may remember. and did not factor in some vacated spaces over the last past years. So we made this adjustment to reflect the actual revenues that we are projecting this year. The parking fund decreased by point 6 million from 2.8 I mentioned it before. As you remember, the VHS that we kept most of the revenues that we collected in general fund So parking fund is the fund that is, showing all the remaining losses in the in usage of all four main parking lots. bicycle parking revenues as well as metric collections and parking permits Special revenue funds showing about 1.2 million decrease. And this is again, the combination of four different factors. The biggest chunk of it is... Oh, delay in FEMA reimbursement for the mudslide event from the prior year. the At this point, it's clear we are not going to receive this money in the current fiscal year. want to be open about it and and reduce this. Adjust revenues by this amount to factor this in Also in this amount, we included some additional reduction capital grants and the donations that we Um, we incorporated in this figure after consulting with the public growth director. and looking closely at our capital revenues. The tidalands revenues are projected to receive a little bit of increase. This is the good news, it's about 45,000. the gas tax revenues decreasing by 25% or 62,000. again due to reduce the road traffic and the reduction gas prices that we can see now. And again, a little bit of good news on the police grant revenues. We are showing 45,000 increase here because of the receipt of COPS grant reimbursement from prior year. |
| 02:09:34.07 | Yulia Carter | Now let's look at the status of other fund expenditures. Again, another. Not so good news, the expenditures are going up. Most of this increases or adjustments, you can see 837,000. they are listed in previously approved items again attachment 2 shows details of these adjustments and we factored in the same reduction in parking fund transfers that I mentioned before, the 30,000 to general fund. |
| 02:10:10.91 | Yulia Carter | Now, If all the changes that we just discussed so far were approved by you tonight, here are the projected fund balances. across all funds. And you can see we grouped them by fund categories, but your attachment six shows any individual fund balances. If you're specifically interested in individual fund balance, you can see it there. Um, But the big takeaway from the slide, again, that we still fiscally prudent and financially stable, which you can see we have 20 2.6 million in all fund balances across all funds. which is again much better. news. then. you couldn't have expected. So that brings us to the summary slide, the same slide that we had before. Um, which probably has a little bit more meaning now, so we are reducing, um, revenues by 3.6 million city-wide, we increase in expenditures by 1.4 million. be identified the structural deficit, and we recommend the one-time reduction of a shortfall contingency policy to balance the budget. Again, the good news is that Even with all this reductions, we are still projecting 9.2 million in the fund balance, which is about 51% of operating expenditures. with 3.8 million listed as undesignated fund balance. |
| 02:11:49.92 | Yulia Carter | So that concludes our mid-year analysis and brings us to the next steps. So typically, Mid-year budget analysis starts a new budget process. And originally we were prepared to launch our new two year budget cycle for fiscal year 2020-22. Now, As again, Adam mentioned it and we discussed it before the COVID-19 presents some challenges in this traditional budget approach. V is the city of social media very proud of our budget process. It is an open process, inclusive, and comprehensive banal budget process that values input from all budget committees and commissions. and the different community partners. And this process traditionally takes over the course of several months. It involves several finance committee meetings, study sessions of the council. And public participation. So in current environment, this is really difficult tasks to accomplish, as you can imagine. And already by now, had to delay the ability to ramp up public engagement process You can see that we are now on Zoom for the council meetings, but we are still not quite up to date on all the committees and commissions slowly. roll in and out, but you. Unfortunately, I lost some time here. uh, Another challenge that this pandemic presents is actually making revenue assumptions. So, Revenue projections began 2021. is very difficult and making these assumptions presence, challenge and so on. And the. We also All the staff is working really hard right now on COVID-19 response. So that combined with the personnel shortages to the pandemic also limit staff availability. So that's another challenge that is also worth mentioning. So that brings us to the last bullet point. this is not the agenda item before you tonight we are not asking you to uh, taking actions on this, but we want to bring an idea of considerations of a continuing budget resolution to carry over this amended budget into the at least first quarter. of the next fiscal year. because that would allow us to better understand the impact of the revenues and, um, revenue losses and what impact it has on service delivery And it will just allow us to take some time to develop comprehensive and And the. fiscally solid strategies to ensure delivery of call to services. that would help us to reach structurally balanced projects. |
