| Time | Speaker | Text |
|---|---|---|
| 00:00:00.03 | Heidi Scoble | Stream. |
| 00:00:00.82 | Unknown | Thank you. Thank you. |
| 00:00:06.28 | Unknown | He is now. |
| 00:00:08.54 | Heidi Scoble | Okay, are you ready? Okay. 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 Zoom and is being broadcast live on the city's website and on cable TV channel 27. |
| 00:00:43.85 | Heidi Scoble | Councilmember Riley? Councilmember Burns. Council member Cox. Vice Mayor Withey? Mayor Cleveland Knowles. All members are present and there is a quorum. |
| 00:01:03.97 | Unknown | Thank you. |
| 00:01:35.80 | Heidi Scoble | If we can wait 15 seconds for public comment to come in. |
| 00:01:52.52 | Heidi Scoble | There are no participants that have raised their hands and wanting to provide any public comment. |
| 00:02:06.97 | Unknown | Thank you. |
| 00:02:11.01 | Unknown | Thank you. Thank you. |
| 00:02:18.86 | Unknown | Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. . |
| 00:02:44.65 | Unknown | Okay, I'm unmuted now. I couldn't unmute myself before Heidi, it was controlled by you. |
| 00:02:53.59 | Heidi Scoble | Okay, we changed all the settings as everyone's starting to come in. Okay. And that's just... Okay, fantastic. We're going to start letting the public in. Could you give us 30 seconds as we start admitting everybody? |
| 00:03:11.00 | Unknown | Yes. I think Council Member Withy said he'd be another couple of minutes. |
| 00:03:17.92 | Yulia Carter | Okay. |
| 00:03:20.17 | Unknown | but we can get started when you're ready. |
| 00:04:11.84 | Heidi Scoble | Okay, I think we're good to go. |
| 00:04:15.92 | Unknown | Okay, great. So welcome everyone to our regular meeting of April 29. We have already met an open session. The clerk has already called the roll. And we have no announcements from our closed session. So we will... Start with item two, which special presentations, mayor announcements. And the first item on that agenda is a COVID-19 update. Um, from Abbott Chambers. And just before Abbott gets started, hi, welcome, Abbott. I just wanted to recognize and thank staff for the really big lift over the weekend. to address the wave of visitors who surged into Sausalito on Saturday. led by the chief, we had a full team effort with Kevin McGowan, Lauren Umbertus, Mike Langford, Captain Frost, Lieutenant Gregory, and Abbott Chambers. So I'm sure we'll hear more about this during Abbott's presentation, but I just want to thank you all for working through the weekend. And, uh, getting a really a good plan in place. So thank you. Welcome Abbott. |
| 00:05:38.58 | Adam Chambers | Thank you. Good evening Madam Mayor and members of the council. I'm Adam Chambers your director of communications. I'm going to be providing a COVID-19 update. My presentation builds on previous updates that I've given at City Council meetings at March 17th. March 17th meeting, March 31st meeting, April 14th meeting which also gives us a sense of how long we've been at this. 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'll say a little bit more about the public health order on face coverings that went into effect last week. We are expecting an update to the shelter in place order that we are currently under and I will give some more details on that. And then I'll provide some updates that are specific to Sausalito. At the end staff will be happy to take any questions from the Council. As far as the public health orders are currently in effect for us here in Marin, we are under a shelter in place order through May 3rd. Again, expected to be updated and I will say a little bit more about that. A public health order on face coverings is also in effect. parks have been closed to motorized access by public health order and that basically means that the public is not to access parks or open spaces unless they can get to them on foot or by bicycle. We are also under an emergency isolation order that pertains to people who have been diagnosed with COVID-19 and an emergency quarantine order for people who have been exposed or in close contact with someone who has COVID-19. The public health order on face coverings went into effect last Wednesday. It requires the face coverings to be worn in certain situations. Those face coverings need to cover the nose and mouth. And cloth face coverings are okay. And in fact, if people have unused medical grade face masks, they're encouraged to donate them to medical facilities or first responders. People must wear face coverings in the following situations according to the order. Inside public spaces or waiting in line to enter public spaces when seeking healthcare. when waiting for or riding on mass transit or other shared transportation in common areas of buildings when working at businesses physically open and in areas where the public is present, likely to be present, or at any time when others are nearby. and when working in any space where food is being prepared and or packaged for sale. Other notes on face coverings, individuals engaged in outside exercise are not required to wear a face covering, but should carry one with them for situations where it becomes difficult to maintain social distance. Children aged 12 and younger are not required to wear a face covering. And children ages two years or younger should not wear face coverings because of the risk of suffocation. |
| 00:08:45.79 | Adam Chambers | The Department of the Renn County Department of Health and Human Services released a news release yesterday telling us to expect the shelter in place order that's currently in effect to be extended. It reads later this week the public health officers of the Bay Area will issue revised shelter in place orders that largely keep the current restrictions in place and extend them through May. The new order will include limited easing of specific restrictions for a small number of lower risk activities. In that news release the public health officers of Marin note that we've made significant progress in slowing the spread of COVID-19 here in Marin but that it would be premature to lift restrictions and lifting the restrictions could lead to a large surge in COVID-19 cases. Our health officers plan to release indicators to help guide any decisions about easing restrictions. They say they will base that decision on the six critical indicators that were outlined by Governor Gavin Newsom. on April 14th. I think it's important to note here that local shelter in place restrictions cannot be less strict than the state of California public health orders. So, um, Marin could have, um, more restrictions than the state, but could not have anything less than that bar set by the state. Napa County has eased within the last week some of its shelter in place restrictions and some examples that may be a sign of things to come for us. They're going to allow golf courses to reopen with precautions. Workers to conduct non-cosmetic landscaping and residential real estate viewings with precautions in place. Today, Governor Gavin Newsom announced a four stage plan for reopening California. He says that stage one is going to be now It is a time when we are continuing to build preparedness and capacity for COVID-19 testing and tracing of cases. Stage two, is going to happen and it will be a gradual reopening of lower risk workplaces as well as more public spaces he says that that's likely to be weeks away and will happen by state order and that counties would be able to relax their restrictions more slowly if they wanted to. Stage three. would be a gradual reopening of higher risk environments like hair salons, theaters and churches. And he's being very careful not to give any specific time frame, but he says we should think of that as coming in months rather than weeks. And then stage four would be the end of the stay-at-home order when large events are allowed again. And that can only happen once treatments for COVID-19 have been developed. Here's some updates specific to Sausalito. I'll talk about downtown congestion during the stay at home order. summer events, a mental health flyer that's going out this week. And I'll close on a positive note with some examples of neighbors helping neighbors here in our community during this difficult time. So prior to April 25th, downtown, our police officers are focusing on educating the public and business owners about new restrictions. This is a photo from Saturday, March 21st, showing a pretty sparse number of folks downtown. Things hit a tipping point on Saturday. with the number of visitors coming into town and it was a point where the police were no longer able to stay on top of the crowds in terms of crowd management. You can see we're looking on Bridgeway now the number of cars parked, people walking It's probably a combination of the better weather obviously the weekend and then of the likely people becoming frustrated with being cooped up under shelter at home. Here's another photo of parking lot one showing a large number of cars parked and people visiting Sausalito. line outside of hamburgers on Bridgeway. Some people wear masks, some not, but an environment where it's very difficult for people to maintain social distancing. Another shot looking down Bridgeway and just look at the number of cars that are parked there in addition to the people walking through town. It's very clear from our public health order that people should not be getting in their cars and driving for their fresh air. The FAQs provided by Marin Health and Human Services say things like the order allows you to go outside for exercise activities like walking and running, but exercise should be sought close to home. You can only leave your house for essential travel. Driving to a park or beach to get outdoors is not essential travel and is not allowed under the public I think it's important to say here that these are not just arbitrary restrictions. We know that COVID-19 is transmitted when people are in close proximity to each other and we know that a significant number of people who have COVID-19 are not showing any symptoms. So as the mayor said, some difficult decisions were made on Saturday night. And the decision was made that effective Sunday, April 26th, the city would close the downtown parking lots on weekends and holidays and that's parking lots one through four Also on Sunday and it was amazing that we get them out so quickly. Electronic message boards were placed at each end of town to discourage outside visitors As far as policies, parking at metered spaces is now restricted to residents. Non-residents with a parking permit are also allowed. And our police officers have been given the authority to site visitors with a $500 fine for non-essential travel and safe distancing violations. |
| 00:15:03.37 | Adam Chambers | Moving on to summer events, the guidance that we've gotten from Marin Health and Human Services reflected in this quote from our county public health officer, Dr. Matt Willis. Large gatherings where it is very difficult to do social distancing are probably going to be some of the last things to be allowed. Obviously this is in line with what we just heard from Gavin Newsom as far as large events being among the last to be permitted. So it was with great sorrow that the city and our parks and recreation department announced in the past week that we have canceled the 2020 jazz and blues by the bay concert series and we've also had to cancel our 4th of July parade picnic and firework display. A mental health flyer will be going out to the community this week. It's going to be going to all Sausalito residences delivered by volunteers from Sausalito Village who will be taking precautions as they make their rounds. The flyer was drafted by a city mental health task force and we've had it approved by the Marin County mental health folks. On the flyer you will find a resource guide with phone numbers to call for emotional support, social services and mental health counseling. screenshot there of the front and back of the flyer. The target audiences are twofold. The first is people with poor access to online communications who are outside of existing community support networks, the sort of hidden population, a vulnerable population that we're trying to reach. And then also people who may be feeling stressed by the outbreak and the prolonged shelter at home period. And that certainly applies to a lot of us. So let me wrap up just by giving some examples of some of the wonderful things that are happening in our community as neighbors are helping neighbors. And so we've really been pulling together during this difficult time. Our call a ride for Saucelito seniors has been providing pickup and delivery of food and medicine. At the Sausalito Women's Club, the executive board has been reaching out personally to all 320 club members to check on their well-being. Down on Gate 5 Road, the Working Waterfront Coalition is making and giving away free hand sanitizer. And more than 750 people took advantage of the service during its first week, which is remarkable and wonderful. A food bags of love fundraising campaign for Bayside MLK and Willow Creek Academy families raised $158,000 in donated food. and money for more than 500 donors. And then it's also been impressive to see how Sausalito residents have been supporting our local businesses. uh, wide range of takeout and delivery options to us means that we're not for want of food. In Sausalito Currents, the takeout and delivery restaurant link has been the most popular link in every edition of Currents for the last month. I'm closing on one other piece of good news. Amen. I think that's a good thing. that has been under construction is getting very close to reopening. That's our Dunphy Park where grass was planted just this past Friday. It may take two or three months for the grass to be established and people for us to be able to walk. on the grass but we will be able to watch it grow over the next couple of months. By summertime, we will be practicing social distancing in our beautiful new dumpy park. The shoreline trail and shoreline access areas should be open sooner than that, maybe within a month or so. That concludes my presentation and city staff would be happy to take any questions from the |
| 00:19:11.93 | Unknown | Great, thank you Abbott. As always, a great presentation. And I am just amazed that only two weeks, I mean that two weeks has passed, only two weeks has passed since our last update. Staff is working so hard and things are changing so quickly. It's really hard to keep up and I just can't thank you all enough for being for adapting and being so flexible and for I think all of us are doing things that are outside our comfort zone and new and different so I mean just this presentation highlights how much is going on. So are there questions from Council members? |
| 00:19:58.09 | Unknown | I'm sorry, I can't see with the screen like this. OK, seeing none. It looks like we can move on to public comment on this item. |
| 00:20:17.16 | Heidi Scoble | There might be a slight delay, so we will wait for the public to raise their hands. It looks like John DeRay has raised his hand. Okay. |
| 00:20:26.32 | Unknown | Great. Um, |
| 00:20:26.96 | Heidi Scoble | Thank you. |
| 00:20:26.98 | Unknown | So, |
| 00:20:27.20 | Heidi Scoble | We will un- |
| 00:20:27.97 | Unknown | Mute. |
| 00:20:29.14 | Heidi Scoble | Thank you. |
| 00:20:29.17 | Unknown | Good evening, John. |
| 00:20:34.30 | John DeRay | Hello. Yep. |
| 00:20:37.41 | Unknown | Hold on just a sec. |
| 00:20:44.29 | John DeRay | Can you hear me now? |
| 00:20:45.47 | Unknown | Yes. |
| 00:20:45.89 | John DeRay | Thank you. Okay, thank you for taking my comment. I just wanted to give a Huge shout out. to Chris Gallagher at the Bay Model. regarding the plastic and the other side of the screen. As you may or may not know, Coca-Cola donated a 4,000 pound roll of plastic to be used for the Face shields. And now besides the laser cutter, the folks down there are also using THE METAL WATER JET CUTTER AT MARIN MAGE. both facilities are cutting face shields. Um, We needed a large base to process the shields. And Janelle Kalman, myself and Reason Bradley met with Chris and asked her about the VAI model, and she graciously allowed us a large space within the Bay model Um, to clean, disinfect, wipe, and hang to dry. the space shields as they're brought over. They're then moved into the meeting room right across right next door. and we have a temporary fulfillment center set up there where the shields are shipped. And we have dozens of volunteers now doing this work. And on Monday, we created 1,317 face shields. So it was a really, we're at a good pace now in producing these shields. So anyway, I just wanted to thank Chris and all the people down there wanted to thank Chris for letting us use that space. I was very gracious of her to do that, and we appreciate it. And I think it obviously reflects very well on the city. Thank you. |
| 00:22:32.78 | Unknown | Yeah, great, thank you. And we've been hearing a lot of good about all the great work going on in the Marinship and other places in town. So thank you for your work on that, John. I see Sandra Bushmaker. |
| 00:22:50.42 | Unknown | Good evening, Sandra. |
| 00:22:56.88 | Heidi Scoble | We're working on unmuting Sandra's audio. |
| 00:23:01.57 | Sandra Bushmaker | All right, can you hear me now? |
| 00:23:05.67 | Unknown | You're kind of faint, but we can hear you. |
| 00:23:07.56 | Sandra Bushmaker | Okay, well, I'll speak quite loudly. Unfortunately, it requires me to get close to my computer. A couple things. I just want to give kudos again to the efforts down in the marine ship. The fact that Chris Gallagher opened up the Bay model for The production line I think is fantastic. I know that the product is being shipped all over the country. and fulfilling needs where they exist. So I think it's a great accomplishment for our business people and volunteers down in the marine ship. Secondly, I didn't see a public comment for items on the closed agenda. I will use my time now to speak to the issue concerning the negotiations on the with Bank of America. I just want to- |
| 00:23:57.68 | Unknown | Sandra, we did have public comment at 6 o'clock. |
| 00:24:02.49 | Sandra Bushmaker | I had my computer on and I didn't see it. |
| 00:24:06.44 | Unknown | Okay, well, go ahead. Maybe there was a technical problem. |