| 02:14:55.48 | Yulia Carter | Adam talked about it a little bit more in his introduction. So the next steps would include the next us bringing it to you fiscal year 2021 base budget will return on April 28, build the base budget. So by that, I mean, we will establish the base revenue and expenditures. We will do our best to project the revenues for fiscal year 2021. And that will be at the current service level. so by doing this exercise, that will allow you to see what projected base budget deficit would be. This work is already underway. We've had several budget meetings with my team this week up to this point. So we've already crunching these numbers and hopefully bring you solid projections to the best of our ability. in the award institution like this. next time. and on May, only 12, I apologize, it is a typo here, So the council meeting is going to be on May 12th, not the 14th. We will introduce and discuss the long-term and short-term strategies for service reduction that you would want us to explore. And so on. div-dipra. You too. And right now I just wanted to give a little bit of a preview over the next two slides what the strategies might include. So some of the items, as Adam mentioned, we already do it now. So we already took actions and we Oh. We already set some processes in place. And the most critical point I highlighted in red, which we as your executive team and the city manager strongly believe in, Leadership and fairness are really critical items during the recovery process So to this extent, as Adam mentioned, we already said the process in place, we look at all expenditures, regardless how big or small they are. the year. as they come up or as we discuss it as a team, See what? Um, was originally budgeted and it hasn't started yet. If you do this analysis, what can or cannot wait? For all professional services contracts, we look at essential versus non-essential contracts. services, we look into technosolutions, as Adam mentioned before, you will be seeing some of these additional solutions that we're exporting now, so it's already in the works. We are trying to be strategic here, as Adam mentioned. So, whatever decisions we make now, we want to make sure that they're sustainable and we'll actually in profile efficiencies moving forward. and make us stronger as an organization. couple other things I want to bring up. We created the COVID-19 project, Apparel Codes, That helps us to track all expenditures related to this pandemic that will be eligible for FEMA reimbursements. Again, the a month's light event was helpful to us that we again a little bit ahead of the curve compared to other cities in knowing exactly how to manage this process. So, well, at least the Um, what we've learned from the event before. We are tracking also additional personnel costs that includes exempt staff. even though None of the exam staff is eligible for overtime or additional compensation. be want to make sure to the account and the capture this cost and hopefully they'll be able to apply it towards our Uh, 25% local match or in-kind contribution to 25% local match to maximize our FEMA recovery. So we have less money to upfront to receive the 75% recovery of grants. And we are currently in the process of another RPA filing with FEMA, so it's also commonly known as OES-130 and OES-89, and again, the we already have our portal and profile set up and a little bit ahead of the curve here. We also developed and implemented internal emergency communication, telecommunication policy. to track employee remote schedules, productivity and responsibilities. And we implemented the leaf request policy and set up the little codes. to comply with Families First Act regulations. Again, the purpose of this to track this leaf hours, maintain proper documentation, and hopefully, be able to be fully reimbursed at the end. And these items right here are currently in the works. So we are discussing them. weekly with the executive team. We are looking into conducting basic service analysis by each department, each work program. and again, we are thinking programs. We are not going to be reducing budget 10% here, 5% there. and I think that expenses like office supply and things like that. We are looking at essential products. We are looking at services and we will be, see options at the future meetings, programmatic approach to this problem. And we are Also analyzing alternative ways of delivering city services that includes internal, just looking for simple efficiencies in how we do business and maximizing our cost recovery where possible. as well as external. So if you're looking at outsourcing sharing services, again, Adam mentioned this in his introduction, And we also reduce in just simply reducing raising capital spendings looking at some ways to creating more adventurous inflows outlaws of cash, but again, be Luckily for us, we don't have immediate cash flow issue. But, We are looking at every option, every possibility to get additional resources as we can. |
| 02:21:29.41 | Yulia Carter | That brings us to the final slide. Um, of my presentation, the recommendation in front of you today is to adopt the resolution to adjust the fiscal year 19-20 operating and capital budget So the impact is listed in front of you and in the resolution language, the decrease in revenues citywide by 3.6 million or 10% to total of 32.8 million. and we are increasing appropriations or expenditures by 1.4 million or 4% to a total of 39 million. And there is another item on on your agenda. So it doesn't, it's not listed in the resolution, but we also want your authorization for this one-time reduction in the general fund shortfall contingency policy from 10% to 5.5%. Um, or 820,000, which is our projected structural deficit. we did it to balance the fiscal year 2019-2020 revised budget and that's also recommended action for you to take today. With that, I'm happy to answer any questions. |
| 02:22:45.44 | Mayor Cleveland Knowles | Great, thank you very much, Julia. I want to thank Adam Pollitzer, our city manager, for his very thoughtful introductory remarks that put this whole situation in context. And also want to thank Yulia and her whole team for really stepping up and doing so much work to get ready for this very unusual mid-year budget report. So just pass along our thanks. I know you guys have been working around the clock. So we certainly could not have anticipated that we would be here at this point in our budget process. And it's very sobering, I think, some of the figures that you've presented. But I do appreciate the amount of detail and time that went into this because this will not be This is just the beginning of our conversations, not really about this mid-year budget, but really about our next year budget. So I think it's really important that we did take the time and the detail to go through this tonight to set ourselves, to kind of seal ourselves for, our upcoming discussions. So I really appreciate everything that you've done and again Adam for the context. So we have a lot here. I just want to kick off questions from council members, and then we will open it up for public comment. Are there any council members that would like to ask questions of you or Adam? Okay, we'll start with Council Member Burns. |