| 00:24:10.45 | Sandra Bushmaker | This will be quick. I just want to make sure that there are plans to announce to the citizens that you are in negotiations to purchase the Bank of America building. I don't know how much of the public is aware of that, and I also wish to say that I would have. that action considered in light of the budget shortfalls that we're anticipating as a result of the COVID-19 illnesses and the other coronavirus problems that we're having in our society. So sorry I missed the 6 o'clock. I didn't see that that was going to be time to open our Zoom. So I thought I had everything on on time. So I apologize for that. Thank you very much. |
| 00:24:58.13 | Unknown | Okay, no worries. Anyway, |
| 00:25:01.03 | Heidi Scoble | other public |
| 00:25:01.59 | Unknown | are kind of. |
| 00:25:01.87 | Heidi Scoble | Thank you. |
| 00:25:01.99 | Unknown | Yeah. |
| 00:25:02.02 | Heidi Scoble | Thank you. |
| 00:25:02.08 | Unknown | Thank you. |
| 00:25:02.11 | Heidi Scoble | Thank you. |
| 00:25:05.26 | Heidi Scoble | There are no other public comments, but I would like to point out that at around 545 this evening, Audrey Ayuri did submit a late email that was forwarded to the city council and uploaded to the city's website. |
| 00:25:20.59 | Unknown | Okay. Great, thank you very much. And also just Heidi, for your information, your audio is at least I don't know if other council members are hearing it, but it's breaking up. |
| 00:25:32.03 | Joan Cox | It's very garbled for me, Mayor. |
| 00:25:34.24 | Unknown | Yeah. |
| 00:25:34.61 | Heidi Scoble | Thank you. |
| 00:25:34.74 | Unknown | Thank you. |
| 00:25:34.76 | Heidi Scoble | Okay, we'll work on the audio. We've had some technical difficulties since 6 p.m. this evening, so we're working things out. |
| 00:25:35.08 | Unknown | Okay. |
| 00:25:44.06 | Unknown | Okay, great. Are there comments from council members on this item? |
| 00:25:53.38 | Unknown | Thank you. |
| 00:25:53.39 | Joan Cox | I would just |
| 00:25:53.46 | Unknown | I would just... |
| 00:25:54.78 | Joan Cox | Go ahead. Mayor, I had a comment in connection with COVID-19 in general. the various losses that the city of Sausalito is sustaining, we need to tender those to our CSAC, insurance authority, and all of the policies and insurance held by the city including business interruption, contingent business interruption, pollution coverages, as well as any separate endorsements the city may have for communicable disease or other similar endorsements. Even though we're unlikely to collect much, if any, from the insurance policies, it's necessary to tender those claims and have them resolved in order to perfect any claims we may have against the federal government, similar to the manner in which we had to do with FEMA. So I just wanted to throw that out there in connection with our COVID-19 update to be sure that we're carefully tracking the impacts, the financial impacts to the city of Sausalito, which I know we'll be discussing. in greater detail. that we're going to be able to in connection with other items later this evening. Thank you. |
| 00:27:03.24 | Unknown | Great, thank you for that. Anyone else? |
| 00:27:09.60 | Unknown | Okay, just before we close on this item, I would just like to recognize that we have been receiving or I have been receiving a lot of public comment Um, across the spectrum. on COVID-19 and our response to COVID-19 and actions the city could take or should take. And I just wanted to make a couple of comments on those and to kind of. strike a theme of balance, coordination, and empathy. We are definitely hearing from residents who want more restrictions on out-of-town visitors. and greater police enforcement. We've also heard from residents who want faster liberalization of the shelter in place and who feel that it's time to move on. We have also even received some correspondence that the moderate steps that we have taken threaten civil liberties. Um, And then we've just heard from a lot of people who are experiencing economic financial and medical stress. So. I just want to comment that I think our staff is doing a great job in striking a balance between all of these competing legitimate concerns that people have. and that we are working within the confines of our public health officials at the county level. and really trying to accommodate and strike a balance with our residents, our public health, and the businesses that are allowed to stay open. So this is an evolving process we can do better. We are doing better every day experimenting with new approaches. And I just, I want to Thank everyone for their flexibility and response. Thank you. Secondly, just on coordination, kind of my second theme, You know, I really just appreciated the Bay Area counties working together. But that does put us under some limitations about what we can allow or not allow, as Adam, as Abbott mentioned earlier. So there's been a lot of requests to loosen or change regulations as they Um, apply to our local businesses. And I think the strength of the Bay Area response so far and the strength, the reason that we have succeeded so well here in controlling the pandemic is that We've all been working together. We've all been coordinated. And we've been trying to send a consistent and coordinated message. So just to those residents who are urging us to step outside of the boundaries of those county health orders, Like to remind people that there is, there's a reason that we are, are adhering to them and working together. And then last is just empathy. I've seen so many great acts of kindness as Abbott noted. And I think that is a place that we all need to be acting from at this point in time and to recognize the stress. that our residents, our businesses, our seniors, our students, um, you know, that everyone is feeling and just have an even greater compassion and understanding than we would normally have. So I want to thank everyone who is commenting and and I think that's great. I just want to explain why some of our responses are not always exactly what you might wanna hear. So, There's no other comment from council members. we can move on. I do want to note that I skipped over approval of the agenda. And that was item 2B. So I'm gonna go back to that. But before I do, I just wanted to clarify for the public that the reason public comment was on the end of the agenda was my fault. I had had it at the end of the agenda on our first Zoom meetings to make sure that we we're able to get to our business and manage public comment. And because we have the COVID-19, item at the beginning, and that is mostly what we have been hearing public comment on. So, That was an oversight. I apologize for having . I know a number of people reached out to us and we have moved it back to the front of the agenda where it normally sits for tonight. So we will be hearing general public comment. So with that, is there an approval of the agenda? So moved. |
| 00:31:53.76 | Joe Burns | Second. |
| 00:31:55.14 | Unknown | Okay, we have a motion by Council Member Cox, a second by Council Member Burns. Heidi, could you please call the roll? Council Member Riley. |
| 00:32:06.97 | Unknown | I think Councilmember Riley is frozen on my screen. |
| 00:32:12.52 | Joe Burns | Very serious. |
| 00:32:14.80 | Heidi Scoble | We got a yes from Councilmember Riley. Councilmember Burns. |
| 00:32:15.17 | Unknown | I got a yes. |
| 00:32:18.92 | Joe Burns | Thank you. |
| 00:32:18.95 | John DeRay | Yes. |
| 00:32:19.36 | Joe Burns | Thank you. |
| 00:32:19.49 | Heidi Scoble | Council member Cox. Yes. Vice Mayor Withey. |
| 00:32:23.31 | John DeRay | Yes. |
| 00:32:23.74 | Heidi Scoble | And Mayor Cleveland Knowles. Uh, yes. Motion carries unanimously. |
| 00:32:27.02 | Unknown | All right. Thank you. Okay, we are going to move on to communications. This is the time on our agenda for general public communications for items that are not on our agenda tonight. Each speaker will have up to three minutes. Is there any public comment? We'll pause and let people catch up with our recording. |
| 00:32:55.81 | Unknown | Heidi, I am not seeing any public comment. |
| 00:32:58.03 | Heidi Scoble | Do you see any hands raised? I do not see any hands raised. If we can just give it maybe 10 more seconds. Sure. And while we're waiting, I'll just read our normal spiel or let the public know that 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 will be called upon when it's your time to speak. To raise your hand from a phone, you can press star nine. Each speaker will be notified when they have one minute left to speak and again when the time has elapsed. It does look like Sue King has raised her hand. So we will unmute Sue King's audio. Hi, sweet woman. |
| 00:33:42.92 | Sue King | I see one. |
| 00:33:43.70 | Heidi Scoble | Welcome. |
| 00:33:43.88 | Sue King | Welcome. to be able to get the |
| 00:33:44.91 | Heidi Scoble | you can use it. |
| 00:33:45.00 | Sue King | Thank you very much. |
| 00:33:45.03 | Heidi Scoble | Thank you. |
| 00:33:46.50 | Sue King | Can you hear me? Yes. Okay, great. Thank you. Thank you very much for everything that you done so far. It was very interesting the activities going on in Marinship as a person who lives here in San Francisco. It's nice to know what's actually going on here. during most days when we don't have a virus. I've lived here for 40 years and I have to say, that. I have looked on the handling of the overrunning of the city of Sausalito the last few weeks since the weather has gotten nice with horror. because I go into the city very frequently, even though my business has been shut down for two months, I go into my office, And San Francisco looks like a city that's shut down. Sacramento Street, where my business is, looks like a street that's shut down. There are no bicycles, there are hardly anyone walking The restaurants have maybe one or two people standing outside. There's absolutely no action there whatsoever. It is shut down. When I go out with my dog, unless it's at 6.30 in the morning, which is the first walk of the day. The rest of the day when we go out for our walks, which are right outside my house, I see veritable cast of thousands. I see cars parking, bicycles being unloaded, people riding off into the sunset, It's total madness, just like it is on any other sunny day in Sausalito in the 40 years I've lived here. And, I have to say, I don't understand that. I don't know why there is such a reluctance to tell people the situation if they don't have a TV and they can't figure out what's going on in the news and what this virus is about. It's really scary to me that people are so pigheaded and think that the world is revolving around them in this place. It's quite odd. Thank you. |
| 00:35:38.50 | Heidi Scoble | You have one minute left for your public comment. |
| 00:35:38.53 | Sue King | You have one. comment that everybody toughens up and stiffens their backbones and really has good answers for these people that are trying to overthrow perfect perfectly rational Uh, administration efforts by the governor and other mayors. So I wish everybody the very best of luck. It can't be easy. But I sure hope it all works out and we narrow the pathways to get into this town. Thank you. |
| 00:36:12.10 | Unknown | Okay, great, thank you. Sarah Silver, Or any other general public comment on items not on the agenda. |
| 00:36:20.91 | Heidi Scoble | There are no other raised hands. |
| 00:36:25.76 | Unknown | Okay, and just to note that we do have several letters that we received that are posted on our agenda. Okay, moving on. Can we move on, Heidi? Thank you. |
| 00:36:37.63 | Heidi Scoble | Yes, we can. |
| 00:36:38.95 | Unknown | Great. We'll move on to item number four. That's the action minutes of our previous meeting. of April Halloween. I'll move approval. |
| 00:36:50.93 | Tom Riley | I'll second that. |
| 00:36:52.70 | Unknown | I have a motion by Councilmember Cox and a second by Councilmember Riley. Heidi, could you please call the roll? |
| 00:36:58.22 | Heidi Scoble | Thank you. |
| 00:36:58.81 | Unknown | Yeah. |
| 00:36:59.03 | Heidi Scoble | Councilmember Riley. |
| 00:37:01.03 | Tom Riley | Yes. |
| 00:37:01.79 | Heidi Scoble | Council member Burns. Thank you. |
| 00:37:03.67 | Tom Riley | Yes. |
| 00:37:03.70 | Heidi Scoble | Yes. Councilmember Cox? Yes. Vice Mayor Withee? Yes. And Mayor Cleveland Knowles. Yes. |
| 00:37:11.97 | Unknown | Thank you. |
| 00:37:13.22 | Heidi Scoble | Motion carries unanimously. |
| 00:37:16.59 | Unknown | Great. We will move on to item number five. This is council member committee reports. Are there any committee reports? I know we have an agenda item tonight that covers committee report of the BAC and the Hospitality Committee. Councilmember Cox, do you want to report on our general plan committee meeting. |
| 00:37:44.22 | Joan Cox | Certainly and I have a couple of other as well so the mayor and I I attended a general plan working group meeting last Tuesday, April 21. And we considered the sustainability and health and safety elements of the general plan. took public comments, which we very much appreciated. And we developed a new format for our comments to that where we transmit comments in advance. And we're actually going to use a template for that process moving forward so that we are even more transparent with some of our thoughts and feedback on each of the elements of the general plan. Our next general plan advisory, general plan working group meeting will be May 5. at which time we will consider the waterfront and Is it zoning elements, Mayor? |
| 00:38:42.96 | Unknown | Bye. Land use. |
| 00:38:45.56 | Joan Cox | Yes. |
| 00:38:47.01 | Unknown | you |
| 00:38:47.26 | Unknown | Thank you. |
| 00:38:50.16 | Joan Cox | And my screen just went dead. Um, And so it was a very well attended Zoom meeting. Zoom seemed to work flawlessly. So we look forward to continuing to be transparent in the manner in which we undertake. this process. If I might, I had a couple of other meetings as well. Very good. Okay. I attended, well, I attended a daily Briefings by Governor Newsom, weekly briefings from the White House, weekly town hall meetings with Assemblymember Mark Levine and Senator Mike McGuire. I attended with council members burns. Um, as well as Mayor, a Chamber of Commerce meeting with Senator McGuire on April 22, which was very well attended, and I'll let someone else speak to that. I attended the mayor's and city council members legislative committee meeting on Monday morning with Congressman Huffman. Congressman Huffman advised us that we should be expecting some sort of federal assistance in May. The CARES Act previous aid was directly available to entities above 500,000 in population. But some monies were allocated to the state, which could be allocated to smaller towns. to be allocated to smaller cities. And so we are advocating for direct allocation to all cities regardless of size. And Congressman Huffman requested that all Marin City statistics to him regarding financial both in terms of increased expenses as well as reduced revenues by this Friday for him to use in crafting the legislation in early May So it's very important that we track our COVID-19 expenses very carefully and I know that the city manager is working with our finance on an assistant city manager on putting together that data for Congressman Huffman. I attended webinars on MT. uh vehicle miles traveled which is um a shift in California as a means of measuring how streets and projects work, something that we're considering in our general plan, process and I attended a league of California cities update on 19 and fiscal impacts to cities. Thank you. |
| 00:41:24.61 | Unknown | Great, thank you. Anyone else? |
| 00:41:30.95 | Joe Burns | Even though BAC and HBD are on the agenda tonight for the merger conversation. Council member Riley and I have also been having conversations with the chamber and that particular population regarding a a business relief program here in Sausalito similar to what some of the other communities are doing in conjunction with their Chamber of Commerce. and trying to get some funds together for businesses in a relief package local. uh, Councilman Riley has put together a great presentation and the only thing we really have to report tonight is that we have a big meeting tomorrow with the Chamber Board on getting that started. We've engaged the county obviously with funding opportunities from the county. If there's any funding that the city can do we'll talk about that at a different meeting with the Council. But really it's to get that program rolling to show our support for those businesses. better. that are doing that impact as well. in front of the community. Tom, if you want to |
| 00:42:35.97 | Tom Riley | Thank you. |
| 00:42:36.56 | Joe Burns | Ramirez. |
| 00:42:36.97 | Tom Riley | that. Certainly, this is Tom. A couple things I'll add. On the call with Senator McGuire that the chamber had set up and the numbers were on, The highlights I think that were important was He explained how, what the breakdown was of the over $500 billion coming from the federal government. and how that is going to be allocated. especially geared towards really protecting small businesses, $60 billion is really locked and loaded for small businesses. He did make us aware that there is a $45 million investment at California. for tourism. And there's going to be a calling all Californians to promote local tourism. Um, and to once we reopen to get not reliant international tourism or even interstate. Um, But there will be $45 million that we will be working towards that. And then finally, he was providing to the chamber in chambers. a template for reopening. in how different businesses can reopen over time. And what he was looking for was input from the chambers and businesses on ideas of getting creative about how we can open up businesses going forward. So those were those highlights. Yeah. And then finally, my only other update is |
| 00:44:01.71 | Unknown | Yeah. Thank you. |
| 00:44:04.21 | Tom Riley | Council Member Burns and I are the liaisons to the schools, the South Sudomarine City School District, And I'm pleased to share that there was a lawsuit, the Prop 39 lawsuit between Little Creek and the school district that has been settled And that is very good for both schools to get past the lawsuit. It gives assurance to the families of Willow Creek that they will have teachers and all the programs they like for the coming year. And it allows the two schools to begin on the most important process of unification. So those are my updates. |