| 02:24:29.85 | Councilmember Burns | Thank you, Mayor. Yulia, we referenced the property tax number of 192 up, which is obviously good news. One of the good spots of all this. As we all know and have read, the property taxes were due last week and there was no blanket forbearance. However, individuals could ask for deferment would those be, would those fall into next year's 2021 budget? Do we normally receive something that's due April 10? Do we normally receive that in the following July, August timeframe? |
| 02:25:07.08 | Yulia Carter | So we had this conversation with the Department, Marine County Department of Finance and whatever deferment that will be, will take place this year, there will be bad news for the county, not for the cities. So we are still scheduled to receive our revenues for the current fiscal year. uh, as projected because the assessed value is already set in stone. So that that is the future problem yeah it's a serious concern but it's not the this year or not even the next year's It's off to that. |
| 02:25:40.18 | Adam Politzer | Oh, not Nick. Okay, thank you. |
| 02:25:43.20 | Yulia Carter | So, as the question. |
| 02:25:43.95 | Adam Politzer | Council Member, sorry Julia. Can I just add? that the County Administrator Matthew Heimel on our call on Friday. Also, Um, stated that the delinquent payments, you know, we roll our property tax. Most people have it built into their um, monthly payments. So most of the property tax for this year that was due on the 10th. has been collected so i think the number of delinquents was actually quite low. or on par from past. And so there is a process that the county's pulling out for people to be able to defer that payment And if they don't meet that qualification, then they'll be penalized. |
| 02:26:39.01 | Mayor Cleveland Knowles | Okay, thanks. Joe, Council Member Burns, do you have other questions? |
| 02:26:42.96 | Councilmember Burns | No, thank you. |
| 02:26:45.37 | Mayor Cleveland Knowles | Councilmember Riley, do you have any questions? |
| 02:26:48.36 | Councilmember Riley | Yeah, so thank you, Yulia. I have a two part question. Um, So if I summarize across all our We took a $3.5 million revenue hit. and our expenses are greater than $1.4 million. or in the general fund or operating fund, it was 1.56 million revenue ahead, And 800K of operating expense losses. Yes, is As best I can tell, the expenses are not a surprise. We've approved all those expenses and the track we're on. The surprises are the revenue hit and most of the vast majority are COVID related. Is that correct? Thank you. |
| 02:27:33.23 | Yulia Carter | That's right. |
| 02:27:33.74 | Councilmember Riley | Thank you. Um, And then I know that in the next meeting we're gonna start are looking at Q1 and Q2, but If most of these Q4 revenue hits from COVID were in our Q4. Can we expect that we're gonna have the exact same revenue hits in our Q1 since it's sales tax, TOT oriented? property taxes spread out, So that's the second part of the question. |
| 02:28:02.64 | Yulia Carter | Well, we are currently looking at the revenue projections. What we are committing to bring forward at the next meeting. is your base budget revenue projections for the whole year. And we will walk you through the assumptions, what we are assuming for each of the quarter and again, keep in mind that this is a moving target. We still don't know, we're still guessing how long the shelter in place is going to be valid when it's going to be lifted and what is going to happen. So another thing that I do with Adam mentioned in his introduction, we have normal fluctuations. So our quarter one, quarter two, and quarter three are a little bit different. So we are going to be looking at that. We're going to be looking at order one projections compared to order one before, and that to factor in the cell stacks fluctuations here and there. |
| 02:28:57.32 | Councilmember Riley | PB, David Ensign PB, David Ens |
| 02:28:58.15 | Yulia Carter | One last question. |
| 02:29:02.78 | Councilmember Riley | And the $816,000 negative losses on the year So not a balance much, we're up $816,000. If we're full, to every 1.2 million, is that correct? So we're benefiting from $400,000 of savings not having been fully staffed to plan. |
| 02:29:21.21 | Yulia Carter | I'm sorry, you broke down I didn't hear the full question. |
| 02:29:25.06 | Councilmember Riley | OK, I apologize. our $816,000 of losses on the full year versus our revenues. is benefited by we |
| 02:29:36.32 | Unknown | Thank you. |
| 02:29:36.33 | Unknown | benefit. |
| 02:29:38.27 | Councilmember Riley | had $400,000 of savings from not being fully staffed. Is that correct? If we were fully staffed, the losses would have been roughly 1.2 million. |
| 02:29:49.73 | Yulia Carter | If we were fully staffed, Um, we would not have 400,000 those savings. Yes, that would be additional. loss. Yeah, that is correct. But again, remember the 820,000, the structural deficit is just a structural deficit. So that factors in the rate in expenditures and the rate in revenues. So when we bring it forward to you at the base budget bill. again, subtract all the one-time expenditures and take out all the one-time uh, transfers, including capital transfers. you come up with the projected deficit. Thank you. |
| 02:30:32.05 | Councilmember Riley | All right, thank you, no more questions. |
| 02:30:32.07 | Yulia Carter | Thank you. |
| 02:30:32.42 | Mayor Cleveland Knowles | All right. Yes. |
| 02:30:34.43 | Yulia Carter | Thank you. |
| 02:30:34.45 | Mayor Cleveland Knowles | out. Sorry, just to follow up on that, though, but The salary savings are also offset by the amount of money that we had to hire professional services. So on attachment two, I think there was a big line item. That's correct, yes. So we kind of have to, I mean, yes, it's sort of a saving, but Not as much as one. |
| 02:30:57.01 | Yulia Carter | Thank you. |
| 02:30:57.03 | Mayor Cleveland Knowles | Thank you. |
| 02:30:57.05 | Yulia Carter | Thank you. |
| 02:30:57.20 | Mayor Cleveland Knowles | Thank you. |
| 02:30:57.22 | Yulia Carter | All right. |
| 02:30:57.23 | Mayor Cleveland Knowles | expense, yes. Okay, thank you. Okay, Council Member Cox, do you have any questions? |
| 02:31:08.52 | Councilmember Cox | Yes, thank you. So the recommendation is that we dip 4.5% into our shortfall contingency fund. But if you look at our increased expenditures, 1.2 million of that is due to the mudslide. Don't we have a disaster contingency fund? |
| 02:31:34.54 | Yulia Carter | did do and there are several Yulia Kovacic, Parts and your questions, so the recommendation to reduce the shortfall contingency belongs to general fund so very important to your general fund laws and general fund the structural deficit. and that recommendation ties to the general fund. the laws on the FEMA recovery is recorded in general capital fund, which is completely separate fund, it's fund 140. And that contributes to the overall citywide 3.6 million but not the 1.6 million. give that answer to me. |
| 02:32:10.37 | Councilmember Cox | Thank you. Thank you. I'm not sure. And looking at slide 15, I believe it was. We are Well, our shortfall is $2.6 million. but we started the year 3.2 million more in our fund balance. So, |
| 02:32:35.17 | Councilmember Cox | Yeah. So if you, we, we thought we were going to start at 9.3, but we actually started at 5. So that's 3.2 million to the good. in our initial fund balance. And our shortfall is 6 million. So how do we end up with a structural deficit of 800,000? |
| 02:33:01.60 | Unknown | Thank you. |
| 02:33:02.63 | Yulia Carter | So... Maybe it looks sensitive. So here is our structural deficit slide. Right. So what we did, we took operating expenditures. Again, you can see the bottom portion of it, the three lines at the bottom of the of the chart. We took out capital expenses. We took out one-time transfers to general liability and workers' comp. those represented one-time costs. So we are not counting them towards operating expenditures. But we did include the operating transfers, ongoing operating transfers to OPAP and pension because this is part of the operating costs. And that's how we came up with the operating expenditure figure. |
| 02:33:42.62 | Councilmember Cox | I know. |
| 02:33:46.66 | Yulia Carter | Thank you. |
| 02:33:46.67 | Councilmember Cox | Yeah. |
| 02:33:46.72 | Yulia Carter | And- |
| 02:33:46.88 | Councilmember Cox | And... Where did we factor into the fact that we started off the year $3.2 million to the good beyond where we thought we were? |
| 02:33:58.60 | Yulia Carter | Right here. So that factored into remaining fund balance in the general fund. But again, it's our job to bring you the balanced budget. And what we're reporting here, that the balance is no longer balanced. |
| 02:34:05.42 | Unknown | Yeah. |
| 02:34:05.44 | Unknown | Thank you. |
| 02:34:05.56 | Unknown | Thank you. |
| 02:34:12.31 | Yulia Carter | So we want to rebalance the budget by this $820,000 in the current fiscal year. But the good news here is that we're still projecting healthy fund balances. But instead of pulling money from the fund balance, which would be another alternative recommendation to balance the budget, we recommend one-time reduction in the contingency designation. So we keep the fund balances intact for the fiscal year 2021. So we have more cards to play and more options to consider for the upcoming fiscal year. |
| 02:34:45.82 | Councilmember Cox | So what is the gap recommendation for a healthy fund? |
| 02:34:49.03 | Yulia Carter | balance. |
| 02:34:49.55 | Councilmember Cox | Thank you. |
| 02:34:49.60 | Yulia Carter | Thank you. |
| 02:34:50.82 | Councilmember Cox | Thank you. |
| 02:34:50.83 | Yulia Carter | I believe GFOA recommends four month operational expenses. That's the current recommendation. In the past it was 20%, now it's four months. |
| 02:34:58.31 | Unknown | Thank you. |
| 02:35:01.58 | Yulia Carter | The one |
| 02:35:02.02 | Councilmember Cox | point. |
| 02:35:02.36 | Yulia Carter | $5 million. |
| 02:35:02.97 | Councilmember Cox | per month. So... 6 million And, but we have Um, 9.2. 9.2. So why is it preferable to reduce our shortfall contingency, our policy for this year, rather than to reduce our fund balance? |
| 02:35:25.22 | Yulia Carter | Thank you. because it's a one-time reduction. we will restore it back to full 10% for the base budget of 2021. And that's the purpose of the of the policy to begin with for for the situations like that we want to factor it in and use it when we need to. Again, this is all with the understanding that we will bring it back to you as a base budget at the full 10%. |
| 02:35:46.50 | Unknown | Again, look. |
| 02:35:53.51 | Councilmember Cox | Right. I'm just asking, and again, I really don't know the answer. I'm asking why is it preferable? Is it preferable under gap? to reduce the policy that our council passed to keep that 10% uh, on shortfall contingencies. um, it's preferable to reduce that by 4.5% than to reduce our fund balance. |
| 02:36:23.29 | Yulia Carter | because that's the purpose of the policy to begin with. So that's a shortfall and budget stabilization purpose. to account for unprecedented times like that. and we have only two months left on this current fiscal year. |
| 02:36:34.24 | Councilmember Cox | months. Thank you. It's to ensure that we have monies to fall back on if we encounter unforeseen challenges. |
| 02:36:45.73 | Yulia Carter | Well, as I mentioned before, reducing fund balance is another option. That's, you're absolutely correct. So this is another option on the table. I know. |
| 02:36:54.73 | Councilmember Cox | I know I just wanted to For the benefit of our residents, I wanted to understand why you're recommending to take it out of the shortfall policy rather than reducing the fund balance. |
| 02:37:06.96 | Yulia Carter | Because reducing fund balance would require us to appropriate these funds from inappropriate fund balance, put it back on the budget books, and reduce the undesignated fund balance by this amount. And that wouldn't be my recommendation, given the situation we are in, because we don't know how bad it's going to get. in the upcoming fiscal year. We don't know how long it's going to last. and the, it's much safer choice in my professional opinion to, tweak the policy as a one-time Tweet. for this current fiscal year to have a little bit more flexibility in the upcoming fiscal to balance the budget. |
| 02:37:48.07 | Councilmember Cox | Thank you. And then my last question, I believe in looking at attachment one, which is the draft resolution. We're showing. roughly 3.6 million in to see less revenue than anticipated and 1.4 million more in expenditures than initially anticipated. So we're at a $5 million delta. from our budget. Is that right? |
| 02:38:17.47 | Yulia Carter | Thank you. |
| 02:38:18.26 | Councilmember Cox | Thank you. |
| 02:38:18.29 | Yulia Carter | That is right, across all funds, yes. |