| 00:44:41.40 | Unknown | Great, thank you. Vice mayor, do you have anything to add? |
| 00:44:46.40 | Ray Withey | Yeah, just a couple of things. I won't detail, obviously, all of the various conferences and webinars that I've been sort of begun to get It's becoming a blur, to be honest, one from the other, as Council Member Cox can testify. There are a couple of things I want to highlight, though. I've been focusing on the League of California Cities. The recent report that has just been issued by the League of California Cities on the fiscal impact, which Councilmember Cox alluded to, is worth reading. It's very important. It was basically a survey of all of the cities and towns in California that chose to respond. statistics are rather sobering First of all, across the state, the citizen towns are expecting up to a $7 billion shortfall in revenues in this next year. Um, unbelievably 1.7 of that 7 billion is from the city and county of San Francisco. And so the league has sort of eliminated that and looked at the other 5.3 billion and analyzed it. Basically, the sobering I think that's a good question. facts are that Um, Nearly every city is affected, other than those that are solely dependent upon property tax, of which only 10 to 15 percent of cities are. 90% of cities across the board are expecting to lay off staff or furlough staff. Um, and 72% of cities irrespective of size, say they intend to do both. That's very sobering. Um, The Other aspect is that The League is focusing both with the League of National Cities, of which we are a member, with Congress, and also then with the state legislature, to say, indeed, there is some money that emerges in the next round of fiscal stimulus from both the fiscal stimulus the federal legislature, but also from the state legislature, what is the methodology that's going to be used to allocate it to the cities? And this is probably the biggest thing that this league is working on right now. And the survey and therefore their report is showing that if this is allocated on a per capita basis, it will actually be ruinous to most cities whereas a small number of cities will actually get a windfall, an undeserved windfall. And so this is something that the league is focusing almost entirely on right now, is to come up with a methodology to be able to fairly allocate for real loss of revenue versus simply a per capita allocation. So very, very sobering report. And then on outside of COVID-19, I did attend a Bay Wave Zoom meeting, and I just wanted to tell you that BCDC, in collaboration with NOAA, have issued a latest draft of Adapt into Rising Tides, the ART Bay Area Report, which is now the gold standard on terms of sea level rise reporting. And so it is the one that now needs to be used, if it's going to be used by the general plan and other planning documents for the sea level rise implications in the Bay Area. That's all I have, Madam Mayor. |
| 00:49:18.29 | Unknown | Great, thank you. If you have a moment, if you could send those two reports to the clerk, I think that would be great to post them. |
| 00:49:28.63 | Ray Withey | I will do so. |
| 00:49:30.84 | Unknown | Great, thank you. The only things that I have to add from that list are that our MCCMC, which is maybe Council Member Withy can help me with my acronym, Committee. |
| 00:49:46.30 | Ray Withey | The Marin County Commission Council of Mayors and Council Members. Okay. |
| 00:49:52.83 | Unknown | I would. We were able to meet virtually last week. And it was the business at hand was to appoint a member for the LAFCO, which is the local agency formation commission. But it was also an opportunity for to share their thoughts. things that they had done in their towns in response to COVID-19. And I found it very interesting. And was able to report on only a fraction of what we've done here in Sausalito, but I felt that we were really doing well and in step with the other counties and had made a lot of great strides. And then also the Transportation Authority of Marin board met for the first time virtually last week as well. And we have various business items. One of the things I did just want to note because I had reported on it earlier at our meetings is that the faster Bay Area initiative which was a one-cent sales tax has officially will officially not be going forward. um, among other things. So I think that's, I'll keep my comments brief for tonight and we will take public comment on this item. |
| 00:51:22.22 | Unknown | I am gonna wait a couple of seconds. |
| 00:51:29.03 | Heidi Scoble | John Dure has raised his hand. |
| 00:51:32.05 | Unknown | Great, welcome back John. |
| 00:51:34.62 | Heidi Scoble | All right. |
| 00:51:35.06 | John DeRay | Can you hear me? |
| 00:51:36.05 | Unknown | Yes. |
| 00:51:37.08 | John DeRay | Just a quick question comment. I know you can't respond, but I just wanted to put out there regarding Council Member Riley's discussion of the work that the Chamber is doing regarding potential funding for some of these businesses. Question is Thank you. does a business have to be a member of the chamber of commerce in order to participate in that? Thank you. |
| 00:52:05.74 | Unknown | Thank you. I think we can answer that quick question without violating the Brown Act. I think the answer is no, but I'll look to my two chamber well, look to Karen Hollweg, Councilmember Reilly and burns. |
| 00:52:18.48 | Tom Riley | Happy to respond. Two things. The chamber has been very supportive of non-hack chamber member of businesses, and I commend them for that. Um, There is all the funding is with respect so far to the federal funding and the chamber is just helping people get those funds. And then we are collaborating on ideas for how we may be able to pursue additional fundings but no decision to be made on allocations, John. And then finally, I will, while I have this opportunity, |
| 00:52:52.07 | Yulia Carter | And then finally, |
| 00:52:55.62 | Tom Riley | um, The Chamber is going to be sending out a survey to all businesses. looking for feedback and input on ideas about how the state's and even the city can help them during the reopening process. And we encourage everyone to respond to that survey. |
| 00:53:15.09 | Unknown | Great. And that's actually a good opportunity. I was going to separately reach out and just encourage some of the great businesses that have been operating in the Marinship to reach out to both Council Member Riley and Burns about loan and other funding Sources so it's a good opportunity to. State that. Okay, any other public comment? I see Julie Vera. |
| 00:53:45.49 | Unknown | Welcome, Julie. You may be on mute. |
| 00:53:51.32 | Heidi Scoble | We've asked Julie to share her video We're not seeing. |
| 00:53:57.92 | Unknown | So I still can't hear Julie. |
| 00:54:06.86 | Unknown | Ms. Scoble, can you tell if she is muted herself or? |
| 00:54:11.88 | Heidi Scoble | Thank you. It actually doesn't appear as though she signed on with any audio. |
| 00:54:15.74 | Unknown | Any other. |
| 00:54:17.60 | Heidi Scoble | She looks like she's unmuted. |
| 00:54:18.97 | Unknown | And... |
| 00:54:20.40 | Unknown | Yeah. |
| 00:54:20.91 | Unknown | This is a good time that we can, and all of us with open windows can listen to the howl. |
| 00:54:28.97 | Unknown | Yes. So while we're having technical difficulty, we can enjoy the house. |
| 00:54:37.05 | Heidi Scoble | So with Julie's raised hand, it appears as though she called in on her telephone. I will say Julie. |
| 00:54:41.63 | Tom Riley | I will say Julie is the most skilled on Zoom, so it can't be at her. |
| 00:54:45.90 | Heidi Scoble | Thank you. |
| 00:54:45.91 | Unknown | I don't think we can actually hear Heidi either because she hasn't responded to me. So I think we're having some and it's like, |
| 00:54:52.93 | Joan Cox | It looks as though Heidi is now unmuted. Yes, we're having some |
| 00:54:58.32 | Heidi Scoble | Thank you. |
| 00:54:58.72 | Unknown | Okay. |
| 00:55:07.04 | Heidi Scoble | Are you able to hear me? |
| 00:55:11.70 | Unknown | Okay, so we'll just take a pause and |
| 00:55:15.29 | Heidi Scoble | Mayor Cleveland Knowles, are you able to hear me? |
| 00:55:29.00 | Heidi Scoble | Mayor Cleveland Knowles, are you able to hear me? |
| 00:55:29.22 | Unknown | Cleveland Knowles, are you able to hear me? Yes, I can hear you now. |
| 00:55:35.93 | Heidi Scoble | It looks like on Julie's phone call that she has not actually activated her audio button. |
| 00:55:36.88 | Unknown | on Julie's |
| 00:55:38.06 | Unknown | Thank you. Phone call. |
| 00:55:39.63 | Unknown | She has not actually activated her audio button. you |
| 00:55:45.52 | Heidi Scoble | So she, I would recommend that Julie call back in and then when she's prompted to that she just dials in through her phone. |
| 00:55:45.84 | Yulia Carter | Thank you. |
| 00:55:45.87 | Unknown | I would recommend that Julie call back in and then when she's prompted |
| 00:55:50.04 | Unknown | that she just dials in |
| 00:55:52.54 | Unknown | Thank you. |
| 00:55:52.59 | Unknown | True. |
| 00:55:53.04 | Unknown | THE FAMILY IS THE FAMILY |
| 00:55:53.08 | Unknown | THE FAMILY. |
| 00:55:53.14 | Unknown | The phone. |
| 00:55:56.84 | Unknown | Okay, and let's have a phone number on our agenda. |
| 00:56:00.16 | Sue King | . |
| 00:56:04.74 | Tom Riley | Mayor, this is Tom. I just received a text from Julie and she says, nevermind my answer covered. the question. |
| 00:56:14.00 | Unknown | Okay, great. All right. Well, thank you. the head of our chamber for trying to answer that question. But maybe if you dial back into the meeting, hopefully we can hear you next time. Okay, so we will move on to our consent calendar. We have item 6A. through 6L. and we have received some written public comment. Is there any public comment on these items? |
| 00:56:51.38 | Unknown | I am not seeing any public comment on our consent agenda. We'll give it another couple seconds. |
| 00:56:59.72 | Heidi Scoble | you |
| 00:56:59.78 | Unknown | Thank you. |
| 00:57:02.55 | Heidi Scoble | There are no raised hands at this time. |
| 00:57:06.94 | Unknown | Ms. Scoble, do you see any public comment? We have one person waiting in the waiting room. |
| 00:57:14.74 | Heidi Scoble | Yeah, there are no raised hands at this time. |
| 00:57:18.33 | Unknown | And I think you might have in a We have a few folks on video. Okay, so is there any comment or a motion on the consent calendar? |
| 00:57:38.58 | Unknown | that just said you're muted. |
| 00:57:39.62 | Tom Riley | Thank you. |
| 00:57:40.00 | Unknown | I would just like to say personally that I'm very gratified that we're accepting $450,000 from the Transportation Authority of Marin for Safe Routes to School projects. |
| 00:57:52.43 | Ray Withey | So, Madam Mayor, I move acceptance of the consent calendar items 6A through 6L. |
| 00:58:02.96 | Unknown | Thank you, do you have a second? |
| 00:58:05.49 | Unknown | Thank you. |
| 00:58:07.28 | Unknown | Okay, we have a motion by Vice Mayor with the and a second by Council Member burns. COB, we call the role. |
| 00:58:14.41 | Heidi Scoble | Thank you. Thank you. |
| 00:58:15.35 | Unknown | Thank you. |
| 00:58:15.40 | Heidi Scoble | Councilmember Riley. |
| 00:58:15.86 | Tom Riley | for Riley. Thank you. Yes. |
| 00:58:18.37 | Heidi Scoble | Councilmember Burns? |
| 00:58:18.61 | Tom Riley | I'm not sure. |
| 00:58:18.67 | Unknown | Bye. |
| 00:58:18.69 | Tom Riley | Remember Burns? Yes. |
| 00:58:19.91 | Heidi Scoble | Yes. |
| 00:58:20.38 | Tom Riley | Thank you. |
| 00:58:20.41 | Heidi Scoble | Councilmember Cox? Yes. Vice Mayor Whitty? |
| 00:58:20.58 | Tom Riley | Thank you. |
| 00:58:20.68 | Unknown | Councilmember Cox. |
| 00:58:23.45 | Joan Cox | Mayor Whitty? Thank you. |
| 00:58:24.83 | Heidi Scoble | Yes. And Mayor Cleveland Knowles. |
| 00:58:25.47 | Joan Cox | And Mayor Cleveland Knowles. |
| 00:58:26.67 | Unknown | Thank you. |
| 00:58:28.01 | Heidi Scoble | Motion passes unanimously. |
| 00:58:28.61 | Unknown | Notion passes unanimously. |
| 00:58:30.34 | Heidi Scoble | Thank you. |
| 00:58:31.28 | Unknown | Thank you. Okay, we are going to move on to the business items on our agenda. We have two. The first is item 7A, so review and discussion of the fiscal year 2021 general fund based budget. |
| 00:58:48.74 | Unknown | And And I believe that our city manager will kick this off, followed by Ms. Carter. |
| 00:58:56.91 | Adam Politzer | Thank you, Madam Mayor and council members. Um, We had a long presentation two weeks ago at our mid-year discussion looking at how we're going to end uh, this current fiscal year. and what measures we're going to take to balance this year's budget. So that was presented. as part of our three-step process. That was step one, looking at how we were going to make it to June 30th and what actions we were proposing to take to do so. And thankfully we were a good, strong financial position with our fund balances and the earlier revenues that were generated at the Um, first part of our fiscal year, which starts on July 1. um, Tonight is step two of this process. We will be looking. at our next fiscal year that they're begins on July 1st. and runs through June 30th. That's, of 2021. and specifically what the council asked us to come back with. was the projections of what our revenues would look like between July 1 and June 30th. under three different scenarios. And none of the scenarios are good. The bad, the worse, and the ugly is I think what they might be labeled. There were other names. I think last council meeting I called them ugly. Ugly, uglier and ugliest. So they're all bad scenarios. I do want to start again by saying you know, this city through the leadership of people Um, that have served, in a variety of leadership positions, on all types of boards and commissions. a variety of different ways volunteers that have stepped up over the past 10 to 12 years have helped us put ourselves in this strong position financially. And again, I want to thank this council for their continued leadership as this discussion continues and moves forward. tonight. Yulia is going to go through her presentation, Yulia Carter. who is our, Assistant City Manager and Administrative Services Director. and I will be happy to hear Thank you. The presentation is not meant to go for a long period of time here in terms of it should be brief. We really do want to just focus on the three scenarios and ask the council If we've missed anything in terms of the revenue projections, if there's anything that has that is developed, that is new. that we were not aware of in the last few days. or anything that sticks out that might be too aggressive or not aggressive enough. So there's three scenarios there. that basically forecasts out the projections for the year. And they're roughly $2 million. on the best case of the worst case. all the way to $8 million in the worst case of the worst case. and then roughly $5 million or $4.9 million on scenario number two. Thank you. We will come back as step number three. which will be on May 12th. and bring forward the strategies on how to close the gap. what expenses we will reduce. And that will be a combination of, at least two different scenarios. including things that are more challenging. including looking at program services, that we'll need to reduce capital projects that will need to delay and reaching into our our fund balance. and using some of our reserves to help close these gaps. Clearly, as the economy changes and improves. We'll be able to bring back services sooner. But if the economy worsens, then we'll be positioned to take action. to deal with. additional expenditure reductions. But tonight, is really about our forecasting, of our revenues for this next year. And so, There will not be a lot of discussion about our reductions in expenditures that will be part of the third step. that will come to you on May 12. I would also like to know, that once we finish the third step process, then the next level of work actually begins. And that's actually pulling together all of this information. the revenue projections and the strategies to reduce our expenses to actually bring back a balanced budget. before June 30th when we are legally required. to bring forward a balanced budget. Clearly, as the year progresses, We'll be coming back. monthly. We may be coming back weekly. we have to have special meetings. Depending on what happens here in our economy, And clearly, what type of relief, if any, comes from our federal government or our state government. So between now and December, I would imagine this will be an active discussion with our council. as it has already started as an active discussion with these first three meetings of going through this three-step process that we've outlined tonight that we outlined at our last meeting we'll outline again tonight as we go through the next steps. Staff is here to answer questions. When we get to the end, they recommend that we let Ms. Carter get to the end of her presentation and then open it up for questions. from our council. And our department heads also stand ready if there's anything specifically that you'd like to ask of our department heads. I don't want to miss this opportunity to reiterate the thanks that the mayor handed out at the beginning of the meeting of just a great job that our staff is doing. It is very difficult working remotely and still being as productive as we are. And then my gratitude to our community in the support of those that are working every day on site, which are our police and firefighters that are putting themselves at risk to serve our community. And again, my appreciation to all of our officers and our firefighters that are out there serving our community. on a daily basis. With that, I'd like to introduce our Assistant City Manager, Administrative Services Director, Julia Carr. |