| 02:38:25.57 | Yulia Carter | But again, keep in mind that 1.1 million of it is a FEMA reimbursement that we will hopefully eventually get. Right. So once we have a better clarity of when it's going to come in, we will approve this funds. and as far as the balancing concerns. Again, I had a slide earlier that we have fund balances of 22.6 million. Yes, the reduction in losses in revenues is really serious. And it's probably going to get worse for the upcoming year. but, we are in much better shape. than many other cities. Thank you. |
| 02:39:04.50 | Mayor Cleveland Knowles | Vice Mayor. |
| 02:39:08.78 | Vice Mayor Withey | Yeah, I've spent a lot of time working with staff on understanding this. I have no questions at this point. |
| 02:39:16.16 | Mayor Cleveland Knowles | Okay, thank you. So with that, maybe we can turn it over to the clerk to open it up for public comment. |
| 02:39:24.39 | Heidi Scoble | Yes, at this time, members of the public may address the City Council regarding Agenda Item 7A. Public comment will be accepted by video or audio audience participation via Zoom. And similar to the last time we received public comment, if you would like to speak, please raise your hand in the Zoom application. or you If you're participating via the phone, you can press star 9. Each speaker will be notified when they have one minute left to speak and again when the time is elapsed. All calls will be muted after the time has expired. In looking at our participants, it does not appear as though there are any hands raised at this time. |
| 02:40:06.12 | Heidi Scoble | Okay. |
| 02:40:06.55 | Mayor Cleveland Knowles | Great. So thank you for all the comments and questions. Are there any Any questions? Council members who would like to comment. and we will have to do a little bit of a Thank you. |
| 02:40:26.04 | Councilmember Cox | take a motion. Yes, briefly, Mayor. Absolutely. I wanted to commend both our city manager and our assistant city manager for the presentation. When I saw the draft presentation, that was emailed to us, I was Um, When I saw our PowerPoint at our council meeting, as some of you may recall, I expressed some consternation at the portent of the report to come. And, um, I really appreciate context provided by the city manager in terms of really what we have been facing not just this year but last year and the prior year. And for us to end up with this strong of a fund balance, after three years of challenging Um, situations that we've had to encounter I... believe that's just shows the commendable Planning. performed by our staff and by our former City Council. Um, I appreciate that the Vice Mayor has spent a ton of time working with staff to get his head around all of this. I have already made arrangements to meet with city staff next week so that I can get my head better around this as we go forward into our projections to understand what we need to do to continue to provide basic services but at the same time to undertake whatever efficiencies we can to ensure that we come out the other end of this, um, without being severely pampered in our delivery of services. um thank you to the manager and to the assistant city manager for this thorough and for explaining our questions and for your recommendations. And I'm prepared to vote in favor of the resolution. |
| 02:42:39.96 | Mayor Cleveland Knowles | Thank you. Council member Riley or Burns. Do you have any. comments. |
| 02:42:45.16 | Councilmember Riley | Yes, I do. Thank you staff for all the work you've done. It was just two weeks ago, maybe four weeks ago, we talked about the impact of COVID-19 and the fiscal cliff that we'd be facing. You presented the cliff today. |
| 02:43:01.56 | Unknown | presented this. |
| 02:43:03.23 | Councilmember Riley | A $3.6 million revenue hit. um, on a plan where we were tracking to probably be right on a balanced budget and now we're not. So we're seeing the cliff. Um, Great news that we have been fiscally responsive for so many years to have a reserve that we can draw upon and even after having drawn upon it to the tune of $3.4 million we're still in a strong spot with 51% of a reserve against our operating budget. So that's fortunate, but as you said, Julia, We do not know how long this is going to last. We don't know if it's going to get worse. This meeting is setting the table, just telling us what we have in front of us. The next two meetings are the hard ones. We have to make some very difficult decisions about services that we likely need to cut to get back to a balanced budget. The companies I advise in the private sector are all modeling around an 18-month recession and they're designing to preserve capital for 18 months. In the private sector, capital is cash reserves, or it's the quote-un-R reserve funds. And I think we need to look at the same of, how we preserve our capital Because what I do know in the next decade, there's gonna be many unforeseen calamities like we've experienced the last three years. And so we're, We're fortunately in a good position, but we have to work hard to preserve that. Those are my comments at this point. I think in our next two meetings, what I hope is in the next one is we look at Q1 and Q2 of next year What are the hard decisions we need to make And as we look at the fiscal years ahead, What are the tough ones? And In our strategic planning work, We identified a lot of wonderful things that we had hoped to do in the coming couple of years. much of that is going to be difficult to achieve. So those are my comments. Thank you. |
| 02:45:15.29 | Mayor Cleveland Knowles | Thank you very much Councilmember Burns you have. |