| 01:05:41.46 | Yulia Carter | Good evening. Madam Mayor and City Council. So the item before you tonight is the fiscal year 2020-21 base budget for the general fund. And I'll try to go as fast as possible. focused only on most important slides, but I have quite few slides as you see in the presentation So today, We'll talk a little bit about methodology that we used for the budget. We'll talk about base budget revenues and expenditures assumptions. We'll discuss the structural deficits that the city manager already outlined before you? and we'll look into the budgetary reserves. and we'll touch base very briefly on the next steps. So very briefly about the methodology as Adam pointed out at the last meeting we brought you a mid-year budget review. And at that point, we discussed the projections for the current fiscal year revenues and expenditures and the structural deficit and, This work is a foundation for the base budget. So that would be extrapolated further down to the fiscal year 2021. And one important item I want to outline that we are using modified zero-based methodology this fiscal year. I'll go a little bit deep into details to why and what it brings to the table, but just wanted to share with you that we already shared in distributed budget forms and instructions under this methodology. to the departments. After this meeting, we will tweak these instructions a little bit and identify specific targets for departments and objectives to meet in preparation for the meeting on the 12th. |
| 01:07:34.57 | Yulia Carter | So before we dive into the modified base budget methodology, I just wanted to step back and, look at the budgeting philosophy in general. So this slide is a little bit silly, as you can tell, but it shows different approaches to municipal budgeting. And most public agencies nationwide use some sort or some modification of these approaches, of these methodologies. the line item and incremental budgeting is, what we are currently using or what we were using in the past. And this is also called traditional budgeting. And everything from zero-based budgeting and all the way to the priority-based budgeting is, a slightly different or new approach to the budgeting that is focused on programs and value and brings the budget reviews the budget from the program and value standpoint So the modified zero-based budgeting is where we want to be in 2021, especially given the current fiscal situation that we are in. In its pure form, the zero-based budget starts the year from zero. Well, obviously it's not very practical approach in government environment, So that's why we call it modified zero-based budget approach. So when we bring you every conversation on the budget, All these conversations will be at the service and progress level, starting at the current level of services. So each decision that we will ask you to make will be based on service level and not on the dollar threshold. |
| 01:09:15.69 | Yulia Carter | So what is the modified zero-based budget? So as I mentioned before, it's systematic financial management strategy. commonly used by local governments, which will help achieve a more cost-effective delivery of public services. And here are some practical advantages to this methodology. First of all, it allows for efficient location of resources. that are based on needs and benefits of the community rather than the history. And by history, I mean accounting history. So all expenses will have to be demonstrated as necessary and not take place just because they took place in the prior years. |
| 01:09:57.70 | Yulia Carter | Each program should be considered in light of potential alternatives and priorities, which will allow the city to Redirect efforts and funds from lower priority programs to higher priorities. and improve efficiencies and reduce spending. This methodology also detects inflated budget, identifies Psalm. non-key activities and redundancies that they may have throughout different departments when different departments are doing similar programs or similar projects that could be consolidated and reviewed. but most importantly, This methodology is mission-driven. It forces the organization to rely on its mission, overall goals and priorities. And it also boosts communication and coordination all levels of organization, not just vertical communication, All right. between departments, between different levels of organization. And, It also creates a physical and discipline culture, which is very needed today. I'm not going to spend much time on this slide, but again, it goes a little bit deeper into details, what the difference or major differences between the traditional budgeting and zero-based budgeting As you can see, the main focus of the traditional budgeting is on accounting oriented questions. How much? and zero-based budgeting. is more the emphasis is on why and cost benefit analysis. So what is the base budget before you tonight? Um, |
| 01:11:39.86 | Yulia Carter | So base budget. is not just a duplication of the prior year adopted budget. because of the actions that the council may have taken throughout the year that modified the budget, but it's also not the revised budget that you just approved at the last meeting. because of the new assumptions that we we factored in for the 2021. So what we did here, took the revised budget and, Build. the fiscal year 2021 from the revised budget. Then we subtracted all the one-time expenses that you approved throughout the year. and we added all the new assumptions. for the new upcoming 2021-based budget. I just want to highlight again that this is not a proposed budget. It's not what we're recommending. as a new budget for the new year. It does not include, again, any increases or reductions at the current level of services. This is going to be subject of the next council meetings discussion. and it also does not include the CIP program locations. which the Council hasn't had a chance to discuss yet, so that's going to be coming to you at the next meeting as well. So in other words, base budget is today's services at tomorrow's cost. |
| 01:13:04.21 | Yulia Carter | Again, at the last meeting, City Council directed staff to return today with three realistic scenarios. for the upcoming 2021 general fund-based budget. Although we do find it extremely challenging to be making sound financial projections during this rapidly changing Uh, situation could be detailed best to develop the scenarios. that help us navigate through this potential impact COVID-19 on the general fund budget. And I also want to thank Council Member Riley for helping us to brainstorm and kind of polish the scenarios as we. as we were. going through them and defining them. So we call them bad, worse and ugly. or most optimistic, most probable, and most fearful. Under the most optimistic scenario, the COVID-19 shelter in place will be lifted before June. and the local economy is nearly back to normal by August. 2020. A. The most probable scenario will also assume that the shortly and shelter in place will be lifted before. end of June, but with some ongoing restrictions that will continue hamper businesses through the end of the calendar year. And finally, the most fearful, scenario. as soon as the Shelter in place is lifted in the summer, but pandemic returns in the fall. and the shelter in place is reinstated for the rest of the calendar year. |
| 01:14:32.45 | Yulia Carter | So just to be moderately conservative, we recommend to target or move forward the This middle scenario. almost probable scenario hoping that the life actually will prove us wrong and we will find ourselves in more in most optimistic scenario in reality. for the purpose of the budget and the kind gear and tours the most probable scenario here. So in the next few slides, you will see the references to the middle scenario right here. And I think I'm going to skip the next three slides. They go a little bit deeper into details of what each scenario represents. Yeah. Thank you. But of course, we can come back to this if you have any questions or would like to discuss it. They also described in the staff report details. So now let's talk a little bit about base budget assumptions. And we'll start with revenues. General fund revenues are projected at 14.2 million at the most probable scenario. This is 18 million decrease of already reduced fiscal year 19, 20 revised budget. The property taxes are estimated at 5.5 million. On the most probable scenario, we did factor in a little bit of decrease. One thing I just want to point out for the public that the property taxes are levied based on the assessed property. valuation as of January 1, 2020. which means that the COVID-19 would not have impact on the series 2021 revenues. But, As we all know, homeowners and small businesses also can file appeal with the Marine County Assessor's Office to lower the assessed valuation based on the impact from COVID and business losses from COVID-19. So the most probable scenario includes some assumptions related to this approval of appeals. The sales tax. under the most probable scenario, estimated at 2.2 million, which is about 800,000 reductions. from, already lowered. 19-20 revised budget. and these figures we carefully defined and discussed in HDL. and looked at every segment for all segments of the sales tax across our city. The TOT taxes, this is our third largest revenue stream and is taking the hardest hit. by the shelter in place. order and mandate. on the, most probable scenario we are projecting only about 600,000 that we will collect only about 600,000 in revenues. which is a decrease about 800,000 or 57% over the revised budget. And just for the reference, Fiscal year 1920 adopted budget was 1.8 million. |
| 01:17:41.48 | Yulia Carter | And business license taxes will also decrease by close to 400,000 or 26% comparing to fiscal year 1920. revised one thing here, we got really fortunate. We were able to meet the budget estimates for the business license taxes for this current fiscal year. This is just a pure decrease of the adopted budget. We also made some changes to the program revenues. This permits and parks and recreation fees and rentals. the additional, the decreased both |
| 01:18:16.77 | Unknown | I think that's a good question. |
| 01:18:17.02 | Yulia Carter | between two of these categories uh, decreased by about 100,000 And again, this is all due to cancellations of recreation classes, programs, and low activity in building and planning permits. The transfers in general fund are reduced by almost a million dollars. to reflect, mostly to reflect the loss in parking revenues. again, due to the lower tourism activities. And we also made some changes in our investment portfolio. So we assumed the drop by about 82, or 34% and this is because of the low revenue base and also deferral of sales tax revenues. for a state program for small businesses. And of course, we need to mention the lower interest rates on investments as reason for this reduction as well. So once we factor all of these assumptions, you can see what it does to our revenues under each one of the scenarios. The general fund revenues will vary from 17.2 million on the most optimistic scenario. That's about 2 million reduction over the last year's adopted. and goes down all the way to 11.2 under the most fearful scenario. and under the most probable scenario. We expect about 3.2 million loss in general fund revenues. |
| 01:19:52.04 | Yulia Carter | Now let's talk about general fund expenditures. These expenditures are projected at $19.2 million, again, at the base budget level, so keep this in mind. If you look at the general fund expenditures, On the. before the transfers. It's only 3% increase over the revised 18-19 budget. Under normal circumstances, it's a very reasonable rate, Of course, as we all know, we are not in the normal circumstances right now. Um, this definitely cannot stay the way it is right now, but we grouped all the expenditures in four different categories. |
| 01:20:35.02 | Yulia Carter | salaries and benefits, personnel expenditures, contract services, materials and supplies, and transfers. personal expenditures include funding for 75 full-time equivalent positions. 71 of them are allocated to general fund. at all 100%. we built in some employee pension contribution rates, the new contribution rates, and the payment for the and funded actuarial accrued liability to PERS, which also increased for the upcoming year. We also factor in all salary step increases for those employees who are eligible. for those. based on the satisfactory performance evaluation. and Also, of course, we factored in all the MOU provisions that are scheduled to go into effect as of July 1. The contract services show some decrease, about 400,000 reduction over the revised, and this is mostly because we removed one time expenditures related to the contract coast in CDD department. to backfield vacancies. So those four. one time in the didn't need to be carried over in a new year. The materials and supply also show some decrease, about 200,000 reduction over the revised budget, again, because of the removal of previously approved. expenditures. related to the equipment for the police interview room that we did in the current year. and we also moved insurance premium into the general fund liability where it should belong from the general fund. So the transfers category show the most decrease. And this is a little bit misleading and I'll do my best to explain why. we did factor in and built in all the transfers scheduled transfers to the pension and OPAP trust. and insurance premiums at 100%, or at least at the funded level, we didn't make any changes. but we did remove one time transfers for general liability and workers come that the council approved in the last fiscal year. You may remember there was a hefty transfers to both funds. And the, Those were one time. But, What it does not include, it does not include any allocation stores to the CIP program. And that includes measure O. Again, we will have this conversation in the next council meeting. Now, these are the same numbers, but... In the table form, you can see the 3% increase that I was referencing before. And if you factor in transfers, Oops, I've lost your eyes. on the expenditures down by 8%, but again, the CIP numbers are not in here. So... This brings us to the most problematic slide of the presentation, And after factoring in driving use and expenditure assumptions, you can see that the this budget at the base level cannot be balanced at the current base level. of services. And you may remember that at the last meeting, we discussed the structural deficit of close to 820,000. And you can see that it only gets worse. for the 2021 under all three scenarios. So we are talking about about $2 million deficit under the most optimistic It will be up to five on the most probable and all the way to 8mH. under the most fearful scenario. instructional deficits. which means that the operating revenues can no longer support the operating expenditures. at the current level of services. |
| 01:24:42.73 | Yulia Carter | to conclude the analysis of the general fund based budget. Let's look at the budgetary reserves. at the, Fiscal year 2021 based budget level under the most optimistic scenario, general fund balance is reduced to 38%. to live in only 820,000. in the undesignated fund balance. If you look at the most probable scenario, we had to reduce the operating contingency to prevent the undesignated fund balance from going negative. And finally, under the most fearful scenario, you can see that this the most fearful scenario simply depletes all general fund balances before we before the end of the year. because even non-spendable and restricted reserves cannot be met. Again, these numbers are extremely troublesome, and I just want to highlight again that this is not a proposed budget. This, is just what do-nothing would look like. And the, be. already said several times that do nothing is not an option. under the current scenario. So we only presenting this table just to demonstrate the magnitude of the financial problem we are in for the upcoming year. Again, the This table is only relevant if the city continues at the current service level, which is no longer an option. |
| 01:26:22.43 | Yulia Carter | So the next slide. You probably remember this table from the last packets at the last council meeting. These are the projected fiscal year 19-20 fund balances, projected through June. 2020. We will update these numbers once we have a chance to finalize the CIP allocations and the built-in the projected fiscal year. 2021. fund balances at the base level, but just for the reference, you can see what the, what resources or what funds we have available in each individual fund. And that brings us to the next step. So where do we go from here? As far as the next steps, at the next meeting, we will be bringing you the CIP program for 2021. I'm not sure. I can tell right now that it's going to be one year program and probably be limited to only three types of projects. those that were previously approved with dedicated funding sources, those that are legally mandated. and those that present the immediate health and safety threats to the public. The next objective for the next meeting is to come back to you with the base budget for other funds, the non-general funds. and develop budget options and strategies, what we are going to implement and how we are going to balance the budget. |
| 01:27:46.53 | Sue King | Bye. |
| 01:27:48.61 | Mary Wagner | we are going to |
| 01:27:53.06 | Yulia Carter | and these strategies. will be a combination of these five items in front of you here. So we will look into personal cost, we will look at capital spending, we will reduce some capital spending, of you. reduce materials and contract costs. We will look at alternative ways of delivering services, including shared services, and that includes buying or selling. services to our communities or buying from our neighboring communities. And we will also look at the one-time use of other than general fund reserves. So that's also an option. available to us. Again, we will return with all these objectives to you and bring some options and strategies on May 12th. And as far as cancel action today, we don't have an action in front of you. This is informational report only, but We will take your direction on any of these items to help us prepare for the May 12th meeting. And that concludes my report. I'm happy to answer any questions. |
| 01:29:00.85 | Yulia Carter | Thank you. |
| 01:29:00.97 | Unknown | Thank you, Elia, for a very thorough report. I can't say it's enjoyable, but we've got a lot of hard decisions in front of us, but we really appreciate all of the hard work of you and your staff. I'm sure when you decided to come to Sausalito, you didn't. Know that you would be uh, working around the clock. trying to handle the impacts of a global pandemic on a small town. So thank you. Thanks for everything you and your staff are doing. I'll take questions from council members. And then we'll open it up for public comments. And this, just to remind everyone, this is not an action item tonight. This is for direction. And I think our city manager asked us to highlight things that, may not be accounted for in the scenarios and things that we would like to see. Okay, Council Member Burns. |
| 01:30:09.33 | Joe Burns | Yeah, thank you, Mayor. And thank you, Yulia, for that. I have some comments later, but for now, I just have a question looking at, and we're not making a budget decision tonight. But as you look at the three scenarios Each one has 12 components, correct? Like each month of that, that's a sum of 12 months. So really we have about 36 components to consider because you know, where often we have an assumption that we're going to get so much in sales tax in a year and we deal with that for the entire year. We're going to be having these assumptions change monthly with different orders and different things happening. So we have to really look at that. whatever path we take, we have to look at that really in 12 functions, because that's how quick these assumptions are going to be changing. for us, I think we're on the right path that ultimately that'll level out to be in that middle scenario, slightly edged up, but in that, in that arena, We're still going to have to make decisions along the way in 12-month increment, I mean in 12-period increments as opposed to One that we've done in the past, as far as revenue assumptions. Correct. Do we have it in 12s and 36s? |
| 01:31:30.33 | Yulia Carter | Yes, we did definitely factor in the whole 12-month period for each scenario. And it's easy to recalibrate if the reality proofs are thrown or if we were wrong in specific assumptions. We can definitely adjust it moving forward. |
| 01:31:49.21 | Unknown | Great, thank you. Other comments or questions by council members? |
| 01:31:58.46 | Unknown | Okay, should we go to public comment? |
| 01:32:03.29 | Unknown | Okay, I think we can open it up to public comment. |
| 01:32:07.00 | Heidi Scoble | Okay, while we're waiting for public comment, I'll just take this as an opportunity to remind the public that 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 will be called upon when it's your time to speak. To raise your hand from a phone, press star 9. Each speaker will be notified when they have one minute left to speak and again when the time has elapsed. At this time, there are no public or no raised hands and no public comments. |
| 01:32:42.77 | Heidi Scoble | Okay, great. |
| 01:32:43.97 | Unknown | So, |
| 01:32:44.53 | Heidi Scoble | Thank you. |
| 01:32:44.92 | Unknown | Close public comment. and bring it back to the council for any comments or discussion. |
| 01:32:56.97 | Tom Riley | This is Tom. Mayor, may I go ahead? |
| 01:33:00.34 | Unknown | Yes, absolutely. |
| 01:33:01.93 | Tom Riley | one, thank you to the staff for very, very hard work in a very short amount of time. Um, And as I said, these meetings are only getting harder. And the next one's going to be more difficult. One guideline, I think it's tremendous work for the folks running the city that we had a reserve in place as strong as it has been. And those reserves are |
| 01:33:27.10 | Yulia Carter | And, |
| 01:33:27.36 | John DeRay | THE END OF THE END OF THE |
| 01:33:27.54 | Yulia Carter | There's a lot of people. |
| 01:33:28.82 | Tom Riley | to be there when we're in a crisis. And I. I can't think of a greater crisis than what we're going through right now. This is probably the ultimate crisis a small city has to go through. And I think having a reserve is powerful. But, I don't think we want to lose that for future crises. So what I hope in our planning Thank you. is that As we lower our operating expenses for the full year, we set a goal of trying to maintain a 50% reserve. which means that reserve can decline but it's staying at 50% of what our ongoing kind of expenses are and then we can rebuild a bit try to keep 50 percent as a So that allows us to tap into it. and not over tap is one design goal. On Council Member Burns' comments, Um, I think we, as a council need to get into quarterly. detailed reviews and make adjustments. because there's no way to put a one year plan in place. We have no idea. how this is gonna play out. Finally, we do need a line item. for relief that we're going to get from the federal government and the state. which also may not happen before we start our fiscal year. But it's a line end where we can react to and make adjustments. from there. So I just thank you for Good work. And we have some tough decisions to make in the next meeting. |
| 01:34:56.07 | Unknown | Great, thank you for those comments. um, Council member Cox or Burns, do you have anything that you'd like to add? |
| 01:35:04.39 | Joe Burns | Yeah, I'll just pick up and thank you, Councilman Riley. That's a, appreciate your comments, that's right on Um, Definitely a challenge ahead of us. Kind of going back to my question, or just that train of thought, you know, when I sat here three years ago, I was actually at the State Hall, We, first introduction of my first budget, my very first question out of the box Why do we just assume revenue and then spend the rest of the 95% of the conversation talking about, expenditures. when we should be actively planning for different types of revenues. I think was a was something I really wanted to see us do, which we have been doing in a great way. But I think now more so than her. We have to plan, actively plan our revenues. and not just have passive assumptions that say, Something's going to happen. We have to really take hold of what that's going to be and how we get involved with the Calling All Californians campaign. |
| 01:36:04.72 | Unknown | do you |
| 01:36:05.19 | Joe Burns | how we communicate to our residents on staying in and shopping local. All those programs that we've been talking about for the last couple of years are going to be hyper important in the next four to five, six months as we actively go after a share of revenue contracted marketplace. So, I know that's not for today's discussion, and I know that's on all of our minds, I just wanna make sure when we have that revenue discussion in the next meeting that we start to look at there are things that we can do are things that we can plan for to bump up some of those revenue numbers I appreciate Councilman O'Reilly, it's been quarterly. maybe even monthly, that we look at I actually think it's one that we're going to do a little bit better on. because we had such a long, high waiting list of rooms in the past, I can see us at a in a more recovery mode later in the year. where that a little bit better than expected. But I just want to kind of put that out there that, We do have a role in the revenue. It's not passive weight. It's gonna be the actions that we take as a council Um, But thank you so much for the work we've done. I can't believe having to do three budgets at once. |
| 01:37:23.61 | John DeRay | Okay. |
| 01:37:24.08 | Joe Burns | let alone the challenges and I appreciate the path we're on. So thank you. |
| 01:37:25.43 | John DeRay | That's the only thing. |
| 01:37:30.95 | Unknown | Right, thank you. Just before we go on to council member Cox, I would just like to let the clerk know that we're having quite a bit of feedback. um, So if there's anything we can do about that, that would be great. |
| 01:37:46.03 | Heidi Scoble | I'm going to repeat everything. If there's multiple devices open, you may want to close all but one. That sometimes creates the feedback. And I would also recommend muting each other. Or if you're not speaking, mute yourself. And then when it's your time to speak, then you can unmute yourself. |
| 01:38:07.41 | Unknown | So the only... Person on the call I'm showing is unmute. is you and Councilmember Cox and I right at the moment. Council Member Cox is now muted. Anyway, we can move forward, but am I the only one that's hearing that? |
| 01:38:24.78 | Joan Cox | No, and Heidi Scoble's voice continues to be by far the most garbled and unintelligible. |
| 01:38:33.40 | Unknown | Okay. |
| 01:38:33.64 | Joan Cox | Thank you. |
| 01:38:33.65 | Unknown | Thank you. |
| 01:38:33.67 | Joan Cox | Thank you. |
| 01:38:34.67 | Unknown | Okay, Council Member Cox, did you have any comments remarks. |
| 01:38:40.30 | Joan Cox | Thank you. |
| 01:38:40.35 | Unknown | Thank you. |
| 01:38:40.37 | Joan Cox | I want to echo the comments of my fellow council members regarding the praise for Yulia Carter and her entire department and our manager for the herculean efforts that they've expended in order to gather all of this data and to really bring it to us in a timely manner so that we can make timely decisions and really with our issues promptly. In my meeting with other county city representatives on Monday morning I can tell you many of them are not nearly so far along in evaluating where they are and where they are going and how they are going to get there. to already have in front of me these exhaustive materials and data really letting us know clearly as clearly as we can with an uncertain future where we stand and what possible future scenarios are. I want to endorse the comments of Council Member Burns about actively planning our various revenue sources and I think that has to include some of the work that he and council member Riley have already been doing in terms of reaching out to Senator McGuire, to identify funding. I had this call with Congressman Huffman to identify funding. The weekly White House briefings identify sources of funding for which there are very tight turnarounds. So we have to be very vigilant about those various sources of funding as well as making claims against our insurers who have certain coverages for some of the losses we're sustaining. But in addition, we in the last several years have proven ourselves to be very proficient in identifying grant funding. Our parks and rec director Mike Langford has identified and successfully obtained several great grant funds, one of which we are expending this evening on one of our consent items. And so, and his department is one of those most seriously, I think, affected by some of our given the social distancing requirements. So I totally endorse that our undertaking a New. undertaking this new reality and figuring out how to actively plan our revenue moving forward. I'm also grateful for our city manager, who went through this in 2008 and so is really a leader for our city but also for other cities in Marin County in identifying creative ways to minimize what we know is going to be a painful time for us and our employees and our residents but to really minimize the adverse impacts and maximize the opportunities to mitigate those impacts through shared services and through other creative approaches. So thank you. |
| 01:41:59.77 | Unknown | Great, thank you very much, Vice Mayor. |
| 01:42:03.21 | Ray Withey | Yeah. I really don't have that much more to add. I echo all of the comments that, um, the other council members have made in terms of revenue management in terms of you know, all the various for revenue generation. Now, The three scenario analysis, there's several things that can, some people can get stuck on here. The first is to take it all a bit too seriously in the sense of very detailed. Um, just like any strategy in a particular financial strategy, You know, the old saying goes in military circles, strategy falls apart on first contact with the enemy. Well, it's exactly what's going to happen here. But what we've done is taken a distribution, a probability distribution of outcomes in a crude three buckets. And obviously means you've got to manage to this middle. which means this, the, reality is that we have to manage to a $5 million revenue law. And Obviously then, if we can, if in fact circumstances change for the upside, Instead of being on scenario B, we can quickly flip to scenario A. If things get much worse, And there's a probability that it could. If COVID-19 has a major resurgence in the fall, following a summer of fire, we could immediately find ourselves in a really ugly scenario in the fall, in which case we'd have to flip from scenario B to scenario C. That's the way. in a textbook way you manage a crisis like this, you manage to the middle with the ability to move in either direction nimbly to the positive or heaven forbid, to the negative. And I think the scenarios that have been outlined are good enough to know that we need to manage initially to a $5 million revenue loss. So how do we do it? |
| 01:44:21.50 | Yulia Carter | Absolutely. |
| 01:44:25.16 | Ray Withey | Well, Last presentation, staff outlined a set of principles, guiding principles of fairness, in which basically each element has to take a hit here. And it's got to be done equitably and as fairly as possible. That means our residents have to accept the fact that we will have to manage towards a reduction in services. All right. labour groups have to accept the fact that we have to discuss with them the management of potentially a reduction in staff. We have to use some of our reserves, but we can't use all of them. Because if we were going to flip into scenario C, because circumstances forced us there, the last thing we'd want to do is to find we had no money to be able to be the buffer to that negative scenario. So as the city manager has indicated, this is like a three-legged stool where we're looking at each of the elements, all of the stakeholders and the stakeholders, parties affected and make sure that we're acting fairly and equitably Anybody who's built furniture knows that actually three legs is a bit more stable than four. three legs can actually balance on a slope. You can't do it with four legged Chair. The fourth leg could be funding from either the federal or state government. But you can't manage towards that because it may not happen. And again, if it does, it would be an upside and we'd be able to flip to scenario A versus managing scenario B. So as Council Member Riley has indicated, we need to actually make some tough decisions in the next two weeks, four weeks. Council Member Burns has indicated, you know, we need to be figuring out creative ways to build our revenue and actively manage our revenue. not passively relying on just a you know status quo and be a victim to doing nothing and as council member Cox has clearly indicated we have all sorts of options with especially with an attempt to seek grants and possibly even insurance reimbursement although you know that's going to be tough as she knows but So, um, I really, really think Yulia and her staff and the city manager and all of the senior management team Those who are watching from home just may not realize just the Happy. large volume of work. and dedication that's gone into actually producing this. This is a impressive piece of work. It was impressive enough. I actually sent it to some of my friends in the league and actually said, hey, you might want to look at this. because I bet you there's nobody else who's actually done this quite like this. Well done. It's sobering. As I said earlier, league is putting out the fact that Over 70% of cities are looking at major staff reductions and reduction in services and that's very sobering. We are in a strong financial position so that if we can get through this, in a moderate way, We are positioned to do so. So anyway, those are my comments, Madam Mayor. |
| 01:48:09.33 | Unknown | Thank you. Thank you, Ray. I think you've summed up pretty much all of the excellent comments of our fellow council members and added your own analysis, which I always appreciate. Um, And I don't have too much to add to all of this. I mean, I do, this report is very sobering. And I think as you've all mentioned, we are gonna have some very difficult I am glad that we are fairly well positioned given that our particular mix of revenue Is. even more hard hit than some other local jurisdictions being You know, primarily a tourist town with sales tax and TOT leading. some of our revenue streams. I think we have a really excellent team in place. I'll echo the comments that some of you made. about having our city manager, Adam Pulitzer, who has lived through difficult, periods of time and manage through those. And I think we're all beginning to realize how lucky we are to have Yulia Carter on our team. during this period. We are going to have some hard discussions. as well situated as we can be to go into those. I think this report does, as Ray said, It has three good solid scenarios. They won't be perfect. We know that, but they really give us a good framework to know the level of reduction in revenue that we're going to be dealing with. So I think as we move forward to our next discussion, I just want to pick up on the values discussion |
| 01:49:58.44 | Yulia Carter | I just, |
| 01:50:02.46 | Unknown | That is going to be really kind of front and center even more than it is in a normal budget process that we are going to really have to examine our and make tough decisions. putting those first and foremost will be kind of a guiding principle for us. So I think unless anybody has any additional comments, we can move on in our... Agenda and again thank you for an excellent staff report. So we will go on to item 7B. This is establish and approve the formation of an economic development committee. and disband the business advisory committee and the hospitality business development committee. And I think we have City Attorney Mary Wagner and two of our council members leading this presentation. |
| 01:51:06.85 | Unknown | So I will just start off by thanking Councilmember Burns and Councilmember Riley for all of their work on this and our city attorney as well. And I cannot hear Mary if she is starting to talk. |
| 01:51:25.48 | Mary Wagner | Thank you, Madam Mayor. It's actually council member Thank you. Burns and Riley, who will be giving this presentation. I'm certainly available and happy to answer any questions. |
| 01:51:35.63 | Unknown | Okay, great. Thank you. Council members. |
| 01:51:37.47 | Joe Burns | Okay. Thank you, Mayor. This is Joe, if you can't see. And I am going to just kind of kick us off here and Councilman Riley will go through the slideshow but We've been talking about this endeavor for a while to really kind of both streamline our committee process. We've had challenges over the years in filling these roles and keeping bodies coming in and out. We've had a lot of retention because it's been the same, and luckily for us, the same players who know so much about our community. but we are now finally given this opportunity to start competing with. |