| 02:45:18.87 | Councilmember Burns | Yeah, I do. And thank you, staff and council members for your comments, staff for your work. We have the real benefit of sitting here on April 15th, 14th to talk about finances and not about health and medical issues that so many communities are facing. You know, this is a terrible pandemic and we're already looking forward to the outcome, you know, coming out of this and our financial obligations, because we haven't had that terrible impact that some communities have had with loss of life. So I'm thankful for that, and I want to put it into perspective of what we're doing here, and that is what's going to guide our coming out of this, is it's going to be safety first still. But as we do that, I really looked at three areas we need to consider in the strategies to balance the future budget. And I appreciate that on the slide we have leadership is critical during this recovery process. It's this type of meeting now that we need to start laying that that work of what staff is going to be doing to crunch these numbers and what ideas we're going to put forth with the community. Because between now and those May, meetings. we will have more idea of when we're going to be coming out of this and what that coming out is going to look like and we need to be ready to roll. And kind of following up on measure, Council Member Riley's comment, I had three areas, like I said, that I wanted to touch on for that one is to be completely ready with capital and we also have the great benefit not only of a budget but of having a lot of assets we own facilities we have a leverage possibility to gain a lot of cash if needed i'm not saying that's our budget policy now to put leverage on our on our assets but that's an option to raise cash. Putting expenditures in the right places, and I think those are gonna be in areas that do drive certain elements to our recovery. And then... the policy that we have been looking to, to do for the last couple of years, an economic development policy, a way to look at how to maximize our revenue opportunities that is more needed now than ever. I don't wanna hold off on that discussion. I wanna push that discussion forward quickly because that is what we need to do to survive the next two years I think we really need to focus on staycations and ways to maintain our money. given the downturn in our asset availability and our budget strength, this is the time if we were a private company and I hope council member Riley would agree with me in advising private companies, we would be looking to grab market share right now. We'd be looking to, enhance our opportunity to increase our future capability of earning. And I think there's a great opportunity for us to do that in re-identifying how we keep people in our community to stay here, stay Kate this summer, spend your money here, and how we get to dictate what type of tourist is going to come here in the future events and opportunities in programming that we reinvent coming out of this. So I really think this is a great time for leadership to step forward and say this is what our community needs to look like. This is what we need to do. This is where our values are and that will be the selling product that we use to drive our revenues to go forward the next two to three years of this long-going pandemic so i want to get back to this slide and to this presentation tonight and all the work i really appreciate all the work that staff has had to do this i know it's been many hours on a non-pleasant situation so thank you for that |
| 02:49:02.73 | Unknown | Okay, thank you very much. Sarah. And that's |
| 02:49:08.94 | Vice Mayor Withey | Yeah, let me just add a few thoughts. um, to this. So, uh, I don't want to repeat what other council members have already said, except to repeat, this was a lot of work. end. So to thank staff for that, and there's a lot of work ahead. the I, appreciated the both Um, city managers perspective early on and then, um, uh, Yulia's perspective that You know, we have a very strong I'll see you next time. RESERVES. I don't even know. you. probably in terms of percentages, the highest in Marin County. The And so... I don't really care where the reserve, where the, you. plug the structural deficit for this one time thing, I can understand the recommendation made by staff because it does lead to a little bit more flexibility Um, So, We are in that very strong situation and that's been 10 years in the making. |
| 02:50:35.11 | Vice Mayor Withey | One thing though that we do need to, I want to echo Council Member Ryla's point that The next. two meetings are going to be really critical Um, the Our Administrative Services Director made the point that our revenues vary by quarter, It was also mentioned by Adam early on the first two quarters of the next fiscal year is where we get the highest some of the highest, in fact, the highest, especially quarter one. Um, uh, revenue. from sales tax and from TOT and parking. and So, even though it's very difficult to project what it's going to be, the actual revenue projections for next year that we're going to hear on April 28th I believe are going to be somewhat, um, Grim. uh, And so therefore that will leave us in May sort through the various strategies that the staff will put forward. And you know, we're going to have to make some tough decisions. What I'd like to see in particular, and I know I've already talked to you and Adam about this is, first of all, let's make sure we fully understand the basis for the various projections. Let's look at this quarter by quarter, understand as I think Yulia is proposing to do, what quarter one projection is going to be like versus quarter one of this year and quarter two projections for next year versus quarter two of this year and so on. But what I'd also like to see is some scenarios, three scenarios. When I've done this before in the private sector, I've always called it the good, the bad, and the ugly. You know, the high, medium, the low, whatever you want to call the scenarios. I don't, as Adam suggested, it's probably... the bad, the worse than the ugly, you know? Um, because next year's projections are going to look fairly, as I said, sobering. And so if we can look at what could be our best case scenario, what could be our worst case scenario, and pick a middle scenario that we manage cash flow towards, then that will give us the most flexibility that if the recovery occurs faster than we think it's going to, we can flip quickly back to a good scenario. Or if the recovery is much worse than we think it is, we can make easily, actually painfully, even more difficult decisions, but at least we will have preserved our capital as council member Riley correctly points out we need to do. And we also are not burning unless burning money because we've taken a sort of sober person and careful scenario that we managed to. So I have every confidence that the work that has begun here will continue for the next two meetings and we will see some rigorous analysis and be able to make those decisions that we need to make over the next months or so. So thank you. |
| 02:54:35.78 | Councilmember Riley | There may I add one more comment. |
| 02:54:37.43 | Mayor Cleveland Knowles | Absolutely. |