| 01:52:27.41 | Unknown | Yeah, I think we've got somebody speaking. Let's look at the audio. |
| 01:52:39.06 | Unknown | Ms. Scoble, do you see anyone on the line? |
| 01:52:41.94 | Joe Burns | It's quiet now. |
| 01:52:43.85 | Unknown | Okay. Go ahead. |
| 01:52:45.54 | Joe Burns | So, you know, this was gonna kind of go forth without the COVID interruption. And this just gives us a great opportunity to really do this now. Um, And We have very specific needs to talk about economically, obviously at this point, but also to enlarge the conversation. So council member Riley will go through the slideshow and what we've, uh, |
| 01:53:04.83 | Yulia Carter | So, |
| 01:53:10.53 | Joe Burns | agreed with both here with our staff, and more importantly, having meetings with both committees to get their input and get their feedback and to set this up in a way that honors their service and allows us to continue to proceed to this next step of truly providing a platform for our businesses and our economy. to to go forth in a positive direction. So Councilman Riley, why don't you take over and then I'll close with a quick comment before we go. |
| 01:53:40.18 | Tom Riley | Yes, so before we go to the next slide, I just want to say that we have gotten input from our two existing committees, And our decision to form a new committee is not for anything they haven't done. They've done tremendous work for us. This is just to prepare us for the future. So please advance. One introductory slide is to Why? Will you advance that please? So the world's changing around. We all know there's a shift to online retail. It doesn't mean all of our business need to sell online, but there's new infrastructure that goes with online retail, whether it's shared warehouses and distribution services, shared kitchens, And so there's lots of business opportunities and online that we need to work on. We know that tourism is declining even before the pandemic. We've even seen that many people are happy, the number of bicycles coming to town have been declining so How do we go after high quality tourism, especially now with the pandemic We need to bring visitors. We also, if you look at the financials today, Our resiliency to these types of economic challenges aren't that strong. We are so dependent on tourism and visitors So we need to diversify and look at other industries that make us a more solid city from a business perspective. And finally, We know that due to climate change and sea level rise, there's some innovative opportunities. Those are the things we want to address. We also believe that this committee can help us very quickly start to address strategies to recover from the pandemic. Council Member Burns is right. We can figure out ways to bring more revenues into our city. We also want to take a more holistic view And finally, this allows us to streamline our situation efforts to work with a single empowered committee. I want to thank the Hospitality Business Development Committee |
| 01:55:30.76 | Adam Chambers | I want it. |
| 01:55:34.80 | Tom Riley | There were six members, you see them on the right here. But their goal was to promote the hospitality and tourism industry in Sausalito. That was specifically what they're focused on. Pakistan. Please advance. And there was a slide that was in here, but it's not in there now, which was the Business Advisory Committee The Business Advisory Committee has nine members on it, and it was focused on optimizing the business environment. within the city. What we've done is we've come up with a new set of missions and roles for the Economic Development Committee. And we say it's proposed because once we bring the membership together, we will tighten this. But basically, We want to focus on the economic health of soft-suit of businesses But we also don't want to lose our waterfront characteristics and our unique heritage. So it's a fine balance. We do want to pursue tourism. but we also have to have the balance of serving our local residents and our regional community. We want to come up with the programs policies not only to recover from the pandemic recession that we're having right now, but future ones and how do we become much more resilient. And then finally, we've been talking a lot in the general plan about creating an innovation zone and investing in the marine ship And this is a group that we can work with on what are our strategies to pursue these maritime climate change innovation zone leveraging our industrial expertise. Please advance. |
| 01:57:13.70 | Tom Riley | So, What's the makeup of such a committee? We are recommending that we initially put together a nine member committee with a possibility to expand to 11. Between our two current committees, we have 15 members. So this is gonna be a smaller combined group but we want it to be a more high powered and more aligned with the city and the city council. We want to have broad representation. and we'd like to leverage the expertise of many of our current members. So we believe the membership will come from our hospitality and retail, So think of this as our hotels, restaurants, retails, or services type businesses. but we also wanna have membership outside that. So can we get, you know, maritime, industrial, kind of the marineship or business representation. Of course, we want representation from the Chamber of Commerce and residents. So that is the mix that we're looking for. Please advance. So we wanna tee up for discussion tonight. Um, some questions we want to get input from city council. So first off is the makeup of the membership. And I gave you kind of the categories, but really what's the balance of it. And I'm going to give a recommendation and ask that we have a discussion on this. But I recommend that we have of three members from our hospitality or retail businesses three members that are outside that. And we try to get representation from the industrial or the waterfront sector, but a non-retail. WE HAVE A the chamber representative and we have two residents on this committee and that brings a balance. The other way, another alternative is to recommend two businesses from each of our areas, the downtown, the Caledonia, and the Marinship. which would give us six members. someone from the chamber, and two residents. Um, The next thing we're asking is we have a number of participants on our current committees that have termed out. They have expressed interest in going forward This is a new committee should they be subject to their term limits. My recommendation is this is a great time to bring in some new thinking and to bring in some new people to get involved in our city. and that we respect term limits. However, there are candidates that are serving for us that are interested in going forward. I think our process should be only to interview new candidates open to discussion. And then I believe time is available the essence, especially with planning for our recovery and how we pursue new revenues. So we need to have a discussion how quickly we can move. Please advance. So what we're asking for is a resolution of the city council to create an economic development committee who would like to think The 15 members who have served on our two existing um, committees. in a adopt a resolution to disband. or, wait until we have the economic development in place and then disband. And then of course, we want to get applicants for the Economic Development Committee. that completes my presentation. |
| 02:00:52.96 | Joe Burns | Thanks, Tom. And I think you made the message very clear that we're really looking for some input right now especially in the makeup. and we're balancing the information we received from the community. I'll go back and say it again, we've had a hard time filling some of these seats in the past, as well as there's a little different, scope of what this new committee will be looking at and it's all the more important now that we have larger scope of business and that we have their input from things like statistics to what's happening in their marketplace to their industry standards. And as much as I appreciate some people wanting residents to sit on this committee, I think residents should have a voice in this, but we don't want to use too many spots on this of residents that might take spots away from something like what we might grow in the marineship that we've had a lesser voice of in the past. And one of the things that I want to bring up that I think we really need to look at now, and I'm going to challenge some of the people in the Marineship to do this is for them to have a formal liaison to this type of committee. You know, we use the Port Townsend economic impact study as an example in previous discussions, I know it's down in the marineship area, it's highly supported as a great document, which it is, that that, was mentioned in the Cosmot report as well. that was commissioned not by the city of Port Townsend, but by the trades association within their marine area. And I think that would be a good goal for our group to have as well so that they have a real strong economic voice in a committee like this. So I want to save some of our spots of the makeup of this committee to really look at that new innovation, that new growth, that innovation. opportunity of industry and arts and the things happening in that geographical location that might not have had a voice in this type of committee And frankly, if we put too many residents on there, except I would say residents that our own businesses are probably the best source that we want. So I'm not excluding residents at all. I think our residents who, who have businesses are very important. So I just kind of want to throw that out there when you think about the makeup of this committee, because we really are at this point seeking your your input. Thanks. |
| 02:03:19.97 | Unknown | Okay, great. Thank you to both of you for all your work on this and for the presentation. I really appreciate it. Um, I was wondering if you could just before I open it up to other questions from council members, if you could. talk about the pros and cons of you, thing that I saw in our staff report was kind of the hospitality kind of, but done by industry, but just at the end, Council Member Riley, you talked about a different model where we would have, two representatives from the Marineship, two from Caledonia, and two from downtown. Did you, talk about those two choices much and what are the pros and cons of that. I didn't remember seeing that second option in our staff report, but it has, I think it has some good possibilities. |
| 02:04:14.53 | Tom Riley | I did mention it as an alternative, just to kind of fuel the discussion. I think rather than like trying to divide by zone where we're better off just getting a diversification between hospitality and retail and non-hospitality and retail which we bring in, It could be a landlord, it could be the light industrial, it could be a marina owner. where we get the maritime view of things. And so what I really think is right is less about location and more about diversification of the membership which will help us build a diversified business portfolio. |
| 02:04:58.71 | Joe Burns | Yeah, and one of the challenges we have with the hospitality commission that we've had in the past is There's only four hotels and only two of them have active managers that would sit on this. they're going to term out because there's only two people and we have two spots. So over a period of time, it was just not automatic that they you know, we didn't do term limits necessarily on that group because Castle Madrona and In Above Tides are the only ones that had a body to put into those two roles that we had mandated in that in that commission. So that's where I think we need to really have a conversation about what is the hospitality business component look like when we have two active hotel hoteliers available. |
| 02:05:42.77 | Unknown | Okay, great. Are there questions from council members? |
| 02:05:51.63 | Unknown | Council member with the Cox. I'm having a hard time seeing the top Folks on my screen are all divided between staff. Okay. Council member Cox. Thank you. |
| 02:06:04.27 | Joan Cox | I just had one question. I'm unable to find this presentation. Yeah, I was having the same trouble actually. And it's a lot of, it's very meaty. I would like the opportunity to review it more thoroughly but it's not for some reason it's the only presentation this evening not attached to our agenda item |
| 02:06:31.62 | Joan Cox | That was my only... The question is can we upload this presentation please? |
| 02:06:39.35 | Unknown | So, I'll turn to the clerk, Ms. Scobal, are you there? |
| 02:06:47.25 | Joan Cox | I know the clerk has it because she was running the presentation for council member Riley. |
| 02:06:54.89 | Adam Politzer | Mayor Cleveland, it's Adam here. I'll just, Willie, and I noticed the same thing. |
| 02:06:56.04 | Joan Cox | to Adam. |
| 02:06:59.50 | Adam Politzer | during the presentation I asked that they upload the presentation. So my apologies if that didn't happen in advance. |
| 02:07:08.53 | Heidi Scoble | Yes, and can you hear me? Yes, we can hear you now. Okay, thank you. Yeah, we received it late in the day and I do apologize. I thought I... clicked publish, but we did not get that far. So it's in process and will be uploaded uploaded shortly. And Heidi, your voice is finally normal. |
| 02:07:29.15 | Unknown | Yeah. |
| 02:07:29.22 | Heidi Scoble | Yes, I'm using the iPad and not the city's microphones. |
| 02:07:35.56 | Unknown | OK, great. So Councilmember Cox, did you have any before you have the presentation in front of you? Do you have any other questions? I have no other question. Vice Mayor? Any questions? |
| 02:07:51.51 | Ray Withey | No, I have no questions. I thought the presentation was very clear and self-explanatory. |
| 02:07:57.77 | Unknown | Okay, well, while we're waiting for the presentation to upload, why don't we turn to public comment? |
| 02:08:07.30 | Heidi Scoble | And Mayor Cleveland Knowles, we are experiencing about a one minute delay on the Granicus website stream. So again, I will take this as an opportunity to read. our normal public comment that at this time, The members of the public may address the city council regarding items on this agenda relating to agenda item 7b. Public comment will be accepted by video. audio audience participation via Zoom and your public comment is limited to three minutes per speaker. or I do see three hands raised. And we'll start with John Dure. And I will unmute John's audio. Right, John, can you hear us? |
| 02:08:50.96 | Unknown | Thank you. |
| 02:08:51.04 | John DeRay | Yeah. Can you hear me? |
| 02:08:53.02 | Heidi Scoble | Yes. |
| 02:08:54.32 | John DeRay | Thank you for the presentation. I thought it was really good and very thorough. I submitted a letter or an email. But just one very short comment. I think it's important also to consider the artists in Sausalito. There's many hundreds of them, and they do drive tourists here. And I think it would be wise to get Thank you. one of the artists on this committee as well and perhaps you do that in the resident spot because many of them are of course residents so just that comment thank you |
| 02:09:34.60 | Unknown | Great, thank you. Alice Merrill. |
| 02:09:44.11 | Alice Merrill | I'm sorry. |
| 02:09:44.16 | Unknown | Alice, can you hear me? |
| 02:09:44.20 | Alice Merrill | Alice, can you hear me? I can hear you. Can you hear me? Yes. Okay. |
| 02:09:47.76 | Unknown | Yes. |
| 02:09:49.48 | Alice Merrill | Thank you. I did think that the that that presentation was good and I think you said that there were how nine people and I didn't see that many added up on my list here. So, I'm not sure. who all the nine people are, the reason that I that I think that just a random, plain old resident who is smart about about, finances and money and how those things work. Um, but doesn't have any other any other you know, hard in the game except for just for just watching out for what, what happens with how the residents might feel about things and isn't, hasn't got any financial I'm sorry. Uh, gain or anything because that's what I see is the people who are in it. stand to gain from this and that's They're doing it for everybody. We hope. So, But this was a good presentation, so thank you. That's all. |
| 02:11:06.97 | Unknown | Great, thank you. Good to hear your voice, Alice. Sandra Bushmaker. |
| 02:11:13.60 | Sandra Bushmaker | Hi, everybody. Thank you for that presentation. I would also like to see a hard copy of that or a virtual copy of it. I wanted to second John DeRay's comment about the artists in the marine ship. and the large artist community that we have in Sausalito. With regard to the residents, there are a number of us, and I will include myself, who have had a business for decades in Sausalito. and have a fair taste of the town and what it is like to operate a business in town. And I'm sure there are others in the community who are residents who also operated their businesses in town. So I would like to promote. Um, residents. to be members of this committee. and also to make sure we get the artists the industrial people in the marine ship, and of course the marine industries as well. Thank you. |
| 02:12:20.02 | Unknown | Thank you very much. I do not see any other public comment. Ms. Scoble, do you see anyone else? |
| 02:12:30.11 | Heidi Scoble | There are no other public commenters. I would also like to announce that the presentation has been uploaded to the city's website and can be accessed from the April 28th agenda under agenda item 7b. |
| 02:12:33.93 | Unknown | Yeah. Thank you. |
| 02:12:45.39 | Unknown | Will that also be available on Granicus or will we get that later? |
| 02:12:49.23 | Heidi Scoble | It's available on Granicus as well and on your iPads. So you can pull it up right now. Thank you. it. |
| 02:12:57.60 | Unknown | Great, thank you. Okay, and thank you for the public comment. I'm going to close public comment. and bring the discussion to the city council. It might be helpful to load the presentation again. |
| 02:13:18.81 | Unknown | I've got it here. Okay. Great. |
| 02:13:30.71 | Heidi Scoble | Is there a particular slide that you're interested in? and I can pull it up. Thank you. |
| 02:13:35.13 | Unknown | Why don't we go back to Well, why don't we talk about the mission role of the, Economic Development Committee and make sure that we have agreement. Uh, the council on the mission and the role. Um, if that's okay with council members and then we'll talk about composition. and the other questions that we had. |
| 02:14:02.66 | Unknown | So on my theme earlier of balance, I liked these general principles. Um, |
| 02:14:14.99 | Unknown | My only small issue on number four is I definitely agree about pursuing new and diversified businesses leveraging our maritime and industrial expertise. I think that it could be It could be to address climate change and sea level rise, or it could be other other things. So I would just make this not an exclusive purpose. So to address climate change challenges such as sea level rise and other global. Other Yeah. I mean, we could have Um, You know, we could be developing |
| 02:15:00.76 | Tom Riley | Mask. |
| 02:15:01.53 | Unknown | vaccines or masks, yes, or You know, there can be other important public and other ideas that come out. whatever the edit is to make that non-exclusive. So that was my comment. Does anybody else have comments on the mission and the role? |
| 02:15:23.64 | Unknown | I don't know if it's Joe and Ray, Tom came up with this. |
| 02:15:28.01 | Joan Cox | Bye. |
| 02:15:28.73 | Ray Withey | Yeah, this is, go on, Joan. |
| 02:15:29.21 | Joan Cox | See you. Go on, John. I was just going to say, I agree with the mayor about broadening the description I was pleased to hear council member Riley make mention of the innovation zone concept that we've been focusing on in our strategic plan and our general plan. And I'd love to see that memorialized in the mission of this. committee. Um, I think it should be named an advisory committee since obviously anything they, undertake. you know, we'll come back to the city council as advice for us to adopt, you know, plans or programs to move forward. |
| 02:16:17.64 | Unknown | Okay. Oh, vice mayor. Do you have any comments? |
| 02:16:22.55 | Ray Withey | Yeah, I was I agree with all of that. I'm neutral on advisory, but it's fine. thing I think I heard Council Member Riley said is that We should be open to Once the membership is selected and they take a look at this, they may want to look at the mission and the role and then come back to us with any modifications. I believe that's what council member Riley indicated and I would absolutely think that is important. |
| 02:17:00.22 | Tom Riley | I'm not sure. Thank you. Yes, and Mary, I just on item four, I will modify it to say, pursue new and diversified businesses, leveraging our maritime and industrial expertise. including the pursuit of an innovation zone to address sea level rise. |
| 02:17:15.57 | Joan Cox | Perfect. Did mayor did you mention who was it that mentioned local art activities or artists? |
| 02:17:24.58 | Unknown | I think that was several, Mr. DeRay and Ms. Brushmaker. |
| 02:17:29.26 | Joan Cox | I don't know if there's a place in here for that, or if that's something other council members endorse. |
| 02:17:34.74 | Tom Riley | I think Council Member Cox that was a recommendation for the membership to have artistic representation artist representation |
| 02:17:44.29 | Joe Burns | which I think we've always been open to and would love to More than just galleries, we'd love to have artists as well. Yes. Please apply. |
| 02:17:57.86 | Unknown | Great. Okay, so why don't we move on to the slide. the membership. I think that's the next one. |
| 02:18:15.90 | Unknown | So are there comments? So council member Burns, Were you and Council Member Riley, were you in agreement on this proposal at the bottom of the slide or did one of you prefer the region, the kind of region based approach. |
| 02:18:37.57 | Joe Burns | I think we're definitely agreeable. At one point, we were trying to plug in numbers of how many do we have to eat. And um that's a lot for us to do outside of the scope of the rest of the council let alone Do we have enough people that will be interested to do that? You know, we're kind of looking the makeup of that group is right, but does this council want to kind of put some numbers to that and maybe over engineer the makeup a little bit to say there's three of this, four of that, two of that. Um, And again, I'll bring up the resident. I think it would be all of our goal to pick businesses that have a resident owner or a resident and a business owner at the same time. It is a business-based business. So I think business is kind of the key thing there, but I think residency is really important. Do we write that in to have a certain number? I'll leave that up for this group to determine. |
| 02:19:45.49 | Unknown | Okay, are there comments on the proposed membership? Councilmember Cox. or Thank you. |
| 02:19:54.77 | Joan Cox | Yes, thank you. I did, I listened carefully to the proposed membership and I wanted to remind us Um, I don't want to confine us to business. owners in Sausalito. Um, I've been so enormously impressed over the last several years of all of the people that we have interviewed who have applied for our various boards and commissions. who, because it's a requirement, are residents of Sausalito, but yet bring this expertise from their travels or their work in San Francisco, in New York, in various other cities. When I was listening to Council member Riley's presentation, it reminded me of an article I read this morning about Governor Cuomo assembling a team of the best minds to examine how to reopen the state financially, logistically and otherwise. And I really think our goal should be to assemble a team of best to identify how Sausalito should plan for its best economic future. Especially in light of the COVID-19 challenges But I don't think we should confine our expertise to our merchants in Sausalito. Whereas many of our residents bring a wealth of experience in a variety of arenas from around the country. And so I, I, hate to confine our committee to two residents when I know we have a wealth of resident experience, knowledge, and expertise that could be helpful to us. So I'd love to see us be a little bit more open about what the composition of the committee should be until we see who applies. And I think our focus needs to be on getting the word out about the formation of this committee so that we get those young, bright minds with fresh ideas interested and involved with this committee. |
| 02:22:16.25 | Unknown | Okay, thank you. So in terms of are you just saying maybe more than two residents? Is that the specific. |
| 02:22:25.04 | Joan Cox | I'm urging us not to confine it to two residents right now, but let's evaluate the composition when we see who's interested in applying. Okay. |
| 02:22:38.78 | Tom Riley | Yeah, one of the things that we are recommending is the very first bullet on this is that we, Pursue putting together a nine member committee And leave the flexibility to expand it to 11 as we start to look at the makeup. and we refined the mission, which could address some of Councilmember Cox's suggestions there as well. And also, when we, Councilmember Burns and I have discussed about residents, It's really to pursue those residents who also bring strong business savvy. And it could be they just have strong financial skills. They're not going after research grants. They bring great marketing domains. or they have experience in other cities. So that's what we're hoping to capture there. But this is a conversation we wanted to have. We had originally this chart had a recommendation with the actual membership, we wanted to foster this conversation to get your input. |
| 02:23:37.40 | Unknown | And just, kind of to the public comment, where Where does manufacturing and artist uses fall under this business non-hospital retail services. |
| 02:23:53.08 | Tom Riley | Yes. Yes, so basically if you think of the first group, that is our storefronts, you know, so that's what we're all familiar with is our hospitality retail. The business is where we want to get members from the maritime, the industrial sector, this is where we look for the artists. Um, The chamber would have one representative And then residents, we look for residents who bring business expertise. from other you know, other communities. |
| 02:24:25.95 | Joe Burns | Yeah, and I'll point out too, you know, in the past artists, by definition of the Marin ships specific plan, there is no retail artists in the Marin ship. So we've kind of dropped that retail function to get artists who are artists by trade and not selling a retail product. |
| 02:24:53.19 | Unknown | Okay. And can I just ask our city attorney, and then I'll let the vice mayor speak if he wants. Do we need to have a number associated with these categories? for the resolution. I'm looking at the resolution and it doesn't have specificity in it. |
| 02:25:16.07 | Mary Wagner | Yeah, thank you, Madam Mayor. I think that's at the council's discretion. You can specify numbers or you can decide to do that in the future. not and keep it the membership more fluid. |
| 02:25:31.21 | Unknown | Okay, thank you. Councilmember Burns. |
| 02:25:34.34 | Mary Wagner | Thank you. |
| 02:25:34.36 | Joe Burns | Yeah, and in other economic development groups, there's another level that we haven't talked about here in philanthropists and nonprofits as well that wouldn't always fall under this, but have a stake. And I don't think we should be afraid to say that the committee has a vested interest in the success of. the growth of economics in Sausalito. We shouldn't shy away from that. This is the purpose of this committee is to grow our economics So, if somebody has a real asset to bring like a nonprofit or nonprofit endeavors, those are valuable. foundations, those types of things really work in this type of space. So I'm okay to interviewing residents who bring a specific talent, but we shouldn't be hiding that and have a best interest in this. |
| 02:26:25.34 | Unknown | Okay, Ray, do you have anything before? |
| 02:26:30.96 | Ray Withey | Yeah, I sort of agree with pretty much everything I've heard. Um, I, first of all, I think it's too, it's premature to over-engineer this. The most important thing we need to do tonight is to agree to form it. Second thing is to disband with thanks the other two committees. And then to aggressively begin the wide distribution of the fact that we are hiring people for this and to start interviewing people. Council Member Riley correctly said that diversity is more important than necessarily geography. If we get it diverse enough, the geography will take care of itself. Likewise, you know, everybody keeps talking about residents. I mean, over half the, current BAC residents. Oh, I think it's important. I agree with Council Member Cox. It doesn't necessarily need to be a merchant or a business owner in town. It's just we need people who are business savvy who understand that this is an important function and can give us important advice. So I think everything we've heard we should incorporate. Let's not over-engineer it. By the time we have enough people who are capable of filling these roles, the committee will engineer itself. |
| 02:28:03.23 | Tom Riley | And I love that. I'd like to make one comment following the vice mayor. In conversations with the city manager, he has said in the past, Um, when we've had an adequate number of individuals identified, we have begun the work. So we may initially identify seven individuals that we want to start working with while we're still interviewing additional members going forward. But one of the things I don't want to do is, you know, let's take two, three months forming this committee and time flying by. So to have an approach where we can start interviewing, get a working group going, and then continue to add the members to get the diversity we want. |
| 02:28:44.34 | Joan Cox | Great. And Mayor? Um, we've been focusing on sort of the business of. this committee and the logistics, but I do just want to take a moment to thank um, Council members Riley and Burns for all of their hard work in putting together this presentation and formulating this plan and identifying really the next best step forward in putting together a committee that can really help us navigate challenging times and in the work that they've done in reaching out to Senator McGuire, to the county officials, and to others. They've really undertaken the mantle of figuring out Sausalito's best economic path forward. So I just wanted to express my gratitude for all of their hard work on this. |
| 02:29:39.34 | Unknown | Great, yes, echo those things and thank you for acknowledging that. Um, I guess one other issue that hasn't come up and goes to council member Riley's point about getting this started quickly. which I think we need to do. is whether we will necessarily interview every candidate that applies. And in the general plan advisory committee process, I think there was some winnowing, of candidates through a written application. Um, I don't know if some of the council members who were on the Council at that time, remember exactly how that happened. If that was a staff function or if that was done by two council members. Um, Councilmember Cox or. of, Withy, do you remember? |
| 02:30:40.19 | John DeRay | down. |
| 02:30:41.98 | Unknown | Staff. Okay. |
| 02:30:47.76 | Unknown | Well, why don't we, And for the city attorney, do we need to include if we wanted to have a um Do we have to decide that tonight? Is that part of this resolution? |
| 02:31:04.47 | Mary Wagner | Thanks, Madam Mayor. I think that can evolve. I think the number of applications you had for the General plan advisory committee was significantly large. And I think the process there was staff made recommendations to the council and interviews and the council then had the ability to pull up other people. you may want to see what the pool is that you develop and then come up with a process based upon that. Okay. Yeah, that's- |
| 02:31:31.37 | Unknown | But you don't have to. |
| 02:31:32.21 | Mary Wagner | you don't have to do that tonight if you even if you want to go forward with the resolution so |
| 02:31:37.39 | Unknown | Okay. Great. I just do want to get this committee up and started as soon as possible because where obviously our economic future uncertain and we need people thinking about this. So, okay, as there were there, let's go to the next slide with some questions or? Are we good? |
| 02:32:03.52 | Tom Riley | Yes, there is a slide where we wanted to get direction. So we just discussed number one. Number two, we have If you go back one slide, please, Heidi. On number two, we have 15 members on the two committees today. A number of them have raised their hands to serve again. which is great because they bring lots of expertise and they're wonderful contributors to your community. Some of them are, uh, have already exceeded their term limits. And this is a new committee, but we could say, hey, we're looking for new members. I just wanted to get some direction here. |
| 02:32:45.13 | Joan Cox | Well, I agree with council member with the vice mayor that we should Bank and excuse. members of the business advisor committee and the hospitality committee and then we should interview for the Um, for the EDC. Um, I, respect. your Council member Riley that we be respectful of term limits. I'm just really interested in getting the most qualified folks and I. I think we've gone as far as we can with the |
| 02:36:07.65 | Unknown | Thank you. |
| 02:36:07.66 | Heidi Scoble | Yes, so we're being streamed live through Granicus on the city's website. And we're trying to troubleshoot that right now. And it appears as though it's back up again. |
| 02:36:18.51 | Joan Cox | Thank you. |
| 02:36:19.00 | Unknown | Thank you. |
| 02:36:24.03 | Unknown | Okay, anything so at least at this point, we've got a new committee, we will prioritize looking for new candidates, but we will not. apply term limits to the new committee. that, Do we have consensus on that? |
| 02:36:43.51 | Joe Burns | Yeah, and one other, oh, yes, sorry. Yes. One other element that we didn't talk about here, but we need to kind of bring up, it did come up in our committee meeting, The committee's success is really built on consistent staff. and having a staff representation, whether it be Brian or Julia, which have both been participating as of recent in a credible way, but in the years before, we kind of had ups and downs with different staff coming in. So that's one element. And then obviously we would go with two liaisons for now. I'm hoping. Yeah. And |
| 02:37:21.16 | Unknown | I think that makes sense. |
| 02:37:22.44 | Joe Burns | Okay. Tom and I are kind of different on names. I'm calling it the Burns-Riley committee. He's calling it the Riley Burns committee, but I think we'll work that out in our first meeting. |
| 02:37:31.63 | Tom Riley | I'm calling it the Cuomo Birds Committee. |
| 02:37:39.23 | Joan Cox | Madam Mayor you I think we've reached consensus on some things but I think we have to edit the resolution that's addressed in our that's in our packet |
| 02:37:47.72 | Unknown | Okay, as always, I appreciate your input on that. Let me just get the resolution up on my other screen here. Okay. |
| 02:37:59.50 | Joan Cox | Okay. |
| 02:38:00.98 | Unknown | Thank you. |
| 02:38:01.00 | Joan Cox | So I think that we agreed on some edits to the purpose of the economic development committee. So, particularly a revision to Number four at the bottom of page one did the city attorney So, get those notes. |
| 02:38:24.81 | Mary Wagner | Yes, I understand you actually had some discussion about calling it the Economic Development Advisory Committee. And then you also changed number for the Council member Riley read into the to the or read out loud that would be changed to say, pursue new and diversified businesses. leveraging our maritime and industrial expertise, comma, including the use of an innovation zone to address climate change challenges such as sea level rise. |
| 02:38:52.30 | Joan Cox | Okay, great. And then section two, says 11 members, you know, comprised of these um categories. I think we were giving ourselves some flexibility on the categories and we were possibly going to start with, nine or even seven to get the committee rolling. |
| 02:39:16.97 | Tom Riley | Can we phrase it up to 11? |
| 02:39:17.07 | Joan Cox | And reframe it. Thank you. |
| 02:39:19.62 | Tom Riley | Thank you. |
| 02:39:21.98 | Joan Cox | How about no fewer than seven and up to 11? |