| 02:54:38.63 | Councilmember Riley | Just following on Vice Mayor's comments. Yulia, I think it would be helpful when we meet that We have a little insight into the assumptions behind the good the bad and the ugly. So an example would be on TOT revenues. You know, the good could say we expect hotels to get back to normal occupancy in six months. The bad is 12 months and the ugly is two years, whatever. So that we understand kind of the assumptions behind Same thing with parking and sales taxes. Um, So that gives us better, we have better context to really weigh in on where we think the likely scenarios are. So that would be very helpful. We get the color behind the assumptions rather than just the numbers. |
| 02:55:29.56 | Mayor Cleveland Knowles | Okay. Great, thank you. Thank you for all those. Am I unmuted? Yeah. Thank you for all the comments, as always. I do think, you know, I would strongly agree with a few things that, A, that we have the luxury of being able to be in a planning mode at this point. um, And, you know, I'm from our earlier discussion on that. pandemic and how it's affecting Lynn. You know, I think we're in an excellent position. after a Bay Area leadership took some strong measures. So that's great. I do see this tonight as being a table setting. So whoever, I can't remember who put it that way, I'm You know, for some pretty difficult decisions, whether we are looking at the good, the bad, or the ugly, they are. not going to be what we thought they were when we started off this year. So, you know, for tonight, I'm supportive of staff's recommendations. And I'm also very pleased to be on a good path for moving forward. um, to take the next steps that we need to take to get information Make some assumptions. And, you know, just to Julia and staff, we know that this information is constantly changing and we know how difficult this is right now, but we're just asking you know, for you to do your best and to take the information that you have. It won't be perfect. We know that. But I think it's an important conversation to start. And it's important that we do as much community outreach and start to educate the public about, you know, exactly what our unique economy here in Saucyedo has and why this particular crisis will make it even more difficult for us than some of our neighbors in Marin. With that, I think we have some action items. So we have on the screen, and some motion or a motion. which I've met. to fully, but would any council members like to comment further or would you like to motion? |
| 02:57:58.11 | Vice Mayor Withey | I'm happy to make a motion. Uh, if we're ready unless There's no other comment, so I move that we adopt a resolution to adjust the fiscal year 2019-20 operating capital budget which involves a decrease in the revenue projections by 3,547,995. Um, as detailed in the resolution and increase in appropriation by $1,409,232. as detailed in the resolution. I'm assuming, Mary, that we do not need to go through and describe any more detail and that that would do. And that secondly, to move to authorize a one-time reduction of the general fund shortfall contingency policy from 10% to 5.5% or by 819,566. which is the projected structural deficit, in order to balance the fiscal year 2019-20 revised budget. |
| 02:59:12.17 | Mayor Cleveland Knowles | of a second. |
| 02:59:13.49 | Chief Vorabacher | That can be a good one. |
| 02:59:15.62 | Mayor Cleveland Knowles | Was that Councilmember Burns? |
| 02:59:17.17 | Chief Vorabacher | Thank you. |
| 02:59:17.18 | Unknown | Yes. |
| 02:59:17.61 | Chief Vorabacher | you |
| 02:59:17.84 | Unknown | Okay. |
| 02:59:18.43 | Mayor Cleveland Knowles | Karen Hollweg, Great, so we have a motion by vice mayor with the second by Council Member burn. Could the clerk please call the roll? |
| 02:59:27.09 | Heidi Scoble | Thank you. Councilmember Riley? Thank you. |
| 02:59:30.03 | Councilmember Riley | Yes. |
| 02:59:30.40 | Heidi Scoble | Thank you. Councilmember Burns. |
| 02:59:32.37 | Councilmember Riley | Yes. |
| 02:59:32.95 | Heidi Scoble | Council member Cox? Yes. Vice mayor Withy? |
| 02:59:34.99 | Councilmember Riley | Thank you. Thank you. |
| 02:59:37.22 | Heidi Scoble | Yeah. |
| 02:59:37.27 | Councilmember Riley | that. |
| 02:59:37.49 | Heidi Scoble | Thank you. Mayor of Cleveland Knowles. |
| 02:59:39.51 | Mayor Cleveland Knowles | Yeah. That motion passes unanimously five to zero. Thank you again to Julia and all of your staff for your hard work and anticipated further. All right, so we are done with business items. We will move on. to communications. |
| 03:00:03.74 | Heidi Scoble | The next item as you stated is communications agenda item number eight. This is an opportunity for the public to provide any comments for items that are not on the agenda. Public comment will be accepted by video or audio audience participation via Zoom. Each public comment is limited to three minutes per speaker. You may raise your hand in the Zoom application, or if you're calling in by 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 time has expired. And at this time, it does not appear as though there is any public comment. |
| 03:00:48.85 | Mayor Cleveland Knowles | Okay, thank you. we do have a note for the record that we have um because we are receiving more written correspondence. started an email communication section under communication. So we will move on to item nine, And we will take public comment on item nine, which is both future agenda items and other reports of significance. |
| 03:01:23.56 | Heidi Scoble | There are no public comments. |
| 03:01:26.90 | Mayor Cleveland Knowles | Okay, so we will go to item 9A, which is future agenda items. I think we did have one from Councilmember Burns earlier in the evening about our housing inventory. Karen Hollweg, And so I would just think we can put that on an item at the discretion of what a Community development director. I'm sorry. |
| 03:01:53.03 | Councilmember Cox | Mayer. |
| 03:01:54.16 | Mayor Cleveland Knowles | Thank you. |
| 03:01:54.21 | Councilmember Cox | Yeah. |
| 03:01:54.48 | Mayor Cleveland Knowles | Thank you. |
| 03:01:55.59 | Councilmember Cox | Council Member Burns and Council Member Riley also discussed their plan to bring back to the council a recommendation with respect to our and hospitality committee. but I didn't hear when that might come back to us. |