| 02:39:25.73 | Tom Riley | Yes. |
| 02:39:35.85 | Joan Cox | We do have future slash, you know, that includes others. So I don't know if we have to edit the committee, the categories. Um, |
| 02:39:46.43 | Ray Withey | One possibility, Joan, there is to just remove resident and indicate that we're uh, We would like residents... in particular to apply or something like that because this implies one resident that's not right we're trying to the chief here. |
| 02:40:03.75 | Joe Burns | achieve here. |
| 02:40:04.77 | Joan Cox | Right? |
| 02:40:05.03 | Joe Burns | All right. You can add in artists before other, after industrial. I don't see a problem in doing that. |
| 02:40:15.42 | Joan Cox | So perhaps when we say in the beginning, okay, thank you. And perhaps in the beginning where we say shall be comprised of 11, members from the following categories with a focus on residents or something of that nature. |
| 02:40:31.08 | Joan Cox | Ultimately, we're going to. from the dais. |
| 02:40:42.74 | Unknown | Can we just solve the resident issue by saying keeping resident and then just putting two parentheticals with an S in it? And I think... |
| 02:40:56.33 | Unknown | or is there some objection to that? |
| 02:40:59.11 | Ray Withey | No objection. It's fine. |
| 02:41:03.13 | Unknown | That's okay. |
| 02:41:03.28 | Ray Withey | Thank you. |
| 02:41:05.09 | Unknown | Great. So we'll just do resident parenthetical S. Um... Okay, Mary, is that... Do you have any other questions? |
| 02:41:17.54 | Mary Wagner | Just on the name of the committee and I wanted to make sure I heard correctly that He wanted the word advisory added. |
| 02:41:25.54 | Joe Burns | Yeah, it's EDAC. |
| 02:41:30.21 | Joe Burns | eat it. |
| 02:41:30.58 | Tom Riley | Thank you. |
| 02:41:33.62 | Joan Cox | Mayor, we also have a resolution dissolving and disbanding the business advisory committee and the hospitality business. Mary? I think it's, you know, I appreciate the comments of council members, Riley and Burns this evening, but I think even in this resolution, we should really extend our heartfelt gratitude to those two bodies for all of the work that they've invested and accomplished over the years of their service. |
| 02:42:01.58 | Unknown | Right, I agree. Um... |
| 02:42:03.25 | Ray Withey | I agree with that. |
| 02:42:05.09 | Unknown | And then another question, do we want to have that resolution be effective when this new committee is formed. |
| 02:42:17.61 | Unknown | I recommend it. |
| 02:42:17.70 | Tom Riley | I recommend that. |
| 02:42:18.17 | Unknown | Thank you. |
| 02:42:18.22 | Unknown | Thank you. |
| 02:42:19.28 | Tom Riley | Um, We want to keep these bodies in place until we have a new committee to work with. Otherwise, we're absent any bodies that we could be working with. |
| 02:42:30.39 | Unknown | Okay, so let's get that resolution up. |
| 02:42:44.24 | Unknown | So Mary, can we just add to that resolution? |
| 02:42:51.09 | Unknown | a whereas clause about our incorporating Councilmember Cox's heartfelt thanks. I mean, our all of our hearts, thanks, her clause and then effective when we have seven members of the new committee. |
| 02:43:08.21 | Mary Wagner | Yes. Okay. |
| 02:43:10.72 | Unknown | Great. Is there any further discussion or comments on this item? And we are going to try to move this along quickly so we've |
| 02:43:22.74 | Unknown | Thank you. address number four. |
| 02:43:26.06 | Joe Burns | Yeah, I think we're good. |
| 02:43:29.10 | Unknown | Okay, well, great. Thank you so much for to both Councilmember Burns and Councilmember Riley. for all your hard work as Councilmember Cox already. already did. So thank you. |
| 02:43:41.80 | Joe Burns | Thank you for bringing it home for us. That was really good. I really appreciate all the input. |
| 02:43:42.09 | Unknown | Thank you. |
| 02:43:46.48 | Joe Burns | Perfect. |
| 02:43:48.35 | Unknown | So I need a motion. |
| 02:43:57.21 | Unknown | Karen Hollweg, Right am I gonna have to make my own motion. |
| 02:44:03.93 | Unknown | Yep, you're muted. |
| 02:44:06.12 | Joe Burns | I guess one of us could, I had moved that we adopt a resolution of the city council CITY OF CREATING AN ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT COMMITTEE AS um, has changed tonight. Thank the members of the Business Advisory Committee and the Hospitality. Business Development Committee for their service. and adopt a resolution to disband and dissolve those committees as change tonight and direct staff to return to the council for that action when the economic development committee has been populated. and to begin to direct staff to seek applicant for the Economic Development Committee. |
| 02:44:44.50 | Unknown | Is that okay, Mary? Can we take that all together? |
| 02:44:48.93 | Mary Wagner | Absolutely. I just wanted to make sure I understood Council member Burns motion and you had kind of a two part, motion there that you could do one or two things with respect to the BOC and the itch. hospitality committee, but I believe that the council was suggesting that you just build into the resolution itself. that it becomes effective upon the populating of the EDAC with seven members. |
| 02:45:12.25 | Joe Burns | Yeah. So I amend that we thank the members of the business committee and adopt a resolution. for your words, |
| 02:45:26.85 | Unknown | Okay, is there a second? |
| 02:45:28.94 | Tom Riley | I will second that. |
| 02:45:30.75 | Unknown | Great. Ms. Goble, will you call the roll? |
| 02:45:33.82 | Heidi Scoble | Thank you. |
| 02:45:34.82 | Unknown | Thank you. |
| 02:45:34.85 | Heidi Scoble | Councilmember Riley? |
| 02:45:36.37 | Tom Riley | Yes. |
| 02:45:37.31 | Heidi Scoble | Councilmember Burns? |
| 02:45:38.82 | Tom Riley | Yes. |
| 02:45:39.68 | Heidi Scoble | Councilmember Cox? |
| 02:45:44.22 | Heidi Scoble | Councilmember Cox? |
| 02:45:48.94 | Heidi Scoble | Yes. Vice Mayor Withey. |
| 02:45:51.81 | Ray Withey | Yes. |
| 02:45:52.81 | Heidi Scoble | Mayor Cleveland Knowles. |
| 02:45:54.71 | Unknown | Thank you. Great. That motion carries five, zero. Thank you all. Okay, we are moving on to our public hearing items. We have one public hearing item under Number eight. which is an ordinance amending Section 1820 to allow the Marine General Services Authority to function as a local entity for oversight of the community access television. |
| 02:46:29.02 | Heidi Scoble | And Mayor Cleveland Knowles and members of the council I, Heidi Scoble, will be providing the staff presentation this evening. The purpose of this item is to introduce and conduct the first reading of ordinance 1278 that will terminate the Marin telecommunications agency, also known as the MTA. That was established in 1997 by ordinance 1127. In addition to consideration of the adoption of a resolution to authorize the Marin General Services Authority, also known as the MGS, a to have the authority to exercise all powers and functions associated with the digital infrastructure and video Competition Act and to collect franchise and franchise fees and public educational and governmental fees, also known as PEG fees, from cable television providers. After the MTA was established in 1997, changes to the state and federal law eliminated local franchise authority over telecommunications entirety. entirely thus leaving the MTA in a much more limited administrative role. With the resignation and planned departure of the current MTA Executive Officer, THE END OF effective June 30th of this year, There's an opportunity to transition MTA functions to the MGSA that will result in greater efficiencies, reduced overhead costs associated with the MTA, and a possibility of a larger proportion of franchise fees returning to the city. The repeal of ordinance 1127 is necessary in order to terminate the MTA under its agreement of formation. And therefore staff recommends the council introduced by title only In way further reading of Ordinance Number 1278, an ordinance to terminate the Marin Telecommunications Agency by repealing Ordinance 1127. and to adopt a resolution authorizing the MGSA to collect franchise and peg access fees from cable television providers on behalf of the city of Sausalito and exercise all the functions previously performed by the MTA. With that, I will conclude my presentation and I'm available to answer any questions at. City Attorney Mary Wagner is also available to answer any questions as well. |
| 02:48:45.03 | Unknown | Great, great. Thank you both. And thanks for a very concise and clear staff report on this topic. Are there any council member questions? Thank you. Okay, seeing none, we will move to public comment. |
| 02:49:06.12 | Unknown | I will give it a minute for Okay. service to catch up. |
| 02:49:12.98 | Heidi Scoble | Thank you. And I'll do another brief reminder that this is an opportunity for public comment to be accepted by video or audio participation. and your public comments are limited to three minutes. |
| 02:49:29.28 | Unknown | Okay, I do not see any public comment. Ms. Scoble, do you see anyone with their hand raised or have anyone on the line? |
| 02:49:36.72 | Heidi Scoble | I do not have anyone on the line with their hands raised. |
| 02:49:41.31 | Unknown | Okay. We will close public comment. And is there any discussion or emotion on this topic? Mayor, I will move. |
| 02:49:50.59 | Joe Burns | I just wanted, can I do it? |
| 02:49:51.52 | Unknown | Sorry, just a minute. |
| 02:49:53.56 | Joe Burns | Go ahead, Joe. I'm sorry, I was the representative of this committee and I just wanna quickly say that You know, when I got assigned this committee three years ago, I was like, oh great MTA, what the heck. This turned out to be such a rewarding, fun group, even though we met five, six, upwards of eight times a year. It was a really great group, and I thought we were doing really good work, but it did come down to this point. So I completely agree with this process. I'm just going to miss that committee, but you don't have to put me on another one because I just got into this economic development thing. But so thanks for the consideration in the vote tonight. It's sad to see it go, but it's, it's, it's that time. |
| 02:50:36.86 | Unknown | Okay, thank you for that. And it sounded like Councilmember Cox was about to make a motion. |
| 02:50:42.19 | Joan Cox | Thank you, Mayor. I will move that we introduce by title only and wait for the reading of ordinance number 1278, the ordinance terminate the Marin Telecommunications Agency by repealing ordinance number 1127. And that we adopt a resolution authorizing the Marine General Services Authority to collect franchise and PEG access fees from cable television providers on behalf of the city of Sausalito. And exercise all of the functions previously performed by the Marine Telecommunications Agency. |
| 02:51:09.30 | Joe Burns | I could... |
| 02:51:11.00 | Unknown | Great, we have a motion by Council Member Cox and a second by Council Member Burns. Ms. Scoble, will you call the roll? |
| 02:51:16.82 | Heidi Scoble | Thank you. Councilmember Riley? |
| 02:51:19.22 | Tom Riley | Yes. |
| 02:51:20.30 | Heidi Scoble | Councilmember Burns. |
| 02:51:21.53 | Tom Riley | Yes. |
| 02:51:22.56 | Heidi Scoble | Council member Cox? Yes. Vice mayor Withy? |
| 02:51:26.09 | Ray Withey | Yes. |
| 02:51:27.42 | Heidi Scoble | Mayor Cleveland Knowles. Yes. Motion carries unanimously five zero. Thank you. |
| 02:51:32.72 | Unknown | Thank you. |
| 02:51:32.74 | Heidi Scoble | Right. |
| 02:51:33.00 | Unknown | Thank you. Thank you again for your work on that. Okay, moving on, we have item nine, city manager report city council appointments. other council business. So this is 9ABC. And D, including future agenda items. So we'll take public comment on 9B through 9E. |
| 02:52:01.78 | Unknown | We'll give a minute for public to indicate if they would like to speak. |
| 02:52:18.13 | Unknown | I do not see any public comment. |
| 02:52:22.26 | Heidi Scoble | I do not see any public comment either. There are no hands raised. |
| 02:52:26.38 | Unknown | Okay, great. We will close public comment on this category. Do we have a report from the city manager tonight? |
| 02:52:36.89 | Adam Politzer | Just a brief, Just a brief comment and then one brief report. As the council understands, we're city managers, of the 11 cities are meeting, uh, and now twice a week and then we have meetings with accounting supervisor, the county administrator an additional once a week. in these In these weekly calls, we've also had the county health official join us. on the occasion. As you heard from our communications director and city librarian Abbott Chambers earlier, We're expecting the new order to be released tomorrow. Um, and extend it through March. I think what's important to recognize |
| 02:53:25.75 | Unknown | Mayday. |
| 02:53:27.26 | Adam Politzer | May. in Detroit. We're losing time, quickly, going backwards. But thank you. But I think we will see some significant changes to the order, potentially on a weekly basis, heading to June. You know, clearly we are trying to bring back certain types of businesses with restrictions and other types of of guidelines. You know, so I do think that we won't wait till the end of the month to see things evolve. So I just wanted to point out that I want to thank the County Administrator Matthew Haimel and our County health official, Dr. Willis, and then the other city managers that were working together collaboratively to help. move the ball forward as we deal with this on a daily basis. COB, Dan Burke, MN.: And then my last comment is also. One of the groups that I don't think enough is the executive team of our department heads. They are, as you acknowledged Julia Carter earlier and Abbott Chambers earlier this evening, everyone's working really hard and doing it with the |
| 02:54:39.62 | Unknown | you |
| 02:54:39.71 | Adam Politzer | Thank you. |
| 02:54:39.73 | Unknown | Thank you. |
| 02:54:39.78 | Adam Politzer | real positive. |
| 02:54:39.84 | Unknown | Thank you. |
| 02:54:41.25 | Adam Politzer | a spirit of collaboration and cooperation. why we were able to jump into action on Saturday night. And literally that was all. wrapped up by 930 in the evening and laid out ready to go at seven in the morning staff out there at 630 in the morning getting things set up. It's because everyone really appreciates and respects each other on the team. And so when you when you have that team type of spirit. It makes things easier. And I think, you know, just watching the five of you were, Again, it starts from the top. you guys working well together and collaborating and compromising gives us that same type of leadership down to the staff level. And again, appreciate you all. And I appreciate the executive team. and everyone that worked for the city of Saucyut. So thank you very much. |
| 02:55:29.96 | Unknown | Thank you, Adam. Okay, next item is appointments to boards, commissions and committees. And I wanted to ask, I apologize for this, but I just realized today late in the afternoon that at the MCC MC mayors call There was announced a new committee around mayors and their designees around economic development and coming out of COVID. 19. And so if the city attorney doesn't have any objection, I was going to make those appointments. tonight. |
| 02:56:15.83 | Mary Wagner | No objection. |
| 02:56:16.99 | Unknown | Okay, great. So, I know that council member Riley and Burns have been working very hard on this issue. But due to the fact that we may not have Councilmember Riley for uh, huge amount of time going forward. I'm going to, for the time being, appoint myself and Council member Burns, if you will agree, normally I would have asked you ahead of time. to serve on this committee as a start. And we'll see how the scope of the committee evolves. And if we need to make changes going forward, we can do that. Councilmember Burns, I know you just got off a committee. |
| 02:57:03.74 | Joe Burns | 28 minutes. |
| 02:57:04.95 | Unknown | I wouldn't want you to have a free evening. Okay, great. So I will make those appointments and look forward to working with the other mayors and council members. on more countywide solutions to these issues. Next on our item, we have future agenda items. I did notice that that list is growing long, so I am going to let the vice mayor and city manager know that we need to start tackling those issues now that we've got a couple of meetings under our belt and, um, But if there's anything to add, this would be the time to do that. |
| 02:57:51.39 | Joan Cox | Mayor, I don't have anything to add, but I was going to suggest that perhaps we consider prioritizing those in the same manner that we do our capital projects. by assigning them like a one, two, three so that at least we can try to get on our agenda this year some of the ones. |
| 02:58:11.20 | Unknown | Okay. I agree with that. Do you want the agenda setting committee to take a stab at doing that and bring that back at our next meeting for Other input? I think that would be great personally. Okay, were there any on there that stuck struck you as of high importance |
| 02:58:31.03 | Joan Cox | Thank you. |
| 02:58:31.34 | Unknown | Thank you. |
| 02:58:31.93 | Joan Cox | I think a lot of them on there are of high importance. I think you're going to have a job in front of you prioritizing them, but I thought that might be one way |
| 02:58:37.60 | Yulia Carter | guys. |
| 02:58:41.04 | Joan Cox | because we're all so busy doing things that aren't normally on our agenda, grappling with COVID-19. I thought that might be one way to at least identify some of the ones we can start to try to move forward. |
| 02:58:53.93 | Unknown | Right. I think that's a good a good step. And then we will bring that back. Any new future agenda items to add? |
| 02:59:06.11 | Unknown | Okay, seeing none, any other reports of significance? |
| 02:59:14.96 | Unknown | say none. We will move on to adjournment and I will adjourn this meeting and thank you all and I hope everybody has a good night. It's good to see everyone. |
| 02:59:27.95 | Ray Withey | Thank you. Good night. |
| 02:59:29.40 | Alice Merrill | Thank you. Good night, everyone. |
| 02:59:32.34 | Ray Withey | Good night. |
Sandra Bushmaker — Neutral: Praised marine ship efforts for face shield production and urged transparency regarding negotiations to purchase the Bank of America building, considering budget shortfalls from COVID-19. ▶ 📄