| 03:02:16.84 | Councilmember Burns | John McEvoy, We're ready anytime we're going to meet with the conference with the. Chair Greg Musil, Chair of both just to confirm some of the structural but Councilman Riley has written up a really strong plan that actually was almost ready for presentation tonight, so I assume we could do it next next meeting correct Tom. |
| 03:02:37.04 | Councilmember Riley | That will be the soonest we can do it. And hopefully we will strive for that, but we will know before we have to publish the agenda for that meeting. And it's dependent on the feedback we get from the committees. |
| 03:02:50.81 | Councilmember Cox | Thank you. This has just been something that we've been talking about since last October. So I would just love to see us bring, you know, I can't wait to hear the thoughts from the subcommittee. |
| 03:03:03.99 | Councilmember Burns | Vice Mayor Withey will tell you we've been talking about it a lot longer than that. |
| 03:03:11.51 | Councilmember Riley | I think we're getting good reception to it. So it's just, you know, it's a collaborative approach. to make sure we have the current committees that have been working very hard feel represented, but they also buy into the new vision of what we want to achieve going |
| 03:03:28.08 | Heidi Scoble | Wonderful. And Mayor Cleveland Knowles, we did receive one raised hand. And I don't know if there was a delay in any of the broadcasting. So I would recommend that we accept public comment at this time. |
| 03:03:44.89 | Mayor Cleveland Knowles | Yeah, absolutely. We can do that. We'll move back to public comment and then we'll wrap up. |
| 03:03:50.36 | Heidi Scoble | Fantastic. We do have Sandra Bushmaker who raised her hand. We will ask to share the video. And Sandra, can you hear us? |
| 03:04:01.17 | Sandra Bushmaker | Yes, I can. Thank you very much for letting me in. Yes, it was a |
| 03:04:02.36 | Heidi Scoble | Okay. |
| 03:04:06.74 | Sandra Bushmaker | a glitch, there was a delay, I couldn't get to my hand raising. So thank you so much. |
| 03:04:12.06 | Unknown | I'm sorry. |
| 03:04:14.20 | Sandra Bushmaker | I just wanted to comment on the email that I sent to the council requesting kudos be given to the work that's being done in the partnership for the pandemic that we are enduring. They're making face shields. They're handing out AND I THINK IT'S A Thank you. hand sanitizer to the public this week. And I think it would be great to have the council acknowledge that effort. during this time. Thank you. |
| 03:04:46.55 | Mayor Cleveland Knowles | Great, thank you. Yes, I, in an email newsletter that I produced this week, give a huge shout out to a lot of our local businesses, both in the Marinship and elsewhere, who are retooling to make essential items during the crisis. There are businesses in the marinship Um, making face shields and hand sanitizer. We have dressmakers making face masks. So in addition to the essential food service providers and our grocery stores, that we've recognized before. We have a lot of businesses trying to turn around on a dime and do really important public service, and we definitely appreciate that. So we appreciate your emails. and the newsletter that highlighted those efforts. It's great to see. So thank you for bringing that up. |
| 03:05:43.35 | Unknown | Thank you very much. |
| 03:05:44.11 | Mayor Cleveland Knowles | Thank you. |
| 03:05:45.02 | Vice Mayor Withey | I'm wondering Madam Mayor, would that be an appropriate thing to sort of highlight in the currents? Because I think it's phenomenal what they're doing, retooling the various businesses to meet the public expectations. needs, safety needs. |
| 03:06:04.24 | Mayor Cleveland Knowles | We can definitely give a strong recommendation to our Director of Communications. to highlight those and provide him with, I would just encourage any council members who have ideas to forward those to the, Director of Communications in addition to the ones mentioned by Ms. Bushmaker. So thank you. Good idea. So back to future agenda items. So, One of the things that is weighing on my mind as we discuss the finances, about the recovery from COVID-19 and we talk about our small businesses. I also, I think at some point we might want to think about whether there's another category of recovery Um, that we need to be thinking about. So just other topics. And I think as a council, we may wanna have a continuing agenda item at least a monthly agenda item about how we are gonna |
| 03:07:06.55 | Unknown | Amen. Thank you. |
| 03:07:07.05 | Mayor Cleveland Knowles | work with our residents, businesses, I'm not sure. |
| 03:07:10.12 | Unknown | Thank you. |
| 03:07:10.70 | Mayor Cleveland Knowles | the county, people who are recovering from the illness, um, |
| 03:07:14.43 | Unknown | Thank you. Thank you. |
| 03:07:14.71 | Mayor Cleveland Knowles | people who are recovering from the shelter in place, recovering economically. It's just been a big lift for folks. So I think that is kind of a future agenda item or maybe a continuing issue that we'll want to keep at the top of our minds. |
| 03:07:35.50 | Mayor Cleveland Knowles | Okay. Any other suggestions? |
| 03:07:41.04 | Mayor Cleveland Knowles | Okay, well, we are later than expected, but not too bad. So we can adjourn this meeting, our second fully virtual meeting again. I think we owe a huge shout out to staff for the continuing work to make these meetings run smoothly. So thank you to our clerk, Heidi Scoble, to Russ Jaycox and all the IT staff. And just to everyone who put so much work into the meeting tonight. And I guess a huge shout out too for the, great number of public participants we had. Not necessarily a lot of public comment, but a lot of people who dialed into Zoom. So thank you for that. Thank you for your evening to be here with us. And to the city clerk, I think we can adjourn the meeting. |
| 03:08:37.87 | Heidi Scoble | Thank you. |
| 03:08:37.89 | Mayor Cleveland Knowles | Thank you. |
| 03:08:38.03 | Heidi Scoble | Thank you. Thank you and good evening. |
| 03:08:39.63 | Mayor Cleveland Knowles | AND FINDING THEM. |
| 03:08:39.70 | Heidi Scoble | Thank you. |
| 03:08:40.49 | Vice Mayor Withey | Thank you. Good night, everyone. |
| 03:08:41.87 | Heidi Scoble | Good night. |
Colleen Wickwire — Against: Questioned guidelines for sheltering in place, noting people from San Francisco and other areas are coming to Sausalito with warmer weather, and referenced Santa Cruz fining visitors, asking if people from other towns can walk around, shop, and eat ice cream in Sausalito. ▶ 📄